Desert View - Day 106 - Lasting friendship

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5:38 am - Saturday - February 24th - Grand Canyon - 8º F (feels like 1º F), 78% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the east.......forecast is for sunny skies and a high of 33º F.  We ended up getting over 8" of new snow Friday to go with the 6" of snow we had last Monday.  I am beginning to think we will have snow on the ground the rest of the time we are here.  On a positive note my water line has only frozen twice (at the spigot) since last Monday, so things are good on that front.  On the other side of the coin we have been rocking 4 electric heaters (including the one in the water bay which is keeping it at a cozy 45º) since Monday with nary any time when they were not all going full blast.

We slept in Friday until after 8 am, and for the first time in a long time just lay there in bed snuggling and talking as the outside light began to penetrate our bedroom curtains.....a nice way to awake.

We lazed around most of the morning watching the snow come down hour after hour and watching the Winter Olympics.  It began snowing sometime around 4 am and continued pretty steadily until after 4 pm.

Around 1 pm we got dressed and walked over to site #5 where John and Lisa are staying in their Montana 5th wheel to talk, and eventually have lunch.  I've known Lisa since she was born.....her father and mother were good friends of my parents for many years.  John and Lisa met while serving our country in the Marine Corp in Saudi Arabia during 'Desert Storm', and I have not seen Lisa for at least 30 years, but we have stayed in contact.  In that 30+ years she got married to John, and raised 5 children (just like us).  All that being said it was amazing to me how we picked up our conversation after 30 years as if no time had passed.  We spent the entire afternoon catching up on each other's lives, drinking a few craft beers, eating and laughing.  Before we knew it 5 hours had passed and it was after 6 pm.......

 About 10 am during a brief lull in the storm

Walking Colter Lane over to site #5 to visit with John and Lisa

......we decided at that point to continue the conversation Saturday afternoon after I get off work, bid our adieus and walked slowly back home......the skies had cleared and it promised to be a bitter cold night with temps in the single digits once again.

Having John and Lisa travel all the way from Colorado to visit us during a winter storm has been very special, and is one of the highlights of our time here at the Grand Canyon.  I am so happy the passing of decades has not dimmed our friendship.  In my mind Lisa is still 17, or 18 years old......the last time I saw her in the flesh, but now we are both well past middle age.  During those years her mother, Jan, has passed on, but her father Gary is still with us and will be 80 years old soon.....my, oh my!

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Desert View - Day 47 - 'Smart Man!"

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6:58 am - Wednesday - December 27th - Grand Canyon - 13º F, humidity 61%, wind - CALM - clear skies today with a forecast high of 61º F.....going hiking today!

TLE had the 'open' shift Tuesday, and I didn't have to report for work until 10:30 am so I decided to spent some time trying to fix the Splendide......I didn't mention yesterday, but the spring (see below) which activates the door latch broke the day before.  Unless the latch engages the washer/dryer will NOT WORK!  We depend on the Splendide a lot to make our life easier whenever we are hooked up to utilities.  There is no laundromat at Desert View so washing clothes would become much more difficult, to say the least, without it...... 

You can see the tape holding the spring together for this picture.....the part I taped pushed against the door latch to make it engage, and lock.

......I had Googled our Spendide 2000 and found and 'exploded view' of the washer/dryer and identified the part.......

......it was #40, titled 'SPRING'.  I then called Spendide up in Oregon and order a new one......unfortunately this model is over 35 years old, is obsolete, and they no longer make, or stock this spring. I said to the parts guy, "I guess this means we have to get a new one, because without the spring the washer/dryer is non-operable."......he said "yes, unless you can fabricate one on your own"......hmmmmm.  No one likes a challenge more than I so I went out to the trailer and began to look for something suitable that could be modified for this purpose.  I found a coil spring that was too long, but could be cut down to size.  I measured the gap that I needed to fill, cut the spring, inserted it and it worked!

As you can see, the cut down coil spring pushes against the latch perfectly, and enables it to engage and lock the door, and now the Splendide works again.  Needless to say, I texted TLE about my success, and she texted back "SMART MAN".....👍

I was at work about 10:20 am, took my time getting ready for work (I had 10 minutes), and then clocked in just before 10:30.  It had not yet gotten busy, but I saw the parking lot on my walk over to the store, and it was packed, so I expected we would get busy eventually, and we did.....

.......if you enlarge the above picture you can see people all over the store, and in the Deli.....TLE stayed on until after 2 pm helping out, and then left me on my own for the rest of the afternoon.  Time went by quickly as it often does when we are busy....I ended up depositing just shy of $500 cash for my shift (does not include credit card receipts which are almost always larger)....I think my total sales were over $1,700 for my shift.

I had TLE come to pick me up from work this day as we got a large Amazon box delivered and I did not want to carry it home, and I couldn't wait until Wednesday to take it home as we are both off Wednesday.

