September 13, 2023 • 38 mins
Cali O’Connor wanted to experience her cross-country road trip in a unique way. She knew she had to start in Boston and end up in Napa, but the rest was up to her imagination. She saw a killer deal on the Amtrak website and chose to road trip across the United States on a train. With a few stops in cities most tourists overlook, Cali details what she enjoyed about this form of slow travel and how she kept busy while spending the better part of 7 days inside of a train.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
Welcome back to the Globetrotters Podcasts,the show that brings you diverse storytelling,
thoughtful discussions on ethical issues, andinvestigations into how you can make the most
of an adventure without breaking the bank. I'm your host Jonathan o'diddle and I'm
Max Melganzalez. Last week's episode featuredanother edition of our Layover series, our
monthly travel show in which we investigateall things travel related, update you on
(00:38):
the latest travel news, and occasionallywe'll look into questionable travel trends so you
don't have to. But on today'sepisode, we're speaking with Kalie O'Connor.
Callie is a career break and remotework coach for burnt out professionals. She's
a recovering corporate addict who was addictedto the grind and praise of the corporate
world, which led to a selfinduced spiral of stress. She decided to
(01:00):
quit her job despite four promotions inthree years, and travel the world for
the next two and a half yearson their flights in the Robi. She
finally felt free and quote alive andhas helped working professionals find clarity ever since.
Back in September twenty twenty one.She traveled throughout the United States,
but what makes this adventure different frommost is that she did so on the
(01:23):
Amtrak train. For those that don'tknow, Amtrak offers train and coach transportation
to five hundred locations throughout the UnitedStates and uses ten segments or routes to
get there. Customers can purchase single, multi ride, or a railpass that
covers thirty days. With her USARailpass, Callie traveled long distances and explored
(01:45):
large parts of the United States ina short amount of time, and today
we're going to find out what mostof us are thinking. Why Callie,
thank you for being on the show, Thank you for having me. CALLI
before we talk about your Amtrak trip. There's something on your website that caught
my attention and I was hoping youcould speak on it a bit more.
(02:07):
It reads, we are spoon fedfrom childhood that the social norm is to
go to college, get a job, work until sixty five plus, retire,
and then go on some sort ofleisure travel. That sounds uninspiring,
doesn't it. Well, friend,I have the powerful solution to reset your
(02:27):
life. While I agree wholeheartedly withthis statement, I want to ask,
at what point in your life.Was the coach quote true enough that you
decided to take action. It wasin the middle of my oil and gas
career, or not the middle,I mean the end. It ended it
because I was feeling so much stressat work. I was working over one
(02:50):
hundred hours per week, and like, the one benefit of corporate world is
paid vacation time, which was cool. And each time I took a paid
vacation, I'd experience that dread ofgoing back to work. And at one
point, I'm like, I justwant to be doing this. There are
one hundred ninety seven countries in theworld. There are three weeks of paid
(03:14):
vacation per year. The math wasn'tmathing, and so I'm like, I
need to do something, and ineed to do it quickly or else I'm
going to have regrets when I'm older. Yeah, and three weeks, I
feel like it's being very generous.Usually it's two, right, right,
Like, it's just not it's toofew for especially it's a problem in the
United States. So exactly. Yeah, And you said something that I think
(03:38):
rings true for a lot of travelers, for people that live or work in
the corporate environment, that tread thatcomes with having to return to the office
after spending two weeks in Maui orFiji or wherever they decide to vacation.
Right, absolutely, and so,I mean I've had both experiences where I'm
(03:58):
like, Okay, I'm ready togo home, but then this experience where
I'm like, oh my gosh,I am actually really upset. I could
cry at the thought of having togo back to the workforce and like the
office and stuff like that. SoI knew it was time to make a
change at that point. Totally relatable. Okay, So obviously you're very well
traveled, but this trip is verydifferent from most that we heard of.
(04:23):
Back in September of twenty twenty one, you traveled through the United States on
amtrack. First question out of threewhy, Second one is how did you
learn about this style of trip?Like what inspired you to take Amtrak?
And have you done another trip likethis before? Okay, so I might
(04:45):
answer those out of order. Yeah, so where I don't know exactly where
I had heard of it. Ifeel like years and years ago I heard
someone mentioned like so and so traveledacross the United States on the train,
and my initial thought was like,Wow, that's ridiculous. Would do that,
and then I think it just sortof planted the seed. Yeah,
(05:06):
and it grew. And so atone point in twenty twenty, I was
in California. I needed to getback to Massachusetts, and I'm like,
huh, what if I took thetrain? And I didn't do it at
that point? Which makes when youdon't do something that you have an interest
in, like the interest only grows. And so the seed was still there.
