Mobile, AL

Back when I was in Mobile, AL, I met some homeless folks in one of the parks downtown. They were tremendously engaging, receptive, and interested in my story. And they shared much of their stories as well. At one point, a van pulled up from a church offering bag dinners to anyone, a lined formed, and once we had our dinners, we sat down on the benches and discussed everything from how I would camp out, miles per day, etc, etc, to how to ride on the road, and directions to places in Mobile, etc, and one man began telling me about his adventures traveling around--trainhopping, mainly. He used to live in Miami, where he "lived like a king" with many other homeless, just living on Miami beach. But Hurricane Katrina hit (it was not as powerful when it touched Florida), but this man endured the storm in a bus shelter! He just watched as the wind blew the rain in horizontally, and whipped things around.

He moved from Miami, but today he wishes he hadn't. Miami had more day-labor jobs available compared to Mobile. The way he moves around, typically, is by hopping on freight trains without the crew's awareness. In train yard, he explains, a few places are ideal for hanging out until a time arises when the train has begun moving, up to around 15 miles per hour, and the engine of the train has turned a corner, so teh mirrors the conductors use to monitor the train cannot "see" him jumping into a car. To jump into a car, one must run alongside the train, put one's hands on the platform of a car (a car whose middle door was left open) and throw one's torso up onto the platform, and then climb in. Typically, this man would find a cardboard box, and lay his body into that, and rest. He rides trains at night, and he tries to dismount before daybreak. He once arrived in a city after daybreak, and the trainyard guards began looking into his car. He plastered his body up against the wall, the same wall the door was on, and he guard looked into the car, but did not poke is head all the way in and look against the wall. When the guards moved on, he hopped out and began walking as swiftly as he could out of the train yard. He did not know what city he was in, and he asked the first man he came to, "What city is this?" and the man replied, "Jackson".

He eventually made it to Mobile...and he sleeps in some abandoned train station building.