El Paso, Texas
Kerouac was crossing El Paso on a few trips, one of them told about in The Dharma Bums. In chapter 1 he talks about the ‘long cheap bus trip’ from Mexico City leading him through Mexico to the border at El Paso. By that time he is on a freight train headed for San Francisco. Quite rightly Kerouac is describing his world as a ‘triangular arc of New York to Mexico City to San Francisco’.
El Paso is also mentioned in On The Road where the trip from Houston mentioned in my previous blog post (see http://wp.me/p1GcOs-jR) is described.
The following photos were taken on a trip I undertook onboard the Sunset Limited train (going the other direction) from Tucson, AZ to San Antonio, TX.
Retracing Jack Kerouac 
I was recently in Dallas, thinking about the time Kerouac spent in El Paso. Coming from the East Coast, it’s fascinating to see the different landscape.