A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 46 miles across LA from Long Beach to Northridge.
Author: David
Travel from Long Beach to Northridge, California
We drove our coach just 46 miles, about an hour of driving across LA, from Long Beach to Northridge, California, to store it for our NZ trip.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map, with the drive to airport parking included:
Heading out of the RV park:
Heading to I-710:
The Los Angeles River, full of water this close to the coast (it’s usually mostly dry farther up):
Joining I-405 North:
The Goodyear blimp coming in for a landing:
Downhill:
Exit to Tampa Ave:
Arriving at Walnut RV Park:
Where we stored our coach for our NZ trip:
Magne Shades on windows, shades down, tire covers on, slides in, steps in, jacks up; fridge empty, off, and open; washer, dryer, and dishwasher open; inverter off, chassis and house batteries disengaged. All asleep for a month.
Stay tuned for posts about our New Zealand trip, starting next week!
Club Cat boarding
In preparation for our big trip to New Zealand (blog posts coming up), we booked Paladin in a cattery in Los Angeles called Club Cat.
We took him there the day before we stored the coach, along with his food, cat bed, and carrier:
The Club Cat foyer:
His suite had a view box above the door, and platforms inside:
They also offered a web cam where we could watch him whenever we liked:
Plus they emailed “postcards” about every other day, with a cute message “from” him and a few photos, as shown in this post.
They have a large playroom with a bunch of toys, but he didn’t like that, perhaps because it was too open; he’s used to smaller spaces:
He kept asking to go back to his room:
So after trying the playroom a few times, we switched to fur therapies using a glove:
He really enjoyed that:
They were amused by his happy drool:
He got lots of pats and attention too:
Other than his dislike of the playroom, he seemed to enjoy his stay, and was well taken care of. But he was happy to see us when we picked him up after our trip, and happy to be home again.
We’d be happy to board him there again.
RV maintenance
I thought it might be helpful for other RV owners to write up a list of RV maintenance tasks, grouped by frequency. Of course, these are for our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome; other RVs may have different requirements, and may not have some features like water softener, dishwasher, etc. But most items would apply to any RV. If I missed anything, or you have any corrections or other comments, please let me know!
- Weekly:
- Test water hardness; regenerate the water softener with salt if needed (and if you have one).
- Monthly:
- Run the generator under load (e.g. with ACs running) for an hour; good for a travel day.
- Empty air tank drain valves.
- Clean dishwasher rim and filter.
- Spray electrical cord contacts with DeoxIT.
- Wash coach exterior with Wash Wax All or similar.
- 3-Monthly:
- Backflush water softener.
- Replace house and fridge water filters; I have 3-stage filters plus the built-in one and fridge filter.
- Lubricate window slides with Plexus.
- Lubricate entry door hinges with silicone lube.
- Invert fire extinguisher and shake to loosen dry chemicals.
- Remove shower drain cover and in sink to remove hair.
- Check Aqua-Hot antifreeze level; should be at HOT level just after shutting off; top up if needed.
- 6-Monthly:
- Replace ceiling AC filters (two different types).
- Sanitize fresh water tank.
- Vacuum dust under fridge; a couple of screws and clips to remove panel under front of fridge.
- Clean dryer vent from outside.
- Polish wheel rims with Purple Polish.
- Apply 303 Protectant to tires.
- Yearly:
- Replace dash AC filter. Accessed via generator compartment on rear wall.
- Make sure emergency exit in bedroom opens easily.
- Get waste tanks professionally cleaned.
- Get roof seams and joints inspected at service center.
- Get engine, generator, chassis lube, slide-outs, and Aqua-Hot serviced.
I hope this is helpful, Let me know of any updates!
Disney California Adventure halloween
After Disneyland, we crossed over to Disney California Adventure with Halloween decorations.
