Blair's Blog

The kids are well into their summer routines – hiding in the house, hoping not to get caught playing on their electronics when it is beautiful and sunny outside. Whatever happened to being out on your bike all day and only coming home for food or band-aids? When I was their age…

A lot has happened in the past few days – school wrapped up, I got a ride in a P-51 Mustang, Brenda & I spent the long weekend in the Okanagan with friends, and there is news about our feathered tenants.

First the ducks – we were very pleased to see Amanduck on the nest when we got home from BC, we hadn’t missed the ducklings after all. Our excitement was very short-lived, however. On Wednesday morning we looked out the front door and saw several ducklings just lying there – dead. It seems that a predator (a skunk, we think) found the nest and killed all the babies during the night. At least the hen got away, we saw her a few times that morning. It was pretty sad for all of us.

In the back yard, the robins have hatched. Four ugly little guys that can really glom down the worms, they’re keeping ma and pa robin pretty busy. The nest is easy to see from one of our windows and we’ve hung around the sitting area enough that the parents are fairly calm about our presence.

Ok, the P-51. It is a Vintage Wings of Canada warbird that is based at Springbank until October this year. Brenda is well connected with the Vintage Wings pilots and staff and managed to get me on the roster for a flight to Banff on Friday afternoon.

Mine was the first flight of the day and after the briefing and getting strapped in, the pilot, VWoC COO Rob Fleck, fired up that big Merlin and … Wow! After a warm up and controls check we taxied to the runway. Once we were cleared for takeoff, we lined up on the runway and Rob opened up the throttle. The sensory overload is something else! Six seconds later … we were coasting down the runway at idle.

Did you notice how I said that I got a ride in a P-51 earlier in this post? That’s because you can’t call it a flight if the wheels don’t leave the ground. Rob had aborted the takeoff due to a power surge that he felt as we accelerated. You can see where he cuts power on the takeoff run in the video. We taxied back to the hangar and that was that. The plane was unserviceable and I was done for the day. While I was disappointed about not flying, I have to say that it was the best drive around an airport ever! (Later, I found out that the problem was a broken carburetor inlet cover – a 15 minute fix, but several hours of troubleshooting first).

After the excitement at Springbank, it was a busy evening at home packing up and getting ready to head for Summerland, BC. We met up with our friends, Stu and Jacquie, at their place at 9:30 Saturday morning and hit the road. It was fine weather leaving Calgary, but clouded over quickly. We stopped for lunch in Golden (in the rain), took a quick break for ice cream at Sicamous (in the rain) and arrived in Summerland and checked into our B&B (in the rain). Fortunately, it cleared up in the evening and we had dinner at a “wannabe” Greek restaurant in beautiful downtown Summerland and celebrated Stu and Jacquie’s wedding anniversary.

Despite a bit more rain early the next morning (Canada Day), it cleared up nicely by the time that we finished a nice brunch at the B&B . We decided to head to Penticton and explore. As we drove around to get our bearings, Brenda spotted a flea market from about a mile away and eventually tricked Stu into pulling into the lot. She’d seen a leather jacket from the road and pounced on it – talking the vendor down to $50. An auspicious start to the shopping…

We headed to the beach on Okanagan Lake about noon and walked along the water’s edge, stopped for nachos at a restaurant with a patio facing the Lake and then wandered through another market. It was such a fine sunny day we decided to head back to the B&B to just hang out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon before ordering a pizza for dinner.

Monday was a full day, a little cooler but at least no rain! We had booked a tour that took us to 4 or 5 of the area wineries and then on a steam train ride. There are a lot of wineries in the area and vineyards certainly outnumber orchards. The train ride was cool – it is a 16km section of the old Kettle Valley Railway that has been preserved. The trip is out and back from the station and is noticeably downhill on the way out. To get back the engine has to switch ends and it really huffs and puffs up the grade – way different sound and feel compared to the flatland steam trains in Alberta. That evening we took Stu to see the new Spiderman movie since it was opening night.

Tuesday was our travel day home and most of it was in the pouring rain – about the last thing they need in BC. The Enderby to Sicamous stretch is quite flooded with homes and cars inundated in several areas. Last week the highway had been washed out and closed for several days. Stu did yeoman service with all the driving getting us back to Calgary before dark. OF course, a big thanks goes to my Mom and Dad for hanging out with the kids for the long weekend.

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