About
Meet Speck on the Globe
Hi, I’m Abbie! I was raised in Pittsburgh, Pa and even as a little freckled face girl I always had aspirations of seeing as much as I could with my own eyes.
“You would be sitting in the back of the car asking where we were going next and your sister would be asking when we would be going home.” My mother’s classic tale explaining my constant on-the-go attitude. My Great Aunt Lucy would say it’s a characteristic shared by my mother’s side of the family. “If you ask a Ferrone to go out even to just watch water float under a bridge, they’ll say, let me go grab my purse.” My need for new explorations and adventures seemed to come from before birth and it was insatiable.
After college, I graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BA in Journalism and French and I thought for sure in a few years I’d be living in Paris and working as a writer. Ah, the dreams of a twenty-something creative. I followed my heart in another direction however and moved to Philadelphia instead. After an unexpected break-up and eight years working in medical administration, I made a choice to follow my gut this time, and I headed back to my family.
My father at the time was diagnosed with leukemia and having traveled for months back and forth each weekend by bus to see him, I knew it was time to go be with my family when it really mattered. It wasn’t until my dad went into remission that I realized I was so wrapped up in focusing on my family and my dad’s cancer that I didn’t have a clue what my next move was. Hitting the pause button for him forced me to reevaluate what was important in my own life, and in doing so it enabled me to take steps toward realizing the goals I wanted to achieve for myself. Shortly after this, I was having a conversation with a friend who had been inviting me to Thailand for years. We talked about how now was a no better time to celebrate life and new beginnings than heading over to Asia. I hung up the phone and immediately booked my ticket to Bangkok starting what has now been a nearly ten-year nomadic journey.
While Pittsburgh always feels like home to me, experiencing new places is more fulfilling for me than standing still. My first time outside of the US was in high school on the most memorable trip to Ireland with my Aunt. It wasn’t until I went to Europe 7 years later however that I made a pact with myself to be more open to travel. On a flight back from Paris in October 2006 I made a promise that I would travel to at least one country I’ve never been to each year until I’m 30. It’s been an amazing journey so far and now that I’ve surpassed that goal, the quest continues.
I’ve been featured in and written for many publications like Wanderful’s Sustainability Influencers Leading the Way in Travel, My Postcard’s 15 Sustainable Travel Influencers to Worth Imitating, Skyscanner’s Practicing Animal Tourism Around the World, Purposeful Nomad, Fair Force’s 100 Green Influencers, Impact Travel Alliance and Global Shakers 40 Leaders in Sustainable Travel.
I’ve been the Wanderful community’s resident Sustainable Travel Expert and in 2023 I was asked to be one of the judges for Marie Claire’s Sustainability Awards travel category.
Spotting Speck on the Globe Stories on Other Outlets
Looking to find more of my travel articles outside of the blog? In addition to this website, I also work as a freelance writer and journalist. Here are a few other places you can read some of my latest and past works.
Happy travels!
12 Comments
Kar
Eek! So glad you are doing this blog 🙂 Your first true publicized writing adventure, go you! xo
Michelle Whiteman
🙂
Turquoise Compass
Hey there fellow blogger!
I’m always excited to connect with other travelers!
https://www.facebook.com/TurquoiseCompass
https://twitter.com/turquoisecompas
http://www.pinterest.com/turquoisecompas/
http://instagram.com/turquoisecompass
So happy to connect,
Jessica, Turquoise Compass
You are never too old to dream a new dream!
