Golf & Travel Blog

News from the Road

July, 2008

Blaine Washington

After a month-long visit to home seeing family and friends we headed north. We stopped
for a few days at Blaine WA to visit Lance's brother and sister-in-law, Ron & Sandy Kulman.
Birch Bay is a beautiful place and birds were the order of the day. We saw bald eagles
(this one did not want its face photographed) and herons. One of the bald eagles we saw
was one who had just landed on a branch that broke. When it opened its wings to fly it was
truly majestic. Darn -- missed that picture!

CANADA

Early July 10th we headed for the border not real sure what to expect with our motorhome
and car in tow. We went through the Lynden crossing and the lane was VEEEERRRRRYYYY tight -- within inches of our mirrors. The questions were minimal and we had no inspection.
Smooth crossing...

Our first stop was to be an overnight stay in Merritt, British Columbia. We soon learned
in Canada when you travel through the mountains they warn you of the possibility of severe weather changes -- THEY MEANT IT.

Our second challenge was to learn how to read the signs -- 100 km/hr is 62 mph. Gas costs
about $145.9 per liter -- that's 3.78 gallons per liter or $5.51 a gallon. Lance says it was
actually less than he was expecting. Whew! The other thing that is different is you have to
pay for your grocery carts -- Yep .25 cents to use a cart. Postage is more expensive too.
It cost me about 98 cents for a stamp to go to the US.

Currently we are in Vernon, BC. Lance has a lot of courses that will be going up from this
area. Our RV park - the Silver Star RV Park - is beautiful. It is on Swan Lake. This is the
view from the back of our motorhome. The tree of choice up here seems to be the willow
and they are huge -- very cool.

The one place people go is the O'Keefe Ranch just outside of Vernon. It is a real ranch
and it also had this picturesque church with a wedding going on.

MY HERO

(That is a golf superhero of course!!!!!)

I have to report that Lance is truly my hero. The first time ever I had a low blood sugar (38)
that left me incoherent. I still cannot really pin down what caused it but he gave me some
milk and a spoonful of honey and called the Group Health Consulting Nurse. She and the
doctor there advised him to take me to the hospital because I had just taken my insulin and
could bottom out even lower. A call to the RV park owner with directions to a nearby hospital
and we were on our way. A visit to the Vernon Jubilee Hospital was not on our projected
itinerary -- however, it is very reassuring to know my hero knew exactly what to do. The consulting nurse was right on - even with the milk, another spoonful of honey and a little raise
in the blood sugar -- it did go down. A few hours later I was stable and went home very
grateful for the good care I got. The hospital staff and I all agree Lance did everything right.