August 23 update

August 23, 2007 blog update

 

Well, August has been a very nice, hot, dry month so far. Just a few days of rain and / or cool temperatures. We've done some exploring of the local area, and attended some events. We went to Naramata to attend the Naramata Faire. Naramata is on the east side of Okanagan Lake, across the lake from Penticton. We attended Kars Under The K in Memorial Park in Keremeos, an annual "show & shine" event for classic and antique cars. We went to Penticton for PeachFest, and watched the Peach Festival Parade.  We attended a "Bard In The Park" evening performance of Taming Of The Shrew in Skaha Lake Park in Penticton. We were joined by Gil and Maria, neighbours of ours. Joanne prepared a lovely picnic dinner for us which we ate in the park before the performance.

The "orchard" area in our RV park has kept us well supplied with fresh fruit. And Joanne has been baking lots of fruit desserts. MMMMM ! The cherries were finished around the end of July, but since then we've had lots of apricots, plums, apples, and peaches. Our park had its first potluck dinner recently, following a "Bear Aware" presentation by a provincial conservation employee. Black bears have been coming to eat the apples that fall off the trees in our park's orchard. Some of the lot owners are ... concerned. Hey, guys ... take a look at where we live. We're on the banks of a crystal clear river, surrounded by mountains, tall Lodgepole Pine and Douglas Fir trees all around us, Bald Eagles soaring overhead. You can't have your cake and eat it too ! If you can't accept an occasional rattlesnake or bear, move to downtown Toronto ! We're hoping that now that we've had a potluck dinner at Riverside RV Park Resort, they will become a regular social activity. There is much lot development and construction work happening in the park. Many lot sales took place this summer, and there became a backlog in lot development and construction. The contractor whom everybody had been using became sick, and work stopped for about a month, creating a backlog. Ben, the contractor of choice, became ill a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, he has cancer of the liver and / or colon, with a very bleak prognosis. He won't be able to return to work, and has now turned all his work over to another contractor, who is very busy trying to get caught up on the backlog of lots awaiting development. We will miss Ben. In the short time that we knew him, we came to like him. He's a nice guy. He owns a couple of lots in the park himself, and so was a "neighbour" as well as our contractor.

I've done some flying out of Penticton Airport. My first solo flying in almost 4 years ! Yup ... just like riding a bicycle ! But I continue to be intimidated by flying in the mountains. I'm going to stay within the Okanagan Valley at least until I attend Southern Skies Aviation's mountain flying course in the fall. And I don't think I'm going to do any night flying.

Joanne's elbow continues to heal slowly. The pain is minimal. The range of motion continues to increase, but there is still a long way to go to restore full range of motion. She does her exercises daily, with me nagging her to do them, and coaching her through them.

A few days ago we were visited by Cathy and Jan Emrick, Escapee friends of ours from Texas. They have been full time travelling RV’ers for about 4 years now. They spend their summers here in Canada, and have explored all the provinces and territories extensively over the last few years. They are much more knowledgeable about Canada and Canadian geography, history, politics, and society than most Americans. Well, and probably most Canadians as well. We first met Cathy and Jan a couple of years ago at Rainbow's End, the Escapee headquarters and RV park in Livingston, Texas.

They arrived Sunday afternoon and visited for 2½ days. Sunday evening and all day Monday it was raining lightly, on and off, so we spent that time sitting in our screen tent "gazebo", just relaxing and chatting. On Tuesday we drove up Nickel Plate Mine Road, halfway up the back side of Apex Mountain. Jan did some nature photography. It was the first time we drove back "down" Nickel Plate Mine Road, giving me a completely different perspective, seeing the scenery from the driver's seat, heading downhill. As we drove back towards Keremeos, I saw a "wild" apricot tree on the side of the road. We stopped and picked apricots. They were small, but very sweet ! Joanne made a lovely apricot crisp dessert with them. We drove over Red Bridge to the "opposite" side of the Similkameen River, then up Ashnola River Road following the Ashnola River, again just to explore and take photographs. Jan and Cathy treated us to dinner at Arleigh's in Keremeos. So far we've eaten at Arleigh's three times. The first time was great. The second time was terrible, and made me reluctant to return. This last time was a combination of both. Good food and good service, marred horribly by many flies in the restaurant. Cathy and Jan left yesterday, Wednesday morning, heading for Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

DSK