We departed the Thousand Trails in Palm Desert, California, and headed to Buckeye, Arizona.

Here’s the route map (left to right); 228 miles, a 4 hour drive in our coach:

I picked up Paladin; he looked mildly freaked out by the view out the windshield:

A slow crawl uphill through a pass:

We stopped at a rest stop for lunch:

We had a prefab meal for lunch; Jenn called it Lunchables for adults:

Back on the I-10 freeway:

Paladin snuck behind the driver seat and by Jenn’s feet, which is risky, so I made a barrier:

Date palms:

While on a freeway I use the iExit app to find upcoming rest areas. Here’s a screenshot of it while approaching the California/Arizona border, and the first rest area after the border:

About to cross into Arizona (again):

Welcome to Arizona:

We stopped at that rest area:

Continuing through some hills:

Interesting mountains in the distance:

Cacti:

Once again, Paladin settled down in the safe space next to my chair:

Another rest area exit; it’s good to take a break every hour or so on a long drive; we also stopped here to call our next destination:

Leaving the rest area (yes, we park with the big rigs):

Oh joy, road works:

Our final exit for this trip:

As always, the timelapse video of this trip will be coming tomorrow. Enjoy!

We departed Ocean Mesa RV Resort near Santa Barbara, California, and headed to a one-night pitstop at Rancho Jurupa Park.

Here’s the route map (left to right); 168 miles, a four hour drive in our coach:

Heading onto 101 south:

Paladin says “oh no, not again”:

He settled down in what is becoming a favorite safe space, next to my chair. He likes to be near us, but in a small space that can make him feel more secure:

There was quite a lot of road works; narrow lanes with barriers near the line can be nervous-making when one has a 101-inch wide coach that takes most of the lane:

Freeway driving:

Goodbye coast; not sure when we’ll see you next:

I was amused by the Telephone Road name:

There weren’t any rest stops on the route, so I prepared sandwiches and chips for lunch, so Jenn could eat while driving:

Up a steep hill:

The road name Mulholland Drive sounded familiar:

In California it is legal for motorcycles do lane splitting, i.e. riding along the line between lanes. Seems rather dangerous to me, though apparently some people think it is safer. Regardless, lane splitting next to our wide coach is a bad idea, but many did it (but not this example):

We also don’t like it when a travel trailer gets very close to us; that’s worse than a big rig, as TT drivers often aren’t as familiar with the width of their trailer, and they tend to sway quite a bit:

Heavy traffic:

Glendale city (part of greater LA):

Freeway sign:

Freeway bridge:

While driving, we had a Check Engine light come on, and the Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) gauge jumped from halfway to full. A lot of people have been having issues with the DEF sensors, so we had a fun new thing to be concerned about:

We decided to stop for diesel and DEF, to see if that’d help (our first time at a Flying J truck stop; we’d only done Love’s before this):

But after that, we had a Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL) instead (the red one is the brake):

Concerning. Stay tuned for more on this story in a few days.

Back on the road, we noticed an elephant sculpture on a hillside:

Driving through Jurupa Valley towards our stop for the night:

Tomorrow, the usual timelapse video. Do you watch them? Are you enjoying them? Let me know!

We departed Catalina Spa and RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs, California, and headed to a couple of weeks at Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California — conveniently located about 10 minutes from Disneyland. Yep, we spent five days at the Disneyland and Disney California Adventure parks! You can bet there will be posts about those coming up soon.

Here’s the route map (right to left); 100 miles, about three hours drive in our coach. A non-stop drive, since California apparently doesn’t believe in rest areas (or road maintenance):

Paladin started on top of the kitchen counter; he complained a few times, but was quiet for most of the journey:

As always, Jenn drove our coach. She prefers to drive, and doesn’t enjoy being a passenger, and I feel the opposite, so that works out best for both of us:

It’s much more common for men to drive RVs than women, so people are sometimes surprised when they learn she is the driver. She’s a member of a Tiffin Lady Drivers Facebook group (with 824 members), for female drivers of Tiffin motorhomes.

The onramp to the I-10 freeway, with a snow-tipped mountain and wind turbines in the background:

Paladin used his top-entry litter box while in transit:

One area attraction we didn’t get to, but will in the future, are some big dinosaurs:

I have a phone holder to help me keep an eye on one of the RV-safe GPS apps; I have it mounted via a suction cup to a plate on the pull-out desk for the passenger chair (on which rests one of Paladin’s cardboard nests):

The shortest route, via CA-60, was closed for repairs, so we continued on I-10:

More freeway scenes:

Nearing our destination:

The entrance of Orangeland RV Park:

After unhooking our truck, I drove it following our coach to our site:

As usual, I’ll have a post about our experiences at this RV park after we’ve left it. And a timelapse video of the trip tomorrow. I still need more subscribers to the Sinclair Trails channel, so if you haven’t yet, please do so.

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.