Jan 2 - Thoughts on the Journal

This morning I looked at my task list in my blog editor and found that I'm behind by 8 posts now. 8! OMG! I think I'll be "heads down" on the computer for the next couple days.

Dar and I talked about our journal and blogging over breakfast and recalled why we keep this blog... this journal... in the first place: It's the record, our record, of our travels and adventures during the time we live in our RV and explore North America. Secondarily, it's an easy way for family, friends, and curious others to "follow along"... to see where we're at and what we're up to.

As of today I've done 937 posts to The RV Sabbatical Journal over the past 6 years. While I love writing, I think it's become routine, like a job. After 29 State Capitol buildings, many of which look alike, describing them becomes repetitive. Presidential Libraries are similarly laid out in timeline fashion and the task becomes finding the unusual so as to keep humdrum and repetition from overwhelming the reader -- even if that reader is me. Describing mountain vistas and grand holes in the ground... well, there are only so many superlatives in the English language. You'd think the more one writes the easier it would become. I haven't found that to be the case.

There's also an element of procrastination (I've always been a procrastinator) in my nature. My motto has been "always put off until tomorrow what should be done today... because it's often the case that you'll find  that the thing doesn't have to be done at all." OK, while that doesn't hold true in most cases, the trick is learning when it might. Unfortunately, those unfinished blog posts aren't going to go away.

I thought it might help if Dar would occasionally write a post. I set her up as an "author" for our blog years ago, but she's not done even a single post to this point. And I thought I had a motivation problem. Current score is 937 to 0.

I know, she's been handling the photos... and at that she's done a boffo job. But maybe if we mix things up a little we'll motivate each other.

When we first started this lifestyle in 2007, I'd consume vast amounts of time reading other fulltimer's blogs. There was a comfort in knowing there were others out there doing the same thing we were doing. But over the years it slowly dawned on me that it might be better to live my own life rather than reading about others living theirs. And, I gotta tell ya', those doing what we're doing (living in a giant RV, going north in the summer, escaping south in the winter, staying at RV parks for long periods of time, etc) have universally boring blogs. Sorry... that's how I feel. And I'm sure most people find our blog just as bad. And that's OK with me.

The few blogs I still read are about those doing something really "out there", unusual, unique, truly adventurous... driving or sailing around the world, RVing in other countries, living in tiny campers, philosophers, thinkers, and spys.

I don't know where this is going or what I'll do about it yet. I think I've got Dar a little excited about writing a post once in a while. And just reasoning and thinking through "down" periods like this help get me on track again.

The RV Sabbatical Journal will continue to be our record for 2013 and for as long as we'll be out exploring North America and the world.

'scuse me... but I've got some writin' to do.