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Roadtrekingmike

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  1. Roadtrekingmike
    Apps. There are so many apps that empower our smartphones and tablets to do new and creative things that it’s almost impossible to keep up with them. This week, I have three new apps that you may have missed that you will surely want to add to your RVing collection.
    The coolest photo enhancing app I’ve seen in a long time is Instagram’s new Hyperlapse, a very nifty little download that lets you create very smooth and fun time lapse videos. It takes a clip you shot on your iPhone, stabilizes it and stiches together a polished time lapse video that you can share. No need for a tripod. Handhold your shots and watch the app make it look like it was shot by a pro. You can play it back at up to 12 times the speed it was captured in, the time lapse video I made from a recent trip to the old western town of Deadwood, South Dakota. Sorry folks, right now this app is only for Apple devices. Cost is 99-cents.

    Free for Apple and Android mobile gizmos is another cool app called Cabin. This app sets up a private mobile network for families and friends that lets you assign reminders, track locations, and chat with your loved ones. This would be great for keeping in touch with family as you're on the road. It’s a closed group, available to only those you invite. You can share photos, audio, and notes; keep a running list of To-Do’s, tasks and important dates; and even pinpoint exactly where everyone is, in real time.
    Once more new app for Apple users: Wandering Weather. Enter in your starting location and your destination and it will help pick the route and the best time to leave to have the best traveling weather. Very cool.
  2. Roadtrekingmike
    The story of the American bison is one of the most sad and captivating episodes in U.S. history. Once thought to be limitless in number – an estimated 50 million ranged across North America before European settlement – they were hunted to near extinction in the late 1800’s. Greed by hunters and a calculated political effort to eliminate the food and main staple of the American Indian tribes were the reasons.
    From 50 million, the senseless slaughter left about 100 animals in the wild in the late 1800s.
    What happened to the bison is truly one of America’s most shameful stories. For non-native buffalo hunters they were the equivalent of a gold mine on four legs. This group hunted bison from trains and horseback for their tongues, hides, bones and little else. The tongue was, and still is considered a delicacy. Hides were prepared and shipped to the east and Europe for processing into leather. Remaining carcasses were, for the most part, left to rot. By the time nothing but bones remained, they too were gathered and shipped via rail to eastern destinations for processing into industrial carbon and fertilizer. By the 1890s with numbers nearing extinction, the bison "gold rush" was over.
    At the same time, the American government openly encouraged elimination of the Plains Indians’ primary food source, the bison. In so doing, the Indians would be forced into relatively small areas, or north into Canada. In either situation, food sources were either scarce or non-existent. The results were starvation, and high infant mortality amongst the Indian populations. In the end the west was open to European settlement and the start of the western beef industry.
    The past can’t be undone. Today, though nowhere near the nubers of the 19th century, the bison is no longer in danger of extinction. the total herd size is in the 500,000 range, about 250,000 of which are based in Canada. And in west central Montana, the National Bison Range has played an important role in the successful recovery of these magnificent animals.
    The fact that we can still see bison on the landscape is one of the finest accomplishments in the history of the National Wildlife Refuge System. President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Bison Range on May 23, 1908 when he signed legislation authorizing funds to purchase suitable land for the conservation of bison. It was the first time that Congress appropriated tax dollars to buy land specifically to conserve wildlife. The overall mission of the National Bison Range is to maintain a representative herd of bison, under reasonably natural conditions, to ensure the preservation of the species for continued public enjoyment.
    The original herd of bison released in 1909 was purchased with private money raised by the American Bison Society and then donated to the Refuge. Today, 350-500 bison call this refuge home.
    It is a great lace to visit. There are two loops that you can drive and see these magnificent animals, often also spotting the black bear, pronghorn antelope, mule deer and elk that share the 18,700 acre range. One loop, only five miles, is a flat gravel road that larger RVs could handle that goes by a bison display pasture. It takes abut a half hour.
    The best loop, though, is only for automobiles or Class B RVs under 30-feet in length. It is a hilly 19-mile, one-way gravel road with lots of switchbacks and 10% grades that gains 2,000 feet in altitude. There are two hiking trails along this route. The half-mile Bitterroot Trail and the one-mile High Point Trail provide spectacular overlooks of the prairie. Dogs, on a leash, are allowed.
    But the rest of this great preserve is off limits to hiking. Visitors must stay in their vehicles.Allow two to three hours for this route. And make sure you have your camera, as evidenced by the photos Jennifer and I took on our visit.
    The Range is one of the last intact publicly-owned inter-mountain native grasslands in the United States. The visitor’s center has a great display and lots of information.
    In general, the longer and steeper Red Sleep Mountain Drive is open from mid-May to early October with the shorter Winter Drive open the remainder of the season. The Visitor Center, with displays, restrooms and bookstore, is typically open daily from mid-May to early October but has limited hours during the winter season.
    The range is strategically located about mid-way between Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park, not far from Flathead Lake and a half hour or so north of Missoula in the southern tier of Montana’s Glacier Country. It overlooks one of the longest valleys in the region: the Bitterroot, nearly 100 miles long and 25 miles wide, bordered by the jagged peaks of the Bitterroot Mountains on the west and the rolling terrain of the Sapphire Mountains to the east,
    There’s no camping at the National Bison Range and the preserve closes at dark. Camping can be found around Missoula to the south and in some of the smaller communities near the range.

    Drive slow. They walk right out in front of you and often like to hold staring contest with nice looking RVs.

    Pronghorn antelope

    The Bitterroot Trail leads to a spectacular overlook.

    Educational display outside the visitors center

    The deer and the antelope do indeed play on the range with the buffalo. This young pronghorn found some sweet grass.

