Documentation of your trip

It’s common to take along a camera or cam-corder along on your trip but many people will keep a journal also. It’s nice to have something to go back to and read about your adventure many years later. The problem with keeping a journal is when do you find the time to write in it? It is easy to write a few paragraphs everyday before turning in for the night or to add to it occasionally throughout the day. Although the more detail you dedicate to you journal the more time consuming it will be.
I find taking along a small hand held tape recorder is a good way to preserve your memories. It takes less space conserves time and is much more convenient. You can add to it as frequently as you like throughout the day without missing anything. After your trip has finished you could then transfer it to CD or even type it out for further reference years latter.

I can't see myself ever writing in a journal or using a tape recorder. In fact it's usually months (or years) before I get around to getting film developed from my trips. When I do get it developed, it's seldom that I even look through them.

Pictures make me sad - always have. No real reason behind it. I've even cried when looking at old pictures or even old journals I had to write for school. (If any of you knew me and how seldom I cried you'd know how odd this is.)

Instead I tend to hold onto my memories of physical sensations such as the sand between my toes in the desert and sounds like from Niagara Falls. My favorite image is of driving through west Texas. The sun is beating down on the windows making them warm to the touch, but the inside of the car is cool. I'm listening to the best Classic Rock station I ever found and looking in amazement at the desert like scenery which is so very different for this Louisiana girl.

I enjoy uploading my photos to Photosite and making an on-line slideshow. On occasion, I have also used slideshow software to create stand-alone slideshows that I can give to friends who make the trip with me as gifts. These are more fun than the online version because you can add music, special effects, and fun captions, and can be played back on a tv.

It is a lot of work though so I don't get to them as timely as I'd like.

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Originally Posted by Judy

It is a lot of work though so I don't get to them as timely as I'd like.

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We are now in our second year of development on the roadtrip reporting tool (journals, photo sharing and mapping tools) when it is finally ready for prime time -- I am hoping it will be much more fun to use than Photosite!

Mark

For trip journaling I use a PDA (HP/Compaq iPAQ). It's a multi-function device, as I have MP3 music, e-books (usually about a dozen novels), spreadsheets, calendar, contact phone numbers and addresses, and other stuff on it. It's got a simplified version of Excel and MS Word in it, so I can even set up files on my PC at home and have them synched to the PDA.

I'll typically load it up with any reservation information I have (hotels, campgrounds, reservation numbers, etc), and articles/ directions on places to visit before I leave. The e-book reader is nice since as the PDA is back lighted I can use it to read after dark in a tent or a hotel room without disturbing a companion

But for trip journalling I can either plug it into a folding keyboard I have (folds up to about the size of a pack of cigarettes), or write a paragraph or so on the screen since it recognizes handwriting and turns it into readable text in the machine.

Once I get back, I'll plug the PDA into my PC so I can use the more powerful applications there. Then I'll edit the journal notes into a page or two or three, and toss it into a folder called "trip reports" so I can refer back to it in the future. I'll usually have a small handheld GPS in the car which I use to log the trip, which I'll also plug into my PC and download all the routes I took onto a map, and store a copy of that as well. (Garmin eTrex Vista Legend, with Topo! as the mapping software). There are also usually a set of pictures taken with a digital camera which get downloaded as well.

What I can improve on this is that the post-trip journalling and documentation gets stored in three different places. Written stuff in one spot, digital pictures in another, and GIS map in a third. It would probably be better to put it all into one place, but I haven't gotten that organized yet.

My mass storage device consists of about 100,000,000,000 neurons, provides totally random and instantaneous access, records not only sights and sounds but smells and emotions as well, and is hard-wired to an audio output device. Best of all, it is constantly 'on', I will never lose it (snide comments to the contrary), and I have no fear that it will some day end up being 'no longer supported by the manufacturer'.

AZBuck

I personally have found some very usefull tools of google's Blogger service that would make documenting a roadtrip very easy from a mobile phone. For example, they offer audioblogs (where you call your blog from your phone and leave an audio entry), as well as email blogs (where you can email pictures and text from your phone to a specific email address).

