Life With Steven: Polar Bear Adventure Day 2: Winnipeg To Churchill sans Luggage

Looking out the back of the train

Manitoba is flat. Really, really flat. Lots of prairie and forests.

One of the many beaver lodges we passed.

After the train started out on Sunday, we put the kids to bed, then Doug and I made our way down the really narrow hallways through four cars, past the rooms and berths with others trying to bed down, to the dining car.

We'd already eaten in Winnipeg, but we wanted something to drink and to see where else there was to hang out on the train beside our closet of a room.

Steven showed up about 20 minutes after we'd settled ourselves, way too excited to sleep. We met some of our fellow travelers, retirees and older couples for the most part, most from different parts of Canada.

The dining car closed at 11:00 pm and we made our way back to our rooms, in the last car of the train. Steven had fallen asleep on the lower bunk, hoping to catch a glimpse of the northern lights.

The next morning we got up and used the shower, an interesting experience slipping and sliding around when the train would make an unexpected lurch. Meals were served in three shifts to prevent long lines of hungry people waiting for a table. For the most part the food was pretty good.

Sean was very interested in this photo because he could see Doug's hand

Our bunk beds folded into the wall and ceiling and were replaced with chairs during the day. Sean and Doug played gin almost all day long.

Steven and his math book

Steven worked on his homework.

Steven working on his math

At one of the all-too-short stops, I got off the train and ran four blocks to buy deodorant, then ran back to the train. If we'd had more time, clean undies would have been on our list of items to buy, but there wasn't time so we did our best washing stuff out in the sink.

We were all wearing shirts my cousin Christine made for us. She did the American Cancer Society Relay For Life in Oregon last summer and put together a team called "The Polar Bear Express", in honor of Steven. The shirts had the name of their team on them, a photo of a mother polar bear with a cub, and said "I Believe In Steven". If we had to be in the same clothes from Sunday to Tuesday, it wasn't a bad choice. Everyone on the train wanted to know where we got our shirts, so maybe Christine should start a business.

Steven and Sean at the stop in Thompson

Our Value Village clothes and jackets served us well, although there was no snow on Halloween, it was cold outside, around freezing.

We spent Halloween on the train, but in Churchill on Halloween, people are posted all around the perimeter of the town to watch for bears, and if the bears come into town that night, they will most likely be shot.

Breakfast on November 1st with snow outside

Halloween night brought a storm and the first real snow of the season to Churchill and the surrounding area. The rocking of the train that night was severe, strong enough to knock everything off the shelves in our room, but we woke to a white wonderland of newly fallen snow.

Steven carrying our "luggage" off the train