Sep 022020
 


So, I’ve been toying around with posting this for a couple of months now, but it never quite seemed like the right moment. Yes, like many of you, I’ve been grounded at home because of Covid for over six months now, and at the beginning I didn’t feel like I had anything to say – because I wasn’t travelling.

I was going to update you on how I was filling the time, but this has always been a round the world travel blog so it felt really odd updating you on the mundane going ons of my DC life.

I started cooking. I mean, let’s not get crazy – when I say cooking I mean eating things that didn’t come from restaurants. I even baked a couple of cakes and stuff like that. I was pretty proud of myself!

As a consequence of eating better and not eating airplane and restaurant food all the time, the weight began to come off…50 pounds of it to be precise to date. I look at pictures from January and I’m stunned.

Some of it was eating better, but I also started running again. In the early days in February and March and even into April, it was just around the neighbourhood, with the odd longer hike on weekends. Mostly the same loops over and over, but I was getting faster and faster and skinnier and skinnier.

Then, a good friend shared with me that she’d taken on a pandemic project – she would run every road in the Florida Keys! I thought, hey, maybe I could do that with DC…but I don’t live in DC…I live in Arlington.

So that evolved…I would run every road in Pre-Retrocession Washington DC. What is that, you ask? Well, DC used to be a perfect 10×10 mile diamond…until part of it decided in the 1850s that it wanted to go back to Virginia. This became present-day Arlington and part of present-day Alexandria. So, I decided I would see about running the whole diamond. Every road of it. Fits with my “every country” mindset.

This got easier when the same friend told me about the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee. The idea was from May 1 through August 31 you run across Tennessee, corner to corner, the longest way. Just over 1,000 km. So, I started doing that….5+ miles each and every day. But a funny thing happened…I was doing 7+ most days, and there was a special “Back Across Tennessee” version for nutsos like me who wanted to run 2,000 km – Across Tennessee and back.

So here we are, September 1 is here, and I’m happy to report that on August 30 I arrived back in Arkansas, my 2,000+ km covered! Now that I’m not spending 3+ hours a day running and driving to/from runs (gotta do new roads every run, ya know!) I figured I’d put pen to paper.

I headed out tonight to run from home for the first time in months…my regular 4 mile loop around my neighbourhood. Ran it faster than I have in 10+ years. Halfway, a funny thing happened. Someone yelled at me “hey! I read your trip reports! You’re ironmanjt!”

So yeah, I made it across Tennessee, I’m back home, and I had a hell of a trip. I may never have gotten on an airplane, but I’ve done some amazing traveling the last six months, and that’s what I’m going to start sharing with you.

You see, despite being in DC for 30 years now, there are SO many parts of this city I’ve never been to or explored…and it’s been amazing. I’ve been fed ribs at a back yard BBQ, invited for a burger at a pot-filled middle of the street cookout, propositioned by “working people,” run through protests, seen beautiful things, seen painful things, and when it comes down to it…I’ve travelled. A lot.

Travel is growth and experiences, and I’m having just as many of those as ever!

So, below are the photos from the very early hikes back in March and April that I started this post with months ago…they’re a prelude to my summer travels. Enjoy, and I’ll post a few of my favourite and most memorable summer travels soon!

Arlington Cemetery hike…before Covid shut it down.

15+ mile hike through DC, Maryland, and Virginia!

Spring is springing, the turtles are out, and John Carrol is still watching over my Alma Mater.

This run looked innocent enough when I mapped it out…

…but it turned out to have some serious rock scrambles, creepy bugs (tent caterpillars), and gorgeous vistas:

Waterfall…right here in Arlington.

Much more to come! I’ll leave you with the “after” picture. You can see lots of “before” pics on the blog, but 2,000 km of running and 50 pounds later…here’s my finish picture from the race.

Now, let’s go on some trips…

Aug 182018
 


So, back in late June, even before I went on my latest burst of travel, I was starting to feel like it was catching up to me. I had back-to-back trips coming up to Easter Island for vacation for a week, then two weeks in Switzerland for work, and then another week in Brazil for work. It was shaping up to be a busy period, and I was looking forward to mid-August when I would be home for two weeks before taking a two week vacation to Russia.

