The weather window.....

 8:14 am - Sunday - April 27th - Honey Lake Rest Area, CA - 39° F, humidity 83%, wind 9 mph out of the west by southwest.....heavy cloud cover, and rain.....forecast high for today is 55° F.  The view this morning.....

Honey Lake in the distance....rain in the foreground

The forecast for Saturday was rain/snow most of the morning, and that held true for the most part.  We really wanted to drive the next leg of our return journey to Likely, but not in the snow, or rain, so we were hoping for a 'weather window' to begin the drive north.  Our drop dead time for not leaving the Elks Lodge Saturday was around 4 pm as it is 121 miles to the Honey Lake Rest Area where we planned to overnight, and then finish the final 85 miles to LPG&RVR Sunday morning. We wanted to arrive well before sundown....never a good idea to arrive anywhere in a 40,000 pound, 62' long RV/trailer after dark.  This is what it looked like around 9 am Saturday morning....

.....the weather guessers figured the rain/snow would stop around 3 pm, but the snow turned to rain, and then by 11:30 am it had stopped raining....mostly.  To prepare for an imminent departure I stowed the Starlink dish, then disconnected, and rolled up our fresh water hose leaving just the electrical to disconnect.  A little after 12 pm it stopped raining altogether, so I turned over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92, disconnected from the electrical, and stowed the entrance step for the Newell.  We decided not to insert the VW until we arrived at the local Maverick fuel station, about 5 miles away.

We arrived at the Maverick within 15 minutes, and after I had turned on the diesel pump, went to help TLE insert the Beetle.  From beginning to end it took less than 25 minutes to top off our diesel tank for the summer (took 89 gallons at $3.17/gallon), and stow the Beetle.  Once that was done we were our our way north again on US-395.  We had to run the Newell windshield wipers for the first time in several years as we slowly edged our way northward, but it never rained hard, and never for very long.  

The Garmin Truckers GPS indicated our ETA (estimated time of arrival) at Honey Lake was 3:28 pm, and that is exactly when we arrived.  What little rain there was ended about 40 miles before the Rest Area, and when we arrived it was virtually empty.....just one other Class A motorhome there.  The best time to overnight in a Rest Area (where allowed) is on the weekend, because there aren't as many semis on the road then, meaning the odds are you won't have a semi with a refer running all night in the space next to you.  If you've read our blog for any length of time you now we've experienced that before.....more than once.

By the time we settled in it was after 4 pm, so TLE began to reheat a tuna chowder she had prepared that morning before we left.  It was probably her best effort at a chowder, and I'm pretty sure it was 'restaurant quality'....I would definitely order that in a restaurant.  The perfect dinner for a chilly, blustery, rainy afternoon!

So, with our safe arrival at the Honey Lake Rest Area we have just 85 miles separating us from LPG&RVR.  Certainly, we could have covered those final miles before sundown Saturday, but it was raining at our summer destination, and we don't like arriving anywhere that late in the day, so we're happy with our decision to overnight at the Rest Area.

Thanks for stopping by!

Coma!

 7:29 am - Saturday - April 26th - Minden, NV - 33° F, humidity 100%, 48° F.  On this date in 2023 TLE and I were enjoying our propane firepit at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort.....

near Alturas, CA.  The view this morning.....

Snow is sticking the Beetle!

....as I write today's missive it is snowing, and kind of fouling up our Jello plans to be on the road later today towards our destination for the summer.  This is why they are called 'Jello Plans', right?  The snow is sticking to the roof of the Elks Lodge, the VW, and to the trees, but not to the parking lot......yet.  The good news is we are connected to 50 amp electrical service, and have our quiet electric heaters providing warmth on this very cold, winter like day in late April.  This has happened every year we have traveled to Likely for the summer....we always get snow in late April.   Winter does not want to let go of the Eastern Sierras.  They must be getting slammed with snow up in the Lake Tahoe Basin, which is less than 10 miles, as the crow flies, from our location, however, what self respecting crow would be flying in this weather....lol!

Each year we travel to LPG&RVR for our summer hiatus, we stop in the Carson Valley to shop at COSTCO and Trader Joe's for those things we like that are only available at those stores, plus I almost always get a haircut, and it has been almost 6 weeks since my last one.  I've been getting my haircuts at Supercuts for several decades, and there is one here in the Carson Valley, but I've become so enamored with Sports Clips that I have switched my hair styling affiliation to them.  Happily, there is a Sports Clips right near COSTCO, and they open at 10 am on weekdays, so we were in the VW Beetle around 9:30 am to make the 25 minute drive north to Indian Hills to be first in line to get a haircut.

