Alarming......

 7:49 am - Monday - February 6th - GNHS - 55° F, humidity 53%, wind 8 mph out of the northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny, windy skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were in Fruitland, FL watching the sun rise over Lake Griffin.....↴

We've had a string of delightfully pleasant days recently with a lot of blue sky, and temps in the low 70's.  The park has not been very full, which keeps it very quiet at night.  Whenever we head into the city for an overnight, like we have done 3 times in Poway, the ambient noise levels we encounter are startling to the senses.  The more time we spend in rural places like GNHS and LPG&RVR where one hears the proverbial pins dropping the harder it is to spend time in the urban areas.  I find myself getting a tad resentful whenever I must trade this blissful solitude for urban congestion if even for a night.  Even as I write the only sound I hear is the wind rustling the tree at the back of our site....that's it.

The other thing I love is being able to awake with the rise of the sun most days.  There are the odd days when we must get up around 6 am to open the COA office for an all day rental, but most days we don't get up until the sun crests the mountains to the east.  We kind of lie there slowly waking to the new day, finally getting out of bed between 7 and 7:15 am.  I used an alarm clock all through college to be sure I was up by 6 am each day, and I HATED being startled into consciousness with that inevitable adrenaline surge you get.  When I graduated from college I threw away my alarm clock, and learned to wake up at whatever time I needed to be awake, and have not used one since then (June of 1971).

Sunday was completely dead UTV rental wise, except for the occasional groups of folks who came over to check out our rental rates for their next visit.  TLE was on the job at 8 am, just in case we had some early risers again, and worked until 11 am, while I began my day at 9 am,  finishing at 12 pm when we closed the office.  I washed the #5 RZR, which had been in the rollover accident (it actually does not look too bad...well, it passes the 10' test, anyway), and changed a tire on another RZR, which was the extent of my labors for the day.  

Whilst we were toiling our DVR was recording the British Premier Soccer match between Tottenham and Manchester City.  So far this season 5th place Tottenham has not been able to beat a top 4 team, but on this day they kept a clean sheet, and prevailed 1-0 over 2nd place Manchester City, and are now only one point out of 4th place.  At any rate, I set up the outdoor TV and watched the entire 90 minute match from one of the anti gravity recliners on the 'lido deck'.  The balance of the afternoon was spent relaxing.

With the warmer temperatures we're getting, plus the sun getting higher in the sky with each passing day we are thinking we are going to have to redeploy our three 'sail' awnings soon to provide more shade for the 'lido deck'.  Of course, as the sun moves higher in the sky we are fast approaching our departure day which is around 7 weeks away now.  The time here at GNHS has passed by so quickly, just as it did at LPG&RVR last summer.  For the first time in our nomadic travels we have found a couple of places we do not look forward to leaving.  The only other place we have found like that was when we spent 5 weeks in Cedar Key, FL back in 2012-13.  We could have stayed there all winter.

We spent about an hour on the 'lido deck' after dinner playing 5 games of Backgammon.  TLE won the night taking 3 out of 5 games.  There were two blowouts, and three close games which came right down to the wire.  The roll of the dice at critical times favored TLE on this night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Roll Over Beethoven.......

6:43 am - Sunday - February 5th - GNHS - 45° F, humidity 57%, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were having lunch in Mt. Dora, FL at the Frog & Monkey Restaurant & Pub......↴

We weren't planning to open the COA office until 9 am Saturday as we had no advance bookings, however,  a couple of people showed up at the office at precisely 8 am wanting to rent a RZR for an all day excursion, so TLE rallied herself, got dressed, and went to open the office.  While she readied the necessary paperwork I got dressed, and staged our #5 RZR.  These folks had rented from us back around Christmas time, so they are officially our first repeat customers.    They were on their way by 8:30 am, and we retired back to the Newell to finish drinking our coffee.  Since they were an all day customer we thought we would be on duty all day, but you just never know what is going to happen......

