Back around 2012 I set up the website WayfarersWonderings.com as a Blogger blog, as I prepared for an epic 6 month solo bicycle tour around the US. Starting the 4th of July, 2013, my trip went off without a hitch. I updated the blog weekly with pictures and commentary from the adventure.

Returning back to normal life — as if such a thing can exist after such an adventure — I updated the blog exactly twice, though with no definite goal or purpose in mind, and eventually largely abandoned it, an archive of the past, something that would come up whenever I or someone else googled me.

Somehow it feels like I must have bought the URL for an 8 year period up front. At any rate when the expiration date came up around mid 2020 I was so preoccupied with life I missed it. My credit card on file had long-since expired, I missed the notices that my URL was in jeopardy. And just like that I lost my blog (although it continues to live in the shadows of the Wayback Machine). Which is tragic, because “Wayfarer’s Wonderings” describes me, my life, and my thoughts so very well.

The URL got picked up by a Swedish outdoor clothing brand with a vaguely related name, then got passed off from one group to another, being warehoused but not used. At one point when the Swedish company still owned it (but wasn’t really using it) I sent them a letter asking if it might be possible for me to re-acquire the URL. Never got a response.

Life continued on, got busy in all new ways, and from time to time would check back in to see what the status of the website was. Finally in late 2023 I discovered that it had expired, and was due for deletion in the next few months if not renewed. Thus began the slow and painful wait, hoping nobody would show interest in this very unique, specific URL, with somewhat narrow appeal.

But luck was in my favor. The company owning it didn’t renew, and it went through to deletion. On the day it was set to be deleted, I checked a back-order site, and discovered that it told me exactly how many moments were left until the domain was deleted an re-registerable. Well it didn’t put it in those terms exactly, but that’s of course what I took it to mean.

I sat there refreshing the page over and over until the time went to zero. I checked the URL purchase platforms to see if I could buy it, didn’t show up. Kept refreshing, and maybe an hour to hour and a half after the domain had expired it finally showed up.

Well of course I snatched it up. I knew this URL had to be mine, and finally it had come back to me — a dozen years after I’d initially picked it out.

So now what? Well, I’ve gotten older, read way more, traveled much more, put great deals of thought into life, experienced highs and lows and in-betweens that add depth and character to a person, and.. well.. maybe it’s time I start writing again.

Come with me, let’s see where this journey goes.