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This is 40: Celebrating 40 Years of Kassie with 40 Locations!

A short video of all 40 locations we went to over the past year to celebrate me turning 40 this year!  We work hard to get to travel and are so fortunate to be able to do so!




I joke about being surprised that I made it to 40. But in reality there have been moments and decisions that do make this feel lucky or fortunate at times. Not only to have made it - but to have made it to where I am - happy, successful, whole, and loved.


I had a phenomenal childhood. But then detoured the start of my "adult life" (not really adult - but convinced I was one) as a college dropout and a short stint of sleeping in my car or on random couches, cleaning concert venues at 2am for cash and selling vacuums door-to-door (or not really selling them... turns out I'm not great at that... luckily I had multiple other jobs to keep me busy) to becoming a self-taught developer and meeting my supportive husband to now being a published author and SVP of Operations in NYC who is fortunate enough to travel the world. Battling financial hardships and depression swings along the way. And with that comes the reminder that, dude, life is hard. It's rarely always easy... for anyone. There is some struggle that everyone has had to go through - whether you see it or not. 


So, here I stand. 40 years old. Brought to you by hard work, perseverance, positivity, and being fortunate in opportunity to get the chances that I've been given. Point A to point B - with a huge detour in the middle. Along the way I've come to find myself, love myself, and learn I'm a badass. And if I'm fortunate enough - in another 40 years - I'll make it to point C... 


With that... we celebrated the "making it to 40" with 40 locations! An idea born with a night in a bar over a few beers and a standard "R+K I have an idea!" conversation. 

__________________


What started as 40 from august to august expanded to the start of 2023 to August 2024. Due to our loved people planning things that we want to join… before August 2023. This was the celebration of “omg Kassie survived 40 years - we never thought it would happen.” Maybe the next 40, I’ll be more careful so it won’t be so surprising. 40 “experiences” had to be #1 unique, #2 require the day and night in the location to count, #3 that’s it.

___________________


1. St George Island, Florida

2. TWA Hotel, Queens, New York

3. Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

4. Mystic, Connecticut 

5. Farm Sanctuary, The Finger Lakes, New York

6. Tenby, Wales

7. Snowdonia National Park, Wales

8. Newport, Rhode Island

9. Spokane, Washington

10. Seyðisfjörður, Iceland

11. Wichita, Kansas

12. Bermuda

13. Munich, Germany

14. Vienna, Austria 

15. Hallstat, Austria

16. Innsbruck, Austria 

17. Vaduz, Liechtenstein

18. St Moritz, Switzerland 

19. Zermatt, Switzerland

20. Zurich, Switzerland

21. Governor’s Island, New York City

22. New Paltz Trails, Upstate New York

23. Nashville, Tennessee

24. Christmas Con, Edison, New Jersey

25. Kansas

26. Iowa

27. Hogmanay, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

28. The Bahamas

29. Lisbon, Portugal 

30. Porto, Portugal 

31. Londonderry, Vermont 

32. Bottlerock, Napa Valley, California

33. Flatey Island, Iceland

34. Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Iceland

35. Vestmannaeyjabær (Westman Islands), Iceland

36. Ísafjörður, Iceland

37. Newport, Oregon

38. Oslo, Norway

39. Flåm, Norway

40. Bergen, Norway







Originally from Iowa (Kassie) and Kansas (Rick), we met in Kansas in 2005 and immediately found that we had so much in common - including our desire to someday see the world. We now live in NYC and quickly started catching up on travel after our first (just us) international trip to Iceland in 2015. We decided to start making videos for us and our family/friends to track our travels. Kassie is in Marketing, an Author (see her poetry + author videos), and Puppet Creator. Rick is an Engineer and Script Writer (see our current and coming puppet movies!)


Kassie's Author Site: https://www.kassiejrunyan.com/


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