For our third trip of 2021, we wanted to visit family in Desert Hot Springs & Indio Mar 14-18th. Shadow Hills RV Resort in Indio, CA was a great location to stay since it’s less than a mile from family. This RV park has all the amenities allowed by Covid-19 restrictions. Fortunately we arrived Sunday because Monday the winds were fierce – blowing steady 35mph with gusts to 60+. By Tuesday morning the winds has dropped & weather warm & beautiful.
Full hookups, cable tv, laundry, pool, dog parks (tiny fenced areas), daily trash pickup at each site, showers and restrooms scattered throughout the park. The RV sites are level, wide concrete slabs with hedges separating you from your nearest neighbor. Being close to Coachella (annual music festival, canceled this year), there are many tent sites which were unoccupied.
Indio is ~40mins from Joshua Tree’s Cottonwood Springs Road south entrance. So after visiting family, I did an afternoon excursion to Joshua Tree. The topography of the southern entrance is quite different from the northern 29 Palms entrance. Most of the rock formation points-of-interest are in the northern side of the park. The Ocatillo Patch and Cholla Cactus Gardens features are in the central valley so I focused my photography efforts there. The 40mi drive to the Cottonwood Springs entrance has a much longer incline that the 29 Palms. If I were towing our trailer, I would definitely use the 29 Palms entrance.
Desert X 2021 Art Festival was also underway with 9 environmental art installations. The number of installations is greatly reduced this year due to Covid-19 but still worthwhile. The weather in March is near perfect (~70degF) except for the occasional wind storm like a day ago. The short hikes to the various installations, which are scattered throughout the area, were pretty easy. Although ParaPivot is quite a steep climb up a winding concrete driveway. We went on Wednesday so no tickets were required. Thurs-Sun tickets are required to keep the crowds down. We saw 4 of the 9 installations. We were trying to find the fifth, The Art of Taming Horses, which ended up being a scavenger hunt without success. Turns out the installation will not be viewable until after April 9th. The Women’s Qualities installation is in the Sunnylands Center & Gardens which closes at 4pm so we missed it by 20mins. Check the Desert X website for ticket & exhibit information: https://desertx.org. You can download the DesertX app for detailed descriptions about the art & artists plus locations.
Feb 23-24 2021: Our grandson Ronan wanted to go camping to celebrate his 5th birthday. His Mom & Dad booked a site at Indian Cove Campground for a tent & trailer, without hookups. There are fewer sites available at Indian Cove because their Covid-19 strategy is to closed every other site. There is an empty campsite separating the occupied sites. This made for a less crowded and much quieter camp-out. This was our first campground without electricity or water but we knew our Geo Pro is well equipped for dry camping. Before leaving home, we added ~12gals to our fresh water tank since we were only there for one night & wanted to keep out tow weight manageable. This was plenty of water for our washing & flushing needs. We also brought a couple gallons of bottled water for drinking & cooking. Since our Geo Pro has 190w of solar and two deep cycle 225ah 6v batteries, we had no issues using the interior or awning lights. We used our propane griddle to cook burgers for dinner, bacon & pancakes for breakfast. We’ve been debating about whether to keep the relatively heavy 17″ Suburban griddle or replace it with a propane bbq. Weight-wise there isn’t much gain and the grill does work really well if kinda a pain to clean. I guess a bbq grill could be a messy cleanup as well.
Since towing Howie is still new to us and stressful, we prefer not to drive more than a tankful of gas. As we gain more experience and fuel at rv-friendly stations, we’ll consider driving longer distances. For now, keeping our drives under 200mi is good. Since Pismo State Beach campground did not have full hookups, we reserved a full hookup site at Carpinteria State Beach. We only stopped for one night to break up the drive home. We considered boondocking since there are no Harvest Hosts in this region. But having a full hookup site allowed us to bypass the dump station at Pismo Beach campground.
Carpinteria State Beach campground has sites right on the beach and we reserved one of the few sites available. Since our trailer is only 20ft, there was one site available. If you want a campground with full hookups right on the beach then this is the place. We were only here one night but we made the most of our 24hrs. There are natural tar sands, resembling black lava flows, oozing throughout the beach front.
We had clear sunny windy weather most of our week in Ventura. Today was supposed to be a calmer day but everything is relative. We stopped at the Butterfly Grove where Monarch Butterflies are abundant Oct-Feb. This February, there were only several but the grove is free, easy to access so worth a visit. There is beach access, dunes, coastal trees, birds & trails we enjoyed. The section of campground adjacent the Butterfly Grove was closed due to recent flooding, perhaps from recent King Tides. Later, we took the coastal drive up to Avila Beach, hoping to check out the lighthouse. Turns out the only way to see the lighthouse is by tour group so we stopped for lunch by the beach. Avila Beach has a similar ambiance to Catalina Island. We ended the day by driving on the beach at sunset. We later learned there are petitions and the Sierra Club lobbying to stop the vehicles on the beach. There is only ~4 miles of driveable beach but I understand, as an oceanographer, the potential environmental impact. We are heading south tomorrow and this is our last evening at Pismo Beach. We considered driving all the way home tomorrow but booked a single night in Carpenteria, about 110mi south.
