Ahead of time, and alive.....

 7:42 am - Friday - March 31st - Woodstock, GA - 53° F, humidity 79%, wind 6 mph out of the southeast.....cloudy with a chance of rain today, and a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were at Solvang Brewing Company in Lompoc, CA.......↴

I left off in yesterday's missive with us arriving safely at the International Airport in Atlanta, GA around 7 am.  This airport is gigantic....certainly the largest airport I have ever had to navigate.  Our Frontier Airlines flight #2000 disembarked at gate E-8 on the International side of the airport, however, our checked bags would be retrieved on the domestic side of the airport at #6 conveyor....a 'short' 10 minute, high speed monorail ride away....can you imagine how long it would take to walk that?

Our checked bags took quite a bit longer to catch up with us....about 45 minutes!  Once the conveyor belt began to move TLE's bag came out pretty quickly, but mine took another 10 minutes....doh!  By the time we walked outside to wait for my son to arrive it was after 8 am, and the airport traffic was crazy.....both arrival and departure traffic comes through the same area....not a good design.

By the time we wended our way north to Tim and Laila's home on numerous local Atlanta thoroughfares it was after 9 am, and we had been awake since 5:30 am Wednesday with a few catnaps thrown in for good measure.....we were both tired, but I was the only one who needed a long nap.

Tim and Laila, along with their two children (Crosby and Bowie) live in Woodstock, GA about 45 minutes north of Atlanta.  The home they bought a year ago is in a beautiful, rural community with large homes.....

Our little ensuite for 5 days

Downstairs - Open concept

The house....world's steepest driveway....they have to back into the driveway otherwise they cannot get their doors open

The neighborhood

....the home Tim and Laila owned when they lived in Ontario, CA was just under 2,000 square feet, and had a tiny, postage stamp sized lot.  This new home is over twice as big at 4,500 square feet, has two stories, and and finished basemen, plus a large backyard for half of what they paid for the Ontario home.

After I took my 90 minute nap we headed out for an early lunch to a place called the 'Fickle Pickle'.....they make their own pickles, and have a wonderful menu.  We ordered a couple of plates of their deep fried pickles...yum.....

Alfresco at the 'Funky Pickle'...left to righ: Dolly (Laila's grandmother), Laila, Jennifer (Laila's mother), Bowie, Tim, Crosby, TLE and moi

The Deep Fried Pickles

.....most of us ordered their Horseradish Beef sandwich, and it is just as good as you might imagine!  TLE ordered their Cubano.....the deep fried pickles and sandwiches were delish!

After lunch we walked around the downtown area, did a little browsing in an antique (junk) store, and then headed for home where I took another 90 minute nap.  After this second 90 minute nap I began to feel human once again.

Our first day in Georgia was a whirlwind, and my body is still adjusting to losing 3 hours.  When I went bed at 9:30 pm it felt more like 6:30 pm.

On a side note.....we have never flown Frontier Airlines before.  I chose them because they had the best round trip price, but what I did not know is that unlike other airlines you do NOT get one free checked bag per person.  Our two rolling suitcases are a tad too big to do 'CARRY ON', so we check them.  The round trip cost to check our two bags was over $200 extra.  If you do a carry on bag (smaller) it is $128 round trip per bag.  There are no free snacks and drinks on the plane.....you can buy them, and the prices are reasonable.  You are allowed one free 'personal item' (purse, computer case, very small bag).  Additionally, in order to get an assigned seat prior to your flight (we like to sit together) you have to pay to do so....another $200+, which we did.  There are no frills on the plane....no USB jacks, no WiFi, no reclining seats (serious), a very, very small tray on the back of the seat in front of you.  There is, however, a tad more leg room, and the seats are actually a little more comfortable, and they do have restrooms....lol.  In the end it cost us about what Southwest, or United would have charged. Will we fly Frontier again.....probably not.  They did deliver us to Atlanta ahead of time, and alive, so they've got that going for them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wait, what???

 3:34 pm - Wednesday - March 29th - Rancho Cucamonga, CA - 55° F, 47% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the west by northwest.....high today of 56° F has passed.  We're visiting with my daughter Sharon until we head to the airport around 8 pm for our 10 pm flight, so I thought I would get a jump on tomorrow's blog about today, Wednesday.

