The right stuff......

 7:31 am - Monday - October 31st - GNHS - 57° F, 38% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the south.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2016 we were boondocking next to Tuttle Creek, just outside of Lone Pine, CA.......beautiful setting.....Mt. Whitney in the distance.......↴

Mt. Whitney

TLE standing next to Tuttle Creek.....just 20 feet from our coach

For a Saturday night at GNHS it was unusually quiet.....no loud, staccato, rumbling sounds of ATV engines being gunned over and over again as they run around helter skelter into (usually) the early morning hours.  My guess is that since Saturday night was 'Halloween' here at GNHS, and the parents were busy with their kids trick 'o treating they stayed home, while their kids descended into sugar comas from all the candy they collected....who knows for sure.  All I know is that it was quiet, and I was not complaining.  ATV noise on Friday and Saturday nights is one of the trade offs living at GNHS.....the other 5 nights of the week are dead quiet.

Since we had decided the 'lido deck' was close to perfect Saturday I took at easy most of the day watching parts of two English Premier League soccer matches on the 'lido deck', and taking a couple of naps.  Of course, you  know, I cannot sit still for too long, so I decided to check out our office space.  It needed some lighting, and I couldn't believe there was not some sort of light fixture hiding somewhere, so! I looked in the storage area above, and guess what I found.....a fluorescent light fixture  I quickly pulled it down, dusted it off, plugged it in, and hung it from two hooks that were obviously there for just that purpose......

Let there be light....

.....I updated the white board calendar to November 2022, and removed some random nails, and screws from the wall along that side of the room, then used my electric Toro blower to clear a couple inches of gravel away from the entry door, and the concrete slab the the right of the door......

.....I then returned to the almost perfect 'lido deck' to deploy my solar lights, which was the final touch needed to make the 'lido deck' perfect.....one string of rope lights were installed on our market umbrella.....

....I wish I had taken a picture of them when they came on after sundown....they look great!

Soon it was happy hour, and time to enjoy the early evening.....TLE snapped this picture of me enjoying the 'lido deck', and a little TV......

......we love the environment we've created, which would not be possible without all the 'stuff' we haul around with us.  When people see what we pull out of the trailer and deploy, they can't believe we have room for all of it, plus the VW, but we do.  If you have the right stuff you can make even the most dreadful of sites look great.....remember this site looked like this just a few days ago....

.....it just takes a little imagination, the right stuff, and elbow grease to transform nothing into something.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Work in progress' continues.......

 7:58 am - Sunday - October 30th - GNHS - 60° F, 36% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north.....partly cloudy today, but sunny nonetheless with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were residing at the fairgrounds in John Day, OR.....a splendid Fall day for sure....↴

Saturday was to be a busy day in our new site.  The one thing we want in our site is a lot of shade, at least for the next month, or so.  The sun will gradually move lower, and lower into the southern sky over the next 60 days, and direct sunlight into our site, along with its attendant heat, will no longer be an issue.  We've been carrying around three sail shades (large triangles with attachment points at each corner) ever since we left Tahoe Valley Campground, but have never had an occasion to use them since, however the confined area of our new site lends itself to their use.  We spent time first thing Saturday morning discussing their placement, and finally came up with a plan.  The last time we used these sail shades was at Tahoe Valley Campground in May of 2017......

.....wow, 5 years now!  At any rate, with a plan in hand we got to work installing them......

......we also reoriented the EZ-UP canopy, moved the umrella.........

....installed one of our sun shades on the right side of the patio awning.....

.....moved the Adirondack chairs, and set up our new garden.....the garden is TLE's design, and I like it.......

The Christmas cacti flowers are really blooming!

......all of that effort carried us well into the afternoon, and when we finally declared our work done.....at least for the day.....we pulled up a couple of chairs and watched several Premier League matches, as well as NCAA College Football.  TLE used the Cowboy Wok to make us a scrumptious sausage, onion, bell pepper and rice dish for dinner......

