Sweetie and I are preparing for a 3-week road trip in Vinny Van Gogh (our Dodge Caravan converted for camping).

The ultimate destination is sledding in New Mexico. Yes, sledding!

Imagine all the fun of sledding down a hill without all the cold snow going down the back of your neck and up your sleeves.

Apparently this is done on the 275 square miles of wave like white gypsum sand dunes in White Sands national park. I can’t wait!!

Last year we did a road trip from California to New York. That trip was in the car, before we had the van. We did lots of wild camping and saw so many wonderful things.

I took a lot of pictures and posted many to Facebook, but otherwise I didn’t document our trip.

Now – that’s not all bad. I really stayed in the moment but this trip will begin in mid-December and will straddle the first week of the New Year. I have to be ready.

“For what?”, you ask.

I’m one of those people who pick a “word of the year” to focus on. Only I love words…so for 2024 I picked a whole phrase “What art you doing?” See what I did there? 😊

My focus this year is on creating and I have decided to create a travel journal for this trip.

Where To Begin?

Having never done a travel journal before, I hopped on YouTube and did some binge watching. I watched people backpack, visit European cities, and have weekend getaways with their travel journals in hand.

Two things stood out to me from those videos.

1. Everyone of them started out by introducing the supplies they were taking with them.
2. With the exception of the one gal who was on an artists retreat (who was adding to her art journal every single day as part of the program), they were all working on their journals after they got home. Many of them hadn’t even finished yet.

Interesting.

I know me…what doesn’t get done during the trip won’t get done.

My goal is to create a simple travel journal while travelling.

Can it be done?

This note is divided into BEFORE the trip and AFTER the trip parts – what I think will happen on the road, and what did happen on the road!

Shots of the journal at the end of the post!

BEFORE (Make A Plan)

One of my favorite sayings is “If you want to see God laugh, make a plan.” I looked it up. It seems come from a Yiddish adage and a version of it is quoted to Woody Allen, which makes sense, right?

My plan for my travel journal is to pick up ephemera along the way and build my journal around it.

All the paper one accumulates while travelling like maps, brochures, receipts, tickets, etc. is great fodder for a travel journal. I have a new-found interest in collage which will play nicely to this plan.

I am also taking my watercolor paints.

Several years ago I did an art class on creating a watercolor journal. The journal the artist shared with us was a travel journal filled with quickie paintings done in cafe’s, restaurants, parks, and other public places.

We went to coffee shops, pubs, university lounges, and even a garden center with huge indoor green houses. While on site we received some instruction and then were set free (into the wild) to fill the pages of our journal.

Supplies

For the journal itself I purchased an Artist’s Loft watercolor pad. It is 5.5” x 8.5” and has 24 pages of 140 lb paper bound by a wire binding ring that allows it to lay flat when opened.

I want to keep my “kit” small enough that I can keep it with me. That way if we pause during a hike or detour during a walk about town to a coffee shop, I’ll be able to take advantage of the down-time to work on it.

I am packing:

• Pencil, eraser, & sharpener
• Travel watercolor paint set & brushes
• Watercolor pencils & water brush
• Black waterproof pen
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Washi tapes & pre-made embellishments

The Washi tape is a bit of a space indulgence, but I love it and it makes journaling easier. I use it a lot in my bullet journals.

I may also take my round and square punches and keep them in the van to be used to create embellishments from the paper ephemera I collect. (*edit: I did not take them and didn’t miss them either)

Created 3 Pages (Before Leaving)

If you journal, you know that staring at the blank pages of a fresh new journal can be a little intimidating.

I know that many of the pages I create “on the road” will likely be subpar.

I will have limited time & supplies. I doubt I will like all of the quickie watercolors that I create. The spaces where I will be creating may not be ideal.

To get off on the right foot I created a few pages before I left.

Cover Page (top of post)

I created a cover page with a wonderful quote.  “Travel leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” Ibn Buttua

Essence of the road trip (above)

I also created the first page, mostly because I found a wonderful piece of writing that perfectly captures the essence of the road trip for me.

US Map (not shown)

Finally, I created a map of the United States of America that can be used to tick off the states visited.

Don’t tell him I told you, but this page came into existence because Sweetie saw the State Stickers by Recollections and wanted them.

I think I’ve gotten him into this travel journal thing!!!

Strategy To Create The Journal

It bothers me that so many of the travel journalists that I found created their travel journal pages after they got home from their adventures.

I get it.

You are busy when travelling. Finding time to journal is hard.

But, there is something to be said for capturing the memories while they are still fresh and you are in the middle of it all.

Plus, life is busy. I have a huge fear that what doesn’t get captured while on the trip won’t get captured at all.

I need a strategy to make sure this happens.

This road trip is a vacation.

It doesn’t need to be rush, rush, rush.

If taking time while vacationing to work on my journal each day is what I want to do with my time (and it is) then that is what I should do.

There are those who will think it is pointless to travel 4,500 km to sit around and journal when there are a million things all about me that I can’t experience at home, but I disagree.

First, it is no different than taking a good book along on vacation, which many people do. It is downtime spent doing something enjoyable.

