A Stroll Down Memory Lane… With a Sash

Back when I was a beginning blogger, there weren’t many awards to win — and the ones that did exist usually required a nomination from another blogger. It was like the early days of WordPress Hunger Games, but friendlier.

I was honored to collect three of those classic, old‑school awards “back in the day,” and you can still see them in the footer of my homepage.

The Blogger Award

This was my very first badge — the “starter award,” if you will. To this day, I’m not entirely sure what it was for, but I have the badge, so clearly I did something right. Early blogging was like that: you’d wake up one morning and someone had nominated you for something, and you just rolled with it.

The Versatile Blogger Award

 

This one was given to bloggers who:
• write across multiple topics
• post consistently
• have a strong personal voice
• engage with their community

Basically: “You do a little bit of everything and somehow make it work.”

The Liebster Award

This one went to bloggers who:
• are friendly and approachable
• tell great stories
• make readers feel welcome
• have a loyal following

In other words: “People actually like you — keep going.”

These awards may not have had the staying power of an Oscar or an Emmy, but I was proud of them then, and I’m still proud of them now. They were the early‑blogger equivalent of gold stars on a homework paper.

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WordPress Steps In

Achievement Badges: The Girl Scout Era

Fast‑forward to today, and WordPress has created Achievement Badges. I think of them like Girl Scout badges — the kind you used to sew onto a sash when you earned them.

Some of these new badges are… well… a little silly. Half the time I don’t know what they mean, and I’m the one earning them. So I’m sticking with the badges that actually make sense to humans.

I’m adding the meaningful ones to the Badges & Achievements gallery on my homepage, but first, here are the ones I earned this year.

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My 2026 Achievement Badges

🌍 Globe Trotter

This means Around Dusty Roads received views from 50+ countries.
My little blog went international — who knew?

🌎 World Domination

This is the next level up from Globe Trotter: 150+ countries.
Yes, apparently I have conquered the world… one blog post at a time.

🏃‍♀️ Marathon Blogger

I earned this by posting every day for 30 days.
(Technically it’s been 331 days, but who’s counting.)

Back in 2013 I actually had a farther reach for a while — one of those early blogging hot streaks. If you want to see what my stats looked like back then, here’s the post from that year.

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My Favorite Stats

The “I Can’t Believe This Is Real” Section

The badges I love the most are the Globe Trotter and World Domination. I’m still amazed that my little corner of the internet has traveled so far and reached so many people.

Here’s a map from the week of June 11–17 — a little time‑capsule snapshot of where my readers were popping in from that week.

And here’s the country list for that same week:

Country — Views
• USA — 1025
• China — 415
• Hong Kong SAR China — 240
• Serbia — 73
• Belgium — 72
• India — 5
• Iraq — 4
• Singapore — 2
• Romania — 2
• Mexico — 2
• UK — 2

And then we have South Africa, Syria, Senegal, New Zealand, Morocco, Lithuania, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Algeria, Germany, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Angola all coming in with 1 view each.

It always changes — sometimes Australia pops in, sometimes Canada. It’s such fun to check and see who’s reading me now.

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That’s My Update — and My Moment of Bragging

I’d love to hear from you — thoughts, comments, or just a quick hello.
After all, what’s a blog without the people who read it?