#241 Nomad Diary. 31 May-6 June 2025. Penticton, BC Housesit. SS Sicamous Stern Wheeler Museum. Moon River Memories. French Pastries. Spring Flowers. Beautiful Mountain Views.

At Our Penticton House Sit Baily and Allie

Flower Seller at the Penticton Farmer's Market

Darrell Selecting Radishes at the Penticton Farmer's Market

 

A Few of the Vendor Tents at the Much Larger Penticton Farmer's Market

Best French Pastry Shop in Town

Dinner Out at a Greek/Italian Place

Call with Son, Jeremy and Grandson Quinn. Andrea is Off-camera. In Brazil.

View in Our Neighborhood...You Walk Up a Very Steep Mountainside to Get to It! lol.

Our Oldest Son, Eric in Alabama. His Daughter Esther is on Top Of Him! lol.

Owen with His Magnet Box and Truck Build.

Saturday. 31. Feeling better again today! Thanking God for His renewal and care in me. Exercise. Macro-balanced breakfast that’s delicious–Darrell’s homemade pancakes, fresh berries, nuts, pork tenderloin, dark coffee, etc.! Wow! Saturday farmer’s market in Penticton is a draw for locals and tourists. 

Sunday. 1. Darrell gets a call from a man in Africa who reads Darrell's Bible questions and answers blog. Darrell sets up a call to a man, Larry, we know who has been preaching in Malawi for 9 years. Darrell is thinking to go back by invitation to preach in Malawi. I had a call with my two sisters, Linda and Annette, who live near Indianapolis. I found out that my sister Linda has had two wrist surgeries since Februrary. She's stopped work because her recovery has been difficult and complicated added to her Parkinson's disease. Linda is 66 years old and been living with her diagnosis for many years with some pretty good nutritional and natural treatments. It seems since her February surgery she's having some very difficult times now. Our nomad schedule has us going to Indiana in mid-July for a short visit.

Monday. 2. Darrell’s phone conversation with Larry in Malawi about the possibility of preaching and teaching there and what Larry can tell him about the work there. 

We have a morning call with our son Eric and his two littles: Owen and Esther. I’ve set an appointment for a bodywork session on Thursday.

Walking Down Our Mountainside on the Only Staircase We Know of. Most of the Tiers Downhill are Sidewalks.

Tiny Flowers. Penticton, B.C.

Tree with the Tiny Flowers.

More Tiny Flowers in Penticton.

Plant with Tiny Flowers.

View From Our 'Catio' House

Allie and Ollie at Our House Sit.

Mural in Downtown Penticton, B.C.

Our Shared Pastry Today. Sourdough Loaf To Go.

Bailey and Ollie Watching Our Popcorn Popper

Tuesday. 3. Relaxed day at our house. 11am e-Bible class with friends in Kent, England church and others who attend around the world. I cooked a pound of black beans in the instapot. This many beans will serve us for three full meals. I make this current favorite recipe about once a week or a little more often. Evening walk at Skaha Lake Beach Park, then grocery shop at The Real Canadian Superstore. Around 7-8pm we have been watching recorded tv shows on Youtube. Recently we are watching the English show called ‘Money for Nothing’. It’s an upcycle show. The host goes to a trash dump and selects three items that were going to get thrown away. Then the three items are repurposed and sold. At the conclusion of each episode, any profit that is made from the item is given to the person the item came from. They are asked what they might do with their cash. It’s a nice round out to the story. Both Darrell and I have enjoyed picking up cast-off items through our decades together. I almost think that being a junk dealer is in my DNA! I love the upcycling effect of creativity into something new of value. 

