ERIC grew up in Attica, a small prison town in rural, upstate New York and scene of one of the worst prison riots in American history. There were 2000 people living in the town and 2500 inmates living in the maximum security prison located there. His father was a prison guard. His mother was a prison guard in a nearby women’s prison. His uncle was a prison guard. His cousin was a prison guard. All of his friends’ fathers were prison guards. In other words, employment opportunities in Attica were limited. You could be a prison guard, or you could be a farmer, or you could work at something that provided goods or services for the prison guards and farmers. His father didn’t have a farm, he didn’t want to work in the services industry, and he didn’t want to be a prison guard. Fortunately, there was one other option: you could leave. He left.
He worked on the railroad, he drove a tractor-trailer truck, he was a bartender at B.J.’s on Route 66, he worked in the Composing Room of the Los Angeles Times, he went to sea as a deckhand and as an engine-room snipe, he sailed across the Pacific and across the Atlantic four times on the square-rigged barque Eagle, he traveled all around the U.S. and Canada, he became a U.S. Marine paratrooper and a scuba diver, he fought in the jungles of Vietnam and performed reconnaissance missions in Central America, he flew fighter jets in the Marine Corps and jumbo jets in the airlines, he completed a B.A. and M.A. in Florida and a Ph.D. in Maryland, he taught at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the University of Maryland in Asia, he published three books and edited two dictionaries, he set a world speed record in a Boeing 747, traveled all over the world and lived in Asia, Europe, the South Pacific, and South America. And what he ultimately realized was that the more he learned, the more he wanted to learn; the more he experienced, the more he wanted to experience; and the more he traveled, the more he wanted to travel.
MYRIAN, who just celebrated her 56th birthday, started traveling in conjunction with her work as a fashion model in her native Brazil and quickly developed a passion for discovering what lies on the other side of the next hill. She was a physical education teacher and owner of a successful business until her wonder about the world around her brought her to the photographer’s side of the camera where her keen sense of lighting and eye for composition result in some striking photos from a unique perspective. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2009, she announced to Eric, “You know all of those things we said we were going to do someday? Well, today is someday!”
WE hit the road together that year and have continued biking, hiking, climbing, sailing, kayaking, rowing, paddling, flying, driving, and RVing ever since. We enjoy reliving our travels through sharing them with you and we are always looking forward to our next adventure. So, come join us–on the road together!