Day 10

Merry Christmas! Welcome to the brown north!

Whoever disclaims that Global Warming is happening should be looking at our weather here in the boonies of Donald, Ontario (Koshlong Lake Road, off Haliburton County Road 1). We've had rain the past couple days, temperatures in the low single digits (metric...this means it's in the 40's-50's in fahrenheit), and nearly all the snow we've had here has all but melted away. The lake is breaking up to a certain extent (wasn't ever solid enough for people to go out on the ice either...so much for Michaelea's wish to go ice-fishing while we were out here), and if all that wasn't enough...we're getting so much wind that we've had power bumps pretty much all day and a 4-5 hour long outage. Not quite long enough to warrant getting the generator out of the garage, but long enough to make us think about what needs to be done to get the residence ready for a longer outage, in weather that's potentially just as ugly. In any event, I'm thinking we'll be getting appropriate stuff done tomorrow to make sure we're ready for such a potential eventuality.

Dial-up internet remains a hate for me. Web surfing is pretty much out of the question, and downloading 308 spam messages over dialup is painful at best. At least the home-brewed router (using the iBook G4's modem bridged to the airport connection was easy and reliable) works!

Had a few of the Oshawa based Harrison's (and Chaputs) up to see us today. Nice to visit, right in the middle of the power outage. :-)

Couple days ago, did up a few logs into wood suitable for the wood stove downstairs (thus the lack of worry about heat in the house) with the hydraulic log splitter, and yesterday, Michaelea officially named "Hazel"...that is, she applied the late Aunt Hazel's signature to Dad's new John Deere tractor which he's using for landscaping stuff and snow-blowing. We also did it's first oil and transmission fluid change. Only one broken socket in the ordeal of getting the oil pan drain plug undone! (Doubt we'll ever tighten it up that much again to need a breaker bar and a sturdy socket to get it undone!)

Other than that, life is progressing out here. We'll be posting photos and so forth when we've got broadband internet once again...

Until next time,

Jon

Day 6

Arrived into Union Station last night a little on the late side, give or take about 50 minutes down. Apparently some people on the train only started gathering their rather sizable pile of luggage when the train stopped at Aldershot. The service manager was rather clear for the stops a little further on about getting luggage ready prior to arrival at Oakville if that's where they were getting off.

Stayed at the Strathcona Hotel, the walk to there was a little...interesting shall we say. Not that the distance was any issue, since it was only a block and a bit away from Union Station, but that the snow on the ground made for tough walking and my feet are paying for it. The Sorels work wonderfully at keeping feet warm and dry, rather important with the slush on the sidewalks and really watered down slush at the curb edges crossing the road. But they're not made for a lot of walking and with the condition they're in means that feet move around a bit and my feet are now quite raw. I am quite happy to have running shoes to provide some better support to the feet.

Anyhow, back to the hotel. Everything was good, though internet isn't free, and the room was a little on the small side. But the bed was really comfortable, which after all the "all-nighters" we've pulled over the past few days is Very Appreciated. Answered the alarm on my cell this morning and then promptly fell back asleep. Woke up a little over an hour later when Michaelea advised we'd overslept. I continued sleeping. :-)

Checked out after packing up everything and having a shower. Back over to Union station and found the walk a lot wetter this morning than yesterday. Got to the car rental place (Alamo/Enterprise) and went through the process. The rental agent must've been quite sympathetic to our "adventure" and put me on as a second driver for no charge (regular value of $11/day - When I heard that price, I had pretty much decided that Michaelea would be the driver) and the vehicle we got was considerably "upgraded" from what I was expecting. I had requested a compact car (ie: a Chev Cobalt), and what we got was a Chrysler Sebring! Leather seats, much more room, and potentially even Sirius Radio. Not that we need it since we brought our iPods and the RoadTrip to play our music on the drive.

Departure out of Toronto was rather uneventful, the Don Valley Parkway moved pretty well and the 401 east was pretty good too. Around Oshawa we had to pass by a car which had done something stupid and removed the front bumper at speed, spinning out as well. We followed the ambulance in, but traffic moved around the wreckage pretty smoothly. The rest of the 401 was in wet condition, no worries atll. Once onto the lesser highways, we're noticing a fair amount more slush and lots of fog, but otherwise, no issues for us. Michaelea's even following the rather pedantic speed limits. (out in Alberta, these roads would be rated for at least 90 or 100 rather than 80...)

