We've been invited by Huffington Post Travel to write about our incredible around the world journey, which we've been on for two years and counting. We look forward to encouraging others to take stock of their lives and pursue their own travel dreams.
In 2011, we quit our jobs, sold our house and gave away most of our possessions. Our initial goal was to travel around the world for a year. On the surface what we did seems a bit crazy, particularly for two people who had just turned 50. Weren't we supposed to be settling comfortably into middle-age and looking forward to retirement? But life hadn't worked out like we had hoped.
Our relationship with our adult daughter, whom we had adopted from Russia when she was nine, was shattered, turning us into reluctant empty-nesters. Suddenly our jobs and home no longer seemed relevant to us. One day we looked at each other and said, "Is this all life has to offer?"
Deciding a major shake-up of our lives was necessary to heal from the breakdown of our family, we turned to our longstanding passion for travel. So we chucked it all to travel around the world for a year. What would we do when we returned? We had no idea.
We started out on a one-way plane ticket to China with only a rough notion of where we'd end up exploring. Oh, and since we're from Philadelphia we brought along a statue of movie icon Rocky Balboa to encourage us to "go the distance." More on that in future stories.
Over two years later we're still on the road. Along the way we've discovered that instead of acquiring "things," we'd rather collect a wealth of experiences. By living more simply, we can travel longer and farther than we ever dreamed possible.
So far we've been to six continents, traveling slowly so we can absorb the unique culture of a place and its people. With no permanent address, we now consider the world our home.
Somewhere along the way to transforming our lives we found new careers; we're now full-time travel writers. The title of the blog we started to chronicle our journey, Changes in Longitude, has become symbolic, highlighting the changes we've experienced as we've circled the globe.
We were somewhat shocked (and delighted) when it won the 2013 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Silver Award for Best Travel Blog as selected by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.
On the Huffington Post we'll share more about our global journey: from far-flung locations like North Korea and Qatar, to little-known spots in Australia, France, the Americas and beyond. We'll touch down in hidden neighborhoods, and provide tips on living like a local to go beyond the typical tourist experiences.
If you've ever dreamed of chucking it all to reinvent yourself--or you just love to travel--come along for the ride!