The Getaway.....

In the summer of 2015 our work schedule had us working Saturdays and Sundays.....as a result we rarely went out for breakfast, or visited the local South Lake Tahoe Flea Market.  Now that we no longer work Sundays we are more inclined to resume past habits.  Originally, as I alluded to in yesterday's post, we were going to take a tandem ride where breakfast would be consumed somewhere along the route, and visit the flea market, but the pollen here in SLT is falling like rain which means TLE's allergic reactions are in overdrive.  As a result we decided to forego the tandem portion of our Sunday and just drive the 5 miles out to Meyers for breakfast at the 'Getaway Cafe', one of our favorite local breakfast places (Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on over 300 reviews)......

We love their alfresco dining

 Love their coffee! (Alpen Sierra Organic Coffee)

.......our decision to leave for the Getaway Cafe about 10:30 was a good decision, because shortly after we arrived the great exodus of the workaday folks back to the sticks and bricks lives began, and US-50 became bumper to bumper all the way back to SLT.  Of course, this also meant that the Getaway Cafe went from 6, or 7 occupied tables to a waiting list of 20 minutes.  I ordered their 'Hangover Helper' (chorizo and home fries sauteed with tomatoes, onions and bell peppers, topped with melted cheddar cheese, plus 2 eggs any style)......delicious!

After breakfast we drove back towards SLT stopping at the weekly flea market to see if there was anything for sale we could not live without......I found this bench grinder for $25 that I could not live without.......hmmmmm......now where am I going to put it?  Maybe TLE will hold it in her lap as we cruise down the road?  Probably not.....well, I've got 3 more months to figure that out......:-)

We were home by 1 pm.......I made a quick run over to DIY (Do It Yourself) to buy some more WD-40, and a couple of hex bolts to bolt my bench grinder to the top of my Workmate (Black and Decker) table.

After mounting the bench grinder (can be easily removed when it is time to pack up the trailer) I drove the VW down to the maintenance/storage yard to wash off about 4 weeks of grime and pollen......of course a few hours later it rained pretty hard for about an hour requiring me to go outside first thing this morning to wipe the car down once again.  After a thorough vacuuming my work was done for the day, and I settled in to reading for the rest of the afternoon and into the early evening.  

It was a great day off......thanks for stopping by!

Pictorially speaking.......

Saturday was kind of slow so I thought I would give you a pictorial review of some of the things we have been doing here at TVC to 'maker her pretty again'.  Alex, one of our maintenance guys, contacted several local tree services asking for their 'wood chips'......these guys are always trying to get rid of wood chips, and it doesn't cost us a thing.  He and his brother Corey have been spreading the wood chips around the various dumpsters in the park........

 Dumpsters by the dump station   

Entrance to the Group Area

 Entrance to the outside loop in Section E

 Around the tent

Along the entrance road

.......we are growing grass in places it hasn't grown in years.......this is the large grassy area next to the horseshoe pits......we actually mowed the grass the other day.......

......with all the felled trees we have been able to take some of the larger ones and line the road into sections E and A and keep people from taking short cuts on their bikes......plus it just looks nicer, don't you think?.....

......this used to be a nondescript island of dirt.....now it has a rock border, wood chips and grass.....well, the grass is beginning to grow.....we just need a little more warm weather.....

.....we are getting a lot of compliments on the appearance of TVC from long time customers.....she is beginning to look pretty again!

Since it was a little slow I spent some time trying to get our customers to stop at our stop signs, and to observe the 5 mph speed limit within TVC.  I noticed that people were stopping consistently at the one STOP SIGN where I painted a new limit line in yellow, so I think this week I'll do the same for the other two.....the yellow seems to stand out much more, especially in the shady areas around the stop signs.

The temperatures began to drop mid afternoon, and by the time we clocked out for the end of our 5 day work week it was into the high 50's......we did get rain briefly for about 10 minutes.

As is our custom at the end of another work week we treated ourselves to dinner out.....we went back to Sidellis Lake Tahoe for some more of their amazing brews.  We both chose their 11 oz. Jug Dealer Rum Barrel Imperial Stout....WOW!  They do not serve this by the pint as it is 9.8% ABV......what a great sipping stout!

We spent the evening reading......kind of winding down from the work week.  I think we'll get the Cannondale tandem out Sunday and put some miles on her.....of course there must be a good breakfast somewhere along teh ride, and there will be a visit to the South Lake Tahoe Flea Market thrown in for good measure!

Thanks for stopping by!

Rangering.....

(Just realized this morning that I never published yesterday's blog entry.....I must be getting senile.....lol....well, here you go!)

