Walkerton and home

 I dodged a bullet with my assigned seat on the train. My mate was a pleasant young woman but just behind and to the side of me was a bulky biker with what was left of his grey hair caught at the nape of his neck in a whispy pony tail who told the poor older woman seated beside him more stories of his adventures and operations than I've had hot dinners, as David Glover used to say. By putting in earplugs I could dim the sound enough so that I only actually heard what he was saying when I took the took the irritating things out every once in a while. Otherwise I wrote and read and the trip went quickly. Union Station in Toronto is still not finished, but it's much better than it was the last to I was there. Cathy and Brian picked me up at the Kitchener station and we drove home through the subdued fall colours of the farmland of eastern Ontario. It makes you wonder how there can be hunger anywhere on this planet when you see an area of such plenty, field after field of corn, the heavy cobs dropping around the middle of each plant, ready to be harvested. We sat around drinking wine, eating cheese and Mark's deer sausage and talking.  

On Friday we drove to the Mennonite market where more of the riches of the earth were arrayed before us, the most enormous broccoli and sweet peppers I have ever seen. Then we went to Mr Martin's farm and bee supply store to buy things for Mark. He and Emily and Evan came by to say hello shortly after we got home. Then we settled in to a delicious beef tenderloin dinner and the first night of our semi binge watching of the BBC series, "PeakyBlinders". It's gripping. 

 

Saturday was Brian's birthday, so the whole gang came over for  a birthday/Thanksgiving dinner. The weather wasn't great so the kids were inside most of the time, but they were great, no fights. I played a kind of Scrabble mostly with Alex and Evan. We made the rules very loosey goosey and had a lot of fun. Leah was very proud and happy to be able to sit for dinner at the kids' table. As Dave was carving the turkey, I stood by and picked and ate too much of the skin and tasty bits. My body rebelled by throwing much of it back up late at night. It's not the first time I've done that and likely won't be the last. 

On Sunday Cathy and I drove out to visit Dave and Dana's farm. It really is becoming a working farm, garden and hunting location. They have donkeys, a horse, goats, about 6 pigs, chickens and numerous barn cats. The second floor of the barn was cleaned up and made firm earlier this season. Dave and Zak were cleaning the main floor when we arrived. Zak wields a pitch fork like a hockey player, Bobby Orr. Dave took me and the kids for a ride in the side-by-side all through the woods: past Mark's bees, wrapped up for the winter; over to the perfect new blind he and Dave made so Brian can hunt deer in style and by all the trees they have planted, including some thriving European tamarack. Back in the house we saw Dana who's pregnant with their fourth child and watched Dave make jalapeño poppers. He grew baskets of jalapeños this year and gave Cathy a bunch which she took home to make  into poppers for us. Delicious 😋 

On Thanksgiving Monday we all, except Dana who had to work, drove to the Greenock Swamp to walk along the trails and out on the new floating boardwalk. Mark led the kids at a fast pace and the rest of us followed. My knee continues to be pretty painful. In fact I phoned from Walkerton to make an appointment with the doctor for Friday, the day after I get home. Cathy, Brian and I had dinner at Mark and Jen's. It was fun to see the kids rooms, play some amazing crashing spinners game with Evan and see Em's rock collection. She gave me a Thanksgiving card she had made. I was touched by what she had written in it. She also made good deviled eggs, almost as tasty as her mom's pumpkin pie and her dad's barbecued bear, which was tender and just nicely smokey. 

 

The holiday continued with a drive to Kincardine, a visit to the kids' Karate class and a traditional, delicious roast beef dinner. 

Cathy and Brian drove me to the Kitchener airport where I was caught again by the excessively vigilant and underworked customs staff caught me again. When they first scanned my carry on they spotted the two deer sausages Mark had given me. They thought they looked like cans, which are not permitted. When they discovered what they were, they let them go but insisted on another scan. This time they spied my hair cutting scissors, took them out, measured then, discovered they were 1/4inch too long and refused to let me take them on board. 

Mo and John picked me up at the Kelowna Airport at 11:00pm in the pouring rain. They are very good friends. When I told Jay this in a Kakaotalk message I made a mistake and wrote 'licked me up' instead of 'picked' me up. His response follows:

On Friday I saw the doctor and had an X-ray of my left knee. On Monday the doctor phoned to say that there was no arthritis. Now I'm seeing a physio who thinks it's a torn meniscus, so I'm doing specific exercises, icing it and limiting activity. I will have a series of appointments over the next two weeks and hope for the best. 

