Aside from a one-way trip home to Toronto from Montreal avec mon ami Gregoire (and Pickles, may god rest his kitty soul) about 20 years ago, this is the first time I've ever been on a train.
All my prior long-distance travel has been on planes so I was expecting a similar experience: narrow aisles, cramped seats and dry, recirculated air. I'm pleased to report that I could not have been more wrong!
Rail cars are much more spacious than I'd anticipated and Deborah and I are lucky enough to have our section of the sleeper car to ourselves. Which is a good thing since the train was more than an hour late picking us up and we boarded at 4am. So we were free to spaz around and fling our luggage all over the top bunk. We both have lower berths right across the aisle from each other, which means there was a lot of excited whispering.
We tried to grab a few hours' sleep right off the bat but we weren't accustomed to the sway and noise of the train. This is an aspect I don't want to downplay. This train honks A LOT. My apologies to everyone in northern Ontario who lives near the railroad tracks. The constant shimmy is vaguely reminiscent of Deborah and Bryan's smartie-blue Jeep Cherokee; a sensation only Becca and the ghost of Dakota can ever truly appreciate.
The pace of train travel is not for the faint of heart. We've honestly spent more time stopped waiting for freight trains to pass than we have rolling. To compensate for which, we alternately hurtle at alarming speeds through the gaps in the CN/CP schedule. If you're not in a hurry, then I highly recommend train travel. Unfortunately, we are in a hurry to get to Saskatoon before Sister Wife #2 implodes from sheer excitement.
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