Hi! Welcome to our newsletter! We are so glad you are here!!
We are Deana & Jeff Long, a Generation X couple experiencing wonder, building community, and pursuing meaning around the world.
This newsletter is your passport to Zigzag Along with us!!
Each week we share our love of people through glimpses into the cultures, sights, and sounds we experience around the globe. Every country has its own unique qualities; its history, people, and places. But we learn more from each place we visit than just its local culture. We discover new things about ourselves and each other, too. We cannot possibly cover everything. But we can share our personal insights from our encounters with the people and places we see.
Our global community
Everywhere we go we meet the most beautiful people. We have made lifelong friendships in Sarande, Albania, Corfu and Thessaloniki, Greece, Bansko, Bulgaria, and Paphos, Cyprus. We believe a sense of connectedness is vital in these perilous times. And we hope this newsletter can become a tool to extend our global community to you and include people who haven’t (yet!) traveled.
This newsletter is your chance to share in our sense of wonder, connect with people we meet along the way, and perhaps learn more about yourself in the process.
What you get:
Free Subscribers
Our travel stories and adventures across the globe
Photo essays that transport you to new destinations
Regular posts about the places we explore
Paid Subscribers ($5/month)
Join us as true travel companions and receive
✨ Unique Experiences You Won’t Find Elsewhere
From meeting the granddaughter of Spiros “Americanos” in Corfu to joining authentic community gatherings in Albania - we share the meaningful encounters that create lasting memories and deeper cultural understanding.
📸 Intimate Visual Storytelling
Go beyond tourist snapshots with our photography and videos that capture authentic celebrations, meaningful moments, and the beauty of everyday life in extraordinary places. Our visual stories bring you into the heart of each culture we experience.
🌏 A Fresh Perspective On Seeing The World
Travel isn’t just about destinations; it’s about transformation. Our paid content helps you see familiar and unfamiliar places through new eyes, with insights on finding wonder and meaning wherever you go.
🧳 Practical Insider Knowledge That Makes Travel Better
From packing essentials others overlook to managing health issues abroad, our years of full-time travel have taught us countless practical tips that enhance your journey - all shared exclusively with our paid community.
Join us on this journey of wonder, community, health, and meaning around the world! Your future travels (and your present curiosity) will thank you.
Save with a $50 annual subscription. As a special bonus, the first 100 paid subscribers will get a handwritten thank you postcard sent from a place we visit.
Finally, become a Founding Member for only $100 and receive a second handwritten thank you postcard from an entirely different location. Your name will also be included in the credits of future videos.
We hope you’ll Zigzag Along with us!
About Deana & Jeff
In 2021, we decided it was time to step away from our careers and travel the world. Jeff was a 4th-grade teacher. Deana was a healthcare worker in the ER.
There are so many exquisite places filled with lovely people in the world. But we had never left the borders of our home country to experience them. I know, crazy!
And we were burnt out on our careers. In our fifties, we knew we could not keep up the pace of the American rat race, and we still had a long way to go toward financial security. We needed a new strategy that could lower our cost of living while maximizing our happiness and earning potential.
We started researching different ways to affordably visit our absolute must-see locations, especially if we could only do this for a year.
In January 2022, we spent a secluded week in a snow-bound cabin plotting our escape. After considering Portugal and Italy, we landed on Sarande, Albania, as our first destination.
On September 5th, 2022 we boarded a plane in Seattle, Washington, and set off on our tremendously amazing and utterly terrifying new life exploring the world. We lived for 2-3 months each in Albania, Cyprus, Greece, and Bulgaria, with side excursions to Italy, and the Czech Republic.
This past July, we became American nomads and zigzagged across our home state of Washington visiting family and friends. We then ventured into Iowa and Texas during August to spend time with our children and grandchildren.
And then on October 29th, we left again; this time to Tbilisi, Georgia!
So far, we have been to 10 different countries…with many more to come!
