Assault from Canada

Many believe Canada contently sits above the United States with a population more concerned with beer and hockey than disturbing its assertive neighbor. Canada took everyone by surprise delivering a difficult storm that caused Californians to assemble sandbags and airliners to cancel or heavily delay flights throughout the Midwest and East Coast. Fortunately, as the storm commanded East, I voyaged West to avoid the inconvenient weather.

Well, almost.

The number three train pulled into Kansas City’s Union Station at 10:25pm on schedule and ready to board. After finding a seat and throwing my backpack in the overhead storage, I expected drowsiness to quickly follow. I guess I left sleep in the train station, and no shift in position or meditation exercise induced this elusive state. Cold air blew throughout the cabin, making my jacket-now-blanket useless in the comfort efforts.

At four in the morning, a grumbling noise shook the train and my glances around determined that a super snorer did not cause such an occurrence. Outside our cabin, the motor of an eastbound passenger train growled while we waited on a side track for it to pass.

The sun saturated my eyelids by eight in the morning, awaking me to a conversation between the conductor and another passenger. Bad weather slowed down the train –snow and ice coated the tracks inhibiting the reading of its sensors- resulting in a three hour delay. As we continued across, our speed periodically reduced to thirty miles an hour and I watched as cars proceeded by and landscapes slowly changed. The delay reached four hours, and mutterings of impatience and unrest by surrounding passengers floated along.

To alleviate such feelings, I walked over to the cafe car with wide windows and a more open ambiance. With a book in hand, a view in front of me, and a soda to sip, I did not mind so much the additional time. As the longest leg of my journey, what was four extra hours on a seventeen hour ride?