The rest of the story.....

 7:22 am - Wednesday - October 7th - LPG&RVR - 49° F, humidity 22%, cloud cover 1%, wind 7 mph out of the north by northeast....clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were walking along 5th Avenue in lower Manhattan (NYC)....

Times Square

Coffee in Grant Park

.....and later had dinner at the top of the World Trade Center.....

....we had a wonderful time during our 3 day stay.

As I wrote in yesterday's offering I spent part of the morning Tuesday clearing the drains for our kitchen sink.  There are two drain lines which enter the gray tank and they are right next to each other.  One is for the Kitchen sink, and the other is for the shower.  I thought the shower drain line was the kitchen drain line.....

The hole on the right is where the shower drain line enters the gray tank, and the drain line on the left is for the kitchen sink, and Splendide

There is the line down from the kitchen sink

....I was mistaken in thinking the drain line on the right was the kitchen drain line.  When I realized my error I began to reattach the shower drain line to the fitting in the picture above.  As I tightened it the nipple threaded into the gray tank snapped like a potato chip.  A piece of the nipple was still in the threaded opening to the gray tank so I had to remove it....

.....you can see the piece of nipple on the lower right side of the drain line.  We're going into town Wednesday (today) for my final haircut of the summer, so we'll stop at ACE Hardware to recreate this piece, and reconnect the shower drain line.

I spent the rest of the day organizing the trailer for departure.....

....I managed to take down all four tables upon which we had the food storage containers (right side of above picture), and all of my tools.  Next up we'll have to move everything to the front in order to get the artificial turf inside, and that will happen Wednesday, or Thursday.  We also took down the large sunshade which was attached to the patio awning, and helped create the 'lido deck'....

.....in keeping with our policy to not try to do too much in one day we called it quits after that.  We'll also take down the dining canopy on Wednesday.

We watched game three of the National League Divisional Series (NLDS) between the Dodgers and the Braves (in Atlanta).  The Dodgers entered the game tied one game apiece, and due to a great pitching performance by Yamamoto, who had 10 K's in 7 innings, we won 3-1.  In the nightcap we watched the Padres  (in San Diego) win 4-3 to win their first game of the series, and now find themselves down 2-1 to the Brewers.  They will need to win the next two games to advance to the National League Championship Series.  And with that day three of our post LPG&RVR saga was complete.

Thanks for stopping by!

The backup plan.....

 7:55 am - Tuesday - October 6th - LPG&RVR - 50° F, humidity 27%, cloud cover 1%, wind 7  mph out of the east......clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Jersey City, NJ.....

......at Liberty Harbor RV & Marina, right across the Hudson River from the World Trade Center, and just a hop skip and a jump from the Statue of Liberty.

Sorry for posting this missive so late Tuesday evening about Monday.  I had started to compose my blog at 7:55 am, but about 5 minutes later TLE advised the both kitchen sink drains were plugged.  I stopped what I was doing to check it out, and 2 hours later finally cleared the drain.  In the process, however, I accidently sheared off the shower drain where it enters the gray water tank....

.....so now we'll have to make a trip to ACE Hardware Wednesday to buy the replacement parts.  Ultimately, we were able to clear the sink drains by using our Shop Vac to blow air through the drains and pushing the blockage into the gray water tank.  If only we had tried that first....lol.  At any rate, that is the reason for my tardiness.  I'll go into more detail about the process we used to clear the drains, and how I broke the drain pipe for the shower, which has its own dedicated drain line completely separate from the kitchen sink drain pipe.

Anyway, back to Monday.  I began to take down the tool tables in the trailer in preparation for our departure between October 10th and 13th.  We're avoiding committing ourselves to a specific day, but just working a little each day to get to that point.  Since we are hauling everything back to TWW that we usually store here each winter, there will be NO room in the trailer for the Beetle.  Theoretically, this should make the organization of the trailer much easier, but we shall see what we shall see.  

I also spent a couple of hours attempting to replace the 7 pin RV plug which connects the trailer to the rear of the Newell.  You will recall that we had issues with the trailer lights on the way north last April, so after getting here, and verifying that the necessary power from the Newell was being transferred to the 7 pin cord I ordered a new cord intending to replace it just before we left in October.  I, rightfully, assumed the problem was with the cord, however, it turned out the problem was not with the 7 pin cord, but with the trailer wiring.  When I opened the junction box where the 7 pin cord connects with the various wires that connect to the brake lights, turn signals, running lights, and hazard lights I discovered that the yellow wire which controls the left turn signal had melted, and shorted out the other wires, as well as itself......

.....the yellow wire in the foreground is not the wire in question, and cannot be seen in this picture.  It became apparent pretty quickly that I do not have time to rewire the trailer right now.  Fortunately, as a backup plan, I purchased Bluetooth tail lights which require no cord.  TLE and I paired the two tail lights, which attach to the rear of the trailer via rare earth magnets, and then tested the turn signals, brake lights and hazards, and they all work as they should.  All we really need to do is get the trailer to TWW, where it will live out its life in a stationary position.  I may, or may not decide to rewire the trailer, but that is unlikely.  After working under the trailer for those two hours I was filthy, so took along, hot shower to wash off the filth.

