Thank You!

A few weeks ago I wrote a guide to my beloved Charlottesville as part of the Travel Blog Exchange's Backyard Gems contest.

I entered for three reasons:
1. I have a deep love of Charlottesville. Although I'm not a native Virginian, I have fallen head over heels in love with Charlottesville, and want other people to experience how amazing of a town it really is.

2. I love travel writing (as if this blog wasn't a huge clue to that). I don't have any training as a writer, so I'm completely at a loss when it comes to what makes for good travel writing. I figured this contest would be a great way to flex my little writer's muscles.

3. I found out about the contest while I was in Russia, and had been up all night thanks to the White Nights. In that state I was pretty convinced I could do anything.

After reading most of the other entries, I really didn't expect to win because some of them were so good. I even have a folder in my favorite websites of some of them called "Places I must Visit." I may have even sent one in an email to my mother accusing her of holding out on me because apparently you can go horse surfing in Sarasota, Florida, and that's just something I should be made aware of at all times.

So imagine my surprise when I received an email asking for my email address so they could officially award me one of the prizes. The photo above? It's really me jumping for joy when I found out. I was with my west coast roadtrip travel companions when I found out, and I couldn't stop jumping for joy.

So thank you, TBEX. Thank you, Cambria Suites. My next few trips are already planned, so it's great to know that I have somewhere nice to stay.