Twenty Questions (E18): Where I Find Inspiration

Oftentimes, someone else's post sparks something inside of me; sometimes its an emotion, or an idea for a post of my own, or inspiration about something like travel, saving money, books or life. For this list of twenty, in no particular order, here are 20 blog posts from around the interwebs that have made me go hmmmm for one reason or other. 

TRAVEL

1. Melissa always does great travel recap posts, but I especially liked the one about some of the things she will do next time she makes it back to Paris. She also has posts about what she DID do when she was there last. I have bookmarked all of them for future reference. In fact, just check out her travel category in general if you are looking for ideas. 

2. Another blogger with a good travel category is Birchie. She has decided to see all of the state capitals, and their capitol buildings, and their flags. She also has many other interesting round ups about hikes, bike rides, Frank Lloyd Wright and Hitchcock. 

3. Another world traveler is Coco, who does multi-year long stints abroad for her job, and has lived in several different places around the world (and is "picking up" Portuguese now that she is living in Brazil). I really enjoyed her post about Raja Ampat, which is a place I also have on my list! 

4. If you ever are headed to Nova Scotia, check out Elisabeth's posts about her home turf. She is a walking NS guide! She also just started a multi month European trip, and will have plenty more travel fodder coming up soon. I can't wait to get some future travel ideas from her adventures! 

5. Toot, toot! If you didn't guess by my blog title, I also like to travel! :) You can find my jumping off page here for a list of where I have been with links to some of the destinations! Or for the TLDR, here is the best of 2024 or best of 2025 to get you started. 

LIFE

6. Birchie's post about how she is feeling so far about retirement. This is definitely something I could talk about and relate to! I am waiting for episode two to hear how she is feeling now (a couple of months past the last post).  

7. San's post about friendship (which was inspired by Rachel's post about friendship), and how hard it can often be to make and keep good friends in your vicinity. I definitely relate to this, especially as I move around the world. The life of a nomad can be hard in that aspect sometimes! 

8. One of the early posts I read of Rachel's was of her thoughts on the usage of phones at the dinner table. She actually has a lot of thought provoking posts about smart phones and life. The funny thing is that when I was staying with her, we were at the dining table having tea (the drink, not the meal), and I pulled out my phone to look something up, not realized that "at the dinner table" meant "any time you are sitting at the table" and she asked me to please put my phone away or take it somewhere else. I 100% support her request and I felt bad for breaking a rule that I was fully aware of! 

BOOKS

9. Engie talks a lot about books. She even hosts an online (cool bloggers) book club a couple of times a year, and she puts a lot of effort into moderating it, with questions, quotes and plenty of mentions of hats! She also does a lot of reading challenges, but my favorite are her monthly wrap ups, where I often get ideas for future reads. 

10. I love a good wrap up, and Birchie's year end book reviews are right up my alley. A fellow Excel nerd, and lover of analysis, she keeps track of her books throughout the entire year in order to give us this yearly list. She also does a TLDR shoutout at the top, so if you don't feel like reading the entire list, you can still get some good ideas from the summary. 

11. Lisa's blog is private at the moment, but if you have access, you will know that she is a reader to no end, so much so that she and her boys go to the library nearly every weekend, and the boys get stacks and stacks of books to read. I also love that she has the same first world problem that I do, and that is that you can never have enough books on hold! I don't know what she will do once her kids get old enough to want their own eBook holds! If you just have time for one post, check out her Best Books of Years Past post. 

12. Elisabeth reads a lot more non-fiction than I do, but I get a lot of good ideas from her nonetheless. Also, I enjoy her yearly wrap up, and she separates it out into non-fiction and fiction in case you like one more than the other. 

13. Stephany and I are thriller twins. Usually if she likes it, I will like it. Her monthly wrap ups and annual reviews are super organized and have tons of fun stats and charts and are a joy to read. 