    Elk are also common throughout the range. Elk drop their impressive antlers each year to grow new ones. This display of a bunch of dropped antlers is at the visitor center and is a common decorative piece you’ll see throughout the west.
  3. 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 ....
  4. Roadtrekingmike
    Episode 2
    This has been such a blast to do. I’m thrilled by the response from so many who listened to our first podcast. I have dozens more planned!
    This week, we have released two episodes, to get the ball rolling. Starting next week, a new podcast episode will post every Wednesday morning.
    Jennifer joins me in this episode to help answer some questions.
    Each episode of these podcasts comes as a direct result of our travels across North America in a small motorhome, reporting about the interesting people and places we meet. We offer RV and camping tips, tap into our network of Roadtreking reporters, review the latest in traveling technology and discover destinations you’ll want to put on your bucket list.
    Click the link above to hear Episode 2, then scroll down for the show notes and links to the things we discuss.
    We talk about why podcasts are so powerful and popular. And we discuss how to listen and subscribe.
    I suggest several apps. Apple’s iPhone and iPad have their own built in app. I also reccomend Stitcher, a free app that works on all platforms, Apple, Android, phones and tablets.
    More apps
    Podcast Addict is free and takes a simple approach to a podcast app. However, it makes up for this by having a lot of areas to navigate. As with all of the apps on this list, finding the podcasts we searched for was quick and easy. When adding podcasts, there’s quite a few options to choose from. You can search for them by name manually, add an RSS feed, browse by top podcastsand other stuff. All in all, it’s a great free podcast app if you’re strapped for cash.
    Pocket Casts is yet another solid Podcast app. Like Podcast Addict, this podcast aggregator lets people browse for a variety of options, including top audio, top video, featured, by network, and by category. It makes finding podcasts extremely easy. Once you’ve found what podcast you’re looking for, playing them is easy as ever, and you can even categorize your podcast subscriptions for better organization. You can even sign up for a Pocket Casts account and sync across devices so you don’t have to go hunting for your podcasts over and over again. It’s $3.99 well spent if you’re a podcast fan.
    Tablets — Flipboard is actually not so much a podcast app but an RSS app. Generally, people use Flipboard to gather and read news articles. However, one of the lesser known features of Flipboard is the ability to subscribe and listen to podcasts. This is great if you already use RSS to get news or if you already use Flipboard because it’s just a matter of subscribing to your podcasts. For those who may not have used it, Flipboard features a gorgeous, smooth interface and it’s generally considered one of the best news readers out there. To us, it’s one of the best podcast apps too and it’s also free.
    Again, you can subscribe to this podcast via at iTunes.
    Please choose and click the star rating for the podcast on iTunes and leave me a review. As we establish the show, those reviews and star ratings really help.
    The RSS link for the podcasts for you geeks who like to use it to locate podcasts is http://feeds.feedburner.com/roadtrekingpodcast.
    LISTENER QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK:
    We answer two questions this week, phoned in through the “Leave a Voicemail” link on the right side of this page.
    RV NEWS OF THE WEEK:
    You won’t believe how busy the rangers were at the Grand Canyon a few weeks ago!
    TRAVELING TECH TIP:
    Review of the Logitech UE Mini Boom box. Here’s a video I did about it – http://pcmike.com/traveling-tech-tools-toys/
    BUCKET LIST RV DESTINATION OF THE WEEK
    Florida’s Blue Springs State Park, best place to see manatees in the winter
  6. Roadtrekingmike
    006 RV Podcast: The Migration of the Snowbirds
    It’s underway – the annual migration of the Snowbirds , with an estimated 2-5 million RVers  heading to the South and Southwest. That’s the featured topic in Episode 006 of...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  7. Roadtrekingmike
    Climbing Pikes Peak in an RV
    I’m often asked about the favorite things we’ve done in our Roadtrek eTrek. At the top of my list is mountain climbing. We used it to drive to the top of Pikes Peak, some...
    Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome


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  8. Roadtrekingmike
    It’s been a long and busy week with two big road trips this past week – one in the Roadtrek eTrek to Kitchener, Ontario, and a visit to the Roadtrek factory for some video work, the other to Pittsburgh, Pa., on another video project. While the Kitchener trip was blessed with great weather, the Pittsburgh trip led to some very white knuckle driving on the way back home when we unexpectedly encountered near white-out conditions from Lake Erie effect snow squalls just est of Cleveland.
    It was a great reminder of how fast conditions can change when driving an interstate in the winter.
    We were on the Ohio Turnpike (Interstate-80), an hour from Pittsburgh headed back to Michigan. When we left it was sunny and 39 degrees, according to my in-dash thermometer. An hour later, like someone turned a switch, the temperature had dropped to 27 degrees and we noticed snow flurries. Within a mile, those snow flurries had turned into a fierce squall and in a couple more miles, the road was snow covered and slippery and visibility had dropped to a couple hundred yards.
    Yikes. The photo doesn’t do justice to how lousy visibility was.
    Twenty miles further down the Ohio Turnpike, the snow was gone and the road was clear.
    As we listened to radio reports, we heard of car crashes all over. Such are the dangers of those sudden snow squalls.
    Last year, coming back from a winter RV trip to Florida, we encountered a similar white-out north of Cincinnati on I-75. Traffic suddenly ground to a stop. I looked over on the southbound lanes and saw cars smashed and twisted everywhere. Over 100 vehicles had been involved. There were lots of injuries and a fatality.
    My top three rules for winter driving:
    1) Never drive faster than you can see. By that I mean that if you can only see a hundred yards up the road, you better not be going so fast that you can’t stop in 100 yards.
    2) Be aware of the road surface. If the snow is sticking, the pavement is slippery. There may be black ice covering the parts of the road where the surface shows through.
    3) In a whiteout, do NOT pull over to the shoulder of the road and wait it out there. Carefully move over in the slow lane and take the next exit to get off the interstate as soon as you can if you are the least bit apprehensive about your ability to control the vehicle.
    As our travels this week reminded us, like it or not, winter is here.
    Be careful out there!
  9. Roadtrekingmike
    “How’d you end up doing this?”
    If I could have had a quarter for every time we’ve been asked that about our roadtreking.com RV blog we could buy another motorhome.
    But since enough people seem to be interested….Here’s how:
    This Roadtreking RV blog is a dream come true for me. Decades in the making, but now being lived out like one giant movie, seen through the wide expanse of my motorhome’s windshield as North America rolls on by. We can stop anytime, explore anywhere.
    And we do, sharing it with you.
    It’s all very much serendipity. Serendipity means a “happy accident” or “pleasant surprise,” something fun and useful and enjoyable that was discovered by happenstance along the way. That’s a perfect description of what we find every day in this new wandering life in a motorhome.
    This blog is entirely the work of me, Mike Wendland, who, with wife, Jennifer, bought a Roadtrek Class B motor home in early 2012 after years of dreaming. This blog is about seeing North America, enjoying our compact little motor home and then reporting the interesting stories about the people and places we come across.

    The goal is to share our Roadtreking life. I have to admit right at the start, I am not very mechanical. It took me an orientation session with my RV dealer to find out where the gas, ah, make that, diesel fueling point was on the vehicle. So this is not a blog aimed at tinkerers and mechanics.
    It’s about the RV lifestyle our motorhome allows and the great things to see and do out there on the open road.
    By background, I’m a journalist. I have to tell stories. I love meeting people, learning and seeing new things, enjoying God’s awesome creation. Taking pictures. Making videos. I’ve been doing this for more than three decades, for major newspapers, TV networks, radio stations and magazines. I’ve written six books. I’ve won 18 EMMY awards, honors from the Associated Press, Ohio State University and Wayne State University. I’ve reported from all over Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Central America.
    I used to travel so much as a journalist that one of my employers, the Detroit News, once took an ad out in a journalism trade magazine referring to me as “one of America’s most well-traveled reporters.”

