Trains.com

(Almost) Home at last

Posted by Fred Frailey
on Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Well, finally! It's 6:10 p.m., we are still 200-plus miles from Toronto and 16-17 hours late on VIA Rail's Canadian. But at last it looks like winter outside. This is as good as it gets on a train. Outside, the snow is falling pell-mell. The sight is so evocative of Canada that tears well up.

A couple of blogs ago I called this trip an adventure. This isn't the first time aboard the Canadian that I've had to make massive changes in my travel plans (massive because they are expensive). But in a manner of speaking, that's one of the best moments in travel, when you deal with the unexpected and then sit back and appreciate the unexpected.

I expected to spend the night in Montreal and then take Amtrak home to Washington, D.C. Instead I'll spend the night in Toronto (what little of it is left by the time I get there) and fly home tomorrow.

The point is, I realize I had fun dealing with the surprises dealt me on this journey across Canada. The reservations cancelled, the new ones made. And what do I get for that (beyond some credits from VIA for the tardiness it did not cause)? My god, is it snowing now! Don't tell me this is spring! Does that answer my rhetorical question? -- Fred W. Frailey

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