October 2 to 8, 2008

Watch for notification of upcoming blog address change by end of October

October 2 to 8, 2008 ; Keremeos, B.C. to Grenfell, Saskatchewan

Thursday ; Today was supposed to be Dan Air Flight 405 / Mountain Performance Course Flight No. 5, but once again my flying was curtailed by bad weather. I won't be able to finish my Mountain Performance Flight Course until next spring. Oh, well ... something to look forward to !

In the middle of the night, at 4:00 A.M., I was sitting at our picnic table having a smoke, having had difficulty falling asleep again after getting up to go to the bathroom. I was sitting there quietly, in the dark, when suddenly a form appeared from around the back of the truck. A large buck deer was wandering into our yard. He walked slowly around the truck, head tilted back, sniffing the air, obviously smelling me but not seeing me. I sat motionless, and he slowly walked toward the picnic table and trailer, getting within about 10 feet of me before turning around and walking out of our yard and down the road.

This morning we headed to Penticton. We met with our investment broker to discuss the changes we have made to our investments this summer, and some that still need to be made before the end of the year. The declines in the values of our investments over the last year and a half, particularly the last few weeks, are ... chilling ! Next spring, after 5 years of being homeless, unemployed vagabonds / full time RV'ers, we may have to succumb to financial pressures, resume a "normal" lifestyle, and resume working. But I'm not ( yet ! ) willing to alter our travel plans for this upcoming winter season. From our investment broker's office we went to the Bank of Montreal to buy traveller's cheques for our upcoming winter's journeys. From there we went to the B.C. Government Services Office to process an early renewal for Joanne's driver's license, which expires in January on her birthday.

We had a quick picnic lunch in Skaha Lake Park then Joanne dropped me off at Southern Skies Aviation and went to run errands while I went flying. When I phoned Kamloops FSS ( Flight Services Station ) for a weather briefing, I learned that a narrow band of bad weather was approaching from the south, and by the time I would be ready to take off in about an hour, it would be positioned to the west of Penticton, right in between Penticton and Merritt where I was flying to < sigh >. I discussed the situation with my instructor, and we decided to cancel the training flight. I phoned Joanne, she picked me up at the airport, and we spent the rest of the afternoon running errands. Oh, boy, just what I wanted. More time at Wal-Mart !

Goodbye, Penticton. See you next spring.

Friday ; This morning we made Eggs Benedict, our second attempt. It was much better than the first attempt, earlier this summer. I poached the eggs, Joanne made the Hollandaise sauce. Good team effort.

Yesterday we saw a small herd of about six Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep on the side of the road right outside our park gate. Today there was a much larger herd, over a dozen. We only see Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep down here in the Similkameen Valley briefly in the spring upon our return, and again in the fall briefly before our departure. The rest of the time they are up high in the mountains, avoiding the warm weather down here in the valley. Three of our four "time to depart for the winter" indicators have appeared, so it must be just about time to go. The geese are flying south. The snakes have all migrated across our road to take up hibernation residency in our rock wall. The Bighorn Sheep are back down in the valley. But ... our neighbour Ron hasn't switched to long pants yet. HA HA HA ! Actually, I think that as soon as Ron gets to the point where he feels it's time to switch from shorts to long pants, he hitches up and heads south. HA HA HA !

We went into town for haircuts today. From there we went to the upcoming federal election's advance voting poll at the Legion Hall in Keremeos. That didn't go very smoothly. Joanne didn't have photo identification because yesterday she was issued a temporary / renewal driver's license that doesn't have a picture on it. And I wasn't registered to vote in the local electoral district, thanks to the ineptitude of Revenue Canada and / or Elections Canada who failed to recognize that a year and a half ago I "moved" from Manitoba to British Columbia. Elections Canada is supposed to get up to date address information from Revenue Canada who gets them off income tax returns. Joanne was registered to vote in this electoral district, but I wasn't !

Saturday ; This weekend is the beginning of the two week long annual Okanagan Wine Festival, with events at wineries all around the Okanagan / Similkameen region. Early this afternoon, accompanied by our neighbours Janet and Jerry, we headed off for the Grand Opening of Rustic Roots Winery near Cawston. Rustic Roots Winery is a new fruit winery, a new venture of Harker's Organic Fruit Ranch, a local fruit orchard business now operated by the fifth generation of the Harker family. We sampled their four products, and munched on appetizers. This Grand Opening introduced four of their wines, with three more to be introduced by Christmas. They are the second fruit winery in the area, competing with Forbidden Fruit, our favourite winery. Jerry and Janet had never been to Forbidden Fruit, and since Forbidden Fruit was having a dessert and wine event this afternoon, off to Forbidden Fruit Winery we went.

