Train Hopping with Stxs, Episode 6: Portland to Chicago (Includes Exclusive Videos!)

Welcome to another episode of train-hopping with Hobo Stxs! On the last episode I got to Portland by a freight train, but I did not understand it that it was the middle of rainy season up in Oregon.

After exploring Portland for a few days, I got in touch with my friends from Chicago, who wanted to see me and hang out. I told them it would be a few days, because I was in Portland, and I headed over to the local train-yard and waited for one of the nice Intermodal trains to arrive. Portland is one of the best train-yards for Intermodal traffic, and I found out last time that the Steel Bridge was not a good idea to hop trains out of, so I hiked the mouth of the port where the Intermodal trains depart from and found a nice Craft Brewery. Another thing I love about the West Coast: craft breweries are everywhere and amazing IPA beer is relatively inexpensive. I just so happened to meet one of the head Brewers, who invited me in for tasting after hearing my story about hopping a train that night, and was very interested in hearing more. He offered to buy me a few beers, so after a couple IPAs it was getting dark, and my time to depart Portland. I grabbed my backpack and headed the 300 feet in front of me. As luck would have it, my train was departing just as I was leaving the Brewery, and since I was all stocked up to go it was a perfect timing to get out of town. The next morning it looked like this:

Portland is one of my favorite hop-outs because of the fact that you cruise down the river that leads to the port, but it also forces you to go through Pocatello, Idaho... one of my least favorite places in the country. Pocatello is such a weird place, it's a small town but there's nothing going on, it seems like everyone there doesn't work anywhere around there. It is one of the most strange places I've ever been to, but as all trains east from Portland and up there for crew change, it is where I was forced to resupply and get out of town quick because I would stand out like a sore thumb, and they would know exactly how I got there. The train gods were in my favor that day, and a train just so happened to park right in front of me after about an hour of waiting, so I boarded another Intermodal on its way to Chicago, and got on my way. The train took off with a jolt, and I couldn't be happier to be out of Pocatello. I cracked a beer and lit up a joint, as I had gotten some really dank chronic while I was in Northern California for $10 a quarter-ounce. I ended up buying a whole ounce for this trip because you can't say no to Northern California amazing bud for $40 an ounce. I was so glad to be out of Idaho, being as my next destination was Cheyenne, Wyoming. I figured I'd have a nice long cannabis induced cat nap and when I awoke I was almost to Cheyenne.

I didn't need to resupply while I was in Cheyenne, so I figured I might as well stay on the train as they only take about an hour to crew change. and I was sort of in a rush to get to Chicago to meet up with my friends. The train took off shortly before sunset. Wyoming has some of the most beautiful sunsets in the country, so I enjoyed that with another nice fat joint and continued my way to Chicago, seeing as the next part of the trip was going to be through the Flatlands, I was going to enjoy the scenery of Wyoming while I could.

The next morning I woke up coming in to Davenport, Iowa a little po-dunk town in the middle of Iowa which boasts the biggest truck stop in the United States, and the fact that you can catch some pretty good trains out of Davenport. There is really nothing else notable to the town, it's quite boring and there's not very much to do there, so I decided to stay on the train and carry on my way.

Outside of Chicago, about a hundred and fifty miles, there is a refueling spot for Intermodal traffic. I'm not exactly sure why they do this outside of Chicago, as the destination is Chicago, but I was inside of one of those back locomotives when this unfortunate set of events transpired. I was sitting in the train-yard for about 4 hours wondering what the hell was going on, so I decided to take a peek out the window, and got spotted by one of the train workers putting together another train for departure. Unfortunately I didn't have my rail scanner (it's basically like a police scanner for the railroad traffic) or I would have known that they had called" The Bull". the Bulls are also known as the railroad security or police. I was pretty sure that I had been spotted, so I was packing up to run as the security guard opened the door and said "hey what are you doing? get off of there and come with me". As he was a security guard he had no right to arrest me, so as soon as I got off after him, I booked it and ran straight up a hill out of the train-yard. He said that he was going to call the police so I hid in a culvert ditch for about an hour and decided that I was going to go on the road next to the train-yard to get to the highway and try and hitch-hike into Chicago. Obviously the state patrol was looking for me, and there was no other way to explain me being there, so I changed clothes (trying not to look like the guy that just came off of a freight train covered train oil and soot) into my respectable clothing for being in the city. Just as I got changed, the state patrol rolled up on me and they obviously knew what I was up to and where I came from. They went through the process of arresting me for trespassing on the railway, and took me to booking. I didn't know if I was going to have to spend time for this, so I gave a my friend a call and let them know that I might be delayed as I was detained. What I didn't know was if they were just going to book and release me. Seeing as getting caught on a locomotive in the train-yard is one of the most illegal things that you can do train hopping, I figured I was going to have to spend some time for this. In the end, they just wrote me a ticket, they didn't even bother going into my backpack (if they would have they would have found my cannabis & pipe which would have been another couple of tickets or a few more days kidnapped).

🚓in back of the cop car handcuffed but still taking pics and making calls🚓

They did not give me directions to the interstate so I could get back to the train-yard or to hitch-hike into Chicago, but I had my GPS with me, so I turned it on and use the little battery that I had left to find my way to the interstate and hitch-hike in to Chicago. I caught a ride with a interesting guy who does chauffeuring for strippers to the strip club, a very interesting profession as they do not like to be in taxis. He gave me a bottle of cologne, and told me that I smelled like an open grave and that should help. I wasn't very surprised that I smelled so bad after hiking all the way 7 miles to the interstate and train hopping for 4 days straight, but damn did I smell better. He gave me a ride to the outskirts of Chicago, where he had to pick up some strippers, and dropped me off at the city bus stop. From there I could get to the Metra station (the metra station is the subway for Chicago). I bought my ticket, which ended up being around $7 between bus and Subway, an ungodly amount for public transit in my opinion, and made my way into downtown Chicago to meet my friends.

Thank you for reading this article!
[Hobo Stxs]✌(https://steemit.com/@acab1312news)

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And check out previous episodes here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5