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!

We're adults, after all....

 8:32 am  - Sunday - September 20th - LPG&RVR - 58° F, humidity 23%, cloud cover 34%, wind 8 mph out of the southeast......partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 82° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Fairmont Hot Springs, MT.....

.....with Tom and Darlene McCloud.  They were on their way back south to Arizona on I-15 from Canada, and we were heading east to the sugar beet harvest in Sydney, MT via I-90.

We slept in again Saturday until after 8 am....two days in a row!  It feels like we're doing something wrong, and are going to get in trouble, but then we remember we're adults, and require no outside supervision....lol.  We can do what we want on our days off work.  Saturday was the day of the annual putting contest final which features all those who have finished either first, or second on any given Saturday during the summer, putting for bragging rights.  Around 10 am I drove cart #20 over to the Clubhouse to practice putting for 30, or 40 minutes, then returned to spend the rest of the day (until 3 pm when the putting contest was scheduled to be played) on the 'lido deck' reading, and watching NCAA college football.  

There were a number of upsets of Top 25 teams such as #8 Ole Miss upsetting #7 LSU, unranked Kentucky upsetting #9 Texas A&M, #23 Louisville upsetting #16 SMU, and unranked West Virginia upsetting #20 Missouri.  My USC Trojans (#12) won a close game (as they should have) at unranked Rutgers 42-35.  Other than those upsets, everyone who should have won, won.  Oregon came back from a humiliating loss to an unranked team last week to win 84-0 over Portland State, so I'm sure they're feeling better about themselves.

Soon it was time for the putting contest finals at which only 8 of the former 1st and 2nd place winners were on hand.  Since there were only 8 of us the format was double elimination.  I lost my first match to the ultimate winner, Don Kittleseon, who is a club pro at another golf course.  At the end of 5 holes in my losers' bracket match I was tied 2-2 after 5 holes, so we went to a one hole putt off....closest to the pin after one putt.  I made a terrible putt losing to Terri Plumlee, so after two rounds I was out.

At 5:15 pm we attended the Club Members annual dinner.  We are not 'Club Members', however, all employees are invited.  It was potluck this year, and as usual, there were many great dishes, and a great time was had by all.  We were home by 6:30 pm, and I was ready for another nap....lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sleepin' in......

 7:50 am - Saturday - September 19th - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 34%, cloud cover 1%, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Seal Rock, OR.....

watching an amazing Coastal Oregon sunset.  A million dollar view in trade for a couple hours of work a day, four days a week for a year!  The view this morning....

.....Fall colors are everywhere now!

We must have been really tired, because we didn't get out of bed until AFTER 8 am Friday morning!  After posting my latest blogosphere offering I decided to wash the Beetle for the first time in a few weeks, and then around 11:30 am we headed over to Canby to have coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Coffee Adventure before returning to Alturas to do our weekly grocery shopping.

It's less than 38 miles door to door from site #55 here at LPG&RVR, and we were there before 12:30 pm.  The drive is always enjoyable, with very little traffic.  This little coffee shop opened three summers ago, and we have always made time every year to make the drive there just to have their coffee.  On occasions when we are going, or coming to and from Klamath Falls we make a point of stopping there at least once.  We were on the road back to Alturas a little after 1 pm, and back in Alturas 20 minutes later making our first stop at Holiday Market, then over to Grocery Outlet before heading back to LPG&RVR where we arrived around 2:30 pm.

After unloading the VW I headed out to the 'lido deck' to enjoy what was left of a balmy afternoon.  I read, and napped until after  5pm before heading inside for the evening where I continued reading.  It was a wonderful first day of our four day weekend, which is the 2nd to last of our four day weekends.

Thanks for stopping by!

Just 8 left....

 8:19 am - Friday - September 18th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 51%, cloud cover 15%, wind 10 mph out of the north by northwest......kind of hazy, blue skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Denver, CO.....

Not that far from downtown Denver

.....visiting Red Rocks Amphitheater.  Many famous Rock Bands have played there over the years, including the Beatles and Stones, plus there is an onsite museum detailing all of those bands.

Day four of our four day work cycle came, and went quickly as it always does.  After staging the 6 EZ-GO golf carts I got busy washing the 12 carts left over from Wednesday.  The sun is not high enough in the sky to hit the 'Cart Return' area when we report for work now, so I wait until after 8 am to begin washing carts so I can do it in the warmth of the morning sun.  For the first time since last May I worked all four days wearing pants, long socks, and a long sleeve shirt.

