June 2015

 

June 1st - Naramata 

We had a couple hours of rain/hail and wind. Running around putting things away and after two hours the sun came out and you would never know it even rained.

We planned to leave Osoyoos today even though we were supposed to be here a month, because we're kinda tired of "condo camping". They are kind of "Dog Natzi's" as well which does not sit too well with Ray. The dog off-leash area consists of an area not even half the size of our campsite with beach access right beside the boat launch where there is no parking. The final straw was I was told to put Freya on a leash while throwing a stick from our campsite beach into the water with no one camped on either side of us. Oh well. Time to move-on.

The forecasted weather for the next few days is rain tomorrow and 80% showers for Wednesday so..... do we stay or do we go as the song goes. It is 9am and it is still somewhat undecided as to when, but just not today! We'll have to put away everything so it does not get wet.

Yesterday we took our last opportunity to tour and went up to Naramata Bench, just north of Penticton which is a well-known wine country. Beautiful views. Ray is in picture heaven. We just had to find a place dog friendly and have lunch. (and some wine of course!)

First stop was a quick walk on the Okanagan Lake, downtown Penticton.

Off we go up the Naramata Bench Road.

Summerland in the distance.

We checked on a winery called Bench 1775 Winery. They had a great patio with the best views but only offered picnic lunches instead of a restaurant, so we carried on.

Ray googled on his phone and found a winery called Lake Breeze close to the small town of Naramata. They told us no problem with the dog on the patio so we said thank you very much.

Lunch Yummm. with Freya settled at my feet. Ray said it was the best white he had tasted after visiting about 7 winerys. So we bought one bottle! (Side note, since this one bottle we've purchased many of Lake Breeze's fine products, both white and red).

After lunch we stopped at a viewpoint called Mt. Munson for a view of Lake Okanagan.

So, the next post will be coming to you from a different location ... to be decided yet!

June 4th - Summer Plans Have Changed! 

Congratulations to our daughter Kristi.

Kristi just completed her five year residency in Saskatoon for being a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology and passed her Royal College exams. Yeah Kristi, we are so proud of you.

Dr. Kristi Kyle (Mrs. Kristi Perry)

Kristi always said that she was going to be a doctor so she could get a Porsche.

How things change when you get older.... now she wants to be a redneck with a big truck and fifth wheel and go backwoods camping like her parents and have room for 2 dogs and possible kids in the future.

Our original set-up for full-timing before we got the motorhome.

Kristi and her husband Jason will be moving back to BC. Yeah!  She took a locum position in Kelowna for 3 months as of July 15th and another locum in Nanaimo as of October 15th to January 1st. These temporary positions are at hospitals with possible jobs coming up so she is hoping to meet her prospective colleagues and secure a permanent position. Her husband Jason is in charge of selling the house in Saskatoon before he can join her. 

So, with their plans in mind, we have decided to stay in the Okanagan area for this summer within a couple hours of Kelowna instead of the Kootenays where we will be able to see Kristi and Jason more frequently. Jason loves to fish too, so great company for Ray.

On another note ... we tried to leave our campsite last Monday as we were getting itchy feet to move onto new places. Most of our friends know that Ray has been really ticked at one of our rear hydraulic jack that would not fully retract. We've had it looked at 3 times with no results! Well imagine our surprise when the front driver side jack would not retract at all, as it has been no problem up to this point. After some research by me on the internet and trying a few things, we were stumped so Ray called the repair shop to make an appointment. They could not come until Wednesday morning to diagnose the problem. The determination is that the jack has seized. So after they called our extended warranty people, and the HWH manufacturer of the jack they were told that HWH will have to manufacture a new one as they all have to match!!! It will not be ready to ship for 2 weeks. We are literally grounded. Ray is also going to get the repair shop to replace all of our jack springs as John, the repairman said that could be part of the problem for the retraction. Okanagan RV Center are awesome. John went over with Ray how to manually retract the jacks if we ever run into this problem again out in the boonies. The office staff was quick with phoning our extended warranty and the manufacturer of the jacks to get some answers quickly. Now we wait.

Not a bad place to be stuck with the weather warming up substantially.

