Ptarmigan Ptime!

Breakfast is in 30 minutes.  If yesterday is any indication, I better use my time wisely as we are always birding. Back to yesterday morning.

We were picked up by Stephanie and Heidi who work at the Centre and Rudolf who is our bird guide for the trip.  There was one other guest who had just flown in.  Big news in Churchill, there is a Common Crane is town. It sounds boring but it is from Eurasia (also known as the Eurasian Crane), first time in Manitoba and very few previous in Canada.  First stop, the grain port where he is hanging out with some Sandhill Cranes.  We did not find him.  

Then a slow ride to the Centre during which we saw our first Ptarmigan.  At the Centre we dropped off our bags and get our rooms sorted.  Mom and I are in room 4.  There are two bunk beds, we claimed the two bottom beds.  Now that everyone has arrived, I think we get to keep the room to ourselves.  Then we had a safety orientation that mostly said - don't get eaten by a bear.

The Centre is pretty cool.  There is dorms upstairs with a library and games room.  I saw a pool table somewhere.  Downstairs is the cafeteria and gift shop.  At one end is the research area with labs and microscope-y type stuff. People are working in there so I just took a quick peek.

Meals are at 7am, noon and 5:30.  Be there or don’t eat (that's not true but that is when hot meals are served, otherwise it is cold leftovers in the fridge).  There are a couple of paid cooks but most of the clean up is by volunteers and guests.

Apparently, this is the only picture I have taken of the Centre, inside or out.

I think this was our longest 'break' while we had our bear talk.  Then we had lunch and out the door, into the van and birding commenced.  Back to the grain port but no luck again. Then to the airport to pick up the last five of our group and then back to the grain port.  Still no luck.  People were getting antsy about that crane.  Of course when we weren't at the airport or the grain port, we were looking at other birds, all of which escape me at the moment (no worries, I have pictures!).  Zillions of water birds.

Horned Grebe

Common Eider

A pair of Pintails

Green-winged Teal

Dinner and back out again 45 minutes later.  The blessing and the curse of the cold weather and long days, birding never has to stop.  No whimpy southern excuses like it is too hot mid-day or it is dark at 9 o'clock.  Nope, we birded until 10:30pm.  We were all exhausted but Rudolf is a keener.   We certainly can't complain we aren't getting our money's worth.

We saw some great birds at the end of the day - a Spruce Grouse, and a Snowy Owl.  My camera died so not pictures of these two, I'm sorry to say.  Funny bird story - one of the guests had just asked Rudolf if we would see a Snowy Owl and he was explaining how that was very unlikely as they had all left town by now.   Literally as he was saying that, another guest says - isn't that one there?  There was a huge Snowy Owl right in front of us on a tiny tree.  So awesome.  Plus, we spent all day looking for another Ptarmigan and then found one sitting in a tree just down the road from the Centre.

The Ptarmigan, in between his winter whites and his summer browns

Here are some pictures from our first day

This is an area called the 'Flats'

Squirrel!!!

There are hundreds of ponds, everywhere.

The gorgeous greeny-grey moss grows under the trees.

The Ithica in the ice.  It is an old shipwreck.  I have no historical data for you.

Houses in the Flats, it is a poor area of town

There are so many abandoned buildings here.
This was a radar station that is falling apart.

Another abandoned building.  This was apartments for the port workers

I should mention the ice on the bay/river.  We had heard that it was starting to break up when we were on the train.  Sure enough, by the time we reached Churchill, the ice was mostly gone.  There is still some in a couple of bays but not in the main body of water.  This means the belugas are here! Yay.  Breakup is also when the polar bears start coming back into town as they leave the ice and move inland.  We have been told that it is still too early and even when they do arrive, they don't mass like they do in fall.  But, just to drive us crazy, there was a sighting on a nearby beach the day before we arrived.

Ice still in a small bay

Some seals on the ice, from very far away.

That white blob is a beluga, the grey smaller blob beside it is a baby beluga.
 I don't think I can do better from shore, sorry

I cropped the photo to see if the beluga shows up.  I will let you be the judge.

