It’s still near the beginning of my trip, and I have high hopes of being able to maintain this journal throughout the trip’s entirety. Mark Twain offered his two cents on this ambitious goal in his “The Innocents Abroad”:
At certain periods it becomes the dearest ambition of a man to keep a faithful record of his performances in a book; and he dashes at this work with an enthusiasm that imposes on him the notion that keeping a journal is the veriest pastime in the world, and the pleasantest. But if he only lives twenty-one days, he will find out that only those rare natures that are made up of pluck, endurance, devotion to duty for duty’s sake, and invincible determination may hope to venture upon so tremendous an enterprise as the keeping of a journal and not sustain a shameful defeat.
I am not sure how I will do at so tremendous an enterprise, but I figure even if there are gaps in this story, recording and sharing as much as I can seems worthwhile.