Your Guide to Creating a Camping Gear Kit

A heavy duty plastic container, or two, is a great way to store all of your camping essentials. Use this list to help you create a camping gear kit.

Kit Items:

• first aid kit, including space blanket
• flashlight
• sunscreen
• sunglasses
• bug spray
• wet wipes
• hatchet
• camp shovel
• waterproof matches
• garbage bags
• table cloth
• tin foil
• pot holders
• can opener
• bottle opener
• paper plates, paper cups, plastic utensils, pots, pans, spatula, tongs
• paper towels
• biodegradable dish soap, sponge
• water purifier
• extra batteries
• GPS/compass
• MREs (Ready to Eat Meals) in case of emergency

Items to Pack Alongside Kit:

• potable water
• firewood, kindling, newspaper
• lantern
• camp stove
• fuel for lantern and camp stove
• tent
• sleeping bags, pillows, extra blanket
• camp chairs
• portable toilet and biodegradable toilet paper
• personal toiletries
• camera, film
• rain jacket

Unusual Spring Break Destinations

Crater of Diamond State Park
Located in Arkansas, the Crater of Diamond State Park is the only diamond mine in the world open to the public. Bring the entire family here to search over 37 acres of an ancient volcanic pipe that brought diamonds to the surface. More than 40 other types of rocks and minerals can be found at the park as well, and you keep what you find! Other area attractions include old mining ventures, natural forests, museums, and more. Camping and lodging available nearby.

LL Bean Discovery Schools
With locations throughout the Northeast and Midwest, L.L. Bean offers outdoor adventures for the entire family. Create custom adventures, or choose from their preset courses, which include fishing, kayaking, bicycling, and more. Walk-in adventures cost only $15 at retail stores.

Family History Library
The Family History Library in Salt Lake City is one of the world's best places to search for genealogical records. With over 2.4 million rolls of microfilmed records; 727,000 microfiche records; 356,000 books; 4,500 periodicals; and 3,725 electronic resources, you're sure to find something about your family!

Arcosanti
In the high desert of Arizona, about 70 miles north of Phoenix, lives the experimental town of Arcosanti. Arcosanti was built as an alternative to urban sprawl and ecologically unsound living practices. You can take guided tours of Arcosanti, or participate in workshops, programs, and other events at the unique town.

Online Sites that Help You Save Money on Fuel

There are numerous sites on the internet to help you track your fuel consumption and save on gas. Here are 3 of the best:

Gas Buddy. Gas Buddy is a popular site that will help you find the cheapest fuel rates in your city. Simply type in your city, state, and zip, and you'll have access to prices all over town.

Fuelfrog. Easily track gas mileage and be alerted to any changes in your vehicle's fuel efficiency with Fuelfrog.

AccuFuel. AccuFuel is an app for your iPhone or iPod Touch. It monitors your vehicle's fuel consumption and efficiency with each fill up, and presents the data in easy to read graphs.

Which Airlines are the Safest?

The Daily Beast recently compiled data and crunched numbers to determine which U.S. based airlines have the best safety records. The rankings were based on two criteria: accidents and incidents. The data took into consideration both 1 and 5 year records. Their findings, for national carriers, ranked from best to worst, are as follows:

1. AirTran
2. JetBlue
3. Southwest
4. US Airways
5. American
6. Alaska
7. Continental
8. Delta
9. Northwest
10. United

Find the Best Parking Rates with Best Parking.com

BestParking.com is a free search engine that allows users to search for parking rates in major cities, such as New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and more, as well as major airports.

When searching by city, choose daily parking or monthly parking rates and search by neighborhood, address, cross street, or attraction. Details for each parking facility are given, including phone number, capacity, and any type of vehicle restrictions.

When searching airports, both short and long term parking options are available. The airport code is given as well, so you can double check your flight tickets to match codes. A map of the city, with the location of the airport, is also available.

Travel Apps for a Stress-Free Vacation

The following travel apps will help you plan, navigate, locate, and more, so your vacation is as easy and stress-free as possible.

WorldMate Live
With WorldMate Live, you can create an itinerary, look up a flight status, flight alerts, flight schedules, find hotels, get maps and directions, check the weather, check the time, view exchange rates, and more. WorldMate Live is available for all smartphones, including the Blackberry, iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Mobile compatible devices, and certain Nokia models.

GPSed
Mark your favorite restaurant, retrace your way back to your hotel, find your position anywhere in the world, and more with this app—even if you're without network coverage. You can also add photos to your tracks, add text to your tracks, and share your tracks with other users.

GPSed is compatible with mobile devices equipped with internal GPS receivers, such as the iPhone 3G, the Blackberry Storm, Blackberry Bold, and Nokia N95. It is also compatible with mobile devices that have access to external GPS receivers via Bluetooth, and any GPS receivers, such as Garmin, TomTom, and others.

Around Me
With AroundMe, you can quickly find out information about your surroundings. Locate nearby restaurants, hotels, gas stations, supermarkets, hospitals, banks, and more, and AroundMe will show you a complete list by category within a certain distance of where you are.

AroundMe is available for free on iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

How-to Get Free Wi-Fi at Airports

While many airports have, or plan to implement, airport wide free internet access, many more only offer internet access for a fee. If you happen to be at an airport that requires you to pay for an access code, here are a couple of tips on how to get around that fee.

1. Look for free minutes from Boingo, which provides Wi-Fi at over 500 airports, at airport food establishments and gift shops.

2. Call Boingo, or the airport's internet provider, directly and ask for a promotional or complimentary code.

3. Check LoungeGuide.net for airport lounges that offer free internet access.