We took a scenic drive from Phoenix to Watson Lake in Arizona.
An interactive map of our route:
Park features sign:
We had a picnic lunch with a lake view:
Interesting rocks and the lake:
Lake map:
We do enjoy interesting rocks!
map
Maps of travel routes and campgrounds.
Encore Paradise RV Resort
We stayed at Encore Paradise RV Resort in Sun City, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice 55+ community in the Phoenix area, where we spent three months; our longest stay to date. It was ostensibly winter, but had record unseasonal temperatures reaching 105° F!
Dates:
- Check in: 2026-01-01
- Check out: 2026-03-31
- 89 nights
Weather:
- Partly sunny
- High temps 55-105°F, lows 38-69°F
- Negligible wind, occasional gusts to 25 MPH
Noise:
- Little road noise
- Very distant train horn noise
- Little neighbor noise
- Frequent fighter jet noise weekdays (in flight path for Air Force base)
Site:
- #832, back-in, sandy gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Somewhat level site; low slope in front; used hydraulic leveling
- Sandy gravel driveway about 45 feet long by 18 feet wide
- Total site 55 feet deep by 45 feet wide
- Just gravel between site on passenger side
- Carport on driver side
- 24 by 8 feet concrete patio
- No trees
- Clean site
- Elevation 1210 feet, front facing south
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 105-125 Mbps down, 25-35 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- RoamLink: 21-23 Mbps down, 4-8 Mbps up, 88 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 580-620 Mbps down, 13-17 Mbps up, 35-42 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
- Cafe (breakfast and lunch, Tuesday to Saturday)
- Lots of activities
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Since we were there for three months, we set up all the things:
Including making pizza:
Record heat:
A nice thing about this place is that Amazon, UPS, and FedEx delivers directly to the site:
For USPS, they have mailboxes:
They also have a small on-site cafe (that is open to the public, though I doubt many outsiders patronize it); we thought we’d eat there regularly, but actually only went once — not because it was bad, we just never really felt like it (if they had been open for dinner, we might have gone there more):
Cafe menu:
Lots of activities:
A popular pool (that we didn’t use; we’re not really into pools):
RV arrival area:
Water feature at the front of the park:
A nice pond and fountains:
I added a Pokemon Pokestop for that, and the front water features:
Lawn bowls:
Pickleball:
And more:
Garbage:
Recycling:
Propane fill:
The park is split into two parts, the pet area (where people can have dogs) and the non-pet area (where they can’t); we were in the non-pet area, as an indoor-only cat doesn’t count as a “pet” (fair enough; he’s in charge, and we’re his staff):
“Stop; it does matter”:
Free fruit:
Other sites; the vast majority of the community are park models:
Aerial views of our site (a couple of days before departing, after packing up our stuff) and other sites:
Quite a nice community. We’d stay here again. The jets were somewhat annoying, but we got used to them after a while.
Travel from Palm Desert, California to Sun City, Arizona
We drove our coach 252 miles, about four hours of driving, from Palm Desert, California to Sun City, Arizona.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Entering I-10 East:
We got a little bit of fuel at California prices:
Back onto I-10 East:
Foggy:
Rest area closed:
Another rest area:
Interesting homebrew van:
Paladin in a box:
Arizona state line, and also Mountain time zone:
Welcome to Arizona:
Arizona Centenial:
Airstream trailer:
Interesting mountains:
Westbound freeway closed for hours due to accident:
Another fuel stop to top up, since we’ll be in one place for three months:
Filling diesel:
Filling DEF:
Exit to AZ-303 North:
Overpass:
Exit to Bell Road:
Arriving at Paradise RV Resort:
Registration parking, where we filled in the paperwork and untoaded:
Guided to our site:
Galleta Meadows Estate sculptures
We visited the Galleta Meadows Estate sculptures, large metal artworks of various animals (and a Jeep) around Borrego Springs, California.
Our approximate route from the campground:
We first went to the Montezuma Valley Road Lookout for a picnic lunch overlooking the valley:
Then back down the hill and explored the sculptures, which are scattered around outside town. Most you can drive right up to, but some you need to walk a short distance.
Joshua Tree Hidden Valley Nature Trail hike
We enjoyed a stroll around the Hidden Valley Nature Trail in Joshua Tree National Park.
A new entrance station from the last time we visited; further along the road to avoid blocking roads outside the park, and more capacity for busy times:
Hidden Valley Nature Trail:
We had dinner at the adjacent Hidden Valley picnic area:
Thousand Trails Palm Springs
We stayed at Thousand Trails Palm Springs in Palm Desert, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our fourth stay here. Like all other Thousand Trails campgrounds, they have switched to assigned sites, which is more of a challenge here, since many sites are tricky to squeeze into, with palm trees and sewer ports in random places.
This campground is split into two: the left side (from the front) is 30 amp pull-through sites, and the right side is 50 amp back-in sites.
