For more than 16 weeks, South Valley Callie has been on the go,
traveling with readers on their summer vacations to places just
down the road and to far parts of the world. She’s been to five
continents, 18 countries and 21 states plus Washington, D.C.,
traveling somewhere around 236,000 miles. Considering that the
Earth is about 25,000 miles in circumference, Callie the cow has
traveled enough miles to circumnavigate the world about nine
times.
For more than 16 weeks, South Valley Callie has been on the go, traveling with readers on their summer vacations to places just down the road and to far parts of the world. She’s been to five continents, 18 countries and 21 states plus Washington, D.C., traveling somewhere around 236,000 miles. Considering that the Earth is about 25,000 miles in circumference, Callie the cow has traveled enough miles to circumnavigate the world about nine times.
Callie has had her picture taken with readers in front of some of the world’s greatest landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House in Australia, Stonehenge in England and the Statue of Liberty in New York. She’s been bike riding in the Swiss Alps, lounged on sunny beaches in Jamaica, Hawaii and Cancun, seen the polar ice cap and cruised the Greek islands.
“I thought it would be fun, but my husband was kind of apprehensive at first about bringing Callie (on vacation) with us,” said Gilroy resident Debbie Andrade, who, along with her husband Steve, took Callie to Canada. “But then he saw me get into it, and he started having an equally good time with the idea. When our group got to the Hockey Hall of Fame, Steve said, ‘We have to get her with the Stanley Cup.’ So he explained to the guard about Callie and asked permission, and we got to put her on top of it and get a picture. We just had a ball with her – it really gave us a reason to be silly.”
Andrade said having Callie along added a very different aspect to her vacation. Because she wanted to get creative with the photos, Callie provided a good excuse to approach people she wouldn’t have usually approached. For example, Andrade asked a Canadian Mountie, as well as a police officer and hockey hall of famers to hold Callie for photos.
“Every place we went, people loved the idea of Callie and they welcomed her with open arms,” she said. “My only fear was that I’d forget her somewhere.”
Hollister resident Elaine Vatalaro was also a little apprehensive about bringing along a small stuffed cow on her vacation to the Midwest with her husband, Joe.
“My husband was the one who initiated it, but I ended up having a lot of fun with Callie, too,” she said. “We took a picture of her with a chicken truck while we were driving through Arkansas, which was so perfect, and we just enjoyed figuring out how to take pictures of her in other locations. We got to be really silly. A lot of people have approached us since our picture was in the paper – it’s a great conversation piece.”
The Vatalaros also got a picture of Joe and Callie together under a sign pointing to the town of Hollister, Tenn.
Adults weren’t the only ones getting into the spirit of things with South Valley Callie.
When Mimi and JohnE Boursier, 12 and 10 respectively, brought Callie with them on their family vacation to Kuai, they found themselves making extra stops and seeing things they wouldn’t have otherwise seen because they wanted to take a wide variety of Callie photos.
“My mom and I saw the pictures of her in the paper, so we thought we should bring her along, too,” Mimi said. “It was pretty cool, and it was nice to see our picture in the paper, too.”
JohnE said he liked seeing the trivia in the paper about the waterfall they were at with Callie in Kuai.
Though summer and peak-travel season is over, Callie is still available to go on trips with readers. To reserve her, call (408) 842-2205 or e-mail ks****@**********rs.com. If you missed any of Callie’s photos and to see photos that were not published in the paper, go to www.gilroydispatch.com, click on the link for photo galleries and find Callie under May’s galleries. Also keep an eye out in Friday’s papers. We’ll continue running Callie pictures and clues to her whereabouts for as long as people continue taking her places.
Where in the world will South Valley Callie pop up next?
