She packs in excitement to start her first trip to New Mexico and waves goodbye to her parents as she walks out of the door; she’s scared, yet thrilled, to have her first-ever opportunity to explore beyond her hometown of El Paso, Texas. As she rides with her grandparents in a pickup truck, dusk settles over the campsite while she gets ready to sleep.

It was during her trip to New Mexico when English teacher Rhonda Shelton recognized her love for traveling. To this day she still remembers fishing for the first time on the Red River and catching a rainbow trout, despite the fact that she was reeling upside down.

“I grew up very poor and we didn’t get to go on vacations when I was a kid, but my grandparents and my great aunt and uncle would take trips,” Rhonda said. “It was all in the United States and so sometimes they would take me. My first trip was to New Mexico when I was 8 years old.”

Rhonda now travels around the world with her husband Stephen Shelton; throughout their 40 years of marriage, they have tried to travel as much as possible and experience cultures around the world. With Rhonda’s sense of adventure and humor, they always manage to have a good time.

“I’m always hesitant to even travel with another couple because we travel hard,” Rhonda said. “There are days when we will walk 12 to 15 miles because I don’t normally revisit, so when we are there I want to see everything I can. So it’s not a vacation, it’s sightseeing.”

Rhonda and her husband have taken a total of 15 trips to various countries throughout Europe including Romania, France and Greece.

“She doesn’t like to repeat locations, but wants to do new adventures,” Stephen said. “It’s that sense of adventure thing. I’d be happy to go back anywhere at anytime as long as we go together.”

In 2004, Rhonda traveled with her husband and daughter, Charity Ready, to Romania. Rhonda does not travel with her daughters anymore because of their children.

“I have traveled with one of my daughters and that was before they had children,” Rhonda said. “It’s just so hard to travel with small children. Both of my daughters now have small children, we would [take small nearby trips] but their kids need to be older.”

Together they traveled to Romania to conduct a conference for pastors and their families. They spent 10 days at the conference and Rhonda stayed an additional 10 days with her husband to explore, which turned out to be one of their longest trips.

“She makes everyone she interacts with feel special and valued,” Charity said. “Our trip was primarily to do trainings, so watching her teach and encourage Romanian women and families was amazing to watch.”

One of Rhonda’s favorite parts about traveling is that she is able to interact with people with different cultures and develop friendships.

“When we went to Paris, a lot of Americans think the French are snobby and don’t like Americans,” Rhonda said. “I found that to be totally opposite. I got sick while I was there [and] they were really helpful and caring. Part of that was we tried to learn some of their words. They could tell we are trying to communicate and so they would have compassion and help us and so I think that’s the best thing.”

Despite the fact that Rhonda enjoys all her trips, she was disappointed when she visited London. There she was short on time and found it to be the most expensive place she’s visited.

“I don’t really have a least favorite because they were all very different,” Rhonda said. “I really prefer to see more natural things than man-made things. We saw the Globe Theatre but because we were there [for] such a short time, I can’t remember [the] play that was there at the time.”

Stephen made a promise to Rhonda 40 years ago – take her to Hawaii. He kept his promise and has finally found time to follow through. They are looking forward to another journey and many more to come.

“We have booked a trip to Hawaii next March,” Rhonda said. “That was something we wanted when we got married but other opportunities have come up and we [have] never been able to do that. My husband loves landscaping and gardens and things like that. That’s kind of why we want to go, just for the beauty and the landscape.”