Three days until we open for the season.....

 7:40 am - Wednesday - April 29th - LPG&RVR - 39° F, humidity 38%, cloud cover 9%, wind 1 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at The Shaved Duck......

....in St. Louis, MO....we were on our way to Maine where we would spend the summer working at Smuggler's Den in Southwest Harbor.  The Shaved Duck was featured on an episode of 'Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives'.

Times passes quickly, and suddenly we were waking up in LPG&RVR on a Tuesday...our fourth day back.  As I was composing my blog entry for the day I saw Dennis, Jose, John and DeWayne moving picnic tables to the individual sites.  When they got close to our site I headed out for a few minutes to say 'HI' to them all.  As of Tuesday morning we have just 3 days left before the May 1st opening, so there will be a flurry of activity between now and then putting the final touches on the park before the season begins.

Once I was done with my blog I got dressed, and headed over to the Clubhouse to have coffee with Claude, and anyone else who showed.  Ultimately Dennis came in so we had a chance to talk with him for a while.  While there I discovered that my new wheel covers for the Newell had arrived so I took them home with the other mail we had received.  Now that the trailer was organized I needed to install the small jack stands I use to stabilize the trailer.  Because the trailer is suspended on leaf springs it can get a little 'bouncy' when you walk from the front to the back of the trailer....

Needed three 2 x 6's pieces to raise the jack stand up high enough to make contact with the right rear corner of the trailer, which is pretty high off the ground

.....to keep the small jack stands from sinking into the gravel over time I cut out small 3/4" plywood pieces for them to sit upon, plus a few 2 x 6's pieces to put under them where needed due to the slopping terrain where the trailer sits.

Around 1 pm TLE and I headed over to the Clubhouse to partake in a taste test for the milkshakes Art and Sunny will be selling this summer.  They were delicious.  They will also be making pizzas.  We were back home by 2 pm at which time TLE and I did some weeding around the Newell using a Hula Hoe....

I weeded the dining/gaming deck in preparation for setting up our enclosed dining canopy

TLE weeded the area at the front of the coach

.....there is a little more to do, but we're almost there.  I, next, installed not only the new wheel covers for the Newell (the old ones were at least 5 years old, and had begun to get brittle, so we tossed them when we left TWW), but also the ones for the trailer, which are only a year old....

.....around 5:30 pm we walked over to Claude's Wanderlodge to share a fire, and drink some whiskey.  Jose stopped by for a couple of 'pops' before he finished mowing the RV park.  No one works harder, or longer every day than Jose, who is not only the course superintendent, but also the General Manager of LPG&RVR.  TLE and I bid our adieus around 8:30 pm, and headed home.

Thanks for stopping by!

A new iteration.....

 7:54 am - Tuesday - April 28th - LPG&RVR - 38° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 28%, wind 1 mph out of the east.....clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 61° F....at last...a day over 60° F.  On this date in 2011 I wrote the following....

"There comes a time in life, when you walk away from all the drama and the people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh, forget the bad, and focus on the good. So love the people who treat you right, and pray for the ones who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy."

....more meaningful now than ever....Abraham Lincoln famously said "You are only as happy as you decide to be". Decide to be happy....

This makes me happy!

....picture taken at the Salted Pig in Riverside, CA in 2015. The view this morning....

....as you can see, the window awnings have been deployed.

It's still winter here at LPG&RVR, but the show must continue. Before much else can be done around our site I needed to get the trailer organized, so I can find my tools, so it was to the trailer I headed first thing Monday morning. I've done this a few dozen times over the almost 15 years we've been on the road. It is never fast, or automatic. Each time we set up for a long stay the organization changes slightly, and most often for the good, and I think this setup is the beast iteration yet.....

