Detroit Native: A Year of International 'Travel Renewed My Soul'

DETROIT (WWJ) - Have you ever thought about dropping everything and traveling around the world?

"Eleven countries, 15 places, 384 days of travel," that's the tally for traveler - adventurer Perri Storey.

"I called it the year of my triumphant soul," Storey tells WWJ's Stephanie Davis. "I feel restored."

Storey is back in the states now living in San Diego.

The Detroit native says she was burned out from two high-powered executive positions she held in San Diego. "It was my bucket list -- I was a young mother, I was the first in my family to graduate college, and I always wanted to do this. So, it seems like I just jumped out there - but this was a 20 year dream in the making."

So she prayed and took a leap of faith, and left to live and travel abroad.

"I went to Germany, Paris, London, Rome, Venice, Tuscany, Egypt, Athens, Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna" she says. "I just went all the places I had saw on TV, you know, I'm a young girl, African American girl growing up in the inner city, the hood, if you will, and I had always saw these places I wanted to visit and I went to every one."

Storey says she planned the adventure and took a job on a military base in Germany. "What I ended up doing to stay in a country legally for a year, I went to work for the government on a status of forces agreement - I went to work for the military - that kept me in the country legally."

She describes her experience in the Canary Islands -- where she said it's unusual for residents to connect with African Americans. "I was a big hit, people wanted to take photos with me, and I loved it."