    Much of that traveling was what we call “parachute journalism.” I’d fly in, cover the story and fly out, sometimes the same day, often using scenery and skylines as backdrops for my stand-up TV bits. I remembered so many times looking out at a mountain range or across some valley or in some small town or metropolis and longing to spend time, walk the streets, hike the trails, climb the hills, experience the sights and sounds and smells of a place. And, of course, meet the people. It seldom happened. There was always another story in another place on another deadline.
    Don’t get me wrong. I loved those journalism days. I had a front row, window seat to history. I covered Presidents and movie stars, CEOs and government leaders and even the Queen of England and a Pope. Those were heady days.
    But as I approached retirement age, I knew I missed a lot of stories out there over the years, stories about people, places and the things that make the U.S. and Canada such wonderful countries. The kind of good news and general interest stories hard-nosed editors and news directors tend to skip over in favor of the sensational and controversial. The world of big media today concentrates on strife and tragedy and bad news. It has little time for good news.
    In retirement, as my own boss, I decided I wanted to go back and actually see and experience the country and tell those good news stories that I am convinced people are really hungry for.
    A motorhome was my solution.
    So I got one and, with wife, and dog, we set out to meet people, discover places and take to the the road in a world of $4 plus a gallon and climbing fuel costs.PicsV
    The one work obligation I still have every week is with NBC-TV, where, since 1994, I report on personal technology. I’m known there as
    “PC Mike” and my reports are sent weekly to the NBC Newschannel service which distributes my “PC Mike” report to all 215 stations each week.
    That’s all possible because of a 4g mobile connection from Verizon Wireless. I use that connection to report, write and file my Roadtreking stories, post my videos and photos, update this blog and even send my edited “PC Mike” story to NBC each week, all from my motorhome as I travel North America discovering all the interesting people and places I didn’t have time to meet when I was a news reporter working for newspapers or TV stations. But technology, like the motorhome, is a big part of my life and being able to try out new tech toys and stay connected while on the road makes every day an adventure. You can read about my tech gear here.
    Right now, we’re traveling in a 2013 Roadtrek eTrek, an eco-friendly, solar-powered Class B motorhome built on the Mercedes Sprinter chassis. We chose the eTrek because we love to “boondock,” to stay in remote places, off the commercial power grid, typically in natonal or state forests, National Parks or wilderness areas. The eTrek allows us to be self contained for long periods of time. rtetThere is no propane system or conventional generator. Heat comes from an industry-leading Webasto diesel powered combination water heater and furnace. Electrical power generation is provided by a 3,500-watt generator mounted to the van’s diesel engine that can charge eight dead auxiliary batteries in only 40 minutes. Supplemental power comes from a 240 watt solar charging system. All this reserve power is stored in eight 6 volt AGM batteries (1600 amp. hours) and distributed directly to 12 volt lights and appliances and through a 5,000-watt inverter to 110-volt appliances like the air conditioner, inductive stove, instant drinking water heater and convection/microwave oven. The system features surge protection, power monitoring, battery minder/balancer, and solar charge controller.
    We began this blog in March 2012. Our first year we covered 11,000 miles. Typically, we mark out a route, identify a few spots we want to be sure to visit and then take off, stopping when we want or find something that interests us. An old editor of mine once told me that “every person has a story to tell.” My journalism career has shown me that to be very true. It’s the same with most places. Places have stories, too. So we like to wander, chat up the people we meet, and start taking photos and videos. Usually, we return with more stories than we can do.
    We try to travel year round. This past winter, we drove the eTrek in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where we found a winter winter wonderland that most people never see. There was 28 inches of snow on the level ground and onc night, deep in the wilderness, it got down to four degrees below zero. It was an awesome experience. We slept snug and warm inside our eTrek and realized winter is no excuse to put the RV in storage. In the first six months of 2013, we racked up more than 16,000 miles of travel.
    Typically, we’re on the road two to three weeks every month. We’re not fulltimers. We need grandkid fixes. So we return to our Michigan home for at least a week or so every month.
    We also like to visit RV rallies and events. A highlight for us is the Family Motor Home Association reunion. In 2013, it will be in Gillette, WY. I am the official on-the-road reporter for the FMCA and author the Open Mike column each month in Family Motor Coach Magazine.
    Some people have looked at our schedule and the amount of material we produce and laugh. “I thought you retired,” they’ll say.
    As a matter of fact, I’m probably writing and reporting more now than I did when I was a fulltime employee of the various news outfits I’ve worked for over the years. But the difference is I’m my own boss and telling the stories I want to tell. That makes it not like a job at all.
    Truth is, though, that if I’m not careful, Roadtreking.com could become all-consuming. The blog has been growing so fast that we also started a weekly RV newsletter. We opened an online store for RV related clothing and accessories. Our Facebook Page is approaching 20,000 “Likes.” Slowly, we have picked up RV industry-related sponsors for all this and my son, Jeff, has pitched in to help run the “enterprise” so I can concentrate on traveling, content and reporting.
    I should point out that while Roadtrek Motorhomes is an advertiser on this blog and my newsletter and we have a warm and close relationship that has given me frequent access to company executives and the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, I am not an employee of Roadtrek. I am an independent journalist that happens to love the Class B motorhome lifestyle. The blog is a labor of love. It is all my own work, and even if I didn’t have any advertisers, I’d still be publishing it.
    Like I said, I have to tell stories. It’s in my DNA, I guess.
    For the record, Jennifer and I have been married for more than 40 years. Our brick and mortar home is in Oakland, MI. We have three grown children and six grandchildren. Our son, Scott, lives in southwest Georgia with his wife, Lauri, and four sons. Our daughter, Wendy, lives in suburban Detroit with husband, Dan, and two daughters; and son Jeff lives with wife, Aimee, in Kalamazoo, MI.
    Jennifer is a certified fitness instructor by occupation, specializing is water exercise. Besides journalism, we’ve both been very active at our church and have led in-depth Bible studies for many years. In addition to RVing, I enjoy bicycling, SCUBA diving, kayaking and fishing.
    One of the joys of doing all this is working with my wife, who now appears regularly with me in reporting our Roadtreking stories in the “How We Roll in our RV” series of reports that anser reader questions.. That’s not to say that there sometimes isn’t conflict. Jennifer insists on working out and exercising while on the road. We’re not talking campground strolls, bike rides and hikes – all of which we do. We’re talking hard core workouts. In a gym. A constant challenge for me in our travels is finding a health club or workout facility for Jennifer. I’ve learned that unless she gets in a workout three or four times a week, things in the confined space of our motorhome can get a bit strained.

