Category Archives: California

Back to the Bay

My last post described my trailer electrical connector repair on Friday. We closed out the day with dinner over at the gazebo again. Donna prepared beef ragu served over whole wheat spaghetti. She added some extra fresh herbs and crushed red pepper and it came out even better than usual.

Donna working her magic on the induction cooktop

It was pleasant dining outside. Although the dry camping sites are cramped, having this sitting area is nice. There are many amenities at Jojoba Hills and we really like this place. There are hiking paths with sitting areas around small ponds, pickleball courts, a great swimming pool with a beautiful view, a clubhouse that they named Friendship Hall and a well-stocked library.

Dining al fresco at the gazebo

We started the day Saturday with pickleball games once again. After lunch, we headed to the pool to read and soak in the sunshine. We sat in lounge chairs on the south side of the pool. Twenty minutes of direct sun was all I could take. I moved to the shady north side of the pool and read for over an hour while Donna stayed in her lounge chair. She took a dip in the pool to cool off. Even with SPF 30 sunscreen, she ended up with some sunburn.

Donna’s view from the south side of the pool

I moved into the shade – Donna is in the second chair from the right

On Sunday morning, I got to work on the hot water heater. I shut off the water pump, opened the hot water kitchen sink and bathroom faucets and went outside. I removed the anode rod from the hot water tank and drained the tank. I didn’t see any debris come out of the tank. The 1-1/6″ socket I bought to install the new anode rod was the right size for the new rod. But it didn’t fit the adapter I had to remove from the tank. I assumed the adapter was the same size hex as the new rod. You know what they say about assuming. So, once again I re-installed the old anode rod and refilled the tank. The hot water flow was still restricted.

I gave up on that task and loaded the trailer in preparation for travel. Meanwhile, Donna was out on the pickleball court. She came back around 10am and showered at the park showers before prepping the inside of the coach for travel. That’s how we work it – she preps the interior while I load the trailer, dump the tanks and take care of the outside work. We were ready to pull the slides in and light the fires at 11:30am. Fifteen minutes later, we were on the road again.

We drove west on CA79 (which is technically a north/south route) through Temecula and took I-15 south to San Diego where we hit CA163. I pulled off CA163 at the Balboa Avenue exit. I remembered a Chevron station on the corner of Balboa and Mercury Street where we were able to get the coach in and out without any fuss. There was a problem though. The exit for Balboa Avenue doesn’t really come out on Balboa. It exits onto southbound Mercury Street near the Balboa intersection. There is an island dividing Mercury Street and I couldn’t access the Chevron station. So we turned east on Balboa Avenue, crossed CA163 and drove about a mile before I could turn around in an industrial park. Coming back west on Balboa I had easy access to the fuel station. Problem solved.

I put 49 gallons of fuel in the tank at $2.89/gallon. As usual, I treated the fuel with Biobor JF. I wanted to have the fuel tank as full as possible before sitting at Mission Bay for a month to help prevent condensation in the fuel tank. The rest of the drive was uneventful and we pulled into Mission Bay RV Resort at 1:45pm.

After checking in, Donna and I walked to the overflow parking area to reconnoiter a spot for the trailer. Nearby Mission Bay Park was teeming with people. The grassy areas were filled with EZ-Up canopies, volley ball games and barbeques. The beach at the RV park was also full of people. Apparently many of them parked in the RV overflow lot and the lot was full. This was a problem for us. Mission Bay RV Park requires us to leave our cargo trailer in the lot.

We talked to the security guy at the guard gate. He suggested leaving the trailer in the lot behind the office. I told him that wouldn’t happen, because the last time I did that, Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole my trailer and all of its contents. We found an open spot in the overflow lot that wasn’t really a marked parking space, but the trailer would fit. The security guy agreed to let us park it there temporarily. We would have to move it later when the crowd thinned out. We dropped the trailer and moved into site 112.

Our friends Bob and Sini Schmitt from Edmonds, Washington are in a site a few spaces away from us. This proved to be fortuitous. Bob has a vintage Chevy K5 Blazer with a trailer hitch. He let us use it to move the trailer after legal parking spaces had opened up in the lot. We scored a primo parking space. Close to the water with a no parking zone behind the trailer. This will make it easy to transport the kayak to the water with no worries of someone parking too close behind the trailer. I need to be able to open the rear ramp door for access to the kayak and bicycles and for re-loading the trailer when we leave.

Our home for the next month

When I got up this morning, I noticed that the ground was wet. I thought it was the normal dampness found along the beaches and bays in the morning at this time of year. Donna said a a light rain started falling just after she got up at 7am. It’s dry now though. We should see a high temperature in the mid 60s today. We have a few errands to run. I also need to find an RV technician who can solve the hot water issue.

