Thursday, July 24, 2025

The nature of things.....

 7:07 am - Thursday - July 24th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 33%, wind 2 mph out of the north....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were relaxing in our RV site at Yellowstone National Park.....



.....the RV park at which we were staying was right on the Yellowstone River in Gardiner, MT.

We have a 'Nature Trail' here at LPG&RVR, and it is actually quite a nice trail which is hiked by many people every summer.  There are 9 'points of interest' along the trail, and every couple of years the number on posts at each of the sites must be refreshed.  I did it back in 2023, and it was time to do it again.  The trail is a little over a mile long, and has a number of places with benches where you can sit and enjoy nature....

One of the numerous ponds on the property.  This one is near the 12th hole

Jose's Point (#7) with a view of the 9th and 18th fairways

.....after staging 10 carts I drove over to the beginning of the 'Nature Trail', parked and began the 1+ mile loop hike to replace the numbers (9 in all).  I had forgotten how scenic the trail is, and really enjoyed spending the better part of an hour walking from one point of interest to the next.

Bob, our cart mechanic, has been working for the past three days to revive Club Car Villager #15, which has been in pieces for about a year.  It is a four seater that is normally used by workampers.  A little over a year ago the primary clutch failed, and Bob spent the rest of the summer trying to remove it as it was stuck fast to the drive shaft.  Whoever installed the original clutch did not employ 'anti-seize', which made its removal very challenging.  At any rate, Bob finally had to remove the engine from the cart to more easily access the clutch, and was finally able to remove the faulty clutch shortly after we left last October.  The new parts finally arrived a few weeks ago, so Bob was able to reassemble it.  When I returned from my 'Nature Trail' hike he had just put the wheels back on the cart to take a test drive.  The test drive was successful, and after 14 months it is now back in service....



......and with that repair there are only 2, or 3 golf carts left to get back into service.

After finishing the 'Nature Trail' work I hopped on the 2 bag Husqvarna and headed down to mow the very large grass area which surrounds the 'Night Office'.  I had done all the string trimming a few days ago in preparation for mowing it Wednesday.  From there I headed to the 10 back-in sites, which I had previously trimmed, to mow them, then over to the grass area next to the restrooms, and then finished off by mowing 5 pull through sites.  By the time I finished it was time for TLE's lunch break.

The afternoon went quickly, and soon it was 3:30 pm, and time to begin another 'four day weekend'.  I picked up TLE shortly after 5 pm, and another 8 day cycle was in the books.  Our next 8 day cycle will take us to August 4th.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

3 down, one to go....

 5:37 am - Wednesday - July 23rd - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 35%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were overnighting in the parking lot of the Visitors Center.....


....parking lot at the St. Mary's entrance to Glacier National Park, which was another 'bucket list' place to visit.

We actually rented 12 golf carts Tuesday, most of them before lunch time.  It was, compared to 10 days ago, a coolish kind of day, and really a great day for golfing, but with the park about 50% occupied right now, that is about the best for which we could hope.  Once I had enough golf carts staged to handle the expected demand I began washing the three 5 gallon buckets of balls I had gleaned from the driving range Monday finishing that task within an hour.

As you recall I began string trimming around the back-in sites (11-20) Monday, so I headed back there to finish the final 6 sites, then up the hill to the residential area to trim around those sites before mowing them.  Once that was done I retrieved the 2 bag Husqvarna to mow them.  By the time I was done mowing it was time for TLE's lunch break.  Once she returns from lunch each day I have just 2.5 hours left in my work day, which always goes by quickly.

I haven't been out on the golf course since the last time I mowed around my tee boxes, and that was almost 8 days ago, so what better way to wind down the last 2.5 hours than spending 90 minutes doing just that.  As I was returning to the Clubhouse on the cart path from hole 18 I decided to mow site #20, which I had just trimmed hours earlier, then up the hill to mow the employee sites, and then for good measure I mowed around the large gazebo, which had just been vacated.  By the time I was back at the Clubhouse it was 3 pm, and I had 9 golf carts needing their daily spa treatment.  By the time I finished washing and stowing them it was 3:30 pm, and time to head for home with just one more day left in our four day  work cycle.

I spent the balance of the afternoon watching the end of Stage 16 of Le Tour, which I had begun watching that morning before heading to work.  Once again Tadej Pogacar staved off the multiple attempts by Jonas Vinegaard, and his cycling team (Jumbo Visma), to dispossess him of the yellow jersey, but in the end Tadej added two more seconds to his already substantial lead ending the Stage with a 4 minute 15 second overall lead.

Summer time is quickly slipping into the rearview mirror, and within a week we will be entering the month of August with just 60 days remaining before we head back south to Northern Arizona and 'The Wilson Wilderness'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Local weather 1, and weather guessers zero....

 5:35 am - Tuesday - July 22nd - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 44%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were enjoying another Seal Rock, OR sunset....


