Month: October 2026

10/11/2026 – 10/12/2026 – Chugga! Chugga! Woo! Woo!

Okay! Only one more full day on the train, and then we’ll be to civilization in Winnipeg the following afternoon, just in time for dinner. The fellow passengers on this train are some of the nicest people we met. There were many Canadians, mostly from Toronto or British Columbia. But most of them were not born Canadian. There was a couple who lived in Toronto: he was from Strasbourg, France, while his wife was from Iran. We spent so much time talking with them, learning new things. There was another couple from Toronto: She was born in Toronto, but lived in Poland for many years as that is where her parents were from, while he was a born in Britain. Of course, Dave was obliged to sing the Polish national anthem, which she seemed to enjoy (or was just extremely polite?) Dave learned that song back in second grade, but has met so many people from Poland whom he serenades that he has never forgotten it. Another couple Dave met were Buffalo Bills fans (he even wore a Bills hat every day!) She was from Australia, he was from Austria, they lived near Nashville, TN, and were Bills fans! What a world!!

Meeting people from all over the world, learning about new cultures, discussing both current events and history, and even civilly discussing world politics, is one of the things we love the most about traveling. We have yet to meet anyone with whom we could not have an enjoyable discussion, no matter what their views are or how they may differ from ours. Openly discussing sometimes touchy topics in an open-minded manner is what is sadly missing in today’s “I’m right, you’re wrong” world. As Buffalo Springfield sang in “For What It’s Worth” – Nobody’s right if everyone’s wrong.” Listening to and actually trying to understand where people are coming from makes us understand that even when we disagree, we usually have much more in agreement with them than we do divergence. And that leads us to being kind, loving, and happy rather than selfish, hateful, and angry.

10/09/2026-10/10/2026 – Bears to the left of me! Bears to the right of me!

Dave was exhausted and actually slept well that night. Kathy did alright, but not great. The B&B served breakfast (the second “B” in “B&B”) and Kathy and Dave had the scrambled eggs and potatoes. At 9 am promptly, our guide for the day, Tiffany from Beyond Boreal tours, arrived and picked us up. Tiffany, a born and bred local resident, drove her 4×4 pickup over the dirt roads of the Churchill Wildlife Management Area. We saw 6 polar bears before lunch, including a mom and her 2 cubs. The 2 cubs were so much fun to watch as they played and wrestled. After lunch back in town, we headed out again. Near the old airplane which crash landed decades ago and is now called “Miss Piggy”, we saw a large male crossing the road. We watched as he went up on some rocks and watched us from about 75 feet away. Dave got some great photos. We also saw another mom and twins. All told, we saw a dozen bears. What a day!

After the tour, we had dinner at another local restaurant/motel. Just after we ordered, but before our food had arrived, another couple came in to the restaurant whom we had chatted with a few times previously on the train ride. They are from British Columbia. We invited them to dine with us and had a great visit. On the walk home, we stopped at the smaller grocery store and bought some more food for the following day. We tried to watch the Sabres game on our laptops or phones, but all we could manage was to listen to the game. Probably a good thing, since the Sabres got drubbed 4-0.
Sometime before going to bed, the others who were staying at the B&B came in from outdoors. They had been outside trying to see the Aurora Borealis. It has been rainy and cloudy since we arrived and we didn’t think we’d get a chance to see them. They showed me some pics and you could see some green waves among the clouds! We ran outside, but all we were able to see was some green up in a portion of the sky. We was too late! But, at least we saw some green. And, that just means we will have to keep a’travelin’ so that one day we can see the dancing skies.

The next day, we had another polar bear tour, this time with Briden from North Star Tours. He had a van and we had 3 other passengers with us. Again, we were treated to great views of over a dozen bears. There was one time that there were 4 solitary bears off in the distance and a mom with cubs, also a ways off. Then, one of the male bears started walking toward the mom and cubs. The mom got the cubs up and walking away from the male, and right toward us. Briden (and the other tour guides in the area) corralled their guests towards their vehicles as a precaution. Dave did not realize this. (anyone surprised??) Dave was trying to peak around one of the vehicles to see where the mom was. He kept walking and peaking right, but did not see them…. until Briden grabbed Dave and pulled him away. Turns out, the bears were not to the right and behind a vehicle. They were directly in front of Dave as he walked toward them! Fortunately, the bears were more concerned with the male polar bear than they were with Dave. Briden did say that the male adult was only a “sub-adult” male and was much smaller than the mom. Mom would have destroyed the male if he threatened her cubs, but she thought it best just to walk away.

