Arrrgghhh - almost no sleep again! (5th October)

We staggered out of our bunks at about 08:45, and somehow Stella managed to bring tea and coffee along the swaying corridor from the lounge coach. The meal arrangements today were dictated by our scheduled evening stop at Winnipeg, so there was to be brunch instead of breakfast and lunch, and earlier dinner. But early morning hot drinks and muffins were available so we could survive until called for brunch at 11:00. The menu was of course excellent - we had seafood omelette and ham/eggs respectively.

During the afternoon a beer tasting was held in the `activities' coach. Only two beers though, and tiny tots, during which Les had a lively chat about science, politics, and all things in between, with a couple from South Africa. Stella napped in the cabin for a bit, and then we pulled into the small station at Bellfield for a 10-minute stop. By now the train was running some three hours late, because of frequent long stops to allow enormous freight trains to pass. A quick calculation revealed one to be over 3 km long, and they seem to travel at 20 mph. There was a biting cold wind at Bellfield, and we just had time to charge down to the engines for photos and then back to our coach near the tail of the train.

The terrain for most of the day was flat prairie, dotted with marshes and ponds, and largely devoted to wheat production. Huge grain silos dotted the landscape. We had noticed a lot of trains hauling hopper wagons full of potash, and saw a couple of vast potash mines - great blots on the landscape. Most of this apparently goes into fertiliser.

The journey continued the familiar pattern - crawling along or stopping for freight to pass, punctuated with frantic dashes to make up time, to the detriment of passenger comfort. The clocks are now another hour ahead, and with dinner brought forward as previously announced, we opted for second sitting. But before that we did discover that the hostess knew how to make a martini, although there was a confused discussion about terminology. We were asked if we wanted it `over' or `up'. The former means poured from the shaker over ice in the glass, and the latter means shaken with ice and strained into the glass. We live and learn, and all this was reminiscent of the breakfast discussion about the frying of eggs. Meanwhile we had discovered that in another lounge car canapés were served, so after some prompting we got some as well.

There are further signs of less than perfect control among the crew. The dinner menu said the starter was salad, but it was soup, and not the soup the waitress said it was. Still, we did get the wine before the end of the main course, unlike yesterday. The food was excellent as usual.