Therapy Gecko – “I TRAIN HOPPED AMERICA FOR 12 YEARS”

Podcast: Therapy Gecko (iHeartPodcasts)
Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Lyle (Therapy Gecko)
Guest: Steve ("Trip Trap Tramp Trash")

Episode Overview

In this deeply personal and captivating conversation, Therapy Gecko host Lyle talks to Steve, who spent 12 years hitchhiking, hopping freight trains, and living nomadically across the United States and Canada. Steve’s story spans a strict and difficult childhood, total self-reinvention on the road, brushes with danger and kindness, and eventually settling down as a father determined to break the cycles of his own upbringing. This episode is a raw, unsparing, and ultimately hopeful look at the resilience, challenges, and growth that come from living far outside society’s margins.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life Off the Grid: Why and How It Began

[03:12 – 12:05]

• Family Background: Steve describes a harsh, unaffectionate upbringing with strict, evangelical Christian parents and an alcoholic, military father who didn’t distinguish between drill sergeant and father at home. He felt unwelcome, unloved, and stifled.
  • "I left home when I was 16, you know, but I started running away when I was probably 12, 13 years old..." — Steve [08:14]
• First Escapes: Reading wilderness survival books, he’d run away to the woods, under bridges, stealing food and foraging—quickly learning real life was harsher than fiction.
• The Final Break: At 16, his parents, then stationed in Japan, gave him a one-way plane ticket to LAX, some clothes, and $20 (secretly from his mom). No ID, no social security card, no support.

2. Early Survival & Community Encounters

[12:05 – 23:46]

• Landing on Skid Row: On arrival in LA, Steve ended up wandering Skid Row with a stranger he’d just met, witnessing extreme poverty and drug abuse. A chance encounter with a crack addict saved him from trying hard drugs for the first time.
  • "I remember, I was like, hey, can I have...he was like, have you ever smoked this before? And I said, nope. And he said, then you're not gonna do it." — Steve [14:28]
• First Escape Hatches: A high school acquaintance took him in for a year, then boredom and a Facebook ad for a 4/20 festival in Denver led to a cross-country Greyhound. On the way, he fell in with a group of Juggalos, observed a kinship with Deadhead/hippie transient culture, and slept under their kitchen table.
• Spiraling Jobs: He found good, under-the-table work (tree service), lost it all due to drugs and chaos of roommates, and despite making “more money than ever,” wound up broke and homeless again.
  • "I really wish I had saved more money...I never had a reference for the money like that." — Steve [22:07]
• Drawn to Freedom: He envied “dirty kids” (nomadic park dwellers with nothing, but visibly happy), eventually joining them after job/apartment loss.

3. Growing Into a True Nomad: Hitchhiking & Rainbow Gatherings

[23:46 – 34:11]

• Drifting West: He drifted from Denver to San Francisco (first long hitchhike, sleeping rough at first), quickly disillusioned by the city—“cold, very damp, very harsh.”
• Seasonal and Survivalist Work: Jobs included gem show labor in Tucson, potato & beet harvests, farm work, and (especially) hand-trimming marijuana for months on end—work found simply by meeting people in parking lots.
  • "You just hang out outside Home Depot...eventually someone will pick you up..." — Steve [30:32]
• Rainbow Gatherings: He found community and skill-sharing at these countercultural, off-grid festivals across America, learning survival, cooperation, and the philosophy of “leaving Babylon.”

4. Train-Hopping Subculture (The Heart of His Adventure)

[34:11 – 47:46]

• First Train Ride: When theft and night dangers became relentless, Steve got a dog for protection and was invited by train-hoppers (“Scruffleupagus” and “Mama Red”) to ride freight out of Colorado.
  • "Hopping my first train was one of the most terrifying things I've ever done." — Steve [41:36]
  • Vivid account of hiding from rail workers at night, heart pounding as lights pass over him but he’s not seen, then the exhilarating launch into the unknown.
• Adrenalin & Mastery: Years later, the unpredictability faded—he learned how to read trains, when to hide or run, until it simply “felt like calling a taxi.”
• A Community of Outsiders: Learned social hierarchies—train-hoppers, hitchhikers, “home bums,” and nuances of street/nomad survival, and the importance (and difficulty) of trust in the outcast world.

5. Harsh Realities & Survival

[47:46 – 53:05]

• Risk and Mortality: Steve details dangers—robbery, getting cut off by a train, jail, extreme loneliness, and close calls (e.g., nearly dying of dehydration, hallucinating in 100+ degree heat, saved only when train workers found him).
  • "If you're scared to go to jail, don't ride trains. Because that's not the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing that happens is you fucking die." — Steve [106:03]
• Losing Companions: Most of his traveling peers (from drink, drugs, train accidents, prison) didn’t survive.
  • "Almost everybody that I knew is dead, like, from alcoholism or fentanyl or they're in prison or they got cut in half by a train..." — Steve [71:38]
• Canada Adventure: Made an epic run with his second dog (“Orion”) from Vermont to Vancouver, dodging Mounties, sans-ID, considering it his proudest achievement.