Temecula Connections

After I posted yesterday, we grilled chicken for dinner. I used the brick method I described in this post. Donna had two large chicken breasts with bones and skin on. They came out great – the brick method works so well.

Brick-grilled chicken breast

We took our plates and utensils to the gazebo located about 100 feet from our coach. There are tables and comfortable chairs there between the fine arts and pottery studios. The weather was perfect – temperature in the low 70s with a light breeze.

Donna at the dinner table in the gazebo

After dinner, the sunset over the Temecula Valley was nice with just enough clouds to give it color.

Sunset over the Temecula Valley

We waited until 8am to get out of bed this morning because generators aren’t allowed before 8am. We needed to run the generator to brew coffee in our Keurig machine. The Keurig doesn’t like the modified sine wave from the inverter – our generator provides a pure sine wave electrical current.

After coffee and cereal, we rode the scooter up to the pickleball courts. They have four courts here that run from sideline to sideline on the tennis court. It makes for a lot of lines on the courts. For pickleball, we only pay attention to the blue painted lines. There were 17 players at the court when we arrived. There was a mix of abilities with a few very good players on the courts. One of the guys competed in the USAPA National Championship event.

Donna and I played a few games and had fun. They generally play here from 8am to 10am, so we’ll have to get there earlier tomorrow.

After playing pickleball, I rode the scooter to Temecula. It’s about a 14-mile ride northwest on CA79. The traffic moves along at 60 mph on CA79, so it was a brisk ride. I went to an auto parts store and found a new flat-four trailer electrical connector. I also bought butt connectors and a crimping tool. I found a 1-1/16″ deep socket for the water heater repair. While I was in town, I stocked up on beer and found my favorite Blue Ice American Potato vodka.

When I returned, I replaced the electrical connector on the trailer. The old connector had damaged pins. I must have stepped on it or maybe rolled the front trailer jack tire over it. I’ll be more careful of the cord and connector in the future.

Old connector with damaged pins

New connector with nice, round pins

I cut the old connector from the harness and prepared the new connector. First I cut the wires to a shorter length – I didn’t need the 24″ length that came with the new connector. Then I stripped the wire ends and crimped butt connectors onto the new part.

Butt connectors crimped into place

Next I stripped the wire ends on the trailer harness and crimped the open end of the butt connectors to the harness.

All crimped together

The last step was to seal each butt connector individually with tape. Then I wrapped all of the butt connectors and wires together with tape to reinforce it.

Final wrap reinforces the butt connectors

That’s it, job done. I checked the trailer lights and all is good.

I’ve decided to leave the water tank repair until Sunday morning. We’re dry camped and if I start on it now, I will lose a minimum of 10 gallons of water. We should have plenty of fresh water on board but why chance it. There are showers a few hundred feet from our site.

Hot Water Woes

Tuesday was a farmers’ market day at Golden Village Palms RV Resort. After pickleball in the morning, Donna and I joined Dave and Stilla Hobden (Urbanescapevehicle.com) and walked to west parking area near the entrance to the park. There were only a few vendors there – the season has really wound down in Hemet. Since the park was 75% Canadian visitors for the winter and most of them are heading home now, the population of the park has really dropped. We still found a few things we couldn’t go without. I bought a jar of raw wildflower honey. Donna bought half a dozen tamales from the same vendor that was at the pool on Saturday. She also bought salsa and lemons. Dave and Stilla also bought tamales for a late lunch. We already had lunch so Donna refrigerated our tamales for consumption later.

Donna and Stilla checking out the vendor tables

Tamale lady at the farmers’ market

We enjoyed another happy hour together with much conversation. Dave and Stilla’s dog, Coach, had some kind of episode in the afternoon, maybe an epileptic seizure. They kept watch on him indoors after dinner.

On Wednesday morning, I hit the pickleball courts and played for over three hours. It was my last chance at Golden Village Palms as we would pull out on Thursday. I came back in time to see Dave and Stilla off – they wanted to make it back to Casa Grande in time to visit family over Easter weekend. I gave Dave directions to the rock garden in the desert. It’s halfway from Hemet to Casa Grande and a good stopping point for the night. Later, I saw on Facebook that he found it and was parked in the exact spot we occupied the week before. (Their dog seems to be doing okay now.)

I forgot to mention the raucous crows that were in the park Wednesday morning. They woke Donna and me up at the crack of dawn with their constant crowing. Later I saw they left calling cards on the side of our coach and also on the windshield cover. Big bird dung bombs. In the afternoon I removed the window covers and cleaned them and also cleaned the coach.

