A silent timelapse of a short drive of the coach from Coyote Valley RV Resort near San Jose, California to Thousand Trails San Benito Preserve also in California.
Short travel day to San Benito, CA
We departed Coyote Valley RV Resort near San Jose, California, and headed to Thousand Trails San Benito, California.
This was a short travel day, less than two hours.
Here’s a map of our route for this leg:
After zipping down the 101 freeway, it was time for some highway driving:
Paladin came up to see us:
He had opinions about driving:
On the step cover:
I picked up Paladin, and held him on my lap for a minute, before he wanted to retreat:
More highway driving:
Then we turned onto a more narrow road:
Reaching the Thousand Trails campground entrance:
Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse video of this journey, and pictures of the campground the following day.
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Apple Park Visitor Center
While near San Jose, we had of course to make a pilgrimage to the mothership, i.e. the Apple Park spaceship.
Or at least as close as we could get to it; the Visitor Center across the road from the campus:
I’ve been there before, during the Apple’s developer conference (back when it was held in person), but this was Jenn’s first visit.
One can glimpse the spaceship from the roof deck:
The roof deck:
Below is a cafe, an AR display (currently closed due to COVID), and an Apple retail store:
Cute AirPods display:
I want to get a new MacBook Pro 16″ like this, though I want a specced-up model that isn’t available in stores yet, so I’ll hold off for now:
We’d talked about getting a base model MacBook Air like this for Jenn:
So we did:
California’s Great America
We visited the California’s Great America amusement park in San Jose. We’re not really into amusement or theme parks, but Jenn wanted to do the Mass Effect ride, so we went basically just for that.
A selfie:
We wandered around and looked at the other rides, though nothing really appealed:
Jenn with Snoopy:
Gondola:
We decided to ride the gondola back to the entrance:
Then it was time for the Mass Effect ride:
Jenn really enjoyed the ride, so mission accomplished.
Posing with Wrex:
Jenn with Garrus:
Since we were at an amusement park, we had to have some park food to round out the experience; we shared a tasty funnel cake:
Winchester Mystery House
While staying near San Jose, we toured the famous Winchester Mystery House.
A rather bizarre house, with low-riser stairs, windows in floors, a door to nowhere, and other strange things.
Here’s a model of the house:
Info plaque:
Winchester goods:
Green screen tour photos:
Low riser stairs:
Bedroom:
Desk:
Low riser stairs:
Bedroom:
Pictures:
Floor window:
Arboretum:
Hair wreath:
Desk:
Sink:
Basin:
Bedroom:
Floor window:
Arboretum:
Stained glass:
Display:
Door:
Roof:
Dresser:
Bathroom:
Laundry:
Stores:
Kitchen:
Unfinished room:
Dining room:
Front door:
Dining rooms:
Fireplace:
Parlor:
Pantry:
Dining room:
Parlor:
Ceiling:
Foreman’s house:
Fruit drying shed:
Water tower:
Carriage:
Greenhouse:
Back of the house:
Gardens:
Windows:
Fountain:
House exterior:
Door to nowhere:
Front door:
Gardens:
Smart surge protector
The electrical bay in our coach includes a Surge Guard power protection transfer switch, which manages switching the electricity between “shore” power (i.e. plugged in to a campground) and the generator. It also serves to protect the coach systems from power spikes and other issues:
However, it’s good practice to have a separate surge protector, since the act of protecting the coach can damage the device. An external one that plugs in to the power pedistal at a campsite is a much cheaper thing to replace if necessary.
One of the most popular ones is the Hughes Autoformers Power Watchdog, so that’s what I got. Here’s its box:
Not only does it protect against power surges and other electrical issues, it also has a replaceable surge module, so just part of it can be replaced if needed, instead of having to replace the whole thing. It also has an app that displays the current power usage.
Here’s the Power Watchdog plugged in at a campground. The dog face glows white if all is well, or turns red if an issue occurs (and the display below shows the error code):
Here’s a screenshot of the app:
At another campground at night; the dog face is fairly bright:
Food: In-N-Out Burger in San Jose, CA
[This was a bonus at the end of the Coyote Valley RV Resort post, but I decided to split it out to a separate post, to make it easier to find food-related topics.]
For dinner our first night in San Jose, California, we sampled the local cuisine… an In-N-Out Burger. Our second time at one, and a more favorable impression than the first time. They’re all over here, so no huge line like in Oregon locations, though they still took quite a long time to provide the food:
Still only about McDonalds level of food, but tasty enough. The burgers were… fine. The fries were freshly cut, but rather styrofoam-y. We had chocolate shakes, which were quite good:
Coyote Valley RV Resort
A recent addition to our itinerary, we decided to spend three nights at Coyote Valley RV Park to break up an otherwise too-long trip to our next location.
Here I’m in our truck behind our coach, having just unhooked them. We had a back-in site, so it’s easier for me to unhook while Jenn is checking in, so we don’t block the road by the site:
A staff member guided us to the site:
This was our first back-in site. Jenn did a great job getting positioned:
Hookups:
This is an unusually large site, entirely concreted, other than a grassy garden between sites:
Campground map:
This part of the park is very new:
Green spaces:
Bocce ball:
Wilderness area:
Pond with ducks:
Clubhouse and pool area:
Dog park:
Office etc:
Other pool area:
Paladin looking out a window:
Video: timelapse of coach driving from Corning, CA to San Jose, CA
A timelapse of the coach going from Heritage RV Park in Corning, California to Coyote Valley RV Resort near San Jose, California.
A pretty smooth drive from an eventfulness point of view… but anything but smooth from a road quality point of view. The cement freeway north of San Jose was horribly rutty.
Travel from Corning to San Jose
We departed Heritage RV Park in Corning, California, and headed down to San Jose, to Coyote Valley RV Resort, a bit south of the city.
Here’s a map of our route for this leg; a 5 hour drive in our coach:
Nice rolling green hills:
Not so nice heavy traffic through Vacaville:
More hills:
680 Benicia-Martinez bridge:
Super scenic industry:
Nice of California to name a freeway after us — the Sinclair Freeway:
Paladin peeking; still not super happy about travel days, but getting a little more used to them, I think:
The 680 freeway south of Pleasanton was anything but pleasant; the road surface was in horrible condition, making the coach feel like it was going to shake apart:
Paladin came further forward than he had before (I kept a close eye on him, to make sure he didn’t go by the pedals at Jenn’s feet):
Downtown San Jose off in the distance:
Stay tuned tomorrow for a timelapse video of this journey.
Are you enjoying these posts? Let me know!