Trippin’ Around North America

Saturday September 9th, on the Road!

Once again a flurry of chores to do . Finally at 11.30 AM, we pulled out.

Send-off party consisted of Jeanette and four girls.

This was our first time with a full load including bikes on the back. Seems OK. Stopped at Hope to see friends Jim and Irene Bulman, not at camp so off we go after soup for lunch.

Forest fires in Manning Park direct us via the Coquihalla Hwy. A very steep short-cut to Kelowna. Truck and Doug did well, slow going but no issues. Then to Merritt to top up gas and then via The Connector which seemed steeper than the "Coke", we peaked at 1724 meters. Truck still did well, so did Doug! Merritt is a logging town, doing a landslide business in "pine-beetle-killed logs".

We pulled into Holiday Park RV north of Kelowna. A somewhat largish, upscalish, complex with 650 sites, from Condos to back-ins. Only 50 sites are for overnighters like us. Fellette and I rode our bikes around and checked it out. Boy, there are a lot of people that seem to get enjoyment out of sitting under a tree or canopy reading or talking. We must try that sometime. Skads of "veteran" plates, and pleased to see old people trying to look young, by wearing shorts and riding bikes etc.

Dinner and to bed, tired. Up early for coffee and puttering to organize the quickly packed trailer. I forgot my slippers so we compiled a shopping list. Off to Wal-Mart early. Slippers cost $9.50 but but we ended up spending $52.00, [bits and pieces].

We went to visit Janet, Fellette's aunt, that is just a few years older. Janet never married, she looked after her ailing parents, then moved in with Fellette's step-mother [Ellen, 79] when Fellette's father [Wally] died in 1975. Now Ellen has Altzheimers and terminal cancer and is in a home. We went to see Ellen, stressful visit and then to dinner with Janet. We had a great time with her, earlier walking along the lake-front in kelowna for an hour catching up with old times. Fellette was very close to that family as her mother died when Fellette was three, Wally remarred when Fellette was seven, and became part of that large family of aunts and uncles. I took her away from that family when she married that dude Doug. Relations were not close after that. I gave Ellen a kiss on the cheek as we said goodbye, literally. That is the last time Fellette will see Ellen, we hope to see more of fun-loving Janet.

Not very exciting stuff folks, bit part of the fabric of life. Today we head up to Hwy. One and East, possible destination tonight, Golden, BC, in the Rockies.

We certainly enjoy this Satellite Radio thing, over 150 channels of listening selections, from classical to talk!

I can't find the spell-check in AOL, please forgive any errors!

posted by Doug and Fellette @ 8:28 AM