April 2017 - Desert RV Trip

As we are now both officially in our 50's, we have been contemplating whether we are "RV" people  Our neighbor has a large RV and uses it prolifically (sometimes for 6 months out of the year).  To avoid the mistake of buying an RV only to find out we made a mistake, we decided we would rent to see if we like it.  At the end of this blog I will write about our adventures in finding a rental RV.

We also wanted to visit my mother in Arizona so we decided to make a road trip with the RV through the deserts of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.  Holly has always wanted to visit New Mexico to hunt for turquoise and liquid silver jewelry.  After reserving the RV and some hotels along the route - our trip began on our 9th anniversary (and Holly's birthday).

As you will read near the end, we rented a Class C from Cruise America.  We picked up the 30' RV that sleeps 7.  Probably over-kill (definitely over-kill), but it gave us an idea of the concept of RV-ing.

Overview of our Route

Day 1 - Thursday April 13, 2017

Today was one of two very long driving legs of the trip.  We drove from our home in Roseville to Henderson, NV.  The route was 575 miles and drive time was slated for 8 hours 16 minutes.  Coming into Nevada we encountered our first experience with wind and a high-profile vehicle.  The RV's steering had a little play and for the last 2 hours of the trip I was white-knuckled keeping the RV from being blown into the adjacent lane or shoulder.

We left at around 8am and arrived about 10 hours later to the hotel (Hampton Inn & Suites).  We encountered the first challenge of our trip - where to park this beast in a hotel parking lot.  After talking to the front desk staff, we took four parking spots, unloaded all of our gear (we weren't sure about the safety of the RV overnight and didn't want to risk losing anything valuable), got some dinner (PKWY Tavern), slept, worked out, and hit the road for our second day.

Here is a 360 look at having coffee in the hotel room with the poodles (click and drag on video to look around) - Click HERE to open

Day 2 - Friday April 14, 2017

After gassing up, we headed to Arizona.  Our first stop would be the Hoover Dam.  Taking the RV along the winding roads was challenging and the Dam was very (extremely) busy.  We are thinking spring break crowds but aren't sure.  We did not stop.  Once we made it across the Dam and back we had seen enough and could check off this location in our "been there" book.

We continued through the wind toward Williams Arizona to visit my parents.

Day 3 - Saturday April 15, 2017

We had a great visit, just hanging around the house and chatting.  I was able to float the drone up in the back yard and get some great video of there place.  We had lunch downtown at a nice pizza place on Route 66.

Drone Footage - Click Here to Open

360 Camera Footage 1 - Click Here to Open

360 Camera Footage 2 - Click Here to Open

Day 4 - Sunday April 16, 2017 (Easter Sunday)

We set out relatively early to head east to New Mexico.  We gassed up in Flagstaff and braved the windy desert freeway for 6 hours.  When we arrived in Albuquerque, our hotel was near the airport.  In fact, you had to actually enter the airport property to get to the hotel.  When we checked in we asked where to put the RV (as it takes a lot of space).  I was surprised when they told me to park it up front under the check-in awning for safety.  I asked if I should be concerned and was told that they had an attempted break-in involving a moving trailer and a sign at the desk mentioned the same issue.  We were a little road weary and didn't have interest in trying to shop around Albuquerque.  We found that a pizza place would deliver and we took advantage.

Day 5 - Monday April 17, 2017

We took the relatively short drive to Santa Fe, taking the back road on the "Turquoise Trail".  Our hope was to see something worth stopping for along the route to perhaps find some jewelry.  Unfortunately, we didn't see anything that didn't look like a tourist trap and continued to Santa Fe.  Our hotel was about 15 minutes north of Santa Fe at the Buffalo Thunder Casino property (Homewood Suites).  We had lunch waiting for our room to be ready, settled in, left the dogs in the room, and headed to downtown Santa Fe.  Two things became painfully clear.  First, there was little to no parking downtown for a large RV.  We had a few tight spots in which I had to learn quickly how to maneuver a 30' RV in tight spots.  Second - we found that on Monday (the day we planned to shop) the main attraction we sought was closed (Palace of the Governors).  We decided to find parking for the next day and do our shopping then.  But - parking was the problem.  We would later find that perhaps we could park at the cathedral, but the convention center had nothing but a parking garage much too small for us.  We returned to the hotel property in low spirits.  We then found that the hotel had a shuttle going downtown!!  Problem solved.  We had a nice dinner at the casino, Holly won about $60 on a slot machine and we packed it in for the night.

Day 6 - Tuesday April 18, 2017

We caught the shuttle to the downtown area.  We were a little early and shops didn't open for an hour (10am).  We walked around window shopping and getting a lay of the land.  When shops were open we perused the jewelry offerings and other shopping opportunities.  We came away empty handed but were able to at least see what was available.  Instead of waiting for the shuttle, we used Uber to get back to our hotel.  We checked out and started on our next leg of the trip - heading to Monument Valley, Utah.

