TVC* - Day 3 - Finishing touches

First Saturday (Monday) was a busy day......I applied the third coat of Redwood Stain to our picnic table (it was bare wood when I started), and I think it will take one more coat......looking so much better now after a 1/2 gallon of stain....

  I didn't take a picture of our awning mats the other day when we installed them.....we can walk from the coach to the trailer without touching pine needles, or dirt.....helps keep the insides much cleaner.  I also set up the tables for the outdoor stove and BBQ, and ran a power cord over to the table......

.....and finished assembling all the bikes, including the tandem which has not seen daylight, or pavement since last August.......

In addition, I also covered the solar panels with the plywood covers I bought last summer to protect them from falling pine cones......in the middle of all that TLE and I went over to the office to meet with our manager, Duane Jakob, to finish our paperwork and get our starting date.....well our starting date is Tuesday!  A much different scenario than last year when we arrived on May 17th, but due to numerous paperwork snafus didn't start working until July 3rd.  TLE will continue to work in the office, but my job will take me outside this summer.....Duane is starting a 'Ranger' program this year and I will be the daytime 'Ranger' (no firearms involved).....other than not working in the office, my job will be pretty much the same as last year....doing site checks, reporting facility issues (broken faucets, non-functioning electrical pedestals, and other maintenance issues), as well as just patrolling to be sure the campers conduct themselves in an orderly manner.  Another cool change this year is we do not have to pay anything for our site as long as we work a minimum of 32 hours per week per person, which is what we planned to do anyway.  Last year we had to pay 1/2 of the regular site fee.....that means an extra $1,000 in our collective pockets this summer.

After our meeting with Duane I proceeded to put up our decorative holiday lights which took a while, then I took my first of many bike rides this summer......I rode up to the Emerald Bay overlook (8.6 miles each way) and back....that last switchback about punched my ticket!

Never get tired of this iconic view

 Took me just under 48 minutes to the top

It took me one hour twenty minutes for the round trip in which time I burned 1252 calories.......I can see there is a lot of improvement time wise for me....my best time last summer was 39 minutes, 25 seconds to the top.....I checked my first time to the top when I was here last year and did it in just under 50 minutes so I have improved two minutes over last year's first ride already....:-)

Total round trip time - 1 hour, 20 minutes

I stopped in at the local Subway store on my way back and bought a foot long Subway Club....I hadn't had anything since breakfast and now it was after 3 pm.

One thing I discovered on my way back from Emerald Bay is that in our absence since last September they built a BevMo (Beverages and More) store right next to the TJ Max at the 'Y'.....just a half mile from where we are!

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening girding up myself mentally to re-enter the workaday world once again Tuesday morning......

Thanks for stopping by!

*TVC = Tahoe Valley Campground