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Roadtrekingmike

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  1. Roadtrekingmike
    Lots of you have written asking for a show and tell and some details about the travel trailer we just just purchased to take on our “Great Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013,” which starts Saturday.
    The video gives you a quick peek at what it looks like.
    http://youtu.be/kR7LVaLLR94
    Jennifer and I love the 2012 Roadtrek eTrek. We’ve put well over 20,000 miles on it since we got it around the first of the year. But Class B motorhomes in and of themselves are not a family RV. While we could take on a grandkid for a couple of nights by turning the passenger chairs around and putting a special bed pad across them, it would get pretty crowded for an extended period.
    There’s plenty of room for the two of us and Tai, our Roadtrek-loving Norwegian Elkhound. But as we’ve been on the road for the past year-and-a-half in the eTrek as well as the 2006 RS Adventurous we previously owned, we’ve wished that we could bring along more of the family.

    Towing a trailer is the perfect solution. We could have gotten a pop up, I suppose. But we prefer hard sides, especially as we go deep into the Rockies on this trip in grizzly bear territory.
    Before picking the trailer up, I had to get a brake controller installed on the Roadtrek, a $260 expense. Essentially the controller syncs up the brakes of the Roadtrek with the trailer. If you simply hitch your trailer up and head out on the road, slowing down becomes more difficult because of the extra weight behind your vehicle. Fortunately, most states require drivers to equip their vehicles with brake controllers. When a driver presses on the brake pedal in his RV, the brake controller lets the trailer’s brake system know how much braking power is needed to stop the trailer.
    The Roadtrek comes with a strong hitch. It needed a ball adapter to connect to the trailer. I also borrowed some load levelers, a weight distribution system that prevents swaying that is part of the hitch equipment.
    The unit we got is from a relatively new travel trailer category called ultralites. There are a bunch of them available now for the booming travel trailer market. Our Roadtrek eTrek with the Mercedes diesel engine on the Sprinter chassis, can easily all 5,000 pounds.
    The 2014 Gulf Stream Amerlite Super Lite 19BHC model we bought new from American RV in Grand Raids, MI weighs 2,789 pounds. It is 21 feet long. Inside is a queen bed with a regular bed mattress, two twin bunk beds, a bathroom with a shower and a small tub, an air conditioner, microwave, two burner propane stove, small refrigerator, lots of storage cabinets, granite countertops and a two-person dinette than can also make into a bed. Outside are rear stabilizer jacks and an awning.
    I have only towed it about 50 miles so far and hardly knew it was there. The Roadtrek’s side mirrors let me clearly see both sides of the trailer and the road. Since the trailer is a little shorter than my eTrek so there was no extra wind drag or buffeting. I drove it from Grand Rapids to a son’s house in Kalamazoo, from where the vacation will start off from this weekend.
    The drive was on an interstate, US131, and I averaged between 65 and 70 mph. I discerned no additional sway with the trailer.
    That was not long enough to be able to see if there was a significant effect on fuel consumption. Normally, I’ve been getting from 16-18 mpg with the eTrek. I keep track of every fill-up so after a couple of days heading west towing the trailer, I’ll have an accurate idea.
    But you know, my advice is someone shouldn’t get into RVing if counting every penny is their thing. This is a unique lifestyle we’ve chosen and while I believe small motorhomes offer the most economical and rewarding RV experience, it’s not cheap. Our coaches are major investments, probably the biggest we’ll make after our brick and mortar homes. But they are freedom machines.
    And I’m looking forward to being able to share that freedom with my family in the new travel trailer.

  2. 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 …
  3. Roadtrekingmike
    If I had known ahead of time how high some of these mountains out here in Colorado really were, I’m not sure I would have decided to tow a travel trailer on our Great Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013.
    But now that I’m here and have climbed those super steep grades and come down them with brakes nearly smoking, I’m glad I did.
    I’m towing a 21-foot-long AmerLite travel trailer that we bought just for this trip from American RV in Grand Rapids, MI. It weighs 2,780 pounds. Empty. With supplies and gear for my daughter, Wendy; son-on-law, Dan, and granddaughters Hua Hua and Rachel and Charlie the Goldendoodle (he weighs 75 pounds), we’ve probably added another 200-300 pounds to the towing weight.
    The Roadtrek eTrek on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis is rated for 5,000 pounds towing weight.
    It has pulled that trailer up and down mountains all over Colorado. We’ve towed that trailer to 0ver 9,500 feet. The pictures accompanying this post were taken while we were coming down from the mountains at the Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado the other day.
    The biggest effect towing a travel trailer has on our Roadtrek is mileage. The normal 17-18 mpg I get with the eTrek has been cut to between 10-12 mpg, This now after more than 2,000 miles of travel.
    Pulling up a typical mountain grade of 7 to 8%, I’m lucky to get my speed up no more than 45 to 50 mph. Going down, I shift the gears down and use the engine to help brake, as well as the brakes on the trailer, tied to my Sprinter brakes by a brake controller.
    On super steep grades, on a couple of occasions we have had had to let those brakes cool down by pulling over to the road at the bottom of a descent to let them cool off.
    So far, it’s been no problem at all. We still have to get home, so I am sure there will be more to write about towing a trailer with a Roadtrek on the remaining 2,000 miles back.
    Right now, we’re spending several days at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. That’s about 8,500 feet in elevation.
    But at the midway point in our family vacation, this has been a ball. My son Jeff and his wife Aimee are following us in a Roadtrek SS Ideal. We’ve picked up lots of curious looks from people seeing two Roadtreks and a travel trailer in a caravan.
    But the funniest moment came when a fellow camper, spotting us in the campground in our matching Roadtrek windbreakers, asked: “Are you guys in some sort of gang or something?”
    Oh yeah. We are. A Roadtreking gang.

    Sticking the camera outside the driver’s side window from our Roadtrek
    eTrek ... click on the image and you can see part of the trailer we’re towing and Jeff and Aimee in
    the Roadtrek SS Ideal in the background. And behind them, in our Honda
    Pilot, is my daughter and her family.
  4. Roadtrekingmike
    Man we got high near Telluride!
    At 9,500 feet in elevation, the Matterhorn Campground just south of Telluride, CO was the highest place we’ve overnighted yet on this Great Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013. Son-in-law, Dan, noticeably felt the effects of the altitude and all of us noticed a bit of dizzyness on exertion, especially when hiking.
    The Matterhorn Campground is just off Colorado Highway 145, about an hour and a half’s drive from our stay at Mesa Verde National Park. Run by the USDA Forest Service, it has 28 spots and we chose two offering full hookups for Wendy and Dan and the granddaughters in the travel trailer and Jeff and Aimee in the Roadtrek SS.
    Jennifer and I put the eTrek in one of the dry camping spots.
    The campground also has showers and flush toilets, though the showers were a bit challenging, bursting out blasts of scalding hot water for 20 seconds, then abruptly shutting off until you waited six seconds and then pushed the button again. When I say scalding hot, I mean hot enough to make you howl if they hadn’t shut off when they did. Man, too hot is just as bad as too cold.
    We loved this campground, nestled in a valley and surrounded by panoramic views of the mountains in all directions. On the day we arrived snow had fallen on one of the mountain tops to our east. Right from the tent area of the campground runs the Galloping Goose Trail, a 15 mile trail great for hiking. The trail features over 20 footbridges, winds past historical landmarks and through the deep gullies of Uncompahgre National Forest—some of Colorado’s most beautiful scenery. And the famed Lizard Head Wilderness is only about 3 miles away.
    The big attraction in the areas is the nearby town of Telluride, described by locals as “the new Aspen.” To get to Telluride, we are advised by the campground host to drive up 145 to the nearby Mountain Village ski and golf resort community and take the free gondola ride into town. Since that was the only place I could get a solid Internet connection, I opted to stay in the Roadtrek in the parking lot while the rest of the family rode the gondolas.
    It’s a pretty cool service, free transportation that is supposed to take 13 minutes. Wendy and Dan took their Goldendoodle, Charley, the youngest of our three dogs and an energetic ball of energy that is game for anything.
    Sequouia, Jeff’s 120 pound part St. Bernard and partMalamute, is 12 and with, Tai, our 70-pound Norwegian Elkhound, opted to stay with me in the air conditioned Roadtrek.
    While I cranked out work on a fast 4g signal with the two dogs, the others found themselves stranded. Their gondola just stopped and hung there, swaying in the wind 6,000 feet above the valley leading to town and sweltering in the sun. While the adults and kids groaned, Charlie’s long tail thumped out a happy rhythm as it hit the side window of the gondola. He was with all his favorite people and all close together. What gets better than that? Maybe a little breeze but, hey, Charlie was happy anyway.
    They stayed like that for more than a half hour getting hotter and hotter. The first I learned about it was when I saw Wendy and Jeff updating Facebook about their plight.
    y the time I reached them on the phone, I offered to drive into Telluride and pick them up in the Roadtrek for the return trip. Jeff, Jennifer and Aimee readily agreed. Once on the gondola was enough for them.
    Wendy, Dan and Rachel considered it all a grand adventure and, with Charlie, took the gondola back to the village, where they had left their car. Hua Hua rode back with us in the Roadtrek.
    The town is very dog friendly so we brought all three of ours and even had them sit with us while we ate in the patio of a little restaurant area used by a nearby Mexican and Middle Eastern restaurants on Colorado Street. Our dogs looked downright shabby compared to the oh-so-upscale dogs of the well heeled Telluride residents. The “in” dog in Telluride is the massive Burmese Mountain Dog. If you have to ask how much such a pooch costs, you cant afford it. A puppy of average pedigree starts about $1,500.
    Telluride is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River that has great winter skiing and is a very popular Blues and Brews Festival each fall. Lots of Hollywood types have made their way here and have no problem shelling out $3 million for a vacation home on the edges of the box canyon that the town is built in.
    We walked the streets, stocked up on groceries and headed to the northern end of Main Street for a look at the spectacular 365-foot Bridal Falls.
    Then it was back to Matterhorn and quiet night beneath a stunning star canopy that takes your breath away, though at that 9,500-foot elevation, there was not much breath you could get. But even if you weren’t at such an altitude, those Colorado stars will get you high all by themselves.
    This is why we RV.
  5. Roadtrekingmike
    I bet many reading this have not heard of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It’s probably not on many RVer’s bucket list.
    It should be.
    Invariably, it is compared to its more famous Big Brother, the Grand Canyon. But while the Grand Canyon is deeper (6,000 feet at its greatest depth) and longer (277 miles), the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is an amazing tourist attraction for RVers that is often overlooked because it isn’t surrounded by highly commercialized parks and campgrounds that cater to big box Type A RVs.
    While there are a few campsites that have electricity along Loop B – where we stayed – there are no flush toilets and no water hooks and no dump stations in the national park.
    To get to the campground or the best canyon views, you have to drive a very steep mountain road off Highway 50 east of Montrose. There is no cell service, Wi-Fi or Internet – which for me meant that when I updated this blog each day I had to drive down the mountain almost into town to get a decent enough signal to upload my photos.
    But we were thrilled by our stay there.
    Black Canyon is incredibly deep and sheer, with plunging cliffs, soaring buttresses and a thundering river. At Warner Point, it’s deepest, it measures 2,722 feet. It stretches for 48 miles across southern Colorado, 14 miles of which are in the the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and six of which are easily accessible by a paved road along the southern rim. The steep walls shadow sunlight and the canyon walls appear dark, even black, hence the name.
    The National Park Service runs frequent programs during the day for visitors at many of the canyon overlooks, teaching about the geology and history of the place. At night, in a charming little amphitheater between the campground loops, they put on evening shows several times each week during the summer season. All six adults, two kids and three dogs in our group attended the “Predator or Prey” talk one night, learning that you can tell which of the two an animal is by the placement of the eyes.
    “Eyes on the side, they run and hide. Eyes in front, they hunt,” we learned.
    Our row was given a bear skull as an example to hold and pass around. Tai, our Norwegian Elkhoud, was dozing when it went by. He did a quick doubletake and leapt to his feet, his eyes bright with desire. Tai is a predator.
    Later, when all the dogs caught whiff of a mule deer nibbling on the scrub oak on the edge of the amphitheater, their classification as predators was triple confirmed.
    The mule deer were all over the campground, day and night, wandering from site to site, paying little mind to people or dogs. There are also bear in the area and bear proof food storage boxes are located by each site.
    The hiking was spectacular. Located right off the campground was the Rock Rim Trail, which has you walking along the very edge of the canyon. At 8,500 feet, even a couple mile hike can be exhausting, especially after mid morning when the temperatures begin to climb.
    At night, the high desert quickly gives off its heat and we all slept comfortably with just the windows open.
    All of us took turns using the car to drive the six mile access road and get out at the numerous overlooks, located from a few yards to 600 plus yards from the road. Each view was different, yet equally breathtaking, with the swift moving Gunnison River twisting and turning far below.
    The mountain road that takes you to the campground is steep but can handle every type of motorhome, including Class As. I saw several driving the rim road and making leisurely day trips out of the drive. The 88 camping sites on the south rim all have tables and fire circles with grill tops. The rangers do not recommend any RV over 35 feet in length. There are three loops for camping. Only Loop B has electric hookups, at $18 a night. All other spots are $12 a night.
    There are also 13 sites on the North Rim. But the south has the most accessible views of the canyon.
    The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is another reason why we so much appreciate out National Parks. If you plan an RV trip there, budget three days to fully explore it.
    You can actually float down parts of the Gunnison River on a ranger guided pontoon boat tour. To get there from the campground you make 45 minute drive down the East Access Road if you have a car. It’s a very steep drop in elevation so check with the ranger for the latest conditions. They do not recommend vehicles longer than 22 feet try that drive.
