Last Post for a While

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Link to our photo collections


For Facebook fans, click here: https://www.facebook.com/OnTheRoadWithDarAndThom/

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The Evolution of a blog. 

In the beginning, 2006, I gave birth to this blog with two objectives in mind: first, to serve as an easy means to keep family and friends informed about our whereabouts and activities, and second, as a permanent record of our travels for our own purposes… a personal journal.  Ten years have now passed and while these two objectives are still valid and important to us, I've re-evaluated the means to achieve them.

Keeping family and friends up-to-date:  Regardless of one's opinion about Facebook or Google+, the reality is that most of the people we want to reach in our "family and friends" category are looking at their Facebook pages every day... multiple times each day... and some, I swear, are on it all day long. An update I make to Facebook automatically shows up on their page, amidst posts from all their other "friends". The point is... they see it. It just pops up in front of their face, automatically, with no additional effort whatsoever.

Compare that to a post I might make to our RV Sabbatical Journal blog. Over the years I've been aware that many, perhaps most, of the people in my intended blog audience, specifically family and friends, do not check in on the blog very often... or at all. They might see it occasionally, if they happen to think about it, but then only quickly scan it and look at a few pictures. Although, arguably, just an easy click away, they must remember us in the course of their daily lives and make a discrete decision to follow a link when they happen to be in front of their phone or computer. Furthermore, the long posts that I tend to write... that I've spent hours composing, improving, nurturing, changing, correcting... become a dis-incentive to check in with us. Too long... takes too much time to read. Most people these days have a lot going on in their lives. Attention spans are short. Let's get to the point here. Their main interest is quickly finding out where we're at and that we're OK, and they're less interested in the little detailed minutia that we might find interesting.

So, some time ago I started updating our Facebook travel page in earnest, almost daily while we're traveling. Feedback indicates we're getting the word out more effectively now, with Facebook, than we were before with the blog. A quick update on Facebook can be done in just a couple minutes, and can be easily done with any device... including a smartphone. In contrast, my updates to the blog... because they included so much more information and... could take hours to assemble. Using Facebook is so much more efficient, both for the reader and the author.

In some ways I prefer Google+ over Facebook. Most importantly, a person without an account is able to see our Google+ page without being prompted to open an account of their own. We have some readers who don’t have Facebook and don’t want to ever have a Facebook page, and it’s tough for them to see our post updates on FB with all the clutter and prompting to sign up. Google+ at this point, at least, doesn’t do this.

A permanent record of our travels:  To cover our second purpose for writing about our travels, I've been keeping an offline personal journal that's for our eyes only. Because it's just for us, I don't waste time correcting grammatical errors, mis-spellings, or wordsmithing insensitive or offensive (to some) comments. I can be me, I can say what I want, and I don't have to worry about the PC police or hurt feelings. How refreshing. All those “faubles” are me... and perhaps, someday after I'm gone, someone will find the real me in all those words.

I’ve written all that as background to say this: In 2017 I will stop posting updates to this blog. Some of you are probably thinking this has already happened, based on the lack of activity this year. The blog has been on life-support since this past summer, that is true. But I used the time to really evaluate the situation and to give the alternatives a go before making this decision.

I will still keep these pages and the 1,177 posts as a searchable archive as well as a portal to other blogs, pages, or projects I’m working on.

Thank you so much for your interest in our blog these past 10 years. We’ve had our ups and downs, ins and outs, but it’s been a very positive experience for me. Things evolve as time passes. The way we travel and explore has evolved. And the way we communicate has evolved.

We wish you all the best.

On Blogging

Recently, it seems to me, there are a lot of bloggers that have either suspended their blogs or stopped blogging altogether. It's possible that my impression is due to the selection of blogs that I look in on, which are mostly the blogs of RVers and travelers. But then again… perhaps not.

