Colorado Springs
Oct. 8, `70
I ate breakfast with two Spokane Jesus freaks and afterwords
the three of us went looking for a train to hop. The Jesus freaks
and I, the night before, discovered that we shared the same
objective. They were going to Oklahoma City and I was going anywhere
that would get me out of the goddamn cold. The Jesus freaks
told me that they followed the scriptures and thought the
brotherhood at St. Andrews were a bunch of heretics. They told me
that Jesus people were the true (pure) followers of Christ. After
listening to their gospel, I had to laugh when one of them
threatened to cut the throat of the gas station attendant who
wouldn't allow us to loiter in his gas station. By that time, we had
been to the train yard, identified a southbound train, and were
killing time until the train left the yard. The friend of Jesus got
so upset with the attendant that it made me feel like I had passed
through a time warp, become a Crusader, and was in the midst of
smiting the infidels.
Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long before our train
left the yard. The three of us climbed into a boxcar and huddled in
the back freezing. After the train pulled out of the yard we were
free to walk around. Actually, in addition to the rules I have
already mentioned concerning hitchhiking on trains, I discovered a
couple more. Never jump a train in the winter and don't expect to
make good time if you do. Averaging about thirty miles an hour (I
could run faster then the train moved at times), we almost froze to
death. When I wasn't shivering in my sleeping bag, I ran end to end
in the boxcar. Listening to the Jesus freaks go on about how God
won't desert them under these conditions was pathetic. After four
hours of this, I had had enough. I got off the train in Colorado
Springs and took a room in the YMCA. It was a forced decision, I was
freezing to death, and I needed to thaw out. I resolved not to spend
so much money after that.
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