Fortunately, we did pay for a month in advance here in Osoyoos and are not supposed to vacate until June 18th. Once it gets closer to that date, we should have a more definite time frame for the repairs to be completed. If it is longer than our stay here, we will have to manually retract that jack and have John disconnect it and use a tire jack temporarily so we can move to a new place for a short time. Oh well, with all of this I see more road trips with the car in our future to check out other Forestry Rec Sites in this area. and maybe a winery....

June 6th - West Kettle River Valley Recreation Sites 

Today we decided to travel back up Highway 3 to Highway 33 (the back road way to Kelowna) and visit 2 recreation sites we researched to see if we would fit. It was a glorious sunny morning with temps supposed to reach 30 degrees by this afternoon. I wanted to see what the temperature difference would be at higher elevations, as I do not like it to be too hot and the summer regional forecast says it could reach 40 degrees some days in July in August! After packing a lunch we were on the road by 9am to beat any weekend traffic on Highway 3 as it's Friday.

Highway 33 towards Kelowna with a view of Big White in the distance.

The first stop is Arlington Lake Recreation Site just north of the town of Beaverdell. The lake is only about 3.5 km up the Arlington Main FSR. The road winds up fairly steeply for the 1st km, then levels off then goes down fairly steeply for the last km. Ray believes we would not have any issues though as it was kind of like going up to Peter Hope Lake last summer. They have 3 separate camping areas and only in Campsite #3 would we fit into site #1 and only two spots in the gravel pit beside the boat launch ... so if we were going we would have to bring the car in and check out space first and leave the coach at the bottom of the hill. No cell service, closest Beaverdell 1/2 hour south.

Good road going into the Rec Site

Campsite #3, Site #1

This campsite has good water access to the lake.

Back down the road to the highway and turned left to carry on. A short distance from this turnoff we noticed a couple of moose. Ray madly scrambling for his camera and Freya barking all added to the frenzy for Ray being able to take a picture before they disappeared into the bush!

Carrying on a few more kilometers Ray noticed a little pull-off right beside the river. We checked it out and it would make a spectacular free camping spot. I am just off to the left where there is a spot for 2 chairs right beside the river, 10 feet away from the site.

Back on the highway we carried on to the turn-off for Hydraulic Lake/McCulloch Reservoir Recreation Site. It was only a short distance to the rec site on good gravel road. We passed this little lake called Summit Lake which is right before the turnoff to the recreation site. Ray was just itching to throw in a fishing line.

Hydraulic Lake Rec Site  is set a little ways back from the lake as this is a reservoir for the City of Kelowna and was quite busy. There were still several sites available but the best ones were already taken.  Being Friday I was not surprised. This rec site is very tightly spaced however, kind of like condo camping, not quite what we had in mind even if the fishing is supposedly pretty good.  There are a couple sites off to the right and back of the picture that have a tiny bit more privacy.  No cell service here at all.

Lodge on Hydraulic Lake

We noticed a sign for Idabel Lake Resort at the turn-off to this Rec Site and decided to have a quick look. The signs said the elevation is 4050 feet. The temps up there were about 18 degrees so about 8 degrees cooler than Osoyoos! There is a fishing lodge, little public fishing dock and a boat launch but no camping site anywhere along this lake.

                                                            Idabel Lake, Very Pretty

At this point, since the Okanagan Falls Mainline FSR was in such good shape and it was only 35km to Penticton, we decided to take it instead of back down Highway 33 going all the way around. I was able to travel at 70 to 80km on this gravel road it was in such good shape for most of the way. This also enabled us to check out another Rec Site closer to Penticton, Idleback Lake. It turned out to be a fantastic plan with a great place to have our picnic lunch and a swim for Freya. This site has about 13 or more sites with picnic table and fire grates plus about 6 more with just rock fire rings and is all free.

The road into this lake is a little challenging however even though it is 1/3 of a km in. There was a very short section of very humpy, bumpy and one huge puddle to get through to get in. However, we saw a 35 foot trailer being hauled out and there were a couple other large trailers in there so I am sure we could get in but only at a crawl.

Back on the FSR we carried on towards Penticton with the decent from 4000 feet down to 1000 feet. Idelback Lake is 30 km from Penticton, 20 of this great gravel road and 10 of pavement. The last 6 kilometers has a pretty steep grade with lots of switchbacks all the way down to Penticton even though it is pavement.  Cell service begins where the pavement starts.

