Well, the time has come to test my mettle as a freelancer on the road. I’ve amassed everything I need—I have a brand-spanking-new Netbook, my trusty MiFi, my cell phone, and a bagful of office essentials—and this week, I’ll find out just how well I can juggle in the woods.

Juggle the family, our vacation, working, and s’mores, that is.

That’s right—the Big Summer Camping Trip is upon is. I’m really excited. We’ll be hauling our trailer thousands of miles, visiting family, sightseeing, and having our first real vacation in a long time.

I’ll also be working, because as a freelancer, I really don’t have the option to just take a couple of weeks off of work. The trick is going to be keeping the work to a minimum so that I can still enjoy our trip.

I’ve worked on the road before, of course, but never when we were camping for an extended period of time. And never when we actually traveled on work days; we’ve always tried to do the whole getting-from-point-A-to-point-B thing on the weekends. But with all of my new toys, theoretically I should be able to work in the car. And that works out well, because on a regular trip I force my husband to let me drive, periodically, so that he gets a break… but while hauling a trailer it’s all him, because I have no desire to be in the driver’s seat.

So he’ll drive, and I’ll work, and then eventually we’ll be where we’re going.

And then… I will have to figure out how to both work and capitalize on a bit of R&R.

I’m not quite sure how I’m going to do that, yet, but I’m hoping to figure it out as we go along. I’ll probably get up early and do some work then, and then a bit more at lunchtime, and then some in the evenings. It’s good to be able to work wherever, but it can also be bad if I fall into my typical “just five more minutes, I’m almost done” mentality like I do here at home. Can I keep up with my work and have a great trip with my family?

I’ll let you know.