.....once again evening descended upon GNHS, and with that our light show began, and a fire was lit......

Michigan vs. Michigan State in the background

....over course of the afternoon we were pleased with the efficacy of our sail shade installation, repositioning of the EZ-UP, and umbrella.  Maybe we are done with our setup, and with that the 'lido deck' is now open for just enjoyment, and no more work.  

Thanks for stopping by!

The move.....

8:01 am - Saturday - October 29th - GNHS - 60° F, 30% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the west by northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were courtesy parked in front of my brother's home near Salt Lake City, UT......↴

When we last left off TLE and I had agreed to move from site #225 to the 'overflow' spot next to the Roadrunner Community Room, which is directly across from the park office/restaurant.  We were up before 6 am Friday in order to be ready to begin moving our stuff by 7 am.  The forecast high for Friday was 78° F, and would be the coolest day for a few days, so getting an early start to the move meant we would probably finish well before it even reached 70° F.  Once I had posted my latest missive titled "It's over....", I headed outside to dump our black tank, then begin to unhook our utilities.  Once that was done TLE and I walked the EZ-UP dining canopy over to our new site.....we didn't want to fold it up as that would have meant removing the Edison lights, and then reinstalling them at the new site....a process that would take the better part of an hour.  It took us 5 minutes to walk the canopy over to the site.....easy choice.

From there we walked back to site #225 to retrieve the VW at which time TLE drove us down to pickup the GNHS dually pickup, which Kyle had given us permission to use to move the trailer, and haul all the outside stuff.  Once the trailer was close to where we wanted it we unhooked it from the pickup, and then, using the Trailer Valet, moved it into its permanent site for the next 5 months.

Once that was in place the rest of the dominos fell quickly, and we were officially in our new site before 9:30 am.  Here is what our new, a work in progress, site looked like a few minutes after we plugged in the Newell, and began to redeploy our stuff......

The Dodge dually we used to move the trailer, and other stuff

'Welcome to Paradise'

....

We have a much nicer, unobstructed view of the Chocolate Mountains

....we spent the next couple of hours working on the 'lido deck' (moi), and working on the interior of the coach (TLE), then decided to take a walk over to the hot springs tubs for an hour soak.  This was TLE's first time, but my third.  Within minutes all our aches and pains disappeared.  

After returning from our soak we spent the balance of the afternoon relaxing, and streaming a new to us series on the FXNow channel called 'Welcome to Wrexham'.....our daughter, Meredith, recommended it, and we like it a lot.  It is essentially a documentary about the purchase of a soccer club in Wales called Wrexham Dragons by Ryan Reynolds (world famous super hero actor....lol), and Rob McElhenney (It's always sunny in Philadelphia).  The Dragons are buried deep in the National League (soccer), and Ryan and Rob bought the team to improve it and gain promotion to higher, more profitable leagues.  It is a true story, and also quite entertaining.....check it out!

More work to still do on the 'lido deck', and that will continue on Saturday.  The guys from Colorado Outback adventures will arrive with all their equipment Tuesday evening, and work will begin Wednesday to be ready to rent ATV's on Thursday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Did you fall for it?

 12:18 pm - Friday - October 28th - GNH - 75° F, 15% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the west.......crystal clear, sunny skies, still, with a revised forecast high of 78° F.

Earlier today I put up a post with the title "It's over....."....you'll be relieved to know nothing bad happened, and we have not left GNHS.  What was really over for us was site #225, where we had been since we arrived on October 17th.  I know I was being deliberately obscure with my title, and post, but I couldn't resist.  

Until about 11 am on Thursday, we thought we would be in site #225 for the next 5 months, but then we got a call from Bob at Colorado Outback Adventures (our new employer beginning November 2nd) asking us if we would consider moving to what is called an 'overflow' site next to the community room (Roadrunner).  He said if we would he would pay for our site, including the electricity, for the rest of our stay.  We said we would go take a look at it, and get back to him in about an hour.  Here is what we found......

