My ride through Penticton brought back oodles of memories spanning decades.  Sunny summers, dreadful cold winters, long lonely drives from FM, going fast around hundreds of lakeside bends on my RD 400, yup, lots of memories.

Margaret's Baja handi work.

One of Johns creations.

I knew I was a day early and rode right through the city climbed the big hill overlooking Skaha lake and took the Vancouver turn-off.

Margs idea of a 'snack'

There is something very special about climbing up out of a valley, curving roads and mountains.  The Savage thumped right along, handled the turns reasonably well and memories flowed as I passed Marron Valley road, Twin Lakes and Apex.  I rolled down the hill into Keremeos stopping only for a moment to snap a photo and found my sister and Brother in law's little home in short order.  I'd only been here once before but seem to have an uncanny memory for finding these places, even if I'd only visited many years before.

Johns new toy.

Boy were they surprised to see me! 

Boy was I glad to get off the bike!!

Within minutes, my head still buzzing from the early morning ride down from Vernon, my sister was offering me food, and I was taking her up on that offer.  I spent the next three days talking to them about Baja (they first arrived in 2004 and have been there every winter since) the beach gang, who is alive who has passed away... John was excited to show me his new boat, just purchased and yet to go into the water.  I had a special reason for seeing Margaret this trip.  Those that know me well, know that my family escaped from Hungary in 1956 during a major shoot-up and extremely bloody revolution.  Things my folks never talked about with me.  Marg being 10 years my senior remembered in great detail the early events of her life as a child and the circumstances of our departure.  Emotionally and with some zest, she filled me in on details I've never known, the contents of which would make a great book or movie.



A lot of water has passed under the chain bridge in Budapest so to speak, but I am still in awe of the risks taken by my father and mother to flee the country. 


We caught up on family events over the next few days. Did some local touring including a nice picnic lunch alongside a rushing mountain trout stream!

Checked out the old 1962 Imperial that's in lovely condition and runs like a top.

Very advanced in its day.

When it came time for me to push on I packed my gear, something that I was pretty good at by this point, onto the Savage and rode the 45 km into Penticton and niece Cindy's pad downtown.

Thar's trout in them thar waters!

I would spend the next few days here, taking my former Baja veteran Yamaha Serow for a ride throughout familiar terrain in 40C temperatures. Cindy would not arrive until later in the weekend and the couple of days on my own were a welcome change and allowed me some time to decompress from the miles and visits.