2008 Canadian Summer, Eh? Part Four - Having fun

The Boat Ride

Saturday – August 2

This day started out a bit weird because, even though I got enough sleep last night, I really didn’t want to go to work.  I dragged myself in to the store, and, as I went in, Pat said, “Hurry and close the door.”  There were already people waiting outside the store hoping to get a site.  We had been warned that the August crowd was going to be different from the July crowd, and today, we saw a little bit of what they meant.  The people are a more pushy, in-your-face, and sure that they are the only ones who count.  I heard Pat having a discussion with a camper, but I was busy selling stuff and checking people into the field, so I really wasn’t paying too much attention.  The problem was that his camp site was next to the playground, and he wanted a different site, not to mention he wanted a boat slip.”  Suddenly, Pat was half-yelling, “You are a renter, and I am the owner, and I make the rules.  If you don’t like it, you don’t have to come here again.”  They had managed to give him a site when this wasn’t even his regular week, so he should have been glad for anything, but he had to keep harping at her.  Pat finally said, “I’m not talking to you anymore!”  She rushed out the door, slamming it as loud as possible.  He didn’t even bat an eye.  He just started in on Jodi.  Jodi listened and tried to explain once more, but she too got frustrated and said that she had work to do, and he’d just have to deal with the situation.  He finally went away.  I tried to call Pat to see if she was okay, but she didn’t answer her phone (not surprising.)  Abby came over to the store a few minutes later and said that Pat went in the house, grabbed a pillow and was punching it for quite a while, mumbling about stupid, stupid people.

I went over to the house a few minutes after that, and Pat was getting ready to go back out to help Jodi.  She said she was fine, and asked if I had enjoyed the show.  I said that I was very impressed by how she let him have it.  She explained a little more about what his position was, and said that she isn’t going to have me rebook them.  She wants them to go to the office to see about re-booking, so she can tell them to find another camp ground.

The rest of the day went by without any other incidents.  I cleaned the kitchen and swept and mopped the floors after everyone was done with lunch.  Then I vacuumed and started the ironing.  Pat came through a few times, and once, she stopped and said, “I want you to know I’m so glad you’re here.”  It made me feel good.  She continued with, “You are such a good ironer.”  I told her that it doesn’t take a lot of skill to iron, but she disagreed and said that had known some people who didn’t do such a good job.

Went home at 3 and read until 6:30.  Walked over to Pat’s and had a cocktail and visited for an hour or so, then came home and had dinner of ham and cheese rolls and Calzone with salad.  We read our books in bed until almost 10.

Sunday – August 3

Today was the best day ever.  It started out with Bill going to work early to do his raking and washroom check and trash pickup.  Then, at 10:00 we and Pat and Leroy met Karen and Rick from site 65 at the dock and went out on their boat.  It was strange playing hooky with the bosses.  We had such a wonderful time seeing all the luxurious houses, and it was also neat spotting the caches we had found from the water.  We all talked story and thoroughly enjoyed 

the day.

 

Our bosses

 

We went up to Peachland, docked right in the little shopping district, and walked across the street where Pat and Leroy treated us to an ice cream cone.  We sat in the park on the edge of the lake to eat and talk some more.  On the way back, I sat on the bow, just loving the wind and sun.  I could have fallen asleep, but I wanted to listen to everyone, and I even threw in a few words now and again.  

Pat joked about us not having to work too hard at washroom cleaning after all that fresh air, but we couldn’t take advantage like that, so we did our usual good job,

I came home to get something ready for a late lunch/early dinner because I had to work in the store from 4 to 9.  We had fried egg sandwiches and potato chips.  Later, Bill brought me a drink of Coffee Crisp, which is something we don’t have in the states, but it is really delicious.

