Tuesday and Wednesday, March 31 and April 1, 2015 (Monck Provincial Park, Quilchena, BC)

We were up super early this morning at 5:30...for some reason we were both awake early, well Steve at 4:30 and me a little later! We had our coffee and then decided to go out for a walk around the campground. It's been a long time since we have been up and out for a walk by 7:00 a.m.!

It was a cold, windy start to the day...

We walked down the hill and through loop 1...and then took the trail to the day-use area...

From the day-use area, we took the beach trail...this is the boat launch...

We took a trail back up to the paved road and continue walking through loop 2 and 3.

Lots of needles to clean up...

We walked the outside perimeter of the campground, stopped to say good morning to Doug and Toni, and back up the hill to the compound...

We had a big breakfast, cleaned up and then I sorted and bagged all of the dirty laundry. I hadn't done laundry since we were in Blythe, CA...that was almost 4 weeks ago! So today was definitely laundry day! We headed into Merritt shortly after 9:30. We stopped at Tim Horton's for a coffee and to use their wi-fi and after a quick visit at The Source Store, they directed us to City Furniture, the Telus representative here in Merritt...I wanted to get our Mi-Fi activated.

After that, we stopped at Cooper's Foods to pick up a few groceries...and get some cash back for laundry. Then Steve dropped me off at the laundromat and I got started while he went to get his hair cut. While there, the wind brought in the cold front that had been forecast...and yes, it brought some wet snow flurries and hail. Wow, what a change in the weather! We are sure glad that we arrived yesterday...a day early and not today!!

I took some pictures on our way back to the park...fresh snow on the hills...

and a low cloud cover...

Herd of deer...there are 10 in the photo and more in the timber...

When we pulled into the compound, we were so surprised to see that the pallets of firewood right next to our trailer were gone. Even though we had asked them to wait so that we could help, Doug and Sue had unloaded them all and re-stacked them...finishing the job they had started when clearing our site. Thanks so very much! That was a lot of work!

After a bite to eat, I put the laundry away and we hunkered down inside with the heaters going...the temperature had really dropped...it was 3C/37F...brrr! We have two electric heaters but can only run one and have had to use our Olympian propane heater because of low voltage. We have a Surge Guard 50 amp Voltage Regulator that is boosting the input voltage that protects all of our appliances but even this hasn't been enough, so we have been having intermittent nuisance power shutdowns 24 hours a day. The others in the park aren't experiencing this because they don't have a Surge Guard and are unprotected. Doug has promised to look into this as he is also concerned. The summer temps get into to low 40C so we'll be needing air conditioning.

Wednesday morning Steve took this picture from inside our rig...we're just below the snow line....

We got out for another walk around the campground...just not quite as early as yesterday! It's very peaceful around here right now...but just wait until summer; it's a very popular, busy spot!

Snow on the surrounding mountains...

 The gatehouse/store where I will be working...

We met Doug and Toni in the day-use area and chatted with them for awhile and then continued our walk around the perimeter loops of the campground. I used my tracker...it's just over 2 miles/3.3 kms.

Once we were back at the trailer, Steve got to work on our "yard". He put the awning and tie-downs  out, set up some solar lights and then made a fire pit. Those stacks of firewood bundles are what Sue and Doug moved out of our spot for us...a lot of work!

It was early afternoon and chilly out, so Steve decided to christen his new fire pit by getting a campfire going. It's been a long time since we've had a "real" campfire...we were looking forward to having one! Neil, the park manager for the Merritt district campgrounds came for a visit. We were chatting with him when Doug and Sue got back from town, along with Gord, another fellow who will be working here as well (he lives in Merritt). Neil stayed for a little longer with us and then went down to see Doug and Toni, our campground managers.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around the campfire. A couple of times dark clouds came in and with some wet snow/hail/rain and we had to retreat under the awning for a few minutes for it to pass.
Doug, Steve, Gord and Sue...

Sue, Steve, Doug, Donna (Gord's wife came to the park to pick him up after she got off work) and Gord...

After their meeting with Neil, Toni and Doug (these 2 "Dougs" are going to be confusing!) joined us around the campfire. Toni, Sue, Donna and Gord (Steve, "big" Doug and "little"  Doug are off in the distance to the left of our truck checking out the old water filters...

Gord and Donna headed home and we sat around the campfire talking about our work here this summer (our official start date is April 15) and then "little" Doug and Toni went back down to their trailer and Sue, "big" Doug, Steve and I roasted hot dogs over the campfire (thanks for providing dinner, Sue!)

Ahh...and we ended the lovely afternoon and evening with a couple of shots of Amaretto...yum! :) Oh, and that's Tucker with Sue...he's my new bud!