All day.....

 6:45 am - Wednesday - November 23rd - GNHS - 46° F, humidity 38%, wind 4 mph out of the northeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I had just arrived at our boondock site at Ocotillo Wells for Thanksgiving with our kids, and relatives.......↴

....the next day it looked like this......↴

.....coincidentally, we will be driving over to Ocotillo Wells today to visit with our kids as they arrive for their annual desert Thanksgiving adventure....I think we'll even swing up to Borrego Springs for some Los Jilbertos tacos, and a little junking perhaps.

Normally we do not work on Tuesdays, but we had bookings for two 4 seaters, and two 2 seaters for all day.....that's a lot of money, and we want COA* to be successful, so we reported for work around 7:30 am.  The nice thing about all day rentals is you prepare the UTV's (check oil, air pressures, etc.), take the customers through UTV operation and safety orientation, then send them off......then you have the rest of the day off until they return.....at least TLE did.  I worked until 10:30 am on COA stuff, then spent the rest of the day inspecting an 80's era vintage VW sand rail back in the shop yard....they looked something like this.....

.....I didn't take a pictures of that one, but this is what a VW sand rail looks like, and the one I'm looking at is the same color, and essentially the same setup.  It's been sitting for two years, and, according to the owner, it 'ran when parked'....the problem was he blew the bead off one side of the right rear tire, and couldn't get it re-inflated, so he parked it, and never came back to it.  This particular one has 4 wheel disc brakes (an upgrade), twin carbs (upgrade), a racing transmission (an expensive upgrade), and numerous other upgrades that escape my memory.  There is no battery, so I'll have to lay my hands on one, but I did remove the right rear tire and took it back to the trailer to see if I can reseat the bead, and re-inflate it, which I need to do before I do anything else.  I think I can get it running again, and if so would make the owner an offer.  These VW engines are pretty resilient, and it has been sitting in the dry desert air for the past two years.  The other 3 tires still have air in them, and can be inflated with no problem.  Once I get it back on 4 wheels I'll tow it up to the trailer where all my tools are to begin to revive it....

The bead is seated on the other side of the tire.  I'm using weight and sun to soften the tire, and push the rim slowly down to the tire bead....almost there.

 

.....I fiddled around with the tire until around 3 pm when our all day rentals began to return, so I changed clothes and began to wash the first of four UTV's.  'All Day' is a relative term, and really depends on the customer, and when they are ready to be done.  Some go, literally, all day, and some come back after 3, or 4 hours.  As I worked, and the sun began to edge closer to the western horizon it lit up the Chocolate Mountains to the east....beautiful!.....

....by 5 pm all the rentals had returned, been washed, and refueled.  There were no accidents, and no rescues on this day, so as days go in the UTV rental business it was a good one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Into Indio.....

6:34 am - Tuesday - November 22nd - GNHS -  47° F, 44% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 73° F.  The view this morning.....↴

.....and on this date in 2013 TLE and I were viewing a sunrise at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside, CA.......↴

I needed a haircut, and it was time for a major shopping again, so we began our drive into Indio/La Quinta around 9:15 am, arriving at the Supercuts at exactly 10 am....the time they open.  It's a good thing we were there first, because there was a line out the door shortly after I sat down in the chair to get my ears lowered.  

We had many stops to make this day, and the next stop after Supercuts was Trader Joe's, then across Highway 111 to Stater Brothers, then back east on Highway 111 to Walmart where we picked up a few things.....you know, it is really easy to get into Walmart, but getting out can be a chore.  The DIY terminals always have a long line now, and they never have enough cashiers on duty.  We probably spent less than 15 minutes shopping, and over 15 getting though the checkout line.....uggggh!  On our way to our next stop, Home Depot, the Beetle battery light came on indicating the battery was not being charged.....doh!!

The 2001 VW Beetles have an issue with the high voltage box which sits on top of the battery case with the main 10 amp terminal getting too hot, and melting either the plastic box, or the fusible link.  I have had the box replaced twice by my mechanic, and most recently I replaced it back in late 2019 while we were at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  Because we've had issues over the years I check it periodically to see if all looks well, and I had just checked it a week ago.  Well, apparently the nut holding the 10 amp cable in place worked its way loose causing an intermittent connection, which increased the resistance, and caused the connection to heat up, resulting in the 10 amp fusible link doing its job, and melting.  Well, at least the problem was obvious, and what do you know?  I had a spare fusible link in my tool bag, so it was just a matter of removing the damaged fusible link, and replacing it with a fresh, new one.....easy peezy!

