2008 Canadian Summer, Eh? Part Two - Settled In

Settled In For the Summer

July 15 – Tuesday

A day off is a wonderful thing.  We just messed around for most of the morning.  Around 10:30, we headed to Kelowna pick up some post cards, an alarm clock, and a printer, so I could print up some more business cards.  We figured a little portable one would be a nice addition to our office. 

We did some caching, but it was really hot, so we didn’t do very much.  When we got home, Bill started to hook up the printer and discovered that the sales clerk had been wrong about “any USB cord will work with this” so we couldn’t get it going.  We passed the rest of the day reading and relaxing.

July 16 – Wednesday

We tried out our new alarm clock, which we bought so that on Saturday morning at the cottage, we will be able to get up by 6:30, eat breakfast and get back here to work by 8:30.  We thought it would be nice to put it on the edge of the kitchen counter so we could see it from the bed and be able to know what time it was during the night without having to pick up a cell phone from the bedside table.  Unfortunately, the thing ticks so loud that we ended up putting it in the bathroom so we wouldn’t be able to hear it.  So much for knowing the time.  Of course it wouldn’t matter, but I have to open the gates by 6:30, three days a week so when I wake up at 4:30 or 5:00, and see that it is light, I need to know the time.  

Because I had the morning free, I thought I could borrow a cord to hook up the printer until we could buy one, so I could have some cards with me in the store that night.  I couldn’t find anyone who had a spare cord, so I drove into Westbank to buy one at Staples.  While there, I explored the town for a while and found another fruit stand.  I bought some cherries and some apricots.  We are loving the fresh fruit around here.  When I got home, I hooked up the printer, downloaded the software, and got it running all by myself!  That was really quite a feat, because, Bill is usually the one who takes care of that stuff.  I got the cards printed, but I wasn’t happy with the speed of the printer nor the fact that I had to hand feed each page into it.

I could see Bill raking, doing the recycling, watering, and doing general outdoor stuff from our picnic table, where I had set up the computer and printer.  He was so busy and I felt a little guilty, but he did get off work at 2:00 and I didn’t have to start until 4:00.   

I just got off at 9:00 and I had a great time at the store.  It was busy, but not frantic.  When I got there, there were 13 of the 15 field (overflow) sites available, and I booked 9 of them without any mistakes.  That probably doesn’t sound like anything special, but when you add the extra fee for kids, extra tents, and guests, it can get a little bit complicated.  

Bill joined me in the store from about 6 to 8, and that also made it more fun.  Jodi was only there for a total of 20 minutes, in three minute chunks, mostly to check and see if I needed any help.  She also took some of the cash away, which I was happy about, because I told her I don’t like having several hundred dollars in the register.  She said she was expecting me to call her with questions and was surprised that she hadn’t heard from me.  She checked all my bookings and visitor records and said they were perfect.

Tomorrow, I’ll be in the store from 9:00 to 1:00, clean the washrooms with Bill, and then we’ll be off to the cottage for a long holiday.  

July 19 – Saturday

We really enjoyed our time off.  We had dinner at the trailer at 3:30 so we could get an early start.  We headed for Costco and bought a few provisions and then we were on our way.  We did some caching.  One was at the Kelowna sign, one at a creek, and one at the airport.  

The cache was near the "K"

We also looked for one which we had tried for a couple of weeks ago.  This time we knew we had to drive all the way around to the other side of the airport to get to a dog park, and we found it, but the thistles were so thick that we gave up pretty quickly.  It wasn’t worth the search.  

We got to the cottage around 6 and got settled in for a relaxing evening.  We read until dark and got a great night’s sleep.  On Friday morning, I got up around 6 and watched a little TV, which put me back to sleep, and Bill rolled out around at 8ish.   We had picked up bacon, pancake mix, and real maple syrup so we could have a real breakfast.  Bill got the barbeque started and I prepared everything while he barbequed bacon.   Question – how can bacon be burned and raw at the same time?  We’re going to ask a couple of the campers how they manage to do their bacon directly on the grill, and it comes out perfectly.  

After breakfast (the pancakes and eggs were superb) we went out on the deck in our jammies to read to the sound of the water lapping the shore.  I fell asleep in the lounge and  didn't wake up until after 11!  When I went in to get dressed, Bill found a large bag and picked up a few trash piles that had been left after yard clean-up. 

He even wokrs on his day off

That's the way to relax

 So, I decided to take a walk.  I soon discovered that our road only goes on past 4 houses and dead ends at a driveway.  When I walked the other way, I found a community bulletin board and found out that there are concerts in Kopje Park or others in the area every weekend, so I decided that we should check it out. 

                                                                                            

                                                                                    

We drove over to Vernon via back roads and we found a cache on the way.  It would have been much closer to drive to Winfield for the milk we needed, but what fun would that have been?  There was a new type of coin (to us) called a Pathtag, which you can log and keep for a collection, so we now have an official Geo-collection.  As we got there the sky opened up and dumped rain on us so heavy and fast that we had a hard time seeing out the car window. 
Luckily, we were right next to an antique store, so we had a place in which to take shelter for a little while.  We later heard on the radio that Kelowna and Westbank were having another major storm and several boats had sunk.  We found a store to buy some milk and corn on the cob and we got gas at the unbelievably low price of $139.4 per liter.  A huge savings of 5 cents from the last time we got gas.  

