No records

[DelMar]

My wife and I have motorhomed for nearly 30 years and before that had a small caravan. In that time we have toured much of Europe, Greece being the furthest point south and Scandinavia as far as Lapland in the north. For some reason we never kept a written record of our trips, only photographs. Looking back I think that was a mistake, although we do still have our memories.
If I could change that, I think I would. Don’t make the same mistake as we have as memories do fade.

 

[Holly's mum]

Very good advice

I always keep a log of trips we do, using the Motorhome Fun Yearbook. However, for our trip to New Zealand in a couple of weeks, I have brought myself a journal book to write up, which will compliment the Polar Steps we will do and all our photo's.

 

[Riverbankannie]

You are right. Sometimes I wish I could look up the details of some place we stopped. I do have a couple of A3 sizes France Michelin maps with roads travelled highlighted in all the different colours though

 

[Verteuil Man]

A couple of years ago SWMBO and i decided to get together all those digital photos in the cloud and sort them out and properly look at them. I then downloaded an app for one of the print companies and made some photo albums in a hardback album. Not load, but enough to tell the story. Nice to flick through from time to time.

 

[Badknee]

We always keep a log with places visited and mileages. Good to look back on.

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[Jim]

We have record of every single trip out in the van we've made over 30 years. As we pull away to head home, Siân reaches for the journal which she keeps in the door pocket and writes. Some records might be a page or two long, others might be two words and a date "Malvern Show"

The journals make for great reading and reminiscing. They solve arguments, where did we meet so and so? What year was the Sardinia trip? Also when the kids were young they would often be encouraged to write a few words on the way home while sat at the dinette, and those entries are very special to us all.

Neither of us are Journallers or diary keepers, but we just got in the habit in logging our travels and I'm so glad we did.

It's never too late to start, even reading back this years journal is great

 

[busbuddy]

I have a camera that has travelled thousands of miles but has never left the vehicle it was in
The only person I wanted to see where I was........stood next to me so saw it with me
I understand people keeping journals, doing vlogs etc but it's not for me.......I can bore people enough by talking about engines/cars without bringing out the holidays snaps

 

[namwaldog]

We're relative newcomers, started MHing in 2014.
Margaret has always kept a longhand A5 hardback Journal of our trips.
Currently on #5. I've started indexing them by using a spreadsheet...

Firstly given each page a consecutive number.
I read through the pages and any person, site, restaurant, town, village etc etc is listed in col A, the page # is recoded opposite in col B.

The spreadsheet is then adjusted to Alphabetical in col A to assist searching.

Not foolproof, but has helped us figure things out a few times.

Just about finished indexing the 3rd journal. Quite time consuming, exacerbated by every time I ask Margaret to clarify her handwriting, we usually end up nattering for an hour about that particular occasion!!

Still thinking on indexing the thousands of images and videos!

Edited to add that I started transcribing the journals but took me 2 hours to two finger type the first three pages!!!
Tried dictating the journals but it couldn't understand Cumbrian!!

 

[DelMar]

I have a camera that has travelled thousands of miles but has never left the vehicle it was in
The only person I wanted to see where I was........stood next to me so saw it with me
I understand people keeping journals, doing vlogs etc but it's not for me.......I can bore people enough by talking about engines/cars without bringing out the holidays snaps

If we had kept records they would have been for ourselves only, not to bore others with them, which is the point.

 

[mapman]

I have kept logs back to the 70s - some are just a few scraps plus outline of route others quite detailed with campsites and even toll costs! Recently L has kept a more detailed account/journal with pen and ink drawings and maps plus a collage of bits and pieces. They are great to remind us of places visited and some to return to. Glad I started it when at university in USA with road trip to Mexico and USA National Parks out west - and just kept going…..

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[Reallyretired]

I try to take ar least one photo wherever we are. They automatically are tagged with date time and location so give a clue if wondering where we've been.

 

[DelMar]

As a result of not keeping records of our trips abroad, it has been known that some times things appeared very familiar when staying on a camp site or two, only to suddenly realise we had stayed there previously. This may have been some years past, but did cause a few smiles on realisation.

 

[L' Hobo]

My wife and I have motorhomed for nearly 30 years and before that had a small caravan. In that time we have toured much of Europe, Greece being the furthest point south and Scandinavia as far as Lapland in the north. For some reason we never kept a written record of our trips, only photographs. Looking back I think that was a mistake, although we do still have our memories.
If I could change that, I think I would. Don’t make the same mistake as we have as memories do fade.

The only thing I would suggest if I may is, you say you have photographs, while the 2 of you can remember, if you can, write on the back as much detail as you and space will allow.
If, digital, print off and do the same.

I have hundreds of my travels over the past 70yrs and most, when I snuff it, will not mean anything to my friends and Executors so, a few years ago, I sorted them into collections and sent/gave them to friends and family pictured in the photographs and then labelled the rest for my own, and others, information.

It's surprising how some of the long forgotten happy memories and discussions with people's, they have evoked especially with those with memory loss! It comes to a lot of us as we get older, sometimes quite quickly.

 

[suavecarve]

We have record of every single trip out in the van we've made over 30 years. As we pull away to head home, Siân reaches for the journal which she keeps in the door pocket and writes. Some records might be a page or two long, others might be two words and a date "Malvern Show"

The journals make for great reading and reminiscing. They solve arguments, where did we meet so and so? What year was the Sardinia trip? Also when the kids were young they would often be encouraged to write a few words on the way home while sat at the dinette, and those entries are very special to us all.

Neither of us are Journallers or diary keepers, but we just got in the habit in logging our travels and I'm so glad we did.

It's never too late to start, even reading back this years journal is great

If only there was an electronic version

Journal Entries

Blogs index

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

 

[cyberyacht]

I keep a spreadsheet with date, location,duration,price,a brief descriptive comment. Photos are in digital folders by trip, supplemented in more recent years by YouTube videos which, for your delectation, may be accessed via the link in my signature.

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