Escaping the gravitational pull of LPG&RVR......

.. 6:15 pm - Sunday - October 9th - Honey Lake Rest Area - 72° F, 23% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the west northwest......partly cloudy with a big view of the eastern horizon....we are dry camping at the Honey Lake Rest Area south of Susanville, CA.......↴

....on this date in 2018 we entered our 48th state in the Newell....Delaware.....↴

As you know from experience, all good things must, of necessity, come to an end, and Sunday, October 9th, 6 months of nothing but good things came to an end for us at LPG&RVR.  Before we dropped the trailer onto the hitch for the first time in 6 months we headed over to the Clubhouse around 9 am to turn in cart #20, and have a farewell breakfast at The Grill.....

I love how the 1/2 and 1/2 sits in the bottom of the cup

.....the views were beautiful, and I noticed the driving range grass has greened up considerably in the past couple of weeks since we had that three days of rain......

A little frost lingering on the putting green

.....after breakfast we headed in to say good by to Kathy, who is the chef of The Grill......she hails from Hungary originally.....TLE and she developed quite a friendship over the past 6 months.....

....we finished around 10 am, and walked home to begin the serious business of preparing to escape the gravitational pull of LPG&RVR.  It took a couple of hours, but we were finally on our way a little after 12 pm, which is cool, because we only planned on traveling around 90 miles south to the Honey Lake Rest Area just south of Susanville, CA to spend the night.  

While we were doing our brake/turn signal check prior to departure we found the left brake/turn signal was not working.  I spent about 30 minutes trouble shooting the problem, but finally decided we would get going and I would fix whatever the problem was when we got to Honey Lake.  The drive south was beautiful, and as I always do I turned to TLE and said "It's good to be moving again" to which she replied "yeah".....

Final pictures of employee row....the leaves are really turning quickly now

....the 90 mile drive was completely without incident, and we arrived at the Rest Area just before 2 pm, at which time I returned to the left brake/turn signal issue.  Within a few minutes I found the problem.....a bad wiring connection, so I took it apart, and redid the connections.......

Never use these blue splicers.....they stink, and will always fail at some point

....within 30 minutes I had fixed the problem, and we now had a left brake light, and left turn signal once again......

All fixed

.....once that was done TLE and I decided to take a 1 mile walk around the Rest Area, which consisted of 3 laps in all......

Our usual post walk 'usie'....lol!

.....I took a a post walk nap, and listened to some music on Sirius/XM radio's Classic Vinyl (channel 26).  TLE  made dinner around 5 pm, and by 6 pm we were seeing a beautiful sunset.....

........we'll continue onto Garderville, NV tomorrow where we will spend a couple of days at the Elks Lodge there before continuing to SoCal, and our winter job.

Thanks for stopping by!

October 2nd to October 8th.......

6:54 pm - Saturday - September 8th - Likely, CA - 72° F, 18% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the west.  On this date in 2018 we ate a late lunch at Katz's Deli in Manhattan, NY, made famous by the movie "When Harry met Sally"......↴

Best hot pastrami sandwhich ever!

 

It's been a week since I posted, and so I will catch you up to date on the happenings at Likely Place Golf and RV Resort starting with Sunday, October 2nd:

Sunday:

It was my last day off  for 5 days.  I continued to work, Sunday, on organizing the trailer for eventual VW insertion on October 9th, and that was about the extent of my activity Sunday.

Monday:

On Monday we were back to 'punching' greens.  We had finished the front 9, plus the putting green on the prior Thursday, so we began with green #10 at 8 am.  We managed to get 10, 11, 12 and 13 done Monday (punched, sanded, and scraped), but I could tell we were developing into a very efficient team....Monday was our best day by far. 

Tuesday:

We began Tuesday on green #14, and managed to get 14, and 15 done before 10 am, but the 'punching' machine got out of sync, and we had to stop, and take the machine apart to get both chains lined up again properly.  That took about an hour to fix......

Jose (course superintendent) working on the Ryan punching machine

Pretty soon we had 4 people working on it

....once the timing chains were realigned we were able to get back to work, but we only got one more green done leaving just 17, and 18, plus the 'sod farm' to punch, and sand on Wednesday.

An added bonus to Tuesday was the arrival of Rich and Marnie for whom we worked back in 2019/2020 at Ramona Oaks RV Resort for 9 months.  We've managed to keep in touch with them since then, and this is the 4th, or 5th time we have hooked up with them since we left Ramona Oaks back in January of 2020.....

Rich and Marnie like to take 'foot' pictures, so TLE got one with them.....

....and then I got mine just before they left Wednesday (I was out punching greens Wednesday)

....we spent a couple of hours with them at our site talking about everything under the sun.  We always enjoy hooking up with them, and are so thankful they included us in their travels again this summer!

Wednesday:

The greens on the back 9 are smaller than the greens on the front 9, and on Wednesday we punched 17, 18, and the sod farm before lunch, and got right to scraping the sand off the greens right after lunch finishing around 2 pm........

