# Cross country and to the right



## Doobie_D (Jun 13, 2009)

This is a repost from the "claim your stories" thread.

As a side note: this trip took place in the summer of 2006. Kind of a 
long story too. Warning you now

So I suppose the start of all this was after we got to Seattle. It was 
the day after 4th of July with all the drunkenness & debauchery 
just a fuzzy hungover memory. Kayla and me were due in Missoula to 
meet up with our friends Bryanpaul & Gus so we could all catch east to 
Philly for pointless fest. We decided to hitch over instead of trying 
to catch something lowline bound. We scammed the bus east over to 
Issiquah (oh, how I love Seattle's bus system with their color coded 
transfers) and hopped on the exit there. Four hours later, no luck, 
and it was dark. We woke up bright and early to try again.

Before we even got our sign up some dude in a brand new SUV pulled 
over- a cool guy. He was from Brazil. He dropped us off just past the 
Gorge in a little town called George. (no rhyme intended) We hitched 
under an overpass by the exit because it was blistering hot. Eastern 
Washington ain't no joke in the summer. An hour later, this weird lady 
picked us up and said she could take us 20 miles down the road to 
Moses Lake. It turned out she was an ex-hitchhiker and was also a 
security guard. Bleh. She dropped us off at a desolate truck stop.

Moses Lake sucked. Nowhere really to pull over on the exit, no shade. 
So we decided to say fuck it and get on the highway. It was just as 
bleak looking there too. One car passed every 15 minutes. Then a 
tractor trailer pulled over for us. This hasn't happened to me in 
years. It almost seems like truckers barely pick up hitchhikers 
anymore. We were stoked. We walked up and this little gangsta lookin 
kid poked his head out the window and asked us where we were headed.

"Montana," I told him. He said hop on in. His uncle, who was driving, 
said "Y'alls best not be no serial killer mutha fuckers or we gonna 
shoot yo ass," It was cool, though. They were from Oakland taking a 
load to Billings. We listened to gangster rap the whole way and played 
some playstation. When we got to Missoula we passed it by 6 miles, 
because the truck stop he was stopping at was in East Missoula. I got 
out, thanked him, and got some food.

Some kid who overheard us talking about how we needed to get back into 
Missoula, said he'd just gotten out of jail east of where we were and 
needed to get back to Missoula, too. I hooked him up with a doobie as 
a freedom present and he said he'd get us a ride in with him. His 
friends came but there wasn't enough room, so we just ended up 
sleeping next to the highway. The next day, we stuck out our thumb for 
2 seconds and a lady picked us up.

In Missoula, we found Bryan and Gus living at this college chick's 
house getting a little too comfy. We stayed about a week ourselves. We 
went tubing down the Clark Fork River, lots of beer drinking, skated 
the new skate park which was only half finished. At the college kids 
dorm, we made mass amounts of poppy tea and had those college kids 
rollin around on the front lawn gigglin into the night. Next day we 
left to continue our journey. Me and Kayla started out first. Before 
we even got on the highway, this college dude picked us up. He already 
had another hitchhiker with him and was headed west. He dropped us at 
the junction to 93. We waited in the hot ass sun for about an hour and 
then these two redneck brothers picked us up. The one had just gotten 
back from picking up the other in Casper, WY. They were on the last 
leg of their trip. They had a case of beer pre-cracked and offered us 
some. They dropped us in St. Ignatius.

We got burritos at this little mom and pop store and then started 
walking down the highway. There was lots of construction going on, so 
there wasn't many good places for people to pull over. We found a side 
road and hitched off that. This older hippyish dude from the Bay area 
gave us a lift to Polson. He gave me the usual "I used to hitchhike 
stories" complete with gay truckers trying to hit on him and of his 
Alaskan adventures in the 70's. In Polson, the highway split to go 
around the lake which we didn't know , so we started walking into town 
along the highway with our sign up. Some little old lady pulled over 
just to tell us we were going the wrong way to get to Whitefish. She 
told us the short way was 3 miles back from where we had just come 
from. So we walked all the way back. After an hour we got picked up by 
a tweaker dude who had just come back from court in Missoula. He 
smoked some green with us and dropped us off in Kalispell (the white 
trash answer to yuppified Whitefish).

Five minutes later, this guy pulls over into this huge ditch. He's at 
a 45 degree angle. We hop in the back of his truck and his wife hands 
us a couple twisted iced teas. They only took us a couple miles but we 
got dropped off at a place with a shoulder. Then right after we 
started walking another dude pulls over. He seemed kind of sketchy at 
first, but later on it turned out he was a BNSF worker who was on his 
way to work up in Whitefish. He told us all about his job grinding 
track and gave us the low down on the hop out spot. He dropped us off 
right at the station.

