We are in Kelowna.

Wednesday Oct. 30, 2013

We were blown into Kelowna on Monday afternoon by a nice brisk tail wind all the way from Cache Creek.  We made the right move to stay put for a day and wait out the storm.  One should never be in such a hurry that you can’t wait out bad weather.  We try!

We are settled into Ian and Linda’s house and it sure was nice to get a hot shower.  Three days without one is bad enough but four is just awful!  I am missing Linda’s wonderful cooking but I guess I’ll get by!  Yes Ian, we miss you too.

Yesterday was spent shopping and we got a few things done.  I had to buy a new portable barbecue because they only seem to last 2-3yrs before they are rusted out.  Mexico’s salt air just destroys things.  Eric is on the hunt for a new pair of Keane shoes and so far has not found exactly what he wants.  Maybe today.  We also went to the local GM dealership to see about getting my key fob fixed.  It quit working a few months ago and it wasn’t the battery.  Eric talked to the service guy there and he brought his handy dandy electronic programmer out to the truck to reprogram it.  He said they usually charge $50 to do this but he was a nice guy and did it free.  It worked and all is well now.  Bueno! 

Our other issue is the main TV in the rig.  Every time we unplug and or use the over the air function it looses it’s mind.  It has been a piece of “crap” right from the beginning.  Eric finally coaxed it back to life by plugging and unplugging etc. etc. but there is always the worry that one time it won’t start at all.  The problem with replacing it is how it is mounted (inside a wall) and that means the connections have to be below and it has to be an exact size.  Hard to find exactly what we need.  Fun, fun, fun.

I spent the end of the day yesterday assembling my new barbecue ( I am the barbecuer in the family) and it took a painstaking two hours to do.  Not so bad to pay for a new barbecue but worse to have to put it together! 

I took all my winter prescriptions that I didn’t have time to get filled at home to the local Shopper’s Drug Mart and it is just as hard to get them all filled here.  Everything has to be ordered in.  Hopefully they will have it all done by Friday and then I’ll have to get them to fill my prednisone order after I see the rheumatologist.  We plan to leave on Sunday if that is done and also if the weather south of us is good.  Fellow RVers (Colin and Contessa) have just travelled through horrible weather in Oregon and we don’t want to do that.  We’ll just wait.

Today we are off on the shoe and TV hunt so another fun day. 

P.S.  -  I also bought all my Halloween candy since I will be on duty on Thursday night.  Third year in a row.  Two years ago Ian and Linda were in Japan, last year they were out and now they are in New Zealand.  The kids are going to start thinking we own the house!  I actually enjoy it as we have never had trick or treaters on the farm. 

Holed up in Cache Creek

Sunday Oct. 27, 2013

We had planned to travel to Kelowna today but it was not to be.  We hit dense fog coming into Clinton yesterday and the temperature dropped from 10C to 4C in a matter of minutes.  After our look see in Clinton we continued on to Cache Creek where the weather was a little better.  We had hoped to have water available for a shower but that was not to be.  We don’t have any water on board for our travels south as Eric has winterized the rig to prevent freeze up.  We have water in jugs and use the tanks.  Now to add insult to injury we did not move on today due to our old friend “the wind!”  The wind picked up last night along with some rain and has been gusting up to 70km all day so we decided to stay put for today.  It is 3:30 pm and it is still blowing but it’s supposed to slow down a bit by tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Highway 97 from Cache Creek to Kamloops is high, open and exposed to all sorts of wind so we choose not to travel if the wind is really blowing.  It is usually dry, sunny and calm in Cache Creek….not this time! 

See how hard the wind is blowing….I wonder how the guy in the tent is doing!

Oct.25,2013 at 8:06a.m temp. 6C. and we are on the road.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of packing, shutting down the house, finishing off the garden for me while Eric was winterizing the machinery and doing all that guy stuff that he does to make sure everything is in good shape when we return home in the spring.  No matter how organized we are  everything is just a huge amount of work and by the time we leave we are both exhausted.  On Thursday we drained and blew out the water lines with a compressor and did a final check before heading over to  daughter Erika’s for a final visit.  We have a shower and she feeds us dinner before we go home to spend our last night at home in the rig.  It’s a good thing the winter is relaxing!   On Friday morning we do a final walk through and Eric shuts off the power for the winter.  Bye bye little house….stay safe till the spring.

We were on the road Friday morning just after 8am and the drive to Prince George was relatively stress free with the temperatures ranging from 6C when we left home down to 0C along the way and up to 10C when we arrived in Prince George.  There was fog off and on but not pea soup fog so that was good.  We always stay at the Bon Voyage Motel just North of  Prince George where we can hook up for $15 (power only) and have a nice meal in the restaurant.  Today (Saturday Oct.26th) we only travelled as far as Cache Creek as we decided break our trip into three days on our way to Kelowna this year as we are not in a big hurry.  The drive from Prince George to Kelowna is a bit of a marathon so we decided to break it into two days this year.  We had a look at an RV park in Clinton but passed on it (no one around to check us in) and then looked at another park that the GPS said was there but wasn’t (dead end road) so Eric had to back up a driveway to turn us around.   Always fun!  He is much more relaxed about it now as we are in year six of our RV travels.   It is foggy here in Cache Creek and we hear it will be foggy on our trip to Kelowna.  We will stay Eric’s brother’s driveway (as usual) although he and wife Linda are in New Zealand so we will have the house to ourselves but we’ll miss seeing them.  I have an appointment with the rheumatologist on Friday (Nov. 1st) and then hopefully we will be heading south on Sunday.  My last blood test was still okay so all is well at this point. 

Nothing fun to report but I guess that will come!  I will do an update on the summer’s “fun” while we are in Kelowna when I have a little more time. 

Right now we are parked in the Brookside RV park in Cache Creek for $20 (winter rate) with only power as the water has been shut down for the winter.  The internet is good and there is 30 amp power so we can crank up the electric heat.