The Crowbar Hotel

D. C. Jesse Burkhardt, who introduced a new genre of travel-adventure with 2007's "Travelogue From an Unruly Youth" (winner of the Washington Press Association award in the best books/non-fiction category) returns to blaze a trail across Canada in a two-fisted sequel, "The Crowbar Hotel: By Freight Train Across Canada." "The Crowbar Hotel" is a "unique travel-adventure that details an unusual expedition through Canada in 1979, as well as a glimpse into the hidden world of illicit transportation via freight trains," Burkhardt explained in the book s introduction. "The Crowbar Hotel explores what it means to aim yourself toward a chosen horizon and vowing to get there, despite obstacles and hardships and despite encounters with police who threatened us with deportation." Burkhardt traveled from Victoria, British Columbia, to Toronto, Ontario, then returned to the West Coast through the Midwest heartland of America ~ Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota; riding on historic carriers such as the Rock Island, Milwaukee Road, and the Ann Arbor Railroad. The new book, proudly printed in the U.S.A., includes a series of maps drawn by the author, as well as 35 photos taken during Burkhardt's travels. "Crowbar is a wild guidebook to a time when we traveled without paying attention to signs or maps or rules," Burkhardt said. "We moved on instinct and faith. Freighting through Canada was truly another world, and it was a world of mystery and magic."