Honoring our Veterans....

 6:23 am - Sunday - April 30th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 55%, wind 5 mph out of the south by southeast....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were getting our first view of Lake Tahoe going over Spooner Summit.....found snow on the ground at Tahoe Valley Campground, our home for the 'summer'......↴

TLE and I were on the job at 7:30 am as Saturday promised to be our busiest day this season, so far.  In all I staged 22 golf carts, and 19 went out.  With so many people on the golf course I spent a good bit of time marshaling.  We do not normally mow, or water on the weekends, so the work we can do is a tad more limited than during the week.  Nevertheless, I kept busy all day.

One of the reasons we were so busy is that this weekend each year is dedicated to our Veterans.  If you are a Veteran you get to play golf for free, including the cart....whether, or not you are staying in the park.  I love how Veterans are really honored here in Modoc County, not just at LPG&RVR.  There are Veterans benefits every month somewhere in Modoc County.

The time passed quickly Saturday, and before I knew it I was taking off at 3:30 pm in order to participate in our first Saturday putting contest of the 2023 season.  I still had three golf carts out on the course at 4 pm, when the contest began.  We had about 20+ putters this day, and I showed my rust by not making it out of the first round....lol.  Nonetheless, we all had a good time.  I took care of the final three golf carts after losing in the first round.

 

So, our second 4 day work week is almost in the books.  Sunday will be our 'Friday' this week, and we'll be off Monday through Thursday.  On the way home we stopped off at the annual Veterans dinner put on by LPG&RVR, and had some BBQ'd beef with all the trimmings....a nice way to end a busy day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Convertible.....

 6:26 am - Saturday - April 29th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, 54% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Greenbelt National Park (near Washington D.C.) watching the rain fall.....↴

After all the hard work Thursday it was time for an easier day.  The tee time sheet was filling up quickly so I staged 10 golf carts initially, then another 6 later in the morning.  In all 12 carts went out, which is not too bad for a Friday in late April.....

.....the high temp for the day was forecast to be 82° F, and by noon time I had converted my work pants to short pants......LOVE convertible pants!.....

......after staging the carts I headed down to the 'Night Office' to remove the old park map, and install the new one.....it is laminated, enabling us to use 'white board' erasable markers to indicate which sites are available after hours for 'walk up' customers....

↑In with the new and out with the old↓

....then headed out to check the #3 tee boxes for the dreaded goose droppings, and found very few for a change.  The 4 sand traps were untouched from the day before, so I left them be, and just sat watching golfers move up the 4th fairway for a while before heading back to the Clubhouse.  Those new full time sites which they began to build last year, are almost done now....

....after TLE's lunch break, and then mine I drove the very slow John Deere riding lawnmower down to the tent sites to mow them, but was only able to mow about 1/2 of them as the ground was still too damp, so I headed back, slowly, to the Clubhouse to begin the daily task of washing, and putting away the 12 golf carts which had gone out that day.  I finished just before 4 pm, and was home taking a shower within minutes.  

Friday was the warmest day this season, and I can tell you with some confidence that I am not yet ready to work in temps over 80° F....lol!  Thankfully, the temps (after Saturday) will begin dropping back into the 60's for the foreseeable future, which will be much more to my liking.  We did manage to resist the temptation to turn on the A/C after work, and buy 6 pm it began to cool quickly, as it often does.  TLE kicked my butt in 'Phase 10'....after six hands she was up three phases, having caught me with all my cards still in my hands three times.  On a good night I might catch her in the same situation once, or twice in a game, so I knew I was licked, and surrendered.....the card gods were on TLE's side this night.

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Weed.....

6:21 am - Friday - April 28th - GNHS - 44°  F, humidity 59%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F. On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at the Shaved Duck in St. Louis, MO....they were featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives....one of our favorite restaurants ever.....their 'Burnt Ends' were that for which you might die......↴ 

I still have that long sleeve t-shirt...in fact TLE just made a repair to it for me...lol

After staging 5 carts (4 electrics, and 1 gasser....one of the electrics was returned late, and did not get plugged in) I headed out on the golf course to clear goose turds off the #3 tee boxes, then rake the 4 sand traps.  When I arrived at the sand trap on hole #15 I found a whole crop of weeds had sprung up 'overnight' (it is getting warmer), so I headed back to the 'Caddy Shack' to retrieve a 'hula hoe' to remove those weeds, and then rake out the sand trap....

