OuRV Roadrunner Blog

Category: Our RV Roadrunner Blog

  • Rainy shakedown RV trip to the Jemez Mountains

    Rainy shakedown RV trip to the Jemez Mountains

    Date: Sept. 13, 2025

    Location: Redondo Campground, Jemez Mountains, New Mexico

    Mileage: 5,126

    For our shakedown voyage, we had planned to go boondocking in an area where we cut down our Christmas trees in the Jemez Mountains. And then it rained and we discovered a leak in our new-to-us RV over the passenger seat between the cab and the camper. We hope this is fixable. After the “limp mode” issue and the broken bathroom window, we shrugged and hoped that this is No. 3 because it seems bad things in life always seem to come in threes and then you have some good times for a while. Time will tell. 

    We live in New Mexico where rain is rare, so we decided to go camping anyway. Except it was New Mexico State Fair weekend. It always rains during the state fair. This year did not disappoint. Looking at the forecast, we decided that boondocking was not wise, as the ground might be soggy and we need to get used to how our RV handles first. So we opted for some campgrounds we know in the Jemez Mountains.

    Before leaving, we christened our RV the Roadrunner, which is the New Mexico state bird.  During the pandemic, I worked outside on our front patio many days in the summer and fall. Our neighborhood roadrunner would come over most days and watch me, standing about two feet away and standing still for about 20 minutes or so before wandering away.

    Roadrunner

    On the way up to the mountains, we listened to our new playlist with songs like Roam by the B52s, Stick Season by Noah Kahan and, of course, Roadrunner by Modern Love as the opener.

    Jemez River Stop

    We stopped for lunch along the Jemez River, rushing orange-red down the valley, and watched some red fire ants carry a speck of whole wheat tortilla to their anthill. We try to practice Leave No Trace, but in this instance, we let them have their prize. We realized that with our popup trailer, we tried to get to the campsite and then drive back to interesting things we passed. Now, we need to slow down and stop along the way. 

    Roadrunner RV in site at Redondo Campground

    Redondo Campground

    We camped at Redondo Campground, which was virtually empty at around 1:30 on a Saturday. It has level, paved sites with fire rings and picnic tables. This campground has always seemed dark to me, but they must have done some tree thinning, as it seems just fine now. As I type this, I’m hearing the thunder reverberate through the Ponderosa pines, there are a few raindrops sprinkling on the awning and it is completely still.

    Across the road from Redondo Campground is the San Diego Overlook. There’s a small parking area and toilets. A cross-country ski trail leaves from here. If you walk up the paved trail from the toilets, there’s a great spot to watch the sunset and Battleship Rock can be seen from here.

    The trailer didn’t leak with the light rain! And the next day was sunny and calm. We found all three beds comfortable and the heater adequate for our morning coffee inside Roadrunner. And RV decadence was ice cream around the campfire! The “garage” fit all our stuff and then some. The water in the kitchen and bathroom worked just fine. Storage inside the RV was more than adequate for now. And the microwave helped me warm up my coffee. Overall, it was an uneventful, aka good, shakedown trip.

    Until next time,

    Heather

    Check out our Trip Notes. 

  • Stress fest: An RV pickup experience and cautionary tale

    Stress fest: An RV pickup experience and cautionary tale

    Date: Sept. 6, 2025

    Location: La Mesa RV

    Mileage: 5,104

    Hi there,

    I would like to say we had a wonderful experience pickup up our Winnebago Ekko RV from La Mesa RV in Albuquerque. We did not. It was a comedy of errors that very nearly had us walking away from the purchase.

    After purchasing our RV, we waited about three weeks to get the financing and insurance in order. When we arrived for our pickup and orientation at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, we sat in their service department waiting. We noticed through the front glass doors that an RV that looked like the one we had bought was being driven back and forth in front of the dealership. Its driver parked in front of the building to speak with the assistant service manager through the driver’s side window. Not. A. Good. Sign.

    In a few minutes, the assistant service manager talked with us about our brand-new-to-us RV going into “limp mode.” This is a safety feature that stops the vehicle when the alternator is overcharging the coach battery. He told us it was a “known problem” with the Ekko that meant we would be unable to charge our lithium battery on the road. We were crestfallen. We let him know that we had paid a lot of money for what we had been told was an RV that had gone through all the recalls and was in great condition.

    After an hour of negotiating, we decided to go ahead with the purchase under a new contract that included La Mesa and Winnebago paying to fix the limp-mode problem. We tried test driving the RV to see what limp mode was like, but it did not repeat it with us driving it. Isn’t that always the way these things go? OK, we were ready to do the orientation after that heart-wrenching decision. Or. So. We. Thought.

    You did what?!

    As we were about to get started with the orientation, we saw the assistant service manager approaching with a sheepish look on his face. What now? Someone had broken the bathroom window. He explained they were putting in a new window as we spoke. We had already grappled with the decision of whether to go ahead, so we stuck with it. You know you’re in a bad situation when the salesperson jokingly offers to buy you a shot of tequila! We drank margaritas later that evening with our kids at our favorite New Mexico food restaurant, but still are not finding the experience funny.

