Busier than expected.....

 6:55 am - Saturday - November 25th - GNHS - 54° F, humidity 39%, wind 5 mph out of the north......I would say the wind speed be reported is highly inaccurate.....I would say it is closer to 20 mph, and has been for several hours.  The wind direction seems more northeast.  At any rate is is clear, albeit there is a lot of dust in the air, and the forecast high is 71° F.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were waiting for our Americano coffee orders at Espresso 101 in Waldport, OR....↴

Friday began with three confirmed all day bookings, and by the end of the day we had done a total of 4 all day rentals, and two 2 hour rentals....it was a great day for Colorado Outback Adventures with three walkup rentals.

When we've got 6 units out in the field it is all hands on deck.  Between TLE, Hunter and I we got the four all day rentals out the door and on the road by 9:05 am, and then it was time to sit and enjoy the ever changing view of the Chocolate Mountains....

....around 2 pm we got a call from one of our all day rentals that they were 'lost' and couldn't seem to find their way home, so we advised them to sit still, and I would drive out, find them, and lead them back to the park.  Of course, you know, this scenario does not work well when the customer does not 'SIT STILL' in one place.   Apparently, right after I left they began moving again, so by the time I got to where I thought they would be, they were no longer there.  The satellite trackers update every 5-10 minutes, so the program was still showing them where they were before the began moving again.  Thinking maybe I had not driven far enough out I continued heading further west.  After still no sighting I stopped and looked at the tracking program on my phone again to find them behind me now, and further north now....almost to the canal road.....doh!  Anyway, to make a long story shorter, I headed north to the canal trail surmising they would eventually make the canal trail and take it back to the park.  It took me about 10 minutes of driving to get to the canal trail, and within another 10 minutes I had caught up with them.  Apparently they had hooked up with a group of Jeeps who were heading back to the park, so they just tagged along, never calling us to tell us they where on their way back.  I guess the long and the short of it is everything turned out well, and I got to spend about an hour racing around the desert....lol.

While I was gone TLE and Hunter sent the two 2 hour rentals out to complete our rental day, and by 4 pm all six began to return.  I began washing RZRs as fast as I could as we have 5 rentals (3 RZRs, and 2 two seat Generals) on Saturday already booked, and needed to have at least three of our rentals cleaned, and fueled for first thing Saturday morning.  I finished the 3rd RZR just at 5 pm, and by then it was too dark to have washed another.

Hunter and I quickly staged the 3 clean RZRs for Saturday morning, and closed the office.  In all I worked almost 9 hours Friday, and Saturday promises to be even busier.  No doubt there will be a couple of walkups then, too.  As I write the winds have returned after just a three day respite.  The weather forecast is still not acknowledging that the winds are over 20 mph....they still show them around 5-6 mph.

Thanks for stopping by!

You can't always get what you want.....

6:53 am - Friday - November 24th - GNHS - 57° F, humidity 64%, wind 4 mph out of the northeast......partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this date in 2020 I was working a 3 hour shift at Seal Rocks RV Cove in Coastal Oregon.....face diapers were still in vogue then....↴ 

Thursday (Thanksgiving) was to be a day off work for us as we were driving into the Pomona Valley to partake in Thanksgiving festivities with three of our kids.  There was only one 1/4 day (2 hour) rental Thursday so Hunter was tasked with handling that.  We planned to be on the road for the 2 hour drive around 11 am, when we got a call from Casey, one of our bosses, advising that the 2 hour rentals guys had broken the RZR...literally.  They had managed to sheer off the right front steering arm, and had to be rescued.....doh!  This meant we would not be driving into town for Thanksgiving with our kids.  While Hunter headed out to retrieve the customers, and access the damage to our RZR TLE and I remained at the office to provide Hunter with logistical support....in other words, help him find the customers the the vast BLM expanse which surrounds us.

Hunter found them within 45 minutes, and returned with the 3 guys round 12:45 pm, leaving the broken RZR for later retrieval.  Around 1:15 pm he and Kyle began the drive out to retrieve the RZR, and by 2:30 pm they had returned dragging the broken RZR.....the right wheel would not track straight with a broken steering arm, so it spent most of the return trip toed inward, and kind of dragging through the sand...

