Surrounded as we are with winter ice and the holidays, I thought it would be fun to switch gears completely and talk about last summer’s RV trip to the tiny hamlet of Hope, Alaska.
Before I start, I wanted to make a comment about my whole blog project in general. Some of you know I was, at one time, an Editor with BellaOnline Magazine. It was ten years ago – I was their “Alaska Editor” and really enjoyed writing monthly (or more often) articles for them about life in Alaska. I stopped writing almost entirely after Jerry’s TBI in 2009 and haven’t written anything of substance since that time. Some of my articles are still available on the BellaOnline site, although on many are surely buried deep in the archives by now.
You can find BellaOnline here: https://www.bellaonline.com/index.asp To find the Alaska site, either click on Travel & Culture or type “Alaska” in the search box for the page.
Anyway, this past summer, as I meandered across Alaska in my 27’ Winnebago Minnie Winnie, my mind starting filling with story ideas and I felt the need to write them down for the first time in ages. It felt like a dam was breaking loose, but in a good way. Maybe the block lifted because I finally had extended time with my own thoughts or because I was finally able to truly relax for days, even weeks on end for probably the first time since Jer’s accident. Maybe time finally worked its magic.
On several of my trips over the summer, I had no firm time schedule and only a vague destination in mind. I was comfortable with changing plans mid-stream if I saw something or someplace I wanted to visit. Sometimes, I just wasn’t ready to come home and that was OK, too. The slow pace and solitude were what I needed at that point. For whatever reason – I just knew it was time to start writing again.
It’s taken me a couple of months to realize how different blogging is from the type of writing I used to do for BellaOnline. My writing style right now seems to lean more towards personal blogging than the type of informative/educational articles they wanted for the magazine. I guess we’ll see how this evolves over the winter.
I realize a lot of bloggers do informative/educational articles – it’s a choice, so I’m going to add some informative content to my blog and see if I still have the touch. Watch for those. I’m hoping to continue to learn more about myself in the process. I’ve been thinking I might want to return to writing for BellaOnline (if they’d have me back – we’ll see), but I don’t want to give up my blog for it. I’m hoping for the best of both worlds. Actually, more like the best of several worlds since I don’t intend to give up traveling, teaching K9 Nose Work or training and competing with my dogs.
BTW, one of the writing disciplines BellaOnline used to drill into me over and over is the need to edit, edit, edit. Longer is NOT always better. I’m going to have to work on that. 😉 Which is why I’m editing this into two separate blog posts.
Coming soon … “The End of the Road” (Hope, Alaska)
De & the Dachsies - Our Rambles 