It is cold here.  3 degrees yesterday.  It is colder than the coldest day in Victoria this winter.  I am bundled up with my inadequate parka, inadequate toque, inadequate scarf and mitts.  Brrrr.

Seriously, it was COLD

This morning I was up at 6am.  I spent the few minutes of breaks between meals and birding to finally upload some pictures to yesterday's post.  (I haven't actually had time to look at them so I may add or remove some at a later date.)

Breakfast where we saw our Ptarmigan sitting on some rocks outside of the cafeteria window.  I guess I needn't have worried about seeing one.  Back into the van for 7:45.  Back to the grain port.  NO CRANE!!  Onward.  Bird, bird, bird.

The grain port.  You can see why I wasn't too thrilled to be there so many times.

I had to see it over and over so you have to look at it twice,
here is the port from a distance 

Back to the grain port.  CRANE!  Finally, success.  He is a lovely bird with a gorgeous tail.  I have a crappy picture taken through a chain link fence.  And the best part - we can stop hanging out at the grain port.

Common Crane

Here is his splendiforous tail.

Lunch.  Back in the van.  Birds, birds birds.  We took a long walk at one point.  We literally just went over what we saw as a group and I can't remember what we saw.  Oh, one highlight, four snow buntings.

Birds

Northern Shoveler

Blue-winged Teal

Pacific Loon

Golden Plover

Nesting Herring Gull and her dutiful mate.  He is holding nesting material in his beak

Canada Geese. These are everywhere in the tundra, nesting.  We have even seen a few goslings.
I liked these guys posing.

Bald Eagle on the ice

I think this is a Dowitcher.  I can not keep track of the shorebirds.

Surf Scoter

Snow Bunting

Merlin

Dinner.  We are all so tired, Rudolph said he would do an easy evening activity.  So we drove a bit past the rocket launch (have I mentioned that the Centre is located on a defunct Rocket Launch site from the '50s.)

That is the rocket launcher on the right.  These buildings are abandoned.
The Centre is right beside them.

One of many duds.  This rocket is about 10 km from the launcher.

Then we did another hour long walk.  It was so cold out.  Best bird from the walk, a long-tailed Jaeger. Plus we found a broken up rocket that has been rusting in the woods for 50 years.  And lots of teeny-tiny flowers.

Longtail Jaeger

Teeny-tiny flowers.  

If I was nice, I would find out their names but I do not have time.

Now we are home again and it is already past ten and I haven't even looked, let alone downloaded my pictures. So I am going to post again without pictures (sorry) and try to do them tomorrow.  No one will look at this until Monday anyway.

The wheels on the train go round and round all the live long day...

June 9, 2015

Well, we are three hours in on the train.  So far we have had lunch, played three games of dominoes and stared out the window.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

Yesterday we left for the airport.  We arrived in good time and got our boarding passes.  As we were heading into White Spot for breakfast, I mentioned that it was strange that the ticket lady didn’t ask for out ID.  This is when mom realized that she didn’t have any picture ID.  So, while Chris and I enjoyed out breakfast, Mom had to do a mad dash back to the house (in rush hour traffic).  She made it back in time and we walked up to the gate, right onto the back of the boarding line and onto the plane like it was all planned.  Uneventful flight, quick turnaround in Calgary and another uneventful flight to Winnipeg.  

We took a cab to the hotel (Days Inn) and discovered that they pay for the taxi so that was nice.  $7 bucks saved.  Room was standard airport hotel chic.   We took a walk around even though it was stinking hot.  The area around the airport is even less inspired than the rest of Winnipeg.  Lots of furniture shops.  We found a Superstore and bought some chips for watching tv later.  When we left the hotel, we had asked if there are any restraurants in the area.  The desk guy listed Denny’s, Smitty’s, Subway, McDonald’s.  We went to Denny’s.  Winnipeg, you really have to up your restaurant game. 

