It was perfect.....

 8:09 am - Wednesday - April 26th - LPG&RVR - 48° F, humidity 40%, wind 0 mph out of the east.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were visiting Arlington National Cemetery.......↴

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Changing of the Guard

It usually doesn't take us this long to set up our 'lido deck' wherever we may be each season, but this time has been different.  Initially we were unsettled as to whether we would keep our current orientation, and then when we decided we liked it we had our first 4 day work week, so everything we wanted to do was deferred until our first 4 day weekend.  Thus comes Tuesday, and probably the biggest job to mostly complete the LPG&RVR* 'lido deck 2023.  We had not yet deployed our dining canopy, or Edison Lights, but to do so required us to remove a bush, and then level a pad large enough for the 12' x 12' canopy footprint.  Before we got started I drove our golf cart down to the 'Caddy Shack' to retrieve one of the trailers, and some tools (square point shovel, pruning hooks, and rock rake).  Once I had those in hand I headed back, and with TLE's help removed the bush, leveled the canopy pad, put down our 8' x 6' artificial turf, moved the picnic table onto the turf, then setup of the dining canopy.  At the end of it all here is what it looks like.....

Looking south

Looking north

.....we then setup our umbrella with our two camp chairs for sunset happy hour....

....it took us until almost 1:30 pm to finish, but it was well worth it.  Later in the day I hung the Edison Lights, and the job was done.  I attempted to take a nighttime picture of the Edison Light display, but didn't hold the camera still enough, but you get the idea....

....I did do better photographing the umbrella lights, though.....

....we began the evening around 5:15 pm enjoying some adult beverages at our sunset/happy hour location, then to celebrate, and dedicate the completion of this season's 'lido deck' TLE had me grill a couple of filet mignons on the Sea-B-Que to which she added sides of smashed potatoes, and a salad....

....and to cap off the evening we played 'Phase 10' for the first time in month.  It was very nice to resume 'game night' on the 'lido deck'.  There was no wind, no breeze, and the temperature was perfect, made even better by a cigar and Scotch!

Tuesday was just one of those 'perfect days' by which all other 'perfect days' will be judged.  Everything turned out as we had envisioned it, and now we can settle into life here at LPG&RVR*.

Thanks for stopping by!

*LPG&RVR = Likely Place Golf & RV Resort

Like we never left.....

7:42 am - Tuesday - April 25th - LPG&RVR - 34° F, humidity 67%, wind 0 mph out of the east by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in O'Neill, NB taking advantage of a free campsite at Carney Park (found on 'Days End Directory')......↴ 

We hadn't been shopping in 12 days, and it was time to make the 20 mile drive into Alturas for the first time this season.  We do not normally wait 12 days to shop, in fact, we usually shop every 7-8 days, so the cupboards were getting a little bare.  We enjoyed a leisurely morning before getting dressed around 10 am, and heading into town.

Our first stop was at the local Ace Hardware store on Modoc Street to stock up on all things mosquito repellant.  There are no mosquitoes now, but within 4-5 weeks, if not sooner, there will be.  We bought three citronella bucket candles, which we found to be quite effective on the 'lido deck' last year, plus another spray bottle of mosquito repellant.  I also picked up numerous other small items (garden hose washers, a new grounded male electric plug to replace one which had gone bad on one of my extension cords, etc.)....

New Adirondack cushions

Citronella bucket candles

From there we headed to Rite Aid (no prescriptions to fill just yet) where TLE picked up a few things, and we also bought new cushions for the Adirondack chairs.  Our last, but most important stop, was at Holiday Market where TLE and I filled up a small shopping cart of food items.

We were back home a little after 12 pm.  While TLE put away the grocery items I headed out to the trailer to install the new male ground plug on the extension cord.....

.....I've been meaning to fix that cord for over a year, but now it is done, and I can stop feeling guilty for procrastinating.   Actually, it was more a matter of forgetting to buy the replacement every single time I was at the hardware store for the last year.  I'm not really a procrastinator by nature, just essentially becoming more absent minded with each passing year, but it looks like procrastination on the surface.  I also deployed the solar spot light for our flag, and deployed our Sea-B-Que grill, and gas firepit.....

The spot light can be seen at the top of the picture inside the red circle, and the solar panel for the spot at the bottom of the picture, also circled in red

The 'lido deck' looking more complete, but we've a ways to go before we pronounce it ready for occupancy

.....one more thing is needed to complete the 'lido deck' and that is the Edison light lit dining canopy, which TLE and I will work on Tuesday....we need to level some ground, and do some raking, but I think it will look great!

