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!

Triple digits.....

5:49 am - Saturday - August 8th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 19%, cloud cover 2%, wind 14 mph out of the west by northwest......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 99° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Southwest Harbor, ME.....

 ....we had just quit our jobs at Smuggler's Den, and moved to the property of Tony and Janet....we worked with Tony Smuggler's Den, and he offered his property for the balance of our stay in Maine.  Tony quit his job the same day....in all five of the 10 workers quit that day.

Friday would be the hottest day this summer at LPG&RVR topping out at an even 100° F.  As is our habit, we were arriving at the Clubhouse at 7:30 am.  By 7:45 am we had rented the first of 18 golf carts.  That's the biggest rental day we've had in over 10 days, and about time.  Initially, not knowing how the day would go, I staged just four carts, and they went pretty quickly.  Most of the folks who played golf Friday did not have reserved tee times.

Over the course of the morning I spent about an hour repairing, and straightening the bracket which fastens the golf ball washer to my cart.  Over the past 4 years it had gotten bent, and the ball washer was kind of handing at an angle.  A little persuasion with a baby hand sledge straightened her out, so I could remount the washer.....

Nice and straight now

Previously there were just 4 screws attaching it 

to the hand rail, but I added 3 more for good measure

....next I headed down to the 'Night Office' to coil up the hundreds of feet of water hoses we use to water that large grass area so I could mow the grass. Without that old double wide mobile home there I can mow the grass in about 20 minutes.  On my way back to the Clubhouse I mowed the group firepit grass, and the large grass area next to site #30.  By the time I refueled the Husqvarna, and blew the grass off the mower deck it was time for TLE's lunch break.

Over the course of the 90 minutes I checked in 4, or 5 RV's, and answered a number of phone calls.....things are heating up once again.  Then it was back out side to begin washing golf carts.  By the time I turned off the water I had washed, and stowed 13 of the 18 rented golf carts.  That last two hours fried me.  I headed for home, took a long, cool shower, then plopped down in my recliner and took an hour nap.  As I napped the heat of the day came and went, and by the time I returned to the Clubhouse to give TLE a ride home it was down to 95 from 100° F.  By 8:30 pm it had dropped to 78° F, which is when we turn off the AC.  Overnight the outdoor temp got into the mid 50's, and that is what makes living here in during the dog days of the summer so bearable.

Thanks for stopping by!

The heat box....

 5:52 am - Friday - August 7th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 18%, cloud cover 3%, wind 14 mph out of the west.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 100° F. On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Astoria, OR.....

....having a late lunch at Rogue Pier 39 Public House (Rogue Brewing Company)....isn't she gorgeous?

Thursday dawned warm, but no smokey skies.  For the 2nd, or 3rd time this summer I did not wear a sweatshirt to work.....just a t-shirt, shorts, bucket hat, and shoes.  It would hit 99° F Thursday, and feel every bit of that.  The RV park has begun to fill once again, and as a result 11 carts were rented.   Of course, Thursday is also the day we clear the driving range so it can be mowed, and the 10 back up sites, plus tent sites 1-3 needed trimming, so I had something to do to keep me busy, but not out of the sun.  For the first two hours I staged carts as needed, and watered areas of grass that were getting dry.  By 10 am the grass in the backup sites/tent sites was dry enough to mow so I spent the next hour mowing them.  

I could tell there were not many range balls on the driving range, but one still must walk the entire range (250 yards in length, and 75 yards wide) to be sure no balls are missed, so it still takes 45 minutes to an hour to do the deed.  I only collected about a 5th of a bucket of balls, or less than one 'shag bag'.  After putting them to soak I headed into the cool confines of the Clubhouse to give TLE her lunch break.  The humidity levels have been in the teens lately, and that is when our swamp cooler is at its best.  The 90 minutes passed quickly with just a couple of phone calls, and one guy going out to play golf.

Over the course of the next two hours I washed 9 of the 11 carts we had rented, and continued to water down at the 'Night Office', and finally it was time to head for home and wonderful air conditioning.  Our roof top AC's are managing to keep the Newell interior in the mid 70's day after day.  By 5:10 pm TLE was home, and together we celebrated 'hump night' (the night in between day 2 and day 3 of our 4 day work week.  Just two more days in the heat box that is currently LPG&RVR.

Thanks for stopping by!