September 2014th - Harmon Lake (Merritt)
Home
Sweet Home.
Harmon
Lake East Recreation Site |
We
decided to go to Harmon Lake East as there is cell coverage. The road in was
quite washboardy... so did not want to travel any further. There are even more
cows here than at Peter Hope Lake!! Yup we are surrounded. The white ones are
bulls. Woke up to 3 degrees C. this morning and lots of fog. As soon as it was
7am, I turned on the generator so I could get the heat going strong.
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Yup, there they are guarding the outhouse.
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While sitting in my chair I heard a little splashing so turned around
and imagine my surprise to see 5 bulls right behind me! One is just out of the
picture to the left.
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All snuggled in with the comforts of home ... cell phone, internet and
satellite TV!
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Another
beautiful spot on the lake, just what I ordered up from Ray before starting out
this summer. |
September 10 - Fall is here!
The past couple of mornings
have been really clear and cold at 0 degrees C. Monday, the rain began in
the afternoon and it rained most of the nigh. It cleared about 3am when the
thermometer dipped. Fortunately, we are all snug and warm under our goosedown
duvet! The temp inside went down to 11C. The weather for the next 5 days is
forecast to be quite warm so we will stay a few more days before we move back
into Merritt for full hook-ups. This is the first "winter"
boondocking we have been able to try for any length of time to work the bugs
out before we go down south to the desert. The battery and solar system seem to
be holding their own. We only start the generator at about 8am for an hour or
so to bring them back up after the furnace warms us up in the
morning.
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First ice on the car of the season and hopefully the last .. burrrrrr.
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Mist on
the lake every morning. |
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These
bushes were totally green two days ago! |
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Ice on the picnic table.
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With all of the snow starting in the north and in Alberta, winter may be
coming soon. We will start our southern winter trip mid-October ... hopefully the
snow will hold off during the trip down until we are in Arizona!
September 11th - Drive to Kelowna
Yesterday it was really
cold and windy, so we decided to take a drive to Kelowna, an hour down the
highway. With me driving, Ray was able to sit back and enjoy the views,
snapping pictures along the way. Ray grew up in Kelowna for his teenage years
and was very interested in all of the growth.
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First glimpse of Okanagan Lake
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Driving into Westbank. The houses on the hill were not there 8 years
ago.
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The new bridge into downtown Kelowna
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View from the bridge looking towards the new development on the west
side of Kelowna.
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There goes our "Walmart Greeter" again visitng.
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| Lovely walk along Hot Sands Beach. |
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If
Kristi and Jason ended up in Kelowna we would not mind living here!
All the land where these condos rose from, Ray remembers as a teenager it being a CN Rail yard. |
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The beach across from the condos on the wetlands walk.
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The Ogopogo overlooking Lake Okanagan.
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More
displays on the waterfront. |
More Kelowna Pictures
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| Downtown Bernard Street |
After a lovely walk with Freya along the waterfront, drooling over the views and condos right on the water, it's off to lunch at Kelly O'Brien's Irish Pub that overlooks the city park and waterfront. We left Freya in the car at the park under the trees with the windows open, so she could watch a bunch of kids playing volleyball.
After lunch it was back on the road to camp. It was still cold and windy when we arrived back but finally by 5pm the wind quit and we were able to have a nice campfire for a couple of hours. By 7:30 the temps had dipped to 4C, so it was back in the coach for the evening. This was the coldest night yet. -3.5 degrees at 6am. I kept the rear furnace set to 11C all night and it came on every half an hour for about 5 minutes. The batteries were at 85% at 6am, so everything worked pretty good for such cold temps. The weather report is that the temps should be rising for the next 5 days or so ... here's hoping otherwise any more freezing mornings we will go back into town and plug in!
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Coming back down the connector towards Merritt.
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September 14th - Last Days at Harmon Lake
Well, the last couple of
days of "boondocking" are coming to an end. It has been a great
summer. The weather for the most part was sunny and warm with very little
precipitation. Ray thoroughly enjoyed being able to fish again, even though
it is only for short periods of time. He took his little floaty boat down the
road on Friday to Upper Second Lake to try there. He was unlucky, but the other
two guys were catching fish like crazy, so obviously Ray had the wrong set up!
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Upper Second Lake
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Saturday afternoon for his last fishing expedition of the season, he
launched at our campsite and managed to catch a 16" trout that he
released. Yeah Ray. Nice to see the smile on his face.
Ready to go.
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Last fish of the season.
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Freya has been really sore the past few days, I expect from running
after her stick on the gravel road. We have tried to keep her calm and in the
warm sun as it has been a little chilly in the wind.
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| The only spot in the campsite with sun in the late afternoon. |
The clouds look like they have been painted in the
sky. Monday morning we leave for downtown Merritt to plug in and do laundry
etc.
September 24th - Back at Fort Langley
Arrived back in Fort
Langley on Monday. Spent the day yesterday arranging all of our appointments
around the doctors appointments that we have to go to the island for. ... dog
to vet, car and coach servicing appointments. It will be a busy three weeks! :)
Our friends Diane and Steve invited us for dinner upon arrival on Monday. It was
great not to have to worry about dinner after the drive from Merritt. Thanks
guys.
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| A lovely afternoon before the rain comes later in the night. |
September 30th - First Truck Centre Langley BC
Took the coach in yesterday
morning early for servicing the generator and changing the air filter on the
diesel motor. What an incredibly long day and terrible for Ray's back. We did
however have a great lunch at the Big Ridge Brewing Company with our friends
Diane and Steve Colibaba.
First Truck Service did not seem to be too rushed at
any point, we ended up staying in their parking lot overnight so they could
finish up this morning! Oh well ... back to our campsite where ,fortunately, we
left all of our outside stuff so it was not too hard to hook back up. We are
slowly getting all of our "must do's" done before heading to the
states. Garrett nicely came and washed the coach for us last weekend to get rid
of the summer's road dust not to mention the cow poop Payment breakfast,
lunch and dinner with the appropriate beverages. Thanks a bunch Garrett.
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Pooped out from playing with Kira!
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