Had an uncle (actually, my mother's second cousin - but he was much older so we called him uncle) that would stop by our house as he came in from ramblin round the globe.

He told the most amazing tales. Some of my favorites were about his hoboing days (ran away from the chores at home at age twelve and did not return until he was 15) The stories included riding the rods on a board stretched under the cars....cooking in the Arizona heat while trapped three days in the uppper ice section in the roof of a box car....and being frozen, roasted, and pelted by cinder rock as he rode beneath the cowcatcher of a night frieght.