Restaurants

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Ella Greek and Mediterranean Grill, Osoyoos

The only interesting dining option within a reasonable walking distance of the RV park is Ella Greek and Mediterranean Grill.  I decided to check it out today in the hope of discovering a little gem I could treat myself to once a week or so. I did!

The restaurant is tiny; more of a take out counter, but there are a few tables. The menu is Greek, but the cook is Syrian, so there’s a bit of fusion going on with the menu. I had the falafel sandwich which came with the thin pita the Lebanese (and Syrians) use as well as tahini, but which had feta, tzakiki, and cucumber, which the Greeks add. I’m also curious about the roasted red peppers I was convinced to try. They might be a Syrian thing; the Lebanese add marinated turnips. No matter where they come from, YUM!

The cook was super busy so we didn’t get a chance to chat long, but she said that she tried to make her falafel the way the Syrians do, which is the way I like them, lots of parsley, mint, garlic, and cumin. But the Osoyoos palate doesn’t support that. So, she makes them pretty plain, with sesame seeds for extra crunch and flavour. They’re tasty, but ho hum. At least, they are fresh; it was awesome to see her scooping out falafel balls, shaping them, and dropping them in the fryer.

The falafel sandwich wound up being huge; I had a hard time finishing it! At just under $7, it was reasonably priced for this part of Canada. The lack of zing made the sandwich one that soothed my falafel itch, but did not assuage it, so I don’t think I’ll be having it again even though it was excellent, with a great mix of flavours and textures. But I will definitely go back to try the dolmads, calamari, chicken souvlaki, salads and other wonderful treats on the menu!

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A Wenatchee Detour

Donna, another friend, and I headed into Washington state today. The purpose of the trip was so that Donna could have her defective Verizon phone replaced while it was still on warranty, something which was going to expire in a couple of days. Verizon had told her that Omak had the nearest store. We figured we’d pop in at the Princes grocery store in Oroville then go to Omak, do the Verizon store, grab some Mexican food at Tequila’s, and finish the day at Walmart. I drove because my car was quicker to empty than was Donna’s truck. 🙂

Slight change of plan at the Verizon store, which is located in the Ace Hardware. They are just a distributor and it was necessary to go to a proper Verizon store. The nearest ones were Spokane or Wenatchee. I’d seen a road sign for the latter, so I confirmed that it was just a hundred miles away. We’d already come this far, it made no sense to let the warranty on Donna’s phone expire! So, we came out of the store and told our other friend that she could either spend the afternoon at Walmart or join us on an impromptu road trip. The decision was easy to make!

Unfortunately, Tequila’s was closed, so we decided to push on and stop at the first promising location for lunch.

The drive to Wenatchee was just gorgeous and easy. Our stomachs were a rumbling trio when we got to Pateros, so we pulled into the strip mall and decided to try out the little bakery there. We had nice turkey and cranberry sandwiches (Thanksgiving, remember!).

Coming into Wenatchee was a bit stressful because we didn’t really have directions and I’d left the GPS behind. We got off the highway, crossed a bridge, and headed into downtown, which made the whole day worthwhile. Downtown Wenatchee is stuck in the 1950s! Nearly all the store signs are those old signs they had back then. It was a most amazing time warp! The road through downtown led to the shopping district where we recognized the landmarks we were told to look for. We’d gone a little out of our way, but not actually done a detour. I definitely want to go back and do a photo tour of town!

It was late afternoon when Donna’s phone issues were satisfactorily resolved, so we agreed to shoot straight back to Omak, do Walmart, then grab dinner at the Mexican place in Oroville if it was open. We stopped again in Pateros for gas and then pushed on. It was getting late, so we didn’t dally at Walmart, but I will be going back there with fabric samples ASAP since I found there something for the rig I’ve been looking for since I started planning the decorating phase….

Thankfully, the restaurant in Oroville, Trino‘s, was open! Between the chips with cold slaw, the gigantic burritos, and the deep fried tortilla cheese cake bites with ice cream (not my idea!), we pretty much rolled out of there! I may not have to eat for a week. 🙂

Getting back into Canada was reasonably painless and then it was a hop, skip, and a jump to home. What a great day!

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Quick Look at Hinton and Thinking About Jasper

I ended up driving into Hinton for dinner tonight and also to gas up the toad. Highway 16 shoots straight through town and on each side of it are the usual big box stores, including a Walmart and a Canadian Tire. There might be more to the town, but at first glance it doesn’t seem like much.

The restaurant choices were uninspired so being in the mood for shrimp I ended up at Joey’s Only Seafood. Never been to that chain before even though I have lived and traveled through many towns with one. The food was adequate, reasonably priced, and had generous but not not exaggerated quantities. It wouldn’t be my first choice next time I go out for dinner, but for tonight it worked. I had a shrimp and chicken combo with rice and veggies.

I then gassed up the toad, at 91.9! I will make sure to gas up both vehicles at the very limit of Alberta to take full advantage of the price here!

