Traveling Alone Together / Solo Travel Tips

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Have you ever wondered how stepping out of your comfort zone on a solo journey could reshape your life? Join us on "Treasures of Our Town" as we uncover the empowering transformation that comes with solo travel. By sharing our personal stories and adventures, we reveal how embracing solitude can lead to unexpected human connections and enrich personal growth. You'll hear insights into the delicate dance of communicating with partners about solo adventures and how these journeys can infuse relationships with newfound energy and perspective.

Prepare to be enchanted by Thomas Dambo's giant trolls, crafted from recycled materials and scattered throughout scenic locations like Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. These whimsical installations are not just art—they're part of a thrilling geocaching adventure, thanks to an exciting collaboration with Geocaching HQ. We share the magic of these trolls, the joy of exploring geocaching hotspots in Seattle and Detroit Lakes, and the vibrant experience of solo exploration in places like Rome, Georgia. Our anecdotes highlight the significance of local tips and the charm of discovering hidden gems.

From the court to the road, we celebrate the Minnesota Lynx's journey in the WNBA and savor the simple pleasures of life. Whether it's logging new beers on Untappd or indulging in caramel apples, our passion for sports and travel shines through. We reflect on the joys of self-care, the liberation of solo travel, and the unexpected adventures that arise when spontaneity meets exploration. Join us for an episode brimming with inspiration, where the beauty of human connection meets the thrill of the open road.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you know where that's from, Josh?
Do you know where that's fromyou?
Always say that to our guests.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey, can I just say something about?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
that.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Always.
I have a question.
Yes, I have a question for ourlisteners.
Oh, okay, I'll be quiet.
Do you love to travel?
Do you love road trips?
Do you love road trips?
Do you love finding hiddentreasures in towns all over the
USA?
Hi, I'm Joshua.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's the podcast that explores unique and charming
towns scattered throughout theUnited States, guided by our
love for location-based gameslike geocaching, join us as we
venture into some of thecountry's most intriguing
destinations, uncovering hiddengems and local secrets along the
way.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
So on today's episode .
Josh, you went one direction, Iwent the other direction.
We kind of traveled togetherbut apart.
That's the feeling that I got.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, we were all by ourselves.
Don't want to be all by myself,or do we want to be all by
ourselves?

Speaker 1 (01:07):
That's the question, and that's what we're going to
talk about in today's episode.
We're going to talk aboutdifferent subjects that come up
when you're on the road.
I'll be honest, josh, I get alot of these questions a lot of
the time because of my recenttravels by myself, oh yeah, and
so I want your opinion on thetopic as well, because you've
done some solo travel and I wantI'm gonna ask you the questions

(01:29):
that I get asked all the timeas well.
So the great and spoiler alertI enjoy some solo travel.
Not all the time, no, no, no,but maybe half the time yeah,
yeah, exactly exactly before weget started, as always, yes,
delays, yes, upgrades.
What do you want to start with?
And, uh, how do you think Iwill start?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
yes, I will start with my upgrade okay, okay and
totally not traveling related,unless you travel to minneapolis
, minnesota but I'm just reallyexcited for our wnba basketball
team, the minnesota links.
Yeah, and let me just tell youmy journey of women's basketball
.
I am an iowa hawkeye fan and,as you know, I love caitlin

(02:14):
clark.
If you're listening to this andyou don't know who caitlin
clark is, I'm like what the heck?
Even craig remember when wewere traveling together I think
it was the Gulf Shores and I waslike we have to watch this game
.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yes, we we missed out on almost missed out on an
event because we had to watchthe game, and at a local bar.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
It was nice it was worth it.
So Caitlin Clark she's in theWNBA now and she plays for the
Indiana Fever, and so I've beenwatching almost every Indiana
Fever game.
But as I've been watching theIndiana F, you get to know these
other teams right and, uh, Ireally have a new appreciation
for the WNBA women's basketball.

(02:52):
It's very entertaining, and sothe Minnesota links tonight, as
we're recording this, are in theWNBA finals, which they haven't
done since 2016.
So, and I went to the game Iwent to the game that sent them
to the final the playoffs or tothe finals, not playoffs.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Now, that was a lot of fun and I got to go with
reester bunny not many peopleknow this about you, josh, and
I'm going to spill some of yourlittle uh habits right now for
everyone listening to.
There's only a select few of usthat are close to you, like tim
minnesota boy, myself, etc.
And a few others as well thatknow that know your passion for
sports, whether it be uh yeah,for you in football you do with

(03:32):
basketball.
People don't understand this.
They think josh he's such anice, calm, relaxed sort of guy.
He's a, he's a professionalspeaker in front of you, know
kids, so he's got a lot ofpatience, but not when it comes
to the sporting things you watchyou've got it.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
It's intense.
You've got a den downstairsyou've got a den downstairs oh
you're gonna.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
I know where you're going with this yeah, exactly
right, you know exactly whereI'm going.
So people are listening.
You close your eyes and picturethis josh himself is down in
his den as soon as he gets inhis den, little goliath, yes,
cute, sweet, innocent goliathtake off the dog.
Yeah, he takes off upstairs, hegoes up the high room, he hides

(04:13):
in the sheets under the sheetsin josh's bed waiting for this
game whatever he's watching tobe finished, because he knows
that dad is going to get loud.
Dad jumps, dad claps, dadpoints.
Dad does all this with no oneelse in the room.
You do it by yourself.
So if you people people watchjoshua, your videos and you
think they think you've got highenergy in your videos, they

(04:35):
haven't seen you watch a game.
That's all I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
So you're next level my next level and it's so funny
because goliath is now tuned in.
As soon as he hears like theroar of the crowd, he knows this
is a game, I'm out I'm out, I'mdone like like I don't even
need to, I don't even need tostart, I'm not even starting
like yelling or screaming orclapping.
He just hears the crowd and he'slike I'm not.

(04:58):
And here's the thing goliath islike an attachment dog.
You've seen craig?
Yeah, he is by my side at alltimes.
He's literally, he's literallyat my feet right now.
Yeah, he's like dad, when arewe gonna do something?
Yep, this is the only time.
If I want to, if I want to havesome me time away from goliath,
I just put on a game jeez.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
So so I'm really, I'm really.
I'm feeling a bit upset nowbecause here he is right now
laying at your feet, thinking tohimself you know, okay, dad's
doing the podcast, so I sit nowand relax and wait until he
finishes the podcast and we'regoing to do something fun, when
in actual fact, he doesn'trealize that there's a game on
straight after this podcast andthen he's going to run upstairs
by himself I know poor littleguy, poor little guy it's so

(05:40):
funny.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
I don't know if we've talked about this podcast.
He like memorizes, I think, theoutro.
Oh yeah to this podcast.
So when I start singing theoutro to the podcast, he comes
over from the couch and he goes,comes back by me because he's
like it's almost over.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, he's a smart dude, he really is he really is,
and that's the time I get toactually wave at goliath and see
him on camera too is when he,when we finish the podcast, yeah
, we say the the outro itselfitself, and here he comes
running up and that's it.
So he's a very good dog too,josh.
He doesn't really bark too muchas soon as you're on a podcast.
He's pretty good like that.
He's pretty clever like that,unless someone comes in and

(06:13):
torments him, of course.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
So there you go, there you go.
All right, let's turn into dogtalk.
What's your upgrade?

Speaker 1 (06:20):
My upgrade is that I just got back to New Jersey from
going caching.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Now, if you don't know what, this is so.
Let me just say this Are wetalking about this now or are we
going to talk about it later?

Speaker 1 (06:33):
A bit of both.
Okay, a bit of both.
I'd never been before, and soall I say for the time being is
that I really enjoyed myself,and I'll explain the reasons why
throughout today's episode.
How does that sound?
Did you like that?
It's a great teaser.
It's a great teaser.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
It is a great geocaching event and you know
what, if you're not a geocacherand you're listening to this
which I'm not sure how manythere are out there just know
that you'll probably talk a lotabout rome, georgia in itself
itself as a city, and why peopleshould visit Rome, georgia,
exactly.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
All right, we have to go to our delays, okay, do you
want me to go first, or you gofirst this time for the delays.
Mine is a genuine delay again.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Mine is sort of connected to one of my, like a
good thing.
So I was planning a trip withour friend minnesota boy,
minnesota boy, minnesota boy,tim larson, and we were heading
up to.
We were going to go back togilby, oh, we're going to go to.
Going to go to detroit lakes,which I'll talk about later.
Yeah, that's my that's yourtrip and it was fine he had to.

(07:40):
He had to cancel on me, oh so Iwas kind of looking forward to
hanging out with him for aweekend last weekend but it
didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
But, I wasn't afraid to go by yourself Exactly, and
then this episode was born.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
You see, yes, this episode was perfect, it was all
planned.
Thanks, minnesota boy.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Thanks Tim.
Thanks, tim for not going withJosh.
That's so bad.
Well, my delay, um, as it'sbeen a delay of mine for several
episodes, and that is I'mhaving car issues once again, so
get rid of it am I?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
I think you have so much in it, though it's so hard.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
That's the thing I get rid of it yeah, I do have a
lot of cash in it as such.
So, including the purchaseprice, the new engine, all the
new bits and pieces, the bellsand whistles and the build out
as well, I'm about 28k into thiscar, yikes.
So I think it's time, though,to to bite the bullet.
Uh, cut the cord really yeah,yeah, I think I'm.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
What issues are you having now?

Speaker 1 (08:43):
same same issues as before.
Oh, we just we gave him, wegave him, we gave him Josh,
we're leaving that in.
We're leaving that in for thelisteners because we gave him
credit.
But, oh, he's such a good boy,he's such a good boy.
Then, bam, there he comes in,because, just let everyone know
who's listening, someone walkedin the door.

(09:12):
No, it's the same issues asit's as it's been for the whole
time before um, it's a high revengine noise issue.
Um, you know, it's, it's, it's.
It's starting to stall now aswell at lights.
Oh no, yeah, yeah.
On the way home, like my lastday here, I was around the
corner of my house and it's justgone and just stalled, totally
stalled.
So I've got a new battery in ittoo, from the other week, you
know.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
So anyway, I'm sorry, that's okay.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Things happen for a reason, Josh.
That's all I'll say.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
You've put a lot of miles on it.
I mean you've put a lot ofmiles on it but not as many
miles as you hoped.
Exactly, exactly right, youreally hoped this would have
lasted a lot longer, butunfortunately that's life and
that is a delay.
Yeah, that is that's what youknow highs and lows.
That's what it's about Exactlyright Solo travel, Josh.

(09:55):
That's what this episode isabout Sounds like fun.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yes and no, because some people are scared of solo
travel, and if you're one ofthose people, then we're here to
help you and guide you through.
Yeah, to take that journey,take that step, take that leap
of faith in yourself becausethat's what we're talking about
is you have to rely upon one andonly person, which is yourself?

Speaker 2 (10:18):
yeah, it's a really interesting topic and I think
there's like you're right,there's a lot of like psychology
behind it.
There's a lot of like happeninginternally with people that
maybe have a fear of travelingalone or they just never even
considered it.
I was having a conversationwith somebody, um, at work, and
this kind of falls into the samesort of bucket, and I was

(10:40):
talking about, like I said, I'mnot afraid to go to movies by
myself.
Yep, I'm not afraid to go toconcerts by myself.
It's something I really want todo.
And this particular coworkerwas like I don't know if I could
ever do that and I just said,hey, just go for it.
Like, this is your life, don'tlet anybody else stop you from
living the life that you want tolive.

(11:00):
And I was so proud of her andshe came up to my, into my
office one day and she's likejosh, I did it.
I went to a concert that I Inobody really could go with me.
Nothing, it didn't really workout and it's like you know what,
I'm not gonna let that stop me.
And she did it and when she gotover, it's just like getting
over that hump.
I think, yep, to realize like,hey, I can, I can really enjoy

(11:21):
the attention or the um, thecompany of myself.
Yes, and they don't need otherpeople, and we'll talk about it
more.
I think it opens upopportunities, that of of human
connection, that you might nothave otherwise, because when
you're traveling with acompanion, you're you're very
like reliant on each other thisis the people I'm hanging out

(11:42):
with.
It kind of opens you up withyour with solo travel and that,
like oh gosh, I I might have aconversation with somebody at a
bar that I would never havebecause I would so be so reliant
on the people that I'mtraveling with that's exactly
exactly what I've experienced inthe last few years itself.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
I was very much, very similar, um, when I was married
in australia, young family, etc.
There was, no, was no way Iwould ever even go to the movies
by myself.
You know what I mean.
Whereas things happen, we getolder, we get wiser, and now the
amount of times I've been tothe movies alone I've lost count
.
You know what I mean.
Because I wanted to see thatmovie, or I had time and no one

(12:21):
else had time to go with me, Iwent.
You know what?
I'm just going to go and do itby myself as well.
Think about this, people If youwant to go and watch that movie
because you want to enjoy themovie, that's good.
But if you want to go and watchthat movie so you're allowed to
get a big popcorn and yourpartner doesn't know that,
you're going to get a huge,humongous bucket of popcorn and
devour it with all that butteron it as well.

(12:41):
See, they're the joys, josh,that's exactly the highs and you
just don't.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
You don't have to talk about how much butter and
popcorn you ate, yeah you canhave as much butter as you want
exactly and much salt as youwant there you go.
So there's one, and you know,some people might be listening
to this too and thinking I have,I have a partner and you know,
I would maybe consider, you know, doing something on my own, but

(13:10):
I don't know how that would flywith my yes, with my partner.
And I think it's reallyimportant, like, if that's
something that's important toyou, have the conversation and
if there's this element ofthere's this give and take is
like, hey, this is something Iwant to do.
Um, I know you don't want to dothat or I don't.
I know you don't necessarilywant to go to this place, but,
um, but I want you to know, like, you have the freedom.

(13:32):
If there's something that youwant to do that I don't want to
do, like that's totally cool andwe can.
So I just think, I think a lotof people kind of get stuck in
this like, well, the only peoplethat can travel alone would be
somebody that either doesn'thave a partner, exactly, exactly
single people, and that's justdefinitely not the case.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Think about it as a positive, and that is like if
you go to the movies, forinstance, and you're by yourself
and your partner's, that goesto work, for instance, and then
you come home over dinner thatnight, you're sitting down for
dinner that night, they'retalking about their work day and
you can actually talk about themovie that you watched, you
know, and your day, you know.
I mean.
So it's two different things.
So it's a talking point,because you're not doing
everything together either, yousee.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
So you know it gives you something to talk about,
exactly, exactly.
It strengthens yourrelationship and you know what
distance makes the heart growfonder.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
You know they always say that exactly, exactly, very,
very true, very true, mate.
Uh, so do you want to dive inthen and tell us, uh, your
location, where you went, andwe'll go from there so I was
planning on going.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
I was planning a trip to again to gilby, the
disneyland of geocaching.
Yeah, yeah, if you don't knowgilby, we've talked, we've had
an episode on.
Go to that episode.
But there's just so manyamazing geocaches there and they
just recently launched ageotour, so I have found most of
the caches in Gilby, but as apart of this geotour, the man

(14:56):
that hid it, tricascius Chad.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
He hides all these amazing, amazing geocaches, and
I'm talking about some of thebest geocaches in the world.
And as a part of this GeoTour,which is again a series of
geocaches, if you find them all,you sometimes get a coin and
you sometimes get a digital.
You do get a digital souveniron your geocaching profile.
Well, many of the caches inthis GeoTour I have found
already Great, except for thefive new ones.

(15:24):
A tour I found already great,except for the five new ones, oh
five.
So I was like I gotta make it.
I gotta make a trip up to gilbyto get these five brand new
geocaches, because and check theboxes, yep, get my coin.
And, as you, as we all know.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Let's say our geocachings.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yes, souvenirs are important to me.
I I think I'm number four, I'mthe fourth, I have the fourth
most souvenirs in our state ofminnesota.
That's like the only stat Ieven care about and keep track
of.
So any chance I get to getthese digital pieces and it's
basically these souvenirs arelike a digital piece of artwork,
basically, and it and it's,it's, it's something that you

(16:02):
don't have to dust, it's asouvenir you don't have to dust.
It's a souvenir you don't haveto dust.
Yes, exactly right.
So I wanted to get up there,but all all summer I have been
wanting to go to detroit lakes,minnesota, which is on the way
to gilby.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
It's kind of three hours from here and at this
location, greg you and I haveexperienced this before were the
thomas dambo trolls.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh, do you remember the thomas dambo trolls we saw
within kentucky?
Yes, yes so this summer thomasdambo came to minnesota and he
he created five brand new trollsin this detroit lakes and and
this is some special an evil-golden bunny.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
Oh oh yeah, josh, for people out there who don't know
about these trolls et cetera.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yes, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
What are they?
Give us an example and try andpicture them on mind for it.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, if you haven't seen these trolls, first of all
you should just Google ThomasDambo trolls.
There's hundreds of them, Ithink there's over 100 of them
all over the world.
Yeah, and this is a man, Ibelieve he's, uh, danish, danish
artist.
He goes to an area and hecreates these whimsical giant.

(17:21):
They're giants, these gianttrolls out of recycled wood, and
every single one is different.
They all have, they all havelike a similar look, right, they
all kind of look like they'rein the same, like species of
troll, right, but they're alldifferent.
So, craig, the ones we saw,remember, we saw a child one, we

(17:43):
saw a pregnant one, a lady.
A pregnant troll and this isjust huge and so it was really
exciting.
Detroit Lakes there was a groupcalled Project 412 in the city
of Detroit Lakes and to describeDetroit Lakes, it's basically
cabin country, so it's threehours north of Minneapolis-St
Paul and this is the place wherepeople go to vacation and sit

(18:08):
by the lake and have a cabin orwhatever.
It's just kind of a quaint citythat, yes, is considered cabin
country.
So Thomas Dambo descended uponthis place with and it takes.
These things are huge, so ittakes a volunteer.
He's the artist, but it takesvolunteers.
I'm sure he's just likepointing okay, yeah, you, yeah,
you know that piece there that,piece there, that piece.

(18:29):
Yeah, piece there, piece thereexactly hammered in, screwed in,
so he's getting help with theseright right.
And so, yes, he created fivebrand new trolls and.
Craig and this is what makes itreally cool is that in Seattle
he also has these trolls thatwere created recently as well,

(18:51):
and because Seattle is HQ iswhere geoc hq is, yeah, they
hopped on board with this.
Oh, and they said, wow, thomasdambo, and thomas dambo is very
much like story driven, liketreasure hunt, scavenger hunt,
minded.
Yeah, and when I explain what Iexperienced in detroit lakes,

(19:12):
you'll understand this.
Um, so I, I believe geocachinghq reached out to thomas dambo
and said hey, this is geocachingand we would love to make these
official geocaches.
So there's in seattle the, thetrolls that are there.
They are virtual geocaches, okay, okay this is where it gets
really nerdy yeah, it's reallyis that within geocaches.

(19:37):
Geocaches have differentattributes, so example would be
like when you go to a geocachepage, it's like one of an
attribute.
You'd be like be like poisonousplants yeah, snakes present.
Yeah, bathroom nearby yeah, umshort hike, like.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
So when you hide, you can choose wheelchair.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
Yeah, wheelchair, exactly yeah, but there is a
rare this is so nerdy, yeah,apologizing people that aren't
geocachers is it?
Let's be honest, there'sprobably not that many are you
gonna say?

Speaker 1 (20:06):
are you gonna say what I think you're gonna say?

Speaker 2 (20:08):
yeah, so this one has a rare because they hq worked
directly with with thomas damboin this project yep, there's a
rare partnership attribute.
Wow, yes, yes, so partnershipattribute, and before this that,
uh, I had found maybe one.

(20:29):
I personally had found twopartnership caches and one in
minnesota, really, yeah, okay,like the one I found was um they
.
They partnered with pbs on theshow dinosaur train oh yeah,
this is longer.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
This is like over 10 years ago.
Same one I did 10 years ago,yeah exactly 10 years ago.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
They partnered with genus or train, and so I had
just two of these geocache.
I mean I found I found over 8000 geocaches.
You had, I mean you had oneover 10 000 geocaches 12 000,
yeah, 12 000.
I have over 8 000.
I've only found two.
Yeah, all these trolls inseattle had that partnership
attribute okay, so that's so.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
It's just seattle, they're not all the others as
well no, oh sorry.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
So it was just Seattle until our friend Gia Gia
Caches, who works for HQ, herhome area.
She grew up close to DetroitLakes.

Speaker 1 (21:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
And so she worked with Thomas Dambo once again.
And now these trolls.
This is a really longexplanation.
These trolls are also geocaches, they're all geocaches and
they're all partnershipgeocaches and they're also
Adventure Lab stages.
So by completing all six stagesyou got like 11 to 12 finds.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
See, because, as people don't know, if you don't
already know, people arethinking to themselves Josh, how
can you get two finds for onething?
Well, this is the thing withgeocaching at the moment, this
is the road in which it's gonedown, that is, you can put a
virtual geocache, which is theold type style geocache, where
nothing's hidden, but you haveto go there for a particular
location and a reason.
And they've also announcedthese adventure labs, but the

(22:13):
adventure labs are not reviewed.
So therefore, announce these,these adventure labs, but the
adventure labs are not reviewed.
So therefore, anyone can put anadventure lab anywhere for any
reason, for for no, you know, ontop of each other as well, and
sometimes they do.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
sometimes they do so right and so these adventure
labs were fun, because they justanswered a question that you
could only answer if you werethere and they're location-based
.
Yeah, um, but the cool thingabout these virtuals these
virtuals are owned by hq.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
These are hqs yeah, which is really kind of cool.
That's kind of like that isreally cool.
That is really cool very unique.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
So I decided, I decided I was like I'm gonna
take half of my trip.
So instead of a full weekend ofgoing to gilby yeah, because
gilby is two and a half hoursstill away from detroit lakes,
it's like.
So I was like you know what I'mgonna, I'm gonna take friday.
I took last friday off, I leftearly in the morning, drove the

(23:04):
three hours there, that sixhours in detroit lakes, finding
the trolls, having a littledinner and beer and I'll talk
about that in a minute yeah andthen I drove three hours back.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
So six hours driving so you didn't even stay
overnight.
You didn't stay overnight.
I did it.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
No, I did it and you know I debated I really did this
idea of solo travel.
I debated like, oh, should Ieven go by myself?
I even asked reese.
I was like reese, do you wantto go with me?
She didn't feel well and so Iwas like, and I was like you
know what I got the day off.
I'm gonna really regret likeI'm not gonna like you know what
I got the day off, I'm going toreally regret Like I'm not
going to regret going.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
You know what I mean.
I'm not going to regret going.
You're going to regret notgoing If you were to sit on the
couch and watch television orwhatever else you'd regret not
going Exactly Exactly, yeah,exactly so I decided to do it.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Got up early in the morning and I I don't have to
describe it.
I mean you can search.
Actually, here we go, Craig, Onmy TikTok and on my Instagram.
By the time this is posted,it'll probably also be on
YouTube.
I have a full video that I willbe producing probably in
several weeks on.
YouTube.
However, I got a one-minuteversion on TikTok, instagram and

(24:12):
YouTube and you can really justget a sense of what these
trolls are.
You get a sense of feel for myday, the one thing about that's
special about these trolls,craig, is that um thomas dambo I
told you that he's createdhundreds of these, but, but this
is the first um first time,first of all, that he created
something, I think, other than atroll.
This bunny, like remember thatall the trolls are made of wood

(24:34):
this bunny was evil bunny.
He looks evil and it's huge.
He's a fat.
You gotta look at the pictures.
He's a fat evil bunny, but itlooks different because it's not
made out of wood.
It's made out of recycled,recycled storage containers oh
you know, like totes yeah yellowtotes.

(24:55):
Yeah, they ripped apart thesetotes and they made them out of
this yellow plastic, so they'renot like wood, like the trolls.
The trolls are like made out ofwood, this and so so that's
something unique, and the coolthing is was that it was
completely story driven.
So you arrive at the firsttroll this was, I think, I think
, when we went to the one inkentucky.
There was a story, but therewasn't like a story that would

(25:16):
lead you to something.
So it was designed like ascavenger hunt, where you go to
the first troll and you get tothe first role and there was a
book in front of it and you read, you get the clues from the
book, and the clues in the booktell you how to find the golden
bunny in the city.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh yeah, so separate it's not, not in the same
location it's.
You don't know all and see themall yes, all six of them, I
think.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
I think you can easily find the trolls yeah but
you have to find.
So basically, you have to findeach of the trolls to get a
secret word.
Each troll has a has like aletter on it and you unscramble
the letters and then that willguide you to the golden bunny.
So that's just a little.
I think that's just very uniqueto I don't think thomas dambo
has done anything like that.

(25:59):
So, yeah, that was just reallycool.
Another thing is is, uh, thomasdambo created the tallest troll
that he's ever created.
Oh, his name is long leaf and ifyou'll see the video he's 36
feet tall.
36 feet, wow, that's insane.
He's just like.
He's just like straight up anddown.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
You know, like a lot of the trolls, how does it keep
him standing like that?
I mean you talk about it.
I don't know.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
If you look at it like I am dwarfed I sent you the
picture, craig I am dwarfed.
Compared to inside, it's 36feet of me.
Basically, yeah and yeah.
So that was really cool.
It's the tallest one he's evercreated.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Yeah, yeah, not much else Just had a great day.
It was a beautiful day andlet's be real people Like this
is my opinion it's the mostwonderful time of the year.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Up here especially, the weather is beautiful.
The trees are changing colors,it's beautiful.
It's my birthday in a coupleweeks.
Let's yeah I'm excited.
Uh, I love this time and thisis the perfect better than
summer, I'd say to visit thesetrolls, because, yeah, a little
hot, a little hot in the summer,um.
But I'll say one thing morecraig found all the trolls and
then I was like, went to thegoogle, I was like what's the

(27:12):
best brewery?

Speaker 1 (27:13):
yeah, yeah, where we go.
Where can I check in?
Where can I check?

Speaker 2 (27:17):
in on untapped we've talked about it before and so
went to this great brewery, hadalso food.
I had some chicken.
Have you ever had chicken?

Speaker 1 (27:26):
and wild rice soup.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
No chicken and wild rice oh, it's so good, not at
all it's so good, craig, youwould love it.
It's a it's kind of a creamysoup.
Wild rice is not actually it'srice, but it's actually um
harvested from, from lakes.
So the bottom of lakes, theythey get that.
So it's a rice that they get,that grows inside lakes, like in
swampy areas yeah, yeah andthen um, and then there's of

(27:50):
course chicken in there.
It's really good, so I had that.
But then I had to have the mostunique beer I could find, and
there was a caramel apple sourthat's right beer.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
I sent you a picture.
You sent me a photo and I'mthinking to myself what the heck
?
So explain this.
I mean, I'm a beer lover.
I'm a beer connoisseur um, youknow, self-proclaimed, and so a
lot of our other friends as well.
Uh, rob vardeman, he's one ofthem.
He's got his own youtubechannel about beer as well.
Tim loves a beer.
We all love different types ofbeer.
So if people, if you haven'theard about us before on the, on

(28:25):
this podcast or another episode, I enjoy the ipa sort of style,
the deep, harsh sort of beers.
Rob enjoys the sours and josh,you're very much a light miller,
highlife usually sort of fan.
So it's late when you sent methat photo.
That shocked me a little bit.
So, people, this photo, justyou know, describe it a little
bit.
It was.
It was a darkish sort of hazycolored beer itself in a

(28:49):
beautiful, beautiful pint glass,uh, and then around the top, it
I thought it was fake at first,josh, but it's actually it.
It was the, the lip, the rimthat was dipped in like a
caramel sauce, is that?

Speaker 2 (29:02):
true caramel, caramel , caramel, caramel, however you
say it.
Caramel, yeah, it was a verysour.
It was a sour, it was.
It had apple flavor, yep, andit was very sour, so to have
have it rimmed with caramel, ittasted like a caramel apple.
It's a sweet and that would goyeah and it kind of like yeah it

(29:23):
it was so sour that it like itthe sweetness of the caramel
really, I don't know.
It really just like made it.
It kind of toned back the sour.
Yeah, but it was cool.
I mean, caramel apples are abig deal up here in the fall, so
I I could have craig.
I was debating, it was like do Ijust get the light?
You know the light?

(29:43):
Yeah, you know, and that's whatI was going for.
And then I saw the caramelapple and I was like rimmed with
caramel, oh my gosh, I gottatry that.
It was very, very good.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, as I said, josh , I saw the photo and the first
thing I thought about was youknow, I'm proud of you, josh.
I'm very, very proud of you.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Thank you, and that's a rare thing these days.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
There you go.
I got in before you did, no,yeah, and the perfect time of a
year for that as well being theautumn slash fall, with the, the
uh, you know pumpkin spicethings that are out at the
moment now, octoberfest beers,that sort of thing as well.
Now another question is did youlog it on your untapped, and

(30:21):
was it on, of course?

Speaker 2 (30:24):
if you didn't log it on untapped, did you really even
drink?

Speaker 1 (30:26):
it exactly right.
Again, people, if you don'tknow, there's an app called
untapped u-n-t-a-p-p-d, and itis basically a beer drinking app
where you can log your beersagain.
You get digital badges andsouvenirs the ones you don't
have to dust, you know?
Um, so yeah, just just don't.
Just don't befriend yourpartner with it, because they

(30:47):
can then see how much youactually do drink yeah, and it
is.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
I mean, it fits with this podcast.
It is a location-based sort ofapp, right?
Because you log in.
You not only log the beer, butyou log in the brewery, so you
get badges if you, you know, ifyou get the beer from what they
call the source the source yougot it from the source drinking
from the source exactly so andit's so.
It's so funny because I'm notI'm not a big beer drinker,

(31:16):
right, but untap actuallymotivates me to order beer.
Yes, yes, like I'm drinkingwine right now, right yeah uh.
But but I'm kind of like hey,this means if I drink beer, that
means I can log it, and if Iget a, if I get a flight, I can
log four beers at one time yes,exactly you're right, we're a
broken record.

(31:36):
We talk about the same thingsover and over again, but it's
anyway to round this up.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
Yeah to round this up ?

Speaker 2 (31:42):
yeah, it was.
It was a great solo trip and itwasn't.
You know I intentionallydecided.
You know I thought aboutsleeping overnight but I was
just like, hey, you know what Igot.
You know, I got some sports towatch this weekend, as you said
before, this is true and so, um,I have no problem, I actually
enjoy the road, I love joydriving.
It's very peaceful, it's bettermeditative for me and, and, um,

(32:04):
that's maybe another advantageto solo travel is like you can
really just kind of get in yourown head, yeah, which, I don't
know, for some people might be ascary place, but, um, but to
really just do thinking, uh, the, the travel, the road travel,
driving alone, I mean, I'm notafraid of a long road trip by
myself.
I love listening to podcasts, Ilove you know so um, yeah, that

(32:28):
was me.
That was just last.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
That was one day, so that's a day trip, that's a day,
yeah you don't have to, youknow, you don't have to like.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
Go to, like you know, italy by yourself.
No, don't start there, startslow, go to venice and germany,
and you know you should do that.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
You should do that, but the thing is, you start slow
.
This is what we talk about allthe time, too, josh, and that is
get outside.
You know what I mean, even ifit's in your own sort of
backyard area, playing gameslike geocaching etc as well,
takes you to locations that youprobably have never seen before
as a possibility as well.
Um, so you don't have to travelfar.
You don't have to spend a lotof money either to do it, but
getting outside, getting freshair, sunshine, you know it's,

(33:11):
it's probably the best thing toit.
And, josh, we you and I spokequickly off air before we
started the podcast and you saidsomething very point as well.
You said to be a solo traveler,you don't have to rely upon
anyone.
You make your own decisions,and sometimes it can be very
selfish, and we both but we did,we both agreed that.
You know what selfish is a goodthing sometimes, when it

(33:34):
doesn't affect anyone else, butyou, if that makes sense, you
put yourself first, because noone else is gonna do it for you.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Sometimes you just need to give yourself what you
need exactly right, exactly likewhat do you need.
It's like self-awareness, it'sit's it's self-care, it's mental
, it's mental health.
So it's okay to be quote,unquote, selfish sometimes.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
And that's probably the number one thing that I love
about solo travel is that youcan do whatever you want to do.
You can go wherever you want togo.
You can eat what you want toeat.
You can go to sleep when youwant to sleep.
No, it's true, and so there'sreal joy in it.

(34:22):
Just in that you can do whatyou enjoy.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
Exactly.
Well, I'll say this as well,and that is, I'm the same type
of thing as you, josh, and thatis that I'll be cashing away.
You know what I mean, and Ithink to myself.
You know what I don't feel likeanother cash at the moment.
Now, I'm going to stop and getsomething to eat, I'm going to
stop and get something to drink,and so that's the good side to
it, but but there is a negativeaspect to it.
The negative aspect is.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
There are some negatives.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
This is the most negative aspect for me and I'll
give you a perfect, perfectexample.
And you're going to go ahastraight away, alabama, for
bamarama.
You, myself and tim, we'd goneto bucky's and we'd had the
brisket brisket on the board,the sandwich, delicious stuff,
right.
We'd been all day out cashingout, socializing out and around,

(35:11):
out and about.
I'm telling you now, if I wasby myself after that, I would
have gone straight back to theroom and gone straight to sleep
and I wouldn't have known andit'd been none the wiser.
But this is what happens whenyou travel.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
We were tired.
We were tired.
I was debating like we should,you were even debating.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
But this is what happens when you travel with
other people.
And that is josh.
You saw this, we spoke about onthe podcast as well.
You saw this guy was playing atthe, the, the local, um, a bar
area, I don't can't rememberwhat it's called now but but you
said yourself, you said we'llgo for just one song.
That was it.
And I was like okay, one song.

(35:47):
And we got there and I'm tellingyou now I think I had the night
of my time there in Alabama atthat night watching this guy
puff away at his vape, playinghis keyboard away and just
literally an old dude but justliterally rocking it out at this

(36:07):
dingy dive bar location.
I was just like man.
At the end of that I thought tomyself I'm so glad that I'm
here.
If I had been by myself and, asI said, it's positive and
negative If I had been by myself, I wouldn't have known what I
missed out on, if that makessense yes, and and having

(36:27):
travelers totally, and havingtravelers with you, it's like
can push you to do things, maybethat you wouldn't think about
or consider um another example,that same trip remember when we
were like we saw the go-kartsand we're like we should do that
.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
We were like, we were like in geocaching mode and we
saw these go-karts and we hadlike, let's be real, like thank
you, thank you, um, um gulfcoast, um golf coast shores,
because they gave us a pass todo the go-karts.
And we're like, I got this passand we have.
They gave us like a lot, of, alot of credits and we're like,

(37:02):
and we just had so, and you justI remember you're just laughing
your butt off as we do theslick track, as I like wiped out
every time, like I've neverseen you were giggling, like you
were like a child and it wasjust.
There's a video of that, pleaseput it in the show notes.
Yeah, like just the joy of you,um you watching me completely

(37:24):
crash like several times,several times, right in front of
me.
Yeah, I thought I I wouldn'thave done that by myself,
probably no, but I'll tell youwhy.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
And that is perfect.
Example mario kart.
So you're mario and I wasbowser behind you, like I'm the
bigger guy of the two of us, soI'm the browser behind you and
you're just spinning out infront of me.
I felt like I was chucking youthe uh, the banana peels as you
go past, totally.
So it brought back, I think,childhood memories a little bit

(37:54):
too so, and I look back on thevideo.
Though josh and I look back,I'm like we're not going that
slow, surely, like it felt somuch quicker because you're very
low to the ground.
And here I was, yes, yeah,thinking that I was like, oh
yeah, I'm the fastest thing onthe on here these these kids.
These kids haven't seen someoneso fast and so in control.

(38:15):
You know, because of my, mydriving experience with my, my
police work and stuff and butyeah, I look, I look back at the
video, I go that's actuallypretty slow craig like yeah, it
was.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
But when you're so low to the ground it feels like
you're going super fast.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
But in saying that, as you said, that's a, that's
one of the positive aspects of,you know, being with friends and
traveling with friends.
But we'll get back to solotravel again now.
So, yes, yes, my recent trip.
Um, what did I spend?
I spent a total of four, fourand a half weeks on the road.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Wow, yeah, that went so fast.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Craig, yeah, I mean, I knew you were out there for a
while, but you were that's along time yeah, and I did a
circle trip as well, because Idon't like to go over the road,
the same roads, twice.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
So I do a circle trip .

Speaker 1 (39:07):
I will say that security-wise, because I get
asked that a lot about security.
I'm a male, maybe that'sdifferent for me as well.
However, I do know the placeswhere I can stay and the places
where I shouldn't stay, and Ihave before pulled into places
where I was going to stay.
I've pulled in and I just do alook, I just do like a little
look around, make sureeverything's fine.
You have that.
And if you get a feeling, ifyou get a stomach feeling, a

(39:30):
feeling in your stomach thatit's not right, just go, just
trust that gut feeling, becausethat gut feeling is always right
, it's instinct, it's that sortof instinct style.
And it happened to me once onthis trip whereby I stopped and
I was in a Cracker Barrel andyou know how much I love Cracker
Barrels because they're soaccommodating.

(39:53):
They are very, veryaccommodating to all travellers
of all kinds, whether you'recamping in your car, sleeping in
your car, for instance, noteven with a bed, bed or if
you're in a fully decked out rvbus, you know, I mean, they're
very, very accommodating.
But yeah, there was one crackbarrel location where I went to
and I don't know, I just didn'tfeel right.
It had like chain link fencesand there was like a little

(40:13):
dingy um motel hotel next doorand I went, oh, maybe that's not
right, and so I I got back inthe car and I drove off, and,
and as I drove off, I had a lookover and sure enough, there was
, like you know, it was, an opencarry state.
So, there was guys there withthat and I thought to myself
that motel may be a little pimphouse to the style of thing,

(40:35):
like some ladies of the nightwork there.
So I was like, yeah, no, I'mout of here.
So so that's what I'm saying isjust be self-aware and aware of
your surroundings when it comesto safety, sure, and you should
not have an issue at all.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
So for sure, and you know what?
Let's, let's acknowledge like,yes, like you've said it before,
like as a male, you know, yeah,yeah, traveling around it's
different and it would be reallyinteresting, craig, at some
point we should seek out maybe afemale van lifer and just talk
about what?
What the reality of, or evennot van lifer, just um traveling
, travel solo as a female andwhat, what that looks like and

(41:13):
and things that that um theyencounter.
Um in that moment it's aneverybody thing, but it's I
think it's different for women.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
It would be so very different for for women, um, and
it's.
It's sad that that's the case,but you know it, it is what it
is.
The other thing I will say, andthat is um, when it comes to
security, hide your footprint.
Now, what I mean by hide yourfootprint is don't advertise the
fact that you're staying inyour vehicle at that location.
So, if you, how do you do that?
Craig, if you've got blackoutwindows, put the blackout

(41:41):
windows and curtains up.
I have, I have.
So for me personally, I've gotthe total blackout windows on
the side, uh, the back, the back, two windows, back two doors,
and also the, the rear, thetotal rear door itself as well.
Then I've got these blackoutcurtains between the front part
of the cabin and then the rearas well, so I slide those across
.
Um, so, yeah, I can, I can have.

(42:01):
I have it quite dimly dark ininside when I'm in there too,
because all I'm doing is I'mwatching a netflix, I'm watching
a tv show of some sort, and sothat looks so cozy.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
I see your pictures, I see your picture on be real
and it just looks like yourlittle, your little cave your
little cave.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
It looks cozy.
Yeah, your nest, that's right,your nest, my nest.
You kind of just like lookforward.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
I mean, I know you work all day.
You drive, you drive and thenyou work.
You know you find a panerabread.
That's another maybe tip islike you get the yeah, the
unlimited drinks or whatever atpanera club yep um, but yeah, at
the end of the day you justlook so cozy in your nest some
of the pictures it's like lookforward to your nest and and I

(42:44):
think that's another thing thefeeling you get when you close
off from the rest of the worldand it's just you and you're
watching your tv show that youenjoy.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Um, you know, I've now got my fridge, etc.
Next to me as well, so I've gotcold drinks on hand.
I've got like a little shelfthing so I can sit up at the
back and I I got my little shelfwith my armrest and stuff going
up too.
So, yeah, it really is.
If you build out your vehiclethe way you want it to be, if
that's what you're going to do,then yeah, you can be very, very
, very comfortable and yet notlooks like no one's even.

(43:15):
It looks like a parked vehicle.
That's it, and I think that'sthat's going to be the main
thing, for security reasons orsecurity purposes.
But in saying that as well andthat is you said before, josh,
about um, if you're a solotraveler, one of the best things
about solo travel is you canmeet other people, make friends
or even just, you know, justchat and socialize with other
people.

(43:35):
Yes, the amount of times I didthat is insane.
I mean, look again again.
Yes, I have a different accentto a lot of other people a lot
of other Americans.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
You're very in, you're very interesting when
people are like probably theylisten to you talk and they're
like you.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
You were, you're from somewhere else yeah, and
because I was in I was in thesouthern states this time and
I'm like, yes, I'm more southernthan you, and then that gets a
laugh.
You know what I mean.
Some of them, yeah, but most ofthem, got a laugh out of it as
well.
But, um, yeah, a lot of thetimes for me personally, people
who said to me you know, oh, Ican just listen to you talk all
day long, all night long, um, orthey turn around, they go, what

(44:12):
brings you to this town?
Whatever?

Speaker 2 (44:14):
town I'm in.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
They're curious they're curious, you know, and
it always, and that's the thingI love about traveling in amer
America, specifically because wedon't have this in Australia
and that is the bars.
Here, literally, you can go ina restaurant and there's a big
bar that just people who arethere by themselves sit at.
We don't have that in Australia.
We don't have the bars.
Oh really, yeah, no, we don't.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
That's a real advantage for solo dining too
right Because a lot of bars andbars in the us, it feels kind of
it does feel kind of weird tobe sitting at a table by
yourself, yeah, but it's totallynormal.
Normal to sit at a bar, yeah,and have a drink and have your
meal at a bar yeah, by yourself,that's exactly.

(44:55):
It's like nobody bats an eyesometimes when they see you.
You know, if at a table they'relike whoa, wow, yeah, what's
wrong with that guy?
That's a lonely guy.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
Or they think, oh, this poor guy is getting stood
up from a date or something.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Exactly but yeah, so in Australia they don't have
like bars.
No, I'm confused.
What?

Speaker 1 (45:16):
So we have pubs.
We have pubs in Australia, okay, and there's a bar around the
pub.
We have pubs.
We have pubs in Australia, okay, and there's a bar around the
pub, but that bar you normallywalk up to the bar, order your
beverage, pay for your beverage,walk away and go and we have
stand-up tables, sit-down tables, all that sort of thing, and
then you stand or sit away fromthe bar itself.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
So you, don't sit at the bar.
No, you don't sit at the bar.
There's no seats at the bar.
Yeah, exactly, we get.
Yeah, well, that's a great tipfor solo travel city.
If you hey, if you feel weird,go to a place.
That's what I did when I diddetroit lakes.
I was like it's gonna be weirdfor me to sit at a table.
I'm gonna sit at the bar.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Sit at the bar and I'm gonna have my food have my
drink, yeah and nobody's gonnabat an eye.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Exactly, you're worried about what people think,
and I'm not really worriedabout that, but some people are.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Well, I've been here for what?
Three years now, um, full-timethree years now.
And you know my wife, shetravels a lot for her work etc
as well.
Yes, um, if I'm at home and Idon't feel like cooking, I'll go
out by myself here and actuallysit at the bar and have a meal.
Yes, it's very normal.
I think you get better servicehere from from the bar, like in
terms of faster for meals andfaster for drinks.

(46:21):
You don't have the, the waiterwaitress walking up and down and
you know asking you iseverything okay?
Okay, so it's, it's very, veryquick.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
So, yeah, yeah well, yeah, that that person working
the bar, they're very attentive,attentive to you, they're like
they know a part of the barexperience is yep, hey, I'm
gonna give you your drinks, I'mgonna give you the food if you
want, and then also I'm gonnatalk you up a little bit.
Like that's a part of that'spart of the skill of a good
bartender exactly is to havethat, have some conversations

(46:50):
with people and have that like,especially if you're alone.
So exactly that's a great tip.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Finding our leading on from another, from that to
another great tip, and thishappened in Rome, georgia, and
that is you know, we're walkingdown, or I was walking down by
myself.
I mean, yes, rome Georgia, wehad a big geocaching event etc.
At Rome, georgia.
There was lots of geocachesaround, lots of people that knew
of me and and you and I and yougot asked about, um, but

(47:15):
overnight I'd be walking downthe main street, the center of
town, and people were going intodifferent locations and stuff
as well, and there was a coupleof nice-looking, really
nice-looking bars there.
And then I saw this one like adive bar-ish sort of style, and
it looked like there was notables at the front or whatever.
And then all I did was I peekedthrough the window as I was

(47:35):
going past.
The bar was full, except forone seat, and I went that's my
seat, that's your seat.
I went in.
It's like it's one of thoselocal places where all the
locals go, not the tourists.
And so I walked in and everyoneturned their head around
whatever, of course, I saidstraight away is this seat free?

(47:56):
And everyone looked at me thenbecause of my accent and so,
yeah, I had a couple of beersthere, I had some chicken wings
there and I had a great timethere talking amongst the locals
and again, they're veryintrigued what brought you to
our town?
You know, what are you doingwith yourself?
How are you traveling?
Blah, blah, blah.
And so all the questions comeup and all of a sudden, here I

(48:19):
am.
I was being alone the entireday, for instance, and then I go
into a bar situation and I'mhaving like an hour, two-hour
long conversation with randompeople.
But it's that human connectionyou know what I mean that I've
missed for the last sort of fewhours or few days even.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Yes, and that's the thing.
It's really interesting, thisidea of human connection because
let's be real, like Craig thing.
It's really interesting, thisidea of human connection because
, let's be real, like craig, Ithink I would say you're like,
you really get energized byyou're a people, person, like
when you go to a geocachingevent.
It's all it's about the social,it's about it is connecting
with people.
Yeah, people don't believe mewhen I say this because they see
my, see my persona on video.

(48:57):
Just because I'm excited aboutgeocaching on video and I'm
talking to a camera does notmean I'm an extrovert.
You know like I have veryintroverted tendencies.
I much rather can have a.
You know, I love people, I lovespending time with them, but I
also love hanging out withpeople, letting down with people
.
I know well right so you timlike having.

(49:21):
I'm really more about deeper,deeper friendships than about
having like then, like going tolike.
It stresses me out sometimes togo like to a in the situation
you're describing, where like Ihave to like engage a bunch of
like strangers, basicallystrangers, yeah, um at the same
time, I've had situations whereI've been traveling alone for a

(49:42):
week and I don't care who youare, I don't care if you're an
introvert.
Every single human being needshuman connection.
I don't care who you are.
And I don't know if you've everfound yourself doing this.
But you realize there's acouple solo trips I had that
were like a week long and Irealized that I hadn't really
talked to anybody for a longtime.
And then all as an introvert,you're just like I normally

(50:05):
don't do this, but I know that Iknow my need for human
connection where I'm just likechatting up the the gas station
person.
You know what I mean.
I'm like I don't do this in myeveryday life.
But I know like, oh my god, Ineed some kind of human
connection because I'm, I'mreally, I want to have a
conversation with this gasstation attendant.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
I mean, that's exactly right, and I'm similar
to you too, josh.
People don't think that as well.
People think that I'm anextrovert.
But people don't understand.
The difference between anintrovert and extrovert isn't
how loud you are in a group ofpeople.
It's about where you developyour energy, where you build
that energy from?

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Yeah, where you get energy?

Speaker 1 (50:42):
And it's about where you develop your energy, where
you build that energy from.
And I'm the same as you andthat is, I get energy alone and
that's why I'm a solo travelerat heart as well, because I
build that energy by myselfalone.
And I do the same thing.
I listen to the podcast.
I listen to this podcast.
I listen to several otherdifferent podcasts as well Joe

(51:02):
Rogan podcast great podcastbecause his is like two and a
half hours long, so I can reallydo some, uh, do some traveling
in that period of time too.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
So, um, yeah, and you just literally you energize
yourself by yourself and then,and that's yes, and that's the
appeal, because you get the mostbest of both worlds, because if
you're an extrovert, you'reconstantly meeting strangers.
Yeah, right, exactly.
So you have so manyopportunities to meet like new
people all the time.
But if you want to like, gointo your, into your nest yes,

(51:31):
yes and refuel that energy.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
You can, yeah exactly what's your favorite tv show at
the time.
You know that you downloaded onyour ipad and that's now a tv
screen inside your car like yeahyeah absolutely, absolutely.
So there you go, josh.
We didn't really get into mygoing caching uh experience.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
We touched on yes however, yeah, I just recently
listened to the geocachingpodcast this is true which you
are a host of.
You are a co-host, yes, I am,and and so I would say, craig,
if they if they're curious aboutgoing caching more, I would
suggest that they go listen tothe recent, most recent version

(52:11):
of of the geocaching podcast,which you attended and also chad
attended as well, if you wantto deep dive into the into the
geocaching world of goingcaching, which is just a great
event and it's uh, thegeocaching podcast, the only
call in.
Call in geocaching.
Yeah, you can actually call in.

(52:32):
Yeah, it's a lot at 8, 30, 8,30 central time on wednesdays.
Do your math for wherever youlive.
Yep, and you can actually talkto craig yourself yeah, I'm the.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
I'm a call in person now they, they.
I pick them up first when theywhen they call.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
So there you go but let's, but are there any from a
travels perspective, now thatyou've visited rome, georgia,
I've, I've also visited rome,georgia is there any like high
level like, um, interestingthings that people should know
about it, that wow, that thatwas really cool about rural
Georgia, or that was a uniqueexperience or a great place to

(53:06):
eat?
Yeah, you were there for likefour or five days, right, six
days, six, wow.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
I was only supposed to be there for four or five,
but again, this is the othergood thing about solo travel,
josh, and that is, you are yourown itinerary, and it can be
very flexible, as when we spoketo Magplan at that time.
In that episode as well, youmust be flexible with your
timeframes, and so I'd gotten inearly to a particular location.
That was a beautiful, abeautiful little campsite, free

(53:34):
campsite, and I was going tostay there the night.
However, zero connection forphone signals, zero.
So I had my lunch, lunch, Icooked my lunch there, I enjoyed
it for lunch, and then I saidyou know what?
I've got plenty of time on myhands.
It's only an hour's drive torome.
So then I jump back in the carand drove for an hour back to to
rome, so that's why I spent theextra time.
Again, though, be flexible withyour travels now.

(53:56):
Well, we'll say this, and thatis if you're looking at places
to eat, places to drink, thenGoogle and Google Maps is your
best feature.
So, if you're there for dinnerdinner near me If you want a
brewery, brewery near me andthen just look at either Yelp
reviews and or the Google Starreviews as well yes, the Google

(54:16):
reviews.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
And I've been to Rome , georgia.
Their whole downtown situationis really nice, it's really nice
.
It has a lot to offer.
It's a small town but it's nota tiny town, exactly, and there
was just a ton of places to eat,a ton of places to drink.
I remember a cool candy store.
The downtown Rome area isreally nice.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
And me getting there early as well, I managed to find
myself the one and only breweryin town that's there.
There's only one actual breweryin town itself.
I found myself there at thatbrewery.
I was talking to the headbrewer, who was the barman at
the time, behind the bar, withanother local next to me as well
, chatting about things.
They give me tips about my nexttravels, where are you going

(55:03):
next?
And then they point me indifferent directions and
different locations where I canfind other breweries, et cetera
as well.
I also found Josh.
I found this.
I didn't know what it was untilI actually got there.
I went around the back and Ieven spoke to you on the phone,
on FaceTime, when I was at thislocation, if you remember, riley
, and you got stung by a bee yep, that's the one and you go.

(55:29):
It's.
You go like in this back doorand it's called the beer garden
and it does serve the localbeers, but also other beers as
well, and it's also a craft beerplace, so it has all these
different cans of craft beer.
You name it.
They've got it pretty much, butit's in this, these two
shipping containers on top ofeach other, and so you walk up
one of the stairs and you getthere's the bar straight away
and you can, you know, buy yourbeer, buy your drink and then

(55:50):
walk back in the beer garden andtalk to you, talk to your mate
on on the phone and get stung bya bee.
But yeah, so, but yeah.
So.
That's what I mean.
They're the places that I foundbefore anyone else turned up
for geocaching and I felt.
I felt very relaxed, verycomfortable.
I knew the the lay of the landthen, so it didn't worry me

(56:10):
after that.
I wasn't missing anything byactually going around geocaching
with everyone else.
So there you go.
One more thing I will say.
If you are a geocacherlistening to this and you're
thinking, oh, I'm not going togo back to rome again because
they're not having going cachinganymore, which is sad, but it's
understandable you need to goback for one reason, and one
reason only, and you do too,josh and that is that the
geocaching headquarters, alongwith Rome Tourism, have put out

(56:35):
a very new virtual cache, whichis an actual bronze plaque in
dedication to the organizers ofgoing cashing over the past 12,
14 years, and that is going tobe proudly displayed in the park
.
That's where the main event hasalways been oh wow On a big
bronze plaque.
So that's really cool.

(56:56):
That is really cool.
There was lots of tears on theSunday when they announced it.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
So that is, jim and Andyy have been organizing that
event for years, yes, and youknow, for several years, brought
people to so many people torome, probably brought so many
thousands of dollars exactly tothat city and the reason they
wanted to bring people to thattown is because they're proud of
their town, and that's a damnrare thing these days you still

(57:26):
have to do it.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Do you know where that's from josh?
Do you know where that's fromyou?

Speaker 2 (57:32):
always say that to our guests.
Hey, can I just say somethingabout?

Speaker 1 (57:35):
that always.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
I have a question.
Yes, I have a question for ourlisteners.
Oh, okay, I'll be quiet.
If we created a t-shirt, atreasures of our town t-shirt,
that said on the front they'reproud of their town, and then on
the back it said that's a rarething these days, and then
treasures of our town podcast,would you buy it?

(57:58):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
oh, like we don't have craig, we don't have any
merch?

Speaker 2 (58:03):
well, I think it might be time, if the holidays
are coming yeah I might have togo to the spread shirt store and
I might need to create thetreasures are town podcast.
We got, we got some.
We got some fans out there.
We know we have fans, we knowwe have, we have patrons.
If we go, they would love.
I think they would lovesomething like that.
So reach out to us.
Reach out to us.

(58:24):
If that's something that youthink would you would buy or be
interested in, let us know andand if you're a patron, we'll
figure out how to make itcheaper for you oh easy, we just
.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
We don't make any money on patrons, that's it.
That's, the patrons get it atcost price.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
That's because that's the same as gcpc do the same
thing.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Everything's at cost price of patrons, so there you
go yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:40):
Yeah, spreadshirt has a thing where I could create a
code to make it yeah wholesale,exactly right.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Sounds like a great idea.
How can people actually reachus?
If they want to reach us,what's the email address?

Speaker 2 (58:50):
there you go yes, you can reach out to us at
treasures of our town podcast atgmailcom.
and here's the thing um, we gota message on buzzsprout on our
website so if you searchtreasure of our town in google,
you'll go to buzzsprout, whichis like our official web page.
Yeah, and you can like contactus through that.

(59:11):
I think you can even contact usthrough a button on itunes, for
example.
It's so funny, craig, somebodydid that this week.
I just recently got it.
It goes right to my email andall it was.
We can tell where it's from.
It was from rome, georgia.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Oh, was it you?
No, it wasn't me.
I didn't even see that I'mlooking right now.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
It's from rome, georgia, and all the message was
was hello.
They said hello, so so whoeveryou are, yeah, someone didn't
reach out to me.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Someone must have seen me as such and went well.
I know him from Treasures ofOur Town.
So I'll message on that, sorry.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
Sorry if you wrote that.
All he said was hello.
So whoever you are, hi, hello,see, we're responding to you
right now, live.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (59:58):
So, and you know, let us know.
Do you want shirts?
Yes, treasure, you know.
Do you want to solo travel?
I don't know.
So anyway, um, but I want to dosay our patrons, our patrons
are our, our uh supporters.
They enjoy, uh, this podcast,they support it.
We don't have any commercialson this, nope, and so we keep it

(01:00:20):
free.
So please join us at patreoncombackslash treasures of our town
.
We have several differentlevels there.
We provide what we call goldennuggets.
Yes, and this is extra contentjust for you.
So please, if you're listeningto this and enjoying it, please
consider supporting it.

(01:00:42):
It keeps everything going.
It helps us pay the bills.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
And how else can people find us, Josh, other than
that?

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Yeah, feel free to reach out to us at
treasuresovertownpodcastgmailcom.
I said that before.
Or you can follow us onFacebook, instagram, x and
YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
So that's it for our show today.
So please subscribe, rate andreview on your favorite
podcasting app and, as always,Josh.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
May your travels always lead you to the most
unexpected and amazing hiddengems around the world, even if
you're by yourself, solo, solo.
See you next time, everybody.
Thanks, bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.