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Roadtrekingmike

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  1. Roadtrekingmike
    Spanning the two Michigan peninsulas is the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. It is always a highlight of our trips to the Upper Peninsula. When you say “Big Mac” to a Michigander, the bridge is what they think of, not the hamburger. Counting the approaches, the bridge is five miles long.
    What makes it so interesting is the very nature of its construction. A suspension bridge is designed to move to accommodate wind.

    And high above the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan merges with Lake Huron at the very tip of the Michigan mitt, there is always wind.
    In fact, according to the Mackinac Bridge Authority, the state agency that runs the bridge, it is possible that the deck at center span could move as much as 35 feet (east or west) due to high winds.
    Seriously.
    This would only happen under severe wind conditions, mind you. And the deck would not swing or “sway” but rather move slowly in one direction based on the force and direction of the wind. After the wind subsides, the weight of the vehicles crossing would slowly move it back into center position.
    Sometimes, the bridge is shut down. Electronic signs along I-75 so alert drivers and a low power radio station continuously broadcasts bridge conditions. Large trucks usually require an escort.
    But RVs usually have no problems.
    I say usually. I’ve crossed the bridge in our Roadtrek a dozen times. On a couple of occasions, I was aware of some pretty stiff cross winds. Nothing that caused any serious apprehension, but enough to keep my speed down.
    Occasionally, there have been vehicles rolled over on the bridge because of high winds.
    In 1989 a woman driving a two-year-old Yugo inexplicably stopped her super light weight vehicle on the bridge over the open steel grating on the bridge’s span. A gust of wind through the grating blew her vehicle off the bridge.
    That’s the only death not attributed to accidents or suicides. The most recent suicide was late last year, by someone who jumped over the rail. In 1997 a man in a Ford Bronco intentionally drove off.
    But such incidents are very rare.
    Yet, because of the nature of suspension bridges, there’s always an element of adventure in crossing the Big Mac.
    The view is always spectacular.
    I put together this little video during our most recent crossing. It was late on a cloudy day on mid-September.
    Some 200 feet below it, ferry boats could be seen making their way back and forth to nearby Mackinac Island from Mackinaw City, the last town in the Lower Peninsula and St. Ignace, the first town in the UP.
    Before the bridge was opened in 1957, automobile ferries made the crossing.
    Every Labor Day, people can walk across the bridge. I’ve participated in a couple of bicycle rides that also cross the bridge as well. But the bridge is only open for vehicular traffic except on a very few special occasions during the year.
    So driving is how most of us cross. If you haven’t driven across the Big Mac bridge, put it on your bucket list.
    If you want to spend the night and check out the bridge, the best place to do so is on the UP side, at Straits State Park in St. Ignace. There are spots right along the lake shore with magnificent views.
    If you just want to get close and take some photos or maybe have a picnic, the Fort Michilimackinac State Park on the Mackinaw City side has lots of RV parking with great bridge views.
  2. Roadtrekingmike
    When we talk about boondocking in an RV, we usually mean dry camping, off the grid camping in out of the way, wilderness areas, far from civilization and deep in the boonies.
    Indeed, for Jennifer and I, that is our favorite place to be.
    But that’s not the only place to be.
    As I write this, we just spend a night boondocking in the parking lot of a hotel near Memphis, Tenn.
    It was a quiet, peaceful night. We parked in an out-of -the-way spot in our Roadtrek Etrek. It was typically hot, as it always is in late July in the south. The outside temperature barely dipped below 80. We fired up the Etrek air conditioner and let it run a couple of hours. It got so cold we turned it off a little after midnight. Then we opened the widows, opened the roof vent and turned on the Fantastic Fan. We also used a small oscillating fan we plugged into an AC outlet.
    We slept like babies all night.
    Let me say right now that such boondocking is controversial.S ome RVers do this regularly, albeit clandestinely. They just pull in, and go to sleep. That’s the beauty of a Class B. It is not like those Class A skyscraper-on-wheels accompanied by a towed vehicle. Or even those boxy, bloated Class Cs and B-plusses. A Class B like our Roadtrek is basically a very stylish van. It doesn’t draw attention to itself and it fits right in with the mother vehicles in a parking lot.
    Jennifer and I always get permission first.
    In this case, we are down in Memphs with our son and his family to watch the Dizzy Dean Little League team he coaches play in the World Series. Our eight-year-old grandson, Jacob, is on the team and we will be cheering him on. The whole team is staying at a hotel in Germantown outside of Memphis and we, too, have a room booked for most of the week.
    We boondocked in the parking lot because we arrived a day early and our room was not ready. The hotel manager gave us permission.
    Could we have done so without permission? Probably. I doubt whether anyone would have noticed. But I just think it’s better to ask.
    We have stayed before in parking lots like this. A couple of weeks ago in Ludington, MI, we slept in the parking lot of a car ferry that we had booked passage on the next day to cross Lake Michigan. A week or so before that, we overnighted in a parking lot of a ski resort in Minnesota. We asked and received permission for both. In a small town in central Nebraska, we asked the local police where we could overnight. They directed us to the parking lot of the town park and baseball diamond.
    Others have shared with us how hospitals are also good places to boondock. In the morning, there is the cafeteria to stay in. And, of course, there are places like Cabellas, Cracker Barrel, Wal-Mart and other businesses that welcome boondockers like casinos and truck stops.
    We’ve written before about the Free Overnight Parking wesbite.
    But here, I think, is an even cooler resourse - a network of RV owners who welcome boondockers to spend the night on their property.
    The very excellent Boondockers Welcome website is devoted to just that. Through the website, you can connect with other RVers who have a location for you to dry camp for the night; it might be in their driveway or a field on their farm. The view may be of amber waves of grain or of the McDonald’s parking lot… but it will be a free place to park where you don’t have to worry about idling truck engines, security, or that dreaded knock on the window at 2 AM. For full access to that site, they charge $20 a year if you will offer free boondocking on your property, $25 a year if you don’t.
    “Many of our members have reported that the social element of meeting fellow members is as important as the free parking,” says three time Roadtrek-owner Marianne Edwards, who co-founded the site with her husband. “Many of our hosts offer electric, water, and occasionally even an RV dump as well. They can provide advice about their area, lend a tool if you need one, suggest the best local places to shop, eat, buy fuel, and offer sage advice to new RVers. Single women have told us they feel much more secure parked with our hosts than they do in a retail parking lot.”
    You can check out a lot before signing up for a membership
    “Anyone can go onto the website and see all the details of every listing before joining – so you know exactly what you`re going to get,” she says. “Only thing you can`t do without a membership is contact fellow members, write recommendations for each other, or participate in the forums.”
    It’s a great site, run by folks who understand RVers and boondockers.
    When Marianne and her husband are not on the road themselves, they personally offer overnight parking for RVers (members as well as non-members) passing through their hometown of Elora, Ontario, Canada.
    Now before I end this post let me say that I am not against campgrounds. There are some who get furious every time I write about this. Some Campground owners and others who think everyone should do exactly as they do and they get get all bent out of shape by the idea of boondocking. They like camping in narrowly spaced little organized lots surrounded by thick smokes from three dozen campfires. If that’s you, enjoy.
    We use campgrounds all the time. Most we like.
    But there are times – when campgrounds are crowded, when you are just in need of a fast overnight stop while traveling, when there are no campgrounds nearby – when overnight dry camping is what you want and need.
  3. Roadtrekingmike
    Buying an RV is perhaps the second biggest purchase most of us will make next to our house. In some cases, with kids grown and newly retired from our jobs, it becomes our house as more and more people embrace the fulltiming style of a life on wheels.
    And these days, Type B RVs seem to be at the top of the motorhome popularity chart. Many who bought larger Type A or C motorhomes are downsizing, or “rightsizing,,” as some call it, for the more mobile and maneuverable Type B-style campervan motorhome.
    For one thing, new retirees are coming into the marketplace every day. And today’s retirees are generally healthier and more active than those who came before. The first baby boomers turned 65 three years ago. According to a Social Security agency report, over the next two decades, nearly 80 million Americans will become eligible for Social Security benefits, more than 10,000 per day.
    So, in considering a Type B, what questions should be asked?
    To find out, we crowd sourced the question, asking current Type B owners, members of our very active Roadtreking Facebook Group. They are the true experts, whose collective wisdom is more reliable and real world than any of the pie in the sky promises you;ll get from commission hungry RV salemen.
    Here, then, is the advice of current Type B owners. Feel free to use comments below to add yours. And then pass this post along to a friend who may be considering a B.
    I’ve slightly edited some of the more than 50 comments we received to weed out duplicate content or to add clarity. I’ve also edited out specific references to a particular make or model so the information is as unbiased as possible.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Karsten Askeland: One of my biggest disappointments was RV dealer service after the sale. Buyers need to do their research on the dealer and ask for references and/or recommendations.
    Linda Joesting Collins: Mercedes, Chevy model? Advantages and disadvantages.
    Karin Bless: I see a big distinction also in the personalities of RVers. I find it important to just go into many different units, look around and imagine yourself spending your time in there and with whom, too. Only after this the more technical questions can be answered, because the selection has narrowed down then.
    Nancy Kay: Dealer service quality and proximity are so important. One other question to ask yourself before purchase if you are not fulltiming is where are you going to park it? How big can it be to fit there? What about weathering in the snow and sunlight. Do you have HOA restrictions?
    Darlene Meier: First thing I look for is size of bed (#1) and storage (#2). It is especial important if you plan to spend several weeks or months living in a B. Do you plan to eat your meals in the B, eat out, or a combination of the two? We do the combination, so the size of the fridge is not as important to us.
    Lisa Gruner: Gas vs diesel. When we were looking, my husband was glad to see diesel, ceilings tall enough for him, the twin bed layout with the electric sofa in the back, and the bathroom. Those were his hot buttons. We walked through several You have to decide on your list of wants and must haves and be ready to compromise on some of it. Partly because down the road you’ll figure out some mods to fix it up and you’ll be glad you made your decision.
    Deborah Skinner: We were coming out of an Airstream trailer and rightsizing into a B. The primary issues for us were something where I could share the driving as I pretty much refused to drive when towing the trailer – a comfortable and spacious bed – and a usable galley with decent refrigerator space. My husband wanted the Mercedes diesel for mileage and safety features – so those were the only models we considered. We are also not yet retired – but within a few years we plan to spend quite a bit of time roaming and we wanted a nimble footprint for that.
    Stephanie Alexander: Match the floor plan and size of RV to your needs and of course pick reputation of manufacturer
    Eric Sondeen: Fuel econ, layout, ease-of-use, riding positions (strap into all seats and ride), fit/finish, Drive & Park & Back,
    John Spears: Talk to present class B owners and ask what they like about their class B. Then the most important question is, “what DON’T they like about it”? If you don’t know a class B owner, go to the nearest RV park or campground and look around. Most would be very happy to talk about their RV experiences. Determine how it’s going to be used to determine which model to consider. Gas or diesel considerations have pretty well been taken care of in the comments above. Diesel fuel is not hard to find, as most gas stations and convenience stores have diesel pumps these days. Read all the blog posts you can find from present owners. Those posts are a wealth of information, but remember a few of them may need to be taken with a grain of salt. If you ever read product reviews on the net, there always seems to be at least one really bad review when all the rest are really good.
    William Browne: How are you going to use the RV? Stay in one place for periods of time or on the road and its a place to sleep and eat. Do you really need a lot of storage or not.
    Laura Loschky Robinson: How easy to operate? (ex. awning, bed, swivel chairs, oven, dumping, hooking and unhooking at sites) How easy to drive and handling? (length for parking, towing, maneuvering, mountains, rain, snow) How complicated and costly is maintenance? Diesel vs. gas. Headroom, storage. Is it comfortable for sleeping, driving, bathing, sitting eating? Is it roomy for 2 (width and length) Kids? Pets? How do you clean it inside and out? Cost? New vs. used. Resale value, Mileage, Longevity? Is van good for full time, part time, weekends? Can you boondock- ex. solar, generators, satellite, boosters, etc.. Is dealer timely (in and out quickly for maintenance) professional, fair, near me? Is there a maintenance program?
    Leesa Mundell: One of the most important factors, in addition to everything already mentioned, is comfort/ease in driving. We are “goers” who rarely spend more than one night in the same place, thus we are on the road a lot. We both love driving our motorhome, and feel safe in all kinds of conditions and weather. We can drive and park it anywhere, and some of our ventures have put us into places that a much longer/taller/wider rig could not have gone. All the other options for us were personal preference. Do your research and then go drive your top choices on busy streets and the highway, lie in the bed (and if regularly traveling with another person-both of you lie down together…some bed sizes are not as comfortable or convenient for two as they appear) sit inside the restroom, explore all the functions and storage areas. Make the right match for your lifestyle and you will have years of enjoyment! Husband Jeff adds, the only question to ask is, “What is the rig that makes my wife happy?”
    Burton Hill: For us, it was the “what are you gonna do with it?” question that was #1. We travel to National Parks. We tour. We don’t spend days/weeks in one spot. “Small House, BIG Backyard!” sums it up for us perfectly.
    Bob Clark: In short – you need to figure out FIRST how you want to live your mobile life. Our thought process was … A’s are out – too big, too expensive and too limiting. C’s were out because they were poor on gas, IMHO ugly, and many hung out way too far in the back. Didn’t want a trailer because then you had a base camp to set up and return to and (in most cases) you need an expensive pickup to lug it and I’d never own a pickup anyway. That left a turtle! Everything on board, pick up and go wherever/whenever, reasonable mileage, easy (or NO) setup/teardown, minimalist. That seemed to fit OUR intended lifestyle perfectly. Decide today where to go tomorrow, spend a LOT of time in the parks, if we like where we are, we may stay several days or weeks, if not, move on.
    Michele Alexander: Ask yourself: Do I want to merely travel across this great country or do I want to experience it? I have noticed that the travelers in smaller RVs seem to spend more time outdoors. What appealed to us when we chose the Class B was its versatility:
    Go anywhere a car can go (ditto parking)
    No need to tow another vehicle
    Not just for travel – we use it for all kinds of outdoor activities and events in our home area – so handy to have a refrigerator and bathroom with you!

