Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
who am I talking to here?
Is this is this jonah reese?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I don't know is this you, joshua?
It's me, it's me, joshua.
Did you catch me longer, kate,don't you recognize me?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
no, not at all.
If you're out there listeningpeople.
Yes, he is shaved off his beardagainst against a, a percentage
of people that said you shouldkeep it just not an overwhelming
percentage, though doesn'tmatter overwhelming or Doesn't
matter overwhelming or not.
Doesn't matter overwhelming ornot, and we'll discuss it
further on the show.
But anyway, should we get intothe show, josh?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, let's get into the show.
Do you love to travel?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Do you love road trips?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all
over the USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's a podcast that exploresunique and charming towns
scattered throughout the UnitedStates.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Guided by our love for location-based games like
geocaching, join us as weventure to some of the country's
most intriguing destinations,uncovering hidden gems and local
secrets along the way.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
On today's episode.
Josh, we've got some specialguests.
Is it me and her, her and me,you and I and him and them?
You did this show notes, josh.
You've got these people on andtell us, josh, more about who
we've got on today's episode.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh, it's exciting.
It is a long, long time friendof mine and his wife and they
have started.
Well, more than started,they're 18 episodes in.
They have started their owntravel podcast.
So I'm very excited because Ithink Craig, I can't remember I
think this is the first timewe've had official travel
(01:40):
podcasters on our travel podcastActual travel podcasters and I
do believe this may be the veryfirst for us, Josh.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'll be honest with you.
I mean we've had a lot ofpeople on our podcast, Josh.
We have We've had like lackeys,geocaching lackeys on that
podcast.
We've had other podcasters onour podcast as well, like the
Van Life podcast and stuff likethat too, but I don't think
we've actually had dedicatedtravel experts on our podcast,
Josh.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Exactly, and it's so exciting because they have
recently transitioned from Idon't know what we want to call
it nine to five life to beingtravel full-time travel
podcaster.
So I'm really excited to talkabout them and talk about their
journey, and we're going to getthem on very quick.
But we have something veryimportant to do first.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And that is, we have to talk there's several several
things delays and upgrades I'vegot a new delay now, josh, as we
heard before in the start ofthe actual episode itself.
My new delay is you and yourappearance.
Tell us about your appearance,josh.
That's a delay for you myappearance is a delay because my
(02:45):
appearance is an upgrade to medefinitely not and I'll
guarantee it's not an upgradefor 57 of our patrons.
I'll just say that there you go.
57 of our patrons think youshould have kept it, but you
listen to the minority, josh,why?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I listen to my heart, craig, and I listened to the
itchiness of my face.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yes, I did shave.
I told you you had to get outof that.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I shaved my beard and you know what?
Yes, the patrons said it wasn'toverwhelming.
It was like 56%.
If it was overwhelming, I mighthave considered change, but it
wasn't overwhelming and I wouldhave voted no.
So that would have been evenmore.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Josh, I'll quickly read out these patron comments.
I will do that.
Like you know, you got Mike onthere.
He says looks great on your bra.
So that's a yes from him.
Waymaker Jan says there aresome excellent beard products
out there to take your beardgame to the next level.
So I will say yay, but you doyou, bud, I did me, I did me.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I did me.
I listened to Waymaker Jan.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, you got Nesmuk as well, who said should only be
one option, and that is keep it.
You've got Brenda as wellsaying yes.
You've got Jeff Arba Antisius.
He's saying definitely.
And then you have Josh.
You have the lady contingentI'll say the lady contingent of
(04:06):
the rest of the people wholisten and watch you as well.
And they said, although thebeard looks good on joshua, it
takes away from the boyish charmof the vg see, there we go,
listen to the ladies.
That's the lesson here, wow wow,really, you listen to the
ladies you didn't know anyway.
Anyway that I'll be honest,that was I did.
I had a different delay, josh,but now that has turned into my
(04:26):
delay.
So, anyway, what about you?
What's your, what's your delaybeen for this these last two
weeks, mate?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I'm going to do my upgrade first, because my
upgrading delay are connected.
Oh, two weeks ago you rememberI was talking about hey, I'm
heading down and dropping offall my son's stuff at college
and I said, maybe, just maybe, Iwill visit the world's largest
ball of paint, which was thewinner of Roadside Attraction
March Madness 2024.
(04:54):
And I was like I got to getthere just outside of
Indianapolis and Craig, you didit, I made it happen.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Oh, it's like you were a world record holder, Josh
.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
That's what you're saying.
To's like are you a worldrecord holder?
Josh?
That's what you're saying.
I was a world record holder.
He said you're a world recordholder for three more hours,
because that's when the nextperson's coming.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I was gonna ask how long.
I was gonna ask how long.
Three hours for mind you,holding a real record for three
hours is better than not holdingholding a world record at all.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That's what I'll say this is true so I was layer, I
was paint layer, uh 30,085 wow,okay, I've got.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I've got questions before you move on, josh number
one, how long did it take you topaint the entire layer of the
ball?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I'd say it took me about 10 minutes and it was such
service.
This man that owns it, michaelcarmichael, a gentleman probably
in his mid-70s.
I'm painting it purple, youknow, for minnesota, oh, and
painting it purple, and then, asI run out of paint, he comes
over to me, he goes here'sanother, here's another roller.
And we just keep exchangingrollers so I never had to dip he
(05:53):
was helping me the whole time.
It was so cool and just likeanything like that.
The treasure the ball of paintwas cool, like that was cool,
but the real treasure was thisman that since 1977, that's when
I was born, craig 1977.
Rub it in, josh, rub it in.
So it was a really coolexperience.
(06:14):
I got a certificate that said Iwas a world record holder.
It was amazing and there was ageocache there.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Of course it was a great geocache, a virtual or
just a what was it.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
No, there was an ammo can in the building.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Nice, did you paint the ammo can as well.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
No, you couldn't, but it was painted yellow and it
had a little smiley face on it.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Oh, that's cute, that is cute, that is cute, that's
fine.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Okay, I'll, and there will be a video.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, then I'll watch that video, but any video
thereafter without this beard Iwon't be watching.
Just saying because I don'tlike the boyish looks of the GCV
.
Yikes, I like the man that isthe GCV.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
All right, craig.
What is your upgrade?
What is your upgrade?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Well, it actually runs into my original delays.
So the original delay for me,josh, was yesterday.
I stayed at a.
You know I love my harvest hosthere in the van as well.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I do know that.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And I stayed at a True Blue Harvest Host, which
was actually a farm, josh, andit was an alpaca farm at that as
well.
But I pulled in to the alpacafarm, I spoke to the owner there
as well, I patted a few alpacasand then, josh, and then the
black skies came rolling overand I'm talking a full-blown
thunderstorm happened directlyabove me, oh wow, and tore off
(07:35):
Josh.
It tore off my air vent, my bigMax Air Fan, air vent.
It tore off the lid from theroof.
I managed to get it.
I was in the middle of the rainand the thunder and the
lightning, standing on the roofof my van trying to tape down my
air vent.
A bit of water got in, whatever.
That's the fine.
That was going to be my delay,apart from your beard.
(08:00):
But the upgrade is for today,josh.
This is just to go to everyone.
If you're doing something onthe fly, for instance, or if
you're not in your own area, etcetera, et cetera.
Look for other ways, look forother avenues to fix problems.
Now, josh, I looked at Amazonfirst and foremost, but Amazon
can't post me the product that Ineeded because it was too big
to fit in the Amazon lockers.
I don't have a physical address, et cetera.
(08:22):
So that was a problem.
I then went to an RV repairplace here in Denver as well.
They said, oh, we'll look at itin a month's time.
I'm like it's just a vent, likeit's a nope, I'm looking at it
in a month's time.
So I went, okay, I went toCamping World, josh, camping
World have, and they said, oh,we can get it in for you, and
it's going to be tomorrow, theyget it in.
I said, yep, that's fine, andthe cost involved was ginormous.
(08:45):
It's like 140 dollars for aplastic bit of piece.
I'm like, oh, okay, I'll get itif I need it.
But then I looked over and Isaw the full air fan itself that
I have was 145 dollars on theshelf so I said what if I buy
the full full thing on the shelfand then just use the part that
I need?
(09:05):
He goes oh, you could do that.
So that's what I did, josh.
I bought the full piece.
So now I've got a spare Max Airfan sitting in the trunk of my
van and I've managed to replacethe actual lid itself.
So that's my upgrade.
It's upgraded to Tuesday.
I upgraded the van Tuesdayvanon Instagram.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Nice, that's awesome.
Well, I'll go through my delayvery quickly.
So I drove all my kid's stuff,he flew to college and then I
had to drive all his stuff downthere.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and this is Hayden we're talking about
Hayden, my youngest, youryoungest, yeah, yes, my youngest
.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And it's a long drive down there.
It's like, with stopping, it'sabout 14 hours driving, wow,
which is I broke it up on theway down because the ball of
paint, that was smart.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
On the way back, we drove back all the way through.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It was a long, long drive, wow.
And I get home and I go intothis house and I think our
guests might understand thisfeeling and the house feels very
empty and very quiet andbecause reese is in columbia,
jonah just started a new job inin texas and now hayden is gone
(10:15):
so it's it.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I did see, I did see in texas.
I did see hayden, uh, jonah'sin texas, jonah's, I did see
jonah in texas too.
I'll watch his social media aswell to make sure where he is
and what he's doing.
So he's enjoying the heat inTexas by the looks of it.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So that's a little sad, it's bittersweet.
I had kids young and I alwaysknew this time would come.
I said I'm going to be an emptynester when I'm 47 years old,
and now it's here.
I'm 47 years old and now it'shere.
It came so quickly and it's alittle sad, but it's also, you
know, new adventures, newopportunities.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I was going to say is that?
Your delay, Josh, the fact thatyou're in Empty Nest, that
would be a lot of people'supgrades.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That would be a lot of people's upgrades.
It's bittersweet, it's kind ofboth.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
True, true.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Bit A, bit B.
All right, these are yourfriends that you got on for our
show.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
They are my friends and they're amazing friends.
I would like to welcome to theshow Tony and Julie from Me and
Her Travel Podcast.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown, tony and Julie.
Hello.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Thanks for having us Thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yes, this is so exciting.
You are the first travelpodcasters I think that we've
ever had on here, and so, justto start us off, let the people
know a little bit who you are,where you're from, where's your,
where's your home base, andthen maybe I don't know tony can
go, maybe a little bit and how.
I know tony, which is kind ofinteresting.
We have a long story storytogether and actually a very
(11:40):
interesting one that I've neverbrought up on social media
before Breaking news.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Tony, before you do, am I going to get jealous of
this, josh?
Am I going to get you know?
Because I thought I was yourBFF.
But you know all of a suddennow I'm hearing live as we talk
that you've got a BFF before meby the sounds of it.
Anyway, all right, I'm all ears.
I'm all ears, tony, matewelcome, and Julie welcome.
Tell us a bit about yourselfand go from there, mate.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Okay, cool.
Well, I'm Julie and Tony and Ihave been together since high
school, so we're high schoolsweethearts.
We live in a suburb ofMinneapolis Currently.
We've been married for 31 years.
We just celebrated ouranniversary.
Wow, married for 31 years, wejust celebrated our anniversary.
And we have two daughters.
So our older daughter is 23.
(12:29):
Our younger one is 20.
And she was adopted fromEthiopia.
So even our children we like todo with travel involved.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And they have some pretty cool children.
If you listen to one of theepisodes, they uh, they talk
about their oldest child thattook a gap year and traveled all
over the world and it soundedreally, really cool and I was
really inspired and I wanted Iwant to go back in time and try
that.
That was very so.
Do we so?
Do we?
Well, that's what you're doingright, kind of you know what?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
yeah, this is you know when, when our daughter did
that and we were like we wishwe could have done that or they
had that, it was, you know,structured like that.
When we were young they didn't.
But now that they're very welldefined, structured programs, we
thought, okay, we're raisingour daughters to go out and
chase their dreams and do allthe things that they're doing.
And you know they, they foregosome college.
(13:23):
One's a pilot, one's going tobe, is trying to be a
professional downhill alpineracer, and we're like you know
what we talk about themfollowing their dreams.
How do, why don't we follow ourdreams that we've been talking
about for years and years, andso that's kind of where we're at
right now.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, took a page from them, cool exactly.
And uh, yeah, you're kind ofyou're, you're, you're living
your own advice, which is goodyou're not, you're not a
hypocrite, right?
You're living your dreams rightnow and I think, yeah, that's,
that's really really cool.
Well, let's talk about.
I do know tony from way back.
I've I've known tony as long asI've been a geocacher.
(14:01):
Oh wow, he was like one of thefew, first few people that I met
in the geocaching world, andtony tony's a if I think of
adventure, like adventuregeocacher, yeah, the picture
that comes into my mind is tony,and so he has just a fun
personality.
He's the guy that's climbingtrees and he's he's the guy
(14:24):
that's doing all that kind ofstuff, repelling off of things
and Hiking that mountain,exactly.
Yeah exactly, and so I love, Ilove that energy and so we we
knew each other through going toevents and I think there were
times we we had geocachetogether.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yes , together, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We did MOGA competition, so get this.
Moga is coming back to Iowa, bythe way, tony, excellent.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Interesting.
I'm in, it's coming back to DesMoines.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yes, and so Tony and I were on a team in MOGA, a four
person team, and that was thefirst year we won the four
person competition, and we wonit because of Tony.
It's.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
March, I believe.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
It's March and we, you know, we divide the caches
up into different areas of thefour different people and we
knew before we got it, we knewthat there would be some caches
on the other side of the waterand most people were like, oh,
they're going to go aroundTony's like if there's caches
over there, I'm swimming.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well, it was six miles.
Well, it was six miles, it wassix miles round trip to go along
the shoreline, follow thetrails through the woods, get to
the far end of where we figuredthere would be caches, and we
didn't know for sure, but weknew that there was nothing on
the map at that point.
So it means they probably havecaches over there for this
competition.
So we went down and looked atthe shoreline, looked over there
, and we said, all right, ifthey blow that horn tomorrow and
(15:42):
it's time to go.
And we pop up on our screen andwe see that these caches over
there, it's go time.
And they gave us thecoordinates.
We knew that the caches werethere and we said, okay, you
three guys are going to go theshort route around the land.
And as soon as they blew thehorn, a couple hundred people
all run in one direction.
(16:02):
I turned around and ran theopposite direction down to the
shoreline.
And we had told somebody with acamera crew like hey, you're
going to want to watch this.
And they came running down tothe shoreline and I take off
with my bag.
You know, uh, I had itwaterproofed with my G, with my
GPS, and I mean uh, receiver,and and I swam across the lake,
which took me about 10 minutesto get across, but I saved like
(16:24):
an hour's worth of time oftravel.
Oh yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Wow, it was so funny because people were like exactly
that Tony.
Everybody was like where is hegoing?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Sure enough, you see him, he's floating in the water.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
And the funny thing about that, craig Tony is now
legendary for that.
Oh, of course, nobody sincethen has ever decided hmm, I'm
going to swim across the lake.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I think we beat everybody in time by like yeah,
we beat everybody like by 40minutes, we won.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Oh yeah, that's the reason why, then that's the case
.
But Tony, I did actuallycompete in my very first MOGA
this year, believe it or not?
Yeah, in Kansas, and I lastedthree stamps, uh like treading
in a gopher hole and twisting myankle so badly it turned into a
softball of an ankle.
So sorry, no, I know, butanyway, um, I know what you're
(17:15):
talking about moga.
But I will say I didn't knowthat you guys actually did like
a reconnaissance mission the daybefore.
Yeah, to say, okay, this is thepark, that's, that's some
serious business.
I didn't see that happening inmoga this year.
Just saying so, is that goingto be repeat?
Like I said, we repeat for nextyear in in tony, let's put the
band back together.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Let's put the band back together.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
We could make it, we could win it and if you get the
band back together, joshua,depending on your age because
I'm thinking you're the youngestuh, you can be in a different
age bracket than two.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So the only way that would happen.
The only way that would happenis if we get like an 18 year old
, I'm sure yeah, we had that oneyear.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
We had uh halloween son because you got to have the
average age.
But anyway, I digress.
Uh, tony, julie, um josh saidabout you being classed as a me
and her adventures, me and heror meander.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
So we decided to do that a little bit on purpose
with a play on words me and hertravel and trying to come up
with a unique name in these daysis very difficult, so when we
found me and her travel, likethat's a beautiful play on words
for meandering through theworld, I like it.
I like it, meander.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Meander through the world.
Yeah, I like it.
I like it Meander, meanderthrough the world.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Josh, you know what?
We screwed up all the time andsay it one way and then we turn
around and say it differentlythe next time.
