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.

Our present location

We are presently about halfway across Texas, 60% of our journey is done. The rest of the trip is easy driving across the vast open expanses of the Southwest. My favorite part of the journey.

We really like these low fuel prices. I filled the truck and the auxiliary tank today....72 gallons (272 liters) of diesel fuel for $122. That will take us 720 miles.

Texas

A major storm system moved in off the Gulf on December 27, tracked NNE through Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and headed for the Northeast. As I write this, on December 29, we are in Boerne, TX for five days, and the weather is cold but calm.

Natchez, MS and Vidalia, LA

Natchez and Vidalia are small cities located on opposite sides of the Mississippi River...one in Mississippi, the other in Louisiana. We are presently camped at River View RV Park in Vidalia, LA. As the name implies, there is certainly a good view of the great river; we are within a stone's throw of the west riverbank.

The Natchez Trace and Tupelo

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a two-lane road which runs 444 miles (710 km) SSW from Nashville to Natchez MS. It is a National Park, and no commercial traffic is allowed. RVs are allowed, as long as they are not traveling commercially.

Our phones in the US

We spent Sunday in Nashville, but did not visit Opryland as planned. There was a Christmas show taking place at the convention centre, which along with a light show, attracted what looked like half of Nashville's population to the area. The traffic was gridlocked for a couple of miles around Opryland, so we stayed home in the relative peace of the Nashville KOA.

Day 3, Nashville

We left Raintree Lake at 8:30am, and drove down the road to the Scottsburg Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Access with our rig was easy, with lots of RV parking at the rear. This is the first visit this trip to the Cracker Barrel, and on a cold morning, the atmosphere is welcoming with a nice log fire burning in a stone fireplace.

Day 2, Indiana

We traveled another 320 miles today, and reached Scottsburg, IN, where we are staying overnight at Jellystone Park Raintree Lake. This is a family camping resort, very popular in the summer with weekend campers from the Indianapolis and Louisville areas. The campground is mostly closed in the winter season, but the owners, who live on site, maintain a dozen pullthrough sites for travelers heading south on I-65. There is electricity only, no water hookups are available in the winter, but it is a quiet, peaceful overnight stop for $20.

Into the USA

December 17, and teaching is finished until next May. Time to get on the road, and for the fifth year since we began fulltiming, begin our journey across this great continent. We are looking forward to this journey, which will take about three weeks. Included in our mission statement, which may be seen here, is the phrase "The journey is as important as the destination", and we honestly believe this.
We left Milton Heights Campground, located just west of Toronto, at 9:30am.

We moved to Milton!

The first month parked at the cottage on Georgian Bay was enjoyable. The weather remained unusually warm for the season, and my system of drawing water from the lake worked quite well.
We even had an overnight guest one night....Piper the Dog.

Our home until December

We left Cedarwood on October 22, and we are now parked on a cottage property on the shore of Georgian Bay, which is a large, scenic body of water attached to Lake Huron.

Leaving the USA

On Saturday we crossed the border at Port Huron, MI to Sarnia, ON.

Indiana

We left Cave City, Kentucky at 11:00am after a leisurely breakfast at the campsite, and in less than an hour we entered the Louisville metro area.

Cave City, Kentucky

The drive from Elkmont to Cave City was uneventful. We passed right through Nashville on I-65, and the 11am traffic was heavy but moving well.

Elkmont, Alabama

We arrived in Elkmont yesterday, and set up for two days at Mill Creek RV Park, a couple of miles from the village.

Technical glitch

We have had a technical problem with our residential refrigerator installation.

Beach at sunset

We went to dinner at The Perfect Pig, located next to the beach. I had Crab Cakes, and The Navigator had the house specialty, broiled Grouper.

Eden Gardens State Park

Eden Gardens is a small state park located on Tucker Bayou, an inlet off Choctawhatchee Bay. It is about 10 miles from Live Oak Landing, our home while we are in Florida.

More Santa Rosa Beach

Wednesday, and the weather is perfect again. Another morning at the beach, after eating breakfast at a newly-discovered restaurant called The Perfect Pig, which is located across the road from the parking area at Ed Walline Beach. Breakfast was so good, we will go there for dinner to celebrate our 44th anniversary, in two days time.

Santa Rosa Beach

It is Tuesday, and finally, we awakened to sunshine. The weather today was wonderful; bright and sunny, almost no wind, 75 degrees, and lower humidity. Perfect beach weather!

Destin, Florida

Destin is a city of 12,000 people located about midway between Pensacola and Panama City Beach, on Florida's Emerald Coast. The population increases to 40,000 during the tourist season, which is May until November.

Live Oak Landing

We are settled in at Live Oak Landing near Freeport, FL. We have been coming to this area since we started RVing 18 years ago. We would come for a two week break over the holiday in December, and return to Ontario the first week in January. In those days, we would stay at Topsail Hill State Park.