Morro Bay is a great scenic destination to get out and stay socially-distanced. We had a beautiful clear windy day, thankful we were not towing. Morro Rock is the cornerstone of Morro Bay. There’s a wide beach & plenty of free parking, large enough for motorhomes. Just south of Morro Rock in Morro Bay, is a small wharf with several excellent seafood eateries & fish market. There is also a salt water taffy stand that has a wonderful selection of some of the best taffy we’ve ever had.
After lunch, we headed 5mi south to El Moro Elfin Forest in Los Osos. A mile of wooden boardwalks that take you through 90 acres of coastal dune scrub & pygmy oak forest.
After 3 nights at Ventura Beach RV Resort, we headed ~110mi north to Pismo Beach State Beach in Oceano. This is a California State Beach campground with electrical & water hookups. It’s adjacent to Oceano Dunes beach, where you can drive your vehicle on the beach (may be banned soon). At the campground, there is a lagoon to hike around with a variety of waterfowl. We considered staying at Morro Bay State Beach but none of the available sites had hookups. Being RV-newbies, we are still trying to gauge our dry-camping capabilities. Morro Bay is 25mi away so we made it a day-trip. Avila Beach is also nearby so we spent our third day exploring it. I had disembarked an oceanographic cruise in Avila Beach many years ago & always wanted to revisit this coastal town.
Our first trip of 2021 was a one week trip up the West Coast of California from Oceanside to Ventura Feb 12-15th. We’ve been wanting to visit family that live & work at Ventura Beach RV Resort since Oct 2020. It’s about 161mi from home and our first outing since our short shakedown trip in San Diego. A Tacoma’s estimated towing gas mileage is ~10mpg. So we wanted to keep the first leg of our first trip under 200mi until we have a better idea of our range.
Our mileage turned out to be ~11.5mpg, driving in S4 with ECT Power on. The elevation changes along the coast were minor so we were not tested towing up any serious inclines.
Ventura Beach RV Resort is urban camping near Emma Wood State Beach. They have full hookups, tight spaces, and the continual drone of the nearby 101 highway which ends up being white-noise similar to ocean waves. The RV resort is north of Ventura proper & the Ventura Pier. Having a bike is highly recommended & makes getting around more convenient. There is a bike rental place (Ventura Bike Depot) within walking distance with a great selection of bikes & e-bikes to rent. The coast is scenic, flat and very bike-friendly. At the base of the pier, there is an excellent taco stand with outdoor seating.
We live in a neighborhood with a HOA that prevents us from parking Howie in the driveway or on the street for more than a few days. With 2020’s RV surge in popularity, storage lots in our area are pretty full. Luckily, we were able to find a spot in a nearby outdoor, gated RV storage lot. After looking at rather tight 10’x20′ spaces tucked between other RVs, boats, & trailers. We waited for a 22ft space on the end of an aisle to become available for $171/mo (as of Oct 2022; $148/mo Dec 2021; $114/mo initially). With the extra few feet, our 20ft trailer sits comfortably in an accessible corner. After hooking Howie to my truck, on our way to the storage lot. We spent an hour in a large, uncrowded parking lot practicing backing up the trailer between cones both right & left. Although I was hoping I could pull straight into our spot, some backing in was necessary. With the practice session, this was done easily.
Extra Space Storage for RVs is outdoors so we decided to use a cover to reduce sun damage & keep the exterior clean. It doesn’t rain much here in SoCal so the moisture issue many cover users complain about shouldn’t be a problem for us. There is a lot of plastic on Howie so sun damage, if stored uncovered, could cause these parts, like hose connectors, to become brittle over time. Some complaints on covers is they only last a few seasons and are prone to tears. So I bought a couple things to minimize the sharp edges that could shorten the life of our cover. The King Bird 5-layer cover had pretty good ratings on Amazon & other online RV cover reviews. It has three zippered side panels on each side for easy access to the trailer door & trailer portals when covered. There are also well-sewn reinforced straps to help streamline the “silhouette” and keep the cover from moving during high winds. Lastly, the 18-20ft cover is long enough to cover the entire trailer including the rear ladder and front tongue jack & tanks. Four wheel covers also come with the set so we used two of them to cover our trailer wheels. The water heater was drained and four stabilizer jacks lowered onto pads. 2021 update: We had some severe rain and winds in January on the West Coast. The cover weathered the storms well with only minor shifting on the driver’s side.
