One of the sponsors of the Xscapers Annual Bash is a local business, Every Little Detail Mobile Detailing. We saw them washing neighboring rigs, and decided to get them to wash and wax ours, too, since it needed it — we haven’t had a chance to wash it since we bought it a few months ago. Washing an RV is a bit more complicated than a car.
They had a team of four working on it:
View from inside:
Drying:
Hand waxing:
It’s so nice to have a clean coach; so shiny!
We arrived a couple of days before the Xscapers Annual Bash kicked off, as Jenn is volunteering in the “FeMail” room (the mail room is apparently always staffed by women).
The bash is held each year at the Lake Havasu Rodeo grounds in Arizona.
I wandered around while things were still being set up, and took a few pictures of the rodeo grounds:
Bar:
Some structures; the small one in the middle is the “FeMail” room where Jenn is volunteering:
Seating area:
Inside:
Tent:
Registration:
Games:
Dusk:
Stands:
Rodeo grounds:
Bleachers:
Games and stuff:
Fire pit:
Rave rocket:
That first night was a volunteer dinner, ending with a beer puppet, valiantly but inexpertly demonstrated by the outgoing convergence coordinator:
The next day, Saturday, was early arrival day for non-volunteers. Here’s a map of the bash grounds (from a screenshot of the bash app):
Still lots of empty space in the solar section (for people who use solar power, with very restricted generator use):
The general section was also mostly empty:
As was the party section (closer to the noisy music etc):
A ferris wheel being set up:
Our coach:
The following day, Saturday, was the regular arrival day; the remaining 300ish RVs turned up:
Solar section:
Party section:
Ferris wheel ready to go:
Our coach again, this time with the awning out, and Jenn knitting outside:
A timelapse of driving the coach 83 miles from Salome, Arizona to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for the Xscapers Annual Bash, with a stop at Love’s for fuel. (I forgot to start the camera until we exited the RV park, but didn’t miss much.)
We departed Salome, Arizona and headed to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for the Xscapers Annual Bash. Our first coach drive of 2022.
Here’s the route map; just 83 miles, a couple of hours drive north in our coach:
Heading down the highway to Quartzsite:
Love’s fuel stop:
We weighed our coach and truck again at a CAT Scale at Love’s:
The weight was up a bit, in part due to adding more stuff, in part due to having a full tank of water, in preparation for dry camping at the Xscapers Bash. But still within acceptable tolerances:
Paladin wasn’t enjoying the trip, as usual:
Heading north on the highway:
Entrance to the bash:
Sold out:
Another Tiffin:
Paladin settled down:
Backing in to our spot:
We arrived a few days early, as Jenn is volunteering in the mail room. So there’s lots of empty space now, which will be filling in as everyone else arrives today:
Our truck and coach in our spot:
If you’re at the Xscapers Bash and see us, feel free to say hi. We’re introverts, and this is our first time at a rally, but we’re looking forward to it:
Stay tuned tomorrow for the timelapse video of our journey.
We spent the holidays at Black Rock RV Village in Salome, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)
I thought I’d start adding some extra information about our stay, for future reference:
Dates: 2021-12-18 to 2022-01-06. Yes, I prefer to post about a campsite after we’ve left it.
Weather: sunny, a little drizzle, windy at times (gusts up to 30 mph), high temps around averaging 60°F, lows around 40°F, dipped just below freezing a couple times.
Noise: a bunch of side-by-side vehicle traffic, but no trains, negligible road noise.
Site: back-in, gravel, full hookups (50 amp power, water, sewer), large, about 80 feet long by 30 feet wide, with a hedge on the passenger side. No table or fire pit.
Internet: no Wi-Fi; AT&T okay, about 1 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up; T-Mobile unreliable, about 1 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, when it works.
Amenities: mailboxes and mail room, cafe, pool, rec room, park, various outdoor games.
