Episode 7
The verdict is not yet in but Phase III may be a bust. It has been 6 weeks since Phase III was implemented and the daily rate of COVID infections has increased from 10-15 to 50 plus. Here in the Okanagan we have gone from zero to 10+ daily. The province is once again in an upward trend of COVID infections, lets hope it is just a passing phase.
I blame the Millennial’s but don’t “Hey Boomer” me, the proof is in the figures. As reported by the BC Centre for Disease Centre “Likely source of infection for most cases was contact with local clusters. The number of reported cases among children remains low. Over a quarter of the 196 new cases in the last· week (among those with known age) were 20-29 years old (53/196; 27%).”
The local clusters that they refer to were two large parties held in Kelowna during the July long weekend. As of July 30th, there were 130 cases of infection directly related as a result of these parties.
These large gatherings that ignore social distancing and wearing masks continue throughout the province. The latest report has three Vancouver PD officers testing positive of COVID after breaking up an August long weekend party of over a 100 people termed a “out of control” gathering. By out of control, they are referring to the lack of social distancing and more than 50 people with future infections to be announced.
But hey I was a kid once and loved a good “out of control” party. The difference though was parties in those days did not come with a potentially deadly virus and the chance to kill your grandparent’s, just one hell of a hangover so “Party On Dudes.”
Don’t get me started on wearing a mask. Okay, so I started. People assume that I wear a mask to protect myself. Wearing anything but a properly fitted N95 mask will not provide adequate protection against the virus but what wearing a mask can do much better is protect those idiots not wearing a mask should I be infected.
Some how these anti-maskers just don’t get it that my wearing a mask is protecting their dumb asses.
The last four weeks have been a replay of the previous four weeks with golf, yoga, runs, swims, bikes, coffees, and dinner in the park with friends......
......along with escapes into the world of Bob Ross and happy trees.
Another escape from this viral life was in order.
The choice of destination was driven by a news article I came across about the last drive-in theatre in the Southern Interior. It seemed like the perfect road trip, seeing a movie in our car.
As a teenager and young man in Kamloops, I saw most of my films through the front window of a 61 Ford Falcon as Kamloops was blessed with two drive-ins. I will leave the rest of those experiences to your imagination.
Photo: Sundown Drive In- Kamloops Museum
My last visit to a drive-in was as a married father of one. We had bundled up our 1 year old son with the plan to bring him to the drive-in and put him to sleep in the back seat while we enjoyed the #1 hit of 1977, Star Wars. Much to our astonishment, he enjoyed the movie more than we did as he spent the whole evening bouncing on my lap, gripping the steering wheel, completely mesmerized by the movie.
So 43 years later, in the small town of Enderby, we were once again enjoying an evening at the movies, this time, without children and through the window of a 2016 Prius. We purchased both our tickets on line instead of hiding one of us in the trunk mostly because a Prius does not have a trunk. Also missing was the big clunky crackly sounding speaker that hung from a metal post in each stall, replaced by an FM signal listened through our car radio.
Enderby is located in the extreme north end of the Okanagan Valley and about a 15 minute drive from the city of Salmon Arm where we had booked into a lovely B&B for a couple of nights. While I have driven through Salmon Arm, many times over the last 50 years, We have never stopped for more than gas.
We also came to Salmon Arm to enjoy a number of bike rides that I had found in a newly published book of cycling called “The Okanagan and Beyond”.
I did not remember from my previous visits, nor did the book mention how freakin hilly the area around Salmon Arm is. Nonie was a real trooper.
Later in the afternoon saw us hitting a few of the wineries that have started to pop up in the Shushwap Lake area. Similar to the Okanagan, the areas around Shushwap Lake have micro-climates that allow some of the more cold-resistant grape varietals to grow. Based on our sampling, the vines have been very successful adapting to the cooler climates of the Shuswap
