Hard to believe.....

 5:56 am - Saturday - August 22nd - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 25%, cloud cover 25%, wind 17 mph out of the south by southwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were near Vancouver, WA.....

....riding our bikes along the Columbia River....the Washington/Oregon drawbridge across the river from Portland.

It was back to work Friday for another four day shift.  The weather forecast was guessing that the temp would get as high as 91° F, but we had very heavy cloud cover all day long, which suppressed the temp enough that I do not believe it reached 90° F.  Every little bit helps.  

Initially I staged the 5 Club Car electrics as there were only 8 people signed up to play golf.  Then the walk in folks began to arrive, and before we knew it we had rented 11 carts.  Not a very busy Friday by LPG&RVR standards.  Once the carts were staged I grabbed the cordless hedge trimmer and headed up the hill to the residential area to trim a large bush between two of the houses.  The last time I had to trim that bush was our first year here, so it is not really a very fast growing bush.  In all I spent about 30 minutes trimming that bush, then raked up the clippings and hauled them to the burn pile.

Around 10:30 am I hopped on the 2 bag Husqvarna and headed down to the #4-10 tent sites to finish mowing them before proceeding to mow tent sites 1-3, and then all 10 of the backup RV sites along the meadow.  That took me to TLE's lunch break time.  I do not believe I answered a single phone call in 90 minutes, and sent out just one couple to golf; that was our 11th cart.  By the time I returned to the 'Cart Return' area after TLE's lunch all 5 of the Club Car electrics had returned so I began washing them, and while I washed them 2 of the 6 EZ-GO carts we rented had also returned.

In between washing carts I ran 4 different sprinklers down at the 'Night Office' grass, and one at the parking lot grass, and made multiple trips down to the 'Night Office' to move those sprinklers  from place to place.  By the time 3:30 pm rolled around I had washed all but 2 of the 11 rented carts, so I'll have the final two to wash first thing Saturday.

The 15 day weather forecast shows no more temps in the 90's, just 80's as far as the eye can see.  There are just 9 days left in August, and then we will have just 4 the weeks of September left in our sixth summer sojourn here at LPG&RVR.  Hard to believe, but there it is.

Thanks for stopping by!

No cigar.....

 5:52 am - Friday - August 21st - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 73%, wind 14 mph out of the south.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Oregon.....

.....checking out Mt. Saint Helens, some Dick's Lava Rock Porter, and that smile!

The fourth and final day of our four day weekend arrived Thursday.  The daily high was forecast to be 94° F, and I'm pretty sure it go there.  Jose came by with Club Car Villager #20 saying it was fixed, so I took it for a drive to verify it.   Regretfully, it was not fixed, and within 10 minutes it quit running again.  Same issue....it would turn over but not fire.  I left it where it died, called Jose to let him know, and headed back to site #55.

A while back our reverse osmosis ultraviolet water filter died, meaning the ultra violet light bulb had burned out.  I ordered a replacement and received it some time ago, and assembled it, but was quite certain that the rubber gasket which seals the unit to keep water from leaking out would not do the job.  I decided to attempt to install it to see if I was right, or wrong.  Unfortunately, I was right, so I had to reinstall the old ultraviolet light filter, and go back to the drawing board.  I found an exact match to the old one on Amazon and ordered it.  It comes sealed, and requires no assembly....just connect the two small hoses, and plug it in.  I should have gone with that one in the first place, but it was twice as much, and the one I chose came with a second UV light bulb making it possible to just replace the bulb if first one goes bad, and they always go bad eventually.  Should have gone with the more expensive OEM one....doh!

By the time I reinstalled the old, defunct ultraviolet filter it was after 11 am, and time to get out to the 'lido deck' to spend some time reading before it got too hot.  By 2 pm it was getting too warm on the 'lido deck' (no breeze again), so I headed inside to finish the book I was reading.

