Sunny Oliver

It is a cold windy evening in Cochrane Alberta and Gail is finishing the dishes. We watched 2 episodes of " 24 hours " and had a Great Pasta Dinner. Lots to update. It was an uneventful trip from Kamloops to Oliver. It seemed like going home as we arrived at the Desert Gem Rv Resort. http://www.desertgemrv.com/ We have stayed there for the past 3 years as we passed through. It is a great park located centrally in Oliver and Gail likes to walk uptown. We spent 5 days there doing our usual activities. Most people don't realize that there is a lake in Oliver called Tuc-El-Nuit-Lake. There is a Lakeside Rv resort called Desert Lake RV Resort. http://www.camping.bc.ca/Desert_Lake_RV_Resort_1095MID.aspx This park is on the lake and is a spectacular location. We were told that the owners are trying to just rent to long term tenants rather that transients however it is worth a look and is listed in Woodall's.

Oliver is great for bikers. My favorite trip is Twin Lakes to Oliver. It is about 40KM to Twin Lakes which has a Golf Course. Gail and I drive up for lunch and I ride back. Yes !!! I let Gail drive the truck. The trip from TL to Oliver is all downhill through rolling hills and some steep drops. Breath taking scenery but not much exercise. It takes about 2 hours. The second trip was to ride to Osoyoos. There is a paved trail to Osoyoos and I always wanted to ride it. It was day that the temp went to 33 degrees. Off I went around 1 PM with the thought of a Peanut Buster Parfait at Dairy Queen. I got within 2 KM of Osoyoos and the trail terminated. Rats !!! I rode back about 5 KM and crossed a bridge and went down the other side of the river but ended up it Indian Land with a" DO NOT ENTER" sign on the road. By this time my I was hot and my DQ stop not going to happen. I called Gail and she drove the truck down from Oliver and picked me up. We then drove to the DQ in Osoyoos and had a treat.

No visit to Oliver is complete without a Pizza from Yum Yums. 250- 498-4039. We think this is the BEST Pizza we have tasted. A trip to our favorite winery, Tinhorn Creek, is always fun and this year we went to Osoyoos and visited the Home Hardware Store. This won the title for " Best Hardware Store " of the year. It is amazing what they have in it. If you pass through make sure you stop and check it out. Friday morning came and we left Oliver under sunny skies for Nelson.

Saturday afternoon we arrived at Birch Grove RV Park .http://www.camping.bc.ca/Birch_Grove_RV_Park__Marina_1074MID.aspx . This park is located 30 minutes past Nelson just 2 km before you get to Balfour. Got a site right on the water. We decided to take the ferry from Balfour across the lake bypassing the Kootenay Pass. This probably saved me $100 in gas and the ferry trip is FREE. It is a big ship holding about 120 cars. We visited Gail's Uncle Bob Dunn who is always a gracious host and had a tasty supper for us. Picture perfect weather. We got up early to catch the 8:10 ferry as it was the long weekend. Arrived 45 minutes before sailing but there were only 3 cars in the lineup!!! The ferry was only 20% full as we went across the lake for a 30 minute trip. Windy road around the lake and made it to Fort Steele Campground around 2 PM. http://www.fortsteele.com/ . We were at the fort last year so just spent the afternoon lounging in the sun. Nice Park in a beautiful setting. It is interesting that I paid $1.20/L for diesel in Kamloops but $1.45 in Nelsen. A search of the Internet revealed Nelson had the highest gas prices in Canada !!!

This morning we left for Cochrane Alberta going over the Crows Nest Pass. Traffic was light and easy driving as we missed the BIG Kootenay Pass. We turned left onto Highway 22 and came north to Cochrane. This is one of the most scenic drives in Canada. Today there was not a cloud in the sky. Just sun- rolling hills- with a back drop of the Rocky Mountains.
Arrived in Cochrane and are staying at the Bow Rivers Edge Campground. http://www.bowriversedge.com/ . A great resort right on the Bow River. Off to Edmonton tomorrow where we will visit family and stay for two weeks.

Thank you - Kamloops

We have settled into our favorite RV Park in Oliver and it is a cloudy day with some rain forecast so I am updating our Blog. However the weather forecast for the next 4 days is up to 33 degrees. Wow !! Going to have to try out the Air Conditioner. We had a great time in Kamloops and found everyone so friendly. We stayed at the Kamloops RV Park about 10 km east of Kamloops on High1-East. http://kamloopsrvpark.kamloops.com/ It is part of the Kamloops Wildlife Park. The staff were friendly but I got the feeling the park has been neglected over the past few years. There seems to be an effort to correct this and they seem to be putting more money into it.