So we kind of really got to geton that, julie, and say
something and come up with oneway of saying it.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I usually say meander , and then I think sometimes you
say me and her, but you know,it's both, it both, it means
both.
So that's good.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
So let's get into that.
What you you talked about yourkids.
They kind of inspired you.
You wanted to take your ownadvice to launch this podcast.
But go back a little bit.
What was the thought process?
You had day jobs, things youwere doing day to day thought
process.
You had day jobs, things youwere doing day to day.
(19:10):
You're not of like typicalretirement age yet, and so what?
Take me through the thoughtprocess of deciding to do this
travel podcast and starttraveling more full time.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yeah, so we are currently 54.
But the last probably decadeand I'm sure there's a lot of
people who might be able torelate to this but the last
decade for work for my husbandwas very stressful and you know,
there were some nights he wouldcome home and he just wouldn't
even want to talk and he wouldjust kind of go in a quiet room
for a little while and it's just.
(19:40):
It was very COVID and electionsand just I don't know stress.
And there was one day we weresitting on the front porch and I
said, honey, we can't do thisanymore, like we just can't keep
living this kind of life whereyou're so stressed, like it
hurts my heart to see how you'veactually your personality has
changed and you are frustratedand you're just like not the
(20:03):
same person, not the exuberantperson that I married and that I
know that you are inside andthere's no amount of money that
we could make that is worth thisand I would like to see some
changes.
I think he owned or kind ofpartially owned, a company with
his brother and his dad, so thatwas a tricky situation and he
(20:23):
kind of had to go to them andsay I'm not going to do this
anymore, and that was a littlebit heartbreaking for them to
hear, but it was really, I think, validating and a relief for
him.
And then, in the same moment, Isaid and, by the way, I've been
listening to these podcastsabout people who quit their jobs
and travel the world and Ithink you should listen to them
(20:46):
and it took him I don't know afew days, and then all of a
sudden he was like, oh my gosh,I just listened to all of them
and we need to make some changes.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I was all in to move abroad within about three hours
in.
I was like, okay, I'm ready forthis.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, so it took a while of you know, a few years
of getting to a point where wecould transition out of that
company and kind of setourselves up into doing
something like this.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, if that's the case and you know, obviously
podcasts, et cetera, inspiredyou to do full-time travel.
Are you more predominantlyfull-time travel worldwide or
are you more domestic related inregards to your travel?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Well, we love international travel and all
that it brings with it.
We love the United States andwe love traveling in the United
States and we have our favoritesand all that, and we do travel
quite a bit within the UnitedStates.
But we are really drawn tointernational travel and have
for ever since we've beentogether.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Well, and let's say too, like my dad was a school
teacher and so every summer wewould travel for a full month
all around the country.
We would have a conversion vanand a pop-up camper and we
traveled all over the country.
So I've seen a lot of thecountry and Tony's family
traveled, so we were superfortunate to be able to see a
(22:06):
lot of the United States andtake our kids on summer road
trips.
So we feel like that we've donea lot of that and while we are
still relatively young right nowand active and healthy, we want
to go tackle some of thosefaraway places that we might not
be able to do in 10, 15, 20years.
But we can still go back toSouth Dakota, you know.
(22:27):
So we love South Dakota, butfor right now let's go tackle
some major hikes and some coolgeocaches around the world and
do some things that we might notbe able to do later.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Cool.
So how long have you guys been?
Was the transition from whenyou'd quit your job to to where
we are at now?
How long have you guys been?
Was the transition from whenyou quit your job to where we
are at now?
How long have you been doingthis now?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
End of January, so end of January 2025.
So it's been six months, youknow, seven months, okay, and
you know, we say you know wewant to be full-time travel.
That is a harder thing toaccomplish unless you just go
cold turkey, sell everything yougot and get in a, you know, get
in a van Craig.
Unless you just go cold turkey,sell everything you got and get
in a van Craig and just go.
There's a lot that goes into itand anybody that's done it
(23:09):
knows what I'm talking about.
But that's kind of why westarted a podcast, because
there's a lot of people outthere that have podcasts or
sites you name it on all thesocials that have gotten to that
point and been doing it foryears and telling you how they
did it.
Okay, well, we're in it andwe're like how do we do it and
the struggles that we havetrying to figure it out.
(23:30):
That's what we're.
We're talking about our travelsand we're also talking about,
hey, what it takes right now,like, oh my God, we had to get
insurance.
Oh my gosh, we had to do this,and different things that we're
struggling with that you don'tthink about always when you're
like, oh, I want to go do thatWell?
Yeah, but there's a lot thatgoes into it.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
That's interesting.
You spring that up because whatare some of the struggles you
talked about, like insurance andall those things?
What are some things thatyou're learning and you're like,
wow, I didn't think of thatuntil you were like, now you're
in it.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Yeah, well, one of them, like you mentioned, is,
you know, with him quitting hisjob and he was the primary
breadwinner, we no longer hadinsurance for our family of four
.
So we had to go get that on ourown.
And I still work a little bitpart-time here and there, but my
boss is super flexible, so shejust lets me tell her when I'm
going to be there.
So we, you know, we were gonefor well over a month this
(24:19):
summer on one trip and we've hadmultiple trips kind of back to
back.
But we also have a house still.
We've got a very active dog, abig dog, so 12 years old but
almost 13.
Yeah, and our older daughterstill lives at home because
she's a pilot and finishing uptrying to accumulate her hours.
So we're still a little bit Iwouldn't say bogged down, but we
(24:43):
are anchored.
We are anchored by some verybig things.
So we kind of want to fly, butyou know, we're tethered a
little bit.
So we're doing the best we canand because our daughter is here
, we are allowed to kind ofsneak away for a while and she's
here to help with the dog.
But we also like one of thethings we talk about on our
podcast is that we findourselves in this sweet spot
(25:03):
right now and Josh, you're justentering into it where your kids
don't need as much support fromyou.
They're relatively independentand our parents are still doing
pretty good.
But in the next five years orsomewhere in there, our kids
might be starting havinggrandkids.
You know we might havegrandkids and our parents might
(25:23):
need some more support.
So we feel like we have thissmall window, this sweet spot,
to travel now and be selfish andgo do all these fun things,
because we may be more tethered,even though we are now in five
years.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
It's a very good point you bring up too, julie,
and that is, you know, that'sthe whole sweet spot thing.
But I always say to everyoneout there as well, that is, if
ever you're on a flight and youguys know as well, you've done
many flights the flightattendant when they're doing
their little exit thing and thewhole lot, they always say you
must put the mask on yourselffirst before helping others.
(25:58):
And so keep that in mind,whereby you can't help anyone
else, like in terms of yourchildren or your parents, unless
you are centered yourself,unless you're mentally centered
as well, you're in a good mindspace, and there's no better
mind space than actually to liveyour dreams for those few years
that you're doing now too.
So a big shout out to you guysas well.
(26:20):
But always, always, and this isfor everyone out there help you
.
It's not selfish to helpyourself first before you help
others.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
just saying so true and and uh, like she said, we
are currently, you know, youknow she's got a little bit of a
job, uh, partially, and I havenone, except for a little bit.
I'll tell you a little bitlater.
But I don't call it retirement,I call it quit, tirement, and I
stole that from somebody, butit's.
I retired from my position ofin my career of 30 plus years,
(26:50):
but I quit because I still needmoney.
So I'm going to have to makesome money at some point, but I
don't need to make it in theimmediacy Like I can.
You know, you make a littlenest egg when you're going to go
and do something like we'redoing, and we know that that may
be spent.
Or we make money on the way.
Maybe a podcast takes off,maybe one of our socials takes
off, who knows, when we find away to make money on the fly as
(27:10):
we're traveling, we're going tosee how that goes.
And that's part of the podcastas well as like, how do you do
this?
How do you fund doing this?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, that's interesting, because that was
sort of my next question.
I mean, there's a lot of peoplethat would consider this, but
let's face it like the one ofthe biggest fears is not having
enough money.
It's a big fear.
How have you guys workedthrough that?
I mean it, it sounds to me thatyou guys have sort of like
dipped your toe in.
You haven't sold your life, youhave a home base still, but
(27:39):
still, like you said, tony, youdon't.
You don't have your, yourincome stream.
How have you dealt with that?
What are some strategies?
What advice would you givepeople that would consider
something like this?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Well, the one thing you know if you're going to do
it at an age like we are like at54, you know you're not 65, 70
years old when you're quitting,you're doing this obviously at a
really odd time and everybodysays don't do it.
And we're like what's the worstthat can happen?
If you always just keep in theback of your mind what's the
worst?
We fall on our face and we runout of money and we don't find a
(28:09):
way to make any money on thefly.
Okay, we go back and get jobs.
So they're not going to be thejob that I had for 30 years, but
I can go and find a job.
It could be, yeah, it could be.
Go right back to that.
I got tons of people that wouldsay, hey, I'll hire you right
now.
I'd rather take this shot anddo what we're trying to do, and
we're doing it economically too.
We're not just out there like,hey, we're at the Four Seasons,
(28:30):
we're doing some nice things,but we're also saving money
where we can to do it.
And if it all goes awry, okay,two, three, one year, three
years, five years, six years,maybe never we go back and get
jobs.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
So I would add to that as well that if this is
something you think you mightwant to do, then maybe get a
little side gig, you know, get aside hustle and build a nest
egg.
So one of the things that I'vebeen doing for the past five
years now actually, maybe alittle bit more basically at the
start of COVID, selling clothesonline, so saving clothes from
(29:06):
Goodwill, wholesale or whereverI can find them that are in
really excellent condition oreven brand new with tags, and I
resell them online and you guyswould be surprised how much you
can make doing that, even justpart time.
I mean, we did a really nicetrip to Africa and it paid for
the entire thing.
So we just keep I just keepsocking that money away into a
(29:26):
little account and then that'swhat we've been using to draw
from for our travels.
And, yes, I would spend a lot ofmy nights and my weekends doing
that, but I actually reallyloved it.
So if there was something thatyou enjoyed doing that you could
pick up as a side hustle andsquirrel that money away, then
we kind of feel like we've givenourselves a year.
We're going to just blow thisyear out and go have fun and
(29:48):
we've got tons of really coolthings planned and at the end of
the year we'll reassess and youknow, maybe we'll have to get a
little part-time something,something, or maybe in that
amount of time something hastaken off, but we'll see.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
For example, just yesterday, because I was talking
, we were on a road trip thislast weekend and I was in a
store and a woman was doordashing at the fast food we were
at.
I said, can I ask you a coupleof questions?
And she goes, yeah, so I talkedher up a little bit and then I
realized you know what I've beenthinking about, like getting a
bartender job or doing somethingwhile I'm down and you know,
staying here for, let's say, wehave a month or two, but nobody
(30:22):
wants to hire somebody for fourweeks and then have you go AWOL
for a month.
So I thought maybe I'll doDoorDash where it's completely
just when I'm in town.
So since yesterday this will benews to a lot of people I made
10 dashes in the last day and Imade a bunch of money.
Not a great amount of money, butguess what it adds up.
And I was driving 20 minutesone direction.
(30:44):
I checked online, I got twoDoor dashes going that direction
.
I got paid to drive thedistance I was going Just
another clever way of a littleside hustle.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
It basically pays for the cable bill.
But that's a good point youmake too, julie, and that is.
Everyone knows them as sidehustles, but really they're not
a hustle at all.
Literally, they are jobs thatyou can create for yourself in
order to create the income thatyou you need.
And, as you said, julie as well, if you like what you're doing,
you're not actually workingtechnically you know what I mean
(31:18):
, like if you enjoy what you'redoing.
You're not working a day in yourlife, so if you can do
something you love, like youknow, finding these really cool
old looking clothes, retroclothes from Goodwill, with tags
on the whole lot, and thenrepurpose them to people who are
actually going to use them aswell, and then you make some
money out of them, everyone'shappy, you know, and you're
happy because you're actually,you know, working in a job that
(31:39):
you like and you're literallyworking for yourself.
There's no boss there, it'sjust you.
You decide what you want towork, how you want to work,
exactly.
Boss there, it's just youdecide what you want to work,
how you want to work, exactly,exactly.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
I love that idea we got one more for you.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Same with DoorDash Tony as well.
It's the same sort of thing too.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We got one more for you that we utilized on this
last big trip that we took.
You don't go to Italy for overa month without some expenses,
right?
So that's going to get costly,especially if you're staying in
hotels.
So for half of it, my wifeJulie.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Yeah, so I found an international pet sit.
So you know, like here in theStates we've got rovercom and
things like that you can hire.
But internationally there are alot of groups that are
international house sitters,international pet sitters, and
you can scroll through some ofthose.
They're on Facebook.
You scroll through some ofthose Facebook groups and see
(32:28):
what might be available.
And when we were going to Italywe found that Andrea Bocelli was
going to be playing a concertin the ancient amphitheater of
Pompeii.
And I pretty much lost my mindand I told Tony.
I said we're going to doanything in our power, move
heaven and earth to be at thatconcert.
And he's like it's not in ourbudget, that wasn't in our plan
(32:49):
this year.
I'm like I don't care, it'sgoing to happen.
So in order to make thatfeasible, I scrolled through and
you guys, it was like magic.
Seriously, if you put stuff outinto the universe, the universe
is going to meet you.
And right then I found a petsit that was just outside of
Naples, so that's right byPompeii.
It was a two week pet sit thatended two days before the
(33:10):
concert and it was amazing.
So we stayed in this family'shome and took care of their cute
little dog while they came backto the United States and we got
to stay there for free, so wedidn't get paid, but we had free
accommodations.
They let us use their car so wewere able to go see some sites
and you know, we lived likelocals in Italy for two weeks
(33:32):
and it was an amazing experienceand that is something anybody
can do.
So if you can't affordexpensive hotels, that is
absolutely an option, you know,for an international travel.
But one of my best girlfriendsjust booked a trip that I
actually found for her on aFacebook group in Arizona and
she's taking care of a coupletwo, three dogs for like 10 days
(33:55):
, while the family goes to Japanand stays for free.
And she's staying for free andher brother happens to live in
the same town, so she's likethis is great, I can visit my
brother, but I don't have tostay with him, hopefully he
doesn't listen to this.
But anyway.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
It's like a free Airbnb, because we've all stayed
at Airbnbs before and literally, if you haven't stayed at an
Airbnb before, then you'remissing out.
But Airbnb is really justsomeone's house that they lease
out for one night, two nights aweek, whatever it might be.
So really all you're doing isyour dog sitting and staying at
a free Airbnb.
And, let's be honest, whodoesn't like dogs?
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Well, when you're gone for a month, you miss your
dog dearly, so you want to petevery dog in the world when
you're traveling in Europe.
People don't pet other people'sdogs in Europe, so you don't
get to do that unless you'restaying with them.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Yes, perfect, perfect , I like it, perfect, so she was
adorable and now we miss herand we're still in communication
.
We're still in communicationwith these people and they have
said open invitation.
Anytime you guys want to comeback, please do, whether it's to
pet sit or just to stay with usand hang out like we got along
so well.
So, so cool.
We made friends too.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
It was, it was awesome the thing here is that
we live in such an amazing time,right like 30 years ago these
things that we're mentioningwouldn't even be possible, like
we wouldn't be so connected, andwe live in a time where we
could just do a quick job andget paid right away and visit
people that we don't even know,that we wouldn't be connected
(35:24):
with, um.
So I just it's just amazingwhen you kind of think about how
fortunate we are to live in thetime we live.
All right, we need to turn tothe travel.
I want to hear all about someof the places you've been.
You focus on internationaltravel.
I've listened to several ofyour podcasts.
I listened to one of the mostrecent ones, which was
fascinating.
(35:44):
I didn't even know this countryexists.
But what are some of the placesthat you've most recently gone
to that would be consideredmaybe a little hidden place or
off the beaten path that maybenot a lot of people hear about?
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Well, I'll mention this one because you just kind
of alluded to it.
But San Marino, and it's notSan Marino, it's the.
What is it, julie?
It's the.
What is it, julia?
It's the Serene.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
The Serene Republic Of.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
San Marino, that's the official name of the country
.
Wow, and it is an enclavetotally enclosed inside of Italy
, kind of like the Vatican Cityis a country, a sovereign nation
, a sovereign state.
This is a country completelysurrounded by Italy, just south
of Venice and east of Florenceyou know two hours each and it
(36:30):
is so unique and so beautiful.
It is like a fairy tale whenyou drive up on it and you see
this mountain and you know, likewhen you're watching a cartoon
of this royal palace and it's upon a hill and you see the
towers, you see that, driving upto San Marino, and you go, oh
my gosh, we really are drivinginto a fairy tale, and you climb
(36:50):
up this mountain, which is thisold town from 1400s or before.
