For the last month, I've been following the travels of several blog friends, all of whom I've helped with some planning details. Through these friends, I've traveled Arizona and the southwest, the Rocky Mountains, and New York City.
I love traveling, having visited most of the United States at some point or another. (During a long stopover at Salt Lake City, my family rented a car and drove to Wyoming just to collect a new state.) I also enjoy reading maps, and studying the areas I've visited.
So when I helped Philip map an outdoors excursion, we spent hours online IMing as we looked at websites and I sent him JPGs from my 3D topo mapping software. This led to making Philip feel guilty about knowing too much about the terrain before getting there. Once on the Colorado ground, Philip's crew got stuck in a traffic jam, where I found him online via his cell modem. In a post trip e-mail, he tells of that frustrating event.
There had been a rock slide on I-70 the day before, so the cleanup was still going on, which backed-up traffic horribly. We were traveling at about one mile an hour with twelve miles left to go just on the interstate.
After I gave him two possible detours, both of which would take four hours, he and his friends made it to their destination in just under four hours. It sounds like the ridiculous detour did save some time.
When Austin and Melita decided to visit NYC, they asked for some ideas of things to see, in addition to the typical Manhattan tourist stops. For that, I had two years of experience living in the city to draw upon, and Austin and Melita were a good audience. They followed several of the suggestions and pounded an incredible amount of pavement in a short time. From the looks of things, they enjoyed the suggestions, too!
I also did some research for the Girottis, but what I was helping them with didn't end up fitting their itinerary or location well, but I still enjoyed digging through the resources I have.
All three trips have allowed me to enjoy new experiences and relive memories from my own trips, and that was a nice break, since I worked quite a bit during that span.
But after so much vicarious traveling, my wife and I took advantage of the long weekend just past and made a trip to NYC ourselves. I had a game on Saturday afternoon and we left from there. It was my first visit in a year and Darla's first since we moved two years ago. (I had to cash in on some vacation days last year, and Darla couldn't come.)
The weather was perfect, with low humidity and clear blue skies. We went in spite of the high gas prices, but we enjoyed gas mileage of nearly 45 miles per gallon on our trip up, and the NYC gas prices were basically the same as here in the Shenandoah Valley.
The trip was brief and full of visits with friends and a cruise past our old apartment. We were so busy that I took only two pictures the whole time. Nonetheless, we were refreshed by the fellowship with old friends. It felt not like we'd been gone for two years, but away from the city for a weekend.
Posted by JRC at September 6, 2005 11:15 PM | TrackBack