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Blogs

Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Ferry to Tasmania and a New Home

Our wake-up call on Monday, March 3 was set for 6:00 a.m. so we could get a cab to the Spirit of Tasmania terminal by 6:30 a.m. Boarding would start shortly thereafter. Everything went on schedule and we were the first to board. The ride to Tasmania is scheduled for 9 hours and we arrived at 5:00 p.m. Avis Rental Cars has a facility in the terminal in Tasmania and we were second in line to get our car. The process went much faster than at an airport in the US. We were on our way by 5:30 p.
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

When You Become Ill in an RV

It ain’t pretty. But it isn’t as bad as I though it would be, either. I knew something was wrong as soon as I got up that morning. I was queezy feeling and very chilled. Yet the sun was shining and it was already in the 70′s outside. We had arrived in Naples, FL the afternoon before. We ate dinner at a local restaurant and, 12 hours later, I could feel that dinner still sitting in my belly like a brick. I’m not sure whether it was food poisoning or the stomach flu or if there is really a diff
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Melbourne - Life in the Big City

We spent three nights in a hotel in downtown Melbourne which gave us two full days to explore the downtown. We walked to the Carlton Gardens Park the first day, a good six blocks from our hotel. The grounds were lush and green with huge trees of all kinds growing along the walkways. The park is closed to bicycles so it is walkers only. They do allow families with young children to bring their bikes to the park. We saw groups of people playing various games, exercising, doing yoga, and just
tbutler

tbutler

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"Gramps" Blog
 

The Rule of Thirds (Using Your Eyes!)

I suspect that some of you that have read my first three lessons are thinking that getting deeper into digital photography and purchasing a DSLR is just TOO much. It is too complicated and too expensive. Why bother when my cell phone or inexpensive point and shoot camera works just fine? Well, it all depends on what you want from the experience of shooting pictures. If I can use an analogy, you can take a vacation, stay in a hotel in a great location that you drove or flew to, or you can travel
-Gramps-

-Gramps-

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"Gramps" Blog
 

Every Lens Tells a Story

Lenses: To quote Sony.com “Every Lens tells a story!” That is not true. Not completely anyway. A lens does no good unless it is attached to a camera, and the camera is only as good as the eye looking through it. Then again it is true if you remember that an eye is also a lens; a lens attached to a photographer. It is up to the photographer to tell the story. It can be a story about love, or friendship, history, the beauty of nature. It can be sensual. A lens is a tool to make that s
-Gramps-

-Gramps-

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Good Bye New Zealand – Hello Australia

Thursday, February 27 would be our last full day in New Zealand. On the top of our list was turning in the campervan. We packed up all our belongings in our suitcases and I dropped Louise at the Sudima Hotel which is right at the Christchurch airport. The Britz office was just around the corner, walking distance from the hotel. The process of turning in the campervan was much easier than I had anticipated. Being there early helped. The agent dig through several dozen contract packages befo
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Keeping the Windows Open and the Bugs Out

We’ve sure enjoyed the warm weather down along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and throughout Florida the past few weeks except for one thing: Bugs The mosquitoes are hatched down south. As are the No-See-Ums, Biting Midges and Sand Flies. They are particularly bad at night. With the warm weather, that means it can get pretty hot inside a camper van or Class B motorhome. We could have run the air conditioner. But that’s pretty loud. And it tends to make it too cold late at night. So we rolled d
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Milwaukee's Blog
 

How to find a best SEO specialist in Milwaukee

Website promotion is time-consuming and costly, but extremely important in the process of development and promotion of the business. Owners of web resources the help of professional SEO specialist in Milwaukee WI http://mkewebdev.com to make the website appear in the TOP search engines, and it was visited by interested users. Even those who promote your own site, sooner or later turn to the services of specialists. Is it better than to waste their time and money on getting the result, far from i
Milwaukee

Milwaukee

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Roadtreking Blog
 

The Manatees of Florida’s Blue Springs

There are few animals as universally popular and liked as much as the Florida Manatee. Yet there are few animals in more danger. The Florida Manatee, a large and slow moving aquatic animal, is protected by the federal Engangered Species Act of 1973, primarily because they are too big and slow to get out of the way of speedboats. As Florida’s boating population has exploded, the manatee has declined to an estimated statewide population today of under 5,000. They used to be everywhere. And despi
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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Beastmaster's Blog
 

Rebuilding my 73 26ft.

I'm installing the panels in the ceiling that I made in my shop. Hand made from Curly Redwood with 3 coats of Spar varnish. This remodel has been quite the experience. I'm looking at 2 more months until its 99% done. Then a shake down run and final stuff.
Beastmaster

Beastmaster

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Christchurch – The Rebuild Tour

Our second day of touring Chirstchurch we chose to take a tour sponsored by the Canterbury Museum. Titled the Rebuild Tour, this bus trip through downtown Christchurch showed us much of the destruction of two earthquakes, September 4, 2010 Magnitude 7.1 and six months later on February 22, 2011 at Magnitude 6.3, which literally wrecked the city of Christchurch. The theme of the trip was the effort to rebuild the city with building codes that would help the city withstand further earthquakes.
tbutler

tbutler

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russian-stamps' Blog
 

Rare Russian Stamps

Do you want to start collect Russian stamps? You have to know some facts about rare Russian stamps. Because of an error in clichés released in 1908 comicopera brand of the Russian Empire became a philatelic rarity. The name she was given three circles-"pearls" between frame with an indication of the value and ornaments framing the Central oval emblem. On a standard four brand "pearls". There are other differences, even less noticeable: the font of the words "Postage stamp" rarity above 0.2 mm, t
russian-stamps