(05:27):
And so come this point, Iwas living in Mexico. I was
going to a wedding in California andmy family's in Boston, and I'm like,
huh, how can I do?Oh? And the Amtrak pass was
on sale, So like the starswere aligning. I'm like, maybe this
is the time. You know,I fly home to Boston, I take
the train across the United States.I didn't. Then I can book a
(05:49):
flight back to Mexico from California.And so that's sort of how that idea
was born. And I forget thethird question. Had you had you done
a similar type of trip before?I know, Amtrak's very unique and so
you know someone compared to doing likethe EU rail and Europe, But have
(06:11):
you done another trip like this before? Him, nothing to this scale.
I think my longest previous train tripwas an overnight train both in Europe and
maybe India, but nothing that exceededtwenty four hours. And we'll definitely ask
you about some of those experiences lateron and how they compared to your experience
(06:33):
on the amtrack. But you didbring up that the rail pass was on
sale, so I wanted to talka little bit about the cost before we
dive into the experience. Did itplay any role in planning your adventure to
California from Boston, which you knowyou said the discount did, but what
were some of the financial advantages anddisadvantages of traveling this way? And what
(06:54):
did that pass actually include in termsof meals accommodations, so that the price
wasn't the primary factor, Like,my main motivation was the adventure. But
if you were consider a transportation fromBoston to California one way, light is
going to be at the very leastthree hundred dollars, and the rail pass
(07:16):
was on sale for two hundred ninetynine dollars, a two hundred dollars savings,
and so wow, that's the bigsavings you know, really played into
that. And so the past doublesas accommodation because you're sleeping on the train.
So obviously if you flew, youwouldn't need any sort of overnight accommodation.
(07:36):
I'm very aware of that. Butyou guys from Adventure, Okay,
so that's what we're right, right, You feel that, And so that
was the main motivation. And so, I mean, I had time.
I wanted to experience some parts ofthe United States, because as we mentioned,
I have traveled quite extensively, butnot so much in the US.
(08:00):
So this felt like a good opportunity. And I just wanted to see some
new cities. And I planned itin such a way that I would be
able to use points to stay inhotels or whatnot, so I wasn't spending
a ton on accommodation and during mystopovers. Yeah, speaking of savings,
was this sale anything in particular orthe past? Just happened to be on
(08:22):
sale. It just happened to beon sale, and it goes on sale
intermittently, and yeah, so I'vebeen tracking it since before I took this
trip, and there's no rhyme orreason as to when it goes on sale.
So I've seen it for two hundreddollars off. I've seen it for
one hundred dollars off, and it'svarious points throughout the year. Yeah,
and you know, I did dosome a little bit of digging on the
(08:43):
Amtrak side to see if right nowit was on sale so we could go
ahead and promote it for anyone thatwould be interested in doing this type of
travel. But something that I noticedthat caught my attention is if you're a
student, there's like a standard fifteenpercent discount on any of the passes,
same thing for seniors. And thenthere's specific routes within the Amtrak ten routes
(09:07):
that one of them could be onsale at any given time, So they
do promote a lot of deals constantly, and even when it's not on sale,
it is a really good deal.So just to give a little background
as to what it is, youget ten segments. So to find out
what that looks like, I recommendgoing to the Amtrak website. But each
(09:28):
time you get off the train,that ends your segment automatically. Some routes
are multiple segments, usually because youhave to change trains, but you get
ten of these, so that's aboutfifty dollars per segment, and some of
these segments are very very long.You could travel from Chicago to Seattle if
you choose not to get off thatis one segment, which is crazy.
(09:50):
It's a pretty long segment. Yeah. Yeah, it goes through quite a
few states exactly. You could totallyjust circumnavigate the United States if you want
it too, for very reasonable price. So it's about putting in the effort
to plan it in the way thatyou want to. So, I mean,
it's great to have it on sale, but I didn't even use all
my segments because I was able toget from point A to point B and
(10:13):
just six. So really there's alot of opportunity to travel for our distances
for a really fair price. Yeah, before booking your ticket, what were
your accommodation offers or extras that Amtrakoffered you that were included or excluded?
