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Wonderful Weirdos Day: 10 travel weirdos who deserve thanks
Today's date is weird. 9-9-09. I noticed it first when writing today's Photo of the Day post. Then someone sent me an e-mail from Westerville, Ohio proclaiming this Wonderful Weirdos Day. The missive stated that the purpose of such a day is to thank people who have taught you think outside the box--the people who have nurtured your creativity.
With that in mind, here are 10 travelers who have been a subject of Gadling posts over the years. In some way each represent a creative, adventurous drive, and each have pushed travel into the realm of outside the box.
What most of these stories also illustrate is that the kindness and interest of strangers has a lot to do with the success of an unusual idea. It's hard to make it to outside the box on your own.
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David de Rothchild who is building a boat out of thousands of plastic bottles to sail between California and Australia. -
Roy Locock who is currently driving himself around the world in his car. After 14 months of travel he's still going strong.
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Robert McDonald, who with the help of his son and 5,000 kids, built a ship made of 15 million popsicle sticks in order to sail across the Atlantic by way of Greenland and Iceland just like the Vikings did..
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The late Steve Fossett who made the longest nonstop flight in history in his Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer.
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Kent Couch who attached helium balloons to a lawn chair so he could fly from Oregon to Boise, Idaho.
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Matt Harding whose weird dance brought the world together with a video that makes everyone who sees it feel good.
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Ryan Jeanes and Philip Hullquist who set off on a hitchhiking trip from New York City to Berkeley, California with no money and the aim to make it in one week.
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Grandma Gatewood who, as a lark, set out to be the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail. At the time, she was 57 years old and the mother of 11 children and 23 grandchildren
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Marcia and Ken Powers who gained distinction as being the first couple to hike the 4,900 miles across the United States.
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Scotty and Fiddy who hitchiked across 50 states, including a visit to each state's capital, in 50 days.
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Joshua Keeler and his two buddies who set out in a van to cover the 48 states in the continental U.S. in five days.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Hiking, Stories
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Heartlyte7 Sep 9th 2009 10:19PM
My father who when ever we went camping managed to make sure it rained. One night he chased raccoons that stole our marshmellows. The following morning we found out we had csamped in a dry creek bed as our picnic table floated away LOL
capwhan Sep 10th 2009 12:27AM
So many people travel these days. No wonder you run into many weird folk!
ConnieCWilson Sep 10th 2009 10:06AM
I decided to "cover" the Iowa caucuses, the DNC, RNC, Rudy's Florida Fiasco, the Ron Paul Rally for America and the Belmont Town Hall meeting as an intrepid female reporter (think Lois Lane), secured press passes, and, at the rather ripe age of 64 traveled all over the U.S. in pursuit of "the truth" about the 2008 presidential campaign. Most the reporters on the case were half my age, but my coverage earned me the distinction of Associated Content Content Producer of the Year 2008, as I slept on an air mattress at a blogger's house in Colorado and walked (literally) miles inside the hallowed halls (and fell down a few hills, as well.) As adventures go, this was a good one and a big one. 6 blogs and 2 real newspapers ran the entries and you can still see them up on www.associatedcontent.com. (The Obama Chronicles book soon to be; check out www.weeklywilson.com and www.ConnieCWilson.com)