Before we left Mesa, I ordered an anode rod for our 10-gallon Suburban water heater. The anode rod is a sacrificial metal rod made from aluminum or magnesium and screws into the hot water tank. The rod will corrode over time, preventing corrosion of the tank itself. I wanted to replace ours since I wasn’t certain of its age, but I knew it was over a year old now since we’ve had this coach that long. I didn’t get around to it before we left Mesa and I put it off in Casa Grande as well.

On Wednesday afternoon, Donna told me we had a water pressure problem. After a checking it out, I realized that we didn’t have a water pressure problem, we had a hot water flow issue. I removed the aftermarket anode rod from our tank. This rod has an adapter to fit the original threads but uses a smaller diameter threaded rod. I turned off the hot water heater and removed the rod. It was heavily corroded and coming apart. Apparently chunks of the rod material were plugging up the hot water line. I flushed the hot water tank and found many chunks from the corroded rod. I couldn’t fit the Suburban replacement rod into the water tank because I couldn’t get the adapter used on the aftermarket rod out of the tank. I need to buy a 1-1/16″ deep socket to remove it. So I re-installed the failing rod and refilled the tank. We have better hot water flow now, but it’s still not right.

On Thursday morning, I packed the trailer and loaded the scooter. We had everything packed away, slides in and jacks up by 11:30am. We planned to move to the Escapees park in Aguanga called Jojoba Hills. We stayed there last September and loved the place. They don’t take reservations, but you can call ahead to check on availability. We were surprised to find no vacancy! The only thing we could do there is dry camp in the boondocking area. We’re only staying for three nights, so we opted to boondock.

When I hooked up the trailer, I couldn’t get the four-prong electrical connector plugged in. I saw one of the prongs was smashed. I either accidentally stepped on it or rolled the front trailer jack wheel over it! I messed around for about 10 minutes before I could get it connected. We checked the brake lights and turn signals and they work, but I don’t trust the connection. Still, there was nothing I could do about it as we needed to check out by noon.

We drove out of the park south on Sanderson and stopped at Walmart. Donna and I had lunch at the Farmer Boys restaurant – a sort of upscale fast food hamburger joint. The food was okay, but a bit over-priced. Then Donna went grocery shopping while I sat in the coach and read a book. After about 45 minutes, I remembered that I wanted to get propane for the Weber Q grill. I went into Walmart and bought four propane canisters and also picked up a gallon of Chevron Delo 400 15w-40 oil – it was under $12! I wanted to have it on hand for our cross-country run after we leave San Diego next month.

From there we continued south on Sage Road (CR3) through many tight curves and switchbacks to CA79. We went east on CA 79 a few miles and found Jojoba Hills – the entire trip was all of 30 miles.

Long narrow dry camping site at Jojoba Hills

Tomorrow I’ll scooter over to Temecula and buy a 1-1/16″ deep socket to fix the water heater tank and also a new flat four-prong plug for the trailer.

Lizards, Rabbits and Visitors

The time is flying by. A few days got by me without a post to the blog. We passed on the pickleball games on Sunday and rode the scooter to visit my step-dad Ken in Sun City. The traffic was light on the route I’d mapped out to avoid I-215. We sat on Ken’s front patio, which faces north and is shady, enjoying conversation. We had a good visit and amused ourselves by watching the antics of a couple of lizards. They appeared to be fence lizards chasing each other around the patio.

Western fence lizard

These two provided entertainment

On our way back, I took a different route so Donna could buy groceries at Walmart. It was warm but pleasant on the scooter. We had a late lunch at a Chinese diner and stuffed ourselves with the house noodle specialty plate. It had a pile of rice noodles with shrimp, chicken, pork and beef. It was good but very filling – so filling that we skipped dinner!

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Formula One race on TV and downloading the European coverage of the Moto GP season opener while Donna went to the pool to read. Spoiler alert – both races were very entertaining. Sebastian Vettel drove an excellent race with perfect strategy to put his Ferrari on top of the podium. Vettel is a four-time World Champion, but didn’t win a race last year. Neither did Ferrari. In his second race as a Ferrari driver, he broke that drought. In the Moto GP race, everyone figured the Repsol Honda team would run away like they did last year. It was not to be. The race turned into an epic battle between nine-time champion Valentino Rossi on the Yamaha M1 against Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati. In the end, Rossi prevailed over Dovi by a tenth of a second.

A cottontail rabbit came into our site late Sunday afternoon. We put out a few carrot sticks which he munched on before hopping away. There are a lot of rabbits in the park.

While Donna and I were at the pickleball courts on Monday morning, our friend and fellow Alpine Coach owner, Dave Hobden, phoned me. He and his wife Stilla were leaving the FMCA rally in Pomona and were thinking about heading our way. Later, while I was at Sprouts picking up a few more groceries, he texted me saying they would join us at Golden Village Palms RV Resort. They got a good rate on two nights with their Passport America membership.