Wednesday. 4. Today has been a lovely, relaxed day of living. Around 9am we went to town for a pastry and coffee. We said hello to a woman with her pastry as we were leaving, and commented on what wonderful pastries this shop sells. She confirmed that these are the best french pastries in Penticton! Lol. Whew! We’ve been here three times already so I’m glad we found this shop right away. We also made a grocery store stop and the thrift store that I’ve enjoyed! This particular thrift store we went to randomly last week to donate a bunch of Darrell’s clothes that he wanted to get rid of. Mostly he has lost so much weight that his pants are all too big on him. He’s been getting clothes that fit him better, but it’s a process. When we went to the thrift store with a donation, they gave us a 20% off coupon. So we went shopping too. I was able to find some like new jeans in my new size and donate mine that are too big on me! Through the week we have taken donations three times and shopped with a coupon each time finding something else. It really does go back to my junk dealer DNA! Lol. 

SS Sicamous Sternwheeler Museum at Penticton, BC

Darrell at the Captain's Wheel on the SS Sicamous

Communications on the SS Sicamous. Someone Worked Here from 1914-1935!

Beautifully Crafted Bench on SS Sicamous

On the SS Sicamous Museum

Prince of Wales Slept Here! in 1919.

History on the SS Sicamous Museum

Thursday. 5. Afternoon bodywork “block therapy” appointment. I booked Tami for another block therapy appointment on Monday morning! It’s that good.

Friday. 6. The cats wake us up at 5am. At least they are quiet all night. At least one comes to scratch at our door and mew us up. It’s temporary and we can get up and get going even if we would rather sleep at least another hour! Afternoon naps are part of our stay here! Lol. At mid-morning we go to the best french pastry shop in town and then go to the SS Sicamous museum at one end of Okanagan Lake Beach. I especially enjoyed this museum. 

Nomad Notes. This week a friend and I were IM’ing back and forth. She ended by saying “enjoy your vacation!”. Lol. It’s what people often think of this nomad life we are living as we move from place to place. I asked Darrell, to be funny, but true, “do you think I should tell her we aren’t on vacation. We live here?” Much of this nomad living has been a ‘try this’. Now let’s try it this way. While traveling around as nomads, we are classified as tourists, and we often go to see touristy sights, we don’t do it every day. We also enjoy living life more low key than how we used to vacation during our working years. Our moving about now sometimes has the pace and look of a vacation, and other times we have to sit still and enjoy resting and cooking and taking walks and watching sunsets, etc. This is what we call our tempo. It’s certainly changed through our traveling years, since retiring in early 2022. Our tempo changes depending on our location, our interest to look at the local history, or surroundings and our need to go slower. In 2022, our first year of retirement and our first extended journey of about 6 months. We took a 1 month cruise to England; stayed for 4 months and took a month long cruise back to the US. During our 4 months in England, Scotland and Wales, we wanted to see so much! We had a lot of interest in the history and the layers of history in England. It was hard to sit still or not go to a museum when there was another great story to see and hear. As we had just retired, we made our game-plan to fit our style. We saw many sights and we had days of downtime. We learned about house-sitting and that slowed us down to spend a week in one place at various places. That was really helpful to allow us to feel that slower pace. In contrast to our current trip in Canada, we are going very slowly. Staying a week or more in one place. The touring is completely different here than in England. We are more aware of our planning for our accommodations for our coming weeks, and for coordinating our travel days and how days will feel for us with our energy levels. We for limit our daily drive time for comfort and for relaxing and sleeping. We have slowed down more from our time in England. This year we added Darrell's eye doctor treatments every 5 weeks. He decided that he still wanted to travel and coordinate his trips to the doctor. He was able to schedule with a doctor in Seattle two times rather than fly back to Huntsville, Alabama. Darrell has really felt the need to sit still and chill because the 3 round trip air flights to the US were tiring for him. I went on one of those trips and when we returned we needed to stay home and recover. We did that and it’s worked out pretty well. 

In my Bible reading this week: Job 21: 29, NIV (Job speaking in answer to his friend who has explained his story of how the wicked are punished by God.) “Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity, that they are delivered from the day of wrath?...v. 34 “so how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”

On my mind is making a facebook post about the Penticton Museum highlighting the SS Sicamous Stern Wheeler. I’d call it a paddlewheel boat. It’s the last one of an era. A very, very short history of Lake Okanagan, transportation and European settlers. 

