A GINORMOUS thank you!
Oh yes, ginormous now appears in some dictionaries. Apparently English speakers decided that 87 words that mean "big" weren't sufficient enough so we've decided to combine two words that already mean "big" and make another word that means exactly the same thing. "Ginormous" either comes from "giant" or "gigantic" and "enormous". I thought it was a recent creation but apparently it dates back to circa 1950. Who knew.
Anyway, on to the real point of my post. Since today (October 20) marks the 1 year anniversary of our initial flight from London to Beijing and the start of our trip of a lifetime, I wanted to give a big thank you to a lot of different people. Not going in any particular order, I wanted to thank:
- all the family and friends we had the chance to meet up with over our 10 and a half month hiatus from real life. Especially those who opened their homes to us (including Gwen and Ludo in Beijing and Steve and Anna in Sydney who let us stay at their houses without ever having met us before!! We come with good references. :) ). As noted in my last post, getting the chance to stay with friends and family was a welcome respite from the hotel grind.
- those of you who showed us your cities, took us out to dinner, shared highlights of your towns with us, etc. It's always best to explore a new place (or familiar places) with those with insider knowledge.
- all the new friends we made along the way. From whitewater rafting in Nepal, to our multiweek tour of India, to Australia, to Antarctica, to the Salt Flats of Bolivia, to Atacama Desert in Chile, to Galapagos, we met some great new people along the way. Heading out on a big trip with just each other to talk to for so long is a daunting prospect - making great new friends along the way is a must to keep sanity!
- even though none of them are reading this blog, the large majority of our tour guides and adventure guides were absolutely fantastic and opened up new perspectives on the places we were visiting.
- all those who supported us along the way with communications from home and abroad letting us know what was going on back in the real world.
- all our loyal readers of this blog! We loved writing this blog, which helps us to remember all the places we went. We're just glad so many people were able to enjoy the trip along with us through the blog. Hopefully we kept you entertained. And thanks for all your comments.
- finally, my wife Karen. She did a heck of a lot of the planning and organizing for this trip, both before we headed out and once we were on the road. At the end of the day, there's no better person to spend every day of 10 and a half months with than Karen. :)
While we're here on our 1 year anniversary, I might as well post an updated version of my "places visited" maps. Here was what my world map looked like pre-trip:
create your own visited countries map
36 countries visited and nothing in South America or Oceania (except French Polynesia), only 4 continents and nothing south of the equator.
Here's what it looks like post-trip:
(I really like this map from www.travbuddy.com that shows country borders and includes Antarctica, but it seems to be a bit funny and may or may not load properly, so I've included the same map from the old site as well):
create your own visited countries map
On this trip I visited 2 new countries in Asia (Nepal and India), 2 new ones in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and 7 new ones in South America (Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador), for a new total of 47. I'll have to plan something special for when I reach 50. All 7 continents are now covered as well.
We also did that big road trip in the US and travelling back east along I-40 added 5 mores states (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee) which brings me up to 36 total.
New map:
create your own visited states map
As you can see, it looks like I need to start planning my next year long holiday to include sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Plus my next American adventure should take in the Pacific Northwest, upper Rockies, the deep South, Appalachia, Alaska and Hawaii and, I suppose if I have to - North Dakota. I've still got a lot of ground to cover!
Anyway, on to the real point of my post. Since today (October 20) marks the 1 year anniversary of our initial flight from London to Beijing and the start of our trip of a lifetime, I wanted to give a big thank you to a lot of different people. Not going in any particular order, I wanted to thank:
- all the family and friends we had the chance to meet up with over our 10 and a half month hiatus from real life. Especially those who opened their homes to us (including Gwen and Ludo in Beijing and Steve and Anna in Sydney who let us stay at their houses without ever having met us before!! We come with good references. :) ). As noted in my last post, getting the chance to stay with friends and family was a welcome respite from the hotel grind.
- those of you who showed us your cities, took us out to dinner, shared highlights of your towns with us, etc. It's always best to explore a new place (or familiar places) with those with insider knowledge.
- all the new friends we made along the way. From whitewater rafting in Nepal, to our multiweek tour of India, to Australia, to Antarctica, to the Salt Flats of Bolivia, to Atacama Desert in Chile, to Galapagos, we met some great new people along the way. Heading out on a big trip with just each other to talk to for so long is a daunting prospect - making great new friends along the way is a must to keep sanity!
- even though none of them are reading this blog, the large majority of our tour guides and adventure guides were absolutely fantastic and opened up new perspectives on the places we were visiting.
- all those who supported us along the way with communications from home and abroad letting us know what was going on back in the real world.
- all our loyal readers of this blog! We loved writing this blog, which helps us to remember all the places we went. We're just glad so many people were able to enjoy the trip along with us through the blog. Hopefully we kept you entertained. And thanks for all your comments.
- finally, my wife Karen. She did a heck of a lot of the planning and organizing for this trip, both before we headed out and once we were on the road. At the end of the day, there's no better person to spend every day of 10 and a half months with than Karen. :)
While we're here on our 1 year anniversary, I might as well post an updated version of my "places visited" maps. Here was what my world map looked like pre-trip:
create your own visited countries map
36 countries visited and nothing in South America or Oceania (except French Polynesia), only 4 continents and nothing south of the equator.
Here's what it looks like post-trip:
(I really like this map from www.travbuddy.com that shows country borders and includes Antarctica, but it seems to be a bit funny and may or may not load properly, so I've included the same map from the old site as well):
create your own visited countries map
On this trip I visited 2 new countries in Asia (Nepal and India), 2 new ones in Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) and 7 new ones in South America (Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador), for a new total of 47. I'll have to plan something special for when I reach 50. All 7 continents are now covered as well.
We also did that big road trip in the US and travelling back east along I-40 added 5 mores states (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee) which brings me up to 36 total.
New map:
create your own visited states map
As you can see, it looks like I need to start planning my next year long holiday to include sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Plus my next American adventure should take in the Pacific Northwest, upper Rockies, the deep South, Appalachia, Alaska and Hawaii and, I suppose if I have to - North Dakota. I've still got a lot of ground to cover!
posted by Kevin at 10/21/2007 12:30:00 AM
2 Comments:
Thanks for this very sweet post! It is we your friends who thank you two for taking on this amazing journey, visiting us along the way, and for taking us along on the journey through this great blog and your many anecdotes and photos. So a ginormous thank-you right back at you for giving us the gift of coming along for the ride on this great adventure. We can't thank you enough for sharing your trip of a lifetime with us. Welcome "home," and happy (trip) anniversary!
No, thank you for posting all of your stories and pictures! I really enjoyed reading them.
See you next time you're in MA.
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