Friday, July 25, 2025

Worldwide outage....

 7:55 am - Friday - July 25th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 40%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northeast....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were touring Glacier National Park....


....this picture is of Wild Goose Island in Lake Mary.  The views were spectacular....


....we hiked the High Line Trail.

As is most often the case on day one of our four day weekend TLE and I slept in until almost 7:30 am.  There is something delicious about awakening at a time much later than 5:30 am, our usual workday awakening time.  Once we are out of bed we ever so slowly ease into our day.  Each of us always has a few things we want to accomplish, and Thursday was no exception for me.  There were three things I wanted to accomplish Thursday, not necessarily in this order: 1) fix the rear flat tire on my Haibike pedal assist mountain bike, 2) fix the oscillating  sprinkler so it would oscillate again, and 3) run our Predator 5000 dual fuel generator for 30 minutes.

I had to completely disassemble the sprinkler, to see what was wrong, but could not see anything wrong, so I lubed the oscillating mechanism, and put it back together.  Once hooked up to our hose again it worked as it should.  Sometimes just taking things apart, and reassembling them does the trick.

Next up TLE helped me lift the very heavy Predator out of the trailer, and onto the ground where I then started it, and wiped away 3 months worth of dust off its exterior.  It started right up, and ran quietly, and smoothly for 30 minutes.

While the Predator was being exercised I pulled out my Park bike stand, which I have not used for a long, long time, and then clamped my mountain bike into place raising the rear wheel off the floor so I could remove it.  The last time I had a flat tire on the Haibike was back in 2022, our first summer here, and had a very difficult time detaching the tire from the rim.  The rim is set up for tubeless tires, but I've been using an innertube.  Nevertheless, because it is a tubeless rim it has a special lip on it that locks in the bead of the tire pretty tightly.  I had to buy a special tool three years ago just to detach the tire from the rim, but it's been three years since I used that tool, so it took me at least 30 minutes to figure out how it worked.  Once the light bulb clicked on in my brain I had the tire off in 30 seconds, and the tube repaired in five minutes.  Now I can ride my bike again.

It was only 11:30 am when I finished repairing the flat tire on my bike, and I had already accomplished everything on my to do list for the day.  Friday I'll run the generator again to heat it up before changing the oil.  It only takes one quart so that shouldn't take too long.  Amazingly. I have never had to add oil since we've owned it.

During the afternoon, while I was watching a YouTube video, Starlink had a worldwide outage that lasted a good two hours.....


.....the 2nd screenshot was taken just as the system was coming back online.  Within another 5 minutes service was restored.  That is the first outage we have experienced in the 3+ years we've had Starlink.  When Starlink first went down I tried rebooting the modem, then the dish, but determined it was not my equipment as everything was functioning as it should, it just could not connect to the internet.  I then went to the Starlink website on my cell phone, and found out it was a Starlink issue.

The rest of the day was spent watching Stage 18 of Le Tour in which Tadej Pogacar managed to add another 10, or 11 seconds to his already substantial lead, and now has a 4 minute and 25 second lead.  Of course, there were a few naps thrown in for good measure.  I didn't spend much time outside in the afternoon as the mosquitoes are really pesky right now.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, July 24, 2025

The nature of things.....

 7:07 am - Thursday - July 24th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 33%, wind 2 mph out of the north....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were relaxing in our RV site at Yellowstone National Park.....



.....the RV park at which we were staying was right on the Yellowstone River in Gardiner, MT.

We have a 'Nature Trail' here at LPG&RVR, and it is actually quite a nice trail which is hiked by many people every summer.  There are 9 'points of interest' along the trail, and every couple of years the number on posts at each of the sites must be refreshed.  I did it back in 2023, and it was time to do it again.  The trail is a little over a mile long, and has a number of places with benches where you can sit and enjoy nature....

One of the numerous ponds on the property.  This one is near the 12th hole

Jose's Point (#7) with a view of the 9th and 18th fairways

.....after staging 10 carts I drove over to the beginning of the 'Nature Trail', parked and began the 1+ mile loop hike to replace the numbers (9 in all).  I had forgotten how scenic the trail is, and really enjoyed spending the better part of an hour walking from one point of interest to the next.

