Driving Cross Country towing a 17B

[disneydoc]

Day 14th, 15th & 16th, sunny days, still at Las Vegas RV Resort.

Some shows we visited in the past few days - Nathan Burton Comedy Magic Show, Vegas the Show, Absinthe, Mentalist & we took the running commentary Hop On & Hop Off Big Bus ride of Vegas. Tonight we plan on seeing Zumanity & the Ultimate Variety Show tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Red Rock Canyon in the day time.

We saw another Canadian made cute tear drop shaped 17' Camper called ALTO by Safari Condo, in the Park we are staying at, owned by a nice couple from California. They showed us their Camper & we showed them ours. They liked our 17B a lot & we answered their questions
We were impressed too with their Alto, a modern European look & feel inside, queen bed & a wet bath. It is made of Aluminum sort of sandwiched between Rubber, with lot of sliding door neat looking cabinets, wet to wet comparison about more than 500 lbs lighter than ours with lot of windows & glass to let light in. I understand they are coming up with a 21' model also. That Camper was about 4 to 5 grand $ more than our 17B.
Any comments from anybody else who saw this Quebec built Alto Camper about how they liked it, would be welcome.

Thanks everyone, more in next.........

[cpaharley2008]

I have seen a couple in person, power retractable roof, made in Ontario, here in the eastern part of Canada. Small bath and the walls are alumafiber, similar to Tab/T@da construction made by Dutchman.

[disneydoc]

Day 17th & 18Th - Bakersfield Ca, 62F

Yesterday the Red Rock Canyon was just wonderful, the red color does sort of magic on the canyon, it is under 20 miles from Vegas.
We met some lovely & fun loving people in the Vegas Camp Ground, and with such one couple we visited the Red Rock Canyon. They had been there before & drove us around at the canyon.

We drove close to 300 miles down to Bakersfield and am staying at Courtyard Marriott. the drive down was all desert & mountains, although DW seems to have liked the scenery, & each to his/her own, I was not impressed as it did not have any color resembling green.Living in Florida & as a back yard novice gardener one is used to seeing green every where, for me green denotes life & living.

More in next.......

[disneydoc]

Day 19th
Bakersfield - Courtyard Marriott, drizzle on & off, 60F, humidity 80%,

Hotel bed is good, but we missed our Pillows. Now I understand better what it means sleeping in your own bed in the Camper.

Happy belated Thanksgiving, I hope the Turkey turned out well cooked . Lots of family time here

Looking at ways to drive to San Diego tomorrow, without getting too close to the fire. May be I 5 would be the way, we will see tomorrow morning.....,.

More in next....

[h2owmn]

i would take i-5 and then skirt l.a. by taking the 210 along the foothills, then dropping back down via the 71 to 15. tomorrow is arguably the busiest freeway day of the year; most everyone who went anywhere in so cal for thanksgiving will likely be traveling...it could easily take you 1.5 or 2x the predicted travel time. i hope i'm wrong but i lived there a long time and then traveled from northern cal for thanksgiving weekend more times than i want to count.

i'd recommend an early start. or staying over and traveling monday.

do you use waze for navigation? highly recommend as it will give you last minute changes in directions depending on traffic.

[disneydoc]

Day 20th & 21st -(San Diego) Chula Vista, Ca- Metro KOA $$$, 72F, Wind 6MPH,

The Drive down from Bakersfield had a couple of bottle necks on I 5, nothing major, we again had to hook up in dark at 5 PM. Thanks h2owmn for your route suggestion.

We went on an Old Trolley Tours Hop off Hop on city tour to get a brief on the major points of the city, including its history, its rulers the Spain & Mexico & how it became a big Metropolis. I came to know that it was the first town established in California & its wonderful average weather of 70F.
After the tour, we went back to briefly check out the beautiful Balboa Park, which is smack down in the middle of this busy city. We have hardly enough time to visit its various museums, well may be some other time.

More in next.....

[caddoster]

The ALTOs are really cute looking trailer and well made, the company is also very cool to work with. I like the big front windows a lot! The model with non-retractable roof has a slightly lower price tag, a friend of mine full times in one and she really loved it.

[disneydoc]

Thanks Caddoster for chiming in,
The Alto Fixed 17' I saw had a sleek & and a practical design, its A/C is close to silent & does not make a racket, it is much lighter than a comparable Fiberglass Camper.
But I wonder how the Aluminum-Rubber body will do in heat & sun, would it not get hot & be dent prone ?. Agreed It does not get hot in Quebec but the USA south gets pretty hot.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by disneydoc

The Alto Fixed 17' I saw had a sleek & and a practical design, its A/C is close to silent & does not make a racket, it is much lighter than a comparable Fiberglass Camper.

Do you know what kind of A/C they use? No pictures that I could find. All I see online is this reference under specs:

HEAT PUMP AIR CONDITIONER (10150 BTU) FLOOR INSTALLED 73# WEIGHT

[MyronL]

I am also curious about that. The air conditioner is under the floor?

