Sunday ; Again today I spent much of my time on my computer(s). I continued working on downloading and configuring Windows 10 to both my primary / daily use laptop and my backup / spare laptop. It did not go smoothly. And it certainly did not go quickly ! At the same time I was working on monthly computer file backup processes, and creating "restore" disks.
Joanne decided she would like to have a movie date so ... at 5:30 PM we left home headed to Oliver, to have dinner and see a movie. As we arrived in Oliver we were both moaning about how much we dislike having an overpriced meal of mediocre food in restaurants. So ... that's exactly what we had for dinner ! This is not the first time that we have had difficulty getting a meal in Oliver, let alone a good meal !
We parked our minivan near the Oliver Theatre, bought our movie tickets, then went walking in search of a good meal. After walking the entire length of Oliver's main business and tourist district we went into a Chinese buffet restaurant. We were seated and about to head for the buffet when a waitress advised us that their POS terminal was not working, so cash was the only acceptable form of payment. How lazy ! Can't be bothered to process a credit transaction manually, then enter it into their terminal after it is functioning again. They'd rather lose the business than process a manual credit card transaction. We didn't have enough cash to pay for dinner for two, so ... we left !
We wandered back down the other side of the main street and stopped to have dinner at an East Indian restaurant, the last available restaurant before reaching the movie theatre again. And we had ... an overpriced meal of mediocre food !
The movie was good ! We saw "The Secret Life Of Pets". In "3D" ! By the end of the movie those 3D glasses were giving me a headache.
After the movie, to compensate ourselves for the overpriced, mediocre dinner, we drove to Osoyoos and treated ourselves to ice cream treats at Dairy Queen. We arrived back home about 11 PM.
Monday ; Sunny and hot. Joanne put a Swiss steak meal into the Sun Oven this morning, but had to remove it before it was finished cooking because the sun disappeared behind clouds for awhile. And for about fifteen minutes this afternoon it rained heavily.
This morning I finally finished up all the Windows 10 and "backup" and "restore" tasks on both laptops. This afternoon I did preventive maintenance on both the truck and minivan, then Joanne helped me put Elsie the truck camper onto Lanoire the truck, in preparation for our upcoming trip to Haida Gwaii.
In the evening I paid some bills online and uploaded my weekly journal to my blog. Easier said than done, considering that the journal was written in Windows 8 and I was posting it to my blog using Windows 10.
Tuesday ; Sunny and hot until late afternoon. A bit of rain on our way home from Penticton around 6 PM.
Today was a long day of running errands in Penticton. AND ... DanAir flight 428 !
Upon arrival in Penticton at 11 AM I went flying and Joanne went to run some errands for a couple of hours until it was time to pick me up after my flight. I flew Cessna 172 C-GHBM ( a.k.a Hotel Bravo Mike ) from Penticton to Okanagan Falls to Oliver to Osoyoos to Spotted Lake to Vineglass Winery, then back to Penticton, most of the flight at 7500 to 7800 feet. The bottoms of the rapidly developing Cumulus clouds were at about 8000 feet, so by 7800 feet turbulence was beginning. When Vineglass Winery was established a few years ago, they "sculpted" their vineyard into the shape of a wine glass. It was very impressive from above. Over the last couple of years however, they have not maintained it, and the "wine glass" shape has now almost disappeared. With the hot weather of the summer now here, Spotted Lake has begun to "dry out" a bit, giving better definition to the "spots". I'm always fascinated by viewing Spotted Lake from the air.
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot.
Late this morning I drove into town ( Keremeos ) to pick up a prescription refill and pay our home insurance policy renewal.
This afternoon I did some yard maintenance. I repaired some damage done by persons unknown ( moving eyes towards our next door neighbours to the north ) when they ran a vehicle ( moving eyes towards their golf cart ) into the corner of our yard fence, moving the fence, and knocking the corner cinder block over onto my precast concrete bicycle stand ... breaking the corner of the bicycle stand ! I cleaned and treated Ozzie's ears. We trimmed Bo's nails. I polished shoes. We loaded stuff into the camper for our upcoming trip to Haida Gwaii. We went to the pool and floated around, cooling off during the hottest part of the afternoon. We took Bo to the dog park.
