The western US in the new rig, fulltime! Just the facts Maam!

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SargeW

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Where ever we park it!
Well we sold the house last June and went to Mississippi to pick up the new rig. We are back and starting back into the full-time lifestyle.  We are starting out on a western US trip that will take us up and through Ca, Az, into Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and into Missouri.  I will be blogging the interesting parts, and detailing the facts of the trip.

As usual, my blog is about the costs, RV sites, and ups and downs of the places we stay. I leave most of the "local flavor" reporting to the DW Diane.  Her "Trip Journal" blog covers more of the local attractions, and many more pics.  Her blog will be found at http://www.mytripjournal.com/RVnChick2018. She is still working on it at this time though.

As usual I welcome your input and suggestions. I will also try to include handicapped access info, as well as the availability of WiFi in the places we stop. 

You are welcome to come along for the ride!
 
We actually started this trip in January, but many of the places we  stayed we have been to dozens of times and were not all that remarkable.  I will list a few to give you an idea. 

One of the first places we stayed was East Shore RV Park in San Dimas.  East Shore is connected to the Raging Waters water park, and is owned by the county.  We stayed there for 2 weeks while still getting our full time life in order. It's not a bad park, and it is one of the closest ones you will find close to LA County Fairgrounds, and LA proper.  We have stayed here before, but it has been a few years.  We were kind of surprised how much it has turned into a ?long term? rental park. A small section of the park is reserved for transient guests, but about 80% is long term.  It just gives it a different kind of feel now. 

We paid a weekly rate of $329 a week, which breaks down to about $47 a night.  It is full hook up, and some of the sites are on a hill overlooking the reservoir at Frank G Bonelli Park.  It is also right next door to Bracket Field, a county airport for smaller planes.  The sites can be pretty sloped, so if you come, bring blocks to level with.  There is a pool and some stuff for the kids, but there isn't much in the way of maintenance, so  parts are getting a bit worn out. The restrooms are handicapped accessible, but could also use some modernizing.  We used our own Wifi, but there may have been some offered if you went to the office.  In spite of being on a hill, our wifi struggled a bit, both T-mobile and Verizon. I would stay again if necessary, but only as long as we had to. 

From there we went to hang out with Kevin Means in Quartzite at the KOFA (King of Arizona) wild life refuge on BLM land.  Kevin has been camping there for many years, and it's both peaceful and scenic.  You are permitted to camp there for free for up to 2 weeks.  We had about 10 rigs show up from the RV Forum, and a good time was had by all.  It was our first ?boon docking? experience with the new rig, and everything worked pretty well. 

We then headed back to San Diego county and stayed at Pala Casino RV Resort. It is located on Highway 76, off of Interstate 15 in Pala Ca.  This park was  rated at the best new RV park in a recent survey by Good Sam.  I concur that it is a very nice park, but as most parks, there are a few down sides.

First the good stuff. All pads are concrete, as are the roads.  There is nice landscaping, green grass, and newer trees throughout the park. The park is surrounded by large rolling hills so you get a ?out in the country feeling?.  It is about 7 miles off of I/S 15, but the roads are a bit twisty to get there.  We did go  into the Casino one night for the Buffet.  Even though we are not much for Buffet's, I have to admit the food was really good.  And the coupon they gave us when we checked in for the buffet only cost us $10 each per person was really nice.  I think is was normally about $25 per person for dinner. Security was constantly patrolling the park on bikes and golf carts and everyone was friendly.  The do offer free wifi, but our T-mobil router worked well here. 

We paid $364 for a weeks stay, which  came out to $52 a night. There is a nice pool and spa, and a shuttle to take you to the Casino, but walking there is not a problem as it is not that far. The restrooms are fabulous and handicapped accessible. 

On the down side, there were a few chinks in the armor. There is a construction project going on involving the Casino pool and parking garage. The construction noise wasn't an issue, but to make room for the employee parking, they fenced off a dirt lot next to the RV park. On weekends when it busy and the employees use the lot, 4 separate generator powered light towers run all night long to light the parking area. So if you are on side closest to the street, you hear generator noise all night (we were not thankfully).  Also west of the RV park is a small ?ranch? fenced off with chain link fence right next door.  They do have about 15 cows grazing in a field, and even a Bison.  They were not actually a problem, but the 4 farm dogs would sometimes get barking at night and continue for hours.  Fortunately they usually got tired around 11 PM. But it did get old after a while.