Bob, our cart mechanic, has been working for the past three days to revive Club Car Villager #15, which has been in pieces for about a year.  It is a four seater that is normally used by workampers.  A little over a year ago the primary clutch failed, and Bob spent the rest of the summer trying to remove it as it was stuck fast to the drive shaft.  Whoever installed the original clutch did not employ 'anti-seize', which made its removal very challenging.  At any rate, Bob finally had to remove the engine from the cart to more easily access the clutch, and was finally able to remove the faulty clutch shortly after we left last October.  The new parts finally arrived a few weeks ago, so Bob was able to reassemble it.  When I returned from my 'Nature Trail' hike he had just put the wheels back on the cart to take a test drive.  The test drive was successful, and after 14 months it is now back in service....



......and with that repair there are only 2, or 3 golf carts left to get back into service.

After finishing the 'Nature Trail' work I hopped on the 2 bag Husqvarna and headed down to mow the very large grass area which surrounds the 'Night Office'.  I had done all the string trimming a few days ago in preparation for mowing it Wednesday.  From there I headed to the 10 back-in sites, which I had previously trimmed, to mow them, then over to the grass area next to the restrooms, and then finished off by mowing 5 pull through sites.  By the time I finished it was time for TLE's lunch break.

The afternoon went quickly, and soon it was 3:30 pm, and time to begin another 'four day weekend'.  I picked up TLE shortly after 5 pm, and another 8 day cycle was in the books.  Our next 8 day cycle will take us to August 4th.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

3 down, one to go....

 5:37 am - Wednesday - July 23rd - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 35%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were overnighting in the parking lot of the Visitors Center.....


....parking lot at the St. Mary's entrance to Glacier National Park, which was another 'bucket list' place to visit.

We actually rented 12 golf carts Tuesday, most of them before lunch time.  It was, compared to 10 days ago, a coolish kind of day, and really a great day for golfing, but with the park about 50% occupied right now, that is about the best for which we could hope.  Once I had enough golf carts staged to handle the expected demand I began washing the three 5 gallon buckets of balls I had gleaned from the driving range Monday finishing that task within an hour.

As you recall I began string trimming around the back-in sites (11-20) Monday, so I headed back there to finish the final 6 sites, then up the hill to the residential area to trim around those sites before mowing them.  Once that was done I retrieved the 2 bag Husqvarna to mow them.  By the time I was done mowing it was time for TLE's lunch break.  Once she returns from lunch each day I have just 2.5 hours left in my work day, which always goes by quickly.

I haven't been out on the golf course since the last time I mowed around my tee boxes, and that was almost 8 days ago, so what better way to wind down the last 2.5 hours than spending 90 minutes doing just that.  As I was returning to the Clubhouse on the cart path from hole 18 I decided to mow site #20, which I had just trimmed hours earlier, then up the hill to mow the employee sites, and then for good measure I mowed around the large gazebo, which had just been vacated.  By the time I was back at the Clubhouse it was 3 pm, and I had 9 golf carts needing their daily spa treatment.  By the time I finished washing and stowing them it was 3:30 pm, and time to head for home with just one more day left in our four day  work cycle.

I spent the balance of the afternoon watching the end of Stage 16 of Le Tour, which I had begun watching that morning before heading to work.  Once again Tadej Pogacar staved off the multiple attempts by Jonas Vinegaard, and his cycling team (Jumbo Visma), to dispossess him of the yellow jersey, but in the end Tadej added two more seconds to his already substantial lead ending the Stage with a 4 minute 15 second overall lead.

Summer time is quickly slipping into the rearview mirror, and within a week we will be entering the month of August with just 60 days remaining before we head back south to Northern Arizona and 'The Wilson Wilderness'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Local weather 1, and weather guessers zero....

 5:35 am - Tuesday - July 22nd - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 44%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were enjoying another Seal Rock, OR sunset....


.....all of these sunset pictures I have posted over the last few years were taken from our site at Seal Rocks RV Cove (10 miles south of Newport).  One of the most amazing 'IT FACTOR' places at which we have worked!

Monday was almost as unbusy as Sunday was, mostly because there was a forecast of rain for a few hours (56%) that morning.  I initially staged 5 Yamaha gassers, but by noon time when it became apparent it wasn't going to rain, we rented another 4, or 5.  Nevertheless, it was a slow day golf wise, but not work wise.  I spent a good portion of the morning using a Stihl string trimmer down at the 'Night Office', along the back-in site row (RV sites 11-20, and tent sites 1-3), around the restroom, around a few of the pull through sites 1-10, and around the small gazebo before hanging it up to begin clearing balls from the driving range.