4 – 2″x10″x12″ wood pieces for tongue jack support
4 – wheel chocks
4pk weatherproof Masterlocks with longer bails
2- 4’x1″ metal strips (home Depot), to wrap-around the battery box
Some RV’ers remove their batteries and propane tanks when storing away from home or during freezing weather. Freezing should not be an issue in SoCal so we haven’t removed anything. I added 2 metal straps that wrap-around & lock the battery box. I also drilled a pass-thru hole in the propane clamp to fit a lock. If someone really want these, the mods will only slow them down a little. Our storage facility has video security so hopefully we won’t lose anything – so far, two months in, all is good (kow).
Our batteries continue to read 100% with the battery shutoff engaged. There does not seem to be any real drain of our two 6-v batteries. If the LP/CO detector, which is always on, is using any power. Perhaps, what little light passes through our cover is enough for the solar panel to trickle charge & compensate.
Starting our RV life at the end of 2020, we made some highly recommended tweaks to improve our overall experience.
Rear view camera – since Geo Pros are pre-wired for a backup camera, installing one was one of the first addons to improve safety. We installed a Furrion system since the Geo Pro mount is Furrion. Some dealers offer a rear view camera standard or as an incentive. Ours didn’t come with one so to make the installation easy, I installed a standard Furrion 5 system. Took 10mins with no drilling or additional wiring. The amount of extra wire in the Furrion base was longer than needed. So I fed all but ~8″ into the wall instead of cutting it shorter. We plan on adding two Furrion side cameras since we prefer not to use side mirror extensions. So far the rear view camera is working well wirelessly, viewable on the 5″ monitor setup on the dash.
Painted trailer tongue – painting the black trailer tongue where the ball hitch attaches was one of the best tips we saw on YouTube. Painting the ball hitch receiver light grey makes it easy to see on the Tacoma’s backup camera when hooking up. The light color can be “blown out” in camera view under bright sunlight, but still useful. The Tacoma’s backup camera is slightly off-center on the tailgate so the ‘centerpoint’ crosshair is slightly off to the left.
Dinette molding – the cabinet corner next to the dinette is already showing wear from the few times we’ve scooted out, rubbing against the wall (see photo). So we added oak molding stained to match the interior to the corners.
Worn corner from us sliding into the dinette
Solution: oak molding glued to corner
After taking a few trips and seeing mods other GeoPro owners have done. We made a few more changes to make living in our G19RD more comfortable.
The east-west full size bed is fine for us but a north-south modification makes it easier to get up without crawling over. Plus it adds extra room for Bodhi, our terrier-poodle, who sleeps next to us.
The dinette table that comes in the G19RD is relatively huge. It doubles as the bed platform so is wide and long enough to covert the dinette into a queen size bed. Unfortunately, it makes getting in & out of the dinette cumbersome, having to shift the table to the opposite side to slide in. We installed a Lagun table arm that swings the table top in different positions. Plus we can use different table top sizes to open up the dinette area. We’ll keep the stock table for trips where we need the extra bed. But for most of our trips, we’ll use the small table.
After some very basic additions to our Geo Pro G19RD “Howie”, we did a three-day shakedown trip to Campland-On-The-Bay Nov 18-21 2020. We bought a long list of support equipment recommended by the numerous YouTube videos we watched on essentials.
Following a tip I saw online, I painted the trailer’s hitch a light gray to make it easier to see in the Tacoma’s backup camera. It helps a lot when aligning the ball hitch to trailer hitch without a second person. It took awhile to remember the sequence of attaching the Equalizer E4 wdh but after referring to my notes and a few retries, I had it hooked up properly. An electronic tongue jack, standard on the Geo Pros, really helps speed up the process.
Campland-On-The-Bay is an “urban” bay-side campground in San Diego on Mission Bay, about 34 miles from home. It’s a short drive through town then mainly freeway, with only minor elevation changes. Towing went fine until we pulled off the Campland freeway exit then I noticed a slight “push” from the trailer when braking. The brake controller read “n.c.” – n.c. means “no contact or connection” so we lost our trailer brakes. Fortunately, the G19RD is less than 4000lbs & light enough for the Tacoma to stop unassisted. Campland is less than a mile from the freeway exit so we were able to make it to our campsite without issue. My wife booked a pull-through site so I thankfully didn’t have to remember my trailer backup skills. We leveled the trailer using a bubble level, Beech Lane leveling block and our LevelMate Pro+ which I had calibrated at home. Campland has full hookups (photo) so I connected the pressure regulator, water filter and fresh water hose. The water pressure gauge initially read over 60psi(!) so I adjusted it down to ~45psi. Next was power, attaching the 30amp surge protector and power cable to Howie. I threaded a cable lock through the surge protector since I read they are often stolen. Lastly, I attached the Rhino flex hose to the sewer fitting, using the hose-support slinky and sandbag to keep it seated tightly. Everything worked fine – no leaks were detected inside because of the initial 60psi water pressure. On shore power, we used the electric water heater vs propane.
