Rancho California Resort

Here are some pictures of our resort, which is our home for three months in the winter, as it has been for the last four years. We keep returning here every year, and it has become a "second home" for us. We have become familiar with the surrounding area, and when we return each year, we actually feel like we are coming home. We meet people who remember us from the previous winter, and meet our good friends from British Columbia, who also return here every winter.

Washing and waxing

Our Pinnacle was very dirty when we arrived at Rancho. Usually, we take the rig through a Blue Beacon Truck Wash on route, but this year the weather was so wet that we didn't do that. As a result, we pulled into Rancho with the truck and fifthwheel in a sorry state, which is somewhat embarrassing because the resort is full of gleaming RVs.

Home for the winter

We are settled in for three months until April 7, and this year we have a different lot in Rancho California Resort. Rancho is an ownership RV resort with about 600 lots, located in the high desert in Aguanga (pronounced "Awanga"), 20 minutes east of the city of Temecula. The scenery surrounding the resort is spectacular, with views of the mountains from everywhere in the resort. Each lot is individually owned, and many of the lots have been improved with "buildouts", making each lot somewhat unique.

Reaching our destination

We left Benson AZ after a hearty breakfast at Denny's next to the campground, and soon we passed through the city of Tucson, then Casa Grande, and had a nice easy drive across the Sonoran Desert to Yuma AZ, which is on the Arizona - California state line. Interstate 8 across the desert was almost deserted, and I took advantage of the arrow-straight highway, sparse traffic and a 75 mph (120 kph) speed limit to increase our cruise speed to 74 mph. There was a moderate tailwind, we achieved 11.5 mpg at this speed, and covered the distance quickly.

West Texas to New Mexico

We left Boerne on New Year's Day after a great five-day stay at Top of the Hill RV Resort. Our destination that day was Van Horn, TX, a distance of just under 400 miles. This is further than we usually drive in a day, but because the drive was westbound on I-10 through mostly plains and desert, the distance was easy to cover. We arrived at Van Horn around 4:00pm, and checked into Southern Star RV Park for the night. This is a typical southwestern desert park, with lots of room to maneuver and good utility hookups, and no grass in sight.