The post 4th of July slowdown.....

 5:51 am - Tuesday - July 14th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, humidity 49%, cloud cover 59%, wind 6 mph out of the south by southwest.....heavy clover this morning with a forecast high today of 83° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Harlowton, MT.....

.....with Claude and Gail at a city campground during our summer of the  Wuhan Flu travels through rural America.

Monday was the first truly slow day in quite a while.  I initially staged 6 carts based on the 'tee sheet', and by the end of the day we had rented just 7 carts, all of which returned before 3:30 pm....perfect.  After staging those first 6 carts I spent over an hour going through the five electric carts checking the distilled water levels in all 30 batteries, which is a low process.  As as we now in the 'heat' of the summer I'll need to check them more frequently.  I think this was the 3rd time I've checked them since May 1st.

By that time it was 10 am and time for me to begin clearing the driving range for the first of two mowing this week.  We clear the range on Mondays and Thursdays.  It took me until 11:40 am to finish, then fill the three 5 gallon buckets with soap and water so they could soak during TLE's lunch break.  As might be expected the 90 minutes was pretty slow....just a couple of phone calls, and one couple going out for 9 holes.  It rained for a few minutes during that 90 minutes, and later around 3 pm it rained quite hard for about 30 minutes.  We were not expecting that rain.  It rained on an off most Monday night into Tuesday morning.

After lunch I washed and dried the golf balls, and washed the 7 golf carts we had rented, then headed for home.  There were no FIFA World Cup matches Monday, and no Tour de France as Monday was a rare rest day.  The temperatures in France have been averaging around 100° F the first 9 stages, so a rest day was a welcome relief to the riders.

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Back to the 'grind'.....

 5:59 am - Monday - July 13th - LPG&RVR - 59° F, humidity 35%, cloud cover 71%, wind 9 mph out of the south by southwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Sheridan, WY.....

......overnighting at the local Walmart Supercenter.

After 5 days off work it was time to begin another 'work week', and this work week would be 5 days in length this time.  Steve took my work day this past Tuesday, and I am taking his this Thursday.  We'll only have a 3 day weekend this time around.  After several days of 90°+ temperatures while we were gone the temp dipped into the mid 80's with heavy cloud cover.  We believed it was going to rain several times during the day, but only got a few sprinkles here and there.

To begin the day I staged 10 carts, and by the end of the day we had rented 21.  During the day I irrigated the trees along sites 21-30, and 1-10.  We're probably getting to the point where it is no longer necessary to irrigate these trees as they are pretty well established now, but for near future we continue to irrigate them every 10 days, or so during the summer.  While the drip lines were running I took time to cut all the 'suckers' off the bases of each tree, which hasn't been done since last summer.  By the time I finished cutting the 'suckers' it was time for TLE's lunch break.

The 90 minute lunch break was pretty uneventful....just a few phone calls, and one couple going out to play 9 holes.  By the time TLE returned I already had 8 carts to clean, and by 3:30 pm all but 3 of the 21 carts had returned.  Many of our Sunday golfers came from offsite, because the RV park is less than 50% occupied right now.

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England is through to the semi finals.....

 5:52 am - Sunday - July 12th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 83%, wind 13 mph out of the south.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Spearfish, SD in the parking lot of....

.....Campingworld taking delivery of our new Splendide (pronounced Splendeed) washer/dryer combo.  Our old one had given up the ghost a while back.  The store manager agreed to use their forklift to remove our old one, and insert the new through our door.  From beginning to end it took an hour  and forty-five minutes to remove the old one, and install the new one.  It is still working great 6 years later.

We are so glad we had Saturday to sort of recover from our 4 day trip to SoCal.  By the time we hit the sack Friday night it was midnight, and we didn't stir from our sleep until after 8 am Saturday morning.  Prior to leaving on our trip I had scheduled a haircut at Kaleidescope at 1:30 pm so we had the whole morning to relax further.