TLE had me grill hamburgers on the Sea-B-Que to which she added a side of potato salad....she makes the best potato salad!  We watched most of Monday Night Football, before heading for slumberland.

Thank you for your patience, and for stopping by!

The finite......

 7:26 am - Monday - October 5th - LPG&RVR - 56° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 41%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE and I were in Likely, CA working at LPG&RVR.....

.....when we received a visit from Rich and Marnie Aaron who were our managers back in 2019-2020 when we worked for 9 months at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  Still, by and far, in the top 5 of managers for whom we have ever worked as Workampers over the last 15 years.  We still see them about once a year all these years later.  Safe travels Marnie and Rich!

When I awoke Sunday morning something felt different.  Then I realized this was not just the beginning of another four day weekend, but actually the beginning of a never ending weekend.  No more dancing to the tune of an employer, but to our own tune for the rest of our lives.  To be fair, the last few employers we've had have been wonderful (Rich and Marnie - Ramona Oaks, Terry and Michele - Seal Rock RV Cove, Bob and Casey - Colorado Outback Adventures, and now for the last 5 years, Dennis and Kellie - LPG&RVR), but now it is time to settle down in one place and focus on living our best lives for the rest of our lives, and who knows how long that will be?  According to this Social Security page TLE and I, being of average to good health for our ages can possibly expect another 10.7 years.....

.....that, of course, is complete speculation, but it is also very finite.  When my father was 44 I don't think he thought his number would come up at age 54, but it did.  When you're young your life feels infinite, but now, not so much, right?  

Anyway, from this point on we will be working for ourselves.  We'll devote a lot of energy, and elbow grease into building out The Wilson Wilderness so that we can be self sustaining by growing our own food year round, running chickens, and expanding our water catchment capabilities, and perhaps even getting a well drilled.  Now that we will be there full time we can begin to think along those lines.

From the beginning of our nomadic lives we knew the day would come when we stopped traveling.  That we have reached that point is very sobering to us.  Our lives have been forever, permanently changed for the better by having lived this nomadic experience.  The many, many friends we have made along the way have enriched our lives beyond measure.  Sure, we've visited some amazing places in the lower 48 over the last 15 years, but it has really been the people we have met along the way that have added so much meaning to our lives.  Our home will continue to be on wheels, and I know that there will be a few trips taken, but the years of endless travel are coming to an end, and it is time to settle down.  Over the next few years we will determine what that stationary life will look like, and how it will evolve.

Now, back to the present......Sunday was a total laid back day.  I did nothing that remotely looked like work, except to retrieve my golf clubs from my locker at the Clubhouse late morning.  Otherwise I watched NFL football on the 'lido deck', took naps, and read a little.  Monday the real work taking down site #55 for the final time will begin, and that will begin shortly after I finish today's blogosphere offering.

Even though we will not be traveling hither and yon in our Newell a lot in the future, the blog will continue unabated.  It has become part of my lifestyle, and I still look forward each day to writing it.  Perhaps, there may even be some YouTube videos released on a regular basis about our experiences going forward in building a sustainable off grid property at TWW.  Okay, time to get busy deconstructing our site.

Thanks for stopping by!

The end.....

 8:09 am - Sunday - October 4th - LPG&RVR - 56° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 62%, wind 6 mph out of the south....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 87° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were near Coupeville, WA.....

....staying on the property of Bob and Karen F....long time college friends.  We had been there a year before, and found out that their John Deere loader/backhoe had quit running a few months earlier.  I promised him then (2020) that we would return and help him get it running again.  It took about 5 days to figure out why it wouldn't run (a shorted wire to the fuel shut off solenoid), but we did get it running, and operating again.

Well, I owe you posts about Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  These days were the final four days of our season here at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort, and there is a certain sameness about workdays, so I will recap each day in this single post.

Wednesday, September 30th - 

We decided ahead of time that we would not be getting up at 5:30 am for any of the final 4 work days.  Instead, we decided to sleep in until 6, or 6:15 am. People were not going out to golf until after 9 am, and sometimes not until 10 am as it is just too cold until then.  I chose not the write the blog those four days as it takes me about 45 minutes, and I didn't want to rush around to get ready after writing the blog.  We were on our way over to the Clubhouse by 7:45 am each day instead of the usual 7:20 am....that extra 25 minutes was nice.

We ultimately rented 11, or 12 carts Wednesday.  Instead of being off work by 3:20 pm, I was off work at 3:45 pm.  It was a routine day, but there was no mowing, no trimming, just staging carts, and doing busy work most of the day.  I did spend time in the trees on each side of the driving range clearing those balls as has been my habit the last month, or so.  While I was walking around shagging those balls the thought came to me that this was to be our last season here at LPG&RVR.  

