RV

Posts featuring the coach.

Travel from Indio, CA to Gila Bend, AZ

We departed Indio, California and headed to Gila Bend, Arizona. Another new state in our RV journey (we’ve been there before, but not driving).

Here’s the map route; 252 miles, a four or so hour drive in our coach. (That marker in the middle is where we’ll be spending the holidays.)

Map route

The first step for a travel day is to load up the truck bed with the outdoor stuff; it’s quite full, with chairs, rug, griddle, fire pit, propane tank, cleaning equipment, and other stuff. But great to have that extra storage:

Truck bed

Hills and part of the Colorado River aquaduct:

Hills and aquaduct

Paladin:

Paladin

Paladin

Being passed by another RV:

RV

Date palm trees:

Date palm trees

Arizona state line sign:

Arizona state line

Welcome to Arizona sign:

Welcome to Arizona

Arizona centennial sign:

Arizona centennial

Quartzsite and Phoenix sign:

Quartzsite

One of the first sightings of cacti:

Cactus

Love’s fuel stop:

Love's fuel

Yes, that top number is dollars; $295 for almost 69 gallons of diesel (nice)… less than half our tank capacity (150 gallons). Though we get a discount off that via our fuel card:

Love's fuel

Desert:

Desert

Paladin:

Paladin

Sitting in his box on the counter:

Paladin

More cacti:

Cactus

Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse dashcam video (with music!).

Toilet flush switch replacement

Our coach has two toilets; an electric gravity toilet in the mid bath (that spins a ball to dump straight down into the black tank), and an electric macerating toilet in the rear bath (that uses a bunch of water to pump the waste forward to the black tank).

The mid-bath toilet has a lever on the side of the toilet: pull up to add some water (to help flush solids), and push down to flush.

However, while adding water worked fine, flushing became unreliable. Sometimes it’d work immediately, sometimes one would have to hold the lever down for several seconds.

I researched the unit, and determined that the flush switch was likely the fault. So I ordered a replacement.

Here’s the switch behind the toilet, after I pulled the insulating covers away from the pins. This switch is toggled upwards to flush by the rotation of the lever, or downwards to add water:

Toilet switch

The aforementioned lever:

Lever

I pulled the wires off the pins of the old switch, and tried connecting to the replacement switch (hanging down); it worked perfectly:

Trying replacement switch

I wore my headlamp to see behind the toilet:

David with headlamp

Having determined that the new switch worked, I worked on removing the old switch. It was mounted to the porcelain toilet with three screws under the handle:

Under handle

Getting those screws out and back in again was the hardest thing, since the toilet was so close to the wall. I tried my drill with an angle bit, but it was too close for that, too:

Drill with angle bit

I managed it by unscrewing the hard way — holding a screw bit in pliers, for leverage:

Unscrewing the hard way

Unscrewing the hard way

(I need to get a short screwdriver!)

Another look at the switch:

Testing new switch

Replaced the handle; it works!

Replaced handle

An assortment of tools for this repair:

Tools

It was very satisfying to fix this. Things break in even the best RVs; they’re an earthquake on wheels. Over time I’m sure I’ll build up new skills in repairing and modifying things, just like I did in the homestead. Just a new set of skills.

Shadow Hills RV Resort

Our last stop in California before heading into Arizona for the rest of the year, Shadow Hills RV Resort in Indio, down the road from Palm Springs:

Shadow Hills RV Resort info

Resort map:

Shadow Hills RV Resort map

Our campsite, before Jenn brought the coach over; it’s a back-in site, with another coach backed in behind. A fairly common style, and not too bad, since the back of the other coach is effectively a privacy wall. Plus these sites have nice large hedges:

Campsite

Our truck and coach in the site:

Campsite

Jenn in the campsite. We also just bought a propane fire pit (just in time to head into even hotter weather), and cushions for our zero gravity chairs:

Jenn in campsite

The office:

Office

While doing my traditional walk around the resort, I spotted a hot air balloon off in the distance:

Hot air balloon

Hot air balloon

This resort has a couple of ponds, with ducks in one; it always makes me happy to see ducks:

Ducks in a pond

Ducks in a pond

Hills in the background, a pond in the foreground, and a glimpse of our coach in the middle:

Hills, our coach, pond

Two ponds:

Two ponds

Pond

Seating areas:

Seating areas

More pond angles:

Pond

Pond

Stream and bridge:

Stream and bridge

Ducks and pond:

Ducks and pond

Bees! We were amused by this sign:

Bees!

Pond and Airstream trailers, available for rent:

Pond and Airstream trailers

Airstream trailers

A cabin, also available for rent:

Cabin

Pool area, that’s actually open:

Pool area

Horseshoes, and our coach beyond:

Horseshoes, our couch

We put out our awning to shade our chairs:

RV awning

RV awning

Me editing a timelapse video outside on my MacBook Pro:

MacBook Pro

Travel from Bakersfield to Indio, CA

We departed the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California, and headed to Indio, California (near Palm Springs).

