There’s just something about bridges that send my imagination into overdrive.
Absolutely nothing in the woods will lift my spirits more than coming upon a wooden bridge.
Or sailing across an old railroad trestle on a rail-trail.
Oh, sure, the creek or river or ravine the bridge transverses might be a spectacular view, but it’s the prelude — the bridge — that gets the credit in my mind.
I’ve mentioned before how rail-trails take me on magical journeys as I get lost in the spirits of adventure that saturate the zone.
Trains have a place in my family history. When one side of my family arrived by ship in Nova Scotia, they boarded a train to Yuma, Colorado and homesteaded there.
One of my great uncles wrote that he and his brothers would sometimes hitch a free ride to the big city on the cowcatcher up front. He noted how big moth lit up by the engine’s headlight could be particularly terrifying. I guess fear levels are relative. That is, riding in a cowcatcher ain’t scary enough for ya?
We recently made another visit to the Weiser River Trail in Idaho, its 84 miles offering an enlightening trip from high desert prairie to mountain forests, or vice-versa.
As I roll into any town and see remnants of its old train station, I think about my favorite story in my family heritage.
I can imagine a train rumbling into a town during World War I, carrying troops from the heartland to the coasts where they would embark on deployments across the pond.
When one such train rolled into Paris, Kentucky, my grandmother and a girlfriend went down to the station to give the boys a hearty Hip Hip Hurrah send off.
Grandma’s friend spotted a handsome soldier on the train, and sent a young boy to get his name so she could send him letters.
When the boy asked my grandpa for his name, he said he would only give it if the boy promised to give it my grandma, not her friend.
She wrote letters. He fought. They eventually married.
Oh, the stories rails could tell.
This week’s question: Do you ever get caught up in fantasy on a ride? If so, give us your best story.