About 1/2 done

There, you can see the weeds remaining...click on the picture to enlarge

The final pile of harvested weeds

Weeded and raked.....looks good!

....it took me about 90 minutes to weed, and rake the bunker, which is the size of a small swimming pool.  By the time I finished I had just enough time to rake the sand trap at hole #18 before heading back to the Clubhouse office to give TLE her lunch break.  While I was raking that sand trap Mike rode by on his fairway lawnmower....

After TLE's lunch break, and my 30 minute lunch break I headed out on the small, oh so slow, John Deere riding lawnmower to mow around the tee boxes on holes 3, 10, 15, 16, 17 & 18....this is something I do once per week as the regular mower is too large to fit around those tee boxes.  To do the entire circuit takes me over 2 hours if there are no incidents, but on this day there was an incident.....just as I was leaving the 18th, and final tee boxes I noticed the right front tire had gone flat...doh!  I found a shady spot to park, and called Bob, our mechanic, who brought out a cannister of compressed air to reinflate the tire, so I could drive it back to the Caddy Shack where he can change the tire....I made it back with air still in the tire....lol.

By the time I had returned it was 4:15 pm (past quitting time for me) and I had 9 golf carts to clean, and put away for the night.  I managed to get them all put away by 4:50 pm, which is only 10 minutes before TLE closes the office for the day, so I got my putter and a couple of golf balls and practiced putting.  This Saturday is our first putting contest.

We were home around 5:10 pm, and within minutes I was in the shower washing all the dirt and sweat from my body.  TLE provided a dinner salad for our dinner, and then we headed outside around 7 pm to play 'Yahtzee' for an hour.  The sun is setting around 7:30 pm, and it fully set by 8 pm, just about the time we finished our 6th game.  I managed to win 4 out of 6 games of chance on this evening, however, I failed to mention yesterday that TLE prevailed 3 games out of 5 in our Backgammon match Wednesday night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hard and soft.....

6:18 am - Thursday - April 27th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 61%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were visiting Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington......↴

After the flurry of work on Tuesday I was determined not to work so hard on Wednesday, but I was unsuccessful.  In the afternoons we get a lot of sun on the front of the coach since we are facing southwest.  Last year, as you know, we faced the opposite direction and got sun in the front window of the coach first thing in the morning, so we never had the curtains open, however, it was nice not having sun on the front of the coach in the heat of the day.  On the other hand, it is quite nice being able to open the curtains in the Salon first thing each day.  At any rate, now we have sun on the front of the coach most of the afternoon, and we wanted to mitigate that somewhat so we pulled out all the sun shades which we own (three triangular sails, and one of rectangular variety).  We spent most of the morning trying to configure two of the sail sunshades to fit the space, but they just didn't work, so as a last resort we tried the rectangular one, and what do you know?  It worked......

....by the time we finished with that long, drawn out task it was almost 1 pm, and I was ready for a nap!

I received a call from Kathy (TLE's counterpart in the Clubhouse office) shortly thereafter that some software I had ordered on eBay had arrived via USPS.  I have used a program called Paperport (Nuance) going back to my workaday life to manage all of my paperwork, and be 'paperless' as they say.  It's a great program, and I've continued to use it since we began traveling to scan all of the important paperwork we received.  The last time I ordered an updated version of the software was about 7, or 8 years ago when I bought my Lenovo laptop, which I just replaced with the Microsoft Surface Pro 7.  At the time I just downloaded the new program from their website, but since then Nuance (the parent company) was bought, and the new company offers a much more expensive (over $500) version.  I was able to find Paperport 14.0 on eBay for $31, so I bought it, however, my new laptop has no CD-ROM drive.  In order to get it loaded on the Surface Pro I need to copy the disc to one of my external hard drives (Western Digital Passport) using the Lenovo, which does have a CD-ROM, then connect that hard drive to the Surface Pro and install the program.  Long story short....it took longer than I was expecting (I was thinking less than 30 minutes beginning to end), but that is why we call it 'The Hockwald way'....I had to install it, and then reinstall it several times before I was successful, and by that time it was well after 4 pm....lol.  I started around 1:30 pm.  At least it is done now, and it works well, but I'll never get those hours back. 

