We slept pretty well, but we were not alone. Sometime in the middle of the night Tika wanted to sleep with us. She is very well mannered so she did not just jump in, but instead waited at our feet. I am a nervous sleeper so I woke up when she neared and gave her the permission she wanted to sleep with us. First she slept at my feet, and then she slept between us, cuddling with me. Later she moved to just by our heads. At 4:00 am when MBHM (My Better Half’s Mom) came down for tea could not find Tika and managed to wake everyone up... good thing we had nothing to do and could sleep in a little longer.
MBHM headed to school again about when we got up. She drove out the driveway and ran into a little trouble. The neighbour was moving some cows and had a rope across the road. Not seeing the road and driving quickly MBHM drove into the rope which slid up the windshield, breaking both the wipers and cracking the glass. Not a good way to start the day.
We had a better start. We got up, packed some water and snacks, and headed to the hills. Kamloops is in the middle of the mountains, but the immediate vicinity is just really big hills. I wanted to climb one, so we did. We ran into the neighbour and he said we could just walk straight up to head to the top, so... we did.
The hike took a surprisingly long time and was quite tough but we did make it. Our greatest difficulty was when we came across the brutal little cacti all over the place. Kamloops is in that dry interior of BC and it is definitely Wild West area. The land is dry and barren and all there is is little grasses and evidently very sharp cacti. I did touch one to see how sharp they were... they are very very sharp... We had some other issues with the cacti as well. 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. MBH (My Better Half) still has some thorns stuck in her shoe that we could not remove...
Still. The hike was beautiful. We headed up the barren hill and dodge sparse trees. Up and up and up. The view got better and better, the trees remained sparse, and eventually we made it to the highest point on the hill. It was a smooth round hill, but a big one. We sat on the top looking down at Kamloops and we enjoyed some discount Halloween candy and Gatorade.
When we were rested and bored of the glorious nothingness of the summit we headed back down. This proved to be far more treacherous with MBH twisting and ankle, and our downward path taking us through more cacti than before. What a walk. We were lucky that we did not take the dogs with us because, those cacti would have been killer.
We had a little time to rest before MBHM came home. When she did we returned to the river. This time we just took Tika and went for a loooonnnnggg walk on the sand. I was running around with Tika, again enjoying my shoes, when out on the sand I found some interesting things. There were bits of steel sitting rusted and abandoned, there was a tire, and there was one more thing... a door handle. All in all, I think that 50 years ago someone ditched a car in the river and left it there and over time the car has broken up and been deposited along the river. It was interesting to see.
Back at the house we had lamb tacos and watched Children of Men... and Survivor...
Another good day, like they all are...
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