I have always been a sucker <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For deserted railway lines\/tracks <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether here in the UK <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or in the USA <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just before the pandemic <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Josie and I drove across <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Texas Panhandle <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just for the experience <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We both thought it would be vast <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But were quickly suffocated <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the nothingness <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not like anything <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That we had ever experienced <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although we were staying in motels <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(One of which thought Josie was a boy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We did hang out in Happy Texas <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(The Town Without a Frown)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was named after a stream <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By passing cowboys who were happy to find water<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What took my fancy were the huge grain elevators <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing next to the endless railroad tracks <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which stretched into infinity in both directions <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can remember walking around the town <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With Josie and not seeing anybody <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nobody smiled nobody frowned nothing <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of people in passing cars waved to us <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Possibly because we were strangers in town <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or maybe because we were identical in appearance <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An odd pair (obviously visitors) in a near empty town <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In all we spent about three hours there just exploring<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was hoping that a train might pass through<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just for the photographs but nothing broke the silence <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole area made a big impression on us both <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still have a number of small jars on my study shelf<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which contain samples of the panhandle dusts <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This apart from our memories was all that we retained <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe & Josie <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have always been a sucker For deserted railway lines\/tracks Whether here in the UK Or in the USA Just before the pandemic Josie and I drove across The Texas Panhandle Just for the experience We both thought it would be vast But were quickly suffocated By the nothingness It was not like anything That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31581"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31590,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31581\/revisions\/31590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}