 If you know me well, you know two things about me: I love my work, and I love to travel. More specifically, I love traveling in our fifth-wheel camper. There’s something freeing about packing up, hitting the road, and waking up somewhere new every few days. But here’s the reality of owning a public relations firm: you never truly leave work behind.
For small business owners, vacation often means juggling emails, client calls, media requests, and the occasional crisis. So recently, while traveling to my son’s final collegiate golf tournaments, I started thinking about what a “week in the life” really looks like when you’re trying to balance work and life on the road. Spoiler alert: it’s messy, unpredictable, exhausting, and honestly kind of wonderful. Before we even pull out of the driveway, there’s the process of getting the camper hooked up and loaded with all the essentials. And by essentials, I mean not only clothes and groceries - but also my keyboard, laptop, monitor, and chargers. Once we get settled into a campground, I immediately create a makeshift office at the kitchen table where I check in on my clients first thing every morning - before we head to the golf course. The first day was quiet, but I wasn't so lucky on the second day of the tournament. I learned the Clinton County commissioners had passed a nepotism ordinance and fired their jail matron amid an already high-profile situation involving the sheriff’s office. Suddenly my quiet morning on the golf course turned into a full-blown workday. I spent the rest of the afternoon writing news releases and fielding media calls from the golf course clubhouse. Somewhere between client calls and golf rounds, I also noticed an unbelievable number of ticks in the grass. Since tick activity has been especially bad this year, I grabbed some video footage we could later use for the Hamilton County Health Department’s social media channels. Proof that when you work in communications, your brain never fully stops looking for content. From Iowa, we packed up and headed to Columbia, Missouri, where my husband went to college. Thankfully, there were no client emergencies waiting for me there, which meant we got to enjoy some downtime exploring campus and visiting the first TV station he worked at in college. Then it was off again - this time to Waterloo, Illinois, just outside St. Louis. That stop brought another common reality of remote work in an RV: unreliable internet. Campground Wi-Fi is known to be finicky, so I packed up my computer and headed to the local library. I can’t tell you how many small-town libraries I’ve visited over the years. Just another reason why I love having them as clients! The next morning, we headed to the Mississippi Valley Conference Championship where camper life threw us another challenge: severe weather. One thing you learn quickly while RV camping is to watch the radar closely. Severe storms and tornado warnings are no joke when your house is sitting on wheels. Tornadoes touched down just north and south of us. Thankfully, we missed the worst of it. But once the storms passed through our area, my focus immediately shifted back home to Indiana because the same storm system was heading toward communities where many of my clients are located. That meant staying in close communication with emergency management teams in both Clinton and Hamilton counties, helping monitor conditions and prepare messaging if needed. Fortunately, both communities escaped major damage. The next morning brought Owen’s final collegiate round. There were tears, hugs, and all the emotions that come with realizing an era is ending. Then we packed up the camper and headed home. And like every good trip, I’m already counting the days until we can get gone again. The truth is, owning a business means you rarely get a perfect separation between work and personal life. But it also gives you the freedom to create a life that blends both in meaningful ways. It may not be a traditional vacation, but somehow, it works for us. Click here to watch it all unfold in a recent Week in the Life segment.
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