RNO1 - Day 3 - Groovin'

One of the things which helped make our choice of Sparks Marina RV Park as our domicile for our stint at Amazon was the opportunity for recreation and availability of services.  There are bike lanes, and bike paths in abundance as well as restaurants, malls, etc.  Additionally there is the lovely Sparks Marina Lake just two blocks from the park which offers a paved bike path around the entire perimeter of the lake, which is about 2 miles long.  Just a mile, or so away is a bike path that follows the Truckee River through downtown Reno which I am planning to explore soon.

On Thursday, after putting out our various patio lights I decided to take a ride to explore some of the riding possibilities around our park, but didn't get much further than the lake when I decided to just ride a few laps around the lake and just enjoy the lovely weather.  The day time temps got into the mid 70's with no wind.

Sparks Marina

In all I covered about 8 miles before heading back to the coach, which for the time being appears  to be rodent free.  We have caught no additional mice after the first two, which is a relief.  We continue to deploy the four traps each night with no results so we are crossing our fingers on that front.  I'll continue to inspect the basement areas for evidence, and/or a reappearance of any 'nest'.

Once again, as we will be doing for the 7 weeks we are here, we were in the car at 5 pm headed for Fernley, NV, and our third shift at Amazon.  This night we were being shepherded around the facility by Art, who is a trainer.  He continued to go over stowing technique, and stowing 'etiquette'.  Ultimately we do this work for the online customer, but in stowing our immediate customers are the 'pickers'.  Both TLE and I remember those long November and December nights in Campbellsville when we grew frustrated with the stowing methods of the 'stowers'.  Having that perspective helps us to stow with a little more consideration about how difficult it may be to pick those items we are stowing.  We avoid cramming and jamming the bins so full you cannot get anything out without pulling everything out.

Art trained us on the use of the Vertical Reciprocating Conveyers, or 'VRC' which are used to move product to the upper levels of each "Pick Mod".  You and I would call these things elevators, but they are only for product, and not for humanoids.....us humanoids must use the stairs.  Like most industries, Amazon has their own particular language, and it takes a while to know what all the initials people throw around mean.  So for 'VRC' is the most unique one.

Our five hour shift went smoothly, and we both feel like we are settling into our new job quote smoothly.  I stowed 4 large carts of product, and TLE 5.....she is always a little bit faster than I, but I hold my own.  Art told us he was very happy with our rapid progress, and Friday night we will be pretty much on our own.  One thing I have noticed is that the time seems to pass by much more quickly than when we were 'pickers', and that is a good thing.  Of course, we'll have a better feel for that 'time passing quickly thing' when we start our ten hour shifts Monday night.  One big difference between picking and stowing is the number of miles covered.  When we were pickers we routinely walked 10-12 miles per night.  As stowers we will probably cover 5-6 miles per night....a little easier on the feet.

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Eeeeeeek! #2 & Day 1 at RNO1

Yep, there was a second one, but I'll spare you the postmortem pictures this time around.  So, after finding a second one we decided it was high time we opened everything up.....I mean every drawer, cupboard, closet, and bin.  TLE took the inside and I took the outside.  After emptying 11 of the 12 basement storage areas I found the 'nest' in the bin where I keep the plumbing related stuff as well as extra hoses.....now I know where some of the fuzzy stuff on the inside of one of my tire covers went......:-)  Once the nest was found I began vacuuming out every single bin, and found small mouse droppings here and there which indicated the two miscreants had taken pretty much the full tour of our basement regions.  TLE found a few mouse droppings under the large pan drawer beneath the oven, and a few under the sink, but none in the all important pantry.

As a precaution I went over to Lowe's and bought 2 more mouse traps to deploy for the next few days and nights to be sure we have got them all, and of course, we'll be looking for the telltale mouse droppings as well.

All of that excitement carried us into the early afternoon and it was only a little over 4 hours until we would begin our second drive into Amazon to begin our training for our 'new to us' job.....stowing.  Two years ago when we worked our first 'Peak Season' at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY we worked in the 'Outbound' department as 'Pickers', and we had hoped, since we already knew how to do that job, that we would be given the same job again, but sometimes it's better not to get what you want.  This year we were assigned to work in the 'Inbound' department as 'stowers'.

We left home around 5:05 and were exiting our car in the Amazon RNO1 parking lot by 5:42.  This particular Amazon Fulfillment Center is comprised of two buildings.....the west building is called 'Nevada', and the eastern building is called 'Utah'.  For our first 'day' (actually night, right?) we were to meet our trainer, Bruce, on the Utah side, but on all future days we will be doing our 'Stand Up' in the Nevada building.  'Sand Up' is the place where all employees in 'inbound' meet up before they begin their shift.  The managers relate any pertinent news of the day, and lead us through few safety tips, as well as stretching exercises. 