    For her part, Jennifer has had to adjust to the unpredictability of my serendipity style. “Where are we going to spend the night,” she’ll ask? I seldom know. I am not one for making reservations. There are too many variables out there, places and people that make me spontaneously pull off the road and strike up conversations that could lead us to a totally unexpected delight of a story just around the bend.
    You can read and watch many of them here on the blog.
    About the Author: Mike Wendland is a veteran journalist who travels the country in a Roadtrek Type B motorhome, accompanied by his wife, Jennifer, and their Norweigian elkhound, Tai. Mike is an FMCA member (F426141) and is FMCA's official on-the-road reporter. He enjoys camping (obviously), hiking, biking, fitness, photography, video editing and all things dealing with technology. His "PC MIke" technology segments are distributed weekly to all 215 NBC-TV stations. More from this author. Reach mike at openmike@fmca.com.
  10. Roadtrekingmike
    Michigan’s UP is hemmed in by three of the Great Lakes. Everyone knows about Superior and Huron but the lake on the UP’s southern border has some great camping and exploring opportunities, too.
    So. after three weeks of travel on our Verizon Great Lakes Roadtreking Shoreline Tour, we have now arrived at the fifth of the big lakes – Lake Michigan.
    Lake Michigan touches four states and is the only one of the Great Lakes that doesn’t share a coastline with Canada.

    We started out following it across the bottom of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula near the Wisconsin border and because it has so much shoreline, we’ll cover it in three segments.
    You can see the first of our Lake Michigan reports and the 7th in our series by clicking above.
    Our first destination was a 17 mile long appendage called the Garden Peninsula that juts out into the UP’s Big Bay de Noc. There, we toured a ghost town of sorts, the once thriving iron smelting town town of Fayette. The state has restored many of the mid-19th century buildings.
    Today, it’s a reminder that nothing lasts forever. There’s a nice campground there with electric hookups. But there are just vault toilets, no shower facilities and there is no dump facilities. Park officials say they are planning to upgrade the campground next year, pending budget approval. But you can walk through a narrow forest and get right to the rocky shoreline. Be sure and wear real shoes instead of flip flops if you plan to walk the stone beach.
    Further east and just yards off US 2, Lake Michigan offers swimming beaches that beckon a stop by the traveler. There are several state campgrounds along the lake, too. Our favorite is Hog Island Point, a niftly little hideaway campground, nestled into the cedars and hardwoods of a small peninsula that juts into a pretty little Lake Michigan bay just off US-2, about 35 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge. There are 59 rustic sites and because of the name, perhaps, and the lack of hookups, most are usually vacant.
    Then it was across the Mackinac Bridge and the Lower Peninsula and Michigan coastal highway 119 – known as the Tunnel of Trees, one of the most scenic roads in Michigan, running 20 miles from Cross Village to Harbor Springs.
    This is the heart of Michigan’s “Up North” vacation land, characterized by the sparkling water of Lake Michigan, gently rolling hills, lots of scenery and beautiful beaches in Petoskey and the Traverse City area. As you drive south along the shore, vast cherry orchards line both sides of US 31, thriving in the unique glacial soil and climate along the Lake Michigan coastline.
    At Empire, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a true national treasure with miles of sugar sand beach, bluffs that tower 450 feet above the lake, lush forests, clear inland lakes and spectacular views that had this area named the “Most Beautiful Place in America” by the ABC Televisions Good Morning America show.
    You can even make your way down the dunes the water below… just remember, though, you’ll also have to climb back up.
    It’s also a place where the National park service is experimenting with an innovate high tech guide service that works with cellular phones at various spots along the lakeshore.
    Verizon’s robust 4g LTE network up here lets you dial in with your phone and hear interpretive descriptions of the exact location you are visiting, almost as if you had a park ranger at your side.
    This end of the tour ends at the port city of Ludington, about midway down the western shore of the Michigan Mitt.
    From there, we’ll temporarily leave Michigan and steam across the lake to Wisconsin on a 410-foot car ferry. Well tell you all about that in our next report.
  11. Roadtrekingmike
    There’s a reason it’s called Superior.
    There is no other lake like it in the world. It is truly immense, so big that it contains more water that all four of the other Great Lakes combined. You’d need two more Lake Eries to equal the water in Superior.
    Superior is so big we will need two reports to cover it all for our Verizon Great Lakes Roadtreking Tour.

    In the video above, we head out from Saulte Ste Marie, Mich., where Superior flows into the St Mary’s River and, eventually all of the other lakes, following the big lake west. We did our best to take highways and roads that would keep us as close to the shore as possible.
    Superior is so huge that to cover it, we would travel across three states and two time zones. We decided to make this first segment all Michigan, where Superior’s shore forms the northern boundary of the Upper Peninsula.
    At the Pointe Iroquois Lighthouse near the Michigan UP town of Bay Mills, Ron Gilmore – who everyone knows as “Gilly,” joked with us about life on the Superior’s Michigan coastline.
    “Up here, we have two seasons. One is shoveling and the other is swatting,” he says of the long winter and the UP’s notorious biting insects. “We have eight months of winter and four months of bad sledding.”
    Exaggeration. Yeah. We found that the usual spring bug invasion had died down, thanks to breezy, comfortably cool weather. We had our Roadtrek Etrek RV heater on for several nights.
    Further west and then south for a dozen miles past the town of Paradise, is Tahquamenon Falls, the largest waterfall east of the Mississippi. We had spotty phone service here and in several other areas of the UP. But I hooked up my Wilson Sleek cell phone booster and went from zero bars to three bars.
    In Munising we spent two days touring the pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, a 42-mile stretch of sandstone cliffs carved out by the mighty waves of the big lake. The best way to see it is on a boat, like the ones operated by the Pictured Rocks Cruise Line. It’s a three hour trip and gets you close enough to the formations to almost touch them.
    Another way to tour them is by kayak, though the chilly 44-degree water temperature kept me boat bound. Locals said the lake, always cold, is much colder than usual this year because of the severe winter. There were icebergs out in the lake until mid-June.
    These cliffs are up to 200 feet above lake level. They have been naturally sculptured into shallow caves, arches, formations that castles, battleships, event faces. Roads lead you to several overlooks, if you’d rather stay on land.
    Munising may be surrounded by wilderness, but it is a very connected town. Entrepreneur Tom Dolaskie IV runs a number of very high tech companies right on the main highway. His IT clients include hotels all over the world.
    He could live anywhere he wanted. But he lives on the Superior shore because of the beauty and the opportunity it gives him do photography and video.
    You can see his videos and photos at youtube.com/roamwherever
    Like me, he flies a personal drone and when I stopped by to visit, he and his team dropped everything for a chance to go outside and fly.
    We stayed at the Munising Tourist Park Campground, just a couple miles out of town on US-28. We were camped right on the lake and treated to gorgeous sunsets.
    All along Highway 28 west of Munising are roadside parking areas that provide great beach access. We walked empty beaches that we had all to ourselves. Tai gulped the fresh, cool superior water and romped in the sand. We think Tai likes sand so much because it feels like snow. He loves those beach walks and we’ve been able to find places on all the Great Lakes so far where he can play in the surf.
    We moved past the harbor town of Marquette. Up the Keewenaw Peninsula is Copper Harbor, the northernmost part of Michigan where the Superior shore is rugged and rough and stunningly beautiful.
    And then, there’s the far western end of the UP and the 60,000-acre Porcupine Mountains, one of the few remaining large wilderness areas in the Midwest, with towering virgin timber, secluded lakes, and miles of wild rivers and streams. Our favorite camping spot is the rustic Presque Isle campground at the western end. There’s no electricity, no water, no generators. We didn’t need any of it with our Etrek and we really like the wilderness quiet there.
    If you must have hookups, the Union Bay Campground at the eastern end of the park has them.
    In our next segment, we’ll follow Superior into Wisconsin and Minnesota.

    Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

    Sunset over Lake Superior, near Munising

    Our spot at the Munising Tourist Park Campground

    Tai, chilling inside as the sun sets.
  12. Roadtrekingmike
    If you like driving your RV, drive it in Colorado.
    Look at the photos.
    Around every corner is another great, sweeping vista.
    Today, we drove about 80 miles from Mesa Verde National park in the far southwest corner up Highway 145 to the Matterhorn Campground in the San Juan Mountains a dozen or so miles south of Telluride.
    From the semi-arid canyon country to alpine forests, the drive couldn’t be prettier. Even towing that new AmerLite Travel Trailer I bought from American RV in Grand Rapids, MI before setting out on this family vacation, my Roadtrek eTrek barely strained at it pulled us up to about 9,500 feet.
    Before leaving Mesa Verde, son Jeff and I hiked the Prater Ridge Trail that climbs high above our Morefield Campground campsite following the the rim of Prater Ridge, which separates Morefield Canyon and Prater Canyon and offers commanding views of the Montezuma Valley. We got high up on the trail when a fast moving mountain thunderstorm with lightning sent us scrambling back down.
    The storm stayed up top of the ridge and last night, a spectacular quarter moon peeked down at us. Our granddaughters gathered up every kid in the campground and we had the S’More party of all S’More parties last night. It’s amazing how fast kids become friends on a camping strip and how a campground becomes a neighborhood each night, with folks strolling around, looking at the other rigs, talking about the day and the next adventures, sharing tips and enjoying each other’s company as if we were lifelong friends.
    Then morning comes and the neighborhood vanishes as the RVs pull off to all points on the compass.
    Today, we made the drive to Telluride, where we’ll spend one night before heading up to Gunnison and the Black Canyon on Monday.
    The Matterhorn campground we chose for the night is on a small loop off Highway 145. There are 28 campsites with four of them offering RV hookups of water, electricity and septic. We let Jeff and Aimee in the trailer and Wendy and Dan in a borrowed Roadtrek SS Ideal use the full hookups. Jen and I are dry camping in a great spot nestled into the woods on the slope of a mountain just across from them. Our eTrek with its solar power and diesel generator lets use every appliance just like we were plugged in.
    There is no Internet in the Matterhorn Campground so I’m now parked in the Roadtrek with two of the dogs while everyone else in the family took a gondola from the Mountain Village resort development to check out Telluride. There’s a great 4G signal here so I wrote this week’s newsletter, uploaded some photos and fired off this quick post.
    I’m thinking I really need to bite the bullet and invest in a satellite Internet system. I’m missing some big time family fun because of spotty cell phone Internet.
  13. 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.
  14. Roadtrekingmike
    Tarry gunk still evident on Gulf beaches
    More than two and a half years after the disastrous Deepwater oil spill by BP, tarry, gunky deposits of what appears to be dried oil are still all too evident on stretches of Northwest Florida gulfshore beaches.
    “This is atrocious,” reports RT Campskunk, a fulltiming RVer in a Roadtrek 190 from St. George Island, Florida. “It’s just a shame. These were the best beaches in the country. I was used to tar on the beaches out in Texas and Louisiana where all the wells are, but this is the first time I have seen it in Florida.”
    Campskunk walked long stretches of the beach around the Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park and found numerous clumps of the stuff. He took lots of photos like this one. That’s a quarter on top of the tarry deposit, to give us an idea of its size.
    You can see lots more of his photos on his Flickr photostream.
    Hurricane Isaac last fall was blamed for fresh oil deposits showing up in Louisiana  But that doesn’t explain the ones Campskunk spotted this week. Some are four inches thick.
    A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior said in September 2012 that an estimated 1 million gallons of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill were hiding in the underwater sediment off the coast of Louisiana.
    St. George Island is a 22-mile, thin barrier island in Northwest Florida,  just southeast of Panama City near the Panhandle.
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road


