Oh, so yous went to Osoyoos? Us too.

You will possibly recall that we have recently visited Wenatchee, Washington. One of the reasons we did this is that we were registered for a big Escape Trailer Customer Appreciation Rally weekend Osoyoos, British Columbia, a place in the Canada “wine country” just north of the middle of nowhere in north-central Washington. And Wenatchee is about halfway to Osoyoos from our house. See?

This Osoyoos place is more-or-less a resort community, clustered around a big lake called Lake Osoyoos. There’s a row of hotels, motels and condos, and a sprawling resort created by the Nk’Mip First Nations tribe. They built themselves a golf course, a luxe lodge, an inviting cultural center and a large, combination campground/RV park, and maybe a winery I think. For money they will let you experience some or all of these wonders.

See? Across the way there lie lodgings. There’s a small town as well. This is what passes for “desert” in Canada, they tell us visitors.

I think the Escape Trailer Industries folk who planned this gathering got us a small discount, and that was fine. The quality of the sites varies widely, and ours was not their finest, but we saw worse. You can’t reserve a specific site at Nk’Mip. You can request one, but there are no promises. I cannot tell whether this is “in order to best serve you, the RVing public” or “because we just don’t feel like it.”

So our site had some good parts and some bad parts. You could see bits of lake between the rigs parked across the street from us. The parking pad was more a small patch of bumpy pasture, and hilly. The road was made of a very fine quality British Columbian dust that worked hard at getting into Toto, and TinMan, and our eyes and ears and noses, etc., every time the wind came up, which is to say almost all the time.

Why are we parked so close to the front of our site, with poor TinMan wedged in between Toto and a tree? Because any further back and you’re on a hill. An uneven, unpaved hill. We were glad we could reach the electrical bush. We had to detach a lawn sprinkler from our pedestal so we could get water. Yes, we are guilty of taking water from an innocent lawn. Note: the Escape campers to our left also drive a Nissan Frontier. A red one. Excellent taste!

But! We didn’t attend to experience scenery and tranquility. This was a rally! People we know (or would get to know)! Free dinner! Free pancake breakfast! Cool giveaways! Gifts from our hosts! All of this stuff was great fun. It would have been even more fun had we not both had colds, and also I had to work a couple of days while we were there. Also, I would offer up pictures of the large gatherings (around 300 people I think) and row upon row of Escape trailers. Not complaining here, just saying next time I’ll get rally pix, not just Nk’Mip campground pix.

There are quite a few campsites along the Lake Osoyoos shoreline. You can see maybe 20% of them here, and that’s the resort’s small marina and swimming area in the foreground. Quite pleasant.

Here is a thing. See that Escape trailer across the way there? They arrived after we did, and they were assigned a site next to a bathroom. They went back and spoke in some sort of highly effective way to the check-in people, and they got re-assigned to… uh… the site I had thought I reserved 7 months earlier. This led me to consider whether my approach to life is at all workable.

You know what they say. When things are sub-optimal… sneezing… slogging through work… intermittent dust storms… in fact no matter what curve balls you find coming at you, you can still go out to lunch.

Yes, the Nk’Mip resort has a Cantina, just down from our campsite. Can you have a good getaway without enjoying a waterfront hot dog? I think not.

One of our favorite activities at the rally: scheduled “open house” times when we could visit other Escape trailers and be amazed at some of the unique ways people enhance their tow-able eggs. We held Toto open too.

At the appointed hour we held an “open house” (like everyone else around us). The red balloon signified our welcome to any and all visitors, of which there were many. People are always so good about saying nice things regarding Toto. It’s really kind.

There is more to say about Osoyoos and the fabulous Nk’Mip RV Park and Campground. For example: getting here, and then getting home, is really gorgeous drive. I will say this and more in a little while.