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    So there you go.
    Here’s a final tip from me:
    Visit a large RV show that has many different RVs on display. Go in and out of each one. Find out what differentiates each model from the others.
  4. Roadtrekingmike
    We’ve now officially begun our trip west, a journey that will follow parts of two historic routes: The Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Oregon Trail.
    It’s hard to over emphasize the importance of these two 19th century routes. Lewis and Clark discovered the overland route to the Pacific, thus opening up the nation to east-west travel in the days immediately after the Louisiana Purchase. It was a trip that in its day, was as monumental as the American landing on the moon is to ours.
    The 100,000 Oregon Trail pioneers came four decades or so later in their prairie schooners – so named because their wagons were covered with white canvas that made them resemble a ship at sea. Others took routes that sprang off the Oregon Trail on paths called the California Trail and the Mormon Trail as the headed to the Gold Rush and Sat lake City.

    Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery took a keelboat down the Missouri.
    Retracing those routes in our Roadtrek Etrek RV – the modern equivalent of a covered wagon – is a trip Jennifer and I have wanted to take for years. So from now till early September, we’ll be visiting places where the ruts of those wagons can still be found, seeing the places where history was made and learning about the vastness of our country and the amazing adventures caught up in that great western migration.

    Confluence Point – where the Missouri River (top) flows into the Mississippi in St. Louis.
    It all starts with the wide Missouri. At 2,341 miles, the Missouri River is the longest river in North America. It is impressive to behold. But what you see today is much less than 19th century explorers and pioneers encountered. We have messed it up through channelization and dam building, greatly changing the Missouri River. Today, 67 percent of the Missouri is either channelized for navigation (650) miles or impounded by dams (903 miles). Most of the remaining free-flowing portions of the river are near the headwaters in Montana. Channelization has resulted in the lower river being about 50 percent narrower.
    But like I said, it is still impressive. But realizing that it was bigger and wider and wilder 200 years ago makes you wonder how these early explorers did it.
    Nicknamed the “Big Muddy,” the Missouri River has long been one of North America’s most important travel routes. Every bend in the river is saturated in history. Her waters saw the canoes of many American Indian tribes, fur trappers, explorers and pioneers. The river served as the main route to the northwest for Lewis and Clark and later became the primary pathway for the nation’s western expansion. The Missouri has witnessed the rise and fall of the steamboat era and given birth to countless communities that settled near her banks.
    It has meandered all over the place Some parts of the river have moved as much as two miles from their course during the early part of the 19th century. It has a powerfully strong current that those heading west paddled and poled against. And it was always dangerous because of snags and floating debris and sandbars that stranded many a traveler.
    We started our tour in St. Louis, where the Missouri dumps into the Mississippi at a place called Confluence Point. Standing at the point where the nation’s mightiest two rivers merge, it’s hard not to think of all the dreams, all the hopes and aspirations that welled up in the hearts of those who came this way in the 1800′s. Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery took the Ohio River to the Mississippi, then the Mississippi to the Missouri, beginning their official expedition of the west from this very spot in May of 1804.
    A great book that we are reading as we head west is Robert Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage. It’s the definitive work on the expedition and fascinating reading. I wish we had an audio version so it could play as we are driving. But it was unavailable when we ordered so we sometimes take turns reading aloud from the big paperback to each other.
    A hundred miles west of St. Louis, we did our first overnight at a place called Arrow Rock, MO, a dozen or so miles north of I-70 near the Missouri River. At this quiet, peaceful park, there’s a monument overlooking a spot where, early on, Lewis and Clark faced their first of many dangers – huge floating trees that had toppled into the river when the Missori currents undercut the banks they were growing on and threatened to smash their keelboat to bits.

    Lewis and Clark almost lost the keelboat at a spot near Arrow Rock just three weeks after departing St. Louis.
    The Arrow Rock State Historic Site here has a restored village and great camping. The campground is small, only 47 sites and fills up most weekends. We had no trouble getting in midweek.
    The village of Arrow Rock was the traditional starting point for another historic trail – The Santa Fe Trail. In fact, as we move west, off the interstates and through the plains and into the Rockies, we’ll see several other trails all using parts of these same routes, the California Trial, the Mormon Trail and the Pony Express Trail.

    Missouri Highway 41 follows the Lewis and Clark trail.
    We found Arrow Rock a great place to read, research our route and, thanks to a great Visitor’s Center, immerse ourselves in what life was like when, in the early 1800s, this was the last city on the western frontier.

    The old Huston Inn at Arrow Rock is still open.
    Named because of a tall sandstone bluff on the Missouri that the Osage Indians used to chisel out flint for arrow heads, Arrow Rock once had 1,000 residents. Today, 56 live there. In the summer, there’s a professional theater – the Lyceum – that brings in tourists each day.We watched a production of Agatha Christie’s Witness for the Prosecution and noted, as we returned to camp late that night, that many of our neighbors ha also been at the play.
    And the historic Huston Tavern, established in 1834, is the oldest continually serving restaurant west of the Mississippi. We found excellent, family style food, especially the fried chicken, raspberry glazed ham, mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits and cobbers to die for..

    The Missouri River near Weston, Mo. The wilderness terrain is much the same today as then.
    We liked Arrow Rock so much we set three nights, soaking up the landscape, thinking about what it must have been like for those pioneers so long ago who set off from the very place we were parked beneath s cottonwood tree in our air conditioned Roadtrek.
    Not quite the same, to be sure.

    Made for a movie, this 55-foot replica of the Lewis and Clark keepboat invites exploration by today’s visitors to the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center in Nebraska City.
    We left Arrow Rock and continued west, past Kansas City, following the Missouri to the Weston Bend State Park near the town of Weston, once a thriving river town now – thanks to the river’s shifting banks – more of a trendy little place of antique shops and bed and breakfasts.
    We overnighted at the Weston Bend State Park and watched the sunset at a Missouri River overlook where the Corps of Discovery set shore for some exploring.

    Lewis’s branding iron at the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center in Nebraska City.
    The next day it was north and west to Nebraska City, NE and the Lewis and Clark Discovery Center on the river there. The center itself wasn’t much. Mostly some displays, including a branding iron owned by Lewis and used to emblazon trees along the route.
    The thing that most interested me was a full-sized replica of the 55 foot long keel boat used by the expedition to navigate the Missouri. Originally made for a movie, it sits out front of the center and allows visitors to come abroad. I grabbed one of the oars of the same type and size used by the crew and was amazed by how heavy it was and could only imagine what it would ave been like pulling it hour upon hour against the currents.

    The Missouri River is called Big Muddy” and even today, as seen from Nebraska City, it looks much like it did in Lewis and Clark’s time. Note the snags and driftwood on the opposite bank.
    There’s a shore trail that leads do yet another river overlook that made for a nice photo op. The river is still muddy and the current is obvious. The banks of the Missouri remain littered with snags and driftwood.
    From Nebraska City, we took NE-2 west through rolling cornfields, slowing moving past the Missouri and closer to the Oregon Trail, which we’ll be following over the next several days.
  5. Roadtrekingmike
    When we first started out 18 months ago, I have to admit, I had my doubts about a life of RVing in a Class B motorhome, sometimes referred to as Type B to do away with all the negative stereotypes that come with the word “Class.”
    Anyway, I was sure it would be fine for weekend getaways but as the this blog took off and it became apparent that we were going to be traveling a lot more than I first planned, we secretly wondered whether the 23-foot Roadtrek we travel in would be big enough.
    Now, with more than 42,000 miles under our tires and extended trips for weeks at a time over the past year and a half, we know the answer: It is!
    But more than that, we’ve realized we are living out a major trend in RVing, a boom in class B RV sales that seems to be turning around an industry hard hit by the economic doldrums that had put many a dealer on the edge of bankruptcy.
    The RV business is once again healthy, and leading the resurgence are Class B RVs.
    Monthly sales figures for Class B’s confirm what we’ve concluded from our own experience, interviews with dealers we have met at various RV shows around the country and the many other Class B owners we’ve met in our travels this past year.
    The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association deftly tiptoes around the size distinctions of motorhomes, simply noting that “Class A motorhomes are generally the largest; Class B motorhomes or van campers are the smallest and Class C motorhomes generally fall in between.”
    Search around a little more, though, and you’ll find more info that indicate Class As usually range in weight from 15,000 to 30,000 pounds and stretch from 30 to 40 feet in length. Class Bs are often referred to as van conversions, weigh 6,000 to 11,000 pounds and are 17 to 24 feet in length. Class Cs are scaled down versions of an A, weigh 11,000 to 15,000 pounds and go 22 or so feet to 31 feet in length.
    Class Bs are typically on a Chevrolet, Ford or the Sprinter van body, modified and converted into a motorhome.
    When it comes to Class B motorhome manufacturers, there’s the Big Six. And it’s dominated by Canadian companies.
    Four are in Canada -Roadtrek, in Kitchener, ON; Pleasure Way, in Saskatchtoon, SK; Leisure Travel Vans in Winkler, Manitoba; and Great West Vans in Saint Andrews, Manitoba.
    Two are in the U.S. – Winnebago, marketing its Class B under the Era brand in Forest City, IA, and Thor Industries’ Avenue and Interstate models, in Jackson Center, OH which the company says are inspired by its Airstream brand.
    A new Class B manufacturer – Advanced RV - located near Cleveland – opened shop earlier this year, building luxury motorhomes on the Sprinter platform by direct factory order, with no dealer network.
    The boom in Class B sales can be attributed to two trends.
    Baby Boomer Retirees – Each day in America, 10,000 Baby Boomers reach Social Security age. Sociologists tell us this generation of retirees is the most healthy, active, affluent and adventurous of any other group that came before. Many, retiring early because of buy-outs or being forced out during the economic downturn, have made calculated decisions to seize the opportunity to see the country. Others have planned for this moment for years. But new retirees are choosing Class B’s because of their easy mobility and the convenience of also being able to use them as second vehicles.
    Downsizers – There is also a sizeable contingent of new Class B owners who are downsizing from a Class A or C. These are typically veteran RVers who have been on the road for several years. Some are fulltimers who have found an area of the country to purchase a home and settle, but still want to be able to travel in comfort. Others want to be more flexible in the places they go and are downsizing as part of a transition to simplify their lives or are tired of towing a second vehicle or being relegated to pull through spots and full service campgrounds.
    Jennifer and I are in the first category. Granted, we don’t know anything different. We’ve never tried a Class A. And sometimes it does feel cramped in our Roadtrek, especially when our 70-pound Norwegian Elkhound, Tai, is traveling with us. But we’ve adjusted to the tight spaces we absolutely love the mobility our Class B provides, from pulling into regular parking spaces to being able to boondock and stay deep in state and national forests, totally self contained in true wilderness.
    Darlene, a reader of this blog, has owned a Class B 2004 Roadtrek 190 Popular since 2010 and has taken trips as long as five weeks in it.
    “We have purposely bought small RV’s to force ourselves to be outdoors,” she says. “You can never feel closed in being outdoors. The whole idea of taking a trip is to be enjoying and appreciating the great outdoors.”
    John and Sally Hearne from Pittsboro, NC are typical of many downsizers. I met them at the FMCA’s 87th annual reunion in Indianapolis last year and shared a seminar stage with them about downsizing from an A to a B.
    They started RVing in 2005 with a 32-ft., gas-powered Class A motor home and traveled across country. They did all the bucket list spots – the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park and fell in love with the RV lifestyle. In 2010, they traded in their 32-ft. gas model for a 40-ft., four-slide diesel pusher, complete with a washer and dryer, residential refrigerator, and central vacuum system.
    For five months, they traveled the country with gusto in their big rig, towing a car behind them. But then, some discontent entered the picture.
    “We found that traveling in a large coach requires that you do most of your traveling on major highways and Interstates,” said Sally. “Therefore, we didn’t get to travel on the back country roads that we love to tour.”
    The more they traveled, the more the allure of that 40-foot motorhome began to wear off.
    “We could only use fueling stations that could accommodate our size and length. There was no impromptu stopping along the way. I would see a roadside stand with fresh produce that I would love to buy. But, there was nowhere to put our big rig. We couldn’t just pull off the road anywhere. I saw shops in small towns that begged to be explored. Nope, we couldn’t do that. There was nowhere nearby to park. By the time we could find a campground that could accommodate our coach, unhook the tow car, and drive back to the produce stand or small town shop, we would be miles away from the place of interest. So, I just had to forget about it. “
    In July 2011, they sold the 40-foot Class A and bought a Roadtrek 210 Popular.
    “The space is a miniature of the Class A, but it has all we need,” Salley explains. “There is inside storage for clothes, food, etc., and outside storage for some essentials. Since it is so easy to stop anywhere we want, we do not have to stock a large amount of food. We love being able to drive anywhere we want to go in town or out of town.”
    The Hearnes experience has been echoed by many.
    Ron Woodward, a retired engineer from Minnesota, told me about the same thing. He previously owned a Class A. Last year he downsized to a Class B from Pleasure-Way. “We didn’t like the big campgrounds and our dependency on hookups,” he said. “Now, we can go anywhere. We love boondocking in the state forests. Just us and nature.”
    With fall rapidly approaching and colder temperatures on the way, the great Snow Bird migration to warmer regions will soon begin.
    We’re hoping to become a part of it this year, taking long trips to Florida, the Gulf States, the Texas Hill Country, Arizona and the Southwest.
    We won’t be gone the entire season but rather will return to our Michigan home for grandkid fixes, planning three and four week forays on each leg.
    But we’ll do so confident of our Class B RV and excited about the adventure that awaits as we go Roadtreking across North America.
    Hope to see you out there…on the open road.
  6. Roadtrekingmike

