Watering and weed whacking.....

 5:39 am - Friday - June 13th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 35%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were enjoying another Seal Rocks RV Cove.....

.....on the coast of Oregon.

With low humidity and warm days I've been having to do a lot of watering and Thursday I spent a lot of time running from one location to another to turn water on/off, move sprinklers, and check on the progress of the pond water moving through the 10 back-in sites, and 10 ten sites (I just returned from turning off the pond quarter turn valve.  The water got all the way down to the 10th tent site this time).  I also did a lot of weed whacking down in the back-in sites where I had mowed the day prior.

In all we rented 26 golf carts Thursday, so another mid week 20+ rental day.  It was also time to clear the driving range of golf balls for its bi-weekly mowing.  I began to clear the range around 10:45 am, and finished around 11:45 am garnering three 5 gallon buckets of balls.  I haven't used the 'ball picker' once this year, and do not envision using it unless there are at least 4-5 buckets of balls out there.

The U.S. Open golf tournament also began Thursday with television coverage beginning at 3:30 am Thursday morning.  There are so many golfers this year they had golfers teeing off at #1 and #10 in threesomes, and the tournament did not end until almost 5 pm PST.  Most golfers are over par this year with just 9 players under par as I write this morning.  Should be an interesting weekend.

The daily temps have stabilized in the low to mid 80's for the time being, but as we all know, summer does not really begin until July 4th, and that is when it gets consistently into the 90's for 6-7 weeks.

I was off at 3:30 pm with only 4 of the 26 golf carts still on the course, and spent much of my time after 1 pm cleaning and stowing them, as well as checking on the watering I was doing.  So, this week 'our Friday' is actually Friday.  We'll be off work Saturday through Tuesday before beginning our next 4 day work cycle.

Thanks for stopping by!

This one hurts......

 5:39 am - Thursday - June 12th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 33%, wind 1 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were riding our bicycles along the carriage paths in Acadia National Park....

.....near Bar Harbor, ME....the sightseeing we did that summer was great, but the job, no so much.

The daily temp each day of this four day work cycle has decreased each day, and was down to just 85° F by Wednesday.  By Friday (tomorrow) it should be back into the high 70's.....nice!  We were on the job by 7:30 am, and just as Tuesday, it appeared we would rent at least 20 carts Wednesday to keep our streak of 20+ carts rented Monday through Friday each week for the past couple of weeks, or more.  I put out all 5 Club Car electrics, and all 16 Yamaha gassers (one is on the disabled list awaiting parts), and we did rent exactly 20 carts with the final rental going out at 3 pm.

I made a single round of the course checking sand traps, and removing goose/duck leavings from the #3 tee boxes.  The density of the leavings varies greatly from day to day, and they were pretty light Wednesday, unlike Tuesday when it too me 30 minutes to clear all four tee boxes.  By the time I returned to the Clubhouse it was 9 am....

Took a couple of pictures along the 17th fairway of the pond and the Warner Mountains

.....and time to do some weed whacking along the cart path to holes 9 and 18, then around the back in sites next to the meadow.  I was done with that by 9:30 am so got the 2 bag Husqvarna to begin mowing the 5 employee sites, then down to the back-in sites to mow 6, or 7 of them that hadn't been mowed by Dave.

After finishing the final back-in site I headed to the fuel station to top off the gas tank, then headed out to the #3 tee boxes to begin mowing the tee boxes for which I am responsible.  I figured I could get them done by 12 pm (I left the Clubhouse at 10:30 am), and I was successful getting back to the Clubhouse at 11:55 am....perfect.

Lunch time was quiet in the office, but very busy for the restaurant.  TLE was back right at 1 pm, and it was time for me to begin washing, and stowing golf carts as they steadily returned for the last 2.5 hours of my shift.  And so came to an end another typical 'day in the life' at LPG&RVR.

While I was mowing around the tee boxes Wednesday morning the news came over the radio station to which I was listening that Brian Wilson, one of the founding members of 'The Beach Boys', had passed away at the age of 82....just a few days shy of his 83rd birthday.  Slowly, but surely, all the Rock 'N Roll guys of the 60's I grew up with are heading to their next venue.  This one really hurts me as I grew up listening to Beach Boy music.  One might say their music formed the soundtrack of my life.  He and his music will live forever in my heart, and the hearts of millions of people who grew up during the height of their success.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Becoming a trend.....

