Another recent purchase, related to the rug tweaks covered yesterday: an extra step, since the front of the coach was higher than usual due to the slope of the ground at the Xscapers Bash:
We won’t need that often, but good to have it when we need it.
We have an outdoor rug that we put down when a campsite has gravel, sand, or dirt next to the coach (can’t use it when there’s grass, and no need when concrete). We used to secure it from blowing away with stakes hammered into the ground, which can be tricky with hard surfaces (I’ve bent a few stakes!). But while at the Xscapers Bash, our neighbor demonstrated a cunning idea: using lag bolts and washers, screwed in with a drill driver. Clever!
So I bought a cordless drill (my existing one was corded; less convenient for outdoor use) and some lag bolts and washers. I could get larger washers, but these work fine:
The driver has a suitable bit in a quick-connect, for when I want to use the driver for other things:
A bolt and washer secures the mat at each corner:
Though even that was no match for wind gusts of 30+ MPH:
It wasn’t a failure of the bolts, though: the bolts stayed put… but the rug tabs didn’t remain attached to the rug:
Oops! So we’ll weigh down the rug more when experiencing high winds, and screw the bolts directly through the reinforced corners of the rug:
We took a ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway — the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world.
Approaching Mount Jacinto in our truck:
The road up the foothills of Mount Jacinto:
The valley station, the base of the tramway:
The boarding area, where we wait for our tram. We had booked tickets for that afternoon, but decided to go earlier. Being mid-week, they weren’t too busy, so we didn’t have to wait long:
A tram arriving:
In the tram:
Jenn taking photos:
A feature of the tram is rotation, so everyone can get good views. The whole tram doesn’t rotate, just the floor, like a revolving restaurant like the Space Needle in Seattle or the Sky Tower in Auckland:
Looking downhill on our way up:
There are a few support towers; as the car passes each tower, it rocks a bit:
The second tram on its way down; they are always offset, so when one is at the top, the other is at the bottom:
View:
There’s about a 30°F temperature difference between the valley floor and mountain top. We reached the snow level:
Inside the tram; masks required:
Arriving at the mountain station:
A nifty feature is water delivery; all the water for the mountain station is delivered via tanks under the tram cars, and dumped at the top on each trip:
The mountain arrival area:
Before boarding, they had everyone stop to take a couple of pictures in front of a green-screen. Something I’ve resisted in the past, but we’ve been embracing recently. So we stopped at the photos kiosk to check out our pics:
We bought digital copies of our green-screen photos; cheesy, but kinda fun:
We had a reservation at the Peaks Restaurant for lunch:
Jenn:
A tasty lunch:
After lunch, we went out onto the viewing balcony, and took some pictures of the mountain and valley views:
The viewing deck outside the restaurant:
Snow:
Valley views of Palm Springs:
I was amused by the wet floor sign that had fallen onto the snow below the deck; yep, it was indeed a very wet floor:
Selfie:
More views:
Jenn taking photos:
The interesting architecture of the building exterior:
A glimpse of a tram arriving:
Another selfie:
We were also amused by the Mount San Jacinto sign — “California State Parks, Mount San Jacinto State Park, a California State Park”. Obviously written by the Department of Redundancy Department:
Trees and snow in the park behind the mountain station:
They have a window into the counterweight mechanism; a large steel and concrete counterweight that goes up and down as the trams travel across towers (read the sign for more info):
Back into the tram for the return journey:
Views on the way down:
The center of the tram; on the way up was an informational recording, but on the way down the operator played loud music from his iPhone hooked into the PA system:
A nice view of one of the towers (with a small helipad on top for maintenance):
Another tower:
Approaching the valley station:
A small museum in the valley station:
Watching a tram depart:
That was a fun experience, and enjoyable lunch. Highly recommended for people visiting Palm Springs.
A brief 2x timelapse of driving through downtown Palm Springs in our truck.
Some pictures from a quick drive through downtown Palm Springs, California. (We had planned to stop for lunch and a wander around, but didn’t feel like dealing with crowds; it doesn’t look very crowded in these pics, but the restaurants were all packed.)
Tomorrow, a brief video of driving through here.
A recent addition to our RV is a set of high quality jack pads — heavy duty pads to go under the hydraulic leveling jacks, to provide better support on soft ground like dirt, or protect more fragile surfaces like asphalt from the weight of the jacks.
Here are the pads under the back jacks:
And the front jacks (yes, those jacks are smaller):
Peeking behind a front wheel, you can see the whole jack mechanism:
While there, a bonus pic of part of our 150 gallon diesel fuel tank, which can be filled from both sides:
And a front air bag, which acts as suspension while driving, and can be used as alternative to hydraulic leveling for short stays:
A couple of jack pads after removing them:
I store two on each side of a basement compartment, for easy access when setting up at a campsite. I don’t need them when on a concrete pad, and not so much on gravel, but on sand, dirt, grass, or asphalt, they are a useful addition.
A perhaps better (certainly more convenient) option for jack pads are permanently attached ones, like SnapPads, but unfortunately they are not compatible with our coach, as there isn’t enough clearance between the back tires and the jack when it is up in travel position.
Along with exploring every state, another of our many objectives of this full-time RV lifestyle is to visit all 63 national parks. It’s long been one of Jenn’s life goals.
We’ve already been to several, and in 2022 we have planned our route to hit about 22 more. See yesterday’s 2022 plans post for the route map.
Jenn has a book to commemorate our visits to each park. She has added flags for each of the parks we plan to visit this year, color-coded by state:
The book includes a map with locations of all of the parks; there are a lot on the west side of the country, where we will be all year:
For each park there are some factoids, a sticker to add, and space to write some notes about our experience (and for Yellowstone, Jenn added a Junior Ranger sticker she got from a nice ranger who stopped by our campsite):
Here’s one of the ones we plan to visit this year:
We also have a road atlas book with more national park info and lots of maps:
We generally use our Macs, iPhones, and GPS units for navigating, but it’s useful to have paper-based tools, too.
Follow along as we visit each of the national parks!
[I previously published a variation of this at the end of the 2021 travel post, but thought I’d re-publish it separately and update it, since I know some people missed it after all the stuff in that post.]
We started 2022 in Arizona, and are currently in California (and will shortly head to Disneyland for Jenn’s birthday in February, and to the coast), then will go back to Arizona, including the FMCA convention, then north into Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming to hit more National Parks. Then via Idaho into Oregon to visit doctors and dentists. After that, we’ll head north to Washington, east to Idaho and Montana, then south through Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico (including the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta!), ending up in Texas for next winter, as we slowly make our way across the country.
Places book out months in advance nowadays, so we like to have about six months booked, where possible (or longer, though many popular places only allow six or fewer months). Currently, we already have reservations up till late-July, during the Oregon portion, plus a few busy times later in the year, but the rest of the year is subject to change.
Here’s the current route and stop map for 2022 (updated since the 2021 travel post); starting from the Phoenix area, heading to the coast, then going basically clockwise:
Still a lot more of the country to see, but we’re working our way across, with trips back to Portland each year. The maps for subsequent years will be similar to the 2022 one, but heading north from and ending up further east each time:
I hope you’ll enjoy following our journey!