On the Road Again 2016 #4

The train had been on time for the first day and a half. However, by the time we left Edmonton it was a hour or so late, by the time it got to Winnipeg it was at least two hours late,by the time we left Winnipeg, it was even further behind schedule.

I went to the snack bar at some point around supper to see if they had anything that I could eat - nothing not even a slice of banana bread Fortunately I still have a few granola bars and some bags of nixed nuts/dried cranberry to get me through the next few hours.I knew that by the time we got to Winnipeg, everything would be closed but I hoped that the snack bar would be re-stocked with something I could eat.

I managed to get a good internet connection and sent out a Facebook post to say where I was. I aso posted my first two blogs on the trip I had more to send out but the connection was slow and my tablet had decided to use its energies to download all sorts of upgrades for the various applications I do wish I could figure out how to stop it from doing that. It always seems to upgrade at the most inopportune times.

One of my travelling companions had mentioned that he needed to find an ATM so that he could have money to buy some food.I saw him walking through the lobby carrying a large bag of chips. I asked him were he had got tem from. I was pretty sure that there were no corner or grocery stores anywhere near the train station.He told me that he had found a little store inside a rather posh hotel just down the street. While I had already used twenty minutes of the forty minutes we were given to do the internet thing, I decided that I needed to  buy something to munch on. I hustled across one street and down another, popped into this very nice hotel with automated revolving doors and uniformed  attendants found the little shop, bought a bad of chips and hustled back. I needed not to have rushed. It was another ten minutes before we were allowed to board and another hour and  bit before we left the station completely. Why - I have no idea.

The mother and sun from Fort Mac and my guide to junk food and I talked for almost an hour as we waited for the train to get moving. He is originally from Sweden but his accent is more Australian as he worked there for a few years.He is on a one year work visa but right now is travelling around. It is nice to be part of this foursome. We don't talk a lot, but it is nice to have someone to either say good morning to or to occasionally groan abut how slow the train is.

I am not too sure if it is because the springs in this car are shot or if the track has been warped out of place by frost but this trip has been the roughest I can remember. There are sections where the train is swaying so much that I can't type.

It is interesting to note that the trees in northen Ontario are just starting to show their leaf buds.....which makes the trees here about seven - eight weeks behind those on the west coast and at east three-four weeks behind the trees in the Rockies.

I have spent a birthday is some unusual ways....but spending it on the train with no one knowing it is my birthday and not getting any birthday wishes may be the strangest.