A Journey Into Real Pages

We started this blog on August 26, 2007, long before we really had any idea where this journey might take us. It was only a tiny whisper of a dream, this idea of retiring to a sailboat and living a life less ordinary. In the beginning it was mostly to keep our family informed and to provide a journal of sorts for ourselves, but as time went on it became something even other dreamers could identify with. It became a compendium of the cruising lifestyle, of the challenges of fulfilling your dreams. It became something worth saving in print.

With Google's constant transformation, acquisitions and sunsetting of various programs, I became increasingly concerned about losing such a valuable piece of our family history. I once had 150 blog photos simply disappear, something that even Blogger's tech team couldn't figure out. It took me a couple weeks to put them back from my backup folder of photos. After coming back from the boat I had a good bit of time to finally start the project I've been putting off for a really long time—that of making a printed book of the blog to put on my shelf at home.

I looked around quite a bit and settled on blog2print.com because my daughter's mother-in-law had been gifting them a book of their family blog posts each year for Christmas. Unfortunately, they are having some serious technical issues and I was unable to complete the project through their site despite multiple long sessions with their tech team. I wasn't the only one having the issues, and I finally decided to cut my losses and look for another company.

I happened on intorealpages.com, a company formed by two brothers, Maarten and Hans in the Netherlands. I immediately liked their business model and decided to give it a go.

Registering for and logging into an account is an easy, straightforward process. It did take me a while to learn to navigate the various screens in building a book, but the emails I sent to the support email were answered immediately, with the time difference between here and Europe in consideration. Maarten was kind and courteous and helped me over the bumps.

So here are the things I really like about Into Real Pages:

• The importing of the data from the blog was seamless. Posts were correct, in the right order, had the photos where they belong, had the right authors and dates. Everything went perfectly.
• You can edit the posts right in the program. This was important to me because I was pretty bad about editing Tim's posts for grammar and spelling and punctuation in the early years of the blog. There were also some posts that needed some additional explanation to a book reader rather than an online reader. The editing screen lets you have complete control over the content, including adding or deleting photos. It did mean that I ended up reading the whole blog from beginning to end via the editing screen, but it was worth it to have a quality book. You also have the option of adding full-page photos at any place in your book. I did upload very high quality photos for those full-page ones rather than using the blog photos themselves.
• Videos all incude a QR code that the book reader can scan to see the video. This is something that blog2print didn't have and it was huge influence in my decision to go with Into Real Pages.
• You can include the author's name in each post if you have more than one author on your blog like we do.
• The quality of the printed books is outstanding. The paper is photo quality paper on every page. The photos are clear, the color rich. I did find I had to do some manual repositioning of the photos in order to clear up some blank space between the posts and cut my page quantity down. These are heavy, coffee table quality books.
• Once you buy a book, they provide the pdf file of it for free. Yes, for free. Other companies I looked at made you purchase the pdf separately. This was also a huge influence in my decision.
• Delivery of the printed book was very fast. You can also check the status of the print process in your account. The books arrived very well packaged.

I did have some suggestions that I forwarded to Maarten after having completing the 11 volumes it took me to encompass 2007-2022. (I plan on doing 2023 and 2024 in one book after completing our move of First Light from North Carolina to St. Louis.)

• I'd love to see the books offered in spiral bound versions. The pages are so thick and the books so heavy that it would be really nice to be able to lay them flat.
• I'd love to see more cover templates. I used a pretty plain one with three photos in boxes on the front and I'm happy with it, but there weren't all that many choices. Our friend Robert used a different template and his turned out nicely as well.
• I'd like to see the option of adding a photo to the back cover.
• I'd like to see them add more characters in the description fields both inside and on the back cover.
• I'd like to have the option of a larger font size for the type on the binding.
• In the editing screen the photos come with sizing frames, but even if you change the size it reverts back to the original size when you actually build the book. It would be nice to be able to resize the photos in the editing screen and have them stay that size.

