In addition to writing blog posts I have written three articles in the last five months on RV rallies. One was on the GLCC/CCO rally last August in Clio, Michigan and was the cover story for the October issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. I wrote an article on the September 2013 GLAMARAMA rally for the November issue of our GLCC newsletter. I rewrote that article from a different perspective and BCM ran it as the cover story for the January 2014 issue. Although different from writing a personal blog, these articles still retained the perspective of personal experience.
Gary Hall, the owner/publisher of BCM, knew we planned to attend the Arcadia Bus Rally in Arcadia, Florida between Christmas and New Year’s and asked if I would cover the event for the magazine, which I agreed to do. That made for a different experience, putting me in the role of a reporter with a publisher and editor expecting an article by a certain deadline. We returned to Williston Crossings RV Resort on the 1st, got settled in on the 2nd, I got to work on the article on the 3rd, and had a complete draft by bedtime today, although I still needed to have Linda proof-read it in morning and then send it off to the rally organizers to fact check. I will spend the next two days selecting and processing photographs. I also heard from Gary and Mike Sullivan, the BCM editor, that the article was back on as the Feb 2014 cover story, putting me on a short timeline to get it to them.
I can work at this kind of task for long periods of time, but eventually I have to get off my butt, move around, and clear my head. Williston Crossings RV Resort is an excellent place for walking and I went twice today with Linda. (She does her first/power walk in the morning without me.) Resort volunteers build a big fire in the covered fire pit on Friday and Saturday evenings unless there are high winds. The fire pit is surrounded by rocking chairs and benches and is a social event for some of the resort residents, especially those, like us, that hail from more northerly places. We went over after dinner, sat by the fire for 90 minutes, and made some new acquaintances. While most of the residents were hunkered down avoiding the temperatures in the upper 40’s we felt like we were on a fall camp out back in Michigan, complete with a smoky campfire.