 5:39 am - Wednesday - June 11th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 42%, wind 2 mph out of the south.....partially cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2017 we were overnighting in Elko, NV at the local Walmart Supercenter......

....on our way to Yellowstone NP for the rest of the summer.....what a view!

Another Tuesday, and another 20+ golf cart rental day.....we actually rented 25 in all (we did over 20 on Monday, too).  This increase in mid week golfers has moved from a 'one off' to a long term trend, and a very good trend, indeed.  Over our four day weekend it got into the 90's for several days, and the evidence of that was grass drying out here and there, so I spent a lot of time moving sprinklers around on several large pieces of lawn, and let the sprinklers at the large grass area next to site #30 run for a couple of hours.

David did quite a bit of mowing over the weekend, including tent sites 4-10, but there was still some mowing left to do there so I took care of that, plus mowed the three large residential grass areas up the hill, and the grass between the Clubhouse deck and the putting green.  With the restaurant closed on Mondays and Tuesdays is it really quiet during lunch, but I did sell three bags of ice, and a second round of golf.  We charge $38 for one person for 18 holes, but a 'replay' (18 more holes) is only $30, however, you pay full price for the cart ($22).

With over 20 carts going out each day I spend most of my final 2.5 hours washing and stowing golf carts, and that was the case Tuesday.  By 3:30 pm I had washed, and stowed 16 carts, and when I returned at 5 pm to get TLE the final 9 had been returned, so I'll have them to wash first thing Wednesday.  I'll spend a large portion of Wednesday doing more mowing.  The employee sites need it again, along with 5 of the back in sites, plus I need to mow around the tee boxes (3, 10, 15, 16, 17 and 18).  Thankfully, we are in a slight cooling trend, and should see temps in the high 70's again by Friday.  Also, The U.S. Open (golf) begins Thursday, so we'll spend a big portion of Saturday and Sunday watching that on the 'lido deck'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Finally!

 5:38 am - June 10th - Tuesday - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 39%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were in the middle of spending a year on the Oregon coast....

....and I was mowing grass with a great view of the Pacific Ocean.

The last day of a four day weekend is always a little bittersweet, but at the same time I'm usually ready to get back to work.  We were up before 7 am....its just getting so light, so early now it is getting harder and harder to sleep until 7 am on our days off work.  After finishing my latest missive I headed out to the trailer to see how hard it might be to remove one of the wire ropes from the side ramp door, and move it to the left rear of the trailer to replace the wire cable which was damaged when we had our 'ramp door incident' at the Tri-County Fairgrounds in Bishop, CA back in April....

The wire rope from the side ramp door came off easily

....frankly it wasn't that hard, but then I discovered, after removing the bad wire rope on the rear ramp door, that it was significantly shorter than the damaged one....doh!  I had forgotten that the rear ram door is longer than the side door as the back of the trailer slopes downward to make it easier to back out the car....

The damaged end on the rear ramp door wire rope

.....so on to plan 'B'.  The rear wire rope is around 24" longer than the one I removed from the side ramp door.  The damaged end of the rear ramp door wire rope is around 7" long, so I cut it off, and ordered new aluminum crimping loop sleeves on Amazon to repair it......

Aluminum crimping loop sleeve

.....to make a new, undamaged loop at the end of the existing wire rope.  I think even losing 7" that it will be long enough.  If not, then I will order new 1/8" wire rope and make up a whole new one for the rear ramp door.....

What the end should look like

......after that I changed clothes and headed over to the driving range to hit only my second bucket of balls this season.  My knee feels great now, and I've been working on my lower back, so it was time to give it another try.  You will recall that when I hit my first bucket of balls a couple of weeks ago that it did not go very well.  I forgot that Mondays we mow the driving range, and I had to wait about 30 minutes for DeWayne to finish mowing, so I practiced chipping and putting until he was done.  

Last time I hit balls I only hit the driver, and no other clubs, as I could never quite hit the driver even remotely like I did last year.  This time I began with the driver, but also went through my fairway woods (3, 5 and 7), and then hit some with my pitching wedge, 7 iron, and 5 iron.  Finally, my good shots far outnumbered my bad shots, and by the end I was hitting my driver around 175-200 yards consistently, and my fairway woods between 125 and 150 yards....much, much better.  I hit the final ball in the bucket with my driver and it carried around 220 yards....one of my best drives in some time.  I have to remind myself that I have not played golf since the beginning of October of 2024.  My form is slowly returning, and now I think I might even play 9 holes this week.

