There is more to life than increasing its speed. -Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi (1869-1948)
Hi Patrice, Hope all is well with you guys. I’m guessing you’re busy getting ready for the big trip coming up soon..when were you leaving again?.
I am resending the email I referred to the last time we spoke on the phone where I was mentioning my friend Ron Howarth. I guess you just breezed over the email as you were probably running late for a hike , bike outing or wine tasting!. Anyway when you have time check the info and say hi to Ron if you have a chance.
Nothing too exciting here as i am just plugging away on my dump trailer trying to get it fixed as I have someone who wants to rent it and the Bobcat and is waiting for me to get finished. I worked a week on star trek a couple weeks ago and am set to go work on flash for one week next week so quite pleased that I am getting work but just here and there as it’s what I would prefer and I have people calling me which is always best.
Colleen is supposed to go for a girls night at the cabin for tonight but is having some tummy troubles this morning..probably due to some goat curry we had at our neighbours last night!. Hopefully that sorts itself out and she can enjoy herself. Take care, love to Corrine for us and we’ll talk soon...unless you’re too too busy of course!. Cheers, Al
Hello Goat Curry People! Sorry to hear that Marilyn has an upset stomach. Obviously not enough fabulous Okanagan wine to counteract hot spices! Trust you will be feeling better soon, Daaaarling! Thanks for re-send of email in question, Big Al. In fact, I did read letter to Greg at NuWave but did miss Ron's contact details. Thanks for those. I will try to connect, at some point, as it would be great to meet him. Stay well. Take care of yourselves. Fondestos and Cheers, Patrizzio!
As we had arranged to have Jos and Aarturo join us at Orofino's pizza pick-up party I needed to leave Burns Street in enough time to be able to cycle to Keremeos and meet them at the winery around noon. They were going to drive, from Summerland, where they live, to our place, to arrive around 11:15 am and then Cora Lee would chauffeur them in our car. (I didn't want to cycle back so needed a vehicle with a bike rack.) At any rate, it was quite cool and very cloudy when I set off, around 9:45 am but I knew, if forecast was to be relied upon, that "sunny and breezy" was predicted, particularly for the Similkameen.
Had never ridden 97 south, from Penticton to Keremeos, although I was reasonably familiar with most sections of the route, from the opposite direction, having ridden it a number of times, either in Granfondo or once from Osoyoos, via Keremeos, and then home. This being the case I was reasonably pleased to find that the first few uphill climbs were not overly difficult. Stretch one covers, once one leaves 97 for 3A, is, once again, not as daunting as I feared it would be, rising in a series of fairly longish, but not overly steep grades. Fortunately, I had the wind at my back so that helped, considerably. It took me about an hour and a half to reach the turn-off for Twin Lakes Road, almost exactly half the distance I assumed it would be to Orofino. Beauty was that at this point it was all virtually downhill or at least on the relative flat right into Keremeos.
This being the case I knew the "worst" was behind me so I focused on trying to up my AVG. Shortly after I started to climb towards Kaleden my AVG was 25.5 kph but was only 17 something kph, above TLR. Must say that I did enjoy the exhilarating descent and even the flat stretches before and after Olalla. However,a few kms before the outskirts of Keremeos the wind shifted and came straight out of the west, more than breezily, let me tell you, so I had to struggle a bit, standing up in the saddle just to make some headway. Once I reached Upper Bench Road, however, I was away to the races, so to speak, as the wind was now behind me again and I flew along, soona t Barcello Road and then pulling into Orofino. Stats for ride:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/918835449#.VhHEVd2lNAA.email
Arrived at just before noon but no sign of my companions so I parked my Trek, took off my helmet and camel-pack and started to taste. Had knocked back a glass of Chardonnay and chatted with a number of other guests before I saw the Eqinox pull up across the road from the already full parking area. Wlaked my Trek over to the car and stowed it and my gear. Had asked Cora Lee to bring along a change of clothes but I really wasn't all that uncomfortable, (Weather was cool enough that I didn't really perspire all that much and considerable wind was rather chilly so my riding jacket came in handy.), in my riding clothes. Exchanged my clip-ons for my orange Crocs and followed the gang back to the party.
And what a grand, fun-filled gathering it was. Much like the one we had attended in June so we knew what to expect. Jos and Aart were delighted to be part of the festivities and we introduced them to Virginia and John, the gracious owners, as well as to Alison and Aaron, regular staff members. Also met Carly, Aaron's wife, as she was helping with pizza dough production. Met some other Wine Club members who had attended the Winemaker's dinner in July so it was fun to catch up with them. Glorious, glorious day, although wind was so strong that it kept blowing items off the the various picnic tables but didn't keep us from enjoying the wonderful pizzas and delicious mini-cupcakes for dessert. In addition to the delicious 2014 Blind Creek Chardonnay, 13.6%, the Webers were pouring the Red Bridge Red, 14.6%, always a stalwart, the Wild Ferment Syrah, 14.4%, wonderfully peppery, and their flagship, Beleza, 2012, 14.8%, a Bordeaux style-blend, rich black fruit, spice and terrific minerality. Quite a selection for pizza! Once again, Cora Lee was treated to her own special gluten-free pizzas but I helped her eat some of them!