We were on the road into Alturas by 11:50 am, and making a quick stop at ACE Hardware at 12:20 pm before continuing on to Holiday Market to do our weekly grocery shopping before my appointment.  It didn't take as long as we thought to do our shopping, and as we put our groceries into the hatch of the Beetle realized we still had 50 minutes before my haircut, so we headed over to 'Wild Mustard' where I bought a Mocha Frappuccino to pass the time.

We arrived at Kaleidescope just before 1:30 pm, and were back on the road by 1:50 pm back to LPG&RVR.  At 2 pm the FIFA World Cup match between England and Norway began, but we were recording it, so we didn't miss a second of the match.  We expected a good match, and that is what we got.  At the end of regulation the match was tied 1-1, so they headed to two 15 minute overtime periods to be played in full regardless of score.  England managed to score their second goal in the 1st overtime period, and held on to win by that score over Norway, so for the first time in years England had made it to the final four teams, and will play Argentina in one of the semi final matches attempting to get to the final next Sunday.  Argentina, obviously, won their quarterfinal match over Switzerland, again, 2-1 in the double overtime periods.  So, it will be Spain and France in one semi final (Tuesday), and England vs. Argentina on Wednesday to see who plays in the final....

Harry Kane and Erling Haaland

....thanks for stopping by!

Another 12 hour marathon......

 8:47 am - Saturday - July 11th - LPG&RVR - 75° F, humidity 16%, cloud cover 34%, wind 14 mph out of the southwest.....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 94° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were enjoying a 'spa day' at Chico Hot Springs....

....which is north of Gardiner, MT where we lived during the summer of 2017 whilst working at the General Store at Mammoth Hot Springs near the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

We awoke Friday, departure day, sometime after 7 am.  There was no rush as our first flight of the day did not depart until 3:40 pm from Ontario International.  We went downstairs initially to get our morning coffees, and then returned later to have a late breakfast.  There are no coffee makers in the rooms at the Holiday Inn Express where we stayed three nights, but I think that is a good idea, at least for us.  The coffee they give you to brew in those tiny coffee makers is NEVER very good, so what is the point, right?  On the other hand the coffee makers in the breakfast room downstairs grind the beans on the spot, and then make the coffee, and it was wonderful every single day.  The Continental Breakfast they offer at this location is one of the beast we have ever had in all our years of travel.  We were staying on the second floor of the hotel, so we could run downstairs, get our coffees, and be back in the room in less than 5 minutes.

After breakfast I took almost an hour nap knowing we would be in travel mode for another 12 hours once we left the hotel at 11 am, which is checkout time.  We were in the car a little before 11 am, and at Fox Car Rentals (an offsite car rental operation which serves Ontario International Airport) around 11:45 am dropping off our 2026 Nissan Sentra, then after a short shuttle ride back to the airport going through TSA around 12 pm.  Now only 3 hours and 40 minutes before our flight leaves....lol!  What to do?  Well, there was another FIFA World Cup match between Belgium and Spain.  There was a large flat screen TV at our gate, so we spent the next two hours watching the game....

....our flight on Frontier Airlines to Las Vegas departed slightly ahead of schedule, and was surprisingly empty....

TLE had a row to herself....

.....and so did I

These are the smallest tables I have ever seen in a modern jetliner!

.....in the past we have paid to pick our seats, but this time around we chose to let American and Frontier assign our seats on flight day, and it worked out just fine.  We probably saved close to $200 on all four flights.  Additionally, we used back packs for the first time, which are considered 'personal items' by both American and Frontier, so no charge, and no waiting for checked baggage which would have cost an extra $200 with Frontier.  In fact, Frontier differentiates between personal items, and carry on items.....carry one items are charged at $79/bag by Frontier if you do it in advance, but $99 on the day of the flight...yikes!

We arrived in Las Vegas at McCarron International Airport about an hour before boarding was to begin on our flight back to Reno/Tahoe International, so we had plenty of time to walk the short distance to our gate.  Each flight was just over 1 hour in duration, which is about the time I begin to get antsy, and want off the plane.....

