Back in Rosamond, planning a trip.

After arriving at my brother’s place in Rosamond, I met the neighbor Brennen when he wandered up to say hello to my brother. We all enjoyed a sit down with beer by the pool and he offered to let me park my RV in his front yard! Nice, reasonably flat area to park. No more parking on a dangerously steep hill. A spot from where I could run a cord up to Dan’s house and plug in and run my battery chargers. Too long of a cable run for much of anything else, like the refer, but I could go down there in the mornings for some computer time and TV time during prime time (my brother doesn’t have a TV in his house). So, we struck a bargain and I gained a new friend. He and I liked the same bar too so we’d go down there quite often to relax.

While there at Dan’s, I finally broke down and bought my first brand new computer. For years, I’d been given past-their-prime computers by clients when I’d sell them a new one so I was always on the back side of the technology curve. Mainly to save money. My new one is a Quad core AMD with an ASUS mobo, 500gb HDD, DVD/CD, etc., and a top of the line PSU. Nice. Really screams. Does HD movies and such without a hitch.

Bennen invited me to join him one Sunday at a golf course at Tehachapi (Tah-hatch-a-pee is how we pronounce it here in the area). He has a friend that lives in the gated community nearby with it’s own golf course. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want a gated community clear out here in the boondocks. There probably wasn’t any more crime near here than inside the gates. Tehachapi only has a 3600 population. Who they were trying to keep out is unknown. The farmers nearby maybe?

Anyway, here’s some pictures of our trip there and the golfing.

Mostly desert on the way to Tehachapi.

Tehachapi is near 4,000 feet, so it gets cooler as we climb into the hills to get there. Rosamond is only around 800 feet so the change is welcome. Nice shirt sleeve weather.

Yea, the golf course.

Nice place, with low round, ball, and rental club prices. We rented a cart, because we’re lazy, and I bought a few extra balls, because, well you know.

I haven’t played in over a decade, had borrowed a set of clubs from Brennen’s friend, so I was soon in the rough. FUN! Turned out, Brennen is at about my skill level (his friend is learning too) so we all played, or rather struggled to play, at around the same pace. The 12 year old son of the friend was along too.

Brennen enjoys building sand castles with his club.

Good time was had by all. My stroke count was so high, I stopped recording it. But on the last hole, a par 5, I was on the green in 2. Could have made an Eagle but flubbed my putt from the edge of the green. Then took 2 more strokes to get it in. Damn. Par only. Only lost one ball during the round, so that was good.

Almost Eagled this hole.

After our round, we headed for the club house and had a nice dinner and a couple beers to wash down the shame.

While at Rosamond, I was reading a blog by a young woman that is a full time RV’er and she mentioned working at Amazon in their distribution center and mentioned they hired retirees. They have a facility near Reno at Fernley, Nevada, though she worked in Kentucky. So I searched online and soon was submitting an application for employment. I had a European trip in the planning stages and thought I might be able to gain some extra cash for the trip with a job. Their CamperForce program seemed like a good fit and they sent me an app soon after I called. Filled it out, sent it in, and was accepted. Spent a wild week online trying to gather information about where to stay and the like. Amazon pays the RV park space rental, but only at approved parks. And there were only 4-5 approved parks. First hitch was finding a RV park that wasn’t filled. All the approved parks were packed…those parks right in Fallon already booked for the next year. I’d have to find transport from Reno, where Amazon had an approved park that wasn’t full yet, but I considered that a fall back as it was so far away. I did make a reservation there far enough into the future that I’d have some wiggle room. I was trying to find somewhere, anywhere, that I could park that might have other workers that I might hitch a ride to work with nearby, since I don’t have a toad. About 4 weeks before my start date, Amazon added another park and I immediately made a reservation at R&M RV Park in Fallon, NV. I called Amazon 2-3 times asking about the shuttles they told me about and mention on their web site and they were always positive I’d be able to find something when I got there because they had sign up boards at the facility? But no shuttle from Fallon. Didn’t know what that meant exactly, but figured I’d work it out when I got there. I called the RV park and though they had an equivalent board, they couldn’t read it to me. They did mentioned there was an Amazon facilitator staying there. So, despite the lack of firm info about a shuttle, or having a consistent ride, I felt that they probably had a pretty good system already in place.

A couple weeks later, I was on the road to Fallon, NV. It’s not very far, so I was able to stop and visit Mono Lake again to see how it was progressing since the courts had enjoined the city of LA from stealing water from it because that was destroying the ecology of that unique ecosystem. It’s getting better, now that the water is coming back, and flocks of birds are beginning to expand again, now that predation is down as the land bridge gets flooded. The entire lake ecosystem was almost destroyed.

Mono Lake making a comeback.

After that little visit, headed east then north to Fallon. Nice drive on back roads. Saw some country I’ve never seen before so that was fun. Passed a very large lake. Wilson Lake. Weather was cool but very nice. Arrived late afternoon at the park and got my space. It was 4 days before my start date with Amazon and I immediately scanned the sign up and ride wanted or offered board. Hmm. Nothing. Added my name. There were 3 shifts mentioned on the sign up board and those were mostly people asking for a ride. The rides offered didn’t match my assigned shift.

Next day, I hung around the park office and asked people about the shuttle or rides to Amazon but didn’t get much info…except for the worrying comment that there wasn’t going to be a shuttle to Fallon, just to Reno (I’d held out hope that someone might take that opportunity and offer one). Damn. I was beginning to think I’d have to drive my RV to the facility every day. Just to check, I did drive that route. And stopped at every RV park I found in Fallon to see if they had any cancellations. Nope. One park, that isn’t an Amazon paid park, did have a space, and it was within a cheap taxi ride to Amazon, but they didn’t have any WiFi. And no plans to install it. Kind of crowded too. Sardine can sized place. Went over to the Amazon plant and found that they did have plenty of parking and if I did have to drive my RV I wouldn’t have any trouble parking.

Back at the Fallon park, wandered around talking to people and finally found a couple that could give me a ride every day. But…they were trying to get on night shift, and a shift that let them work weekends, and I wanted day shift, with weekends off. Because of football. Not looking good, but people thought that if I stuck it out, I’d find someone with the same schedule preferences.

Meanwhile, I found a sports bar, Sandwinds, a few miles away from the RV park that had a free shuttle! I had called and asked about a shuttle because I’ve found many sports bars do, and it was worth a shot. Great for football watching and a free ride too. I tried it out and it’s a very nice bar with tons of TVs. Food too.  Had dinner there and liked what I had. I eventually went there 6-7 times to watch games. Always had food, and beer, so their shuttle gives them a nice return. Plus I always tipped the driver.

So, started my adventure as a picker at Amazon. During the orientation, they assigned our schedule and I did get my preferred shift so I was happy about that, but they mentioned that there was between 8 and 15 MILES of walking in every 10 hour shift. Yikes! But at that moment, I figured I’d be able to adjust.

That’s all for now, next time, I’ll continue with the Amazon adventure…