Do You Keep an RVing Log or Diary?

I keep a simple Excel spreadsheet with basic information: Location, campground, how we rate it, prime sites, etc. Nice to know if you want to return or not at a later date.

troubledwaters wrote:
So many times one of us has said "Where was it we _________"? The journal answers those types of questions.

SoundGuy wrote:
So do digital cameras, pretty well all of which also shoot outstanding quality video. K.I.S.S. :W

valhalla360 wrote:
Unless you spend a lot of time cataloging and naming the pictures, it's really an inconvenient method. It's kind of like going to the library and just randomly walking up to the shelf to find a book.

I don't find that to be the case at all ... I just dump anything I shoot into iPhoto and can find anything in an instant. I can edit as much or as little as I want, ditching obvious bad shots, cleaning up really good ones, even dumping them into albums if I feel like it. Most times I don't bother and just leave pics & videos sorted by date ... good enough. :B

In keeping with digital format I also recently captured 50 hrs of 8 mm video tape as .mp4 files so they'll be easy to view or even reconvert years from now long after 8 mm equipment has become extinct. K.I.S.S. :B

SoundGuy wrote:

troubledwaters wrote:
So many times one of us has said "Where was it we _________"? The journal answers those types of questions.

So do digital cameras, pretty well all of which also shoot outstanding quality video. K.I.S.S. :W

Unless you spend a lot of time cataloging and naming the pictures, it's really an inconvenient method. It's kind of like going to the library and just randomly walking up to the shelf to find a book.

Libraries have a filing system for this very reason.

We keep our primary route and info on a simple excel sheet with one row per day. It goes back to 2007. Very convenient for when we return to an area, we can check where we stayed, how much it cost and there were any issues of note.

We also have a KMZ file with GoogleEarth Placemarks showing where we stayed on a map. We set up a standard for icons and colors:
- Blue: This is a paid place that we stayed.
- Green: This is a free place that we stayed.
- Red: This is a place we researched and planned to stay at but didn't wind up staying there.
- The little bus Icon: Camping Sites
- The Sailboat Icon: Marinas
- The Anchor Icon: Anchorages
- The Bed Icon: Hotels
- The House Icon: Airbnb style apartments.
- The Yen Icon: Chinese Food (yeah we like chinese food a bit too much)

We do have a blog but unless there is something of particular interest, we don't post what we had for dinner and similar minutia.

The pictures are sorted by year and sometimes major destination. By picking out the dates from the excel, we easily search for pictures related to a destination.

Sounds more complicated than it is once you get it going.

We bought an RV diary two years ago. It has yet to be written in.

I have over 300 single-spaced pages on the computer arranged by state of the campgrounds/boondocking spots we've stayed during our 16 years of full-timing. We referred to it often for return stays. If we liked the place we usually did a walk-thru and made note of good campsite numbers for later use.

I kept a blog during our post retirement journey across the USA. From Richmond, VA, to Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, back through northern part of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, and back home to Virginia.

I did the blog at the behest of my son, so he could keep track of where we were. Of course, I couldn't do the blog every day since I didn't have Wi-Fi every day.

This year our big trip will go to Arkansas, Monument Valley, Crators of the Moon NP, ID, Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Cody, Little Big Horn NB, the Black Hills, Badlands NP, and Michigan (where my daughter and S-I-L live).

I plan on getting a wall sized road map for my granddaughter. I'm going to message by phone to my son every night to let him know where we are, so our granddaughter, who's 6 and 1/2 years old, can keep track where we are by putting stick pins, or little stickers on the map.

Might even be a little learning experience for her.

Yes, we have a journal with all of our trips. It is useful if we cannot remember where we stayed on a trip and what we liked or did not like. We also like to keep track of how many nights we spend in the RV.

I write a blog as a diary/journal. The advantage of the blog is that friends and family can see where we are and what we are doing right now, today.

troubledwaters wrote:
So many times one of us has said "Where was it we _________"? The journal answers those types of questions.

So do digital cameras, pretty well all of which also shoot outstanding quality video. K.I.S.S. :W

Nope.