A timelapse of driving the coach 100 miles from the Desert Hot Springs in California to Orange, also in California (near Anaheim, within the greater Los Angeles region).
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Travel from Desert Hot Springs to Orange, CA
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.
Catalina Spa and RV Resort
One of the first campsite reservations we made when starting this adventure was at Catalina Spa and RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Dates: 2022-01-20 to 2022-02-06 (17 nights).
Weather: sunny, windy several days (gusts up to 40 mph), high temps around averaging 70°F, lows around 50°F.
Noise: from neighboring sites, but no trains or road noise.
Site: back-in, sand, full hookups (50 amp power, water, sewer), small, about 45 feet long by 18 feet wide, with hedges on both side. No table or fire pit. Not really enough room for our truck, but fortunately there was parking behind our site.
Internet: unreliable single-device Wi-Fi; T-Mobile good, AT&T and Verizon okay.
Amenities: mail service, daily garbage pickup, pool, rec room, various outdoor games.
Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:
So much potential, in need of a refurb
We had high hopes for this resort based on reviews and YouTube walk-throughs, but it seems to have gone downhill since then. At its peak, this would have been a fantastic place, but it’s looking a little rough around the edges. The pools and spas could have been spectacular but were kind of average. The temperatures were erratic (for instance: one day, the upper spa was maybe one degree warmer than the pool), and the plaster was starting to look a little shabby. Despite numerous signs that you must rinse before going into the pool, I never saw anyone else doing so. Signs regarding glass containers were similarly ignored, especially in the “family pool,” which was party central in the afternoon. If you’re looking for a nice quiet soak in the hot springs, look elsewhere. It is nice that the pools are open 24/7, but they need to fix the lights around the upper pool. Several streetlights are missing or burnt out, and it was a very dark walk back to the coach after we had a post-dinner swim.
Our site was supposedly an “Elite Plus” site, described as “50 amp service, landscaped dirt/gravel/sandy mix site; may come with a cement slab; full hook-ups, includes wifi & cable, more spacious & private site with a great view maximum size 55′”. Not in a million years would I describe the site as “spacious” or “private” or as having a “great view”. Our 40′ motorhome barely fit from front to back and we had to trim some of the oleander shrubs to make it work. There was no way we could fit our tow vehicle beside it and have any outdoor living space so we parked it around the corner. Even so, we barely had room for our rug and chairs between the coach and the shrubs. Our neighbors were so close we could watch and listen to their TV. When there wasn’t someone in a site across the way we sort of had a glimpse of the distant hills, so I guess that counts as a “view”, but mostly all we could see was our neighbors and their trucks parked all along the roadside. I would knock out about half the interior sites and make them all really long pull-throughs. Considering that the park was never full the entire time we were there (in peak season), it’s not like they’d lose a ton of revenue.
The paid WiFi we got with our site was very slow and continuously disconnected and was only good for one device. In order to do Zoom calls for work, I had to use the 5G connection on my cellphone for reliable service. We camped at Catalina Spa RV Resort in a Motorhome.
Here’s the map:
The satellite view:
Pulling in off the road, a welcome sign and a glimpse of the office:
The entrance security gate (opened via a proximity card):
Horseshoes, cornhole, etc games:
An entertainment / party area:
The lower clubhouse:
They have a mail room, but were getting overwhelmed with packages, so had non-USPS ones available for pickup in the clubhouse:
Looking out the window at the lower pool:
The pools at this resort are fed by mineral hot springs, which is quite pleasant… though the temperature regulation was a bit inconsistent, being warmer or cooler on various days. We enjoyed the pools several times during our stay:
A sign:
Rock art:
Our campsite:
We could almost fit our truck next to our coach, but it would have been a tight squeeze:
Our rug, chairs, and table:
Me sitting underneath the bedroom slide-out for shade:
Jenn:
A view of our campsite from the back:
We couldn’t go back any further, due to a shrub. But there’s a gap behind the shrub leading to an overflow parking area, where we parked our truck:
The hookups were conveniently located, though I couldn’t get a good seal on the sewer, as the screw was mounted too low:
A wander around, looking at other sites:
The upper pool, which we preferred:
Playground:
Pickleball:
Mini golf:
We enjoyed a round:
Cabins:
A pair of ponds:
A pair of ducks; I always enjoy a duck sighting:
A bird visited our site:
A raven made a ruckus in a palm tree behind our site:
The wind here was pretty bad at times, with gusts up to around 40 MPH; we considered bringing in our slide-outs, to protect the toppers, but didn’t; they survived okay:
One last pic of our campsite, after our downhill neighbor left:
An extra step
Another recent purchase, related to the rug tweaks covered yesterday: an extra step, since the front of the coach was higher than usual due to the slope of the ground at the Xscapers Bash:
We won’t need that often, but good to have it when we need it.