We were beat so we chilled out in Credit Union park and watched the 
yards. Then we met these two other kids waiting on a train. One from 
Texas and one from Delaware. They were also headed to pointless. We 
all threw in and got a bunch of tall boys. 89 cents a piece! It was 
getting dark and we were about half way through our beer when Gus and 
Bryan finally showed up. We all killed off the booze and went up town.

It was a hopping night in Whitefish. Somehow Bryan got a bunch of 
promotional shots of Jager off some dudes. We raged it up, etc. We 
found a decent spot to crash out in the woods near the tracks and 
passed out. Next day, we found a bunch of tortillas in the Safeway 
dumpster. We were nearing our goal of having enough train food. We 
ended up meeting this couple who had just hopped in from Minneapolis. 
We got a bunch of booze and went swimming in the pristine Whitefish 
Lake. Next day was hop out day.

We lugged our shit to the spot and waited, and waited, but never got 
anything that day.

Next day we hopped on a 48, and within a couple hours we were on our 
way. When we got to about West Glacier National Park some mean clouds 
started forming. It started raining on us and thundering as we entered 
the first small tunnel. It was awesome! The park was frickin pristine! 
Crystal clear teal rivers and the storm was making everything more 
intense. We'd get ahead of the storm and it would stop raining, our 
bucket would drain and be dry again, and then we'd go into a hole and 
the storm would catch back up with us. This happened throughout all of 
Glacier. At one point we rounded a curve and there was a crazy bright 
double rainbow going into the head end of the train. Afterwards, the 
scenery started getting more bland and flat and we slept and woke up 
outside of North Dakota.

It was mostly nothingness until we got farther east into ND. There 
were a couple of ghost towns right up close to the trax and we creeped 
at about 15 mph for hours! We pulled into Minots Gavin yard about 
midday and sat for a couple hours while our headend block swapped and 
then rolled on along. We fell asleep and woke up in Northtown, 
Minneapolis' yards. We got out made a long ass walk into the outskirts 
of town and caught a bus to city center. We found an awesome bridge 
camp spot with a kick ass fire pit and furniture, right on the 
Mississippi River.

Next couple of days was spent mostly getting drunk, sweating our asses 
off, hiding from the sun, bickering, flying signs, digging in the Mall 
of America's trash, and preparing to exodus Minneapolis. We went to 
the old Union yards where, apparently, they leave strings for a day 
and pick them up en-route to Chicago. We waited all day. Nothing. So 
we ended up taking a bus back to the confusing-ass Northtown yards. We 
stayed up most of the night watching the bulls race around the yards 
as stuff started coming in, but no double stacks came in all night. At 
4 am, I decided to take a walk and found this awesome abandoned 
warehouse with electricity and unlocked doors! Explored for a couple 
hours and then crashed out at 5 am, and woke up at 6 am to a double 
stack creeping into the yards. We scrambled and found a nice evergreen 
bucket. Then waited. The air came up. We moved 2 inches and the air 
broke. This continued for the next 30 hours!

After 12 hours of waiting in the hot ass 100 degree, 90% humidity, we 
finally started moving more than a couple feet. We got just outside 
the yards and stopped again. This time when I looked up, I saw there 
was someone else riding with us on this train. He introduced himself 
as JustDave. He claimed he was FTRA. We chatted a bit and then the 
train aired up again. We went about 2 miles and stopped outside the CP 
yards. He ran out to some deserted units and got a bunch of 
desperately-needed water and by the time he got back, we started 
moving again. We made it all the way to the old Union yards where we 
were waiting in the first place and the units detached and left us 
sitting there like suckers!

Me and Dave went to the McDonalds and dumpstered some shit and got 
more water. We came back and slept on the train. At about 12 o'clock, 
it started raining on us and thundering. Gus got soaked to the bone, 
because he tried to sleep through it. We found an old boxcar and slept 
till the morning. Got up, climbed on, and still nothing. About midday 
another stack pulled up and stopped. Then, miraculously the units to 
our train came back and we started up again!!

