Early to bed and early to rise…. 5:30 AM alarm so we could get dressed before our scheduled luggage pickup at 5:50AM. Sure enough, a knock at the door occurred at the noted hour. We made coffee in the room and then headed down to the lobby at 6:30 where we were met by local staff of the Mountaineer who guided us to the waiting bus. There were about 20 fellow passengers staying at this hotel. Other passengers were scattered among other local hotels, as there are approximately 400 total people on this trip.

I thought we were headed to the local train station but was wrong. Instead we were taken to the special train station owned by  the Rocky Mountaineer.  There they offered coffee and tea as we waited for the call to board our train which occurred about 25 minutes after arriving. The “all aboard” call came when a bagpiper dressed in full regalia led us from the station to the train.

The vista dome cars are magnificent. Reclining leather seats with foot rests, lots of leg room, huge panoramic windows and a staff of three in each car that  hold a maximum of 72 people. We have assigned seats and all seats face forward.

Breakfast and lunch are served as part of the meal trip but because the dining room, which is on the lower level only seats 36 people at a time, we must eat in 2 seatings. So as to not starve while waiting, those who must wait for a second shift are offered coffee and a marvelous lemon cranberry loaf to pacify us while we wait. Today we are on the 2^nd seating; tomorrow the sequence will be reversed.

As we travel the staff points out local sights and provides insights to our trip. For example, the train travels an average of 30 mph with occasional speeds up to 60 mph. At the start of the trip we actually went backwards to exit the siding and merge with the main track. We were well informed by the staff about what was happening and why.

There is no internet on the train but I am doing this offline using Word, and will hopefully not lose it until I can add it to the blog. Update: it worked!

By 9:30 we were told breakfast was now available for the 2^nd seating which included us. Downstairs the tables, seating 4, were set with white tablecloths and napkins. Our table companions were a young couple from Connecticut, both aerospace engineers so we had a fun discussion about jet engines and NASA. The menu offered 6 different items and deciding which to have was difficult as they all looked good. We were served a plate of fresh fruit as a starter along with a plate of several pastry items. It was as good a breakfast as we would have had in a nice restaurant. So far I am extremely impressed with the overall Rocky Mountaineer experience!

Back in our seats we found the drink menu which some people began enjoying even though it was only 10:30 AM. The scenery has changed as we were now in the Fraser Valley. We are following the mighty Fraser River with forests and hills replacing the city landscape we left a few hours ago.

I queried Tyler about the size of our train and he said there were 22 cars on our train today. We also have two engines but only one is working (the other is a backup). Typically they have two trains out on various routes at the same time.

A bit of trivia: There are signs along the rail tracks showing distance; they are called “subdivisions” and mark the distance between watering stations used in the days of steam locomotion. While Canadian highway signs show mileage in kilometers, these rail signs show mileage in miles. The reason is when they were built in the 19^th century the Canadians copied the US method of signage and did not bother to change them when the country went metric.

We both managed to “rest” a bit after breakfast (i.e. we napped) and when awakened we were offered morning snacks to tide us over until lunch, which for us was not until 2 PM. We purposely sat with different people (couple from Spearfish, South Dakota) to meet other fellow travelers. Again there were multiple luncheon selections and thankfully the portions were small as we were still full from breakfast and the snacks.

The rest of the afternoon was spent simply watching the world go by as now we were following the Thompson River and the surrounding landscape was more desert-like. Narration of what we were seeing was fairly constant the entire time.

We arrived in Kamloops, our stop for the night, by 5:30, earlier than I had expected as often one does not arrive until as late as 7:30 PM. Again the process was superb. We were told to wait in our seats so that they can hand us our room keys before disembarking the train. Better yet we were told our luggage would be in our room when we arrived! That is certainly another Disney trick and I loved it!

When we checked in yesterday the rep said we might not be hungry for a big meal once we got to Kamloops. How right he was! We skipped dinner and simply opted for some ice cream at the local DQ!

Tomorrow morning we board our train at 7:40 AM as we work our way to our final train destination- Jasper, where we will spend 2 nights.