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Roadtrekingmike

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Blog Entries posted by Roadtrekingmike

  1. Roadtrekingmike
    The highs and the lows of the RV market
    While at the  recent Pomona, CA show, I decided to explore the limits of the RV market.  Specifically, to find the most expensive and the cheapest trailer and coach. Elite...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  2. Roadtrekingmike
    Have you seen the new TS Adventurous?
    It was last December at the big RVIA industry show in Louisville, KY that Jim Hammill and his Roadtrek team showed off a prototype vehicle called the TS Adventurous, a...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  3. Roadtrekingmike
    Who says there aren’t deals out there?
    I don’t usually write about the good deals I come across out there but a new listing on the American RV site caught my eye. It’s for a brand new 2012 Roadtrek 190 Popular.
    New, it has a MSRP of $95,725.
    Used, it has a NADA price of $87,680.
    American RV in Grand Rapids, MI is selling this brand new model at $76,990.
    That’s more than a pretty good deal: A brand new 190 that is more that $10,000 below the NADA used price!
    The bargain pricing confirms something that is trending at many other RV dealerships right now.
    This time of year – as the camping season winds down but still before the snow and ice flies – is one of the best times to buy in northern climates. Dealers don’t like having to go through the winterizing process and keeping a lot of inventory out there on snow-covered lots.
    So if you’re looking, now may be the time to get the best pricing…as the above deal reflects.
    Again, I don’t normally write about deals offered by various dealerships, even f they are sponsors of this blog, like American RV. But this one is so far out of the ordinary that it warrants a news brief.
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road
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  4. Roadtrekingmike
    Latest in Class B RVs on display at Pomona
    All the major Class B manufacturers are here at Pomona: Roadtrek, Pleasureway, Leisure Travel, Airstream, Sportsmobile, Winnebago.  I walked through and sampled the models on display.  Every manufacturer offers something...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  5. Roadtrekingmike
    If Fuel gets too costly there’s always the Camper Bike
    Gas and diesel prices are a drag allright and RV trips cost more and more. But if you don’t mind downsizing, there’s always the Camper Bike.
    Designed and built by artist Kevin Cyr , the camper bike was made from scrap metal, painted and inspired from a series of his paintings and drawings.
    Cyr got the idea for the Camper Bike while on a trip to Beijing. He calls it “an amalgamation of a Chinese 3-wheeled flatbed bike with an American cabover style camper.”
    While he did build a functioning model, it doesn’t seem to be in production.
    But, hey, the way fuel prices keep increasing, who knows?
    He also has designed a Camper Cart, a camper built into a shopping cart.
    Based in Boston, Cyr’s painting and interest features RVs, delivery vans, ice cream trucks, beat up old trucks and motorcycles.
    You can see his work at http://www.kevincyr.net
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road
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  6. Roadtrekingmike

    Devils Tower

    By Roadtrekingmike,

    Devils Tower
    My wife, Kris, came up with the idea of visiting Devil’s Tower in Wyoming while we were enjoying Custer State Park in South Dakota. The best thing about unstructured traveling...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome

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  7. Roadtrekingmike
    “Not all those who wander are lost."
    -- J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings.
    We love that quote because we love to meander, to take roads less traveled, off the Interstate. And as we are starting our Great Lakes Shoreline Tour that will take us 3,500 miles across eight states along the shorelines of all five Great Lakes, we are reminded again about the absolute joy of slow exploration.
    We’ve tried to explain it to non-RV people. Their eyes sort of glaze over. But you understand, don’t you?
    When we first began our motorhome adventure two years ago, I was so focused on arriving at our destination that I missed the adventure and thrill of getting there. I drove mega-mileage, 400, 500, even 600 miles a day. I’d arrive exhausted, cranky and wanting nothing but sleep. I guess that’s part of the newbie’s RVing education, learning to slow down.
    Now, it’s hard to get us out of an area.
    Even as I write this, in the tiny town of Geneva, Ohio, the heart of Ohio’s wine country, we have found so many things to see.
    Ohio? Wine?
    You better believe it. Parts of this area look like the Napa Valley in California. Really.
    It’s raining again. It has rained for the last four days. But no problem. There are wineries to tour, small town attractions. Winding roads. The local drug store has a long, old-fashioned soda fountain bar. I’m going to go see if I can get a cherry phosphate.
    We’ve traveled the U.S. shoreline of Lake Ontario and are now following Lake Erie. We’ll end this leg of the tour at the mouth of the Detroit River, the lake’s source, make our way home for the Father’s Day weekend and then pick it up again Tuesday with Lake Huron, starting in Port Huron, MI.
    Our first official report from the tour will be next week, sharing photos and videos here, as well as on the Verizon Wirelsss blog and the Pure Michigan blog. We’ll also tweet and post in Facebook and social media with #VZGreatLakes and #vzwmidwest.
    Let me know what you think we should see. We’ll probably avoid most of the big tourist attractions that everyone knows about. We want to highlight the surprises and little gems that delight and surprise.
    Let us know.

