RV

Posts featuring the coach.

Xscapers Bash: aerial photos

It’s been months since I last flew my drone, in part due to not being permitted in some locations, or just not thinking of it. But at the Xscapers Bash seemed like a good opportunity, so I had a quick flight. Actually two: the first was just vertically above my coach, the second was a little further.

Let’s head up:

Aerial

Aerial

Looking towards the main event area; all the Bash events were held in the structures beyond the arena:

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Looking towards the entrance, and the mountains beyond:

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Back down:

Aerial

I think our solar panels may be a bit dusty:

Aerial

My second flight, the next day, I flew from one end of the Xscapers Bash site to the other. But first, a closer look at the dusty solar panels:

Aerial

The nearby mountain:

Mountain

A view of the rodeo grounds from the entrance, and flying towards the back, looking in various directions:

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Nearby BMX course:

BMX

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Aerial

Stay tuned for a video flyby tomorrow!

Xscapers Bash: Every Little Detail Mobile Detailing

One of the sponsors of the Xscapers Annual Bash is a local business, Every Little Detail Mobile Detailing. We saw them washing neighboring rigs, and decided to get them to wash and wax ours, too, since it needed it — we haven’t had a chance to wash it since we bought it a few months ago. Washing an RV is a bit more complicated than a car.

They had a team of four working on it:

Washing our coach

Washing our coach

View from inside:

View from inside

Drying:

Cleaning

Hand waxing:

Hand waxing

Hand waxing

Hand waxing

Hand waxing

It’s so nice to have a clean coach; so shiny!

Clean coach

Clean coach

Clean coach

Xscapers Bash: quiet before the storm

We arrived a couple of days before the Xscapers Annual Bash kicked off, as Jenn is volunteering in the “FeMail” room (the mail room is apparently always staffed by women).

The bash is held each year at the Lake Havasu Rodeo grounds in Arizona.

I wandered around while things were still being set up, and took a few pictures of the rodeo grounds:

Rodeo grounds

Bar:

Bar

Some structures; the small one in the middle is the “FeMail” room where Jenn is volunteering:

Buildings

Seating area:

Seating area

Inside:

Inside

Tent:

Tent

Registration:

Registration

Games:

Games

Dusk:

Dusk

Stands:

Stands

Rodeo grounds:

Rodeo grounds

Bleachers:

Stands

Games and stuff:

Games and stuff

Fire pit:

Fire pit

Rave rocket:

Rave rocket

That first night was a volunteer dinner, ending with a beer puppet, valiantly but inexpertly demonstrated by the outgoing convergence coordinator:

Beer puppet

The next day, Saturday, was early arrival day for non-volunteers. Here’s a map of the bash grounds (from a screenshot of the bash app):

Map

Still lots of empty space in the solar section (for people who use solar power, with very restricted generator use):

Solar section

The general section was also mostly empty:

General section

As was the party section (closer to the noisy music etc):

Party section

A ferris wheel being set up:

Ferris wheel

Our coach:

Our coach

The following day, Saturday, was the regular arrival day; the remaining 300ish RVs turned up:

More RVs

Solar section:

Solar section

Party section:

More RVs

Ferris wheel ready to go:

Ferris wheel

Our coach again, this time with the awning out, and Jenn knitting outside:

Our coach

Travel from Salome to Lake Havasu City, AZ

We departed Salome, Arizona and headed to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for the Xscapers Annual Bash. Our first coach drive of 2022.

Here’s the route map; just 83 miles, a couple of hours drive north in our coach:

Map route

Heading down the highway to Quartzsite:

Highway

Love’s fuel stop:

Love's fuel stop

We weighed our coach and truck again at a CAT Scale at Love’s:

CAT Scale

The weight was up a bit, in part due to adding more stuff, in part due to having a full tank of water, in preparation for dry camping at the Xscapers Bash. But still within acceptable tolerances:

CAT Scale report

Paladin wasn’t enjoying the trip, as usual:

Paladin

Heading north on the highway:

Highway

Highway

Highway

Highway

Highway

Highway

Road to park

Entrance to the bash:

Bash entrance

Sold out:

Entrance

Another Tiffin:

Another Tiffin

Paladin settled down:

Paladin

Backing in to our spot:

Backing in

We arrived a few days early, as Jenn is volunteering in the mail room. So there’s lots of empty space now, which will be filling in as everyone else arrives today:

Empty space

Our truck and coach in our spot:

Truck and RV

If you’re at the Xscapers Bash and see us, feel free to say hi. We’re introverts, and this is our first time at a rally, but we’re looking forward to it:

Xscapers stickers and badges

Stay tuned tomorrow for the timelapse video of our journey.

Black Rock RV Village

We spent the holidays at Black Rock RV Village in Salome, Arizona. (Campground Reviews listing.)

I thought I’d start adding some extra information about our stay, for future reference:

Dates: 2021-12-18 to 2022-01-06. Yes, I prefer to post about a campsite after we’ve left it.

Weather: sunny, a little drizzle, windy at times (gusts up to 30 mph), high temps around averaging 60°F, lows around 40°F, dipped just below freezing a couple times.

