Since Snoopy’s brother wasn’t at home, for our day in Needles we decided to visit London Bridge over in Lake Havasu City. Yes, THAT London Bridge. For those who don’t know the bridge you’ve sung about in kindergarten is down in Lake Havasu. I’ve always wanted to see it so off we went.
London Bridge is falling down…
Actually it looks very sturdy. As we were first walking up to the bridge we saw a couple taking selfie next to the bridge’s placard. They offhandedly remarked as they walked by, “We had to come all the way from England to see our own bloody bridge!” Yes it was a couple from London who were visiting and stopped by to see “their” bridge. I told them if they liked it so much they shouldn’t have sold it to us, in a nice, jovial way of course. We chatted for a few minutes and they were on their way.
Take the key and lock her up…
We strolled on the river walk for a while and then had a sno-cone. A sno-cup really. Then went for lunch and some grocery shopping before returning to the RV park. That was enough for one day. There was still a nap to take!
Tomorrow, a short travel day to Williams and the Grand Canyon Railway.
We began our travel day late, around 10am. Cristy made her shake for breakfast, I usually skip breakfast but had a pea protein shake to make sure I had a clear head for the day’s drive (and little did I know I would need it). We took a walk around the small RV park, and then made preparations to leave. I dumped our tanks, filled the fresh tank just a little to make sure we had enough water to run the toilet and wash our hands while traveling that day.
I was in our space a little crooked and it’s not a good idea to hook up our Andersen Weight Distribution Hitch when crooked. Ideally the trailer and tow vehicle should be completely lined up. So I hitched up to the trailer but didn’t attach the weight distribution chains. We pulled out to the front of the RV park and made sure the truck and trailer were straight. I took this opportunity to show Cristy how the chains were connected. These aren’t the safety chains you see with all trailer hitches. The weight distribution chains pull on the bottom of the hitch while the trailer tongue pushes on the top of the hitch thus transferring some of the hitch weight from the rear wheels of the truck to the front.
We got the chains connected and properly tensioned and then hit the road. It was a nice easy travel day. In the distance I notice some towering cumulus clouds. I remarked to Cristy, “Hey look, weather!” But didn’t think any more about it. We stopped at a rest stop about half way through our 4 hour travel day. I made a PB&J sandwich while Cristy made her protein style lettuce-wrapped turkey sandwich.
We hit the highway again and enjoyed a very nice drive. There was no wind and a lot of the trip was level or downhill so my gas mileage was great! As we started getting closer to our destination I noticed the clouds had not moved and were getting bigger. Finally as we were coming down the last grade into Needles, CA, I could see that Mohave Valley, our intended destination was right on the edge of a DARK column of rain. Hmmm…..
I told Cristy we might be setting up in the rain but we continued on. We followed the GPS to the road that would take us over the river and to the RV park. As I was getting reading to turn on the road a fire engine pulled in and blocked the road. Just beyond I could see a torrent of water washing over the road. Okay. Can’t go that way. I pulled into a gas station and tanked up and checked my GPS. There was another route so we tried to take that.
It was a small two-lane twisty road where I had to drive across a small muddy stream of water. Hmmm… We kept going. I finally turned onto the road that would take us to the RV park. A small black Hyundai passed us and then just over the hill had come to a complete stop. Luckily I was going slow. He had stopped in front of another stream of water washing over the road. His wife had gotten out and taken her shoes off and was walking across the stream to see how deep it was. It got just past her ankles but she said the mud on the road beneath her feet was really slippery. Two other cars had stopped, one on this side and another on the far side.
Well great. In my mind this was strike two. I didn’t want to go for strike three. YER OUT! With lightning striking in the distance followed by thunder after a count of three, I had Cristy walk back up the hill and watch for cars. I backed the trailer up the hill about 70 yards or so and then onto a hard sandy shoulder. I got the trailer as close as I could to the bushes on the right side and pulled a tight U-turn. The right wheels came off the road surface onto the shoulder slightly but I was able to make the turn. Cristy jumped into the truck and we headed back down the way we came. Sorry I don’t have any pictures of this but we were a little busy.
