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jr brown

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8)  How does everyone keep their journals on computers or hand written. If done by hand what type of notebook do you use
 
I have a clipboard with 8 X 11 sheets of paper with lines that I log date, miles, location and number of gallons of gas I have purchased.

I get about 20 lines of fillups per sheet. Goes back 14 years to the day I bought my coach. Acts like a travel log in a way because I can tell you where we went and the exact dates.

I never record the price of the gas.  Don't care what it costs.

Always hand written...don't trust computers. 
 
I currently use word but my friend has told me to try Onenote.  I am planning on doing an online blog so keeping it in word might be easier as you can then convert to Wordpress.

I also use an excel spreadsheet for my spending...

I used to use a small notebook to write down all my thoughts and then convert to word.

This year I am using a calendar and writing in what we have done each day.  I am about 6 weeks behind in my typing though.  Too busy looking at this site!


If you have a phone you can always try the voice to text and that way it might be easier..  Not sure how good it is mind you.  Someone on here used it for a post and it was not the best!
 
I keep a blog of where we went, interesting things we see, and where we like to eat. I tried using a bound notebook, but it was too hard to find the items I wanted like ?what was that good restaurant we went to in that little town last summer?? Computers make things easy to search. It also lets our kids keep up with us. At least they know the last place we posted from if an emergency came up, and many times I identify where we are heading next.

As for fuel and such, we just write it down in a little notebook.
 
UTTransplant said:
I keep a blog of where we went, interesting things we see, and where we like to eat. I tried using a bound notebook, but it was too hard to find the items I wanted like ?what was that good restaurant we went to in that little town last summer?? Computers make things easy to search. It also lets our kids keep up with us. At least they know the last place we posted from if an emergency came up, and many times I identify where we are heading next.

As for fuel and such, we just write it down in a little notebook.
Blog looks good Pam but my neck got sore having to turn 90 degrees for the photos...  ;)  I hate when that happens.
 
  Handwritten!  We have two logs, one for the tow vehicle, and an RV log (diary).

    The TV log.... is the same as every vehicle we own (or have ever owned. This log shows, every gallon of fuel purchased, fuel mileage ( both computer and hand calculated), oil/filter changes, tire rotations, etc. and has a small note area for something special or location during travel.
  The RV diary.....is pretty self-explanatory. It gives The who, what, when and where of any RV related trip!
 
I keep a notebook with date, time, place, odometer, expenses, Gennie hours if appropriate, visits/sightseeing, etc.
I also use a voice recorder on the road/driving (I'm alone and the dog won't take notes) and transcribe it to the notebook.  At low/down/rainy-stormy periods these notes go into a spreadsheet so I can get all kinds of useful trip info.

dcb in VT
 
I keep a notebook with date, time, place, odometer, travel expenses, Gennie hours.
I also use Excel for campgrounds and alternative places we stay. Keep a running total of our nightly costs.
 
Hand written, miles log, and I DO keep the price of gas and the receipt in an envelope with the mile log since day one.

I have started to bundle brochures and written facts of places visited.

I'm not interested in a computer log.  I admire  people that  can do those computer blogs with music and stuff.  Very nice!
 
I keep a daily log and do it on "Word".

My wife and I winter in the Florida Keys and on a daily basis paddle our kayaks to various keys or explore the Everglades.
There is not a day goes by that we don't have some exciting experience with sharks, alligators and other aquatic creatures, and our many kids and friends love to read about them.

Jack L
 
We don't keep a trip journal, but I have a notebook to log everything I do to the RV. Anything I fixed, added, serviced, when preventative maint. is done, etc. I Just use a simple old school memo book. I went in a few pages from the back just to log stuff for the generator, oil changes, maintenance runs, hours each run etc.
 
I used to be a professional photographer so I kept all my logs as photographic journals. I put together my 100 most favorite shots for every year I have been on the road. You can visit them by clicking on the links in my signature. A photo is worth a thousand words and clicking a shutter is easier than typing for me. :eek:
 
jackiemac said:
Blog looks good Pam but my neck got sore having to turn 90 degrees for the photos...  ;)  I hate when that happens.
I want to thank Jackie for pointing out a problem in my blog. It took a while to get fixed because I had such poor internet service recently, but I have it fixed through at least as old as December 2016. It turns out iOS photos lack some metadata that WordPress uses for orientation. I found a plug in that seems to fix it. Yeah! Thanks again Jackie.
 
I don't journal but I do keep a map.  Using google maps "my maps" tool. I drop a pin every place we stay...as precise and accurate as I can...down to the tree or site if possible (which isn't hard at all using the cell phone's gps).... each tack gets a short note...running total number of nights in the RV, the name of the place,
and occasionally the reason for the trip if there is one, or any other short comments such as site number, names of new friends made, etc...

We're at 93 nights now.  I wish that I had started this a long time ago showing tent sites and all the places we went with the popup camper too....