Noise: a bunch of side-by-side vehicle traffic, but no trains, negligible road noise.

Site: back-in, gravel, full hookups (50 amp power, water, sewer), large, about 80 feet long by 30 feet wide, with a hedge on the passenger side. No table or fire pit.

Internet: no Wi-Fi; AT&T okay, about 1 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up; T-Mobile unreliable, about 1 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, when it works.

Amenities: mailboxes and mail room, cafe, pool, rec room, park, various outdoor games.

Here’s the (very much not-to-scale) map:

Map

A satellite view shows the layout better, especially over where we were staying. As you can see, a lot of the sites have park models or other long-term structures (park models are like tiny homes that can be moved, but generally aren’t, and aren’t self-contained, requiring hookups):

Black Rock RV Village satellite view

Entrance sign:

Entrance sign

Our campsite was quite large:

Campsite

Campsite

Electrical and water hookups; the ground is damp as I always run the water for a bit before hooking up, to flush any contaminants. I also had to use a short hose connector, as the tap was so low to the ground:

Electrical and water hookups

Campsite:

Campsite

Campsite

Campsite

“The first RV”:

The first RV

The first RV

This park is a popular place for side-by-side vehicles, being next to public lands:

Side-by-side

Office:

Office

This park is unusual in that it has a public cafe on-site:

Cafe

It also has mailboxes:

Mail

The mail room; we used it a lot, with packages from Amazon pretty much every day. Receiving mail is complicated when traveling the country; I should do a blog post about that sometime (if anyone’s interested):

Mail room

Collecting some packages:

Mail

They have a couple of desert tortoises, though they are currently hibernating for the winter:

Turtles

Rec hall:

Rec hall

Pickleball courts; one day we’ll get around to learning to play:

Pickleball

Bocce ball:

Bocce ball

Cornhole:

Cornhole

Swimming pool; apparently heated, but it’s too cold to want to swim:

Swimming pool

Charlie’s Park:

Charlie's Park

Charlie's Park

Charlie's Park

Community garden beds:

Community garden beds

Gate to BLM land:

Gate to BLM land

BLM land:

BLM land

Lots of vacant sites:

Lots of vacant sites

RVs

RVs

Park models:

Park models

Park models

 

Park models

Park models

Entrance sign at sunset:

Entrance sign at sunset

We were here over Christmas, and they had a parade of side-by-sides and other vehicles:

Christmas parade

Christmas parade

Sunset:

Sunset

We ate in the cafe several times:

Cafe

Cafe

Chicken fried steak, baked spud, beans:

Chicken fried steak, baked spud, beans

Mexican:

Mexican

Burger & fries, plus fish & chips:

Burger and fries

Telescoping ladder

Many RVs come with a ladder built in on the back, but unfortunately ours did not. Apparently the latest trend is to skip the ladder, so I guess our coach was ahead of the curve. Still, being able to climb onto the roof, or reach other high parts of the sides, is rather useful. Especially since the coach is 12’ 7” high.

So, another useful recent purchase was a ladder. A rather versatile ladder: it can be collapsed for compact storage, and extended to various heights up to 16.5 feet, plenty to reach our roof, plus can fold in the middle to make a two-sided A-frame ladder about 8 feet high, perfect for reaching up the sides. Yet it’s lightweight, at only 38 pounds:

Ladder

Here it is collapsed and stored in the back of our truck:

Ladder

Travel from Phoenix to Salome, AZ

We departed Phoenix, Arizona and headed to Salome, Arizona. Our last coach drive of 2021.

Here’s the map route (going from right to left); 113 miles, a couple of hours drive in our coach:

Map route

Paladin wasn’t thrilled, as usual:

Paladin

We were passed by a Tiffin Phaeton coach, and fellow Oregonians too:

Phaeton RV

Some pics of the road, desert, and hills:

Road

Road

Road

A stop for lunch:

Lunch

Continuing down the road:

Road

Road

Road

Our destination until mid-January:

RV park

Stay tuned for a timelapse video!

Dry camping at Straight Line RV

The coach was with Straight Line RV in Phoenix, Arizona to replace and paint some basement doors, while we were staying at an Airbnb. They did excellent work; I highly recommend them.

They weren’t quite finished after we checked out of the Airbnb, so we spent the night in their yard:

Coach

Not a big deal; the coach is self-contained. And they even provided a 50 amp electrical hookup, so we could run the AC without needing the generator (they had kept it plugged in while working on it, to keep the fridge going):

Coach

We shared the yard with some fire vehicles:

Fire engine

Coach and fire engine

Coach

Morning:

Coach

Coach

Coach

Slides in, ready to head out:

Slides in

The electric door locks weren’t working quite right, but they went above and beyond to drive a three-hour roundtrip to our next campsite to try to fix them. It turned out to be a manufacturing fault with one of the small doors, so I decided to leave that as a manually-locking door, since I very rarely use that compartment. (They would have fixed it for us, but it wasn’t worth the hassle.)

Again, I highly recommend Straight Line RV for any RV body or paint work. They did a great job, and were very accommodating to work with.