Burnout and Update

It’s been a very long time since I’ve blogged about my travels, so I wanted to give an update on the last four years. My only blog posts lately have been sharing podcasts I’ve been on and about my book release. My last actual blog post about my travels was from when I was in Australia. 

I started traveling full-time when I sold my house and quit my job in Los Angeles in June 2018. I traveled for a year and a half nonstop, writing blog posts about my adventures. That year and a half was amazing but exhausting. If I wasn’t sightseeing, going on a tour, hiking, or just exploring, I was researching things to do and places to stay. Then, I spent time writing about it all. 

Think about how much work you put into planning a week-long vacation. I had to do that work while adventuring and traveling. Writing about my experiences helped me process my feelings and made me feel less alone, but it was a lot of work. 

In October 2019, after being abroad for 8 months, I flew from Australia to Los Angeles. I was able to catch up on doctor appointments and visit with friends. I also emptied out my storage unit and had it shipped to Missouri, where I had purchased a home a few months prior. 

I had been traveling using the money from the sale of my house in Los Angeles, but I didn’t want to spend it all. I used some money as a downpayment for a house in St. Charles, Missouri, where I grew up. My family is still in Missouri, and housing is cheaper there. 

I spent the next two months moving my furniture from LA to the new house and setting it up as an Airbnb. I had sold many items before putting the rest in storage, so I had to buy additional furniture pieces. I spent every day for two months building furniture, unpacking, shopping, and decorating. I found an awesome handyman who helped me do the things I couldn’t. 

By January 2020, I listed the house on Airbnb and VRBO. In February, I flew to Whistler, Canada for my 40th birthday. I was thrilled to show my sister and a few friends my favorite place. I spent about 2 weeks in Whistler and Vancouver. 

On March 4th, 2020, I flew to Geneva, Switzerland, and I planned to spend about six months in Europe. I had a house/cat sit for two weeks in Bulle (an hour-and-a-half train ride from Geneva). I was nervous about being trapped in Switzerland because Italy and China were on lockdown. After spending a few days in Gevena, the homeowners messaged me that they canceled their trip to the Maldives because they feared they wouldn’t be let inside since they had Italian passports and Italy was on lockdown. They had a guest room and told me I could stay with them for two weeks or even longer if needed. 

I was very grateful to this couple. I stayed with the couple for a week, each night watching the news about how COVID spread worldwide. Late on March 12th, Trump announced a 30-day travel ban from Europe. I had one day to get back. The soonest flight I could get was on March 14th, the first day of the travel ban. It was a surreal experience being one of the first flights to arrive in the U.S. during the ban.

I thought the ban and closures would be over within 3 months since it was “15 days to slow the spread” and only a 30-day travel ban. It was cheaper to book a roundtrip ticket, so my return to Geneva was in June. As we all know, those bans and closures lasted much, much longer. 

By the summer of 2020, I realized I couldn’t leave the U.S. anytime soon. I jumped in my Subaru Outback and roadtripped around Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. For the first time, I saw some fantastic National Parks like Yellowstone and Glacier. However, the travel experience was depressing. Everything I loved about travel was gone. The few people who were out and about wanted to stay away from strangers. As a solo traveler, this made me feel so alone. 

I drove back to Missouri in November 2020 and contemplated what I should do. In the spring of 2021, I withdrew some money from my retirement to buy a second, larger house in a lake resort community an hour from St. Louis. With the world and stock market feeling so unstable, I felt better having a hard asset. The house was already a short-term rental, but it lacked many things. I spent 12 months working on improving the house in between rental guests. I even added another bedroom and bathroom. 

At the end of 2021, I took a 2-month road trip with my cousin to the East Coast and drove up to Maine. He was struggling with a mental illness, so most of the travel involved therapy sessions. By early 2022, I found myself sucked into his vortex, and it really took a toll on me mentally and financially. I was unaware of how much help he needed, and I was not equipped for it. After many months of helping him get on his feet, I needed a break. My 17-year-old cat also passed away while I was in Maine, which broke my heart. 

In the fall of 2022, I flew to Argentina. I explored Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Patagonia, and Ecuador for three months. 

In 2023, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We had never really celebrated their anniversary before, but this was a big one. My dad was also retiring that summer, and my mom was going down to work part-time. My sister and I spent months planning an amazing surprise party for them, and people came from all over the U.S. to honor them. It was such a special time, but it was like planning a wedding. 

