Whew! I can't believe I haven't had the opportunity to update the blog until today. What have I been doing? Good question. Biking? Eating? Sleeping? Making preparations to engage in those three activities? It's hard to say what occupies my time. Before starting the bike trip, Ben and I thought we'd be dealing with plenty of free time--we each brought several books, journals, and I even considered bringing running shoes--a fact that seems hilarious now. But we somehow manage to fill the days with something other than free time. It's a busy lifestyle, this bicycle touring!
This past week was a little disorienting, as Ben and I took a slight detour to Washington D.C. On an airplane. Some of you may have heard, but I won this National Geographic Traveler/Matador U Travel Writing Contest a few months ago, and the prize was a free trip to Washington D.C. to meet National Geographic editors. I found out the date for the event right before we left on the trip, so Ben and I tried to guesstimate which airport we would be near on September 20th, and we came up with Buffalo, New York. Wonder of all wonders, we actually made it to Buffalo on the evening of the 19th, where we were hosted by my friend Cristin Lambert's Aunt and Uncle, Tricia and Marty Lambert. They were so incredibly kind to take us in, and they did everything they could to make sure we were well taken care of, including driving us to and from the airport.
We flew into DC the day before the NatGeo event, so we got to spend time with Ben's friend Zeeshan as well as Ben's aunt Cathy, uncle John and cousin Woods. Ben's family took us out for a really wonderful middle eastern dinner in Alexandria, where we were for some reason treated like royalty and the chef himself kept coming out to bring us special, free foods. I now have met nearly all of Ben's extended family, except for his parents. Pretty good for only 6 months of dating! Anyway, we spent that first night at Cathy and John's house and the next morning Cathy and Ben drove me to the subway and pointed me in the direction of the National Geographic Headquarters.
Let me just interrupt this story to say that being thrust into Washington D.C. after spending nearly two months in Rural America/Canada was quite the culture shock. In the airport alone, I was surrounded by more diversity than we've seen in the past 2 months. I stumbled around the streets of DC with my freakish tan lines and the one outfit I brought that isn't padded spandex, weaving my way through hordes of fancy, clean, professional people with places to be.
I finally made it to the National Geographic Headquarters, where I met the three other "Winners" (as we were referred to all day--a title you can get used to, let me tell you). We then spent the next 12 hours schmoozing in various styles--a "meet and greet" with coffee and snacks and the entire staff of National Geographic Traveler, a tour of the museum, lunch in the staff cafeteria, sitting in on various meetings and presentations about the magazine and travel writing, a meeting with the editor-in-chief, Keith Bellows, a wine and cheese schmooze-fest, dinner at a lovely restaurant, and an evening event where Andrew McCarthy was interviewed about his new travel writing book. I feel like I made some great connections for a potential career in travel writing. The NatGeo Traveler staff were all friendly, creative and surprisingly approachable. Perhaps the best part of the whole event was meeting the Matador U staff, four energetic, fun and encouraging gentlemen who we spent most of the day with. It was a truly eye-opening experience, though exhausting, and I was deliriously happy to have a Mayflower Hotel room to crash in at the end of the day.
We made it safely back to Buffalo on Sunday and kept right on biking that afternoon. It's strange to be back on the bicycles--but even stranger to think that this tour is almost complete! We're now in Syracuse, NewYork, which means we only have about 300 more miles to go...in this moment I'm feeling more sad than ecstatic to be done biking. My body had finally adjusted to this lifestyle so much that I'm actually sore after walking for a day, and I only feel normal when I'm "back in the saddle" as they say. I'm also not quite sure how to stop consuming the insane amount of calories we do on the daily, once we're not burning quite so many. Anyway, all this is to say that we should be rolling in to NYC sometime on Sunday. If you are in the area, come meet us! Happy Revolutions!
This past week was a little disorienting, as Ben and I took a slight detour to Washington D.C. On an airplane. Some of you may have heard, but I won this National Geographic Traveler/Matador U Travel Writing Contest a few months ago, and the prize was a free trip to Washington D.C. to meet National Geographic editors. I found out the date for the event right before we left on the trip, so Ben and I tried to guesstimate which airport we would be near on September 20th, and we came up with Buffalo, New York. Wonder of all wonders, we actually made it to Buffalo on the evening of the 19th, where we were hosted by my friend Cristin Lambert's Aunt and Uncle, Tricia and Marty Lambert. They were so incredibly kind to take us in, and they did everything they could to make sure we were well taken care of, including driving us to and from the airport.
We flew into DC the day before the NatGeo event, so we got to spend time with Ben's friend Zeeshan as well as Ben's aunt Cathy, uncle John and cousin Woods. Ben's family took us out for a really wonderful middle eastern dinner in Alexandria, where we were for some reason treated like royalty and the chef himself kept coming out to bring us special, free foods. I now have met nearly all of Ben's extended family, except for his parents. Pretty good for only 6 months of dating! Anyway, we spent that first night at Cathy and John's house and the next morning Cathy and Ben drove me to the subway and pointed me in the direction of the National Geographic Headquarters.
Let me just interrupt this story to say that being thrust into Washington D.C. after spending nearly two months in Rural America/Canada was quite the culture shock. In the airport alone, I was surrounded by more diversity than we've seen in the past 2 months. I stumbled around the streets of DC with my freakish tan lines and the one outfit I brought that isn't padded spandex, weaving my way through hordes of fancy, clean, professional people with places to be.
I finally made it to the National Geographic Headquarters, where I met the three other "Winners" (as we were referred to all day--a title you can get used to, let me tell you). We then spent the next 12 hours schmoozing in various styles--a "meet and greet" with coffee and snacks and the entire staff of National Geographic Traveler, a tour of the museum, lunch in the staff cafeteria, sitting in on various meetings and presentations about the magazine and travel writing, a meeting with the editor-in-chief, Keith Bellows, a wine and cheese schmooze-fest, dinner at a lovely restaurant, and an evening event where Andrew McCarthy was interviewed about his new travel writing book. I feel like I made some great connections for a potential career in travel writing. The NatGeo Traveler staff were all friendly, creative and surprisingly approachable. Perhaps the best part of the whole event was meeting the Matador U staff, four energetic, fun and encouraging gentlemen who we spent most of the day with. It was a truly eye-opening experience, though exhausting, and I was deliriously happy to have a Mayflower Hotel room to crash in at the end of the day.
We made it safely back to Buffalo on Sunday and kept right on biking that afternoon. It's strange to be back on the bicycles--but even stranger to think that this tour is almost complete! We're now in Syracuse, NewYork, which means we only have about 300 more miles to go...in this moment I'm feeling more sad than ecstatic to be done biking. My body had finally adjusted to this lifestyle so much that I'm actually sore after walking for a day, and I only feel normal when I'm "back in the saddle" as they say. I'm also not quite sure how to stop consuming the insane amount of calories we do on the daily, once we're not burning quite so many. Anyway, all this is to say that we should be rolling in to NYC sometime on Sunday. If you are in the area, come meet us! Happy Revolutions!
So great to hear the details about your DC trip! I can't believe you are almost done with this part of your adventure! Thanks for sharing; love reading your writing. Love you! Mom
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading every moment of your blog. What a grand adventure.
ReplyDeleteScott Ranger