Saying Goodbye to This, My Travel Blog

I published my first post on this blog on January 29, 2010, eight months after we started full-time RVing. Almost fifteen years later, I am posting this 590^th post. It is also my last.

The End of Our Travels

2018, we sold our RV and settled at Viewpoint in Phoenix, Arizona. We continued traveling via other modes, so I changed the blog title but retained the domain rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspost.com. 

These blog posts went viral (up to35,000 views) on this blog:

1. Debating the Pros and Cons of the RV Cruising Lifestyle
2. Operationalizing Phase 2 of RVing in North Carolina
3. Finding Christmas on Florida's Treasure Island
4. Going Up the East Coast
5. Turning Wounds into Wisdom: Georgia
6. Discovering More in New Mexico
7. Reliving WWII in the Philippines
8. Looking for a Base in Arizona
9. Traveling Light in an RV?
10. We RVed Fulltime for 8 Years. Here are the 10 Things We Learned
11. Leaving No Stone Unturned in the Canadian Rockies
12. 10 New Landmarks in Charming Mazatlan

The blog became a rich source of material for my two travel books: Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream and Cruising Past 70: It's Not Only About Outer Journeys. It's Also About Inner Ones.

My husband and I returned from our last trip together in May. He did not join me on a short solo trip to the Philippines in August. We also canceled our 16th-anniversary trip to Leavenworth, Washington. Yes, we will no longer be the wanderers we once were.

The Beginning of the End

In mid-2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was invited to write as an expert contributor for Travel Awaits, a travel magazine for the 50+ by the 50+. The magazine was experiencing a growth spurt at a time when no one could travel, but retirement dreams soared.

I needed more time to write for two publications, but I did not have the heart to deactivate my blog. Instead, I wrote articles for the magazine and republished them on my blog.

Of the 60+ articles I wrote, the following went viral (150,000+ clicks):

1. 6 Quaint Small Towns to Visit North of Anchorage, Alaska
2. 6 Charming Small Towns to Visit in Southern Alaska
3. 5 Things My Husband and I Practice in Retirement to Keep Us Young

Under the magazine's leadership, my writing improved. However, I discovered that having non-original content negatively impacted my blog. From 4,000 views per post, it dwindled to 1,000.

When travel returned, the magazine's readership fell. It was bought by new owners, who redefined the content with their writers. I am still on the roster but no longer actively contribute. They republished some of my articles, but all writers' retirement pieces were removed.  

As trips became less frequent, I began writing on my blog about other topics (retirement and renewal, health and longevity). After my leadership award, I also wrote about leadership and management. My views dropped to less than 300 per post. I am no longer true to my niche. My writing needs a new home.

A New Platform

While writing for Travel Awaits, I was unaware that the blogging world had also changed. The plummeting views have been traced to frequent Google algorithm changes, even for the most popular blogs. It wasn't just that I needed original content (although I am sure that contributed). Bloggers turned to newer business platforms.

Two of the most popular ones are Medium and Substack. 

Medium is a single membership model with over one million paid subscriptions. Editors recommend articles to their vast reader base. The onus is to write quality articles about in-demand topics.

On the other hand, Substack has four million paid subscribers distributed among its 20,000 or so writers, an average of 200 per writer. Writers are responsible for promoting their writing and signing up subscribers.

Gemini, Google's AI, helped me narrow my choice to one question: Should I spend my time writing quality articles or promoting my writing to subscribers? I don't have the time to do both, as I want to work on my two new book projects.

It is time to deactivate this blog, even if I have yet to decide. Goodbye, Blogspot, Google's blogging platform. Thank you for being a good home for my travel writing.

Thank you all for sticking with me through the years. I hope to see you again on my new platform or when one of my books is published. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It’s Not Only the Destination. It’s Even More than the Journey. It’s Reliving the Story.

How many times have we heard this: “It’s not the destination; it’s the journey!”? Well, I think it is a lot more than both. I believe the more important thing is being able to relive the story many, many times over.

Therein lies the beauty of becoming a storyteller. Surely, the retelling can be done by doing so in front of family and friends, especially with nonverbals that accentuate the highlights. I could have easily relied on my Toastmasters experience had I gone that route. However, I prefer to retell silently on paper, more privately, more for all time.  

Not an Easy Road in the Beginning

It wasn’t easy at first, I come from a world of left brains. From a degree in BS Mathematics and a career in computers, it was hard trying to wake up the right side of my brain. My experience consisted of proofs of theorems, business papers, theses, and dissertations. My first book Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream came about only as a compilation of the daily journals I kept as we RVed across North America.  

The other problem is that English is not my native tongue. I was born in the slums of Manila, acquiring basic English skills through scholarships at the International School for high school, the National Science Development Board for college, and at the multinational companies I joined. Tagalog has a very different syntax from English. When my husband edited my work during my early writing days, he returned pages red with corrections.  