Okanagan Falls Forest Service Road

Looking down at Penticton from some of the paved portion of the road coming down the mountain.

This trip turned out to be longer than expected and even though Ray remained reclined and with plenty of time to stretch the legs, he still had to take pain medication and lay out on the bed with back iced as soon as we got home. On my orders, he's grounded for two days.

June 10th - Historic Haynes Ranch, Osoyoos 

Beginning in 1865, John Carmichael Haynes and his partner William Hamilton Lowe began to acquire ranch land and cattle along the northern end of Osoyoos Lake. Together they accumulated property in bits and pieces, some of it taken from land set aside by the Joint Indian Reserve Commission. Eventually they held 8900 hectares (22,000 acres) running from Osoyoos Lake north to present Oliver. It was one of the first cattle ranches in the valley, when ranching in B.C. was still in its infancy. Haynes bought out Lowe’s share when Lowe died in 1881.

After Haynes’ death in 1888, Tom Ellis foreclosed on a mortgage and obtained the ranch. J.C. Haynes’ son Val took over as manager of Ellis’ vast cattle empire, numbering close to 4,000 head. When the South Okanagan Land Company bought out Ellis, Val Haynes remained the foreman. Eventually Val became the owner of the ranch located at the north end of Osoyoos Lake. The derelict ranch buildings seen today at Road 22 were likely built by Val Haynes and include a house, bunkhouse, and barn.

June 11th - Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre

 

Way' Inca iskwist Ray.

Deb isn't as interested as I in the early history of the First Nations people as myself so off I went to the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre. (Deb is interested but not when it is way too hot outside!lol) The centre is just above the RV park and the cost is $12.50.  They start with a very well done short film.  It's about a young girl moving back to the reservation to live with her grandparents and rediscovers the land and her people.

There is particular reference throughout the film to the Coyote or Senk'lip (English Sin-Ka-Leep). Senk'lip is a very important animal who helped change the old world in preparation for the "new people", the Syilx or Okanagan.  He is a shape shifter and uses these powers to destroy any monsters that would be potentially dangerous for the syilx people.  S.enk'lip came to the young girl many times

Once through the film and a look at the inside displays it's outside the door to view the foyer display.

Senk'lip and others 

The sculptures and the various displays depict village life long ago.

Drying the returning Sockeye Salmon 

Gotta catch them first 

You then embark on an easy one mile loop through the adjacent desert. 

There are vegetation signs all through the route identifying Rabbit's Bush, Bunch Grass, Big Sage, Antler's Brush, etc.  The Syilx also depended on the Saskatoon Berry for their vitamin C during the winter months.

Saskatoon Berry Harvesting 

The women also gathered Bitterroot for food.

Bitterroot Harvesting 

The trail leads to a collection of teepee's and earth mounds they used for housing and the sweat lodge.

Sweat Lodge

The Syilx also used dugout canoes to travel the various lakes.

The trail continued on past these displays.

While at the earth mound lodges (2) there was a large group of school children just disgorging out of the lodge after a presentation by the guides (one of which packs a snake pole).  I leisurely walked the path and let the bunch of them run past me.  When the din died down, I had an awesome experience.... Senk'lip let me know he was there.  I heard his howl, followed by his wife, Mole and both were joined by two pups. This family was pretty close, just over the next rise in the picture above.  I loved this part, it just made the whole experience great.

For those of you interested, the first sentence in this blog is Hello My Name is Ray. 

Way' (English -why) Inca iskwist (English - In-cha eesh-kweest)

PS: (Don't be such a skeptic on Senk'lip, they do not broadcast the coyote family howling... I called later and they confirmed it wasn't part of the display and the coyote family are local residents and many visitors hear them)

Is that a Moose!!! - 2015-06-12 

Woke up this morning at 10 to 7 and opened up the front curtain. We had quite the windstorm overnight so I was wondering what the water looked like. What is that! Ray comes running out in his "tighty blueez" and I yell get the camera! The dog does not know what to do as I am usually just sitting quietly drinking coffee for an hour or so.

He hands me his camera after quickly putting on his regular zoom lens. I run outside in my nightgown snapping pictures and yell get the new bazooka. Ray madly throws on some shorts and brings out the bigger lens and continues to take some pictures.

