On the Road Again 2016 #2

On the Road Again 2016 #2
Monday 10:00 AM
As I have made this train trip a number of times before, I was not anticipating seeing much that was new. I was wrong. It has been a glorious trip so far.  Usually much of the trip between Kamloops and Jasper has been at night time. This time the sun was just rising when we were west of Kamloops and it will certainly (unless we are incredibly late)  still be up when we are well east of Jasper. The country is absolutely gorgeous. The deciduous trees are just in full leaf - showing of their new bright green foliage. The conifers are tipped with newly hatch cones, looking quite satisfied with themselves at having survived another winter The mountain tops are still deep with snow and are glistening in the morning sun. The North Thompson River that the train tracks have somewhat sporadically followed for much of our trip is running high, begging to be canoed down. All in all - a delightful way to spend the morning.

2:30 - Monday
It has remained a beautiful day. For the first time I got a clear view of Mount Robson. On other trips it has been too foggy or else dark to see the top.Today the air is clear and all of the tips of the peaks are visible and amazing. I had forgotten, perhaps because my more recent trips have been done in either bad weather, or in the case of hitchhiking at night, how magnificent the mountains are. I am glad I came this way.

The year's music entertainment is a young lady and her guitar. I think she said she played in  band which might explain her unimaginative playing. She had a great voice- lots of range and control over that range. Perhaps her lyrics were as wonderful as her voice but in spite of the fact that I was no more than ten feet away from her, I could not understand one word out of ten. I do wish that young singers would learn to enunciate their words. I would perhaps appreciate their work so much more.

The conductor has just announced that the train is on time! We may get to spend the full 1.5 hours in Jasper - in daylight. How nice!

9:00 AM Tuesday
Jasper was a bit cool but pleasant. It is too late in the ski season and too early in the summer season for the streets to be crowded. I got my sub, messaged my daughter and then got back on the train. In spite of the fact that I was enjoying the trip, I am a bit jaded by some of the scenery. But then Jasper didn't excited me that much the first time i saw it.

As we were leaving the station, an announcement came over the speakers that there was a bear on the left..... we all ran over to that side - no bear. A few minutes later there was an announcement that there was a moose on the right - again everyone moved over to look out the windows but no moose could be seen. This happened a few times more to the point that people were laughing at ourselves running back and forth. The conductor who happened to be in our car and was also going back and forth wondered at one point if the the person making the announcements had said "caboose" not " moose ". Actually I am quite sure that the engineer did see those animals but by the time our car got to that spot, the animal was long gone. We were fortunate enough to get a nice look at a herd/flock of mountain goats.

When I had gotten on the train in Vancouver I was told that there would be a lot of people boarding the train in Jasper.. Two or three passengers left and I don't think anyone got on this car. Lots of room for sleeping