    If the boat tour appeals to you, but you want to drive your motorhome to the boarding spot, you need to get back down the mountain to Highway 50 and head about 30 miles east to milepost 130.
    We didn’t have tome for the boat trip this time.
    Notice I said this time.
    Jennifer and I want to return to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Its that cool. And next time, we’ll also see the canyon from below.
  6. Roadtrekingmike
    Quick now, when I say we visited the Colorado National Monument, what did you think?
    Unless you’ve been here and seen it, I bet you thought is was a statue of some sort, didn’t you?
    I know I did when my daughter, Wendy, first insisted we include it in our list of ”must sees” during our Great Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013.
    The monument is not what we expected.
    It is nothing short of stupendously beautiful, a long stretch of spectacular rock monotliths cut deep into the sandstone and even granite rock formations that make for sheer-walled, red rock canyons following the undulating twists and turns of the Rim Rock Drive that traverses up and down and through the preserve for 24 miles.
    That’s what the Colorado National Monument really is – a preserve, located just west of Grand Junction, CO and south of the mountain bike mecca of Fruita. It offers panoramic views of towering red rock structures with almost two dozen spots to pull over for photos. There are also lots of hiking trails.
    We stayed in the James M Robb -Colorado River State Park a quarter mile south of I-70 at the Fruita exit. The park has five sections, but only the Fruita section and the the Island Acres location 15 miles to the west offer camping The National Monument is another half mile down the road. There is also a great dinosaur museum nearby.
    t takes about two hours to see the major sights on the monument drive, though three hours is probably a better minimum amount of time to devote to your tour.
    There is an 80 site campground on the monument grounds, though there are no electric or water hookups, something my newbie son and daughter and their families need their first time out. If it were just Jennifer and me, we would have stayed up in the campground. But we have no complaints about Colorado State Parks. We’ve been very impressed with the ones we have stayed at.
    We did our drive through the monument in a mid afternoon. Then we found a great Mexican restaurant in Fruita with an outdoor patio that let all off us eat there with the dogs tied up at our feet, under the table. Usually, we have to take turns babysitting the dogs and one or two of us have to stay in our air conditioned Roadtrek while the others shop or eat. So it was a real treat to all be able to eat out together.
    So know we know: The Colorado National Monument is not a statue. It is a place, run by the U.S. Parks Service just like a National Park.
    If I had my way, I’d give it a new name: I’d call it the Colorado National Treasure.
  7. Roadtrekingmike
    One of the things about traveling by RV that makes it so much fun is the serendipity, the unscheduled things that you just happen upon and, in the moment, take advantage of because, with an RV, you can.
    Such was the town of Glenwood Springs along I-70 180 miles west of Denver, home of the world’s largest hot springs pool.
    The hot mineral water has been drawing visitors from all over the world since 1888, when a resort and original spa officially opened for business. But even before that, the Ute Indians made yearly pilgrimages to the springs which they considered to be sacred.
    lenwood Springs was originally known as “Defiance”. Defiance was established in 1883, a camp of tents, saloons, and brothels with an increasing amount of cabins and lodging establishments. It was populated with the expected crowd of gamblers, gunslingers and prostitutes. Wild West legend Doc Holliday of the Gunfight at the OK Coral fame spent the final months of his life in Glenwood Springs and is buried in the town’s original Pioneer Cemetery. Suffering from tuberculosis, he hoped the healing waters would extend his life. President Teddy Roosevelt spent an entire summer vacation living out of the historic Hotel Colorado near the springs.
    Today, the hot springs have been turned into a community swimming pool. For$18, you can spend the day in it. The big pool is the size of a football field and is 90 – 93 degrees Fahrenheit, all year long. A
    smaller therapy pool is between 102 and 104 degrees Fahrenheit and has bubble chairs and submerged marble benches. There are two water slides and a kiddie pool.
    As the kids, in laws and grandkids swam in the hot springs pool, Jennifer and I dog sat Tai, Sequoia and Charlie in our Roadtrek eTrek, running the air conditioner full blast in the parking lot. It was a tight squeeze. The outside temperature was in the low nineties.
    It was in Glenwood Springs after the hot springs swim that we said goodbye to Jeff and Aimee, who had to return to Michigan for their jobs a little earlier than the rest of us. Daughter Wendy and Dan Bowyer and granddaughters Hua Hua and Rachel remained with us, staying in the 21 foot travel trailer we are hauling with our Roadtrek.
    We overnighted at the Glenwood Canyon Resort RV Park, located right off the next exit east from the spa on I-70.
    A spot with full hookup cost us some big bucks. There is a $54 campsite fee that covers two people, and then they charge $5 for every other person over five years of age and $5 per dog. Our total bill was $84, plus tax. Yikes. This is a pretty ritzy area and the even the camping fees reflect it.
    But it is also a resort with deluxe cabins, white water rafting, zip lines and a nice restaurant/bar.
    Best of all, the resort and it’s RV park is right on the Colorado River, surrounded by towering canyon walls. Tenters, Class B and C RV owners will want to take spots on the lower level, along the river, which flows white water fast ten feet away from your spot.
    When we checked in at the front desk, I noticed a bunch of earplugs, free for campers.
    “For the river noise?” I asked, amazed that someone wouldn’t like the sound of rushing water.
    “No, the trains,” answered the clerk.
    Right on the opposite side of the river is a railroad track that, during our stay, carried three high speed trains in the middle of the night. Mercifully, they don’t sound their horns. But the noise would definitely wake all but a very sound sleeper.
    The river is a great place to fish. A young boy from Texas had a stringer full of large rainbow trout.
    We walked down to it at night and sat on a picnic table, mesmerized by the swift water flowing past, sparking like diamonds in fading rays of the setting sun.
    Jen and I had planned on unhitching the trailer and going back to the hot springs to swim, leaving Tai with the with rest of the family. But the canyon RV campsite was so alluring and the river so strong a draw that we just stayed and stared at the beauty of the place.
    We spent just one night in the area. Though unplanned for us, it was a great decision.
    If you’re coming this way, plan it. You may even want to spend two nights.
  8. Roadtrekingmike
    I now understand what John Denver meant by his song: I’ve now been Rocky Mountain High.
    And like Denver, who penned the song shortly after moving to Aspen to celebrate his love for his new state and the awe-inspiring mountains, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park made me want to sing, too. If I could only have caught my breath. For there, somewhere well above 12,000 feet, a quarter mile up a tundra bordered trail from an overlook off Trail Ridge Road , were three Bighorn Sheep, standing like sentinels and looking out at the same snow covered peaks that I was.
    I zoomed in for a closeup with my new telephoto and felt so at one with them, the mountains and the whole Colorado experience we had been living the past two weeks that, had Jennifer asked, I would have gladly sold my Michigan home and moved there. Immediately.
    Fortunately, she didn’t ask. At that altitude, she, too was having trouble catching her breath.
    But trust me, if you’ve never stood on top of a mountaintop in Colorado, you have no idea what you were missing. Go listen to Denver’s Rocky Mountain High, which, is, by the way, one of Colorado’s two official state songs. The other one, to save you asking, is Where the Columbines Grow. And they also grow in those Rocky Mountains.
    But Denver’s line in the song about “coming home to a place he’d never been before” is exactly what the Rocky Mountains made me feel.
    You just want to stare and stare at them. Breathing the clean, cool air and watching the sun and shadows move up and down the mountains. We came into the park from Estes Park., on the east end, and like lots of other people, took Trail Ridge Road up and through the 415 square mile park. That was our only complaint. There were way too many people. And half or more of those we sw were from somewhere other than the United States. Our favorite was a group of some 30 motorcyclists from the Netherlands, riding rented Harleys.
    Trail Ridge Road has been dubbed the “highway to the sky” and it is, in just about every book of best drives you’ll find, in the Top 10. It winds 48 miles between Estes Park on the park’s east side and Grand Lake on the west. Eleven miles of the highway travel above treeline, the elevation near 11,500 feet where the park’s evergreen forests come to a halt. As it winds across the tundra’s vastness to its high point at 12,183 feet elevation (where we saw the Bighorn Sheep) , Trail Ridge Road (U.S. 34) offers visitors thrilling views, wildlife sightings and spectacular alpine wildflower exhibitions, all from the comfort of their car.
    I loaded up everyone in our Roadtrek – four adults, two kids and two dogs – and we had no problems on the road.
    But almost every overlook has a path or hiking trail running up or down or out into the wilderness. Besides the sheep, we also saw several herds of elk.
    There were traffic jams around every overlook. But as we lingered and the day wore on, the crowds seemed to thin. By the time we stopped to picnic at Lily Lake, it was much less congested.
    We would have loved to camp at one of the four campgrounds in the park but even six weeks out, we were unable to get a reservation.
    The only place around where we could get space was at the KOA in Estes Park. What a disaster that was. At $56 a night, our “campsite” was on the side of a gravel road, hard up against a berm and maybe 10 feet from those Kamping Kabins that KOA also rents out. It was one of the worst campsites we have ever experienced. Dusty, crowded and more like a parking lot than a campground, we were miserable.
    ven the spots not on the road/parking lot were very close together. We witnessed a near fistfight when the smoke from one camper’s cigar riled up his neighbor.
    I complained to the owner and he acknowledged that I wasn’t the first who got stuck with one of those side of the gravel road spots. But he candidly explained that if he were to do away with those roadside spots his profit would drop by $20,000 a year and, for that price, he could live with the complaints.
    Eating out on the picnic table was like eating in a dust bowl. The kids had no place to play outside the RVs except the street, or way down and around in the small playground. The dogs had to lie in the dirt. You couldn’t open the RV windows without dust coming in.
    We had no other choices. Every other campground in the area was booked up.
    We arrived on a Friday night and gathered everyone up in the Roadtrek and headed to a nearby city park, where we found picnic tables and set up a grill. On Saturday, after touring the park, we walked around Estes Park until dark. Anything to avoid spending time at the KOA.
    Wendy, Dan and the girls went horseback riding into the foothills of the Rockies.
    I did enjoy an impromptu visit from two readers of this blog, Sarah and Tim, who live in Estes park and saw that we were in their area. They drove up and down the KOA streets until they found where we were parked. We talked about Colorado and, specifically, winter in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Tim, who is a curator at the museum there, told me that in the spring, when Trail Ridge Road is plowed out, it is not unusual to have them bordered by 35 foot tall snowdrifts.
    It snows every month in the park. Even August.
    Back to the Rocky Mountain High theme. If you are planning to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park and you are a flatlander, not used to altitude, give yourself some time to get acclimated. Start at lower altitudes and slowly work up. Elevation is an integral part of the park experience. The park is all above 7,500 feet, so don’t do strenuous activities until your system has adjusted. Even driving at high elevation can affect sensitive individuals. Just ask my daughter, Wendy.
    Altitude sickness symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, rapid heartbeat and insomnia. All of us in our family group felt at least one of those symptoms. Drink lots of water and if the symptoms are severe, persist, depart for lower elevation.
    But most of the symptoms ease after a couple of days of acclimation.
    But if they don’t, you will be so awestruck by the beautiful scenery, that you forget about them.
  9. Roadtrekingmike
    One of the main reasons people buy RVs is because they like to travel with their dogs.
    But the fact is, not all places are dog friendly. If you want to bring your pooch along, you need to make some adjustments.
    On our big Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013 out west, we traveled with six adults, two kids and three dogs.
    You need to understand, our dogs are big dogs. Their heads are the size of most other RVers pets. The lightest among them is my Norwegian Elkhound, Tai. He weighs 70 pounds. Next was my daughter Wendy’s Goldendoodle, Charlie, at 75 pounds. Then came my son Jeff’s part St Barnard and husky, Sequoia, who weighs 120 pounds.
    We went everywhere we wanted to go but we encountered several places – usually in National Parks – where dogs were not allowed. That required some dog juggling. One of us would usually volunteer to get dog duty, staying back at the camp or in the RV watching the dogs while the others went sightseeing.
    Most typically, dogs are not allowed on hiking trails that would put them near wildlife. Dogs are naturally protective of their people. So are animals of their young. If a dog spots a mama bear on a hike, its’s going to bark and growl. That only antagonizes the bear. So you can see why the Park Service has that rule.
    Still, there were several places, even a couple of trails, where dogs could go. They can be walked around the campsites, on the main roads and in parking lots and we never were at a loss about where to walk the dogs.
    Most beaches prohibit dogs. Most, but not all. We have found several beaches in our travels with Tai this year where dogs are allowed near the water. Usually, if you ask around at the campground, you’ll learn that almost every community has a no leash dog park, often with water access for the pups to play.
    The dogs are also people magnets. Almost everywhere we went on our family vacation, people flocked to meet the dogs.
    Not everyone likes dogs, however. At Rocky Mountain National Park, my daughter had Charlie on a leash at one of the overlooks, where dogs are permitted. A loud mouthed woman in a passing car rolled down the window and screamed at the top of her lungs, “No dogs allowed.” That was not true. Dogs are allowed in most of the public areas, just not on the backwoods hiking trails.
    It is easy to understand why some people are upset about seeing dogs. Just look around at the ground in rest areas and campgrounds and you’ll see the reason. Dog poop. Inconsiderate dog owners – slobs – who refuse to pick up their pet’s waste. We always travel with a plastic bag in our pockets and we always clean up after our dogs. But so many pet owners don’t. And that gives all dogs a bad name.
    We also always keep our dogs on leashes or, at the campground, tied on ropes. Sequoia and Tai are pretty calm. But they will gladly chase a deer if it passes by. Charlie is a barker and there were many times when we put him in time out because he was too excited by all the people walking past. We also kept him inside my daughter’s trailer until late morning, so he didn’t wake other campers with his excited yips and barks.
    The sun is a big issue for dogs. They sweat only through their mouths and they always need shade. At camp, even on cloudy days, we extended awnings to give them a cool place, always with a bowl of water close by. Tai and Charlie liked to hang out under the trailer. Sequoia preferred the shade of a tree. Dogs are social animals and they like to be around their people, their pack.
    We also used the Roadtrek as a big dog kennel. Our 24-foot eTrek is fine for Jennifer and me and Tai. But add Sequoia and Charlie and the aisle got pretty crowded. The dogs didn’t mind because the air conditioning kept things comfortable. We never left an animal in the Roadtrek without a human tender. Can you imagine how horribly hot and dangerous it would be inside an RV if the AC stopped working?
    Dogs are also prohibited from most stores and buildings. When shopping, we’d leave the dogs with one person for a few minutes. Then someone else would change places, so we all could shop and the dogs always had a human with them.
    Like people, dogs need breaks from long driving down the interstate. But be aware of where you walk them in rest areas. Dogs are often prohibited in picnic areas, again, because of the inconsiderate actions of those who don’t clean up after their animals.
    Be careful where you walk them. In the west and south, poisoness snakes are often in the underbrush just past the green grass. Ticks are also a problem in spring and early summer. In February, Tai picked up two ticks from a five minute walk in a per exercise area at a rest stop along I-75 in Tennessee.
    Those are some of my observations after a couple of seasons of RVing with dogs. How about you? What tips can you suggest? Use comments below.
  10. Roadtrekingmike
    Two-and-a-half weeks of the Great Roadtreking Family Vacation of 2013 in two-and-a-half minutes – that’s the just-finished movie version (see below) that highlights the recent Roadtreking caravan that was our family vacation to Colorado this summer.
    We traveled in four vehicles: My Roadtrek eTrek pulling a 21-foot travel trailer, followed by a Roadtrek SS driven by my son and, following us all, my daughter and her family in an SUV.
    We made a great circle tour of Colorado. Here are some of the highlights of our trip out and back: climbing Pikes Peak, visiting Garden of the Gods, Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the Colorado National Monument, Glenwood Springs and the Rocky Mountain National Park.
    And don’t forget that nine feet tall Iowa corn!
    Can’t wait for next year!

  11. 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
  12. Roadtrekingmike

    Top 5 RV Joys

    By Roadtrekingmike,

    On this Labor Day weekend, we’re in Southwest Georgia, after driving down from Michigan last week with some fun stops along the way. We plan to take our time going home, too, enjoying the freedom that our little Roadtrek eTrek RV gives us.
    After almost two years of this lifestyle, Jen and I are finding ourselves on the road more and more. We were at our Michigan sticks and bricks home for less than a week all August. We just turned 30,000 miles on the new eTrek we picked up in December!
    When we think back about the past two years, we can cite lots of things we enjoy about RVing. Here our our Top Five RV joys:
    1) We can go anywhere, anytime – Freedom is what the RV life is all about. It truly is our home on wheels. We have it loaded with clothes and essentials, pots, pans, bedding. We only need an hour or so to be packed and ready to head off. By now, we have everything down to a system. Packing, unpacking, setting up, tearing down.
    2) We have a small house but a big yard – That is the slogan on one of the T-shirts and sweatshirts we sell but it says it all so well. It’s like the whole country is our front yard. We can set up on seashores, rivers creeks, the mountains, the woods… it’s all ours to enjoy. We just open the sliding door to our Roadtrek and we are surrounded by nature. We tend to choose out of the way places off the commercial campground circuit. The most spectacular vistas are just out our windows. Our Roadtrek gives us a home with lots of acreage.
    3) We have found great new friends – From rallies, our Facebook groups, face to face meetings with readers and folks who have seen the interactive map on the blog chasing us down and showing where we just happen to be, Jennifer and I have so many new friends who share our love of adventure and the open road. The RV community has been the biggest surprise we’ve had. I think of Stu and Winona, Jim and Carolyn, Shari and Dave, Kristi, Tim and Carole, Dan, Kathy and Les, Laura, Steve, Ginny, Lisa and Bill, Tom, Laura and Ken, Bill and Karen, Cheryl, Alan, Robert and a whole bunch of other people who have come into our RVing lives this past year or so and we feel really blessed. Sharing the road with like-minded friends is such a joy.
    4) We have our own comfortable bed to sleep in – Honestly, we think we sleep better in our Roadtrek than just about any place else. Even home. Certainly hotel rooms. We need not worry about bed bugs, dirty rooms, mold or any of the other variables that make staying in hotels and motels so unpredictable. We prefer our own germs to stranger germs. Know what I mean?
    5) Our dog is always welcome – We’re not fanatics about our dog but we do like his company. That’s why we have a dog. And he adds to the joy of traveling. We don’t have to board him every time we go out of own. We can take him with us pretty much everyplace we go. Not always. There are times when we have a story to do or a place to vsit where we can’t take him when well leave him with friends or family. But generally speaking, where we go, Tai can go. That, we believe, is as it should be.
    Okay…those are our top five reasons why we like to RV.
    What would you add?
  13. Roadtrekingmike
    In the latest edition of How We Roll in our RV, Jennifer and I answer a question from Sarah in Omaha, NE about how we clean it, inside and outside.
    Jennifer says she uses Clorox Wips inside, along with wood and leather cleaner. But has us both excited is this mazing KAYWOS (Klean Anything Without Streaking) cloth …
    It is great at removing bugs, road gunk, bird droppings, dirt and grime from the exterir of our RV. In fact, without soap or water, we in essence cleaned the whole RV with the cloth, which is reusable. You wet it, wring it dry and start cleaning We both demonstrate in the video.

    The cloths can be washed but let them air dry.
    They also clean mirrors and glass and I use one for my computer screens as well.
    They are available really cheap at http://www.roadtrekingstore.com/kaywoscloth.html.
    Do you have a question about How We Roll in our RV. Just send me an email at openmike@fmca.com.
  14. Roadtrekingmike
    I love kayaking. Except for occasional rental places I find in our travels, though, it’s pretty hard to do while Roadtreking.
    I’ve been tempted to get an inflatable kayak but, well, I want a real one, with a composite body. The problem, though, is how do I carry it?
    My friend Gary Hennes from Minnesota has solved that problem with a roof mount and a Hullavator mechanism that effortlessly lifts the kayak up to the roof of his 2006 Roadtrek RS-Adventurous.
    He got his from a local outfitter near his Minneapolis home, from a competitor of the folks who made the demonstration video below.

    He got his from a local outfitter near his Minneapolis home, from a competitor of the folks who made the demonstration video above.
    Gary’s rack is from Yakima but the Thule Hullavator works with it just fine, he reports. He has it all mounted on his 2006 Roadtrek RS Adventurous, starting just ahead of the roof vent and continuing back a little past the front edge of air conditioner.
    On it, he carries a Current Designs 14′ Kestrel kayak and sometimes, in a separate rack on the other side, a We-no-nah 16 1/2 foot kevlar Advantage canoe.
    I’m sure Gary will watch the comments here and be glad to answer any more questions. The photos are of his setup. The video demonstrates how it all works.
  15. 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
  16. Roadtrekingmike
    All my life as a journalist- for more than three decades – I’ve been on deadline.
    The presses would roll, the red light on the studio camera would blink on and, that was it. I had to be ready. Done. No more time.
    So the clock ruled my days. I was single-mindedly focused on finishing, getting to press time or air time. Then, I could breathe a little… and get ready for the next day.
    It was a wild, crazy, fun, frustrating and high-adrenaline occupation and I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.
    But last year, as I neared retirement age, I couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of life NOT on deadline.
    That’s how I have been living the past 18 months.
    I have to admit, old habits are hard to put aside.
    “Why are we in such a hurry?” my wife Jennifer asked on our first multistate trip in our new Roadtrek back in the spring of 2012. I was 600 miles in on the first day and getting crabby. I wanted to make 800.
    “Because….,” I started to reply. Then I blanked. I couldn’t come up with a reason. I didn’t have to do 800 miles. In fact, there was no reason to be on the road as long as I had been that day. There was no deadline.
    That was the first lesson I learned on the first day of the first trip.
    It’s one I have to keep re-learning.
    There is no hurry. The journey is just as important as the destination. Getting there is, indeed, half the fun.
    The RV life is about being mobile, on the open road in our Class B motorhome. And it has taught me how to decompress.
    So many times in my journalism career, I’ve flown over the country, chasing some story, heading somewhere, fast, on deadline. I’d look down below from 35,000 feet and see a green and brown blur. Now, behind the wheel and on the ground in our Roadtrek, I’m discovering the beauty beneath the blur. It is a magnificent land and being on it, instead of above it, is both soothing and stimulating.
    I never thought I’d end up in an RV.
    But in so many ways, it’s been the perfect choice for Jennifer and me. Not only are we able to connect with each other, we’re meeting other people and learning things I never did standing in front of a camera using the land as a backdrop for my standup, or pushing a pencil in a reporter’s notebook.
    When you stop living on deadline, your eyes open wider.
    Life becomes an adventure of serendipity.
    Like the bit of history we picked up on a summer trip north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the southern shore of lake Superior. Standing on a wilderness bluff next to a towering sand dune called the Log Slide, we learned that in the 1880’s lumberjacks slid 100-foot white pine logs down the dunes to the water, where they were gathered into huge booms and floated seven miles east to the town of Grand Marais.
    That sent us to that town and a delightful but seldom-visited little museum tucked away in a building once used as the post office. We spent an afternoon looking at old photographs and learning how Michigan’s lumber era was as lucrative as the California Gold Rush of the same era.
    In Gadsen, Alabama, we found a campground located on Black Creek and right next to the awesome 90-foot Noccalula Falls. There, instead of rushing back to the road the next morning, we lingered again over local history when we discovered the first statue of a person jumping off a cliff. The statue is of the Cherokee princess Noccalula who, according to local legend, plunged to her death after being ordered by her father to marry a man she didn’t love. It is made entirely of pennies collected from local school children in the mid-1960s.
    And on a trip back to our Michigan home from Florida, We decided to pull off the interstate and travel the two-laned US 127, which roughly parallels I-75 north through Tennessee and Kentucky, anywhere from 10 to 50 miles to the west. We leisurely made our way through scores of small, picturesque mountain communities and ended up at the Big Bone Lick State Park in northern Kentucky, about 35 miles south of Cincinnati. There we dug into America’s prehistoric past, learning about the bones of mammoths discovered there submerged in muck. President Thomas Jefferson has fossils found there in his personal collection.
    Those are just three examples about things I’d never have seen if I were still living on deadline. But because we were in our RV, staying right there, far from the look-alike chain hotels that cluster around the freeway interchanges, we were able to experience fascinating places that wouldn’t even have caused a blip on our GPS.
    Then there are the campfires and the people we meet sitting around them, the help and suggestions they give us about living in a motorhome. There are the bicycle rides on trails and roads we’d never ride if we weren’t able to haul our bikes on the back of our Roadtrek. And the special walks we take with our Norwegian Elkhound, Tai, who travels with us but would have to be left at home if we were hoteling it.
    We’ve driven 42,000 miles in our Class B RV since March of 2012 and living out this motorhome adventure.
    I may not be living on deadline anymore. But I’m still a journalist at heart, this time telling the stories I want to tell about people and places I’d never experience if I wasn’t out there in my RV.
    I look forward to meeting you down the road.

