Join us now that we have retired and are now fulltiming in our 1982 Newell Classic Motorcoach, and traveling across the width and breadth of the USA. I know, it looks like a bus conversion, but it was built from the ground up to be a motorcoach!! (Photo by Steven Dempsey)
3:09 pm - Tuesday - August 23rd - Tahoe City, CA - 83° F, 13% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 84° F. On this date in 2016 TLE and I were watching another amazing sunset in Seal Rock, OR.....↴
We began planning a trip to memorialize our 51st weddding anniversary, which comes up in about a week, around a month ago. We spent a week at Lake Tahoe on our honeymoon back in 1971 beginning on August 30th. We had been married the day prior, and drove up to Lake Tahoe the morning of the 30th. We've been back to Lake Tahoe many, many times over the years, but it has been 5 years since we left, under somewhat difficult circumstances, in June of our 4th season at Tahoe Valley Campground in South Lake Tahoe. Back in 1975 TLE and I again spent a couple of days in Tahoe City on our fourth wedding anniversary, and stayed at the Pepper Tree Inn. Well, the Pepper Tree Inn is still there, and we were able to get a room on the 4th floor for 3 nights beginning August 22nd. We wanted to be here on our anniversary, but the Inn had no availability then, so we are here a week early.
We were up around 6 am Monday to get packed, and on the road by 8:30 am for tlhe 204 mile drive to Tahoe City, and managed to leave LPG&RVR at exactly 8:30am. The drive to Reno was completely without incident, and we arrived at the Reno COSTCO around 11 am. We wanted to do some COSTCO & Trader Joe's shopping before continuing on to Lake Tahoe, and were finished around 12 pm.
We hit some construction on I-80 around 30 miles from Tahoe City, but still found ourselves exiting I-80 for the final 14 miles to Tahoe City around 12:45 pm. One of our old hangouts is Squaw Valley (home of the 1960 Winter Olympics), which is just off Highway 89, and TLE wanted to drive into the valley to have lunch before continuing on to our destination....
....the last time we were in Squaw Valley we had lunch at the Dubliner Irish Pub, so we headed straight there and were able to snag the last alfresco table with a nice view of Squaw Peak......
....we immediately ordered two Guinness Stouts (draft), and then an appetizer. Service was a tad slow, but on a beautiful day like Monday, and no where to be until 4 pm (check in time at the Pepper Tree) there is nothing better than slowly sipping a nicely poured Guinness Stout, and talking with your best friend....
....after lunch, on our way back out of the valley we stopped for the obigatory pictures in front of the monuments to the 1960 Winter Olympics.....
....althought you can't see it in this picture, the Olympic torch is still lit. At this point we were only 7, or 8 miles from Tahoe City, and were at the Pepper Tree Inn around 2:45 pm. I called the manager to see if early check in was available, and he advised our fourth floor room was ready for occupancy.....yay for our team!
....of course, the view of the lake from our balcony was/is spectacular. After unpacking for a 3 day stayt, we celebrated with a shot of single malt....
....another favorite haunt of ours in Tahoe City is The Bridgetender Tavern.....we have eaten here dozens of times over the years, and dinning alfresco along the Truckee River is never a bad thing.....
....TLE ordered some Savignon Blanc (white wine), and I one of their Patti's Famous Bloody Marys with bacon. I've lost track of how many of these I've had over the years, but it is one of the best Bloody Marys on earth....serious.....
.....for dinner TLE had a prawn salad, and I their amazing Bacon Bleu Cheese Burger.....OMG to both! We talked, and enjoyed the early evening balmy breezes for 90 minutes, or so before it was time to pay our check and head for home. We walked to and from The Bridgetender Tavern (1 mile round trip), arriving back home around 7:30 pm totally tired and ready for a nap, or two after our very full day. Of course the sunsets anywhere around Lake Tahoe are always memorable, and Monday's offering was no exception....
8:49 am - Tuesday - August 23rd - Tahoe City, CA - 58° F, 40% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the northwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 84° F. On this date in 2016 TLE and I were having lunch in Meyers, CA (near South Lake Tahoe)....↴
While we are currently in Tahoe City, CA I have not yet written about Sunday, so here goes.
Sunday was the fourth of four work days, and the hotest day of the four with a high temperature of 95° F. Before I did much else I needed to wash the 12 late return golf carts, as many of them would also need to be staged. I had the 5 Club Car electrics, and 10 Yamaha gassers staged by 7:30 am. As it turned out we only rented 11 carts on Sunday as we had a lot of guests leaving LPG&RVR....a typical 'vacuum' day....lol.
