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So. In my last blog post, I listed a few blog posts coming up. One of those posts, I said, will be about this past summer’s 19-state road trip. And that post truly is coming. But in order to write it, I must go through the travel journal of that trip.
It is but one of the many many many many paper-filled nightmares that I have been sorting over the past week+ in my office. Shelves, filing cabinets, inboxes, trunks, tubs, boxes, drawers–it’s ridiculous. If you have any interest in what my travel records look like (along with a few old pics), hang on tight…BUT Fair warning: if you’re a digital person who doesn’t like paper records, take a Xanax before scrolling any further.
First, the journal I’ll need to consult:
(Did I mention, that is but one of my 2020 journals?)
See those on the bottom? From left to right for the 2020 books circled on the bottom shelf is my 2020 weekly planner, followed by the notebook from a mother-daughter jaunt up to north-central PA (which I need to blog about), followed by the 2020 Westward Bound RV trip (the one I will blog soon), then a 2020 daily datebook used as a Covid-19 journal–yes, dedicated entirely to the Covid situation of 2020.
Wondering what the rest of the stuff on those shelves is? The colorful set of books to the left of those 2020 books are a set of hardbound books by MySocialBook (there is a fifth hiding behind the bookshelf ledge). MySocialBook compiles your Facebook and Instagram posts into books. I personally think they’re awesome, though they’re a bit expensive–look for coupons. I ordered them when I was considering shutting down Facebook (a fleeting idea) and because in general, as you will gather, I like physical records.
On the shelf above it, we have, from left to right:
- Box of printed emails c. 2005-2006, containing mostly weekend or day trips.
- Records from the road trip known as “VA2CA2006: The Northern Route,” which took me, Paul, and Flash (rest in peace) from Virginia to California, Kari-style–meaning we went all the way across the north and down from Washington state. I’ll probably blog about this one day, or at least show the ridiculous routes I’m known for.
- Our first RV trip, in a rented Cruise America RV; it was a loop from Virginia down through Kentucky, to the St. Louis Arch, to Nebraska, and back. I’ll probably blog about this one, too.
- The “Märchenstraße Road Trip,” following Germany’s fairy tale route, which I’ve blogged about here.
- A quick trip to Downtown Disney and Cape May Café when Sequoia and I had to fly home from Germany for an illness in the family (if you’re dragging a 5-year-old halfway across the world to sit in a hospital for days, squeezing in some Disney attractions is much appreciated by the tolerant 5-year-old).
- Some of Sequoia’s handwritten European vacation notes from when she was like six, which can be a hoot.
- The binder from the 2017 trip #GLRVRT17, a trip mostly mother-daughter, through the Great Lakes, which I wrote about here.
- Journals and notes from the 2019 mother-daughter trip to Germany. I wrote a teaser here, but have not yet written about the trip. I plan to do so soon, as I wade through these trip records.
Okay, so that’s one section of shelves. Below it–not shown–is a box file of National Park maps, a box of Egypt memorabilia, some Disney records, and more.
Anyway, on to this other section of shelves:
What are these two shelves? WELL I’LL TELL YOU.
Starting at the top, left to right, and continuing to the bottom, left to right. OH WAIT–just above the two shelves, you can see the bottom of a third shelf which contains, among other things, albums and a scrapbook of my first international trip, to Spain in 1992, which I’ll definitely have to blog about sometime. It was life-changing for me, opening my eyes to something outside of the region of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the corners of its bordering states (in other words, more than a trip to the Jersey shore).
I spent that Spain trip in and around Barcelona with my foreign exchange friend Juan, and then in the Basque region with my foreign exchange student sister, Ana. To this day, Spain and the Basque region remain my absolute favorite places to visit.
Okay, back to the shelves below that, which contain records from:
- A short trip to Vermont with my friend Stas in 1994. Maybe one of these days I’ll share from it.
- FIVE ALBUMS from a ONE-WEEK trip to the Canary Islands in 1996. I’ll have to blog about that one. It included Tenerife’s absolutely bananas second-largest-and-well-known Carnival (behind Rio de Janiero); and a day trip to Lanzarote. This trip was also to visit my friend Juan. (By the way: calling the trip “bananas” was an unintentional pun because the island is full of…..banana plantations.)
- An album of my next trip to the Basque region, in 1997, which I’ll share at some point.
- My road trip from PA to Maine, in 1997, which was my first “road trip” ever, with the friend of the guy I was living with at the time. It was a very fast trip, a Thursday-Sunday, but it sparked my love for the National Parks. I’ll share this sometime.