We're heading into a warming trend as the week progresses, and will have three days over the weekend of 80's temps.  The contrast between daytime highs, and nighttime lows is about 35-40° here at LPG&RVR.  The highs don't come until 3, or 4 pm each day, but by 5 pm you can feel a chill in the air....it cools down rapidly at over 4,000' elevation....even in the summer.

I have 5 more solar string lights out on the Sea-B-Que table charging up, and ready to deploy, hopefully Tuesday.....

.....around 4 pm TLE and I took our first 'out and back' walk of the season out to Jess Valley Road and back, which is just over 2 miles.  As we walked, talked, and enjoyed the amazing view we both commented how it seemed like just a few weeks ago we had done this very walk, and yet it has been over 6 months.....

....we managed to average about 3.3 mph, and covered 2.04 miles in just over 37 minutes....not too bad for our first walk in a few weeks.  By the time we returned to home base it was almost 5 pm.....time for adult beverages, and thus another LPG&RVR days comes to and end.  We've now been back for about 12 days, but it feels like we never left.....life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

Deferred tasks.....

 7:10 am - Monday - April 24th - LPG&RVR - 37° F, humidity 65%, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest.......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I were in North Platte, NB have a late lunch at Bailey's American Cuisine...we were overnighting in the Walmart parking lot across the street....very handy.  Unfortunately, they were a victim of the Wuhan flu, and are no longer open for business.......↴

Since we arrived on the 13th I have deferred a lot of things around our encampment until our first 4 day weekend, so by Sunday there was a lot of pent up demand for creating a more permanent situation.  Some of the tasks deferred were, in no particular order, connecting to the city water (we've been using our fresh water tank, and house water pump since we arrived), finishing the positioning of the trailer (awaiting the arrival of our new Trailer Valet XL, which arrived a few days ago), and deploying more yard lights. To be sure, there are numerous other tasks, but I will get to them in a future post.

First up was to connect the new Trailer Valet XL to the tongue of the trailer and continue to rotate the trailer (from right to left facing the trailer from the front) until the back was parallel to the road....

Website photo

.....it took a while, but TLE and I got the trailer rotated to where we wanted it, and the Trailer Valet XL worked like a charm!  It's 10,000 lb capacity made things much easier.  One of the benefits of the XL is that it is NOT permanently attached to the trailer like the old one was, so it can, and will be kept out of the weather, thereby extending its useful lifespan.

Once that was done it was time for a lunch break, and then I spent time leveling the trailer from side to side by jacking up the driver side, and putting a couple of boards under the tires to raise that side about 2", and it worked.  Once that was done I reinstalled the four piers under each corner of the trailer to make it stable, and then reinstalled the tire covers.....

.....next I utilized two snow marker poles to wrap some of my solar rope lights around.....

......however, I neglected to take pictures last night.  Lastly I deployed the long string of white rope lights around the driver side of the Newell, and completely around the trailer, but once again failed to memorialize them last night.  Trust me, they look as good as always, and they keep the mice from getting into our coach.  Haven't found a mouse inside our coach since late 2019 because of those lights.

Lastly, I finally connected the coach to the city water supply as it appears we are finally past the sub freezing temps here at LPG&RVR.  The water pressure here (over 70 psi) is wonderful compared to the water pressure at GNHS (40 psi on a good day).  Good water pressure makes for nice, long, hot showers.  When the water pressure is too low the our Girard tankless water heater does not perform well.  By the time I finished with that final task (at least the final tasks for Sunday....there is more to do) it was approaching 4 pm, and time to relax...enough work for one day, right?  We still need to deploy our dining canopy, the Edison lights which adorn it, and move the picnic table. It won't be long until we feel like we're home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Marshal for a day.....

 7:30 am - Sunday - April 23rd - LPG&RVR - 41° F, humidity 76%, wind 1 mph out of the northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2018 we left Oklahoma, and entered Missouri (near Joplin) on our way to Maine for the summer......↴

Saturday was our Friday, meaning we will be off work now for the next four days beginning Sunday.  It was a mighty fine day, with temps into the mid 60's, partly cloudy with virtually no wind, so as one might imagine, there were quite a few people playing golf.  I initially staged 5 Club Car electrics, then another 5 of the Yamaha gassers.  In all we sent out 11 golf carts Saturday, which meant I needed to change hats, and become a Marshal.  After 3 days of a lot of work, which included copious amounts of lawn mowing, it was nice to drive out to the area between the 5th tee and the 15th tee where you can watch 4 fairways at the same time to see how the golfers are progressing around the course.  My main purpose is to be sure there are no bottlenecks with golfers waiting to tee off because the groups in front of them are playing slower.  When this happens I encourage the slower players to let those faster players behind them 'play through'.  I also get a chance to talk with the golfers as they pass by my cart, which I enjoy....