So we're definitely into dial-up internet after this update (we'll do a bit of war-driving to post this) and enjoying our holiday time with the folks...Next update when we have a few spare minutes.

Cheers to you and yours!
Jon

Day 5 Night

We are finally aboard VIA 1 from Windsor to Toronto. The train got going a little late, which will probably mean a night in Toronto for us. Which looks like it's going to be the best thing anyway considering the weather. We will get a room in a Hotel not far from the Toronto Union Station and then pick up the rental car in the morning and then head out. We are hoping that we will be going against the flow of traffic in the morning. We are happy. They have fed us good food and wine, liquor, coffee, and tea, juice. Any type of drink you want. I had a small glass of wine. It's my yearly drink since I am allergic to alcohol. If the entire trip was this nice there would have been a lot less frustration.

Michaelea

So we're going to definitely miss the 10:10 deadline for the car rental. Looked up on the interweb a few hotels close to Union Station and have decided on the Strathcona Hotel which is all of a block and a bit away from the front door of Union Station. It's really _really_ nice to have internet access onboard the train, something I wish would expand out of the Windsor-Quebec Corridor. It'd be handy to have on the Canadian when you'd like to check in on e-mail while you're crossing the country.

I'm glad to have introduced Michaelea to VIA 1...She gets to experience first-hand why I always prefer travelling first class! Life is good at 95mph in the VIA 1 car...

As we don't have internet at the hotel, we'll likely be signing off on this for tonight and perhaps will post one more update before we head out to the hinterland, where we'll be on dial-up internet...Yuck.

Jon

Day 5 Afternoon/Evening

We're back in Canada!!!

Yes, it's only Windsor, but at least we're in Canada. Arrived into Detroit (and the station there leaves a lot to be desired...) and had the station agent make a couple phone calls to find us a cab willing to take us across the border into Windsor. Cabs unfortunately are pretty pricey affairs, about $45 flat rate, plus the tolls (about $7.50 US for a round trip). Probably either of our most expensive cab ride yet, and the distance/time wasn't too bad for us, though the bigger problem was for the cabbie going back home. 1) He can't take a fare back to Detroit to alleiviate the trip and 2) the line up going through the tunnel to Detroit was stretched the entire distance of the tunnel and out past the toll gates!

For us in the back seat, the border crossing was pretty smooth, only a few questions and that's it. We had more issues with the customs agent wanting exact placement of the appropriate windows at his window and the cabbie didn't quite comply as nicely as he could've? In any event, we're back...Lunch was typical Canadian Fare. Sandwich or Chili at Tim Hortons, which thankfully is only a block away from the VIA station. I managed to secure a couple tickets for us from Windsor to Toronto while we were stuck waiting for another Amtrak train to pass us outside of Ann Arbour, MI...Thanks to the folks who left their internet connection open for us to "borrow" for a few minutes!

Train is supposed to arrive in Windsor at 5pm, turn around and head back for Toronto at 6pm. Hopefully we can keep to the schedule or else we'll be looking for a hotel tonight in the centre of the universe since the car rental desk closes at 10pm. We've got agreement with them to hang around for 10 minutes after that, in the event our train is on time and arrives at 6 minutes after 10pm. Mich would love to be able to drive up tonight and see her parents, but we'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, we're waiting at Windsor's train station.

Jon

PS: We decided for kicks to see what sort of time the Lake Shore Limited left Chicago and see whether we made the right decision to go for Detroit. Sure enough, we absolutely did. The LSL left Chicago around 1:30-2pm this afternoon, which would've guaranteed a missed connection in Rochester or Buffalo and another night in a hotel and another wait for the train to Toronto. Yikes! (and for those wondering the folks waiting for the Empire Builder left about an hour early for the next day's departure time (ie: they're about 23 hours behind schedule!!!)

Day 5 Morning

And the adventure continues...But it's getting to be not so fun any longer. After we signed off on last night's update, we tried to get some form of rest on the floor of the Metropolitan lounge, and during which time, things started to get somewhat ugly. Information was not forthcoming from the people who had it to the people who wanted to share it with us. Conductors came and went with tickets and assurances for those ticketed on the Empire Builder (trains 7 and 27 to Seattle and Portland respectively) and yet the train was not being boarded.