I spent a couple of hours raking gravel on a couple of the cart paths as the gravel, over the course of the summer, has been pushed to one side or the other creating a somewhat washboard effect. By 10 am I was not quite done with that task, but it was time to begin mowing. In addition to mowing the small pavilion, and the group fire pit area, I also managed to mow all but 4 of the pull through sites.....11 in all...before it was time to give TLE her lunch break.
By the time I returned from my 30 minute lunch break there were 8 carts to wash, meaning there were still 3 out on the course, and they did not return until after 5 pm. By the time I closed up shop I was one tired, dirty puppy, but I needed to drive into Alturas to fill up the VW gas tank for our drive south to Lake Tahoe Monday morning. We meant to fill the tank four days earlier when we went to Alturas to do our weekly shopping, but we both forgot. The nearest gas station south of us is in Standish, which is about 80 miles, and we did not have enough left in the tank for that distance....I hate it when that happens....lol. Anyway, after taking a quick shower I was in the VW driving 20 miles into Alturas to fuel up the Beetle.
I was back at LPG&RVR by 4:05 pm, and managed to take a short nap before I went to pickup TLE from the Clubhouse. Was I ever looking forward to heading south for 4 days to enjoy our old stomping grounds at Lake Tahoe. Time for a vacation from our vacation.
5:50 pm - Sunday - August 21st - Likely, CA - 91° F, 13% humidity, wind 14 mph out of the west.....mostly sunny today with a forecast high of 95° F. On this date in 2017 TLE and I were hiking to the top of Bunsen Peak in Yellowstone NP to watch the solar eclipse with good friend Rosco, Geni and Dodge......one of my favorite pictures ever......↴
Alright.....I guess it is confession time....the days we work are so alike it is hard to blog every day, and, as you are no doubt aware, I have not blogged about Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday this week....I think that is the longest duration in which I have not blogged a single word in over 10 years. My brother-in-law, Charles Wilson, called me today (Sunday) to be sure all was well in the 'Whatsnewell' world since he had not seen any posts for several days, so I promised him to get caught up this evening. This blog post will be a compilation of last four days.
Wednesday:
On Wednesday at precisely 8 am I had my first golf lesson ever, in m life. Good friend, Mike Bratzler, who is a scratch golfer, whose father was a Golf Pro for many years in Florida, gave me a lesson. He is a great teacher, and gave me three things regarding my back swing on which to work......keep my left foot on the ground, turn my left knee to the right instead of lifting my left foot, work on slowing down by back swing, and pausing at the top before beginning my swing. I saw immediate results when I managed to execute those things, but it will take time for me to incorporate them into my swing......I can think of maybe one, or two things in my back swing, but 3, or 4 means some of them must become automatic....requiring no thought process.
After my lesson I decided to clean all my golf clubs, and reorganized TLE' golf bag (which she doesn't use, but I am always hopeful). I was home by 9:30 am with the rest of the day in front of me. Of course, Wednesday was the fourth of our 4 day weekend, so it was a shopping day. We headed into Alturas by 10 am to do our weekly shopping, and were home before noon. Wednesday was a warm one, and we spent the rest of the afternoon inside the cool confines of the Newell.
Thursday:
Thursday was coldest day in a month with the daily high topping out at 69° F. It rained all night Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning, and on and off most of the day, and we did not have very many golfers, as one might expect. I went to work at 7:30 am, and was home by 4 pm with maybe 8 carts rented....
....as always, Thursday is the day we clear the driving range of golf balls so it can be mowed. This is the fullest the barrel has been since April.....
......I had been about 8 days since I last mowed the tee boxes, so I headed out to mow them around 9 am. During the two hour round trip the hour meter on the John Deere hit 200 hours....
....when I started using the John Deere back in May it only had 148 hours on the meter......that is a lot of seat time on that slow moving riding lawn mower!
Friday:
After a slow day on Thursday, Friday was a very busy day with over 20 golf carts being rented. By the time 4 pm came around there were still 11 golf carts outstanding, so I knew I was going to have a busy Saturday morning.
Saturday:
I knew Saturday was going to be a warm day, so I was up at 5:30 am so I could be at work by 6:30 am. As it happened Tottenham, our favorite English Premier League team, was already in the second half of their match with the Wolverhampton Wolves.....in less than 60 seconds after I turned on the game Harry Kane (Tottenham) scored a goal off a corner kick, with a header. That turned out to be the only goal Tottenham would need, as they prevailed 1-0 to remain undefeated.
