Grandma Joy’s Road Trip Adventure
91-Year Old Grandma Joy is Living Proof That It’s Never Too Late to Live Your Dreams
In 2015, Brad Ryan’s grandmother Joy told him her only regret in life was that she’d never really explored the world around her. Born and raised in sleepy Duncan Falls, Ohio with a population barely over 1,000, now 91-year old Joy Ryan had never seen much of the rest of the world having lived in the same house for well over 62 years, rarely leaving town. She had never seen the mountains, never stood at the edge of the ocean and never explored a single national park. Despite family trips to Florida as a child, she somehow completely managed to miss a glimpse of its white sand beaches.
[Note: This article contains affiliate links.]
On a weekend break during his fourth year in veterinary school, Brad returned home and began talking with his grandma about life and places he had seen. They began talking about regrets and Joy shared one with Brad - her regret of having never really traveled. This is when Brad came up with an incredible spur-of-the-moment idea that changed both of their lives forever.
He invited his then 85-year grandmother on her very first camping trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When asked what she thought when he sprung the invite on her, Joy claimed something to the effect of, “I thought, well, I’ve been sitting here crocheting and there isn’t much excitement with that, so I thought… I’ll just give it a whirl.”
And so, it began. This was the first time Grandma Joy had ever slept in the wild, gazed up at a canopy of stars from a tent or sat beside a campfire all night. It was also the very first time she ever laid eyes on mountains. Just imagine how she must’ve felt staring out at ridge after ridge of those majestic Smokies.
Little did they know at the time that this fateful trip was about to change their lives forever as it became the start of what has been an adventure of a lifetime inspiring people all over the world to get out of their comfort zones and explore. You see Brad and Joy had so much fun that weekend that Brad vowed to make it his mission to take his grandmother to see all 63 of the nation’s national parks and so “Grandma Joy’s Road Trip” began.
They’ve river rafted Class III rapids in Wrangell St. Elias, cat walked the third tallest bridge in the world and even rolled down the sand dunes of Kobuk Valley National Park like a couple of little kids. They’ve gone dog sledding, taken helicopter rides and watched in awe as the bears of Katmai caught sockeye salmon by the dozens out of the Brooks River last summer.
They took a flight with K2 Aviation landing on a glacier in Alaska and watched the humpback whales in Juno breach. Grandma Joy has hiked amongst the giants of Sequoia National Park, gazing up at the largest tree in the entire world, and marveled at Old Faithful shooting thousands of gallons of 169.7 °F water over 100-feet up into the air at Yellowstone. Just last week, they participated in a tree top aerial adventure course at New River Gorge National Park with Adventures on the Gorge.
In fact, in the six years since they started their journey, they’ve explored an astonishing 62 out of 63 parks with only one left to go, the National Park of American Samoa where Brad envisions himself sipping mai tais with Grandma Joy on the sandy white shores of a tropical paradise, perhaps the perfect ending to such an epic journey.
When I first stumbled upon their Instagram page, it was no surprise to see I’m not the only person these two have inspired. They currently boast an astonishing following of well over 56,000 Instagram users and have gone completely viral. If you haven’t checked them out before, what are you waiting for? Catch this internet sensation on the home stretch of their incredible journey @grandmajoysroadtrip where you’re in for a treat and proof that there is no age limit for true life adventure.
SO, WHAT’S NEXT?
Once Brad and Joy finish the last leg of their journey and cross-off that 63rd park on their list, what’s next? This is the question I know we are all wondering.
Brad shared with me that he has been going through old photos and the journals they each kept writing a book of their memoirs. He will also be sharing his story through Outside Magazine in the months to come. During my conversations with Brad, one thing became clear. He truly wants nothing more than for their journey and his writings to inspire others to think about their intergenerational relationships with their loved ones and to inspire people to do things they didn’t think they could ever do. For us, it’s just one more thing to look forward to from these two amazing individuals!
Read More…
Read more about the companies that helped make Grandma Joy’s Road Trip adventure a reality:
Read More About National Parks:
