And this is how it started...

Ok, I'm a little late in creating this, but hopefully I'll keep up with it from now on. Originally I wanted to travel this summer by myself, but then got to thinking and changed my mind - not about traveling, but about doing it alone. Johnny, my cousin from an aunt on my dad's side of the family, is graduating in May from high school and so I came up with the idea of offering him some travel options as a present.

Long before I ever actually asked him I asked another aunt if his mom would think I was crazy for offering and when she said go for it I asked his mom. When all the permission-seeking was done I finally drove across the lake (lake Pontchartrain) with my ant Debbie to go over and offer him one of three options...

1. A round-the-world ticket stopping at a number of places and taking about a month.

2. a month anywhere in the world - be it a country or region.

3. a grand in cash if he didn't want to travel and would rather use the money for something else. (obviously I'm willing to spend more on the travel)

After some thought he came to the conclusion that he wanted the month. Then came the hard part- deciding where to go. He and his mom came over tot he city one weekend and we went to the Cake Cafe by my house for brunch. We talked a little about the trip and generally what he wanted the theme to be - adventure, nature, history, art, etc. I gave him some stuff to look over and in general he was feeling the English-speaking countries more than not. Australia and New Zealand ranked high on his list, but he was talked out of that by a few people who recommended Europe instead because of the increased variety for the given area.

After Cake Cafe we moved over to the Orange Couch and looked at some more sites where we generally settled upon the ancient cities - being rome and athens - and some other major metropolitan cities as well. The rest was left up to me to plan.

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For a while there we thought that Johnny's friends, or some of them anyway, might be able to come along but it turns out that for one reason or another they aren't going to be able to. :o( After we went through seeing if they could come my Aunt Cheryl, Johnny's mom, thought about asking Thomas, Johnny's brother who is in college, if he wanted to join for a week or two. That started out as planned - he applied for his passport as well, but Thomas was involved in a car accident over a year ago and his knee still hasn't healed from it. Wen he last went to the doctor the scoped it to examine the cartilage and he put him on crutches for 3 months minimum. Scratch that plan too. Looks like this just was not meant to be a group effort. ha ha.

Since then a bit has happened... I've booked the Eurail tickets that we'll be using - did that around Thanksgiving, bought the flights - most recently, about the first or second week of January, and planned a general itinerary which needs to be refined. Johnny's created his couchsurfing profile and applied for his passport around Christmas.

Couchsurfing is the site we'll hopefully be using to organize most of our accommodation. It matches weary wanderers with friendly faces in foreign cities and is totally voluntary. I hosted a lot here in NOLA before my landlords went psycho asshole on me and were somehow convinced I was running an illegal bed and breakfast of my house. HA! I just enjoyed the company. These days I don't have nearly as many people begging to stay with me, but I do get a few every now and then who want to meet up for a drink, coffee, dinner, or a touristy day or two out on the town. My profile is scrimpngrits if you care to look me up.

Yesterday I also created this travelblog and a facebook group for the trip. I'll be uploading pictures and short updates to both of them in hopes of documenting some of the trip. As many of you know, I also like to send post cards to my friends. It's a great way to keep in touch and there's nothing like receiving a special little something in the mail from a far-off place to brighten your day when we're so used to getting e-mails and text messages in this age of instantaneous communication. That being said, send me your addresses! If you've received a postcard from me before I still have your address, I promise. If not, send it to me so i can get you on the mailing list! :op

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