May 10 to 16, 2015

Sunday ; Sunny nad warm. Hard to believe I just did that again !

At 1 PM our Connecticut friends Bill and Lynne, and their little Pomeranian dog Windsor, arrived for a week long visit on their way to Alaska. We are thrilled that they have come to visit us. We spent the rest of the day visiting and chatting with them.

Monday ; Sunny and warm. Day two of our visit with our Escapee friends Bill and Lynne.

I woke up very early this morning with the excruciating pain of gout between the heel and ankle of my right foot. I ate 60 mg. of Prednisone for breakfast. The pain ( agonizingly ) slowly dissipated throughout the day. BUT ... as the pain subsided,
I became more and more "Arnold Schwarzenegger" until going to bed at 2 AM, feeling "wired", and with insomnia ... AFTER an evening of aggressively debating U.S. military history and U.S. health care issues with Bill and Lynne all evening. Who was that obnoxious Canadian sitting beside Bill on the sofa ? ? ? What's his problem ? ? ? Did he eat too much steroids for breakfast ? ? ?

Oh, goody ... only two more days that I have to eat that much steroids for breakfast ! ! !

This morning I drove into Keremeos and had a minor adjustment done at K Mountain Auto Repair to the truck's tire rotation job. This afternoon we took Bill and Lynne for a four wheel drive scenic adventure up a steep, winding gravel trail on the backside of Nickel Plate Mountain. Lynne is uncomfortable with heights so ... she can be proud of herself for enduring ... and enjoying ... the experience. Before returning home we visited the village of Hedley.

Back at home I baked bannock and barbecued salmon for supper. Bill, Lynne, and Joanne seemed to enjoy the meal. My harshest critic, however, was dismayed that the salmon was overcooked and consequently dry, and the bannock was over baked.

Tuesday ; Sunny and warm again. Woke up after only four hours of sleep ... wired and "manic". Oh, goody ... let's go have more steroids for breakfast, Dan ! Maybe tonight
I can initiate a discussion with Bill and Lynne about gun control issues in the United States. What a barrel of laughs that would be. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

This morning we took Bill and Lynne up the Ashnola River Valley to Ewart Creek for a picnic in rugged Canadian wilderness. On the way we dropped off a propane tank in Keremeos to be refilled and we picked it up again on our way back home in the afternoon.

We drove over Red Bridge and along Ashnola River Road, stopping at a couple of the BC Forest Service campgrounds on the Ashnola River. We turned onto the rugged dirt trail leading to the Ewart Creek Trailhead where the hiking trail leading to remote Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park starts. Two days of uphill hiking to reach Cathedral Lakes. Not for us old folks. We wandered around enjoying the wilderness. We crossed a rickety old foot bridge over Ewart Creek, which is really a pretty fast moving river at this time of year. "Come on, Bo, you can do it ... good dog, well done !" "Come on, Lynne, you can do it ... good girl, well done !" HA HA HA !

After exploring for awhile we had our picnic lunch and relaxed. When a few drops of rain began to fall we climbed back into the truck and resumed exploring by road. Back near Keremeos we drove by the rodeo fairgrounds, over White Bridge, and around the orchards and vineyards surrounding Keremeos before picking up our refilled propane tank and heading home to Riverside RV Park Resort.

Back at home Joanne and I reinstalled Elsie the truck camper onto Lanoire the truck, then Bill and Lynne joined us for a swimming pool and hot tub session. Afterwards Joanne and I went to visit our friend Jeanine to see if she had received the results of yesterday's medical tests. Yes ... she had.

Wednesday ; Cloudy, windy, cold, a few drops of rain.

Our initial plan for today was to take Bill and Lynne to Penticton to run some errands and have a DanAir sightseeing flight. It was too cold, too windy, and too cloudy for pleasant flying, so I rescheduled the airplane rental booking and we didn't go to Penticton today.

Joanne went with Bill and Lynne to do some grocery shopping. Joanne and Lynne did laundry this afternoon. In the evening Bill and Lynne came over, we had Lynne's turkey chili for dinner and we all watched Survivor.

Thursday ; Mostly sunny nad warm. < sigh >

This morning we prepared a special picnic lunch and headed out with Bill and Lynne. We stopped in Keremeos to refill our five gallon water jug and pick up a batch of Bill's and Lynne's mail that was waiting for them at the Keremeos Post Office. We headed east on Hwy. 3 through Cawston towards Osoyoos. Our destination was Forbidden Fruit Winery where Bill, Lynne, and Joanne sampled some wines and selected one for our picnic lunch. I refrained from drinking anything today because I'm flying tomorrow. We bought the chosen bottle of wine and had an amazing picnic at a picnic table on Forbidden Fruit Winery's luscious lawn overlooking the Similkameen River, surrounded by apple trees. What a lovely setting !

