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THREAD: for those interested in roadtripping across the USA to see National Parks and baseball games and tracking the trip using @FieldNotesBrand notebooks
In 2016 I had the itch to get out and drive - there's a uniquely American romance about road tripping across the country, and it was something that definitely appealed to me. Plus it was the 100th anniversary of the @NatlParkService and I wanted to visit more of our Parks!
Important stage-setting: I am a daily user of @FieldNotesBrand notebooks (since July 18, 2011 when I started my first book). They are the best dang notebooks in the world. My first purchase included a box set with one notebook from each state (the "County Fair edition).
So I spent all summer planning a trip with some of the dates I had commitments / plans as anchor points, and filling in as many MLB parks and National Parks as I could along the way. This is the first draft on a basic blank map I printed from Google.
The idea with my state edition @FieldNotesBrand is that they supplement my everyday notebook - I switch to that state notebook whenever I travel; I end up with my own personal Frommers / @wildsamguides essentially!
And before we get started - I also broke out an "America the Beautiful" Tetons edition for an overall trip log, plus a "Traveling Salesman" edition for all my trip expenses.
For you @FieldNotesBrand newbies - they release new limited editions four times a year and those were two fitting editions for my trip! https://fieldnotesbrand.com/limited-editions
Let's get started! The first leg(s) of the trip began in DC, took turns through MD, WV, (a very brief cut through) PA, and ended in OH where I stayed with my cousins who lived there at the time. When I entered a new state I'd hit the rest stop, grab a free map, and jot down notes
Day 2 of the trip saw OH, IN, IL, WI, and MN. Of course, IL is the @FieldNotesBrand HQ - I stopped in to see the fine folks there, and came away with good wishes and a dated Chicago FN edition! A couple days in MN w/ family and a @Twins game before heading to ND.
I forgot to mention - I'm a photographer and love taking photos of our National Parks. @TRooseveltNPS was my first stop ON THE EXACT DATE OF THE @NatlParkService CENTENNIAL! I was ecstatic! It was a beautiful first night camping under the stars. https://kmagnuson.com/blog/theodore-roosevelt-national-park-summer-2016
*pause - I will try to link to blog posts with my recaps of each park but I still haven't gotten around to all of them, part of the explanation why will come in a few tweet's time - unpause*
Day 5 continued on into Montana. I love Montana. It is so amazing to drive across the badlands into the plains and watch the mountains rise up in front of you slowly but majestically. Shoot this thread is going to be long if I don't hit the x2 speed. Bear with me.
This set of @FieldNotesBrand (WY -> ID -> WA -> OR -> CA -> AZ) shows the bulk of the trip. In MT / WY / ID I explored @YellowstoneNPS & @GrandTetonNPS with my friend Jake who you MUST follow, he is a dope wildlife photographer out there: https://www.instagram.com/revealedinnature/
Seriously the Tetons (recognize them from the America the Beautiful FN edition?!) are unreal. And you MUST follow Jake, please. Do it. http://www.revealedinnature.com Here are a few of my pictures from WY.
Fast forward through @GlacierNPS (INCREDIBLE - a few pics attached) to Washington. My friend @bradcarrington joined me on this leg of the trip. We visited Seattle and @OlympicNP which was also INCREDIBLE. Check out more here: https://kmagnuson.com/blog/olympic-national-park-fall-2016
I am telling you, I can't sum this up with any justice on Twitter. I just want to give a taste and tease you into wanting to do it yourself.
After WA it gets dicey. My friend Jordan swapped places with Bradford and we drove south to Oregon. We missed seeing @FieldNotesBrand HQ West (Portland) and the man himself (Aaron @Draplin - still want to say hi in person sometime!) ... then disaster struck.
Jordan was driving on the OR coast when we got SLAMMED into by a 16 year old driver who wasn't paying attention. Here's an excerpt from my OR CF FN entry from that day. RIP my poor Scion tC, my first car (I loved that car!!) But we walked away ok.
My cousins happened to be two hours away and they collected our very shaken shelves. This was Day 13 of a 56 day trip, and my car was totaled. And it was Labor Day weekend and we were in small town Oregon. Complicated.
All my plans (camping sites, getting Jordan to SFO to fly home) were on a tight schedule but I had to wait until the day after Labor Day to get a rental car. We took advantage of the change of plans to visit @CraterLakeNPS with my cousins! https://kmagnuson.com/blog/crater-lake-national-park-fall-2016
@CraterLakeNPS is the bluest place on earth. It is stunning. I had been before but didn't object to re-visiting. I did feel bad for Jordan because the hectic-ness meant we just drove through @RedwoodNPS instead of camping. https://kmagnuson.com/blog/redwood-pinnacles-national-parks-fall-2016
NOTE - OR is where things fell apart in terms of being on top of note taking. All of my stuff was carefully organized, then my car was totaled. I scraped by with plastic bags of stuff I picked up off the highway and side of the road (it was a *bad* wreck)...
...for the rest of the trip I made shorthand notes of what I did and collected paraphernalia and material to fully fill out my @FieldNotesBrand notebooks at a later date. Keep that in mind. /NOTE
What to say about California. I love California. I visited my friend @jack_goodman who works at @Apple - not a National Park but it felt like a pilgrimage for an Apple fan like me. I also saw the @Athletics play a September ballgame. They need a new stadium.
