Friday September 3, Tonasket, WA

  

185 Miles

Tonight we are back in USA after crossing the border at Nighthawk, a very small border crossing. No problems except they confiscated the nice vine ripened tomatoes I had just bought at a road side stall…evidently Canada has a bug in tomatoes that USA don’t want, realised a bit later on that I still a several in the fridge that I had bought a few days ago!!! They also took the oranges…and they were probably Californian!

The weather today has been amazing, blue skies with a nice breeze and the temperature tonight is over 30, but it is very comfortable as there is little humidity.

Seems strange to be in more built up areas and frequently stumbling across small towns. With Labour day weekend starting the roads have been really busy, every one loaded up heading for a holiday destination.

The drive south from Merritt to Princeton was particularly scenic, with numerous small lakes that were a vivid turquoise. We stopped at Allison Lake, I wanted to have a paddle! Surprised to find that what I thought was white sand was in fact a fine white ground material that formed a solid “mud”, and was very slippery!!

Princeton was a really pleasant surprise, a great small town that was celebrating 150 years and they have built new gardens and features in the downtown area to commemorate it. We stopped in a small “tea house” for lunch, they made their own organic bread and we enjoyed a selection of cheeses, salamis and olive oil with balsamic. Delightful.

From there the traffic got heavier and we entered the Okanagan fruit growing area. We were just getting back into the van after buying tree ripened peaches and the tomatoes when someone mentioned there was a young bear helping himself to some fruit off a roadside tree. Really surprised to see it, obviously a good area for bears to enjoy the summer fruits.

Had thought about going to Osoyoos which is a really popular lakeside town beside the  border, but knew that the traffic would have been pretty bad, so opted on the quieter crossing and headed south into Washington. 

This is very dry country but the valleys are well irrigated and full of apple orchards as well as lucerne pasture that is being made into hay. 

Tonight we are parked in a very pleasant municipal campground in the small town of Tonasket, sitting outside under the shade of a tree enjoying a cold beer.