Cold front.....

 5:39 am - Saturday - June 21st - LPG&RVR - 39° F, humidity 51%, wind 5 mph out of the north by northwest....heavy overcast today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were overnighting in a Cabela's parking lot in Billings, MT......

.....with Claude and Gail.  Claude has a 1984 Bluebird Wanderlodge.

Friday is a blur in my mind.  Once again I went from one thing to the next all day long with my only break being giving TLE her lunch break.  I began the day staging 10 golf carts (we rented way more than that) and then got to work washing the 13 golf carts which came back after I went home Thursday at 3:30 pm.  That is pretty much the most golf carts I've ever had to wash first thing in the morning.  Ultimately we rented 26 golf carts Friday with only two still on the golf course at 3:30 pm.  

I spent time sorting and cleaning our loaner golf club sets. Over time the clubs from each set get moved around, and I have to resort them so each set is complete.  We provide two right handed sets of clubs (men's and women's), as well as two sets of left handed clubs (men's and women's, also).  Over time sets of clubs have been donated to us, and we had 7 bags of clubs....too many; it was time to winnow them back down to four sets.  Cleaning and sorting them took about and hour.

Soon it was time to give TLE her lunch break, and then it was 1 pm and just 2.5 hours left in my work day.  I met Claude over at the slope that borders the employee row to finish  weed whacking the rest of the weeds, and by 1:40 pm we were done.  We really work well together, and at the same pace.

By the time I returned to the 'Cart Return' area there were 10 golf carts to wash, so I got busy.  By the time 3:30 pm rolled around I had washed, and stowed 24 of the 26 rentals.  Every day is different, and this was one of those days when most of them returned early.

For the first time in a couple of weeks I wore pants as the high temp for the day was forecast at 63° F.  It was breezy all day long, and I only had my sweat shirt off for TLE's lunch break.  It was chilly!  

Around 8 pm it began to rain, which was totally unexpected, and continued to rain on and off most of the night.  Saturday will be even colder so I'll be bundling up again for work.  This week I work 5 days.  Usually Saturday would be my 'Friday', but I'm working Sunday, too, so I can be off work for our five day trip to Montana.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cool.....

 5:36 am - Friday - June 20th - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 43%, wind 3 mph out of the northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 63° F....23° lower than yesterday.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were exploring the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone NP.....

.....there are large herds of buffalo there.

The temps are rapidly decreasing from the high of 90° F we had on Wednesday, and by Saturday the daytime high will only reach 59° F.  Kind of the last cooling spell we'll have before the 4th of July weekend.  The 4th of July is usually when the summer heat arrives, and we'll be getting a steady dose of temps in the low to mid 90's from that point to late August when it will begin to slowly cool again.  I know we'll look back fondly on this current cooling trend in a few weeks.

Thursday we returned to the 20+ golf cart rental phase in which we've been for the past few weeks; we had a total of 26 golf carts rented.  By the time I left at 3:30 pm 10 of them were still out on the golf course, so I'll have a lot of cart washing to do first thing Friday.  When I went to pickup TLE at 5 pm 8 of them had returned.

I did a little of everything Thursday including, but not limited to weed whipping, watering, mowing, and ball collection from the driving range.  From the time I staged the first 12 golf carts to TLE's lunch break I was going continuously.  After lunch Claude and I convened at the slope which separates the pull through RV sites from the employee sites to begin the annual  weed clearing chore.  The golf course superintendent, Jose Madrigal, thinks the weeds have stopped growing, so it's time to cut them down.  We weed whacked from 1 pm to 2 pm, and managed to clear half of the slope, and should be able to finish that on Friday afternoon.

I only garnered 1.5 five gallon buckets of balls from the driving range Thursday, which is what I would expect for mid week.  Monday's are the big days for the number of balls retrieved; Dave said he filled 6 five gallon buckets with balls on Monday.

Thanks for stopping by!

A slow one.....

 5:38 am - Thursday - June 19th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 32%, wind ZERO mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 86° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I summited Mt. Tallac at South Lake Tahoe.....

.....you can see the entire Lake Tahoe Basin from there.....elevation 9,735'!  Lake Tahoe is at 6,300' elevation.

For the first time in several weeks we did not rent 20+ golf carts.  We had to settle for 15.  Nevertheless, time did pass quickly.  I mowed around the tee boxes for which I am responsible, plus the employee sites in the morning before TLE's lunch break, and spent the better part of the afternoon washing and stowing golf carts as they slowly returned to the wash station.

