My goal for the Interstate was to try to find its natural place in the world, in other words to see what it was best at doing. Having pulled a 30-foot Airstream travel trailer all over southern California, I had the opportunity to compare experiences and go where the big trailer couldn’t.
There was a problem with this great plan, however. June 28, my first day, was also the first day of a holiday week. In my part of the world people don’t begin celebrating July 4 until at least July 2, but the Californians apparently feel differently. They crowded every available campsite from San Diego to San Francisco for the entire week and I discovered my chances of getting a nice spot anywhere near the ocean were virtually nil.
Had I not had several years of experience at finding alternative overnight stops, I might have given up right then and headed inland to the scorching desert. No problem getting campsites in places where the temperature is running 110 degrees or so. But I wanted to experience the coast, so it was time to call on every resource I had.
My Saturday night stop was easy. I just stayed parked at the Murphy Auto Museum overnight. I hadn’t planned to spend the first night without hookups, but it seemed like a good chance to test all the Interstate’s systems. Sunday morning I took a drive up to Ojai, then wandered down to Santa Barbara on country roads past orchards and ranches, staying off Hwy 101 for as long as possible. That’s one of the nice things about the Interstate compared to a travel trailer. I didn’t have any hesitation about trying narrow, winding road that might eventually force me to make a U-turn. Twenty-five feet of motorhome isn’t exactly compact, but it’s a breeze to turn around compared to 53 feet of truck and trailer.
In Santa Barbara I got my first tank of diesel. Turns out the Interstate has the same fuel capacity and slightly better fuel economy than my GL320, so it was a familiar experience, and not nearly as traumatic as I had feared it might be. At the fuel station I got the first of many inquiries about the Interstate. This is not a stealthy vehicle. People can’t help but notice it, and quite a lot of them will ask questions or even hint for an interior tour. I ended up giving 15-20 tours over the course of ten days. People want to know what it costs and what fuel economy it gets, and then they are often amazed to find that it has a full bathroom with shower.
A little further up the road I saw a sign for El Capitan Beach State Park and decided to drop in there, just to park in the day-use area for a while.
For $9 I had this spot for the entire day, and it was a truly beautiful day. I opened all the windows, broke out a cold drink and a snack and a book, and settled in for a while. I could hear people walking by and saying, “That’s a cool van!” and similar comments. With the blackout windows and the day/night shades in “day” position, they couldn’t tell I was in there.
Later, when I felt like company, I slid out the big side door and got a spontaneous visitor about every twenty minutes. One guy claimed the Interstate cost $300,000. Another was so excited he went back to get his wife and kids for a second tour. One woman got in, then gave me a look that said Uh-oh, I just got in a van with a strange man, but stayed for the tour anyway and then got her husband and friends. Lots of people took photos of themselves next to it.
I couldn’t spend the night here, so I wandered further up the coast on the PCH, ending up in Buellton. There’s a good RV park there that I figured was far enough inland to maybe have a site available, and that turned out to be a good guess. $63 with taxes reminded me that I was indeed in California.
Well, I needed a chance to hook up and try out all those systems too. The full hookup site gave me a chance to try the fancy new macerator dump that the Interstate uses (no more stinky slinky) and I was favorably impressed with the neatness of the system. I found a small water leak coming from the rig but it turned out to be just a dripping P&T valve on the water heater. That’s an overpressure protection valve, and it’s a common issue that is easily rectified, but I just let it drip because it’s not significant and I didn’t expect to be using the water heater much.
This evening I tested the video system by playing a movie on the Blu-ray DVD and both LCD TVs. With a Bose active noise-cancellation headset plugged into the headphone jacks (by the second row seats), I couldn’t hear a thing from outside nor the vent fan humming above my head, and I got totally immersed in the movie. This Interstate experience was starting to feel very decadent, especially compared to the two weeks I just spent on a motorcycle. I was beginning to think that after ten days it might be hard to give the thing back.