Travel day from Desert Hot Springs CA to Quartzsite AZ

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 

First thing, we have decided to sell our bicycles and get smaller/lighter folding ones.  One of the reasons the ladder broke I believe is that the bikes bouncing caused the ladder’s aluminum tube frame to crack.  So this is the second try at carrying the bike on the RV that has not worked.  I also don’t like the fact that the bike are very hard to get on and off the RV.  I want to pull into a park and ride in just a couple of minutes.  Now it takes about 20 minutes to get the bikes off and 45 minutes to get them back on the RV.  Way, way too much time!

We are looking to purchase 20 inch folding bikes with aluminum frames and only a few gears.  We want the bikes to be able to be stored in the back seat area of the truck.  So when we go to a trail or a place we can ride we will have the bikes with us and we can carry them at a weight of 25-30 lbs each.  We are going to look at them at bike shops maybe starting in Phoenix.  We will then decide if getting them on the internet makes any economic sense.  I have read that bikes do not always ship well and may need maintenance after they are shipped.  We will consider this when we decide to purchase from a bike shop or online.

Patty made up 2 signs to advertise the bikes for sale.  She put one on the RV hitch and one in the back window of the RV.  Around 9am a couple knocks on our door and a woman wants to purchase Patty’s bike!  Yippee!  Now we just have my bike to sell.  Just having one less of the big 26in bikes makes a big difference.  I am going to store my bike behind the truck cab laying down and secured so it won’t interfere with the 5^th wheel hitch.  Loading just one bike in this manor is much easier than trying to get 2 big 26in bikes on top of one another behind the cab.  So we are OK for now with bikes and will start to look for a replacement for Patty’s.

Patty's bike that sold in one morning for $100!

Today was Patty’s first day pulling the RV.  She started with hitching the 5^th wheel to the truck.  In the space we were in it was very tricky to get the truck hitched to the RV.  The RV was very close to the curb so that when trying to back into the RV hitch the front tires had to climb the curb just as you approach the hitch.  The area between the RV and the curb was also on an incline.  It was somewhat difficult to tell how high to have the RV to meet the truck after it climbed the incline.  She tried a few times and then wanted me to do the hitching.  It took us a few attempts to get it right, but we did it.  I had to use the brake and gas at the same time as well as having the truck in 4 wheel drive to help get it done.

After hitching up Patty took over in the driver’s seat.  We got a few feet down the road and noticed that the 4 wheel drive and the tow lights were flashing on the dash.  Just the tow light should be on and not flashing.  We stopped the truck and I had to get the manual out as I couldn't get the truck out of 4 wheel drive.  It was very easy but a little tense as we were blocking the entire road while I was reading the truck manual K.  Put the truck in neutral and then place the 4 wheel drive switch back to 2 wheel drive.  That worked and we are now on the road J

Patty behind the wheel with the rig for the first time.

The trip to Quartzsite was an easy trip.  It was real hot at 95 degrees and a little tense as we climbed through the small mountains at this temperature.  The truck and Patty handled it perfectly.  As we crossed into Arizona we saw the big tall cactus for the first time.  I think those are so cool. 

Wide open desert.

Welcome to Arizona.

One of the up hill grades along the way.

The large cactus.

More large cactus.

We arrived at the 88 Shades campground at 3:15 pm and we got a pull through site.  The park is wide open with no trees or RVs for that matter so it was very easy to park.  Patty did a few back and forths as we are still learning how to get a perfect side to side placement after we are in the site.  This was a good site to practice on as it is so wide open.  We both learned a few things about how to maneuver the rig here.  By 4 pm we were completely set up.  Not bad, 45 minutes to set up even with us practicing some getting into the site.

Our site in Quartzsite AZ

We decide to go out to eat as we had heard this area is known for fish fry’s.  We heard one of the best was a place about a mile away called GrubStake.  We went there and they are under new management and not open!  We searched on the internet with our phones and found a pizza place not far away.  Patty made the wise choice and got Mexican food.  I, on the other hand, got Italian food.  The sauce was afoul, not good…it sucked!  My stomach is turning as I write this just thinking about it. What was I thinking ordering Italian food in the desert anyway?  I scraped off the sauce and ate the piece of chicken that thankfully was not cooked in the sauce.  If it was done right, the chicken would have been cooked in the sauce.  Anyway, $36 for dinner and a carafe of wine wasn't bad.

