Gotta Have a Road Diary -- Keep it Simple, Get it Done

When you hit the road for a serious roadtrip I guarantee you will forget much of what wowed you. How do you lock in those moments of awe, the wide open spaces, the mountains, the girl you met in the ski lodge, your impressions of the city that just rose up like teeth out of nowhere?

Diary, journal, "ship's log." I have driven back and forth across the U.S. and as much as I was absolutely blown away by it all, the fact is I have lost a lot of it because of a huge gap in my travel log, a long lapse in my road trip diary because I thought I wouldn't need it. At the time I didn't know I'd crave my stupid scrawlings on notebook paper. But the truth is I have the first leg of the trip well documented and it's served me well. The second leg, the way back from Cali to the East Coast, I've had to scramble to go back and piece bits of memories together, pore over the road map for towns and highways that jog my memory. Fortunately my travel nurse companion is an avid photographer and thanks to her encyclopedic photos of the trip I have been blessed with the images that allow me to piece most of the "lost" journey together.

You don't have to spend a lot of money on some leather-bound journal to keep a travel diary. Buy a 2 buck spiral ring notebook and stow a handful of cheap pens and pencils in the vehicle's glove box. If you're not much of a photographer stop along the way and buy some postcards--you'll find postcards in almost any gas station, in full-service rest areas and tourist info stops usually well-marked and not far off the main highway.

Write what you see, the place you picked up coffee on a chilly morning, the plants and animals, new people you meet, gas prices, restaurant food, pick up a few leaves or flower blossoms and press them in among the pages, etc..

Don't lose your roadtrip by trying to commit to memory. Travel diary is a must.