Dumping our tanks after a week without sewer

Our site in the Valley of the Rogue campground had electricity and water hookups, but no sewer. So we had to be a little careful with water usage. Not as much as in the trailer in Yellowstone, as our coach has fairly large tanks (50 gallons black, 70 gallons grey, plus 90 gallons fresh water). The black tank is for our two toilets, and the grey tank is for our sinks, shower, dishwasher, and clothes washer.

We didn’t do any laundry during the week, as the washing machine uses the most water. We did run the dishwasher a couple of times, on the “eco” setting, as it doesn’t use all that much. And we went a couple of days between showers, and did them “navy” style, where we get wet, turn off the water, lather up, then rinse off.

As it happened, we didn’t need to be quite so careful, as we ended the week with only 67% of our grey tank used, and 79% of our black tank. But for the first time without a sewer hookup in this coach, we wanted to err on the cautious side:

Tank levels

To avoid hauling that waste water to our next campground, we stopped at the dump station on the way out:

Dump station

Valley of the Rogue State Park drone shots

While at the Valley of the Rogue State Park in southern Oregon, I flew my drone above the campsite. In part because it’s a fun thing to do, but also for a practical reason: to check the roof and slide toppers for branches, since we were parked amongst trees.

Here’s our campsite, with our coach and truck:

Coach and truck

From higher up:

Campsites

From this height, you can see most of the campground loop (and nice fall foliage):

Campground

A little higher to see the whole loop; not quite as bright, as starting to get into clouds (this was at just below the legal height limit for a drone):

Campground

Tilting upwards, a view of the Rogue River and the next-door campground loops, which are being used for FEMA trailers from last year’s wildfires:

Rogue River and campground

Looking to the left:

Rogue River and campground

The campground is right next to the I-5 freeway (as seen from the base of cloud level), which was a bit noisy at night:

Freeway

Heading back down again:

Campsites

Views of our coach roof, showing all the leaves. This was also my first look at our two extra solar panels, installed by Poulsbo RV:

Coach

Coach roof

I was particularly interested in the slide toppers, to make sure no branches were going to damage them. Though we don’t have a ladder, so it would have been difficult to remove them if there had been any:

Coach roof

I did fly my drone low over the toppers, which blew off most of the leaves. You can see me flying by looking at the screen:

Coach roof

Oregon Vortex

Another roadside attraction that we visited in southern Oregon was the Oregon Vortex.

To quote from their website:

The Oregon Vortex is a glimpse of a strange world where the improbable is the commonplace and everyday physical facts are reversed. It is an area of naturally occurring visual and perceptual phenomena, which can be captured on film. No matter your education or profession you will find a challenge to all your accepted theories.

The Oregon Vortex entrance:

Oregon Vortex entrance

Entrance and gift shop:

Entrance and gift store

Info signs:

Info signs

Info sign

The main gimmick of this place is that things appear to have different heights depending on where you stand. We had a guide to ourselves, who got us to stand against poles, then reverse positions, and it appeared our heights changed. Certainly not evident in the pictures, but while there, it did kinda feel like it, either through the power of suggestion, sloping backgrounds, or other magic:

Jenn and David

David and Jenn

A feature of the place is the “House of Mystery”; a 1904 gold assay office that slid off its foundation:

House of Mystery

Within it, there is just one small level platform, as demonstrated by our guide:

Level platform

Jenn on the platform:

Jenn on platform

Behind the house, another level platform:

Level platform

Another demonstration was a board between our guide and Jenn, where they swapped places again, and felt a height change, though again the camera shows it was an illusion:

Board between guide and Jenn

Board between Jenn and guide

Another demo, with me and Jenn swapping places:

David and Jenn

Jenn and David

The gift shop:

Gift store

It was an interesting place to visit, and an iconic Oregon attraction.

