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THE ART OF THE OUTDOOR KITCHEN, SHOWER and potty plus tent camping & MORE!SUMMER 2021BROOKE whippleGET OUT & GET HAPPY!GIRL IN THE WOODS
Remember stopping for maps and pamphlets at rest stops? Or, maybe you have that one family member who always makes everyone wait while they read every historical plaque they see? Road trips aren’t always fun for everyone, but with a new iPhone app, HearHere, there’s a good chance they can be a lot livelier, not to mention informative! Instead of listening to mom reading snippets from a guidebook or making you stop at every road marker, Oscar-award winning actor Kevin Costner is your tour guide. Costner serves as a writer, editor, narrator and co-founder of HearHere and admits he’s the guy who loves stories, history and country. “I am in love with all the edges, all the disappointments, all the progress—all worth knowing,” he says. “The truth will always be more interesting than the lie—and HearHere gives us the opportunity to reveal it.”On my family’s latest road trip from Ohio to Georgia, we took the HearHere app for a test drive. The app WANTS TO ROAD TRIP WITH YOU!KEVIN COSTNERBig Sur HighwayKevin CostnerGhost Town, Cody WyomingLISTEN UP!By Sarah Miller30 GIRL CAMPER / SUMMER 2021 ◼ TRAVEL
uses your GPS to find stories to match your exact location. As we travelled south, the flat farm fields turned to rolling hills, then mountains. While cruising past the asphalt and billboards of I-75, our trek turned into a gold mine of hidden stories. Who knew there were so many undiscovered gems? As we made our way through Kentucky, we listened to a new story to us—one that made me both hungry and want to hike into history. London, Kentucky. “...Another place to learn about the early days is Levi Jackson Wilderness Road Park, located just outside the city limits. The Civilian Conservation Corp built the park in 1935, along with a replica mill that features original millstones used to grind corn. You’ll also find the Mountain Life Museum with seven buildings that contain pioneer tools and examples of household living. Two famous pioneer trails cross the park, the Wilderness Road and Boone’s Trace. The latter is still a hiking trail, while the other has long since been paved for car trac. For a “Finger lickin’ good time, London is the site of the annual World Chicken Festival, thanks to its connection to Colonel Harland Sanders.” The storyteller continues with delicious tales of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and lo and behold, the original restaurant just 14 miles south of London in Corbin, Kentucky. Each state unlocked true tales, three-minute vignettes that made our journey a little more meaningful and interesting. Stories ranged from history to music to art to culinary traditions to colorful characters, enlivening our road trip immeasurably. The creators of the app, Woody Sears, an entrepreneur and tech expert and Bill Werlin, former president of North Face, conceived the idea of HearHere and brought it to Costner. Starting with tales on the West Coast, the app now reaches to the East, with more than 8,000 stories available and more being added all the time. Narrators such as former NBA Coach Phil Jackson and other voiceover talents guide us. The list keeps growing with untold stories of amazing women in history and new sites just waiting to be discovered. If you want to try the app yourself, visit hearhere.com to sign up and get five free stories a month. For now, the app is only available to iPhone users, but the company can notify you when it’s ready for Android users.Traverse City, MILevi Jackson Wilderness Road ParkWest Coast StoriesBordentown NJHarland Sanders Cafe 31 GIRL CAMPER / SUMMER 2021 ◼ TRAVEL