July 8, 2008

July 8, 2008

Today we went on a road trip exploration adventure. Part of it was planned, most of it was not. This morning we headed for Kelowna, about two hours north, to attend the monthly luncheon of the SKP B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33. We had been planning to attend the June luncheon, but the weather was bad that day. It's hard to believe, given the current hot weather, that only one month ago it was so cold that the precipitation falling that day was snow to about ¾ of the way down the sides of the mountains surrounding us.

Joanne drove to Penticton. I drove from Penticton to Kelowna. We don't much like Kelowna, despite its popularity. It has lost its "small town" feeling and charm, especially with the chronic heavy traffic. We had a very pleasant lunch, visiting with our Escapee friends. As we departed Kelowna heading south back to Penticton and on to Keremeos, I decided, on impulse, to turn west on Hwy. 97C and go exploring. Hwy. 97C was a wonderful four lane "freeway" up and through the gorgeous mountains, all the way to Hwy. 5A just south of Merritt. We turned south on Hwy. 5A, a scenic two lane road through rolling ranch lands. We stopped at Kentucky / Alleyne Provincial Park to check out the two campgrounds there. We will probably camp there this fall on our way north to the SKP B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 Fall Rally in September.

The road from the highway into the provincial park passes through three miles of private ranch land. As we turned off the highway, and onto the road up to the provincial park ... there was a bull calf on the outside of the fence surrounding the ranch, despite there being a cattle guard grate on the road as it passed through the fence, to prevent cattle from coming out onto the highway. Well, try telling that to the stupid little bull standing outside the gate, trying to figure out how to get back onto the right side of the fence.

I stopped, jumped out, grabbed my walking stick, and told Joanne to grab her walking stick and come help me try to herd the stupid little bull back over the cattle guard grate. She was a bit reluctant, but followed my lead. As we approached the bull, he panicked, turned, and ran out onto the highway into the path of an incoming car. GEEEEEZZZZZ ! ! ! I know from my teenage years, summers spent working out on my Aunt Lena's farm, what an incredible combination of stubbornness and stupidity are mixed in little bulls. The woman driving the car slammed on her brakes, and little bully went running past her continuing down the highway. SHIT ... now what are we going to do ? ! ? Just then a rancher in a pickup truck came driving out of the ranch gate at high speed, quickly assessing what was going on. He raced down the highway, just past little bully, screeched to a halt, and jumped out. The woman in the car began waving down the oncoming highway traffic to slow them down. The rancher began hollering and waving his arms at little bully, herding him back towards me. He screamed at me to just keep little bully headed back towards the gate. Okay ! As little bully got closer to me, he decided once again to cross over to the other side of the highway. I scrambled across the highway in front of him, hollering and waving at him to get back over to the right side of the highway. Joanne and the woman from the car were stopping traffic on the highway. This was starting to resemble a scene from Monty Python.

Little bully responded to my waving and hollering, and ran back across the highway to the ranch side. Great, I thought. Just a bit more herding and I'll have him back at the gate. But NOOOOO ... he ran back across the highway, at full speed, through the ditch, and just kept going. BLAM ! Right into the barbed wire fence. OH, MAN ! I thought he was going to get tangled, and injured, in the barbed wire. But, fortunately, I guess, the barbed wire fence was old. Little bully hit the barbed wire, tangled, fell, and the nearest fence post broke. He scrambled up, disentangled from the barbed wire, and leaped over the barbed wire which was now down low because of the broken fence post. And just kept on truckin' across the pasture. The rancher had been running back down the highway towards us, and reached me just as bully broke through and over the fence.

He thanked me for helping. I apologized for the broken fence. He thought a broken fence post was a lot better than a dead calf. I was worried about injuries to the calf from the barbed wire. He shrugged it off, saying little bulls have pretty tough hide on their chests. Joanne and I got back into the truck, and finally drove through the gate, heading for the provincial park.

Sure enough, a little ways down the ranch road leading to the provincial park, we met little bully, trotting quickly down the right side of the road, heading ... who knows ? I slowed way down, and moved way over to the far left side of the road as I approached little bully. Of course, just as I reached him, he panicked, and ran across to the left side of the road, right in front of the truck. < sigh > I hope he makes good steak, because he certainly won't make it as a rocket scientist. A little further down the road, we met a cow who we surmised, due to colouring, was probably little bully's mother.

We checked out the campgrounds. As we drove back to the highway, there was the cow and her stupid little calf. When he saw our truck, he ran around to the other side of the cow, and hid from the big mean old black truck that made him run into the barbed wire fence < rolling eyes >.

We continued south on Hwy. 5A, stopping to check out the campground at Allison Lake Provincial Park before reaching Princeton. At Princeton we stopped at Dairy Queen, bought some ice cream treats, then turned east on Hwy. 3 heading back to Keremeos. We stopped at Bromley Rock Provincial Park, one of our favourite local spots, a short distance east of Princeton, to eat our ice cream treats. Well ... for me to eat my ice cream treat. Joanne's didn't last much longer than the Dairy Queen parking lot !

Joanne suggests that I need work on my cattle driving skills. HEY ! ! !

DSK