There were more balls than I was expecting on the driving range, but not the most I have ever seen.  In all I collected 15 gallons of balls (3 five gallon buckets).  I was only able to clear the far side of the driving range (on the far side of the creek which divides it) before lunch, so I had to finish quickly after TLE's lunch break as Dewayne was ready to mow around 1:30 pm.  I finished just before 1:30 pm, and DeWayne followed shortly thereafter.

After lunch I did a lot mowing with the 2 bag Husqvarna which included the small gazebo, the parking lot grass, the grass area by site #30, the group fire pit grass, and numerous pull through sites before it was time to clean the first 5 Yamaha gassers we rented early in the morning.  The ones we rented after 12 pm did not return until after 5 pm.  I was off work by 3:30 pm.  

For the first time in a few weeks no air conditioning was necessary inside the Newell, and it looks as if Tuesday will be more of the same.  In fact, it will not get back into the 90's until Thursday, but it will drop back into the low 80's within a couple of days, so that is a nice development weatherwise.  TLE was home by 5:20 pm, and another LPG&RVR work day was in the books.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, July 21, 2025

Almost predictable.....

 5:37 am - Monday - July 21st - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 44%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast......cloudy today with a chance of rain this morning, and a forecast high of 80° F....YAY for my team!  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were having lunch at Tamarack Brewing Company in Lakeside, MT.....




.....on the shores of Flathead Lake about half way between Kalispell and Poulson, MT.  Still, to this day, the best micro brewery in our almost 14 years of travels.....amazing brews, and food, and this was during the Wuhan Flu scare.

Sunday we were back at work, but it was also the 4th and final round of 'The Open', so I didn't stray too far from the Clubhouse TV during the morning.  Scottie Scheffler began the day with a four stroke lead, which he increased to 7 strokes at one point on the front 9.  By the 72nd hole he still had that original 4 stroke lead.  That's his fourth Major, and 20th win in the past three years.  Almost Tigeresque, no?  It's almost becoming predictable that if he is in contention, the winner, more often than not, will be Scottie Scheffler.

While Sunday seemed kind of slow, we actually rented 20 golf carts, and hosted over 50 golfers.  Most of the golfers were finished by 2:30 pm, and by 5 pm all the carts had been returned.  I'll have two carts to clean first thing Monday, so not too bad.

I spent the better part of the day setting and moving sprinklers at the Clubhouse between the deck and the putting green, the large grass area in the parking lot, and down at the 'Night Office'.  In between runs to the 'Night Office' I cleaned and stowed golf carts as they returned.  The temp only got to 88, or 89° F, to which I am now acclimated.  I really don't do too bad when it gets a little over 90, but I will never get used to those triple digit days....NEVER!

I was home by 3:30 pm, took a shower, then settled in to watch the 15th Stage of Le Tour. At the end of the day Tadej was still in first place by four minutes and 13 seconds, and still wears the yellow jersey, so nothing changed in that regard. What has changed is that including Stage 15, there are only 7 of the 21 Stages left in Le Tour this year, and by this coming Sunday it will in the history books, and we will be less than a week from August 1st.  Where has the summer gone?  

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Putt, putt....

 5:43 am - Sunday - July 20th - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 32%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast....partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 89° F.  On this date in 2014 I was mountain biking at Mammoth Mountain in California....




.....with good friends from my workaday life.  Hadn't seen them for over two years.

Saturday we watched 'The Open' live as all the players we wished to watch were teeing off around the time we got up at 7 am.  Saturday is often called 'moving day' in the golf world, and that was what it was for Scottie Scheffler.  He moved from a one stroke lead at the end of the second round to a 4 stroke lead at the end of the 3rd round, and is now 14 under par.  I spent part of the morning on the 'lido deck' watching.....



....the 3rd round ended around 11:45 am so TLE ad I drove over to the Clubhouse to do a little putting in advance of the weekly putting contest at 4 pm.  We practiced for about 45 minutes before heading back to the cool confines of the Newell where I began to watch the 14th Stage of Le Tour.  By the time 4 pm rolled around the 14th Stage was only about 1/2 over so we paused it, and headed to the putting contest.

