“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.”
(The Hobbit, published Sep 1937)

June 11, 1938

Nara S Imhaya was thoroughly annoyed now. He had been traveling a week already and had not yet reached LA. His plan had been to take a couple days and see sights and places of the Wild West he heard so much about. He saw many different things instead. With the 3 weeks he had planned already cut by one third he was not even at a quarter of the distance he planned to travel. 

(June 5) The day after his New York job he woke and had breakfast in the dining car. He had a first-class ticket with private sleeper on this leg and he enjoyed a generous serving of eggs benedict with toast. Sharing pleasant conversation with Bill and Judy from New Jersey. They were also heading to the Southwest to celebrate his retirement and to see their son’s family in Santa Fe. He asked if they could trade newspapers and with a smile and fidget Bill agreed. Judy looked out the window knowing her husband’s body language meant he was going to talk politics. 
"So, you saw about the new forced wages? It’s bad enough FDR keeps doing new deals off the bottom of the deck but now he says everyone is worth a quarter a hour?"
Nara nodded "But it’s only to set the base for wages. to make sure everyone gets a fair cut for their labor" 
With his mouth agape as if he could not believe what he was hearing Bill continued "You aren’t one of those Liberals are you? They won’t be happy till they give half of everything a honest man earns away to someone who won’t work" 
"No" Shaking his head with a smile "But a man should be able to support his family on his day’s work"
"Highway robbery" Bill roared "I just retired and now some new Social Security Office is going to send me a paycheck for not working? Supposed to be making sure old folk have support in their last years but that’s what retirement homes are for" 

Nara listened for quite some time, nodding usually or a short reply. He knew he would not change this man’s position but could not believe someone like him would think the new programs were wrong. He worked most of his life making just enough to think he was doing good while the owners of his company got hundreds of times more. His son joined the CCC when it began in 33. He traveled the country building the new highway system and national parks. He even helped build the Hoover dam before meeting his future wife. Since CCC was for single men only he graduated to the WPA and now is completing his apprenticeship to be a civil engineer. To hear Bill tell it his son was conscripted on a chain gang at slave wage. Granted both programs had problems, one of the biggest is the companies that bid on these projects kept the lions share for themselves and little trickled down. In a country where one in five men had no job at all it still helped. SSI, welfare, work programs, child labor restrictions, to Nara these things made so much sense it was a shameful blot on a country’s reputation that they had to make laws to ensure what should have been common sense and what is right. 

They were interrupted by the conductor announcing the trains stop in Washington DC shortly. Parting with a handshake he thought to himself how ingrained into this society wealth and success were and that poverty was only someone’s bad choices. Walking out of the station he's greeted by the skyline of the Capitol. He meant to take a day seeing the sights, he took 2 and the better part of a 3rd. 

(June 8) Nara is frowning at a timetable board. There were massive storms that went across Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana spawning several tornadoes. Some lines were damaged, and trains were backed up. Nara had decided to change his ticket to the central route going to Cincinnati then west from there instead of Atlanta then the deep south route. He frowned, he wanted to see Texas and its wide-open ranges. Now he would see St Louis and Kansas City before his route took him over the top of Texas, angled Southwest to Santa Fe, Williams and finally Barstow before his last transfer put him on a short ride to the city of angels. On the schedules it looked great, avoiding the major damage and delayed areas but as he glares at the time board it was clear he wasn’t the only one to think this. 

(June 9) Like he suspected other trains took this detour to get around bottlenecks but added traffic to those lines. Stops for right of way or to let a faster freight train pass were often. He got to see the evening skyline of St Louis for a short one hour layover before moving on. He retired to his sleeper regretting that he would sleep through Kansas City and not even get a chance to see a cattle drive or holding pens for the thousands of cows being sold there. He was awakened around 5 in the morning by the brakes of the train being put on and inertia slowly sliding him headfirst into the sleeper’s wall. He peeked his head out to see a conductor stomping down the hallway. Stopping before he heard the question he knew what Nara would ask so he answered it

"Train ahead of us threw a wheel truck, big mess, wool all over the place. It will take hours to clear the track but the nearest town is only a mile and half away and we will stop there to pick up if you choose to walk there."

