More pine and aspen

  Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada
Thursday, May 3, 2007

With a 'bon jour' and a kiss on the hand, we lost our charming steward Jean-Robin when the entire crew changed at Winnepeg. Surprisingly, most of the crew had worked their jobs for many years, drawn largely by the hours. Four or five 18 hours shifts followed by 5-7 days off. A one hour stopover gave us time to wander out of the station into 'The Folks' - an adjoining food market.

At Edmonton the afternoon before, Eileen, an elderly lady travelling to visit her daughter on the east coast had joined the train in the cabin opposite mine. She chatted for quite a while, telling me her life story and that of half her family as well. With a gentle English accent, her stories were much easier to listen to than those of Monica who, being a few cars ahead was dining in the other dining car.

The evening was spent in the rear club car chatting with a elderly couple from Atlanta who had been on the rails with me since Vancouver.