The Jello jiggled.....

 7:40 am - Easter Sunday - March 31st - GNHS - 52° F, humidity 71%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast......mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were riding zip lines at 'Out of Africa' near Cottonwood, AZ......

....what a cool dad that was!

Saturday began with the threat of rain early afternoon, and by 12:30 pm it had begun to fall.  We had four all day rentals on Saturday, which was our last day of working for COA this winter.  We had them all on their way by 10 am (not everyone shows up at 9 am), and then I returned to organizing the trailer, and taking down the balance of the 'lido deck'....

.....all that is left is to stow the dining canopy, pull the turf into the trailer, and we're ready to turn the trailer around, which we will do sometime Sunday afternoon.  We've moved up our departure date to Monday, April 1st.  We're going to drive down to Los Algodones on Monday, setup at the Quechan Casino for 5 days, and take care of TLE's dental appointments on Thursday and Friday, then begin our trek northward from there.

All of the rentals were back by 4 pm as it was raining quite steadily, and the RZRs were filthy.  I think it took Hunter until 6:30 pm to finish cleaning them.  I would have been helping, but I strained my lower back taking down the flagpole.  As I was stepping off the step stool I missed the bottom step, but thought I had stuck the landing, and then I lost my balance, and fell over backwards.  I'm fine this morning (Sunday), but I didn't want to aggravate it more than it was.

During the morning I dumped our black tank for the final time here at GNHS, so the final list of things we must do for departure is dwindling rapidly.

We're down to the 'Elite Eight' games now

Thanks for stopping by!

That ennui.....

6:45 am - Saturday - March 30th - GNHS - 55° F, humidity 65%, wind 10 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy today with rain forecast for this afternoon, and a high of 68° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having a late lunch at the Back Abbey in Claremont, CA....love that place.....

 That all too familiar feeling of melancholy and vague ennui is hovering just over my head as I write this morning.  Whenever it is time to roll our wheels and change our views I begin to miss, in advance, where we have been the last period of time.  Our two winters here at GNHS have exceeded our expectations, and we have made new friends whose contributions to our lives will be felt for years.  We have just a week until we depart GNHS for perhaps the final time in our lives as we change up our plans for travel next winter.

We had two bookings for Friday....one 1/2 day rental for a family of four, and an all day rental for the guy who was late for his 1/2 day rental on Thursday.  Both were on their way by 10 am, and then it was a matter of awaiting their return in the afternoon.

I spent some of the time packing the 'through bay' in the Newell, taking down the BBQ table, and stowing the Sea-B-Que, and both propane tanks in the through bay, and taking down the two tool tables in the trailer, and stowing them, also, in the 'through bay'....

Tool tables gone

Sea-B-Que, Cowboy Wok and BBQ table gone

Through bay packed

....the dining canopy will come down Sunday afternoon, and my Haibike SDURO eBike will be stowed, and all of the stuff left on the floor in the trailer will be moved forward to prepare for turf and VW insertion.

The day was beautiful with light breezes.  After Hunter returned from driving his friends back to the airport in Palm Springs, he joined us to work on installing all of the new RZR parts which have arrived in the past two weeks.  That will be a mammoth task, and one in which I will not be partaking....that is a job for the young guys.....

Hunter working on RZR #1

....both of our customers returned on time, and without incident, and by 5:15 pm we had ended our second to last work day.

Thanks for stopping by!

How about a call?

 6:41 am - Friday - March 29th - GNHS - 57° F, humidity 63%, wind 6 mph out of the west by southwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F, and wind later today.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were kayaking with new friends near Cedar Key, FL....

Our days here at GNHS are numbered, and they are flying into the rear view mirror at a rapid pace.  After Thursday we have just 7 days left before we haul anchor and change our view for the first time in almost 6 months.  However, things are not going so fast that we can't take time for a nice 2 mile walk, which is what we did around 9 am Thursday.  We only had one 1/2 day booking for Thursday, and they were not going out until 1 pm, so we had the whole morning.  We averaged around 3.3 mph for the two miles, and have now covered 106 miles this winter at GNHS.  My right foot is now 100% again, and I don't even think about it anymore....how quickly things can change....

