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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Litchfield National Park

South of Darwin is a well-known park, Litchfield National Park. Several people we have talked to mentioned Litchfield as a must-see park. It was just off our planned route of travel so we planned to spend the day exploring the park. We decided to drive to the far end of the park, there is only one road into the park, not a loop through the park. We would be driving into the park and then seeing the sights on the way out. That was the plan but when we got to the first stop, the magnetic term
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Review: XtremeBeam Illumination Tools

Question: What’s the difference between a flashlight and an illumination tool? Answer: About $70. Or more. And some pretty powerful lights. One piece of gear all RVers have is a flashlight. Usually several. I most often relay on a small headlamp that I picked up at REI. It lets me have hands-free use when I arrive at a campsite after dark and need some illumination to set up. But we also have a couple of regular flashlights in our motorhome. They are nothing like the “illumination tools” m
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Darwin National Park and Aviation Museum

Our last day in Darwin was spent visiting two interesting sites. Darwin National Park lies to the south of the city and is located on Beagle Bay. There is a nice view of the city from across the bay. The park itself is relatively undeveloped. During WWII the land was used for ammunition bunkers which are still there in the park. They no longer contain ammunition but are used for other storage today. One of the bunkers was open and contained exhibits from WWII when Darwin was under Japanese
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tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Darwin

The capital city of Northern Territories is Darwin. It is the smallest of the capital cities in Australia. We are at a park just south of the airport, Hidden Valley Tourist Park. It is a well maintained park but the rates are among the highest we’ve paid anywhere at $45 per night for the en suite accommodations. The regular accommodations without the private bathroom were $44 per night. All this and only minimal free internet, a two day pass for 100 MB and then you have to buy internet star
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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

For the Birds

Monday, April 28, we departed Jabiru at 6:00 a.m. on the way to the Nourlangle site in Kakadu National Park. This site has two things we want to see, Aborigine rock art or petroglyphs and a scenic viewpoint overlooking that part of the park. Our early departure is an attempt to cope with the extreme humidity and very warm temperatures that are common in this part of Australia. We are just 13 degrees from the equator so every day is a warm day and there is plenty of moisture. We got to the M
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Must Visit in Colorado: Garden of the Gods

Colorado has so many great spots to visit but one you just do not want to miss is the Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs. We’ve been there twice, once in the winter and once in the summer. Both trips were excellent and made us determined to come back again and again. The red-colored sandstone formations tower as high as 300 feet and walking trails lead right up to them. The Garden of the Gods Park is a registered National Natural Landmark that has been exciting tourists since the mi
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

South Alligator River and Jim Jim Billabong

There is a little bit of everything in Kakadu National Park but the heart of the park is the South Alligator River. The entire drainage basin of the South Alligator River is within Kakadu National Park. About the name, it was incorrectly named when the person who named it mistook the crocodiles for alligators. Once named I guess there is no way to correct the mistake. So there are no alligators in the Alligator River, only crocodiles. This goes along with a standing joke Louise and I have.
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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

The Lazy Lizzard

Saturday, April 26 is another moving day. We left Katherine on the way to Kakadu National Park near Jabiru, NT. Kakadu National Park is a world heritage site. It encompasses a large area of land with several large rivers and lakes. It is known for its fishing, birding and crocodiles. There are no swimming areas in the park other than swimming pools. Crocodiles are found in the waters throughout the park. One person laughingly described this as Crocodile Dundee territory! We’re going for
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tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Nitmiluk National Park

Nitmiluk National Park is a small park just a few kilometers east of Katherine in the Northern Territories. The primary feature of Nitmiluk is the Katherine River which has cut a gorge into the rocks. The gorge is rather unique in that it developed as the rocks were lifted. With its path established prior to the rocks being lifted, it encountered resistant rocks and created a new path along the stress cracks in the rising rocks. These stress cracks are in a pattern with near 90 degrees angle
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tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

The Long Haul to Katherine

North of Tennant Creek is Three Ways, a small community near the junction of the Barkly Highway which we drove from Mount Isa to Tennant Creek several weeks before and the Stuart Highway which we are now taking on north toward Darwin. When we passed Three Ways we were in new territory again. As we drove along you could tell that there had been quite a lot of rain lately. We were seeing water standing in creek beds that would normally be dry. Further north the vegetation became thicker with l
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tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Leaving Alice Springs

I hadn’t looked at a map for a while so I pulled out a map to see where our coming journey would take us. I had a general idea but the specifics were foggy. The first thing I looked for and found was the Tropic of Capricorn. How close were we to the tropics? Well, it turns out we were really close. Alice Springs is only slightly south of the Tropic of Capricorn. We would cross back into the tropics in about 60 kilometers when we left town in the morning. In fact, the marker for the Tropic
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tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Alice Springs, The Return

Our last trip to Alice Springs we were southbound toward Uluru. This time we were returning from Uluru and Kings Canyon. Our normal travel pattern is to avoid backtracking over the same route. If at all possible we will take a different road on a return trip. In this case there is one road from Alice Springs to Uluru. There was an alternate route from Kings Canyon that would cut off some distance and give us different scenery. That road was a dirt road. We gave it a try but found it badly
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tbutler

