2021 Wasn't Exactly Wonderful, But At Least Some of the Wander Returned
That January 2021 feeling: album cover photo shoot at Cheesman Park in Denver (Photo: Jessa Jensen)
*Post updated on July 30, 2022
Starting is always the hardest part, isn’t it? Taking that leap, acting on that big idea, staring at the blank page. But after you finally get the ball rolling, a new challenge materializes: keeping it rolling. It’s not enough to simply plant the seed; you’ve got to water it, make sure it has fertile soil to work with, give it a proper amount of sunlight. It can be a lot of work, but then again, nothing worth having comes easy, does it?
I feel as if that’s the approach I’ve had with All Things Wanderful these last few years. Ever since I kicked things off as Logan’s Run all the way back in spring 2016, and then began writing exclusively about travel roughly a year later, I’ve tried to stay consistent, publishing posts on a regular basis and constantly thinking of new things I can do to make this blog a space I am proud to share with other people.
There have been lulls along the way, times where just the thought of typing another word seemed like too much. And in those times, I’ve taken a step back, put things on pause for a little, reassessed why I do this and whether or not I want to keep doing it. But that’s just the thing: I keep coming back. I keep finding a reason to write more, share more, joke more, and to inform and (hopefully) entertain, which are my two ultimate goals whenever I add to the ever-growing catalogue of travel content contained within these digital halls.
The past year, thankfully, offered more opportunities and moments of inspiration to add to that catalogue. Whereas 2020 went down in the history books as the first year I failed to step foot on an airplane in a long, long time, I practically burst out of the gates in 2021, getting things started with my second-ever trip out to Colorado in January for a four-day mountain getaway.
A weekend in Cincinnati for a wedding came in April, followed by a quick jaunt to St. Louis, a ride on the tiniest plane that ever there was, and popping my Las Vegas cherry in May. Summertime brought beach days in Chicago and Manistee, a quick trip to Detroit to see the Tigers, and an end-of-August excursion to Six Flags Great America in Gurney, Illinois. And then came football season, which brought trips to Ann Arbor (to see the boys in maize and blue thump Northern Illinois) in September and College Park, Maryland (to witness an equally-thrilling thrashing of the Terps) in November.
Finally, in early December, I closed out the year with an extended-weekend birthday trip to Oklahoma City to see my youngest brother, who had moved out to the Sooner State just six weeks earlier.
Thus, from a travel perspective, it was a fairly normal year — certainly eons better than 2020, during which I hardly wandered at all. Behind the scenes, it was also a really good year for the blog. It may have even been the best yet, truth be told. In terms of the metrics that count, 2021 absolutely blew both of the previous years out of the water.
The final tallies for unique visitors (4,561), overall visits (5,077), and page views (6,938) were significantly better than those seen in 2020 (3,005 unique visitors; 3,448 visits; and 5,650 page views), which was a down year as compared to 2019. Looking back at the numbers from even earlier years, which I won’t bore you with here, the growth the blog has seen since 2016/2017 is obvious. And it’s a trend I’ll be working hard to continue as we trek onward.
But while I’m busy worrying about that, and looking ahead to all the wanderful things that await in 2022, maybe you’ll take a moment to look back at 2021’s highlights. As just evidenced, it was an amazing year for All Things Wanderful, and these were the five most popular posts (clicking each image will open the original post in a new tab):
5. What It’s Like to Fly Over Lake Michigan in a 9-Seater (& How You Can, Too!)
Cape Air, headquartered in Barnstable, Massachusetts, still flies planes of a certain age, like this Cessna 402C
-published May 20
I’ve been on small planes before, but none quite like the Cessna 402C that Cape Air uses to ferry passengers back and forth between Chicago and my hometown of Manistee, Michigan. In the middle of May, I opted to fly back home from the Windy City for the first time since moving to Illinois in summer 2020.
The experience of being crammed inside a tiny plane along with seven or eight others was apparently so enjoyable that I wound up doing it another couple times later on in the year. It’s probably not for everyone, but if you can handle the cramped quarters, it’s surely something to knock off the list.
An excerpt: “While Cape Air has hubs in cities like Boston, St. Louis, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, they also provide service to smaller, rural airports. One of those happens to be Manistee County Blacker Airport, which can be found along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, just outside the city of Manistee. Cape Air is the only carrier flying out of Manistee these days, and they only taxi travelers to and from one destination: Chicago.”