    Why We Boondock

    By Roadtrekingmike,

    It sounds like it’s raining. But it’s not. It’s the sound of acorns dropping from the oak trees all around us as we boondock in the middle of the woods overlooking the Rifle River in northern Michigan’s Ogemaw County.
    This is not a particularly pretty time of the year. The beautiful fall leaves have turned brown and now cover the ground. Only the oaks, with their shriveled up leaves and their dropping acorns, still have a covering.
    Squirrels are running all over gathering the bounty. Deer, too. The animals seem to know winter is coming and the heavy acorn crop and their early drop across the upper Midwest appears to verify the Farmer’s Almanac prediction of another really rough winter.
    Jennifer and I came up Thursday night. We’ll stay through Sunday. This is one of our favorite boondocking spots. It’s on a 200-acre hunk of privately owned land surrounded by thousands of acres of state forest. The property is owned by my brother-in-law and is totally undeveloped.If we were in anything larger than a Class B motorhome, there’s no way we’d get to our boondocking spot, accessible only by dirt two-track located a mile off a paved country road.
    We need no electrical or water hookups. Our Roadtrek carries its own fresh water supply. The eight house batteries, always supplemented by 250-watt by solar panels, gives us enough power to last four or five days out here before we have to tun the engine and have those eight batteries recharged in about 20 minutes to a half hour.
    Our Webasto heater – and we needed it last night as the temperature dropped to the lower thirties Fahrenheit – runs on diesel, off the vehicle’s fuel tank. It uses so little that I can’t even see a drop in the fuel gauge after a weekend’s heater use.
    We’ve been coming here for two decades, long before we got an RV. Now, with our Roadtrek Etrek, we use this land as a place to retreat from the world. Friends have asked if they can join us on one of our boondocking weekends. We politely say no. This is our special hideaway, a place not to be shared.
    We truly can get away from it all up here.
    I’m sitting in a chair on what the locals call the “High Banks,” a spot abut 150 feet above where the Rifle makes one of ts snake-turning bends. I frequently see white tail deer just upstream coming down to drink. I hear no traffic. No noise at all but the dropping acorns.
    Jennifer and I and Tai took an hour long hike last night and another one just a few minutes ago.
    We’ll spend the day reading. I’ll build a campfire late afternoon and we’ll sit around it tonight, shoulder to shoulder, watching the flames, saying not very much, but very much enjoying each other's company. At some point before we turn in, we’ll walk away from the fire and look up at the night sky. If there’s no cloud cover, the whole Milky Way can be seen like a dust across the black sky.
    During the day, we usually take an afternoon nap. I like to sit in my chair overlooking the river and write.
    Not very exciting, is it? Not for Jen and I, anyway. Tai finds it very exciting. He’s chasing squirrels right now. He’s learned not to bark. To hunt like a coyote. Sneaky and quiet. And, yes, he occasionally does get one.
    No. It’s not exciting at all for Jennifer and me.
    What it is, though, is a total change of pace. It’s decompressing. Restoring. Refreshing. Total escape from the stress and demands of everyday life.
    That’s why we boondock.
    Because we can get away. Completely.

    There’s a bumper crop of acorns this fall.

    Our spot deep in the woods

    My view atop the High Banks
  7. Roadtrekingmike
    That’s my old iPhone 5 on the left. The new gigantic iPhone 6 Plus on the right.
    For as 10 million other people have done over the past two weeks, I’ve upgraded to the new and very large iPhone 6 Plus.
    It’s massive 5.5-inch size was a big reason.
    I spend a lot of time online. Too much, in fact. And my eyes and my thumbs appreciate the extra real estate the new iPhone provides.
    The first thing I did after transferring all my apps and settings over to the new phone from iCloud (a process that took about 45 minutes on my home Wi-Fi network) was head out to the RV and see if the new phone fits in the Wilson Sleek cell phone booster I use for connectivity while boondocking in areas with weak cellular service. It does. The Sleek has adjustable arms that grip the 6 Plus just fine.
    The only time I use the Sleek with a cell phone is when I need to make a call in a marginal area. The rest of the time, my Verizon Mi-Fi data card provides the Internet connection for my various devices. But it’s nice to know that the new iPhone 6 Plus will fit.
    Besides the larger screen size, there are eight main reasons why I chose the iPhone 6 Plus.
    But before I list them … please … be nice. Like religion and politics, conversations about computers, mobile devices and brand loyalties can get real nasty. So if you don’t want or need these features, or if you use another platform or operating system, then good for you. This post is not aimed at you. This is for the many who do use the iPhone and are wondering what the new big one is like.
    Here are the eight things I like most about this new phone, compared to the iPhone 5 I had been using:
    The new camera on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is the best Ive seen on any smartphone, especially with the new features on the iOS 8 operating system like slow motion and time lapse photography. I’ll do some demos for you later this week.
    Image stabilization is now available for the videos I shoot on the iPhone 6 Plus when my professional video camera is unavailable or I want to post a quick video on social media.
    The 6 Plus is faster and reputedly has a longer battery life. Since I just got it, I haven’t been able to put that to the test. But I will.
    The new Swype keyboard option (that’s the one thing I liked the most during my brief fling with the Android OS and Samsung some months back) lets me really input text fast, with fewer fat finger mistakes.
    The soon-to-be available Apple Pay, the new short-range wireless payments system for the 6 and 6 Plus, which integrates with Touch ID. It will soon be released as a software update. This is going to be huge.
    Lots of memory. For those like who take a lot of photos and videos, like to watch movies and load up on music, the new 128GB storage limit on the 6 is almost enough of a reason to upgrade.
    The iPhone 6 Plus has full HD, 1920 x 1080 display. That’s not yet available on other iPhone models, including the 6.
    The iPhone 6 offers absolutely fantastic health and fitness functionality. Well… maybe not just yet. They’re still working a couple of unexpected last minute glitches out of a couple apps. But those apps – I’ve seen a preview of them – are coming soon.

    As I am getting used to the iPhone 6 Plus, I was surprised that I have not been challenged in using it as a phone. It is big and I’ve seen others say it just feels weird held up to your ear.As I write this, I just finished a half hour radio interview using my new iPhone 6 Plus and it was very comfortable.
    Ironically, that interview (with Mitch Album on WJR Radio) was about two problems that have cropped up with Apple’s new phones.
    The first is, if you put in in your pocket and then sit on it without a case … it will bend. That doesn’t seem unusual to me. It is thin and super light. So thin it would have to bend when someone sat on it, especially without a protective case. I bought the leather case Apple sells with the iPhone. It does fit in my front pockets. It is too big for a breast pocket on some of my shirts. Not all, but some. But I would never think about sitting on it. So I don’t think this will be a issue for me.
    The second problem was on an update that Apple pushed through for the iOS 8 operating system. It was out just one hour when the company was swamped by reports that after updating the OS, iPhone 6 users lost cellular and data connectivity. Apple quickly pulled the update to see what the problem is.recent
    If you want to see some three of my favorite things the new iOS 8 system does, here’s one of my NBC-TV PC Mike segments:

    So, overall, my first impressions of the iPhone 6 Plus are very favorable. I have a large iPad that I seldom use, except to read books or watch movies. Sometimes, I just leave it at home rather than tote it along on an RV trip, only to wish I had brought it when we’re stuck inside because or rain. I think this new 5.5-inch iPhone will replace the tablet for books. I will try some movies and get back to you on that. But with 128 GB of storage, I’ll be able to download them to the device, besides streaming them on Netflix or Amazon.
    Lastly, another contributing factor to my decision to upgrade is the fact that I use my smartphone for so much more than just making or receiving telephone calls. I really use it more as a miniature computer than a phone. So this iPhone 6 Plus will come in very handy, I suspect.
    I’ll let you know more after a week or so.
    If you think you’d like to upgrade but wonder what you can do with your old phone, check out the video below. It’s another NBC-TV segment I did on places that offer trade-ins for old phones and other gadgets and gizmos.

  8. Roadtrekingmike
    Great West Vans Revamps 2013 Legend Lineup under New Ownership
    Canadian Type B RV maker Great West Vans was bought out last year by one of their suppliers and the new owner, Dave DeBraga, has big plans for the company’s Legend brand of Mercedes Sprinter models.
    DeBraga, the owner and new President of Great West Vans, was all over the Florida RV Supershow in Tampa in January, meeting customers and sharing his excitement for the luxury Legend series of Sprinters sold by the company, now based in Winnipeg, where DeBraga’s other company, the Sterling Group, is headquartered. That company builds doors, fiberglass components and running boards.
    DeBraga did an extended interview with us, outlining the revamped line of the Legend, Legend SE and Legend EX models, which includ redesigned interiors, new running boards and a streamlined appearance.
    The distinctive sliding slide screen door on GWVans, introduced by the previous owner, Martin H. Guertz, continues to be a hallmark of the line. Guertz sold the company to DeBraga when he retired last spring. DeBraga’s Sterling Group company used to supply Guertz.
    “I’m told some people buy these vans just because of that screen door,” smiled DeBraga. “Out whole emphasis is on technology and quality and those screens definitely qualify for that.” Also new for 2013 is a newly designed rear screen that is more integrated into the back doors.
    DeBraga also showed up a handicap ramp that will easily load wheelchairs into the vans. “There’s a big need for this,” he said. “We’re very proud to be offering this.”
    Great West Vans sell from around $115,000 to $133,000.”We think we’re right there in the sweet spot for Class B Sprinter motorhomes,” he said.
     
