Lakes District Trip
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| Burns Lake |
Burns Lake is a small, rural town en route to Alaska (another 1,400 km north). Known as the Lakes District is is a popular sport fishing area. The main industry is forestry.
Along the way, we stopped for lunch at the Williams Lake Golf and Tennis Club (the Fox's Den).Gorgeous views of Williams Lake and the Chilcotin Hillsides. This town of 12,000 hosts the very popular Williams Lake Stampede every summer.
A painting inside the Fox's Den restaurant.
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| Town of Williams Lake |
We're making progress - only 452 km (300 miles) left to go.
Warm, dry weather is causing water levels to rise quickly and some areas to be on flood watch. Fortunately there was a good snow pack this past winter.
Was a beautifully, calm morning so was able to capture the lake reflection just prior to the breeze starting up.
How Canadian is this? Eh!
At the local gym, squash courts (and pickleball in the curling rink) was a charity display called Hockey Jerseys for Hope.
Hockey Jerseys for Hope is an organization that collects used hockey jerseys and delivers
them to those in need. Their goal is to put 1,000,000 hockey jerseys on the back of those that need them. Places like Nepal, Peru, Sierra Leon, Mexico. They also take jersey,s helmets, shoes etc for other sports. For a small donation you can wear this jersey for a photo op (we couldn't both fit into it so opted for holding it!)
Love poplar trees
Sadly, with some very strong wind storms this spring there are a ton of windfalls along the forest trails.
Growing up in the area, us kids used to call this wild parsley. 
Once dried, we used to light up the hollow stem over the campfires and pretend to 'smoke.' Thank goodness that habit didn't catch on!
At the top of the hill, overlooking the connecting waters of Burns Lake and the start of Decker Lake was a very old Native American Cemetery.
Early 1900 settlers, most of the grave markers you could read (almost all were made of wood or had no headstone at all) were Native Chiefs.
Difficult to tell what this photo is of; it is a gigantic ant hill.
The forest is full of large ant dwellings and there are signs of black bears coming out of hibernation, feeding on ants from rotting trees and paw prints in the moist, swampy areas.
Back in Kelowna . . . . .
Mission Creek Regional Park
Found a fabulous park only ten minutes away with a large network of trails (and three creeks) for cycling, walking and hiking. A lot more area to explore - I take the dogs frequently on an hour long loop which is perfect on the hot days we have had (30 c, 85F) as there is a lot of shade.
The YETI and Bev's old Santa Cruz BULLET actually got used the other day. We road about 15 km of trails in this park. Can not admit however that is was real mt biking (no single track) but scenic and a nice ride along Mission Creek.
Looking forward to some Kettle Valley riding soon, as we are in the area.
This pic was taken several years ago, before the forest fire and trestles burnt down.
Cycliing is huge in the Okanagan Valley. The Rec Centre holds family training days - must've been over one hundred in this group.
Stinging nettles. Good to eat, bad if you brush against them!
As of an hour ago . . . (June 1st - 12:30)
we got all our DUCKS IN A ROW!
THE MOTORHOME IS SOLD!
It's been about six weeks of negotiations, speaking with dealers over the past couple of months and telephone calls back and forth. One couple was very interested over the past month from Michigan and had arranged for a mechanic who knows our coach inside out, from Oregon, to come up and drive it across the border. The couple were going to try to find out how to get some financing possibly by thursday but the difficulty was, this couple would be buying the coach sight unseen and they do not hold passports so can not come and see it. Hmmmm.
We dropped the price this past week and got several interested people calling BUT we ran into a snag in our plans. The trailer we want has to be ordered special as we want 50 amp (they do not make them from the factory with more than 30). Which meant, in order to get it by this fall, we would have to pay for it and order by the end of the week. Otherwise, they do no more factory orders until next year.
The coach would be negotiated with Marc and whomever but sold through the dealership where we are buying the trailer, they would order in the truck we want and by going through them, we would save a huge amount of taxes on the new trailer and truck.
Turns out, the owner at the dealership met someone this weekend who wants our coach, so the dealership will take it - do the trade for us and we can order everything by this Friday and they will take the Honda Element on trade. It is time for it to start needing some work so it is time to trade it in. Also, we have nowhere to store it right now if we wanted it as a second vehicle down the road.
An inspection has to be done thursday and if we have emptied everything out - we will say goodbye to a wonderful 'home' we had for the past eight or nine years.
The owner of the orchard we are in has a spot in a large shop we can store our stuff and he has a 30 foot fifthwheel here that no one is using. We can move it to our spot on Friday and for $200 / month, we have lucked out and found an easy transition. Good thing as it would be impossible (not to mention highly expensive) to find somewhere in the summer in Kelowna.
Marc looks a couple years younger today! A lot of weight lifted off the shoulders.
Been a lot of things to think about since coming back into BC but here we go. Homeless for a little while.
I will be sad to see our home go and we will be 'roughing' it now for awhile (will miss the washer/dryer and the special item - the ice maker fridge)!!! But, off to some new adventures and learning to drive a new truck with a lot of technology; I will be having to read manuals. The darned thing will park itself! Scarey!
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