Kelowna, B.C. to Coulee City Community Camp Ground, Washington

 

Tuesday morning and it’s warm and sunny.  We are hooked up and ready to leave Kelowna just after 9am.  We’ve had a good visit with family but now it’s time to hit the road. 

Coming down to Okanagan Lake on the south side of Westbank heading towards Peachland.  It is really breezy but it’s a tail wind which is unusual for us!

Down closer to Oliver and the grapes are ripe.  Eric wonders how they get them all to grow at the bottom where they’re easy to pick.

We’re over the border with no issues.  I had to wait outside while the female border guard checked the rig and she didn’t take anything away so I guess we were okay.   She asked if we’d been given an orange card.  We said “ no.”  I’m guessing an orange card is a bad thing!  We stopped just over the border in Oroville to pick up fresh produce. 

The wind is really picking up.

Coming into Okak.  We stop on the south side at the Tribal Trails gas station for fuel and lunch.  There is a big lot out the back so it’s an easy stop.

South on 17 to Coulee City.

Pretty but…..smokey here.

Very volcanic through this area and….dry.

Hard to see much with all the smoke.  Not too far to go now.

That’s Banks Lake up ahead and we’ll stay on the right at the end.  We’ve passed this campground on other trips and it’s never very full so we thought we’d give it a try.

It is really windy at this point and later it got much worse.  We found a spot, unhooked and got parked.  This is a self registration park and costs $30 for full services.   We eventually had to close the door as it cooled off and the wind really picked up.  Neither one of us got any sleep overnight as the wind just howled and rocked the rig.  Thursday morning it was so cold and windy we had to plug in the electric heater.  We thought we’d be hiding from the heat but….not so much!

This is Thursday afternoon and it’s lovely.  Sunny and warm with no wind.  Wednesday night’s wind cleared out the smoke. 

We were both feeling pretty crummy but in the afternoon I decided to take a walk.  The humidity is ultra low and we are both suffering with allergies from smoke and local plants.  This little manmade road goes out into the lake.  The swimming area is on the left and would be great if it was really warm.   I would think it would be really busy here in the summer.  Lots of kids. 

The RV park is full of people with fishing boats but they couldn’t get out till this afternoon because of the wind.  Huge amount of RV’s and fishing boats in the this area of Washington.

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We are parked at the very south end of Banks Lake which was created by the Columbia Basin project.   It occupies the northern portion of the Grand Coulee.

                    

           The flag is limp today….a good thing.

Pretty.

There is a nice paved trail along the lake where I took a walk.  I was by myself so I put the camera on the trail, set the timer and voila!  Not too bad for a selfie!

An artsy shot from the gazebo where I stopped for a rest.

A lovely day….especially after last night and this morning.

I could hear the Loons on the lake but I couldn’t see any.   No ducks either.

Sun’s going down and I took this without even bothering to open the screen.   Still nice.  Had happy hour,  watched the Jays loose again, dinner and bed.  Hope Eric feels better tomorrow.

A few days in Kelowna.

So what happened while we were visiting in Kelowna.

Thursday arrival in Kelowna and dinner with family as shown in the last post.

Friday morning Linda, Bid and I were off to do some shopping and then have lunch at a local winery.  Visiting a winery was on Bid’s bucket list and the Okanagan is full of them. 

Linda decided that Grey Monk was a good choice so off we went.

It is a bit of a drive as we were heading back towards Winfield and Lake Country on Glenmore Road.

The winery is up above Okanagan Lake but you couldn’t see the lake at all today because of the smoke from the fires. By the way my camera was acting up so I had to use my little IPhone to take pictures.  Still haven’t decided what to do about a new camera.

           

Inside the lobby there is a wall of awards that the winery has won. 

         

First off….a little wine tasting by Bid and Linda who are both confirmed wine drinkers.  I don’t mind a glass but beer is my poison!

                

                      Linda says all the wine is delicious!

Now we are on to lunch.  I had decided it was my treat today even over Linda and Bid’s objections.  I might add that even though the food was a bit pricey it was worth every penny.  We started with a crab and artichoke appetizer.  Linda and I had a curried seafood pasta and Bid had the duck leg.  We each had a glass of the wine that was recommended for each meal and it was very good.  Hot plates, good service and superb food….what more can you ask for.