The “east-west” full bed was comfortable but cozy with two smaller adults (5’9″, 5’1″) and 38lb dog (photo). We added a memory foam topper to the stock mattress and it’s good enough for now. It’s a heated mattress but we didn’t test it out. San Diego in November was still warm. Our next mod: someone in our Geo Pro Facebook group posted a modification that extends the mattress, converting the “east-west” bed to “north-south”. They constructed a short, retractable, plywood board that pulls out from under the mattress. Adding cushions the height of the mattress, extending the length the bed.
Day 2 started with breakfast cooked on the propane griddle that comes standard with the Geo Pro/E-Pro trailers. I hooked it up to the external propane connector and it works really well. We read that using it against the trailer can scorch the side panel. So we used it on a separate stand-alone table well away from Howie. The exterior metal shelf, also standard, works fine for holding plates, utensils & food. The kitchen’s propane stove was used to boil water for tea & coffee. A small Nespresso machine will travel with us next time. But this time I used a manual Nespresso coffee press which worked fine but requires some effort. Microwave-heated milk topped the latte – I’m debating on whether a milk frother is worth carrying. The 12v fridge worked great although some bins or bungees could be useful to minimize shifting of taller items during transit. Since we were hooked up to shore power, our 2 6v batteries never dropped below 100%. We tested the AC & furnace – they worked fine although a bit noisy – but neither was needed. It was cool enough during the day to just open the windows & use the MaxAir fan. At night, we used a small electric space heater instead of the furnace. Moisture was visible on the stove top when using propane even when using the oven fan hood. But the windows never had significant condensation since we kept the MaxAir fan on low full time & a window cracked. We also had a DampRid passive dehumidifier. But buy the end of our shakedown, there was very little water condensed at the bottom. The weather was dry all 3 days with very little humidity even though we were bay-side.
Getting back to the brake failure problem: I fussed with my Tacoma’s fuse box to see it the brake control circuit needed a new fuse. It was fine – the Tacoma’s main fuse box is in the engine compartment. It’s lid has a key to all the fuses, identifying the brake controller fuse (photo). There are also a few spare fuses & a fuse puller clipped to the fuse box lid. I brought assorted spare fuses (bought from Amazon) too since trailer fuses often need to be replaced. I called my RV dealer and the service manager gave me some trouble-shooting tips to try. The best tip he gave me was to ask my neighbor if I could hook up my Tacoma to their trailer to see if the brake controller works. It did, so we knew the problem was with the brand new trailer.
Next, I tried Forest River Roadside Assistance (FRRA) that’s listed in the binder that came with the trailer. It’s the wrong number but the person who answered gave me the right number (866)209-2895. Since we did not have a membership # yet, FFRA couldn’t really help us – when you take delivery of the trailer, your RV dealer submits the application to Forest River for you. If they do not submit your application right away, it can take quite a long time to get your card. Some dealers wait until they have a stack of applications to submit, so ask your dealer to expedite your application just in case you need roadside assistance early. When I called our dealer back for a service appointment. They said, because of Covid, “walk-ins” were not allowed & the next appointment was in March 2021 (so much for buying locally getting priority). I asked about our Forest River Roadside Assistance application & they said they would check on its status & expedite submission if needed. (Update: we received our membership # & card yesterday Jan 19 2021 after taking delivery Nov 12 2020.) I was able to talk to a Forest River’s technician but his suggestions didn’t fix the problem. Finally, I asked the concierge at Campland for a mobile repairman recommendation and he gave me a card. The mobile RV repairman (Guillermo from www.sosrepair.services) was kind enough to squeeze us into his full schedule. He came by ~6:30pm Nov 20, diagnosed & fixed the problem in 10mins. I took him longer to do the electronic paperwork, invoice me $150, & accept payment. The problem he found was the ground to the brakes were faulty. He replaced the two crimp connectors (photo), which he thought were the wrong gauge, with the correct ones. (Sidenote: if you want a career that’s in high-demand & great-paying, become a RV repairman.) After explaining our situation & experience to Forest River. They were kind enough to reimburse us the full $150. Something they said they do not usually due. We had a great first trip and learned a lot about setting up a rv. We are planning our 2021 trips although in California. Many campgrounds are still closed due to the pandemic.