Since I had given Jose back the loaner cart I was using when he brought mine back I needed to walk over to the Clubhouse with TLE when she went to pickup the cash drawer from Kathie to get another loaner.  We did that around 4:50 pm.  As we walked up I noticed Jose and Claude were working on my cart so I went over to see what was what.  They had just replaced the coil, and were reassembling the cart, so I hung around to see if they were successful in fixing my cart.  When Jose went to test the repair it started and ran fine, just like it had previously, however, within minutes it stopped running again....doh.....so no cigar....lol!  About that time TLE was walking over from the Clubhouse with the cash drawer in her hands so we picked up Club Car #11, and headed home, while Jose and Claude went back to the drawing board.  And with that day four of our four day weekend came to an end.

Thanks for stopping by!

It's been a month already?!

 7:49 am - Thursday - August 20th - LPG&RVR - 65° F, humidity 16%, cloud cover 64%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 94° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Coeur d' Alene, ID.....

The view

Our RV site for a month

....staying for a month at River Walk RV Park right on the Spokane River, which is a drainage for Lake Coeur d' Alene.

We drive into Alturas once every 8 day cycle (4 days of work, 4 day weekend), and Wednesday was that day this cycle.  We like to make the drive early in the morning, usually no later than 9 am, as there are still ample shady parking spots at each store we frequent in which to park our VW while shopping.  It's kind of funny to say, but regardless of the time of year whether here n the summer time, or in northern Arizona in the winter, we are always looking for shade in which to park.  We were in the VW heading north to Alturas by 9 am, arriving at ACE Hardware around 9:20 am.  

You will recall that a month (I originally thought is was like 2 weeks ago, but I looked it up on my blog and found it was July 18th!) ago we had the issue with our Splendide washer/dryer combo machine where the drum would not drain.  After working backwards in our trouble shooting of the issue from the most complicated to the most simple solution we discovered the issue was a Band-Aid clogging the drain hose as it entered the gray tank....

.....when we removed the fitting to unclog it we discovered it was rotting away, but since we did not have the necessary replacement parts we cleaned them as best we could and reinstalled them.  Before heading into town I removed the old fittings to be sure we got the CORRECT parts we needed.....

.....it has worked fine since then, but I wanted to replace it with new parts as the old parts had a very limited lifespan left, so after some help by the ACE Hardware staff member we bought the replacement parts....

.....a brass 3/4" to 1/2" diameter male to female reducer and a 1/2"diameter male to barbed hose fitting.  This new fitting will probably last longer than I have to live.  The barbed section of the new fitting is over 2" long, so that slight split you see in the drain hose will not be an issue.

Next we shopped at Grocery Outlet, then finished at Holiday Market before heading for home where we arrived without incident around 11 am.  After helping TLE unload our purchases form the Beetle I set about installing the new drain parts, which took about 10 minutes, as it should have.

The forecast high for Wednesday was 96° F, so I knew I would not have long on the 'lido deck' this day.  I got my book, and headed out to the 'lido deck' to read, and managed to endure the heat until 2 pm before heading back indoors.  Had there been any kind of a breeze it probably would have remained pleasant for another hour, or two.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mechanical issues......

 7:38 am - Wednesday - August 19th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 11%, wind 10 mph out of the west by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 96° F.  On  this date in 2018 TLE and I were near Bar Harbor, ME....

At the start....Cadillac South Ridge Trail

Almost there

The reward

....hiking to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  We hiked both the north and south trails that summer.

We slept in until after 8 am Tuesday, and that is easy to do when it is so quiet.  Sunday my Club Car Villager #20 began to give me problems.  It ran fine driving over to the Clubhouse at 7:30 am, but when I went to drive it about 30 minutes later it would turn over, but not start.  I called Bob, our former mechanic who still lives here, and he came down the hill to help me diagnose the issue.  He got it running again for me, and I drove it around the park taking care of a few errands.  It ran normally the entire time.  Then I parked it again at the Clubhouse, and 5 minutes later it would not start again....same issue.

Later in the day I noticed there was no fuel in either of the fuel filters so I called Bob again, to tell him what I discovered and he suggested the fuel line might be clogged at the gas tank, so I blew compressed air backwards through the line, but it would still not start, so he suggested I replaced the fuel pump, which is easy to do....maybe a 20 minute job.  I did that and it began to run again, and ran well.  I headed for home at 3:30 pm thinking I had fixed the issue, and when I returned to pickup TLE at 5 pm it was still running fine, but as we were driving home it stopped running again....doh!  I managed to get it running and drove home and parked it.