They pulled in around 2:30pm and set up in the site next to ours. I mentioned before how tight the sites are here. The shrubs in their site were so overgrown, Dave couldn’t get his living room slide out without smashing it into the shrubs. A maintenance guy came by to trim the bushes, but it wasn’t enough – he came back this morning with a power trimmer and cut the bushes back.

Dave Hobden’s Alpine Coach in the site next to us

We sat outside sipping cold beer and talking until about 6:00pm. Stilla had their dinner in the oven so they went home to eat. I grilled a pork tenderloin with a spicy dry rub – a new recipe Donna wanted to try. She served it with roasted, spicy red potatoes and green beans. It was very tasty – the dry rub was really spicy but dipping the pork in a minted cucumber yogurt sauce countered the spices nicely.

Spicy grilled pork loin with minted cucumber yogurt sauce

After dinner, Dave and Stilla joined us for dessert. Donna made carmelized banana pecan ice cream in her Vitamix. It was good, but I prefer the mango ice cream she made before.

Carmelized banana pecan ice cream

Donna said her Vitamix seemed to run slowly and had an electrical odor. This morning it doesn’t run at all. I’ll take it apart and have a look, I hope I don’t have to replace it.

Tight – or Cozy?

We’re having a heat wave in the southwest. The high temperature surpassed 90 degrees for the past two days and the forecast calls for two more days of 90 degree plus temperatures before it drops to a more normal 80 degrees here in Hemet, California.

On Friday morning, before the heat became too intense, I played a few games of pickleball. In the afternoon, I rode the scooter into town and had a look around. I found a Harbor Freight Tool store. I stopped there and bought a pop-rivet tool. I noticed when I was removing the windshield shade that one of the twist-lock fasteners was missing a rivet. Pat must have gotten distracted when he was installing them and missed one. I used to have a pop-rivet tool and an assortment of rivets, but when those Dirty, Rotten Thieves stole our trailer, all of my tools were taken. I have replaced many of the tools and continue to add tools as needed.

Yesterday Donna came to the pickleball courts and played a few games. She can’t play at full speed yet, but she was able to hold her own playing against novice-level opponents. I ended up playing for more than three hours. I think I was dehydrated when I came home. I couldn’t get enough water and I took an hour-long nap!

In the evenings here, Donna and I enjoy sitting in the shade under the canopy outside and having cocktails. As the sun starts to set in the west, the temperature in the shade is agreeable. The air here is very dry – the humidity is under 10%. Last night, Donna discovered that we have an orange tree on the other side of our cargo trailer. Another gal we met on the pickleball courts told us that they have a grapefruit tree on their site. We’ll have to arrange a trade!

One of our neighbors, Stu, stopped by to chat. He saw us pull in and said he’s inspired now to pull a cargo trailer behind his motorhome. He didn’t do it before because he was told he’d never be able to reverse without jack-knifing the trailer. He was amazed at how I was able to place our trailer on the paved parking spot. I told him it can be a little tricky with the trailer pivoting on a ball 11 feet behind the rear axle. The trick is to go slow and not over correct with the steering wheel. It also helps to have Donna outside with a handheld CB radio directing me. I use her eyes, the rearview camera and mirrors to monitor my progress and take my time. I mentioned in Friday’s post how tight these sites are. Here are photos of our site, number 567, in Golden Village Palms RV Resort.

Happy hour under the canopy

Shrubs separating the sites don’t leave much room for slides

Three quarters of the people in this park are from Canada. Many of them have been here all winter and are starting to head for home. With three large swimming pools and fewer people in the park, pool time should be great. Yesterday a vendor was at the pool selling home made Mexican food. I bought half a dozen tamales for lunch. They were excellent!

Today, Donna and I are planning to ride the scooter down to Sun City (Menifee) to visit my step-dad Ken. We can take back roads and avoid scootering on I-215. I don’t think it will take more than half an hour to get there. I’ll set up the DVR to record the Moto GP and Formula One races today while we are out. We’ll make a pitstop at the supermarket before returning to the park. Donna is planning to hang out at the pool and read while I watch the races.

Salton Sea

We rolled out from the rock garden in the desert about 9:30am yesterday. The desert was already heating up. Our route took us west on I-8 to El Centro, where we turned north on CA111. We followed CA111 to Brawley, then continued on CA86 in a northwesterly direction.