Saturday was one of those days when my putting was as good as it has been.  I actually made it 7 rounds, and was 2 rounds from being 'in the money'.  I made one mistake on the first hole of the 7th round, and lost to my opponent 1-0.  Overall, I made just two mistakes in 7 rounds and the last one cost me a chance to putt for first place.  I ended up in fourth place out of 21 putters.  I had three hole in ones, and just missed three others by inches, so I was really in the zone; oh well.

We watched the balance of the 14th Stage of Le Tour which was another mountain stage in the Pyrenees.  At the end of the day Tadej Pogacar finished second in Stage 14, but extended his lead over overall second place, Jonas Vinegaard, another 6 seconds for a total deficit of 4 minutes and 13 seconds now.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Sports day #2.....

 7:27 am - Saturday - July 19th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, humidity 23%, wind ZERO mph out of the east by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 91° F. On this date in 2013 TLE and I visited Lake Louise (Alberta, Canada) for the first time.....



.....one of those 'bucket list' things.  It was very cold and stormy that day!

Overnight we had set the DVR to record the 2nd round of 'The Open' which began televised coverage at 1 am Pacific DST, and just like the 1st round we watched the 2nd round in its entirety, which amounted to 9+ hours of watching pleasure.  Would have been much longer without being able to fast forward through the commercials.  As expected Scottie Scheffler played well, and by the end of the day he had posted a round of 64, or 7 under par.  Added to his three under par on the first round, he finished at 10 under par, and in first place by 1 stroke.

With that I took a break and drove over to the Clubhouse to practice putting for about 40 minutes.  I took last Saturday off from the weekly putting contest, and hadn't putted in almost two weeks, but I putted well, so we'll see how I do this Saturday.

Next up was the 13th Stage of Le Tour, which was a 7 mile uphill time trial, which is the shortest distance time trial ever in Le Tour de France.  That being said the uphill climb was extremely steep, and it took the initial riders almost 30 minutes to cover the distance.  Once again Tadej Pogacar, who was the last to ride since he is in first place, covered the climb in just over 22 minutes winning the 13th stage by 36 seconds over Jonas Vinegaard, who is now in second place, but over 4 minutes behind Tadej.  Just like Stage 12, no one saw Tadej winning the 13th stage, let alone adding 36 more seconds to his already substantial lead.  The 3rd place rider is over 7 minutes behind.

Needless to day I didn't do anything else Friday.  Even though the high temp got to 90° F, it did not feel that hot, and by 7 pm we had turned off the A/C.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, July 18, 2025

A sports day.....

 7:16 am - Friday - July 18th - LPG&RVR - 62° F, humidity 27%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 91° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having lunch at the Asticou Inn in Northwest Harbor, Maine....not far from Bar Harbor....



.....one of our favorite dining spots while we were working in Southwest Harbor, Maine that summer.

Thursday, the second day of our four day weekend, was Round 1 of the 153rd edition of 'The Open' being held at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland this year.  Television coverage began around 1 am Pacific DST, so we were, obviously, not up at that early hour, but we did begin watching around 7 am.  We continued watching until after 11 am when we decided we needed to make a run into town to do our weekly shopping, and if we're going that far we might as well continue on to Canby to visit Coffee Adventure where they also sell pasture raised chicken eggs (they are washed, however), and freshly baked bread.  

Since it was noon time when we arrived at Coffee Adventure we decided to get a couple of their sandwiches (beef and Swiss for moi, and bacon, egg & Swiss cheese cheese bagel for TLE).  Both were heated up in a Panini Press....yum.  I had a Mocha Frappuccino to chase my sandwich, and TLE iced coffee.  The entire one way drive to Canby from LPG&RVR is about 38 miles, but it is well worth the drive.  We lingered there dining alfresco for about an hour before heading back to Alturas where we stopped at Holiday Market, and Dollar General  to complete the rest of our shopping before finishing our return drive to LPG&RVR around 2 pm.

Since we were recording 'The Open' we were able to pick up where we left off when we got home, and finish watching Round 1 before beginning to watch the replay of the 12th Stage of Le Tour.  This was a 180 kilometer stage with  several long climbs in the Pyrenees, the final climb being around 8 miles with a hilltop finish.  Beginning Stage 12 Tadej Pogacar was around 27 seconds behind the Yellow Jersey.  He (Tadej) was coming off a high speed crash in Stage 11, and everyone wondered how he would fare in Stage 12, but those doubts were completely obliterated when Tadej  attacked (broke away) at the beginning of the final climb, which was completely unexpected.  No one attacks at the beginning of an 8 mile climb.  The Yellow Jersey wearer ended up over 10 minutes behind Tadej, and his closest rival, Jonas Vinegaard, was now 3 minutes and 31 seconds behind, losing over 2 minutes on that final climb.