.....during the morning I was exchanging text messages with our employer at LPG&RVR and I was asking if he could get a bucket load of gravel dumped at our site there before we arrive, so when we do we can use it to level out the area where were going to park the trailer this year.  To illustrate where we wanted the gravel I went to Google Earth on my phone and took a screen shot....I was surprised to see that the current Google Earth view of our site shows our Newell and trailer in last summer's configuration....cool....

....anyway, the red circle is where we wanted the gravel dropped.

I clocked in for work at 11:30 am to wash, and detail two of the RZRs, which were quite dirty after several rentals last week, and by 12:30 pm TLE and I were awaiting the arrival of our 1/2 day rental customers.  Well, 1 pm came and went, then 1:30 pm, then 2 pm.....they finally arrived around 2:35 pm, which essentially reduced their 4 hour rental to a 2 hour rental.  They were a tad upset as they assumed they could be out as late as sundown, but we are not open after 5 pm, so that is a 'no go' as they say.  Our rental policy is you can stay out until sunset, or 5 pm, whichever comes first....well, 5 pm comes first now.  On normal work days we clock in for work around 30 minutes before the first scheduled rental of the day, which usually begins at 9 am, making our start time 8:30 am.  Since two of the RZRs needed a spa treatment I went to work 90 minutes early to get them done.  Anyway, they headed out on their abbreviated 2 hour ride, and were back by 5 pm without incident.  They also have an all day rental on Friday, so they'll get in some more riding time then.  During the entire day we never got a call from them saying they'd be late, so we were just kind of hanging out doing nothing the entire time.

We now have just two work days left (Friday and Saturday), with no bookings for Sunday.  We'll spend Sunday through Tuesday finishing the takedown our camp, and organizing the trailer, and then on Wednesday we'll turn the trailer and Newell around facing the entrance so when we return from Los Algodones Friday all we'll have to do is unplug the electrical and roll our wheels early Saturday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stow, stow, stow your boat.....

6:35 am - Thursday - March 28th - GNHS - 57° F, humidity 70%, wind 3 mph out of the east by northeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were touring the old ghost town of Jerome, AZ.....very cool place with great alfresco dining.....

We were on the job a little after 8 am, and ended up having two all day rentals on Wednesday.  One customer arrived for their rental at 8:45 am, and the other around 9:10 am, so they were both on their adventures by 9:30 am.  We only have four RZRs available for rent right now.  Of our original 12 units 5 have been prepped for return to Polaris, 1 was totaled a few weeks ago, and the other two have been out of action, awaiting the arrival of parts for at least couple of months.  I say that to say this.....we rented half of our available fleet on Wednesday.  Normally we are not open on Wednesdays, but this is the beginning of Spring Break, and people are here all week, which is not the norm.  We have bookings for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so far, but nothing for Sunday yet.  Since Hunter has friends from Colorado visiting this week we've taken all of the hours, which is nice as we haven't really had a big payday for a long time now...not that anyone is complaining, but it is always nice to earn a little extra cash here and there, especially when not much actual physical labor is required.

Since there was nothing else to do until our customers returned I spent some more time in the trailer stowing stuff, and managed to get quite a bit done....

Two of the bikes, which are now stowed, used to be back there....

.....and now they are now in their travel positions up front, under the work bench....

....but before I could stow the bikes I had to stow the Black and Decker Workmate workbench (above), and the Ancheer back machine (below), which are both collapsed and stowed against the front bulkhead of the trailer

....now I only have my Haibike eBike to stow, take down the two tool tables and stow them, stow the Adirondack chairs, stow the umbrellas, stow the Ozark Trails dining canopy, and I'm pretty much ready for turf and VW insertion.  I always think it will take twice as long as it does, and didn't expect to finish until Tuesday, but now it appears I will be done by Sunday....yay!  On Wednesday I'll dump our waste tanks for the final time, turn around the trailer, and Newell, drop the trailer on the hitch, and we'll be ready to leave when we return from Los Algodones on Friday afternoon.  Time is short, and confidence is high!

Our two all day customers returned at 4:05 pm, and 4:35 pm respectively without any damage.  After the second customer returned TLE and I drove the two RZRs down to the fuel station, filled them up, and parked them.  I'll wash them on Thursday when we only have one 1/2 day customer who is not leaving until 1 pm for their 4 hour adventure.

Remarkably, the temps are still in the 70's this late in March, and with the exceptions of 1, or 2 days currently forecast to be in the low 80's, every other day will be in the 60's and 70's, and we may even get some rain on Saturday if the weather guessers have anything to say about it.

