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.

Beautiful weather and scenery at our go-to camping area to get away from the hot Phoenix summer heat. Pine Flat is about 15 miles south of Williams, Arizona. About half of the drive is on a decent dirt road, which traverses a few normally-dry creek beds that required me to stop and move some rocks out of the way because of the heavy monsoon rains they've had up there recently. We might have to get a 4x4 RV next time!

Click above to play video/slide show.
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Wonderful two-week trip from Arizona to Washington via Utah, Idaho and Oregon and back via Oregon and California.
Places we stayed:

• Kaibab Camper Village, Kaibab Camper Villagem Fredonia, AZ (just north of the Grand Canyon North Rim): https://www.kaibabcampervillage.com
• Pony Express RV Resort, Salt Lake City, UT: https://www.sunrvresorts.com/resorts/west/utah/pony-express-rv-resort/
• Ambassador RV Resort, Caldwell, ID: https://www.g7rvresorts.com/rv-park/ambassador/
• Icicle Creek RV Resort, Leavenworth, WA: https://icicleriverrv.com/
• Friends home near Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA: http://www.fridayharbor.org
• Lake Pleasant RV Park, Bothell, WA: http://www.lakepleasantrv.com/index.html
• Sea and Sand RV Park, Dopoe Bay, OR: https://seaandsandrvpark.com
• Seven Feathers RV Resort, Canyonville, OR: http://www.sevenfeathersrvresort.com
• Flag City RV Resort, Lodi, CA: https://www.flagcityrvresort.com
• Bakersfield RV Resort, Bakersfield, CA: https://www.bakrv.com

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

One reason we bought this Winnebago View RV equipped the way we did it, was to be able to dry camp (no water, electric, sewer). This was our first night out dry-camping, and it exceeded all our expectations. We didn't run out of water, we didn't overflow the gray or black water tanks, and we hardly noticed any discharge of the lithium batteries overnight, thanks to the 200 watts of solar on the roof.

We had a beautiful spot (#F25) in the Lynx Lake Campground, just outside of Prescott, Arizona. It was quite windy with gusts up to 30 mph, but the winds died down enough that could enjoy a nice campfire and roast s'mores. I like the fact that you can reserve spaces in advance in this campground, although, Friday and Saturday nights are already reserved far in advance, so we stayed on a Sunday night which allowed us to miss all the weekend traffic on I-17.

Looking forward to coming back to Lynx Lake Campground again.

Our first extended trip in our new 2021 Winnebago View RV to Lake Havasu. This video includes footage along the Colorado River between Parker and Lake Havasu, crossing the London Bridge, driving through Crazy Horse Campground, Islander Resort (where we stayed for two nights in beautiful space number 505), and the drive back home to Phoenix via I40 with a stop for lunch at the famous Mr. D's 50's diner in Kingman.

As we've done with each of our new RVs over the years, we made the short trip to Lake Pleasant for our inaugural first camping trip to make sure everything was working correctly before we head out on longer trips. Someone else must have cancelled at the last minute because space #D15 at the Maricopa County Parks Roadrunner campground was available. It was a beautiful campsite overlooking the lake with many people in their sailboats out enjoying the 65+ degree day on Saturday. 

I know, I know. I said we were done with RVing a year ago, but the RV-world has dragged us back in again. After toying around with the idea of buying a cabin in the woods in Show Low, Arizona, we ultimately decided that we really like the freedom to go anywhere that an RV gives us, so we placed an order in October, 2020, for the newer version of the Winnebago RV we had before and took delivery of it on January 22, 2021. This one is a 2021 Winnebago View 24D model. We upgraded to lithium batteries for longer dry-camping trips and choose the twin reclining theater seats over the standard booth because we found that the booth just didn't give us a comfortable place to sit. We'll have to put up with making reservations farther in advance because so many people are buying RVs so they can escape the Coronavirus in their own portable houses.

I know it's hard to believe, but we've sold our Winnebago Navion and aren't buying another RV! After 7 years of RVing, we're giving it up. We got into RVing because of family that was spread from Arizona to California to Oregon and Washington but most of our family is here in Arizona now, so we're just not finding that the RV-life is the right fit for us any more so I sold it back to LaMesa RV yesterday.

We have no regrets of owning RVs over the past 7 years. We have a lot of great memories, all of them captured here on our blog, which I plan to continue with our future travels. Stay tuned for our next adventure!

We made our annual RV trip to Seattle, leaving Phoenix on August 10th and returning on August 25th, 2019. This time, it was in our new 2019 Winnebago 24D motorhome.

