HERE WE GO

Two self-proclaimed “TikTok Traveling Grannies” circumnavigate the globe in their 80s.

Best friends Ellie Hamby and Sandy Hazelip “met at a medical mission conference in Dallas” just a few months after Sandy was widowed. The two hit it off and realized that they made not only great friends but also ideal traveling companions. They write, “Traveling together—relying on each other in new thrilling and challenging situations; sharing the intense pleasures of discovery, as well as the humdrum hassles of the journey—has cemented what was already a profound and sustaining friendship.” In this book, they reminisce on their past travels—always on a budget—and their ambitious plan to travel around the world in 80 days at the age of 81. The women not only document their journeys but also make meaning out of their experiences through lessons learned along the way. Braving the “Drake Shake” on board a ship to Antarctica and a three-hour camel ride across the desert to a Bedouin encampment—and dodging the Russian secret police on the Trans-Siberian Railway—the women reinforce the idea that “aging doesn’t have to mean inertia.” The ebullient narratorial voice, inspirational chapter headings, and well-chosen anecdotes make the book feel less like a text and more like a conversation between friends. Occasionally, the women’s naïveté of their white privilege tests the reader’s empathy, as when they find themselves stranded in Syria and straining the resources of their hosts, or when they treat sleeper cars, which are common among many socioeconomic classes in the global south, as potentially dangerous.

A mostly charming memoir of octogenarian travel.