We were up early Wednesday morning as we wanted to be on the road by 8:00 am in order to be in Upland, CA by 10:30 am.  TLE and I are going through the process of obtaining TSA PreCheck® status for flying so we won't have to go through the long TSA lines at most airports, plus we will not have to take off our shoes, or open our computers.  We're hoping we will get our TSA number for our return trip from Atlanta.  

We managed to arrive at the IDENTIGO office just before 10:30 am for our 10:40 am appointments, and had been processed before 11 am....not bad.  As we exited INDENTIGO  we noticed there was a Office Depot on the other side of the parking lot.  I had wanted to find a new laptop 'sleeve' for my new Microsoft Surface Pro, so finding the Office Depot so close by was serendipitous to say the least.  I was able to find a laptop 'sleeve' made by Samsonite for $37 that was the perfect size, plus it is large enough to hold the accessories.....

....from there we drove over to The Hat to get our annual Pastrami Dip fix.  TLE and I split one of those, and got a side order of Onion Rings....I love this place.

Our next stop was Joel's Automotive where we left the Beetle to get the oil changed, and to have the turbo checked as we're getting a check engine light saying there is a vacuum, or some sort of connection issue.  Hopefully, it will be ready for us when we return on Monday.  We've been taking our cars to Joel since the mid 90's, so I'm sure he will come through for us!

Our daughter, Sharon, picked us up and drove us back to her home where we are now.  Around 6 pm we'll go out to dinner, and then our daughter Meredith will drop us off at the airport around 8 pm.  I'll finish the blog sometime Thursday.

°
5:30 pm - Thursday - March 30th - Woodstock, GA - 73° F, humidity 19%, wind 6 mph out of the south by southeast......partly cloudy skies with a forecast high (already past) of 74° F.  

We met Meredith at the Panda Inn down near the Ontario Airport around 6 pm where we had a wonderful Chinese dinner of Orange Chicken, Crispy Garlic Chicken, some very good noodle dish, and some steamed white rice accompanied by non-stop, scintillating conversation.  After bidding adieu to Rod, Sharon, and Brayden Meredith drove us a few blocks to the airport where we arrived around 7:45 pm to check our bags, go through TSA security, and then wait to begin boarding the first leg of our flight to Las Vegas at 9:30 pm.  Everything went smoothly up to that point, but when we began the boarding process and had boarded around 50% of the passengers they all suddenly began to return to the lounge area....wait, what?

'Holding....'

We never found out why this happened, but were simply told our flight was on 'HOLD'....not exactly the words one wishes to hear at the beginning of a long fight to the east coast.  We did have a one hour layover in Las Vegas, but were beginning to get concerned with making that connection when the 'HOLD' was in its 40th minute.  Suddenly the boarding officer announced they would begin the boarding process again, and that we would be able to make all of our connections.....whew!

Once on the plane the pilot announced he would 'fly the plane like he stole it' to get us to Las Vegas in time for our 12:30 pm connection, and he did just that.  We landed in Las Vegas at 11:45 pm, just 30 minutes after leaving Ontario....wow!  Why don't they fly that fast all the time.....lol?

Our boarding pass for the 12:30 pm flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta indicated it would depart from Gate D-18, so upon disembarking from the plane we made tracks from gate E-8 over to D-18, which is quite a trek, only to find out they had changed our departure gate to E-9!  Wait, what?  We had disembarked right next to that gate.....why didn't they tell us the gate # had changed?

At any rate we hoofed it back to gate E-9, and boarded the plane with just 5 minutes to spare.  Flight 2000 took off a few minutes early, and for the next 3 hours and 18 minutes we cruised ever eastward to Atlanta.  TLE and I napped a little over that 3 hours, and eventually as we descended into Atlanta we saw the sun rising.....

....we actually landed about 10 minutes early at 7:05 am but for TLE and I it was 4:05 am, and we were tired!

I'll save the rest of the story for tomorrow's blog post about Thursday....thanks for stopping by!

One last one....

