Busy couple of days!

Well, a little catching up to do today as we missed doing a blog post yesterday. That hasn't happened for a long time!

When the alarm went off yesterday morning at 6:30am, we proceeded to fall right back to sleep because the AirBnb where we are staying has a third occupant in the room beside us who was not very quiet!

Always love to get a great deal!

Went out for a 9 km (5.6 mile) walk yesterday before lunch. Took us an hour and a half, so we had a pretty decent pace going.

Not that scenic though... just went through a few neighborhoods here in Hamilton, Ontario, and then up on the escarpment that gave us some views, although the views weren't that spectacular!

Younger next year

Well, we got caught up on our sleep, and really didn't do much of anything else yesterday. I had already got my exercise for the day when I walked from the airport to the car rental place. I did exactly 4 kms (2.5 miles) in 36 minutes so I was moving at a pretty fast pace!

When we were visiting my uncle in Prince George last month, he gave me a book to read. He's 73 years old, and in pretty good shape. They do lots of hiking, biking, and kayaking.

Made it to Ontario

Another nice day yesterday in Crescent Beach, British Columbia.

Just hung around and chatted for the morning, and Ruth did a bunch of laundry and got the fridge cleaned and made some enchiladas for lunch for the four of us.

While she was doing all of that, I was cleaning Sherman's awning.

Beautiful day in Crescent Beach

Gorgeous fall day yesterday. High of about 18C (65F) and beautiful sunshine.

Went for a walk before lunch yesterday just to explore the area. Crescent Beach used to be an area where Vancouverites would have summer cottages, but as the greater city expanded, it is now full of expensive homes itself as many of the cottage properties have been removed and big pricey homes have been put in.

Fun times at the big RV Show

We said goodbye to longtime friends Cory and Elaine. We've known them 11 years and yet we've only spent time together twice! But getting together is almost like we do so on a much more regular basis. Lots of laughs, and I'm sure we'll be seeing them again sooner than 11 years from now!

We hit the road, heading towards Vancouver, and the big Abbotsford RV show.

Future travel plans

Yesterday was the first time in a long time that we did not take any photos! That's because it poured with rain pretty much the whole day. Once in the afternoon it stopped for a few minutes, and Ruth and I decided to go for a walk and get some exercise. We went into the motorhome to get our jackets on, and it started spitting again. We thought we would wait it out a few minutes, but it just got heavier, and heavier.

I went to have a nap instead!

In true "Kevin and Ruth" style, we found a cheaper way

Said goodbye to our new friends Alison and Richard at about 10:30am. Richard had actually left for work at 7:00am, so it was only Alison and the dog, Roxy left behind.

We left Savona, and had a short drive to Cache Creek where we would then head south towards Hope, British Columbia... about a 232 km (144 mile) drive.

Lots of people to visit in this area!

As we were saying goodbye to Lorraine and David, she suggested that we stop in at the O'Keefe Ranch where David was doing some work. It was along our way anyhow and we were certainly curious about what he was building there.

He had told us about the short term contract he was completing there... constructing the popular "Field of Screams" haunted corn maze in time for the Halloween season!

Finally, Sherman's repairs are complete!

We arrived at the Kal Tire store at the north end of Vernon at around 9:00am. When it was my turn at the front counter, I pointed back at the motorhome and explained that I'm trying to get a front wheel alignment. The guy took a glance over towards Sherman and said "it won't fit on our alignment rack."

I walked out of the office and past the service bays. And as I walked past the bays with the wheel alignment machines I thought to myself "why won't it fit??"

So I returned to the office to ask the question.

This is becoming a frustrating problem.

So at 8:00am yesterday, we arrived at the place in Kelowna where we had an appointment for Sherman's wheel alignment. They took one look at him and said "oh, sorry, we can't do an alignment on that... the heads don't stick out far enough from the wheels".

And I knew exactly what they meant... some laser wheel alignment machines have heads that mount onto the front wheels, and because Sherman's wheels are inset from the body, they wouldn't be able to read the laser properly.

So that was a waste of time.

Kelowna is definitely a bike friendly city

We had an early lunch and set off for a bike ride. Actually, the plan was a combination bike  and hike, but when we got to the top of the hill the burnt trees from recent forest fires didn't look that enticing for a great hiking experience, so we headed back down the hill and used some of the many bike trails in Kelowna area.

It's definitely a bicycle friendly city.

The big city...

With a population of around 130,000 people, Kelowna obviously isn't that big of a city. But it's the biggest city that we've been around since we skirted around the Edmonton area at the end of May. And it's pretty busy, and there seems to be a lot of traffic. But I guess that's the case with any city, isn't it?

I guess we've been out in the countryside for too long!

Just another great day living and traveling in a motorhome

Woke up here at Twin Lakes Golf and RV Resort and had pretty much decided to stay another day. There's a short hike up the hill behind the park that we wanted to do, and the back roads here are great for cycling. In keeping with our desire to stay active, it seemed like a good spot to spend a day.

Plus, we didn't really want to be in Kelowna until this afternoon, and staying here would mean we didn't have to look for another spot to stay along the way. Besides, Kelowna is only 88 kms (55 miles) away.

Getting lots of use with our new bikes!

In Oliver, we noticed a Telus cellular store across the street from where we had been parked at the car wash. Our cell phone hasn't been working for about two weeks now. I'm still using a Telcel Mexico SIM card in it, but I didn't know if the problem was with the SIM card, or the phone itself. I had done an online chat with Telcel, and their records show that the account is active and there are no problems.

