And We Are Off To Menifee - Thousand Trials Wilderness Lakes

Yesterday was our last full day here at Champagne Lakes RV Park in Escondido, CA.  It's been a nice park and we've had a good stay.   There are so many good things to say about this park - it's easy on and off I-15, but the noise from the freeway is not bad.  You are only 20-30 minutes away from services, Walmart, Costco, restaurants, and casinos.  The park is immaculate.  I've enjoyed the trees and watching the birds around our site and around the fishing ponds (catch and release only).  The bathrooms and laundries are kept very clean.  There are a number of full time residents, but the owner makes sure everyone keeps their sites clean and maintained.  My only complaint is that we are down in a dip and the cellphone service can be spotty.  If you stay long enough, you find your "sweet spots" and head there to use the phones.  Our Millenicom Mi-Fi would drop us or be very slow to load throughout the day.  It's not the park's fault (they do offer Tengonet for a fee but I'm not sure it would be any better); I'm sure it has to do with cell tower placement.  We had a challenge getting our DirecTV satellite to fix on a signal, but eventually we got it running with no problem.  If you are not a "working from the rig full timer" and you can put up with the dropped signals, I think this is a great park.

Today we head up to Menifee, just east of Lake Elsinore.  We are relatively new Thousand Trail members, so we will go check out this park for a few days.  Not sure what we will find to do there, but since it is only about 45 miles from where we are, I'm thinking if nothing else, I may talk Kim into going back to the Pechanga Casino.  My plans initially were to spend some time lounging by the pool, but it looks like Southern California will be getting some welcomed rain showers.  It may be time to catch up on some Netflix House of Cards episodes or a movie or two.  Ain't retirement grand!

Squeegees, Sheets and Other Stuff

Time for a little shout out for a few of my favorite RV things, a gripe, and a request for input.

Squeegees - Four years ago, while staying at my brother-in-law's, I fell in love the squeegee he had in his guest bathroom.  I couldn't wait to get home to get one for the house and one for the RV.  Unfortunately, I never could find that brand at home in Washington State.  When dear BIL sold his house and was moving to another, he gifted me that squeegee.  I have been using it in my own bathroom ever since.  When we packed the RV to head south, I decided to leave the good squeegee at home for the house sitter.  I purchased a new squeegee for the rig.  It was pretty and sparkle-ly.

However, the first time I took a shower, I realized it was useless in the small confines of an RV shower.   The blade is 11.5" and overall it is 12" wide.  There was only one section of the shower stall where I could easily use it.  Dang!

On a trip to Walmart we picked up an O'Cedar squeegee.  One use with that and I remembered how I didn't like that brand because you had to push on it so hard to get the rubber to actually connect with the surface.

Then Kim made a trip to Ralph's (a Kroger affiliate store) for some ice.  And what to his wondering eyes should appear.......a squeegee just like the one Tom gave us, right there!

The blade is just 7.75" wide and fits all but one little section of the shower stall where the wall rounds to connect with the door.  I am now a happy camper!

Sheets - On our last long RV trip, I did battle with sheets on the bed all the time.  I didn't know RV mattresses were shorter than regular mattresses.  We are short people so we just never noticed.  It was such a hassle to change those sheets; we had to use sheet garters to keep them on the bed.  It always took both of us to do this.  One to hold the mattress up off the bed frame, and one to hook on the garters.  Then I found RV sheets on Amazon.  You long term RVers probably knew this, but it was a very pleasant surprise for me.  And I love these sheets.  They stay nice and cool at night.  Not only does the bottom sheet fit, but the top sheet has a fitted bottom!   Here's a link to the ones I bought.  I'm not affiliated with the company.  One of these days I'll figure out how to do a screen shot on my MacBookPro.

Queen Sized RV Sheets I Got From Amazon

My other new purchase before we left on this trip was one of the NuWave Induction Cook Tops; the single burner one.  I didn't buy it from the TV infomercial, because I wasn't sure I was going to like it, so I didn't want to do the BOGOF offer in case I had to send it back.  I just went to Walmart and bought it from their "As Seen On TV" Department.  I've been very pleased with it.  It makes great fried chicken and great pork chops.  Here's their website, but my disclaimer is this - watch for all the added extras for which you just pay "shipping and handling"  Some of those fees are outrageously high.  I'm pleased with mine, but like I said, I got it at Walmart so there were no added fees.  I also made a trip to Ikea to get the pans that have the induction symbol on the bottom.  I had priced other induction pans at Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond.  Ikea's were less expensive and a better quality, IMHO anyway.  Unfortunately my T-fal pans, that I love, wouldn't work with the induction cooktop, but the ones I got from Ikea work just fine.