It's been a country since 1400,a republic since the 1400s or
1300s, no, 340 AD.
Yeah, okay, I'm really wrongthere.
Yeah, but it's really a longtime.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
It's the oldest republic in the world and wrong
there, but it's really a longtime.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
It's the oldest republic in the world and most
people have never heard of it.
Right, really cool place.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Yeah, so that's definitely off the beaten path.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
One question I do have as well,tony, and as you said before,
you were actually a geocacher.
You do find geocachers.
Is there a souvenir for thatcountry?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, I was going to ask the same question Because I
know they found an adventure lab, because I heard on the podcast
but you don't get souvenirs foradventure labs.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
So I don't know, because when we were trying to
connect on the souvenir, likegetting the souvenirs, sometimes
the geocaching abroad is, asyou know, some places it's
absolutely loaded.
It's like every 529 feet.
It is like right there.
Other places when we were inNaples we had to struggle to
(37:54):
find them, like you had to golike a mile and a half just to
find one.
There's like four in the entiretown.
It's really hard.
So when you're traveling andyou want to make sure you're
finding a geocache because, asany geocacher that travels knows
, you got to light it up.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
You know every state and every country you got to
light it up.
Oh yeah, if you don't find acache and you didn't go there,
let's just say that that's right.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
That's the definition , yeah, so you kind of focus on
hey, how much time do you devoteto geocaching and finding
caches in those areas, orstaying on your whatever you had
planned for your travels.
But we always try and find a,especially in a new, a new place
.
We always try and find a timeto get a geocache, and julie was
(38:37):
posting a lot about geocaching,like I don't know if a lot of
our followers are going to knowwhat that is as well, so we're
going to actually do a podcastcoming up on geocaching.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
But the pictures of you finding your caches were so
cute.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I always like those.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
You know he's like all sneaky and trying to pull
something out of a wall and Idon't know if there might be a
spot later in the podcast.
We're supposed to talk aboutthis, but I'm going to preempt
it and say it now.
But one of the coolest placesthat we found a podcast, a
geocache and you guys won't evenbelieve it, but in the middle
of Pompeii, like the ancientcity that is a national UNESCO
(39:16):
World Heritage Site.
You would not think that you'dbe allowed to have geocaches
there, but you are.
And in the middle of Pompeii.
In this, I don't know what, Idon't even know what that area
was called.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
It's right by one of the arenas.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Right by one of the arenas there's a wall and it's
hidden in the crack of one ofthe walls, and so we were trying
to be all sneaky.
And you know we always have apen on us.
Every good geocacher knows youmust have a pen on you, Josh.
Did you hear that?
Josh, did you hear that youfind it in the crack of the wall
and he signs it, while peopleare like walking by and we're
trying to be sneaky?
But what a bizarre place andwhat an amazing place to say
(39:50):
that in the ancient city ofPompeii we found a geocache.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Crazy and you literally wrote See, this is the
other thing as well.
You get people out there andI'll say they're worldwide sort
of people as well, not justAmericans, but they have been in
trouble for literallygraffitiing walls and stuff as
well, americans, but they havebeen in trouble for literally
graffitiing walls and stuff aswell.
This way, it allowed you towrite your name on a little
sheet of paper and then slide itback into the wall where it
belongs legally, and you'reallowed to do it, and you now
(40:16):
your name is forever, foreverembossed in pompeii nice, nice
true, yeah, like that, it wasvery cool yep, that is cool.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
So are there some other places?
So san San Marino, which wasawesome.
If you get the chance, listento that episode.
I didn't even know this placeexisted and you guys did such a
great job describing it.
Thank you, it made me reallywant to visit there.
Are there any other places thata lot of people haven't heard
about internationally that weshould know about that you
discovered?
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Before Julie tells you hers.
I got to tell you, josh, we didthat podcast and we also had
posted some of that on socials.
And I come back and we get backfrom Europe and a couple weeks
later I'm talking to a friendand she goes oh yeah, we're
going to Italy and San Marino.
And I'm like you're going toSan Marino.
And she goes yeah, I go, howdid you know to go there?
(41:05):
And she goes well, I listenedto the podcast and I saw it on
your site.
So they've already booked it.
They're going.
And I'm like, oh, that's kindof cool, that's a cool feeling
yes, your podcast is working.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
It's inspiring people , that's awesome, that was fun.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
I'm like see listen.
A couple of people arelistening.
You're the one.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
You're the one.
You're the one that's beenclose to it.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Yeah, that's awesome, gosh, I know.
So for destinations off thebeaten path, I mean just because
it's so fresh in our mind,because we did spend a month in
Italy and we've been to Italybefore, and so this time around
we really did try to get off thebeaten path and go to places
that not everybody has heard of,or maybe they're a little bit
more difficult to get off thebeaten path and go to places
that not everybody has heard of,or maybe they're a little bit
more difficult to get to, andthat's why not as many people go
(41:52):
.
And everybody's heard of theAmalfi Coast.
You know, everybody knows aboutPositano and Amalfi, but not
everybody knows that just abovethose is Ravello, and Ravello
was absolutely astoundinglybreathtaking.
We arrived, and when we arrivedin the main town it was evening
(42:13):
, and so the evening lightfalling on the square mesmerized
us and we said I think this isthe most beautiful place we've
ever seen.
We've been to a lot of places,so that is something we'd highly
recommend.
Amalthi is beautiful, but it'sso busy and it's so crazy and
it's so touristy, and Ravello islike this little slice of
(42:34):
heaven just above the chaos.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Quite a bit above.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Yeah, it's another 30 minutes up on a bus.
It's not the easiest place toget to, it's kind of a schlep.
It's worth it, but totallyworth it.
And so that is one thing Iwould recommend Skip Amalfi,
skip Positano and go straight toRavello, and you will not
regret it because it was pureheaven.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Well, see, julie, you're just saying that as well.
And look, I know you guys aregeocachers and a lot of people
who listen to this show itselfare geocachers and people use
they use their geocaching placesto find the best spots.
But you guys don't just findthe best spots through
geocaching, do you?
How do you actually find thebest places to be, like Ravello,
for instance?
Like, how did you actually getto that part?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
A lot of research.
So let's say we spent a monthin Italy, we also did a month's
worth of research.
That's one thing we love abouttravel is, you know, we get
excited about the research andfinding cool places.
And you know, you know spending, you know, two, three hours
trying to find one hotel in onetown, like, just make sure you
(43:38):
get the right room, the righthotel, the right place, the
right part of the town, whatactivities to go do.
And we do all that research inadvance.
We don't just wing it and thenwhen we know that when we show
up somewhere we're going to seesomething pretty special, One of
the resources.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
Well, there's multiple resources that we use,
but, honestly, you know, there'sso many people who say, oh, I
don't do Facebook, I don't likesocial media, I just don't like
Facebook.
Facebook is amazing.
If you don't want to use it tohear about what people are
making for dinner or what theirpolitical views are, that's fine
, but it is an incredibleresource for travel.
So when we know that we'regoing to a destination, the
(44:15):
first thing I do is join atravel group related to that
place I don't know Canada,whatever.
I would look up Canadian travelor travel to Victoria or
whatever it might be and you'regoing to get a Facebook group
that probably has 100,000 peoplethat participate.
And then it's a constantdialogue of, hey, what's the
(44:37):
weather like today?
What should I pack?
What do I do about my visa?
Does anybody have an advice ofa really great place to stay?
And then you can use the searchfeature for any question that
you might want, and probably theanswer is in there, in
multitudes.
You know a great restaurant, acool hotel, whatever.
So that is an amazing resource.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
So we use speakeasies .
Speaker 4 (44:57):
We like our speakeasies.
We like hidden bars because youknow what it's the element of
having to try to find it.
It's the geocaching kind of bar.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
It's rubbed off into my drinking.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Alcoholic drinking, geocaching.
I like it.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
You have to go searching for it.
Yep, absolutely so we do lovethose.
But so that is onerecommendation, and then I like
to use Pinterest.
Pinterest has amazing blogsthat can tell you spend three
days in this city, and so youcan read it and get some really
good ideas.
And then you can even searchquirky off the beaten path stuff
.
But Tony likes his TikTok.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Oh my gosh, tiktok is the greatest for travel.
If you want to find a coolplace to go or see something.
Yeah, somebody has filmed itand somebody has put a really
cool video together about it andit takes you 30 seconds to look
at it and then you pin it andthen you just start saving them
and build your trips aroundstuff like that.
A lot of the things that we'vedone and seen have been thanks
(45:54):
to cool people on TikTok.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
And that's a good point too.
And, josh, you know this aswell.
A lot of people just use TikTok, and especially I mean, let's
be honest, josh, our age bracketof our listeners is up there.
You know what I mean.
Like it's not the young ones oftoday and there are kind of a
lot of them are afraid of TikTokbecause they think, oh, tiktok
is a young person's program andall you do is you scroll upon
(46:19):
scroll upon scroll.
No, it's not about that too.
You can actually search onTikTok, Tony, as well, and
that's what I'm thinking you didas well.
You put in some search words.
You know it could be likeNaples you know the best
locations to eat in Naples andput that as actually a search in
TikTok.
And all of a sudden you'll getall the same sort of social
media as you do TikTok, andFacebook and ChatGPT and all the
(46:40):
different avenues in which youcan do your research now as well
.
So it's a research tool program, more so than just literally an
entertainment program too orlearning how to dance yeah, or
learning how to dance.
You know right, I've tried.
Happily for me at the moment,tony, is that I'm an ex-boreum
dancer and there's a reallyboreum dancing at the moment is
(47:01):
heavy on tiktok too.
So it's like I mean I could,josh, you and I get together
next.
I could just do some sort oftiktok with a geocache in my
hands and we'll see how we go.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
Put a routine together.
Well, you mentioned ChatGPT,and we recently started planning
a trip actually one that we'regoing on here very shortly and
we used ChatGPT and said we'regoing to be taking a four-day
trip in this part of the region.
Give us the main sites to seethe best hotels in from this day
(47:34):
to this day, and then it plopsup an itinerary for you and then
you use it as a jumping offspot.
So then you go okay, I've neverheard of these places, let's go
look at them.
And so then you go Google thosesites and see if that's
something you want to do, andthen maybe you tweak it.
No, I want less time here, moretime there, but it is a really
great tool to just kind of giveyou a start.
So, for people who areintimidated by travel planning
(47:56):
and maybe they want to kind ofstart doing this on their own,
yeah, those AI tools are amazingto kind of just get you started
.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Absolutely.
And not only that as well, youcan even talk to ChatGPT.
People don't understand as well.
You need to actually talk tochat gbt like they're a human
being and in terms of anall-knowing human being, yeah,
like an all-knowing human beingexactly.
And you've got to say to them,like you know, um, I'm gonna go
to, you know, switzerland orwhatever.
What do I need to pack to go toswitzerland?
(48:24):
What do I need in traveldocuments to go to switzerland?
You know all of stuff.
Therefore, you get everythinggoing, and all that research,
let alone.
Actually, you know residingsomewhere in Switzerland or
where you're staying and whatyou're going to see, even just
the travel aspect alone.
Do you guys have any tips inregards to what you else do, in
regards to your traveling itself, in terms of visas and
(48:47):
passports, and that because youdo a lot of international stuff?
Speaker 4 (48:49):
Well, one of the things I don't know about visas
and passports and that cause youdo a lot of international stuff
.
Um well, one of the things Idon't know about visas and
passports per se, but one of thethings that we have started
doing even at our advanced ageis we are now backpackers, so
carry on only we are carry ononly, and this has served us so
well because it is enabled us towhen we maybe miss a connection
(49:10):
or have connection issues orshort amount of time, you're not
losing your luggage.
You are ending up in yourdestination with exactly what
you need and want, and that'ssuper important, particularly if
you're jumping off at thatdestination immediately to
somewhere else by train or ferry, so it's become important for
us to have it on hand.
In addition, there have beentimes where we were able to
(49:33):
apply for the first people onthe airplane to take a bump.
You know so, if they areoversold and they're like well,
we're looking for somepassengers to get up their seats
, which happens, by the way, allthe time now.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
I mean it's constantly happening, because
they're purposely overbookingplanes.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
Last year we made four grand in bumps.
So that's another little tip.
You know when you're traveling,so we're mobile.
So when we say, hey, we've got,you know, carry-on bags only,
they're much more likely tochoose us because we're a lot
less hassle than trying to havesomebody passengers with a lot
of luggage they have to try andtransfer, so it's appealing.
(50:07):
So there's a couple tips foryou.
And certainly, when you are on aflight, go up to the front desk
right away at the gate and say,hey, is this flight oversold?
And they'll tell you, oh no,there's tons of seats, or
actually, yeah, we might be.
Okay, well, here's my name.
We would like to be first inline and typically when we go to
(50:27):
a destination, we have a littlebit of flex time.
We build that in because we'reslow travelers right now.
We can do that.
If you were going for aspecific reason, that was
imperative and you hadappointments and meetings.
That's harder to do, but we'reflexible and yeah.
So we made a bunch of moneylast year and, honestly, the
flights that we took were better.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
They were better seats 15 minutes behind the
other plane better.
They were better seats 15minutes behind the other plane.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Oh, wow, Wow.
So really the bump itself isn'treally that much of a bump, to
be honest.
Speaker 4 (50:56):
No not at all.
It was great.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
So being backpack travelers that is, you know,
that is very amazing race of youall.
They're big backpacks, they'rebig backpacks, so are they on
the Amazing Race?
They have to carry everything.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Josh, are you referring to something that we
spoke about earlier?
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Oh, possibly.
But you know what I think, whatwe should do.
We have a lot more questions togive.
I think we should maybe savethat for the patrons.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Absolutely so.
If you're not a patron, thenyou've got to become one.
To find out how Josh and Tonybecame friends by the sounds of
it.
Is that right, josh?
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Kind of Well, we became friends before that.
But yeah, there's somethingvery special that we did
together.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Very, very special.
So patrons only.
But in the meantime that's good.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
We've got to keep going.
We've got to keep going.
We've got to keep going for therest of the listeners and not
the paper.
So you all mentioned yourbackpackers.
I know you're hikers, so, uh,what is your approach when you
go into a city?
I'm a big.
When I travel, I want to dothings.
I'm not a person that typicallylikes to sit by the pool
(52:01):
there's a space for that,there's a time for relaxing but
I'm a doer, tony, I know I'vetraveled with you, I know you're
kind of a doer too, but what isyour approach?
What are you looking for?
You is your approach.
What are you looking for?
Are you looking for hikes?
Are you looking for museums?
What are you focusing on inthat city?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Well, when we go into a new city, obviously the first
thing we do is put our bagsdown and get out and see the
city Like we're going to be outthere right away.
So our approach is immediatelyget on foot and take it all in,
because and something that we'vedone recently is we've been
starting to do a tour, like wedid a food tour on the first
(52:37):
night.
When you get somewhere, andwhen you do that, they walk you
around the town anyways and youget to see cool place like oh
wow, we've got to come back heretomorrow and look at that a
little closer.
Or let's go back to thatrestaurant.
We had a sample of food at thatplace and it was really good.
Let's come back here for dinner.
So doing something like thatimmediately when you get to some
place, if you're going to bethere for three or four days,
(52:58):
gives you a lot of insight as towhat you want to see that you
didn't even know about when youwere already going there, yeah,
and the history that they giveyou and just explanation of the
neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (53:09):
It just makes you feel more educated about where
you're staying and what you'relooking at.
And then in the next couple ofdays beyond that, you might
realize, oh, that's what theywere talking about.
Cool, that's so neat.
We just saw that.
And then talking to locals youknow, maybe talking to the
person at the hotel or somebodythat you chat that is at a
restaurant Maybe they can giveyou some really good local
insight of if you ask, hey,what's a really cool thing to go
(53:33):
see or do here that noteverybody knows about?
You know, that would besomething.
But then we always also like todo our research about what
events are going on before weget there.
Is there a geocaching event?
Is there a get together?
Is there a really cool concertor show or something that we can
see that is going to make ourtime here even more special?
(53:53):
So we're absolutely looking atall of the international events
and you know things like that.
We've actually customized ourtrips because we found out there
was a really cool concert inone city and we switched
everything to go to that andthen we had to kind of figure
out the rest of it.
So we have done like our tripto France last year, we saw an
(54:13):
amazing concert in in aColosseum.
That was one of our mostspectacular things we've ever
done.
That was James Blunt.
In the town of Nîmes, france itwas great.
Speaker 3 (54:24):
But you know, like you know the question how often
do you think of the Roman Empire?
We think about it all the timebecause we're going to concerts
in Roman arenas.
