RE: Near San Francisco> recommendations?
We are now at San Francisco RV Park in Pacifica. Just stayed for the night to pick up a passenger at SFO airport, then heading north up the 101 to the Olympic Peninsula.
This park is okay for a night or two but the cramped cattle shute spaces are just barely 15feet wide. You feel like a sardine. The first place assigned to us was impossible to back or drive into because the slides on either side did not allow us to open our motorhome's main door. Our premium site with 'water view' amounted to a 2 or 3 feet of ocean view between the RV's between us and the water. It was supposed to be a drive-in site, but how could we see the water then? But hey, it's a good overnighter and handy for us to the airport, so we're okay with the cramped quarters for such a short time. I just would not make it a destination park and take my family there for a long time. Rate with my discounts was $55, which is what one expects in San Francisco areas. The folks at the desk were very helpful in plotting the best course from here to the SFO airport and then north across the Golden Gate. Anecdote: I finally managed to get to sleep over the snoring of our next door neighbor. Wow..was he/she loud! We'll be laughing over that b-zzzzing for a long time to come. LOL
But..there IS a diamond in the rough...
Comparatively, I wish we could have remained at the beautiful Ca. State Beach at Half Moon Bay. We stayed there for 4 days on a day-to-day non-reservation basis and $23/day. I have to commend the park employees who worked hard to accomodate us each day, giving us the choice of sites where someone did not show up or called in thier cancellation. They did that for us 4 days in a row and we really appreciated it.
It was absolutely gorgeous and a front site overlooking the sandy beach and surfer breaks. Sleeping to the gentle sounds of surf breaking was very relaxing. Shore fishing was good for small stripers. A very family orientated state beach. Huge sites with fireplaces, picnic tables, shaded with many trees, flowered sand dunes, and walking trails everywhere. We rode horses on a trail next to the park. Certainly due to become one of our favorite stops along the California Coast...we just have remember to make reservations next time for a longer stay! I don't know where you could do better in the San Francisco area for $23 a night.
Note: If traveling south of Half Moon Bay on 101 and you cannot find a campsite anywhere, try Sato's Cafe just south of the Pescadero village turnoff. The cafe/gas station will let you park in the huge lot and hook up to electric for $20 a night. (Only 2 or 3 lower amp plug-ins though, so first come, first served.) Great in an emergency. I stayed there one night, tuned in my satellite tv, and enjoyed some good pie in the cafe. Very easy in and out and it's even got another of those 'ocean views'..
Happy trails
RE: Nice campsites north of San Francisco 1-2 hours on Hwy 101?
Thanks so much for the positive advice on the Petaluma KOA. It sounds great.
But plans have changed and we will save that one for another time. Since talking to my arriving co-pilot we have decided to go a bit further north on Hwy 101 before making camp. She is no fan of large cities and wants the quiet countryside...so perhaps we'll go as far as Benbow or Garberville. Our reasoning is that we will be close to the Redwoods for the next full day of scenery amongst those wondrous trees. We are thinking of taking the south entrance to Avenue of The Giants drive and connecting back up with Hwy 101 N. Looks like a nice 30 mile drive! (My passenger is from the outback plains of Australia and asked this question about the Giant Redwoods.."Those fellows don't fall over very often, do they?")
I've noted the comments about that area here on RV.NET, plus Trailer Life Directory, and checked out a few campgrounds just before Avenue of the Giants.
-Benbow Lake SRA
-Richardson Grove State Park
-Richardson Grove RV Park (private)
-and also Benbow RV Resort.
Any recommendations on these..or others before Garberville? It's a stab in the dark for us, but they all appear to have thier attractions.
Thanks again...and I told her those trees NEVER fall over.
Nice campsites north of San Francisco 1-2 hours on Hwy 101?
Hi, we are heading up Highway 101 this coming Sunday after picking up a passenger at the San Francisco airport around noon. Since this passenger will have flown a full day, I would prefer not to drive more than 1-2 hours north before camping, but that depends on the campgrounds available.
