Training West

The Canadian is just that: a Canadian tradition, representing what we used to think about ourselves. It is quietly comely, clad in stainless steel; it is past middle age, but has been refurbished rather than trashed; it is underfunded, but eager to please anyways.
This is the train that we are to spend our next three days plus on board. We had found a good deal, just over five hundred dollars, for the cabin plus all meals (and we knew the meals were very good). So we ended up, on a Thursday evening, traveling by train to Union Station for the 10 PM departure. And since we had a sleeper, we got to go to the First-Class lounge and rest before getting on the train itself.
We went west and north, not surprisingly but different from what I had thought, then stopped, backed up a bit, and took a more northerly line that would take us along the eastern shore of Lake Simcoe and on to Sudbury. There was a reception for us, once we we settled, and an observation car where we watched the city disappear under the full moon.
Then to bed and a sleep which you only get on a train: rocked and shaken a bit, probably more disturbed than at home, but refreshing.




Darlene was up early this morning, sitting in the observation car and watching the northern terrain by the light of the moon. When I got up, at about seven, we had stopped in Capreol, and she was out for some fresh air. Not me, I was happy to wait for breakfast without the fresh air.
I remember this part of the trip from before. Northern Ontario is immense, and the rocks, trees, and lakes seem to go on for ever. It must be hard for environmentalists, when you see all of this, to feel that we are actually running out of it all, or that it is endangered. It is beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. For at least the first few hours. John A. MacDonald was crazy to think that we




should have a railway across this land! There's too much of it!
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Location:Northern Ontario