The sun is not topping out over the Warner mountains until after 6:30 am, so on this day I actually got a picture of the 'sunrise'.....lol.....
.....I had 11 carts to wash first thing Saturday, and I got them done and had 15 carts staged by the time TLE came to work at 7:45 am. We ended up renting 25 carts Saturday, and by the time 3 pm came around there were still 12 carts outstanding.
I think from this point on I will only make one post for the four days we work, and then individual posts for the four days we are off each week. Thank you for your patience!
3:27 pm - Wednesday - August 17th - Likely, CA - It is still 91° F, 17% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west by northwest.....still mostly cloudy, and the forecast high is still 91° F. On this date in 2013 my mother (Virginia) and 3 of my siblings gathered together in Salt Lake City for the wedding of my brother's (Dwyer) daughter, Ingrid, to Randy Shoemaker......↴
It's a turn down day by The Cyrkle, aka: A kick back, do nothing day
Tuesday turned out to be a kick back, do nothing day. You need one of those on a four day weekend, don't you? Well, I'm pretty sure that must be a rule, anyway...if not, it should be. TLE and I watched the entire Tottenham Hot Spurs vs. Chelsea (English Premier League). I was not aware that Tottenham had not beaten Chelsea, or even scored a goal against them in years. As it turned out Tottenham did score a goal and they were briefly tied, before Chelsea scored another goal. Chelsea was still up 2-1 with one minute to play in added time when they scored off a corner kick via a brilliant header by Harry Kane......what a game!
Once again TLE and I played backgammon all afternoon. I went on an initial winning streak of 4, or 5 games before TLE rebounded and won a couple, but then I went on another winning streak. I can't imagine a more enjoyable way to while away the hours than playing Backgammon with my best friend....The Lovely Elaine.
We did get a beautiful, cloud shrouded sunset, which we observed from the comfort of 'lido deck'......
....I grilled a wild caught salmon steak for dinner, to which TLE added a side of white rice, and corn....a perfect ending to a kick back, do nothing day!
2:50 pm - Wednesday - August 17th - Likely, CA - 91° F, 16% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northwest......mostly cloudy today with a forecast high of 91° F. On this date in 2014 I was riding the 'Off The Top' trail at Mammoth Mountain Bike Park, which begins at 11,000' elevation......↴
Monday was a busy off day for me.....I hit a couple buckets of balls, then played 9 holes. I bogeyed the first hole, parred the 2nd hole....just missed a birdie, parred the 3rd hole with a longish one putt, kind of blew up on the 4th hole, but got a double bogey anyway. I bogeyed the par three 5th hole, and bogeyed the 6th hole. At that point we had caught up with the foursome in front of us, so we jumped up to the elevated tee at the 16th (par 3) where I bogeyed, then bogeyed the par five 17th, and then bogeyed the 18th. Probably my best 9 holes in 40 years! I am, slowly but surely, getting there.
TLE and I bought a Backgammon board a while back with the intent of getting back into this fun board game after 40 years. We played a lot while on vacations back in the 70's, then raising 5 kids kind of got in the way, and it fell by the wayside. I think we sold it in a yard sale back in the 80's sometime. I found a preowned one just like the one we had back in the 70' on eBay for about $28......
.....we finally sat down Monday to play for the first time in decades. Relearning the rules was like trying to learn Chinese....at first. Gradually our memories returned, and we began to have fun. We must have played a dozen games Monday afternoon with TLE winning initially, but gradually I became more competitive, then finished off the afternoon winning a couple of times. I had forgotten what a fun, strategic game Backgammon is.....sure, there is the element of luck involved with the toss of the dice, but there is a lot of strategy.
Around 7 pm, this time, we headed up to the high point at LPG&RVR to watch another sunset, and we stayed until almost 8:30 pm.....
Likely Mountain with TV antennas, etc.
.....we were treated to a cloudless sunset, but it was beautiful, nonetheless! Thank you for stopping by!
7:37 am - Monday - August 15th - Likely, CA - 56° F, 43% humidity, wind - CALM out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 95° F. On this date in 2014 TLE and I were having lunch at Walker Burger in Walker, CA on our way to Mammoth Mountain......↴
Now, for the first time since I began to blog daily back in October of 2012 I am three days behind, so today's blog will be a three in one.....Friday, Saturday and Sunday.....buckle up, and hold on tight!