NuWave Induction Cooktop/Burner

Now for my little, itty, bitty gripe.  I've been reading lots of RV and travel blogs recently.  It may get boring or repetitive to continually make mention of where you are, especially if you are somewhere long term, but please do it anyway.  Lots of times people mention parks or towns or restaurants, and I have no idea where the are.  I may go back a few entries to see if it is readily apparent in a previous post, but more often than not, it isn't.  So pretty please, let your reader's know where you are.  We may want to visit there too!  We are currently camping at Champagne Lakes RV Park in Escondido, CA.  I really like it here.

Tomorrow we are off to visit the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park.  We've signed up for a Caravan Safari. I'm quite excited to go.  If you've been and have any insights you like to share or don't miss opportunities, please share let me know.

A Stroll Around The Park And A Score At The Casino

With nothing on the schedule for the day, we decided to take a stroll around the park, and snap a few pictures.

We're from Seattle.  We don't go anywhere without our coffee.

This is the park owner's site.  Pick of the park, no doubt!

Some more sites

Our rig from across the creek

More park scenery

And our site, #42

The sites really are good sized.  Here is a photo of an empty site, and then one with a back hoe so you can get an idea by comparison.

I decided to check out the "older" laundry and bathrooms.  Not bad.

Oh, and they have a nice place to wash your truck or car.  No RVs, boats or ATVs though.

Back to the rig for some breakfast, and then Kim announces he needs some anti-freeze for the truck.  He plans to go up to Temecula to get it, along with some paper for the printer.  Temecula?  How about lunch at the Pechenga Casino?  Well, as long as we are going we might as well stop at Best Buy and Walmart.

So with errands out of the way, off to Pechenga we went.  I was very impressed.  Nice casino.  Not at all smokey inside.  We headed off to the Kelsey's Bar and Grill.

Kim ordered the Club Sandwich with stead fries.

I had the Rueben with sweet potato fries.

Both were yum, yum, yummy!

With lunch out of the way, it was time for a little fun.  We thought about a little 3 card poker, but we used most of our "fun" money getting a new awning and fixing the coolant system of the truck.  It was agreed that $20 each seemed reasonable.  I sat down at a keno machine.  Kim wandered off.  Kim wandered back.  He had made his contribution.  "How are you doing," he asked.  Drum roll please!...........Up $400.  All six of my keno numbers hit on a quarter machine!  I played my winnings down to $400 even, cashed out and walked away.  Kim instituted a new rule....Who ever wins, pays the valet.  I can live with that!

BTW, although we didn't actually see it, it appears that this casino has a beautiful RV Park as well.

Pechanga Resort and Casino RV Park

Saturday At Champagne Lakes RV Park

Kim was up and at 'em and out the door at 5am.  He has and appointment in Hemet to have a Ford Master Mechanic work on our truck's cooling system.  We are about an hour from Hemet, and then the truck has to sit for two hours to cool down before they can start work on it.  They figured it was about an 8 hour job, not including travel and cool down time.

This means a day by myself.  Score!  God forbid it could go smoothly.  Our relatively new Toastmaster Hot Water Pot quit working.  And shortly after that, the brand new heater wouldn't work.  Crap!  Then I noticed the refer had switched to propane.  What the heck was going on?  As I have mentioned before, the mechanic gene is missing from my family.  The only mechanic gene I knew was up in Hemet.  We have poor cell phone service at this park and I was afraid I wouldn't get through.  I had already figured out a breaker had tripped, but for the life of me, I couldn't get the panel open.  I got through to Kim who gave me instructions.  Hanging up, I had a "you are such a dork, Betsy" moment - saw the latch which was right in front of me all the time, opened it up, flipped the breaker, and voila - electricity in the galley and heat to my tootsies.

So much on my to-do list today.....and so little accomplished.  I should be used to it by now.  I am easily distracted.  I did spend time catching up on some RV blogs I've been following, and then explored some more.  I caught up on Facebook.  Yesterday we finally got the DirecTV Satellite to pick up the signal, so I had programs I had recorded before we left that I wanted to watch.  Checked those things off my list.  I was looking for an envelope to mail a check, and I stumbled on my sketch pad and colored pencils.  There went a couple of hours.

Next up, downloading a Nikon Coolpix S3300 manual, and trying to navigate it on screen.  Silly us, we remembered to bring the printer, but we forgot to bring paper.  Reading a manual on-line, sucks!  But the good news is that I did figure out how to move pictures from the camera into iPhoto.  Now I can share a few pictures from the park that I have taken.

Champagne Lakes RV Park is a 50 acre privately owned park.  It is about 10 miles north of Escondido, CA, just off old Hwy 395.  There are 139 large sites with 3 small catch and release lakes, a pool, laundry facilities, showers and restrooms.  Lots of trees and shade.