And then the one surprising issue I learned quite by accident.  This is brand new park, and it looks like they really did a nice job of setting it up. But for some reason, every other row of RV sites is only 30 amp service at the box.  We had 50 amp service on the far south wall, so I assumed that they all were that way.  It wasn't until talking to a neighbor that he commented that if  he came back, he wanted to get a 50 amp site.  Sure enough checked  the pedestals and he was right.  I guess that was their solution  to save a buck during construction.  It's still a very nice park, and I would stay there again anytime.
 
Thank You for those tidbits. We stayed at Frank Bonelli back in October for the weekend. Just a quicky trip  :)
 
Thanks Butch!  BTW I will be adding some pics of the sites when I can get them from Diane.  I know, that park has the potential to be so much more, but I think that it has turned into a "cash cow" for the county. They just want to keep the money flowing.
 
I very much enjoy your trip logs, Sarge, as well as Diane's blog.  Thanks for taking the time to write all about your travels.
 
Thanks Margi! Always nice to know that folks are reading them.  Here are a few pics of the places I talked about so far.

Pic 1) This was taken from our site at East Shore RV park. It looks out over the reservoir down below. They do allow power boats and fishing on the water. You can water ski, but it's really small.  I took the opportunity to enjoy a beverage at sunset. 

Pic 2) We didn't get a lot of pics while in Quartzite, but the one I could find kinda gives you the idea.....

Pic 3) This was our spot at Pala Casino RV park. Clean, well manicured and maintained. And the surrounding view is great too.

Pic 4) Trying out the new portable propane fire pit. We missed sitting around the fire at cocktail time and enjoying the fire. The fire pit folds up in a carry bag for easy storage. I also picked up a 1 gallon propane tank so I could refill it instead of going through a bunch of the 1 pound cans.  8)

Pic 5) I went to Kevins post in the Rally section of the forum and borrowed a pic of all of us in Quartzite at KOFA. As you can tell, space is never a problem.
 

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Marty, you do look like you're in full-timer mode! ;) I hope you and Diane enjoy your new life.  And, I too read your posts even though I might not always comment!

ArdraF
 
Diane's first blog post just went live. Lots more pics, and more in depth stories as we roll along.  She will post our itinerary on the blog later tonight. It takes us up through about September at this point. 
 
I got my update email this morning and looking forward to seeing how you get on. Safe and happy travels to the 3 of you. ?
 
Hi Marty!  Hope you and Diane enjoy your fulltime RV journey. Your upcoming travels look great. I traveled a similar route last summer and loved it. Especially the Oregon coast, it was gorgeous. Safe travels!
Debra
 
This stop we went to a park that we have passed many times but have never stopped at.  Yanks is in a curious location, kind of in the middle of nowhere.  It's right off highway 101, between King City and Soledad. (Yep, Soledad is were the State prison is located).  There is not a whole lot in the area, and much of the agriculture appears to have switched to growing grapes. 

Diane picked the park after reading many rave reviews about the park itself. It's only about ? mile off of 101, but surprisingly the road noise isn't bad,, and  was never an issue at night. The surrounding area is all farm land, so not much extra traffic in the area.  There is a building project across the street from the park, and word is that it is going to be an Air Museum that will be owned by the park. A large plot of ground has been leveled, and there were stacks of sewer pipes waiting to be installed.  However,  talking to a park employee, the plot has been in that condition for quite a while, as progress is slow. 

The park itself is really nicely done.  All of the sites are concrete and in varying lengths up to 100' long. There is free wifi and cable, and the landscaping is beautiful.  Each site has a cement patio in addition to the parking pad. The patio is 30' long, and in the middle of most sites. However, there are dual sewer connections so you can position the RV in place to be able to best utilize the patio.

The landscaping between the sites are a variety of plants and wood chip planters. At the ends of each row are large grass areas that were meticulously cared for.  If there was a down side to the sites, I would say that the roads are a  bit narrow, so carefully swing wide when entering or leaving a site to avoid crushing the plants.  One triple axle 5th wheel cut it close and dug a pretty good trench getting out.  The maintenance crew was on it immediately and filled the hole, and washed down the street.

