We enjoyed the cool San Diego weather over the 4th of July. Can't beat San Diego in the summer compared to 110°+ in Phoenix! We stayed at the new Sun Resorts San Diego Bay RV Resort with 3 spaces in a row for other family members. We ended up moving to a view site on the outside edge for the 4th so we could all see the fireworks better.

June 30th through July 6th, 2021 at the now-closed Chula Vista RV Resort.

We reserved space #I-7 at Campland on the Bay two years ago, and already have a space reserved for a week over the 4th of July for the next two years. You have to reserve two years out to get a good spot right on the bay! This isn't the place to come if you want peace and quiet! It's crazy with kids, partygoers and the like, but it's been a lot of fun and it's a great place to stay for the 4th of July because you don't have to get in your car and drive anywhere to watch the fireworks. We just walked about 100 yards from our space out onto the jetty and watched five major fireworks shows from our patio chairs, all with a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band playing live behind us, finishing with "Free Bird" as the fireworks from SeaWorld just across the bay were finishing. There's been a live band here almost every night. Saturday night will be a Journey cover band (really looking forward to that one!).

On the morning of the 4th, we packed a lunch, rented a pontoon boat and cruised around Mission Bay for two hours.

​I can't think of a better place to hang out with the RV for the 4th of July!

Thanks to the RV, we've been to some beautiful places and stayed in some great campsites.

Some of the best sunsets we've ever seen are right from our RV campsites!

We had a wonderful stay in space #I-3 in San Diego's Campland on the Bay for 6 days in April. This space worked out great because it was deeper than the other spaces along the fence in the I-group. My favorite spaces are still the H-group because they face directly south overlooking Mission Bay. I enjoyed riding my bike around Mission Bay on the great bike paths. We had a delicious dinner on the waterfront at Anthony's Fish Grotto (I had the seared scallops). We ended up staying an extra night in San Diego because the wind was forecasted to have 60 mph gusts in the mountains and deserts. The winds subsided on Tuesday for our drive back to Phoenix (too bad - I don't need much of an excuse to stay longer in San Diego!).

We took our first long trip in our new motorhome to San Diego last weekend. Our daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters had a great time at SeaWorld and playing on Mission Beach. The weather was a perfect 76° on Saturday. The weather forecasters kept warning everybody about rain and high winds for Sunday and Monday, but it really wasn't bad. I was worried about driving our 35' motorhome across the desert after hearing the NAV in the Jeep give a warning saying "treacherous driving at mile 163", but this new motorhome handled the wind like it wasn't even there. Our old one would have been blown off the road!

We stayed at Campland on the Bay this time, and I'm glad we did. We drove through the park last summer and said to ourselves that it was too crowded and busy but we had a nice, wide pie-shaped space right on the bay this time so it was perfect. They have a very nice dog park and kids play area. We'll definitely go back there again, if we can make reservations far enough out to get a good space. I inquired about a space for the 4th of July and they said they're 95% sold out already.

Two years ago, when researching which motorhome to buy for our first RV, I told myself after reading everybody's comments about gas-vs-diesel that a gas RV would be sufficient for us. Boy, was I wrong! Peoples comments in the RV forums all said that if you just drive it around your home state for short weekends or one-week trips, then the gas coach would be fine, but if you live it in or drive it long distances, get a diesel pusher. Well, I couldn't justify spending $75,000 more just for a diesel pusher at the time, so I went with a brand-new 2014 Tiffin Allegro 35QBA. After putting over 10,000 miles on it in the first 18 months, I now know why people said to get a diesel pusher. Our new 2016 Tiffin Allegro RED 33AA does everything head-and-shoulders better than our gas RV did.

