The Interlude, day 2

 6:30 am - Wednesday - June 22nd - Cedarville, CA - 46° F, humidity 52%, wind 2 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were at Manito Tap House in Spokane, WA sampling some of their brews....."a Steelhead Stout for me" she said.....↴

It gets light here even earlier than in Likely, and we were up a little after 6 am as a result....even with the curtains closed it was too bright in our room to sleep in any further.  Of course, when you have your own hot springs hot tub you take you coffee in the tub, right? How do you like that ''farmers" tan?......

....so that is how our day began, and ended. There was more reading, napping and soaking throughout the day, and a bike ride into Cedarville for lunch thrown in for good measure......

.....yup, we brought our eBikes specifically to ride into Cedarville to have lunch on Tuesday.  Woody's (burger place) opens around 11 am, so that is when we began our ride.  The one way distance into Cedarville to Woody's from Surprise Valley Hot Springs is about 5.4 miles, and we arrived there around 11:30 am.  Cedarville on a weekday is not very busy, even in the summer, so we were not surprised to find we were only the 2nd guests of the day.  I had read several Yelp reviews (Woody's gets 5 stars on 21 reviews) about their Western Burger (with cheese and bacon) so that is what I ordered....

.....I forgot to take a picture of my plate until I was half done....lol....it was a very good burger, and all of the ingredients were fresh, and certainly worth 4 stars in my book......I've had better  burgers, however, this one is not a 5 star burger, but was definitely worth the almost 11 mile round trip bike ride!  Surprise Valley is made up almost entirely of a dry lake bed which stretches for miles north and south....

.....in all we covered 10.78 miles in 1 hour averaging 10.7 mph as one might guess.  595 caloric units were disposed of on this eBike ride...

,,,,we were back at room #13 by 1 pm at which time we took another soak.  There were several more putting contests.....sometimes I forget how competitve TLE can be....lol....however, on this day I prevailed in two of the three best out of 10 putting contests.

Our stay at Surprise Vallley Hot Springs has exceeded our expectations, and we definitely want to try to return later in our stay here in Modoc County.  The accomodations were very nice.....in fact, surprisingy nice, and the privacy of having your own hot tub fed by hot mineral springs water is the way to go as far as I am concerned.  

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The interlude.....

 8:10 am - Tuesday - June 21st - Cedarville, CA - 52° F, 30% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the northeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 83° F.  Our view this morning......↴ 

Our check in time Monday at Surprise Valley Hot Springs was 4 pm so we had a lot of time Monday before our departure time of 2 pm.  It's only 49 miles to the hot springs, and takes about 57 minutes, but we needed to do some small shopping in Alturas, plus order a takeout pizza from Antonio's Cuccina for an eary dinner.  We figured by the time we did all of that it would be after 3 pm, and time to head over the Warner Mountains to Cedarville for our two day interlude of self indulgent hot tub soaking, and just generally doing NOTHING but read, nap, and engage in funny, and somewhat humiliating putting contests.  More on the putting contests later.

I've been wanting to get a 'wedge' style putter for a while, and found one on eBay that fit my eye for $22.  It appeared to be like new condition, so I pulled the trigger and bought it.  Well, it arrived at the Clubhouse via UPS Monday morning, so I drove over around 9:30 am to retrieve it, and putt a little with it on the putting green.....

....yup, she is a beaut, and I love the length of the shaft, the weight, and feel.  Within minutes I was putting balls to within a couple of feet of the holes.  Satisfied with my purchase I headed back home to show it to TLE, at which time we decided to head back to the Clubhouse to have a late breakfast/early lunch.....something we have not done since January 31st when we began our intermittent fasting....Kathy's (Cafe Kathy) breakfast special of the day was biscuits and gravy with link sausages....OMG was it ever good!

After breakfast TLE and I headed out to the putting green to putt.....for the record TLE hasn't held a putter in her hands for 14 years, and I had low expectations. Now that I had received my new putter I had three others for her to try.  I thought she would like my Bullseye Acushnet blade style putter, and after trying all three she, indeed, settled on the Bullseye.....

....this was the style putter I used for years back in my 20's and 30's.  I acquired this one at the South Lake Tahoe Flea Market back in 2016.  At any rate, we began putting, and she immediately displayed an uncanny hand/eye co-ordination sinking her first putt from 20 feet...wait, what?  To be fair,  TLE was quite the athlete in her youth.  She excelled at track and field sports like the long jump, high jump, and middle distance races. In her entire college career she only lost one race.