Looking back down the 4th fairway to the tee box from my vantage point

Golfers putting on the 4th green

....around 11:30 am I headed back to the Clubhouse just in case TLE needed more carts, and she did, but as I wrote above, only one more cart was rented, so 4 of the 5 carts I deployed (3rd bunch of 5) did not get a run around the course.  

I took over the Clubhouse office duties for an hour at 12 pm to give TLE her lunch break, then took my lunch break, which, on this day, was an hour as I wanted to be sure all the carts returning were cleaned, and put away so Walt, my counterpart, would not have to deal with washing any carts first thing in the morning on the first of his four work days.

Upon my return from lunch seven of the 11 golf carts were in the 'Cart Return' area, so I set about washing them, and putting them away, then headed back to my 'Marshal' duties at 2:30 pm.  There were 5 groups still on the course, and when I arrived at my vantage point, the first of those 5 groups was coming up the 14th fairway.  I waited there until all 5 groups had completed the 14th hole,  and knowing they only had 4 holes to play, headed back to the Clubhouse around 4:15 pm.

By 5 pm all the carts had been returned, cleaned, and put away for the night, and for the first time this season I worked to 5 pm.  And, also, for the first time this season, worked in short sleeves for most of the day.  Maybe shorts and t-shirt weather is not too far away?

Thanks for stopping by!

The sister coach is up for sale.....

6:37 am - Saturday - April 22nd - LPG&RVR - 33° F, humidity 92%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were at a Rest Area (I-40) just west of Oklahoma City on our way to Maine for the summer....↴

Before I get in to Friday's goings on I need to let you know that good friend Steve Ward is selling his 1982 Newell Classic (38', no tag, Detroit Diesel 6v92 TA with 5 speed Allison transmission).  I've been meaning to make note of that for a few weeks now, but keep forgetting.  If you have followed me for any time you know that Steve Ward owns the sister coach to our 1982 Newell Classic.  Our Newells are one serial number apart, and were both delivered to their first owners (both with the last name of 'Law') in March of 1982.  It is in excellent condition, with no deferred maintenance.  If you are interested email me (chockwald@gmail.com).  He will make you a good deal....

....yup, it does look a lot like mine!

Friday was a mixed bag of things to do, but it was warmer (mid 50's) than earlier in the week.  I staged three of the Club Car electrics, then made a trip around the golf course to rake sand traps, scoop duck/goose poop off the #3 tee boxes, and look for any flags which had blown over during the night.  I found just one flag, the one on #17, which was down.  Sometimes the wind funnels through certain parts of the course at a high velocity, and will knock the flags down.

The restroom between tee #5 and 15

I spent time connecting the hoses for the tree irrigation along employee row to make sure everything is still working (it is a drip system, which we turn on once a week).  Next I turned to tunning up the bicycles we keep on hand for customers to borrow.  There are about a dozen, and I was able to get through 7, or 8 before it was time to give TLE her lunch break at 12 pm.

After my lunch break I headed out to get as much mowing done before 4 pm as possible, and was able to get most of the balance done with the exception of the RV sites along the meadow, which I'll try to get to Saturday.

I was off by 4 pm, and back to pickup TLE (The Lovely Elaine) by 5 pm.  We were treated to a very long sunset.  The pictures below were taken at 7:30 pm, and 8 pm respectively...sunset begins around 7:30 pm now.

And thus we come to the end of another LPG&RVR day.  The park was about 25% full as of Friday afternoon, and we are expecting more folks on Saturday as the weather will be spectacular!

Thanks for stopping by!

That was a busy one....

 6:32 am - Friday - April 21st - LPG&RVR - 44° F, humidity 70%, wind 3 mph out of the west.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 57° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were at Noccalula Falls, near Gadsden, AL.....↴

As we approached our golf cart Thursday morning we saw frost covering everything, including the golfcart seats.  Fortunately, we cover the seat with a vinyl cover every night after work so we don't have to deal with wiping frost, snow, dew, or rain off the seat before we head to work.  Unlike Wednesday, though, the forecast high was to be in the mid 50's so it appeared work would be done this day.

