Road Trip 2014: Days 1 and 2

Okay... this post is going to be a bit on the large side.  I wasn't sure how to break it up though, so it is what it is.  :-)

My plan is to post the travel journal photos for each day and the corresponding project life page that goes with it.  But... since I had so little for day one for PL and so much for day two, I combined all of one and a bit of two on one page.  And then I remembered that I had made a "cover page" for the trip for my PL album... so instead of sharing one PL page I now have three to share, plus two days worth of journal pages (oh... and a pre-trip page as well!).

Starting out with the pre-trip page...

I did this one because I wanted to use the backside as an intro page (still on my to do list) and then wanted to add my day one page to start the trip.  I needed something on the backside of the future intro page, so I did a quick page about our trip down to MO to start the trip.

Day one...

We were in the car ALL day, so there wasn't much to do in the journal.  We did stop at a fabulous BBQ place for lunch, so I put that on the back of the divider.

In desperation to add things to our books, we also purchased Iowa postcards when we stopped at a truck stop to get gas.  We were in Iowa less than an hour, but it's documented!  To be honest, the journaling on the back has to do with the heated toilet seats in the women's rest rooms.  Not a fan of warm public toilet seats myself... there's just something disturbing about that.

We weren't good at grabbing "smash-able" items yet, so for our lunch stop I had to rely on a photo and my questionable handwriting.  They had really cool napkins too... we just didn't think to grab one.

Day two...

We did a LOT on day two... some on purpose, some by accident.

First up was Pioneer Village in Minden, NE...

My parents took me there when I was a baby, so they thought it would be a cool stop to make.  It was really amazing... so much to see.  Overwhelming actually.  For our books we bought postcards and sticker sets and picked up a brochure.

I wasn't sure how to include the brochure in the book, but Clara had this bright idea and we used it over and over again...

You glue the back of the brochure to the page and add some washi for extra hold.

This allows you to still be able to open up the brochure.  Here it is with the sides opened up...

And here it is fully unfolded...

I thought her idea was just brilliant!  The only thing we're missing is the info on the back.  But on most brochures that's just the address, hours, admission costs, etc.  Things I could give up.  I did have one later on in the trip, that I didn't want to give up the back information... I'll show you that when I get to that day.

A quick stop at a Pony Express station and an even quicker stop at Buffalo Bill Ranch...

At the Pony Express station we picked up a brochure.  It didn't have it's own, just one about the town, so I cut out the section about the station.  They also had a free newspaper you could take... I took the rider oath from there.  We stopped at Buffalo Bill Ranch, because we happened upon it when we got hopelessly lost trying to find the Golden Spike Tower.

The Gold Spike Tower (once we found it), was really cool.  So many trains!!  They also had super cool tickets that you got when you paid your admission.  Perfect for a travel journal... they had the time stamped on it and the woman there punched each one for us with the correct info.

We also bought a postcard each...

Now that I've posted all of the journal pages, on to the project life ones...

Here is the intro page I did...

I did it for two reasons:  1) Our trip was 11 days, so I needed to add a page somewhere to even it out and 2) As soon as we were back, I quickly edited photos and dropped them onto templates so they would be ready to go.  When I did that, I didn't leave enough room for an intro to the trip, calendars or week numbers.  Week numbers and calendars are things that I have been consistent with this year, I didn't want to mess that up.

Okay... why did I do a page a day for project life instead of a weekly or trip summary since I'm (eventually) doing a separate travel album?  I meant to do just that... I really did.  But we did so many cool things that trying to narrow down the photos THAT much just shut me down.  I couldn't do it, I just couldn't move forward.  So, I went back to one of my mantras this year in regards to PL... whatever it takes to get it done and the story told.  In this case, it was MUCH easier for me to pick a handful of photos to represent each day for 11 pages than it was to only do one or two spreads.  I kept them very simple, mainly photos and 1 or 2 journaling card spots.  Since I have so many details in my journal, I will use that to tell a more in depth story when I do my trip album.

Here is the day 1 and 2 combo page...

And the continuation of day 2...

See...super simple and super quick to put together!

See you for day 3 next!