After getting back and settling in with some TV the power went out!  Again, the park power was going over 132 volts and causing my power management system to shut down the RV.  I decided to run the generator as there is no one around us to bother with the noise.  I ran it for about 2 hours when the power came back on again.  We have been on the road for a little over 2 months now and have just started seeing this high voltage problem in the past 2 weeks.  We will see what happen tomorrow.

Tomorrow we plan to explore the area of Quartzsite.  Also we still want to find that good fish fry!

Another fine day!

Stay tuned!

Mini Vacation at Caliente Springs in Desert Hot Springs CA

Monday-Tuesday, October 15-16, 2012 

Monday and Tuesday were just relaxing days for Patty and I here in Cailente Springs.  The day time temperature gets up to the mid 90s and it’s a nice 65-68 at night.  It’s real hard to not like this. What we really like is the great hot spring that feeds the pools and hot tubs here.  The water has a lot of minerals in it and, supposedly has curative powers.  What we noticed is that our skin feels very smooth now and not just after you are in the pools but the next day also.  It’s also sort of weird that we can get into a 100 degree hot tub and a 90 degree pool and feel refreshed, but we do.  When we get out of the pool it actually feels cold even when the air temperature is 95.  It’s got something to do with the dryness of the air here we think.  Anyway, we like it here and we think we may winter here or in this area sometime in the future.

On Tuesday after we spent some time in the pools we took a very short drive to town,  Desert Hot Springs.  We needed to get some basic food supplies like eggs, milk, onions and stuff.  We also topped off the fuel tank.  Then it was back to play water volleyball at 3 pm.  They play here 2 time a day and on two days of the week 3 times.  I love water volley balll.  I have played each day we have been here and for about 2 hours each time. 

Last night we watched the presidential debate.  I thought it was one of the best debates I have ever watched between presidential candidates.  Both sides presented a good view of where they are coming from and you could see pretty much where the differences are.  I believe that both are good guys and have our country’s best interests at heart.   I have my pick, and I’m not going to share it here, but I’m not really worried if either guy wins.  I would like to see some of both guys policies put into action.

Tomorrow we leave for Quartzite AZ about 125 miles from here.  This will Patty's first time driving the rig!  Yes, I am nervous about her driving, but she wants to drive and it is best if she can in case I can't sometime.  It's a short drive and looks to be  a good one for Patty to get a feel for it.  Just going to stay 2 nights there and then off to Phoenix AZ for visit with Patty’s high school friends and with mutual friends who are also full time RVers who are also in the area. 

Next Monday we have an appointment at an RV dealer in Phoenix to fix some more warranty issues.  The bedroom AC unit is making a buzzing sound that can only be heard in the RV.  It still cools well though but is annoying and may lead to other issues.  The other item is the ladder that broke.  The ladder is not a big deal as I have a ladder that I can get on the roof with if need be.

Just a picture during our morning walk around the resort before it gets too hot.

Our broken ladder.  It broke on the left at the screw support.

We made some adjustments for next week’s travel.  Our basic plan is to travel I 10 across the deep south to Florida and arrive there on the 19^th of November.  We are going to store the RV and Truck for a month and fly up north to visit family.  However, our friends, Marge and Jim from La Jolla CA are going to be at a resort near here in Southern CA for a Halloween Party and we decided to join them next weekend.  We have time in our plans for stuff like this so we are going to do it.  It will require that we go back to Southern CA after Phoenix through Yuma AZ to Jacumba CA.  It’s about a 600 mile round trip. 

Stay tuned!

Travel day and Mini Vacation

Saturday -Sunday,  October 13-14, 2012 

Saturday we are going to travel one of our long days of around 310 miles.  We are not fond of traveling this far in a day but we wanted to get around the city of LA.  LA is in our path and 200 miles away, which would be a good days travel for us.  We found this resort in Hot Desert Springs CA about 100 miles east of LA called Caliente Springs.  It’s a 55+ resort and we met that criteria J  We found this place through Passport America and they offer a 50% discount for up to 7 days this time of year.  That makes the cost just $25 a day! 

The drive here had its moments alright.  About 50 miles from LA,  I5 started this very, very long ascent grade of 10-15 miles.  We went from 500 feet to just under 4000 feet.  It was not a real steep grade but just enough to keep the truck working hard for quite a while.  The truck performed perfectly though.

Next, we needed to get fuel before we reached Caliente Springs.  We pulled off a couple of times and the fuel stations were just not comfortable for me to get into.  They were very busy and had tight turns in and or out of the fueling areas.  We lost an hour looking for fuel and then trying to get back to I5.  Finally we decided to just wait till we were almost to Caliente Springs before we tried again for fuel.  Seems that when you are near big cities, they do not put signs out for fuel on the interstates and there are very few truck stops.  We did finally find a Travel America truck stop just 50 miles from Caliente Springs.  

