Remember the old AAA TripTiks? I’m pretty sure that’s where my love of maps, navigating and playing tour guide came from! They were one of the highlights of a road trip… tracking all the mileposts, getting ever closer to turning to the next page… Oh, I loved them. Seems I wasn’t the only one since they’ve come up in a few conversations lately. And provided just the inspiration I needed to embrace my inner travel nerd.

I love planning and I love traveling, so planning an upcoming trip is really one of my all-time favorite things to do. And my sister can tell you, it doesn’t even have to be my own trip 🙂
I have a trip to New England coming right up but since a lot of the initial prep (flights, lodging, basic dates, etc…) had to be done months and months in advance and I’ve been busy with other things I was having a  hard time getting back into prepping for this trip. I didn’t want to miss a good trip planning opportunity (after all this one comes with 6 states, staying in five different towns with multiple family and friends and an unlimited number of things to see and do).  I decided what I needed was my own personal TripTik for the trip.

This of course meant lots of time with two of my other favorite things, guide books and google maps! Which routes were the most scenic, which ones took me past mountain views, waterfalls, cheese makers, donuts, and of course chocolate? Then there was the added element of “now which places did I love to visit when I lived here?”, “where was that hike?”, and “where the heck was that little yellow house on the lake?”

I decided to do one page for each day of the trip. These include contact info or flight/driving info when needed, ideas of things to do and a few photos to capture the feel of that place. My hope is that having one page per day will help me to focus on enjoying that day instead of thinking ahead to what’s coming.

Not that you can see it here, but  I found this really fun white paper with a wood-grain design. And that meant I could finally use the wood veneer paper I’ve been coveting for something! I knew it would make the perfect cover.

And it’s not really a TripTik if it’s not spiral bound at the top for easy use…

Ok, now you can see the wood-grain paper. Perfect for the woodsy Northeast I think.

And… the final product that I have to say I’m in love with.

Needless to say all this TripTikking has me excited about the trip again. Good thing I leave in a couple of days!