While husband and I travel, I very seldom write posts for my blog. I’ll often jot down a few ideas for future posts, but we’ve agreed that writing full posts, uploading pictures, and dealing with the WordPress platform takes too much time away from our travel experience.
I’ve experimented with several alternatives, including re-running earlier posts, writing a few posts before I leave and scheduling them to run while I’m away, and, for short trips, just not posting at all (surprisingly, the world didn’t end).
For our recent 7-week trip to Mexico (more on that soon), I decided to try something different: inviting other bloggers to write a post each week. Although it took some planning and coordination on my part, all of the heavy lifting was done by my guest writers… and I am so grateful.
Even though they have their own blogs to manage, they each generously provided an insightful and interesting post for my GratiTuesday series. In addition, on the day their post ran, they linked from their site to mine (which brought some new followers my way), and they actively interacted with everyone who left a comment.
My deepest gratitude goes out to the following blogging friends who, through time and effort on their part, allowed me to relax and enjoy my time away:
Donna, Retirement Reflections; Pat, Retirement Transition; Marty, Snakes in the Grass; Christie, So What? Now What?; Liesbet, Roaming About; Laura, Crafting My Retirement; and, Lynn, An Encore Voyage.
Another, unexpected bonus to featuring guest posts, was that I have been contacted by several other bloggers asking me if they could participate. Although this guest post series is complete, I invite anyone who is interested in writing GratiTuesday guest post to please send me a note through my Contact Me link. I’d love to feature a guest post now and then and I am grateful for the interest.
Retirementally Challenged 
I love Mexico, and I love that sign!
Mexico is such a special place… and they definitely know how to have fun!
I’m glad that you found a workable way to keep your blog afloat while you were off gallivanting around Mexico. I can only imagine how much fun you had there, and will confirm that I had fun reading what your guest bloggers wrote here. Still, it’s nice to have you back.
It’s nice to be back (good to get away, good to come home). I enjoyed having the different perspectives of the guest posts and hope to sprinkle in a few more now and then.
Love the sign! We’re about to head to Canada, I’m anxious to see how they view Trump there (although I think I can guess). Glad you had a good get-away. Can’t wait to hear all about your trip!
The great thing about Mexico is, even though they universally disliked Trump, they were very warm and welcoming to American visitors. I suspect that you’ll find the same thing in Canada.
We Canadians are definitely welcoming to American visitors… as long as your last name isn’t Trump. 🙂
If my last name were Trump, I would have it legally changed. And, yes, the Canadians were wonderful!
A good solution!
I was happy that it worked out well (although my fingers were constantly crossed that I had correctly set up the pre-scheduling function).
That sign! Glad to hear you were welcome!
The sign (actually a t-shirt) was so funny… and so true.
Love that sign! Hope you had a great trip and I look forward to hearing about it.
We had a great trip, Anabel. It wouldn’t be possible to describe in one post, so be prepared for several over the next few weeks 🙂
Welcome home, Janis! I enjoyed your stand-ins!😉
Thank you, Jill. I really enjoyed reading the guest posts too and had several “why didn’t I think of that?” moments.
Love the sign! I must make a trip across the border soon. Will look forward to your post on Mexico.
There are so many different areas to explore in Mexico. Although I’ve spent a lot of time in the coastal areas in the past, the areas in central Mexico are amazing.
I think it was a very creative and enjoyable idea to have guest posts! It was nice to meet other contributors. 🙂 And I LOVE that “Keep Calm” sign. I would like to have a large one posted on my front door. 🙂
I’ve contributed a few guest posts on other blogs in the past and found it to be a nice experience. I was pleased to feature other writers on mine. I think that is my favorite “Keep Calm” sign I’ve ever seen.
Sounds like an amazing trip. Looking forward to hearing about it 🙂
Thank you! I have a lot to share.
Glad to hear you had an amazing trip, janis. I enjoyed reading your guest bloggers’ posts. Look forward to your posts on Mexico.
Hi Natalie! We had a great trip and I am buried in photos now (fortunately they are all digital 🙂 ).
We will await your sunny Mexico pictures, especially some impressive new doors if you found them? Welcome back Janis.
