I was hitching across the U.S. in 1969. While in Wyoming, I got a ride with a guy about my age in a very old VW van that would only go about 35-40 mph. This meant that we couldn't use any freeways as he made his way from Oregon to North Carolina. So we rolled along through the lovely June weather across the heartland. Somewhere in eastern Nebraska, the ancient van began to have issues, the engine compartment caught fire, and his money and mine began to disappear. Next day, we were in Iowa, both of us broke,and our plan was to drive as far as we could before we ran out of gas, ( I can't remember the rest of the plan), About six a.m.,my partner starts yelling. He saw his dad driving in the opposite direction. His dad saw him. Dad is going from North Carolina to North Dakota on the same piece of two lane highway. They stop, get out, exchange hugs, money. Twenty minutes and we are on our way.
Now, six degrees would be that someone else heard this story from him or me and puts in their take on it.
seth