Moments that defined our country.

Brookside RV Park (2 stars)

Lee says it's time to get patriotic and emotional. There are those events that have shaped our country and Lez and I have seen a few of them. We saw the artifacts in Charlottetown that led to Confederation, we have seen the emergence of a true Canadian armed forces resulting in the events at Juno Beach (the German Atlantic wall designed to hold off the enemy for 48 hours - the Canadians breeched it in 25 minutes). And today we saw the place where we drove the last spike and confirmed our country to be sea to sea. Craigellachie (pronounced Craig Ella Key) is a simple place that holds incredible national importance. At 9:22 AM on November 7, 1885 we drove the last spike on our trans-continental railway, confirming Ottawa's end of the bargain that saw British Columbia eventually join Confederation.

There are a couple of things emerging as fall temperatures settle in. First, many campgrounds and RV parks are now closed. Second, we need M+S tires on major roads in BC. Chuck has those. Lez and I are ready to 'settle down' in Surfside for the winter.

Well, as we drove along the Trans Canada Highway around Salmon Arm and saw all the sign boards for local wineries it brought back so many great memories.

Wine runs started and were recorded with our first unplanned wine run in 1992 on our way back from our road trip to California to visit Lee's sister and hubby. While visiting them, we toured several Califorina wineries. As we travelled home, we chose a route that would take us through the Okanagan as we had heard about wineries starting up in that perfect Canadian Okanagan vineyard climate. The next year we created a promo inviting friends to join us in a VQA VQA - Vinters Quality Alliance Vino Quaffing Aventure. That trip triggered the start of the VQA VQA years of wine runs we did, eventually joined mostly by adventuresome friends Carolyn and Brittany, and Donna and Trevor. We got to know many of the vintners, and learned a lot about the wine making, as we got private tours through the behind the scenes workings of wine making.

We counted on friends and family to look after our boys as we traipsed off into the new wine touring adventures every summer. Those memories also trigger more memories and stories - such as my brother looking after our boys, bringing his son along to visit with his cousins - and the adventure stories they had as he "took charge". Our last official run was in

2016 - VQA VQA XXV. We now have our wine shipped - not nearly as adventuresome, but tasty all the same.