Sierra Meadows RV Park

For our time in the Yosemite National Park area, we stayed at the Sierra Meadows RV Park. The park is on the small side with ~40 RV sites and 20 cabin sites. The RV sites are asphalt with a grass living area between the sites. Most of the sites have a picnic table. The park has a small laundry room, bathrooms and showers in one building at the back edge of the park. From this park it is a 30 minute drive to the Yosemite NP south entrance. The Yosemite valley area is another 30-45 minutes further, when there is little to no traffic. The wifi was reliable and decent speed. The location has a mountain feel, which we loved. The road in is winding, but we had no problems with our 43' rig on it. Just go slow and watch closely for oncoming traffic through the hairpin turns. We rate this park a 3/5.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

After a somewhat stressful time in Phoenix due to the coach having to be repaired, we set off for Lemon Cove so we could visit Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  I wasn't sure what to expect, I knew there would be gigantic trees but beyond that, I wasn't sure.  Boy, when they call the trees "giants", that isn't even an appropriate word!  These trees are massive, ginormous, gargantuan and just plain freakin' HUGE!!  ;)  The Sequoia side of the park is full of the famous trees and wonderful waterfalls and hiking trails.  It is beautiful and breathtaking and really makes your mind work.  Some of these trees are over 3,000 years old!! Just think about that for a few minutes.  They have survived multiple fires and other setbacks that have tried to destroy them.  This park and these trees are where authors of sci-fi and fantasy books must go to gain inspiration.
Kings Canyon is the park that shares a border with Sequoia but the terrain is very different.  It is mostly hiking trails and WATER.  Oh, the water!!  Just absolutely wondrous!  We took the better part of a day and just drove all over the park and stopped off at various sites where we were rewarded with the views.  We would love to come back to this park and hike some of the trails.  Since we lost 5 days due to our coach being repaired, we had an abbreviated time here.  We still managed to do a few hikes.  They were short compared to our standard 6-8 mile hikes but we did see some things that a lot of people don't get to see.  We saw mule deer, a snake (bleh!), and a Yellow Bellied Marmot! :)  We will for sure be back someday!

The kid graduated and our home was broken

After spending time in Palm Too Much Wind (Springs), we drove further south to Newport, CA for a much appreciated break.  My favorite place in the world is on the beach.  A week on the beach = Heaven!!  We just relaxed, went to Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, went for a bike ride and had a great time.
Then, it was time to get back to the Phoenix area for the kid's graduation (Magna Cum Laude) from Arizona State!  Yay kid!!!  :)  The time with her was irreplaceable and so memorable!  We had one thing scar our time there though.  As we were driving to AZ the check engine light on the rig came on.  Since we were already taking it in to Camping World we asked them to check the source of the light.  They couldn't so we took it to Cummins Diesel.  We were hoping for something simple but alas, like everything else with the Gilliams, it was anything but.  When the rig was being built, the pipes used for air intake were dirty.  That debris was feeding into the fan that cools the turbo on the engine and it damaged the fan.  Who was going to pay to fix it? Cummins said not them, Winnebago said not them but luckily Freightliner admitted it was them and said they would pay for it.  Cummins said they could get it done in 2 days if Freightliner got them the part (only one of these parts in the entire country).  This was on a Wednesday and we were supposed to get the coach on Friday.  Friday comes around and Freightliner didn't order the part in time!!  Luckily Gary called them and told them of our "great disappointment" in this news and they agreed to pay for our lodging until the rig was fixed.  WHEW!  Cummins ended up fixing it by Monday of the following week.  They were excellent!  I can't say enough about them!  They kept the coach plugged in so our food wouldn't spoil, they kept us completely updated during the entire process and they even went to Freightliner and picked up the part instead of waiting for the part to be delivered to them.  We got on the road by 7 that night and drove for a few hours just to get a jump start on the long drive we were going to have to do the next day.  And it was our very first time we spent the night at a truck stop!  It actually was kind of fun and it was good to know that we can easily do it in the future when we need to.  :)

Lemon Cove RV Park

We decided to stay at this park for our visit to Sequoia NP. The park is located two towns away from the southern entrance, which is about a 30 minute drive to NP gate. The sites are gravel and fairly level. I would recommend taking enough planks to deal with an uneven site, if you get one of those. The park offers reasonable bathrooms with showers. They are old, but clean and functional. The park also has a dog park, a laundry room and a small convenience store in the main office. Wifi is decent at the office, but only the closest site or two get any reception. The office staff is very accommodating to schedule changes, which for us was nice due to repairs being made on our RV the week earlier. The downsides with the park include their inability to receive US post office mail and several long term/permanent residents. We rate this park a 2 out of 5.

Mail Forwarding while RVing

Dealing with mail while going full time in an RV is one of the challenges you will need to resolve before heading out for your own adventures. We did some research online and found that companies in three states are taking the lead on providing this service. Florida, Texas and South Dakota all have multiple companies to pick from. There are advantages and disadvantages to each state. The common advantage is that these states have no state income tax. We decided to go with South Dakota and set up an account with Dakota Post. We have been extremely happy with their service and their online forms to make changes. We have our mail sent to us twice a month. Dakota Post bundles up our mail in one package and sends it to the park where we are staying during that period of time. If you move around a lot in your RV, then you need to stay on top of giving your mail service the address where you will be at when your mailing dates hit. I set up two recurring calendar notices to remind me to fill out the online Dakota Post mailing form. One challenge that we ran into this week for the first time is an RV park that does not get standard mail service. We were surprised that our mail reached the town, but was returned because the park was not serviced by the US mail. Now we will be checking with the park before having our mail forwarded to them. Something to think about as you head out. Dakota Post link: https://dakotapost.net/

Newport Dunes RV Park and Marina

The Newport Dunes RV park is a nice park, but just over priced for what they offer. The park is located right on the water in the bay which made the view out the front of our coach was fantastic. The beach area around the water is nice and they have shops to rent small boats, kayaks and paddle boards. The amenities at the park were in good shape and fairly standard. They offer clean bathrooms and showers, a pool and hot tub area along with a small convenience store located on site. The negatives for this park start with the price relative to the RV sites. The sites are sand for parking the RV with a small concrete pad for the outdoor living space. The problem is that the overall site is too small to use the outdoor living area. We had approximately 6 inches between our slide out and the power/water services and another 6 inches between our awning and the adjacent RV. Parking our rig was a bit of a challenge to say the least. The other downside for this park is that they are popular with the locals on the weekend and they have very little parking. The park does not control their parking even with all of their threats on towing. We rate this park a 3 out of 5 due mostly to the price. We will look at other options when we visit the Newport and Huntington areas in the future.

Newport Beach, CA

We visited this area a few years ago and enjoyed our time here. The beach is fantastic and the area is amazing. So, we put Newport on our schedule for the west coast year of RV adventures. I knew this week would be more what Danelle wanted and less of what I like. We started with a long day at Newport Beach, where I took a few long walks while Danelle soaked up the maximum vitamin D possible. Then we went on a bike ride along CA1 and the Newport boardwalk, followed up by a windy day at the beach in Huntington, where I once again went on a long walk to kill time. While we were in the area, the Anaheim Ducks had a Stanley Cup playoff game that we just couldn't miss. We saw the Ducks go down 0-3 in the game before staging a record come back. The Ducks scored 3 goals in the final 3 minutes and won in the second overtime. What an amazing game. We wrapped up our week in Newport by visiting Torrey Pines and taking a walk through the state park and then a visit to the historic mission at San Juan Capistrano.