That doesn't look right....lol!

Those two shiny metal pieces are supposed to be connected

......the steering rod is easy to replace, if you have one in stock, which we do not, so we'll have to order a replacement, and that will take 10-14 days, so now we're down to 9 operating RZRs, two of which will be repaired and back in service soon.  The 3rd one, the one that was totaled back in early October, is still down at COYNE waiting to be seen by the Polaris guys.

At any rate, with that accident our plans for Thanksgiving with our kids were dashed, and we had to come up with a plan 'B'.....TLE pulled out a London Broil from the freezer for me to grill for our Thanksgiving dinner.  In the interim TLE and I celebrated the end of another GNHS day by sitting on the 'viewing deck' for about 45 minutes, then moved to the 'firepit deck' for a Thanksgiving fire, then to the 'dining/gaming deck' for dinner and game night.  TLE provided sides of a baked potato, and spinach, and a bottle of Catena Malbec......

.....while it was not turkey with all the fixins, it was our impromptu Thanksgiving meal....that London Broil was absolutely amazing!

We closed out our Thanksgiving celebration with a spirited, mindless game of Yahtzee.  TLE and I both won 3 games, but TLE won the tie breaker with the most total points, beating me by 20.  To cap off the evening we retired into the Newell interior around 7:45 pm to watch recorded episodes of 'Survivor' and 'The Amazing Race'.

In closing, a thoughtful song from the Rolling Stones.....

Thanks for stopping by!

Phased out.....

7:20 am - Thanksgiving - November 23rd - GNHS - 51° F, humidity 50%, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast.....cloudy today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2017 we were waking up on Thanksgiving in Desert View at the Grand Canyon....loved how the sun would light up the 'Watchtower' each morning.....↴ 

Colorado Outback Adventures (COA) had just three bookings (2 half day, and one quarter day) for Thanksgiving Eve, so just TLE and Hunter worked for most of the day.  I worked an hour at the end of the day washing two of the three RZRs, but otherwise I was a man of leisure for most of the day.  The 3rd RZR (the two hour one) looked as clean when it returned as when it left at 2 pm.  Hunter and I fueled up those three, and I washed the two very dirty all day rentals.

Since the two 1/2 day rentals were not departing until 11 am TLE had me get out her sewing machine from its cubby hole in the trailer so she could repair the tear in the Ozark Trail dining canopy resulting from our most recent wind event.  Within minutes she had finished, and we were reinstalling it on the metal framing....the last piece in restoration our 'lido deck'.....

 

The repair

Before repair

After repair

.....after a couple of days balmy breezes its hard to believe how bad the winds were.  Thankfully the norm here in the winter is gentle, balmy breezes, and 70° days.  I could never live in a place where it was windy ALL the time!

As is my habit on lazy days like Wednesday I puttered around in the trailer, going through my wall cabinets to delete anything which has not been touched by human hands in over a year.  By the time I finished there was much more room for the things I do need on a regular basis.  I've been doing a lot of that lately.  I spent about an hour last week going through all my clothing, and filling up a donation bag full of t-shirts, pants, shorts, etc. that I have not worn in a long, long time.  Now my focus must turn to everything else that is in the trailer, as we have way too much stuff.  My tools are pretty much off limits as I bought them for a reason, and I do use 95% of them on a regular basis.  Having the right tools on this nomadic journey makes life much more pleasant.  When repairs are needed I have the right tool for each job.

As the clock ticked toward 4 pm I asked TLE if we would be watching the Chocolate Mountains light up, to which she replied in the affirmative, so we convened to the 'viewing deck' with music, adult beverages, and a cigar for moi.  From there we transitioned to the 'dining/gaming deck' where I grilled some chicken thighs on the Sea-B-Que, to which TLE added sides of smashed potatoes, and a chopped salad......

....still stinging from two straight 'Phase 10' defeats TLE insisted that we play another game of the same.  On this occasion the cards favored her just a tad more than I.....she won on the 10th Phase by 40 points.

