Month: January 2022

Hike in Coachella Valley Preserve

While staying at Catalina Spa & RV Resort (look for a post about that later), we took a hike in the nearby Coachella Valley Preserve. We wanted to explore the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve within the Coachella Valley Preserve, but were misled by their map, and ended up doing a longer hike than planned.

The Coachella Valley Preserve sign:

Coachella Valley Preserve sign

Entrance to the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve:

Entrance

The very inaccurate map; we thought the Hidden Palms Loop hike looked interesting, and allegedly fairly easy for us novice hikers at 1.75 miles roundtrip, according to the table in the map:

Map

But it was full of lies; the Hidden Palms Loop was in fact more like five or six miles, and very badly marked. We went about halfway (mostly on loose sand) before we lost the trail, and turned back; a total of about three hours. Not a long hike for most people, but we’re not really in shape for such a journey, especially not in the heat of the desert. (Yes, we did have hiking boots, hats, suitable clothing, water, and snacks; we weren’t totally unprepared. But there’s definitely improvements we could make.)

We better know our limits now, that’s for sure:

Signs

Palm trees in the oasis at the start:

Palm trees

Palm trees

Palm trees

Sign

Palm trees

David

Palm trees

Following the trail; a nice path to start:

Path

More palm trees:

Palm trees

The path crossed the road:

Crossing road

The trail continues:

Trail

Inside of a cactus:

Inside of cactus

Birds circling; we’re not dead yet:

Birds

The trail became soft sand, and less clearly defined:

Trail

A stream:

Stream

A wash from heavy rains:

Wash

Interesting texture:

Interesting texture

Me with a trail marker, but not much of a trail:

David

So much desert:

Desert

Desert

Desert

The less-clearly-defined trail:

Trail

We saw several of the lizards that are a focus of the preserve:

Lizard

More desert:

Desert

Not the most interesting hike, and the hidden palms were so well hidden that we didn’t find them. We looked at a better map when we got home (there wasn’t enough cell signal to see much while out there), and found where it went. But it definitely wasn’t what we were expecting.

We turned around once we lost the path, and got some tasty breakfast for dinner on the way home (i.e. back to our coach), then headed to the thermal pool for a couple hours soak for our tired muscles.

We also bought the AllTrails app, so will have better access to maps for our next hike.

States map

A fun tradition for many RVers is to display a map of the places they’ve been on the side of their RV. We’ve had such a map for a while, but finally got around to installing it. (You may have spotted it in some of the Xscapers posts; I actually wrote this post before the bash, but pushed it out for more timely topics.)

We mounted it on the side of our front slide out, next to the entry door. A fairly common location.

The map consists of a self-adhesive base map of the United States, plus corresponding stickers to add on top as each state is visited. Our rule is for it to count, we need to camp at least one night in the state.

Here’s me adding the base map, trying to avoid bubbles:

David adding map base

The base map:

Map base

Adding state stickers for the places we’ve been since buying the coach:

David adding states

So far we’ve been to Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona in our coach. Plus we decided to include the Yellowstone trip, since we were camping in a rental travel trailer while our coach sat at home (only because our coach wouldn’t fit in Yellowstone National Park). So that adds Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming (we’ll visit them again in our coach in a few months time anyway):

States

A view of our coach and map from further back:

Coach with map

As mentioned in the 2021 travel post a few weeks ago, in 2022 we plan to add Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas to that map. It’ll be years before we visit every state. Alaska and Hawaii will be particularly tricky; Alaska we can reach via Canada, but we’ll have to fly to Hawaii — we have been there in the past, but won’t count it until we visit again… and may have to rent an RV there if we want to be strict with our self-imposed rules.

Travel from Phoenix, AZ to Desert Hot Springs, CA

Three days later, we picked up our coach from NIRVC in Phoenix, Arizona, then headed back into California, to Desert Hot Springs.

NIRVC successfully fixed the driver chair power issue, fixed the slide-out glide block issue, and serviced the slides. They didn’t get to the remainder of the (lower priority) items on my list, so hopefully we’ll get those taken care of when we visit them again in March — I had already made that appointment in anticipation of needing more time, plus generally like to schedule service appointments every few months, just in case, since things inevitably break, and there’s regular servicing needed.

I admit, I had high hopes for NIRVC, based on their excellent reputation, so was a bit disappointed that they didn’t get much done. But they only had a short time, and they’ll have another chance to impress me soon.

Here’s the map route for this travel day (going from right to left); 262 miles, about six hours drive in our coach. A bit longer than we prefer, but we didn’t want to add another interim stop:

Map route

Our coach at NIRVC:

Coach at NIRVC

Heading west out of Phoenix:

Heading west

We were passed by three of these oversize loads (going rather fast):

Oversize load

Paladin still wasn’t pleased with travel, but not too bad this time, perhaps because it was only a few days after the last time:

Paladin

Lots of trucks on the freeway:

Trucks

Funky mountains:

Funky mountains

Goodbye cacti; fewer and fewer as we head west:

Goodbye cacti

Freeway

We stopped at Love’s in Quartzsite for diesel; it was pretty busy, and some trucks were being inconsiderate in blocking the exit, resulting in some honking by other truckers. It’s the last fuel stop before the California border; diesel was about $1 more across the border:

Love's fuel stop

While waiting for trucks ahead of us, I snuggled with Paladin; here’s a view of the coach in travel mode, with the slides in and the GPS mirrored to the overhead TV:

Coach and Paladin

More of Paladin:

Paladin

Paladin

Back on the road, crossing into California:

California state line

A stop at the agricultural inspection station:

Inspection station

Inspection station

Inspection station

Inspection station

They didn’t actually ask us if we had anything this time. We were wondering if they’d object to the little cacti we bought in Arizona.

Welcome to California sign:

Welcome to California

Heading down the freeway:

Freeway

Paladin looking relaxed at a rest stop:

Paladin

Downhill:

Downhill

Downhill

The overpass bridges around the desert cities have nice decorations:

Indio sign

Bridge art

Cathedral City bridge

Snow-capped mountains; pretty sure there wasn’t any snow when we were here a month ago:

Snow-capped mountains

The highway nearing our destination:

Highway

A cell tower nicely disguised as a palm tree:

Palm tree cell tower

Our destination for 17 days: Catalina Spa and RV Resort:

Catalina Spa and RV Resort

Stay tuned for a timelapse video tomorrow. If you haven’t watched them before, they’re a fun compressed view of our journey; watch a few hours of travel in mere minutes. With music! If they aren’t fast enough, you can also tell YouTube to play at 2x speed, or jump ahead, though you may miss interesting sights. Or slow them down if too fast.

I enjoy making the videos; I hope you enjoy watching them. And everyone please do subscribe to the Sinclair Trails YouTube channel; I need a bunch more subscribers to be able to get a nicer URL.

Coach to NIRVC and a second stay in an Airbnb apartment

We had an appointment with the National Indoor RV Center in Phoenix, Arizona to fix the driver chair issue, a slide-out glide issue, and a bunch of other stuff. So we drove the short 22 miles (half an hour) from the nearby Buckeye campground to NIRVC to drop off the coach. Here’s the route (going left to right):

Map route

The colorful front of the NIRVC building:

NIRVC

In the reception area:

NIRVC

The waiting room:

NIRVC

We had the option of sleeping in our coach on-site (with a power hookup), and hanging out in that waiting room while it was being worked on, but that wouldn’t really work with a cat, and we’d be more comfortable staying somewhere else.

So again, we rented an Airbnb apartment; see that listing for more information. Here are a few pictures:

Airbnb apartment

Airbnb apartment

Airbnb apartment

Airbnb apartment

Airbnb apartment

Airbnb apartment

Airbnb apartment

The carport was a bit tight for our truck. The apartment was upstairs:

Carport and stairs to apartment

Pool, grill, table:

Pool, grill, table

Pool (we didn’t use it, but it seemed popular):

Pool

We’ve recently booked a third Airbnb for another visit to NIRVC in March, to (hopefully) finish off the items on the list.

Travel from Lake Havasu City to Buckeye, AZ

We departed the Xscapers Annual Bash near Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and headed to a one-night stay at Leaf Verde RV Resort near Buckeye, Arizona.