While I fixed the fusible link issue, TLE headed into Home Depot to buy some pots into which to transplant her growing cacti she bought a month ago.  I joined her a short time later to buy a few things I needed, and we were on our way to our final stop of the day.....COSTCO to first fuel up the VW with Premium Unleaded at an amazing price of just $4.79/gallon.....the least we have paid in over a year.  Then, into the store itself.....man, was it ever crowded, and on a Monday, no less.  After buying just a few things we got in another long line to check out, and while we were doing so decided to have a quick lunch there....I love their Ballpark Nathan's hotdogs!  Only $1.50 for the hot dog and a drink per person........

.....we didn't get home until 2:30 pm....that was a much longer shopping day than we had anticipated.  We found out upon arrival home that Bob had rented out one of the Kawasaki 2 seaters while we were gone, and I still needed to wash the RZR 4 seaters from their Sunday rental as we have them plus 2 Kawasaki's going out on a full day rental Tuesday morning.  I also needed to put on the new tires Bob brought for the white RZR (#5), so I got busy doing all of that, plus washing the Kawasaki when it returned right near sundown.  By the time I was finished it was right at sundown, so I snapped this great sundown picture.......

.....after putting away all of the stuff I had out to change the tires it was almost 5:30 pm, and I was tired.  I took a shower, had some dinner, and then TLE and I headed out to the 'lido deck' to play what turned out to be 9 games of Backgammon......TLE won the tie breaker in a very close match.

On a side note, Bob took the damaged RZR down to El Central to an ATV place to have the damaged assessed, and get a repair estimate.  It appears, including parts and labor, it will only cost $3,000 to fix it, so that is great news for the customer.

Thanks for  stopping by!

It began just like a normal day......

 6:48 am - Monday - November 21st - GNHS - 49° F, 34% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2018 we were having dinner at one of the best BBQ places we have ever eaten....Brother's BBQ in Campbellsville, KY with some of our shift friends......↴

Sunday began innocently enough with two RZR rentals...one went out a little after 8 am, and the second at 10 am.....the first was a 4 hour rental, so we expected them back around 12 pm, and the second was a 6 hour rental, meaning we would not expect them until 4 pm.  One of the owners of Colorado Outback Adventures, Bob Williamson, arrived from Durango, CO Saturday evening around 7 pm, and he was at the office shortly after the 8 am rental went out.  He had brought with him another Polaris RZR 4 seater to add to our rental inventory, but the tires needed changing.  He had brought 9 mounted Polaris wheels with him, so we quickly changed out those four tires.

Around 10 am the customers with the 8 am rental returned to advise a check engine light had come on, so they had 'limped' back to the office.  The code in the computer for #4 RZR said it was a misfire, just like the one we had on #2 the other day, so Bob drove it around for a couple of minutes in LOW just like I did on #2, and the code cleared.  Everything seemed fine, so we sent them back out.

Around 11:30 am we got a call that the check engine light had returned, and would not clear, so I headed out with RZR #5 to make an exchange just like I did the other day.  I had a general idea where they were, so I headed out toward the Bat Caves, stopping to call TLE about 1/3 of the way out to see how close I was to them.  She advised me my tracker (#5) wasn't working, so she had no idea where I was in relation to them.....she could see their position on the computer, but not mine......doh!  That makes it much harder.  She said it appeared they were not that far off the main road, which is where I was, and that they were just south of my position, but I could not see them anywhere. I ended up driving all the way to the Bat Caves, never seeing them.  Of course, as luck would have it, I had no cell coverage at the Bat Caves, so I just began to head back hoping I would come across them.

I was about 2/3's of the way back to the office when I got cell service again, and called TLE....she said Bob had returned and was out in the RZR he had brought down from Colorado to help me find them.  He reached me in about 10 minutes, then asked me to follow him.....his tracker was working, so TLE was able to direct him to the customer's location.  Unfortunately, I had to stop for oncoming traffic, and when I started up again I had lost him.   I wandered around looking for him for about 20 minutes before deciding to just head back.....I had no cell service, and I had no idea where Bob had gone.  

