Clean bill of health (dental wise).....

7:42 am - Tuesday - November 14th - GNHS - 55° F, humidity 49%, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having coffee and pastries at Harden Coffee in Campbellsville, KY on a day off from Amazon.....↴

....we wore matching peacoats.

We had 9 am appointments at Dr. Eva Urena's dental office in Los Algodones Monday, so we were up by 6:30 am.....  

The sun was just rising when we awoke

We were in the VW at 7:45 am heading to the local Speedway fuel station to top off our tank before making the 15 minute drive to the border parking lot.  We managed to snag a great premium unleaded price per gallon of $3.97....the best we have found in over 2 years!  From there we headed to the border parking lot where we were separated from $6 in cash to park.  It's been $6 for years now....one of the few things on which inflation has had no effect.

After a quick 10 minute, 4 block walk we arrived at Dr. Urena's office at 8:30 am.  Thinking we had 30 minutes before our appointments began I went to the bathroom, only to return to the waiting room to find TLE had already been called for her checkup and cleaning.  Within 25 minutes she returned with a clean bill of health, and now it was my turn.....I haven't returned with a clean bill of health in a long time, but was hoping for the best as I sat in the dentist chair.  Within 25 minutes I, too, was done, and I too received a CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH!

After paying our meager $80 bill ($40/person) TLE and I began our walk back to the USA re-entry point arriving there 10 minutes later to find NO line.  We walked right in, handed over our passports, and were on the final 5 minute walk to the Beetle.  It was just after 9:30 am when we got in the car, but it was really 8:30 am California time.  Before we got on I-8 for the first leg of our drive home we stopped at the Quechan Casino to get Starbuck's Frappuccinos (mocha moi, and vanilla bean for TLE) for the drive home.

After exiting I-8 on US-111 we headed into Brawley to stop at the local Walmart Supercenter to pick up a few things, and within 30 minutes were back on the road for home where we arrived WITHOUT incident around 11:15 am.  After unpacking, and putting away the groceries I settled in to catching up on some of the YouTube channels I follow.  I did spend some time masking off the door latch for the trailer in order to apply some black gloss Rustoleum to rust which had been there since Seal Rocks RV Cove back in 2020.....yes, I know, I am a procrastinator from time to time.....

It turned out well

....we enjoyed our first sunset fire on the 'firepit deck'.....it has been way, way too long since we had a wood fire.....

....from the 'firepit deck' we transitioned over to the 'dining/game deck' where TLE prepared stir fry for our dinner.  I took a couple of videos to show her process.....

TLE doing stir fry in the Cowboy Wok

The finishing touches

And there it is....DONE!

TLE used her Vita Clay pot to steam the white rice

The finished dish

......there was thinly sliced beef, broccoli, and ginger on a bed of sticky white rice.....aka: Ginger beef and broccoli stir fry.  Food just seems to taste better when it is cooked, and consumed outdoors...don't you agree?...

The fire is still burning 2 hours later

....as we were finishing our dinner TLE observed that it was time for another round of  'Phase 10', to which I agreed.  She hadn't forgotten that I bested her last week.....lol....

....the game was neck and neck for the first 6 phases, but then I caught her with all her cards still in her 'hand' twice in a row to take a commanding two phase lead, which I never relinquished.  It is not often I beat her in 'Phase 10', but two times in a row?  I'm on a roll...lol!

We retired to the Newell salon for the evening around 7:30 pm, and watched the final episode of 'Morse' on BritBox.  It had a surprise ending, which I will not divulge, just in case you decide to watch this high quality series about a British Chief Inspector (detective).

Thanks for stopping by!

The 'Holy Grail" of the nomadic lifestyle..."The Uneventful".....

 11:47 am - Monday - November 13th - GNHS - 76° F, humidity 25%, wind 5 mph out of the south by southwest.......partially cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 81° F.  Just returned from our overnight 23 hour, trip to Yuma, AZ....read about our dental visit tomorrow.  On this date in 2015 we had just arrived at Rincon Parkway for a two week stay right on the ocean.....and I mean, RIGHT ON THE OCEAN......↴

Looking out the Newell bedroom windows

Since we transitioned from our sticks and bricks, workaday lives back in February of 2011 to embrace the nomadic way of life we have spent the intervening almost 13 years worshipping at the altar of "the uneventful"...the Holy Grail of the nomadic lifestyle.  So far I can report that our devotion has paid dividends, and we have only experienced the "eventful" a hand full of times over 80,000+ miles of travel, by both VW, and Newell.  Frankly, the "eventful" times have been minor in comparison what some of our friends have endured over that same period of time.  Any time we begin a trip that will hoist us over the 100 mile mark I wonder if this trip will be the one when something goes wrong, and that brings me to our trip to Yuma, AZ Sunday afternoon.  Would the 212 mile round trip be of the preferred "uneventful" kind, or the "eventful" kind?

