Exploring Okanegan Valley

      Today is glorious weather.  Not so yesterday, we left for a walk, stopped to visit with Dora and Bert M. from Texas in their Casita. They are full timing in the little Casita with a new 21 Escape on order for next January.  They are couple Jim had met on the wine tour on Friday and are such fun. It was much warmer at their site and as we left decided to go back to the trailer and put on cooler clothing. We ate a quick lunch and by the time we finished the wind had come up and it was clouding up. The wind kept getting higher and pretty soon there were white caps on the lake. Everyone around us was quickly getting their awnings put away. Jim had left to help a couple who had come in on a motorcycle and were staying in a tent by taking him into town to see if he could get a replacement O ring for their bike. They had ridden in from their home about 5 hours ride from here. Over the next few hours, the wind kept picking up speed and the rain came down, it seemed, sideways. This kept up for most of the afternoon. Even our trailer seem to rock a bit though it is faced toward the lake directly into the wind. By about 5pm most of the weather had retreated and the sky begin to clear and people began to appear from trailers and tents. Jim had returned after about an hour and, during that storm, the couple he had taken to town, got the O ring replaced on the bike. They rode by our place so we could see they were operational.  Thirteen of our Escape went into town last night for a very good dinner at the Convivial in Osoyoos. It is owned by a couple from Toulouse. She told us the many of the their recipes hail from there. She had a wonderful French accent and welcomed our mix Americans and Canadians.
       As I mentioned above, today is the best weather of our 5 days here and 90 F is forecast for tomorrow. We drove up the valley and Jim took me to some of wineries he saw on Friday. The Okanegan is the Northern most reach of the Sonoran desert but it has the great lake, lots of water and a perfect climate from wine grapes. It is the main wine producing area for Canada. We went to the Tin Horn, the Burrowing Owl and Road 16. The Burrowing Owl donates all it wine tasting fees to the Canadian Burrowing Owl Society and so far has contributed almost 900,000 since they opened. Wineries have a bad reputation for replacing Burrowing Owl habitat. We just had to help the cause by buying a couple of fine wines. Have to post pictures tomorrow. My connection is painfully slow!
 

Tin Horn Winery looking toward the restaurant