You just never know.....

 8:04 am - Tuesday - September 29th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 1%, wind 8 mph out of the north......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of  77° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Gardiner, MT.....

at Yellowstone RV Park, which is on the Yellowstone River, watching another Montana sunset.  We had just a couple of days left to work at the General Store at Mammoth Hot Springs before we would depart for new adventures.  The view this morning....

It's been a week since we last made a trip into Alturas to do our weekly shopping, so after lazing around most of the morning we headed into Alturas to do just that.  It was one of the first clear skies days we have had in quite a while.  I'll never get tired of the drive north on US-395 where sometimes you can see a mile ahead on this very straight section of the highway.  I think we passed just one car going into town, and none on the return trip.  We didn't see another vehicle until we were on the outskirts of Alturas.  

We didn't need to buy many things, so we made just two stops.....Dollar General and Holiday Market.  By the time we finished at Holiday Market it was close to 1 pm, so we decided to stop off at Rubio's Taqueria for some of their wonderful Street Tacos.  We haven't had any of their amazing Mexican food for a couple of months, and this visit will probably be our last until next Spring.  We were in and out in less than 10 minutes, then headed down to the city park near the local history museum where there are a few picnic tables, one of which is almost always in the shade.  We've followed this routine many, many times over the 5 summers we lived here, and are never disappointed in the quality of these tacos, or the location.  I always order mine with carne asada.

We'll probably make the trip into Alturas one, or two more times as we won't be leaving until closer to the middle of October.  We're going take a slightly different route south this year, and not drive through Carson City, Indian Hills, Minden, or Gardnerville down to Bishop on US-395.  Instead, when we hit I-80 in Reno we'll head east on I-80 to US-95 and take that south to US-93 to Kingman, AZ.  Diesel is really, really expensive right now at almost $6/gallon, so we're taking the most direct route we can, with as few high passes as possible....in fact I think the highest pass we'll traverse is down near Walker Lake at just 5,000 feet.  Taking this route will shave over 100 miles off our drive totaling out at 777 miles door to door.  Usually we're closer to 900 miles.  Avoiding those 5 passes south of Minden, NV will save a lot of fuel.

By the time we arrived home, and put away our groceries it was after 3 pm.  I had planned to spend some time on the 'lido deck' reading, but it was already getting too cool to be outside.  Speaking of cool, after Tuesday we'll have nothing but 80's for the balance of our stay here at LPG&RVR, with over night temps in the 40's.  Much warmer than last year at this same time.  I had already substituted our heated hose for our regular fresh water hose by this time.

There was a great Monday Night Football game on Monday night featuring the Philadelphia Eagles at the Chicago Bears.  The Bear's starting quarterback, Caleb Williams, pulled a hamstring last weekend, and one of their star receivers also was hurt, and not available for this game, so I wasn't expecting much from the Bears, but was I ever wrong.  The Bears steamrolled the Eagles 27-7, and it easily could have been 41-27....you just never know.  The Bears sent out Case Keenum, a 38 year old journeyman quarterback, who had been with 5, or 6 teams in his career, and hadn't thrown a competitive pass in 1100 days....close to 3 years.  If he never plays another game he will have this one to remember forever.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cold, rainy and windy.....

 8:17 am - Monday - September 28th - LPG&RVR - 43° F, humidity 38%, cloud cover 2%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe.....

.....enjoying the company of Sue and Guy Cobham.  They had purchased a 1984 Newell Classic earlier that year, which I found for them in South Dakota, and their maiden trip in the Newell was to come visit us at Tahoe Valley Campground.  We were able to get them a site right next to us.  The view this morning.....

.....no more clouds!

TLE had to open the Clubhouse Office Sunday morning, again, so she was up around 6 am.  I managed to stay in bed (you notice I didn't say sleep) until 6:30 am.  With the lights on, the heaters running, and TLE making coffee it was just too much to sleep.  It's not her fault.  Once I smell fresh coffee being made I have this almost Pavlovian response, and must get up....lol.

It began raining just before 7 am, and rained on and off for the rest of the day.  TLE was on her way to open the office by 7:50 am, and back by 9:20 am after Cindy had arrived at 9 am to take over until noon time when TLE returned for the balance of the day.

I, on the other hand, remained in doors where it was warm and cozy enjoying not being outside in the bitter cold, windy, rainy conditions.  That was left to other poor souls to endure.  It being Sunday meant there were NFL games to be enjoyed, and the final round of the President's Cup (golf) being played.  I wasn't sure how much of the President's Cup I would watch as the USA was in dire straits going into the 4th round on Sunday, and if they didn't rally I would be watching more NFL football than golf.

