Three times!

 6:28 am - Friday - April 22nd - Likely, CA - 32° F, humidity 92%, wind 3 mph out of the northwest.....heavy cloud cover....just stopped snowing....AGAIN....forecast high for today is 48° F.  Our view this morning.....↴

....I was thinking that we were at the Grand Canyon, during the winter, at 7,000' elevation, for 4 months and it snowed 4 times, and only stuck twice.  We've been here at Likely Place, in the Spring, at 4,447' elevation, for about 10 days now, and it has snowed 3 times......3 TIMES....and stuck every single time!  All that being said, it melts off by noon time every time, so we've got that going for us.

On this date in 2014 we were visiting Arches National Park near Moab, UT with friends David and Denise Zonker.....↴

Thursday began with snow on the ground, and it was still snowing when we arrived at the Club House for our 8 hour shifts.  I was bundled up against the cold as I made my rounds of the RV park....I had to wear my sun glasses as it was still snowing at 9 am, and the snow was getting in my eyes making it difficult to see.  Finally around 11 am the snow stopped, and it began to rain, which quickly melted the snow.....

.....we had about 10 departures from the RV park Thursday with 18 arrivals.  Our departure time each day is 11 am, and check-in time is 1 pm, so I hung out in the Club House until  just after 11 am to give everyone a chance to depart, which they did, and then went around to each site to be sure they were ready for their next occupants.  At 11:30 am I took TLE's place in the office for an hour so she could take her lunch break.  During that hour I mostly read my book, but did check two customers into their sites.  With it still raining at 12:30 pm, and nothing more I could do outside, I headed for home to warm up. 

Around 3 pm TLE called me to ask if I would check a few sites to see if the new arrivals had arrived, and to take a box down to the Night Registration office, so I bundled up again, and headed out to do her bidding.  I was back home by 3:30 pm.  Around 5:15 pm she texted me to come and drive her home.

That was essentially our day Thursday.....so, as I wrote above, we've had snow three times in the 10 days we've been here at Likely Place RV & Golf Resort, but the snow has melted off by noon time each day.  It hasn't gotten that cold here....usually high 20's at night...and it's getting into the high 40's during the day.  I know, high 20's sounds cold doesn't it?  But compared to the Grand Canyon where it got into single digits each night, and didn't get above 17° F during the day, this is not too bad....cold, like heat is very relative. Beginning Saturday we'll have a stretch through May 6th of no forecast precipitation, and mostly sunny with temps in the high 50's to high 60's....maybe, just maybe, Spring will finally arrive here in Northeast California.

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Day one.....

 6:33 am - Thursday - April 21st - Likely, CA - 33 F, 89% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the southwest.....heavy cloud cover with snow today....snowing right now as I write, and turning to rain later this morning....forecast high today is 47° F.  The view right now.....↴

....yup, the snow, she is back!

Wednesday was the first day of our 4 day work week, and it was beautiful, if not bitterly cold day.  I took my first tour of the 18 hole golf course right after staging our five electric carts.  We only had one tee time assigned when we opened the Pro Shop, but with so much sun it seemed likely there would be more as the day progressed...

The driving range

.....on a side note, Dennis let me know Wednesday that the lockers on the side of the Club House facing the driving range are for employees, so I decided to move my two sets of golf clubs from my trailer to one of those lockers so I will have more room in the trailer, and won't have to haul them back and forth to the golf course......thank you Dennis!....

My golf club locker

Putting green

10th Tee box in the distance

.....the source of the 'bitter cold' was the wind out of the southwest (that is the prevailing wind direction here in Likely, CA) which gusted at times to 25 mph, but blew steadily at 18-20 mph most of the day....that 'wind chill' factor is a booger!

TLE spent her first solo day running the Pro Shop, and checking RVers into the park, and did just fine.  I spelled her at 11:30 am for her hour lunch.  I answered the phone once and took a message, sold one round of golf with a golf cart, and checked one person into the RV park during that hour.....I read a book the rest of the time.

