A big thanks to BootsnAll

Since early in 2007, BootsnAll.com has hosted this blog for free. Today all that changes.

In high school and college I never knew anyone that had or even wanted to throw a few possessions in their backpack and head out for a few months to a foreign land. Call me sheltered, but at the time I wondered if people even did this sort of thing. When I started to float the idea with family and friends, most of them never knew either.

Enter BootsnAll and their community of friendly travelers. Their message boards are filled with like-minded folks who are happy to lend help with an itinerary or packing list.

I’ve always felt indebted to the community Sean Keener and Chris Heidrich have created. They helped me become the traveler that I am, and in turn the writer that travel birthed. BootsnAll published one of my first online stories. It was about hiking in New Zealand and is still up on their site. I would link to the story when querying other publications back when my stable of clips was pretty empty.

They are one of the first who I pitched my “Where Am I Wearing?” concept to and the very first to get behind the idea. They named me as one of their Rogue Travelers of 2007. The honor came with free blog hosting and some promo.

Their promo efforts led to a literary agent contacting me before the trip and got the wheels in motion that eventually led to the book.

I’m somewhat torn about moving the blog. Their service has been great. But a lot of the fancy features you see here couldn’t be incorporated on the old blog.

Even though the blog has been moved, I will still be an active member of the BootsnAll community. Anyone that is thinking about planning a trip, longing for their next one, or wants to swap travel tales should join the community.

Maybe I’ll see you there. I’m “The Touron King.”

(You might also want to checkout my most recent contribution to BootsnAll where I link to great travel stories other traveler’s have written about the countries I visit in Where Am I Wearing?)