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road


    Source
  9. Roadtrekingmike
    I am a huge fan of the Webasto Dual Top RHA 100 diesel-powered combined air and water heater for the Roadtrek eTrek and, as an option, on other Roadtrek models.
    In terms of heat, it both heats up the inside of the coach and provides hot domestic water. The entire unit fits under the vehicle chassis, saving precious space inside. A small fuel line runs under the coach from the Mercedes engine up front to the Dual Top, mounted under the rear of the vehicle. Heat is pushed out through two air outlets. In my unit, they are directly beneath the rear sofa. When we make it into a bed, it’s like having heated sheets. The domestic water boiler on the Dual Top is connected directly to the fresh water tank and the hot water faucets. And it is whisper quiet. Though mounted underneath the sleeping area on the underside of the coach, a muffler connects to an outside exhaust pipe and, really, we don’t even hear it.
    Here’s a detailed description from Webasto on how the Dual Top works:
    When the unit is switched on the dosing pump feeds fuel from the vehicle’s fuel tank to the heater. Here the fuel is automatically ignited by means of a glow plug. If combustion does not occur immediately the unit automatically repeats the start-up procedure. In the combustion chamber a flame is lit which heats up the heat exchanger. The unit takes air in from outside of the vehicle for combustion purposes and the combusted exhaust air is discharged back outside. During heating, the integrated fan sucks in the air to be heated through the inlet and feeds it through the unit. As the air flows through the heat exchanger it is heated up and is then distributed through the outlet.
    The connected hot air ducting spreads the air evenly throughout the vehicle interior. Due to the unit’s separation of the combustion cycle from the heating cycle there is no quality impairment of the hot air. A temperature sensor constantly measures the interior temperature and adapts the heating level by automatically adjusting the amount of air passing through the unit. In this way, the temperature selected by the user is rapidly reached and maintained at a constant level. After the unit has been switched off, the combustion process is terminated in a controlled manner. For this purpose the unit briefly goes into re-run mode to cool itself down. It is then immediately ready for restarting.

    I really came to appreciate the Dual Top on my return from sunny Florida to frigid Michigan. On the way back north, we overnighted near Lexington, KY in mid-January. The heater is quiet and kept us toasty warm at 70 degrees despite a plunging temperature outside.
    I got worried the next morning when I saw ice caked on the underside of the heater. Oh oh, I thought.
    Instead of a problem, it was a very cool feature (pun intended) of the heater. It was protecting itself against the cold. The Dual Top is automatically programmed to empty its water supply if the temperature drops lower than 43 degrees Fahrenheit. It does that, by the way, even if it is off. That night in Lexington, it got down to 26.
    I had emptied the water from the fresh water tank and ran the inside faucets dry back in Georgia. But I still needed to get antifreeze into the eTrek. I stopped at one big RV dealer in Ohio and they weren’t very interested in helping as they were unfamiliar with the eTrek.
    So I drove home, where the thermometer dropped to three below zero overnight. I kept the Webasto heater running with forced air all night. The next day, I got it to my local Roadtrek dealer.
    There, sure enough, we found the water pipes frozen. In a heated garage, we waited for them to defrost. I cranked the Webasto up to help further warm the interior and, after a couple hours, we were able to get antifreeze through the system. Fortunately, there were no leaks. If the heater hadn’t kept the inside warm all night long, I’m sure those pipes would have burst.
    As it was, it is a reminder not to take anything for granted with the weather. I should have winterized in Georgia.
    But the incident has made me very appreciative of an excellent heater.
    All said, though, I’d rather be in Florida.
    Source
  10. Roadtrekingmike
    In the heart of central Kentucky – not far from it’s famed bluegrass country – is an area known as the Bourbon Trail, a confluence of seven distilleries that produce the bulk of the world’s Bourbon. Formally designated by Congress as “America’s Official Native Spirit.” The distilleries offer tours and tastings and offer a perfect RV getaway.
    http://youtu.be/W_wm129Uk30
    Bourbon has a rich history and proud tradition that dates back to the late 1700s. For more than two centuries, no family has influenced bourbon-making more deeply than the Beam family, maker of the world’s best selling bourbon. The tour of the Jim Beam distillery near Clermont, KY offers an up-close look at how they make the world’s best-selling bourbon–from grain to barrel to bottle and beyond.
    Here, you learn that bourbon is unique among whiskeys because, by law, it must be at least 51% corn. Why is it called Bourbon? Well, one of Kentucky’s original counties was Bourbon County, established in 1785 when Kentucky was still part of Virginia. Farmers shipped their whiskey in oak barrels — stamped from Bourbon County — down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. The long trip aged the whiskey, with the oak wood giving it the distinct mellow flavor and amber color. Pretty soon, whiskey from Bourbon County grew in popularity and became known as Bourbon whiskey.bt1
    Allow at least three hours for the Beam tour, which always ends in the tasting room, Where visitors can sample some of the 12 different brands the company makes. But remember, the Beam operation is just one of seven distilleries on the Bourbon Trail.
    A great place to use as your RVing base while touring the Bourbon Trail is Bardstown, KY, recently designated by USA Today as America’s most beautiful small town. It’s a delightful town, steeped in history. Abraham Lincoln walked its streets. So did Daniel Boone. Upstairs at the Old Talbott Inn, built in 1779, are bullet holes reportedly fired by Jesse James. Bardstown has museums and quaint shops.
    What the Napa Valley is to California wine, Bardstown is to the Bourbon Trail. Just outside of town, we used the My Old Kentucky Home State Park as our camping base, named after the famous Steven Foster song celebrating the mansion the state park is home to.
    Just down the road from the state Park is the Heaven Hill distillery. It, too, offers great tours and lots of history. Oh yeah, they have tastings, too.
    It was founded by the Heavenhill family. One word. Heavenhill. But rumor has it that when a teetotaler daughter saw a typo referring to the place as Heaven Hill - two words – she let the mistake stay so as to distance the family name from the whiskey business.
    About a half hour drive from Bardstown is the Makers Mark distillery. Situated on gorgeous grounds with Whiskey Creek running right through it and providing the pure water used in making of its bourbon, I was offered a tin cup sip straight out of a distilling tank, before the product had aged. My tongue burned. Jennifer got no further than a sniff. At Maker’s Mark, visitors have the opportunity to hand dip a bottle themselves… sealing it with the brands distinctive melted red wax.
    Each distillery is unique. Each distillery has a story.
    Take Red Roses bourbon, for example. Seems its founder was smitten by a beautiful young lady. He asked her to marry him. She refused to answer immediately but said, if the next time he saw her she was wearing a corsage, the answer was yes. The next time he saw her she was wearing a corsage of four red roses. Thus a bourbon brand was born.
    Even if you don’t drink alcohol, or bourbon is not your thing, the bourbon trail is a fascinating look at history in some of the most beautiful country you can find.
    If you decide to visit the Bourbon Trail, allow at least three days to take it all in. There are lots of campgrounds servicing the area.
  11. Roadtrekingmike
    We’ve been talking all week about winterizing our RVs.
    Yes, the time has come .... Those living in the northern states and those who live where the temperatures drop below freezing, can’t put it off much longer.
    But people still have a lot of questions and as we wrap up our winterizing series, Jennifer and I answer some reader questions about topics that haven’t yet been addressed.
    In this edition of How We Roll in our RV, we talk about the need to re-winterize when folks head south and then back north. And we answer a reader question about whether the flat-screen TV needs to be removed when the unit is exposed to the cold for prolonged periods of time.
    Oh yeah, we also sound a very important warning for those of you who put your RV in storage for the winter.

    Check out the above video and send your questions in to us at openmike@fmca.com.
    Your’s just might be the next one we answer in our next How We Roll episode.
  12. Roadtrekingmike
    We were on I-69 a few miles north of I-94 in Michigan, headed off for a 10 day swing through Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. We came close to ending it on our first day.
    Bang!
    Like a small explosion, a tire on a huge semi-tractor rig blew, just as we were about to pass it. Instinctively, I braked and swerved left onto the shoulder, just as a huge chunk of tire came careening into my lane, right about where the windshield would have been if I hadn’t hit the brakes.
    In my rear view mirror I saw other tire parts behind me.
    It was a narrow miss.
    Jennifer and I breathed deeply, thanked God for sparing us and realized how bad it could have been.
    All the rest of the drive down south, we both started paying attention to the huge chunks of hard rubber that are strewn all over our highways.
    As I type this, I’m at a picnic table at our campsite for the night along I65 north of Nashville. I just finished Googling the problem and found that debris littering the highways and interstates of North America causes over 25,000 accidents and at least 100 deaths each year in the United States and Canada. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that blown tire pieces are the number one road debris.
    The tire safety experts say this is the worst time of year, when high temperatures cause the most stress on tires. As we’ve been driving the past two days, the temps have been in the upper eighties and low nineties and seemingly every mile of toad has shredded remnants of 18 wheeler truck tires on the highway — called “gators” in the trucking industry.
    The origin of gators is in dispute, especially the idea that most gators come from capped or retreaded tires. Retreading is a process that saves money by shaving down old tires to their casing and attaching and bonding a new exterior.
    “On these extremely hot days, the adhesive that holds these treads together gets hot enough that they lose adhesiveness,” said David Decker, director of operators at Western Truck School in West Sacramento, CA, in an article I found in the Merced Sun Star newspaper.
    It’s easy to see why retreads are in use. New truck tires cost $600 or so. Retreads $200.
    Despite the critics, a 2008 study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that showed retreaded tires were no more likely to blow out than new tires.
    But with such much debris on our roads, somebody needs to be working hard to curtail the problem. If that’s happening, it isn’t evident on the roadways.
    I have a great deal of respect for professional truck drivers. I know the vast majority of them take good care of their rigs and would never cut corners by using inferior or dangerous tires.
    Accidents do happen. Truck tires do blow. But they blow a lot. Just look at the debris.
    I think we need to make reducing those blowouts a top highway safety priority. The problem is serious and it is costing lives.
    Meantime, be careful out there and stay alert.
  13. Roadtrekingmike
    If I had known ahead of time how high some of these mountains out here in Colorado really were, I’m not sure I would have decided to tow a travel trailer on our Great Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013.
    But now that I’m here and have climbed those super steep grades and come down them with brakes nearly smoking, I’m glad I did.
    I’m towing a 21-foot-long AmerLite travel trailer that we bought just for this trip from American RV in Grand Rapids, MI. It weighs 2,780 pounds. Empty. With supplies and gear for my daughter, Wendy; son-on-law, Dan, and granddaughters Hua Hua and Rachel and Charlie the Goldendoodle (he weighs 75 pounds), we’ve probably added another 200-300 pounds to the towing weight.
    The Roadtrek eTrek on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis is rated for 5,000 pounds towing weight.
    It has pulled that trailer up and down mountains all over Colorado. We’ve towed that trailer to 0ver 9,500 feet. The pictures accompanying this post were taken while we were coming down from the mountains at the Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado the other day.
    The biggest effect towing a travel trailer has on our Roadtrek is mileage. The normal 17-18 mpg I get with the eTrek has been cut to between 10-12 mpg, This now after more than 2,000 miles of travel.
    Pulling up a typical mountain grade of 7 to 8%, I’m lucky to get my speed up no more than 45 to 50 mph. Going down, I shift the gears down and use the engine to help brake, as well as the brakes on the trailer, tied to my Sprinter brakes by a brake controller.
    On super steep grades, on a couple of occasions we have had had to let those brakes cool down by pulling over to the road at the bottom of a descent to let them cool off.
    So far, it’s been no problem at all. We still have to get home, so I am sure there will be more to write about towing a trailer with a Roadtrek on the remaining 2,000 miles back.
    Right now, we’re spending several days at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. That’s about 8,500 feet in elevation.
    But at the midway point in our family vacation, this has been a ball. My son Jeff and his wife Aimee are following us in a Roadtrek SS Ideal. We’ve picked up lots of curious looks from people seeing two Roadtreks and a travel trailer in a caravan.
    But the funniest moment came when a fellow camper, spotting us in the campground in our matching Roadtrek windbreakers, asked: “Are you guys in some sort of gang or something?”
    Oh yeah. We are. A Roadtreking gang.

