Stormy Weather - Peace For Me!!!

I've been open officially  now since last Friday, and even being Memorial Weekend....it was just very peaceful!  I only have a max day of 18 campers here! The weather is keeping them away. And, granted, it has rained every evening since I arrived except for 1! But you can set you watch by it. I starts to blow in around 3pm, rain for 30-45 min between then and 5pm, clears up for supper time, then starts again sometime after 8pm.  So, in actuality, it is not an issue...for diehard campers!  LOL

I've only had 2 campers in here since Monday evening. And one of them will be departing today. The other came in Saturday and will be here for a total of 10 days....that is the max time you can stay in this campground.

Keith is still bringing me gas at least 2 times a week for my generator. There has just not been enough sun to charge the solar battery array. Yesterday I actually had sun for the better part of the middle of the day...and yet the batteries never got above mid-charge (yellow). I've gone easy on them, not really using them much to save them wear and tear, but today and tomorrow I will just charge up by generator.  I've even gotten it down to running the frig on max while charging, and it gets cold enough that it will keep everything in there cold for 10-14 hours with no power. So I have been turning off the inverter (1K) and using my 350W to run my tv, dvd player and charge my electronics. And it is working like a charm.

It has been so peaceful, in fact, that the past two evenings I have had a fire going by 5:30pm and get to enjoy it for  couple of hours before I let it burn out and head in for the evening (and to get out of the evening shower!).  :-)  And the nice thing is that even with the minor number of campers I had onsite, I gathered up enough leftover wood from their sites that I have enough for probably 4 or 5 more fires, easily, and that's makes me figure that I should be able to go for the entire summer with one or two fires each week, minimum, and still not have to worry about buying any wood!  WooHoo!!  In fact my first fire was done with wood that I had taken from firepits that had not been totally burned, and that fire lasted me 4 hours with the big pieces...so it is going to be a good summer!!  :-)   This is a Federal Forest, so they are quite strick on burning and what/how/where/when it can be done. They also like to try to keep folks from picking up fallen wood because they are trying to let it rot in place like it would in nature to replenish the soil.

This summer is also getting me prepared for after next year for when I plan on taking extended runs to the 4-Corners area. This gives me time to get all the kinks out of Bertha, make the improvements and fixes that I need to do to her, AND to have some serious practice on "energy conservation" with my items that need power so that I willl be able to live with a very small footprint when I get out in the middle of nowhere.

There is one other thing about being up here for the summer....the elevation here is 6,258 ft above sea level....I had forgotten how thin air gets after spending so much time in Texas!!  It has cut my smoking down and I get to do enough each day to give myself a little bit of a workout!!  LOL!!  :-D   Tiffany had fed me too well while I was there, and I had gained a bit (well, maybe just a bit more than a bit!!), but I'm already back to within 10 lbs of where I was a few months ago and will keep heading in the down direction on the scale. The altitude here is also good on my "self-inflicted" exercise I'm doing. My BP has been holding steady and a lot lower than a year ago, and keeps going lower, so that makes me happy!

Keith just brought my Daily Activity Report (DAR) by, and I don't have any reservations coming in until 6/5, so the peacefulness continues! There are only 10 reserved spots here out of 44 available sites, most are FCFS, so we will see what happens this weekend.

I guess that about brings things up to date for now. I'll finish getting ready for the day and go make my rounds. I'm headed to the "services" are for us around noon. Going to wash clothes, take a LONG hot shower, and see part of the other campgrounds....I have not seen any of them since getting here. Bertha and I found my campground, pulled in, set up and I have not been out of here since!! Kind of nice, actually!!

Oh, and the pic of me...in a sweater and knit cap!?!?!  Almost at the end of May!?!?!?  That tells you just how cool it has been here! The mountains still have a pretty good amount of snow on them, and this past Sunday afternoon, at 3:30pm, when our daily shower was rolling in, the first 30 minutes of it was all sleet and hail! Yes, it does stay quite cool in the Rockies!!!

Have a good week an more to come in a couple of days!  :-D

Officially Open....And they will come!!! LOL

I'm officially open and have over a dozen campers here already. And I am having a blast!

