This cartoon is courtesy of the New Yorker.
It’s been one year now since I started this travel blog. 31 posts by me; 4 guest bloggers; 735 visitors reading from 16 countries; over 1600 views. Google analytics says the most popular time to view is Monday at 6 am!! That can’t be true. If any of you read travel blogs on Monday at 6 am, raise your hand. It’s not viral, but I am happy.
It’s not a typical travel blog, where the writer is reviewing restaurants, hopping from country to country, or doing daring things. Mostly I have been looking back on travel in the past or other experiences I consider cultural immersion, combing my travels for the quirky, unexpected, touching, or ridiculous. One trip I took this past spring to Kauai Island I did not blog about, because, frankly, I can’t think of a thing that was interesting about it, even though it is beautiful and the poke is to die for. I am sure the reader can find a Kauai blog that will do the job of travel planning.
Here were the most popular posts:
My Three Cups of Tea: Chapter 3 and end (88 views–mostly from Vietnam!) Iceland is Cool (55 views) Crazy, Lucky, Funny, Poignant, Scary: Peru Part 2 (52 views) Factory Girl: Prologue (49 views)
Starting in March I will be posting weekly while traveling– a first. That’s because my husband and I are taking off by car on a one month trip down the mighty Mississippi from Minnesota to the Gulf and back, carrying kayaks on top, bikes in the back, and camping equipment behind the front seats. It all started because I wanted to hear an up-and-coming opera singer, Julia Bullock, sing. Her mother is a former colleague of mine from St. Louis. Finally, I discovered she was the vocalist for a concert in Memphis/ Germantown entitled America in Song. It honors American composers, especially Leonard Bernstein’s 100th anniversary. What could be more fitting? To explore our most iconic and troubled river, starting with our most iconic American classical music! And, to add more synchronicity, I am enrolled in a one year program to become a Master Water Steward, through my local watershed organization and a nonprofit dedicated to keeping our American waters clean (Freshwater Society).
The connection between Minnesota agribusiness and dead zones below New Orleans could not be more clear. Our esteemed governor, Mark Dayton, has spent his last year in listening sessions around the state, promoting water awareness and better agricultural and urban practices to keepexcess nitrogen from leeching into the state’s rivers, causing algae blooms, fish kills, and general degradation of Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge has new institutes for river studies and international water protection which we will be visiting in late March. Water politics, bird migration, Cajun culture, bayou kayaking, southern immersion: I am pumped!
See you next week!
Other states, other lives, other souls 