Like we've seen three differentconcerts in or of some sort in
ancient Roman theaters.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
Yeah, I'm super addicted to it.
It's so, so, so cool.
It's a weird addiction.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Well, let's be honest , tony as well.
You're Roman around the worldjust saying Badum po.
Speaker 4 (54:50):
No Well let's be honest, tony as well.
You're roaming around the worldjust saying Ba-dum-bum.
No, we're meandering You'remeandering.
Speaker 3 (54:55):
There you go, you're meandering.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
See, they are podcasts, Josh, they've got a
good callback I like it, I likeit, I like it.
But, julie, you were sayingbefore in regards to how to see
the local sites and stuff too.
I've only just recently do alot of domestic travel here, and
not just in my van itself, butwhen I go to big cities like New
York City, la, even DC recentlyfor me, and I find the hop-on
(55:18):
hop-off bus Is there hop-onhop-off buses around the world,
in the big cities as well, likeFrance and Paris, and all that
sort of thing?
Are they all similar and isthat the best way to see it?
Do you think beforehand?
Speaker 4 (55:31):
Yeah, there are, and actually there's one in London
and actually I don't think it'sa hop on, hop off.
It's one of their local busroutes, but one of their local
bus routes and I don't know offthe top of my head what that is,
but if you ride that one, itactually takes you by all the
most famous sites.
So it actually is something youcan just get on real cheap and
if your feet are tired and orit's a rainy day, it'll take you
(55:56):
throughout the main parts ofLondon.
So I was like, oh, we should dothat.
That'd be kind of cool.
But they do have the hop on andhop off on.
Many, many big cities havethose as well.
Yeah, and in London.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
another cool thing that we did while we were there
last trip is they have Uberboats which, like what we saw it
on the, on the on the river,and we're like, so we decided to
go take it from one end to themiddle, and that's how we,
instead of getting on a train orthe Metro, we took a boat down
and it's.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
they bought some boats and they're Ubering people
around from port to port, soyou just use your Uber app like
you would normally.
But then we got to see theThames at night and pass by Big
Ben and the big Ferris wheelthing, the Eye of London.
Yeah, thank you, and it was sobeautiful and it was the cost of
just a quick little Uber ride.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
I like it and that's the other thing as well is that
when I was over there, they hadthe hop on, hop off bus, but
they had the extra hop on, hopoff bus, which included the um,
uh, what do you call it?
Um, uh, up and down the thamesas well, as many times as you
want, up and down the ferry.
They have the actual individualferries as well, but then
that's not uber, because you itdoes have a time limit.
(57:04):
You know time schedule.
Uber, uber boat sounds likeit's.
It's much better because it'sliterally whenever you want.
It's the difference.
So I like it.
But yeah, going up and down theThames underneath the, it's not
the London Bridge, because theLondon Bridge Josh, did you know
this?
The London Bridge.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
It falls down.
I know that.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
But the London Bridge is boring and no one sees
London.
Everyone thinks the LondonBridge isn't the London Bridge
on the photographs.
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (57:32):
Do you know where the original London Bridge is right
now?
Speaker 4 (57:35):
Yes, in America yes that's correct Middle of the
desert.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
How funny is this, josh?
Someone bought the LondonBridge thinking that it was the
actual Tower Bridge right, theone you always see.
They thought American Americanbought it because they thought
it was the actual tower bridge.
And when they got it they spentlots and lots of millions of
dollars to get over here.
They went hang on, that's justa concrete bridge.
Yeah, that's the London bridge,not the tower bridge, not the
(58:05):
tower.
But anyway, we're rabbit holing, josh.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
Yeah, americans, uh, tech.
Talk to us a little bit aboutyour relationship that you've
been spending probably a lotmore time together.
How has the travel strengthenedyour relationship, and I'm
assuming it's strengthened itthanks for that.
Speaker 4 (58:26):
um, actually, you know what my wait minute?
Speaker 3 (58:28):
We did just go to Coldplay concert in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (58:32):
So, we are still married.
Just want to point that out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, that'sgood.
That's for the currentreference.
You got caught hugging eachother did you?
Speaker 4 (58:38):
You got caught hugging each other On the kiss
cam.
Everybody was doing that.
Speaker 3 (58:41):
Everybody was trying to mimic.
That's funny.
Speaker 4 (58:50):
Yeah, that is because he's he's gotten some of his
lighthearted spirit back, youknow.
So he's, he's not so stressed,he's let go of that.
Those everyday worries that hehad at his job, those are are
gone now.
And so he's just much morelighthearted and, frankly, more
pleasant to be around.
Um, so I don't mind him beinghome all the time and we
(59:12):
actually get along great and wehave a ton of fun together.
And he did set up his littlehome office studio kind of in
our upstairs and stayed out ofthe one that was downstairs
which was mine.
So we do have separate spacesthat we can kind of you know,
our own corners, so to speak,that we can work out of during
the day.
But yeah, surprisingly, Ithought maybe it would really
(59:34):
start to get to me, but ithasn't bothered me.
Speaker 1 (59:38):
Shocker.
That's interesting, though,what you say, Julie, and you
know a lot of people do that aswell, and that is they sort of
you know, once they, you knowthe kids, leave the area, et
cetera, you want to travel andyou become closer in terms of a
timeframe, but in actual fact,you realize hang on a second we
weren't as close as what we usedto be.
But the idea, the fact that,Tony, you've gone back to the OG
(01:00:00):
Tony, the one that Julie fellin love with to begin with,
because now there's no stress,there's no relaxation, I bet,
Julie, you're feeling really,really, you know, like a breath
of fresh air, Like, oh my,goodness he's back again.
Speaker 4 (01:00:13):
This is good he's ready to climb more trees.
Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Josh, I'm starting to feel like people were referring
to me as a Shrek or something.
I mean I was oh, no, no, no, Ido feel a lot better, I do feel
great and like a weight has beenlifted.
And you know, julie has alwaysbeen my best friend and we have
always been great communicators.
You know, married 31 years,you're not staying together
(01:00:38):
unless you're communicating.
Um, and we, it's only gottenstronger, I think.
Um, we love spending that muchtime together.
We travel a lot and we arealways just the two of us, so I
don't even think twice about it.
I mean, I know that people havehad problems when they retire
and they also know they're athome with their spouse and like
you're driving me nuts.
Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
But you don't have that.
Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
I think we only had one day on our trip to Italy
where we were a little bitsnarky with each other, and I
think that's because we werehungry and maybe, honestly, you
know what we don't do good if wedon't have a plan.
That's one thing we've learned.
We're not the kind of travelerthat just likes to wing it and
let's just see where it takes us.
Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
That's not us.
And we end up at a random bar,you know, drunken under a table.
No, that's not you.
That doesn't usually happen, butJosh, I know right, currently,
at the moment, josh, we've gotto hit on the show notes as well
about these rapid-firequestions.
Julie, tony, we're going totest, we're going to do the test
now.
We're going to do the couplestest with you.
You both have to answer thesequestions and the rapid-fire
(01:01:41):
questions are Tony, you're firstwith this one here.
Oh boy, the geocache type youlove more, either traditional or
gadget cash.
Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Oh, for sure, traditional.
Do you want explanations?
Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
No, these are quick fire.
Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Me too, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
They're equal on that one.
Josh, you're next.
Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Best travel snack trail mix or beef jerky.
Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Trail mix.
Oh, julie has it with hereverywhere we go, so I have to
say that.
But I would prefer beef jerky.
But since we share, I'm eatingout of her bag.
Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
There we go.
That's the one All right,favorite mode of transport on
your travels plane, trains orautomobiles.
Julie.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I say automobile as a pilot, I'm going to say planes.
Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
There's another difference, Josh.
Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
And can I answer that too?
Yeah, that's one of my favoritemovies, but you know why?
Because that one part where hesays he's proud of his town it's
a damn rare thing these days.
Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
You're not going to put that in there.
You're not going to put itabout Julie and Tony and their
travels and how proud they areof their travels.
Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
They're not probably.
I mean, they're probably proudof their town, but they're
leaving their town, so thatdoesn't really connect.
Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
I thought you were going to say those aren't
pillows.
Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Yeah, you guys know that I have to get that phrase
into every episode.
Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
Do you?
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Yeah, so it's an Easter egg Check, check, check.
Okay, most scenic countryyou've been to.
Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Oh, check, check, okay.
Um most scenic country you'vebeen to, oh, uh, scenic country
coastline, uh, skyline, jungles,mountains.
What are you looking for?
Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
just the overall overall, well, you'll fight.
Yeah, however you interpret,however you interpret, I'm gonna
say turkey on the forthcomingthat.
Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
I want to see more, but from what I've seen, you're
in a spot where you're I knowthis is rapid fire, but when
you're in Istanbul and you getto see the Bosphorus and you get
to see the Strait and you getto see Asia on the other side
and you're in Europe and you getthese mosques and just the
music and the bells and thecalling to prayer, it's amazing.
So the scenery is it never ends.
Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
So, julie, in other words short answer.
Tony said Turkey.
Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
Montenegro.
I'm going to say Montenegrothere we go All right.
Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
One item that you never leave home without Julie.
One item you never leave homewithout so easy.
Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
Sorry, I'm a woman of a certain age.
My portable fan.
Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Oh fan, and you Tony Baby drone.
Oh fan, and you Tony Baby drone.
Oh, the little drones, I likeit, I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
We call it a baby drone.
We have a lot of drones, sothat one's baby drone.
Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
We've talked a lot about the international travel,
but most underrated US city ortown.
Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Surprising, I'm going to say Des Moines, wow.
Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Julie.
Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Branson, branson Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Wow, all right, I'm going to be quick as well.
Coffee or tea to start theadventure day.
Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Silly question.
Very, very silly question.
Coffee, Because part of ourrequirements for you to be
friends with us, you have toanswer five different questions,
but one of them is do you likecoffee?
And if it's a no, you havelimited amount of questions you
can get right to stay friendswith us.
So coffee, always coffee.
There is no other answer.
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
This is true.
And coming from the BritishConnolly, again, I said the same
word, wrong again.
But I'm a coffee drinker aswell.
But I will say I've never had acoffee equal to an Australian
coffee just yet in the US.
Just saying Well that's easy.
Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
We don't have good coffee.
You have to go out of ourcountry to get good coffee.
Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Correct, 100% Correct , correct, josh the next one,
One town you'd return totomorrow.
No questions asked.
Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Sydney, australia, oh , mobile, alabama, oh
interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
I've got to, but if you're not asking, questions,
then you don't have any context.
Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
No, no questions.
Oh, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
After we finish recording, Tony, we've got to
talk.
Next one is best travel hack,Tony.
Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Okay, if you're going to fly to Europe from the
United States and you are goingto do an overnight more than
likely you do an overnightbecause you get to sleep or you
try to I would make sure I getmy seat on a window on the
left-hand side of the plane.
And the reason being and get itclose to the wing because if
you like photography and if youwant to see the Aurora Borealis
(01:06:20):
when you go over the polar capsand you're, you know, I just saw
the polar caps and you're inthe Arctic and you're flying,
you know the best Northernlights are going to be on that
left side of that plane and theycan be at times breathtaking
and the photography, if you canpull it off, is pretty
incredible and you have the wingas a context.
So travel hack if you likephotography and northern lights
(01:06:41):
sit on the left side of theplane.
Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Oh, I like that too, Julie.
What about yourself?
Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
My travel hack is not quite as fancy.
Mine would be chip clips.
I always bring chip clipsbecause you will go to a gas
station, open a big bag of chipsand then you're like what do I
do with the rest of this?
Now?
Chip clip, you're in a hotelroom and the stupid window
drapes won't shut and you can'tsleep.
Chip clip you want to hang upyour wet swimsuit somewhere and
(01:07:08):
there's nowhere to put it.
Chip clip A million uses forchip clips, especially if they
have a little magnet on them.
Some of them have magnets too.
Even better.
Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Yeah, that's a good.
Or paper clippers Well, notpaper clip, but you know the
bigger paper clips that you cando the same thing with too.
I like it, julie.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Josh, I like it.
Julie, I like it, josh.
One more mate, one more.
No, you skipped one.
There's two more Favoritetravel companion besides each
other.
Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
We were hoping you were going to skip that one.
Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Julie.
Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
Because we would just alienate so many people Travel
with one another, maybe besidesyour children.
Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
Mine's easy, because you can't say one kid over the
other.
We traveled with bothindividually.
I'm going to say say one kidover the other, and we traveled
with both individually.
I'm gonna say myself, because Idon't think enough credit gets
to having a solo travel.
I love solo travel that was.
Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
We have a whole episode on that, by the way.
Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Yeah, that's good yep , okay, that was what about you,
julie, alienate?
So many people yep, I'm gonnasay a girlfriend.
Oh, that's cheating Well yousaid you, tony, you just said
yourself, so I mean everyone.
Sometimes I just want to go sitat a champagne bar or go to a
(01:08:21):
tea shop or something, because Ido like tea, you know.
Sometimes Generic girlfriend.
Generic girlfriend yeah, random, girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
Can I say girlfriend too?
Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
No.
Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Oh, that's a different podcast, Tony but
anyway.
All right, well, last one, thenI'll do the last one, that is
this is mostly towards you, tony, and that is the biggest joy of
leaving the 9 to 5 in one word.
One word Healthy, oh, I like it, oh, I like it, yes, I like it.
Very good, julie.
Biggest joy of Tony leaving thenine to five in one word.
Speaker 4 (01:08:58):
Flexibility.
Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Nice, and not just physically, I take it.
But anyway, that's anotherpodcast.
Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
I have never lost a limbo contest.
Small fact.
Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
Oh, there we go.
Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
There we go.
I've beaten a lot ofcheerleaders.
Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Stand by.
Julie.
Tony, stay on board becausewe're going to talk to you guys
in regards to the teaser thatyou did before Josh, about you
and Tony teaser.
Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
And I got a trivia for you guys too One of the
coolest adventures that didn'tquite happen, wow, thank you
guys for having a son, by theway no, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Um, actually, before we actually go exactly right,
tony, uh, julie, how can peoplefollow you first and foremost,
beforehand, before we go to thepatron, only stuff, how can
people follow you?
Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
well, it's everywhere we are on the socials and on
our podcast is me and her.
A one word.
Me and her.
All one word travel.
So me and her travel, and youcan find us on Instagram,
youtube, tiktok, facebook and onpodcast on Apple, spotify and
(01:10:04):
YouTube there.
And meandertravelcom, yeah,which we find we don't do as
much with because you know whatthe socials are, so perfectly
aligned with trying to getinformation to people.
Speaker 4 (01:10:15):
But there's history about us there, that's where we
do show notes.
Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Yep, perfect.
And speaking of show notes aswell, everything, all the links
for Tony and Julie, and then meand her, are all going to be in
our show notes, in the actuallinks, in the description
themselves.
But, josh, we're going to talkto patrons only very soon, if
you don't want to miss out, josh, how can people become a patron
of the Treasures of Our Townpodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Yes, if you've been enjoying our podcast, we'd love
to have you support us.
By supporting us, you'rehelping us create even better
content.
Keep it free for everyone noannoying commercials.
Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
So you can join us over at patreoncom backslash
treasures of our town and that'swhere we even had the joshua
the jay cushing vloggers beardreview came about, which is now
gone which I didn't listen to.
You didn't listen to and I'm sadto say it's now gone.
I'm with the the majority ofour patrons out there who say
that it should have stayed, butanyway, that's just me.
I did enjoy the way it felt onmy chin.
(01:11:13):
I mean, like you know what Imean.
Meanwhile, josh, how can peopletalk to us or contact us if
they want to?
Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Yes, you can reach out to us at Treasures of Our
Town Podcast at gmailcom, whereyou can follow us on Facebook,
instagram, youtube or ourBuzzsprout site.
Just simply search Treasures ofOur Town podcast in Google.
You'll find us right away.
Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Exactly so.
That's it for our show today.
Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite
podcast app and, as always,Josh, may your travels always
lead you to the most unexpectedand amazing hidden gems.
With me and her around theworld, meander, meander, meander
.
Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Tony.
Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Julie, thanks so much .
We'll see you next time, allright, thank?
Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
you.
Thanks guys, Bye.
who am I talking to here?
Is this is this jonah reese?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I don't know is this you, joshua?
It's me, it's me, joshua.
Did you catch me longer, kate,don't you recognize me?
Speaker 1 (00:12):
no, not at all.
If you're out there listeningpeople.
Yes, he is shaved off his beardagainst against a, a percentage
of people that said you shouldkeep it just not an overwhelming
percentage, though doesn'tmatter overwhelming or Doesn't
matter overwhelming or not.
Doesn't matter overwhelming ornot, and we'll discuss it
further on the show.
But anyway, should we get intothe show, josh?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, let's get into the show.
