Panoramic picture by Rick
After we had settled into our park for a couple of days, our friends, Rick and Lynne, dropped by for a visit, so we had 2 atomic pods on our site! We had a fun time touring the local wineries and cideries in the Similkameen and Okanagan Valleys. Most of the wineries did not charge a tasting fee. Lynne and I were so happy that Paul and Rick took turns being designated drivers (or as my friend Brenda says, “devastated drivers”). Let the tastings begin!
View of Okanagan Lake from Naramata (NE of Penticton)
Of course, it wasn’t all about the wine and cider. We also visited a historic site in Keremeos: The Grist Mill. The miller was so passionate and animated. He is actually an architect who moved here to reconstruct the mill from bits and pieces. He studied other mills of the period and talked to every expert he could find. He was full of interesting stories about how they acquired parts for the mill. There were so many series of events that took place and they found actual parts from this original mill at local farms.
The Grist Mill, Keremeos
One story was particularly interesting to me. A friend of the miller is a local artist. She had a desk that she had planned to use in her studio, but decided against it. She asked the miller if he would be interested since it was probably of the same vintage as the mill. He brought it back to the mill and the wood pieces of the desktop were the same size as the wood on the walls. OK. That was a nice coincidence . . . or so he thought. Then he considered where the original miller would have placed a desk. He could only fit it behind the door. When he put it in place, the water marks on the wall matched the shape of the desk! This was the original desk! This is just one of the many stories he told us.
You can buy flour milled here because it is fully operational. Of course, dogs aren’t allowed inside the mill, but they did allow us to sneak them onto the grounds.
Atomic Pod 