Sunday 2 September 2018

Safe Arrival

Yesterday, after a 12.5 hour drive, I arrived at Armstrong, my most favorite place I've lived so far. I wonder where my life would have gone had I been able to continue to live there. 

I had forgotten all about what happens every year in Armstrong on the Sept. long weekend. It's the Interior Provincial Exhibition, better know as the IPE, which creates a massive population and car explosion with commotion going on from one end of the town to the other. This year was the 119th IPE, which is the largest fair across the province and over the course of the 5 day event it brought 150,000 attendees into town. I came in the back way on Salmon River Road, which leads right into the midst of the action and as soon as I saw all the busyness it didn't take me long to realize what was happening. It was neat to get a glimpse of it all again.

The reason I drove into Armstrong in the first place was to go visit my friend Nola. She was surprised but pleased to see me arrive on her doorstep. We had a really good visit. It was fun catching up on what has been going on in our lives but i wasn't about to sit down right away after that many hours on the road so we decided to walk down town to have dinner at the Chinese Restaurant. We got there and discovered it was closed, so we decided to walk to the golf course to have dinner there. Then we walked back to her house. This morning we walked to the Village Cheese so I could get a bag of fresh cheese curds. Oh, those are so yummy! There's nothing like it when they're freshly made. So all in all, we did quite a bit of walking which was good for my sore butt after that many hours on the road.


This afternoon, I made my way to my sister Diane's place at Okanagan Lake Center. We spent some time planning our rides for the week and putting together an email to send to 4 or 5 other ladies who often join us on these cycling trips. Once we had that done, Diane and I headed to Kelowna to my sister Lorraine's place, where she was serving a bunch of appetizers and cake for her family and grand children. It was a good way to meet and visit everybody all at once. Lorraine is now a great-grandmother and I had the opportunity to hold the newest addition to her family, a beautiful little girl named Cali who is 2 months old.


Now, back at Diane's house, Diane and Wayne have gone to bed and I am sitting in the upstairs guest room, on the bench seat by the window that faces the Okanagan Lake. I have the windows open and I am listening to the water splashing up on the beach as I write on this blog. Rough life.


Tomorrow morning we start riding. It will be an easy morning ride around the perimeter of Woods Lake. We have a different ride planned for everyday this week. I am looking forward to all of it. Hopefully the smoke will stay away although that's not what the weather man is predicting tonight.

Well, I think I best get off the computer and get myself some shut eye so I can enjoy tomorrow and all it has to offer.

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