There is a Duluth Depot-like feel here amidst the shops and arched entrances, old and full of amphitheatres, tunnels and an aqueduct curve on most of the arches funnelling people below them. A canopy covering a cluster of three tables sitting in the middle of a communal rectangular space where people flow by, coming from Dray Lane and heading towards Carriage Lane. Tallgrass prairie, a testament of Manitoba outside, helps add an organic feel to the place of commerce and spending near a bakery doing good business this morning.
The place is two levels; exploration will only lead to spending money I don’t have --so I write and finish the rest of Chapter Five. It takes diligence to slowly enjoy a few survival cookies, the rebranded version of the infamous chocolate chip cookies, and the Americano from the shop.
Back on board, I read about the “inukshuks” – the symbol of the Vancouver Games, meaning “one that looks like a person” in the Inuit language, landmarks for seasoned travelers north of 53 degrees latitude, and on Manitoba itself, meaning “straight of the Spirit”.
There is a layer of frost on all the trees – white skeletons, partially blocked from view as we are passed by another freight train, waiting motionless; it makes me dizzy to try and watch all the graffiti flow by.
“First call for lunch” by the conductor as I read more about Manitoba, (motto: “Glorious and Free,”) unlike the lunch - $20.00, for a hot meal served on the train. I spot people skating below the train bridge, complete with Olympic rings and nets. I pull out the lunch packed from Brad’s house last night: turkey, cheese, Kashi crackers, child-like juiceboxes, a real treat. I am staring out the window, every single tree is covered in that layer of frost, shelterbelts, low trees, fences; everything. In some points of my viewpoint, this train perspective, I look out and see five miles of Manitoba at a time, flat and chilled by this freeze. Everything is a white haze.
As the sheen of the steel tracks catching sunlight makes its way into the economy class, it’s already clear that the VIA (motto: “we wait for freight”) was a good decision in terms of free time, giving me an ability to write, but as of now, nobody is speaking, it is only the low rumble of the train that is heard.
And then, within five minutes of flat for five, a large change of geography. Rolling hills, coulees, small aspens, so unlike the gnarled old trees of the prairie still dotted on the landscape. It reminds me of logged cuts in northern Minnesota, spaces of open hillside and young growth in the aspens. Where did the flat fields go as pines are mixed in. They are large open hillside of spots, mixed forests.
Fence lines to my left, not barbed, what a strange forest type, I think, and whoosh, I look up from writing these observations and it is back to corn and cows and flat.
Nobody knows where I am. I don’t even know. I cross provincial road 352, Manitoba. The next waypoint is perhaps near Rivers, Manitoba, watching the sunset on the Canadian prairie (remnants) and wheat fields. Darkness is coming now.
2 comments:
Manitoba has a wonderful feel to it in the winter,have traveled it north & south, but is quite awesome in summer when the fields are ripe. Fun to travel by train!
It was so fun to see the frost and see the prairies in the winter; it is a gift to see one of my favorite environments in a different time of year.
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