....kind of austere, right?  Just a bunch of asphalt, and gravel......there is, obviously, no 'it' factor, which is that for which we look....at least not at first blush, but there's that tree in the corner of the lot (2nd picture above) provides shade from about 11 am until late in the afternoon over much of the site.  We spent time measuring from every possible angle trying to figure out how to stage the coach and trailer in way which affords us maximum privacy, of which we have none in site #225.  After spending about 45 minutes figuring out what would work, we decided pretty quickly that we would make the move Friday morning, and called Bob back to advise we had accepted his offer.

That was pretty much the extent of our day, except for planning how to move everything as quickly as possible, with the least amount of effort, and I'm pretty sure we have a good plan for Friday morning.  We shall see how easy it will be to execute the 'plan'.

Tomorrow will come pictures of our new site, and how we have created a new 'lido deck' environment we love even more than what we did in site #225!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's over......

 6:17 am - Friday - October 28th - GNHS - 58° F, 41% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northeast.......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were walking on South Beach at Cape Blanco, OR.....it was a windy, rainy, blustery day, but we loved it.......↴

Cape Blanco Lighthouse in the distance (looking north)

Roy Orbison - "It's over"

Without warning everything has changed.....we roll our wheels in about an hour......will write more when we reach today's destination later today.

One thing led to another.......

 7:28 am - Thursday - October 27th - GNHS - 64° F, 41% humidity, wind 9 mph out of the north......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2015 we were celebrating my mother's (Virginia) 85th birthday near Spokane, WA at the Latah Bistro....she's been gone now for almost 3 years....time marches onward.......↴

Moi, Caroline (my sister's daughter), and Mom (Virginia)

We were just going to make a few minor adjustments to our 'lido deck' environment, but you know how that goes with us.....one thing led to another, and before you knew it we had made a lot of changes.....but I get ahead of myself.

I was still inside putting the finishing touches on my latest missive when I heard TLE moving rocks outside, so I ventured outside to investigate the early morning energy expenditure by TLE.  I found her completely repositioning the firepit area.....

......once she began that task I suggested we replace the GNHS firepit with our own portable one, which we love, but haven't been able to use since we left Borrego Springs late March of this year.  We next used one of our 'sail' shades to create a barrier between our site, and the site behind us.....

.....in the picture above you can see we have set up our 'Cowboy Wok', and you will also note in the picture below that we have deployed our anti gravity chairs.....they are so comfortable.......

.....then I spent a couple of hours converting the trailer interior back to my 'man cave' for the next 5 months......

.....by the time we finished what we were doing it was after 3 pm, and time for a shower.  By the way, I don't think I've mentioned this, but the city water here comes out of the tap at 93-100° F during the heat of the day, we don't even use the water heater to take showers right now.  The resort gets its water from a quite large water tank up on the hill, and it is metal.  The sun heats the water in the tank, so we are getting free hot water until the weather cools more substantially.

Around 5 pm TLE opened a can of beer our son-in-law, Rod (Sharon's husband) gave us.  He began working for 'Brewery X' a few months ago, and I've wanted to get some samples so he gave me a 'four pack' the other night when they came for dinner at the Elks Lodge......

.....this is one of the best IPA's I've had....not too 'hoppy', and it is unfiltered, which I prefer.....

.....once again we were able to eat our dinner alfresco.....TLE, using the 'Cowboy Wok', put together a steak, and potato hash from the leftover steak and potatoes from the night before, which was amazing.  After dinner we played 5 games of Backgammon......

.....before retiring to the 'lido deck' for our first evening fire in 7 months.....the night was windless, and the skies were clear......

.....we sat outside until after 8 pm talking, and enjoying a real wood fire.

While we are mostly finished creating our 'lido deck' environment, I still need to deploy my solar rope and twinkle lights, and we need one, or two more potted plants, but we are almost finished.  Now it is just time to enjoy what we have created, and enjoy this great place we get to call home for the next 5 months.

Thanks for stopping by!