Thinking that was a fine idea he nodded and the conductor made a note in a small pocket notebook so they would look for him at the stop. Hopping off the train he started walking West but not before noting the lighter grey of the Eastern sky. The days were getting to their longest point quickly and even now its beginning to show the approach of dawn. Walking along he caught some slower moving passengers and was overtaken by some who were in more of a hurry than him always adjusting speed for some polite good mornings and other small talk before drifting apart again. He was catching up to a trio of men who were leaving the faint scent of whiskey in their wake and Nara’s mouth watered. Prohibition had ended in 33 but it wasn’t like before. The opinion and view of public drunkenness changed forever with it and it wasn’t like you could find a drink on every corner. Nonetheless Nara decided he wanted to find one soon. When he almost overtook the trio, it became clear they were not first-class passengers, they didn’t even have a ticket. These guys were hobos who most likely had a rude awakening in their bed of wool bundles. He had heard of the underground travelers of rails and met a few. There were always the warnings that they were rough folk and sometimes disagreeable and not friendly to outsiders. "They say the same about the mafia" Nara thought. 

"Hey friend, got any cigarettes?" one asked and all three gave him a look when he pulled his case out accompanied by the jingle of coins. His street smarts told him they just sized him up and found him to be tougher than some traveling businessman and possibly armed so they decided not to roll him. Good thing too he thought, or id have to wack them. The heavy lump that was his pistol in its shoulder holster didn’t feel so cumbersome to always have then. Puffing away and talking loudly by habit the men all introduced themselves in ludicrously fake names. He chuckled giving his real name he knew that part of the hobo life was not trusting anyone. Men were employed by rail yards to keep hoboes out and were called "Bulls" they had a lot of liberty in how they kept the order, so it attracted the type of men who enjoy hurting others. It would not be uncommon for a Bull to dress like a hobo and try and get into a group then be led to the local camp. Just as he thought this, they rounded a bend in the line and a "Hooverville" appeared. Ramshackle shacks made out of whatever could be salvaged they had been popping up all over for years, named after old president Hoover they were possibly the most physical testimony to the great depression. People who lost their jobs, homes, farms, everything did what they could to keep out of the elements and most were mobile moving west where it was said there was some more work. 

"Basil P Honeycut" Invited him to join them for a drink at a fire and was surprised to see him accept. Over the following few hours he got to know the trio he came in with as well as a few men from the camp, all with a story to tell. 

Basil ran away from home at age twelve when he knocked his father out for beating his mother in another drunken rage. Giving him a severe concussion, the police tried to arrest him. He met "Uncle Dave" when a bull beat him nearly to death and tossed him off the moving  train. Dave nursed him to health and taught him the hobo life. They clearly had more than a friendly relationship even if it was taboo. "Bub the stub" had lost a foot riding rails and had been doing it for over 20 years, he forgot why he did in the first place. 

Milton, Charles, and Caedmon Shively were 3 brothers from Kansas. They had all lost farms in the dust bowl but now were about to lose their lives if they didn’t get out of that dusty air. They had packed up two farm trucks with everything they could and their families including old Gramma and some close cousins. They were heading to California where they were told there was farm work. It was not hard to see their desperation and hope that its true because they had nothing to go back to nor means to go anywhere else. There was troubling news that not only were there too many workers for the work there already but that some parts of California were setting up stops at the border and turning away folks who didn’t have any money or way to show they could support themselves. If he had met them at home, he may have probed them. Got to know them and if any were suited to his life, there was always work in the mob for the right kind of men. He took an opportunity to slip unnoticed one of the $20 gold liberties into Charles pack hoping it would help. 

Just like that one fellow he had not yet met but the others called Woody picked up his guitar and sang 

"Now, the police at the port of entry say
You're number fourteen thousand for today

Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi

(Do Re Mi by Woody Guthrie would be recorded a year later)

Suddenly he hears a train whistle and his thoughts are snapped back to attention. That’s his train moving, approaching fast, they would be looking for him in town but that’s still a mile away and who knows how long they would wait. His bags were in his sleeper. Leaping to his feet he smiles at the group.