I got home at 9:15, after taking a couple over to the trailer parking area to show them where they could pitch their tent.  We were so full, that we rented out three spots in that area.  Not a great place, but somewhere safe to sleep for the night.  Bill and I took a walk down to the beach and sat at the main fire pit for a little while enjoying the chatter and the heat from the fire.  When we came back, the dog behind and to the left of us was barking almost constantly.  He is very cute and friendly when he is running around loose, which also isn’t allowed.  His people had gone out and left him tied to the motor home.  We went to bed about 10:15 and he was still barking at 11:30, so I guess his people were still gone. 

Monday - August 4

I worked in the store from 9 to 3 today, because Abby and Ryan had gone to spend the night at the cottage.  It was a busy morning.  After Bill was finished with his yard work and recycling, I told him that we had a special job for him.  He got to go around visiting people, as I usually do on Mondays, and re-book them.  At first he said, No, he didn’t want to do it – he wouldn’t know what to say.  I told him that he would like it and he should give it a try.  He wanted me to do it, and he would run the store, but I was also organizing Pat and Leroy’s credit card receipts, matching them against the bill, and he didn’t really want to do that, either.  I said to just go for a few minutes to see what it was like.  He ended up enjoying it, and giving out several of our business cards.  After the store, I went over to the house for an hour to finish my receipt project.

Our friend, Craig, who lives in La Center, Washington, arrived at our house today for a 10 day stay.  He will be working as a substitute chiropractic doctor for a doctor in Reno, and we said he should just stay in the house instead of paying for a hotel.  Maxine called to say she hadn’t seen him, yet.  But it turned out that she thought he was flying in last Monday, so I said he would be showing up soon.  Mickey and Maxine are such good friends, taking care of the plants, and keeping us informed about what’s going on in the neighborhood.

I told Pat about the barking dog and she went over to tell them that if they don’t keep him quiet, they won’t be able to bring him next year.  I don’t remember if I mentioned that dogs aren’t allowed here, but they used to be, so those people who used to bring their dogs are grandfathered in, as long as it is the same dog, so they can still bring them.  This afternoon, when I got off work at 4, we ran up to Westbank (in the car, silly) and got a few groceries, and came back to start dinner.  While the pork chops were simmering, we sat outside to read, and that dog just wouldn’t be quiet.  They had left it again, tied up to the outside of the trailer.  I waited for almost an hour before calling Leroy to let him know.  He came over, went right up to the growling, snarling dog, opened the door, picked him up and put him inside.  By his growling (the dog, not Leroy) you would have thought he was a huge animal instead of a little poodlely thing.  When the people got home, they seemed surprised that he was inside, and they kept him inside with them for the rest of the night.  We’ll see what happens the next time they go out to the beach or for a bike ride.  The pork chops were delicious and the corn on the cob was as perfect as we have come to expect here. We read for a long time and got to bed late, but slept like logs.

Hiking and Caching

Tuesday – Aug 5

I was scheduled to work today, my usual day off, because Courtney wanted to trade.  Courtney has worked for Pat and Leroy for the past couple of years.  We thought we’d go to town and do a little caching before I had to go to the store at 3.  Bill had planned to work his regular outside hours tomorrow, and not go to the store in the evening, as Courtney doesn’t need or want an assistant.  That way, we’d have this morning and tomorrow afternoon as our “day off.”  We cooked pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast.  We messed up the kitchen but it is easier to clean than the one at the cottage, because it is small. 

As we were cleaning up, Pat came over to see if Bill wanted to finish re-booking this morning, and help me in the store for part of the evening.  That way we’ll have tomorrow off together.  Great idea!  We had already planned to do a couple of loads of laundry today, so Bill took one load to Pat’s house on his way to get the re-booking paperwork.  I took a shower, and then took the second load over, putting the first in the dryer.  See how exciting our days here can be?

I’m going to get a few caches loaded onto Garmy so we will have a full day of fun tomorrow.  We got an email from Joe and Gee with photos of JP, their grandson.  What a cutie!  He really adores Joe, his Ompah.