Roll Over Beethoven.....Chuck Berry

....you might have a good guess what happened, based on the YouTube video I have chosen to give you a preview....lol.  A little after 10:30 am they returned.....the wife was driving when she went into a corner too fast, popped the right rear tire off the bead, and rolled good old #5.  She, the RZR, had been our good luck charm this season, and had only had a broken drive belt back on Christmas weekend, but had otherwise always come home unbroken.  The wife claimed she was driving in a straight line at just 10 mph when the right rear tire came off the rim, and caused them to roll onto the right side of the RZR.  Of course, this is not even remotely possible, but you know how people are....sometimes they just cannot accept the consequences of their own actions, and want to blame their misfortune on outside forces.  Ultimately, she admitted she was in the middle of  'driving AROUND a berm' when it happened, and I'm pretty sure she was not going 10 mph. The husband claimed the tire must have been defective, and came off the rim, but we were immediately able to re-inflate it, and pop it back onto the bead with no leaking.  As I always do before a rental leaves, I checked all 5 tires to be sure they were at 15 psi, and they were.  Kyle then took it out for a 20 minute test drive at pretty high speeds, doing donuts, and fishtailing (he is a good side by side driver!), and the tire performed as it should....

Scuffed up rim

Both mud flaps are scuffed, and the roll bars are scrapped down to the bare metal

....the damage is strictly cosmetic, and not that bad at that.  There is nothing mechanically wrong with it, so I don't think it will cost that much to repair.  So, as you can see, our day was shortened dramatically.  We are now up to three rollovers, one broken left front axle, 5 broken drive belts, and three rescues since the beginning of November.

Because I thought we would be on duty all day I decided to finish painting the roofline trim on the office, and was in the middle of that when our customers returned without smiles upon their faces....

.....I've written often about our telescoping ladder, but I do not think I've shown a picture of it for some time, so I took a picture off the office with and without the ladder in the picture.  The telescoping ladder can be lengthened up to 12', and stows down to about 2" high....in this picture it is extended to about 8'.......

Before

Finished

......now that the front trim is completely finished the office really looks nice now...at least I think it does....what say you?

You've seen pictures of our 2022 Polaris RZRs in my blog over the past few months.  Our RZRs are 'base models', with a couple of upgrades....door skins, and a roof.  Their cost new is around $25,000.  Here is a picture of a 2022 Polaris RZR with all the bells and whistles, including a 4 cylinder engine, which can be yours for the tidy sum of just $50,000.....

......this RZR looks virtually brand new.

As you know, TLE's older Ekhornes recliner has been retired, but not forgotten.  She chose to place it out front on the porch of the Roadrunner building to the right of our office, so she can relax there when we are on duty, and her services are not required within the office.  It is completely in the shade, and sheltered from the rain and/or dew.  We'll probably leave it here, inside the office, whilst we are up north this summer, so she can use it again next year....

.....TLE made BLT's for dinner with a side of fried potatoes which we ate on the 'lido deck', then we played 6 games of Yahtzee of which 4 found me victorious in this fun game of chance.  We retired inside the Newell for the evening watching two Hallmark movies before calling it a day.  Another day well lived!

Thank for stopping by!

 

To recline, or not recline, that is the question......

7:46 am - Saturday - February 4th - GNHS - 45° F, humidity 56%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 73° F!  The 11 day forecast shows temps in the 70's for the entire time.....

....on this date in 2011 TLE and I were at Rincon Parkway with my brother (Philip) and his wife (Jeannie)....dueling awning lights.....lol.....

We awoke Friday to leaden skies, and, frankly, it looked like it was about to rain, but the rain never materialized, and eventually, by noon time, the sun had made its presence known.  We were about to close the office for the day at 11 am when we received a call from Casey (one of our bosses) that he had just booked a KRX for a 4 hour tour beginning at 12 pm, and that they should be arriving in the park within a few minutes, which they did.

All that being said, we had made plans to drive into La Quinta at 11 am to pick up a new to us Ekhornes Stressless recliner.  It is the same brand as the one TLE currently has, but much newer, and in way better shape.  We found it on Facebook Marketplace, and decided to upgrade her seating arrangement just as I had my own.  At any rate, the unexpected booking took us by surprise, and we had to quickly adjust our plans, and let the seller of the Ekhornes recliner know we would not be there until after 5:30 pm.

We rented out KRX #8, which had been sidelined for almost a month after an aforementioned roll over accident.  It took over 3 weeks to get all of the replacement parts, and Kyle was finally able to install them while we were down in Poway for my surgery.  The guys who rented it were on their way by 12:30 pm, and TLE and I settled in to await their return.

