Hat trick!!!

 7:15 am - Tuesday - March 7th - Glamis North Hot Springs, CA - 50° F, humidity 54%, wind 5 mph out o fthe west by northwest.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2020 I removed our 38 year old water heater in preparation for the installation of our new Girard tankless water heater, which, by the way, is still performing flawlessly 3 years later......↴

Monday dawned with heavy cloud cover, which gave way later in the day to partly cloudy conditions.  I was only supposed to get to 65° F Monday, but it felt more like 75.  Monday was the day I had set aside in my mind to finish cleaning out the rest of the bad plywood flooring in the bathroom so I could make a template to use in cutting the new piece of plywood to fit the space.  I began the work around 10 am, and finished around 1 pm.  Cleaning out the rest of the cancerous wood was really the easy part.  Making the cardboard template was 10 times more difficult than I expected, but, of course, there is always 'The Hockwald Way' to account for that, right?  Before cutting the template I spent time, vaccuming out the space, then measuring everything....

All the cancer is excised

If you look closely (click on picture to enlarge) you can see 

the measurements of each area on the metal subfloor

.....after a lot of mind numbing adjustments I finally came away with a suitable template to use in tracing out the pattern on the 2' x 4' piece of oak plywood......

.....I then applied it to the 2' x 4' piece of oak plywood.......

....all that remains now it to cut it out, and then fit it to the space.  I will have to cut the fitted piece into two pieces to install it, and that will happen Tuesday, God willing, and the river don't rise.

After 3 hours of being on my knees it was time to relax, and then head down to the hot pools for 40 minutes to soak my poor, tired knees around 3 pm.  I had the large hot pool all to myself, but just about the time I was geting ready to leave a bunch of old folks came for a soak.....good timing on my part!  I know, I know.....I'm old, too, but I don't feel as old as they looked.....lol.

TLE prepared stir fry for dinner, and surprised me with some hot Sake to chase the great food.....she is the best!  For the third consecutive evening we headed out to the 'lido deck', this time for a round of Backgammon.  You might recall that I was going for the 'hat trick' Monday night having won at Yahtzee on Saturday night, and 'Phase 10' on Sunday night.  The dice, and my decision making went my way on this night, with me winning 3, of the first 4 games.  Normally we play 5 games, with the 5th game usually being the tie breaker, but TLE surrended after just 4 games on this evening.  It is my first career 'hat trick' at anything.....lol!

I received a call from Charles, my brother-in-law, around 7:30 pm advising me that he had purchased a Starlink setup for his 5th wheel, but was having trouble getting things to work.  After asking a number of questions I was able to get him past the 'road block' and the 'Dishy' began to work.  By the bye.....Charles and Phyllis (TLE's sister) are coming for a 6 day visit this Sunday!

Thanks for stopping by!

The last 'man' standing......

 7:07 am - Monday - March 6th - GNHS - 48° F, humidity 61%, wind 4 mph out of the northwest....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 69° F, heading for 81° F next weekend!  On this date in 2012 we were 5 weeks into our full time journey, and had just arrived at South Padre Island near Corpus Christi, TX....seems like a lifetime ago......↴

....the longest vacation we had ever been on was 3 weeks, so 5 weeks seemed like something out of a dream.  We had always wanted to drive to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, and meander along the Gulf Coast all the way to Florida, so that is how we chose to begin our new lives as nomads.  We acted like we were on vacation for the first 8 months of our journey, crossing the USA three times, but finally settled down to just living on the road, and setting much slower pace after our first gig at Amazon.

Sunday began innocently enough.  We had two rentals scheduled for the same person.....a RZR and a KRX.  This gentleman had rented the same two UTVs from us on Saturday, and, in fact, had done so back in early January.  In all three previous occasions the rentals were for all day, and both units were returned without incident.  I think you know where I am going with this, right?