I pulled into a gravel lot and checked my phone for nearby RV parks. We saw one not to far off the freeway called Desert View RV Park and headed for it. It was just starting to sprinkle as we pulled into the park. I paid and we were directed to our spot. I was so grateful to be anywhere. Our 4 hour travel day had turned into a 6 hour travel day but we were “home” safe. And the park was a much better one than I had reserved. Praise God for His traveling mercies and His providence!
On our second day we had two missions: go hiking, and buy food. In that order. To satisfy the “go hiking part of it we drove about 15 miles north to Red Rock Canyon State Park. This is originally where I was going to camp but since I wasn’t sure about availability on a weekend I decided to cancel and stay at Sierra Trails RV Park which you already know.
Red Rock Canyon was a filming location for many of the old movie and TV westerns were filmed. More than a couple of Sci-Fi movies as well due to the “otherworldly terrain.”
We hiked up a short hill along a “nature trail”, meaning, “easy trail for beginners.” But it’s all we really wanted to do that morning. I hadn’t ate yet and Cristy was still getting used to the overly dry, high desert air.
Afterwards we drove to their visitor’s center and browsed the small museum and exhibits. A video was looping of Hewel Hauser interviewing a park ranger about Red Rock Canyon. They had a few bones and pelts on display, had a few books for sale, hats and T shirts for the overseas tourists. Interesting nonetheless.
Then we drove up into Rosamond to buy some groceries for dinner and stopped and got a burger in Mohave on the way back to the RV park. The rest of the day we just napped, watched Bosch, and just basically relaxed. We also prepped for our second travel day that would take us to Mohave Valley, Arizona.
What we didn’t know at the time was, we would never make it to Mohave Valley…
Hardin? Where’s Hardin? It’s in Missouri just east of Kansas City. I can’t tell you much about it other than that is where my mother is buried. I’ve never been to her grave. This is my trip to visit her.
The trip down Highway 99 was mostly uneventful aside from the detour our GPS took us on to avoid a major slowdown in Madera. We stopped for gas at Murray Farm in Bakersfield and then made the long, not-so-slow slog up the Tehachapi grade into the high desert. My truck did much better than I thought it would.
Murray Family Farm
Our first day’s travel brought us from our home in Modesto, CA to Mohave, CA just east of Tehachapi in the high desert. We’re staying at Sierra Trails RV Park. It’s a tiny, kind of cramped park but the folks that run it are super nice. They helped me back in to the tight spot they assigned me. I’m looking at some of the bigger rigs and just scratching my head trying to figure out how they shoehorned into their spots. I guess the ol’ guy that helped me back in helped them back in as well. Just has he’s helping my neighbor back in now.
After getting set up we took a nap, watched Bosch on Amazon Prime, ate dinner, and took a walk. Tomorrow is a rest day. We’ll watch our church service in the morning, see what there is to do in Mohave, and basically just chill.
As we are counting down to our road trip to Missouri we have started getting our Lance Model 1995 travel trailer ready for the big trip. There was one maintenance item and one upgrade that I wanted to take care of today. Actually the maintenance item only cropped up today!
First the maintenance item. I brought our trailer home from the storage yard and back it into our driveway. Since California’s dust harvest is in full swing our trailer is just coated with the Central Valley’s finest Modesto series loam. I gave the trailer a good rinse and took a sponge mop to the roof to get the stubborn stuff up there. Afterwards I went to plug in the electrical cord from the trailer to the house. When I opened the electrical connector cover on the side of the trailer, the cover broke off. Ugh. While it won’t affect operation of the trailer’s electrical system, it does leave the electrical plug exposed to the elements. It needed to be replaced. I found an exact replacement (the cheapest model they sell) at a local RV sales lot. It only took about 10 minutes to replace. Even though the trailer is still under warranty I elected to do the work myself because if I had taken it back to the dealer it would probably be sitting there for weeks and wouldn’t be ready in time for our trip. Ten minutes and $40 was worth it to me.
