We left Mission Bay RV resort making sure we had a tank full of water and one full of propane and empty waste tanks around noon. We weren’t going too far so we took our time getting ready, making sure to take one last, long hot shower before disconnecting and emptying tanks. We enjoyed Mission Bay so much we made reservations for November, December, and January before we left.
It costs around $350 per month to reserve a site; however, they do have a pretty reasonable cancellation policy. Any cancellation within 24 hours or greater costs only a $25 fee; if cancelling at less than 24 hours, cost is one night’s camping fee. Some might consider this steep, but to ensure we have an amazing site during the holidays, it was worth it to us to put out a little over a $1000 in deposits. If it doesn’t work out, I’m only out $75 at most.
Our first travel day was a pretty short one. We drove across highway 8 to Yuma, Arizona and found a spot on BLM land behind the VFW. Here’s a link sharing what the area behind the VFW is like. https://www.campendium.com/yuma-vfw
There are LOTS of boon docking places in Yuma, as well as full hook up campgrounds and seasonal sites for purchase. Yuma is one of the hot spots for the snow birders to spend the winter months. While there were some spaces along the way that looked to be a little more entertaining, I had made arrangements to have our rig serviced near Yuma and the VFW was a good spot for our mechanic to come and work.
I found Mobile RV Maintenance from a fellow Tiffin owner on Facebook. Vince Sheetz is a member of Tiffin Motorhome Owners Group and is often online helping other owner’s trouble shoot and figure things out. While I’ve never met Vince, he’s helped us remotely with little things like when we had to reset our generator breaker, or couldn’t figure out our automatic generator system, and I respect his mechanical knowledge. I strongly recommend finding a group for your particular RV on FB or other social media. The knowledge we have gained from our Tiffin groups has been so very, very valuable!
At any rate, I put out a request on our Tiffin page asking about quality, affordable service in the Yuma area and Vince recommended Mobile RV Maintenance.
Because winter time is the busy time, I scheduled an appointment with Jim about a week before we left Mission Bay. Since we knew we would be boon docking but not quite sure where, Jim requested the VFW BLM land and we obliged.
We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and there were several rigs set up in the back lot. It was nothing special, just a dirt lot near the railroad tracks and a highway. The VFW was closed while we were there but I heard they have some nice dinners and music from time to time.
The lot was level and while there were some areas to drive further back in the land and find some trees, we stayed toward the front on a nice level area so Jim could do his work easily.
Verizon service was great for us and we got local channels via the antenna and good streaming speeds on Sling. All good. We’d hunker down for the weekend and Jim would arrive Monday morning to service Reva Mae.
There is a neat little tunnel under the train, and then another under the highway. I could stand up fully under both of these tunnels, but not much more head clearance than that. Once under the tracks and the highway, the area is wide open for ATV riding, or in my case, hiking around with the dogs.
The campground had several rigs with ATV’s and they would head out in the morning to explore the area and return in the afternoon.
Louie, Kiya and I got to stretch our legs a bit, running off leash in the vast desert, even got lost once and had to use Siri to find our way back. We had a good time! One afternoon I noticed our friend Dolores had posted her location as Yuma! (Dolores and her husband were family friends with my in laws. They camped together as young parents. She’s been full timing with her second husband for a few years now. They spend part of the winter in Yuma, visiting Mexico for dental work, etc.)
I messaged Dolores and we made arrangements to get together and visit. You never know when you’re going to get a chance to see friends! How nice!
Dolores and Larry came by and spent an afternoon with us in the Yuma desert. They recently purchased a home base in Rigby, Idaho and are waiting for the weather to clear to head home for the spring and summer. One day we’ll have to find a spot for a home base as well. But for now, we love not have anything to have to manage.
