Verde.....

8:31 am - Thursday - 40 F degrees, humidity 69%, wind - calm, sunny, clear blue skies, forecast high today is 71 F degrees....order is restored.....

The TVC population continues to shrink.....and without looking at DigiRez (our reservation system) to verify how many sites are occupied, I'm pretty sure we have less than 100 sites occupied right now.  It was my decision to haul some of the stuff I took out of the trailer over to the storage shed in the maintenance yard that brought the even emptier nature of TVC to my attention.  I  also spent a little more time organizing the trailer and beginning to put more stuff away in anticipation of our departure in a few weeks.  

Our on site Thousand Trails sales guy, Dan Burnette, asked to take TLE and I to lunch at Verde Mexican Rotisserie Grill out in Meyers as a 'thank you' for our help this summer, and Wednesday was the day.  Dan picked us up at our site (our car is in the shop as you may recall) around 1:30 and whisked us out to Meyers in just a few minutes.  We chose to dine alfresco in spite of the still frigid temperatures, but found a table in the sun which made all the difference.  We've gotten to know Dan over the course of the summer, and have become good friends.  Dan works the same days we do, and usually wraps up his work day around 9 pm at which time I follow him down to the maintenance yard in my cart where he plugs in his cart to recharge overnight, and then give him a ride back to his car.  We had a lovely 2 hour lunch and were back home a little after 3:30 pm.

We had friends arriving at TVC in their new to them 42' travel trailer between 6 and 7 pm, so we hung around to be sure we were available to help them into their site when they arrived.....as it turned out Charles and Bobbie had some truck trouble, and didn't arrive until just after sundown, which always adds to the excitement of backing into a site.  Nevertheless we got them into their site successfully.  We left them to hookup their utilities and get set up, inviting them to join us for a fire at their convenience.  We sat around the fire talking until after 9:30 pm before deciding it had been a long travel day for them and we all headed inside for the night.

It's back to work Thursday, but we are changing up our schedule.....while we will still be working the afternoon/night shift, we have changed our days off to Sunday and Monday.  I'm sure we will be moving back to the day shift within the next 10 days, or so.

Thanks for stopping by!

'SYTYCD'

7:29 am - Wednesday - I've been up for over an hour already, but that's okay....I went to bed at 10 pm....probably the earliest I've been awake in a couple of months!  Clear, blue, sunny skies, 30 F degrees, 82% humidity, wind - 3 mph out of the south.....wow 30 F degrees!

Tuesday we woke up expecting it to rain on and off most of the day, but by 10 am it was just partly cloudy with the sun poking through, and it never rained again here at TVC the rest of the day.  Nevertheless, it did rain enough overnight to settle the dust down, which was my hope.

I spent time pulling more stuff out the trailer that will not be leaving with us next month, and then cleaned up the mess in the patio area left over from the wind and rain the last 24 hours.  I had to turn on the heater in the trailer for the first time in two months, and in spite of that I was still chased back inside by the mid morning cold......it never got above 57 degrees Tuesday.

Around 11:30 am we decided to take a walk over to Goodwill and then to Raley's for some shrimp......

......as you can see from the view looking southwest along US-50 it was still heavily overcast, but we never got anymore rain.  I didn't find anything at Goodwill I couldn't live without, but TLE did find a skirt.  After a quick stopover at Raley's we were back home before 1 pm.  I promptly retired to my recliner for a nap, and then spent time reading before we decided to watch a recording of the 'SYTYCD'* finale, which was won by 'Kida'.  This SYTYCD season was entitled 'The Next Generation', and featured kids ranging in age from 10 to 16......the maturity level of these young kids as dancers was startling.  We thoroughly enjoyed this season!

It was just a lazy, relaxing, wonderful day.....a perfect off day.....thanks for stopping by!

*SYTYCD = 'So You Think You Can Dance'

Flotsam and jetsam.....

