Away from home meme

[gerisullivan]

Here's my list of the towns or cities where I spent at least a night away from home during 2009. Multiple non-consecutive stays are marked with a star.

Off the top of my head, with a couple of email checks for town locations of various hotels:

Chicago, IL
Boston, MA
Cambridge, MA
Framingham, MA*
Middleton, MA* (many, many, and an extra long one, too)
Worcester, MA -- hospital :-(
Battle Creek, MI*
Lansing, MI*
Reno, NV
Bronx, NY*
Islandia, NY
Tarrytown, NY
Yorktown Heights, NY
Altoona, PA
Lake Harmony, PA
Montreal, PQ Canada
Milwaukee, WI

I don't have a firm number for total nights away from home but do know it's at least 76 and more likely something in the 80-85 range. That seems a lot considering how little I'm traveling these days.

Many, many thanks to the multitude of gracious and welcoming hosts: debgeisler and benveniste; benyalow; nesfan and Mark; carnyjack; papersky, rysmiel, and zorinth; Joe & Edie, Daddy, and my sister.

Notable stops missing from my year: all people and things Minneapolis, and also Pittsford, NY. kip_w and malibrarian, I'm sorry the weather sent me east via I-80 last week. The NY Thruway is usually the better bet for winter travel and I was really hoping to see you and Sarah on my way back home.

Overnight visitors signing the Friends of Toad Woods Register during 2009: elaine_brennan (multiple stays and much help through various health woes); cakmpls and R.; jcbemis and fla_sunshine; Susan and Gavi; carnyjack; and batwranglerand her fluffy white dog. I really must remember to add at least Milo's paw-print to the book one of these times. Given the number of different dogs who have visited (and who I hope to host in the future), a doggy register might even be in order.

Total guest nights here: 53 with human-type folk, plus 9 with canines. Eight of the latter were of the unaccompanied canine variety.

That's well over 4.5 months spent with others both at home and away; it's rapidly closing on 5. Ah, yes, I am so very blessed.

Here's hoping for repeat visits and visitors again next year, along with several new ones to add to the good times spent with friends and loved ones in 2010.

Comments

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Middleton, MA* (many, many, and an extra long one, too)

:-)

[kim-huett.livejournal.com]

So far I've been outside of Canberra three times this century, twice on overnight trips.

Traveling

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

This strikes me as being truly a remarkable amount of traveling. (Louie and I spent six days on Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas and then spent the night at Judy's place in New Jersey on the way back. I know; this seems really trivial by comparison.) I hope you continue to enjoy your travels, and that they bring you back through Minneapolis at some point not too far in the future.

Nate

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Yes, you do get around, don't you? It's like you have a lot of friends or something.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Many thanks. You're so much a home away from home that a case could be made against me counting nights spent at your house as nights away from home at all.

Re: Traveling

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

The Bahamas never seem trivial to me. And, hey, if I remember correctly, you've been there twice; I've never been at all.

I do like traveling. For me, the big change has been that I am no longer flying -- only one flight this year, and I think only one the year before. The other large difference is that I often stay overnight with friends when I go over to Boston. You and Louie don't have someplace 75 miles away that you visit frequently. I tallied nearly three weeks in Middleton, MA between surgical recovery and the Ig Nobel Prize festivities alone.

Yes, I very much share your hopes for a Minneapolis visit before too much more time passes.

Bahamas

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Yes, we've been to the Bahamas twice, and Caryl and I went to Bermuda once in the early 1970s. If you have any intention of going to the Bahamas yourself, Louie and I will be glad to give you everything we've learned. (Staying at a rented cottage over the sea, but in a relatively rural part of an island -- in this case Eleuthera -- beats staying at a more resort-like resort by head, shoulders and feet. There wasn't even a paved road near where we stayed, so we had to drive our rental car very slowly and carefully. Spending the night in Nassau before catching the plane back to New Jersey was a total anticlimax; there is a certain sameness to English-speaking big cities that makes them hardly worth the trip.) In any event, I hope you can do a trip like ours someday.

Nate

Re: Bahamas

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

I'm going to add to that: "The English-speaking big cities that I have encountered." Quite likely I am being very hasty indeed, in imagining that cities in Australia, New Zealand and even the British isles would be quite as McDonaldized, quite as "cookie cutter," as the ones I have already visited. But since I have no current plans at visiting cities in those three areas, I may very well not have first hand experience any time soon with knowing better; my friends (and Geri's) will have to enlighten me.

Nate

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

It's our pleasure. You're an easy (and understanding) house guest.