A big Thank You to the Flying Goannas (isn’t that a great name, by the way?!) for unexpectedly nominating me for a Liebster Award!
For those that don’t know, the Liebster Award is presented to lesser-known bloggers by their peers. In turn, the recipient nominates their own favourite bloggers for the award. As a consequence, cynics have compared it to a chain letter. But I prefer to think of it as like-minded people telling you you’re on the right track!
Here are my answers the questions posed by the Flying Goannas in their nomination:
1) Your worst GPS moment?
Funny you should ask, since one of my favourite hobbies is geocaching, a world-wide scavenger hunt based on GPS technology.
Without doubt, my worst geocaching experience was my very first attempt. Imagine the scene… Rich and Sue have just got a new puppy (Crumpet, aka The Toad), who is suffering from a wicked bladder infection and so has very little control, if you know what I mean. We can’t find the cache, but do discover a swath of freshly-broken glass, requiring Rich and Sue to take turns carrying the frequently-leaking puppy. Then, about an hour after we arrive home, Sue gets a phone call from the bank… Turns out that while we’d been failing to find the cache, and getting soggy from puppy pee, someone had broken into the car, stolen Sue’s wallet, and gone on a spending spree for power tools and the like.
Crumpet as a puppy
Unsurprisingly, it was more than a year before the GPS was retrieved from the back of the drawer where it was frustratedly abandoned. Although to be fair, since then we haven’t looked back. So far I’ve found over 5300 geocaches, spread across four continents, 39 countries, eight Canadian provinces and all 50 US states. Which all goes to prove, If at first you don’t succeed…
2) Do you enhance your photos and why or why not?
I generally use Rich’s photo’s, since they’re yet to make a regular camera small enough for me to operate. He doesn’t usually enhance his photos beyond straightening, cropping and (more recently) adding a Jaspa’s Journey logo. Occasionally, Rich might play with the contrast or brightness but not very often. To be honest, I don’t think he really has the patience for that sort of thing.
On rare occasions, Rich has been known to experiment with black and white. For example, I particularly like the photo of Pisa below, in which he left the flag at the top of the tower in colour.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
3) What’s your worst menu mistake?
A soft-shelled crab po-boy in Miami.
I normally love crab, but didn’t realise it would come whole in this case. It looked like a great big spider on a bun! I couldn’t eat it.
The Miami skyline from Key Biscayne (Rich didn’t take a photo of the offending sandwich)
4) The weirdest place you’ve slept?
Långholmen Prison, Stockholm. Check out My Night in a Swedish Prison for the whole story!
My ‘cell’ in Långholmen
5) Your best accidental encounter?
This is a tough one.
A throwaway comment on the deck of a cruise ship in Alaska leading to a friendship that lasts to this day?
A detour to find a geocache in rural Ohio, which took us past an old-fashioned, 50s-style drive-in restaurant with fantastic ice-cream sundaes?
Heading out of the woods to avoid a bear while hiking in Whistler, British Columbia, only to find another bear eating grass beside the road?
Or just last month, bumping into a couple in Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, only to discover they were Canadian? (And then helping them back to their car on the other side of the park when it closed.)
There are so many contenders.
Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia
6) The place you’d most like to go back to?
Another tough question, since I rarely leave a place without feeling I have unfinished business there!
That said, my normal, automatic response to this question is Venice. But since that particular wish came true (for the second time) only last week, I should really pick somewhere else. So I’m going to go with the ghost town of Kennecott, Alaska.
In fact, Kennecott and Venice are so important to me, they’re going to be the settings for the next two Jaspa’s Journey books.
Kennecott ghost town, Alaska
7) When you make a TV series about your travels, what will it be called?
Now this one’s easy… I Think I Need A Bigger Bucket!
Here are some of my favourite blogs, which I in turn nominate for a Liebster Award (in alphabetical order):
Travel Monkey – The Adventures of Kongo
My questions for my nominees are:
1) What made you decide to write a blog in the first place?
2) Of all the blogs you’ve posted, which is your own personal favourite?
3) What is the absolute #1, must do item on your Bucket List?
4) If you were exiled from your home country, where would you live, and why?
5) Hot or Cold? Do you prefer the baking heat of summer or the chill days of winter?
6) Not including family or friends, who would be your ideal travelling companion, and why?
7) Character or Clutter? When photographing landscapes, places, etc., do you like to have people in your pictures, or do you feel they detract from the subject in question?
For any nominees who would like to participate, the ‘rules’ are:
Post the award on your site
Link it back to the person who nominated you
Answer the 7 questions posted by the person who nominated you
Nominate other deserving blogs
Post 7 questions for the blogs you nominate
If you agree with the Flying Goannas, why not sign up and follow my continuing Journeys here at Jaspa’s Journal, or through my website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram?
And if that’s not enough for you, there are now three Jaspa’s Journey novels to enjoy as ebooks! Perfect for Kids 8 – 80!
Jaspa's Journal 
I enjoyed your answers. I’ll be having a look at your nominees soon.
Pingback: Italy in Black & White… Mostly | Jaspa's Journal