Just as I returned to cell service I found the abandoned #4 RZR just off the trail, so I assumed Bob had found them, and towed the RZR back to the main trail.  I called TLE and confirmed that he was returning the customers to the park, and would return with a tow strap so we could tow the disabled RZR back to the park.  In about 20 minutes he returned, and we successfully towed #4 (with me at the steering wheel) back to GHNS.

Of course, the day gets even better at this point.  It turned out the problem with #4 was a broken drive belt, which is rather simple to replace, and while Bob did that I finished changing tires on one of the Kawasaki's.  While that was ongoing a customer of GNHS rode up in his RZR asking if he could borrow our trailer to retrieve a broken down ATV near Niland.  After some discussion Bob decided to have me drive his truck with the trailer into Niland to get his Rhino, while Bop finished installing the new drive belt on #4.  He told me to charge them whatever I felt it was worth, and that I could keep it.  I told the guy it would cost him $100....rather mercenary of me, no?  It was late in the afternoon (about 90 minutes until sundown) and I knew we would not get back until sundown if all went as planned.....I was tired, and not really in the mood for the adventure, plus I knew a towing service would charge him way more than I was.....he agreed, and we were off to Niland.  As it turned out everthing went as planned, and we arrived back at GNHS about 10 minutes before sundown.

Now it gets even better.  While I was gone TLE got a call from the 6 hour rental customer that he had had an accident, and #2 RZR was disabled, Bob and Kyle had driven out the tow #2 back, however, when they arrived on site it was way more than disabled.....one of the front wheels, and axle were broken.....there was no way it could be towed, so they had to return, get Bob's truck, and trailer and head back out as the sun was setting to retrieve the broken RZR.  That will be a very expensive bill for the customer at $500/day for loss of use of #2, plus the repairs, which will be between $5,000 and $10,000....ouch.  If you do stupid stuff with these things it will cost you an arm and a leg.

While Bob and Kyle headed out to recover #2, TLE and I put everything away, and closed up shop for the day....and what a day it was.  We both worked 9 hours, and I never got a lunch....there just wasn't time.  I took a long, hot shower, and then consumed a couple of large adult beverages before eating dinner, and then falling asleep around 8 am....I was one tired puppy!

Thank for stopping by!

There is always a first......

 7:05 am - Sunday - November 20th - GNHS - 52° F, 35% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 73° F.  In November of 1978 TLE and I took our first extended motorhome trip (3 weeks) in a 1978 Toyota Odyssey.....our son Chris was just 6 years old at the time, and our daughter Meredith was 1 month old.....we only had two children at the time.......↴ 

The Santa Ana winds returned during the night, and it was a tad chilly Saturday morning.  We had just one 1/2 day rental for one of the Polaris RZR 4 seaters beginning at 12 pm, so I spent a few hours doing small maintenance things on the other 5.....things like replacing missing screws, bolts, using the CLR to remove some more water spots from the ATV mirrors, and wind screens, etc.  I stayed busy until around 12 pm, when our lone customers of the day departed on their  1/2 day  adventure...... 

....shortly after they left TLE and I retired to the Newell for a few hours until the rental would return, and I would wash, and detail the returned RZR.  There were a few NCAA college football games watched, and there were a few nail biters in which #3 Michigan kicked a last second field goal to come from behind and keep their unbeaten record intact, and #4 TCU came from behind to win by, also, kicking a last second field goal to win by 1, and remain unbeaten.  All of the top four teams won their games, but #5 Tennessee lost in a landslide to an unranked team (South Carolina).  My #7 USC Trojans held on to win 48-45 over #12 UCLA in their annual cross town rivalry, so with Tennessee's loss they may move up to #6 with two games left to play.  LSU, who is #6 right now will probably move to #5 with their win Saturday.

Our 1/2 day rental returned after just 2 hours, but they have the same unit rented on Sunday, and will be out for 6 hours (transferring the 2 hours left on Saturday's rental).  It got a little windy out on the trail Saturday afternoon, and the wind is supposed to be gone by mid morning Sunday.

We had a nice sunset, which I was able to memorialize....

.....the sun is so low in the sky now I have to walk quite a ways to get a picture of it setting.....looking back at our nomadic compound....

