26 March

I awoke at 5, thinking I could wait until the alarm went off, but of course I had not altered time on the mobile. So just after 5:30 I was up and looking for an empty shower. After that I had a look in the observation car (no-one else there yet) and had a quick chat with the attendant before heading down to breakfast. It was with the now usual companions, but opposite us, a man who had looked very elderly and frail yesterday was now looking twenty years younger and conversing well. Breakfast became a very leisurely affair because of the small numbers on the train, with the conversation covering tourism, flying and medicine.
After, it was back down to the observation car and sitting quietly, catching up on my blog. I must fix up photos today so I can upload everything tonight.
The sunshine through the window, the gentle rocking motion and the quiet let me drop off for a few minutes (which turned into an hour and a half). The scenery outside was small lakes, forest and an occasional melting section of a lake.
It was then a bit of “show and tell” as I went through the photos I had taken at Cape Canaveral for Emerson, the young boy who had seen the last shuttle launch with his father and then had the photos go off the camera. This was followed by an early call to lunch, at 11:30, so we would be finished by the time we arrived in Capreol (12:15) for a stop of about half an hour. After a very short and very brisk walk of about ten minutes, it was back into the warm train.
In the afternoon I fixed up the photos from Vancouver and the train, wrote a little more on my blog and copied the photographs which the boys were interested in, especially the crocodiles. Then I dropped that DVD off to them, and to be fair, I gave the girl a kangaroo pin. I also gave a koala pin to the lady I ha spoken to a number of times and one to the lounge car attendant. Then I packed everything up and tidied everything, took some more photos and then it was the call for dinner. I sat with the lady with the pin, another lady associated with the universities and hospitals in Richmond Hill and an engineer with Saskatoon (whose specialty is sewers).
After dinner it was an anticlimax, with the train due to arrive early and then it finally arriving late. I managed to dispose of a tissue box, so I know have a road atlas to give away and a few things to post home.
Unfortunately by the time we arrived in, the enquiry areas were all closed so I had to take a taxi to the motel I was staying at. It took quite a time (as Toronto doesn’t include the suburb name, so it’s hard to work out exactly where places are unless you have a directory). The taxi driver lived near there, and explained how public transport was really close and fairly easy to use.
I booked in, uploaded some photos and blogs and went to bed fairly quickly and to sleep soon.