Monday morning I went out to see if would start and it didn't.  First thing Tuesday morning I decided to walk over to the Clubhouse and get another Club Car and the tow bar to tow my cart over to the 'Caddy Shack' so Jose could work on it when he has time.  I'm now driving Club Car #1, a two seater, until Jose can get it running again.  

Upon my return to the Newell I retrieved my book and headed out to the 'lido deck' to read, and listen to music, and that is what I did until almost 4 pm when the heat of the day, and lack of a breeze drove me inside where our AC was keeping the interior at a comfortable 76° F.  

Claude's freezer stopped working in the past couple of days so he had some defrosted Top Sirloin steaks he gifted us to grill that evening.  Around 5:30 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que and grilled them to a perfect medium rare.....

....those Top Sirloins were so tender! TLE added a side salad, and some type of macaroni salad, both of which were delicious.  Thank you Claude for the unexpected steak dinner!

Thanks for stopping by!

Not the norm.....

 8:24 am - Tuesday - August 18th - LPG&RVR - 67° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 25%, wind 9 mph out of the north by northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in Walker, CA.....

.....having lunch at Walker Burger....best burger in the Eastern Sierra, and about 90 minutes later we were standing at the top of Conway Summit....

....enjoying the view of Mono Lake, and Lee Vining, CA.  We were on our way to Mammoth Mountain to mountain bike with friends for a few days.

We were up around 7 am Monday morning, which is kind of early for us on the first day of our four day weekend, but I had promised Claude I would drive into Alturas later in the morning to pick him up at the local auto body shop where he going to have some work done on his Chevy pickup.  I was on the road just before 9 am, and picking him up at 9:20 am.  We were back at LPG&RVR by 9:45 am....that was a quick turn around.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the 'lido deck', and I mean the rest of the day.  I didn't renter the Newell until after 5 pm.  Even though the high temp of the day was 89° F there was a steady, cool breeze blowing all afternoon making it possible to remain outdoors.  I read, napped, read, and napped some more.  

TLE made stuffed mushrooms for dinner accompanied by a nice side salad.  I'm here to tell you that was a restaurant quality dish.  I wish I had taken pictures, but alas I did not.  Not long after we finished dinner I noticed we were getting an interesting sunset....

Looking northwest

Looking more southwest

Looking west

Looking north

.....it's rare that we get a sunset which stretches across the entire sky.

The park continues to be very unbusy.  I do not remember an August like this the previous four summers.  Since the 4th of July weekend this place has been mostly a ghost town.  We'll get busy for a day, or two, but then it gets quiet again.  Not sure if it is the price of gasoline, or all the fires, or a combination thereof, but what we are experiencing right now is not the norm for this time of year.  Time to wrap this up, and head outdoors for another day on the 'lido deck'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have I told you I love Sundays?

 8:14 am - Monday - August 17th - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 17%, cloud cover 59%, wind 12 mph out of the west.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Oregon....

....visiting the world famous Multnomah Falls.....one of our bucket list items.

I love Sundays!  The rush of Saturday has come and gone, and now folks begin to pack up their stuff and return to their workaday lives.  There were very few golfers Sunday; I think we rented 8, or 9 golf carts, and all but one of them had returned by 3:30 pm.  I did mow the 'Night Office' grass around 11 am, but that was the extent of any hard work done.  

During TLE's lunch break I was able to watch a good portion of the final round of the FedEx/St. Jude Championship in which Scottie Scheffler returned to his dominant form winning by 8 strokes.  He began the fourth round just 2 strokes ahead of the second place players, but while they self destructed, he went four under par winning handily in almost Tigeresque fashion.

When I returned to the 'Cart Return' area after lunch 8 of the 9 carts rented Sunday were ready for their daily spa treatment.  By 3:30 pm I had put away the final cart, and headed for home to begin our four day weekend.  I ran the AC for short while to cool down the Newell interior while I took a shower.  I returned to the Clubhouse to pickup TLE so she could join me for our four day weekend.  Claude came over around 5:30 pm with a smoked Tri Tip steak, which we ate in our new dining canopy.  We ate and talked until close to 7 pm before bidding adieu to Claude, and heading indoors for the balance of the evening; a very nice way to end a work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

A little behind....