14. Julie has a ton of book reviews on her blog, and she does a great job reviewing them consistently (which I strive to do better). If you are looking for ideas, you will find a lot of them on her site! She reads all kinds of things, so there is a book for everyone there. 

LISTS

15. I love Michelle's 101 things in 1001 days list! It inspires me to make one of my own. I definitely have way more than 101 things and I do have lists of things, activities, places etc. that I want to do, but I need to organize it better into a cohesive list for sure. 

16. Suzanne's list of 20 lists that she could have done for Engie's 20th anniversary. Funny, I forgotten that I had bookmarked this, and it would have been a great resource for my own 20 list project, but I didn't remember I had it. However, I did accidentally do a couple of these anyway (peeves, 20 year old me) and I will be using the last one on her list next week, so stay tuned! 

17. Tobia also has a 101 things in 1001 days list and actually she is on her third iteration of this list! I love that this means she has already done over 202 things that are important to her. I think we all should aspire to make one of these lists and get started working on it! If you are not sure what things you want to try, you can get plenty of ideas here! 

LAUGHS

18. This post by Nance about backing into parking spots made me giggle, but also inspired me to write an entire full post about the subject, which I have scheduled for a future day when this list project is over, so stay tuned! 

19. Most posts by Nicole, but I like it when she talks about menopause or her honeypot, as those ones are always good for a laugh. She has a way of telling a story that makes you giggle and also want to hear more stories. She can talk about a book I read and didn't even like and I am still entertained. 

20. Argh, I ran out of numbers, so this will be a double header. If you want to laugh about stories in the life of a busy person, look no further than either Ernie or Kae's blogs. Both are busy working mothers, although they are in definitely different places in their lives. Ernie is a mother of eight(!!), including two adopted kids, and spends her days watching toddlers for a living. Kae is a mother of two teenage boys, one of whom is headed to college soon, and both of whom have various sports and events happening in life. I am awed at both of these strong women! Ernie's last post was aptly called 5 Eff-Ups Friday, and I enjoyed Kae's February recap in which she asks, "did February actually happen?" 

Obviously there are so many more of you who I get inspiration from, but I would need a list of 100 (or more! Maybe 101 blogs to read in the next 1001 days?) to list them all. So, even if you are not featured on today's list, I am still following along and am inspired by you! 

What or who has inspired you lately? 

The Cool Bloggers Walking Club: October 2025

Happy Halloween! As you may know, every April and October, Elisabeth invites us to join her in walking at least 10 minutes every day of the month. She also kindly compiles and summarizes everyone's walks each week! Here are her recaps if you have not seen them. She does a really great job keeping up with it all! Go Time, Week One, Week Two, Week Three and...Week Four and Final Recap coming soon!

In October, I love looking at the fall colors that everyone is posting around the world. Last year, if you recall, I was actually in Canada with Elisabeth for a while and then in Washington after that, and in both places, the colors were great! I can't believe that it has already been a year since then. 

This year, I was inspired to do some hiking in a place I have been considering for quite a while and that was...Scotland. You may recall me talking about the midges? And not wanting to hike in August in the Highlands because of them? Well, I decided to wait until they were gone. However, you never know what weather you are going to get when you are in Scotland, especially in October! I did experience Hurricane Amy, where the winds were anywhere from 40-90 mph depending on where you were, and actually I was out hiking and was going to camp but I got the cutest little glamping pod instead (not that it would save me if a tree came down, but I felt more secure!) and I am happy to report that I survived the night. 

YES that is MPH not Km! 
(if you can't see it, it says...one sec...)

81 MPH! (I don't think it got that bad where I was)

                                    

Drying out in my pod!

So, without further ado, here are the stats and photos from a month of hiking in Scotland (and a little bit of the Lakes District at the very end). 