Ottawa and Wakefield

Mela picked me up at the VIA Rail station in Ottawa. Thus began my visits with good old friends and family. I stayed with her and Don for a few days. Mela and I spent time together in the  local market and coffee shop. We walked in Mud Lake and went to make final arrangements for the engraving on the stone that will be placed at the base of the tree they have chosen to be planted in Britannia Park in memory of Blake. She and Don and I had time to just sit around together at meals and renew our friendship. Caroline and Albert joined us one night for pot au feu and birthday clafoutis to celebrate Caroline's birthday. Mela, Caroline and I began the evening with our traditional tequila cheers. 

Mela at the market buying vegetables for the pot au feu she made for Caroline's birthday

The bear in his den

I then spent some 'quality' time with Caroline and Albert. Again we seemed to slip easily into conversations and activities as if we hadn't been apart for as long as we have. Caroline and I visited the Museum of Nature to see a special exhibit of butterflies. We walked through vertical, clear Venetian blinds into a warm, humid room full of plants and butterflies of all imaginable colours. It was exotic. As a complete contrast, we then visited the relatively new exhibit of Canada's north which includes artifacts and interactive explanations from ancient Inuit tomes to Martin Frobisher's first European explorations to the present day. Another day we went to the Museum of History, my favourite for its architecture and setting. We spent a lot of time in the Neanderthal exhibit and then watched the IMAX film, "Great Bear Rainforest, Land of the Spirit Bear". I had seen it in May with Terry and Barbara,  but it's so well done I happily watched it again. I also realized my two food ambitions of the trip while with them. We had dinner one night in a real shawarma restaurant and bagel breakfast at Vince's. There I met Jim's old gang who still have breakfast together almost every week. Caroline and I of course did not eat with them. 🤣We  women went to our own table. On Thursday I had fun with Caroline and Simon, her youngest grandson. He's Gabe's second boy. On Friday we drove to Wakefield for lunch at Le Hibou. Christine Stobbert who lived on our road and babysat Jay a few times came up and introduced herself to me. She is a part owner there now. It was a very pleasant surprise to see her again. 

Caroline under the moon at the Museum of Nature

A brand new butterfly at the Museum of Nature

A friend and I on the shore of the Ottawa River at the Museum of History

Gabe and his boys at home


Albert's signature poached egg on a bagel 

Then it was off to Micheline's for the gathering of the WWW. Unfortunately Rosanda and Mary Lou were not with us. In spite of that we had some good old times: walking, talking, laughing and eating. Although we don't need liquor to loosen our tongues, the fact that Lindy brought the makings for martinis probably added to the ribald atmosphere. The Wild Women of Wakefield don't have to change our name yet, but we had fun thinking of names we might use in the future such as, We Were Wild and maybe in the distant future, What Were We?

The WWW -2 at Micheline's 

I stayed for a few days with Miche. Paul was in the southern USA at a motorcycle exhibit. Miche and I did lots of things we both enjoy. The weather was cool and often sunny, and the leaves got more colourful by the day. They were at their peak by the end of me stay. We went to the Wakefield market where I saw quite a few old neighbours, walked on the paths around the village, biked along the Ottawa River, had two spa days and watched two good old movies. She drove me to the Baughan's where I spent my last two nights in Ottawa. I've had good visits with them on my last two trips. Carolyn managed to coral Megan, Geoff and Sarah again for the traditional delicious family dinner. Carolyn and Ken drove me to the station the next morning where I caught the train for Kitchener.  

The traditional Baughan dinner

Kamloops to Ottawa on VIA Rail

On this trip I have learned by going not only where I have to go but also where I should have gone and how and when. If or when I take another train trip in Canada I will do it differently. I will go east from Vancouver, NOT KAMLOOPS.  This time I carried my pack and rolled my carry-on down 32nd Street to City Hall where I caught the ebus ($25.00) to a mall in Kamloops where I caught a cab ($20.00) to the Riverland Inn and Suites where I had taken a room to wait for the train in ($110.00). There was nothing to eat there so I walked 15 minutes to the nearest place, Dairy Queen, where I bought a crispy chicken salad and Orange Julius to carry back and eat while I watched tv and waited for the train that was due to leave at 1:00am. At 11:00pm I phoned VIA. The employee who answered was as surprised as I was to discover that the train was almost on time. So I ordered a taxi for 12:15 to take me to the Kamloops North Station ($20.00). The train did finally leave the station at 2:00am. As I waited for it I watched two of the longest freights I've ever seen roll slowly and loudly by, one pulling an uncountable number of tanker units labeled, not odourized liquified petroleum. I later read of the dangers of transporting that because odourless leaks can not easily be detected. By 2:15 I was snuggling into my upper berth, jolting east.  I was asleep in minutes. The rest of the trip had it's high, low and medium moments, but I'll never take a VIA train east from Kamloops again. I'll take the bus to Vancouver and train east from there. While I was with Miche, she had this thought. The other suggestion she made was to plan the time of the next trip not only according to dates that suit me but also with the sale dates on the Via web site in mind. The prices are spectacularly lower than normal fares. I have added this site to my favourites. 