russian-stamps

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

Christchurch – Gateway to Antarctica

Leaving Fairley on Monday morning we drove through farmlands with the first real crops we had seen in New Zealand. We had seen many hay fields but these were wheat and corn fields, cultivated crops. We stopped to enjoy the view from a high vantage point overlooking this agricultural land. Traveling along, we had a running debate on where to go next. The first 40 kilometers would get us back to the main roads and from there we had choices. We could take NZ 1 directly to Christchurch or we c
tbutler

tbutler

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Montreal's Blog
 

Comment vendre une voiture a Montreal

Les raisons de cette décision peuvent être complètement différents, depuis l'urgence des besoins en liquidités et en terminant par la vente d'une voiture en vue de l'achat modèle plus moderne, répondant aux nouveaux besoins de l'automobiliste. À l'heure actuelle, il existe de nombreuses façons d'attirer l'attention des acheteurs potentiels à подержанному la voiture. Les méthodes traditionnelles ont été et restent des annonces dans les journaux, la randonnée sur le marché de l'automobile, ainsi q
Montreal

Montreal

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Okeechobee – A Texas Cow Town in the Middle of Florida

I didn’t know what to expect when I pulled into Okeechobee, Fla., but I can defiately say that I didn’t expect it to remind me of West Texas, right down to the city calling itself ”Cow Town.” But this is a western style town in the middle of the sunshine state, it’s dry and windy and surrounded by wide open spaces and lots and lots of cows. Rodeos are a big deal here and the name of the best local restaurant tells you what the local culture revolves around. It’s simply called “The Cowboy.” In
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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"Gramps" Blog
 

Depth of Field

I really enjoy photography. It is the art of capturing a moment in time. Like any art form it is subjective and therefore what constitutes a good picture is really a matter of opinion. I learned that really fast from the people judging the very first contest I entered. What I thought were my best pictures received no mention and one that I entered as a lark in the still life category, almost took best in show. The most important thing is to know how to use your camera in order to take the pictu
-Gramps-

-Gramps-

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

The Mount John Observatory

Fairley is a small town which was the subject of an earlier post on the people and culture of New Zealand. We booked a tour of the Mt. John Observatory when we arrived at the TOP 10 Holiday Park on Sunday, February 23. The weather was mostly cloudy and it was sprinkling rain but I figured we needed to take the chance if we were going to have a chance to visit the observatory. They do day tours but I was most interested in the night tours. Two night tours were offered, one starting at 8:30 ab
tbutler

tbutler

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Roadtreking Blog
 

Naples and Southwest Florida: Where it’s Always Warmer

Naples, Florida is the crown jewel of Southwest Florida, a west gulf coast town known for upscale dining and shopping, designer golf courses, awesome boating and fishing and the best weather in a state that is built around tourism and sunny skies. It’s always 10 to 20 degrees warmer here than most other places in the Sunshine State. Our destination for this trip was the Naples Motorcoach Resort on U.S. 41 just east of Collier Boulevard. Highway 41, also known as the Tamiami Trail, leads to the
Roadtrekingmike

Roadtrekingmike

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SloMotion Adventures
 

Stressful two days!

Stressful two days. Was driving toward between Marfa and Lobo Tx on US 90 running right along with a good tail wind and suddenly I hear a pop followed by a continous rattle, blowing a blueish colored smoke out the exhaust, and loosing power. Got into a picnic area and that was all she had left. After a hour and a half tow we arrived at Rocky Mountain Cummins in El Paso where we spent the night hooked up in their RV lot. After checking numerous things like the turbo, and fuel delivery syste
C-677946

C-677946

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"Gramps" Blog
 

A Bit about Digital Photography

Today I am thinking about one of the things in my life that I am passionate about, something that goes well with owning a coach. That something is Photography. When I was a young boy I took pictures with a Kodak Brownie box camera. While attending broadcasting technical school in Washington D.C. in 1972, I tried my hand at shooting transparencies (slides) with my dad’s old Agfa 35mm rangefinder with a bellow lens. I had some success with it, during daylight hours anyway. When the first Pan
-Gramps-

-Gramps-

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Tom and Louise on Tour in North America
 

The Otega Peninsula and Taiaroa Head Reserve

By now we have learned that penguins are best seen very early in the morning as they are going from their nests to the sea or at sunset when they are returning. Leaving Dunedin we decide to give penguins another try. This time we plan to start early enough to get a good chance to see penguins on our way out of Dunedin. The Otega Peninsula extends from Dunedin to the northeast. At the far end of the peninsula is Taiaroa Head Reserve, prime territory for seeing wildlife. There are two routes
tbutler

tbutler

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SloMotion Adventures
 

Near Lobo, Texas

We saw this huge thing that looked like a big white spaceship way off in the distance. When we got closer you could see what appeared to be stairs going up to the nose of it. Sure looked like we had been invaded by little green people. Ended up being a Border Patrol tethered surveillance radar blimp. It is tethered via a 25,000-foot cable. Sure puts a different meaning into the word surveillance. Wonder how they keep planes from flying into the cable?
C-677946

C-677946

0
SloMotion Adventures
 

Marfa Tx and Lobo Tx

Spent the night at the Marfa Lights Viewing area. Parked right behind the "Gone with the Wynns.com" coach. Wanted to stay another night but it was just to cold for boondocking a second night. So we left the nex morning. Made it almost to Lobo, and heard a quiet boom followed by rattling, and lost power. Pulled into a picnic area and waited for a tow from Coach Net. Currently seating at Rocky Mountain Cummins in El Paso. Lets hope the damage isn't to bad for the pocket book.
C-677946

C-677946

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