This poor moose did not know where to go. As Osoyoos is a desert she must have come down the mountain because she smelled the water and then realized that this is not where she should be. She started walking towards town and we think she managed to get back to the woods by going between some empty campsites back into the hills as we did not see her again.

Quite the exciting morning.

June 13th - Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad

Once again, I headed off to a tourist attraction without Deb as she doesn't share my love for model railroads.  The Osoyoos Desert Model Railroad is just out of town on Hwy 3 towards Keromeos.  The entrance fee is $7.50 which is reasonable.  I'm not going to post too many pictures but I did manage to take 106! of them according to the camera download.
There is 4000 square feet of displays and 40 odd trains and other motorized vehicles travelling around.  Talk about "Where's Waldo" at this place.  There are just sooooo many little details in each of the windows.  You could study a window for five minutes and someone will come along and point out something you never noticed.  There are also some things only the adults can appreciate as well, nudist beach, red light house and maybe a few other things.

RV Park

The lights go dim and the displays are all lit up.

I would have liked to spend a lot more time there to study all the things, the only problem is with the back surgeries it is painful for me to stand still for any length of time.  I was trying to stay moving and still see as much as I could.  Finally after 45 minutes or so I just couldn't handle it any more and had to leave, but I'll be back the next time we're in Osoyoos.

June 17th - Fintry Provincial Park

We left Osoyoos and went up the Okanagan Lake to Fintry Provincial Park. First we checked out the Forest Service Everly Recreation Site 10km further down the road but we were too big to get in. Too bad as it was a lovey area right on the lake. There was a curvy road with a tree and a stump impeding us. Oh well, so back to Fintry for a few days.

Ray and I did a minimal setup and quickly set up down at the beach which was right across the path at the back of our campsite. Yeah. What a view! Thank goodness for the lake as it is hot, hot, hot, especially on the gravel in the campsite. Down at the beach though it is very pleasant with some shade if needed and the water is clear and cool.

Another piece of BC's paradise! The only drawback seems to be the mosquitos, which come out as soon as the temp drops a little, so we are unable to stay outside at dusk (it was too hot for a campfire). Both of us are sporting many bites for the first time this year. Last night was so hot 26 C that I went for a swim at 9:30 at night in the dusk just so I could stay cool for a few hours. It was still 24C at 2:30 am and out came another icepack! I will not complain though as the lake is fantastic and it is lovely to have Freya off-leash again at the pet beach.

June 17th - The Fintry Adventure

 

I left Deb chillin' at the beach and grabbed my camera for "The Fintry Adventure" as the guide calls it. This is a self guided tour leading to some wonderful sites in Fintry Provincial Park. First, a history lesson:

Captain James Dun-Waters inherited a fortune at the age of 22, which allowed him to travel the world hunting. In his travels he explored Short's Point in Kelowna and loved it so much he bought the area and renamed it Fintry after his home in Scotland. James and his wife Alice constructed a lodge in 1910. He returned to England to fight in WW1 and was wounded at Gallipoli. Tragedy struck in 1924 as Alice passed away and month and a half later the house burned to its foundation. Dun-Waters immediately rebuilt the house and later added a large granite addition to the house to display the Kodiak Bear he'd bagged. The top floor was added to much later as seven bedrooms with attached baths in the attic in an attempt to make this a resort.

The house is surrounded by five acres of lawn and gardens, including a labyrinth.  The entire estate was supplied by Dun-Waters ingenious harnessing of the nearby Shorts Creek. (another adventure for me in the next couple days).

Standpipe Circa 1924 

From there, the trail winds past the now group campsite (long ago a 100 acre orchard) to the Fintry Farm.  The cliff you pass on the right was charred in a 1998 forest fire.  The farm was quite a going concern with many buildings large and small.

There is an architect-designed Octagonal Dairy Barn which is the only multi-sided barn in BC.  This housed Dun-Waters' champion Ayrshire dairy cattle.

The picture below shows the Granary on the right which used waterpower to turn a grinding wheel.  Hay harvested at Dun-Waters "High" further back in the hills was stored under the open-sided structure on the left.

