Heading to SoCal......

 7:41 am - Wednesday - July 8th - Beaumont, CA - 75° F already 😞, humidity 18%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 13 mph out of the west.....cloudless today with a forecast high of 99° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Hot Springs, South Dakota.....

....visiting Evans Plunge.....they were not really hot springs, but warm mineral springs kept at a constant 87° F year round.  We were looking forward to actual HOT springs, but we had a nice time, nevertheless.

I had 'planned' to sleep in until 7 am Tuesday, but TLE had other ideas.  I'm usually the one out of bed first, but she got the jump on me Tuesday.  This was a big travel day for us.  Our flight south out of Reno was scheduled for 12:50 pm, and Reno is about 2.5 hours away from Likely, so we were on the road by 8:30 am.  We're not rich folk, so when we fly we try to get the best price, which means there will be a least one lay over before we reach our destination.  That usually results in a long travel day.

The drive south on US-395 was smooth, and pleasant.  We came across 100's of acres of blooming daisies.....

....the trip south was totally uneventful, and with the blessing of light traffic we arrived at Reno/Tahoe Airport just after 11 am.  The multi day parking area is right across the street from the airport terminal, so it is a short walk to get into the air conditioning....it was already approaching 90° F as we entered the building.  Our flight's departure was scheduled for 12:50 pm, so we had plenty of time to get through security (we have TSA Precheck), which took just a few minutes, and required no body cavity/strip searches....lol.

On the way to our gate I bought a Mocha Frappuccino at 'Human Bean' to enjoy while we waited 1.5 hours for our flight, which did depart right on time.  Normally it takes 1 hour 44 minutes for the fight to Phoenix, but we were on the ground in 1.5 hours....making it 2:15 pm Phoenix time....

Phoenix Sky Harbor

.....our flight to Ontario (ONT) was scheduled to depart Phoenix at 5:00 pm so we had over two hours before boarding time....4:24 pm.  The flight departed on time.....

Descending into the Pomona Valley, and Ontario International

On the ground at 6 pm

.....our final flight of the day lasted just one hour so there was no beverage service.  We had no luggage checked as we used our new back packs TLE bought at Fred Meyers in Klamath Falls when we were there a few weeks ago.....much handier for short trips, and they are small enough to stow under the seats in front of our seats.  We were on the  airport shuttle over to the car rental agencies to pick up our reserved vehicle within a few minutes of landing, and on I-10 eastbound by 7 pm in 'our' 2026 Nissan Sentra.  It's less than a 40 minute drive to Beaumont where our daughter Kates lives with her husband, Nick, and their four kids, so we were checked into our hotel just before 8 pm, and unwinding from our 11.5 hour journey south to SoCal.  Looking forward to seeing our kids Wednesday morning!

Thanks for stopping by

Range balls, and other things.....

 7:39 pm - Monday - July 6th - LPG&RVR - 81° F, humidity 47%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 9 mph out of the south.....partly cloudy this evening....the high was 87° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were driving through the American Alps and took a rest stop....

.....on our way to Marblemount, WA.

Monday morning the park was pretty empty after the busy 4th of July weekend.  As is often the case, the park will be very unbusy for a few weeks, then business will pickup again.  We rented 16 carts, which is not bad for a Monday after a major holiday weekend.  After staging 10 carts I headed out to the 5th hole to empty the trash can, and on my way I stopped to take a picture of Eagle Mountain....all the snow is gone since the last rain storms....

....once I was back at the Clubhouse I headed out to the driving range to harvest range balls prior to its twice weekly mowing, and managed to collect 4.5 five gallon buckets of balls....

.....by that time it was time to give TLE her 90 minute lunch break.  By 1:30 pm 11 of the 16 carts had returned, but before washing/stowing them I began to wash those range balls.  It took me until about 2:15 to finish washing them, then I turned to washing and stowing the returned carts.  My final act of the day was to pour those 4.5 buckets of balls back into the 55 gallon trash can....

.....and with that I headed for home to take a shower and a nap before returning to the Clubhouse at 5 pm to retrieve TLE from the Clubhouse office.  With that our abbreviated 3 day work week came to an end.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will drive south to Reno to catch our flight to SOCAL.

Thanks for stopping by

Tournament time.....

 5:56 am - Monday - July 6th - LPG&RVR - 52° F, humidity 41%, cloud cover 23%, wind 11 mph out of the west......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Alberta, Canada...

....touring along the Kananaskis Highway through the Bow River Valley.  Seems like just a few years ago, not 13!