    We are can use our RV, but there is no charging the battery from the road, which hampers the functionality and our dream of boondocking. The rest of the orientation was informative and helpful. Tip: Make videos, you’ll forget much of what they tell you.

    Picking up our RV was supposed to be a happy experience. Instead it turned into a stress fest. Yes, we did ignore online advice to not buy from large dealers. Nonetheless, La Mesa is the Winnebago service provider in our area, so we figured we would need to develop a relationship with them anyway. While it was a stressful pickup, we felt the assistant service manager handled the situation fairly, so that we had what we needed to trust that the problem would be fixed and we wouldn’t end up paying for it. [Update: It’s now Dec. 31, and the assistant service manager left us a voicemail while we were out camping. La Mesa has been fair in its service work, fixing some other problems free of charge. Winnebago, if you are reading this, we are hoping you’ll make us whole!]

    I find in life that when bad things happen, time passes and they make for funny stories later around the campfire. Are we there yet? Not yet. But I expect that our tale of our pickup will at some point entertain us. And, if it saves you from a similar situation or gives you a laugh, all the better.

    Until next time,

    Heather

  • Holiday Greetings and New Year Wishes

    Holiday Greetings and New Year Wishes

    May you enjoy this holiday season with friends and family.

    May 2026 bring you many adventurous journeys.

    Heather and Bill

  • Why we bought the Winnebago Ekko 23b, aka SPREKKO

    Why we bought the Winnebago Ekko 23b, aka SPREKKO

    It’s ours!

    Date: Nov. 27, 2025

    Location: Home base

    Mileage: N/A

    Happy Thanksgiving 2025 to our United States readers! We’re staying at my in-laws’ home in Sacramento, California, and I had some time to write before the feast. We’ve spent time with my in-laws, who are both 95 years old, and took some time to go birding along the American River behind their house. We saw Common Goldeneyes, Common mergansers, Buffleheads, Mallards, Canada geese, a Snowy Egret, a Great Egret, Western bluebirds, California Scrub-Jays, California towhees, House finches, Yellow-rumped warblers, Black Phoebes and more.

    Today, I wanted to share why we bought a Winnebago Ekko 23b. I hope this is helpful for those of you considering a major purchase in 2026.

    We started out tent camping in the 1990s, added a popup trailer that could sleep seven people and managed to squeeze in eight people, though a few of those were little people. Once our kids left home, we knew we wanted something a little more convenient than a popup trailer. Having to unpack the tent portions and pull out the sliders became tedious after all those years. And not needing a place for the kids to sleep convinced us we could go with something smaller. Plus, we’re relatively small people. I’m 5’7” and Bill is 5’8”, which gives us an advantage when it comes to small spaces. We tuck in quite easily.

    For a few years, we camped in the back of our Ford Explorer. But one rainy weekend with our wet black lab, Polka, sleeping beside our damp sleeping bags and all our stuff piled into the front seats to stay dry convinced us we needed a change. One thing we’ve always disliked about camping is the packing up and unloading of the car. The popup trailer helped with that, so when we went back to the car, we realized we no longer wanted that hassle.

    We were also experienced enough campers to know that we didn’t want a fifth wheel or an RV the size of a Greyhound bus. We were excited to tour a luxury RV. It had a king bed, his-and-her sinks, a washing machine and dryer, two bathrooms, movie theater recliners and so much more. It was like being in a small house. But to me, it didn’t feel like … well … camping. There’s something about traveling small in the world and a little roughing it that we like. Maybe if we were living in our RV full-time I would have a different opinion.

    We had seen a few Winnebago Travatos on the roads of New Mexico and really liked their look. But when we viewed them, we realized their clearance and the lack of AWD would mean it would be difficult to reach the areas of our state we most wanted to explore. When you’re driving on interstates 40 or 25, you think all there is out there is high desert. Not so. There are many hidden valleys, ghost towns, canyons that only an AWD can reach. One example from years ago was a pool of water in the desert with red-rock cliffs rising on one side that had red hanging flowers all around. It was a hidden paradise. It was also 14 miles down a rutted road that we barely managed to get down with our Subaru Forester. From my vantage point today, I would have never done that trip in that car! And I knew a trip like that couldn’t be safe, perhaps not even done, in a Travato.

    One rainy weekend last summer, we happened on the Ekko online. I spent an entire afternoon reading the owners manual. Over the next few weeks, we read owners’ blogs and vlogs and YouTube reviews. Here’s what we liked about the Ekko:

    • Comfy mattresses that could convert to a queen bed.
    • The solar, propane and lithium battery to provide power and heat. 
    • The feel of the Mercedes cab, which we discovered when we test drove one.
    • The storage area in the back that SPREKKO owners call the “garage” and other outside storage areas.
    • Not that we love the toilet, but we like the fact that we have one and don’t have to go outside first thing on a cold morning … or in the middle of the night. 
    • That the vehicle is as wide as a normal van. It is longer than a van, so parking in a normal parking spot is not possible, which was a slight con for us.