Upon TLE's return I headed back to the Newell to take my 1 hour lunch break.  When I returned at 1:30 pm it had warmed up sufficiently for me to begin washing some of the 10 Yamaha gas carts, so I could stage a couple of them for possible use as by that time all 5 electric carts had been rented.  As it turned out I ended up getting 7 of the 10 washed before it began to rain around 4:30 pm.  Once it began to rain I put the carts away, which I had staged in case we had any more golfers, which  we didn't.  The last tee time available each day is 3 pm, and that would only be for a quick 9 holes as we close at 5 pm.

I know as we get into the summer season, and the golf course gets busier I'll spend most of my afternoons washing, staging and/or putting away carts.  Our first tee time each day is 8 am, and if most golfers play 18 I will not see a cart to clean, or wash until noon time at the earliest.  If we get a few playing just 9 holes first thing in the morning, then I'll see carts returned around mid morning.  The work is not hard right now, or even fast paced, which I like.  I pretty much work by myself, which I also like.  Dennis gives me assignments, and then leaves me to get them done.....nice.

I headed home around 5:05 pm, and TLE, who has to 'close' up everything, was home by 5:30 pm, and thus our first official work day was in the books.

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A little walking, a little wrenching......

 6:28 am - Wednesday - April 20th - Likely, CA - 34° F, humidity 72%, wind 8 mph out of the south by southeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 54° F with a chance of snow this evening.  On this date in 2012 we were in Gadsden, AL visiting Nocculula Falls......↴

We awoke Tuesday to a world blanketed in freshly fallen snow......

....but within 3 hours it was gone along with the heavy cloud cover, replaced by the sun, which completely changed our view.....

....we are trying to get back into a walking routine here at Likely Place RV & Golf Resort, and with the overnight snow banished by the sun we took our first walk through the park.....

.....we kind of made the first walk up as we went, and it ended up being a little disjointed, but we covered 1.5 miles.  The second walk was a little better planned out, took just under 20 minutes, and covered 1.12 miles......

....in between all that we had lunch at the Likely Place Grill (in the Club House)....TLE and I split a BLT and fries, and were they ever good.  For good measure we ordered a Caesar Salad to go, which we had for dinner.....good food at very reasonable prices!

Yup, it is chilly here right now!

On way home from lunch I picked up another bicycle from the bike rack to tune up....

Before.....

....after

.....it did not appear, on the surface, to have many problems, but the deeper I got into this early 1990's Giant MTB the more issues I found.....the rear brake was seized, both tires were flat, and neither the front, nor rear derailleurs worked.  By the time I finished with the bike a couple of hours later everything was working properly and I was able to shift through all 21 speeds without issue.  I added a bottle cage, and a couple of air valve caps on the tires, which just needed air.

TLE added some romaine lettuce from her produce stash, and some croutons to the  Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad we bought earlier in the day for dinner, and it was delicious, and thus ended another day in Likely, CA where winter is never very far away.

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Wrenching.....

 7:56 am - Tuesday - April 19th - Likely, CA - 34° F, humidity 85%, wind 5 mph out o fthe west.....heavy cloud cover right now, snowing now, but clearing later this morning....forecast high today is 49° F.  The view this morning......↴

....the view yesterday morning......↴

....you just never know what you're going to get weather wise at 4,447' elevation in April, or May, or June for that matter.....lol!

On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Petaluma, CA having a late lunch at Pub Republic Petaluma......↴

Monday began as another delightfully sunny, balmy day, that is until the winds freshened to 25 mph about mid morning. Nevertheless, I was adorned in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops for most of the day.  TLE spent a couple more hours training in the office, and by the end of the day she felt she was getting up to speed on opening and closing the office, taking reservations, selling rounds of golf, etc.

