Still southbound on US-395....

7:35 am - Thursday - October 9th - Gardnerville, NV - 41° F, humidity 27%, wind 1 mph out of the south by southwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F.  On this date in 2018 we entered the last of the 48 lower states.....Delaware.  We exited I-95 in New Castle, Delaware and went directly to the local Elks Lodge....

....where we stayed for a few days while we toured local attractions.  From there we began the final leg of our journey back to Amazon in Campbellsville, KY, the site of our first workamping job back in 2012.  Our next Amazon gig was in Fernley, NV in 2014, and our return visit to Campbellsville, KY 2018 marked the last of three Peak Seasons working at Amazon......

....the view (↗) this morning....Tahoe/Douglas Elks Lodge.  The mountains in the background form the ring of mountains which create the Tahoe Basin.

As I reported in yesterdays post we slept well Tuesday night in the Rest Area Truck Parking lot.  We were up around 7 am, and on the road around 9 am headed south on US-395.  The drive was uneventful, and by 10:45 am we were entering the Reno/Sparks interchange with I-40, which is always a little chaotic, but within minutes we were on the southside of Reno, with thinning traffic.  

At the interchange US-395 combines with I-580 which takes you all the way to the intersection of US-395 and US-50 where we turned left, and then quickly right into the parking lot of Walmart and Trader Joe's.  We found a nice, shady spot to park our 62', and then headed into Walmart to do some shopping (new fresh water hose, peanuts, water filters, trash bags, etc), then back to the Newell to deliver our purchases, and remove the Beetle from the trailer.  From there we walked over to the local In-N-Out Burger for our semi annual fix (Cheese Burger, fries, and a drink)....

.....we then walked over to ACE Hardware to buy a couple of small items, then back to the Newell where we hopped into the Beetle to drive a few 100 feet over to Trader Joe's to buy a few things we only get at Trader Joe's, then over 3 blocks to COSTCO to buy a few more things (coffee, TP, some clothing for TLE) then back to the Newell to unload those items.

From there I drove the Newell, and TLE the VW continuing southbound on US-395 to the local Elks Lodge near Gardnerville, NV, were we found 4 of the 5 RV sites empty, which made it easy to back in the Newell to site #1....we like this site as there is no one on our driver side...

....we arrived around 3 pm, and were set up for our two day stay within minutes.  We stay at this Elks Lodge at least twice per year as we go north and south, and have been here probably 10 times over the years.  It is one of the nicest Elk Lodges at which we have stayed over the years.

On Friday we'll continue our journey south to Bishop where we'll stay a few days before driving the final leg to SoCal, and the Fontana/Rialto Elks Lodge.  We had a beautiful sunset Wednesday evening....

....thanks for stopping by!

Gravitational pull......

 7:44 am - Wednesday - October 8th - Honey Lake Rest Area - 41° F, humidity 39%, wind 1 mph out of the west by northwest....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 76° F, but we will not see that high here as we are headed for Minden, NV today.  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were in Coupeville, WA having lunch at Mosquito Fleet Chili (no longer in business as I write).....

.....TLE had their clam chowder, and I their namesake entree.   A perfect overcast Fall day lunch, chased with wonderful, not java!  The view this morning......

...at the Honey Lake Rest Area in Janesville, CA.

I began our final day at LPG&RVR with a "TO DO" list with 16 items needing completion before we could haul anchor.....

......I began that list Monday evening and came up with only the first 5....was I ever wrong...LOL!  I woke up around 4:30 am thinking of other things to add to that list, and by the time I got up I had added another 11!  Note to self.....never leave 16 'to be done' items on your final 1/2 day.  I began whittling down the list around 7:30 am, and didn't stop until 1 pm when we finally loaded the turf and VW into the trailer.

As we turned onto southbound US-395 I looked at my watch to see it was 1:30 pm.  As soon as you make this turn you begin to go uphill to Sage Hen Summit, which sits at 5,555'.  I'm never able to get up to 60 mph before the climb becomes steep enough to begin to shift down.  Ultimately I settled into 2nd gear at 33 mph until we hit the summit, then finally hit 60 mph, and 5th gear shortly thereafter.  The drive through the Madeline Plains is straight for about 20 miles, then you begin another short climb, only to hit another 6% downhill grade into a valley where US-395 is mostly straight with a few bends here and there.....