Crew Quarters

Shorts Creek

There is also a horse barn, a crew bunkhouse and various other sheds scattered around.  The path to the Shorts Creek waterfall and water system leads away from here, but as I said... another day, so as to save the back.  Heading back towards the campsite the guide leads you to the waterfront.  Fintry's fruit was graded and packed in the front (white) part of the building below.  Just off to the right of that you can just see some brick which was a cooler and fruit was stored here until one of the CPR sternwheelers picked it up. There was a large dock attached to this building and for nearly 20 years this facility saw produce and supplies come and go.

Materials for the house, if not local such as the granite cut from the cliffs to the west of the lodge, had to be brought in by rail to Vernon, loaded onto a sternwheeler, off-loaded at this facility and trailered to 

the lodge.   The facility did do a stint in the 70's as a nightclub.

The building below originally housed a diesel pump.  It was a backup system, supplying water to houses and barns if Shorts Creek was too low.  It now acts as a mini store selling ice cream during the summer holidays.

Stay tuned for "The Fintry Adventure" part two!

June 18th - Forest Fire across the lake. 

Yesterday afternoon we noticed smoke across the lake from us and mentioned it to the Park Operator who said she had already been told about it. There were houses on the lakeshore below this fire but the fire was moving up the ridge not down.

Ground Crew has arrived.

Shortly after that a helicopter was sucking water from the lake and dumping it on the fire.

We could see the flames in the dark so it was not out yet. This morning there was still smoke but we did not hear any planes so it may be just people on the ground putting it out now. They are fortunate that there was an access road just below the fire. At one point the ground crew had to leave as the wind switched direction and was blowing the smoke right at them.

Hopefully this is the only fire we see this summer. last summer we were nearly evacuated from Peter Hope Lake with a forest fire only 3km away from us.

Bighorn Mountain Sheep - 2015-06-20 08:50

Ray and I decided on Thursday to take a short drive into Westbank (Kelowna) to do some grocery shopping. It was a warm afternoon, just perfect for a short drive with air conditioning. Westside Road is very windy and they are doing some road work on it this summer to widen some of it. It sure is needed as in some places where the side of the pavement ends the cliff goes straight down several hundred feet to the water with no barriers of any kind.

As I came around a corner we were very excited to see a Bighorn Mountain Sheep on the side of the road eating grass. When we came back we were lucky enough to see another one,  as well. They were doing road work and blasting but it sure did not seem to bother the sheep as the second one was only just around the corner from the work site. Ray and I have been fortunate in our wild animal sightings this summer and hope to see more ... maybe the Ogopogo!

Stopped for road work and this guy is hangin' six feet from the car

June 20th - New Campsite at Fintry Provincial Park 

Our 4 days were up in our campsite, but Garrett is coming to check out some contract work and will visit us here so we need to stay until Wednesday morning. Yesterday morning by 8am we moved to another first come first serve campsite before anyone else could take it for the weekend. Unfortunately no satellite TV but there is not much on these days anyways. We have good cell reception and lots of sun for the solar so 2 out of 3 prerequisites aren't bad. This campsite also provides good access to a small beach for the dogs to play. Here are some pictures of our new "view".

Last night Garrett and his buddy Jacob stayed overnight, enjoying some of Jacob's very special Polish liquor. They did not get to bed until after 1pm. (Ray and I called it at 11:30 pm and put in ear plugs!) When the dogs got everyone up at 7 am. Jacob was moving very slowly and barely managed a few sips of coffee. Oh to be young! Breakfast was totally out of the question. Garrett and Jacob plan to go bike riding today so left by 8am and then they will probably have dinner at Jacob's mom's place which is only 15 miles from Fintry. Garrett will probably be spending his nights here though.

Garrett and Jacob alias Kuba

Enjoying our morning coffee.

Last days at Fintry - 2015-06-25 

 

We had a lovely four days with Garrett. Freya enjoyed playing hard with her sister and is so sore she could barely walk and is now on enforced rest for a few days! Garrett did a lot of relaxing and went for a couple of mountain bike rides with his buddy Kuba who recently moved to Vernon.

We even saw a guy with an inflatable kayak with a 100lb lab that goes with! Kinda sinky in the middle!.