Thanks for stopping by!

The small things first......

 7:06 am - Wednesday - March 27th - GNHS - 53° F, humidity 74%, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 77°  F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Aiken, GA, the home of Fred Astaire, and William 'The Refrigerator' Perry (Chicago Bears) having lunch at Aiken Brewing Company......

When I begin putting tools away, and rolling up the putting surfaces you know it's not long until we haul anchor, and I've got to get it all done by April 3rd.  Did I ever say I have too much stuff?  Well, I do have too much stuff, and we're going to have to get pretty creative to make it all fit, and insert the VW.  I don't believe TLE would appreciate having to drive the VW all the way back to Likely....lol!

We were up kind of early Tuesday, but not because I needed to organize the trailer.  We went to bed early Monday night because we were tired from the round trip drive to Poway, and, therefore, woke up early.  At any rate I began the slow process of bagging up all of my large tools for another reposition.  I worked at it most of the day, taking occasional breaks, but I got a lot done....

All of my sockets are stowed

The Bluetti and solar panels are stowed

All tools, and power tools are towed

Putting greens and small artificial turf pieces are cleaned and rolled up.

Without this Rubber Maid container, which will sit on the tongue of the trailer (strapped down, of course) I would not have enough room for everything....this is what we call getting creative!

Portable driving 'range' is down

Camp chairs and anti gravity chairs are stowed

....we've got a long way to go, but it is a start.  Now that most of the small stuff is stowed, the bigger stuff will go fast!

We did take a 1 mile walk just before I began work on the trailer covering the distance averaging 3.4 mph....not bad for a one week layoff.  My foot feels great, by the way....

......it was our 64th one mile walk of the winter.  The day seemed to pass quickly, and soon it was almost 5 pm, and time for a shower.  Day one of packing was a success with us getting everything done we had planned to do.  A lot more yet to do, but plenty of time in which to do it all!

Thanks for stopping by!

A twofer.....

6:41 am - Tuesday - March 26th - GNHS - 58° F, humidity 58%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 73° F. On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in DeFuniak Springs, FL.....

.....taking a bicycle ride, and visiting a local winery.

Well, my promise to write about Sunday when we returned from Poway Monday afternoon  was unfulfilled once again.  I guess after driving over 300 miles in 8 hours I was a little tired, but the result is you get a rare 'twofer' (two for the price of one), so here we go with Sunday's happenings.

Sunday was the 2nd day of the 'Round of 32' ('March Madness')  in which all winning teams advance to the 'Sweet Sixteen', which begins this Thursday.  On this particular day there were no upsets, but we came close to a couple with one game actually going to overtime before the favored team outlasted the underdog.  In fact, most of the 8 games Sunday were quite lopsided.

I also continued to remain off my feet for most of the day due to my right foot injury last Tuesday, but I am happy to confirm that after 3 solid days of indulgent NCAA 'March Madness' basketball viewing my foot is doing quite well, in fact, as I sit here this morning (Tuesday) composing this brief missive, my foot does not hurt at all, and it appears I will be able to return to regularly scheduled programing, which will include, but not be limited to  beginning the arduous organizing of the trailer  today (Tuesday) for our April 6th departure.  I must be done with all the pre-departure preparations by next Wednesday as we will be in Los Algodones Thursday and Friday, returning late Friday, April 5th,  afternoon.

We wanted to be on the road Monday morning by 6:30 am for the 3 hour drive to my dermatologist's office in Poway, so we were in bed around 9 pm Sunday evening, and according to plan we were in the VW just a tad before 6:30 am Monday morning doing just that.

We always stop in Borrego Springs, which is about 1/2 way to Poway, to take a bathroom break at the public restrooms in the middle of Christmas Circle (roundabout), and we arrived there just before 8 am, did that, and were on our way up the Montezuma Grade minutes later.  My appointment was for 10:15 am, and we arrived at Dr. Jou's facility at 9:40 am.  Unexpectedly, my name was called just 5 minutes later.  Dr. Jou examined my lower lip, and I could tell by the big smile upon his face that he liked what he saw.  The 'chemical peel' of a few layers of skin off my lower lip was a resounding success, so my lower lip will remain intact!