 6:41 am - Wednesday - March 29th - GNHS - 54° F, 46% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the southwest.....crystal clear, blue, windless, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F. On this date in 2013 TLE and I arrived near Ashville, NC at an RV park on the French Broad River.....it was raining, obviously.......↴

TLE and I began Tuesday taking down 5 strands of solar lights from the palm trees surrounding the COA parking lot, and then the two strands of rope lights on the COA office itself.  I next changed attachments on my Torro leaf blower to use the vacuum attachment to vacuum the artificial turf.  Haven't done that in a while, and, wow, I picked up a lot of dust and pine needles.  Need to do that a tad more often.

There were no advance bookings when we began our day, but we got a call at 11:30 am from Kyle advising we had some customers walking down to the office to sign up for a 4 hour rental beginning at 1 pm....there's always one more....lol!  We had to quickly change hats, and get into UTV rental folk mode.  By 1 pm they had begun their 4 hour tour, and I set about blowing out all the air filters on the units not being rented.  Additionally, I opened up the clutch housings on RZRs #1 & 2 to blow the dust out of them.  Our customers returned about an hour early declaring they had a blast, but the wife had had enough noise.....lol...that happens more often than one might imagine.

I quickly washed the #5 RZR, topped off the half empty fuel tank, then blew out the air filter before parking it.  While I was doing that TLE discovered a nail in the left rear tire of RZR #4.  It was a long nail, probably 3-4 inches long, so there was no doubt in my mind that when I pulled it out the tire would begin leaking air, and that is just what happened.  I fetched tire plugging tools, and had the hole plugged in a few minutes....glad I found that before we left on our trip.

After closing the COA office TLE and I changed into our swimsuits, and walked over to the hot pools for an end of day soak....a nice way to end a day, but our day was far from over.  We got back to the Newell around 5:30 pm, and were eating dinner within 20 minutes.  After dinner we began to finalize the packing of our suitcases for our trip to Atlanta.  That took us another hour.

We'll be leaving soon for our drive into Ontario, CA where we will hop on a plane at the Ontario International Airport, not far from where we used to live, for our flight to Atlanta. Our flight departs at 10:09 pm tonight, so we'll spend the day visiting with our children, and grand children....they're on Spring Break. When we get back next Monday we'll have exactly one week left working for COA, and then it is off to LPG&RVR!

Thanks for stopping by!

Easier than I thought.....

 7:27 am - Tuesday - March 28th - GNHS - 47° F, humidity 36%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I arrived at Cedar Key, FL for the first time.......↴

It seems I most often approach the final push to get the trailer organized for VW insertion with concern about how long it will take me to accomplish the tasks I wished to accomplish in the time allotted.  In almost every case I get every done way ahead of when I expected, and as that realization settles into my brain I relax and begin to enjoy the process.  Monday was no exception to that pattern.

My meager goal for the day was to stow the 'lido deck' umbrella, stow our three bicycles, stow my 'back machine', stow the items on the table at the rear of the trailer, and stow the camp anti gravity chairs.  Frankly, I had that all that done before noon time.  In my mind it seemed like an all day thing.  It is possible that my mind always rewinds to all those simple projects which took 3 times longer than they should have, which I fondly refer to as 'The Hockwald Way', and that is why I always think this process will take longer than I hope.  Certainly, and I must remember this in the future, I have the advantage in this regard to having done this about 100 times over the past 11 years, so it should come as no surprise to me that it never takes as long as I imagine....

The table is gone, and that stuff on the floor will move to the front of the trailer when we are ready to haul anchor

Bicycles stowed

Those tool bags will move to the floor in front of the bicycles

The 'lido deck' is beginning to look a little bare

The camp, and anti gravity chairs stowed

.....all that remains is to move the tools bags off the table (pictured above) to the floor in front of the bikes, stow the table, drag the artificial turf into the trailer, and then insert the VW.  Most people who look inside the trailer will not believe that I can make room for not only the VW, but the turf.  There was a point a few weeks ago when even I had my doubts, but here we are just about ready to do just that.

Tuesday will be spent taking down all of the 'yard lights', and they are legion....lol.  I'm sure I'll have it done by noon....we'll see.

On the Starlink front, ours continues to work quite well, and continues to exceed our expectations.  It has been about 7 months since we set it up for the first time, and to date there have been ZERO glitches.  The RV price is going from $135/month to $150/month effective April, but it is still an amazing, game changer deal for us, for which we are extremely grateful.