This route took us along the west side of the Salton Sea. The current iteration of the Salton Sea was formed by accident in an area of the desert directly over the San Andreas Fault called the Salton Sink. The sea is believed to have formed and drained many times over thousands of years. In 1905, engineers from the California Development Company built irrigation canals from the Colorado River. In an effort to reduce silt built up, a cut was made in the bank of the Colorado River, increasing flow to the canals. The canals flooded out of control and the Salton Sink, which is a basin only five feet higher than the lowest point in Death Valley, began filling with water. Water flowed into the basin for two years, forming the Salton Sea. The surface of the Salton Sea is 234 feet below sea level.

The Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. It’s fed by the New, Whitewater and Alamo Rivers. The water in it is saline and the salt content is greater than that of the Pacific Ocean, but not as high as the Great Salt Lake. Due to changes in water rights under the Quantification Settlement Agreement of 2003, the water level in the Salton Sea is expected to decrease.

As we drove along the west side of the lake, the wind was coming from the east. The large body of water cooled the air significantly and travel with the front windows open was comfortable.

Salton Sea viewed from Donna’s passenger side window

As we cruised along CA86, traffic was confined to one lane at one point and I saw brake lights ahead. It was a Border Patrol check station. We saw one car pulled aside into the vehicle search area, but we were waved straight through without stopping.

Border Patrol check station

We stopped for lunch in Mecca on the north side of the Salton Sea, then continued on to I-10 near Indio. We could see snow on the San Gabriel mountains in the Big Bear area. The drive west on I-10 is a deceptively steep climb to Banning. It was hot out, but our coolant temperature never exceeded 195 degrees.

We turned south at Beaumont and took CA79 to Hemet where we found the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. The sites here include a paved parking space, a concrete patio pad and a gravel RV lot. It sounds spacious, but in reality it’s quite tight. Donna directed me while I backed the cargo trailer into the paved parking spot. I dropped the trailer, then maneuvered the coach into the gravel area that’s bordered by shrubs. It was barely wide enough to put the slides out.

By the time I cleaned the bugs off the windshield and installed the front window shades, it was 4pm and time to kick back with a cold one. Our site faces north, putting the door and awning side on the east, providing afternoon shade. We grilled salmon for dinner and dined al fresco. It was a pleasant evening to sit outdoors.

Palms in the sunset at the RV park

I’m getting to the blog late today because I spent the morning on the pickleball courts. There are some really good players here. I started with a group that was playing at a higher level than me at first. Then I joined a group of players that were closer to my level of play. It was fun and I spent all morning at it.

I think I’ll go out and explore the area this afternoon on the scooter.

Shaken in the Desert

We started our last day at Casa Grande RV Resort with a free waffle breakfast at the clubhouse yesterday. We sat at a table with a couple from Camano Island, Washington. I asked them if they knew Ed and Martha King who also live there. They didn’t know them, but they were surprised that I knew where Camano Island is.

After breakfast, I loaded the trailer. I did the usual dump and flush of the tanks and we took our time getting ready for the road. We said our goodbyes to Bill and Cris Filby from Stanwood, Michigan who stopped over to wish us safe travels. Gayle Devall from Ontario also stopped by to say goodbye. We always meet the nicest people as we travel. We drove out of the park at 11am.

I headed south on Pinal Avenue (AZ387) figuring it would intersect with I-8. I followed a sign directing me west on AZ84 (also called the Gila Bend Highway). This turned out to be a better route than jumping straight on I-8. We drove west through farmland. Several miles later, the road curved to the southwest at the junction with AZ347. That’s when I realized what road we were on. We’ve traveled down AZ347 from the Wildhorse Pass Casino before when we rode our motorcycles from Mesa to San Diego. This was a good route – a few miles later we were on I-8 westbound.

Our first stop was at 12:30pm at Gila Bend. I remembered a Subway sandwich shop at a big truck stop there. The truck stop had ample parking, so getting in and out was easy. We found out that they also have a small RV park in back with full hook-ups. Our next stop was another 40 miles down the road. We stopped at Dateland. Dateland is a small community at exit 67 with a specialty shop selling – wait for it – dates! We parked across the street in an abandoned gas station and walked over for date shakes. These are one of Donna’s favorite treats. Donna also bought a few items in the shop to use as gifts later.

We continued on to Yuma where I stopped again at Fortuna Road to top off our fuel tank at the Pilot/Flying J station. I wanted to have the tank full of fuel when we entered California. Fuel is more expensive in California. We took on 35 gallons of fuel at $2.50/gallon. We drove a couple of miles to Walmart from there to stock up on groceries. The Walmart lot had a number of trees with low branches. I had no choice in a few spots but to drive through them. I was not happy about that!

After we crossed the California border, we had to go through an inspection station. We stopped at the kiosk and the Border Patrol agent asked if we had fresh fruit on board. Since the grapefruits and lemons we had were at least a week old, I didn’t consider them fresh and answered, “No.” He waved us through. It was 4:30pm by then. Our stops along the way had slowed our progress, but it was all right. I didn’t want to stop for the day in the heat of the afternoon anyway. I had the generator running and roof air conditioners on since leaving Walmart. It was 91 degrees outside.

