For Journey Peterson, life has been a journey

Journey Peterson grew up with two sisters and attended school at Kasson-Mantorville through 8^th grade. He then went to Owatonna High School and he had also participated in wrestling and track.

A special highlight of his years in Owatonna was being a defensive starter on the OHS football team that was state champions in his senior year.

Journey was able to graduate early as he wanted to join the military. His grandfather, Jerome Bigelow, served in the Army and was a Vietnam Vet, but he wasn’t really excited when Journey told him he was going to join the Marines!

Journey headed off to Marine Corp Recruit Department (MCRD) in San Diego, and stood in the yellow footprints all recruits have done for decades. The process of leaving civilian life to become a Marine over the next three months had now begun for him.

He next went to Camp Pendleton, Calif., for his infantry training (ITB) for Military Occupation Specialty (MOS 0331) as a machine gunner for two months with M240 and M2A1 machine guns. He then transferred to Chesapeake, Va., for Basic Security Guard and next to Kings Bay, Ga., for training to protect water coastal areas.

Journey was selected to be on a Recapture Tactical Team; only a very small percentage of Marines are picked for security for Naval nuclear installations. He was sent back for additional training to Chesapeake, again to Kings Bay, then to Quantico Marine Base, Va., and finally back to Kings Bay, where he was stationed until he completed his four-year military obligation in 2021.

Journey wasn’t sure what he should do after he got out of the Marines so he and a fellow Marine went to Amelia Island, Fla. They bought a van and decided they should visit as many U.S. states they could during the next several months.

They made their way across the southern states, and when they were in California some other Marine buddies joined them for a while. They drove up the west coast to Washington. During their cross country venture, they visited several National Parks and Journey really liked San Juan National Park in Washington the best.

They skipped North and South Dakota, and Minnesota, as he had already been there and they didn’t get to Hawaii or Alaska. After being on the road for six months, they were back in Florida.

They decided to travel to Costa Rica and Puerto Rico for the next two months for a surfing trip. They would pick up odd jobs to earn some money to pay living expenses, stayed at hostels, and slept in hammocks at times.

After that adventure was over he wasn’t sure what he should do as he wanted to work for himself. There are many sales tech companies in Arizona that work with entrepreneurial ventures, so Journey went to Arizona for the next three months to get more ideas. His uncle Joel Bigelow, suggested he consider life insurance as he could help people be more financially secure, and also take care of their loved ones.

Journey started the Peterson Financial Group with the Symmetry Financial Group in 2021 on a limited basis and he became more serious about it the following year. When Journey was going to turn 24 years old he decided he wanted to try something really adventurous, and a friend suggested he should go to Peru.

He decided to go there for the next six months so he bought a one way ticket to Lima, Peru. He arrived in the middle of the night, and took a taxi to his friend’s place about 1-? hours away. When he woke up that morning he could hear the hissing of the cockroaches so he quickly went to a store to buy a spray to get rid of them.

He could not speak any Spanish, he couldn’t drink the water, they had very different toilets, and the houses were all walled and gated to keep people from stealing items.It really was a third world country so what had he gotten himself into?

He quickly learned this was a great area to surf so he grabbed his board and paddled out about two miles into the ocean. He met several great surfers, and received many surfing tips from them while he was there. Journey said his longest surfing wave experience lasted one and a half minutes which was really a thrill for him.

Journey met many great people including a chef from Argentina, and a guy named Goyo who had lived in California to work but moved back to Peru so he also knew a little English. Journey also tried various local foods while he was there.

Someone suggested he should travel to Guatavita, Columbia, where the legend of the Lake Full of Gold has existed for centuries. The Spanish Conquistadors did find gold, and brought it back to their country. Some of the gold has now been returned to the areas it was taken centuries ago. Journey also spent some time in the capital city of Bogota, where the U.S. embassy is located, but said he needed to be on the lookout for pickpockets on the streets.

Journey wanted to do something special for his 24th birthday so he decided to hike to Machu Picchu in Peru. He took a nine hour bus ride to get to the hike area. They give visitors a coca leaf to chew on as it is supposed to help prevent sickness for those not accustomed to the altitude height. For the next several hours he walked along the winding trail, and met hikers from Europe and Argentina along the way.

The ruins sit on an isolated mountain ridge where the Andes Mountains meet the Amazon Rainforest. This city was from the 1500s and very advanced with terraces built for raising crops using irrigation, and they even had a refrigeration source for keeping their food. Two brothers from the Incan empire were trying to take control over Machu Picchu as it was like a vacation home for one of them.