95% luck.....

 6:54 am - Wednesday - December 7th - GNHS - 51° F, 78% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  The view this morning.....↴

......and on this date in 2021 TLE and I were watching a slightly more amazing sun rise over the Anza Borrego Desert.......↴

We had one UTV rental Tuesday for 1/2 day beginning at 12 pm....aka: noon.  The trouble with having one 1/2 day rental beginning at 12 pm is that we open the office at 9 am, take care of a few things, and then just hang around until the customer arrives.  We open at 9 am to be available for any walkup customers. Once we open we're committed for the entire day, as we must be readily available if our one customer has an issue out in the desert, and we must rescue them.  Personally, I would rather be super busy as time appears to pass more quickly.  I know it really doesn't, but being distracted with being busy makes it seem so, right?

There are always plenty of tasks around the 'lido deck' with which to pass the time, like fixing the bay door to the Norcold cubbyhole, out of which it slides in and out as the need arises to pilfer some of its contents for human consumption.  Over the past year the 7 rivets which afix it to the aluminum skin of the Newell had worked their way loose, so I needed to drill them out and install new pop rivets.  I can perform this task while keeping eye on the office parking lot for potential customers.  It took me less than an hour to drill out the old rivets one at a time, mind you, to keep the bay door hinge in place, while I installed each new rivet in its place.....

......there was a 1/8" gap between the hinge and skin of the Newell, but with the rivet replacement it is once again sealed against the elements.....

.....our rental customers returned promptly at 4 pm without any damage being inflicted upon the red, 2 seat Kawasaki KRX.  They had a great time witnessed by how completely covered in dust they both were....I wish I had taken a picture to capture their condition, and the bigger than life smiles upon their faces.  See, it is possible to have a great time, and not kill the machine.....lol!  We gave them access to our compressed air to blow as much of the dust and dirt off their persons as possible before bidding them adieu as they walked back to their motorhome.

Within 40 minutes the sun had slipped beyond the western mountain ranges once again, and darkness had descended upon GNHS.  There were some fast moving clouds passing overhead through which the now full moon was peaking.  I managed to get a few pix.......

.....I love my Samsung Ultra 21 phone camera!

TLE and I played 6 games of Yahtzee (that's how many game scores you can record on each sheet of paper, so we just fill it up each time we play).  TLE prevailed this evening winning 4 of the 6 by comfortable margins.  I've decided Yahtzee is about 95% total luck, and maybe 5% skill.  It is that 5% skill that often makes the difference between winning and losing, and TLE appears to be blessed with more of it than I....lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

That was a lot.......

7:14 am - Tuesday - December 6th - GNHS - 51° F, 68% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the west by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were visiting 'Hermits Rest' at the Grand Canyon NP......↴

When I look back upon Monday I am amazed at how many different things I did.  I took the VW sand rail off the blocks which were keeping the driver side elevated, I found the motor was still seized, TLE and I towed it back to the storage area, we practiced putting for about an hour on our new practice mat, I cleaned all the coach windows inside and out whilst TLE cleaned the many mirrors in our coach, as well as the front of the Dometic fridge, I fixed a flat tire on my Haibike MTB.....the rear (why is it always the rear?), which took way longer than I expected, and for the grand finale of my day I walked down to the hot springs a little after 4 pm to take a 30 minute soak in the big hot pool, and watch the sun set.....

....and it was a nice sunset. I love soaking on Mondays, or Tuesdays when I have everything all to myself.

After a taco salad dinner prepared by TLE (I grilled the carne asada on the Sea-B-Que), we played 'Phase 10', which was won by TLE on the final hand.  We both 'Phased' out, but I had accumulated more points than TLE giving her the victory.....too many points in 'Phase 10' like too many strokes in golf is not a winner.

To cap off the evening we watched another Hallmark Christmas movie, and were in bed before 10 pm.

