Last night just after midnight, our neighbour / friend Jeannine's husband died. He had been deteriorating for quite some time, and was at the senior's residence facility in Keremeos for the last two months. Our heartfelt sympathies are extended to Jeannine.
This morning after I made us blueberry pancakes for brunch I drove Joanne over to the laundromat on the other side of our RV park, and while she did laundry, I walked down to the river and fished for an hour and a half. I caught a fish, threw it into a pail of water, and continued to fish until it was time to drive Joanne back home from the laundromat with the laundry. While she went to put laundry away, I sat down at our picnic table to clean the fish. DAMN ! It was a Whitefish ! I didn't look closely at it when I caught it, assuming it was a Rainbow Trout. What a doofus ! Fortunately, it was still alive and healthy in the pail of water, so I took it back to the river and released it.
This afternoon we put the truck camper back onto the truck. It didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked. I guess we're still learning. We're planning to leave tomorrow for a five day camping trip, exploring the Northern Okanagan Valley, and seeing some summer stock theatre.
Monday ; Keremeos to Vernon
Sunny and hot.
This morning we left home, drove east on Hwy. 3 to Keremeos, then north on Hwy. 3A to Kaleden, then north on Hwy. 97 through Penticton, Summerland, and Peachland, to West Kelowna ( more commonly known by its "old" name WestBank ). Joanne wanted to have lunch at a Native restaurant she had found ( via Internet research ) in WestBank. Lunch at Kekuli Cafe was excellent ! Their specialty is bannock, the Canadian version of what American Natives call Indian Fry Bread. Joanne had an "Indian Taco" on bannock. I had homemade tomato vegetable soup and a smoked salmon and herb flavoured cream cheese on bannock sandwich, like a Native version of lox and cream cheese on a bagel. MMMMM ! We both had iced Saskatoon tea to drink. On the way out I bought a couple of bannock "pastries", similar to cinnamon buns, topped with Saskatoon cream icing, for tomorrow's breakfast.
From West Kelowna we travelled north on Westside Road, along the west side of Okanagan Lake ... as opposed to the congested Hwy. 97 running along the east side of Okanagan Lake, through Kelowna. We explored three provincial campgrounds along the west side of Okanagan Lake, but none of them inspired us enough to stop for the night. Westside Road ended when it reached Hwy. 97 again just north of the north end of Okanagan Lake, just north of the small city of Vernon.
We "backtracked" south on Hwy. 97 into Vernon. We wanted to find the Real Canadian Superstore with the free RV dump station ( for use tomorrow ), and the Opal Miner's Gift Shop. Now there ... the Opal Miner's Gift Shop ... was a waste of about fifteen minutes of my life that I'll never get back ! We drove north on Hwy. 97, almost back to where we came out at Westside Road, to O'Keefe Ranch, a restored ranching homestead museum, with a small "campground" for overnight parking for customers.
We checked in, paid for tonight's "camping" and tomorrow's admission to the museum grounds, then took Bo for a "hike" through the corn maze, thinking that he would enjoy it, as he always enjoys hiking. NOOOOO ! ! ! Within minutes, he was suffering anxiety about being "lost" in the corn maze. How strange ! The more we wandered around, the higher his anxiety became, so we turned around and headed out, although he didn't know we were heading "out". He just became more and more anxious until we finally exited the corn maze. Poor Bo. We’ve hiked with him in extremely narrow slot canyons in Nevada where he rushes ahead and fearlessly squeezes through spaces too narrow for us to follow. Why would a corn maze freak him out ?
Tuesday ; O'Keefe Ranch to Cooke Creek Recreation Site on Shuswap River
Mostly cloudy and very warm.
We spent the morning exploring the grounds and buildings of O'Keefe Ranch, a "living museum" ranching homestead of a century and a half ago. Some priceless artifacts !
Shortly after noon we refilled our fresh water tank and left O’Keefe Ranch, driving a short distance back to the small city of Vernon where we bought tickets to an outdoor farm theatre play on Thursday evening. We bought some groceries, had a late lunch, and dumped our grey waste tank at Real Canadian Superstore.
We drove north on Hwy. 97A from Vernon to Enderby where we turned east on the Enderby to Mabel Lake Road. Halfway to Mabel Lake we came across the Cooke Creek Recreation Site on the Shuswap River, an unserviced, rustic, small campground. Joanne liked it and wanted to stay. We selected a site, and I went to nap with Sully. After napping I went fly fishing in the Shuswap River for an hour before supper. Didn’t catch anything, but it was pleasant to practice my fly fishing technique in this beautiful and rugged wilderness area.
Wednesday ; Cooke Creek Recreation Site to Mabel Lake to Salmon Arm
Today started out cloudy and warm. Around 5 PM it began to rain heavily, and never let up, making for a slightly less than ideal evening to go to dinner theatre.
We got a slow start to our morning and when we left the Cooke Creek Recreation Site we headed east on the Enderby to Mabel Lake Road. I wanted to see Mabel Lake. When we arrived at the not particularly impressive community of Kingfisher on the shore of Mabel Lake, we stumbled across the Wednesday morning farmer's market. We bought some fresh produce and baking. Then we drove west back to Enderby, and north on Hwy. 97A to Salmon Arm. We found our way to Picadilly Mall where a free dump station is located and boondocking overnight is permitted.