After washing the carts I spent time disconnecting the positive and negative cables from the battery in Club Car #26 (round nose) to clean the terminals, and the cable ends as it seemed the starter was not  getting full power making it difficult to start.  When I reconnected them it started as it should, and cleaning the terminal seems to have done the trick.  On the other hand, #77 Yamaha runs like it has a fouled plug, but I pulled the plug and it was clean, so back to the drawing board on that one.

By the time I finished with the carts it was around 10:45 am, and time to begin clearing the range balls off the driving range.  DeWayne is only mowing the range once a week on Thursdays now, so unless we are running out of range balls we don't clear it on Monday's anymore.  Based on the 55 gallon barrel being about half empty I estimated we could glean between 2 and 3 buckets of balls.  Claude was not busy so he helped me clear the range, and it is a good thing he did as it took us 45 minutes to fill 3 five gallon buckets, and without his help it would have taken me well past TLE's lunch break.....thank you Claude!

Just as I finished filling the buckets with water I noticed the group using the large gazebo had departed, and I knew another group would be arriving soon, so I hopped on the 2 bag Husqvarna and had the grass mowed in less than 10 minutes.  By that time it was 12 pm, and time for TLE's lunch break.  Things were moderately busy during that 90 minute interlude, and soon I was back outside washing golf balls, and then golf carts as they began to return.  I stayed busy until 3:30 pm, then headed for home to begin my 4 day weekend.

And with the finish of Thursday we now have just 8 work days left in our 5th summer season here at LPG&RVR.

Thanks for stopping by!

Best midweek day in 8 weeks!

 5:40 am - Thursday - September 17th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 48%, cloud cover 44%, wind 10 mph out of the west by southwest......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2020 I had finally set up our outdoor lighting....

.....at our camphost site at Seal Rocks RV Cove.  The on site managers loved them!  the rope lights faired quite well in the salt laden air, but the Christmas mini lights eventually succumbed.  I still have those white rope lights, and they still work!

The temp dropped into the low 70's Wednesday, which made for a delightful work day.  It turned out to be a great golf day at LPG&RVR with a total of 23 carts rented.  Our first mid week 20+ cart rental day in 8 weeks.  The more carts rented the busier I stay, and that is what I prefer.  On the down side, many of them were rented after 12 pm, meaning many of them did not return by 3:30 pm, and that would be around 12, so I'll have a busy Thursday morning.

For the first time in a few weeks I rented carts 26-30, the old round nosed Club Car gassers, and they all ran well except for 26, which had intermittent issues with starting, but the golfers did make it back without having to be rescued, however, I'll have to spend time Thursday figuring out the issue.  We also had issues with Yamaha gasser #77, which feels like it has a mostly fouled spark plug.  It, too, made it back without needing a rescue.

Thursday I'll be clearing the driving range of range balls, but I decided to clear the woods on either side of the range Wednesday, so all I'll have to worry about Thursday is the driving range proper, and there are a lot of balls out there.  I checked the 55 gallon barrel in the Clubhouse and it is half empty, so there are between 2, and 3 5 gallon buckets of balls out there.  In all I filled one shag bag with the forest balls.

Just before TLE's lunch break I decided to mow the small gazebo grass.  I wasn't sure when the next group would be arriving, but it was getting long so I cut it.  As it turned out the group scheduled to use it arrived right after lunch, so great timing on my part!  The afternoon was a flurry of activity as I washed cart after cart.  By the time 3:30 pm arrived those 12 carts I mentioned earlier were still outstanding.  By the time I returned to pickup TLE at 5 pm another four had arrived, so there were will 8 out there somewhere.  All that remains between us and our next four day weekend is one more day of work.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall is on our doorstep.....

 5:52 am - Wednesday - September 16th - LPG&RVR - 46° F, humidity 42%, cloud cover 33%, wind 11 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were living in Seal Rock, OR.....

....taking our first walk on Seal Rock Beach, right across US-1 from our camphost site.

The RV park since the Labor Day weekend has been so much busier, which means I'm busier, which means work time passes more quickly....all good things.  Once again our first golf customers didn't tee off until 9 am, even though there was no frost delay on Tuesday.  I staged 4 of the Club Car electrics, but only 3 went out before 10 am, so I restowed the fourth cart, and staged 5 of the Yamaha gassers.  Over the course of the day we rented 17 carts; very good for a Tuesday.....lately.

