Today was the first day of our Rocky Mountaineer (RM) trip where we actually were on the train - it was awesome! We left our hotel early, ~6:30am, to drive back to Banff as there is ongoing construction at the Lake Louise train station. We boarded the train ~8:00am and started on our full day trip to Kamloops in British Columbia.
Our full RM trip actually began in Calgary last Monday and ends when we arrive in Vancouver tomorrow night after another day on the train. They offer a lot of different journeys through the Canadian Rockies of varying durations and locations. Our train car had 2 levels. The top was a glass dome where we sat and could literally see everything. The bottom level was the dining car where they served amazing meals for breakfast and lunch.
As we started the day I expected a quiet day with a short blog filled with some pictures of the scenery from the ride. Instead, our day was filled with meeting wonderful people, laughing - a LOT - and creating some awesome new memories. That said, there was also some amazing views.
At breakfast we sat at a table with another couple, Anders and Bridget, who happened to be from Denmark. We will be going there later on this trip - and in a true small world occurrence they live in one of the towns we are visiting - Odense. It was great to talk to them and to learn a few Danish words.
At lunch we sat at a table with another couple, Harry and JoAnn, who were from Ontario. We instantly made a connection and spent the lunch laughing, sharing stories and making new memories. JoAnn has an awesome laugh. Craig and Harry were laughing about some of the things they did in their youth - and Harry shared some great stories. Here's a couple.
- Each year Harry and ~10 of his good friends would perform some Halloween "tricks". A favorite was tipping outhouses. They would always tip over so the door landed face down on the ground. One year one of their neighbors was a step ahead of them. He moved his outhouse to the side of the "hole" and stirred it up a bit to make it particularly mucky. He then camouflaged it with some thin pieces of plywood and sod. As Harry and his friends approached, the first guy in line was the unlucky one to go plunging into the hole. Not a lot of volunteers to help him out :). We laughed trying to imagine how he explained that to his parents when he went home.
- Another year they moved beyond tipping outhouses and decided to raise the stakes - literally raising them. They completely took apart a neighbors wagon wheel lifting each of the pieces to the top of his barn. On top of the barn -yep on top - they reassembled the wagon wheel. When the neighbor came out the next day he was in for a big surprise!
After lunch we were relaxing in our seats drinking some water and trying to rest a bit. Unfortunately the glasses aren't plastic but real glass. It's fair to say the train isn't exactly smooth. Somehow, no one is saying exactly how, Craig's water glass slipped off his tray crashing onto the floor and shattering into a LOT of pieces. We thought we were pretty discreet picking up all of the shards without a big commotion. Before we knew it though, Craig was "the guy" who broke his glass and the jokes began - and we made a lot of new friends. Craig said he successfully fulfilled his duties by entertaining everyone :)
In Kamloops we decided to go out to a local microbrewery for dinner. It was ~6 blocks from the hotel - and after the day of drinking and eating we thought a little walk would be good. On the way over we heard someone yell at a younger couple "The Blackhawks Suck!". The guy was wearing a Chicago Blackhawks jersey. We ended up talking to them as we walked for several blocks. They were locals to Kamloops - but he was a serious Blackhawks (and Cubs!) fan. He grew up in a small town outside of Kamloops with only 4 TV stations - one of which happened to be WGN. So he was raised watching Cubs baseball and Blackhawks hockey. The St. Louis rivalry made for some fun conversation.
We ended the night at the park across the street from our hotel - listening to a local band and watching some lawn bowling. After our lessons earlier this summer (if you haven't heard about those yet - that's a story for another day) - it was fun to watch!
That's all for today. Hope you had a great one.
Enjoy the Ride!
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