TLE and I had been discussing a 6th summer, and going back and forth most of the summer, but this moment of clarity settled it for me.  After finishing clearing the woods of range balls I headed back to the Clubhouse to tell TLE what I was thinking.  Pretty much, without any hesitation, she agreed that is was time to end our tenure, and refocus our efforts to finish the work at The Wilson Wilderness, and live out the rest of our days there.

I took a ride around the course one more time to take some final pictures just before TLE's daily lunch break.....

....I will miss this view!

Thursday, October 1st - 

Again, we rented 10-12 carts over the course of the day, and around 10:30 am I headed out to the driving range to clear it for the final time this year.  As I walked around shagging the balls off the driving range I began to come to terms with our decision, and felt better and better about our decision to give our notice that we would not be returning for a sixth summer season.  All that remained was to inform Dennis and Kellie Tate of our decision, and that was the hard part.  They were not around most the day, so I decided that Friday would be the day to give our notice.

Once again, I was off work by 3:45 pm, returning around 4:50 pm to get the availability from TLE, and any envelopes for late arrivals (after 5 pm) to post down at the Night Office, plus flip the sign.  By the time I returned TLE was outside waiting for her ride home.

Friday, October 2nd - 

We were at work by 7:45 am once again.  Around 8:30 am Dennis arrived at the Clubhouse, so I walked over to give him the news of our decision.  It has been a privilege to work for Dennis and Kellie these past 5 summers.  They have both been so gracious, supportive and appreciative during the past five summers that I really hated to disappoint them.  They, of course, knew about 40 acre off grid property at which we've been working the past two winters, so didn't seem too surprised at our decision.  I then headed over to Claude's Wanderlodge to give him the news.  As you may recall he visited us here the second and third summer we were here, and loved where we lived, so much so, that he applied for a job here beginning with our 4th summer here.

We rented 15, or 16 carts Friday, and I stayed pretty busy all day long.  TLE got a call from one of our customers that their Yamaha cart had died at the 12th tee boxes, so I picked up another Yamaha and headed out to trade carts with them so they could finish their round, hoping I could get it running, but I was not successful, so I called Claude to come out and tow me back to the Clubhouse.  He was there in less than 15 minutes, and we were back at the Clubhouse 10 minutes later.  As it turns out the no maintenance battery had given up the ghost.

Friday was also the 60th birthday of good friend Duke Golden.  I met Duke our first summer here.  I was driving down the row of back in sites one day and saw him setting up his Starlink for the first time.  Since I had been thinking about getting Starlink I stopped to talk with him.  We had an immediate connection, began our friendship, and over the course of the next two summers golfed a few times with he and his wife Cindy.  I will miss seeing them every day each summer.  Anyway, they hosted his birthday party at the Clubhouse restaurant Friday night, and what a turnout there was!  Since we had an early workday (out last) Saturday we bid our adieus around 7:30 pm, and headed for home.

Saturday - October 3rd - My 77th birthday - 

In order to be sure that I would be able to wash and stow as many golf carts as I could Saturday, our last day, I worked a normal 8 to 5 day.  I gave TLE a one hour lunch break, then took mine around 1:30 pm, returning to the Clubhouse around 2:30 pm to begin washing as many of the 24 golf carts we had rented.  By 5 pm I had washed and stowed all but 11 of them, so Steve will have those carts to wash and stow on Sunday, the final day of the season.

Joel and Donna Nagy, also good friends, hosted an end of he season party at their site beginning at 5:30 pm.  I didn't arrive until after 6 pm as I needed to take a shower and a nap.  The 89° F heat Saturday really took it out of me.  As I arrived I was greeted with birthday greetings, and a birthday Bloody Mary from Joel and Donna.....I love Bloody Marys!  By the time I arrived most people knew we not returning next summer, so I spent time talking with the many friends we have made here over the years.  It was the perfect ending for our 5th summer season, but also very bitter sweet.  Pretty soon it was just Joel, Donna, TLE and I who remained, hugging, and saying our 'until next times'.  It never gets any easier to say 'until next time', and this particular time was the most difficult yet.

We are so blessed to have been welcomed into this wonderful seasonal community for the past 5 summers.  We never expected to be here more than a year, but felt compelled to return to Likely Place Golf and RV year after year until we had completed five summers.  When we depart in about a week we will leave pieces of our hearts here, and head south to The Wilson Wilderness different people for the experience, and the wonderful friendships which were forged.  The memories of our time here, and the people who befriended us will remain in our hearts forever.

The years we have left here on earth are getting more finite by the year, and now we begin a new phase of our life, and perhaps the final phase, living full time at TWW.  Thank you to everyone here that made our lives so much richer, and meaningful.....Duke and Cindy, Joel and Donna, Bob, Rich and Patrice, DeWayne, Glenn, Demitrius and Mary, Ron and Karen, Sunny and Art, Rich and Kathy (Jameson), Rich and Laurie, Greg and Terri, Mike and Debbie, Mike and Lynn, Pat, Jose, Dennis and Kellie, Buzz and Karla, John and Wendy, Rich and Kathie (Smith), Romero, and the many customers who also became good friends.....the list goes on and on, and I hope I have not left anyone out.  

