DOWN THE LINE

 

  I ended up getting a really good ride out of Sault Ste Marie with this really cool american trucker that took me all the way to Thunder Bay, so that was a good haul, Ontario is fuckin huge! In Thunder Bay, I caught a ride with three young kids in a pick-up, but they said I had to get in the back of it. They were going all the way to Winnipeg, so I was super happy about that . So we are driving a little over an hour, just flying down the highway, passing cars on double yellow lines, just stupid shit! It’s a wonder we made it as far as we did before the cops seen us. So next thing I know, the O.P.P are behind us, trying to pull us over, so the guy driving takes off like a bat out of hell, high speed chase, and I’m in the back of a fuckin pick-up - are you kidding me? They end up losing the cop and pulling off the highway in some woods. I really should have got out when I had the chance. Anyway they waited about 20 minutes and pulled back on the highway. Well, needless to say the cops were waiting for them a couple miles up the road. Here we go again. They pulled off the highway on a dirt road and we were flying, going over bumps, with me bouncing up and down in the back, fuck! So the cops end up getting them after like 20 minutes with their guns drawn telling everyone to put their hands in the air, I was like “I’m just a hitchhiker.” I remember thinking if these kids tell the cops anything different, I’m going to kill them when we get to jail! Well, this really sucked because now I’m out a ride all the way to Winnipeg and I’m in the middle of nowhere, and it was getting dark. I ended up just finding a place to camp out till morning.

  I called Syd just before I got to Winnipeg to tell her where I was and she was not happy with me. That girl was telling her to leave me, but that didn’t work. Syd told me she would meet me there in a few days.

  When I got to Winnipeg, I went to Osbourne Village, where I met this really hot chick that was involved in all this activist shit. Anyway, she was protesting for the release of the Manitoba Warriors, who were being denied bail, so she asked me if I wanted to come with her and spray paint the court house, ya know I do! So we went up there one night shortly before Syd got there and did damage, there were about ten of us and we caused a lot of damage and ended up getting away with it. We made the evening news the next day, so that was my first time in the paper, but not the last.

  There were a couple American kids that knew Lance when we got to Calgary and they told us he was doing alright, just being drunken ass Lance. One of the kids had a picture from when Lance had gotten smashed in the face by his friend Sara, with a rock in some drunken ruckus. We were hanging out with these kids for a couple days till Syd decided to run off with one of them one night and I can almost guarantee you, she fucked him. I remember the night she ditched me. I was walking around all depressed and pissed off when I ran into a home bum, sitting on the corner, huffing something out of a plastic bag. I sat down with him and we started shooting the shit and he asked me if I wanted some, sure why not? I have no clue what the fuck was in that bag, but I’m definitely short a few brain cells, that’s for sure! The next morning I ran into Syd walking alone and I flipped the fuck out at her. She was pushing our shopping cart, so I grabbed her backpack out the shopping cart and started throwing everything out of it, yelling at the top of my fuckin lungs at her. The next thing I know there are five cop cars screaming down the street. They just simmered the situation and told me to fuck off.

  I was on the next city bus to the north side of the city where I could start hitchhiking from. I was headed to Edmonton by myself. It didn’t take me too long to get up to Edmonton. Lance was from here and had told me that if I ever went to Edmonton to go to White Ave. I only stayed a couple days there and the only things I remember are that Imade killer money squeegeeing, went down town, found a prostitute and smoked some crack.

  There is a C.P (Canadian Pacific) train yard pretty much at the end of White Ave so I decided I was going to hop a train back to Calgary, since I wasn’t with that bitch! While all drunk on Big Bear, I stumble to the yard and talk to a worker who pointed me to the train I needed, and I was off. I was about half way to Calgary when the train stopped and two R.C.M.P officers pulled me off and arrested me for trespassing. It was weird that they actually took me in, I seen a judge and everything, and it’s on my criminal record - for fuck sakes. I’ve never heard of this happening in Canada. Usually they will just give you a ticket right there on the spot. Now, if you were in the states it’s a different story. I went to court a couple hours after they had pulled me off and I got a $200 fine. If I didn’t pay it in a month I would have to do two days in jail, whatever, go fuck yourelves.

  So I made it back to Calgary and didn;t bother stopping downtown. I just got on a city bus and went to the outskirts of town to start hitchhiking. Just west of Calgary, you start to get into the Rockies, which are really nice. A year or so later, when I started riding freight trains all the time, just outside Calgary, there is wildlife up on the mountains or by the tracks, it’s really something else.

  Hitchhiking though B.C has always been a problem for me, I never seem to have any fuckin luck in that province. I don’t recall how long it took me, but I was just outside of Kamloops when I noticed a train stopped heading my way,so I told buddy I was in the car with to pull over and I hopped out, ran over and jumped on a grainer. When we pulled into the yard in downtown Kamloops, we made a quick stop (which is called a crew change.) This is where the train will stop, usually anywhere from 5-15 minutes to swap the crew. While we were stopped at the crew change, I made a b-line for the units (engines) because I had no water and I did not know if there were any tunnels up the line.

  The reason you have to be careful about tunnels is because you can die from carbon monoxide poisoning. The way you can get around this is to have a rag (bandana) with you and when you find yourself in a tunnel you soak it with water. This is why you will see a lot of train riders wearing bandanas around their necks, that and it’s kind of a trademark. You only have to be worried about long tunnels in the mountains. I found out later that there was only one tunnel on the C.P line in B.C that was worrisome and that was just west of Field, the first crew change west of Calgary, which I was way past.

  Well, this was my first long haul train ride by myself and I fuckin loved it. It was about a ten-hour ride to Vancouver from Kamloops. I ended up right downtown Vancouver the next morning and headed over to the good ol’ Clark St. Bridge, where I found Syd sleeping. Syd and I ended up back together but I don;t know why. There were a few kids we knew in town, so that was cool.

  Zack and Vanessa were still there stung the fuck out, my freind Brenda from Montreal, and this guy Scott, that ended up ODing years later here in Vancouver, were all there as well. Mika and Cabby were also there, these two crazy american kids - they were a little weird, but cool as fuck. Mika had cut Cabby’s ear off to make room for Cabby’s eagle tattoo on his face, which looked sick as fuck. One time, Cabby stuck his two hands on the stove burners because he thought he had maps on his hands,so now his hands are scarred.

  That was the last time I saw either of them. Cabby jumped on a tanker car under the Clark St. Bridge one night and was headed to the States, but ws never heard from again, from anyone, which was discouraging from anyone who knew him - he just disappeared. Mika died hopping a freight train a few years later, in Winnipeg. Love y’all!

  Well, we started doing what you usually do in Vancouver, and that’s get high. That lasted a couple weeks before we decided to head back south.