On The Road Again
So don’t forget me when I’m gone!
The great purge
Last month I was getting really excited, I had surpassed nine thousand followers, and was steadily getting closer to my goal of 10K.
Then the purge happened.
Medium got rid of a huge number of spam and fake accounts, for which I am grateful — it’s not as though their follows will help writers at all. Nonetheless, it was disheartening to lose over 300 followers in one fell swoop.
I went from 9.2K to 8.9K in a matter of minutes. It was a bit of a shock to the system, as I had never experienced that before.
I’m finally clawing my way back, and am over 9K again, but am going on an epic camping and road trip.
I’m super excited about this trip. I love camping.
The sad thing is I’m not going to be able to publish very much over the next month, which means my earnings for August will tank, just when I started to regain what I had lost.
If anyone has advice for me, I’m all ears — err, eyes!
In the mean time, please don’t forget me when I’m gone (I’m totally showing my age here), and please enjoy my road-trip adventure stories.
Thanks to all you wonderful readers who support our work!
Did you know Bryan Adams made a cameo in that song?!
Planning a trip with executive dysfunction
Campground bookings in Manitoba open in January, giving us 7 months to get ready.
Yet I wait until the day before to prepare.
Well, not so much actually preparing as preparing to prepare.
I’m very forgetful and my brain can feel very scattered and disorganized, so I try to make lists to ensure I don’t forget anything important.
I like making lists.
I love making pretty looking lists.
I spend an inordinate amount of time making these very nice looking checklists and reminders… then proceeding to not actually use them.
Oops. ADHD brain struck again
Fellow campers will know that when you book campsites, you have to book your departure from one and arrival at the other for the same day, otherwise you’ll be left with nowhere to stay for a night.
I’ve been camping for most of my life, I (should) know this well. I have booked most of our trips myself, including this one. Well, as we were leaving Prince Albert in July, it was only then I realized the booking for our next site began the following day.
Oops.
Luckily I was able to find a site halfway between the two campgrounds, so we didn’t have to set up our tent at the side of the road somewhere, but this is yet another prime example of how executive dysfunction can have a significant impact on everyday life.
Parenting while camping
Our son is getting more and more independent, which both excites and terrifies us. We’re proud of the skills he’s developing, and he’s thrilled to have some more freedom to explore the campgrounds.
We know he has the capability to navigate campgrounds safely, but it’s still nerve-wracking to let him go off on his own, however well-defined our boundaries may be.
We get a campground map and as soon as his bike is off the rack, he’s raring to go. We go over the map together and determine where he can go biking, usually to the nearest playground. We make sure he knows our campsite loop and site number, and where to find a staff member if he needs help.
This is a system we’ve gradually developed over many years. These are skills our son has been working on building, and he’s had lots of practice testing out developmentally-appropriate bits of independence.
He has a watch and he’s expected to check in after an hour, so we know he’s okay. Sometimes he comes back before the hour is up, either because he’s tired and hot, or because he hasn’t yet found kids to play with.
I wrote previously that while our son does have a watch, he also has ADHD. Time awareness is not a strong point for either of us, especially when we’re engaged in something fun and exciting. We ask him to set a timer on his watch, but he often forgets to do that, or doesn’t hear it when he’s busy playing.
Well, my best friend who is a mother of four gave me a fantastic idea. (One I definitely should have thought of, as I’ve seen other families use it, but for some reason it didn’t click). She bought her family a set of quality walkie-talkies.
We ordered the same set which claim to have a 3 mile range (which is almost 5 KMs), so we’ll put that to the test this month. Will report back.
Burnout cure
After recovering from our first leg, a 16-day camping & road trip, I felt more than just a little refreshed, I felt completely re-energized. I hadn’t realized how much I was struggling with burnout and Autistic inertia.
Avoiding summer holiday burnout
While camping cured my burnout, family vacations can also be a source of stress, exhaustion, and result in burnout.
Something can be both very enjoyable yet still exhausting, and that is the case for many after all the visiting, socializing, and general family time at home during the summer break.
If you’ve ever found yourself completely run-down, exhausted, and totally burnt-out after the holidays, you’re definitely not alone.
This is more common for neurodivergent people — (Something I explain in greater detail in my article, Autistic and ADHD Burnout), but it can affect anyone.
My article offers some advice for making the most of your summer while avoiding burnout.
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