Monday ; Today was cold and raining ! I hate cold rainy days !
This evening we had dinner at our neighbour's, Rick and Debbie. This was likely the last time we will see them before they head south in about a month, for their first winter of "Snowbirding". They are headed to an RV park in Mexico that we have been to, a lovely place at La Peñita de Jaltemba, just north of Puerto Vallarta. We spent until very late in the evening chatting with them about RV living and travelling, and gossiping about Riverside RV Park Resort.
Wednesday ; The weather was nice today, sunny and warm, and I felt like having a fall "explore day". We spent the afternoon doing back road and off road exploring. We explored up and down the Ashnola River, including a trip to the Ewart Creek trailhead and the Cathedral Lakes Lodge base camp / pick up point. Those were Joanne's desires.
I wanted to attempt to drive from the Ashnola Campground to beyond Hedley, driving on the south / "other" side of the Similkameen River. We had attempted to do that a few years ago, from beyond Hedley, travelling in the opposite direction, but we were stymied by an abandoned "Indianmobile" blocking the trail at a point that was so narrow we couldn't get around it.
WOO-HOO ... it wasn't easy, but today we were successful. We crossed the Ashnola River behind the Ashnola Campground and followed the "road" until we reached Hwy. 3 at Gold Mountain Road a few miles beyond Hedley. On the way we met a pickup truck travelling in the opposite direction. It was signed, belonging to the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. It was a couple of the LSIB "Watchmen", patrolling their "rez". They stopped us and sarcastically asked if we were lost. I told them we weren't lost, just taking the "scenic route" to Hedley, and asked if that was okay with them. From the looks on their faces it was obvious that they thought I was some kind of a crazy white man, but okay, they gave us permission to continue. A little further along we came across three Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing. Twice we encountered closed gates. Fortunately, neither was locked, just closed and chained, so I could open them, drive through, then close them again.
When we got back home I discovered that today's adventures resulted in a lost hubcap on the truck. DAMN ! I lost one once before, in Baja California, Mexico, about 3½ years ago. I replaced it in Yuma, Arizona. They are so expensive ! DAMN !
Friday ; Happy 15th Birthday to Sully
This morning on the way into town to buy some groceries and fresh produce
( mmmmm ... it's fall harvest time ! ), we stopped on the side of the road and cut stalks of wild sage. Back at home, later in the afternoon, I arranged and tied them into a sacred sage bundle. I hung the bundle inside the trailer and ... WOW ... what a strong fragrance ! Let's hope the sacred sage bundle does its job and dispels negative energies. I always did love Native lore !
And ... I'm very glad that we got Sully two years ago today at the Penticton SPCA shelter. He's such a sweet fellow.
Saturday ; Today was cold and raining. Which caused us to change our plans for today, the first day of the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival. It had been our plan to attend a BC SPCA "dog party" fund raiser event at See Ya Later Ranch, a winery near Okanagan Falls. But we didn't want to attend something like that on a cold rainy day. So while we didn't attend that event, we did attend two other Fall Okanagan Wine Festival events, both at wineries near Keremeos.
We went to Robin Ridge Winery for their archery competition to determine who will be the Robin Ridge Robin Hood. We expected this small family winery to be near deserted because of the poor weather, but ... noooo ! It really was quite busy. Congratulations to Tim for the gold medal win at a recent international wine competition. My archery efforts did not result in me being named Robin Ridge Robin Hood.
And we went to Rustic Roots Winery / Harker's Organics ( produce stand ) Harvest Moon Festival, a very busy exhibition of Rustic Roots wines and Harker's Organics fruits and vegetables, with live music, and food prepared by the chef de cuisine of one of the Osoyoos upscale resorts.
On the way home we stopped at St. Laszlo Vineyards and bought a couple of bottles of wine. St. Laszlo is the first and obviously oldest winery in the Similkameen Valley. It is not as popular as the newer, larger, and more upscale wineries. But we like St. Laszlo, the owner Joe, his very nice grape wines and fruit wines, and the very reasonable prices. One bottle will be for Thanksgiving / my birthday next weekend, and one bottle will be to take south with us for American Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year's.
Yesterday I phoned a restaurant in Penticton to make a reservation to attend their wine festival special food and wine event next weekend. It was to be my birthday dinner. The event was sold out. Today Joanne phoned them again, and ... lo and behold ... they gave her a reservation. Either there had been a cancellation, or the fellow who took my phone call yesterday was ... ? ! ? Anyways, I'm very glad that Joanne was able to make a reservation and I'm looking forward to a special birthday dinner. Maybe the moral of that story is ... don't take "no" for an answer. At least not the first "no".
DSK
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