A timelapse of driving the coach for the RV Driving School backing and driving classes, and moving sites at the FMCA Tucson 2022 convention.
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Posts featuring the coach.
FMCA Tucson 2022: RV Driving School lessons
Around when we first bought our motorhome, we signed up for a couple of RV Driving School classes, held before the FMCA convention: the first on backing an RV, the second on driving an RV.
Of course, in the intervening months, we had plenty of practice in working together to back into sites, and Jenn had plenty of driving practice, so the lessons weren’t as useful as they would have been at the start, but we did pick up a few bits of information and techniques.
Outside the classroom:
The backing class, a bit less than an hour:
Immediately after the classroom part, we did the practical, where we took our coach to a parking lot on the grounds, and did backing and parallel parking between cones, with Jenn driving and me directing, as usual:
Our instructor:
Perfect alignment; we didn’t hit any cones:
Paladin supervised from the back of Jenn’s chair:
The next day, we did the driving classroom, a four hour lesson:
Then the following day, the driving practical for four hours, with the same instructor:
Paladin on the desk, a little confused by me sitting in a living room chair opposite:
We practiced navigating an empty church parking lot:
And a second church parking lot:
Paladin looking contented:
Watching out the front:
Cruising down the freeway:
FMCA Tucson 2022: dry camping for driving lessons
We attended the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention in Tucson, Arizona, but before that kicked off, we attend a couple of driving classes from the RV Driving School, on backing and driving skills. More on those later.
While doing those classes, we dry camped on the Pima County Fairgrounds, i.e. we parked the RV without any power, water, or sewer hookups. RVs are self-contained, so this isn’t a huge hassle; we just have to run our generator for a few hours each day (typically in the morning when making coffee, and in the evening for dinner etc), and try to minimize water usage.
Here’s our truck and coach, dry camping (they had cones spaced out to mark available place to park):
A rare picture of the tow bar connected, with the lights on (as the coach engine was still running while Jenn put out the slides):
The coach and truck were super dusty from driving over the dirt of the fairgrounds; so glad we just washed them a few days earlier:
Other RVs dry camping for the classes:
FMCA set up large generators and power outlets for convention attendees; initially mostly empty, but these filled up as the start date approached:
The fairgrounds, and especially the dirt we were dry camping on, was full of goatheads, nasty little spiky pods that snuck into our coach; this handful was collected from the mat in our cockpit. Trust me, they are not fun to step on!
More stuck to the bottom of my shoes:
A sunset:
The weather was mostly warm and sunny, but a couple of days in, the clouds rolled in:
And we experienced some rain and thunderstorms:
Once we finished the lessons, we moved our coach to the campsite for the convention. More on that later.
Video: timelapse of coach driving from Picacho, AZ to Tucson, AZ
A timelapse of driving the coach 69 miles from Picacho, Arizona to Tucson, Arizona.
Travel from Picacho to Tucson, AZ
We attended the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention in Tucson, Arizona, so we drove 69 miles, just over an hour, from Picacho, Arizona to the Pima County fairgrounds just south of Tucson, Arizona.
Here’s the route map, going from top-left to bottom-right:
There was a tumbleweed by the side of the road, just before getting onto the freeway (made me think of CGP Grey’s excellent video on tumbleweeds):
Heading down I-10, with mountains in the distance:
Picacho Peak:
Paladin squeaked once, then settled down in his safe space next to my chair (barely visible here):
Trucks passing trucks passing trucks:
I enjoyed the artwork on overpasses along this route:
Passing downtown Tucson:
Half of a manufactured house; we moved over to avoid the wide load:
Approaching Pima County Fairgrounds:
Our exit:
The road to the fairgrounds:
RV driving school sign:
Arriving:
We dry camped here for the classes, before heading to our electric-only site for the convention. Stay tuned for more on the lessons and convention!
National park stickers
Since visiting all 63 national parks in the US is one of our goals in this adventure, in addition to commemorating our visits in Jenn’s national parks book, we decided to add stickers to the driver-side slide-out of our coach (since the states map is on the passenger side):
We’ve visited seven national parks since getting our coach, so have added those stickers, in the order we visited them, starting from the bottom-left:
We have visited others in the past, but aren’t counting them for stickers until we visit them again in an RV, like with the states map.
