The final round.....

5:12 pm - Monday - September 26th - Likely, CA -  85° F, 20% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the southwest......clear, blue skies today with a forecast (now past) high of 87° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and were watching this amazing sunset at Seal Rocks RV Cove......↴

We slept in until almost 8 am Sunday.....I am still in awe of how quiet it is here....so easy to sleep in!  We began our day, as has become our custom on days off work, with our standard 2 mile walk out to Jess Valley Road and back.....

.....and it was a new 'world record' with an elapsed time of 32 minutes, 52 seconds!  Seriously, we are not trying to beat our prior times.......we are just getting more fit, and just walking faster.....

Still managing to maintain my boyish like figure.....LOL

As one might imagine after reading the prior two days blog posts, we spent virtually the entire day watching the singles matches at the Presidents Cup.  The U.S. began the day with and 11-7 lead, and ended the day with the final score at 17.5 - 12.5 points....the U.S. only needed 15.5 points to win the Cup for the second time in as many years.  Frankly, it was a lot closer than the score would indicate.  A key putt here and there for the U.S. was the ultimate difference.

Our new Starlink internet continues to work flawlessly day after day, and we are able to stream TV programs anytime day, or night without interruption.  It is probably one of the best investments we have made since becoming fulltime vagabonders/nomads.

On the health front, TLE and I continue to be asymptomatic to the Chinese Flu, and frankly, as one might tell from my lack of comment for quite a while now, we rarely even think about it, or speak about it.  Over the last 6 months most of the 'truths' which were immediately labeled as lies by the media, and the social media outlets have been proven, and subsequently acknowledged to be true after all.  We continue to see ads on TV by well known, national pharmacies promoting the falsehood that getting vaccinated will protect those around you, and your young ones (in order to promote getting vaccinated, or getting boosted) when all it really does is protect the person getting vaccinated from getting a bad case of the Chinese flu....it DOES NOT protect anyone around you from getting it from you, or anyone else who has been vaccinated.  Even if vaccinated one can get it, and even pass it on, so why the falsehoods by the national pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid)?  On the other hand, we now know that being vaccinated does not prevent you from getting the Chinese flu a first, second, or even third time.  Only those who did not get vaccinated, but got the Chinese flu, will not get it again.....getting it, and recovering is the only true way to be immunized.  To be clear, I am not promoting getting it while unvaccinated, as a way to become immunized, so please do not go there.  The only people we know who have contracted the Chinese flu are those who live, and work in large population centers, and that is what I am promoting....get out of the large populations centers, and move to rural America.  The only people who die from it, for the most part, as has been known from the beginning, are those over 70 with significant co-morbidities.....those cases account for over 90+% of all deaths from the Chinese flu.  That's my 2 cents, and I'm sticking to it.

Thanks for stopping by!

BritBox......

7:16 am - Sunday - September 25th - Likely, CA - 43° F, 57% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were having lunch at Tony's Crab Shack in Bandon, OR.....the BEST fish tacos I have ever had....bar none!......↴ 

A large part of Saturday was spent watching the Presidents Cup being played at Quail Hollow near Charlotte, NC.  We (U.S.) began the day up 8 points to 2 points (1 point awarded for each match win).  There were 8 four ball matches on Saturday, and in the morning session we split the first four matches beginning the afternoon session up 10-4, however, the Internationals rallied in the afternoon matches picking up 3 points to just one for the U.S. team closing the gap to 11-7.  On Sunday the U.S. needs just 4.5 points to win, while the Internationals needs 8.5 points.  There will be 12 match play pairings on Sunday, so the U.S. only needs to win 4, and tie a fifth, whereas the Internationals must win 8 matches, and tie a fifth.....they are long shots, but anything is possible in match play, so it will be an exciting finish on Sunday!

We did our usual off day walk out to Jess Valley Road and back setting our best time for the two mile walk at 33 minutes even.....

Finally able to wear short pants again....won't last long...lol!

.....Saturday was also the day of our weekly putting contest.  We had over 30 entrants, which is not surprising as we rented all 30 of our golf carts Saturday, something we haven done in quite a while.  I managed to play two rounds before being eliminated, and TLE one round, but we had fun, as we always do.

We didn't get home until almost 6 pm at which point I fired up the Sea-B-Que in preparation for grilling another one of those London Broils we got such a great deal on a few weeks ago.  TLE added a side salad to what turned out to be one of the best London Broils we have grilled....so tender and flavorful!