         

Bid and Linda looking toward the lake that they can’t see.

        

We decided to take the wine tour and the lady in black was our guide.  We started by taking an elevator downstairs to the wine making area. 

                  

Stainless tanks for the wine.  They were just starting to start the fall season.

        

Oak barrels for aging the wine.  Prior to use they are burned inside and then used for a number of years.  Following that are often used to age liquor.

Lots of technical equipment.

All the paraphenalia needed to make good wine.  Very clean….you could eat off the floor.

I think Bid and Linda wanted to take all the oak barrels full of wine home!

This is where they make all the decisions about the wine.

Grey Monk was the first winery in the valley.  I didn’t bother with all the facts and figures as I thought if you were interested it is easy to find on the internet.  Besides….I’m a beer drinker!

Following the tour there was a little more wine tasting upstairs by Bid and Linda

Things got a little crazy at lunch when one of Linda’s friends called to say that her husband had experienced blindness in one eye and apparently has a completely detached retina.  Later that day they came for dinner and as the doctor had decided that he had to go to Vancouver for surgery Linda and Ian would go with them and help out. 

So…Saturday morning Linda and Ian left for Vancouver while Eric and I stayed to visit with Leslie and Bid on their last day in Kelowna.  Leslie, Bid and I went off to Costco for some shopping which was another thing on their bucket list and then we were home for dinner and some visiting. 

Sunday morning Leslie and Bid were packed up and ready to go back to Vancouver by 9am.  They will fly back to Scotland on Tuesday afternoon.  There was some moaning and groaning by Leslie when he weighed Bid’s suitcase and found it was overweight.  As his was under the alloted weight I guess he’ll just have to carry some of Bid’s treasures!  Their suitcases were jammed with gifts that Bid had made (wool rugs, jams, jellies) and also sweet treats when they arrived and now she was taking gifts home with her.  What a gal! 

Eric and Leslie have similar interests and really enjoyed eachother’s company.  Leslie is a welder by trade.

Bid and I also have similar interests as she is an avid gardener.  She is a ranger in Scotland and builds trails etc.

So away they went and we were alone. 

I was off to have lunch with my sister Anne who had the day off and Eric did…..?  Later I found he had washed the bugs off the front of the rig. 

That’s my sister Anne on the right and her daughter Adrian on the left.

Anne and I had lunch at a golfcourse restaurant in West Kelowna and although it was good it didn’t compare to Grey Monk. I had an ahi tuna burger and it was just okay.  Anne enjoyed her lunch.  A little shopping and a good visit and….another day done.

Monday morning and time to do laundry before lunch with my niece Adrian.  She was going to buy me lunch but I said that was hardly fair after I had treated everyone else!  Lunch at Milestones by Orchard Park and it was an excellent meal.  This is starting to sound like my Wednesday ladies lunch blog that I do in Mazatlan!  I must say that I enjoy most meals out in Mazatlan but not so much in Canada and the USA.  I always try to order something that I wouldn’t cook at home.  

Linda arrived back from Vancouver that afternoon while Ian stayed behind to help their friends drive home Tuesday through the Fraser Canyon after a successful operation.  They couldn’t take their familiar Coquihala route because the elevation could damage his eye.  Linda, Eric and I  had a lovely happy hour outside in the yard, dinner and nighty night!

Tuesday it was off to try and find Eric some new boots.  I’d scoped out a couple of shops in the mall and away we went.  The first shop had what he wanted but….not his size so we were off to try and find Mountain Equipment Co-op.  They have a new store not far from the Orchard Park Mall but it is hard to identify.  Huge grey building with giant doors and a sign that says “MEC.”  Not easy.  However they did have the boots in the right size so all was well.  Eric hates to shop for any clothing or footwear so this was a good thing.

Home to ready the rig for tomorrows travel, happy hour, dinner and bed.  On the road tomorrow. 

On the road again!

First off a quick reader’s digest condensed update of what’s happened since we got home in May.