Again, this was not an ideal stop.  The first entrance was for trucks and we took that thinking that we may get diesel there or at the car area, just never sure if the car area has diesel.  When in, we saw that the car area had diesel and the truck area was over full with trucks.  There was no area to turn around unless you came out the entrance.  So we came out of the entrance along with a couple of trucks doing the same thing.  Now into the car area, the fuel stations are right up against the pumps.  In other words, the area has loads of room in the entrance area even to turn around the rig, but the pumps faced the mini store with maybe 30 feet between them.  It would be impossible to just pull through the pumps and turn after filling up.  

Anyway I decided to pull up and get fuel and then I would need to back out.  Pulled up to the pump and wouldn't you know it, the pump credit card was out of order.  They had put a little sticker on the glass screen to let you know that.  OK then, I try the pump on the other side and just pull the hose over.  The machine tells me I need to see an attendant, which means I need to go inside.  Inside I wait in line for a few minutes and finally get told that the attendant I am talking to is leaving and can’t help me and to get in another line.  This attendant can help but I need to tell her how much fuel I need before I fill up.  I put in $120 which will just about fill it at $4.60 a gallon!  The backing up and turning around was really pretty easy and we were back on our way.

Caliente Springs is one of just few resorts that have their pool and hot tubs filled with their own hot mineral spring water.  The resort has one large pool that is sort of divided by teardrop-shaped pools of increasing temperatures.  It also has 4 hot tubs of increasing temperatures.  The water comes out of the ground at 140F degrees and the resort cools it.   The season here starts in November so we are in that shoulder period where the weather is perfect but the snow birds are not here yet.  In fact, the place has just the right amount of people right now.  For example, I played water bally ball for about 2 hours on Sunday with 20 people, 10 on each side. 

.  

Caliente Springs is a beautiful resort and very well maintained.  It is a mix of park units and RV sites.  I found out from a neighbor that you can only rent sites here, you can’t but the land.  Rent is $350 - $450 per mo. plus electric.  That is really not a bad deal.  After just one day here we would definitely stay here a month at that rate.  

View from our dining table.

That's our RV and truck in the center.

The club house where the pools are located.  2 minutes from our RV.

Flowering bush outside the laundry room with park homes in the background.

Another flowering bush outside the main office.

Our RV again.

I'm in the pool on the far side of the net in front.

We are here for 3 days and 4 nights as a mini vacation then we are off to Quartzsite AZ for a couple of days to just see the area.  A lot of RVers go to Quartzsite to boondock on BLM land.  At the end of the week we are “mooch docking” at Patty’s school friends' house in Phoenix, Roe and Don Heitz.  We also plan to meet up with a friend of ours that we both worked with, Paul Everett and his wife Sue, who are vacationing for a month in Phoenix.

Stay tuned!

Chill Day in Coalinga CA

Friday,  October 11, 2012 

Today was just what we needed, a slow, just chill out day.  We are still having the high voltage issues that shut off the rig about once every couple of hours.  It’s around 70 degrees with really low humidity even with the off and on rain.  It is really weird having rain with low humidity.  As soon as the rain stops, the road is dry within a few minutes even without the sun.

We washed clothes, got propane, and went to town to get wine and some food staples.  I also used my new air compressor to finally get the dually tires to the proper pressures.  It is very difficult to get to the inner tires.  I need to put my arm in between the tires and then twist my wrist around to get to the valve stem pressure sensor to remove it.    Anyway, they are are now at the correct pressures!

We went into the town of Coalinga to get wine and food and to fill up with fuel.  Coalinga is small but has a Kmart, and several gas stations as well as a large food store for food and wine.  The wine is also very cheap.  The box wine we buy in NJ at $16 was only $11 here.  Diesel was $4.35 which was a deal compared to $4.69 at the interstate 5 where we are parked.  Overall, it was a good shopping day.

We got one of those rotisserie cooked chickens from the food store to save time.  These chickens are good and cheap.  We made garlic mashed potatoes and fresh Brussels sprouts to go with the chicken, yum, yum!  We really like to cook together.  This is entertainment for us.

Tomorrow we head to Palm Springs and specially a +55 resort for 5 days.  The temperatures there are to be in the 80s in the day time and mid-60s at night.  This will be a vacation for us.  It's a long trip of just under 300 miles so we will be heading out early hopefully.

Stay tuned!

