A woman fell in love with and married a hitchhiker she picked up on the side of the road.
Maddy Kacmarcik, 27, met Travis Becker, 26, while she was travelling in Byron Bay, Australia.
Maddy was driving back from a night out with her friend when she spotted Travis and his pal walking on the side of the road – trying to hail a lift.
Maddy pulled up and offered them a ride, and all four ended up spending the rest of the evening hanging out – with Maddy and Travis, from Sydney, hitting it off.
But the pair, who both work for a corporate wellbeing business, forgot to get each other’s numbers and had to track each other down on Facebook.
They went on their first official date two weeks later and got engaged 18 months after meeting.
Now celebrating four years married, the couple says they couldn’t be more “grateful” that they got to meet.
Maddy, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, said: “The way we met is wild in itself.
“I knew I was going to build a life with him.
“My marriage is my most prized possession.
“If he’d have got one more drink or I’d have taken a different route, we might not have met.
“It makes you very grateful.”
American Maddy was in Byron Bay, Australia, to study abroad in January 2019 when she met Travis.
They were both on their way home from a night out when they bumped into each other.
She said: “I was driving us home from our night out, and him and one of his friends were trying to catch an Uber.
“We pulled over to pick them up.
“They realized we were American and we realized our Airbnbs were in the same place.
“I said to my friend [about Travis] – ‘he’s really cute.’”
The four ended up going back to their Airbnb and playing cards and hanging out.
Maddy said, “We were talking about all the things we had in common.
“We were so engaged in conversation, I didn’t get his phone number or socials.
“I couldn’t even remember his last name.
“All I could remember was that he was an electrician from Sydney.
“I went on Facebook trying to find him.”
Maddy ended up finding Travis’ friend on Facebook and messaged him to pass on her number.
Travis and Maddy ended up meeting up the next day and went on their first date two weeks later.
Maddy said: “We haven’t stopped talking after that.”
In April 2019, Maddy moved in with Travis’ family, but went COVID hit, they moved back to Byron Bay before heading back to America.
Travis proposed in June 2020, and the couple tied the knot in a small courthouse ceremony in Milwaukee in January 2021.
They had their big wedding celebration in Maddy’s family’s backyard in June 2022.
Maddy said she didn’t tell her dad how she met Travis initially, but now her family couldn’t be happier for her.
She said people are still “shocked” when they hear their story for the first time.
Maddy said, “It’s so normal for us.
“You get reminded that it’s a crazy way we met.
“We’re so lucky.”
Travis said, “I feel like my life would be completely different if I blinked and looked the other way that night.
“I think nothing in this world is a coincidence. I pinch myself every day.
“I feel like I couldn’t even try to think of meeting my wife like this in my wildest dreams. This is 0.0001 % chance of it happening, and it did.
“One more beer or talking to someone for just enough time for me to be leaving and standing on the corner with my mate trying to get an Uber at 3x surcharge, so I thought ‘let’s try hitchhike’ and within about one minute someone shouts out of a car and is pulling over.
“It was two girls. My mate and I were like what the – ‘let’s get in!’.
“Little did I know that it was my future wife driving.
“We hung out that night, and it just felt like we had known each other for years, our souls were in sync, and we just chatted all night.”
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