Life at Oak Grove

This week our theme is all about apps you could use while camping.   I was debating on which app I could concentrate my time on but it dawned on me that there are many good apps out there for various things.   So I thought I could present you with some of the apps I consider essential for your camping trips whether you have an RV or a regular tent.

SAS Survival

For over 20 years, the SAS Survival Guide has been the definitive guide to surviving any situation, anywhere in the world.  Written by former SAS soldier and instructor, John "Lofty" Wiseman, this application brings you the elite training techniques of Britain’s toughest fighting force in the most accessible version ever. Now you can take the original set of world-class survival skills with you anywhere in the world – from the peaks of Kilimanjaro to the deserts of Kandahar…or to your closest national park.

Price 5.99$

Knot Guide

Need to tie a knot? Knot Guide will teach you the ropes!  I was part of the girl guides for many years when I was younger (much younger) and through it I learned that knots can be very useful.   The reason why I have this app is mostly to teach my kids how to do good knots for various things.   Mind you, with an RV you don’t need this app much but it could be very useful for those of you who camp in tents.   The Knot Guide includes the more than 95 knots that could be useful at any time.

1.99$ for iPhone

Coleman apps

Did you know that Coleman has released some free apps?  All their apps are free.

Coleman Camping Cookbook

Here’s an app that will help you r family prepare meals during the camping season.   Based on top-rated recipes this app allows you to find the perfect meal based on food type, category, and ingredients.

If you are the type of camper who likes to plan in advance you meal, this app is for you.  You can also prepare your shopping list, discover a new recipe with the ingredients you have in hand and adjust the quantity based on the number of people in your party.

Coleman Lantern 

Forgot your flashlight?   The Coleman Lantern application lets you choose from 10 different lanterns that fill your campsite with bright, white light.  I thought this was ingenious for those of us who don’t have a flashlight.

Coleman Campfire Tales

Coleman Creepy Campfire Tales is a collection of scary stories to read around the campfire.  The stories are divided in categories for kids, teens and adults.   I particularly don’t like scary stories but I know that for some campers they are looking forward to this time of storytelling around the fire.

AUDUBON APPS

Audubon has everything for the nature lover in you.   Whether you are look looking for an app for North America, New England, Florida, Texas, California, Central US, Southwest, owls, Haiti, African there is something for you.    We are personally use the apps for the North America for birds, mammals, trees, wildflowers, butterflies, bugs & spiders, reptiles and fishes.   As a homeschool mom I find these apps very informative and fun to use.   Whenever we discover a new species we haven’t encounter yet, I pull out my iPod

Prices varies depending of the app you choose.

Border times

BorderTimes gives you the ability to access US/Canadian land border (Customs & Immigration) wait times from your iPhone or iTouch. The application offers both a Northbound and Southbound Quick View that lists all the land borders along with a green, yellow or red icon (indicating wait time). A button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen allows you to toggle between Passenger, Nexus and Commercial wait times.  We have used this app a few times so far with my husband’s iPhone.   It is very nice to know that we can determine our waiting time before we cross the border!

Free

RV Dumps

RV Dumps checks your location and displays all points on a map view. You can filter by type to see only what you want to see on the map and zoom out. You can also use the offline manual lookup to find locations by type, state and city...even when you have no phone service!

1.99$

Cheap gas!

Find the cheapest gasoline nearest to where you are! Then, map a route to where the cheap gas is.  This app is very useful when you are travelling with your RV. 

Station pricing is provided by GasBuddy.com (http://www.gasbuddy.com).

Free

iFish Ontario

The app every fisherman needs. Providing an intuitive, user-friendly guide to sport fishing Ontario Canada, users are able to search for over 8200 lakes by name, proximity or by species; view a summary of catch limits, species reference, real-time weather, best times to fish, tips & tricks, and more!  My husband was pleased when I discovered this app.  He immediately purchased it and discovered the types of fish we can have in the little lake where our RV is parked.    He was surprised by some of the species mentioned in this app because he had not seen them so far.

More information can be found at http://www.ifishontario.com/.

4.99$

GAMES

There are many games that you could download for the iPhone/iPad.    I won’t go into details about what the game apps do but having these help tremendously in reducing the weight in an RV while you are on the road.   Some of the popular board games even have their own apps like Bop It!, Scrabble, RISK, Battleship, Monopoly, Game of Life, Boggle, Trivial Pursuit, Blokus, Clue, Uno, and Pictureka!

Other cute games that you might enjoy would be Cut the Rope, Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Rio, Max & the Magic Marker, and much more depending of what you like.

Prices will vary depending of which games you want to purchase.  But here's a tip - wait for a big holiday like Thanksgiving with the Black Friday and you can find many games on sale.  

READING

Finally, the other two other must have apps are the iBooks and the Kindle apps.    I have discovered two great sites where you can download free or reduced books for the Kindle app; Pixel of Ink  and Inspired Reads.    I am usually the type of person who could bring a multitude of books with me because I am an avid reader.   With these two apps, I don’t have to worry about the number of books I can bring.   They could be at the touch of my fingers and won’t take much space at all!

Voilà!  This conclude my potpourri of useful apps.  Hope you have found some that are interesting for your personal use.