Xscapers Bash: let’s get the party started

The Xscapers Annual Bash kicked off on Saturday (January 8, 2022).

Here’s me with my name badge on my hat, a clever idea we saw on another attendee (easier than transferring it between shirts):

David with badge on hat

We also have wrist bands as proof of eligibility… which are color-coded to show first-time attendees in orange… colloquially called convirgins:

Wrist band

The kickoff event was a gathering of attendees in the rodeo stands, for announcements and such:

Attendees

Announcements

They were dressed in boating themes for the evening’s entertainment, yacht rock.

A drone recorded the event:

Drone

Afterwards, as the sun set behind the mountains, everyone gathered on the bleachers and ferris wheel for a group photo:

Group photo

Looking from the top of the bleachers over some of the RVs at sunset:

RVs at sunset

Looking towards the ferris wheel from our coach (on the right):

Ferris wheel from our coach

The ferris wheel was only there for one day:

Ferris wheel

Ferris wheel GIF:

Ferris wheel

People mingling:

People

Walking back to our coach, the party section near the central area was well lit:

Party section

While the general section was darker:

General section

The next morning, packing up the ferris wheel; it was impressive how compact it was:

Packing up the ferris wheel

They replaced it with a couple of bounce castle things for the kids:

Bounce castle

A marketplace where attendees could buy and sell stuff:

Marketplace

A nice motorcycle with sidecar by a toy hauler fiver RV with deck:

Nice motorcycle with sidecar

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

View from inside:

View from inside

Drying:

Cleaning

Hand waxing:

Hand waxing

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

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

Video

Video: timelapse of coach driving from Salome, AZ to Lake Havasu City, AZ

A timelapse of driving the coach 83 miles from Salome, Arizona to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, for the Xscapers Annual Bash, with a stop at Love’s for fuel. (I forgot to start the camera until we exited the RV park, but didn’t miss much.)

https://youtu.be/O021hsOdx60

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

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

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

“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

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

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

Sunset:

Sunset

We ate in the cafe several times:

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

Security cameras

Back at the homestead, I enjoyed watching the feral cats, ducks, and chickens on the various cameras I had around the property. Plus I found comfort in being able to watch people coming to the front door.

I missed that in our coach, so I looked for new camera systems. The homestead cameras were IP-based, recording to on-camera SD cards (sometimes, with a high failure rate). This time, I still wanted the recordings to be kept locally, to avoid using valuable internet bandwidth, but wanted more modern technology. I found the Eufy brand of cameras, which fit the bill nicely. They are focused on privacy, with the recordings staying on a local device, though a centralized one instead of in each camera. But I can view the cameras, live or recordings, from anywhere. They are also battery-powered (with built-in rechargeable batteries), so I didn’t need to worry about plugging them in.

The Eufy camera comes in various bundle options, but I got a set with two cameras plus the base unit to start. I can add more cameras in the future if I think of use cases.

I mounted one Eufy camera on the outside of the coach, by the entry door. It’s attached with a Command strip that can be pulled apart and pushed together, so I can remove the camera when traveling. (It would probably stay put, but I wouldn’t want to risk losing it):

Eufy camera

Here’s the camera in context:

Eufy camera

I mounted the second camera inside, watching the living room, so I can keep an eye on our cat Paladin while were away from the coach. It is also mounted with Command strips; we like to avoid screwing things into walls if possible:

Eufy camera

Context for it:

Eufy camera

The cameras wirelessly connect to this base unit to save and share the recordings:

Eufy base unit

It is in turn connected via Ethernet to our Pepwave cellular modem (which is looking dusty; soon we hope to have it installed in a better place, and connected to a roof antenna for better signal):

Pepwave modem

Here’s a view from the outside cam, during a brief spot of rain:

Outside cam view

And a view from the inside cam (you can see me and Jenn sitting in the living area):

Inside cam view

The Eufy app is quite nice. Here’s the main screen, showing the devices:

Eufy app

The Events page, showing recorded events for the specified day:

Eufy app

Showing one recording, with a sketchy-looking guy at the door. It recognizes humans, and also captures a thumbnail of the face:

Eufy app

The Security page has modes for the system; I have it set to use geofencing, so it automatically switches to Away mode (where the living room camera is enabled) when I leave the vicinity, and back to Home mode (where the living room camera is disabled) when I return:

Eufy app

(Of course, I’ll need to reset the geofence each time we move the coach, but that is easy enough.)

2021 modifications

We have done a number of modifications to our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome, to make it more comfortable as a full-time home, to improve the features, or to repair issues. This is a summary of some of the changes done in 2021.

As with previous summaries, for each I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details.

You can see all of the modification-related blog posts via the modifications category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Removing couches; we removed the two couches that came with the coach, so we could replace them with our swivel recliner chairs and a desk:

Couch dissembly

Toad installation; installing the tow bar and related changes, to tow our truck behind the coach:

Tow bar

Minor mods including a towel holder, shower tweaks, necklace racks, and chair levelers:

Towel holder

Desk; a desk and cat litter box where a couch used to be:

Desk

Cooktop; replacing the induction cooktop:

Removed cooktop

Media cupboard; rearranging to fit our equipment:

Media cupboard

AGM batteries; we had the house batteries replaced with better ones:

Batteries

We also got a couple more solar panels installed; I didn’t do a blog post about those, though you can see them (covered in leaves) in the Valley of the Rogue drone shots post (I can’t believe I haven’t flown my drone since then; I really should do so):

Coach roof

Tire pressure monitoring system; to make sure none of the tires have an issue while driving:

Display unit

Upgraded Spyder control panel; a much nicer panel:

Upgraded control panel

Replaced lights; fixed some flickering lights:

Replaced lights

Smart surge protector; to help avoid electrical issues:

Power Watchdog

Clear sewer hose extension; to help watch the flow:

Wet bay

Toilet flush switch replacement; fixing an unreliable switch:

Trying replacement switch

There are a few more modifications that I did in 2021; stay tuned for posts about them over the coming days.

2021 attractions

One of the main reasons for traveling the United States in a motorhome is to explore the many wonders around the country. This is a summary of some of the attractions we visited in 2021.

I’ll skip the many Yellowstone National Park places; check out the Yellowstone posts for those.

As with the previous summary, I’ll include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture. Click or tap the link to see more.

You can see all of the attraction-related blog posts via the exploring category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Olympic National Park in the Northeast corner of Washington state:

Above the clouds at Hurricane Ridge