Cassidy Grant and Dylan Hickcox are a nomadic couple who have been traveling the world together since they were 17-years-old. I got a chance to FaceTime in and talk to Grant and Hickcox while they relaxed at home in Bakersfield, Calif.
They are both groggy after long days. Grant woke up at 5 am to drive an hour to school where she partook in a nursing theory class, took an exam and had her first orientation day at the hospital. Hickcox also woke up at 5 am — he had just returned from a rock climbing trip in Greece and was fighting with his jet lag.
The beginning of the relationship
The two make a likely couple when you look at them. Both active travelers and outdoors people, they have been dating since July 2016. They met in Peru while both participating in a retreat for alternatively educated teens. Grant giggled, “He was persistent, I’ll give him that.”
The two grew up with traveling families, Grant spent three years of her adolescence on a 58ft catamaran, visiting roughly 22 countries. Hickcox’s family moved to Costa Rica for five years when he was a child, and then to Thailand, and slowly throughout most of South East Asia. Now 20-years-old, Hickcox has been to 21 countries.
Life now for the two
But the two also share similar ambitions and goals. While Hickcox technically resides in Washington State with his family, he considers himself more of a nomad and spends as much time in Bakersfield with Grant as possible. They work odd jobs to save for their future trips, which have taken a more domestic turn while Grant is in nursing school.
Camping and road trips have become a large vacation choice for the two. “We both want to pitch a tent in the middle of a forest instead of in a campground.”
They like adventure and look at each other as if sharing an inside joke when asked to recount their favorite adventure memories together.
“You know, sometimes the best travel memories are born out of misery,” Hickcox laughed as he thought about their camping trip at Crater Lake. Their words jumbled on top of each other as they remembered the conditions. “It was so cold…” “We had no bug spray…” “We stayed up all night around the fire to stay warm…”
Or the time they were hiking the rice terraces in the Philippines. It was hot, humid and the “hike” consisted of only stairs headed in an upward direction.
Next, they said they are both looking forward to “doing Europe.” They plan to chase views and experience a continent together on this adventure.