As we were rolling along, it started misting, which later turned into 
rain. We got to the intermodal yards and stopped. This should have 
been our first clue. They backed us up and pulled us forward back and 
forth for awhile. Then we pulled up onto a track on the furthest side 
of the yard (next to the container unloaders) and the power dynamited. 
Just then it started pouring harder then I had seen in years. We got 
out and had no choice but to walk right through the center of the the 
mega unloading procesion and out the front door. We got some smiles 
and some disapproving glances but we got out with no problem and found 
a awning in a park to dry our shit in. So the next day it cleared up 
and we decided to walk (5 miles we were told) to the St. Paul yards. 
We ended up walking about 10 miles or so and when we finally got there 
(pigs eye yard) we realized we were out of water.

There was no water source for a couple miles and the yard was 
ridiculous. So since we were right next to highway 61 (parallels the 
Mississippi the whole way down) we hitched it. Me and Kayla got dibbs 
on first again. And within minutes this ZZ-Top looking dude picked us 
up and dropped us 2 miles outside of Hastings. We walked into town and 
slept at a community center on the outskirts. Got a ride the next 
morning from this dude from Washington. He dropped us off in Red Wing 
where this kid picked us up and took us to his 1800's log cabin out in 
the sticks and showed us his pot plants. I gave him a bunch of good 
Mendocino seeds and he dropped us off in Lake City (the birthplace of 
water skiing). We stunk, so we took baths in the lake and after 
walking up to the highway instantly this old black dude picked us up. 
Cool dude. He dropped us in Wabasha and gave us all the change in his 
ash tray despite us telling him we didn't need it.

Here we waited a good stretch of time; had a couple fake outs. You 
know where fuckos pull over and wait till you get up to their cars and 
then pull away. They didn't even do it right! Finally, this cool chick 
pulls over and takes us to Winona. She took us up on this 500-foot 
cliff that overlooked Winona and told us we had just missed the 
Crimethinc gathering deal, but that weekend was creamed corn wrestling 
with free food and beer. But alas we had to make it to Philly in a 
hurry. (i'm still kicking myself over that) We continued on hitching. 
She left us at a Quick Trip. And there we learned firsthand the joys 
of a Quick Trip dumpster. Some kid picked us up and smoked us out and 
dropped us in La Crosse, our end destination.

We met this dready dude with a house boat, and he and his wife were on 
there way to New Orleans. We were supposed to go hang out with them 
but we ran into Gus and Bryan instead. They had got a ride the whole 
way straight shot style. We drank and slept and later on went to the 
yards. We got on a string that looked like it had just been made up 
and took off. We flew!!!! We probably went 70 some miles an hour the 
whole way to the Illinois state line where we had our first siding. It 
felt like we were gonna jump right off the tracks. Then we trucked 
down to Savannah, IL where our train went into the yard and stayed a 
couple hours. We went to sleep and woke up outside Chicago in the town 
of Aurora. Bryan and Gus jumped off while we were still drifting, and 
Gus ate shit (had to throw that in Gus).

We caught the METRA into downtown where we learned Lallapolooza was 
starting. But we had to get on our way once again, so we caught the 
south shore commuter train (for a nominal fee) to South Bend, Indiana. 
Once there we took a bus into Osceola. Then we started our walk 10 
miles into Elkhart. Along the way this guy pulled into the gas station 
where we were getting water. He gave us a ride to the Elkhart Walmart 
and told us about how Elkhart was the R.V. manufacturing capital of 
the world. Woooooo! We made bank and some lady bought us like $90 
worth of food. We walked (in the wrong direction) towards what we 
thought was the yards. Then after a couple miles we realized we were a 
good 7 miles away.

While we were walking back, this pimped-out custom van with a husky 
sticking out the window pulled over. We weren't even hitchhiking. The 
guy dropped us off right at the yards. He said he used to ride 
freights, so he knew right where it was. We found a nice waiting spot 
and right before it started to get dark, we heard a train in the 
distance. Sure enough, a black Norfolk Southern unit pulled right in 
double stacked to the brim. We found adjoining 48's and pulled out 
right after. We hauled ass all the way to Toledo. It stopped in the 
yards there for about 15 minutes and continued on.

Somewhere about 20 miles out from Toledo, we were moving along at 
about 50 or 60 mph and all the sudden we hear a "psssst," like the 
units disconnecting. Then we smelled burning plastic or oil or 
something as the brakes locked up. Apparently our train had broke in 
half. It took them 3 hours to get us rolling again. All the while, we 
were right next to a marshy swamp rife with mosquitoes. We got going 
again and made it to Pittsburgh's Conway yards by noon. We were on one 
of the mains there but we hadn't moved for hours. Then a unit came by 
and the engineer gave us a shitty look. And this was right after the 
bull had driven by. So we jumped off and hightailed it out of the 
yards. We took a bus into Pittsburgh.

