Everyone knows.....

I was reminded of a song from my youth (1967) yesterday......"Windy" by the Association.....the refrain goes...."Everyone knows it's Windy".....yesterday everyone knew it was "windy".  TLE and I were getting weather alerts all day on our phones warning of high winds.....really?  Is that what is rocking our coach to and fro and making it hard to hear each other talk?  It's windy?  Unless you were in a submarine, or a coal mine yesterday here in southern Utah you did not need a weather alert to tell you what you were experiencing.....there was plenty of impirical evidence.

Since we had received all the warnings the day before we had decided not to do anything Sunday, but hang out in our coach......out of the wind.  It was an easy decision for me as Sunday afternoon the final round of the Masters Golf Tournament would be on, and I cannot remember a year in recent memory when I have not been sitting in front of a TV during the final round of the Masters, and thus it was Sunday.

After almost a week of boondocking our house batteries were down to 77% when we woke up Sunday.  It had been heavily cloudy Saturday while we were gone site seeing and the batteries did not recover as much as we had hoped.  When we left for Kanab they were at 82%, and when we returned 7 hours later they had only made it back to 84%.  Normally we would have seen them get up to 90%, or more.  This only reconfirmed one more time for us that we need to add at least one more 150 watt solar panel to our current array.  Thankfully when we find ourselves in such situations we have our little Honda 1000 watt portable generator that we can run for hours on very little gasoline, and that is precisely what we did Sunday starting about 11 am all the way to 5:30 when we finally got our batteries back to a respectable 87% with the help of the sun.  Even though Sunday was a partly cloudy day we got enough assist from the sun we got to bring the batteries back up.

The night before, right after we returned from site seeing a couple pulled in behind us pulling a 5th wheel, which is not an issue for me....there is plenty of room here.  Within minutes there was a knock on our door....I opened the door to see an older gentleman who preceded to inquire if we would be running our generator (we had turned on the big Kohler 7.5 kw generator just after we got home), and if we would be having a fire that night.   You see, his wife did not want to park behind us if she would have to listen to our generator, and smell smoke from our campfire.  She apparently has an allergy to wood smoke.  At first I was a little miffed, but maintained my composure and replied that "No" we would not be running the generator much longer, and "No" there would be no fire that night due to the wind that was already coming up.  He thanked me and went his way.

Sunday morning about 9:30 while I was in my trailer working on something he came back.....I was thinking "Okay, now what?".  Isn't it interesting how we can form opinions about others before we really know them?   Based on the ever so brief conversation I had with this gentleman I had formed a somewhat negative opinion of him and his wife.  I believed, without foundation, that he and his wife were "worry warts", and here he was again to address some concern.......I thought.  In reality Des had come to ask for my assistance with a problem they were having with their stove.....apparently with all the vibration and rattling that goes on when an RV moves down the road, some screws had come loose on the burners and they were no longer properly secured.  He was not sure how to fix them and asked me to take a look.

Well, that began a real conversation as I stood there in their kitchen giving Des and Diane some pointers on how to fix their burners so they wouldn't come loose again (a little locktite).  We ended up talking for over an hour, and before I left we were exchanging contact information.  Des and Diane are from Wheeler, OR, one of our favorite coastal Oregon towns.  There are many great antique shops there, and it is right on the Nehalem River where  Des and Diane own a few miles of shoreline, and have invited us to stop off on our way up to Cape Blanco Lighthouse in September.  Hmmmmm.......you just never know, and you will never know unless you take the time to to get beneath the surface.  As it turns out Des and Diane are the most delightful people you could hope to meet in this lifestyle......just like Chuck and Jan earlier in the week.  You start talking and listening and suddenly you realize you have a connection.  Note to self for the 1 millionth time.....don't jump to conclusions about people......don't jump to conclusions.......DON'T jump to conclusions.

After bidding Des and Diane adieu.....they were headed up to Kanab.....I turned on the Honda and then the TV.  For the rest of the afternoon I watched the Masters.  It was a good day for golf, and one of my favorite golfers, Bubba Watson, ended up winning the green jacket for the 2nd time in three years.  I can't imagine a nicer afternoon than TLE and I had....yes, she watched part of the time, too.

TLE made a wonderful dinner for our last night at Lone Rock NRA......a parm crusted swai, honey bourbon glazed carrots, and a romaine salad with cilantro and tomatoes......plus....plus some hot sake.....yeah for me!

We ended this delightful day watching "The Amazing Race", "Resurrection" and "The Mentalist".

Thanks for stopping by!