Traveling by Motorcoach Useful Apps

How a Camping Adventure Begins With a Couple of Useful Tools

BY KAREN LANGSTON

TTraveling across the country in a motorcoach takes some ingenuity. Tasked with figuring out navigation and destinations, I had no idea where to start. Two years later, I have some things figured out.

Did you know there are custom RV routing GPS systems? The clever settings on the Garmin GPS allows the input of height, width, weight of the recreational vehicle, what is being towed and the addition of a propane tank. This allows for the best destination including avoiding lowclearance bridges. You can input multiple destinations, and it also includes features like upcoming rest stops, towns, campgrounds and so much more. We use this exclusively for our trips. Harvest Hosts is a fun, inexpensive yearly membership for RVs accessed via the web or app. It lists everything from a driveway to golf courses, farms, open land, wineries, breweries and museums to safely rest your head. It is a wonderful way to support local businesses across the U.S. and Canada. We stayed overnight at the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Texas and it was such fun. We enjoyed a wonderful home-cooked meal in the parking lot watching the sun set over the historic machines. We raised our glass of wine, purchased from our stay in an Anthony, New Mexico vineyard, paying homage to petroleum. Without it, we would not be parked enjoying the moment. After being crammed in like sardines at a few RV parks, where your neighbor watches your TV through their window, I suddenly realized how much I was willing to pay for wilderness. Hipcamp is a free web or mobile app for every type of camping including glamping and cabins in Australia, Canada and the U.S. Think of it as Mother Nature’s Airbnb; it is a collection of private landowners sharing their slice of heaven with others. Other free apps such as RV Parky and Campendium are perfect for all types of camping. Both compile a list of paid parks, rest stops and free places to park for the night like Walmart and Pro Bass Shops. Campendium includes state and national parks and forests as well as Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM manages forests, mountains, rangelands, arctic tundra and deserts across the U.S. We are also paid members of Good Sam, Passport America and Thousand Trails—all of which have a searchable database of parks. Thousand Trails is exclusive to RVs. I find it is too saturated, too many restrictions and not accessible across the country. American Passport and Good Sam are for all types of camping. Passport America gives a 50% discount at participating campgrounds, however, I found it difficult to take advantage because of blackout dates and other restrictions. It is a benefit for overnight stays. Good Sam offers 10% savings and is worth the investment. There are no blackout dates, and many campsites will apply the discount for weekly and monthly stays, unlike Passport America. You are probably wondering how the heck do I put it all together? Easily, with RV Trip Wizard. The yearly paid program is like Google Maps for the camping enthusiast. Input dimensions of the type of vehicle, routing options, type of fuel, current fuel level, average speed, driving time, and the program will provide the best route across North America. It will tell you when you need to refuel, and when you have reached your daily driving limit. It has integrated camping memberships, and includes all types of camping, rest stops, dump stations and so much more including sending my trip route to Garmin. Now if it could only let me know when I need my next caffeine fix. I do read campground reviews. I look for an overall theme; if I see numerous people talking about the upkeep or the sites are too narrow, I move on. Once I have narrowed my list to a couple, I zoom into a 3D satellite on Google Maps and get a layout of the campground and look for railroad tracks. We have stayed at some beautiful campgrounds, but when the train comes through—leaning on its horn all hours of the night—it makes for sleepless nights and grumpy days. Once we have a destination in mind, I will put it into Google Maps and then zoom in and see what comes up. When we were coming back to Arizona from West Virginia, I came across a little town called Truth or Consequences. The adventurous part of me had to include it on our travel plans. In fact, I bet you are Googling this now, am I right? Apparently, this little town renamed itself after the Truth or Consequences radio show. Now that is an intriguing place for an Instagram-worthy conversation, don’t you think? Find me on Instagram @karensRVadventure