Happy 250th birthday America!!!!!

 5:46 am - Saturday - 4th of  July - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 32%, cloud cover 5%, wind 10 mph out of the west by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 93° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were headed north in Alberta, Canada....

.....that's our 1982 Newell Classic in the middle of the picture (furthest up the road).

Alas, the 4th day of our four day weekend seems to arrive so quickly.  Time, no matter how much you attempt to slow its march, is so fleeting.  TLE was pretty ambitious on that 4th day defrosting our Dometic absorption refrigerator, and doing a couple loads of wash.  Me, not so much, however, later in the morning I received a UPS delivery of new grill plates for our Sea-B-Que.  The originals were porcelain coated, and had begun to rust and pit pretty badly....

.....as you can see (above).  I ordered the stainless steel versions of these grill plates just a few days ago from Dickinson Marine in Oregon, and they arrived pretty quickly....

....they are, however, quite pricey at $34/plate times four.  On the other hand, no more rusting and pitting.  I think the Oregon Coast's salty air did a job on them the first year we owned it, and they just got worse and worse.  Replacing those nasty, disgusting plates was one of the highlights of my day.  

The biggest highlight of our day was the 3 pm FIFA World Cup match between Argentina (population 46,000,000), and Cape Verde (population 500,000).  Argentina scored in the first 25 minutes, and held that lead until the 59th minute, and then remained tied, 1-1)  thru the end of regulation (90 minutes).  Since we are in the 'knockout round' there must be a winner, so they automatically went to two additional 15 minute periods of play during which Argentina scored their 2nd go ahead goal in the 92nd minute, then Cape Verde tied it again in the 103rd minute.  Argentina scored their 3rd, and final go ahead goal in the 111th minute, and held on to win 3-2 after 120 minutes of play.  That was one of the most amazing games we have ever seen.  Cape Verde, ranked #64 in the world, went toe to toe with the defending champs for 120 minutes and came up just a little short in the end.

Today (Saturday) is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, and this will be a very busy 4th of July weekend here at LPG&RVR.  We will work Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and then head down to Reno on Tuesday for our flight to SOCAL.  I'm switching days with Steve, my counterpart, and will work for him on the 16th.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mostly a World Cup day....

 8:06 am - Friday - July 3rd - LPG&RVR - 64° F, humidity 25%, cloud cover 9%, wind 10 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park....

Waiting....

There she goes

....at the Old Faithful Inn watching 'Old Faithful' erupt.

Not much to write about Thursday.  I did run into Likely to pick up mail at the Post Office, then over to the General Store to buy some milk (we forgot to buy milk Wednesday when we were in Alturas).  Other than that we spent the day watching more FIFA World Cup Soccer.  Spain easily defeated Austria 3-0, and it wasn't really that close.  Portugal was losing until late in the game 1-0 verses Croatia, but tied late in the game on a penalty kick by Cristiano Ronaldo, then took the lead in the 94th minute on a header by Rafael Leáo.  Croatia had two goals disallowed due to offsides....the 2nd offside was very controversial, but was confirmed by VAR (Video Assist Review) after way too many minutes.  Finally, Switzerland defeated Algeria 2-0 even though they only had possession 45% of the time.

As we enter the 4th of July weekend the temperatures are steadily rising.  The high temp for Thursday was 84°, and today, Friday, it will get to 88° F, and by Saturday the warming trend will top out at 92° F before dipping back into the high 80's Sunday.  We'll be flying down to SOCAL Tuesday to see our kids, and especially Tim who is coming in from Georgia with his two children, Crosby and Bowie.  We haven't seen Tim in almost 3 years.

As I write, TLE is manually defrosting our Dometic refrigerator for just the second time since we arrived in late April.  The low humidity here really helps make defrosting an infrequent obligation.

Thanks for stopping by!

Unprecedented....

 8:07 am - Thursday - July 2nd - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 9%, wind 9 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Spokane, WA.....

