A few technical issues are still outstanding from our comments last month. iTunes downloading seems to be going smoothly since I updated some software. I explain how to actually download our podcast (for listening later) instead of listening live. We also will be posting our podcast on Podomatic.com as a back up to iTunes.

We always like to travel in September. If you travel in this month, you know that the weather is usually good, crowds have eased, and the roads are open. We took the month to improve our golf skills at an Elder Hostel in Wisconsin and then see a bit of the midwest. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois were on our itinerary which focused on the Mississippi River towns. We always bring our bikes so finding some nice riding trails was high on the agenda. Sparta, Wisconsin is the hub for several bike trails that were former RR beds. Winding through the picturesque countryside with rolling hills, green farms and few old tunnels makes these bike trails very appealing. Along with the biking we played more golf at some of the local municipal courses which at this time of year didn't require tee times. Barge transportation is a major means of getting bulk goods through the central part of the US. The COE has made "improvements" in the rivers to make barging a major activity. Locks, dams, levees, and dredging are all part of the plan to keep the rivers open to commercial traffic. It is interesting to see the infrastructure and manpower necessary to keep barge traffic running smoothly along the Mississippi and its tributaries. Of course they have built some nice public campgrounds along the way to make trips like ours scenic and thrifty.

On RV tech front, we were forced to buy a new set of house batteries this month. Online research lead me buy the least expensive 6 volt golf cart batteries at Sams Club. At $72 each, this was still a big unexpected expense. It was necessitated by my lack of care for the old ones (3 years old) and was an expense that we should not have had to make at this time. How are your batteries? Do you have a 3 state charger? Do you watch the water level?

Lots of other interesting tech topics are on our agenda - digital TV reception with the newly installed Wingman, changes in campground cable TV, RV uses for the iPhone beyond listening to our podcast, Garmin GPS updates and much more are topics of our banter. We share our websites of the month and a few humorous RV stories.

We end with some article which give a hopeful picture to the economic prospects of the RV industry. We may have passed the low point and sales are looking up for some manufacturers.

Join us on our adventure and thanks for listening. Our numbers are over 2000 downloads per month and growing rapidly. We appreciate your comments and suggestions both by email (navigator@rvnavigator.com) and on our listener comment phone line, 815/230-0772.