All of the work left over from Wednesday would be done, for sure, on Thursday.  There were no names on the tee time sheet, so I decided not to stage any golf carts until the putting green in front of the Clubhouse was clear of frost, and that would not be for at least an hour, or around 9 am.  My first task of the day was to head out to tee #3 to throw 8 packets of blue dye into the ponds flanking the tee boxes.  Turning the water blue impedes the growth of plant life in the ponds for a few months.  Once that task was completed, I cleared more duck/goose poo from the four tee boxes....it wasn't as bad as Saturday, but it was still bad.

I had only been able to rake one of the four course sand traps (#18) on Saturday, so I headed next to the 12th green to rake that one, then to #4, and #15. I always take time at #15 to take in the amazing 360° view from this high point on the course.....

....by the time I returned to the Clubhouse TLE needed a couple of golf carts staged for later in the morning so I did so, then went about pulling all of the Club Car Electrics, and all of the Yamaha gassers out so I could rearrange them in numerical order.  TLE likes them staged in ascending numerical order (1,2,3,4, etc.) so I oblige her.

One of the tasks I was assigned to do on Wednesday, which got postponed, was to repair a broker sprinkler head at site #33 (a water and electric only site).  You never really know what is needed to fix the sprinkler until you dig it up.  Once I had removed the turf from around the broken sprinkler it became obvious it was a rather simple fix, and within a few minutes I had completed the repair.  It was almost 12 pm when I finished, so I headed directly to the Clubhouse office to give TLE her hour lunch break.  It was a rather uneventful hour with only one RV arrival.

After taking my 30 minute lunch....I prefer a 30 minute break as I can be off  by 4 pm (we start work at 7:30 am).....I headed over to the 'Caddy Shack' to pickup the Husqvarna riding lawnmower to mow as much grass as possible before 4 pm.  I managed to mow the grass around both pavilions, the grass which separates the two parking lots, another large patch of grass over near employee row, then all but one of the pull through sites before it was time to put everything away.  That was a busy day!

One of the two Club Car electrics had been returned, and the Husqvarna needed washing, so I cleaned them (refueled the Husqvarna), and put them away.  I was home in a couple of minutes, and by 4:15 pm had taken a shower, and was relaxing in my recliner while I waited for the fresh water tank to be refilled.  We've been operating off the fresh water tank since we arrived as our heated hose is not long enough to reach the hose bibb.  The tank was down to 40 gallons from the 150 I put in Sunday.  Fortunately, we have much better water pressure here than at GNHS, and it only takes 20 minutes to add 11o gallons of water to top off the tank.  As soon as we are through the sub freezing portion of April I'll connect the regular water hose, and things will be back to normal.  I think this is the most we have run our fresh water pump in years.

I picked up TLE at 5 pm, and gave her a ride home, but not before putting away the second Club Car electric which had been returned between 4, and 5.  The electrics need to be plugged in at the end of each day of use.  Oh, by the way, our new Trailer Valet XL arrived via FedEx (right on schedule), so I'll be using it to move the trailer to its final position on Sunday, probably, when we begin our 4 day 'weekend'.  It is much more substantial than the original one I bought back in 2015.  Since it will not be permanently mounted like the original, it should last longer not being exposed to the elements 24/7.  I'll have TLE take video of the new one when we use it for the first time on Sunday.

Thanks for stropping by!

It will be there tomorrow.....

 6:26 am - Thursday - April 20th - LPG&RVR - 25° F, humidity 78%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F....warming back up!  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were at Hyattsville, MD having dinner at Franklins Restaurant, Brewery and General Store......↴

It was so cold Wednesday....how cold was it you say?  Well, cold enough that my hands kept getting numb, even whilst wearing gloves.  It wasn't windy, just this penetrating, cold, damp air surrounding LPG&RVR.  I delivered TLE to the Clubhouse office at 8 am, then sat drinking coffee with Dennis, John, Jose, and DeWayne.  That's what the outside guys do until it is either warm enough go back outside, or  the decision is made to call it a day.  The day was called around 9 am as it was snowing again....not hard, or for long, but just as a reminder that Winter still has her long, bony fingers clutching at the land.  She's not willing to let go just yet.  At any rate, we all just went home....no work to be done today.  As Dennis says, "the work will still be there tomorrow", and, indeed it will.