Next the upgrade item. Our shower has a single handle control for the water. It is VERY touchy. There is very little adjustment available between BRRR COLD and OUCH HOT! We actually waste more water trying to adjust it to our comfort. After reading some posts on the Lance Owners of America forum I elected to replace the single handle control with dual controls. One other modification I made was to add a check valve on the hot water side of the controls. I call it a water diode. (Electrical types will recognize this immediately but for the rest of you, a diode only allows electrical current to flow one way) I added this check valve because there is a shutoff valve on the shower hose that allows you to instantly cut off water flow without having to turn the valves. However, when we did this I found that the cold water was backflowing into the hot water line back towards the hot water tank. This meant that when you opened the shutoff valve again you would get a blast of cold water until the hot water flowed back through the pipe and into the shower hose. UN-acceptable! The check valve will prevent water from flowing back down the hot water hose. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m sure it will solve the problem.
So far we are really enjoying our trailer and look forward to the trip. Look for more about that in an upcoming article.
After my awesome Friday, flying in the morning, camping in the evening, we had to make Saturday every bit as good. But without the flying, Mrs. Flying Dutchman doesn’t like flying so much. Since it was forecast to be hot again we decided to drive higher up into the mountains. Our destination was only an hour away; Silver Lake. When we arrived we found a lovely 75 degree day rather than the 98 degrees it was forecast to be back at the trailer. We hiked along one of the roads along the shoreline and then moved to different section of the lake and did some rock hopping and took in the beautiful sights.
After spending several hours at the lake it was time to head back but not before swearing to come back after tourist season is over. Even the drive back down the mountain was beautiful.
Sunday Morning
On our last day we just hung around in bed for a while, had a leisurely breakfast, and then watched church on our phone. Afterwards we packed everything up, got the trailer ready to travel, and then drove back down the mountain to Modesto. It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend.
This was a great Friday. Due to some personal business I was FORCED to take the day off. Okay, no one forced me, I forced myself. But since I was home anyway, and I didn’t want to wake Cristy, I decided to head out to Oakdale to test out my new Electronic Flight Bag. An EFB has all the info a pilot needs including airport information, temporary flight restriction, NOTAMS, and most important of all, up to date navigation charts. The EFB I use runs on my iPad and it’s called Foreflight. Foreflight will display your aircraft’s GPS position right on a navigation chart, what’s more, it integrates with the airplane’s transponder to display ADS-B data on the chart as well. What’s ADS-B data, you may ask? It’s basically real-time traffic position data that is transmitted by air traffic control every time their radar sweeps the sky. Today was to be the first time I display traffic on my EFB and it worked like a charm!
I booked the Cessna 152 out at the airport at 6am and by 6:30am was climbing out and heading south for a quick flight to Turlock and back. As I said this was mostly just to test the ADS-B functionality of my EFB. I was amazed how many airplanes it picked up. It won’t pick up every aircraft in the sky but it will pick up a good portion of them. In fact, it picked up one that was dead ahead of me and at my same altitude. I scanned the sky carefully and was finally able to see it! Another aircraft heading into Turlock. You can see it in the photo below depicted as N543RR.
I continued my approach into Turlock, landed, taxied back, and took off again for Oakdale. Fiddling with my new EFB the whole way back. I was an early adopter of ForeFlight years ago and I can’t believe how may features they have packed into it now! After arriving back at Oakdale I put the plane away and began on the second part of my awesome Friday!
RV Trip to Gold Country Campground Resort
On my way home from the airport I swung by the RV storage yard and picked up our Lance travel trailer. I had reserved two nights at Gold Country Campground Resort. We packed up our food and clothes and then headed up into the Sierra Nevada foothills to try to beat the heatwave we were experiencing down in the Central Valley. Unfortunately, our campground was not high enough in elevation to beat much of the heat.
We checked in at the campground office and were given a map to our site. I asked if it was a pull-thru or back-in site and the young woman told me it was a back-in site. So after finding the site and backing in, I found that the utilities (power, water, sewer) were on the wrong side of the trailer! It was actually a head-in site! I pulled out and went round the loop again and pulled straight into the site and then everything lined up perfectly.