We woke up a little after 7 am Sunday knowing we did not have to be on the road earlier than 12 pm, so we watched some English Premier Soccer, and then the first half of an NFL game outdoors before getting dressed for our trip....copious amounts of coffee were consumed......

.....the soccer match featured Chelsea vs. Manchester City, and was it ever a 'barn burner'!  The score seesawed back and forth the entire match ending in a tie 4-4.....8 goals in a futbol match is quite a few.

We were dressed, packed, and on the road southward by 12:15 pm, and arrived, WITHOUT INCIDENT, at the Shiloh Inn in Yuma right around 3 pm Arizona time....they are on Mountain Time, so are one hour ahead of GNHS.  We had a dinner date with our good friends Rich and Marnie at Da Boyz Italian Cuisine (4 stars on 517 reviews - Yelp) in old town Yuma at 4:30 pm, so we were able to check into the hotel, and rest before heading out for our dinner date.....Da Boyz is right next store to our favorites Yuma brewery....Prison Hill......

....Rich and Marnie preceded our arrival by a few minutes, and they had chosen the alfresco dining option....perfect!  Their specialty is pizza, but we both had had pizza the previous two nights, so TLE and I chose sandwiches.....Jodi's Signature chicken sandwich for moi, and for TLE their ham and provolone sandwich.  We ordered side salads to start.....

.....there is never a shortage of conversation topics with Rich and Marnie, and we talked non-stop as we ate our delicious, by the way, meals.  By the time we paid the check it was almost 7 pm.  We took a short walk up and down Main Street continuing our conversation, but taking a few pictures in the process.....

The requisite 'usie'

Rich and Marnie like to take foot shots around something interesting on whatever sidewalk we may find ourselves

....by the time we bid our adieus, and 'until next times' it was 7 pm, and time to head back to the hotel.  Rich and Marnie winter in Yuma most every year now, and we are always excited to reconnect with them whenever the opportunity avails itself.  Thank you Rich and Marnie for a great evening of food and conversation!

We were in bed by 10 pm in anticipation of our early (9 am) dental appointments Monday morning in Los Algodones, both hoping for "uneventful" checkups, and teeth cleaning.

Thanks for stopping by!

More than expected.....

7:43 am - Sunday - November 11th - GNHS - 51° F, humidity 33%, wind 3 mph out of the west....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were celebrating another sunset at Rincon Parkway (just north of Ventura, CA)......↴ 

.....a very magical evening.

When we went to bed Friday night we had two bookings for Saturday.  When we awoke we had 4 bookings, and by the time the morning was finished we had sent out 7 RZRs (5 actual RZRs, and two 2 seat Generals).  Whenever we have that much rolling stock out in the field I get nervous.  I'm like a 'cat on a hot tin roof', so to speak, expecting the dreaded phone call at any moment requesting a rescue, or field repair.  And why not?  That was pretty much the case last year.  The more RZRs you rent, the more the probability increases that you will get that call.  Of course, there is the variable which has been added this year.....we are renting NEW equipment, and that, apparently, was the equalizer....every single unit returned intact, and there were no dreaded phone calls.

There was a problem, however.  Before we closed the office Friday night I made sure we had two clean RZRs for our scheduled rentals.  Because there were two additional bookings overnight I had to get busy washing two more RZRs first thing.  The three all days rentals from Friday were filthy, and trying to clean them with compressed air was out of the question, so I just began washing.  As I would deliver one more clean RZR to the staging area I would find out there was another walkup booking, so back I would head to the wash station to clean another RZR.  In all I washed 5 RZRs first thing Saturday morning, and then when Saturday's rentals started to return I began washing those.  In all I washed a total of 8 RZRs before the sun set Saturday, and there are still a few more to wash.  Fortunately, we do not have any bookings for Sunday, and as I type this morning (Sunday) there are still no bookings, but Hunter and I made sure everything that went out Saturday was fueled, just in case we have some walkups Sunday morning.  We have 3 that are clean, and I can wash more if need be, but I do not think that will be an issue, because, as I continue to write the Sunday vacuum has been activated, and the weekenders are heading back to their workaday lives.  Within hours GNHS will be a ghost town once again.  As we get further into the winter season we will be getting more Sunday bookings, but for now 90+% of our bookings are on Friday and Saturday.

After closing down the office I took another of those long, hot showers then retired to the 'fire pit deck' with TLE for Happy Hour drinks, and some suitable music courtesy the Etta James Channel on Pandora.  We were going to have a fire, but it is not quite cool enough in the early evenings to light a fire.  The time is coming, and we are prepared with 5 bundles of our favorite fire wood from Borrego Springs.  

