We slept reasonably well, but we were not alone. Sometime in the middle of the night Tika wanted to cuddle with us. She is extremely well mannered so she did not just jump on us, but instead waited at our feet. She managed to wake us both, as we realized we had something lying on our feet. When we woke, it gave her permission to cuddle closer. She slept between us for a while and when she didn’t like that anymore she slept at our heads, guarding over us. Somewhere in the middle of the night my mother decided it was tea time and came down for a cup. Realizing Tika was MIA she called to her, waking us up and Tika. I informed Mom that Tika was chilling at our heads, she got her tea and we all went back to sleep…
In the morning mom headed to school again, although meeting a little trouble along the way. The landlord was moving some cattle and tied a rope across the driveway. Not seeing the rope and driving quickly mom drove into the rope which slid up the windshield, ripping off both wipers and cracking the windshield…it was not a good morning for her.
She phoned us to let us know to watch out for the rope, but we didn’t plan to go anywhere so we were safe.
We got up, packed some water and snacks and headed to the hills. We had been eyeing up the nearby hill to climb since we arrived at my moms, so today was the day! We ran into the landlord and he told us to literally just walk straight up the hill, and so we did.
We stopped and started a few times, because of our lack of fitness level, and to check out the view but the most dangerous element was night the sheer grade of the hill but the cacti, which took over the hills bank. They were everywhere, so our eyes had to stay wide, wide open to avoid the deadly plant, thingy! Despite trying very hard, we did have some issues with the cacti. If one stood on one it would detach from the main plant and stick to your shoe. Then, when you continued walking it would detach from your shoe as it imbedded itself in your leg! This was not good. We had to remove cacti from legs twice and from shoes thrice. I still has some thorns stuck in my shoe that we could not remove...
The hike was challenging, but rewarding. It was absolutely beautiful. The dry environment makes it interesting and much different to wetter climites like Vancouver. Kamloops is similar to the climate of Invermere, BC where we often relax on weekends. When we reached the top we just sat there and admired. We ate some discount Halloween candy, drank our Gatorade and water and then headed back down.
Down seemed to be a lot more challenging. I somehow managed to twist my ankle (it is weak anyhow), so walking was possible, but not pain free. We also seemed to find more cacti and it got caught on us even more so that on the way up. We were glad we did not take the dogs on this trip as it would not have been pleasant if they stepped on the sharp edges of the cacti.
Back at the house we relaxed and waited for mom to come home. When she did we returned to the river, this time with her and the dogs, to show her around. We walked the sandy beach again. We found some interesting things. Parts to and old car, with the tire and door handle visible, and steel all around. All in all, we think 50 years ago or so someone ditched a car in the river and it has been there ever since.
Back at the house we cooked up some lamb tacos, which we enjoyed. Then we had ice cream and berries and watched Children of Men and Survivor…
It was our last night in Kamloops….
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