Jim arrived promptly at 0800 as promised. He comes to your RV-even on BLM land-and completes service right where you’re parked. We had just serviced our generator, so Jim changed Reva’s oil, fuel filter and lubed the chassis. We put our rear jacks up a bit for him, other than that, he had all the safety equipment and proper disposal items. Inside of an hour, we had our service completed and Jim had about 3 more appointments from fellow boon dockers who saw what he was doing and were quite intrigued It was our first engine service and we paid just under $400. From what I’m told, that’s pretty reasonable for a diesel. The web- surfing I did show a low of $480 and prices as high as $700. For the convenience of a mobile service that Jim provides, we will definitely be back. He did an excellent job and showed us the old original fuel filter that had not yet been replaced by the original owners-we got Reva with very low miles. If you’re camping in the area and need his service, here’s Jim’s website: https://www.mobilervmaintenance.com/service. We found him to be a very honest mechanic who did great work. Not something one can always find these days. (Of note, Jim does have a special permit that allows him to do this type of work on BLM land)
One day as we sat around Reva, doing our usual surfing/tv, etc., I heard a knock at the door. We don’t often get visitors! Well, it was Girl Scout cookie season! Those pushers will track you down everywhere! You can run but you cannot hide! A very cute little girl scout had loaded up her wagon with her little sis and her momma and they were peddling their wares at the BLM lot. Of course, I couldn’t say no. Who can? It’s not every day you can get Girl Scout cookies delivered in the desert! What a fun memory we’ll have!
It was windy on the 4th. Very windy! We decided to stick around another day to let it die down a bit. I went into town and got groceries and gas in Yeep. This semi-trailer was blown over right next to the gas station in Yuma where I was getting fuel. We chose to wait it out.
We left February 5th and drove about 270 miles north on US 95 to Hoover Dam Lodge. I found this site again on Campendium. Here’s a link; https://www.campendium.com/hoover-dam-lodge-hotel-casino along with a link to the casino; https://hooverdamlodge.com/
This was a GREAT boon docking space. We found a nice level site near the back of the parking lot, close to a fence. This allowed us to be out of any vehicle pathways AND get all of our slides out! It has a nice sized, overflow parking area and while there we saw probably 4-5 folks with trailers/motorhomes and several semi’s who stopped over for the night. There is trail access to the Historic Railroad trail -it is a climb back up-but I was in pretty good shape when we stayed here. Here is a link; https://www.nps.gov/lake/planyourvisit/hikerr.htm
The trail itself is about 7.5 miles round trip and very level-the hike down to the trail from the Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino is a nice work out. Once on the actual trail, it’s very wide and flat. I met a lot of people of varying degrees of fitness walking the trail over the next 2 days. The views are amazing. I kept trying to take pictures of the mountainsides to share all the amazing colors I was seeing. None of my cameras did justice for what my eyes could see. The weather was perfect and the views amazing on this leisurely 7.5 mile hike. The train tunnels are delightful to walk through. I felt so small. They are just huge. They are 300 feet long and 25 feet in diameter. They were built large to accommodate large sections of the dam and heavy equipment that was being transported via rail. I really enjoyed my 2 days of hiking on this trail. As did Kiya and Louie. There was enough color and water to wash the last few days in the dry desert off of my soul.
Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino is quite the unique place. The location next to the dam was perfect for us and the fact that they allow boon docking for up to several days in their parking lot was definitely a win!
We went in to the casino to check in –“no problem, go ahead and camp in that parking lot” then went off to get our player’s club card. It was my first time ever to have a staff tell us not to bother getting a card. They offered no specials for card members and I really think the guy didn’t want to deal with the hassle of signing someone up.
The place was nearly dead. I realize it was a weekday during February, but still. Very quiet here. There were several different restaurants, each with a different theme -Chinese, Mexican, sports bar, etc. We chose the Big Horn Café for dinner. Food was good, I got a massive burger and fries for $10. Since we weren’t playing at all, we tipped well and headed back to Reva for a quiet evening.
Our friend Tim was meeting us on the 6th at Willow Beach to do some fishing. He had come up a few days prior to boat fish with a friend from the area. Mike called to let him know where we were and see if he was still coming up. Low and behold, Tim was staying AT Hoover Dam Lodge-the very casino we had just had dinner and were parked for the night. His buddy had gotten sick and he checked in here to wait it out until he could meet us at Willow Beach. If only Mike had made the call a little earlier, we could have saved him the hotel costs. We met up at the casino and hung out for the evening in Reva, planning the fishing excursions for the next few days.