Second, if creating art is a focus for me this year (and it is) why would I not spend my vacation – the one time I am free of all other obligations – doing it!

Third, I will defiantly be eating tacos and drinking pinon coffee while doing this!

I have earmarked some times that I think I will be able to work on the journal as follows:

• While camping we almost always start our day brewing coffee. It’s a process, and like most processes it takes time. Lucky for me, Sweetie is in charge of this process, leaving me with time to work on my journal.
• This is our first trip camping during the “winter” season. Although we are travelling to where the temperatures are warm sunset times are still early compared to when summer camping. Early sunsets mean long evenings to fill when attractions are closed and it’s unsafe to be hiking. Journaling time!
• Of course there are lots of things we want to see and do while on the road. As travelers, it has always been our nature to “go where the wind blows”. If we want to detour or stop, we do. We never book ahead or pre-purchase tickets for a specific location on a certain date, because we might not be there yet! If we come across a nice spot to sit and journal for a bit, Sweetie will be onboard. We have already discussed it.
• The thing about road trips…you spend a lot of time on the road. I’m not sure if I can journal while Sweetie is driving, but when we hit the long stretches of highway I am going to try. I’ve never been able to read in the car – it gives me a headache – so this idea might not pan out.

AFTER (What really happened…3 weeks later)

We’re home and what a trip!

If you are still with me this far into the post, then you are probably wondering how the travel journal worked out.

It worked out FANTASTIC!

Getting it done

I took time daily to work on my journal. Every day has been captured in my journal except yesterday, the final travel day. I will document that today and the journal will be complete.

Some days I would work on it at a coffee shop, other days at the campsite or hotel, and still others in the van. (I was really happy to discover that I could work on it while Sweetie was driving and not get a headache.)

Speaking of Sweetie, he was instrumental in the coming together of the journal. He would grab brochures, business cards, stickers, and whatever else he could find for every place we visited.

Best Sources of Ephemera

I found the ephemera we collected along the way was the easiest approach to capture our adventure. I would cut, stick, and annotate using whatever we had collected on our daily adventures.

Collecting “paper” for the day became a fun part of the trip. It was like a treasure hunt!

These were my favorite sources:

• Tourism magazines and brochures. They had amazing photos and maps of the places we visited and they were easy to find. Information centers had tons of them and they were happy to give them away. Every hotel (and many public spaces) had a stand full of brochures promoting popular destinations.
• Stickers. We visited a new coffee shop every day and almost every one of them had a roll of stickers with their logo that they used to seal up wrapped bagels, etc. In addition, many shops sold stickers.
• Business Cards. Most businesses you will visit have them and many are very artistic!
• Post Cards. Easy to find at souvenir shops or gas stations; they are on point with great images.
• Receipts & Entrance Tickets. You’ve paid for them, you might as well use them!
• Paper. I used a surprising number of logos cut from the paper bags our food or gift purchases came in. I even cut up a paper chef’s hat from Cafe du Monde. Anything made from paper was fair game!

Lessons Learned

• In the end, I did very little sketching or water colors. So much for the travel journal class I took. I found the watercolor pencils with water brush easier to use when I wanted to add color to the journal.
• I can take fewer supplies. Although I tried to keep my supply list short I didn’t really need the pencil, sharpener, eraser, or water color paints. I only rarely used washi tape and the premade embellishments that I had taken with me. Next travel journal I won’t bother taking them.
• The ring-bound journal was perfect as it was able to expand to include thickness of the paper I added. The thick water color paper was a solid base for my collage style pages and sturdy enough to support even the heavy tri-fold cardboard brochure I included.

Mission Accomplished!

My completed travel journal has 20 double sided pages. That’s 40 pages of memories of our Christmas 2023 road trip to New Mexico, USA.

With the exception of a few pages that I created before I left to get me started (and because I was excited about the trip) and the final day of the trip which I completed at home, everything was done on the road.

I am happy to say that it is possible to complete a simple travel journal while actually travelling!

The Simple Summary

The Goal: Create and finish a simple travel journal while travelling.

1. Keep your supplies simple.

I took too much with me. Live and learn. For the next travel journal the four (4) supplies I will take are:

• Black waterproof pen for journaling
• Scissors
• Glue stick
• Watercolor pencils & water brush to add color and fill in sketches.*

*If water color isn’t your thing replace with color pencils or markers, whichever you are most comfortable using.

2. Strategize (before you go).

Think about how and when you will work on your travel journal. Build some time into your trip to include journaling.

3. Create the first page (before you go).

Add a cover page for your trip before you go so that you are not starting with an intimidating blank journal.

4. Collect Ephemera

Use what you gather from your daily adventures. Look for tourism materials, stickers, tickets, receipts, and business cards with great images or logos from the places you have been.

You won’t end up capturing everything from your trip, but you will capture enough to trigger your memories when you flip through your travel journal.

If there was a highlight that you didn’t gather any paper fodder for include it in your journaling.

5. Work On It Daily

Add to your journal every day while the memories are fresh.

This is also the best way to make sure you don’t arrive home with a pile of paper fodder and no time to capture your trip.

The goal is to complete the journal while you are travelling!

Safe travels and happy journaling.