I usually do not look forward to the 4th of July week here at LPG&RVR, not because of the holiday, but because of the crowds, and the attendant rise in noise levels, but this time around it has not been bad at all.  Sunday was the annual Cattlemen's Association Red, White and Blue Golf Tournament.  As you will recall, I was able to get 19 carts staged Saturday afternoon.  When we arrived at the Clubhouse Sunday at 7:30 am I still had 7 carts to wash and then stage.  By 8 am they were staged, and it was just a matter of matching the keys with the carts, and half of my major work of the day was done.

For the next hour we awaited the 'shotgun' start to the tournament, and then I helped Claude marshal around the course.  By 10 am I was mowing the employee lawns, and then continued to mow 14 of the pull through sites, and the small gazebo, which had just been vacated (many people began to head for their workaday lives on Sunday).  Most of the pull through sites were also vacated, so the mowing was easy.

By the time I finished blowing the grass off the Husqvarna mowing deck it was 12 pm and times for TLE's 90 minute lunch break.  The FIFA World Cup round of 16 match between Norway and Brazil began during her lunch break so I watched that until she returned.  Norway managed to beat Brazil 2-1, but led 2-0 until the last couple of minutes.  This was an upset to be sure.

All 20 of the carts we rented for the tournament were returned before 2 pm enabling me to get them all washed and stowed by 3:30 pm.  That is the great thing about tournaments, all the carts return withing a 30 minute period making the washing/stowing of them a quick, and efficient process.

I was home by 3:30 pm taking a shower, and watching the end of Stage #2 of Le Tour de France.  TLE was home a little after 5 pm, and then watched the 2nd round of 16 game of the day between England and Mexico.  Up until this match Mexico had won all three of their previous games without allowing a goal, but on this evening England scored two goals in a span of 1 minute 54 seconds, and held that lead until Mexico countered with a goal of their own just before half time.

In the 2nd half England and Mexico both scored goals on penalty kicks.  A English player received a red card with 37 minutes to go in the second half, but in spite of playing a player short most of the 2nd half hung on to win 3-2 over Mexico, one of the three North American host countries (USA, Mexico, Canada).  The USA, the only host country team remaining in the tournament, plays their round of 16 match Monday evening in Seattle against Belgium.  On a side note, the red card the USA player received in the last match was 'rescinded' by FIFA, meaning our top goal scorer can not play in Monday's game.

Thanks for stopping by!

Red, white and blue....

 5:59 am - Sunday - July 5th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 33%, cloud cover 56%, wind 13 mph out of the west by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Hill City, SD.....

.....at 'Sick & Twisted Brewing Company' having a late snack.....two pints of 'Nut Hugger Brown Ale', and a meat/cheese platter.

Saturday, the 4th of July, was our first day back to work since last Monday, and the day got off to a roaring start.  Before I had a chance to wash the 7 carts left over from Friday we had already rented 10 carts, and by the end of the day we had rented 35 carts.  Twenty-three of them returned before 3:30 pm, so I'll have 12 to wash first thing Sunday before the annual Red, White and Blue Cattlemen's Association tournament.  Speaking of 'red, white and blue', all of our customers came to play golf adorned in their finest red, white and blue outfits.  I wish I had taken the time to take a few pictures....it was a quite a colorful day!

Saturday was the hottest day of the week topping out at 94° F, so I spent as little time in the direct sunlight as possible.  When I wasn't washing golf carts I was moving sprinklers at the parking lot grass area, and the 'Night Office'.  Otherwise I was staging carts, and washing carts.  Since there is the tournament on Sunday I did not return any of the carts to the Cart Shack, but staged them instead for the tournament.  No point in handling those carts twice....frankly, there is no point in handling most things more than once if you don't have to so.

I chose not to participate in the weekly putting contest Saturday as I knew I would be 'out of gas' by 4 pm, and I was right.  Two weeks ago I was pretty well acclimated to hot weather, but then it got cold for the next two weeks, not returning to the 80's until this past Thursday.  Now I'm having to reacclimate all over again, and that process seems to be slower and slower the older I get.  

By 3:30 pm I was home watching the final minutes of the FIFA World Cup match between France and Paraguay.  France is favored to win the championship this year, and up until Saturday had won all of their matches handily, but Paraguay gave them a fight, and the game was still tied 0-0 in the 70th minute.  If not for an awarded a 'penalty kick' which France converted for their only goal of the game holding on to win 1-0 in regulation.

Saturday was also the beginning stage of this year's Tour de France, so once the soccer match was completed I switched over to Peacock to watch a replay of Stage #1.  For the next two weeks I am going to be very busy watching soccer and cycling!

By the way, I just checked to see how many view my blog has had the first four days of July and find that we had over 1 million view yesterday, and a total of 5,505, 354 views now....we have over 5.5 million views now!  WT*!

Thanks for stopping by!

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!