After getting set up we cranked up the AC to cool off. It was 97 degrees outside! We took a nap first hoping to sleep away the hotted part of the day. It was still hot when we woke up so we jumped into the truck and drove into town to get some ice cream. Munnerlyn’s Ice Creamery was just a few miles away in the town of Pine Grove. We stopped in and got some vegan blueberry ice cream. It is non-dairy and made out of coconut and blueberries. I’m NOT a vegan but this stuff was delicious! All of their ice creams are hand made onsite and it is worth a trip if you are anywhere within a 2 hour drive!
After dessert we decided it was time for dinner. We drove down to Jackson and had dinner at Highway House Restaurant and Bar. Afterwards we drove back to the campground and sat out under the awning while the sun went down. Then we watch some Netflix shows I had saved on our iPad and then we turned in.
This past weekend Cristy and I decided to get away for a few days so we loaded up the trailer and headed for Flying Flags RV Resort in Lodi, CA. It’s located just off I-5 and Highway 12 just west of Lodi. I wouldn’t really call it a resort. The spaces were close together and there is no greenery… just rocks. But it’s very clean and quiet so it made an ideal base for our weekend in Lodi. We used our Passport America membership to effectively get 1/2 off the price for two days. Very worth it.
We got to Flying Flags around 12 noon which is their check-in time. The front desk staff quickly found my reservation and gave me all the info I needed as far as where our space was, WiFi passwords, pools, bathrooms, etc. We found our space and within an hour were all set up, sitting in the dinette with the AC blowing full blast. It was already quite warm outside by this time.
I was eager to try my new X-Chocks. Even with our wheels chocked the trailer still rocked quite a bit whenever we would move around inside. With the X-chocks in place the trailer was almost rock solid. Very pleased with this latest purchase.
We channel surfed TV for a bit then decided it was nap time. Yay! My favorite time of day! After napping we began looking for a place to have dinner. Cristy already knew exactly where she wanted to eat: Thai Spices in Lodi. VERY good Thai food there. After dinner we headed back to the trailer and tried sitting under the awning to watch the sunset and enjoy the Delta breezes cooling down our hot valley. UNFORTUNATELY the folks in the next space over decided to enjoy a nice LONG cigar. It chased us back indoors where we had to close all the windows and turn the AC back on. This was really the only downside to the whole trip. Luckily they left the next morning. But for the remainder of the evening we watched a movie I had downloaded onto my iPad and then called it a night.
The next morning I went out and sat under the awning and read a recent issue of General Aviation News – a rare treat. I never get to just sit and read aviation news. I did that partially to enjoy the cool morning and partially to just get out of the trailer so Cristy could sleep in. When I heard her stirring within I went back inside and we had breakfast. We decided we wanted to do some walking but not as long as our walk around Pinecrest Lake and looked around for a place to do that. We decided to go to Lodi Lake Park which was just up the street from Thai Spices.
We parked on the south side of the lake first and then walked on the west shore of the lake ending up in a Masonic cemetery. Many of the tombstones were very ornate (because… they’re Masons) and dated back to the early 1800’s. We poked around in the cemetery for awhile until the “noseeums” started eating us up then we headed back towards the parking lot. We stopped at a bench along the way and sat and watched a pack of kayakers enjoying the morning out on the lake. Then we headed back to the parking lot and wanted to see what else the park had to offer.
The lake is actually a large lagoon connected to the Cosumnes River. We looked at the park map and found a few more parking lots over near the river so we headed over there. Just in time as it turns out because by this time the park was beginning to fill up with people having picnics and birthday parties. We parked and then walked a nature trail that ran along the river then back through the riparian forest that grows along side the river. We enjoyed the many interpretive signs along the trail.
By now it was 1pm and we were both getting hungry. HEY! Thai Spices is just a mile up the road, let’s head there! Good idea! So after lunch at Thai Spices we headed back to the RV park for some more reading and napping. But we also had something special to get ready for in Modesto. Our daughter Angela was playing her music on the patio at church that evening. This is an event our church puts on in the summer. They invite member musicians to play music on their large patio and the church serves free hot dogs, or pizza, or snow cones or something. It’s just a safe place for people to go, get something to eat, and hang out. At any rate we really enjoyed Angela’s music. Here is a small sample of what she did that night.