Takes me about an hour in the morning to make my morning outhouse round. Then I look for the campers that come in overnight when I'm in the house. Then it is time for the morning harassment of the campers here!!

And these folks all, so far, have the camper attitude. They are a blast to talk with and visit with. Just have to keep reminding a couple of them that it is the law that they have to keep their dogs on a leash. But so far, that has gone well and the dogs are all well behaved.

The fog is finally burning off and it is looking like there will be sunshine for the better part of the day. The closest rain is about 140 miles away!  YEA!!! Had enough sun yesterday that I was able to charge up batteries from the solar setup, run the frig and watch some tv and it still left a little charge on the solar set. So it will all be good as I get more and more used to the setup!!

Time to wander around some and work on a couple of the site sign posts that are loose. 

Have a good day, I'm going to!!!  :-)

What Warm Weather?? Heheh!

I've been here a week now, and so far not a day has gone by that it hasn't rained! It's like a mini-monsoon season! It is not a drowning rain, but it is a get everything real moist and drippy. And the nights have consistently dropped down to around 35-40 degrees. Yesterday was supposed to be a high of 65....I think it almost hit 54. I love it!

And it is so scenic here...snow covered mtns, pine covered mtns, steep grassy mtns and a very sweet river! It really is a great spot.

There are BIG deer and also elk. I haven't seen any deer yet here in camp, but the elk apparently come thru and leave their business cards all over the place. And there seems to be about 3 or 4 sizes of chipmunks and 2-3 sizes of ground squirrels and quite a few "normal" gray squirrels. I haven't really had time to do much photography yet, but that will come as I get my system down pat and have some time during the day to try to get some of the critters.

I had my first paying campers come in last night about 6:45pm. And of course it was raining when they pulled in. They are just a one nighter, headed to someplace else today. Have 5 more sites to finish getting ready, about 2 hours work, and then I will be ready for the season.

Already have 11 sites reserved for the weekend. One of them will be here for over a week. The max stay at the campground is 10 days.

About time to start my day. I have been starting around 8:30 or so since I got here....tomorrow will start being 7am days from here on out. 2-3 hours each morning, then 2 hours or so each evening...middle of the day will be piddle time....except for checking folks in....I think I can stand the hours!  At least I will be sleeping all night like an almost normal person!!  :-)

Enjoy these couple of pics. More to follow at a later date!! A couple of these pics are from the drive up. It was a really nice run!

I Have Arrived!!

I got into the campground on Friday, on time! I was really surprised. Bertha did an outstanding job of getting us here. She ran like a top, didn't use much oil (even thought there were several pulls of over 6 degrees and each a couple of miles long), and didn't even use much coolant. I think she had not been run "hard" for some many years, just sitting, that it has taken a good hard run to get her back into traveling shape! Of course, now she will be sitting here for the next 4.5+ months!  LOL

This place is beautiful! I'm in the Sawtooth National Forest, there are 47 campsites here, all "primitive"...which means here that there are no utility hookups...but each site has a paved pulloff for RV, gravel parking spot for vehicle, a boxed in gravel area for tents, a concrete pad with a metal picnic table, metal "cook" table and a firepit.  There are 6 or 7 "outhouse" bathrooms and a large covered "public" picnic area that is concrete with metal tables that will accomdate up to 60-80 people.

But my site is great...it is site #1...and I have a solar electric hookup to recharge my batteries and run off of for a few hours each day. There is also a septic hookup for Bertha...it is nice to have the bathroom working!! I will have water delivered to me each Monday and Thursday.  And I have my little golf cart! It is gas powered, so no worry about charging it up!

I've met Tom, he's the one that hired me. He has been with the company for 11 years. Like him, very easy to work with. Then there is Keith, he dropped by yesterday evening. Keith is the "Area Manager" for RRMoA (Recreational Resource Management of America, the company name). John, the maintenance guy, and his wife, Roseann, came by to bring me my paperwork, say hi, let me know about the water...and later brought my golf cart. They're all just so laid back....I do believe that I just might fit in here real well!!  LOL  :-)

The views here are superb! I have snow covered covered mountains to look at in 2 directions, the river is shallow and fast (they do rafting, canoeing and whatever those other little "boats" are called all along it). There are hot springs in the area, but not sure yet if there are any here. Wouldn't hurt my feelings if there were!