I spent time reinstalling the repaired right front wheel/tire on the 2 bag Husqvarna, and then proceeded to wash the 8 carts left over from Monday.  After they were washed I then refueled each of them, then used compressed air to blow the dust out of the engine bays and centrifugal clutches.  It has been a dry summer, and dust is the enemy of long life for centrifugal clutches.  We had the same issue with the clutches on the Polaris RZRs we rented back in 2023 and 2024.

I was kept busy throughout the morning staging more golf carts, and answering customer questions about the course, and the property, and soon it was time to give TLE her lunch break.  Lunch time was moderately busy for me, but the big rush came after TLE returned.  I think 7, or 8 RV's arrived in a 25 minute period.

Six carts awaited me at the wash station, so I got busy washing them, refueling them, and blowing the dust out of the engine bays.  Around 2:30 pm I took another run around the course, and took a couple of pictures....

.....the trees are beginning adorn themselves with the traditional Fall colors, so it appears Fall is on our doorstep.  By the time I returned just before 3 pm TLE had rented 5 more carts, so I'll have a buttload of carts to wash first thing Wednesday.  There were two more carts to wash and stow, so by the time I finished with them it was time to head for home to take a long, hot shower, and take a nap before returning to the Clubhouse to give TLE a lift home.  So with the completion of Tuesday's work we had reached the end of another pay period, and 'hump night' leaving just two more days of work before our next four day weekend.  By the end of Thursday we'll have just 8 work days left this season.

Thanks for stopping by!

A productive Monday....

 5:56 am - Tuesday - September 15th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 5%, wind 13 mph out of the south by southwest......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE had just arrived at our home for the next 12 months.....

....Seal Rocks RV Cove.  Our employee site was on the hill behind the office (foreground), and this was our view, and was separated from the rest of the campground.  One of the best workamping jobs ever.....great place to live for the next 12 months.

For the second consecutive day it got down to freezing overnight, and we were met with frost on the putting green as we arrived at 7:30 am for our first of four work days.  Due to the frost there was a 90 minute frost delay for those wishing to play a around of golf.  As a result our first golfers did not tee off until 9:30 am.  There were six carts left over from Sunday for me to wash, but it was too cold to take care of that until closer to 9:30 am.  I initially staged 4 carts for the 9:30 am folks, and then later an additional 12 carts. By 3:30 pm 8 of them were still outstanding.

I spent time repairing the hose on the air compressor in the 'Caddy Shack'.  It had developed a leak last Wednesday (my last work day), and I had to cut off about 4 feet of the hose, and reattach the shortened hose so I could blow grass off the two Husqvarna mowing decks, and didn't have time to splice the four feet back to the hose that day.  In the interim I found a coupling to splice the two pieces, and was able to restore the full length of hose.  

Next up I was able to repair the right front wheel of the 2 bag Husqvarna with two new bushings.  As you will recall I discovered the bushing on the outside of the wheel had broken, and I didn't think we had any other bushings, so I borrowed the right front wheel from the defunct John Deere mower which had two good bushings.  As it turns out we do have four of those bushings, so using a chisel I pounded out the remains of the old bushing, and pressed in the new one.  While I was at it I replaced the inside bushing as well, since it had worn unevenly for a period of time before I discovered the problem with the outside bushing.  It was actually a pretty straightforward repair.  By that time it was almost 12 noon, so I put away my tools, and headed inside to give TLE her 90 minute lunch break.

The office was pretty busy during that time with phone calls to answer, and customers to check into the RV park, so the 90 minutes passed by quickly.  Soon I was back outside washing and stowing golf carts.  I made one pass around the golf course since our Marshal (Claude) is off Monday through Wednesdays.  All was well, and folks were obeying the rules.  By the time I returned it was almost 3 pm, and there were a few more carts to wash and stow, so I took care of them, closed up the 'Caddy Shack', and was home by 3:30 pm.

As of this writing (Tuesday morning around 6:22 am) we have just 10 more early mornings left, and 12 more days off work, plus another 5 months after that of no early mornings until we return for our 6th season here at LPG&RVR.

Thanks for stopping by!

A couple of firsts.....

 5:49 am - Monday - September 14th - LPG&RVR - 33° F, humidity 47%, cloud cover 1%, wind 6 mph out of the northeast.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were just across the Columbia River from Astoria, OR....

You can see the Astoria-Megler bridge in the background

.....after having having spent a week driving US-1 from Port Townsend through the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.  We would arrive at our home for the next year (Seal Rock, OR) later the next day.