.....oh, and by the way, we now have two confirmed rentals for Sunday, and 3 on Tuesday!

On the Starlink front, it continues to work flawlessly, even with the tree in the back of our site providing a few minor obstructions as the satellites pass overhead.  With the WiFi extender set up in the trailer I can get WiFi all the way out to the area were the ATV's are parked!  One of our top acquisitions since we went full time.

Thanks for stopping by!

Zip, nada, zero......

6:58 am - Saturday - November 19th - GNHS - 55° F, 29% humidity, wind 13 mph out of the north.....the Santa Anas have returned......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were enjoying our 8th consecutive sunset at Rincon Parkway (north of Ventura, CA)......↴

As suspected Friday was not busy rental wise.....zip, nada, zero..... and as I drove around the park I could see why.....there were very few RV's in the park.  On a more positive note we do have two confirmed rentals for Saturday and Sunday  (one each day) so far, and we expect some 'walk ups' based on inquires by folks in the park.  As the day wound down, however, we witnessed a stream of RV's coming into the park after dark, so who knows what the weekend holds in store for us?

I did perform some additional maintenance on #10 (Kawasaki 2 seater) by opening up the clutch housing, and blowing out the dust, and changed the batteries in its GPS tracker.  I think I've mentioned this before, but each UTV has a tracker which enables us to keep track of each unit wherever it may be.  This comes in handy when one breaks down, and we have to find it to fix it.  I now have the tracking program on my phone to aid me when I am out on a rescue.  Now, don't get me wrong, I am not looking forward to utilizing that capability, but if the need should arise, it will make the rescue a tad easier than looking for a needle in the proverbial haystack.  I also  put a couple of the 'Rent Me' banners on #10 Kawasaki I had just serviced, and drove around the park attempting to stir up interest, and it worked.  Within minutes of me returning to the office a few people walked up to inquire about rentals for the weekend.....cool!

The last time we bought new sewer hoses I bought an extra 10' section to hold in reserve.  The last time I had a hose fail was in September, or October of 2019 at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.  I went out to dump the black tank and the hose began to leak black water like a sieve......not fun!  Well, that happened again Friday.  Thankfully, I still had that extra 10' section, so it was easy to change it out, and finish the job.  There was a little hazmat clean up afterwards, to be sure, and a lot of scrubbing of hands with soap, plus a long shower thrown in for good measure.

The Santa Anas began to return around 9 pm, but well after we had finished our outdoor activities on the 'lido deck' (a game of 'Phase 10', which was won by moi).  We watched another recorded Hallmark Christmas movie before heading off to dreamland to the sounds of the Santa Ana winds buffeting the Newell.

Thanks for stopping by!

Back to work Thursday......

 7:15 am - Friday - November 18th - GNHS - 48° F, 35% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the south.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 72° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were watching our 7th Rincon Parkway sunset....one of our favorite dry camping spots ever......↴.

This Thursday through Sunday shift happens to be the weekend before Thanksgiving, so we did not expect to have much, if any rental acitivity, and we did not.  It is typical in any resort such as GNHS that the weekend before a major holiday is relatively quiet. Next week people will begin arriving on Tuesday, and Wednesday, and be here through Monday, and this place will be noisy, messy, and out of control for about 6 days, and that is the cost of working at a resort during the holiday season.

Since I had time on my hands I replaced some of the 3A batteries in the trackers, blew out a few air filters, and then got to the big task for the day.....remove the covers from the clutch housings on each Polaris and Kawasaki to blow out any accumulated dust.....if we don't the clutch belts will begin to slip, and make noise.  Typically, if we were renting all of them out 4 days per week we would perform this task once a week.  On the Polaris' there are about 8 screws which fasten the plastic cover to the clutch housing.....on the Kawasaki's there are about 16.  At any rate it takes about 30 minutes per clutch housing to remove the bolts/screws, then blow out the housing, and then re-install the cover.  I managed to get the four units we have rented the most (3 Polaris' and 1 Kawasaki) done in a little over two hours......  

The Polaris clutch housing

The Kawasaki clutch housing

.....I spent my last hour re-installing the shelf in TLE's office as it was beginning to sag.....I cut out a triangle of hard wood to provide extra support then attached it to the shelf and wall with two 3" wood screws.....