Do you love to travel?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Do you love road trips?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all
over the USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's a podcast that exploresunique and charming towns
scattered throughout the UnitedStates.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Guided by our love for location-based games like
geocaching, join us as weventure to some of the country's
most intriguing destinations,uncovering hidden gems and local
secrets along the way.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
On today's episode.
Josh, we've got some specialguests.
Is it me and her, her and me,you and I and him and them?
You did this show notes, josh.
You've got these people on andtell us, josh, more about who
we've got on today's episode.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh, it's exciting.
It is a long, long time friendof mine and his wife and they
have started.
Well, more than started,they're 18 episodes in.
They have started their owntravel podcast.
So I'm very excited because Ithink Craig, I can't remember I
think this is the first timewe've had official travel
(01:40):
podcasters on our travel podcastActual travel podcasters and I
do believe this may be the veryfirst for us, Josh.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
I'll be honest with you.
I mean we've had a lot ofpeople on our podcast, Josh.
We have We've had like lackeys,geocaching lackeys on that
podcast.
We've had other podcasters onour podcast as well, like the
Van Life podcast and stuff likethat too, but I don't think
we've actually had dedicatedtravel experts on our podcast,
Josh.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Exactly, and it's so exciting because they have
recently transitioned from Idon't know what we want to call
it nine to five life to beingtravel full-time travel
podcaster.
So I'm really excited to talkabout them and talk about their
journey, and we're going to getthem on very quick.
But we have something veryimportant to do first.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
And that is, we have to talk there's several several
things delays and upgrades I'vegot a new delay now, josh, as we
heard before in the start ofthe actual episode itself.
My new delay is you and yourappearance.
Tell us about your appearance,josh.
That's a delay for you myappearance is a delay because my
(02:45):
appearance is an upgrade to medefinitely not and I'll
guarantee it's not an upgradefor 57 of our patrons.
I'll just say that there you go.
57 of our patrons think youshould have kept it, but you
listen to the minority, josh,why?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I listen to my heart, craig, and I listened to the
itchiness of my face.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yes, I did shave.
I told you you had to get outof that.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I shaved my beard and you know what?
Yes, the patrons said it wasn'toverwhelming.
It was like 56%.
If it was overwhelming, I mighthave considered change, but it
wasn't overwhelming and I wouldhave voted no.
So that would have been evenmore.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Josh, I'll quickly read out these patron comments.
I will do that.
Like you know, you got Mike onthere.
He says looks great on your bra.
So that's a yes from him.
Waymaker Jan says there aresome excellent beard products
out there to take your beardgame to the next level.
So I will say yay, but you doyou, bud, I did me, I did me.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I did me.
I listened to Waymaker Jan.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, you got Nesmuk as well, who said should only be
one option, and that is keep it.
You've got Brenda as wellsaying yes.
You've got Jeff Arba Antisius.
He's saying definitely.
And then you have Josh.
You have the lady contingentI'll say the lady contingent of
(04:06):
the rest of the people wholisten and watch you as well.
And they said, although thebeard looks good on joshua, it
takes away from the boyish charmof the vg see, there we go,
listen to the ladies.
That's the lesson here, wow wow,really, you listen to the
ladies you didn't know anyway.
Anyway that I'll be honest,that was I did.
I had a different delay, josh,but now that has turned into my
(04:26):
delay.
So, anyway, what about you?
What's your, what's your delaybeen for this these last two
weeks, mate?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
I'm going to do my upgrade first, because my
upgrading delay are connected.
Oh, two weeks ago you rememberI was talking about hey, I'm
heading down and dropping offall my son's stuff at college
and I said, maybe, just maybe, Iwill visit the world's largest
ball of paint, which was thewinner of Roadside Attraction
March Madness 2024.
(04:54):
And I was like I got to getthere just outside of
Indianapolis and Craig, you didit, I made it happen.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Oh, it's like you were a world record holder, Josh
.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
That's what you're saying.
To's like are you a worldrecord holder?
Josh?
That's what you're saying.
I was a world record holder.
He said you're a world recordholder for three more hours,
because that's when the nextperson's coming.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I was gonna ask how long.
I was gonna ask how long.
Three hours for mind you,holding a real record for three
hours is better than not holdingholding a world record at all.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
That's what I'll say this is true so I was layer, I
was paint layer, uh 30,085 wow,okay, I've got.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I've got questions before you move on, josh number
one, how long did it take you topaint the entire layer of the
ball?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I'd say it took me about 10 minutes and it was such
service.
This man that owns it, michaelcarmichael, a gentleman probably
in his mid-70s.
I'm painting it purple, youknow, for minnesota, oh, and
painting it purple, and then, asI run out of paint, he comes
over to me, he goes here'sanother, here's another roller.
And we just keep exchangingrollers so I never had to dip he
(05:53):
was helping me the whole time.
It was so cool and just likeanything like that.
The treasure the ball of paintwas cool, like that was cool,
but the real treasure was thisman that since 1977, that's when
I was born, craig 1977.
Rub it in, josh, rub it in.
So it was a really coolexperience.
(06:14):
I got a certificate that said Iwas a world record holder.
It was amazing and there was ageocache there.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Of course it was a great geocache, a virtual or
just a what was it.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
No, there was an ammo can in the building.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Nice, did you paint the ammo can as well.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
No, you couldn't, but it was painted yellow and it
had a little smiley face on it.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Oh, that's cute, that is cute, that is cute, that's
fine.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Okay, I'll, and there will be a video.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, then I'll watch that video, but any video
thereafter without this beard Iwon't be watching.
Just saying because I don'tlike the boyish looks of the GCV
.
Yikes, I like the man that isthe GCV.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
All right, craig.
What is your upgrade?
What is your upgrade?
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Well, it actually runs into my original delays.
So the original delay for me,josh, was yesterday.
I stayed at a.
You know I love my harvest hosthere in the van as well.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I do know that.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
And I stayed at a True Blue Harvest Host, which
was actually a farm, josh, andit was an alpaca farm at that as
well.
But I pulled in to the alpacafarm, I spoke to the owner there
as well, I patted a few alpacasand then, josh, and then the
black skies came rolling overand I'm talking a full-blown
thunderstorm happened directlyabove me, oh wow, and tore off
(07:35):
Josh.
It tore off my air vent, my bigMax Air Fan, air vent.
It tore off the lid from theroof.
I managed to get it.
I was in the middle of the rainand the thunder and the
lightning, standing on the roofof my van trying to tape down my
air vent.
A bit of water got in, whatever.
That's the fine.
That was going to be my delay,apart from your beard.
(08:00):
But the upgrade is for today,josh.
This is just to go to everyone.
If you're doing something onthe fly, for instance, or if
you're not in your own area, etcetera, et cetera.
Look for other ways, look forother avenues to fix problems.
Now, josh, I looked at Amazonfirst and foremost, but Amazon
can't post me the product that Ineeded because it was too big
to fit in the Amazon lockers.
I don't have a physical address, et cetera.
(08:22):
So that was a problem.
I then went to an RV repairplace here in Denver as well.
They said, oh, we'll look at itin a month's time.
I'm like it's just a vent, likeit's a nope, I'm looking at it
in a month's time.
So I went, okay, I went toCamping World, josh, camping
World have, and they said, oh,we can get it in for you, and
it's going to be tomorrow, theyget it in.
I said, yep, that's fine, andthe cost involved was ginormous.
(08:45):
It's like 140 dollars for aplastic bit of piece.
I'm like, oh, okay, I'll get itif I need it.
But then I looked over and Isaw the full air fan itself that
I have was 145 dollars on theshelf so I said what if I buy
the full full thing on the shelfand then just use the part that
I need?
(09:05):
He goes oh, you could do that.
So that's what I did, josh.
I bought the full piece.
So now I've got a spare Max Airfan sitting in the trunk of my
van and I've managed to replacethe actual lid itself.
So that's my upgrade.
It's upgraded to Tuesday.
I upgraded the van Tuesdayvanon Instagram.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Nice, that's awesome.
Well, I'll go through my delayvery quickly.
So I drove all my kid's stuff,he flew to college and then I
had to drive all his stuff downthere.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and this is Hayden we're talking about
Hayden, my youngest, youryoungest, yeah, yes, my youngest
.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
And it's a long drive down there.
It's like, with stopping, it'sabout 14 hours driving, wow,
which is I broke it up on theway down because the ball of
paint, that was smart.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
On the way back, we drove back all the way through.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It was a long, long drive, wow.
And I get home and I go intothis house and I think our
guests might understand thisfeeling and the house feels very
empty and very quiet andbecause reese is in columbia,
jonah just started a new job inin texas and now hayden is gone
(10:15):
so it's it.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I did see, I did see in texas.
I did see hayden, uh, jonah'sin texas, jonah's, I did see
jonah in texas too.
I'll watch his social media aswell to make sure where he is
and what he's doing.
So he's enjoying the heat inTexas by the looks of it.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
So that's a little sad, it's bittersweet.
I had kids young and I alwaysknew this time would come.
I said I'm going to be an emptynester when I'm 47 years old,
and now it's here.
I'm 47 years old and now it'shere.
It came so quickly and it's alittle sad, but it's also, you
know, new adventures, newopportunities.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I was going to say is that?
Your delay, Josh, the fact thatyou're in Empty Nest, that
would be a lot of people'supgrades.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That would be a lot of people's upgrades.
It's bittersweet, it's kind ofboth.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
True, true.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Bit A, bit B.
All right, these are yourfriends that you got on for our
show.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
They are my friends and they're amazing friends.
I would like to welcome to theshow Tony and Julie from Me and
Her Travel Podcast.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown, tony and Julie.
Hello.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
Thanks for having us Thank you guys.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yes, this is so exciting.
You are the first travelpodcasters I think that we've
ever had on here, and so, justto start us off, let the people
know a little bit who you are,where you're from, where's your,
where's your home base, andthen maybe I don't know tony can
go, maybe a little bit and how.
I know tony, which is kind ofinteresting.
We have a long story storytogether and actually a very
(11:40):
interesting one that I've neverbrought up on social media
before Breaking news.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Tony, before you do, am I going to get jealous of
this, josh?
Am I going to get you know?
Because I thought I was yourBFF.
But you know all of a suddennow I'm hearing live as we talk
that you've got a BFF before meby the sounds of it.
Anyway, all right, I'm all ears.
I'm all ears, tony, matewelcome, and Julie welcome.
Tell us a bit about yourselfand go from there, mate.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Okay, cool.
Well, I'm Julie and Tony and Ihave been together since high
school, so we're high schoolsweethearts.
We live in a suburb ofMinneapolis Currently.
We've been married for 31 years.
We just celebrated ouranniversary.
Wow, married for 31 years, wejust celebrated our anniversary.
And we have two daughters.
So our older daughter is 23.
(12:29):
Our younger one is 20.
And she was adopted fromEthiopia.
So even our children we like todo with travel involved.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
And they have some pretty cool children.
If you listen to one of theepisodes, they uh, they talk
about their oldest child thattook a gap year and traveled all
over the world and it soundedreally, really cool and I was
really inspired and I wanted Iwant to go back in time and try
that.
That was very so.
Do we so?
Do we?
Well, that's what you're doingright, kind of you know what?
Speaker 3 (13:01):
yeah, this is you know when, when our daughter did
that and we were like we wishwe could have done that or they
had that, it was, you know,structured like that.
When we were young they didn't.
But now that they're very welldefined, structured programs, we
thought, okay, we're raisingour daughters to go out and
chase their dreams and do allthe things that they're doing.
And you know they, they foregosome college.
(13:23):
One's a pilot, one's going tobe, is trying to be a
professional downhill alpineracer, and we're like you know
what we talk about themfollowing their dreams.
How do, why don't we follow ourdreams that we've been talking
about for years and years, andso that's kind of where we're at
right now.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, took a page from them, cool exactly.
And uh, yeah, you're kind ofyou're, you're, you're living
your own advice, which is goodyou're not, you're not a
hypocrite, right?
You're living your dreams rightnow and I think, yeah, that's,
that's really really cool.
Well, let's talk about.
I do know tony from way back.
I've I've known tony as long asI've been a geocacher.
(14:01):
Oh wow, he was like one of thefew, first few people that I met
in the geocaching world, andtony tony's a if I think of
adventure, like adventuregeocacher, yeah, the picture
that comes into my mind is tony,and so he has just a fun
personality.
He's the guy that's climbingtrees and he's he's the guy
(14:24):
that's doing all that kind ofstuff, repelling off of things
and Hiking that mountain,exactly.
Yeah exactly, and so I love, Ilove that energy and so we we
knew each other through going toevents and I think there were
times we we had geocachetogether.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Yeah, oh yeah, oh yes , together, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We did MOGA competition, so get this.
Moga is coming back to Iowa, bythe way, tony, excellent.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Interesting.
I'm in, it's coming back to DesMoines.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yes, and so Tony and I were on a team in MOGA, a four
person team, and that was thefirst year we won the four
person competition, and we wonit because of Tony.
It's.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
March, I believe.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
It's March and we, you know, we divide the caches
up into different areas of thefour different people and we
knew before we got it, we knewthat there would be some caches
on the other side of the waterand most people were like, oh,
they're going to go aroundTony's like if there's caches
over there, I'm swimming.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
Well, it was six miles.
Well, it was six miles, it wassix miles round trip to go along
the shoreline, follow thetrails through the woods, get to
the far end of where we figuredthere would be caches, and we
didn't know for sure, but weknew that there was nothing on
the map at that point.
So it means they probably havecaches over there for this
competition.
So we went down and looked atthe shoreline, looked over there
, and we said, all right, ifthey blow that horn tomorrow and
(15:42):
it's time to go.
And we pop up on our screen andwe see that these caches over
there, it's go time.
And they gave us thecoordinates.
We knew that the caches werethere and we said, okay, you
three guys are going to go theshort route around the land.
And as soon as they blew thehorn, a couple hundred people
all run in one direction.
(16:02):
I turned around and ran theopposite direction down to the
shoreline.
And we had told somebody with acamera crew like hey, you're
going to want to watch this.
And they came running down tothe shoreline and I take off
with my bag.
You know, uh, I had itwaterproofed with my G, with my
GPS, and I mean uh, receiver,and and I swam across the lake,
which took me about 10 minutesto get across, but I saved like
(16:24):
an hour's worth of time oftravel.
Oh yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Wow, it was so funny because people were like exactly
that Tony.
Everybody was like where is hegoing?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Sure enough, you see him, he's floating in the water.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
And the funny thing about that, craig Tony is now
legendary for that.
Oh, of course, nobody sincethen has ever decided hmm, I'm
going to swim across the lake.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
I think we beat everybody in time by like yeah,
we beat everybody like by 40minutes, we won.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Oh yeah, that's the reason why, then that's the case
.
But Tony, I did actuallycompete in my very first MOGA
this year, believe it or not?
Yeah, in Kansas, and I lastedthree stamps, uh like treading
in a gopher hole and twisting myankle so badly it turned into a
softball of an ankle.
So sorry, no, I know, butanyway, um, I know what you're
(17:15):
talking about moga.
But I will say I didn't knowthat you guys actually did like
a reconnaissance mission the daybefore.
Yeah, to say, okay, this is thepark, that's, that's some
serious business.
I didn't see that happening inmoga this year.
Just saying so, is that goingto be repeat?
Like I said, we repeat for nextyear in in tony, let's put the
band back together.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Let's put the band back together.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
We could make it, we could win it and if you get the
band back together, joshua,depending on your age because
I'm thinking you're the youngestuh, you can be in a different
age bracket than two.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So the only way that would happen.
The only way that would happenis if we get like an 18 year old
, I'm sure yeah, we had that oneyear.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
We had uh halloween son because you got to have the
average age.
But anyway, I digress.
Uh, tony, julie, um josh saidabout you being classed as a me
and her adventures, me and heror meander.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
So we decided to do that a little bit on purpose
with a play on words me and hertravel and trying to come up
with a unique name in these daysis very difficult, so when we
found me and her travel, likethat's a beautiful play on words
for meandering through theworld, I like it.
I like it, meander.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Meander through the world.
Yeah, I like it.
I like it Meander, meanderthrough the world.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Josh, you know what?
We screwed up all the time andsay it one way and then we turn
around and say it differentlythe next time.
So we kind of really got to geton that, julie, and say
something and come up with oneway of saying it.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
I usually say meander , and then I think sometimes you
say me and her, but you know,it's both, it both, it means
both.
So that's good.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
So let's get into that.
What you you talked about yourkids.
They kind of inspired you.
You wanted to take your ownadvice to launch this podcast.
But go back a little bit.
What was the thought process?
You had day jobs, things youwere doing day to day thought
process.
You had day jobs, things youwere doing day to day.
(19:10):
You're not of like typicalretirement age yet, and so what?