Unfortunately Forbidden Fruit Winery had cancelled their dessert and wine event due to bad weather and poor advance ticket sales. But we sampled some of their products ( yup ... sure do like that Pomme Désirée ! ), and Janet bought a bottle of Adam's Apple. On the way back to Keremeos we stopped at St. Laszlo Vineyards where Joanne wanted to buy a couple of bottles of their Interlaken to take to Winnipeg for Thanksgiving. St. Laszlo's Interlaken was sold out, so Joanne bought a couple of bottles of Perle Of Csaba, another one of St. Laszlo's wines that we like. While Joanne, Janet, and Jerry were inside St. Laszlo' s wine tasting and sales shop I sat outside cuddling an extremely sociable female kitten named Crush.

Yesterday we stopped at Lasser's Produce to buy some Aurora Golden Gala apples to take to Winnipeg. They hadn't picked any yet, but were planning to pick this morning. Aurora Golden Gala apples were developed and are grown near Oliver. Lasser's is the only Keremeos orchard growing Aurora Golden Gala apples, Joanne's favourite. My favourite are the Ambrosia apples, developed and grown only around Keremeos. We bought 20 pounds of Ambrosias yesterday at Sanderson Farms. On the way through Keremeos today we stopped at Lasser's to buy 20 pounds of Aurora Golden Galas. They still hadn't picked any yet, because it was raining this morning. We explained that we wanted them now, because we were leaving for Winnipeg Monday morning. Okay ... they handed us a large box, gave us directions to where the Aurora Golden Gala trees were in their orchard, and sent us off to pick our own. Great ! We picked the best of the best, and filled the box ( unintentionally ) with more than 20 pounds. Since we had to pick them ourselves, Lasser's charged us for only 20 pounds. Thank you.

There were more Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep on the side of the road today. Back at Riverside RV Park Resort we met a new neighbour and her dog Meggie, a Pomeranian / Sheltie cross. Meggie, like Bo, is a high energy dog, so we went with both dogs down to our park's "burn pile" area to let the dogs run freely off leash. On the way back to our lot we swung by our park's orchard area and picked a pail full of a variety of apples, some for baking tonight and some to take to Winnipeg to share with family and friends.

Sunday ; Today was mostly cloudy and cool, with a bit of sunny and warm mixed in. Right after lunch we headed for the annual Festival Of The Grape in Oliver. We were joined by our neighbours Janet ( without Jerry ), Marlene and Terry. We drove east on Hwy. 3 to Osoyoos then north on Hwy. 97 to Oliver.

We spent the afternoon sampling wines, watching grape stomp competitions ( HA HA HA ) and listening to the Powder Blues Band on the outdoor stage. Powder Blues Band from Vancouver was one of the first Canadian blues / rock bands that I became interested in during the late 70's. Today they played all their hits from the 70's, including Flip Flop & Fly, Thirsty Ears, and Doin' It Right On The Wrong Side Of Town. We wandered around the vendors' displays, but didn't buy anything. We chatted briefly with my "employer" Lisa, of Clownin' Around, who had a booth. We sat around and chatted with Marlene and Terry about the interesting things to see and do in and around Yuma, Arizona. Terry and Marlene are going south to Yuma for the first time this winter.

By the time we got back to Riverside RV Park Resort, it was almost dark, and we didn't have time to either hitch the truck to the trailer, or pay a goodbye visit to another of our neighbours, both of which we had planned / hoped to do today.

Monday ; WE’RE ON THE ROAD AGAIN ! Keremeos to Cranbrook, B.C.

Today started out sunny and cold. The temperature at 8:00 A.M. was 0.5° C. / 33° F.. We departed Riverside RV Park Resort later than we had planned, and that late departure contributed to the day ending up not so well !

This morning as we were preparing for departure many of our neighbours stopped by to say goodbye for the winter. A few minutes chatting here, and a few minutes chatting there, and we were late departing. We stopped at Fas Gas in Keremeos to refill with diesel and adjust the air pressure in all 12 truck and trailer tires. By the time we got to Osoyoos it was already noon.

We drove east on Hwy. 3 all day. This is the first time we have climbed the 20 km. hill eastbound on Hwy. 3 out of Osoyoos with Lanoire ( the truck ) pulling Harvey ( the trailer ). No problemo ! The last time we climbed this hill, it almost killed Dee-Dee, our previous truck.

