I've hitchhiked a few times in my life when I was younger. But having gotten stranded in weird, isolated villages; soaked in the rain; and scared witless by one particular driver, I decided the bus or train might be a better option.

Not so for travel writer Amanda Nolan, for whom run-of-the-mill hitchhiking seemed a little too easy. 

 

She took to the skies instead. 

 

Documenting her experiences at her website Jet Hiking, Amanda has been traveling almost non-stop for the last year, hitching rides with amateur pilots in an attempt to get to every state in mainland USA. And she only has eight more to go.