{"id":7683,"date":"2011-04-03T08:43:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T13:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=7683"},"modified":"2022-05-01T08:18:28","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T13:18:28","slug":"thanks-fo-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/thanks-fo-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Thank You for the Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maybe you’ve seen the charity advertisements. They tell you that for the price of a cup of coffee per day you can save the planet, or some such claim? Apparently for the price of a cup of coffee per day someone can also get a Caribbean vacation. However, it takes about four years. I am traveling to Saint-Martin \/ Sint Maarten this week and I have the extended Twelve Mile Circle family to thank for that privilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Powered By Advertisements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Saint<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No, I didn’t get some all expense paid opportunity from an international tourism council to blog about their wonderful locale. I wish! 12MC doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of traffic. Rather it’s due to all the silly little advertisements on the website that just a tiny handful of people click each day. It bewilders me, quite frankly. Who even does that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mentally tune them out whenever I go to a website as my eyes draw directly to the genuine content of interest. The regular 12MC audience seems to do the same as I’ve observed from the website statistics. So maybe I should be thanking all the one-time visitors who land on my bizarrely popular ferry webpages<\/a> instead? They’re the ones who are clicking the ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that advertisements on personal blogs is a controversial topic. Many authors take pride in presenting free content as a matter of principal. Others don’t have a moral objection but consider it tacky or cluttering. My only reasoning originally was to cover web hosting expenses. It’s now doing a bit better than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I figure that if it provides me with a vacation once every four years then the least I can do is reinvest the funds into a location that’s rich in geo-oddities. Yes, that’s how I’ll justify it. I’m not on holiday: I’m conducting extensive first-hand field research on topics of great interest to the odd geography community. Aren’t I magnanimous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Selection Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Seriously, that’s how I chose St. Martin (and I’ll use the French spelling because I’ll be spending most of my time on that side). My wife has been very kind over the years, allowing me to drag her to every manner of obscure border marker, confluence point, portions of states on the “wrong” sides of rivers, and whatnot. The least I can do is indulge her choice this time. However, I faced a conundrum because I’m not a beach person. It had to be a place where I could explore a terrain with unusual features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n