 7:39 am - Monday - August 17th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 59%, wind 12 mph out of the west by southwest....cloudy today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I took a 100 mile round trip drive out to the Schoodic Peninsula.....

....which is at the northern most part of Acadia National Park.  We even found out there was good Mexican to be had in this lonely northern Maine outpost in Milbridge, ME.

I overslept Sunday morning, the final day of our four day work week, so I didn't have time to write and post for Saturday, so here goes.  Saturday was another delightful weather day with the temp in the mid 80's, and a light breeze all day long.  The two week heatwave we endured seems a distant memory now.  We actually put out 15 golf carts Saturday, so  was kept busy.  When I wasn't tending to golf carts I was watering the 'Night Office' grass, and spot watering around the parking lot grass, which does have sprinklers, but there are always a few dry spots, especially when it gets into the 90's.  It was a rather routine day with no surprises.

I had ordered some side view, and rear view mirrors for Club Car Village #20 on Amazon a while back, and they arrived via UPS late morning, so I spent time installing them....

.....the side view mirrors cost $11 each, and the rearview mirror was $15.  Very easy to install, and now I can see what's going on behind me....lol!

By 3:30 pm only 6 of the 15 carts had been returned, so I would have 9 to wash first thing Sunday.  I headed for home to change clothes, and return at 4 pm for the weekly putting contest.  I hadn't made a single putt in two weeks, so I had no idea how I would do.  As it turned out I did pretty well making it through 7 rounds before making a mistake on one hole which cost me the the match....

....so my streak of not making it to the final has been extended for another week.  The the above photo you can see Steve Whalen (lower right) who works opposite me taking care of the carts, and mowing.  He is a good putter, and made it through 8 rounds before being eliminated.  The other folks are Joel and Donna....super nice people!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cool temps speed the passage of time....

 5:49 am - Saturday - August 15th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 32%, cloud cover 11%, wind 12 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were near Coupeville, WA (Whidbey Island)....

....courtesy parked on the property of good friends Bob and Karen Fenstermacher (means window maker in German) with this view....

When the weather cools down it seems that time moves faster, at least on those days we work, and that was the case Friday.  Things are still slow here at LPG&RVR, but we did rent 10 golf carts.  The park began to fill later in the morning, and by the time I headed for home at 3:30 pm 10 of the 15 pull sites with grass were full, so this weekend promises to be a little busier than the past few weekends.

Even with a mostly empty park the work continues.  Grass must be watered, mowed and trimmed. Weeds must be eradicated.  They never stop growing, and to keep the flora under control weekly intervention is necessary, so I spent about an hour weeding around the large gazebo sites, then mowed the employee sites, followed by a trip out to the golf course to mow around those tee boxes for which I am responsible.....3, 10, 16, & 18.  I was back by 11 am, so I appropriated one of the string trimmers and headed down to the 'Night Office' lawn to trim around the hose bibs, and trees, then down to the playground to trim around the swing set, and 'Jungle Gym'.  By the time I finished it was time for TLE's lunch break.

We've been having an issue with Verizon the past couple of weeks for cell phone broadband and for our Clubhouse Verizon internet and land line phones, so no phone calls were received.  Thankfully, we also have Starlink in the Clubhouse, so we do have internet for office functions.  The time passed quickly, and at 1:30 I exited into balmy breezes, not a blast furnace like last week; what a welcome change!

By 1:30 pm the carts we had rented had begun to return, and by 3:30 pm all but one of the 10 had returned.  I headed for home where there was NO air conditioning running for a change.  All the windows were open, and it was quite comfortable inside with the outside temperature barely at 83° F.  I retrieved TLE from the Clubhouse at 5:05 pm after flipping the sign down at the 'Night Office' office, and posting the availability.  The day had passed quickly, and suddenly TLE and I were celebrating 'hump night'; just two days left in our four day work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to regularly scheduled programming.....

