First big chore of the day was removing the camper off the truck and installing the fifth wheel hitch into the truck in preparation for a trailer towing job tomorrow. Joanne did quite a bit of "fall pre-departure" preparations, including gardening. I spent an inordinate amount of time reviewing / sorting / purging / moving clothing, both inside the house and in the camper. The camper contains all the clothing I usually need, but this upcoming trip to Winnipeg for a wedding and Churchill to view polar bears ( and go dog sledding ) necessitated a lot of additional clothing to the camper. And a lot of clothing to go the Salvation Army tomorrow. Dealing with clothing has always been an unpleasant task for me, all my life, as perhaps it is for many fat people.
In the evening we watched TV ; "Fifth Estate", a Canadian investigative news show, and "I Am Cait" which should be renamed "I Am Self-Indulgent". UH-OH ! I think that the jar of Oyster Mushrooms that I purchased in Yuma last winter, and that Joanne finally used in making lasagna for supper tonight, may have been ... uhhhhh ... less than "ideal" ? ! We both agree on that ! The leftover lasagna was tossed out !
Monday ; Cloudy, windy, and cool.
This morning we headed to Penticton to do a trailer towing job. Moved a trailer from one site to another within the same RV park for a widow whose husband died a month ago, at the same time as the sale of their long time family home was being completed. Now homeless and alone, she will be spending the winter in her fifth wheel trailer while she deals with her husband's will and estate. Sometimes when it rains, it pours !
When we were finished with the trailer relocation we went to Skaha Lake Beach Park and had a late picnic lunch. Afterwards I dropped Joanne off at Wal-Mart then went to run errands at Leisureland RV and Canadian Tire, refill Lanoire ( odometer rolled over 287,000 km. today ) with diesel, and drop off a garbage bag full of my surplus clothing at the Salvation Army Thrift Store. I picked up Joanne at Wal-Mart and we returned home, arriving about 5:30 PM.
YUP ... them mushrooms were BAD !
Tuesday ; Partially cloudy, mild. WOO-HOO ! Fishing on the Similkameen River is OPEN again ... after two months of closure due to low water levels and warm water temperature.
This morning we headed into Keremeos. I dropped Joanne off at the clinic for her doctor's appointment and I went to run errands in town. I refilled our water jug then went to PharmaSave to pick up my prescription refills. They weren't ready < fume >. I went back to the clinic and spoke to the Public Health Nurse about some tests and vaccinations I need her to administer next spring, as ordered by my gastroenterologist.
I went to the clinic's waiting room to wait for Joanne to be finished and ... there she was, still sitting there waiting to see her doctor, the perpetually behind schedule jerk who was supposed to retire ( again ! ) this month . < sigh > I sat and waited until she was finished seeing the doctor, then we returned to PharmaSave to pick up my prescriptions and drop off a new prescription the doctor wrote for Joanne today. My prescriptions were STILL not ready due to an ordering error made by the pharmacist. < FUME >
After returning home and having lunch Joanne went to work on pulling out our gardens. I removed the fifth wheel hitch from the truck and partially remounted the camper. I did some maintenance work on the camper. Our neighbour / friend Jeanine came by for a visit.
Late in the afternoon I went fishing ... for the first time in two months. WOO-HOO !
I fished for an hour and a half. I caught seven Rainbow Trout and one Cutthroat Trout, the largest I have ever caught. I kept four ... the daily limit ... and released four.
I returned home, cleaned the Rainbow Trout, and filleted the Cutthroat Trout. The Rainbow Trout from the Similkameen River are too small to fillet. I gave away the three Rainbow Trout to neighbours, and kept the Cutthroat Trout fillets for us.
Wednesday ; Mostly sunny, mild.
We spent the day preparing for departure on Friday. We went into town and picked up our prescriptions. We bought some Aurora Golden Gala apples, a rare type of apple developed near Oliver, only available locally, and Joanne's favourite apple.
We reinstalled Elsie the truck camper onto Lanoire the truck. Joanne did laundry. I did vehicle preventive maintenance. We hauled garden waste to the park's burn pit. I did an obedience session with Bo. We took him to the dog park for a play session. We went for a long walk around the park with him. I processed some photos. I sorted medications and packed them in the camper. I did medication records keeping and accounting.
I cooked Cutthroat Trout fillets for supper, while Joanne cooked the green beans harvested from our garden, and an apple pie made with apples from our RV park's orchard. Yes, yes ... definitely a "one mile" meal ! HA HA HA ! If we included the potatoes ... grown at Sanderson Farms in Keremeos ... it's still a "ten mile" meal.
Thursday ; Mostly sunny and mild.
My day started poorly. I knocked over a cosmetics basket of Joanne's in the bathroom and a jar of nail polish shattered on the floor, splashing polish on the floor and wall, and into a floor register. < sigh > What a difficult mess that was to clean !
We both spent the day preparing for departure tomorrow.
