Later....

 5:36 am - Monday - March 25th - GNHS - 53° F, humidity 64%, wind 3 mph out of the northwest.....clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I took a 10 mile bike ride near Daphne, AL, and had lunch at East Shore Cafe.....seems like a life time ago.....

TLE and I will be leaving in a few minutes to begin the 3 hour drive to Poway where I have a dermatological (hopefully, the final one) appointment at 10:15 am today, after which we will make the 3 hour drive home.  At any rate I will post my latest offering about the doings on Sunday late this afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sheltering in place.....

 7:56 am  - Sunday - March 24th - GNHS - 57° F, humidity 57%, wind 7 mph out of the west by southwest......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2012 I was standing in front of Tiger Stadium (LSU) in Baton Rouge, LA......

Saturday was the second day under the 'shelter in place' orders by Nurse TLE. It was also the first day of the round of 32 in the 2024 version of the NCAA 'March Madness' basketball tournament, and another day of guiltless viewing of said tournament by moi.  Guiltless, you say?  Yup.....another day of no walking, and very, very little standing, so yeah, guiltless viewing from the comfortable confines of my recliner....lol!

Speaking of 'March Madness' there was only one minor upset in Saturday's round of 32 matchups, and that was Gonzaga - #5 over Kansas - #4, otherwise all of the other favored teams won their games, and in some cases quite handily.  While the Gonzaga/Kansas game was just a one point game at half time, and very close in the early part of the 2nd half, Gonzaga pulled away to win 89-68, and at one point led by as many as 25 points in the later stages of the 2nd half before settling for a 19 point win as time expired.  There were a couple of overtime games, including one double overtime game in which both favorites ultimately prevailed.

I really did not venture outside for the first time until late afternoon when the winds began to freshen.  The forecast was for winds into the low 30's most of the afternoon, but they never materialized.  It got to maybe 15-16 mph for a while, but it was hardly noticeable coming out of the west by southwest as it was.  The wind direction has begun its annual shift from out of the north by northwest to out of the west by southwest now, and for that we are grateful as the southwest winds do not impact our site like the north by northwest winds do. 

The forecast through April 6th, our departure date, shows only two days in the low 80's, otherwise they are all in the 70's with on day in the 60's, so we've got that going for us.  Things have been pretty quiet here at GNHS with only single rentals Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, which also is a sign that the end of the season is upon us.  Next week, however, we have Spring Break occurring and we have advanced bookings for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so far, with more expected Easter weekend, but our days of being RZR rental agents here at GNHS are becoming quite finite.

Thanks for stopping by!

Upsets galore!

7:39 am - Saturday - March 23rd - GNHS - 64° F, humidity 53%, wind 5 mph out of the west....cloudy today with a forecast high of 75° F, and wind over 20 mph this afternoon.  On this date in 2012 TLE and I were overnighting in the parking lot of a Walmart near Baton Rouge, LA....

Friday was the 2nd day of the round of 64 in the 2024 edition of 'March Madness', and were there ever a lot of upsets!  It was the perfect day for me to spend the day in my recliner watching 16 games which began around 9:30 am, and ended after 10 pm.....12 hours of nothing but NCAA basketball.  The upsets were as follows: 1) Northwestern - #9 beat Florida Atlantic - #8...a minor upset, but an upset, nonetheless, 2) Yale #13 beat Auburn - #4, 3) Colorado - #10 beat Florida - #7 - 102 to 100! 4)Texas A&M - #9 beat Nebraska - #8, 5) James Madison - #12 beat Wisconsin - #5, and 6) Grand Canyon - #12 beat St. Mary's - #5 to close out the day.  So, six upsets in one day.....and that, my friends, is what 'March Madness' is all about.