    Noccalula Falls near Gadsden, Ala. The statue commemorates a lovesick Indian maiden’s legendary plunge over the falls. The statue was made from pennies collected by schoolchildren.

    Jennifer and our dog, Tai, walk in a UP Michigan sunset along Lake Superior.
  17. 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.
  18. Roadtrekingmike
    The RV life is so much fun because you don’t know what adventure is around the next bend. But the people you meet along the way are equally enjoyable.
    I don’t think Jennifer and I have yet to return from a Roadtreking trip without making some new friends. On our most recent trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, we met interesting people at each stop.
    Up at the Historic Fort Wilkins State Park in Copper Harbor Michigan, we found ourselves sharing a campground with husband and wife Roadtrekers Dave DeKeyser and Rebecca Cleveland, two new Roadtrek RT Ranger owners. The couple travel with their two dogs Cisco and Archie and carry two bicycles on the back.
    That’s to be expected because the two own The Bike Hub, a bicycle retail and service shop in the Northwestern Wisconsin town of DePere. From late April through August, they can hardly find time to ride themselves because summer is prime time in the bike business.
    But from now through late spring, they getaway every chance they can, the past week or so riding the awesome mountain bike trails near Copper Harbor, and after the holidays, off to Arizona and Colorado and the cycling scenes there.
    The couple loves their RT Ranger, which was upgraded out with a heavier chassis, a propane heater and a generator. The two dogs sleep up front and the couple has no problem with room.
    “This s perfect for us and our lifestyle,” said Dave, between walks and hikes with the dogs and mountain bike rides with his wife. Rebecca, a former professional racer.
    At the same campground, we reconnected with Dennis and Joyce Crabtree, who have been on an extended multi-state tour in their Roadtrek RS Adventurous from their Commerce City, CO home. We had earlier met the couple at the Roadtrek rally in Branson, Mo., this spring.
    The Crabtrees are veteran Roadtrekers. Joyce needs help breathing from a special machine but doesn’t let that keep her from seeing the country. The electrical system on their Adventurous delivers solid, reliable power all day long.
    Dennis is a kayaker and when we pulled alongside, he had just put his kayak on the roof of the Honda CRV he tows. He had been out earlier in Lake Fannie Hooe and had caught a walleye.
    “Towing our car lets us easily stow the kayak,” he says. “And we can hook up camp and Joyce’s satellite TV dish and not have to move. The Roadtreks can pull up to 5,000 pounds.”
    From Copper Harbor, we made our way down to St. Ignace, just across the Big Mac Bridge that connects Michigan’s two peninsulas.
    At the Straits State Park there, we came upon a 2006 Roadtrek 190 with a vanity front license plate that identified it as “The Condo.”
    I had to get a picture so knocked on the door and thereupon met Nick and Jan Nopper, from Grand Rapids, MI. They bought the Roadtrek this past summer, downsizing from a 40 foot Monaco Class A motorhome.
    “This is the fifth motorhome we have owned,” said Nick. “The four other ones were Class A’s. We had that same license plate on all of them.”
    The choice to downsize was an easy one for the couple. “This is just much easier to drive,” he said, pointing at his new Roadtrek. “We also just bought a home in Florida and we can use this to go back and forth and even take some side trips with.”
    The couple was on their way over to Mackinac Island for a three day getaway at the Grand Hotel with the Roadtrek providing transportation and a place to stay on the road. “We just love seeing the country,” said Nick. “Gives us something to do besides just sit around in our old age.”
    If there is any common denominator between these three very diverse couples it has to be the spirit of adventure.
    Such is the Roadtreking life. Our RVs – be they Roadtreks or small motorhomes from other Class B manufacturers – offer mobility and ease of operation, with room to take everything we need to be comfortable.
    There are new places to visit and new friends to make. It’s a big country out there. And our small motorhomes can get us there.
    Like the T-shirts on the Roadtrekingstore.com say, we may have a small house. But we have a big yard.
    See you out there ...

    Dave and Rebecca DeKeyser from Wisconsin with Cisco and Archie and their new Roadtrek RT Ranger

    Dennis Crabtree from Colorado outside his RS Adventurous. He tows the Honda CR-V with the kayak on top.