The park has a pool and spa, a nice workout room, and one of the nicest dog parks I have seen,  We paid $60 a day (including tax) for a 70' deluxe pull through site. Notably, the taxes were almost $10 a day! Gotta love Ca.  Our T-Mobile air card worked well here, about the same as Verizon. 

The restrooms are handicapped accessible and are beautiful as well.  This park definitely rates a ?10? in my book.

SEA CLIFF STATE BEACH
Aptos, Ca

Only about 70 miles from Yanks was our next stop on the Ca coast.  Sea Cliff is a State owned/ran RV camping and day use area. We were in the full hook up area at the far north end of the park, and there are 3 dry camp  lots, A,B and C as well.  The dry camp spots are pretty much asphalt parking area with lines painted on the ground for your site.  They were approximately 27X60'.

The full hook up sites are narrow long sites with each one having 6? raised curb planters on each side. Unfortunately the planters were sand, and grassy weeds that were in dire need of cutting.  The FHU sites had a heavy duty picnic table and raised fire pit at the front of the site. The sewer hook up was at the back of the sites, so bring lots of sewer hose.  They are approximately 39X56'. 

Each site backs up to a public walkway that is about 8' wide and runs the length of the beach. On the other side of the walkway is the sand and the waves. On the front side of the sites is the road,  and a embankment  that's about 100+ feet tall.  It used to be that there was zero cell signal in the camping area, but there is usable signal now probably from added cell towers in the area.
The FHU sites are 30 amp only, but with a little moderation the 30 amp was not an issue.  We paid $65 a day plus tax for weeks visit. I love the relation of the sites to the beach, but the overall park is in dire need of maintenance.  There is much weeding that needs to be done, the entrance road in front of the sites which is up against the embankment is over grown with trees and shrubs, and several large pot holes need filling in the road. The restrooms are typical for a public beach location, block walls and sparse on the inside. They are handicapped accessible, but there are NO hot showers available.  Only cold water outdoor showers. Another point to keep in mind, they had me read and sign a small slip of paper upon checking in that advised among other things that there was a theft alert as chained generators and ice chests have been stolen.

One downside that Diane doesn't care for is the recent change in the Ca reservation system. Ca no longer uses ?Reserve America? for it's parks.  Instead they have put in there own system called ?Reserve California?.  And in Diane's own words, ?it sucks?.  Reservations now have to be made exactly 7 months from the day you want to arrive for your stay.  So getting a site, any site is challenging at best.  The site says that reservations can be made in as little as 48 hours prior, but then it becomes pure luck. Especially in the popular summer months. 

As a side note, fuel stations for larger rigs are hard to come by in this area. I am getting low, at least for me. I  am down to about a ? tank and I like to fuel at around ? way mark. There are several places to get gas, but they just are not set up for a large rig and a tow car. 

I very much like Rving at the beach, but as you can see there are trade offs. 

 
Pic 1) The only pic we have of Yanks. I was going to take a few more the day we left, but got distracted ::)

Pic 2) First the good stuff. Set up and enjoying a cocktail watching the waves and an occasional whale go by.

Pic 3) Our full hook up site. Very "beachy". Sand and sun. No neighbor though, yaay!

Pic 4) Dry hookup sites. Painted lines and walkway to the rear.

Pic 5) View from the front of all RV sites. Very tall embankment and shrubs.  There are houses at the top.

Pic 6) The only restroom facilities if you don't have your own. Yep, those are the showers on the side of the building. 
 

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Hi Marty,
Good pictures. We stayed Tuesday at Sea Cliff in the area where the sites run parallel with the ocean.
They were $20 for the nite. I was unaware that the Sea Cliff area has fhu sites, I will have to look into
it. Thanks for the info.
 
Just a follow up on Sea Cliff. The last day before we left we were walking the boardwalk and I saw one of the bathrooms had a door marked "shower".  The building had been boarded up prior, so it may have been under repair.  And down towards the day use section there is a building under construction, but it is too early to tell what it may be yet.  Hopefully it will be to improve on the overall facilities. 
 
Wow, Sea Cliff, my old stomping grounds. Beautiful beach. I hope you are going to take in the Monterey Aquarium while you are in the area, one of the best in the country.
 
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