We really enjoyed listening to her. Afterwards we headed back to the RV park for another movie and then bed. At least this time we could open the windows because the cigar smokers were gone!
Sunday morning I woke up and did pretty much the same thing as Saturday morning. After breakfast we watched church on their live Internet video stream, packed up, and headed back home. All in all a great weekend getaway!
I took this past Friday off as my birthday holiday and Cristy and I hitched up the trailer and headed down to Vista Ranch. Turns out Friday was a good day to head down there as they were set to have live music and food from 6pm to 9pm at Vista Ranch. I ordered a veggie pizza and Cristy got a farmer’s market salad. The pizza was delicious. It was cooked in a woodfire pizza oven onsite. The salad was made from greens bought at a farmer’s market and was really fresh. We ate our dinner and then enjoyed the jazz trio for another hour or so.
On Saturday we drove up to Mariposa and let Cristy do a little window shopping in their small downtown. Then we had lunch at High Country Health Foods & Cafe. Also great food. This is a hidden gem in Marioposa right off Highway 140 on the way up to Yosemite. After lunch it started getting hot so we headed back to the trailer to watch some videos I had downloaded onto the iPad and take a nap. After dinner we sat outside and watched the sunset.
Sunday morning we had breakfast, watched our church’s live stream and sat out side and just chilled. We did nothing because we wanted to do nothing.
This was probably the most relaxing outing we’ve had in the trailer yet. It wasn’t cold, it wasn’t raining, the air conditioner worked perfectly, and the nights cooled down enough to where we didn’t need it. No allergies, no noise, no worries. We can’t wait to go out again.
I recently picked up a Garmin RV 780 GPS to replace my aging Garmin Nuvi. A lot of people use their smartphones and I get that. I largely use mine for quick navigation. But Google maps will not tell you if you have bridge up ahead that is too low for the travel trailer you’re towing! So I bought a GPS that is geared towards RV’s and camping.
I pulled it out of the box and found it very easy and intuitive to set up and use. I still haven’t looked at the manual or online documentation yet. Haven’t needed to. It goes through a start up wizard where it connects to a WiFi network, and then tries to pair to your phone via Bluetooth. Both worked well. After connecting to my home WiFi network I did a system and database update. This took about 30 minutes to download and install but it did everything itself. I didn’t need to intervene other than to restart the download one time. (We were watching Netflix at the time so that could have something to do with it). Part of the setup suggests that you install their Garmin mobile app on your smartphone which will allow you to get real-time traffic and weather updates as well a do hands-free calling on your phone (if your car doesn’t already do that). Incoming emails and texts can also be displayed.
The features in this unit and the speed FAR surpass my old GPS unit. Screen updates are really fast and it’s very responsive to touch input. Inputting a route is very easy as it autocompletes what you are typing and brings up suggestions you can select rather than type out the entire place name. You can also use the Garmin Drive App to find the place you are going to and send it to the RV 780 so you never even need to touch the GPS. I love the real-time traffic updates. It will tell you what’s been reported up ahead on your route and how much time it will add. It also has the capability to display images from traffic cameras up ahead on your route too though I haven’t found a way to make it do that automatically like it does with traffic. Also the traffic camera images don’t refresh, they are just snapshots. One of the dislikes I have is the voice that they have chosen to use in this GPS. It’s a slightly abrasive female voice. I prefer the female voice in my older Garmin unit.
I’ve still yet to use this on an actual trip with my travel trailer. I’ve only used it a couple of days on my commute to work. But on those drives it’s worked really well. After I get a few more miles under my belt I’ll report back on how it’s doing.
I recently picked up a Garmin RV 780 GPS to replace my aging Garmin Nuvi. A lot of people use their smartphones and I get that. I largely use mine for quick navigation. But Google maps will not tell you if you have bridge up ahead that is too low for the travel trailer you’re towing! So I bought a GPS that is geared towards RV’s and camping.
The features in this unit and the speed FAR surpass my old GPS unit. Screen updates are really fast and it’s very responsive to touch input. Inputting a route is very easy as it autocompletes what you are typing and brings up suggestions you can select rather than type out the entire place name. You can also use the 
Air Prayer 