This weekend, however, will be very busy as the annual Likely Fire Department Golf Tournament will be held Saturday, and I'm sure every golf cart we have available for rent will be deployed; some twice.  As usual I will be working, and will not be able to play in the tournament.  Originally it was going to be held last weekend on the 14th, and I would have been able to play as I was off work Saturday and Sunday.

The daylight portion of the day is getting way longer now.  We go to bed at 9 pm on work nights, and it is still very light outside.  Seems weird to be going to bed when it is that light outside.  Of course, it begins to get light outside before 5 am now, and will continue to do so until the summer solstice next month.  We haven't had any issues with local forest fires so far this summer, so the air quality has been spectacular to date.

That is really it for Wednesday.  As I've said before, we're kind of in that 'wash, rinse, repeat' mode, so there is not much about which to write.....thanks for stopping by!

The rest of the story......

 5:34 am - Wednesday - June 18th - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 30%, wind ZERO mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were having some brews at Sonny's BBQ Shack, Bar and Grill in South Lake Tahoe.....

.....they have this 1 pound of bacon BLT on their menu....amazing!

We slept in until almost 7 am at the Shilo Inn Tuesday morning.  After typing my latest post TLE and I walked over to Brevada Brewhouse  for a cup of coffee before beginning our return drive to LPG&RVR....

....they are more than a coffee house serving breakfast and lunch, as well as being a beer/wine bar.  Their coffee is top drawer, and their soft chew chocolate chip cookies will come back to you in your dreams.

By the time we returned to the hotel to finish packing, and checkout it was around 9:15 am.  We were in the car and on our way to the Fred Meyers Fuel station to top off our gas tank (you still cannot pump your own gas in Oregon) by 9:30 am, and then over to Holiday Jewelers to get some new watch batteries installed.  While I did that TLE walked over to TJ Maxx to do buy some shoes.  We were back in the car by 10:30 am to begin our two hour drive home.  Of course, we had no choice but to stop at 'Coffee Adventure' in Canby around 12 pm for some sandwiches and Frappuccinos before continuing the rest of our uneventful drive home, arriving at LPG&RVR around 1:15 pm.  As we always hope, our entire trip to and from Kfalls was uneventful.

While we were gone the new aluminum sleeves I ordered to repair the wire rope on the rear trailer door arrived, so I spent about an hour installing the new sleeve, and then reinstalling the wire rope.  I needed TLE's help right at the end, but we got it done without harming any small animals, or children....

The new aluminum sleeve installed

....now we can open and shut the door again without three people....lol!

Wednesday we begin a new work week.  I'll be working 5 days this week (Wednesday through Sunday) as we will be gone to Montana Monday through Friday the following week visiting my sister Hilary, and her husband Bob.  Dave will work those 5 days in my absence.  We haven't been to their house in Deer Lodge for a couple of years, plus my brother Philip, and his wife Jeannie will be there, too, so it should be a fun week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kfalls.....

 7:17 am - Tuesday - June 17th - Shilo Inn, Klamath Falls, OR - 52° F, humidity 25%, wind 1 mph out of the west by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 83° F.  Ironically, on this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Sioux Falls, SD riding our Cannondale tandem road bike.....

.....on a loop bike path around the city.  We made this stop at the falls for which the city is named.

A while back we decided to take a road trip to Klamath Falls, OR to do some shopping, and spend the night.  We've stayed at the Shilo Inn numerous times over the past 4 summers, and always enjoy being walking distance from several good restaurants, but I get ahead of myself.

We wanted to be on the road by 9 am, and beat that estimated departure time by 15 minutes.  It was a perfect driving day with a few clouds, and uncrowded highways. It takes us almost exactly 2 hours to make the drive, and we arrived in town at the local Supercenter Walmart just before 11 am without incident.  We take California 299 west out of Alturas to California 139 northbound in Canby which takes us all the way to the Oregon Border where it changes to Oregon 39 all the way to Klamath Falls.  We rarely see another vehicle from Canby to the Oregon Border.

After the Walmart stop we headed directly across the street to the local Goodwill and did some junking.  We haven't had a junking fix in a long time.  I found a couple of shot glasses for 79 cents each, and a belt whilst TLE found a skirt.  We always find something at this Goodwill without which life cannot continue...lol....

