Out of bounds.....

 6:32 pm - Sunday - February 19th - GNHS - 64° F, humidity 31%, wind 2 mph out of the northwest......dark...forecast low tonight is 47° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were boondocking near the Verde River in the Verde Valley near Sedona, AZ.....↴

I'm writing about Sunday's activities on Sunday evening, because I will not have time Monday morning as we will be in the Beetle on our way to Poway by 6 am.   I'll have to write about Monday when we get home Tuesday afternoon.

We had 5 rentals booked for Sunday.....4 RZRs and 1 KRX.  Three of the five returned without incident, but the final two rentals (RZR and KRX) ended up heading to Bombay Beach, which is forbidden in the contract our customers must sign.  In the contract they agree to only operate our UTV's on approved trails within the BLM area adjacent to GHNS.  In order to get to Bombay beach you must cross the railroad tracks running on the east side of Highway 111, then cross Highway 111.  More than likely they went there to have lunch at 'The Ski Inn', where we have eaten on a couple of occasions. This is a big NO, NO, and doing so voids the contract, and you must return the UTV to the rental office as soon as is practically possible.  You immediately forfeit all of the remaining time for which you paid.  In this case almost 2 hours for each unit.

Both of the wayward units were back at the office within an hour, but one of the units, the KRX, appeared to have been driven repeatedly through muddy clay, and it looked like this upon return.......

....we know where the mud is, and there is not that much, so to get it to look this bad would seem to require some intent....I'll let it go at that.  It took me almost an hour to power wash the now dried muddy clay off the #8 KRX.

By the time I finished cleaning, fueling, and parking them it was after 5:30 pm, and I was one tired puppy......this was the second 10 hour day in succession.....when it gets busy, it gets real busy!  From Thursday through Sunday we had 14 rentals, which is really great for COA.  It should remain pretty busy from here on out as we are entering 'Spring Break' season.  At least there were no rescues, no break downs....at least.

Thanks for stopping by!

Seven....

 6:44 am - Sunday - February 19th - GNHS - 39° F, humidity 48%, win 4 mph out of the east by southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 70° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were having breakfast at Crema Craft Kitchen and Bar in Cottonwood, AZ.....↴

You never know how a day will evolve, and I certainly had no idea about Saturday, as it turned out.  We were on duty at 7:30 am to stage two RZRs for 5 hour rentals beginning at 8 am, and things just took off from there. By 11 am we had rented all 6 units (2 KRXs and 4 RZRs), and then rented one of the RZRs a second time in the afternoon for a total of 7 rentals in one day!  That's the first time since Christmas we have done 7 rentals in one day, but on this day there were no rescues, no accidents, and NO problems whatsoever.

In between rentals I relaxed watching some of the Genesis Open (PGA) tournament.  Tiger had a decent day going 4 under par to finish the day at -3.  He is 11 strokes behind the leader, and probably doesn't have a chance of winning, but in his first start since The Open he made the cut, and after 3 days still looks strong....no limping at all.  Very encouraging.....

 

....in between rentals Kyle installed the new door skins, mud flaps, etc. on RZR #5, so it is back to 100%.....

.....our last rentals returned just after 5 pm, and by the time I finished washing them, and fueling them the sun was setting across the Salton Sea.....

.....considering that the last time we had 7 rentals out there were 3 rescues that day, Saturday was like dream....maybe a litter surreal in its uneventfulness.  We celebrated with some burritos by TLE, and then 5 games of Backgammon on the 'lido deck' for good measure.  The dice favored moi on this evening as I won 3 out of 5 matches.

We have another busy day coming Sunday (today) with 5 rentals booked already, and always the possibility of walkup business on this 3 day Presidents Day weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Change of venue.....

 6:27 am - Saturday - February 18th - GNHS - 43° F, humidity 47%, wind 5 mph out of the northeast......mostly clear today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were enjoying a cloud shrouded sunset in the Anza Borrego Desert.......↴

I spent more time away from our rental operation Friday than I did there.  The parts for RZR #5 had arrived at COYNE down in El Centro, so it was tasked to me to drive down and retrieve them.  We had no bookings to begin Friday, and, as it turned out, we had no walkups either.  After preparing all 6 of our UTVs for possible rental (oil checked, tire pressure checked, air filters cleaned, etc.) I left them in TLE's capable hands with the knowledge that if she needed help with anything Kyle was available.

I left GNHS in the COA van around 9:30 am, and arrived at COYNE around 10:30 am.  By the time I had secured all the ordered parts, paid for them, and loaded the big boxes in the COA van it was going on 11:45 am.  

As you know I ordered 200 sq. ft. of vinyl flooring online from the Lowe's store in La Quinta.  I had hoped to drive into La Quinta Friday afternoon to get that flooring if we had no rentals Friday, but then I was asked to drive to El Centro for the RZR parts.  There happens to be a Lowe's in El Centro so I called the Lowe's in La Quinta and had them transfer my order to the El Centro store, which they did, so that is where I headed next.   

