Wherever you are, Be There

The sky was clear, and no smoke was in the air. From a province so recently consumed by forest fires, it was surprisingly idyllic. The waterfront at Kelowna was a bustling hive of relaxing people, despite a brisk wind whipping the waves up. Adults lounged on the grass, and children swarmed an inflatable adventure park set up just offshore. I spied some serious looking young adult staff, and figured a spontaneous boarding party of semi clothed adults would be pretty strongly discouraged. We passed up the tempting adventure park and strolled around downtown Kelowna. The statues in the area were lovely, and the water fountains were whipped into interesting new patterns by the wind. We had managed to hit a few wineries on the way into town, wandering thru the hills just north of Kelowna. There is some serious money up that way! I have never seen so many luxury cars on such narrow roads. We took turns navigating the RV along these twisting roads. Justin displayed an excellent perception of exactly how much space we needed, and balls of steel. I eventually gave up looking at the road too much, as it was more relaxing not to!

Justin had arranged to purchase another telescope and tripod from a person living in the area, and we stopped to pick it up. He added it to the herd of telescopes and tripods already in RV residence, and we carried on. Don’t ask me why this one was better, it had something to do with the tripod. As it was Sunday late afternoon by this point, we didn’t linger too long. A quick snack of some of the items likely not welcome at the border, and we pressed on south. The whimsically named towns of Summerland, Peachland, Freestone Peaches (really? was that a town?) slipped by in the gathering dark. There were many signs advertising wine tastings, wine tours, and any wine related activity you could care to name. I was hoping to cross over the border that night, and then hit some wineries on the other side, while still in the Osoyoos Valley. We drove on, tho we were both tired from the night drive the previous night. Passports at the ready, all citrus eaten, wine neatly counted and boxed, we reached the border. A disinterested guard asked where we were from as he scanned our passports, then where we were going that night. We had plans to park at an RV park in Oroville, just over the border, and told him as much. Handing back our passports, he waved us on, telling us to have a good trip. I blinked at Justin. He hadn’t even asked how long we were staying, which was surely in the bare minimum of questions! I swear, Justin has miraculous abilities to appear harmless. Oroville was not much further, and we parked without incident. As the night was quite clear, nothing would do for Justin but to set up his new telescope and view some stars. I left him to it and retired for some well earned sleep.