Out with the damaged, and in with the new.....

 8:05 am - Sunday - July 26th - LPG&RVR - 68° F, humidity 17%, cloud cover 0%, wind 15 mph out of the west by southwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

TLE at the entrance to the trail

One of the beaver ponds

.....hiking the Beaver Ponds Trail near Mammoth Hot Springs.  We hiked a lot that summer on our days off work, and ended up doing over 100 miles.

To begin day two of our 4 day weekend TLE and I took down our dining canopy.  Why?  Well we had a micro burst wind come through the RV park which ripped an awning off a class A motorhome, and destroyed a couple of dining canopies, ours being one of them.  Up until that point, over two summers, the domed dining canopy had handled the occasional winds we get here at LPG&RVR, but not this one.  So, we dismantled the damaged dining canopy to clear the way for the new one we received via FedEx a few days ago......

.....by the time we had folded up the damaged dining canopy and tossed it into the dumpster it was getting warm, and I really intended to head indoors, but remembered that TLE had mentioned she saw a broken sprinkler on our lawn, so I went to inspect that.  I'm not sure how it got broken, but there it was laying on the grass.  I headed over to the 'Caddy Shack' where we have a supply of new, unused sprinklers to pick out new one to replace the broken one and had it installed within 25 minutes.....

New sprinkler installed

....and then I headed indoors for the balance of the day.  

During the day we watched the entirety of Stage 20 of Le Tour de France which set the 'stage' for the 21st and final Stage of this year's tour.  

Of course, there is always the weekly putting contest held at 4 pm each Saturday.  TLE and I headed over just before 4 pm....

.....to set up our chairs, and get ready.  Saturday was not my day, in fact, it was far, far from my best day.  I lost my first match, but due to the scarcity of putters this weekend, we had double elimination, so I got a second chance, and won that match in a one hole 'putt off' (one putt by each player, closest to the hole) with a very good putt.  I was doing well in my third match, putting my ball close to each of the first 2 holes, and was up 1-0 beginning the 3rd hole when I miss hit my first put, only getting half way to the hole.  I barely missed my second putt, and fell into to a 1-1 tie.  On the 4th hole I made a good putt, but missed my second putt, inexplicably....it was only a couple of feet, but it stopped right on the lip of the cup, and stayed there.  I was sure it was going to fall into the hole, but it did not, so I lost that hole to go down 2-1, and with a tie on the 5th and final hole I was eliminated....doh!  All that being said, we had a great time joking, and laughing with our fellow contestants.

We were home by 5:30 pm at which time TLE served dinner consisting of a bowl of Ceviche (cold) accompanied by chips and salsa.  It was the perfect dinner for a hot day.  Her Ceviche, by the way, was her best effort to date....she really nailed it.  As I often remark, it was 'restaurant quality'.

Thanks for stopping by!

There's an ECHO.....

 9:31 am - Saturday - July 25th - LPG&RVR - 78° F, humidity 11%, cloud cover 7%, wind 15 mph out of the west by southwest......mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were visiting Glacier National Park....

.....we were having lunch at East Glacier Village Cafe where I had my first ever bottle of Moose Drool.  Whenever I find it I buy a six pack to this day.

I got a call from 'Full Throttle' in Alturas on Thursday that the string trimmer I left with them a month ago had been repaired.  I'm not sure if I wrote about receiving the used ECHO string trimmer as a gift from good friend Bob Longacre.  Someone had given it to him, and he had not been able to fix it so he gave it to me.  I fiddled around with it a few times but could not get it to run, so I took it to 'Full Throttle' to see what wrong with it.  When I gave it to Eric to check over he said the ECHO's are very expensive, commercial grade string trimmers costing just under $400 new.....wow!  At any rate, I figured if it cost under $200 to fix, it was a good deal.....

......ultimately, the issue was the carburetor.  It must have sat for a long time unused and the Ethanol in the gasoline has crystalized in the carburetor, making it useless, and unrepairable.  The cost of a new carburetor was $70, so I authorized him to make the repair.  Total cost was $135...killer deal!  On top of all that he said the ECHO had been lightly used, and was virtually new....even better.   It will come in very handy this winter at 'The Wilson Wilderness'.

Anyway, 'Full Throttle' is not open on the weekends, and only open on Friday until 12 pm, so we needed to go into town earlier than normal to get our shopping done, and pickup our now repaired ECHO string trimmer.  At any rate, I deferred the writing of my daily blog until after we returned from Alturas.  As you know from reading that just published missive about Thursday that I forgot to write the post when I returned.