Travel Day: SF to Coalinga CA

Thursday:  October 11, 2012 

We got up late for us on a travel day. We were really just beat from the day before and from the entire time here in San Francisco.  We were up and moving slow at 8:30.  We studied the maps and decided we would skip going to Yosemite and Sequoia national parks this time here in California.  We decided to just jump on I5 and head down toward I10 outside of LA.  We decided to travel just 180 miles today to an RV park in Coalinga CA.

We left the RV park at about 11:30.  There is no real good way to get to I5 from here.  We will need to go across the Richman-San Rafael Bridge in to Berkeley and Oakland.  But first we need to get on route 101 out of the RV park. 

I traveled .5 mile to the right turn on to the 101 freeway and found that I just didn't feel comfortable making the turn.  The turn was in between two tight curbs and was a 180 degree curve.  The turn did have a lot of head room at the far end but just didn't look like enough for me.  I’m afraid of getting in to a turn like this and then not being able to maneuver out of it.

At the last minute I decided to go straight and find a place to turn around and come at it from the other direction.  We made several turns on very small streets until we met a sign that said the overhead clearance ahead was 13 feet.  Our rig is supposed to be 12 foot 10 inches, just 2 inches under the upcoming bridge.  I was a little panicked to say the least.  

Then we saw a fairly big church parking lot on the left.  The lot had a very narrow entrance/exit way and it was somewhat steep to pull a large rig into.  I had no real other choice and pulled the rig over the curb to get into the lot.  Turning around in the lot was easy but getting out, not so much.  I needed to make a right hand turn and  I was going to need the entire road, both left and right lanes on a fairly busy street, to accomplish that.   I found a space in traffic and then just held up  the remaining traffic until I could get the rig turned.  As I exited, the bumper hitch scraped the asphalt on the steep exit making a loud noise.  Now it was fairly easy to get on to route 101 but now I needed to get to I5 30 miles away through city driving.

The long bridge was not too bad after all.  The city freeway driving was not so fun and the roads were absolutely in terrible shape.  The road was so bad I was driving at 45 mph in a 65 mph zone.  We did that for about an hour before we finally got to I5.  I5 is mostly just a boring and dry freeway through the San Joaquin Valley.  It is very flat off to the east with high coastal mountains on the right.  There are lots of nut and citrus trees along the freeway.

Hazelnut trees

Coastal mountains off to the west

We arrived at the Sommerville Almond Tree RV Park in Coalinga, CA around 3:30.  It’s not a bad place at $24 a night including all of the CA taxes.  We have decided to stay 2 nights and get clothes washed and refill our rig propane tank.  Finally, after a little over 2 months, one of the 2 tanks is empty.  

Our site in in Coallinga CA

It was just starting to rain so I wanted to get set up and get inside to watch the VP debates.  They are on here in CA at 6pm.  I plugged in the 50A electric and the rig did not turn on.  This is the first time that the power management system has kept the rig from starting up.  The fault code says that the voltage is too high and in fact the monitor says the voltage is 134 volts.  The system will not let the rig start with anything over 132 volts or 10% over 120.  I tried the tricks I knew about like adding my extra 20 foot extension to drop the voltage with no luck.  I even tried to use 30A and the single 20A lines on both sites adjacent to me and nothing different.

Now I go to the park office and let them know the issur with the high voltage.  The only thing they could do was to refund our money and we would need to go elsewhere.  This is why we like to get to a park by no later than 2:30 so we could move if need be.  It was already now 4:30 and raining slightly with a very bad storm coming.  We did not want to move to say the least.  

I went back to the rig and started to put away our stuff and Patty started to look for another place to go.  Just before I put away the last power cord I decided to try it again.  The rig started up!  The power monitor said the voltage was now 129 on one leg and 131 on the other, very close to shut off.  We put on the heat to help draw down the voltage a bit and continued setting up.  The system again shut down the rig again around 2 am and came back on around 3 am for the same high voltage.

Most of the things in an RV today are electronic with a margin of +10% and -15% or 132 to 102 volts.  You may not fry anything at these limit voltages but the life will be greatly reduced.  The higher the voltage,  the worse it gets and quicker.  I could have bypassed the protection system and been probably OK at the voltage we were seeing but then we would not have had any protection for surges like lightning and a storm was coming.  I just wasn't going to take that chance. 

Tomorrow we will wash clothes, get propane and just chill a bit.  I think it supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow.  That will be first day of rain we have had since leaving NJ almost 2 months ago now.

Stay tuned!

