November 1 to 7, 2007

 

 

 

 

November 1 to 7, 2007

Keremeos, B.C. to Topaz Lake, Nevada

 

Thursday ; Keremeos, B.C. to I-90 rest area near Ellensburg, Washington

Well ... we're finally back on the road again. We've all been suffering a teensy bit of "hitch itch" the last couple of weeks. It's great to be travelling, back on the road of / to adventure. It was a bright, sunny day today. A very pleasant day for travel.

This morning, in addition to regular departure preparations, I had to turn off the water main to our lot, on the street in front of our lot, and turn off the main power breaker for our lot in the hydro kiosk at the end of our street. I also had to remove the Wi-Fi and satellite dish cables, then remove the Wi-Fi transceiver / antenna from the utility pole I installed on our lot. To discontinue our Wi-Fi service for 6 months, China Creek Internet required me to return their equipment. HMPH !

We drove to Keremeos, where I dropped Joanne off at the medical clinic for a doctor's appointment to review some x-rays she had taken at Penticton Hospital last week. I went to put air in the truck and trailer tires, and run a few last minute errands in town. I picked her up at the clinic and we headed east on Hwy. 3. We stopped in Cawston to drop off the China Creek equipment. Halfway between Keremeos and Osoyoos we decided to cross the border at Nighthawk, instead of crossing at Osoyoos into Oroville, Washington, the main border crossing in the Okanagan / Similkameen region. There was a little "back road" following along the Similkameen River, to cross the border at Nighthawk. There's nothing at Nighthawk except a little border guard shack on each side of the border, each shack staffed by one border guard. Too bad the border guard on the American side was such a p***k, with attitude. The border crossing process only took 5 to 10 minutes, but he was rude and surly, with a "bully" mentality fromstart to finish. First time we've ever encountered anything like that crossing the border in either direction. In the future, we'll use the Osoyoos / Oroville crossing.

After crossing at Nighthawk, we meandered along a narrow, winding road following the Similkameen River until it flowed into the Okanagan River at Oroville, Washington. We stopped at Prince's, the large grocery store in Oroville, to buy groceries and have lunch. Prince's was accepting Canadian money at their checkouts, paying U.S.$1.03 per Canadian dollar. WOW ! ! ! I've never experienced an exchange rate like that ! WOO-HOO ! ! !

From Oroville we headed south on Hwy. 97 which follows the Okanagan / Okanogan River all the way until it flows into the Columbia River, then it follows the Columbia River. At Wenatchee we turned east on Hwy. 28. At Quincy we turned south on Hwy. 281. At Interstate 90 we turned west. We stopped for the night at a rest area on I-90 just east of Ellensburg. We're a little more than halfway through the state of Washington, north to south.

 

Friday ; Ellensburg, Washington to LaPine State Park near Bend, Oregon

The temperature this morning was 28º F., but it was a sunny, pleasant day. We drove about ten miles east on I-90 to Ellensburg where we filled up with diesel at Flying J. We headed south on Interstate 82 to Toppenish, then turned south on the resumption of Hwy. 97. At the Columbia River Gorge, the border between Washington and Oregon, we stopped at Maryhill State Park where we had lunch, then went for a long walk with Teddy and Bo beside the Columbia River through the lovely state park. Teddy likes to go for walks on sunny fall days as long as someone carries him. It was such a lovely park we considered staying overnight, but decided it was too early to stop for the day. We crossed the Columbia River onto Oregon and continued south on Hwy. 97.

We stopped to refill with diesel ( again ! ) at Madras. We stopped again at Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint, a rest area, to view the Crooked River from the old highway bridge 300 feet above the river. Quite a vista ! We continued south through Bend, and stopped for the night at LaPine State Park just as it got dark. This is a very nice state park. We've stayed in Oregon state parks before, and we continue to be very impressed with Oregon's state parks. If tomorrow is another nice, sunny day, we'll stay here, rest, hike, and have a campfire.

Whew ... two days of hard driving, over 1000 km. / 600 miles.

 

Saturday ; LaPine State Park, Oregon

BRRRRR ... the temperature this morning was 20º F., although it was sunny, and warmed up nicely throughout the day, reaching 54º F. by mid-afternoon. I was surprised by the low morning temperature, given that we are over 1000 km. / 600 mi. south of home, in the same mountain range ( the Cascades ) as at home. I suppose we're at a higher elevation here, though. Keremeos is about 1100 ft. ASL, and I think we're about 2500 ft. ASL here at LaPine State Park. Maybe all those RV's with Canadian license plates that we see on the highways heading south are creating a vortex, pulling down cold Canadian air. HA HA HA !

This afternoon we hiked around each of the three large loops of the campground, two of which are closed for the winter, then we hiked along the banks of the Deschutes River. What a great day to be outdoors. What a great day to be alive ! We spent the latter part of the afternoon sitting around a campfire. The weather was nice enough to inspire me to barbecue. Great steak !

In the evening while Joanne baked cranberry oatmeal muffins I worked on updating my investment files and setting all the clocks back an hour.

 

Sunday ; LaPine State Park to Talent, Oregon

Today was another gorgeous sunny day, with temperatures ranging from 18º F. this morning to 60º F. this afternoon.

