2018 On the Road Again #5

I have come to the conclusion that I am too easily fooled by geography. The fact that I sensed a subtle change in the landscape when I woke up and immediately made the assumption that I was getting closer to my destination was naive at best. We were in fact hundreds of miles away. The landscape quickly reverted to swaps and dense bush.

It was a slow day. The train kept on moving, there were occasional stops to let off or get on a few more passengers or, surprisingly seldom longer waits on a siding waiting for a freight train going the other way. We even had to wait for VIA train #2 to pass us heading east. It struck me then that I could never remember stopping to have a train, going the same direction as us, pass us. That would mean, I think, that all of the freight trains heading west would be as late as the passenger trains. Strange how no one mentions that.

Somewhere along the way, as I was listening to music on my phone, the phone made a little noise and I saw that I had gotten a text message. For a brief moment we must have been passing within the range of a cell tower - just long enough for Telus to tell me that I needed to give them some more money. When we got to Sioux Lookout, I got out and resolved the issue. I wonder how many more spots there are along the train tracks that have some sort of cellular access. I suspect it doesn't very much as they are so brief that if one blinks, one would miss them.

For the first time that I can remember, as we passed from Ontario to Manitoba, one of the crew (who had occasionally got on the PA system to talk about the towns we were stopping at) made a very excited announced about our transition from one province to an other. She said that all of the crew were from Manitoba and that they were excited to be home. She also promised us eternally blue skies and the best sun rises and sunsets we would ever see. It was fun that she was excited about coming home. It had been a long few days for her and her co-workers. It was easy to forgive her slight hyperbole.

A hour or two outside of Winnipeg the train made two stops very close together. Both stops were at little places where the train station/shelter did not appear to be standard VIA issue. They were of different colours/designs and they were well maintained with no train "junk" around them. They were train stops for the cottagers in the area and all of the people that got on at the two stops knew each other. Some were going back home as they had to go to a wedding and at least one man was going back to Winnipeg to buy a new lawnmower. I think I heard him say that the lawnmower (I assume it was a riding one) would be shipped to the head of the lake and he would motor boat his way up there to get it.

Eventually the landscape did change, and stayed change. The land became flatter, the lakes looked larger and the groves of birch and popular started to overwhelm the smaller and smaller stands of fir. And then, almost without any transition, the land becomes flat with acres and acres of land under cultivation. And then there was Winnipeg. We were not only on time (well 12 hours late) but we had actually made up time.