Likely Place has about 10 bicycles which they loan to RV park residents, and most of them need some tuning.  Since working on bicycles is one of my passions I volunteered to check out each bike to be sure they are in safe operating condition, such as brakes working properly, tires holding air, and on the multi speed ones making sure they shift through the gears smoothly, and easily.  I drove cart #20 over to the Club House around 10:30 am and picked out one bike to tune.  It was an older,  18 speed mountain bike (Sherpa Trail) with no suspension.  It had a flat rear tire, the brakes were the old cantilever style, and the rear brake was inoperable, plus you could not shift through each of the front three sprockets.  Finding the leak in the rear tube took a while, but I found it eventually.  I had to disassemble the entire rear brake system (lever, cable, cantilever brakes) to fix it, but now it works flawlessly.  The hardest part was getting the front derailleur to shift from the large sprocket down to the middle sprocket, to the small, granny gear sprocket, but with the aid of some Tri-Flow chain lube I get it working properly.  

By the time I finished the first bike TLE was home from her morning training session, and soon thereafter was calling me in from the trailer for lunch.  I read my book as I ate lunch, and afterward it seemed like a good time for a nap.  After that short respite I loaded the Sherpa Trail on the VW bike rack and hauled it back to the bike rack at the Club House.  There I picked up another bike, this time one of those large, fat tire bicycles which have become quite popular in the past few years.  This one was in pretty good shape, as it was not as old as the Sherpa, but the rear brake lever (almost always the one on the right handlebar) was broken.  I have been carrying a couple of mechanical brake levers around for 6, or 7 years now, so retrieved one of those from my stash of used bike parts, and installed it in place of the broken one.  Other than that both mechanical disc brakes worked well, and the 6 speed rear derailleur shifted through all  six cassette gears smoothly (this bike has only a single front sprocket, and a 6 speed rear cassette, so no front derailleur about which to worry).  By that time it was after 3:30 pm, so I hauled that bike back to the bike rack and called it a day as far as bike repairs were concerned...only 8 bikes to go!

Monday marked the end of our first week here at Likely Place RV & Golf Resort, and we could not be happier with our circumstances.  We like everyone with whom we work, and Dennis and Kellie Tate (owners, managers) have treated us like visiting royalty.  We actually received our first paychecks Monday....the current two week pay period ended Friday the 15th, so TLE and I both got checks for the work we did on Friday....very cool!

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189!

 8:41 am - Monday - April 18th - Likely, CA - 46° F, humidity 32%, wind 11 mph out of the south......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 60° F.....high winds coming in later this morning.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were walking along the National Mall in Washington D.C........↴

General Grant

Smithsonian

Lincoln Memorial in the background

Sunday was promised to be our first 60+° day here at Likely Place, and I had big plans for the day which included deploying yard lights, riding my Haibike SDURO mountain bike around the perimeter of the property, hiking the nature trail, hitting a bucket of balls, check out the putting green, and watch the end of the current PGA tour event.  Not on my list of things to accomplish Sunday was dipping below that 190 pound barrier, which has been haunting me for a couple of weeks now, but dip below it I did!.....

.....for the first time since April of 2014 I weigh less than 190 pounds.  When I began my quest to lose weight, and keep it lost, on January 31st my near term goal was to lose 20 pounds by April 2nd.......my granddaughter's wedding.....I made it with a pound, or two to spare.  My next interim goal was to get below 190 pounds, and I have now officially made it as of April 17th.  My long term goal is to get down to 183 where I have not been since the early 2000's when I got down to 178.....only 6 pounds to go, and those will the the toughest pounds.  The big thing for me is I am losing weight, and keeping it in the lost category.  I've gotten used to only eating between 12 pm and 8 pm.  I'm sleeping so much better at night, I have more energy, my blood pressure is down, and I'm wearing clothes I haven't worn in years.....I'm glad I saved them....lol!

For the first time since we arrived here on April 12th I wore a t-shirt, flip flops, and shorts as I worked to deploy several strands of rope lights......

Taken about 8 pm....they turned out nice!

......next on the list was to ride my mountain bike around the perimeter of the property, and I did that.....there are a few high points on the trail where the views are stunning, and unobstructed......

....by the time I finished my ride TLE had returned from another training session in the office, so we changed clothes and took the hike on the 1.4 mile nature trail.....

