Preparation

Preparing for a train riding journey is is a little like packing for a backpacking trip, excepting the fact that you don't have to carry your gear most of the time.  The basics are simple; you need (in order of importance) water, appropriate clothing, food, tools, shelter, entertainment.  As haphazard as I may be at home about maintaining a place for everything, and keeping everything in said place, I find it very easy and basically a necessity on the trains.

Let's see ... Here are some things that I have taken on a train over the past 15 years:  Rubik's cube, many lawnchairs, 4' x 8' panel of recycled carpet, 4' diameter o-rings, a used tire, industrial packing pillows, marbles, multiple bottles of cheap wine, a hammock (for inside the boxcar).

I think I'll keep it pretty basic this time around.  Let's see -

CLOTHES

Long underpants and shirt

black carhartt pants

Cargo shorts

2  x dark t-shirts

black hoodie

2 pair synthetic socks

2 pair underwear

wool hat

rain jacket

work gloves

nylon strap that doubles as belt

FOOD

jet boil

liter water bottle (in backpack)

gallon water jug (I like having redundant water sources)

Trail mix (protein heavy)

bagels

tuna fish packet

sausage stick

cheese hunk

2 dehydrated meals

2 flasks - scotch and tequila

coffee / hot choco

SHELTER

Light tarp

twine

sleeping bag

sleeping pad

TOOLS

Phone charger
phone

scanner

leathermang

TP for my bunghole

earplugs

CCG

Trash Bag
Ear Plugs

ENTERTAINMENT

my naughty mind

headphones

journal
Camera

Suggestions?

Gettin' back out there

It's Monday, the last week at my job with Viasat.

I will be unemployed for one week, before starting my new job with Sierra Nevada on October 8th. During that week of unemployment, I'll be riding freight trains to Black Butte California, for the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture (bbcrc.org) fall work party. Pretty excited. A midst my final week of documenting all my previous projects, I am taking some time during the week to research my route.

 So far I have this:

Saturday morning 9/29 -- Two train possibilities:

 03:00 ZDVSC hotshot from Denver to SLC. I would bail off in Green River, WY to catch a Roseville train, because catching out of SLC is very difficult. Catching west in Green River should provide many opportunities, including the IG3OA I speak of below.

 05:00 MDVCY Slow train to Cheyenne, where my train would get picked up by the IG3OA and ride straight to Oakland via Roseville. This train would be a day slower than the above strategy, but the same car that I get on in Denver would ride all the way through to my waypoint in Roseville, CA.

Sunday or Monday at midnight:

Catch the MRVHK manifest train from Roseville to Hinkle, OR. Gotta bail off at Dunsmuir, where I can get a ride on a $5 shuttle up to Weed, CA. If I miss the midnight train, there are two others around 9am and 5pm.

 ***

 I'm trying to figure out a way to ride with Anthony for a little bit over the weekend. May ride to Cheyenne with him and greyhound back.

I plan to update this daily, and perhaps something of value besides a matter-of-fact log of trains and sights will come out of it.  Feel free to comment.  I'm putting together a mini-USB plug that attached to a lantern battery, for guaranteed phone charge throughout the trip.  So I should be open to calls and texts during the entire trip (when I want to have my phone on).

MOAR TO COME

the letter - by the box tops

youtube.com/watch?AdsControl2=AdsControl2&gl=US&client=mv-google&AdsControl2=AdsControl2&hl=en&v=wD9mCp8SifM&mobileflash=0&nomobile=1

a lesson in progress

i'm sitting here in the hot Nashville night swatting mosquitos in the woods while waiting for my northbound. and it hit me. i don't like riding by myself. i enjoy the commeradery of a road partner. i used to do these trips so that i could learn and practice self-sufficiency. but now that i know how to ride, and know that i can get around the country if i needed to, the actual exercising of hard travelin kinda sucks. a long multi-train route thru hot weather by myself isnt as fun as it used to be. am i getting old?

a part of me wants to smoke a j, find a bar, get really drunk, stay at dave's house tonight, then book a cheap 1 way ticket to denver, where i can pick up the important projects of my life with what vacation time i have left.

another part of me is battling the pride associated with my image. am i just sitting out here to show other people that i can? when i do catch the train, will all the love of the rails come flooding back to me as the wind breaths hot against my face? am i still worried about the consequences if i get caught, and the increasing difficulty to ride hotshots and the death of the 48?

train riding just isnt as cool now that i dont "need" to. its like playing poker with fake money. none of the chances you take are real.

rollin west... soon

The time to begin the journey home is upon me.