1. Linlithgow
2. Great Glen Way
3. A Wee Frog
4. Drumnadrochit cows
5. Huge Shroom
6. Affric Kintail Way

1. Loch Beag
2. Trotternish Ridge, Isle of Skye
3. Cape Wrath Trail
4. The bogs and the fog (near Lochan a'Mhain)
5. Post Box near Shiel Bridge
6. Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye

Various Views along the West Highland Way

1. Dollar Castle
2. St. Giles Cathedral
3. Lake District
4. Glasgow
5. John Muir Way
6. My 2024 Mantra (Glasgow)

Walk at least 10 minutes per day: ✔

Daily steps average: 29,000

Daily miles average: 11

Trails walked: Great Glen Way (partial), Affric Kintail (full), Skye (partial), Cape Wrath (partial), West Highland Way (full)

Have you ever been to Scotland? Have you ever done a walking holiday? Where was the most interesting place that you walked in October? 

The Cool Bloggers Walking Club: April 2025

As you may know, every April and October, Elisabeth invites us to join her in walking at least 10 minutes every day of the month. She also kindly compiles and summarizes everyone's walks each week! 

For the month of April, I was in Türkiye. In Antalya, I had a mostly daily routine, where I would walk or run down to Konyaalti beach each morning, which is about 2-2.5 miles (4 km) each way. Some days it was very hazy, or rainy, but rest assured, I have picked only the best photos for you! 

Some of my favorite things to do were: Friday market, where I would get fresh fruit and vegetables for basically less than a dollar a kilo much of the time (0.50/lb.), and it was always fresh, plus it is so fun to just wander around. One of the things that I do know how to say in Turkish is, "bir kilo!" (one kilo) or if you only want half, it is "yarim kilo." This is very important, maybe even more important than how to say bathroom/toilet, which is "tuvalet." 

In case you are wondering, here are a few more handy phrases: 

Hello - merhaba

Good morning - günaydin

Thank you - teşekkürler (pronounced Teh-shek-u-ler)

Let's go (needed when hiking and people are dawdling) - hadi gidelim

Now you are ready for your trip to Türkiye!

April 1st - 7th: Antalya, Türkiye and surrounds

1. Konyaalti beach 2. Ruins of Hierapolis 3. Hadrian's Gate 4. Hadrian's Gate 5. Fresh strawberries at the Friday market 6. Fresh juice (pomegranate, carrot, orange) on the street

April 8th - 14th: Antalya, Türkiye

1. Konyaalti beach 2. Beach day (Konyaalti) 3. Water fountain 4. Wild olive trees on the cliffs 5. Friday market day! 6. I walked to the mall, did not buy McDonalds though

April 15th - 21st: Antalya, Türkiye

1. The kitties are everywhere 2. Beach day 3. Friday market 4. Early morning SUP 5. Trip to IKEA (my 2nd time ever, and I don't need to go back!) 6. No explanation needed

April 22nd - 30th: Lycian Way, Türkiye

Average steps per day: 19,668 (I didn't realize I was so close to 20k! If I did I probably would have tried to do more to get over that bump!) 

Thanks to Elisabeth for hosting this party and I'll see you guys all again in October! 

Where did you walk in April? 

The Cool Bloggers Walking Club

Elisabeth asked everyone to join her on an October challenge: to walk at least 10 minutes every day in October. Obviously, I am on board with that, and surprisingly, it is sometimes hard to get any walking in when I am on the bike all day. I often do walk to the grocery store, and usually that is at least a half a mile each way, so I do get some steps in, but my average per day is a lot lower than it was when I was at home, that is for sure! My goal was to get 10,000 steps on a non biking day, and do at least 10 minutes on a biking day. 

So as not to bore you with a bunch of photos of me walking to the grocery store, I tried to get out to a few more places, and thought I would post a few of my favorites here. Huge thanks to Elisabeth for not only keeping us accountable, but for hosting me in October, and showing me a lot of her favorite walking places, some of which you will see below! 

