I bought a train ticket to Winnipeg yesterday. I did so with
some hesitancy in part because it seems a bit paradoxical to be so "planfull"
so far ahead in what is suppose to be a spontaneous trip (at least in the
method of travel). It also feels a bit like cheating to take the train part of
the way.
I have hitched a number of times from Sudbury to Vancouver
Island. The stretch between Sudbury and Winnipeg has always been the slowest
and the least favourite part of any of my trips. Travelling through Northern Ontario
at the end of June is slow, uncomfortable and more than occasionally, involves
the loss of blood. It also has cost me more money than I had planned to spend.
I don't think I have ever made it out of the Province in less than two days and
on more than one occasion it has taken me almost four. After two or three days
of hitchhiking I need a shower and so end up spending money on a motel room for
the shower, a soft bed and a night's sleep without the incessant whining of the
seemingly thousands of mosquitoes who have waited their entire life time for a
southerner's blood. Fairly often by the time I get to Thunder Bay I have
decided to get on the overnight bus to Winnipeg. I always have this sense of
urgency when heading west that I suspect evolved in those early days when I
only had three weeks to get there and get back. While I don't need to eat a lot
while I travel, I do spend money on food especially when the rides are few and
far between and I am standing outside a Husky Gas Station/Restaurant for hours on end brushing black flies away
from my eyes and ears. So a train is a
far better use of my time, I don't contribute my blood the reproduction of more
mosquitoes and I think I may even save a bit of money.
To go by bus from Sudbury to Winnipeg, if one orders the
ticket well in advance, it cost $129.00 and takes about 24 hours. 24 hours of
hell - sitting in a seat that rapidly becomes far too small for any adult with
legs, in a bus that may be crowded with people who are as unhappy as I am about
being there. No one takes the bus if they have a choice, everyone can probably
think of a hundred places they would rather be. It is hard to sleep, there seem
to be relatively few conversations amongst strangers and one can only feel pity
for the poor parents and their young children who are confined to long
stretches of cruising on what very quickly feels like endless miles of highway
that all looks the same.
Or one can take the train which if one orders a ticket when
there is a sale on cost $134.00. The train, much to my surprise takes two-three
hours (assuming it is on time) longer than the bus. But the train has seats
that while they are a bit short on the thigh support, at least have lots of
room to stretch out. Conversations amongst strangers are more likely and if one
is bored, one can always get up and go for a walk to the dome car.
When considering the cost driving between Sudbury and Winnipeg
including the price of fuel, food and perhaps a night's sleep in a cheap motel,
$135.00 sounds like a pretty good deal. I
think it would cost at least that much to drive.
So perhaps I am cheating
a little bit, perhaps I am planning a bit further ahead than normal (the last
two-three years I have bought the ticket a week or two before) - but perhaps it
is about time that I started to learn from my experiences.
