Since we’re on the road so much and our circle of interaction is just us, staying in touch with friends and family is a real priority. I had a FaceBook account before I retired but hadn’t done much with it because I was already on the computer too much. But once I retired, I had more time bandwidth and started reaching out to those already friends on FB and then started sending friend requests to others.
friends and family
When we took our first long trip in 2018 to the northern Midwest, I started posting on FB what we had seen and learned, along with lots of photos. These posts were great for those who saw them, but if they happened to miss a post, they missed out on following us on our trip if they wanted to. Also, a number of friends aren’t on FB, and we wanted to stay in touch with them.
Barney started pushing me toward starting this blog, and I pushed back for a number of months. Finally I realized that fear was keeping me from trying something new, and I never want fear to be in control. So . . . during our down time at home, I started learning how to work the program after Barney set it up, then I started copying text from FB posts into Word documents. Once the website was ready to function, I began copying text from Word into the posts, and uploading pictures from our Amazon prime account.
As we were ready to start our 5-month southwest swing trip in 2019, we were ready to go live with our blog.
Now whenever I publish a new post, I can share it on FB for those friends and family to see. A number of people have subscribed to the blog so they get email notifications when a new post is added.
We love it when friends on FB respond to a blog post or when friends leave a comment on the blog. We don’t feel so isolated when we get these responses!
One of our markers for success was someone following our trips that we didn’t know. This summer we heard about such a person who was friends with a friend who follows us and had told him about our travels. Now whenever they see each other, they talk about our travels. We love it when friends tell friends!
making sure family knows where we are
Early in our travels we realized that we didn’t always have cell coverage, so if a family member needed to reach us, they wouldn’t be able to. Also, we wouldn’t be able to call them if we had an emergency. Yikes!
Now whenever we’re ready to move on to a new place, Barney sends a group text to family members and to the man who lives in our basement, Bob, about where we’re going to be. Most don’t respond, but at least we’ve communicated our location and the name of the next campground.
What also helps us feel more secure is having Bob (from the basement) and our son Jason living in our house. They take care of the inside and outside, process the mail, and make our home look welcoming when we return. Thanks, Jason and Bob!