Another nice day in the life.....thanks for stopping by!

Redeployment.....

 7:15 am - Wednesday - Thanksgiving Eve - November 22nd - 48° F, humidity 47%, wind 3 mph out of the west by northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny, windless skies today with a forecast high of 75° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were celebrating Thanksgiving at the Grand Canyon (Desert View), and she had prepared some snacks for us to enjoy on the 'lido deck' before our Thanksgiving dinner....↴

Before I get into Tuesday's happenings I need to bring you up to date on my recent dermatological biopsy performed a couple of weeks ago by Dr. Jou.  When I hadn't heard from the doctor last Thursday (two weeks after the biopsy) I called the office to find out what was what, and was told they had not yet received the results from the Lab.  Initially I was reminded of the old adage...."no news is good news", but who knows, right?  Well, on Monday, while we were driving home from La Quinta TLE commented that we still hadn't heard from Dr. Jou.....while those words were still hanging in the air, my phone began to ring, and it was Dr. Jou.  Usually, when it is good news his nurse calls.  In the past Dr. Jou has always called with the bad news, so as I answered the phone I was a little apprehensive, but within seconds he informed me the test results were 'NEGATIVE' for any type of skin cancer.....whew!  No excisions for moi this year!  Now all that remains is for good news from my cardiologist when we visit him on December 5th and I will have completed the trifecta of 'a clean bill of health' for this year!

There were only two half day rentals on the books for Tuesday so TLE and I handled those two, and gave Hunter the day off, which would have been a day off anyway as we do not normally open on Tuesdays, but it is Thanksgiving week, and there are a lot of people in the park.  Our customers arrived around 9:30 am to begin the 'check out' process, and by 10 am were on their way for their 4 hour tour.  A little clarification of terms may be in order here.  Polaris calls the process of getting our customers ready to begin their rental the 'checkout process', and when they return it is called the 'check in process'.  Anyway, I gave them the polite don't drive faster than 45 mph, and no rapid accelerations speech to which they seemed receptive, and as it turns out they were.  I received no notifications for speeding, but about 14 for rapid accelerations between the two machines.  Thankfully there were no breakdowns, and they all returned on time at 2 pm.  They will be going out again on Wednesday, so I cautioned them both regarding the rapid accelerations, and they apologized.  Well, at least now they know we really do know what they are doing, right?

During the 4 hour rentals I began to put the 'lido deck' back together, and got everything redeployed except for the dining canopy, which has a small wind related tear in it, to be repaired by TLE Wednesday....

....at any rate, things were pretty much back to normal by 4 pm, so TLE and I retired to the 'viewing deck' to watch the Chocolate Mountains light up.  In the process we were treated to a moonrise.....we have 1/2 a moon right now with a full moon expected next Tuesday evening.....

....I received a battery backup module for our Starlink router via UPS Tuesday afternoon, which I installed shortly thereafter.  Now if there are power outages the router will remain unaffected, and we will continue to have internet for up to 2 hours.... 

....we had an number of power outages at LPG&RVR last year (lightning related), and two many in succession is not a good thing for the router. In fact it is possible for the router to reset to factory specs after 5, or 6 of those in a short period of time, and that is exactly what happened at LPG&RVR last summer as the power company attempted to get things back online after a lightning strike.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rock 'N Roll.....

7:13 am - Tuesday - November 21st - GNHS - 59° F, 41% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, windless skies today with a forecast high of 77° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were dining at Rubio's Coastal Grill for the first time in 21 months....other than Tony's Crab Shack in Bandon, OR these are the best fish tacos ever.....↴

The pantry and refrigerator were about as bare as I remember them being in a long time, so it was time for a trip into La Quinta to remedy that problem.  Additionally, we have been here a month, and it was time for another Supercuts visit.  However, the most important reason for driving into La Quinta was to have lunch with our daughter, Meredith, at La Quinta Brewing Company in Old Town La Quinta.  We left around 9 am and found the still blowing Santa Ana winds making the Salton Sea look like a wind tossed ocean.....

.....here is what our wind tossed 'lido deck' looked like Monday morning.....

