Thursday 10 December 2015

What's in a name?

What's this? Old Betty rides again? No new and exciting blog name to herald a new and exciting continent? Not Granny Gear Gringos? Not Ambling through Africa? (no but we might save that for another year 😀). 
Believe it or not, we tried long and hard to think of a new name for this year's blog but nothing seemed to fit. You see so many blogs have clever, meaningful or witty names and we certainly know old Betty doesn't tick any of those boxes. Other blogs openly declare the 'mission' of the ride, such as, dare I say "Wollongong to Woolwich" but again that just didn't seem right. Ok, we do have a rough plan to ride from Guatemala down through Central America to Panama but that isn't our 'mission'. In fact some of our friends actually dare to head off into the wilds without a blog, plan or would you believe even a mere iPhone?! And even though we do enjoy blogging (well Will does anyway) the whole thought of that does seem quite liberating & refreshing.
So, what are we up to? Well, we're certainly not on any type of mission.  We're not trying to box tick countries in a 'been there, done that' way. We're actually looking for something a bit more meaty and meaningful than that. We hope (but it's not a critical desire or anything to get hung up about) to find somewhere or something that is special, a place, a person an organisation (NGO type thing) where we want to stay and get involved. A connection with something rather than a long list of guest houses, bars and long winding tracks through exotic locations (oh go on then, if we have to). We're looking for an experience that doesn't start to resemble 'backpackers on bicycles' (don't get me started on the whole backpacker thing again...)
We did think of the blog name "Something to do" but then rejected it as we thought it sounded too flippant and cursory as in a "yeah whatever, we're just bored" type of way. What we meant (but didn't want to sound 'up ourselves') was that we're looking for something good and worthy to get involved in. Now that's a bit wordy for a blog so in the absence of anything better, good old Betty got wheeled out of the closet and back onto your screens. Hell, you may even still have her saved in your browser history!
So, if you've already met Betty then welcome back and if you're new here then welcome as well. Hopefully, over the next 3 months,  Betty will look after you as well as she looks after us and you never know, she might even get all worthy and do-goodery.... (Ooof, no pressure Betty, it's just an idea...)
We've taken as much of the 'sign up' bollocks off the blog in an attempt to make it easier for you to comment (we love comments) so please feel free to drop Betty a line.

Cheers

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