We had another lovely evening in store, so after eating a delicious beef stew TLE began making Tuesday we headed outside for another game night, and then sat by the fire for about an hour......

....before heading inside for the night.  We watched the latest episode of 'Survivor' (recorded of course to fast forward through the commercials), and I was in bed by 9:30 pm.  We had a lovely 4 day 'weekend', and accomplished much....now it is time to begin our 4 day work week.

Thanks for stopping by!

It was perfect.....

 8:09 am - Wednesday - April 26th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 40%, wind 0 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were visiting Arlington National Cemetery.......↴

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Changing of the Guard

It usually doesn't take us this long to set up our 'lido deck' wherever we may be each season, but this time has been different.  Initially we were unsettled as to whether we would keep our current orientation, and then when we decided we liked it we had our first 4 day work week, so everything we wanted to do was deferred until our first 4 day weekend.  Thus comes Tuesday, and probably the biggest job to mostly complete the LPG&RVR* 'lido deck 2023.  We had not yet deployed our dining canopy, or Edison Lights, but to do so required us to remove a bush, and then level a pad large enough for the 12' x 12' canopy footprint.  Before we got started I drove our golf cart down to the 'Caddy Shack' to retrieve one of the trailers, and some tools (square point shovel, pruning hooks, and rock rake).  Once I had those in hand I headed back, and with TLE's help removed the bush, leveled the canopy pad, put down our 8' x 6' artificial turf, moved the picnic table onto the turf, then setup of the dining canopy.  At the end of it all here is what it looks like.....

Looking south

Looking north

.....we then setup our umbrella with our two camp chairs for sunset happy hour....

....it took us until almost 1:30 pm to finish, but it was well worth it.  Later in the day I hung the Edison Lights, and the job was done.  I attempted to take a nighttime picture of the Edison Light display, but didn't hold the camera still enough, but you get the idea....

....I did do better photographing the umbrella lights, though.....

....we began the evening around 5:15 pm enjoying some adult beverages at our sunset/happy hour location, then to celebrate, and dedicate the completion of this season's 'lido deck' TLE had me grill a couple of filet mignons on the Sea-B-Que to which she added sides of smashed potatoes, and a salad....

....and to cap off the evening we played 'Phase 10' for the first time in month.  It was very nice to resume 'game night' on the 'lido deck'.  There was no wind, no breeze, and the temperature was perfect, made even better by a cigar and Scotch!

Tuesday was just one of those 'perfect days' by which all other 'perfect days' will be judged.  Everything turned out as we had envisioned it, and now we can settle into life here at LPG&RVR*.

Thanks for stopping by!

*LPG&RVR = Likely Place Golf & RV Resort

Like we never left.....

7:42 am - Tuesday - April 25th - LPG&RVR - 34° F, humidity 67%, wind 0 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in O'Neill, NB taking advantage of a free campsite at Carney Park (found on 'Days End Directory')......↴ 

We hadn't been shopping in 12 days, and it was time to make the 20 mile drive into Alturas for the first time this season.  We do not normally wait 12 days to shop, in fact, we usually shop every 7-8 days, so the cupboards were getting a little bare.  We enjoyed a leisurely morning before getting dressed around 10 am, and heading into town.

Our first stop was at the local Ace Hardware store on Modoc Street to stock up on all things mosquito repellant.  There are no mosquitoes now, but within 4-5 weeks, if not sooner, there will be.  We bought three citronella bucket candles, which we found to be quite effective on the 'lido deck' last year, plus another spray bottle of mosquito repellant.  I also picked up numerous other small items (garden hose washers, a new grounded male electric plug to replace one which had gone bad on one of my extension cords, etc.)....

New Adirondack cushions

Citronella bucket candles

From there we headed to Rite Aid (no prescriptions to fill just yet) where TLE picked up a few things, and we also bought new cushions for the Adirondack chairs.  Our last, but most important stop, was at Holiday Market where TLE and I filled up a small shopping cart of food items.

We were back home a little after 12 pm.  While TLE put away the grocery items I headed out to the trailer to install the new male ground plug on the extension cord.....

.....I've been meaning to fix that cord for over a year, but now it is done, and I can stop feeling guilty for procrastinating.   Actually, it was more a matter of forgetting to buy the replacement every single time I was at the hardware store for the last year.  I'm not really a procrastinator by nature, just essentially becoming more absent minded with each passing year, but it looks like procrastination on the surface.  I also deployed the solar spot light for our flag, and deployed our Sea-B-Que grill, and gas firepit.....

