Year Six of my blog – where does the time go?
Another year walking the streets of Washington, telling stories and tall tales to folks from everywhere. Students from across the nation, doctors from Pakistan and India, families on vacation, new folks to the area.
It’s all good.
Personally, I thought I’d be happy when the presidential election was over and I no longer needed to skirt politics whenever passing the Trump Hotel. Instead, people still want to discuss it. Frankly, the whole thing is exhausting and I even more adamantly avoid it.
The past year was rather interesting. After five years as a guide, my main tour bus client closed in March and I became a free agent with many companies while increasing tours for my Capital Photo History Tours and doubling as a photographer for several tour groups. Overall, it was a good year that my aging knees appreciated as steady, but not overwhelming.
Year six saw 21,522 visitors visit the blog from 50 states and two U.S. territories and 117 countries. Washingtonians and tourists here were the leading visitors with 3,791 followed by Virginia 1,819 and Maryland 1,543. The U.S. sent 16,809 to the blog followed by Russia 2,051, Canada 331 and United Kingdom 245. Eighteen countries each sent one viewer.
Google remained my top friend with 8,530 viewers followed by Yahoo’s 1,297, Bing’s 1,212, Facebook’s 940 and Twitter’s 603.
The top story for the sixth straight year after the main page was why rocks are atop grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery with 3,914. How many people are buried at Arlington was third at 1,313. Half of the top 10 most read stories were on Arlington and none of the top 10 were written in 2016. Makes me wonder sometimes and is why I recycle stories from past years that were seen much less then into the current rotation.
Overall, 130,989 visitors have seen Monumental Thought since beginning in 2010. Not exactly record-setting numbers, but it is a blog mostly about statues after all.
What will 2017 bring? Maybe a new tour expanding the Kennedy homes of Georgetown to famous residents of the area. The Lincoln assassination remains popular. I may not do the Georgetown canal tour because a key section is underdoing construction this year. Bummer because it’s a fun tour.
Either way, the journey continues.
