Backside of America

Funny thing about traveling by trail. You see things you don’t normally see. Every hear about “the wrong side of the tracks?” When traveling by train, you see the wrong side of the tracks all the time.

A lot of time the trail runs though industrial zones. It makes sense. Passenger trails travel mostly on freight lines. Trains are used to move a lot of industrial supplies. My lovely wife and I saw a lot of scrap yards while traveling the country. Maybe I’m weird, but I find that interesting too.

We also saw a lot of homeless encampments. If you are living in a tent pitched in a pile of trash next to the tracks, your life has gone seriously sideways. I feel both compassion and despair. As a human being it hurts to see other humans suffering. My despair comes from the fact that some people are capable of soaking up massive amounts of assistance without changing their lives. Having come very close to being homeless myself, I realize how easy the downward slide can be. It can be tough out there.

The train also goes though some very remote areas. I can’t but wonder what people do for work out in some of those places. There has to be some reason for small communities of mostly trailer homes to exist out in the middle of the high desert.

Of course, mostly we saw some amazing landscapes. There are also some amazing houses located way up in the mountains with million dollar views. Train travel shows you the best and the worse of the country. Unlike car travel, you aren’t concentrating on driving so can take it all in.

-Sixbears