The Rio Grande Valley

We have been, for the past 9 days, in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, at Mercedes. More on the RGV later; first I will tell you about our trip since the last post, which was in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Finally - On The Road Again!

The date we left Ontario this year, was the latest since we started fulltiming - December 22.

Virginia

It is May 3, and we are near Wytheville, Virginia, more than halfway from Florida to our home base for the Summer and Fall, Craighurst, Ontario. We are at "D" on the map.

Florida

It is April 23, and we are here near Freeport, Florida for a nine-day stay at Live Oak Landing resort, located on the Choctawhatchee River where it joins Choctawhatchee Bay, which is the large inland "sea" separating Santa Rosa Island from the mainland.

Almost 1000 miles east

We are presently in Alpine TX, enjoying a two-day stay at Lost Alaskan RV Park, where we stayed on our westbound trip last December.

Leaving California

The view from our window for the last 3 months

We left our winter home at Aguanga today, and headed over the mountains and through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to our first overnight stop, Dateland AZ.

SteadyFast Stabilizer System

For the full story on the installation of this system, click the picture.

New Dishwasher

We recently installed a residential dishwasher. For a detailed post with pictures, click here.

New Generator

As mentioned previously, our Yamaha generator malfunctioned on the last day of our westbound trip, setting in motion a chain of events which resulted in us replacing our microwave and installing a full-size Samsung gas range. The replacement generator is now installed in the truck.

New generator and kitchen mods

For the full story, check out this page.

Arrived in California

First, I have a confession to make. I have been lazy with the blog updates for the last couple of weeks, since we were in Texas. My excuse is that I was afflicted with a horrible malady called "Cedar Fever" or "Mountain Fever".

Alpine, Texas

We are presently in Alpine, which is a town located in the Big Bend region of west Texas. The area is known as the Big Bend because it is located along the Mexican border, roughly inside a northward bend of the Rio Grande river.

We're in West Texas

We are now in West Texas, near a small town called Loraine, on I-20.

Westbound trip 2016

We stayed at Milton Heights Campground for five weeks, and finally made preparations for departure on December 14.

Almost ready to leave

Our site at Milton Heights on a snowy December 11

In another three days we will be embarking on our sixth cross-country trip to Southern California. Weather permitting, we will leave on Wednesday morning.

Colder weather

We are still on our original site in Cedarwood. Everyone else has gone, most have departed for warmer places. My teaching contract runs until mid-December, so we have to wait until then.

Snowy, blustery day. Saturday will be 19C (67F)

View from our living room. Lots of empty sites, the remaining rigs are stored here on-site for the winter.

Tomorrow, we will move our rig to a site near the Community Hall in Cedarwood, so that staff can winterize the water system, which is done in stages. It will be a very short trip of about 300 yards. A week later we will leave for Milton Heights Campground west of Toronto, where we will stay until December 14. Milton Heights is one of the very few campgrounds in Ontario which is open year-round.

Next Spring we will be moving to a brand-new site in Cedarwood, which is presently under construction, directly across from our site for the last 5 years. Concrete should be poured within the next few days, and the new sites will be ready for Spring.

Our new site under construction

It will certainly feel good to get on the road again in December after 6 months in one place. This year, we plan on entering the USA at Sarnia-Port Huron, and driving south through Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and the Natchez Trace Parkway to Jackson MS. We will take I-20 westbound, with a 3 day stopover for the holiday in Jefferson TX, then on to Alpine TX for a 4 day stay in the Big Bend region of southwest Texas. New Years Day we will resume our westbound trip, arriving at Rancho California Resort on January 6.

Our truck and fifthwheel is serviced, inspected and ready to go, with 6 new tires on the truck. I did all the maintenance work myself, before the weather became cold.

Traveling time is approaching

Red sky in the morning at Cedarwood. It rained later that day.

Canada Geese have returned to the Cedarwood pond. They return every year in the Fall.

The weather is getting cooler, and darkness falls much earlier now, around 7:00pm. The season at Cedarwood is drawing to a close, and I have been attending to some maintenance tasks before it gets uncomfortably cold.

Wheel bearing maintenance

In the last two weeks, I have performed the annual wheel bearing maintenance, which includes inspection and repacking of the wheel bearings, and brake adjustment. The grease seals were replaced with new ones.

While the wheels were off, I used metal polish and a buffing attachment to polish the aluminum wheels, making them look like new.

I inspected the suspension components, including the springs and shackles, and lubricated the wet spring bolts.


I did a thorough inspection of the roof, caulking any suspicious-looking areas with Dicor rubber roof sealant. I replaced batteries and o-rings on the tire pressure transmitters, and topped off the tires to 120 psi.



Next on the list is our truck. I will be changing the oil, and replacing air, fuel and transmission filters. I will do this work myself, using genuine AC Delco filters ordered online. In two weeks the truck will go for its mandatory annual safety inspection, and I will have the four rear tires replaced to match the front tires which were installed last spring in Florida.

I will be replacing our two house batteries in a few weeks, with two 6 volt golf cart batteries. The original 12 volt RV batteries are almost six years old, and have reached the end of their useful life.

We will be staying at Cedarwood until November 5, then moving to Milton Heights Campground west of Toronto until December 14, when we will begin our sixth cross-country journey. Our rig has been in this spot since May 5, which is the longest time it has remained in one place. Cedarwood will be almost empty by the time we leave. Most people will be leaving on the official end-of-season date of October 16.

