July 24 to 30, 2011

Sunday ; Well, today was sunny and hot. Finally ! The hot weather is at least a month overdue !

Today was a relatively easy day of delivering trailers in Osoyoos and Penticton. Except ... we lost Bo's tie-out in a campground in Penticton. On Wednesday when we go to Penticton we'll return to South Beach Gardens Campground and hopefully his tie-out will be there at site G-18.

In the evening we went to Princeton for River Road Theatre's second of three productions this summer ; Barefoot In The Park by Neil Simon. Play was good. On the way to Princeton we stopped at Bromley Rock Provincial Park to have a picnic dinner. Picnic was great. We like Bromley Rock !

Monday ; It rained for much of today, a rather odd occurrence for this area at this time of the year. Today Joanne received an unsolicited job offer from the owner of the two fruit stands where she worked for the past two summers. She turned down the offer. I'm disappointed, considering what a colossal failure Similkameen Day Tours seems destined to be.

Tuesday ; One of the main reasons why we selected lot 89 at Riverside RV Park Resort was because of the beautiful, tall Douglas Fir tree. Over the last two years, due to Tussock Moth damage, it slowly died. Today we had it removed < huge sigh >. I just want to cry !

Around supper time I went for my daily bicycle ride. On the road a few sites down from us I found ... a baby rattlesnake sunning itself on the warm asphalt ! I went home, got gloves, caught the snake, took a couple of pictures of it, showed it to the neighbour's three year old granddaughter, then took it across the highway and released it. The danger with baby rattlesnakes is that they haven't developed the maturity to know how to moderate the volume of venom they release when they strike. So ... when a baby rattlesnake bites, it releases all of its venom ! Very dangerous !

Wednesday ; Another long, hard day of running errands in Penticton. And Joanne went to Penticton Hospital for a mammogram ( half a mammogram ? ), the last for this year of her many annual cancer screening procedures. We also went to South Beach Gardens Campground and retrieved Bo's tie-out which we had left in site G-18 on Sunday.

Friday ; Today we dug a very small Saskatoon bush ... more of a Saskatoon twig, actually ... out of the forest and transplanted it in the back of our yard against the rock wall. Wish us luck !

Saturday ; Today was a hot day, temperature reaching into the 90's. Our trailer delivery work covered a lot of miles today ; Keremeos to Penticton to Osoyoos to Okanagan Falls to Penticton to Summerland to Penticton to Keremeos ! And our final delivery of the day, at Wright's Beach in Penticton, was the most difficult positioning of a trailer we've had in two summers of doing this job. But ... we make a good team ! We attracted quite an audience, most convinced that I wouldn't be able to get the trailer into the site. HA ... take that !

DSK

July 17 to 23, 2011

Sunday ; Went to the Hedley Farmers' Market today. Even allowing for the fact that it was Hedley ... that was a pretty poor excuse for a Farmers' Market !

Saturday ; Well, today was a nicer day of delivering trailers. Warm weather, relatively easy deliveries, no sewage mishaps, no bitchy customers.

After we returned home late in the afternoon, I checked e-mail and ... HUH ? ? ? There was an e-mail from a cousin of mine ... whom I had never met ! He was passing through Keremeos and wanted to visit. Around 6 PM. And I was reading that e-mail at ... 5:40 PM ! ! !

Fifteen minutes later ... my cousin Geoff ... a few months older than me ... dropped by and we visited for a couple of hours.

DSK

July 10 to 16, 2011

Sunday ; Had to break into a neighbour's home this morning. They are away for a few days and there was an alarm of some sort howling inside since yesterday evening. WOW ... "B & E" is amazingly easy ! HA HA HA ! The propane alarm had malfunctioned as a result of a very brief power outage.

Packed a picnic lunch and headed for Osoyoos. Dropped off business cards and had a brief meeting with the Supervisor of Guest Services at Watermark Beach Resort. Will be taking some of her staff on a "familiarization tour". Drove back towards Keremeos looking for road near Spotted Lake up to top of Mount Kobau. Found it, drove it ! Research for Similkameen Day Tours. Also found Testalinden Lake up there. Drove back down to highway and to Osoyoos for picnic lunch in parking lot of Visitor Information Centre. Drove from Osoyoos to Oliver. Saw sign advertising freshly caught, wild Sockeye Salmon for sale. Very hard / impossible to get wild Sockeye Salmon ! Think maybe only Indians can catch them wild. Found pickup truck with three Indians and an ice and water filled tank in the back containing ...
< big eyes > ... salmon ! Caught on the "rez" near Port Alberni on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Nice salmon ! ! ! Bought a big one. Twenty bucks !

Drove from Oliver to Cawston over Fairview Mountain. Research for Similkameen Day Tours. Nice route, but not a "destination". Can't build a "day trip" around it. Might be good alternate / wilderness route from Osoyoos / Oliver to Cawston. Saw two deer ... and a large rattlesnake. HMMMM ... maybe a good "wildlife viewing" day trip option ! ?

Filleted the salmon at home, outside on the picnic table. WOW ! ! ! Nice fish ! Produced about four pounds of fillets. Isn't canned Sockeye Salmon about two bucks for a three ounce can ? !

Monday ; MMMMM ... barbecued Sockeye Salmon for supper !

Tuesday ; HA HA HA HA HA ... Bo is sooooo adept at picking Saskatoon berries ! I pull the truck up alongside the big Saskatoon bush / tree at our park's front gate, he and I climb into the bed of the truck, he stands on the bed rail and ... CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP ... while I pick berries into an ice cream pail. What a funny little dog !

