Take a gander at all those vintage canned hams! I wish I had one of my own.

The first is called RV Checklist. It’s just what it says it is, a series of customizable checklists to help the RVer: arriving at site, departing from site, preparing for trip, planning extended trip, and winterization. Besides the built-in lists, users can create their own lists. The primary benefit of this app is that it’s paperless. At 99 cents, it’s worth a test run.

The second app is called RV Companion and costs $5.99, so I only downloaded the free version for the sake of reviewing it. This is a much more comprehensive app than the other one. With this program, you can make to-do lists, keep a record of the campgrounds you visit, create trip logs, make procedure lists, and keep maintenance records. It has a couple of other nifty features, too. One is a leveler. The interface looks just like a bubble level. You sit the phone down on the floor and it lets you know precisely how much you need to adjust the RV and on which side. The other is a flashlight. There are lots of flashlight apps, but this one is dimmable, and it’s integrated into the program.

RV Companion is a versatile program that could be well worth the investment for those who want one handy place to keep all their records, something especially useful when you are on the road and have intermittent Internet connections and little room or opportunity to sit down and write out extensive notes.

Given the pace at which the App Store is expanding, I imagine it’s only a matter of weeks before more RV-related apps appear.  There are already several campground directories, mapping programs, and even a truck stop locator.  As I encounter new apps, I’ll post additional reviews.

You know, I’ve discovered there’s this entire subgenre of RV literature.  I’m sure it all started with Steinbeck, but now there are RV mysteries, romances, fiction (general fiction seems to fall into two sub-sub categories: buddy stories and tales of self-discovery), and, of course, memoirs.  The thing is that sof far I’ve found no one writing about fulltimers who still have to work so are either tethered to a location part of the year or who travel from job to job.  They all seem independently wealthy or somehow came into a windfall that allowed them to purchase the RV outright and cut loose from their regular lives.  There are LOTS of folks out there living and traveling in RVs but who still have to make a living.  Where are their voices?

Maybe we’ll have to write that book.  One of the memoirs I just finished involved a woman who kept a blog and then edited the entries together into a book.  There you go!

RV lit I’ve read so far:
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Aluminum Fever by  Robert Pratt
Towed in a Hole by Lawrence Chance
A Sense for Deception by Tara Gabor
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion

Reading Right Now:
The Serpent’s Trail by Sue Henry

On the list to read:
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
The Tooth of Time by Sue Henry
The Refuge by Sue Henry
Carpet Ride by Norm Brown
Running Into Temptation by Jacqueline DeGroot
Running Up the Score by Jacqueline DeGroot

There is also a long history of RV movies, most of them comedies (not a shocker, eh?).  Some I’d already seen and some I watched recently to help hold me until we began our own RV adventure.

RV movies (or movies featuring RVs) I’ve watched:
The Long, Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (my personal favorite but Lex couldn’t watch it.  A little too close to home)
Lost in America with Albert Brooks
RV with Robin Williams
About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid
Stripes with Bill Murray
Spaceballs with John Candy and Mel Brooks
Independence Day with Randy Quaid (again)
Meet the Fokkers with Robert DiNiro (in the baddest Class A evar)

Have yet to see:
The Wild Thornberrys (animated)
The Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda

Am I missing any books or movies?  Add your suggestions to my list.