When in the Telus store, we put the Telcel SIM card in the sales girl's phone. Nope. "Cannot register on Network". However putting her SIM card in our phone? It worked right away. So at least we know the problem is not with our hardware.

Repairs done, and back in Canada!

We spent yesterday morning at the mechanic shop in Oroville, Washington. Arrived at 9:00am, and they went right to work changing Sherman's right lower ball joint and control arm assembly. We stayed in the waiting room for the entire 3 hours it took to perform the operation.

The patient came though it all successfully, but he still needs a wheel alignment.

A short hike is better than no hike at all!

First thing yesterday morning, we drove into town from our camping spot out at Palmer Lake. No traffic on the road at all, except for one border patrol vehicle that passed us.

Got ourselves parked up in our usual spot behind the public library in Oroville. We've been here in the Oroville area since September 4th now! On that day, I said "No worries, we have lots of time and can wait here a week if we have to."

Our package appears to be on its way this afternoon

We dropped off the part to be returned at the Fedex outlet near Oroville, WA. In the meantime, I was keeping an eye on the tracking details for the shipment we are waiting for.

The part had shipped from Seattle... so you would think it would not take long to get to Oroville! However... they shipped it to Oakland, California first! Then, it flew from Oakland to Spokane, where it is now awaiting delivery by truck to Oroville... scheduled to arrive before 4:30pm this afternoon!

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Change of scenery

I spent much of yesterday morning getting our part sorted out for Sherman. That part is now on it's way from Seattle, but likely won't arrive until tomorrow. And, of course we still have to get the incorrect part returned to the supplier who sold it to us. They sent us a shipping label, and we have to take the part to the Fedex pickup location here in Oroville this morning in order to return it and receive credit.

We went over to the park where our friend Tioga George is still patiently awaiting the possible return of his pet Boid.

Stuck in Oroville, Washington.

Which is not too bad, really. It's better than being stuck in Tuk!

But, we really had no intention on being in the U.S. quite this long. It was supposed to be two to three days, and now we're going on six days and it will probably be three more! All because of a mis-packaged part!

Rattlesnake!

Yesterday morning, we did a nice bike ride along the Similkameen River. It's an old railway line that's been turned into a horse/walk/bike trail. So far, it's only 4 miles (7 kms) long, so 8 miles (14 kms) return. But there are plans to extend it, and based on how they've done it so far, it's a fairly expensive trail!

It was another beautiful day, and the temperatures have cooled off a bit. High of about 75F (24C).

It's a good thing we like it here!

Because it looks like we're staying a few more days.

We had Sherman at the mechanic's for 9:00am, as agreed. We got the bikes off the back, and left Sherman to have his lower control arms installed, as well as the new bell crank for the driver's side that I had bought in the spring and never had installed.

We rode our bikes from the mechanic's to the park where our friend Tioga George was looking for his missing Boid.

August Expenses

Well, I had better stop procrastinating on this!

August was another expensive month. In fact, 2018 is ramping up to be our most expensive year ever since we embarked on this travel based lifestyle in 2007!

Mostly, related to motorhome expenses. Sherman treated us really well the first ten years, with only minimal basic maintenance type of expenses. And, it helped that I was able to perform a lot of the repairs myself. But this year there has been a lot of stuff, starting with the break down we had in Mexico.

Meeting Tioga George!

They were calling for a warm day, so we got a fairly early start on our hike up Whistler's Canyon. Plus, we had made plans to meet a special visitor after lunch, so we didn't want to be too late returning from our hike.

I had sort of figured that it was about a 6 mile (10 km) hike, but as we got into it I realized that it would be a little longer than that!

Everything ran perfectly!

We left our fantastic free overnight spot at the trailhead and drove the short distance into town and parked up behind the library to use their fast free wifi internet. One of the things I had to do was to track down what happened to the other control arm we were waiting on for Sherman.

Long story short, it turned out that it had to be shipped from a different warehouse, and that warehouse was located in Indiana. Even though I had ordered it through Amazon, it was a 3rd party supplier and they made an error by only sending one tracking number.

Into the United States for a few days

Wow... we loved this area between Greenwood and Osoyoos, British Columbia. Just gorgeous scenery.

We stayed in the supposedly $10 a night municipal campground in Greenwood. The sign said that someone would be by to collect the fee... but nobody ever showed up. So we left. Don't feel too guilty about it though... we donated $10 to their library for some used books. And really, if you're not going to come and collect the money, then we don't have a lot of sympathy for your loss! It was just dry camping anyhow... no hookups, so we didn't cost them anything by staying there.

Movin' on down the road...

We said goodbye to friends Betty and Jim yesterday morning, after Betty made us delicious omelettes for breakfast! They sure looked after us... thanks guys!

Again, we did not drive far. Our destination was the "smallest city in British Columbia"... Greenwood, population 708.

There were still bugs from the Yukon plastered on there!

We had breakfast together at Jim and Betty's place. Ruth made some pancakes and we brought over a jug of our coveted real Canadian maple syrup to share with them.

Then, we had a walking tour of their 10 acre property here beside the Kettle River and then set out in their car to have a look at some of the sites to see in the Christina Lake area.

Arrived in time for happy hour!

We woke up to a bit of a smoky day in Castlegar, but we decided to go to a park and get a bike ride in. Not much to see in the downtown area, but we did enjoy the riverfront path and a visit to Zuckerberg Island.

After lunch, we drove to the Christina Lake area, still heading west on highway 3 towards Osoyoos.

Spent some more money

I'm not looking forward to adding up our August expense report later on today! It was another costly month! And we added to it again yesterday.

We drove from Salmo to Castlegar yesterday, as we are slowly making our way west to Osoyoos.