Another project.....

 12:09 pm - Friday - September 2nd - Likely, CA - 95° F, 11% humidity, wind 19 mph out of the south by southwest.....forecast high for today is 97° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were acting as docents at the Cape Blanco Lighthouse near Port Orford, OR......↴

When last I wrote it was about Tuesday, and now two more days have passed, so it is time for me to get caught up once again.

Wednesday I began to tackle the task of installing our new Renogy 3,000 watt inverter.  Our current inverter, a Heart Interface 2,000 watt inverter, is old technology, and is about 38 years old.  It is not a 'pure sine wave' inverter, and in order to use our induction burner, and Breville oven while boondocking, and using the inverter, we need a pure sine wave inverter.  This is the Heart inverter I am removing.....

.....and here is a picture of the new Renogy 3,000 watt inverter......

....the old Heart Interface must weight about 70 lbs!  The new Renogy one weighs about 10 lbs!  Anyway, it took me about 90 minutes to remove the old Heart Interface, and install the new Renogy 3,000, but when I turned it on a red light lit up (fault), and then there was a single beep then it shut down after 3 seconds.  After numerous attempts to troubleshoot the problem I called Renogy (by the way, they are located in our old stomping grounds....Ontario, CA).  Within 10 minutes it was determined that there must be an internal short inside the new unit, so I contacted Amazon to begin the return, and replacement process.....bummer!  I had to then remove the Renogy inverter, then box it up so UPS can pick it up Friday.  The return process with Amazon was painless, and very easy.  Now I'll have to order another one, and install it next week.

In addition to that news, I also ordered Starlink (Elon Musk's satellite based internet service).  TLE and I have been discussing doing this most of the summer, and after deciding it would be better to have our own internet source not based on our cell phones, and the fact we can get rid of DirecTV, and the extra cell phone service we've had (U.S. Cellular) since August of 2018 saving us around $220/month.  With the RV endorsement Starlink will cost us $135/month....nice!  We will then stream all of our TV via Starlink.  We should have our Starlink kit by Tuesday, September 6th.  By the way, Starlink has a great Android app, and it is supper intuitive, plus the ordering process is very easy.  We ordered on Wednesday, and it was shipped via FedEx Friday morning (today).

Even before we decided to go to Tahoe City a week early to celebrate our anniversary, we had decided to do our local dinner celebration at a place called California Pines Lodge, about 10 miles west of Alturas.  The reason we went on Wednesday was because they are not open on Mondays (our actual anniversary) and Tuesdays. I made a 6 pm reservation over the phone Tuesday, and we left the Newell around 5:30 pm Wednesday to make the 35 minute drive.

California Pines is a large subdivision outside of Alturas, and boasts its own hotel, lodge, restaurant, and bar next to a man made lake......

....we had received mixed reviews about this restaurant, but decided to give it a try.  I ordered their 10 oz Filet Mignon, and TLE their Chicken Picata.  Both were priced quite reasonably (my filet was just $26).  We paired a Robert Mondavi Pino Noir with our entrees, and for $18 it was very good......

....was my filet good?  Yup, it was.....not the best I have ever had, but for the price, very good.  TLE says I can grill a better one.....thank you TLE!  TLE on the other hand was not happy with her Picata....she said the chicken was a little dry, and that it, and the sauce needed more seasoning....oh well...a split decision....lol!  Nevertheless, we enjoyed the view, and the very good service, as well as the always good conversation.  We were home before 8 pm with very full tummies!

Thanks for stopping by!