i didn't get mugged in philly, but i got drunk a lot, played more fiddle and went to a subhumans show. there's an awesome network of punk houses scattered around, so i've been couchsurfing my way across the states. let's see. in philly i met up with matt and corey and convinced them to let me ride trains with them across to the west coast. they're a lovely couple (ah, codependent straight boys) but they're not big on motivation. it's always hard to leave the porch.
we rode in a van down to asheville, north carolina, where a friend had to go to court, and hung out there for a while. big southern hippy town, a weird mix of rednecks, american history, travelling kids drifting through. drank a lot of good homebrew at cumberland street and it seemed like every night there was a party. my favourite was the st remedius party, the patron saint of trannies. a small child made us throw darts and drink herbal tea that made things all quirky. played tip in the house, lay in the grass singing songs, danced to accordions, got in a foodfight. all mistered up in a brown pinstripe suit. crazy time. eventually we worked up the momentum to leave and drove up to erwin, tennessee, to ride trains.
there are a lot of people doing this in the states. a whole network of train geek travelling punks. me and the boys waited two days in the bushes, drinking most of our water and watching the yard trying to work out which trains went where. it was a small yard, so only one train a day; on the first day we stood and watched her slide out. oh, we should have got on that... maybe tomorrow. so at noon i find myself making a mad dash across a road, climbing over the coal trains in the way, dodging the bull and the workers. then one saw us. he sped up his ute and drove right past me, i thought we were done for - until he yelled out 'don't worry darlin, we ain't gonna bother you, you go right ahead'. sweet! we hop on a grainer porch and lie there hiding til the train pulls out some eight hours later. riding in the dark through the mountains, this is the only way to see america. we switched to a boxcar when the train stopped at a siding, and i'm yelling out the open door. hello river! hello fishermen! how's it going, wild turkey! what's up, deer! damn, i haven't felt that invincible in a long time. i want to do this for the rest of my life. throw out that dream of becoming a freight train driver. why drive when you can stow away, free as a stray cat.
i've been thinking a lot about post-industrial primitivism of late, having lots of conversations about fucking off to the woods but how we can deal with living in the context of industrialisation. well, this is part of it; inhabiting these spaces like a wild thing somehow makes them ours. i like trains anyway (guess it runs in the family) but this, squatting, dumpstering - it's not just about living for free for me. it's about returning to a kind of survivalism. when i can roam and gather and make my way i feel like i'm really alive. course it's easier here than most places, oh land of plenty, land of horrible excess, bring it on.
we were running out of water so matt jumped off when the train stopped at shelby and got a priest to fill up our gallon. rode through suburbs and megalithic steelworks up to russell on the ohio border, where we jumped off and pretended to the cops that we were hitchikers. fooled them with our stupid act, which wasn't hard to feign on that little sleep. they told us to sleep under the bridge with lennie the tri-state drunk. we walked over to a mission instead and slept in beds. so i guess we'll just hitchike through ohio. can't be that hard.
three days and 100 miles later we're standing at the same on-ramp we've been at for 36 hours, going mad with sun and frustration. the whole town of shittycoffee ohio drove past us four times and flipped us off. we met a drunk ex railyard worker who gave us beer and told us he'd drive us across the state the following day, so we waited for him but the bastard never showed. desperate, we backtracked 30 miles to a truckstop. we're sitting there with a cardboard sign for eight hours, drinking bottomless coffee and playing dice and losing it. at 4am the sherriff shows up and tells us to piss off. you can walk thirty miles back to shittycoffee on that dark deserted highway... oh, sure. giggling with the stupidity of the situation, we walk until the sun comes up then get picked up by a leftie priest who gives us fifty bucks and drives us to dayton, a town full of freaks. seriously. ohio is missing a chromosome. eventually we made it north, spent another 24 hours or so at a truckstop, backtracking again... i got heatstroke and sunburn and mad. we have to get to milwaukee cause corey has to take the dog he shares with his ex. finally we get a truckie going all the way there, and walk into town. all we want is beer and punks...
so i'm staying at another punk house, drinking on the porch, revelling in the endless barbeques. but these interludes of joy and raucousness are killing too much time. i have to be in LA on tuesday to see my mum, we're gonna hang out in san francisco for a week. so the great freight train ride across america is off. i'll be riding down to chicago and jumping off right near the airport, out of a boxcar and onto a plane. style or what.