Wednesday ; Our Similkameen Day Tours rack cards arrived yesterday afternoon so today we went out to deliver them to five locations. First was the Keremeos Visitor Information Centre, followed by the Osoyoos Visitor Information Centre, Watermark Beach Resort, NK'MIP Campground, and finally, Spirit Ridge Resort, all in Osoyoos. I bought an RV part I needed at the RV dealer in Osoyoos. There was a traveller in the RV dealership looking for some simple "emergency" service work to be done on his trailer, but the dealership's service department was closed. I offered to do the work he wanted done, for a charge of five bucks. "Hey, there's no free lunch !" He balked at that, but reluctantly agreed. I did the work, and did it well. He paid me ten bucks ! We had a picnic lunch in "Bo's picnic park" on the waterfront of Osoyoos Lake. Bo gets excited every time we pass that park, expecting we will stop there for a picnic lunch. And he's disappointed when we pass that park and don't stop for a picnic lunch. We have our lunch there on most of our trailer delivery work days.

After lunch I spent the ten bucks on ice cream treats at Dairy Queen. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing day trip research, driving up Kruger Mountain and finding Blue Lake and Kilpoola Lake.

Saturday ; Well, today was a lot easier day of delivering trailers than last Saturday was, even though we delivered the same number of trailers and earned the same amount of money today as last Saturday. We drove a lot less miles today. And I didn't even get sprayed with sewage today ... as I did last Saturday ! After finishing our day with a delivery to Gallagher Lake, we went to do some shopping in Oliver at Shoppers Drug Mart and the brand new Canadian Tire. But both stores were out of stock of some of the advertised specials we were shopping for, so we'll have to go to Penticton on Monday.

DSK

July 3 to 9, 2011

Sunday ; Bad cold !

Monday ; Bad cold ! Gave Bo a haircut. Gave Bo a bath !

Tuesday ; Not as bad cold !

Wednesday ; Health improving slowly. Joanne spent the day in Penticton running errands. I stayed home and worked on Similkameen Day Tours marketing. And enjoying the lovely weather, spending part of the afternoon in the gazebo with Sully and Bo, reading and recuperating.

Thursday ; Big hailstorm today ! ! !

Saturday ; Today was a looooong, sour day of delivering rental trailers. Our first pick up was a travel trailer at Gallagher Lake. We had delivered it there last Saturday. There was a plugged sewer line in the campground, and when I was emptying and disconnecting the trailer's sewage hose, there was an ... "incident" ! ! ! Raw sewage all over the ground ... all over my shoes, my knees, my gloves. I was not very pleased ! ! ! And it caused us quite a delay. We took that trailer to the Osoyoos storage yard to be cleaned and prepared to be sent back out in the afternoon. Our next trailer was supposed to be waiting for us in the Osoyoos yard. BUT ... there was some confusion or misunderstanding or something ... < fume > ... and it was actually sitting in the Summerland yard. Driving empty from the Osoyoos yard to the Summerland yard to pick up the trailer, and then driving it back to Osoyoos to deliver it to NK'MIP Campground added three hours to our work day. Again, I was not very pleased. Our work day started at 8:30 AM and ended at 7:15 PM ! Our last delivery of the day was "late". Fortunately the customer was patient and forgiving. And ... while connecting that last trailer's electrical cord to the utility pedestal ... I got stung by a wasp / hornet. There was a wasp / hornet nest underneath the lid of the utility pedestal. Not a great day ! ! !

DSK

June 26 to July 2, 2011

Sunday ; This morning we attended Riverside RV Park Resort's potluck breakfast. I would like to make disparaging remarks about one of the contributions to the potluck, but ... I really should restrain myself, shouldn't I ? Afterwards we performed ear candling on each other, a holistic health care practice of dubious merit that we're likely not going to repeat.

This evening we drove to Princeton for a performance of live theatre. We're "theatre snobs", having regularly attended live theatre at The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, and the Shaw Festival in Niagara On The Lake, so I didn't have particularly high hopes for live theatre in Princeton. But ... it was pretty good, all things considered. Princeton's River Road Theatre is a summer stock theatre operated by five young, recent graduates of theatre school. The leader of the group of five is a native of Princeton. And I think starting and running a live theatre operation in a small town in the BC Interior takes a lot of courage and ambition. Bravo ! Tonight's performance ... in front of an audience of twenty people ... was a musical ; "I love you, you're perfect, now change".

Tuesday ; Happy 47th Birthday to Joanne's sister Lorraine and Happy 60th Birthday to our neighbour and friend Janet

We spent the late afternoon and evening at Janet's birthday party.

Friday ; Happy Canada Day

Usually we participate in Canada Day celebrations somewhere but today we just stayed home and worked on home and yard chores. Joanne continued working on cleaning and waxing the trailer. I washed the truck. Late in the evening I realized I had a cold coming on ... strong and hard !

Saturday ; Today was a long and difficult day. Or so it seemed, thanks to the bad cold I have. We delivered and set up two rental trailers today, one from the Summerland storage yard to a campground in Penticton, and the other from the Summerland storage yard to a campground at Gallagher Lake. Then we drove to Osoyoos to deliver Similkameen Day Tours business cards to the NK'MIP campground office. And while at NK'MIP we decided to drop into the nearby Spirit Ridge resort to check out if that would be a good place to have our rack cards placed. We think it would be. We're expecting our rack cards to arrive by mail in about two weeks.

We bought some groceries in Osoyoos and refilled a propane tank in Keremeos on the way home. WHEW ... lots of mileage today !

DSK