The Short Version

I have spent decades building websites, writing books, and helping other people tell their stories. Somewhere along the way I forgot my own adventure story. Right now I am car camping across Florida’s public lands. Next comes a used van converted into a camper. After that, a Class C and full-time travel. Three steps, and I am on the first one. This is my journey from cubicle to campsite, and I am bringing you along for every mile.

Picture this. Thirty years of staring at computer screens. Websites designed, clients helped, books published. And slowly, quietly, my own sense of adventure disappeared under the weight of deadlines, invoices, and professional responsibilities.

Then I discovered workamping, volunteering at campgrounds in exchange for a free site. It sounded perfect. Combine my love of the outdoors with my need to escape the desk. So I applied, got accepted, and spent months as a campground host in Florida’s state parks.

What I found shocked me. There was almost no good information for solo women interested in workamping. Every blog, every forum, every resource was written by couples or by full-time RVers with decades of experience. Where were the stories for women like me? Women starting late. Women camping alone. Women wondering whether they could really do this.

That is when I decided to write the book I wished I had. Insider’s Guide to Campground Hosting in Florida Parks. That book sparked everything else: this blog, the Solo Sojourn Trail app, and eventually my doctoral research on how mobile technology and social media can close the information gap for solo women travelers.

Here is what keeps me going. Too many women think they cannot camp alone.

They think they are too old. Too inexperienced. Too whatever. They look at Instagram-perfect RV couples and think, that is not me. They see expensive gear and enormous motorhomes and think, I cannot afford that. They worry about safety, about looking foolish, about doing it wrong.

You can start exactly where you are.

Car camping. Tent camping. Borrowed equipment. Small steps. That is how this works. You do not need a six-figure RV or a decade of experience. You need a campground, a sleeping bag, and the willingness to figure it out as you go.

Here is the credential that counts. I am a real person, really camping, really figuring this out. Not a sponsored influencer. Not a trust fund kid living the van life dream. Just a woman in her sixties who decided life is too short to keep staring at screens.

Got Questions?

I read and respond to every email. It might take a few days during camping trips.

jolene.macfadden@solosojournproject.com

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