You know things are getting busy at TVC when I spend the better part of my 8 hour shift Friday directing traffic along our entrance road.....for the first time this summer I had RV's backed up to the Trolley House before noon time.  I began to think it was Friday the 13th, not Friday the 10th.....people were attempting to double park, or just park in a traffic lane to go in an register......impatient people driving on the wrong side of the road to get around traffic.  There was one family that changed sites 4 times before finally settling in one they liked......there were folks who ended up in the wrong site and had to be moved.....and there was at least one who turned around and left when they didn't like their site......just left.

After my initial site check round Friday I went back to refreshing the yellow traffic control markings along the entrance, which lasted to just before noon time when the RV's began lining up to enter the park.......I should be able to get them finished on Tuesday when things are a little quieter.

When I wasn't directing traffic I was helping people into their sites, taking people in my cart to check out alternate sites when they weren't happy with their assigned site, answering questions, helping some ladies hook up their utilities, making sure people kept all their 'stuff' within the confines of their sites, giving recommendations on places to have dinner, directions to beaches, bike rental places, pumping propane.......and on it went.  Friday is what being a ranger is all about.....after 6 weeks of helping get TVC ready for the summer season I am now into full blown ranger mode.....Yay!

TLE and I were both off work by 4 pm and home relaxing by 4:10.......I must add in closing that the office staff did a wonderful job of checking people in quickly and efficiently meaning I rarely had to send anyone directly to their sites before registering.

Thanks for stopping by!

Walking the line....

One of the downsides about being fully staffed, and we are, is with more people working the odds someone will screw up increases.  With our small staff last summer we each knew we could depend on the others to do their job, and that was because we had all worked here before, plus we knew we had no margin for error.  With a lot of new faces getting used to how things run here at TVC the potential for omissions also increases.  One common omission has been failure to plug in the golf carts when putting them away at night.......if you don't plug in the cart it doesn't recharge overnight, and when that happens someone the next day is inconvenienced.  Fortunately for me, Thursday is a slow day so there was an extra cart available which had been plugged in, so I just plugged in my uncharged cart and used the extra one for a few hours.

We had 40 arrivals scheduled for Thursday, and Friday we will see close to 90 arrivals, so the park is beginning to fill up.....in a meeting later in the day our manager, Robert, advised that from the 4th of July weekend on we are booked 85%.  In just a few weeks May and June will seem idyllic by comparison.

Miguel (head ranger) and I spent a couple of hours repainting the street markings from the entrance down to the the office/store.....we got about half of it done, and hope to finish Friday morning.  The rest of the day I ran errands for Robert......he has a new computer and his scanner would not work, so I scanned a few work documents for him on my scanner back at the Newell and e-mailed them to him.

I was off at precisely 4 pm, home by 4:10, and showering by 4:20......TLE made me some street tacos accompanied by a Margarita.....apparently, according to TLE, I fell asleep shortly after I finished my 3 street tacos, and slept for 90 minutes.   

The weather has drifted into a cooling trend and the day time temps are back into the 60's and 70's for the next 10 days.

Idyllic

Thanks for stopping by!

What you see is what you get.......

Wednesday was a very quiet day in the park.....it was a day for working on small projects that get put off when things are busier.  Since I could only work 6.5 hours before I hit my two week 80 hour limit I knew I would be off by 2:30 and planned my activities accordingly.  Morning rounds didn't take long as there are fewer than 100 sites occupied, and there were no issues requiring my attention, or intervention......well, I take that back...there was the guy who moved the indoor/outdoor carpet one of our long term customers leaves in his spot each Fall and moved it to his site.  Apparently the fellow thought it had been abandoned, and I'll give him that, nevertheless, he graciously moved it back to the site where our long term customer will arriving shortly.

There were several arrivals who needed assistance getting into their sites, and there were a couple arrivals who upon their arrival were not happy with their assigned site and spent literally and hour or two going around the park looking at alternate sites before finally finding one they liked.  In one case the fellow thought he couldn't get into the assigned site as it was 'too tight'....the site he ultimately chose was even shorter and narrower, so what do you say?  Nothing.....you just smile and go on about your business......:-)

In the office we took delivery on two new computers, and some new phones so TLE and the ladies are happy, and we'll now be properly equipped when the 4th of July onslaught begins in a couple of weeks.

