Sunday, July 5 to Saturday, July 11, 2015 (Monck Provincial Park, Quilchena, BC)

Here we are into July...and another week of work. We're both working days this week...Steve starts at 7:00 a.m. and I open the gatehouse at 8:00 a.m.

There was a mass exodus of campers leaving the park Sunday...approximately 91, which meant an awful lot of sites to be cleaned in preparation for some reservations coming in today. The outside staff had a very busy day and the temps this week are reaching 34C/94F! I was fairly steady in the gatehouse and when Sue relieved me, I went and did a couple of hours of recycling.
Doug L with a pickup truck load of garbage out of a few campsites...some people are such pigs!


Monday, was a quiet day for me in the gatehouse. Not so for Steve, though...he was the only one working the early shift (7:00 - 3:00). After cleaning bathrooms, emptying all garbage, recycling bins...and taking care of the septic truck fellow, he finally got to cleaning sites. Good thing there were only about 20 or so to do!

It was a little cooler and quite hazy today with all of the wildfires burning throughout the province. By the time I got off shift at 4:00, it was really smokey...I guess the wind brought more smoke in. It's going to be a very bad wildfire season...and it's only the beginning of July.

Steve had a visitor while cleaning the day use area...

It was another very smokey day. There are around 197 forest fires in BC...that's the sun up there...

After dinner we decided to take a short walk down to the lake to take more pictures...

This shapely rock seems out of place...

We were up extra early Tuesday morning...Steve was awake so decided to get up at 5:00 so he could have a more relaxing start with his coffee. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep so I got up as well.

It was another hazy day with lots of smoke still in the air...a little blue sky and sunshine was trying to make it through as Steve cleaned the day use area...

Wednesday was another hot, hazy day. We both had our usual day and then joined Sue and Doug for cocktails after our shift. Their daughter Carlie is visiting again from the coast for a few days...good to see her!  They were grilling burgers for dinner and invited us to join them...never say no to someone else cooking dinner! Thanks, guys!

Shortly after 10:00 Thursday morning, I heard the squeal of brakes coming down the hill and then a vintage car stopped at the gatehouse...the first of about eight vintage cars from a club that came through. They all went down to the day use parking lot...

Steve's timing was perfect...he was just completing his garbage pickup in the parking lot so managed to get lots of photos.

After a short stay they were on their way back up the hill...some of them barely had enough power to make it up...

As usual, we were off work Friday and Saturday. Instead of going into Merritt for groceries, we decided to have a change of scenery and drive to Kamloops.

We took the old highway (5A) that goes along the other side of Nicola Lake. It's still pretty smokey out there!

We actually ran into a little rain...just enough to get Buster (the truck) dirty...

Steve has been along this route as far as the turnoff to Peter Hope Lake...beyond that was all new territory for him. He really enjoyed the beautiful scenery dotted with lakes, even though it wasn't sunny.
Stump Lake...

Napier Lake...

Trapp Lake...

Shumway Lake

Separation Lake...

 Once in Kamloops...

...we had lunch at Montana's (Steve had Rib Bites with fries and corn bread and I had Cobb Salad...both were very good)...and then commenced our shopping.


With stops at Walmart, BC Liquor Store, and finally Costco...we were finally on our way home. We took the Coquihalla (highway 5) back. It's good for making time but not nearly as scenic as highway 5A.

 And Nicola Lake!

After getting all the groceries put away, we just chilled inside. It was another hot day and it didn't help that the air conditioner had blown a breaker so had been off for a bit. It was 27C/80F but started to cool down once Steve figured out what the problem was. It seems that last winter in Quartzsite when we had the sub panel installed that required some rewiring to the breaker box the technician wired the air conditioner to the hot water tank 15 amp breaker and the H/W to the A/C 20 amp breaker.

We had an easy (and delicious) dinner of roast chicken (from Costco) and coleslaw...and then I headed out for a walk around the campground with Sue and Tucker. It was a busy start to the weekend...the campground was full.

Saturday started with a power outage shortly after 6:00 a.m., so Steve turned on our solar system. Apparently it was caused by a minor accident over on highway 5A. It was back on at 8:10...in the meantime, we had a very relaxing start. After coffee, we decided we had better do our resistance exercises...then showers and breakfast. I got started on a few loads of laundry while Steve emptied and flushed our holding tanks.

It was a very fast morning...next thing I knew it was afternoon! And time for a walk around the campground...so we put our runners on and I went and got Tucker. It was very windy out and it started to spit out a bit as we headed down the road out of the compound. It really didn't amount to anything...but waited until we got home. I had just put the last load of laundry on the line and then the skies opened up and it just poured! Oh well...the clothes are getting an extra rinsing I guess LOL!

With the clouds and rain came a major cool down...we went from 34C/94F down to 20C/69F this afternoon! It was very refreshing, We enjoyed a cocktail outside with Sue and Doug before they went down to visit and have dinner with friends visiting. After they left, we headed inside...it was actually getting chilly, with a light rain falling. Wow, what a difference a few hours can make!

Tomorrow is the start to another work week...Steve, Doug and Sue are all going to the town of Logan Lake to take a first-aid course...I will be taking Sue's shift in the gatehouse and working 8:00 to 4:00.