See my CA @FieldNotesBrand - it is adorned with markings of the trip and it is thiiiiick with content. This is a pretty good example of what my well-loved notebooks end up looking like at their completion.
I went to all but one of the nine @NatlParkService parks in CA, including @PinnaclesNPS (at the time the 59th and newest NP). @SequoiaKingsNPS were real highlights of the trip for me (pics attached).
https://kmagnuson.com/blog/kings-canyon-sequoia-national-parks-fall-2016
https://kmagnuson.com/blog/kings-canyon-sequoia-national-parks-fall-2016
And and and and the king of the @NatlParkService - @YosemiteNPS. What to say about mighty Yosemite other than, GO. Go and see. Read my recap on my site. Some favorite pictures attached.
https://kmagnuson.com/blog/yosemite-national-park-fall-2016
https://kmagnuson.com/blog/yosemite-national-park-fall-2016
*increases to 16x speed for the sake of the thread* I met many friends & family members in CA. I also became in-person friends with @k_flinn, my race-to-visit-every-National-Park nemesis - she and @chelobr92 joined me for a visit to @NOAA_CINMS (see recap) https://kmagnuson.com/blog/channel-islands-national-park-fall-2016
My FN were suffering at this point - I was falling way behind because the crash screwed up my schedule + reservations several places, plus dealing with insurance and leaving my totaled car in OR...I was barely keeping up and staying awake.
A lot of fun stuff in CA that I'm skipping over, but before I left the state I caught a @Padres game in SD and made a quick visit to @JoshuaTreeNPS, which is beautiful and strange. If you are enjoying this my IG posts from 2016 have a lot more: https://www.instagram.com/p/BL38dgIDEVA/
From CA to AZ (remember this was all from that one set of FN! A lot of ground to cover!) I typically take a picture of each CF @FieldNotesBrand notebook in the state - here's AZ for an example. https://www.instagram.com/p/BL467h9DWwz/
For context, we are now at Day 32 in the trip. I was born in Phoenix and have family there. I love AZ. I'd already been to all three National Parks here so I used my time there to rest up and buy a new car (a Subaru Forester). https://www.instagram.com/p/BMNW9pFDiL5/
Now the last major Parks-heavy leg of the trip, primarily relying on UT and CO for new @NatlParkService NPs to visit. @ZionNPS was first, then @BryceCanyonNPS and @ArchesNPS https://www.instagram.com/p/BL_bjVFDP-5/
Another three parks in Colorado - @VisitMesaVerde, #greatsanddunesnationalpark, and @RockyNPS, which my friend Nate joined me for. Here's my CO @FieldNotesBrand in RMNP.
I'm blasting through the rest of the trip to get to my point in this thread. KS is flat and an awful drive. MO was pleasant (stayed with Nate and his wife Anne for a few days). AR was brief. TN was full of visits with friends.
Last leg(s) - (childhood) home to KY, a visit to @MammothCaveNP, back through TN and NC and @SmokiesRoadsNPS, and then a quick drive up skyline drive in @ShenandoahNPS to get back to DC. The last book is my expense log. It was very full.
WHAT IS MY POINT IN ALL OF THIS?? Well, I fell behind in logging all of my notes because of the car crash in Oregon. And. I. Just. Finished. My. Notes. YESTERDAY.
IT TOOK ME FOUR YEARS because it was an ominous pile of notebooks and ephemera that I never could fully tackle. Meaning subsequent visits to those states also were piling up waiting for updates. I have a form of psychosis, I know.
But I am done!! A week short of my four year anniversary of setting out to see America, and for the first time in 46 months, I am fully caught up on the notes I intended to capture in my habits and forms of note taking and journaling etc. A huge weight lifted!
Appendix A: here is a full time-lapse of my trip. This took a lot of effort (you can see why the extensive note-taking fell by the wayside [the side of the road in Oregon to be exact]). I am super proud of this one and would love if you watched!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-U4keHFYj4/
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-U4keHFYj4/
Appendix B: here are some of my favorite "scenes" from my road trip through the @NatlParkService:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-ctAOFF69R/
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-ctAOFF69R/
Appendix C: oh you liked those scenes? Here are some more! Lucky you!!:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-fDF_DlEP6/
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-fDF_DlEP6/
Appendix D: and some more footage of the people who I shared the journey with!:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-aBU6JFHMQ/
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-aBU6JFHMQ/
Appendix E: if you're interested in seeing some of my photography, you can follow me on Instagram ( @karlmagnuson) or check out my website. I apologize for the lack of new content...I've been writing a lot in Field Notes about 2016... https://kmagnuson.com
Wow that was a brazen tweet storm. If you stuck with me, bless you. Would love to hear what you think! Can I answer questions? I'd love to inspire others to see our National Parks & use @FieldNotesBrand. And I am not sponsored or employed by either organization I just love them.
SO tl;dr - it took me four years to fully finish documenting my 2016 @NatlParkService Centennial road trip in my US State edition @FieldNotesBrand. If you though this was a lot of tweets, imagine the amount of tiny writing in pocket notebooks! Thanks for listening :)