Rosalind Carson Parneix
Hi, I guess we are third cousins! Carlene Nagg Hawes told me about your blog. My mother was June Ferrone, daughter of the eldest Ferrone brother, Victor. We lived in Erie (she married Raymond Carson, from Erie) and went to Pittsburgh allot to visit Aunt Lucy, Uncle Augie, Aunt Gloria, etc. Myself and two brothers spent lots of nights sleeping at Aunt Lucy’s with all the cousins, including your Mother. I always wanted to travel also and first moved to Manhattan and then made my first six month trip to Europe in 1972. Fell in love with Europe! Have been back at least forty times since. In fact, now that I am retired we go for six weeks a year – usually to my favorite, France. I always wanted a home in Provence! Two years ago we spent a month in Sicily also and loved it. Last year we spent a month in Corsica. My career in retailing took me to Asia many times over 30 years. In fact, we are leaving Sept. 1 for five weeks in England. I have been working on a Carson Family Tree for over a year and so many of our roots are in England. Carlene told me your Mother is going to meet you soon in Italy. I wish you were going to Bella as there are so many holes in the family tree regarding the Ferrone and Fella families. We need to visit Bella and see the town and parish records. Unfortunately, the Italians are not as good record keepers as the English! I wanted to introduce myself to you as we have a love of travel to share. Hope you have a great time when your Mother meets you.
Speck on the Globe
Thanks so much for introducing yourself, it is always fun to meet new family! If we have time and end up seeing Bella I’ll make sure we let you know! Looking forward to some family time soon in Italy!
Tracey Santos
Hey Abbie, hope you had fun in St.Kitts! If was very nice to meet you on the flight out. Let me know if you posted a review of your mini-adventures with your friends. Have a merry Christmas and a happy wander-full 2016!
Ciao,
Tracey
Speck on the Globe
Hi Tracey! Glad you found my site & I hope you had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. I’ll make sure I forward you the link when my St. Kitts weekend story goes live 🙂 Hopefully 2016 will be full of exploration and excitement.
Mahtab
Dear Abbie 🙂
I’m Mahtab (means moonlight) from Iran. I checked your website and Instagram out. I figured out that you have good taste in travel and photography.
But what about Iran? Have you ever traveled to Iran? Or do you have any plan to travel?
Iran abounds with wonders, incredible nature and hospital people.
Angelika
Hi Abbie, I came across your blog. Great work! Interesting content and nice pictures. I followed your blog. I enjoy to read blogs from people around the world and get inspired by other bloggers recipes. I am a food blogger from Canada, and I invite you to visit/follow my blog at: https://zest4foodblog.wordpress.com. Cheers, Angelika
Haley Johnson
Hi Abbie!Â
Love your stuff (I checked it out after you followed us on Pinterest) – I went to school in Freeport, Maine my whole life so I loved your post about it.
Would you be interested in a backlink exchange?
Best,
Haley J
Violetta
Hello Abbie!
Please help our sustainable travel startup!
We are a startup based in Paris and we are currently working on a new solution to help travelers to better and more efficiently organize and book their sustainable and personalized trips.
I would really like to have 20 minutes of your time to have a talk and help us to understand how you are managing this task currently.
I don’t want to sell you anything, just get your advice.
If you’re interested in helping us, please send an email at prometheaproject@gmail.com
Thank you,
Violetta
linkedin.com/in/violettasassi
Jenny Zhao
Come chat with us about your experiences as an influencer.
Dear Abbie,
We hope this email finds you well.
We are interested in finding out about your motivations and experiences as an influencer in promoting sustainable luxury travel, as well as the challenges that you face. We see that you have 9.883 followers, and your channel(s) have featured a series of content dedicated to sustainable luxury tourism.
We warmly invite you to have to have a virtual chat that will take approximately 1 hour, and we can assure you that any information you provide will remain confidential, and the data collected will only be used for research purposes. You may also choose to leave the chat at any point in time.
We believe that your considerable influence and extensive experience will provide us with valuable insight. Please let us know if you want to be part of this exciting conversation. We will contact you to arrange a date/time.
If you would like to know more about the study before deciding whether to participate, please contact us at jkim001@dundee.ac.uk. Thank you very much in advance for your assistance with this research.
Kind regards,
Jenny Zhao
On behalf of Dr Jihye Kim, Dr Szu-Hsin Wu and Dr Peng Khoon Gerald Chan