Yes! I have lots of doors to share. Not as colorful as Oaxaca door for the most part, but very beautiful.
I will look forward to seeing them Janis.
I admire your commitment to blogging.
You are so right about blogging while traveling. On our recent trip, one of my f fiends blogged almost every day, but she brought a laptop with her. Laptop WordPress is much more cooperative than iPad.
Great tee shirt!
I had my small laptop with me but the time it takes to plan and write the post, upload pictures, then send it out to the blogosphere is the time I’m not in the moment. I admire your friend’s commitment… but I really enjoyed your less-frequent but light-hearted posts.
Welcome back, Janis 🙂 I hope you enjoyed your Mexican vacation. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures 🙂
Thanks, Joanne. It was a great trip and now I’m glad to be home.
Welcome back! It’s years since I was in Mexico, but I have lovely memories of my trips there—Bara de Navidad especially!
I had to google Bara de Navidad… it looks lovely! We weren’t near the water but we were a mile high so it wasn’t too hot (at least most of the time).
It was my pleasure to be a part of your GratiTuesday guest post series, Janis. And, I’m glad you managed to relax and have a fun time in Mexico.
I agree that not writing blogs, and doing whatever that entails, is a must to have a relaxing vacation. As we are soon living in our camper full-time, I will face all the challenges that come with running my blog, and attempting to travel, relax, sightsee and find libraries for internet. Since this is not a vacation and the situation is indefinite, I’ll have to come up with a solution that isn’t too stressful. 🙂
Hi Liesbet! I imagine that you’ll be able to find a workable solution… after a few stops and starts. It just doesn’t seem right to get stressed out from blogging (although I do too) – it’s supposed to be fun 🙂 .
Are you now thinking of giving up house-sitting completely or just taking a break to travel around for a while?
Definitely taking a break from it this summer and into this fall. We plan to sporadically do house sits during our travels from now on. Nothing booked so far. 🙂
Hi Janis! Welcome home. And I’m one of your fans waiting with baited breath to learn about your trip. Did you make it over to Lake Chapala. As you know we are headed that way in late August and am always open to travel trips. And yes to asking guest bloggers to fill in when we are out of town. I think it worked VERY WELL for your series and I’m sure you appreciated the freedom not to have to write. (I sure will be doing the same!) ~Kathy
Hi Kathy! We didn’t make it over to Lake Chapala, unfortunately, so no tips from me (except to have a great time!). I’m so happy that my guest blogging experiment worked out so well. I will definitely try it again now that I’m comfortable with pre-scheduling multiple posts.
Janis, Thanks for the opportunity to meet some new folks!
I’m looking forward to hearing about your trip. We’ve never done something that long. But I do have some ideas. And if so, I might try the guest blog approach as well. It takes time for me to create and if we were on a true adventure, I wouldn’t want to feel compelled to find the time!
I think that you’d really enjoy slow travel, Pat. It doesn’t fit every circumstance, but if you want to really get to know a place, it’s definitely the way to go. Having guest bloggers pinch hit while you’re traveling allows you to de-stress more and enjoy the moment.
What a terrific idea! It kept you blog active, but allowed you some downtime to simply enjoy your vacation.
Hi Ann! Although I can’t leave my blog entirely alone while on a trip (don’t tell my husband 🙂 ), I did enjoy knowing that every week a new post would appear as scheduled.
Janis, I look forward to learning more about your trip. I like that you travel in a color coordinated outfit to you bag! Keith
Haha! I guess I just love purple!
I’m glad you had a great respite from the world and your break refreshed you. I enjoyed your guests as I read their blogs, too! Looking forward to reading about your trip, Janis!
Thanks, Terri! Having guest writers was great but it’s good to be back.
Janis, it was a privilege to write on your lovely blog – especially if it meant that you got to relax and take a break for a while! Now I can’t wait to hear every little detail about your adventure. Don’t leave anything out, because I’ve never vacationed in Mexico! I want to live vicariously through you! ~ Lynn
Well, if you’d like to come to my house and view all two billion photos I took, you are welcome! We packed a lot in during our seven weeks and I will try to share a good portion of it.
Hmm, two billion photos. I guess I should stop fretting about my 100,000 photos.
Jude
Haha!
How nice!
Thank you!