2023, Won't You Wander With Me? The Final Epistle From a Travel-Filled Missile
Hard to bet against a snow-covered mountain
Look, I get it. You saw the title of this post and had the same reaction any reasonable person would: “da fuq?” I can’t blame you for that; I’m not even sure it makes sense in my own head. But you know what this is — this annual writeup distilling a year’s worth of wandering down to a few meager paragraphs — so does it really have to make sense? Just play along and you’ll be fine.
The year 2023, with all of its ups and downs, peaks and valleys, and trials and tribulations, has come and gone — as has another 365 days here on All Things Wanderful. So now it’s time to take stock. What caught people’s attention? What fell flat on its face? Were you, the loyal readers of this increasingly-sporadic travel blog, entertained, or at least mildly amused? Did you find the content contained within this digital rambling wreck informational? Enlightening? Perhaps even erudite?
The numbers, which continue to grow year-over-year, would suggest something is sticking. I published just ten posts the entire year, and yet the amount of visits (+8%), unique visitors (+8%), and page views (+5%) beat out the previous year by decent margins. And let’s not forget: 2022 was a whizzbang year here on the blog. So edging out those figures is impressive — especially considering how little attention I gave the blog in 2023.
But it appears I don’t have to do as much to get people to keep coming back. A vast majority of readers were once again consuming older content, with 2023’s best-performing post (see below) actually coming in seventh overall, behind strong showings from these weathered gems:
The Northernmost Point of the Continental U.S. ...Is Only Accessible Via Canada? (Aug. 31, 2021)
Mirror, Mirror On the Wall, Which Great Lake is the Greatest of All? — The Great Lakes, Ranked (May 13, 2019)
7 Social Norms From Around the Globe That May Seem Strange to Americans (May 30, 2019)
The Legendary Lodge on the California-Nevada Border That's Trying to Make a Comeback (July 17, 2020)
The Michigan Day Trip Tour, No. 2: Kayaking on the Little Manistee (July 16, 2019)
The Unassailable Allure of the Great Ghost Trains of Maine (Sept. 6, 2022)
And that’s all fine and dandy, honestly. Aside from trip log-type posts, most of what I write here is meant to be evergreen. So it’s actually kind of a proud dad moment to see the older stuff continuing to do well and drive traffic to the site. Neat-o, gang.
But let’s get back to 2023, which is the real reason we’re here. It was a year that saw me crisscross the country, both by car and by plane. We got started in late January/early February with a week spent down in Key West, Florida, which essentially put me behind the eight ball in terms of PTO for the remainder of the year. But whatever, you know? We do it for the kids.
Next up was a return, finally, to New York City, which I hadn’t set foot in since December 2016. My visit there in April may have been brief — roughly 36 hours — but, as always, the agenda was packed and we made a lot happen (shout out to William for being the best city guide every time I visit the Big Apple).
A month later, a friend and I embarked on a road trip from Chicago to Oklahoma City, which would be the first of a pair of trips for me out to the Sooner State within a span of five months. On the way there in May, I got my first taste of Kansas, where we stopped to take in the beauty of the Flint Hills and then for a midday meal in downtown Wichita. Coming back a few days later, we took a different route so we could see a couple of landmarks along Historic Route 66. A pitstop for brunch in Fayetteville, Arkansas — my first time in that state, as well — also made its way onto the docket.
June brought a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, for another friend’s 30th birthday. For some raisin, I never wrote about that little excursion, during which we hiked on the Alum Cave Trail up to Arch Rock; swam in The Sinks; and did a little bit of moonshine tasting at Ole Smoky Distillery. Is it too late to recount these adventures now? Not necessarily, but I don’t know that I will at this point.
Travel-wise, Gatlinburg was the highlight of the summer, and it wasn’t until October that I set off again — this time to Minneapolis. I hadn’t visited Minnesota since I was 11 years old, a fateful family vacation with the Mall of America at its center, during which the hotel maid mistook my blankie (or, more appropriately, what was left of it) for an old rag and tossed it while we were out and about. This time, I was there for a Michigan football game, but the day after afforded a stop at George Floyd Square, prompting a photo essay.