....at my sister Hilary's home on South Hill.  We were just over 5 months into our fulltime journey at that point.

I neglected to mention we passed the summer equinox on June 20th, which means the days will become shorter, and nights longer from that point forward.  Right now the sun rises at 5:33 am, and sets at 8:38 pm, so the daylight portion is 15 hours in duration right now.  On the days we work it is already light outside when we arise at 5:30 am, and when we go to bed at 9 pm it is still light outside....we have just under 9 hours of nighttime right now.  In 10 days we'll pass the halfway point of our 5th summer sojourn here at LPG&RVR.

Each week sometime during our 4 day 'weekend' we drive into Alturas to do our weekly shopping.  Sometimes, like Wednesday, we don't buy many groceries, and will dine at a local eatery.  There is a Mexican Restaurant in town which has changed  hands at least 3 times since 2022, our first year here, and were have had what we consider to be reliable reports that the food is pretty good, so we decided to check them out Wednesday, but not before we made a stop at ACE Hardware to buy a few things, namely new water filters to keep in reserve since we just used our reserves to change the filters I wrote about on Tuesday.

We arrived at Guerrerense-y-Jalisciense (I have no idea whatsoever how to pronounce that....lol) Mexican Restaurant around 12 noon....

....TLE ordered their Chile Relleno al la carte, and I the two Chile Relleno Combo plate (incudes rice and beans).  Compared to the two prior incarnations at this location the food was fresh, and very good.  We would give it around 3.5 stars out of 5.  They do not have beer, which is a major problem for moi....lol.

After finishing our food we headed across town to Holiday Market to do our weekly shopping (no Dollar General, or Grocery Outlet for us on this day), and after another quick stop at the local fuel station (premium unleaded is still hovering at $4.99/gallon) to top off our tank for the drive to Reno next Tuesday, we were on our way home..  With the cost of a barrel of oil down to $67 at this writing I am sure those prices will begin to drop, but this, however, is California, so who knows.  I hear there is a new gas tax to take effect this month in California, I believe, so we will probably NOT see a decrease.

We were home around 1:30 pm in time to watch the rest of the 1 pm match between Belgium and Senegal.  Senegal had a commanding 2-0 lead at the 85 minute mark (5  minutes to play in regulation) when they yielded 2 goals to Belgium in less than 3 minutes....virtually unprecedented.  The game was tied at the end of regulation, so the game went to overtime (two 15 minute overtime periods played in full....no sudden death) where Belgium scored the winning goal on a penalty kick with 6 minutes to play in second 15 minute overtime period.  That is probably the most amazing comeback I have ever seen in a World Cup game.

The USA played at 5 pm against Bosnia and Herzegovina.  This is a different USA team than we are used to seeing in the World Cup.  For their entire 100 year history of playing in the World Cup they have ALWAYS been underdogs, but not this go-around.  They have been favored in all four matches they have played so far.  They led 1-0 at half time, and possessed the ball about 70+% of the time.  Then the unthinkable happened.  Their star scorer was given a red card, and sent off the field, so for the final 36 minutes of play the USA had to play with only 10 men.  Then something happened we have never seen the USA do....they scored their second goal of the game with only 10 men (a full team has 11), and held on to win 2-0....that, for the USA is both historic, and unprecedented.  So, the USA has advanced to the round of 16 (sixteen teams left) and will play Belgium this coming Monday trying to advance to the round of 8 (eight teams left).

All three games played Wednesday were very good games, and we are looking forward to more of the same Thursday....thanks for stopping by!

Love those four day weekends......

 8:06 am - Wednesday - July 1st - LPG&RVR - 54° F,  humidity 28%, cloud cover 18%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest....clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Keystone, SD....

....where I flew my drone for the first time.

