Freight Train Blues . . .

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The new photo in the blog header is from the recent trip to the USA, an abandoned car seen somewhere on a back road in Pennsylvania. I really liked the way she seems to be blushing almost, as though she's embarrassed about being seen in public with her rusty makeup running like that.
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It was wonderful to be out rambling, riding freight trains from one town to the next. Some of those coal trains going down Appalachian Mountain tracks are miles long. Just imagine how much coal one of those trains can carry. On the way to coal burning electricity plants. I wonder what we will do when the coal is gone. When the oil is gone. When the fish in the seas are gone. All plundered by our endless greed. Reminds me of that well known quote attributed to the Cree native American tribe :
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"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money."
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And although it is hard to make out in the photo, at the far left there is a sign which says "Appalachian Trail, Maine to Georgia" on the bridge the train is going under. The Appalachian Trail goes over that spot. Would love to walk it all someday.
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The train seemed to stretch away into infinity at the vanishing point in the distance.
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Even when the rain came pouring down it didn't stop me from looking at what was going on in terms of light and color and distortions. And note the "ATM Inside" on a sign here which means there's an Automatic Teller Machine there for withdrawing cash. Later on I found a sign outside a church which also said "ATM Inside", but which then explained it meant "Atonement, Truth, and Mercy". Will post a photo of it soon. Cash or Mercy ? Truth or Consequences ?
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Saw an awful lot of corn out there . . . those amber waves of grain . . .
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Found myself dining in the finest of diners, the ones that have no name other than "Diner".
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Spending nights sleeping in some seedy motels in the yellow light of roadhouse lights.
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What matters is that at the end of the day you can honestly say you tried to do some good work. .
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And at the end of our travels we should all be so lucky as to end up in a cemetery named "Grand View". As if the view really matters at that point !
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Slow Train Coming . . . Up Around the Bend . . .

On a trip to West Virginia coal country in 1988 while waiting at a railroad crossing, saw this slow train coming, up around the bend . . . Bob Dylan put out his album Slow Train Coming in 1979, and the words in the title track ring surprisingly accurate today 30 years later . . .
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And here's the song . . .
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