Saturday, July 17, 2010

It was well before 6:00 a.m. this morning when we heard people getting prepared for the day ahead—of course, we were camped beside the president and directors of ATVBC who were organizing the whole event. We headed up to the concession just after 7:00 and enjoyed breakfast with Jean, Bill, Penny and Rick in the sunshine—on the “teeter tauter” picnic table. They are delightful people...so much fun! After breakfast we got the quads packed up...camera—check; water—check; sandwiches and snacks—check; poker card—check...we had decided to purchase a “full card” for $50—that gives you 12 hands and much better odds of winning the ATV prize—otherwise it is $10/hand. Okay, we are good to go so at 8:30 we headed up to the staging area to get queued up for the ride. They sent off groups of about 12 quads at a time...we left just after 9:00. It was a relatively easy ride with the exception of one part that I didn’t care for...a section where you have to ride “off camber” on the side of a hill. I managed okay but I just hate that feeling that you are going to roll—I was leaning so far to the left that I could hardly reach the thumb-throttle to power the quad the short distance. But with heart pounding, I made it! Whew! It was a short ride and we were back home by 11:30 sitting in the shade chatting with our neighbours.

This is a picture of one of the riders from the Kootenays, I believe, with her dog, Charlie.  He rides behind her on the seat...no basket, he just "hangs on"...

There was an Air Show taking place at the Princeton Airport today so we decided to take a ride up Ironman Mountain to watch. What a view from up there! And very hot! We watched the WWII planes for a bit then decided to ride on further up to the top of the mountain. Jean, Penny and Rick were up there (they were to join us but didn’t know where we had gone) and they joined us for some more exploring down another road on the other side of the mountain. What a great ride—you go from arid grassy areas to a forest...just beautiful.

This is the Fairgrounds where everyone is camped....

Check-in for all of the riders started at 2:30 so we headed back, got cleaned-up, changed into our shorts and went to draw our final 2 poker hands. They wanted everyone to return their poker cards so that they could ensure all riders returned safely. Well...my 3 deuces won’t be winning me the grand prize (a Polaris ATV)...oh well! After that we wandered back to the trailer and sat in the shade visiting with Trevor and Sharon. It was about 4pm and I really needed a shower so I grabbed my towel and shampoo and away I went. It was a cold but very refreshing shower! A little warmth to take the edge off would have been nice but I guess there was just too much demand for the hot water.

They were drawing all the prizes at 6:00 p.m. at the grandstands, so we decided to buy burgers for dinner at the concession up there. I decided on a veggie burger that came with fries...but when we sat down at the picnic table to eat, it was so windy that as soon as I picked up my burger, the plate with the fries (and ketsup) went flying across the table! Okay, fine, no fries for me...they really didn’t go with a veggie burger anyway! Well, the only thing we came away with prize wise was a hat and t-shirt from West Kootenays ATV Club award to Steve by Don (a member of that club who later served up elk sausage made with tomato and basil...yum). We have met so many great people from other ATV clubs—good networking for future rides when we are in their areas.