Thursday was a great sports day, and we did not finish watching the replay of Stage 12 of Le Tour until almost 7 pm. Aren't DVRs amazing?

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, July 17, 2025

"The It Factor"

 7:23 am - Thursday - July 17th - 1st round of 'The Open' - LPG&RVR - 62° F, humidity 25%, wind 2 mph out of the south......blue, smokey skies today with a forecast high of 90° F.  On this date in 2016 we took possession of our 'lido deck' turf.....

Then.....

....now

....hard to believe it has only been 9 years....seems like we've always had it.  We were, ironically, watching the 4th round of 'The Open' that day.

Here we are in the middle of our 15th year living fulltime in our 1982 Newell Classic, and in the middle of our 14th year traveling fulltime.  We are so far divorced from our workaday lives  now that it has begun to feel as if we have always been vagabonds.  Intellectually we know we raised 5 children to majority, and lived that workaday life to its fullest. I was in insurance broker from 1971 to 2012.  TLE was a stay at home Mom from 1972 until the early 90's, and then worked in 'sales and service' industry (she worked for a food broker) until her retirement in 2012.  We did the usual Mom and Dad things with our kids, which included youth soccer every weekend for more years than I can remember.  I say we understand that intellectually, but it feels like someone else's life now.

And then it all began to change in 2004 when sold our 1973 Columbia 26' sloop rigged sailboat which we kept in a marina in Long Beach, CA, and  bought our first motorhome (1986 Fleetwood Tioga 26' Class C).  It wasn't long until dreams of full timing began to infect our brains.  By 2008 we had upgraded to our 'next' motorhome, our 1982 Newell Classic, thinking it would just be a stepping stone in our fulltime life.  We, however, fell in love with the Newell's simplicity, and ability to stand up to full time living, and have never looked back.

Our nomadic lifestyle has evolved considerably over the almost 14 years we have been on the road from crisscrossing the USA twice in less than 9 months our first year to a much more relaxed travel style.  Those first 9 months we behaved as if we were on an extended vacation trying to see everything in one year.  Then we worked our first workamping job at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY where we sat still in one place for over 2 months.  From that point on we began to travel more slowly, traveling fewer miles per day, and staying in one place for longer periods of time, including a 5 week stay in Cedar Key, FL (about 1 hour west of Gainesville, FL) in 2013.

In the summer of 2014 we began the first of four summers working at Tahoe Valley Campground.  In the Fall of 2014 we spent two months volunteering at the Cape Blanco Lighthouse in Oregon (near Port Orford in southern Oregon), which we repeated in 2015.  In July of 2017 (our fourth summer at Lake Tahoe) we left the job early, and headed to Yellowstone NP for the balance of the summer, then headed south to the Grand Canyon for the winter (we won't do that again....lol), followed by a summer in Bar Harbor, Maine.  Being able to live for months at a time in these amazing places was eye opening.

Now in the summer of 2025 we find ourselves spending our fourth summer here at Likely Place Golf and RV Resort, and will be heading back south to northern Arizona for our second winter there.  Our lifestyle has settled into a 'north/south' routine now as we pass the midpoint of our 8th decade.  We've been to all lower 48 states over the last almost 14 years, and seen almost everything we wished to see.  When we bought our Newell in 2008 she had 103,000 miles on her odometer.  This year she will pass 193,000 miles.  She has been a wonderful, reliable nomadic home for us, we love her dearly, and cannot imagine living any other way.

Over the years we've worked at Amazon three times, worked the sugar beet harvest once, and the Indy 500 once.  Mostly we've worked at RV parks, but always in places with what we call the "IT FACTOR".  Our year living on the Oregon Coast at Seal Rocks RV Cove was one of our favorite jobs ever, and it definitely boasted the "IT FACTOR".  What is the "IT FACTOR"?  A place where we spend more than a month has to have a great view, or a body of water, or both (Cape Blanco, Bar Harbor, Seal Rocks, Lake Tahoe, Cedar Key, etc), or be an iconic National Park (Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Acadia).  Here at LPG&RVR we have the "IT FACTOR"....great views, and a golf course.  At The Wilson Wilderness the "IT FACTOR" is living off the grid, solitude, independence, great views.