On the Wuhan flu front, TLE and I continue to be asymptomatic to it, or any other type of flu, or cold.  Our biggest issue is allergies....lol!  I'm trying to remember the last time either of us was sick.....it has been a long, long time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Washing fool.....

7:30 am - Monday - March 27th - GNHS - 52° F, humidity 20%, wind 15 mph out of the north by northeast.....feels like 25-30 here.....crystal clear, blue, windy, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were having lunch at Aiken Brewing Company near Augusta, GA.....↴ 

We were open for COA* business at 8 am Sunday hoping for some walkup business before our two advance bookings for 10 am arrived.  There was no walkup business, and the park was quickly emptying as is usual for a typical, non long weekend Sunday morning.  Our advance booking customers arrived a little after 10 am, and were on their way by 10:30 am for four hours of touring pleasure.

Normally, I would have sat down in my anti gravity recliner and began watching the semi finals at the WCG Match Play Tournament in Austin, TX, but I had a lot of work to do of the washing UTVs variety. I still had 3 left over from Saturday, plus the Mule, and for good measure the COA* Chevy van.  Casey, one of our bosses, will be here Thursday to handle the weekend rentals on our behalf while we are in Georgia, and I wanted everything to be clean, and filled with gas when he arrives.  By the time our 4 hour rentals returned at 2:20 pm, and I had washed those final two RZRs I had washed all 5 UTVs, plus the Mule, and Chevy van.....now I've got dishwater hands.....lol!  Ultimately, I did get to watch some of the golf tournament.  Sam Burns was the eventual winner winning his final match against Cam Young 6 and 5 (up 6 holes with 5 to play) birdieing 8 of the final 10 holes they played.  Rory McIlroy won the consolation match over Scottie Scheffler on the 17th hole 2 & 1.

Once again our rentals returned without any broken drive belts, accidents, or breakdowns of any sort.  Really, our main breakdowns have been the broken drive belts.  We had the one broken reverse chain, and the broken transmission, which was really not a breakdown as they returned to the office, but it was an accident.

We returned to the 'lido deck Sunday night for another round of Yahtzee.  TLE won the first 3 games handily, and I then rebounded and won the next 3 in squeakers.  What we do now when we tie 3 all is add up our total scores for all six games.....TLE beat me by almost 200 points....lol!

We now have two days (Monday and Tuesday) to complete the trailer organization for VW insertion, and to take down most of our yard lights, including the ones on the palm trees around the parking lot, before our Wednesday departure for Georgia.  As I write the wind is howling, so working inside the trailer will be the first order of business until the wind abates later today.

On the 'March Madness' front the final four is now determined.....Florida Atlantic - #9 seed, San Diego State University - #5 seed, University of Miami - #5 seed, and UCONN - #4 seed....as far as I can see it is anybody's tournament to win.....my 'money' is on #9 FAU to win it all!  The last #2 seed in the tournament, Texas, was upset by #5 Miami....so the upsets continue at record pace.  

Thanks for stopping by!

*COA = Colorado Outback Adventures

The rescue that was not......

6:34 am - Sunday - March 26th - GNHS - 53° F, humidity 53%, wind 5 mph out of the northeast.......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Augusta, GA standing on hallowed ground at Augusta National Golf Course, home of The Masters golf tournament......

We kind of thought Saturday would be busy, but it turned out to be really BUSY!!  By 11 am we had rented all 5 UTV's (4 RZRs and 1 KRX).....tw0 were of the 'all day' variety, and three of them the 4 hour variety.  As the last RZR rolled out of the staging area I turned to TLE and said "I hope they all return with out incident".

Our first return of the day was scheduled for 2:15 pm (the KRX), but around 1:30 pm we noticed their satellite tracker had not moved for almost an hour, and by 2:15 pm they were still at the Pinnacles, at least 45 minutes away.  Since they had not moved for over an hour we had to assume something was wrong.  Our attempts to contact them by phone and text bore no fruit, so I was in the Mule shortly thereafter driving to the Pinnacles.  I still had cellular service when I turned to go north through the 'Wash', and saw their tracker had still not moved.  I was at the 'Trestle' around 2:50 pm where I walked to the top of the trestle to get a cell signal, was successful, and called TLE. By the time I contacted her it was 3 pm, and the tracker had still not moved.  From the 'Trestle' it is about 15-20 minutes to the Pinnacles so I headed out again, reaching the turn for the Pinnacles trail around 3:15 pm.  Just as I began the drive up to the Pinnacles I gave up a silent prayer that I would find them quickly......the words were still hanging in the proverbial air when I heard a UTV coming toward me.....as they rounded the bend I could see it was our red KRX, and all seemed to be fine.  

