Saturday, June 29, 2013
On the Road Again 2013 Train #5
The last few hours of my train trip were equally as interesting as the previous day. The landscape gradually changed from the wide open rolling vistas to more and steeper hills with denser wooded areas. The trees which had been primarily single popular/aspen type trees scattered over the low hills and valleys switched from single trees to groves and finally to forests of conifers and aspens. As we started to get deeper and deeper into the mountains I could feel the excitement build. I was finally getting to be on the road. It had been a long wait!
I am not too sure when I first noticed that the railroad ties were not made out of heavily creosoted wood but were rather made out of concrete. Which initially made sense to me. However I started to rethink that opinion when I saw large piles of used concrete tie. It seemed to me that a significant number of them were cracked and the cement had deteriorated. Perhaps the prairie winters were just too much for them. I assume CNR were experimenting.
While the schedule conflicts between passenger train and freight trains had greatly been reduced there were still times when we had to pull of on to a siding to let a freight go through. I couldn't help but notice that some of the grain cars that passed me had little mats of grass and weeds growing at the ends of their platforms. I assumed it was because various seeds had been spilled as the cars were either loaded or unloaded. Some of those seeds that had sprouted were canola. Which makes one wonder.... will those plants spread their seeds across the prairies. And if so who will get sued for disseminating patented seed.
The train arrived in Jasper right on time. It was interesting to note that the train which was rather long (19 cars) stopped so that the first class passengers did not have to walk too far to the station but us poor economy class folks had to walk a fair distance to get to the station and the exit. Just before I had left I had bought new walking shoes. They had felt great in Sudbury but as soon as I put them on in Jasper they felt far too tight and way too uncomfortable. As well it had started to rain and so I had to put on my rain jacket which is superb at keeping out moisture. Unfortunately it also keeps in my sweat. It did not feel like a particularly grand start to my trip.
I had a hard time finding the right exit out of town.I walked down one road, couldn't find a reasonable place to stand, walked back to the stop light, looked at the map again, still was not to sure what to do so I decided to walk towards some signs half of a kilometer down the road, looked the map again and finally decided that I wanted to head west - not south. My chosen spot was not a great one. I was by a set of stop lights but the shoulder was not particularly wide and certainly no truck could have stopped but it was the best I could do.
I was there for about 30-40 minutes when a small pickup truck pulled in. Out popped my driver from last year who had rescued me in Kenora and driven me all of the way to Sudbury. He had followed his dream and had moved back to Jasper to be near the mountains he loved. I was glad to see that he had done what he said he was going to do. We chatted for 10 or so minutes and he invited me to the hostel if I could not get ride. Amongst other things he told me that he had kept my sign in his car until he left for Jasper, I told him that I still had the " Big Nickel " souvenir that he had given me in my car. It felt good to have a friend.
I stood at that spot for at least another hour. At one point a new looking small 4x4 stopped and a young lady got out. The male driver drove away. Initially I assumed that she was an employee from a store in town and that she was just waiting for a ride from friend. She did not make eye contact with me. A trucker going in the other direction and stopped at the light yelled out that I would have better luck if I had her as a partner.I was embarrassed for both her and myself. Eventually the vehicle that had dropped her off came back and she walked away from it. As it got closer to her, she turned around and headed back to town totally ignoring him. He called her name and when she did not respond - took off. A lover's spat???? I would have become involved but she seemed to know her own mind and he was at least somewhat respectful of it.
Finally a large pickup truck stopped. The back seat looked rather crowded with stuff so I threw my pack in the back and hoped that it would not rain too much. I was ready for first ride of the year.
On the Road Again 2013 Train #4
6:30 AM Edmonton - it is another cloudy gray day. Which is a shame as
yesterday was so nice and in fact hot out. It stuck me at some point
last night as I was tossing and turning that I could have planned to get
out at Edmonton and start my trip. I had forgotten that the Via Rail
station is on the outskirts of town and while I am sure there are buses,
it would have been a steep learning curve trying to figure out the bus
system.
The train is on time and in fact it has been on time ever since Winnipeg. Hopefully that continues and the train will get to Jasper when it is suppose to.
I slept reasonably well last night - I think. But it is never a really deep sleep. If the train stops or when it starts again there is noise, when someone walks by they may brush against some part of your body and when any door is opened whether it is the door between cars or the washroom door it squeaks. Still I feel reasonably refreshed and ready to go. In fact I am anxious to get this show on the road.