From there we headed to Fred Meyers (Kroger) to buy some groceries, and to, hopefully, get the batteries in two of my watches replaced.  There is a jewelry store inside the store where I hoped to get that done, but in the end it was a no go.  They didn't have a tool big enough to open up my Nixon watch case, so we'll have to stop at Holiday Jewelers Tuesday morning to get that done.

Our next stop was Falls Tap House located near our overnight destination (Shilo Inn) to have some brews and some BBQ brisket sandwiches, plus enjoy the view....

We usually sit on the deck (background), but they do not have their umbrellas out yet, so we sat on the deck

You can see the Shilo Inn in the distance....a short walk.  

....we lingered there for about an hour enjoying great BBQ, and brews before heading to our destination for the evening.....the Shilo Inn.

We always book one of their mini suites, which has a separate area with a couch, and a bar.  About every other time we manage to snag one of the suites with a view of the valley and lake....

The etched glass room divider

.....as we get older it seems that just a pint of beer is like taking a sedative for TLE and I....lol.  After unpacking we both took a long nap....for me almost 2 hours.  Life is good!  Time to get dressed, and start the return trip to LPG&RVR.

Thanks for stopping by!

Father's Day.....

 7:06 am - Monday - June 16th - LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 24%, wind ZERO mph out of the south by southwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were riding our Terra Trike tadpole recumbent tricycles along the Fish Lake Bike Path near Spokane, WA.....

.....sometimes I wish we still had them, but it became impractical to carry them with us all over the U.S. as they took up a lot of space.  We were visiting my sister in Spokane at the time, and decided to leave both tricycles with them as we headed east to Campbellsville, KY to work at Amazon for the first time.  When we returned to visit them the next summer we listed them on Craigslist, and sold them pretty quickly.

Sunday was Father's Day, and throughout the day I received calls and text messages from my kids wishing me a good one, and it was.  Father's Day is always the day of the final round of the US Open.  The morning air was chilly, but by 9 am I was outside reclining in my anti gravity chair watching that final round, just as I have done every year.  The round began with just 4 players under part, and when the dust settled at the end of 72 holes there was only one under par; every other player was over par.

To keep the 'lido deck' mosquito free I lit every thing we had to keep them at bay.....

These I call our little smug pots....small tiki lamps burning Citronella oil

A Citronella candle

Citronella coils

....they all worked like a charm, and I remained mosquito bite free all day!

At one point during the afternoon 5 players were tied at 1 over par, and anyone one of them could have been crowned champion, but only one them made key shots when it mattered the most, and that was J.J. Spaun.  He birdied the final two holes to win by two strokes.  His final putt to clinch the win was an improbable 65 foot birdie; the longest putt made by any player over four days at Oakmont Country Club....

JJ Spaun hoisting the Claret Jug

....there was a 90 minute rain delay during the final 18 holes, so the tournament finished just before sunset eastern time....8:30 pm.

Shortly after the finish of the tournament I lit the Sea-B-Que to grill a New York Steak for TLE and I.  It was one of the ones we bought at COSTCO a while back.  COSTCO has the best New York Steaks!  I hope all the fathers out there had as good a Father's Day as I!

Thanks for stopping by!

A new look......

 8:13 am - Sunday - FATHERS DAY - June 15th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 21%, wind 1 mph out of the north by northwest......partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE arrived at our RV site for the summer in Gardiner, MT....

The descent from Mammoth Hot Springs to Gardiner is a 7% grade, narrow, 2 lane road

In our site at the RV park on the Yellowstone River

....Yellowstone NP is in Wyoming, however, we were living in Gardiner, MT, about 7 miles from Mammoth Hot Springs.

I would like to wish the fathers in my family, Chris, Rod, Nick and Tim, a very happy Fathers Day today!  You are all amazing fathers, and make TLE and I happy and proud every day!

We received our new, enclosed dining canopy for the 'dining/gaming deck' on Thursday, but I didn't open the box until Saturday morning.  TLE and spent about an hour setting it up, and securing it before pronouncing it ready for occupation.....

.....this one is also 10' x 10', but way less complicated to set up, cost about $160, and has a slightly smaller profile than what we had last year, however, just about as roomy; in fact, we can actually get the Sea-B-Que inside it....

....the last two years it was outside the dining canopy.  To get it inside we had to remove the table upon which it has set the past few summers, but having that plywood makes it possible to set it on the picnic table instead. No more umbrellas that keep blowing over to worry about the rest of the summer. Time for some table games!