We just got home from the store, and we had a really busy afternoon/evening.  We booked all the sites in the field, but we didn’t overbook as we did a few nights ago.  So, Darren put the “No Vacancy” sign up.  It was quite peaceful without all those people stopping by pleading for sites.  Bill was in the store with me for a while but he had a headache, so he came home at 5:30 to take some aspirin and lie down for a while.  He came back at 6:15, feeling much better.  He has a lot of fun with all the kids who come up to the store to buy candy or ice cream.  Especially the little ones, who get up on the kid step so they can see over the counter.  Then they agonize over how to spend their quarter or, sometimes their $5.00. But, he also enjoys the older ones, who he can kid around with.  One little boy of about eight kept coming over and buying ten pieces of nickel candy.  After the fifth time, Bill asked him what he was doing with all the candy.  He pointed at a boy, about the same age, who was standing a couple of feet away, and said, “I’m selling it to him for a quarter.” Quite the little entrepreneur!  

At about 8:00, an older man walked up to the counter, while Bill and I were helping several customers.  He waited his turn, and I asked, “May I help you?”  He said, “My wife says I’m beyond help,” which sounds like something Bill might say.  I laughed and he put his hand out, with his fist closed and said, here.  I reached out to take his money, expecting him to tell me what he wanted to buy.  He leaned close and said, “I found this on the road over there, and I thought you could use it.  Shhhh!”  I took the money he handed me, thinking he was kidding around.  He turned around and walked away.  There were several people waiting so I stuck it in my pocket and after helping the rest of them, we looked at it.  It was a $20!  We were shocked and I can’t figure out why he gave it to me.  I don’t remember ever seeing him before. I thought that was the nicest thing and it was my best tip ever.

We are home, watching a little TV before bed.  We have a big caching day tomorrow.

Wednesday – August 6

Bill slept badly last night because his shoulder was hurting a lot.  It has been sore for a few days, but we thought that a couple of days without rake in hand would help.  He slept until almost 9:00 this morning, so we got a late start on our travels.

We drove to the other side of the lake, southwest of Kelowna, past where we had been before.  We got to our first cache at 10:30 and we kept plugging away until 3:30.  Lots of hiking, some easy walks and lots and lots of beautiful views.  I took a few pictures, but there was smoke in the air from a fire in Washington, so the visibility was not as good as I would have liked.

We went up into the mountains just across the lake from the campground.  The area was hit by a fire several years ago, but the forest wasn’t completely devastated.  We started climbing the trail from lake level, (why do we do these things when it’s 97 degrees?) and got up to where we had a great view of the campground.  The trail had a lot of switchbacks, so just as we were getting closer to the coordinates, we would have to turn and go the other way.  It was getting steeper and more rugged the higher we went.  After a half hour, we had only gotten 70 and 30 degrees closer to the cache with 50 to go in one direction and 20 in the other.  We hated to do it, but after looking ahead (UP) we gave up.  Whenever we do that, we say at least we had fun and got to see things we wouldn’t have seen if not for geocaching.

West Bay is right in the middle across the lake

We were totally frustrated by one of the caches in town.  We searched near a bus for almost an hour, because we knew it was within a 10 foot square area.  It was a micro, and those can sometimes be challenging.  We just couldn’t find it.  We hated to give up.  After finding 7 out of 9 caches, we stopped at 4:00 for lunch/dinner at a little bar and grill.  The food was okay, but nothing to write about, so I won’t.  We wanted to stop at Walmart to see if we could find a griddle to use on the barbeque, and we happened to have a cache marked just behind Walmart, so we were off for one last hunt.

We had trouble with this one, but we were at fault for it being so difficult.  We parked at the suggested spot, crossed the street and walked the wrong way.  We found a little field with a bit of a trail, but all we discovered was lots of junk and a huge black and white rabbit.  If we had walked the other direction, we would have found it much quicker, but it was 5:45, and 97 degrees,  so, we hopped in the car, and drove along the street, looking for a way in to the area we knew was hidden behind several car dealers.  We drove up Dilworth Mountain (déjà vu), looked down and there was the path, right behind those dealers.  We lined that up with the Home Depot and Michael's which were across the street, drove back, found the trail-head down a dirt road between two of the dealers, and found the cache with no problem.  We couldn’t believe we had passed right by it the first time we drove down the street.  

