Late this morning I made Saskatoon ( berry ) pancakes for brunch. WOW ... they were good ! I set up the Sun Oven and made ( liquid ) smoked, maple syrup glazed / candied Rainbow Trout. We'll take them ( two small fish ) with us on our trailer delivery job as "road lunch".
Joanne did a lot of gardening again today. I washed the very filthy truck. I did not feel comfortable showing up tomorrow for a fairly long distance, fairly expensive trailer towing job for a new client with a truck that looked like it had just done a tour of duty on the streets of Beirut ! We visited with neighbours / friends Bob and Chris, and their one year old Pomeranian Shelby, on their deck. We prepared for our upcoming trailer delivery job to Calgary. I prepared the truck and trailer towing equipment / supplies. Joanne prepared food and clothing.
Monday ; home to Penticton to Golden, BC
The day started out sunny and warm at home, rain starting while we were in Penticton from noon to 2 PM, becoming chilly and raining as we travelled.
This morning we continued to prepare for our trailer delivery trip to Calgary, and we left home for Penticton around 10:30 AM. We made a stop at the Post Office in Keremeos to pick up a package, then ran a couple of errands in Penticton until Joanne was due at the hospital at 12:30 PM. I dropped her off at the hospital for a mammogram, refilled the truck with diesel, ran another couple of errands, then picked Joanne up at the hospital at 1 PM.
We met our new trailer towing client at 1:15 PM at her company's storage warehouse. We hitched up to her large travel trailer and were on our way by 1:45 PM. By 2 PM we were at a highway rest area between Penticton and Summerland, having our picnic lunch in the truck, while heavy rain poured down.
North on Hwy. 97 through the entire Okanagan Valley, through Summerland, Peachland, Westbank, Kelowna, and Vernon. At Sicamous we reached Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 and turned east. Through Revelstoke, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Glacier National Park, we reached Golden and were checking into the Rondo Motel at 8:30 PM, tired and hungry.
Tuesday ; Golden, BC to Calgary Stampede Park, Calgary, Alberta and back to Golden
Mostly sunny and warm, becoming cloudy late in the afternoon.
Last night I left a wake up call at the front desk for 8 AM. At 7 AM the phone rang ... and a cheery voice advised me that it was 8 AM. DARN ! We crossed a time zone late yesterday. Oh, well ... we decided to just stay on our home time.
We left the motel around 9 AM and continued east on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1. From Golden to Field to Lake Louise to Banff to Calgary. We drove all the way across Calgary, including through downtown, to reach the Calgary Stampede Park where we met Mr. New Client. Yesterday in Penticton we dealt with Mrs. New Client. He had just arrived from Winnipeg with multiple food concession trailers and staff. He was very busy and simply wanted us to get the trailer into its assigned parking spot, unhitch ... and leave. We arrived at Stampede Park around 1:15 PM and were out of there in about half an hour.
We thought that there must be a better route to / from Stampede Park than through downtown as we had done ... with a large trailer ... < sigh >. We left Stampede Park and headed north on Hwy. 2, hoping to reach Calgary's ring road, and drive around the city instead of through it. We more or less achieved that. But ... that route was not faster. It was easier. But it was also quite a bit more mileage.
We saw a large Co-op store, with a fuel bar. It was after 2 PM. We needed to have lunch. We had lunch at the Subway restaurant near the Co-op store, then shopped for supper items in the Co-op store before refilling with diesel and hitting the road again around 3:30 PM. Shortly after leaving the Co-op mall and getting back on the highway the traffic ground to a halt. < sigh > A serious automobile accident caused us to be stuck in gridlock for about an hour.
Back through Banff National Park in Alberta, and Yoho National Park in BC, we were back at our motel in Golden at 7:30 PM, again tired and hungry.
Wednesday ; Golden, BC to home
Cloudy, warm, a bit humid.
We checked out of our motel in Golden at 10 AM and headed west on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1. Through Glacier National Park and Mount Revelstoke National Park ... frequent delays due to road reconstruction. At Sicamous we turned south on Hwy. 97A. At Armstrong we stopped at Armstrong Cheese Factory to have lunch and buy lots of cheese and ... MMMMM ... fresh cheese curds. For lunch we both enjoyed a steaming hot bowl of borscht with cheese curds added. We ... mostly I ... selected quite an assortment of cheeses and ... waited just a few minutes for today's fresh cheese curds to be ready and available. WOO-HOO ... curds so fresh they squeak.
I persuaded Joanne to make poutine for supper using the fresh curds.
From Armstrong we continued south on Hwy. 97. Traffic through Vernon was ... very heavy. Through Kelowna and Westbank / West Kelowna it was ... torture ! Rush hour gridlock ! How can people endure that day after day ? ! ? < heavy sigh > At Penticton we stopped to deposit our trailer delivery payment funds into the BMO ATM at Safeway, refill the truck with diesel at BG Fuel Bar, then wash the truck at the Great Canadian Oil Change car wash, an automatic car wash large enough to accommodate a dually pickup truck. We arrived back home at 7 PM, very tired and hungry for the third day in a row. It took nine hours to get from Golden, BC to home, a distance of slightly less than five hundred kilometres / three hundred miles !
As planned, we had ( salad and ) poutine for supper. HA ! ! ! Take THAT, you coronary artery bypass grafts ! ! ! HA HA HA HA HA !
I spent the evening getting my "to do" list reorganized. I did the accounting for the trailer delivery job just completed. You know ... the longer the trailer towing distance, the lower the profit margins. I'm a bit reluctant to undertake long distance jobs. The long distance jobs' profits may not be worth the hard, tiring work load. And ... I sort of / maybe / probably already agreed to do a very long distance trailer towing job for this new client in a couple of months.
Thursday ; Happy 54th Birthday to Joanne's sister Lorraine
Mix of sun and clouds, a few minutes of rain ... while we were picking Saskatoons, of course.
I have been waiting for over two months for two Amazon orders I placed for valve extender products. One order has still not yet arrived. The other order arrived and ...
< sputter > ... they sent the wrong item ! Tonight I demanded my money back for both orders.
We picked Saskatoons today. WOW ... nice berries ! We hadn't been picking for long when the rain started, so we abandoned the picking. Guess we'll pick more in a couple of days. We went into town and while Joanne was seeing a doctor I took my bicycle to a repair shop, refilled a five gallon water jug, and made an appointment for service on the minivan at a new auto repair facility in Keremeos. On the way out of town we stopped at Sanderson Farms to buy produce. I unloaded trailer towing equipment and supplies out of the truck and parked it back under the camper. I did annual maintenance on our four fire extinguishers. In the evening I paid bills, and reconciled June's MasterCard statement. I did credit card accounting for our recent trailer towing job. I did some trip planning for a long distance trailer towing job in mid-August.
Friday ; Cloudy, warm, windy.
Joanne spent the day in Penticton by herself running errands. I stayed at home, mostly doing work on the truck. I did preventive maintenance. I did a 6000 km. inspection. And I repaired the damaged rear wheel well liner. Plan A did not work. Plan B did.
Saturday ; Cloudy, warm, humid, windy.
Joanne did gardening. I reinstalled the repaired rear wheel well liner on the truck. We picked Saskatoons. I harvested cherry tomatoes for the first time this year.
I assembled the 4.5 foot tall ornamental windmill I purchased in Kamloops a month or so ago. Yes, yes ... I realize it's kitschy but ... we both want to have one on our rock slope / front yard.
We visited with our neighbour / friend Jeanine. And we visited with our neighbours / friends Bob and Christine to lend them our Forest Service campground book for their upcoming vacation trip.
DSK
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