The Real Reason We Started Zeke & Terri Adventures
30 YEARS LATER — WE'RE STILL FIGURING IT OUT
People often assume Zeke & Terri Adventures is a travel brand. It was, at the beginning, but over the last two years, we’ve realized that we can’t be the Kara and Nate’s for GenXers. We have too much lived experience for our lives to be only about travel.
Like many people our age (56 right now), our lives are a lot more complicated.
When we started Zeke and Terri Adventures, we were looking for something that connected us, challenged us, and helped us continue evolving together. As people with very different interests, we often struggle to find things (other than our childhoods and history), that we can both be excited about.
Travel happened to be one of those things.
Over the past two years we have tried so many things, looking for what feels good, what fits into our life, and what brings us together. There’s so much pasta on the floor we can barely see it. We think we found what’s going to stick.
We've realized that travel is only one facet of a larger, more prismatic life.
The point is to stay curious, learn new things, and have new experiences together as we continue on the adventure we call life.
We don’t want to be tour guides or produce content that can be found in a ‘top 10 things to do in a city’ search.
We’ve realized that the videos and content we are happiest creating aren't solely about the destinations. They're about the story behind the channel, our relationship, and what we've learned about navigating marriage, parenting, reinvention, curiosity, and modern midlife.
The older we get, the more convinced we become that thriving in midlife isn't about standing still. It's about staying curious. It's about continuing to learn. And it's about continuing to grow.
We will continue to spend a lot of time talking about destinations, museums, saunas, train rides, long itineraries, and the occasional travel mishap plus what it’s like to navigate modern midlife.
This week, in honor of our 30th anniversary, we released two videos sharing the story behind the channel, our relationship, and why we're heading in this direction.
Terri and Zeke on their wedding day (we eloped 3 months before the big wedding), Lake Tahoe, California (June 1996)
Thirty years ago, we got married.
Five years ago, we nearly divorced.
Today, we run a travel channel and modern midlife brand together.
Life rarely follows the script.