Hello and Welcome to Travelationship, an Eco-Friendly Travel Blog. We are Matthew and Heather, and together we have traveled to 67 countries on six different continents. We are here to share our experience’s with you, to ensure you have the best adventure possible. It is also important to remember that we only have one home and we are all responsible for taking care of it. So we will be pointing out destinations and companies that treat the environment with respect.
~Happy Travels!
About Matthew aka [Maynard]: I was born in a small town in northern Arizona, and every year my mom planned a family vacation for us. Two weeks going in one direction or the other. It was this annual pilgrimage that laid the groundwork for what later would be known as the travel bug. I never really thought that much about traveling the world. I was having such a great time exploring my backyard as the expression goes.
Then during my college years, I took a winter session photography class in England. It was like a natural evolution of things all of a sudden it felt like the whole world was my backyard. It is quite a big place, so I have got a lot of work ahead of me. Now with six of the seven continents knocked off, I literally and figuratively cannot get enough. My travel credo, which stems from that first trip to England, is “Do it now, cause you may never come back.”
About Heather aka {Glinda} I have been asked many times where I “got” my sense of adventure. I think it was a seed I ate as a kid, and it blossomed the more I watched TV, movies and looked at the photos in our Encyclopedia Britannica and National Geographic magazines. I particularly remember watching the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom series and anything to do with Jacques Cousteau. Neither show was specifically about travel, but each show introduced me to the world above and below sea level I couldn’t wait to discover.
I don’t feel I am particularly adventurous, but I do like to think I would try almost anything at least once (except when it comes to food). Eventually, I realized it doesn’t matter where you go because every place has something new and wonderful to gift you. Before I met Maynard, I was a solo traveler and loved every minute of it. I still try to travel solo every once in a while, but having a loving companion puts everything on a different level. I live by my New Year’s resolution to visit at least one new country and two new US cities every year.
Travelationship’s Origins: Glinda and Maynard met on Valentine’s Day 2011 {my favorite holiday} at Robbie Fox’s an Irish pub in Tempe, AZ [She was the prettiest girl in the place]. During the next few weeks, we discovered we both had big trips in the works. We also, each had ideas about moving out of AZ. We combined our travel plans and laid down our top 5 places to live. Washington DC was our common denominator.
Between March and May, we planned a 2-month trip to visit six countries in Europe and four countries in Africa. {It wasn’t until the end of March when I thought this might be heading in a romantic direction}. [I knew from the minute I saw her]. By May, we had quit our jobs and left for what would be a journey that shaped both our futures. Travel, food, adventure, meeting locals and falling in love. Upon our return, in July we packed all our belongings. With the dog in the car, we headed off for a 2-week drive across the country to find a new home together on the East Coast.
On Valentine’s Day 2014, Travelationship.com was launched. Then on April 25th, 2015, after selling the majority of our belongings, we left Washington DC on a two years around the world adventure.