Jeff to pay for anything extra?Or was it kind of just a flat
(10:33):
rate and you're sold it's just aflat or they don't offer you anything,
they don't offer you to upgrade,there's nothing, so you just purchase it
and that's it. You got acoach seat and you cannot even with this
task. There's no option to upgradeto the room mates or the little suites
that they have on board, Butjust out of curiosity, I did a
(10:54):
little research on that and to comparethe price of a coach seat those roomates
and whatnot. It's just astronomical difference. So I decided I could sleep and
coach. Let's talk about the snacksor the meals and how you're planning for
that. I know they offer someservices on board that you can purchase,
but the train stop is also orsorry, the Amtrak train is also stopping
(11:18):
intermittently throughout these segments. How muchof a break do you get that you
can, let's say, walk toa grocery store, fill your bag with
goodies and then bring them back tothe train, because I'm assuming that's what
you were doing. So I preparedbefore getting on the train. I brought
everything that I would need so thatI didn't have to get off. So
(11:39):
when I did stop and I spendtime in locations overnight, that's when I
would restop. But during the stopsalong the way sometimes it was like you
have to jump off, Like ifthat's your stop, you have to be
ready or you're not going to getoff, and you're going to continue the
next stop. Other times they havelike fifteen minute they call them smoke breaks,
and maybe we could call them somethingelse nowadays, I don't know.
(12:01):
But and then yeah, exactly.And then I think the longest one was
a crew change break, and thatwas about an hour, so that would
have allowed enough time. But again, you really want to risk it in
the city you're not familiar with,trying to go get snacks and groceries and
staff, and potentially your only rideis about to head out. So yeah,
(12:24):
I've taken the Amtrak a handful oftimes for rather shorter segments, usually
going from Sacramento to Oakland or Richmond. Yeah, Richmond down to San Jose.
And the stops that they have,like you said, the door is
open for all of a minute,you know, ninety seconds maybe, and
so sometimes it is a rush.And I was just thinking if you were
(12:46):
to try to hop off for anhour and go explore, for me,
I'm paranoid. I'm not leaving mybaggage on board by itself, you know,
I'm bringing everything with me, Soit sounds like a hassle. But
the overnight stays sound great. Didyou have days certain stops where you were
there for multiple days or is itjust usually one night and then hop back
on. So I planned each ofmy stops to be two to three nights
(13:11):
to just give me that opportunity tosleep in a real bed, recover and
the event that I wasn't able tosleep well in the coach seat the night
before, and really get to exploreand know the cities. So I stopped
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I stoppedin Whitefish, Montana, and I stopped
in Seattle, Washington. I haveto ask why why those cities? It's
(13:33):
a good question. And so this, like if you could see my brain
during the planning phase, is whereI had the map out and I was
doing all sorts of planning. Andso the main criteria was like get from
Boston to Napa, California for thewedding. And then I'm like, Okay,
the next step is I need togo to places that I haven't been
before, and I would like tomaximize the legs that I get in this
(13:58):
past, which I clearly could havea better job and use all ten but
it was like a balance of timeand whatnot, and so there are three
routes I could have gone. Icould have taken a more southern route.
I could have gone like straight throughthe middle of the country through the Rockies,
or I could have done this northernroute. And so I think I
ended up choosing the northern route becausethat was an opportunity. Those were states
(14:20):
like I hadn't explored at all,So it was really just an opportunity to
see some new places I've traveled likeby car through the middle of the country
previously. So I'm like, oh, maybe that's sort of similar, you
know, get to see the sceneryand whatnot. And I used to live
in Texas, and so I'm like, I don't need to go that way
again. I'm good. I currentlylive in Texas, so we're gonna totally
(14:46):
cut that part. In Austin,that's pretty much the Bay Area, an
extended Bay Area territory. Yeah,if I lived in Austin, it would
be a different story, but Imean, I'm familiar with the state,
and so also it was September.I'm like, I'm ready for some fall
weather. I don't want to besuper hot the whole time. So I
went north and within the route,you can only stop where the train stops,
(15:11):
of course, and so the trainonly goes once per day in each
direction because of like the length ofthis journey, And so I started looking
at places I wanted to go,and I realized I needed to time it
properly, so when the train wouldarrive. For example, I was considering
Fargo, North Dakota. I'm like, that would be cool, But the
train got in at three am,and it would also depart at three am,
(15:35):
which would make it a little bittricky logistically that I'm showing up in
the middle of the night for ina new city that I don't know.
I would I have a hotel.Am I paying for a full night at
hotel when I'm staying for when I'marriving at three in the morning and then
I'm leaving at three in the morning. Like, do I just store my
luggage and stay out all night.No, I'm thirty five, so no.
(15:56):
Like So it was just a lotof logistics that went into that,
And so that's sort of how Iended up making my decisions, so based
on timing, based on places thatinterest me and the things that I wanted
to be doing, which is mostlylike outdoor activities and things like that.