At any rate, our customers arrived around 9 am to sign their paperwork, and head out on another all day adventure.  By 9:30 am they were gone, and we settled in to await their return.  TLE reported around 11 am they were at 'Amie's Cabin', and all seemed to be going well.  I was sitting in my anti gravity recliner around 12 noon watching golf when I heard the sounds of our UTVs pulling into the COA staging area.....wait, what?  A customer returning over 4 hours early from an all day rental is not usually a good sign, and it was not.  As I walked out to the staging area this is what I saw......

TLE trying to remove the GPS tablet from its cradle...it was stuck

.....that, my friends, is the worst damage any of our UTVs has incurred since we began this operation in November.  Apparently the driver was running through a series of 'S' curves down the sandy wash from Amie's Cabin when he hit the brakes in the middle of a right hand curve, and did an 'endo'.  Once you are in a turn the wosrt thing you can do is hit the brakes, because you WILL have an accident. Thank goodness no one was hurt seriously.....the driver suffered a sprained wrist.  Unfortunately the KRX may be totalled as it appears the front frame rails are bent.  If it isn't totalled, the damages, including loss of use, could run over $10,000.  I know these UTV are just things, but it hurt my heart, nonetheless, to see her so badly injured.

After our customers left I drove the COA van down to the storage yard to drop our flat bed trailer on the hitch, so we could load #10 blue KRX.  Kyle will deliver her to COYNE in El Centro on Monday to get the damaged assessed, and determine if it is indeed totalled.  So, now, we have just one KRX left standing from our original fleet of 3.  And our original fleet of 7 UTVs is down to 5, and we have only one 2 seater left to rent....

Last KRX standing

....and once again my point about now easy it is to flip these UTVs is proven.  As I do every time we rent one of the RZRs or KRXs I told this customer to never brake once you are in the turn...it is already too late for that.  If you believe you are carrying too much speed into the turn take your foot off the accelerator, and do your best to steer through the turn.  If, instead, you hit the brakes it is not you 'MAY' flip, it is you 'WILL' flip....especially in loose sand.

Once I had #8 loaded on our flatbed, I took RZR #4, and KRX #8 (The father of Casey, one of the owners of COA was in town and took #8 out for a few hours) to the wash station for a rare spa day.  It's been a while since either of them has been washed/detailed, and it seemed like the right time to do it.  By 3:30 pm I had fueled them both, and put them away for a few days.

TLE made us Greek salads with crispy chicken for dinner (delicious!), and afterward we headed out to the 'lido deck' to play a game of 'Phase 10'.  TLE was up quickly by two phases, but I fought my way back, went ahead by 1 phase late in the game, and ended up wining by 1 phase.  I wonder if I can best her in Backgammon Monday night for the 'lido deck' hat trick.....lol....stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by!

Five out, five in.....

 6:35 am - Sunday - March 5th - GNHS - 48° F, humidity 65%, wind 8 mph out of the west......very cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2012 we were in San Antonio at the River Walk having lunch at Mad Dog British Pub.......↴

There's my Casio Quartz diver watch

Real Saturday ended up being quite the busy day UTV rental wise.  We began the day with three confirmed bookings, and added two walkup rentals to boot.  Everything was out except RZR #5.  Three of the renals were of the 'ALL DAY' variety meaning they left around 8, or 9 am, and returned around 5 pm, and the other two were of the 4 hour variety.  When you've got 5 units out in the field the odds of the dreaded 'RESCUE' call are higher than normal, especially on a busy day in the park.  There were dozens and dozen of UTV, quads, and motorcylcles out in the BLM land.  As fate would have it, though, no such calls were received.  Everyone returned to home base with smiles upon their faces.

Once the last rental, a 4  hour one, left the COA office at 1 pm it was time to relax.  I practiced my putting, which by the way, it coming right along.  I'm going to set up the driving net again on Sunday to hit a few balls now that my upper left arm is suture free once again.

I also watched a significant portion of the PGA tour event, The Bayhill Classic (Arnold Palmer's course), in which 43 of the top 50 golfers in the world are participating this year.  By the end of the day there were a dozen golfers who have a chance to win on Sunday.

Our first customer returned at 2:30 pm in our red KRX #8 reporting no issues, and having loved their time out in the desert.  I used compressed air to clean her, then fed her with some unleaded regular fuel before putting her away for the day.