I have only taken the train across the prairies once before but I don't remember the landscape between Winnipeg and Edmonton being so beautiful. It was really quite extraordinary. While there are advantages to travelling along the major highways, in exchange for speed one loses the opportunity of seeing much of the country side.There were miles and miles of glorious rolling hills and lots and lots of water. It had clearly been a wet spring. The old page wire fences had water up to the third wire. A major river that we past over just before Saskatoon ( Northern Saskatchewan river ?) was moving fairly fast and it looked as if there was some debris being carried along. Every pond that I saw had a few ducks swimming around. They looked to be small things. I wondered if there were so many of them because they were too small to hunt and therefore lived with some sort of immunity. I also saw a couple of bison farms which would have been more exciting if I had not seen the wild bison on the side of the road near Yellowknife last year. I also saw three female and one male elk - that was pretty neat!
Definitely a good day to be looking out the window!
The train is on time and in fact it has been on time ever since Winnipeg. Hopefully that continues and the train will get to Jasper when it is suppose to.
I slept reasonably well last night - I think. But it is never a really deep sleep. If the train stops or when it starts again there is noise, when someone walks by they may brush against some part of your body and when any door is opened whether it is the door between cars or the washroom door it squeaks. Still I feel reasonably refreshed and ready to go. In fact I am anxious to get this show on the road.
I have only taken the train across the prairies once before but I don't remember the landscape between Winnipeg and Edmonton being so beautiful. It was really quite extraordinary. While there are advantages to travelling along the major highways, in exchange for speed one loses the opportunity of seeing much of the country side.There were miles and miles of glorious rolling hills and lots and lots of water. It had clearly been a wet spring. The old page wire fences had water up to the third wire. A major river that we past over just before Saskatoon ( Northern Saskatchewan river ?) was moving fairly fast and it looked as if there was some debris being carried along. Every pond that I saw had a few ducks swimming around. They looked to be small things. I wondered if there were so many of them because they were too small to hunt and therefore lived with some sort of immunity. I also saw a couple of bison farms which would have been more exciting if I had not seen the wild bison on the side of the road near Yellowknife last year. I also saw three female and one male elk - that was pretty neat!
Definitely a good day to be looking out the window!
On the Road Again 2013 Train # 3
We were only in Winnipeg for an hour or so. Which was just fine.
Winnipeg is an interesting city but unless one has three hours or more
to go on a tour one might as well not waste any time trying to see it.
As it was, there was just enough time to go to the "Forks" and buy a few
wraps for breakfast, lunch and supper, answer an email or two and post
something to Facebook. I also made a call on my cell phone. Last year it
had not worked from Brandon to almost Sudbury. I had called Telus and
they had told me that my phone was now upgraded to work across Canada.
It worked fine which was great.
I also checked CBC news on my tablet. I did not I want things to be getting worse in the southwest, but I was glad to see that while things are getting back to normal, both in Medicine Hat and in other spots things were still in a bit of a mess and therefore my decision to go to Jasper was at the very least, not a bad one.
The train is a bit more crowded than it was. For example there is a group of four sitting across from me on their way to Edmonton to be there to witness the birth of their first grandchild and great grandchild. As the young mother-to-be is already in labour I suspect that no matter how fast the train goes they are not going to make it
There have been on the train since Toronto 5 young guys - perhaps in their 20s. I don't think any of them were initially traveling together but they seem to have developed some sort of relationship. While they are occasionally a bit noisy, they are quite polite and I think if the occasion ever required it, quite generous. While they lack some awareness as to how trains work (specifically the assumption that they need to be on time), how electricity works ( the assumption that if a wire on a telephone pole is touched by a branch it will start a fire) and they are greatly mistaken as to prevalence of highly dangerous snakes in Ontario, they have been interesting to watch and occasionally we share a few words. They seem to spend most of their time playing poker for money. Which is a good thing for they have not acquired the fine art of accepting that train travel requires the releasing all expectations.
On the first part of the trip there seemed to be few children on board.The couple of kids that I did notice were very quiet. However at Winnipeg a few more families got on and their kids are occasionally in the aisles. They are all well behaved and their presence is quite welcome for entertainment value alone. The increase in family groups has necessitated some seating changes. Some people for the first few nights were lucky in that they had scored double seats so that they could stretch out to the seat across from them. By configuring the footrests one can almost create a double bed. Almost. However as families need those double seats those travellers have had to leave those seats and move to the regular row seats. Those travellers are not happy.