We busted around downtown awhile and caught a bag lunch, and retired 
in Triangle Point Park, under a little pedestrian bridge. Next day, we 
caught a bus to the east side of Pittsburgh so we could hitch I-70. 
There were signs proclaiming hitchhiking to be illegal in PA, plus we 
had warrants, so we gave up. Then we noticed a Conrail intermodal sign 
that said 3.8 miles for trucks. We followed the signs and took a break 
at a gas station where this punk rock kid that was working gave us 
free hot dogs and pizza sticks.

Eventually we realized the signs were taking us toward Wall, PA. We 
found a spot and waited... All day. And the next day. Nothing. We 
ended up getting a 30-pack and got a lil loud and the town cops came. 
They ran our names (locally I guess?) and told us to not be on the 
property. Just after they left a train pulled in going the opposite 
way we were trying to go. We talked to a brakeman who was cutting out 
a section and he told us that nothing going east stops in Wall and 
that the train he was on was going to Kansas City via Conway. So we 
hopped on a piggy and went back to the yards in Conway. We slept on a 
grainer that had a freddy on it facing east. We woke up still in the 
yards, waited all day. Nothing.

One crew change all day and we missed it, because me and Gus were 
messing around further down in the yards. We ran out of water and gave 
up for the day. Found an old set of steps that went over the bulk of 
the yard and out to a plaza with a grocery store. We stamped up a 
fatty dinner and refilled our water. As night fell, we slipped back 
into the yards to see what we could see. We waited in a field of empty 
boxcars right off the mains from the crew change. All the sudden, as 
if someone opened a valve, trains left and right started pulling up 
and crew changing, one right after the other. We let some go and then 
decided on a nice single stack that pulled up (mistake). We jumped 
in, fell asleep and woke up in Harrisburg. Then we fell back asleep 
and woke up tracing our way down the Susquehanna River on our way to 
Baltimore. Damn it! (You see, we are all from Maryland and have 
retarded warrants there and aren't allowed back in the state.)

We got out in North West Baltimore, luckily only 3 miles or so from 
Gus' brother's house. At this point we just gave up on pointless fest 
and spent a week there doing various bad things and then caught a ride 
with a friend down to Stafford, VA. Visited another friend and then 
hitched out 3 days later headed souf. A sheriff kicked us off the 
exit, first thing. We decided to stay anyways and a hippy dude from 
L.A. picked us up, gave us cheeseburgers and ice water and dropped us 
in Fredericksburg. While we were hitching there, this guy from across 
the street wanted to know which way we were heading on 95. We told him 
Richmond and he offered to give us a ride down there, but the 
stipulation was we had to stop at every Waffle House along the way 
(awesome). He was a caretaker for them and he was on the clock. I 
offered to help him mow the lawns and that's what we did. 5 waffle 
houses down the road and we got to Richmond. He gave us $20.

In Richmond, we got dropped off a mile from the Acca yard and couldn't 
quite make sense of it at first. It was really hard as fuck to access. 
We found an empty, unlocked truck trailer and slept in it for the 
night. In the morning we walked into town and stocked up on food and 
water and cigarettes. We found a decent covered area in a dry river 
bed near the mains and waited. Q131 and Q137 both pulled up right on 
time and left without us because they were crew changing in the middle 
of the yards buried 4 strings deep. After the next day, we kind of 
figured things out and luckily, while we were deep in the yard, a 
piggy pulled up and we jumped on it. We fell asleep somewhere after 
Rocky Mount, NC and then woke up in Savannah, GA. We cruised into 
Jacksonville an hour later. I'll stop it at here. Thanks fer sticking 
out this story to the end. Give yerself a pat on the back and for 
shit sake go do something constructive! You just sat there staring at 
a computer for at least 20 minutes


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## bryanpaul (Jun 14, 2009)

dood yer a fuckin idiot if yoo think sumbody's gonna read all that shit ...yer nuts...................thanx fer the reminder of sum good times tho...........so in conclusion.... dance on a bobcat butt


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## Sage (Jun 16, 2009)

All that,and you ended up where you;re banned from? Tough shit bro


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## shitbagdanny (Jun 21, 2009)

i read the whole thing, sounds like travelin hah
got through a few hank sr and hank 3 songs, a feederz, skarp, business, norman blake song, 3 woody guthrie songs, a meat puppets song and i finished right as the prophecy by immortal technique started.


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