• Day 1: Drove the 275 miles to the Lake Powell Wahweap RV Park from our home near Phoenix. We had a beautiful space overlooking the lake.
• Day 2: Drove 350 miles to a nice little RV park next to Utah Lake in Provo, Utah: Lakeside RV Campground. On the way, we took a beautiful side-trip through Bryce Canyon National Park.
• Day 3: It was a 330 mile drive through Utah and Idaho to the Ketchum, Idaho, where we spent the night at the Meadows RV Park, which was a small RV park just south of Sun Valley, Idaho.
• Day 4: Drove about 200 miles from Sun Valley, Idaho up through the mountainous Sawtooth Wilderness. We thoroughly enjoyed brunch at the quaint Redfish Lodge on Redfish Lake (Paul had a wonderful combination of fresh trout, eggs, potatoes and homemade sausage). Redfish Lake Lodge sits at an elevation of 6,550 feet above sea level. The water is crystal clear with a beautiful sandy beach. We continued on the Sawtooth Scenic Byway which hugged the Salmon and Payette Rivers for about 100 miles, ending up in Caldwell, Idaho, staying at one of our favorite overnight stops, The Ambassador RV Park.
• Day 5: We had planned on driving the 350 miles to the Trailer Inns RV Park in Yakima, Washington, but, after driving past the park, we decided that the numerous homeless people and warehouse district setting wasn't for us, so we drove the entire 500 miles toward Seattle, where my brother let us park the RV in his driveway in Issaquah until we could check into one of our favorite RV parks, The Lake Pleasant RV Park, in Bothell, WA.
• Days 6-10: Using The Lake Pleasant RV Park as our home-base, we rented a car to drive around Seattle in and spent most of our time visiting with relatives and friends.
• Day 11: We had nice weather for the 310 mile drive from Bothell, WA to Newport, OR, where we had reserved two nights at our absolute favorite RV park, the Pacific Shores Motorcoach RV Park. We love this park because it sits high above the Pacific Ocean and it's very well kept with beautiful manicured spaces and grounds. We had a premium space #189, which was one row back from the bluff, allowing us to see the ocean and the beautiful sunsets each night. Unfortunately, a Pacific storm blew through and it rained all day long on our one day we had planned on doing nothing but enjoying the view.
• Day 12: The weather cleared up for our leisurely 300 mile drive down Highway 101 through southern Oregon and northern California to the conveniently located Mad River Rapids RV Park. The best thing about going south on Highway 101 vs going north is that you're on the ocean-side of the highway, making it easier to pull into the many viewpoints. Of course, we had to stop and get some homemade fudge at the Fudge Factory in Banning, Oregon!
• Day 13: After almost two weeks on the road, we were itching to get back home, so we took a short side-trip through the scenic Redwoods Avenue of the Giants, then hightailed it over to I-5's Flag City RV Resort in Lodi, California. Traffic was absolutely terrible around the Bay Area on a Friday afternoon. I swear I will never drive around there again!
• Day 14: Drove one of my least-favorite drives; 375 miles down I-5 from Lodi to Los Angeles, then east on I-210 to one of our favorite RV parks; the Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort (formerly East Shore RV Park). This park sits high above the Puddingstone Reservoir with nice, wide campsites and beautiful views over the lake.
• Day 15: The final 350 miles were from the Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort to our home near Phoenix, Arizona. This is a drive we've done dozens of times over our 30+ years of living in Arizona, so we know it very well. Yes, it's a boring drive through the desert, but it's an easy drive of mostly 70 mph with the cruise control on for most of the 5-1/2 hour drive.

We're already planning our next outing. Possibly New Mexico to see the fall leaves turn.

After searching for the right message to put on our RV's license plate for months, I finally settled on this. It was very hard to come up with something that wasn't already taken!

It's summertime in Arizona! Perfect time to take a camping trip to one of our favorite desert escapes near Williams, Arizona. High temperature here at this 7,000 foot altitude was 78° compared to 105° down in Phoenix! 

Exact location: 35°09'31.4"N 112°10'15.8"W

I decided to get a handful of items fixed on the RV before our upcoming summer trips. We're thoroughly pleased with this very short list, compared to our past Tiffin Class A motorhomes lengthy lists of issues, and most of them major issues compared to these relatively minor items.

We had a great weekend camping at the Pleasant Harbor RV Resort this weekend. This park is so convenient since it's only 14 miles from our home here in Arizona. Our son-in-law, Dave, took part in the very popular bass fishing tournament, which he has done several times before. The rest of us enjoyed the scenery, kayaking and a good BBQ dinner at Dillons on the dock Friday night. Our whole family celebrated Pam's birthday on Saturday with our own BBQ and cake. The grandkids kept themselves entertained catching bugs, fishing and playing catch.

Driving through Newport Dunes RV Resort to our space #1119.

Beautiful view from our space #1119.

Wildflowers in full bloom along the freeways of S. Cal.

March 16-23, 2019.

We had a wonderful 8 days in our spot #1119 at the Newport Dunes Resort over our granddaughter's Spring Break. While the resort is beautiful, it's a long way from Phoenix (375 miles) and the L.A. traffic made it seem like twice that far (stop-and-go traffic in an RV is no fun!). For a different point of view coming home, we drove down Highway 1 from Newport Beach to San Clemente, then took I-5 to I-8 back to Phoenix, thinking that it would have lighter traffic. Big mistake! Stop-and go-traffic on I-5 from San Clemente to San Diego was terrible. It took 10 hours to drive the 435 miles home this way! Because of traffic, we probably won't go back to Newport Dunes again. However, I-8 is way better than I-10 because of its lighter traffic and lack of semi trucks. The wildflowers were in full bloom in Southern California making for a beautiful drive.