We were back to the room by 7pm.  We were both so tired we tried to watch tv but there was nothing on so we just went to bed at 8:30. I listened to my awesome borrowed IPod (if anyone has an extra $179, my birthday is only 8 months away).  Mom read but I think we were both asleep by 9:30, which is saying something since Winnipeg is two hours ahead. 

This morning we had our ‘free with room’ breakfast – waffle iron! We got to the train station by 11am and our VIA lady from last year was still there.  This time she let us on the train.  The entire train is 3 cars, the cabin car, the ‘restaurant’ car and economy.  We haven’t been to economy yet.  Our cabin is wee.  It has two chairs, one window, one not.  We are taking turns with window.  It has a tiny sink and a tiny bathroom.  There is a storage area up top but neither of us can reach it so our stuff is strewn about, just like home. 

Via check in, with Sylvie from last year

Waiting for the train in the new refurbished train station

Alllll Abooooaaaard!!

Our cabin

Our Window

Dining Car

 Our meals are not great.  We both had a microwaved sandwich (why microwaved?, we assume they were frozen), an instant coffee, a snack can of Pringles and a Coffee Crisp.  We both felt like we had eaten at 7-11.  But it will be fine, we only have two lunches on our trip.  Dinner looks better, still frozen, but better.

Dinner

Lunch

Window birding list: nothing great: Canada Goose, Redwinged Blackbird, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, American Crow, Mallard.  I assume this will get better as we go north, and get awesome when we get to Churchill.

Farmland of south Manitoba and/or Saskatchewan

Largest Coke can in Canada (World?)

Same day - 10:20 pm

We are at a standstill in Rink, or maybe some unnamed town north or west of Rink.  I don’t have any idea where we are, really.  It turns out we are somewhere in Saskatchewan.  I didn’t realize our route took us out of Manitoba.  Our westward direction gave us a beautiful view of the setting sun.  It is quick hazy with forest fire smoke so the sun was an incredible red as is sank into the horizon.  My camera did not do it justice so you will have to take my word. The sky never turned red, just the blood red sun.

The scenery here is lovely.  Lots of farms and once we got north (or west, did I mention I don’t know where we are), we came upon rolling hills and forest with tiny lakes.  Beautiful.  I can sit in the window seat for hours.  Wildlife spotted so far:   a huge rabbit, a huge deer, and an average sized fox.  New birds since last update; Northern Harrier, Yellow headed blackbird (new!), Merlin, Magpie, Northern Shoveler.

We stopped in Dauphin for a few minutes (if you look this up, you will know more about our location than I do), to pick up some new passengers.  I discovered that we have three economy cars.  Currently there are only about 15 people on the train.  Me and mom and an older couple in two of the cabins, three people in the sleeper car (?), and maybe 7 or 8 in economy.  Plus two staff, Tracey and Denis.  I asked Denis why so many economy cars.  He assured me that after Thompson, we would be full.  A lot of people back and forth between Thompson, Churchill and the villages between.  Tracey said that this route is an essential service, if it wasn’t it would be cancelled.  Lucky for us.   Tracey later told us that Via loses about $400 per passenger on this route.   Take it while you can.

Past the farmland (mostly)

Beaver Dam

Beaver House

After the excitement of Dauphin (none), we had dinner.   Dinner was an improvement on lunch, still microwaved but tasty.   Mom had Coconut Thai Chicken, I had Chicken Dijon with rice pilaf.  Plus a pop, a bun and a bag of two-bite brownies.  Did I mention that the kitchen services starts next week? 

More window staring, more dominos and then Tracey put our beds down at about 9:30.  The whole room to bed transition is a bit of an engineering feat.  Now mom is tucked in on the top bunk and I am about to peel myself away from the window and get into bed too.  It is getting dark so no more scenery.

Window Gazing

Tracey putting our beds down

Dominoes

June 10, 5pm

We are sitting in Thompson, waiting to leave in a few minutes.  Good time to try to update without the joggle of the train while I am typing.