The format of the Presidents Cup is match play just like the Ryder Cup.  And like the Ryder Cup it is played every other year.  Essentially, it is the USA players against the Internationals (from everywhere in the world except Europe).  The Ryder cup is the USA vs. European players.  Coming into this President's Cup the USA had won the last 10 in a row.  They got off to a good start Thursday leading 3-2 after the first round, but lost all 5 matches on Friday to the Internationals who now lead the USA 7-3.  The USA managed to pull within 10.5 t0 7.5 points on Saturday.  There are a total of 30 points available over the four days....one point per match won, so the USA needed 8 points out of the 12 points available Sunday to win, and the Internationals only needed 5 points.  I did not expect the USA to be able to accomplish that based on the previous three days, but I was wrong.  They ended up winning 9 of the 12 matches on Sunday, and tying one to win going away 17-13.

There were some very good NFL games on Sunday including the Raiders coming from behind in New Orleans to win their third in a row to start the season, The Cowboys losing a game in the final two seconds to the Ravens, which everyone thought they had won, and the night game between the Rams and Broncos in Denver, in the rain in which the lead changed four times in the final 5 minutes of play with Denver coming out on top.

The rain came and went all day long, and I never turned off our electric heaters.  I think the high temp was around 62° F late Sunday afternoon, but it did not feel that warm to me.  TLE was home by 5:30 pm.  Kathie and Richard returned to LPG&RVR Sunday afternoon so Kathie will be running the show Monday and Tuesday, and TLE will get to sleep in Monday (which she did).

Thanks for stopping by!

The unexpected......

 7:04 am - Sunday - September 27th - LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 47%, cloud cover 90%.....very cloudy today with a chance of rain, and a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

.....visiting Canyon Falls for the first time.  The river is the Yellowstone, of course.  We had to wait until well after Labor Day to be able to get into the parking lot.  During the summer the wait to find a parking spot was over an hour....sometimes more.  Well worth the wait!  I wrote about that here.

Kathie Smith's (TLE's counterpart in the Clubhouse Office) husband, Richard, had to be taken down to a hospital in Reno for tests, unexpectedly, early Thursday morning, and was not back yet on Saturday, so TLE had to open the office Saturday morning.  As a result I was left to my own devices for a few hours in the morning.  That gave me time to retrieve the rest of our tables, etc. from the large gazebo and move them back to our site.  It was around 34° F at 8 am Saturday morning when I dropped off TLE at the Clubhouse, and there was a frost delay until 9 am for golfers as the greens had a coating of frost, of course.   Once I had everything back at our site, I just left everything on the cart until it warmed enough to spend any more of time outdoors.  It took me less than 15 minutes to get all that done.

One of our permanent residents, Cindy Golden, has been training under TLE and Kathie for this summer for just such an emergency, so she came into the office around 9 am, and TLE was home by 10 am, only to return later around 4 pm to help Cindy close out the day.  As it turned out they had 45 golfers, rented a lot of carts, and she did a great job with the register balancing right to the penny at the end of the day.  TLE will open again on Sunday if Kathie has not been able to return, with Cindy coming in at 9 am to 12 pm, then TLE will handle the afternoon.  Kathie and Richard should be back sometime Sunday afternoon.

Of course Saturday is NCAA Collee Football day, and I had both the Salon TV and outdoor TV tuned to whatever game I was watching at the time.  Around 11 am it was warm enough to begin putting away the stuff on the cart.  We used the table on which the Sea-B-Que normally resides, so I set that back up first, and then returned the numerous chairs and recliners to their spots.  We still have three ice chests full of beer, and melted ice water to deal with, and I'll do that on Sunday, or Monday, weather permitting.

I spent the rest of the day watching football, napping and reading.  It was a perfect first day of our four day weekend.....thanks for stopping by!

The 'Pub Crawl'......

 7:13 am - Saturday - September 26th - LPG&RVR - 32° F, humidity 34%, cloud 68%, wind 11 mph out of the south....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Cape Blanco, OR.....

....walking on South Cape Beach (south of the lighthouse) for the last time before heading north to Springfield, OR to have some solar panels added to our rooftop array at AM Solar (no longer in business).

