Just like we did with our 2014 Allegro motorhome (click here to view blog post), we went to Lake Pleasant this past weekend for a shakedown cruise to organize everything in the new motorhome. Good news...even though this one is slightly smaller, everything fit! Towed the Jeep behind it for the first time, you couldn't even tell it was back there. The diesel engine makes a huge difference in power over the gas engine in the last RV. And, it handles like a car because of the Freightliner chassis and air shocks. So far, we love this coach.
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Assorted photos from the trip:Grand Tetons and Yellowstone photos:Itinerary:
Camp near Coleman Lake, ArizonaWe camped near here last year and loved it so much, we came back again this year! Our camp this time was near Coleman Lake on Fire Road 186/Bill Williams Loop Road at 35.158840, -112.170286. Because of the rains the area has had in this past Spring, the meadows were beautifully green. The temps were between 50° at night to 86° during the day, which felt great compared to 115° down in Phoenix this weekend! Lava River Cave, ArizonaAbout 10 miles north of I-40 between Williams and Flagstaff is this Lava River Cave. We saw an article in the latest Arizona Highways magazine about it and thought it would be fun to go see. Apparently, everyone else in Arizona saw the same article because there were a lot more people there than we expected! It was still fun, though. The cave is about a mile long and is about 42° year-round, which felt great on a hot, summer Arizona day. Bill Williams Mountain & Lookout, ArizonaThis was a great first-test for the new Jeep, a climb to the top of 9,255 foot high Bill Williams Mountain, Arizona. The sky was a little hazy because of a forest fire in the San Bernardino Mountains, about 350 miles to the West, but it was still a spectacular view. Paul climbed to the top of the lookout and had a nice conversation with the Forest Service lookout spotter. He's a math teacher by trade and spends up to 6 months a year on the mountain watching for forest fires. The Jeep performed wonderfully on the 9 mile road to the top of the mountain. We couldn't be happier that we chose the Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk as our tow-car.
We picked up the motorhome and Jeep from Camping World after leaving them there for a few days to install all the equipment needed to flat-tow the new 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk and to have some additional suspension parts added to improve the handling of the motorhome.
1. The reason we chose the new 2015 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk is because it is one of the few SUVs that are flat-towable with an automatic transmission, and is relatively lightweight (about 4,100 lbs.). We wanted a vehicle that we could drive on paved roads plus take off-road once we get to camp. The Jeep hasn't disappointed us. We towed it from the 1,200 foot elevation of Phoenix, Arizona up to the 7,000 foot elevation of Williams, Arizona, without any problems. It towed just fine, and once we made camp, we drove it about 50 miles on the dirt roads to the Lava River Cave and to the top of 9,255 ft. Bill Williams Mountain. We're extremely happy with the way it handles. List of the main equipment added for towing:
2. After putting about 7,000 miles on the Tiffin Allegro over the past year, we came to the conclusion that we'd like something to help with the handling, mainly during driving on freeways with big, heavy trucks passing us and blowing us all over the road. After researching many RV forums and talking with Tiffin and Camping World, we had the following equipment added to the motorhome:
We drove about 300 miles on June 20 & 21 with the new setup (and towing the new Jeep) and were very happy with the results. There was a noticeable improvement in keeping the motorhome going straight down the road. Before this equipment, it took both hands firmly grasping the steering wheel, constantly making corrections to keep the motorhome in its lane. Now, I can drive with just a couple fingers on the wheel which should make long drives a lot easier. We went to Laughlin, NV for the first time since we moved to Phoenix, Arizona over 25 years ago. That's what we love about the motorhome - we are exploring areas we've never been to before because we were always just going to our favorite places like San Diego, Sedona and Showlow. Now we can go and stay anywhere!
The drive was 215 miles and took about 4-1/2 hours. We drove through Laughlin, then headed south about 15 miles to the KOA RV Park at Avi Resort & Casino. We had two nice spaces next to the grass for our motorhome and Dave's parents rented trailer. We lucked out with the weather as it was only in the upper 80s with lows in the 60s during the four days we were there. Laughlin is usually in the 100s at this time of year! We took Dave's boat and Dave's parents two jet-skis about 30 miles south on the Colorado River to Topock Gorge, which is a beautiful, rocky canyon between Laughlin and Lake Havasu. There were a ton of boats, making the ride a little rough at times. Avi Resort put on a fantastic fireworks show on Sunday night, which we watched right from our chairs in our RV space. We took the long way home on Tuesday, following the Colorado River south through Needles, CA, Lake Havasu City, AZ down to Quartsite and back home via I-10. All-in-all, it was a fun-filled four days! What better way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of owning our Allegro motorhome than by camping for 4 days/3 nights (March 12-15, 2015) at Lake Pleasant for our second Bill Luke Bass Days. It was exactly one year ago that we picked up our new motorhome and drove it straight to Lake Pleasant for it's inaugural camping trip at last year's Bass Days. We reserved two spots for us and Dave & Krista for this year, and have already reserved two spots for 2016. Last year we dry-camped in the dirt parking lot. This year we had water and 50 amp electric, right next to a big grassy area for the grandkids to play on. The view was great overlooking the lake and was easy walking distance to all the Bass Days festivities. Dave caught three fish that placed within their daily/hourly categories top 10 and won $300. Paul even sneaked in a little sailing in his Hobie Adventure Island sail-yak. It's so great to have the Pleasant Harbor RV Park only about 7 miles from our house. It has the best lake-views in the Phoenix area!
