I woke up from a peaceful night sleep. It was a beautiful night but a bittersweet morning as well. It dawned on me that it was my last night on the train; I had grown to really enjoy my own cozy bed with a mobile view. Oh, and don’t get me started on the bathroom. Small, of course. But it was so nice and it was all mine! If I had to rate this room and...
December 9, 2016: I slept so soundly throughout the night. The movement of the train rocked me to sleep. The Via Rail Canadian, a massive, metal bassonette provides the perfect mix of ambiance and comfort when dozing off under the stars of the Great White North. My one regret was that I did not get up in the middle of the night to see Saskatoon, which our train...
December 8, 2016: When we last left our wandering Yanks in Canada, my mom and I had just completed a morning tour of Manitoba’s capital, Winnipeg. Back on board our railway vessel, we waited to pull out of the station. I was busy scrolling through photos and organizing them while my mom was attending to her needlepoint projects. So, business as usual. In...
Snow. Nothing but snow. I awoke to a strange new world blanketed by glistening powder accompanied by towering evergreens. In just a few eyewinks, I went from a rain-soaked Torono to a frozen wilderness; a world where Princess Elsa and Jack Frost had definitely worked their snowy magic. No sign of Olaf and Bunnymund, unfortunately. From another view, it also...
Since I was a little boy, one of my dreams has been to ride a train, cross-country. It has been a dream since the first time I laid eyes on the rows and rows of locomotives and cars berthed at the Sunnyside Yard in Queens just a few miles from the foreboding entrance to the East River tunnels. It seemed like a pipe dream as it went unnoticed for years until January...