A STEALTH MOVE AWAY FROM THE SHUSWAP

We hit the road yesterday late in the morning.  Our destination?  Well you’ll have to wait til next time to find out.  Not a lot has happened since the last post.  After my big hike up Eagle Pass Mtn., then helping our daughter Bev with some heavy lifting and a couple other things, my back decided to act up which put the damper on a lot of things.  We did end up going to town most days.  July is insurance time for both the car and motor home so I got that taken care of for another year.

We took Aileen’s sewing machine to Vernon last week then went back on Tuesday to retrieve it.  We’d taken our lunch along so took the long way home and found a shady spot near Charcoal Creek to eat.  From there we went down Chase Creek and through Turtle Valley, where we used to live, and out to the highway at Squilax.  I picked up seven geocaches along the way.

 I had some anxious moments one morning when I went to empty the black tank.  When I pulled the valve, nothing happened.  I puzzled over it for quite a while and finally went and found a rubber mallet which I used to create some vibration on the pipe at the valve.  Eventually it worked and there was a great deluge.   Whew!!!!  Who knew a rubber mallet was required dumping equipment?

One day last week we were invited to friends Martin and Myrtle for lunch.   We had a great visit with them.  Martin and Myrtle are still quite involved in my old camera club and Martin still spends lots of time hiking with the outdoor club.  They both square dance regularly so are keeping fit and active.  This benefits them when they go travelling somewhere around the world almost every year.

Another day I went to town by myself to do a bunch of errands.  I went to Bastion Mtn Farm and picked a bucket full of cherries for us to eat.  $1.50 per pound and tastier than buying from the store.  Aileen went to town on her own a few times visiting her friends Donna and Edna and to church.  One Saturday there was a surprise 70^th birthday party for Ted P who I worked with at the mill for years.  He’d had a stroke eight or ten years ago and had to leave work.  He is able to walk at times now but still not too mobile.   It was good to see him again.  His wife has had a quite a time with MS and doesn’t walk at all.  She goes to the same church as Jacquie and Jim which is how I got the invitation.   I got to meet a couple other guys I used to work with as well.  I met all the daughters and the one I knew best, married years ago and lives near Ottawa.  I had a long chat with her husband and a couple days later met them in the mall in town and we had another nice chat.

Tansy is an imported weed but it does put on a nice show.  Many years ago, this was a thriving strawberry farm!

Bastion Mtn and Shuswap Lake

Tappen Valley Farms, Balmoral just west of Salmon Arm

Along Notch Hill Road, Balmoral