In 1994, Debbie was awarded a scholarship by the Rivendell Foundaton to take the Outdoor Educator course with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). She laced up her hiking boots, loaded her backpack, and headed to Wyoming for a 23-day wilderness experience. The rigorous course, which included 17 days of backcountry trekking in the Absarokas and 6 days of rock climbing in the Wind River Range, prepared her to lead others in the wilderness using Leave No Trace principles.

1996 seemed like a good year to retire, so Debbie embarked on a solo bicycle tour of the Midwest. She started her expedition in Columbia, Missouri for no particular reason, and pedaled all the way to the not-so-frozen tundra of Lambeau Field before hitching a ferry ride to Michigan. The experience helped her master the art of outrunning farm dogs on a fully-loaded mountain bike.

Frustrated by the limitations of her lungs in the water, Debbie became a PADI-certified SCUBA diver in 2003, earning an Advanced Open Water certification. Since then, she has logged 40 dives in the warm, tropical waters of Cozumel, St.John (USVI), Isla Margarita, Aruba, Los Cabos, St. Maarten, Tobago, and Grand Cayman.