Provisions: Enhance your recreation and travel experience

BUY

▪ goTenna

Walkie-talkies are so last-century and, besides, their range is about as far as a tin can and string. Technology has finally caught up, with the release this winter of a communications device, the goTenna, that is compatible with your smartphone (iPhone and Android) via Blue Tooth LE. Yes, no cell or Wi-Fi service needed. You can share and receive texts and give your GPS coordinates with people up to 50 miles away, providing, of course, they have the same device.

BUY

▪ NuMetrex Heart Rate Monitor Shirt

Heart-rate monitors are great for giving feedback of running or cycling performance, but the darned things tend to slip down your torso and need constant adjustment, especially when you sweat. This shirt, ostensibly made to go with Adidas’ “miCoach” program but compatible with other data-processing programs, has the heart-rate sensor woven into the fabric. The shirt is made of 84 percent polyester and 16 percent elastane, a clingy material.

WATCH

▪ How to Fix a Broken Zipper

A great skill to have, though the proper English gentleman in this video – it’s posted on YouTube – makes it look too easy. Of course, you need to have tools with you in the wild, where the zipper will inevitably fail on you.

THE LIST

▪ Travel+Leisure’s Best College Towns

A few weeks ago, in a Bee travel story on the lovely Southern California town of Claremont, we listed a few top college towns in the state and elsewhere. But Travel+Leisure magazine released its top 20. We have major quibbles with this list, starting with No.1. Syracuse? Really. Here’s the top 10:

1. Syracuse, N.Y.

2. Lafayette, La.

3. Charlottesville, Va.

4. Fort Collins, Colo.

5. Duluth, Minn.

6. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

7. Asheville, N.C.

8. Flagstaff, AZ

9. San Luis Obispo

10. Boulder, Colo.

THE TWEET

New Yorker writer Susan Orlean (@susanorlean): “I travel a lot but I don’t vacation a lot. Must practice more.”

Compiled by Sam McManis, smcmanis@sacbee.com

This story was originally published December 20, 2014 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Provisions: Enhance your recreation and travel experience."