‘The China Shop’ playwright discovered passion later in life [Video]

In December 2001, Richard Manley and his wife finally made good on the plans they had put in motion a year prior, packed up their bags and headed to Europe.

Manley, who spent time in the ad world as a commercial writer and eventually owner of his own agency, and his wife, who worked for a consulting firm, had a beautiful home in San Francisco, a nice car, a motorcycle. But they were too busy to enjoy any of it.

“We were constantly working,” Manley said. “At some point, we decided that we wanted to get off the grid and stop working (long) weeks.”

So they sold the house, the car and motorcycle, and a year later, flew to Vienna, intent on staying in Europe for six months without any plans whatsoever. 

Those six months turned into 10 years of wandering Europe with one suitcase each and no reservations. 

And …