First twenty four hours

 We had a very talkative bus driver from Victoria to Vancouver. I needed to put on my sound deadening headphones and listen to choral music. We were half an hour late but Hugh was there to meet us and take us to lunch at their home with Caroline. We were very happy to catch up with old friends who we have known for about 50 years.

The VIA train was built in 1956. It has been renovated but the basic structure of Aluminium and Stainless steel is original. We have a very small cabin where there is only room for one person to move around. 

The VIA staff (who were on board from Vancouver to Winnipeg) were excellent. In Vancouver I mistakenly left my backpack in the waiting room. I realized when we got to our cabin that I had left it behind. One for the staff had found it and with two witnesses, he told me, he looked inside and found my name in a notebook. They then were able to locate our cabin and brought it to me. I was impressed. 

We travelled through the Fraser valley and then to Kamloops which we went through at night. The next morning we were approaching Valemount, which I remembered from my days at the Medical Health Officer in Prince George. I had to get involved in assisting the Mayor to get the doctors, who lived in Jasper, serving Valemount  who were refusing to provide service. It got resolved after I travelled to Jasper, spend an evening with the doctors, where they insisted on some heavy drinking and was able to help the Mayor renegotiate the contract with the doctors. 

Although the weather was cloudy we had some good views of the lower part of Mount Robson where I recalled having been on  hike in the area a few years ago.

Entering Jasper we saw the area of the town decimated by a fire last year. A vast amount of surrounding forest was also burned. Amazingly the area of town around the train station was not burned. We walked around for about an hour. It was cool - about 13C - and windy. 

Posting photos will have to wait till later.







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