....our tradition is to spend one night at the Honey Lake Rest Area going and coming to LPG&RVR each year.  That way our last day of driving to LPG&RVR is a short one, and the same for leaving LPG&RVR.

We arrived without incident at the Rest Area a little after 3 pm, leveled the coach, and then took a nap.  Around 4:30 pm I took a shower....it was the first time in a year that the water pump did not surge.  That new expansion tank I installed a week, or so ago is working better than expected.  With the much larger, and functional expansion tank the water pump even turns off for a minute or so now and then....perfect....that's the way it is supposed to work!

There are about 10 truck/RV parking sites here at the Honey Lake Rest Area, and we always try to get here mid afternoon to have the pick of spots.  We like to have at least one other RV on one side or the other, and hope that we get another RV on the other side, or at least a semi that does not have a refrigeration trailer. Since it not really hot, or cold most truckers don't run their diesels all night to stay warm, or cool.  We chose well this time, and had a very quiet night, other than the sounds of semis out on US-395, which I don't mind at all....

Honey Lake in the distance

The perfect neighbors

....so, with that, we have successfully escaped the gravitational pull of Likely Place Golf & RV Resort one more time, and now will be on the road to The Wilson Wilderness for the next 3 weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Over and out.....

 7:19 am - Tuesday - October 7th - LPG&RVR - 35° F, humidity 39%, wind 3 mph out of the southeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 74° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were having dinner at the top of the new World Trade Center.....

.....in lower Manhattan, NY.

It was cold and damp overnight so we didn't start working on the final day of takedown of site #55 until around 10:30 am, and worked pretty steadily until 2:30 pm, took an hour break, and then finished the tasks scheduled for Monday.  By the end of the day we had taken up all the small artificial turf pieces which graced our site this summer then swept free of dirt off the bottom of each piece, had the 'grass' side dried out from the overnight dew, and then stowed flat in the trailer....

.....additionally, I finally cleaned the passenger side of the Newell, and stowed the patio awning with TLE's assistance.  We also rearranged the 'through storage bay', and were able to get a lot more in there than we did on our trip north in April.  As of this writing the Winegard satellite dish has been stowed, and soon after I finish posting today's missive the Starlink dish will come down and be stowed.  The large turf piece (background) has been folded, and is ready to be dragged into the trailer just before we insert the Beetle later this morning.

Tuesday morning we'll dump the black tank, disconnect the the water, sewer line, and city water hose, remove the piers from the trailer, stow all of the wheel covers, clean the windshield/mirrors, and finally drop the trailer on the hitch.  We should be out of here by 1 pm, so this will be the last post this year showing LPG&RVR as our location.  The park is completely empty, and feels like a ghost town.

So it is 'over and out' from Likely Place Golf and RV Resort until next April.  Follow along as we head to SoCal to visit our kids, then further south to Los Algodones to have our semi annual dental appointments, then on to Wittmann, AZ to visit our friends Tom and Darlene, then back to The Wilson Wilderness for another winter.

Thanks for stopping by!

"Winding down...."

 7:09 am - Monday - October 7th - LPG&RVR - 36° F, humidity 44%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast......crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I arrived in Jersey City, NJ, just across the Hudson River from Manhattan and the World Trade Center.....

Empire State Building

Statue of Liberty as seen from Liberty RV Park in Jersey City

World Trade Center

.....we spent parts of three days there.  Michael Viccari, a friend from our Amazon days at Campbellsville, KY, gave us a driving tour of downtown Manhattan the first night.  The next day we walked down 5th Avenue through SoHo to Wall Street, saw the 9/11 Memorial, and had dinner at the top of the World Trade Center.....

.....the view this morning at LPG&RVR.....everyone but 'us chickens' is gone.  The park is closed until May 1, 2026.

As my good friend Rosco often said when we were closing the fountain at the General Store in Mammoth Hot Springs each shift....."WINDING DOWN, WINDING DOWN", and that is what we continued to to Sunday morning.  Our goal Sunday was to take down the 'dining/gaming deck', and finish organizing the trailer interior in preparation for turf, and VW insertion on Tuesday morning, and we were successful.....

.....the trailer interior is about 99% done, and the dining canopy is packed away until next summer.  We worked from around 10 am until 1:30 pm before calling day #2 of "WINDING DOWN" a success.  On Monday we'll pull up all of the smaller artificial turf pieces, and late in the day we'll begin to fold up the large turf piece, which is the focal point of our 'lido deck' wherever we may be.  By the end of Monday we'll be ready to drop the trailer back on the Newell hitch Tuesday morning, insert the turf and Beetle, and then we'll be off in a cloud of dust sometime around noon.

