Today my dad sent me this article in an email with the subject line: “Your next blog?”
My first thought was ‘Wow, my dad actually reads this blog?!’
Then I read the article, and my second thought was, ‘This girl is my new hero.’

While tons of mid-20-somethings entertain wild fantasies about quitting their mundane jobs and traveling around the country, continent or globe, very few actually take that next step. Maybe it takes a hard-to-ignore incentive like Alex’s to actually muster the courage to go ahead and do it.

Now, we’ve all had our “classic tale of boy breaks up with girl, girl moves in with parents in an attempt to regroup,” (as Alex calls it in the article) type of situation (or at least some version of it. I know I have.) For Alex, things got extra difficult when her parents’ house, the one she was currently living in, went up in flames, along with all of their possessions. Right before Christmas.

To make a long story short, on top of her already-mounting troubles, Alex couldn’t find a job (she had just earned her master’s in art history), but she was lucky enough to have a friend, Luke, who was as adventurous as she was (and also was unhappy with his job). Together, they decided to throw caution (and steady paychecks and 401(k)s) to the wind and take off on an e-adventure of sorts. The pair departed on March 20 for their exploration of North America, fueled completely by suggestions from the followers they are garnering from their web site, their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and YouTube and Gowalla.

It won’t be all fun and games on the road for Alex and Luke, though. They plan to update their site regularly, and perform a weekly travel program with a puppet show aimed at kids.

What do you guys think? Could you see yourself using social media this way to fuel something you really want to do, like traveling?

Photo and story via Lemondrop.