June 25, 2018 – Clearwater to Naramata

Just as we were to bed last night we saw some flashes of lightning. It took quite a while for the thunder to reach us, so it was quite far away. I did see a few other flashes but never did hear the thunder. We had heard that there was a possibility of thunder storms in the Thompson Okanagan so we weren’t surprised.

We woke up to find the grounds very wet from heavy overnight rain. The skies were a mix of clouds and sun so when we packed up and headed out we had the roof down. We were optimistic. 🙂

It was only an hour or so before we had to pull over to put it up.

We are once again driving through the sites of some of the larger forest fires from last year. We are seeing burned trees very close to some homes and are certain that just over a year ago these people were under some severe stress.

Near Barrier

Soon it begins to rain. We have changed our wipers from intermittent, to steady on and now to the fast setting as the rain is so hard we can hardly see the road.

It does slow eventually and we are now driving on pavement that seems to have had no rain at all. Crazy weather patterns.

This is to the west of us. We are trying to get through before it hits.

This is where we are heading. Looks nicer 🙂

This is the route we were planning on taking today. It was slower, bypassed Vernon and Kelowna.

The storm that we saw a little bit of last night was much more severe here in the Okanagan we find out. This is route we ended up having to take. We were 26km into the Westside Road at Kilinney Beach when we saw a lot of debris from the tall trees. Then we saw the flag person who stopped us and told us the road was closed and we would have to go back to Vernon and then continue on Highway 97.

Power lines were down across the road. They need to do the work, but it would have been nice if someone had put a sign up about 26 km ago!! Could have saved us a 52 km detour.

As we are passing through the north Okanagan we are seeing several gas stations that have $0.00 posted as their price of gas, the pumps are blocked off with yellow tape. We are guessing that the gas shortage we saw in the north is happening here as well.

We now know why Google maps routed us the slow way. We have to drive right through Kelowna. It is a nightmare at 2:30 in the afternoon. Just as busy as Vancouver. Many kms of bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic. It did come in handy as we were able to roof up and roof down at a traffic light.

Just a small casualty of last night’s storm.

We have heard that there were many many trees down and in some cases into peoples homes. Power was still out for about 7000 homes in the Kelowna area.

The weather is still unsettled and we see this as we look across the lake to Naramata. Hope it passes soon.

Looking at our destination, Naramata from across the lake

When we drive through Penticton we see evidence of very heavy rain. Large puddles everywhere. The sun is shining however as we make our way to our accommodation, the Naramata Heritage Inn. It is over 100 years old and was built as a small hotel before the road was here. Guests arrived by steamships that took people and goods up and down the lake.