Trip journal, what is best method?

[DougC]

Howdy,

We are in the process of planning a June cross country trip, about 7,000 miles, and thought it might be fun to keep a trip jounal. It appears there so many options, which method works the best?

thanks

Doug & Trudy

[garykd]

Hi DougC,

The answer is, it all depends.

1. How much time do you want to spend on it?

2. What talents (crafts, photography, calligraphy, etc) do you have?

3. What technologies (digital camera, different lenses, computer with graphics program, etc.) will you have?

4. How much will you spend?

For me, I'm not interested in a journal of any kind. I create memories in the mind. The wife makes family albums as a hobby. She has all the above mentioned tools and technologies to present our adventures with great flair. The bottom line is what is your passion. If it is not making a journal, a spiral notebook might be best. If it is a hobby, then acquire the tools and have fun.

[Guest felixp]

You could always start a blog on here.

[tbutler]

I second the suggested blog! You could share your adventure with us as you travel. We in turn could comment on things like: If your going there you should see... or, I didn't know there was one of those there... You might think that those of us who travel full time wouldn't be interested in your travels but each of us has our own unique interests and we pursue different interests when we travel. Your blog will help widen our world by seeing it through your eyes.

When we started traveling full time almost eight years ago now I started sending a weekly e-mail to our children and mothers. My son printed out each one and kept it for his children, just 2 and 1 years old at the time. I didn't think to do that so when I changed computers or cleared old e-mails I lost all those records of our travels. I wish I had them on the computer now. At least we have the printed information.

Like Gary says, enhance your journal with any special talents and interests. Perhaps you'll end up with a book or movie!

[lpfdon]

Starting a blog on here is a good idea. First update you profile page so we readers know more about you. There is lots of activity on the forum page but the blogs need more interaction.

[skyking8]

One of the things I maintain is a Trip Log with information on which campgrounds I stay in. I enter some basic info about the cost, campsite, amenities, etc. Then I do my own rating scale from 1-10. It has been very useful when I travel back thru a particular area. Essentially it’s my own personal campground directory.

Blogs are a good way to update your travel for friends and relatives, but I prefer my own website with a blog and guestbook feature. It’s much more versatile than a blog. It’s also a bit more private in that you can pick a domain name of your own choosing and doesn’t come with annoying ads that permeate free blog sites.

It’ll cost $50-60/year to have a website that will allow you the freedom to be creative, display pictures, location maps, text, etc. Most host sites have their own web building tools that don’t require any special skills. If you know how to use most common software that you have on the computer, it’s fairly easy.

But it all boils down to what garykd asked…â€how much time do you want to spend on it?â€

[fwardsr]

If you want a site for trip journaling try http://mytripjournal.com/ You have two options. The free one with some capacity limitations for photographs or the paid one that is ad free and increased or unlimited storage. If you happen to be a Mac or iPhone user and think you would prefer the paid option of mytripjournal you should also check out Apples MobileMe offer. MobileMe won't have the map feature of mytripjournal but is optimized to use you Mac and iPhone software and features. Like the others have said it does come down to just what you want out of your journaling and how much time and resources you have available to put into it.