Here’s the route map (top to right); 165 miles, about four hours drive in our coach (including a lunch break):

Map route

A fairly familiar route, having been along I-10 a few times this winter.

But the trip had a bumpy start; we couldn’t bring in our front driver-side slide-out, or move the driver chair, due to a disconnected wire underneath the chair:

Disconnected wire

Disconnected wire

This stop was the first time we had rotated that chair around to face the living area, so we guess the wire didn’t have as much slack as it should, and got pulled out.

Obviously this is a big problem; we can’t drive with the slide out. The reason the slide was affected is the switch to extend or retract it is on the side of the chair, to help ensure the chair is forward enough to not get hit.

Fortunately there is an emergency retraction button in the fuse bay in the basement, so I was able to use that to bring in the slide:

Emergency rectraction

Also fortunately we had an appointment at the National Indoor RV Center in Phoenix the next day, so we only had to live with this issue for one day.

That issue worked around, we moved the coach to a clear space at the Xscapers Bash grounds to hook up our toad (tow vehicle); you can see our truck and the neighboring coach (nice folks, that we enjoyed meeting and chatting with):

Xscapers General section

Our coach, ready to hook up the truck:

RV

We’re on our way; a bridge over wetland:

Bridge over wetland

Wetland

Colorado River:

Colorado River

Colorado River

Hilly highway:

Hilly highway

Hilly highway

Our coach has an RV-safe GPS, that knows the height and other info about our rig, so it doesn’t route us places we can’t go (we also have a label above the GPS as a reminder for low bridges):

GPS

A fun and handy feature of the GPS is the ability to mirror the output to the (otherwise pretty useless) TV above the windshield — useful so I can see the GPS more easily (it just displays grayscale for some reason):

GPS on TV

TV and windscreen

In Parker, Arizona we encountered several VW buses, probably leaving a recent gathering of them at London Bridge in Lake Havasu City:

WV buses

Highway:

Highway

Quartzsite sign:

Quartzsite sign

I-10 freeway:

Highway

Mountains:

Mountains

Cacti:

Cacti

We would have liked to stop at the first rest area on the I-10 portion of the route, but it’s been closed for a while for renovations:

Closed rest area

So we continued to the next one, half an hour later:

Open rest area

Crackers, summer sausage, and cheeses for lunch:

Lunch

Paladin wasn’t thrilled when we started going, but settled down in one of his nests during lunch:

Paladin

When we got underway again, he was a little happier than earlier. We do hope he gets more used to travel days eventually:

Paladin

Our exit:

Exit

We had a one-night stay at Leaf Verde RV Resort; I won’t bother doing a separate post about it, since we basically just stopped there to dump our tanks after dry camping for over a week during the Bash, to catch up on laundry, and as a location fairly close to the National Indoor RV Center:

Leaf Verde RV Resort

The map:

Map

From the little we’ve seen of it, I wouldn’t call it a resort; while the transient campsites are mostly pull-through, they are fairly tight “buddy” sites, where pairs of RVs face opposite directions, and thus their doors face each other. Not very nice:

Campsite

Notice that we didn’t extend the front driver-side slide-out, since the switch wasn’t working:

Campsite

We didn’t bother unhooking our truck, since it’s just an overnight pitstop (an advantage of a pull-through site):

Campsite

A timelapse of this travel is coming tomorrow. Please subscribe to the Sinclair Trails YouTube channel; I need a bunch more subscribers to be able to get a nicer URL.

Palm Canyon in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, Yuma, AZ

While staying at Black Rock RV Village over the holidays, we didn’t do a lot of exploring (there isn’t much in the area, and we wanted some quiet time before the excitement of the Xscapers Annual Bash), but one day we did take a drive past Quartzsite to Palm Canyon in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1939 for the protection of desert bighorn sheep and other native wildlife.

One reason for this destination was to scout a possible boondocking site for the future. In March we will be in this area again, and may want to try some boondocking or dispersed camping, instead of our usual RV parks. Quartzsite is famous for boondocking, and there are a lot of people doing so.