Personally, I think it makes it really easy to do some neat stuff, and it's easy to use. And the cost is zilch, unless you do what I do and host the blog yourself.

That's just how I would document a roadtrip in additon to the usual video, photos, and of course, the ol' noggin.

-Brad

I'm with Buck and Linda here.

I used to take pictures along my trips, but at somepoint between packing up those pictures which I almost never looked at for the umpteenth time, and finding the disposible cameras that I never got around to finishing/developing - including one camera I purchased during a roadtrip at least 3 years ago that's still floating around my house somewhere - I just decided to stop.

Maybe if I had a digital camera I'd start again, but right now I have no problems remembering what I want to about my trips, and I can do it with the pictures stored safely underneith my skull.

We enjoy taking lots of pictures when we are on our trips. Some are real "touristy", others are artsy, some documentation style, etc. Interesting, out of the way locations usually strike my fancy. And we tend to look at our pictures fairly often.

We started with some simple journals on our earlier trips, but over the past three years I have been making small booklets that I get bound at an office supply store. These books include logs for fuel and other expenses, an initial route plan (where I put down mileage and time between certain locations - getting VERY good with the times, and the mileage has always been close). We also put in important maps, local attractions, a scavenger hunt, photo log, graphics, etc.

Throughout, Internet links are placed, so that when I open the file on a computer, I can get more information than what is in the book. This is dependent on access, though, so I usually put in enough information should this not be an option.

I create this book for our once-a-year two-week trips (which, it seems, are going away next year due to work-life changes, maybe...). This project has evolved over the past few years, and it really doesn't take all that long for me to do. When doing the research, we often find a lot of fascinating things that we otherwise never would have found.

No, we don't have set itinerary that we abide by. We get to where we're going and once we have the lay of the land, we plan from there, generally.

I also keep a journal either on PDA or computer, and if you look at the field report page you'll see that I tally up all of the cost information from these long trips.
I have been working, sporadically, on a simple application for PDA/cell phone/computer (any) to keep track of costs, but this project keeps getting pushed back due to time constraints.

I have found that as I get older, I take less pictures of my trips. I have shown the pics a few times to some people and more often than not they are just being kind as not everyone enjoys taking pictures of the same things. I make it a habit to take a picture of my ride at the farthest away from home point that I will be, usually under a town sign post or some other landmark. Dont know why, its just something I do.

I am planning a solo road trip in October and one thing not on my list of stuff to get for the trip is disposable cameras. Even my digital cam will be staying home. I guess the real reason is that this is going to be a trip exclusively for me. I will share the journey with the forum as the time gets closer to departure and will share my experiences with friends and family after I return, just not going to take any pictures.

This is really and interesting thread to read for us. RTA has been development of a new photo/roadtrip journal sharing site for a couple of years now. We hope to be in Beta by November or so and I really hope that all of you who don't now share your images online will be intrigued enough to give it a shot.

It is interesting to reflect about what galaxie50059 says about that element of taking photos on roadtrips to share with friends and family -- because even though Megan and I are "professional roadtrippers" and take hundreds of images every single month we rarely (maybe never) share them with friends. We do, of course, use them to document the road trips that we take on behalf of RTA and our other writing clients. I used to keep extensive photo albums of the trips I have taken and frame and hang many of the photos I have shot over the years. But since the wildfire in 1993 and our time of life lived on a roll -- you would be hard pressed to find any of my photos on the walls of either my office or my home. All that said, we decided to undertake the hugely costly process of creating "a better mousetrap" of a photo and journal sharing site so that those who wish to share roadtrip memories have a place to do that. I also find that my own "...mass storage device consist(ing) of about 100,000,000,000 neurons..." so aptly described by AZBuck doesn't work nearly as well I would prefer so we will have to see what our programmers come up with.

Thanks for sharing all of these ideas.

Mark