Grandma Joy Travel: The World Is Still Waiting for You

There is something about getting older that changes the way you think about time. At least, it has for me.

These days, I find myself thinking less about what I am supposed to be doing at a certain age and more about how much of this beautiful world I still want to experience. I have walked hundreds of miles across Spain, followed an ancient pilgrimage route from London to Canterbury, and traveled through countries that once existed only as names on a map to me. Somehow, every journey leaves me wanting another.

Perhaps that is why the story of 96-year-old Joy Ryan, affectionately known as Grandma Joy, immediately caught my attention.

At an age when society often expects women to make their worlds smaller, Grandma Joy keeps making hers bigger.

In September 2026, she and her grandson, Brad Ryan, are preparing to travel to Thailand and Australia with Road Scholar. The journey will bring Grandma Joy to her seventh continent and add another extraordinary chapter to a travel story that started far later in life than most people would expect.

Yet the number of continents is not the part of her story that fascinates me most.

It is when she started.

She Got Her First Passport at 91. Let That Sink In.

Grandma Joy did not spend her younger years traveling from country to country. She spent much of her life in southeastern Ohio, where her world looked very different from the international adventures she enjoys today.

When Brad took her to Great Smoky Mountains National Park at age 85, she had never seen a mountain. That trip eventually grew into a seven-year mission to visit every U.S. national park.

By 2023, the pair had traveled to all 63 national parks. They finished their journey at the National Park of American Samoa, where Grandma Joy, then 93, became the oldest person known to have completed the feat.

She did not receive her first passport until she was 91.

I keep coming back to that number because we spend so much of our lives believing in timelines that nobody actually agreed to. We convince ourselves that we should have started traveling sooner, changed careers sooner, learned another language sooner, written the book sooner, taken the risk sooner, or figured ourselves out sooner.

Then along comes a woman who gets her first passport at 91 and starts collecting continents.

I love that kind of disruption.

It reminds me of something I have learned repeatedly through my own travels: travel has a remarkable way of changing how we see ourselves. Sometimes we leave home to discover another place and come back with an entirely different understanding of what is still possible for our own lives.

Some Journeys Take You Farther Than a Map Can Show

The story of Grandma Joy and Brad is also about much more than destinations.

The two had spent years estranged because of difficult family circumstances. Their travels created an opportunity to reconnect, first during that trip to the Smokies and eventually during thousands of miles together on the road.

Imagine how much can surface when two people spend days driving across the country, walking through forests, watching wildlife, getting tired, laughing, eating together, and navigating whatever inevitably goes wrong during a trip.

Travel creates space for conversations that everyday life often crowds out.

I have experienced versions of that myself. The places I remember most vividly are rarely memorable only because they were beautiful. I remember the people I met. I remember meals shared across cultural differences. I remember moments when someone explained something in a way that shifted my perspective. I remember getting lost and having to trust a stranger. I remember discovering that some assumption I carried about another culture did not survive contact with the people who actually lived there.

Those experiences are why I have never seen travel as simply collecting destinations.

The world is interesting because people are interesting.

Grandma Joy and Brad traveled through some of America’s most spectacular landscapes, but their greatest discovery may have been each other.

There Is Something Deliciously Defiant About an Older Woman Exploring

I also cannot separate my reaction to Grandma Joy’s story from the fact that she is a woman.

Our culture has some very peculiar ideas about women and aging. We are encouraged to fight every wrinkle and visible sign of getting older while simultaneously receiving messages that the most exciting part of life should already be behind us.

I have absolutely no interest in accepting that bargain.

Getting older has made me more curious about the world, not less. I understand myself better. I know what I enjoy. I have become much less interested in performing a version of myself designed around someone else’s expectations.

More importantly, I understand time differently now.

There are still places I want to see, foods I want to taste, communities I want to understand, roads I want to walk, and conversations I have not had yet.

That perspective is part of why I have been thinking so much about what happens when we allow joy to have a real place in our lives. Pleasure does not have to arrive after we have completed every responsibility on some imaginary list.

