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:

Our coach at NIRVC:

Heading west out of Phoenix:

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

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:

Lots of trucks on the freeway:

Funky mountains:

Goodbye cacti; fewer and fewer as we head west:

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:

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:

More of Paladin:

Back on the road, crossing into California:

A stop at the agricultural 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:

Heading down the freeway:

Paladin looking relaxed at a rest stop:

Downhill:

The overpass bridges around the desert cities have nice decorations:

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

The highway nearing our destination:

A cell tower nicely disguised as a palm tree:

Our destination for 17 days: 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.