Mile zero in St. John’s begins at the old Railway station. There are no trains in Newfoundland, the rail tracks were ripped out and the rail cars were sold in 1988, 90 years after it was built. So I follow the ghosts of the rail on this first leg of the trail. Leaving St. John’s the trail was nice grey gravel but that ended on day 2. Now I
travel on loose red rail rock. The railway was replaced by a highway, like many decisions, it was cost effective and efficient. But it fragmented a sense of community.
With boats and trains people gathered to pick up supplies at their dock or train station. The car gave us the freedom to be more independent;it made us more individualistic. I mentioned in my first blog that we used to live in a society and now we live in an economy. There are many reasons to reflect on for this shift, today I pondered about how we travel being one of them.