An Ohio grandmother and grandson are close to completing their epic seven-year adventure to visit all 63 U.S. national parks.
Brad Ryan told CBS News that he decided to embark on the trip in 2015 after his grandmother, Joy Ryan, told him she had never visited a mountain.
“Our journey began when I found out that my grandma in her eighties had never been to the mountains,” he said.
From there, the two set out on a once-in-a-lifetime journey.
“It seemed like an impossible dream once. But after everything that I’ve done with her — whitewater rafting. She was 91 when we did class three rapids in Alaska,” Brad Ryan said.
But Joy Ryan has been game for anything, and said whitewater rafting was a blast.
“Oh, it was fun. I had the best time,” she said. “And just like being on a roller coaster. I love roller coasters.”
Their first stop was a trip to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where the pair tried to sleep on air mattresses.
“Well, I didn’t sleep on it. I fell off,” Joy Ryan told CBS News. “So I think, ‘the heck with it.’ I go to sleep on the ground.”
After seven years of excursions, the pair will complete their mission next April at the National Park of American Samoa in the South Pacific.
When asked what this journey has meant to her, Joy Ryan said the trip has been an opportunity to “go out and broaden my horizons and see all the beautiful things I only dreamed about.”
