Runaway Travelogue

My friend Caitlin wrote the following on her travelogue:

“Now that I’m actually traveling, it’s a lot harder. I’m moving around from place to place, having fun, and it’s hard to convince myself and my traveling companions that it’s time for an internet break.” – Travel Blogging More Difficult than I Expected

She is correct: to write a daily travelogue takes a constant concerted effort and a segmented day that allows for plenty of solitude with a computer, thoughts, and notebooks.

I love the work of publishing an online daily travelogue, but sometimes — once a year or so — it slips away from me.

I am now flapping my arms in a tidal wave and trying hard not to be dragged too far away from shore.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Bangor, Maine USA -June 30, 2009
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Weddings, Work, and Family Usurp Travelogue

The past two weeks was the first time in two years that I found myself too occupied with my physical existence to keep up with publishing and doing the work for this site. I found that I only published one full travelogue entry in more than 14 days. This was my lowest rate of published for a very long time.

The reason: I started a new job on a farm on June 18th, and my family came to Maine on June 24th, and I got married on June 28th.

I have been busy.

I worked 6 out of seven days on the farm. A day of farm work means 10 to 12 hours of weeding, taking care of livestock, and shoveling shit. Upon returning home I have been beat. Add to this wedding planning and then the arrival of my family, and my usually well planned out computer time vanished.

Stale excuses

I offered a stale excuse to an old friend about why I never return her emails a couple of days ago:

“Sorry, but email is no longer a good way to communicate with me,” I began my slippery fish little spiel, “because I get at least 30 emails a day for business related to the website. I always plan on writing you long letters, but as soon as I am finished plowing through all of the website related mail, I am beat.”

I knew that my words sounded incredibly lame, but I must attest that the emails that I want to write the most are usually the ones that get stuff down to the bottom of the pile. I want to take time when I write letters to my friends, but the future is a mirage that always appears to possess more time than it actually does.

This website project has gotten away from me

I want to do more work in the internet world than what the ticking clock and sun and moon world allows. My various paths have spidered out into disjointed directions, where I am prone to find myself walking too far down one at the expense of the others.

Due to other circumstances, I was not able to take care of the website business for two weeks. I am now trying hard to squiggle out of the middle of a heaping pile of work:

I have a stack of notes to write into stories.

I have tons of photos to publish.

I have mounds of unanswered mail.

I have numerous requests from publishers for permission to use my photographs.

I have a mountain of travel questions to answer.

I have a treasure trove of comments to respond to.

I would not want things any other way.

Digging myself out, a little bit at a time.