After putting for about 30 minutes we headed back home to begin our  preparations for our two day interlude.  We were in the car a little after 2 pm heading into Alturas.  Our first stop was the aforementioned Antonio's to place our pizza order, then on to Holiday Market to do our small shopping while the pizza was being prepared. We were back at Antonio's by 3 pm, and on the road a few minutes later, arriving at Surprie Valley Hot Springs around 3:40 pm. We quickly retrieved our room key for lucky room #13, and entered......

....within minutes we were soaking in our own private, hot spring fed hot tub.  We are able to adjust the water temperature by opening, or closing the hot and cold water valves.  After a suitable soaking time we headed back inside to have a little putting contest....

That's a coffee cup we're using for the 'hole'

.....over the course of an hour TLE smoked me sinking 10 putts to my pathetic 4.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading outside, and enjoying the larger than life views out the back of our patio....

.....there were some adult beverages, at least one cigar, and a beautiful sunset....

....thanks for stopping by!

"What are the poor people doing tonight?"

 8:15 am - Wednesday - May 4th - Likely, CA - 47° F, 42% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F...wait, what?  14° warmer than yesterday?  On this date in 2013 we were dry camping at a Walmart about 30 miles from Gettysburg, PA....what an amazing day we spent touring the battlefields at Gettysburg......↴

From almost the first day we arrived at LPRV&G we have wanted to take a day trip to Cedarville, CA on the other side of the Warner Mountains to check out the Surprise Valley Hot Springs facility, so with the rain, snow, sleet, and wind behind us Tuesday we decided to make the 42 mile drive over the mountains, and through the woods to Cedarville.....

Heading up to Cedar Summit (6,350')

Heading down a 6 mile 6% grade to Cedarville, and Surprise Valley

....we arrived at Surprise Valley Hot Springs (6 miles east of Cedarville) around 11:30 am, and took a quick tour of the hot springs facilities......the view back to the west from the lodge is stunning....you can see steam coming up out of the ground in the distance....

.....there are Standard single rooms, Deluxe rooms, as well as one and two bedroom suites.....all have kitchens, and each unit has its own private mineral water hot tub.....

Internet photos from Yel;p

.....there are no communal hot pools at this facility, but TLE and I liked the private nature of having our own hot tub.  Now that we know more about the facility we will make future plans to spend a couple of nights there.

On our drive back over Cedar Summit we caught a fleeting view of majestic Mt. Shasta.....

.....as we approached Alturas on southbound US-395 we decided to stop at Rubio's Taqueria for some street tacos.  The locals rave about this place, and Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 18 reviews....I know, 18 reviews is not many, but most of the local restaurants have very few reviews, and finding the wife (Kelle) of your boss (Dennis) there picking up lunch kind of clues you into the validity of the 18 reviews, and we were not disappointed.  I ordered two Asada Tacos, and TLE two Pollo Tacos.....my only regret is that I ordered only two....OMG!  This little taqueria has no ambiance, and is no more than a 'hole in the wall' place, but our decades of experience tells us it is in these little 'hole in the wall' places where you find the most amazing, authentic Mexican cuisine.....

Yelp photos of Rubio's Taqueria

....on top of all that they do provide three picnic tables outside to satisfy the alfresco need if you are so inclined.  Most of their trade appears to be 'take out'.

After a brief visit to Holiday and Dollar General markets we were home before 2 pm unloading our purchases. Good news....Holiday Market carries 'Peppered Bacon', so I will not have to go without one of my favorite food groups this summer.  I was getting a little concerned as we were down to a pound, or two in our freezer.....no more worries for me....lol.

I headed over to the driving range to hit another bucket of balls, and was pleased with my consistency with all my clubs, and my putting is improving each time I spend time on the putting green.  Wednesday promises to be our warmest day since we arrived on April 12th, so I plan to play the back 9 holes then.  My lower back is steadily getting more used to the twisting motion involved with hitting a golf ball, so that is also encouraging.

I was back from the driving range/putting green by 4 pm, and headed directly outside to sit in the sun reading.....TLE joined me shortly thereafter.  Around 5 pm she prepared a charcuterie tray for our dinner fair, along with a 'Screwdriver' (vodka, orange juice) to chase it.  We, as you might guess, are not rich, but on nights like this I feel rich....I often turn to TLE and repeat a phrase my father used to speak to me when I was young when we were visiting a beautiful place....he would say...."Clarke, what are the poor people doing tonight?"....my family was not rich either, but on occasions like years ago, and last night I felt rich.....I possess all that I need....I have a wonderful wife, great children, good friends, and I get to live where I wish to live, and move when I wish to move....does it get much better than that?

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