......by the time I finished it was 1 pm, and time to head for home......that did the trick, and eliminated the sag.  I know, those brackets are way, way undersized, but that was all I had on hand at the time.  On days when we have no rentals we knock off by 1 pm, as we do not rent UTV's after 1 pm, so no point in sitting around doing little, or nothing.

I spent the afternoon moving a few things around in the trailer, and otherwise making it appear somewhat more organized.  TLE had me grill a salmon steak on the Sea-B-Que, for which she provided a side of Risotto with broccoli, all which was chased by a glass of Savignon Blanc.   We played 6 games of Yahtzee after dinner, and then sat by the fire for about 90 minutes before heading inside to watch a recorded episode of  'Amazing Race'.  All in all it was a very nice day, and I wouldn't change one single thing about it.....

A subtle, but captivating sunset

Thanks for stopping by!

Nomadic complications......

 7:40 am - Thursday - November 17th - GNHS - 49° F, 36% humidity, wind 8 mph out of the northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 71° F.  On this date in 2016 Dr. Fabricant (Pacific Eye Institute) removed the post cataract surgery patch from my left eye.....for the first time in a few years I could see in vivid technicolor, and could read the eye chart down to the next to last line.....almost 20/20 vision again in my left eye......↴

I see you!

We awoke to high winds, which had gone on all night, to view the wind driven carnage in our 'lido deck'.....the pirate flag was down, and the sail sun shades, which we had disconnected from the patio awning so we could stow it, were draped over the umbrella and EZ-UP, the trash can from the office was laying next to the firepit, the artificial turf was rolled up near the rear of the coach......it was general chaos.  Within minutes TLE and I had restored order, I had put the flag pole back in its holder, and unclipped the sail sun shades from the eye bolts to which they were attached.

I received a call from Kyle late morning asking to switch the two rear tires on RZR #5 to the rear of RZR #2 (I had moved them a week ago as the rear tires on #5 were better than those on #2, and we were renting it that day), so he could replace all four tires on #2 with brand new tires later in the day.  I clocked in for about 30 minutes to get that done, then went back to what I was doing.....pretty much nothing since it was so windy outside.  

Since it was too windy to do anything, including take a ride in one of the RZR's I spent the better part of 3 hours setting up dental (TLE & I), cardiologist (moi), and dermatologist (TLE and I) appointments.  Trying to co-ordinate the appointments  so that they all fell on a Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of any week was a little complicated, but in the end it all fell into place.  We're scheduled to be at Dr. Urena's dental office in Los Algodones on November 28th, at my cardiologist (Dr. Mulvihill) down in Poway (near San Diego) on December 20th (we'll drive down the day before, and stay at a hotel then go to my appointment the next day).  Then, finally, on January 9th TLE and I will see our dermatologist (Dr. Jou) who is also in Poway at the same medical center.  We were hoping to get both the cardiologist and dermatologist appointments on the same day, but there were too many conflicts, hence two different days.

You may wonder why we are driving down to Poway (139 miles each way) for these appointments, and that would be a valid question.  When I had my heart attack back in May of 2019 we were living at Ramona Oaks RV Resort just west of Poway, so that is how I became connected to Dr. Mulvihill.  We developed a good relationship, and became friends.  Dr. Jou practices in the same medical center on the same floor, and I went to see him about the basil cell carcinoma on my right ear so I could get a referral to a MOHS surgeon, and he also found, and removed the stage zero melanoma on my chest.  I like him a lot, I trust him, and, again we have a good relationship.  I really don't want to have to start over again with new doctors, so I have stuck with both of them.  Changing doctors doesn't really make any sense anyway because of our nomadic lifestyle....no matter where we travel, we'll most likely always be a long ways from any doctor we choose.....no point in moving from doctor to doctor, and we are almost always in SoCal once a year anyway.  Besides, it is a chance to get away for a couple of days, and we love Poway.

After all that phone work I was ready for an appropriately long nap.  The winds continued to howl all afternoon, but by 6 pm they had abated somewhat so TLE and I went outside around 7 pm to sit by the fire....we'd been cooped up all afternoon, and it was time for a little fresh air.  The night sky was filled with a trillion stars, and the light breezes were very balmy.

Thanks for stopping by!