How a Single Dad Showed His Daughters 35 Countries (And Counting)

Not wealthy, just determined. Meet the Mississippi man giving his girls the gift of a global education.

Photo: Will Ladnier

When you travel, you meet certain people who shake up your view of the world. Their choices and actions challenge conventional wisdom while simultaneously showing you a different path forward.

In my case, I met a man on the Mississippi Gulf Coast last year who changed my perception of what fatherhood could be.

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In 2024, I decided to visit the state for the first time with hopes of a more local experience. I turned to Couchsurfing, a social network that connects travelers with hosts willing to open their homes to complete strangers like me. Since joining the platform 10 years ago, I’ve used it to make meaningful connections all over the world.

Will Ladnier’s profile was the first to show up in my search results for Biloxi, and his adventures all over the globe immediately caught my attention. But what intrigued me even more were the frequent travel companions I saw pictured in his photos: his two young daughters, Julianna and Aubrey.

From the base camp of Mount Everest in Nepal to the ancient ruins of Petra in Jordan, Will and his daughters have spanned the globe, more than any other family I know. These experiences have provided Julianna and Aubrey an education in humanity that few children (and many adults) ever get to experience.

“Meeting people,” Julianna said to me when I asked her about her favorite part of traveling.

“And the food,” she added with a huge grin.

From the outside looking in, you might think, “maybe this Will guy is just super wealthy,” or perhaps “he must homeschool his kids.” But the reality is much closer to a typical American life than you might assume.

Will is a fixer. He earns a modest living leading boat restoration and cleanup projects along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His daughters attend school during the academic year, while their family adventures usually occur during summer breaks, just like most Americans.

To make travel a reality, Will’s embraced the art of working within constraints (budget, schedule, work obligations, etc) and leveraged resources like Couchsurfing that provide free accommodation. He also enjoys connecting with locals, who often invite his family into their homes, charmed by the oddity of a single father traveling alone with two young daughters.

“It opens doors,” he said of traveling as a single dad with kids. “You’re trusted more, you’re respected more, and I’ve really appreciated that.”

For most people, the idea of hiking a stretch of the Camino de Santiago in Spain or camping near Mount Sinai in Egypt sounds like a daring adventure. But for parents with kids? They might tell you it’s impossible, improbable, and maybe even irresponsible.

But traveling this way has offered Will and his girls more positives than negatives over the years. Will, Julianna, and Aubrey are a novelty to everyone they encounter in some place new, and that often works in their favor.

“He’s really good at networking,” Julianna said of her father’s ability to relate to total strangers. “As far as I know, as soon as he got his driver’s license, he was out and about (here in Biloxi). He’d buy boats, fix them up, sell them, and then he was driving…that naval vessel for the research program (at the University of Southern Mississippi).”

Photo: Will Ladnier

Plastered on the walls of the hallway entrance to Will’s home is a huge world map. Dozens of pins mark the countries he and his girls have visited, connected by threads of string that trace how they got there.

This map, along with the countless photos and videos of their adventures, are sources of pride for Will. They’ve created a quiet confidence in him that echoes in other parts of his life as a man and father.

Most parents want to wait until their kids reach a certain age before they start traveling. But Will believes there’s value in doing so sooner rather than later. His girls, for instance, were still in elementary school when they traveled through 9 different countries in a single calendar year.

And, yes, the younger they are, the less likely they’ll remember every single detail of every single place. But to Will, that doesn’t mean his kids aren’t absorbing or learning from the experience.

“If you’re staying in your house, having a good time, that’s great,” Will said. “There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s repetitive. Much of the day is repetitive.

“You get out of that and you break that monotony, get out in the world, and add to that the fact that you’re happy, you’re tasting new foods yourself, (etc.),” he continued. “Your child is learning at an elevated rate that you (can’t) even hardly comprehend.”

When I asked Julianna what she’s learned from her father’s example, the answer was simple.

“Live each day to the fullest,” she said. “He’s always going. He never stops. When he does, he’s usually worn out (and) it’s like a good day to take a break. But that doesn’t happen often.”

What Will’s managed to accomplish for his daughters, the places they’ve been able to go, is impressive, especially considering what life has thrown at him so far. His ability to navigate the unknown of traveling with two kids seems to originate partly from a firm resolve he developed in the face of extreme hardship nearly two decades before.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina swept through and tore up the Gulf Coast. With no insurance on their homes at the time, Will and his family lost everything.

A devastating disaster like that would break most people, but not Will. He persisted and has found a way to create a little bit of joy each day since. He’s learned to have faith that the passage of time will ultimately help you heal.

“As much as you think it’s never going to pass, that it’s ruining your life, you’ll come out stronger,” he said to me, reflecting on the hardships of his past. “And you’ll be a better person and you’ll appreciate things more.”

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I don’t know how I luck out meeting people like Will through all my travels around the world. People like him teach me so much about making sense of what is often a nonsensical existence here on earth.

I don’t have kids, and I’ve never really thought about what that would look like for me until recently. The only models I’ve had in the past are traditional scripts, the so-called normal ways we think about parenting.

Find a full time job with great benefits, buy a house in a good school district, and raise your kid in a comfortable suburb for at least the next 20 years.

Rinse and repeat.

But during a two-night stay in Biloxi, Mississippi, Will showed me there’s another way to look at fatherhood in this day and age. One that doesn’t revolve around accumulating more material possessions children can touch and see.

Rather, it’s guided by an outlook of giving kids something more valuable that money can’t buy: a wealth of experience that increases their awareness of the world along with their places in it.