Sunday, June 28, 2020

It's not intuitive....AT ALL!

7:45 am - Sunday - June 28th - Keystone, SD - 73° F, 30% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this day in 2016 we were at Incline Village sitting under a cabana on the shores of Lake Tahoe enjoying the day with our friends........↴

One of our favorite memories

.....we were in the middle of our third consecutive summer working at Tahoe Valley Campground.....little did we know that this would be the last full summer at TVC, and Lake Tahoe.

Our Jello plan was to drive back to Rapid City, SD to do some minor shopping, and for me to get a haircut.....my last haircut was in Durango, CO back on May 17th.....Rich and Marnie recommended we visit 'Great Clips' next to the Sam's Club in Rapid City.  Before that could happen, though I was determined to finally install a new pair of windshield wipers on the Newell.  

It's been 3, or 4 years since they were last replaced, and when we drove in the rain a couple of times recently I noticed they were 'skipping', and making a lot of noise.  I always carry one, or two spare pairs, so I retrieved one of them Saturday morning around 10 am and began the replacement.  I've changed the wipers several times over the 12+ years we have owned the Newell, but each time seems like the first time.  Why is this task not very intuitive?  I recently changed the wipers on the Beetle, which were two years old and doing the same thing the Newell wipers were doing.  It took me the better part of 30 minutes to figure out how to install the new Bosch wipers.  Each Newell wiper is attached to the swing arm by a single screw and nylock nut......a nylock nut looks like this, only in this case it is very small....


.......not remembering how I had done this task 4 years ago, I removed the screw and nylock nut, but soon, but not quickly, realized I did not have to remove the blade assembly from the swing arm, so after removing and replacing the old blade, I attempted to refasten the blade to the swing arm with the screw and nut......of course I dropped the very small nylock nut, and spent about 15 minutes looking for it in the gravel upon which the coach sits right now....no luck.  I thought, well, I've got hundreds of nuts, and was sure I could find a replacement.  I spent another 20 minutes trying to find a nut of any variety that would fit the existing screw, but could not.  Then I looked for another screw of the right size, but could not find one that fit the hole in the swing arm.  So, now I'm thinking I'm going to have to take the screw into Rapid City and find a new nylock nut at a local hardware store, thus stalling my efforts to finish the job.  By this time it was after 11:15 am, and I was still stuck on reattaching the first wiper....doh!  The Hockwald way strikes again!  I decided to try one more time to find the missing nylock nut.  I got a towel, folded it a couple of times, placed it on the gravel, and then knelt on the towel to search once again.....guess what, I my eyes almost immediately focused upon.....the nylock nut sitting right where it fell....thank you Jesus!  Once I found the missing nut, the rest of the job went quickly, and I finished installing the second wiper in just a few minutes.  Of course, you know, now that I have replaced the wipers it will not rain again while we are driving the Newell this summer.....you know I'm right.

After a quick shower we were off driving the 20 miles back to Rapid City arriving there just after 12 pm.  I checked in at the Great Clips desk, and was sitting in the chair getting a haircut (with face mask, as required) minutes later.  Our next stop was a local Walmart where TLE bought some lard which she will use to season our new Cowboy Disc Wok, and I acquired a micro memory card for the drone.  Next up was to find a place to have lunch.  Our initial choice, Hay Camp Brewing, turned out to only serve beer, no food....not going to drink beer on an empty stomach.  We had passed an interesting looking Mexican restaurant on the way to Hay Camp Brewing called 'Que Pasa' - Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar, so we headed back two blocks, found a parking spot in the very busy, and crowded downtown area about a block from the restaurant.....



 
.....Yelp only gives them 3.5 stars on 328 reviews, but we would be at a solid 4 stars....based on the reviews I read people either LOVE this place, or totally HATE it....yes, all caps HATE....crazy.  I initially judge any Mexican place by the quality of their chips and salsa.....Que Pasa's are great!  I ordered their Fish Tacos (picture above), and TLE their Quesadilla dish....we both loved our choices, and ended up taking home about 1/2 of the very generous proportions to be enjoyed again at a later date.

On the way back to the car we passed by this little water park where about 30 kids where enjoying splashing around in the water, and fountains......



.....we were home just before 3 pm.  While the high Saturday was around 87°, it felt hotter....thank goodness we left the A/C running whilst we were gone to Rapid City enabling us to return to a cool Newell interior.  I took nap, and read a while, then watched the Traveler's PGA event.

We didn't turn off the A/C until almost 8 pm when it finally dropped below 80° F.....we were in bed a little after 10 pm....another day in the books!

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1 comment:

  1. Love seeing the pics of kids being kids!! Lunch looked awesome, definitely looks like a place to keep in mind! Glad you were able to find your nut after looking the second time. Nice pic from 2016!

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