Traveling across Minnesota to the South Dakota boarder and some more camping we drove alongside a railroad. The tracks go for miles with not a train in site. Then we saw one. It was quite a site. It had over 125 carriages! - I counted them. That is some train. And it had a horn that made a noise like you wouldn’t believe as it approached every road in its track. No one would get in the way of this train.
By now it was getting late and we needed a place to stay for the night. This time a nice blue sign appeared on an otherwise empty road pointing us to camping. But we didn’t see a campsite. In fact we didn’t see very much at all. Mark asked some yokels about the ‘campsite’ and they told us where it was. This campsite is unusual. It has no signs to say it’s a campsite. The only evidence of it being a campsite is a tap and some grass. It was located next to the railroad track. We pitched the tent, had some food, and settled in for the night.
At 3am we had our first train. There must have been about three roads nearby that crossed the track. Each one received the full horn treatment. The train must have been a long one too as it rattled by.
Our second train came at 3.30. The horn did its business again. The train rumbled by.
4am and the horns sounded once more - and so on through the night. Once daylight came we didn’t see another train.
One has to wonder if there has been a recent spate of people stopping their cars on railroad tracks in the middle of the night. The train drivers are certainly wise to the possibility. I wonder too if it is mainly deaf people who leave their cars parked so precariously in the middle of the night. The train drivers must think so. Still, it is better to be safe rather than sorry.
We left our $10 in an honesty box (there were no signs to say so but two locals separately had told us that this is how it worked) and made our way to Interstate 90 - probably the longest straight road in the whole world.
By now it was getting late and we needed a place to stay for the night. This time a nice blue sign appeared on an otherwise empty road pointing us to camping. But we didn’t see a campsite. In fact we didn’t see very much at all. Mark asked some yokels about the ‘campsite’ and they told us where it was. This campsite is unusual. It has no signs to say it’s a campsite. The only evidence of it being a campsite is a tap and some grass. It was located next to the railroad track. We pitched the tent, had some food, and settled in for the night.
At 3am we had our first train. There must have been about three roads nearby that crossed the track. Each one received the full horn treatment. The train must have been a long one too as it rattled by.
Our second train came at 3.30. The horn did its business again. The train rumbled by.
4am and the horns sounded once more - and so on through the night. Once daylight came we didn’t see another train.
One has to wonder if there has been a recent spate of people stopping their cars on railroad tracks in the middle of the night. The train drivers are certainly wise to the possibility. I wonder too if it is mainly deaf people who leave their cars parked so precariously in the middle of the night. The train drivers must think so. Still, it is better to be safe rather than sorry.
We left our $10 in an honesty box (there were no signs to say so but two locals separately had told us that this is how it worked) and made our way to Interstate 90 - probably the longest straight road in the whole world.
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