Drive to Freeport, FL

Payne's RV Park in Theodore, Alabama turned out to be one of the quietest, most peaceful overnight stops we have ever stayed at.

Theodore, AL

We left New Orleans at 11am today, after walking into the French Quarter for a hearty Cajun breakfast at the Oceana Grill, the place we went for lunch yesterday. It wasn't raining this morning.

New Orleans

We left Robert, LA which is near the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, at 10:00am, and made a stop at a brand new Walmart in Pontachoula to pick up a good heavy-duty umbrella.

Robert, LA

We are taking it easy in the Yogi Bear Camping Resort near Robert, LA, which is about one hour's drive from New Orleans French Quarter.

Rural Louisiana

We are presently in a small park in Louisiana called Quiet Oaks RV Park.

Katy, TX

We arrived in Katy, which is a suburb of Houston, at 1:00pm. The park is called Westlake RV Resort, and it is surprisingly nice for a city park.

Boerne to Houston

We just spent three nights at Top of the Hill RV Resort, and tomorrow morning we leave for Katy, TX, which is a western suburb of Houston.

Boerne, TX

It was an uneventful 335 mile journey from Balmorhea to Boerne (pronounced "Bernie"). The Navigator drove for the first 120 miles.

Balmorhea, TX

The drive from Las Cruces to Balmorhea was very relaxing, except for passing through El Paso. I-10 is under major construction through the city, and we discovered a bypass route around El Paso that goes through Fort Bliss, the massive Armed Forces base.

Las Cruces, NM

As I write this, we are relaxing at Coachlight Motel and RV Park in Las Cruces, NM. Today's journey from Benson was another easy drive through desert terrain.

Tombstone, AZ

Tombstone is a historic town located about 30 miles south of Benson, quite close to the Mexico border.

Benson, AZ

We left Yuma at 9:30 on Saturday morning, and started east along I-8, destination Benson, AZ, a distance of 280 miles.

Yuma, AZ

We left Rancho California resort at 9:30am PDT this morning, and arrived in Yuma, AZ at 1:00pm MST.

Time to leave California

It is with some regret that we prepared our rig for travel, after 3 months in this beautiful resort in the high desert of Southern California.

Arriving in California

We left Benson, AZ and traveled west through Tucson, which always impresses us as a clean, well-laid-out city.

Texas to Tucson

We left Boerne, TX after an enjoyable 5 day stay over the Christmas holiday, and headed west on I-10.

Top of the Hill RV Park

Top of the Hill is located 5 miles north of Boerne, TX (pronounced "Bernie").

Texas

We left Vidalia, LA, and drove on Louisiana state highways southwest down to I-10. These roads were mostly in good condition, and the only tedious part was passing through Alexandria. We joined I-10 just east of Lake Charles, LA. Heading west on I-10, we soon entered Texas at Beaumont.

Natchez, Mississippi

We spent last night in a great Passport America park in Vidalia, LA, which is just across the Mississippi River from Natchez, which is the southern terminus of the Natchez Trace.

Natchez Trace Parkway

The Parkway is a 440 mile long two-lane highway that runs from just west of Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi, which is on the Mississippi River, 150 miles from the Gulf of Mexico.

Our trip has begun!

Our journey from Ontario to California began on Sunday. We pulled the rig out of our son's place after a very enjoyable two months.

Taste of winter

We have been having some unseasonably wintry weather here in Sutton, Ontario. Last night the temperature dropped to -11C (12F), and the daytime temperatures are staying below freezing.

Cold temperature living

We are currently staying in Sutton, Ontario, which is about 40 miles north of Toronto. The average night time low temperature here in November is 30degF (-1degC), but we are experiencing a cold snap for the next few days, with night temperatures down to 18F (-8C).

Moved to Sutton (pictures updated!)

We  moved out of Cedarwood on Friday, and drove the rig to Keswick, ON, where we parked at Walmart overnight. Early Saturday morning, we arrived at our son's house, and executed the trickiest backing maneuver I've ever done.

Slide topper awnings

Our Pinnacle has three slide topper awnings, which were installed by the factory when the unit was built. After three years of fulltime use, the original black vinyl fabric had deteriorated to the point that it was starting to tear at the seam where it went into the wall awning track.

The migration begins!

People are leaving Cedarwood, which officially closes on Wednesday.

Trailer tires

Background
The subject of trailer tires is hotly debated on any of the online forums. A lot of people have an opinion, and a good percentage have had tire problems at some point. In fact, if you haul a trailer or fifthwheel for long enough, it is not a question of "if", but "when" you will have a tire-related issue. I will discuss in this post, my own experiences with tires.

 

New compressor!

Bought a new air compressor today. 5 gallon tank, 1 1/2 HP, and it is capable of 135psi. I was on the lookout for a compressor that was able to inflate the H-rated tires that we installed on the fifthwheel last winter.