Darrell and Penelope Pennington made good on their goal to travel the world, as detailed in the July/August 2024 issue. Since listing their home and selling most of their belongings, the couple has visited a dozen countries. In this monthly series, Penelope — who quips she’s “a broad abroad” — shares missives from the road. Read the inaugural column here.
Hello, Evansville Living readers! Thanks for joining us, and I hope that you enjoy our stories. We hit the one-year anniversary of leaving Evansville in October, and I have been very reflective as I look back at the incredible year of adventure we have experienced and all of the beautiful places we’ve encountered and fantastic people we’ve met. Many times before we left, a familiar question came from nearly everyone, all curious about our decision: “Why are you doing this?”
I have heard the echoes of that question many times these last few weeks of reflection, and I find that the answer is certainly an evolving one. It has been interesting to recall the mindset in the months, weeks, and days leading up to our departure. Our time in Evansville had seemed to be coming to a natural end, which was something I had never previously considered as a “thing”. But as I rolled the ideas and thoughts of leaving around my head last year, all signs seemed to be pointing to that conclusion. Our children were at a stage where our physical absence was probably helpful for them. The businesses I had invested 12 years of blood, sweat, and tears in were sold. Darrell’s career had achieved the goals he had set for himself years ago. The goals and motivations we had for ourselves were changing. I found myself thinking many times, “Our time is done here.”
As our travels began in late October 2024, Darrell and I set new goals for ourselves; we have done this our entire time together, and this next phase of our lives was going to be no different in that respect. A primary goal was to more fully develop the idea of our TV show, “Dixie Dynamite,” which we have been working on for the past three years. That idea is now a fully formed pilot script being shopped around producers and a Hollywood production company. Will it ever sell and be a Netflix-and-chill opportunity? Who knows, but we are MUCH closer to that reality now. In addition, Darrell has written two other TV show pilots (“Witch In The Woods” and “Trusted”), and we have sketched out a few more ideas that we plan to work on in Year 2 of our travels. Additionally, we both have photo essay-styled book ideas in the works, and I am documenting daily our experience and adventure for a quite large project that will be put together when these travels come to an end.
We also made a commitment to focus more diligently on daily physical movement. Young at heart and young in spirit, we may be, but we both have noticed time taking its normal toll on us physically. Prior to leaving Evansville, we decided that walking was going to be our primary mode of transportation — no rental cars and minimal public transportation. Our current locale at any given time dictates how little public transportation we will use, but it has been very minimal. Never in my life did I consider the idea of a 10-mile round-trip walk to go see a movie. We have done that many times now! Our new lifestyle allows us to commit to extended daily activity that we had not committed to prior to leaving.
Darrell’s and my relationship has taken on new dimensions that it never would have had we not jumped headfirst into this crazy idea. Spending 24/7 with the person you love is great, but it takes adjusting to. Learning how to co-exist with the same person for 8,760 straight hours (and counting) in a positive, productive way has drawn us even closer. We have to make strategic decisions every day, and — let me tell you — having to find a new place to live every 20-30 days is its own job. We’ve had in-depth discussions on topics that we didn’t take the time to have before, and we continue to learn about each other. Being able to do that 36 years into a relationship has been a blessing.
So, why did we do this? We are still learning all of the answers to that question. I can unequivocally state that it has been the best decision we could have made for ourselves at the time it was made. Our life is on a completely different path and trajectory from just 12 months ago, and that is exciting! At a time in life when many people are considering how to transition into an existence that is less work, more comfort, and a predictable status quo, we have elected to jump into the unknown, in a manner less comfortable and more unpredictable than we have ever experienced before. We have no idea what the rest of life holds for us, but we sure are excited to discover and live every day of it!
Follow the Penningtons on YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook @penelopepennington. In their sixth column, they prepare to return home for the first time in 14 months.
