July 5

Living the dream. Today I made it in time on the motorcycle to take people boating on the lake. The dream is becoming my reality. Rob had a four-hour tour in the morning and I had one in the afternoon, followed up by an evening cruise. Our first wonderful group of intrepid boaters were celebrating a surprise birthday party. The guest of honour thought he was just going for lunch at the Eldorado. The next thing he knew he was taken aboard our craft with some of his closest friends. It was four hours of fun and mayhem on the water that followed. I kept to my own personal bubble and drove the spirited crew around our amazing lake.

Adults love to be hauled on a tube just as much as kids. The group took turns being pulled and spun behind the boat on a four-person thrill ride. It can be tiring maneuvering my craft around the water. But it is a good tired. Thrilled and fulfilled I dropped our birthday gang off at the dock.

I needed to clean the boat and head across to pick up the next group of adventurers. Cleaning the boat thoroughly between tours is a big job. It is not that much different than it was pre-covid. Cleanliness of our boat is very important. We now ensure the lifejackets and seats are fully sanitized between different groups.

My last guests were picked up and dropped off in West Kelowna. We cruised the calming waters of the lake and I regaled my guests with stories of fire and feuds. Rattlesnake Island is an amazing place to see with a colourful history. Eddy Haymour’s is an interesting tale in the history of our fine area. One the BC government cannot be proud of.

Eddy’s story is now being told in a movie called Eddy’s Kingdom, a story of a man who had a dream. A dream many people did not want to see fulfilled. He wanted to build a theme park based on the Middle East on Rattlesnake Island. Eddy somehow bought the island and started his dream. When it crashed down around him he had lost everything. His wife divorced him and he ended up in Lebanon. When he was in Lebanon he hijacked the Canadian embassy and demanded justice. Amazingly he won. The story is long and has many twists. If you are curious, watch the movie and find out the truth about a little known corner of our valley.

I brought my enlightened guests back to their dock and dropped them off. They were coming back again the next day, it is rare that we get repeat guests. This group was going to be with us all week.

I called my honey and she came down to meet me at the West Kelowna boat launch. She boarded my beautiful craft and we set out together to return Serendipity to its slip at the Manteo Resort. We connected under a waning sky that began to fill with colour. Colours created by the setting sun. I will never tire of sunsets, of connections. We held each other and enjoyed the myriad colours of red and gold as the clouds reflected the waning light of the setting sun. I shared tales of my day and basked in the fortune of living the dream in the Okanagan.