So why, you might query, was it perfect?  Well, I haven't written about this yet, but this past Tuesday afternoon I was washing the VW in preparation for our overnight trip, wearing my flip flops as I often do, and managed to catch the bottom of my foot on one of the metal spikes I use to tie down the dining canopy.  In addition to a bone bruise, I also lost a piece of skin the size of a dime off the ball of my foot near my little toe.  The result left me with a foot bleeding like a stuck pig, and limping around the rest of the day.  TLE, being the good nurse she is, bandaged me up, and by Wednesday morning things were looking up.  The problem was, however, I spent a lot of Wednesday walking around sightseeing, as well as part of Thursday, so by the time we got home Thursday afternoon my right foot was hurting like the dickens.  Nurse TLE sternly recommended, no insisted upon a day of NO walking, or standing, so Friday became the perfect day to guiltlessly sit in my recliner doing nothing but watching one basketball game after another (16 in all) all the day long.

The high temp for Friday was just 79° F, which continues to amaze us as this time last year we were well into the 90's everyday, and running the A/C quite a bit.  The day was mostly clear, so I was able to get a nice picture, out the Newell door, of the Chocolates lighting up, but no sunset as I was prohibited by Nurse TLE from doing any walking, other than to the bathroom....lol.  All that being said, by the time I went to bed Friday night my foot was feeling much better, and my optimism about me being able to walk without a painful limp in the near future has returned.

Light 'em up!

Thanks for stopping by!

Obscure.....

 7:29 am - Friday - March 22nd - GNHS - 56° F, humidity 79%, wind 2 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 79° F.  On this date in 2022 TLE had just finished stowing the VW in the trailer in preparation for departure the next morning when we headed north to work at LPG&RVR for the first time.....

As is often the case I did not sleep well at the motel after our day of sightseeing with our good friends.  It was not the bed's fault as it was extremely comfortable, and the room was more than adequate.  I just don't do well the first night sleeping in an unfamiliar location with different sights and sounds than those with which I am familiar at my normal nocturnal location of repose (ie, the Newell).  I was up around 5 am typing my brief, vague, obscure, and uninformative blog post about Wednesday.  I made a cup of coffee using the coffee maker provided, but you know how those things are, right?  The brown coffee like elixir produced by that tiny coffee maker does have caffeine in it, is hot, and it gives off an aroma somewhat similar to real coffee, but that is about as close as it gets....lol!

We were off around 7 am for some last minute sightseeing with our friends, before saying our 'until next times', and beginning our multi hour trip back to GNHS.  We stopped a few times to stretch our legs, and drain our bladders, and were home about mid afternoon, without incident.  We had a great time with our friends, whose wish to remain anonymous remains intact as of this writing, so this brief missive will have to suffice for now.

As many of you know, 'March Madness' (annual NCAA basketball tournament) began Wednesday with the 'First Four' games being played Tuesday and Wednesday.  The actual round of 64 began Thursday, so I missed several of the games early in the day Thursday, but was able to watch quite a few games between our arrival home, and when I went to bed a little after 10 pm.  There were several large upsets Thursday, so looking forward to Friday's games for more of the same.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, I slept soundly Thursday night, and feel quite refreshed as I write this brief recap of Thursday's happenings.

We had no bookings for rentals on Thursday, and have none today (Friday) as I write, but we do have a three day rental of one RZR beginning Saturday, and ending Monday afternoon.  Monday morning TLE and I will be making the 6 hour round trip drive to Poway for my, hopefully, final dermatological exam by Dr. Jou, and then we will have just the two days of dental appointments remaining for TLE in Los Algodones on April 4th and 5th before we haul anchor and head north to LPG&RVR.  As I write they are beginning 5, or 6 days of forecast rain and snow in Likely, so we'll be heading from early Spring back to late Winter in Northern California.

Thanks for stopping by!

Road trip

5:43 am - Thursday - March 21st: We took an overnight road trip Wednesday, however,  I'm not really at liberty to write about where we went, or the purpose of the road trip, but it was lot of fun.  We met up with long time friends to explore some new to us territory, and in order to protect their privacy I'll have to leave it at that......

I will resume my daily blog posts Friday when we have returned to GNHS.  Thanks for your understanding, and, as always, thank you for stopping by!