This is the new laundry facility.  Three washers ($1.50) and four dryers ($1.25 for 45 minutes).  I think there is another laundry somewhere on site, but I have not visited it as I was told that the one in this pictures was the one with newer and nice machines.

This is the new restroom facility (the women's side anyway) attached to the laundry.  Nice big shower with two toliets and a baby changing station.  These facilities are kept very clean.

The view out my back window, down to the creek.  Not much water running right now, but there is a little babble here and there, and not just from the birds.

And yesterday on a trip to Camping World for the replacement plug for the water heater, some how this made its way into the cart.  Most of the chaise lounges don't fit my short frame, but I do like to put my feet up.  This fits perfectly!

We are here for two weeks.  This allows us time to do a few things, see a few friends, and just veg out.  The weather this weekend and Monday is to be in the 80s.  That's a little warm for a Seattle girl, but we are down in a canyon with lots of trees, and so far, so good.

Santa Maria to Escondido, CA

I'm pleased to say I set a record for myself for on time departure on Tuesday.  We usually try to be ready to hit the road by 9am.  We pulled out of the Santa Maria Pines RV Park at 9:02pm.  Most of our drive down Hwy 101 was very nice and relaxing......Most of it, that is.  Somewhere about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara, as we were cresting a hill, we hear a loud noise, somewhere between a pop and a boom.  I thought we had blown a tire.  And of course, we were on a section of highway with a sign that said "No Stopping".  Well, sorry, we had to pull over.  It turns out it was just the turbo hose that had popped off.  Kim was able to reattach the clamp .... or whatever the problem was.  I stayed in the comfort of the truck while he did something under the hood.  Ten minutes later, we were on our way.  Now, it is interesting to note that I come from a family with little mechanical knowledge, but we are excellent worriers, and always jump to the worst case scenarios.   To combat this (the worrying part, not the mechanical part which is a lost cause for me), I've studied New Thought metaphysics and the power of positive thinking for years.  I spent most of the rest of the trip down to Escondido muttering, "I strive for serenity in all situations" and surprisingly to Kim, I did manage to stay relatively calm throughout the worst driving day yet.  It rivaled my driving down I-5, towing a small U-Haul trailer and having to change lanes during rush hour in the middle of Los Angeles, but I digress as that was years ago.

Luckily we had no more problem with the hose, but the cooling system in the truck continues to be acting up.  We did have to pull off at the weigh station just south of Camarillo to let the engine cool.  Then it was on to more stressful traffic.  Now let me preface this with the fact that if we were driving a car, it would have been intense, but not particularly stressful.  I find that when you are pulling a 5th wheel that the average driver has no clue about what it takes to maneuver it, including that you can't stop on a dime when they cut you off trying to get on to or off the highway.  The route we ended up taking was from the 101 (which really was the worst of it) to the 134 to the 210 to the 57 to the 71 to the 91 and finally to the 15.  Yikes.  Now that we've driven it, it wouldn't be that bad to do it again.  Not sure that we will, but my stress level as the navigator would be significantly lower.

We arrived at Champagne Lakes RV Park about 2:45pm.   A nice park, about a mile off I-15, and about 10 miles north of Escondido, off old Hwy 395.  It's a nice park, with plenty of green.  Fairly large sites. Large cement pads.  There are what I would call big ponds (they call them lakes) with creeks running between them.   They do have catch and release fishing in the lakes.  It's pretty quiet, with very faint highway noises if you listen for them. Lots of birds chirping, along with a  fair number of ducks and geese.   I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I will today or tomorrow.

A few things came up.  First and most devastating to me, the TV addict, is that we have been unable to get our DirecTV dish to pick up a signal.  I pay for DNS (distant network services) so that I can receive both the East and West Coast feeds.  That way I can watch and record multiple programs and get them early enough to enjoy them before I fall asleep in my chair at 9pm.  I'm glad the park has at least minimal cable channels, so I was able to watch Criminal Minds and CSI Wednesday night, but I did miss American Idol.  If we can't find a signal today, I will resort to watching what I can on-line, and we may have to consider that the dish itself needs replacing.  It was working when we were up in San Juan Bautista, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will find the signal today.

The other things that came up were the water heater drain plug was leaking (Kim wasn't sure he would be able to get a tight fit with the replacement plug as he didn't have the right sized socket).  It appears that problem has been resolved.  Then even with our extra sewer hose extension, we were short.  I am very blessed to have a friend in the area who chauffeured us around to Camping World, US Bank, the grocery store, and Fry's Electronics to pick up various and sundry items, the most important of which was more sewer hose so we could dump our now full gray water tanks.

We are here for two weeks.  I hope to finally kick back and relax.  One of these days, we will finally put out our new awning, get out the chairs, and go "Ahhhhhh."