Alcatraz tour and a Dinner Cruise

Wednesday:  October 10, 2012

Big day of touring for us.  Our itinerary for the day consists of taking the ferry over to the port of SF (Pier 1) and then a trolley car to Pier 33 for the Alcatraz tour and ferry at Noon.  After the Alcatraz tour we headed back to our RV site and got ready for the dinner cruise from the SF Pier 3 at 7 pm.  Then we returned from the cruise at 9:30 PM and the last ferry to our RV site is at 9:35 pm.  We made all of our connections, barely!  We also used all but $.50 of our Clipper transportation cards we purchased when we arrived on Sunday for $60 each.

First, a little about Alcatraz.  Alcatraz sits about 1.5 miles into the SF bay on a rock island, it can be seen from everywhere in the city.  From what we are told, that didn't ever sit well with the residents of SF. Alcatraz would not have been an attraction to the city when it was open for prisoners.  The prison as we know it only existed for 29 years and was closed in 1963.  It has been a National park longer than it was a prison.  However, it was used as a military prison since the Civil War.

Alcatraz prison is a scary place.  Times have changed for prisons as this one is cold, damp, and the cells are very, very small at 5x7x9 high.  The cell blocks were also surrounded by guards behind bars with guns that watched everything a prisoner did.  I don’t know how one could stay sane in this place.  Even with the scary nature of the place, it is a must see in SF.

Pier 33 with our ferry to Alcatraz

First thing you see as the ferry docks.

5x7x9

Isolation cells.  No lights were on while you are in this cell.  One prisoner said that he would pull off a button on his shirt and throw it in the air and then spend his time looking for it as something to do.  Then repeat this for weeks!

Inside isolation looking out with the door open of course!

Visitation from the prisoners side.

Alcatraz morgue 

View of San Francisco from Alcatraz

The mess hall.   You got your food through the slots in the bars from the kitchen.

 

Tear gas canisters in the mess hall.  If there was an issue these could be dropped from a remote place.

 

Now, for the dinner cruise.  It was expensive for what we got from it.  The best thing about it was the view of the city at night.  However, for $69 each, we can see a lot of the same view from our ferry to our RV site.  The ship first travels along the coast line in the bay which is the only thing that is unique and entertaining from this cruise.  Next it goes to Alcatraz which is barely lit.  We were just a few yards from it before we knew we were there.  Not impressive at all.  Next we went to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We were very surprised here as well.  The bridge is not well illuminated.  For a very famous bridge we would have thought it would have been really impressive to see at night.  The best view of this bridge by far is in the daytime.  After the bridge we just slowly meandered back to Pier 3 where we started.  The ship just cart wheeled for the last 40 minutes while we finished eating.  The bay is also rough making the small ship rock a lot. 

We also paid extra for a package that gave us a bottle of champagne and a window seat.  That was probably worth it as a bottle of wine was $30-40 and without a window seat there was nothing.  The entertainment consisted of a male guitar player and woman singer/bongo player.  They were pretty good for soft dinner music.  We kept waiting for the dinner to be over and then the music to pick up for the dance floor.   The music wasn't really enough to even slow dance to.  Very disappointing!   

The cruise was to be over at 9:30 pm and we needed to make the last ferry at 9:35 pm if we didn't want to find a bus.  Usually these cruises dock earlier than the published ending time so we headed for the exit gate and waited for the doors to open.  They in fact did open the doors early at about 9:27 pm giving us 12 minutes to get to the ferry.  This was only possible if we ran about half way which we did.  After 2 bottles of wine and dinner, running wasn't real fun.  We made it as they were just closing the gates to the ferry. Whew!!

Our dinner ship

Patty on board.  Note the long bridge behind us.  We are taking the rig on this tomorrow morning when we leave.

Me on board

View of SF

View of SF

The orange tower is on Telegraph hill.

View of the mouse boat (a Disney Cruise ship)

That so ends our San Francisco exploring for this trip.  We think we saw as much as we wanted to see but we were somewhat in a rush. We were seeing the city in the off season and had somewhat of a hard time getting to see things.  If one was to go there during the summer you would need to make reservations months in advance. If we had to do over I would add a day in between each day out to just chill.  We have an inside joke that we need a sign in our rig that says “NO RUSHING ZONE”.  We might travel quickly sometimes, but no rushing.

Tomorrow is a travel day.  We are not sure where we will land but it will be a couple hundred miles south in California.  We plan to work on our travel plans and do some domestic chores the next couple of days.  Need to get propane for the rig and wash clothes.  Also need to just relax after the SF experience.

Stay tuned!