We both spent the evening reading.....I had a college football bowl game, or two playing in the background....and were in bed by 10:30 dreaming about taking a hike on the Bright Angel trail Wednesday.

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Desert View - Day 46 - Christmas Day

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6:32 am - Tuesday - December 26th - Grand Canyon - 25º F, 47% humidity, wind - 2 mph out of the southeast, forecast is for a high of 53º F with partly cloudy skies.

We had no idea how busy, or un-busy Christmas day would be in the General Store.....the prior 7 days had been very un-busy, and one might think that most people would be home opening Christmas presents on Christmas day, but one would be wrong.  I had the 'open' shift Christmas day.  My 'open' shift started just as the prior 7 days leading up to Christmas day had started......very slow....so slow I had time to damp mop the entire grocery and retail area of the General Store before I had my first non-employee customer.  But, then things changed......we began to get a steady stream of customers about 9:15, and the foot traffic remained steady until I left for home about 2 pm....there was enough to keep both TLE and I busy at the registers.....something which has not occurred in the prior 45 days here at Desert View.  Who knew?  TLE reported that things stayed just as busy the last 3 hours.

Around 11:30 am our kids posted the following picture in Instagram for our benefit, since we could not be there for our usual annual Christmas family picture.......

The kiddos at my oldest son's (Chris) home Christmas morning.....right to left: Meredith, Nick, Jolene, Kate, Cynthia, Daniel Jr., Daniel, Christopher, Sharon, Rod, Laila, Brayden, Tim, Rochelle and Chris (TLE, moi, Elijah, and Charlise are absent from the picture)

........and we reciprocated with one of our own on Instagram......

......I stayed on until 2 pm, but before I headed home I walked down to the Watchtower to take in the view, and see how crowded it was.....there were people everywhere at the vista point, and inside the Watchtower it was shoulder to shoulder.....

.......the view changes hour by hour depending on cloud cover, time of day, etc....I never get tired of taking it in.  As I made my way home I noted that the visitors parking lot was full.

Our assistant manager, Wayne, had organized a Christmas potluck dinner for 5:30 pm (after closing), so I returned to the store  at that time to find a table already replete with Christmas delicacies.....

.......we enjoyed a very nice Christmas dinner, as well as great conversations, and were on our way home before 7 pm.

As I have written on numerous occasions, there are trade-off's when you choose the nomadic lifestyle.....the first two years on the road we missed one Christmas day with our kids and their families, and now we have missed a second.  It is the nature of the lifestyle that we will miss being with our kids and their families on special holidays, but we try to be there as often as we can for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and various milestones in their lives (birthdays, graduations, engagements, weddings, births, etc.).  Thanks to social media we are able to keep up with some of what we are missing 'virtually', but it is not quite the same as being there in person, right?

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Desert View - Day 45 - The 'Eve' (MERRY CHRISTMAS!)

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5:42 am - Monday - December 25th - Christmas Morning- Grand Canyon - 36º F, 20% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the southwest......forecast high for Christmas is 54º F, and partly cloudy.......MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  TLE and I hope that wherever you may find yourselves on this Christmas morning we pray that you are in good health, and and surrounded by those who value and love you!

Hard to believe we have been here at the Grand Canyon (Desert View Watchtower) for over 45 days now, and that Sunday was also Christmas Eve.  I had the 'open' shift.....I didn't make my first register sale until after 9 am, and my second wasn't until after 9:30......a slow morning.  I did some re-stocking of various products, moved some t-shirts from one place to another, and then focused on straightening up all the t-shirt displays, which took me until after 10:30.  TLE reported for work at 11 am and we worked side by side for about 30 minutes before I headed home.....just not busy enough for two cashiers on Christmas Eve.  Nonetheless, as has been the case this past week, TLE deposited just shy of $500 cash at the end of her shift with most of that coming in after 2 pm.

I really don't have much else to report about the rest of Christmas Eve.....I watched a few Christmas movies (Christmas in Connecticut, John Doe, Miracle on 34th Street, etc.), and took a long nap.  I spent some time, once again, standing outside enjoying the sunny, windless day....there is about a two hour window each afternoon lately when one can stand outside in shorts and flip flops if the conditions are right, and that is how I was dressed on Christmas Eve.

TLE was home from work just after 5:30......just after I had stepped outside to capture the latest Desert View sunset, which was one of the more spectacular ones we have had recently.....

......just after she arrived home we began watching Bishop's Wife, and then for the evening finale 'A Christmas Story'.  Other than 'A Christmas Story' all my favorite Christmas movies are black and white.  I've probably seen 'The Bishop's Wife' a few dozen times over the years, but it always seems new and fresh to me....the same with 'Christmas in Connecticut'.  Since I once again have the 'open' shift on Monday I was in bed just after 9:30 am.

We plan to do a 'Face Time' chat with our kids and grandkids around 11 am on Christmas since we will not be home for the first time in a few years to celebrate with them.....thanks for stopping by!

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