1. We just drove it to San Diego last weekend for its first long-trip. We towed our 2015 Jeep Cherokee and had the coach full with 4 adults and 2 kids. I remember driving on stretches of I-8 between Phoenix and Yuma last year where the gas coach downshifted to 3rd gear and revved up to 5,000 RPM on every slight hill along the way. And, I mean SLIGHT hills. Just going over an overpass would cause it to downshift abruptly. The diesel pusher very rarely downshifted unless is was a major hill, such as the long passes going to and from San Diego. Maximum speed going up the pass was 45 MPG for about 10 minutes. Other than that, it held 55-65 easily the entire way. I was able to drive almost the entire way with cruise control on. With the gas coach, I had to manually turn it off if I saw any kind of a hill coming up and build up my momentum to make it to the top of the hill without sounding like the engine was going to explode.
2. The diesel is so quiet compared to the gas coach. You can listen to the radio and hold a normal conversation between the passenger and driver in a regular voice.
3. Another advantage of the new diesel pusher over the gas coach is the way it drives. I added a front steering stabilizer and rear trac bar to the gas coach to try to get it to handle better. While those helped, they didn't begin to make up for the problem of the lightweight Ford chassis vs the heavyweight Freightliner chassis. I would get sore shoulders driving the gas coach just 200 miles because of constantly adjusting the steering wheel to keep the coach from wandering in its lane. The new diesel pusher is more like driving a luxury car vs driving an old VW Beetle. You can take your hands off the wheel for several seconds without it running off the road. I find myself driving with two fingers on the steering wheel now. The gas coach you had white knuckles from holding on to the steering wheel so tightly!
4. The air shocks are another thing that makes a huge difference. The ride on the new coach is so smooth! 
5. The diesel has an air brake system, which, until you've driven an RV with and without it, you'd never know what you're missing. It's great to apply it when going down hills, such as the long pass going to and from San Diego. It kept our downhill speed in the 45 MPH range without hardly touching the brake pedal going down that mountain pass.

If you're even THINKING about getting an RV, you owe it to yourself to test drive a gas RV then a diesel RV. There's no way you'll ever want to settle for a gas coach!

We took a last-minute trip to San Diego this week to escape the Phoenix heat for a few days. We couldn't get five nights in a row in any of the RV parks by the bay or ocean, so we settled for two nights at Ranchos Los Coches RV Park in Lakeside and three nights Chula Vista RV Park located right on the San Diego bay.

The Rancho Los Coches park was nice because it was located in a tree-filled, pretty little valley in the mountains about 25 miles east of San Diego. All the spots had a nice distance and varying elevations between them, however, the park was overrun with ants and we couldn't wait to get out of there after they invaded our RV the second night. We had to make a quick trip to WalMart at 10pm for ant traps and ant spray (which didn't do any good).

We were pleasantly surprised with how nice the Chula Vista RV Park was. It's about 8 miles south of Downtown San Diego, so the location isn't the most convenient to all the places we normally like to visit while in San Diego (Point Loma Seafoods, Mission Bay/Beach, La Jolla, Carlsbad, Oceanside), but the park itself made up for it with it's lush landscaping,  spotless grounds and great atmosphere. We had an interior location about 4 spots away from the outside fence so we could see the bay between the other RVs. A short walk led to a beautiful park that's right next to the RV park where you could walk or ride bikes for miles on paved sidewalks along the bay and marina (see enclosed photos). I would go back to this park again!

While here, we checked out Campland On The Bay and neighboring Mission Bay RV Resort for future San Diego trips.  We did not care for either of them.  Campland On The Bay was crowded, dirty and noisy. Mission Bay RV Resort was cleaner-looking, but, it was basically just a paved parking lot for RVs. The location of both parks were great, though, being located right on Mission Bay.

Checked out a couple of RV parks in Oceanside for future trips. Both were typical RV parks, but Paradise by the Sea has a walking trail that you can take to the beach. Across the street was Oceanside RV park, which appeared a little nicer, but you'd have to cross the busy South Coast Highway to get to the beach from it.

South Carlsbad State Beach would be a great place to stay for a few days, but it's strictly dry-camping (no water, sewer or electric). The views are spectacular overlooking the beach right from your camping spot.