 5:49 am - Friday - August 14th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 41%, cloud cover 8%, wind 13 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

.....hiking the Cascade Lake Trail.

And back to work we go for another four day stretch.  Thankfully, the temperature dropped overnight from 90° F Wednesday, to a more civilized 85° F Thursday.  For the first time in a while I wore a sweatshirt to work, and wore it for at least an hour before it warmed up enough to remove it.  Wednesday had been a slow day, so there were no leftover carts to wash.  I staged 11 carts initially, and we rented 9; another slow day.

The sun is not rising now until 6:10 am, and it is just beginning to climb above the Warner Mountains to the east as I write.  Within a couple of days the sun will be setting before 8 pm, so the days are getting shorter and shorter.

Thursday I needed to clear the range balls off the driving range for mowing, but before I did that I did some mowing with the Husqvarna 2 bag mower.  In all I mowed both group gazebos, the parking lot grass, a few of the pull throughs, the large grass area next to site #30, and the group firepit grass.  By the time I finished, and cleared the grass off the mower deck of the Husqvarna it was 11 am, and time to clear the driving range before TLE's lunch break.  I all I harvested just 2/3's of a 5 gallon bucket.

Lunch passed quickly, and suddenly it was 1:30 pm.  Instead of the usual blast furnace I had faced the last four day work week I was greeted with balmy winds out of the southwest; what a nice change!  I set some sprinklers to run while I washed the returning carts.  By 3:30 pm only 5 of the 9 carts had returned, but I headed home anyway for my usual cool shower, and nap before returning to the Clubhouse to give TLE a ride home.  Thursday was a nice first day back to work.

As I write the Salon electric heater is running as it was only 55° F inside the Newell this morning.  That's the first time we've run the heater in a couple of weeks. 

Thanks for stopping by!

And on the fourth day you shall shop....

 5:49 am - Thursday - August 14th - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover 38%, wind 14 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F. On this date in 2012 TLE and I were on the Oregon Coast.....

....traveling south on US-1....Nehalem Bay is in the lower left corner, and the long beach is Manzanita Beach.  One of the most amazing views along the southern Oregon Coast.

We often make our shopping run on the first, or second day of our four day weekend, but on this occasion it was the 4th day of the four day weekend due to my previously scheduled haircut appointment at Kaleidescope.  The appointment was for 9:30 am, so we were in the car by 9:10 am to make the 20 minute drive into Alturas.  We arrived at 9:29 am....perfect!  Within 15 minutes Sheila had restored order to my coif, and we were on our way to ACE Hardware for our first shopping stop of the day.

We like to go to ACE Hardware on Wednesday's because they have free popcorn.  It's a great idea for them.  You get a bag of popcorn then walk up and down the aisles eating the popcorn looking for whatever you are wanting to purchase that day.  Since you're walking slowly so you can eat the popcorn the odds are that you will see something else you want to buy, that you did not have on your list.  Get people in the store, then slow them down by giving them something to eat, and enjoy.  You end up with more sales; at least that is my unproven opinion....lol.  As anecdotal proof I had intended to purchase one item, and one item only, but as I was strolling around eating my popcorn after finding what I wanted I stumbled upon something else I had forgotten I needed; so there you go!  

After ACE Hardware we stopped at Modoc Family Pharmacy (used to be Rite Aide) to see what was what there, and we found out that Coffee Adventure (Canby, CA) is expanding to Alturas, and will have a booth inside the pharmacy building, so we won't have to drive all the way to Canby to get our Coffee Adventure fix in the near future.

We made our usual stops at Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market before beginning the return trip to LPG&RVR.  On our way out of town we decided to stop at a new local eatery (Double A Cafe), which is next to the UPS/FedEx store, to check them out.  It is an upscale coffee house serving all the usual coffees (hot, iced, blended, and otherwise) plus a great selection of Paninis....

....I ordered my usual Mocha Frappuccino, and TLE an iced Americano.  For our lunch we decided to split a jalapeno, bacon, cheese Panini; basically a deconstructed Jalapeno Popper.  We added a bag of salt/vinegar kettle chips for good measure.  The place has that funky vibe we love, and they even have alfresco dining options if you are so inclined; we were not so inclined on this 90° degree day.  What a pleasant surprise Double A Cafe is!

