For the grandmother on the TikTok journey, it all started with a late-night conversation around the kitchen table.
Friends Sandy Hazelip and Ellie Hamby were both working at the time when, in the middle of a coffee break, Hazelip said: ‘Ellie, we both like to travel, we are in good health, we are traveling well, so it won’t be. Is it fun to travel around the world in 80 days when you are 80 years old?
And Hamby replied, “Of course we should, and let’s start planning now.”
That was several years ago (they had to delay their trip several times due to COVID-19) and now the 81-year-old best friends are back in Texas after an 80-day trip around the world. It turned out to be a trip of a lifetime to the Taj Mahal, a hot air balloon ride over the pyramids and a trip to Antarctica.
The two became Internet celebrities by sharing details of their whirlwind trip in videos posted on TikTok and their blog, Around the World in 80. The duo seems to be the perfect adventurers. Hazelip is a physician (known to his patients as Dr Sandy) and a published author who cares for residents of long-term care facilities and health care, and Hamby is an international photographer whose work is featured and newspapers and exhibitions. Hazelip said he didn’t mind waking up or staying up until sunset to wait for Hamby to get the perfect shot.
On their blog, they said that they had traveled together before and were good travelers because they “looked like this”: they were both Elvis Presley fans and were happy to give up luxury. “We like to go to the second class because we can see many cultures and people,” they said on their site.
And the most important? “We travel light.
The duo said they dedicated the trip to the memory of their late husbands, Don and Kelly, “the loves of our lives”.
“At 81, we understand the importance and true value of ‘experience’ and ‘comfort’,” they said.
But they got the full support of their children despite some minor immigration issues. “Ellie’s children said they hoped government officials would think their mother was ‘too old’ to be a spy when she met the police or other officials,” the duo said.