We had lunch, then I napped for an hour with Sully while Joanne went Dollar Store shopping. We dumped our grey waste tank and refilled our fresh water tank. We drove downtown and found the Visitor's Information Centre where we picked up some local information and some information for our fall trip to Bella Coola. I took the opportunity to use the free Wi-Fi to check e-mail and retrieve phone messages. I returned a couple of phone calls, and as we left the Info Centre it began to rain heavily and never stopped.
We drove to the R J Haney Heritage Center, another "living museum", where we had reservations for their summer stock dinner theatre production. Dinner was in their "tea room" and the play was performed inside their little church, their "rainy day" venue. Dinner was okay. The play was good. It was a musical, written, produced, and directed by a "local", and was performed by four talented young actors / actresses, recent high school graduates, so perhaps about eighteen years old. The topic was ... topical ; the plight of the local Sockeye Salmon, and the frustrating, hundred year old battle to save them from extinction. After the play the audience returned to the tea room for dessert and ... tea, of course.
We drove back to Picadilly Mall where we boondocked overnight. I HATE driving in a strange city at dusk in heavy rain !
Thursday ; Salmon Arm to Armstrong to Spallumcheen to Vernon
Today was damp and chilly, with intermittent cold rain.
This morning we dumped the waste tanks and refilled the freshwater tank at Picadilly Mall, then headed out of Salmon Arm on Hwy. 97A back to Armstrong. Our destination was Village Cheese, a fromagerie / cheese making business. We browsed their selections of artisan cheeses, then had lunch in their restaurant. WOW ! ! ! Authentic Beet Borscht served with cheese curds instead of the traditional sour cream. EXCELLENT ! ! ! As were the sandwiches on fresh baguettes, and milk shakes. After lunch we bought a variety of cheeses ; gouda, havarti, cheddar with smoked salmon, butter cheese, and, of course, squeaky fresh cheese curds. WOO-HOO ... home made poutine on the horizon !
We crossed the street to the local, independent supermarket to buy some orange juice. Only to stumble into their annual, two day sale of very well priced Sockeye Salmon. With a fish filleting expert on hand giving filleting demonstrations as he filleted customers' purchases. I could not resist. I bought two Sockeyes. And following the lead of the customer in front of me, I had him package the "waste" for me to use for making some manner of fish broth or chowder. We're such "foodies", n'est-ce pas ?
Our desire to explore was dampened by the rainy weather ... HA HA HA ... so by
mid-afternoon we headed to Spallumcheen where we were attending the Caravan Farm Theatre this evening. We parked in Caravan Farm's parking lot / Clydesdale horse pasture. We visited the Clydesdales we were sharing the parking lot / pasture with. We read. I napped with Sully.
After supper we attended the opening night performance of Caravan Farm Theatre's production of The Tragical Comedy Of Punch & Judy. What a complex and bizarre ... rock opera ! Shades of Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar ! The first act was outdoors and the second act was in a large barn. Included in the performance were ... puppets ... Clydesdale horses ... a giant mask ... a giant snake puppet ... three musicians performing throughout ... ! ! ! Perhaps Caravan Farm Theatre is worth an annual journey for us ? ? ?
After the show ended ( after 10 PM ) we drove back to Armstrong, and not finding anywhere suitable to boondock there, we continued on to Vernon where we boondocked overnight in the parking lot of Real Canadian Superstore.
Friday ; Vernon to Armstrong to Enderby to Vernon
This morning we dumped our grey tank and refilled our freshwater tank at Real Canadian Superstore, then went looking for Vernon's Wal-Mart. We bought just a few items at Wal-Mart including a foam mattress topper for the camper. We shopped briefly at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. We actually went there to have lunch at their cafe ... which no longer exists. We had lunch in the camper in the Wal-Mart parking lot.
We drove to a rest area near Armstrong where I napped with Sully, then we installed the mattress topper. It seems to increase the mattress comfort. We drove into Armstrong to buy a few grocery items, then drove to Enderby and killed some time browsing at a fruit stand / petting zoo / gift shop / tourist trap.
At 7 PM we drove to Starlight Drive-in, North America's largest screen drive-in movie theatre. The first of two movies was to start at 9 PM, so we had two hours to cook and eat supper, wash dishes, walk the dog, etc. It was a fun night at the drive-in, reminiscent of our dating days forty years ago, although both movies weren't great. We watched part of the second movie from our bed in the camper. The second movie ended at 1:30 AM, so we didn't get back to our boondock spot at Real Canadian Superstore in Vernon until after 2 AM. I'm typing this at 2:30 AM !
Saturday ; Vernon to home
Sunny and hot. AHHHHH ! ! !
We got a late start to the day. We dumped our grey waste tank and refilled our freshwater tank before leaving Real Canadian Superstore's parking lot. We drove through Vernon and found our way to Planet Bee Honey Farm where we browsed the honey and beeswax products before watching a demonstration by a beekeeper. Interesting and educational. We drove to the Visitor Information Centre where we parked and had lunch in the camper.
We drove south on Hwy. 97 to Kelowna where we took a drive through Holiday Park, an RV residential park we wanted to see. We've known people who've lived there. We continued south on Hwy. 97 through West Kelowna / WestBank, Peachland, Summerland, and Penticton. In Penticton we stopped at Skaha Lake RV Park to solve a problem for a Similkameen Trailer Towing client. We arrived home at Riverside RV Park Resort west of Keremeos about 6:30 PM.
WHEW ... I'm tired. We're all glad to be home.
DSK
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