We were home around 12 pm, emptying the day's purchases from the rear of the Beetle, and carrying them into the Newell interior to restock our pantry and refrigerators.  It wasn't long until I was in my anti gravity chair for the next few hours to read my book, and enjoy the occasional nap.  I managed to make it to 4 pm before the heat of the day changed my mind.  And with that day four of our four day weekend came to and end.  We're both looking forward to working the next four days in much cooler temperatures.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another day on the 'lido deck'.....

 7:26 am - Wednesday - August 12th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 22%, cloud cover 15%, wind 14 mph out of the northwest.....hazy, smokey, partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Southwest Harbor, ME....

.....at the home of Tony and Janet whom we met while working at Smuggler's Den Campground.  Tony gave me a can of Never Dull, and I used it to polish 3 months of Atlantic Ocean salt air induced corrosion off of the air horns which adorn the front roof of our 1982 Newell.

Since we hit the summer high of 100° F last Friday the daily high temps have been SLOWLY descending, and I mean SLOWLY.  It was 'only' 98 Sunday, then 97 Monday, and down to 94° F Tuesday.  We are promised a 90° F high temp on Wednesday.  I say that to say this; there is a noticeable difference between 100 and 94 even though it is just 6° lower.  At any rate, the temp on the 'lido deck' remained quite cool most of the morning, so TLE and I spent quite a bit of time tending to her plants.

Last summer we bought two pepper plants from a local nursery; a tabasco pepper and a habanero pepper.  We managed to get one pepper from the habanero plant, and 2 from the tabasco plant that summer.  So far this summer we haven't gotten any habaneros yet, but the tabasco plant currently has a dozen in progress....

The tabasco pepper plant....look at all the peppers!

The habanero pepper plant

....to be fair, both plants almost died last winter when we left them outside at TWW on a night when the temp dipped into the high 20's, and that freeze almost killed them.  They spent the winter in the greenhouse at TWW recuperating from our indiscretion, and are finally healthy again.  We're still hoping the habanero will provide some peppers this summer/fall.

Once again I did not leave our site the entire day.  After our plant work was done I spent a number of hours on the 'lido deck' reading, and napping.  I've read 2 books during this four day weekend so far, and looking forward to beginning a new one Wednesday before we begin our next four day work week.

On the topic of our next four day work week the weather forecast paints a pretty nice picture for us.  Beginning tomorrow, Thursday, the daily temps will be 83, 84, 84 and 86° F; nice!  Our next four day weekend shows forecast highs of 85, 82, 80 and 84° F; so 8 consecutive days of under 90° F!!  The extended forecast through August 26th shows only 2 days at 90° F.

In about 45 minutes TLE and I will head into Alturas for my monthly haircut, and weekly shopping foray, so I will close this latest post and bid you all adieu for another day.  Thanks for stopping by!

If I can just get started......

 8:00 am - Tuesday - August 11th - LPG&RVR - 68° F, humidity 14%, cloud cover 16%, wind 14 mph out of the west.....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 94° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were living in Seal Rock, OR.....

.....watching an amazing sunset.....my phone camera seemed to capture 2 suns setting.  Seal Rock is 10 miles south of Newport, OR and 5 miles north of Waldport on US-1.

This is one of those rare days when I sit down to my Microsoft Surface laptop to begin composing another of my daily posts that my mind goes blank, and I can think of nothing interesting, witty, or significant to say about the prior day, in this case, Monday.  What sometimes helps me get going is to type one sentence, and hope the ideas begin to take form as I am laying down that sentence.  It seems to be working....lol.