Our Starlink 'dishy' continues to perform well providing us with anywhere from 15 mbps to over 100 mbps depending on the time of day.....we're not 'gamers', so even 10-15 mbps is fine for streaming TV programs.....the rest is overkill for us.  Not surprisingly, there are probably a dozen folks here at GNHS who have Starlink, and not a negative word is heard.  We both still remain asymptomatic to the Wuhan Flu almost 36 months after its birth in the Wuhan district of China.

Thanks for stopping by!

That whooshing sound......

7:27 am - Monday - December 15th - GNHS -  53° F, 77% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southeast......very hazy today with high cloud cover, and a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2019 TLE and I were in Riverside, CA enjoying the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn, and riding a Ferris Wheel for the first time in decades.....↴

By Sunday morning the RV population (already quite low) had decreased significantly (aka: The Vacuum Effect), as one might expect on any given Sunday, and the odds of us renting any UTV's on this day declined dramatically, but we did have one inquiry at the office for a rental for Tuesday.  Normally Tuesday we are closed, but we're happy to rent a couple of RZR's out if there is demand.  We kept the office open until 1 pm, but that didn't keep us from watching the England v. Senegal World Cup match on the 'lido deck', which was won handily by England 3-0 advancing them out of the round of 16 to the round of 8.  France won 2-1 over Australia earlier in the morning to do the same.

Around 2 pm we drove 6 miles over to Bombay Beach to have a late lunch at The Ski Inn, and pretty much had the patio all to ourselves.....

......I had their Special of the day....Fish 'N Chips, and TLE their 1/4 pound hotdog, which she loved.  I was disappointed in the fish part of my entrée.....note to self, stick to their main specialty (hamburgers, about which everyone raves) in the future.  Otherwise, we had a delightful time, before heading home around 3:30 pm.

Within an hour the sun was setting, and another GNHS day came to an end.....

.....and Mr. Moon is almost back to 'full' status......

.....thanks for stopping by!

Rollover, or side swipe?

7:16 am - Sunday - December 4th - GNHS - 50° F, 79% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the west......very cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2009 we were in , Newport, Oregon in the middle of a 3 week trip.....here we are staying overnight in the shadow of the Yaquina Bay Bridge.......↴

We were not expecting any rental activity Saturday as there were only 9, or 10 occupied RV's in the park, and it seemed they all had dirt bikes and/or UTV's.  Around 11 am we locked the office door and took a walk around the park.  We were about 5 minutes from arriving back at the office when I got a call from Kyle advising we had prospective customers at the office looking to rent two of our 4 seat Polaris RZR's.....cool!  We hurried back, and by 12 noon the customers were heading out for a 4 hour tour.  Once we rent out UTV's for a half, or full day rental we are on the clock for the duration as we must be available to provide assistance in case of a breakdown, or the customers are directionally challenged.  All of my routine maintenance on the other UTV's was up to date, so I really did not have much to do, so I moved the jack stands on the VW sand rail to the driver side to raise that side, and inject some ATF fluid into those cylinders.  I am still not able to bar the engine over, but am hoping after a few days of soaking the cylinders on the driver side that it will budge.  Is it likely?  Probably not, but I am still hopeful.

Around 3:30 pm the customers returned to report they had damaged the #2 RZR (same one that had the left front wheel broken off a couple of weeks ago).  The entire right side had cosmetic damage to the right front quarter panel, the right front mud guard, both passenger side door skins, the right side of the roof, severely scratched paint on the roll cage, and the right rear mud guard.  They 'claimed' they hit a canyon wall when trying to pass someone on the right, but the damage pattern indicates they rolled it on its side, plus there are NO canyon walls anywhere along the route they were taking.  It doesn't really matter how it happened, but that the damage occurred, and must be repaired, but both Kyle and I are about 90% sure it was rolled onto its side, and slid for 10-15 feet.  Kyle and I took the RZR out for a 2 mile drive to be sure nothing else mechanically was damaged, and it passed that test, so we just have to repair the cosmetic damage.  The door skins, the roof, the right front quarter panel/mud guard, and the right rear mud guard will cost over $2,000 to repair.....(that stuff is expensive)...plus another 2-3 days of loss of use at $500/day....  

