Bonita to Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California

We drove our coach 104 miles, about two hours of driving, from Sweetwater Summit Regional Park in Bonita to Orangeland RV Park in Orange, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:

Route map

An interactive map, with a potential stop pinned:

Tight turn for a big coach:

Tight turn for a big coach

Big skeleton, narrow road:

Big skeleton, narrow road

CA-54 West:

CA-54 West

Exit to I-805 North:

Exit to I-805 North

Heading to LA:

Heading to LA

I like when they have helpful markings in each lane:

I like when they have helpful markings in each lane

Traffic:

Traffic

A large chandelier in this car:

A large chandelier in this car

Rest area, but it was full; that’s okay, we didn’t really need to stop:

Rest area, but it was full

Exit to CA-57 North:

Exit to CA-57 North

Passing Angel Stadium:

Passing Angel Stadium

Exit:

Exit

Still working on this new garage:

Still working on this new garage

Arriving at Orangeland RV Park, our fifth stay here, the last just back in December:

Arriving at Orangeland RV Park

Campground map:

Campground map

Untoaded:

Untoading

Our site, #29:

Our site

Always a nice place to stay when going to Disneyland… and in this case Angel Stadium.

Baseball: San Diego Padres vs San Francisco Giants

We attended a game of the San Diego Padres vs San Francisco Giants at Petco Park in San Diego, California.

Jenn’s game summary:

The Padres beat the Giants 7-1, with an excellent start from Nick Pivetta, who limited the Giants’ offense. Adrian Houser allowed a couple of early runs and was hobbled by sloppy defense. The game stayed fairly quiet until the 8th when the Padres scored 5 runs, including a home run to break it open. The Giants managed just one run late and never really threatened. Petco Park is absolutely beautiful with decently priced seats and excellent food options, including tri-tip nachos and banana pudding (in a helmet). Friendly staff and perfect weather for a ballgame.

An interactive map of the ballpark:

Petco Park

Hall of Fame:

Hall of Fame

Team store:

Team store

Museum:

Museum

Seaside Market:

Seaside Market

Tri-tip nachos:

Tri-tip nachos

Banana pudding:

Banana pudding

View from our seats; section 101, row 17, seats 19 & 20:

View from our seats; section 101, row 17, seats 19 & 20

Seat selfie

Fun Padres mascot:

Fun Padres mascot

Umpire assignments:

Umpire assignments

Petco Park:

Petco Park

Play ball:

Play ball

Baseball

ABS challenge:

ABS challenge

Baseball

Out at home:

Baseball

Exploring the ballpark:

Exploring the ballpark

Pretzel:

Pretzel

Baseball

Video

Video: Sun City, Arizona to Bonita, California motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 354 miles from Sun City, Arizona to Bonita, California.

Sun City, Arizona to Sweetwater Summit Regional Park in Bonita, California

We drove our coach 354 miles, about six hours of driving, from Encore Paradise RV Resort in Sun City, Arizona to Sweetwater Summit Regional Park in Bonita, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:

Route map

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Pulled out of our site in Encore Paradise:

Pulled out of our site in Phoenix

Leaving Paradise:

Leaving Paradise

Exit to I-10 West:

Exit to I-10 West

Teacups ride trailer:

Rail crossing:

Rail crossing

Dinosaurs:

Dinosaurs

Another Tiffin Allegro Bus (with poor lane placement):

Another Tiffin Allegro Bus

Oversize load:

Oversize load

Train:

Train

Rest area:

Rest area

Mountains:

Mountains

Arizona centennial sign:

Arizona

Fuel stop before leaving Arizona:

Fuel stop before leaving Arizona

This short handle isn’t all that useful for washing RV windshields:

This short handle isn't all that useful for washing RV windshields

Spendy fuel, but cheaper than California:

Spendy fuel, but cheaper than California

Interesting bridge art:

Interesting bridge art

California State Line:

California State Line

Welcome to California, and Pacific Time Zone:

Welcome to California

Agricultural Inspection Station:

Agricultural Inspection Station

No Inspection Today:

No Inspection Today

Rest area (with a dump station):

Rest area (with a dump station)

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Tecate Divide; Elevation 4140 feet:

Tecate Divide; Elevation 4140 feet

Closed immigration inspection:

Closed immigration inspection

Exit to CA-125 South:

Exit to CA-125 South

Arriving at the campground of Sweetwater Summit Regional Park:

Arriving at Sweetwater Summit Campground

Entrance station:

Entrance station

Campground map:

Map

Our site, #134, with a nice concrete pad:

Our site

Very level site:

Level site

Our site

A nice campground; we’d stay here again.

Simplifying posts

I’ve decided to simplify my blog posts a bit. You may have noticed that I’m not following the schedule I used to use (Modification Mondays, Travel Tuesdays, etc); I’m now just posting each weekday.

Since the most useful and interesting posts (to certain audiences) are RV modifications and things we do, I will continue those posts much as I have been. The modifcation posts are useful for other Tiffin motorhome owners; I regularly link to them in Facebook groups to help others with similar issues. For other people, those posts are easy to skip. The exploring posts are more interesting to family and friends (and future us!), to see the interesting attractions we’ve experienced.

But travel and campground posts aren’t all that useful, and all the data recorded for campgrounds was a lot of work, so I’m going to merge those two, much as I did for the New Zealand series. The new format will be like the travel posts, with photos from the journey, but end with a few campground pictures, and omit all the data. So each post will document some interesting sights during our travel from one campground to the next, for anyone interested in that. They will continue to include maps with potential stops marked, which are useful for others traveling this route (including our future selves).

I will continue the travel timelapse videos, at least until after Alaska, since that will no doubt be very scenic. Those are a lot of work too, so I may discontinue them in the future, but we’ll see.

