It
was about 4:30 p.m. when I received the call from VIA Rail with what she
referred to as "good news".
Apparently there had been a rock slide just west of Kamloops that took
out a freight train and as a result, we would now have to “bus” to the train in
Kamloops. This apparently was the
good news.

The
original plan according to the CN officials was for us to make it down to
Vancouver (1 hour drive) so that we could be in Vancouver for the Champagne
send off. Obviously this was not
going to happen now, instead we had to look forward to the 4-hour bus trip that
would take us right past our house on the way to Kamloops.

When
we arrived at the station in downtown Vancouver, the first comment made to us
by VIA officials was that every bag that we had packed for our 12-day return
trip to Toronto was OVERSIZED and
would have to be repacked into acceptable sized containers. Then they subsequently provided us with
a small plastic wrapped bag, marked with the VIA logo, that was about the size
of an environmentally friendly grocery sack.

After
some colorful conversations with the old VIA Rail guy we set out to sort
through all our carry-on luggage to decide out there on the floor what was
ultimately essential for the four night trip to Toronto.

All
done, we boarded the bus at 8:30 and arrived into Kamloops at 12:30 p.m. only
to find out that the bus driver couldn't find the train. How do you loose a 12-car shiny silver
train. Now 1:30 after we
located the train, the train lead comes on the loudspeaker and says, whoops,
nobody prepared the train yet, so you’ll have to sit on either the bus or move
yourself and luggage to the dining car until we can get the beds readied for
passengers.

Finally,
Car 222 – Bedroom E was called at about 2:00 a.m. What followed was just the topping to an otherwise bad
start to our VIA Rail adventure.
As you know Deb and I are cruisers, we’ve grown accustomed to small
cabins. But in fairness, it’s been
40+ years since I’ve traveled by train.
Back then I was somewhat smaller, so everything looked bigger. You really can’t believe the expression
on Deborah’s face when the room steward opened the door to our room. No kidding floor space of 2’ x 10’ with
an upper and lower bunk – our cruise cabins now could be compared to Captain
Stubbing on the Love Boat compared to what we had to deal with.

Today,
has been a much better day with a little sleep. Breakfast was good, white tablecloths and silver - somewhat short of the Orient Express
I’m sure but quite nice.

Then
it was off to the Dome Car (we got the plum front seat) for pictures going
through the mountains. It’s
really amazing how truly beautiful Canada is. Leaving
Vancouver with somewhat balmy temperatures, I can only say that Jasper was very,
very cold and with lots and lots of snow.
It made it look like we were on a train trip to the North Pole. It seemed like we just got through
breakfast and there was a call for 1st seating lunch. Again, a pretty good lunch, Deb had a
very nice open-faced Turkey sandwich and I went for the Cheese Ravioli.

We’ve
really started to feel like seasoned train dwellers. The room doesn’t quite seem so small today and we’ve caught
up on some sleep.

Having
spent around 3 hours in Jasper (nice quaint little town) we’ve headed back out
to Edmonton, AB as our next stop scheduled for around 11:00 p.m. tonight. It will be there that I’ll have to
access some Wi-Fi to load up my blog.

Dinner
tonight was actually quite surprising, Rack of Lamb with mint sauce and it
tasted very nice. Knowing
that we have some 2900 kilometers left on our trip to Toronto we could be come
very proficient to this downsized lifestyle.

We
had some nice table mates for dinner tonight who were from St. Paul, Minnesota
so much of the dinner revolved around the recent US election, thank heavens
there were Democrats, it made the conversation so much easier. I’ve attached some of the photos so
far, which may give you an idea of what we’ve enjoyed to date.

We’ve
got Amy Winehouse playing here in the room and we’re likely to start up a DVD
of Boston Legal before bed-time so where at least electronically all hooked
up. A special thanks to Tom and
Jamie for getting to the station on time – it was appreciated.

Stay
tuned for further updates.