Upon arriving in town we made a quick stop at ACE Hardware to buy a new toilet for new Dometic toilet.  One of the hinges decided to break Thursday night, and while it was still useable, needed replacing.  How handy that we were going into town Friday.  If it had broken after we returned, I'm not sure I would have made another round trip into Alturas until next week. We made our usual stops at Dollar General, Grocery Outlet, and Holiday Market to resupply our fridge and pantry before heading over to 'Full Throttle' around 10 am to pickup the ECHO string trimmer.  On the way out of town I picked up a Mocha Frappuccino at Java Doctor, and then a quick stop at the fuel station to top off the VW tank before arriving back home around 11 am.

While TLE put away the groceries I removed the old toilet seat, and installed the new one which features the 'slow close' option.  Then turned on the TV to watch the replay of the 19th stage of Le Tour de France, and what an exciting stage featuring a long climb at the end to the finish line.  Over the past few days Tadej Pogačar's teammates had been dropping like flies to some sickness, and had barely been able to finish the previous two stages within the time limit (usually 40 minutes after the Stage winner crosses the finish line).  By Friday those who had not abandoned the Tour were feeling better, and able to help him.  On the final climb to the finish line on Friday Tadej was behind the leaders by over 3 minutes with 5 miles to go, when he began his attack.  He was able to not only catch them, but passed them winning the stage easily.  One of the most amazing things I have seen on the Tour.  He now has a 7 minute lead over the second place rider, and one of his teammates, Isaac Del Toro, is in third place, with a chance to finish on the podium in Paris on Sunday.

The temp did hit 96° F around 4 pm, but then it began to cool as it always does.  By 8 pm it was down to 78° F, and by this morning (Saturday) it was down to 56° F!

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Thursday was our 'Friday'....

 8:21 am - Saturday - July 25th - LPG&RVR - 70° F, humidity 12%, cloud cover 6%, wind 15 mph out of the west by southwest.....mostly clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 92° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

......doing a 9 mile hike to Undine Falls.

I owe you a post from Thursday, and I apologize.  TLE wanted to go shopping in town Friday morning, when I would normally have composed my latest offering, so I decided I would wait until we got home.  Well, you know how that sometimes goes.  I got home, and turned on Stage 19 of Le Tour, and totally forgot.  So here is what happened on Thursday, the final day of our four day work week this time around.

The forecast high for Thursday (our Friday) was 94° F, the hottest day this week so far, but that coolness in the morning air had returned, thank you very much, so I knew the heat would not really arrive until late morning.  When I arrived at the Clubhouse around 7:30 am with TLE I had a few carts left over from Wednesday, and since we had no golfers scheduled to tee off until 10 am I washed them first, put them away, then staged 10 of the Yamaha gassers to start the day. 

Once that was done I headed down to the gravel area, the home of sites 1-20, to remove a bunch of Russian Thistle that was beginning to become an issue.  Last year it took me parts of three days to remove it, but since I was so thorough last year it only took me around 30 minutes this time around. 

By the time I finished weeding I was time to close the driving range, and harvest the range balls so DeWayne could mow in the afternoon.  I wasn't expecting there to be many range balls out there, and for once I was right.  In all I garnered just over 5 gallons of balls, and was done in about an hour.  

With an hour left before TLE's lunch break I retrieved one of our string trimmers from the 'Caddy Shack' to trim around the three residential lawns up the hill, which I had mowed earlier in the week, then around the trees in the parking lot grass, which I had also mowed earlier.  That took me just about an hour, and then it was time for TLE's lunch break.  The 90 minutes passed quickly with only a couple of phone calls, and one couple going out to play a second round of 18 holes.

I was able to wash and dry the range balls I had collected that morning in about 30 minutes then began to wash, and stow the carts that had been returned.  In all we rented 15, or 16 carts, and I was able to get 8 of them washed and put away by 3:30 pm.  While TLE still had 90 minutes to go before her 4 day work week was complete, I was able to go home and begin my 4 day weekend, and get out of the heat.  TLE was home by 5:10 pm, and was able to begin her four day weekend, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

The morning coolness is gone!

 5:53 am - Thursday - July 23rd - LPG&RVR - 52° F, humidity 24%, cloud cover 1%, wind 12 mph out of the west by southwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 94° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Glacier National Park.....

....touring around in our topless 2002 Ford Thunderbird.

When you walk outside for the first time in the morning around 7:30 am and it is close to 70° F already it is kind of disheartening, because you know it will be a hot one.  Until Wednesday the morning air still had that lovely coolness, and even though you knew it would get hot much later, you knew for now it would a lovely, coolish morning.