......so a rental that brought in about $1,100 (for both UTV's) will, additionally, cost the customer another $3,000....I hope they had fun.....that was an expensive 3.5 hours!  One would think that customers who know they are essentially self insuring any damage they cause out of their own pocket would be more careful, but one would be wrong....so far.

By the time we finished assessing the damage, and putting everything away for the night it was 5 pm, and it was dark.  We played 6 games of Yahtzee on the 'lido deck', and then enjoyed an evening fire until well after 8 pm before heading in for the night.  

Thanks for stopping by!

I forgot.....

8:34 pm - Saturday - December 3rd - GNHS - 55° F, 73% humidity wind 4 mph out of the east.....partly cloudy today with a high of 66° F.  On this date in 2021 we were watching a beautiful sunset in the Anza Borrego Desert......↴

I was sitting outside on the 'lido deck' enjoying a nice evening fire about 2 hours ago when I realized I had not blogged today.  It is rare that I completely forget to blog, but I have an excuse, however flimsy it might be.....TLE and I got up a little after 7 am this morning, and immediately turned on the TV to begin watching the USA play the Netherlands at the World Cup.  I figured I would just write it after the game was over at 9 am, but I completely, apparently, had a brain freeze, and never got it done.  The USA, as you probably know, lost 3-1 in a game they pretty much dominated possession wise, but they made three mistakes on defense and it cost them 3 goals.  They had numerous great chances to score, but only managed the 1 goal late in the match.

So what happened Friday?  Not much.....we had no rentals, and no inquiries as one might expect with only 10 RV's in the park, all of which had their own UTV's.  Friday, as is our tradition is known as Bacon Friday, and TLE made me a wonderful BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato) sandwich......

Proof of love...

....TLE really makes a restaurant quality BLAT.

There is really  not much else to report about Friday other than we took a 1.31 mile walk around the park, and had a nice fire on the 'lido deck' while I watched my USC Trojans lose the PAC-12 title game, knocking them, most likely, out of the top 4, and out of the playoffs.....it was a great season, and the odds are we would have lost the semi final against Georgia, but we'll never know now.  It was only their second loss this season, and it was to the same team they lost the first time.  To be sure, part of the reason for the loss was two early injuries to their star quarterback....a leg injury which prevented any scrambling, and a bad cut on the pinky finger on his throwing hand.  Those happened early in the 2nd quarter, and he wasn't the same the rest of the game.  Of course, it didn't help that the USC defense stank in the 2nd half. Oh well!

Thanks for stopping by!

Emptiness......

7:49 am - Friday - December 2nd - GNHS -  54° F, 71% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the northwest......cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2016 we were dry camping at Quechan Casino near Los Algodones, Mexico where we had dental appointments scheduled for the next day.....↴

Thursday we reported for work at 9 am knowing full well that with a virtually empty RV park there would most likely be no walkup customers this day.  The week after Thanksgiving at most RV parks is like this......the park was completely full over Thanksgiving, and all those folks which took an extra long weekend are now back at their workaday lives, as well as recovering from self induced food comas.  I think I counted 5 RV's in the park, and they all had their own UTV's.  Nevertheless, I had enough stuff to do to keep me busy for about an hour, as did TLE, so we called the day around 10 am.....I don't think I've seen the park this empty since the day we arrived 6 weeks ago.

I had planned to take a soak in one of the hot tubs Thursday, but it was actually kind of cold (only got to 66° F), and a little breezy, so I spent time working on the VW sand rail instead.  I don't plan on buying it, but I at least want to see if I can break those pistons loose, and get it to turn over before I tow it back to the shop/storage yard.  Since the 4 cylinders in a VW air cooled engine lay flat, and are opposing, I needed to jack up one side of the sand rail so the ATF I was going to pour into each cylinder (cylinders 3 and 4 on the passenger side) would cover a major portion of each piston head.....