8:48 am - Tuesday - Cloudy, rainy....something different...44 F degrees, 75% humidity, wind - 5 mph from SSW.  It rained for maybe an hour early this morning....maybe a little longer.  That is the first significant rain we have had in over two and one half months.  I don't now if it will be enough to settle the dust....I hope it is.  We are off work now until Thursday at Noon.....nice.

Monday the only evidence a weather front was moving in was the 20 mph wind from the south for most of the morning.  I drove the VW over to Higher Ground Autoworx around 9 am to have some diagnostics done.  Over the past year I have gotten three, or four 'Check Engine' lights with no apparent cause.  He is going to spend time trying to figure out what is causing them.  I rode my bike back home and then spent about an hour beginning to clear out some stuff that will not be leaving TVC with us.  I need to spend a couple more hours, but I made a good start and the trailer is already looking more spacious.  I'm going to spend time Wednesday installing the vent fan I wrote about yesterday and doing some more house cleaning.

Once again we reported for our shift just before Noon, and immediately were into the flow of the day.  My first task was to complete the installation of the new swing seat on the large swingset.  With the help of Miguel to move and set up the large extension ladder we got the final swing seat installed.......

 The 'kiddie' swing (new swing is the one on the right)

 Large swingset.....middle swing is the new one

......now, for the first time in over 3 years, we have all five swings in operation!  I spent the next few hours driving past all the sites to remove expired site tags, pick up trash, and any wood left behind.  Once again I ended up with two loads of wood that were added to my pile....I could have picked up more, but stayed strong.  I spent about an hour using the long handled pool net to skim floating debris off the surface of the water....the 20 mph winds blew a lot of pine needles and other pine tree flotsam and jetsam into the pool (and everywhere else in TVC for that matter).

We were home by 8:20 quickly putting away our outdoor chairs in advance of the forecast rain I wrote about earlier....we were in bed by 10:30 once again.....now for a couple of days off from work!

The 'weather guessers' were at it again.....originally the forecast for Tuesday was 90% chance of thunder showers going on most of the day with a guessed low of 29 F degrees.....we got a little over an hour of rain, and the low only got to 35 F degrees.

Thanks for stopping by!

Swingers.....

7:59 am - Monday - 57 F degrees, sunny, blue skies, 23% humidity, breezy, forecast high - 66 F degrees.  Tuesday the forecast shows 90% chance of thunder showers with a high of 57 F and a low of 29 F degrees.

Sunday morning I decided I would put my new Trailer Valet to use to move the trailer forward 2+ feet so I could plug it into the Newell and get 12 volt flowing to the trailer once again.  Why you might ask?  Well, I bought a Fantastic Fan to replace the existing 'static' roof vent......I thought it would nice to be able to vent out the hot air once and a while.  At the suggestion of one of my readers I placed a piece of 3/4" plywood under the wheels of the Trailer Valet to provide adequate traction......as you know we are parked on hard packed sandy soil, and with the almost 500 pound tongue weight on sandy soil traction would be an issue.  It took a little while getting the trailer moving forward as the 4 tires had settled a little, as one might expect, into the soil over the past 5 months, but it did begin to move and with the aid of the built in braking mechanism I was able to stop it just where it just close enough to plug it into to the Newell.

Trailer plugged into 12 volt once again!

By the time I finished putting the tire covers back on the trailer tires, the sun shade back up, and the jacks under each corner of the trailer to keep it more stable it was almost 11 am, and we were going to work at Noon.  Yep, our schedule has changed......we are now closing the store at 8 pm Sunday night through Thursday night, but it will still be open until 10 pm Friday and Saturday nights for the next two weeks.  

We were on the job about 11:55 am, and for the first time in 6 weeks I returned to my regular Ranger duties.....making site check rounds.  I was the only Ranger on duty Sunday, and neither the sites, nor the departures had been checked for a couple of days.  As I drove around the park I was startled at how much emptier TVC looked and felt.  Most of our long term customers (here most of the summer) have departed, and the remainder will be out by the end of the week, headed back to sticks and bricks lives, or continuing their full time travels.  This is our first time in the Tahoe Basin after Labor Day in many, many years and it is obvious the weather is changing and cooling at a fast pace.

