Last month you may remember me raving about the Journey Journal I received for Christmas. So for today’s edition of BOARDING PASS, I thought it’d be fun to showcase Tara Scheuerman of Cracked Designs who is behind the awesome journal (which now comes in US, Europe and Latin American editions). I love how her responses celebrate kitsch Americana and the great American roadtrip. Take it away Tara….
last trip taken:
A road trip to Montreal! We stopped in Toronto first and then spent most of our time visiting a friend in Montreal. I loved how the city was such a beautiful blend of old and new.

next trip on deck:
I’m going to Big Sky Montana in two weeks to do some snowboarding & skiing with a bunch of my closest friends! I am super excited.

one place you would go back to again and again:
San Francisco, hands down. I fell in love with that city when I was there a couple years ago. I want to live there, badly. It’s just so darn beautiful.
place you’d most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Dollywood, in Gaitlinburg TN. Come on, it’s Dolly Parton’s theme park! Every person must go there, it is so awesomely funny. Also, Graceland (even if you don’t like Elvis) It’s crazy.

preferred method of transportation:
car! I LOVE road trips.

place you’ve never been but dying to go:
I really want to go to Switzerland, it seems so quaint. I also want to do the Route 66 road trip. My husband and I want to do that trip soon before all of the old stops along the way vanish.

I collect tons of really old postcards from everywhere I go. I know I hit the jackpot if I find postcards covered in dust! I have tons of them

place you’d never go back:
I would go anywhere more than once! I really can’t think of a place where I wouldn’t go again.
most memorable trip:
My husband and I went up to Door County WI after our wedding for a mini honeymoon and the first night we were there at about 3AM, I had to take him to the hospital…he ended up getting his appendix out. We were also camping, so it took us about an hour to get out of the park and then another hour to find the closest hospital, it was awful. We are scared to ever go back.

how do you prepare for a trip?
I mostly freak out. I am a horrible packer and almost always over pack. I always feel like I am forgetting something and usually am pretty stressed out until I leave. I also research the place I’m going to find odd things off the beaten path. I also love going on brewery tours around the country, so I definitely look up all the micro-breweries in the area I’m going.
how do you record your travels when you’re traveling?
I always have a journal or sketchbook to write or draw in. My husband and I always come up with the best card ideas when we’re traveling, so I always have a journal handy to write down any gems! I also of course have my ‘Journey Journal‘!
what is your favorite thing to photograph in a new place?
Definitely old signs: hotel signs, landmark signs etc. So many times, old signs are hilarious. I always like to think about what they looked like in their heyday, so I like to make them feel important again! I also seek out really tacky tourist shops to photograph. I’m not a big landscape photographer at all.

on an average, how many pictures to you take on a trip?
A whole lot! At least a couple hundred.

what’s in your “designer travel kit” ?
My Canon Digital Rebel, a sketchbook, a Polaroid camera (sometimes) and my Journey Journal
what do you do after a trip? how long after a trip does this happen?
I usually upload all my photos and then print them. I love being able to actually hold a photograph. I love looking at photographs the moment I get home, so I usually upload them the day after I get back. I have started to blog though, so I will be starting to add images from my travels to my blog.

craziest place you’ve ever been?
There is this place in Georgia called ‘Babyland General‘ where cabbage patch dolls are ‘born’. It was so creepy. You actually watch the dolls being ‘born’ out of ‘mother cabbage’ which is this huge tree. I have never laughed so hard. It was great because everyone who works there is really serious about these dolls being human.

website: Cracked Designs
Blog
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Thanks, Tara!

P.S. Click here for more featured designers in BOARDING PASS.