This week was all about hangout in Palm Springs as we tried to come together on a deal for a new to us RV. So not many adventures on the road this week but if you want to hear more about our new to us RV read on.
3/13- Frank had to work this morning then we packed up and drove back to the KOA in Desert Springs. We booked for two nights as we were not sure if we would be able to make a deal that would work for us on the RV and if not we wanted to get back on the road as soon as possible. We didn’t arrive back in Desert Springs until late afternoon and Frank had to work the other half of his shift so I took advantage of the time to walking around and explore the campground. I love meeting and talking to people as we travel. RV life can be lonely without a lot of friends and family around but you can still make friends on the road. This week we meet a family who had complete refurbished a 1960’s travel trailer and a 1940’s snub nose Ford Truck. We got to talk with another family from Germany who had been traveling across the US in the RV and meet a couple of families with young children and visit with them.
3/14- When Frank got off work today we headed down to the KARV dealership in Desert Springs. Before going any farther with the deal we wanted to see how the new to us RV would drive and tow our Jeep. So we hooked up the Jeep and headed off for a long test drive up some steep hills. It handled great and had so many features we want.
We love having the electric fireplace and mid-bathroom in our RV and the 2020 Tiffin Allegro Red has both.
It also had more slides than our current RV that added more floor space which is needed with Frank continuing to work on the road. Our RV has two slides, one in the dining/living area and one in the bedroom. The Tiffin has three slides a full body slide that runs from the living room and kitchen back to the bedroom. Then on the opposite side it has a second slide in the bedroom and one in the living room/dining area.
Plus it has considerably more storage. Currently we store a lot under our bed and in the Jeep but with the Tiffin would not have to do that.
Also the Tiffin has storage bins that open to the side instead of up and one of the bins has a pull out tray which will make it a lot easier on Frank’s back.
The Tiffin also has solar and bigger tanks which will allow us to do a lot more off the grid camping. It is diesel and diesel does cost more than gas but it gets 2 to 3 more miles to the gallon than our current RV so the cost of fuel will be fairly close if not a bit cheaper. Since we will be waiting another day to see how things turn out we extended our stay at the KOA which required us to move to another spot as someone has already booked the site we are in.
3/15- Today was a long day of waiting to hear from the dealer to see if they were able to make the deal. We finally heard late afternoon that they were able to bring the Tiffin in at a price we could afford. They work really hard for us to make sure it would happen. I would recommend KARV in Desert Springs to anyone shopping for an RV or even thinking of selling one as they take RV’s on consignment. https://www.gokarv.com/ . We went over and signed our paperwork to make it final. Now they will go over our punch list and fix the few odd and ends items that need to be fixed before we take delivery next week. We will be taking delivery out of state and registering it in Texas so that will be interesting to see how it all works out. We will be sad to say good-bye to Flat Stanley our 2017 Coachman Mirada. It has been a great vehicle and taking us on many adventure. Hopefully KARV will be able to find it a new owner. Then tonight we headed to downtown Palm Springs to the Street Market and grocery shopping.
3/16– Once again we extended our stay at the Desert Spring for another two days. We had to work on getting a cashier check to the dealer today. We had to move sites again so we now have stayed at 4 different sites at this KOA. The people here are friendly and Hot Springs Hot Tubs are amazing. Today was laundry day. Tomorrow has a full work day but we will be heading out Sunday to take Flat Stanley on his last trip before we turn him into the dealer.
3/17- Frank worked most of the day but when he got off we decided it would be fun to do some off-roading. We found a trail that lead into the back side of Joshua Tree National Forest and decided to see how far we could get down Berdoo Canyon Trail. In the 1930’s it had been a paved road which was used to reach Berdoo camp where the men working on the 242 mile Colorado River Aqueduct lived. There was a 27 bed hospital up the road at one time were workers were treated who suffered from falls, crushing, and heat prostration. Once the work was done the camp was dismantled and the buildings moved away. Over time and with flooding most of the paved road has been broken up and destroyed. It was a challenging trail and we were only able to get up the road about 4 or 5 miles before finding an obstacle we were not equipped to go over and had to turn around. Over the years the trail has become a popular spot for individuals to set up target shooting. We passed around 20 different areas where people had their pop-ups and targets set up and listened to gunshots as we drove the road. https://theadventureportal.com/joshua-tree-national-park-berdoo-canyon-road/
3/18- We don’t generally do long days on the road. We like to get going just before campground check out at 11 am and stop by 3 or 4 pm. Today was exception to the rule. We pulled out of the KOA at 8 am and hit the road. We drove up to Baker, California where we stopped for lunch and saw the world’s largest thermometer. It is 134 feet tall and goes up to 140 degrees. When we were there the temperature was only in the 50’s but we got pictures of it anyway before heading on down the road. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2893
We got into Las Vegas and went directly to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. We wanted to drive around the 13 mile loop but didn’t not know that reservations were required. Lucky for us a nice man saw our Texas plates and took pity on us and made us immediate reservations and let us in. When we started the drive the weather was damp but clear and we got amazing view of the mountains.
As we continued the drive the clouds started coming in along with rain and ice and according to our weather app threats of snow. But what we could see was worth the time drive through. https://www.redrockcanyonlv.org/
We still had another hour drive to get to where we were stopping for the night in Pahrump, Nevada. We arrived at Lakeside Casino and RV Park at 5:30 pm. The campsite was only $35 for the night and really a pretty setting. We are now close to Death Valley which is our next destination. Neither of us are into gambling and we exhausted after our 9 hour day so we headed off to bed early. https://www.goldencasinogroup.com/rv-park
We have a few more days of travel before heading back to pick up our new rig and we are looking forward to many more adventures.
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