We Rolled Out 'All Things Wanderful' — And Then 2020 Happened
Leaving 2020 in the rearview mirror
I’m sure everybody else is saying it, too, but I just gotta do it: What. A. Year. Whew, okay, that felt good. You know what hasn’t been good, though, especially for travel fiends like myself? This godforsaken year that began with such promise.
Do you remember last December (I know, I’m sorry) when that meme showing the dates of the holidays in 2020 was going around? Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and New Year’s Day on Fridays, the Fourth of July and Halloween on Saturdays? The implication that the stars were in alignment for a pretty sexy year with plenty of good things in store? So yeah, about that…
2020 allowed us the illusion, for a couple months anyway, that it was going to play nice and let us all chase after our goals and dream big and all of that good stuff. But then March came along, bringing the pandemic with it. The NBA postponed its season. The NCAA cancelled March Madness. The travel restrictions came down. Everyone’s home turned into a quarantine bunker, and we endured a year that, at this point, seems to have gone by in a flash.
But we all know the truth: it was a long, hard slog to get here. It was schools scrambling to figure out remote learning on the fly. It was parents pulling their hair out, trying to concentrate on their 3,759th Zoom meeting as the kids found every possible way to be distracting. It was countless weekend nights spent at home, wondering which board game you should play for the umpteenth time. It was sacrificing time with loved ones just to keep them safe.
Pretty much all of it was, and continues to be, a nightmare. We may have a light at the end of the tunnel now with the vaccines rolling out, but life isn’t going to return to “normal” for months yet.
Aside from the pandemic, the year is personally ending for me on a pretty sour note. I’ll spare you the details, but trust me when I say heartbreak sucks whether you’re 18 or 27 or, I’d imagine, 65. Also trust me when I say that having friends to turn to in difficult times is absolutely vital for your mental health. I’m lucky to have the friends that I do, and I’m super appreciative of them allowing me to talk their ears off about my troubles these last few weeks.
But hey! You want to hear something positive? Even though 2020 absolutely sucked, I still managed to pull off the rebranding of this blog and write fairly consistent posts throughout the year. Some months were lean (looking at you, April, May, and August), others were fat (what’s up, January, February, and September?), and the rest were somewhere in between. However, for the first time ever, there was not a single month that saw five or more posts published.
Looking back at previous years, I sometimes wonder how in the world I ever wrote that much in a single month. When you think about it, five posts in a roughly four-week span means you’re putting something new out into the universe about every five to six days.
The way I operate, it typically takes a day or two (or three) to cobble a post together. Once I have all the photos I want to include, and I’ve tagged the post with all of the tags I can possibly think of, and I’ve updated the newsletter (which you can sign up for by scrolling toward the bottom of any page on this site), and blasted the new content on the social medias — well, it’s just about damn time to get started on the next one, isn’t it?
To make sure I didn’t attempt blogging myself to death — especially in a year where I essentially didn’t travel at all — I basically gave myself the liberty to write as much or as little as I wanted. If I only had the energy and motivation to get a single post up in the span of thirty or so days, well so be it. Why force myself to stick to a rigid blogging schedule when all that would do is cause me unnecessary stress during an already anxiety-inducing year?
The question answers itself, my friends. But it also begs another: how did All Things Wanderful do, statistically speaking, when I was posting as sporadically as I was? While I’d like to think people were sitting on the edges of their seats, just waiting and wondering and agonizing as they clicked the refresh button a thousand times, dying for new content to appear, I’m guessing the average bear hardly noticed how often I was or wasn’t sharing fresh blog posts.
Let’s see what story the numbers tell, though, shall we? As of 11 a.m. (Eastern) on Tuesday, Dec. 29th, 2020, All Things Wanderful has seen 3,247 visitors; has gotten 3,260 unique visits; and has amassed 5,537 page views this calendar year. Compared to 2019, that is an 8% increase in visitors, but represents 2% and 10% drops, respectively, in unique visits and page views.
So… ouch, that hurts a little bit. It’s actually the first time the site has seen a decline in any of those categories, year over year, since this whole thing got off the ground in early 2016. Ah well, not every year can be a winner, can it? This one certainly wasn’t.
Even so, 2020 still had some winning posts, if you will. Of the 31 write-ups that hit All Things Wanderful this year (excluding this one), these were the most popular with readers (clicking the photos will open the original piece in a new window):
5. How to Get to Greenland Without Taking Out a Second Mortgage on Your House
Part of the harbor in Nuuk, Greenland (Photo: Filip Gielda)
— published Feb. 26
Less-common destinations have always held special sway with me, and the icy reaches of Greenland are no exception. The world’s largest island/floating ice chunk is definitely a place I’d like to visit someday. The only problem? Traveling there is expensive.
That could change as the island nation’s tourism industry expands — but you always have to wonder about the environmental/cultural cost of that expansion. Tourism can be an economic boon, sure, but overtourism can turn into a very real problem, too.