As predicted, I was off work by 2:30 and home taking a much needed nap by 3.  TLE followed 30 minutes later and we settled in for the evening.  Claude, who has been visiting us for the last week brought home an ahi tuna steak and a top sirloin steak which I grilled, and TLE provided asparagus and broccoli for the side.  I had the outdoor TV set up so we could watch the Warriors at the Cavaliers NBA finals game, which was won handily by the Cavaliers, 120-90.....'they' always say the finals don't begin until the home team loses a game....so far each team has won their home games.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recycled.....

Hot is a relative term.......it was only 81 yesterday, but I've been used to temps in the 50's and 60's so it felt hot to me.....it was certainly hot in the direct sunlight.....I spent my day seeking out the shady places in the park.  Thankfully the temps are cooling back into the 70's and 60's over the next few days, but no doubt summer is catching up to us fast here in TVC.

Tuesday began with the housekeeping cart breaking down (a shackle on the left front leaf spring broke), so we had to immediately get it jacked up and fixed.....those toilets must be cleaned!  Gordy did a great job of getting it fixed in short order.

When clocking in I noticed our new pancake compressor had arrived so I took it out to install.....our 'air station' has been out of order since we arrived April 30th.  It should have been as easy as just plugging it into the electrical outlet, and connecting the air hose, but it wasn't.....of course.  We provide two air hoses for our customers to use in inflating tires and/or beach toys, and one of them had a leaky valve so I had to turn everything off to disconnect the bad hose......sounds simple, but it is not.  We don't use quick connects on the hoses as they tend to disappear, so I had to remove the threaded connections and find a threaded plug.  Again, seemed simple, but when I removed the old fitting the nipple came with it and I could not remove it from the pipe fitting so I had to make a few trips to the maintenance yard to find replacements.  When that was finally done I turned everything on again and watched the pressure slowly climb, but then the compressor would never shut off.....not a good thing.  I finally found another leak, got that fixed and finally.....two hours later.....the air station was once again operational!

For whatever reason I felt like I was working under water all day......late morning Robert asked me to finish sorting our recycling center back in the maintenance yard.....we had a guy working here last year who loved doing that, but he is no longer working here, so it fell to me this day......we recycle plastic, aluminum and glass and every few weeks we haul it into the recycling center after sorting everything and get $75-$100.  Like anywhere some customers think that any trash can go in the designated recycling bins so you find candy wrappers, tin cans (not aluminum), diapers (yuk) and every imaginable thing that is not being recycled.....all that stuff must be weeded out before we take it to the recycling center.  Only clear plastic is accepted for recycling here in SLT so all the milk bottles must be weeded out, too.  Needless to say it is a messy, filthy job which gets spread around.....Tuesday it was my turn.

That brought me up to lunch, and I fully intended to be off work by 3:15 as I as closing in too rapidly on 80 hours for the two week  pay period, but we had a couple of electrical problems in Section 'F' so I assisted Adam (maintenance manager) in replacing 30 amp breakers at two sites as well as one 30 amp receptacle.....before I knew it 4 pm had arrived and it was really time to clock out.

Something about the hotter temps that kind of takes it out of me, and by 4 pm I felt whipped.  I joined TLE in the walk home where we changed out of our work clothes and then sat outside in the shade relaxing before turning on the BBQ to grill some pollo asado Claude brought home.  Claude spent the day driving around Lake Tahoe and having lunch at what used to be Incline Trailer Park (back in the 50's).....it is now a public park with the same amazing view I grew up appreciating....

Looking south....

.....we had another lovely fire before being chased inside around 8:30 by the mosquitoes.......they are really getting bad with the rising temperatures......

Feeling refreshed & gearing up for another day...

.....thanks for stopping by!

B & G......

Slept in till after 8 am......a rarity for moi.....haven't had to turn on the heaters in three days....the weather has just been ideal.  We have been sleeping with most of the windows open during the night.....a decided improvement over the frigid weather we have been 'blessed' with since we arrived April 30th.

Around 10 am we (Claude, TLE & I) walked over to Bert's Cafe for a late breakfast.....I, once again, had the Huevos Rancheros.....TLE had the Biscuits and Gravy.....

......she says they are some of the best she has ever had.....even better than Flo's Airport Cafe in Chino, CA.....hmmmm.....maybe I should give them a try next time.

After breakfast we walked over to KMART to pick up a couple of things and then headed for home......we essentially spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, & napping.....around 5 pm we decided to walk over to Classic Cue for some Fish Tacos and brews......we chose a pitcher of Alaskan Amber to chase the tacos, and it was a good choice.

All during the day we were treated to one picture after another posted by family members visiting and meeting Jolene Rose for the first time, but my favorite was of Jolene's father, Nick, holding her for the first time.....

Tuesday we begin our new Tuesday through Saturday work week......thanks for stopping by!