Willow Beach Campground and RV park is only about 12 miles away from Hoover Dam. It’s down a steep canyon and you will lose cell service. There is just none once you hit a certain point on the drive in to the canyon.
The campground looks brand new. I’ve never seen a cleaner campground. The spaces between sites are good and the concrete is just plain NEW! Each site comes with a stone picnic table and a fire ring and the RV sites have full hook ups. We paid $137 for 5 days with our discounts. From what I recall hearing at check in, the senior discount is even greater-maybe as much as 50%-I couldn’t find information to confirm this searching on line but I do recall thinking, “Next time the reservation will be in Tim’s name-he’s over 65” 😊 Our AAA gave us quite a discount, as will Good Sam’s and some others.
I met several campers during our days at Willow Beach. A lot of snow birds come for months at a time during the winter. The only draw-back is cell service/internet is non- existent. They do have a subscription service for internet for $15/week or $30/month. I bought the week package and it was pretty good-except it was just for one device-there was no way -at least that I could find-to share between devices.
While there was a lot of interesting hiking around, we were once again on restriction-I had over done the desert walking with Lou Dog and his pads were a bit tore up, so short walks and rest. Louie, Kiya, and I just love to go, go, go. Someday I might learn….or we’ll keep up our feast vs famine exercise, who knows?! LOL!
The grounds around the campground are entertaining and the dogs had a great time watching all the bunnies, birds, and bugs around. I would like to do some more in depth hiking on our next trip.
The campground sits about a half mile uphill from the marina and boat launch. While the views overlooking the Colorado river are spectacular, it’s not right ON the water as other reviewers had pointed out. It would be quite a hike down to the water. Or an easy drive.
Tim spent a couple of nights with us and he fished from shore while Mike kayak fished. The timing was off so no real big fish. Apparently Willow Beach is known for large striped bass and trout. It wasn’t in the cards this trip. We would have loved to spend more time here, but it does get booked up quite a ways out. As I mentioned, snow birds like to spend months here in the winter-great price, great views, great weather, full hook ups. Who can blame them?
One thing we did learn was to book extra time for the places we’d like to fish/kayak. We have a big trip coming up this summer-fishing trip of a lifetime, Mike calls it. He will be fishing Lake McConaughy (again), Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and then some lakes in Montana, I think. We’re planning to book 2 weeks at each of the Great Lakes to hopefully get at least one epic day of fishing at each spot. Weather and the fish can make or break a trip- a fishing trip anyway.
Bonus for staying longer at each site, I get to hike around and explore more and hopefully stay on top of my blogging! All good for me! Week long stays are often discounted at private campgrounds. State parks are already so cheap, how can you not stay a week?
After Tim left, Mike fished another day with only small fish so he broke down his fishing gear and he and I did some kayaking. The Colorado River is a GREAT river to kayak. It’s so beautiful! I’m still getting my endurance up with the peddle kayak and learning so we stayed close to the marina but one day, I’ll be able to get out and explore it more. Just another reason to come back!
We left February 10 and headed to Bakersfield to see our brother in law Mike Whitney. We arranged our route so we could travel across the top of the Mojave National Preserve and drive along Joshua Tree Highway. Did you know Joshua trees are not really trees but rather succulents? They were named by early Mormon settlers who were reminded on Joshua lifting his arms to the heavens when they saw these plants. Now ya know! It was a peaceful drive. Not a lot of traffic and we managed to park Reva along the street by Mike’s home mid- afternoon. We got to catch up a bit and have a nice meal from a local burger joint together before we headed out. Mike wanted to get to the home area (Sacramento) yet that night so we shoved off late afternoon.