We found our way to our favorite boondocking spot near the Imperial Sand Dune Recreation Area. The area we’re in is actually called the Picacho Recreation Area. It’s BLM land and you can dry camp for up to 14 days with no fee. We’ve stayed here twice before.

The last time we stayed here, I posted about the rock garden in the desert. We found the rock garden and the site was empty. We only saw two rigs in the area and the rock garden was more than a quarter of mile away from them. We set up quickly and enjoyed a cocktail outside in the shade.

Happy hour in the desert

Donna asked for something she hasn’t had in a quite a while. I mixed one part fresh squeezed lemon juice with two parts vodka and a dash of cayenne pepper in a shaker over ice. I shook it vigorously and served it in a martini glass. This drink is called a Holland Razor Blade. I made my usual vodka martini, shaken not stirred, garnished with a tomolive.

Donna enjoying a Holland Razor Blade in the shade

We relaxed and took in the view. Despite the temperature, we were quite comfortable thanks to the dry air and a light breeze.

View to the east from our site

We sat outside until dark and looked at the starry sky. There was more light at the Imperial Dunes area than I expected.

Desert sunset last night

This morning I was up early. We had a very windy night – it interrupted my sleep several times as it shook the coach. I’m sure it will catch up with me later, but at 6:30am I was wide awake and decided to get out of bed.

Our site shortly after sunrise

Today we’ll get back on I-8 westbound and drive to El Centro where we’ll turn north on CA111. We have about 200 miles ahead of us before we reach Hemet.

Green Eggs and Ham

Funny things happen sometimes when you’re boondocking in the desert. As I was doing my walkaround outside the coach in preparation of the day’s travel, a small, single-engine airplane buzzed by directly overhead. What are the odds? Here we were in a remote spot surrounded by miles of desert with no airport nearby and this plane comes right over us at low altitude. I’m not sure what make of plane it was, but it sounded different. As it passed overhead, I realized it was a single-engine turbo-prop airplane. You don’t see that everyday.

Single engine turbo-prop airplane overhead

It was cold in the coach when we woke up – about 52 degrees. We prefer not to have the furnace run overnight. Donna was up first. She started the generator and turned on the heat pumps and the coach warmed up quickly. We pulled out of our little slice of desert around 11am.

Our destination for the day was the Hidden Shores RV Resort on the Arizona side of the Colorado River at the Imperial Dam. When we drove there last year, Nally, our Rand-McNally RVND 7720 GPS, routed us through Winterhaven, then north along the California side of the river. We meandered through several turns along agricultural areas on narrow roads before we finally crossed the river at the dam. This was the shortest route, which I had set in the GPS preferences.

This time, I had a couple of stops planned in Yuma. First we stopped at Walmart for some groceries. We also ate lunch at Subway. From there, I continued east on I-8 to Fortuna Road. I stopped at the Flying J truck stop. Diesel fuel was $2.85/gallon. This is the cheapest fuel we’ve bought since we hit the road nearly a year and a half ago. I topped up our tank and added Biobor JF biocide treatment. This treatment eliminates and prevents hydrocarbon utilizing micro-organisms (Biobor refers to them as Hum-bugs). These micro-organisms are commonly referred to as algae in diesel fuel. They flourish when water is present in the fuel tank and they feed on the diesel fuel. This can cause plugged filters or even engine damage. I’m often skeptical about additives and their claims, but after much research, I’m sold on Biobor. The aviation and marine industries use it as well as the military.

The other thing I wanted to do at the Flying J was weigh our coach. They had a certified Cat Scale that would give us our individual axle weights. I wanted to weigh the coach while I had a full fuel tank and more than 100 gallons of water on board. This would give me our axle weights in the heaviest condition.

I was happy to find we were under the rated axle weights in our worst case scenario. Our front axle is rated at 12,000 lbs – we weighed in at 11,140 lbs. The rear axle is rated at 19,000 lbs – we had a rear axle weight of 18,840. The trailer tongue weight contributed to the rear axle weight – this was troublesome on our last coach. The Dexter axle on our cargo trailer is rated at 3,500 lbs – our trailer axle weight was 3,080 lbs. So, our Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW), which is the sum of the front and rear axle weights, is rated at 31,000 lbs. Our actual GVW is 29,980 lbs. Our Gross Combination Weight (GCW) is rated at 41,000 lbs. Our actual GCW is 33,060. I’m happy to see our weights are within acceptable limits.