As I was fueling the last RZR I got these pictures of the sunset afterglow....

....and as I was locking up the fuel station I noticed we are down to 1/4 tank of gasoline....time to order another delivery before next weekend....

......we're heading to Yuma, AZ later today (Sunday) for our annual dental appointments in Los Algodones Monday morning.  We'll have an early dinner with Rich and Marnie Aaron for whom we worked at Ramona Oaks RV Resort back in 2019.  That is still one of our most favorite workamping jobs ever.

Thanks for stopping by!

Uneventful.....

 7:44 am - Saturday - November 11th - GNHS - 48° F, humidity 30%, wind 4 mph out of the west......crystal clear, blue sunny skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were visiting the Maker's Mark distillery in Loretto, Kentucky......↴

Before we began our work day I asked TLE to help me put the canopy cover back on its frame, and once that was done I attached the red wall panel, put the picnic table cover on again, and redeployed both umbrellas.  I would wait until after our three all day rentals left to raise the sail shades back into position.

We were on the job before 8:30 am Friday, and our customers showed up right at 8:30 am for their 9 am rentals....I wish all our customers were that punctual!  With 30 minutes they were all (3) on their way.  I took care of a couple of minor repairs to our unrented units....replaced a defunct fire extinguisher, and reinstalled a couple of the scissor jack mounts as they were no remaining in their desired positions on the roll cage.  

Once that was done I began to work on installing the new, heavier duty rope we had purchased at Home Depot on Tuesday on the two 'sail shades'.  Within a couple of hours I had replaced all four ropes, and had the sail shades back in position.....

I used large 'safety pins' to connect  the two triangles, and now there is no gap through which the sun can still shine

.....the 3 all day rentals all returned within 10 minutes of each other around 4:40 pm, almost dark, so we just fueled them and parked them.  We'll wash them Saturday morning.  And with that we put another uneventful rental day into the books.  Speaking of the sunset, we got a long, and beautiful one Friday......

.....after parking the rental units I headed inside for a long, hot shower, then retired to the 'lido deck' to sip some Scotch, smoke a cigar, and listen to Classic Vinyl on Sirius/XM Radio.

Thanks for stopping by!

Involuntary confinement, again......

7:07 am - Friday - November 10th - GNHS - 55° F, humidity 35%, wind 4 mph out of the west by northwest......ahhh....NO wind today....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Campbellsville, KY working at Amazon.....this is how our 'lido deck' looked then.....↴ 

The Santa Anas which began Wednesday continued without abatement throughout the entire day Thursday.  When TLE and I were outside it was to resecure things so they would not blow down the hill to the Salton Sea, otherwise we were inside trying to ignore the rocking and rolling of the Newell.  Fortunately, we had no rentals Thursday, but we did finally get a visit from our Polaris representative who spent the afternoon with TLE, Hunter and I going over their software programs, and how to use them.  The built in trackers on the individual RZR units are finally working, which was my main concern.  Now, if someone breaks down we can find them.

Fritz (the Polaris guy) arrived at GNHS around 1 pm, and suggested we go to lunch at the Ski Inn while we discussed the Polaris Advantage program.  By that time the winds were abating a tad, and we were able to dine alfresco in their large outdoor dining area.  By the time we returned to GNHS it was after 3 pm, and we then spent the final two hours doing computer/software stuff, and getting a good orientation to how things are supposed to work.  The best thing about meeting with Fritz is knowing that we now have someone to call, and ask dumb questions.....lol.

That was the highlight of an otherwise long, windy day.  Thankfully, as I write there is a barely discernable breeze coming in the passenger side salon window.  The absence of ferociously blowing winds is palpable, but it is a good palpable.  We have three all day rentals going out today (Friday) at 9 am, so it is time to get ready for a work day, and begin putting our 'lido deck' back together.

Thanks for stopping by!

The winds of November.....

 6:48 am - Thursday - November 9th - GNHS - 59° F, humidity 31%, wind 25 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, WINDY skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I visited the hot springs south of Bishop, CA called Keough Hot Springs.....↴

.....kind of a funky, off the beaten path kind of place....our kind of place.

The view this morning......↴

The current Santa Ana wind condition began Wednesday morning, but the winds were not too bad most of the day.  They were bad enough that I took down my flag, closed the umbrellas, and took down the 'sail shades', but not bad enough to take down the dining canopy.  In fact, as the afternoon wore on the winds diminished to the point where there was NO wind at 5 pm, and very little at 10 pm when we went to bed, but they came back with a ferocity overnight, which forced us to take down the canopy this (Thursday) morning, just a few minutes ago.  The weather guessers predict, no doubt, with the help of a 'Magic 8 ball', the winds will begin to diminish around 1 pm.....we hope the 'Magic 8 ball' is right....lol.