We hadn’t done the Bakery Tour before, so did it this time:
We also noticed a NPS-style Ornament Valley sign we hadn’t seen before:
Grizzly Peak:
Waterfall:
Watching people on the Grizzy Peak ride:
Halloween decorations:
We went to Magic Key Terrace for dinner:
Cars Land neon:
Disneyland halloween
We visited Disneyland with Halloween and 70th anniversary celebration decorations.
Train station:
Marching band:
Daisy Duck:
Trolly:
Goofy:
A selfie in front of the castle:
We did the Pirates ride:
Lunch:
Jungle Cruise ride:
Falcon:
Chewy:
Castle:
Jenn’s teacup giggles:
Fire engine:
Disneyland had an “interactive park experience” called “Key to Disneyland”, where you buy a big plastic key, go around several locations in the park, and stick the key into keyholes, to unlock lights on the key, and ultimately unlock a secret compartment on the key, with a special collectable pin inside. Jenn loves collecting things, so was keen to do it:
The unlocked special pin:
Disneyland 70th anniversary:
Golden Shore RV Resort
We stayed at Golden Shore RV Resort in Long Beach, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A fairly convenient location in the greater Los Angeles metro area.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-11-01
- Check out: 2025-11-06
- 5 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps 70-73°F, lows 55-57°F
- Little wind, gusts to 13 MPH
Noise:
- Nearby road noise
- No train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise
- Nearish container terminal noise
Site:
- #68, back-in, sand
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Level site; used hydraulic leveling
- Sand driveway about 42 feet long by 22 feet wide
- 9 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Trees between sites
- Picnic table
- A few tall trees
- Clean site
- Elevation 10 feet, front facing SW
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, very conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, very conveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 65-110 Mbps down, 15-25 Mbps up, 25-45 ms ping
- RoamLink: 30-40 Mbps down, 20-25 Mbps up, 100 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 350-315 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up, 22 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
- Package delivery to a table outside the office
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Green space behind our site:
We had originally booked this site, near the pool, but they moved us to a different site (as above) due to a fire around the bathrooms. We wouldn’t have enjoyed this site anyway, being closer to the road, and less private:
Other sites:
Pool:
Office:
Entrance gate:
Nearby water:
The nearby Long Beach container terminal had a lot of noise and light:
Not the quietest park, but not bad for in the LA / Long Beach area. We’d stay here again.
Video: Bakersfield to Long Beach, California motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 129 miles from Bakersfield to Long Beach, California.
Travel from Bakersfield to Long Beach, California
We drove our coach 129 miles, about three hours of driving, from Bakersfield to Long Beach, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Leaving the KOA:
Always nice to see a Dutch Bros:
CA-99 freeway entrance:
Very California: bare hills, big pipes, grapes, and a pump jack:
Truck bypass:
The Petro was a fuel stop option, but we didn’t need it:
I’m sure there are hills up there somewhere:
Ah, there they are:
Rest area:
Watch out birbs!
A dump station at the rest area:
Tejon Pass, elevation 4144 feet:
Lake Hughes:
Downhill:
Truck bypass:
Exit to Santa Monica:
Playing Weezer’s Beverly Hills when approaching Beverly Hills:
Playing Everclear’s Santa Monica in Santa Monica’s unclear traffic:
Exit to Long Beach:
Los Angeles River, actually with water in it near the coast:
Long Beach:
Arriving at Golden Shore RV Resort:
Driving to our site:
Our site:
Magnum inverter reset
Our coach has an inverter, which is a device to convert battery power into 110 volt electricity. It also manages charging the battery from the campground pedestal power.
One day the Magnum inverter panel in our coach reported an “Unknown Fault”:
The fault and voltage display kept changing, with garbage values:
Time to apply an old computer maxim: “when in doubt, reboot.” I looked up the instructions on how to reboot the inverter, in its manual under “Performing an Inverter Reset”:
Here’s the Magnum inverter unit in the basement; in our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome it is mounted on the ceiling of the frontmost main storage compartment, on the driver side:
So I just needed to turn off the power at the pedestal, then hold down the button (below the green light in that photo) for 15 seconds. That did the trick.