    The Grand Rapids, Mich., couple who just bought this Roadtrek 190 downsized from a 40-foot Class A motorhome. They call their Roadtrek “The Condo.”
  19. Roadtrekingmike
    I love fall. The blue skies are more blue, the air smells clean and crisp and has no more of the sweltering heaviness of summer.
    But it also makes me a little sad because, living in a northern climate like Ido, the approaching cold weather means it’s time to curtail my travel.
    It means long stretches of RVing inactivity.
    Of watching snow accumulate on top of the Roadtrek.
    Of having to winterize it.
    Of sneaking out there, turning on the heat, and sitting in it, remembering the places we’ve visited, dreaming about the ones we will visit. Sometimes, I’ve been known to take a nap in my Roadtrek. In the driveway.
    It’s not that we don’t use it in the winter. We do. Just not as often as we do in warmer weather, when weekend and short trips are easy and the roads are not snow-covered and slippery. A few times each winter, we break loose and head south.
    Last year, I winterized the RV three times. We made winter trips to Florida, Alabama and Georgia and each time, when we returned from those warmer states, we had to pump antifreeze back through the system again before getting back to Michigan. Once, I worried the pipes froze when the temperatures took an unexpected sudden drop in Louisville, KY.
    They didn’t. But it was close.
    I’m planning on monthly trips this winter, too. We plan to again visit Georgia and Florida, maybe the Texas Hill Country and the desert southwest. And we will do some winter camping again, like we did last year when the temperature at Tahquamenon Falls dipped to minus eight degrees and there was 28 inches of snow on the ground!
    But those trips will not be as extensive or frequent as they’ve been since April, when we really began our travels in ernest.
    Its enough to make me want to move and find a new place with a heated garage. That would be nice, huh?
    I know this: I don’t want to stop Roadtreking for such a silly thing as winter.
  20. Roadtrekingmike
    Everyone knows we Michganders love to represent our state by showing our hand. Here, try it.
    Take your left hand and extend it, palm facing out. That’s the Lower Peninsula, the familiar Michigan mitt.
    Okay, now turn your extended left hand to the left, and bring your handdown to the right so the fingers are pointing horizontally to the right. That’s the Upper Peninsula.
    Now bring up your right hand, palm facing you, thumb to the right. Put the left hand at the top of the right and…voila… a map of Michigan.
    Now look at the tip of your thumb on the hand representing the Upper Peninsula. That is Copper Harbor, the end of the road, some 600 miles northwest of my southeastern Michigan home, at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula.
    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.
    We spent a night in each loop. Even though the west campground was more modern with the cement pads, we preferred the east, which when we visited in mid-September was less crowded. To compensate for the lack of cell phone coverage the state park, and most places in town, offered free and surprisingly robust WiFi connectivity.
    The Fort is well worth half a day’s visit. It was opened in 1844 in the midst of the copper mining boom which had made the whole Keweenaw Peninsula as wild and wooly a place as Alaska’s Skagway during the Gold Rush. Thousands of miners from all over the world were pouring into the region and the local Ojibway and Chippewa Indians were understandably resentful of the Treaty of La Pointe that had taken the land from them and ceded the area to the United States two years before.
    The Fort was established to keep what was thought to be a delicate peace. But it was all for naught. The fort proved to be unnecessary. The native Americans largely accepted the influx, and the miners were too cold in the unforgiving climate to be anything but law-abiding. In all, the Army built 27 structures,including a guardhouse, powder magazine, 7 officer’s quarters, two barracks, two mess halls, hospital, storehouse, sutler’s store, quartermaster’s store, bakery, blacksmith’s shop, carpenter’s shop, icehouse, four quarters for married enlisted men, stables, and a slaughter house, to house the operations of two full-strength infantry companies. Several of these original structures still survive. Most of the others have been rebuilt following archaeological excavations.
    The Fort was garrisoned for just two years, with nearly 120 soldiers stationed there. In 1846 , when the Mexican War broke out, the fort was abandoned, leaving behind a single caretaker. Some troops came back during the Civil War, and it was again reoccupied , but for just three years in 1867-1870.
    The archeological excavations and restoration of the buildings by the State of Michigan is spectacular and you can walk in and out of the buildings, seeing artifacts from the time and reading letters from the men who spent a miserable existence in a place so remote to be militarily irrelevant.
    We absolutely delighted in strolling around the fort, just a short walk from our campsite.
    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.
    Then we headed into Copper Harbor. The 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.
    Today, the state has been reforested but the magnificent stands of white pine are almost all gone, expect for places like the Estivant plantation up in Copper Harbor and a stretch called the Hartwick Pines near the Lower Peninsula town of Grayling.
    About the time the white pine forests were being played out, copper became the next big thing for Michigan, headquartered on the Keweenaw . There are tours of two copper mines within a short drive of Copper Harbor. The Delaware Mine just south of Copper Harbor, and the Quincy Mine near the town of Hancock, offer guided tours deep underground. Copper turned this part of the state so rich at the Keweenaw town of Calumet missed becoming the capital of Michigan by two votes.
    The copper boom was fueled by huge demands for copper wiring, as the nation began lighting city streets and homes with electricity. The copper, too, too played and after a devastating mining strike in 1913, industry slowly vanished from the Keweenaw .
    Today, it’s the end of the road. And beautiful. The air is clean, so is the water. Fish and wildlife abound and those who live here pretty much choose to live here.
    I got to be a judge in the town’s annual Chili cookoff and in the process met lots of locals, young and old. They are proud of their heritage, deeply respectful of the land and lake, and very welcoming to visitors, especially RVers.
    If history is your thing and you like to learn about it surrounded by beauty, Copper Harbor is deserving of a visit. Give yourself a week up here.
    What to do? Fishing, hunting, biking, exploring during the summer, snowmobiling, sled dog races and ice fishing in the winter. There is a gourmet coffee shop, several excellent restaurants and, of course, the Brickside Brewery. And yes, US41 is plowed and maintained all year round. The folks of Copper Harbor know how to handle the annual snowfall of over 300 inches. Alas, the state park shuts down in October, though there is also an excellent private campground in town that may be able to handle late season RVers.
    It may be the end of the road, but there’s a lot to see and do.
    We’ll be back ....
  21. Roadtrekingmike
    The active RV season in the north is on limited time as the cold weather approaches, but before many of the RVs are put to bed or in storage, many RV parks around the country are hosting special Halloween get-togethers and site decorating contests.
    And the parks are filling up.
    At the Addison Oaks County park near our Michigan home, where we walk our dog several times a week, the Halloween weekend turns into quite a spectacle, with contests, trick-or-treating and prizes for the best-decorated RV. They call it the Boo bash and once it ends, the park shuts down for the season.
    RV Halloween weekends are being held all over this year as the concept has spread across the county.
    I know of no park, though, that is into the spirit of it all like the Lake Rudolph Campground & RV Resort in Santa Claus, Ind., which is planning seven – count them, seven – consecutive Halloween-themed activities this fall. “It’s the most popular thing we do,” said Dave Lovell, the resort’s director of marketing. The park hires professional story tellers for Friday night bonfires. There are haunted hayrides, costume contests, scary movies and a dance-until-you-drop sound and light show.
    As an indicator of how popular it is, reservations start rolling in a year in advance. The last event this year is Oct. 25-26. The 2014 Halloween weekend schedule is already up on their website.
    The Lake Rudolph folks are not alone. Most Jellystone Parks around the country now offer Halloween themed activities, while more than a third of KOA’s nearly 500 campgrounds offer Halloween themed activities and so do many privately owned campgrounds.
    If groups and lots of fun and activities are your thing and especially if you have young kids or grandkids, you might one to try one of these Halloween gatherings.

    The Lake Rudolph RV Resort in Santa Claus, Ind., hires professional storytellers to tell ghost stories around a bonfire.
    These sites might be of interest to you:
    Yogi Bear's Jellystone Parks - Halloween weekends
    Go Camping America - fall and pre-Halloween activities
    Kentucky State Parks - Halloween events
  22. Roadtrekingmike
    When blog reader Harry Salt sent me these spectacular photos (see below), I just knew I had to share them.
    They are from the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, now under way in New Mexico.
    Harry was part of two RV groups that attended – a Class B group and a Roadtrek group.
    “The festival goes thru Oct 13,” writes Salt. “After Oct 7 some of the group went on a ’walkabout’ for about 30 days. Supposed to have been at National Parks and Monuments but now they are improvising. It will end Early November at the 49er Death Valley Encampment.”
    Attendees were from Massachusetts to Alaska and Harry says there were 58 Roadtreks, one Krystal, one Chateau. Eleven were Sprinter brands. He tried to get them all in the photos but would have needed a much wider lens.
    What makes the skies so blue and Salt’s photos so spectacular is why the event is held this time of the year. This is the 42nd time that the Balloon Fiesta has filled Albuquerque’s crystal blue skies. The Balloon Fiesta is still the premier international ballooning event, powered by the perfect October climate and a phenomenon called the “Albuquerque Box,” (a combination of weather patterns and geographic landscape, the box allows balloonists to control and even retrace their adventure).
    It’s held at Balloon Fiesta Park. The 200 acres of grass and booths are filled with balloons and vendors selling everything from traditional New Mexican food to balloon memorabilia. Each year balloon teams from around the world participate in the event and news coverage originates from more than 50 countries. It has become the most photographed event in the world.
    You may have missed the first weekend but this event really goes on every day. The breathtaking mass ascensions featuring waves of hot air balloons will fill Albuquerque’s morning skies this coming weekend, too.
    I gotts do this smoeday. You, too? Thanks Harry, for sending the photos.
  23. Roadtrekingmike
    Spanning the two Michigan peninsulas is the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. It is always a highlight of our trips to the Upper Peninsula. When you say “Big Mac” to a Michigander, the bridge is what they think of, not the hamburger. Counting the approaches, the bridge is five miles long.
    What makes it so interesting is the very nature of its construction. A suspension bridge is designed to move to accommodate wind.