Surprise, surprise!

 5:31 am - Wednesday - March 20th - GNHS - 54° F, humidity 84%, wind 3 mph out of the northeast.....clear skies today with a forecast high of 78° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were enjoying a sunset near Savannah, GA.....

Following a suitable waking up period Tuesday TLE and I headed outside to take another 2 mile out and back walk averaging 3.3 mph.....

Another turkey buzzard....spreading his/her wings

....after returning we spent about an hour taking down the XMAS lights I installed on the COA office about 5 months ago, and then pulled the artificial turf from under the picnic table to clean it, and roll it up, as well as another piece we used at our 'viewing deck'.  Once that was done all I had left to do was wash the VW, and check the oil, and coolant in preparation for an overnight trip to Arizona Wednesday.  I'll write more about that at a later date.

Sometime after that we got an unexpected text message from our friends Marnie and Rich (worked for them at Ramona Oaks RV Resort back in 2019-20) that they were coming off the Bradshaw trail, and would be at our place in about 30 minutes....wait, what?  Apparently the Bradshaw trail can be picked up in Blythe, CA and driven all the way to Glamis North Hot Springs.  They have a VW New Beetle too, only it is a diesel, and is lifted with large tires upon it.....

They bought their VW Beetle brand new, and have put over 300,000 miles on over the years....still runs, and looks great!

.....anyway they began their journey on Monday spending the night along the way in the tent they keep mounted on top of their VW.  They arrived right on time, and we spent over an hour talking and catching up with each others lives, and plans for the summer....before taking an 'usie' around 4 pm, and saying our 'until next times'.  They  spend their winters in Yuma, AZ, and will be heading back to Keystone, SD for their summer job......

....what a delightful surprise, and a wonderful way to end another GNHS day!

Thanks for stopping by!

One hundred and one.....

6:42 am - Tuesday - March 19th - GNHS  - 55° F, humidity 74%, wind 4 mph out of the northeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were boondocking near the shores of Lake Powell in Southern Utah (about a mile from the Arizona border, and Glen Canyon Dam).....loved the early evenings there.....

 After two busy days working it was nice to sleep in Monday morning, and wake up slowly to the rising sun. We've gotten so used to not putting in that many hours renting RZRs that when we must work it seems like an imposition.....lol.  It has been nice not to be on call all the time like we were last year.

We've been hovering at the 99 mile mark in our daily walks for about a week now.  We spent last Wednesday through Friday driving hundreds of miles taking care of root canals, and new tires, and then worked Saturday and Sunday, so we didn't feel like walking, but Monday we decided it was time to break the 100 mile mark with a 2 mile out and back walk, which we covered averaging around 3.2 mph.....with that walk we have achieved our goal of walking 100 miles this winter (officially 101 miles), and we've still got almost three weeks to go.....

....the views, air clarity and quality were spectacular, and we even saw a turkey buzzard near the Tilapia ponds......

.....TLE and I spent a couple of hours removing the 8 strands of fairy lights from the surrounding palms trees as we begin to take down our site.  It's always the first thing we do when getting ready to leave a location.  Amazingly, the strand of fairy lights I left on the palm tree in front of the COA office are still working after being on that palm tree for 18 months.  You may recall I left them on the palm tree on purpose last Spring to see if they would survive the summer, and they did, plus another winter.

Around 3 pm I headed down to the hot pools/tubs to take my first soak in over a week....

....the number of soaks I have left are becoming quite finite now, but I will not leave here wishing I had soaked more, because I have soaked quite a bit this winter, and feel much better for it.

No nomadic day is really complete without a fire on the 'firepit deck', and we've still got some wood to burn, so around 6:30 pm TLE and I headed outdoors to do just that.....there was not a breath of wind, and the air temp was perfect.....

....we listened to the Etta James Channel on Pandora, sipped some Scotch, and talked until after 8 pm.  I can't believe that old stainless steel wash tub is over 20 years old now, and still providing amazing fires!

Thanks for stopping by!