October 17 to 23, 2010

October 17 to 23, 2010


Sunday ;  Gee, the bed seemed crowded last night with all five of us in there ! Just what we needed ; another dog that seems to fit like a glove into our household and lifestyle ! Veggie is a sweet little fellow. Plays nicely with Bo. Easy to walk, well behaved on a leash. Defers to Sully. Sully is not happy about Veggie’s presence. I guess Sully is old and cranky and resistant to change.

Monday ;  Goodbye, Winston ! Sully is very glad that you’re leaving !

This morning I phoned Lindsey Veterinary Hospital in Penticton to track down Veggie’s owner using the rabies tag on his collar. Veggie’s real name is Winston. Lindsey Veterinary Hospital provided me with his owner’s name and address in Cawston, but had no phone number on file. Our plan was to have Joanne drive over to the owner’s address after she finished work at 5 PM.

In the meantime … the owner had posted LOST DOG notices all over Cawston and Keremeos. One of the people that was shopping in the fruit stand on Saturday when the whole kerfuffle / rescue took place saw one of the notices, phoned the dog’s owner and told her that her dog was rescued and at Lidder’s Fruit Stand. Winston’s owner ( Marija … sounds like Maria ) rushed over to the fruit stand. Joanne confirmed that she had rescued Winston, and sent Marija to our place to retrieve the dog.

Marija and Winston have just left ( at 12:30 PM ). Dog and lady were both very happy !

Tuesday ;  We have decided to spend a week camping in the BC Interior, in conjunction with attending a memorial service in Lumby for our friend Ron who died recently. Joanne’s last day of work will be Thursday and we’ll leave Friday. We’ll return home to Riverside RV Park Resort for a few days before heading south on November 1.

Friday ; Keremeos to Lumby, BC

This morning we headed north for a week of camping and to attend our friend Ron’s memorial service in Lumby tomorrow. We stopped in Keremeos to adjust the air pressure in the trailer tires, and … I forgot to stop at the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions refills that I ordered a couple of days ago. DARN ! In Penticton we had a few errands to run, and a meeting at the bank to buy traveller’s cheques for the winter journey south. I couldn’t think of a place where we could park the rig downtown where our bank is, so our first stop in Penticton was the Wal-Mart parking lot to unhitch the trailer and leave it there. On our way downtown to the bank we refilled with diesel and bought a few grocery items. We had our meeting in the bank and got our traveller’s cheques. On the way back to the Wal-Mart parking lot we refilled a five gallon water jug. We hitched up the trailer, then I repaired a minor electrical problem I had discovered this morning as we were preparing to depart from home. I had to replace a burnt out fuse, and used the last spare 20 amp fuse I had, so before leaving Penticton < sigh > we went to Lordco Auto Parts and I bought more spare fuses. Finally … we left Penticton and continued heading north on Hwy. 97.

Between Penticton and Summerland we stopped at a roadside rest area and had a late lunch. After lunch we continued north on Hwy. 97 through Summerland, Peachland, WestBank, < sigh > Kelowna … I hate driving through Kelowna … Winfield, and finally we reached our destination for today, Kekuli Bay Provincial Park on Kalamalka Lake. We pulled into the campground … I knew it was going to cost $30 … and discovered … HUH ? No services ? ? ? Thirty bucks for an unserviced site ? ? ? ! ! ! At the end of October ? ? ? I don’t think so ! ! ! What do you think this is … California ? ? ? We left, heading for what was supposed to be tomorrow’s destination. Through Vernon, and east on Hwy. 6 to Lumby, where we found our way to Lumby Lions Campground.

The campground is adjacent to the town’s municipal government offices, curling rink, hockey arena, baseball field, and playground. A little creek separates the campground from everything else. There’s salmon in the creek. We got set up in the campsite, then went for a walk to find the Legion where Ron’s memorial service will be tomorrow. We wandered around town a bit and found the Legion. On the way back to the campground we went to the playground for a Bo-gility session. HA HA HA … good dog, Bo, well done.

We had supper in the trailer, then I went to watch curling for an hour or so. I hadn’t been in a curling rink since the last time I was on a curling team, twenty-two years ago in Ottawa ! I wandered over to the arena to see what was going on and for a few minutes watched a teenaged girls’ hockey team practice.

Saturday ; Dedicated to the memory of our Escapee friend Ron Swanson

Today in Lumby was cloudy with light rain, but fairly mild temperature for this time of year this far north. We slept late, something we haven’t done since Joanne started working at the fruit stand about seven weeks ago.

At 2 PM we walked over to the Legion to attend the Ron Swanson Farewell Party. Ron died recently … and relatively suddenly … of pancreatic cancer. It was his second battle with cancer, having survived a previous battle with prostate cancer. Ron’s widow Mary was accompanied by their son from Vancouver and grandson from Victoria, both of whom we had not met before. I was a bit surprised to find that Ron and Mary had a son who is three months older than me ! WOW … Ron and Mary are old enough to be our parents. We gotta start running with a younger crowd. HA HA HA !

Ron was one of the musicians of the Escapees Okanagan Chapter 33. In his tribute, the afternoon was a few hours of his musician friends “jamming”, while the rest of us socialized. Mary hosted a roast beef dinner prepared by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Legion. Nice dinner !

We were glad to have had this opportunity to say farewell to a good friend, one who was the embodiment of the Escapees’ motto of “Sharing and Caring”. We were very fond of Ron and will miss him. Farewell, Ron !

DSK