theboondork's RV blog

I'm reaching out.

9/24/2019

Close-up of a Damsel Fly. Anything that eats mosquitoes has my undying gratitude. He's actually kinda cute in a bug-eyed sort of way

I went to Walmart this morning and bought a few groceries, I don't need very much, mostly just snacks because I eat at my daughter's house a lot.

Every year when I come off the road in the Spring and settle down to a more sedentary life in Denver I lose some of the excitement, spontaneity, and adventure in my life so my blog readers get bored when I'm not going to new places all the time. And when I'm not going to new places every once in a while, I don't have anything new to talk about or take pictures of so I have to talk about boring stuff, like I'm doing now, and take pictures of the same old flower day after day, there's other things I could take pictures of but remember I'm lazy.

Losing a few blog readers is not a big deal to most bloggers but I've only got four so losing a couple makes a big difference in my standings in the blogging world. So I've decided to spend some time on a few RV forums such as IRV2, the Escapees RV forum, and the Good Sam forum, to answer some questions, give a few opinions, and see if I can motivate a few more RVers to tune into my blog.

Now I don't make any money off my blog and have no desire to do so since that might cause the IRS to take me off of their "too poor to fool with list" and put me back on the "let's see how much money we can squeeze out of this fool list" I spent most of my life on that list and I had just as soon not be on it anymore.

But I've heard that some RV bloggers actually have more than four readers which made me think maybe I should get on the forums and stir up a little interest in my blog to see if I could get my readership into the double digits. So far it hasn't worked but I'll give it a while longer.

I'll be leaving Denver and getting back on the road to somewhere in less than three weeks so maybe then I'll get my two missing readers back. If not I may have to take up skydiving, and spelunking to attract a younger crowd.

theboondork

Fall is in the air and some of the flowers are beginning to wilt, wither, and wane....That kinda sounds like an old geezer law firm

8 Comments

Thomas

9/24/2019 06:40:59 pm

Hey Tom, I'm pleased to be one of your 4 regular blog readers...I'm sure that with a big publicity push you could double your readership to 8. Then there might be an incentive to monetize your blog and start paying big taxes again. We other old geezers will then be grateful you are helping us continue to receive our social-insecurity payments.

Tom

9/24/2019 07:43:29 pm

And I'm glad you're out there. I don't think it's possible to get my readership all the way up to eight without giving away free money, or copying somebody else's blog every day.

Actually I was monetized for a while. When I finally made my way up to two steady readers I called Amazon and asked them about monetizing my blog, they looked over my website for a week and sent me an email saying they would pay me not to mention their name.

I'm one of the few old geezers that doesn't get any Social Security. I worked for one of those three letter federal government departments for a while and they didn't take out Social Security on me, and when I was self-employed I didn't take any out on myself. I paid in a little bit here and there but not enough to get anything back. So I don't really have a retirement, I have to live by my wits which is why I live half as well as anybody else.

Tom

Tim link

9/25/2019 09:22:03 am

Hi Tom,

Count me as another old geezer that's still reading your blog. I would be posting more in your comment section, but now that I've bought the truck, RV, installed the solar system, installed the sewer hose storage, put in backup cameras, etc., I've run out of things to talk about until I hit the road. I guess we're in the same boat; my life right now is pretty mundane until I start traveling. However, I've been really interested in your summer trips with the truck camper - that's been something new to read about and got me thinking of possibilities for the future.

Looking forward to reading about your winter trips.

Tim

9/25/2019 11:35:44 am

Thank you Tim, I appreciate your dedication, but have doubts about your taste.

Traveling does help a lot to come up with new ideas for a blog, and offers much greater picture taking opportunities. But even when you're on the road most of your life is still just an ordinary life of living in a trailer and having a new view every once in a while. So some days the blog writes itself, and other days it can be a chore.

Right now you're actually in a fairly unique position of making the huge transition of going from a working guy living in a home that doesn't move, to a full-time RVer that with any luck doesn't have to work anymore, that's a big deal and there's a lot of folks out there that are thinking of doing what you're doing and would be very interested in how you're feeling, whats still to be done, are you happy with your decision, what's it going to be like to walk out of your office for the last time, how do you feel about leaving your friends, etc. etc.

if you have the time I think you have a lot to write about that people would enjoy reading, and this unique situation you're in will probably never happen again in your entire life and may be worth memorializing.

I guess everyone has a different way of dealing with having a blog and how often they want to deal with it. I chose the lazy way and just do whatever I feel like doing, and for me that turned out to be writing almost every day because I actually enjoy it, and since I didn't make a schedule for myself, that way if I don't feel like writing I don't. No pressure, no worries.

I'm glad you found my mini-vacations interesting because they certainly made my life more interesting. I don't just travel because I have to, I travel because I love it. And having my home with me wherever I go makes it even better whether it's a trailer or a truck camper.

It won't be long now, about 20 days, and I'll be hitching up and heading South. Once you start doing that yourself, you will find that reading about others getting ready to leave will give you a hitch itch like you can't believe. There's nothing like the call of the open road and the freedom it brings.

Tom

Linda

9/25/2019 01:41:53 pm

I'm another committed reader of your blog who used to live full time in a motorhome. Writing a blog was easy then. Now that we've returned to apartment living I try to post at least once a month so my few remaining readers know I didn't die. My original audience was mostly other RVers I met on the road. I think now I'm down to two readers that aren't family. Part of that is because my husband hid my blog from search engines. Does yours show up there? Your way of looking at life is amusing so I think once people find you they will hang around.

9/25/2019 03:31:33 pm

Thank you for the kind words Linda. Unless a person had a really exciting life, or was a really great writer, I think it would be difficult to write a blog every day if you lived in a house without wheels. Even us full-timers live rather mundane lives most of the time, we just get to look out the window every now and then and have a different view of things.

Yeah mine sometimes shows up on search engines, I didn't have to hide it, it hid itself.

I guess I do look at life differently, I've noticed a lot of things that don't bother me bother other people. But then again contractor generators running full speed sitting 10 feet from my front door bother me, but they don't seem to bother the people that own the generator so maybe I should be more tolerant.

Tom

JWFitz

9/25/2019 06:47:34 pm

I am another long time reader (#4?) Summers are my travel time so I do not frequent as often due to reception problems. Still in the PNW and need to head south but waiting for my sister from FL to come visit the parents, And the weather report for the day she is to show up is 2"-4" of snow,. That will teach her for leaving it for so late in the year. But my leisurely trip south is looking like it will be a race against the weather again this year

9/25/2019 07:32:41 pm

If you've been reading my blog for a long time you probably deserve a special medal or at least a free hour or two talking to a psychiatrist. You may very well be number four, but it's hard to tell because anyone over 6 feet tall I count them as two people, that fluffs up my readership a little bit.

I spent many a moon up in the Bellingham, Ferndale, area. And a number of times having to go the long way from Colorado to their because of Snoqualmie pass being closed because of snow. It's a beautiful area but with the almost never-ending cloudy weather is not good for a guy like me that lives on sunshine.

Sometimes I have the same problem leaving Colorado in the fall, if I wait too long I have to head south fast enough to outrun approaching snow.

Great to hear from you again, safe travels for you and yours.

Tom

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