Friday ; Riverside RV Park Resort to Rock Creek
Mostly sunny and mild. Things went poorly for me today until we departed home at 3:30 PM.
Until departure Joanne spent her day moving stuff ... mostly food ... from the house to the truck camper. And assisting me with departure preparations that didn't go well ! This is the third or fourth time that I have "winterized" our park model manufactured home, so one would think that by now I wouldn't have too much difficulty, and that I wouldn't be inept ! But ... NOOOOO !
Just as I was almost finished winterizing the house, and we were almost ready to go, we discovered that the water pump in the camper had malfunctioned ... for the second time this summer. < sigh > It took me an hour and a half of teeth gnashing effort to repair it. Joanne thinks ... quite rightly ... it's time to replace it. She does not want another water pump failure when we're up north at Thompson, Manitoba, in winter weather, with no replacement likely available nearby. The problem of losing its "prime" and not being able to re-prime seems to occur after the camper has sat for awhile, as it will do for five days or so in Thompson while we're gone to Churchill by train. So ... we had better buy one in Alberta ( provincial sales tax free ) and install it while parked in my sister's driveway, with access to my brother-in-law's tools, before heading north to Thompson and Churchill.
By the time I had the water pump removed, repaired, and reinstalled, it was past time to have lunch. Joanne prepared a late lunch in the camper, I finished the winterization process on the house, and we were off ! Well ... not quite. We drove over to the other side of our RV park to say "goodbye" to our neighbour / friend Jeanine, and wish her well with her upcoming cancer surgery. And then we chatted with more neighbours. And then more ! And then more ! ! !
We headed east on Hwy. 3. We stopped in Keremeos to buy a large bag of Ambrosia apples ( developed in Keremeos area ) to take to Winnipeg. We stopped again in Osoyoos to buy some luncheon meats ... AND ... to have a brief rest at Veteran's Park a.k.a. Bo's PP park. HA HA HA ! He gets frantic when we approach Osoyoos. He recognizes the smell of Lake Osoyoos, and gets extremely excited about the prospect of visiting his favourite waterfront park. We don't know what the attraction is, but ... Bo knows !
We continued east on Hwy. 3. Our plan for this evening was to boondock at Jolly Creek B.C. Forest Service Recreation Site wilderness campground close to Rock Creek. We were concerned that perhaps Jolly Creek campground might have been destroyed by the recent Rock Creek wildfire which was HUGE ! When we arrived we were pleased to see that it was untouched by the fire, but ... for a few miles around, the forest was destroyed by fire, as were many ranch homes and buildings. We decided to go see nearby Kettle River Provincial Park where we were planning to refill our freshwater tank tomorrow and the day after.
Oh my goodness ! ! ! There is no more Kettle River Provincial Park. Just ... a lot of burned forest ! Even the provincial park roadside signage is burned ! We drove to the nearby village of Rock Creek and to the fairgrounds where the Rock Creek Fall Fair will be held tomorrow. We checked out the fairgrounds and its campground, then drove back into the village to see if there was somewhere that we might be able to refill our freshwater tank tomorrow and / or Sunday.
We pulled into the Husky Fuel service station and found that not only did they have a conveniently located water spigot with garden hose attached, there was a small park behind the station. I went inside the Husky and asked whose park was it ? Theirs !
I asked if we could park there overnight ? Sure ! I asked if we could refill our freshwater using their garden hose tomorrow morning ? Sure ! Thank you very much, Husky Fuels.
Saturday ; Rock Creek Fall Fair
Cloudy, chilly, drizzle rain until late afternoon.
We slept in a bit this morning. Too cold to get out of bed ! We refilled our freshwater tank at the Husky Fuel station before leaving their Creekside Park. We drove to the Rock Creek Fairgrounds and found ourselves a parking spot in their large, wooded, camping area.
We entered the Rock Creek Fall Fair around noon. We wandered around the many buildings, viewing agricultural exhibits, arts and crafts exhibits, etc. We spent some time at the outdoor arena watching horse "agility" type events, and mutton busting ... young children, aged three to eight, riding "bucking bronco" sheep. HA HA HA ... too funny ! Gee, some of those sheep are pretty mean when it comes to tossing kids off their backs. We wandered though all the barns, viewing farm animals, large and small.
Despite the many enticing food vendors ... including Hunky Bill's Perogies ... haven't seen Hunky Bill in about forty years ... we decided to return to the trailer about 3 PM for a late lunch. After lunch Joanne returned to the arena to watch more horse events while I napped briefly with Bo. I met up with her at 5 PM and we continued wandering around viewing arts and crafts exhibits, then we wandered around the vendors' alley adjacent to the midway / carnival area. At 7 PM we found ourselves a comfortable bench under a tree where we sat and watched / listened to the evening's main stage entertainment, Willie & the Poorboys, a Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band. They were talented musicians and played excellent renditions of all of CCR's greatest hits. By the time their show ended at 9:15 PM we were cold, tired, hungry, and more than ready to return to the camper for a very late, light supper.
DSK
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