While out in the afternoon tour, Dave and Kathy also got to see a few Arctic hares (all decked out in their white camouflage fur, waiting for some snow) and a group of Willow ptarmigans. Yesterday, they saw a bunch of snow buntings and a snow goose, so Dave has plenty of “life birds” to add to his list – which is over 300 now!

After the tour, we walked back to the B&B. A bit later, Dave walked down to the grocery store and picked up something light for dinner. The B&B owner then drove all of us to the train station for our ride back to Churchill. One of our fellow passengers noticed that you could tell the passengers who had cabins or berths, because they all had smiles on their faces, while us “economy” passengers just stood around looking at our feet. Oh, well, travel is an adventure and every hardship is a story! Plus, we had a reason to smile, too. The couple we had invited to dine with us yesterday saw us at the train station and said, “We have something for you.” They explained that we had left dinner before we were properly finished and they handed us a carrot cake from the restaurant! Who can be unhappy when they have a carrot cake to share for the evening??

The train left Churchill on time at 8:30 pm. We got settled in, talked a bit, then tried to contort our bodies the best we could into our seats for sleeping. Fortunately, no one had to share a seat with anyone else, so we could hog some more room. Dave actually slept a few hours, and Kathy did as well, though she paid for it with an achy back.

10/08/2026 – We have arrived!

The second night on the train went as well as could be expected. We arrived in Churchill only about 45 minutes later than scheduled, which was fine with us since we didn’t have anything scheduled for the first day in the town of 900 people.
We were met at the train station by the owner of the B&B we will be staying at for the 2 nights in town. He pointed to his vehicle and told us to go there while he tried to find others he was supposed to pick up. Now, on the train, there are only three berths and they are right next to each other. When we got in the driver’s vehicle, there was one of the couples from one of the other berths already inside. By the time we got to the B&B, all three of us berth couples were staying at the same B&B! The B&B owner gave us the lowdown on the B&B rules and warned us about walking around town after 10 pm or so and avoiding certain areas altogether, to lessen our chances of encountering a bear that hasn’t eaten since the ice melted back in May. Kathy and Dave wandered around town, checking out potential eateries, the two grocery stores, and the town beach on the Hudson Bay. Dave, throwing polar bear caution into the wind, wandered down to the beach and let the waters of the Hudson Bay surround his boots – an act Dave calls “swimming”. We also went into a museum at the train station which was pretty interesting. One display had pelts from a black bear on top of a pelt from a grizzly bear, which was on top of a pelt from a polar bear. Boy! Are grizzly bears tiny! (Well compared to polar bears, anyway.) We were surprised to learn that black bears and even grizzly bears are sometimes seen in this area, along with polar bears. As the climate changes, more grizzlies are expected to arrive. In fact, grizzlies and polar bears have actually cross-bred. (Dave wondered if they would end up looking like zebras with alternating white and brown stripes?)
Somehow, Kathy and Dave ended up walking 7 miles after spending the morning on a train. Dinner was sounding like a good idea. We went to one place. Nope – closed for the season. We went to another place. Nope – they had a large group with reservations and we would have to wait over an hour. We went to a third place. Nope – they decided to not be open today. We finally went back to place #2 where we could order a meal to go, then lug it back to the B&B. Finally sated, we made it to our “bed(s)” for some sleep. Our room has two bunk beds in it. The lower bunk is a double, with the upper bunk a single. However, there is only one blanket, so doubling up it is. Dave got the side of the bed against the wall. Kathy thought she was being smart by taking the easy in/out side, at least until Dave had to roll over her every time he wanted to get into bed, and again every time he wanted to get out of bed. Kathy was never so happy to hear Dave start snoring, which gratefully signaled a cessation of roller derby!

