Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 Years ago, actually, many years ago, when I was in my early teens, my best friend Don and I used to spend countless hours hanging out. Through no fault of our own, just the fact that we were teen boys, we seemed to find ourselves in unusual situations. Once we got punched in the ear down by a railroad round house by a couple of hillbillies, I guess just because we spent too much time staring at how many were packed in an old Buick. The fact that it was the day after Thanksgiving and there was snow on the ground and we were dressed like a couple of idiots, complete with tackle boxes and Fishing rods probably didn't help any. We had watched an episode of Gadabout Gaddis the flying fisherman and had an overwhelming desire to go fishing.  That's a story for another time though. On the particular day that this story is about, we were in our home town of Marion Ohio, underneath an overpass waiting on a train. I don't know why we were there, but we were. It was winter and there w...

I recently had to make a trip down to Wisconsin to visit my ill mother-in-law. It was a rush trip and totally unexpected, but it all worked out good. She recovered in spectacular fashion, I was able to visit with some family members and before the battery on my camera crapped out, I got a few pictures of one of my favorite subjects, trains. I've been fascinated with trains ever since I can remember. While I was standing near the tracks, waiting for the train, I could both hear and feel the rumbling of the approaching train; the ground vibrated like a small earthquake as it came nearer and the flashing red lights and ringing of the bells  of the crossing were just the icing on the cake for me. Growing up,whenever a train happened to be passing in front of our car, I'd sit in the back seat with a grin from ear to ear while my dad fumed at being held up.The only time I shared his disgust was when I  had to pee really bad. There are no trains in Southeast ...