Sitting in the train allows one to observe people without being intrusive. There is for example a 40 something male who has the most remarkable close cropped bronzed/gold coloured hair who has massive weight lifters arms and says he was a surfer in California; or the person who takes apart oreo-type cookies and re-assembles them back together again, combining the halves that have the filling attached. I could never figure out what he did with the empty halves. There a number of Kiwanis on the train including a grandfather and his wife travelling with their grandson. They are from California too and are on their way back from visiting relatives in Toronto ( I think). The Kiwanis are all going to an international conference in Vancouver. There is an older gentlemen who got on in Sudbury and who speaks relatively little English. I heard him tell a train worker in Sudbury that he had worked for the railroads for 18 years as the person who shoveled coal into the boilers. I wonder how many time he has crossed the country and what he thinks about the state of our railroads now. Everyone has a story to tell. The trick is getting them to tell me.
It is 8:30 here (we have just gone through another time change). While it is is still bright, it has been a long day and I am ready for bed.
I also checked CBC news on my tablet. I did not I want things to be getting worse in the southwest, but I was glad to see that while things are getting back to normal, both in Medicine Hat and in other spots things were still in a bit of a mess and therefore my decision to go to Jasper was at the very least, not a bad one.
The train is a bit more crowded than it was. For example there is a group of four sitting across from me on their way to Edmonton to be there to witness the birth of their first grandchild and great grandchild. As the young mother-to-be is already in labour I suspect that no matter how fast the train goes they are not going to make it
There have been on the train since Toronto 5 young guys - perhaps in their 20s. I don't think any of them were initially traveling together but they seem to have developed some sort of relationship. While they are occasionally a bit noisy, they are quite polite and I think if the occasion ever required it, quite generous. While they lack some awareness as to how trains work (specifically the assumption that they need to be on time), how electricity works ( the assumption that if a wire on a telephone pole is touched by a branch it will start a fire) and they are greatly mistaken as to prevalence of highly dangerous snakes in Ontario, they have been interesting to watch and occasionally we share a few words. They seem to spend most of their time playing poker for money. Which is a good thing for they have not acquired the fine art of accepting that train travel requires the releasing all expectations.
On the first part of the trip there seemed to be few children on board.The couple of kids that I did notice were very quiet. However at Winnipeg a few more families got on and their kids are occasionally in the aisles. They are all well behaved and their presence is quite welcome for entertainment value alone. The increase in family groups has necessitated some seating changes. Some people for the first few nights were lucky in that they had scored double seats so that they could stretch out to the seat across from them. By configuring the footrests one can almost create a double bed. Almost. However as families need those double seats those travellers have had to leave those seats and move to the regular row seats. Those travellers are not happy.
Sitting in the train allows one to observe people without being intrusive. There is for example a 40 something male who has the most remarkable close cropped bronzed/gold coloured hair who has massive weight lifters arms and says he was a surfer in California; or the person who takes apart oreo-type cookies and re-assembles them back together again, combining the halves that have the filling attached. I could never figure out what he did with the empty halves. There a number of Kiwanis on the train including a grandfather and his wife travelling with their grandson. They are from California too and are on their way back from visiting relatives in Toronto ( I think). The Kiwanis are all going to an international conference in Vancouver. There is an older gentlemen who got on in Sudbury and who speaks relatively little English. I heard him tell a train worker in Sudbury that he had worked for the railroads for 18 years as the person who shoveled coal into the boilers. I wonder how many time he has crossed the country and what he thinks about the state of our railroads now. Everyone has a story to tell. The trick is getting them to tell me.
It is 8:30 here (we have just gone through another time change). While it is is still bright, it has been a long day and I am ready for bed.
Friday, June 28, 2013
On the Road Again 2013 - the process of publishing this blog
Doing a blog at home on a familiar computer is relatively easy. All I need is an idea to write about and about an hour to do it in. Writing on the road is a different kettle of fish.
For the first four or five blogs of this year's trip that I have either already published or that I will publish in the next day or two, most of the writing was done on the train. I have a program on my tablet called "Office Pro" that works well except for the spell check. I then, after saving it, open up another program that is a less useful typing program but has the capacity to ( by emailing it) to get the blog off of the tablet and on to a computer where I can copy and paste it on to the blog page. I then try to proof read and edit.