A babbling brook

....over the course of the hike we gained 142' feet of elevation, which surprised me as it seemed pretty flat most of the time, but we did get high enough to get some good views.  By the time we returned the RBC Heritage Tournament being held in Hilton Head Island, SC was in its final stages with Jordan Spieth in the club house with a one stroke lead.  Patrick Cantlay birdied the 17th hole to draw even with Jordan and force a playoff, which was won on the first sudden death hole by Jordan Spieth.  At one point on the back 9 there were nine golfers within 2 strokes of the leaders, so it was anyone's tournament to win at that point. Congratulations to Jordan!

Full of inspiration I changed my clothes again, dug out my golf shoes, loaded both sets of golf clubs on cart #20 and drove over to the driving range.....

....to hit a bucket of balls, and compare one set of golf clubs with the other.  Surprisingly, at least to me, I hit a lot of good, straight shots with one driver in particular.  I found this driver a couple of years ago, and was fascinated by its purported 22° loft.....most drivers I've seen run from 8.5° to 11°.  It has a carbon fiber shaft.  In all I hit 12 drives with that driver, and all but one were long, high, and straight.....of course, long for me is somewhere between 150 and 200 yards, but I have always had a serious slice most of the time, and an occasional duck hook thrown in for good measure, when hitting a driver, but with this one no hook, or slice....just right down the middle of the fairway.  Of the three Callaway woods I bought recently in Borrego Springs, I really like the 3 wood.   I hit a lot of irons Sunday, and am still undecided which set I like better, but I will narrow that down more on another day.  From there drove over to the putting green to spend about an hour putting with three different putters I've acquired over the past few years, and am still undecided there, but there is one toward which I am leaning.  In all my first day hitting balls was delightfully successful.  The last time I hit a bucket of balls was back in July of 2020 when we visited my sister, and brother-in-law at their home at Rock Creek Ranch in Wyoming, and that was a terrible experience.  Of course, I was using borrowed clubs.  The clubs I've purchased at thrift shops over the past few years were clubs which fit my eye, and felt good in my hands....that, apparently, makes a big difference, and the results I experienced Sunday proved that point....at least to me.

What a great day Sunday was....I accomplished everything which I set out to do, and with the added bonus of dipping below 190, it was a superlative day indeed.....

Subtle sunset

I'm not sure if that is Warren, or Eagle Peak in the distance, but I'll find out

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Gasoline alley....

 7:13 am - Sunday - April 17th - Likely, CA - 31° F, humidity 76%, wind 5 mph out of the southeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 60° F.  On this date in 2014 TLE and I hiked to all three bridges in Natural Bridges NP.......↴

We awoke Saturday to the sound of rain on our riveted, aircraft aluminum roof, and I wondered if I would be doing any outdoor work.  We were out of bed by 6 am, our new wake up time on days we work, and since we don't eat breakfast (still doing the IF thing (intermittent fasting) we were ready to roll by 7:30 am.

Our first actual four day work week begins this Wednesday, April 20th, however, not all the workers have arrived yet so Dennis asked me to come in first thing Saturday to take care of a few tasks which needed to be done.  TLE and I drove down to the Clubhouse in our golf cart around 7:40 am.....the rain had stopped, and there was a little bit of blue sky visible....TLE was to continue learning the office systems for a few hours while I took care of a few tasks for Dennis.  The first task was to remove last years American flags (they were quite worn, and grimy from being outside for 6 months last season) from the 8 flag poles which are placed at the entrance, and to install the new American flags.

Once that was done I busied myself organizing the tool shed, which needed a lot of help after a winter of tools not being put away as they were used.....this is pretty typical at most campgrounds at which we have worked, and you know that from reading past blog posts, but it's something I enjoy doing.  

Finally, there were 10 gas powered golf carts which needed to have their gas tanks filled.  By the time I got to that it was drizzling again, and it was getting muddy over by the elevated gasoline tank from which we draw unleaded fuel for the golf carts.  It is a gravity operated system, meaning it does not require a pump.  By the time all ten carts were fueled it was 10:30 am, and very cold and my clothes were getting very wet.....not a good combination.  I should clarify, I was wearing a rain proof winter jacket, so my upper body was dry, but my gloves, and pants were wet from the rain. I went into the Clubhouse to warm up a tad, and to see if TLE was done with her training, and she was, so we rode home together in the rain....our golf cart has no windshield, so we go pretty slow when it is raining......lol.  After changing out of my wet togs I sat down to sip a large cup of hot coffee to pour some warmth back into my core.