As we were on our way out of LaPine State Park this morning, we stopped to hike to The Big Tree, Oregon's largest Ponderosa Pine. Back on Hwy. 97, heading south, we stopped to refill a propane tank in Wickiup Junction. We turned east on Hwy. 138 heading for Crater Lake National Park, even though signage indicated the national park was closed for the winter. It was a gamble that paid off. The national park main road was still open. We turned south into Crater Lake National Park.

After seeing a picture of Crater Lake this summer in the travel blog of our full time RV / Escapee friends Cathy and Jan Emrick, I wanted to visit Crater Lake. It was spectacular, on a par with Lake Louise in Banff National Park in Alberta. Joanne thinks Crater Lake was even more picturesque than Lake Louise. Perhaps she's right. Crater Lake is remote, without the crowds found around Lake Louise. And Lake Louise doesn't have an inactive volcano island in the middle of the lake.

After having lunch we continued south through Crater Lake National Park, exiting the national park onto Hwy. 62 heading west. We wanted to cut over to Interstate 5, heading for a Passport America park with cable TV, so that we could watch tonight's season premiere of Amazing Race. Hwy. 62 was a veryscenic route through thick forest, large Ponderosa Pines and Lodgepole Pines right to the edge of the road. Oregon certainly has a lot of trees ... and hillbillies / mountain folk ! From Hwy. 62 onto Hwy. 234 heading southwest, then onto I-5 heading ... WOO-HOO ... south ! Interstate 5 is the main highway heading south, on the west side of the U.S.. It starts at the Canadian border just south of Vancouver, and extends to the Mexican border just south of San Diego.

We stopped for the night at Talent, Oregon, about half an hour north of the Oregon / California border. After we set up in our site, Joanne walked over to the Wal-Mart across the street. Bo is sooooo happy tonight. Joanne bought him a new "chicken ducky" retriever toy at Wal-Mart. It's his favourite toy, available only in the U.S..

 

Monday ; Talent, Oregon to Susanville, California

This morning in Oregon the temperature was 32º F.. This afternoon in California it was 84º F.! WOO-HOO !

Shortly after departing Talent, continuing south on I-5, we stopped in Ashland, the last town in Oregon before entering California, to buy diesel. Fuel prices are lower in Oregon than in California. Well ... pretty much all prices are lower in Oregon than California. Oregon has no state sales tax. And California is generally more expensive than anywhere else, on everything. Hey ... it's California !

We stopped at the first city in California, Yreka ( pronounced "why reeka" ) to buy groceries. California may be more expensive than Oregon, but it has nicer grocery stores. Large produce departments with more variety, fresh products, natural products, sushi, etc.. Hey ... it's California ! And they understand the concept of customers using their own cloth bags to pack their groceries. Most of the United States doesn't "get" the use of cloth grocery bags.

At Redding we turned east on Hwy. 44. It was our intention to stop for the night at Shingletown, just before Lassen Volcanic National Park, and tomorrow we would visit the national park. But the RV park at Shingletown listed in the Passport America directory would not honour the Passport America rate, so we did not stay. So there ! Occasionally we encounter parks listed in the Passport America directory that have one excuse or another for not honouring the Passport America rate. We refuse to stay at parks who get listed in the directory but refuse to honour the rate.

So we continued driving east on Hwy. 44, entering Lassen Volcanic National Park about 3:00 P.M.. Since it now gets dark by 5:30 P.M., that didn't leave us much time to see the sights in the park. Well, that was okay, because there wasn't really all that much to see in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Maybe we've travelled and seen so much, we're a bit spoiled ? ! We drove leisurely through the park, stopping only once to get out and take a look at some fumaroles ( little smoking, gurgling holes in the ground ... geyser wannabes ). It was first time Bo has seen gurgling, smoking holes in the ground. Dogs are not allowed to walk around the geyser / fumarole areas of Yellowstone National Park that we visited last spring. He was quite puzzled by gurgling, smoking holes in the ground. Hey, Bo ... they didn’t have anything like that back in sweet home Alabama, did they ? HA HA HA !

We exited the national park to the south and turned east on Hwy. 36 / 89 heading towards Chester, looking for a suitable place to boondock for the night. All the national park campgrounds were closed for the season, as were the National Forest Service campgrounds along the highway outside of the national park. There was nowhere suitable to stop for the night in the little town of Chester. We continued east on Hwy. 36 to Susanville where we stopped for the night at Wal-Mart. It was after 7:00 P.M., we were tired, Joanne didn't want to make supper, so we went to Jack In The Box for supper. Their TV commercials are better than their food.

This afternoon I could not avoid running over a large rock on the road. Tonight I discovered that it had bounced up into the bottom front edge of the trailer, smashing and severely damaging the J-trim moulding along the bottom front edge. DARN !

 

Tuesday ; Susanville, California to Bordertown / Reno, Nevada

Today was another sunny, cool morning, warm afternoon day. I was tired from driving more than planned yesterday, so today we drove only a fairly short distance. We pulled out of Susanville's Wal-Mart, and filled up with diesel before leaving town. We headed southeast on Hwy. 395 towards Reno, Nevada. We crossed the border from California into Nevada, and by noon stopped for the night, at Bordertown, a northern "suburb" of Reno.

We stayed at Bordertown Casino & RV Resort. Very nice resort ... a bit expensive. Joanne did laundry. I removed the damaged moulding off the lower front edge of the trailer. I was unable to repair it. We walked with Bo all around the RV park, and then walked over to the casino. I downloaded and processed all the photos I took since leaving Keremeos six days ago. The RV park had Wi-Fi, so I was able to do e-mail, check investments, etc..

