St. Pete man travels the U.S. staying with 52 friends

Sun City Center, Florida - Over the holidays, most of us have spent time eating, sleeping, and hanging out with our friends and family at their homes, but imagine doing that for an entire year with complete strangers most of the time.

Josh Sullivan is a 28-year-old artist and writer from St. Petersburg who has been doing that all year long. He quit his job, got rid of most of his possessions, even moved out of his apartment, to travel the United States and stay with different people for a week at a time.

Sullivan started on January 1st and will be ending his trip on December 31st. It's a project he call "52 Friends." Along the way, Sullivan has written about his experiences online and in a self-published magazine that will be made up of 52 different issues when completed.

Sullivan says his travels have helped him appreciate what's in his own backyard. "There's so much in the U.S. and whenever you talk to people about traveling, they're always thinking, well, you know, I'm going to go backpacking through Europe or I'm going to take a trip to Asia and I kept thinking you know what? I want to go see what's here first, you know?"

Sullivan says his favorite week so far was staying with his sister in Michigan. He says it was nice to reconnect with her. They haven't spent much time together since their childhood days.

He says, "The people I have stayed with are old friends, friends of friends, and complete strangers who have opened their homes to me. I've split my traveling between getting rides from friends and taking the bus, including two 1,400 mile treks already."

Sullivan adds, "This has been a wonderful experience and I can't believe all of the amazing things I'm getting to see and all the amazing people I'm getting to meet."

After traveling more than 20,000 miles across 41 states, Sullivan is wrapping up his last week of the trip in Sun City Center before heading back to St. Petersburg.

Now, he says he wants to travel the world.