Third anniversary of buying our motorhome

Today marks the three year anniversary of purchasing our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome!

Check out the one year anniversary post for a tour of what the coach was like when we bought it, and the two year anniversary post for some more exterior photos.

To mark this anniversary, here’s an updated tour of the interior; much has changed since we bought it. Check out the links to related blog posts.

Entry steps, with a “Home Sweet Home” sign, internet devices, dash cover, and carpet:

Entry steps

The driver area, with a table over the steering wheel, potted plants, a barrier cushion underneath, and a new GPS:

Driver area

Cat tower, litter box and waste receptacle, cat carrier, and boxes for Paladin to sleep in (even with many other options, sometimes one can’t beat an Amazon carton with crinkly paper!):

Cat tower, litter, boxes

Custom desk with a pull-out surface and monitor on a televator:

Work setup

Theater seating and custom side tables:

Theater seating and side tables

Dining table and chairs, and Paladin with his food and water fountain, and another nest:

Dining table

Kitchen / galley area, with convection microwave, double sinks, automatic paper towel dispenser, coffee stuff, drawer dishwasher, pull-out countertop, etc:

Kitchen

Another view, showing the induction cooktop:

Kitchen

Fridge/freezer and wooden map with stickers and pins:

Fridge and map

Half bath, with hanging broom and mop:

Half bath

Bed, Spyder panel, and photographic artwork:

Bed and art

TV, air cleaner, and yes, another cat bed:

TV and air cleaner

Bathroom sink; I replaced the faucets in both bathrooms, and all three soap dispensers, too:

Bathroom sink

Shower, with liquid dispensers etc, replaced rain head, towel rail outside the shower, and toilet:

Shower and toilet

Washer and dryer:

Washer and dryer

Looking from the back to the front (with the upgraded Spyder control panel and thermostat visible):

Looking from the back to the front

Looking from the front to the back:

Looking from the front to the back

An overview of the living area:

Living area

I hope you enjoyed this tour of our home. It’s compact, but spacious for an RV that travels around the country. Follow along on our travels!

Oakdale KOA Journey

We stayed at Oakdale KOA Journey in Oakdale, Wisconsin. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A pretty typical KOA Journey, with easy access near the freeway.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-07-22
  • Check out: 2024-07-21
  • 1 night

Weather:

  • Partly cloudy
  • High temp 82°F, low 64°F
  • Negligible wind, gusts to 7 MPH

Noise:

  • Nearby freeway noise
  • Occasional train horn noise
  • Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

  • #8, pull-through, gravel
  • Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t since just overnight
  • Fairly level site; used air leveling since just overnight
  • Gravel driveway about 67 feet long by 9 feet wide
  • 15 feet to neighbors on both sides
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • Tall trees near site
  • Clean site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • Didn’t connect water, but conveniently located
  • Didn’t connect sewer, but two available, conveniently located

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 16-51 Mbps down, 6-9 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
  • AT&T: 127-167 Mbps down, 7-13 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
  • Verizon: 10 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 99 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Garbage pickup from site
  • Pool

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Great place to stop off I-90

We stayed one night on our way along I-90, and this campground was perfect. It has nice, clean, level sites, a convenient location, and is easy to get in and out of. Even though it’s close to the interstate, it was surprisingly quiet. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We’d definitely stay here again when our travels take us this way. We camped at Oakdale KOA Journey in a Motorhome.

Campground map (and a pack of playing cards gifted on check-in):

Campground map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Wisconsin cheesehead:

Wisconsin cheesehead

Travel from Cascade, Iowa to Oakdale, Wisconsin

We drove our coach 186 miles, about three hours of driving, from Cascade, Iowa to Oakdale, Wisconsin.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:

Route map

An interactive map:

1873 building in Cascade:

1873 building in Cascade

Curve tightens:

Curve tightens

Interesting bridge:

Interesting bridge

Bull Durham:

Bull Durham

Shiny:

Shiny

Dubuque bridge:

Dubuque bridge

Wisconsin Welcomes You:

Wisconsin Welcomes You

We lay Paladin’s tower on its side on the bed while traveling; he sat inside the box:

Paladin in his tower box on the bed

Barn:

Barn

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Mount Horeb:

Mount Horeb

Trolls:

Trolls

Jet, tank, helicopter:

Jet, tank, helicopter

Paint testing:

Paint testing

Overpass artwork:

Overpass artwork

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Mouse standing on cheese:

Mouse standing on cheese

Our destination, a KOA Journey:

KOA Journey

Riverview Ridge Campground

We stayed at Riverview Ridge Campground in Cascade, Iowa. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A good base for visiting the Field of Dreams movie site.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-07-18
  • Check out: 2024-07-22
  • 4 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly cloudy
  • High temps 76-80°F, lows 56-62°F
  • Negligible wind, gusts to 9 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train horn noise
  • Some neighbor noise

Site:

  • #39, back-in, grass
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
  • Fairly level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
  • Grass driveway about 70 feet long by 8 feet wide
  • 28 feet to neighbors on both sides
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • No trees
  • Mostly clean site

Utilities:

  • 50 & 30 amp power, conveniently located
  • 40 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
  • When we arrived, the 50 amp power didn’t work, so we used 30 amp overnight, and got it fixed the next morning

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 60-70 Mbps down, 11-19 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
  • AT&T: 64 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
  • Verizon: 1 Mbps down, 5-9 Mbps up, 50-120 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters
  • River tubing etc