Our new 2019 Winnebago Navion 24D handled perfectly over the 800 mile trip. Unlike our past Tiffin motorhomes, this RV still has nothing seriously wrong within the first 6 months of owning it. The only issue we had with this trip was the Sirius satellite radio cut out after driving over a very bumpy section of I-5. Something must have come unplugged behind the dash. If that's the only thing to go wrong with this rig, I'll be very happy!

Click above to play video.

We made our first "big" trip in our new Winnebago Navion over Presidents Day weekend, Feb. 16-18, 2019. This was a good test of the RV, as it was 377 miles from Phoenix to Lake Havasu and back over a variety of roads. On the way there, we went out via Highway  60 through Wickenburg, then through Parker to Lake Havasu. On the way back home, we took Highway 95 south to Quartzsite, then east on I-10 to test how it handled on the freeway. I was very pleased with the handling on the entire trip.

We stayed at the Islander RV Resort on Lake Havasu for the third time in several years. We had a great spot (#467) right on the lake next to the boat launching ramp which made for some fun boat-watching. Weather was cool, but mostly sunny the entire weekend. I'm getting disappointed in the Islander Resort because they're converting a lot of the RV sites into permanent vacation rental homes. I think I'll look into different locations next time we want to go to Lake Havasu. 

This is one of the reasons we downsized from our past class-A sized motorhomes. I wouldn't have been comfortable taking our 41' diesel pusher down to the lakeshore of Lake Pleasant for a quick couple of nights like we did this past weekend. We found this size RV fits our desire to pack up and head out with little planning or preparation. We dry-camped for two nights and had absolutely no problems with the new RV. The solar panels powered us during the day and we ran the generator for two hours in the morning and again in the evening. I was a little disappointed that the the batteries were down to 11.5 amps by morning. I expected them to hold a charge better overnight but we really liked staying in this new Winnebago Navion 24D. It seems a lot bigger than 25' because of the well thought out floor plan and murphy bed. I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this RV!

I made this 30-minute video of LaMesa's Johnny showing us how to work everything in our new 2019 Winnebago Navion 24D so I could refer to it later if I forgot anything.

When buying a motorhome, would-be RV'r's often become distracted by size and think that bigger is better.

We have learned by experience that bigger is NOT better, at least for us. 

After purchasing a new 41', 4" long 2018 Tiffin Phaeton 40IH last summer, and driving it about 7,000 miles to Seattle and back, twice, we have decided to go smaller. While that RV was absolutely beautiful, we found it to be too large for what we wanted to do. We like the "camping" feel when we go places. At 41 feet, we were very limited to the places we could go and stay. We could only stay in expensive, large, pull-through RV parks. We couldn't stay in most national or state parks because they limit your length to about 35'. We had to fill the 100-gallon fuel tank at big, inconvenient truck stops. We couldn't stop anywhere without first looking to see if there was a way out without backing up (you can't back up an RV towing a car).

With RVs, there are a lot of things that can go wrong, but at 41 feet, there are even more things to go wrong. We had this RV for five months. The last two months it has been sitting at LaMesa RV's service center, waiting to get 30 items fixed. Most of the 30 items were problems that came that way from the factory. This is our third Tiffin, and we've had similar poor quality experiences with the previous two. After 7 years of owning Tiffins, we're done.

It's time to simplify!

Last weekend, we traded the Tiffin Phaeton in for a 25', 8" long 2019 Winnebago Navion 24D. The Winnebago will allow us to go just about anywhere, as it's not much bigger than a large SUV. With the Winnebago Navion, the entire chassis is made by Mercedes-Benz. With Tiffin, the engine was made by Cummings, the transmission by Allison, the chassis by Tiffin, the dash by several different manufacturers. No wonder there were so many things wrong all the time! With the new Winnebago, the entire chassis, engine, transmission and cab are all made and serviced by Mercedes-Benz. With the Winnebago, we're simplifying from three roof air conditioner units to one, four slide-outs to one, four TVs to one, two bathrooms to one (see the trend here?). I still expect things to go wrong, but there are fewer things to go wrong in this smaller motorhome.

We're looking forward to being more nimble. The Winnebago drives like a SUV, not a semi-truck. It gets 15+ MPG instead of 8. It can sleep 5-6 adults and/or children with its ingenious queen-size Murphy bed that turns into a couch when not in use, 4-person dinette and above-cab bunk. It still has all the comforts of a larger RV; shower, toilet, bathroom sink, kitchen sink, stove, microwave and 30" television with DVD player, but in a smaller footprint. Plus, we think that it will be less of a burden packing up for short trips rather than always feeling like we had to go on long, major trips. 

We are going to sell our Jeep tow-car, as I hated always having to hook it up, tow it, and being limited to where we could go because you can't back up an RV towing a car.

I wish everyone the opportunity to own an RV. We've had a lot of great memories in our 7 years of owning RVs. Certainly, the big, 40 foot plus size RVs are perfect for many people. If you like driving a long distance to stay in one place as a home base for a month or more, then the bigger-is-better theory can work for you. But, we've found that bigger is not always better.