Happy Fourth Birthday to us at Perceptive Travel Blog!
Yes, on March 21, 2007 we launched this blog as part of the Perceptive Travel webzine.
Says editor Tim Leffel,
“Perceptive Travel set out to be a different kind of webzine, one that ignored ‘the rules’ of online publishing and put out quality narrative writing by creative book authors. In turn I wanted the blog to be different too: instead of joining the sea of top-10 list posts, ‘best beaches,’ and other disposable travel writing fare, we set out to focus on quirky places and stories that you wouldn’t find anywhere else. I think we’ve succeeded and thankfully, over 1,800 RSS subscribers agree.”
From the jumble of Don Quijote stores in Japan, to space geekery in New Mexico, to finding silver linings in Oslo, Norway, we continue to cover the globe with an eye for the striking, the unusual and the thought-provoking.
I still remember Tim’s call for contributors in early 2007 on the Travelwriters.com BBS; he said that among other qualifications, he was looking for the sorts of people who had blogging experience but who also had piles of books-in-progress on their nightstand.
After a look over at my own growning nightstand full of books at varying stages of reading progress, I thought, “Wow, maybe he means someone like me….” After a brief exchange of emails and sending links to my work, I found myself writing for the blog along with Antonia Malchik in New York (we call her Nia) and Steve Davey in the UK. I’d never met either in person but it did not seem to matter – we chattered in the comments of each other’s posts and popped emails back and forth with thoughts and questions.
Circumstances changed, people came and went. Nia and Steve left to pursue other interests, and Liz, Alison and Brian came in, with Kerry and her musical insights as the most recent addition (did you catch her post on the Bahrain and Scotland musical connection?) Again, of all of my fellow authors I’ve only managed to briefly meet Alison and Tim in person, but it’s never mattered. We hear each other’s now-familiar voices both in the posts we create and our periodic conference calls on Skype, where we yammer away and wander off-topic until Tim good-naturedly herds us back in to do business.
It’s a special opportunity to be given the freedom to write about what fascinates me, what nags at me and what makes me want to throw things, and no one ever says, “That’s too obscure” or “No one will care about that.”
Thanks to all of our readers for being with us, cheering and commenting along the way….and to all of you who thrilled at my post about seeing the world’s longest grain elevator in Hutchinson, Kansas….well, you’re in a particularly special club. 🙂
We’ll be doing two things this week – celebrating our anniversary with posts and giveaways, and supporting one of our own writers, Christchurch NZ resident Liz Lewis who has suffered through more than her fair share of earthquakes recently. The Blog for New Zealand project March 21-23 (Blog4NZ on Facebook and hashtag #Blog4NZ on Twitter) gives us a chance to talk about Liz’s country and show our support for her and her fellow Kiwis.
Blog anniversary giveaways include an “Austin pack” (two music compilation CDs and an Austin music lover’s T-shirt, courtesy the Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau,) a copy of Tim Leffel’s The World’s Cheapest Destinations guidebook or one of the short-sleeved versions of our comfy Perceptive Travel T-shirt from our Travel Tease store.
All you have to do to have a chance for one of our prizes is leave a comment on this post. Yep, that’s it!
We very much appreciate your readership, your comments and your support over the past four years – may we all enjoy many more posts full of unique and fun travel stories.
UPDATE: And by using Random.org to pick, the giveaway winners are….
** Birthday Present One (the Austin pack) – pam
** Birthday Present Two (Cheapest Destinations guide) – Dominique
** Birthday Present Three (Perceptive Travel T-shirt) – Deb
We’ll be contacting the winners for mailing info, and THANK YOU so much to everyone who commented and sent us kind wishes.
ALSO: What a nice surprise: TripBase just selected us as one of their 2011 Environmental Blog award winners. Thanks for the recognition of our efforts to support sustainable travel!
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Happy Birthday. I read your blog for over a year before accepting that I could leave the USA and really enjoy my life on a very very small pension. Reading what you and your writers wrote showed me how to streamline my life by 180 degrees without any since of “giving up thing.” Instead it became a process of moving on and enjoying the last part of my life as an adventure. I heard something when I was young that you guys helped me make a life motto: Do you want to be safe or do you want to be free? I’m free and living in Guanajuato Mexico learning Spanish. After that, I’ve got all of Central and Latin America to explore. Thanks for a job well done.
Ditto to Sheila’s comment, David: that’s not an easy jump to make, and I’m so glad to hear that not only did you make it (with a small assist from PT), but that you’re also so happy that you did… and that your new life is only just beginning.
Hi David,
Wow, that’s very inspiring! Thanks very much for sharing your experience, and we’re glad to have been a small part of it.
Yes, happy birthday. I enjoy reading through your posts!
Happy birthday…and here’s to many more!
I had to laugh at Tim’s comment about snooze-fare like “best beaches” and generic top-ten posts, because I always say that the endless “top beaches” and “top casino” shows were some of the reasons I thought I could find better travel shows on the food channels than on the travel channels! Those sorts of topics don’t interest me, so I’m always happy to find quirky little stories about big grain elevators, or anything else that has a great story or sense of discovery about it. Keep up the great work 🙂
Hooray for non-crappy sites by people that LOVE WORDS. Many happy returns.
Happy Birthday! I’m an entertainment blogger, but have lots of travel blogger buddies. In solidarity…
That’s a great photo to go with a great milestone. Congratulations on continuing to bring great content to the web.
Felicitaciones! Thank you for providing intriguing, quirky, and quality content. Here’s to many, many more birthdays!
Just discovered your site… Can’t wait to dive in deeper! Finally – a site for people who don’t want their vacations to consist of chain restaurant visits.
Wow, I can’t believe it’s your 4th anniversary and I just found you today!! This is my kind of blog — educated, literate, a touch or snark thrown in. You can bet I’ll be digging in and reading a lot more here!
Just stumbled upon your site and I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t know you existed. Would like to find out new destinations and different approaches to traveling. I guess I have a lot of reading to do…
Happy Birthday! I have a really small thing that I’ve always wanted to say thank you for- having a mobile friendly blog! Thank you for that. I can’t tell you how many blogs are not mobile friendly and even though my phone’s browser can handle that, I almost always skip reading them.
So that’s a little thing, but a big thing to me. Especially when I am traveling. 🙂
Deb, I’m glad it’s made you happy because that plug-in delivering a different mobile version has seemed like a waste. We average fewer than 50 people a month reading the blog on any mobile device. It’s pretty similar across the other sites I manage. Plus the downside is that it looks aesthetically awful on a larger iPad.
It doesn’t seem like many people actually read on a smartphone. They use it to do utility things (book a flight, buy a game, look up movie times), but save the reading for a larger screen. We’ll keep a strained eye on it.
Thanks for all of the wonderful support, folks!
David, Tim the editor here. Did you know I live in Guanajuato? Well, until July anyway. Get in touch: http://www.timleffel.com/contact.htm
Happy birthday everyone. May we have many, many more!
I just found you a few weeks ago.
Great Blog, and I hope you have many more years!
Can’t believe it’s been that long! I miss you all, but am just so grateful you all are writing such wonderful, quirky travel stories for the rest of us to read 🙂
It’s kind of inspiring reading all the posts by people who just found Perceptive Travel — you’ve hit the jackpot for great stories here.
Happy Birthday everyone!
Cheers,
Antonia