Thompson Station

I woke up this morning around 7:30, mom around 8am.  It was a good sleep for me.  The rocking and white noise of a train lulls one to sleep quite nicely.  We had a barely satisfactory breakfast of instant oatmeal, yogurt and coffee.  And back to window gazing and dominoes.

When we first started out in the south, we were in farmland.  That lasted most of the day.  Today we are on the Canadian Shield.  The trees are short.  There are lots of birch.  There is something about birch trees, they are so beautiful and serene.  I can understand why they are such a popular subject of paintings.  The rough white trunks in contrast to the glossy green leaves reflecting the sun.  Birch mingle with pines and random other trees to create a lovely forest view.  For a while we were in beaver country.  We saw lots of evidence of them, fallen trees, dammed ponds, beaver houses, but alas, not actual beaver sightings as yet.  There are fewer of them now.

The rocky shield is starting to poke up out of the ground.  The dirt is so shallow here that the posts along the tracks have to be built as tripods, I assume because there isn’t enough dirt to plant them deep enough to keep them from falling over.  Not that the tripod works that well either, many are down on the ground, in the water or just disintegrated.  They don’t seem to be in use, all of the wires have been removed.  Now they are just another aspect of the landscape.

Barely any birds up here either.  Only new (for the train) ones are Raven and Barn Swallow.  A few ducks with babies but mostly Mallards.  We are going so slow it is easy to identify the close ones. We were supposed to get into Thompson at one o’clockish.   We were all pretty stoked because we could walk into town and shop a bit (they have Shoppers, Can Tire, Walmart, MacDonald’s etc) but we didn’t actually arrive until 4pm.  Mom and I walked into town.  We had been given an estimate of 10 minutes.  It took 20.  We saw the Canadian Tire sign and headed for that because we wanted a map of Manitoba so we might finally know where we are/were/will be.  But, despite the huge sign, we couldn’t find the store.  Shopper’s didn’t have one and neither did PetroCan.  We gave up and took a cab back to the train.  Good thing too since we only made it back with 7 minutes to spare (no way we would have walked back in time).

We are leaving the station so this will have to do for now. 

June 11.  (It is the end of our first day of birding but I will just finish up the train and go to bed.  I will have to do the next post in a couple of days.)

Thompson had been really warm but we heard that Churchill was around 3 or 4 degrees.  But better news was that the river was breaking up and some Belugas had been spotted. 

Another uneventful dinner and evening and early to bed.  I woke up at about 6:30am to a whole new world.  We were now in the tundra.  the only trees were stunted, lots of lichen and moss.  Flat, flat, flat.  Lakes and rocks, greens and oranges.  It is beautiful up here.  About an  hour south of Churchill, we passed the derailment.  Rail cars strewn about and ripped apart.  I can see why it took so long to get it cleared.

We got into Churchill Station at 9am and there were our Research station people to greet us. 

(Sorry, peeps, I can't upload my pictures and it is midnight and bird call is for 7am tomorrow so I give up, maybe tomorrow if they let us sit down for a minute.  I also can't make the spacing work.  Update - the pictures are up)

Hiking boots in, rubber boots out

Last night I packed. My new Eddie Bauer wheelie bag for checked and my trusty backpack for carryon.  For WestJet, we have paid for one checked (50 lbs.) and we get one free carry on (20 lbs.).  For Via, we can check one bag of up to 50 lbs. and take one bag of up to 25lbs each into our cabin.  Calm Air allows two checked bags of up to 70 lbs. combined.  When did I become the person who is worrying about weight restrictions?  Remember when I spent two weeks in Europe with a 10 lb. day pack?  Ahh, those were the days before the computer, camera, binoculars and boots.  I like my luxuries now, as heavy as they are. 