We took the scenic route through North West New Mexico, passing over a small dam.  We had the option of seeing the Four Corners monument but decided not to stop but power through.  The last 100 miles was tough.  That little leg on the map that goes straight north was painful.  It was about 96 miles in high winds on a 2-lane highway in disrepair.  After watching me white-knuckled, trying to keep the RV on the road in the wind, Holly mentioned I should have driving gloves.  As luck would have it, one of the jackets I brought had finger-less work gloves.  I put them on and didn't have to wipe the sweat from my palms anymore.  We arrived in the dark to the Goulding's RV park in Monument Valley, Utah.  This was our first, true RV experience.  We checked in, pulled into our spot, hooked up to power, and settled in for the night.  In the morning, I dumped the black water and we hit the road for our next destination.

Day 7 - Wednesday April 19, 2017

We saw the most unique and beautiful mountain scenery as we drove through the middle of Utah.  We saw all the monuments, arches, and formations despite the windy mountain passes (the gloves made all the difference).  We stopped in Moab for lunch and continued on through endless mountains, still capped with snow.  We finally arrived in Salt Lake City during 5 o'clock traffic.  We made our way to our hotel and settled down for the final night on our trip.

Day 8 - Thursday April 20, 2017

We loaded up early and hit the road.  It was our longest leg (618 miles) of the entire trip.  We fought through the wind all the way through Nevada.  Once past Reno, the wind was gone and we enjoyed going through our home-state mountains with which we were very familiar.  There was still lots of snow on the mountains and the relief with pulling into Roseville was palpable.  We unloaded and went straight to our much-missed bed.  The next day we cleaned up the RV, gassed it, emptied the tanks, and returned it.

RV life for us?

We found very early on in the trip that we REALLY like this.  Not this particular RV (too big, unwieldy) but rather the concept of being self-contained.  Having a toilet on the road and a place to sit and eat or stretch out for a few minutes made the long drives more tolerable.  No longer did we have to stop to use the bathroom (even when we had to fuel).  There were stretches in which I drove for nearly three hours without stopping.  Plus - the poodles had room to stretch out.

We are still in the evaluation stage of which RV is for us.  We know that the larger Class A are too big.  The Class C are probably not for us either (don't really need the overhang sleeping area).  Next trip we will rent a Class B and try the Mercedes chassis to see how the handling compares to the Ford chassis we rented (we suspect the results will be obvious).

Then will come the decision to rent or buy.  A good, recent used Mercedes model runs about $85k.  We would have to RV at least 3 times a year to make buying better than renting.  Then there is storage.  If we can't park it at home, the costs go even higher.  More to come after our next trip to the Oregon Coast this fall.

Renting an RV

When we decided to rent we researched our options.  There seem to be only two nationwide companies that rent RVs:  El Monte and Cruise America.  While they have some actual company locations, most seem to be similar to U-Haul in which they franchise to local businesses that have other operations (such as a service station).  In the greater Sacramento area there was one El Monte franchise and two Cruise America franchises.  Let's start with the El Monte franchise.

El Monte

The location was in the southern industrial area of Sacramento.  We knew from the address it was going to be interesting.  We stopped by on a Saturday a while back to check it out.  It was in an industrial park as part of an antique car business.  I entered the facility and Holly stayed in the car as we had groceries and the area was a little sketchy.  I was greeted by an older lady and could see a man attending to a young family who was renting an RV.  She showed me the antique cars while I waited and then took me out to look at some RVs.  When the man was finished, Holly joined me.  We looked over the RVs and had no issues.  One problem we did have was the non-refundable rental deposit of $150.  No matter what, if we cancelled we lost the deposit (more of a rental fee than a deposit).  The larger problem was regarding which model year we would get when the time came to pickup the rental.  Their fleet has some older models and our research showed that some reviews stated that at the time of rental the reviewer was presented with an old model with no recourse.  With this in mind, we asked if we could reserve a newer model (3 years old or newer).  We were told that we would have to reserve it.  Then we could call to see which model was assigned and see if we could get a newer one.  What??  Why should we have to do the leg work???  We moved on to Cruise America.

Cruise America

There were two locations, one of which was much closer than the El Monte, located in Citrus Heights at Pastor's service shop.  We stopped by and the owner was manning the counter.  He showed us the 30' and smaller model.  For the price we had decided that the 30' would be a better value.  There was a deposit that was refundable (yea!).  The attitude of the proprietor wasn't that great however.  Even though their fleet was newer overall (3 years old or newer, Holly asked if we could reserve a newer model.  He flat-out said "we don't do that" and continued to state that even customers renting for long periods and long miles (i.e. more money for them) he didn't do that.  When we said it was a reasonable question he retorted "and I gave you a reasonable answer".  Despite getting off on the wrong foot, we had little choice but to rent from him.  We did get a little satisfaction, however.  I asked if we could rent online or directly from him.  He said that either is possible but if we rent directly from him they get a better commission.  We rented online.

We had a wonderful trip.  It was a grueling 2600 miles and 43 hours of driving through mountains and high winds but we were able to see the desert regions in all of its glory.

One last video clip of the late Robin Williams and the trials of using a rental RV