Road Trip!

Now that Daryl has a comfy,new Harley Davidson Ultra Classic, I was able to go on the Kamloops "poker run" this year to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. There were 850 Harley's carrying 1100 people from checkpoint to checkpoint throughout the Fraser canyon in 35 degree heat. (that's celcius for you Americans!) In our riding leathers it was incredibly hot! This year was the poker ride's 20th anniversary. This ride alone has raised over one million dollars to help those living with Muscular Dystrophy. We had a great time and put close to 1,400 km's on the bike. Here are a few pics of just a few of the Harley's, and one of Daryl and Rob (with whom we travelled.) The other picure was taken out the window of a bus that brought us to and from the banquet hall where the big party was after the poker run.

Camping popcorn incident

After our afternoon of kite flying, we decided to have a snack of popcorn. Of course, we didn't bring any popcorn that you can cook over the fire, but I did have a disposable pie plate and some tinfoil so I attempted to make my own "jiffy-pop." Unfortunately, the "lid" came off and the oil caught on fire and the whole thing collapsed into the fire pit, all the while shooting little pieces of burning popcorn at us. So, after stepping back from the pit to avoid the fiery assault, we decided to make it on the propane stove in a pot. and it tasted great! Here is a picture of myself looking quite pleased about my home-made "jiffy-pop" container, during the incident just after it caught on fire, and then at the end enjoying the popcorn that we made on the stove. Note how frizzy my hair had become during the incident. ha ha!

Back to Nature

We went camping again this weekend. We have managed to get our campsite set-up and dis-assembly down to about 35 minutes which we feel is not too long, and therefore, makes camping that much better, as we are not fighting with gear for hours on end. We gave the kids kites before we left and decided to try them out on the beach this weekend. The weather was nice and, other than the occasional kite string tangle, we all had a lot of fun! Justin's kite is the dragon. Shayla's is a spider with pincers on it's head that squeezed together every time the string length was changed. Gavin's kite was a cyclops with an eye in the middle that spun in circles when the wind hit it just right.

Camping Again

With our second trip under our belts, we are getting good use of the new trailer and plan to go again this coming weekend. We really like the campground about 20k from the house, and have been lucky enough to get the same spot both times. It was about 16C by the water last time so we spent most of the second day at the park and beach (forgot to get any pics though). I even found a great stick for the fire labelled the "Ergo-poker" and with a fire like that you need a good stick. Justin even found time to do his homework Yee-haa.

More Improvements Outdoors

As you will recall, there was a deep "cellar" attached to the back of the garage (shown in older entry) taking up a good portion of our patio. Well not anymore, we pulled it down and filled the hole. All we need is some time at home to cement it in but at least it is safe now. Karen even tried her hand at the industrial Jack Hammer and tamper.

Also, we reduced the hedge to a more manageable size which left an ugly open center. We will decide what to do with that in the fall. Our good neighbor "Bob" lent us a neat tool called the Alligator and it made very quick work of the thick branches and stalks.

It Finally Grew Up

So after 3 years and a lot of water and food my little Sporty finally grew up. On Tuesday last week I left for a ride to Chilliwack and returned that evening with a much larger and more comfy bike.

The Garage Saga Continues....

Daryl has spent this long weekend working on the garage. Tedford doors installed the garage door for us, as the door was ordered specially to fit with the slightly sloping cement floor, a difference of 3 1/4 inches from one side to the other. Daryl put the back door up using 17 million shims to make it level (see above comment). Daryl states a pre-hung door should be installed within 45 minutes, but due to the sloping floor, this one took about 4 hours. Ugh. He also installed the automatic door opener. Everything works well, and we are very happy with the results thus far. Stay tuned for the next update.....