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Blogs

The (mis)ADVENTURES of PopNDelly
 

Camping with Canadians

While hiding out in Pigeon Forge, TN recently, we made new friends - from Ontario. I say hiding out because we were in the middle of a sabbatical and still trying to find peace and quiet in our lives. And quite suddenly the peace and quiet were gone. Vvvrrrrooommm! A brand new motorhome came flying by (well I don't think they were holding to the 5 mph speed limit). SCREECHHH. CRUNCCHHHH. They were backing into the site next to us! The motorhome jerked to a stop. The door flew open. Three big
popndelly

popndelly

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Heading to Canada? Spend Time in Port Huron, Mich.

RVers heading to Canada via Port Huron, MI and the Blue Water Bridge may want to budget a few hours so pull off the freeway and take in the sights of this very busy port city. On a nice sunny day, the drive and park along the busy St. Clair River offers parking nose first, right smack dab on the riverbank. A Type B RV fits perfectly and the view of the fast-moving river is mesmerizing. The river is one of the busiest water routes in the Great Lakes, connecting Lake Huron just north of the Blue
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Travels with the FMCA Prez
 

Our Experiences

I hope everyone is enjoying the Spring weather. We have had lots of different kinds of weather; from the cold to hot, from nice sunshiny days to days with tornadoes. The tornado that went through Mayflower and Vilonia, AR was about 30 miles from us but we also had the same system touch down 10 miles west and 10 north of Searcy. A real scary afternoon and evening. We were glad we had a storm cellar to get into. Many years ago my Dad had built a genuine fall-out shelter behind his house. It
AmerEagle07

AmerEagle07

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Touring Sydney

Our second day in Sydney we took a bus tour through the city. The bus was a double decker with an open upper deck so that is where we sat. I took photos as we drove along. We had earphones with commentary on the areas of the city as we rode along. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. At stops I had a chance to stand up and get better pictures. My philosophy on taking pictures when moving is that you shoot lots of pictures knowing some will be blurred or will not be well framed. If I t
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Sydney is Vivid!

With this entry, we are clearly outside the realm of motor home experience but the remainder of our trip started with almost three months in the motor home so I'll finish off the last three weeks just to give the story an ending. We've flown to Sydney after turning in the campervan at Britz in Perth. When we checked into our hotel they gave us some information about a festival starting in Sydney on Friday night, the night we arrived. It is a two-week festival of lights, sound and ideas. The
tbutler

tbutler

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GrampaDennis' Blog
 

Carry some water in your onboard tank!

On Memorial Weekend, we camped at Beaver Brook CG, in North Monmouth, Maine. This place is beyond the end of the pavement, and our Garmin GPS had the directions wrong. Fortunately, I knew the area somewhat, had been there years before, and had studied my DeLorme Atlas before going. Yup, I'm an Engineer and a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. Actually, the unpaved portion of Wilson Pond Road wasn't too bad. I've seen paved roads much rougher. Our site was on the far side of the campground, at the
GrampaDennis

GrampaDennis

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Roadtreking Sunsets around North America

The just-concluded Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., a week after Canada’ Victoria Day, means that summer has begun – even though the official start is still a couple of weeks later. And Roadtrekers were out and about over the last weekend so we did another one of our “One Day in the Life of a Roadtrek” photo shoots. The rules were simple: Take a picture of your Roadtrek wherever you happened to be at sunset local time. Then email it to me. We got a great assortment this year from all over Nor
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Preparing to Fly

We’ve been touring Australia for almost three months now. Along the way we’ve collected some souvenirs for ourselves and for our friends and family. When we started this trip our bags were packed to the limit. We investigated shipping the souvenirs and some of the clothing we would not need on the cruise back to the US. Every query ended up with prices that were extreme for even a small package. Then in a discussion with a park ranger at Monkey Mia we found out about something different. S
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Checking Off the RV Travel Bucket List

I’m about to check off a couple more items from our RV travel bucket list, trips that will take us coast to coast on a summer travel schedule that will have us going from Cape Cod to the Oregon coast, with numerous stops and detours along the way. The Cape Cod trip is from June 8-11th as we attend a sold-out Roadtrek International chapter rally of the Family Motorcoach Association that will be held in Brewster, MA. Jennifer and I will meet and visit with over 100 other Roadtrek owners, sharing
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Perth

We left Ledge Point after a drive through town to get a look at the community. The housing was upscale beach housing with beautiful homes with a second story that looked over the dunes to the sea. The dunes all along this coast are very well preserved. Walkways are provided at specific places and people seem to stay off the dunes other than through the walkways. This is nice to see and seldom seen in the US. Dune erosion can be quite serious. Once the plants have been disturbed, the dune i
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Video project: The Making of a Roadtrek

I’m at the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada for the next two weeks shooting and producing a film to be called The Making of a Roadtrek. This is a project I’ve wanted to do for two years and, with the company’s blessings, I am now be documenting the creation of a Roadtrek. We began filming Tuesday morning as a brand-new but stripped-down Mercedes Sprinter was driven into the factory for what will be about a 10-day build. The model I am following through the assembly process will b
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Indian Ocean Drive

Departing the Geraldton area we noticed a dramatic change from our travels over the last month. We have returned from the Great Australian Outback. Suddenly we were seeing fields of crops and farms. There were still many areas with native plants growing but the sudden change from no farmland to abundant farmland was quite surprising. Along with this, we no longer saw signs for domestic animals, cows and sheep, roaming on the road. This was the end to open range country. Traffic was light o
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Our Most-asked Roadtreking Question

I love getting reader mail and I do my best to answer them. But lately, as a new RV season gets underway and lots of people are thinking about purchasing a motorhome and more new people are discovering this blog, the questions are somewhat the same. So I thought I’d share here the answer to the one question we get asked the most. Q: What would you and your wife do differently in buying an RV now that you've been doing this for a while? A: The short answer is … nothing. We now have about 60,000
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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GrampaDennis' Blog
 

It's Finally Spring!