Since we were not sure the new recliner would fit in the hatch of the Beetle we opted to drive the COA Chevrolet passenger van to pick it up.  I also needed to retrieve two prescription renewals at COSTCO, which had been sitting there for over a week awaiting my arrival.

Our rental customers returned just after 4:20 pm without incident (thank goodness), and we were in the van a few minutes later cruising south on Highway 111 to La Quinta.  We arrived at Gary's home just after 5:30 pm, inspected the Ekhornes, then TLE sat it in for a few minutes, and then we closed the deal for $500.  I know that's a lot for a used recliner, but Ekhornes cost over $2,200 new.  This one had been lightly used, and was just a few years old.  It's color is charcoal gray, and it goes well with my new burgundy recliner.....

......this picture does not do it justice, but it is dark charcoal gray, and TLE loves it!

After loading the chair into the van we headed over to COSTCO to retrieve my medications, one of which was not ready, as I had been advised, so we had to kill 30 minutes awaiting the tardy prescription.  What to do?  Well, COSTCO does sell those amazing $1.50 hot dogs with a drink, right? Well, that is what we did.  I got a text within 20 minutes that my second prescription was ready, we picked it up, and were on our way home by 7 pm, arriving home without incident by 8:20 pm.....there was a broken down semi on 111, that caused a 25 minute delay.  Oh well, what have we got to do?

We had the old Ekhornes out of the Newell, and the new one installed within minutes, and settled in to wind down after a hectic afternoon.  By the way, the new Ekhornes looks even better than the Facebook Marketplace pictures, and TLE is quite happy.

I had to step away from my laptop for about 30 minutes at 8 am this morning (Saturday) as we had a customer knocking on the office door.  We ended up renting a RZR for all all day excursion, and to top it off these folks are repeat customers.....our first this winter!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Margin call.....

 7:49 am - Friday - February 3rd - GNHS - 46° F, humidity 56%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest......heavily overcast today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2022 I was finishing my fourth day under the Newell installing my 8 new airbags, and 4 new shocks.....here you see a picture of reconnected airlines to the right front airbags......↴

We opened the office Thursday, then, with TLE helping, drove 2 RZRs and 1 KRX down to the fuel station to top off their tanks, and that was pretty much the extent of our work on Thursday.  We did have a walkup around 12:45 pm wanting to rent 2 RZRs and 1 KRX for 4 hours, but was really to late in the day.  By the time we would have completed the paperwork, and got them on their way they could have only been out 3 hours, so they decided to come back next week and start earlier in the day.  With that we closed the office, and headed back indoors.  On our drive down to the fuel station it was obvious that there was virtually no one in the park....it is as empty as I have seen it.

Later in the afternoon I received a call from Dr. Jou's office advising the pathology report indicted they had extracted all of my latest melanoma.  They test all around the edges of the removed tissue, as well as underneath it, to see if there is still any melanoma in the 'margins', and there was none, so it is just a matter of recovering from the surgery, and getting on with my life.  It's kind of funny to me to say that that report was exactly what I expected.  That's the way my life has been for 73 years, for which I am extremely grateful.

We previously recorded the entire current 1/2 season of "Yellowstone" in full, and it has been sitting there in the DVR queue for almost 2 months now.  We decided that Thursday night was the night to begin watching them.  The 8th episode, which was the mid season finale, promised to be a cliffhanger' (the last 6 episodes will air later this summer), so we decided to stop with #7 leaving the 8th episode to watch when the final 6 episodes are done.  I would rather watch it and then proceed directly to episode #9, and not have to wait 5 months to find out what happens for 5 months.  Just as all of the other seasons have been, this current season keeps us guessing all the time.  You just never know what direction the series will take from week to week.

Well, it is time for us to head out to open the COA office, so I'll close today's missive right here bidding you adieu for another day.

Thanks for stopping by!

In with the new, and out with the old......

 7:36 am - Thursday - February 2nd - GNHS - 44° F, humidity 53%, wind 3 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear,  blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On February 1st in 2016 Brayden James was born to our daughter Sharon, and son-in-law Rod......hard to believe 7 years have passed since that day.....↴

Then....