For a change TLE got in a full 8 hours of work, and I just a couple.  There were things I wished to accomplish outside, but there is really no point in confronting Mother Nature head on....she always wins in the end.  Fortunately, the temps will jump back into the mid 50's Thursday, and by Saturday, and Sunday we'll be back into the high 60's....much more civilized weather, and much more conducive to outdoor work.

I ventured out to the Clubhouse office around 12 pm give TLE her lunch break, and was back home by 1 pm.  I spent time catching up on some of my YouTube subscriptions, and took at least one nap, maybe two, before 5 pm rolled around, and it was time to head out into the cold once again to retrieve TLE from the Clubhouse office.

TLE prepared Spinach Scrambled eggs for dinner, and then we watched the final two episodes of The Mandalorian, Season 3.....we had watched the first 6 episodes Tuesday evening, and might have finished Season 3 in one sitting, but TLE couldn't keep her eyes open, so we went to bed early.

Life in Likely, CA is cold, but good!  Thanks for stopping by!

Gone with the sun.....

 6:18 am - Wednesday - April 19th - LPG&RVR - 27° F, humidity 80%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southwest.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 42° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Petaluma, CA having a late lunch at the Pub Republic Petaluma...↴

Of course, you know what the story for Tuesday was.  If you have somehow forgotten, I'll post one picture of that to which we awoke.....

....whenever one gets too far north to early in the Spring one can expect some of that cold, white stuff which gently floats down from the sky well into May in some cases.  We had Jello plans to drive into Alturas for the first time this year, but with 4" of snow on the LPG&RVR grounds, and temps in the mid 20's for most of the day, that seemed like a bad idea.  So, TLE and I took our first 'snow day' of 2023.  If this Spring is anything like the Spring of 2022 we should see more of this stuff in the next few weeks.

By 2:30 pm the white stuff had vanished.....

.....how that snow melted so quickly when it didn't get over 32° F until after 2 pm is a mystery to me, but it did, and suddenly order was restored to our world.  I'm sure the appearance of Mr. Sun had something to do with that......

.....TLE and I remained in doors pretty much all day.  I ventured out to the trailer for about 5 minutes, but that was the extent of my outdoor experience on Tuesday.  We 'rocked' all four of our electric heaters continuously, all the day long.  I think they turned themselves off around 4 pm, but by 5:30 pm they were all running once again as the high temp of 36° F came and went.

There are only two RVs in the park as I write....the others mostly were wisely gone by late Monday afternoon knowing full well it was going to snow Tuesday.  Today, Wednesday, begins the first of 4 days of work for TLE and I.  We do not expect many golfers today, but we shall see.

Thanks for stopping by for this ever so brief update!

Let it ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️!!

 6:44 am - Tuesday - April 18th - LPG&RVR - 25° F, humidity 85%, wind 5 mph out of the northwest....heavy cloud cover this morning, and it snowed all night, and is snowing right now as I write......↴

....on this date in  2013 TLE and I were walking around the National Mall in Washington D.C......↴

Smithsonian Castle

Grant's Tomb

Jefferson Memorial

If you believe the weather guessers Monday was to be the last Spring like day for 4, or 5 days, and at least it was as guessed.  Tuesday, on the other hand, if the guessers are correct, promises to be cold and snowy, and by cold I mean sub 30° F cold.  I entertained myself Monday in the trailer most of the morning pulling our three bicycles out of their travel positions, setting them up for use, then setting up my exercise bench, Black & Decker Workmate, bench grinder, various socket wrenches, and their assorted sockets, of which there are many, etc. By 12 pm I was about 99% finished with the trailer interior....all that remains is to deploy my bike stand, and tune up the bikes.....

.....around 1 pm TLE and I drove our golf cart over to the Clubhouse for our first lunch of 2023 at The Café.  The special of the day was a Chili Cheese Burger with fries, and that was my choice.  TLE had their Ortega Chili Roast Beef on ciabatta bread.  We both had coffee as our beverage, as it was getting cold outside as the snow bearing front bore down upon our little valley. Café Cathy is a wonderful chef, and LPG&RVR is blessed to have her return year after year.

By the time we returned the frigid winds out of the southwest had picked up significantly forcing us inside for the balance of the day.  As the afternoon progressed the snow bearing clouds began to build, and by 8 pm it began to snow, and it snowed all night long.  Last Spring it snowed 8 times between April 12th and Memorial Day, but with just one exception, the snow was gone by noon each day.  What will the Spring of 2023 bring?  Stay tuned, of course!

Thanks for stopping by!