Staying busy....

 8:01 am - Wednesday - September 2nd - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 45%, cloud cover 90%, wind 15 mph out of the southwest.....heavy cloud cover today with rain on the way for Thursday, and a forecast high today of 63° F.  On this date in 2015  TLE and I were at Cape Blanco, OR (just north of Port Orford).....

....beginning our second Fall season as lighthouse docents.  Our favorite volunteer job ever.  How has it been 11 years since then?

To begin our fourth work day in this current 8 day cycle I staged 4 Club Car gassers of the 'round nose' variety.  These carts are some of our oldest, but not as old as the 'square nosed' carts, which is what the Club Car Villager #20 is that we drive.  They have been running well, but have not been run in over 3 weeks, so since Tuesday promised to be an unbusy day I staged them, and that is exactly how many carts we rented.

After all the manual watering I did Monday it was time to roll up all those hoses so I could mow them later in the morning.  The hoses down at the 'Night Office' are quite long in order to reach the furthest areas from the two hose bibs.  The two longest are over 150' long....each, and it takes a while to coil them.  

Next I began hauling gravel, three 5 gallon buckets at a time, up to the Clubhouse to fill in some low spots where water tends to pool during rain storms, and since we have what appears to be an all day rain storm coming Thursday, I will be able to see how effective the work I have done will be. In all I think I hauled 10 buckets of gravel before spreading out the piles.  Five gallons of gravel does not go very far, so I've been working on this project a little bit at a time for a number of weeks whenever I've had extra time, and I had a lot of extra time on Tuesday.

Around 10 am I headed back out to the driving range to clear the forest on each side of the range of golf balls.  I didn't have time Monday to do that, but I also knew there would not be many out there, and there weren't.  In all I filled one shag bag full of balls....probably about 1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket.  By the time I gathered them, and washed them it was 11 am, and time to mow the parking lot grass and 'Night Office' grass.  There is probably over 2 acres combined of grass to mow, but it only takes me about 40 minutes.  By the time I returned the 2 bag Husqvarna to the 'Caddy Shack' it was 11:40 am, so I had enough time to clear the grass clippings off the Husqvarna, and refuel it before TLE's lunch break.

The temp never got much over 70° F Tuesday, and that combined with a pretty stiff breeze most of the afternoon made me rethink taking off my hooded sweatshirt late morning as it was pretty chilly.  By 3:15 pm all four Club Cars had returned with no issues, and within 15 minutes I was driving home to begin another four day weekend.

The park will be filling, beginning Thursday, for the Labor Day Weekend, and with containment of almost all the fires to the south of us we should should begin to see an increase in business for our last month.   US-395 between Likely and Reno has been closed due to fires 5, or 6 times in the past few weeks creating a lot of uncertainty.  The detours around the closures add 2-3 hours of travel time to LPG&RVR from the south, from which a goodly portion of our business is derived.

Thanks for stopping by!

Reverting to form....

 5:55 am - Tuesday - September 1st - LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 26%, wind 17 mph out of the south....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Spokane, WA.....

.....having dinner on the deck at my sister's home....like TLE, my sister is a wonderful preparer of wonderful food.  It seems almost déclassé or jejune to call either of them a 'cook'.

After a rather nice weekend of cart rentals we slid back to our old ways (reverted to form) Monday renting only 5 golf carts.  I had 7 left over from Sunday to wash/stow when we arrived at the Clubhouse at 7:30 am.  After staging two carts (we only had one person signed up for a tee time at 8:10 am) and washing/stowing the 7 carts I set out a sprinkler between the putting green and Clubhouse deck, then a couple more at the parking lot grass, and all four sprinklers we use down at the 'Night Office.  I then spent a couple of hours moving said sprinklers from dry spot to dry spot.  Thankfully, we do not have a lot of dry spots right now as both Steve and I have been very diligent in doing the manual watering the past month.  

Now that the daily  temps have declined into the 80's the grass is staying greener with less watering.  In fact the temps this coming week are dropping first into the 70's (today), then into the 60's tomorrow (Wednesday), and into the 50's on Thursday when it is supposed to rain.  The temps will stay in the 70's until after the 10th when they creep back into the low 80's for a few days.