As the sun set over the Salton Sea I was fueling the last RZR to return......

Around 5:35 pm

....they returned about 20 minutes late, but who cares when you have no 'RESCUE' calls, right?  Right!

It was another one of those 10 hour days resulting from a busy rental day we have come to expect, but it was a no stress 10 hour shift, and it does not get any better than that.  COA made around $3,700 on Real Saturday alone, and with our rentals on Sunday we'll break $6,000 for the four day stretch (Thursday through Sunday).  Saturday was also the end of another pay period, which means we have just two pay checks remaining  before our Winter season comes to an end.

Thanks for stopping by!

She's a survivor....

 6:28 am - Saturday - March 4th - GNHS - 45° F, humidity 70%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecat high of 70° F.  On this date in 2022 we were boondocking 8 miles outside of Borrego Springs in the Anza Borrego Desert....↴

.....and I wrote this...."Sometimes the beauty of the Anza Borrego Desert overwhelms my senses. I find myself just staring at the 360° view, and wondering why I am so blessed to live this nomadic life. My former workaday life seems so far away.....it's almost as if that life was someone else's life. Then I realize it was someone else's.....I'm no longer that person".  Almost poetic.

When we went to bed Thursday night there were no bookings for Friday, but when we awoke at 7 am Friday there was a booking for 10 am for one of the KRXs for a four hour tour....cool!  I'm glad it was not for 8 am....lol!  Right now the sun is rising around 6:06 am, but on March 12th DST will return, and sunrise will be at 6:57 am, almost an hour later....I hate DST!

The park was still pretty empty Friday morning, and we did not expect any walkup business, but at least we had one rental to show for our Friday efforts.  They returned a little after 2 pm with smiles upon their faces, and why not?  They didn't have to call for a 'rescue', and they didn't break anything, plus they thoroughly enjoyed their adventure....the perfect customers.

Kyle was able to install the new electric fan in KRX #8 with a little help from moi, and then took it for a 20 minute spin in the desert to make sure the new fan worked as it should, and it did, so now we are back to 'full' strength with 2 KRXs and 4 RZRs to rent.  It is a good thing as we have 2 KRXs going out on Saturday.....whew!

UPS delivered the new watchband I ordered for my Casio Quartz diver watch about a week ago when I discovered a tear in it.  I've had this watch since 1991, and this is only the 4th time I've had to replace the band.  As the years pass it is getting more difficult to find this replacment watchband, so I ordered 2 of them this time.....

New watchband installed

....I remember seeing this watch at COSTCO back in the summer of 1991, and fell in love with it at first sight.  It is still my favorite watch, and I wear it almost every day.  Considering it is 32 years old, it is still in remarkable shape, hence I am remarking.  I guess she could officially be called a 'survivor' now.

TLE and I headed out to the 'lido deck' once again Friday night to play Yahtzee.  On this night the dice favored moi and I won 4 out of 6 games.  Upon reentering the Newell we decided to watch the first episdoe of season 44 of Survivor (it recorded Wednesday night).  As always, they change it up just enough to keep it interesting, and we enjoyed it.  I think Jeff Probst must live full time in Fiji now....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

Soaking again.....

 7:25 am - Friday - March 3rd - GNHS - 44° F, 69% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I had new 'shoes' put on the front of the Newell.....↴

We were back to work Thursday.  There were no advance bookings so we opened at 9 am as we always do on such days.  There was no walkup business on this day, which is not surprising as there are very few people in the park right now, but there were a couple of inquiries.  Since it had rained Tuesday the UTV's all needed to be wiped down again, so I took care of that first.  After that was done I drove KRX #10 down to the fuel station to top off her fuel tank, and I was done....it was only 10:30 am.  We kept the office open for another 90 minutes, then closed her down as we always do if there are no rentals prior to 12 pm....no  point charging the boys in Colorado for us to sit there watching the sun move across the sky.

After we closed the office I spent about 30 minutes doing some more cleaning on the rear of the Newell.  I managed to get the back cleaned, and just past the engine bay door on the passenger side before calling it quits.  There is only the section between the passenger side engine bay door, and the passenger side window, and I should be able to get that done Friday.