Sunday was another great football day.  It was NFL day, and there were quite a few good games throughout the day.  Although I had the outdoor TV up and running on the 'lido deck' it was too cold, and breezy to spend much time outdoors.  The temp had dropped from 81° F on Saturday to 65° F Sunday.  The overnight low was 30° F (7 am Sunday), which meant we had to move our many plants into the trailer Saturday night for the first time since we arrived April 27th.  We planned on taking another 1 mile out and back walk when it hit 60° F, which did not occur until 1:30 pm.

Just as the afternoon NFL games were about to begin we took our walk averaging 3 mph again (20 minutes and 10 seconds) burning another 166 calories.  After returning from our walk we sat on the 'lido deck' for a few minutes cooling down from our walk, but eventually had to head indoors as the cool temp combined with the stiff breeze made it feel much colder than it was.

That was pretty much the 4th day of our four day weekend.  We did watch the Sunday night game between the NY Giants and the Dallas Cowboys played in New Jersey.  Jim Harbaugh is the NY Giants coach this year, and has apparently worked wonders with their defense and offense.  The Cowboys were favored, but the Giants won 28-20, and it didn't really seem that close.  This was the first time the NY Giants have won a season opener against the Cowboys since 2016, and it was the first time since 2006 that both the NY Jets and Giants both won their opening day games.

Thanks for stopping by!

In the money again!

 8:10 am - Sunday - September 13th - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 40%, cloud cover 7%, wind 14 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear, but hazy skies this morning with a forecast high today of 65° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in Bar Harbor, ME....

....we were up at 5 am to make the 20 minute drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain to watch the sun rise.  Every day during the summer hundreds of people would make this pilgrimage to watch the sun rise, and we are glad that on this day we would be counted among those.....spectacular!

After composing my latest missive I headed out to the 'lido deck' to dump our black tank realizing at the same time that I would only be performing this ritual a couple more times before we haul anchor and head south for the winter.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned previously that we have great water pressure here at LPG&RVR, so it only takes about 10-15 minutes to thoroughly dump and flush the tank two, or three times.

After another successful dump/flush TLE and I headed out to do another 1 mile out and back walk; just the fourth of the summer.....

....we managed to complete the out and balk 1 mile walk in 19 minutes and 46 seconds averaging just over 3 mph, plus another 166 caloric units were consumed.  We've really beeen lazy this summer, but we need to get back to walking on a regular basis.

Upon our return I changed clothes and headed out to the 'lido deck' to watch some college football, and were there ever some great games to be watched.  In all I counted three significant upsets of top 25 teams beginning with Michigan (unranked) outlasting the University of Oklahoma (#11) 17-10, unranked Oklahoma State defeating #6 Oregon Ducks 39-31, and #4 Texas beating #1 Ohio State 24-23 on a last minute touchdown and extra point.  Texas was down 23-3 to begin the second half, but scored 21 unanswered points to win at the buzzer.

Saturday was also our final weekly putting contest of the summer before the final next Saturday (September 19th).  There were only 15 putters, and normally we would have run a double elimination format, but the annual Likely Fire Department steak dinner was at 5 pm, so we went with single elimination.  I'm happy to say that the magic that was mine last week continued this week, only this time I came in first place!  I still can't believe it.

Around 5 pm TLE and I headed over to the Fire Department dinner.  I think well over half the people there were from LPG&RVR (customers, residents, members, and employees).  For $30/person you get a larger than life Rib Eye Steak (TLE and I were hard pressed to eat half of ours), baked potato, corn on the cobb, salad and dessert.  When we arrived there was a line out the door, and it took us a good 15 minutes to get to our table with our food.  At the end of the dinner there is a raffle drawing for three prizes: 1st place is an expensive hunting rifle, 2nd place was an expensive wine refrigerator, and 3rd was a $200 gift certificate for the Likely General Store (we won that prize two years ago).  When it came time to draw the much coveted hunting rifle DeWayne Matthews (Fire Chief) asked a lady from the audience to make the draw.  You can't make this stuff up.....she drew her own raffle ticket out of a box of hundreds of tickets.  She only bought ONE raffle ticket.  How cool is that?

We were home by 7:30 pm, just in time to see most of the 2nd half of the Texas/Ohio State game, and then transition to the late game (8 pm start) featuring my USC Trojans vs. Louisiana.  As expected my Trojans won handily 49-30, but I was in bed long before the game finished sometime after 11 pm.

Saturday was quite a day....thanks for stopping by!