A minor addition to our coach is some hooks by the door for our hats. They are Command metal hooks, that use a convenient self-adhesive to mount without damage to the coach:
RV
Posts featuring the coach.
Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay
We stayed at Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay in Chula Vista, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Party city. We don’t like parties.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-04-08
- Check out: 2023-04-16
- 8 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy, one day with drizzle
- High temps ranging between 57-70°F, lows around 48-52°F
- Negligible wind, up to 16 MPH gusts
Noise:
- Some distant freeway noise
- No road noise
- No train noise most of the time; once or twice distant noise
- Frequent helicopter noise from a naval air station
- Lots of neighbor noise (this was a bit more of a “fun” resort than we usually prefer)
Site:
- #16, back-in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad; parked next to coach
- Level
- Small site: about 50 feet long by about 25 feet wide
- Patio table, chairs, plumbed-in gas fire pit on concrete
- Shrubs (in need of a trim)
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 45 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 35-46 Mbps down, 13-21 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Central garbage compactor, not very convenient (a resort really should have garbage collection from site)
- Swimming pool & hot tubs
- Onsite cafe with delivery to site
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Party central, not the place for quiet contemplation
This was the most expensive place we’ve ever stayed and I really wanted to like it but wound up counting the hours until we departed. Perhaps it was because it was spring break, but this resort was packed with rowdy groups and masses of kids. You could hardly drive down the road without dodging the corn hole games, kids on bikes, adults on skateboards, etc. And, oh the noise, noise, noise. If the neighbors weren’t blasting their music or shrieking, the park itself had music blaring from the pool area or roving the streets. We work during the week, so it was unconducive to concentration. It’s petty, but the biggest complaint is that for $165/night they should have trash pickup at your site. They have one dumpster/compactor and it’s equally inconvenient wherever you are in the park. They also have annoyingly planted trees right next to the patio on the northern sites along the fence. We couldn’t get between our front door and the patio without squeezing between the tree and our slide. On the plus side, the cafe and bar were nice and we enjoyed several meals there, and the plumbed-in gas firepit at our site was a nice addition. The Bayshore Bikeway runs right by the park and it was nice to ride around the bay. We camped at Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: San Diego Zoo is worth the hype (order your tickets online to save a few bucks and avoid the line at the park), and Balboa Park has so much to see. The Cabrillo National Monument is also a great place to check out.
Interactive map; the RV park is too new for the satellite image as of this writing, but may be there if you check later:
Campground map:
Our site:
We rode our bikes:
This shrub was touching our coach; I trimmed it back so we could access the patio:
A nice plumbed-in fire pit:
We like places with on-site restaurants, even better when they will deliver to our site, which we took advantage of on travel day; we’re always tired then, so nice to not to have to cook or go out:
We went to the cafe a few times:
Breakfast:
Another day, free drinks from tokens given on arrival:
Dinner:
Another breakfast:
This place had a definite party vibe, including roving live music on our first day:
Other sites:
Cabins:
Pool area:
Finally, another view of our site, with our coach packed up and ready to leave:
This was a nice, new resort. We enjoyed the convenience of the cafe. But we didn’t enjoy the noisy neighbors, with lots of people having large gatherings in front of their sites (and on the roads), with loud talking, loud children, and loud music. Not our kind of place.
Video: Orange to San Diego, California motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 99 miles from Orange, California to San Diego, California.
Travel from Orange to San Diego, California
We drove our coach 99 miles, about two hours of driving, from Orange (Los Angeles), California to San Diego, California.
Here’s the map route, heading south:
An interactive map, showing our stops and potential stops:
Leaving the RV park; Jenn drove our coach around the block to the check-in area so we could toad up:
Paladin on the steps; this has become one of his favorite places for travel days, so I’m happy to leave the step cover open for him:
Bright green hills:
I-5 freeway traffic:
The Pacific Ocean and yellow flowers:
A stop at a rest area to kill some time (since it was a relatively short drive) and have lunch:
Annoyingly, the truck parking was overrun with cars:
Back to heavy I-5 freeway traffic:
Heading to Chula Vista:
Checking in:
We had a back-in site, so I untoaded while Jenn checked in, then followed the coach to the site:
Our site before parking:
Open Roads fuel discount card
Our coach has a 150 gallon diesel tank, and gets about 7 miles per gallon, so we can use a fair bit of fuel in our travels.
We are glad that there is an option to save a bit of money: the Open Roads fuel discount card.
This service offers significant discounts off diesel fuel at select fuel stops, and enables paying at the pump, instead of having to go in to authorize the purchase (except in Oregon and Nevada).
