Microsoft debuts 2011 Streets & Trips this week

Microsoft's Streets & Trips has been the nation's #1 best-selling travel and map software for eleven straight years and they have just launched their 2011 version. With the software loaded onto your laptop you can map trips between one point and another, create routes, and have your laptop deliver it to you in several different forms--including turn-by-turn spoken directions.

But that's the easy part. With your laptop in the hands of your navigator, you can search the data base for over 1.9 million stops along the way, including restaurants, gas stations, tourist destinations, and rest stops while on the fly.

But the real magic of the software, is that whenever you have a wireless connection, you have the ability to search online for millions of services and points of interest along your route, including those locations that are of your particular interest, such as nautical museums, kid-friendly restaurants, Civil War historic sites, wildlife refuges, and nude beaches, and plot them on your map with a pushpin icon.

But that's not all. By adjusting your settings and entering data specific to your style of driving, you can record your gas mileage, travel only two-lane roads, choose the shortest or the fastest route, schedule rest stops, and much more.

You can download a 60-day Trial Version of the basic program and try it out before you buy. The main program, that sells for a reasonable $69.95, includes a USB plug-in GPS that brings it all together. I will post a more complete test of Streets & Trips after a further evaluation.

Microsoft Streets & Trips 2011 Trial edition

Lewis & Clark Fold 'n Go Camp Kitchen

Lewis and Clark Fold-'n-Go Camp Kitchen

Non RV people just don't get it. They make fun of us:

"You say you go camping 'to get away from it all'," they chide, "but then you take it all with you!"

Don't tell them about this. You'll never be able to explain packing a portable sink into your motorhome or trailer so you can cook outdoors instead of in your lavish mobile kitchen.

The Lewis and Clark Fold-and-Go Camp Kitchen is the ultimate outdoor food prep area when one end of a campground picnic table just won't cut it. It features three food prep surfaces, cutting board, sink and water faucet (hose and water source required), various racks designed for paper towels, spices and whatnot plus a lantern pole.

It all folds and neatly tucks away into a motorhome storage bin.

At 50 pounds it's not something you want to pack into a wildnerness camp but why would you?

Consumer reviews are raves.

Available everywhere, priced between $65 and $100. Shop around online for best deals.

Improve RV fuel efficiency--for real

Getting better RV fuel economy almost sounds like a pipe dream. There are so many gadgets, notions, and fuel tank potions that all claim to improve your gas mileage, but so many of them turn out to be no more than gimmicks and do nothing to improve fuel tank economy, unless lightening your wallet gets you better mileage. We've finally found something that does work: Better driving habits, courtesy of Fuel Efficiency Adviser.

Fuel Efficiency Adviser is a computerized gauge system that plugs into your RV (or tow vehicle, or toad) engine computer through it's OBD-2 port. Simply put, slip this gauge system plug into a slot under your dash board and you'll soon have access to information that can help you get better fuel economy--plus a whole lot of other useful information. "Adviser" gives real time feedback as to how many miles-per-gallon your rig is "doing," and puts it in real terms: How much money are you paying to drive at this moment?

Here's how it helps in the "less pain at the pump" department: With the "Adviser" set to give instant feedback on miles-per-gallon, we set out in our "round town" car for a trip over the flat, up hill, down hill, and into mixed city driving. As soon as we started the engine, a digital readout not only tells us how many miles-per-gallon we're getting, it also gives us information on our "average miles per gallon" for the trip, and how much in dollars and cents we're spent. Heading out of town on the freeway, we're working on an upgrade. Will cutting back on the throttle and taking a few minutes more to reach our destination help? Absolutely. By trying to keep our "instant" miles-per-gallon numbers higher than our "trip average miles-per-gallon" the "Adviser" begins to help us develop new driving habits that really do save fuel.

But "Adviser" is more than just a trip computer. A full gauge system can tell you your engine coolant temperature, RPM, battery voltage, ignition timing, throttle position, and for some rigs, manifold pressure, plus a few other things we haven't mentioned. If you're a "gauge geek" "Adviser is a gift from heaven.

Troubled by a "check engine" light? "Adviser" also acts as a scan tool, allowing you to find out just what trouble code has been recorded by your car computer. With a few clicks of your mouse on the Internet, you'll know what the problem is, and if you want, you can clear the trouble code and turn off the check engine light. We've used it on our vehicles, and it can quickly be unplugged and used to check out any other OBD2 equipped vehicle.

Fuel Efficiency Centers (the maker of this device) provided us an evaluation unit. We first installed it in our 1996 Ford tow vehicle, equipped with the PowerStroke diesel. Alas! The 1996 model was the last year before the Feds required diesel pickups to be OB2 compliant. We weren't able to take advantage of the great fuel tracking data, but we did find one of the functions, "Average Speed," quite useful when making long RV road trips. By using our average speed figures, we could quickly estimate time/distance figures and plan for our 'set down point' for the day. The other engine gauge features like coolant temperature were a whole lot more useful than the "dumb gauge" system that Ford set us up with.

Installing the "Adviser' is easy. For us, the hardest part was finding the OBD2 receptacle. In our truck, not a problem--it was under the dash and in relatively clear sight. In our auto, it took considerable grunting and poking to find--until we noticed it just to the right of the driver's knee. Plug in the "Adviser's" plug, route the cable over or under the dash to a convenient point for reading the unit, and the install is done. "Adviser" takes its operating power from the OBD2 system--not batteries to fiddle with. A step-by-step guide allows you to configure in your vehicle's specifics. The first couple of trips to the gas station you'll have zoned in "Adviser" to give you on the mark specifics on fuel economy.

The company will set you up with one from their Internet site for $160. It may take a while to recoup the savings in fuel, but with the prices headed up, it'll soon be less time than ever. Add the other gauge capacity and the scan tool function, you may find Fuel Efficiency Adviser your next RV gadget.

Visit Fuel Efficiency Centers on the Internet at www.fuelefficiencycenters.com.