We arrived around 9:50 am, and by 10 am I was in the hair stylist's chair (her name is Melrose.....what a cool name!).  She gave me a great haircut, and trimmed my beard, and mustache back to a more manageable length in less than 30 minutes.  You'll see my new look in a picture I took at lunchtime.

From there we headed first to COSTCO, then over to Trader Joe's, then to Walmart, which is in the same parking lot.  By 11:30 am we had finished our big Carson Valley shopping spree, and were heading to Gardnerville for lunch at Nuevo Vallarta (4 stars on 79 reviews - Yelp).  We've never eaten there, but TLE looked suggested we have lunch there.  We've haven't been to a proper Mexican Restaurant in a long, long time, and I really had a hankering for Tacos and Chile Rellenos.  We arrived just after 12 pm, and were seated quickly....

See how short my beard is?

They have a very large bar area which is well stocked with dozens of Tequilas

.....I ordered their Taco/Chile Relleno plate, and TLE their two Enchilada plate.  To chase this great Mexican fare I ordered their 'Medium' glass of draft Modelo Negra.....I'm glad I didn't order the large, because their Medium was the equivalent of 2+ bottles....lol.  We lingered over our lunch, enjoying the nice ambiance of the restaurant, and wonderful service.

We were home by 1:30 pm, and putting away our shopping spoils, and then, for me, a long nap was in order to sleep off the 'food coma' into which I was slipping....more like a beer coma....lol!  TLE says I napped for 2 hours.  

The snowfall (Saturday morning) is beginning to lessen at 8:15 am, and should be followed by rain through early afternoon. and if that forecast holds we will be rolling our wheels then.  We'll see what happens.

Thanks for stopping by!

140 miles of beauty......

 7:58 am - Friday - April 25th - Minden, NV - 49° F, humidity 41%, wind 4 mph out of the east.....heavy cloud cover today with some rain later today, and a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were in the middle of a 12 month stretch living at Sear Rocks RV Cove on the Oregon Coast.....

.....I was working at one of my favorite jobs there....leveling a site....this one had a big hump down the middle, and was quite narrow.  I first widened it, then covered the now wider site with more gravel....

After a two day layover in Bishop, CA it was time to roll our wheels, and continue our journey back to Likely Place Golf & RV Resort.  Since Monday, when we left TWW, we had covered around 500 of the 850 miles separating us from our destination.  The drive from Bishop, CA to the Carson Valley, NV is one of the most beautiful drives in America, and we get to do it twice a year right now.  It is only 140 miles, but there are five passes/summits we must surmount, getting to 8,138 feet elevation at Conway Summit, the highest elevation point along the entire length of US-395 (San Diego, CA to the Canadian Border in Washington State).

We were in no hurry to get on the road when we got up at 7 am, but we were still on the road heading northward by 9 am.  It only took me around 10 minutes to stow our water hose, and electrical cord, plus the mat, and step for the entrance to the Newell.  While I did that the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 was warming up, and airing up the Newell.

From the Tri-County Fairgrounds it is about 11 miles to the beginning of the first climb of he day, Sherwin Grade, which is about 8 miles long, and a 6% incline all the way.  The Newell usually grinds down to 30 mph in 2nd gear, and Thursday was no different....

Nearing the top of Sherwin Grade

....after summiting the Sherwin Grade we can see Mammoth Mountain in the distance....

.....we rarely stop in Lee Vining, which sits on the shores of Mono Lake, but we decided to pull into the Mono Lake Visitor Center to take a coffee break for about 40 minutes this time through.  We both bought two pastries the other day at Schat's Bakery in Bishop, so we pulled them out, and finished our morning coffees before continuing on to the climb up to Conway Summit......

.....US-395 is a divided highway all the way from Bishop to just past Conway Summit.  From there it becomes a two way road with one lane in each direction.  There are numerous passing lanes provided from that point.  From Conway Summit we descended to the lovely town of Bridgeport where we have stopped often over the years, but decided to continue on to Walker, CA hoping Walker Burger had opened for the season.  On the way we crested the 4th summit of the day, Devils Gate which sits just over 7,500' elevation....

.....you never know exactly when Walker Burger will open for the summer season, so it can be hit and miss.  On this day we hit the jackpot....Walker Burger was open!  We quickly found a place to park across the street, and headed in to order one of the best burgers in the Eastern Sierra....it always depends on the weather.....