My parents took a six-week road trip to the Pacific Northwest and Canada. I flew to Portland and joined them for three weeks of the Canada portion. I loved showing them Whistler and I got to see Banff, Jasper, and Calgary for the first time. 

Outside of these travel adventures, I went back to California for about a month every year to visit with friends. I explored a bit of Iowa a few months ago. 

Burnout

After all of the traveling, setting up and running two large Airbnbs, updating my website, writing my book (Weathered: Finding Strength on the John Muir Trail), recording an audiobook, and being interviewed on several podcasts, I felt burned out. 

I never had a day off. Each day, I was working in some capacity. I am always on-call for the Airbnbs. I do all the shopping for supplies, decorating, scheduling repair work, and maintenance. I do some repairs independently, send messages to the guests, and sometimes clean the house. I interview and hire cleaners and I have to be sure they have what they need. I am a perfectionist, and earning that perfect 5-star rating slowly drove me insane. I am a Super Host, but the stress, money, and time the houses have taken me has taken a toll. 

In addition, I’ve had various health issues that I had to deal with. Finances were tough at times. Like most people, the historically high inflation in the U.S. made life difficult and stressful. 

My blog was behind already, and even my social media pictures got very behind. I felt burned out. Maybe it’s because I don’t earn money from my blog, and there is not always an incentive to write. Posting on social media became so difficult because after I had an adventure, I needed to sort through pictures to see which ones were good, which should be deleted, and which should be posted. I always took notes of my travels, so writing that down each day took time. The farther behind I got, the more overwhelmed I was. 

I lost the focus and desire to write about my travels with so much going on. Do you know when you have so much to do that you do nothing instead? That was how I felt. Covid really put a wrench into my momentum. It’s been so difficult to find my groove again. I felt awesome traveling again in South America and felt like I was back to exploring and telling stories. But sitting down and turning my notes into an enjoyable blog post felt like too much. So my notes just sit on my phone. 

I’ve been working on my second book, which will be about my travels. I get so sidetracked that it has also gone to the back burner. I have never experienced burnout like I have over the last few years. I needed a break from traveling at times, and I needed a break from posting pictures and writing blogs. I lost motivation, and the more pressure I put on myself, the more I went in the opposite direction. 

What Now?

With all that said, I really miss writing. I miss sharing about my travels and feeling like readers are there with me. I miss learning the history of a new place and being able to share those cool stories with all of you. 

I am determined to focus and continue to be a traveler and storyteller. It always brought me joy to read your comments, and it brought me joy to know that people I met on my travels were getting their stories told. I loved sharing about the history and crazy things I learned about a new place. As a solo traveler, it truly gives me a purpose for traveling. 

Now, where to begin is tough. I took some notes throughout my U.S. road trip, but not nearly every day like I did for the first two years. I also spent a lot of time visiting family and friends along the way. I would still like to share some of the stories I jotted down and some amazing pictures I took while visiting these areas. 

I plan to start blogging regularly about those times. It’ll be more of a summary of areas instead of a detailed day-by-day account and will be spread out across several posts. 

During the three months I spent in South America, I had many unique experiences, which I still really want to share with you, so those will be more detailed. 

While doing this, I plan to update my social media with pictures of incredible places I’ve seen over the last year. I aim to have my second book published by the end of this year. 

Right now, I’m writing this from Geneva, Switzerland. After four years and four months, I finally returned to Geneva. Today, I went on a walking chocolate-tasting tour, and the weather was beautiful. The city was filled with life and travelers, a stark difference from March 2020. 

In two days, I will hike the Tour Du Mont Blanc (100 miles through the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps). I am so excited to be back in Europe! I will be there for about three months before heading back to the U.S. 

I wanted to write this update because people are often very confused about my whereabouts since my blog, social media accounts, and life are not in sync. The only things that are current are my Instagram Stories. I wanted to give you an overview of the last few years and my plans for going forward. 

I would love to hear from you about things you like reading or seeing about my travels. Whether you send me an email or write a comment, please let me know. What are you interested in hearing about? Why do you enjoy this blog? Any feedback is really helpful. Hearing from readers motivates me to keep writing, so I want to hear from you! 

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