Nostalgia & History > Philosophical nostalgia, on two wheels

I just came home from a trip to western Michigan (where I grew up), where I was able to make my annual bike trip on the Hart-Montague trail. I remember when there were tracks here, which I would encounter running parallel to the old highway in places, or at grade crossings. So, when I ride my bike along this roadbed, is it nostalgia, or just wistful imagination to wish I\'d been lucky enough to do this on a train? There is one stretch along here that is so remote and scenic that I consider it one of my four or five "hallowed ground" spots.

There\'s another trail nearby, which I think is now paved, from east of Muskegon to west of Grand Rapids. I was privileged to have ridden GTW trains over this line on a few occasions, so I guess a bike trip on that trail would be nostalgic, if I saw things I remembered, right?

I guess if you long for it, it is nostalgia. There\'s a bike trail that goies thru my town. I usally travel to work on it. It\'s an old ex-NYC branch and sometimes I think it was neat that my great grandpa Foamer, was a conductor of the local frieght that ran on that line time to time. And sometimes I go back in time and think about NYC 2-8-2 (or a geep) and a Wood caboose that usally were on it. Here\'s a photo of him he\'s the one standing.

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