Blogging went mainstream in the mid 2000s. When I started, in 2006, there were a good number of RV travelers that already had blogs. It was something new, something fresh, and the bubble of people getting into the RVing life in those years were quick to respond. In our first years on the road, (2007 – 2008-ish) the vibe was that every RVer needed a blog. In fact, there were seminars at rallies that expressed that very sentiment. Blogging rapidly became a fad, something expected, something assumed. But, like all fads and meteors, expect it to brighten and fade.

Since many bloggers were/are in it for the social networking aspect, it seems a natural evolution for blogs to migrate to tools designed for this purpose. I'm referring to today's more convenient and less time consuming options for keeping in touch with your “peeps”... Facebook, Twitter, etc., which now seem to be the locus of the “look at what I did today” bunch.

It's also possible that I'm looking at a generational phenomenon here. We've all seen a pickup in the number of younger working-age folks who have become RVers and are able to earn a living while they travel. Groups like RVillage and Xscapers are the new generation of travelers with their own methods of keeping in touch, while my circle of reference is a collection of old fuddy-duddy blogs.

In any case, it's not a surprise that the blogs of RVers are fading away. Sure, there will always be a hardcore few, but the bubble will deflate, and the world will continue to turn.

New Header Photo for the Blog

I decided the other day to change the header photo of this blog to better represent our current mode of travel and the rig we're traveling with most often these days.  It's surely an interim thing as once we get going to Alaska in a few weeks, piles of cool photos of us against a backdrop of British Columbia, the Yukon, or the 49th state will be volunteering as replacements.

And, YES, we're going to Alaska... for three months... with that little pill-box of a camper. Why not?

For reference, this photo was taken last summer as we drove over Lemhi Pass between Idaho and Montana. Click here for my post from that day.

June 18 - Close to Lemhi Pass

(During the trip thus far we've had very little cell phone or internet connectivity. This post was written and posted on the 18th ("live" as it were) to let those few remaining readers know we were still alive and that we hadn't given up on the blog. The terse tone of the post was due to a measure of separation anxiety on my part... as well as some concern about the amount of time blogging consumes.  The other posts around this one, while they were written as we traveled, were not posted to the blog until a later date.)
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OK, here's the deal. We've been moving every day but the daily miles vary wildly from just 40 to over 200. And we've been staying in Federal or State campgrounds which is exactly what we've been wanting to do. Not that I'm a cheap bastard or anything, but I get a little buzz from paying only $2.50 for a campsite (which is exactly what I shelled out for camping tonight near Salmon ID.

Posts here have been slow in coming and for that I don't apologize. Traveling and exploring is a hoot... a really good time. By the end of the day I'm tired. The posts about it all will get done in due time. Frankly, I'd rather soak up the experience than write sometimes.

The little camper is working out as good as we'd hoped. There's some "camper choreography" to be learned... when to duck, when to weave... who does what when, since there's not enough room for both of us to do whatever we want whenever we want. But when it comes to traveling with it... it's a keeper. It's exactly what we've been wanting. I'll write more about this after we arrive in Wisconsin and we've got more experience with it.

Tonight we're in Salmon ID... close to Lemhi Pass. A few photos from our day...

Rain drops on Mountain Lupine

Banner Summit (7200 ft) Snow? Really?

Beartooth Mountains near Stanley Idaho

Another truck camper along the Salmon river

Camp near Salmon Idaho

October 15 - Changes to Blog

You may have noticed recent changes to the layout of this blog. Here's the quick story.

The RV Sabbatical Journal blog is now presented in a simple single column format. The focus is on the most recent post, which is where I'd like it... with little else to clutter the page. In my effort to define the blog's purpose and to feed my desire to keep it all clean and simple, I've removed that smaller right-hand column which included a bunch of things I thought I could do without or, at least, handle differently. Did anyone really care what were the most viewed posts from the previous month? Our story is best found on a separate page under the "About" tab, so the small sections called "What's This All About?" and "Synopsis" were deemed redundant and done away with. The Google search widget didn't seem to work most of the time so it too was deep-sixed.