We couldn't end our sojourn here without a final BBQ to which we invited our long time, good friend Claude. We've known Claude since the late 70's, and it has been such a pleasure to have him here this summer.  I lit the Sea-B-Que for the final time this summer around 5 pm, and by 5:45 pm we were eating BBQ'd chicken....

....the conversation is always without an end in sight, and the chicken came out perfect at 165° F....juicy, tender, and tasty.  TLE added wild rice, and a salad for sides.  Claude provided some vino to chase the great food.  By 6:30 pm it was getting chilly, so we bid our adieus, and took what may be our final 'usie' with Claude this summer.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Lido deck' delete......

 7:42 am - Sunday - October 5th - LPG&RVR - 40° F, humidity 52%, wind 1 mph out of the southeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 64° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were visiting Mark Twain's home in Hartford, CT.....

.....it is actually quite a beautiful home.

It wasn't warm enough to go outside until around 10 am Saturday, but when we did finally get outside we got a lot done as far as taking down our 'lido deck'.  We removed all of the sunshades, and opened our curtains in the salon for the first time in several months.....

The 'lido deck' is no more, but will reappear at The 

Wilson Wilderness in about a month

.....I also stowed all four of our window awnings, but left the patio awning deployed.  We'll take that down Sunday, or Monday....probably Monday.  Our goal is to be on the road by noon Tuesday, which gives us 2.5 more days to finish, that way we don't have to rush to pack up our stuff to leave.....

.....TLE busied herself with trimming back the dying wild flowers, fertilizing the flower beds, and stowing her gardening supplies, as well as putting many of her 'pantry items' the trailer into boxes for our trip south.  I didn't really do much in the trailer as I was busy outside taking down the sunshades, and dumping and flushing our black tank.  We'll dump it one more time the day we leave so we'll have empty tanks for our 7-8 day trip to SoCal to see our kids.  Finally, I winterized the hose bib which provides our city water supply, and the city water connection on the Newell.  It will get down to under freezing Sunday evening, and be close to freezing Monday night, so a little precaution goes a long way....

The heated hose is doing its job

.....Claude graciously purchased some pipe insulation for me when he was in town the other day.  

I'll begin to do the final organization of the trailer Sunday and Monday, and we'll take down the 'dining/gaming deck' Sunday, and begin picking up all the artificial turf we've deployed....we own a lot more than we did when we arrived.  Once the sun came out from behind the cloud cover it became a wonderful day to be packing.  Thankfully, there is no more rain in the forecast for the balance of our time here at LPG&RVR.

Healthwise, TLE and I continue to be doing well, other than the aches and pains one might associate with growing older.  When we began our nomadic journey back in 2012 we had just turned 62, and here we are now in our late 70's.  We don't move as fast as we once did, but we are able to remain quite active, and are enjoying life as it comes to us....always attempting to live in the moment and enjoy what we have today.  For the first time in a log time I have spent very little time thinking about all that must be done before we leave on Tuesday.  From experience I know it will all get done, and probably more quickly than I expect, so why worry about it.

Around 6 pm I turned over the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 to air up the coach....it was only down to 98 PSI (she tops out at 120 PSI) from when I aired it up around a month ago.  When I hear that unique 2 stroke sound a Detroit Diesel makes, and feel the vibration of the engine as I walk from the salon to the bedroom it makes me smile.  These old diesel engines are so resilient.  I just keep changing the fluids and filters, and she keeps purring.  She has just under 200,000 miles on her odometer now, but she is running as well, if not better than when we first drove her home to Ontario, CA from Palm Desert, CA back in 2008.  Of course, we're only putting 2,000 or so miles on her per year now, but we'll break 200,000 sometime in the next two years, or so.

Thanks for stopping by!

Finito......

 7:42 am - Saturday - October 4th - LPG&RVR - 41° F, humidity 61%, wind 1 mph out of the southwest.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 62° F.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were spending a couple of nights at Bishop's Orchards.....

.....a Harvest Hosts location in Guilford, CT.