Take me through the thoughtprocess of deciding to do this
travel podcast and starttraveling more full time.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Yeah, so we are currently 54.
But the last probably decadeand I'm sure there's a lot of
people who might be able torelate to this but the last
decade for work for my husbandwas very stressful and you know,
there were some nights he wouldcome home and he just wouldn't
even want to talk and he wouldjust kind of go in a quiet room
for a little while and it's just.
(19:40):
It was very COVID and electionsand just I don't know stress.
And there was one day we weresitting on the front porch and I
said, honey, we can't do thisanymore, like we just can't keep
living this kind of life whereyou're so stressed, like it
hurts my heart to see how you'veactually your personality has
changed and you are frustratedand you're just like not the
(20:03):
same person, not the exuberantperson that I married and that I
know that you are inside andthere's no amount of money that
we could make that is worth thisand I would like to see some
changes.
I think he owned or kind ofpartially owned, a company with
his brother and his dad, so thatwas a tricky situation and he
(20:23):
kind of had to go to them andsay I'm not going to do this
anymore, and that was a littlebit heartbreaking for them to
hear, but it was really, I think, validating and a relief for
him.
And then, in the same moment, Isaid and, by the way, I've been
listening to these podcastsabout people who quit their jobs
and travel the world and Ithink you should listen to them
(20:46):
and it took him I don't know afew days, and then all of a
sudden he was like, oh my gosh,I just listened to all of them
and we need to make some changes.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
I was all in to move abroad within about three hours
in.
I was like, okay, I'm ready forthis.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, so it took a while of you know, a few years
of getting to a point where wecould transition out of that
company and kind of setourselves up into doing
something like this.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, if that's the case and you know, obviously
podcasts, et cetera, inspiredyou to do full-time travel.
Are you more predominantlyfull-time travel worldwide or
are you more domestic related inregards to your travel?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Well, we love international travel and all
that it brings with it.
We love the United States andwe love traveling in the United
States and we have our favoritesand all that, and we do travel
quite a bit within the UnitedStates.
But we are really drawn tointernational travel and have
for ever since we've beentogether.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
Well, and let's say too, like my dad was a school
teacher and so every summer wewould travel for a full month
all around the country.
We would have a conversion vanand a pop-up camper and we
traveled all over the country.
So I've seen a lot of thecountry and Tony's family
traveled, so we were superfortunate to be able to see a
(22:06):
lot of the United States andtake our kids on summer road
trips.
So we feel like that we've donea lot of that and while we are
still relatively young right nowand active and healthy, we want
to go tackle some of thosefaraway places that we might not
be able to do in 10, 15, 20years.
But we can still go back toSouth Dakota, you know.
(22:27):
So we love South Dakota, butfor right now let's go tackle
some major hikes and some coolgeocaches around the world and
do some things that we might notbe able to do later.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Cool.
So how long have you guys been?
Was the transition from whenyou'd quit your job to to where
we are at now?
How long have you guys been?
Was the transition from whenyou quit your job to where we
are at now?
How long have you been doingthis now?
Speaker 3 (22:48):
End of January, so end of January 2025.
So it's been six months, youknow, seven months, okay, and
you know, we say you know wewant to be full-time travel.
That is a harder thing toaccomplish unless you just go
cold turkey, sell everything yougot and get in a, you know, get
in a van Craig.
Unless you just go cold turkey,sell everything you got and get
in a van Craig and just go.
There's a lot that goes into itand anybody that's done it
(23:09):
knows what I'm talking about.
But that's kind of why westarted a podcast, because
there's a lot of people outthere that have podcasts or
sites you name it on all thesocials that have gotten to that
point and been doing it foryears and telling you how they
did it.
Okay, well, we're in it andwe're like how do we do it and
the struggles that we havetrying to figure it out.
(23:30):
That's what we're.
We're talking about our travelsand we're also talking about,
hey, what it takes right now,like, oh my God, we had to get
insurance.
Oh my gosh, we had to do this,and different things that we're
struggling with that you don'tthink about always when you're
like, oh, I want to go do thatWell?
Yeah, but there's a lot thatgoes into it.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
That's interesting.
You spring that up because whatare some of the struggles you
talked about, like insurance andall those things?
What are some things thatyou're learning and you're like,
wow, I didn't think of thatuntil you were like, now you're
in it.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Yeah, well, one of them, like you mentioned, is,
you know, with him quitting hisjob and he was the primary
breadwinner, we no longer hadinsurance for our family of four
.
So we had to go get that on ourown.
And I still work a little bitpart-time here and there, but my
boss is super flexible, so shejust lets me tell her when I'm
going to be there.
So we, you know, we were gonefor well over a month this
(24:19):
summer on one trip and we've hadmultiple trips kind of back to
back.
But we also have a house still.
We've got a very active dog, abig dog, so 12 years old but
almost 13.
Yeah, and our older daughterstill lives at home because
she's a pilot and finishing uptrying to accumulate her hours.
So we're still a little bit Iwouldn't say bogged down, but we
(24:43):
are anchored.
We are anchored by some verybig things.
So we kind of want to fly, butyou know, we're tethered a
little bit.
So we're doing the best we canand because our daughter is here
, we are allowed to kind ofsneak away for a while and she's
here to help with the dog.
But we also like one of thethings we talk about on our
podcast is that we findourselves in this sweet spot
(25:03):
right now and Josh, you're justentering into it where your kids
don't need as much support fromyou.
They're relatively independentand our parents are still doing
pretty good.
But in the next five years orsomewhere in there, our kids
might be starting havinggrandkids.
You know we might havegrandkids and our parents might
(25:23):
need some more support.
So we feel like we have thissmall window, this sweet spot,
to travel now and be selfish andgo do all these fun things,
because we may be more tethered,even though we are now in five
years.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
It's a very good point you bring up too, julie,
and that is, you know, that'sthe whole sweet spot thing.
But I always say to everyoneout there as well, that is, if
ever you're on a flight and youguys know as well, you've done
many flights the flightattendant when they're doing
their little exit thing and thewhole lot, they always say you
must put the mask on yourselffirst before helping others.
(25:58):
And so keep that in mind,whereby you can't help anyone
else, like in terms of yourchildren or your parents, unless
you are centered yourself,unless you're mentally centered
as well, you're in a good mindspace, and there's no better
mind space than actually to liveyour dreams for those few years
that you're doing now too.
So a big shout out to you guysas well.
(26:20):
But always, always, and this isfor everyone out there help you
.
It's not selfish to helpyourself first before you help
others.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
just saying so true and and uh, like she said, we
are currently, you know, youknow she's got a little bit of a
job, uh, partially, and I havenone, except for a little bit.
I'll tell you a little bitlater.
But I don't call it retirement,I call it quit, tirement, and I
stole that from somebody, butit's.
I retired from my position ofin my career of 30 plus years,
(26:50):
but I quit because I still needmoney.
So I'm going to have to makesome money at some point, but I
don't need to make it in theimmediacy Like I can.
You know, you make a littlenest egg when you're going to go
and do something like we'redoing, and we know that that may
be spent.
Or we make money on the way.
Maybe a podcast takes off,maybe one of our socials takes
off, who knows, when we find away to make money on the fly as
(27:10):
we're traveling, we're going tosee how that goes.
And that's part of the podcastas well as like, how do you do
this?
How do you fund doing this?
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Yeah, that's interesting, because that was
sort of my next question.
I mean, there's a lot of peoplethat would consider this, but
let's face it like the one ofthe biggest fears is not having
enough money.
It's a big fear.
How have you guys workedthrough that?
I mean it, it sounds to me thatyou guys have sort of like
dipped your toe in.
You haven't sold your life, youhave a home base still, but
(27:39):
still, like you said, tony, youdon't.
You don't have your, yourincome stream.
How have you dealt with that?
What are some strategies?
What advice would you givepeople that would consider
something like this?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Well, the one thing you know if you're going to do
it at an age like we are like at54, you know you're not 65, 70
years old when you're quitting,you're doing this obviously at a
really odd time and everybodysays don't do it.
And we're like what's the worstthat can happen?
If you always just keep in theback of your mind what's the
worst?
We fall on our face and we runout of money and we don't find a
(28:09):
way to make any money on thefly.
Okay, we go back and get jobs.
So they're not going to be thejob that I had for 30 years, but
I can go and find a job.
It could be, yeah, it could be.
Go right back to that.
I got tons of people that wouldsay, hey, I'll hire you right
now.
I'd rather take this shot anddo what we're trying to do, and
we're doing it economically too.
We're not just out there like,hey, we're at the Four Seasons,
(28:30):
we're doing some nice things,but we're also saving money
where we can to do it.
And if it all goes awry, okay,two, three, one year, three
years, five years, six years,maybe never we go back and get
jobs.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
So I would add to that as well that if this is
something you think you mightwant to do, then maybe get a
little side gig, you know, get aside hustle and build a nest
egg.
So one of the things that I'vebeen doing for the past five
years now actually, maybe alittle bit more basically at the
start of COVID, selling clothesonline, so saving clothes from
(29:06):
Goodwill, wholesale or whereverI can find them that are in
really excellent condition oreven brand new with tags, and I
resell them online and you guyswould be surprised how much you
can make doing that, even justpart time.
I mean, we did a really nicetrip to Africa and it paid for
the entire thing.
So we just keep I just keepsocking that money away into a
(29:26):
little account and then that'swhat we've been using to draw
from for our travels.
And, yes, I would spend a lot ofmy nights and my weekends doing
that, but I actually reallyloved it.
So if there was something thatyou enjoyed doing that you could
pick up as a side hustle andsquirrel that money away, then
we kind of feel like we've givenourselves a year.
We're going to just blow thisyear out and go have fun and
(29:48):
we've got tons of really coolthings planned and at the end of
the year we'll reassess and youknow, maybe we'll have to get a
little part-time something,something, or maybe in that
amount of time something hastaken off, but we'll see.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
For example, just yesterday, because I was talking
, we were on a road trip thislast weekend and I was in a
store and a woman was doordashing at the fast food we were
at.
I said, can I ask you a coupleof questions?
And she goes, yeah, so I talkedher up a little bit and then I
realized you know what I've beenthinking about, like getting a
bartender job or doing somethingwhile I'm down and you know,
staying here for, let's say, wehave a month or two, but nobody
(30:22):
wants to hire somebody for fourweeks and then have you go AWOL
for a month.
So I thought maybe I'll doDoorDash where it's completely
just when I'm in town.
So since yesterday this will benews to a lot of people I made
10 dashes in the last day and Imade a bunch of money.
Not a great amount of money, butguess what it adds up.
And I was driving 20 minutesone direction.
(30:44):
I checked online, I got twoDoor dashes going that direction
.
I got paid to drive thedistance I was going Just
another clever way of a littleside hustle.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
It basically pays for the cable bill.
But that's a good point youmake too, julie, and that is.
Everyone knows them as sidehustles, but really they're not
a hustle at all.
Literally, they are jobs thatyou can create for yourself in
order to create the income thatyou you need.
And, as you said, julie as well, if you like what you're doing,
you're not actually workingtechnically you know what I mean
(31:18):
, like if you enjoy what you'redoing.
You're not working a day in yourlife, so if you can do
something you love, like youknow, finding these really cool
old looking clothes, retroclothes from Goodwill, with tags
on the whole lot, and thenrepurpose them to people who are
actually going to use them aswell, and then you make some
money out of them, everyone'shappy, you know, and you're
happy because you're actually,you know, working in a job that
(31:39):
you like and you're literallyworking for yourself.
There's no boss there, it'sjust you.
You decide what you want towork, how you want to work,
exactly.
Boss there, it's just youdecide what you want to work,
how you want to work, exactly,exactly.
I love that.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
I love that idea we got one more for you.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Same with DoorDash Tony as well.
It's the same sort of thing too.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
We got one more for you that we utilized on this
last big trip that we took.
You don't go to Italy for overa month without some expenses,
right?
So that's going to get costly,especially if you're staying in
hotels.
So for half of it, my wifeJulie.
Speaker 4 (32:07):
Yeah, so I found an international pet sit.
So you know, like here in theStates we've got rovercom and
things like that you can hire.
But internationally there are alot of groups that are
international house sitters,international pet sitters, and
you can scroll through some ofthose.
They're on Facebook.
You scroll through some ofthose Facebook groups and see
(32:28):
what might be available.
And when we were going to Italywe found that Andrea Bocelli was
going to be playing a concertin the ancient amphitheater of
Pompeii.
And I pretty much lost my mindand I told Tony.
I said we're going to doanything in our power, move
heaven and earth to be at thatconcert.
And he's like it's not in ourbudget, that wasn't in our plan
(32:49):
this year.
I'm like I don't care, it'sgoing to happen.
So in order to make thatfeasible, I scrolled through and
you guys, it was like magic.
Seriously, if you put stuff outinto the universe, the universe
is going to meet you.
And right then I found a petsit that was just outside of
Naples, so that's right byPompeii.
It was a two week pet sit thatended two days before the
(33:10):
concert and it was amazing.
So we stayed in this family'shome and took care of their cute
little dog while they came backto the United States and we got
to stay there for free, so wedidn't get paid, but we had free
accommodations.
They let us use their car so wewere able to go see some sites
and you know, we lived likelocals in Italy for two weeks
(33:32):
and it was an amazing experienceand that is something anybody
can do.
So if you can't affordexpensive hotels, that is
absolutely an option, you know,for an international travel.
But one of my best girlfriendsjust booked a trip that I
actually found for her on aFacebook group in Arizona and
she's taking care of a coupletwo, three dogs for like 10 days
(33:55):
, while the family goes to Japanand stays for free.
And she's staying for free andher brother happens to live in
the same town, so she's likethis is great, I can visit my
brother, but I don't have tostay with him, hopefully he
doesn't listen to this.
But anyway.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
It's like a free Airbnb, because we've all stayed
at Airbnbs before and literally, if you haven't stayed at an
Airbnb before, then you'remissing out.
But Airbnb is really justsomeone's house that they lease
out for one night, two nights aweek, whatever it might be.
So really all you're doing isyour dog sitting and staying at
a free Airbnb.
And, let's be honest, whodoesn't like dogs?
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Well, when you're gone for a month, you miss your
dog dearly, so you want to petevery dog in the world when
you're traveling in Europe.
People don't pet other people'sdogs in Europe, so you don't
get to do that unless you'restaying with them.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Yes, perfect, perfect , I like it, perfect, so she was
adorable and now we miss herand we're still in communication
.
We're still in communicationwith these people and they have
said open invitation.
Anytime you guys want to comeback, please do, whether it's to
pet sit or just to stay with usand hang out like we got along
so well.
So, so cool.
We made friends too.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
It was, it was awesome the thing here is that
we live in such an amazing time,right like 30 years ago these
things that we're mentioningwouldn't even be possible, like
we wouldn't be so connected, andwe live in a time where we
could just do a quick job andget paid right away and visit
people that we don't even know,that we wouldn't be connected
(35:24):
with, um.
So I just it's just amazingwhen you kind of think about how
fortunate we are to live in thetime we live.
All right, we need to turn tothe travel.
I want to hear all about someof the places you've been.
You focus on internationaltravel.
I've listened to several ofyour podcasts.
I listened to one of the mostrecent ones, which was
fascinating.
(35:44):
I didn't even know this countryexists.
But what are some of the placesthat you've most recently gone
to that would be consideredmaybe a little hidden place or
off the beaten path that maybenot a lot of people hear about?
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Well, I'll mention this one because you just kind
of alluded to it.
But San Marino, and it's notSan Marino, it's the.
What is it, julie?
It's the.
What is it, julia?
It's the Serene.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
The Serene Republic Of.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
San Marino, that's the official name of the country
.
Wow, and it is an enclavetotally enclosed inside of Italy
, kind of like the Vatican Cityis a country, a sovereign nation
, a sovereign state.
This is a country completelysurrounded by Italy, just south
of Venice and east of Florenceyou know two hours each and it
(36:30):
is so unique and so beautiful.
It is like a fairy tale whenyou drive up on it and you see
this mountain and you know, likewhen you're watching a cartoon
of this royal palace and it's upon a hill and you see the
towers, you see that, driving upto San Marino, and you go, oh
my gosh, we really are drivinginto a fairy tale, and you climb
(36:50):
up this mountain, which is thisold town from 1400s or before.
It's been a country since 1400,a republic since the 1400s or
1300s, no, 340 AD.
Yeah, okay, I'm really wrongthere.
Yeah, but it's really a longtime.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
It's the oldest republic in the world and wrong
there, but it's really a longtime.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
It's the oldest republic in the world and most
people have never heard of it.