The two elements that I felt still had some value were the previous post "Archive" function and the "Follow Us by Email" widget, which are both now in the footer at the bottom of each page... if a reader wants them, they can still find them. I've also turned "comments" back on and will simply deal with things as they come in that department.

A side benefit of moving to a simple uncluttered layout is that it's now much easier to read this blog on tablets and smaller screens. I never had success in getting the mobile version of the blog to work the way I thought it should (and the way Blogger implies it will work), and now I don't need a mobile version. Ahh, the benefits of simplicity.

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Rain fell most of the day here. But we really shouldn't complain about the weather this month... it's been spectacular for the most part. The kind of October we've been hoping for. However, as we head into the last half of the month, sinking historical average temperatures and fewer hours of sunlight will slap us in the face... and we'll wake from this seasonal dream... and bask in the Winter which provides the balance that defines enjoyment. How does one appreciate the mean unless you've experienced the extremes?

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Ran down to Madison this afternoon to pick up Dar at the airport. She flew to Phoenix last Thursday to join her favorite sister for a long weekend of exploring the Phoenix area as a possible retirement spot... for her sister, not Dar. While there are parts of Arizona that would be of interest to Dar and I as a home base, Phoenix ain't one of 'em. Just too many people and too much hubbub.

And we stopped in at Ale Asylum on the way home... to bolster our energy and replace essential electrolytes (lost during long periods of travel at high altitudes) with craft beer that's "Fermented in Sanity". Oh, and we had dinner there too. It's good to have my partner back.

October 14 - I'm Back

Rather than one long post (and, I fear, it would be very long) in which I try to cover this blog's recent dry spell, how about I break it down into a series of shorter posts as I attempt to bring the record up-to-date over the next few days. Maybe by then we'll be close enough to getting our Fall travels underway and there'll be more time to write... and more to write about.

Regular readers of this blog know that I've had periods in the past when writing has been a struggle. Without exception, those spells are associated with periods of time when we're sitting in one spot for a while. Probably because I don't have a clear purpose for the blog (is it a travelogue?.. a diary??... who really is the audience???) the words won't flow. I want to keep it interesting and fresh, but unlike some others in bloggerville who have no problem writing the same tiresome daily drivel... day after day after boring day, I just can't do it. I'm not a small talk kind of person. Think I'd rather give it up and close it down altogether if that's all I had to write about.

Anyway, here's our setting and current status: We're still in Beaver Dam Wisconsin, and probably will be until early November. We still have the bushouse and have decided to keep it here until next Spring/Summer. I'll go into that subject with a later post. Alongside the bushouse is our new Northstar truck camper, which is another story I'll cover in a post or two in the next few days. Our energies now are going into getting the bushouse prepared for a lonely cold Winter and getting the new camper ready for 5 or 6 months of travel. Most know how projects and tasks "bunch up" as deadlines near... and that's part of the urgency we're feeling right now as we scramble during the next two or three weeks to wrap everything up.

So bear with me as I get my writing muscle and fingers back to strength. Thank you for checking in.

Mar 8 - Screens and Journaling

In my last post I forgot to include a link to the post from November 2011 about creating our intaglio... so here's that link.

After reading that old post again, and after checking a dictionary source for assistance, I think the use of the word "intaglio" is really not appropriate for the rock art thing we created out in the desert. It looks like it might better be termed a "geoglyph". The dictionary says a "geoglyph" is a drawing on the ground made by arranging natural materials (stones, rocks, etc.) and the shade variations of the underlying ground. Hmm. But whether it's an intaglio, a geoglyph, just some crude desert graffiti, or something else... I'm impressed that it's still there.

I also discovered that it's visible on Google Maps. Link. (may have to zoom in) If any of the readers of this journal are ever in Q, feeling bored, and/or ambling around aimlessly in the desert... and you happen to stumble on this thing... whatever it is, take a photo and let us know how it's doing. For every report (with photo) we receive we'll credit your account with an additional year of free access to The RV Sabbatical Journal. How can you go wrong with a deal like that?

