Travel Record Spreadsheet

[SCBillandJane]

Have any of you purchased or created your own daily travel record spreadsheet? If so, we would love to see some samples. I was thinking about creating one that would help us keep track of campgrounds visited and cost, gasoline consumed and cost, daily miles traveled, sightseeing spots visited, times of arrival and departure, etc.

[Bill]

We use one of those silly little black Camper's Log notebooks. In it, we record the things you mentioned. I've often thought that once we got home, I would extract the info into a spreadsheet, but the need just never came up.

However, since we do cross the country twice a year, and have done it for years, we've gotten to the point where we have taken almost all routes more than once. The log turns out to be an excellent resource for questions like "Did we like the XYZ campground last time we came through, or should we pass on it?" and "Where was that British-themed campground?" and "What time of year was it when we last came through the Dakotas? Was there snow?" and "What are the roads like in this stretch?" Although we religiously record gasoline costs, meal costs, and campground fees, I don't think we've ever referred to them.

However, one thing we did do with it was extract indicators for gas costs in various states. This answers the important question that always comes up as we leave one state and enter another - "Should we buy gas before we leave Iowa, or wait until we cross the line into Nebraska?" Gas prices change with time, but the relative cost in adjacent states tends to stay contant.

The refills for this little black book are ridiculously expensive, so I made up my own in PowerPoint. We print 'em out, cut ' em up, and use them at no cost except paper and ink.

Bill

[mcgyver210]

Our IPhones have Apps for that we use Gas Cubby & Trip Cubby which tracks all service & miles etc.

[Wavery]

We resort to pencil & logbook also.

One thing that we found very handy it to walk the entire campground (while walking the dog or something) and make note of the sites that we like best. If we ever go back to that CG, we are ready to name our site # when we make reservations.

I don't keep track of expenses any more.....it's too depressing and could drive me to a different hobby......like drugs, women or booze.....

One other tip.......put the lic plate # of your TV and trailer on there. It saves the ranger a lot of time when you have that handy at check-in.

I also use an iPhone app on my iPod touch - called RV Companion. There is a trial/free version that you can try, but for any functionality you have to buy it - I think it was $4.99.
It has a To Do list, A place to record campground information, a trip log, and a place to record info about your camper.

Pretty handy in a small package.

But I also keep a small notebook in the camper and record other impressions of our camping trips in there. Esier than typing on the tiny keyboard on the Touch!

[knoxjere]

My wife created an Excel spreadsheet to track our expenses while on a camping trip. We have only used it once, on our shakedown cruise! We will be going camping again next week and will use it then as well. Hope it helps!

Jere & Paula
2006 2720
2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee

[knoxjere]

Oops, guess the attachment didn't attach. If anyone wants a copy of it, please email her: [email protected] Just put camping log in the subject line so she will know its okay to open.

Jere & Paula
2006 2720
2000 Jeeep Grand Sherokee

We too use a small notebook. We also have a little "point&shoot" camera that we keep handy for snapping things to remember.
We also walk the entire campground and make note of best sites for future trips.

The wife, being Logistics USMC, has a way to do everything... She has FILES. Old fashioned paper files that she makes up before our trips to place her planning notes in. One file folder per trip. And as we go on the trip anything she feels is of note she drops into the file. Gotta love a woman like that. But one of the things that she does that has been most helpful is she takes a map of the campground, the ones that they give you at the entrance or one from on line, and she makes notes on the map regarding campsites that we may wish to camp on in the future. I have gone back to those maps and her comments when planning future trips as they have been most helpful.