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Travels with the FMCA Prez
 

Since February 214

I am not computer literate enough to keep up with this blog. For two months I have been trying to get back on this page with no luck and I couldn't seem to remember to call FMCA for help when they were in the office. Today I did and after some help I am now trying to remember where we have been and what we have been doing since the last post. In February before coming home Charlie talked about FMCA at River Bend RV Resort, at a Roadtrek Rally and a Country Coach Rally at Kissimmee, FL, and
ceadcock45@gmail.com

ceadcock45@gmail.com

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Climbing Pikes Peak in an RV

I’m often asked about the favorite things we’ve done in our Roadtrek eTrek. At the top of my list is mountain climbing. We used it to drive to the top of Pikes Peak, some 14,114 feet high. It’s a long haul up and when we entered the road that would take us to the top off Highway 24 west of Colorado Springs, we had to have the ranger help us drive around a barrier meant to keep larger vehicles from attempting the climb. At first, they tried to wave us off. Then they saw that our Roadtrek RV was
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Kings Canyon

Northeast of Uluru is an area known as Kings Canyon. The as the crow flies distance is about 120 kilometers but the road distance is more like 300 kilometers. It is a beautiful area of sandstone bluffs and canyons. There are several hikes of interest to us in this location so we spent Easter Sunday driving to this location. We arrived at the Kings Canyon Resort to find that all the powered sites were taken and the rate for unpowered sites were just a few dollars less than those with power.
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Mike’s Top 5 Places to Visit in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

If you are a regular reader, you know Jennifer and I love to RV across Michigan’s pristine Upper Peninsula – the UP – where big towns simply aren’t, and the scenery is jaw-dropping gorgeous with lots of forests, lakes and streams and, of course, the Big Lake, Superior, which some say is the coldest, deepest fresh water lake in the world. Superior borders the UP to the north. The south coast of the UP is bordered by Lakes Michigan and Huron. We visit the every time we can, in all seasons. If yo
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Roadtrek User Manuals Just a Click Away

We’ve shared this on our Facebook group but thanks to a reader’s suggestion, I thought I’d better post it here on the Roadtreking blog as well: Roadtrek has made it easy for owners of its various models to keep up with the best operating practices and learn exactly how their motorhomes work by putting new revised editions of its owners manual online. They can be accessed directly from the company website at http://www.roadtrek.com/manuals.aspx. The manuals, in convenient .pdf form for easy pri
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Camels at Sunset - Uluru

Our last evening at Uluru was spent on a camel ride with a sunset view of Uluru. We spent the earlier part of the day hiking in the domes of Kata Tjuta. Following that we returned to our camp to get showers and dressed for the evening. We were picked up at a bus stop just outside the entrance to the campground. It was a small, 30 person bus and we got the last two seats. After a short ride from the campground and we arrived at the camel stables. We were escorted into the office and given a
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

RV Must-Do Trip: The Badlands of South Dakota

It’s easy to see why American Indians and the early settlers called the area of southwestern South Dakota the Badlands. They are dry, unbearably hot in the summer, rugged, isolated and - in the days before modern transportation – extremely difficult to navigate. But while it may be an inhospitable place to live, these days the Badlands make for a very good visit by RV. Jennifer and I try to spend time here each year. You could say we’ve gotten hooked on the Badlands. The Badlands National P
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

The big red rock in the center of Australia is the source of much interest and is of great significance to the native Aborigine culture. When I speak of the Aborigine culture, it is not as a single culture for the entire nation. The Aborigine tribes were just that, local tribes. There were four tribes that inhabited the area around Uluru, AKA Ayers Rock. Of those one tribe was the primary tribe that interacted with Uluru, the Anangu. They operate the National Park at Uluru in conjunction wi
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Alice Springs

Stick a pin in the center of Australia and you would come close to hitting Alice Springs. This is our next objective. We left Tennant in good time in the morning headed south on the Stuart Highway. We have the day to cover about 530 kilometers, somewhat less than our goal for the last two days. Fuel stops are more common now as this highway is more heavily traveled. This allows us to continue traveling for a longer period of time without stopping. Not far south of Tennant we encountered a
tbutler

tbutler

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Burning Diesel

In my notes, I titled this day as above. Unlike the curving road we found coming into Mount Isa, the road was straight for long stretches with little change in elevation and only one town with fuel. We started out on the Flinders Highway and then at Camooweal the name changed to the Barkly Highway. The other fuel stop we made was at the Barkly Homestead. This is a large homestead which has everything that someone on the road would need. There is a caravan park, hotel, restaurant, activities
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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

On to Mount Isa

After experiencing a rash of road repair work on our drive the day before we were pleasantly surprised to encounter no road work on our second day of driving. In fact, with just a few exceptions, this was some of the best road we have traveled. This highway is known as the Flinders Highway and is the only all-weather east-west road through northern Queensland. There were only a few towns in the 652 kilometer drive. One of them is featured in the picture with this posting. The windmill was w
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