After supper we went over to the casino to use the free drink vouchers that we received when registering in the RV park. I had 2 free bourbons, played Keno and a slot machine. Joanne had a free glass of wine and played a slot machine. It took us an hour and half to lose two dollars. Big Canadian spenders, eh ? HA HA HA !

 

Wednesday ; Bordertown / Reno to and around Lake Tahoe to Topaz Lake, Nevada

Well we certainly have had superb weather for our first week of travel. Today was another sunny, warm day. This morning we drove into Reno, found Safari RV, bought a new piece of J-trim moulding, and drove through and out of Reno, heading south on Hwy. 395.

I wanted to see Lake Tahoe. We turned southwest on Hwy. 431 and drove up, and up, ... and up ! I had no idea Lake Tahoe was at such a high elevation. We drove over the Mount Rose summit at 8900 ft. ASL before reaching Lake Tahoe at Incline Village. I think that may be highest elevation we've taken the truck and trailer. We passed the Ponderosa Ranch, setting for the Bonanza television series from the 1960's. Lake Tahoe is at about 7000 ft. ASL and the roads around it range from 7000 ft. to almost 9000 ft.. We drove along the east shore of Lake Tahoe along Hwy. 28, then Hwy. 50, stopping frequently to sightsee and take photos. It was so lovely, we decided to drive completely around Lake Tahoe. With all the stops we made, it took most of the day.

At the south end of Lake Tahoe, at the small resort city of South Lake Tahoe ( summer and winter playground of the rich and famous ) we turned northwest on Hwy. 89 to cross from Nevada into California and follow along the west and north sides of Lake Tahoe. Beautiful lake and forest scenery, very upscale homes in little villages. I thought the areas around Lake Tahoe would be more developed. We were pleasantly surprised to see that the development of homes, resorts, and villages was done without destroying the beautiful natural surroundings. Bravo, Nevada and California. Maybe the Wisconsin Dells or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, just outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park could learn some lessons from Nevada and California !

After circling Lake Tahoe completely, back around to the Nevada side, we headed east on Hwy. 50 back to Hwy. 395 at Carson City. I stopped at Home Depot in Carson City to buy some hardware I need to install the new moulding on the trailer. Seeing Carson City on the map evokes memories for me of the opening scene of the TV series Bonanza, where the map of the Ponderosa Ranch and surrounding areas ( Virginia City, Carson City ) goes up in flames as Ben Cartwright and his sons ride up on horses behind the flaming map.

We stopped for the night at Topaz Lake where we boondocked in the parking lot of a casino.

 

DSK

October 20 update

October 20 update

 

Tonight we attended Taste Of Our Valley at Victory Hall in Keremeos with our new neighbours Terry and Marlene. Taste Of Our Valley is the annual fall harvest celebration in our region. All around the perimeter of Victory Hall were tables set up for the local wineries, restaurants, and fruit stands / orchards. In the centre of the hall were tables and chairs. We spent the evening wandering around, visiting each merchant's table, "grazing" on samples of the local restaurants' specialties, sipping wines and hot apple ciders, munching on many varieties of locally grown apples, and eating baking, while chatting with Terry and Marlene. There was a silent auction table set up with goods and services provided by local merchants. There was an astounding fall display of produce and flowers set up at the back of the hall. Fall displays of local produce and flowers are a bit of a specialty of all the fruit stands around Keremeos.

This was the last local event of the fall season. Time for us "Snowbirds" to head south soon. Joanne and I will be leaving here November 1. I'll probably resume a ( "more or less" ) daily journal once we start travelling.

DSK

October 12 update

October 12 blog update

 

October 8 ; Happy ( Canadian )Thanksgiving

A few years ago we celebrated ( American ) Thanksgiving while we were WorkCamping at Trout Lodge in the Ozark Mountains in Missouri. Around the dinner table I commented how privileged we felt, as Canadian "Snowbirds" / RV'ers, to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving twice a year ; in Canada in October and again in the United States in November. An American did not know that Canada and the United States celebrate Thanksgiving on different dates. He asked if Canada celebrates Christmas on the same date as the United States ? I’ll pause for a moment to let the impact of that sink in ... HA HA HA ! My very sarcastic response was ; “No ... Canadian Jesus Christ was born on a different day than American Jesus Christ”. SHEESH ... some of those “mountain folk” need to get out of the house more !

Tonight we had Thanksgiving dinner 3 of 3 with neighbours Dorothy, Mike, and Stu, at Dorothy's and Mike's home. We contributed dessert. Joanne contributed a freshly baked apple pie. I contributed a bottle of Inniskillin Okanagan Vidal Icewine, along with Blue Cheese and crackers. Joanne made an apple pie for tonight's Thanksgiving dinner 3 of 3, and she also made one for Thanksgiving dinner 1 of 3 with Dwight and Jennifer a couple of days ago. Neither pie turned out very well, which is surprising. Joanne usually makes excellent apple pie, a talent she must have inherited from her mother, who made the best apple pies I've ever tasted.

The "thanks" that I "give" on Thanksgiving is to be grateful that Joanne has survived cancer. Well, most of her survived. A few parts had to be removed. HA HA HA !

