The Long Road

The dreams of a hobo...

Tell the story soft and sweet, as you walk. Through the flowers with bare feet, I stood and thought…

-Bobby Whitlock from The Dreams of a Hobo

After our son passed to the western lands, less than six months ago, we got a nice note from old friends. They shared this song with us, The Long Road from the 1995 film Dead Man Walking:

The song reminds me of my long journey writing about that Big River called Jazz, which I started in the fall of 2020. Since my son died, I now find myself on a new road - writing from a new perspective.

Therefore, it makes sense that I’d find myself traveling the western roads as if I could catch up with him, searching for signs of his trail along the way.

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This journey started in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during a snowstorm that got steadily worse as I approached Iowa. I’ve driven in snow for many years, but these were the worst driving conditions in my life so far. Out of the blue - I should say out of the white - I came across this multiple-car accident on Interstate 35 just north of Ames.

A policeman waved me through and told me the interstate was closed south of Ames, so I took the backroads around Des Moines. Things cleared up a bit south of there.

Many miles passed as I drove through Kansas City, Wichita, Houston, Austin, and Fort Stockton to Marathon, where I stopped to watch the sunrise. Standing alone on the side of U.S. Route 90, while looking back at the sunrise, this train rolled past:

It was on the Southern Pacific Railroad’s “Sunset Route,” which runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles, passing 2004 miles through five states. I would drive alongside the Sunset Route, essentially all the way to Bisbee in Arizona.

Sitting in my car driving along the tracks, I thought about the stories I heard of men in the Chicago stockyards who were needed to ride the empty cattle cars back to Dallas. Once in Dallas, cattle were loaded into the twenty stalls of each car. The men were paid to ride with the cattle back up to the Chicago stockyards, making sure the cattle stayed standing for the three-day ride.

However, many stayed in Dallas, feeling the call to go further west. On the lookout for railroad bulls, they searched the railyards for open box cars and rode the Sunset Route to San Antonio, Marathon, El Paso, and the California coast.

As the miles passed, I was reminded of songs like The Band’s Hobo Jungle:

…and Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin’s version of Utah Phillips’s Hood River, Roll On:

These songs appeal to me. I imagine myself tramping it, making a glorious ride on the roof of a roving boxcar with the sun in my eyes and my hair blowing in the wind…

A little further down the line, located on a barren stretch of U.S. Route 90 one mile west of Valentine, Texas, is Prada Marfa, an odd permanent land art project by artists Elmgreen & Dragset. Commissioned by the Art Production Fund and Ballroom Marfa, the sculpture is modeled after a Prada boutique and houses luxury goods from the famed brand’s fall 2005 collection of bags and shoes:

Here’s a poignant image of a man standing in front of it:

I’m not sure what to think of Prada Marfa. It appears in the desert landscape like a diamond in the rough. However, this store’s door never opens. It’s always closed. Like an oasis, it’s only an illusion - a reminder that luxury in the desert is a kind of novelty toy. As I drove past, an old Airstream was parked out front, and a couple was taking a selfie. So it goes…

A little further down the line, just west of Rodeo, New Mexico, you enter Arizona, and the highway changes to U.S. Route 80. This is a beautiful stretch of highway with the Arizona mountains all around you. That day snow sprinkled the tops of the Chiricahua Mountains to my west. I passed through Apache and Douglas on my way to Bisbee, Arizona - the end of the line.

Located in downtown Bisbee at the foot of Castle Rock sits the Inn at Castle Rock, built in 1890 as a miner’s boarding house:

The lobby of the Inn is set around the historic Apache Springs Well:

Inside is the Apache Springs Cafe, where under a table I noticed this cool custom suitcase amp:

It’s hard to read, but the script to the left of the speaker says “Blues Wizard.”

As legend has it, Bisbee is a town with many ghost stories. People have seen ghosts in homes, hotels, businesses, and on the streets of town. The Inn at Castle Rock has its own ghost stories too - so I’m not sure if this amp actually existed. Perhaps it was an apparition to remind me of my roots - the blues.

Here’s one more for the road. After over 2200 miles, from Minneapolis to Bisbee, I realize that I’m still on a long road, just as hard as before, and that’s all there is to it. I’m reminded of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers’ song Hard Road:

I'm gonna pack up my suitcase
Put my misery inside
Throw in a bit of pain and trouble
And that's the road I'll ride

When I left Bisbee, that’s exactly what I did, and that’s the road I’ll ride.

As I write this now, I’m near Apache Junction, about 40 miles south of Phoenix. It was the Apache people who knew the trail across the desert, followed by the settlers, followed by the Southern Pacific Railroad, followed by the highways like Interstate 10 and U.S. Routes 80 and 90, and followed by me.

Apache magic is all about fours - a sacred number. It represents the four directions, the four seasons, the four sacred mountains, and the four sacred colors. My journey to the west was also about fours: a crash on Interstate 35 by Ames, Iowa; a morning train heading into Marathon, Texas; the Prada store outside Marfa, Texas; but is the custom amp in Bisbee, Arizona the fourth? I say not yet. The fourth is yet to come - an empty space, still waiting, still looking…

Next week on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles into the waters of the François Rabbath.

Please hit this link to buy me a cup of coffee if you’d like to show your guide some appreciation for this and past journeys. Know in advance that I thank you for your kindness and support.

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Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that.

Until then, keep on walking….