Hell On Wheels

     For those of you who know me, I’ve been married for a long time (33 ½ years to be exact although sometimes it doesn’t seem that long….other times…well, you know) and I have to admit this (Shhh! Don’t tell my DH), not only do I love my husband, but I like him, too. If we weren’t married, we’d still be friends.

But I digress. He was off visiting friends out of state earlier this week and he had a great time.

       And I missed him. It was very quiet here with just me and the dogs (my DH can talk a blue streak….sometimes, there’s just no shutting him up…ask anyone who knows him).

           So what did I do with myself while he was away? For one thing, I indulged my passion for both history and westerns last Friday and Saturday. AMC ran a marathon of Hell On Wheels before the season premiere on Saturday night. This is a fabulous series about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad (some of it is based in fact. Other things? Not so much). Still, it’s a great series and I’ve been watching it from the beginning. There are characters based on the real life people I’ve done so much research on (railroad barons like Collis Huntington and Charles Durant) and the phrase, “Hell on Wheels”, which I knew from my research, was used to describe the collection of gambling houses, dance halls, saloons and brothels that followed the rail workers as they built the railroad across North America. This show depicts it exactly as I’ve always seen it in my head.

            Did I watch it? You bet. As much as I could. There’s something about this period in history that draws me (and I’ve always had a deep fascination for trains!).

            If you have the chance and you love history (as well as westerns), watch an episode or two of Hell on Wheels. You’ll be hooked!

 As always, happy reading (and watching)!

Marie