The way I prepare for my trips is plan ahead. I spend time creating a log of caches in excel spreadsheet. I put the name of the cache, location, hints, closes city, driving directions, miles, completed yes or no. I keep everything in a clipboard with a compartment so I have it at any time. All of this goes in my backpack designated for Caching and it al stays in my car. Once in awhile I will pull out the list and go back to the master on my computer, I then get on geocaching.com and go through to see what is new or what is archived in order to update my info. If I have completed a cache I delete it off of my master list and when ready I print a new list. It sounds like a long process but when you have the master list it is just a simple update.