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this installment.  From this point forward it will be regularly scheduled programming.  Thank you so much for stopping by!

A little delay.....

 6:25 am - Friday - October 2nd - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 25%, cloud cover 44%, wind 8 mph out of the west by southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were in Port Townsend, WA....

.....at Port Townsend Hudson Point Marina....right on the shores of Puget Sound.

You have probably noticed I did not submit a post about Wednesday on Thursday.  I'm going to wait to post about our final for days on Sunday.

Thank you for your patience, and for stopping by!

Focused on the trailer....

 5:52 am - Wednesday - September 30th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 36%, cloud cover 1%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Sydney, MT.....

....beginning our first 12 hour NIGHT shift at the annual beet harvest.  Three weeks of 12 hour NIGHTS.

The weather has been steadily warming since Sunday's winterish storm came and went.  Wednesday would be the last day of temps in the 70's for the foreseeable future.  As we move into October the Summer is beginning to rear its ugly head once again.  

We weren't out of bed until after 7:30 am Tuesday.  Beginning Wednesday we'll have daily high temps of 84, 87, 85 and 87° F for the last four days of the 2026 summer season at Likely Place Golf & RV Resort, which gives us the perfect bookend.  We worked the first four days of this season, and will work the final 4 days of this season.

After the hectic week we had last week the trailer was kind of a mess, so I spent part of the morning putting things away, then vacuuming the interior.  I won't be organizing its interior for VW insertion for another 10 days, thankfully.  As I found places for everything I realized how much stuff we have acquired this summer, and now I need to find a place to store all of the stuff we won't be taking with us to The Wilson Wilderness.  Once the trailer was back under control I got out our Toro leaf blower to blow a week's worth of leaves and other detritus off the 'lido deck' turf.  

By the time I was done with all of that it was just after noon time, so I got out my book (Kindle) and retired to my anti gravity recliner for the afternoon.  Of course, there was music playing in the background, and, of course, there was a cigar to smoke, and a nap to take.  I noticed that the sun is so low in the southern sky now that it dips below the edge of the patio awning after 1 pm and is now shining in my eyes.  I'll have to adjust where the anti gravity chair is positioned on my next days off work.

Around 5 pm I lit the Sea-B-Que to grill a beautiful London Broil for our dinner.  TLE added a side of smashed potatoes.  The London Broil came out a perfect medium rare, of course.  And that was essentially the end of our final four day weekend this season, and all that is left is to 'knock out' the last four day work week, and we can stick a fork in it!

Thanks for stopping by!

You just never know.....

 8:04 am - Tuesday - September 29th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 28%, cloud cover 1%, wind 8 mph out of the north......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of  77° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Gardiner, MT.....

at Yellowstone RV Park, which is on the Yellowstone River, watching another Montana sunset.  We had just a couple of days left to work at the General Store at Mammoth Hot Springs before we would depart for new adventures.  The view this morning....

It's been a week since we last made a trip into Alturas to do our weekly shopping, so after lazing around most of the morning we headed into Alturas to do just that.  It was one of the first clear skies days we have had in quite a while.  I'll never get tired of the drive north on US-395 where sometimes you can see a mile ahead on this very straight section of the highway.  I think we passed just one car going into town, and none on the return trip.  We didn't see another vehicle until we were on the outskirts of Alturas.  

We didn't need to buy many things, so we made just two stops.....Dollar General and Holiday Market.  By the time we finished at Holiday Market it was close to 1 pm, so we decided to stop off at Rubio's Taqueria for some of their wonderful Street Tacos.  We haven't had any of their amazing Mexican food for a couple of months, and this visit will probably be our last until next Spring.  We were in and out in less than 10 minutes, then headed down to the city park near the local history museum where there are a few picnic tables, one of which is almost always in the shade.  We've followed this routine many, many times over the 5 summers we lived here, and are never disappointed in the quality of these tacos, or the location.  I always order mine with carne asada.

We'll probably make the trip into Alturas one, or two more times as we won't be leaving until closer to the middle of October.  We're going take a slightly different route south this year, and not drive through Carson City, Indian Hills, Minden, or Gardnerville down to Bishop on US-395.  Instead, when we hit I-80 in Reno we'll head east on I-80 to US-95 and take that south to US-93 to Kingman, AZ.  Diesel is really, really expensive right now at almost $6/gallon, so we're taking the most direct route we can, with as few high passes as possible....in fact I think the highest pass we'll traverse is down near Walker Lake at just 5,000 feet.  Taking this route will shave over 100 miles off our drive totaling out at 777 miles door to door.  Usually we're closer to 900 miles.  Avoiding those 5 passes south of Minden, NV will save a lot of fuel.

By the time we arrived home, and put away our groceries it was after 3 pm.  I had planned to spend some time on the 'lido deck' reading, but it was already getting too cool to be outside.  Speaking of cool, after Tuesday we'll have nothing but 80's for the balance of our stay here at LPG&RVR, with over night temps in the 40's.  Much warmer than last year at this same time.  I had already substituted our heated hose for our regular fresh water hose by this time.

