A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 95 miles from Manteca to Groveland, California.
RV
Posts featuring the coach.
Travel from Manteca to Groveland, California
We drove our coach 95 miles, about two hours of driving, from Manteca, California to Groveland, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Thank you for visiting:
Lots of low trees scraped our roof:
Narrow road and roadworks:
Milk plant:
Oakdale:
CA-120 East:
Yosemite reservations required weekends:
Don Pedro Lake:
Pipes:
Curvy highway (check out the video for this journey with a picture-in-picture of this part):
Groveland:
Thousand Trails gas station:
Campground office:
The site we chose:
Turtle Beach RV Resort
We stayed at Turtle Beach RV Resort in Manteca, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A Thousand Trails park, so free for us. Calling it a “resort” is a bit of a stretch, though.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-09-13
- Check out: 2024-09-16
- 3 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps 80-92°F, lows 54-58°F
- Some wind, gusts to 31 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- Nearby train horn noise
- A bunch of neighbor noise (kids and TV)
Site:
- #C-16, back-in, gravel
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 45 feet long by 8 feet wide
- About 20 feet to neighbor on passenger side
- About 15 feet to neighbor on driver side
- Picnic table
- Some tall trees
- Not very clean site; small bits of trash
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 47 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (less than one 10-foot pipe needed)
- Some sites aren’t full-hook-up, so we were glad to get one
Internet (in usage priority order):
- AT&T: 370-460 Mbps down, 2-9 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- T-Mobile: unreliable service
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Smaller campground amidst booming suburbs
This is a standard, older Thousand Trails, which is paying the price for deferred maintenance. The sites were fairly basic and rustic, and we were lucky to snag one of the few 50A sites for our short stay. A no-frills park combined with an access road that is not big rig-friendly makes for interesting times. The road is narrow and winding, with lots of trees right up to the edge of the road and growing low over it. That’s after you pass through a gauntlet of new suburban development with every other road closed and detours everywhere. Frequent train horns all day and night keep it from being very restful once you’re there. We camped at Turtle Beach RV Resort in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Other sites:
Annual sites:
Tent area:
Large unused area:
Walthall Slough:
Video: Red Bluff to Manteca, California motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 194 miles from Red Bluff, California to Manteca, California.
Travel from Red Bluff to Manteca, California
We drove our coach 194 miles, about four hours of driving, from Red Bluff, California to Manteca, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map:
Rice field:
Rest area:
U-Haul towing a U-Haul:
Yolo:
Another rice field:
Rest area:
Paladin sat on the dash for a minute:
Sacramento:
Lots of tomatoes on the side of the road:
From trucks like this:
Sharp curve:
Roadworks; what kind of crazy road designers would make such narrow main roads? No room for bike lanes or expansion:
Lots of low trees scraped our roof:
Arriving at Thousand Trails Turtle Beach:
Info sign, with arrival packets; someone came along and told us an available site, too:
Our site:
Red Bluff KOA Journey
We stayed at Red Bluff KOA Journey in Red Bluff, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice campground, except for the road and train noise.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-09-08
- Check out: 2024-09-13
- 5 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps 84-98°F, lows 57-61°F
- Some wind, gusts to 32 MPH
Noise:
- Nearby freeway noise
- Regular train horn noise
- Occasional boat noise
- Some gunshots the first night
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #113, long pull-through, concrete
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Fairly level site; a little high in the back; used hydraulic leveling
- Concrete driveway about 95 feet long by 16 feet wide
- 15 feet to neighbor on passenger side
- No neighbor on driver side
- Picnic table
- Tall trees
- Somewhat clean site; a few small bits of trash
- Invasive ants
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, a little inconveniently located (two pedestals, but both inconvenient)
- 70 PSI water, inconveniently located (two faucets, equally inconvenient)
- Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2.5 10-foot pipes needed; two connections, both inconvenient)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 65 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
- AT&T: 65-80 Mbps down, 15-22 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
- Verizon: 3-6 Mbps down, 7-18 Mbps up, 95 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage pickup from site (and dumpster near our site)
- Pool
- Fresh baked sourdough bread in camp store
- Walking distance to Shari’s and other restaurants
- Package delivery to office
Our review on Campground Reviews:
A bit expensive but convenient
This campground is very convenient along I-5, and we’d probably stay here again for a one-night stop, but for a longer stay, the noise from the interstate is a bit irritating. We had a nice, long pull-through site with plenty of room. The major downside was that we faced our first-ever ant infestation while staying here. They marched up our water hose, into the wet bay, and then into the living area. However, a bait station in the wet bay and a spritz of pyrethrin along the hose deterred them. We camped at Red Bluff KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: It’s a nice day trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park….
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site (which we picked out when booking) was on an edge, with nobody on our driver side (which I prefer):
This site used to be two back-ins, so has two utility pedestals, one at each end. Which is equally inconvenient if parking in the middle of the site. When I first connected the sewer, I used the hookup at the back, which needed three 10-foot pipes plus two 2-foot pipes:
I later switched to the one at the front, which let me remove one of the 10-foot pipes:
Though having the pipe in front of the cargo doors is less preferred, since it gets in the way. Notice also that I used the elbow extenders on both connections, as the sewer ports were too recessed.
While here, we had an invasion of ants; amazingly, the first time we’ve had that:
A fancy entrance:
When checking in, we picked up some sourdough bread that they were selling in the office:
Dog wash:
Pool and clubhouse:
Games area:
Dog park:
Bathrooms:
Group fire pit:
Tent area overlooking the river:
River and freeway view:
Fountains:
Other sites:
Freeway view:
L-shaped sites:
We wouldn’t mind staying here again for a short time, but would probably look elsewhere to avoid the freeway and train noise.
