First day of the train trip (like trains, this is running behind).

We had to get up very early for our train trip. Fortunately, the Starbucks across the street opens even earlier, so we were coffeed by the time we boarded the bus. We never do this kind of tour, with large groups, and we both find the regimentation amusing. Fill up the bus, and off to the train station. Luggage? Don't worry, we'll take that and it'll be in your room when we get there.

Where is there? Some place called Kamloops. More about that later, but it turns out that this operation, Rocky Mountaineer, has outgrown using the regular train station and has its own terminal (there’s a difference, BTW) on a spur track.

We have what they call Gold Leaf Service, which means our train car has an upper level for sitting, with wraparound dome windows, and a lower level for dining. The windows are spotless, as is the whole train, actually.

We boarded the train, listened to the safety announcement, then the train backed up to the main track, and we headed east. There’s a platform outside the train car, referred to as the vestibule, where there’s nothing but a gate between you and the outside. This is wonderful on a number of levels. First of all, you have no sense while you’re sitting on a train how loud it is outside. We went over a metal bridge and the clanging was deafening. I also loved that you can just look down and see the track whizzing by, and the tunnels? Wow.

I hadn’t really thought about it before, but one of the reasons I love these long train trips is that train tracks almost invariably follow rivers. I guess because towns grow up around rivers and rivers tend to be flat, except there they're waterfalls. And rivers are cool. There's always something going on by a river, even if it's just the river.

The first river we followed was called the Fraser, which approaches Vancouver through a lush valley. That made it smell like cow dung on the vestibule, but so what, I was like a dog in a car with the window open. I was just sticking my head out and watching.

Then suddenly it was arid and almost desert-like, except with a river flowing through it, so patches of green here and there. Meanwhile, inside the car, there were about a half dozen attendants seeing to our every need. Breakfast was tasty and massive, and shortly thereafter they announced that the bar was open, to great applause.

The people on the train were all really nice. We didn't have extended conversations with too many of them, but those of us who hung out in the vestibule chatted quite a bit. That's another attraction of trains. The people are almost invariably nice (Northeast Corridor excluded). We eat at tables of 4, which means 2 couples who don't know each other. Met two women from Australia (lots of Aussies) and a couple from Toronto.

Eventually, we approached Kanloops, a surprising large town for in the middle of nowhere. It's the tournament capital of the world, whatever that means.

Gotta go now. More later.