.....we haven't had a Walker Burger in a couple of years, so this was a special, unexpected treat.....

....from Walker it is just a short 5 mile jaunt to the Nevada Border at Topaz Lake, and from there the final summit of the day, Simee Dimeh Summit at 5,987' above sea level.... 

....we arrived at the Tahoe-Douglas Elks Lodge near Gardnerville around 2 pm after a very leisurely 5 hours drive, which included the two long, aforementioned breaks.  Within 30 minutes we were set up for two nights.  We'll continue our journey to LPG&RVR Saturday morning, weather permitting.  The weather forecast for Friday and Saturday here in Gardnerville, NV is for rain, and snow.  How bad it is will determine if we actually leave Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Partner in crime....

 6:57 am - Thursday - April 25th - Bishop, CA - 43° F, humidity 34%, wind 4 mph out of the northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 78° F, but we are headed for the Carson Valley (Nevada), so we won't experience that high.  It will be only be a 70° F high there.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were at the 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier' at Arlington National Cemetery.....

....watching the 'changing of the guard'.

It seems like we have been getting up early for a week (we have), so sleeping in until almost 7 am Wednesday was a nice change.  I took my time typing my blog. By the time I was done it was almost 9 am, and time for our semi-annual walk over to Schat's Bakery on Main Street for some coffee and pastries.  It is about a half mile each way, so for the second day in a row we took a walk.....

.....lol....I think I take the same pictures every year to memorialize our visit.  There's something enticing about the familiar, especially when the memories are all good!

TLE bought a few loafs of bread, and a few bagels after we finished with our coffees and pastries, and we were on our way walking back 'home'.  It was a lovely day, and I wanted to get a couple of projects out of the way in our brief two day stay here.  First I needed to get out our Toro blower and blow all the dust out of the engine bay from our 7 mile egress drive out of TWW to US-66 on Monday.  Once that was done I got out that cool steam cleaner I wrote about a few weeks ago to clean the gigantic rear facing radiator on the Newell.  I haven't cleaned it since we had it steamed cleaned, and rodded back in 2022, so it was time.  It actually worked better than I thought it would, but it took me at least 90 minutes.  Nevertheless, any time you can clean your radiator without a pressure washer that is good.

Just about the time I was beginning to put away all the stuff I had out for the two projects I heard TLE call my name from the back of the trailer.  She had opened the ramp door to water some plants she has in the hatch of the Beetle.  I went back there to see what see needed to find that the two wire cables which assist one in raising large ramp door had come off their spools....doh!  That door weighs around 400 pounds, and there is not way she and I could lift it back into place so I could rewind the cables onto the spool wheels.  TLE's idea was to use pour two 20 ton bottle jacks to raise the ramp enough to put the large 6" x 6" wood blocks I carry around to 'block' the Newell when I have to go under it to fix something.  The problem is the door was too low to get the bottle jacks under it so we had to attempt to lift one corner of the door to put one of the wood blocks under it.  We were barely able to do it, but we were successful, so we did the same on the other side, and kept repeating until we had two blocks under each corner.  

Now it was high enough to put the bottle jacks under the door and begin to slowly raise it to a point where we could reattach the cables, and begin to rewind them on the spool wheels, which are attached to a large, coiled spring much like the ones used for roll up garage doors.  Normally one would rewind the cables with the door completely shut as it is very hard to wind those wheels to put a pre-load on the spring before winding the cable, but we did not have the luxury of doing that so I wound the wheel manually as much as I could then used a "C" clamp to hold the wheel position while we attached one cable and then the other.  I had to use some Channel Lock plyers to pull the cable down to the mounting point on the ramp door, while TLE inserted the pin.  Each time we repeated this process on each side the door moved higher and higher until we were finally able lock it in the closed position.  Now we can (at a later date) properly rewind the cables without any tension on the spring, which we will do when we have the car out of the trailer up in the Carson Valley.  For now it is mostly fixed.  Whew.....we weren't expecting that!

By the time we finished fixing the door it was after 3:30 pm, and we were tuckered!  Without TLE's help, and suggestions, which were all very helpful, we could not have gotten that door closed.  Unfortunately, there was no one around when we were trying to fix the door, or we could probably have gotten the door closed with the help of 2, or 3 men.

TLE made eggs and bagels for dinner, after I took a long, hot shower.  I managed to catch a couple of pictures of an interesting sunset around 7:15 pm.....

