Ellie and Sandy are 81 years old, they had challenged themselves to complete a world tour in 80 days, and they have just succeeded. These two Americans left on January 11 from Texas: they crossed South America, took a boat to reach Antarctica, another for Easter Island, rode horses in Argentina, sled in Finland, hot air ballooning in Egypt, they took a lot of trains in India, Japan, Australia, a few charter flights too to do all their jumping off points…
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Merry Widows
In total, the two companions visited 18 countries on five continents. And, after 80 days, they finally returned home to Dallas, without incident, without health problems, without arguments, “because what is good at 80they tell CNN, it’s that we’re well past the age of bickering“.
Ellie and Sandy have known each other for almost thirty years. One is a retired photographer, the other a retired physical science teacher, and it was the deaths of their respective husbands that brought them closer together. A few years apart, both lost their spouses and supported each other, backed up in the ordeal to the point, from then on, of never leaving each other. “And then as you get olderexplain the two friends on their blog, we said to ourselves: for our 80th birthday, wouldn’t we go around the world in 80 days?“
@aroundtheworldat80 Sandy & Ellie 81 and Still On The Run! #bffgoals #bucketlist2023 #sandyandellie #grandmasoftiktok #aroundtheworldat80 ♬ Live Like You Were Dying – Tim McGraw
It was four years ago, they had scheduled each stage for 2022, the year of their 80th birthday, and then the Covid epidemic stopped everything. Everything… except them, since they just postponed their challenge for a year and mischievously renamed their blog “81 years old and still in the game”. Their goal: to see as much as possible now, without waiting, to learn more, to marvel together.
They put all their savings of single octogenarians into it, favored emotions over material comfort, in other words, no big hotels, as few planes as possible, a lot of travel by train and boat, all that told in a notebook on board on TikTok which has won over thousands of fans, hooked by the journey, of course, but above all by their unfailing friendship, the friendship which allows you to push your limits, which gives confidence, which reinforces, this something that we can completely experiment before the age of 80 and without necessarily going around the world.