A clever idea: bolts to secure our outdoor rug
We have an outdoor rug that we put down when a campsite has gravel, sand, or dirt next to the coach (can’t use it when there’s grass, and no need when concrete). We used to secure it from blowing away with stakes hammered into the ground, which can be tricky with hard surfaces (I’ve bent a few stakes!). But while at the Xscapers Bash, our neighbor demonstrated a cunning idea: using lag bolts and washers, screwed in with a drill driver. Clever!
So I bought a cordless drill (my existing one was corded; less convenient for outdoor use) and some lag bolts and washers. I could get larger washers, but these work fine:
The driver has a suitable bit in a quick-connect, for when I want to use the driver for other things:
A bolt and washer secures the mat at each corner:
Though even that was no match for wind gusts of 30+ MPH:
It wasn’t a failure of the bolts, though: the bolts stayed put… but the rug tabs didn’t remain attached to the rug:
Oops! So we’ll weigh down the rug more when experiencing high winds, and screw the bolts directly through the reinforced corners of the rug:
Jack pads
A recent addition to our RV is a set of high quality jack pads — heavy duty pads to go under the hydraulic leveling jacks, to provide better support on soft ground like dirt, or protect more fragile surfaces like asphalt from the weight of the jacks.
Here are the pads under the back jacks:
And the front jacks (yes, those jacks are smaller):
Peeking behind a front wheel, you can see the whole jack mechanism:
While there, a bonus pic of part of our 150 gallon diesel fuel tank, which can be filled from both sides:
And a front air bag, which acts as suspension while driving, and can be used as alternative to hydraulic leveling for short stays:
A couple of jack pads after removing them:
I store two on each side of a basement compartment, for easy access when setting up at a campsite. I don’t need them when on a concrete pad, and not so much on gravel, but on sand, dirt, grass, or asphalt, they are a useful addition.
A perhaps better (certainly more convenient) option for jack pads are permanently attached ones, like SnapPads, but unfortunately they are not compatible with our coach, as there isn’t enough clearance between the back tires and the jack when it is up in travel position.
States map
A fun tradition for many RVers is to display a map of the places they’ve been on the side of their RV. We’ve had such a map for a while, but finally got around to installing it. (You may have spotted it in some of the Xscapers posts; I actually wrote this post before the bash, but pushed it out for more timely topics.)
We mounted it on the side of our front slide out, next to the entry door. A fairly common location.
The map consists of a self-adhesive base map of the United States, plus corresponding stickers to add on top as each state is visited. Our rule is for it to count, we need to camp at least one night in the state.
Here’s me adding the base map, trying to avoid bubbles:
The base map:
Adding state stickers for the places we’ve been since buying the coach:
So far we’ve been to Washington, Oregon, California, and Arizona in our coach. Plus we decided to include the Yellowstone trip, since we were camping in a rental travel trailer while our coach sat at home (only because our coach wouldn’t fit in Yellowstone National Park). So that adds Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming (we’ll visit them again in our coach in a few months time anyway):
A view of our coach and map from further back:
As mentioned in the 2021 travel post a few weeks ago, in 2022 we plan to add Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas to that map. It’ll be years before we visit every state. Alaska and Hawaii will be particularly tricky; Alaska we can reach via Canada, but we’ll have to fly to Hawaii — we have been there in the past, but won’t count it until we visit again… and may have to rent an RV there if we want to be strict with our self-imposed rules.
Video: timelapse of coach driving from Buckeye, AZ to Desert Hot Springs, CA
A timelapse of driving the coach 22 miles from Buckeye, Arizona to NIRVC in Phoenix, Arizona, then 262 miles from there to Desert Hot Springs, California, with a stop at Love’s for fuel and a couple of rest stops. See if you can spot when the dashcam fell off the windscreen!
Travel from Phoenix, AZ to Desert Hot Springs, CA
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.
Coach to NIRVC and a second stay in an Airbnb apartment
We had an appointment with the National Indoor RV Center in Phoenix, Arizona to fix the driver chair issue, a slide-out glide issue, and a bunch of other stuff. So we drove the short 22 miles (half an hour) from the nearby Buckeye campground to NIRVC to drop off the coach. Here’s the route (going left to right):
The colorful front of the NIRVC building:
In the reception area:
The waiting room:
We had the option of sleeping in our coach on-site (with a power hookup), and hanging out in that waiting room while it was being worked on, but that wouldn’t really work with a cat, and we’d be more comfortable staying somewhere else.
So again, we rented an Airbnb apartment; see that listing for more information. Here are a few pictures:
The carport was a bit tight for our truck. The apartment was upstairs:
Pool, grill, table:
Pool (we didn’t use it, but it seemed popular):
We’ve recently booked a third Airbnb for another visit to NIRVC in March, to (hopefully) finish off the items on the list.