The plan comes together.....

 7:14 am - Friday - October 10th - Gardnerville, NV - 60° F, humidity 23%, wind 13 mph out of the south.....crystal clear, blue, sunny, windy skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.   On this date in 2010 TLE and I were in Santa Fe, NM.....

....it was our first trip pulling our American Trailer with the T-Bird inside.

I have my annual cardiology appointment in November, and I needed to provide my cardiologist with current blood panels on the state of my cholesterol levels.  There is a Quest Diagnostics Lab in north Carson City, so my doctor sent the request to them.  I had attempted to get an online appointment on their website Wednesday night, but their website wasn't working correctly.  First thing Thursday went on their site and was able to secure an 8:40 am appointment.  The lab is around 35 minutes from the Elks Lodge, so we left for the drive around 7:55 am.  That is the reason I did not publish my latest post until later in the morning.

We arrived at Quest Diagnostics about 8:30 am, and by 8:35 am I was in the little room getting three vials of blood drawn.  It's kind of weird to see that much of your blood outside your body, without there being any emergency, right?  The phlebotomist was very good at her job, and I did not feel the needle at all.  By the time I returned to TLE in the waiting room it was 8:41 am....perfect.

I also needed a haircut in the worst kind of way, but the local Sports Clips did not open until 10 am, so we needed to kill some time.  I had forgotten to put on my knee brace before we left home, so we went into Walmart to by a new 'Copper Fit' one.  As soon as I put it on my kneed stopped barking at me.  From there we drove over to the local Starbucks for some coffees and pastries to kill another 30 minutes.   We arrived at the Sports Clips location just before 10 am, and within minutes I was seated getting my ears lowered by Anita.  You may recall I have been a Supercuts person for over 30 years, but last winter visited a Sports Clips in Flagstaff for the first time, and loved my experience.  I always get the 'MVP' treatment, which includes the actual haircut, a shampoo, a hot towel over your face while you're getting the shampoo, and a vibrating recliner, and a shoulder massage. What's not to like about that?  And all for just $5 more.

As we were driving home we passed a number of trees which had changed color in the last two weeks, so TLE took some pictures....

....it's one of the things we love about the Eastern Sierra in the Fall.

I didn't mention this in my Wednesday post about our Tuesday exit from LPG&RVR, but we discovered, when we arrived at the Honey Lake Rest Area, that not all of the trailer lights were working....in fact NONE of them were working....doh!  I fiddled with them while we were at Honey Lake, but only managed to get the left turn signal working.  We arrived at the Elks Lodge without incident, but I was determined to get them working again before we leave Gardnerville, so as soon as we got home I got to work.  One positive thing that did happen Wednesday is the right turn signal began to work (according to TLE who was following the Beetle) just before we arrived at the Elks Lodge, so I was pretty sure the problem was in the 7 pin female connector that plugs the trailer into the Newell.  I have some great electrical contact aerosol cleaner that I have used several times over the years on other electrical issues, so I retrieved it from the cabinet in trailer and filed the female plug with the solution, and let it soak for a few hours.....

The plug

The connector cleaner/enhancer

....additionally, there were two wiring issues I discovered at Honey Lake while troubleshooting the potential issues with the trailer lighting.  One was a shorted wire on the left turn signal relay, to which I made a temporary repair on while at the rest area, and another disconnected wire in the right rear corner of the trailer interior.....

The blue connector on the left (brand new) had to be replaced to get the left turn signal working again

I had to crimp on a new termination cap which connects three different wires. I think when the wire rope became unfurled it broke this wire connection.

.....I was able to repair these wire connections while the female plug was soaking.  Around 3 pm TLE suggested it was time to plug the trailer cord back into the Newell 7 pin receiver, and check the lights, so I did.  I went to the back of the trailer while TLE turned on the left, then right turn signals.....they worked!  Next she turned on the emergency flashers and they worked.  Then she pressed the brake pedal and we had brake lights.  Finally she turned on the running lights and they all worked.....WONDERFUL!  I love it when electrical issues are easily solved!  In the future I have resolved to cover the female plug contacts with Gorilla Tape to seal them against the elements.  When we sit in one place for 5, or 6 months it is easy for things to get contaminated, and spoil electrical connections.

Around 4:15 TLE and I drove over to 'Shoe Tree Brewing' in Minden (Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 21 reviews; kind of low, but accurate) to sample some brews, and to order a pizza at Factory Pizza (next door) to pair with whatever brews we ultimately chose....

.....we sampled a 'flight' of 4 five ouncers.  We settled on two pints of their Lahontan Brown Ale (3rd glass from left to right).  This brew paired perfectly with our Factory Special pizza (pepperoni, anchovy, bacon, mushroom, olive, onion toppings).  We haven't been to Shoe Tree for a couple of years now, and it was nice to be there again.  Their brews are still great, and the pizza was exceptional!

By time we got home I was ready for a nap.  Beer does that to me.  One pint, and I'm good for an hour nap....lol.  We watched 'Survivor' and 'Amazing Race' off the DVR, while I kept track of the Dodger/Phillie game on my phone.  It was a 1-1 tie going into the 11th inning.  The Dodger pitcher managed to retire the Phillies 1,2,3, in the top of the 11th, and then it was the Dodgers turn.  They managed to load the bases with 2 outs.  The count went to 3 and 2 on the worst hitter in the Dodger lineup.  He hit the next pitch directly back to the pitcher.  It should have been a routine out, but he 'booted' it, and before he could pick it up and throw home the 3rd base runner had scored the winning run.  So, now, the Dodgers will proceed to the NLCS (National League Championship Series) where the winner of this best of 7 series will go to the World Series.

Thursday was a great day in which so many things were accomplished, with everything going our way.  We love it when a plan comes together.  It can't get much better than that!  However, as I write (Friday morning) our plan to continue south to Bishop has been put on hold for a day due to high winds being forecast along our entire route, so we'll stay here another night, and then head to Bishop on Saturday morning instead.

Thanks for stopping by!