Thursday ; home to Kamloops
Sunny and hot. This morning we finished preparing for departure, pulled out of our yard at 11:15 AM, drove to the other side of our RV park, visited with our neighbour / friend Jeanine for awhile ... and I had a "ducky fight" with Charlie the dog ... and we hit the road at noon.
West on Hwy. 3 to Princeton, north on Hwy. 5 to Hwy. 97C / the Coquihalla Connector, west on Hwy. 97C to Merritt, then north on Hwy. 5 / the Coquihalla ( known on a reality TV show as the "Highway Through Hell" ) to Kamloops. We stopped for a late lunch north of Princeton at Allison lake Provincial Park. As we were pulling out of the provincial park picnic area ... WHOA ! SASKATOONS ! ! ! Plump, juicy, sweet Saskatoons ! Only 80 km. / 50 miles northwest of home, where this year's batch of Saskatoons was terrible ! And finished a month ago ! We picked Saskatoons today until we had half filled a small Tupperware container. Joanne didn't want us to pick any more, because we already had blueberries in the fridge. MMMMM ... I can put Saskatoons on my Weetabix ( breakfast cereal ) tomorrow morning. Good thing ! Because those Weetabix are terrible on their own ! HA HA HA !
We stopped to refill with diesel in Merritt. When we arrived in Kamloops I drove directly to Princess Auto to buy a few advertised items. I got two of the three items I was hoping to buy. They were sold out of the third item. We drove to the Visitor Information Centre, our boondocking "home" for tonight. While Joanne rushed into the Visitor Information Centre to pick up some travel information before they closed for the day,
I took Bo into their fenced dog park, and while he rolled around on the lush grass,
I phoned our friend Laszlo and arranged to meet him and his wife Gail at Swiss Chalet for supper.
Just before we left for Swiss Chalet, a German made truck and camper parked beside us. It had German license plates. Correctly assuming that the couple were from Germany, I stuck up a brief chat with them. They are touring North America for a couple of years in their truck camper. They have already driven across Canada, having landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and are just now returning from Alaska, on their way to Vancouver Island. They will be heading south all the way across the United States to Mexico this winter. I offered them some boondocking travel tips, including giving them our Flying J directory. SO ... I was more than a little irritated when we returned from dinner to find that they had moved their rig into the parking spot that we had vacated a few hours earlier, when I had made it clear to them that we would be returning to it in a few hours. HMPH !
At 7 PM we met Laszlo and Gail at Swiss Chalet. We had not seen them since we left them in Death Valley National Park in mid-April. We had a pleasant dinner at Swiss Chalet, and chatted with them in the restaurant ( and parking lot ) until about 9:30 PM.
Friday ; Kamloops to rest area near Kersley, BC
Sunny and hot.
We were up just a bit earlier than usual, and ready to depart just a bit earlier than usual. Before leaving the Kamloops Visitor Information Centre we refilled our freshwater tank and dumped our waste holding tanks. We departed Kamloops heading west on Trans-Canada Highway 1.
About an hour after leaving Kamloops we arrived at Juniper Beach Provincial Park on the banks of the mighty Thompson River. This spring we (Similkameen Trailer Towing) had transported a trailer from Osoyoos to Juniper Beach Provincial Park. We had promised the client that we would obtain some South Okanagan RV park information he was seeking and bring it to him mid-summer, on our way to Haida Gwaii. Today we delivered on that promise.
After delivering the information and visiting very briefly with the client we continued west on TCH 1 to Cache Creek, where we turned north on Hwy. 97. We stopped for lunch at a rest area, then an hour later we stopped at the Visitor Information Centre in 100 Mile House. I needed an after lunch nap. While I napped briefly Joanne took Bo for a walk, and she went into the Visitor Information Centre and picked up more travel planning information.