We headed home and read our books for a while before coming inside for the night.  As I am writing this, I am being buzzed by tiny little bugs which aren’t mosquitoes, but are bigger than gnats.  I don’t know where they are coming from, they are very annoying, and the screen is getting all blotchy from their squish marks, so, now, at 11:28, I’ll call it a night.

Wasps and Lightning

Thursday - August 7

The day went really fast and before we knew it we were getting ready for our day off.  On the way to the cottage, we looked for two caches.  The first one had stumped us on Wednesday, and I had emailed the owner to ask her for some insight into why we couldn’t find it.  She said, “As for "You're guess is as good as mine" you're looking too high (look low). There's an obvious spot on the artwork, but you might need a mirror (hole). I keep a cheap compact mirror from the dollar store in my pack for looking under and around things. Comes in handy when you're in a high traffic area and you're looking for a magnetic on a bench (that's not what this is by the way, there was too much paint on the metal for the magnet to stick).”    We thought we’d just hop out of the car and grab it.  Wrong!  We still couldn’t find it.  The only hole on the artwork was right at the bottom, with a metallic piece right in front of the hole.  Bill couldn’t get his hand inside, but he reached in with a finger and swept next to the opening.  Nothing.  It was very maddening.  We will try to remember to stop at a dollar store to see if we can find a little mirror and a flashlight.

Couldn't find this one

  

We also stopped off just the other side of Kelowna to find a cache called Swampland, but we think it should be called Mosquito city.  It was a quick and easy find.  Since we were already loaded up with mosquito repellant, we went to the Jack Seaton Park in Lake Country where we had been chased away by mosquitoes a week or so ago.  We had no trouble finding the huge box, stashed under some brush.  Then we had a decision to make.  It was 97 degrees at 4:45 and we knew we were kind of close to “Caves With a View”, which we had planned to go for a few weeks ago.  At that time, we thought the slope too steep for my problematic knees so we had planned to try to find another way.  The only road going close was marked “Private – No Trespassing”, so, although the instructions on the geocache page had said to go that way, we didn’t want to.  Garmy was showing us that Caves was directly in front of us, but several degrees away.  We decided to go for it. 

The trail started out with a nice easy climb.  We enjoyed the hike, crossed a private driveway, past the barking dogs and bleating goats, and through the split rail fence. By this time we were having second thoughts about the fact that we had forgotten to refill our water bottle, but we pushed on. It was a long climb to the summit, but we made it and found the caves, which were very intriguing , but we were so hot and tired, that we didn’t even attempt to go close and explore them, but in retrospect, that was probably a good decision, because who knows what might be living in a bunch of caves.  The actual cache was just a hundred yards past the largest cave, down a little bit of a slope and hidden inside of a rotted log.  The view from there of the Okanagan was crystal clear and the Kelowna bridge is somewhere between 20 and 30 miles away, but we could clearly see it.

 

This is one of the small caves

                                                                                   

                                                  

The Kelowna Bridge is the bright spot

 

We went on to the cottage, put the cold food in the fridge and jumped in the lake.  What a great feeling.  After a shower and a nice cool rest, we had steak, baked potato and corn on the cob for dinner. We watched the results of “So You Think You Can Dance”, and had a great night’s sleep.

Friday - August 8

I know what I said about spending Friday night at the cottage being too hectic on Saturday morning, since we have to start work at 8:30ish on Saturday morning, but we had spent such a wonderful evening at the cottage on Thursday, and we had gotten such a perfect night of sleep in the quiet with the roominess of the king-sized bed, that we just had to stay over for another night.  After a full morning of doing nothing except moving the sprinkler out in the fruit grove in the front of the cottage, we went to Winfield to get some soda, since we have been consuming the soda that was in the refrigerator.  We are also going to replace some other things, such as cereal and crackers, but we'll get those next time.  We wanted the soda for that evening. 

