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Ohio woman, 94, sets out to visit all 7 continents with her grandson's help: 'Always think positive'
A 94-year-old adventurer — who made headlines last year for being the oldest person to visit all 63 U.S. National Parks — just returned from Chile and the Galápagos Islands on her newest quest: to conquer all seven continents.
"When you get to a certain age, everybody starts saying, ‘Oh, you can't do that. You're too old to do that kind of thing," Joy Ryan of Duncan Falls, Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"Just tell them to jump in the river and be positive. Give it a try. If you don't try, the next day you'll regret it."
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So that’s what she did — beginning at age 85.
Ryan lived for nearly her entire life in Duncan Falls, 68 of those years in the same house. She worked at the deli in her local grocery store, sold Avon products for a while, ran a gift shop with her late husband, Bob — and enjoyed the company of her grandchildren.
"My very first memory as a human being is on a lake shore when I was about two-and-a-half years old with seagulls circling," Brad Ryan, 43, told Fox News Digital.
"Grandma tossed some breadcrumbs down and the seagulls landed in front of me. That was my introduction to joy — to the magic of life."
Brad Ryan said his grandmother was always willing to get into a stream with him, catching frogs and crayfish.
But as he grew up, time, divorce and distance kept them apart for almost 10 years.
As a 30-something adventure-loving veterinarian who travels and speaks on topics such as GI parasites, Brad Ryan had seen a lot of the world — and decided it was time to revisit his roots.
As the two began to reconnect, Ryan said that his grandmother casually mentioned that she had never seen a mountain — and she wished she had.
"I thought, ‘What a simple dream,'" he said.
"It was just this in-your-face moment of like, ‘Wow, not everybody gets to leave their hometown and see what I've been able to see.' It was supposed to be just a one-and-done camping trip to the Smokies. She ended up seeing not only her first mountain, but climbing her first mountain at age 85, two and a half miles up on the Alum Cave trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park."
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Joy Ryan got a standing ovation when she reached the summit, her grandson said.
But she half-jokingly said that the trek "wasn’t that challenging" — and that’s where their journey began.
"I was kind of disappointed," Joy Ryan said, laughing. "I thought it was going to be a big cave and all it was was just a dip in the rock. I said, ‘You mean to tell me, I climbed clear up here for a dip in the rock?’"
But she would soon face bigger and better challenges — and take in grander views.
Such as when she and her grandson landed on a glacier, floated with sea turtles, faced class III rapids on a rafting trip — and went on a safari.
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Some of her most exciting moments, Joy Ryan said, have been seeing wildlife in their natural environment, such as the cinematic experience of watching 30 brown bears feed on salmon under a waterfall in Denali National Park in Alaska.
"There was one bear that stood behind the rest of them, and he would wait until they would get a salmon and then he would take it," she said, chuckling.
"This one mama bear had a little bear, and she sent him up a tree so he wouldn't be in the way and get hurt. He kept peeking around. It was fun to watch him."
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Yellowstone National Park was the Ryans' third National Park to visit, early in the journey.
"I got to see Old Faithful go off three times," Joy Ryan said.
"And at the end is another geiser, but they don't advertise it because they don't know when it's going to go off. But it went off and it's twice as big as Old Faithful. It was amazing," she added.
"I just sat there and got to watch the whole thing."
After visiting all 63 U.S. national parks, Joy Ryan unofficially broke a world record, her grandson said.
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"The National Park Service doesn't keep track of it, but nobody has challenged her, and it’s been a very public journey," Brad Ryan said, referencing his grandmother’s Instagram post about her travels.
"It's hard to imagine another 93-year-old landing in the Arctic Circle and walking across the Gates of the Arctic National Park like she did. I think she beat it by a long shot."
But the two didn’t want to stop there — especially since Brad Ryan said he could actually see a physical transformation in his grandmother.
"When we started the journey on the mountain that we climbed when she was 85, she was very unsteady in balance and coordination," Brad Ryan said.
"They were not what they are today. So from 85 to 93, she's actually seen — and I've seen and everybody that follows her on Instagram has seen — this reverse aging process happen."
And it's not just her body that’s grown stronger. Her mind and spirit have come alive, he said.
"I think that that's kind of a confluence of just getting out and pushing yourself and being physically fit, but also not being lonely — being connected to people," Brad Ryan said.
"She's made so many new friends from around the world. [And she has] purpose — having something to look forward to in your older years so that you're not just sitting around the house," he said.
"She knows that there are adventures that lie ahead. And I think that that's what's missing from a lot of older people's lives."
With their plan to set foot on every continent, they've already conquered four, which includes the debatable eighth continent of Oceania when they visited American Samoa.
Besides North America, the pair have visited Africa and have just returned from South America.
Joy Ryan used some newly acquired Spanish language skills to communicate with her tour guide and others in Chile and the Galápagos Islands.
"We got to see those great big tortoises," Joy Ryan said.
"They were in a mud puddle. And we saw a bird called the blue-footed booby — that’s really its name. It had the prettiest legs and feet you ever saw. We had an awful time chasing around trying to find him, but we did."
In preparation for the South America part of her goal, Joy Ryan decided to challenge herself to learn a little Spanish, using a live language program called Lingoda.
"When we look back on all these places we’ve traveled, it’s the person that we met at the campground and had a conversation with that’s so powerful," Brad Ryan said.
"So even if you can't speak the language fluently, even being able to learn how to greet somebody so that when you see them in the morning, you can have a more meaningful exchange makes it a little more personal."
Asia, Australia, Antarctica and Europe are still to be checked off the travelers' list.
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The Ryans said they have received letters from both sides of the generational divide. Other people say that they now see potential for their own lives as a result of seeing what this pair is accomplishing together — and the Ryans said they want to share the message that intergenerational travel does not have to take a person across the world.
"You can have an adventure anywhere," Joy Ryan said. "We have all these beautiful parks right In your own backyard.
"And for another grandparent, it might be her dream or his dream to go see a Major League baseball game or see the Metropolitan Museum of Art or something," Brad Ryan said.
"Ask questions — if you're lucky enough to still have somebody of that generation. Put somebody else's bucket list item on your bucket list. When you see the light in someone's eyes [for] being able to do or accomplish something for the first time in their 80s or 90s, it just infuses your life with a new purpose."
Joy Ryan said she loves traveling with her grandson because he makes time to appreciate the small things and is always thinking of her.
"If we see something off the beaten path that sounds interesting to him, he says, 'Well, let's go over and see what this is,'" she said.
"He also asks, ‘Are you tired? Do you want to sit down and rest a little bit?' He's my caregiver and he gives me lots of courage. He’ll say, ‘Grandma, I think you can do this.'"
Brad Ryan said his grandmother’s travel companionship has given him new life, too — as the journey began when he was facing a challenging time personally.
"It was the beginning of this mutually beneficial thing where I could bring her along for the ride," he said.
"Through this experience, she reminded me who I really am and what's really important in life and to widen my lens. So it just became a purpose outside of work that allowed me to show up for my life in a new way and in a more rounded, more joyful way."
Joy Ryan’s travel advice is simple.
"Roll down a sand dune," she said.
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"I did and I made it back up, no problem. Always think positive. And if somebody asks you to go somewhere, don't ever say no. You'll regret it the rest of your life," she said.
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