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by MyronL

I am also curious about that. The air conditioner is under the floor?

No - it's on the floor. Check out the Accessories page - look for "Heat Pump". It is on the floor, under a dinette seat, and is not ducted. This is much like the original Escape air conditioner installation, but under a seat rather than in an upper cabinet.

[cpaharley2008]

and maybe very noisy, I had a T@da with the heat pump under dinette, the whole trailer frame vibrated while in use, never did like it down there.

[disneydoc]

Day 22, San Diego Metro KOA, 74F,
We went on a amazing Seal tour, a sea & land tour from the Sea Harbor area, which was very educational & entertaining. The shuttle like vehicle becomes the boat & off we go in to the bay, the guide explaining the highest military concentration including all 3 lines in a single county in the country, the dolphin & seal training, and the highest tuna fishing, all this about 17 miles from Mexico. Tijuana visit was cancelled due to the disturbances & presently the border being closed.
Then we visited the wonderful city beach of Coronado, a very peaceful scene right next to the luxurious Del Coronado hotel. It seems God has been preferential to this part of the country with perfect weather & beautiful sunsets.

We leave for Quartzsite tomorrow..........

[gbaglo]

If that tour was on a "duck boat" consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Quite a history of sinking and death. Just Google "duck boat sinkings".

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by disneydoc

Day 22, San Diego Metro KOA, 74F,
We went on a amazing Seal tour, a sea & land tour from the Sea Harbor area, which was very educational & entertaining. The shuttle like vehicle becomes the boat & off we go in to the bay...

This one?
San Diego SEAL Tours - Vehicle Information

Originally Posted by gbaglo

If that tour was on a "duck boat" consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Quite a history of sinking and death. Just Google "duck boat sinkings".

Good point, but the vehicle above is definitely not a DUKW, or "duck". Poorly modified and improperly operated DUKWs - which were never intended for regular use as a boat - have given all amphibious vehicles a bad reputation.

The Seal Harbor vessel is custom-built for this service.

We enjoyed a similar tour in Halifax on a Harbour Hopper, which is a modified LARC-V; the LARC-V appears to be a much more capable vehicle than a DUKW. Despite having no suspension (other than the tires), and despite being pretty loud, it worked fine.

These vehicles are all (necessarily) tall, and typically entered via steep stairs or even ladders, so anyone with limited mobility should check ahead about access if considering a tour.

[disneydoc]

Glenn, I know which Duck vehicle you are talking about.

The unfortunate incident happened at Chattanooga, Tn where the repaired & maintained 2nd world war vehicles were still being used. We toured the Mississippi on that amphibious vehicle but luckily much earlier to that fatal accident.

Thanks.......

[John in Santa Cruz]

when I was a teen in the 1960s, my dad was a skin and scuba diver (strictly for sport)... there was a dive club somewhere in the SF BA that had a DUKW with their club painted on the side they'd take on diving trips up and down the California central coast. I remember hearing it broke down a lot and was quite a pain to keep running, so it was more a novelty than anything.

[Rossue]

Originally Posted by disneydoc

Glenn, I know which Duck vehicle you are talking about.

The unfortunate incident happened at Chattanooga, Tn where the repaired & maintained 2nd world war vehicles were still being used. We toured the Mississippi on that amphibious vehicle but luckily much earlier to that fatal accident.

Thanks.......

You mean Branson, MO?

[disneydoc]

I meant Tennessee river, (Not Mississippi)

Sorry, my bad.......

[disneydoc]

Day 23, Holiday Palms RV Park, Quartzsite, AZ, 65F

The drive up from San Diego was not bad, except for dip after dip on Route 78, very unusual for me to have so many dips on a road & there were lot of Sand Dunes, otherwise we were in the middle of nowhere in a desert. There was a check post on this road to add a speck of excitement to the day, the Officer wanted to know if we were US Citizens, & let us pass without any more questions. I presume that check post was checking for the undocumented new arrivals from the border not too far from there. Also my Verizon phone had a message saying welcome to Mexico.

We ran some errands for grocery & Laundry & are settled in our camper reading about this phenomenon called Quartzsite. I have come across so much about quartzsite while I was reading anything RV related, seemed like every rver has been there or wants to go there. Sort of a Mecca for the Rvers or a RV Headquarters of sorts. Historically it was a pit stop for people going to California for the gold rush. So I guess I HAD to come here to find the big secret for myself.
We have tomorrow to explore the town but from what I could see during my brief run for grocery, looks like a tired town, dingy & dusty (desert) looking shop fronts, few people I saw were in slow motion, but I believe it comes to life in January every year with 2 million RVers doing the Quartzsite Mecca trip as a right of passage.
The big tent for shopping/swapping stuff is put up in January, so we are early for that kind of action, although this RV Park seems full with a mix of resident & temporary over night campers like us. The initial impression of the town has been a little underwhelming from a very short glimpse, but this is not full season yet.