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Back in October, I started a bullet journal to keep track of my various bucket lists. (Making lists is kinda my thing!) Over the past few months, I spent many evenings working on my Travel Bullet Journal.
I was inspired by an Instagram post from @disheveled.doodles. This talented bullet journaler made a beautifully illustrated list of the U.S. National Parks. Each time she visits a National Park, she checks it off the list in her bullet journal.
I don’t keep a ‘normal’ bullet journal, where I plan my days and keep track of my life. (I use a Happy Planner for that!)
However, I love the freedom and creativity of bullet journals and knew that this was my chance to start one of my own.
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Bullet Journal Theme
The theme of my bullet journal is travel, obviously.
I adore travel! I wish I could do it all the time. My dream job is to be a digital nomad and travel the world while blogging. However, my family doesn’t share that same dream and they mean more than wanderlust ever could. So, I plan family vacations and make the most out of this semi-nomadic military lifestyle.
I created the first page of my travel bullet journal to reflect it’s theme.
Since my Fort Liberty & North Carolina Bucket List isn’t enough to fill the entire journal, I decided to make it a travel bullet journal for all of our travels here in the U.S. Thus, the next page contains a map of the U.S. with the states that we’ve visited colored in.
National Parks
Next, I created a page similar to the post that inspired it all.
I listed all of America’s National Parks in alphabetical order by state. I ended up making the font for the list much bigger than I intended, so I drew little illustrations where I could.
Also, it is important to note that the pages of this bullet journal – a $5 journal from Michael’s – are thin and the black pen bleeds through a little. So, I skip pages between each list.
I plan to use these blank pages to include pictures and mementos from our adventures.
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National Icons
After the list of National Parks, I included a list of National Icons.
This list was a little harder to put together. It was easy to find a list of National Parks on the internet, however, National Icons are a little more subjective.
My list contains 50 landmarks that nearly everyone in America would recognize.
Travel the South
Since the United States is so big, I decided to break it down into regions to better organize my Travel Bullet Journal. Since we are currently living in a southern state, I decided to start there. I drew a map of the 14 southern states.
It was difficult to determine which states should be considered part of the South. Historically, there were 11 southern states. But I don’t think this accurately represents modern geography.
My map contains 14 states that stretch north from Florida to Maryland (the state just below the Mason-Dixon line) and stretches as far west as Texas.
In this section of my Travel Bullet Journal, I will include a bucket list for each of these 14 states. Of course, the states that we live/have lived in will have a longer list than the states that we only visit.
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North Carolina
Since I already have my Fort Liberty and North Carolina Bucket List ready to go, I began this section of my Travel Bullet Journal with the State of North Carolina.
The first thing I added to the North Carolina section of my bullet journal was a list of state parks.
After that, I wrote down the North Carolina bucket list.
The list is already divided into 11 sections by city/region. Each time we complete a bucket list item, I’ll mark through it with a red pen and color over the bullet with the same color as the city/region’s banner.
Now that the North Carolina section of my travel bullet journal is complete, I’m not sure which state I’m going to do next. Maybe our home state of Florida or the state of Louisiana since we lived there for 4 years before PCSing to Fort Liberty?
Either way, I’ll be sure to update the bullet journal’s progress here on the blog!
I realize that my travel bullet journal is different from any other that I have seen. It doesn’t contain packing lists, itineraries, or memory logs. However, I love that I have my bucket list physically written down.
Just looking through my travel bullet journal makes me want to get out and explore!