DeWayne is in the foreground in both of these pictures

.....by the time we finished at 2 pm we were all tired from 6-7 days (depending on when one started) of hard work.....I managed to get all the guys in one place to take the necessary 'usie', but some how DeWayne got blocked out by my hat....lol......

Left to right: Jose, Mike, Walt, Mike, DeWayne, and moi

  .....so, we basically punched 18 greens, the putting green, and the sod farm in 7 days (I didn't work the first day as it was my day off).....not too bad for a bunch of mostly old guys....lol!

Since it was only 2 pm Walt and I decided to clear the driving range of golf balls as the trash can in the Clubhouse was completely, and totally empty.  We managed to finish by 3 pm, and called it a day.

TLE and I decided we would sit outside Wednesday evening, and I caught this cool picture of the moon at about 2/3's...

Thursday:

I was back to my normal activities on Thursday.....I staged 15 carts to begin the day, and we we ended up renting 18 for the entire day.....not too bad.  I also mowed the tent sites for the final time this summer, but that was about it, as when I returned from lunch virtually all 18 carts had been returned, and needed to be washed, and put away, and that pretty much took me up to 5 pm.

Friday:

One of my favorite activities this summer has been taking the slow moving John Deere riding lawnmower out to mow the tee boxes on 18, 17, 16, 15, 3 and 10, and Friday was my last ride around the course doing just that.  I took a few minutes at the blue tee box on 16 to take pictures of my favorite view here at LPG&RVR....

....by the time I returned it was about 11:45 am, and almost time to relieve TLE for her lunch break.  I only took a 30 minute lunch Friday (I began work at 7:30 am), because I wanted to be off at 4 pm.  I took a selfie around 2:30 pm......only 90 minutes left of my summer job......

......while I am somewhat happy my work is done here this summer at LPG&RVR, it is really a very bitter sweet feeling.  We really loved our time here, and, frankly, would be happy just to remain here all winter, but winters are very cold, and windy here, and we've already done that at the Grand Canyon back in the winter of 2017/2018......I'm a fair weather person, and knowing we are heading to the SoCal desert for the winter to soak in hot springs for 6 months makes me happy, but I will miss, terribly, the big views here, the quiet, very dark nights.

Saturday:

I would normally have been working Saturday (my regular 4 day schedule would have had me working Wednesday through Saturday, but that would have made 6 days in a row working, so I called in a marker, and asked Walt to take my place Saturday (I worked for him back in July), and he graciously accepted, so I was able to spend all day Saturday finalizing the organization of the trailer, and putting everything else away.  By the end of the day we had the turf inside the trailer, and are ready for VW insertion Sunday morning.....

.....around 6 pm TLE and I headed over to the Clubhouse to meet with Walt, his wife Teresa, and Kathy, along with her husband Richard. Walt and I shared the outside job, and TLE and Kathy the office job....we all got along great, and we look forward to the same arrangement next summer as we will all be returning for a repeat performance.  I caught anther great picture of the now full moon as it rose over the Warner Mountains.....

.....of course we took the requisite 'usie' to memorialize the occasion......

Left to right: TLE, Richard, Kathy, Teresa, Walt, and moi

.....as I close this latest blog post I am grateful for the wonderful summer we had, and the new friend we have made.  We've worked at a lot of amazing places over the past 10.5 years, but this was the most amazing yet.

Thanks for stopping by!

The last week in review......

8:37 pm - Saturday - October 1st - Likely, CA - 55° F, 48% humidity, wind 4  mph out of the south by southeast......dark, but it was a crystal clear, blue, sunny skies kinds of day.  The high temp of the day was 75° F.  Hard to believe it is October 1st, and we will be leaving LPG&RVR in exactly one week from tomorrow.  On this date in 2021 we hauled anchor and departed Seal Rock RV Cove for the final time....we overnighted at a Walmart near Vancouver, WA that night....↴

This post will be a compilation of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.....first up is.......

Monday:

As has been our custom on our other days off work we began our day with another 2 mile roundtrip walk out to Jess Valley Road. I didn't record the walk on Strava this time, but based on our pace I'm sure we were in the 33 minute range for the entire walk once again.

I spent some time weeding the grass in our site....when we arrived there were a lot of dandelions, and many other types of weeds infesting another wise nice look lawn, but over the course of the summer I have been able to eliminate most of them via good, old fashioned hand weeding, and using a systemic weed killer sold under the ACE Hardware brand name.....it has been very effective, and now the lawn is looking the best it has looked since we arrived. We're hoping when we return next April it will look way better than when we arrived this past April.  Additionally, we sowed some grass seed in a couple of areas that were a little thin on grass, and they have now filled in nicely.....

.....we were treated to a nice sunrise Monday morning, but I was a little late in getting outside to memorialize it.....

Tuesday:

There is an annual ritual which plays out in late September each year here at LPG&RVR.....it is called "punching the greens".  In order to guaranty the health of the golf greens all golf courses must do this at least once a year.  We have a machine which pulls thousands of plugs out of each green, and it looks something like this after the machine has done its job.....