 

October 9 ; Today I flew over Riverside RV Park Resort, to see it from the air. I took off from Penticton and flew south to Kaleden, climbing to 6500 feet. At Kaleden I turned southwest into the Keremeos Creek Valley, following Hwy. 3A. EUUUWWW ... too low ! I climbed to 9000 feet. At Keremeos, I turned west into the Similkameen River Valley, following Hwy. 3 and the Similkameen River. Halfway from Keremeos to Riverside RV Park Resort, I passed the Ashnola River Valley, where the Ashnola River meets the Similkameen River. EUUUWWW ... too low ! The mountains got even higher, and the Similkameen Valley got even narrower. I climbed to 10,000 feet. At 10,000 feet and above, a pilot can only fly for 30 minutes without supplementary oxygen. When I saw the bridge where Hwy. 3 crosses from the north side of the Similkameen River to the south side, at Hedley, I realized that I had missed seeing Riverside RV Park Resort and had flown too far. Darn ! I had been occupied with trying not to fly myself into a mountain ! I turned around and started flying back. I saw Riverside RV Park Resort on the way back. When I got to Keremeos, and turned north towards Penticton, I encountered quite a bit of turbulence. EUUUWWW ... too low ! I climbed to 10,500 feet. Halfway back to Penticton, I realized I would have to take a shortcut, or be in violation of the supplementary oxygen regulation. I turned east to fly over the mountains, expecting to find the Okanagan Valley on the other side of the mountains, somewhere between Oliver and Okanagan Falls. Sure enough, when I crossed over the mountains, I was near Okanagan Falls, and could even see the Penticton airport runway from that altitude. I began to descend over Skaha Lake towards Penticton. Darn ... by the time I reached Penticton, I was still too high to make a landing. I had to fly across Penticton, from Skaha Lake on the south side to Okanagan Lake on the north side, to descend to "circuit height" for landing.

I was surprised to see that all the mountains north of Keremeos and the Similkameen River, all the way to Penticton, are still free of snow, but south of Keremeos and the Similkameen River, all the way as far as I could see into the state of Washington, the mountain tops are covered in a lot of snow already.

 

October 10 ; Happy 53rd Birthday to me

After we ran some errands in Keremeos, I took a back roads drive to Princeton, along Old Hedley Road, just to explore, reflect upon life, etc..

 

October 11 ; HMPH ... found 2 dead Gopher Snakes today on the roads in the park. Squished by vehicles. Maybe they shouldn't sun themselves on the warm asphalt.

 

October 12 ; Happy 33rd Anniversary to us

This afternoon I wrote an article on dog training, and submitted it for publication in our RV park's monthly newsletter. I've decided to write a monthly article on dogs, and dog training issues. In addition to our park's newsletter, maybe I'll submit them to the Escapees magazine.

Tonight we went for dinner to the Branding Iron Steak House in Keremeos, a local restaurant owned by a German immigrant family. Despite being called a "steak house", their specialty is Schnitzel. Joanne had a Pork Schnitzel, and I had a Wiener ( Veal ) Schnitzel. It was a very nice dinner, although a little expensive.

DSK

October 7 update

October 7 blog update

 

September 24 ; This afternoon we took Bo for a long walk, as we do every day. As he was squatting, doing his business, a snake ( probably a Western Yellow-bellied Racer ) slithered underneath him. YIKES ! I jumped, Joanne shrieked, Bo was oblivious. HA HA HA ... just about got bit in the butt there, Bo.

September 30 ; Today was cold, windy, and raining lightly. Too bad. Today was the Festival Of The Grape in Oliver. With disappointment we didn't go, thinking that attending an outdoor event on a day like today would be pretty miserable. Last year we attended Festival Of The Grape, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Yesterday we attended the Celebration Of Life memorial service for our excavation contractor, neighbour and new friend Ben Nendick, who died a few weeks ago of cancer.

October 4 ; This week was the Okanagan Wine Festival, with special events all week all around the Okanagan Valley region. We were very disappointed to be unable to attend the Festival Of The Grape in Oliver last weekend, but today we went to Oliver to attend an Ice Wine Discovery tour at Inniskillin Okanagan Winery. A tour guide walked us up to the Dark Horse Vineyard owned by Inniskillin, where they grow the Vidal and Riesling grapes for ice wines. While she explained the ice wine making process, I threw rocks for the vineyard's resident Border Collie, Boonjie, to retrieve. Whenever I would divert my attention to the tour guide, Boonjie would place her "retrieve rock" on top of my shoe. HA HA HA !

From the vineyard we walked over to a building filled with barrels of fermenting, aging wine, for tastings of Inniskillin’s white wines, red wines, and ice wines. I was surprised to learn that the toasted oak barrels that the wineries use to store wine during fermentation cost the wineries $800 to $1000. I was surprised because we regularly see local ads for the sale of barrels or barrel halves for use as planters. After a few uses, the wineries sell their used oak barrels for ... $30 ! Wow ... talk about depreciation ! We tasted Inniskillin's Vidal and Riesling ice wines, being taught by the tour guide the "correct" ways to drink ice wines, sampling them with some ideal food pairings. Again I was surprised, to discover that ice wines pair perfectly with Blue Cheese. We had Blue Cheese on crackers with Vidal Ice Wine. Perfect ! I don't like Blue Cheese, but when "washed down" with ice wine, the taste is superb ! We bought 2 bottles of Inniskillin Vidal Ice Wine. We'll serve one of the bottles with Blue Cheese and Joanne's freshly baked apple pie, as dessert on Monday when we have ( our third ! ) Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbours.

