On the Road Again 2016 #3

Tuesday Am

I had not slept well on Sunday night. I was wide awake by 5:00 on Monday morning. I had therefore assumed that I would fall asleep fairly quickly on Monday night. And I did, I think sleep for a bit. But I was wide awake when we got to Edmonton just around 11:00. I think I was curious as to how many people would be getting on. I had been told that because of the offer of free tickets, there might be a lot of people deciding to leave Fort Mac for a bit. I was aware that if this was the case, I might have a seat mate for much of the remaining trip. However, only three people got on (and at least four got off) so my seat was safe.

There was some sort of problem with one of the mechanical or electrical components of the train and it took them some time to fix/replace it . There was  large, bright station light just outside of window and falling asleep became impossible. We were there for well over an hour and no matter how tired I was, I just could not sleep. When I did fall asleep after the train got going, it was more fitful than most of my sleeps on a train. When I finally "got up" around 7:00 I felt groggy and sleep deprived. I can remember my first trip on the train. I curled up on the seat and slept wonderfully well - or at least that is how I remember it. I have noticed that I don't curl up as well as I use to.

Unlike yesterday when the sky was clear, I woke up this morning to dull grey skies. It was difficult to initially determine as to whether or not the greyness was due to rain clouds or to smoke drifting down from Fort Mac. I thought I could detect a slight smell of old smoke in the air - perhaps smelling smoke was only my imagination being over active as there clearly were rain drops accumulating on the windows.

I decided to have breakfast in the fancy dining car. Breakfast is the only time that we peons are allowed to enter the holy sanctuary of the rich folks. It was a strange feeling wandering through the narrow passages to the dining car. It felt as if we were trespassing. The space itself was very restrictive, limiting. Narrow corridors that are only wide enough for one person at a time to pass down are lined with doorways leading to little rooms closed off to the world. Everyone is confined to these rather small cubicles. Perhaps their dome cars are larger and well used for socializing. I would appreciate a good night's sleep where I could stretch out, but I think I prefer being in an open space where I can observe and occasionally interact with others.

Breakfast was shared with a retired travel agent coming back from visiting her grandchildren and a mother and son from Fort Mac heading to visit family in Nova Scotia. They were the only two people that took Via Rail up on its offer for free travel. While they ( and her husband who has stayed behind) don't know if their house is still standing - they are some of the fortunate ones. They have house insurance, money in the bank and while they have been laid off from their jobs, they still have access to the health insurance. Still it was clear that they have been traumatized. Breakfast was served nicely on real china and placed on linen table clothes. I got to wipe my dedicate lips with linen serviettes. The food tasted fine but for $12.00 plus tip....I could have eaten better at a Husky service centre or at almost any greasy spoon in Canada.

Because there are fewer people on the train I have gotten to know, even superficially relatively few of my fellow passengers. I think I am also only one out of four or five that are going all the way to Ontario. I did talk to a couple from Newfoundland (who had no accent at all) who were on their was back from an Alaskan cruise, taking the train from Vancouver to Edmonton so that they could visit grandkids before flying home; there are two young ladies in front of me who look to be an age where they should be still in high school- they are great friends and when they are here (they spend a lot of time in the dome car) they giggle almost constantly. There are quite a few young males travelling - all alone. They don't seem to interact very much with anyone. I wonder where they are all going.I have noticed in the past that when the cars reach a certain point of emptiness - it is all too easy for us to build our little cocoon walls.

6:00 PM all afternoon the car has been very quiet. No one has been talking or moving around very much. It looks to be a cool, windy and grey day outside- the sort of day that one would listen to jazz on the stereo, read a good book and drink lots of herbal tea.