The spot light can be seen at the top of the picture inside the red circle, and the solar panel for the spot at the bottom of the picture, also circled in red

The 'lido deck' looking more complete, but we've a ways to go before we pronounce it ready for occupancy

.....one more thing is needed to complete the 'lido deck' and that is the Edison light lit dining canopy, which TLE and I will work on Tuesday....we need to level some ground, and do some raking, but I think it will look great!

We're heading into a warming trend as the week progresses, and will have three days over the weekend of 80's temps.  The contrast between daytime highs, and nighttime lows is about 35-40° here at LPG&RVR.  The highs don't come until 3, or 4 pm each day, but by 5 pm you can feel a chill in the air....it cools down rapidly at over 4,000' elevation....even in the summer.

I have 5 more solar string lights out on the Sea-B-Que table charging up, and ready to deploy, hopefully Tuesday.....

.....around 4 pm TLE and I took our first 'out and back' walk of the season out to Jess Valley Road and back, which is just over 2 miles.  As we walked, talked, and enjoyed the amazing view we both commented how it seemed like just a few weeks ago we had done this very walk, and yet it has been over 6 months.....

....we managed to average about 3.3 mph, and covered 2.04 miles in just over 37 minutes....not too bad for our first walk in a few weeks.  By the time we returned to home base it was almost 5 pm.....time for adult beverages, and thus another LPG&RVR days comes to and end.  We've now been back for about 12 days, but it feels like we never left.....life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

Deferred tasks.....

 7:10 am - Monday - April 24th - LPG&RVR - 37° F, humidity 65%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest.......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in North Platte, NB have a late lunch at Bailey's American Cuisine...we were overnighting in the Walmart parking lot across the street....very handy.  Unfortunately, they were a victim of the Wuhan flu, and are no longer open for business.......↴

Since we arrived on the 13th I have deferred a lot of things around our encampment until our first 4 day weekend, so by Sunday there was a lot of pent up demand for creating a more permanent situation.  Some of the tasks deferred were, in no particular order, connecting to the city water (we've been using our fresh water tank, and house water pump since we arrived), finishing the positioning of the trailer (awaiting the arrival of our new Trailer Valet XL, which arrived a few days ago), and deploying more yard lights. To be sure, there are numerous other tasks, but I will get to them in a future post.

First up was to connect the new Trailer Valet XL to the tongue of the trailer and continue to rotate the trailer (from right to left facing the trailer from the front) until the back was parallel to the road....

Website photo

.....it took a while, but TLE and I got the trailer rotated to where we wanted it, and the Trailer Valet XL worked like a charm!  It's 10,000 lb capacity made things much easier.  One of the benefits of the XL is that it is NOT permanently attached to the trailer like the old one was, so it can, and will be kept out of the weather, thereby extending its useful lifespan.

Once that was done it was time for a lunch break, and then I spent time leveling the trailer from side to side by jacking up the driver side, and putting a couple of boards under the tires to raise that side about 2", and it worked.  Once that was done I reinstalled the four piers under each corner of the trailer to make it stable, and then reinstalled the tire covers.....

.....next I utilized two snow marker poles to wrap some of my solar rope lights around.....

......however, I neglected to take pictures last night.  Lastly I deployed the long string of white rope lights around the driver side of the Newell, and completely around the trailer, but once again failed to memorialize them last night.  Trust me, they look as good as always, and they keep the mice from getting into our coach.  Haven't found a mouse inside our coach since late 2019 because of those lights.

Lastly, I finally connected the coach to the city water supply as it appears we are finally past the sub freezing temps here at LPG&RVR.  The water pressure here (over 70 psi) is wonderful compared to the water pressure at GNHS (40 psi on a good day).  Good water pressure makes for nice, long, hot showers.  When the water pressure is too low the our Girard tankless water heater does not perform well.  By the time I finished with that final task (at least the final tasks for Sunday....there is more to do) it was approaching 4 pm, and time to relax...enough work for one day, right?  We still need to deploy our dining canopy, the Edison lights which adorn it, and move the picnic table. It won't be long until we feel like we're home.

Thanks for stopping by!