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.

We stopped by the lakeside park and had some lunch, and then filled Sherman's water tank with the available potable water faucet. Next stop was the gas station right at the border crossing where they had fuel for $3.30 USD per gallon ($1.15 CAD per liter).

With Sherman filled to the rim, we shouldn't need to put any more expensive Canadian gas in him. This full tank should get us through the balance of our time in British Columbia, and we can put more fuel in again when we get back into the U.S. in mid October.

With that done, we headed to the border.

The officer asked the standard questions, and we answered everything truthfully including the $1,250 CAD we spent on Sherman. But, $800 of that was in labor, and they didn't seem interested in that. We also told them how we had 11 liters of wine with us, and 17 cans of beer.

They told us they had to charge us the duty on the alcohol, and that Sherman was flagged by the computer for a random inspection.

We pulled off to the side and went indoors.

Two officers went out to Sherman, but were back inside within 5 minutes. The female one called us up to the cash and after all was said and done we had to pay a further $27.15 CAD ($21 USD) on the booze. The invoice breakdown said they charged us for 8 liters of wine (we are allowed 1.5 liters each duty free)... $5.04 was duty, $1.23 was GST, and $20.88 was Provincial Liquor Markup Fee.

Or put simply, profit.

Oh well... we knew there was a chance that we would have to pay, and we're still slightly ahead of where we would have been had we just purchased in Canada. Besides, she forgot to include the 17 cans of beer! When I asked what part of the breakdown was for the beer, she looked up and said "oh... I forgot about that" and laughed saying we got some cheap beer. Nice.

There was no extra charge for any of Sherman's mechanical repairs.

With that done, we were back in Canada.

Ruth wanted to see a nearby attraction called Spotted Lake, so we took a small detour to stop in there.

The Osoyoos Lake Valley on the Canadian side.

Spotted Lake.

A better view of Spotted Lake.

Normally, at this time of year the water is lower and the spots are the only part showing. You can see more here... http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/canada/osoyoos-bc/spotted-lake-klikuk

Heading back down to the valley.

Lots of orchards and vineyards here!

Our next stop was to meet a reader of this blog. You know him in the comments section as Carwash Scott!

Scott knew we were coming through this area, and wanted to thank us because he enjoys reading about our daily adventures! He owns a carwash and propane fill station in the town of Oliver, and had offered to fill up Sherman's propane tank for us!

Kevin and Scott filling Sherman's propane.

Not only that, but he invited us to park for the night in behind the carwash, with full access to his super fast wifi!

Thanks for looking after us Scott!

Then, our Cabri friends Jan and Marnett came to pick us up. They are staying at a local RV park for a month and invited us over for a glass of wine (or two!).

Kevin, Jan, and Marnett.

Lots of fun getting caught up on Cabri stuff, and we had an enjoyable afternoon and evening. Thanks for having us over!

Now, we need to get moving every day. We're actually behind schedule (not that we really had one) due to our unexpected 9 days in the U.S.. So we're going to have to change our route a little bit.

We had originally planned on going up and over to Squamish, north of Vancouver. But that's not going to happen now. Instead, we're going up through Kelowna to Vernon, then over to Kamloops, then south to Hope and then White Rock area where Sherman will be left at friends Bernd and Angelika while we go back to Ontario for almost three weeks.

Sherman's route over the next 10 days.

We have an appointment with a shop in Kelown to do Sherman's alignment on Tuesday morning.

Today, we're going to meet the campground managers at the Twin Lakes Golf Course and RV Park where we've been invited to stay as guests for a night!

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Nice price drop on Coleman's standard two person tent!

And in Canada...

Murder She Wrote