Day 4 - Yakima, WA to Kelowna, BC

We left the Yakima area right on schedule this morning at 8:00 AM under clear skies headed for Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Bob awoke this morning with something in his eye requiring him to ride with one eye while the other one watered and annoyed him constantly. An entire bottle of eye wash was spent to no avail. But, Bob pressed on not wanting to delay us; he’s a trooper.

We continued north through Wenatachee,WA, crossing the mighty Columbia River, the second of several times during our adventure. About half way to Kelowna the hungries set in and we stopped in Omak, WA. where we opted for teriyaki chicken in a nice little corner operation run by a nice local couple. By this time, Bob had enough aggravation with his eye and opted for a trip to the local emergency room in lieu of lunch.

About the time we finished our lunch, the afternoon storm clouds began to gather and the first rain drops of the day began to fall. We donned our rain gear and headed out to check on Bob. Fortunately, whatever was in Bob’s eye was no longer there, but his eye was scratched. Bob was now officially a one-eyed rider with a patch over one eye. We had been counting on Bob for some great photos because he has one of the best cameras, but as Tim related, “Bob has lost his eye for photography.” That was cold Tim!

As we traversed the last miles of northern Washington State, the sage covered hills gave way to a beautiful futile green valley with well-mannered rows of crops and cattle ranches. The scenery was made more dramatic by the low afternoon sun, beautiful.

Fifty miles north of Omak, we arrived at the Canadian border under sunny skies again. The border crossing was uneventful. The customs guys were very friendly and obliging, just asking if we were carrying any weapons, large sums of money, or were leaving anything in Canada. We only admitted to leaving tourist dollars, nothing more. One officer complained about having to wear a bullet-proof vest in 75 degree weather. We invited him to come to Southern California in the summer and wear his vest in the 100 degree plus weather. He looked at us like we had two heads and said, “No way!”

Lane had anticipated our first dilemma upon entering Canada and made us all MPH to KPH conversion cards, which came in very handy. Thanks Lane.

We followed Highway 97 north to Penticton , BC, were the Provence neglected to mark a critical 90 degree turn to the left. We all gathered around the GPS and found our way back to the highway. Hurray for modern technology. Penticton marks the south end of the 75 mile long Okanagan Lake, which we followed to the City of Kelowna, pronounced, “kelona “.

We checked into the newly remodeled Days Inn hotel, where we discovered that Tim & Sylvia had no hot water in their shower, John & Lane had no air conditioning or heat, the Jacuzzi was not hot, and the heated swimming pool was not!

Fortunately, we concluded our evening at Montana’s Steak House with a nice supper and a couple of adult beverages watching the Lakers lose the third game in the series to Orlando.

We clocked 340 miles on the road today and will be looking forward to Revelstoke, Glacier, and Banff National Parks tomorrow, as well as Lake Louise.