Friday was jam packed with with things to do.  We rented at least 20 golf carts throughout the day.  I did some string trimming of the large gazebo, and the 15 pull through sites I had mowed the day before, ran a couple of sprinklers on dry spots around the Clubhouse wood deck, and down at the 'Night Office'.  Soon it was time for TLE's 90 minute lunch break.  I sent out a couple of golfers, and checked in a few RVs, but otherwise it was not very busy.  

After lunch I spent time hauling tables, and chairs over to the large gazebo where the our first annual Pub Crawl was to take place at 5:30 pm, and hauled more ice to keep all of the craft beer were were going to serve cold.  By 3 pm there were 8 golf carts to wash, and by 3:45 pm I had washed 12 carts in all.  Then it was time to head for home, take a shower, then finishing setting up our 'Pub Crawl' station.  It turned out pretty well....

Our 17 craft beer offerings

I strung some of our solar Edison lights

.....in all we offered 17 craft beer choices.  You can see our 'High Forest Pub' banner in the foreground.  In all we had about 20 stations offering whiskey, tequila, scotch, wine, beer (us), and a lot of pub food.  The first annual 'Pub Crawl' was deemed a resounding success, and folks where still hanging out when we headed home after 8 pm.  We left most of our station there overnight, but did bring home all the chairs, and ice chests.

Friday was literally our 'Friday' this four day work cycle, and it was a good week full of a lot of things I have now done for the last time this season....mowing, and string trimming among those final things.  I'll be clearing the driving range one last time next Thursday, and washing/stowing my last golf cart on Saturday.  I was able to spend time talking with a number of people who call LPG&RVR their home each summer, just as we do.  Life is good!  Now it's time to relax, and watch some NCAA College Football.

Thanks for stopping by!

A few last things.....

 5:49 am - Friday - September 25th - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 39%, cloud cover 32%, wind 13 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Bandon, OR.....

.....at Tony's Crab Shack having their amazing fish tacos (TLE actually had their Salmon Alfredo).

We rented 4 Club Car electrics and all 6 EZ-GO gassers for a total of 10 carts Thursday, and it really didn't even seem that busy.  I had 5 carts leftover from Wednesday.  By the end of the day six of the ten would return leaving four to wash Friday morning.  Speaking of Friday morning, with the arrival of Friday we have just 5 work days left in our summer season, including Friday.  We'll have a four day weekend after Friday, and then the final four work days.  By next Sunday we will begin to take down our site.  Where has the summer gone?

When we arrived at the Clubhouse there was a balmy breeze blowing out of the southwest.  The temp would hit 84° F late afternoon, but it felt warmer than that all day.  Overnight it will plunge just to 69° F on Friday, then stay in the 70's for the rest of the time we are here.  By 10 am I was mowing the large gazebo grass, then 13 of the 15 pull through sites (21-35) before it was time to clear the driving range for the second to last time this summer.  Not many range balls had been hit over the past week, and I ended up harvesting about 2/3's of a bucket of balls.  Combined with the almost 1/2 bucket of balls I picked Wednesday, there were just over 1 bucket of balls cleared over two days.  By the time I finished with that it was almost time for TLE's lunch break.

After TLE's lunch break I washed the range balls (didn't take long), and then washed the four Club Car electrics which had been returned.  Two more of the EZ-GO carts would return before 3:30 pm.  I managed to mow one more of the pull through sites leaving just the large grass area next to site #30.  From there I headed over to the group fire pit area to mow there, and I was done.  I'll do a little more mowing Friday, and that will be the last I mow this season.  The grass is really not growing that quickly now, and Steve will probably take care of the 10 back in sites over his four day shift.

I was home before 3:30 pm relaxing for about 1/2 an hour, then out in the trailer organizing the many craft beers for the 'Pub Crawl' Friday evening.  I filled three ice chests half full with ice at the restaurant, then began to insert the beer bottles, and cans into the ice to get them all cold for Friday night.  By the time I finished with that it was time to go pick up TLE and head home.  

Thanks for stopping by!

I was wrong.....

 5:49 am - Thursday - September 24th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 24%, cloud cover 33%,  wind 16 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were in Seal Rock, OR.....

.....for our last sunset fire....a cloudless, windless evening....sunset 7:08 pm.

As we wind down our 5th season here at LPG&RVR the sun is now setting before 7 pm (6:55 pm), and within a week will be rising after 7 am.  While the park is relatively active right now, there are not many golfers.  Wednesday we rented just 7 golf carts, and by 3:30 pm 5 of them had been returned leaving just two for Thursday morning.  I only put out our five Club Car electrics if we know they will all be rented by 10 am.  Why?  Well, when a customer rents a cart for 18 holes he has 5 hours to complete the 18 holes, which means if they tee off at 10 am the cart must be returned by 3 pm, or 5 hours later.  On this day the 5th cart was to go out at 10 am, so I staged them.