The plants are kept in the trailer each night as we are still getting frost here.  TLE worked too hard this winter on getting them healthy to have 

them killed by frost

.....I only set up 2 of our larger tables, and two of the small ones to fit the space. TLE wanted her 'food' table setup nearer the back of the trailer, so I obliged her. All of the things, and tools I use on a daily basis are on the table nearest my workbench. She's only into her portable food pantry a few times per week, and sometimes less, so it works out well for both of us.

The trailer took most of the morning, so I took a break, then headed outside again with TLE to do some work on this year's version of the 'lido deck'.....

.....I failed to mention that while I was working in the trailer that TLE spent quite a bit of time weeding her flower beds, which are already brimming with growing flowers (not yet blooming). We still need to deploy the sun shades, but that will come a little later as it gets warmer. Right now we want lots of sun on the 'lido deck'.

It was a good day, and a lot was accomplished, but a lot remains to be done. It has been nice getting here almost a week early so we can take our time. Our first four day work shift begins Friday, May 1st, so we will soon be into our 4 days on, and 4 days off routine, and I am looking forward to that.

Thanks for stopping by!

In between the rain drops....

 7:38 am - Monday - April 27th - LPG&RVR - 39° F, humidity 54%, cloud cover 62%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northwest.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  Seems like we left mid Spring weather in Seligman only to return to late Winter weather here at LPG&RVR....lol.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were visiting Mt. Vernon.....

.....the home of George and Martha Washington on the shores of the Potomac River in Virginia.  The view this morning.....

....so quiet here right now.

It rained off and on all night long here at LPG&RVR, and we awoke to the sound of rain pitter pattering on our riveted aircraft aluminum roof.  My favorite way to wake up on days I am not working....lol.  Rain was forecast to come and go all day, so not much got done outside, but TLE was like a 'white tornado' cleaning the Newell interior.  She even got a load of wash done in our splendid Splendide....first time it has been used in 6 months!

When we got a lull in the rain early afternoon I got dressed and headed outside to take care of two things.....level the trailer, and install the jack stands under the rear of the Newell.  As you all know if you have been reading for a while, in cold weather the Newell air suspension tends to settle over time making the Newell unlevel from front to back.  To counteract this last year I bought jack stands to place under the rear frame, and they worked quite well, but sank into the gravel over time.

The first order of business was the trailer.  Last year I jacked up the passenger side of the trailer, and built a gravel mound under the tires, and then inserted the 'Lego type' leveling blocks under the them before lowering the bottle jack I used to raise the passenger side.  The leveling blocks did not handle the weight well, so this year I wanted to utilize 2 x 6's, which I though would handle the weight of the trailer better (the trailer weighs around 4,000 pounds 'empty', meaning no car).  I mentioned to Bob Longacre that I needed to find some 3/4" plywood for the jack stands, and some 2 x 6's for the trailer.  He happened to have some scrap 2 x 6's and 3/4" plywood which he offered to me to use....

The scrap plywood and 2 x 6's in front of the trailer

.....I had 3 pretty good sized 2 x 6's so I cut them down, and ended up with them stacked two high and wide....came out pretty well, and now the trailer is level, and on a much more solid foundation.

Next I set the two jack stands on the 3/4" plywood piece Bob gave me and traced out two 3/4" pads for the individual jack stands to set upon....

....now they won't sink into the gravel.  With that I was done with outdoor activity, and it began to sprinkle again.....great timing!  Now that the trailer is level I can begin to organize it into my Summer mancave, and I hope to be able to do that Monday.

I spent the balance of the afternoon reading, and catching up on some of the YouTube channels to which I subscribe.  For dinner TLE unthawed some soup she had made a while back and served it with some cheese bread....a perfect winter meal.

Thanks for stopping by!

Home again....

 7:33 am - Sunday - April 26th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 68%, cloud cover 86%, wind 2 mph out of the northwest....heavy cloud cover with rain forecast throughout the day....forecast high is 48° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Washington D.C. visiting Arlington National Cemetery, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.....

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Changing of the Guard

Arlington National Cemetery

.....we spent two weeks in and around Washington D.C. seeing everything on our bucket list.  The view this morning....