We were back in the VW around 9:55 am, and on our way back to GNHS, but not before a quick stop in Ramona at the local Stater Brothers Supermarket where TLE did a pretty big shopping.  When we were living at Ramona Oaks RV Resort for 9 months from April of 2019 to January of 2020 we shopped there quite a bit.  By stopping in Ramona to do our shopping we saved ourselves a drive into La Quinta this week.  We brought along two ice chests to keep the produce, and other items requiring refrigeration, cold on the drive home, which the purchase of a 9 pound bag of ice did quite nicely.

We were back in the VW by 11 am arriving in Borrego Springs around 12:20 pm....just in time to visit Los Jilbertos Taqueria for lunch.  I love their 2 crispy tacos combo plate!

We were back on the road around 1 pm, arriving back at GNHS around 2:30 pm.  After 8 hours of driving, shopping and dining I was ready for a nap, but not so quick!  Why?  Well, COA had two all day rentals Monday, which Hunter took care of first thing Monday morning, but he had to go to the Palm Springs airport in the afternoon to pick up friends who will be visiting with him this week, so it fell to us to take care of checking them back in at the end of the day.  Fortunately there were no rescues required Monday, and both all day rentals returned on time without incident!  By 5:15 pm we had clocked out, and then I took a nap.....lol!  That, my friends, was a long day, but one filled with all kinds of good news.  And now you are once again caught up with the lives of the Nomadic Hockwalds.

Thanks for stopping by!

Later....

 5:36 am - Monday - March 25th - GNHS - 53° F, humidity 64%, wind 3 mph out of the northwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I took a 10 mile bike ride near Daphne, AL, and had lunch at East Shore Cafe.....seems like a life time ago.....

TLE and I will be leaving in a few minutes to begin the 3 hour drive to Poway where I have a dermatological (hopefully, the final one) appointment at 10:15 am today, after which we will make the 3 hour drive home.  At any rate I will post my latest offering about the doings on Sunday late this afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sheltering in place.....

 7:56 am  - Sunday - March 24th - GNHS - 57° F, humidity 57%, wind 7 mph out of the west by southwest......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2012 I was standing in front of Tiger Stadium (LSU) in Baton Rouge, LA......

Saturday was the second day under the 'shelter in place' orders by Nurse TLE. It was also the first day of the round of 32 in the 2024 version of the NCAA 'March Madness' basketball tournament, and another day of guiltless viewing of said tournament by moi.  Guiltless, you say?  Yup.....another day of no walking, and very, very little standing, so yeah, guiltless viewing from the comfortable confines of my recliner....lol!

Speaking of 'March Madness' there was only one minor upset in Saturday's round of 32 matchups, and that was Gonzaga - #5 over Kansas - #4, otherwise all of the other favored teams won their games, and in some cases quite handily.  While the Gonzaga/Kansas game was just a one point game at half time, and very close in the early part of the 2nd half, Gonzaga pulled away to win 89-68, and at one point led by as many as 25 points in the later stages of the 2nd half before settling for a 19 point win as time expired.  There were a couple of overtime games, including one double overtime game in which both favorites ultimately prevailed.

I really did not venture outside for the first time until late afternoon when the winds began to freshen.  The forecast was for winds into the low 30's most of the afternoon, but they never materialized.  It got to maybe 15-16 mph for a while, but it was hardly noticeable coming out of the west by southwest as it was.  The wind direction has begun its annual shift from out of the north by northwest to out of the west by southwest now, and for that we are grateful as the southwest winds do not impact our site like the north by northwest winds do. 

The forecast through April 6th, our departure date, shows only two days in the low 80's, otherwise they are all in the 70's with on day in the 60's, so we've got that going for us.  Things have been pretty quiet here at GNHS with only single rentals Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which also is a sign that the end of the season is upon us.  Next week, however, we have Spring Break occurring and we have advanced bookings for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so far, with more expected Easter weekend, but our days of being RZR rental agents here at GNHS are becoming quite finite.

Thanks for stopping by!

Upsets galore!

7:39 am - Saturday - March 23rd - GNHS - 64° F, humidity 53%, wind 5 mph out of the west....cloudy today with a forecast high of 75° F, and wind over 20 mph this afternoon.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were overnighting in the parking lot of a Walmart near Baton Rouge, LA....

