Greetings, and welcome to my little travel blog! I'm glad you're here.
Over the past 15 or so years, I've used this platform for storytelling, and for as long as I can remember I've loved writing and capturing pictures from any and all of my adventures, far and near.
Let's rewind. I really began writing about my travels when I took my first international trip to Yalpemech, Guatemala in the summer of 2007. I was a curious, naive junior in high school and spent time volunteering in remote San José El Tesoro, which over the course of a few decades, transformed itself from a refugee camp into a small village with the help of Sister Jo Klas of the Sisters of Saint Francis (who just so happened to hail from my home state of Wisconsin). I'm grateful for those weeks in steamy-hot Guatemala because besides the fact it served as a much-needed shock of reality for 17-year-old me, but it was a chance to really explore my creative side in ways I hadn’t realized before. I filled memory cards of images taken with my first DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel XT, and every night before bed I enthusiastically jotted down any thoughts, reflections, and a recap of the day’s happenings.
My thirst for travel continued throughout the course of high school and more into my college years at Loyola University Chicago. Then, when I was twenty, I had the urge to go study abroad in Vietnam for five months. After obtaining a student visa and booking my flights across the Pacific, I started this here blog. Being at the time the Vietnamese government held a tight grasp on limiting access to several websites including social media, I used my blog as a way to communicate with friends and family back home. More importantly, I felt this sense of responsibility to write about and share photos of my daily life in that incredible, fascinating country.
After graduating and a brief stint in the corporate world, I hit the pause button and decided to spend a few years in the outdoor recreation and environmental education field, teaching programming at various YMCAs including one in Colorado's Rocky Mountains near a tiny town called Granby. In the fall of 2014, I began blogging again, loaded up about all of my belongings into my aging Saab station wagon, and followed my GPS west. My dad rode shotgun the entire way and we stopped at Badlands National Park. Standing atop the first overlook, I was humbled and moved by the scale of such a vast wilderness and felt free. Those six months I lived and worked in Colorado was a pinnacle chapter that I credit into shaping much of who I am today. Ever since then I've been grateful to call Wisconsin home, and try to fill my calendar with trips near and far. In 2016 I landed in Keflavík, Iceland and hit the open road again for two weeks alone, exploring the most beautiful and striking place I've ever been. I fell in love with this tiny island stranded in the frigid North Atlantic. Once the sun set, I sheltered from the winds inside my tent or curled up in the back of an old Suzuki Jimny 4x4, typing away on my laptop and posting images from whatever observations and discoveries emerged.
Now let's-fast forward to today. I'm well into my 30s, married to my beautiful wife Brenna, a proud dog dad, and on the clock I work in the ever-changing automotive industry as an analyst. Much has changed since I first launched my blog in 2010, but the intention remains the same. I hope the text you read and the images you see bring with them inspiration and awe to get out and explore this lovely planet we're privileged to call home.
Cheers,
Robby
Robby