1892: In 1892, a railway line (CPR), was built at the north of Okanagan lake. This opened up the start of transportation for European settlers who began to ‘flood’ into the area around the lake. Before this first train the travel was on horseback. 

1893: In 1893 CPR launched its first Okanagan Lake Ship, SS Aberdeen. This ship “sparked a period of growth and prosperity in the valley, as it meant fertile areas in the south could now be reached” easier. 

1907: CPR launched its 2nd ship in Lake Okanagan, SS Okanagan. 

1914: CPR launched its 3rd and final ship here. The SS Sicamous was considered the most ornate and even hosted the Prince of Wales in 1919 with a sleeping suite. You know, “The Prince of Wales Slept Here” lol.

These three ships, then down to two, paddle-wheeled the Lake for 20 years. Each night the SS Sicamous docked at the south end of Lake Okanagan at Penticton usually by 8pm. In the morning, the ship left for the north end of the lake. The length of the lake is 84 miles. The ship reached Okanagan Landing by 12 Noon to meet the trains. It was the way farmers sent their produce to market, received goods, moved the mail and passengers. 

The deck hands stayed busy transferring cargo which could include livestock, and shoveling coal for the ship’s fuel. Once the noon stop was completed for the return trip to Penticton, the ship stopped several times along the way back south. There were 15 regular docks for stops along the way south, with possible extra stops where the request for the ship to stop could be made at a beach by signaling the ship with 2 white flags or at night with 2 bonfires. 

1935: Lake travel fell out of popularity, the ship was stripped of its costly interiors, the decks were modified, and it was turned into a service vehicle. It signaled the big changes in personal transportation. People were beginning to purchase automobiles. Roads were being built between cities that used to depend on the lake ferries.

The SS Sicamous wasn’t making enough money to continue. It was stripped of all things fancy and modified into a freight ship. After 2 years, in 1937, it was moored at the dockyard at the north end of the lake.

1951: Falling into great disrepair and nothing glorious as in its beginning, the city of Penticton and a local civic club, took it on as a heritage project. The ship made its final voyage south and has been docked at Penticton since. 

Now: the SS Sicamous is quite a nice museum with stories and history gathered into its rooms that have been refurbished in reasonable ways. This ongoing project is a well done museum in Penticton. It was very enjoyable to walk through and read stories and see displays that are put together to show how it was before roads and automobiles. 

2025: On the SS Sicamous, a Stern Wheeler museum in Penticton, British Columbia, in the refurbished “Women’s Saloon”, there was a song playing on a continuous loop. The 1960’s song, Moon River, is familiar to me. I enjoyed listening to this Andy Williams version as I read about this particular room on the ship. Within this saloon was a side door to a small room. This small room contained a display with some old wedding dresses, a woman’s dressing table with vintage items set out as if in use. There were a few photos of weddings from the past. In one picture was the bride wearing the dress on display. There were names and stories of those in the pictures when it was remembered, or a newspaper clipping helped the historian piece the information together. As I enjoyed this wedding room display and the stories, that song, Moon River, played in my hearing. It’s a short song. I know all the words, but I thought maybe there are more verses that I don’t know. I teared up at this moment thinking of the lives that were wrapped around this ship and this Okanagan Lake history. 

The song was originally performed by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It won an Academy Award for the Best Original Song. I remember hearing Andy Williams sing this song throughout my childhood. It’s still a popular and beautiful song. 

This ship SS Sicamous was long out of service by the time the song began its life in 1961. It’s still a dreamy song that went well with the display!

Moon River by Johnny Mercer (music by Henri Mancini)

Moon River wider than a mile

I’m crossin’ you in style someday

Old dream maker, you heartbreaker

Wherever you’re goin’, I’m goin’ your way

Two drifters, off to see the world

There's such a lot of world to see

We're after the same rainbow's end

Waitin' 'round the bend

My huckleberry friend, Moon River and me

Wedding Dress on Display on SS Sicamous Museum with 'Moon River' Sung by Andy Williams Looping to Create a Mood

The Picture of the Bride Wearing the Dress on Display