He traveled around the world in 55 days without a plan. Here’s why

Ben Hatke was scared before he left home.

The Eisner Award-winning cartoonist had spent years thinking about traveling around the world, heading east from his Starsburg, Virginia, area home and continuing until he found his way back. But in the days before leaving, he found himself waking up at night sweating and wondering whether the whole thing was a terrible idea.

"I probably understated the amount of times that I would wake up at night just unable to sleep, sweating and thinking like, is this is this is like a stupid idea? Am I being crazy?" Hatke told USA TODAY.

"It really was sort of like the… that sort of like Bilbo Baggins (from 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien) feeling of like the road can sweep you up, and you’re just going," he said.

That journey became "Home/World," Hatke’s graphic memoir about circumnavigating the globe, told through ink, watercolor and gripping encounters with strangers along the way.

With the support of his wife and five children (2, 13, 16, 19 and 21 at the time), Hatke was able to drop everything and circumvent the world in 55 days. His 2024 journey has, in some ways, preceded the trend brought on…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/travel/