On one of the days I stayed on the beach with the dogs and Ray and Garrett took a walk up the trail to the Shorts Creek waterfall.  At the half way point Ray realized he shouldn't go any further and turned around.  He still paid for it and had to take his pain medication. The next day he basically stayed in his chair at the beach.

Old water pump for the farm.

 June 25th - Sugar Lake Recreation Site

Garrett and Kira left early Tuesday morning, so we decided to move on as well. As the weather is going to be smoking hot come Saturday, we made the decision to go further north instead of going to the provincial park at Kalamalka Lake.  There is no access to the water there for dogs and both Freya and I would cook. One of the recreation sites I researched is Skimikin Lake, just by Salmon Arm. It was only an hour and 15 minutes from Vernon so we decided to take a chance. After dumping and filling with water at the SuperStore in Vernon we carried on. When we arrived at Skimikin unfortunately most of the campsites were heavily treed and the open ones are all taken by horse people. The lake itself proposes to be good fishing, but is a very muddy bottom so no swimming for Freya or me. This is a large ATV and horse camp mostly. We will strike that one off the list. No pictures were taken as we were in and out with the car pretty fast.

On to Plan B, which is Herald Provincial Site on Shuswap Lake, less than 1/2 an hour away. Here most of the campsites are heavily treed but we managed to get one of the few available and it was half in the sun to help charge the batteries with solar. The park hsd a nice walking trail for Ray and the dog, but almost no access to the water for dogs. We find it very surprising as at least 75% of campers seem to have a dog or 2. With the weather so hot, no A/C (limited generator hours) and you cannot leave your pet in a car, seems a bit out to lunch. Understandably dogs should not be on sun tanning beaches, however some parks we have been at, like Paul Lake and Fintry have made the picnic areas or beaches that 1/3 dogs allowed and 2/3 dogs not permitted to give campers the choice.

We only stayed the one night and Wednesday morning and were out the gate before 8am on the way to Lumby in the complete opposite direction! Plan A is Sugar Lake Recreation Site and Plan B is the FSR Campsite at Cherryville and Plan C is back to Lumby to stay at the Lions campground.

After a stop in Vernon at Save On Foods for some baked breakfast and a few last minute supplies, off we went on our latest adventure. At Cherryville we made the left hand turn onto Sugar Lake Road (Site not marked with any signs at turnoff as apparently locals keep removing signage as they feel it is "their lake") and drove along the Shuswap River for about 15 km on paved road. A short distance before the bridge crossing the Shuswap, the road changed to a well-maintained gravel mainline with calcium chloride put down on a lot of it to keep the dust down. This road takes you up to Monashee Provincial Park, so I guess that is why it is so well-maintained. We pulled over just before the bridge and unhooked the car and carried on to check everything out. The first campsite was at "2 mile" which contained some 50 campsites and a lot of them would fit rigs of any size (including Dianne and Steve). This also had an ATV staging ground at the entrance so I guess lots of trails in the area to ATV. We temporarily booked site #16 which was open and a little ways away from the lake but you could still see it.  They even had a dog beach!

Jules and Elaine who run the site, told us at the 9km sign further down the road there was a smaller site with 7 campsites  with a camp host, (Ken and Lee-Anne) that we might like better and was not too busy. Ray and I jumped back in the car and checked this out. The website is www.sugarlakecampingcom 

This site turned out to be much better, right on the water. Two other units had moved in since we  talked to Elaine. The site is on a small peninsula but with our spot we have (#2), we do not even notice the other campers as we face the other way and have a bigger beach. We have a fire-pit area that steps down, again more privacy.  The other sites behind us have no shade and are totally open. I also have a large shade tree in front of the coach to hide from the afternoon sun. Yeah! They have a brand new pit toilet here which is the crème de la crème of outhouses! It even has flowers on a table, a mirror and nice pictures on the wall. Wow! With only 7 possible campers it will not be so heavily used.

Here is the campsite from the road.

This is a wonderful clear lake with no weeds. Perfect for Freya and I. Apparently the fishing here is pretty good so we shall see. (This would not fit Steve and Dianne because of your truck.) By noon we were mostly set up and in the lake cooling off. Tomorrow we will set up the rest including the "first-up" over the picnic table for some shade. The only drawback is no cell coverage. the closest coverage is about 20 minutes (4 km down the pavement portion of road). A little past that is the small town of Cherryville, which boasts a small general store and gas station. There is some logging traffic but we only noticed about 10 pickups going by off work and we saw only 2 loaded log trucks between 12 noon and 5pm so not too busy and again. there is calcium on the road before our campsite on both sides so no dust.

