If your road trip takes you past Zillah, Wash., check out the 90-year-old Teapot Dome Service Station—erected as a reminder of the Teapot Dome Scandal that marred Warren G. Harding's presidency.

If you’re taking a road trip this holiday weekend and want to work in detours to a few presidential landmarks in honor of Presidents’ Day… There’s an app for that.

The Roadside Presidents app is now available in the iTunes store for $2.99 from RoadsideAmerica.com, a website with videos, news, maps and free tools to help travelers plan their own road trips. It allows travelers to find historical sites, from traditional ones like graves and birthplaces, to the more offbeat.

“We’ve discovered so many bizarre presidential sights out there,” says Ken Smith, senior editor of RoadsideAmerica.com. “By visiting conventional landmarks, but also the hidden treasures, you get the broader, nuttier picture of America’s history. You’ll never think of George Washington quite the same way after you’ve seen his whiskey-making still—or of Ronald Reagan after seeing a statue of him eating a potato pancake.”

Travelers can search for sites along their route, or search by president. In addition to driving directions, the app gives opening hours, phone numbers, photos and irreverent write-ups for each site. First ladies, vice presidents, first pets, assassination and scandal are all in the app.

The Roadside Presidents edition is the second app from Roadside America, following the original Roadside America app, introduced in 2010.

Photo: Public domain, National Park Service

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JetBlue Airways is starting off 2012 with a new web and mobile strategy. The Forest Hills, N.Y.-based low-cost carrier just debuted its native iPhone app, along with redesigned web and mobile sites.

JetBlue is late to the game, but it has rolled out an app with high functionality despite its clean design. The airline developed its new digital strategy with the help of digital agency Rokkan, app developer DoubleEncore and the input of more than 15,000 customers.

The new app, available for download at the iTunes store, offers all the basics—booking, check-in and flight-status monitoring. Other features include weather reports for destination cities, and easy organization of past and upcoming trips. It also includes a virtual postcard tool and connectivity to social networks so users can share their travel experiences. In addition, travelers can scout in-flight amenities like snacks, beverages, movies and DIRECTV schedules.

JetBlue aimed for more personalization in designing its new platforms—what a user sees will depend on geo-targeting, booking history and any preferences they have entered into the TrueBlue rewards program. The website also includes a feature called “Pick Me Up” that allows users to not only share their itinerary with a friend in their destination city, but also to send that friend maps and traffic reports.

Travelers can expect to see better apps soon from other airlines, predicts Colleen Taylor writing at Gigaom.com. She points to a CNN story from last fall highlighting an Airline IT Trends Survey that found that more than 90 percent of carriers plan to increase their investment in mobile.

Photo: JetBlue

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From unseasonably warm weather to unreasonably expensive lift tickets, circumstances outside your control can quickly put a damper on a planned weekend of skiing. But now there’s an app that aims to help winter sports enthusiasts hunt down the best powder for the best price.

The free iPhone and iPad application from Liftopia, an online marketplace for ski and snowboard trips, lets consumers search for ski-resort deals, check weather conditions and map trips to ski resorts all over the United States.

Compare ski conditions at area resorts with Liftopia's new mobile app.

By its own count, Liftopia has information on 150 ski areas and offers lift tickets at up to an 80 percent discount off of window ticket prices.

The Liftopia Ski Reports, Snow Conditions and Ultimate Lift Ticket Deal Engine for iPhone and iPod touch lets users save their favorite resorts and research current weather, information on depth of snow, amount of fresh snow, and open trails and lifts. They can also view resort-specific information including photos, amenities and number of runs for different ability levels. And when they find the best deal with the best weather conditions, they can reserve lift tickets right from their phone.

Now if only there was an app that could actually make it snow.

Photo: Liftopia Blog

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The Time Traveler Tours Story App “Beware Madame La Guillotine: A Revolutionary Tour of Paris” is a new way for to explore the City of Light and learn about its history.

Released just two weeks after the Bastille Day holiday that celebrates the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution, the new app is geared toward teens and tweens, but can be enjoyed by adults as well.

The tale, narrated by the young murderess Charlotte Corday in the moments before she is to have her head lopped off, takes listeners on a dramatic journey and treasure hunt into the sights and sounds of Paris at the time of the Revolution. Corday explains how and why she stabbed radical propagandist Jean-Paul Marat while leading listeners around central Paris, from the Palais Royal to La Conciergerie on the Ile de la Cite.

The app is the first in what founder Sarah Towle plans to be several guides for Time Traveler Tours. Each StoryApp Tour will focus on one of the world’s great cities and provide a daylong interactive itinerary, narrated by a historical figure whose actions helped shape their times. Along with the tale, users will get access to maps, directions, helpful hints, and a restaurant discount, plus activities, puzzles, scavenger hunts and brain-teasers for kids.

The app is available at the iTunes store in English for $7.99, and in October will be available in French for both iOS and Android. Forthcoming apps feature three more Paris tours.

Photo: Time Travel Tours

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