David Alport

Welcome all travelers. I am delighted to be your guide, host, sherpa, flight attendant, and editor here at Upright and Stowed. First, a little about me.

I grew up in the Midwest, and my first travels were family camping trips. By the time I was ten, I'd been to a ton of national parks and eaten lots of s'mores. I also went to summer camp every year in the Colorado Rockies. I had climbed 6 different 14,000 foot peaks by age 15. No wonder I love the outoors.

But I'm a city person at heart ... which is why I live in New York City. The energy, drama, history, culture and diversity of cities is what really gets me going.

As for traveling in general, I've never been to a place I haven't loved ... or at least found interesting. I've knocked off 47 U.S. states, and 45 countries. And I'm stlll counting.

My work career has also been mostly about travel. During my early career, I spent 5 years in marketing at American Express – a big corporate box, but one that taught me a lot. Things got really interesting in 1992 when I started Out & About – a gay and lesbian travel publication providing opinionated advice on where to play, eat, stay and hang out when traveling. We published two guidebooks and launched an outandabout.com website before selling it all to Planetout in 2000. The information lives on as the Travel channels of Planetout and Gay.com.

Upright and Stowed is a simple blog. My goal is to post one idea every day ... inspiring myself and my teeny (but growing) universe of readers to think about travel, to dream about travel, and to pick up and go travel.

If you travel with intention, join me. And when you're ready, be sure to put your seat upright and place your tray table in the stowed and locked position.