We Have a Winner

We have a winner for our first vote on Drop Me Anywhere, and let me just say, you people have a sense of humor. Without further ado (feelin’ a bit Shakespearean), our winner is St. John’s, New Foundland! What? Where? It’s somewhere up in Canada. Let me explain how we got here.

When voting opened on January 1, I had decided that this first vote would be a tribute to fellow adventurer Jimmy Buffet. One of his many iconic songs is “Boat Drinks.” In this song he sings, “I gotta fly to St. Somewhere” while dreaming about going someplace warm during a cold winter. Perhaps one of the many Caribbean islands; maybe St. Thomas, or St. Maarten, or even St. Barts (aka St. Barths, St. Barthelemy, call it what you like, spellcheck doesn’t recognize any of them). I listed these places as options for places to drop me. I also listed some other options, St. Paul, Minnesota and St. Petersburg, Russia in order to get you to think outside the box. Who knew that you would not only think outside of the box, but break out of it, climb on top of it, jump up and down and scream, “Box! We don’t need no stinkin’ box!”?

Actually, the chosen location came from a Facebook and E-mail campaign started by my friend, Shaunah. You see, she lives in Vancouver, Canada, a beautiful city with a lot of fun things to do. But she’s thinking about taking a trip to St. John’s, Newfoundland and thought ‘why not send Carole to scope out the place? She can let me know what fun activities there are, where I should stay and what the people are like.’ To this I say, “Bravo!” That’s one of the reasons I started Drop Me Anywhere and that’s why you decide where I go. Just think of me as your advance team (well aren’t you fancy).

Since Shaunah wanted to hear a first-hand experience of the place, she shared the voting page with her Canadian Facebook and E-mail contacts asking them to share their national pride (as Mayor Rob Ford and Justin Bieber were falling down on the job lately) and vote for St. John’s. Well, her campaign snowballed (as anything would in St. John’s in January) and, with a 29% of the votes, St. John’s, Newfoundland is the new “must go” destination for February (at least for me).

I hope to leave in about two weeks. In the meantime, I’ll be getting ready by pretty much doing nothing. That’s another reason I started this, right? To get you more comfortable with traveling without a plan. So I’ll book a flight and, depending on what time that flight arrives, I’ll book someplace to stay for a night or two. But then, well, who knows? The two things I do know are that I won’t die (probably) and it will be an adventure (definitely).

So be sure to click on that subscribe key and follow Drop Me Anywhere on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with me, hear about this trip and find out when our next vote is announced. Oh, and don’t forget another reason I started this – once I arrive, I’ll be finding an organization to volunteer with a then tell I’ll you about it on Rebel-With-A-Cause. So you might want to subscribe there too!

Coming up next – Oh Canada!