Can anyone recommend a campground that you found nice and attractive. We are self-sufficient 34 motorhome, have sat tv, genset, solar, etc, but hookups are always nice. Thanks for your help. Roger
RE: Oregon Coast Restaurants
We are heading up the coast soon and looking forward to many great meals eating out along the way. Has anybody tried Shark's cafe in Newport? It's in the lower waterfront area.
5th Wheel with Roof Bar-B-Q area still being made?
A few years ago..maybe 2002?..we saw a new Fiver at an RV dealership in ND with a roof deck. You went up an inside staircase to the barbeque and seating area on the roof. Does anyone remember these?
Or maybe there are quite a few on the road and we just haven't seen them in use. We are out of touch in Baja Sur, Mexico for many months at a time so it's understandable that we miss a lot of current innovations.
It could have been a Montana, but not sure of that, although we did see it at a dealership where we bought a Montana 3280RL.
Has anybody got any info on these? I have an idea I would like to pursue using this roof seating area with a Fiver below.
RE: rt. 101 in oregon
The Coast Road is a truly remarkable drive and we never tire of it's beauty and ruggedness. After RVing up from our home in Baja Sur, Mexico, we're currently in Half Moon Bay near San Francisco and will be northbound up Hwy 101 and Hwy 1 starting June 7th. As usual we're going cold turkey with no reservations and expect that like other years (2 trips a year since 1975) we will not be without great campsites...we are boondockers at heart, but will take a RV park if needed. There are sooo many places to stay overnight that it is not a worry.
As for the route being big motorhome friendly..yes, it is. We have done it in a Mini Winnie with boat, pickup camper with boat, 32ft 5th Wheel, and 34ft motorhome with boat. We don't mind taking it slow and easy, but never hold up traffic either. And don't worry about not seeing everything on a northbound trip. There are constant pullouts for you to enjoy any and all views.
Happy trails and maybe we will see you On The Road.
The down side to this year's trip up the Coast Road is that we are in a hurry to get to northern Canada for some fine walleye and lake trout fishing...so we will only be 7 days on the coast..not nearly enough! On the other hand, the trout are huge and the walleyes are the best table fish in the world!
It's a dang tough decision.
RE: North Dakota
An omen.
We saw this North Dakota Tourism Dept. sign on Interstate 94 just before crossing into Montana.
"Thinking of Leaving North Dakota? Custer did."
RE: Engine has developed a tapping noise!
I have a Ford 460 in my Southwind that has about 70000 miles on it and has just lately developed that same symptom of tapping.
We are RVing now near Coalinga, CA and will be bound for Half Moon Bay tomorrow. I-5 to Hwy 101 to Hwy 92. After that we head up the Pacific Coast Highway - Cal - Ore - Washington and then east.
Can anyone recommend a good shop along that route where I can get the problem fixed? Thanks very much.
RE: DC-AC power for laptop, XM radio, and cellphone charger?
Hi Jeff,
Thanks and it good to meet you, too. Sure glad you responded to my post here, as you are thee expert on 12-volt issues and I can't thank you enough. Good things happen on this forum.
You solved my dry-camping problems concerning powering the laptop and XM radio, plus lots of other 12-volt corrections to my motorhome. Also kudos for pointing out the poor starting battery, the new one has terrific cranking power.
Look forward to trying all these improvements out when leaving this park and heading out on this season's RV trip. The Pacific Coast, Olympic Peninsula, and across Canada. Going to have some terrific walleye fishing in Saskatchewan & Manitoba. I'll be thanking you daily for keeping me in touch with the Internet and XM'ed. If I find the little humming noise bothers my tinnitis I will get that inverter like yours, but I think I will probably get used to that little distraction soon enough.
Yes, please stop by and have a few cold ones on me in Baja...and any other RV.Net member who gets down that way next winter. My beachhome is in Coyote Bay south of Mulege.