Later in October, it was back to OKC to help my brother drive his stuff across the heartland to Chicago, where he would move in with me a couple weeks thenceforth (there’s a word I bet you didn’t have on your Bingo card). On the way back we stayed a night in Kansas City, Missouri, donning some gnarly costumes as we hit the town for Halloween weekend.
Finally, in December, it was time to celebrate my own dirty thirty with a trip out to Seattle. I wanted to do a ski trip and had considered other destinations, but adding a third new state to my 2023 travels was too tempting. Said skiing took place at Crystal Mountain Resort, an absolutely beautiful spot about two hours southeast of Seattle. The only issue was that it was so early in the season that they only had a couple of runs open (#sad). But that view from the summit though!
Oddly enough, I didn’t write about skiing out in Washington, but about getting the chance to see a few “Twin Peaks” landmarks up close and personal instead. Having lunch at the real-life Double R Diner was easily one of my favorite moments out West.
My only regret, travel-wise, for 2023 is that I did not take any international trips. One of the dirty thirty birthday ski trip destinations I considered was Banff, but asking people to shell out that kind of dough just didn’t feel right. Other than that, nothing else was necessarily on the radar — at least, not in any real way. It’s very possible 2024 will see me leave the confines of the ole U.S. of A., and if that happens, you know it will be covered right here on All Things Wanderful.
But hey, let’s close out last year by taking a look back at the top five posts published in 2023, huh? (Click the image to open each post in a new tab.)
A monument punctuated by the raised fist of the Black Lives Matter movement marks the northern entrance into George Perry Floyd Square
5. Minneapolis’ George Floyd Square is a Reminder of How Far We Still Have to Go
-published Oct. 15
In early October, I traveled with my brother and a friend to the Land of 10,000 Lakes to see my Michigan Wolverines take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers in a primetime pigskin matchup. The following day, after my traveling companions had departed, I had several hours to kill on my own before my evening flight. As it turned out, our Airbnb was only about a 20-minute walk from George Perry Floyd Square — the site where a man was murdered and a movement took hold in 2020.
To go there now is to be served with a reminder of what transpired in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police on that fateful May day. Although there is much I could have said on this topic, I thought a photo essay would be the best way to help readers transport themselves to this place. Nothing can replace visiting for yourself, of course, but hopefully this post does it some justice.
An excerpt: “Today, at the site where Floyd was killed, at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and E. 38th Street in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Park neighborhood, reminders of what happened on that fateful May 2020 day, along with the movement that rose up in his name and the names of so many other Black Americans whose lives were taken too soon, are everywhere. Officially designated George Perry Floyd Square by the city in 2022, the multi-block memorial is a place for reflection and self-examination, and serves as a call to action for how much further we have to go as a country to combat racism.”
No, Dorothy, we are in Kansas this time
4. The Flint Hills of Kansas Will Shatter Your Definition of Wide Open Spaces
-published May 21
In 2023, I had the opportunity to visit three new states (!): Kansas and Arkansas in May, and then Washington in December. Although my time in Kansas (and Arkansas a few days later) was brief, it did afford me a stop in the Flint Hills, the largest remaining intact tallgrass prairie not only in the United States, but in the entire world (I know, right?!).
You may say, “But Logan H., it’s literally just a bunch of grass that seems to go on forever.” And to that I would say: “Exactly!” The truth is that you cannot fully appreciate the Flint Hills of Kansas without experiencing them firsthand. There are no houses or restaurants or shops or hotels; no billboards or gas stations or convenience stores — heck, there aren’t even any trees. It’s just green, green grass as far as the eye can see. And it is beautiful.
An excerpt: “I’m from Michigan, and we have plenty of green space up that way, but the Flint Hills of Kansas are on another level. Stretching from northern Kansas down into a portion of Oklahoma, the area feels kind of like Mars — if Mars was covered in vast, green fields and dotted here and there with groups of black specks that your brain immediately recognizes as cattle (even though they are so far away, it’s impossible to make out any distinguishing features).”
