Introduction

Greetings boys and girls and welcome to a new series I’m starting called “Havey’s Travel Diary”, where I’ll be going back through some of my travel journals I wrote by hand, yes, BY HAND, and transpose them into the digital realm for you.

Handwriting?

Oh yes, this one had me questioning myself as well, seeing as I spend a lot of my time in front of a computer. But back in the Summer of 2014, I just decided I would take the radical action of handwriting a journal or two as I travelled through some of the National Parks of USA. There’s something to be said about handwriting as it does feel quite therapeutic in the way you can just create whatever you want to on a blank page, armed with some ink (even naughty drawings if you’re that way inclined)!

What Happened In The Summer Of 2014?

This was a turning point for me as I decided to just do something that I’d never done before – fly out on my own and join a tour group on one epic trip from Seattle to LA, camping almost every night and meeting new people. Was I scared? Absolutely! Brave? Maybe, but at that point, I wanted to give myself the ultimate present for completing my PhD thesis, plus my birthday falls in the middle of June so it was a bit of a double whammy!

What Can We Expect From The Diary?

There are plenty of stories to share with you from my adventures in USA, Canada, Australia and UK. We’ll be meeting some of the tour groups I shared these experiences with, looking over photos and reliving eccentric tales of random things that happened along the way. Most of the text will be directly quoted from my journals and, as I write this blog, I just had a quick look back at some of the entries for the first time in a long time and I’m laughing at some of the things I wrote down! I’m sure you will do too.

 

Havey’s Travel Diary

So, with that said, keep your eyes peeled for the first Travel Diary Blog as I go back in time to 9th June 2014 as I embarked on this adventure.

Take it easy

Nicky