Gridskipper, Budget Traveler, World Hum and Other Ways to Spend a Snowy Day

I got to love a snowy day because I get to float around the sites and blogs of traveling folks. I can tell when Gridskipper has posted links to my blog on their site; hits go up like a roman candle. Same for Budget Travel, World Hum, Tim Leffel and Johnny Jet, and a host of others and I will be linking some more great sites here soon. It truly is a small world we all work within. Tonight I would especially like to thank Gridskipper, such a cool site with info any traveler would use. Max and I discussed much of what we will talk about at our seminar at the NY Times Travel Show this year; you all deserve to be given a shout out on my handout. Time to put on the snow suit and dig out, the slopes of the Catskills will call soon.

Old and New Friends at the NY Times Travel Show

It is hard work getting the word out but I noticed that it is the key to success, like the long term popularity of travel writers like Rick Steves and Arthur Frommer. I’m sure Ian Wright had better things to do this weekend then promote his new Travel Channel series, Wright on America. So many others I ran into at the NY Times Show have been around due to hard work. I got to finally meet Jim Benning and Michael Yessis of World Hum face to face, a long time favorite site of mine. Peter Mandel also stopped by say hello. Several of my favorite PR people such as Lauren Kaufman from Spring O’Brien and Joao Rodrigues from Myriad also visited.

Just as wonderful was meeting new people like the many who came back to the GoNOMAD booth after our travel writing seminar. We also met Miles Hampton who does Radio Margaritaville for Sirius Satellite Radio who did some sound bites for his show from the GoNOMAD booth. Of course we tempered some hard work with some great down time like Longitude Book's 10 year celebration at a great local bar and dinner at my favorite NY City restaurant Gelsi. It is hard work getting the word out, but so much fun.

Transitions Abroad, Remembered

It was sad to learn that Transitions Abroad will no longer have a print edition; TA has a place in my heart forever. The first travel article I wrote was published in Transitions Abroad, self- cruising the Shannon River. I was so green and only knew that I loved to travel and wanted to write, TA gave me the chance. I will never forget the excitement when Clay Hubbs contacted me a bit later to see if I was interested in being the contributing editor for independent travel. I was for a few years and remember when TA went into stores like Barnes & Nobles, god was I jazzed! I also met a guy named Max Hartshorne when he pulled a stint as a managing editor there, Max and I have been connected for years after with GoNOMAD.com. I have also met several TA writers over the years such as Tim Leffel. For those reasons alone I am grateful for my experience with Transitions Abroad.
I just purchased the new TA yesterday at B&A not knowing it was the last, not till I read World Hum tonight did I know. The founder Clay Hubbs passed on awhile back and I just hope he realized what Transitions Abroad meant to those he touched it certainly touched me. Fortunately the online version remains, as it should, I hope it keeps a worthy tradition for the future. I am sure it will.
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/
http://www.worldhum.com/