There's An App for That!

The school year officially came to an end on Friday, June 28! Other than some loose ends that I need to tie up next week,  I am now off for the next 14 months! I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity and would encourage any tenured teacher with the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District to check out the Deferred Salary Leave Plan. Whether you are looking to take a year off for travel, professional growth or rest and relaxation, this is a relatively painless way to accomplish those personal goals without any loss of pensionable service.

Freshwater Bay, Newfoundland
May 2019

Our date of departure is creeping ever so closely and our excitement is building with each day. The last 3-4 months have been quite busy to say the least; planning our route, reading tourist guides, making reservations, downloading apps, prepping the motorhome. I think it would be safe to say that Steve has read everything one could possibly read about travelling across North America in an RV. From the best ways to organize your motorhome to how to cook a chicken without an oven,  Amazon and the App Store have become our new best friends, and UPS, Canada Post and Coachman are soon going to offer us stocks in the company!!!  Steve has come up with an RV hack or an App for just about everything so that our life on the road will be comfortable, enjoyable and affordable.

Planning a route across Canada and the United States can seem like a daunting task. Thankfully, our technological world and the internet has made the whole process fairly easy. Keeping our bucket list of "places to see" in the back of our mind, Google Maps does a great job of clocking our distance and providing us with good road information. This trip, however, is about more than just going from Place A to Place B. We are interested in the nightlife, entertainment, and historical features of our country as well as the best places to eat and the beautiful scenery of a local area. How do you do all that without breaking the bank! During our research and reading, Steve has discovered some great apps that are used by many RVer's like ourselves; apps that promise to deliver on both functionality AND features!

Roadtrippers is a web based software application and mobile app that helps travellers like us plan road trips across Canada and the United States. Not only will the app provide a route but will allow us to explore the area we are visiting by highlighting points of interest and places to visit that are specific to that area. Roadtrippers will even give you suggestions as to where to gas up!! One of the features that I really like about this app, are the many, many itineraries that the creators of Roadtrippers has already preplanned for specific locations across Canada and the US. Have a look at this itinerary suggestion for Newfoundland! If you really aren't sure what to see and do when your wheels stop moving, check with Roadtrippers!

Speaking of gas, GasBuddy

is another great app that allows you to search for up to date gas prices by city, province, state, or zip code with listings in all cities in Canada and the USA. Not only is this a free app but it also gives the user an opportunity to update gas prices as they go thus providing the most up to date information to all travellers in the area. I can really see us using this app often as we journey through new territory, taking us off the beaten track.

Campendium is the ultimate app for RVer's! This web based app seeks to help users search, preview, review and even take a virtual visit to over 21 000 campgrounds. Created by RVer's for

RVer's the Campendium app provides information on the number of sites at a campground, the amenities, prices and more. It allows users to create a free account and review and upload photos of campgrounds they have visited. It also provides information on free camping, national parks and state forests. This is one app we are looking forward to using!!


Finally, I could not end this blogpost without telling you about Trail Wallet Travel Budget App. Last summer, when we travelled through the Atlantic provinces, Ontario and Quebec, keeping track of our expenses turned out to be an unorganized method of stuffing all the receipts into the glovebox of the RV until we got home and added everything up. We were both shocked and surprised by where we were spending our hard earned dough! Trail Wallet removes the guessing game of how much money you have to spend while tripping around the world. With this app you can organize your expenses by trip or by month, set

yourself a daily budget, and then add expenses as you go. The Quick Add screen makes things super fast AND the app automatically converts between currencies with the most up to date exchange rates. Our trip will take us between both Canada and the United States quite often, so this was definitely a selling feature for us!

If you have a favourite travel app you'd like to recommend, please drop us a line in the Comments section. Until the next time.........

Cupids Harbour, Newfoundland
May 2019