My list:
Two pairs pants
Two long sleeve shirts
Two tee shirts
Socks (two pair heavy winter, a few pairs summer walking)
One fleece
One raincoat
Rain pants (bought yesterday at Canadian Tire for $10- so you know they are good - and a flattering bright yellow)
Hiking boots (rubber boots rejected as too much boot for one trip)
Parka (I am leaving the dead weasel at home)
Bug hat and coat.
Tilley hat
Toque, scarf, mittens
One light weight sweater
Slippers (remember the hotel carpet last time, no?, well I do).

Binoculars, Eastern Canada Bird Book
Camera
Wee computer
Two novels
Borrowed IPod loaded with random podcasts (thanks Alisma, who tried to show my how to use mine but it just wasn't to be, I think she let me use hers just so I would let her go home).
The standard toiletries
Day pack

Our flight leaves Victoria at 9am tomorrow.  As always, we are abusing Chris and making her take us to the airport well before she would normally get up.  She must really like those White Spot breakfasts we keep using to bribe her.  She is also in charge of cat and tomato plants again.  One day she is going to call in my debts and I will have to give her my kidney(s).

This morning I checked in with WestJet and we got our free seats.  I also noticed that our Via tickets say that meals are included.  But when I went on the Churchill route website, they don't mention meals except for the snack cart.  So I called them and they assured me that we will be fed hot meals.  Bonus!  No Wi-Fi though so if you don't hear from me until Thursday, that's why. 

Let's try this again

So, here we are one year later, June 2015. I think the train derailment may have been a cosmic blessing (for me and mom, not the thousands of Manitoba people wildly inconvenienced by the lack of transport for months on end).  Mom was hobbled by her knee last year but now if much better. I was in a class last year but am free of homework this year.  Last year was the 'polar vortex', the worst winter in years, this winter has been mild and so far, Churchill weather seems good this spring. I got to go to Kenya on a 'now what am I going to do with my 2014 vacation days' last minute trip.  Only downside, I no longer fit my rain pants. And I used up all of my money in Africa (worth it).

We rebooked our WestJet flight to Winnipeg, we rebooked Bird Camp and we rebooked Calm Air.  So, this better happen this time.  We are not going to spend any time in Winnipeg this go round.  Just land in the evening and then head out on the train the next morning (fingers crossed).  5 days at bird camp and then back on Calm Air in the evening and back to Victoria the next morning. We are staying at a hotel near the airport. Winnipeg did not win me over last visit (except for Uncle Paul and family visit - that was worth the whole Winnipeg part of the aborted trip).

I just reread the CNSC packing list. I should probably get started on that since we are leaving on Monday (it is Thursday now).  I bought an awesome new Eddie Bauer wheelie duffle bag at a Bothell yard sale for $5.  Ever since Kenya, I am a fan of the wheelie bags (definitive proof that I am now old!, why lug it when you can roll it).  I have reviewed out baggage limits for all legs of the trip.  Two bags each, one checked (50 lbs) an one carryon (20 lbs).  That is doable. 

Ok, I will let you know how the packing goes.  

Wrapping up a few loose ends

When nice Via Rail lady cancelled our Via tickets, she provided a full refund.  But she mentioned we should call Customer Relations to see if we might get back some other expenses incurred due to the train cancellation.  Thus began a flurry of talking to call centres.  At least I don't have to call from a toilet stall this time.

June 9:  First I called Via but they keep bankers hours so then I tried Visa Trip Insurance.  My Visa card includes cancellation insurance.  I got an efficient gentleman on the phone.  I told him my long, complicated and woeful story.  He put me on hold to check 'the policy'.  When he came back on the phone, he informed me that derailment is not listed as a refundable happenstance.  Mechanical failure, yes, falling off tracks, no.  He helpfully offered an analogy:  "it's like if your plane skidded off the runway, that wouldn't be refundable either".  He made this seem like 'd'uh, how could you not already know that a plane careening off the runway was 1. not refundable and 2. not exactly the same as a train derailment and therefore 3. why are you even asking me about a refund'.  Dead end #1.

June 10:  Got hold of Customer Relations at Via Rail.  I spoke to a nice lady named Angie.  Again with the complicated and pitiful story. She was very sympathetic.  But she said that due to the nature of our claim (not just a ticket refund) she will have to bump our file to the Escalations Department.  They will get back to me in a week or two. 

