SHELBURNE, Mass. — Robert Warren's house in Shelburne, Massachusetts, is a museum that encapsulates the last 40 years of his life. Each trinket, game, or picture is from a far off place you've probably never heard of.
"The artifacts all have a story behind them," Warren said. "They're not just objects."
At 72 years old, Bo, as he's known by friends, recently completed the rare accomplishment of traveling to every country in the world.
His original intention was not to visit every single one, it just came to a point during his travels that he felt compelled to see them all.
This past year, Warren traveled over 75,000 miles to visit the last eleven countries on his list. Four of them he had never been to, places like the small islands Kiribati and Nauru in the south Pacific. The other seven were places he felt he needed to spend more time.
In total, Warren has traveled to 195 countries. He has a large canvas map with pins on his wall marking all the places he's been. Even remote territories like northern Greenland.
"I heard everyone talking about how dangerous the world was and how these people were bad and these people were good and so forth and so on," Warren said, "That didn't line up with anything I saw."
He says the world is a safe place and wants to encourage people to go out and see it. He calls travel the ultimate learning experience. To share his experience, Warren started a private non-profit called the World Travel Learning Center.
Currently, there's a Facebook page and a small YouTube channel, but he hopes to have a website up and running soon.
He's been documenting over the years what he calls his "walkabout" in small leather journals that look like something Indiana Jones would carry.
Every journal includes little hand-illustrated maps of his routes. He wants people to understand how beautiful this world is.
"It's the people of the world that fascinate me and keep me going." Warren said, "That's by far and away the most interesting part of our world."
Even after visiting 195 countries, he keeps coming back to his home in western Massachusetts. He says it's one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Cox Media Group