Neither TLE, nor I left Site #55 one time Monday.  All of our activities were confined to the 100' strip of land which we occupy each summer here at LPG&RVR.  A few days ago during our 4 day work week I discovered that someone had dropped off an EZ-UP popup canopy at the dumpsters in the Clubhouse parking log.  Usually, when people are getting rid of things such as this canopy it is because they got destroyed during those infrequent micro bursts wind events we experience.  And if that is indeed the case they usually put them into the dumpster, not sitting beside the dumpster.  After passing by it several times over 2 days I finally picked it up, and took it home intending to later open it up and see if it was salvageable.  Monday was that day.  Early in the morning before it got hot we decided to open it up and set it up.  To our utter amazement it was totally intact; in fact it was brand spanking new!  EZ-UPs are considered the Cadillacs of popups canopies and run just under $200 new.  As I write this morning we are totally baffled as to why it was discarded, but thankful we are the ones who claimed it.  I'm sure we'll find a use for it at the Arizona property this winter.

Once we had taken down the EZ-UP and stowed it inside the trailer I set a sprinkler watering some of TLE's plants, and then retired to the 'lido deck' to read, and nap for as many hours as I could before it got too hot.  It was after 3 pm when the fast approaching heat of the day chased me inside.  TLE had turned on the front AC a couple of hours earlier, so it was a delightful 73° F inside.  Those 44 year old AC's just keep on trucking!

Well, there you go, I put words to screen, and I'm now ready to publish my 5,334th missive....thanks for stopping by!

Random thoughts on a Monday morning.....

 7:49 am - Monday - August 10th - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 16%, cloud cover 3%, wind 13 mph out of the west by northwest.....smokey, hazy skies today with a forecast high of 97° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Leavenworth, WA.....

....during the Wuhan Flu fiasco having lunch at Icicle Brewing Company.  Our alfresco dining table was less than 10 feet from the entrance, but we had to wear face diapers to walk the 10 feet to our table, then, inexplicably, perhaps miraculously, we were able to remove our face diapers, and enjoy the force field that surrounded our table keeping the dreaded corona virus at bay....lol.

The  quietness that permeates the RV park when we awaken each morning is difficult to describe.  If you have spent your entire life living in urban sprawl you get used to the continuous, ever present background sounds which never abate, but only increases in volume as the day progresses.  In deep rural America, where we spend 99% of our lives now that relentless buzzing, humming sound does not exist.  You may hear coyotes in the distance at night, or a cowing mooing, or birds chirping, but that is it.  Once the day is in full swing the sounds you hear are what you would expect in a rural RV park dedicated to the game of golf.....golf carts, conversation of folks sitting drinking their morning coffee, and ultimately the sound of a two stroke motor attached to a string trimmer, and the sound of a four stroke motor propelling one of our Husqvarna riding mowers.  Occasionally you may hear the sounds of a semi diesel truck's jake brakes as they slow down through Likely on US-395, which is about a mile in the distance.

On our days off work, such as Sunday we rarely leave our site except to take our trash to the nearby dumpster.  TLE has time to tend to her flower beds dead heading the flowers, watering them, and pulling weeds.  I work on small projects around our site, and sometimes set an oscillating sprinkler to run on the grass area which separates our site from Claude's site.  I spend a lot of time relaxing on the 'lido deck' until the heat of the day encourages me to seek out the cooler environs inside the Newell.  It is a simple life.  On days off work I'm able to spend more time, such as right now, composing my daily missive just letting thoughts morph into a storyline, and then convert themselves into sentences and paragraphs on on my computer screen.  There is no hurry, no schedule, no outside influences.....just the two of us enjoying the life we have created for ourselves on our never ending nomadic journey.  

As I have often remarked over the years, Elaine and I feel completely disconnected from our former workaday lives in SoCal.  It feels as if this has always been our life.  Our 5th summer here at LPG&RVR is slowly winding down with less than 7 weeks remaining until the park closes for the winter.  In a few days the  10 days of heat we have endured will begin to dissipate, and we will begin the multi week slide into Fall weather.  We'll begin to run our electric heaters again each morning, and then in the evening.  We'll eventually turn on the basement heater as overnight temps drop into the 30's.  We'll begin to feel that itch to change our view, and then we will do just that.