There was a great Monday Night Football game on Monday night featuring the Philadelphia Eagles at the Chicago Bears.  The Bear's starting quarterback, Caleb Williams, pulled a hamstring last weekend, and one of their star receivers also was hurt, and not available for this game, so I wasn't expecting much from the Bears, but was I ever wrong.  The Bears steamrolled the Eagles 27-7, and it easily could have been 41-27....you just never know.  The Bears sent out Case Keenum, a 38 year old journeyman quarterback, who had been with 5, or 6 teams in his career, and hadn't thrown a competitive pass in 1100 days....close to 3 years.  If he never plays another game he will have this one to remember forever.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cold, rainy and windy.....

 8:17 am - Monday - September 28th - LPG&RVR - 43° F, humidity 38%, cloud cover 2%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe.....

.....enjoying the company of Sue and Guy Cobham.  They had purchased a 1984 Newell Classic earlier that year, which I found for them in South Dakota, and their maiden trip in the Newell was to come visit us at Tahoe Valley Campground.  We were able to get them a site right next to us.  The view this morning.....

.....no more clouds!

TLE had to open the Clubhouse Office Sunday morning, again, so she was up around 6 am.  I managed to stay in bed (you notice I didn't say sleep) until 6:30 am.  With the lights on, the heaters running, and TLE making coffee it was just too much to sleep.  It's not her fault.  Once I smell fresh coffee being made I have this almost Pavlovian response, and must get up....lol.

It began raining just before 7 am, and rained on and off for the rest of the day.  TLE was on her way to open the office by 7:50 am, and back by 9:20 am after Cindy had arrived at 9 am to take over until noon time when TLE returned for the balance of the day.

I, on the other hand, remained in doors where it was warm and cozy enjoying not being outside in the bitter cold, windy, rainy conditions.  That was left to other poor souls to endure.  It being Sunday meant there were NFL games to be enjoyed, and the final round of the President's Cup (golf) being played.  I wasn't sure how much of the President's Cup I would watch as the USA was in dire straits going into the 4th round on Sunday, and if they didn't rally I would be watching more NFL football than golf.

The format of the Presidents Cup is match play just like the Ryder Cup.  And like the Ryder Cup it is played every other year.  Essentially, it is the USA players against the Internationals (from everywhere in the world except Europe).  The Ryder cup is the USA vs. European players.  Coming into this President's Cup the USA had won the last 10 in a row.  They got off to a good start Thursday leading 3-2 after the first round, but lost all 5 matches on Friday to the Internationals who now lead the USA 7-3.  The USA managed to pull within 10.5 t0 7.5 points on Saturday.  There are a total of 30 points available over the four days....one point per match won, so the USA needed 8 points out of the 12 points available Sunday to win, and the Internationals only needed 5 points.  I did not expect the USA to be able to accomplish that based on the previous three days, but I was wrong.  They ended up winning 9 of the 12 matches on Sunday, and tying one to win going away 17-13.

There were some very good NFL games on Sunday including the Raiders coming from behind in New Orleans to win their third in a row to start the season, The Cowboys losing a game in the final two seconds to the Ravens, which everyone thought they had won, and the night game between the Rams and Broncos in Denver, in the rain in which the lead changed four times in the final 5 minutes of play with Denver coming out on top.

The rain came and went all day long, and I never turned off our electric heaters.  I think the high temp was around 62° F late Sunday afternoon, but it did not feel that warm to me.  TLE was home by 5:30 pm.  Kathie and Richard returned to LPG&RVR Sunday afternoon so Kathie will be running the show Monday and Tuesday, and TLE will get to sleep in Monday (which she did).

Thanks for stopping by!

The unexpected......

 7:04 am - Sunday - September 27th - LPG&RVR - 54° F, humidity 47%, cloud cover 90%.....very cloudy today with a chance of rain, and a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Yellowstone National Park.....

.....visiting Canyon Falls for the first time.  The river is the Yellowstone, of course.  We had to wait until well after Labor Day to be able to get into the parking lot.  During the summer the wait to find a parking spot was over an hour....sometimes more.  Well worth the wait!  I wrote about that here.

Kathie Smith's (TLE's counterpart in the Clubhouse Office) husband, Richard, had to be taken down to a hospital in Reno for tests, unexpectedly, early Thursday morning, and was not back yet on Saturday, so TLE had to open the office Saturday morning.  As a result I was left to my own devices for a few hours in the morning.  That gave me time to retrieve the rest of our tables, etc. from the large gazebo and move them back to our site.  It was around 34° F at 8 am Saturday morning when I dropped off TLE at the Clubhouse, and there was a frost delay until 9 am for golfers as the greens had a coating of frost, of course.   Once I had everything back at our site, I just left everything on the cart until it warmed enough to spend any more of time outdoors.  It took me less than 15 minutes to get all that done.