Our customers did not recognize me, and passed by at a pretty good rate of speed, so I turned around and tried to keep up, but didn't catch them until they stopped at the 'Trestle' for  a break. I parked the Mule, and walked up to them asking if everything was alright, all the while knowing it must be since the KRX appeared to be in fine operating condition.  They replied it was, and I told them we had expected them back at 2:15 pm, and since they didn't return we thought, quite appropriately, something was wrong.  They apologized, admitting they should have called to say they would be late.  I was a tad angry (keeping that to myself), but grateful nothing was wrong, as one might imagine.

I headed back to the COA office while our customers hung out with their friends.  I was back in less than 20 minutes with our customers finally arriving around 3:45 pm.....90 minutes late.  Our policy, stated in the contract they sign, is if you are 20 minutes late you pay an extra $50, but if you are over 20 minutes late you pay for a full day.  TLE advised them, and they accepted the penalty graciously, at least it seemed so.  In the end we had 3 all day rentals, and two 4 hour rentals....a nice monetary day for our bosses.

Upon arrival back a the COA office around 3:30 pm I began driving UTVs down to the fuel station to top off their tanks, and had all 5 UTVs fueled for another day by 4:15 pm.  We got two more advance bookings for Sunday so I took two RZRs over to the wash station to get them cleaned, and ready to go.  I decided to wash the other three after our Sunday customers head out on their 4 hour tours.

On the sports front Scottie Scheffler, Rory McElroy, Sam Burns, Cam Young reached the semi finals of the WCG 'match play' event in Austin, TX, which will conclude on Sunday.  On the 'March Madness' front, there was another huge upset Saturday on the first day of the 'Elite Eight'  with #9 Florida Atlantic University (never heard of them before this year) besting #3 Kansas State by 3 points as time ran out.  #3 Gonzaga was downed by #4 UCONN by 28 points....not what we expected at all.  At one point UCONN led Gonzaga by almost 40 points.

On the getting ready to haul anchor front, I didn't stow anything away on Saturday.  I'll complete the task of getting the trailer ready for VW insertion on Monday and Tuesday, then we'll drive into Ontario, CA on Wednesday to catch our evening flight to Atlanta, GA. Our time here is fast coming to any end!

Thanks for stopping by!

Upset Friday.....

 6:23 am - Saturday - March 25th - GNHS - 53 degrees F, humidity 65%, wind 6 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71 degrees F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Daphne, AL (on the east side of Mobile Bay) taking a bike ride when we spied this cute little cafe......↴

You wouldn't know it, but I'm typing today's blog on my new Microsoft Surface Pro 7 computer, which was delivered to me by FedEx Friday afternoon.  It has Windows 11, which is a little different than the Windows 10, which was on my old Lenovo.  It was easy to set up, and I love the touch screen, plus I log in with facial recognition.  The screen is a tad smaller than the Lenovo, but I'll get used to it....

.....so anyway, here goes.

We had no advance bookings Friday, so we opened the office at 9 am as we usually do.  While I waited to see if we would have any customers of the walkup variety I packed up my 'driving range', stowed the Adirondack chairs, stowed my bike stand, stowed the Sea-B-Que, and the table upon which it sat for the last 4+ months, as well as the 5 gallon propane bottle....

Adirondacks stowed

No more bike stand

If you look out the door of the trailer you see no more Sea-B-Que, or table

No more 'driving range'

.....as it turned out there were no walkup customers Friday, and we closed the office at 12 pm.  I did, however, wash two of the RZRs in anticipation of our Saturday bookings.  We'll be sending out 3 RZRs and the one KRX on tours then.  It is good to have all four RZRs available for rent again.

The balance of my day was spent lounging on the 'lido deck' watching the annual match play golf tournament in Austin, TX.....