Our planned destination for today was Williams Lake, where we had planned to boondock overnight in the parking lot of the wonderful Williams Lake Visitor Information Centre. But since we had gotten a bit of an early start today, we decided to go further north than Williams Lake. In Williams Lake we shopped at Surplus Herby's, a quirky outdoors store we enjoy. I bought a dozen fishing flies, and a package of live dew worms for fishing. < whispering > Joanne hates it when I put live worms in the fridge. HA HA HA ! And before leaving Williams Lake we refilled Lanoire with ( cheap ... on the "rez" ) diesel again.
Shortly after leaving Williams Lake, continuing north on Hwy. 97, as we came around a curve on the road, a woman was just getting out of her car parked on the shoulder, and waving her arms at us frantically. I thought she was having some manner of emergency, then we both noticed ... two dogs romping across the highway towards her. GEEEEEZZZZZ ! I slammed on the brakes, turned the truck diagonally across the highway, blocking any vehicles from passing me, and Joanne jumped out of our truck to help the woman capture the two dogs, one large and one small ... both soaking wet and filthy, having just climbed out of the swamp beside the highway !
The dogs willingly ran towards the woman who was calling them. She grabbed the large one by the scruff of the neck ... both dogs were without collars ... so Joanne grabbed the little one by the scruff of the neck. As soon as I saw they had captured both dogs, I moved my truck off the highway and onto the shoulder. Both dogs jumped into her car quite willingly. So ... thanks to her quick thinking, two dogs lives were saved. Well done, lady ! She was a local, and knew where the dogs lived, although she did not know the dogs' names nor did she know the owner.
A bit further north we turned off Hwy. 97 and drove about 4 km. / 2½ miles up a rough gravel logging road to a BC Forest Service remote wilderness campground on Blue Lake, only to discover when we arrived there that it no longer existed. HMPH ! Back down the poor gravel road, and back onto the highway, we continued north until reaching this rest area a bit south of Kersley. It seemed like an excellent spot to boondock overnight.
For supper Joanne made a wonderful fresh salad using lettuce and two types of small "cherry" tomatoes from our garden at home. I barbecued Dan-O-Cheeseburgers. Dessert was a fresh, blueberry cheesecake Joanne had made at home. After supper we walked around with Bo for awhile, enjoying the cooler weather of the evening. We found some wild mushrooms, but were unsuccessful in identifying them.
Saturday ; rest area near Kersley to British Columbia Forest Service Recreation Site at Co-op Lake
Mostly cloudy, cool, intermittent light rain until mid-afternoon.
This morning we left the rest area and continued north on Hwy. 97. At Quesnel we stopped at the Visitor Information Centre and I used their free Wi-Fi to retrieve e-mail. From there we drove to the municipal sani-dump station to dump our waste holding tanks and refill our freshwater tank. As we continued driving through town I noticed the Saturday Farmer's Market and wanted to stop and browse. Joanne bought a Samosa to munch on, and I bought a jar of home made Saskatoon jam. WOO-HOO ! We also picked up some interesting information on a new job matching website aimed at
semi-retired seniors who would like to work short term summer jobs, mostly in the tourism industry.
We continued north from Quesnel on Hwy. 97, stopping for lunch at a rest area between Quesnel and Prince George. At Prince George we refilled Lanoire with diesel, then headed west on Yellowhead Highway 16. Near Fraser Lake, around 5 PM, we stopped at a rest area to have a bathroom break, stretch our legs, and have an afternoon snack. And discovered ... WOO-HOO ... Saskatoons and wild raspberries. Bo was ecstatic. As much as Joanne and I enjoy "foraging", Bo just flips into a feeding frenzy when he finds fruit hanging at his level. HA HA HA ! You go, Bo ! The Saskatoon here were small, but extremely sweet.
Shortly before reaching the town of Burns Lake, we turned off the highway and travelled about 2½ km. up a gravel Forest Service Road to a remote wilderness campground at Co-op Lake. Very nice ! We chose a site, parked, went for a walk with Bo, then
I started a campfire while Joanne packaged chicken legs, potatoes, onions, carrots, and garlic scapes in foil for me to cook over the open fire. And as usual ... I cooked supper to absolute perfection over the fire. Well done, Daniel ! I certainly am good at cooking over an open campfire ! It's a skill I'm quite proud of !
DSK
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