A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 169 miles from Death Valley, California to Yermo, California.
Author: David
Travel from Death Valley to Yermo, California
We drove our coach 169 miles, about three hours of driving, from Death Valley, California to Yermo, California.
Here’s the map route, heading south:
Interactive map, showing our stops:
Leaving the campground:
Leaving Death Valley:
Paladin sleeping:
Paladin in an unapproved place; he was freaking out a bit; sometimes he forgets about travel days:
“Thanks for Experiencing Your National Park”:
Bumpy road:
Motorcycles:
The sign could use a refresh:
A roadside stop for a break:
Interesting hills:
A straight road; using a high zoom really emphasizes the bumps:
Lunch stop in Baker, with a nice big truck/RV parking area; always appreciated:
The World’s Tallest Thermometer:
We had lunch at the Mad Greek Cafe:
The Thermometer again:
EddieWorld, apparently California’s largest gas station (looks pretty small compared to Buc-ees in Texas, but we haven’t actually visited either):
Ghost Town Road:
Our destination:
Ceiling fan motor replacement again
Last year I replaced the motor in the bedroom ceiling fan. Well, it started squeaking again, so I replaced it a second time. I guess this will be a regular thing.
My previous post on this replacement missed a few steps, so I took more pictures this time, so others can use it as a step-by-step guide.
The first step, of course, is to order the replacement motor from the Tiffin Parts Store. It is part number 5011771, “CEILING FAN MOTOR ONLY”, currently about $89 plus shipping. You’ll also need some connectors; I previously used wire nuts, but have since discovered a better technology, Wago lever connectors, available from Amazon.
Here’s the ceiling fan:
To begin, unscrew this nut:
Then remove this retaining clip and washer (which was one of the most difficult parts of the process for me), allowing the fan blades to drop off:
The removed nut, retaining clip, and washer:
Next unscrew the three screws near the ceiling to remove the housing:
With the cover removed, you can cut the wires from the motor (leaving them as long as possible), you don’t need to cut the wires coming from the ceiling, as they go to the direction switch on the cover. In my case, I had orange wire nuts from the previous replacement, so I just undid those.
Then unscrew the motor from the ceiling; remove three screws, plus loosen the fourth for the retaining wire:
The motor removed:
The retaining wire from the motor can then be attached to the ceiling, holding it up there, and the electrical wires connected.
As mentioned, this time I used Wago lever connectors to hook up the motor; they are much easier and more reliable; you just lift the lever, poke in the wire, and close the lever to secure the wire. Here you can see the white wires connected, and one black wire connected, with the lever open for the second one:
Once the wires are connected, the motor can be mounted to the ceiling. Like last time, I used a couple of washers to space it away from the ceiling to line up the cover holes correctly:
Another angle showing the Wago connectors:
Then screw the cover back into place:
Add the blades, the washer, and the retaining clip:
And finally the nut:
Done! Pretty easy. I’ll look forward to doing this again in about a year!
Modification Mondays, Travel Tuesdays, Whereabouts Wednesdays, To and Fro Thursdays and Fridays
Looking at the blog posts I have scheduled for the coming weeks and months (!), I’ve decided to bring a little more uniformity to the posting schedule.
So starting next week, you can look forward to regular features on each day:
- Modification Mondays: where I post about some improvement I did to our coach, e.g. this coming Monday will be documenting replacing the bedroom ceiling fan motor (again). These will continue to be organized in the blog category
modifications. - Travel Tuesdays: a post with photos from our travel day, followed by the YouTube timelapse video. Blog category
travel. - Whereabouts Wednesdays: a post reviewing the RV park where we stayed. Blog category
campsite. - To and Fro Thursdays and Fridays: posts about things we did while staying there; parks, food, and other attractions. Blog category
exploring. - If I need more than two days of posts for our activities, they’ll continue into the weekend, but not beyond.
I’ve edited my upcoming posts to follow this schedule. We’ll see how this goes, but I like more predictability in my posts, and hopefully you’ll enjoy knowing what kinds of things to expect. If you only care about RV modifications, you can just read Monday’s posts and ignore the others, and conversely if you only care about things we do and see, Thursdays onwards are for you. You can even filter the blog via the modifications, travel, campsite, and exploring categories, amongst others. (If you’re reading this on the Sinclair Trails site, see the sidebar via the hamburger menu for a complete list.)