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Picture postcard Iowa

Close your eyes and picture “Iowa” based on what you know from popular media, and this campground is pretty much what you’d see. Rolling fields of corn, a meandering river, close to a cute little town, it was all very picturesque. The campground is a good size and sits along the North Fork Maquoketa River, and they offer various rentals to enjoy the river if that’s your thing. Our site was a very long back-in up a slope but was reasonably flat at the top. The 50A connection wasn’t working when we got there, but as soon as we alerted them to the issue, someone came out to fix it, and we had no further problems during our stay. We camped at Riverview Ridge Campground in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: The Field of Dreams Movie Site is everything we’d hoped it would be. I highly recommend going on one of the “Ghost Game” days during the summer; it made the whole thing even more special. We also drove to Cedar Rapids to see a Kernels (high-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins) game, which was also good fun….

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

When I plugged in the electrical Watchdog smart surge protector, it reported an error:

Watchdog error

The app explained the error:

Watchdog error

It was late, so we used the 30 amp socket overnight, then I went to the office to report it in the morning, and the owner came by minutes later to fix the electrical panel. It was more complex than expected, but he patched together a fix, so we were able to use the 50 amp socket:

Fixing electrical panel

Cornfields next to the campground:

Corn

Corn

Corn

Unusually, parallel parking sites:

Parallel parking sites

Parallel parking sites

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Clubhouse:

Clubhouse

Fire pit:

Fire pit

Steep road to the river:

Steep road to river

People enjoying floating in the river:

River

River

A nice campground. We’d be happy to stay here again.

Travel from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa

We drove our coach 250 miles, about five hours of driving, from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:

Route map

An interactive map:

Peoria:

Peoria

A weird trailer:

A weird trailer

Roadworks:

Roadworks

A helicopter dusting corn:

Helicopter

Paladin in his dash bed on the freeway; very unusual for him, though he’s been getting more comfortable staying there for a few minutes before jumping down:

Paladin in his dash bed

Flooded road:

Flooded

Welcome to Iowa:

Welcome to Iowa

Paladin asleep:

Paladin asleep

Iowa 80 truck stop, the world’s largest truck stop:

Iowa 80 truck stop

Iowa 80 truck stop

Iowa 80 truck stop

Iowa 80 truck stop

A very Iowa fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Barn:

Barn

Fun with zoom

Wapsipinicon River:

Wapsipinicon River

Oxford Junction:

Oxford Junction

Corn:

Corn

Onslow:

Onslow

We had to do a long detour due to a closed road:

Closed road

Cascade:

Cascade

RV tank cleaning

An RV maintenance item that is good to do every year or so: getting the black and gray waste tanks professionally cleaned out. They pump high pressure water into the tanks, manipulating the sprayer to blast off all of the surfaces within the tanks. That reduces smells, and makes the level sensors work better. We did this in while in Red Bay.

RV tank cleaning

RV tank cleaning

RV tank cleaning

Iowa 80 truck stop

On our travel day we stopped at the world’s largest truck stop, Iowa 80 in Walcott, Iowa.

Iowa 80 Truckstop features eight restaurant choices, a convenience store, gift store, Super Truck Showroom, barber shop, chiropractor, dentist, movie theater, workout room, laundry facilities, gas islands, diesel fuel center, truck service center, Truckomat truck wash, Dogomat pet wash, CAT Scale, 24- private showers, trucking museum and more!

Iowa 80

Iowa 80 truck stop

Iowa 80 truck stop

Lots of truck parking:

Truck parking

Diesel fuel:

Iowa 80 truck stop

Diesel pumps

Diesel pumps

Iowa 80 truck stop

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

Iowa 80

It was indeed big, though not all that exciting. 

Springfield KOA Journey

We stayed at Springfield KOA Journey in Rochester, Illinois. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice quiet KOA, a bit off the beaten path.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-07-16
  • Check out: 2024-07-18
  • 2 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly cloudy, some rain
  • High temps 78-84°F, lows 59-71°F
  • Negligible wind, gusts to 15 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train horn noise
  • No neighbor noise

Site:

  • #43, pull-through, gravel
  • Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
  • Fairly level site, a little high on the passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
  • Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by 9 feet wide
  • 18 feet to neighbors on both sides
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • No trees
  • Clean site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 50 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Verizon: 12-19 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
  • AT&T: 3-8 Mbps down, 0.8 Mbps up, 110 ms ping
  • T-Mobile: 22-35 Mbps down, 0.03-0.5 Mbps up, 80-800 ms ping, unreliable
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not currently available

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters
  • Pool
  • Mini golf

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Nice KOA tucked away

Most KOA Journeys are right off the main road/highway/interstate and are pretty noisy because of this. On the other hand, the Springfield KOA Journey is tucked away in the country (over the river and through the woods…literally) and was absolutely quiet and lovely. Our site was nice and long, so we didn’t need to disconnect our tow vehicle, even though we did so we could check out the Abraham Lincoln Home NHS in Springfield. We camped at Springfield KOA Journey in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Campground map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Office:

Office

Office

Office

Playground:

Playground

Playground

Playground

Bikes

The mini golf seems to be undergoing repairs, or something:

Mini golf

Mini golf

Swimming pool:

Swimming pool

We’d be happy to stay here again.