Starting to think about how to use up my 4 weeks of unused vacation by end of 2014.  I don't think that parka will be involved. 

June 11:  Remembered that I have trip insurance through my extended benefits at work.  I don't think it covers cancellation but I called them just to make sure.  Nope, just medical emergencies, no derailment coverage. 

A few notes about some nice customer service during this business.  When we left Marlborough hotel, I left my camera battery charger in the hotel room.  When I called the manager (don't call housekeeping, it is a deadend), he said he would send it to me at home and didn't even ask for postage.  Nice. 

As noted both Via Ladies (Winnipeg desk and call centre) and WestJet lady have been very helpful.  WestJet lady was very understanding of the secret coded visa numbers over the phone and between flushes.   Plus,  when we got on the WestJet flight they made an announcement that there were seats  in Business Class available to whomever could produce the oldest penny on the plane and their travelling companions.  Mom had a penny but it was 1995.  Some lady had one from the 50s.  She got the seats. This didn't help us but it was fun. Take note, carry old pennies on WestJet.  At the very least it will make the metal detectors ding.

 

June 23:  VIA Rail Escalations department called me back.  To quote Escalations dude; "we have not refunded any extraneous expenses for any other customers".  Passive, third person speak drives me crazy.  I forced him to say 'no, no money for you' or something similarly definitive.  Then he told me that VIA was inconvenienced and out of pocket too.  Wanker.  Then I politely (actually) told him that I assume Via will be suing the Cargo company that derailed and the least they can do is pretend to care about their customers' costs and inconvenience and try to add that to their claim.  VIA Escalations idjit stammered, 'I don't know what to say' and said he would pass along my comments.  Hmmph. 

I got my camera battery charger from the hotel a couple of days ago.  Thanks Malborough manager.

I also spoke to Mike at CNSC to see how bird camp went for those who flew in.  As it turned out, there was a snow storm on the day it started so the instructor and half of the guests got their Calm Air flight diverted to Rankin Inlet in Nunuvet.  But it all worked, at least for those people, since they got a day of birding in Nunuvet. They got to Churchill by dinner on the first day.  But Mike said it was very cold and not too fun for the first couple of days.  Some of the less enthusiastic partners of birders wouldn't even get out of the van.  Lightweights!  It was lovely and warm for the last few days.   I told him how we had packed everything from parkas and light clothes and he said we would have used them all for this trip.  Oh well.  Good to know for next year.  He is sending me the dates for next year so we can start planning now (because planning ahead leads to smooth, issue-free travel - HA! It is all lies.)

Last comment.  The track between Thompson and Churchill is STILL not open for passenger rail.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/churchill-residents-frustrated-omnitrax-shuts-down-lifeline-1.2683550

I don't have any pictures so here is Rankin Inlet for your viewing pleasure

 

 

Victoria

I am usually so happy to get back to Victoria after a trip but not this time.  Not after our 57 hour vacation.  I just had some dinner and watched Game of Thrones so now I will tell you about my day and then go to bed (I'm on Winnipeg time, don't you know...)

When last we left off, Mom and I were blissfully leaving the hotel to head to the Via Rail train station for our noon departure to Churchill.  When we arrived, the station is all torn apart with construction.  You can see it is beautiful and full of history but you have to look behind scaffolding and plastic walls to make sure. 

Train Station

Anyway, we couldn't find the check in desk.  I planted mom on a bench with our luggage and wandered around until I saw a guy being directed to behind a tarp.  I followed him and got to overhear that the train was cancelled due to a huge freight train derailment just outside of Churchill.  Our choices, reschedule or cancel for a full refund.  I went and gave mom the bad news.  We did not cry but it was close. 

