Hoppin' trains

I got stuck at a railroad crossing today, kind of in the middle of the hood. I had biked myself into a spot where it was gonna be a real pain in the ass to ride all the way around, so I just waited. The train didn't budge an inch in 5 minutes. I'm a bit nervous about going under trains or in between cars. With a bike it was a definite no. There was no way I was going to sit in between and try some one handed Tarzan move to get my bike through. After stranding around admiring the graffiti on the cars and watching the tad poles in the water of the little muck pond, a shady lookin' guy approached, and was walking like he wasn't gonna let the train get in his way. I called out "you going over or under?" "Over" he said, "you want some help with the bike? I'll go over and you hand it to me." Despite his lack of teeth and that sinking feeling that this guy might make a break for it with my bike, I was now overwhelmed with camaraderie. We followed through with his plan, me being careful not to fully let go of the bike until I was well on my way through. I made some small talk about keeping fingers out of the cracks. I think it helps to discuss things like losing fingers in train couplings. What are the odds that you talk about it, and then it actually happens? Mighty slim I say. Anyhow, once on the other side I thanked him and asked him if I could take a picture of him with my bike in front of the train. I explained it was for a "story" I was doing. I said "story" suspecting that this guy wasn't altogether down with blogs. "What's this gonna be in?" he said. "Just on the internet" I replied. He looked thoroughly disgusted, said "no way, man." and walked on. I imagine he assumed there was something totally reprehensible that could be done with his photo, just because it was on the web. I gave him another thanks for the help, and headed on my way and scored a few big bolts outside the old Piggly wiggly.