We were initially assigned a pull-through site on the 30 amp side of the park, but the gate agent assured us it had 50 amp. Of course, once we got there and tested it, it did not. So we contacted them and asked for another site, and were eventually assigned a back-in site on the 50 amp side, which wasn’t too hard to get into (for TTPS anyway).
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-12-14
- Check out: 2026-01-01
- 18 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps 69-80°F, lows 55-60°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 9 MPH
Noise:
- Some freeway road noise
- Some train noise, but no horns most of the time
- A little neighbor noise
Site:
- #339, back-in, sand
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat level site; high in back; used hydraulic leveling
- Sand site about 65 feet long by 26 feet wide
- Just sand between sites
- Picnic table
- Tall palm trees
- Somewhat clean site
- Elevation 120 feet, front facing NE
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, fairly conveniently located behind site
- 60 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located behind site
- Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 95-190 Mbps down, 25-30 Mbps up, 39-40 ms ping
- RoamLink: 35-52 Mbps down, 40-52 Mbps up, 95 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
- AT&T: 600-670 Mbps down, 46 Mbps up, 25 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
- Campground Wi-Fi: paid; not used
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
See our previous reviews on Campground Reviews.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
The site we were initially assigned: “No 50 amp!”, which my tester confirmed:
Other sites:
Holiday lights:
See posts of our previous stays for more pictures. We’d be happy to come back here again.
Travel from Orange to Palm Desert, California
We drove our coach 103 miles, about two hours of driving, from Orange to Palm Desert, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Leaving our site; it was a bit tight, so we backed out, which meant we were facing the wrong way:
Toading facing the wrong way; I walked around the corner to make sure the coast was clear before we headed out:
CA-57:
Entering CA-55 North:
CA-91:
“100 Years of Freedom”:
Interesting hills:
Overpasses:
Exit to Indio:
Snowcapped mountains:
Uphill:
Rest area:
Wind turbines:
Exit to Washington Street:
Hills:
Arriving at TTPS:
We were assigned a site that didn’t have 50 amp power, despite the gate agent assuring us that it did:
Then we got a new site assignment, and moved to a site that actually has usable power:
Actually getting into our site was a bit of a challenge, as it always is at TTPS (due to all the palm trees and other obstacles), but we managed it without too much difficulty.
Orangeland RV Park
We stayed at Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our fourth stay here; our favorite place to stay somewhat near Disneyland.
Dates:
- Check in: 2025-12-07
- Check out: 2025-12-14
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps 69-82°F, lows 49-55°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 11 MPH
Noise:
- Some road noise
- No train horn noise
- Some neighbor noise
Site:
- #96, pull-through, asphalt
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by 14 feet wide
- 20 feet to road on passenger side
- 9 feet to neighbor on driver side
- Fence between sites
- Patio table and chairs on asphalt patio
- An orange tree
- Clean site
- Elevation 170 feet, front facing SE
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 90 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 118-161 Mbps down, 11-24 Mbps up, 29-39 ms ping
- Campground Wi-Fi: 10 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 15 ms ping
- RoamLink: 8-24 Mbps down, 20-24 Mbps up, 95 ms ping
- AT&T: 113-125 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 29-45 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Amenities:
- Garbage pickup from site
- Pool
- Package delivery to office
- Just a few miles from Disneyland
See our previous reviews on Campground Reviews.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
I forgot to take photos of our site, but it was the same site we stayed in back in 2023, so here are pictures from back then:
Still a nice RV park. We’ve already booked another stay here.
Travel from Northridge to Orange, California
We drove our coach just 59 miles, about an hour of driving, from Northridge to Orange, California. Picking our coach up from storage.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map, with the drive from the airport parking included:
Leaving Walnut RV Park, where we stored our coach during our NZ trip:
Entering I-5 South:
LA traffic:
A pickup carrying half a car:
Sunset:
Katella Ave exit:
Arriving at Orangeland RV Park after sunset; later than we usually like to arrive, but we’ve been here several times before:
NZ: returning van; Christchurch exploring
We traveled from our last campsite to return the rental van, then got dropped off at a hotel in downtown Christchurch, and did some touring around the central city.
Here’s an interactive map of our route, with the stops marked:
A pile of things to donate to Red Cross:
A pile of our luggage:
McRent Christchurch:
Other campers:
Our van:
No problems dropping off the van (unlike a German family that returned their camper at the same time as us, that had thousands of dollars of damage!). McRent arranged an Uber to our downtown hotel for the night, Distinction:
Hotel room:
We went to the Tramway Cafe for lunch:
We did a city tour tram ride:
Tram route:
A must-do in Christchurch — punting on the Avon:
A brief walk through part of Christchurch Botanic Gardens:
Then more walking around looking at Christchurch buildings:
And back on the tram:
Coffee and a slice:
Christ Church Cathedral reconstruction; it was significantly damaged in several earthquakes:
More buildings and art:
A very nice city.