Outage.....

 5:38 am - Thursday - July 31st - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 50%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast......cloudy today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having dinner.....

....at Beale's Lobster Pier in Southwest Harbor, Maine.....Allagash White (Belgian White) brews with Lobster Rolls and chips......best Belgian White ever!

We've had quite a string of unbusy days since Monday, when we began our current four day work cycle.  Wednesday morning I staged just 4 golf carts, then another 4 around 11 am, and that was all we rented for the day.  Since I had time on my hands I pulled out three sets of our loaner golf clubs to sort, and then clean.  By 'sort' I mean I made sure each bag had the same range of clubs (woods and irons), and that all the left handed clubs were in the same bag.  That took an hour.  By that time it was 9 am, so I made a round of the golf course checking on the four sand traps, and this is what I found.....

......two of the four were flooded (this is the 15th hole), and the other two will needed raking once they dry out.  That storm Tuesday afternoon/evening dropped a lot of moisture!  Otherwise, it was a beautiful day....

....around 10 am I retrieved one of the string trimmers and headed down to the slope  below the employee sites to continue leveling all of the dried out weeds.  I worked on that until around 11:30 am, leaving about 1/2 of the slope to finish, then headed back to the Clubhouse to clean up, and give TLE her lunch break.  During her lunch break I answered one phone call, and checked one customer into the RV park....that was it.

After lunch I did a little more weed whacking, then drove the Husqvarna 2 bag mower over to employee row to mow the lawns there, then mowed the large lawn by site #30, and the large lawns surrounding both of the gazebo group sites.  By that time it was almost 3 pm, and time to begin washing and stowing the carts which had been returned, which was about 5.  I'll have at least 3 to wash first thing Thursday.

Around 7:30 pm it began to thunder, then it rained lightly around 15 minutes, then stopped.  Then around 8:30 pm, with thunder still rumbling in the distance, the power went out, and as I write this morning, at now 6 am, the power is still out, with no time estimate from Surprise Valley Electric as to when the power outage will be resolved.  TLE and I pulled the large Predator 5000 dual fuel inverter/generator out of the trailer around 5:15 am this morning to power the coach until we go to work at 7:30 am.  With no power there is no water pressure in the park, so we are using the water from our fresh water tank.  We have only 17 RV sites occupied right now (excluding workers), so we won't have too many people inconvenienced.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mother Nature on full display Tuesday.....

 5:39 am - Wednesday - July 30th - LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 43%, wind 2 mph out of the east by southeast....cloudy today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Long Beach, WA.....

....which is on the Olympic Peninsula, and reputed to be the 'World's Longest Beach', although I believe someplace in Southeast Asia makes the same claim.  Again, one of those 'bucket list' items.

Tuesday began slowly, but by the end of the day we had rented 15 golf carts.  After staging the first 10 golf carts  headed down to the storage area where customers park their RV's (we only charge $1/day for storage) until they return to LPG&RVR later in the summer.  I have noticed a lot of 'Russian Thistle' (when they mature they become wind blown 'tumble weeds') growing along a 200' stretch of the storage area.  Since we had another unbusy day I decided to pull all of those weeds, and make it look nice again....

No more Russian Thistle

.....I ended up over filling a 55 gallon trash can with it....I would say I pulled about 70 gallons worth of 'Russian Thistle' just in that one 200' spot.  I also filled one of our small trailers with another 40 gallons I pulled from around a Juniper tree within the park....that stuff is insidious.

I don't spend as much time driving around the golf course as I did the last three seasons, but I decided to make a run late morning, and was glad I did.  I came across this beautiful bald eagle on top of a local telephone pole......

....and then as I passed through the tee boxes for hole #3 I saw this enormous turkey buzzard.....

.....I wish I could have gotten a picture of 'him' in flight as his wing span was close to 8 feet....amazing!

Later in the morning I hauled 12 five gallon buckets of gravel to fill in a sort of pothole in the Clubhouse parking lot that seemed to always have standing water.  Again, one of those tasks awaiting an unbusy day like Tuesday.

The rest of the day involved giving TLE her lunch break, and then washing returning golf carts.  As the day developed I began to get warnings on my phone of severe thunderstorms heading our way, and sure enough, within 15 minutes of me getting back to the Newell it began to rain.....HARD!  Then the hail and thunder came.....

We haven't had water pooling like that since we got here in late April

.....the rain became so heavy I could not hear music I had playing on my Bluetooth speaker.  TLE took a few pictures of the area around the Clubhouse to illustrate hoe much hail we got.  It was still raining pretty hard when it was time for me to retrieve TLE from work, so I had to drive the VW over to get her.  Making that run in the golf cart would have resulted in both of us being soaked.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another 1/3rd finished....