So far I've seen several hawks and a couple of, I think, small falcons. There are a multitude of small birds that I've never seen before, so it should be interesting trying to get pics of them and finding out what type they are. I've seen little chipmonks, just like the ones in AL, and what I think are ground squirrels, they are up to about 11 or so inches long. Yesterday morning I saw in the middle of my site entrance what I thought at first was a pile of dog poo....but upon closer inspection....it was NOT dog poo!!  So I am going to have to find out just what other wildlife is wandering around here!  LOL  :-D

I've got orientation at 11am today. One of the guys is going to drop by and give me a ride. It is at the Ranger Station back up the road about 2 miles.Tom let me know that I was officially on the payroll as of yesterday, so I will get a half months pay this month! Better than I had expected.

Guess that about covers it for now. I'll be adding posts about 1 or 2 times each week. I am totally roaming here, but have everything throttled down to where I am not using too much data transfer. I might just survive on 300mb each month!! :-)

Tomorrow, Tomorrow....I'm Leaving Tomorrow!!!!

I have been sitting at Tiffany's getting myself ready to roll out to Idaho for the past 2 weeks...and believe it or not, I am actually about to leave tomorrow!! Can you believe it!?!?!  LOL!!  

Not a bad pic considering it is with my watch!!!

I've gotten Bertha pretty well setup for the next 5 months...and it has been an experience to work this all out in my head....to think ahead for 5 months! And have worked most of the kinks out of her.  I am waiting until tomorrow lunchtime to be able to get a couple of new plug wires on her so that she will run smoother. One of the wires got cooked riding on the edge of the exhaust manifold!  I thought it was another one that got cooked by the header, but one had been moved around some and was laying right on the very rear edge of the manifold....and it was COOKED!!!!!

I believe that I have food loaded into Bertha that will take me thru the next 5 months...if you open any cabinet or drawer in here, you will either find food, utensils or pet food!!  LOL!!!  She is packed!

But I did get a Brita filter pitcher from Goodwill that looks new, and have been trying it out....and that Brita filter system works like a charm....it takes all the chlorine taste out and it has even removed that "plasticie" smell from the water tank out of it also.....which means my coffee tastes just like it is from bottled water!!  Yea!!!

With the generator removed from Bertha, I have a storage area that holds my oil/coolant, etc crate, water and sewer hoses, air compressor, hazard triangles...and even a little more stuff!  Which means I am able to move the cat box up to the front of Bertha where the passenger seat was....which means my whole floor is open in the house!!!  YaaaHooooo!!!!!  LOL!

So time to finish a little more cleaning....then shower....then wash last load of clothes....then try to sleep!!!  

More of the "early retirement saga of The Frog" in a day or two!!

Getting closer!

Each day pulls "us" a little closer to hitting the road. I'm down to the end of my list of things to get done. Hope to roll Friday, but it might be Saturday before we pull out. So instead of 150 miles daily I just might have to do 250! Hope I can stand the strain! LOL

My arrival date has been moved up to the 15th instead of the 18th, but it is all workable!

Time to get some few more things done so I'll close for now & add more tomorrow.

C'ya!

Zombies-shombies! Beware of the Mega-Bedbugs!!

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A Quick Update

Just wanted to let you know that all is still headed to a Friday departure from NRH to Idaho. I'm working 3 nights for Buster pulling guard duty at a construction site in north Dallas. But if all goes according to plan....I'll be pulling out of here sometime Friday morning and headed north. Tom, my "new boss" for the campground group, wants me to try to get up there by the 15th, so I won't be traveling quite as slowly as I had planned (as far as daily miles are concerned), but I will still just have to run about 250-275 miles daily...so that is peacefully enough for the run up!!  :-)

More to come in a day or so!!