As has been our custom the five summers we have been living at LPG&RVR we slept late on the first day of our four day weekend.  Nothing like being able to awaken to the sun lighting up our bedroom curtains, knowing we do not have to be anywhere, do anything, and have no obligations.  Once I had posted my latest missive I got to work changing the two filters (primary and charcoal) on our reverse osmosis water purification system.  The water flow had been steadily decreasing the past month, so it was time.  I keep spare filters on hand for just this reason.  It only takes a few minutes to remove the filter cannisters, remove the old filters, and install the new ones.....

....we had this system installed way back when we first bought the Newell in 2008, and it still serves us well.  While I was at it I changed the filters in our dual filter system which filters the 'city water' coming into the coach, so there are actually 4 filters purifying our water....

....I took a little time to straighten up the trailer interior, and clear off the workbench.  By that time the first FIFA World Cup game of the day between Norway and Ivory Coast was beginning.  It was another well played, close game being decided with a late goal by Norway, which gave them a 2-1 lead they never relinquished. 

Around 1 pm we got dressed and headed over to the Clubhouse to have a latish lunch....

....we had a nice, leisurely lunch filled with good food, pleasant conversation, balmy breezes, and beautiful views.  It is so good having the restaurant functioning again this summer.  It is part of the charm of this place we call Likely Place Golf & RV Resort.

Upon our return we tuned in the afternoon match pitting France and Sweden.  Regretfully, the match was decided in just a few minutes with France taking a quick 2-0 lead, to which they added a 3rd goal in the second half.  Sweden never had a chance....France controlled the ball 61% of the time, and it wasn't even that close.  The evening match between Mexico and Ecuador was another one sided affair with Mexico winning easily 2-0.

We were heading off to slumberland by 10:30 pm looking forward to another day of leisure Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Range day.....

 7:20 am - Tuesday - June 30th - LPG&RVR - 54°  F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 2%, wind 12 mph out of the north by northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were overnighting in Sheridan, WY.....

Left to right: 1982 Newell Classic, 1999 Newell and 2002 Newell

....with our friends (Forest/Cindy - middle Newell, and Tom/Darlene - far right Newell) while on our way to Alberta, Canada.

Mondays after a busy weekend means a lot of range balls to harvest. In this case the 55 gallon barrel was virtually empty....

.....the day began slowly with me putting out just 3 of the Club Car electrics.  Ultimately we would rent 13 carts, so that was a pretty slow day for us.

On the other hand I had 17 dirty carts left over from our very busy Sunday to clean, fuel and stow.  By the time that was done it was almost 9:30 am.  I knew from past experience that it would take more than 2 hours to clear the driving range, and woods on either side so I called Claude (off work on Mondays) to see if he was willing to help, and he was.  We began clearing the range at 10 am sharp and finished a little after 11:30 am, so by myself it would have taken close to 3 hours.  We garnered 6 five gallon buckets of balls, each filled to the brim.  By the time we unloaded the buckets from our carts and I filled them with water so they could soak over lunch it was time to give TLE her lunch break.

Unlike Sunday, Monday's lunch break was very unbusy.  I sold 4 rounds of golf, and answered 3 phone calls.  When I headed back outside to work there were only those first three Club Car electrics to clean, so there were still 10 outstanding at 1:30 pm.  I spent the next hour washing and drying those 6 buckets of balls, and still only had the three Club Car electrics to wash, so I washed and stowed them.  By 3 pm there were still 10 carts outstanding so I headed home for a one hour break, returning at 4 pm to find 7 more carts needing their spa treatment.  Within 40 minutes I had them washed and stowed leaving just 3 carts for Steve to wash Tuesday morning.....much, much better than 10!

I then headed down to the 'Night Office' to flip the sign, and post the availability.  TLE opted to walk home after she was done, and was home by 5:15 pm, and thus began our next four day weekend.

There were three round of 32 matches (knockout round - win, or go home) and they were all close games.  The first game between Brazil and Japan was decided by a late goal in 'added time', and the next two matches (Germany v. Paraguay, and Netherlands v. Morocco) both went to 'penalty kicks from the mark'.  Surprisingly, Germany lost 4-3 in 'kicks' to Paraguay (major upset),   and Morocco won 3-2  in 'kicks' over Netherlands.....both big surprises.