We subscribe (as of a few months ago) to a new to us streaming service called BritBox courtesy of my brother and sister-in-law (Charles and Phyllis).  It gives us access to 100's of great British productions.  There are some great mystery shows that we thoroughly enjoy, and that is what we did Saturday evening.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back on course......

 9:09 am - Saturday - September 24th - Likely, CA - 56° F, humidity 39%, wind 1 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were riding our bicycles along Lake Champlain in Burlington, VT......↴

As we edge toward departure day our minds are thinking ahead to our travels south, and things which we must take care of before we get to our next seasonal job.  TLE has already made an eye appointment at the COSTCO near Carson City, NV for October 11th.  The work days seem to be flying by, and now we only have 8 work days left.  We are close to our last Amazon orders.....at some point there will not be enough days left for orders to reach us here at LPG&RVR before we leave.  If we order anything after a certain date we'll have to list our new shipping address at Glamis North Hot Springs.  We're starting to dismantle our setup here in site #55, and put a few things away.  That familiar 'hitch itch' feeling is returning after 6 months of dormancy......time to change our view!

We began day 1 of our 4 days off work with another out and back walk to Jess Valley Road......

a

.....once again we averaged just over 3.6 mph on the 2+ mile walk.

We spent most of the morning, and early afternoon watching the 'Presidents Cup' (golf), then around 3 pm (after the final group finished their round...the U.S. leads 8-2 after day 2) we headed over to the Clubhouse to play 9 holes (back 9 this time).  I hit about 20 balls at the driving range (haven't hit a bucket of balls for several weeks.....my lower back was stiff, but feels good now) to dial in my swing, then chipped a few balls onto the putting green, and then putted for about 5 minutes.  All of the pre-round work paid off.  I was just off the green lying 2 on the 10th hole, and managed to bogey the hole.  On hole #11 (3 par) I drove the green and two putted for my par.  On the 12th hole (dog leg right, par 4) I was just off the green in two, but did not hit my chip well, and ended up with a double bogey.  On the 13th (dog leg left, par 4) I hit my best drive on that hole this season, and was on the green in two, and got my par with a two putt effort.  The 14th hole is a 500 yard par 5, and for the first time I was over the creek in two shots.  I hit my 3rd shot (nice 5 wood) to within 10 feet of the hole, and got another bogey.  Next up is the 15th, which is called 'Boomerang'  (looks like a hockey stick).  I chose to hit a 3 wood cutting the corner, and ended up with my ball 50 yards from the hole.  I ended up with a bogey on that hole, and then came the par 3 16th hole with the elevated tee box.....my favorite hold on the course.  I hit a beautiful 7 iron which was headed right for the green, and hit the green, but bounded off the green a few yards.  I chipped onto the green, and got another bogey with a two putt.  I kind of messed up my tee shot on 17, had to take a drop out of the sage brush, but hit a great second shot (5 wood) to within 50 yards of the hole, then hit a nice chip, and managed a double bogey.  On the final hole (18) I hit a drive to within 100 yards of the hole, then a nice 8 iron onto the green, and got my par with a two put, just missing a birdie by an inch.  So, after not playing a round in a month I managed to play pretty well Friday, and my back feels great as I write.

We got home around 5:30 pm, and I immediately took a nap....all that good golf, and fresh air got me in a nap mood for sure.  Thanks for stopping by!

Back to work we go.....a four day summary.....

7:34 am - Friday - September 23rd - Likely, CA - 42° F, humidity, 75%, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at Burlington Beer Company in Burlington, VT....a couple of Barrista Coffee Porters for us!  We liked it so much we bought a 6 pack to take home with us.....↴ 

As promised, the following is a recap of our four work days (September 19-22):

Monday - September 19th:

Rain was in the forecast for Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, and that is what we received.  It rained, sometimes hard, all Sunday night, and was still raining when we awoke Monday morning.  We haven't really had that kind of rainfall since early June, and I wondered what I would be doing for work when it was supposed to rain most of the day.  I didn't even stage any golf carts until after 9 am when the rainfall ceased for a while, and I only staged the 5 Club Car electrics, thinking I would be putting them away without being rented later in the morning.  Monday is also one of the days I clear the driving range of golf balls so it can be mowed.  Since our 4 day work week included Monday and Thursday this four day cycle I would have been doing that twice this week had there not been rain in the forecast for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  As it turned out there was no mowing being done anywhere on Monday.  