While I had planned to go to Jasper tomorrow, I may end up hanging out at home instead. Both vehicles badly need an exterior cleaning and I have a few things to troubleshoot. There doesn’t seem to be enough to do in Jasper to justify the 140km round trip in the toad, nor paying the park entry fee twice. I might take up Croft’s suggestion from 2008 and instead get up early on Wednesday, park Miranda on the edge of town, and then explore at my leisure. Decisions, decisions. 🙂 Whatever I do, I do not want to spend a night within the park borders; I simply cannot justify paying $40-$50 to boondock on Crown land!!!

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No Need to Dawdle

The internet in Whitehorse is pretty bad, so I had a frustrating night there trying to get work done and ended up going to bed way too late. I needed to be out of my spot by 11 Thursday morning and still had errands to do, so the morning was pretty painful. I managed to get to two stores and then lost time back tracking to Canadian Tire to get my debit card. It’s the new kind with a pin number and I’m not used to not getting my card back immediately after it’s slid through the card reader. It was therefore much too late to get groceries and beer. I decided that I could get some beer in Watson Lake and that I didn’t need to ‘stock up’ on groceries since I’m heading back into civilization anyway.

So, I pulled out of Whitehorse at 11 and headed straight for Nugget City. I stopped in Teslin for lunch fixings and a nice picnic since I’d been given a ton of veggies before pulling out of Dawson. Teslin is still the prettiest spot in the Yukon in my mind!

Teslin Lake

Sometime after Teslin I started to get quite sleepy, so I pulled over for a leg stretch at George’s Gorge:

George’s (Gorgeous) Gorge

The ride from Whitehorse to Nugget City is one of my favourites; the road is in good shape and you can actually enjoy the scenery. It’s not a technical drive at all, so I was still reasonably coherent when I pulled into Nugget City. It’s a good thing for that since my friend Amber threw herself into my arms the second I stepped out of the rig! We haven’t seen each other since May of ’09!

Forget setting up beyond plugging in the rig; I was quickly spirited away to the lake where a pair of trumpeter swans were swimming.

The male got spooked by a beaver and took off to make sure everything was good.

beaver coming up for air

After two days of hard driving, it was great to get off my butt and get some exercise in fresh air! By the time we got back to the main part of the property, I was famished, so I headed to the restaurant and grabbed a beer after putting in an order for a chicken stir fry .

Amber works late hours so she came back to see the cats on her break around ten, then showed me the digs she’s had all summer. It’s a fifth wheel, the second one I’ve visited this summer, and I have to say I really like the way they are split into several levels…

Since there’s no cell service at Nugget City, I couldn’t get online, so I went to bed at a much more reasonable hour and slept well. This morning I had time to eat breakfast before Amber scared the living daylights out of me by sticking her face up against my back window and then rocking the rig so I’d noticed her. I just about hit the ceiling! She helped me pack up, we did the round of good-byes, and then she became the first ever passenger I’ve carried in this rig, traveling with me from the RV park to the restaurant.

I pulled out of Nugget City around 11 and drove to Watson Lake. After getting gas, groceries (including the black bread and gyoza I can only find here), and enough Yukon Brewery beer to get me through to next spring, I’m now parked downtown and plan to do at least an hour’s worth of work. I’ll then meander down to Liard hot springs, then I will have a couple of overnight options. I’d really rather not go much further than Liard tonight since I’m beat. I need to start boondocking; I’d forgotten how expensive it is to stay several nights in a row at an RV park!

And, so, another summer in the Yukon draws to a close…

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Last Night in Dawson

In the end, I’m glad to have had this final day in Dawson since it enabled me to really get the new computer going and I can now take off with a nearly fully functional machine. I’m sure I forgot some things, so I will make a note of them as the days progress.

Having solved the Mail issues (yay), there are now two hiccups. The first is that I have been unsuccessful in transferring over my invoicing information. I’ve put in a support ticket for that. I’m okay for now because my invoicing is up to date and I don’t anticipate having any more for this month, but it’s still a major issue that needs resolution. The second hiccup is that the internet runs at crawl speed to the point that I can’t download anything over a couple MB. So, I haven’t done any software updates, including the last security patches. I’ll see if the situation improves when I get to better cell service.

This first evening on the Macbook Pro tells me that even though I do have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me as well as some habit adjustments, I have made a smart, life-style appropriate decision in my purchase. I can’t believe I’ll be able to do everything when boondocking that I do when I’m parked for months at a time!

While files were transferring and downloading, I continued to chip away at my departure checklist and then went out for dinner. For my final meal in Dawson, I decided to splurge on a meal at the Drunken Goat. I bought an appetizer in addition to a full dinner, so the bill was pretty high, but I’ll get lunch and dinner out of the leftovers tomorrow, so the value was quite good.

The end of the season was anti-climatic compared to last year, but that was the summer’s tone, so I’m not disappointed. I’m just glad to be heading south now that the nights are hitting zero!