Cool and raining until early afternoon, then partially sunny and very warm, windy in the evening at home.
When we settled into the rest area to boondock overnight last night we did not know that we were very near the site of the Shambhala Music Festival being held this weekend. Nor did we know that there was a wild fire in the vicinity that forced the cancellation and evacuation of the music festival late last night. Car loads of young people arrived at the rest area in the middle of the night, some sleeping in their cars, some sleeping in tents beside their cars. Shortly after we left the rest area this morning we encountered a law enforcement roadside checkpoint, stopping all eastbound cars heading out of the nearby festival site, creating a huge traffic jam. Fortunately for us ... we were westbound.
At Castlegar we stopped at the Doukhobor Museum to pick wild Porcini mushrooms in their picnic area, as we have done before. HMPH ... no mushrooms today ! We stopped to have lunch at another rest area. We stopped in Grand Forks to shop for groceries at Extra Foods, refill with diesel at Extra Foods Fuel Bar, then shop again for groceries at Overwaitea. At Osoyoos we stopped to give Bo an opportunity to visit his favourite park, located on Lake Osoyoos waterfront. I don't know what its name is, we've always called it Bo's PP Park. We arrived home at Riverside RV Park Resort west of Keremeos around 7 PM.
Six weeks, 9530 km. / 5956 miles. Whew ... I'm tired ! British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia. The four day trip home from Lorette / Winnipeg was 2134 km. / 1334 miles. Most expensive diesel was in Fort Nelson, BC ; $1.289 / litre. Cheapest diesel was in Winnipeg, Manitoba ; $0.929 / litre. Why is diesel fuel in Northern BC more expensive than anywhere in the Northwest Territories ? ! ?
Monday ; Sunny and hot. A busy day of "return home" chores.
Our gardens needed a lot of attention. There was some produce to harvest, but mostly everything was overgrown and / or dried out. I watered our composters and herb garden. I trimmed my beard. We gave Bo a haircut. We gave Bo a bath. We did a lot of unpacking from the camper. I removed the three "Group of Seven" pieces of artwork that we retrieved from Winnipeg / Lorette. I removed the large, crated Italian tapestry that Bud and I had secured to the ceiling of the camper, and lowered it onto the bed. Joanne will help me remove it from the camper tomorrow, I hope.
I bid on a U-Ship job to transport a puppy from Keremeos to the Vancouver area this weekend, in conjunction with the trailer towing job I have to Vancouver Island. The shipper accepted my bid, so ... Bear the Australian Shepherd puppy will be making the trip with me on Saturday.
Tuesday ; Sunny and hot.
This morning we carefully removed the boxed tapestry from the camper and stored it temporarily in our shed. I am very grateful to my brother-in-law Bud for the creative problem solving he used to help me get the tapestry mounted up against the ceiling of the camper for transport from Lorette to here.
After an early lunch we went into Keremeos to run errands. I dropped Joanne off at Sanderson Farms to buy produce while I went to Similkameen Agencies to renew the registration and insurance on the minivan and renew our home insurance. I picked Joanne up at Sanderson Farms and then she went to Valu-Plus to buy some groceries while I went to Valley First Credit Union to make changes to our monthly maintenance fee payment to Riverside RV Park Resort. From there we drove to 3 Winds Farm to make arrangements regarding the puppy delivery we are doing on Saturday.
No one was home at 3 Winds Farm, but ... we did get greeted by a whole lot of "guard" dogs, some Border Collies and some Australian Shepherds. And one curious, sociable horse in a corral. The puppy we will be transporting on Saturday to Vancouver is an Australian Shepherd. We returned to town, to FasGas. We washed the truck and camper, refilled a propane tank, and bought fishing worms.
Back at home I napped briefly before we removed the camper from the truck. Joanne worked on unloading and cleaning the camper. I worked on maintenance on the camper, reinstalling a cupboard door and remounting our TV, both removed for the tapestry transport. Our satellite TV service resumed today after being put on "vacation break", so we watched Amazing Race Canada while eating supper, our first TV viewing in six weeks.
After supper I phoned our puppy delivery client and discussed arrangements.
Wednesday ; Sunny and hot, a bit windy early in the evening while I was fly fishing on the Similkameen River.
I finalized arrangements for the pickup of a large travel trailer in Kelowna on Friday evening. We will deliver it to Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island on Sunday morning. I finalized the arrangements for the pickup of a puppy in Keremeos on Saturday morning. We will deliver him to Vancouver Saturday afternoon. I paid some bills owing to our RV park. I went to our park's woodworking shop, found some scrap plywood, and used a radial arm saw in the woodworking shop to cut it to size for a project.
We visited our neighbour / friend Jeanine to pick our mail that she has been collecting from our mail box for the six weeks that we've been away, and to arrange for her to care for Bo while we are away this weekend on the trailer delivery job. At supper time I went fishing on the Similkameen River for the first time this summer. I fished for an hour and a half. The conditions were not great for fly fishing. It was windy and the water was flowing faster than I expected it would be at this time of the year. I caught two small Rainbow Trout and a large Whitefish. I released the smaller of the two Rainbows.
I cleaned the larger Rainbow and gave it to Jeanine. It was too small for us. It was what I call "widow size". I filleted the Whitefish to try an experiment with it. I am going to "smoke" it in the Sun Oven, like making "smoked, candied" salmon in the Sun Oven.
Thursday ; Sunny and very hot. As planned yesterday, I did make ( liquid ) smoked,
( maple syrup glazed ) candied Whitefish in the Sun Oven today.
I made phone calls this morning ; to the motel I have booked in Port Alberni regarding late arrival check in procedures, to the owner of the art gallery in Penticton that I am hopeful will handle the sale of our artwork, to set up a meeting with her next week, and to a potential purchaser of one of the neighbour's shed items that I have advertised for sale on Kijiji.
