Mikes Thoughts

Riding the rails and PassApp

This is kind of a story I guess. Two different people that somehow connected. I met Ed at Viva! the other night. A medically retired US Army veteran. We talked khmer family and while his ideas and ideals about cheating on his girl friend are not what I would ever do, his core beliefs in finding happiness and love when he least expected it seem so cool. I gave the whole thing thought riding home last night and I remembered Red Ambrose. This must have been back in 2021. I had left vietnam after almost two years. Found myself in the US and had bought the Amtrak USA RailPass. That let me travel on 10 segments over 30 days. So I decided there was a part two to my amtrak dreams.

those Amtrak dreams

In 2020, I fulfilled the big one. Went across the US in almost both directions. First from California to Austin Texas and then I flew to Orlando Florida to see my daughter. From there more Amtrak goodness to New York. Then across the US on the northern route. Saw the big sky country and my felt my little dreams grow large. I didn't realize then how there was a part two to the dream.

So when I got back in 2021, I went from Emeryville California to Chicago. I stopped along the way and stayed days in 5 locations. It was this slow and gradual reality and I got to meet a few people going east on the California Zephyr train. I met Red. He sat next to me leaving Colorado and we talked. I told him a story or two and he told me his long tale. Breaking horses and freezing in Montana. Herding cattle in Arizona. Carrying a six gun and knowing how to use it. It impacted me over the long haul and I wrote about it in long lost posts and stories.

On the way back west along another line from Chicago, I'd stop in Albuquerque for a week. I spent some years in New Mexico in another lifetime with another person. I wanted that stop. Then a day in Flagstaff because of a train issue. Finally Los Angeles and we dropped through the sacred Mojave Desert. Place names that echoed back to that other life still well inside me. Places we went and did archeology. How RWR would look at the stars sleeping under them. The warm beer and hot chili touching down to the senses. Other stories. From there it would yet be another story to tell. A year in Mexico. Wonderful was that year but it ended too.

The Amtrak dreams always had kept me going before. In two years I found them but truth be told those train trips had come from other train trips. Over the years on Amtrak. In Japan and Taiwan. In Malaysia. Places. Somehow and I know each thing from Malaysia to the Mojave link up my story. One day I say. Another dream to tell.

then my passapp

These days I ride PassApp a lot. Lately went to Viva! for beers and food and met Ed there. Ed told me his story and I was immediately struck by how so much time had passed between him and Red. Ed and I talked his American family and mine. We both found some similar sadness. His American children will not talk to him any more. He does not know why. Mine have not for over a year. I don't really know why. I think we came away with believing its because we are so far away but physical distance these days is not a barrier. He also told me of his Khmer family that he loves dearly. I told him of my wife.

We both agreed that this is where life is for us now. Right here and right now. We cannot help people not talking to us in various places. They have their choices. I decided it was worth writing because writing really does help me vicariously live through a thing or things and the past comes back not to haunt but to let met see it as though through cut crystal. Some wavering of the things but the essence there.

From Amtrak to PassApp

Such connections. I'm thankful for both though. There were other people I found along my way. I visited Las Vegas New Mexico which was an interesting yet strange place. I shared a table with a truck driver that told me his story. We ate spicy eggs and tortillas lavished with chili. He laughed a lot and was sad too. It was like all those miles had caught him many times. Made him realize that he had driven his life and when he quit, he had no one until he met his one. She wanted him and let him live his way. Back then I had no one and I had decided finding someone or having them find me was something beyond a thought or dream. I just could not find the desire to have a person.

Somehow the medium of train to tuktuk seems appropriate. Like both take me, leave me, let me see.

More little stories to tell

I think when I write these things, there's a link I make and a link yet to come. I want the writing to be able to hold these things. Whether another reads them or not. To me, its this thing to tell it and feel it move out from inside to words and then farther. If someone does find the words, there's no message here. No advice on a life to lead or memories to share. Just my little dreams from Amtrak to Siem Reap.