Life to its fullest.....

 7:19 am - Friday - July 21st - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 36%, wind - mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 98° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were near Coupeville, WA (Whidbey Island) having dinner with long time friends Bob and Karen Fenstermacher.....good times....↴

TLE and I were up much earlier than normal on the first of our 4 day weekend.  Why were we up before 6:30 am?  We've been remiss in walking, so we determined that this 'weekend' we would resume our 2 mile round trip walks out to Jess Valley Road and back, but earlier in the day before the heat arrives.  At 6:30 am it was under 60° F, with no wind, so perfect conditions for a brisk out and back walk....

3.2 mph

We can hardly believe we get to live in a place like this!

....upon our return I pulled out the 'outdoor TV' so we could sit on the 'lido deck' watching The Open......

.....life is good!  We sat out until around 9 am, then the work of the day began.  I had several small projects I wish to be completed on Thursday....in no particular order: 1) affix the 2024 tag to the rear VW license plate, 2) bury our sewer line, so we're not always tripping over it, and to help it drain better, 3) pull out our Toro blower to blow rocks, dirt and dust off all of our artificial turf pieces, 4) and wash the bugs off the VW.

The first task, and the one I absolutely wanted completed Thursday was to bury the sewer hose.  It took me about 45 minutes beginning to end, and I am pleased with the results....

......next up I got out the Toro blower and created a big dust cloud clearing off all the artificial turf.  After that I actually watered all the turf to settle what dust was left, and sort of clean it, and it worked well.

While I was creating the dust cloud the UPS guy arrived with our latest Amazon purchases....two new throw rugs....one for the bedroom between our two closets, and a round one to go under TLE's recliner in the salon.....

....the round rug fits the space much better, and helps us achieve our goal of exposing more of our new 'wood' vinyl flooring.

Affixing the 2024 tag to the VW license plate was easy, and I had the VW washed, and dried in about 15 minutes.  By this time the heat had arrived, and it was time to retreat into the air conditioned Newell interior to watch The Open, then Stage 19 of Le Tour, then a couple of FIFA Women's World Cup matches being held in Australia, and New Zealand this time around.  Just like I saw our day going.

We hadn't yet eaten at the Niles Hotel restaurant in the two summers we have been here so we decided Thursday evening would be the day.  There aren't really any what we would call 'fine dining' establishments in Alturas, but we were told the restaurant (Roadhouse) in the Niles Hotel was good, so we drove into Alturas around 5 pm to do just that, arriving just after 5:30 pm after filling up the VW with another month's worth of gasoline.

We ordered a couple of their appetizers.....beer battered mushrooms, and potato skins, and for our entrees TLE ordered their Chicken Marsala, and I their bacon wrapped Filet Mignon along with a baked potato, and dinner salad....

.....the appetizer portions were quite generous, and while we thoroughly enjoyed them, we could not eat all of them, or we would not have room for the main course, so we got a doggy box for them, and then dived into the entrees.  TLE said the chicken cutlets were very tender, and moist, but the Marsala sauce was not thick enough, but she enjoyed it overall.  Again, the portion was quite large, and she ended up putting half of the dish in a doggy box.  The filet mignon was a little dry, under seasoned, and grilled unevenly....the bites ranged between rare, medium rare (what I ordered) and medium.  The baked potato, and salad were fine.  Yelp gives them 4 stars on 35 reviews, but we'd be closer to 3 stars.  So, the search for fine dining in Alturas, and surrounds continues....lol.  I must say, though, the service was spot on the entire meal.

We were home by 7:30 pm, and headed directly (at TLE's request) over to the putting green at the Clubhouse where we practiced putting for about an hour before heading home at 8:30 pm, just as the mosquitoes began to make their presence known.

We finished the evening watching the Canada vs. Nigeria soccer match, and were in bed by 10 am.....a great day packed with activity....now it's time for me to finish this missive, and get to watching The Open.

Thanks for stopping by!