When we got back to the cottage, we had barbequed hot dogs, corn and salad.  At 6:15, we drove the ¼ mile to the park for the evening concert (hey, it was uphill and we were taking chairs and blankets, so we didn’t want to walk), only to find that it was cancelled due to the threat of thunderstorms.  So we went back to the cottage and picked some cherries and apricots to take back to camp for the week.  After that we read in the incredible brightness of the sun on the deck until it got too cold to stay out.  We watched “Wedding Crashers” and got to bed just after 10.  

This morning, even though we had the alarm set for 6, both of us woke up at 4, and couldn’t get back into a sound sleep, so at 5 we decided to get up and get ready to go.   We watched a half hour on the comedy channel and left at 5:40.  We had a wonderful drive back because there was no traffic and we made all the lights going through Kelowna.  We got back in just 40 minutes.

July 19 – Saturday continued.

We had time to put all our stuff away and sit outside to read before having breakfast.  We decided that we liked being able to sleep at the cottage for two nights.  We have to figure out how to pack without so much hassle.  The problem is that we didn’t bring all that many clothes with us from home, so we can’t just leave things at the cottage for the next trip.  We did leave our swim suits, water shoes and big, fluffy beach towels there along with spare toothbrushes, toothpaste and shampoo, so we aren’t lugging them back and forth.

It was a typical Saturday.  As the people in the rental trailers moved out, Bill washed trailers and then he raked the grounds and watered.  Pat is quite a water fanatic, which is why the grass is so green and lush. Unfortunately, the trees suck the water up so it takes a lot of watering to keep it that way.   When his work day was over, he went home and showered and napped until I got home.

I spent more time in the store which freed Jodi up to work on other things.  I have gotten proficient at checking people in.  It sounds as if that would be easy, but we have sites that run from $48.00 to $60.00 per night, depending on where they are, if they are 15 or 30 amps, if they have cable, and if they have sewer.  Also, we charge for kids, and boats, so no two check-ins are ever the same.  After the store, I went to the house to start lunch, wash and dry the mattress pads from 6 trailers, sweep and wash the floors, vacuum and iron.  I finished at 3:30 and made my way home to shower and take a wonderfully refreshing nap.

Sunday and Monday – July 20 and 21

Same old stuff, different days.    I’ve mentioned all these people so I’ll tell a little about who everyone is.  Pat and Leroy are people we met at the Kamaole Sands pool in Maui in 2004, after we had already decided to move back to Sparks.  We enjoyed their company, and we invited them to Thanksgiving dinner with some of the other Kam owners down at the pool.  They have been staying in our condo every year for about one month ever since.  

Kari is their oldest and the only daughter and she is married to Alan.  They have a two-year- old boy, Ethan and another baby due in January. They both work at the campground occasionally, but they also work at a local market, he is a pharmacist and she works in the bakery.

Darren is their older son, married to Jodi.  Jodi is Pat’s main office assistant.  They do all the reservations and bookings which is a very complicated process, along with other things I can’t even begin to understand.  Darren is pretty much in charge of the grounds work along with Leroy.  Darren and Jodi have a two-year-old girl, Jada.    Jada and Ethan are best buddies and it is so much fun to watch their interactions.  Jada is very outgoing and Ethan is a little more reserved.

Ryan is the younger son and just got married to Abby in Jamaica.  They work at the campground during the summer, but they live in Calgary and will be going to Australia soon to teach for a year.  So, they will be missing from the mix next year.

Tuesday – July 22

We decided to get an early start on caching, because it was going to be another hot day.  We started out at 8:15 and headed over to the public beach, where we easily found our first treasure of the day.  Actually, the first one was a “park and look”.  All we had to do was email the answers to a couple of geographical questions to the cache owner and post a photo of our GPS in front of the crater filled hill.  

 

With Garmy in fromt of Craters

That was quickly followed by two more which involved a little hiking.  Then we drove up the hill and parked at a trail-head.  We got out, forgot to take our water, and headed into the forest.  There were lots of uphills and it was already hot, but we knew that hiking out would be easy, so we persevered.  After 40 minutes, and an elevation change of over 500 feet, we had a big change of heart when we found FRESH bear poop.    

Pointing out the bear poop

We knew, from the coordinates, that we were getting close, but, according to the directions, we had to go up a cliff, which was described as “Be careful at the cache site as the terrain is steep and a fall could result in serious injury.”  We made the decision to turn back, but we didn’t count it as a failure because we had an exhilarating hike, good exercise and fresh air, and lots of fun.

We headed into Westbank and did a couple of quick errands, then we went up above the highway to find another cache.  We stopped at the Cherry Pit restaurant, which turned out to have delicious food at reasonable prices – a first since we’ve been in Canada. 