10/05/2026- 10/07/2026 – Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Life imitating art, or sort of…… The next stage in our journey started with a longish drive from Selkirk to Winnipeg to catch the train to Churchill.  An hour of seeing hayfields after hayfields, until finally the city of Winnipeg appeared on the horizon. Back in Selkirk, Rusty and Tauni had been working industriously trying to find hay for their five horses. All they really need to do is surreptitiously drive to Winnipeg and along the way, pick one hay bale from one farm, drive to the next one and do the same, on and on and on. By the time they get from Selkirk to Winnipeg, their truck will be full and the farmers won’t miss one bale of hay. What a plan!

We met up with them at the airport and they graciously gave us a ride to the train terminal. Nice!!! They deposited us off at the doors of the terminal. Easy-peasy – all our plans from getting to the airport to the train station can just be filed away in our round filing cabinet.

Finally on the train, we were escorted to our sleeping quarters, or in train parlance – our “berth.” This berth consists of two smallish loveseats facing each other. One “loveseat” for Kathy and one for Dave – our own little niche that converts and changes at 8:30 pm. The two bottom loveseats change into a bed for Kathy on “the ground floor” and the upper bunk folds down from a hinged metal balcony and converts into the upper floor bedroom that is accessible by a ladder. Inconvenient for Kathy as it blocks her exit, but nice and easy for Dave to clamber down to the ground floor.

The first leg of the train trip in itself was not too eventful; we read our books, played some games. We watched the movie, “Strangers on the Train” – an old Hitchcock film. Which is a warning not to talk to strangers on a train trip! If you have seen the movie you know what we mean. Night came soon and we settled into our beds made up by the porter. Next morning came quickly, in Kathy’s case too quickly as the night was a bit restless.

Breakfast, more reading for Kathy while Dave – despite Kathy’s and the movie’s warning – wandered the train chatting with strangers. By mid-afternoon we arrived in Thompson, a city between Winnipeg and Churchill where we had a 2.5 hour break to explore the surroundings in the area. Hoofing it over to Boston Pizza, we ordered a snack and got dinner and dessert to take back for later. It was much better than microwaved train food.

Tonight, we plan on watching the movie, “Throw Momma from the Train.” If Kathy does not arrive back home, Dave met a stranger on the train and they threw Momma from the train!!  (Spoiler alert:  Kathy makes it home.)

10/03/2026 – 10/05/2026 – The Exotic Locale of Canada, eh!

So, we left home on October 3^rd and drove to Toronto, Ontario.  We had reserved a parking spot at the airport garage a couple of weeks ago.  The drive went smoothly, the border crossing was a breeze, and traffic was not too bad – probably because it was a Saturday morning.  First issue?  Where is the parking garage??  We drove around and around before we finally found a sign pointing us to a è.  We were looking for “parking”.  So, we found the garage and went to the entrance which was just a couple of machines, neither of which seemed to want to see our pre-paid parking code.  We pressed the button and got a ticket.  That’s when we figured out we needed to pay that ticket when we exited, even though we had a pre-paid reservation.  Oh, well, we’ll get it figured out on the way back!

Getting our luggage checked in was fairly easy, except that, of course, no humans were involved and the machine had a difficult time reading our tags until we found just the right angle to set out bags onto the belt.  Going through the carry-on scanners and x-ray machine was a breeze (once we took our watches off!)  We had plenty of time to spare.

The flight to Winnipeg, Manitoba, was uneventful.  It was our first time to Manitoba and we have now been to all Canadian provinces except for Saskatchewan.  We picked up our rental car and zoomed to Selkirk, a small town about an hour drive away.  Why Selkirk, many locals asked us?  Why, to visit Dave’s old friend Rusty Jensen and his wife Tauni of course!  Dave and Rusty first met in 1990 as Park Rangers at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.  They then worked together again at Redwood National Park in California in the early 2000’s.  They hadn’t seen each other since 2002 when Dave left Redwood to take a job at Glen Canyon National Recreational Area in Utah and Arizona.  Rusty had since found and married Tauni and moved to Canada, while Dave had found and married Kathy and moved to North Carolina, then Saranac Lake, then Lockport, NY.  We had so much fun catching up on our lives, telling old war stories, and hiking in the autumn forests of central Canada.

Tomorrow, we head back to Winnipeg, drop off the rental car back at the airport, and then ride with Rusty and Tauni to the train station.  We are headed to Churchill, Manitoba on a 48-hour train ride!