.....on Saturday I'll move the jack to the driver side and repeat the process of pouring in ATF to the cylinders on that side (# 1 and 2 cylinders).  After soaking for a few days on each side I'll try to bar it over once again.....I'm not hopeful, but slightly optimistic.  Either way, regardless of the result, TLE and I will tow it back to the storage yard.

I also moved the 'putting green' outside onto the 'lido deck' where there is more room, and I think I like it where it is at now.....

......I foresee some putting contests between TLE and I in the near future.

There were at least two naps taken by moi on Thursday, and there was an evening fire thrown in for good measure.  TLE didn't feel like playing games, so the fire was the highlight of our evening....

.....there is currently only one half day booking on Sunday for this current 4 day work cycle, and with the park almost empty as I write, that may be the high point of our rental program this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

I think I'll pass....

7:27 am - Thursday - December 1st - GNHS - 48° F, 54% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were enjoying the alfresco view from Los Jilbertos Taco Shop in Borrego Springs whilst we consumed our food......↴

As you know from reading my recent posts it is World Cup time, and being soccer (aka: futbol) fans we are recording every game played, and watching most, if not all of many of them.  There were a couple of interesting matches being played Wednesday in Qatar (Middle Eastern country), so we spent the early part of the morning watching those matches, then around 10:30 am we decided to take a ride in the blue #10 Kawasaki KRX, which just got new 'shoes'.  We haven't rented that one out yet, as we were awaiting the installation of the new tires.  TLE wanted us to follow the loop out to the bat caves, then up to the Oasis, then home, as a number of customers have found the route difficult to follow on the GPS tablets.

It's about a 20 minute ride out to the scenic overlook at the top of the bat cave hill, and then another 5 minutes down to the bat caves.  We averaged around 20 mph going out, so I guess it is under 10 miles one way.....

The vista point

Typically the view is amazing here, but it was a bit hazy Wednesday

.....from the vista point we drove down to the bat caves......

Some silk flowers someone left behind....interesting.

....the time to be here is just before sunset so you can see the bats leave the caves....personally I don't really care, and frankly with all the bat guano it kind of smells funky.....lol.....

.....from there we began the drive over to the Oasis, and this is where our customers usually get turned around.   The trail you must follow is not intuitive, and it became obvious why people get off course doing this loop in a clockwise fashion.  With TLE holding the GPS tablet in her hands she kept me on course 99% of the time, and we arrived at the Oasis in about 25 minutes.....

Kind of cool to see the water pouring right out of a rock.....this water is potable, by the way.

......after spending about 10 minutes at the Oasis (we've been there once before) we began the drive back home.  From the Oasis home the trail, once again, becomes much more intuitive, and we managed to make it all the way back to GNHS without getting off course one time.  Below is the route we traveled.....

.....we arrived back at GNHS around 12:30 pm, and after blowing all the trail dust off our persons using compressed air we settled in for a nice, relaxing afternoon.  Next time out TLE will do all the driving, and I'll be the navigator.  I haven't said this to TLE, but I am really surprised at how much she enjoys these rides....I, sincerely, did not think it would be her 'cup of tea'.  Kind of cool that after 51 years I am still learning new things about her.

On the VW sand rail front, I talked with the owner on Wednesday, and while he is agreeable to me tinkering with it to get it unseized, he really doesn't want me to go much past seeing if it will turn over, and he is pretty well stuck on $1800 as the lowest he will go.  For me, I would like to see if it will run, but if I can't open up the carburetors to see if they are gummed up, or even start it my interest decreases dramatically.  He insists it 'ran when parked', and it may have, but now the electrical system seems to be compromised, and the engine is seized.  I could probably take it apart, fix the wiring issues, and rebuild the carbs and engine, but I have no interest in a long term project, and I certainly am not interested in forking over $1800 for a totally unknown quantity, so I believe I will pass on this one.  On top of that it would need four tires, a battery, possibly a rebuild kit for the twin Italian carbs, and the engine....probably another $1500-2000, plus all the time I would need to invest.

Thanks for stopping by!