Read by Becky Boyd

A travel journal is a terrific way to capture travel memories and keep them forever. Our ability to recall these special times is so unreliable that, naturally, we want to record them so we can revisit them, over and over. What about other memories-the ones we make when we visit family or old friends? Or the old forgotten stories that our relatives tell us? Those nuggets that we don't think we will ever forget but, sadly, we do? What about securing a place for them by recording them in your travel journal? Imagine you are taking your children or spouse to visit relatives that they have not met before, perhaps to see a cousin or an elderly aunt. Before you leave home, you take out an old photo album and look at pictures of you and your relatives when you were little. There you are, standing near your parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins. Your kids want to know about these people, and you tell them the stories that spring to mind. Today's story is tomorrow's memory-if we can remember it. Travel journals ensure that we will. Our stories are part of what makes a family or a community. If we don't preserve them, they die when the storytellers die. If we want to keep telling our stories, then we need to be able to remember them. The best way to remember them is to record them. Your travel journal is both a bridge to the past and the key to the future

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