Two weeks is the perfect amount of time (rather "minimum") that should ever be considered for a true cathartic vacation. My life in Denver seems so far away, and at the same time, I don't consider any place home other than the road. I have a mild longing to return to Denver, but only to see Anthony and my friends again. What/what/why is home?

In 2 hours, Mary is going to drive me to Nashville, where I will do some shopping to prepare for the final trip of this vacation. A nice train ride is really 3 separate vacations in a row. One for the ride there, one while you are there, one for the ride back. So far my first two subvacations have been ... hmmm, word ... cleansing.

My route back will basically depend on what trains are easily catchable from Nashville. My first choice would be back through Chicago, since the weather down south here is pretty rough (hot) right now. I have a few different options once i get to chicago. But even just "go west" would work fine for the most part. [I need to get a new CCG made up at SOCX's. Had to ditch mine in Omaha.] My other options are Memphis to KC or Amarillo. Getting from Nashville to Denver seems decidedly easier than the other way around.

I have a decent amount of pictures and a bunch of audio recorded. Will re-write this whole blog after I piece it together back in the cool coziness of my home-in-progress.

cheers - I'll txt and/or post to here when I can!
nodoubt

compound musings

This morning, we are driving into Nashville for some free classes on some specific farming/gardening techniques. Hmmm... can I find a link....

No I cannot. Wow just 3 days of living in the country and I have forgotten my internet savvy. ;-)

I am most likely leaving here tomorrow, for the train ride back home. I am impressed and heartened by the pure-spirited good work I see around here. It's also very interesting to see Larry adjusting to his new element. Larry is not a farmer - nor are his siblings with whom he has undertaken this project. Every day is a learning experience. Even I was asked for my gardening knowledge in some cases. But in the short time of my visit, I can clearly see they are on the knee of the learning-curve, and will be doing just fine soon enough. With people like Jeff Belli (http://tinyurl.com/2bbwoem) offering his expert consulting services for just FORTY dollars an hour, it is clear that all hearts are soundly in the right place for this like-minded group of farmers.

Last night a 4-hour conversation with Larry revealed his motivations, and his own personal struggles while trying to come to terms with the Truth, while already embedded in the consensus reality.... AHHH cut short. HAve to run to the class.

more later

greetings from the Compound

I am at my destination.

Tucked up in the woods and farmland of rural Ethridge Tennessee, mere miles away from the famous commune "The Farm" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_Tennessee), my former boss from Lockheed Martin and black-projects one-man think-tank extraordinaire, Larry lives with his mom, his brother and sister, and a few dogs who came with the property.

During a short tour last night, we made a stop at the "battery room", where 100s of kilowatt-hours of lead-acid batteries sat awaiting entrance into the compound power grid. A combination of solar cells and diesel generator (activated only when needed) would keep these at the ideal charge. The hot water heaters were currently set-up on the supply of propane from tanks recently installed. "Although if propane were to become unavailable, we could transition the hot water heaters back to electric."

In the daylight, it is evident what enormous amount of work had been done to this single-farmhouse property since the family moved in August. A pool has been converted to a water-containment "tank" for runoff, above which a gigantic greenhouse was erected. A gigantic work-shed barn sits atop a small hill about 200 yards away from the house. And miles of 2-hot-wire electric fence surround the compound (ostensibly for animal containment).

I walked out into the "backyard" this morning as Larry prepared me coffee with raw honey and cinnamon. There I met Mary, his brother Jim's partner, and was enthusiastically greeted by Babe, one of the farms built-in dogs. Babe is a brown smooth-coated mutt with red cuticles from living the tough outdoor farm life. She is a tremendous sweetheart, and curls her entire body into a "C" as she wags her tail, as if it were an unintended consequence of serious, serious wagging.

"I'm happy to help any way I can, Mary, these next few days." I offered.

"Good, because there is plenty of weeding to be done," was the reply.

Right now Larry is in the shower and shortly afterwards we are headed out. I am very excited to see, in general, how a motivated, intelligent, ex-professional is able to thrive in a real, honest, independent, sustainable family farm.

more later
nodoubt

Later today we are going to visit a likeminded farmer's operation to pick up fresh blueberries, garlic, tomatoes and "other organic goods." I am looking forward to working here for a few days and getting a feel for the lifestyle.