Ride a freight train

I’m reading ‘On The Road’ by Jack Kerouac and lamenting the death of adventure and risk. I know it’s illegal, I know it’s dangerous, I know it’s stupid… it’s also something that I feel I need to do, just once.

It’s sobering to read my first post in this thread from a few years ago, which says I hope to complete this goal within the lifetime of my grandfather. Well, my grandfather, god rest him, passed away this January, and I never talked to him about my intention, nor made any real steps toward it. I’m sad about this since I’ve been away from the site and from a real sense of what my goals are for quite a while now, and I didn’t remember that that was part of the original expression of my goal either. Even though I’m older now and I have a more developed sense of the real danger (physical and legal) in achieving this goal, I can’t delete it right now until I have a chance to re-assess early in the new year, when hopefully we have a long-term home again. At the same time, the idea of doing this means more to me now, since I feel the connection to him and to my heritage in Saskatchewan in the Depression through it. Til later this goal.

I once was stopped at a rural grade crossing and when I saw a string of flat cars going by at about 15mph; I jumped out of my car, up on a flat car and ran toward the back of the train—effectively staying in place, and jumping from one car to the next.
What I really want is to grab one going somewhere I want to go as part of a vacation and adventure.

just always wanted to do it. have even passed up good opportunities in the past.

Came across a good article for basic info regarding riding freight trains at http://www.thespoon.com/trainhop/train1b.html.

I still want to do this – but haven’t been able yet to make it a reality.

So I met a grafitti artist who has done this all over Canada and learned a lot about the country-ie the deforestation that’s hidden from passenger trains that is not from freight trains-and we’ve become pretty good friends. I wonder. I organized an event where he taught a big group of kids of various backgrounds to spray paint and he mentioned his earlier years riding the rails while he was learning. He is a big social activist now but not in the sense you would normally expect. He takes ideas and actually does them and it’s very impressive….so I wonder whether he’d be willing to take me to do this sometime!

I couldn’t decide whether to put “worth it” or “not worth it” for this one. I have hopped a train and travelled across country. It was exhilarating, fun, deliciously dangerous, truly dangerous, cold, windy, uncomfortable.. and there was no bathroom. It’s not as glamorous as the movies make it look.

ever since I spoke to my grandfather about his history and how he “rode the rails” when he first left home to get out of Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. It was a very common thing apparently since everyone was so poor and things were not going very well, especially on the prairies. He has stories about the Mounties on horses chasing people and what would happen to some and running after the last cars and jumping for it, getting soot in his face for miles. I’ve always wanted to see what it must have been like for him, and then again to get out to sign up to go overseas for the Second World War. I’d like to do this in his lifetime…he’s 85…and then speak to him about it.