Beautiful fall colours in the Kootenay Rockies ! At the Kootenay Pass Summit there was fresh snow. I needed to refill with diesel again as we got to the town of Yahk. The only fuel station in Yahk was out of diesel ! We continued on to the town of Moyie. Three kilometres / two miles from Moyie the truck computer's "distance to empty" read zero ! ! ! That's the second time that I've run the diesel down to a "distance to empty" of zero ! I pulled off the road onto the shoulder and poured my emergency 10 litres / 2 gallons of diesel into the truck, just as it got dark. As a result of that few minutes delay, we missed the turn into Moyie Lake Provincial Park in the dark a few miles later. I didn't think we had enough diesel to risk looking for a place to turn around and go back. When we got to the town of Moyie, the only fuel station had just closed for the night. Uh-oh ! ! ! We continued on to Cranbrook, turning into the first fuel station on the edge of town, with the "distance to empty" reading 12 km. / 7.5 miles. I refilled with diesel, including refilling the emergency container, and we pulled into Wal-Mart's parking lot to boondock overnight. We had hoped to make it to Fernie today, about another 100 km. / 60 miles.

Tuesday ; Cranbrook, B.C. to Medicine Hat, Alberta

Bo was ill yesterday afternoon, overnight, and most of today. I think he overindulged in the Snausages that our neighbour Janet was feeding him as a farewell treat just as we were leaving Riverside RV Park Resort yesterday morning.

Today was cold and raining on the west side of the Rockies, and sunny but extremely windy on the eastern side of the Rockies. As soon as we crossed up and over the Rockies, through Crowsnest Pass, we had a tailwind of 100 km. per hour / 60 miles per hour all the way to Medicine Hat. It resulted in astounding fuel mileage of almost 15 MPG. Normally Lanoire gets about 11 MPG when hauling Harvey.

We left Cranbrook early. We stopped in Sparwood to buy some groceries. Highway 3 from Keremeos all the way to the Alberta border over Crowsnest Pass is a very scenic but tough drive. Continuous curves and hills, all two lane undivided highway. Once in Alberta, and on the eastern side of the Rockies, the road becomes flat, straight, and mostly four lane divided highway. When we stopped for lunch at Fort Macleod we had difficulty opening the trailer and truck doors to get in and out because of the wind. WOW ! We crossed from the Pacific Time Zone to the Mountain Time Zone. We arrived in Medicine Hat shortly after 5:00 P.M., having made good time today on the road in Alberta. We found a place to park on the street right beside the condominium building that our friends Sep and Susanna live in. We phoned Sep and told him we were parked right outside. He was going to come down to get us. When he hadn't arrived 15 minutes later I phoned again. He said we weren't outside his building ! OOOOOPS ! He drove around and found us. We were parked beside a condo building a block away from his.

We visited briefly with Sep and Susanna in their suite, then went out for dinner to De Vine. We had a very elegant dinner. Sep and Susanna paid the bill, treating us to an early birthday and anniversary dinner. Thank you very much ! It was wonderful to visit with them again. The last time we saw Sep was about 2 years ago, and Susanna about 3 years ago. They drove us back to our trailer, we said our goodbyes, then we drove across the city to park overnight at Wal-Mart again.

Whew ... well over 1000 km. / 600 miles in two days ! We don't usually drive that hard !

Wednesday ; Medicine Hat, Alberta to Grenfell, Saskatchewan

Whew ... we drove over 600 km. / 375 miles today, trying to take advantage of another day of exceptionally strong tailwind, and flat, straight, prairie highway. Today was sunny, cold, and extremely windy again. When we arrived at Grenfell Regional Campground shortly after 6:00 P.M., the temperature was near freezing, with an 80 km. / 50 mile per hour wind !

This morning before leaving Medicine Hat we shopped at Wal-Mart for supplies ( Alberta has no provincial sales tax ! ), Sobey's for groceries, and refilled with diesel. We headed east on Trans-Canada Highway 1. We crossed from Alberta into Saskatchewan, stopping for lunch west of Swift Current. At Regina we refilled with diesel again, then went to a campground that we had planned to stay at tonight. But, as happens occasionally, the campground refused to honour the Passport America rate, despite being listed in the Passport America directory. We refuse to stay at campgrounds that get themselves listed in the Passport America directory then refuse to honour the rate. After lunch Joanne had driven from Swift Current to Moose Jaw while I napped, so I felt rested enough to go further than Regina. As we passed Indian Head we came upon a fatal traffic accident that had happened just a few minutes before. TSK ! We drove about 100 km. / 60 miles beyond Regina, stopping for the night at Grenfell. BRRRRR ! ! !

DSK