My Weekend ~ July 28 - 30

Well, I had a good weekend!! I left home on my trike late Saturday morning and rode to Westbank where I fueled the trike and met with friends for a very nice visit, then with 3 friends on 2 motorcycles, we left to ride to Penticton.  As we were at a stop sign just up the street, a vehicle pulled up and someone called my name... turned out to be Runningdog from BC Classic Motorcycle Club and his wife whom I had not had the honor of meeting before. I didn't get to talk to them long, but it was nice!!  When Duane, Amber, Aaron and myself got to Penticton, we stopped at a pub for lunch which I very much enjoyed. The guys were so nice... they paid the bill.  After lunch I said my goodbyes to Duane and Amber as they went off to float down the channel to the lake with other of their friends, and after I topped up my gas tank, Aaron showed me where a dollar store was.  I got crazy glue there but they didn't have ear plugs so we went across to WalMart so I could get some, then Aaron showed me the way out of town.

I rode the hour or so to Princeton, stopping at a fruit stand in Keremeos for some fresh cherries.  When I arrived in Princeton I was on my reserve gas so fueled up and asked the attendant if she knew Denise, a woman who rides a trike.  In such a small town I knew she'd stick out and sure enough, I was given directions to Denise's home and to the Coalmont Hotel about another 20 kilometers down the road as she would likely be there if not at home.  The attendant knew the mobile home park, but not the exact home, so when there I had to ask again and the right home was pointed out to me.  Denise wasn't home, so off I went in search of the little, historic village of Coalmont.

The Coalmont Hotel was throwing a big party that night to celebrate the 100th Birthday of the hotel.  The saloon is very small so the back yard was fenced off and people could go out the back door to the fenced area to sit, relax and drink their drink of choice on the hot summers day. Denise was in the back yard and saw me, calling my name, before I saw her. I guess walking in there all dressed in leather I stuck out like a sore thumb, lol.  A lot of the people that were there were not from Coalmont, but had come from many other places.  There was an Elvis impersonator who thought he was the best thing since sliced bread.... he wasn't.  However, the band that played later on was 'hopping hot'!! It was a great party with the saloon shutting down shortly after 2am, then we helped with the clean up though much of it was left for the next day. This old hotel is supposedly haunted.  We spent the night there and I must admit I didn't meet any ghosts.  It was around 4:30am when I crawled into a very comfortable bed, Denise was down the hall in another room.  I was nearly asleep when I heard Denise coming down the hall: "Alice.  Alice." The door opens: "I heard some scraping noises!! Move over!"  I moved over and Denise got on top of my covers with a comforter she'd brought along from the other room.  When I awoke too few hours later, she was already gone, downstairs doing more clean up.  I had muffins and tea for breakfast, tried to get on their wifi which wouldn't let me, helped out a bit with the clean up, walked through the hotel taking photos, moved my trike to in front of the hotel, beside Denise's trike and took more photos.

That afternoon, Denise and I went riding our trikes to Tulameen where we went to see Otter Lake, then rode back to Coalmont Hotel to say goodbye and rode into Princeton.  Soon after we got to Denise's home she got a phone call and off we went to visit some friends of hers. Most of the time we were at her place the rest of that day and the next morning, she talked on the phone a LOT, different people yet always the same conversation.... while I sat there feeling totally ignored.  I spent Sunday night on her hide-a-bed but it couldn't be folded out because there was a big treadmill in there taking up too much room. Not the most comfortable bed, but I've slept on worse.  It was about noon when I climbed upon my trusty steed (got on my trike), rode down to fuel it up, and hit the road.

I decided to take a different route home than I had taken there, goin on Hwy 5A to just outside Merritt, then along Hwy 97C (called the Coquihalla Connector), back to Peachland/Westbank area, then back north along Hwy 97, the same one I'd come down on from Vernon to Penticton. It's a good thing I carry a "Jerry Can" of gas with me in the trike, especially on longer rides, because I had to stop at a "Brake Check" area to fuel up, then was able to make it all the way back to Vernon from there before fueling up again. I can only go a bit over 100 kilometers per tank of gas.

It was a great trip.  I still have to download the photos from my camera before I can share them here or on Facebook.

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