I was home by 3 pm, and around 5:30 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que to grill a couple of steaks for dinner.  TLE added sides of zucchini, avocados and tomatoes.....

.....clouds began to move in around 3 pm, and by the time I was ready to grill the steaks it was very cloudy, and the forecast was showing a chance of thunder showers.....we heard thunder in the distance, but never got the rain....

I love our 'dining/gaming deck' setup right now!

.....while we were eating dinner the power went out for about 2 hours, so we pulled out the Predator 5000 to power the coach while we watched another episode of 'Silent Witness' on BirtBox.  By the time it was over the power had returned, so we went to bed knowing we would have power during the night.

Thanks for stopping by!

It was truly 'Unlikely'.......

 7:06 am  - Monday - June 9th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, humidity 32%, wind 1  mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were dry camping with good friends Claude and Gail....

Henry's Lake near Island Park, ID

The view our our windshield

.....at Henry's Lake near Island Park, ID; a very cool, and also free off grid campground.....no hookups.

Sunday was the warmest day of our four day weekend, but it never really seemed that warm.  As we often do on our 4 day weekends we spent the better part of the day lounging on the 'lido deck', and in this case watching the 4th round of the Canadian Open unfold.  At one time there were 10-15 golfers who were within 3, or 4 strokes of the lead, but ultimately Sam Burns, who shot 8 under par to surge into a two stroke lead, and Ryan Fox (New Zealand) rose to the top, and were tied at 18 under par after 72 holes.  They played 4 sudden death holes before Ryan Fox sank a birdie putt to win.

I don't think I've written about the fact that the long time Chef of our 'Fresh Grill' (Kathie Parkening) here at LPG&RVR retired after the 2024 season, so the owners had to find new people to run the restaurant.  Initially they found a couple of cooks, and I do make the distinction between being a chef, and a cook.  One of the cooks worked Thursday through Sunday, and the other Monday through Wednesday.  They also hired a few servers.  Unfortunately the quality of food they were putting out was not satisfactory, so they were let go about 2 weeks ago, and a new couple, Ron and Sue, were hired to run the restaurant Wednesday through Sunday each week, with the restaurant being closed on Mondays and Tuesdays now, typically our two slowest days.  They are local folks, known in the community, and their food has brought people from far and wide.  Sunday was probably the busiest day in the restaurant, beginning to end, we have ever seen.  

TLE and I have not eaten at the restaurant this year, but decided to go over around 1:30 pm to have a late lunch, and found the place packed.  I ordered Ron's 'Unlikely Grilled Cheese Sandwich' which is not what one might expect as one might judge from its menu name.....in addition to the expected cheese there was bacon, avocado, tomato, lettuce, onions, and probably a few other ingredients I have forgotten.  TLE ordered his Ruben, and says it is now included in her top 5 Rubens ever.  Along with our entrees we got an order of French fries, and another of onion rings; OMG, Ron is a true chef.  As we ate we watched the finish of the Canadian Open on the big screen TV in the Clubhouse.....the alfresco dining on the deck was SRO.  We will definitely being eating more meals at the 'Fresh Grill'.

We were home around 3 pm to watch the four playoff holes, and then spent the rest of the afternoon inside the A/C cooled confines of the Newell.  I think the temp finally topped out at 90° F.  As I write we have begun the final day of our four day weekend, and will work Tuesday through Friday this week.  On our next four day weekend we'll be heading up to Klamath Falls for an overnighter.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sun shade 2.0......

7:34 am - Sunday - June 8th - LPG&RVR - 65° F, humidity 27%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I blessed to be living on the coast of Oregon just 10 miles south of Newport....

 ......so many amazing Coastal Oregon sunsets that year.

The forecast high for Saturday was 89° F, but I think it got to 91° F.  It was time to add a sun shade to the front of our coach in order to keep the afternoon sun from hitting our windshield at the hottest part of each day.  We did this last year, but I was never happy with how we attached the rectangular sun shade to the front of the coach, and the fact we could not exit the 'lido deck' at the front of the coach....

