america from the otherside of the tracks by Michael Allen Feistel

This is a remarkable true story. In the 1970s, Mike Feistel took to the rails and traveled across America. During his travels, he crossed paths with a fifteen year old homeless boy, Curtis, who had been thrown out of his mother’s home by her abusive, alcoholic boyfriend. When Mike and Curtis cross paths at the rescue mission in Yakima, Washington, Curtis pleads with Mike to help him get back to his father’s house in Dallas, Texas.But Mike didn’t want to take on the responsibility of traveling across the nation by freight train with a fifteen year old kid. He had his own life to live, and his own plans. However, after hearing a convicting sermon delivered by the ‘preacher man’ at the mandatory church service that evening, Mike had a change of heart – and decided to take the kid under his wing. The next morning they departed from the Yakima switchyard on a freight train, headed across America toward Dallas, Texas.

Thus began Curtis’s amazing homeward journey, under the guidance and care of Mike. It would be a journey neither of them would ever forget.