    Sticking the camera outside the driver’s side window from our Roadtrek
    eTrek ... click on the image and you can see part of the trailer we’re towing and Jeff and Aimee in
    the Roadtrek SS Ideal in the background. And behind them, in our Honda
    Pilot, is my daughter and her family.
  14. Roadtrekingmike
    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 highlights from our 60,000 miles of Roadtreking travel over the past two years. After a quick look around the Cape, we’ll turn around and get ready to begin the first of our bucket list tours.
    Starting June 12, we’ll be doing a 3,500 mile stretch that has captured my imagination for a long time: The Great Lakes shoreline.
    I have wanted to do this route on a bicycle for a long time. But since I don’t have two to three months to devote to that particular means of travel, I’ll do it in our Roadtrek Etrek, documenting the interesting places and people that are found on the shoreline for this blog and for the Verizon Wireless folks, who have been running many of my reports regularly for the past few months on one of their websites. Verizon likes my on-the-road reports because of the way our Roadtreking life is shared through technology and the ability to report our travel adventures while we are out there, using 4g LTE Internet connectivity and a hist of apps and tech tools that keep us connected. In other words, I’m a geek.
    The Roadtrek Etrek fits right in with all that, of course, what with its solar power and all electric features that let us go days on end off the commercial power grid, totally self-contained and as connected to and surrounded by all the amenities and conveniences we have at home – even though we may be in a remote forest off a tree-canopied two track
    We’ll travel the shoreline as it winds up and around parts of six states, starting in the Lake Erie wetlands near the Pennsylvania/New York border and all the way around, to the Lake Huron “Sunrise Side,” on up to the rock shores of Lake Superior into Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota and down along past the spectacular sand dunes along Lake Michigan on through Chicago and up to Milwaukee where we’ll end the tour after a spectacular 4th of July Fireworks display.
    Even with nearly a month to cover it all, we’ll have to hurry. But it’s one of those bucket list things that is made for a Roadtreking adventure. I have a list of places and stories I may check out but, except for the Milwaukee fireworks, Jennifer and I are intentionally keeping our schedule fluid. There will be some things that we will stumble upon and the last thing we want is to be locked into a schedule and have to miss something cool because we “have” to be somewhere else.
    What’s the second bucket list tour?
    This one starts in mid July and will have us retracing large parts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the route taken by the Oregon Trail pioneers, starting in Pittsburgh and ending at the mouth of the Columbia River on Oregon’s Pacific Coast. And yes, Pittsburgh was the real starting pont. It is from there, on Aug. 31, 1803, on the Ohio River, that Meriwether Lewis first set off with his Corps of Disovery, joining up with William Clark on the Missisippi River before making their way to St. Louis and the Missouri River – America’s great river to the West.
    There will be a slight detour to the Hill Country of Nebraska. Out there, where the Oregon Trail became America’s first interstate highway, they sell a T-Shirt that says “The Original RV.” It depicts a covered wagon. Almost half a million people made their way along that trail from 1836-1869. There are spots along it today where you can still see the ruts from their wagons.
    Along the Snake River in Nebraska, we’ll attend the Nebraska Star Party July 27-August 1. This area is one of the best places in the Lower 48 to see the night sky with no light pollution. Every year, hundreds of stargazers gather here to marvel at the night sky. Many camp in the middle of a field, boondocking with no lights or electric so their telescopes and cameras have nothing interfering with the starlight. Again, a perfect spot for out Etrek.
    As we rejoin and go back and forth between the Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail routes, we’ll report for the blog on the amazing history of what they saw and experienced every day, showing what it is like today and and how their discoveries and pioneering shaped a nation. We’ll stop for several days at the Family Motorcoach Association’s Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase in Redmond, Ore., Aug. 13 to 16. More than 2,500 motorcoach owners are expected to be in attendance. Jennifer and I will do two seminars there, before heading for the coast, where Lewis and Clark stopped before they turned around and headed back.
    From there, we’ll slowly make our way back to Michigan, visiting Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park.
    In all, these two big trips. along with some fun stops along the way, will have us traveling about 8,000 miles though early September.
    Unless we find something else…. which, given our track record, is probably going to happen.
    See why we love this Roadtreking life?

    Lewis and Claks navigated the Ohi, Missisiipi, Missour and Columbia Rivers before heading off by horseback.
  15. Roadtrekingmike
    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 states, taking us from Cape Cod on the Atlantic to the far Pacific Northwest. When you add the 15,000 miles we drove in our first RV – a 2006 RS Adventurous – that now gives us 75,000 miles under our collective wheels.
    We are no longer rookies.
    Indeed, we’ve learned a few things.
    And I’ve made some mistakes. But you’ll have to read to the end of this for my confessions.
    Granted, these are our own RV lessons. They’re personal, related to our style of travel. They may not be what you want.
    1) There is No Hurry – Okay, sometimes you really do have to be somewhere at a certain time but, in general, RV travel needs to be flexible. To enjoy it to the max, you need to be able to stop when you want, where you want. Setting an agenda, over-planning and plotting out stop-by-stop overnights is way too organized for us and causes us to miss the things you can’t find in a book or through online research, the things that just happen, like taking a road far off the interstate just because it looks interesting. It almost always is, unless it’s US 20 in Iowa. But hey, even that was worth driving because it gave me an example to cite as the word’s most boring drive.
    2) Don’t believe interstate exit signs – Pet peeve time. I owe US20 as the inspiration for this, too. A sign along the interstate says there is gas, in my case diesel, at the next exit. You take it. At the top of the exit ramp the sign again says diesel and points to the left. Great. Uh huh. That diesel is 5.4 miles away in town. Meaning a more than 10 mile time-wasting roundtrip. I have found the RoadNinja app the best tool for finding reliable fuel at exits. Interstate signs are a scam. I’m convinced the various state highway departments get kickbacks from local merchants to lure unsuspecting travelers off the road. Probably not true. But it helps to have someone to blame. Which directly leads me to the next lesson
    3) Stay off the Interstates – They are boring. You’re in a tunnel. Trapped on the concrete. Buffeted by trucks. Surrounded by eye-pollution in the form of roadside signs. Forced to drive at ridiculously fast speeds. Everything around you blurs by. The only food available at the exits is fast food which is invariably bad food. Sometimes, there is no choice. Around big cities, interstates help get you out of the congestion. But, generally, two-lane roads – the so-called blue highways – are always more interesting and get you closer to the places and people that make the RV life so enjoyable.
    4) Take less clothes – We use eBags. Jennifer has three pink ones. Girls always need more clothes. I take two blue ones. I dare not peek in hers. But for me, one bag is for underwear, socks and T-shirts – I pack five of each. The other is for an extra pair of shorts, a pair of jeans and three shirts. In our wardrobe I have on a hangar a dress pair of slacks, one dress shirt, one sweater, plus a rain jacket and a fleeced sweatshirt. Jennifer has the female equivalent in the wardrobe. Plus her three pink bags. We hit a laundrymat or pick a campground that has a washer and dryer about every five or six days.
    5) Good camp chairs are a must – When we first started, we used two collapsible and telescoping Pico chairs. They’re okay. Chief benefit was they break down small enough to fit in the rear storage under the rear sofa. But they really aren’t very comfortable. This year, we bought two of the gravity chairs that let you lie back and look at the sky. That’s what we call them. Our look-at-the-sky-chairs. They are inconvenient when it comes to traveling with them but so worth it when we want to relax somewhere. We store them folded up in the back, in the space between the rear sofa and the passenger side bench.

    These gravity chairs take up a lot of room but are worth it.
    6) Follow the 230 rule – I had a fulltimer explain this to be early on. The 230 rule is “you stop when you have driven 230 miles or it’s 2:30 in the afternoon.” A variation is the 300 rule. No more than 300 miles or stop by 3:00PM. Regardless, the idea is get somewhere while it is still early enough to explore, chill, enjoy the place when you’re not wasted from driving mega miles. We are trying to adhere to that rule. In our early days, I looked at the daily driving mileage as a challenge. The more the better. I kept trying to set anther personal best. It’s 735 miles, by the way. Silly. Stupid, really. Is there anything worse than pulling into a campsite after dark? Less mileage and stopping early is our new mantra.
    7) Put away the bed – Granted, this is a personal preference. I know many Roadtrekers use the two single beds and leave them made as a bed everyday. We tried that but we prefer to sleep with the bed made up as a king. And every morning, we put it and the bedding away and make the back into a sofa again. It’s neater, gives us more space a place to eat, work on the computer and not feel cramped. The few times we’ve left it as a bed has made the coach feel way too small.
    8) Eat out often – Okay, here’s where we are way, way different than most Roadtrekers. But, again, this has worked best for us. For our style, not yours. I refuse to feel guilty about this: Most of the time, we eat in restaurants. We do fix breakfast in the Roadtrek, usually something simple like cereal and a banana. I carry a Keurig coffee maker and make two cups every morning. We usually pick up lunch at a restaurant and, about every other day, find a local place for dinner. When we do fix dinner in the Roadtrek, it’s simple and light, like grilled chicken strips over a salad. We use the Cuisinart Griddler for grilling and most of the cooking we do, instead of a charcoal or propane grill. The local restaurants really give you a feel for the people and place. It’s as much cultural as convenient. So we don’t fight it or feel shamed because we’re not carrying lots of frozen dishes and cooking every meal in the motorhome. We’re not full-timers, though the last four months have sure seemed like it at time. If we were, it would be different, I’m sure. But for now, we eat out. A lot.

    We cook on the Cuisinart Griddler.
    9) Winter is just as much fun as summer – We camp out in our Roadtrek all year round. Alas, we do have to winterize, living in Michigan as we do. But other than having to drink from bottled water and flush the toilet with antifreeze, it’s just as easy to RV in the winter as it is in the summer. Winter RVing is awesome. The crowds are gone, the snow makes everything beautiful and it is really, really fun. If you want to try it, drop me a note. We’re planning a winter camping trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in February and will invite a few winter camping newbies next year.
    10) Don’t make impulsive purchases – Here’s my confession time, where I mess up all the time. Case in point: Two folding bikes. I shelled out over $1200 to buy two Bike Friday folding bikes this summer when I saw them at a rally in Oregon. Big mistake. Yes, they are cool bikes. But, really, we didn’t need them. We have two full-sized bikes at home. If we will be using a bike a lot, I just need to put them on a bike rack attached to the rear hitch. I’m going to list the bikes on Craig’s List and make a promise to Jennifer to never again buy on impulse. I may also be listing the StowAway2 cargo box I bought this year (another $700 impulse buy.) Yes, it holds a lot of stuff. But we really don’t need a lot of stuff. The more we RV, the less we find we need to pack. Oh yeah, then there’s my drone. Another impulsive purchase. I’ve used the camera-equipped quadricopter fewer than a half dozen times on our trips. Maybe that will go on Craigs List, too.

    Wanna buy a cargo box, two folding bikes and a drone? Impulsive purchases all.
    So there you go ... my top 10 lessons learned. There were a lot of other things we’ve learned. But they tell me blog posts that have the phrase “top 10″ in them are read a lot more. Nobody would read “the 37 things we’ve learned…” So maybe I’ll do another list of my “top 10″ other lessons down the road. And another one after that.
    How about you? Use comments below to pass along the things unique to your RV style.
  16. Roadtrekingmike
    I have a whole new appreciation for my Roadtrek eTrek. It not only allows us to boondock, or dry camp, for days on end, it can haul us up some of the steepest mountains in Southwest Colorado… while hauling a travel trailer.
    Our little family caravan made our way south from Colorado Springs in some pretty dicey driving conditions. Heavy downpours, fog, slippery roads and high altitude. But it wasn’t until we hit US 160 near Wolf Creek Pass when I put the eTrek to the hauling test.
    Some 37 Miles of steep incline and a 8% winding decline made the ascent of Pikes Peak the day before seem like a Sunday drive. It was pouring rain the whole way. The eTrek drove firm and steady, though its’ a good thing the speed limit was 45 mph because that is about all I could get out of the Mercedes 3500 engine hauling our 21-foot AmerLite travel trailer.
    That’s when I remembered why Wolf Creek Pass was so familiar. It was a song made famous by Country music artist C. W. McCall’s humorous spoken-word song of the same name, in which the pass is fondly described as “37 miles o’ **** — which is up on the Great Divide.” In the song, two truckers drive an out-of-control Peterbilt down U.S. Highway 160 over the pass.
    I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide
    His lip was curled, and his leg was fried.
    And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard.
    I says, “Earl, I’m not the type to complain
    But the time has come for me to explain
    That if you don’t apply some brake real soon, they’re gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon…”
    (“Wolf Creek Pass” written by Bill Fries and Chip Davis, sung by C.W. McCall)
    Here is is if you want to sing along:
    http://youtu.be/xC_onLPc-0E
    It was a real test. The highway climbs to 10,857 feet, smack dab on the Continental Divide.
    I used the Mercedes engine to downshift on the decline. The trailer brakes stunk mightily as they heated up and we had to take a 45-minute break to let them cool down once we reached the bottom.
    My son, Jeff, following in a borrowed Roadtrek SS, had no problems. My daughter Wendy, following in our Honda Pilot SUV, suffered from altitude sickness.
    The rain continued all the way to Mesa Verde National Park. We didn’t get in until very late and got very wet setting up. It was my first test of backing up the trailer. After Wolf Creek Pass, it was a piece of cake.
  17. Roadtrekingmike
    Dennis George couldn’t believe his eyes.
    It was the morning of Tuesday Jan. 28, and he was staying at a Hampton Inn in Lakeland, FL He looked out his hotel room window and saw an empty parking spot where he had parked the brand new Roadtrek CS Adventurous the night before.
    “I thought maybe the hotel had towed it for some reason,” he said. “So I ran down to the desk and asked them. The clerk said no. Then one of their workers came in and said there was all sorts of broken glass out on the asphalt.”
    The glass was where he had parked.
    His beautiful new motorhome, bought just last October, had been stolen. Thieves had smashed the passenger window, found a spare set of keys he had hidden inside and taken off. Surveillance cameras from the hotel showed the two thieves in action. They smashed the window at 4:56 AM. They drove out at 5:05 AM
    The Dalkeith, Ontario, Canada native was traveling alone, living his retirement dream. He had been enjoying the weather in Florida after a 5,000 mile shakedown trip that took him through the western United States. He was in Lakeland to get some service done on his Roadtrek and took a hotel room because he couldn’t find a nearby RV park.
    He called the police as soon as he discovered the theft. An alert was sent throughout the south to law enforcement agencies. Roadtrek user groups and social media pages posted the picture of George’s CS.
    No one held out much hope. Many thought it would go straight to a chop shop.
    Fortunately, it didn’t. The thieves drove it around about 200 miles and abandoned it in Lakeland. It was recovered Friday, four days after it was stolen. Police never did find the thieves, though the investigation is continuing. The inside was left a mess of black fingerprint powder put down as part of the police investigation.
    “They took everything except my underwear, socks and dress clothes,” said the 67-year-old George, a divorced father of a 40-year-old son and a grandfather of two young girls, 15 and 11. “They cleaned it out. They got my computer, my iPad, my golf shirts, the bicycle on the front, pretty much everything. I read your blog and got the same GPS you recommend and even the same mattress topper you and your wife suggested from Bed, Bath and Beyond. They got that, too.”
    The theft was not the only setback George has had with his new RV.
    In December, at the Grand Canyon, he pulled into a ranger’s station to get an annual pass.
    “It’s a good thing I did because when I put my foot to the brake, it went all the way down to the floor. Thank God I found it out there at the ranger station. I was able to use the parking brake to stop. But if I had gone a couple more miles, there was a six percent downhill grade. No way would I have stopped.”
    George says his right front brake line became unseated from the brake line holder. That allowed the line to contact the exhaust has recirculation (EGR) tube and resulted in a hole in the brake line.
    Roadtrek has issued a recall for the problem, which involves an estimated 61 vehicles built on the Sprinter platform from February 14, 2013 through December 20, 2013.
    “That brake deal turned out to be a mess,”said George. “I had to be towed more than 200 miles to Phoenix to get that fixed at a Mercedes dealer.” Road service has handled the cost.
    George is currently in Sarasota, FL. His CS Adventurous is at a Mercedes dealer there, waiting for the broken passenger window to be replaced. He is using the down time to sort out his insurance claim for the items stolen from his motorhome. Despite the hassles, he is still upbeat about his Roadtrek and his new life on the road.
    He retired last fall, selling two businesses involved in commercial and industrial natural gas service back in Ontario. He plans to travel North America for four and five months at a time. He still has a fruit farm back in Dalkeith, a small town located about halfway between Ottawa and Montreal and he will return there each summer and early fall.
    “I know I’ve had a spell of bad luck,” he concedes. “But I’m just being as patient as I can be. I just want to get back out on the road. I’ve been looking forward to this stage of my life for a long time.”

    Dennis George and his new CS Adventurous – before the theft

    The police didn’t bother to clean up after themselves, either.

    Part of the broken glass caused by thieves who smashed in the passenger window
  18. Roadtrekingmike
    Thanks to the Internet and email, text messaging and Facebook updates, it’s easy to stay in touch with friends and family while traveling.
    But a very active group of RVers takes such connectivity to a whole new level, out-Interneting even the Internet when it comes to being able to communicate with the world.
    They take their own radio stations with them.
    They are members of the Amateur Radio Chapter of the Family Motorcoach Association and their radio stations are ham radio transceivers that let them communicate with other ham operators from their motorhomes and, during the off season, from their sticks and bricks homes.
    Amateur radio is not the same thing as CB, or Citizen’s Band radio. CB radio is short-range, low-powered communications and mostly used by truckers and highway drivers these days. It’s noisy, undisciplined and often plagued by interference and rude or profane language.
    Amateur radio is just the opposite, a popular hobby and service in which licensed “ham operators” operate communications equipment using a variety of forms, from voice to Morse Code to digital. To become a radio amateur, operators must demonstrate basic knowledge of radio technology and operating principles and pass an examination to get a Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) license to operate on radio frequencies known as the “Amateur Bands.” These bands are radio frequencies reserved by the FCC for use by ham radio operators.
    Ham frequencies can connect amateurs from across the street to across the world.
    Besides just talking and visiting with their on-the-air friends, many radio amateurs donate their time and equipment for public service work during times of emergency or disaster.
    I’ve been a ham operator since 1962 when, as a teenager, I became K8ZRH, my ham radio call. Over the years, I’ve been in and out of the hobby. For a while, I was obsessed with “chasing DX,” or making contact with different ham operators all over the world. I earned certificates for working amateurs in all 50 states, then from over 100 counties.
    I learned and mastered Morse Code, the language of transmitted dots and dashes. I built all sorts of different antennas, bouncing signals of satellites, even the moon.
    I embraced computer technology, joining my ham radio transceiver to my computer and using digital communications.
    I got involved in contesting, or radio sport as its sometimes known. There are ham radio contests almost every weekend in which hams try to make contact with operators under all sorts of conditions, such as using emergency battery or solar power and trying to accumulate as many contacts as possible in a specific period of time.
    The contests are training exercises, really. First and foremost, amateur radio is a service. If normal communications should ever fail, ham radio operators are practiced and ready to donate their time and expertise to keep the nation in touch.
    That’s the great thing about ham radio, there are so many fascinating activities and services you can tap into.
    Lately, it’s that public service aspect that has taken up most of my ham radio time. The first accessory I added to my motorhome when I started my RVing adventures was a ham radio transceiver. I’m part of my local community’s Amateur Radio Public Service Corps, which works with the Department of Homeland Security, to provide emergency communications when needed.
    I’ve taken special classes from meteorologists to be a severe weather spotter, something hams do when bad weather threatens to provide trained observers during weather warnings.
    And I’ve embraced ham “Nets,” short for Networks, or groups of stations that gather on a specific frequency at a set time to exchange communications. That’s how I discovered the FMCA Amateur Radio Chapter.
    The group runs communications Nets Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, gathering at 1 PM Eastern Time from all across the country. A Net Control volunteer coordinates check-ins and directs one station to talk at a time. Conversation typically revolves around the main interests of the members, motorhome travel and amateur radio. It’s like an RV rally on-the-air.
    Members chat about modifications they’ve done to their motorhomes, their radios, antenna systems and, of course, the weather.
    The chapter also has a website at http://fmcaarc.com that pinpoints the mobile or fixed locations of many of its 86 members on a map.
    And just like other FMCA chapters, they attend FMCA rallies and campouts throughout the year.
    Les Wright, is the chapter president, known to his fellow hams by his call sign AA7YC. He and wife, Carole, have been fulltimers since 2002, traveling the country in a 36-foot 2009 Alpine Coach. They are Nevada residents with longtime friends and family in the Reno area and usually spend a few weeks there each year. But with kids and grandkids in New York, North Carolina, Nevada, and California, they are on the road more often than not.
    Les has been a huge evangelist for both motorhoming and amateur radio.
    “The two go together hand in hand,” he said. “We get to stay in touch all the time and stay connected with what people are seeing, where they are going, instead of once or twice a year when we meet at rallies.”
    Les and Carole are both licensed and both participate in the radio contacts throughout the week. Their “radio shack,” as hams call their equipment room, connects through a computer in his motorhome with a transmitter stowed in the storage “basement.” He travels with several antennas, including one that mounts atop a telescoping flagpole attached to the back of the coach.
    “For us, being fulltimers, amateur radio has been a great way to have community wherever we go,” says Carole.
    For Karla and Larry Dayhuff (FMCA #) from Lecanto, FL , meeting the Wrights was infectious. Larry, had been a ham radio operator years before but was inactive. After being exposed to the FMCA Amateur Radio Chapter, he once again plunged into the hobby full tilt, even going so far as to study and pass the stringent exam for the most advanced ham license there is, Amateur Extra Class, N7LWD. Larry is now chapter Vice President.
    Wife Karla studied and obtained the General Class license, K4KLD, which allows her to operate on all ham bands. She’s the chapter Secretary and Membership Chair.
    They travel extensively in a 2006 Monaco Windsor and use amateur radio on the road from their motorhome and their Florida home.
    “We love the community we’ve met through RVing and ham radio,” she says. “We have met so many new friends.”
    Community. That’s a word you hear a lot from ham operators.
    Amateur radio is a very social pastime. While many are attracted by an initial interest in the technology and electronics that make two-way radio communication possible, most amateurs just enjoy “ragchewing,” or casual conversation with friends – friends who may just happen to on the other side of the continent, or world.
    And when you add in RVing and motorhome travel, there’s no shortage of fun things to talk about.
    Till next time, as the ham operators say ...73.
    (73 is the ham radio term for “Best Regards.”)

    FMCA membes Les and Carol Wright at the controls of their ham radio station in their 2009 Alpine Coach motorhome.

    This is my VHF/UHF ham rig mounted in my Roadtrek eTrek.
  19. Roadtrekingmike
    Every year since we were married more than 40 years ago, Jennifer and I have made our way to the little town of Frankenmuth, Mich., at the base of the Michigan Mitt’s Thumb region where we pay a visit to Bronner’s – the world’s largest Christmas store.
    Doubtless you’ve seen the signs along the interstates, more than 60 of them all over the country, inviting tourists to make the drive.
    It’s a huge store, over seven acres in size. And it’s crowded, especially at this time of the year. Over the three-day Black Friday weekend, 50,000 people shopped at Bronner’s.
    Two of them were Jennifer and me, as we do year after year. The very first Christmas tree ornament Jennifer and I bought as we started our married life came from Bronner’s. There have been many since. She often buys one for our kids and grandkids. Themed, of course, based on their interest or hobbies – like a golf ornament for a grandson, a ballerina ornament for our granddaughter, a stethoscope ornament or our doctor-son or a clarinet ornament for our music teacher son-in-law.
    You get the idea.
    It’s a Jennifer thing.
    Me? I like to get a goofy Christmas hat. It’s a Mike thing.
    Anyway, this year, like every year, she had all sorts of ideas for things to get for our house. But then I pointed out that we had two houses: Our sticks and bricks home downstate and, out in the parking lot, our RV motorhome, our Roadtrek eTrek.
    I brought it up to the designer folks at Bronner’s. Could they come up with a way to decorate the Roadtrek?
    They did… as you can see in the accompanying video.

    When the Roadtrek is in motion, some of the decorations need to be stowed. But most of them, thanks to suction cups and those little plastic tie downs, can be solidly affixed.
    The only problem I saw is that the Roadtrek decorations inspired Jennifer to add more still more bulbs and ornaments to the boxes of Christmas do-dads we already have at home and which she will soon have me hauling up to also get the house ready for the holiday.
    No problem.
    Happy wife. Happy life. And my wife loves Christmas decorating.
    Meantime, summer or winter, Bronner’s and Frankenmuth make for a great RV trip. There are two fully equipped campgrounds within spitting distance of the store. They are, alas, closed this time of the year. But there are lots of RV spaces in the Bronner’s parking lot, although no overnight stays are allowed.
    The store is open every day of the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Easter Sunday.
    Merry Christmas, everyone.

    No, the star isn’t part of our RV! We parked underneath it for the decorating. But it does look cool.
  20. Roadtrekingmike
    Ah ... the Sound of Silence.
    There really is a sound to it, you know. On a boondocking trip deep in the Michigan woods in Ogemaw County, we heard it good.
    There was the crackle of our campfire. A hoot of a distant owl. The yips of a pack of coyotes somewhere far to the west. The gurgle of the Rifle River moving over a stretch of rocks just downstream from where we were camped. The whooshing sound of wind whipping through a stand of pine.
    And on that clear night, the sound of boondocking silence comes with a view.
    Up above, as soon as you walked away from the fire and got your night eyes focused, a gazillion stars speckled the ink black sky.
    That’s the first big perk of boondocking, or being totally self-contained with no commercial power or water or sewer or any other service. Some people prefer to call it “dry camping” or “independent camping.” Other terms are “primitive camping” or “dispersed camping.”
    Whatever, we were loving it.
    No one else was around. Probably for miles.
    Tai, our Norwegian Elkhoud, ran free, though not very far from our motorhome. I swear he smiled the whole weekend, blissfully exhausted from leash-free hikes and the new scents of deer trails and the deep woods.
    We slept with the blinds up and the windows open with complete privacy.
    In our all electric Roadtrek eTrek, with solar power and a diesel heater connected to the engine, we can go that way for days. In fact, the limiting factor for us out there is how much food we can bring. More often than not, we need to resupply about every three days. Because we have eight house batteries, 250 watts of solar power, a diesel generator that charges the batteries on a half hour or so by just running the engine, a refrigerator, heater, microwave/convection oven, air conditioner and inductive stove that are powered by a 5,000-watt inverter, our eTrek is made for boondocking like that.
    But most all Class B motorhomes can boondock, some for a night or so, others a couple days.
    But where?
    I use the Internet and apps to help me find new places to boondock.
    For starters, check out the app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices by AllStays (www.allstays.com). They list more than 22,000 commercial campgrounds, state and national parks and boondocking spots, everything from KOAs and Walmarts to state and federal forests, military and BLM land. This is my favorite app and website, offering the most detailed information of any app I’ve yet found on places to stay.
    There are other resources.
    Free Campgrounds for RVs (http://www.freecampgrounds.com) has a big database, sorted by state, of state, federal and county land open to camping, most without hookups or services.
    For boondocking and camping information about National Forests, check out the very useful U.S. National Forest Campground Guide (http://www.forestcamping.com). Much of the research was done by Fred and Suzi Dow, a couple of avid RVers who have spent the last 17 years visiting 155 national forests, 20 national grasslands, 1 national tallgrass prairie and 2,383 developed campgrounds.
    I also like the Free Campsites website (http://freecampsites.net). There’s an interactive map as well as comments and reviews of boondocking spots.
    You can also check the site http://boondocking.org. It’s a database of free boondocking spots based on GPS coordinates. Enter in your location’s latitude and longitude and it will tell you whether the closest boondocking spot may be.
    Those are some of my favorite boondocking resources. How about you? Share your suggestions under comments.

    Boondocking in our eTrek the middle of the Michigan woods in Ogemaw County.
  21. Roadtrekingmike
    It’s hard to believe how much a $16 purchase at Walmart can brighten your day. Such it was the other day when we spotted a pile of Crock-Pots on sale.
    It was exactly what we needed. Small, round and just the right size to fit in the sink of our Roadtrek eTrek RV.
    The sink? Exactly. That way, as we travel across the country during the day, the slow cooking crock pot can prepare our evening meals. By the time we reach our destination, a hot, sumptuous dinner is ready. Let’s face it, one of the bothers of traveling in an RV can be meal preparation. After a long day on the road, it’s just too easy to stop for fast food or hit a restaurant. With our new Crock-Pot, we can have a nutritious, home-cooked meal without the hassle.
    We’ve searched far and wide for the round four-quart sized model for months. We even brought home a bunch of other models that we found. None fit that sink.
    We had all but given up the hunt until, walking down an aisle at our local Walmart this past weekend, there it was. Boxes of them. exactly what we were looking for. Exactly what we had given up finding. The four quart size is perfect for two people. We can easily get two meals out of each dinner. One to eat that night, one for the refrigerator or freezer.
    The model we have – for those of you who want one – is officially known as the Crock-Pot SCR4oo-B 4 Quart manual slow cooker. We also found it on Amazon for $15.92 in black. The one we got at WalMart was red. It has a removable stoneware insert for cooking and it also doubles as a serving dish.
    Ah … but what do we eat, other than beef stew?
    That’s the reason for this post … we want your recipes.
    Many of you have been using Crock-Pots for years as you’ve traveled. We’ve read your posts here and on our Facebook Group. So, using comments below, please tell us what you cook in your Crock-Pots and share the recipe.
    Jennifer and I look forward to trying out your suggestions!
  22. Roadtrekingmike
    Staying in touch while RVing is a challenge we all face. And a key tool many of us end up acquiring is a data card that lets us set up our own Wi-Fi networks to connect our various tablets and computers to the Internet.
    True, many of today’s tablets and smartphones have a feature that will let you do that without the need for special card. But a special data card adds, in my view, more convenience. It can be plugged in and kept somewhere in the RV and be always charged, always ready and not pull down the battery on the other devices.
    All of the various wireless providers have them and they are branded under various names. I happen to use the MiFi card on the Verizon Wireless Network, also referred to as a Jetpack. I’ve tried other providers but it has been my experience that Verizon has the most reliable connections nationwide.
    The MIFi is one of several gadgets they sell that creates your own wireless network. It is essentially a wireless router that acts as mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. MiFi stands for “My Wi-Fi” and it can provide Internet access for up to ten devices at a distance up to 30 feet. I’ve shared before how it is the primary way I update this blog and our Facebook pages and the RV newsletter while we are traveling across North America.
    But since so many of you have written to ask about the monthly price, I thought I’d do this brief little post that explains data usage and the costs associated with the card.
    With Verizon – and this is pretty much true of the other providers – you first need to get the device. Verizon has a couple MiFi/Jetpack models that are free with a two-year contract, and some newer ones with longer battery life that cost up to $49. That’s a one time fee, should you choose to purchase one of the newer models.
    So that’s step one, get a contact for it and get the device.
    Now come the fees. It all starts with $20 a month fee to add the MiFi/Jetpack to what they call a Share Everything account.
    This is on top of whatever you are paying for cellular service each month.
    Then you add the cost of your sharable data, or the data the card or router will be pumping to your devices on your hot spot network.
    4GB is $30 a month
    6GB is $40 a month
    8 GB is $50 a month
    10 GB is $60 a month
    12 GB is $70 a month
    Plans go all the way up to 30 GB for $185
    But how do you know how much data you need? There is a special tool that you can access to help you estimate the tier of data you should purchase. Click HERE to get the online data calculator. You enter in some information on how you’ll be using the Internet and it helps you come up with the best plan. Once you select a plan, you can adjust it up or down anytime, but it’s best to use it for a month use to see the patterns.
    I asked Michelle Gilbert, Verizon’s Public Relations Manager for Michigan/Indiana/Kentucky Region, to help come up with some examples. Here’s what she reports:
    5 GB of usage is equivalent to:
    25 emails per day
    Viewing 5 web pages per day
    Streaming 60 minutes of music per day
    Streaming 10 minutes of lower quality videos per day.
    Uploading and/or downloading 2 photos per day
    12 GB of usage is equivalent to:
    50 emails per day
    Viewing 25 web pages per day
    Streaming 60 minutes of music per day
    Streaming 30 minutes of lower quality videos per day.
    Uploading and/or downloading 2 photos per day
    Clearly, streaming video and music takes up the most bandwidth.
    These data plans are relatively new. There used to be a flat fee unlimited plan you could get. Those were the good old days, before so many discovered their usefulness.. This summer, when I was at a huge RV rally in Gillette, WY, my computer showed I was in the range of 14 other Verizon data cards.
    You can experiment with the online calculator and come up with your own usage but generally, I would suggest RVers start with a 4GB or 6GB plan. That means $50 or $60 a month will be added to your cell phone bill. But that’s the cost of being connected and not having to put up with the always-bad free WiFi we encounter at most campgrounds.
    Is it worth it? That’s for you to determine. For me… that’s a big 10-4!
  23. Roadtrekingmike
    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 on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis.
    “NThe Pikes Peak Highway is 19 miles long, a 38 mile round trip. The trip up works the engine hard. It burns fuel like crazy. Coming down, not so much. But if you decide to go, make sure you have enough fuel.
    On previous visits, I twice tried to get to the summit. The first time was during a business trip a couple years ago in a rented Kia. On a cold January day we made it to 11 and a half miles up. But a sudden snowstorm shut down the rest of the drive. We white-knuckled the way back back down behind a snow plow. By the time we reached the bottom the entire road was closed.
    On another visit, we boarded the cog railroad that runs to the summit. It, too, had to turn back because of blowing snow and heavy winds.
    So on this trip with the Roadtrek, last August, we we optimistic. At least it wasn’t snowing. But it could have. Snow falls at the higher elevation all times of the year.
    "No problem,” the ranger said, motioning us around. “You can handle it in this. Just watch the brakes on the way down. They will heat up.”
    It was 87 degrees when we set off. By the time we reached the summit, it was 46 degrees.
    It took about an hour and a half to drive to the summit. There are lots of twists and turns and we frequently stopped at some of the pulloffs for photos as we climbed through the various regions, from the rock strewn glacial moraines at the bottom on through the alpine and sub alpine areas. We found nothing particularly scary about the drive up. But we were too bust oohing and ahhing at the incredible scenery. The Roadtrek handled the constant climbing with plenty of power.
    At Glen Cove, between mile 11 and 12, there is a place that sells souvenirs and has a limited-service restaurant. But after that, it’s almost straight up as you pass the tree line where conditions make it impossible for any upright plant to grow. At Mile Marker 16 you’ll pass Devil’s Playground, so named because of the way lightning jumps from rock to rock up there during storms.
    The summit itself is basically a parking lot. There’s a small weather station up there, an observation deck and, of course, a souvenir shop.
    We were the only RV up there at the time, though I’ve had other RVing friends say they drove their drove their Class Bs up there, too. I suppose a C might also make it. But I think it would be a tough haul for anything bigger.
    Jennifer and I brought our son, Jeff, and his wife, Aimee, up to the summit in our Roadtrek, as well as our dog, Tai, and their dog, Sequoia.
    We wandered around for a bit, a little dizzy at times from the altitude. The dogs seemed refreshed in the shin, cool air. We shivered in the wind and, took the obligatory “we were here” photos and started back down.
    The drive down was much more challenging. The hard part was not letting the momentum build up too much speed. I downshifted pretty much the whole way down to use the engine to help me slow, but when we stopped for the mandatory brake check at Glen Cove, we had to pull over and wait for a half hour or so for the brakes to cool down. We weren’t alone. About every other automobile and every truck had to pull over, too, many of them so hot they were smoking.
    There’s no way to avoid using the brakes as you head down. The secret to keep them from burning up, we found, is to apply sharp and firm pressure to reduce speed and then release the brakes, instead of a riding them with a steady pressure. Engine downshifting is the best way to go, just watch the RPMs to keep it from redlining.
    I used the time to take Tai for a walk. Just down a service road off the Glen Cove parking lot, we jumped a couple of big mule deer. Tai felt pretty smug as he watched them run off.
    Finally, as we were heading down the mountain and rounding those hairpin turns with the awesome scenery, I stuck the GoPro out the window and shot a few seconds of video the drive down. Check this clip out:

    Pretty awesome, huh?
    Pikes Peak. Been there done that. In our RV. Total time from start to finish and our exploration at the summit was about three and a half hours.
    It’s one of our favorite memories.
    Next time, I’m going to stop and explore more on both the ascent and the descent. I’ll make an entire day of it.

    At the summit of Pikes Peak, 14,114 feet

    Spectacular views abound

    You actually look down on other mountains from the Pikes Peak summit.

    It was in the upper 80s down at the start of the climb but in the 40s up top. Our Roadtrek hauled four adults and two big dogs with ease.
  24. Roadtrekingmike
    I get lots of questions and requests for suggestions and recommendations about the tech gear I use to capture and blog the reports I’m doing out on the road. I’m always adding various things, but here’s my latest update on the gear I like to take with me.
    My main video camera – I use the Canon XA20 Professional Video Camera. I love this camera. I got this in the fall of 2013 and have found it to be the perfect ”run-and-gun” camcorder, suitable for HD ENG work (Electronic News Gathering), event coverage, interviews, scenic shots, how-to-videos and documentary filmmaking. The camera features a 1/2.84″, 1920 x 1080 CMOS sensor that captures video at various frame rates up to 59.94p, including a 24p mode for a more cinematic feel. The integrated Canon 20x HD Optical zoom lens has a 35mm equivalent zoom range of 26.8 to 576mm and features an 8-bladed iris to render highlights in a more natural manner. It uses professional XLR audio inputs for two channel recording. I use an attached shotgun mic and a wireless mic on the two inputs.
    Back-up Video Cameras (Two) – GoPro Her03 + Black Edition video cameras . Waterproof, dustproof, HD and able to be strapped to anything from a helmet to the side of my Roadtrek, these cameras ges great wide angle perspectives great for action shots. There are lots of mounts. I have a helmet mount for biking and a suction cup mount for slapping on my motorhome or any flat surface. One of tjese cameras is dedicated to my drone, see below.
    Wireless Microphone System – Good sound is essential. I use the Sennheiser EW 100-ENG G2 Wireless Lavalier Microphone System, with BodyPack Transmitter,Plug-on Transmitter, Camera Receiver. This system is a workhouse for professional videographers and news crews. It provides video recording in the most varied recording situations, from as far as 100 feet. The ME 2 clip-on microphone is virtually invisible. The extremely small SK 100 G2 bodypack transmitter and the SKP 100 G2 plug-on transmitter as well as the EK 100 G2 camera receiver feature nine frequency banks with four directly accessible presets each.
    My main DSLR Camera – The Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP with an 18-135 mm lens. Awesome photos, great HD video. I bought this to do still and video but now use just for stills. Since this is a bit tricky to focus for video out in the boonies, I now use dedicated video and still cameras. This camera captures images with exceptional clarity and tonal range and offers more than enough resolution for big enlargements or crops. This first-class sensor features many of the same new technologies as used by professional Canon cameras to maximize each pixel’s light-gathering efficiency. Its APS-C size sensor creates an effective 1.6x field of view (compared to 35mm format).
    My secondary DSLR Camera – Lately, I’ve also added the new Canon PowerShot SX50 HS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 50x Optical Zoom. I have been stunned at the capabilities of this camera and especially how clear and crisp that 50X zoom is in geting me up close to wildlife and nature shots. This is much lighter than the T3i and is seriously vying as my always-carry camera.
    Main lens – Because I like photographing wildlife – big, dangerous wildlife like wolves, moose, bison and bear – I need a good telephoto. But I don’t want to have to carry extra lenses. So I got the Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens for Canon DSLR Cameras. This lens is amazingly compact and it works on everything from wide angles to telephoto.
    Bag for Cameras – After years of searching, I’ve found the perfect gear bag for my DSLR calera, videocamera, lenses, wireless mics and batteries. It also holds my 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s the Kata PL Reporter Bag, model Pl-Rpt-30. The flap features quick release buckles for full opening or a quick top-access zipper opening for when quiet is necessary, like when you don’t want to disturb the wildlife you’re trying to photograph. The organizer pockets on the front will hold your small personal items like a wallet, passport etc. Carry comfortably with the padded shoulder strap or, when on the move, tuck the bag under your arm using the detachable handle strap.
    I also love my Mountainsmith Descent AT Recycled Camera Bag. It’s a backpack, er, make that a frontpack. It is held in place on your chest by a shoulder harness system. Cameras are always within easy reach but I have both hands free for balance and mobility. This can hold both my still and video cameras. Great for wilderness hikes.
    Computer – The MacBook Pro with Retina display. Quite simply, this is the finest computer I have ever owned. Mine is the 15-inch version, with the 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 processor. I have 16 GB of RAM and 750 GB of flash storage. Because there are no moving parts, the the solid state flash drive boots up remarkably fast. About 20 seconds does it.
    Video editing software – I use Final Cut Pro X. Fast, powerful, full featured and able to handle 1080p HD video without breaking a sweat.
    Portable hard drive – HD video files are huge. So I carry the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1TB external hard drive. I make files for each shoot, organize them on the FreeAgent and never worry about using up my MacBook Pro storage.
    Backup Power – There are so many things that depend on battery power. Cameras, smartphones, tablets, laptops. I bring the Mophie Powerstation XL with me on all trips. It charges anything that I have that has a USB connector.
    Laptop bag – The SwissGear SA1923 ScanSmart Backpack carries my computer, cables, wires, adapters, chargers, notebooks, pens, thumbdrives and more stuff than anyone would ever need. I’ve literally tried every bag out there. After years of searching, this is the best for me. Padded protection for my laptop, lots of extra compartments, quality zippers and seams, I will never use another.
    Smartphone – I use the iPhone 5S with 65 GB. I’ve had every iPhone since they came out and just keep coming back to them. Nothing is better. I’ve used many of the Android phones, of which I most like the Galaxy S 4 and the Note 3.
    Tablet – The iPad. The 4g Version 3 model. Great for apps on the road. Check my PC Mike NBC-TV reports for my favorite apps.
    My Network – Verizon Wireless. Verizon, I’ve found, offers the best and reliable nationwide coverage. I’ve had AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. None came close to Verizon in terms of coverage while on-the-road, offering 3 and 4g coverage and reliability. If no WiFi is available, I use the Verizon MiFi wireless modem to set up a 4g hotspot on the Verizon network. That lets me use my MacBook Pro for web updates, uploading photos and videos.
    Ham radio – I’m a long-time licensed amateur radio operator (K8ZRH) and I always have a rig with me. I travel with the ICOM IC-V85 two meter FM hand held transceiver and, permanently mounted, the Kenwood 144/440 MHz TM-V71A transceiver. I use amateur radio for emergency communications, weather monitoring and just plain chit-chatting with locals on their repeaters. I did a blog post on installing ham radio in an RV. I’m hoping to add an HF model some day soon.
    GPS gear – For my Roadtrek, I use the Rand McNally TripMaker RVND 7710. This has a seven inch screen and can be synced to a central site to reflect the latest in construction issues and detours. Made specifically for RVs with lots of RV-specifica data and Points of Interest (POI), it is the most accruate and easy-to-follow vehicle navigation system I’ve yet to use. For my long bicycle rides and off road exploring, I use the Garmin Edge 705. Though made specifically for cycling, it slips off the handlebars mount easily and can be carried in my pocket for hiking.
    My Drone – Lately, I’ve also been having a lot of fun with my own personal drone. It’s really not a drone in the sense of the military drones we keep hearing about but is a radio controlled quadricopter, the Phantom 2 with a Zenmuse H3-2D Gimbal that acts as a steadycam for the GoPro Hero 3 camera it carries. I use this for aerial shots to show scenic views and overhead perspectives of the places I blog about. I have an FPV (First Person Video) monitor attached to the flight controller that transmits back the image the camera is recording. The camera has a built in compass and GPS navigation control.
    Google Glass – I am one of the Google Glass Explorers, those Google invited in to experiment with its new wearable computer and am indeed experimenting with it in my Roadtreking reporting. The device is expected to go on sale in late spring 2014. Right now I use it primarily to record video and shoot still pictures. I did a review on Google Glass for my PC Mike blog and already have done a couple of videos with it for the blog and will do many more as the 2014 travel season gets underway. It has lots of apps that work with it, projecting information on a little screen right in front of your right eye. It’s connected to the Internet and uses your voice to open and close apps, share messages on social media, record messages and to answer questions you verbally ask it just as you would type them with a keyboard on the Google search engine.
    Clothing – I wear coats, shorts, jackets, vests, pants and shirts made by ScottEVest, an American maker of tech-enabled very high quality casual clothing that is known for having an abundance of pockets for all the tech gear one would want to carry around. The company started with a great photographer’s vest and for well over a decade, I proudly wore mine all over the world. Now, Scott Jordan, the guy behind the company, makes a whole line of mens and womens clothing. They are stylish and comfortable and perfect for all my gadgets and gizmos.
  25. Roadtrekingmike
    Roadtrek Motorhome’s new e-Trek is now showing up in dealer showrooms across North America and I just may be the very first consumer to take possession.
    Or so Chad Neff of American RV in Grand Rapids told me as he handed over the keys to Jennifer and I. Tai, our Norwegian Elkhound, had already ensconced himself inside.

    My trek for the eTrek began in September when I went to the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada to do a video news story on the new model, built on the Mercedes Sprinter frame. It’s 22 feet nine inches long and nine feet five inches tall on a 170-inch wheelbase.

    At heart, Jennifer and I are boondockers. We prefer camping deep in the woods, away from crowded campgrounds. Because the eTrek can totally power itself with a bank of eight AGM batteries, a rooftop solar array capable of putting out 240 watts, a 5000 watt inverter for 110 appliances and a diesel system that works as a generator to very quickly charge the system, it means that we can run everything we need – heat, air conditioning, TV, DVD, the water pump, even the mircowave – for up to nine hours without having to start the engine to charge those batteries. That’s running everything, all at once. In real conditions, that doesn’t happen.
    “You can totally charge everything by just running the engine for 20 minutes to a half hour,” said Howard Stratton, Roadtrek’s vice president of operations when we visited the factory this past monday to work on a video about other Roadtrek developments.
    How is that possible? The eTrek utilizes a 3500W generator/alternator mounted to the van's diesel engine that can charge eight dead auxiliary batteries in only 40 minutes.
    There are two optons we did not get: an 100W EFOY methanol fuel cell generator and three lithium ion batteries that would save weight over the eight AGM batteries.
    While there, we saw the Roadtrek assembly crew putting the finishing touches on the unit we would get three days later through our dealer in Grand Rapids.

    I wish I could give you all a full shake down review on the eTrek. But it is wintertime and as we left Grand Rapids to drive back to our suburban Detroit home, we were being chased by a huge winter storm named Draco, which deluged parts of the Midwest and northern Michigan with up to 20 inches of snow.
    Our 155-mile trip was in pretty stiff winds. Immediately I notice how well it handled. The 2006 Roadtrek RS that I traded in (it’s available at American RV) has single rear wheels. The eTrek, like later model Sprinters, has dualies. I’m not sure if that was why it seemed to be more stable or it was just that new RV love affair I had going. We returned home around dark and by morning, we had two inches of snow on the ground.
    Hmmm. Do solar panels charge when covered in snow?
    I took the eTrek out for my last-minute Christmas shopping errands. The roads were slick in spots but I found it handled well and had no tendency to skid on the icy spots. All that weight helps, I guess. The eTrek’s weight, not mine.
    I spent time this afternoon running everything I could as I familiarized myself with switches. The heat, pushed out through the air conditioning unit in the ceiling, warmed it to a pretty comfortable 63 degrees after an hour’s use. Outside, it was about 25 degrees, with a very stiff wind making the wind chill much less. We’ll see how it heats with that unit in some further tests. Because there is no propane, the usual forced air heater than ran on propane is absent on the eTrek.
    I did not use the water pump or the instant hot feature. It hasn’t been winterized yet but since those systems are dry, I was told not to worry. I’m thinking I may want to put some antifreeze in the traps anyway.
    I’ve got a lot more inside putzing to do so I can be sure I know where everything is and how it works. We leave for Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida right after the first of the year, so full tests are coming shortly.
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