    Here’s one of those gems we discovered this week. This cow is out front of the Jell-O museum in Le Roy, N.Y. And, yes, there really is such a place. More later.
  8. Roadtrekingmike
    How to Help Build Your Own RV
    I was given a unique opportunity over the past few months. I had been hanging out at the Roadtrek factory last fall and this spring, and Jim Hammill the president...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  10. Roadtrekingmike
    Mirrors: The Illusion of More Space
    One evening a giant Prevost  motorhome pulled into the campsite next to us. We were in an tiny old campground in a small town for a week while attending an...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  11. Roadtrekingmike
    Top 10 RV Lessons learned after 75,000 miles
    We just turned 60,000 miles on our Roadtrek Etrek as we pulled into our Michigan driveway after our latest trip, which essentially was four months on the road through 21...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  12. Roadtrekingmike
    Our most-asked Roadtreking Question
    I love getting reader mail and I do my best to answer them. But lately, as the fall RV RV shows start getting underway and lots of people are thinking...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  13. Roadtrekingmike
    This year, I’m planning on winter camping
    We’re in early November now and while the ground is still bare, nighttime temps are regularly dropping to the upper 20′s in my part of Michigan. The leaves are all off the trees and snow can happen any day now.
    Out on the interstates, I see a steady stream of motorhomes, travel trailers and fifth wheels making their way south, to warmer climes.
    I hope to join them in Florida and the gulf states in January. For a few weeks.
    But I also hope to do some winter camping this year.
    It’s almost a sin in some RV circles to say this but… well… I like winter.
    I love snow. The more the better.
    And I want to head out there.
    My RV is winterized, but as Hank the tech who walked me through the winterizing process in this video explained, I can still use the RV. I can flush the toilet using antifreeze as a chaser. I can use the stove to cook. I’ll eat on paper plates so I don’t have to wash dirty dishes. I’ll bring along bottled water.
    There are a bunch of winter festivals, dogsled races, ice fishing contests, snowshoe hikes and the like to take in. A reader invited me to International Falls, MN, where, he says, he volunteers for a dogsled race that is a qualifier for the big Iditarod race up in Alaska. He says the temperature in some years has dipped to 30 below and he was toasty comfortable in his Roadtrek.
    Wonder where you keep your parkas and snow-soaked bots and gloves when you come in? Seems like there’d be quite a puddle.
    And I suppose camping facilities are a bit limited during winter.
    Any winter campers out there? How do you manage? I’d appreciate any and all tips. But winter camping is definitely going to be on my list of 2013 New Year resolutions.
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road
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  14. Roadtrekingmike
    Spritzzing up your RV with Lavender
    Lavender. Just the word brings olfactory recall, doesn’t it?  Such a pleasant smell, such a pleasant flower. While we were RVing in the Pacific Northwest, I saw a notice in a local...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  16. Roadtrekingmike
    Essential Cooking Supplies for your RV
    We do not eat out a lot when traveling, and when the weather does not cooperate for cooking on the grill, or we are in need of restocking the refrigerator/freezer,...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  17. Roadtrekingmike
    I now have my own drone
    One of the benefits of being a tech reporter is getting cool new tech toys to test out.
    To that end, check out the video above. It’s the first test video I shot with something called the AR.Drone 2, a personal quadricopter drone that sells for ls than $300 and is controlled by your iPad or iPhone or Droid device.
    Coolest thing I’ve played with in a long time.
    It can go over 100 feet up and a couple hundred feet in a circle – Wi-Fi range from where you are standing. That’s what controls it. It creates its own on-board wi-fi hotspot, which connects via free software for your phone or tablet. In my case, I used an iPad. You actually see the image on your screen as you run the controls.
    The drone has its own wide angle high def 1280 x 720 camera aboard and it’s relatively easy to control, though if you watch this video of my first flight all the way through, you’ll see it ended in a crash when it ran into some tree branches about 35 feet off the ground. It survived that crash, and two more so, despite it’s light weight, it seems pretty rugged.
    The HD camera takes stills or video which can be saved on your device or a USB memory stick, or uploaded to You Tune or Facebook. I used the Verizon Wireless 4g connection on my iPad to send this video directly to You Tube.
    There’s a collar of sorts you can wrap around it when flying inside.
    Obviously, I need some experience. The wind for my first test flight was pushing 15 miles and hour, which is the drone’s suggested limit.
    The first video is pretty boring. I ran the drone up over my front lawn. What you don’t see is Tai, my Norwegian Elkhound, jumping around underneath it, barking up a storm. When it crashed, I beat dog to the drone, otherwise, it would be history. I have up, down, left and right movements figured out but I still need to master the tilt control so it can move up and down. That would have been a good shot, to have videoed the barking dog raising a ruckus on the ground below.
    Fun. I can see using this for loyts travel shots and overheads of the RVs I test out for this blog.
    When the wind dies down tomorrow, I think I’ll take it out and chase Tai around the yard with it. I’ll put together a bunch of videos but thought you might like seeing this first one.
    Based on just a couple test flights, I can already say the AR.Drone 2 is surely a candidate for my annual best tech gadgets of the year.
     
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road


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  18. Roadtrekingmike
    A Dog’s Life
    Rambling Ruka Robinson here, on the road again, with my chauffeur/minion/BFF Laura. I love to travel and have already marked routes all the way to Idaho,Oregon, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  19. Roadtrekingmike
    In the Black Hills: Custer State Park
    Custer State Park was our favorite spot when traveling the Black Hills of South Dakota. If you want to see an abundance of wildlife along with great scenery, this is...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  22. Roadtrekingmike
    Joy of RV Upsizing and Downsizing
    We arrived around 4:30 PM at a pleasant ocean view campground in Maine. Shortly after we pulled into the assigned site and plugged into shore power, a beautiful new Class...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  23. Roadtrekingmike
    RV Photo Shoot: The animals of the West
    I’ve spent much of the weekend editing and distilling down the 1,386 photos I took on our recent trip west and thought I’d share my top 12 favorite photos of ...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  25. Roadtrekingmike
    Stranded in Montana: It’s all good
    So, what’s your worse nightmare about an RV trip?  Having a mechanical breakdown in the middle of, say, Montana, at the start of a weekend? Trust me, it’s not so...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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