I took the train from central Illinois to a small town in eastern Colorado. It was about a twenty-hour journey. Although I’m pretty sure that I’ll never make this particular trip again, I don’t regret it at all. I love traveling abroad because I love to experience new things, learn about history and culture, about how other people live and, of course, eat. I don’t think of small town USA when I think about these endeavors. But I did learn and experience some things while traversing the heartland of the old U. S. of A. that I’d like to share.

Scenic, But U.S. Train Travel Sucks

There’s something unique about traveling via train. Maybe it’s seeing mile after mile of land roll by. Or seeing the mist roll across acres of farmland as the sun rises. Perhaps it’s seeing one small town after another, lonely and often decrepit, open up before me and then fall away. For me it makes the earth feel so large and expansive, but also so small, made up of tiny enclaves.

While the views may cause you to get sentimental and introspective, the train ride itself definitely will not! Our train route included a connection in Kansas City, MO. The first train heading out of Illinois was new; new seats (although not very comfortable because they don’t move), upgraded power strips, new dining car, larger bathrooms. The train taking us from KC to Colorado was old. There were a lot of sleeper cars, so these trains had a lot of upstairs seating. It was old, dirty, forlorn, and stinky (both ways…I don’t think they have figured out the bathroom plumbing on these trains).

And, to top it all off, the trains always run late. Both ways we were supposed to have a two-hour layover in KC, but ended up getting there and getting right on the connecting train because it was late. All this to say, riding the train across the U.S. is not desirable. It’s not even cheap. We rode coach. A lot of people recommended that we get a sleeper car, but that would have cost over a grand. Privacy withstanding, I just don’t think that would have been worth it. We took the train because my mom and sister wanted to have that experience. Maybe my mom was thinking about the movies North by Northwest or Some Like it Hot, but quickly learned that Amtrak is not that. Train travel in the United States sucks!

U.S. History Makes Me Sad

I loved passing through cities like St. Louis and Kansas just to get a peek of how other cities look. But on the train there were several things that made me think about how sad U.S. history can be. When we passed through Topeka, Kansas of course the first thing that comes to my mind is Brown vs. Board of Education [of Topeka]. It’s the landmark case that ruled in 1954 that separate schools for blacks and whites was unconstitutional. Oh, the U.S. and its eternal struggle with racism.

Then seeing so many lonely towns along the way made me sad. Many of them once had factories and industries where they could thrive and folks could make a good living. But today, what’s left is a bunch of rusty grain silos, dilapidated barns, and abandoned factories. Small towns whose downtown is like a ghost town. Yes, the world has moved on, and yay for progress, but it can be a bit sad to see the shell of something that was alive.

The last slice of American history that got me thinking was the Dust Bowl. Actually, the town we visited in Colorado was right in the heart of the area hit by the dust bowl (which I had no idea until our hosts told us so). This town was dry and brown; the earth was like sand when you stepped on it. And there really wasn’t anything in the town except your usual fast food restaurants, and of course, a Walmart. The Dust Bowl was a period in the 1930s where, due to drought and over-farming, thousands of poor families that could not cultivate anything abandoned their land. The fields suffered heavy wind erosion, causing massive dust storms. This exodus has clearly left its mark.

What to Say About Culture in the Heartlands?

The highlight of this trip was definitely the people. I can’t point to any unique or remarkable foods I ate, nor any interesting cultural revelations. American culture, or rather what people think of as American culture (white culture) is generally pretty bland, and marked with an undertone of racism.

But I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness, the generosity, and the openness of the people we encountered in this tiny part of the country. I appreciated our gracious hosts, who went out of their way to make us feel welcome and showered us with handmade gifts. I was happy when we met their friends and family in the community, who showed the same warmth towards us.

And to the random scrappy gas station attendant that ended up telling me a good chunk of her life story just because she took my question “how are you” as an invitation to be real and tell me how she really was, and to the folks working at the La Junta Hampton Inn (shot out to this hotel btw, it was clean, great staff, and the breakfast was on point), it was a breath of fresh air to experience that small-town niceness.

So maybe that’s all I need to say. You can learn from anything. Every experience can hold something valuable. Taking this train ride to middle of nowhere U.S.A. may not have been my ideal trip, but I got the chance to reflect on the history of this country, and to get a sense of a different slice of life. And I appreciate that.