June was a whirlwind for me! I lost my jobshare, which means I had to fly a full schedule or at least I was given a full schedule and had to do the work to advertise and move my trips around so I’d be able to take three weeks off to travel. This is when I remember how much I love my job and what I’m talking about when I say my job is flexible:

week one: I flew (worked)

week two: traveled to FL to surprise my favorite nephew, for his eighth grade graduation.

week three: flew (worked)

week four: Headed to Cape Cod for two weeks of vacation.

End of week one of my vacation: traveled to NYC to meet up with Bobby and Mike to attend The Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) and then headed back to Cape Cod to finish out my vacation.

That’s right I finally met a piece of my virtual world. Here is a recap of my TBEX experience and why I’ve already bought my ticket for TBEX11 in Vancouver:

Friday June 25th: I flew into EWR airport and headed over to the gate where I would meet my co-host of TCL, Bobby Laurie for the first time in person! As I waited with complete excitement, I was fidgeting with my camera so I could snap a picture to send Mike, our producer, who also hosts and runs the UPGRD podcast, when the next thing I hear is Bobby’s infamous laugh on top of me…SNAP:

He’s even cuter in person! We then proceed to talk over each other, nothing new there and head for the train to NYC! Did I mention there was a heat wave in the northeast and how much I started to appreciate the air conditioning in Texas that I usually complain about? By the time we arrived at our hotel we definitely could have used some freshening up but, there was no time for that! A quick hello to Mike, our third musketeer and the group is complete. We head out to The Bowery Boys Studio to record Episode 23 of TCL. What a treat to sit together and record in an actual studio, I wish we could do this every week. The three of us really need to think about relocating to the same city. Bobby? Mike? I think my favorite part of recording was when our glasses of champagne were empty, Tom (owner of the studio) magically appeared to take cocktail orders. Mike had sent Tom, who was in the next room a text that we were in need of refills. Who doesn’t love technology? It was a thrill to experience the live taping (well, live for us.) Thank You, Bowery Boys!

To say the next three days went by fast is an understatement. Here is how the conference went and what I learned from it:

• My virtual world is a real world! Since I started blogging in April 2008, I often asked myself if the people I’m connecting with via my blog, twitter, facebook and more are real relationships? I can now say with complete confidence, yes! Not only are they real but they are people I have the most in common with, the larger niche (travel) to my smaller niche within travel (airline travel.) I was thrilled to meet my fellow airline bloggers, Bobby, Gailen (The Sky Steward), Paul Thompson (@flyingphotog), and Heather Poole. I was able to connect with many others but, definitely missed out on too many!
• I gained insight from the panelists, everyone was open to sharing their knowledge. I think the best thing I came away with is knowing that my fellow travel bloggers are accessible and available to help each other. No matter how much more successful or how green the other is, it is a true community. A big thank you to Kim Mance, and Maren Hogan for creating and organizing TBEX and of course all the sponsors!
• I need to plan to to stay until Monday next year! Maybe even arrive Thursday;-) Planning to catch a flight Sunday afternoon caused me to miss out on Sunday’s panelists so Mike, Bobby and I could actually have some time together before our afternoon flights.
• I couldn’t walk in Carrie Bradshaw’s shoes! One night of walking many NYC blocks in my cute, strappy sandals and my feet were done for the weekend. Which is why Bobby was up for best dressed instead of me;-)

There you have it! This is why I’ve been MIA or MOB (missing on blog.)

(Mike, Bobby, me and Gailen)