Between Oliver and Osoyoos we stopped at a fruit stand to buy some of Joanne's favourite apples, Aurora Golden Gala, grown only in the Oliver area. My favourite apples are the Ambrosia, developed and grown only in the Keremeos area. Between Osoyoos and Cawston we stopped at Forbidden Fruit Winery to buy a bottle of my favourite ice wine, Pomme Desiree ( French for Desired Apple ). It's for a special celebration when we reach Land's End at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico next March.

October 5 ; Today while walking with Bo, we found a dead snake on the road. I picked it up to bring it home to discard it in the garbage. It had obviously died from a bite behind the head. I wonder what bit and killed it ? None of the little dogs in the park, except for Bo and maybe Spencer would be bold enough to bite a snake. And since we were walking with Betty and Spencer at the time, we knew it couldn't have been either Bo or Spencer. Maybe a squirrel ? Or a marmot ? I went onto the "snakes in B.C." website to be identify the snake with certainty. It was a Gopher Snake, commonly referred to by the locals as a "Bull Snake". Gopher Snakes are constrictors that resemble rattlesnakes, but obviously without the rattles.

October 6 ; Today our friends from Vancouver, Dwight & Jennifer, drove out to spend the afternoon with us, and have Thanksgiving dinner. We walked around the park and chatted for awhile, then drove into Keremeos so that Jennifer could buy some fresh apples. We drove around the village a bit, showing them the local orchards and vineyards, and stopping occasionally so that Jennifer could take pictures.

Back at the trailer, we chatted, and had an early Thanksgiving dinner, before they left for the 4½ hour drive back to Vancouver. Thank you, Dwight and Jennifer, for driving all the way out here to visit with us.

I learned from our neighbour Stu today that the fatal bite wound on the dead Gopher Snake we found yesterday was probably inflicted by a Rattlesnake. Apparently Gopher Snakes and Rattlesnakes don't get along well, especially when "arguing" about the occupancy of a wintering den location. Gopher Snakes can kill Rattlesnakesby constricting them to death. Rattlesnakes can kill Gopher Snakes with a poisonous venom bite. Guess the Rattlesnake won that one !

Bo "escaped" today and ran over to visit with a couple who were looking at a nearby lot, contemplating purchasing it. As he ran over to meet and greet them and their Jack Russell Terrier, the other dog attacked Bo, not surprising behaviour for a startled Jack Russell. When faced with "fight or flee", a Jack Russell would choose "fight". Bo, of course, was more than willing to go a round or two with a "Jack". Stupid, ****ing Terriers, both of them ! The short fracas left Bo with a broken harness.

October 7 ; Tonight we attended a potluck Thanksgiving dinner for all the residents of Riverside RV Park Resort. A couple of the park's residents provided turkeys, and everybody else contributed Thanksgiving dinner fixings. Joanne made a wonderful wild rice casserole side dish, one of my favourite recipes of hers. We shared a small table with new lot owners in the park who got married a few weeks ago and have just returned from their honeymoon in Las Vegas. Chatting with them during the evening made us realize that some of us are Riverside RV Park / Similkameen Valley kind of people, ... and some aren’t !

DSK

September 23 update

September 23 blog update

 

September 15 ; We spent the day at the Similkameen Sizzle Pepper Harvest Festival in Keremeos. The afternoon event was at Memorial Park. The day started at noon with a chili cook off. We had a sample of each of the 5 entries, then voted for best chili and best decorated booth. We watched a cooking demonstration by the executive chef of one of the more upscale restaurants in Penticton. After his cooking demonstration we ate a few large samples of his creation, a pasta, shrimp, and pepper dish. It was very good. We listened to a zydeco band for awhile, then joined some neighbours of ours from Riverside RV Park Resort for a beer at the legion. I don't know why they wanted to go to the local grungy legion when there was a beer garden set up in Memorial Park, with a zydeco band playing in the park. Oh, well.

In the evening we went to Victory Hall for the Similkameen Sizzle Dinner and Dance. Dinner was a pig roast buffet. The pig had been roasting on a barbecue in Memorial Park all afternoon. Obviously, I had to opt for the vegetarian chili alternative to the roast pig. I can't digest pork. Dinner was a bit pedestrian, but, hey ... this is Keremeos. After dinner the zydeco band that had played in the afternoon played in Victory Hall. It was terrible. Not the band's fault. Their "sound man" was an amateur, and an idiot. Despite numerous complaints, including two from me, he kept the sound at such a loud volume that not only was conversation impossible, the sounds from the different instruments and vocals just morphed into a lot of garbled noise. Before the end of the first of their three sets, about three quarters of the people had left. Us included !

Vicki is doing fine. She has rapidly evolved into a little baby princess cat. When we're in bed, she sleeps on Joanne's chest. When we're not in bed, she spends most of her time snuggled under the covers propped up against Joanne's pillows. Still no takers for adopting her. Wish us luck !