    And high above the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan merges with Lake Huron at the very tip of the Michigan mitt, there is always wind.
    In fact, according to the Mackinac Bridge Authority, the state agency that runs the bridge, it is possible that the deck at center span could move as much as 35 feet (east or west) due to high winds.
    Seriously.
    This would only happen under severe wind conditions, mind you. And the deck would not swing or “sway” but rather move slowly in one direction based on the force and direction of the wind. After the wind subsides, the weight of the vehicles crossing would slowly move it back into center position.
    Sometimes, the bridge is shut down. Electronic signs along I-75 so alert drivers and a low power radio station continuously broadcasts bridge conditions. Large trucks usually require an escort.
    But RVs usually have no problems.
    I say usually. I’ve crossed the bridge in our Roadtrek a dozen times. On a couple of occasions, I was aware of some pretty stiff cross winds. Nothing that caused any serious apprehension, but enough to keep my speed down.
    Occasionally, there have been vehicles rolled over on the bridge because of high winds.
    In 1989 a woman driving a two-year-old Yugo inexplicably stopped her super light weight vehicle on the bridge over the open steel grating on the bridge’s span. A gust of wind through the grating blew her vehicle off the bridge.
    That’s the only death not attributed to accidents or suicides. The most recent suicide was late last year, by someone who jumped over the rail. In 1997 a man in a Ford Bronco intentionally drove off.
    But such incidents are very rare.
    Yet, because of the nature of suspension bridges, there’s always an element of adventure in crossing the Big Mac.
    The view is always spectacular.
    I put together this little video during our most recent crossing. It was late on a cloudy day on mid-September.
    Some 200 feet below it, ferry boats could be seen making their way back and forth to nearby Mackinac Island from Mackinaw City, the last town in the Lower Peninsula and St. Ignace, the first town in the UP.
    Before the bridge was opened in 1957, automobile ferries made the crossing.
    Every Labor Day, people can walk across the bridge. I’ve participated in a couple of bicycle rides that also cross the bridge as well. But the bridge is only open for vehicular traffic except on a very few special occasions during the year.
    So driving is how most of us cross. If you haven’t driven across the Big Mac bridge, put it on your bucket list.
    If you want to spend the night and check out the bridge, the best place to do so is on the UP side, at Straits State Park in St. Ignace. There are spots right along the lake shore with magnificent views.
    If you just want to get close and take some photos or maybe have a picnic, the Fort Michilimackinac State Park on the Mackinaw City side has lots of RV parking with great bridge views.
  24. Roadtrekingmike
    Now this is boondocking. We drove 11 miles off the Interstate, down a forest road lined by brilliant yellows and red birches and oaks. Then we turned off that and went a mile and a half off down a washboard two-track, pulling into a state forest campground on a little circular lake aptly named Round Lake.
    We haven’t seen another car in miles. Its pouring rain. The heater is keeping out the 44-degree weather and we are toasty comfy in our Roadtrek eTrek, watching Game 4 of the American League Playoffs, rooting for our Tigers in the middle of nowhere.
    I had no bars on my MiFi data card or my Samsung Note 3 smartphone. But when I put the data card in my Wilson Seek cell phone booster with its external antenna magnetically attached to the top of the Roadtrek, I suddenly have four bars of pure Verizon 4G connectivity.
    In the middle of nowhere.
    TV. The Internet. Lights and heat. Water. Food, Ciffeee. Our own shower and bathroom. The comforting sound of rain drumming on the roof.
    This is why we Roadtrek. This is why we boondock. This is heaven, albeit a little wet.
    The Pigeon River Country State Forest and surrounding land where we are camped is home to the largest free-roaming elk herd east of the Mississippi River. The nearly 100,000-acre state forest contains native hardwoods and pines that are interspersed with fields and forest openings. It looks like the color up here peaked last week. But its still jaw-dropping gorgeous. The nice thing about boondocking is you can sleep with the blinds up. The morning came with the rain gone, the sun spotlighting the color across the fog shrouded lake. What a way to wake up.
    I suspect there’s another week or so of color left before they leaves start dropping fast.
    Elk inhabit this forest year-round, but certain times are better for viewing than others. Probably the best month is September, when the males (bulls) are trying to establish dominance for mating rights with the females (cows). They are very active during this time, making loud vocalizations (bugling), and breaking brush with their antlers to impress cows and intimidate their rivals.
    But even now, a month past the rut, they’re still pretty perky. I awoke Friday morning to the sound of them bugling, their high pitched, nasally noises echoing through the piney woods around our campsite from somewhere towards the east ...
    The elk or wapiti is a large member of the deer family. Adult males may weigh up to 1/2 ton.
    Want to visit this place? Come up I-75 to Exit 290 at Vanderbilt, then drive east on Sturgeon Valley Road about 11 miles to the forest trail leading to Round Lake. There are a couple of pit toilets and an old fashioned hand water pump. But no amenities. We’ve been here before. In the summer, you might find one or two other campers here. But during the week and off season, chances are you’ll be have the whole place to yourself.
    If you want to visit one of the several designated elk viewing sites, continue east about three miles to Hardwood Lake Road. Turn left (north) and continue about one mile to the Forestry Field Office. This office has maps and information about elk viewing, but hours are variable depending on the season.

    The view outside our window of Round Lake in the Pigeon River State Forest

    unrise with the last of the fog being burned away from Round Lake in the Pigeon River State Forest

    A bull elk can weigh half a ton

    The girls… a herd of cow elk in the Pigeon River State Forest
  25. Roadtrekingmike
    RVers aren’t the only ones winding down the season this time of year. So is Mackinac Island, the summer resort island located in the Straits of Mackinac at the tip of the Michigan mitt, right where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron.
    Next weekend, the place shuts down until spring, with only a single hotel, restaurant and bar left open to serve the several hundred full-time residents and the workmen who come in during the winter to renovate, repair and restore the hotels and shops. Many shops were shutting down this weekend.
    Jennifer and I have made it a tradition to visit this special island every year at this time. Gone are the thousands of summertime tourists who jam the streets and make it difficult to navigate on foot. The stores all have deep discounts and there’s a sort of back-to-nature feel for the place as winter approaches. In fact, snow is in the forecast here for mid next week.
    There are no motorized vehicles on the island. You walk, ride a bike or get carted around by a horse. So our Roadtrek was left back across the straits on the mainland, in the parking lot of the ferry boat company that makes the 20-minute crossing a dozen plus times a day. The boats will start cutting back trips next week and, usually by the end of December or early January, have to suspend all service because of ice.
    Most winters, the only way to the island in the winter is by air or, for the adventurous, by snowmobiles over the ice bridge that forms between the island and St. Ignace, the closest city in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Locals mark the path by sticking Christmas trees along the route and entrepreneurial St. Ignace business owners have been known to set up portable bars and hot dog stand on the ice half way between.
    So this week is the last active week here before most everything closes down until late April. At the massive Grand Hotel, where we are staying, the largely Jamaican staff, many of whom have served here season after season, will be leaving a week from Monday. Frederick, one of our waiters at breakfast, is in his 26th year at the Grand.
    This weekend, the hotel is featuring a ballroom dancing extravaganza that has brought people in from across the country. Decades ago, we spent a couple of years taking ballroom dance lessons. We like to joke that disco dancing saved our marriage. This weekend saw me not being able to remember a single step.
    There were beginning and intermediate classes during the day. Friday and Saturday nights, everyone dressed up and danced to a full orchestra, complete with a vocalist. Some of the men wore tuxedos. One guy wore a Scottish kilt. Several wore spats. The women wore fancy shoes and elaborate dresses that ranged from formal to Dancing With the Stars-like costumes, complete with hats and long gloves.
    The Grand bills itself as “America’s Summer Place” and has been welcoming guests since 1867. Today, like back then, you still must dress for dinner. No jeans, shorts or casual clothing is allowed after 6 p.m.
    Whenever we come here, we bring our bikes across on the ferry and try to ride around once or twice each day. It’s 8.4 miles around, all on a paved road along the shoreline that offers great views of the water. We also enjoy riding the interior roads, past natural attractions and the marvelously restored fort on a high bluff above town that was built buy the British during the American Revolution and later became the scene of two strategic battles in the War of 1812.
    At night, we walk. Friday night, the temperature was a crisp 38 degrees and there was a beautiful full moon peeking out between the clouds. We strolled the west bluff overlooking the twinkling lights of the Mackinac Bridge that connects Michigan’s two peninsulas. On our right were gigantic Victorian mansions that are summer homes built by turn-of-the-last-century business tycoons. Then we made our way back to the Grand to watch the dancers twirl around the dance floor.
    Saturday, it was dancing all day and night. Our first class, the Tango, began at 9 a.m.. Then came the Rumba. Then East Coast Swing.
    At night, everyone danced. Non-stop. The Fox Trot, the Waltz, the Quick Step, Cha-Cha, Rumba, Jitterbug, Swing and variations of them all.
    The dancing crowd had a surprising number of young couples, despite the Big Band music from the 1940s.
    Jennifer is immensely enjoying the island, the dancing, the old world charm of the Grand. I love having a happy wife.
    But two nights of wearing a suit and tie are enough to last me a long time. I’m greatly anticipating being reunited with the Roadtrek tomorrow and finding a place in the woods to boondock before heading home Monday.
    Finally…for those of you who asked … here’s video of us dancing during our swing class. No snickers, please:

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