America’s National Parks are in crisis. A growing near $12 billion backlog of desperately needed repairs and maintenance is seriously affecting America's National Parks. Inadequate federal campgrounds and deteriorating or closed roads, bridges and facilities negatively impact visitor experiences and RVers in particular. In our interview of the week, we talk to Chris Bornemann, Senior Manager of Government Affairs for the RV Industry Association, who will tell us what we can do to help persuade Congress to restore our parks. Plus, your questions, comments, lots of RV news and Tips and a great off-the-beaten-path report from the Burketts. [spp-player] Show Notes for Episode #209 Sept. 12.2018 of Roadtreking - The RV Podcast: WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK [spp-timestamp time="2:14"] JENNIFER As this episode comes your way, we’re way up north at Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada, attending one of our Roadtreking boondocking gatherings with a couple dozen fellow RVers. We’re enjoying the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, hiking, taking a lot of pictures and enjoying some early fall weather. Though it’s supposed to warm up later in the week up here, the nighttime temperatures have been in the mid 40’s. MIKE And Bo, our Norwegian Elkhound, loves it. He’s grown weary of the heat and humidity of the past few months as we’ve traveled through the southern US and the Gulf Coast. This Ontario weather is much more to his liking. JENNIFER This is a very busy week for us. We have to leave here and on Thursday start traveling to Hershey, PA and America’s Largest RV show there. We always have a ball at this show. More than 45 RV manufacturers will be displaying over 1,300 RVs here and there are over 100 other companies that make RV accessories and provide RV related services. We will be shooting videos and we have two live broadcasts we plan to do on our Facebook Roadtreking Page. MIKE We will be doing two Facebook Live broadcasts from the Hershey show next weekend. The frst will be on Friday at 3:30 PM from the Rad Power Bikes display.  The second will be Saturday at 3 PM from the Roadtrek. Hymer display.  Both will be on our Roadtreking Facebook Page  Also, we’ll be doing meet at greet appearances at the Roadtrek and Hymer display Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 1 PM. We love meeting you and invite you to come by if you are attending the show. If not, then tune in to our Live reports on the Facebook Page for a look at what we’re discovering. Again, that first live report is Saturday at 3 PM. The second will be on Sunday at 3PM, when we’ll go live from the show from the Rad Power Bikes display. JENNIFER This has also been an exciting week for us as Mike is now well underway on his new healthy living program. If you heard Episode 208 last week, you learned why the RV Lifestyle and all the sitting while driving and eating at those great RV gathering pot lucks can really put on the pounds. Anyway, Mike entered the program that is run by the weight loss expert he interviewed last week and we’ve been following it faithfully. So far so good, right? MIKE Oh yeah… very right. We update my progress on this plan every Sunday night on our YouTube Live broadcast on our RV Lifestyle Channel there. So if you want the details, make sure you tune in Sunday night. But so far, in the first week, I’ve lost several pounds and because this is a simple plan that basically cuts out sugars and starches – carbohydrates – we’re eating healthy, organic, whole foods as much as possible, something we can easily prepare on the road.  Anyway, go to our YouTube Channel at RVLifestyleChannel.com and you can see the most recent update. But I can report there’s definitely less of me this week than there was last week! JENNIFER So, that’s what we’ve been up to. We’re having a ball meeting others, traveling in our RV and seeing North America. This part of the program is brought to you Overnight RV Parking,