Replaced lights

One of the known issues with our coach when we bought it was a few of the vanity lights were not working. We asked Poulsbo RV to replace them when they did some work on the coach. They did replace a few, but missed others that were not working or intermittently flashing rather annoyingly.

So I replaced the remaining ones myself.

Firstly I looked at one they replaced, to check the polarity of the wires, since the replacement lights just have unmarked white wires… and I believe polarity matters with DC wiring. In this picture of a couple of vanity lights in the rear bathroom, the left light is an original broken one, and the right is one they replaced:

Bathroom lights

I then replaced that left one above, plus four under-cabinet lights in the kitchen. Here are a couple of the kitchen lights before replacement:

Kitchen lights

Replaced lights:

Replaced lights

All better:

Replaced lights

Replaced lights on the left side:

Replaced lights

Re-attached, without the covers:

Replaced lights

Works:

Replaced lights

All done, with covers in place:

Replaced lights

Electrical stuff is new to me, but being able to do it myself saves time and money. It’s good to learn new skills.

Upgraded Spyder control panel

A very welcome upgrade that we recently did to our coach was to replace the main control panel in the bedroom hallway.

The old control panel that came with the coach was fine, but the mode buttons on the sides required a very firm press, and the grayscale screen looked a bit dated, and was hard to read in bright light:

Old control panel

Fortunately the manufacturer, Spyder Controls, now offers an updated panel for several Tiffin models, including ours.

It was an easy operation to replace it. I removed the old panel, unplugged its network cable, attached the new panel’s mount, plugged in the new panel, and snapped it in place. Here’s the new mount and the data cable:

Panel mount and cable

The upgraded control panel installed; so much nicer:

Upgraded control panel

A tour of the various screens of the panel, starting with the home screen, which shows the fresh, grey, and black water tank levels, the house and chassis battery levels, buttons to turn on or off the water pump, all lights, diesel or electric water heating, panel lights, and the backlight, plus mode buttons along the bottom:

Home screen

Main lights screen, to turn on or off various lights in the living area, plus the lights master, that turns them all off or on (returning them to the state when last on):

Lights screen

Exterior lights screen:

Exterior lights screen

Rear lights screen, for the bedroom, mid bath, rear bath, and bedroom ceiling fan:

Rear lights screen

Slides screen, for the bedroom slides; the front slides are controlled by switches on the driver and passenger chairs (it’s nice that it shows the floor plan, too):

Slides screen

Climate screen, with under-floor heating in the front and rear, plus the Aqua-Hot water heater, that can run off diesel for continuous hot water, electric for a smaller amount of hot water, and engine pre-heat for really cold days:

Climate screen

Locks screen, to lock or unlock the front door or basement doors:

Locks screen

Power screen, for the water pump, engine preheat, and generator:

Power screen

Fans screen, to start or stop the ceiling fans and open or close their lids:

Fans screen

Shades and lifts screen, to open or close all of the living room shades, and raise or lower the living room TV and bed:

Shades and lifts screen

Individual shades screen, with separate controls for each of the living room shades:

Individual shades screen

Settings screen:

Settings screen

Screen settings screen:

Screen settings screen

Color scheme screen:

Color scheme screen

Diagnostics screen:

Diagnostics screen

Golden ghost town

While staying at Valley of the Rogue State Park, we visited a local attraction, the Golden ghost town, an Oregon state heritage site.

Quoting from that website:

At its peak, the 19th century mining town of Golden, now a ghost town, was home to 100 people and served as a hub for many others who worked the land in more remote locations. The 1850s mining camp eventually gave way to a town established around 1890. Golden was distinguished by its lack of saloons in the town center, its two active churches and the large orchard established by its founding families. Today, visitors can explore the remaining settlements perched above the valley where miners once toiled.

Golden’s remains include four buildings: a church, a former residence, a shed and a structure that once housed a post office and store. The entire property is in the National Register of Historic Places.

