Calling All Roadtrippers! Pit Stop Time!

Hey Roadtrippers! Calling you all in for a pit-stop. I don't know where you are on Route 66, but let's all meet here at the A-Z for a little chat about how our journeys are going.

I'm still chugging along, though not at nearly the pace I first started with. Then I was hitting 7-8 new blogs a day, out there meeting and greeting a socializing. Then I started to miss some of my old blogging buddies, and decided that I needed my friends, and the adventure at the same time. This choice did slow me down...

For me it was a good choice though, because some of these buddies were new ones, and it's not good to disappear at the beginning of a friendship! Those relationships have grown, and they feel like old friends now.

What I'm really loving is taking the Reflections part of Route 66 first. That way I know that the person I'm visiting took the Challenge seriously, probably finished, and had something to say about it. I've found some truly excellent examples, and some of those bloggers have agreed to share their Reflections here. You may have read some of them.

I've read gaming blogs, music blogs, atheist blogs, journal blogs, cooking blogs, craft blogs that make me envious of their enormous patience and talent, I've learned some new scrapbooking techniques (not that I'll ever have time for that in my life again, I'm predicting), I've seen other countries, experienced other cultures, read some amazing poetry, bought WAAAY too many books on my Kindle, just like last year, and met some incredible people. It's a blast! I'm going to just keep swimming, just keep swimming!

Please share some of the highlights of your journey in the comments!

~Tina

Guest Blogger: Donna B. McNicol

Please join me in welcoming another guest today, Donna B. McNicol. I'm so excited that so many of you are taking advantage of this great opportunity! If you're not sure what I'm talking about, it's all in this invitation post.

Donna is a prolific blogger (and that's putting it mildly). I think you'll enjoy getting to know her as much as I did.

Hello, my name is Donna and I am a blog addict. Doesn't matter if you are talking about MY blogs or YOUR blogs, addict applies to both. It all started so innocently back in 2006 when I started my first blog, From the Lily Pad. I was a 59 year old widow, considering selling my house and belongings and becoming a full-time RVer.

Of course, considering a lifestyle change that massive meant research, LOTS of research. I started using Google Reader to follow some RVing blogs. I slowly added in other blogs having to do with motorcycles, computers, cameras, and anything else that grabbed my interest.

Fast forward to 2008 and I retired my From the Lily Pad blog and started 2 Taking a 5th with my soon-to-be husband. As our interests expanded over the next two years I added a few more blogs to write:

• Hopping through Life
• Fire Lily Base Camp
• Riding Route 66
• Sadie Speaks
• Toadily Pets
• Foto Footprints

Hopping through Life was created for my 'writing' urges, for things that might or might not interest our RVing friends. That was the reason for Fire Lily Base Camp and Riding Route 66 as well - topics that wouldn't interest everyone so I didn't want to clutter up our personal blog.

In 2012 I added My Write Spot and Write 4 Ten but I retired the Toadily Pets and Foto Footprints. Then family called and I created and now maintain a blog for my daughter's casting company in Atlanta, Catrett Locke Casting. Of course none of these are daily blogs.

Reading blogs is harder to control, I use RSSOwl as a standalone reader and have categories for Authors/Writing, Riding Friends, RVing Friends, Simple Life, Gadgets & Computers, Ebook and Humor/Misc. At one time I was following over 500 blogs. I have tackled that list a couple of times and now have it down to 370. It grew to the largest during the last April A to Z Challenge. I followed a lot of blogs that disappeared after the event or turned into something that I was no longer interested in reading.

I still follow too many RVing and Writing blogs and I'm trying to weed my list down even more. I do have some blogs that I read daily and I've moved them into their own category. The others can be quickly marked as read if 1) I don't have time or 2) they don't interest me. If I do that too many times on the same blog, they are a candidate for pruning.

How do control the number of blogs you follow? Do you write more than one blog? Am I crazy? (No, never mind, that is a rhetorical question).

So again, hello. My name is Donna and I am a blog addict. And you?
Wake me later, I'm napping...
Donna B. McNicol 

Thanks for being here Donna! Can't wait to see you in the next challenge.
Tina