But It Has Become Better

But my writing has improved. After all, I have been writing for thirteen years now. But there’s still that limited flair for idiomatic, local English, that which is spoken in the streets and homes of America. That’s why I have the TV on the whole day so I can continuously imbibe by hearing. Unfortunately, it drives Bill away because I prefer to stay in the more spacious and brighter sunroom than my office. But that is all TMI.

Wanting to tell stories better led me to take the pains to photograph better images. Pictures are worth a thousand words and their combination with words makes the reliving a whole lot better. Years after they happened, it's as if they were happening before my very eyes all over again.

Creating More Depth

There is much I have shared from our exploration of the world but my time here is ever becoming shorter. Now that we are traveling less, I have more time to wonder about our wanderings.  Thus, I am the major beneficiary, reaping the benefits of having documented our travels. 

One by one, as I relive each story, I evoke more feelings and thoughts, sifting through the insights gained and lessons learned. I have found new things to write about. Since shifting gears, around my turning 70, I have crafted more travel essays than journals. It enabled me to publish my second book, Cruising Past 70. It’s Not Only about Outer Journeys. It’s also about Inner Ones, a compilation of my essays and best-read stories.

After I turned 75 last November, I am refining and resharing even those inner journeys. I guess it's part of being older and gaining more wisdom. While spending hours traveling from our “armchairs” or musing from our “rocking” chairs, we learn even more, helping loved ones more.

We All Have a Book In Us. Publish Yours for Free.

It is still being debated who, among many intellectuals, first wrote the very popular quote, “Everyone has a book in them…” Regardless of the origin, I believe in this. Each of us has a funny, inspiring, or informative story to tell. You may have a good idea about how to improve life for many, a special skill that will empower others, a view about the future that will make a difference.  There are many other reasons.

What has stopped people from writing books then? One, it requires focus and time. I didn’t get the focus to write until I retired. And even then, I found the impetus only when I encountered dire situations that gave me the time. The first travel book, Carolina : Cruising to an American Dream, was born during a six-week separation from Bill. The second travel book, Cruising Past Seventy. It’s Not only about Outer Journeys. It’s Also about Inner Ones, was written and published while we were all trapped inside our homes during the coronavirus lockdowns.

But I think there is another even more compelling reason. It requires money to convert the book inside each of us to a publishable format, off the press, on to the bookshelves, and to the hands of readers. The traditional way to publish is quite unreachable to many. Your idea must be previously not thought of and you must be a celebrity who can pull readers in droves. Self-publishing has produced another way but it also required a couple of thousands of dollars. My first book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, was done this way. It is good I was able to recoup my investment.

You will be very happy to know that there is a way that is now available absolutely free! It is called direct publishing. And Amazon has made it happen in its Kindle program. This is how I produced my new travel book, Cruising Past Seventy, It's Not Only about Outer Journeys. It's Also about Inner Ones. Its precursor was Amazon’s CreateSpace but that was difficult to use. It has since been moved into Kindle Direct Publishing that is surprisingly relatively easy to use although it still requires some tech-savviness and attention to detail. I found out even ordinary mortals like me can do it!

You can create both the ebook and the paperback using three steps:

1. set up the details,

2. upload the manuscript and create the cover, and

3. price the book. 

The first step includes the addition of the title, the author and other contributors, the book description, the publishing rights, the searchable keywords, and the ISBN, the unique book number. In the second step, the manuscript for the ebook can be input in MS Word, HTML, RTF, Text, GIF, JPEG, and PNG formats. Thankfully, there are also many tools, mostly free, offered during this creative process. This is the part that requires some tech-savviness and attention to detail. For the paperback, it must be in PDF. The third step takes you into the decisions on royalty, pricing, and territories.

After you have created the book in the section called Bookshelf, there are three other sections that will help you. “Marketing” lets you create your Author Page using Author Central and offers other ways to promote your book for free. “Reports” helps you track all your sales (quantity and dollars earned) by title and by date. Finally, “Community” helps you learn the ins and outs of KDP. There is even a KDP University that offers free courses and webinars.

So, what is the catch? No, it is not that your book can only be read in a Kindle Reader. KDP offers free Kindle apps that can be downloaded to a smartphone, a tablet, or a laptop which then becomes your reader. The catch is that to gain the maximum benefit of all the KDP features, your book will become exclusively sold on Amazon and Kindle. But the biggest catch is that not everybody wants to read ebooks. They still prefer paperbacks and shipping costs from a central location like the US is costly, especially during the time of Covid.

This may not be as bad as it sounds since Amazon dominates 80% of the ebook market and especially if your major market is the US anyway. Besides, KDP also has, since CreateSpace has moved to it, a print on demand feature that is cost-competitive. For example, I was able to price the print version of my second travel book, with all its 346 pages, at just $8.99 which already includes a small royalty. It is a more reasonable price compared to the minimum price of $16.95 I was mandated to use for my first book.

My experience with KDP has been good but since I was a rookie and not really a techie, I had to deal with some formatting issues until the end. But, since I do not worry anymore about recovering any cost, I can in fact now write as many books as I have in my mind. In addition, I can reserve my money for modest marketing spend to improve my sales.

