Some excitement......

 7:58 am - January 4th - Thursday - GNHS - 48° F, humidity 82%, wind 4 mph out of the west by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2016 we were still at our first boondock site in the Anza Borrego Desert on Rock House Road....Steven Dempsey launched his drone to get an aerial view.....↴

TLE and I were not planning on working Wednesday, but when the bookings went from 2 to 4, with two of them being all day we got dressed to help Hunter. This year's post New Years Day business is much busier than last year's.  After New Years Day last year we had just 2 rentals over the 9 days following New Years.  This year we have a total of 8 so far (if you count New Years day we have 10...we had no rentals last year on New Years Day), and I'm sure there will be a few on the weekend.

All four rentals were on their way by 10 am, and then it was just a matter of hanging out hoping there would be no issues.  Hunter and I fueled up the rest of the RZRs during that time, and washed four, or five for good measure.  When we've got the time we prefer to wash them, rather than using compressed air....they just look cleaner.

Around 11 am it began to rain.....

.....we weren't really expecting rain, and that it lasted a couple of hours was even more unexpected, but delightful, nonetheless, but probably not so much for the customers way out in the desert....

  

...during that interval TLE and I took another of our 1 miles walks and averaged, for the first time since I injured my knee, 3.2 mph covering the mile in just over 18 minutes....

Our two half day rentals returned around 2 pm, and they were pretty dirty, so Hunter gave them a good bathing after which I dried them.  One of our two all day rentals returned around 3 pm, a little early, and was also pretty muddy.  So three rentals back with no issues....good!

After they were checked back in TLE and I took our second 1 mile walk of the day and averaged 3.2 mph once again, and my knee feels wonderful...

....the skies had begun to clear by then, so the Chocolates began to light up.....

We watched the tracker on the other all day rental as it slowly made its way back to the office on the canal trail....that was about 3:45 pm.  Anyway, we thought they would be back within 20 minutes so we stopped tracking them.  Around 4:05 pm I checked again, because they had not yet returned and saw they had made a beeline down to Bombay Beach....doh!  They were told specifically not to go there.  Our RZRs are not licensed for highway use, and you have to use the highway to get there.  Doing so invalidates your rental agreement, and the insurance, and makes you 100% liable for all damages.  We tried calling them, but it went straight to voice mail, so Hunter and I hopped in the company van to drive down there (it's only 6 miles).  As we turned onto HWY 111 northbound we saw our RZR coming at us in the southbound lanes going about 70 mph.  We flashed our lights, but they continued.  We made a U-turn, and tried to catch up with them after they turned on to Hot Mineral Spa Road, but they were going even faster.  We thought they were trying to get back to GNHS by 4:30 pm, which they would have, but then they suddenly turned onto the Fountain of Youth road.  We continued following them, and finally caught up with them near the entrance gate.  I got out and told them they were in trouble, and to immediately return to GNHS, which they did.  We arrived back there around 4:40 pm.  Thankfully, there was no damage to the unit.  We will never be renting to them again, for sure!

All that being said, all four units came back unscathed, so another good day for COA on that front.  We were treated to a beautiful sunset, which lasted for about 30 minutes....I took some pictures around 5 pm well after the sun had dipped below the western horizon.....

Thanks for stopping by!