Here’s the map route; a six hour drive in our coach. The default route was down CA-395 to I-15, but when examining the route, I saw very heavy traffic just before I-15 reached CA-138, so we decided to take a different route to bypass the worst of that:

Map route

It was very foggy in the hills after Bakersfield:

Fog

But soon cleared up:

Hills

Paladin sat on the kitchen counter again most of the time, except a few times when he came forward to say how he didn’t enjoy travel days:

Paladin

Hills and wind turbines:

Hills and wind turbines

Hills and wind turbines

Flat desert highway:

Highway

Not so flat desert road, with lots of dips, plus Joshua trees:

Desert road with lots of dips, and Joshua trees

Interesting rock formations:

Interesting rock formations

The aforementioned heavy traffic on I-15 after merging from CA-138; we missed the worst of it:

Heavy traffic on I-15 after merging from CA-138

Hills:

Hills

More wind turbines; going for quantity rather than size:

Wind turbines

Out destination, the Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance:

Shadow Hills RV Resort entrance

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of this drive, with music!

Orange Grove RV Park

Our next RV park was Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, California:

Orange Grove RV Park info

Here’s the park map:

Orange Grove RV Park map

This campground is literally in an orange grove, with orange trees between each site:

Campsite

Paladin watching me from his dash bed:

Paladin

The orange trees were full of fruit, though not quite ripe yet:

Orange tree

Campsite:

Campsite

A nice thing about (some) pull-through sites is we didn’t need to unhook our truck when pulling into the site. In fact we left the tow bar connected overnight:

Tow bar

The campground was rather empty during the week, before the weekend campers arrived:

Campground

Rather than a central septic system, they had a truck pump out multiple systems around the park; a bit unusual, in my experience so far:

Septic pumping

The pool was closed for the season:

Pool

A fun rustic-style maintenance building:

Rustic-style building

Decorations:

Decorations

So many rows of orange trees:

Orange trees

Orange trees

A full moon and campfire:

Moon and campfire

Paladin on his dash bed:

Paladin

Travel from San Benito to Bakersfield, CA

We departed Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve, and headed to Bakersfield, California.

The map route; a six hour drive in our coach:

Map route

Heading into the hills along the CA-152 freeway:

152 freeway

We followed a couple of car carriers transporting Teslas through the pass:

Transporting Teslas

Another couple of views of the very empty San Luis Reservoir:

San Luis Reservoir

San Luis Reservoir

A stop at Love’s for some diesel and DEF (and cleaning the windshield!):

Love's fuel stop

Paladin spent most of the trip on the kitchen counter:

Paladin

He seemed more relaxed about it than previous trips:

Paladin

A rest stop between two other RVs:

Rest stop

A nice thing about a motorhome is we can easily make lunch (and use the bathroom) while at a rest stop:

Making lunch

I put Paladin’s dash bed on the kitchen counter, so he’d have a more comfortable place to sit; he seemed to appreciate that:

Paladin

The I-5 freeway was primarily populated by big rigs:

Trucks on freeway

Bakersfield city limit:

Bakersfield city limit

The Orange Grove RV Park campground entrance:

Campground entrance

Campground entrance

Stay tuned for a timelapse video of the journey today (with music this time!), and a tour of the campground tomorrow.

Clear sewer hose extension

A handy little addition to the wet bay of the coach: a clear sewer hose extension, attached below the sewer valves.

This enables me to better see the water draining from the black and grey tanks; the other end of the hose has a clear portion too, which is also useful, but this lets me see the water before it drains the length of the hose:

Wet bay

Here it is in context, draining the grey tank (from the sinks, shower, etc):

Wet bay

Slide-out markers

[For those reading these blog posts when they come out, note that I’ll be posting two per day, and occasionally three, for at least the next couple of weeks, to catch up; I’m getting a bit of a backlog. Typically the first post of the day will be a major topic, and the second will be a video or food post or such. Enjoy the extra content!]

When getting set up in a new campsite, one of the important tasks is to ensure that the coach is positioned well, which means close to the utility hookups (power, water, sewer), the basement doors can be opened without hitting the aforementioned utilities or other obstructions, and very importantly, the slide-outs can be opened without hitting anything.

It’s easy enough to line up the utilities (and the cable and hoses have some flexibility in that), and to try opening basement doors to make sure they don’t hit anything (though sometimes I do better than other times). The slide-outs are a bit tricker in a tight space, as it’s hard to tell how far they come out when they’re closed. Some people have suggested techniques like using one’s arm, or markings on a broom or such.

But an idea I had was to use the doors, since I’ll want to open them to check them anyway. So I added some red pin-striping tape onto the top of some of the doors, to mark where the slide-outs come to. I can simply open the doors, and make sure no tree branches or other obstructions would get too close to those lines:

Basement door

Marker on door

Marker on door