Friday was the 2nd day of the round of 64 in the 2024 edition of 'March Madness', and were there ever a lot of upsets!  It was the perfect day for me to spend the day in my recliner watching 16 games which began around 9:30 am, and ended after 10 pm.....12 hours of nothing but NCAA basketball.  The upsets were as follows: 1) Northwestern - #9 beat Florida Atlantic - #8...a minor upset, but an upset, nonetheless, 2) Yale #13 beat Auburn - #4, 3) Colorado - #10 beat Florida - #7 - 102 to 100! 4)Texas A&M - #9 beat Nebraska - #8, 5) James Madison - #12 beat Wisconsin - #5, and 6) Grand Canyon - #12 beat St. Mary's - #5 to close out the day.  So, six upsets in one day.....and that, my friends, is what 'March Madness' is all about.

So why, you might query, was it perfect?  Well, I haven't written about this yet, but this past Tuesday afternoon I was washing the VW in preparation for our overnight trip, wearing my flip flops as I often do, and managed to catch the bottom of my foot on one of the metal spikes I use to tie down the dining canopy.  In addition to a bone bruise, I also lost a piece of skin the size of a dime off the ball of my foot near my little toe.  The result left me with a foot bleeding like a stuck pig, and limping around the rest of the day.  TLE, being the good nurse she is, bandaged me up, and by Wednesday morning things were looking up.  The problem was, however, I spent a lot of Wednesday walking around sightseeing, as well as part of Thursday, so by the time we got home Thursday afternoon my right foot was hurting like the dickens.  Nurse TLE sternly recommended, no insisted upon a day of NO walking, or standing, so Friday became the perfect day to guiltlessly sit in my recliner doing nothing but watching one basketball game after another (16 in all) all the day long.

The high temp for Friday was just 79° F, which continues to amaze us as this time last year we were well into the 90's everyday, and running the A/C quite a bit.  The day was mostly clear, so I was able to get a nice picture, out the Newell door, of the Chocolates lighting up, but no sunset as I was prohibited by Nurse TLE from doing any walking, other than to the bathroom....lol.  All that being said, by the time I went to bed Friday night my foot was feeling much better, and my optimism about me being able to walk without a painful limp in the near future has returned.

Light 'em up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Obscure.....

 7:29 am - Friday - March 22nd - GNHS - 56° F, humidity 79%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE had just finished stowing the VW in the trailer in preparation for departure the next morning when we headed north to work at LPG&RVR for the first time.....

As is often the case I did not sleep well at the motel after our day of sightseeing with our good friends.  It was not the bed's fault as it was extremely comfortable, and the room was more than adequate.  I just don't do well the first night sleeping in an unfamiliar location with different sights and sounds than those with which I am familiar at my normal nocturnal location of repose (ie, the Newell).  I was up around 5 am typing my brief, vague, obscure, and uninformative blog post about Wednesday.  I made a cup of coffee using the coffee maker provided, but you know how those things are, right?  The brown coffee like elixir produced by that tiny coffee maker does have caffeine in it, is hot, and it gives off an aroma somewhat similar to real coffee, but that is about as close as it gets....lol!

We were off around 7 am for some last minute sightseeing with our friends, before saying our 'until next times', and beginning our multi hour trip back to GNHS.  We stopped a few times to stretch our legs, and drain our bladders, and were home about mid afternoon, without incident.  We had a great time with our friends, whose wish to remain anonymous remains intact as of this writing, so this brief missive will have to suffice for now.

As many of you know, 'March Madness' (annual NCAA basketball tournament) began Wednesday with the 'First Four' games being played Tuesday and Wednesday.  The actual round of 64 began Thursday, so I missed several of the games early in the day Thursday, but was able to watch quite a few games between our arrival home, and when I went to bed a little after 10 pm.  There were several large upsets Thursday, so looking forward to Friday's games for more of the same.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, I slept soundly Thursday night, and feel quite refreshed as I write this brief recap of Thursday's happenings.

We had no bookings for rentals on Thursday, and have none today (Friday) as I write, but we do have a three day rental of one RZR beginning Saturday, and ending Monday afternoon.  Monday morning TLE and I will be making the 6 hour round trip drive to Poway for my, hopefully, final dermatological exam by Dr. Jou, and then we will have just the two days of dental appointments remaining for TLE in Los Algodones on April 4th and 5th before we haul anchor and head north to LPG&RVR.  As I write they are beginning 5, or 6 days of forecast rain and snow in Likely, so we'll be heading from early Spring back to late Winter in Northern California.

Thanks for stopping by!