After finishing my site check rounds I headed to the maintenance yard to begin working on getting the new swings I ordered way back in May prepped and ready for installation.  With the purchase of the quick connect shackles Saturday I was able to now install the swing hangers to which I used the quick connect shackles to hang the swings.  I managed to get the one swing installed on the 'kiddie' swingset and will get the other swing on the big swingset installed Monday.  I had to add 6 feet of chain to each side of this swing seat, which will be installed on the big swingset.  The new swing seats come with 5 feet of chain and we need at least 11 feet for them to work on the big swingset.

While I was in the maintenance shed I spent some time cleaning up, and putting tools away in their proper places.  There are only a couple of us who actually put tools back after using them, so at least once a week someone (Adam, or I) have to put them away so they can be found the next time we need them.

I was called to site 148 to replace the 30 amp plug which had partially melted due to heat generated when one of the cables inside the pedestal  whose insulation had worn away was rubbing against a power buss.  I wrapped black electrical tape around the cable where the insulation had worn through, then replaced the plug and we were back in business.  

The time just flew by and pretty soon we were closing the Lounge at 7:30 pm so I could begin dry and wet mopping.  I finished just after 8 pm, and then TLE and made our bathroom rounds before clocking out at just 8:30.  We watched an episode (season finale) of 'Last Ship', then TLE watched a couple of recorded cooking shows ('Chopped' and 'Beat Bobby Flay') and we were in bed by 10:30 pm....hence the early hour at the top of this blog post.

Thanks for stopping by!

'No smoking....'

7:29 am - Sunday - 42 F degrees, 66% humidity, clear blue skies, windless, projected high - 77 F degrees......awake too early.

Once again TLE and I reported for work at 2 pm in anticipation of a workload that never materialized.  We had a large group sponsored by an RV dealer in Reno, NV (Sprads RV).  Each year they sponsor a two day event inviting customers who have purchased RV's from them in the past, and they pay for one night.  Many of those who had signed up to come did not, so in spite of being 100% booked on paper, our occupancy was just over 50%.

Robert, our manager, gave me a task Friday that needed to be done by Monday.....we have one large propane tank near the cottages (we have over a dozen throughout the park) that did not have the required warning stenciled on its side....."No smoking, or open flames or other source of ignition permitted within 10 feet".  The State of California inspector who came to inspect our propane tanks a month, or so ago requested this be done.  I was able to find stencils in the maintenance shed, got Adam to buy a couple of cans of red spray paint, then went to work.....

......it took me a little bit to get my technique down, but I think over all it came out alright.  In all it took me about 3 hours as I had to do this on both sides, and didn't have quite enough N's, or T's to do it all at once.  I was able to do three, or four words at a time, wait for the paint to dry before removing the stencils and then move them to the other side before going to the next words.....there are a lot of N's and T's in this warning!

I helped Adam, our maintenance manager, fix a 'open ground' in a 30 amp pedestal, patrolled the park, helped the Sprad caterer ferry large platters of food they were keeping in our walk in cooler in the store over to the Group Site, checked a couple of cable TV connections (again, not our problem, but something wrong with the wiring in the RV's), helped a few folks into their sites, and used the bullhorn to announce our 'Live Music' for the evening......yeah, I know.....I thought we were done too, but Robert forgot to call the performers to tell them not to come.

I made a run with Victor (assistant manager) over to the local TruValue Hardware Store to pick up a few things for projects I'll be working on the next week, or so......quick connect shackles for the swings that never got installed, bailing wire to fix all the holes in our fencing along Melba Drive (that may take over a week all by itself), and street paint so I can finish refreshing all the street markings in the park.