Each Amazon Fulfillment Center has a four digit alpha/numeric code, and although this facility is located in Fernley, NV it's alpha/numeric designation refers to it as "Reno #1, or RNO1.    This facility was first opened in 1999, and I think this was the 2nd or 3rd facility built by Amazon, so it is one of the smaller Amazon Fulfillment Centers square footage wise.  This 15th 'Peak Season' will be the last at this location as they are opening a much larger facility in Reno proper.

Each year RNO1 has what is called 'Peak Kickoff', which is essentially a one hour celebration of the history of this particular facility, a kind of a 'ra ra' type of event intended to get you pumped up and excited about the next 7 weeks.  They had one skit entitled "Amazon 'Yesterday' delivery"......kind of a humorous takeoff on "Amazon Same Day delivery".....I'm sure if you let your mind wander a little bit you can imagine how funny this really was.  Essentially packages arrive at your door the day before you even think of ordering them......:-)  

Then it was off to spend time with our trainer, Bruce, who spent the next four hours giving us our first glimpses of what 'stowing' is all about.  It will be our job for the next 7 weeks to place items in bins throughout RNO1 so they can be 'picked' by the ubiquitous 'pickers' when they are ordered by our online customers.  Instead of being told by our hand held Motorola scanners where to go to pick an item, we decide where to go to 'stow' them.  Actually, after one night of stowing I can tell you with some confidence that I like 'stowing' way more than 'picking'.  Of course, having already spent 11 weeks two years ago at Amazon 'picking' 10's of thousands of items it was a lot easier to learn the 'basics' of the stowing process' this time......the 5 hours flew by, and we were home by 11:30.  Within a few minutes it felt like we had never left Amazon almost two years ago.  We'll spend two more nights this week (Thursday and Friday) learning the intricacies of stowing all different types and sizes of items, and then we will hit the decks running next Monday on our 10 hour shifts.

We stayed up until well after midnight trying to somewhat adjust our body clocks to what is coming......

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Amazonians

Tuesday was our official start date at Amazon........our start time for our "orientation" was 8 am, so we needed to leave Sparks by 7 am to drive the 30+ miles to Fernley.  Why so early?  Well, we like to give ourselves enough time to get there, and get lost one time.  As it was we arrived in the Amazon parking lot by 7:35 am, so now we know we don't have to leave quite as early, if we choose.  Orientation day is essentially 8 hours of completing employment paperwork, and then safety training....not the most scintillating  stuff.

Amazon Fulfillment Center - Fernley, NV

Of course, our regular schedule, which begins next Monday, will see us leaving here about 5:15 pm for our 6 pm  10 hour night shift.  We have what they call the 'donut hole' shift.....work Monday, Tuesday....off Wednesday, then work Thursday and Friday.  This week we will return on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights for our initial 5 hour night shifts to receive training for our jobs, which will be "stowing".  Two years ago when we worked at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY we were "pickers", and loved our jobs.  Here in Fernely everyone in the "Camperforce" program will be working in the "stowing" department. "Stowers" put the various products sold by Amazon into the bins where they are later "picked" by "pickers" when they are purchased by online customers.

We finished our orientation and safety training around 3:30 and were then given a brief tour of the facility, which is one of the smaller Amazon Fulfillment Centers.  There are only two buildings, and they are not as tall inside as the one in Campbellsville, so their 'pick mods' are only two stories high, whereas in Campbellsville there were three buildings, and their pick mods were 4 stories high.  No one is allowed to take pictures inside the building, so the only picture I have for you today is of the outside.

A good example of a multi story 'pick mod'

We were home by 4:30 and I was BBQing a London Broil steak by 6.....TLE added baked potatoes and sauteed squash/onions as sides......what a great meal!   This is the first time we have BBQ'd in a few weeks due to very wet conditions we experienced in Cape Blanco the last few weeks we were there.

We watched election returns for most of the evening as most of the regular programming was deferred until next week due to the National Election.  This is the first time I have watched election returns in 3 years, and I was reminded of why I really don't care much anymore about politics in general.  Basically the seesaw from right to left, and now left to right continues unabated with nothing really being accomplished.  Everyone seems to agree that they want to 'throw the bums' out, but both sides just keep electing more new 'bums' to replace the old ones.  It seems to me that both sides spend hundreds of millions of dollars demonizing the other side, in some cases running vile, offensive commercials about their opponents, and then wonder why no one wants to 'get together' and become bi-partisan after the election.  I guess there is a 'silver lining' to it all......with gridlock it is harder for both parties to cause more damage than has already been done.  That's it.....that's my political statement for the next 10 years.