One of our permanent residents, Cindy Golden, has been training under TLE and Kathie for this summer for just such an emergency, so she came into the office around 9 am, and TLE was home by 10 am, only to return later around 4 pm to help Cindy close out the day.  As it turned out they had 45 golfers, rented a lot of carts, and she did a great job with the register balancing right to the penny at the end of the day.  TLE will open again on Sunday if Kathie has not been able to return, with Cindy coming in at 9 am to 12 pm, then TLE will handle the afternoon.  Kathie and Richard should be back sometime Sunday afternoon.

Of course Saturday is NCAA Collee Football day, and I had both the Salon TV and outdoor TV tuned to whatever game I was watching at the time.  Around 11 am it was warm enough to begin putting away the stuff on the cart.  We used the table on which the Sea-B-Que normally resides, so I set that back up first, and then returned the numerous chairs and recliners to their spots.  We still have three ice chests full of beer, and melted ice water to deal with, and I'll do that on Sunday, or Monday, weather permitting.

I spent the rest of the day watching football, napping and reading.  It was a perfect first day of our four day weekend.....thanks for stopping by!

The 'Pub Crawl'......

 7:13 am - Saturday - September 26th - LPG&RVR - 32° F, humidity 34%, cloud 68%, wind 11 mph out of the south....mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Cape Blanco, OR.....

....walking on South Cape Beach (south of the lighthouse) for the last time before heading north to Springfield, OR to have some solar panels added to our rooftop array at AM Solar (no longer in business).

Friday was jam packed with with things to do.  We rented at least 20 golf carts throughout the day.  I did some string trimming of the large gazebo, and the 15 pull through sites I had mowed the day before, ran a couple of sprinklers on dry spots around the Clubhouse wood deck, and down at the 'Night Office'.  Soon it was time for TLE's 90 minute lunch break.  I sent out a couple of golfers, and checked in a few RVs, but otherwise it was not very busy.  

After lunch I spent time hauling tables, and chairs over to the large gazebo where the our first annual Pub Crawl was to take place at 5:30 pm, and hauled more ice to keep all of the craft beer were were going to serve cold.  By 3 pm there were 8 golf carts to wash, and by 3:45 pm I had washed 12 carts in all.  Then it was time to head for home, take a shower, then finishing setting up our 'Pub Crawl' station.  It turned out pretty well....

Our 17 craft beer offerings

I strung some of our solar Edison lights

.....in all we offered 17 craft beer choices.  You can see our 'High Forest Pub' banner in the foreground.  In all we had about 20 stations offering whiskey, tequila, scotch, wine, beer (us), and a lot of pub food.  The first annual 'Pub Crawl' was deemed a resounding success, and folks where still hanging out when we headed home after 8 pm.  We left most of our station there overnight, but did bring home all the chairs, and ice chests.

Friday was literally our 'Friday' this four day work cycle, and it was a good week full of a lot of things I have now done for the last time this season....mowing, and string trimming among those final things.  I'll be clearing the driving range one last time next Thursday, and washing/stowing my last golf cart on Saturday.  I was able to spend time talking with a number of people who call LPG&RVR their home each summer, just as we do.  Life is good!  Now it's time to relax, and watch some NCAA College Football.

Thanks for stopping by!

A few last things.....

 5:49 am - Friday - September 25th - LPG&RVR - 55° F, humidity 39%, cloud cover 32%, wind 13 mph out of the west.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Bandon, OR.....

.....at Tony's Crab Shack having their amazing fish tacos (TLE actually had their Salmon Alfredo).

We rented 4 Club Car electrics and all 6 EZ-GO gassers for a total of 10 carts Thursday, and it really didn't even seem that busy.  I had 5 carts leftover from Wednesday.  By the end of the day six of the ten would return leaving four to wash Friday morning.  Speaking of Friday morning, with the arrival of Friday we have just 5 work days left in our summer season, including Friday.  We'll have a four day weekend after Friday, and then the final four work days.  By next Sunday we will begin to take down our site.  Where has the summer gone?

When we arrived at the Clubhouse there was a balmy breeze blowing out of the southwest.  The temp would hit 84° F late afternoon, but it felt warmer than that all day.  Overnight it will plunge just to 69° F on Friday, then stay in the 70's for the rest of the time we are here.  By 10 am I was mowing the large gazebo grass, then 13 of the 15 pull through sites (21-35) before it was time to clear the driving range for the second to last time this summer.  Not many range balls had been hit over the past week, and I ended up harvesting about 2/3's of a bucket of balls.  Combined with the almost 1/2 bucket of balls I picked Wednesday, there were just over 1 bucket of balls cleared over two days.  By the time I finished with that it was almost time for TLE's lunch break.

After TLE's lunch break I washed the range balls (didn't take long), and then washed the four Club Car electrics which had been returned.  Two more of the EZ-GO carts would return before 3:30 pm.  I managed to mow one more of the pull through sites leaving just the large grass area next to site #30.  From there I headed over to the group fire pit area to mow there, and I was done.  I'll do a little more mowing Friday, and that will be the last I mow this season.  The grass is really not growing that quickly now, and Steve will probably take care of the 10 back in sites over his four day shift.