The second part of the quotation, however, says “…but in most cases, that’s where it should stay.” Please tell me in the comments section what next books are lurking in your mind. Those that are topmost in mine are: “How to Find Your Lifetime Partner on the Net” or “Veggies beyond Salads.” What book that’s inside you wants to be published? That, probably, should not just stay in your mind! 

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THE SEQUEL TO MY FIRST TRAVEL BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER!

SCOOP! You're one of the first to know. Amazon just approved my book for preorder at $1.99. It will be released on Nov. 28 at $2.99. ONE CLICK TO THE AMAZON PAGE 

There are a lot of things I am particularly crazy about—cooking, dancing, singing, grandkids, plants, word games, poker, and mahjong—but it was two other things, travel and writing, that led me to publish my first book, Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, a travel diary about our cruising in an RV across North America for five years. Very soon, its sequel will be with you.

How This Second Book Almost Did Not Happen, Got Started, and Was Completed

In 2004 when I migrated and retired in America, all of 101 pounds after burning out from a jet-setting business life in Manila, I wanted time to “cook a little, teach a little, travel a little, write a little, and love a little.” And I did. In fact, my husband wholeheartedly supported my first book but this time around, he complained that I had forgotten about that operative term, “a little.” 

Besides, I had reduced my cooking to only once a day, dropped teaching completely, and we have reduced our travel months to about six in a year.  Furthermore, I reasoned that it may be stressful to publish a book but I have “crazes” that relax me. Besides, if there is one thing I hate, it is boredom. I warned him that he would not like a bored Carol. And the stress of writing another book is not like the one that led me to retire early. It’s the one that leads to fulfillment. I think that’s called positive stress.

When we approached the seventies, we moved beyond fulltime RVing and settled in a Phoenix home. I also rebranded the blog that I casually started in 2010 to “Cruising Past 70,” shifting to writing also about inner journeys rather than just the outer ones. Last year, just as I did for my first book, I compiled some of the posts I had written from the time I finished the first book in 2015.  

This time, however, I became more selective. I included only those that elicited at least 1,000 views (some had more than 30,000). They were the best-loved and most widely-read posts because they were an excellent invitation to visit a place, answered a reader’s question(s), or inspired a new pathway(s). I thought that many of them would be good to share with those of you who have been retired, just retired, or are thinking of retiring. Despite my husband’s objection, I proceeded with the writing of the second book.

Unfortunately, a macular hole developed in my right eye in September of last year. After the vitrectomy, the recovery happened very slowly. Months later, my vision stabilized somewhat. But my eyes were no longer the same. I couldn’t finish the book I had intended to publish before the end of 2019. I needed a lot more time.

This year coronavirus upended all our lives. In fact, we had to cut short our Mexican vacation in March when coronavirus was declared a pandemic. After the self-quarantining for fourteen days and observing the state-mandated lockdown, we canceled all our scheduled trips from April to June. If there was one good thing the Covid-19 lockdown did for me, it was to give me all the time I needed to complete the first draft. I was also able to ask six friends to read it and give me the feedback I needed to refine the draft and complete the book in the following three months. 

What You Can Expect from this New Book

The book contains not only the most widely-read and best-loved blog posts. I have also added six of my original twenty-three articles published by the travel magazine I write for bimonthly, travelawaits.com. After updating and polishing each one, I have arranged them into the following three themes of inner journeys: lessons learned, changes made, and insights gained.

Part 1 consists of the general life lessons we learned from RVing, the preferred mode of travel nowadays. There are chapters on how to travel light, utilize technology, or discover campgrounds. I have included pieces that will give readers unique ideas for itineraries like visiting great inspiring institutions, completing a historical picture across the vast land, chillaxing in the home that the RV has become and searching for the beauty of the country. There are also tips about healthcare and other RVing concerns.

Part 2 describes how travel transformed me. My calling card bearing President/CEO now reads Wanderer, Writer, Wife. I hinted about this in my first book but I have added transformations such as becoming a Filipino-American, a better mother, a happy grandmother, and including the inescapable direction towards becoming a "global citizen" by adopting a third home and loving the countries where my children live.

Part 3 zeroes in on insights about travelers’ concerns that I have encountered on the road. There are chapters on the attitude, flexibility, curiosity, and courage we travelers should have. Some focus on how to deal with travel mishaps or falling ill. There is a reflection on the better travel buddy, the choice between brand new or old favorite destinations, and the folly of breaking rules. Others talk about the season and time to travel, meeting beautiful people, finding good food, and keeping fit. I have even included new ways of traveling during the time of Covid-19.

How relevant for these times this book has become! Now that we are not able to travel as much as we want, blending our outer journeys with the inner journeys that come as a result of them should better feed our wanderlust. This is how, even if we are forced to travel less, especially as we advance in years, our lives become enriched. That's when we see the benefits of travel that are deep and long-lasting. They are the lessons learned, changes made, and insights gained. 

SCOOP! You're one of the first to know. Amazon just approved my book for preorder at $1.99. It will be released on Nov. 28 at $2.99. ONE CLICK TO THE AMAZON PAGE 

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