We had plans to do another soak in the hot pool, and take a walk, but the Santa Ana winds had other plans for us.  Instead, we spent most of the day cooped up in the Newell out of the wind.  I would venture out for brief periods of time to putter around in the trailer.  In fact, for the first time since we arrived I got out our Shop Vac and vacuumed the entire floor.

As I have done when confined to the Newell interior due to heat, or wind, I caught up watching the various YouTube channels I follow, while TLE read.  There were at least 2 naps that I recall, and a great pastrami sandwich prepared by the loving hands of TLE for lunch, otherwise we were inside pretty much all day, and it appears that this involuntary confinement will continue throughout Thursday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

The nomadic wrinkle....

6:57 am - Wednesday - November 8th - GNHS - 62° F, 43% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were finishing our drive from Baker, NV to Carson City, NV just at sunset.  TLE got this amazing picture.....↴

Life in general, when you live, like most folks, in static location, can be difficult, but the nomadic life has its own set of wrinkles, and obstacles one must learn to deal with.  When we first hit the road back in 2012 I was not taking any supplements, and had no prescriptions about which to worry, but that all changed in late 2017 when I had my blood pressure related stroke.  From that point until the present I take a daily blood pressure medication, and a Baby Aspirin.  Since my clogged artery induced heart attack in May of 2019 I've added a Lipitor to my daily medication, and since the beginning of the Wuhan flu I've added daily supplements to boost my immune system.  I write all that to say this.....transferring prescriptions from one pharmacy to another can be daunting at times, and this latest transfer from the Rite Aid in Alturas to the COSTCO Pharmacy in La Quinta was way more difficult, and exhausting than normal.  When we left LPG&RVR October 12th I had two 90 day refills remaining on my present annual prescription from Dr. Mulvihill, and the current 90 day supply will be exhausted in just a few days.  I began the process of transferring my prescription last Wednesday by going into the La Quinta COSTCO Pharmacy with my prescription bottles to have them transferred from Rite Aid.  In the past it has been pretty seamless, but this time there were many phone calls by me, by the COSTCO Pharmacist, and by the Rite Aid Pharmacist to get it done, and it finally happened late Monday afternoon, and I mean LATE Monday afternoon....around 20 minutes before both Pharmacies closed for the day.  I needed to pick them up Tuesday, as we were already going to the La Quinta COSTCO to pickup TLE's new prescription glasses, and some medication for her.  To have to make that drive again on Friday, or Saturday would be very inconvenient.

When we awoke Tuesday morning I was still awaiting the text confirmation that my prescriptions were ready.  COSTCO had promised they would be ready early afternoon, so our plan was to head into La Quinto around 11 am, regardless of whether I had gotten my text messages from the Pharmacy.  When we left at 11 am I was still waiting, but we had a few stops to make before COSTCO so no worries....hopefully.

Our first stop was at a local nursery (Bob Williams) so TLE could shop for some plants such as cilantro, flat leaf parsley, jalapeño pepper, Anaheim chili, bibb lettuce, garlic, chive, Rosemary, and one geranium.  Next up was Home Depot, and by the time we finished there it after 1 pm, so we headed to the local In 'N Out Burger place for lunch......

You can still get a good lunch for under $20

Do those In 'N Out Burgers seem a tad smaller to you?

.....just about the time we sat down to eat I got the COSTCO text messages regarding my prescriptions....they were READY!  On a side note, for those of you who are In 'N Out Burger aficionados, does it seem that the burgers are a little smaller than they were a couple of years ago?  TLE says they are smaller, and I think they are, too, but the difference seems so slight I can't be sure.  To be sure, even if it is a little smaller, it is still a great burger, and those fries are that for which one might die, in a figurative sense, of course.  Anyway, if you have any knowledge of whether this is true, or just our imaginations, let me know.

At any rate, after lunch we headed to COSTCO where we first fueled up the VW again at $4.89/gallon for premium unleaded, then headed into the store to pick up our prescriptions.  Next up was a stop at the local Ralph's Supermarket to do a big shopping.  We were on our way back home by 3:15 pm, arriving without incident around 4 pm.

I occurs to me that I have not provided any pictures of the Polaris 2 seat Generals we are renting this year.  They are quite different from the 2 seat Kawasaki KRXs we rented last year....

.....I liked the ride of the KRXs last year, but these Generals have a smoother ride, are way more comfortable, plus they have a pickup/dump bed, and a winch to boot.

After our 5 hour shopping trip to La Quinta we were both tired, and decided to forego the 'viewing deck', and 'dining/game night deck'.  In the end it was a successful nomadic day for TLE and I.....wrinkles, or not.

Thanks for stopping by!