I managed to stay busy for most of my 8 hour shift, which, by the way was 8 am to 5 pm....yup, I have returned to the 8-5 grind once again.  While I loved getting off work at 3 pm, I was less than enthused at getting up before 5:30 am to begin each day, and after 7 weeks of doing so I was quite happy to return to a more normal routine.  The sun is not fully risen until almost 7 am now, and going to work in the dark is not my idea of fun.  We did end up renting 2 golf carts Monday, but the customers didn't even get in 9 holes before the rain put an early end to their rounds. Anyway, for the first time in two months TLE and I rode home in the golf cart together.....nice!

Tuesday - September 20th:

It rained most of Monday evening, and into the early morning hours of Tuesday, and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise as a result of the clearing skies.....

....when the clouds lifted off of Mt. Warner we were not surprised to see snow......DeWayne, our 2nd cut mower, who has lived in Likely Place all his life says he has seen snow on Mt. Warner every month of the year, except August......

......while it did end up raining most the day, once again, we did rent 5 golf carts to folks who fully intended to play 18, but were chased back to the Clubhouse by rain midway through their rounds.

I pulled the small propane gas fire place Tuesday afternoon after we got home from work, and we had our first evening fire in a few months.....

Wednesday - September 21st:

Once again we were blessed with rain Tuesday night, and into the early morning hours Wednesday.  By the time 9 am rolled around I had staged all 10 of the Yamaha gassers (no electrics this day), and we ended up renting 8 of them.  It remained mostly cloudy all day Wednesday, and around 3 pm you could see it was raining over on Mt. Warner (10,000'+)....I love the big view looking out towards the tee box for hole #1.....

.....we rented a lot more golf carts Wednesday as the rain had quit by 9 am.  I think we rented 11 carts in all.  By the time TLE and I returned home from our workday it was already in the low 50's so we decided to forego an evening fire.

Thursday - September 22nd:

By Thursday there was a lot of pent up demand for our customers who came here to play golf, and we ended up renting 16 golf carts for the day.  I cleared the driving range of golf balls, and DeWayne, who was behind in his mowing, finally mowed the range around 2:30 pm.  I also headed out around 10:15 am to holes 18, 17, 16, 15 and 3 to mow the tee boxes for the first time in 9 days.  Since the temps have cooled so dramatically over the past ten days the grass is not growing nearly as fast, so even after 9 days they didn't look too bad.  I was back by noon to give TLE her lunch break.  I got all of the carts washed but 3 after lunch....the final three did not return until after 5 pm.

By the time 5 pm rolled around the skies had completely cleared, and we decided to take down our sun screen for the first time since June, and have another evening fire.....

.......a very nice way to end our 4 day work week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rainy Sunday.......

 6:27 am - Monday - September 19th - Likely, CA - 48° F, 86% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the east......cloudy, raining, and cold today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were west bound on I-90 in Montana......↴

For the fourth consecutive day we repeated our out and back walk to Jess Valley Road, but only after it had stopped raining.  It rained on and off most of Saturday night, and into mid morning Sunday before the front passed by Modoc County.....

....we managed our best round trip time yet finishing the 2 miles out and back walk in 33 minutes and 47 seconds........

.....Sunday was a kick back day as we didn't know when it was going to rain again, so we just stayed close to home.  We watched an English Premier soccer match, and then I watched a little NFL football to pass the time.  Yup, I do watch the NFL from time to time now that they have quit kneeling.  The players are now allowed to put messages on the backs of their helmets.  It's interesting to see who doesn't put a message there, like Aaron Rogers.....his just says 'Packers', as it should.  There is no place for political messages in any sport, and the NFL did not used to allow that.  It was the one thing I loved about sports, in the past......it was a politics free zone.  Now, today, politics infests and festers in every aspect of life, and we, as a nation, are poorer for it.  Living in rural America these past 10.5 years has been one of the joys of the nomadic life for us.  You rarely every hear politics being discussed anywhere.  People out here are somehow managing to live fruitful, productive lives without the aid of political hacks, and centralized micro managing.  We are about as far from the influence of federal, state and local politicians as one can be in this day and age.

It began to rain again about the time we went to bed at 10 pm, and rained throughout the night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Modified vs. Pure.......

 7:53 am - Sunday - September 18th - Likely, CA - 52° F, 59% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the south by southeast......heavy cloud cover today...began raining around 5 am, and will continue throughout the day.  The forecast high for today is 62° F.   Rain is forecast through Wednesday.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were overnighting at a Cracker Barrel in Missoula, MT......↴

For the third day in succession we began our day (Saturday) with that same 2 mile roundtrip walk out to Jess Valley Road.  It wasn't quite as cool as it had been, but it was cool enough for pants, and a long sleeve shirt.....

