Josh’s Journey
A few hours from base camp, Kilimanjaro, January 2021.
Hi there, I’m Josh, the husband half of the Dudley Destination duo. I am originally from what I would say is a small town in Iowa but I could just say Iowa and leave you to assume there is nothing around (joking). I currently live in Omaha, Nebraska with my wife, Bre, the other half of the duo, and arguably the better half.
All joking aside, let me backup this story to a more interesting time, high school, where I barely knew countries outside of the USA, Mexico, and Canada (yes more do exist, it’s crazy). Before I had these passions to discover other cultures, adventure, and travel the world, I had no clue what was out there. Thankfully one of the few things a small town Iowa school did well was a foreign exchange program. Through this program our school hosted several international students, mostly from Europe. This program allowed me to make friends with people from all over without leaving what would later be deemed my comfort zone but more on that later.
As high school was wrapping up, I had still yet to understand there were more beautiful things than a corn field and farm ponds. After working hard all summer, I had saved up enough money to pay off my car and then some. Around the same time my brother got to do a “Make a Wish,” where he wished for our family to go on an Alaskan Cruise. Due to this I was given a passport for free by The Make a Wish Foundation, because our cruise went through Canada. There I was, a freshly graduated high school student with money and time, what a dangerous combination for an 18 year old. Having still been in contact with my friends in Germany, and being given the “if you are ever in my neighborhood” invite, I was off. The good part, I was about to embark on my first international trip, the bad part, I did not know how to travel, like at all. I did no research and booked a 1,500 dollar round trip ticket to Europe via the website Justfly.com. If you know anything about travel, that is too much money to spend, especially in 2013, and that is not the website to be spending it on.
That aside it was a great trip, from castles to festivals, it was a great two weeks. I scheduled my return with barely enough time to stop and do laundry before meeting my family and heading to Alaska. It was a month full of amazing memories, new adventures, and a better understanding that life is truthfully best outside of your comfort zone. From this trip, the next 8 years up to this point have been filled with adventures to 32 countries, tops of mountains, swimming with whale sharks, and running from exploding volcanoes. These memories have been great, and I cannot wait to share each of them more in depth, but the next adventure is the biggest and best yet, stay tuned for what is coming.