 

September 18 ; Say goodbye to Vicki. This morning we drove to Penticton and took Vicki to the B.C. SPCA animal shelter. I'm very ... disheartened, I guess. She really captured my heart. And for the first time in about 20 years, we were unsuccessful at finding a home for an animal that we rescued. I feel ... like a failure ... as regards Vicki. For the 14 years that we were in the pet foods and supplies business, it was relatively easy to find homes for rescued animals through our stores. And we even managed to find a home for Rain, the stray cat we rescued in Livingston, Texas a couple of years ago. But, alas, not for Vicki < huge, sad sigh >. Well, it's a small consolation that the brand new animal shelter of the Penticton branch of the B.C. SPCA is a very nice place. Whether she is adopted to a new home, or ultimately has to be euthanized there due to cat overpopulation in the shelter < another huge, sad sigh >, she will live happily while there, I'm sure. Their cat adoption facility is 2 large communal cat living "rooms", furnished with a bunch of over stuffed sofas and chairs, lots of tall scratching posts, lots of sunny windows with ledges, and an outdoor screened, shaded area, furnished the same as the indoor areas. The nicest cat adoption facility I've ever seen. I expected her to have to live in a cage, becoming increasingly more stressed until she becomes "cage crazy" and has to be euthanized because she becomes unadoptable. A common problem in cat shelters. But as nice as the facility was, it broke my heart a bit to have to leave here there. Goodbye and good luck, sweet little baby cat. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to do more for you. At least I prevented her from becoming a coyote snack.

We ran errands in Penticton, then I went flying while Joanne completed our shopping errands. I flew from Penticton to Oliver, landed, took off, and flew back to Penticton. Upon take off from Oliver, I had to climb at maximum rate of climb to 4000 feet to clear the mountains in front of me, to return to Penticton. Flying into and out of Oliver's short field, surrounded by mountains, is quite challenging. And the weather was deteriorating rapidly, so I had to do just a teensy bit of "scud running" in the mountains. WOO-HOO !

This evening our new Escapee friends from Colorado, Tom and Marion, came to visit us, and stay overnight. We had dinner with them in our trailer, then visited all evening. Our lot is big enough that there was no problem parking their 40 foot diesel pusher motorhome on our lot, still with plenty of room for our picnic table between our trailer and their motorhome, even with their living room slide extended. And still had room to park Lanoire.

 

September 19 ; This morning we loaded Tom and Marion into Lanoire and set off for a 4 wheel drive adventure driving up Nickel Plate Mine Road, up the back side of Apex Mountain. This is about the fourth time we've done that this summer. It's become my favourite local "thing to do" when we have visitors. The scenery is spectacular.

When we came down off Nickel Plate Mine Road we headed for Forbidden Fruit Winery, on Hwy. 3 on the other side of Keremeos, just past Cawston. Forbidden Fruit Winery is a small "Mom & Pop" winery, as are most of the wineries in the Okanagan Similkameen region. They grow all their own organic fruits, and produce handcrafted fruit wines. Their wines are superb ! Especially their dessert ice wines ! We sampled some of their wines in their tasting room. Then we went over to their "shed" to see the plum pitting operation. They were pitting plums for their first attempt at making a plum wine. When we walked into the shed we were surprised to see that the plum pitting process was done by hand. Five people painstakingly pitting plums. It was going to be about 2 days of work for 5 people to pit enough plums to make their first batch of plum wine, about 1000 bottles.

We had a wonderful picnic lunch, prepared by Marion, sitting at a picnic table on the edge of the orchard, on the banks of the Similkameen River, on a sunny day, each of us with a chilled glass of Forbidden Fruit wine. Tom had a glass of CHERYSH, a blush cherry wine, Marion had a glass of ADAM'S APPLE, an off dry white apple wine, Joanne had a glass of PEARSUASION, a dry white pear wine, and I had my favourite, POMME DESIREE, "a delicate sweet iced wine made from fall apples with aromas and flavours of caramel, cotton candy, and lavender". Are you salivating yet ? A picnic at Forbidden Fruit Winery is now going to be added to my list of favourite local "things to do" when we have visitors.

After lunch, Tom and Marion bought a couple of bottles of Forbidden Fruit wines, we drove back to Riverside RV Park Resort, and they left, headed west for Hope then on to Vancouver before heading back to Colorado.

September 22 ; Well ... my sentiment for today was ... HUH ? ! ?

We spent the day at the annual open house of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory at White Lake, up in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, between Keremeos and Oliver. What an odd place for 50 scientists to be working. It was certainly an interesting day, although there wasn't much about the place that I comprehended. Our next door neighbour, Stu, came along with us.

DSK

September 14 update

September 14 blog update

 

On Friday, August 24 we went into Penticton in the evening for the Ironman Canada Triathlon Street Party. The Ironman Canada Triathlon is an annual event in Penticton. This year, the 25th anniversary of the event, on Sunday, August 26, about 2600 triathletes will swim 3.9 km. in Okanagan Lake, then cycle 180.2 km. from Penticton to Osoyoos to Keremeos to Penticton, then run a marathon, 42.2 km. from Penticton to Okanagan Falls and back to Penticton. SHEESH ! On Friday night, Penticton's downtown streets were closed to traffic for a big street party that stretched for about 4 blocks through the downtown area. There were 4 music bands playing on free stages set up about a block apart. There were demonstrations of belly dancing and fire dancing. There were clowns and magicians and all kinds of other entertainment. We wandered around for awhile, had a very nice dinner at a Greek pizza and spaghetti restaurant, then spent the evening wandering around, listening to bands, and watching exhibitions of belly dancing and fire dancing.

Our friends Cathy and Jan Emrick left here a few days ago, and went to an RV park in Surrey for a few days of sightseeing in Vancouver. Rather fortuitously, they did not choose the RV park in Surrey where a horribly gruesome accident took place a couple of days ago, while they were in Surrey. A hot air balloon caught fire on takeoff, rose into the air as it burned, then crashed down into a blazing inferno in an RV park. Three RV's were destroyed by fire. Two people in the balloon gondola died. The others in the balloon gondola survived with burns and injuries sustained from jumping out at the height of a 4 story building. YIKES !

Tonight ( Sunday, August 26 ) when I walked Bo about 11:00 P.M. there were coyotes just outside the front gate of our park, howling at the full moon. I wonder why coyotes howl at a full moon ?

This afternoon ( Monday, August 27 ) while were walking with Bo, we met our neighbours Gil and Maria, their little dog Buppy, and their visiting pair of 12 year old nieces. They were walking up from the riverbank, having spent some time panning for gold on the Similkameen River. I was surprised to see that the result of their efforts was a small amount of black sand all flecked with shiny gold dust. Cool ! Apparently the Similkameen has quite a bit of gold dust in it, washed down from the gold mines upstream.

September 3 ; this Labour Day long weekend we worked on our screen tent / gazebo, a mouse ate a 5 inch hole in the upholstered seat of our yard swing, and Joanne was stung by a yellow jacket wasp on the inside of her leg < sigh > ! We were very saddened to learn that our excavation contractor, neighbour, and new friend Ben Nendick died this weekend of cancer. Only 2 months ago he was working here in the park developing new lots. Farewell, Ben.

September 5 ; we received an e-mail from our Escapee friend Julie in Pennsylvania. Her little dog Tansy has died. We send our condolences to Julie on the loss of her beloved pet.

September 6 ; HEY ... I just got stung by a yellow jacket wasp ! Second time this summer for me, and once for Joanne ! ****ing little buggers !

September 7, 8, & 9 ; This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we attended the Pentastic Jazz Festival in Penticton. We drove there and back each day. We had initially planned to take the trailer to Penticton for the weekend, then continue from Penticton on Monday to the Escapees B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 Fall Rally at Fintry Provincial Park, but we couldn't find a satisfactory campground in or near Penticton. The Pentastic Jazz festival was really a lot more than just traditional jazz. Blues, zydeco, a bit of rock and roll, lots of big band, Dixieland jazz, swing, jump and jive. There were about a dozen different groups playing in 5 venues, continuously rotating. Each set in each venue was about 75 minutes, then a 15 minute break until the next group. One could stay at a particular venue all day, or move around between the venues on the festival's shuttle vans. We did a bit of both. We saw about 10 performances, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, which were also performances featuring most of the musicians. Near the end of the festival on Sunday afternoon, we met and sat with a couple of our Escapee B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 friends.

September 10, 11, 12 & 13 ; We've spent the last few days at the Escapees B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 Fall Rally at Fintry Provincial Park northwest of Kelowna. We had a very good time with the local SKP chapter members, most of whom we had already met at the spring rally. We made friends with an Escapee couple from Colorado who joined our chapter's rally as guests, as they drove through the area on their way back to Colorado from Alaska. Fintry is a very nice provincial park. It has inspired Joanne and me to contemplate some B.C. camping trips next summer.

One of the activities during the rally was a hike to view a waterfall in the park. We hiked a short distance, then climbed 391 steps up to view the waterfall. One of our group's members was lagging during the hike and climb. I volunteered to "hang back" as a "tail gunner" to ensure that she didn't get left behind, alone, in an area with a bit of a bear risk. Mary was slow, but managed to complete the hike, the climb up 391 stairs to the waterfall viewing area, and then a long, circuitous hike back down bypassing the 391 stairs. I was impressed with her determination. I was more than impressed when I found out later that she's ... wait for it ... 80 years old !

September 14 ; Say hello to Vicki ! Last night I was having difficulty falling asleep. Around 1:00 A.M. I went outside for a smoke. I sat at our park bench, staring up at the Milky Way. When I looked down, a small animal ran across the road and stopped at my feet. YIKES ! Was I ever startled before I realized it was a kitten. What's a kitten doing running around our park in the dark at 1:00 A.M.? It took me half an hour to catch her. She was obviously terrified of being outside, alone in the dark, but was also terrified of being caught by a stranger. When I finally caught her, it took me another half an hour to calm her down. And my hands were severely scratched and bit. I'm a bit paranoid about cat bites ever since a bite by our previous cat Toby put me in the hospital for 2 days with a severe infection.

When I finally had her calmed down, I was at a loss as to what to do next. I contemplated putting her in our storage shed. I went inside, woke up Joanne, and explained. I gave the kitten to Joanne while I went to do first aid on my shredded hands. By the time I was finished, both Joanne and the kitten were fast asleep under the covers. The kitten remained asleep under the covers, snuggled against Joanne for the rest of the night.