The 4th and final day of every 4 day work week is always a happy day for TLE and I, because it means we will enjoy another 4 day weekend, but this fourth and final day is the last day of work for us in this, our fourth season at LPG&RVR.  Friday was another cold, blustery, drizzly day in which we rented just four golf carts.  There really wasn't anything for me to do after helping TLE open the office, so I went home and began organizing the trailer interior....

We're having to put our plants inside the trailer at 

night as it is getting too cold for them outdoors

One of the two tool tables has been cleared, with

 just a few things left on the 2nd table

.....I also took down the 'lido deck' stowing the chairs and tables in the trailer.  On Saturday we'll take down all of the sun screens as there is NO MORE sun.....lol....just a thick cloud cover.  

In all I worked about 4 hours total on Friday (which was actually, also, our 'work Friday').  I didn't stage any carts for TLE as she decided she would just rent the carts in the front row of the cart shack.  I gave her a one hour lunch break, and then returned around 4:30 pm to wash/stow the four rented carts, after which I headed down to the 'Night Office' one last time to flip the sign, and post the final night of availability of the season.  By the time I returned to the Clubhouse TLE was handing the cash register drawer to Kathy for the final time.  Kathy always works the first and final days of each season.

As I sit here composing my thoughts about Friday it is just beginning to settle into my mind that we will be on our way south in just a few short days.  There will be no more getting up at 5:30 am on workdays.  For the next 6 months we'll get up with the sun each day, and I am really looking forward to that.  We have loved our fourth season here even more than the first three.  With Dave's and Claude's help, this was a much easier season for me work wise.  Last year I did 99% of the mowing, all of the weed whipping, all of the Marshaling, and virtually all of the Driving Range clearing each week.  We will leave knowing the park is in much better shape than it was this time last year.

On a side note, during the morning another shed was delivered to Gene and Becky's permanent lot up in the residential section of the park.....

.....you will recall that Gene and Becky had their new park model delivered a week, or so ago.  This 'shed' (it's really just slightly smaller than the park model) will serve at their 'gym' during the summer.  This is really the size that TLE and I are thinking buying (12' x 24') in the future for the property near Seligman, AZ.  They come as an empty shell, and then we would build out the interior, including adding plumbing, and electrical.  It has two lofts, and has more livable square footage than our Newell

Thanks for stopping by!

And then there was one......

 6:25 am - Friday - October 3rd - LPG&RVR - 47° F, humidity 79%, wind 4 mph out of the west by northwest.....heavy cloud cover, rain this morning, and a forecast high of 56° F today.  The overnight low will be 34° F.  On this date in 1949 I was born, and in 2021 TLE and I had just boarded the Port Townsend Ferry with our 62' of rolling stock.....

.....bound for Whidbey Island and Coupeville, WA...we were at the front of the ferry.

It rained on and off most of the night, and into the early morning hours of Thursday.  We had no golfers scheduled to play golf until after 10 am, and in the end rented just 5 golf carts.  I spent part of the morning coiling water hoses into two 55 gallon trash cans for winter storage, but that  was the extent of my labor.  The rain continued to come and go through the morning and afternoon, so I don't think I actually 'worked' more than 3, or 4 hours all day.  The park continues to be 20-25% occupied, and with more rain predicted for Friday I think we'll see people leaving earlier than their scheduled departure day on Sunday morning.

I did have one call from TLE to go to site #29 to check on an electrical issue, which, in the end, was a problem with his internal electrical system in his 5th wheel.  He's only had it 3 months, and you know how many issues there can be with new RV's in the first 6 months.  He said he wasn't getting 120 volts on each leg of his 50 amp power cord, but I checked the plug in the pedestal with a multi meter, and verified he is getting 121 volts on each leg.  It may be an issue with his 'transfer switch', but not with our pedestal.

I gave TLE her lunch break (just one hour this time), and then headed home to stay out of the rain. I returned around 2 pm to wash/stow three of the five carts, which had been returned, then again at 4:30 pm to get the last two washed and stowed.  As I was putting the final two away it began to rain quite hard, so I just hung around the Clubhouse until TLE was ready to go home at 5 pm.

Right now the Friday forecast calls for rain from 8 am to 12 pm, so not sure how many golfers we'll have, or how much I'll work.  At any rate Friday is our last day of work this season.  Saturday we will begin the task of putting away all for our stuff, and organizing the trailer for VW insertion on Monday, or Tuesday....we will be rolling by Tuesday at the latest.