Right, really cool place.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Yeah, so that's definitely off the beaten path.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
One question I do have as well,tony, and as you said before,
you were actually a geocacher.
You do find geocachers.
Is there a souvenir for thatcountry?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, I was going to ask the same question Because I
know they found an adventure lab, because I heard on the podcast
but you don't get souvenirs foradventure labs.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
So I don't know, because when we were trying to
connect on the souvenir, likegetting the souvenirs, sometimes
the geocaching abroad is, asyou know, some places it's
absolutely loaded.
It's like every 529 feet.
It is like right there.
Other places when we were inNaples we had to struggle to
(37:54):
find them, like you had to golike a mile and a half just to
find one.
There's like four in the entiretown.
It's really hard.
So when you're traveling andyou want to make sure you're
finding a geocache because, asany geocacher that travels knows
, you got to light it up.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
You know every state and every country you got to
light it up.
Oh yeah, if you don't find acache and you didn't go there,
let's just say that that's right.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
That's the definition , yeah, so you kind of focus on
hey, how much time do you devoteto geocaching and finding
caches in those areas, orstaying on your whatever you had
planned for your travels.
But we always try and find a,especially in a new, a new place
.
We always try and find a timeto get a geocache, and julie was
(38:37):
posting a lot about geocaching,like I don't know if a lot of
our followers are going to knowwhat that is as well, so we're
going to actually do a podcastcoming up on geocaching.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
But the pictures of you finding your caches were so
cute.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I always like those.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
You know he's like all sneaky and trying to pull
something out of a wall and Idon't know if there might be a
spot later in the podcast.
We're supposed to talk aboutthis, but I'm going to preempt
it and say it now.
But one of the coolest placesthat we found a podcast, a
geocache and you guys won't evenbelieve it, but in the middle
of Pompeii, like the ancientcity that is a national UNESCO
(39:16):
World Heritage Site.
You would not think that you'dbe allowed to have geocaches
there, but you are.
And in the middle of Pompeii.
In this, I don't know what, Idon't even know what that area
was called.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
It's right by one of the arenas.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
Right by one of the arenas there's a wall and it's
hidden in the crack of one ofthe walls, and so we were trying
to be all sneaky.
And you know we always have apen on us.
Every good geocacher knows youmust have a pen on you, Josh.
Did you hear that?
Josh, did you hear that youfind it in the crack of the wall
and he signs it, while peopleare like walking by and we're
trying to be sneaky?
But what a bizarre place andwhat an amazing place to say
(39:50):
that in the ancient city ofPompeii we found a geocache.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
Crazy and you literally wrote See, this is the
other thing as well.
You get people out there andI'll say they're worldwide sort
of people as well, not justAmericans, but they have been in
trouble for literallygraffitiing walls and stuff as
well, americans, but they havebeen in trouble for literally
graffitiing walls and stuff aswell.
This way, it allowed you towrite your name on a little
sheet of paper and then slide itback into the wall where it
belongs legally, and you'reallowed to do it, and you now
(40:16):
your name is forever, foreverembossed in pompeii nice, nice
true, yeah, like that, it wasvery cool yep, that is cool.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
So are there some other places?
So san San Marino, which wasawesome.
If you get the chance, listento that episode.
I didn't even know this placeexisted and you guys did such a
great job describing it.
Thank you, it made me reallywant to visit there.
Are there any other places thata lot of people haven't heard
about internationally that weshould know about that you
discovered?
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Before Julie tells you hers.
I got to tell you, josh, we didthat podcast and we also had
posted some of that on socials.
And I come back and we get backfrom Europe and a couple weeks
later I'm talking to a friendand she goes oh yeah, we're
going to Italy and San Marino.
And I'm like you're going toSan Marino.
And she goes yeah, I go, howdid you know to go there?
(41:05):
And she goes well, I listenedto the podcast and I saw it on
your site.
So they've already booked it.
They're going.
And I'm like, oh, that's kindof cool, that's a cool feeling
yes, your podcast is working.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
It's inspiring people , that's awesome, that was fun.
Speaker 4 (41:18):
I'm like see listen.
A couple of people arelistening.
You're the one.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
You're the one.
You're the one that's beenclose to it.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
Yeah, that's awesome, gosh, I know.
So for destinations off thebeaten path, I mean just because
it's so fresh in our mind,because we did spend a month in
Italy and we've been to Italybefore, and so this time around
we really did try to get off thebeaten path and go to places
that not everybody has heard of,or maybe they're a little bit
more difficult to get off thebeaten path and go to places
that not everybody has heard of,or maybe they're a little bit
more difficult to get to, andthat's why not as many people go
(41:52):
.
And everybody's heard of theAmalfi Coast.
You know, everybody knows aboutPositano and Amalfi, but not
everybody knows that just abovethose is Ravello, and Ravello
was absolutely astoundinglybreathtaking.
We arrived, and when we arrivedin the main town it was evening
(42:13):
, and so the evening lightfalling on the square mesmerized
us and we said I think this isthe most beautiful place we've
ever seen.
We've been to a lot of places,so that is something we'd highly
recommend.
Amalthi is beautiful, but it'sso busy and it's so crazy and
it's so touristy, and Ravello islike this little slice of
(42:34):
heaven just above the chaos.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Quite a bit above.
Speaker 4 (42:38):
Yeah, it's another 30 minutes up on a bus.
It's not the easiest place toget to, it's kind of a schlep.
It's worth it, but totallyworth it.
And so that is one thing Iwould recommend Skip Amalfi,
skip Positano and go straight toRavello, and you will not
regret it because it was pureheaven.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Well, see, julie, you're just saying that as well.
And look, I know you guys aregeocachers and a lot of people
who listen to this show itselfare geocachers and people use
they use their geocaching placesto find the best spots.
But you guys don't just findthe best spots through
geocaching, do you?
How do you actually find thebest places to be, like Ravello,
for instance?
Like, how did you actually getto that part?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
A lot of research.
So let's say we spent a monthin Italy, we also did a month's
worth of research.
That's one thing we love abouttravel is, you know, we get
excited about the research andfinding cool places.
And you know, you know spending, you know, two, three hours
trying to find one hotel in onetown, like, just make sure you
(43:38):
get the right room, the righthotel, the right place, the
right part of the town, whatactivities to go do.
And we do all that research inadvance.
We don't just wing it and thenwhen we know that when we show
up somewhere we're going to seesomething pretty special, One of
the resources.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
Well, there's multiple resources that we use,
but, honestly, you know, there'sso many people who say, oh, I
don't do Facebook, I don't likesocial media, I just don't like
Facebook.
Facebook is amazing.
If you don't want to use it tohear about what people are
making for dinner or what theirpolitical views are, that's fine
, but it is an incredibleresource for travel.
So when we know that we'regoing to a destination, the
(44:15):
first thing I do is join atravel group related to that
place I don't know Canada,whatever.
I would look up Canadian travelor travel to Victoria or
whatever it might be and you'regoing to get a Facebook group
that probably has 100,000 peoplethat participate.
And then it's a constantdialogue of, hey, what's the
(44:37):
weather like today?
What should I pack?
What do I do about my visa?
Does anybody have an advice ofa really great place to stay?
And then you can use the searchfeature for any question that
you might want, and probably theanswer is in there, in
multitudes.
You know a great restaurant, acool hotel, whatever.
So that is an amazing resource.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
So we use speakeasies .
Speaker 4 (44:57):
We like our speakeasies.
We like hidden bars because youknow what it's the element of
having to try to find it.
It's the geocaching kind of bar.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
It's rubbed off into my drinking.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Alcoholic drinking, geocaching.
I like it.
Speaker 4 (45:12):
You have to go searching for it.
Yep, absolutely so we do lovethose.
But so that is onerecommendation, and then I like
to use Pinterest.
Pinterest has amazing blogsthat can tell you spend three
days in this city, and so youcan read it and get some really
good ideas.
And then you can even searchquirky off the beaten path stuff
.
But Tony likes his TikTok.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
Oh my gosh, tiktok is the greatest for travel.
If you want to find a coolplace to go or see something.
Yeah, somebody has filmed itand somebody has put a really
cool video together about it andit takes you 30 seconds to look
at it and then you pin it andthen you just start saving them
and build your trips aroundstuff like that.
A lot of the things that we'vedone and seen have been thanks
(45:54):
to cool people on TikTok.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
And that's a good point too.
And, josh, you know this aswell.
A lot of people just use TikTok, and especially I mean, let's
be honest, josh, our age bracketof our listeners is up there.
You know what I mean.
Like it's not the young ones oftoday and there are kind of a
lot of them are afraid of TikTokbecause they think, oh, tiktok
is a young person's program andall you do is you scroll upon
(46:19):
scroll upon scroll.
No, it's not about that too.
You can actually search onTikTok, Tony, as well, and
that's what I'm thinking you didas well.
You put in some search words.
You know it could be likeNaples you know the best
locations to eat in Naples andput that as actually a search in
TikTok.
And all of a sudden you'll getall the same sort of social
media as you do TikTok, andFacebook and ChatGPT and all the
(46:40):
different avenues in which youcan do your research now as well
.
So it's a research tool program, more so than just literally an
entertainment program too orlearning how to dance yeah, or
learning how to dance.
You know right, I've tried.
Happily for me at the moment,tony, is that I'm an ex-boreum
dancer and there's a reallyboreum dancing at the moment is
(47:01):
heavy on tiktok too.
So it's like I mean I could,josh, you and I get together
next.
I could just do some sort oftiktok with a geocache in my
hands and we'll see how we go.
Speaker 3 (47:10):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
Put a routine together.
Well, you mentioned ChatGPT,and we recently started planning
a trip actually one that we'regoing on here very shortly and
we used ChatGPT and said we'regoing to be taking a four-day
trip in this part of the region.
Give us the main sites to seethe best hotels in from this day
(47:34):
to this day, and then it plopsup an itinerary for you and then
you use it as a jumping offspot.
So then you go okay, I've neverheard of these places, let's go
look at them.
And so then you go Google thosesites and see if that's
something you want to do, andthen maybe you tweak it.
No, I want less time here, moretime there, but it is a really
great tool to just kind of giveyou a start.
So, for people who areintimidated by travel planning
(47:56):
and maybe they want to kind ofstart doing this on their own,
yeah, those AI tools are amazingto kind of just get you started
.
Speaker 1 (48:04):
Absolutely.
And not only that as well, youcan even talk to ChatGPT.
People don't understand as well.
You need to actually talk tochat gbt like they're a human
being and in terms of anall-knowing human being, yeah,
like an all-knowing human beingexactly.
And you've got to say to them,like you know, um, I'm gonna go
to, you know, switzerland orwhatever.
What do I need to pack to go toswitzerland?
(48:24):
What do I need in traveldocuments to go to switzerland?
You know all of stuff.
Therefore, you get everythinggoing, and all that research,
let alone.
Actually, you know residingsomewhere in Switzerland or
where you're staying and whatyou're going to see, even just
the travel aspect alone.
Do you guys have any tips inregards to what you else do, in
regards to your traveling itself, in terms of visas and
(48:47):
passports, and that because youdo a lot of international stuff?
Speaker 4 (48:49):
Well, one of the things I don't know about visas
and passports and that cause youdo a lot of international stuff
.
Um well, one of the things Idon't know about visas and
passports per se, but one of thethings that we have started
doing even at our advanced ageis we are now backpackers, so
carry on only we are carry ononly, and this has served us so
well because it is enabled us towhen we maybe miss a connection
(49:10):
or have connection issues orshort amount of time, you're not
losing your luggage.
You are ending up in yourdestination with exactly what
you need and want, and that'ssuper important, particularly if
you're jumping off at thatdestination immediately to
somewhere else by train or ferry, so it's become important for
us to have it on hand.
In addition, there have beentimes where we were able to
(49:33):
apply for the first people onthe airplane to take a bump.
You know so, if they areoversold and they're like well,
we're looking for somepassengers to get up their seats
, which happens, by the way, allthe time now.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
I mean it's constantly happening, because
they're purposely overbookingplanes.
Speaker 4 (49:46):
Last year we made four grand in bumps.
So that's another little tip.
You know when you're traveling,so we're mobile.
So when we say, hey, we've got,you know, carry-on bags only,
they're much more likely tochoose us because we're a lot
less hassle than trying to havesomebody passengers with a lot
of luggage they have to try andtransfer, so it's appealing.
(50:07):
So there's a couple tips foryou.
And certainly, when you are on aflight, go up to the front desk
right away at the gate and say,hey, is this flight oversold?
And they'll tell you, oh no,there's tons of seats, or
actually, yeah, we might be.
Okay, well, here's my name.
We would like to be first inline and typically when we go to
(50:27):
a destination, we have a littlebit of flex time.
We build that in because we'reslow travelers right now.
We can do that.
If you were going for aspecific reason, that was
imperative and you hadappointments and meetings.
That's harder to do, but we'reflexible and yeah.
So we made a bunch of moneylast year and, honestly, the
flights that we took were better.
Speaker 3 (50:46):
They were better seats 15 minutes behind the
other plane better.
They were better seats 15minutes behind the other plane.
Speaker 1 (50:51):
Oh, wow, Wow.
So really the bump itself isn'treally that much of a bump, to
be honest.
Speaker 4 (50:56):
No not at all.
It was great.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
So being backpack travelers that is, you know,
that is very amazing race of youall.
They're big backpacks, they'rebig backpacks, so are they on
the Amazing Race?
They have to carry everything.
Speaker 1 (51:14):
Josh, are you referring to something that we
spoke about earlier?
Speaker 2 (51:18):
Oh, possibly.
But you know what I think, whatwe should do.
We have a lot more questions togive.
I think we should maybe savethat for the patrons.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Absolutely so.
If you're not a patron, thenyou've got to become one.
To find out how Josh and Tonybecame friends by the sounds of
it.
Is that right, josh?
Speaker 2 (51:32):
Kind of Well, we became friends before that.
But yeah, there's somethingvery special that we did
together.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
Very, very special.
So patrons only.
But in the meantime that's good.
Speaker 2 (51:41):
We've got to keep going.
We've got to keep going.
We've got to keep going for therest of the listeners and not
the paper.
So you all mentioned yourbackpackers.
I know you're hikers, so, uh,what is your approach when you
go into a city?
I'm a big.
When I travel, I want to dothings.
I'm not a person that typicallylikes to sit by the pool
(52:01):
there's a space for that,there's a time for relaxing but
I'm a doer, tony, I know I'vetraveled with you, I know you're
kind of a doer too, but what isyour approach?
What are you looking for?
You is your approach.
What are you looking for?
Are you looking for hikes?
Are you looking for museums?
What are you focusing on inthat city?
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Well, when we go into a new city, obviously the first
thing we do is put our bagsdown and get out and see the
city Like we're going to be outthere right away.
So our approach is immediatelyget on foot and take it all in,
because and something that we'vedone recently is we've been
starting to do a tour, like wedid a food tour on the first
(52:37):
night.
When you get somewhere, andwhen you do that, they walk you
around the town anyways and youget to see cool place like oh
wow, we've got to come back heretomorrow and look at that a
little closer.
Or let's go back to thatrestaurant.
We had a sample of food at thatplace and it was really good.
Let's come back here for dinner.
So doing something like thatimmediately when you get to some
place, if you're going to bethere for three or four days,
(52:58):
gives you a lot of insight as towhat you want to see that you
didn't even know about when youwere already going there, yeah,
and the history that they giveyou and just explanation of the
neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (53:09):
It just makes you feel more educated about where
you're staying and what you'relooking at.
And then in the next couple ofdays beyond that, you might
realize, oh, that's what theywere talking about.
Cool, that's so neat.
We just saw that.
And then talking to locals youknow, maybe talking to the
person at the hotel or somebodythat you chat that is at a
restaurant Maybe they can giveyou some really good local
insight of if you ask, hey,what's a really cool thing to go
(53:33):
see or do here that noteverybody knows about?
You know, that would besomething.
But then we always also like todo our research about what
events are going on before weget there.
Is there a geocaching event?
Is there a get together?
Is there a really cool concertor show or something that we can
see that is going to make ourtime here even more special?
(53:53):
So we're absolutely looking atall of the international events
and you know things like that.
We've actually customized ourtrips because we found out there
was a really cool concert inone city and we switched
everything to go to that andthen we had to kind of figure
out the rest of it.
So we have done like our tripto France last year, we saw an
(54:13):
amazing concert in in aColosseum.
That was one of our mostspectacular things we've ever
done.
That was James Blunt.
In the town of Nîmes, france itwas great.
Speaker 3 (54:24):
But you know, like you know the question how often
do you think of the Roman Empire?
We think about it all the timebecause we're going to concerts
in Roman arenas.
Like we've seen three differentconcerts in or of some sort in
ancient Roman theaters.