.....all of these sunset pictures I have posted over the last few years were taken from our site at Seal Rocks RV Cove (10 miles south of Newport).  One of the most amazing 'IT FACTOR' places at which we have worked!

Monday was almost as unbusy as Sunday was, mostly because there was a forecast of rain for a few hours (56%) that morning.  I initially staged 5 Yamaha gassers, but by noon time when it became apparent it wasn't going to rain, we rented another 4, or 5.  Nevertheless, it was a slow day golf wise, but not work wise.  I spent a good portion of the morning using a Stihl string trimmer down at the 'Night Office', along the back-in site row (RV sites 11-20, and tent sites 1-3), around the restroom, around a few of the pull through sites 1-10, and around the small gazebo before hanging it up to begin clearing balls from the driving range.

There were more balls than I was expecting on the driving range, but not the most I have ever seen.  In all I collected 15 gallons of balls (3 five gallon buckets).  I was only able to clear the far side of the driving range (on the far side of the creek which divides it) before lunch, so I had to finish quickly after TLE's lunch break as Dewayne was ready to mow around 1:30 pm.  I finished just before 1:30 pm, and DeWayne followed shortly thereafter.

After lunch I did a lot mowing with the 2 bag Husqvarna which included the small gazebo, the parking lot grass, the grass area by site #30, the group fire pit grass, and numerous pull through sites before it was time to clean the first 5 Yamaha gassers we rented early in the morning.  The ones we rented after 12 pm did not return until after 5 pm.  I was off work by 3:30 pm.  

For the first time in a few weeks no air conditioning was necessary inside the Newell, and it looks as if Tuesday will be more of the same.  In fact, it will not get back into the 90's until Thursday, but it will drop back into the low 80's within a couple of days, so that is a nice development weatherwise.  TLE was home by 5:20 pm, and another LPG&RVR work day was in the books.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, July 21, 2025

Almost predictable.....

 5:37 am - Monday - July 21st - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 44%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast......cloudy today with a chance of rain this morning, and a forecast high of 80° F....YAY for my team!  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were having lunch at Tamarack Brewing Company in Lakeside, MT.....




.....on the shores of Flathead Lake about half way between Kalispell and Poulson, MT.  Still, to this day, the best micro brewery in our almost 14 years of travels.....amazing brews, and food, and this was during the Wuhan Flu scare.

Sunday we were back at work, but it was also the 4th and final round of 'The Open', so I didn't stray too far from the Clubhouse TV during the morning.  Scottie Scheffler began the day with a four stroke lead, which he increased to 7 strokes at one point on the front 9.  By the 72nd hole he still had that original 4 stroke lead.  That's his fourth Major, and 20th win in the past three years.  Almost Tigeresque, no?  It's almost becoming predictable that if he is in contention, the winner, more often than not, will be Scottie Scheffler.

While Sunday seemed kind of slow, we actually rented 20 golf carts, and hosted over 50 golfers.  Most of the golfers were finished by 2:30 pm, and by 5 pm all the carts had been returned.  I'll have two carts to clean first thing Monday, so not too bad.

I spent the better part of the day setting and moving sprinklers at the Clubhouse between the deck and the putting green, the large grass area in the parking lot, and down at the 'Night Office'.  In between runs to the 'Night Office' I cleaned and stowed golf carts as they returned.  The temp only got to 88, or 89° F, to which I am now acclimated.  I really don't do too bad when it gets a little over 90, but I will never get used to those triple digit days....NEVER!

I was home by 3:30 pm, took a shower, then settled in to watch the 15th Stage of Le Tour. At the end of the day Tadej was still in first place by four minutes and 13 seconds, and still wears the yellow jersey, so nothing changed in that regard. What has changed is that including Stage 15, there are only 7 of the 21 Stages left in Le Tour this year, and by this coming Sunday it will in the history books, and we will be less than a week from August 1st.  Where has the summer gone?  

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Putt, putt....

 5:43 am - Sunday - July 20th - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 32%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2014 I was mountain biking at Mammoth Mountain in California....




.....with good friends from my workaday life.  Hadn't seen them for over two years.

Saturday we watched 'The Open' live as all the players we wished to watch were teeing off around the time we got up at 7 am.  Saturday is often called 'moving day' in the golf world, and that was what it was for Scottie Scheffler.  He moved from a one stroke lead at the end of the second round to a 4 stroke lead at the end of the 3rd round, and is now 14 under par.  I spent part of the morning on the 'lido deck' watching.....



....the 3rd round ended around 11:45 am so TLE ad I drove over to the Clubhouse to do a little putting in advance of the weekly putting contest at 4 pm.  We practiced for about 45 minutes before heading back to the cool confines of the Newell where I began to watch the 14th Stage of Le Tour.  By the time 4 pm rolled around the 14th Stage was only about 1/2 over so we paused it, and headed to the putting contest.