It will be great to get on the road again. We are eagerly anticipating the westbound trip this year. We will take the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville to Jackson, Mississippi, as we have done the last three years. We will be stopping for a few days at the end of December in Alpine, Texas, which is in the Big Bend area of southwestern Texas. We will be visiting with new fulltiming friends, who stayed next door to us in Cedarwood for a week this summer. Their Texas home base is in Lost Alaskan RV Resort near Alpine. We look forward to exploring this part of Texas, which we have driven through, but never visited, before. The Southwest Texas region is appealing to us because of its lonely spaciousness and vast desert areas interspersed with mountain ranges. Sounds like a great place to spend a few days leading up to New Year's.

Almost in Canada

It is Friday evening, May 6, and we are 45 minutes drive from the US - Canada border. We are wallydocking at a Walmart in Fredonia NY, as we did last night at Anmoor WV. This far north on our route, there are few campgrounds open at this time of the year, and no Passport America parks. Walmart is a great alternative for an overnight stop. We hate paying $40+ for the privilege of parking in a muddy camping resort for a few hours. We use the Allstays Walmart ONP Android app, which lists the stores which may allow overnight RV parking, and also has user reviews of the location.

South Carolina

It is May 1, and we are well on our way northbound. We decided to eschew Interstate 75, because of the insane traffic and widespread construction in Florida. Instead, we took I-75 30 miles from Naples to Fort Myers, then turned inland across the peninsula on state highways. We passed just to the north of Lake Okeechobee, then through miles of citrus groves stretching as far as one could see. This is a part of Florida we have never seen; it is off the beaten track.

Tire Pressure Monitoring

One of the TPMS sensors on the fifthwheel. It will generate an alarm if the pressure drops below 110 psi.

For the last five years, since beginning our fulltiming adventure, we have used a Tireminder TPMS to monitor the pressure in the fifthwheel tires. It actually saved the rig from extensive damage 3 1/2 years ago, when one of the original equipment GoodYear Marathon tires started to disintegrate (we replaced the Marathons with heavy-duty commercial tires).

Naples

View from our site in Silver Lakes Resort

Update on the tire situation

The punctured inner dually, before removal from the truck

I had intended to repair the damaged tire, and use it as a spare until I replaced all six tires later in the year. I removed the offending self-drilling screw (see picture) and plugged the hole using a tire repair kit. I wanted to see if the tire was okay after inflating, and if it was, I intended to have a tire shop install an internal patch.

Close to Florida

We are making great progress on our relentless eastbound journey. So far it has been really enjoyable. The secret is to limit the daily distance, and make two-day stops some of the time

We had a nice two-day stop near Hammond LA, which is near the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, across the lake from New Orleans.

Wildflowers, Schnitzel and a tire puncture

Almost across Texas!

Three days were spent in the Texas Hill Country. We stayed at Cowboy Capital RV Park in Pipe Creek, about 15 miles from Boerne. The cost of our stay was $44, and it was a positive experience. Gerhard, the owner, greeted us warmly upon our arrival, and escorted us to a large pullthrough site. The park is very rural and has that "back to nature" look, but the utilities were good, and it was quiet and peaceful.

The Hill Country

The distance east-to-west across Texas, along Interstate 10, is about 880 miles (1400km). We are now at the 540 mile point, in the Hill Country northwest of San Antonio.

Into Texas

We have done about 1000 miles since leaving Rancho

After a one-night stop at Las Cruces, we got on the road and headed east through the city of El Paso. I usually get fuel when the truck is uncoupled from the fifthwheel, but today I made an exception, pulled into a Flying J and topped off with diesel at 1.69 per gallon. I had sufficient fuel to get to our next stop, but not enough to get to the Hill Country, where we will stay for at least 2 days. Flying J are easy in and out, with lots of room to maneuver the rig.

Benson to Las Cruces

Another 228 miles eastbound

We stayed in Benson for an additional day, making three days total. Thunderstorms and heavy rain passed through the area on Sunday, so we decided to take the extra day, rather than drive in the heavy rain. Also, I had some online business stuff to take care of (Ontario Automation Services).

Tombstone, Arizona

We left the rig at Benson I-10 RV Park, and drove 22 miles to Tombstone, which was a silver mining boom town in the 19th century. Those were the days of the Wild West, with outlaws on one side and sheriff's deputies on the other. The famous Earp brothers (Wyatt Earp) were on the law enforcement side in Tombstone during that era. The town of Tombstone is now on the National Register of Historic Places, and it has been preserved much as it was 150 years ago.

Day 2 Benson AZ

We are making visible progress across the map

We stayed one night in Yuma, which is known for its dry, desert climate, and amazingly, it rained for most of the night! Until about 9:00pm, there was the deafening sound of military jets taking off from the Marine Air Corps base just down the road. A plane took off every couple of minutes, probably doing night-flying training. The RV park was directly under the departure flight path.

On the road again!

After three wonderful months at The Ranch, we are finally rolling again. We left Aguanga CA, and traveled to Yuma AZ, a distance of 175 miles.

Preparing for the eastbound trip

We have been in Southern California for almost three months, and it has been another wonderful winter. We have enjoyed our rented lot in Rancho California Resort, and the weather has been warm and sunny almost the entire time.

It is time to prepare for our journey back. This year we will be staying in Naples, Florida for a week. It involves a 400 mile detour down the Florida peninsula, and it was a favorite annual destination before we became fulltimers. With diesel prices this low, it is quite inexpensive to cover the extra miles.

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.