Back to Via desk for some more info. We wondered if we could change our ticket to return from Churchill.  But the days really didn't work.  Either return on the 7th, less than halfway into bird camp.  Or on the 12th which would have meant staying in Churchill for a couple of extra days (with high hotel costs) and changing our Calm Air tickets and our WestJet tickets and extending my vacation (I assumed the only easy part of the many issues) and cancelling our Seattle weekend on June 13. 

Despite all of the probable problems with the switch-flight-for-rail and rail-for-flight plan, we tried.  First we called Mike at CNSC on a payphone.  He said it is too late for a refund but we can defer for one year. There was so much construction going on, I could barely hear him.  We would call him back once we knew if we could get there.  Next call, Calm Air.  This time, we switched to mom's cell phone and  moved outside  because it had to be quieter than the work zone inside.  We called Calm Air but the street noise was so loud, I had to hang up and call back from another location.  We were running out of places to hide from the noise. 

We pulled a Fonzie and made the bathroom our office.  We had so many bags that we just rolled our cart in there and blocked two stalls and used two sinks as our desk.  When we went in, it was empty.  But as our wheelings and dealings progressed, more and more women came in.  At one point, the cleaning lady came in and said that the workmen would be entering to change the lights but I think the look mom gave her scared her so she said she would tell them to come in later. 

Our office

Hard at work doing bathroom office stuff

Now parked in the Ladies, I managed to reach the reservations desk at Calm Air.  Sure we can fly up on the 4th, that will be an extra $1000 please and thank you for 'day before booking' or we could cancel for $52 with the rest on credit for up to one year.  That pretty much sealed the deal.  We couldn't afford the new tickets plus several hundred more in additional hotel/food costs.  So we called WestJet.  There were so many people in the bathroom at this point, I had blocked one very polite lady in a stall.  They were all lining up for the two stalls we had left free and the one sink we weren't completely hogging.  As I was talking to WestJet reservation woman, I had to keep apologizing for the flushing toilets.  We all had a good chuckle as it had become so ridiculous, we could only laugh.  Upshot of WestJet, we could change our tickets home for a mere $247 each.  That would drop if we waited until Sunday but that would have meant that much in hotel costs.  And as WestJet woman and all urinating ladies heard, I did not want to stay in Winnipeg for another 5 days.  It just isn't that nice.  (Sorry Winnipeg, it's not your fault, I was having a bad day)

WestJet woman said we could book for 3:30 tomorrow.  I said, how about today.  Done and doner.  Then both mom and I got to read our Visa numbers, expiry dates and secret codes to all the women of the bus station.  What with the open Wifi and the public bathroom Visa reading, I may want to alert Visa of the upcoming identity theft. 

Decision made, new tickets booked.  We had to call and update the other legs of the trip.  This is when we moved into the handicap stall.  Much cozier and with a change table that worked way better as a desk than the sinks. We were quite taken with our spiffy bathroom stall.  I can only imagine what we must have sounded like laughing our heads off in there.  Oh, well.  We called Mike and he will let us know when Bird Camp is next year.  We went back to Via and cancelled our tickets.  Then we jumped in a cab and headed to the airport.  Except that just as we were pulling away from the curb, I realized I couldn't find my wallet.  This day was not going my way.  Back to Via where Via lady did not have it.  Then we emptied out the taxi trunk and found it under our bags.  It must have fallen out of my bag.  Back to on the road to the airport. 

Via Lady whose name I have forgotten but whose name tag declared her 'in charge' in English and 'Responsable' in French.  We suspected she wasn't too keen to be either in charge or responsible on derailment day.

CN Hotel outside the Train Station

WestJet for boarding passes and bag check.  Then to the Calm Air desk to explain, once again, our predicament.  We cancelled our June 10 tickets.  We have credit for one year.  Let's hope next bird camp happens by June 10, 2015.  We did get the name of the one person in the world apparently, who could extend us for a few days if we plead our case.

So, there you have it, we are home, our trip is over and that is that for now.  To be continued next year... 

Train (and trip) derailed

We are heading home, I will update when we get back. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/via-rail-cancels-trains-to-churchill-after-derailment-1.2663265