Road trip

5:43 am - Thursday - March 21st: We took an overnight road trip Wednesday, however,  I'm not really at liberty to write about where we went, or the purpose of the road trip, but it was lot of fun.  We met up with long time friends to explore some new to us territory, and in order to protect their privacy I'll have to leave it at that......

I will resume my daily blog posts Friday when we have returned to GNHS.  Thanks for your understanding, and, as always, thank you for stopping by!

Surprise, surprise!

 5:31 am - Wednesday - March 20th - GNHS - 54° F, humidity 84%, wind 3 mph out of the northeast.....clear skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were enjoying a sunset near Savannah, GA.....

Following a suitable waking up period Tuesday TLE and I headed outside to take another 2 mile out and back walk averaging 3.3 mph.....

Another turkey buzzard....spreading his/her wings

....after returning we spent about an hour taking down the XMAS lights I installed on the COA office about 5 months ago, and then pulled the artificial turf from under the picnic table to clean it, and roll it up, as well as another piece we used at our 'viewing deck'.  Once that was done all I had left to do was wash the VW, and check the oil, and coolant in preparation for an overnight trip to Arizona Wednesday.  I'll write more about that at a later date.

Sometime after that we got an unexpected text message from our friends Marnie and Rich (worked for them at Ramona Oaks RV Resort back in 2019-20) that they were coming off the Bradshaw trail, and would be at our place in about 30 minutes....wait, what?  Apparently the Bradshaw trail can be picked up in Blythe, CA and driven all the way to Glamis North Hot Springs.  They have a VW New Beetle too, only it is a diesel, and is lifted with large tires upon it.....

They bought their VW Beetle brand new, and have put over 300,000 miles on over the years....still runs, and looks great!

.....anyway they began their journey on Monday spending the night along the way in the tent they keep mounted on top of their VW.  They arrived right on time, and we spent over an hour talking and catching up with each others lives, and plans for the summer....before taking an 'usie' around 4 pm, and saying our 'until next times'.  They  spend their winters in Yuma, AZ, and will be heading back to Keystone, SD for their summer job......

....what a delightful surprise, and a wonderful way to end another GNHS day!

Thanks for stopping by!

One hundred and one.....

6:42 am - Tuesday - March 19th - GNHS  - 55° F, humidity 74%, wind 4 mph out of the northeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were boondocking near the shores of Lake Powell in Southern Utah (about a mile from the Arizona border, and Glen Canyon Dam).....loved the early evenings there.....

 After two busy days working it was nice to sleep in Monday morning, and wake up slowly to the rising sun. We've gotten so used to not putting in that many hours renting RZRs that when we must work it seems like an imposition.....lol.  It has been nice not to be on call all the time like we were last year.

We've been hovering at the 99 mile mark in our daily walks for about a week now.  We spent last Wednesday through Friday driving hundreds of miles taking care of root canals, and new tires, and then worked Saturday and Sunday, so we didn't feel like walking, but Monday we decided it was time to break the 100 mile mark with a 2 mile out and back walk, which we covered averaging around 3.2 mph.....with that walk we have achieved our goal of walking 100 miles this winter (officially 101 miles), and we've still got almost three weeks to go.....

....the views, air clarity and quality were spectacular, and we even saw a turkey buzzard near the Tilapia ponds......

.....TLE and I spent a couple of hours removing the 8 strands of fairy lights from the surrounding palms trees as we begin to take down our site.  It's always the first thing we do when getting ready to leave a location.  Amazingly, the strand of fairy lights I left on the palm tree in front of the COA office are still working after being on that palm tree for 18 months.  You may recall I left them on the palm tree on purpose last Spring to see if they would survive the summer, and they did, plus another winter.

Around 3 pm I headed down to the hot pools/tubs to take my first soak in over a week....

....the number of soaks I have left are becoming quite finite now, but I will not leave here wishing I had soaked more, because I have soaked quite a bit this winter, and feel much better for it.

No nomadic day is really complete without a fire on the 'firepit deck', and we've still got some wood to burn, so around 6:30 pm TLE and I headed outdoors to do just that.....there was not a breath of wind, and the air temp was perfect.....

....we listened to the Etta James Channel on Pandora, sipped some Scotch, and talked until after 8 pm.  I can't believe that old stainless steel wash tub is over 20 years old now, and still providing amazing fires!

Thanks for stopping by!