Prairie sky.
Got up just
before 8 and headed straight for breakfast, as they only serve it from 6:30 –
8:30. We sat with a couple from
Minneapolis and had a nice visit with them – he was a judge for 32 years. I went back to the room and had a nap, then
headed up to the lounge and took a few photos.
We stopped in Saskatoon mid-morning to fuel up, fill up the water and
empty the sewage. We were able to get
off the train for some fresh air so we walked all the way up to the front of
the train and back.
At lunch we
sat with a couple from Georgia. It
looked like a thunderstorm up ahead, and as we left the dining car, I got a
tornado text alert. I saw some
lightening and we’ve had a bit of rain on and off, but no tornados.
The result
of the stormy weather was this rainbow that was visible for at least half an
hour.
We spent
yesterday in the dome car and the lounge, but today I am happy to hang out in
our room and relax. Socializing at
mealtimes is enough socializing for me.
We
freshened up with showers and mid-afternoon Daniel, one of our stewards,
knocked on the door with brie and crackers and took our drink orders. I can’t emphasize enough how spoiled we are,
and we have Joyce to thank for it.
We passed
several potash mines throughout the day – this one was the biggest by far.
During
dinner we rode alongside the Qu’appelle Valley which is very lush and green
this time of year. Unfortunately, it has
experienced some flooding this spring, and some of the fields are still
flooded.
After
dinner we went to the lounge to see the gorgeous prairie sunset, which seems to
last forever. Because we are in the second
seating for lunch and dinner, and because we are near the summer solstice, I
forget how late it is when it is still light out.
We learned
of a first aid situation that had happened earlier in the afternoon. A gentleman lost his balance and hit his shin
on a step. He is on blood thinners, so
even though it was a minor injury, it now looks like someone was murdered in
the lounge. The staff almost called Brad
and Bill, the other nurse, but didn’t want to bother them. We kind of wish they had because we ended up
sitting at Watrous for a very long time while they waited for an ambulance. He didn't need an ambulance, so it was
a bit of a waste of time, but of course they wanted to cover their behinds in
case it was more serious than it looked.
We ended up
socializing for a bit, and met 2 young men, one from Melbourne and the other lives
in Toronto. He said he was from a small
town in Ontario, so I asked him where, and he said Fergus. He was very pleased that I knew of the town
and had been there. They have a huge
Highland games every year, and my very first dance competition when I was a child
was Fergus. I went back to Ontario in my
late teens to visit family and competed in Fergus again.
We got into
Winnipeg at about 3:30 in the morning, much later than scheduled. By the time they changed crews, took on
supplies for the rest of the trip, filled and emptied what needed filling and
emptying and waited for freight trains to pass, we didn’t leave Winnipeg
until nearly 6:30 (usually it takes about an hour to do the changeover).
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