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  15. Roadtrekingmike
    One of the places that has a special hold on me is the Everglades area of Florida, a wild, huge place filled with birds and wildlife as diverse as the flooded cypress and sawgrass prairies that make up the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States.
    Every time I’m in south Florida, I budget time for the glades. I’ve ridden my bicycle along an eight mile paved loop at Shark Valley, cruising yards past snoozing gators with their huge tooth filled mouths open to cool off. There are air boat rides, nature walks where you can actually get wet and wade in the swamp and fishing not to be believed.
    The winter dry season, which lasts from December to April, is the best time for wildlife viewing in the park. Weather conditions are generally pleasant during the winter and standing water levels are low, causing wildlife to congregate at central water locations. Shark Valley, the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palm, and Eco Pond in the Flamingo area are popular areas for viewing alligators, wading birds, and other wildlife. Boaters have additional access to wildlife viewing opportunities in Florida Bay and along the Gulf Coast.
    This trip, I devoted an afternoon to the Big Cypress National Preserve, a 729,000 acre part of the Everglades whose crystal clean freshwater plays a vital roe in the health of the entire ecosystem of south Florida. We drove a 24 mile loop road that runs south and east off Highway 41 at about mile marker 59.
    It’s a dirt and gravel road, well maintained but meant for slow travel. Bounded on both sides by trees, there are frequent drainage ditches and small open spots all along the route. It’s fine for Class B and Class C RVs. Too rough for a Class A. And once you commit, there are limited spots to turn around.
    Found here are dozens of species of mammals, birds, and reptiles unique to Florida’s climate. It is easy to view and appreciate Florida’s largest reptile, the American alligator, living here in its natural environment. They are in almost every water hole, all along the banks, even sunning themselves on the shoulder of the road. The birds are something else: Anhingas, egrets, wood storks and herons are found in plentiful numbers feeding, displaying courtship feathers, and nesting in and among the cypress trees.
    There’s a reason the speed limit is 25 miles an hour. Herons often launch from the trees and fly right across and over the road. Because of their bulk, it takes them some considerable wing power to get to altitude and if we had been traveling faster, we would have hit one several times.
    Occasionally, one can witness river otter, bobcats, black bear, and the endangered Florida panther on the Preserve’s back roads and trails. We didn’t see any panthers, but Route 41 is peppered with warning signs noting that panthers frequently cross the road.
    Not all the animals are native. In recent years, snakes from around the world have been turning up in and around Everglades National Park. Burmese pythons, one of the largest snake species on earth, are now known to be breeding in the park and spreading throughout south Florida. Over 2,000 pythons have been removed from the park and surrounding areas since 2002-likely representing only a fraction of the total population. The population of Burmese pythons presently established in the park is the result of accidental and/or intentional releases by pet owners. These introductions can have devastating consequences to our ecosystem. Burmese pythons have been found to feed on a wide variety of mammals and birds in the Everglades-even the occasional alligator! By preying on native wildlife, and competing with other native predators, pythons are seriously impacting the natural order of south Florida’s ecological communities. The continued proliferation of Burmese pythons-and the continued introduction of new foreign species-can further threaten many of the endangered plants and animals we’re working diligently to protect.
    These creatures reach 15-20 feet in length. We didn’t see one. Jennifer considers that good. Me, I would have liked to get my own photo instead of the Florida wildlife one used above.
    The trip we took on the scenic loop road makes for a delightful afternoon There’s a large visitors center for the Big Cypress National Preserve on US 41 that is well worth seeing.
    And there are numerous federal campgrounds right off 41 up and down 41 from Naples to Miami. Most have openings every day.
    yet! Love this place!!
  16. Roadtrekingmike
    The Gulf Coast is now recovered from the ravages of Katrina and the BP oil spill and is now celebrating Mardi Gras in communities large and small.
    From Mobile to New Orleans and all in between, the fun starts as early as two weeks before the Fat Tuesday final day before Lent and if you time a visit right down here, you can take in Mardi Gras parades every day and many a night. RV parks are all along the coast in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and this time of year, when the weather can still be slightly unpredictable, there are lots of vacancies.

    We made our way to the town of Gautier, Miss., and Shepard State Park, part of a group of two dozen plus Roadtrekers from all across the country invited down here for fun and food and Mardi Gras festivities at an event called “Pogo’s Smokin’ on the Bayou.”
    Pogo – real name Paul Konowalchuk Pogorzelski (see why we just call him Pogo?) – really lives on a Bayou that connects to the Gulf of Mexico. He timed the event for the town of Gautier’s big Mardi Gras night parade.
    Not that we needed an excuse.
    Pogo and his wife Vicki opened their hearts and home to us – even finding a way to squeeze a dozen Roadtreks in a vacant lot two doors down. Of course it didn’t hurt that his next door neighbor Gordon Gollott, just happens to be the mayor of Gautier (pronounced Go-shea), a town of 18,000. The mayor even invited me to ride on the official town float at the night Mardi Gras parade.
    The local industry here is shipbuilding (that’s what Pogo does) and the local passtime is hospitality.
    The weather was typical for this time of year. Temperatures reached the low seventies a couple of times but we had lots of rain one day. And lots of fun all the time.
    We had so much fun we convinced Pogo to make this an annual event. And next year, we’re thinking about getting our own float for the parade. Towed by a Roadtrek, of course.
    Click the video above for a look at the night parade. To make plans to join us for next yearbe sure to visit our Facebook Group.
  17. Roadtrekingmike
    One of the things that so distinguishes an RV is its appearance and especially, the beauty of its paint job. All the manufacturers are working very hard to make their units stand out. To see what goes into painting an RV, we visited the Kitchener, Ontario, Canada factory of Roadtrek Motorhomes, the largest and best-sellingType B motothome manufacturer in North America. There, we are able to follow a unit through the painting process and video it all.
    It begins as the van is bought into the sanding booth right after the roof goes on. There, the seams are all bonded and any imperfections in the fiberglass body are sanded and puttied and meticulously corrected. This preparation work takes two workers up to 16 hours -- such is the insistence on quality.
    Next, the van is primed and masked. This is a two hour process, making sure only what should be painted is painted and providing a dust and dirt-free surface to paint.
    Then it’s time for the paint booth- ergonomically designed and employing the latest wet-on-wet painting technology to provide a baked-on finish just like your car. There are no hurried body-shop finishes here. Three different coats are applied: a sealer, the base coat and then the clear coat which makes the Roadtrek so beautiful. The painting stage takes another three hours.
    Finally, paint dried, it's a rubbed down. The van is cleaned and buffed for an automotive factory quality finish.
    All told, nearly 24 hours have gone into just the painting process of this Roadtrek. It's that attention to detail that many say makes the Roadtreks traveling works of art.
    Source
  18. Roadtrekingmike
    RVing in Hawaii
    RVing is a huge pastime across the U.S. in 49 of the 50 states. The one exception is perhaps the most beautiful state: Hawaii. There just is not a big RV presence there. One exception is Al Waterson, a popular entertainer, singer and actor who tools around the island of Oahu in a 1995 Roadtrek 190 Versatile Class B [...]
    Roadtreking - A Journalist takes up the RV lifestyle - People and Places Encountered on the Open Road


