The Okanagan

Today is actually Saturday, Sept 6th. We just pulled into a nice RV park in Portland Oregon.

Monday, September 1.

We woke up in Castlegar BC today to a beautifuly clear but cold morning. It was certainly a lot nicer here than it was last night in Cardston, especially since we seem to have left the rain behind as we head for the coast.
We enjoyed this little RV park, and the owner was a pretty cool guy who just wanted to talk American politics. Bambi and I did the best we could, but not having seen a TV in nearly 3 weeks left us feeling a little behind the times at best. I think this guy knew more about the candidates than we did.
Anyway, we packed up and renewed our quest for the coast, but before we could leave town we had to stop at a Safeway and stock up on some groceries. After all, I was nearly out of Dew and Dew to me is like spinach to Popeye... and we had a lot of miles to make today.
The trip down Highway 3, West across British Columbia does not disappoint. As you leave Alberta you can sense a change in the scenery. The souther part of Alberta was very much like that of Wyoming and Montana. You see some mountains in the distance but it is mostly rolling hills and vast areas of nothing with large ranches and hay fields. As you enter British Columbia though, the terrain becomes a little more rugged and things begin to get a whole lot greener.
Finally, after several hours of driving, we entered a part of BC called The Okanagan. From what we could tell, this is a mountanous area with a large and beautiful river valley that connects miles and miles of lakes in a seemingly unending chain of lakes winding from Osoyoos to Kelowna and beyond.
As we neared the area, the thing that becomes so evident is the number of fruit farms along the side of the road. Instead of high planes, you began to see acres upon acres of vineyards, apple orchards and other fruit bearing trees and vines. Our AAA book told us that this area provides over 1/3 of all fruit produced for Canada. We stopped by two separate little stands along the way and picked up some apples, peaches and cherries. They were just fantastic and you could really tell it had just been picked. The peaches were a bit like eating a waterbaloon. As soon as you bite into them, you instantly have peach juice all over your chin and shirt... but it's worth it!
We continued on and our first real glimpse of the river valley came as we crested a mountain outsde of Osoyoos. The view from here is just stunning as you look down some 2000 feet below you to see this little town layed out before you. As you crawl down the side of the mountain the view consists of a beautiful lake with the town nestled at the bottom. Actually, there are several lakes with areas of land in between which make up the town and contain restaruants, shops and hotels right on the thin slivers of land. There continue to be lush green vinyards on the sides of the mountain all the way down to the water adding to the beauty of the area. In the town of Osoyoos there are walkways along the edges of the lakes where Bambi and I decided to stop and have our lunch. I've never been to Italy but this area makes me think that this is what that area must look like. This is a resort community and the people were friendly and taking advantage of the beautiful sunshine as the lake was buzzing with boats, jet skis and even parasailing.
After eating lunch, we continued on toward Kelowna and the beautiful scenery just continued. Along this whole way, you just follow the chain of lakes / river valley from one town to the next. Each town consisting of 1000-4000 people until you finally hit the city of Kelowna which is nearly 30,000 people. The views all along the way are just fantastic as you twist and climb up the sides of mountains for panoramic views and then descend back down into the farm land where it is again rows and rows of fruit trees and vineyards.
We finally reached Kelowna where we decided to spend the night. We found another RV park in the city, across the street from the lake and only 6-7 blocks from the downtown area. We unhooked our "camper" and headed for downtown as it was getting time for supper. We walked the restaurant areas and finally ate out side at a bar-b-que place downtown. The food was great and we had our first exposure to a Canadian delight called "poutine." Now just imagine this... Poutine is a large pile of french fries, covered with shredded pork, all again completely covered in melted cheese and a thick smokey barbeque sauce. Sound good?? IT's AWESOME!!
After our run-in with poutine, we decided that a good walk would be in order so we headed through downtown toward the lake which was just a block or so away. Along the way we suddenly sensed that there was a ruckus across the street and some people were yelling "fight, fight". We looked across the street and two guys had indeed gotten into a pretty good fight. The one guy had his girlfriend or wife along, but by the looks of him, she was in no danger. This guy pummeled the other guy pretty good as he was bleading profusely from the mouth. The guy doing all the bleeding was seriously ticked. He was screaming at the other guy but he just stood there as if to say, "you want more, just come and get it." The irate guy was just storming up and down the sidewalk, screaming at the other guy and finally, he reached down into a garbage can and pulled out an empty bottle. He grabbed the bottle by the neck and cracked the bottom end off on the end of the garbage just like they do in the movies (it was pretty cool to watch) and started jabbing it toward the other guy from a distance like he was going to really do some damage. This other guys still just stands there like he's not afraid in the least. Finally his girl pulls him away by the arm and the other guy is still just screaming at him. I was enthralled, and wanted to see more but Bambi was pulling at me and saying, lets go. But I wanna see this guy get throttled, I said. She's like, sure then one of them pulls a gun and starts shooting across the street at inocent spectators... I've seen it a hundred times. Seeing how the scuffle had pretty much subsided, I agreed and we continued our walk.
We went past a playground where Bambi found her inner child for a while. We were watching three kids playing on this play set which had a little zip cord in between two posts. The kids were jumping from a platform and zipping across the line to see how far they could go. Bambi just had to give it a try (see picture). When she crawled up there and got in line with the other kids, I think they first thought... what are you crazy. When they could see that she was serious, they got all excited and started giving her tips on how to do it. She did really well and actually made it just as far across as any of the kids had. It was fun to watch her do this as she has always been willing to do this kind of stuff as long as I've known her... especially if I say that she probably can't. This is the kind of stuff she used to do before she became burdened down by EOB's and long hours... this is my Bambi coming back now.

Anyway, after some fun in the park, we continued our walk and watched the sun set over the Western mountain range with the lake in between which was just beautiful. We were really in the ritzy part of Kelowna now and there was even a large condo complex with it's own man-made marina coming off the lake. They even had their own little lock to let the boats in and out of the marina while maintaining the level of the water inside. It was fun to watch a boat go through and then the owners just pulled up right outside their condo, docked the boat and went inside. Later, Bambi was standing outside by the lake when a group of people walked by and one guy started to talk to her... actually he was hitting on her while I was in the bathroom... go figure!! Anyway, he told her that this area was like their Hamptons. It was nice, with sky-rise condo's, beautiful boats, and really cool cars all over the place. If one was prone to covet, this would be a good place to do it. Lucky for us there was no need because we had our fancy "camper" all set up at the RV park... certainly the envy of many a resident of Kelowna I'm sure!!

P.S. Bambi made me include the picture at the bottom. A few posts ago, I included a picture of me as "Rebel Ross" as named by the Sinclair family. So, I decided to have a little fun. Knowing that Bambi HATES it when I do this... and I just LOVE getting under her skin. I decided to shave off the beard, leaving the mustache and sideburns (The 70's are alive and well on this trip!!) Anyway, feel free to chime in on the "look" if you want to. I've since shaved the whole works but I made Bambi spend the whole day with me looking like this. She was sooooo embarased. I had a few store clerks give me some pretty weird looks too...but not the chicks... chicks dig it!! i'm thinking that this may have to be the official look

for Team Landshark for the 2009 race season.

What do you think???