A few weekends ago saw my family and I on a very special trip. We rode the train to Smithers.
Thanks to the friendly folks at Via Rail, my husband and I, our children and my mother boarded a passenger train at the Prince George station and off we went: to wait in the rail yard for a half hour for a freight train to pass.
Besides the less-than-auspicious beginning, the trip was particularly fun because we did not tell the kids (five- and three-years-old) about the trip beforehand.
It was really surprising to me and my husband that the children did not ask us where we were going or why we had to leave the house at the obscenely early hour of seven in the morning. This lack of curiosity unnerved me however it was nice that they didn't ask questions; they just moved at the same glacially-slow pace that they always do.
When we got to the station, they were extremely excited about seeing a train up close but they were a little more excited about the room with all the chairs. Had we known how thrilling it would be to sit on a bunch of different chairs, I perhaps would have saved the train trip and gone to an empty movie theatre instead.
Musical chairs killed about 20 minutes before the train arrived and it killed about 30 hours of patience. When they asked if they could go on the train as it pulled up, we shrugged and said, "Oh sure." Then their little heads exploded. I think that we say "no" way more often than "yes" because they could hardly understand their good fortune.
With only a 15 minute delay leaving the station, we headed out into the cool, foggy November morning - to sit under the Cameron Street bridge for a half an hour on the siding waiting for the longest freight-car train in the entire world to pass us. We were sitting in the bubble car for the first part of the trip until the other passengers were getting visibly agitated at how chatty and noisy the kids were in their excitement.
For those familiar with the chatti- ness of five- and three-year-olds, you can imagine that we lasted about five minutes. We were off on an exciting ad- venture by train, yielding to every single freight car in North America (I am not even kidding).
Never having been on a train before, I only had my romantic and idealized version of what train travel would be like. There were two scenes that influ- enced my trains of thoughts: the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder and the movie Far and Away with Tom Cruise (back when we liked him) and Nicole Kidman (I never stopped liking her).
In the Little House books, there is a scene after Laura's sister Mary goes blind where both Laura and Mary are on the train and Laura is describing the crushed red velvet on the seats and Mary is petting the soft fabric. In the movie Far and Away, there are many passenger cars and lots of significant looks and slamming car doors. I was also, half-expecting, the conductor to have a cute little hat.
Friends, the seats were not velvet, the significant looks were more like scowls at the kids and there were no cute little hats. However, marginal disappointment aside, the seats were pretty comfortable and although the aqua-blue fabric and pleather seats were certainly not crushed red velvet, they did not smell like a Grey- hound bus.
That was a bonus.
For people familiar with the intricacies of travelling with kids on long trips, be- ing able to get up and walk up and down the cars was awesome. Having a table that you could play Lego and Playdough on is awesome. Having a fairly empty train that you can nap the kids on their own bench is breathtakingly wonderful. I am exceptionally proud of how well our kids did on the train. It is hard having
to have "restaurant manners" for such a long time.
There were, as you may expect, a few things that were not wonderful about the trip.
Reason number one was the total "bonus time" on the trip of over two and a half hours bringing the grand total of travel time to Smithers to eight and a half hours - one way. I did not realize that the transportation of goods have complete and utter priority over the transportation of people on the rail lines.
Things that helped the delay: adult beverages, endless games of crib and sleeping children.
Even with the delays, the trip went
smoothly and I would travel by train again. I would recommend travel by train particularly if the culmination of your ride ends in Smithers because you are guaranteed an experience. On this trip, my mom babysat the kids in our motel room (thanks Mom!) and my husband and I went with my cousin to a house party concert. This is an intimate concert from travelling musicians that is hosted in someone's lovely little moun- tain house.
An interesting bluegrass band was playing in socks to avoid ruining the hardwood floors and we just plunked down in a stranger's house and listened to a concert by donation.
Apparently, the travelling band house party thing also happens in Prince George. I know this because both my mother and my husband have been in- vited to one. I have never been invited. I am choosing to think this is because people will know I usually will not leave my house after 8 p.m. and not because I am lame at a party.
Anyway, I completely recommend riding the rails as an alternate mode of transportation. It is as affordable as driving, way more comfortable and it is a very remarkable experience.
You can go for a short walk, read, have a nap or drink beer while you are travel- ling to your destination; just so long as you are not in a hurry.