Descending into Reno/Tahoe International just before 8 pm

.....we landed at Reno/Tahoe International a couple of minutes before 8 pm, and after a very short 10 minute walk were in the VW Beetle heading back north on US-395 to LPG&RVR arriving home just a couple of minutes before 11 pm.  We were understandably tired, but happy to be home in our own bed after three nights of sleeping in someone else's bed. To be fair, the large California King bed we had at the Holiday Inn Express was pillowed, and very comfortable, but we prefer our bed...who doesn't, right?

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Rock stars.....

 6:59 am - Friday - July 10th - Beaumont, CA - 70° F, humidity 39%, cloud cover 27%, wind 12 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 96° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Bozeman, MT.....

....having brews and lunch.  We were working at the General Store in Mammoth Hot Springs  (Yellowstone NP) that summer.

Tim and his kids (Crosby and Bowie) were scheduled to fly back to Georgia Thursday at noon out of Ontario International, so TLE and I drove over to Kate's home around 7:30 am to have breakfast with everyone, and say our 'until next times'....

Bowie

Crosby

.....we hung out until Tim and the kids left for the airport, and then headed back to the hotel to rest up before our marathon travel day back to Likely on Friday....it will be another long travel day getting home.  Nice to have an extra day to rest before the travel day.

On a side note, you might have wondered where Tim got those names for his kids.  Well, Tim is a fan of 60's music, so named his kids after two famous rock stars from the 60's.  Crosby is named after David Crosby of 'Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young' fame, and Bowie is named after David Bowie.

We watched the FIFA World Cup match between France and Morocco won easily by France 2-0, who is favored to win the 2026 edition of the World Cup.  Around 5 pm we drove to the local In 'N Out Burger to meet Nick, Kate, Jolene and Levy for dinner.  We haven't had an In 'N Out Burger fix in a long time....

.....TLE and I always order their #2 Combo (cheeseburger, drink, and fries).  I neglected to take pictures of everyone else, but they were there.  Around 6 pm we bid adieu to Nick, Kate and the kids until next time, then headed back to the hotel.  While we were still at In 'N Out Burger Kate got a text from Tim advising they had arrived home safely.

I was able to watch the replay of Stage #6 of Le Tour de France, and what a stage it was!  Tadej Pogočar (Tădā Pogatcha), the winner the last four years, began the day 7 minutes and 53 seconds behind the leader, usually considered an insurmountable lead.  At the 36 mile mark (36 miles left in the Stage) he began an 'attack', and with a performance for the ages not only overcame that almost 8 minute lead, won the 6th Stage, but ended up back in the lead by over 2 minutes and 30 seconds!  A performance for the ages.  I have never seen anything like it in Le Tour de France....never.

We were headed off to 'slumberland' a little after 10 pm.  Our flight out of Ontario International departs at 3 pm, so we will be getting back to Likely around 11 pm Friday night....thanks for stopping by!

Love, hugs, laughter, and conversation....

 12:44 pm - Thursday - July 9th - Beaumont, CA - 95° F, humidity 18%, cloud cover ZERO %, wind 14 mph out of the west.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 96° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Keystone, SD having coffees and pastries....

....at 'Grapes and Grinds'....I love TLE's turned down smile in this picture.

The day we arrived in SoCal our kids (Nick, Kate, Tim and their kids) were at Disneyland, and didn't return home until after 11 pm so we were able to have a leisurely morning before heading over to Nick and Kate's home around 10 am to spend the day.  We knew it would be a day filled with wonderful conversations, and interaction with our kids and their kids....

Grandkids playing dress up

Left to right: Levy, Bowie, Brayden, Jolene, Caleb, Scarlett and Crosby

Seven of our eleven grandchildren

.....in the picture above is a rare picture of our 'honorary' granddaughter, Scarlett, daughter of Amanda our honorary daughter, and best friend of daughter Sharon.....

Grandpa and Caleb (Sharon's son)

Brayden (Sharon's son) and Jolene (Kate's daughter)

Sharon and Caleb

Our daughter, Kate

Bowie (Tim's daughter)

Levy enjoying his 'Michael Jackson' phase....lol!

.....Wednesday was filled with love, hugs, picture taking, laughter, and much conversation.  By 6 pm we called it a day and headed back to our hotel for the evening, exhausted, but filled with love and satisfaction....just as I saw our day going.

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

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