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Wanderlust bug takes couple on second phase of travels

Posted 9/11/18

Editor’s note: Fountain Hills residents Beverly Belury and husband John Hersey, retired business coaches, recently completed 10 months of house watching and pet-sitting.

They visited 35 cities …

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Wanderlust bug takes couple on second phase of travels

Posted

Editor’s note: Fountain Hills residents Beverly Belury and husband John Hersey, retired business coaches, recently completed 10 months of house watching and pet-sitting.

They visited 35 cities in six countries and cared for 17 dogs, two cats, four horses, 14 hens, six ducks, one rooster, two pigs and three fish in nine homes.

They head out Sept. 25 on their next adventure to Kauai, Hawaii; New Zealand, Australia, Bali, Vietnam, Thailand and beyond.

Bev Belury and John Hersey learned to live as locals in Italy, Sicily, Morocco, England, the Netherlands and France.

Even more significantly, their extended travel taught them about themselves and updated their views and values.

“This trip has been a life changer for both of us,” said Belury. “The vision we thought we had in our lives was not valid anymore. We discovered that who we thought we were was not valid anymore.”

When Belury initially suggested the idea of watching homes and pets while owners vacationed, Hersey said he went from thinking “it was the dumbest idea I had ever heard to owning this as my idea. It was so wonderful. It was a blast. It takes you to places that you never think about going.” Hersey said he never knew he loved animals so much.

In the height of their professional careers, the couple lived and worked in New York City and Boston.

“We always thought we wanted to be in the cities,” said Belury.

Their exposure to the small villages proved the opposite. They realized they were “not city people.” After spending an hour or 90 minutes in a museum, they said they were more than ready to leave.

Locals opened their homes to them and let the couple “step into a slice of their lives.” Many have become “lifelong friends,” crossing multi-age generations.

“You know people are the same all over the world,” said Hersey. “People are as friendly as you allow them to be.”

“There wasn’t a single place that we went that we didn’t feel safe,” he added.

They realized that they could also live with fewer possessions. For the next trip, they are packing fewer clothes in smaller carry-on bags.

They have officially planned their destinations as far out as next spring. They might continue to Turkey and a few European countries.

“We have been invited back to most of the places we’ve done house- or pet-sitting,” he said.

“The question is do we want to do a do-over,” said Hersey. “There are so many places to see.”

“It’s very comforting to return to places where we’ve been,” she added.

The trip enhanced their personal relationship, they said.

“Our relationship had gotten kind of boring. The traveling brought new conversations and experiences,” said Belury.

She learned to accept what she enjoyed doing by herself. She became interested in geocaching. After a drawing course, she finds she is doodling more. She enjoys walking by herself. He discovered he loved taking videos and photographs.

“Over the course of time, because I was doing most of the business, I sort of left things in our life to Bev; the cooking, cleaning things. When you are on the road, you have to share.”

House- and pet-sitting is the most undiscovered, phenomenal way to travel, said Belury. A third of their travel expenses became zero because of their services, said Hersey.

“It’s not the primary benefit but everybody wins. We get to snuggle and watch TV with those rascals,” he said.

Pets boarded in kennels for extended periods are often negatively affected by the experience, said Belury. Caring for the animals gave her a sense of purpose.

Still undecided, they may write a ‘how to do it” book on traveling the world by house watching and pet-sitting.

Their primary tool for locating and arranging house/pet sits is trustedhousesitters.com, headquartered in Brighton, England.

They write a blog, “On the Road with Bev and John,” and produce YouTube videos of their journey and experiences. They also post comments and photos about their travels on Facebook.