....and there were one, or two naps thrown in for good measure.  The much anticipated second day of Sweet Sixteen March Madness games commenced at 3:30 pm, and the first two games saw the final two #1 seeds (Alabama, and Houston) go down to ignominious defeat.  If you are a fan of the March Madness 'UPSET' this was a good day for you, and it was, indeed a good day for me.  So, there are NO #1 seeds left in the tournament.  Looking forward to the 'Elite 8' games beginning on Saturday, which will get us to the 'Final Four' next weekend.

The final game between Texas and Xavier ended around 9 pm....it was a good day golf and basketball wise.  I will be stowing the bikes on Monday, putting away the anti gravity chairs, taking down some of the yard lights, and taking down the tool tables in the trailer.  I want the trailer ready for VW insertion when we take off for Georgia on Wednesday.

Thanks for stopping by!

NTCS......

7:45 am - Friday - March 24th - GNHS - 53° F, humidity 59%, wind 6 mph out of the west by northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Baton Rouge, LA and stopped by the LSU Tiger stadium for a photo op.....↴

A lot happened Thursday, but all in all it was a pretty chill, laid back kind of day.  We had three advance bookings.....an all day (RZR), and two 4 hour tours (KRX and RZR).  We opened the office at 7:30 am in anticipation of our all day customers arriving at 8 am, but they didn't show up until 9 am.  I staged all three rentals first thing, even though the two half day rentals would not leave until almost 12 pm.  Once our all day customers were out I puttered around the campsite putting a few more things away.  

Our 4 hour tour customers all arrived around 11 am, and we sent them on their merry way around 12 pm.  Here is a screen shot of what the satellite trackers showed for the day for all three units......

....imagine what that map would look like with 7 trackers going at the same time!

Kyle was able to stop by and take a look at the primary clutch for RZR #1, and found he was able to rebuild it with parts on hand, so as of late Thursday we now have 5 UTV's available for rent once again, and if we can get KRX #9 back next week we'll be back to 6 just in time for Easter weekend, which, by the way, will be our last weekend here.  

Our last workday will be April 9th, and we will be departing early Monday morning, the 10th, for LPG&RVR, but not before stopping off in Thousand Palms (near Palm Springs) to have 4 Michelin drive tires installed on the Newell, which will give us Michelins all the way around, and be good for 7-9 years.  I managed to get them through National Tire Concierge Service for around $600, plus tax, per tire....not too bad!  I previously used them to replace the steer tires on the Newell 2 years ago.  They find a Michelin dealer near you who has the tires you want in stock, have them set aside for you, then make the appointment for you, and all you have to do is show up on that appointed day and they install the tires.  The dealer bills NTCS for the tires, and they, in turn, bill your credit card at a later date.....no paperwork!

All three of our customers returned to home base on time, and without incident.  There were no rescues, breakdowns, or accidents.....always a good day in the UTV rental business.  After locking up the office for the day I headed over to the hot springs for a soak.....my left shoulder was bothering me all day.  I think I strained a muscle when lifting a RZR spare tire back into position after cleaning the air filter.  Note to self....."Clarke, you are not 19 anymore....you're 73, so ask for help"....lol!  At any rate, with Nurse TLE's excellent massaging skills, and a 20 minute soak the soreness began to dissipate, and I'm feeling much better this morning (Friday).

Thanks for stopping by!

The last haircut.....

6:22 am - Thursday - March 23rd - GNHS - 50° F, humidity 74%, wind 5 mph out of the west by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2013 we had arrived at Graystone Ranch Wildlife Education Center near Hephzibah, GA (a Harvest Hosts location).......↴

.....we drove there from Savannah, GA in a driving rainstorm, and the rain had just stopped when I took this picture.

Wednesday was our day 'off work' so we drove into La Quinta around 9:10 am, arriving at Supercuts about 10:10 am.  I was in dire need of a haircut.  It will be my last haircut at this Supercuts until next October when we return to GNHS.  I was able to get into a chair within 10 minutes, and by 10:40 am we were on our way to Trader Joe's.......

La Quinta Trader Joe's...a great setting and backdrop

....we were in and out of TJ's in record time (15 minutes) and on our way to La Quinta Old Town where we planned to have lunch at La Quinta Brewing Company's original location (they have three, and we ate at the Palm Desert location when we had lunch with our daughters recently).  It was just after 11 am, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves for a while.....

