Our first little look at the prairies today- for two seconds- and then we pulled into Winnipeg. Our guests at breakfast were two gentlemen both named Bill- one a retired radio broadcaster from New Hampshire and the other a retired electrician from the Sudbury area in Ontario. Both had been to Cape Breton. Major points scored.
While we were waiting for breakfast in a sort of holding tank, a Chinese gentleman from Australia struck up a conversation about how Larry had Internet service. (Larry bought data for his iPad.) Larry offered to let him use his iPad to check his email and the gentleman was so appreciative. After he checked his email he said Larry had saved him $2000.00 –he gave us the card to his restaurant in Australia and promised us free champagne when we were there.
After breakfast we are allowed off the train for about two hours so Larry is going to try and get me data for my iPad. We have been walking around the city and now are sitting in a Tim Horton’s (no surprise there) where I am writing this. I am very excited to get back on the train and start seeing the Prairie Provinces. Like a dream, really!
So here we are gazing out on miles of green fields. Sections have been selected to plant evergreen trees here and there. Today we chatted with a couple from Scotland. They live by the Glen Abbey golf course near Perth. The Ryder Cup is to be held there next year and they have been offered 3000 pounds a week to let their house for accommodations.
It’s a beautiful sunny day, no clouds in the sky. The fields go on for miles. It seems like the farms are quite a distance from their neighbors. The school bus routes must take forever. Every now and then we pass a combine in a cloud of dust but otherwise it all looks very vast and quiet.
It’s interesting that our rooms lock from the inside but not from the outside. So when we leave our room everything we have is free for the taking. They assured us that nothing has ever gone missing.
This afternoon at lunch we ate with a retired couple from England who spend their whole lives travelling. He used to be a sports reporter with a newspaper. They were a bit miffed that Via promised WiFi but in reality it only exists between Montreal and Toronto. Plus, they mentioned how the rooms had look positively spacious on the advertisement . His comment was that Nelson Mandela’s prison cell was bigger than the rooms on this train– and he knows because he had been in Mandella’s cell! Overall they were not complaining but they made the statement that “If something is not done well we’re not ones to pretend that it is!”
The prairies are green with very straight roads. There are some little rolling hills here and there. The farmhouses have the feeling of being off in the distance, way down a long, dusty road.
Larry is doing some research on Louis Riel, who is today recognized as a founder of the province of Manitoba. He’s finding it a sad story.
Lunch was delicious. Skewered shrimp with each one wrapped around a tiny scallop. I think we’ll try that when we get home. Breakfast is served from 6:30 to 9:00 on a first come first served basis. For lunch and dinner they have three seatings which you have to reserve. The least popular is the third seating, which has lunch about 2 and dinner about 8:30. But if you are on the third seating, you get first choice of seatings the next day.
We are approaching Saskatchewan. I think I’ll try and buy Saskatoon berry chutney while we are in Edmonton. They served something like it at lunch with the shrimp. I know there is a berry called the saskatoon.
I think you would have to be a certain type of person to want to live in the prairies provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Like, if your family has been there for generations and it’s part of who you are. It strikes me as being isolated with a frontier- town feel. I can’t say I was drawn to it in any way. We saw buffalo (bison) grazing.
We got out of the train for about fifteen minutes in Saskatoon and the mosquitos were positively thrilled to see so many people show up all of a sudden!
We ate dinner at the late sitting, at nine o’clock, with the same couple from England. Then off to our bunk beds- tomorrow we have to up at five because we are getting off in Edmonton.