Both before and after lunch we wandered around Forbidden Fruit's orchards. After we left Forbidden Fruit we continued east on Hwy. 3 to Osoyoos. We stopped to view Spotted Lake. We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre where Bill and Lynne stocked up on a lot of travel information for their journey to Alaska. On our way back home we stopped in Keremeos to buy some fuel for the minivan. Back home at Riverside RV Park Resort we took Bo and Windsor to the dog park for awhile, then we all went to float around ( for too long ) in the swimming pool. Consequently, supper was pretty late, around 9 PM.

Friday ; Mostly sunny and warm.

At 11 AM we left, with Bill and Lynne, for a day in Penticton. As soon as we arrived in Penticton we went to Tim Horton's for lunch, a true Canadian experience Bill wanted to have. HA HA HA ! After lunch we drove to the airport. Joanne sat patiently at a picnic table while Bill and Lynne observed my airplane inspection and preparation procedures of Cessna 172 C-GHBM ( Hotel Bravo Mike ), then Joanne took Lynne thrift shopping while Bill and I went flying.

DanAir flight 421 took off from Penticton and headed south over Skaha Lake, passing over Okanagan Falls and Oliver en route to Osoyoos. Bill had his first taste of flying a small airplane, handling the yoke / "stick" / "steering wheel" from Oliver to near Osoyoos. At Osoyoos I did a touch and go landing and takeoff then headed for the main attraction, Spotted Lake. While I flew "low and slow" around Spotted Lake, Bill took photographs. We climbed up into the steep mountains of the Similkameen Valley, took a look at Forbidden Fruit Winery and Vineglass Winery, and flew through the Similkameen Valley to Keremeos, slowly climbing the entire way. Once at Keremeos
I crossed over Fairview Mountain at an altitude of 9000 feet, barely above the mountain top. I turned north and flew over Okanagan Falls and descended over Skaha Lake back to Penticton.

Joanne and Lynne were parked beside the airport fence watching for us. As
I approached, they climbed out of our minivan and waved furiously at us. I waggled the airplane's wings back at them. I guess that was the "final straw" for Bill. As I completed my landing roll out on Penticton runway 34 he made good use of the airsickness bag he had brought along. Sorry, Bill !

Joanne and Lynne met us back at Hotel Bravo Mike's parking spot at BP Aviation. We went to run a few more errands in Penticton, including grocery shopping. We returned home to share a late supper of pizza while watching the season finale of Amazing Race.

Saturday ; Mostly sunny and warm again, with just a minute or two of very light rain drops while we were at the rodeo.

This morning Bill and Lynne came over at 10 AM and I prepared pancake brunch for all of us. Even Windsor and Bo got some pancakes with maple syrup. We chatted until noon, walked the dogs, then left for the Keremeos Rodeo, held annually on the Victoria Day / May long weekend. This was Bill's and Lynne's first time at a rodeo. HA HA HA !

The Keremeos Rodeo is a three day event, and this year, for the first time, the first day was entirely dedicated to two events ; barrel racing and team roping. In barrel racing, a women's event, each rider races their horse around three barrels, slowing down and turning as quickly as possible around each barrel, then racing as fast as possible to the next barrel. As I had predicted to Bill and Lynne, by the time we had watched a couple of dozen barrel racers' rides, Bill could estimate the rider's time to within a fraction of a second before the announcer would announce the official electronically measured time. Bill would say "oh ... that was an 18 second run" and it would turn out to be between 17.8 and 18.2 seconds.

The team roping event is two riders on horses trying to rope a bull calf, one cowboy roping the head, and one cowboy roping the hind legs, an extremely difficult task. Today's winning team had a time of just under six seconds. SHEEEEESH ! ! ! ! ! An enormous amount of skill, and an enormous amount of luck, as well.

On the way home from the rodeo we stopped in town to buy some produce. Back at home Bill and Lynne went to our RV park's pool building to shower while Joanne read and I napped briefly. At 6:30 PM we went back into town to have our final dinner with Bill and Lynne. They treated us to dinner at Benja Thai Restaurant in Keremeos. It was excellent ! Another first for Bill and Lynne, their first Thai meal.

We spent the remainder of the evening chatting on our deck at home. Bill and Lynne will be leaving tomorrow morning to continue their journey to Alaska.

DSK