Seeing a 96-year-old woman preparing for Thailand and Australia offers a wonderful rejection of the idea that adventure belongs primarily to the young.

Of course, bodies change as we age. Energy levels change. Accessibility may become more important. Health, comfort, and pace can shape the way we travel.

None of those things automatically erase curiosity.

Sometimes the trip simply needs to change with us.

Adventure Does Not Have to Look the Same for Everyone

One of the most liberating things I have learned is that there is no single correct way to travel.

Some people backpack through Europe. Others take a cruise. Someone else wants an educational group tour with every detail arranged. Another traveler would rather check into a comfortable hotel, eat her way through a city, and spend an afternoon sitting at a café watching local life unfold.

I have room for all of it.

My own travel style changes depending on where I am, what I want from the trip, and how I feel when I get there. Some days I want structure. On other days, I want to walk out the door with no plan beyond seeing where my feet take me.

When I am curious about what a destination offers, I often look through local tours and cultural experiences on GetYourGuide before I arrive. Even when I do not book anything immediately, browsing the options helps me understand the kinds of experiences available beyond the obvious tourist attractions.

That can become especially useful in a new city when you want to learn about local food, history, neighborhoods, art, or traditions from someone who knows the place.

Planning does not make travel less adventurous. Sometimes it gives us enough confidence to leave room for spontaneity once we get there.

A Little Preparation Can Make a Big World Feel Easier

Technology has also removed some of the friction that once made international travel more intimidating.

I remember when arriving in another country meant hoping you could find a map, figure out a pay phone, or communicate well enough to get yourself where you needed to go. Today, I can land somewhere unfamiliar and immediately pull up directions, translate a phrase, check transportation, message my accommodation, or look up a restaurant.

That convenience is one reason I appreciate having reliable mobile data through Airalo when I travel internationally. Being connected from the beginning of a trip takes away one unnecessary layer of stress, especially when I am navigating a destination on my own.

Travel becomes far more approachable when practical details stop feeling overwhelming.

Maybe you are not interested in visiting all seven continents. Perhaps your version of adventure is finally traveling somewhere you have talked about for 20 years. Maybe it is taking your first solo trip, walking a pilgrimage route, visiting another state, or simply saying yes when someone invites you somewhere unfamiliar.

The scale of the adventure is not what gives it meaning.

Sometimes the Best Time to Begin Is Much Later Than Planned

Grandma Joy’s story challenges one of the easiest excuses to make: “I should have done it years ago.”

Maybe you should have.

You did not.

Now what?

There is tremendous freedom in realizing that the past does not get to make every decision about the future.

I felt versions of that realization while walking the Camino de Santiago. Long-distance walking gives you an enormous amount of time to think about what you are carrying, both physically and emotionally. My experiences there eventually became an entire collection of Camino stories and resources, but the journey itself taught me something much simpler.

You do not have to see the entire road before you start walking.

You need enough courage for the next stretch.

Grandma Joy could not have known at 85 that seeing her first mountain would eventually lead to every U.S. national park. She certainly could not have known that she would receive her first passport at 91 and prepare to finish all seven continents five years later.

She started with one trip.

That is how so many extraordinary lives unfold. One decision opens a door that we could not see from where we were standing before.

I Hope I Am Still Chasing the World at 96

I have no idea what my life will look like at 96.

None of us does.

Still, I know what I hope remains.

I hope I am curious.

I hope there is a food I have never tasted, a street I have never walked, a story I have never heard, and a person whose life can teach me something I did not know.

I hope somebody occasionally has to tell me to slow down.

Most of all, I hope I never confuse getting older with becoming finished.

Grandma Joy received her first passport at 91. At 96, the world is still giving her somewhere new to go.

Her story feels like an invitation.

Not necessarily to chase seven continents or 63 national parks, although I certainly would not discourage anyone who wants to try.

It is an invitation to stop assuming that the most interesting parts of our lives have already happened.

There may still be another friendship to make, another skill to learn, another country to explore, another road to walk, another version of ourselves waiting somewhere beyond what feels familiar.

The world is enormous.

As long as we are here, there is still time to meet more of it.