After examining the tee times sheet for Wednesday TLE and I estimated we would need 12-15 carts, so I staged 17 initially, and that was more than enough....we rented exactly 15 carts.  I haven't blown the dust out of the engine bays in each cart for a long time, so I decided to spend the morning topping off the fuel tanks in each before using compressed air to clear out the dust that tends to accumulate over time.  When things are not too busy there is time to take care of these types of tasks which tend to go by the wayside when we're putting out over 20 carts a day.  By 12 pm I had finished all but 7 carts in the Cart Shack.

I made one round of the golf course to check on the sand bunkers, and found them all to be untouched.....

Looking east down the 18th fairway toward Eagle Mountain

The shop is also visible from the 18th fairway....where the golf course mowers, and other heavy equipment are kept

.....I headed back to the Clubhouse to give TLE her 90 minute lunch break during which I answered a few phone calls, and collected golf fees from a few intrepid golfers willing to brave the afternoon heat.

I was back outside by 1:30 pm fueling and blowing dust out of the engine bays on the final carts, then transitioned to washing/stowing those carts which had been returned.  By 3:30 pm I had washed/stowed 8 of the 15 carts, so I'll have a few to do first thing Thursday.  By the time I got home it was close to the high of the day, and I was glad I was going to spend the next 90 minutes in air conditioning.  I took a hot shower, took a nap, and watched the end of Stage 16 of Le Tour de France before heading back to the Clubhouse to retrieve TLE.  One more day left in our four day work week!

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Busier than I expected.....

 5:59 am - Wednesday - July 22nd - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 46%, cloud cover 17%, wind 13 mph out of the southwest....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Lakeside, MT.....

....having lunch at Tamarack Brewing Company right on the banks of Stoner Creek (aptly named).  We gave this micro brewery 5 stars, and that is the only 5 star review we have given in 15 years on the road.  I would go back to Montana just to have lunch there again.....WOW!

Tuesday was kind of a reprieve temperature wise with the forecast high being only 85° F.  We had heavy cloud cover all day long, which I am sure was the primary reason for temporary dip out of the 90's forecast for most of the next week.  On my way down to the 'Night Office' to flip the sign I noticed the yellow tape guarding the new grass had been taken down, and now there is no trace of the former single wide mobile home that was there for years....

.....initially it appeared Tuesday would be a slow day golf wise at LPG&RVR, but as the morning progressed more and more people arrived to play golf.  Ultimately, we rented 21 golf carts, so another 20+ golf cart day, which is not bad in late July.

Over the course of the morning it drizzled on and off, and while I was mowing a large field just to the south of the back in sites (11-20) which we will be using to store customers RV's.  We've had one trailer out there for several weeks, and over that time the weeds, and grass had grown to 2, or 3 feet high so it was time to mow and trim that area so we can begin to move more RV's there....

.....it drizzled the entire time I was mowing and trimming, but it was in the mid 80's, so it was really kind of pleasant.  I also mowed the grass around the large gazebo, which is empty right now.  After that I retrieved a string trimmer from the 'Caddy Shack' to trim around the trailer in the field, then continued trimming all 10 back-in sites along the meadow (11-20).  By the time I finished it was time to give TLE her lunch break.

People continued to arrive to play golf during her 90 minute lunch break, so I stayed pretty busy the entire time.  By 1:30 pm there were only 3 golf carts in the 'Cart Return' area, and by 3:30 pm only 5 had been returned, so I will have a lot of carts to wash first thing Wednesday.  I was home by 3:30 pm taking a nice shower, then a nap before returning to the Clubhouse to fetch TLE at 5 pm.  Most of the rented carts had been returned by then.

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Re-acclimated.....

 5:47 am - Tuesday - July 21st - LPG&RVR - 65° F, humidity 44%, cloud cover 77%, wind 6 mph out of the west by northwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F. On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Cardston, Alberta....

....Cardston is right on the USA/Canada border.  We had been in Alberta since July 4th, and this was our last stop before reentering the USA at the east entrance to Glacier National Park.  I was composing my daily blog entry using the WIFI at the campground office.

After a four day weekend I am usually ready to go back to work, but this long weekend was only three days in duration, and I could have used another day off work, but it is what it is, right?  There were 6 golf carts awaiting their spa treatment when I arrived at the Cart Return area at 7:30 am.  There were no reserved tee times until 8:30 am, so I didn't need to rush around getting carts washed, and staged.  Nevertheless, by 8:10 am I had 10 carts staged, and all six dirty carts washed, and ready for duty.