No reason a more detailed journal post couldn't be attached to it as far as I know...but I mainly like keeping the running total and the map.  I like that it shows a nice visual of where we've been and also areas we haven't been yet.  It would also be possible to record routes taken with it.  I'd like to do that in a way but I'm not willing to take the time or go to the trouble of it.
 
UTTransplant said:
I want to thank Jackie for pointing out a problem in my blog. It took a while to get fixed because I had such poor internet service recently, but I have it fixed through at least as old as December 2016. It turns out iOS photos lack some metadata that WordPress uses for orientation. I found a plug in that seems to fix it. Yeah! Thanks again Jackie.
you are most welcome! I can get rid of that crick in my neck now ?
 
I only started RV'ing a couple of years ago. I thought of keeping a log of my travels, but at my age, it would not be of any use to me or anyone else. I've kept enough logs in my life, Aircraft pilot log books, maintenance log books for said airplane, record of every airplane I worked on and basically what I did on it (finally gave up keeping the work logs after about 20 years of it) and I do keep basic maintenance logs on the vehicles.

For the vehicles I use a stack of 4x6 cards stapled together with a HD stapler. I make entries with odometer, date and what was done. I am specific about part numbers installed and where the parts came from. I do all of my own maintenance, no one else touches my vehicles. I do keep crazy stupid detailed fuel records. In 2011 I bought a car that was difficult to fuel consistently and I really just wanted to get a handle on the fuel mileage. That turned into an Excel Spreadsheet with tabs for each of my vehicles. I track the date, trip odo reading, regular odo reading, amount of fuel added (always top off), cost, the brand, and location of the station. The spreadsheet calculates the mileage for the fillup, a running mean average and a running median average, plus total cost, cost per mile, and I have a notes column to justify unusual results such as pulling a utility trailer that kills the mileage on my little Ranger, or to note the beginning or ending fillup of a trip.

I can tell you that my little Pontiac Vibe (the car that started the spreadsheet) has averaged 32.483 mpg in the 492 fillups since I bought it in October of 2011. I had the Ranger long before the spreadsheet but I added it also, and it has averaged 24.977 mpg in the 160 fillups since 2011 also. The Motorhome is a 2006 Dodge (Mercedes) Sprinter chassis '07 Winnebago View, which I bought in September of 2015 and hope to sell soon. It has averaged 17.061 mpg of diesel fuel in the 43 fillups since I bought it.

In February I bought a 2003 Ram 2500 truck with a 5.9HO Cummins and 6 spd manual transmission, it is low mileage (89K) and will be the tow vehicle for my travel trailer. The truck has only been fueled 7 times since I bought it (not counting the initial top off a block from the sellers home) and has averaged 20.499 mpg in the 3000 odd miles since then. I'm sure the trailer will make this much lower.

Charles
 
I use a log book and write down each campout.
Date, location, campsite number.
Activities, any special events that happened, and any things I discovered/broke/repaired about the camper.
Activities= boating, fishing, etc.
Special events= grandkids needed a chore to stave off boredom so I asked them to throw out the dead minnows. 5 minutes later 5 dozen minnows where in the lake. Every one of them dead. When I assigned the task, there were 4 dead minnows. I should have clarified not to kill the minnows. But hey, there 4 and 2. Ended up swimming instead.

I don't care about mileage or cost.

One day, the grandkids and their parents can read the entries and remember the good times we had.
I do like the idea of a blog where I can upload pictures, for now. I'll just print them out and stick a couple in the journal.
 
I used Ned Reiter's program "Rolling Stock". It did everything. Kept track of all the vehicle's data and had a trip section to keep track of all travel expenses.

Still use it for all our vehicles.

Sadly the guy that bought it when Ned died hasn't done anything with it.
 
I keep an Excel Workbook with a sheet for each of my vehicles.
On the car and tow vehicles' sheets I log only maintenance/repair events: date, odometer, work done, parts installed, where done, costs, and sometimes a brief comment. I watch my fuel mileage but haven't recorded it in years.
On the trailer's sheet I log traveling days, camping stays, and maintenance/repair events, all in chronological order.
    Traveling days: Date, departure town, stopping town, miles traveled, campground name, and sometimes a brief comment.
    Camping stays: Like traveling days with start and end dates and a column for the number of nights in place.
    Maintenance/repair events: Much like the car/tow vehicle line items.
I've found this practice handy when I want to check how old my tires or battery are, when I last re-caulked, things like that. It's also handy when we're remembering past trips and can't recall the name of "that campground where...".
My paper receipts I keep in a file at home, not in the vehicle. I keep pictures/scans of warranty item receipts on my phone.
I don't write an narrative journal, but I take a fair number of pictures and keep them in a folder system by date.
 
We use both a daily journal app called "Journey" and a blog.

On the app we record where we spent the night and miles driven along with a brief summary of the days activities. Weekly we do a blog post of a summary of the week including travel locations, miles driven on the RV and tow car and a pictorial of the highlights of the week. The blog really helps us remember all the fun things we have done and awesome sights we have seen. It does take work but the benefits are so worth it.
 

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