Last year's 'dining/gaming deck'

.....TLE's garden continues to flourish, and a lot of the plants have bloomed way earlier than last summer....

TLE's garden in going strong!

.....we spent the better part of the day, after setting up the dining canopy, resting in our anti gravity chairs, and watching The US Open.  At the end of round 3, around 4 pm, only four players were under par, one at even par, and the rest over par....that's over 60 players over par.  Oakmont Country Club is a brutal test of golf this year.

Time to head back out to the 'lido deck' for another day of golf....thanks for stopping by!

Another four.....

 8:17 am - Saturday - June 14th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 22%, wind 1 mph out of the south.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I had just arrived at West Yellowstone to begin our training.....

.....to work in the General Store at Mammoth Hot Springs.  We're having dinner at The Slippery Otter Pub with good friend Art Young whom we met at Amazon back in 2014.

I know I say this at the end of virtually every 4 day work week, but I'll say it again.  The time goes by so quickly, and here we are at the beginning of another 4 day weekend.  TLE and I slept in until almost 8 am, and we are sitting here in Newell salon sipping wonderful coffee, and watching round 3 of The US Open......life is good.

Friday did go by quickly, and I felt like I was an hour behind most of the day.  After staging the first 14 of another 20 golf cart day I headed out to begin the final mowing of the week.  I began with the large parking lot grass area, then proceeded to mow the large grass area next to site #30, then 7, or 8 of the pull through sites, then back to the large gazebo after our customers had vacated it around 10:45 am.  Next up was mowing the very large area around the 'Night Office', and finally tent sites 1-3.  By the time I finished it was 11:45 am, and time to clean up the 2 bag Husqvarna before giving TLE her daily lunch break.

As I mentioned above we did rent 20 golf carts once again, and the weekend promises to be much busier.  No doubt the cart shed will be emptied, and some carts will go out a second time.  I spent the better part of my final 2.5 hours after lunch washing, fueling, and stowing carts.  By the time 3:30 pm rolled around there were still 7 golf carts out on the course.  I don't like to leave Dave, or whoever is working opposite me, a bunch of golf carts to wash first thing Saturday morning, so when I returned at 5 pm to find all 7 carts back I spent about 15 minutes washing and stowing them so Dave will have a clean slate Saturday morning.  Wow, that was quite a 'run on' sentence....lol!

TLE and I were home to begin our four day weekend around 5:20 pm.  We would have sat outside for a couple of hours relaxing and unwinding, but the wind was blowing around 15-20 mph, which is not at all conducive to 'lido deck' activity.

Thanks for stopping by!

Watering and weed whacking.....

 5:39 am - Friday - June 13th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 35%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were enjoying another Seal Rocks RV Cove.....

.....on the coast of Oregon.

With low humidity and warm days I've been having to do a lot of watering and Thursday I spent a lot of time running from one location to another to turn water on/off, move sprinklers, and check on the progress of the pond water moving through the 10 back-in sites, and 10 ten sites (I just returned from turning off the pond quarter turn valve.  The water got all the way down to the 10th tent site this time).  I also did a lot of weed whacking down in the back-in sites where I had mowed the day prior.

In all we rented 26 golf carts Thursday, so another mid week 20+ rental day.  It was also time to clear the driving range of golf balls for its bi-weekly mowing.  I began to clear the range around 10:45 am, and finished around 11:45 am garnering three 5 gallon buckets of balls.  I haven't used the 'ball picker' once this year, and do not envision using it unless there are at least 4-5 buckets of balls out there.

The U.S. Open golf tournament also began Thursday with television coverage beginning at 3:30 am Thursday morning.  There are so many golfers this year they had golfers teeing off at #1 and #10 in threesomes, and the tournament did not end until almost 5 pm PST.  Most golfers are over par this year with just 9 players under par as I write this morning.  Should be an interesting weekend.

The daily temps have stabilized in the low to mid 80's for the time being, but as we all know, summer does not really begin until July 4th, and that is when it gets consistently into the 90's for 6-7 weeks.

I was off at 3:30 pm with only 4 of the 26 golf carts still on the course, and spent much of my time after 1 pm cleaning and stowing them, as well as checking on the watering I was doing.  So, this week 'our Friday' is actually Friday.  We'll be off work Saturday through Tuesday before beginning our next 4 day work cycle.

Thanks for stopping by!

This one hurts......

 5:39 am - Thursday - June 12th - LPG&RVR - 45° F, humidity 33%, wind 1 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were riding our bicycles along the carriage paths in Acadia National Park....

