The last few years are a blur. No, really.
A total blur of activity and wonder. It’s hard to keep track.
We’ve camped in hundreds of spots, hiked many trails, ogled sunrises and sunsets, rockhounded and restaurant-ed, and all other sorts of things across a wide swath of the United States and Canada. Some days, we wake up wondering where, exactly, we are. It feels a little like the early days of parenthood: each hour is long, and yet the days speed by. Two plus years on the road, and it seem like always… and no time at all. We find that it’s hard to remember the particulars of each day, each place, each sunrise, sunset and park-up.
When we lived in a house, our day-to-day didn’t change much. We kept photo albums of family events and adventures, the big things mostly. Our shelves grew heavy (and dusty) with mementos. But this sort of thing isn’t practical when you live in a van. These days, we collect only memories…. and they are tough enough to hold on to! Which leads me to the purpose of this post. Over the last few years, we’ve developed some strategies to keep track of our adventures without the clutter of keepsakes. Today we’ll share them with you.
Daily Photo Log
We love our daily photo log! What started as a way to keep in touch with friends and family has become one of the best parts of our morning routine. Over coffee, we peruse the photos from the previous day (There are always photos!) and post them to Instagram.
While we have issues with Instagram (and the Meta universe in general) we do appreciate the ease and accessibility of this platform. Our daily photos are more diary than sales pitch. We revisit our old posts the way you might leaf through a photo album. That time I overdid it at Hot Well Dunes and fainted in a pit toilet? I spent most of the day resting up, drinking fluids, and rereading our past adventures from the very beginning. It was an excellent way to spend a sick day. And, though it wasn’t an event I wanted to recall exactly, I posted a few photos from that day, too.
Our photo posts are a little general; we don’t share too many big emotions on the insta, and we are careful not to include pictures of friends and family who are more private about their lives. But, in aggregate, our instagram page definitely details our rambling life. And it helps us track the ups, downs, whens and wheres, all without taking up any space in the van.
If you are not into using giant corporate sites with questionable morality, there are other ways to keep a photo log. You could use the “album” function on your phone. I do this too– tracking books I’ve read, found objects, and cool beers.
Or you can use a portable hard drive for more privacy. However you do it, a daily photo diary is a great way to record your days. Photos definitely help jog your memory. Random moments take on a bit more heft, when you can look back on them.
Music Playlists
Another way to record memories is with music. When your home comes with a built-in radio, music is a big part of the day. When we’re driving, ours is almost always on and — though it’s another questionable corporate entity — Spotify is a big part of our nomadic lives.
I make a playlist for each “leg” of our journey. I also make playlists for friends and family and to commemorate special events. We continuously add to these lists as we happen across fitting songs, so some of them are suuuper long, which makes for an interesting drive.
Our playlists range in style and subject. Some inclusions are obvious; there are A LOT of California related songs on the one we made for our swoop down the Pacific Coast. But some are obscure, capturing a mood more than an event. Songs Dan is learning to play on the guitar almost always make it onto a playlist, as do songs we’ve heard covered along the way way. Others are in-jokes… or just joke-jokes. (Dan is ironically partial to cheesy 60s era songs, which IS pretty funny, IMO). Most songs on our playlists, are just what we are feeling at a particular moment along the way.
Point is, music is a great way to jog your memory. You can make yourself a monthly or seasonal or place-related playlist, and it will help you recall the feeling of a time in the past, if not the particulars. Also: FUN!
Annotated Maps
The third way we track our adventures is with annotated maps on Google. We mark places we’ve overnighted, and make notes about each in case we want to return someday. Each “Vanniversary” we start a new map.
Travel maps are really helpful in remembering details and exact locations. And we look through our maps to track the whats and wheres of our journey, even to navigate back to places we’ve loved in the past. And we are happy to include our maps here (on the blog’s footer and the sidebar of our “about us” page) so that others can use them to plan their own adventures.
In Google Maps, you can add photos and links if you want to get more elaborate with your map making. And you can collaborate with others, too. We discovered that many nomads make shared maps to help locate each other and find interesting new boondocking spots.
No doubt there are other map building apps out there, but we find Google Maps are accessible, user-friendly option for us.
A Few Other Ideas
There are so many creative, clutter free ways to record your journey. Consider using a hobby or interest you already have as a way to document your journey. For example, though I’m not much of an artist, I’d planned to make one sketch every day on the road, a practice I’d started when we lived in a house. Back home, I’d sit by the wood stove and sketch in the early mornings before heading out for my workday. But it was hard to maintain this habit on the road. The days are less predictable, and photography felt more comfortable to me. (During a decade of long commutes, I started an instagram photo record to keep engaged with the world beyond my windshield rather than just speeding through it.) I love the way these more art-focused photos document our old life in New England.
A written journal is another way to record your experiences. I keep one… sort of. For me, the written format only happens when I am feeling the big feels. It isn’t an accurate day-to-day account at all. Also, I have trouble reading my handwriting so not the easiest to revisit. Of course, I could type a journal if I was so inclined.
A scrapbook is another possibility. We sometimes collect coasters, stickers, pamphlets and other small, easily stored things. And we could create some lovely scrap book art with them, I suppose. But then we’d have to keep them… which takes up precious space.
Looking Back
However you do it, we fully recommend that you find a way to document your own daily adventures. Memories are one of the most important things we “have,” more precious than the material goods we all spend so much time chasing. They take up little physical room in the house but almost all the space in our hearts.
A daily practice that documents our memories without adding to the clutter not only helps us remember them, but keeps us mindful of all we are experiencing in our crazy brave adventure.
We’d love to hear from you. How do you track your days and jog your memory? Anything we might- should try?