While swimming at Lake Osoyoos a bald eagle flew low and heavy just a few feet over my head, its talons gripping a large trout. The day before we spied a moose and her calf standing by the side of the road. They waited until we made a full stop before quickly crossing in front of us. Meanwhile back at home the political system is quickly unraveling with the ex-president, a man who has frequently rallied his followers to violence (his behavior on January 6, his gleeful sharing of images featuring a bloody Joe Biden and his celebration of a pro-Biden campaign bus being forced off the road in Texas are the first three examples that come to mind) inches away from being assassinated. That is horrible. It should never happen anywhere let alone in America.

We are now at the southern end of the Okanagan Valley, just a few miles north of the US border. The valley is roughly one hundred twenty miles long and only twelve miles long with Highway 97 running up and down it’s border. Over a hundred degrees during the day. Nothing unusual about that either. It’s Canada’s desert but with what seems to be unlimited irrigation (even the lawns are green ) it produces an incredible amount of fruits and berries with the latter turned into delicious wine. So many wineries. Some fancy. Some less so. Expensive but, with the strong US dollar (or maybe it’s the weak Canadian dollar) it’s not too bad. And it’s a dry heat where the shade and the water make it all better.

It’s been a glorious month on the road with at least a couple more weeks to go. And while Canada is a very nice place to be, it isn’t quite home. Home is our siblings, parents and grandmother plus friends and neighbors whom we all miss dearly. It is also sometimes politics, arguments and tempers. We hate to admit it, but we miss that too.