The rule of thumb often used for RV horsepower requirement is one horsepower per one hundred pounds. This rule of thumb would put our horsepower requirement at 331hp. I don’t know how this rule of thumb came about or the validity of it, but we are well over this horsepower requirement with our Cummins ISL 400 hp diesel engine.

After getting our weights, we proceeded north on US95, then west on Imperial Dam Road through the military proving ground. This route was fast and easy with no narrow roads or tight turns.

We dropped the trailer in our site (C20), which was bit tricky. Then we jockeyed the coach back and forth as we changed our mind a few times over how we would orient our steps relative to the concrete pad. The pad is raised a couple of inches above the grade of the gravel lot. At first, I had the step behind the pad. Donna was concerned about the pad creating a trip hazard when entering or exiting the coach. I repositioned the coach with the step over the pad. I usually dump the air from the suspension to lower the coach before leveling. But doing this wouldn’t allow enough clearance over the pad to extend the steps.

After a couple of attempts to raise the coach on the jacks for step clearance, I fired up the engine again and pressurized the air suspension. With the airbags at full ride height, I extended the jacks and put some pressure on them to stabilize the coach. Now the steps have clearance and hopefully no one trips on the edge of the concrete pad. Job done!

Step clearance and pad trip hazard

This morning Donna fixed scrambled eggs with diced green chile peppers and cilantro and served them with sliced kumatoes (brown tomatoes) and ham. So I had green eggs and ham for breakfast!

The Internet connectivity is spotty at best here. I hope to have a good enough connection to continue posting. If not, let me wish everyone a happy new year a day early!

BLM Rock Garden

I woke up in the middle of the night. I was stunned at the silence. I didn’t hear anything – no cars, no planes or helicopters, no sirens. Absolute silence. It was just as quiet when I got out of bed at 7:30am yesterday morning.

The desert cooled considerably overnight. The outside temperature had dropped to the high 30s and it was 52 degrees in the coach when we got up. We broke the silence by running our generator to operate the heat pumps, coffeemaker and microwave.

I went out and walked toward our nearest neighbor, at least 200 yards away. I could barely hear our Onan Quiet Diesel generator as I approached his site. I don’t think the generator is bothersome.

Dispersed camping

Donna went for a hike while I watched a disappointing end to the Chargers season. When she returned, she told me she found a site with “improvements.” I didn’t understand what she meant, so I put on my hiking shoes and she led me to the site. There were a couple of motorhomes set up above a dry wash. I could see the ground around the coaches was different. This area of the desert is generally flat and mostly covered with small rocks and decomposed granite. These sites were mostly free of rocks and the ground had a much lighter color.

The occupant of one of the coaches greeted us and invited us to tour his site. It had been built several years ago by his friend, who has since passed away. His friend, Sonny, spent the last four years of his life here hauling in large rocks, raking and leveling the area and then hauling in sand from the wash. After Sonny passed, his ashes were scattered in the rock garden.

He made rock gardens, planted cactus and created rock steps down into the wash. The guy who comes here now with his wife (we never learned his name) has been coming to this site for the past eight years. He told us that a few years ago, a group of visitors tore up the rock garden and piled the heavy rocks in the center of the site. They strung beads and other things in the trees. It was senseless. He rebuilt Sonny’s garden as it was.

Walkway around the rock garden

Barrel cactus, water pan and bird feeders

Cacti and sandy surface

The garden also features bird feeders and hummingbird feeders. A hummingbird landed on a feeder just a few feet away from Donna as we were talking.

This area is public land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM frowns on these types of “improvements.” They want the desert to remain in its natural state. I can understand this, but I have to admit the site was nice. With so much area of BLM land, I doubt if they would find or ever do anything about the rock garden.

Later in the afternoon, I heard a loud engine revving nearby. I went outside and saw an ultralight aircraft fly past our rig, no more than 100 feet above the ground. He flew over the hills to the east of us. Later, I heard him returning. He didn’t fly by as close to us this time, but I snapped a picture as he went by.

Ultralight aircraft flying by

He flew off to the southwest, heading for the sand dune area. Presumably, he’s camping there and takes his aircraft out to explore the desert.

We had a fiery sunset, then the desert quickly cooled again. This morning, I heard a train off in the distance, other than that I heard nothing but total silence. We’ll head out later this morning. I plan to make a couple of stops in Yuma for groceries and fuel. Then we’ll drive to Hidden Shores where we’ve booked a site for the next week.

Desert sunset

Trash to Art

I got busy on Friday. We needed to have things ready to roll, or nearly ready to roll on Saturday morning. I moved our bicycles into the trailer and changed the way I hung them. It may seem like a small thing, but it made a big difference. I hung our road bikes with the chain side toward the trailer wall instead of toward the center. I did this mainly to avoid getting chain oil on my shirt when I’m loading/unloading the trailer. This made me rethink the way I had a few other things stored as well – all for the better.