I've attended several RV shows at the Phoenix Stadium, but they don't compare to the sheer quantity and quality of the RVs that were at this weekend's Camping World RV Rally at Phoenix International Raceway. There must have been a thousand brand new RVs for sale here. I've never seen so many Class A motorhomes at the smaller RV shows that I've attended in the past. And it looked like a lot of people were buying, too! Camping World basically had an entire store inside the big tent, along with dozens of other RV-related vendors. There was probably another thousand RVs with people camping out in the parking lots for the four day event (Feb. 26-March 1, 2015). If you're in the market for a new RV, you should come to this event. You'll never see such a variety all in one place ever again!
The good news is that Paul didn't come away wanting to upgrade to a new 45' diesel pusher. Our little 35-footer will do just fine for us (for now)! Thanks to our son-in-law's local hunting knowledge, we stayed at a beautiful spot in the pine forests about 30 miles south of Williams, Arizona for 3 nights during Labor Day weekend. Dave had found this gorgeous camping spot overlooking Pine Flat meadow (click the following link to view in a Google map: http://bit.ly/1lF5cHS). We met up with another 4 families for this picture-perfect camping spot. Everyone else had quads, ATVs, sand rails, etc. which we took for rides throughout the forest service roads all the way to Sycamore Point (about 25 miles) looking down on the beautiful canyons north of Sedona. We made friends with a couple of very tame horses that visited us in the camp each evening. The dogs all had fun running around together, leash-free!
Pam and I decided to spend our last night at the Grand Canyon Railway RV Park in Williams to avoid the heavy Labor Day traffic going back down I-17 to Phoenix. It's a nice RV park located right next to the depot for the steam train to the Grand Canyon with paved pull-thru spots (but no shade). It was sure nice to have internet, cell-phone service, electricity, running water and sewer hookups after 3 nights of roughing it dry-camping (if you can call sleeping in a 35' motorhome "roughing it", haha)! Overall, it was a great experience. We now see what the appeal is to dry-camping that I read so much about. We'll be going back there again! June 13-July 9, 2014
Took our first extended trip in our new Allegro RV from June 13th through July 9th, 2014. The trip was about 3,600 miles in total, going from our home near Phoenix, AZ to Los Angeles, up the coast to Seattle and back via Eastern Oregon, Idaho and Utah. Daughter Krista, her husband Dave and their daughters were with us most of the way (Dave flew back after a week to get back to work). Son Jason flew down to LA from Seattle to meet up with other son Kyle and his wife Crystal who drove up the coast in their car. Overall, it was a great trip. Didn't have any problems with the RV (unlike the other two trips we took in rented RVs). We LOVE our motorhome! Hope you enjoy the following posts with photos from along the way. July 8-9, 2014:
The last leg of our journey home included beautiful drive through the valleys on Utah's highway 89 and a stay at the quaint Bryce Zion Campground at 175 East KOA DR, Glendale, Utah. This was a small, unpopulated RV park set in a beautiful canyon with the Bryce Canyon-style mountains right behind the campground. The grandkids had fun petting the horses next to the camp! From there, we continued on highway 89 to Wahweap Marina and RV park and had lunch overlooking Lake Powell. What a beautiful RV park! We will be making a trip back here again and stay a few days to explore Lake Powell and the surrounding mountains and canyons. The road from Page to Flagstaff had a detour because of a major rock slide, but the detour part of the road was very nice. The rest of the road to Flagstaff was in pretty bad shape with major bumps and rough roadway surface - not the best road to drive an RV on! Flagstaff to Phoenix is a nice drive through the the cool, mountain air and pine trees, then to desert. After almost a month away, it was nice to get home again! Decided to take the RV up to Flagstaff for a long weekend as we continue to work out the bugs of getting a brand new RV. Glad we did, went to pump up the air mattress, and there's no pump anywhere in the motorhome. Good thing we found that out now before we really needed the sofa bed for guests. We stayed at the Flagstaff KOA, which was a nice park among the pine trees, centrally located in Flagstaff, AZ. The weather has been perfect. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s. Nice change from down in Phoenix where it was 104 yesterday! Nice, relaxing sail in my Hobie Mirage Adventure Island kayak on Lake Pleasant, AZ.
For our second camping trip in the new RV, we headed east from Phoenix about 200 miles to The Islander RV Resort on Lake Havasu. We've never been to this part of Arizona before, but we'll definitely be back again. It was beautiful - clear, aqua-colored water and green palm trees set against the rugged mountains made for a beautiful setting for our campsite right next to the lake. We got there on the final day of the "Desert Storm Poker Run & Shootout"performance boat race so there were lots of hot boats to watch! Once the crowds thinned out, we had a nice, relaxing couple of days exploring the Lake Havasu area. I would highly recommend The Islander RV Resort to anyone looking for a great place to stay on Lake Havasu. They deserve the "10" rating they got from Good Sam Club members. Had a great four days dry-camping at the Lake Pleasant, AZ Bass Days for our inaugural voyage in our new Allegro motorhome. Son-in-law Dave came in third place one day with his 4.33 lb. bass and won $100. We had so much fun, we pre-booked next year's spots to be right on the grass and closer to the lake.
Picking up our brand new 2014 Tiffin Allegro 35QBA on March 13, 2014 from LaMesa RV in Phoenix. I know our granddaughters are going to enjoy it as much as we are!
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