Picacho/Tucson NW KOA Journey
We stayed at Picacho/Tucson NW KOA Journey in Picacho, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Dates:
- Check in: 2022-03-12
- Check out: 2022-03-18
- 6 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps ranging between 78 and 87°F, lows around 43-52°F
- Little wind, other than one afternoon
Noise:
- Quite a lot of freeway and train noise
- Quiet neighbors
Site:
- #50, pull-through, gravel, didn’t need to disconnect toad (though did, since staying several nights)
- Toad parking behind coach
- Large, about 85 feet long by 30 feet wide
- Full hookups:
- 50 amp power conveniently near the coach
- 45 PSI water also conveniently positioned
- Fair sewer connection, a little loose and too high for perfect drainage, also far from the wet bay, so I needed three segments of drain hose (first time I’ve needed my spare)
- Nice wooden deck with rocking chairs, table and chairs, and bench, plus a fire pit
- Screening fences on both sides
Internet:
- Campground Wi-Fi: apparently slow (not used)
- T-Mobile: 11 Mbps down, 10-15 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
- AT&T: 8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
- Verizon: 4-7 Mbps down, 14 Mbps up, 58 ms ping
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster
- Mail accepted
- Heated pool (not very warm, kinda dirty)
- Rec room (looked closed), laundry, playground, and other stuff we didn’t use
- Various outdoor games
Here’s the review Jenn wrote on Campground Reviews:
Trees in the Desert
They had very friendly and efficient check-in and then guided us to our site. We had a deluxe pull-through site with a deck that had rocking chairs, a patio table with an umbrella, a bench, and a fire ring. Pretty much every site had a mature tree to give some shade, which is very rare in the desert. We really enjoyed eating dinner on the deck and listening to the birds in the trees. There was some freeway and train noise, but it was all just white noise to us and didn’t affect our sleep. The pool area was a bit small and they might need to upgrade the filter and pump system as it had quite a few dead bugs floating in it, but it was still very popular with families. We camped at Picacho / Tucson NW KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Here’s the park map:
A screenshot of the weather forecast for our stay:
We were guided to our site:
Putting down the jacks:
The water pressure is about 45 PSI; the pressure regulator is set to 60 PSI, so a little low:
As mentioned above, I needed to break out my spare sewer extension:
Here are the utility hookups; power and water are well placed, but the sewer was rather far, and the pipe is a little too high out of the ground:
Some more pictures of our site:
A nice deck with rocking chairs, table and chairs, umbrella, and bench:
Also a fire pit:
We ate our dinners outside, including hot dogs and beans:
And home-made pizza; the first time I’ve used the Ooni oven since we started this adventure (I just hadn’t been in the mood to make pizza for a few months, but made two during this stay):
Paladin peeking out a window:
I flew my drone briefly; here are some aerial views of our site:
And other sites:
The freeway and a railway beyond it were pretty close, resulting in quite a lot of noise:
Let’s walk around the park, starting with the KOA Journey sign — KOA is Kampgrounds of America, a large chain, and their Journey campgrounds are designed for short-term stays, so mostly pull-through:
The office and arrivals:
The pool was heated, but not very much, and kinda small and dirty. We did swim in it, but not for very long:
Playground:
Heh, a Wi-Fi hot spot:
Dog park:
Tent camping area:
KOAs often have cabins, but this one only has one:
Other RVs:
They’ve been doing some nice upgrades, e.g. this patio site with its own dog run:
A deck site somewhat similar to ours:
A deck site with a large dog run:
Another site with a dog run:
Other RVs:
A rather interesting RV, looks like a modified horse trailer:
A path and garden:
Back to our site:
A nice campground; we’d recommend it and would stay here again.
Video: timelapse of coach driving from Buckeye, AZ to Picacho, AZ
A timelapse of driving the coach 17 miles from Buckeye, Arizona to NIRVC in Surprise, Arizona, then 92 miles from there to Picacho, Arizona.
Travel from Surprise to Picacho, AZ
We picked up our coach from NIRVC in Surprise, Arizona, and drove 92 miles to Picacho, Arizona, a couple of hours drive.
Here’s the route map, going from top-left to bottom-right:
Paladin wasn’t having a good day, having endured a car trip from the Airbnb, then coach travel:
Driving along I-10, past a stadium:
A freeway tunnel under downtown Phoenix:
An interesting peak:
We stopped for diesel at a Love’s:
Hey, it’s hay:
Jenn filling the diesel via a pump that was falling apart; we haven’t been too impressed with the quality of Love’s stations of late:
Mountains:
Picacho Peak:
An orchard:
Our destination, a KOA:
A third stay in an Airbnb apartment
As mentioned yesterday, we had another appointment with the National Indoor RV Center in Phoenix, Arizona to do some upgrades and repairs on our coach (I’ll probably post about some later). So after dropping our coach off there, we headed to an Airbnb apartment near downtown Phoenix for the week.
Here’s the listing for “The Retreat”.
Jenn’s review:
Jackie was a great host. She had good communication and was very attentive to anything we might have needed. This super cute historic studio apartment was the perfect oasis close to downtown. We could walk to dinner every day and never have to have the same thing twice. We really loved the courtyard and pool and enjoyed soaking in the Arizona sun.
It’s a small studio apartment, smaller than our coach, but cosy and cute:
The kitchen nook:
A desk:
Jenn brought her PS5, which we hooked up to the TV:
Most of the time, I sat on the rather uncomfortable couch to work:
Some interesting decorations, including a rifle lamp:
Exposed beam ceiling:
The floor was interesting, wood surrounded by tile (with a central rug):
A walk-in closet served as a place for Paladin’s litter box and food:
Like everything else, the bathroom was tiny, smaller than the bathroom in our coach:
The small shower:
With a rather low shower head, but good water pressure:
A nice ceiling in the shower:
The front (only) door blinds had a missing slat, leaving a gap; we mentioned it to the host, so hopefully will be repaired:
We covered that gap by hanging a towel over the door:
The view out the door:
Outside, a table and chairs:
A nice place for a lunch:
And more seating:
The apartments are arranged around a central pool area:
We enjoyed sitting by the pool:
The other side of the apartments:
Our side:
One of the nice features of this place was it was a couple of minutes walk to several restaurants, so we didn’t need to drive anywhere during our stay (which was just as well, as parking was rather tight).
It was a cute place to stay for a few days.