Road Trip!! Part Three: Digital Tools
I hope y’al didn’t think I’d forgotten to update you on our road trip planning this week! ‘Cuz I didn’t. Yesterday was just my birthday, and I decided to take the day off and enjoy my personal holiday (I caught up on some much-needed sleep!). Anyway, this week’s road trip planning topic is covering all the digital tools and apps that I’m using to actually plan this road trip. I have to say, planning a road trip in the digital age is a WHOLE LOT easier than it was when I was a kid… We were old school- we used an actual paper map! It’s also a whole lot more fun, because you find attractions, museums, and parks that you might have otherwise missed! So, here are the apps I’m using to plan this road trip:
Roadtrippers: this is an app that was recommended to me by a wonderful group on Facebook called Girl Camper. There are a whole lot of really resourceful and independent women in that group who do exactly what we’re planning to do: road trip and camp their way across the United States. So, when they all recommended this app, I knew it was worth a try. Turns out, this is one of my new favorite things! It does have a $33/year fee, but it is well worth it! This app maps your trip, provides suggestions for places to stay, eat, and play, and also gives you stats like mileage, estimated gas expenditure, and number of hours of driving required. Seriously, if you’re planning a road trip of any sort, check it out!
Packing List: this is another gem of an app that I’ve come across! It’s $2.00 lifetime membership fee is MORE than worth it! This little app allows me to create packing lists for all sorts of things, with sublists in there, as well! For example, I have a Camping list, with sublists for my cook kit, pantry box, and equipment box, so I don’t have to go through the entire list to make sure I packed something! It has already saved me so much brain space! Bonus: it allows me to actually check things off as I pack them, and it lets me designate specific numbers of items (i.e. number of shirts!)!
Recreation.gov: this is an awesome little gem for all of us campers who like to use state an national parks to camp! It allows us to reserve camping spots in advance, as well as pay for them up front. I have found so many camp grounds around New Mexico that I knew absolutely nothing about beforehand! I’m excited to use this on the road to see where we are able to find spots to camp each night!
KOA: If you’ve never heard of the KOA chain before, well, now you have. This is their app, and it works just like any other hotel reservation app, except this is for their private campground locations! It’s easy to use, and includes all sorts of information about their different locations- seriously, some of these places have full-on waterparks on their premises!
Travelocity: I realize that there will probably be some nights where the weather is just too bad to be able to camp, or we might find ourselves in a location where a campground isn’t available. Because of this, this app is my go-to for finding local hotels and motels. I’ve been using it for years (the old gnome commercials sucked me in!) for travel of all sorts- booking flights and hotels where I either couldn’t, or didn’t want to camp, and so on.
NPS: this app is produced by the National Park Service, and it’s comparable to having your own personal park ranger, right in your pocket! They’ve programmed all sorts of information on ALL of the parks into this app. You can find basic visitor’s info, such as when the parks open, how much tickets/admission fees are, locations of ranger stations, maps, and so on, but you can also find information on the history, geology, biology, and other pertinent information on the park! Oh, and if you have a student going into 4th grade, or just finishing up 5th grade this summer, you should totally get this app and pair it with the NPS Every Kid in a Park pass, which basically gets your entire family into the parks for free!
Fotospot: I’m excited to try this app out! It gives you the location of different fun photo spots all over the country, and as a photographer, I’m always looking for fun backdrops to shoot against! However, I do caution people to use this app with a dose of common sense! I noticed when I looked at the suggested locations for Albuquerque, some of them were private residences (albeit interesting ones!), and these should NEVER be photographed- or even entered!- without the owner’s consent.
HearHere: this is another app I’m excited to try out! A few years ago, actor Kevin Costner teamed up with a few other people to create an app that allows you to hear the history of different locations throughout the Southern and Western U.S. (they’re working on the rest!). The app features 2-3 minute stories of all those statues, roadside history markers, and other often wondered about sites.
iExit: this app promises to give you recommendations for gas stations, lodgings, and restaurants for each interstate exit along your chosen path. As a mom who will be driving with 3 boys with very little patience, I’m excited to try this app out and see how accurate it is, because when those lunchtime hunger pains kick in, and echos of ‘no more sandwiches’ start ringing, I need to feed them quick!
Modern-day road trip planning has certainly become a whole lot easier, and a whole lot more fun through the use of apps that help provide information that we would have only stumbled across when I was a kid! I’m looking forward to using these digital tools, and seeing what they help us find and do. However, I also plan to keep a road map and compass in the car- just in case technology fails!
Next up on the to-do list: Car entertainment for kids! I’m putting together age-appropriate road trip journals for both Christopher and Joshua, as well as looking at other options for keeping them entertained along the way.