The weather, as predicted, as begun to warm up somewhat, and it looks like a cloudless, dry, sunny day is in store for us!  YAY!

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Oh, and by the way, we did trap another mouse last night, so the siege is not over.....we will be tripling down tonight with at least 6 traps placed all over the coach.

'Eeeeeeek!'

When you live as close to 'Mother Nature' for extended periods of time in a fixed location as we have been doing for the past almost 6 months the odds increase exponentially with each passing day that you might pick up an unwanted passenger, or two.  On Sunday TLE said she thought she had found a couple of mouse droppings, and had me look at what she found.  I had to concur with her assessment........eeeeek!  The sixty-four dollar question then becomes "is it, or are they still with us?".  Well, the only way to find out for sure it to by a couple of mouse traps and see what 'turns up'.


I was going to make a run over to Lowe's to pick up the water hose insulation, and a couple of other odds and ends (Come on, you know what I'm talking about.....there are always a few unexpected purchases when you make a run to Lowe's, or Home Depot, right?  You go intending to buy one, or two specific things that you have taken the time to write down on a Post-It-Note, but then you see something else you wish you had, or really need, and suddenly your anticipated $20 tab becomes a $46 tab), so I just added the mouse traps to the list.

Of course, before I could drive I had to scrape some overnight frost off the windshield........after Lowe's I headed to a local 'full service' car wash to get two months of Cape Blanco salt air washed off the VW...there is a very nice one just a few blocks from where we are staying....in fact there is a lot of cool stuff within walking distance of where we live.

After returning home I started in on my hose insulation project and quickly discovered I was about three feet short of covering the hose, so as is often the case, a second trip to Lowe's was in order.  Instead of driving TLE and I decided to take a walk through the Legend's Mall to see what was there........

Legends is really an 'Outlet Mall', but the main anchor store is Scheels........a gigantic, over the top sporting goods store that, to me, puts to shame Cabela's and Pro Bass.......they have a fricken' Ferris Wheel inside that building!  We walked around the ground floor, and the second floor 'ooohing and awwwwing' for about an hour before exiting and continuing our walk through the mall.

 From Scheels it was a short walk to Lowe's, but wait, it was past lunch time and there was a Popeye's Chicken place right next door to Lowe's......I've never been to a Popeye's before so we decided to have lunch there.....wow....that chicken is spicey good!

Finally we headed into Lowe's to get the remainder of the insulation for the hose, and then finished our walk back home.

I finished up the hose project, and then TLE helped me open the main patio awning so, just like the window awnings, we could get it dried out from all the moisture at the Cape.  You don't want to leaving patio awnings out here as there is an afternoon wind that comes up pretty much every day, and people have been known to have their awnings destroyed, so around 4, after we were sure it was dry, we stowed it away again.

I think I have mentioned it before, but I have a cousin from my mother's side of the family (Lois) that lives here in Sparks with her husband.......my uncle Bob (mother's brother) also lives here in Sparks.   We were able to have lunch with them when we were in Carson City about this time last year, so I was looking forward to seeing them again.  I got an instant message from Lois about midday suggesting they meet us for dinner at BJ's Brewery, which is just a few blocks from the park, so we agreed to meet there at 5:30.

We had dinner with Lois, John (Lois' husband) and their oldest son Chris, and talked until almost 8 o'clock when we all decided it was time to head for home......we have an earlier Tuesday.....we must be at Amazon before 8 am to begin our orientation and training.

Before hitting the sack I deployed two mouse traps hoping on some level we really don't still have a mouse, or mice as the case may be, but hoping would get something to at least answer the question definitively.....well, when I turned on the lights this morning there 'he' was....the little bugger......

We'll reset the traps for a few more days hoping there are no more, but if there are......EEEEEK!

Thanks for stopping by!

'Spark'ling!

Every time we return to the Eastern Sierra the first thing I notice is how dry the air is.  Now I'm not complaining about the moisture level in Cape Blanco, but Sparks, NV is 100% the opposite, and we need to dry out the coach.  This morning this the first morning our windows have not been covered in moisture....we're still running the de-humidifier to pull the remainder of the moisture out of the interior and it's doing a good job!

 Our site

The view....lots of asphalt

Sunday was a day spent mostly getting our living space set up.....hookup the sewer line, remove the VW from the trailer, sweep all the pine needles and dirt out of the trailer, do big shopping (we got a 50 cent discount coupon from Raley's for future diesel purchases), and winterizing our water hose.....it does get below freezing this time of year, and the last two nights it has not disappointed.