The first half of the seven mile Palm Canyon Road is through public BLM land, available for boondocking or dispersed camping: camping pretty much anywhere, without any hookups or designated sites. The second half is in the refuge, and only allows camping in designated spots within 100 feet of the road, marked by a sign and fire pit. We liked the look of the latter more, being closer to the mountains, though of course they are more limited.

Driving our 40-foot rig along a long unpaved road could be a challenge, but the road seemed passable enough, and there were several sites that should be easy enough to get in and out of. So it could be something fun to try.

Here’s driving our truck through the BLM portion of the road:

Palm Canyon Road

A gathering of vanlifers:

Van-lifers

The entrance of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge:

Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

Info signs:

Info sign

Info sign

Info sign

Kofa mountains:

Palm Canyon mountain

Palm Canyon mountain

Dispersed camping:

Dispersed camping

Dispersed camping

Parking area at the end of the road:

Parking area

Info signs:

Info sign

Info sign

Info sign

Palm Canyon

Palm Canyon mountain

Looking downhill:

Looking downhill

Looking downhill

Driving downhill

Spyder control panel and shades issue

Our coach has a multiplex wiring system, where several control panels and features are networked together, so control panels in various places can operate things like shades, lights, TV lift, fans, and more.

Which is great when things work, but a truism of RVs is things are always breaking. One particularly vexing issue was that a control panel and two shades on our front passenger slide-out stopped working after moving the coach one time.

Here’s the control panel, with buttons for lights, shades, and TV lift — it should’ve been illuminated, but it wasn’t, and the buttons didn’t work:

Control panel

The day and night shades in the living area are electric, so they can all go up or down at a touch of a button. Which again is nice if it works, frustrating if it doesn’t.

I contacted the manufacturer of the multiplex wiring, Spyder Controls, and their very friendly support staff spent lots of time helping me diagnose the issue, including trying different panels in different places, which proved that the control panel itself was not the fault. They got me to try squeezing the connectors, since apparently they can get loose. And even got me to order replacement connectors, and (once they arrived), talked me through replacing them on the control panel and shade controller.

Speaking of, here’s the shade controller (called the G5 shade module); a circuit board that takes the network connection and operates the day and night shades for the two shades on that slide. The green light was blinking, indicating that it had power but no network connection:

Shade controller

We also looked at the wiring in the house network panel (called G6), a rather complicated rats nest of wiring:

Wiring

Wiring

Meanwhile, since we couldn’t close the shades, we got some temporary curtains:

Curtains

We lived like that for quite a while, and had an appointment with a service place, where fixing those issues would’ve been a top priority, since I hadn’t been able to solve them.

However, I recently looked through some pictures of the construction of the same model coach as ours that a kind person sent me, and noticed another connector — which made sense, since the wiring of the chassis and slide-out would be separate, but connected when the slide was installed. I wasn’t sure where it was, but looked inside an exterior panel behind the fridge:

Behind fridge

Sure enough, I found a wire from the G6 panel, a couple of wires going to the control panel and shade module, and a hub-like connector between them (G4 common drop tap). Wouldn’t you know it, the cable from the G6 panel was disconnected, as the latch that held it in was missing. Here’s a crop of that pic, showing the bottom orange cable not fully seated:

Wires behind fridge

Here I pushed it back in place:

Wiring

And just like that, the shades started working again!

Blind

Blind

That didn’t fix the control panel. So I bought some more replacement connectors from Tiffin, and pulled off the panel again:

Spyder control panel

I noticed that I hadn’t done a very good job of (unnecessarily, as it turned out) replacing the connector, as I was rushing a bit, since the tech was on the phone. One of the wires was loose:

Spyder connector

So I pulled off that connector and installed a new one:

Spyder connector

And hey, it works!

Spyder control panel

Re-mounted:

Spyder control panel

Next, I replaced the broken connector behind the fridge, so it wouldn’t pop out again:

Spyder connector

All better:

Spyder connector

I’m really glad and relieved to have solved the shades and control panel issues at last. And very satisfying to have done the fixes myself. Not that I’m at all averse to paying someone to fix things for me, but it’s nice to be able to do it.