All in all it took me about 3 weeks of long days to build 11 books of 15 years of history. I feel so much better knowing that I have hard copies of our experiences and photos on my shelf safe from Google's whims. So if you're the owner of a blog and have the same concerns, go on over to intorealpages.com. They run sales a couple times a year, usually in Spring, Summer and Fall, which make it much more affordable. I highly recommend the guys at Into Real Pages. They deliver a really quality product with great customer service at a reasonable price. It just doesn't get any better than that.

The full-page photos are a really. beautiful touch.

An example of the video QR code

Our friends Robert and Rhonda's book

Of Grandkids, Puzzles, Poker, and an adventure of another sort

It's been quiet here on the Retirement Project, but not because it hasn't been busy. Over the holidays we had all eleven of our grandkids here at various times with much princess dressup-ing, puzzle doing, poker playing (Grampy T's specialty and you really haven't lived till you've been beaten by a five-year-old in five card draw...), and planning for a very special adventure.

Image courtesy of Christopher Prugh

For those of you who have followed our eldest daughter and her boating family on their YouTube channel, you may already know of the pivot in their plans. The family has put the boat on the hard in Florida and has moved to Alaska where my son-in-law has been offered a job on the Alaska Marine Highway If you have the time, check out the ferry system at that link. It's a fascinating system of transportation for a lot of people for whom no roads reach their towns. The month before they left they were here for a visit and it was filled to capacity with shopping for the proper winter gear for all six of them and outfitting their Kia van for the trip from here in Saint Louis, north through Canada, and then to Anchorage, AK where they will live until they find the best permanent location in regards to the job.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the Kia wasn't up to the task of navigating the early heavy snowfall in the area and, after reaching a town west of Winnipeg, they had to turn back to Saint Louis and repack things for a flight to Anchorage instead. Once there, they will find a vehicle that can take the weather head on. (So if you know anyone looking for a partially converted camper van contact me through the blog contact form.) It was a pleasure to have all of the kids here together, but this aging grandmother was glad for the break when we dropped them off at the airport. It's an astonishing amount of work to feed teenage kids and to find sufficient winter gear for an adventure like that.

Here's their last episode on the change in plans:

Now that they are settled in Alaska and the holidays are past, our lives have reverted back to Tim's job schedule, which is a challenge in its own right. Getting up at 3:45am for a 5:00am start is no one's idea of a fun time, but his schedule has been pretty light so far so we aren't complaining.

For me, my time is now spent in pre-planning the rest of our Great Loop trip to bring the boat to Saint Louis. We hope to be able to leave for the boat mid-April and to have First Light launched in time to make the New York canal system opening May 10th. Since we all know how our plans worked out this past summer, these plans are more like guidelines—plans from which to deviate—but we'll do our best to make our goal.

Come April, First Light will have been on the hard untended for seven months and we have absolutely no idea what we'll find when we get back there. We did have our Nebo Link hooked up and powered on when we left so that we could monitor the batteries remotely, but something happened to the connection and we had to have someone turn off the breaker. It was reading 8 volts in the batteries even though the solar controller and the battery monitor were both reading 13 volts so either the unit itself failed or there's something wonky going on in the wiring to it. It's been added to the pre-departure list.

Also on the list is adding a coat of paint to the bottom and painting all the running gear with something better. The paint we used last season was not up to the task so we'll probably end up going back to Prop Speed. Tim also wants to do a little more work to the hardtop to strengthen it and there will be an endless amount of cleaning to do after it having sat on the hard that long. Two of our grandsons are planning to go with us for the first part of the trip so we'll have some extra hands to help with the launch checklist.

I admit that a lot of the silence on the blog has been because so far the winter, and being land bound, have  been tough on me. The Tiny Tot who spent so much time with us before we left for the summer grew up while we were gone and now has much more interest in computer games and movies with her siblings than in spending time with old creaky folks. It was a risk I was aware of before we left, but kids grow up and we grow old and nothing can stop it. In addition to being weary of the gray weather, I also admit that I'm still struggling with a little PTSD from the summer health events. I'll be glad when we can get back to the boat and do a little traveling. In the meantime you'll find me working on trying to get back my guitar playing hand strength, or working on my Duolingo Spanish practice, or sitting by the window working on my latest puzzle with my to-do list alongside counting the days till Spring. 

The crew of First Light wishes you all a happy and prosperous New Year.