It also includes an app that helps us find the discounted locations, and compare prices:
The detail page has additional information:
As a recent example, we filled about 76 gallons of diesel (half our tank capacity; we usually fill when it gets about halfway). The pump price was $376.66:
But we saved $92.82 on that fuel up, so “only” paid $293.77:
To learn more about Open Roads, take a look at this blog post and video on the Our Journey in Miles blog. They have a spreadsheet to help track the savings, too.
We don’t have a referral code or anything, so if you join, you could use theirs, or could enter “Jennifer Sinclair” as the referrer to give us credit.
Orangeland RV Park
We stayed at Orangeland RV Park in Orange (Los Angeles), California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our second stay here; a nice park, just a few miles from Disneyland.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-04-01
- Check out: 2023-04-08
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps ranging between 64-82°F, lows around 44-54°F
- Little wind; one day of 28 MPH gusts
Noise:
- No freeway noise, some road noise
- No train noise, but distant horns a few times
- Some neighbor noise
Site:
- #96, pull-through, asphalt
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach
- Fairly level
- Small site: about 50 feet long by about 30 feet wide
- Patio table & chairs on asphalt
- Orange trees that can be harvested
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
- 80 PSI water, conveniently located
- Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 78-86 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- AT&T: 20 Mbps down, 6-18 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
- Verizon: 21-28 Mbps down, 16-23 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage collection from site
- Swimming pool & hot tub
- Package delivery to office
- Just a few miles from Disneyland
Our review on Campground Reviews:
The place to stay for Disneyland
This was our second time staying here, and I would happily stay again. For an urban setting so close to Disneyland and other attractions, they could easily charge more than they do. This park is genuinely a park, with lovely landscaping and attention to service. We had site 96, which was an interestingly located pull-through site right at the end of a row close to the office. The only downside to the location is there is no privacy screening between your living area and the check-in area. There’s entertainment value in watching the flow of people coming into the park, but I would’ve preferred a nice trellis or hedge to look at. We also enjoyed being close enough to civilization to order food delivery and get some service done on our rig while here. But the main draw, of course, is being a 10-minute drive to Disneyland. We camped at Orangeland RV Park in a Motorhome.
Interactive map:
Campground map:
They also have a map on a wall showing where all of the fruit trees are:
Our site:
Our site was near the registration area:
Setting up our site; here’s a video of a leveling jack going down:
Griddle, filters, and water softener stored for transport:
Setting up utilities:
A nice thing about being in a city; we can get pizza delivery:
Working outside:
The registration area was so close:
A nice thing about this park is they offer trash pickup from the site (and even provide a bag):
The Orangeland RV Park entrance:
Office:
Registration area:
Pool:
Hot tub (which was undergoing renovations last time we were here):
Putting area:
Games:
Pool table:
Outdoor livng area:
Outdoor kitchen:
Covered playground:
The local bus goes through the park:
A Tiffin Phaeton arrival:
Other RV sites:
Video: Palm Desert to Orange, California motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 103 miles from Palm Desert, California to Orange, California.
Travel from Palm Desert to Orange, California
We drove our coach 103 miles, about two hours of driving, from Palm Desert, California to Orange (Los Angeles), California.
Here’s the map route, heading west:
An interactive map of our route, with potential stops marked:
Leaving our site:
Toading up:
Leaving the campground:
Palm Springs overpass:
There were lots of yellow flowers below the wind turbines:
A stop at a rest area:
A school bus next to us at the rest area:
Exit:
Green hills:
Snowy mountains:
Exit:
Castle Park theme park:
Heavy traffic:
Green hills:
Exit:
Honda Center:
Our destination, Orangeland RV Park:
Guided to our site by a guy on a Segway; the site was that empty one on the left, but we needed to loop around the block to get into it:
Going the wrong way, and crossing grass, to pull through into our site:
Engine compartment door stop replacement
One weak point in our coach is the door stop of the rear engine compartment. Twice I’ve had it break.
Here’s the rear door:
It is held closed with a couple of latches, that hook onto door stops like this (the left one):
Twice the right-hand one has broken off:
So I ordered some replacements from Tiffin, part number 5116094 (“REAR ENGINE DOOR STOP BRE 2016”):
I didn’t have any of the weather stripping padding, so I used some self-adhesive cupboard bumpers instead, which works fine:
I now have a couple more spare, so if it breaks again, I’ll be ready!
Video: Thousand Trails Palm Springs campground timelapse
A timelapse of the Thousand Trails Palm Springs campground.