I was home before 3:30 pm relaxing for about 1/2 an hour, then out in the trailer organizing the many craft beers for the 'Pub Crawl' Friday evening.  I filled three ice chests half full with ice at the restaurant, then began to insert the beer bottles, and cans into the ice to get them all cold for Friday night.  By the time I finished with that it was time to go pick up TLE and head home.  

Thanks for stopping by!

I was wrong.....

 5:49 am - Thursday - September 24th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 24%, cloud cover 33%,  wind 16 mph out of the south by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were in Seal Rock, OR.....

.....for our last sunset fire....a cloudless, windless evening....sunset 7:08 pm.

As we wind down our 5th season here at LPG&RVR the sun is now setting before 7 pm (6:55 pm), and within a week will be rising after 7 am.  While the park is relatively active right now, there are not many golfers.  Wednesday we rented just 7 golf carts, and by 3:30 pm 5 of them had been returned leaving just two for Thursday morning.  I only put out our five Club Car electrics if we know they will all be rented by 10 am.  Why?  Well, when a customer rents a cart for 18 holes he has 5 hours to complete the 18 holes, which means if they tee off at 10 am the cart must be returned by 3 pm, or 5 hours later.  On this day the 5th cart was to go out at 10 am, so I staged them.

I washed the two left over carts a little after 8 am, then headed down to the 'Night Office' to turn on the sprinklers again.  I had done a lot of watering on Tuesday, and felt I could get the rest of the grass watered by Wednesday afternoon.  On my way back to the Clubhouse I also set out two sprinklers on the parking lot grass. During the rest of the morning I string trimmed all of the employee sites, and the small gazebo, cleared range balls from the woods on either side of the driving range garnering 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket to wash later in the morning, moved the sprinklers down at the 'Night Office', and parking lot grass, then mowed the small gazebo grass, and the employee grass.  By the time I fueled, and cleaned the 2 bag Husqvarna it was 12 noon, and time for TLE's lunch break.

It was a typical end of the year lunch break.  I checked 4 RVs into the park, and sent a few folks out to play golf; otherwise it was pretty quiet.  By the time I headed back outside four of the 5 Club Car electrics had returned, and I was sure the 5th one would return well before 3:30 pm, but I was wrong.  As 3 pm came and went I drove around the entire LPG&RVR campus in search of the cart, but it was no where to be found.  Finally I asked TLE to call them and request they return the cart ASAP.  Finally around 3:30 pm it was returned, but with an angry customer.  Why was he angry?  Beats me.  He and his wife had taken 5.5 hours to play just 18 holes.  I'm not a very good golfer, and I can play 18 holes in under 4 hours, and that's playing two, or three balls per hole.  As it turns out they didn't tee off until 10:20 am after picking up the cart at 9:40 am.  Had they teed off on time they would have been back well before 3:30 even taking as long as they did to play 18 holes.  Anyway, I quickly washed and stowed that cart and headed for home about 3:45 pm.

When I returned at 5 pm to pickup TLE from work she advised me one of our EZ-GO carts had quit working about half way to the 17th green, so after dropping off TLE at home I picked up Claude and drove out to retrieve the cart (#83).  I was hoping we would not have to tow it in, and that it would just start and run making it an easy rescue, and for a change I was right.  Why it quit working is a mystery as it had 1/2 tank of gas.  We'll have to check it out Thursday.  I was back home eating dinner about 25 minutes later, and my work day was finally over.

Thanks for stopping by!

And the countdown begins....

 5:50 am - Wednesday - September 23rd - LPG&RVR - 42° F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 20%, wind 8 mph out of the southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 83° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Gold Beach, OR.....

.....taking a ride of Jerry's Jet Boats on the Rogue River.....what a day!!!

As one might expect, our first day back to work on a Tuesday was pretty quiet.  In all we rented 12 golf carts.  There were two Yamaha gassers left over from Monday to greet me when we arrived at the 'Cart Return' area at 7:30 am.  The tee time sheet showed a need for just 4 carts, but we all know that will grow throughout the day, and as I reported above it did.  With the sun rising later and later each day it is still pretty cold at 7:30 am, so I wait until well after 8 am to wash any carts now.  I'm sure before the end of the season that I will be taking a lunch break each day after I give TLE hers, and working until at least 4:30 pm  since golfers are not really teeing off until 9 am, or later now.

I was planning to do some mowing Tuesday, which I haven't done for over a week as Steve has done most of it, however, as I drove around the park first thing Tuesday I could see that the grass at the 'Night Office', the parking lot grass, and the three residential lawns needed attention.  In order to mow the 'Night Office' grass I have to roll up the very long four hoses we use to water the large area to make it easier to mow, so I did that, and then around 10 am I retrieved a string trimmer from the 'Caddy Shack' to trim around the residential lawns, and the 'Night Office' lawn before mowing them.  By 10:30 am I was on the 2 bag Husqvarna mowing first the three residential lawns, then the 'Night Office' lawn, then the parking lot grass.  By the time I finished mowing, refueling the Husqvarna, and blowing the grass clippings off the mowing deck it was time for TLE's lunch break.

