Twenty-Three

            Anyways we finally left Oklahoma and headed fro Texas. There was supposed to be a good HoBo Jungle near Amarillo, Texas. I was on a through freight with around thirty or forty cars. There was three engines. They had one on each end and one in the middle. It sure was a dirty hot ride and the trains was covered with HoBos. There must of been seventy-five or eighty fellows on it.

            The train pulled off to the siding one day to wait for another to train to pass from the other direction. Had an hour wait so we all got off and went a ways off to the side and sat down to wait. Soon we saw a fellow come from the caboose and come walking up along the train. We soon seen he was a detective and he stopped and just stood there. He was gonna keep us off and leave us stranded.

            So, there was word passed down through the fellows to try anyways. Soon the freight came by we were waiting for and our train started to move. We all started to run for the train. It sounded like a herd of cattle taking off.

            Anyways, he got two fellows and the rest of us got on but when the caboose came by him he had to get on himself so the two he had got away and was left there. They just waited for the next train to use the siding.

            It was hot and dusty and the smoke from the engines made it a dirty ride. The country was land with no trees for miles and miles. A few cactuses scattered around. I could sometimes see mountains off in the distance. Looked like they were thirty-five or forty miles away. Once in a while there was cowboys driving cattle. I thought they must of lived and slept out there as there was only a small one room shack once in a while. Once I did see a pair of coyotes and a lot of horned toads or lizards. There was plenty of rattlesnakes too in that hot dry country. I help to break some cactus plants. There was some water in it but the kind we had was kind of bitter and I couldn't drink much. There was a day now and then while crossing Texas and Arizona that I didn't stop or get anything to eat. The little towns was few and far between the way the trains traveled.

            There wasn't much to do except just side and ride, ride, ride. We slept in the empty box cars on the train. I never thought there were so many miles of flat level country and never believed or dreamed it could be so, so hot.

            We managed to get off a few minutes when the trains stopped for water. Once they changed train crews. They went only so far then when a train came from the other direction they changed with that crew and come back to start over again.

            When we did get to Amarillo ti was a pretty big city but no HoBo Jungle no were as there was no big stream or river near the town. We found out it was near a small town called Canyon about eight or ten miles south of the city so we caught a local freight the next day and made it ok.It was pretty good but nothing like the one we left behind.
             Anyways, we spent two days there. The people around there was nice We helped them when we could and we ended up with a lot of vegetables and bread then got together with others and made up a pretty good meal. Then we had this small river to get cleaned up and wash some clothes. Met some new fellows and different tales of the road. Then we decided to keep going south to Fort Worth, Dallas, and clear to the southern part of the state to Houston. That took a week of riding but we did find more good HoBo Jungles.