"Thank you gentlemen for a lovely time, please allow me to buy you a round" and flipping one of his $20 liberties in their direction he created a rugby style pile before Basil came up with it smiling

"Thank you Mr Nara and pleasure making your acquaintance, look here boys he spent a morning with hobos and thinks he knows how to catch a train" 

Running to the tracks as the train rolled into view he smiled. He hadn’t done it since back home in Armenia, but it was by far not the first time he hopped a moving train. His heart racing and adrenaline pumping, for its not without risk and one slip could cost you a leg or even your life. He spots his target, the step and handrail of his car Reaching out then with a tug and hop he was standing on the steps, and face to face with a huge brute of a brakeman frowning at him with angry little pig eyes. 

"Ticket please" he said with a mean grimace his hand dropping to his belt and the club swinging from it. Nara reaches into his jacket making the man flinch and step back thinking he was going to fight then he saw the ticket envelope in his hand. 

"Thank you, sir enjoy, your trip" He said with a smile. Just then was the lurch and sounds a train makes when it stops accelerating and begins to slow for a stop. "Syracuse Kansas this is an unscheduled stop you may step off the train if you wish but please do not wander out of sight we will be departing shortly" The conductor tipped his hat and proceeded down the hallway to let the other passengers know. 

Shortly after that the shouts of "all aboard" rang out accompanied by whistles and they were off again. He had his lunch in the dining car around the time they passed into Colorado and spent a lazy afternoon admiring the mountains from the observation car. He had small talk with several other passengers but none who got into a real chat He noticed he had drifted off to sleep rocked by the train when a conductor called out dinner was being served. He had a nice steak and potato alone; the train was getting very light on passengers at this late stage of its route. Returning to the sleeper he had a cigarette and read his papers. He frowned in regret when they announced the stop for Williams. From there one could take a train North to the Grand Canyon. He had wanted to spend a day there but decided he could not spare it. The call they were arriving in Barstow came almost at midnight. 

(June 10) 

To Nara’s dismay he missed his connection and another train would not depart until 9am. He slept on an uncomfortable bench getting up around 7 and having breakfast at a small diner near the station called "Velma’s" He got to meet Velma, a 45-year-old veteran of the great war. Yes, she said with pride and pulling up her skirt he shows him a bullet hole surrounded by blue spider veins that crisscross her wrinkled thigh. "Tho being a nurse who caught a stray shot didn’t get me any medals" Revenant smiled thinking how much she enjoys shocking everyone with this story and display of no modesty when it came to her legs. His hearty breakfast arrived, a Denver omelet.
"What else would be on special in Colorado for breakfast?" Velma had said with a laugh.

Thanking her and tearing into it he paid his $0.35 bill laying a $20 liberty on top of the tab check he left and checked into the station. 
"I’m sorry Mr Imhaya but the 9am train is full. We won’t have another till tonight but there are seats on that." The station manager says. Buying a ticket for that train he wanders the town with nothing to do till he sees a cinema. 

"Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" was on the marquee. Buying a ticket, he enjoyed every moment, the surreal animation a welcome escape from reality. He had been shaken apart from days of rail travel and still felt like the ground was moving under him. Grabbing a quick lunch at another diner he goes back to watch it again. Whistling "HI HO" as he walks down the street he stops into a tavern. They have a small menu and he gets a cheeseburger and chips (fries they call them here). He has several very tasty Pilsner beers from the local Coors brewery. Walking a bit tipsy back to the station he finds out the train is running late. He mills about for a couple hours. 

(June 11)

Just past midnight and he’s wondering if he should wait longer or get a room or wait. Suddenly a man enters and attracted his attention. He had walked to the counter and asked something he didn’t like the answer to then with a sigh turned round to walk tward the benches  Nara was sitting at. Its then that he recognized him, from a lecture he caught earlier that year about a book called "Of Mice and Men" and he stood up just as the man reached him and put out his hand in greeting. 
"Hello friend, I’m John" he said with a smile
"Yes Sir I think we've met, your John Steinbeck right? I’m Nara, Nara Imhaya" he stammered nervously.
With a broad grin the author said "That’s me. Don’t believe everything they say about me. It’s a pleasure and if you know my works then I’ll have great company on this trip." He’s interrupted by a train whistle "Which seems like it may finally begin"

Naras mood just improved thousand-fold