I can type the message directly onto the blog page if I have access to the net which of course I frequently do not have. As well the battery life of the tablet is somewhat problematic. Typing directly onto the blog page just sucks up too much battery. This rather labourious three or four step process seems to be the only other option
Of course if I do not have a way of recharging the tablet or if the train tracks are so rough that the train is bouncing around so much that it is hard to find the keys then I will just take notes and type them later.
I can type the message directly onto the blog page if I have access to the net which of course I frequently do not have. As well the battery life of the tablet is somewhat problematic. Typing directly onto the blog page just sucks up too much battery. This rather labourious three or four step process seems to be the only other option
Of course if I do not have a way of recharging the tablet or if the train tracks are so rough that the train is bouncing around so much that it is hard to find the keys then I will just take notes and type them later.
To make things even more complicated, the key board that is attached to my tablet seems to have a life of its own and does not always do what I want . In fact it functions differently for every piece of software that I use.
Having said all of the above and with apologies for my spelling, I will publish the blogs in order, hopefully fairly shortly after I have experienced the event. but it may take me awhile to catch up.
Having said all of the above and with apologies for my spelling, I will publish the blogs in order, hopefully fairly shortly after I have experienced the event. but it may take me awhile to catch up.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
On the Road Again 2013 The train #2
A bit of eating, reading and a nap and I am now fully immersed into the
culture of train travel. That is I have accepted that I have no control
over my life and so I might as well relax and enjoy it. So I am and I
will.
I almost always chose to sit on the right hand side of the train or bus that I am on. I just seem to be able to sleep better leaning against the right side window ( the only exception to this is if I can get a bus seat just behind the driver as the first three seats behind the driver have more leg room)
However, when I got the train everyone seemed to have the same thought and the right side of the train was fairly full. The few seats that were empty were ones that had a window post that irritably partially block a bit of the view. So I choose a seat on the left side . While I will have some difficulty getting into a comfortable position for sleeping (but then after an hour or so of napping on a train I always have a hard time staying comfortable) there are some real benefits. I suppose it is obvious but the scenery is different on the other side of the train! We just stopped at Gogoma and I did not recognize it. After doing this trip 3-4 times I didn't expect to see much new. I might have been wrong.
I don't mean to imply that there is a lot to look at. So much of the trip feels as if we are going through a green tunnel with the branches of the trees so close that one could imagine just opening the window (if one could actually open the window)and touching the green leaves. As pretty as that may sound it can be almost claustrophobic. There are long.....long stretches where there nothing can be seen. And then all of sudden the trees will, for a minute or two, part and the tracks skirt a small beaver pond or a lake. And then just as quickly the train will be immersed once again in its green tunnel,
One could easily assume that we are hundreds of miles from anywhere and the tracks pass over a dirt road to remind me that this is where people live, work and recreate. I would be tempted to take a picture or two but the windows are a bit blurry with the rain.
6:00 pm and we are only in Hornepayne. Train is running really late. Not only did it leave one hour and forty-five minutes late but we have lost time ever since. Hornepayne should be at least an hour stop but we were only offered 15 minutes although it will more than that once they get water etc. It has felt like a fairly long and tedious trip. Not a lot of the passenger have succumbed to the rhythm of the train and some are frustrated by the frequent stops to allow for the freight trains. I am not to sure that the freight trains are longer than normal or if it just that we are having to wait longer than normal because we are so far out of schedule. It doesn't matter. We will get to Winnipeg when we get there. Another few hours and it will be dark enough to think about trying for "full nights" sleep.
I almost always chose to sit on the right hand side of the train or bus that I am on. I just seem to be able to sleep better leaning against the right side window ( the only exception to this is if I can get a bus seat just behind the driver as the first three seats behind the driver have more leg room)
However, when I got the train everyone seemed to have the same thought and the right side of the train was fairly full. The few seats that were empty were ones that had a window post that irritably partially block a bit of the view. So I choose a seat on the left side . While I will have some difficulty getting into a comfortable position for sleeping (but then after an hour or so of napping on a train I always have a hard time staying comfortable) there are some real benefits. I suppose it is obvious but the scenery is different on the other side of the train! We just stopped at Gogoma and I did not recognize it. After doing this trip 3-4 times I didn't expect to see much new. I might have been wrong.
