Oliver and a bikers stew

Haven't been on the net for a while. We arrived safe and sound on Tuesday, at last some nice warm weather again. Lots of SUN!!

Oliver is the wine capital of BC, and we have been to a few wine tastings at the wineries. There were about 35 people at Brian & Joyce's camp out. The BIKERS STEW that Brian made up was great and so was all the fresh fruit and veggies. We had a great time meeting up with some of our biker friends. A few we had seen in Moose Jaw and others not for a long time. Irene was once again lucky with winning 2 of the fifty fifty draws even though she got the smaller amounts each time but it all comes in handy putting gas in the bike.

Irene and I also celebrated our 43rd anniversary at the bike event.

Last few days in Dodge

Boy has time flown by. Tracey & Andy arrived in Pouce Coupe on Friday around 11:30 am and we sat and chatted for about 4 hours. It was great to see them and meet Andy.

On Saturday morning when we came into town for breakfast we came across 2 guys in old Army trucks heading up to Alaska. We had about a 15 min talk with them about their adventure.

They were from Alaska and had the trucks shipped to Seattle WA where they started their adventure.

The weather sort of got a little better so Karen had a wiener roast for the kids.

Yes this is a baby shower for Colin and Ashleigh (Rick's cousin Greta's grandson) and yes Andy and I attended for a short while. Notice I put Andy's name first. They put a lot of work into and I'm sure it was great as baby showers go.
Got up early this morning as we had a lot of packing to do and also had time for coffee with Karen.

We met Tracey, Andy, Al, Shirley, John & Lauri for breakfast this a.m. at the White Spot, before we set out for Prince George.
We left at 9:15 am and arrived at Jason & Jessica's in PG at 2:45 p.m. A lot of rain on the west side of the pass. It just wouldn't quit so after having tea with J&J and Steven & Tia's we took a Motel. Rick beat Tia in a game of "go fish". The decision is made, too much rain no Bella Coola this summer.

Floor Curling

Too cool and wet for doing much outside!

Yesterday we had dug beets at Alf's place so we cooked them and their greens up this morning to go along with Yvonne's delicious chicken dinner we had at lunch time today.
We were invited to come over to the seniors hall in Dodge (Dawson Creek) to participate in floor curling.

There were enough people for 6 teams. We played 2 games stopped for coffee and then completed the 3rd game.

After each game you draw for new team members. Irene's teams won 2 games and my teams won 1 game. It sure was a lot of fun as everyone is very competitive.
Terry, Harold and Elaine met us at Caruso's Restaurant for supper tonight.

Rainy Days in the North!

A big thanks to our friends Allan & Shirley for picking us up in their vehicle and for arranging a day out visiting old friends.

The rain did stop long enough for Karen's grandkids to have a marshmallow roast in her back yard. The Grayston's picked us up around 9 a.m. and Rick drove their truck and our first stop was at Mortensons.

Rick & Al worked with Alf at the MacDonald's Warehouse for years. Alf was a character then and still is. Alf's son has a welding shop out there with a half dozen employees, they do a lot of work for the oil rigs and keeps very busy. Shirley's next stop of interest was at Bruno Pohl's at Tomslake.

We found him out cutting up firewood with his brother and his wife. He said he has about five years worth of wood stocked up. We had our picnic lunch in his kitchen as the weather was not in our favour and he had a cozy wood heater going in the living room.

We stopped to take a picture of an old barn at Andersch's place that Allan and Shirley were interested in for their photo collection of old barns in the Peace Country. Next stop was Tupper at Swan Lake where there will be a music festival this weekend. A lot of campers were already setting up so we stopped at their friend Lorna's place who turned out to be Dave Hamilton's new wife. He also worked at the warehouse and is a great musician who will be a part of the entertainment this weekend. Rick and I attended a lot of the dances that Dave and his band played at "away back when" in the Peace. Our final stop in the afternoon was Joyce Sipe's place at Demmitt, AB. Originally we had mentioned we would be there early afternoon but had forgotten about the hour difference in time, so we called to let her know we would be there a little late.

She had baked a chocolate cake as she had previously told Rick "if I had known you were coming I would have baked a cake". Mmm good.

She had found 3 full rolls and a bag of ends of Nylotex yarn which I have been looking for, forever. They no longer manufacture it and I like to braid hangers for gifts. We got back into town in time to meet up with John & Lori for Chinese dinner at the Orion. The girls thought it would be nice if we stopped at the casino on the way home,

it turned out to be okay as Rick made enough to more than double the cost of our dinner.

Charlie Lake Caves?

Well it seemed like a good idea, to go find the Charlie Lake Caves. Our friend Shirley Grayston told us about them and there is a write up about them on the internet which caught our attention. However they are on private property. One of the employees at the tourist info centre in Ft St John phoned the owners for us but we could not get to view them until later in the evening as they were at work. They are supposed to be an archaeological dig that is about 10,500 years old! We enjoyed the ride and had lunch at the "Jackfish Dundee Pub" at Charlie Lake. Took a 10 km sidetrip down to the old historic Kiskatinaw wooden curved bridge.

The road was terrible and the 10 km took us 30 minutes crawling along! They are long overdo for fixing that road although there are posted signs that resurfacing will be completed by fall 2008.

HOT!!! HOT!!!

+35 C. Pass the cold drinks and fire up the BBQ!! Rick's doing ribs and Irene made the BBQ sauce, been working on them all afternoon.

MMM Good!! Thanks Karen for the use of your BBQ.

A lot of old friends

We have been enjoying ourselves with visiting friends and catching up on the latest news about their families and such. The weather has been great which makes it good for traveling around and seeing people. We stopped at the Casino here in town and picked up an extra $80 but I'm sure they will get it back before we leave. Even after 23 years of not living here, we can still run into people that we knew back then.

Out to Grayston Park

This day got off to a good start with a phone call from our friend Shirley Grayston asking us if we would like to go out to their farm, the Grayston Park. They have it all set up for camping for friends and family.

We got to help with a few repairs to the lawnmower shelter that a bear tore apart! Had a campfire lunch and did some browsing around the farm. Then we went for a ride across the Clayhurst bridge and over into a valley owned by the Nelson family and got permission to pick wild choke cherries on their land.

Headed back and got into town around 3:30 p.m.

Irene has already got her choke cherry syrup made for pancakes on the weekend.

Demmit (Ray Lake) AB.

What a lot of years since we had ever been down Range Rd 132, to the Sipe Farm.

Joyce Sipe our first square dance caller teacher is still living on the family farm. It had been at least 25 years since we last saw her and she welcomed us with open arms. We reminisced about old times and had a few laughs. Rod her husband passed away approximately 12 years ago. He really was the one person who kept square dancing alive in the Peace Country calling 7 nights a week as far away as High Prairie which was a 3 1/2 hour drive each way for them. The artesian well that is flowing on their property has been continually flowing since they built their house in the early 60's!

We plan on another visit with her next week.