feeling pretty good about going home soon. i miss everyone. i want the endless porch drunk and the endless barbeque and the endless summer with all y'all. turkeynecks!
we rode in a van down to asheville, north carolina, where a friend had to go to court, and hung out there for a while. big southern hippy town, a weird mix of rednecks, american history, travelling kids drifting through. drank a lot of good homebrew at cumberland street and it seemed like every night there was a party. my favourite was the st remedius party, the patron saint of trannies. a small child made us throw darts and drink herbal tea that made things all quirky. played tip in the house, lay in the grass singing songs, danced to accordions, got in a foodfight. all mistered up in a brown pinstripe suit. crazy time. eventually we worked up the momentum to leave and drove up to erwin, tennessee, to ride trains.
there are a lot of people doing this in the states. a whole network of train geek travelling punks. me and the boys waited two days in the bushes, drinking most of our water and watching the yard trying to work out which trains went where. it was a small yard, so only one train a day; on the first day we stood and watched her slide out. oh, we should have got on that... maybe tomorrow. so at noon i find myself making a mad dash across a road, climbing over the coal trains in the way, dodging the bull and the workers. then one saw us. he sped up his ute and drove right past me, i thought we were done for - until he yelled out 'don't worry darlin, we ain't gonna bother you, you go right ahead'. sweet! we hop on a grainer porch and lie there hiding til the train pulls out some eight hours later. riding in the dark through the mountains, this is the only way to see america. we switched to a boxcar when the train stopped at a siding, and i'm yelling out the open door. hello river! hello fishermen! how's it going, wild turkey! what's up, deer! damn, i haven't felt that invincible in a long time. i want to do this for the rest of my life. throw out that dream of becoming a freight train driver. why drive when you can stow away, free as a stray cat.
i've been thinking a lot about post-industrial primitivism of late, having lots of conversations about fucking off to the woods but how we can deal with living in the context of industrialisation. well, this is part of it; inhabiting these spaces like a wild thing somehow makes them ours. i like trains anyway (guess it runs in the family) but this, squatting, dumpstering - it's not just about living for free for me. it's about returning to a kind of survivalism. when i can roam and gather and make my way i feel like i'm really alive. course it's easier here than most places, oh land of plenty, land of horrible excess, bring it on.
we were running out of water so matt jumped off when the train stopped at shelby and got a priest to fill up our gallon. rode through suburbs and megalithic steelworks up to russell on the ohio border, where we jumped off and pretended to the cops that we were hitchikers. fooled them with our stupid act, which wasn't hard to feign on that little sleep. they told us to sleep under the bridge with lennie the tri-state drunk. we walked over to a mission instead and slept in beds. so i guess we'll just hitchike through ohio. can't be that hard.
three days and 100 miles later we're standing at the same on-ramp we've been at for 36 hours, going mad with sun and frustration. the whole town of shittycoffee ohio drove past us four times and flipped us off. we met a drunk ex railyard worker who gave us beer and told us he'd drive us across the state the following day, so we waited for him but the bastard never showed. desperate, we backtracked 30 miles to a truckstop. we're sitting there with a cardboard sign for eight hours, drinking bottomless coffee and playing dice and losing it. at 4am the sherriff shows up and tells us to piss off. you can walk thirty miles back to shittycoffee on that dark deserted highway... oh, sure. giggling with the stupidity of the situation, we walk until the sun comes up then get picked up by a leftie priest who gives us fifty bucks and drives us to dayton, a town full of freaks. seriously. ohio is missing a chromosome. eventually we made it north, spent another 24 hours or so at a truckstop, backtracking again... i got heatstroke and sunburn and mad. we have to get to milwaukee cause corey has to take the dog he shares with his ex. finally we get a truckie going all the way there, and walk into town. all we want is beer and punks...
so i'm staying at another punk house, drinking on the porch, revelling in the endless barbeques. but these interludes of joy and raucousness are killing too much time. i have to be in LA on tuesday to see my mum, we're gonna hang out in san francisco for a week. so the great freight train ride across america is off. i'll be riding down to chicago and jumping off right near the airport, out of a boxcar and onto a plane. style or what.
feeling pretty good about going home soon. i miss everyone. i want the endless porch drunk and the endless barbeque and the endless summer with all y'all. turkeynecks!
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