October 1st - October 9th: Laval and Montreal, Quebec

1. The Croissant (Crescent), where I walked the dog that I was sitting
2. Streets of Montreal; as always, I loved wandering
3. Nature Center Laval
4. Rachel Street, Montreal; great bike lanes and fun murals
5. Old town, Montreal
6. L'eau! I used to "collect" photos of water/storm drains;
there are some really fun old ones in San Francisco and New Orleans.

October 10th - October 13th: Quebec, including Quebec City

1. Church - Champlain
2. Rue St. Louis - Quebec City
3. Rue St. Louis - Quebec City
4. Jacques-Cartier Beach Park - Quebec City
5. St. Lawrence River
6. The Umbrella Street - Quebec City

October 14th - October 23rd: Nova Scotia

1. Peggy's Cove
2. Grand-Pré
3. Cape Split
4. Reservoir
5. Annapolis Valley Trail
6. Walking the kids to school

October 24th: Vancouver

No photos but I did walk about two miles to get groceries and pho with a friend! 

October 25th - October 26th: Bellingham, WA

1. Whatcom Museum
2. Sacred Heart, Fairhaven
3. Puget Sound
4. South Bay Trail
5. Fairhaven Village
6. Bellingham sign (the small print says: Olde City of Subdued Excitement)

October 27th - October 31st: Burlington, WA

1. Fairhaven St.
2. Walking around town
3. Fairhaven St.
4. Welcome!
5. Train Wreck Bar and Grill
6. Welcome sign

I know you are wondering if I achieved my goal of 10,000 steps (about five miles) or 10 minutes every day (about a half mile). I was on the bike 11 days out of 31, which would mean I would need to get about 105 miles, or an average of about 3.4 miles per day in October to reach my goal. 

Well, I did achieve it! Some days, it was surprisingly easy, like in Montreal or Bellingham, where I sometimes walked 8-10 miles (of course, on these days my destination was often food related, so I may be a net positive when it comes to calories) or when I had a buddy like Elisabeth to keep me moving. However, some days it was surprisingly hard, like on travel days, rainy days, or on long cycling days when I just wanted to rest!

Here are the stats: 

Total walking/hiking activities: 46
Total distance: 112.69 miles
Total elevation gain: 9,703 feet
Average per day (31): 3.63 miles / 313 feet of gain

I call that a win! 

Did you participate in the walking challenge? Either way, what was the most interesting place you walked in October?

This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here. 

The Social Introvert

As I have traveled across the US and Canada this year, I have seen a lot of beautiful places, challenged myself physically, have seen some parts of North America that I have been to before, and many others that were new to me. This has all been great, and I have loved every minute of it (unless it was raining!) but what I will probably look back to the most is the time I have spent with people. These people are sometimes strangers, men I talk to at Tim Horton's, or women who stop me in the middle of the road to ask me where I am headed or if I need water. They are sometimes people I have met before and am visiting again. They are sometimes people who I didn't know would be important in my life, such as some of my fellow racers at the Tour Divide. 

Mr. Coffee; he kept me going during the race!
(this photo is about 30 miles from the finish)

However, the bulk of people I have met up with have been people I have met on the internet! This would have seemed weird to me twenty years ago, and I have never done internet dating, but now it just seems normal to be sleeping in the bed of a person who you have never before seen face to face! This is the beauty of the interwebs. 

The first internet people I met along the way were Warm Showers hosts. Warm Showers is a network of cyclists and hosts, where you can either stay at someone's house on your route, or you can host cyclists at your house. This is all free, and usually the hosts are cyclists, but I have stayed with people who are just nice people willing to help out and host and feed stinky tired people! So far, I have stayed with Warm Showers hosts in Washington, Alberta, Michigan and Ontario and they were all wonderful. 

My next host was a couple on Vancouver Island who found me through my blog because of my post on hiking in Slovenia. At first we ended up being pen pals, where I answered some questions they had about Slovenia and we swapped hiking stories and travel stories. They told me that if I was ever in their area I should stop by, and I did, and it was great! 