TLE and I engaged in our fun putting contest for about an hour.  It takes TLE a while to warm up, but by the 3rd, or 4th match she beat me.  I think she's going to do much better in the putting contests at LPG&RVR* this summer!

Thursday was also the 11th day since my last outpatient surgery, and time to take out the 10 running stitches Dr. Jou applied at that time.  They came out easily, and now I am able to soak in the hot springs once again.  Around 3 pm that is just what TLE and I did.....

.....nothing like a hot soak for about 45 minutes to sooth the old joints!

There was no wind Thursday night so we headed out to the 'lido deck' to play a few games of Backgammon.  Of the 5 we played 3 came down to the last roll of the dice, which, on this evening, favored TLE as she took the 'rubber match' to win the evening 3 games to 2.  To make the evening even more special we had our first fire in a few weeks....the perfect end to a delightful day filled with cool temps, lots of sun, and a soak for good measure.

Now that my final stitches have been removed I can set up the golf drive net again, and hit some balls, as well as get my back into shape for golf this summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

*LPG&RVR = Likely Place Golf & RV Resort

Somewhere under the rainbow......

7:56 - Thursday - March 2nd - GNHS - 48° F, humidity 60%, wind 6 mph out of the west....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 66° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I had just arrived at Quechan Casino near Los Algodones when it began to rain....HARD.....↴

....and we woke up to rain Monday, three years later......↴

We had been up just a few minutes when it began to rain Monday morning, which was forecast.  High winds were also forecast for the same time period, but they never materialized.....thank goodness.  It rained for less than an hour, and then the sun came and went the rest of the day.  We kept expecting wind, but it never came....during the day time.  In the morning the wind was coming out of the south, but by 10 pm it was directly out of the north.....glad we stowed the patio awning, because that would have been bad.

Even though the winds never materialized during the day, it was bitter old all day long.  The only time it was not bitter cold was when I was dumping our black tank around 1 pm....the sun had come out from behind the this cloud cover, and made that task quite pleasant.  Nothing like good timing!

Near the end of the day it began to rain again.....the sun was hitting the landscape to the northwest, and suddenly a beautiful rainbow appeared, and we both ran outside to capture the moment....

TLE's picture

My picture

....I think I like TLE's picture better, what do you think?  Anyway, it was a nice way to end our GNHS day.  I'm hoping nurse TLE will agree to remove my stitches Thursday, as I have missed being able to soak in the hot springs the past month whilst recovering from my two outpatient surgeries.

TLE and I continue to be in good health, and have yet to be infected by the Wuhan flu in the three years since this all began.  We continue to enjoy the benefits of living in extremely rural America both for the sake of our health, and mental well being.  In just 5+ weeks we will be hauling anchor and heading back north to our summer port. at Likely Place Gold and RV Resort.

Right now we have no advance bookings for Thursday, or Friday, but have bookings both Saturday and Sunday.  Hope we get some walkups Thursday and Friday.  Time to get ready to open the COA office!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy birthday to her!

 7:39 am - Wednesday - March 1st - GNHS - 51° F, humidity 61%, wind 13 mph out of the south.....heavy cloud cover, raining today with a forecast high of 57° F.  The view this morning.....↴

......and on this date in 2008 TLE completed the purchase of our 1982 Newell Classic.  Ironically, she was delivered, brand new, to the original owner, Leonard Law of Denver, CO on this same day 41 years ago.  We have now owned her for 15 years, and lived full time in her for the past 12 years.....↴

2016

2009 - Creede, CO on the shores of the Rio Grande

2012 - Flaming Gorge

2008 - Olympic Peninsula

2012 - Near Seaside, OR

2010 - North of Ventura, CA on Rincon Parkway

2023 - GNHS

Elaine and I were talking last night how we have lived in our Newell full time since February 1, 2011.  For 12 years our 1982 Newell has been our untraditional home.  No matter where we may be at any given time, when we close the curtains at night, we are 'HOME'.  Our view changes from time to time, but we are always home.

