Travel marathon

Four hours waiting for the train. We were early. It was late. Twenty-four hours on the train. Fun, but without a sleeping compartment, sleep suffers. And we arrived late in Jasper. Hopped in the van and drove south like the dickens for 2.5 hours to get Chuck to the bus station in time that he could catch the bus back west to home (he had not been able to find a replacement for work and was due to start his on-call week the next day). Bus was late. An hour in the parking lot waiting for it.

And then another 2.5 hours driving east to Calgary. We arrived after midnight, the night after a sleepless night on the train. The kids had been laughing their heads off, singing and creating random ads for weird products all the way in.

This morning we had to be up for a variety of violin and viola lessons and various errands and visits. It was not enough sleep for anyone to catch up. Erin, Fiona and Sophie fell asleep like a toppled row of dominoes on the couch during Noah's viola lesson.

Noah has tallied up the travel on this holiday. Seventy-nine hours by the time we get home. I reminded him that in the case of the train at least (48 of those 79 hours) the travel was the holiday, not the price we paid for getting to our holiday. But it's still a lot of travel.

We will swim at the hotel pool after supper and then get a very good very long night's sleep before completing the final leg of our travels. It will be nice to be home.