We got in the perfect spot for hitch-hiking: a T cross, with a Stop sign, in Yellowstone, where the cars pass one after the other. The people who have the car full, they look at us, and smile, and happily make the signs that the car is full. The other 33%, who have a lot of space, are embarrassed and look in front of them. Then I wave energetically my hand, pointing to Emilie, to show that we are a couple, having big backpacks. Then they put the head into their wheel.

Steve ended our 15 minutes frustration. He knows a lot about Romania, he had a dentist neighbor who moved their to do volunteer work.  I ask him what is the explanation for his knowledge, and only then he reveals that he is a Mormon. That when they got 18, they go volunteer into a remote country, learn that things are just things.

His son is very mature for his 11 years. We spent a great day with them.

At the end I asked what is the relation between religion and science. Steve told me that the bad thing is when you try to limit the knowledge, so he tries to know the last discoveries in science, but that they don’t affect his beliefs. And on the other hand, thinking that the science will explain everything one day, is like another religion.

After we finished our trekking, we were pick-up by Stef. While throwing the backpacks into the car, she asked me if I have a gun. She is as well member of a Christian movement. During the evening we talked as well about religion. She said that if religions are created by people, so as the people, some are good, and some are bad.

She and her son, they shared their tent space with us, their food. We spent a great day with them. In the last day, because it was supposed to have heavy rain, she invited to share with them the room in a hotel. We preferred to test the tent. Next day we could see some snow, up there.

I could not understand why a good person must be a religious one. Why from all those people who passed by us, only religious people took the risk.

Next day, when we exit the park, my theory is infirmed by an archeolog.

Larry is aerospace engineer. He told me that there are some prototypes of cameras of 2 Gb resolution. A scary vision of God.

Phil is working on a machine learning project for the army, to analyze data from thousands of sensors. Great people.

Larry made a few points on the policy of arms:

1. only honest citizens care if caring a gun is legal or illegal

2. on TV there are broadcasted the few cases when mental ill people or kids use guns, but not the cases when citizens stop bad actions because they have guns, so it’s important to restrict the access to these categories of people

3. in 1996 in Australia they banned the guns. The result was an increase of criminality by 40% in the first 2 years, and then it went to the previous level, but a little bit higher.

My conclusion after these hitchhikes: I have only one conviction, that it’s not good to have any strong convictions.