When Porter and I decided to take Via Rail across Canada, we had no doubt we’d enjoy ourselves. We love train travel, and the sleeper-car experience was a real “bucket list” item for each of us. I was a little worried about how I’d handle the absence of WIFI on the Canadian, but mostly I was just curious about the outer and inner journeys. Here’s what I discovered . . .
Large Vistas and Small Spaces
Canada is vast. The province of Ontario takes two days to traverse by train, with nothing but evergreens and lakes flying by the window. Manitoba and Saskatchewan come next, all prairies and farmland. Then it’s Alberta, gateway to the Rockies, which are so much bigger than my east coast existence prepared me for. Across Alberta then into British Columbia and down through Washington, we beheld forests, mountains, and even glaciers of enormous proportions. Everything was gorgeous. It was hard to peel my eyes away.
And yet, the snug scale of train life was also a pleasure. Even though we’d packed lightly for the extended trip, we could only bring into our compartment the things we absolutely needed on the train. Comfy clothes, in layers. A few books and crossword puzzles. Toiletries. Travel mugs. The compartment provided enough nooks and hooks for us to have a place for everything. It felt like a small private room in a (gently rocking) retreat house. We could venture over to the dining car, lounge car, and dome car, but that was the extent of our world for four days. I was blissfully content.
In my last blog post, I reminisced about mornings at the Jersey shore before laptops and smart phones, when “I’d rise first, slip out of our room, brew the coffee, head to the deck, pray and/or journal, then get comfortable with whatever novel I was reading. Presently, the sliding door would open and there would be Mom, coffee in one hand, novel in the other.” Mornings on the train were remarkably similar, except I’d take the thermos of coffee I’d prepped the night before to the darkened dome car and pray while watching the train’s headlights illuminate the landscape ahead. Presently, Porter would slide into the seat next to me so we could watch the sun transform the pre-dawn sky together. It was a beautiful reminder of God’s slow and steady work, even in the darkness of our lives.
Christine Marie Eberle 