.....now

I am kind of surprised at how well my side feels after having surgery on Monday, but it feels great.  Other than a little tightness, there is really NO pain, just mild discomfort from time to time.  As of Wednesday it had been 48 hours since surgery, and it was time for TLE to remove the dressing, and replace it with a fresh one.  Of course that task fell to TLE as it would be difficult for me.  I was a little concerned with how it might look, but when she removed the dressing it was actually a smaller incision than I thought.....about 3.5".  In fact, it was about the same length as when I had the first melanoma removed back in the summer of 2019.  I forgot to mention yesterday that after removing the melanoma this time Dr. Jou cauterized the entire wound, and that really helped keep the bleeding, and oozing down compared to the first time.  At any rate, I was able to take my first shower since Sunday evening.  Once out of the shower, TLE applied a new dressing, which will now be a daily routine for the next 12 days until I have the stitches removed.

On another note, while we were down in Poway my new recliner was delivered.  I found this one on Amazon about 6 months ago, and was determined to buy it sometime this winter, so I finally pulled the trigger last week.  I was surprised at how quickly it arrived, and it looks just as good as it did in the Amazon pictures.....

The Amazon picture.....

In with the new....

....and out with the old

....after just one year of use the faux leather of the beige recliner, which was amazingly comfortable, began to peel.  By the time I ordered this new one about 1/3 of the faux leather surface had peeled off...it looked terrible, even though it was still comfortable.  I was so incredibly disappointed.  At any rate, the beige one cost around $400, but just did not stand up to daily use.  My new one cost $700, and is, once again, real leather.  It is about the same size as the old one, and I love the burgundy color.  It is about twice as heavy as the old one, and feels much more substantial, so I'm hoping this one will stand the test of time.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, I spent most of the rest of the day ensconced in the new recliner relaxing, napping, and recovering from my outpatient surgery.

 That is pretty much it for Wednesday.  Well, it is Thursday, and we need to open the office in about 40 minutes so I will bid you all adieu for the day.  See ya'll tomorrow morning!

Thanks for stopping by!

The 300.....

 7:51 am - Wednesday - February 1st - GNHS - 51° F, humidity 42%, wind 5 mph (feels more like 15-20 mph).....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2012 the first two of four solar panels were being installed......↴

Monday, January 3oth:

It goes without saying that I have been remiss in posting about Monday by late Tuesday, as originally promised.  Here it is Wednesday morning, and I am just now sitting down to catch up my blog, so here goes.  

I had a 2 pm appointment at the office of Dr. Jou in Poway, CA to have the stage zero melanoma excised, as they say in medical parlance.  In the past we have driven to Poway the day prior to my cardiology and dermatology appointments, but this one was in the afternoon, so we decided to leave GNHS around 8:30 am to make the three hour drive over the mountains, hoping to arrive in Poway around 11:30 am at which time we would have lunch at In-N-Out Burger, then refill the VW fuel tank at the local COSTCO fuel station, then buy a few things COSTCO, and TJ's before heading over to Dr. Jou's office.  Everything we need is within a 2 square block area in Poway....perfect!

Pre-surgery lunch

This was the first long trip in the Beetle since the ignition coil failure a few weeks ago, so I was a tad nervous about the 150 mile one way drive, but the car performed flawlessly going to and  from Poway, so we'll get that out of the way first.

We made one bathroom break in Borrego Springs around 10 am, and arrived at In-N-Out Burger at exactly 11:30 am.....I love it when a plan comes together.  The weather on this day was heavily overcast, and by the time we finished at COSTCO it was raining in Poway.  

We arrived at Dr. Jou's office around 1:15 pm, and I was being called into the little room by 1:45 pm.  The excision went smoothly, and I only lost about an 'acre' of skin....lol....well it seems quite large.  It took 5 internal stitches plus 14 running stitches to close the wound.  I expected, after the local anesthetic wore off, to be in pain, but all I really felt was a little tightness on my left flank.  I did take a couple of Tylenol Extra Strength tablets, and some Tylenol PM when I went to bed, but I felt just fine....I just cannot sleep on my left side for a while.

After the surgery we drove to our hotel on Poway Road, where we have stayed twice previously, checked in, then around 4:30 pm  we drove over to the local CVS to pick up a prescription, then to the local Panda Inn Express for some Chinese food....

....which we took back to our room to consume....I had a double portion of their Orange Chicken with steamed white rice, and TLE their Moo Goo Gai Pan and Tangerine Chicken with Chow Mein.  We, of course, shared our entrées.  It's been a while since we've gotten takeout at a Panda Inn Express, and I'm wondering why now.....it was soo good!