The Manhattan Bridge stretches across the East River in New York City
3. No Matter How Many Times You’ve Been, New York City is Always a New Adventure
-published May 1
With this trip to New York City in April 2023, I have now visited the Big Apple in every season except autumn. The first time was in August 2015, just before my senior year of college kicked off. It was hot. I saw Ground Zero in person. We took a boat tour around the island of Manhattan. I bought underwear.
Then came a trip in December 2016, when I was working as an intern for MLive. It was cold. I went to my second-ever silent disco. We stopped and saw the big tree in Rockefeller Center. I was dazzled by holiday light displays in Brooklyn.
And then it was 2023’s turn — my first time seeing the city in springtime. It was brisk. I took in a new-to-me view from the Edge. We ate fancy Mediterranean food. I journeyed to the cosmos at Hall des Lumiéres. It was, as always, a unique adventure.
An excerpt: “But here’s the thing about New York: there’s always a new adventure to be had. That is even the case when you only have roughly 36 hours to spend in America’s largest city, needing to cram a number of stops and activities into a short amount of time. But under those kinds of time constraints, what can you feasibly make happen? Well, let me tell you…”
Those damn tourists, am I right?
2. No Stress in Key West: Soaking Up the Sun on Ernest Hemingway’s Erstwhile Island Home
-published March 27
Ahh, the first big trip of the year — and a much-needed escape from the harsh cold fronts blowing their way across the Midwest in early February. I know Key West is a major tourist trap, and that it’s more suited for older folks and families, but I needed to see the place Hemingway once called home at least once in my life before the whole damn thing gets swallowed up by the ocean, you know?
This post recaps much of the time we spent there, but funnily enough doesn’t mention the day we popped over to Ernest’s for tea and crumpets. Kidding, of course, but his former home on Key West is now a museum, for all intents and purposes, and for a small fee, you can walk in the halls and rooms he trod all those decades ago. It was a nifty experience, if I do say so myself (and I do say so).
An excerpt: “So there we were, having come from Northern Michigan, Oklahoma, and Chicago, plopped down at the end of the line, the last spit of land at the very bottom of the continental United States. The weather? Sunny and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, or thereabouts, nearly every single day. The Airbnb rental? Centrally located, within walking distance (roughly 20 minutes or less) of just about anywhere you’d want to go. The possibilities to create core memories? Infinite.”
The Diomedes might be the most unique pair of islands in the world
1. This Pair of Islands in the Bering Strait is Where Yesterday Meets Tomorrow
-published Feb. 10
All right, I’m just gonna come out and say it: it’s a little cheap that the first post published in 2023 is the one that garnered the most views. I mean, come on, it had such a head start on the others! But in all seriousness, a good portion of those views came much later in the year, when other posts had the same opportunity to attract their own eyeballs.
I don’t really recall how I got the idea to write about the Diomedes, but you’ve got to admit they may be the most unique pair of islands out there. They are separated by just two miles, but can simultaneously be considered a world apart, sitting on opposite sides of the International Date Line, as they do — not to mention the larger island is owned by Russia, and the smaller by the U.S. Wild stuff, I tell you, wild stuff.
An excerpt: “…although Big Diomede sits to the west of Little Diomede, the line demarcating where ‘east’ ends and ‘west’ begins is right in between, meaning Big Diomede is as far east as east goes. Little Diomede, it follows, is as far west as west goes. But when you’re looking at them straight on from above — the satellite view, if you will — the larger island is physically west of the smaller. Let me say that again (but in a different way): the island that is as far east as east goes (Big Diomede) is found west of the island that is as far west as west goes (Little Diomede).”
~~~
Keeping up with this blog can be challenging at times. I think these past two years, during which I collectively published just 24 posts (excluding the end-of-year write-ups), is a testament to that. But I still take pride in what I put out into the world, and I hope whoever is out there reading this or any of my other content is able to get something out of it. Because that’s the whole point!
And with that in mind, I would like to commit, right here, right now, to writing at least a dozen posts in 2024. Just one a month. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Well, we’ll see who has the last laugh, I suppose.
Cheers to another year of wandering, my friends.
-LTH
*P.S. Take a peek back at the end-of-year posts from previous years by clicking on these links: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017.