I also met up with several blog friends; you can read posts from Lisa (who I have met before, but was happy to meet up with again!), NGS, Kae and Birchie on their sites. All of them were great; everyone was exactly like I thought they would be, and I had an excellent time finally putting a 3D person to the 2D photos and written words. 

My theme: same shirt, different day!

Last, but not least, I finally made it across the country and ended up in beautiful Nova Scotia, where I met Elisabeth! Although we had never met in person before, it felt like we were fast friends already and we TWO INTROVERTS had no issues whatsoever keeping the conversation going. I had once asked her what the itinerary would be if I came to visit for three days and she provided a great list, and we definitely knocked many of these things off the list! We had perfect weather and there were no big crowds at the popular places, which was just how I like it! However, there was too much to do and not enough time, so I guess I will have to go back someday soon. 

Here are the highlights of the last week with Elisabeth! 

*Meeting her family! Everyone was so sweet and fun and so charismatic! I went to church with them on Sunday, got to walk the kids to school, and we had a blast playing games (I even threw the football around with Indy!) 

Walking the kids to school

*Peggy's Cove. I was going to ride there with Bob, but the road is small and windy and there is no shoulder! Luckily we moved the schedule around and ended up going all together, including the kids, which is probably more fun anyway, as I would have likely just done a quick drive through if I was on the bike. It was as beautiful as the photos show and we had fun jumping around on the rocks together. 

*Cape Split. This feels like the end of the earth, although you can see parts of Nova Scotia across the way. It was so windy I thought that I was going to fall of the edge! We had a great hike (I think it was almost 9 miles), a nice picnic and had a nice heart to heart along the way. 

My mouth is open because it is so windy!

*Medford/Blomidon. The cliffs and rocks were so red! The tides in these areas are crazy. Influenced by the Bay of Fundy, they can go down over 50 feet vertically and 3 miles horizontally. I think that the area we were walking on would have had roughly 25 of 30 feet of water on it when the tides were up, and the mud flats went for miles. We also saw two bald eagles! 

It's like being on Mars.

*Home cooked meals. I have been eating way too much cheese and crackers, oatmeal and processed meats. It was so nice to sit down at the table with the family and to eat real food! Plus there is just something special about something that someone else made, no matter what it is. Being at Elisabeth's house was like being with family; the house awakens little by little and eventually culminates with the walk to school, which was my favorite part of the day. 

*36 questions. Elisabeth is reading Super Communicators, which I already listened to on audiobook. The bonus is that she is reading the real book, and in the appendix there is a list of 36 questions that you can ask a person in order to get closer to each other faster. We went down this list and answered them and some of them are pretty personal, but it is fun to get these insights into another person! I liked it so much that I asked my family one of them in our weekly video call and may ask another next time. You can find them here under section 5. If you feel comfortable, feel free to answer one of them in the comments!! 

*Good weather. Like I said, the weather could not have been better. It was in the high 60s/low 70s during the day, the sun was shining and the fall colors were very pretty. We did wear a jacket from time to time, but mostly in the mornings or due to there being a bit of wind. However, it was really very nice and I even wore a tank top on our hike at Cape Split. In October! In Canada! 

I also got to meet John and Joy, had a handmade welcome sign waiting for me when I arrived, had lunch at Cumin, one of Elisabeth's favorite places, met the neighbors and much, much more. There were so many more highlights, but I am not going to steal all of Elisabeth's thunder!  You can go over to her site, where she will regale you with all of the details in a three part post this week, which I am sure will be much more detailed than mine! 

The only lowlight was that we did not have more time! I am sure Elisabeth was ready to get back to normal life, but I could have stayed longer! However, garbage and guests start to go bad after three days I had to get moving and Elisabeth had stuff to do! 

Have you ever met up with someone from the internet? Or stayed at the home of someone that you did not know in real life?