Around 10 am I used the 2 bag Husqvarna riding lawnmower to mow the employee sites, then spent the rest of the morning clearing the driving range of range balls so it could be mowed in the afternoon.  I managed to harvest two 5 gallon buckets of balls this time, a sure sigh of increased activity this past weekend.  Coming up we have the final summer long weekend called Labor Day, and before we know it we will be working the final 4 days of the 2026 season here at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort.

By 3:30 pm only 2 of the five rented golf carts had returned (more late afternoon golfers).  By 3:40 pm I had taken a shower, and was in my recliner taking a nap before returning just before 5 pm to the Clubhouse to ferry TLE home to close out the 3rd day of our four day work week.

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Time to get serious....

 5:52 am - Monday - August 31st - LPG&RVR - 46° F, humidity 24%, cloud cover 8%, wind 15 mph out of the south.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 86° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

Look at the size of that 'rack'!

.....enjoying a Fall day in Mammoth Hot Springs.  It was rutting season for the local elk population.

We had another 15 cart rental day Sunday, which was a little surprising as the park was pretty empty.  Many of our golfing customers Sunday came from off site, some from as far away as Susanville, CA, and Lakeview, OR.  We began our work day, as usual, arriving at the Clubhouse around 7:30 am to open up the office, and stage a few carts for the earliest tee times.  I had 7 carts left over from Saturday to wash and stow.  Usually, if I believe its going to be a busy day I don't stow the freshly washed carts as they will most likely be rented before they dry, but I was sure this was going to be a 5-7 cart day so I stowed them.  Of course, I was wrong....lol.

After washing the left over carts I spent about an hour weeding around the large gazebo, the small gazebo, the water/electric sites, and the gravel pull through sites.  Each year there are fewer weeds to pull, and that is a direct result of weeding on a regular basis, plus each Spring Jose sprays the areas that tend to get a lot of weeds to prevent them from growing.

Around 11 am I headed out to do my weekly mowing around those tee boxes for which I am responsible.  The grass is not growing as fast as it has, and it had really been two weeks since the last time I mowed.  Even after two weeks the grass was not very long around those tee boxes.  I was back at the Clubhouse just before TLE's lunch break, which was the plan.

I was able to spend those 90 minutes watching some of the fourth and final round of the FedEx Cup Championship.  Scottie Scheffler began the day 3 strokes off the lead, but by the end of the day he was leading by 3, winning his second tournament in 3 weeks.  They say he earned $53,000,000 dollars this year just from golfing, not to mention endorsement earnings.

By the time 3:30 pm rolled around only 9 of the 15 carts had been returned; again we had a lot of people tee off after 12 pm, which means they will most likely not return until after 3:30 pm.  I took a moderately long hot shower, then took a nap before returning to the Clubhouse around 4:50 pm.  TLE had not yet finished closing down the office so I spent that time putting.  I've only got two more chances to get into the money and qualify for the final on September 19th, so I've got to get serious.

Thanks for stopping by!

The official 55th Wedding Anniversary

 6:01 am - Sunday - August 30th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 3%, wind 9 mph out of the east.....very sunny today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were living in Seal Rock, OR.....

.....and walking on Seal Rock Beach just down the hill from where our Newell was parked for a year.  Later that evening we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary at Georgie's Beach Grill....

Saturday, our 55th wedding anniversary, was as delightful a day as we have had lately.  The temp didn't break 80 until late afternoon.  We managed to put out 14 golf carts, and by 3:30 pm only 6 of them had returned.  We had  a lot of late golfers Saturday.  The sun is not rising until almost 6:30 am now, and stays quite dark until then, even with very little cloud cover.  When we arrive at the Clubhouse around 7:30 am each work day it feels more like 6:30 am as the sun is still barely in the sky.

On the last day of my previous four day work week I had pulled all of the golf cart parts off of the shelving in the 'Caddy Shack' to better organize what we have, and to find out exactly what we have.  I didn't have time to put everything back on the shelving, so after staging 5 carts to begin the day I headed over to the 'Caddy Shack' to begin to put all of the parts back on the shelf in some kind of logical, easy to find order.   I love doing stuff like that.  Prior to the reorganization similar parts were scattered over three shelf levels, so we never really knew how much of any given part we had....now we do.