A little past 1pm, Carole Sue, Mona and Shauna arrived for lunch al fresco at our picnic table. Donna had prepared tea sandwiches and split pea soup (and also heated up some leftover curried butternut squash soup for Mona – she’s allergic to ham which was in the split pea soup). I took a break from my chores and enjoyed lunch in the company of beautiful women.

Lunch with Donna, Shauna, Carole and Mona

Our neighbors, Mike and Linda, were away but I showed Carole and Mona the art he creates with beverage containers. He calls it trash to art. He takes aluminum soda cans and cuts them, then folds them into cool wind ornaments. He also takes plastic soda bottles and makes them into fish ornaments. I didn’t notice before he left for the day, but he gifted us with a cool wind ornament that looks like a gear set spinning when the wind blows, which he hung from our mirror.

Aluminum can wind ornament

This one looks like a gear set spinning

Two-liter soda bottle re-purposed

Another soda bottle fish

After lunch, I continued to move things to the trailer and prepare for the road ahead. At Mission Bay RV Resort, we have to leave our cargo trailer in a separate lot. I spent much of the day walking back and forth from our site to the trailer. I have an app on my Samsung Galaxy S5 called S Health. One of the things this app does is count the number of steps I’ve taken. I walked over 7,700 steps back and forth to the trailer! It wasn’t all about taking things to pack in the trailer, I also brought the ladder from the trailer to clean the windows on the coach and, of course, carried it back to the trailer.

On Saturday morning, we continued our preparations for a travel day. This was more routine, but since we’ve been stationary for a while, we had to think our way through it. Donna made a point of clearing up expectations. She wanted to know when I thought we should have jacks up and the coach ready to leave our site. She’s good at this stuff – clear communication and setting expectations makes life together so much easier.

We rolled out of site 114 a little past 11am. We went to the lot where our trailer was stored and had it hitched and were on our way by 11:45am. This was later than I hoped for, but again not a big deal.

I told myself not to sweat the little stuff. If we were a few minutes behind my expected schedule – it’s small stuff. Really, our problems are first-world problems, there are so many people with bigger issues even to the point of lives being at stake.

Another thing I did differently was how I warmed up the engine. In the past I always started the engine at low idle, ~525 rpm, then slowly raised the idle speed to 700 rpm once the oil pressure came up. After a lot of reading and conflicting advice, I’ve concluded that it’s better to go to a high idle of ~1,000 rpm once proper oil pressure is reached. So, I started the engine at 525 rpm, then raised the idle to 700 rpm. With the idle speed at 700 rpm, I pressed the cruise control on and set buttons simultaneously which is programmed to raise the idle to ~1,000 RPM. This should help mitigate the cool combustion temperature and concomitant cylinder wall washing and crankcase oil dilution.

The drive through east San Diego County and up over the Tecate Divide was a piece of cake. The Cummins ISL pulled us up and over the mountain passes without an issue. The fluid temperatures were well within the normal ranges and we maintained 55mph all the way. Like last year, we stopped at the rest area at Buckman Springs near the summit.

At the summit, we had a tough quartering headwind from the northeast. At times it would really push us to the right. I can’t complain though. Our Alpine Coach Peak chassis handled it fine. All the way down the east side of the mountain pass was easy. I used the two-stage Jake brake and never even touched the brake pedal. This was a huge difference from driving the same stretch of road last year in our Gulfstream Sun Voyager.

Once we hit the desert at Ocotillo, I set the cruise control at 59mph, right at 1,500 rpm. This was a reasonable speed and also fuel-efficient. We found the same boondocking area near Imperial Dunes and Buttercup Station as last year. We drove slowly off-road and discussed view preferences before we claimed a spot. Presently we’re boondocking on BLM land in the Picacho Recreation Area with no neighbors within 200 yards. I checked out the Dish satellite reception. I’ve got San Diego broadcasting on Dish Network and I’m looking forward to the Chargers vs Chiefs game. If the Chargers win, they’re in the NFL playoffs!

Boondocking at Picacho

We have great Verizon 4G coverage here in the middle of nowhere. Last year it wasn’t so great at Hidden Shores. We’ll move there on Monday. Hopefully I’ll have internet access and can post from there.

By the way, I ended my last post with a question. Sadly, no one answered. Tumbleweed Connection was the title of Elton John’s album released late in 1971.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: California

Back to the Bay

Temecula Connections

Hot Water Woes

Lizards, Rabbits and Visitors

Tight – or Cozy?

Salton Sea

Shaken in the Desert

Green Eggs and Ham

BLM Rock Garden

Trash to Art

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