  First off the rig was put in order.  Eric washed and waxed and rebuilt the undercarriage as usual.   It is a big job to keep an RV on the road if you put 6000 miles on it every year.  You can ignore the maintenance but since 5th wheels and travel trailers are only built to go to the lake in the summer something will fail and those of us who travel long distances know this.  I washed down the inside and put everything in order and then it was on to outside matters at home.

We have a large property (40 acres) with gardens, fields and buildings so….lots to do.  Large gardens, fields and lawns to mow, machinery maintenance etc. etc. 

The summer was wet and cool in the north which made outside work difficult.  While the southern part of the province was enduring huge forest fires, evacuations and hot, dry weather we were cold and wet.  We would have shared the rain but that’s not the way it works.  We had about ten days of good weather at the beginning of August but we too got the smoke from the fires.  A major disaster year for fires in B.C. and it is still going on.

So….here is this years plan.  Eric has a cousin (Leslie) and his significant other ( Bid) out visiting from Scotland. The last time we saw Leslie was in 1999 when he and all the Tycho family came to Terrace and stayed at the farm for a family reunion.  Great fun!  I might also add it was a really crummy, cold, wet summer and everyone camped under the roof of our first large pole building so they could stay dry. 

Leslie and Bid are visiting  in Kelowna for a few days and wanted to see us so we decided to start our winter journey early and take the rig to Eric’s brother Ian and wife Linda’s house and then head south from there.  We’ll stay for a few days and visit and then haul south with Yuma as our short term destination.  The RV will be left in storage there from Oct. 2nd while we will fly home to Terrace for 4 weeks.  We’ll fly back on Oct. 30th, do our Mexican paperwork,  stock up and continue on to Mazatlan.  Last year we did something similar when we went to Utah to see the Grand Canyon etc. and then left the RV in Phoenix for a month.  We found the travel south without winter driving a lot less stressfull.

We managed to get three days of sun before we left and that meant a lot of lawn mowing after all the rain.

I mowed with the walk behind mower Eric used the riding mower.

The new lawn up behind the house has been a chore to mow.  Eric is sweeping the clippings from this mow and….the last one.

The garden shed and some of the gardens.

Looking toward Kitselas mountain and our driveway to the highway.

The truck is hooked up and ready to roll tomorrow morning.

On the road at 8am and it’s foggy all the way to Hazelton. 

The rest of the drive to Prince George was uneventful, clear and warm.  We pulled into to the Bon Voyage in Prince George around 4pm and were quickly parked and hooked up.  The motel was full of firefighters from Quebec and New Brunswick who were heading out in the morning. 

Heading east on highway 16.  We usually head south from Prince George but we decided to go an alternate route hoping to avoid hot weather and smoke.  Wide open country but by the time we hit McBride the smoke was thick and we couldn’t even see the Rocky Mountains.  It is really beautiful from McBride to Valemont but…not this time.

An oddball map but Map Point really didn’t want to follow our suggested route.  Terrace to Prince George with an overnight stop. In the morning east through McBride and south to Clearwater for the night. South through Kamloops and east through Sorrento and Salmon Arm, Vernon and on to Kelowna where we park in Ian and Linda’s driveway…..total trip 873 miles.

Wednesday night we stopped in Clearwater at a little park on Dutch Lake.  It bit of a screw up by the GPS but…that’s not uncommon.

Pretty green fields but you can’t see the mountains.

Smokey.

Parked by Dutch Lake and smokey here too.

This little car was left in an RV spot while the owners wandered away.  We managed to squeak in.

Would be really pretty if it was clear.

The ducks didn’t care!

From Vernon to Kelowna along the lakes you could hardly see a thing.  Eric said it was hard driving….like dusk.

So, set up and parked and now it’s time for happy hour with family.

From the left Eric and Ian’s cousin Leslie from Scotland, Deb and Jason (Ian’s son and his wife) Bid who is Leslie’s partner, Eric, Linda hidden and then Ian.

Deb and Jason’s kids…Ella and Cooper having fun in the pool.

Bid and Eric chat.  Eric hasn’t had a haircut since last October.

Leslie is looking at old picture story boards that the family put together for their parents birthdays.

Jason, Ian and Eric have a look. 

Visiting in the kitchen.

So….we’re in Kelowna for a few days and plan to leave early next week for points south.

I know I said this was a condensed version but….there was a lot to say!