Simplifying posts

I’ve decided to simplify my blog posts a bit. You may have noticed that I’m not following the schedule I used to use (Modification Mondays, Travel Tuesdays, etc); I’m now just posting each weekday.

Since the most useful and interesting posts (to certain audiences) are RV modifications and things we do, I will continue those posts much as I have been. The modifcation posts are useful for other Tiffin motorhome owners; I regularly link to them in Facebook groups to help others with similar issues. For other people, those posts are easy to skip. The exploring posts are more interesting to family and friends (and future us!), to see the interesting attractions we’ve experienced.

But travel and campground posts aren’t all that useful, and all the data recorded for campgrounds was a lot of work, so I’m going to merge those two, much as I did for the New Zealand series. The new format will be like the travel posts, with photos from the journey, but end with a few campground pictures, and omit all the data. So each post will document some interesting sights during our travel from one campground to the next, for anyone interested in that. They will continue to include maps with potential stops marked, which are useful for others traveling this route (including our future selves).

I will continue the travel timelapse videos, at least until after Alaska, since that will no doubt be very scenic. Those are a lot of work too, so I may discontinue them in the future, but we’ll see.

I know that the audience for this blog is very small; mostly just family and friends, and a few others who have seen the blog on Facebook on seen our motorhome on the road (via the QR code). In large part, it’s just a hobby travel diary for my own satisfaction. And that’s enough.

Video

Video: Sun City to Tolleson back to Sun City, Arizona motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 37 miles round-trip from Encore Paradise RV Resort in Sun City to Velocity Truck Centers in Tolleson, then back to Paradise in Sun City, Arizona.

Velocity Truck Centers for engine air heater repair

As we were arriving in Phoenix, we got a Check Engine light on our dash. Never a welcome occurrence!

Error codes on dash

Looking in the BlueFire app, it showed more details of the codes; clearly a short of the engine intake air heater:

BlueFire faults page

Later in our stay, we started the engine again to see if the codes were still there. They were, so I contacted NIRVC to see if they could fix it. They referred me to Velocity Truck Centers, which is a Cummins dealer, and has an RV department.

Travel route, heading south then back north afterwards:

Travel route

Our appointment was for 7 AM; we considered arriving the day before, since they had a few full-hookup spots, but decided to just go very early in the morning. Probably a good thing, as their RV department was very busy that day; there may not have been a spot for us.

We toaded up just before sunrise:

Toading up early in the morning

Sunrise:

Sunrise

Exit to the truck place:

Exit

A hot air balloon in the distance:

Hot air balloon in the distance

Arriving at the truck service center:

Truck service center

Velocity Truck Centers:

Velocity Truck Centers

The RV waiting room was so crowded that one couple brought in camp chairs:

Crowded waiting room

We decided we didn’t want to hang out there, so went to Chick-fil-A for second breakfast:

Chick-fil-A for second breakfast

Then some chores, and to Starbucks to spend the next five hours:

Starbucks

They completed the work in the afternoon; the issue was a metal-wrapped line intermittently touching the heater relay, causing a short. They secured the line, and replaced the relay, since it had been damaged by the arcing. Just over one RV Buck (about $1,300) to fix.

Heading back to the RV park after the work was complete:

Heading back to the RV park

Arriving back at Paradise:

Arriving back at Paradise

Back to our site, which looks a bit weird without the RV there:

Back to our site

A hassle, but I’m glad it was a relatively easy fix.

Replacing closet light

One of the lights in our rear closet stopped working properly; very dim, and only half working:

Closet light not fully working

Plus blinking:

Blinking

I unmounted it from the ceiling:

Unmounted from the ceiling

Then replaced it with a new one, bought from Tiffin:

Replaced light

Remounted on the ceiling:

Remounted on the ceiling

Done:

Done

An easy fix.

Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show

We attended the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show in Quartzsite, Arizona. A two-hour drive from Phoenix.

This show has been an institution in Quartzsite for over 40 years. A big tent full of vendors selling RV accessories, with lots more outside. We weren’t in the market for anything, but wanted to check it out, since we hadn’t been before.

Quartzsite RV Show

Lots more vendors outside:

Quartzsite RV Show

Beer Belly’s adult daycare:

Quartzsite RV Show

Back through the tent:

Quartzsite RV Show

An interesting experience. Not sure we’ll bother with it again in the future, but if we’re in the area, we might check it out again.

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:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Since we were there for three months, we set up all the things:

Our site

Including making pizza:

Our site

Record heat:

Hot

A nice thing about this place is that Amazon, UPS, and FedEx delivers directly to the site:

Delivery to site

For USPS, they have mailboxes:

Mailboxes

Mail room

Mail info

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

Cafe menu:

Cafe menu

Breakfast

Lots of activities:

Activities

A popular pool (that we didn’t use; we’re not really into pools):

Pool

RV arrival area:

RV arrival area

Water feature at the front of the park:

Front

A nice pond and fountains:

Pond and fountains

I added a Pokemon Pokestop for that, and the front water features:

Pokemon Pokestop

Lawn bowls:

Lawn bowls

Pickleball:

Pickleball

And more:

More games

Garbage:

Garbage

Recycling:

Recycling

Propane fill:

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):

Pet area

“Stop; it does matter”:

Stop; it does matter

Free fruit:

Free fruit

Other sites; the vast majority of the community are park models:

Other sites

Aerial views of our site (a couple of days before departing, after packing up our stuff) and other sites:

Aerial view of our site

Aerial view of other sites

Aerial view of our site

Aerial view of 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.

Video

Video: Palm Desert, California to Sun City, Arizona motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 252 miles from Palm Desert, California to Sun City, Arizona.

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:

Route map

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Entering I-10 East:

Entering I-10 East

We got a little bit of fuel at California prices:

Fuel stop

Back onto I-10 East:

Back onto I-10 East

Foggy:

Foggy

Rest area closed:

Rest area closed

Another rest area:

Another rest area

Rest area

Interesting homebrew van:

Interesting homebrew van

Paladin in a box:

Paladin in a box

Arizona state line, and also Mountain time zone:

Arizona state line, and also Mountain time zone

Welcome to Arizona:

Welcome to Arizona

Arizona Centenial:

Arizona Centenial

Airstream trailer:

Airstream trailer

Interesting mountains:

Interesting mountains

Westbound freeway closed for hours due to accident:

Westbound freeway closed for hours due to accident

Another fuel stop to top up, since we’ll be in one place for three months:

T/A fuel stop

Filling diesel:

T/A fuel stop

Filling DEF:

T/A fuel stop

Exit to AZ-303 North:

Exit to AZ-303 North

Overpass:

Overpass

Exit to Bell Road:

Exit to Bell Road

Arriving at Paradise RV Resort:

Arriving at Paradise RV Resort

Registration parking, where we filled in the paperwork and untoaded:

Registration parking, where we filled in the paperwork and untoaded

Guided to our site:

Guided to our site

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: