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Roadtrekingmike

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  1. Roadtrekingmike
    One of the biggest surprises we had last year in our travels was with KOA – Kampgrounds of America. On our trip west and then on other meanderings over the season, we had the opportunity of staying at about a dozen KOA campgrounds across the U.S.
    They were all good experiences, to be sure, but we couldn’t help but notice some big differences between the properties.
    And so today, when we see that KOA has re-branded itself by deciding to classify each of their more than 400 properties according to the level of service, the amenities and the facilities itself, we have to nod in agreement. Good idea, KOA!
    KOA Chairman Jim Rogers made the announcement in a news release to rvdailyreport and said re-branding will direct the right marketing messaging to the right guests.
    Here’s how the re-branding works.
    KOA Journey campgrounds are for on-the-move campers, those looking mostly for an overnight stop, located close to major interstates and highways. As much as 20 percent of all KOA branded campgrounds will be in this category.
    KOA Holiday campgrounds fir in as more of a base camp experience, a place to stay for several days, a weekend or as a local base at the end of the day as the guests explore local attractions. These will comprise maybe 75%. of all KOA campgrounds.
    KOA Resorts are the top of the line facility, making up around 5% of all campgrounds. These offer lots of amenities and top-rate facilities, a five star camping experience and a place where guests can hang out all day, relaxing and engaging in recreational activities.

    “This is not a good, better, best way of looking at our campgrounds,” said KOA President Hittmeier in the rvdailyreport news release.”It is designed to help guests better understand what they can expect from the facilities at which they chose to stay.”
    This makes a lot of sense to me. In our travels this past season, we experienced all three. My favorite KOA by far was the Badlands/White River KOA in Interior, SD, which we used as a base camp for two days while we explored the Badlands National Park just down the road. It had trees, which in the Badlands is a very big deal. They had great breakfasts and barbeque dinners and there were all sorts of dirt roads nearby that let me do some fun mountainbiking in full view of the breathtaking tabletop buttes and craggy bluffs. A large swimming pool was particularly welcome after hot, dusty days spent tramping in the Badlands.
    We also really enjoyed staying at the flagship KOA in Billings, MT, located right on the banks of the Yellowstone River. This was the site of the very first KOA and it offered all sorts of games and activities and some very deluxe, oversized patio campsites.There was a basketball course, min0 golf, two large playgrounds and, of course, an outdoor heated pool and hot tub.
    But in all the KOAs we visited, there was a consistency of service that we really appreciated, especially after a long day on the road. We were always escorted to our spot and offered help in backing in or setting up. The restrooms and showers at every KOA we stayed at were sparking clean, no matter what time of the day or night we used them. There was usually a store or facilities where we could restock on supplies or find food and refreshment.
    That reliability of excellence won us over. Knowing what to expect when you book a campground, and never being disappointed, is a great incentive to keep me coming back. The re-branding initiative will make booking a KOA campsite even more reliable.
  2. Roadtrekingmike
    Kampgrounds Of America’s rebranding of its campgrounds based on their features and amenities has kicked off with the Billings, Montana KOA Campground, which officially becomes the Billings KOA Holiday Campground.
    The change is the beginning of a new brand structure for the 51-year-old iconic North American camping company. Three new brand segments will better identify the specific offerings of KOA’s 485 campgrounds for the millions of North American camping families that use KOA each year.
    Over the next few years, KOA campgrounds across North America will be re-branded as either a KOA Journey, a KOA Holiday or a KOA Resort campground.

    "Segmenting our famous KOA brand in this way will help our campers select just the KOA they need for their next trip," said Vice President of Marketing Toby Hedges. "Each KOA is unique, but each Journey, Holiday and Resort KOA will have amenities and services in common that will make it easier for campers to find just the right campground. KOA began 51 years ago right here in Billings, so it's only right that we should begin this new chapter for KOA at the Billings KOA Holiday."
    KOA Journey Campgrounds are identified as convenient to major highways, include long pull-through sites and provide a relaxing overnight oasis for travelers.
    KOA Holiday Campgrounds, such as the Billings KOA Holiday, are great base camps to explore the area, and include family activities and additional amenities to make these KOAs great getaways for short vacations. They will also all feature KOA Deluxe Cabins, which include full bathrooms and kitchens.
    KOA Resorts will offer campers a true resort-style vacation with luxurious pools, patio RV sites, Deluxe Cabin linen service and a specially trained activities and recreation staff.
    Kampgrounds of America is celebrating its 51st Anniversary in 2013. KOA, the world's largest network of family-friendly campgrounds, was born on the banks of the Yellowstone River in Billings, Montana in 1962. For more information, go to www.KOA.com.
    About the Author: Mike Wendland is a veteran journalist who travels the country in a Roadtrek Type B motorhome, accompanied by his wife, Jennifer, and their Norweigian elkhound, Tai. Mike is an FMCA member (F426141) and is FMCA's official on-the-road reporter. He enjoys camping (obviously), hiking, biking, fitness, photography, video editing and all things dealing with technology. His "PC MIke" technology segments are distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations. More from this author. Reach mike at openmike@fmca.com.
  3. Roadtrekingmike
    Just north of the Missouri “boot heel” is the small community of Sikeston, right off Interstate 57. It’s a great place to overnight. If you stay at the Hinton RV Park, they’ll arrange for a van to take you to dinner at a place you will not soon forget.
    On our visit, we were with a group of 12 RVers, on the way to a Branson, MO rally. Our group came from Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Ontario and we were crowded driving in that stretch van the mile or so to Lambert’s Cafe, “Home of the Throwed Rolls.” Lambert’s is a unique Amerian culinary icon, founded in 1942 and known far and wide for it hot “Throwed Rolls.”
    http://youtu.be/jz-6DZ8tJHQ
    Yup. You heard right. Throwed rolls. Like you see in the video. Gloved servers toss em at you. Raise your hand and there will be a “throwded roll” in it. Gigantic, baked-from-scratch, five inches in diameter, fluffy, hot and ready for drizzled honey, butter, molasses or sorgum. Last year, Lambert’s baked and “throwed” 2,246,400 rolls to its customers.
    There’s more than the rolls of course. We’re talking massive quanttites of Southern Food. Fried catfish.Pulled pork.Fried ham. Fried chicken. Chicken and dumplings. Ribs. You don’t count calories here. If you do, you may get bopped with a throwed roll.
    Servers come by offering side dishes like black eyed peas, tomatoes and macaroni, fried potatoes and fried okra.
    Nobody leaves Lambert’s hungry.
    I swear the van taking us back to the campground was even more of a tight fit as we waddled out after dinner.
    There are two other Lambert’s Cafes. But Sikeston is the original. Well worth a visit.
  4. Roadtrekingmike
    Latest in Class B RVs on display at Pomona
    All the major Class B manufacturers are here at Pomona: Roadtrek, Pleasureway, Leisure Travel, Airstream, Sportsmobile, Winnebago.  I walked through and sampled the models on display.  Every manufacturer offers something...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


    Source
  6. Roadtrekingmike
    As part of our blogging, we now have the ability to do live videos and interviews with folks of interest to the Roadtreking world. With that, we can answer questions, too.
    The videos are broadcast as live events on the Net, but also available for later playback on demand from You Tube.
    The first one I did was this week with my friends Jim and Chris Guld of Geeks on Tour fame. Many of you have met the Gulds as they’ve taught technoogy at various RV gatherings around the country.
    Today, while the Gulds were attending and teaching at a rally in Kissimmee, FL for about 200 members of the Roadtrek International chapter of the Family Motor Coach Association, they got me online from my Michigan home and we did a Q&A session with the audience.

    It was pretty funny, really. The first eight and a half minutes or so were spent trying to figure out how to broadcast my audio to the group without feedback loops. They had the image projected up on a screen but the echo and feedback loops that they were getting looked like they’d scuttle it all for a few minutes.
    After the event was recorded, Chris went in and edited out most of the sound issues.
    For Jim eventually got it going as as Chris walked the floor, we took some questions and answers from the audience.
    It ended up going 36 minutes.
    I’m very excited about Google’s Hangout On Air technology and will be using it regularly on the blog from now on.
    In fact, an hour after finishing with Chris and Jim, I set up my own Hangout On Air event and got our buddy Campskunk on to talk about fulltiming in a Class B van.
    Look for that video report tomorrow. And to get notice of these, you might want to get a Google + account. I use the email ocsmike@gmail on Google +. Add me to your circle and then you will know when we’re doing these. You;ll have the ability to ask questions during live events. And everything we do will archive so they can be embedded into blog posts like this.
    Hope you enjoy this!
  7. Roadtrekingmike
    John and Terry O’Brien love old travel trailers.
    From their Silver Springs, FL home, the New York transplants did one up in the style of the Fifties a couple of years ago. It was so unique that the Travel Channel saw it at an RV show they were covering, did a feature on it and as a result, John received an offer he couldn’t refuse.
    So when they saw an old beat up old 1987 16-foot Casita travel trailer in a junkyard not long afterwards, they knew it was time for another restoration project.
    The old trailer they sold was was themed for the fifties. It just made sense – since they were married in 1961 – to make this one Sixties-styled.
    The result of their spectacular “Lost in the 60s” restoration.
    I caught up with them at the Florida RV Supershow, where they were showing off their creation as part of a group of restoration and old-RV enthusiasts called the “Tin Can Tourists.”
    They gave me a nifty little tour of their old trailer. I think you’ll agree when you see the video, this one was over the top.
    What’s next? They want to do an old trailer up in a Parrothead/Margarita theme honoring Jimmy Buffett’s contribution to the culture.
    How come they are so good at this? John’s hobby is restoring antique cars. Terry loves decorating.
    If you attend the big RV shows, look for them and the Tin Can Tourist group. You’ll enjoy the visit.
    Source
  8. Roadtrekingmike
    The people who live in southwest Colorado have big smiles on their faces these days.
    Us, camped for our last day in the knock-your-socks-off beautiful Mesa Verde National Forest before moving on to Telluride and a few more spots, not so much. t
    The locals are grinning because the risk of wildfires - which devastated the region last year – is way down now. We’re not quite as appreciative because our plans were altered by a day of mountain monsoons.
    We had planned to do some video and still beauty photos of our Roadtrek eTrek navigating the winding mountain roads overlooking spectacular valley and canyon vistas.
    Before setting out, I had to move the travel trailer my daughter and her family is using from their full hookup site to a dry camping spot across the road. That went fairly easy as I hooked it up to the Roadtrek and then backed it into a new spot. Im getting used to backing the trailer now. Not good, but used to it. Close enough to at least get the job done.
    Then my son moved his borrowed Roadtrek SS Ideal across the street, too. A balky sofa bed motor that has given us trouble since we left Michigan a week ago completely stopped working and we spent two hours playing RV mechanic until we got the bed to once again go down.
    Then, the bright blue skies suddenly rolled up and the dark grey cloud rolled in… and emptied.
    First the rain came from the west. Then it circled round and came from the east. It slammed into us in wind-driven sheets. The temperature dropped from the mid seventies to 49 degrees. This at 4PM, and in a matter of 30 minutes or so.
    So we have spent the last few hours watching the storms move over the mountains. Pretty awesome, really. The lightning strikes are longer and brighter the thunder more booming as it reverberated through the canyon.
    So we have made the best of it. A delight of this place are the deer which are everywhere and pretty much oblivious of people. They don’t even seem very concerned about our dogs, who are now so used to seeing them they don’t even bark. Hua Hua and Rachel drew pictures of them and we have them taped to a cabinet in the Roadtrek until we get home and transfer them to the refrigerator.
    Last night, my daughter-in-law Amy spotted Brown Sugar, a little two-year-old black bear cub abandoned with her brother, Mohawk, by their mother. By the time the rest of us got to the spot, the bear had moved on.
    For awhile this afternoon during the rains, I hung with my two grandaughters in the back of the Roadtrek. I wanted to teach them “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” but Jennifer insisted we change it to “99 Bottles of Pop on the Wall.” It isn’t the same thing. They got bored with that by the time we were in the sixties. So we surfed the net for a while on the park’s excellent WiFi system. Then they went back to their trailer.
    For me, it was a great excuse for a nap.
    The monsoons seem to be lifting and the temperature is starting to rise again.
    One thing about the mountains. The weather changes like a snap of a finger.
    And frowns can turn to smiles just as fast.
    That’s the great thing about RV vacations.
    It’s all good, isn’t it? Check out the rainbow.
  9. Roadtrekingmike
    At first glance, the 250-plus Roadtrek Class B motorhomes gathered at the 40th anniversary corporate rally in Branson, MO look alike. But when you start walking among them, you soon realize that these touring coaches are not as alike as you may have first thought.
    Each Roadtrek is tweaked, modified and personalized. To various degrees, of course. But all have been individualized. Sometimes it’s as simple as a vanity license plate. Maybe some bumper stickers. With others, it’s something more elaborate, like interior redesigns. But each motorhome reflects the personalities of the owners.
    http://youtu.be/VZDKdJgii_I
    And many of them actually name their coach. Listening to them talk about their RV, you can’t help but notice they often refer to it by its nickname, as if it has a personality, too.
    In this report from Branson, I walked around and chatted up folks to learn about the way they have made their Roadtrek uniquely their own.
    What becomes obvious at a gathering like this is how these RVs are so much more than machines to their owners. They represent freedom. Adventure. Friendship. And each motorhome represents miles of memories.
    Check out the video above.
  10. Roadtrekingmike
    In central Kentucky, the Mammoth Cave National Park is not only a geological wonder that is unequaled in scope, it is also a great getaway for a long RV weekend, with a terrific campground, beautiful scenery and bike paths through a heavily forested area of gently rolling hills and the lush Green River valley.
    Located 15 minutes off I-65 at Cave City Exit (Exit 53) or Park City (Exit 48), the park encompasses 53,000 acres. But it is the 400 miles of caves beneath the surface that make it so dramatic, the largest such cave system in the world. It is probably even bigger. Cave explorers believe there are a couple hundred more miles under there still to be discovered.
    We visited the park in late August and the crowds were way down. Our ranger-led tour had 10 people. Just a couple weeks earlier, before school resumed, the same tour routinely had as many as 120 visitors.
    The vast chambers and complex labyrinths as deep as 250 feel below the surface are amazingly accessible, though visitors should be in reasonably fit condition. There are lots of steps – our tour of the New Entrance part of the cave starts with 243 steps straight down, on very narrow metal stairways built for the park service by a company that specializes in designing stairways for the cramped quarters on submarines.
    The New Entrance to the Mammoth Cave system is a lot older that it sounds. First excavated in 1921 and enlarged and enhanced repeatedly through the years, it begins with a bus ride over the top of the cave to the New Entrance. An path works its way to the bottom of a depression – an old sinkhole, really – and ends before a steel door.
    From there, you enter the cave, heading down the stairs, winding around huge rocks and sandstone formations, sometimes only a couple of feet wide. The tour includes a dramatic series of domes and pits, large trunk passageways, and a short journey through dripstone formations. You see and learn about stalactites (deposits that drip down from the ceiling) and stalagmites (deposits that rise upward from the floor) and view an impressive formation dubbed “frozen Niagara”that looks indeed like a frozen waterfall.
    Our tour lasted about two hours. My favorite time came when, deep underground in a wide cavern, the ranger turned out the subdued lighting that illuminated the pathways and walls. Total, complete darkness ensued, so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face. The ranger had everyone sit still and be silent. There was total silence, too. I swear I could hear my heart beating, the blood running through my veins. I know, I have a vivid imagination.
    This was just one of a several cave tours offered by the park service. It covers not quite a mile and goes up and down about 500 total steps. It has a constant, year-round temperature of 54 degrees.
    As we left the tour, we had to walk over a special decontamination platform that looked like a soft treadmill. That’s to sanitize out shoes and help prevent White Nose Syndrome, a fungus that has resulted in the death of over 5.5 million bats in the eastern United States.
    I saw only one bat in the caves, though 40,000 or so are said to live in the complex.
    We wish we had at least another day or two to have stayed at the park. We would have done all the other tours, as well.
    We had Tai, our Norwegian Elkhound, with us the day we visited. For $2.50, we were able to rent an outdoor kennel for him. We brought his water bowl and he had ample shade and actually, after a couple of yips when we walked away to go on the tour, seemed to enjoy it.
    We also visited the 105-site campground, just a quarter mile from the visitor’s center. Each site offers a paved parking area, a picnic table, and a fire ring. The campground has restrooms, fresh water, a dump station, garbage dumpsters, and a recycling station.
    Only three of the sites have hookups. For the others, there is no electricity or water.
    If you want full hookups, the routes to and from the park off I-65 have numerous commercial campgrounds.
    We’re seriously considering a return visit in early October when the hardwood forest around the park will be in full color. We’ll take out bikes, though bike rentals are available from the front of the campground store.
    *Spelunking anyone?
    *spelunking – Exploring cave systems, sometimes called caving or potholing
  11. Roadtrekingmike
    The Gulf Coast is now recovered from the ravages of Katrina and the BP oil spill and is now celebrating Mardi Gras in communities large and small.
    From Mobile to New Orleans and all in between, the fun starts as early as two weeks before the Fat Tuesday final day before Lent and if you time a visit right down here, you can take in Mardi Gras parades every day and many a night. RV parks are all along the coast in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and this time of year, when the weather can still be slightly unpredictable, there are lots of vacancies.

    We made our way to the town of Gautier, Miss., and Shepard State Park, part of a group of two dozen plus Roadtrekers from all across the country invited down here for fun and food and Mardi Gras festivities at an event called “Pogo’s Smokin’ on the Bayou.”
    Pogo – real name Paul Konowalchuk Pogorzelski (see why we just call him Pogo?) – really lives on a Bayou that connects to the Gulf of Mexico. He timed the event for the town of Gautier’s big Mardi Gras night parade.
    Not that we needed an excuse.
    Pogo and his wife Vicki opened their hearts and home to us – even finding a way to squeeze a dozen Roadtreks in a vacant lot two doors down. Of course it didn’t hurt that his next door neighbor Gordon Gollott, just happens to be the mayor of Gautier (pronounced Go-shea), a town of 18,000. The mayor even invited me to ride on the official town float at the night Mardi Gras parade.
    The local industry here is shipbuilding (that’s what Pogo does) and the local passtime is hospitality.
    The weather was typical for this time of year. Temperatures reached the low seventies a couple of times but we had lots of rain one day. And lots of fun all the time.
    We had so much fun we convinced Pogo to make this an annual event. And next year, we’re thinking about getting our own float for the parade. Towed by a Roadtrek, of course.
    Click the video above for a look at the night parade. To make plans to join us for next yearbe sure to visit our Facebook Group.
  12. Roadtrekingmike
    Yellowstone National Park is a captivating place. It grabs the soul and pulls us back year after year. At the top of every RVers bucket list, it is a place so majestic, so wild and big that it calls us to return, to explore, to get to know the diversity of its land and animals over and over again.
    Some RVers make annual pilgrimages. Some volunteer as workers or hire on as temporary employees at the various concessions and park businesses. Anything to spend as much time there as possible.
    A few, a very fortunate few, live there. Deby Dixon is one of those who – while technically not really living in the park year round – comes about as close as possible. She lives in and keeps her RV – a travel trailer – just outside the park gates and spends weeks at a time camping in the park in a tent. When she’s not camping, she drives in most every day.
    Deby is a former police officer now turned wildlife journalist and photographer. Jennifer and I met her this summer at Yellowstone, our second visit in a year to the park. We were camping at the Pebble Creek campground and hanging out in our Roadtrek, with the sliding door open, waiting for a black bear that had been browsing in a meadow directly across from us to step into better view. Alas, the bear instead headed back into the trees.
    But then Deby passed by on her way out of the campground. She stopped, backed up and came over to check out our Roadtrek. Jennifer had met her earlier and so the two chatted. I gave a quick tour of the Roadtrek, which Deby thought would make a great vehicle for her.
    She was camping a few spaces over in her tent.
    She had been in that tent for close to a month.
    This was in early July. When we returned home, I looked her up and have been a fan of her work ever since.
    Debby, injured on the job as a law enforcement officer up in North Carolina, took up photography to illustrate articles she was writing for various publications on national parks. She loves all the national parks and has visited and photographed many. The photo above is a self portrait taken last year at Mt. Baker, looking toward Mt. Schuksan in North Cascades National Park where she worked as a photography volunteer.
    Her love of the national park wilderness and the animals that live there started after a month-long camping trip to Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in 2009. The experience dramatically changed her life.
    “I no longer could stay home in the city,” she writes. ”I sold everything and moved into a 1970s model, 17-foot-travel trailer (since upgraded to a newer 21 foot trailer) and left on a journey to see the parks.”
    But since the fall of 2012, she’s been pretty much living at Yellowstone, writing about and photographing wildlife, especially the fragile wolf pack that hangs out in the Lamar Valley. She knows each wolf’s history, it’s parents and siblings and the story of its struggle to survive. You’ll learn all about that in our Q&A below.
    She keeps her travel trailer in Gardiner, at the park’s Northern entrances. Last winter, she rented an apartment there off season but made her way into the park every time she could all winter long.
    Since the snow melted, she’s spent a lot of time camping at Slough Creek or Pebble Creek, getting up most mornings at 4 AM and heading to her favorite vantage points in Lamar Valley in the northeast part of the park that is home to bison, black bears, grizzly bears, coyotes, badgers, otters, elk and wolves.
    She will typically stay out there till mid or late morning, return to camp to edit her photos, maybe answer some e-mail, work on her photography column for National Parks Traveler magazine and then update her Deby Dixon Photography Page and a new one, strictly about the Park, the Yellowstone Daily. By 5 PM or so, she’s back out in Lamar Valley, or wherever the animal action happens to be that day. Sometimes she will hike off to favorite spots to just sit and wait to see what animals show up. Often, she’s not back at camp until way after dark.
    Divorced, she has four grandchildren and two sons who live in Idaho. She travels and camps alone but has many friends at Yellowstone, fellow photographers and animal watchers. There’s a whole community of like-minded people who spend as much time as they can at the park. You’ll see them in the various pulloffs around the park’s perimeter roads, usually with spotting scopes. Most are equipped with their own two way business band radios that they use to share sightings and pass along tips about what animals are where.
    Deby is well respected by the other photographers, and park rangers as well, even though she has no official connection with the parks service.
    “She’s a great photographer and she’s driven by a genuine love of the animals and the park,” the Pebble Creek campground host told me. “Everyone around here looks up to her. She is very dedicated. Has to be to keep the hours she keeps taking her pictures.”
    Over the past couple of years, her almost daily stories and photos have captivated thousands who have discovered her animal advocacy journalism and wildlife photography. You, I am sure, will be among them once you check out the links to her Facebook Pages.
    Here’s my Q & A with Deby:
    Q: Why is Yellowstone so important to you?
    A: Because Yellowstone is a massive and diverse eco-system that has everything in nature that one could want – from the high peaks and sub-alpine meadows to the rocky desert sage. There are wide-open spaces, meadows and valleys and thick evergreen and conifer forests, along with lakes, streams and creeks. And then there is the scary mystery of the thermal features that constantly capture my imagination. I mean, if Yellowstone blows, I will be amongst the first to go as lava fields and plumes of ash spread. And then there is the wildlife, their lives, their interactions and their untimely deaths. For a wildlife/nature photographer who likes to write stories, Yellowstone has almost everything. Everything except the Tetons reflected in the Snake River, another favorite national park just to the south of Yellowstone.
    Q: Why have wolves captured my heart?
    A: Over a year ago my son asked me what I knew about the wolves and what kinds of experiences I have had with them. At the time I had seen a collared black wolf cross the road in front of me in the Tetons and four wolves hunting elk on Willow Flats in Teton National Park. Before seeing the wolf hunt prey that day, I had been anti-hunting because I couldn’t stand to think of animals being killed in any way. However, while watching that hunt by the wolves, during which the elk rallied and saved a fawn but sacrificed a cow, I suddenly realized that this was the world the way it was intended to be.
    Food was put on this earth for all of us and if we all just took what we needed, like the animals do, then there would be plenty. Hunting was simply a way of gathering food. Unfortunately, my son hates wolves and he proceeded to fill me in about these “vicious” animals. So much of what he said did not ring true but I had no way of know that for sure and so I kept my mouth shut. But, the conversation with my son weighed heavy on my mind and in my heart and so when I got the opportunity to spend a winter in Gardiner, MT, next to Yellowstone, I made the learning about wolves my mission. My slate was clean and I was eager to find out what the truth was about wolves, even if that meant that my son was right. But, I got here, to Yellowstone, and found a difficult situation in that those naturalists who watch over wolves are not fond of photographers and so the opportunities to see and learn were few. And, unknown to me, the wolves were being hunted when they stepped outside of the park. In fact, Yellowstone wolves were being targeted to be killed. Both situations were baffling to me because, obviously the lives of the wolves were in danger while people who could advocate for them were being pushed away. My determination was great and I preserved in my goal to learn the truth about the wolves – did they kill for sport? Do wolves prey on people? Are they killing all of the elk? Where are the elk? Those questions and many more. I learned that most of what my son, and other wolf haters, believe is not true or is greatly exaggerated. And, in the three years I had been visiting Yellowstone, the changes in the eco-system that was once ravaged by thousands of elk standing around without fear of predation, were apparent. Plus, Yellowstone had more moose then had been around for a long time. But, the thing that got to me the most was that there were people in the world with so much hate in their hearts that they would target wolves that lived in a national park and brought research, education and viewing opportunities to millions of people. These wolves had touched many lives and people came to Yellowstone from all over the world in hopes of seeing them. The wolves rarely left the park and had no history of killing livestock at that time, yet hunters were using carcasses, urine and puppy calls to lure them across the national park border so that one man’s bullet could take one wolf away from millions.
    This, to me, was incomprehensible then and still is, nearly one year later. In the past year I have watched the loss of key wolves have a devastating effect on their family member’s, making them struggle to survive. I have had wolves stop only a few feet from me and look into my eyes and even had one appear on a cliff above my head, look at me and then lift her head to howl at the full moon. I have seen their struggles and felt their hearts. They are only trying to survive, just like you and I. I have stood and watched as researchers retrieved a female wolf’s body from the forest, after she was killed by other wolves, and seen puppies play. I haven’t seen it all in the wolf world, but I have seen a lot. Wolves have made me happy, sad and angry when they killed a favorite animal or a coyote’s pups. They are not perfect, but neither am I. The wolf hunt is on in Montana again, longer this year, basically allowing hunters to do whatever is necessary to kill a wolf. Once again wolf haters want to kill collared or favorite Yellowstone wolves and once again I don’t understand. The Montana government is pandering to a small group of loud, hateful people who don’t have their facts straight and I can’t understand why any government would condone that type of behavior. The problem is multi-layered because the watching of the wolves while in the park, and showing them to the public, has made the wolves accustomed to people and cars, making them easy targets for the hunters. Just recently my favorite wolf, the first one to look into my eyes, 820F, was killed in Jardine because she was bold around people and had no fear. She was not aggressive towards people but she was bold and was not easily hazed away. And so, because she was so habituated to humans, she was shot and killed, leaving behind two puppies. My heart was broken and it will be broken again, when other Yellowstone wolves are killed by hunters who want to take them away from the world. I believe that much can be done to change the future of the remaining Yellowstone wolves and so I photograph them whenever possible and share their stories with the world. I have turned wolf enthusiasts into avid wolf lovers, just by my photos and stories. And if I can continue doing that, one person at a time, then there might be hope that the wolves will survive long into the future. Because they belong to this earth.
    Q: How will you spend this winter?
    A: At the moment I plan to spend another winter in Gardiner where I will have access to the Northern section of Yellowstone on a daily basis. Just how that will happen is up in the air at this moment but there are a couple of options for me to consider. A little over two years ago I sold everything and purchased a small travel trailer so that I could spend my time at national parks. The trailer is not suitable for winter living and so I was able to find affordable, and wonderful, living accommodations for last winter but have been back in the trailer since April 15. When you met me I was camping in the park, in my tent, so that I could be closer to the wolves and be there to see the puppies when they finally emerged from the dens. I spent a month in the tent before returning to my trailer in Gardiner where I am now living. I hope to spend more time editing photos and writing stories for a couple of books that I hope to have completed towards the end of next year. In other words, this journey is expensive and I need to make it pay so that I can continue.
    Q: Do you get lonely out there?
    A: Yes, but not often. I do not have anyone at hand to tell the stories of my day, which is why Facebook and blogging is so important to me. For a number of years I didn’t blog and found that my stories were lost from memory because it is only in the re-telling or writing that they become a solid piece of history. If I go out into the wilderness and see five wolves playing but can’t share the moment with anyone, then it is lost. The magic is gone. With Facebook, I get to tell whoever wants to read about the wonders of Yellowstone or any other place that I happen to be visiting. There are times when I crave close companionship and a conversation but my life is over-flowing with wonderful adventures, along with photos to edit and stories to write. I have no time left at the end of the day and my lifestyle is not conducive to close relationships. I don’t even know what movies are playing or what the top ten songs are, so conversation would be limited to bears, elk, moose, wolves, etc. Still, I think that maybe someday the right person will come along. I have been single for over 20 years and while I don’t look for anyone, I haven’t given up.
    So there you go. Now you know Deby Dixon. Her Facebook Pages are:
    The Yellowstone Daily at facebook.com/TheYellowstoneDaily
    and …
    Deby Dixon Photography at facebook.com/debydixonphotography
  13. Roadtrekingmike
    And the Great Wendland Family Roadtreking RV Vacation is off and westbound, headed to Colorado and the American southwest in a caravan of two Roadtreks, a travel trailer and an SUV.
    Meet the Family
    Since you’ll be seeing and hearing about the six adults, two kids and three big dogs we have traveling in two Roadtrek Class B motorhomes, one Gulf Stream Travel Trailer and an SUV, I thought it might be good to introduce them to you. I should also point out that my third child, Scott, with his wife, Lauri and my four grandsons, live in Georgia and are not on this trip with us. Jennifer and I will be heading down to visit them next month.
    This trip to Colorado and the Four Corners area is made up of:
    Mike and Jennifer Wendland, and Tai, our 70-pound Norwegian Elkhound. You already know us. We’re on our second year of traveling North America in our Roadtrek and all our travel so far have been just us. We’ve wanted to share some of the adventures with our family but were stumped on how it could happen until Jim Hammill, president of Roadtrek, suggested to me a few months ago that all I had to do was tow a travel trailer with our Roadtrek eTrek. I had never thought of that. When I later shared Hammill’s suggestion with Jennifer, she immediately invited our our Michigan children and their families. It made no difference that we didn’t happen to have a travel trailer at the time. The fact that a travel trailer was the breakthrough solution was all Jennifer needed to hear. Now we could do a family vacation. Well, as of this week, now not only have a travel trailer, we bought one from American RV in Grand Rapids. Why did we buy one? Because with such short notice, all the decent rentals were unavailable from nearby dealers and American RV gave us such a great deal that we figured, hey, once the trip was over, we can always sell it and end up having it cost us out of pocket not much more than it would have had we rented one. So, we are now the proud owners of a brand new and very cool 2014 Gulf Stream Amerlite Super Lite 19BHC which we will tow with our 2012 Roadtrek eTrek motorhome.
    Wendy, Dan, Hua Hua and Rachel Bowyer, and Charley, their 60-pound Goldendoodle - Wendy is our firstborn. She is also a journalist by training, having worked and won reporting awards at the Flint Journal and the Detroit Free Press. She is now a full-time stay-at-home Mom, homeschooling Hua Hua, 10, and Rachel, 7, who she and Dan adopted from China. Dan is a music teacher in suburban Detroit. Wendy grew up camping. As a family, we had a pop-up camper, a 13-foot travel trailer and tents. This trip to Colorado and the southwest is all her planning. She has long wanted to visit the region and has mapped out a route that will take us first to Colorado Springs, then Mesa Verde and the Four Corners region of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, the Black Canyon at Gunnison and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Wendy and her family will be driving our 2009 Honda Pilot SUV.
    Jeff and Aimee Wendland and their 125-pound dog, Sequoia – Jeff is our youngest child. He is the SEO Project Manager at Market Pipeline, a web design and development company in Kalamazoo, MI. Aimee is a teacher. Jeff also helps me with this blog and runs the Roadtreking Store website that sells Roadtreking-themed clothing and Class B motorhome accessories. He and Aimee love camping and the outdoors. Most of their experience has been in tents. Jeff has been curious about Class B motorhomes and Roadtreks in particular. So he and Aimee and Sequoia will be traveling in our caravan in a borrowed 2010 Roadtrek SS Ideal that we are privileged to use thanks to some friends at Roadtrek. This will be the first time they have traveled and camped in a motorhome and I’m betting he is going to be hooked.
    Trying to keep together as we head out promises to be a challenge. We all have GPS. I’ve brought along some walkie-talkies and we have mobile phones. Saturday night’s destination was the Amana Colonies and an RV park on the edge of town. The park had no shade but was pancake flat. We had a wide open area all around us and the camground even provided free hardood for campfires.
    The Amana Colonies are pretty fascinating places. They were basically religious communes, founded by German immigrants. The leaders chose the name Amana from the Song of Solomon 4:8. Amana means to “remain true.” Six villages were established, a mile or two apart, across a river valley tract of some 25,000 acres – Amana, East Amana, West Amana, South Amana, High Amana and Middle Amana. The village of Homestead was added in 1861, giving the Colonies access to the railroad.
    Farming and the production of wool and calico supported the community, but village enterprises, everything from clock making to brewing, were vital, and well-crafted products became a hallmark of the Amanas. Craftsmen took special pride in their work as a testament of both their faith and their community spirit. The Amana villages became well known for their high quality goods.
    Today the seven villages of the Amana Colonies represent an American dream come true; a thriving community founded by religious faith and community spirit. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, the Amana Colonies attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, all of whom come to see and enjoy a place where the past is cherished and where hospitality is a way of life.
    Evocative of another age, the streets of the Amana Colonies with brick, stone and clapboard homes, flower and vegetable gardens, lanterns and walkways, recall Amana yesterday.
    When we checked into the RV park, they gave us tokens good for a pound of homemade German bratwurst at a local meat shop… our first stop before hitting the road this morning.
    We drove a tad over 500 miles to get there and enjoyed our first campfire of the vacation and a gorgeous, starry night in the midst of the vast cornfields surrounding the community. We had a communal dinner of salad, grilled chicken, pasta salad and some hot dogs and, naturally, S’Mores after dark.
    We’re booked at the KOA in Gothenburg, NE for Sunday and then the Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs, CO for a couple of days.
    After that, it’s down through the mountains to the southwest, doing boondocking as we can. Hiking, photography and as much wilderness deep-breathing as possible are on my agenda.
    If you are anywhere near us, we’d love to meet in person. And please pass along your suggestions here as to what we should see.
    Here we go …
  14. Roadtrekingmike
    I didn’t think I’d make it down the narrow, twisting and very bumpy forest two-track that led to my current camping spot in the middle of a marsh on the edge of Rush Lake, a compact little frown-shaped lake a mile or so south of Lake Huron at the tip of the Michigan thumb.
    I’m surrounded by state land and cattails, a half dozen yards from where my buddy Jay launched our duck boat.
    Jay and I have been coming up here to hunt ducks and geese for years. Usually, we stay in a motel in Caseville, the nearest town to the west. Jay, in fact, in in a room there now as I write this. I offered him a bunk with me in the Roadtrek but he declined. He likes the marsh, just not sleeping in it. Go figure.
    But I’m in the marsh, and I like sleeping in it just fine in my Roadtrek eTrek. All the comforts of home in the middle of nowhere. It’s the first time I’ve camped here and, for a while, I didn’t think the Roadtrek would be able to get to this spot because of the so called road that dead ends here. I had to drive very slow and hug the edges of the road. No Class C could do it. And certainly no Class A RV.
    But the eTrek did and as I write this post, I’m surrounded by a darkness that, unless you’ve spent time in a big marsh after sundown, you won’t fully be able to appreciate. Trust me when I say it is really, really dark out there.
    Rain is coming. Perhaps overnight but predicted for sure by mid-morning. By then, we’ll have motored across the lake to our duck blind, where we’ll be trying to stay dry.
    But during our afternoon hunt yesterday, it was just overcast. We saw hundreds of ducks and lots of geese. We didn’t fire a shot. And that’s okay. I now shoot more photos than ducks. Jay cleans, cooks and eats what we shoot. I don’t like to eat wild duck, ever since I nearly cracked a tooth on a shotgun pellet a few years back.
    I come duck hunting because, well, I like watching the sun rise in a marsh. And set, too. And in between, I love to watch the cattails blow in the breeze, the muskrat ripple the water in long slow wakes, the waterfowl whirl and twirl as they set their wings to land in our decoys. One year, we watched a deer swim across the lake, emerging just a few dozen yards from our blind.
    And when it rains and the wind blows, the ducks fly. So the predicted downpour may be uncomfortable for us. But its just ducky for the ducks.
    When we return home from our duck hunting trips, Jennifer always asks”what did you and Jay talk about?”
    I always answer the same. “Nothing.”
    She always shakes her head. “How can two people sit shoulder to shoulder in a duck blind all day long and not talk about anything?”
    I don’t know. One time, Jay and I did talk about that. He told me his wife, Julie, asks him the same question. We were both puzzled by what they wanted to know.
    We don’t “talk.” We hunt together. I watch one way, he watches the other. “Two o’clock,” I’ll say. “A small flock of mallards headed our way.”
    Jay will offer a left-handed version of that when appropriate. “Teal. Three o’clock,” he’ll say.
    If we do shoot, we might say “nice shot,”when a duck falls, or “missed that one” when I fire but the duck doesn’t fall. I confess: That kind of talk of gets on my nerves. I mean, I know I missed.
    But the point is, we just enjoy the outdoors and each others company.
    Last night, after we went into town for dinner, Jay dropped me back at the Roadtrek in the marsh. As I write, I have the Webosto heater cranked on. I have a strong 4G Verizon signal and am running my own Wi-Fi network as I updating this blog and answer questions on the forum. I was going to watch a movie on the DVD. But I decided instead to go to bed early as we’re planning to be back in the blind by first light.
    I love being totally self-contained like this, with plenty of power, plenty of heat and… in the middle of a very dark marsh where the only home is my motorhome.
    Boondocking here in my Roadtrek has made this year’s duck hunting trip even more fun.
    Hey, maybe I’ll talk about that with Jay in the duck blind.
    Here are some more photos:

    On the shore of Rush Lake

    Lots of ducks were flying.

    I have the place to myself.

    Jay at the motor as we head to the blind

    In the duck blind

    Sunset in the marsh
  15. Roadtrekingmike
    The Morefield Campground at Mesa Verde National Park is nestled into a scenic canyon some four and a half miles off US 160 from the park entrance. With 267 sites, it seldom fills up. That’s because all but 15 are for dry camping only and of the 15 with full hookups, none accomodate RVs over 45 feet in length. The Class A congestion that turns so many other campgrounds into “tinominium “complexes is refreshingly absent here.
    Each site has lots of space between its neighbors and native Gambel oaks, tall prairie grasses and wild flowers and make for a spectacular wooded canyon that abounds with wildlife.
    At least two young black bears, two year olds recently kicked out on their own by their mother, are frequently seen. One, cinnamon colored, is called Brown Sugar by park rangers. The other is dubbed Mohalk for the band of light fur along his back.
    Campers are told at check in to be sure and put everything away at night, especially and including the white water hoses those in the full hookup sites use. “Their mother taught them if they bite into one of those little hoses, they get a nice drink of water,” said Janet, one of several women who staff the registration desk. “We had one camper who didn’t follow our suggestion and awoke the next morning to find that his water hookup was now a sprinkler hose.”
    There’s also lots of deer in the park who wander freely amidst the campsites.
    I set up the travel trailer for my daughter and my son’s borrowed Roadtrek SS in full hookup sites. In our eTrek, Jennifer and I set up across the street, dry camping.
    The key attraction here at Mesa Verde are the amazing archeological cliff dwellings of the Ancestral Pueblo people who lived here between 600 to 1300 in structures built within caves and under outcroppings in cliffs. The ruins are the largest archaeological preserve in the United States, scattered across 81.4 square miles. The park was created in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt and there are lots of spots to see them and even crawl through them.
    No one knows why the ancestral pueblo people settled here, in an arid and hot high desert. More mysteriously, no one knows why, after centuries of living here, they suddenly moved. But the sandstone dwellings are amazingly well preserved and the U.S. Forest Service does a great job explaining everything.
    We did the tours in shifts because of the dogs. I dozed with them in a shaded picnic area while the others toured. Then it was our turn and they watched the dogs.
    This is a huge park. To get to the cliff dwellings, you drive 23 miles up a winding mountain road, climbing to about 8.500 feet from the 6500 at the campground level. There are several great hiking trails, too, for all levels.
    Sunsets are spectacular. And sunrises are peaceful in the clear, clean mountain air. With a cup of coffee and your dog by your side, as seen in the photo of my son, Jeff, it does’t get much better…anywhere.
    Wear lots of sun screen up here. The air is thin and the UV rays really strong.
    We’re due to stay here through the weekend, heading to Telluride Sunday.
  16. Roadtrekingmike
    This is the time to “come up to da UP,” as the Yoopers like to say.
    The flies and mosquitoes are gone, so are the crowds and the whole peninsula is bursting with bright yellows and reds as the annual fall foliage change explodes the hardwoods into jaw-dropping displays. And the sunsets are to die for.
    This year, the color change is later than normal. We came up last Thursday and it was just starting. As we head back downstate today five days later, it’s clear that its moving fast now. This coming weekend and next should be peak times. Jennifer and I love the UP. This is our third extended trip up here since February.
    Yes, that’s right. I said February. we drove the Roadtrek up and camped out at Tahquamenon Falls with 28 inches of snow on the ground and minus 8 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. No problem. You can see what that was like here.
    And we came back up a couple of months ago during peak bug and biting fly time. It was still beautiful – as this shows – but much more uncomfortable.
    This trip is our favorite. And we used it to visit our favorite campground – the beautiful Twelvemile Beach National Parks Service campground on Lake Superior, part of the Pictured Rocks National Seashore. Located 15 miles west of Grand Marais off Alger County Road H-58, this no-hookup 36-site campground is located on a high sandy plateau above Twelvemile Beach, one of the most remote and beautiful stretches of Lake Superior you will find anywhere in the UP. Half the sites are generator free and that’s where we headed, selecting site #25.
    With our all electric Roadtrek eTrek and its solar power, we needed no such noisy power source.
    It got cold. The first frost warning of the year for the UP was issued last night. When I got up at 3 AM to use the bathroom, the outside temp read 35 degrees. Our Webosto heater was adjusted to give us a perfect 62 degree inside temp.
    This is a very hard park to get into – during the summer. This late into September, we had lots of lakefront spots to choose from. This is bear country. So if you come here, keep a neat campsite and use the bearproof food storage units.
    There are pit toilets here, fire rings and picnic tables. The campground connects to several hiking trails.
    Over the next few weeks, well have reviews and stories about various places to visit up here that will help you plan a trip to the UP next year. But if you want to squeeze in a trip yet this season, better hurry. Most campgrounds shut down for the winter in October. Some, like Twelvemile Beach, shut down Oct. 1.
  17. Roadtrekingmike
    If you are a regular reader, you know Jennifer and I love to RV across Michigan’s pristine Upper Peninsula – the UP – where big towns simply aren’t, and the scenery is jaw-dropping gorgeous with lots of forests, lakes and streams and, of course, the Big Lake, Superior, which some say is the coldest, deepest fresh water lake in the world.
    Superior borders the UP to the north. The south coast of the UP is bordered by Lakes Michigan and Huron.
    We visit the every time we can, in all seasons. If you’ve never been or would like to spend more time there, here’s my suggestion for the RV Tour of the UP.
    I suggest to budget 10 days for this.
    And the first thing I suggest is that you try to avoid black fly season which usually starts in mid June and runs through mid-July. The black flies are most prevalent along the lake Superior shoreline but you’ll find them, and giant mosquitoes, most active during that time.
    Just to show you how bad they are, check this video I did last summer.

    Don’t believe it? Then check this one from the year before.

    But don’t let them deter you. Just be prepared. Bring long pants, jackets and sweatshirts, too, as even in summer, it can get chilly up there.
    Getting there
    From the west, find US 2 from Wisconsin and just keep driving east.
    From the south, Cross from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula on I-75 and the five-mile long Mackinaw Bridge.
    Here are our five top suggestions about the places you should visit.
    1) The Soo Locks
    I’d start at the very northern end of I-75 in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and a visit to the famed Soo Locks (Sault is pronounced “Soo”). The locks are a set of parallel locks which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the Lower Great Lakes. Here you will see a parade of giant lake freighters, barges, tugboats and more traverse the 21-foot drop between Lake Superior and Lake Huron every day. The Soo Locks are the busiest locks in the world, and include the largest lock in the Western Hemisphere, completed in 1968.
    The two active Locks, the MacArthur and the Poe, handle an average of 10,000 vessel passages per year, which means visitors are almost certain to get a glimpse of one or more of the many ships that ply the Great Lakes. From viewing stands situated at the Lock’s edge, enjoy an up-close-and-personal glimpse of life aboard freshwater and ocean-going freighters, some of which can carry as much as 72,000 tons of cargo in a single pass.
    There is something really majestic about spending a few hours watching the boats make their way through the locks. You can get so close to them you can even exchange greetings with the crewmen who toil on the big freighters.
    The best place to stay if you want to watch the freighters is the city’s Aune-Osborn Campground, which lies along 20 acres of waterfront property on the lower St. Mary’s River. The western end of the park houses the camp sites. The eastern end of the park is undeveloped and is used for special events and sightseeing on the St. Mary’s River. The campground features 100 water and electric sites. It opens in mid-May. Some sites are right on the river bank but most sites offer views of the maritime traffic headed to or from the locks. This park fills up most summer nights.
    A half hour west is Brimley State Park, a modern 237 site campground with electric on site and a dump station for taking on water. Located at the Southern end of Whitefish Bay, it also has a swimming beach.
    2) Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore
    Move west along the lake Superior Shoreline to the tiny little lakefront town of Grand Marais and the heart of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
    Here’s a video.

    Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore on the shore of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. It extends for 42 miles along the Superior shore and covers 73,236 acres.
    Unlike any other place on Lake Superior, Pictured Rocks offers the opportunity to explore miles of pristine beaches, hike over 100 miles of trails, and experience the serenity of the northern hardwood forest. The best way to see thee cliffs is by kayak, though the shoreline hiking trails offer very impressive views, too.
    Sandstone cliffs, beaches, sand dunes, waterfalls, lakes and forest will treat your eyes as you hike, paddle, camp and explore. From Munising, at the western end of the park, there are glass bottomed boat excursions that are worth taking. They usually start operation for the summer around Memorial Day.
    There are National Forest campgrounds, state forest campgrounds all along the shoreline. In the tiny harbor town of Grand Marais is the Woodland Park Campground, right along the shore. It offers great beach walking and agate hunting. The campground does not take reserrvations.
    Our favorite camping spots, though, are the federal campgrounds on the lakeshore. The lakeshore’s federal campgrounds are rustic and do not have electric, telephone, water, or sewer hookups. Typically there is no cell phone reception. In our Roadtrek eTrek with solar, that is no problem. The campgrounds have generator-free zones.
    First choice for us is always the Twelvemile Beach Campground, about 12 miles west of Grand Marais off Alger County Road H-58. The campground’s 37 sites are located on a sandy bluff above Lake Superior’s Twelvemile Beach. The entrance road winds through a picturesque stand of white birch. Twelvemile Beach Campground also features a 2.0 mile self-guiding interpretive trail. This place fills up most summer nights so arrive mid morning.
    We also like the two Hurricane River campgrounds, the Upper and Lower. They are located off Alger County road H-58 three miles east of Twelvemile Beach campground where the Hurricane River flows into Lake Superior. Eleven campsites are available in the lower campground loop, and ten in the upper loop. A level 1.5 mile walk on the North Country Trail east from the lower campground leads past shipwreck remnants to the historic Au Sable Light Station.
    If you need hookups, try Muskallonge Lake State Park. located 15 miles east of Grand Marais on H-58; 28 miles northwest of Newberry in Luce County. The 217-acre park is situated between the shores of Lake Superior and Muskallonge Lake and the area is well known for its forests, lakes, and streams. The park has 170 modern campsites that feature electricity and two shower and toilet buildings.
    3) Copper Harbor
    Copper Harbor is located at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula hat just up from the western end of the UP. Hold your left hand sideways with your thumb pointing up. That’s the Keweenaw. You can’t go any further north without falling in Lake Superior. In fact, Lake Superior borders the little town of Copper Harbor on three sides. A mountain, Brockway Mountain, hems it in from the South. It is so remote that you can’t even get cell phone coverage in town. There’s one way in, US 41, which dead ends about two miles out of town.
    It is one of the best spots we’ve found to take our RV anywhere in North America. Copper Harbor, with a year-round population of 90, prides itself on being far away, But what it lacks in big city amenities, it more than makes up for in outdoors fun.
    Start out at the Historic Fort Wilkins State Park, tucked along the shoreline of Lake Fannie Hooe, a long inland lake loaded with trout that is just across US 41 from the pounding surf of Lake Superior. There are two loops to the park, the west unit with paved pads for big rigs, and the east unit with flat but grassy spots a half mile away. Separating the two campgrounds is Fort Wilkins, a wonderfully restored 1844 military outpost.
    There is, across from the Fort a quarter mile out into the Big Lake, a lighthouse, first constructed in 1846. It, too has been restored and tours are available all day. You need to board a boat in Copper Harbor for a short ride to the lighthouse.
    he town has become a mountain biking mecca, with world class trails abounding in the hilly forests that surround the town. We found mountain bikers gathered from across the country. Many are very hardcore and the trails are technical. But there are also easy rides and a great place to rent bikes right downtown. At the end of the day, the bikers all congregate at the Brickside Brewery, a very friendly microbrewry that hand crafts artisan brews.
    Copper Harbor is also a center for kite surfing. We watched a half dozen wetsuit clad kite surfers scoot across the frigid waters and always roiling waves of the lake.
    Also in town and well worth a hike is the Estivant Pines, a 500 acre stand of virgin white pines. Michigan, in the mid to late 1800′s was the land of white pines and the entire state was practically clear cut by thousands of rough and tumble lumberjacks. The white pine, which grows 150 feet tall, were used for sailing masts and its lumber built many a frontier town as the nation expanded west.
    4) Porcupine Mountains
    The Porcupine Mountains, or Porkies, as the locals call them, are a group of small mountains spanning the northwestern Upper Peninsula of Michigan in Ontonagon and Gogebic counties, near the shore of Lake Superior.
    The Porcupine Mountain Wilderness State Park consists of over 60,000 acres and s contain the largest tract of old-growth hardwood forests west of the Adirondacks and is home to black bear, deer, wolves, river otters and even moose, as well as rare woodland plants that depend on the old-growth forest habitat that abounds here.
    Visiting the virgin forests, free-flowing rivers and undisturbed beaches of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness is like taking a step back in time. There are great hiking and mountain bike trails here and hundreds of waterfalls, secluded lakes, wild rivers and streams.
    Our favorite spot is the Presque Isle River Campground, on the western end of the park.
    It has 50 sites and about half are generator free. This is quiet. You can sometimes hear wolves howl at night and most of your neighbors are in tents, campers or small RVs.
    If you must have power, then try the Union Bay Campground, located at the opposite end of the park. Union Bay campground is the largest campground in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It offers modern bathrooms and showers. The campground borders a rocky and scenic section of Lake Superior in the eastern portion of the park on the way to Lake of the Clouds on county road 107.
    But don’t expect a wilderness experience at Union Bay. It is a busy, noisy and crowded state park. This where where the Big Class A RVs seem to go.
    5) Tahquamenon Falls
    At 50,000 acres, the Tahquamenn Falls State Park stretches for over 13 miles and is centered around the Tahquamenon River and its waterfalls. The Upper Falls, one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi has a drop of nearly 50 feet, more than 200 feet across and a water flow of more than 50,000 gallons per second. Four miles downstream is the Lower Falls, a series of five smaller falls cascading around an island. Although not as dramatic as the Upper Falls, they are equally magnificent. The falls can be viewed from the river bank or from the island, which can be reached by rowboat rented from a park concession. The island walk affords a view of the falls in the south channel.
    This is the land of Longfellow’s Hiawatha – “by the rushing Tahquamenaw” Hiawatha built his canoe. Long before the white man set eyes on the river, the abundance of fish in its waters and animals along its shores attracted the Ojibwa Indians, who camped, farmed, fished and trapped along its banks. In the late 1800′s came the lumber barons and the river carried their logs by the millions to the mills. Lumberjacks, who harvested the tall timber, were among the first permanent white settlers in the area.
    Rising from springs north of McMillan, the Tahquamenon River drains the watershed of an area of more than 790 square miles. From its source, it meanders 94 miles before emptying into Whitefish Bay. The amber color of the water is caused by tannins leached from the Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock in the swamps drained by the river. The extremely soft water churned by the action of the falls causes the large amounts of foam, which has been the trademark of the Tahquamenon since the days of the voyager.
    There are two excellent campgrounds here, one at the Lower Falls, and one at the mouth of the Tahquamenon River where it empties onto Lake Superior, east of the tiny UP town of Paradise. The Lower Falls campground has two loops with 90 spots in each. The Rivermouth campground has 36 spots. Electricity s available and flush toilets in the restrooms.
    Our favorite time to camp here is winter. The state plows out a good number of sites and although the water is out in the winter, the solitude and beauty make it absolutely spectacular.
    There is snowshowing and cross country skiing in the winter and a four mile trail runs from the Upper to the Lower falls.
    This park gets crowded on the summer. The state does take reservations, without which, you’l be lucky to get in during peak time on weekends and holidays.
    So much more
    There is so much more to see and experience by RV in the UP.
    The Les Cheneaux Islands. The Lake Michigan shoreline. The Seney National Wildlife Area. Whitefish Point. The Huron Mountains.
    But I promised to share my top five suggestions. Maybe I’ll do a follow up report later on my next five.
    See why I suggest 10 days as a minimum time for your visit?
  18. Roadtrekingmike
    Mini Office for Your Class B
    At times on the road we need more than a laptop computer – we need an entire office. The need arises to scan something or print something or even just...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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


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  20. Roadtrekingmike
    One of the biggest controversies in the RV world these days has to do with the fine line between tax avoidance and tax evasion.
    I’m talking about the practice of setting up an LLC business in Montana to purchase a motorhome, thus avoiding sales and use tax and often stiff registration fees in the owner’s home state. Thousands of RV owners around the country do this and dozens of Montana legal firms specialize in making it happen.
    I live in a state that has very high taxes. As I am shopping around to upgrade my 2006 RV to a new model I have come face-to-face with the huge tax burden my state (Michigan) imposes. When I bought the 2006 RV in April, I paid some $5,000 in sales tax and registration fees. Gulp.
    If I trade in that unit and buy a new motorhome, Michigan will hit me again. And unlike many other states which tax only the difference between the trade-in and the new model, Michigan will tax the entire value of the sale. Unfair? Absolutely. Outrageous? Yes. Legal? Unfortunately, it is legal for a state to be a tax gouger. And I live in such a state.
    So this Montana scheme is very appealing. Essentially, it works like this: You form an LLC business in Montana. It costs you about $1,000 to have one of the Montana law firms set up your LLC and do the registration and titling paperwork and send you back the Montana license plates. Because Montana has no sale tax on an RV, your only cost is the $1,000 to set up the business that technically owns the RV, a Montana corporation, and the $150 or so the law firm charges every year to renew your registration and LLC charter.
    All this is perfectly legal in Montana. Indeed, forming LLCs and registering RVs like this is a big business out there.
    The rub comes in your home state.
    The high tax states that do impose use and sales taxes and high registration fees on RVs quickly took steps to counter the scheme by writing laws and regulations that make it very difficult to take advantage of the plan. In my state, for example, Michigan Compiled Law sections 257.215, 257.216, and 257.217 require that “a nonresident owner of a pleasure vehicle otherwise subject to registration under this act shall not operate the vehicle for a period exceeding 90 days without securing registration in this state.”
    Is there a loophole there? Some Montana law firms say there is. They say if you take the motorhome out of your home state once every three months, you’re legal. They interpret that as keeping the motorhome in your home state for 90 consecutive days, So, if you head out of state after 89 days, they claim, you’re good. When you return, you can stay another 89 days before you have to take an out state trip. Naturally, they caution the RV owner to keep detailed records that establish the motorhome’s whereabouts.
    That’s how the Montana law firms insist you can avoid high registration fees.
    The biggest bite in buying an RV in one of the high tax states like Michigan comes in the form of a use tax, or sales tax, currently 6% in Michigan. And because Michigan and other states have agreements to collect each other’s sales taxes, buying out of state alone is not the solution. As far as sales and use taxes on an RV, my home state has two provisions – one for non-residents, one for residents.
    For non-residents, which the Montana LLC that “owns” the motorhome would technically be, an exemption to the tax would be allowed provided the motorhome is “purchased by a person who is not a resident of this state at the time of purchase and is brought into this state more than 90 days after the date of purchase.” An LLC is considered a legal entity, able to buy and sell property. In other words, to avoid the Michigan taxes you would buy the RV out of state through the LLC and keep it out of state for three months. The issue here, though, is what would a court decide? If the LLC is in Montana but the owner of that LLC is in Michigan. what is the reasonable assumption here? Pretty obvious, don’t you think? The LLC in Montana is owned by a Michigan resident.
    In that case, if the property is owned by a resident, Michigan says you must pay the tax unless the motorhome “is brought into this state more than 360 days after the date of purchase.” That means buy it out of state and travel anywhere but your home state for a year.
    You can clearly see by these legal restrictions that the other states don’t take kindly to Montana’s proffered loophole to potential RV owners. Just do a Google search on Montana LLCs and you’ll see how they are trying to drum up business by touting LLCs that allow you to buy “no sales tax motorhomes” or “tax free.”
    That sort of exploitation only fuels the resolve of the high tax states to shut down the loophole.
    Thus, Michigan, Colorado, California and a number of other states are very aggressive in hunting down RVs with Montana license plates and suing the owners for taxes and penalties. Some of the RV forums claim they have set up tip-lines with rewards for people who spot RVs with Montana plates parked in storage yards or driveways for long periods of time. Others say inspectors check out RV repair facilities and look for vehicles with Montana plates.
    A very evenhanded and comprehensive review of all this can be found on the RV Dreams website,
    I need to say here that a great many RVers have taken advantage of the Montana law with no issues. For fulltimers, who are gone for very long periods from their home states, it appears to be very workable, especially if those fulltimers have established residency in a low tax state like, say, Florida.
    But for me, as I look at buying a brand new RV, I’m not going to go the Montana route.
    I admit, the benefits of saving thousands of dollars in sales and use taxes are very tempting.
    But as states scramble to shore up sinking deficits, I think we can be sure that pursuing RV owners with Montana plates is going to increase, not decrease. Even if you should be sued and won, I can guarantee the legal costs of defending yourself would far exceed what you saved on the taxes you avoided. Besides this, many insurers frown at covering an RV that is titled in Montana.
    The big reason I am not going to go the Montana route should I buy a new RV is because, I think, it borders on the unethical. It’s clearly a tax dodge. As long as I live in Michigan, I am subject to its laws. And Michigan laws demand I pay a sales tax on my RV. I know, I know, some will say the Montana LLC is the legal owner. But I am the legal owner of the LLC. That means, in effect, I own the RV with Montana plates. And I live in high taxing Michigan. I may not like those laws, but my conscience just won’t let me do something that – to me – seems questionable.
    Again, I understand that others see this differently and have and will decide otherwise. They very well may never be sued or have an issue. They may see no ethical dilemma. I don’t criticize them for their decision.
    I just know my new RV – if and when I get it – will have Michigan plates.
    The hassle of always looking over my shoulder just isn’t worth the tax savings.
    There’s got to be another way. But that will have to be the subject of another post.
  21. Roadtrekingmike
    Since I released the post on the 10 lessons we’ve learned in our 75,000 miles of RV travel, several readers have asked for another installment.
    So here it is. This one, though, has 12 things we’ve learned from the road.
    1) GPS units are all unreliable – If you rely totally on GPS to get you somewhere, sooner or later you’re going to miss your mark and be lost. In my role as a tech reporter for NBC affiliates, I’ve tried them all – Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, Rand McNally, the GPS apps, Google, Verizon, the GPS apps offered on Android and Apple devices and, of course, the built-in Clarion system that came with our Roadtrek Etrek. They all fail. They all are incomplete. Maps differ between them and there are GPS dead spots. A GPS transceiver needs at least four satellites to get any kind of a fix. Even on flat ground with a clear line of sight there can be dead spots. In order for your GPS transceiver to detect a satellite, the signal from the given satellite must be strong enough for the transceiver to pick it out of all the background noise. According to the website Richard’s Mobile Blog, the way the GPS transceiver detects a signal is by detecting phase shifts in the satellite signals. Too many satellite signals canceling out or distorting or too similar to each other will make it hard for the transceiver to know what satellite is what. So, the transceiver just gives up as if there were no satellites were there. The solution: Carry paper maps. We have a shoebox full of state maps. We now use them more and more.
    2) You really can overnight in a rest area – Well, at least you can if you don’t set up camp early in the afternoon, put out the lawn chairs and string those obnoxious twinkle lights that some RVers insist on using outside their rigs. Rest areas are to rest. Pulling in after dark and leaving in the morning after a night’s sleep is not going to get you in trouble, unless you make it look like you are spending the weekend. It helps being in a Class B.
    3) Stay away from trucks when overnighting – Whether a Wal-Mart or a rest area, steer clear of trucks. They run their engines all night long. They pollute everything around them. They are noisy. On a lonely stretch of US Route 212 in Montana, we looked in vain for a national or state campground one night this summer. There were none. Most of the area belonged to the Crow and then the Cheyenne Indian Reservations. Finally, about 11 PM near the town of Broadus, we found a state rest area and turned in. We even saw another Roadtrek parked there, along with a handful of trucks. We awoke at 1:30 AM to the sound of rumbling engines and the smell of diesel fumes. The place was bathed in light. Besides running their engines, many trucks keep their lights on. Every inch of space was taken up by trucks. There was no more sleep. We left and drove all the way through into South Dakota, finally finding a KOA near Spearfish a little after 3 AM. It was not a good night. We’ve had variations of that experience at many a Wal-Mart and now know… stay away from trucks.
    4) We do not need campground electricity – In fact, with our Roadtrek Etrek and those eight coach batteries, the 250-watt solar panels that keep them topped off and the 5,000-watt inverter, we actually have more power in the unit than we do from plugging into a campground’s 30-amp service. So unless I will be running the power-hungry air conditioner for 12 hours straight, we seldom plug in these days. There’s no need to.
    5) Campground Wi-Fi is a joke – Don’t even bother. Unless you are the only campers around. Otherwise, the guy three units down streaming Netflix videos has gobbled up all the bandwidth. Campground Wi-Fi is shared. That means s-l-o-w. We carry our own Verizon Mi-Fi data card to create our own network. But maybe I should quit talking about that. Because we noticed this year that in many a campground, so many other people are now doing the same thing, that often even the cell service is so maxed out it is almost as slow as campground Wi-Fi. See why we like boondocking?
    6) Fall is the best time to hit the road – The RV boom has its down side. This was a very busy summer. Crowds at campgrounds and national parks were overwhelming. The absolute best time to hit the road is mid-September. Just about everywhere has great weather this time of year. In the north, fall colors are starting. In the south, the sniffling heat of the summer months has eased and the snowbirds have yet to arrive. Nights are cool and comfortable. Next year, we will plan our long trip from September through November.
    7) Winter is also a great time to RV – I am always amazed at how many people reject winter camping. I’m not talking about heading to Florida or Arizona. I’m talking abut Northern Minnesota or Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Winter wonderland comping. We always do a winter trip. This year, it will be to Michigan’s UP and Tahquamenon Falls State Park, where the DNR always keeps a few spots plowed. The only thing different about winter camping s that you keep your heater running all the time and you flush the toilet with antifreeze. You take bottled water because the pipes in your RV are winterized. But the scenery is spectacular. If you dress warm, hiking or snow shoeing or cross country skiing are great. And sitting around a blazing fire with two feet of snow on the ground is awesome. Oh yeah, the stars are brighter in the winter, too.
    8) Pay your bills online – We have now enrolled for automatic and/or online bill paying for all our credit cards, our sticks and bricks house utilities and are able to handle our personal and household finances from the road as easily as when we were at home. We’ve learned that every bank will let you draw cash on a credit card. We use one designated credit card for all food, fuel, campgrounds and traveling expenses. This gives us a detailed record of our spending that we can use for budgeting and planning and we don’t have to worry about carrying lots of cash.
    9) Join a national health club chain – You need to work out. You really do. Walking around the campground is not working out. We picked a national chain – Anytime Fitness. We have found places all across the country and really love this chain because they have very nice, clean and private bathrooms and showers. We also belong to the YMCA, which has branches across the country. Every other day, we try to plan our overnight stops in cities that have places to work out. This is Jennifer’s hard and fast rule. She gets very cranky when she misses more than a couple days of working out and I have learned, well… happy wife, happy life.
    10) The RV lifestyle can be very unhealthy – Related to the above is something I hate to say but I think it needs saying. So I will. Food and drink consumption need to be controlled. We spent a week this past year on a very nice campground (I won’t say where) in which every day was themed to some event that involved alcohol. It started with Sippin’ Sunday, Margarita Mondays, Tipsy Tuesdays, Wild and Wet Wednesdays and so on and on. There were parties and happy hours every night and the place, made up mostly of seasonal RV residents, seemed to be stuck in the Sixties. The music around the pool played non-stop oldies and it was like these seniors were on perpetual spring breaks. It would have been amusing if it were not so sad. There were people whizzing by in golf carts that should have been pulled over for DUI. The only good thing was these were, after all, seniors, and by 9 PM, they had all gone to bed. We’ve seen this in different degrees at other places and have had other RVers tell us they have noticed the same thing, too. So there. I said it. Lets move on.
    11) Staying connected online with RVing friends – I am amazed at the friends we have made from the road and online and how easy it is to stay in touch with them and feel connected through our Facebook Roadtreking Group. Many of us have met in person across the country on various trips. We communicate daily through this group. We have planned our own very low-keyed rallies and have asked questions and received help and we kid each other, encourage each other and are inspired by each other – just as friends do. When we travel, we share photos and its like we’re all traveling together. W e are all very different people individually, but we’re bound together by our love of RV travel and have created a community that is simply amazing. Who’d think such friendships could develop online?
    12) Re-Read the RV manual – When we first got our RV, we devoured everything we could about it. I remember staying up all one night, like till 3:30 AM reading every manual back to back. Then I put them away. Early this summer, I sat around under the Etrek’s awning on glorious June day overlooking a Cape Cod beach and re-read the manual and learned stuff that either didn’t register the first time or that I totally missed. If your RV is a Roadtrek, you can download the latest manuals here. If it’s not, dig out whatever you got when you purchased it and keep it handy. I have downloaded our manual, printed it out and keep another copy electronically on my laptop. I may never be a mechanical expert like Campskunk but the manual at least gives me the confidence to know what I should be doing. If not, I can always ask Campskunk and other on the Facebook Group.
    Wow. That’s 12 more lessons. Added to the first 10, that’s 22 lessons.
    I think there’s still more I could do.
    Later. Maybe.
  22. Roadtrekingmike
    More RV Lessons from the Road
    Since I released the post on the 10 lessons we’ve learned in our 75,000 miles of RV travel, several readers have asked for another installment. So here it is. This...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  23. Roadtrekingmike
    Colorado has so many great spots to visit but one you just do not want to miss is the Garden of the Gods Park near Colorado Springs. We’ve been there twice, once in the winter and once in the summer. Both trips were excellent and made us determined to come back again and again.
    The red-colored sandstone formations tower as high as 300 feet and walking trails lead right up to them.
    The Garden of the Gods Park is a registered National Natural Landmark that has been exciting tourists since the mid-1850′s. Before that, the Utes oral traditions tell of their creation at the Garden of the Gods and petroglyphs have been found from the 15th century.
    The area got it’s name in August of 1859 when two surveyors started out from Denver. While exploring nearby locations, they came upon a beautiful area of sandstone formations. M. S. Beach, who related this incident, suggested that it would be a “capital place for a beer garden” when the country grew up. His companion, Rufus Cable, a “young and poetic man”, exclaimed, “Beer Garden! Why it is a fit place for the Gods to assemble. We will call it the Garden of the Gods.” It has been so called ever since.
    At least that’s how the official story goes on the Garden of the Gods website.
    We stayed at the nearby Cheyenne Mountain State Park, one of the nicest state parks we’ve stayed at anywhere. Located just south of Colorado Springs, the park has 51 sites amidst 1,680 acres. It is located right beneath the eastern flank of Cheyenne Mountain, and border the plains of Colorado and offers view that are a stunning transition from plains to peaks.
    The land around the park is in remarkable natural condition and diverse wildlife viewing opportunities abound due to the property’s relatively undisturbed location. Because the park just opened in 2000, everything is nice and new.
    The Garden of the Gods is about a 25 minute drive from the park and can be seen in half a day. We drove up nearby Pikes Peak in the morning and toured the Garden of the God’s n the afternoon. Next time we visit, I plan to spend the day and use the bike trails that circle the park.
    What’s so amazing about the place is that the towering deep-red, pink, and white sandstone and limestone formations were originally deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains and, specifically, Pikes Peak nearby. Geologists have found evidence of many different geologic features in the rocks, deposits of ancient seas, the eroded remains of ancestral mountain ranges, sandy beaches, and great sand dune fields. Retired biology professor Richard Beidleman notes that the park is “the most striking contrast between plains and mountains in North America” with respect to biology, geology, climate, and scenery. Dinosaur bones have been found throughout the park.
    The park is amazingly accessible. We had no problem parking our Roadtrek eTrek in the many parking lots that ring the park. It is open to hiking, technical rock climbing, road and mountain biking and horseback riding. It attracts more than two million visitors a year and is the city’s most visited park.
    There are more than 15 miles of trails with a 1.5 mile trail running through the heart of the park that is paved and wheelchair accessible. Dogs on leashes are welcome.
    We walked the paved path and gazed upwards. We saw and photographed mule deer, first seen by Tai who sniffed them out and finally spotted them gazing in the shrubbery that abuts some of the larger formations. His barking drew a crowd of camera toting tourists but the deer obliged us all as we snapped away.
    If you go, make sure you visit the Garden of the Gods Visitor and Nature Center, at 1805 N. 30th Street. It and offers a great view view of the park from an outdoor terrace. The center offers all sorts of educational exhibits, staffed by Parks, Recreation and Culture employees of the City of Colorado Springs. A short movie, How Did Those Red Rocks Get There? runs every 20 minutes. A portion of the proceeds from the center’s privately owned store and cafe support the non-profit Garden of the Gods Foundation; the money is used for maintenance and improvements to the park.
    More pics:

    You can walk right up to the formations.

    The park is simply stunning.

    My son, Jeff, near his borrowed SS Agile, walking his dog, Sequoia, at Cheyenne Mountain State Park

    Our camping spot at the Cheyenne Mountain State Park. We towed that travel trailer out there with our Roadtrek eTrek for my daughter and her family.

    They call this formation “The Kissing Camels.” Can you see why?
  24. Roadtrekingmike
    My Giant Permanent RV Bed
    One thing about full timing is that you have ample opportunities to evaluate the comfort of your RV’s sleeping arrangements. In our 2003 190 Popular with the dinette setup, we...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  25. Roadtrekingmike
    I’ve messed around with some low end flying helicopters before and found them to be lots of fun. But I’ve just, gulp, added a big ticket item to my photographic and video arsenal of tools to be used while Roadtreking: A Phantom 2 drone.
    I’ll be using it for AVC, or aerial video cinematography. It’s really a flying machine, a quadricopter, with four opposing blades sending it up and our as far as a kilometer (3,240 feet) from where I’m standing with the controller.

    The unit I bought carries with it a GoPro Hero 3 camera to record high definition video and stills. It transmits those images back to a monitor attached to the controller on the ground so I can see what the GoPro sees from way up there. It also has a gimbal, which holds the camera level in flight, allowing those spectacular images to be steady and clear.
    I posted a short blurb on Facebook the other day that I got one and I received all sorts of unexpected interest from readers. So I put together the accompanying video. If you’re not interested in the technical stuff, just fast forward to the last couple of minutes to see the aerial video. It was a very gray and cold day in Michigan and those specs of white you see when it was way up there are snow flurries. It wasn’t snowing at ground level. But it was up there.
    I plan to use my Phantom 2 to supplement the regular videos and photos I do for this blog as we travel around the country reporting about the interesting people and places we find on the road as part of the small motorhome RV lifestyle. Can’t wait until I get somewhere with blue skies and sunshine.
    There are lots of these kind of quadricopters out there and I looked at several, finally deciding on the Phantom because it seems to be the most popular and affordable among professional photographers and filmmakers. There are several different Phantom models, all made in China by an outfit known as DJI. They are available through a worldwide network of dealers and hobby shops and also on Amazon.
    The entry level model is the Phantom 1, which comes with a holder for the camera and the controller. Amazon sells it for $479. You need your own GoPro.
    There is also the Phantom 2 Vision, which sells for $1,208 on Amazon. It comes with it’s own camera.
    The unit I bought is the brand new Phantom 2, which, at $869 is said to be ready to fly. You provide the Go Pro Hero 3 camera, but it has the customized DJI Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal to hold it steady. The Phantom 2 only works with the Go Pro Hero 3. Previous versions don’t connect to it or fit the Zenmuse.
    Besides the GoPro and the Zenmuse gimbal. I added an FPV (First Person Video) system that lets me see what the camera sees via a special seven-inch color monitor that attaches to the controller. When the drone is out there past 1,000 feet or so, it’s often pretty hard to see it with the naked eye. That’s where FPV comes in handy.
    I have to warn you, despite the manufacturer’s claim that the Phantom 2 is ready to fly out of the box, it really isn’t. Assembling all this and getting it synchronized and tuned is not for the faint hearted. I hired a guy named Zac Davis, who just opened a business called drone-works.com in New York, to assemble and build up my system. Zac builds drone systems for police and fire agencies and really knows his stuff. He put everything together for me, making sure it worked just right. Then he talked me through on the phone on how to assemble it, update the software and firmware and set up and follow the proper pre-flight check list The extra setup and assembly fee he charged to get everything right was well worth it to me. If Zac’s website is not up and running when you check (he was just setting it up when I bought from him), you can reach him through Facebook or the DJI Owners group on Facebook, which is a great resource for more information about drones and the Phantom system.
    This is going to be a lot of fun. Thought Jennifer just shook her head and said something like “Boys and their toys,” when I came gushing in from my first flight to tell her about it, I must stress that this is not a toy. It takes lots of practice to fly it well and with confidence and because it has such a long range, you need to be very aware of your surroundings and what may be in its flight path or what is on the ground below. Thus, it should not be flown over crowds.
    Flying time is advertised at about 20 minutes. In the cold, and with the FPV system and the Zenmuse gimbal adding extra weight and battery drain, I got a little over 15 minutes of flight time. I have an extra battery so it’s pretty easy to bring it down, change out the batteries and send it up again.
    Some very cool safety features are built in. For example, I prefer flying mine in GPS mode. That means it locks in to as many as eight different satellites orbiting the earth. The Phantom “talks” to those satellites and thus knows its exact GPS position at all time. If the battery fails or the connection between the controller and the drone is interrupted, it is programmed to automatically fly right back to my location and safely land. There are advanced modes it can fly in as well, that offer more precise control to those who are experienced in its operation. My skill set isn’t there yet. I’m sticking with GPS mode.
    Practice makes perfect will be my motto for a few weeks.
    Everything stows away snug and secure and fits in the ToughCase XR2 padded case I bought from a company named Tradecraft. The case was made for the Phantom 1 system but a sharp knife let me adjust the case openings to fit the Phantom 2 gear.
    I’ll be taking it everywhere, so look for some fun video as we head out Roadtreking in 2014.

    My DJI Phanom 2 drone

    The first flight…the view over my house
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