After these past few weeks of talking about, reviewing, voting on, and dreaming of America’s most:
*Beautiful
*Patriotic
*Friendly
*Fun
*Best for food
…small town spots. Team Blue Lollipop Road was inspired to dive into our photo archives and pull out some of our snap shots that reminded us of each category.
*Beautiful
Sitting on a lawn during sunset in Cape Elizabeth, Maine:
Morning grapevines and hot air balloons after a run in Napa:
Hiking near Hood River, Oregon:
On a boat ride and fishing trip in Juneau, Alaska
*Patriotic
Driving through Poland Springs, Maine
On the back roads of Sandgate, Vermont:
The town square in Bath, Maine:
*Friendly
With Ferry Manager in Swan Quarter, North Carolina:
The staff at Mainely Custard in Freeport, Maine said- “Come on in!” when I told them I was a big ice cream fan:
The Popcorn Man in St. Helena, California:
3 gents I met at Alaska Brewing Company in Juneau, Alaska:
*Fun
Our hilarious rafting guide near Hood River, Oregon:
Staff on a Beatles themed  food bus in Virginia:
Dancing Pedro at a country bar in Illinois:
Concert goers dancing the night away with us in Wilmington, NC:
*Best for food
Me noshing on a whoopie pie in Maine:
Dessert at Dano’s on Seneca, Hector NY
Breakfast crepes in Madison, Wisconsin:
Fresh veggie quesadillas in Illinois:
Dessert crepes in Charlottesville, Virginia
(Clearly we are not afraid to dive right in!)
So many amazing people, place and things in America to enjoy. We love that when you travel, all you have to do is be your interested, open, and curious self- and people invite you right in to join anything!
There is always plenty of adventure around every corner…
I always feel incredibly powerful, capable, and hopeful when I take the time to.
People don’t believe me when I share that most of my hundreds of thousands of road miles have been spent in silence with only the sounds of the wind passing by my ears, but that’s the truth. There’s something that’s magical and empowering that happens when you let yourself wander and see your surroundings without interference.
Last week I was sitting at my desk, attempting to knock out a mile-long list of to-do’s and assignments and I was just not feeling in my groove. So? I got up and left my apartment to wander and get air in hopes for an energy boost. After a mile or two of walking, I became enamored with the bright sun, clouds, and blue sky reflecting off various buildings:
(…and some bright spring flowers too.)
I got that energy boost I hoped for and then some, to go back and knock out that pile of work I had. Quiet wander time relieves me when I am stressed, inspires me when I can’t seem to get creative, and it gives me giant injections of anything is possible feeling.
As adults, we don’t encourage or allow ourselves to be curious, or to wander to take in that zap of often needed healthy energy. Why? What’s the cutoff age for curiosity anyway? Why do we push kids to try, try, try everything, explore that field of flowers, play that game for hours, or look up at that plane in the air to imagine where it’s going, but never look up at it ourselves?
Blue Lollipop Road promotes travel for education and self-empowerment. When we allow ourselves to be curious and wander (aka travel), we learn heaps of valuable information, and we become incredibly smart, resourceful, confident, and self aware. (Talk about a rock-solid foundation to build off!) Travel doesn’t have to mean far off lands around the globe. It could simply mean just getting up and out of whatever place you’re sitting in when you feel like you’re not growing or being productive. Just taking some time to step out and feel passion or re-energize. Like I did last week when I took this photos.
All who wander (and let themselves be curious) are definitely not lost.
In 2009 a girl LeeAnne (whom I’d just met once when I lived in Wilmington, North Carolina) sent me an email one day out of nowhere:
Hi Diane, I saw that one of my friends from high school is living in New York City now and has a pretty interesting job. She does running tours of the city. Basically its much like a running group, except they also give tours of the city while running different paths/distances/etc. I know you are a runner and this might be an interesting way to generate some income in the busy tourist months here by taking a unique approach to tour-giving! Here’s the link to their website so you can check it out: www.cityrunningtours.com LeeAnn
Of course I checked out the site and thought City Running Tours looked awesome, but at the time Wilmington wasn’t one of their tour cities to be a guide so I just sent them a “Hello- you are awesome!” email, and have followed the company ever since. When I lived in Napa I thought I might end up living in San Fran and be a guide, after that I was hell-bent on moving NYC so I imagined I’d guide tours around The Big Apple. Well here I am currently living in Chicago a year via Virginia. (You following with a map? Good. Welcome to the life of a traveler.) The point is to illustrate how far and long I have followed this company, and that I’ve kept up with my running habits.
Several months back in 2011 I sent City Running Tours a second email: “You should hire me to be a guide because I am a runner, I can talk to a brick wall and I am awesome, and I think you are too.” We finally connected this week and Chicago Manager Marlin invited me to meet up and join in a run this morning. I happily accepted.
Let’s just say this was one of the best, most energizing, inspirational mornings I’ve had in a very, very long time.
Just like LeeAnne’s email to above said, City Running Tours is much like a running group, except they also give tours of the city while you run. Well, today was so much more than a tour and daily get my miles in. A group of Fantastic fun runners gathered at The Bean at Millennium Park bright and early to meet guide Marlin. Even though I have now only spent a few hours with him- Marlin could possibly be one of the coolest, most humble, interesting, I can’t wait to learn more about and hopefully work with- people. Check out this video!
I googled Marlin as soon as I got home after hearing some of his stories today, I had to. This video was shot and posted in 2007. Get your copy of Marlin’s book Our Life on the Run, HERE.  I know what I’ll be reading this week! A fellow 50 stater. Yeah!
I have a feeling there will be many more stories in the future about Marlin and City Running Tours.
If you’ve followed here regularly you know I’ve posted less frequently than usual the past few months. This is because I have been working my tail off on a big transition for BLR and a huge event, as well as going through one of those times in life that have been exhausting and less than inspiring. As I plug away slinging burgers and beers to pay debt I was left with a few years back, I keep my heart and soul here figuring out ways to keep this entity of BLR trekking.
The past few months have been the hardest, but best and much needed months. Admittedly even with this needed- nose to the grindstone/good for the long term time, there have been a few days I’ve thought- That’s it! I am giving up my dreams! I’m just going to go work in a cube so I can rest easy at the end of the week and have a few extra bucks in my pocket!- Then? Somehow (my Mother would tell you it’s that stubborn sass) thankfully I shake that crazy talk in my head. Who else am I trying to be anyway? I’m not meant for the cube. It always happens that right when you are at the end of that rope, if you push with everything you have to keep going you always meet someone or happen upon something like I did today, that shows you giving up dreams is not an option. There is no “rest easy” in giving up what fuels every part of you. Not for me anyway.
What fuels your good fire?
Thank you to LeeAnn for taking 5 minutes 3 years ago to share information because you thought of me. Thank you to my super fun new running buddies from today Amy and Anne. Thank you to Marlin, for being one of “those” people. The ones you admire, learn a lot from and who make you want to do and be even more.
Here’s to following what gets you up out of bed excited at 6am on a cold Saturday morning!
***Very important side note to anyone out there who likes/loves/digs someone or something: Turns out if you call or write to that someone/thing that you genuinely dig, tell them you think they are awesome and the reasons why- you always get invited to the party. Seriously. My batting average is 100% so far. As you read above that’s how I even ended up on the run this morning. Even a behemoth company like Honda responds to to “I love you” messages. How did I ever get to talk to them and then have one of their cars loaned to me to do a road trip a few months ago? I stopped into a Honda dealer in Mechanicsville, VA last year- asked a service guy if he had a general  800 number for Honda corporate, called the number and asked to be patched through to someone in PR/marketing. I left a voicemail with my information adding “I love your cars, you should call me” (and they did.) The Secret is out! I have never shared that here before. Awesome right? I have lots more stories like these two. Don’t be afraid. Life is too short. Walk up to whatever/whomever  you totally dig and tell them you do and why. What have you got to lose? When you get invited to the party (because I promise you will)- write to me and tell me about it! Then I’ll share your story here 🙂
Here’s our order of sweet potato flapjacks from both angles before we devoured them:
That’s fluffy sweet potato hotcakes layered with maple mascarpone crème, roasted pecans and drizzled with a light sorghum molasses. Step aside plain pancakes!
We shared the bacon wrapped backed eggs too: AÂ ring of applewood bacon filled with creamy polenta, topped with two eggs, sharp wisconsin cheddar & fresh thyme, baked & served atop a mixed greens salad. Both so good. It was hard to choose from all that sounded delicious on the M. Henrietta menu, but I think we did a very good job.
***If you liked this post, click HERE to support me!***
The Fall Roadies are in Chicago! Through this great thing they call Twitter, we found each other tonight. YEAH!
As you all know I have been a fan of RTN since 2003. I’ve been chatting with the peeps at this great organization for a lot of years and looking forward to meeting them at some point, so tonight was awesome! I am going to see them at their University of Chicago event tomorrow, so stay tuned for some photos and videos…