In the meantime, safe travels.
RE: DC-AC power for laptop, XM radio, and cellphone charger?
Many thanks for all the great and very knowledgable replies. Landyacht318, a fellow RVNet member (and also a BajaNomad forum member) is here now resolving on those very same issues. He is quite an expert on 12 volt applications and concurs with the good advice given above on how to correct the problem. We will be off to a local Walmart soon to buy the wiring, inverter, spare fuses, etc. This is indeed a great forum and very helpful...as I knew it would be.
Again..thanks to all for your experienced advice. /Pompano/Roger
RE: DC-AC power for laptop, XM radio, and cellphone charger?
Thanks, I have 3 also, but the other two are too far away from my computer area. It works for me to have the XM handy when I am online, hence the need for 2 plug-ins to the dash lighter.
DC-AC power for laptop, XM radio, and cellphone charger?
Well, I hope this question has not been asked too many times. I tried a 'search' first of course, but my situation was not found.
Here's what I have:
I have a Class A 33' Southwind with one 12-volt heavy duty starting battery and 2 6-volt deep cycle 'house' batteries.
Here's what I want to do:
I want to run off these additional items off the coach power supply when traveling or dry-camping:
A laptop computer, a cellphone charger, and an XM radio.
My history and problem is:
For about $50 I bought at Target a DC to AC power inverter (280 watts peak power - 140 watts continuos power. This is the kind that plugs into the dash cigarette lighter power supply. Because it only has one electric plug-in, and I wanted to use at least 2 of my gadgets at the same time, I first plugged in a multi-plug strip with it's own breaker..and then plugged in the XM radio and the laptop to that strip. I figured that should work..and it did for about 1 or 2 months, then blew out the cig lighter receptacle fuse or whatever. Well, I got that fixed and all went well again for another 2 months of use, then yesterday the cig lighter gave up the ghost again. No more power from that source.
I was only using the cig lighter to run the laptop and the XM radio..not the cell phone charger. I should note that I had to repeatedly turn the power inverter on and off to get the green ON light to stay on. Seems it was trying to tell me something!
(I don't know what watts or amps the laptop or XM radio take.)
Now I have a mobile RV repair man coming tomorrow to my RV park here near Oceanside..Gaujome County Park, which is a very nice place.
My questions:
After we fix the cig lighter receptacle again, I am wondering what else I should have installed or use?
Will a smaller inverter be in order?
Is using that multi-plug strip not a good idea?
Can we somehow fuse the receptacle to a higher tolerance..or is that dangerous?
A different inverter with 2 plug-ins? (I like this idea...eliminates that multi-plug strip.)
Can another power source be used in the coach somewhere? Although my fold-down snack table/computer desk is very handy to the front dash area.
Any thoughts out there?
Many thanks. I pay in cold Pacificos at my Baja beach home in Coyote Bay, Baja Sur.
RE: Swine flue for 2009/2010 season
As I do every year since 1972, I just spent the last 7 months in Baja Sur, Mexico. I heard of NO swine flu in that part of Mexico..nobody I know knows of anyone who has or had it. I have had a home there for 37 years.
This 'making news' is more and more becoming the way our ratings-managed news programs operate.
I really don't see where the swine flu will deter any RVers from making the scenic trip to Baja Sur. On the other hand, the threat of violence in the northern border cities coupled with the rapidly deteriorating US economy will do just that.
RE: towing a trailer behine a fifth wheel?
I also double-tow, totaling 75' overall, in countries, states, and provinces where I know it is legal ..and I take the term double-tow literally to mean 2 tows behind a tow vehicle..period. It's not rocket science. Common sense and use should prevail. Other innacurate terms only cloud the issue for newbies to the event, but then it's probably cold and windy outside..and people do like to debate this issue endlessly.
I am interesed in answers to some towing questions and beg leave of the OP to ask...
Have any of you been ticketed for double-towing, being overlength, or had an engagement with authorities for such?