- My journal from heading to San Antonio for Basic Training in 1997. I don’t know why, but I kept the journal in Spanish. I won’t write about this. Why? Because it was Basic Training, which was MISERABLE.
- A trip to San Fran with my friend Zach over Memorial Day Weekend 1998. I’ll share about that one of these days.
- The miserable Back-of-a-Marine’s-Bike trip to Yosemite and Death Valley over Fourth of July Weekend 1998, along with a few shorter weekend hiking trips with other people to Yosemite and King’s Canyon, and a jaunt to San Diego. I’ll probably share some of those adventures here.
- A 1998 trip to Hawaii to stay with my Air Force roommate, Liz, over Labor Day Weekend. I’ll probably share that here.
- The circuitous CA2TX2000 road trip, which actually took place over the 1999-2000 Christmas/New Year’s holiday, when I was transferring from Monterey, California to San Angelo, TX. Might I give you some advice about visiting San Angelo? DON’T DO IT.
- My solo trip to the Virgin Islands in 2000, which I’ll probably share one of these days–which I’m able to do only because I was not a victim of human trafficking, which I no-joke was probably about to be one night.
Oh by the way, those are just the albums and records that are organized–there are also piles and envelopes of pictures I’m in the process of sorting. *sigh*
I should note that the travel from those shelves is pre-blog, so I totally have an excuse for never having blogged about it all.
Anyway, the shelf below that?
- A 2002 road trip from Maryland to Utah–my first cross-country trip!–with my then-unwitting fiancé Paul and our first dog, Scarlet (rest in peace); and subsequent multiple albums of my and Scarlet’s trips all over Utah and into a couple other states. I’ll share those here at some point.
- Our Alaska wedding travels from 2002. I’ll share those sometime.
- Travels around the Middle East and North Africa.
- Family road trips to New England and out west between 2003-2005. Maybe I’ll share some of them.
- A family trip to Germany in 2005. I’ll share that here, too.
Okay wait–we’re done with those shelves, but I know you’ve been more places. Where are the four years of living in Germany? WELL, I’LL TELL YOU, GUYS. LET’S MOVE ON TO MY MULTIPLE FILING CABINETS.
That one there ^^ is the Some Guy’s Hat drawer. I should note that these are filed in my Germany-bought filing cabinet which–I did not know when I bought it–has wider drawers and therefore takes a different size hanging file, which is IN BETWEEN the regular and legal size files in America, so I can’t buy more hanging folders except online, so I ration the hell out of them, if you can believe that. This entire file drawer contains nothing but SGH travel. (If you’re new here, you can read about Some Guy’s Hat here. The gist: At a flea market, I bought some guy’s drinking/hiking hat from the 1950s, and then I visited every single place on the pins. Of all the things my husband indulges me in, this was probably the most extra.)
Okay, the drawer below it is filled with in-Germany travel and European travel, organized by place (so.many.places) and then followed by multi-country road trip files (and the Märchenstraße). In both drawers, the files are filled with maps, tickets, postcards, bags of God-knows-what, printouts of related blog posts, etc.
Oh, so you know how I just said there are printouts of my blog posts in these files? Ready for some irony?
For over a week, I have been purging my office of unnecessary paper–old bills, flyers for things I never attended, etc. I jettisoned–I AM NOT EXAGGERATING–over four full-sized garbage bags. With paper. From one office. My office.
I then proceeded to print out over a ream’s worth of freaking paper copies of blog posts, to file. I had to stop printing because I ran out of ink. When the new cartridges arrive, I will resume printing. Printing paper. For files.
But Kari, what about the rest of your RV travels? There must be more, right?
LET’S WALK OVER TO MY LATERAL FILE.
Half of one drawer of the three-drawer lateral file is full of travel in America, 2016-2019.
Okay, I’ll stop. You don’t need to see my six-foot-high wooden file organizer. Or my five-foot-high photo box organizer. Or my multiple Disneyworld/Disney Cruise albums, files, and tubs. Or the four-binder set of Sequoia’s early years, which also contain shorter travel.
I have to stop traveling and start writing.
Okay, that’s not reasonable thinking. I have to write more but still travel.
And now, back to organizing!
PS–DON’T WORRY–I have enough empty journals and notebooks and folios to get me through my next few trips…
If you’re a writer…you know. In fact, you know that the second I see a perfect journal that I just have to have, I will still buy it and add it to this pile BECAUSE JOURNALS.
