Day 4 Rocky Mountaineer

Here we go!! Up at 6am to catch a taxi to the train station.
As we pulled up there was a line of around 6 people in their RM uniforms,all smiling and clapping as we got out of the taxi..What the???? Apparently we were the first passengers to arrive and this was the first tour of the new season..As we were escprted to the check in counter it was more of the same..Big smiles and clapping..Felt like we were royalty..Thought we'd try for an upgrade to Gold Leaf Service while we were on a roll but no such luck unless we wanted to pay an extra $400 each!
As it turned out we thoroughly enjoyed our Silver Service and had the best hosts/ guides/stewards that we could wish for.
The train travels on the same lines as Canadian Rail and they have priority,so it was a bit slow going getting out of the city area.Once we were clear we were off and running and we were served breakfast(3 courses),snacks mid morning,then a 3course lunch and then afternoon snacks!!!
The train passed through a lot of farming and dairy areas for most of the morning and some of the little towns were quite rustic and quaint.
The rest of the day was something we did not expect as we were then in mountainous desert country..It had it's own beauty and we saw some bighorn sheep perching precariously on the rocky outcrops.As the train came down out of this area,we were skirting around a huge lake with Canada Geese swimming around.On the other side was more like the brochures as the mountains were covered in pine trees and in the distance there were mountains topped with snow.The scenery was just beautiful all the way to our stop for the night at Kamloops.We settled into our hotel and on the table was a complimentary dinner for two at the restaurant downstairs plus a leather notebook.Nice surprise and a lovely meal was had by all.
Into bed and ready for what is the highlight of the journey.The Rocky Mountains!!