Monday, August 13, 2012

On learning to travel blog

Getting prepared for this summer's blogging trips to Colorado, France and Belgium, I set myself up to blog live. I'm typing from a new iPad using the updated BlogPress program to connect easily to Blogger, and I even carry around an Apple wireless keyboard so I can type more efficiently than using the pop up.

However, two weeks into the trip, my conclusion is that I am on vacation and I need to focus on being a tourist and merrymaking, which is, at times, a job that fills a day from morning until night. When traveling alone around Brussels, writing was a way to fill the time. It was fun to be able to drink and focus on the words. However, with my wife and nieces here, I find that it gets in the way of the connection we are aiming for.

The real deal breaker is final drafting. While I clearly have some errors in my writing, I do work to revise my posts and proofread before going live. On vacation, the mental reserves needed to final draft are absent with our style of adventure tripping. I confess to my students that I'm a lousy rough draft writer who covers his weaknesses with strong revision. Even if I'd take the time to do it, I'm not sure I'm clear headed enough to revise well.

So, I've given up on posting for now and will continue to rough draft and take notes on all of the cool places I've had a beer this summer. Not an excuse--just a realization that I didn't achieve until actually trying to write on the run. I started this post on Sunday morning and finally finishing before going to bed on Monday night--prima facie evidence of my conclusion.

Cheers and I will post again as soon as I can.

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