Now the only other thing I have to get done is find out where the closest Laundromat is and my guess is Lumby as I have not done laundry since Osoyoos and that was June 14th, we're running out of clothes.  I will be washing undies in the lake otherwise!

June 30th - Kristi is here!

 View from our front window.

Me floating.

On Saturday, we went to the little Farmer's Market here in Cherryville. Quite cute, got some lettuce and fresh cherries. Kristi's favorite! Only $1.25 per pound, less than 1/2 price compared to Osoyoos. We got there early as it just opened so not too many people yet. They even had a guy with a horse giving wagon rides. (A box with old truck seats in it, see the horse?)

Sunday I drove to Vernon to get all of our laundry done as I had 3 weeks’ worth and needed to wash Kristi's sheets before she arrives on Monday. Ray's camera is not performing correctly  (not autofocusing properly) and he thinks it is the lens. I surprised him by going to London Drugs in Vernon and buying him a better one 18-250mm in hopes that it would solve his problem. (His Father's Day, and Anniversary Present) It turns out that it is the camera body not the lens ... but he is keeping the new lens anyways. So now the search has begun on seeing if he can get his current camera body fixed or will he need a new one. Fortunately, my little Canon Elf takes reasonable pictures until this gets sorted out!

It has been blistering hot here the last few days until last night. We spend most of the time in and out of the lake. The temp at the neighbours registered 40 plus degrees on Sunday afternoon. It was not cooling down at night either. The coach got to 101F inside ... the hottest it's ever been and with the new generator rules in Rec Sites being 8am to 10am and 6pm to 8pm I could not turn the air conditioning on periodically. Even turning it on and running 3 heat pumps for the 2 hours in the evening it still was 79F. at 8pm. Neither Ray or I slept very well. I went in the lake at 9:30 pm before bed in hopes of staying cool for awhile and back in the water at 6:45am the next morning. (Monday)

Today we were excited as Kristi was stopping by overnight to visit on her way to Kelowna. She has officially ended her residency and has taken a 3 month locum position in Kelowna. Jason, her husband, is left behind in Saskatoon to sell the house, get the movers in and then head to Kelowna with their 2 dogs in tow. It will be a busy summer for them and us now as we are trying to find spots to go that Kristi can visit us within 2 hours of Kelowna. If the house sells quickly Jason probably will be staying with us for the some of the time until they are able to rent a dog-friendly place for 2 months.

Kristi arrived at 11:30 am to overcast skies.  She tells me that it always rains for her as soon as she reaches the BC border! Freya was ecstatic to see her Aunty Kristi. The bugs were swarming us at 5pm so we went inside. Fortunately it was quite a bit cooler and we were comfortable enough with the windows open.

I lub my Auntie Kristi!

About 6:30pm the clouds built, and we had a rainstorm with thunder, lightning and some wind for an hour then it seemed to clear up. I was barbecuing a prime rib roast and had to get it off and bring it inside to finish in the oven as it was getting drenched! We thought that the storm had passed us by! Global BC was warning of severe thunderstorm potential in this area. All of us went to bed early, as Kristi was still an hour ahead on Saskatoon time and she had just driven 1,300 km after leaving at 4pm yesterday. A short motel stay in Canmore and then onto Sugar Lake.

At 10pm we were all rudely awakened with another storm cell with rain coming in all of the open windows, especially onto Kristi on the pull-out couch. We quickly closed everything up and took down the satellite dish. Everything seemed okay and we all went back to sleep. Unfortunately for Kristi, the slide above her head started to leak and drip onto her head at 5am. I guess the wind pushed the rain into the seal at the top of the cupboards and the water found it's way inside. Perhaps I did not engage the slide gasket fully when I opened it? It has never happened before and nothing else seems to be a problem so hopefully that is all it was! So even though she was only here 20 hours she had an exciting time! Can't wait to spend more time with her this summer.

Woke up to sunny skies again and hopefully not as hot today.