This afternoon I prepared the truck for trailer towing, loading all the necessary equipment and supplies. I assembled a pet carrier to use to transport Bear the puppy to Vancouver. I exercised and did annual maintenance on our little generator.
I fertilized our gardens. And most importantly, Joanne and I uncrated and inspected our large tapestry which has been crated and in storage at my sister's for the last thirteen years. It's in perfect condition and as beautiful as ever.
I barbecued chicken to take on our weekend trailer towing and puppy delivery trip. Joanne prepared potato salad to go with the chicken, and she made a large pot of spaghetti and meat sauce for the trip as well. I baked potatoes and barbecued a thick, juicy, marinated steak for supper which we ate while watching Saturday Night Live ; Weekend Update Summer Edition.
This afternoon while working on preparing the truck for trailer towing, loading equipment and supplies, I repeatedly experienced angina while working hard, in the sun, on a very hot day. I kept resting and rehydrating, but eventually it became so severe I had to come indoors, lie down on the bed, and use Nitroglycerin spray, only the second time
I have done so. Yes, yes ... it works ! Quite well, and quite quickly ... leaving a headache afterwards.
Friday ; home to Penticton to Kelowna to home
Sunny and very warm.
We left home at noon and headed to Penticton. First errand was to sell our next door neighbour's baby playpen. KA-CHING ! Mrs. Buyer was pissed off at my delivery charge. HEY ... read the ad more carefully next time ! You don't want to pay my delivery charge to your front door ... drive to my home and buy it !
We shopped at Wal-Mart and Dollar Tree, then left Penticton and headed north on
Hwy. 97 through Summerland and Peachland to Westbank / West Kelowna. Nobody calls Westbank by its "new" name West Kelowna. We had an extremely late lunch or extremely early supper at Swiss Chalet. The service was horrible ! We won't be returning. Swiss Chalet has lost a customer after thirty years, because one bimbo does her job poorly ! AND ... their chickens seem to have shrunk to the size of Cornish game hens ! No problem ... many other establishments will be happy to receive my money.
We refilled with diesel at Superstore Fuel Bar then went into Superstore to complete our weekly grocery shopping ... which had been started at Wal-Mart in Penticton. From there we drove into Kelowna ... ( I hate Kelowna ! ) ... and arrived at our trailer towing client's home half an hour early, at 5:30 PM. Good thing we were a bit early. The trailer pick up was a bit more complicated and took a bit longer than expected. We left the client's home at 7 PM, drove through Kelowna back to Hwy. 97, south through Westbank, Peachland, Summerland, and Penticton, returning to Keremeos on Hwy. 3A, then to Riverside RV Park Resort on Hwy. 3. It was dark before 9 PM. We arrived home around 9:30 PM, had a light, late supper or bedtime snack, then finished preparing for departure tomorrow morning. Joanne prepared meals to go, I packed clothes, medications, and toiletries.
Saturday ; home to Vancouver, ferry to Vancouver Island, Nanaimo to Port Alberni
Sunny and very warm.
This morning as Joanne took Bo over to Jeanine's to be "dog sat" for a few days,
I drove into town ( Keremeos ) in the minivan to pick up Bear the 7½ week old Australian Shepherd puppy. At 10 AM I picked Bear up at the restaurant in town owned by his < cough > breeder, then returned home with him. We loaded him into the truck, with the client's large trailer attached, and off we went, headed west on Hwy. 3 towards Vancouver. We left home at 10:30 AM. Emma will be spending two days in our house by herself, with lots of food and water, and multiple litter boxes. Wish us all luck !
The highway from home to Princeton is difficult, curving and hilly. The road from Princeton to Hope is even more so ! About an hour and half after leaving, Bear became ill and vomited ( a lot ! ) in the pet carrier. HMPH ! Maybe ... just maybe ... he should have had food withheld for twelve or more hours before travelling ? ! ? Especially since this was his first time in a vehicle ? ! ? < fume >
We stopped at Flying J in Hope at about 1 PM. We tried ... unsuccessfully ... to walk Bear. HMPH ! He had never been on a leash before. You'd think that maybe ... just maybe ... oh, never mind ! We had lunch, refilled with diesel, and were back on the road by 2 PM. From Hope we travelled west on Trans-Canada Hwy. 1 to the Lower Mainland / Vancouver area. We got onto the beginning of Hwy. 17 / South Fraser Perimeter Road and followed it to its end at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. Just before we reached the shopping mall where we were delivering him, Bear was very ill again.
< sigh >
Just a few miles before reaching the ferry terminal we stopped at Tsawwassen Mills Mall, an extremely large shopping mall, with an extremely large parking lot, to deliver Bear to his new owner / family. The female buyer of Bear, and her teenage daughter were already at the mall, eagerly awaiting our arrival with their new family member. They were thrilled to meet ( and take possession of ) Bear. Thank you very much Rhea, for arranging to meet us at a large shopping mall with a large parking lot, in consideration of the large trailer we were towing. We delivered Bear at 3:45 PM, about fifteen minutes late.
We arrived at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal about 4:30 PM, to wait for our 5:45 PM ferry departure to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I have written this journal entry so far while on the ferry.
We arrived at the Nanaimo ferry terminal on Vancouver Island on time at 7:45 PM. We drove north on the island's main north / south road, Hwy. 19 to Qualicum, then turned west on Hwy. 4. We arrived at Port Alberni at 9 PM just as it became dark. We checked into the Timberlodge Motel & RV Campground, and ate a very late supper in our room.
WHEW ... tired !
DSK
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