Jump to content

  • Please note, Blogs are intended for stories about your RV travels.  Please post technical questions/comments in the forums located at:

    https://community.fmca.com/

Blogs

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
AmerEagle07

AmerEagle07

1
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

0
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

1
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
tbutler

tbutler

0
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
tbutler

tbutler

0
Roadtreking Blog
 

Roadtreking Sunsets and an Urge to Hit the Road

Roadtrekers love to take photos. And while our styles, skills and the things we like to photograph may vary, one thing I bet all of us like to get are images of a sunset. I’ve used these awkward days of spring before the warm weather travel season really gets under way to organize the thousands of photos I’ve taken over the past two years and 50,000 miles of roadtteking across North America. The photos could be better. But even my ineptitude is smoothed over by the awesome beauty of a sunset,
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Fleeing the Storm

Returning from Mossman Gorge the night before I had listened to the news reports on the approaching cyclone (hurricane) Ita. The storm was gathering strength and was approaching the area north of Cairns. I got on the computer and checked the official Australian weather reports which had the storm at category 3 and expected to reach category 4 before coming ashore somewhere between Cooktown and Cairns. We made the decision to leave on Thursday morning. We needed to arrange a refund of our pay
tbutler

tbutler

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Mossman Gorge

To the north of Cairns is one of the prime rain forest sites on the eastern coast of Australia. There are many other sites but those are further north and there are no roads that can be traveled in all weather conditions with less than four wheel drive vehicles. Mossman Gorge is in Daintree National Park just north of Port Douglas. The gorge itself lies within Aborigine land and the concession at the gorge is run by the Aborigine community. The eighty kilometer (about 48 miles) drive from C
tbutler

tbutler

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Cairns

Our first day in Cairns is dedicated to catching up with laundry and getting to know the town. While doing laundry we discussed our plans for our stay. The Great Barrier Reef is one of our prime objectives. One travel brochure we picked up in the park office has an item I was interested in learning more about. It was a an offering of the Down Under Dive company to certify for open water SCUBA in a four day course. The course involved two days of tests and preliminary training followed by tw
tbutler

tbutler

0
"Gramps" Blog
 

The Death of XP

Windows XP is now 12 years old. It has been one of the best, if not the best, operating systems to ever be installed on a hard drive. I personally think it is better than Windows 7. However, it is now officially at it's EOL stage. EOL stands for End Of Life. Let us not morn for it quite yet. As Mark Twain was once reported to have said: "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The above is a misquotation. Mr. Twain actually said: "The report of my death was an exaggeration." In
-Gramps-

-Gramps-

3
Roadtreking Blog
 

The Mysterious Death of Meriwether Lewis along the Natchez Trace

One of the great joys of traveling North America in an RV is the way it connects you to history and the people and places that have shaped us. So it was for us when we came to a historic site along the famed Natchez Trace where American explorer, soldier, and public administrator Meriwether Lewis – best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with William Clark – met his death on October 11, 1809 under highly suspicious circumstances. He was 35 years old at the time,
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Chasing Waterfalls

Monday, April 7, 2014. Looking over the information we picked up from the ladies in Ayr the day before, we decided to pursue a scenic drive into the Dividing Range to see some waterfalls. I love a good waterfall and the ones in the brochure looked inviting including one which we were told we could swim under the cascading water. We had about 70 kilometers to cover before leaving the Bruce Highway for the highlands. I put the town with the same name as the waterfall we wanted to visit, Millaa
tbutler

tbutler

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Day 3 on the Road to Cairns

Sunday, April 6, 2014. Our travels north continue. Leaving Mackay we drove on almost until noon. Our lunch stop was a park in a small town, Ayr. Louise fixed sandwiches while I went in search of a restroom. The restrooms were behind the information booth so I stopped in there to see the two ladies who were sitting outside in front of the building this sunny warm day. We talked, they inquired about our travels and then loaded me up with information both verbal and written. One of the ladie
tbutler

tbutler

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

We Journey North

Friday, April 4, 2014. We drove a short distance into Brisbane and made a quick stop at Britz to deal with several nagging problems with the campervan. That done, we left the city about noon headed north toward Cairns, a city on the northeast coast of Australia. At Cairns the famous Barrier Reef is closest to the coast and is thus most accessible. We hope to spend several days exploring this wonderful natural feature. The challenge is that the distance from Brisbane to Cairns is a daunting
tbutler

tbutler

0
Roadtreking Blog
 

Where Do You Park Your RV?

The snow is gone and the 5-foot-high banks that formed a wall along the driver’s side of our Roadtrek eTrek has melted away. As I look at it sitting there on it’s special little apron in the driveway, I can almost hear it calling: “Take me someplace fun. Now.” When I snapped this photo yesterday, it got me wondering how and where most of you keep your RVs when at home. Most of the bigger Type C and Type A’s, of course, need to have lots of room, and that usually entails a storage facility. Bu
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

A Walk in the Rainforest

Mt. Tambourine National Park is a collection of smaller national parks on the slopes of Mt. Tambourine, an extinct weathered volcano. There is a town at the summit which features a variety of shops for those who enjoy quaint towns and browsing curio and antique shops. We went to take a walk in the rainforest. This was not to be an ordinary walk. The walkway was elevated. We walked out of the building that housed a café, a small museum with information about the rainforest into the upper lev
tbutler

tbutler

0
Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

A First Encounter with the Australian Rainforest

Wednesday April 2, 2014. We’re near the end of the New England Highway and we want to make our way to the coast. Looking at all the opportunities, we decide to make a stop at Mt. Tambourine National Park which is south of Brisbane. The attraction there that drew our attention was a Rainforest Walkway. Without knowing much more than that, we left Rochedale headed north on the final leg of the New England Highway before turning off onto the Scenic Rim Highway. This heads east through a calder
tbutler

tbutler

0
×
×
  • Create New...