All that being said, at the end of the day, the most important factor in our nomadic travels has been the enduring friendships we have made along the way.  Those friendships, forged working many types of jobs all over the country, have been the biggest 'IT FACTOR' for us.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

The 'hangover'.....

 8:36 am - Wednesday - July 16th - LPG&RVR - 71°  F, humidity 27%, wind 1 mph out of the northwest......smokey, bluish skies today with a forecast high of 93° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were bicycling around South Lake Tahoe....


....and stopped in at Alpina Coffee Cafe (our favorite South Lake Tahoe coffee shop) for a couple of coffees.....well, actually a Mocha Frappuccino for moi.

After back to back 100° F days Sunday and Monday we had a more human friendly temperature of 93° F on Tuesday.  We actually rented 7 golf carts Tuesday, a slight uptick, but still far short of our average this summer.  Of course, the campground is around 80% empty right now, so there are not many customers to play golf.  I guess we're still experiencing the 4th of July hangover from 10 days ago.  Nonetheless, there is still work to be done, and Tuesday it was time for me to make a mowing run around the golf course mowing around those tee boxes for which I am responsible.....3, 10, 16, 17 and 18.  It's been around 8 days since I last mowed them, and the grass was a little longer than normal.  In addition to that mowing I cut the grass at the large grass area next to site #30, the large gazebo grass area, and both of the buddy sites before I headed indoors to give TLE her lunch break just before 12 pm.

The office has been pretty dead this week, and the 12 - 1 pm stretch was no different for me; I had no customers, and no phone calls.  By the time I returned to the 'Cart Return' area there were 3 of the 4 Club Car electrics awaiting their daily spa treatment.  I cleared any residual trash from each one, then headed for home to take an hour break while I awaited the return of the 4th Club Car electric (we only rented four of them Tuesday, and then 3 Yamaha gassers), so I could wash and stow them all at the same time.  When I returned at 2:30 pm the fourth one had been returned so I washed and stowed all four before heading home until 4:30 pm when I returned to wash and stow the now returned three Yamaha gassers.  

TLE was ready to head home a little after 5 pm, and within a few minutes we were home beginning our four day weekend.  Between now and the end of July we have forecast temperatures in the low 90's and high 80's, so no more triple digit days for at least the next two weeks.  There are currently three, or four fires burning within a 100 miles of LPG&RVR, so we are getting their smoke, hence the reference to smokey skies in the intro.  It's not bad, but you can see the haze in every direction, and once in a while you can smell the smoke.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

You just knew.....

 5:42 am - Tuesday - July 15th - LPG&RVR - 61° F, humidity 33%, wind 1 mph out of the south......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 94° F.  On this date in 2019 TLE and I were in Carlsbad, CA having lunch.....




They had their own beer!

.....at the Harbor Fish Cafe, right on the beach.

You just knew one of those days would be coming, right?  You're wondering, "what is he right about?", right?  Well, let me tell you.  We had reservations for 5 golf carts Monday, so I staged our 5 Club Car Electrics to begin the day fully expecting we would rent more, but I was wrong.  We actually only rented four.  In hindsight it was good we had a slow day because we had our first, and hopefully only, 100° F day of the summer.  I'm pretty sure the forecast high of 100° F was a major deterrent to would be golfers.....


......the only things I really had to do Monday were stage golf carts, clear the driving range, and then wash/stow those golf carts, so it was a good day to knock off work early.  I began clearing the driving range around 9 am, finishing around 10:10 am.  In all I garnered four 5 gallon buckets of balls; more than I expected.

I moved sprinklers around the 'Night Office', and around 11:20 am I offered to give TLE her lunch break as there was nothing more for me to do.  After giving TLE her lunch break I headed home to take a nap, and watch some of Stage 10 of Le Tour before returning to the Clubhouse around 2 pm to wash the four, now returned, Club Car electrics, and that was my day.  I was home by 3 pm, took a shower, watched the rest of Stage 10, then returned at 5 pm to give TLE a lift home.  In all I worked just 6 hours Monday, and just an hour of it in the heat of the day.

We got a little rain for about 10 minutes in the early evening, and just before I went to bed we got a nice sunset which I memorialized....



