Before taking any extensive trip in our motorhome we needed to have a practice outing in order to make sure we had the essential items we needed and to develop some familiarity with the operation of the various motorhome systems and functions.  For this practice outing we chose Lake Elsinore (photos) as our destination.

Lake Elsinore is about 2 hours southeast of Los Angeles, near the towns of Temecula and Murrieta.  Not so coincidentally, Valerie’s son Jason, his wife Ashley and their almost 2 year old son Tad live in Murrieta.  We rented a spot for 1 week at Lake Elsinore West Marina and RV Resort.  We had a nice spot that gave us a view of the lake.

During our week, we went out for a couple of bike rides, visited with Tad and cleaned the motorhome.  We’re trying out a “waterless” product for cleaning the exterior of the motorhome.  This is motivated in part due to the California drought as well as the convenience of the waterless approach versus bucket, hose, car wash liquid and drying cloths.  Also, most RV parks won’t allow you to wash your motorhome with water while in one of their sites.  This first attempt worked out well and took us about an hour and a half to complete.

It was a good practice outing and a good visit with Tad….oh, and his parents, too.