I found my writing/editing mojo in South Dakota. Seriously weird, I know.

Here I am, trying to squeeze in a blog post or two before I’m off on another adventure next week. Oh, how summer vacations make blogging difficult—but they sure are fun, aren’t they?

Last week, my family and I traveled to see Mt. Rushmore in good ol’ South Dakota. Now, before you guffaw at such a trip, (something I did when my husband first approached the subject--South Dakota? Seriously? Ahh, shoot me now) hear me out . . . I had a blast, and I learned something too, which normally I don’t like to have happen when it comes to vacations. Vacations are vacations. Not learning time. Learning = boring.

But not so. Not anymore.

For instance, did you know that President George Washington and President Thomas Jefferson hated each other? Did you know that? I sure didn’t (In fact, I had no idea what four presidents were even on the mountain—I didn’t care. History bores me). But guess what, folks? Both presidents are carved into stone, side by side. I’m sure they’re loving that. Just goes to show ya, have a dispassion for someone and they just might make a monument to you and your mortal enemy.

Anyway, while in South Dakota we went gold panning and actually found gold (not enough to make us rich, but gold nonetheless) and garnets, tons of garnets. My kids LOVED it! We also went down a zip line (scary) and then we went on a lantern cave tour (super, super, super scary—not because of the dark, per se, but because we had to carry heated fire lanterns down these really steep, slick ladder/stair things, and we were told NOT to set down the lanterns under any circumstance, and I was CERTAIN I was going to die. I’m actually quite surprised I didn't). My kids loved this too. It was interesting but terrifying at the same time. We went to Cosmos, the Mystery House(check out Youtube video at the end--I have no idea who these people are. We were told not to videotape anything, but apparently people did, so I'm sharing it with you).

For my kids though, they would say they loved the campground we stayed in best of all. Yes folks, I went camping. I hate camping. It’s dirty and messy and not fun. BUT, we stayed in a KOA cabin at the Mt. Rushmore KOA campground and let me tell ya, this was my kinda camping—pancake breakfast every morning cooked by the staff, water slides and water park for the kiddos, paddle boat and bike rentals, homemade fudge and ice cream, horseback riding, movie nights, live music, restaurant, big ol’ trampoline thing that a dozen people can jump on at a time, free mini golf, and a slew of games and various activities to keep a person busy for days.

My husband joked that you could literally go to the Mt. Rushmore KOA, stay there a week and NEVER actually go see Mt. Rushmore, or anything else, for the matter, and STILL have an awesome vacation.

That KOA was camping heaven. Highly recommend it.

So now, I’m home for a few days before I head out again next week to do (you guessed it) more camping. This time it’s just me and not the family. They’ll be staying home. I’m a leader of youth in my area and next week is their annual camp time, in tents, in the mountains—ahh, my favorite thing.  You know, even though it won’t be camping heaven, or anything like that, it will be fun. These kids are amazing and we will have a great time.

I will miss my laptop though and my access to the internet (what will I do without twitter and email?). BUT,  big but here, sometimes taking a break from tweeting, and email, and even writing (yes, folks, even writing) can bring you the needed boost you might be needing to put you back into the swing of things, to get your writing mojo back in line.

For me, the break is a necessary evil. I hate being away from my laptop and all the work/writing I need to do. But, while away, I think out plot issues in my mind so that when I return to my laptop, I’m ready to attack it and get to work (hello, mojo).

I’m ready. I really am. So after I write this blog post and in between mounds of stinky camping laundry, I will edit and edit and edit. I can’t wait. I really can’t. I’m actually excited about this.

So, have any of you had a super fun vacation this summer? What do you do when you need to get your mojo back, and better yet, what do you do to survive being away from your laptop for any length of time?

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