And, of course, Sunday we felt the effects of 'Daylight Savings' time, and were able to turn our clocks back regaining that hour we had stolen from us back in the Spring.....I really wish they would just get over it, and do away with this silly 20th Century idea.  Now I'll spend the next two weeks getting my 'body clock' re-oriented to the sun coming up earlier, and it going down much earlier!

The rest of the day was spent watching the NFL, and there were a lot of good games, but none of my teams won......:-(  Not much else to report about Sunday, except that life is good, we are starting our next adventure, we are healthy, and we are drying out!

Thanks for stopping by!

All the way!

It got quite cold overnight in Medford.......at least 'low' for us......low 40's.  We began the day thinking we would just drive as far as Susanville, CA and spend the night there at an RV park where we could plug in the coach so we could run our electric heaters, but as the drive progressed it was becoming obvious to me that I felt like driving further than 200 miles this day, so at a rest stop south of Yreka we called the RV park where we are going to stay while working at Amazon to see if our site was available a day early, and it was!

We stopped in Susanville at a local Starbucks to have some lunch (Chicken Santa Fe sandwiches) and some coffee before driving the last 90 miles into Sparks.  There was a winter storm watch for the Northern Sierra Nevada and sure enough there was snow on the local mountains.  We managed to stay just behind the fast moving storm and only got rain on the windshield a few times.

Snow in the distance as we park to have lunch....

The last 90 miles was a 'cake walk' into Sparks, and we arrived at the RV park at exactly 4 pm.  We were down to 4 or 5 gallons of propane so we knew we had to get propane before we parked for the next 7 weeks.  Fortunately the RV park we are staying at sells propane, and at a very good price.....$2.75/gallon....the best we have paid in 3 years!  We took on 44 gallons and then moved over to our site.  All the sites here are 65' long, and the pads are completely level!

The park is all concrete pads, artificial turf, and asphalt interior roads......no dirt, no gravel, no pine needles, no mud when it rains.  On top of that their jacuzzi hot tub is open year round!

As the sun set we were treated to a beautiful sunset.......a good day of travel, and once again totally uneventful!

Thanks for stopping by!

'Good to be moving again.....'

Friday morning I disconnected the water hose in final preparation for our early afternoon departure, and in anticipation of driving the coach over to the lighthouse gate to park it before we went on duty for our last 'top shift'.......buuutttt......then the rain came in torrential manner and was still pouring when we finally decided about 9:45 to drive the car over and just come back and get the coach after our shift.

About the time I got to the top of the lighthouse the rain began to abate somewhat and by 11 the sun was coming out.......

We even got a spectacular rainbow to cap off the morning....

Bryan and Judy arrived promptly (as they always do) at 12:30 to relieve us and we took one last 'usie' in the lighthouse work room....

As the beautiful Cape Blanco lighthouse began to fade from view in our rear mirrors we felt a little melancholy briefly sweep over us, but it was replaced within seconds with that thrill of rolling our wheels once again......as always, I looked over at TLE and repeated that familiar refrain......"It's good to be moving again.....huh?", to which TLE replied, as she always does,   "Yeah....".  We absolutely loved our two months at Cape Blanco and our experience completely eclipsed our expectations.......we will be back for sure next September to get our Cape Blanco 'fix'.

The drive back east on 42S and then 42 was much easier than our construction marred trip west on those same roads back in early September as all the construction was completed, and all that remained was 'smooth as a baby's butt asphalt'.  By 3:30 we were southbound on I-5 headed for our night's destination.....Medford.

On our way over to the coast in September we stopped at Trader Joe's to replenish our wine supply, and parked in this large gravel lot about 200 yards from the store.  I thought at the time that this would make a great overnight spot in the future.

We arrived in Medford around 5:40 and headed for the Fred Meyers Supermarket on Crater Lake Highway to buy a few things and fuel up.  Using our 10 cent discount based on prior food purchases we purchased $300 dollars worth of diesel at $3.39/gallon.....20 cents cheaper per gallon than we have paid in the three years we have been on the road.

Does it get much better?  Overnighted near TJ's and REI!

From Fred Meyers we drove back across the Interstate to Trader Joe's (which is 2 doors down from REI!) to do some more shopping, then retreated to that large gravel lot to park for the night.  There are no signs prohibiting overnight parking, and we were not bothered during the night, so it was a perfect overnight spot.

TLE fixed some of my favorite pollo asado street tacos, and then we watched the current episode of the 'Amazing Race' before retiring for the evening.  A great first day of travel....totally uneventful....just like we prefer it.

Thanks for stopping by!