It’s Never Too Late to embark on a ridiculous adventure, just ask Eleanor Hamby and Dr. Sandra Hazelip – the two TikTok traveling grannies who are taking the world by storm. Although they never imagined their friendship would be featured on news shows or joked about on Saturday Night Live, these two besties have embraced their newfound fame with open arms.
Ms. Hamby, 81, and Dr. Hazelip, 82, became friends in their late 50s at a Christian medical mission in Zambia. Five years later when Ms. Hamby’s husband died suddenly and unexpectedly (probably from all that reckless senior citizen behavior), Dr.Hazelip made her friend an offer she couldn’t refuse: “If you’ll give me a bed two nights a week, I’ll take you out to eat.”
The rest is history! They discovered their shared love of travel whilst munching away on poached eggs benedict (probably) during those weekly dinner dates and eventually embarked on epic trips around the globe – documenting their adventures online for millions of followers.
Their project “Around the World in 80 Days: At 81 and Still Running” has been hugely popular with more than one million likes from thousands of global followers (who probably have nothing better to do). They even make stops at some top tourist spots like The Grand Canyon which apparently left viewers amazed! Because it definitely wasn’t what they were expecting… Right?
When asked how they plan such epic vacays (cause let’s face it folks; that takes serious planning!), Eleanor revealed that they simply started with Jules Verne’s book Around the World in Eighty Days as inspiration — genius right? Then according to Sandy “We wanted to go to as many cities as Phileas Fogg did”. Allllright then girls!
They also wanted to visit every continent because hey- why not? Even though Fogg didn’t do that, they’re determined to do it all. On top of cities and the seven continents, they wanted to see as many wonders or natural wonders of the world as possible (because tall mountain-shaped rocks = adventure).
So how exactly did they accomplish these feats? Sandy made a word document for every single day of their trip containing details on accommodation and budget-friendly optionsSponsored Product because who has time for fancy hotels when you have a million places to go?
Sandy always keeps things positive – just like her outlook on life! No matter what kind of wrench is thrown in their plans with Eleanor being seriously lost or struggling with bus timetables or whatever… They simply put on a smiley face and keep going- using Sandy’s artificial knees in cases where running was required.
In fact, while age may be only a number Sandy would like everyone to know she can run circles around anyone even though she’s got artificial knees which just goes to show if you want something bad enough nothing should stop you- not even your slowly deteriorating body!
Now we’ve all read inspirational stories before but this one brought actual tears… because laughing so hard hurts. Who wouldn’t be inspired by two sprightly upstarts travelling the globe at an age when most people are probably happy spending their days playing bingo or admiring their rose gardens?
For those considering embarking on such epic adventures; leave the old easy chair behind folks – step out of your comfort zone! Arrange some fun travel companionship and prepare yourself mentally by telling everyone: “We did not go on a vacation. We went on an adventure”… someone pass me my cane 😉