How it looked last year

....so I came up with a different method this year.....a long piece of PVC pipe run behind the air horns on the roof.....

....to which we attached the large rectangle, then began to piece together the other pieces TLE has made over the years.  It came out much better than last year's version, and was much easier to assemble...

....now we have a 'door way' to enter and exit the 'lido deck' at the front of the coach, and also get to our car without having to walk around behind the Newell to get to it as we park it next to our grass area at the front of our coach.....

....this setup will be much easier to duplicate in the future now that we have figured it out.  Having this sun shade setup lowers the salon temperature by 10° F during the heat of the day.

We acquired a cool temperature gauge for the 'lido deck' at Dollar General on Friday, and hung it from the patio awning.....

......by the time we finished with all of that it was after 10 am, and time to cool down on the 'lido deck'.  By that time the 3rd round of The Canadian Open was being televised, so we sat outside until almost 3 pm enjoying the coolness of the 'lido deck....that sun shade is really doing its job!

We headed over to the Clubhouse for the weekly putting contest around 3:45 pm in which I did not get out of the second round....some days you have it, and some days you don't.  TLE made crispy chicken salad for dinner, which was a nice dinner for a hot afternoon.  We had the A/C off by 7 pm, and were out on the 'lido deck' by 8 pm to see in the latest sunset.  By 9 pm we were back inside as the mosquitoes were beginning to breach our many defenses....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

Coif day......

 7:46 am - Saturday - June 7th - LPG&RVR - 65° F, humidity 25%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I had just finished building a new pole fence in the Group Camping area at Tahoe Valley Campground.....  

.....within days we would be on our way to Yellowstone NP for the balance of the summer.

I haven't had my ears lowered in about 5 weeks, and for TLE it has been even longer.  We made an appointment with Sheila at Kaleidescope in Alturas right after we arrived back at LPG&RVR for what we thought was 10 am on Friday, so we were out the door and in the VW heading into town around 9:20 am.  When I made the appointment both TLE and I put it in our phone calendars, so when I asked TLE to check her phone calendar just before we left for town she said it was 10 am.  When we arrived at Kaleidescope 25 minutes later we discovered it was for 11 am....doh!  I checked my calendar and it did, indeed, show 11 am.  Well, we had an hour to kill, so we did the shopping we had planned to do after our hair appointments then.

We stopped at Rite Aid (as you have probably heard, they are going out of business and are currently in the middle of a 'Going Out of Business' sale) to see what bargains we might find, and we found a few, especially in the liquor department where most liquors were 30% off their already low prices....score!

Next we stopped at Dollar General to pickup up a few things, and then it was over to Holiday Market for produce and other groceries.  By the time we finished it was around 10:50 am, so we headed back to Kaleidescope for our hair appointments.  We were out the door around 11:30 am, and on our way to 'Coffee Adventure' in Canby for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.  They bake their own bread (we love their sourdough), and also sell farm fresh eggs....buy 2 dozen, get one dozen free....killer deal; averaged out to about $2.70/dozen.....

....this coffee shop is owned, and operated by a local Menonnite family, and just opened a little over a year ago.  We stop there often on our way to and from Klamath Falls, where we will be going next week.  Of course, they have alfresco dining.....

.....on our way back to Likely we stopped off at Landis Produce and Nursery to buy some geraniums....we managed to kill the ones we've had for several years when we got hit in early May with a freeze, and forgot to move them into the trailer overnight.  We were home by 1 pm.....

.....I bought a small turf piece to replace the white and blue one we've used for a couple of years for the entrance to the trailer because I felt it would look better, and it does.....

Out with the old ↗ and in with the new↴

.....I like continuity, plus the new turf piece fits the space better.

It was a warmish day with temps getting up to 85° F, so we spent most of the afternoon in the cool confines of the Newell, but around 7:30 pm we headed outdoors to see in the sunset.....

....at Dollar General we bought a couple of table top Tiki lamps to light at night to keep the mosquitoes at bay; yes the mosquitoes have returned......

.....along with our propane fire pit, they did a wonderful job....no bites for either of us Friday night.  The sunset ended up being beautiful; you never know with clouds on the horizon what you're going to get.....

....we were outside until after 9 pm enjoying the evening air, and talking.

Thanks for stopping by!