It's finally Spring in Central Maine! The leaves are opening up and camping season has begun. When I retrieved the MH from storage in late April, the engine battery had run down, even though I had used the disconnect switch. I used the battery interconnect on the dash to boost from the house batteries. It started right up. That's a handy feature! I got all of the systems going without much trouble. I did have to play with the burner adjustment on the water heater though. On our last outi
GrampaDennis

GrampaDennis

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Kalbarri National Park

We left the Billabong Homestead early Saturday morning and drove on south toward Kilberri National Park. This would be a side trip off the North West Coastal Highway that we’ve been traveling. The road through the park takes us to Kalbarri, a small town on the coast. The National Park surrounds the park. The central feature of Kalbarri National Park is the Murchison River. Like many of the rivers in Western Australia (WA) the Murchison River is barely flowing or dry for much of the year. I
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Denham and Shell Beach

At 11:30 a.m. we left Monkey Mia on our way back south. Just 25 miles down the road is a beautiful little town, Denham. We stopped there to walk the main street along Denham Strait. Palm trees, green grass and brilliant green and blue ocean water provided a beautiful setting for this town. Louise was making one last attempt to find just the right pearl jewelry and found a necklace and earrings at a small shop on the waterfront. We enjoyed the walk, a cool breeze and bright sunshine made for
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

There are No Monkeys in Monkey Mia

Carnarvon is only about 100 kilometers from Monkey Mia as the Crow flies. We aren’t Crows and we can’t fly in our campervan so we have to drive south for 200 kilometers and then northwest for another 155 kilometers. We made a late start down the road after shopping for groceries and filling with diesel. We took advantage of the discount offered by the grocery store which is pretty standard in Australia. Woolworths, Cole’s and some IGA stores offer a 4 cent per liter discount on fuel at their
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Carnarvon Is a Surprise!

We left Exmouth headed for another sea adventure in Monkey Mia. South of Exmouth we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. In doing this we left the tropics for the last time in Australia. The distance from Exmouth to the Monkey Mia was too far to cover easily in one day so we decided to make it a two day trip. We needed to stop for groceries and figured that Carnarvon would be a good stop for that and give us an easy 2 day trip to Monkey Mia. As we pulled into Carnarvon, there was a huge dish an
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

The 10 Reasons why a Type B RV May Be Right for You

The RV life offers a lot of choices. From travel trailers, to fifth wheels to motorhomes, there is a vehicle to suit every style. And when it comes to motorhomes, there are essentially three choices – a big Type A (as long as 40+ feet, usually with multiple slides), a Type C (less than 30 but tall and wide, sometimes with slides) and a Type B, often called a camper van and anywhere from 20-25-feet or so in length. You may know them as Class A, C and B. The industry thought the term “Class” soun
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Swimming With Whalesharks

Monday, May 12, we went out to swim with the whalesharks. We chose Ningaloo Whaleshark Swim as the company based on the information we could gather. We were picked up at our park at 7:15 and driven to the dock which is on the other side of the peninsula. There were 19 adults in the group plus three young children. We were transferred to the boat which was anchored offshore and then taken to a reef area. The snorkeling was partly a training exercise for the whaleshark swim which has to be ex
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

We’ve Landed on Mars

I’ve seen pictures of the planet Mars, and this part of Australia sure looks like Mars. The landscape here is relentlessly red. The red is a deeper red than the red center. The desert is red, hills are red, sand dunes are red. Even the rivers look deep red, much deeper red than the Red River on the Texas-Oklahoma border. Our whole journey from Nanutarra Roadhouse to Exmouth had only minor elevation changes and only a few curves to move us around rather than over hills. Temperatures are mod
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

How We Roll in Our RV: Taking Care of Your Home While on the Road Traveling

In this episode of our How We Roll in our RV series, we answer reader questions about taking care of our home while we’re off RVing and how we like the Roadtrek eTrek. The first question came from Roger Bohnke who asks: Q: Maybe a question for your How We Roll series… Mike and Jen, I’ve been wondering how you take care of your house while you two are on all these wonderful long trips? Do you live in a townhouse or condo you can just lock up and walk away from? We want to travel a lot when we r
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Roadtreking Blog
 

National Parks: A Photographer’s Dream

I’ve spent much of the past two months using my spare time to study photography, though online courses, books and some classroom work. I also, gulp, bought a professional grade camera and have been learning its ins and out, too. All this in preparation for our RV visits to various National Parks across the country. This year, I’m going to concentrate even more out there on photography, spurred on by the annual photo contest sponsored by the National Park Foundation. The photo accompanying this
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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