....the park is completely empty except for workers, but that will change on Friday, May 1st, which is opening day.

We've overnighted at many Rest Areas, truck stops, and Walmart parking lots over the years, and it's always a mixed bag as far as noise levels.  We typically overnight at the Honey Lake Rest Area near Janesville, CA heading north, and heading south, so we're there two nights every 12 months.  One time we had trucks running their refers (refrigerated trailers) all night long, and it was not a good experience, however, this time we had the best experience ever.  We had two semis on our passenger side running nothing, and one semi on our driver side running nothing.  They shielded us from other trucks who were running stuff, and the result was an amazingly great night's sleep.  

We could have pushed on two more hours Friday, but that would have had us arriving late in the day making it impossible to get into our site before dark.  We knew rain was on the way to Likely, so we wanted to arrive early Saturday to get into our site, and begin setting up.

A beautiful sunrise over Honey Lake greeted us around 7 am Saturday....

....after posting my daily post we were on the road by 8:30 am heading ever northward on US-395.  Our distance to LPG&RVR was 85 miles, and over the course of that distance we were passed by just two vehicles.  This part of US-395 is SO remote, there is hardly any traffic.  Sometimes we can drive 2o miles into Alturas and not see a single vehicle.  The miles quickly melted away, and before we knew it we were turning right onto Likely Place at 9:59 am, and just 1 mile from our home for the next 5 months.

Our good friend Claude Banker was on hand to great us....he spent the winter here.  Just as last year, he is in site #54, right next to us.  After a short chat we unloaded the Beetle, then dropped the trailer from the Newell so Claude could use his Chevrolet pickup to move the trailer into position.  We really have a difficult time maneuvering our trailer such a tight space, and it usually takes us 30, or 40 minutes to do so.  With Claude's help it was done in 10 minutes....

.....a few days ago while we were still in Bishop I texted Claude to see how he was doing, and during that back and forth 'conversation' jokingly suggested he might spend a 'few hours' leveling our site for us before we arrived.  Well, guess what....he did!  He did a great job, but while we were discussing how we were going to figure how to duplicate our position for the Newell from last year TLE suggested we just pull out the large artificial turf piece and place it where we knew it should be placed along the rock border we built around the turf last year.  Brilliant!  We did just that and had the Newell in position within minutes.  In less than 90 minutes we had both the trailer in their spots for the next 5 months.....

Club Car Village #20 ready for service!

As you know there is a lot of 'setting up' left to do in site #55, and that will take a number of days

....there is still a lot to do, but we were so excited we decided to meet over at the restaurant, which has new operators this year, who arrived in early April, and are already serving food!  We arrived there around 12 pm to find Claude, and Bob (Longacre....a very good friend)....

....the food and conversation were wonderful.  Bob regaled us with one joke after another, and kept us laughing the entire time.  We met Art and Sonny who are operating the restaurant on a concessionaire basis this year, and had an immediate connection with them.  This promises to be a great LPG&RVR summer!

After lunch TLE and I went out to fetch my Club Car Villager #20, and found the battery was not up to starting the engine, so we got a charger from the 'Caddy Shack', and plugged it into the cart, then walked home. About 90 minutes later I returned, and the cart started and ran perfectly!

The rain eventually arrived around 8 pm, and it continued on and off for the rest of the night.  As I write it is sprinkling again.  We should have rain into the early afternoon before it begins to clear, so we'll be staying indoors until that happens.

Thanks for stopping by!

Five Eastern Sierra Passes.....

 7:04 am - Saturday - April 25th - TWW - 41° F, humidity 50%, cloud cover 52%, wind 6 mph out of the west by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 65° F here at the Honey Lake Rest Area off US-395.  We find ourselves less than 2 hours from LPG&RVR.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in St. Louis, MO.....