On the way, we drove a couple of miles out of the way to grab a cache that had eluded us two weeks ago.  We found it right away, so we were quite happy.  It involved a huge wasp nest but we don’t think there are any wasps living there any more.  We even made a little video of Bill poking at the nest with the stick, and screaming as I shut off the camera, as if he was being attacked.  We were going to send it to everyone who is getting our adventures sent to them, but we can’t send it, so I took a couple of still shots from it instead.

Still looking

The wasp nest

   

Anyway, we had already decided to spend Friday night, but we hadn't brought anything for dinner.  At Winfield, we spotted a little restaurant called L'Isola Bella Bistro.  OMG - the smell when we walked through the door made us think of a garlic festival.  I had baked lasagne and Bill had meat tortellini.  They were the best Italian dinners we've had since we used to go to Two Guys From Italy.  

After lunch, we drove over to Oyama to the little fruit stand we've gone to several times and picked up two dozen ham and cheese rolls for tomorrow's lunch.  I had asked Pat last week about doing that and she said we could try them.  When we left the fruit stand, we knew we were only 1000 meters away from a cache so we went over to Lake Kalamalka.  The clue sent us under a bridge where a troll hides his treasure.  How hard could that be?  Huh!  We searched high and low for a very long time but didn't find the treasure.  There was a railroad bridge next to the car bridge, and we inspected under that, too.  We even had our trusty flashlight so we could peer into hidey holes.  No luck.  Pooh!  We were hot and yucky after that, but we were had worn our swimsuits and taken towels with us, so we went down a little road to the lake and took a nice refreshing swim.  Then we set up our chairs and read for an hour before being chased away by a ferocious wind.  We stopped at a little store for a minute and the folks there were zipping up their windows (literally, as they had canvas and plastic for walls and windows.)  They said there was a major storm on the way, so we hurried back to the cottage.  After an hour there was no wind, no rain, and not a sign of a storm.  Oh well, we were coming back anyway.

Tony called.  After trying to get out of Louisiana for six years, he finally got word that he is being promoted to Senior Intelligence Analyst at the FBI headquarters in DC.  They have to try to sell their house for 30 days, and if it doesn’t sell, the government will buy it.  He and Anais are very happy to be getting out of Redneck country.  The DC area will be a great place to live!  There is so much history and exciting things to do.  They will ride their Harleys to that area in two weeks and store them, then fly back and finish packing.  Even though the government will arrange for everything, there are still things that they don’t want other people to mess with.  The training for the position will take place at Disney World in Florida and will last for one week.  Anais will go with him, and Tony said that at night, they will be visiting all the amusements in the area.

The storm rolled in around 9:00 and we sat on the deck in the lounge chair watching the lightning and listening to the thunder until about 10:00.  So relaxing.

Saturday – August 9

We were blasted out of bed at 5:45 by booming thunder right over our heads.  The storm had returned full force.  It poured and the lightning flashed for almost an hour and finally, we had to leave so we could get back in plenty of time.  The drive home was fine, even though it was raining, because there were almost no other cars on the road.  It rained raining almost all day, and the lightning has been intermittent. We learned something about a trailer.  Don’t go away for a long time, leaving your ceiling vents open.  When we got home in the morning, we had a puddle in the bathroom and a big wet area on the bed, that went all the way through the quilts sheets, and mattress pad to the mattress.  At 3:45 pm,  the quilt was still wet, although the bed dried so we were able to sleep in it that night.  We were glad that the second quilt was folded at the foot of the bed, so it escaped the deluge. Neither of us was happy with the thought of sleeping in the bunk beds.

The ham and cheese rolls were a huge success, and everyone wanted to know where we had bought them.  Nice to have an experiment that becomes a success.  