A pile of plugs ready to be hauled away

......this task requires 'all hands on deck', so most every male worker was on hand to begin the job Tuesday.  Once each green has been "punched" the resulting plugs must be scooped up, and hauled away.  It takes about two hours to "punch" each green, including spreading sand on each of them to fill the plug holes, and it is strenuous work.  By strenuous I mean it is the hardest thing I've done this summer, and after doing it for one day I was flat out exhausted.  I wasn't even sure I would make it past lunch time, but I did, and by 4 pm we were dismissed for the day as it was too late to start another green.....thank goodness....lol!

Wednesday:

On Tuesday we managed to get greens 9, 8, 7, and 6 punched, and 9 and 8 sanded, so we met at green #7 Wednesday morning to get it sanded, and scraped free of excess sand, then moved on to greens6, 5, 4 to punch them, returning to greens 6, 5  and 4 after they had been sanded to scrape them, and that is as far as we got before we quit at 3 pm....why 3 pm...well the sander broke, and we could do no more.  I felt a lot better physically at the end of Wednesday's session.

Thursday:

The sander was fixed overnight (broken chain drive), so we hit the decks running Thursday morning punching 3, 2, 1 and the putting green.  We managed to get those 4 greens punched by 11 am, so took an early lunch while DeWayne sanded 3, 2, 1 and the putting greens.  After lunch we managed to get those four greens scraped, and were once again off work by 3 pm.  I felt the best I had all week at the end of the day.  And with that my work week came to an abrupt end.  Normally I would have worked through Friday, and been off work until next Wednesday, but we are going to begin to "punch" the back 9 Monday morning, hoping to finish all 9 holes by the end of the day Wednesday.  TLE continued to work her normal 4 day schedule (Tuesday through Friday).  This works out well for me as I will be off Friday, Saturday and Sunday and can get the trailer organized for VW insertion next weekend, and put away all of our decorative lights during those three days.  We plan to haul our anchor Sunday morning, October 9th, so it is definitely time to be putting stuff away.

Friday:

I managed to sleep in until 6:30 am Friday morning, but TLE was up at her normal 6 am time as she had to work and I did not.  After she went to work I headed out to the trailer to begin to put things away.  When we sit in one place for 6 months a lot of stuff gets pulled out and used.  There was so much stuff out that I actually had two folding tables set up to create more space to put stuff.....

....I took the above pictures sometime in late April, or early May, and you can see how congested the trailer was when I began to put stuff away Friday morning.  I worked on an off all day, taking a break at noon time to pick up TLE at the Clubhouse for her lunch break, then delivered her back at 1 pm.  By the end of the day I had managed to get enough done that I was sure I could finish by Sunday.

Saturday:

TLE and I slept in until after 8 am Saturday, and how wonderful it was.  By the time we finally got out of bed the sun was blazing in the front windows.  I have missed getting up with the sun.  When we get up on work days at 6 am it is still pitch black outside....it is so dark the solar lights we have deployed are still shining brightly.

For the first time in a few weeks we did not do our 2 mile out and back walk to Jess Valley Road as we had a lot to get done Saturday.  So, whilst TLE drove into Alturas to do our final shopping of our 6 month stay here at LPG&RVR I headed back out to the trailer to continue my organizing work, which included taking down part of our 'lido deck' stuff (Sea-B-Que, Cowboy wok, etc.).  By the end of the day everything looked quite different, and I was just a couple of hours away from finishing the task I began on Friday.....

Only one bike remains to be stowed, along with the table holding my tool bags

The Black & Decker Workmate is stowed, along with the bench grinder, and two of the bikes.  I also stowed the air compressor back into the passenger side engine bay

The awning over the trailer door is put away,

as are the sun screens, the Sea-B-Que and Cowboy wok on the 'lido deck'

.....Saturday evening we had out last potluck dinner of the season to celebrate three birthdays.....Kathy (Café Kathy - October 3rd), moi (October 3rd) and our good friend Duke (spends about 3 months here every summer - October 2nd).  It was also the annual BBQ'd Ribs cook off, and there were 7 entries.  We each tasted one rib from each offering (blind taste test) to determine the winner.  For the second year in a row Mike (golf course marshal) won again, while DeWayne (1st cut mower) placed second once again (I liked his the best, however). The party started at 4 pm (cocktail hour), followed by the rib tasting, and birthday celebrations....we were home around 6:30 pm.

I was able to watch my USC Trojans win their 5th game of the season vs. Arizona State, and remain undefeated  both nationally and in conference.  Their current ranking nationally is #6...their best start (behind Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and Clemson) in a long, long time.

As I write we have just one week remaining on our contract, and it is bittersweet for us, as it often is, as we prepare to haul anchor and head south.  We have loved our time here at LPG&RVR.....the entire experience has far exceeded our expectations when we first accepted our jobs.  We look forward to, God willing, returning next April for another 6 month season, but we also look forward to our Winter jobs at Glamis North Hot Springs, which start later this month.  We haven't had a winter job since we worked at the Grand Canyon back in 2017/18.

Thanks for stopping by!