.....we arrived, without incident, at the La Quinta Supercuts just after 10 am, and within minutes I was in the stylists chair getting my ears lowered.  From there we headed to COSTCO to pickup a few things, and considering it is still 4 days until Thanksgiving it was a madhouse.  It was around 10:45 am when we entered COSCTO and our lunch appointment with Meredith was at 11:30 am.....so we needed to be on the road to the brewery by 11:20 am.  Every single checkout line was 100' long, and I was not sure we could get through the line, and then fight the quite heavy traffic just to get out of the parking lot, and make the 5 mile drive over to the brewery, but we did, arriving there at exactly 11:30 am.

Unfortunately, Meredith had been delayed a little at one of her appointments, so she did not arrive until 11:50 am, but it is all good, since we were not in a hurry.  While we waited we ordered a couple of brews, and sat outside enjoying them, and awaiting Meredith's arrival.....

By the way, the haircut was mahvelous!

......by the time we finished our lunches, and bid our adieus to Meredith it was well after 1 pm, and we still had Trader Joe's, Home Depot, and Ralph's stops to make before we began our drive back to GNHS.  By the time we packed the rest of our big shopping into the hatch of the Beetle it was after 3 pm, and we were right in the middle of the Coachella Valley rush hour.  It's not as bad as L.A. traffic, but it is bad, nonetheless.  The drive home was slow, but uneventful, and we were home around 4:10 pm, none the worse for wear.

One thing I have not written about is weekend traffic here at GNHS.  Our RZR parking area is right next to the propane station, and people are always attempting to take high speed shortcuts in their side by sides through our lot, or some big lumbering Class A motorhome tris to do the same, but at lower speed, of course, so I block it off with the 5 traffic cones we carry with us.  Usually this is not an issue until Thursday night, but since this is Thanksgiving week, folks have been arriving since Sunday afternoon, and we've already had several large motorhomes trying to make a shortcut through our lot.  Around 6 pm, well after sunset, I spied a large 40' motorhome towing a flatbed trailer enter the lot, and I knew he would not be able to turn around, so I had to go out and explain it was not a shortcut, and move the cones for him to finish the shortcut.  There was barely room for him to squeeze in between the RZRs.....

.....I did manage to get a sunset picture, and it was beautiful, as always.....

...when we arrived home from La Quinta the winds had mostly abated, but around 10 pm they came again, and last night was as bad as I can remember with the Newell rocking and rolling like never before.  However, as I write this morning (Tuesday) they have finally been vanquished, and all is well again.  Time to put the 'lido deck' back together!

Thanks for stopping!

Be skeptical.....

7:16 am - Monday - November 20th - GNHS - 60° F, humidity 25%, wind 17 mph out of the north by northwest.....yup, another wind event last night, and continuing into this morning....forecast high for today is 76° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were enjoying our 9th, and final sunset at Rincon Parkway....the sky was on fire......↴

We began our workday Sunday with one all day booking, but by the time 10 am came and went we had 2 all day rentals, and 2 half day rentals on the books....our best Sunday this season, so far!  The new trackers about which I wrote yesterday are working wonderfully, and being able to keep track of our customers, and their driving habits is helping us to keep a 'leash' on them.  Of the four rentals Sunday only one customer exceeded 45 mph, and that was one time at 47 mph.....not bad.  Now that they (our customers) know we monitoring them on a minute by minute basis they are driving much more conservatively, and as a result (I believe) all four rentals came back without incident.

In between the flurry of morning activity and the end of the rental day I spent time shortening the flag staffs on all the RZRs.  The fiberglass shafts are just too long, and because of that they whip around too much, and eventually break.  I shortened one a couple of weeks ago, and haven't had any issue with that one, so I shortened all of them 12", which should decrease the whip enough to prevent undo stress on the staffs.  I also washed one more RZR, and cleaned a couple more air cleaners.  Otherwise I was ensconced in my anti gravity chair watching football most of the afternoon.