 5:35 am - Tuesday - July 29th - LPG&RVR - 53° F, humidity 42%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast....mostly sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2024 TLE and I had just finished playing golf at LPG&RVR with Charles and Phyllis (Charles and I played and the girls helped us find our errant golf balls), and were having Bloody Marys on the Clubhouse deck.....

.....I think there were some French Fries, too.

Monday was the first of four work days this week, and Mondays always involve clearing the Driving Range at some point so the grass can be mowed, but I get ahead of myself.  Initially, I staged just 9 golf carts (no electrics), and ultimately we rented 11.  Once that was done I washed the two late returning golf carts from Sunday, and drove one of the Yamahas over to Bob to make a minor repair.  Since I had time to spare I spent it hand watering some dry spots around the putting green, as well as down at the 'Night Office', and turned on the tree irrigation to run all day.

As you may remember I began trimming the more than dead weeds/grass along the slope (with Claude's help) just above our site, and then trimmed more on the slope below the employee sites, but the last time I did any trimming on the lower slope was a couple of weeks ago, so with a slow day in store I headed down around 10 am, and over the next 45 minutes managed to trim about 1/3 of of that slope from the cart path over to the middle of site #51....

....by that time it was getting warm, and time to cool down before clearing the Driving Range.  Most of the summer I've been hand picking the driving range using a 'shag bag', but I didn't feel like doing a lot of walking so I used the 'ball picker' for the second time this summer.  While it takes almost as long as hand picking, if not longer to use the 'ball picker', it involves no walking whatsoever.  I managed to finish clearing the range a few minutes after 12 pm (the beginning of TLE's lunch break).

By the time TLE returned from lunch 7 of the 11 golf carts had been returned so I washed and stowed them, then turned my attention to washing the three 5 gallon buckets of balls I retrieved from the Driving Range, and by the time I finished it was almost 3 pm, so I headed down the the gravel pull through sites (#'s 1-10) to pull some weeds I had noticed when I was turning on the tree irrigation.  That took me up to quitting time, so I headed for home, and a long, hot shower.  

Over the last week, or two we've gotten a lot of cloud cover every afternoon (sometimes rain comes along with that cloud cover), so it quickly dropped from the mid 80's to the mid 70's making it quite pleasant inside and out.  I went back to the Clubhouse to retrieve TLE a little after 5 pm, and found the last 4 golf carts had been returned, so I'll have them to wash first thing Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping !

Stage 21

 5:37 am - Monday - July 28th - LPG&RVR - 52° F, humidity 42%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 86° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were hiking near Glacier National Park.....

.....the view this morning.....

We won't see our next 90+ degree day until August 7th, and then only 91° F...at least that is the forecast.  And, according to that same forecast, we also won't see our next cloudless day until August 6th.  I don't recall this long of a stretch of sub 90 degree days last July; in fact it was in the mid 90's at this time last year, hitting 99° F on August 1st.  

Sunday was the 21st, and final Stage of Le Tour de France this year, and unlike so many past years the Yellow jersey group actually raced the entire Stage.  Typically, when the outcome is already determined, like this year, everyone just cruises into Paris to the finish, but this year, at times, they were hitting 48 mph on their bicycles.  I don't know how much cycling you've done, but when I was in my peak fitness I could sustain 22-25 mph for 5-10 minutes at a time, but these guys average almost 20 mph going up a 6% grade, and on the flat, with the right conditions, they can sustain low to high 40's....that is amazing.

After completing my latest post I headed out to the 'lido deck' to watch the balance of Stage 21....

That's Tadej Pogacar in the lead, in Paris, racing all out

It was still a little chilly at 9:30 am, so I had to wear my slippers....lol

.....and that is  where I remained until almost noon time.

For the past 3 weeks I've almost always had Le Tour playing in the background in the morning as I've prepared my daily posts, but this morning (Monday) is the first time in 3+ weeks it is not, and it seems a little strange.

I didn't really do anything else Sunday except putter around the site, and in the trailer, so that's just about all the news I have to report about Sunday, so thanks for stopping by for this oh so brief missive!

Three times in one summer?

 7:56 am - Sunday - July 27th - LPG&RVR - 62° F, humidity 39%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were hiking through the Hoh Rain Forest in Washington State (Olympic Peninsula)....

.....here we see TLE standing on the banks of the Hoh River.