Here’s the (very much not-to-scale) map:
A satellite view shows the layout better, especially over where we were staying. As you can see, a lot of the sites have park models or other long-term structures (park models are like tiny homes that can be moved, but generally aren’t, and aren’t self-contained, requiring hookups):
Entrance sign:
Our campsite was quite large:
Electrical and water hookups; the ground is damp as I always run the water for a bit before hooking up, to flush any contaminants. I also had to use a short hose connector, as the tap was so low to the ground:
Campsite:
“The first RV”:
This park is a popular place for side-by-side vehicles, being next to public lands:
Office:
This park is unusual in that it has a public cafe on-site:
It also has mailboxes:
The mail room; we used it a lot, with packages from Amazon pretty much every day. Receiving mail is complicated when traveling the country; I should do a blog post about that sometime (if anyone’s interested):
Collecting some packages:
They have a couple of desert tortoises, though they are currently hibernating for the winter:
Rec hall:
Pickleball courts; one day we’ll get around to learning to play:
Bocce ball:
Cornhole:
Swimming pool; apparently heated, but it’s too cold to want to swim:
Charlie’s Park:
Community garden beds:
Gate to BLM land:
BLM land:
Lots of vacant sites:
Park models:
Entrance sign at sunset:
We were here over Christmas, and they had a parade of side-by-sides and other vehicles:
Sunset:
We ate in the cafe several times:
Chicken fried steak, baked spud, beans:
Mexican:
Burger & fries, plus fish & chips:
Many RVs come with a ladder built in on the back, but unfortunately ours did not. Apparently the latest trend is to skip the ladder, so I guess our coach was ahead of the curve. Still, being able to climb onto the roof, or reach other high parts of the sides, is rather useful. Especially since the coach is 12’ 7” high.
So, another useful recent purchase was a ladder. A rather versatile ladder: it can be collapsed for compact storage, and extended to various heights up to 16.5 feet, plenty to reach our roof, plus can fold in the middle to make a two-sided A-frame ladder about 8 feet high, perfect for reaching up the sides. Yet it’s lightweight, at only 38 pounds:
Here it is collapsed and stored in the back of our truck:
Back at the homestead, I enjoyed watching the feral cats, ducks, and chickens on the various cameras I had around the property. Plus I found comfort in being able to watch people coming to the front door.
I missed that in our coach, so I looked for new camera systems. The homestead cameras were IP-based, recording to on-camera SD cards (sometimes, with a high failure rate). This time, I still wanted the recordings to be kept locally, to avoid using valuable internet bandwidth, but wanted more modern technology. I found the Eufy brand of cameras, which fit the bill nicely. They are focused on privacy, with the recordings staying on a local device, though a centralized one instead of in each camera. But I can view the cameras, live or recordings, from anywhere. They are also battery-powered (with built-in rechargeable batteries), so I didn’t need to worry about plugging them in.
The Eufy camera comes in various bundle options, but I got a set with two cameras plus the base unit to start. I can add more cameras in the future if I think of use cases.
I mounted one Eufy camera on the outside of the coach, by the entry door. It’s attached with a Command strip that can be pulled apart and pushed together, so I can remove the camera when traveling. (It would probably stay put, but I wouldn’t want to risk losing it):
Here’s the camera in context:
I mounted the second camera inside, watching the living room, so I can keep an eye on our cat Paladin while were away from the coach. It is also mounted with Command strips; we like to avoid screwing things into walls if possible:
Context for it:
The cameras wirelessly connect to this base unit to save and share the recordings:
It is in turn connected via Ethernet to our Pepwave cellular modem (which is looking dusty; soon we hope to have it installed in a better place, and connected to a roof antenna for better signal):
Here’s a view from the outside cam, during a brief spot of rain:
And a view from the inside cam (you can see me and Jenn sitting in the living area):
The Eufy app is quite nice. Here’s the main screen, showing the devices:
The Events page, showing recorded events for the specified day:
Showing one recording, with a sketchy-looking guy at the door. It recognizes humans, and also captures a thumbnail of the face:
The Security page has modes for the system; I have it set to use geofencing, so it automatically switches to Away mode (where the living room camera is enabled) when I leave the vicinity, and back to Home mode (where the living room camera is disabled) when I return:
(Of course, I’ll need to reset the geofence each time we move the coach, but that is easy enough.)
We have done a number of modifications to our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome, to make it more comfortable as a full-time home, to improve the features, or to repair issues. This is a summary of some of the changes done in 2021.
