June 12th to 14th - the Okanogan

June 12^th – Wed

We had coffee & breakfast before leaving for Kelowna to shop and see Ernie & Dianne.  But first we made a stop at a visitor center to use their wifi to check email and post the blog.  We found that our email contact list had been hacked and everyone was sent a link for a weight loss program.  I sure hope our friends don’t think we were sending a subtle hint!!!!  It took a while to deal with 127 emails – deleting stuff and responding to anyone who questioned the hacked email.  We also did a quick check of bank accounts and all was well there.

We called Ernie & Dianne when we were in West Kelowna (Westbank to old timers) and Dianne asked if we wanted to meet them for lunch in the casino.  Silly question!  We had time to gamble a bit before they found us.  We had a good lunch and a nice long visit.  The restaurant in the casino is very nice.

We gambled some more and then went to Costco for a few items.  By this time we were ready to head back.  Traffic over the bridge was not as bad as we thought it might be.  We hadn’t quite decided what to do for dinner with Aunt Jessie and after a drink and chatting we decided to eat the leftovers from last night rather than go out.  This was partly decided when we said we were leaving tomorrow and Aunt Jessie didn’t want to eat leftovers for several days.

June 13^th – Thurs

We didn’t have to get a really early start so I washed the sheets before we left.  Actually, Aunt Jessie put them in the dryer when we made another trip to the visitor center to check email again.  No new ugly stuff so I just looked after more responses & cleaned things up.

We were going to go to Vancouver via the Coquihalla as we have never travelled the portion from Merritt to Hope but decided that was a lot of miles for three days.  So we headed back to Kelowna thinking we could visit some more friends there.  We went to one really bad RV park and said no thanks.  A little further down Lakeshore Drive was a nicer park but the $62 (plus tax) price per night was a little too steep.

We decided to do the rest of our grocery shopping and went to a Superstore which took a while as I was out of quite a few staple items.  We stashed everything as best we could with the slides in, tried to decide where to go and ended up heading south again!  On our numerous trip up & down Hwy 97, Terry had noticed a park that he liked so that is where we ended up.  It is Gallagher Lake Resort between Okanogan Falls & Oliver and the $39 price was better.  There aren’t many rigs in here and we didn’t check out the trees before we put up the satellite so we don’t get many channels but it is very clean & organized.

We didn’t have lunch due to our indecision so after setting up I immediately started boiling baby backs for a treat on the BBQ.   After dinner we took a walk through the lower portion of the park to a little lake and just relaxed.

June 14^th – Fri

We did something this morning that we haven’t done in this rig – we had coffee in bed and watched TV.  There were some shows on TV that we didn’t get in the living room and we didn’t have to be anywhere so we ended up having leftover rice & Roger’s Golden syrup for breakfast in bed also!

We needed propane so Terry loaded the tank and we went north where we found a station just past Okanogan Falls.  There was only one employee and a lot of people getting fuel so we had to wait until everyone finished & paid before he could lock the door and fill our tank and another one that was there before us.  No schedule, no worries!

We continued on to Penticton to – of all things – a casino that we haven’t been to previously.  We spent a few hours there – Terry lost his allowance and I broke even which is kind of like winning sometimes.  We stopped at a grocery store to buy shredded frozen hash browns that we couldn’t get yesterday.  Once again we didn’t have lunch so we headed back thinking about steaks on the BBQ.

After dinner we went for a walk to the lake again.  We were sitting at a picnic table watching some young people in a couple of inflatable rafts when the father of a couple of them came over and we started chatting.  He (Darryl) & his wife (Wendy) have just retired and are thinking about going somewhere for a couple of months this winter so of course we had to tell him about Val Vista Villages & Mesa.  He ended up coming back with us to get phone numbers and a brochure.  It would be nice to introduce them to the retirement lifestyle that we enjoy.