Oh what a lot of catching up I have to do!
Saturday, May 18
The crew and I make one more exploratory hike around Camp Primrose in the San Rafael Reef. Then off we go to Goblin Valley State Park! It’s only about ten miles away.
Admission to see and walk among the goblins is $7 for the day.
I park the PTV, get out, open the side door, and the crew explodes out onto the pavement. Gee, guys, calm down. Unlike me, Bridget and Spike are energized by crowds. With much skipping, yipping, and pulling on the leash, the crew maneuvers me across the parking lot to the viewing area.
Wow.
Children bail out of vehicles and run down to the goblins.
This little guy finally noticed the goblins and stopped throwing a tantrum in the parking lot.
Ah, to be a kid again!
No, no, thank you. I watch the activity among the goblins below. Children run hither and yon as children are wont to do. They climb on the goblins, slide down the goblins, fall off the goblins, play hide and seek around the goblins, and have a grand ol’ time. Parents position kids for photos.
A twenty-something guy about six feet tall with a ball cap on his head comes up beside me and gets his first glimpse of the goblins huddled below. “Awesome!” he exclaims. Oh, really.
Ho-hum.
Oh boy, have I got a case of Internet Spoiler Syndrome. ISS is when you go to an interesting place and no matter how hard you try, you can’t ramp up any interest of your own because you’ve already experienced the place in the virtual world. Yep, that’s what’s going on here. I already know what it looks like to walk among the goblins, so why bother. I watch for a few more minutes, take photos, and let the crew nose around among our fellow tourists.
Yep, them there are goblins.
“C’mon, guys. Enough with the goblins. Let’s hit the road.”
I wonder what goes on in the head of my co-pilot.
“Bye-bye, goblins!”
Security goblins
So. What the heck happened with my blog?
Well, it goes like this. I sort of entered blogging through the back door. I stumbled upon WordPress, played with it, and before I knew it, I was signed up with the free platform and blogging my fool head off.
Time goes by, the crew and I hit the road, the blog grows.
I want some more features, so I upgrade the blog to pay-for-it WordPress. The blog keeps growing. I find myself spending a lot of time at the laptop. Hey, I should get paid for this. So I apply to become an Amazon Associate. Fast forward. Blog readers respond with great enthusiasm as well as with their credit cards. Money starts to roll in from Amazon. I’m one happy little blogger.
A fellow blogger tells me I ought to self-host my blog.
Yeah, good idea. I should do that. But instead of doing that, I procrastinate which is my go-to modus operandi. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
Apparently WordPress has dealt with plenty of procrastinators.
The crew enjoys a vacation from the blog.
WordPress knows you can’t deal with them (the procrastinator people). Reminders, nagging, threats — None of that works. What does work is lowering the boom.
And that’s how it came about that my blog was frozen solid like a hamburger patty left too long in the bottom of the freezer.
WordPress’s terms of service do not allow ads (other than their own ad program). The blog must be self-hosted to have Amazon links.
Immediately I swing into action!
I sign up with Hostgator and try to transfer the blog. It doesn’t work. I have to turn it over to Hostgator’s “migration team.” They dust off the freezer burn and do whatever it is tech people do, and here we are!
There’s still more work to be done.
As I type this, the slideshows are not appearing and the widgets for photos of our faces in the right-hand column are missing. I sent a help ticket to Hostgator. The “live chat” guy tells me everything should be fixed soon.
Damn, I missed you guys. It’s great to be back!
rvsue
Note: Thank you for your wonderful messages of support this past week. I still find it hard to believe so many people care about what’s happening with RVSue, Bridget, and Spike. Tomorrow’s blog will cover a lot of ground as I try to get us all together in real time. There’s so much to tell!
THIS LINK TAKES YOU TO AMAZON NOW!