.....we then sat down and watch the entire English Premier Soccer match between Tottenham & Leicester (Lister).  The game was tied at half time, but then Tottenham went on a scoring spree in the 2nd half finishing at 'full time' with a 6-2 final score.  

Saturday was also the 3rd week of NCAA College Football.  Most of the games were blowouts, and not very interesting, and the final game of the day between USC and Fresno State was no different with USC prevailing 45-17 over the now 1-2 Bulldogs.

Now that we have installed our new Renogy Pure Sign Wave inverter it was time to test it to see if it would run our higher end, more sensitive, electronic appliances.  We have a Breville counter top oven (Toaster, Convection, Air Fryer, etc.), a Duxtop induction burner, and an electronic tea kettle....none of which would work on our old Heart Interface Modified Sine Wave inverter.  At any rate, just before we took our walk I unplugged the Newell's 50 amp power cord from the electric pedestal for the first time in over 5 months, and plugged it into the 50 amp plug inside the electric bay.  Via a 3 position switch up by the driver seat I can send either inverted 120 VAC power to that plug, or generated 120 VAC from our onboard Kohler generator.  

One improvement which became immediately apparent was that each leg was receiving just over 122 volts, whereas with the Heart Interface we would only get around 115 volts....so a big improvement there.  TLE then turned on, one at a time, each of the aforementioned appliances and they all worked as they should, and there was no voltage drop whatsoever.  That was the acid test, and it all worked as it should.  One of the great things about this new Renogy inverter is while it is a 2,000 watt inverter, it can take a momentary surge of up to 6,000 watts without tripping the circuit breaker.  Not that we will be running anything that would cause a momentary surge like that (the A/C's are one example), it is nice to know.

I spent a few hours watching the aforementioned NCAA college football games, before we headed over to the Clubhouse around 3:45 pm for the weekly putting contest.  TLE and I both managed to play two rounds before succumbing to defeat.  At last week's putting contest the game time temperature was 95° F, whereas Saturday's game time temp was 69° F, and much lower than that by the time the contest ended around 5:30 pm.  I know I've said it a few times now, but Fall is definitely in the air.  I guess I keep saying it to convince myself this change is for real, and not just temporary.  I am heartened by the fact that the 15 day forecast, which takes us through October 2nd, shows the cooling trend to be for real with temps mostly in the 60's and 70's.

Thanks for stopping by!

Walking, tacos, shopping and putting......

 10:46 am - Saturday - September 17th - Likely, CA - 63° F, 36% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the west by southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at Duckfat in Portland, ME.....their specialty....Belgian Frites (fries).....↴

As has become our custom of late TLE and I began our 2nd off day with a two mile out and back walk to Jess Valley Road.  The weather continues to be quite cool, and crisp, even at 9:30 am, so we were bundled up once again.......

.....we managed to break the 34 minute mark again averaging 3.6 mph for the entire walk.

Around 11:30 am we drove into Alturas to do our 'weekly' shopping, stopping first at the ACE Hardware store to buy a couple of things, then on to Rubio's Taqueria for lunch.....their street tacos are some of the best I have ever eaten.  Thank goodness for great Mexican food in Alturas!......

I 

.....their alfresco dining area was in the shade, so we opted to eat our tacos there before continuing on to Grocery Outlet, then Holiday Market to resupply for another week.  We were home by 1:30 pm.

Not much to say about the afternoon....I spent time catching up on a few YouTube channels I follow, took a nice hour long nap, and did a little more straightening up of the trailer.....not long now until we haul our anchor!  TLE and I did head over to the putting green just before 4 pm to practice for the putting contest on Saturday, and ended up putting for over an hour before heading home for dinner.  Our Starlink continues to work flawlessly, and we continue to become more thankful by the day that we pulled the trigger, and got it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Inverting......

 5:58 pm - Friday - September 16th - Likely, CA - 73° F, 19% humidity, wind - CALM.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 76° (come and gone).  On this day in  2014 TLE and I walked from our site at Cape Blanco to the mouth of the Sixes River......↴

On the first of four days off work we began our day with a 2 mile round trip walk out to Jess Valley Road and back.....

I can't believe I was wearing a vest, watch cap, and gloves for our morning walk.....it really feels like Fall has arrived!

....we broke the 34 minute mark for the first time, averaging about 3.6 mph.