Saturday was the 20th of 21 Stages of Le Tour de France, and we watched it from the beginning.  It rained (in France) for much of the Stage resulting in a few bicycle accidents, some appearing very bad.  After Sunday's 21st Stage I won't know what to do with myself in the morning. Oh, wait, I'll probably get more accomplished on my 4 day weekends....lol!  It has been quite nice, however, spending lots of quality time on the 'lido deck' this month watching Le Tour.

I didn't do much besides watch Le Tour, but I did manage to get the oil changed in the Predator 5000 dual fuel inverter/generator, and drove over to the Clubhouse to sign up for this week's edition of the putting contest.  There ended up being 28 contestants.  I practiced my putting for about 30 minutes before heading back to the Newell to rest before the contest....

Awaiting the playing of the National Anthem sung by Chris Stapleton

DeWayne and his very loveable wire haired terrier (I think there's a little Jack Russell in there, too) Tika

......since there were 28 contestants it was single elimination, meaning one loss and you're out.  Once again I putted well, and after winning five rounds ended up 'in the money' for the third time this summer.  My final contestant was Terri Plumlee, and after the regulation 5 holes we were tied, so we went to a one hole, closest to the pin putt off.  When we have a playoff hole in the final round Mike (the contest coordinator) picks a random hole at which we are to hit one putt.  The one he chose was hole #3 which was 40 feet away.  I won the toss, and putted first (I should have let Terri putt first).  My putt came up 5 feet short, while Terri's ended up less than a foot from the hole giving her the first place prize.  It was really the only mistake I made in 6 rounds, so I have now finished 2nd three times this summer.  This summer is the first time I've placed in the money more than once, and there are still two months of putting contests left. I think part of the difference for me this year is I have taken two weekends off from the putting contest, and have been more consistent in practicing at least 2-3 times each week.

We were home around 5:30 pm, and after a suitable rest period, lit the Sea-B-Que for the second successive evening to grill some Ahi steaks, as well as a Rib Eye steak for later consumption....

The Rib Eye on the grill

.....TLE contributed sides of Pico de Gallo, and some more cilantro/lime white rice.  Needless to say, but I will say it anyway....it all was delicious..

....thanks for stopping by!

A wonderful Friday......

 7:33 am - Saturday - July 26th - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 45%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were taking a hike on the 'Beaver Ponds Trail'.....

One of three beaver ponds on the 6.5 mile loop trail

....the trail begins and ends at the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store in Yellowstone NP.

We meant to go shopping Thursday, but somehow that never happened, so we really needed to go on Friday as the markets in Alturas are very crowded on the weekends.  Once I finished posting my latest missive we got dressed, and were in the VW by 9:30 am heading to Alturas. We weren't due for a big shopping, so we just stopped briefly at Dollar General to pick up a few things, then onto Holiday Market for the rest.  We were finished shopping just before 11 am, so decided to make a stop at 'Wild Mustard', a boutique coffee shop in Alturas, which we have NEVER visited in our four summers at LPG&RVR.  TLE had been talking it up for the last couple of days, so who am I to dash her dreams....lol!  Besides, I haven't had a Mocha Frappuccino in a while.

We had no idea how funky, and cool this place was, and were immediately wondering why on earth we had never stopped....

32 ounce Mocha Frappuccino!

.....I ordered their 32 ounce Mocha Frappuccino....I think that is the largest one I've ever ordered.  We hung out there drinking our iced beverages for about 30 minutes before heading for home.

Within 20 minutes of arriving home I was lounging on the 'lido deck' watching the 19th Stage of Le Tour, with a nice nap thrown in for good measure.....

......all afternoon clouds were moving into the Pitt River Valley, and a little after 4 pm it began to rain just as I was heating up the Sea-B-Que to grill three chicken breasts.  Along with the rain we got lightning and thunder....a lot of thunder.....

.....at times the rain was torrential, but I managed to stay mostly dry inside the dining canopy.  It took me about 30 minutes to bring the chicken breasts to a perfect 165° F.  TLE provided sides of broccolini, and cilantro lime rice.  I wish I had taken a picture!  The entire dinner was amazing.  I'm not married to a 'cook'....I'm married to a Chef!

It continued to rain on and off for a couple of hours after dinner, which was really needed.  It's been getting very dusty here, so the rain will tamp that down for a few days.  We never had to run the A/C Friday, and frankly, we didn't run it Thursday either.  The high temp was around 85° F, but by 4 pm, when it began to rain, it had dropped to 70° F.

Thanks for stopping by!

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!

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!