Since Claude (course marshal) is off Monday to Wednesday each week, I made a round of the course to check on the status of he 4 sand bunkers, finding them all in good condition.  The geese have been gone for quite a few weeks now, so no goose leavings to worry about.  I emptied the trash can at the Hole #5 restroom, then continued on my way, stopping briefly at the 15th hole to take a few pictures....

.....I was back at the Clubhouse just in time to stage another 6 carts.  In all I think we rented 21 carts, which is not bad for a Monday in late July.  The park is about 70% empty right now, so we are getting a lot of offsite golfers (people who are not staying onsite).

Around 9:30 am I began clearing the range balls off the driving range.  Based on the almost full condition of the 55 gallon barrel where we store the range balls I thought I would only be picking 2-3 five gallon cans, but ended up with four 5 gallon cans of balls. It took me just shy of 2 hours to harvest those four cans.  I had them all soaking just before 12 pm, and then headed indoors to give TLE her lunch break.  I think I sent out 10 people to play golf, and stayed pretty busy the entire 90 minutes.

Once back outside I found 7 carts waiting to be cleaned, and stowed, but I turned my focus to the range balls, and had them all washed within 40 minutes.  By that time I had 11 carts to wash and stow, and had them all put away by 3:30 pm.  I'll have 11 carts to wash first thing Tuesday.  I am finding that my body has once again acclimated to temps in the 90's, so I tolerated the 93° F temps Monday better than I had expected.

The past few days TLE had noticed the refrigerator portion of our Dometic fridge/freezer was running over 40° F, which is a little high, but typical for absorption refrigerators during the summer.  We prefer the temp to be under 40°, so I turned on the chimney vent fan (pushes the hot air behind the fridge upward, and and out the top of the 'chimney') when we left for work, and by the time I returned at 3:30 pm it was down to 35° F....

....I installed the vent fan way back in 2012 during the first month of our fulltime travels, and it works quite well!  TLE was home by 5:10 pm, and with that day one of our four day work week was in the books.

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The trifecta.....

 5:55 am - Monday - July 20th - LPG&RVR - 65° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 3%, wind 13 mph out of the southwest....partly cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2014 I was at Mammoth Mountain.....

....riding my mountain bike with friends from SoCal.

Sunday was the sporting trifecta of the summer....final round of 'The Open', Stage #15 of Le Tour de France, and the FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and Spain.  Since 'The Open' is played in Britain, which is 8 hours ahead of west coast time, the final round began around 3:30 am our time, so when I woke up around 7 am I just turned on the bedroom TV and watched until TLE said it was time to get up and make coffee.  Of course, she is always right, so I did.....got up that is....TLE makes the coffee.

The final round of 'The Open' had 6, or 7 players (or more) within a couple of strokes of the lead so it was up for grabs.  As it turned out Ryan Fox (New Zealand) sank a birdie put on the 18th and final hole to go 10 under and win by one stroke over Cam Young who held the 'Clubhouse lead' at 9 under par for almost 3 hours.  

We then tuned into Stage 15 of Le Tour and watched until 12 pm when the FIFA World Cup final began.  The score remained 0-0 at the end of regulation time (90 minutes) so they went to two 15 minute overtime periods, played in full.  At the end of the first 15 minute period it was still 0-0, then Spain, who was clearly the better team on this day, scored a goal 50 seconds into the 2nd overtime period, holding on to win 1-0 over Argentina.  It was a messy, foul plagued game which even saw a red card given late in regulation to a star player for Argentina.  The foul was 100% a 'serious foul play' offense, and 100% deserved a red card, so no controversy there.  At any rate Argentina had to play one man short the rest of the game.  I think they would have lost anyway as Spain controlled the game most of the time, and played most of the game in Argentina's defensive third.  The Argentinian goalie saved a record 11, or 12 shots directly on goal to set a record.  Without him they would have lost 6, or 7 to nothing.

Then is was back to watch the final 60 miles of Stage 15 of Le Tour during which the 2nd place rider, Jonas Vingegaard, had a very bad crash just before the final climb of the day and had to abandon the race due to serious injuries.  This will be the first time in 7 years that he will not be on the podium in Paris as either the first, or second place finisher.  It has be he and Tadej in first, or second the past 6 years.  Tadej went on to finish second in Stage 15, and now holds a 5 minute lead over the new second place rider, Remco Evenepoel of Belgium, who won the Stage.

It was a very busy day in the sports world, and how best to end such a day?  Well, we had two filet mignons in the fridge, so I lit the Sea-B-Que around 5 pm and grilled them to a perfect medium rare.  TLE added a side salad, and our day was complete.

Thanks for stopping by!