Our first issue arose early yet. It was daylight as I recall. We were driving along just fine and suddenly Reva lost all power. Panic-always, still panic when something goes wrong. So scary. Mike was able to steer Reva to an off ramp and we were safely on the shoulder, shut down. After the initial panic, you go into diagnosis mode and looking around. Easy peasy this time-we ran out of DEF. We learned the first half of the gauge lasts forever-those last couple of lights-goes quickly! Fortunately, there was gas station with a convenience store right at the end of the exit ramp. A quick walk to the store and back and we were back on the road. Grateful and relieved! Whew! I will always make sure we have a bottle of DEF on board from here forward.
We drove a while longer and suddenly, a warning light comes on and we lost power, AGAIN! WTF? This time the dashboard showed “low coolant” and was shutting down. We were not so lucky to get fully off of the freeway this time. Mike did get over to the shoulder at the edge of the exit ramp before she shut down. We were very close to a guard rail and it was dark and we were in Stockton. Looking back, we should have just called for help-we have 2 roadside assistance plans. BUT-it sounded like an easy fix-low coolant? Mike slipped between the rail and the RV and went back to see what he could do. Had our RV been struck, he could have been smashed between the rail and the rig. I’ve seen so many videos of similar instances. We were not wise. He got the premixed antifreeze from the basement-antifreeze in RV’s is pink- and added to a reservoir and we were off again. It was risky and stupid, but we were moving again. It only took like a ½ cup he said. Reva is very sensitive to her fluid levels-I guess that’s a good thing.
About 30 minutes down the road, we again got a low coolant warning. We were able to get into a gas station lot safely before powering down and take a good look and do some research. Well, apparently the low coolant indicator can be a bugger and shutting down and restarting the key 3 times can reset. We did that and all was good and we got on our way again.
Finally pulled in to Thunder Valley Casino near Sacramento very late and hit the bed. What an exhausting day! BUT we are safe and all is good-or so we thought!
After a good night’s rest, we got to looking at things and realized what we had THOUGHT was the coolant reservoir, was actually the power steering fluid reservoir. There is no real overflow reservoir for coolant on this diesel pusher. We had added coolant to our power steering fluid. Uh-oh.
I made some calls to mobile and diesel mechanics and got many mixed messages. Mike was able to drain the reservoir and replace with fresh fluid. I got three responses that the amount he added shouldn’t matter and draining the reservoir should be enough. We’re not mechanics, we didn’t know but went with the majority and let it be for now. (We did get the system flushed out and replaced all the fluid as a precaution-we need Reva to be tip top for years to come so we try to do all the recommended maintenance timely)
We spent a few days at Thunder Valley. Hannah came over from Chico and spent a couple of days with us. I miss her so much! I was able to get my hair done by my favorite and long time hairdresser, Sara at Folsom Care Center.
I had also been planning a tattoo for quite some time and was excited to have Kevin Phillips Jr. from Body and Soul complete it for me.
Kevin is a young tattoo apprentice and the son of some good, long term friends of ours, Wendy and Kevin. I had been watching his work grow and improve on the internet and I knew he could do a great job on my tattoo for my Hannah Bees.
He did a watercolor bee on my foot with pink and purple flowers. When Hannah was a little girl, she drove me crazy with “pink and purple, pink and purple” She never had ONE favorite color, always pink and purple. It’s a perfect tattoo for my Bees and he did an amazing job! I cannot wait to watch him grow in his work! Already planning another one with this talented young man. Here is a link to his place and his work. He was so reasonable priced as an apprentice! Won’t be long before he is getting top $. https://www.facebook.com/pg/BodySoulTattoo/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2643745632339308&ref=page_internal.
We saw some friends, traded out some fishing gear at the storage unit, both got our hair done, pedicure and tattoo and quality time with Bees and it was time to head to Redwood City for my next assignment. While I was supposed to be training a DON initially when I accepted the job, she had since resigned. I would be acting DON instead while they searched for a permanent leader. We headed out February 15th to start this new gig in Santa Clara county on February 19th. We’d have a few days to explore the area before starting work on Tuesday and in a few short weeks we’d be off on a great adventure. Only 10 weeks in the Bay area….what could possibly go wrong?