Off to the West…

But I wasn’t going far…just a few miles north and west. Only 67 miles, so just over an hour of travel. Reason for the move was that I wanted to get to a RV park with a lower rate, and one in Brenda, Arizona seemed to fit the bill. It is 3 Dreamers RV Park, which is a Passport American park, allowing the use of that card year round. Most of the parks in the Phoenix valley are fairly expensive, and the few that are PPA parks have far more restrictions on PPA. Usually only allowing a few days stay at the reduced rate. That’s what the park where I was staying rule was. Three days max at the PPA rate. And, they have one of those annoying PPU (pay per use) WiFi systems. I knew I might be in this area another month and wasn’t about to pay $40 JUST for WiFi when it’s free just about everywhere else. I did go ahead and pay their outrageous $15 for 3 days though.

I was fairly productive while at the Tonopah park though, for instance, found that the hydraulic oil tank for the jacks and slides was 1+ qts low of oil. Dumped a quart of oil in the tank to be safe. Also found that my passenger side rear jack was ‘sticky’ and wouldn’t always retract quickly or smoothly. Of course oil level only applies when you’re extending the jacks as the oil pushes the jacks down to raise the RV, but the springs pull them back up. Also did some online checking and found that my RV has the old style jack springs with a known issue of being too weak so that contributed to the slow rise time of 3 of the jacks, not sure that applied to the passenger side rear one though.

Anyway, my 3 days passed, and I got back on the road…and around 45 minutes later, took this exit. Turned out it passes several very large and stinky cattle concentration camps. Stunk to high thin atmosphere.

That road lead me to AZ-60 and I head west a few miles to McVey road, and soon I’m at that other RV park with the unlimited length of stay PPA and free WiFi, 3 Dreamers RV Park. Had 50 Amp too. Nice and flat. All the services are fairly new. I would have liked to have cement pads, but gravel works.

These following pictures were taken at sunrise the morning after I arrived.

Four days later, I’m still in Brenda, and waiting with baited breath for my new Title to arrive at my brothers place in Rosamond, Calif. It’s been over 20 days since I overnight shipped the documents ($23) to Sacramento along with a check for $20 (they’ll only take checks at the CA DMV) to pay for the replacement title. I’m still thinking, “any day now” because when I called the DMV the nice gal told me 2-3 weeks. It was now day 21 so I called them again. This time another nice gal told me 4-6 weeks. Gah!

But then, YEA!, the title arrived at my brothers place, he used UPS to ship it overnight ($36) and it headed to the RV park in Tonopah. Next day, April 4th, was my last day at 3 Dreamers RV park in Brenda anyway so I just drove over to Tonopah and camped out in their parking lot until the UPS guy with my title showed up. Had some trouble with that slow jack, but a handyman there at the park levered it up for me…then gave me the lever! Drove over to Surprise, AZ after that to meet the new owner of my old RV. Stopped off at a BofA to have my signature notarized first, then headed to a Fry’s Grocery parking lot.

Enjoyed a nice afternoon there in Surprise, even did some shopping, ran the Genset for 7 hours that day keeping the RV cool and it purred like a kitten.  Finally met up with the buyer and after we did our title transfer business, and I’d bought dinner from some fast food place, then over to the fuel station (this was at a Fry’s store so I get a discount because of the purchases I made in the store proper) and filled up, it was back to Brenda. This would be my 2nd fill in the newer RV and I’m hoping for a favorable mileage calculation.

It’s dark when I head back to Brenda. I’d let them know I’d be coming back late and when I arrived, my spot was still empty. I wanted that spot because of the big tree for afternoon shade and I’d been there for several days when the weather was hot, hot, hot, and felt that tree helped.

I paid for a week the next morning, and a couple days later, we had a big wind storm pass through. Not windy enough to cause me to pull in my slides, but windy enough that I was not going on any bike rides for 3-4 days. I’ve already put my chair away so it won’t blow off on a chair-y adventure. Another sunrise. This shot shows the little desert garden next to my spot. After a fairly calm morning and afternoon, it’s getting cloudy and windy…

Had a neighbor for a couple days.

It’s hard to tell, but that tree was whipping around like crazy.

I am parked in the site backwards, because I prefer to face the bedroom to the south because when I usually go to bed, it’s dark and much cooler. So during the hot part of the day, the front of my RV is self shading. I still put the reflective shades I just bought in the windows and close the blinds to reduce reflected sunlight. This was the first time I’d set up that way and it was a happy discovery that my electrical and cable would reach. The hose, I just connected to the opposite site. See that big building on the right of the upper picture? Bob, who became a friend while I was there, was building a new extension building for his RV and that was it. So it’s using power from that pedestal so I couldn’t use it.

During my stay, the weather bounced around between nice, calm, and cloudy; to bright sunshine and high temps; to windy and heavy rain (while I was asleep, darn it). This really helped me figure out all my newer RVs systems because I would want heat in the AM, nothing but fan most of the day if anything, then AC later in the day. And finally, everything off in the PM. Worked out well for me because it helped me figure out the best way to set up the floor furnace/central air system. It’s one of those fancy schmancy systems called a heat pump. I was very happy that it seemed to work! Even switched automatically to propane furnace heating using the floor vents when the differential was too small between outside and inside temperature to use the dual AC compressor system needed for electrical heating. That’s the nature of a heat pump, it uses the output side of AC compressors (which produce heat) to act as a heater but it needs a temp differential of 20°F to operate efficiently. If there isn’t enough temp differential, then it switches to a propane floor furnace setup.

In addition, I really enjoyed the cooling system. Nice and quiet, and comfortably covered the entire RV with cool air from the ceiling vents. One thing to mention though, is that the heat pump system is right under the master bed and draws air through a filter and grill on the bed stand right there below the master. Huh. It’s a bit noisy so it’s difficult to sleep with it periodically turning on, but no matter, if it’s really hot, or really cold at bedtime I’ll just move to the living room pull out bed. It’s very comfortable and very quiet there even with the heat pump running. I can adjust!

Meanwhile, I was playing with the vent pillows, interior window covers, sewer hose & connectors, sewer hose holder, and other goodies I’d bought before I left Mesa finding the best situations to use them. So much to learn. Also spent most of several days rearranging the interior and exterior cabinets so there would be a more logical positioning of my things.

Bob and I went out for dinner with the owner of the RV park and 6-8 other residents one night. Quite the drive to get there too. Really good food, then since Bob and I had driven alone together, we were able to hang out at the bar and had a great time conversing with the locals for 3-4 hours. An excellent adventure.

But eventually, it was time to move on. The coolish weather had passed and I didn’t like being holed up in my RV for hours on end because of the heat and relentless sun, so off I went to my brothers in Rosamond.

And that’s where I’ll pick it up next time. In real time, I left 3 Dreamers on April 11th and arrived at Dan’s the same day.