Problem is, halfway through Switzerland, I was feeling exhausted from all the travel…and work was entering a really busy period, so I ended up putting off the vacation. The point of a vacation is to enjoy yourself and relax, and it’s hard to do that if it’s always go-go-go. So, Russia was postponed by six months or so, and when I got home from Brazil I was really looking forward to six straight weeks at home, with a couple of short side trips to see the family….but a one to two hour domestic flight isn’t nearly as hard as an international trip, so it would be relaxing.

…and then, the avalanche started, and in the last two weeks I’ve had a minimum of five trips fall in my lap before mid-November, so I might want to enjoy this time at home while I can get it. Fortunately, on many of the trips I’ve managed to tag on a little sightseeing, so I’m looking forward to it. With that said, here’s the upcoming plans, 58,000+ miles in under three months:

Mexico City:  at the beginning of 2018 I’d never been here before, and now here I am my third trip this year.  (Well, fourth if you count the overnight on the way to Easter Island!)  Three days of work, and then I decided to stay for Saturday before flying out to see family on Sunday. I would love to hear your suggestions for what to do with a full day in Mexico City. I was tempted to do the historical center food walking tour again since I enjoyed it so much, but would also like to hear your suggestions!

El Ángel in Mexico City

Stockholm: next up in late September is a week  in Stockholm for a conference. Last time I was there was back in December of 2010, so I’m looking forward to going back when it’s at least slightly warmer. Unfortunately most of my free time will be taken up by the conference, but hopefully I have a tiny bit of time to explore as well. One of the neat things about this trip is that I’ll get to fly into an airport I didn’t even know existed before this (Bromma Airport) and on a new aircraft type for me – the Sukhoi Superjet 100. Sometimes it’s the little things….

Outside Stadhuset in Stockholm in December, 2010

Shanghai: I’ll only be back from Stockholm for about a week when it’s time to head to Shanghai for a week of meetings. I’m actually really looking forward to this, since I’ve never been to Shanghai before. Beijing, Shenzen, but never Shanghai. I booked my tickets into Beijing so I could take the bullet train to Shanghai, and also am leaving one full day on either side of my meetings to do a little sightseeing. Very excited for this, and would love to hear your “must-sees” – home-cooking with RapidTravelChai‘s mother-in-law is definitely on the to-do list!

The Forbidden City – Beijing

Bern: Home from Shanghai for one night, and then it’s off to Bern for three days of meetings again. Feels like I was just there – oh wait I was – but looking forward to returning when it’s a bit cooler. I should have two or three days free when I’m there, and thinking one of them I really want to go up the Jungfraujoch. Yes, it’s touristy, but the views in mid-October should be amazing! Any other fun towns you recommend? I definitely want to stop in Lausanne again – I really enjoyed it last time I was there!

Aare River – Bern – Switzerland

South Africa: if it’s late October, it must be Johannesburg! Off to Joburg and Pretoria for a week of meetings, right in the middle of jacaranda season. After missing them for years, I got to see them last October and discover I’m wildly allergic to them – but the beauty is worth it! I’ll also have a nine day vacation after meetings, and currently trying to plan them out. Current thinking is to fly up to Harare, skip down to the Great Zimbabwe, then Bulawayo. From Bulawayo, take the train to Francistown in Botswana and self-drive to Gaborone. Open to other ideas as well…

Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa with the “tablecloth”

So that brings me to mid-November, and hopefully a quiet Thanksgiving! If anything, I think a three or four night trip to Europe will be in order, but definitely something low-key because I’m planning a 10-12 day trip over New Years to do Egypt and the Sinai, Kiev (and Chernobyl), Kaliningrad, Lithuania, and Latvia.

…oh, and mid-February? That brings me back to the trip that was supposed to start this week to Russia!  No rest for the weary for the next six months! I think it’s time to up the exercise and get the diet in order, because this is going to be pretty strenuous!

Mar 152012
 

Needless to say, the next few months is going to be incredibly busy! Starting this weekend, I have 6 big trips planned in the next three months. Short story is:

Ski and birthday weekend in Mont Tremblant, Quebec
Four days of diving in Grand Cayman, getting SCUBA certified
Then, a few days later, off to Oahu, Hawaii for a welcome home
After that, I’ll actually stay put a few days before it’s off to Nepal, Bhutan, Seychelles, Sudan, and Bulgaria
Work a few days, then off to Ottawa, Ontario to run the Ottawa marathon
…and from there, I fly straight to Longyearbyen, Norway, at 78 degrees north latitude, for the Spitsbergen Marathon 6 days later!

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