By the time it was time to give TLE her lunch break we had rented 11 of the aforementioned carts.  The 90 minute lunch interval was pretty quiet with no phone calls, and just a single cart rental.  Afterwards I spent about 45 minutes doing some weeding down in the 10 gravel pull through sites, and then returned to the 'Cart Return' area to begin washing the 6 golf carts which had been returned.  By the time I had them washed/stowed it was time to head home and change clothes for the 4 pm putting contest.  

I putted well Saturday, and made it through 6 rounds undefeated before losing to my 7th opponent on the 5th hole.  I won my next match in the losers bracket, and then lost my 9th in a one putt playoff, and was thus eliminated one round before the final....so close.   I didn't get home until almost 6:30 pm, but had a great time visiting with good friends.

Thanks for stopping by!

150 feet tall!

 5:48 am - Saturday - August 29th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 33%, cloud cover 2%, wind 15 mph out of the west by southwest.....clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Coeur d' Alene, ID.....

.....walking along the floating dock at The Lake Resort on Lake Coeur d' Alene.

Friday the temperature broke into the very low 80's.  The cloud cover was quite significant, and there was a delightful breeze blowing all day long.  TLE was still putting away groceries from Thursday first thing Friday, and I was putting away some stuff we bought in the trailer.  

By 10 am I was done with my outdoor activities, and TLE was all but done putting away groceries.  I pulled out our outdoor TV from the through bay and set it on the Rubbermaid outdoor storage box on the 'lido deck' to watch the FedEx Cup Championship being played in 'Hotlanta', GA this week.  This is the final event of the regular PGA tour this season, and features the top 30 golfers in the world.   I haven't just sat and watched a entire golf round in from beginning to end in a long time.

Claude stopped by to welcome us home, and let me know Jose had finally been able to fix Club Car Villager #20.  After replacing the fuel pump (me), and Jose replacing the coil, it finally came down to the RPM limiter (governor), which we believed had gone bad.  We happened to have one in stock, so he was able to install it while we were gone to Klamath Falls, then drive it all around the golf course a couple of times to confirm the repair was good.  Claude also related that Thursday morning before we returned a giant dust devil over 150' tall had run through the Clubhouse area lifting my freshly repaired Club Car off the ground and moving it 50 feet to the 'Cart Return' area from the 'Caddy Shack' area before setting it down.  It also ripped several parts off our John Deere riding mower and deposited them out on the driving range.  Whoa!  Glad we missed that!  Around 2:30 pm I drove my loaner cart over to the Clubhouse to move my stuff back to Club Car Village #20, and drive it home.

Scottie Scheffler began the 2nd round of the FedEx Cup Championship at 5 under par, and three strokes off the lead.  He promptly bogeyed two holes in a row on the front 9 to drop to 3 under par, but then went on a birdie spree to get to 8 under par, and that is where he finished round two, 2 strokes behind the leader.  Should be an interesting weekend of golf!

Well, it's time to begin another 4 day work cycle, so thank you for stopping by!

Out of Klamath.....

7:35 am - Friday - August 28th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 69%, wind 14 mph out of the south by southwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe....

....taking a bicycle ride to Baldwin Beach....moi in the foreground, and TLE (lower right background) already down near the water.

All good things must (sometimes, but not always) come to an end, and Thursday marked our departure day from Klamath Falls, and our return to LPG&RVR.  Checkout time at the Fairfield Inn and Suites is not until 12 pm, but our plan had us in the VW heading over to Fred Myers to do our weekly big shopping by 9 am, and we were.  We were up by 7 am, so there was no rush to get packed quickly.  I might add a side note here....the king sized bed with pillowed mattress was SOOO comfortable!  Everything about the suite was perfect, and well worth the extra dinero we spent.

By 10 am we had done our shopping, and filled the VW Beetle fuel tank with almost 13 gallons of premium unleaded, which is the most we have purchased at one time for the VW in a few years.  The tank is just over 13 gallons, so we had less than a gallon left, and almost 340 miles on the tripometer for that tank.  The drive south was beautiful, and uneventful, and we found ourselves at Coffee Adventure in Canby by 11:20 am (Canby is less than 40 miles from LPG&RVR) where we bought a loaf of bread, and some scones before resuming our journey home.  We stopped at Holiday Market in Alturas to buy some produce, and then another quick stop at ACE Hardware (they had free popcorn on this day), and home before 1 pm.  