As with previous summaries, for each I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details.
You can see all of the modification-related blog posts via the modifications category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.
Removing couches; we removed the two couches that came with the coach, so we could replace them with our swivel recliner chairs and a desk:
Toad installation; installing the tow bar and related changes, to tow our truck behind the coach:
Minor mods including a towel holder, shower tweaks, necklace racks, and chair levelers:
Desk; a desk and cat litter box where a couch used to be:
Cooktop; replacing the induction cooktop:
Media cupboard; rearranging to fit our equipment:
AGM batteries; we had the house batteries replaced with better ones:
We also got a couple more solar panels installed; I didn’t do a blog post about those, though you can see them (covered in leaves) in the Valley of the Rogue drone shots post (I can’t believe I haven’t flown my drone since then; I really should do so):
Tire pressure monitoring system; to make sure none of the tires have an issue while driving:
Upgraded Spyder control panel; a much nicer panel:
Replaced lights; fixed some flickering lights:
Smart surge protector; to help avoid electrical issues:
Clear sewer hose extension; to help watch the flow:
Toilet flush switch replacement; fixing an unreliable switch:
There are a few more modifications that I did in 2021; stay tuned for posts about them over the coming days.
One of the main reasons for traveling the United States in a motorhome is to explore the many wonders around the country. This is a summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2021.
I’ll skip the many Yellowstone National Park places; check out the Yellowstone posts for those.
As with the previous summary, I’ll include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture. Click or tap the link to see more.
You can see all of the attraction-related blog posts via the exploring category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.
Olympic National Park in the Northeast corner of Washington state:
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, OR:
Golden ghost town in southern Oregon:
Oregon Vortex in southern Oregon:
Lassen Volcanic National Park in California:
New Clairvaux Vineyard in Vina, CA:
Bidwell Mansion in Chico, CA:
Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA:
California’s Great America in San Jose, CA:
Apple Park Visitor Center in Cupertino, CA:
Pinnacles National Park in Paicines, CA:
Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, CA:
Joshua Tree National Park in Indio, CA:
Bombay Beach, Salton Sea, CA:
The Living Desert Zoo WildLights in Palm Desert, CA:
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona:
Painted Rock Petroglyph Site in Gila Bend, AZ:
Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix, AZ:
Pedal boats at Encanto Park in Phoenix, AZ:
Scorpion Gulch and Dobbins Lookout in Phoenix, AZ:
Goldfield Ghost Town in Arizona:
Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona:
Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ:
We’re looking forward to seeing several more National Parks and many other attractions in 2022!
Another interesting summary of 2021 — the places we stayed during the year.
I’ll start with buying our coach, then our Yellowstone trip in a rental travel trailer, and continue with our subsequent coach stays. For each location, I’ll include a link to the corresponding blog post, the campground map (if available), and a picture of our site. Enjoy!
You can also see all of the campground-related blog posts via the campsite category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.
Pasco / Tri-Cities KOA Journey in Pasco, WA, where we purchased the coach:
At our homestead in Estacada, OR:
For our Yellowstone trip in the rental travel trailer; Grand Hot Springs in La Grande, OR:
Twin Falls / Jerome KOA in Jerome, ID:
Madison campground, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming:
Jim & Mary’s RV Park in Missoula, MT:
Coyote Run RV Park in Connell, WA:
Back into our coach, our first stop after leaving our homestead was Portland Fairview RV Park in Portland, OR (no blog post, so this is a newly-published picture):
Mom’s place in the Seattle region:
Kevin and Julie’s Boondockers Welcome site in Chehalis, WA:
Olde Stone Village RV Park in McMinnville, OR:
Valley of the Rogue state park in Gold Hill, OR:
Heritage RV Park in Corning, CA:
Coyote Valley RV Resort in San Jose, CA:
Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve in San Benito, CA:
Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California:
Shadow Hills RV Resort in Indio, CA:
Sonoran Desert RV Park in Gila Bend, AZ:
Dry camping at Straight Line RV in Phoenix, AZ:
Black Rock RV Village in Salome, AZ (blog post coming next week):
I hope you enjoyed this tour of our campsites in 2021!