Thanks for stopping by!

A cold, blustery day.....

 5:51 am - Monday - June 29th - LPG&RVR - 39° F (!!!), humidity 43%, cloud cover 64%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northwest.....cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I made a quick stop at Devil's Tower on our way north to Alberta, Canada....

.....this was our first time visiting there....we were there again in 2020 for a couple of days.

Sunday began cold and cloudy and pretty much stayed that way all day long.  I wore my hoody sweatshirt all day long, and as has been the case the first two days of this four day work week, I wore long pants, and a long sleeve shirt.  I was greeted by 16 unwashed golf carts at 7:30 am.  Thankfully, no one was scheduled to tee off until 10 am, so I took my time washing and detailing them, then put them away.  By 9:00 am I was staging carts for the day, and by 9:30 am people were showing up for their 10 am tee times.  I enjoyed being able to take my time cleaning the carts, and even had time to refuel some of them, and used compressed air to blow the dust out of the engine compartments.

Once I was sure TLE had enough carts for the next hour I spent time rolling up the numerous hoses we use to water the dry areas of the parking lot grass, and then the 4 very long hoses we use to water the entire 'Night Office' grass area.  There are two hose bibbs down there to water about an acre of grass, so two of the hoses are close to 200' long, and take quite a while to coil.

By the time I returned to the Clubhouse TLE needed more carts so I staged 10 more carts.  By the end of the day we had rented 25 carts, and by 3:30 pm only 7 of them had returned, so I will have a boatload of carts to wash Monday morning.....it is what it is.

I was home relaxing prior to returning to the Clubhouse to give TLE a ride home when I got a call around 4:40 pm from her advising one of the Yamaha gassers had quit running out at the 10th hole.  The 10th hole is about 700 yards from the Clubhouse, so I called Claude, who was also off work, and asked him to meet me out there so we could tow the disabled cart back to the Cart Return area.  In all it took us about 30 minutes to get the cart towed back to the Clubhouse where I hooked up a charger to the battery for just 5 minutes.  Sometimes the something weird happens in the electrical system, and they act as if the battery is dead, when it is not.  A little extra 'juice' for a few minutes is enough to get them started again, and reset the sytem, and that was the case this time.  This happens once, or twice a month with different Yamahas.  Not quite sure what the issue is, but it is rare, and fixable.

By the time I put away the charger, and extension cord TLE was ready to head for home, and thus ended another LPG&RVR day.  Just one day left in our four day work week, and then the four day weekend begins!

Thanks for stopping by!

Unexpected rain.....

 6:06 am - Sunday - June 28th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 49%, cloud cover 34%, wind 9 mph out of the north by northwest.....cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were working the 'CLOSE' shift at the General Store.....

....in Yellowstone NP at Mammoth Hot Springs....the General Store is right next to the hot springs.

There was NO rain in the forecast for Saturday, but that is what we got for the second day in a row....

.....as a result we did not send any golfers out until 9 am when the rain stopped.  After that we put out 25 golf carts.  Just like Friday, I put them out 1, or 2 at a time just in case it began raining again.  Once there was a lull in customer traffic I took a broom and spent about 30 minutes brushing the cobwebs off the wood roof structure on the Clubhouse deck.  That was the easy part.  Then I had to clean off the dining tables, and then sweep the entire deck.

I neglected to mention that I had 13 golf carts to wash/stow left over from Friday, so in between staging golf carts I washed, and stowed those 13 carts.  That took me most of the morning, but I got them done.  Over the course of the morning/afternoon many of them were staged again as golfers continued to come out of the wood work.

By 3:30 pm I had washed/stowed around 13 returning carts, so I'll have a bunch to wash again Sunday morning.  I headed home to change for the weekly putting contest, and was back about 3:55 pm.  I did not put well Saturday, but I managed to last through 4 rounds before being ousted.  As always, we all had a great time.

Thanks for stopping by!