I know that the audience for this blog is very small; mostly just family and friends, and a few others who have seen the blog on Facebook on seen our motorhome on the road (via the QR code). In large part, it’s just a hobby travel diary for my own satisfaction. And that’s enough.

Baseball: Arizona Diamondbacks vs Detroit Tigers

We attended a game of the Arizona Diamondbacks vs Detroit Tigers at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

Jenn’s game summary:

At Chase Field, the roof was open to a warm desert evening as Opening Day unfolded—pregame ceremonies, a military flyover, and a packed crowd setting the tone. The D’backs built an early lead (Corbin Carroll had a triple and a home run) and held off the Tigers 9-6 to secure their first win of the season. Michael Soroka set the tone in dominant form, including an immaculate inning, before turning things over to the bullpen, which promptly imploded, giving up 6 runs in the 7th inning. The home crowd booed their own squad before the D’backs got another homer in the bottom of the inning to get things back on track for Paul Sewald to close it out. The churro dog was interesting, but it was no Disneyland churro.

An interactive map of the ballpark:

Chase Field

Team store:

Team store

Chase Field

Dessert first: Churro Dog, a hotdog-like form factor made of a cake donut, churro, and ice cream; not the best churro, but pretty tasty:

Churro Dog

View from our seats: Section 319, Row 14, Seats 1 & 2:

View from our seats: Section 319, Row 14, Seats 1 - 2

Roof opening:

Roof opening

Got a couple of burgers from a mini Chick-fil-A:

Chick-fil-A

Legends mascots:

Legends mascots

Opening Day ceremonies:

Opening Day ceremonies

Play ball:

Baseball

Dillon Dingler is a very baseball name:

Dillon Dingler is a very baseball name

Home run:

Home run

Exploring the ballpark

Exploring the ballpark:

Exploring the ballpark

Bigger Chick-fil-A on another level:

Bigger Chick-fil-A

I went to Streets of New York for some garlic cheesy bread:

Streets of New York for garlic cheesy bread

Garlic cheesy bread

Play review:

Play review

New pitcher:

New pitcher

Legends race:

Legends race

Home run:

Home run

Baseball

Another home run:

Home run

Hat game:

Hat game

More hats:

More hats

Organist:

Organist

Baseball Spring Training: Seattle Mariners vs Chicago Cubs

The last spring training game we attended was our Seattle Mariners vs the Chicago Cubs, playing at the Peoria Sports Complex.

Peoria Sports Complex

The field:

View from our seats

We splurged on club seats for this last game:

Club seats

Club area with free beverages and popcorn:

Club area with free beverages and popcorn

Sammy’s On Third:

Sammy's On Third

Not pictured, hot dog:

Sammy's On Third

Selfie:

Selfie

The temperature was 105° F, so the sun on our backs was not welcome:

Sun

We used damp cooling towels to shield our necks and help cool down a bit:

Selfie

Cal arriving:

Cal arriving

Starting lineups:

Starting lineups

Cubs vs Mariners:

Cubs vs Mariners

Umps:

Umps

Play ball!:

Play ball!

Baseball

Sunset:

Sunset

Baseball

ABS challenge:

ABS challenge

Baseball

ABS challenge:

ABS challenge

Free cookie:

Free cookie

Art:

Art

Baseball

Retired numbers:

Retired numbers

Goodbye Peoria Sports Complex:

Peoria Sports Complex

Video

Video: Sun City to Tolleson back to Sun City, Arizona motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 37 miles round-trip from Encore Paradise RV Resort in Sun City to Velocity Truck Centers in Tolleson, then back to Paradise in Sun City, Arizona.

Velocity Truck Centers for engine air heater repair

As we were arriving in Phoenix, we got a Check Engine light on our dash. Never a welcome occurrence!

Error codes on dash

Looking in the BlueFire app, it showed more details of the codes; clearly a short of the engine intake air heater:

BlueFire faults page

Later in our stay, we started the engine again to see if the codes were still there. They were, so I contacted NIRVC to see if they could fix it. They referred me to Velocity Truck Centers, which is a Cummins dealer, and has an RV department.

Travel route, heading south then back north afterwards:

Travel route

Our appointment was for 7 AM; we considered arriving the day before, since they had a few full-hookup spots, but decided to just go very early in the morning. Probably a good thing, as their RV department was very busy that day; there may not have been a spot for us.

We toaded up just before sunrise:

Toading up early in the morning

Sunrise:

Sunrise

Exit to the truck place:

Exit

A hot air balloon in the distance:

Hot air balloon in the distance

Arriving at the truck service center:

Truck service center

Velocity Truck Centers:

Velocity Truck Centers

The RV waiting room was so crowded that one couple brought in camp chairs:

Crowded waiting room

We decided we didn’t want to hang out there, so went to Chick-fil-A for second breakfast:

Chick-fil-A for second breakfast

Then some chores, and to Starbucks to spend the next five hours:

Starbucks

They completed the work in the afternoon; the issue was a metal-wrapped line intermittently touching the heater relay, causing a short. They secured the line, and replaced the relay, since it had been damaged by the arcing. Just over one RV Buck (about $1,300) to fix.

Heading back to the RV park after the work was complete:

Heading back to the RV park

Arriving back at Paradise:

Arriving back at Paradise

Back to our site, which looks a bit weird without the RV there:

Back to our site

A hassle, but I’m glad it was a relatively easy fix.

Apache Trail scenic drive

We did a six-hour drive from Phoenix, including along the scenic Apache Trail Historic Road, a narrow dirt road that started as a stagecoach trail through the Superstition Mountains.

An interactive map of our route, heading counter-clockwise:

Superstition Mountains:

Superstition Mountains