Saturday was one of those days when my putting was as good as it has been.  I actually made it 7 rounds, and was 2 rounds from being 'in the money'.  I made one mistake on the first hole of the 7th round, and lost to my opponent 1-0.  Overall, I made just two mistakes in 7 rounds and the last one cost me a chance to putt for first place.  I ended up in fourth place out of 21 putters.  I had three hole in ones, and just missed three others by inches, so I was really in the zone; oh well.

We watched the balance of the 14th Stage of Le Tour which was another mountain stage in the Pyrenees.  At the end of the day Tadej Pogacar finished second in Stage 14, but extended his lead over overall second place, Jonas Vinegaard, another 6 seconds for a total deficit of 4 minutes and 13 seconds now.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Sports day #2.....

 7:27 am - Saturday - July 19th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, humidity 23%, wind ZERO mph out of the east by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 91° F. On this date in 2013 TLE and I visited Lake Louise (Alberta, Canada) for the first time.....



.....one of those 'bucket list' things.  It was very cold and stormy that day!

Overnight we had set the DVR to record the 2nd round of 'The Open' which began televised coverage at 1 am Pacific DST, and just like the 1st round we watched the 2nd round in its entirety, which amounted to 9+ hours of watching pleasure.  Would have been much longer without being able to fast forward through the commercials.  As expected Scottie Scheffler played well, and by the end of the day he had posted a round of 64, or 7 under par.  Added to his three under par on the first round, he finished at 10 under par, and in first place by 1 stroke.

With that I took a break and drove over to the Clubhouse to practice putting for about 40 minutes.  I took last Saturday off from the weekly putting contest, and hadn't putted in almost two weeks, but I putted well, so we'll see how I do this Saturday.

Next up was the 13th Stage of Le Tour, which was a 7 mile uphill time trial, which is the shortest distance time trial ever in Le Tour de France.  That being said the uphill climb was extremely steep, and it took the initial riders almost 30 minutes to cover the distance.  Once again Tadej Pogacar, who was the last to ride since he is in first place, covered the climb in just over 22 minutes winning the 13th stage by 36 seconds over Jonas Vinegaard, who is now in second place, but over 4 minutes behind Tadej.  Just like Stage 12, no one saw Tadej winning the 13th stage, let alone adding 36 more seconds to his already substantial lead.  The 3rd place rider is over 7 minutes behind.

Needless to day I didn't do anything else Friday.  Even though the high temp got to 90° F, it did not feel that hot, and by 7 pm we had turned off the A/C.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, July 18, 2025

A sports day.....

 7:16 am - Friday - July 18th - LPG&RVR - 62° F, humidity 27%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at the Asticou Inn in Northwest Harbor, Maine....not far from Bar Harbor....



.....one of our favorite dining spots while we were working in Southwest Harbor, Maine that summer.

Thursday, the second day of our four day weekend, was Round 1 of the 153rd edition of 'The Open' being held at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland this year.  Television coverage began around 1 am Pacific DST, so we were, obviously, not up at that early hour, but we did begin watching around 7 am.  We continued watching until after 11 am when we decided we needed to make a run into town to do our weekly shopping, and if we're going that far we might as well continue on to Canby to visit Coffee Adventure where they also sell pasture raised chicken eggs (they are washed, however), and freshly baked bread.  

Since it was noon time when we arrived at Coffee Adventure we decided to get a couple of their sandwiches (beef and Swiss for moi, and bacon, egg & Swiss cheese cheese bagel for TLE).  Both were heated up in a Panini Press....yum.  I had a Mocha Frappuccino to chase my sandwich, and TLE iced coffee.  The entire one way drive to Canby from LPG&RVR is about 38 miles, but it is well worth the drive.  We lingered there dining alfresco for about an hour before heading back to Alturas where we stopped at Holiday Market, and Dollar General  to complete the rest of our shopping before finishing our return drive to LPG&RVR around 2 pm.

Since we were recording 'The Open' we were able to pick up where we left off when we got home, and finish watching Round 1 before beginning to watch the replay of the 12th Stage of Le Tour.  This was a 180 kilometer stage with  several long climbs in the Pyrenees, the final climb being around 8 miles with a hilltop finish.  Beginning Stage 12 Tadej Pogacar was around 27 seconds behind the Yellow Jersey.  He (Tadej) was coming off a high speed crash in Stage 11, and everyone wondered how he would fare in Stage 12, but those doubts were completely obliterated when Tadej  attacked (broke away) at the beginning of the final climb, which was completely unexpected.  No one attacks at the beginning of an 8 mile climb.  The Yellow Jersey wearer ended up over 10 minutes behind Tadej, and his closest rival, Jonas Vinegaard, was now 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind, losing over 2 minutes on that final climb.

Thursday was a great sports day, and we did not finish watching the replay of Stage 12 of Le Tour until almost 7 pm. Aren't DVRs amazing?

Thanks for stopping by!