Grandma Joy had never seen a mountain. Soon she'll meet Kilimanjaro.
For most of her 93 years, Joy Ryan had never seen a mountain. But soon, the grandmother from Ohio plans to peer up at the highest peak in Africa, the next adventure on her social calendar. Her grandson will be by her side for the July trip, as he was during their previous quest to visit every national park.
"Climb that mountain while you can, and when you can't climb the mountains, do what you can do," said Brad Ryan, 42, during a Zoom conversation with Grandma Joy from his living room in Duncan Falls, Ohio, the town where they both live.
In May, Joy proved indefatigable when she and Brad arrived at the National Park of American Samoa, the 63rd and final park in their years-long journey. On the South Pacific island, thousands of miles from her home, Joy claims to have earned the distinction of being the oldest person to accomplish such a feat. The National Park Service does not track such records, but the Ryans intend to submit their achievement to Guinness World Records.
"My intention was to take her to see mountains for the first time. I didn't think that she could climb a mountain, but she rose to the occasion in ways that I didn't expect," said Brad, a wildlife and industry veterinarian who returned to Ohio during the pandemic to care for his grandmother. "That led to an obsession on my part of what else could be possible."
The intergenerational duo continue to find new ways to answer that question. Their next challenge will be to visit all seven continents. While they are land mass-hopping, they will also chase down the Seven Summits. They've already bagged one: Alaska's Denali, the highest peak in North America.
"The challenge for me is to get back on my feet and get real strong before we go to Kenya," said Joy, who was recovering from covid-19 and jet lag, both of which she contracted on the return trip home from American Samoa.
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Travel heals a broken family
Brad and Joy weren't always two peas in a travel pod. His parents' divorce in 2002 fractured the family, and he didn't speak to his paternal grandmother for a long stretch of time. Years later, she fell seriously ill. While Brad was hiking the Appalachian Trail, he reflected on their past relationship and resolved to repair their bond after his six-month trek.
In Ohio, while communing with nature and each other in Blue Rock State Park, Joy peppered her grandson with questions about his experience on the 2,190-mile trail. During that outing, the then-octogenarian dropped the bombshell that she had never laid eyes - or stepped foot - on a mountain.
"It broke my heart to think about her second chance at life being given and then the most that she could make of that is just sitting on the same front porch that she's been sitting on for all of her life," Brad said. "That was when the seed was planted."
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Granny goes camping
Though Joy had experienced little of the world beyond her small Midwestern town, she was intimately familiar with nature. As a child, she'd dash across the country road to her grandmother's farm, where she'd fish and swim in the creek and pluck wildflowers.
"We just had fun outside, wandering around," she said.
Brad credits his grandmother for his interest in the outdoors and its wild inhabitants. "Grandma Joy was my gateway to nature and animals," he said, reminiscing about their adventures catching crayfish and frogs.
In September 2015, Brad planned a road trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, fulfilling his grandmother's wish to see a mountain. A rainstorm had turned the trail into a slip-and-slide, but Joy gamely gripped the cables and railings on the descent. She was equally unflappable on her first night sleeping in a tent. After toppling off the air mattress, she simply made herself comfortable on the ground. Brad eventually upgraded her sleeping accommodations to an Army cot.
"It was fun to climb the mountain. We talked to people on the way up," Joy said. "Everybody was cheerful."
"And rooting her on," Brad interjected. "She got a standing ovation at the top."
After the success of their maiden voyage, they set a new goal to visit all of the national parks with a "capital P," Brad said. Their original number was 59, but after the National Park Service designated four new sites, they had to tweak their itinerary.
"Sixty-three national parks was a small number but still ambitious enough of a goal that would give us something to work toward over the course of her lifetime," he said. "I'm sure that there will be a 64th park, and if we haven't already been there, then we can go."
To plot their route, Brad relied on a Rand McNally Road Atlas, which he cross-referenced with Google Maps. He chose scenic roads over interstates, so that "the whole journey was part of the experience." To save money, they camped out on clear nights and slept in budget lodgings when clouds threatened rain. For meals, they ate a diet of oranges, instant ramen noodles and convenience store sundries. On rare occasions, they grilled steak or burgers, with s'mores for dessert, on an open campfire. They budgeted $3,000 for 21 parks over 28 days, with most of it going into the gas tank.
"I thought it would be cheaper to save up money and do a road trip," Brad said.
After their 2017 circuit around a chunk of the Midwest and West, they spent the next six years checking parks off their list. Their most epic year was 2019, when they hit two dozen sites, including a 45-day, 20-park road trip. They closed out the year in Hawaii, when Joy was approaching her 90th birthday.
The pair left the most remote and far-flung destinations for last: Alaska's eight parks and American Samoa's one. Their final stop on the South Pacific island was a fitting finale for the travel buddies who discovered that their ages and generational gap were not a deterrent but an inspiration.
"In American Samoa, taking care of your elders is not considered an obligation or a hindrance," Brad said. "It's considered an honor. We felt more at home and more understood there than anywhere else we'd been."
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Adventures in the parks
Brad and Joy, who documented their travels on @grandmajoysroadtrip, didn't just Instagram-and-run. At each park, they would consult with rangers and follow their guidance, often overcoming their biggest fears to fully experience the landmark attractions.
"There were times when she pushed me and when I pushed her, because she's afraid of water," Brad said.
In the Virgin Islands National Park on St. John, for instance, Joy and Brad paddled inflatable kayaks to view the sea turtles. On the McCarthy River, in Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, they ripped down Class III rapids on a white-water rafting excursion. They boarded ferries to reach three parks - Isle Royale in Michigan, Dry Tortugas in Florida and the Channel Islands in Southern California - that were accessible only by watercraft.
"It was scary to get on and off the boat, but it was a beautiful sight on the way out," Joy said of their ride to the Channel Islands. "I saw a humpback whale, and the dolphins were jumping and leaping."
At New River Gorge in West Virginia, Brad shook off his acrophobia to cross the New River Gorge Bridge, which resembles a charcoal pencil line drawn 876 feet above the New River. Joy encouraged him during the Bridge Walk, but once they were back on terra firma, the playful poking would resume.
"She would tease me when we drove on roads with a steep drop-off," Brad said. "She's like, 'Brad, those cars down there look like ants.'"
Mobility issues never stopped them, either. At Alaska's Katmai, they followed the accessible Brooks Falls trail to a waterfall where 30 grizzly bear were catching salmon like anglers at a stocked lake. "We could have taken a wheelchair down there if we needed to," Brad said.
At Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, they rode an elevator 750 feet below ground and entered a subterranean sculpture garden carved by the hand of time. The limestone rock formations revealed different forms, such as a cow or tree.
"It took millions of years to create these," Joy said, "one drop of water at a time."
Since emerging from her own cave, Joy's universe has been rapidly expanding, one adventure at a time.
"You cannot believe what a wondrous world is out there after you've been in this tiny little cocoon all your life," she said.
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