.....one day left now in our four day work cycle, then four days off work with temps in the low 90's.   We'll be watching 'The Open' Thursday through Saturday before returning to work on Sunday, and beginning Sunday we have 5 consecutive days of temps in the 80's.....how great is that?

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, July 14, 2025

'Hump Night'......

 5:42 am - Monday - July 14th - LPG&RVR - 63° F, humidity 28%, wind ZERO mph out of the south by southeast.....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 99° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Harlowton, MT.....


......at a city owned campground with my good friend Claude Banker and his soon to be wife, Gail.  This was during the summer of the Wuhan Flu.  Life in rural America was pretty normal for us that summer.

If I thought Saturday was hot, Sunday was even hotter topping out at 99° F around 3:58 pm according to our WiFi connected digital picture frame......


....and our analog temperature gauge on the 'lido deck'....


.....but I get ahead of myself.

You know it is hot here at LPG&RVR when you can get in your golf cart at 5:20 am in the morning in shorts and a t-shirt without wearing a jacket.  I did that this morning (Monday) when I went down to turn off the 3/4 turn gate valve what was flooding our back-in sites since 10 am Sunday.  As is our workday custom TLE and I were in the golf cart Sunday morning heading for work around 7:25 am.

To begin the day I only staged 10 golf carts, and we ended up renting 13.  After staging the carts, I washed the carts that came back after 3:30 pm Saturday, then headed down to the 'Night Office' to run 4 moveable sprinklers for most of the day.   Around 10 am I turned on the irrigation water to water the 10 back-in sites, and 10 tent sites.  I knew it would not be a busy day and wondered how I would keep busy, so I decided to do a deep cleaning of the forest on either side of the driving range, then headed over to the 'Shop' to retrieve three more boxes of range balls to supplement what we already have.  It's been a couple of years since I have added to our supply, and it appears we have permanently lost a lot of range balls over that period of time.  We still have 7, or 8 boxes of balls that have never been used. 

I used quite a bit of our sand/seed supply Saturday to refill the sand bottles on our golf carts which we provide for customers to fill in their divots on the golf course.  Anyway, it was time to refill the sand/seed bunker so I took care of that, too.  Slow days like Sunday are the days to do these types of jobs.

By 3:30 pm there were still 4 golf carts on the course, but it was time for me to head for the cool confines of the Newell for the balance of the afternoon.  For the first time this summer I actually took a long, cool shower, and by the time I exited the shower I was feeling much better.  I watched the end of Stage 9 of Le Tour, then headed back to to the Clubhouse to retrieve TLE for the day.  Two days down, and two to go.  We'll have another 99+ day Monday, then it should drop to the low 90's by Tuesday, our final work day in this cycle.  TLE and I call the evening separating the first two days of our work cycle from the final two days 'Hump Night'.  In a 5 day work cycle Wednesday is usually called 'Hump Day', right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Ninety-eight......

 5:39 am - Saturday - July 13th - LPG&RVR - 60° F, humidity 28%, wind ZERO mph out of the southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 99° F.  On this date in 2012 I shaved off my goatee for the first time in 12 years....'


....and within a few months I had grown it back.

Based on the forecast temperature at 98° F for Saturday I was pretty sure I would be 'waisted' by the time 3:30 pm came around, so I took my name off the putting contest sheet, preferring to just head home, take a shower, and cool off when that time came.

In spite of the park being virtually empty we rented 19 golf carts Saturday.  I didn't even bother to stage the Club Car electrics.  Once I was sure there were enough carts staged for TLE I retrieved a Stihl string trimmer and headed down to the employee sites to finish the trimming Dave had not had time to do after he mowed.  Once that was done I decided to begin chopping down the now very dead weeds on the hillside below us.  Since it was the weekend Claude was busy with marshaling, so I was doing it solo.  I spent about 30 minutes clearing the area along our site (#55), and it turned out pretty nicely....



.....there is still a lot to do, but at least I've made a start.  I'll work more on it Monday, or Tuesday.

