For my first post in this forum, allow me to adapt the first post I wrote for the BumpySkies Patreon page yesterday:
While I had some early ambitions for BumpySkies after first launching it in the winter of 2016, I ultimately let the website putter along, doing its thing, for many years. For reasons both welcome and mysterious, BumpySkies started receiving a lot more traffic in early 2023. When I started sharing links to it on social media, I found quite a lot of interest—more than I had ever seen seven years prior. I started receiving email about it, and even the occasional donation via PayPal.
It feels like BumpySkies is ready to grow again. I’m not sure where, yet, or by how much! But I am profoundly grateful for the feedback I have received about it recently. The knowledge that you’re all out there made setting up this discussion forum, as well as a Patreon, feel like appropriate next steps.
I am still a nervous flier. With global travel by air resuming its pre-pandemic pace, I have also started flying more, feeling profoundly grateful for the chance to see new places and people in person, even when the exercise of getting there feels a little harder for me than for most other folks. I know I’m not alone. I see a possibility of BumpySkies becoming a community hub for all of us who often feel nervous about traveling by air, but who need to do it anyway.
Let’s take this trip one leg at a time! I’m happy you’re joining me for it.
I’d love to hear stories from you about how you’ve made use of BumpySkies in your own travels, and what you hope to see from it in the future!