Here are the store and homestead of Golden:

Golden store and homestead

The Golden sign:

Golden sign

Store:

Store

Inside the store (peeking in from outside; it looked very dark to me, but the iPhone works well in low light):

Inside the store

The homestead:

Homestead

Shed:

Shed

Inside the shed:

Inside the shed

Church:

Church

Inside the church:

Inside the church

Graveyard:

Graveyard

Tombstones:

Tombstone

Metalic remains:

Metalic remains

Info signs:

Info sign

Back of the church:

Back of church

Homestead, store, shed:

Homestead, store, shed

Me in front of the store, with my Stetson hat (that I got in Yellowstone):

David in front of store

Valley of the Rogue State Park

As you may have seen in the timelapse video, our next stop after McMinnville was Valley of the Rogue State Park near Gold Hill, Oregon.

This was our first state park, and quite a pleasant place, too. The campsite was much larger than in most private campgrounds, with lots of trees around, and a path by the Rogue River.

The only downside was that while most of the sites in this campground have full hookups, our site didn’t have sewer. So we had to watch our water usage, to avoid having to move the coach to dump the tanks. We made it, though!

Here’s our truck and coach in our campsite:

Truck and coach in campsite

Campsite from below:

Campsite from below

Campground info:

Campground info

We were in B loop, in site B33. The inner C loop was closed, so we had even fewer neighbors than we would have in peak season:

Campground info

Open space:

Open space

Rogue River:

Rogue River

Some barely visible ducks:

Rogue River and ducks

Rogue River

Rapids:

Rogue River

Riverside viewing platform:

Riverside viewing platform

Info signs:

Info sign

Video

Video: Timelapse of coach driving from McMinnville, OR to Gold Hill, OR

I have just created a new YouTube channel for Sinclair Trails, and published the first video: a silent 40x timelapse of the drive from Olde Stone Village RV Park in McMinnville, Oregon to Valley of the Rogue State Park in Gold Hill, Oregon. As the kids say, like and subscribe, and hit that bell!

Paladin’s first trip in the coach

After picking up Paladin and letting him get used to living in our coach for a few days, we rocked his world, literally, by starting up the coach, bringing in the slides, and driving to a new campsite, for the first time in his experience.

Paladin wasn’t at all sure about the changed room configuration and engine noise:

Paladin

Here you can see the slides in, and Paladin unsure about things as we drove down the road:

Paladin

Peeking from the bedroom:

Paladin

Driving down the road:

Road

I added a dash cam to record footage of our travels (something to look forward to in the future):

Dash cam

Paladin being brave, coming up towards the front while we’re driving:

Paladin

Looking a bit freaked out:

Paladin

Looking out the window:

Paladin

Heading down the I-5 freeway, south of Eugene, Oregon:

Freeway

Slow for curves:

Freeway

More freeway scenes:

Freeway

When we got to our campsite (more on that tomorrow), we auto-leveled as usual:

Auto-leveling

Paladin in the driver seat:

Paladin

He survived the ordeal, and was happy to curl up in his cardboard nest:

Paladin

Comfy cat:

Paladin

Paladin has never been a fan of car travel in a carrier, but he did quite well for his first trip in our coach. We didn’t lock him in a carrier, which may have helped, since he could hide under the bed, sit on the kitchen counter, or look out a window, as desired. I think in time he will become more used to it, though travel days may remain more stressful for him… which is fair, since they are for us, too.

Didn’t notice a power cut

A quick post; while staying at Olde Stone Village RV Park, we were cooking dinner in the convection microwave oven, and noticed that our dishwasher and cooktop lost power (we weren’t using them at the time). I was concerned that there was a malfunction, but we eventually noticed that the street lights were out, and other RVs were firing up generators. A nice thing about RVs being self-contained; we were able to continue during a power outage without even noticing for a while!

But hey, when we looked at the power control panel, it did indeed say that it had no service:

Power control with no service

And the inverter was supplying 110V power from our batteries:

Inverting