We closed the store by 10 pm, and began our quiet hour rounds of the park, plus our restroom run.....we, surprisingly, had to stop at several sites to quiet folks down......in one the music was so loud I would have asked them to turn it down if it were broad daylight....why folks think playing music that loud in a campground is acceptable is beyond me.  Due to the number of people needing to be quieted down, and the need for us to go by a second time to be sure they quieted down, we didn't clock out until after 10:40 pm.

Sunday the Sprad group will depart the park, and we will be a ghost town once more.....thanks for stopping by!

Change is in the air....

9:12 am - Saturday - 57 F degrees, 40% humidity, wind 2 mph, sunny, cloudless, blue skies.  I see the high in my former hometown, Ontario, CA, will be 94 F degrees today......our high here in SLT will be 82 F.

Friday was kind of a 'carbon copy' of Thursday.....relaxed, napped, read.  TLE ran another load of laundry through the Splendide and then it was time to go to work.  We went in an hour early (2 pm) as we had a large group coming into the park and wanted to be sure we had enough people on duty to handle the load.

For the first 4 hours I went from one thing to another......dog barking complaint, propane, helped various people get into their sites, checked the cable TV reception at two sites, patrolled, checked a cabin to be sure it had been cleaned (it had not) for someone who came in a day early, cleaned up the water heater/janitorial supply room at the restroom in Section A (a new water heater had just been installed), closed down and treated the swimming pool, restocked the ice house conveyor belt with 7 lb. ice bags, fixed a leaking hose bib, checked electric at two sites (one gentleman had not switched the 30 amp breaker to the 'ON' position), delivered a portable fire pit to a site, emptied the trash cans in the maintenance yard.....let's see....have I forgotten anything.....nope....and that was before 6 pm.

Around 8 pm we got an email notification that our 'DigiRez' (reservations) and 'ACE' (cash register/inventory control) systems would be shut down at 9 pm (11 pm Central Time) for software maintenance, so we had to hurriedly do our end of day routine 2 hours early, which meant we could not sell anything after 9 pm.

We are at the part of the season when we now have no more entertainment (movies, live music, karaoke) in the tent, and no more pancake breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday.  We'll be taking the tent down within the next two weeks, and TVC will begin to empty dramatically.  The sun is now setting a little earlier each evening, and it is rising a little later each morning.  More of our friends (Gordy and Carol) are leaving Saturday as our staff continues to shrink.  It is a time for reflection, and a time to look ahead to next season......

Thanks for stopping by!

Winding down.....

8:40 am - Friday - 51 F degrees, 50% humidity, no wind, blue, cloudless skies......another great SLT day!

Thursday was a very laid back day.....very low TVC occupancy rate......very quiet.....balmy weather.....napping outside in the zero gravity chair......reading a good book outside in the zero gravity chair.  There is really not much else I can say to describe Thursday morning and early afternoon as far as what I did......on the other hand TLE washed multiple loads of dirty clothes in the splendid Splendide on the eve of the 18th anniversary of her 49th birthday....what a woman!

We reported for our shift just before 3 pm to a quiet office, and quiet campground and with the exception of a few clusters of RVers checking into the park it was a very quiet evening, which is a good thing since TLE and I were the only staff on duty Thursday afternoon/night.

Thursday was also the official beginning of the 2016 NFL season and featured  a rematch of the Super Bowl opponents Denver and Carolina.  Denver was down 17-7 at half time, but once again the Denver defense kept the Broncos in the game long enough for their offense to get going, and they won 21-20 when Carolina missed a 50 yard field goal attempt wide left with 4 seconds to go.

Trevor Siemian.....replacing Peyton Manning as quarterback

After closing the office and making our final bathroom rounds we were home by 10:35 pm and relaxing, and were in bed shortly after midnight.  Friday begins our last big weekend of the season.....we have three groups in the park which will bring us to about 50% occupancy.

Thanks for stopping by!