We were in bed by 10 pm, and I slept quite well, thank you!

Tuesday, January 31st:

We slept in until after 7 am, took our time packing our bags, then around 8 am drove over to the local Starbucks to get coffee, and for moi an Everything Bagel.  I needed to get food in my stomach so I could take my antibiotic pill prescribed by Dr. Jou (2 per day for 3 days), then we drove over to Walmart (just across the street) to do a big shopping before heading back to our room to pick up our bags, go to the bathroom one more time, then hit the road a little after 10 am.

The drive from Poway to Borrego Springs took just under 90 minutes. We stopped to get some ice cream and a cup of coffee at our favorite Big Horn Fudge Company, but, alas, they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays....bummer.  Instead we walked a short distance to the Frugal Coyote, one of our favorite junk shops of all time, to see if there was anything without which we could not survive.  We both found a couple of articles of clothing.....we always find something we want at this store!  While we were walking back to the car I spied this beautiful robin egg blue Indian motorcycle in the window of a local art studio.....

.....it was breathtaking, and so unexpected, so I gook a picture....the glare on the window kind of obscures how beautiful it was....truly a work of art.

We left Borrego Springs in our rearview mirror around 12 pm, and were home just before 1:30 pm.....another completely uneventful two way, 300 mile drive over the mountains and back.  When we arrived it was quite windy, and that wind continues as I write.  The Santa Anas are increasing in frequency, and I expect we'll have more of them as we get further into February, then March.....just like last year.

Well, that's it in a nutshell.....thanks for stopping by!

Smooth day.....

 7:04 am - Monday - January 30th - GNHS - 45° F, humidity 75%, wind 2 mph out of the east by northeast......cloudy today with rain in the forecast, and a high of 58° F.  On this date in 2019 TLE and I were having a late lunch at Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff, AZ.....↴

Overnight we received a second 2 hour booking for Sunday....one was for 12 pm, and the other for 1 pm....an easy Sunday.  We opened the office at 9 am, and I immediately got to work washing one of the RZRs (#5) from our Saturday rentals.  I had that one washed, and detailed before 10 am, fueled it up, and then took RZR #1 out for a drive to break in the new drive belt.  On my way back to the office I stopped by Kyle's trailer to pickup the two piece replacements for the clutch housing.  In addition to the two piece clutch housing Kyle was able to pickup the rest of the parts for KRX #8, and for the clutch rebuild on RZR #2, so they will be repaired, and back on the line later this week.

In order to install the inner portion of the clutch housing the primary and secondary clutches must be removed.  I don't have the 'puller' to remove the primary clutch, and why would I (Kyle does), so Kyle came by and removed both clutches, and then I began the process of removing the damaged inside clutch housing, installed the new one, then reinstalled the primary and secondary clutches, then, finally, the outer clutch housing piece.  You may recall that I didn't initially think the inside clutch housing was damaged, but it was......

Couldn't see this damage until the primary and secondary clutches had been removed by Kyle.

....it took me over an hour in all to finish the job, and just about that time our first 2 hour rental customer arrived.  TLE had staged #10 KRX for the father and sun duo, and they were off on their adventure by 12:15 pm.  While TLE was finishing the paperwork for the first rental, the second 2 hour customer arrived......a husband, wife, and two children....our ideal customer!  They were off on their adventure in RZR #4 by 12:30 pm.

Once both customers were on their way I took the freshly repaired #1 RZR to the wash station, to get it washed and detailed.  After finishing that task I took a break to watch some of the NFC championship game between the Eagles and 49'ers.  Unfortunately the starting quarterback for the 49'ers injured the elbow on his throwing arm, and had to leave the game, and what promised to be a very closely fought game became very one sided with the Eagles winning handily, 31-7.

Both 2 hour rentals returned within 10 minutes of each other with no damage.  TLE and I drove both of them down to the fuel station, fueled them, and then I took RZR #4 to the wash station to clean some mud off the exterior.  Neither machine was very dusty on the interior, so I was able to use compressed air on KRX #10 to clean it, and only had to do some minor cleaning on RZR #4.  By the time I finished putting both of them away it was 3 pm, and we were done for the day.