.....near Bar Harbor, ME....the sightseeing we did that summer was great, but the job, no so much.

The daily temp each day of this four day work cycle has decreased each day, and was down to just 85° F by Wednesday.  By Friday (tomorrow) it should be back into the high 70's.....nice!  We were on the job by 7:30 am, and just as Tuesday, it appeared we would rent at least 20 carts Wednesday to keep our streak of 20+ carts rented Monday through Friday each week for the past couple of weeks, or more.  I put out all 5 Club Car electrics, and all 16 Yamaha gassers (one is on the disabled list awaiting parts), and we did rent exactly 20 carts with the final rental going out at 3 pm.

I made a single round of the course checking sand traps, and removing goose/duck leavings from the #3 tee boxes.  The density of the leavings varies greatly from day to day, and they were pretty light Wednesday, unlike Tuesday when it too me 30 minutes to clear all four tee boxes.  By the time I returned to the Clubhouse it was 9 am....

Took a couple of pictures along the 17th fairway of the pond and the Warner Mountains

.....and time to do some weed whacking along the cart path to holes 9 and 18, then around the back in sites next to the meadow.  I was done with that by 9:30 am so got the 2 bag Husqvarna to begin mowing the 5 employee sites, then down to the back-in sites to mow 6, or 7 of them that hadn't been mowed by Dave.

After finishing the final back-in site I headed to the fuel station to top off the gas tank, then headed out to the #3 tee boxes to begin mowing the tee boxes for which I am responsible.  I figured I could get them done by 12 pm (I left the Clubhouse at 10:30 am), and I was successful getting back to the Clubhouse at 11:55 am....perfect.

Lunch time was quiet in the office, but very busy for the restaurant.  TLE was back right at 1 pm, and it was time for me to begin washing, and stowing golf carts as they steadily returned for the last 2.5 hours of my shift.  And so came to an end another typical 'day in the life' at LPG&RVR.

While I was mowing around the tee boxes Wednesday morning the news came over the radio station to which I was listening that Brian Wilson, one of the founding members of 'The Beach Boys', had passed away at the age of 82....just a few days shy of his 83rd birthday.  Slowly, but surely, all the Rock 'N Roll guys of the 60's I grew up with are heading to their next venue.  This one really hurts me as I grew up listening to Beach Boy music.  One might say their music formed the soundtrack of my life.  He and his music will live forever in my heart, and the hearts of millions of people who grew up during the height of their success.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Becoming a trend.....

 5:39 am - Wednesday - June 11th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 42%, wind 2 mph out of the south.....partially cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2017 we were overnighting in Elko, NV at the local Walmart Supercenter......

....on our way to Yellowstone NP for the rest of the summer.....what a view!

Another Tuesday, and another 20+ golf cart rental day.....we actually rented 25 in all (we did over 20 on Monday, too).  This increase in mid week golfers has moved from a 'one off' to a long term trend, and a very good trend, indeed.  Over our four day weekend it got into the 90's for several days, and the evidence of that was grass drying out here and there, so I spent a lot of time moving sprinklers around on several large pieces of lawn, and let the sprinklers at the large grass area next to site #30 run for a couple of hours.

David did quite a bit of mowing over the weekend, including tent sites 4-10, but there was still some mowing left to do there so I took care of that, plus mowed the three large residential grass areas up the hill, and the grass between the Clubhouse deck and the putting green.  With the restaurant closed on Mondays and Tuesdays is it really quiet during lunch, but I did sell three bags of ice, and a second round of golf.  We charge $38 for one person for 18 holes, but a 'replay' (18 more holes) is only $30, however, you pay full price for the cart ($22).

With over 20 carts going out each day I spend most of my final 2.5 hours washing and stowing golf carts, and that was the case Tuesday.  By 3:30 pm I had washed, and stowed 16 carts, and when I returned at 5 pm to get TLE the final 9 had been returned, so I'll have them to wash first thing Wednesday.  I'll spend a large portion of Wednesday doing more mowing.  The employee sites need it again, along with 5 of the back in sites, plus I need to mow around the tee boxes (3, 10, 15, 16, 17 and 18).  Thankfully, we are in a slight cooling trend, and should see temps in the high 70's again by Friday.  Also, The U.S. Open (golf) begins Thursday, so we'll spend a big portion of Saturday and Sunday watching that on the 'lido deck'.

Thanks for stopping by!