On the way home, we had to stop to look for one more cache, luckily it wasn’t too difficult to find, although the path was rough and rocky.  I had my trusty hiking stick, but I stepped wrong and fell, twisting my worst knee.  After sitting there moaning about how stupid I had been, Bill hauled me up and we left.  We got home at 1:30 and spent the rest of the day sitting in the shade outside our trailer, and reading.  For dinner, we had chicken salads with flax crackers and for dessert, we were bad and had apple strudel, which we had picked up during our trip through Westbank.  I thought my knee would be hurting like crazy, but it wasn’t bad.

Wednesday – July 23

We woke up to rain late last night and it has been raining on and off all night.  It’s a nice change, but the campers are grumbling.  I guess boating in the rain isn’t much fun.  I had to open the gates this morning so when I woke up at 5:45 and noticed that it wasn’t raining, I quickly zipped over to do that and my washroom check and got back into bed just as the rain started again.  Great timing, eh?  Bill is at work and I will be at the store from 4 to 9.  I got a call from our friend, Sherry, and she and Ennio have been busy geocaching in their beautiful mountains in McCall, Idaho.  We introduced Ennio and Sherry to caching when we visited them on the way up here at the end of June.  They were hooked on it right away, and they have already found more caches than we have.  It was so nice to talk with someone about something besides the camp.  Besides that, I just enjoy talking to her anytime. 

Thursday – July 24

So, Pat and Jodi said that I have finally become one of the family.  It only took four weeks for me to lose my nice guy act and get there.  It happened like this…  I was working in the store this morning, mostly selling candy, slushies, ice and newspapers, and giving out lots of change for the laundry and the video games.  Jodi was there part of the time, but she was working on next week’s bookings.  The phone was ringing off the hook during all this and I was considering unplugging it, as Pat has told me that I can do any time the store is busy.  But, I haven’t wanted to do that, because whenever I tell someone we have some available spots in the overflow, and they come in and decide to stay, I feel good that we had made money where we might not have done so if I hadn’t answered the phone in the first place.   This morning, though, it was the same thing over and over – “Do you have any sites available for the week of…” “We’re going to be driving there from Seattle.  Can hold a spot for us for tonight…we’ll be there in 6 hours.” “I know you don’t take pets, but we have just a very small dog and it never barks. “ (It probably never poops, either!)  “We’re driving in from Moose Jaw today (a 16 hour drive).  Can you hold a spot for us?  We’ll be there around midnight…will you stay open late so we can check in?”  Insert scream here.  I had reached the end of my rope after the last call, and there were no customers nearby, so I turned to Jodi and said, “I don’t give a fig what your story is, just drive in and see if we have a place to stick your stupid tent!!”

Jodi just burst out laughing and that’s when she told me I am now family.  Pat got back from the cottage a little after that, and Jodi told her what had happened.  Just then two of the campers, who are friends of Pat’s, walked up and Pat went into her “camper from hell” routine.  She had us all in stitches, and her monologue rivaled anything that you could find on the comedy channel.  

We finished our day, and got out of there as quickly as we could.  We had a nice leisurely drive to the cottage.  We ate dinner on the deck and started our evening reading.  But, around 8ish, we noticed airplanes circling low over the lake and the house.  We walked to the end of the dock and counted five of them, all heading toward Winfield and coming back again and again, and we could see smoke snaking up from that direction.   

We were a bit concerned, but we couldn’t smell any smoke.  TV news is a joke here because everything comes out of Seattle, so I called Pat to see if they had heard anything about a fire nearby and they hadn’t.  I assured her that we would watch and if we had to leave, we would take her computer and her quilts.  Some of the neighbors hopped on their boats and zipped over that way to see if they could find out anything.  They came back a little while later and went inside, so we figured we were safe.  We stayed up until midnight and no firemen came to tell us to leave.   When we saw Pat the next time, she told us that there had been a fire very close to us, but that it was controlled pretty quickly. 

Friday, July 25

We had a wonderful day off.  We got up at 7 and read on the deck with orange juice and coffee.  At 8:30, we fixed bacon, eggs and pancakes.  After that, we did a little bit of yard clean-up, and I got four dozen apricots to bring back to camp, most of which I will take to the house tomorrow to serve with the employee lunch.  

Raking up the fruit

By noon, it was hot – over 30 degrees, so we decided that the time had come to try out the lake.  We took the float out with us, and we had a blast.  The water was cold, but not as cold as Lake Tahoe.  Then again, we used swim in Tahoe when we were much younger.  Old bodies do better in tropical temperatures, much like they have in the Maui area.

My turn

    

We thought about taking the kayaks out, but we had so much fun just paddling around on the float, that we didn’t bother to get them out,

We had hamburgers, corn on the cob and baked beans for dinner, early, around 3:30, and we left at 5:00 because I had a mucho bad headache and I hadn’t taken the bag of pain meds with us.  We found one easy cache on the way home out of the four we looked for, and got here at 7:00.  So, tomorrow is another fun filled Saturday.  Lots of the friends we have made, who stayed for a whole month are leaving and there will be about sixty new families to get used to over the next few days.