An excerpt: “For a variety of reasons, some destinations are still overwhelmingly expensive to travel to, and one such place that falls under this category is Greenland. The number of visitors making their way to the massive chunk of ice that constitutes the world’s largest island has been growing in recent years, but Greenland’s tourism industry is still young, and, consequently, the cost of getting there is still fairly high.”
4. Should You Take Advantage of Cheap Flights During a Global Health Crisis?
(Photo: Tom Arrowsmith)
— published March 13
This time-sensitive (see: outdated) post from the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak here in the U.S. was more or less a digital readout of the thought process I personally went through in deciding whether or not to get my hands on cheaper airfare as the End of the World began.
So did I decide to risk it for the biscuit in 2020? A writeup I posted a bit later in the year — “Being a Travel Blogger in a Year Without Travel” — should give you the answer to that question, as should the following fact: 2020 is officially the first full-calendar year since 2013 that I didn’t set foot on an airplane.
An excerpt: “So let’s say you are a spritely fellow or gal, raring to book a cheap flight to the suddenly-affordable destination of your dreams (or maybe the fourth or fifth option on your travel bucket list). What else is there to consider? Well, who do you come in contact with on a regular basis? Are your grandparents still around/in your life? Do you work somewhere that elderly folks frequent or reside, such as a nursing home or a senior center? Who might you pass the virus onto, if you were to contract it while traveling?”
3. Japan is a Winter Wonderland — Here are 7 Destinations to Prove It
Traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of them 250 years old, populate the mountainside village of Shirakawa-gō (Photo: Fabian Mardi)
— published Nov. 27
During the week of Thanksgiving, it dawned on me that I had never written anything about Japan on this site. The obvious reason for this is that I’ve never been there — but when has that stopped me from writing about other places I’ve yet to experience firsthand?
It didn’t stop me from writing about national parks in southern Africa; it didn’t stop me from writing about a tiny mountain village in Kyrgyzstan; and it wasn’t going to stop me from writing about Japan, one of the world’s premiere cold-weather destinations. Don’t worry, I’ll get there someday and you’ll hear all about it right here on All Things Wanderful.
An excerpt: “Getting the true winter experience in Japan requires traveling outside of the city and into the countryside, where a truly snow globe-like experience awaits. If you don’t know a thing about the island nation, don’t worry: I did the hard work for you (well, part of it at least). After cross-referencing several “best-of” lists, I came up with this collection of destinations which proves one thing above all else, and that is the fact that Japan truly is a winter wonderland.”
2. Why You Shouldn’t Go on a Cruise Even When (If?) They Start Running Again
(Photo: Kellie Klumb)
— published April 1
People who go on cruises are just the worst, aren’t they? As comedian Bill Burr once said: “Think about the kinds of people that take a cruise. These aren’t forward thinkers; these aren’t seekers; they’re not pivotal to our survival. You ever hear somebody coming back from a cruise? It’s one of the worst stories you’re ever gonna hear.”
Burr shares those words during the lead up to his “final solution” of randomly sinking cruise ships to help the world deal with overpopulation. Whether you think it’s funny or offensive (I mean, the guy is literally joking about genocide), the negative impact that gigantic cruise ships have on the environment is no joke at all, which is the reason I wrote this plea to let the industry die out.
An excerpt: “Many of us who travel frequently (or who at least try to travel as often as possible) are aware that every time we hop in a car, step on a plane, or climb aboard a boat, our actions are impacting the environment — and not in a good way. While vehicles produce about one-third of all U.S. air pollution and airplanes are also known to emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide, it is cruise ships — the very huge kind, in particular — that do some of the worst damage.”
1. 5 Michigan Locations Associated with Creepy Urban Legends
The Old Presque Isle Lighthouse (Photo: Flickr)
— published June 19
Urban legends really get people going apparently, but I can’t take all the credit for this year’s most popular post. The idea actually came from a friend and former coworker of mine named Dylan, who came up with a nearly identical list of places around the Great Lakes State for a “Top 5” segment on the morning news show we previously worked on together.
Michigan is full of mysteries, especially those of a maritime nature, but the one story that has always struck a chord with me is the tale of the Dogman. I’m not sure if Dylan’s original list included the seven-foot-tall creature that supposedly roams somewhere in the north woods’ darkness, but the version of the list published here on All Things Wanderful definitely includes mention of our legendary, four-legged friend.
An excerpt: “From the otherworldly spirits haunting Michigan’s lighthouses to the mythical Dogman lurking somewhere in the north woods’ darkness, the Great Lakes State is a treasure trove full of ghost stories and urban legends. The Great Lakes are intriguing in and of themselves, their rough waters having claimed numerous ships over the years, but the tales creep inland, as well, giving residents of the mitten plenty to talk about around the campfire late at night.”
~~~
I feel like I say something similar to this at the end of every one of these yearly roundups, but let me put a little extra oomph on it this time around: HERE’S HOPING 2021 IS THE YEAR THAT BRINGS US BACK FROM THE BRINK. Peace, love, and blessings to all.
-LTH
*Feeling nostalgic? You can always check out the previous year-end posts from All Things Wanderful (formerly Logan’s Run) by clicking one of these links right here: 2017, 2018, 2019.