Travel Turtle

I have a lot of journals, but for now I’m going to post one I made between late 2001 and early 2002. It was inspired by the journals of Dan Eldon. Before I write about my journal, I have to write a little about Dan Eldon.

There’s a lot to say and I will try to keep it brief. Get the book The Journey is the Destination to learn more or check out the website, but please do. Dan Eldon started keeping journals at a young age. He lived and travelled all over the world, 46 countries to be exact. He lived in Nairobi, Kenya most of his childhood and started various charities to help the locals. His journals matured as he did. He used various methods in them; photography, collage, paint, words. They seem to really capture the world around him in a very abrupt and honest way. He eventually became a photographer for the Associated Press and was stoned to death, along with three other journalists, in Somalia in 1993. He was 22 years old. He packed a lot of life into his own life and his story, images, and legacy are inspiring.

The journal I kept between 2001 and 2002 was a direct reaction to Dan Eldon’s journals. It’s probably the most consistent journal I’ve ever kept for that long of a period. I wrote a lot of quotes in it some were serious, some were Jack Handy. Here are some pictures from my favorite pages:

^^ I actually made this in 1999 during my Italian class in my notebook. I always misplaced it, so I decided to just stick it in this journal for safe keeping.

^^This is a quote by Julie Alger titled Lesson 1:

At least I’ve learned this much:

Life doesn’t have to be

all poetry and roses. Life

can be bus rides, gritty sidewalks,

electric bills, dishwashing,

chapped lips, dully stubby pencils

with the erasers chewed off,

cheap radios playing too loud,

the rank smell of stale coffee

(and then I stopped writing it… but the poem actually continues)

yet still glow

with the inner fire of an opal,

still taste like honey

^^I made the heart painting in 2000 and, like the drawings, misplaced it often so I decided to just keep it in this book.

^^This page was a lot of fun. I traced my hand five times in this catalog we had at work and cut each out. I then stapled it to the page in various angles, so the hands are almost like a book. On each page I wrote something different. Usually just a quick line, maybe a quote from a movie. During this time I worked at a travel agency. Although I love to travel, I hate to fly. I’ve almost always hated to fly, but after September 11th, the fear was much stronger. I had a group of regular customers from the middle east. One came in to book his holiday travel and through our conversation he learned that I was scared to fly. He told me “don’t worry. they checked all of my friends and I. They went through all of our bags.” I wrote down what he said on a post-it, and it’s on one of the hands I cut out.

^^There’s not much to say about this. It was just a random page with a list of my favorite things.

So, that’s that. What do you think?

I will probably share more journals later. My travel journals are a lot of fun. Do you have your journals available online? What’s the link? Who inspires you?