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We're having a cloudy stormy blustery day here at "The Quartz". A rare good day for nomads to work on inside jobs... or to at least sit inside without feeling guilty about it.

Have you noticed that screens tend to keep people inside? TV screens, computer screens, tablet screens, even smartphone screens... none of them are really usable in bright daylight or even bright cloudy days. Sure, if you really turn up the brightness, and you hunker-down deep into the shadows, swivel the device so as to minimize reflections, or sit in a chair and cover yourself, head and all, with a blanket (???)... and you squint and force the old eyes to work harder... you might be able to get something done. But it's clearly not ideal. And it's clearly not a long term solution. No, screens are a chain that keep us inside.

Sitting under a blanket?? Yes, I've recently seen a photo of someone doing just that. In the old days if you ran across someone laying there, completely covered with a sheet or blanket, you assumed the worst and started digging a hole. But not these days. No sir, not with our modern technology. These days it's a fashion statement. My-Oh-my... we've come a long way haven't we?.

Besides this blog, for years, I've tried to keep up another journal of sorts... one meant for my eyes only. I use it in the traditional way that people over the ages have recorded their personal thoughts, emotions, feelings, opinions, and other things they didn't want others to read. I use it as a place to develop topics for the blog, to record the events of the day, as well as those private thoughts and ideas. Over the years I've found this personal private journal beneficial, especially during high-stress and difficult times. It helps me straighten myself out, organize my jumbled thoughts, and can provide some much needed perspective. Googling "benefits of journaling" brings up dozens of articles on the subject.

In the past, I've kept my personal journal as a simple text file on my computer. The idea was that I can type much faster than I talk (and probably think too) and by using the keyboard I won't slow down the process of getting thoughts on "paper". At least that's what I thought. And besides, I'm a computer guy... I like PCs and all the other electric thing-ama-jigs... and keeping my personal journal on the computer just seemed to made sense.

But not so much anymore.

Back to screens. Besides keeping myself sequestered and confined while writing the blog, writing in my personal journal was, at times, keeping me "in the dark" for even more of my precious little remaining time. It had been until recently when I changed course and went back to the old tried and true medium of the past... pen and ink on paper. I bought one of those old-fashioned bound "composition books" (about 7" by 10", less than a single dollar on sale), a new pen, and started to write. Now I can sit outside, on a rock along a trail, at the edge of a grand canyon, on the top of a mountain... and spill my thoughts onto those pages with abandon. No more screen problems for me... well, at least when I'm in my personal journal.

I've also found that the act of putting thoughts on paper with ink doesn't hinder the process like I thought it would. In fact, in some ways, writing with pen and ink enhances it... organizes it. I find that instead of just punching keys as fast as I think, I'm actually composing the sentence, the thought, before I put it down. That alone was a remarkable discovery for me. And both my pen and ink writing, and my penmanship, have improved since I started.

I'm finding real enjoyment in keeping this personal journal. I look forward to sitting outside, perhaps with a delicious bitter IPA or other adult beverage, and guiding that pen over the smooth clean paper. How quaint. How satisfying.

Jan 16 - More on Blogs

Looks like I stirred up a minor ruckus with a couple folks out there in bloggerville with my January 2 post entitled Thoughts on the Journal... specifically my comment that "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".  Considering how few people read this blog, it actually felt good to be the agent of some controversy for a change. And it caused a nice little bump in readership too.

But about all this I have two or three brief things to add. First, I was including myself in that comment and consider my blog to be a real bore too. Perhaps that wasn't clear enough. Second, my comment is my opinion, which, last I checked, I'm still entitled to. Just as I don't expect to agree with everything others have to say, I don't expect others to always agree with me.

