I’ve never been a journal writer. It’s not that I haven’t tried. I have. My memories of journaling go back as far as high school.  My pattern would be something like this: 

• I get inspired to start a journal

• I buy a new notebook 

• I start writing 

• About two to three days later, my interest in daily logging wanes and I give up 

• I have another nearly-new notebook that I will never use again because it’s tarnished (admittedly, that’s a me-problem)

In my adulthood, two things broke my long line of journal failures: 

1. Ryder Carroll developed Bullet Journaling, which has replaced my years-long use of planners for daily productivity

2. In 2014, when we purchased our travel trailer, I thought it might be good to start a camping journal.

I did start travel journaling in 2014 and have kept up through the years since. I am now in our fourth one. I’m sure they will add up more quickly when I retire in a year or so.

So far, I have labeled them “Camping Journal,” but since our travels aren’t always camping, I’ve prepared the next one to be a “Travel Journal.” 

We have been aware of the various things that people collect while on the road. Travel collections come in many varieties: t-shirts, magnets, maps, attraction brochures, pins or patches, to name a few. 

We settled on collecting stickers from the various places we visit. Why stickers? Well, last fall we traded our travel trailer in on a new Class B motorhome, a.k.a. camper van; a Coachmen Nova 20C. We have realized the necessity to downsize everything we take along, to accommodate the small space of a van. Stickers seemed like the obvious choice for us to collect. As I write in our journal, I can include a sticker from the various places we visit (oh, why didn’t I pick up a Buc-ee’s sticker when we stopped at the Jacksonville location in December? …LOL). 

As I write, we are nearing the end of March and are anxious to get out there on our first full summer season with Cara (that’s what we named our van). 

We hope our children, grandchildren and beyond will find our journals entertaining in the years to come.

Please leave a comment to let us know what you collect when you travel. 

We’ll see you out there! 

Blessings, 

Randy 

©2022 thetravelingkites.com