By noon time the clouds had flown away, and we were finally able to enjoy the beautiful views we knew were there, but had been obscured by the constant cloud cover, and rain ever since we arrived....

Those are the Warner mountains....lots of snow up there right now!

.....I spent time in the trailer putting some finishing touches on it, and I am now ready for the next 5.5 months.....

Both sets of golf clubs are out, and ready for some testing....I hope that will happen on Sunday

Black & Decker Workmate® workbench set up with bench grinder

Air compressor set up, and ready for use

......the forecast high for Saturday was 46° F, but I do not think it got that warm, especially with the prevailing south by southwest wind blowing over 10 mph, and the associated wind chill factor.  The Sunday forecast promises temps in the 60's,  with little, or no wind, so I am hoping to get out and do some putting, and hit the driving range, as well as take a hike with TLE on the 1.25 mile nature trail here in the park.

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Orienting.....

 6:34 am - Saturday - April 16th - Likely, CA - 39° F, humidity 83%, wind 10 mph out of the south by southwest......100% cloud cover, and raining....forecast high for today is 46° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were eating a late lunch at the Salted Pig in Riverside, CA.....a couple of pints of Stone Strawberry Imperial Stout please.....↴

Friday dawned partly cloudy, and by mid morning the sun had come out to play for the first time since we arrived.....

.....Friday was also orientation day for TLE and I.  We walked over to the Clubhouse around 10 am to meet up with Cathy (office manager), and Dennis (RV park manager, and part owner).  We provided our ID's for the I-9 form, picked out shirts we will be wearing while working this summer, and then I went with Dennis on  tour of the campground while TLE went with Cathy to re-familiarize herself with Campground Master (the software they use for reservations, etc.).....TLE has used Campground Master before when we spent 9 months at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.

While we drove around the campground Dennis went over my daily duties, and it turns out I will have quite a variety of jobs.  Each morning I will drive down the Night Registration office to pick up any registrations which occurred after closing time, then flip the sign which tells you were to go during the day to register for a site (the Clubhouse).  Next I will pull out 10 golf carts for use that day on the 18 hole golf course, be sure they are clean, fully charged and/or gassed up (most of the golf carts here are the gasoline type, but there are 5 electric carts), check the tires for proper air pressure, etc.  Next I'll make a run around the entire golf course to be sure there aren't any issues such as stuck sprinklers, dead animals (there is a lot of wild life here), and rake the sand traps.  A few times per week I will run the golf ball retrieval cart up and down the driving range to collect all the golf balls.  I will help people get to their sites as needed, and I will wash golf carts as they are returned at the end of each round.  There is irrigation to take care of in the campground, as well as mowing, and weed whacking, plus making sure each site is clean before the next occupant arrives.  Finally, as needed, I will be a golf course marshal making sure all is well on the golf course.

Since Saturday, April 12th is their opening day, Dennis asked me to pull out the 5 electric carts (they are the most popular) to check the batteries for water level (each one has six 6 volt batteries),and then wash them.  When we pulled the seat up on the first electric cart this is what we saw.....

.....every positive terminal had a new life form developing upon it, and one golf cart was non-op.  So the assignment just became more extensive.  I spent the next 5 hours cleaning each terminal on each battery, as well as all the cable connectors......30 batteries, and 60 terminals later I was done.  Most of the batteries had good water levels, but there were a few cells which needed water added.  By the time I finished with the batteries I had an hour left to wash all 5 for opening day, and I managed to get that done, and put them away by 4:55 pm....perfect.

By 5 pm it was getting cold, and windy, and it was time to head for home.  TLE and I have been assigned one of the gas golf carts for work, and personal use on our days off work.  We will work 4 eight hour days, and then have 4 days off, so our work days each week will change, and that is just fine.  In all I worked 7 hours Friday, and its a good thing, because I don't think I'll be working much Saturday as the forecast is for rain all day, and that forecast rain is falling as I write.

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