This train travels the longest stretch of railroad track on earth without a turn — 299 miles. There’s a bank car, theater car, grocery store car, a car filled with doctor’s offices, one that has a chapel. Sixty train cars. A mile long. Most do not have a passage way between them, so people who work in one seldom see those who work in another. The “Tea and Sugar” meanders more than a thousand miles across South Australia, stopping whenever someone waves it down. Its arrival in remote places is the social event of the week. All the families linger for hours buying impulsively, trying to extend the moment when there is laughter and community.
- Carrying Home in his HeartFor 93 years Beltran Paris has carried his home in his heart. He is the last of the old time mountain men who came from from France and Spain to take a job few people wanted. You can find him behind a moving white blanket of sheep. He still walks them 150 miles to winter pasture. In all those hours alone, Beltran Paris set a plan. He took his pay in sheep. One day, he hoped his children and his children’s children would own the valley where he walked. They do — Butte Valley, Nevada.
- Keeping Kids Out of PrisonDetective Dick Dutrow has had to arrest children as young as 11. He worries less about catching them than keeping them out of prison. When all else fails, he will raise a troubled boy himself. He took in 35 foster children in the 15 years. Most went to college. Married and now have children of their own. None went to prison.
- Longest School TripIf you could take Alaska and lay it over the lower 48 states, one side would touch Florida, the other California. It’s distances are so vast, travel budgets for high school sports teams can run 100-thousand dollars a year. Arch rivals often live a thousand miles away. Any high school kid who wants to perform or play music must first — learn how to pack.
- American Families We Used to Hear AboutUnder a cotton puff sky, I met the kind of family America used to know. Wading through the wheat fields came Roger and David and their nephew Jay. Their dads work on the oil rigs. So do four older brothers — 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. They live in a home their parents bought two decades ago for $140., a home their parents rebuilt in the quiet of their evenings.
- Rescuing the RescuersThe wind can sound like Hell’s idea of music in the north Atlantic. Blizzards blow in biblical proportions; one of them taught Lanier Phillips a great lesson. Caring can come from unexpected places.