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  19. 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.
  20. Roadtrekingmike
    One question we get a lot when we talk about our love of being off the beaten path and away from everyone is, “Why? What do you do there.”
    This is as good a time as ever to try and answer that because, as I type, we are very deep in the woods, in the middle of the Pigeon River Country State Forest Area at the very top of the Michigan Lower Peninsula mitt, a 105,049-acre area so vast it rambles across Otsego, Cheboygan, and Montmorency Counties.
    This is one of our top five favorite places to get away from it all and while I can’t technically say we are boondocking – we are in the tiny 10-site Round Lake Campground – it’s pretty much the same thing as there are no hookups here. There is no one else here. Just us, in our Roadtrek Etrek.
    So what do we do here? Sit outside and listen to the sound of silence – Yes, silence has a sound. No motors, no highway noise. It’s the sound of wind sighing through 100 foot white pines. A string of 50 or so Canadian geese, far overhead, honking their way south as the great fall migration begins.
    Go hiking with a camera – There’s a great fern-lined hiking trail that makes its way around the tiny little lake, The only other tracks I see are from an elk that took the same route, not long ago judging by their impressions in the sand. I tread as quietly as I can, stopping often, hoping to see the elk. I never catch up with him. But around me, the oaks and birch leaves are just starting to turn red and yellow. The blue sky and big fluffy clouds reflect off the water. The air has a slight chill to it, and it deliciously smells of pine.
    We prepare dinner in the Roadtrek - There may be no electricity here but we have our own in the Etrek. Jennifer made a fresh salad and warmed up her world-famous crock pot turkey stew on the inductive stovetop. We butter some fresh bread we picked up at a bakery on the way up. For dessert, we had home grown Michigan watermelon. Then, as darkness came, she sits up front to read and I do some computer work in the back.
    There is no cell coverage here. But as I’m writing this post, my computer trills with a FaceTime call. The Wilson cell booster and the external antenna I have mounted on the roof has given me a great Internet connection. On the other end of the FaceTime call is my friend Chis Guld, of the Geeks on Tour team. With husband, Jim, she’s at the Roadtrek Rally in Pismo Beach California, teaching the 120 or so Roadtrekers at the rally their most excellent tech classes.
    Out in California where Chris is, it’s that golden time of day. As she walks around the campground with her smartphone, it’s clearly Happy Hour out there. Somebody puts a bottle of red California wine in front of the camera and offers me a virtual glass. I exchange greetings with many. John from Canada is there. Pat and Pat, a couple I met last summer in Nebraska, come over to say Hi. Roadtrek International President Sherry Targum tells me I’m missing a great rally.
    They see me, seated in the back of the Etrek, with pitch black outside my windows. I see them, with Palm trees and parked Roadtreks in the California sunset.
    Technology connects us. Them, at a close-together, very social and fun gathering, Jennifer and me boondocking alone in the peace and quiet of the Michigan woods. The best of both RV world camping styles, brought together. How cool is that?
    We will make the bed and turn in early. It’s hard to describe how restful it is sleeping when all about you is nothing but wilderness. Sometimes, late at night, we have awakened to hear deer moving past. At least I think it is deer. Besides elk, there are coyotes, black bear and, some say, wolves in this vast wilderness tract.
    Jen and I are missing Tai, our Norwegian Elkhound. He’s back home with a dogsitter. Tomorrow we head to Mackinac Island for a couple of days and, alas, dogs are not allowed at the place we are staying.
    We would have stayed with my daughter and her family. But our granddaughters recently got Guinea Pigs as pets and as far as Tai is concerned, they’re nothing but rodents. And he’s the exterminator. Last time we were there, we caught him standing on a sofa, wagging his tail in anticipation as he stared down into their cage. So this trip, he’s at the dogsitter.
    Tai loves the Roadtrek and eagerly jumped in this morning as I drove him to the dogsitter. I’m sure he thought it was another adventure, after traveling coast to coast with us this year for weeks on end. Words can’t describe the look of betrayal on his face as I dropped him off. I felt so guilty leaving him behind for this trip.
    He’ll be glad to see us when we pick us up Sunday night. Then, he’ll sulk for a couple of days.
    We’ll promise to take him on the next trip. Maybe back here in a couple of weeks, when the color peaks.
    So that’s why we like off-the-grid RVing. As I re-read this, I worry that it will sound boring to some. It doesn’t sound very exciting. Yet to us, it is. And it has become so much a part of our lifestyle now that we need regular doses of this special away-from-it-all time or we start to go a little stir-crazy.
    It’s not for everyone. But it sure is for us.

    Round Lake in northern Michigan’s Pigeon River Country Stare Forest.

    An elk went down this trail not long before I did.

    The leaves are just starting to turn their fall colors.

    The wind signs through these pines producing a delightfully soothing sound.

    Chris Guld at the Roadtrek rally in California FaceTime called me in the Michigan woods.
  21. Roadtrekingmike
    This is the time of year folks are shopping for an RV and planning their first trips of the season. We have questions about both in this week’s edition of “How We Roll” in which Jennifer and I answer reader questions.
    We travel in a Class B motorhome. I’ve written lots on why we chose a B. But if you have a large family, you may want something larger.
    As for where we stay, we always opt for beauty and remoteness over crowded campgrounds.
    We share more about both questions in the video.
    Send in your questions to openmike@fmca.com and we’ll do our best to answer.
    We try to do a new edition of How We Roll each week.
    http://youtu.be/evCUGwN1sy0
  22. Roadtrekingmike
    I’ll say one thing about our traveling this past year: No dust is gathering under the RV.
    We received our new 2013 Roadtrek eTrek one year ago, in December 2012.
    When I pulled into the driveway Thursday night after returning from an RV trade show in Louisville, the odometer read 34,156 miles.
    We take off again today for a weekend trip to Western Michigan where we’ll visit Jeff and Aimee in Kalamazoo, our son and daughter-in-law. We’ll probably sleep in the Roadtrek in his driveway. We love our king-size bed in the back of the RV, and the Webosto heater keeps things comfy cozy. And yes, even though it is winterized, we can use the facilities. We use antifreeze to flush it.
    We have traveled out of state every month this year, using our sticks and bricks home as a base. And even when at our Michigan home, I often find myself using the Roadtrek as a second vehicle.
    I am actually more comfortable driving it than our passenger car.
    Our travel calendar for 2014 starts Jan. 1, when we head south to Florida for the first half of January. Then, after a quick stop home, it’s up to the frozen wilds of Northern Minnesota and a dog sled race that runs to the Canadian border in the Great White North.
    Every month of the coming year, we have a trip planned. I met with our friends at the Family Motor Coach Association last week at that RV show in Louisville and we made plans to attend and meet folks at rallies in Georgia, Massachusetts and Oregon next year.
    We have trips planned for several national parks, a tour of the Texas Hill Country, a visit to the Alabama-Mississippi coasts, and, of course, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Jennifer and I are getting requests to make personal appearances and do seminars at RV trade shows across North America and we will try to do as many as we can.
    Unlike a lot of the full-timers we’ve met, who tend to stay in one place for extended periods of time, we seldom stay more than a few days in any one campsite when we travel. As I look back over 2013, the longest we stayed in any one location was five days, at Yellowstone National Park last summer. And since we don’t have a tow a second vehicle to get around, we use the Roadtrek to explore the areas we visit, returning to our spot at night or, as often happens, finding an even cooler place to stay during our excursions. That’s why we prefer boondocking, or staying in free sites in national forests on on BLM land. That way, if we decide the grass is greener somewhere else, we’re not out money if we decide to stay in the new location.
    All this is to say, we are more than casual campers, something less than RV full-timers. What should we call what we do?
    3/4 timers?
    All I know is… we sure are having a ball.
  23. Roadtrekingmike
    Every week we get at least one question about how we use technology while traveling. In this edition of How We Roll in our RV, you get to see the way I stay connected all the time. Updating this blog, our Facebook Page and Facebook Group, plus the newsletter, means I need a reliable connection to the Internet.
    I’ve written before about my tech gear and the the MiFi card I use from Verizon Wireless to create a 4G network in my Roadtrek Class B motorhome. And a few weeks ago, I added a cell phone booster. This report shows you the extended length magnetic antenna I recently upgraded to, how I stuck it up on the roof and how I handle all the gizmos that need charging.
    Jennifer talks about her main tech activity, too.
    We’d love to hear how you use tech.
    I’ll do a future episode on the new apps I’m using with my new cell phone.