I have seen many good friends in the last couple of months. Terry Keough was in Vernon in mid September, visiting relatives. He came to my place one evening and we had a beer and chat. Then we walked up to his niece Coleen's for her usual great dinner. After dinner we talked, watched CNN and talked some more, this time about the furor in Trumplandia as impeachment looms ever nearer while simultaneously getting nowhere. This topic and CNN have gone on to become a leitmotif of my trip east: at Don and Mela's, at Caroline and Albert's and a bit at the Baughan's. The only Trumplandia free zone was  Micheline's where we watched a couple of good old videos. The word impeachment never crossed our lips. It's a testament to the US mastery of media that their problems with a narcissistic president have captured the attention of Canadians more than our own upcoming federal election. I've been reading a bit about the latter but haven't watched a single debate. 

Back to chronology and VIA Rail. On Tuesday, September 24, I woke just before 7:00. By 7:30 I was eating a delicious omelette in the dining car. After, I went to the observation car in time to see Mt Robson as we approached Valmont. We stopped in Jasper for an hour. I got out and walked around town with a Korean woman,Han, and another woman, both of whom had been seated with me for breakfast. I sat for meals with one or both of them from time to time but not always. The Maitre D' was very skilled at mixing people up. Han was sweet and very enthusiastic about her trip in Canada. It was an ambitious one. She had been traveling alone for about three weeks and would not be visiting friends until we reached Toronto. She is retired after having taught English in elementary school in Seoul for her entire career. In spite of this, she had great difficulty speaking English; although, she knew the basic grammar well. It made it clear why so many Koreans send their kids to English hagwons like the one Jay teaches at if they want them to be able to actually use the language. 

I had conversations with many interesting people from Norway, England, Wales and Waco, Texas. But there was one crashing bore. I tried to avoid him after having my first lunch in his company. He, unfortunately, was Canadian; although, he was born in England. He looked about my age, with grey hair that must have been intentionally worked into the worst case of bed head I've ever seen because it remained as it was when I first met him until we detrained in Toronto. As we sat down we all introduced ourselves using our first name. He said he was Geoffrey-James. I assumed he had a hyphenated first name and prepared to find him pompous. He did not disabuse me of this notion. I learned later from Mela that his first name is Geoffrey and his family name is James. He assumed we would all have heard of him if he said both, but we hadn't. He proceeded to fill our ears with the hyperbole and superlatives that he seemed to find necessary to impart to us even an inkling of his extraordinary life. I can't remember how I managed to get a word in (which is saying something since I am rarely lost for words) and why I mentioned Mela when I did, but his reaction was positively gleeful. She had "worked for him".  He was sure she'd be impressed that I'd met him and say, "Wow!"  Well she wasn't and didn't. She told me when I got to her house that he had hired her at the Canada Council. She had been happy to get the job so easily but not impressed by the fact that he sat with his feet on his desk while he conducted the perfunctory interview. She was impressed however once she'd worked there a while by how lazy he was. I could attest to that because although he boasted of the fact that VIA had given him the trip from Vancouver to Toronto with an option to use in a brochure some of the spectacular pictures he would take with his magnificent camera that had also been given to him by the best makers of cameras in Germany. It turns out he is a recognized Canadian photographer. He did have an impressive looking camera, but he didn't seem to go to any great lengths to get good shots. Whenever I saw him he was either sitting sideways on a bench in the games room below the dome idly snapping pictures through the window or filling someone's ear with stories about himself. His unfortunate hair and narcissism might qualify him to be a Canadian Trump. Thank goodness his name won't be on any ballot on October 21. 

The dreary VIA Rail station in Kamloops

The Sleeping Giant seen from the dome car as the train headed east out of Jasper. Coming from Thunder Bay where the real Sleeping Giant rests in the Harbour, I was slow to appreciate it,but it is impressive. The country that the train rolls through east of Jasper is well worth sitting in the dome car to appreciate even though it's not as starkly rocky as the Banff/Jasper area.  The tamaracks along the sides of the tracks were healthy and swayed gracefully in the strong wind. They were still green but the aspens and birch had already turned bright yellow. 

A grain elevator near Raymore, Saskatchewan 

The Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg. Han had really wanted to visit this museum but it was closed by the time we reached Winnipeg. But we had about an hour to walk around and fortunately it's close to the train station.