I was able to enjoy the solitude of our 'lido deck' Sunday until almost 2 pm before it was time to reposition myself into the cool confines of the Newell for the balance of the day.  I watched the latest PGA event, read, napped, smoked a cigar all the while delighting in the absence of schedules, duties, or even interaction with anyone other than my wife.  Whether working, or or relaxing on the 'lido deck' it is a good life; a life I dreamed of living from my earliest childhood days of cognition.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my often random musings.  I enjoy writing, and the fact that a few thousand people a day enjoy reading what I have written is just the icing on the cake.  Thank you so much for stopping by!

Who is Rich Hamel????

 8:48 am - Sunday - August 9th - LPG&RVR - 74° F, humidity 12%, cloud cover 1%, wind 15 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 98° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe, CA......

at Sonney's BBQ Shack Bar having the best BLT in the lower 48.....ONE POUND of bacon!  I've never seen this anywhere else, and I have eaten BLT's from west to east, north to south, and everywhere else in between.

Another 99° F day is now in the books....the fourth 99° F+  day in succession.  Saturday was the day of the annual Rich Hamel Memorial Golf Tournament.  For those of you who may not be in the 'know', Rich Hamel was a cattleman in the Pitt River Valley for many, many years.  In the early 90's he sold his cattle, and with the help of his foreman, and ranch hands built an 18 hole golf course over the course of 10, or 11 years, and the current 50 site RV park.  Neither Rich, nor his employees had ever played golf, and yet they built this amazing 7,000 yard course by themselves utilizing the most ancient equipment you can imagine.  This annual memorial tournament is to acknowledge the amazing vision, and perseverance of this man, which resulted in Likely Place Golf and RV Resort. It is not possible for me to even imagine the back breaking work put in by a few individuals to build this amazing facility which we now call 'home' each summer.

TLE and I were on the job by 7:30 am, and within minutes I was staging 22 golf carts for the participants of the annual tournament.  DeWayne estimated we would need 17 carts, and in the end we rented 18 of the 22 staged carts.  Once that was done it was just a matter of waiting for the golfers to arrive, pay their tournament fees, and then tee off around 9 am.  By 9 am it was already too hot; any shred of morning coolness had disappeared by 8:30 am.  Once the golfers headed out to their assigned starting holes I put away the leftover carts, and washed the 5 carts which had been returned late Friday afternoon.

As is usually the case I helped Claude with the marshaling making numerous trips around the course before it was time to give TLE her 90 minute lunch break.  On hot days such as Saturday I always look forward to that 90 minute interlude where I can sit in the cool confines of the Clubhouse office with a small fan pushing air at me for an hour and a half.  The problem is when I go back outside the temp is usually in the mid to high 90's by then and it feels like walking into a blast furnace.  Since there was the tournament in progress no one came into the Clubhouse to sign up for golf, and the phone only rang twice, so it was a quiet 90 minutes.

By the time I headed back outside 9 of the 18 rented carts had been returned, and Claude had already begun to wash them; what a great buddy!  By the time 3:30 pm rolled around all 18 carts had been returned.  I gratefully headed for home, and a much anticipated long, cool shower.  Interesting side note: Over the course of the day our fresh water hose, through which the city water makes ingress into our Newell, heats up.  When I turn on the shower I turn the mixer knob to 100% cold water, and what I get for about 10 minutes is 103° F water.  By the time I'm done rinsing the soap off my body, and shampoo out of my hair it settles in at the 101° F temperature I've programmed into the tankless water heater.  I then adjust the mixer to get the water temp down to body temperature, which feels cool to me.

Once I finished with the long, cool shower I settled into an hour long nap in my recliner in the 74° F interior temperature in the salon.  On hot days like Saturday I look forward to that moment all day long.  Now, as I type, we are in the early hours of our four day weekend.  The temperatures will begin to decline beginning Sunday to 90° F by Wednesday, and on our first day back to work (Thursday) it will be 85° F.....thank you Jesus!!!

I am now finished recording the events from Saturday, and it is around 9:30 am Sunday morning.....I look at the temperatures being displayed on our temp display.....

.....the first temp is the trailer interior, the second is the 'lido deck' temp, the third is the water bay temp, and the inside temp is 73° F.....time to head outside to the 'lido deck' and watch a little golf.

Thanks for stopping by!