This morning we examined her closely. She's only about 4 months old. I determined that she was probably born around Victoria Day, so I named her Vicki. She seems in good health. Clean ears, no mites. She spent most of the day lounging around on our bed. She seems desperate for safety and security. Poor baby ! We found out from other residents in the park that she has been roaming around our park for the last week. I'm surprised she didn't become a snack for the coyotes ! We haven't been around for the last week, so hadn't seen her. Other park residents tried to catch her, but were unsuccessful. We took her along with us when we took Bo for a walk this afternoon, to see if any neighbours would be interested in adopting her. No luck so far. She's not afraid of Bo. Teddy ignores her for the most part. She's very cuddly. What a sweet little baby cat ! Reminds us very much of Teddy when we got him 15 years ago as a kitten.

My conclusion is that she was "dumped" at the gate to our park. She's healthy and well fed. She's obviously fond of affection. She's obviously fond of sleeping under the covers. She's obviously neither feral, nor a "barn" cat. There's no homes nearby. There's no farms or ranches nearby. The only way she got to our park was to be brought here ! "Hey, let's get rid of that damn kitten by dropping it off outside the gate of that new "old folks" RV park."

DSK

August 23 update

August 23, 2007 blog update

 

Well, August has been a very nice, hot, dry month so far. Just a few days of rain and / or cool temperatures. We've done some exploring of the local area, and attended some events. We went to Naramata to attend the Naramata Faire. Naramata is on the east side of Okanagan Lake, across the lake from Penticton. We attended Kars Under The K in Memorial Park in Keremeos, an annual "show & shine" event for classic and antique cars. We went to Penticton for PeachFest, and watched the Peach Festival Parade.  We attended a "Bard In The Park" evening performance of Taming Of The Shrew in Skaha Lake Park in Penticton. We were joined by Gil and Maria, neighbours of ours. Joanne prepared a lovely picnic dinner for us which we ate in the park before the performance.

The "orchard" area in our RV park has kept us well supplied with fresh fruit. And Joanne has been baking lots of fruit desserts. MMMMM ! The cherries were finished around the end of July, but since then we've had lots of apricots, plums, apples, and peaches. Our park had its first potluck dinner recently, following a "Bear Aware" presentation by a provincial conservation employee. Black bears have been coming to eat the apples that fall off the trees in our park's orchard. Some of the lot owners are ... concerned. Hey, guys ... take a look at where we live. We're on the banks of a crystal clear river, surrounded by mountains, tall Lodgepole Pine and Douglas Fir trees all around us, Bald Eagles soaring overhead. You can't have your cake and eat it too ! If you can't accept an occasional rattlesnake or bear, move to downtown Toronto ! We're hoping that now that we've had a potluck dinner at Riverside RV Park Resort, they will become a regular social activity. There is much lot development and construction work happening in the park. Many lot sales took place this summer, and there became a backlog in lot development and construction. The contractor whom everybody had been using became sick, and work stopped for about a month, creating a backlog. Ben, the contractor of choice, became ill a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, he has cancer of the liver and / or colon, with a very bleak prognosis. He won't be able to return to work, and has now turned all his work over to another contractor, who is very busy trying to get caught up on the backlog of lots awaiting development. We will miss Ben. In the short time that we knew him, we came to like him. He's a nice guy. He owns a couple of lots in the park himself, and so was a "neighbour" as well as our contractor.

I've done some flying out of Penticton Airport. My first solo flying in almost 4 years ! Yup ... just like riding a bicycle ! But I continue to be intimidated by flying in the mountains. I'm going to stay within the Okanagan Valley at least until I attend Southern Skies Aviation's mountain flying course in the fall. And I don't think I'm going to do any night flying.

Joanne's elbow continues to heal slowly. The pain is minimal. The range of motion continues to increase, but there is still a long way to go to restore full range of motion. She does her exercises daily, with me nagging her to do them, and coaching her through them.

A few days ago we were visited by Cathy and Jan Emrick, Escapee friends of ours from Texas. They have been full time travelling RV’ers for about 4 years now. They spend their summers here in Canada, and have explored all the provinces and territories extensively over the last few years. They are much more knowledgeable about Canada and Canadian geography, history, politics, and society than most Americans. Well, and probably most Canadians as well. We first met Cathy and Jan a couple of years ago at Rainbow's End, the Escapee headquarters and RV park in Livingston, Texas.

They arrived Sunday afternoon and visited for 2½ days. Sunday evening and all day Monday it was raining lightly, on and off, so we spent that time sitting in our screen tent "gazebo", just relaxing and chatting. On Tuesday we drove up Nickel Plate Mine Road, halfway up the back side of Apex Mountain. Jan did some nature photography. It was the first time we drove back "down" Nickel Plate Mine Road, giving me a completely different perspective, seeing the scenery from the driver's seat, heading downhill. As we drove back towards Keremeos, I saw a "wild" apricot tree on the side of the road. We stopped and picked apricots. They were small, but very sweet ! Joanne made a lovely apricot crisp dessert with them. We drove over Red Bridge to the "opposite" side of the Similkameen River, then up Ashnola River Road following the Ashnola River, again just to explore and take photographs. Jan and Cathy treated us to dinner at Arleigh's in Keremeos. So far we've eaten at Arleigh's three times. The first time was great. The second time was terrible, and made me reluctant to return. This last time was a combination of both. Good food and good service, marred horribly by many flies in the restaurant. Cathy and Jan left yesterday, Wednesday morning, heading for Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

DSK