.....it seems no matter the obstacles thrown into our path TLE and I always overcome them, together.  I am humbled, and honored to have such a great partner in crime!  Living in an RV is much like living in a home.  When stuff breaks you fix it, right?  The main difference is you get to change your view on a regular basis without going through escrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

A day about which one might dream.......

 7:33 am - Wednesday - April 23rd - Bishop, CA - 50° F, humidity 34%, wind 5 mph out of the north by northwest.....mostly clear skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I arrived at Tahoe Valley Campground for our fourth summer....there was still snow on the ground on April 23rd.....

......a LOT of snow!  The view this morning....

Still a lot of snow in the Eastern Sierra!

I have to say, Tuesday was one of the magical travel days about which you dream, and experience every once and a while.  The pavement was smooth as a baby's tush, straight as an arrow, there was a moderate tail wind, almost no traffic, the temperature was cool, we were gaining altitude at such a gradual rate the cruise control was able to hold the coach at 60 mph much of the time, and we felt like we were floating on air.....we could have driven a thousand miles without stopping (well, not really, but you get my drift, right?)....

US-95 northbound and down

Long gentle grade to Tonopah, NV

The Eastern Sierra comes into view

Getting closer

.....we arrived in Tonopah around 10 am (elevation now 6,300'....we had begun our day at 2,700') and stopped at the very new Love's Travel Center to refill our 60 gallon, onboard, propane tank, which was half empty.  You will recall we used over 30 gallons of propane in the first 2+ weeks at TWW, at which time we had a 120 gallon tank delivered to the property for the rest of the winter.  With 25 minutes we had taken on 32 gallons of propane at $3.99/gallon....ouch!  That's about a buck more per gallon than we were paying Yavapai Bottle Gas this winter.

Tonopah sits on a hill, so whether your heading north, or south out of Tonopah you are going downhill.  We continued losing elevation for 40 miles to the intersection of US-95 with US-6, which would take us to Bishop, CA.  We drove this section of US-6 eastward out of Bishop last October.  The views going either way are spectacular, but I prefer the view westward on this drive..... 

Re-entering California after 6 months

On the western slope of Montgomery Pass....there are the Eastern Sierras again

.....we began the climb westward to Montgomery Pass (7,149' elevation) on US-6 at just under 5,000', and for the next 30 minutes climbed, and climbed to the aforementioned pass where we began our downward slide to Bishop, CA.

We arrived at Bishop RV Park (Tri-County Fairgrounds) around 1 pm, and within minutes had settled into our spot (the exact same spot we always stay in when in Bishop) for two days.   They only offer 30 amp electrical service, so a while back I bought an adapter enabling us to draw electricity from two 30 amp plugs, giving us 30 amps on each leg of our 50 amp system, which means we don't have to worry what we appliances we use as we can draw up to 30 amps on each leg.  Before we only had a total of 15 amps per leg....nice....

.....I bought this adapter specifically for Bishop RV Park, and will probably only use it here due to their unique power setup, but it was well worth it!

After connecting the electrical I connected our fresh water hose to their water outlet, then to our city water inlet, and turned on the water.  Within a couple of seconds I heard this hissing sound as water, under pressure, was escaping from our water pressure regulator on the inlet side.  I quickly turned off the water and went to inspect.  As it turned out there must have been water still in the line between the pressure regulator and the city water inlet, which froze during the winter causing the female connection to fracture.....

.....you can see where the ice caused three quarters of the lip to pop off causing the leak.  Fortunately for us, I carry a spare water pressure regulator and just borrowed the female connector from it to install in the current regulator.  Once that was done (took about 10 minutes) we had water pressure, and no more leak!

Around 3:30 pm we got dressed and walked over to Upper Crust Pizza (4 stars on 325 reviews....and we would be right there in our assessment) on Main Street near the Smart and Final grocery store....probably about a mile each way where we ordered a medium, thin crust pizza (14") with anchovies, pepperoni, black olives, onions, and mushrooms.  We both chased the pizza with a pint of their 805 draft beer.....

.....we were their first customers of the day, so had the place to ourselves.  A very nice way to end another beautiful driving day.  After finishing our pizza we walked over to Smart and Final to buy some produce, then headed home).  So, in two days we have covered 500 miles, and will take a two day break before continuing our trek north to LPG&RVR on Thursday.  Although Likely, CA sits at the same elevation as TWW, its latitude means there is still some winter weather hanging around.  We see snow in the forecast for Sunday at LPG&RVR, which is our 'written in Jello' arrival date.  So, we shall see what we shall see....

Thanks for stopping by!