The AFC championship game between the Bengals and Chiefs was the close game for which we had hoped, and was won by the Chiefs on a last second field goal 23-20, so now we know who will be in the Super Bowl in 2 weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - We will be driving to Poway today (Monday) for the excision of the melanoma on my chest this afternoon, so I will not post about Monday's activities until late Tuesday when we return. Thank you for your patience.

It was foreseeable......

 7:36 am - Sunday - January 29th - GNHS - 43° F, humidity 76%, wind 5 mph out of the south by southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2017 we arrived at Crossroads Campground on the California side of the Colorado River on the Parker Strip......↴

We began Saturday with one booking, and then had a walkup....4 young guys aged 21-22.....not a good formula for success.  We were advised only one of the 4 young guys would be driving, and took the required $3,000 deposit, plus the rental fee.  They left around 10 am for a 4 hour tour.  Just after 11 am we got a call from them.....I knew it was coming.....the RZR was making funny sounds back in the clutch housing area.  We told them to sit tight, and I would come out to see what the problem was.....I suspected it was a broken, or damaged drive belt.

It took me about 25 minutes in the Kawasaki Mule to reach them, and about 5 minutes to remove the outer half of the clutch housing.  I immediately confirmed that the belt was about to break, so I reinstalled the clutch housing and prepared to tow them back to the office....about 12 miles.....without a tow I could be there in 25 minutes, but with a tow it took almost an hour.  By the time I returned it was almost 1 pm. When we tow these UTVs we put them in neutral.  I had instructed the driver to do so, and he said he did....I should have checked, because about 1 mile into the tow the belt exploded damaging the outer clutch housing....that is on me.....I think he put it in 'LOW', which is right next to neutral.....I should have checked to confirm it was, indeed, in neutral......

.....we always explain to everyone that when they leave the office in the rental they become responsible for ALL damage to the UTV, including a damaged drive belt, or flat tire.  Tire and belt insurance is available for $110, but more often than not it is declined by the customer, as it was in this case. They always say they understand, but when the drive belt breaks, or they get a flat tire, they blame it on poor maintenance, or bad tires.  The only way these belts break shy of 3, or 4 years of use is if they are abused....period.  The only way you get a flat tire is if you leave the trail and drive through brush, and rocks....period.  The drive belt on this RZR was inspected less than a week ago, and found to be in excellent condition, and Saturday was the first time it has been rented since the inspection.  When we returned to the office we advised them we would be retaining $300 of their $3,000 deposit to cover the new belt and installation thereof.  As expected they began to contest that saying the belt must have been bad....blah, blah, blah.  We did reduce their rental charge down to a 2 hour charge, instead of the 4 hour charge.  Needless to say, they left unhappy....just like I told them they would if they broke a belt, or had an accident.  For me, this outcome was foreseeable.  I just knew they were going to hammer it a few times off the line, and there is no doubt in my mind they did just that. I was 22 once, and I know I would have done just that.

Once they were gone TLE and I pushed the #1 RZR onto the concrete slab in front of our office so I could remove the clutch housing, and what remained of the ruined belt......

Before installation of the new belt

....up until Saturday I had been unsuccessful in installing a new drive belt, and had to have Kyle's help to get it finished in each case.  This is why I did not attempt to change the bad belt in the field, but  I was determined to figure out what I was doing wrong.  Using my new drive belt installation tool for the first time (I wrote about the tool previously) I successfully, for the first time ever, installed the new belt all by myself!.....

Success!!!

.....our other rental was a 5 hour RZR rental beginning at 11 am.....three retired, mature adults (two men, and a lady) who spend part of the winter here at GNHS each year.  They listened attentively to my instructions, thanked me for being helpful, and left on their 5 hour tour.  As we both expected, they returned 5 hours later without event....no accidents, no broken belt, no flat tires, and all were smiling.

Fortunately, Kyle, our mechanic, happened to be down in El Centro when I called him about the broken belt news, so he stopped by COYNE and bought some new belts to replenish our stock, plus a new clutch housing (outer half), so I'll be able to install that on Sunday, and RZR #1 will be back in service.  By the time TLE took care of her end of day paperwork, and I put away the RZRs it was 5 pm, and time to call it a day.

After a quick shower I headed out to the 'lido deck' to light the Sea-B-Que in 0rder grill a couple of sirloin tips for dinner. While I was busy with that task TLE prepared smashed potatoes, and a side salad of avocados, and tomatoes with some lime juice, and salt. To chase the food we enjoyed a bottle of Catana Malbec....

