Wednesday, November 26, 2014

A Thanksgiving Trip to Who-ville

Dr. Seuss, the beloved children’s author, who gave life to
The Cat in the Hat, Horton and the Grinch,
also created the place known as Whoville, or Who-ville.

In one of his books, Whoville 
is a floating speck of dust placed inside a clover flower                                                              
in another it is located inside a snowflake.

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With all due respect to Dr. Seuss, today we’d like to take you on a Thanksgiving trip to our “Who-ville” ~ a place we’ve been exploring since beginning this travel blog five years ago. 

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The idea for this Thanksgiving trip to our Who-ville began a few weeks ago when a friend asked of the blog, “How many readers do you have now?” 

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I started to answer with the statistical explanations that we bloggers fall victim to every now and then and realized I sounded like a Dr. Seuss character as I tried to explain the blog’s varying numbers:  page views verse readers verse followers verse subscribers . . .

“Think left and think right and think low and think high.
Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”
- Dr. Seuss

Instead of looking at just numbers, it seemed a trip to Who-ville might be a more interesting way to answer my friend’s question.

To get there we start at the small box on the TravelnWrite home page called, Clustrmaps.  I signed up for this free feature a few months after starting the blog back in 2009.  It shows the location of people who are reading the blog – in real time, in fact,  if you care to look closely enough.

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This map leads to our somewhat enchanting Who-ville. . . where we don’t know exactly the ‘who’ of you are visiting the blog, but we do know your ‘ville’. 

“Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
- Dr. Seuss

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While statistically speaking the ‘who’s’ total 41,524 visits in the last five years, what is the most fun about our Who-ville is that they’ve come  from every corner of  the United States and 170 countries!  (I remember when I first added the map I kept hoping that someday I would have a visit from Canada – it now ranks third in number of visits in our ‘Who-ville’!)

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What is simply amazing are some of the locations from where our visitors have come. Some places on our ‘Who-ville’ map were so far off our radar that I’ve had to research them because I flat out didn’t know where they were. . .

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”
-Dr. Seuss

. . .places like Aland Islands, a chain of 6,757 islands  between Sweden and Finland or Reunion Island, a French Island with a population of 840,974 just east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

Some visits have come from ambiguous places listed as  “Armed Forces, Europe, Middle East and Canada”.  While headlines scream  strife and war in places like Israel, Iraq and Iran, we are gratified to find visitors from each of those places have found the time to visit the blog.

Many of you in ‘Who-ville’ have become friends over the years – and many old friendships rediscovered in Who-ville have taken up right where they left off. . .

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“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
- Dr. Seuss

To all of you in our ‘Who-ville’ we thank you for joining us on our journeys and for the time you spend with us. You’ve enriched our lives.  Happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating the day today and Happy Travels to all~ (And if you’ve just discovered us, please come back again!)


Linking up this week:
Travel Photo Thursday – Budget Traveler’s Sandbox 
Travel Inspiration – Reflections En Route 
Mosaic Monday – Lavender Cottage Gardening

41 comments:

  1. I love this post. And all the wonderful Dr. Seuss quotes. I'm glad to be in your "Who-ville".

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    1. Oh Donna, I am glad you enjoyed my whimsical trip today - and glad you are in Who-ville!!

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  2. Thanks for pointing out your Clustrmap. What an interesting tool. Glad to know that I form part of the Queensland contingent.

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    1. There are other similar tools I've noticed on other blogs, but for my lack of statistical analysis this serves my needs quite well. And glad to have Queensland as part of Who-ville!

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  3. Like you, I am still a fan of Dr Suess sayings and stories. I was telling my friends about some of your cruise journeys the other night. Thank you for this wonderful, whimsical journey today, Jackie. Wishing you a safe and very Happy Thanksgiving :)

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    1. Oh Mike - so nice to have you among our Who-ville friends!! It is a warm journey with all of you along with us!!

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  4. Numbers cannot possibly tell anyone about blogging experiences.
    Happy Holidays to both of you, my darling friends !!!

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    1. Marsha you are certainly one of the treasures we discovered in Who-ville and you are so absolutely correct: numbers aren't the important part of the blogging experience!

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  5. Jackie,

    I'm glad to be one of the ones that found you too. I am curious though who your #2 group of readers is from. I would have thought Canada but we're only in 3rd spot. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving today.

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    1. Hi Leigh, Our number two country for visits is the United Kingdom; Australia is in fourth place and France in fifth. It is so nice to hiking and biking with you in Who-ville!!

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  6. Perhaps Who-ville is actually La Jolla, California, where Dr. Seuss once lived, http://travelswithcarole.blogspot.com/2014/11/sights-to-see-la-jolla-california.html

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    1. Oh Carole, I hadn't even thought about where Dr. Seuss might have lived until you provided a link here. He's kinda like Santa Claus in my mind so I hadn't thought of a physical location for him. Thanks for being a part of our Who-ville!

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  7. Dr. Seuss is still my hero and I love the way you used so many of his quotes in this post as well as all of your pictures. Congratulations on your growing readership! Writing a (very good!) blog is a lot of hard work but it can also be fun and gratifying to see who your readers are as well as their responses. From a reader who's a wandering citizen from the USA...

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    1. Oh Anita it is so nice to have you a part of Who-ville and thank you so much for the time you spend with us. I know it is valuable so we appreciate every minute and every thought you take the time to share. Continued happy travels!

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  8. I'm glad to be part of the Whoville community:-)

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    1. Irene we are also glad we've met you in Who-ville as well. Enjoy your travel reports and observations all the time. Hopefully one of these days we will meet face-to-face!

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  9. Brilliant! So happy to be part of the population of your 'Who-ville', a most hospitable place I come to learn about other fascinating places! Thank you for being such gracious hosts, Jackie and Joel! Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

    xoxo
    Poppy

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    1. Oh Poppy you hold a very special place in the Who-ville community! So glad to have met you along the way. We are having a very wet Thanksgiving today (Friday) but we may have snow tomorrow. . .I'd better spend more time in Who-ville!

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  10. Happy to be one of the Who's following your adventures!

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    1. In Dr. Seuss fashion one might ask if you are a who or are we a who following YOUR adventures! Glad we met up at KoOlina and continue to visit via the blogosphere!

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  11. Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed the post -- and can you imagine the world without Dr. Seuss and his characters and places??? Thanks for stopping by today - do come back again and visit. . .the welcome mat is always out at this place in Who-ville!

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  12. Hi Jackie. Whenever I think of Dr. Seuss it's "Green Eggs and Ham" :) I am always amazed at who can find us. The world is getting smaller and smaller. I've never heard of this tool Clustmaps, but a great tool!

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    1. Well, it certainly isn't Google Analytics but it is a fun tool to keep track of Who-ville residents. . .thanks for your visit, Nancie. And for all your work to get the linkup back up and functioning this week!

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  13. I love how you incorporated the Dr. Seuss quotes in your post. Your photos are so pretty and I enjoyed your post. happy holidays!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the post, Michelle. Thanks for taking time to comment - especially during this busy holiday season. Hope yours is happy!

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  14. This is such a sweet post. It really is one of my favorites here!

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    1. Thanks for popping in today - always nice to see you in Who-ville, Heather!

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  15. Great post, I love the Dr Seuss quotes! I have enjoyed your travel post! Have a happy new week!

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    1. Thanks much Eileen! Dr. Seuss did have a way with words, didn't he? Happy week ahead to you and see you again soon in Who-ville!

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  16. I had a traffic widget up on my blog for quite awhile that also told me where my visitors came from ,and I was equally amazed by how distant some traveled through the internet to visit me. :) Sadly, I took all widgets down recently because one was hacked and was effecting my blog. The problem went away when I removed them all. I loved all your photos--o to quote Dr. Seuss again: "Oh, the places you've been!"

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    1. Oh Pat, thanks for your visit. It is nice to have met you on our travels in Who-ville. Look forward to seeing more of you both here and at 'your place'.

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  17. That was fun, knowing I'm being recognized for my ville in Canada. The number of followers is not accurate to the people visiting I've found.
    Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday Jackie.

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    1. Judith - I've pretty much quit trying to reconcile visitors, subscribers, followers, etc. as I decided each is important in this Who-ville world and I'll just keep trying to be interesting enough to have them want to return for another visit! Thanks for hosting the link up!

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  18. Beautiful captures from Thanks giving trip.

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    1. As always your visit and comments are appreciated, Rajesh!

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  19. What a fun post, Jackie ad Joel! You have illustrated it well too.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it, Beth! It is always fun to quote Dr. Seuss!!

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    1. Thanks for the visit, Donna and for taking time to comment. Means a lot as all bloggers know! Glad we've met in Who-ville!!

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We have been having problems in recent weeks with our comment section and I am not quite sure how to fix it. Thanks for letting us know. Some comments have been coming in as emails, so I will respond to those as I get them.

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