It took us almost an hour to unpack the VW, and stow all of the things we had purchased on our trip to and from Klamath Falls.  The forecast high for Likely was supposed to be 90° F, but it only got to 86° F due to the heavier than expected cloud cover...no complaints here.  We love our road trips, but it is always great to return to our home on wheels after any trip.

We begin another 8 day cycle Saturday.....four work days followed by a four day weekend....there are just a few of those cycles left now. We've been here, as of Thursday, exactly 4 months, and just have the month of September remaining before we bid adieu to another summer season here at LPG&RVR, pack our stuff, and head south for the winter.

Thanks for stopping by!

You can't always get what you want....

 6:56 am - Thursday - August 27th - Klamath Falls, OR - 53° F, humidity 17%, cloud cover 29%, win 16 mph out of the southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

The Yellowstone River

We had to ford Hellroaring Creek at one point getting our shoes wet

.....hiking the Hellroaring Creek Trail.  In all we covered 11 miles that day on our way to 100 miles hiked in Yellowstone NP that summer, leaving just 10 miles to reach 100.  By the end of the summer we had hiked 110 miles.

We were up before 7 am Wednesday.  Why?  Well we, intentionally, left the window blinds up when we went to bed Tuesday night so we could slowly awaken to the rising sun.  By 6:40 am it gets quite bright in our room....

....we're on the 4th floor, which is the top floor, so we don't hear anyone walking above us, and no one can see inside our room, so we leave the blinds open all the time in order to enjoy the view for which we are paying extra.  The water on the lake was glassy smooth Wednesday morning....

.....perfectly reflecting the sky and shoreline.  After posting my latest missive we headed down stairs to have breakfast alfresco....

....we were the only ones having breakfast outside....I don't know why.  Fairfield serves a pretty decent Continental Breakfast, and they have great coffee.  The icing on the cake, at least for us, is the lakeside dining, and we had it all to ourselves.

An interesting observation about our room.  As one might expect, each room has at least 2 fire sprinklers.  The one in the bedroom is over 9 feet off the floor, and there is this little sticker next to it on the wall....

.....see it there, up high?  Here is the sticker close up....

....warning you not to hang clothes from it....lol.  As I said, it is over 9 feet off the floor, but someone at some time in the past must have tried to hang something from one of these sprinklers.  I think you would need a step ladder to get up there.

Around 10 am we headed out to do some 'junking' and found a great thrift store called Treasures, A Unique Thrift Store....

....there are actually two stores at this location, one of which has strictly dinnerware, and glassware.  The second store has everything else.  We bought a few items there spending about $7, then headed over to the larger store where I found a pair of extra long mud boots for $12.  These things usually cost, new, over $50.  From there we headed to Sportsman's Warehouse so I could buy a new 'bucket' hat as I lost my Outdoor Research hat I've had for a couple of years.  I'm hoping it shows up someday, but so far I cannot remember where I left it.....lol.  And with that we were done with our shopping, and headed back to the hotel room to take naps, and read.

Around 5:10 pm we headed out for our anniversary dinner at J's Steakhouse on Sixth Street.  Yelp gives them 4 out of 5 stars, so we were hoping for good fine dining experience....

....they offer outdoor dining, so we reserved an alfresco table.  For our cocktails TLE ordered a dirty martini, and I a glass of Catena Malbec, one of my favorites.  They brought bread and whipped butter to the table which were very good.....

.....for our entrees TLE ordered their Grilled Salmon, and I their Filet Mignon.  Along with the entrees we both had dinner salads, which were great.  So far, so good.  Unfortunately, the entrees were underwhelming.....not bad, but not great either.  The plating was not inspiring,  both the salmon and filet were a little overdone, and the vegetables did not seem fresh.  I deliberately did not take picture of the entrees.  I will add, however, the baked potato I ordered was very good, also....

....so our quest for an above average fine dining eatery in Klamath Falls continues.  We did enjoy the alfresco dining ambiance, that is until the flies arrived, then not so much.  We were home just before 7 pm.  I took a nap while TLE read, and then I read for a while before we called it an evening.  Lesson: Life is a crapshoot, and in spite of your best efforts, you may not always get what you want.  On the plus side, we still have each other after 55 years, and that is worth more than anything.

The Rolling Stones - You can't always get what you want

Thanks for stopping by!