We Aren't Moving

OMG.  Lieutenant Dan is killing us again.  He is so hilarious.  And his French is well, understandable according to the French speakers, but even I can tell that while he is fluent, his accent is a bit atrocious.  We are waiting for the relief crew to take over for the engineers, as the current engineers have reached the legally allotted time they are allowed to operate the train.  Not complaining.  But it is hilarious in it's pattern.  We are having a great time.  Here is my post from this morning:

Stardate 5/8/18  We are languishing in Alberta.  We were warned of this.  The freight train thing.  So evidently the length of the freight trains can be upwards of 2-3 miles in this section, my guess is that they need to split them to get over the Rockies.  So we wait on the side line, and once the monster train has passed, we hurtle to the next side line.  This morning we woke outside of Edmonton, to deciduous forests and mule deer.  Then some sort of electrical issue had to be addressed in Edmonton and we were on the way.  This area is flat flat flat.  Big fields of what I assume is often wheat, and some of the biggest grain silos I have ever seen.  These are interspersed with the occasional cattle and marshy areas.  From what I can tell, the tar sands are to the north, so no view of them.   We are hoping to make it to Saskatoon sometime this afternoon.  Big wheat county.  I read in the guide book about Saskatchewan:  in the 1860’s the bison population, which was the source of food/ etc etc for the native population, was over 60 million.  In the span of TEN YEARS…. Let me say that again for emphasis:  in the span of TEN YEARS, via wholesale slaughter from hunting and homesteaders, the population of bison dropped to 500.  Horrifying.  And within 20 years, the native population was all moved to reservations.  No food to eat.  This is history that was repeated in the US, and something we should be ashamed of, over and over again. 

The train is fairly quiet right now.  The crew said that 150 people got off in Jasper (at midnight last night).  Crew change is in Winnipeg, which Lieutenant Dan informs us is the center of the known universe.  You heard it here first.   Back to Jasper.  We were so knackered from lack of sleep the first night we were all in bed early, slept well and there was no getting out for the stop there.  So much for my Alberta tag for geocaching.  Ah well.  Here is hoping for something close to the station in Saskatoon. If the freight train ever comes to release us from Viking…..