Laking friends in Winnipeg

Upon arrival in Winnipeg I walked from the station to go meet my host for my stay, Misty. When I arrived at her home, she let me know that she was about to leave to go to hang out with some friends at a lakehouse (hence the "typo" in the title) and I was invited. As I'm trying to be a bit better about accepting invitations and changing plans at the last moment, I said I'd join. A shower, a nap, and a bacon and tomato sandwich* later and we were on our way.

We picked up two of Misty's friends along the way and drove up to Red Rock Lake (by a somewhat circuitous route). We arrived intact and ready to have some fun (though two days of poor sleep were certainly having an effect on me). All together there were eight of us - just about the perfect number for the size of the cabin and the composition of the group - big enough that there were always a few conversations going on but small enough that everyone quickly got the feel of one another.

There's not much to write about the night that would be of interest in a travel blog. I had a ton of fun swimming, drinking, playing games, and chatting around the fire (as I suspect most of us did). There are certainly little things I'll remember ("that's my towel!") but I fear anyone who has ever attended an intimate house party will find any details I paint unique in specifics but with a common hue.

After the party (and breakfast and hangover cures) everyone made their ways back to whence they came. Misty and I went to see the legislative building in Winnipeg for a minute (they have a unicameral legislature that has fewer members than Montreal's city council!) then got some dim sum. I spent the rest of the night resting and being distracted by the television. This is the first city I was unable to get my "bonus" achievement of writing a poem in a library completed.

The morning of this writing I woke up, headed over to the train station, and boarded the train on which I'm currently sitting. It's supposed to take 23 hours to get to Edmonton, but we hit a snag (a disabled freight train) so we'll see how quickly we actually make it. The scenery has been pleasant (fields and such) but the company has been less so (noisy kids in every car, no strong connection to any passengers). I completed H.G. Well's The First Men on the Moon and might finally finish Herman Hesse's Siddhartha (I keep starting and stopping). Maybe I'll even do some writing (assuming two blog entries don't count)!

*Some of you know that I hate tomatoes (and tomato products) with a passion. The smell of spaghetti sauce makes me gag - sometimes to the point that I have to leave the room before I puke. That being said, I'm not allergic or anything, it's just some misfiring synapse in my brain. To that end, I'm trying my best to eat them when offered on this trip (trying being a key word - I failed twice in eating spaghetti with sauce). We'll see if I don't return to the States with a more varied diet.

Train Train Train (Train of Fools)

The train trip from Toronto to Winnipeg did not start well. Much to my dismay, I chose a section behind a whole group of Asian tourists who couldn't figure out how to stay in one seat (much to the frustration of the staff) and next to a family who brought the noisiest baggage and child one can imagine. If the kid was not playing a game at full volume or its parents weren’t repeating “do you have to go pee pee” four hundred times, she was crying. The crying, of course, spurred the family to start rooting around in crinkly bags to find something to sate the kid. Earplugs didn’t help.

I enjoyed the view from the train - the Canadian wild is absolutely beautiful - but the commotion inside the train was driving me nuts. Every time I moved to another part of the train (e.g. the cafe car, the glass dome car) noise makers seemed to follow. Luckily, I make friends easy, and the rest of the trip is what I'll really remember.

When I was in line to board I started chatting up the guy next to me, an Ottawan (I assume that's the demonym) by the name of Stoch. As we waited it became pretty clear that our personalities would work well together and, when I found out that the train was laid out two-and-two (I had expected two seats on one side and one seat on the other as with the Ocean), I suggested we sit together. It worked well enough the first night - he slept quite well and I wasn't troubled by him (though, as mentioned, I had a terrible time sleeping).

In the morning we figured it was time to head up to the dome car. On the Canadian there were maybe four special cars (of the twenty-some passenger cars) that had cafes, tables, and an upstairs glass dome. The order of events isn't particularly important, but we connected with two girls we'd been pleasant to at various points earlier in the trip (Melissa, from Germany, chatted with us while in line with her uncle, and I'm not sure how we connected with Mia, also from Germany). The four of us would be traveling companions for the majority of the trip - we more-or-less claimed a table at the front of the dome car where we chatted, ate, and played a lot of cards.

Still Alive! (Just no internet)

I just got in to Winnipeg and am now headed out to a cabin on some lake.

Fun fact: the trains out west don't have wifi and only barely ever have cellular signal, so I wasn't able to get a post cobbled together for Toronto. (Plus I made some new friends!) Given my schedule for the next week or so, I suspect I'll be having too much fun to sit and type.

Rest assured I'm having a great time (outside of issues sleeping on the train).