Just after we checked in our final customer around 5 pm the wind began to blow out of the north by northwest....not a good sign...that's where the Santa Anas come from.  And when that wind is warm you know for sure what you're going to get.  They blew gently at first, but by 8 pm they were increasing in velocity so I took down the flag, took down the umbrellas, took down the wind chimes, took down the red wall on the dining canopy, and folded up the putting greens.  The forecast was for continued winds up to 18 mph, which is not too bad, but once again the weather guessers were wildly inaccurate.  In retrospect we should have taken down the dining canopy right then, as well as the 'sail shades', and should have been a tad more skeptical of the forecast.  By 2 am the winds were gusting over 30 mph, and ultimately by 4 am TLE and I were outside taking down the 'sail shades, and the dining canopy, and removing the tire covers that were almost ready to blow away.  Nothing like being up at 4 am, outside being blown around like rag dolls whilst trying to save your 'lido deck'.  We've been through this scenario several times over the almost 13 years of full time living in the Newell, and we have both learned to do what needs to be done without getting flustered, or out of sorts.  We were probably outside less than 10 minutes, but it seemed like an hour....lol!

As I write the winds have abated to around 10-15 mph, but if we are to give an credence to the weather guessers we are supposed to get more wind over 20 mph until late morning....we'll see.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracking.....

6:54 am - Sunday - November 19th - GNHS - 56° F, humidity 89%, wind 5 mph out of the northwest......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were enjoying our 8th consecutive spectacular Rincon Parkway sunset......the sun kissing the ocean never gets old......↴ 

Since we had no rental booked for Sunday we deferred to Hunter to open the office for a few hours to see if we would get any walkups.  In the interim, TLE and I spent the morning on the 'lido deck' watching college football games....

....I've been fiddling around the with positioning of our two 'putting greens' on the 'lido deck', but have had difficulty finding the perfect spots for each.  Our newest 'putting green' is just a long putt, but the trick, and also its purpose, is to get you to putt the ball in a straight line, which requires it be placed on level, even ground.  I believe I have finally found the spot meeting those guidelines, plus the ball return works perfectly now....

.....we still use the 'putting green' we bought this time last year, but it has been particularly hard to find a spot flat enough to work.  As with the SKLZ green, I was finally able to find a spot on the artificial turf where there is only a slight right to left break.....

.....the board at the end of the 'putting green' is there to prevent any errant putts from rolling under the Newell....lol....it works well....lol.

When they trimmed the large evergreen tree behind the fence they left all the pine needles, and other cuttings on the ground, and it was a big mess, so TLE and I raked it all into a pile for Kyle to pickup later in the week with the Case loader/backhoe, and haul it away....

.....it was around 12:45 pm (Hunter had closed the office at 12 pm with no rentals) when I noticed some folks drive up, park and walk up to the office, so I walked out and asked if I could help.  Within 5 minutes TLE and I were scrambling to send out a RZR on a 4 hour tour, which meant we would be on the clock until almost 5 pm.  Within 15 minutes of their departure we had another walkup for an all day rental on Sunday, which we booked.....you just never know!

I stayed busy using compressed air to clean the air filters on the remaining RZRS, which is a dirty, dusty job.  It is a little more difficult on the new RZRs we are using this year as you must remove both back seats, then the firewall panel, then unclip the door behind which the air filter resides.  From beginning to end it takes about 10+ minutes per RZR. Reinstalling the back seats is the hard part.

Once again our 1/2 day rental returned on time, without event....we love the uneventful!  The new trackers we have on these RZRs do more than just give us their location, and we just learned this recently.  The trackers give us their real time speed, direction, and send us notifications if there are hard accelerations, donuts are being spun, or if the RZR has exceeded 45 mph.  We love this tool, and we use it to keep our customers somewhat restrained in their driving habits.  We notify them up front that we know exactly where they are at all times, we don't want them to exceed 45 mph, and that we will know instantly if they do, and if they are spinning donuts, or are doing hard accelerations.  We are hoping this will result in few 'events' this season.  So far it seems to be working.

Once we had completed the 'check in' procedure on the RZR, and bid adieu to our smiling customers, we closed the office after an unexpected 4 hour shift.....life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!