Hobo Confessions

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One popular character in American storytelling is the drifter: the man who toes the line somewhere between "normal society" and a place a little more wild, a little more down and out. Remember John Wayne in "The Searchers?"-not really fitting into mainstream society, yet not really fitting in anywhere else, either. Or Kerouac's Dean Moriarty and Ellison's Invisible Man. How many times have you been sitting at your desk, or in your car, stuck in traffic and thought, "What if I just took the next exit and turned right? What then?"

Well, meet a guy who did just that. Chris Francis is known more often as "Short Stop." He's 24 years old, and living the life of a modern-day hobo. He's been riding the rails, stowing away in boxcars, full-time, for over four years. Short Stop's travels brought him to Los Angeles recently, and he stopped by our studios, to give us a glimpse of what life on the road is really like. Last we heard, he was trying to stay off the trains and settle down, back in Baltimore, Maryland.