It has stormed for two hours and we were ready for it to stop.  We were stuck in this trailer!  Pat came over to visit at about 4:00, just as the storm was getting started.  She stayed for quite a while which was very nice because she doesn’t often take the time to just sit and talk.  We told her that we are seriously planning to come back next year, but we aren’t sure, yet.  We even have started a list of things we want to bring next time.  It will really depend on what kind of jobs we are able to find once we get back to Sparks.  The condo has been doing very well, so we are feeling a bit better about our future.

Sunday – August 10

The morning was gloomy and it rained a little bit.  We had to run the heater in the trailer off and on for most of the day.  I should say I ran it, because Bill was over at the beach in his bleached pink shorts and long sleeved shirt.  The shorts were kind of an accident.  He was washing the laundry room floor with bleach and his grey shorts got a little bit splashed.  So, when I did the laundry, I put a little bleach in the water to see if I could even out the color.  They came out a very splotchy pink.  Everyone thinks they look unique, and, even if there are 70 men walking around in shorts and a t-shirt, you can tell which one is Bill.

I stayed inside for most of the day, until the sun came out.  Darren brought back our picnic table, which we had donated for the long weekend due to the campground being over-full.  We moved it back onto our patio, and put the awning back out because the wind had finally stopped.  Bill came home for lunch and after we did the washrooms, we read a little bit outside until I had to go to the store at 4:00.  I wasn’t having very many customers, so Bill came over and we pulled as much stuff out of the store as we could and he washed the floor.  I checked in five campers into the field sites and two campers arrived who hadn’t made it here on Saturday.  At 8:00, Bill came back over to work with me and it got pretty busy, so I was glad he was there.   

Leroy walked up, looking a bit grumpy, and told us that someone had dropped a cell phone down one of the women’s toilets (why in the world she flushed it, I’ll never know!)  He said he would have to take the toilet apart to get to it.  I asked him why she would want the phone back, and he said it wasn’t to get the phone, but to keep the sewer from backing up.  He said he might give Bill a call later to have him help with the job, which would need to be done late, after the campers had finished with their night time showers, etc.

We came home and only sat up for a few minutes before heading off to bed.

Monday – August 11

I’m having trouble remembering what day it is.  Sometimes I have to ask Bill, or look at the computer to find out.  We had a cereal and banana breakfast this morning.  Bill’s shoulder felt a bit better when he got up, and he said he slept on his left side most of the night, so he will use a pillow behind his back tonight, to see if it will keep him from turning over.  He takes Aleve occasionally, but they make his stomach hurt, so he can’t take them regularly.

I got the store ready to open.  It involves writing on a form, how many of each kind of daily newspapers we get, marking the price on the papers, and putting them on the counter outside.  We also unlock the ice machine and check the tennis book to see if there are any times available.  Then it is just a matter of waiting for shoppers.  They usually show up before opening time to buy their morning paper, but I have learned that we can’t open early.  If we do, they just come earlier the next day.  In the early morning, we sell newspapers, milk, eggs, and candy mostly.  We sell candy to these kids all the time.  Sometimes I want to tell them to eat an apple for a snack instead of gobbling all that candy.

I went around re-booking about 20 campers, with a few others needing to find out if they can work their schedule so they can come here next year.  Only two said they aren’t coming back, due to personal things, not that they don’t like it here.  How could they not like it?  I also booked the condo for Easter week next April.  Bill had already talked to the people who booked, so all I had to do was give them a little information and tell them that I would put them on the calendar.  They now need to book a flight and then they will confirm it.

As I was walking across the campground, near the beach, I could see between the camp sites to the lake and the bank on the other side, and I couldn’t believe how clear and beautiful it was.  The water was sparkling and so blue.  There was a fire in Washington last week, which made the visibility very bad for a few days.

After my visits with the people, I went to Pat’s backyard to water the plants.  I found them very wet, and later found out that Bill had already watered them.  So, instead of watering, I dead-headed all the roses and geraniums.  

We met at the trailer for a little lunch and went out an hour later to clean the washrooms.  I found out that Leroy did tear the toilet apart last night, but it was after 11 so he got Ryan to help him rather than bothering Bill.  Thank you, Leroy!