Camping gone wrong

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My fiancée and I went camping this weekend.

Neither of us is that experienced with camping, myself less so than my fiancée, but we both enjoy the outdoors and thought it would be a nice change of pace.

As a result of our inexperience, we rented a campsite on Hipcamp.

It was easy and we could search with filters like “potable water, flush toilets, showers, and pets allowed.”

We found a place in the Catskills that checked our boxes and we booked.

After a relatively painless drive on Saturday morning, we arrived at the campground.

It was disorganized from the start, and we quickly learned nothing was as advertised.

The spot we reserved was taken.

The landlord had shut off access to water, meaning no showers, toilets, or drinking water.

Fortunately, the staff was kind enough to show us to another camping spot along the nearby river.

We scouted it out and left to grab some water at Walmart, deciding to give it a go for at least a night.

We returned to the campground, got our gear set up, and started to make dinner.

As we did so, the small group near our spot on the property started playing music…from their car, at full volume, with all the doors open.

And if I do say so myself, their taste was lacking.

We asked if they would turn it down a bit and they obliged.

With the sounds of nature again audible, we enjoyed the rest of the evening around the fire, ate dinner, and watched our dog frolic in the tall grass.

All things considered, we were making the most of it and having a good time.

That is until about 10pm that night when we started to hear religious chants from a distance — loud enough to wake me up throughout the night.

In the morning, we woke up to birds chirping and a beautiful view. We enjoyed breakfast before we packed up to head home.

As we were driving home, we noticed our dog was acting strange. She was a bit wobbly.

We decided to take her to the vet when we returned and spent the next few hours waiting for updates.

She must have gotten into something toxic. We’re not sure what, but she’s doing much better now.

It was far from the relaxing nature experience we had hoped for, but a good learning experience nonetheless.

And there were certainly some highlights.

A testament to things not always going according to plan.

Hopefully, we’ll have better luck next time.

Weekly Write-up

For those who don’t know, I have an accompanying Travel Onist account on X (formerly Twitter) where I post similar content as I do here.

I am building my brand on a social channel to funnel those followers into my email list.

For the most part, it’s been both enjoyable and worthwhile.

I can test content ideas on an algorithm and a larger audience. I’ve been able to meet some awesome like-minded people. And I’ve gotten more comfortable sharing my thoughts with the world and digesting the comments that come back my way.

But recently, I’ve noticed a shift in my feelings.

Logging on and engaging with fellow creators has become a box I check, rather than an opportunity to connect.

Creating content feels forced, and the content I’m producing feels generic.

I’m not sure what niche I serve, or how I’m best suited to add value to my audience.

It all feels “half-assed”.

I spend around 8 hours each week keeping up with the platform. That’s 8 valuable hours I want to get the most out of.

So I’ve decided to take a break.

I have a distaste for social media to begin with. Knowing its addictive design, I try to proceed with caution.

There’s value in it for sure, which is why I participate in the first place. But it certainly has its faults.

3 days into my break and I’m feeling liberated.

I haven’t taken a designated break since I started posting over a year ago.

I’m not sure how long I’ll take off, but I’ll return with a fresh perspective.

In the meantime, I will use the time to pursue other projects and create space to evaluate how I’m best suited to add value to my audience.

I have some early ideas.

But in that spirit, I have two humble asks:

1. If there is a particular area where I have either helped you personally or through my writing, I would love to hear about it.

2. If there is something that I’ve discussed here or something that we’ve spoken about elsewhere that you’d like to hear more or less from me on, please let me know.

Simply reply to this email if either ask brings something to mind. Thank you all for your support.

Content Recommendation

I subscribe to Jason Fried’s email list. Rather than pushing out an email on a fixed schedule, he shares his thoughts as they arise. That process usually results in some refreshing and authentic perspectives. I hope you find this to be one of them.

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Cheers ‘til next week,

T.O.