A timelapse of driving the coach 237 miles from Tucson, Arizona to Cottonwood / Verde Valley, Arizona.
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Travel from Tucson to Cottonwood, AZ
After the FMCA convention, we drove 237 miles, over four hours, from Pima County fairgrounds just south of Tucson, Arizona to Verde Valley, Cottonwood, Arizona.
A longer drive than we prefer, but not too bad. We try to keep drives to about 200 miles or three hours where feasible. We like to follow the 2/2/2 rule: drive no more than 200 miles in a day, arrive by 2 PM, stop every 2 hours, and stay for at least 2 nights (so the rule really should be 2/2/2/2, but some people omit one of the middle clauses). There’s also the 3/3/3 rule, with the obvious variations, but that seems a bit much to us.
Here’s the route map, going from bottom to top:
On departure day from the convention, there was a pretty constant stream of RVs leaving the fairgrounds. Here are two Tiffins departing:
We noticed once on the road that I had neglected to remove the Magne Shade from the small side window, so we pulled off on the side of a freeway onramp to remove it:
Passing Picacho Peak again; such an interesting pointy bit:
A couple more Tiffins:
We liked the quote from the Lord of the Rings: “Not all who wander are lost”:
Since this was a long drive, we stopped at rest areas where available:
Paladin sitting between us:
Passing by downtown Phoenix:
Paladin in his dash bed, briefly; I still hope he’ll get comfortable enough with travel days to sit there while we drive:
Cacti:
Yay, gusty winds; super fun in a high-profile vehicle; fortunately not too bad:
We passed through several hills, including this 5% downgrade:
I was amused by the sign for Bumble Bee and Crown King:
Another hill:
A stop at Love’s for fuel:
And DEF:
Chips and sandwich for travel lunch:
On another hill, a runaway truck ramp; a deep gravel upward slope to stop a truck that loses its brakes:
6% grade:
Quite the view from the hill, though:
The Cottonwood exit:
There were several traffic circles:
Another nice view:
Our destination:
Foldable wagon
Occasionally we need to lug a bunch of heavy or awkward things, e.g. several packages from Amazon from a campground mail room to our coach. So a recent purchase was something to help with that: a compact foldable wagon:
It folds and collapses to a compact size, with a protective cover:
And unfolds easily, with a telescoping handle:
It doesn’t take up much room in the basement of our RV (under other stuff):
In use:
While we probably won’t use it very often, I expect it’ll be very handy when needed.
Introducing the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook
There are several groups on Facebook for RVers, from general topics like Full Time RV Living and RV Boondocking, to ones specific to our brand of motorhome like Tiffin Motorhome Owners Group, Tiffin Motorhome Lifestyle, Tiffin Motorhomes Technical Forum, and several more… to ones specific to a model, like Tiffin Allegro Bus Owners, Tiffin Phaeton Owners, Tiffin Open Roaders, etc. And even some specific to model and year or floorplan, like Tiffin Phaeton Owners 2002-2012 and Tiffin Phaeton 40IH & 44OH Owners.
We have a 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP. While the Tiffin Allegro Bus Owners group covers that model, there have been a wide range of features and changes over the years. So I thought that a more tightly focused group could be useful. While I was tempted to create a group for our specific year and floorplan, that seemed a bit too narrow. And there is a lot of commonality between the coaches released in years either side of ours in the various floorplans, e.g. they all have similar Spyder control panels, furnishings, appliances, finishes, etc.
So, without further ado, I’m pleased to introduce the Tiffin Allegro Bus 2016-2018 Owners group on Facebook.
This new community is focused, as the name indicates, on the Allegro Bus released between 2016 and 2018 (inclusive) by Tiffin Motorhomes, including the 37AP, 40AP, 40SP, 45OP, 45OPP, and other floorplans in those model years.
It’s difficult to start a new community, but I’m seeding it with cross-posts to the Sinclair Trails blog, on topics related to modifications and repairs of our 2017 40SP coach. Hopefully those will be of interest and use to others, and hopefully other Allegro Bus owners will find this group and join, and add their own posts on relevant topics.
Eventually, I hope this community will be a useful resource for discussions of repairs, enhancements, and other topics specific to these coaches. Time will tell!