  24. Roadtrekingmike
    The temperature outside my Roadtrek in the driveway of our Michigan home was 34 degrees this morning.
    That’s the coldest yet this season and a reminder that soon, there will be no putting off the fact that it needs to be winterized.
    We still have a couple of long weekend trips planned and I am hoping that I can do them without pushing antifreeze down all the pipes. It’s funny, really, because even when the RV is winterized, there’s no reason I can’t use it. You just carry drinking water and use antifreeze to flush the toilet. No big deal.
    But still, winterizing means winter and winter means cold and, well, the fact of the matter is this has been such a great season for our RV that I hate to see it end. November and December are the times we use it the least.
    It won’t be long till the first of the snowbirds head south. These are usually Class A owners and they tend to sit in one spot all season long. We’re not like that with our Class B. And since we tend to move around a lot, it’s hard to get reservations n Florida. Impossible, really. So I don’t think we’ll even try Florida this year.
    Instead, we’re looking at a trip after the New Year, over towards the Texas Hill Country and the southwest.
    But this relatively inactive time after the first hard freeze settles in until the holidays are over always leaves me a little sad. I hate to see a good thing end… even if it’s temporary.
    Guess the best cure for the off season blues is to plan the next season.
    How about you? What are your plans for the next couple of months?
  25. Roadtrekingmike
    It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., a few weeks after our Canadian friends celebrated their nation’s holiday of the same name.
    A tradition at our family is that as we gather round the Thanksgiving dinner table – and yes, we always do turkey and all the trimmings – each one of us says what we are most thankful for this past year.
    Remember that old Irving Berlin song, “Count Your Blessings?” If we’re breathing and relatively upright – though football and ODing on turkey will probably render many of us horizontal on the sofa after dinner – we all surely have much to be thankful for.
    Besides faith and family, Jennifer and I look back over the past year and think of how many wonderful people we have met in so many wonderful places thanks to Roadtreking. We’ve traveled nearly 35,000 miles since last year at this time, cross crossing North America. Here’s our short list of the Roadtreking blessings we are thankful for this year.
    Yellowstone National Park
    The Badlands
    The Black Hills
    The Emerald Coast
    All our National Parks and National Seashores
    Our many friends at the Family Motorcoach Association – Jerry Yeatts, Pamela Kay, Robbin Gould, Guy Kasselman and all those many readers who have written such kinds words in response to our column in Family Motor Coach Magazine.
    The Roadtreking International Chapter of the FMCA
    The Amateur Radio Chapter of the FMCA
    Our amazing contributing Roadtreking Reporters here on the blog – Campskunk, Laura Robinson, Janet Arnold, Jim Hammill and Lynn and Roger Brucker. What a team! The blog and its readers so blessed that they share their experiences and wisdom and humor.
    The volunteer moderators on the roadtreking.com/forum – Alan MacRae and Robert Ambrose.
    Our friends from our Facebook page and group who have truly become family. I am so blessed by their friendship. We may be scattered across two continents and yet are as close knit as if we were all in the same community…. which, I guess, is exactly what our Roadtreking group has become: A Community. Many of these fun, caring, compassionate, hospitable, sharing and helpful folks we have also met on the road. - Cheryl Gregory, Shari Groendek, Kristi Klomp, Ginny Dugan Evans, Laura Lochsky Robinson, Alice Stern, Stu and Winona Kratz, Tim and Carole Mallon, Deby Dixon, Jim and Carole Diepenbruck, Bill and Karen Brown, Jim and Sharon Angel, Lisa and Bill Gruner, Laura and Ken Postema, Paul Pogorselski, Tom Hopkins, Trudy Meyers, RT Campskunk, Yan Seiner, W. Dan Hulchanski, Sue Baker, Brian Barker, Nancy Tudor Richardson, Dennis Crabtree and… so many others who share so much of their knowledge and humor on Facebook. Our Facebook Page went from about 500 people who “Liked” it a year ago this time to more than 73,000 today! More than 2,000 new people “Like” the page every week! Our Group has more than 1,100. Amazing.
    The men and women of Roadtrek Motorhomes in Kitchener, Ontario Canada who truly think of all of us owners as family and lovingly build the wonderful machines that open up the world to these of us who drive them – Jim Hammill, Howard Stratton, Jeff Stride, Paul Cassidy, Joe and Tami Morales, Karyn Torcoletti, Tess Talty, Chris Deakins, Steve MacDonald, Pamela de Beus, Joe Murray, Andy Weller.
    Chad Neff and his crew at American RV in Grand Rapids, MI, who take such good care of my service needs, as do Eric, Josh and Daryl from Hoekstra Specialty Vehicles in Troy, MI, who do the Sprinter engine maintenance work on our eTrek.
    My son, Jeff Wendland, who handles the digital management of this blog and processes the orders for the Roadtrekingstore. I’d like to say I taught him everything he knows. But he has truly become a genius at all things World Wide Web. One of the greatest joys a dad can have is being able to work with his son.
    And finally, but certainly not least, my wife Jennifer. The fact that we are able to do this together and have traveled 35,000 miles, living for weeks on end in a 23 foot motorhome and not once arguing shows how well we get along. She is the love of my life and makes every mile of Roadtreking a taste of heaven. And I’m not even jealous that she now gets more fan mail than I do. Come to think of it, Tai, our Norwegian Elkhound, also gets more fan mail and I do.

    The trouble with a list like this is it’s impossible to name everyone and everything we are thankful for. It goes without saying that we have inadvertently left some names off the list. For that, I am sorry. It’s probably because as I write this, it is very, very early Thanksgiving morning and we have a turkey to get in the oven. I will probably go back as more names come to me and add them.
    To all of you who we have not met yet but who read our blog and newsletter, please know how grateful we are for your support, encouragement, suggestions and, when needed, constructive criticism. I know I rush too much sometimes, forgetting to spellcheck or proof as carefully as I should. I just get so excited about getting the next post up, I hope you forgive the occasional sloppiness. I will try to do better.
    This growth and the popularity of this blog and the adventures we’ve had traveling North America the past two years has absolutely blown me away. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this would change our lifestyle in such wonderful ways. This is a labor of love. We’re far from raking in a profit here. But we are having the time of our lives.
    We can’t want to see what the next year has in store.
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
    We’ll see you out there …
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