Technology = Good

We have an iPhone and we ADORE it. We use it for so many things on the road. Most of the features we use every day are built-in functions of the phone...like email, internet, GPS, etc. Those 3 items have saved us time and energy beyond measure.

We ALWAYS recommend that any full-time traveler have some sort of smart phone...the uses on the road are endless. We also use an air card for mobile internet, but the iPhone is a nice compliment to that.

Here are some of our favorite apps:

Yelp
We use this one ALL the time. If we're pulling into a town and want to know where the best Thai food is, Yelp is the first place I check. Best coffee? Best bubble tea? Best mechanic? Yelp has ya covered.

Local Eats
Similar to Yelp, but this one lists restaurants by "Best" in each category as well as the overall top 100. I check this one, and then check the restaurant on Yelp as well. It does only work in the large metropolitan areas. Not in small northern Minnesota villages. I tried.

State Lines
This fabulous app is a must-have for anyone who travels. Our friends, Chris and Cherie (Technomadia) are the masterminds who created it, so give 'em some love and buy it! It's basically a database of all kinds of useful information that changes when you cross state lines. Everything from taxes to speed limits to seatbelt/helmet laws and much more. Love it.

Groupon
We.Love.Groupon. Oh my goodness. We've gotten so many great deals by using this awesome coupon site/program. If you're not on it...sign up right now to start receiving deals in your area.

Words With Friends
This is our favorite "game app" right now. We love playing against our friends and family in this Scrabble-like game. Caution: It's addicting.

Facebook
Everyone's favorite pastime...but on the iPhone :) It allows us to keep in touch even when we've left our computers back at the RV.

Tweetdeck
This is my favorite Twitter app (and I've tried several). Let's me keep track of my favorite people from around the world.

Flickr
I'm a total Flickr geek, and this feeds my addiction.

Starbucks
This app locates the nearest Starbucks and tells you if it has wi-fi, drive-through, etc. I like to go to Starbucks to work, so this is quite helpful.

Paypal
If you have a Paypal account, you can track your balances and payments from your phone. Handy.

Hipstamatic
A fun vintage camera app. Love it. Even though I have my "fancy" camera, I use the iPhone a lot when I don't want to drag the heavy one around. There are a lot of camera apps now that make it even more fun.

Craigspro
This Craigslist app is helpful when we need to buy something as we pass through a city. Matt uses it a lot for RV research.

YouTube
Not an app (it's built-in)...but worth mentioning. I use YouTube a lot to stream hooping videos because I can't stream them on the air card (uses up too much of our allotted upload/download time).

What are some of your favorite apps? Travel related or not...

The Syrup Incident

We had been noticing that our fridge door was not latching properly...but didn't really pay too much attention to it because we were always able to get it to shut tightly with a little extra push. Well...apparently we didn't push hard enough before we pulled out of Landa.

As we were leaving on the very bumpy and hilly road out of the campground, I looked back in horror to see the fridge door swinging freely and several items were being catapaulted out onto the floor. All of this was happening in slow motion of course as I was envisioning the mess that was about to happen before my very eyes.

We had just purchased a brand new container of pure maple syrup at Costco the day before. This bottle is made from plastic...perfect for an RV lifestyle! It won't break if it falls on the ground...right? Wrong.

It must have hit the top of the container just perfectly and it cracked off and dumped it's entire contents of onto our kitchen floor WHILE we were moving. Matt got the RV stopped. And luckily, Angie was riding in there with us at the time and she was able to help Matt clean it up (Lucy was sleeping on my back). There was also a container of maple yogurt that opened and splashed on every surface. What a horrible sticky mess! It was everywhere. We were able to stop most of it before it went under the slide out, which was good.

We've had SO MANY things happen like this...glasses breaking, water containers exploding, etc. But I think this one takes the cake for messiest road disaster so far. Good times.

Family Love

One of the things we love most about traveling full time is having our family come to visit us in fun places. My sister, Laura, came to visit us in New York City (along with my brother and friends), and then again in Malibu/Santa Monica (with her sweetie Dan). We were super excited for them visit again...this time in Austin, TX.

We made good time traveling across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in order to be there for their arrival...and we were able to snag a campsite in Austin, despite it being one of their busiest months of the year. The Austin Lone Star RV Resort was quite nice...with some of the friendliest staff we've encountered! We would have loved to stay at Pecan Grove RV Park, but they were booked. We did drive by it and after I saw it I was even more bummed...it's so cute and is directly across the street from the Daily Juice....a raw bar that we loved. We'll just have to stay there another time...

Dan and Laura arrived on Saturday night and we stayed up late talking and planning out our fun. The next morning, we headed down to the little restaurant at the campground, where they were serving all you can eat pancakes for $1.00...plus a full menu at cheap prices. You know we couldn't pass that up! We love breakfast. And Dan really likes biscuits and gravy.

After breakfast, we headed to the Austin High School and went to an awesome church called The Austin Stone Community Church. We found it, of course, through a random linking of people online. Jamie Ivey found our blog through We Choose This. She wrote about it on her Facebook and linked to me. Her hubby, Aaron Ivey, is the Pastor of Worship at the church. Oh, and even weirder is that they are IRL friends with the family we will be staying with in Texas. I love the Internet. The worship was amazing and the message refreshing.

It rained off and on throughout Sunday AND Monday. But we managed to fit some fun stuff in anyway. We checked out the flagship Whole Foods store, and then went to Anthropologie, and REI. We also stopped at a sweet coffee shop...Emerald City Press.

On Tuesday, the sun came out! We had a lazy morning...and then headed into town for brunch at Magnolia Cafe. Deliciousness. Dan headed out to golf with friends and the rest of us headed to Zilker Park. Bella played at the playground while Daddy and Laura sunned themselves. Lucy took a nap on my back. Good times.

We headed up to Daily Juice for an afternoon pick me up. Let's just say I'm pretty pumped we will be somewhat close to this gem for the next couple of months. We ordered juices and smoothies and salad. They had the biggest smoothie straws I've ever seen! The staff were super helpful and not pretentious at all...which is sometimes the case at raw food restaurants. We will definitely be back again and again.

More park time after that...and then back down to Zilker for some volleyball. Dan's childhood buddy, Jeff, lives in Austin and he came to play too. We also met up with our friend, Maredith (and kiddos), who had just moved from Des Moines a few weeks ago.

The last part of our perfect day was going out for Thai food...at Thai Passion downtown. I  was having fresh spring roll withdrawl because every place we have been to lately didn't have them...but this place made up for it! They were cheap and amazing. Pad Thai, curries, and stir fry for all...loved it.

We were sad to say goodbye the next day...we won't see them again until this summer. Such wonderful memories to last a lifetime. Thanks for coming to visit Dan and Laura! We miss you already.

Austin = we love you. We wish your traffic wasn't so crazy. But we will look past that. You're kind of a free spirit with hippy tendencies, into really good food, and you like sunshine. We'll be back!

Photos from Austin here.
All photos available for comment on Flickr here.