The drive over to the El Centro Lowe's took about 10 minutes.  I had to wait a few minutes for someone to come to the FLOORING desk at Lowe's, but eventually someone did arrive, and confirmed my order had been transferred.  While they collected my order, and delivered it to the Customer Service Desk I picked up a 2' x 4', 3/4" piece of oak plywood ($44.....OUCH!) to use to replace the water damaged flooring in the bathroom, as well as an oscillating saw.  By the time I arrived at the Customer Service Desk my flooring order was there.  After paying for the plywood and saw I headed out to the COA van to load my purchases, and then hit the road for home.  TLE had closed the rental office at 12 pm, and I arrived back around 1:45 pm without event.

By the time I unloaded everything, including our new vinyl flooring it was after 3 pm.  Each box of the Antique Woodland Oak vinyl flooring holds 40 planks, and each plank covers around 1.5 sq. ft.  Each box must weigh over 50 lbs.!  Hopefully we can get started on removing all of our old vinyl flooring, and installing the new after we get back from Poway next week.

Well, we've got two 4 seat RZRs going out at 8 am this morning (Saturday), so I'd better get cracking....thanks for stopping by!

Couples therapy.....

7:08 am - Friday - February 17th - GNHS - 42° F, humidity 39%,  wind 3 mph out of the northwest......cloudy today with a forecast high of 65° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were spending the day in Key West, FL.....↴ 

We had the perfect customers on Thursday.  The first was a young, married couple who rented one of our KRXs for 4 hours (10 am - 2 pm), and the second an older married couple who rented our other KRX from 12:30 pm - 4:30 pm.  Our initial good impressions of each couple were rewarded with no rescue calls, no accidents, and no breakdowns, plus they both returned about 15 minutes early.

Even though our first rental did not go out until 10 am, I was out early washing the two KRXs from Sunday afternoon.  Had I been able to get to them Sunday I could have blown the dust off each of them, but I didn't, and it rained briefly Tuesday night....just enough rain to turn the dust into mud, which required a thorough washing.  I had them both washed, detailed, air filters cleaned, tire air pressures checked, and oil levels checked by 9:15 am.

Once our first couple left the gate on their 4 hour tour I took a few things up to our storage CONEX, wiped down three of the RZRs, which are all rented on Saturday, and spent time in the trailer reorganizing the chaos that occurs over time when I don't have time to put everything away in its place.

Our 1 pm customer arrived at 12 pm, and we had them out on their 4 hour adventure by 12:30 pm.  Once they were on their way I spent time watching the latest PGA tour event (Genesis Open) being held at Riviera Country Club about 15 miles west of L.A.  on the Palos Verdes Peninsula....the big attraction this year?  Tiger Woods is playing for the first time since The Open (British Open).  Tiger played an up and down round, but finished with three straight birdies to get to 2 under par for the round....just 5 strokes off the lead.  He looks the best I have seen him look since his terrible car accident, and seemed to get stronger, and limped less as the round progressed.

Our afternoon customers returned about 4:15 pm, and by 5 pm I had both KRXs cleaned using compressed air, fueled, with air filters cleaned by 5 pm.  And thus ended another day in the lives of two 'vagabonders supreme'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Refreshing.....

7:23 am - Thursday - February 16th - GNHS - 44° F, humidity 28%, wind 8 mph out of the north.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Sedona, AZ having lunch at the Open Range Grill & Tavern....if you are in Sedona, you need a restaurant with a view, otherwise, what is the point?.....↴

TLE and I have been discussing changing our vinyl flooring for the first time in almost 10 years.  The last time we redid our floors was back in late October of 2013, and it is time again to refresh the look of the Newell interior.  We've been looking at vinyl flooring at Home Depot, and Lowe's, and have settled upon "Antique Woodland Oak"......

.....yup, it is a bit darker than the old flooring, but we've been living with this one piece for about a month now, and it is growing on us.  At any rate, I ordered a couple hundred square feet of it, and we'll be picking it up from the La Quinta Lowe's in the next few days. 

Ordering the new flooring has forced me to deal with a problem in the bathroom that has been lurking there for a while now.  Back when we had to replace our water heater as it was LEAKING some of the leaked water from the water heater apparently made its way into the bathroom sub flooring, and I have been noticing a soft spot in the middle of the flooring for a while now.  Well, if we're going to rip out all of the old vinyl I had better get going on clearing out the bad plywood, so no time like the present.....

.....I spent about 2 hours removing the bad wood.  It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I had to remove about 2/3's of the 3/4" plywood.  I'm going to need an oscillating saw to cut out the rest of the bad wood, but at least I know what the damage is, and what materials I'll need to repair it.  To be clear, the bad wood extends into the flooring under the cabinets on the right, and under the toilet pedestal on the left, so I'll need the oscillating saw to get at that, and make clean cuts.  I'll have to remove the carpeting on the left, but I'll be able to cut out the bad flooring under the cabinet by simply opening the cabinet door...there's plenty of room to maneuver in there.  In the interim I cut a piece of 3/4" particle board to place in the area where I cut out the wood.....