As you will recall, about 10 days ago I attempted to install a 3,000 watt Renogy inverter to replace the old Heart Interface 2,000 watt inverter, but there was a short inside the unit, so I returned it, and once I received my refund, ordered a replacement, but this time I ordered their 2,000 watt Pure Sine Wave version.  Why?  Well, we had a 2,000 watt inverter before, and we're not planning on running the A/C, or electric heaters off of it so 2,000 watts is really enough.  The real reason, however, was the 2,000 watt version was a tad smaller than the 3,000 watt version, and really fits the space much better.  

It took me about 3 hours from beginning to end to properly install it. I first cut a couple of pieces of 1 x 3 wood to bolt to the floor, painted them black, and then mounted the inverter upon them to make sure there is air circulation beneath the inverter.....

.....the 2,000 watt unit was about 1" narrower, so it was easier to attach the positive, and negative cables from the batteries, and easier to install the cord on the 120 VAC side......

.....I used to leave the old Heart Interface inverter on all the time as I had to go outside to turn it on, and off, but the Renogy unit has a wired remote control, which I ran inside the coach, and installed it near my computer station.....

.....I finished the installation around 1 pm, and that was it for me for the day.  Time for some lunch, and a nap.

For the first time in a while we sat outside in the early evening listening to music, and enjoying the cool early evening air.  We were actually chased inside around 7:30 pm when it got a little too chilly for us....that is a nice change, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn, the park, and other things.....

 7:27 am - Thursday - September 15th - Likely, CA - 42° F, 38% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north by northwest......cloudy today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2020 we arrived at Seal Rocks RV Cove for what would end up being a 12 month stay....still miss that place......↴

Monday:

It has been a few days since I last posted about Sunday.  Sunday was the last warm day for a while. It began raining Monday evening, and rained all night, and continued on and off all day Monday.  In spite of all that I still staged the 5 Club Car electrics, and eventually we rented another 5 of the Yamaha gassers.  Unfortunately for the golfers it began raining in earnest around noon time for about 30 minutes, which chased many of them off the course, and then it rained even harder around 1 pm bringing the few golfers who remained out on the course back to the Clubhouse.......

....in spite of the rain I worked a full day, and cleared the driving range of balls.  Unfortunately the rain early afternoon prevented any mowing, so I had to clear the balls again Tuesday morning.   I was off by 4 pm....yup, I went back to going to work at 7:30 am.  I think Sunday was my final early workday of the summer as it seems someone has flipped the switch from Summer to Fall.

Tuesday:

After staging 10 carts to begin the day I headed out to check out the condition of the golf course after the rain, and decided to take a few pictures along the way of my favorite holes, and surrounding scenery......

Par 3, hole #3

Cool ranch house on a neighboring ranch

Par 5, 4th hole

The longest par 5 I have ever played....6th hole

Bridge over water on the 6th hole

One of my favorite holes......#8, par 4, elevated tee

My absolute most favorite hole, #16, par 3, extremely elevated tee

....while I was making my rounds I came across an 8 point buck, and then caught a picture of him and his lady friend grazing on the 5th fairway.......

Par 5, 14th hole....long uphill fairway, dog leg left

About 100 yards out from the 14th hold.....it's kind of a blind shot into the green

......Tuesday was kind of a slow day with only 8 carts going out.....sometimes you need a slow one!

The overhead sky was very clear Tuesday evening, allowing me to get this great shot of the moon.....

....there were, however, clouds on the western horizon, which provided for a beautiful sunset.....

Wednesday:

On our fourth, and final workday of this 8 day cycle, we rented 10 golf carts.  It was a beautiful, autumn day.  I wore gloves for the first time to work in ages, and I'm pretty sure I'll be wearing a watch cap to work during my next work cycle.  I love that cool, crisp feeling that hangs in the autumn air all day long. I wore my hoody sweatshirt until almost noon time.  There was another first Wednesday morning....we turned on two of our electric heaters first thing in the morning.....first time in 3 months, and haven't run our A/C in 3 days!

TLE tells me we only have 12 work days left before we haul anchor.  Our last work day will be October 8th, and we will be on the road heading south by the 9th, or 10th at the latest.  It is time to begin organizing the trailer, and putting a lot of stuff away....we have got a lot of STUFF out, and I don't even want to think about how long it will take to put it all away.

Our new Starlink internet service continues to work flawlessly.  We can stream TV day, or night with no interruptions in service.  Of course we are in a very rural area, which helps a lot, but so far it has exceeded our expectations.

Thanks for stopping by!