All Aboard and Bon Voyage!

Tomorrow our family leaves for Montreal, VIA train!

This prospect is very exciting for all of us: my husband is looking forward to getting somewhere without having to drive the whole way (his co-driver tends to want to fall asleep while driving) and while being able to stand up and walk around; my oldest son has been waiting all his life to visit a big city; my youngest two are satisfied with just being excited about everything.

For me, travelling by train is a dream come true. It all started one day more than 30 years ago....

I was in Mrs. Donnelly's grade 3/4 class with the chalkboards on wheels for walls. Each day started with a Mad Minute math test and show and tell followed by a story. We were still young enough for show and tell in those days. I had written off show and tell for myself in kindergarten already after I brought my favorite doll and no one asked me any questions about her, but I still loved to hear about my classmates things and life events.

This particular day was very memorable in my mind. Wayne Friesen brought a puppet that day, the kind where the puppet's arms and legs can be velcroed around your neck and waist and you stick your whole arm in it to make it seem almost alive. I had never seen such a puppet and his was Garfield. I had no idea who Garfield was. Then Wayne informed us that Garfield's best friend was Odie (what a name!?!) and his favorite food was lasagne (I had never heard of lasagne before and had no idea what that was either). Hearing about so many things that I didn't know about in such a short time was quite overwhelming. I started reading Garfield comics shortly after this initial encounter. Thank you, Wayne, for introducing me to such an esteemed character!

And then the story time. Mrs. Donnelly told Wayne to put Garfield back in his school bag and pulled out the book she had chosen to read. It was called “All Aboard: Across Canada by Train.” It was the account of a young woman who travelled across Canada by train, if you can imagine! She told about the different cities that she stopped at and the interesting people she met. I was completed entranced! What a romantic idea! (although that's probably not the word I used at the time). I knew I had to travel by train sometime in my life.

I have very few other memories from Grade 3, but that morning stuck out as a shining beacon in my little life. To learn of Garfield and have a dream born in the first 15 minutes of the school day was life altering.

It took more than 30 years for the dream to become a reality, but tomorrow is the day! I have three kids who are having a hard time falling asleep tonight and a suitcase calling out to be packed.

Bon voyage á nous! Montréal, ici nous venons! (Does that work in French?)

Check back two years from now to see if my Grade 5 dream of travelling to Italy will also come true!