In mid February of 2008 TLE and I set foot, for the first time, inside our 2008 Newell.  At that point owning her was just a dream in our hearts, but within two weeks of being introduced to her for the first time, she became our own on March 1, 2008.  At the time the U.S. was in a deepening recession/depression.  Property values were plunging daily, and within a couple of months all the equity in our home had evaporated, and yet we still managed to garner together the funds to buy her from her second owner, Fred Hornbacker, of Palm Desert, CA.  Acquiring her was the first step in our long range plan to retire, and be traveling the width and breadth of the U.S. in her on a full time basis.  Owning, and living in her has changed our lives for the better.  We are not the same people who tentatively moved out of our home of 25 years, leased out that home, and began our full time adventure back in early 2011.

Okay, enough reminiscing for now...what did we do on Monday, February 28th?  We haven't done a 'BIG' shopping in several weeks, and our freezer, pantry and refrigerator are getting a tad bare.  After washing the VW we headed out for the 45 minute drive into La Quinta arriving at the Home Depot around 10:30 am.  

I've been trying to update the tool bag in the VW to have all the tools, and materials needed to repair her when we are away from the trove of tools I keep in the trailer.  Everything on the Beetle is of the metric persuasion, so I have a selection of metric Allen wrenches, open/closed end metric wrenches, and metric sockets of the most common sizes needed to work on a 2001 VW Beetle.  The things I did not have in that tool bag, but needed, were electrical tape, zip ties, and a pair of Vice Grips, so I bought them.  Additionally, we needed some more quarter round trim for our upcoming flooring project.

Once that was done we headed over to the COSTCO fuel station to take on 7+ gallons of premium unleaded at $4.69/gallon.....it is going UP again....why I have no idea.  Then it was into COSTCO proper to buy a few thing we only buy there.  

By the time we finished the COSTCO shopping it was 11:30 am, and time for lunch.  There is this place called 'Burgers and Beer' (southwest chain)......

....we've driven by this place several times over the time we have been shopping at the La Quinta COSTCO, but never stopped in for lunch, so we decided this would be the day.....

....we decided to sit at the bar and have lunch there.  We both ordered a draft 'Mango Cart' brew.....16 oz for TLE, and 22 oz for moi......

 

....the place has a sports bar motif, and dozens of flat screen TVs playing tennis, college basketball, golf, etc.....

Not very full at 12 noon....still very slow service

.....what a great choice we made....brew wise!  Unfortunately the food did not live up to the quality of the beer.  Yelp gives them 3.5 stars on over 400 reviews, but we would not even be that high....2.5 to 3 stars is where we would be.  The hamburgers were not bad, just not memorable.  The service was slow, and the side Caesar salads we both ordered in lieu of the Steak Fries were under dressed.....not nearly enough Caesar dressing....without the dressing it is just Romaine lettuce and croutons.  Oh well, you can't always bat 1000, right?

Once we finished our disappointing lunches we headed south on Jefferson to the local Ralph's supermarket.  We prefer this store to all the others in the area as it is very high end, well stocked, has a great ambiance, and a Starbucks kiosk inside.....of course, you know what I bought, right?  A Grande Moca Frappuccino for the drive home! By the time we finished filling our shopping cart, and had passed through the checkout line it was 1:45 pm, so we knew we would be home around 2:30 pm, which we were.

We're in for another wind event Wednesday, so we've stowed our awnings, and are hunkering down as I speak.  Got good news from Kyle...we got our much delayed fuel delivery on Tuesday (we were down to less than 1/16th of a tank), and the new electric fan for the #8 KRX.  On the disappointing side, the new transmission for #9 KRX will not be in El Centro until March 26th, so that means she will be basically sidelined until near our departure date.

Speaking of departure dates, and our return to LPG&RVR, they are experiencing the wettest winter in about a decade.....lots of snow and wind this winter, and it continues as I write.  It will be interesting to see how things look when we arrive in mid April.

In closing, one of my favorite Beatle songs....

Happy birthday to our 1982 Newell Classic

Thanks for stopping by!