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!