I don't mean to imply that there is a lot to look at. So much of the trip feels as if we are going through a green tunnel with the branches of the trees so close that one could imagine just opening the window (if one could actually open the window)and touching the green leaves. As pretty as that may sound it can be almost claustrophobic. There are long.....long stretches where there nothing can be seen. And then all of sudden the trees will, for a minute or two, part and the tracks skirt a small beaver pond or a lake. And then just as quickly the train will be immersed once again in its green tunnel,
One could easily assume that we are hundreds of miles from anywhere and the tracks pass over a dirt road to remind me that this is where people live, work and recreate. I would be tempted to take a picture or two but the windows are a bit blurry with the rain.
6:00 pm and we are only in Hornepayne. Train is running really late. Not only did it leave one hour and forty-five minutes late but we have lost time ever since. Hornepayne should be at least an hour stop but we were only offered 15 minutes although it will more than that once they get water etc. It has felt like a fairly long and tedious trip. Not a lot of the passenger have succumbed to the rhythm of the train and some are frustrated by the frequent stops to allow for the freight trains. I am not to sure that the freight trains are longer than normal or if it just that we are having to wait longer than normal because we are so far out of schedule. It doesn't matter. We will get to Winnipeg when we get there. Another few hours and it will be dark enough to think about trying for "full nights" sleep.
On the Road Again 2013 #1
Waiting in a railroad station -got a ticket
for my destination.... wish I knew how put little musical notes around
those opening words. It would give me something to do. Train stations
are rather ring places. The train is almost two hours late and I have
not even started yet. I am not a happy camper....
The original plan was to go from. Sudbury to Winnipeg. I would get to Winnipeg by 8:00 am and have my thumb out by just after 9:00. That way I would avoid the mosquitoes and the blackflies as well as the two days of traveling through northern Ontario. I was not too sure if my plan was going to work as until the 14th there was some fear of a Via rail strike. I was quite relieved when there was no need for a strike. Would I have traveled on the train when it was run by managers? It would have felt as I was crossing the picket line or something.
And then the floods happened. I don't mean to demean or reduce the huge impact the flood would have had on those people in Canmore or Calgary but the flooding has made my life a lot more complicated. While I sure that I could have gotten across the Prairies without trouble, it looked as if getting through medicine hat, Calgary and Canmore would have been potentially difficult. Not only were parts of the road flooded or covered in mud but some of the essential services had been stopped. It was not clear if I could have made it through downtown areas. So after a lot of internet surfing and conversion I decided to take the train to Jasper and hitch the rest of the way. At least I will get to get a few rides through the mountains but I will miss my rides across the flat lands. Plus of course the extra cash to take the train. Still if I had gotten stuck somewhere east of medicine hat I could have spent even more money of motels etc.
Train is not that full and at least for now I have two seats for me. As well because I am on the train for two nights I get to be in the quieter car which means that during the night I will have fewer disturbances as folks get on or off.
It is a gray and cloudy day -time for a few nuts, a boiled egg, carrots and perhaps some sleep. I am on train, heading west and for the next 36 hours all there is to do is to relax, read, listen to music and sleep. Sounds pretty good to me.
The original plan was to go from. Sudbury to Winnipeg. I would get to Winnipeg by 8:00 am and have my thumb out by just after 9:00. That way I would avoid the mosquitoes and the blackflies as well as the two days of traveling through northern Ontario. I was not too sure if my plan was going to work as until the 14th there was some fear of a Via rail strike. I was quite relieved when there was no need for a strike. Would I have traveled on the train when it was run by managers? It would have felt as I was crossing the picket line or something.
And then the floods happened. I don't mean to demean or reduce the huge impact the flood would have had on those people in Canmore or Calgary but the flooding has made my life a lot more complicated. While I sure that I could have gotten across the Prairies without trouble, it looked as if getting through medicine hat, Calgary and Canmore would have been potentially difficult. Not only were parts of the road flooded or covered in mud but some of the essential services had been stopped. It was not clear if I could have made it through downtown areas. So after a lot of internet surfing and conversion I decided to take the train to Jasper and hitch the rest of the way. At least I will get to get a few rides through the mountains but I will miss my rides across the flat lands. Plus of course the extra cash to take the train. Still if I had gotten stuck somewhere east of medicine hat I could have spent even more money of motels etc.
Train is not that full and at least for now I have two seats for me. As well because I am on the train for two nights I get to be in the quieter car which means that during the night I will have fewer disturbances as folks get on or off.
It is a gray and cloudy day -time for a few nuts, a boiled egg, carrots and perhaps some sleep. I am on train, heading west and for the next 36 hours all there is to do is to relax, read, listen to music and sleep. Sounds pretty good to me.
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