    That’s the pros list. I won’t write about the rest of the cons here because as you’ll see, we ran into a few and those will be the topics of future posts. But we’re still traveling, so they weren’t bad enough to dissuade us from hitting the road. 

    When we went to view the Ekkos, the dealership had a used one with 5,000 miles on it that was in great condition. At the same time, a used Ekko with about 10,000 miles was for sale an hour away, which helped us to negotiate what we hope was a fair price.

    Until next time,

    Heather

  • Blog to provide real life RV tips

    Blog to provide real life RV tips

    A California Scrub-Jay stands near a rose bush, showcasing its vibrant colors amid greenery in November.

    Date: Nov. 28, 2025

    Location: Sacramento, California

    Mileage: N/A

    Hi there,

    My intention for the OuRV Roadrunner blog is to write about our journey as new RV owners and journal on our travels, first in New Mexico and later further afield, in our new-to-us vehicle. I hope to provide information for readers in terms of what to see along the way to our destinations, hiking and nature notes and to compile helpful resources for maintaining our RV.

    I also would like to share a little bit about us. If we are similar in how we travel, you might find this blog helpful. And if we are very different people, well maybe this blog will give you a few laughs over our mishaps.

    Trip Notes

    Our trip notes, at least right now, will focus on the road and camping in New Mexico. We both work full-time, so most of our RV trips will be weekend excursions. In a few years, we hope to travel across the United States and Canada. We like to explore. We are interested in nature, history, oddities. We find beauty and peace in getting off the beaten path and feeling like we are alone in the world. If you’re looking for resorts and swimming pools at every stop, we probably won’t be much help. Though, sometimes we like those comforts, too. Heather is also a birder, so many of our trips are geared toward adding to her birding life list. We also travel with our dog, Polka, so campgrounds that don’t allow pets are probably places we’ll avoid for now.

    Hiking Notes

    We’ll also include hiking notes. We are nearly as old as the wind and we are no longer interested in moving fast. In addition to birds, we like photography, looking at rocks, trying to figure out the geology, botany or history of an area and napping in the sunshine on a warm rock. All this means, our hiking times are sloooooow. You can go much faster, so hopefully our hiking notes will help you find the trail head and describe the early part of your hike. But know that you will likely cover much more ground than us. Good for you! I’ll plan to link hiking notes chronologically to our blog, but if possible organize them geographically and add to them over the years and in different seasons.

    RV Tips

    On our RV notes, we are also new RV owners, though not new to camping. We can start a decent fire in most conditions. We don’t mind a few days without showers. We know the importance of water, sunscreen, head cover and a rain proof jacket in New Mexico’s outdoors. We are about as far from being mechanically inclined as we are from our teenage years. When we get help from the universe via the internet, we will share any open source links. We will also let you know the real side of owning a small RV. So far, we are a bit worried about this, but hopefully our expertise will grow with time and our anxiety will lessen. So if you’re a mechanic or a long-time RV owner, skip our notes. You’ve already got this!

    If we do stop at restaurants or other things along the way, we are pretty well traveled and I think we are fairly discerning diners, so we’ll provide basic reviews when we can.

    I think those are some basics that should help you decide whether this blog is for you.

    Until next time,

    Heather

  • Embarking on Our RV Journey

    Embarking on Our RV Journey

    Heather and Bill ... and Polka ... after pulling our new-to-us SPREKKO into our back driveway after driving it home from the dealership.

    Heather and Bill … and Polka … after driving our new-to-us SPREKKO home and backing it into our back driveway.

    Date: Sept. 6, 2025

    Location: Home base

    Mileage: N/A

    Hello RVers,

    I wanted to say fellow  RVers, but technically we aren’t RVers quite yet. Until we take our new-to-us Winnebago Ekko 23b on its first trip, we’re still RV wannabes.

    We can say hello to fellow campers. I, Heather, grew up camping with my parents in a trailer. I have early memories of listening to the old folks talk and laugh around the campfire after my bedtime and birdsong early in the morning, just before I woke up Mom and Dad. As young adults, we camped in tents. As parents, we camped in our Coleman popup trailer, which was big enough to accommodate family and friends at times. Most recently, we have made due with the back of our Ford Explorer.

    And hello to our fellow nomads, hikers, adventurers, birders and nature lovers. We hope to see you out there.

    I wanted to start this blog as we start this new adventure in our lives. “We” are Heather and Bill from New Mexico. We’re about a decade out from retirement, but old enough to know that the back of the Ford Explorer is not going to give us a good night’s sleep much longer. Plus, we no longer want to wake up in the middle of the night breathing in the out breaths of our lab mix, Polka. Yuck! She somehow always manages to oozle from her spot by our feet up to our pillows in the middle of the night while we sleep.

    My hope is to write about our journeys, as a journal for us, our family and friends, and as a travelogue to remember where we’ve been and where we might want to visit again. And if others read this blog and discover beautiful or fun places with us or learn from our mishaps, all the better. 

    Until next time,

    Heather and Bill