And lastly... whatever happened to the free exchange of ideas that most of us in the USA used to subscribe to? Why do so many of us now read or listen only to those who don't upset our little worlds? Wouldn't it be better to seek out alternative views and opinions... to challenge ourselves... to use that wonderful reasoning ability that we have... to see that there might be another side to the story?

In a larger sense I'm struggling to keep things lively for myself, in both my writing and my reading. And perhaps if some of us become a little more concerned about the quality of our work as opposed to the volume or frequency of it, blogland might just become a tad more interesting for all of us.

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.

May 9 - Daily Posts to the Journal

Since April 2nd, the day we left Rockport and began this current travel leg of our RV Sabbatical, I've been posting an update to the online journal (our blog) every day. It's the first extended period of daily posting I've done in the 5 years the RV Sabbatical Journal has existed.

In the past I've said, and written, that I don't want to be forced into a daily schedule... which implies a deadline... and a routine... which are exactly the kind of things we're trying to get away from by simplifying our life.

But, for the sake of the experience, I wanted to give daily posting a try. I wanted to learn how I'd handle it, how I'd feel, how it affected my life.

So how did it go?  Not so fast... first, a little background: The main intended audience for this journal is (in this order) 1) us, Dar and me, as a record of our travels and experiences during this chapter of our life, 2) family and friends who may want see where we are and what we're up to, and 3) curious others who might get something from reading it (but it's a mystery to me what that might be).

I don't want to generalize, but I believe many people would be better off by living their own life than by reading about us living ours. It might be better to read a book instead of trying to get something out of the mumblings of this stumblebum writer. Go for a walk... or just a drive... see something new... find a piece of history in your neighborhood or town and dig into it a little further... learn to play the 5-string banjo (ouch, now that's getting personal!)... visit a museum... ponder the mysteries of the universe. Do neat things that will improve your mind, your body, and the depth of your life.

Back to the topic at hand... daily posting.  Here's what I think after doing it for a month and a half. For me, daily posts are taking too much of my time, my meager mental energy, and giving me an easy excuse for sitting inside, feet up with the PC on my lap. It's taking time away from being outside or reading or learning or pondering the big issues of my day. I want more of my own time (out of the little I have left) to live for today.

So I'm going back to my old haphazard schedule of posting... best summed up by the banner on our "About" page...

"New posts to The RV Sabbatical Journal are
published punctually, precisely on-time,
whenever I get around to it... unless something comes up."

 Starting next week, we'll be in "sitting mode" for about a month, and the updates would naturally drop off anyway. But my experiment with daily posting is over at the end of this week, and I'm going to try my best to put that extra time toward doing something neat.

Jan 23 - Blogging Tank is Empty

What I seem to have accomplished by promising weekly updates to this Journal is to reduce my writer's anxiety (deadline anxiety??) to just a few hours on Sunday... usually later on Sunday afternoon. I guess that's a good thing. But so little has happened this past week that even my heightened urgency has not helped me produce an entry tonight. My blogging tank is drained.

We're fine... the weather's been fine... and I'm sure I'll have more to report next week.

Jan 4 - New Blog Schedule

I'm going to try something different this winter during our extended stay in Rockport. Most of you know I have a problem coming up with interesting additions to the Journal while sitting for extended periods of time... periods like the next three months. During these times, we don't get out exploring much, and both mind and body are often otherwise occupied. The mental energy involved with puffing-up the mundane... spinning a trip to Walmart into an excursion to the South Pole... takes a toll on me.

No more.

In an effort to reduce both boring posts and the time I put into trying to come up with those boring posts, I'm going to move to a more defined schedule for new posts to our RV Sabbatical Journal. During this January, February, and March, I will update the Journal one time per week, on Monday morning. Of course, if we do get out for some substantial exploring, or if something really noteworthy happens, I reserve the right to post a "special edition" at any time.

Now let's see how the old boy handles a weekly deadline.

Remember, Monday morning.