Friday:
I was on the job by 6:30 am as has been my habit for some weeks now. I'm kind of addicted to getting off work at 3 pm. It hasn't been that hot lately.....mostly 90-92° F.....and I could probably go to work at my normal hour and get off at 5 pm, but I would rather still get off at 3 pm. If mowing needs to be done, which it did Friday, we don't do any mowing within the RV park before 10 am, so I decided to do some much needed weeding. In all I hauled away three wagon load of weeds from an area down in the gravel pull through sites before 10 am.
Next up I retrieved the Husqvarna self propelled lawnmower to mow the four employee sites, which includes ours, which takes less than an hour, then retrieved the John Deere riding lawnmower to mow tent sites 4-10 once again. I managed to get that area done in another hour, and was back to the Clubhouse in time to relieve TLE for her lunch break.
After my 30 minute lunch break (1-1:30 pm) I headed back to the 'Cart Return' area to begin washing carts. In all we had rented around 25 carts Friday....one of our busiest Friday's in a while, but by 3 pm only 10 had been returned. Saturday we had a tournament scheduled, so I knew I would have to wash 15 carts quickly Saturday morning to be ready for the tournament.
By the way, I shot a short video of me mowing the blue tee box at the 18th hole the other day, and forgot to post it, so here it is. Thought you might like to see how I do it.....
Saturday:
The overnight lows have been getting into the low 40' lately, and at 6:30 am Saturday morning it was cold enough that I wished I had worn gloves. I've been wearing long pants to work lately to protect my legs from the mosquitoes, but Saturday I wore shorts, because I was going to be marshalling on the golf course during the tournament (Rich Hamel Memorial Tournament) since Mike was playing in the tournament. Needless to say, I was slightly under dressed for the temperature at 6:30 am.
I was able to get all 15 golf carts left over from Friday washed, and staged with the other carts before 8 am, and by 9 am I was out on the course marshalling.....
Ready to marshal.....
.....I had to return to the Clubhouse at 12 pm to relieve TLE, and by 1:30 pm, after my lunch break, I began to wash the first of 26 golf carts. Of course I can only wash what is returned, and by 3 pm, my quitting time, only 10 carts had been returned. Of course Saturday is also 'Putting Contest' day, so I headed home to shower, and change clothes to be back in time for the 4 pm start time. Once again I did not make it out of the first round.....go figure. I seem to have lost my confidence, and need to trust my instincts more. By the third hole I was down 2-0, but tied the 3rd hole with a very good putt, then sank my first putt on 4, only to tie the 5th hole and lose 2-1. To be fair to myself, I did regain my confidence by the 3 hole, but the damage was already done. TLE didn't putt as she was working until 5 pm, but she did stay around to see the final winner. We were home by 6 pm at which time I took a long nap....that was a long day!
Sunday:
Every time we drive into Alturas TLE and I both comment that we should walk up and down Main Street (US-395) and take pictures of all the building murals, so a week ago we agreed that we would drive into Alturas Sunday, get some coffee at the Starbucks located inside the historic Nile Hotel, then walk up and down Main Street taking pictures of all of the murals, and of whatever else might strike our collective fancies......
.....surprisingly, there are a lot of building murals in Altura. You might remember back in 2017 when we were in Lompoc, CA, that we did the same thing.....I wrote about that here. At any rate, I'll let the pictures do the talking.....
The historic Niles Theater, a single screen theater
The Alturas Elks Lodge is a beautiful Mission style building with a bell tower!
No mural, but I had to take a picture of Rubios Taquieria....best Mexican food in Modoc County!
A nail salon
....whilst we were walking and photographing I got a call from a prospective winter employer to whom we had sent our resumes a few days ago. This job is one we have looked at in the past, but just never pulled the trigger on, but this year we decided it was time. I'll save the details for when we confirm we have the jobs, but I know you will be envious.....lol!
Another thing we have talked about doing for months, was to drive our #20 Club Car golf cart up to the highest hill at LPG&RVR to watch the sun set, which, until now, was just too late, but now the sun is setting, locally, before 8 pm, so we crossed another 'to do' item off our list Sunday night. We left the Newell around 7:30 pm. From the top of the hill we had a 360° view of the Likely Rancheria valley.....it is beautiful......
....we took a couple of chairs with us, and some sunset snacks along with a bottle of Catina Malbec.....our favorite Malbec. We discovered this wine when we were in Southwest Harbor back in August of 2018, and buy it whenever we come across it now....I think we've got 4, or 5 bottles of it now......
.....by 7:50 pm the sun had slipped behind the mountains to our west.......
.....I asked TLE to take a video of our surroundings......beautiful!
So, there you go......three days in one blog post, and what a third day! Thank you for your patience. I promise to try and stay more current.....we'll see, shan't we?