6. Transition: Becoming a Father & Breaking the Cycle

[53:05 – 65:59][58:40+]

• Meeting His Partner: Connected with his girlfriend (another former traveler) via Instagram, united by the question, “Ever ride trains?” Lived inside a hollow bridge; became pregnant while still homeless.
  • "We live in a wall. We eat garbage. I shower once a month. I'm like, you cannot be parents." — Steve [58:40]
• Reluctance, Growth, Return: Initially left after meeting his newborn, not feeling “ready” or able to be present. Eventually, a Reddit benefactor family in Sacramento brought him in, offering unconditional love and a transition to living inside—“They showed me more love than my own family ever had.”
• Reunion: Eventually returned to be with his partner and daughter, living through poverty in North Carolina then settling in Oregon, working at a beachside resort, learning to find value in a stable life.

7. Healing, Reflection, and Hopes

[66:08 – end]

• Breaking Generational Trauma: Steve reflects on confronting his father, refusing to accept cycle-of-abuse excuses, and consciously raising his daughter differently—treating her and his partner as individuals, not property.
  • "I treat my girlfriend and my daughter like they're their own individual people…your parents were supposed to make it easier on the next generation." — Steve [87:53]
• Vulnerabilities: Talks openly about lifelong low self-esteem, PTSD, worries about “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” and fears of failing his daughter—but is proud of showing up and being present, even with little material wealth.
• Advice to Others: Encourages others to persevere through darkness, underscores how change is possible (“You’ve just gotta keep going”). Expresses awe that “every day since then is extra” after coming so close to death.

8. Listener Questions and Practicalities of Train-Hopping

[100:10+]

• Favorite States: Top three are Colorado, Montana, and Oregon for natural beauty and open-hearted locals.
• Scariest Incidents: Beyond jail and near-train-cuts, the worst was nearly dying of dehydration—“auditory and visual hallucinations,” rescued by railroad workers after days in the desert.
• Getting Started: Strong warning not to try hopping trains via YouTube—find an experienced rider or community (via Rainbow Gatherings, gem shows) and apprentice to avoid fatal mistakes and understand subculture complexities.

Memorable Quotes

• “I had no idea. I just knew that whatever was out there had to be better than where I was at.” — Steve, on leaving home at 16 [11:42]
• “Sleeping was the most dangerous part…people out scheming at night… I got tired of waking up with no shoes, waking up with no backpack. So I got my first dog.” — Steve [34:28]
• “That first train ride was just, like, exhilarating… as soon as I did, I was like, I am gonna do more of this.” — Steve [43:28]
• “I just thought that was always my life…my self-worth was so little, like, I thought that's always what my life was supposed to be.” — Steve, on living outside [63:13]
• “You only get this one life, so, like, just live it, because then it’s over. You just live it like you got this one chance.” — Steve [123:15]
• “You're breaking the cycle because you're fucking there for your daughter ... whether or not regardless of whatever material resources you know, do or don't have ... you're there, man. You're there, and you care and you love her.” — Lyle [80:58]
• "It's a good adventure, but it's not a good life. ... it's unsustainable to live like that. ... I think everyone should, you know, maybe hitchhike a thousand miles ... but I don't think it's a good ... it's not a good life." — Steve [70:15]

Timeline & Timestamps for Key Segments

• Leaving Home and First Steps Alone: [03:12 – 12:05]
• Skid Row / Early Survival: [12:05 – 18:37]
• Hitchhiking to Community / Crossover to Train World: [18:37 – 34:11]
• First Train Ride Detailed: [41:36 – 47:46]
• Close Calls, PTSD, and Dark Side of Survival: [106:03 – 112:27]
• Advice for Aspiring Trainhoppers: [113:11 – 118:26]
• Parenthood and Self-Reflection: [58:40 – 87:53]
• Listener Q&A (favorite states, scariest moments, train-hopping advice): [100:10 – 118:26]
• Concluding Thoughts (Hope, Healing, and Contact info): [119:03 – end]

Notable Moments

• Steve’s story about nearly dying of dehydration on a stranded coal train ([106:03]) is a razor-sharp, harrowing example of the risks involved in unplugged travel.
• Lyle’s affirming speech—acknowledging Steve for breaking his family’s cycle of neglect and violence; a deeply emotional, supportive moment ([80:58]).
• Steve’s candidly self-aware reflections on healing, parental love, and generational cycles: “You’re not supposed to make it harder on the next generation because it was hard for you and it was hard for your dad. That’s just going nowhere." ([87:53])

Contact & Follow-Up

• Steve does not use social media anymore for mental health, but is open to email correspondence:
  triptraptramptrash@gmail.com ([121:13])

Closing Thoughts

This episode is a testament to human resilience, the scars—and healing—of trauma, and the power of breaking generational cycles. It paints a vivid, nuanced portrait of America’s underground nomadic cultures, both their dangers and their strange beauty. Steve’s story is riveting, sometimes brutal, and ultimately hopeful: a man who, against the odds, chooses connection, family, and presence, daring to believe he can offer his daughter a better life than he had.

Essential Listening For: Anyone fascinated by American subcultures, survival stories, inherited trauma, or simply rooting for a story of redemption and hard-won hope.

“Even if you can't see it, there's light at the end of the tunnel... just because you can't see it now doesn't mean it's not there.” — Steve [122:50]