The Lake Shore Limited was even worse...guesses were made as to when the train would be ready to go, but those times came and went and nothing further.

So a few people were demanding to be put up in a hotel but due to the time of day (so late at night, it's morning), the agents in the lounge were not able to help out in that respect. Legal actions were threatened (only in America!), people started rushing the desk, and it wasn't until an Amtrak Police agent came in and very loudly and firmly got everyone back under control.

A little while later (give or take 2:15am), train 354 to Detroit was announced as being ready for boarding. This was a train due to leave Chicago around 6pm but didn't due to much the same reasons why the other trains weren't leaving either (frozen equipment, lack of locomotives, etc.).

So with no news about the Lake Shore Limited, I checked out what sort of availability VIA Rail had out of Windsor. Sure enough, there's space available from Windsor (just across the river from Detroit) to Toronto, and if we're lucky, we'll get into Toronto around 5ish pm as opposed to 8ish...Provided of course that we wouldn't end up with yet another misconnect between the LSL and the Maple Leaf. So, went to talk to Isabelle (one of the Met Lounge agents) and asked if there was space aboard the Wolverine she just announced boarding for. She did, so I said we'll take the train to Detroit and then make our own way to Windsor and VIA. We're now aboard that train, with a somewhat quirky arrangement. Our entire coach of passengers going through to Detroit is sitting backwards, the engine's pushing us (I'm not sure whether we've got a Cab Car or another engine at the "front" of the train), and the door at the back end is stuck open. We're getting a little chilled as a result, but managing to get some sleep in the trip. I gave Michaelea the idea to use the toque as an eye mask, and once she removed her glasses, worked fine. Managed to get some decent sleep too. Me, I got a few winks here and there, and hopefully will get a few more aboard VIA. After all, if the car rental is still available (and bloody well should be given that I made a couple phone calls yesterday to Alamo's main call centre and the Toronto desk to advise of our late arrival and to NOT give our car away since we're no-shows for the 22nd), we've got ourselves a few more hours at the wheel to get to the cottage outside of Haliburton.

So, upcoming will be arrival into Detroit (hopefully not much more than an hour) and then get the Maple Leaf refunded, and find a cab willing to take us across the border into Canada.

Wheeee!

Jon

Day 4 night

They still can not get us into a sleeper for our train tonight. We were supposed to start boarding at 8pm for our train which was supposed to leave at 10pm, but it is now 9:30pm and they still have not called our train. We don't know when we are going to be able to leave at this point. We are hoping that it won't be too much longer.

Update: it's now almost one am, and still no news for our train. Several other trains have left but no word on ours... We were told midnight but that has come and gone without any further news. {sigh}

Day 4 Evening

Amtrak put us up in the Hyatt for the afternoon. We jumped in the
shower as soon as we got into the room on the 20th floor, it was so
nice to get clean. After our showers we went to find a bite to eat.
Out of the 4 restaurants in the hotel the most expensive one was open.
We each had chicken caesar salad. I ordered a ginger ale and the
waiter got me a regular one and then he came back with one that he
mixed himself which was lighter and less fizzy. It was nice. We then
headed back to the hotel room and took a nap for the afternoon. I
still woke up with a migrane, but felt refreshed. We are now back at
the Amtrak station waiting for 8pm which is when we are supposed to be able to start boarding our train. I am in the "Sleeper Car" special
waiting room and Jon is out exploring the train station and seeing if
we can get a sleeper on the car. Due to the large amount of delays we
may just get lucky and get one.

There is so little room left that I am sitting on the floor behind one
of the chairs. There are lots of people standing as well. They just
told about 10 trains that they are delayed and that they will not be
getting dinner on the train. They are encouraged to go and get
something in the food court and that they would be re-imbursed for the cost of the meal. Up to $18.00 per adult and up to $9.00 for kids.
Jon went and checked for sleepers and unfortunately, no luck. We'll try talking to the conductor to see if anyone missed their connection (like us last night) and left some space open. Jon also grabbed some goodies for our trip, some cinnabon cinnamon rolls, plus some assorted junk food for us while we're waiting or on the train.

The Adventure continues!