.....I pulled the sirloins off the grill when they hit 125° F, and was rewarded with a perfect medium rare.....4 minutes per side....

....we sat talking about the day, and lingered over our food for about an hour.  After dinner I got a fire going in the portable fire pit, while TLE cleaned up the galley, and then we enjoyed the early evening balmy breezes until almost 7 pm before we headed back inside the night....

.....so, for the first time in a month I had to go out on a rescue.  Now that I can install a new belt on my own, I can now do that in the field, not have to take Kyle with me to change the belt, and will not have to tow the side by side back to the office.

Thanks for stopping by!

Something's happening here......

7:23 am - Saturday - January 28th - GNHS - 40° F, humidity 50%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southwest......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were having dinner at Prison Hill Brewing Company in Yuma, AZ......↴

There were still very few RVs in the park Friday morning, and we had no illusions we would have any walkups, and when we closed the office at 1 pm there were, indeed, no walkups.  I busied myself taking care of things around our site.  I even setup my golf driving net again, and hit a couple dozen balls. This time I used whiffle golf balls so if I mishit a ball it won't fly a couple hundred yards into the cabins and RV sites just to the south of us.  The last time I used the net I mishit two balls, found one, and lost one completely.  I heard them both hit the ground, but could not tell where the second one landed.

Buffalo Springfield....

I haven't mentioned this before, but we're having trouble with another of our four Thetford waste dump valves, which means it is leaking.  You may recall that back in March of 2020 I had to rebuild the two Thetford valves on the driver side of the Newell (I wrote about that here), which were 38 years old.  Due to the way we chose to park the Newell in our current site it is easier to dump the black tank from the passenger side as it is much closer to the sewer connection, so that is what we have been doing. Logically, I guess it would follow that since the passenger side valves are now 41 years old that repeated use of them would result in eventual failure of the hard, brittle 41 year old rubber gaskets, and that is what has happened.  Fortunately, I was able to get it to stop leaking, and have reverted to using the Thetford black tank valve on the driver side, which meant using three 10 foot sections (instead of two) of sewer hose to reach the sewer line.  At any rate, I ordered a rebuild kit for the one Thetford black tank valve on the passenger side, and it arrived Friday, so I will be tackling that job soon.  If you remember, removing the 9 stainless steel screws on each valve was quite difficult, and took about 2 hours per valve, so I am not looking forward to this task, to say the least.  Luckily, I only have to rebuild one at a time on the passenger side, as the two valves do not dump into the same pipe like they do on the driver side.....

Passenger side setup....each dump valve has its own 3" pipe

Driver side setup...both dump valves empty into one 3" pipe

.....I also received a package from an eBay seller with the two additional VW Beetle ignition coils so I can replace the ones for cylinders 3 and 4.  Unfortunately, whoever picked the coils, sent one that was not correct.....

The one on the left is the correct one

.....the one on the left is correct, the one on the right is wrong, obviously....why wasn't it obvious to them?  I contacted the seller, and they will send me the correct one at no charge, and I don't have to return the incorrect one, so I've got that going for me.  Anyway, at least I have one in case one of the two remaining older coils fails before I get the second one.

We headed back out to the 'lido deck' Friday night to play Backgammon....

....an adult beverage at hand, a good cigar lit, TLE, and Backgammon....for what else can one nomad wish?

Thanks for stopping by!

A milestone is coming.....

7:28 am - Bacon Friday - January 27th - GNHS - 45° F, humidity 50%, wind 4 mph out of the north....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2012 we were watching one of our last sunrises at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park near Riverside, CA before we began our fulltime travels on 2/1/2012......↴

You just never know from where your next walkup rental will come, and Thursday we had a new one.  A single guy from Alberta was traveling north through Niland and stopped to eat lunch at Buckshot Deli and Diner (we've eaten there before).  As he was paying his check a local with whom he was talking told him about our UTV rental operation, so he decided to drop by and rent one for 2 hours. It was about 11:30 when he arrived, and we had him out in one of the KRXs by 12 pm.  Our office is open Thursday through Sunday from 9 am to at least 1 pm  whether we have a booking, or not, so it is always nice when we do get a rental to cover COA's costs of staffing the office.