Speaker 4 (54:42):
Yeah, I'm super addicted to it.
It's so, so, so cool.
It's a weird addiction.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Well, let's be honest , tony as well.
You're Roman around the worldjust saying Badum po.
Speaker 4 (54:50):
No Well let's be honest, tony as well.
You're roaming around the worldjust saying Ba-dum-bum.
No, we're meandering You'remeandering.
Speaker 3 (54:55):
There you go, you're meandering.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
See, they are podcasts, Josh, they've got a
good callback I like it, I likeit, I like it.
But, julie, you were sayingbefore in regards to how to see
the local sites and stuff too.
I've only just recently do alot of domestic travel here, and
not just in my van itself, butwhen I go to big cities like New
York City, la, even DC recentlyfor me, and I find the hop-on
(55:18):
hop-off bus Is there hop-onhop-off buses around the world,
in the big cities as well, likeFrance and Paris, and all that
sort of thing?
Are they all similar and isthat the best way to see it?
Do you think beforehand?
Speaker 4 (55:31):
Yeah, there are, and actually there's one in London
and actually I don't think it'sa hop on, hop off.
It's one of their local busroutes, but one of their local
bus routes and I don't know offthe top of my head what that is,
but if you ride that one, itactually takes you by all the
most famous sites.
So it actually is something youcan just get on real cheap and
if your feet are tired and orit's a rainy day, it'll take you
(55:56):
throughout the main parts ofLondon.
So I was like, oh, we should dothat.
That'd be kind of cool.
But they do have the hop on andhop off on.
Many, many big cities havethose as well.
Yeah, and in London.
Speaker 3 (56:03):
another cool thing that we did while we were there
last trip is they have Uberboats which, like what we saw it
on the, on the on the river,and we're like, so we decided to
go take it from one end to themiddle, and that's how we,
instead of getting on a train orthe Metro, we took a boat down
and it's.
Speaker 4 (56:23):
they bought some boats and they're Ubering people
around from port to port, soyou just use your Uber app like
you would normally.
But then we got to see theThames at night and pass by Big
Ben and the big Ferris wheelthing, the Eye of London.
Yeah, thank you, and it was sobeautiful and it was the cost of
just a quick little Uber ride.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
I like it and that's the other thing as well is that
when I was over there, they hadthe hop on, hop off bus, but
they had the extra hop on, hopoff bus, which included the um,
uh, what do you call it?
Um, uh, up and down the thamesas well, as many times as you
want, up and down the ferry.
They have the actual individualferries as well, but then
that's not uber, because you itdoes have a time limit.
(57:04):
You know time schedule.
Uber, uber boat sounds likeit's.
It's much better because it'sliterally whenever you want.
It's the difference.
So I like it.
But yeah, going up and down theThames underneath the, it's not
the London Bridge, because theLondon Bridge Josh, did you know
this?
The London Bridge.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
It falls down.
I know that.
Speaker 1 (57:23):
But the London Bridge is boring and no one sees
London.
Everyone thinks the LondonBridge isn't the London Bridge
on the photographs.
Did you know that?
Speaker 3 (57:32):
Do you know where the original London Bridge is right
now?
Speaker 4 (57:35):
Yes, in America yes that's correct Middle of the
desert.
Speaker 1 (57:40):
How funny is this, josh?
Someone bought the LondonBridge thinking that it was the
actual Tower Bridge right, theone you always see.
They thought American Americanbought it because they thought
it was the actual tower bridge.
And when they got it they spentlots and lots of millions of
dollars to get over here.
They went hang on, that's justa concrete bridge.
Yeah, that's the London bridge,not the tower bridge, not the
(58:05):
tower.
But anyway, we're rabbit holing, josh.
Speaker 2 (58:10):
Yeah, americans, uh, tech.
Talk to us a little bit aboutyour relationship that you've
been spending probably a lotmore time together.
How has the travel strengthenedyour relationship, and I'm
assuming it's strengthened itthanks for that.
Speaker 4 (58:26):
um, actually, you know what my wait minute?
Speaker 3 (58:28):
We did just go to Coldplay concert in Nashville.
Speaker 1 (58:32):
So, we are still married.
Just want to point that out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, that'sgood.
That's for the currentreference.
You got caught hugging eachother did you?
Speaker 4 (58:38):
You got caught hugging each other On the kiss
cam.
Everybody was doing that.
Speaker 3 (58:41):
Everybody was trying to mimic.
That's funny.
Speaker 4 (58:50):
Yeah, that is because he's he's gotten some of his
lighthearted spirit back, youknow.
So he's, he's not so stressed,he's let go of that.
Those everyday worries that hehad at his job, those are are
gone now.
And so he's just much morelighthearted and, frankly, more
pleasant to be around.
Um, so I don't mind him beinghome all the time and we
(59:12):
actually get along great and wehave a ton of fun together.
And he did set up his littlehome office studio kind of in
our upstairs and stayed out ofthe one that was downstairs
which was mine.
So we do have separate spacesthat we can kind of you know,
our own corners, so to speak,that we can work out of during
the day.
But yeah, surprisingly, Ithought maybe it would really
(59:34):
start to get to me, but ithasn't bothered me.
Speaker 1 (59:38):
Shocker.
That's interesting, though,what you say, Julie, and you
know a lot of people do that aswell, and that is they sort of
you know, once they, you knowthe kids, leave the area, et
cetera, you want to travel andyou become closer in terms of a
timeframe, but in actual fact,you realize hang on a second we
weren't as close as what we usedto be.
But the idea, the fact that,Tony, you've gone back to the OG
(01:00:00):
Tony, the one that Julie fellin love with to begin with,
because now there's no stress,there's no relaxation, I bet,
Julie, you're feeling really,really, you know, like a breath
of fresh air, Like, oh my,goodness he's back again.
Speaker 4 (01:00:13):
This is good he's ready to climb more trees.
Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Josh, I'm starting to feel like people were referring
to me as a Shrek or something.
I mean I was oh, no, no, no, Ido feel a lot better, I do feel
great and like a weight has beenlifted.
And you know, julie has alwaysbeen my best friend and we have
always been great communicators.
You know, married 31 years,you're not staying together
(01:00:38):
unless you're communicating.
Um, and we, it's only gottenstronger, I think.
Um, we love spending that muchtime together.
We travel a lot and we arealways just the two of us, so I
don't even think twice about it.
I mean, I know that people havehad problems when they retire
and they also know they're athome with their spouse and like
you're driving me nuts.
Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
But you don't have that.
Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
I think we only had one day on our trip to Italy
where we were a little bitsnarky with each other, and I
think that's because we werehungry and maybe, honestly, you
know what we don't do good if wedon't have a plan.
That's one thing we've learned.
We're not the kind of travelerthat just likes to wing it and
let's just see where it takes us.
Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
That's not us.
And we end up at a random bar,you know, drunken under a table.
No, that's not you.
That doesn't usually happen, butJosh, I know right, currently,
at the moment, josh, we've gotto hit on the show notes as well
about these rapid-firequestions.
Julie, tony, we're going totest, we're going to do the test
now.
We're going to do the couplestest with you.
You both have to answer thesequestions and the rapid-fire
(01:01:41):
questions are Tony, you're firstwith this one here.
Oh boy, the geocache type youlove more, either traditional or
gadget cash.
Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Oh, for sure, traditional.
Do you want explanations?
Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
No, these are quick fire.
Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Me too, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
They're equal on that one.
Josh, you're next.
Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
Best travel snack trail mix or beef jerky.
Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Trail mix.
Oh, julie has it with hereverywhere we go, so I have to
say that.
But I would prefer beef jerky.
But since we share, I'm eatingout of her bag.
Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
There we go.
That's the one All right,favorite mode of transport on
your travels plane, trains orautomobiles.
Julie.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I say automobile as a pilot, I'm going to say planes.
Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
There's another difference, Josh.
Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
And can I answer that too?
Yeah, that's one of my favoritemovies, but you know why?
Because that one part where hesays he's proud of his town it's
a damn rare thing these days.
Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
You're not going to put that in there.
You're not going to put itabout Julie and Tony and their
travels and how proud they areof their travels.
Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
They're not probably.
I mean, they're probably proudof their town, but they're
leaving their town, so thatdoesn't really connect.
Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
I thought you were going to say those aren't
pillows.
Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Yeah, you guys know that I have to get that phrase
into every episode.
Speaker 3 (01:03:00):
Do you?
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
Yeah, so it's an Easter egg Check, check, check.
Okay, most scenic countryyou've been to.
Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Oh, check, check, okay.
Um most scenic country you'vebeen to, oh, uh, scenic country
coastline, uh, skyline, jungles,mountains.
What are you looking for?
Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
just the overall overall, well, you'll fight.
Yeah, however you interpret,however you interpret, I'm gonna
say turkey on the forthcomingthat.
Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
I want to see more, but from what I've seen, you're
in a spot where you're I knowthis is rapid fire, but when
you're in Istanbul and you getto see the Bosphorus and you get
to see the Strait and you getto see Asia on the other side
and you're in Europe and you getthese mosques and just the
music and the bells and thecalling to prayer, it's amazing.
So the scenery is it never ends.
Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
So, julie, in other words short answer.
Tony said Turkey.
Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
Montenegro.
I'm going to say Montenegrothere we go All right.
Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
One item that you never leave home without Julie.
One item you never leave homewithout so easy.
Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
Sorry, I'm a woman of a certain age.
My portable fan.
Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Oh fan, and you Tony Baby drone.
Oh fan, and you Tony Baby drone.
Oh, the little drones, I likeit, I like it.
Speaker 3 (01:04:14):
We call it a baby drone.
We have a lot of drones, sothat one's baby drone.
Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
We've talked a lot about the international travel,
but most underrated US city ortown.
Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
Surprising, I'm going to say Des Moines, wow.
Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Julie.
Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Branson, branson Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:04:40):
Wow, all right, I'm going to be quick as well.
Coffee or tea to start theadventure day.
Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Silly question.
Very, very silly question.
Coffee, Because part of ourrequirements for you to be
friends with us, you have toanswer five different questions,
but one of them is do you likecoffee?
And if it's a no, you havelimited amount of questions you
can get right to stay friendswith us.
So coffee, always coffee.
There is no other answer.
Speaker 1 (01:05:05):
This is true.
And coming from the BritishConnolly, again, I said the same
word, wrong again.
But I'm a coffee drinker aswell.
But I will say I've never had acoffee equal to an Australian
coffee just yet in the US.
Just saying Well that's easy.
Speaker 3 (01:05:21):
We don't have good coffee.
You have to go out of ourcountry to get good coffee.
Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Correct, 100% Correct , correct, josh the next one,
One town you'd return totomorrow.
No questions asked.
Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
Sydney, australia, oh , mobile, alabama, oh
interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
I've got to, but if you're not asking, questions,
then you don't have any context.
Speaker 3 (01:05:45):
No, no questions.
Oh, there you go.
Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
After we finish recording, Tony, we've got to
talk.
Next one is best travel hack,Tony.
Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Okay, if you're going to fly to Europe from the
United States and you are goingto do an overnight more than
likely you do an overnightbecause you get to sleep or you
try to I would make sure I getmy seat on a window on the
left-hand side of the plane.
And the reason being and get itclose to the wing because if
you like photography and if youwant to see the Aurora Borealis
(01:06:20):
when you go over the polar capsand you're, you know, I just saw
the polar caps and you're inthe Arctic and you're flying,
you know the best Northernlights are going to be on that
left side of that plane and theycan be at times breathtaking
and the photography, if you canpull it off, is pretty
incredible and you have the wingas a context.
So travel hack if you likephotography and northern lights
(01:06:41):
sit on the left side of theplane.
Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
Oh, I like that too, Julie.
What about yourself?
Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
My travel hack is not quite as fancy.
Mine would be chip clips.
I always bring chip clipsbecause you will go to a gas
station, open a big bag of chipsand then you're like what do I
do with the rest of this?
Now?
Chip clip, you're in a hotelroom and the stupid window
drapes won't shut and you can'tsleep.
Chip clip you want to hang upyour wet swimsuit somewhere and
(01:07:08):
there's nowhere to put it.
Chip clip A million uses forchip clips, especially if they
have a little magnet on them.
Some of them have magnets too.
Even better.
Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Yeah, that's a good.
Or paper clippers Well, notpaper clip, but you know the
bigger paper clips that you cando the same thing with too.
I like it, julie.
I like it.
Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Josh, I like it.
Julie, I like it, josh.
One more mate, one more.
No, you skipped one.
There's two more Favoritetravel companion besides each
other.
Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
We were hoping you were going to skip that one.
Speaker 2 (01:07:36):
Go ahead.
Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Julie.
Speaker 4 (01:07:37):
Because we would just alienate so many people Travel
with one another, maybe besidesyour children.
Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
Mine's easy, because you can't say one kid over the
other.
We traveled with bothindividually.
I'm going to say say one kidover the other, and we traveled
with both individually.
I'm gonna say myself, because Idon't think enough credit gets
to having a solo travel.
I love solo travel that was.
Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
We have a whole episode on that, by the way.
Speaker 4 (01:07:59):
Yeah, that's good yep , okay, that was what about you,
julie, alienate?
So many people yep, I'm gonnasay a girlfriend.
Oh, that's cheating Well yousaid you, tony, you just said
yourself, so I mean everyone.
Sometimes I just want to go sitat a champagne bar or go to a
(01:08:21):
tea shop or something, because Ido like tea, you know.
Sometimes Generic girlfriend.
Generic girlfriend yeah, random, girlfriend.
Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
Can I say girlfriend too?
Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
No.
Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Oh, that's a different podcast, Tony but
anyway.
All right, well, last one, thenI'll do the last one, that is
this is mostly towards you, tony, and that is the biggest joy of
leaving the 9 to 5 in one word.
One word Healthy, oh, I like it, oh, I like it, yes, I like it.
Very good, julie.
Biggest joy of Tony leaving thenine to five in one word.
Speaker 4 (01:08:58):
Flexibility.
Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Nice, and not just physically, I take it.
But anyway, that's anotherpodcast.
Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
I have never lost a limbo contest.
Small fact.
Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
Oh, there we go.
Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
There we go.
I've beaten a lot ofcheerleaders.
Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
Stand by.
Julie.
Tony, stay on board becausewe're going to talk to you guys
in regards to the teaser thatyou did before Josh, about you
and Tony teaser.
Speaker 2 (01:09:22):
And I got a trivia for you guys too One of the
coolest adventures that didn'tquite happen, wow, thank you
guys for having a son, by theway no, you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Um, actually, before we actually go exactly right,
tony, uh, julie, how can peoplefollow you first and foremost,
beforehand, before we go to thepatron, only stuff, how can
people follow you?
Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
well, it's everywhere we are on the socials and on
our podcast is me and her.
A one word.
Me and her.
All one word travel.
So me and her travel, and youcan find us on Instagram,
youtube, tiktok, facebook and onpodcast on Apple, spotify and
(01:10:04):
YouTube there.
And meandertravelcom, yeah,which we find we don't do as
much with because you know whatthe socials are, so perfectly
aligned with trying to getinformation to people.
Speaker 4 (01:10:15):
But there's history about us there, that's where we
do show notes.
Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Yep, perfect.
And speaking of show notes aswell, everything, all the links
for Tony and Julie, and then meand her, are all going to be in
our show notes, in the actuallinks, in the description
themselves.
But, josh, we're going to talkto patrons only very soon, if
you don't want to miss out, josh, how can people become a patron
of the Treasures of Our Townpodcast.
Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Yes, if you've been enjoying our podcast, we'd love
to have you support us.
By supporting us, you'rehelping us create even better
content.
Keep it free for everyone noannoying commercials.
Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
So you can join us over at patreoncom backslash
treasures of our town and that'swhere we even had the joshua
the jay cushing vloggers beardreview came about, which is now
gone which I didn't listen to.
You didn't listen to and I'm sadto say it's now gone.
I'm with the the majority ofour patrons out there who say
that it should have stayed, butanyway, that's just me.
I did enjoy the way it felt onmy chin.
(01:11:13):
I mean, like you know what Imean.
Meanwhile, josh, how can peopletalk to us or contact us if
they want to?
Speaker 2 (01:11:19):
Yes, you can reach out to us at Treasures of Our
Town Podcast at gmailcom, whereyou can follow us on Facebook,
instagram, youtube or ourBuzzsprout site.
Just simply search Treasures ofOur Town podcast in Google.
You'll find us right away.
Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Exactly so.
That's it for our show today.
Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite
podcast app and, as always,Josh, may your travels always
lead you to the most unexpectedand amazing hidden gems.
With me and her around theworld, meander, meander, meander
.
Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Tony.
Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Julie, thanks so much .
We'll see you next time, allright, thank?
Speaker 1 (01:11:52):
you.
Thanks guys, Bye.
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