The Chronicles: Clean + 3 Days

This is how things begin to go wrong. I did not do any crafting last night, so there is no 'Day 2', but I made up for it tonight. :-)

Several years ago I took myself on a Road Trip to South Dakota. I made it into a 2-week trek across the country, and planned the whole thing out. Well, it was planned to the extent that I knew what wanted to accomplish each day, but not to the extent of having hotel reservations. There is a big difference in what some people consider 'planning'.

The basis of this Road Trip was (1) to see South Dakota, (2) to take as few Interstates as possible - back roads was the plan, (3) to see as many weird things as possible, and (4) to have a great time!

I started with a Road Atlas, some maps from AAA, a book entitled Eccentric America, a book about SD and the Badlands, and a book about US Road Trips. That last one was by sections, like taking Rt 66 from one end to the other, or taking Rt 50 from one end to the other. Personally, I followed Rt 20, but I'll get to that some other time.

This blog entry is NOT about my Road Trip. Rather, it is how this Road Trip is still in the forefront of my brain, and how it relates to The Chronicles of clean transforming to a mess. You see, I had planned to do a scrap book of my trip, but all the memorabilia have been sitting in a box since 2004. Time to get it out, I say! Plus, this gets one box out of the very-large-storage-room-that-should-be-my-craft-room room.

First, I unloaded the box onto the large table. I have now successfully covered about 90% of the table top.

I made three piles of stuff: SD, of course; UT - from another trip as yet un-scrap-booked; and DC - now how did that stuff get in there?!

The SD and DC stuff will go back into the box. Uh-oh, that means the box will go back into the wanna-be-craft-room. Sigh....


Here is the SD pile o'stuff. When I travel I am really quite organized. Really! I start out with the books, maps, and a binder that we will get to in a minute.

That bag in the back used to hold all this stuff, and it was saved because it is covered with Bison, of course!

These were the books and maps I took, and I used them almost every day. Parts of them will undoubtedly make their way into the pages of the scrap book.









The Book. Before any Road Trip, I actually lay out what I think I can do as far as driving plus attractions each day. Then I put that on separate pages, by day, into a binder with pocket-divider pages between each day. I use these pages later to hold all the brochures, receipts, postcards, and other things I pick up along the way. This allows me to keep the trappings of my trip organized by day, and in some semblance of order. It also makes The Book really fat!

Oh, do you see that strip of paper peeking out from under The Book? I found that strip of stickers in the box. It probably slipped into the box from the table in the Craft Room that is also covered with stuff...who knows when that happened. It will have to be used in the scrap book, of course! I also found some other stuff in the box that I do not want to talk about.


This is an example of one of the pages in The Book. On the left are my original plans as far as what state or city I think I'd like to see, how many miles it is from where I left off the day before, and how long I think it will take me to drive it. All those scribbles to the right are my diversions. :-) See, this is how I know what I did! It also serves to help me backtrack to where I want to be in case I make a bad decision. Hey, it happens.


This is another page of notes, with a lot more diversion.


This is a typical pocket page. I literally stick stuff in here that relates to that particular portion of my adventure. Here we can see a National Park Service pamphlet, a bag of post cards, and some other touring stuff.









This is a glimpse into my psyche, and it is not a pretty sight. This, my dear readers, is my Trip Report. I keep notes as I go along from day to day, and when I get home from a trip, I actually write it all down. Okay, I type it into the computer and print it, but you get my drift. This Trip Report covers the WHOLE trip. Thank goodness, because all this time later, like I'd remember what road I took into Wyoming, and why I took it. Sheesh.

So you see, I have much to work with. I think after I take the cat to the Vet tomorrow morning, then start my taxes, I will start on this scrap book adventure. Once that gets under way, I will let you know how long it takes me to lose the top of the Dining Room table. :-)