.....my haircut turned out pretty well....at least I'm happy.  We chose to eat 'alfresco' on this partly cloudy day.  Before heading outside we both ordered their Bourbon Barrel Stout, an appetizer, and our entrees......

....the appetizer was their Esquite (Mexican Corn) Cup......I took pictures of the menu items we ordered as it is sometimes difficult for us to remember the exact names of the dishes we order....

.....and for our entrees I ordered their Pepperoni Flat Bread (rectangular pizza), and TLE their Chicken Panini.....

......the corn 'off the cobb' appetizer was delicious.....

....the food, brews, ambiance, and service were above average, and the beautiful weather was the crowning touch to a very pleasant hour + spent sipping a couple of brews, enjoying very good pub food, and a side of great conversation.  The Old Town location has a totally different vibe, and menu than the Palm Desert one, and we are glad we checked it out!

Our last stop in La Quinta was the Ralph's Supermarket on Jefferson and 50th, where we stocked up on a lot of things to restock the pantry and fridge.  We were on our way back home by 1:30 pm, arriving back at GNHS around 2:15 pm.  It is pretty hard not to 'kill' half a day driving into La Quinta, especially since we almost always find a new place to have lunch.

By the time TLE put away all the groceries it was trending toward 4 pm, and another day at GNHS was in the books.  We've got three advance bookings for Thursday (today) so it is time I finish writing, and get dressed for another day of UTV rental fun.....lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

Twists and turns.....

 7:34 am - Wednesday - March 22nd - GNHS - 52° F, humidity 54%, wind 14 mph out of the west by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were in Riverside, CA hiking to the top of Mt. Rubidous with our granddaughter Charlise.....↴

We began Tuesday with two advance bookings.  We do not normally work on Tuesdays, but this is 'Spring Break' season, and we need to be available.  We also began Tuesday with a gentle rain, which morphed, at times, into rain of the harder variety.  We were not surprised to get a call at 8:20 am advising us that our 8 am rental customers had deferred their adventure to Thursday when it would be a little dryer, so we had just the 1 pm, 3 hour rental left.  

I hadn't heard from COYNE regarding the #2 RZR (broken reverse chaine), so I called around 9 am to check on its status.  Genarro answered the phone, and advised it was ready for pickup, so I quickly decided to head down to El Centro to get it.  It is a two hour round trip, with say 20 minutes to do the paperwork, and load the RZR, so I figured I could be back at 12 pm, an hour before our 1 pm customer.

I arrived, without incident, at COYNE around 10:40 am, had the RZR loaded by 11 am, and was on my way back to GNHS shortly thereafter, arriving home just before 12 pm....perfect!  Now we have 3 RZRs, and 1 KRX to rent, and if we can get #1 RZR fixed (primary clutch rebuild) by Friday we'll have all four RZRs available.  We're still awaiting the arrival of the #9 KRX replacement transmission.  It is still scheduled to arrived in El Centro around the 26th.

It rained most of the time during my drive to and from El Centro, and was still sprinkling when I arrived back at GNHS.  TLE had pulled the #8 KRX up for our 1 pm customer, so I went about checking air pressures, oil, and air filters, plus did a little detailing of the unit before our customers arrived.  Once they were on their way I drove the COA van and trailer down to the storage yard to drop the trailer, then parked the van in front of the office. Time to take a break!

During the 2+ hours it rained quite hard at times, and I wondered how our customers were doing, and what the KRX would look like when they got back.  They apparently had had enough of the rain, and were back by 3 pm, and the KRX was filthy....lol....what did I expect......

....it wasn't the worst I've seen, but bad enough.  Thankfully the muddy clay was not dry, and I was able to get the exterior clean in no time, but the interior was another matter. Nevertheless, by 4 pm I had it clean once again, parked it, and headed inside for the day.  The rain had finally stopped.

I managed to catch the last remnants of Tuesday's sunset for your viewing pleasure....

.....Tuesday turned out to be quite a busy day with unexpected twists and turns, but it turned out just fine.  I even managed to stow away my Black & Decker Workmate® bench, and bench grinder in preparation for VW insertion.

Thanks for stopping by!