4. To Airbnb, or Not to Airbnb? It Isn’t Even a Question: The Best Airbnb’s I’ve Ever Stayed At
This Airbnb cabin rental in Bailey, Colorado, comes with morning mountain views that are hard to beat (Photo: Melissa Oliver)
-published Feb. 11
On the hunt for something to write about in the early part of the year — and fresh off a trip to Colorado during which friends and I stayed at a rather lovely Airbnb in the mountains — I decided it was just about time I shared with everyone a solid list of my favorite stays on the original rent-a-place-from-a-stranger website (the modern original, at least).
I’ve stayed at more than a dozen Airbnb’s since 2015. Thankfully, there’s only been one that was a complete and utter disaster during that entire stretch. We won’t go into the details, but Airbnb ended up giving me a credit after I explained the situation, so props to them. Any who, we’re not here to talk about the bad ones; this post was all about the best ones!
An excerpt: “Over the past few years, I’ve stayed at a number of Airbnbs in a number of different places, from the smog-filled skies of Los Angeles to the solitary mountains of Vermont, and beyond. Not every experience has been a good one, but that’s why it’s important to do your homework. If you read the host’s bio, look through all the photos, peruse previous guests’ reviews, and find out if the property’s general location is near where you’re trying to be, etc. etc., you should end up staying at a killer spot.”
3. Vegas Vibin’: Three Days of Downright Debauchery in Sin City
(Photo: Grant Cai)
-published June 29
Despite the name of this post, which chronicles a trip my two younger brothers and I took to Las Vegas toward the end of May, the debauchery was fairly tame. It primarily consisted of drinking copious amounts of alcohol and making nightly donations at the casino of our choice. But that’s not all we did in Vegas.
The entire trip was the culmination of a long-simmering idea that we would do something big and grand for my youngest brother’s 21st birthday. The pandemic messed up the details to some degree, but after years of talking about it, we made it happen. And though it wasn’t perfect in every way, that just means we’ve got room for improvement on the next siblings’ trip, right?
An excerpt: “It was a joke. Kind of. But as his 21st got closer and closer, my resolve grew: we were going to do it. Well, we were going to do something, anyway. I told him we didn’t necessarily need to go to San Diego; we could take a trip wherever his little heart desired. Somehow, some way, we landed on Vegas. Yes, Sin City was going to be the one.”
2. The Other Las Vegas: A Taste of the Old West in New Mexico
The Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico, can be found in the center of the city’s Old Town (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
-published April 9
Before we set our eyes on the most well-known Las Vegas in all the land, I was doing a little digging on some other cities/places that share the same name. It turns out there are six other spots around the world that bear Sin City’s infamous moniker, one of them being Las Vegas, New Mexico, which is actually older than the Nevadan version.
Now, why would I be drawn to write about a place I haven’t actually visited? The answer is simple, actually: because this blog isn’t just about documenting my experiences; it’s also about sharing content that could inspire your next trip (or mine!). Plus, I love discovering, falling in love with, and adding new destinations to my never-ending travel bucket list.
An excerpt: “Found less than 600 miles east of its Nevadan cousin, Las Vegas, New Mexico, is actually the older of the two American cities. Established all the way back in 1835, New Mexico’s version of Sin City isn’t known for flashy casinos, barely-remembered nights of debauchery, or shotgun weddings; it’s calling card has much more to do with its historical ties to the Old American West.”
1. Skiing at Colorado’s Keystone Resort: 21 Do’s & Don’t’s
Picturesque views await around every turn at Keystone Resort
-published Jan. 29
A trip out to Colorado just three weeks into the new year is what inspired the most popular post on All Things Wanderful in 2021, which wound up being a fun little ditty about staying safe up on the mountain. And, truly, who doesn’t love helpful pointers delivered in (at least what I surmise to be) an entertaining way?
The friends who journeyed to the Centennial State with me inspired most, if not all, of the items that ultimately made their way onto this list. And we have to give a shout-out to Jess on this one, not only because we feel awful that she tore her ACL at Keystone, but also because she helped amplify these do’s and don’t’s on her social medias, likely leading them to land right here at No. 1 for 2021.
An excerpt: “Skiing in Colorado — there is absolutely, without-a-doubt, no-buts-about-it nothing anywhere else in the world that compares. And you can take that one to the bank. With world-class slopes, seemingly endless ski resorts and all the fresh pow (that is, snow) one could ever dream of come wintertime, the Centennial State is an unparalleled cold-weather destination.”
~~~
We may have some more uncertainty ahead, but if we make like Dory and just keep swimming, I’m sure I’ll see you right here, same bat-time, same bat-channel, to do it all again at the end of 2022.
-LTH
*P.S. You can take a peek back at the end-of-year posts from previous years by clicking on these links: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.