It was relatively busy  in the Clubhouse office for the 90 minutes I was there.  I checked in a couple of RV's, sold some merchandise, and sent a few golfers out on the course.  By the time TLE returned there were several carts awaiting their daily spa treatment, which kept me busy for the balance of my shift.  I was off by 3:30 pm, and on my way home for a hot shower, and a nap.  Now there are just 7 work days remaining, and as I write, only 6 more early mornings before our season ends on October 3rd....the countdown has begun!

Thanks for stopping by!

'Pub Crawl'......

 5:52 am - Tuesday - September 22nd - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 40%, cloud cover 27%, wind 11 mph out of the northwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were in South Lake Tahoe, CA....

....at Tahoe Valley Campground.  Fall weather was already upon us.  We stayed that year until the end of October.  They had their first snow of the year the day we left.

This Friday (September 29th) LPG&RVR is hosting a 'Pub Crawl', and TLE and I are individually hosting a brew pub called High Forest Pub (our last name is German, and means High Forest).  I've been collecting craft brews all summer long in preparation for this event, and needed a few more to add to the collection, so we did something we do not normally do on our four day weekend; we headed into Alturas for a second time.  We left the park a little after 9 am, and after stops at Dollar General, Holiday Market, and the local fuel station, we were back home a little after 11 am.

We're going to be offering 'flights' of beer for people to sample more than one type of beer, so using a scrap piece of 3/4" plywood I cut out five 'flight' platters which can hold three samples each....

.....I used a 1 ½" hole saw to cut out the circles in which the sample cups will sit.  It didn't take more than 40 minutes beginning to end, but I put them together in stages over a few days.  They turned out well.  We're offering folks the chance to taste three different brews before making their choice.  There will be typical 'pub' snacks such as popcorn, mixed nuts, etc. offered, too.

After completing those platters, and buying the extra brews my work day was done, and I retired to the 'lido deck' to read for the rest of the afternoon.  I'm pretty sure a pretty long nap in my anti gravity recliner was had, also.

As I type this post we are about to begin our second to last 4 day work week, which will take us through Friday.  Then there will be just one four day weekend, and then our final four day work week before we head south for the winter.  I'll leave you with this Simon and Garfunkel song.....

.....thanks for stopping by!

'Lido deck' life.....

 7:53 am - Monday - September 21st - LPG&RVR - 57° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 19%, wind 6 mph out of the west.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Mammoth Hot Springs, WY....near the North Entrance of.....

.....Yellowstone National Park where winter came early that year.  This is the General Store where we worked for four months that summer.  I wrote about that here.

Time is marching forward day by day, and soon we will be offering up our 'until next times' to our family here at LPG&RVR.  The sun is noticeably lower in the sky as it repeats its daily arc across the increasingly southern sky from east to west.  In a few days we will be taking down the sun shade which has dutifully kept the summer sun from direct contact with our front cap and windshield these past months, and within 2 weeks we will begin to organize the trailer for VW insertion sometime near the beginning of the 2nd week of October.  That I am even mentioning the word October seems surreal, but it is undeniable that today (Monday) is September 21st, and our last work day is a mere 12 days in the future now.  Tonight the sun will officially set at 7 pm....it seems like it was setting well after 8:40 pm just a couple of weeks ago.  The sun isn't cresting the Warner Mountains until well after 7 am now, and within a week, or so the daylight portion of our day will be less than 12 hours.

With the overcast skies we had Sunday it remained cold on the 'lido deck' until after 12 pm, and that is when I moved out to the 'lido deck' to watch NFL football.  The main afternoon game (for me anyway) was the Raider vs. Charger game being played at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.  The Raiders have delivered one dismal season upon another for the past decade, or more, but something seems different this year.  They make very few mistakes, and have won two games in a row to start this season for the first time in 10, or 12 years.  My oldest son is an avid Raiders fan, as I have been since the 70's.  He and his wife often head to Las Vegas on weekends when the Raiders are at home, and as an extra treat they were able to attend the Raider vs. Chargers game in L.A. this past weekend.  It turned out to be a well played game by the Raiders who won 24-14.

I remained on the 'lido deck' well after 5 pm when TLE rang the dinner bell.  Sunday evening's dinner fare was a Cobb Salad, one of my favorites.  While we ate we watched the Sunday night game between the Indianapolis Colts and the Kansas City Chiefs.  We weren't expecting much of a game, but the Colts' offense showed on Sunday, and at the end of regulation time (60 minutes) the game was tied 27-27.  Overtime in the NFL consists of one 10 minute over time period with each team getting at least one possession of the football, unless there is a defensive touchdown; at least that is how I think it works.  Anyway, ultimately each team kicked a field goal to remain tied at 30-30 with 3 minutes to go in the overtime.  The Chiefs got the ball and marched down the field to kick the winning field goal as the overtime expired.  It was a good day for watching football outdoors.

Thanks for stopping by!