Before he arrived I had spent about 90 minutes washing 2 KRX's, and 1 RZR left over from a few days ago.  The #9 KRX I washed had barely dried when we rented it out once again.  The gentleman returned just shy of 2 pm, right on time, with no incidents, and a big smile upon his face.  We were smiling, too, because it was another day without a rescue, crash, or breakdown....it has been almost 1 month since our last rescue, and about 3 weeks since our last accident.

Speaking of accidents, we are still awaiting the arrival of all of the replacement parts for the KRX (#8) which was rolled over 3 weeks ago.  The guy who rolled it should feel lucky we only charged him for 3 days loss of use, and that we have not been that busy, so we've been able to live without #8's services.  Additionally, we have not received all of the parts needed to rebuild the primary clutch on RZR #2, so it has been out of service as long as the #8 KRX.

The latest Santa Ana wind event ended around 3 pm, just as forecast.  Typically a Santa Ana will last 1-3 days, but most of the ones we've had the last 6 weeks have lasted less than 24 hours, which is nice.  As I write there is not a single breath of wind, and the temp is rising quickly toward the forecast high of 66° F.

There will be fewer than 20 RV arrivals this weekend, so we do not expect to be too busy with just one booking on Saturday, and one on Sunday, but who knows from where the next walkup customer will come?

In just a few days, on February 1st, TLE and I will have been living fulltime in our 1982 Newell Classic for 12 years, and we will begin our 11th year of nomadic meanderings.  In some respects it seems like a lifetime ago that we took the first tentative steps in our never ending journey, but in another way it feels like we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible.  Where will the next decade find us?  We have no idea, but we will continue to live as nomads one day at a time, living in the present, not dwelling on the past, and expecting serendipity to be woven into every twist and turn of our journey for as long as it lasts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Behind the '8 ball'......update

 8:26 am - Thursday - January 26th - GNHS - 55° F, 27% humidity, wind 21 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today courtesy another Santa Ana wind event.....forecast high for today is 66° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were riding on the Grand Canyon Rail Road from Williams, AZ into Grand Canyon NP with our daughter Meredith....↴

I'm running a little behind the '8 ball' today, so I will not be posting today's blog installment until later today.  Have to go and open the COA office with TLE, then wash three UTVs, then fuel them.  Thank you for your patience!

6:57 pm - Thursday - January 26th - GNHS - 

Okay, finally back at my Lenovo laptop finishing my post about Wednesday. We had no walkup business Wednesday, and no bookings, so we just took at easy.  I still had 2 KRXs and 1 RZR to wash, but I wasn't into it, and since we still had no bookings for Thursday, as of noon, I decided to wait until Thursday, when I would be working anyway.  On days when we have no advance bookings we don't open the office until 9 am, or if there are walkups earlier than 9 am, we open then.  I knew I would have time first thing Thursday to get them done.

As it turned out there was no walkup business Wednesday, because there really is no one in the park right now.  We do have advance bookings now for Saturday and Sunday, so we'll be busy over the weekend for sure.

TLE and I convened to the 'lido deck' around 6 pm to play 'Phase 10'.  The cards ran TLE's way this night, and there was really nothing I could do strategically to stop her.  I had my chances, but the cards just did not favor me in those critical moments.  I like games of chance like this as luck, in the case of 'Phase 10', accounts for about 80-85% of your success, or failure.  If you lose it is nothing personal, like you're a bad player.  As TLE pulled ahead I could see plainly there was nothing more I could have done strategically to have changed the outcome.  The whole point of playing these games of chance is to spend time together interacting, and being silly, and we have become quite expert at doing that...lol.

We watched a Netflix movie called 'Triple Frontier', starring Ben Affleck, and Oscar Isaac, which was actually interesting, but not a movie I would have paid $16 at a movie theater to see.

We continue to love, and enjoy our jobs.  In 12 years of workamping this is the easiest , and most satisfying job we have had, and we get paid nicely at $15/hour.  Our bosses are extremely happy with our performance, and pretty much leave us to our own devices, so it is the best of both worlds.....we work for someone else, but we are actually our own bosses....pretty cool.  They do call us at least once a week to see how we're doing, and and if we need anything. We average around 25 hours per week, and probably net (combined) around $1,600 every other Wednesday.....certainly better than a "poke in the eye with a sharp stick".

Well, that's it for Wednesday.  Thank you for your patience....by the way we had a walkup today (Thursday), so I got to wash one KRX twice....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!