I washed the two left over carts a little after 8 am, then headed down to the 'Night Office' to turn on the sprinklers again.  I had done a lot of watering on Tuesday, and felt I could get the rest of the grass watered by Wednesday afternoon.  On my way back to the Clubhouse I also set out two sprinklers on the parking lot grass. During the rest of the morning I string trimmed all of the employee sites, and the small gazebo, cleared range balls from the woods on either side of the driving range garnering 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket to wash later in the morning, moved the sprinklers down at the 'Night Office', and parking lot grass, then mowed the small gazebo grass, and the employee grass.  By the time I fueled, and cleaned the 2 bag Husqvarna it was 12 noon, and time for TLE's lunch break.

It was a typical end of the year lunch break.  I checked 4 RVs into the park, and sent a few folks out to play golf; otherwise it was pretty quiet.  By the time I headed back outside four of the 5 Club Car electrics had returned, and I was sure the 5th one would return well before 3:30 pm, but I was wrong.  As 3 pm came and went I drove around the entire LPG&RVR campus in search of the cart, but it was no where to be found.  Finally I asked TLE to call them and request they return the cart ASAP.  Finally around 3:30 pm it was returned, but with an angry customer.  Why was he angry?  Beats me.  He and his wife had taken 5.5 hours to play just 18 holes.  I'm not a very good golfer, and I can play 18 holes in under 4 hours, and that's playing two, or three balls per hole.  As it turns out they didn't tee off until 10:20 am after picking up the cart at 9:40 am.  Had they teed off on time they would have been back well before 3:30 even taking as long as they did to play 18 holes.  Anyway, I quickly washed and stowed that cart and headed for home about 3:45 pm.

When I returned at 5 pm to pickup TLE from work she advised me one of our EZ-GO carts had quit working about half way to the 17th green, so after dropping off TLE at home I picked up Claude and drove out to retrieve the cart (#83).  I was hoping we would not have to tow it in, and that it would just start and run making it an easy rescue, and for a change I was right.  Why it quit working is a mystery as it had 1/2 tank of gas.  We'll have to check it out Thursday.  I was back home eating dinner about 25 minutes later, and my work day was finally over.

Thanks for stopping by!

And the countdown begins....

 5:50 am - Wednesday - September 23rd - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 20%, wind 8 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Gold Beach, OR.....

.....taking a ride of Jerry's Jet Boats on the Rogue River.....what a day!!!

As one might expect, our first day back to work on a Tuesday was pretty quiet.  In all we rented 12 golf carts.  There were two Yamaha gassers left over from Monday to greet me when we arrived at the 'Cart Return' area at 7:30 am.  The tee time sheet showed a need for just 4 carts, but we all know that will grow throughout the day, and as I reported above it did.  With the sun rising later and later each day it is still pretty cold at 7:30 am, so I wait until well after 8 am to wash any carts now.  I'm sure before the end of the season that I will be taking a lunch break each day after I give TLE hers, and working until at least 4:30 pm  since golfers are not really teeing off until 9 am, or later now.

I was planning to do some mowing Tuesday, which I haven't done for over a week as Steve has done most of it, however, as I drove around the park first thing Tuesday I could see that the grass at the 'Night Office', the parking lot grass, and the three residential lawns needed attention.  In order to mow the 'Night Office' grass I have to roll up the very long four hoses we use to water the large area to make it easier to mow, so I did that, and then around 10 am I retrieved a string trimmer from the 'Caddy Shack' to trim around the residential lawns, and the 'Night Office' lawn before mowing them.  By 10:30 am I was on the 2 bag Husqvarna mowing first the three residential lawns, then the 'Night Office' lawn, then the parking lot grass.  By the time I finished mowing, refueling the Husqvarna, and blowing the grass clippings off the mowing deck it was time for TLE's lunch break.

It was relatively busy  in the Clubhouse office for the 90 minutes I was there.  I checked in a couple of RV's, sold some merchandise, and sent a few golfers out on the course.  By the time TLE returned there were several carts awaiting their daily spa treatment, which kept me busy for the balance of my shift.  I was off by 3:30 pm, and on my way home for a hot shower, and a nap.  Now there are just 7 work days remaining, and as I write, only 6 more early mornings before our season ends on October 3rd....the countdown has begun!

Thanks for stopping by!