Spent two glorious hours sipping and nibbling and chatting and then it was time to go. Thanking everyone for the splendiferous dining and tasting we loaded ourselves and our wine into the car and took off for Corcelettes, another winery we'd not been to since it had changed from being Herder, (owners divorced and winery sat idle for a year or two), as I wanted to taste the new product and show Jos and Aart the spectacular view from the tasting room. Unfortunately, the new tasting area is on the ground floor so view is not quite as stunning. Liked some of the whites but wasn't too, too impressed with the reds. Still, new owners are a lovely young couple, he is Swiss and she is from Tuktoyuktuk! In a strange series of events, her mother moved to Cawston to grow grapes and the daughter eventually followed. At any rate, a winery to watch over the next few years.
Homeward bound after that and The Sisterhood snoozed while Aarturo and I jawed our way back to Penticton. Wanted to share a snort or two of malt with him but Kos wouldn't allow it so we waved goodbye and made ready to receive Nancy and David, due to arrive around 4:00 pm. Started dinner preparations whiel Cora Lee continued to nap and when the Lower Mainlanders knocked on the front door, we were ready to welcome them. Lovely time chatting over cheesen and crackers and a Blackhawk Pinot Gris before we sat down to a very tasty dinner of pork loin, with a wonderful fresh plum sauce; mouthwatering broiled zucchini, smothered in cheese; boiled new potatoes and tomatoe and bocconcini salad. Everyone was so pleasantly full by the end of the meal that everyone declined desert. Had been a long day for everyone, wine-tasting for us, drive from Vancouver for N/D so around 9:30 pm we bade one another a good night. While the others repaired to their separate bathrooms/bedrooms I managed to load the dishwasher before I, too, made my ablutions and fell into bed for a much needed sleep.
Hi Corinne & Patricio, Thank you for a great afternoon, really enjoyed it and ... look forward to more. See you Monday, Cheers, Aart & Jos
Hi Patrick, I have been incredibly slack of recent times not being in contact for months it appears so I will attempt to give a brief history of the last several months, my apologies if I repeat things you may already know.
So the trip to Europe et al. was great highlights basically a cycling guide who had no idea where we were going or anything about the things that we could see. This made for a fantastic cycling adventure. We lost the barge on several occasions and consequently spent up to 9 hours riding arounds the place trying to find it. There were many highlights including sailing into Paris and then going underground through Paris in a boat and ending up in the middle of town, amazing. Met some great people four Americans even though they were republicans and Baptists the funniest people I have met for a while excluding some crazy Canadians.
We followed on from the bike and barge after 14 days of riding punctuated by drinking of an evening to move onto to Saint Malo for three days. Fell in love with the place and wanted to buy a house there though thankfully we resisted then on to the Channel Islands and Guernsey for three days, a lazy force 9 gale across the channel made the crossing fairly chunderous for a bunch of school kids but we had a good time on the Island and did the bus thing around the place.
Off to the UK to catch up with Claire’s relatives in Devon for 5 days Absolutely great, very relaxing and we took up golf. Then back home to reality.
So we have now bought the golf clubs and joined a club and try to play once a week starting to think we have actually sort of retired. I have done nothing about any other extensive trips at this point tho we are off on a camping holiday for two weeks later this month travelling to Victoria to catch up with my brother.
Other news is that Claire may be joining the work force again we are waiting to see if a tender to the Government is successful. She was asked to be a part of a program to encourage indigenous people to stop smoking in communities so we have our fingers crossed that it works out. For my part I have slowly stop delivering training and now I am writing training programs and such things so we are still engaged in the world this is very important for us.
On to important things Claire hits 60 next year so of course you and yours are invited 30 July our place I can supply a car if you want to go for a holiday somewhere. Our plans for 2016 is local holidays in our caravan and we are in a state of flux for 2017 and we are looking at doing a pensioner cruise from Vienna to the Black Sea in the May possibly followed by a small bike trip though not sure if this becomes too difficult then we might look at a plan B though we are not sure what that is at the moment.
On a local note we now a have a dog a rather large Great Dane Lily ( a rescue dog she is three years old and a modest 50 Kilos in weight) so she is now providing us with some great enjoyment and restrictions in terms of our travel options though we are working through these issues for local travel and overseas travel in 2017. We trust your move was successful and you have now found many great cycling tracks to go on.
We will probably come back to Canada in 2018 and do the inside passage we think depending our experience with the river cruise in 2017 Cheers Greg and Claire
I can't find a picture of the new woodburning fireplace...may I see it please? The bed is lovely...too bad the wall behind it is hideous xoxo
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