When we owned a boat we used to put into port for repairs. Well Kamloops was our Repair Center and did we got lots of support. I noticed a leak under our Rv and correctly found the problem as a leaking water pump. I didn't winterize the trailer as it was stored indoors but suspect that was a mistake. Likely the pump had some water in it and froze even though we drained the lines. BIG PROBLEM. On our way in to Kamloops I noticed South Thompson Rv http://www.souththompsonrv.com/ and dropped in to talk to their service dept. Donna was the service manager and was very helpful. She understood it was a huge problem to move our RV and offered her head Tech.. James to come out that evening and put a new pump in. A " House Call from a RV dealer " ... James came out that evening and put a new pump in. He left with a fine bottle of wine and lots of thanks. Now we still needed to deal with my back bumper. On my bicycling route I noticed a welding/ fabricating shop just two blocks from our park. I stopped in and met the owner.. Darren. http://www.4-dwelding.com/ . He
offered to come down have a look at my bumper. A welder doing a house call??? He quickly found the problem which was two loose bolts on the bumper that needed tightening. No Major welding needed. He helped my level the bumper and tighten the bolts. Problem solved. Darren as well left with my best bottle of red wine as he wouldn't take any money. Kamloops was a great place thanks to people like Darren & James.

Gail's cousin read our Blog and realized they would be going through Kamloops to Nelson. Sherry and Norm dropped in around 10 AM for a nice visit. Friday evening we went to Phil and Jill McVie's for dinner. They are long time friends from Comox who we have kept in touch with over the years. We had a great dinner with Julie's potatoes.. a big hit. Spent the evening discussing the children and family. They have a wonderful house with a great view over the Valley. They have done some upgrading over the past few years and it is really nice. On Saturday Brent Mitchell arrived about 3 pm and sampled my scotch. Brent is a long time friend from Clinicare who was coming to Kamloops to visit his mother who lives at Berwick Place.
We went over for appetizers at 5 PM and met his mom, Eileen. We then went to Ric's Mediterranean Grill for dinner. Great evening with both Mitchell's being gracious hosts. We said good bye and made it back to our RV for a good nights rest before moving on to Oliver.

The trip to Oliver was about 4 hours and uneventful except it rained most of the trip. This is always a pain in the butt as it involves 3 hours of washing the RV when we arrive. We are safe in Oliver and will be leaving this Friday.

Bloging.. Our long time friends Don & Norma Bays are travelling in Italy and read our Blog at a Internet cafe. They sent us an E-mail from the other side of the world. Isn't Internet great !!!

Kamloops Pictures http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtbrown/sets/72157605017191228/

Kamloops

Kamloops BC

It is a rainy Wednesday afternoon in Kamloops so Gail is making Tea and I am updating the Blog.
We had a great 10 days in Vancouver and it was sad to leave. Alan and Kazuko are always such good hosts and Mom enjoys having here two sons around. When we arrived Kazuko had arranged dinner for the first couple of days. You will see pics of us leaving Vancouver Island and lunch on the ferry that Mom bought. Burnaby RV is a great place and consistently rated #1 in Canada. I went about connecting all the RV lifelines like sewer, water and Satellite TV. All worked just fine. Tuesday evening we drove over to Lesley Anne's office and had the Royal Tour.
You will see pics of her office and dinner at our place. The week passed quickly and Saturday morning LA had us to her appt for a Gourmet Breakfast. Blueberry pancakes and Maple syrup !!!! We then left for a walk around False Creek where LA's company had built an Island for Habitat Compensation. We did some shopping and back to our place for dinner. We had Alan & Crew over as well. LA spent the night in our RV and I cooked Scrambled Eggs in our new " Magic Bullet ". Lunch on Main street and then some shopping before saying a farewell goodbye to LA.
Sunday evening back to Al's for great steak dinner on his new deck. For our send off Monday Mom took us all out for dinner at Boston Pizza. You will see her paying with her credit card. It was good by to Burnaby Tuesday Morning.

As we left Vancouver I felt a little home sick. Leaving Mom is always a difficult decision but will be flying back to Comox the end of June for her birthday. It was a sunny Tuesday as we made our way to Hope and over the Coquihalla Highway. Just after the Toll Booth we stopped at the summit for lunch. Disaster Struck!!! The bike rack on the rear of our RV was too heavy and despite being welded to he frame bent it. The caused a bold to pop through the fiberglass on the rear bumper. Now this was a huge problem as I had to move the bikes off the back stand and into the RV. My nice orderly RV was now filed with dirty bikes. I new there would be challenges as left for a year but not our first week out. Not sure what I am going to do. We will see if a welder can strengthen up the bracing.

We are staying about 10 km east of Kamloops at Kamloops RV park. http://kamloopsrvpark.kamloops.com/ It is OK but a little run down but OK. We are next to a mountain so satellite TV is unavailable and cable TV is only available on the other side of the park????? Gail and I might have to talk to each other!! We are meeting long time friends Phil & Jill McVie for dinner at their house Friday Evening. Saturday- Brent Mitchell is arriving from Calgary and we are going to meet his Mom for dinner. Then Sunday we are off to the Desert Gem in Oliver.
http://www.desertgemrv.com/ This is a first class RV resort that we have stayed in many times before.

We are both exercising daily. I bike ride for two hours on non driving days and Gail does Yoga in the RV. The Pictures of our discussed above can be found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtbrown/collections/72157604941300131/