If you have an eligible coach, or are interested in them, please join the group!
FMCA Tucson 2022: RVs for sale
There were a bunch of RVs on display (and for sale) from a few dealers at the FMCA convention.
For people who wanted something small, there were some class B Pluses:
Or something smaller, for people interested in #vanlife:
More our speed, they had a Tiffin Allegro Bus 35CP; smaller than our coach, but more modern tech:
An accessible Winnebago Inspire 34AE:
Entegra Anthem 44B:
Entegra Aspire 40P:
Another Entegra Aspire 40P:
A Fleetwood RV with a kitchen island; very unusual for a motorhome:
To accommodate the island, the dining table rotates against the wall, which is nice as a desk too:
American Dream 39RK:
Also with an island:
An older Newmar Dutch Star:
A newer Tiffin Allegro Bus than ours (also longer):
NIRVC RVs:
A naked RV chassis:
Most of the RVs on display were class A motorhomes, but there were a few fifth wheel trailers:
A side deck would be nice:
Finally, a Tiffin Phaeton:
Fascinating to explore other RVs. We came to the conclusion that we don’t like any others as much as our Tiffin. Though there were a few features we’d like, and of course we’d like some of the improvements of newer Tiffins.
FMCA Tucson 2022: the convention
After the RV driving classes, we moved to our campsite for the FMCA “Sunsets + Saguaros” annual convention.
Here’s a satellite image of the Pima County Fairgrounds, with our dry camping location marked by a grey pin on the left of the map, and our convention site marked by the same pin on the right of the map:
Here’s our coach, as I was following Jenn to our site:
The goatheads were just as prevalent over this side, including sticking in the tires:
We really lucked out with our site, on the end of the row, so nobody next to us on the door side:
Sunset:
This site had 50 amp electricity, but no water or sewer. So since we’d already been dry camping for four days by this point, we signed up for the septic pumping and water refill service for a couple of days later:
Our site again (with a Tiffin Allegro Open Road behind us, and a Tiffin Phaeton next to our Tiffin Allegro Bus, and another Tiffin Allegro Bus further down; there were a lot of Tiffins nearby, among others:
Looking down the row of RVs:
The Phaeton next to our coach:
Someone put a note warning of some ground-nesting baby birds:
We attended the session for first time attendees:
I attended a “Don’t Call a Tech” talk on easy RV fixes:
FMCA offered mail service, and we got several deliveries:
On the appointed day, we put out the septic and water signs:
We didn’t really need it, since we still had 20% water, and our waste tanks weren’t very full, but it was more comfortable not having to worry about it:
The truck turned up late that evening; here’s our coach, with the ceiling accent lights visible through the Magne Shade, and the blue ground effect lights and under-slide lights on:
The septic truck:
Septic pumping:
They filled our water tank via the gravity fill port:
Happy gauges:
A cute tiny trailer behind a scooter:
We attended a talk about emotions and “positive intelligence” with RVing:
Gyros food truck:
Gyro and Greek fries:
A long line for the ice cream social (which we didn’t bother with):
A talk on boondocking (by podcasters I listen to, StressLess Camping); before the talk, they complimented my beard, and I complimented their podcast:
A bunch of exhibits (I didn’t take any photos inside):
Mariachi band:
They held a “Mr Whiskers” contest for beards and mustaches, which I stayed away from, since I don’t like public attention… and I clearly would have won, so nice of me to let some lesser beard have a chance:
Finally, an aerial photo published by FMCA, showing the hundreds of attending RVs (we were over on the right side; see the map above):
Having attended two rallies so far (Xscapers and FMCA), we are coming to the conclusion that rallies aren’t for us. We’re not into the socializing or partying, and the talks are generally low value. It is nice to have easy access to a bunch of vendors, though, and to look through RVs from multiple dealers.
We have another couple of rallies coming up this year: a Tiffin rally in June, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. So we’ll see how those go. Next year, we might not bother with rallies, or might go in with different expectations and goals.
Video: FMCA Tucson 2022: RV Driving School lessons
A timelapse of driving the coach for the RV Driving School backing and driving classes, and moving sites at the FMCA Tucson 2022 convention.
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.