Thankful on Thanksgiving

I am thankful for ...
... all the women who took a WomanTours trip this year.
... Gloria who had the foresight to start WomanTours many years ago.
... the guides who make the trips run seamlessly and their jobs look easy.
... Beth and Annette who shoot our tours and make our catalog and website beautiful.
... Ellen, our art director, who puts it all together with grace and ease.
... Tom who keeps our website clean and consistent.
... Chuck, the best financial advisor a sister could have.
... Sandra, Jennifer and Michelle, the best women in the world to work with.
... my nieces Emily and Denise, and Marilyn for running in the Webster Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day with me.
Without all their help, WomanTours wouldn't be where it is today - helping women, one at a time, experience the joy that bicycling can bring.

WomanTours nominated for Adventure Cycling Award

As they always say, it's just great to be nominated, even if we didn't win. Beverly Allyn nominated WomanTours to receive the Bicycle Travel Champion Award presented by Adventure Cycling. And we hear that one of our guides, Linda Gryczan, was also nominated by Barbara Bryant for an award.

We're honored and we'll hope to continue to live up to your expectations...even if we don't win. All we can do is try harder next time!

Notes that Make our Day

We received this email from Val who had just finished our Death Valley bike tour. Here it is verbatim.

You're quite welcome...although every time I go on one of these, I feel like I should be thanking you (& Gloria & Jennifer & Denise & Michelle and all the other wonderful women that make these possible!)

I was a little hesitant to go on my first multi-day tour alone last year but it was phenomenal! It was such an amazing group of incredibly diverse & inspirational women that I felt certain it must have been a fluke...surely they can't all be this good, I thought. And when I got off the plane last year, my husband took one look at me and said, "So...which one are you doing next year?" As a more-than-full-time working mom of a 5 year-old with a husband in law school, I desperately needed to take some time & re-charge my own batteries and it was amazing to me -- not only how good for the soul that week was for me -- but that he could visibly see how changed I felt when I got back.

And, while I didn't think it was possible, Death Valley was even better this year! I couldn't book the next one fast enough when I got back! That annual trip has now become "my" time and my daughter no longer whines about me being gone for it any more...just that she's too young to come along with me! :-)

Thanks again! You ladies are doing an amazing thing...keep up the good work!

Cheers!
val

Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard tour photo book

Bonnie from our fall Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard tour created a beautiful book of her tour. It gives you a taste of the wonderful time she and all the women had on their trip. Check out Bonnie's book here.

Climbing Big Slide for our new Adirondacks tour

I spent last weekend with 2 friends climbing Big Slide. We were getting ready for our newest multi-sport Adirondack State Park tour next September. Here is Sheila and Stacey enjoying the view from the top.


Big Slide is the 27th highest of the 46 peaks above 4000' in the Adirondacks. We'll be offering it as the optional hike on our bike tour. It took the 3 of us 9 hours to go up and down. One of the best parts of the trail is that we top 3 smaller mountains, "The Three Brothers," each with wonderful views of their own along the way.

We carried our heavy snowshoes the whole way but never needed them. We (almost) guarantee that we won't have snow on our September tour next year!