Left to right: Moi, TLE, Kay and Creig (pronounced Craig)

.....having dinner at 4 Hands Brewing Company with TLE's brother, Creig, and his wife Kay.  You've only met TLE's sisters before, but she also had two brothers....Creig and Read.  The view this morning....

....sunrise over Honey Lake in the background.

We always have a time in mind for when we want to begin our driving day, and on Friday it was to be on the road between 8 am and 9 am.  It was a chilly morning in Bishop necessitating the use of our block heater (heats the coolant in the block of the engine) to heat up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 for the first time in half a year.  The switch for the block heater is in the bedroom right above the head of the bed, so I usually, around 4, or 5 am on departure day, lean over and flip the switch so by the time we leave a few hours later the 6v92 will turn over and fire immediately.  Having access to 30 amps on each leg of our 50 amp system allows us to run our 2 electric heaters, the block heater, and our electric kettle at the same time....they each draw around 10 amps.

I had already disconnected from the water source Friday evening, so all I had to do after finishing my daily missive was to shutdown Starlink, and then unplug from shore power.  I fired up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 around 8 am, and we were on the road by 8:10 am heading northward on US-395.

Our initial goal for the day was the Walmart in Indian Hills, NV (just south of Carson City) where we would do some shopping at the Walmart and Trader Joe's, which is in the same parking lot.  If you have followed our blog for any period of time you know that between Bishop, CA and Indian Hills, NV there are 5 summits we must climb, and descend.  The first is Sherwin Grade which begins about 15 miles north of Bishop.  It is around 8-9 miles long, and involves a continuous 6% grade topping out at 7,000 feet above sea level.  The second, just past Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is Dead Man's Summit (8,047'), then the grand daddy of all summits/passes on US-395....Conway Summit which at 8,143' above seal level is the highest point of the entire length of US-395 from the Mexican Border to the Canadian Border.  Then there is Devil's Gate Summit just north of Bridgeport reaching 7,519' feet above sea level.  The last pass, just past Topaz Lake, NV is Simee Dimeh sitting at a mere 5,978' where you begin a slow, long descent into the Carson Valley.  From Bishop to Indian Hills it is about 150 miles, but due to all of the summits, and climbing and descending them in mostly 2nd gear at 32 mph, it takes almost 4 hours, but the views are amazing....

Leaving Bishop

Beginning the climb up Sherwin Grade

At the top of Sherwin Grade near Tom's Place

Crowley Lake

Beginning the Conway Summit climb

Mono Lake

Mono Lake and Lee Vining in the distance

Conway Summit

.....it was basically rinse, wash, repeat for a little less than 4 hours.  I set the cruise control and just hung on to the wheel.

We reached the Walmart in Indian Hills around 11:55 am.  Our Jello plan was to shop, and then spend the afternoon and night in the Walmart parking lot (it used to be legal to do so until this year), but we were met with 'NO OVERNIGHT PARKING' signs, so that changed our plans immediately.  We usually stay at the Tahoe/Douglas Elks Lodge in Gardnerville, but spending just one night does not overcome the difficulty in backing into their RV sites, so on the spot we made a new plan.  We would spend a little over an hour there shopping, and for me taking a nap, before continuing on another 2 hours to the Honey Lake Rest Area in Janesville, CA where we have overnighted numerous times over the past 4+ years, then arrive at LGPG&RVR Saturday morning.  It's about 88 miles from Honey Lake to the golf course....

The Walmart parking lot

.....by 1:15 pm we were back on US-395 northbound through Carson City and Reno.  Road construction has been ongoing on US-395 through Reno, and north to the California border over 10 years, and it is still not complete, but it is close....maybe in 6 months when we head south again it will be FINALLY done.

Once we escaped the road construction the drive became fun again as we crossed back into California just north of Border Town, NV.  The drive to Honey Lake was without incident and took almost exactly 2 hours....

Starlink deployed

Doesn't she look pretty!

....we found a nice pull site near the back of the Rest Area, parked, leveled, and settled in for a nice afternoon/evening.

Thanks for stopping by!