....we've got a busy weekend coming up so we need to be sure we have as many RZRs and KRXs available as possible.  I was able to get Kyle to replace the bad right front tire on #8 KRX, and add a new one to match it on the left front, so it is now ready for rental.  Kyle also was able to install the rebuilt primary clutch on RZR #2, which as been out of service for a month, so now we are back up to 6 rental units, and should have #9 KRX back from COYNE next week to bring us back to full strength.

The winds came an went all day Wednesday, and blew like a hurricane all night.  As I write the winds have abated for a few hours, and we are hoping they will not return for a while.

Thanks for stopping by!

Brews, pub food and family.....

7:51 am - Wednesday - February 15th - GNHS - 46° F, humidity 31%, wind 11 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 63° F.  On this date 10 years ago (2013) TLE and I were staying at the Jolly Roger RV Park on Marathon Key in the middle of the Florida Keys......↴

Ironically, that tire I plugged on Monday morning, although it has a very slow leak, has not deflated in the past two days.  It has gone down slightly, but is barely noticeable.....hmmm?  I'll have to spray some more soapy water on the plug site to see if it is still leaking.....

.....we had a lunch date with two of our daughters in Palm Desert at La Quinta Brewing Company.  Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 251 reviews, and we would agree.  I've been looking forward to visiting La Quinta Brewing for some time now, and really looking forward to seeing Meredith and Kate.  We left home around 9:20 am to make the drive into La Quinta.  Our first stop was Supercuts where I got my ears lowered, then we were off to make the 20 minute drive across town to La Quinta Brewing Company.....

Left to right: Kate, moi, Meredith and TLE

.....we arrived around 11:50 am to find Kate and Meredith already seated at a table sipping a couple of brews.  TLE and I quickly ordered some of their Bourbon Barrel Porter, which, IMHO is one of the best we have sampled over a decade plus of travels.  I had their Fish 'N Chips, and TLE their Chicken Tenders and Fries.  The food stood up to the brews, and the conversation was scintillating as always.  We all cleaned our plates, and drained our brews before bidding our adieus a tad after 1 pm.

From La Quinta Brewing TLE and I headed directly to the local Walmart Supercenter, then up the street to COSTCO before jumping on the I-10 for home.  After a quick fuel stop at the Mecca ARCO travel center we arrived back at GNHS around 3:45 pm.  

The wind, which had freshened just before we left on our drive to La Quinta, was still blowing in the high teens when we returned.  It abated for a while early evening, but returned during the night, and blew in the 20's most of the night.  This is the longest wind event we've had in a while, and it cannot end any too soon as far as we are concerned....lol.

As the sun completed its daily journey across the GNHS skies from east to west the Chocolate Mountains lit up once again, and another GNHS day was in the books.....

....we've got a few rentals booked for Thursday, so I need to get those two KRXs washed, and fueled sometime today (Wednesday), so I don't have to rush around Thursday morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

Plugging along.....

7:19 am - Tuesday - February 14th - GNHS -  51° F, humidity 66%, wind 12 mph out of the south by southwest.....high clouds today with a forecast high of 64° F with a chance of rain this evening.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were boondocking near Sedona, AZ and awoke to a hot air balloon floating over us......↴

It gets so quiet Sunday nights, and when you awake Monday morning you know the park is once again mostly empty.  That is, and has been for as long as I remember, the pattern at RV parks.  Over the weekend a small city sprouts, and by Monday morning you're back to 'ghost town' status.  As I sat at my laptop Monday morning composing my latest missive I gazed out the driver side window of the salon to see that the right front tire on KRX #8 was completely flat.....

My view each morning.....#8 KRX.....no, it's not flat in this picture

.....I immediately went outside to investigate, and this is what I found.....

.....a large piece of wood sticking out of the tire tread....how did we not see that when it was returned Sunday afternoon?  Well, the tire must have been rotated 180°, and was not visible.  It was, however, visible Monday morning.....lol!

I retrieved a pair of vise grips to pull out the piece of wood, and found it to be about 6" in length....

.....the hole is just below the right end of the stick in this picture.  The hole was right on the edge of being too big for a plug, but I decided to try anyway.  I retrieved our floor jack from in front of the Roadrunner building, jacked up the tire, inserted the plug, and then inflated the tire....

The plug

....if we can repair the tire with a plug, then it costs the customer nothing, but if we cannot repair it the customer is out $250 plus labor to replace the tire.  After giving the plug time to cure I spayed some soapy water on the plug and could see small bubbles being formed around the plug, so it appears we'll have to replace the tire.  Now, on the other hand, I went out this morning and the tire is still inflated, so it is an incredibly slow leak.

We've got another mini Santa Ana coming late Tuesday morning (today), so we'll have to stow the patio awning again.  These mini Santa Anas last a few hours, and then 'POOF', they're gone.  Kind of irritating, but better than a multi day event.

The brief flurry of activity Monday morning repairing the flat KRX tire was about as active as I got.  As we often do after a busy weekend, we spent the better part of Monday relaxing.  We'll be heading into La Quinta on Tuesday so I can get my ears lowered, check out some new vinyl flooring for the Newell at Home Depot, before heading up to Palm Desert to have lunch with two of our daughters (Meredith and Kate) who are driving in from the Pomona Valley to meet us as La Quinta Brewing Company.

Thanks for stopping by!