Video: Ashland, Oregon to Red Bluff, California motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 165 miles from Ashland, Oregon to Red Bluff, California.
Travel from Ashland, Oregon to Red Bluff, California
We drove our coach 165 miles, about four hours of driving, from Ashland, Oregon to Red Bluff, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:
An interactive map:
Goodbye super-low Emigrant Lake:
Joining I-5, with lots of wildfire smoke:
“Long steep downgrade ahead”:
“Siskiyou Mountain Summit elevation 4,310 feet, highest elevation on I-5”:
“Oregon thanks you, come back soon”:
“Welcome to California”:
A glimpse of Mount Shasta in the background:
Agricultural inspection station, unstaffed when we went through:
Mount Shasta view:
Rest area with RV parking:
Roadworks:
Shasta Lake:
For comparison, a view of the lake when we last went past here in 2021, quite a lot lower:
Fuel stop:
The pump said “Dispenser Reserved”, so should have been blocked off; we had to pull around to another pump:
Our destination:
Our site:
Dumping waste tanks into house septic system
While staying at our Washington home in previous years, we were careful to avoid filling our gray and black waste tanks, since we didn’t have a way to empty them until after we left; we used a bathroom in the house instead of in our coach.
This time, we were staying longer, but we also had new tools available: we had purchased a waste tote tank, and a macerator pump. I used both while staying this time.
The house has a septic system in the backyard, with inspection/cleanout ports:
I initially drained the waste tanks into my tote:
I then pulled the tote around the back using the handle (not too difficult with the steerable front wheels), and drained it into the septic system:
Using the other port to drain the last liquid out of the tote:
That was pretty easy. But then I tried a different approach. I bought two 100 foot hoses (that will only be used for this purpose, left in our shed), and used my macerator to mash up and pump the waste through the hoses directly into the septic system:
I plugged the power cord into the electrical outlet in the wet bay, via a plug-in switch:
A power supply, to convert the 110V to a 12V car-style connector (there is a switch after the power supply, but the power supply has a fan that runs as long it has power, hence my plug-in switch):
(Hmm, there is 12V power for a light in the wet bay, so I could hook up a connector to that… nah, probably not worth it for this occasional use.)
A closer look at the macerator, connected to my sewer hose closure and the hose:
200 feet of hose going around the house:
The end of the hose into the septic system:
Taking a peek; it isn’t a high flow, so takes longer than usual, but is much easier than using the tote:
I removed the hose and re-sealed the inspection plate when done each time, to avoid smells getting out or animals getting into the septic system. If we were to ever do this longer-term, we could no doubt devise some sort of gasket or port to let the hose remain hooked up in a sealed way, though it really wasn’t a huge hassle.
With the 50 amp electrical hookup, a water hookup, and these waste solutions, we are able to stay home as long as we like.
Emigrant Lake – The Point RV Park
We stayed at Emigrant Lake – The Point RV Park in Ashland, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice county campground, very convenient to Ashland.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-08-31
- Check out: 2024-09-08
- 8 nights
Weather:
- Mostly sunny
- High temps 79-100°F, lows 51-64°F
- A little wind, gusts to 19 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #19, back-in, asphalt
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat unlevel site; high on back and driver side; used hydraulic leveling and extra blocks under the front
- Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by 15 feet wide
- 18 feet to neighbor on driver side
- No neighbor on passenger side
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- Some trees
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 75 PSI water, conveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 57 Mbps down, 11-18 Mbps up, 32 ms ping
- AT&T: 35-72 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- Verizon: 5-22 Mbps down, 14-22 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Lake
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Perfect park close to Ashland
This is a great spot to stay and explore Ashland and the local area. It’s a shame the lake is so low, but that’s just the reality of the West these days. We still enjoyed the view from our site, regardless. Access to the campground is a little dicey for big rigs, but it is doable. Just watch out for the final turn into the campground, where you have to navigate between a rock wall and a barbed wire fence that comes close to the road. Our site (19) had a terrific view of the lake, and I think the only better view would be from site 21 (a pull-through site), which sits at the bottom of the loop. We camped at Emigrant Lake – The Point RV Park in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Ashland has one of the best dining scenes in the PNW, so be sure to explore some options (Cocorico was our favorite this time). Take in a show at the OSF, even if it’s just the Green Show, which is free. The Oregon Cabaret is a fun experience as well. And don’t forget to tour the many different wine trails in the area. We’re partial to the Applegate Valley…
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Other sites:
The very end of the point is site 21, a pull-through site; we would have preferred to have this site, but it wasn’t available:
Lake view from site 21:
Campground entrance, with a tight corner:
Bathrooms:
A view of the lake from behind the bathrooms:
From the website, much the same view from many years ago when the lake was full:
Another view now:
And the same view then:
Some more years-ago views of the full lake:
A similar view of the much lower lake now, from our site:
More lake views from our site:
Sunset:
A truck stuck in the mud (see a timelapse video of it getting stuck and unstuck):
A couple of shots of the same part of the lake, where people enter it; the first one taken soon after arriving, and the second towards the end of our stay; if you look closely, you can see a significant drop in the water level:
And an animated GIF of the water level dropping:
(Check out today’s timelapse video of the lake level dropping noticeably during our stay.)
A view from below our site, that should have been underwater if the lake were full:
Looking back up at our site:
The very low water level was rather sad; the lake would have been much nicer if full. But still a nice place to stay.
We plan to stay here again next year. Hopefully in site 21 next time, but site 19 would be a good second choice.