The Big Prize

I’m heading to Spain with The Society of International Railway Travelers® soon, and I confess I am excited about it. But what seems more pressing at the moment is finishing up my work at the International Railway Travelers headquarters — making sure all of our travelers are totally set — not just travelers going to Spain, but our High Speed France travelers, too. We are having the busiest September of the history of the Society of IRT, and it’s a bit overwhelming.

But what is so excruciatingly exciting, which we will celebrate in Spain, is that we just got the news that The Society of International Railway Travelers® has earned FOUR Magellan Awards from Travel Weekly, the travel industry “bible.” We earned three Gold Awards for our website, our magazine The International Railway Traveler® and our new postcard and poster series of the World’s Top 25 Trains. Owen has been using these like mad to announce journeys on these fine trains. Check out Travel Weekly’s Magellan Awards here.

So today I salute every person involved in these incredible productions, from the amazing creative and editing team of IRT Publisher Owen Hardy to VP for Operations Angela Walker, who celebrates 10 years of working at IRT this year to our designer Steve Sebree who is such a great guy and such a talented artist, too. All are from Louisville, KY. We also salute our web designer, Nick Prebezac of Washington State. We also thank our members and travelers, who have submitted to us so many absolutely wonderful photographs.

But I have to say, the biggest thrill of all are the wonderful comments we get from you, our travelers, after your vacations. You really appreciate what we do, and that’s the biggest prize of all. That’s all for now. I have to pack!