Despite being a blog writer, I've not been much of a blog reader. But now that's changing. I've been doing a lot of blog reading lately. I do it differently than I did in the past, though. Before it was that whole reading blogs for the purpose of attracting people to my blogs. Well, that's kind of a cheap way to describe it. Maybe it's better to call it the blogging-community methods. This is where you update your blog regularly, and also read several of the same blogs every day. You read their blogs and comment. They read your blogs and comment.
I'm doing things differently now. I have a bunch of blogs bookmarked. I read them more like books. I start at the first post and then read a new post every day. I comment once in awhile, but not often. Mostly I just read, listen, learn, and enjoy. I think I'm lacking the compulsion to comment, because the posts are old. If someone writes about their husband being very ill, and this happened recently; I feel it would be cold not to say something sympathetic and/or compassionate. But if the post was written four years ago, I don't feel the pressure to say something.
What am I saying here? It sound like I'm saying I avoid reading recent posts because I don't want to have to say nice things to people.
I need to get my head examined. And my heart.
Anyway, I'm mostly reading trip report blogs about people traveling via caravan through Australia. It's really fun, because I feel like I'm there with them. It's kind of like when I did the pretend-trip-to-Australia posts, but this is even better.
Reading these blogs gives me ideas of where I'd like to go on our next (REAL) Australia trip. Though I don't think we'll be going via caravan.
We could drive from Sydney to Eden and stop off in Canberra.
We could drive from Adelaide to Mungo National Park...though I dread using the drop toilet. And I would have to use it a lot since I have an overactive bladder.
We could go from Adelaide to Broken Hill.
Then there's Western Australia. We could start at Perth and drive up to Monkey Mia, stopping at the Pinnacles on the way.
There are so many choices. I will spend many years jumping back and forth from one idea to the other.
Anyway...here's a list of some of the blogs I've been reading. In case you're interested.
One Month Off Our Road Trip Adventure-This is a woman and her husband traveling around Australia in the winter of 2012. There's a lot of funny stuff, but some sad bits as well.
Our Australian Odyssey- This a family with two very young boys traveling around Australia in 2011
The Kearney's Big Lap-Another family traveling around Australia. This one has two daughters. They did their trip in 2013.
The Hixon Trip Logs I just started reading this blog a few days ago. I don't remember who's in the family. So far they're just taking little day trips. But soon they're going to go on a 6 week adventure. Well, that 6 weeks is actually in the past now. Blog-reading is a great way to time travel. In this case, they're taking me back to the good old days of 2009.
France or Australia-This blog is actually very boring so far. The blogger just posts these daily updates about their caravan shopping. Then there are links to the businesses they support. It's very dry, and almost feels like a promotional blog. I was going to quit reading it, but I did a sneak peak to the future, and it looks like it gets better.
I'm also reading a few Australia-related blogs that are not about Australians traveling around Australia.
There's The Singaporean in Australia. I love this blog so far. It's about a guy in Singapore who moves to Perth. In what I'm reading now, he's very new to Perth. He's cold. He has a great interest in beverage prices, and he misses his mother a lot.
Trip to Japan. It was luck that this blog happened to be Australian. I was just looking for a blog about traveling in Japan, because Tim wants to go there for his 50th birthday trip. But yeah, it's written by an Aussie. I love it. He writes in great detail—about the sights, their transportation methods, and the food. Yesterday I learned that Japan has these awesome cheesecakes. The blogger ate like three of them in one day. He almost made me regret that I'm not a cheesecake fan.