Death Valley Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and Stovepipe Wells
We took a short hike in the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley.
On the road:
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, another Star Wars filming location, where R2-D2 and C-3PO were lost in the Tatooine desert in A New Hope:
Heading to the Father Crowley overlook:
Stovepipe Wells:
Interesting lighting:
Death Valley Badwater Basin hike
Badwater Basin is a salt flat in the lowest point in North America, at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level.
A sign high on the cliff indicating sea level:
An info sign listing the lowest places on Earth:
But it’s a dry heat…:
Boardwalk and path:
282 feet below sea level:
Path to the salt flat:
Selfie:
Beard attack:
Death Valley Star Wars locations driving tour
Death Valley contains several filming locations for the Star Wars movies (episodes IV and VI).
Death Valley is the driest national park… so of course it was rainy:
Twenty-mule Team Canyon, where R2-D2 and C-3PO traveled to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi:
Dantes View, where Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker looked down on Mos Eisley, the Tatooine spaceport, in A New Hope:
A little foggy:
Very hidden:
A break in the clouds:
Artists Palette, the backdrop for R2-D2’s journey through the desert canyon right before Jawas captured him:
Desolation Canyon, where the Tuscan Raiders attacked in A New Hope:
Where I have been
Lots of people on Micro.blog have been posting lists of places they’ve been, so I thought I’d join the fun.
Despite living full-time in a motorhome, I actually haven’t been all that many places yet. But we’re working on it.
My list, with emojis inspired by Jean’s much more impressive list:
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇨🇦 Canada:
- 🇬🇧 British Columbia
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇺🇸 United States:
- 🏜️ Arizona
- 🏄♂️ California
- 🏔️ Colorado
- 🏛️ DC
- ☀️ Florida
- 🥜 Georgia
- 🌈 Hawaii
- 🥔 Idaho
- 🎣 Montana
- 🎰 Nevada
- 🌶️ New Mexico
- 🗽 New York
- 🦫 Oregon
- ⭐️ Texas
- 🏝️ US Virgin Islands
- 🐝 Utah
- 🌲 Washington
- 🤠 Wyoming
We have a map on our coach for places we’ve visited since buying it, which is a shorter list — Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas:
We’ll pick up 10 more states later this year — North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida (I’ve been to Florida before, but not in the coach):
How we work full-time in our coach
While traveling around the US in our motorhome, we are continuing to work — we are still over a decade away from retirement age.
This has some challenges, but our jobs make it feasible, since we can both work remotely. I am a self-employed macOS and iOS app developer (Dejal), and Jenn is a technical writer for a big corporation that has a lot of remote employees — something that is more and more popular nowadays, especially since the pandemic.
I recently wrote about our workspaces. My lap desk:
And Jenn’s height-adjustable desk:
Another critical component in our ability to work as we travel is internet connectivity. We couldn’t do our work without reliable internet access; I need it to upload app builds, look up documentation, and communicate with my clients and customers; Jenn needs it to attend meetings and update her documents.
Since it is so important, we have as many options as possible. Including T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon cellular connections, two AT&T iPhones (that we can tether to if nothing else works), plus Jenn has an iPhone on Verizon from her job, and we have Starlink satellite internet for when there’s no cellular coverage. And if all else fails, we can connect to campground Wi-Fi, which can be a bit hit-or-miss in quality and availability.
The somewhat messy internet cupboard, with a modem for AT&T and Verizon, mi-fi unit for T-Mobile, and other devices:
The Starlink dish:
When choosing RV parks, we always look at reviews and information to ensure there is internet connectivity; the Starlink dish gives us more options, but if we ended up in a cellular dead spot with too many trees blocking the dish and no Wi-Fi, we’d have to move.
Other than our workstations and internet, we just need the time to work. So we plan our travel days around that; we typically move between RV parks on Sundays, so travel days don’t interfere with Jenn’s workdays, and stay at each location for a week or two, working during the week, and exploring on weekends, and sometimes locally in evenings.
This works well for us, enabling us to continue to work while slowly exploring the country.