I spent most of my time moving sprinklers around the parking lot grass, and the 'Night Office', as well as running the sprinklers at the small Gazebo.  When it gets this hot large dry areas begin to appear, especially at the 'Night Office'

By the time I finished giving TLE her lunch break carts had begun to return, but by the time 3:30 pm arrived there were still 5, or 6 golf carts on the course.  I decided to deal with them Sunday morning and headed home to cool down, take a shower, and watch the 8th Stage of Le Tour.  It took me the better part of 90 minutes to recover from the heat, and by the time I went to retrieve TLE from the office I was feeling much better.  I'm very glad I did not participate in the putting contest.  I just cannot take that heat anymore; at least at this point in the summer.  I'm hoping I will acclimate to temps in the high 90's eventually.  I don't work next Saturday, so I'll be putting again.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Plans aborted.....

 5:37 am - Saturday - July 12th - LPG&RVR - 59° F, humidity 27%, wind 1 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 98° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in the parking lot at the Campingworld in Spearfish, SD....

Here she comes

Connecting the hoses

Ready to wash clothes

......taking delivery of our new Splendide Washer/Dryer.  Campingworld used their forklift to remove our old Splendide, and lift the new one into the Newell.  Took about 90 minutes beginning to end.

I had plans to play another round of golf Friday, but it was already getting too warm at 9 am, so I decided to stay home and watch some of the Scottish Open, and then the entirety of the 7th Stage of Le Tour.  I was able to sit outside until almost 1 pm enjoying cool breezes on the surprisingly cool 'lido deck' watching those sporting events, and taking a nap, or two, but by then it was getting very warm, and time to head back indoors....




.....Tadej Pogacar was in second place by 1 second at the beginning of the 7th Stage, but after a very exiting final climb to the finish line (he won the Stage) he was back in first place by 54 seconds, finishing just ahead of Jonas Vingegaard on the mad dash to the line.  I spent the balance of the day resting, reading, and girding up mentally for four hot days (98, 99, 98 and 95° F) of work.  We've been able to avoid working on the hot days so far, but this time around we drew the 'short straw'.  With the hot weather we are seeing fewer golfers, which is not too surprising.  Most golfers are going out early to be finished before the heat of the day arrives.

The park is pretty empty right now, and both the large and small gazebos are empty as I write.  We'll see how busy it gets on Saturday.  That's it....that's all I've got to say about Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, July 11, 2025

Nine became eighteen....

 8:04 am - Friday - July 11th - LPG&RVR - 67° F, humidity 25%, wind 2 mph out of the north by northwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 94° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were hiking to the summit of Beech Mountain near Southwest Harbor, Maine....



.....we did a lot of hiking that summer, and experienced some amazing views!

It is so nice to sleep-in to 7 am on our days off work.  I did, however, have a 9:10 am tee time reserved, so I quickly composed my latest missive, got dressed, and were were off to the Clubhouse around 8:40 am.  I putted on the putting green for about 20 minutes before we headed to the #1 tee boxes to begin the round.  When we began I wasn't sure I was going to play more than 9 holes. 

My start Thursday was much more auspicious than Wednesday's.  I managed to bogey the 1st and 2nd holes, and then headed to the par 3 third hole where I made several bad shots to kind of undo the optimism I was feeling, but then I had a nice tee shot on #4, and managed to bogey that hole.  Once again the par 3 #5 hole was my nemesis.  Usually I do pretty well with my mid irons, but I hit another errant shot off the tee with my 8 iron, and double bogeyed the rather easy hole.  Next up was the very long par hole, but I hit another good tee shot, a so, so second shot, but a great third shot.  I messed up my pitch shot, and ended up with a double bogey for my efforts.

I played 7, 8 and 9 pretty decently, so after dropping off TLE at the Newell I headed to the 10th hole intending to only play the 10th and 11th before heading home, but before I knew it I was teeing off on the 18th hole....lol.  I managed a par on the 11th (par 3) and 12th holes, a bogey on another long par 5, then bogeyed the 15th, and birdied the 16th (a par 3...I finally got those mid irons working in my favor).  I was able to get most parts of my game working well on the back 9, just not always at the same time.  I was able to hit  a number of good fairway shots with my 3, 5 and 7 'woods', managed to one, or two putt all but one hole, and had that birdie on the 16th....my first birdie on that hole ever.

Over all I played well on the back 9, and hit some very good tee shots, fairway woods, and irons.  I guess the only way to get better at golf is to actually play, right?  By the time I got home it was a little after 12 pm.  After taking a shower I spent time watching Le Tour, and the first round of the Scottish Open being played in Scotland, of course.

Thanks for stopping by!