And I want to talk about thosefirst two cities that you visited, because
I think most people are very familiarwith Seattle, Washington the other two.
(16:19):
There's gotta be more, in myopinion, there's gotta be more purpose to
the trip if you're going to visitMilwaukee and the other city. When we
did our pre interview, we talkedabout Milwaukee and maybe thank you Max Fargo
when we or was it Whitefish Montana? Whitefish Whitefish? Oh, not listening
(16:41):
my friend, Okay, But whenwe had our pre interview, we talked
about Milwaukee and we felt a littlebit differently. But maybe that decision we
can attribute to weather in the timeof the year that we went. I
went in March. You went inAugust, September. So what is there
to do in Milwaukee, Wisconsin thatyou would tell our listeners like, hey,
(17:03):
it's worth checking out. So myfavorite activity in Milwaukee is that you
can kayak on the river and theriver goes through the city, so it's
a way to sight see from thewater, and you like during this time
of year, they were having concertson the river, so like little barges
or pontoons or whatever with bands onit and you can just like row and
(17:26):
follow along and you can dock yourkayak and go to lunch and grab a
beer and then get back in andcontinue you're kayaking. So to me,
that was like the most fun thingin the coolest way to see the city.
And I'm like, there's a lotof cities that have rivers, but
I've never done it, Like I'venever done this. I've never been able
to kayak and just like get outand then come back and it's still there
(17:48):
and like all these things stuff.It was a really unique thing. And
then if you like beer, there'sa lot of breweries. I mean it's
the home of Paths and they havereally interesting history tours and trying to think
what else I did. I wenton a Jeffrey Dahmer walking tour, which
was interesting. It was before theNetflix show came out, so that was
(18:10):
interesting as well, and like itwasn't disrespectful in any way where like there
it's related to like honor the victimsand stuff like that and just like keep
them their memory alive and things likethat. So that was cool too.
You had me at kayaking. Thatsounds like a lot of fun. That's
shed She had me at Paths.But I think I went on the Sam
(18:32):
Adams Tour or something like that.When I was there, I can't really
remember the brewery, but I alsoknow like Budweiser and bud Light and some
of those have their factories there inMilwaukee. So definitely a pub town for
sure, pub city for sure.But now moving on to Whitefish, Montana.
(18:52):
But what what someone that's never heardof Montana specifically Whitefish because I think
it's a smaller city compared to someof the other the ones you could visit,
made that an attractive destination. Sowell, the train doesn't actually go
through Montana's bigger cities. And forme, I'm a I really like hiking
and what I wanted to do.It's pretty close to Glacier National Park,
(19:15):
but the time of my trip wasduring like the rental car shortage and stuff
like that, so it didn't workout for me to be able to rent
a car and go to Glacier.But it's such a cute little town and
there's small hikes and stuff, soI was able to get around without a
vehicle at all, walk to differenthikes and just be outside and like it
(19:37):
just feels fresh. I don't knowhow to describe it. It's just nice
it's so different from living in thecity and things like that, so I
really enjoyed it. And also likesmall breweries and like small business ice cream
shops, mom and pop places.It's cute and looks sort of like Western
movie esque in the downtown, andit's different. You mentioned and the option
(20:00):
of driving across the US, andI've done that a couple of times,
and I know, especially on theeighty going through a number of states,
it can get very lonely and boring, and you're kind of putting this mental
energy forward to be alert and youknow, make you know, quick decisions
while you're driving. Amtrak's amazing becauseyou're sitting there. You can read,
you can nap, you can watcha show, you can look out the
window, you can do all thesethings. Did you have any reservations about
(20:25):
booking this type of trip, likethis trip in particular, And if you
didn't, what reservations did other peoplehave when you spoke to them about this
trip? So I didn't have anyreservations, just because like, I'm very
content being by myself and sitting forlong periods of time, Like I'm just
cool with it. I guess myonly concern was I was working remotely part
(20:51):
time, and I'm like, thisis a long time to be on the
train. I'm going to need tocoordinate my working schedule because not all Amtrak
trains have Wi Fi and I didn'tknow that. Yeah, and the ones
that do, it's not always thebest end, like you can't hit dead
zones. So I guess that wasa slight reservation, but not reservation enough
to hold me back. Other peopleare like, that's so boring, like
(21:11):
what are you doing? Just fly? You're wasting so much time, But
that's not how I see it.So to be able to look out the
window, to be able to justbe I love it. That's I've traveled
in like overlands, not necessarily ona train, but extensively all over the
world, and it's one of myfavorite ways to see places. And I
(21:32):
think both of you are alluring tothis or sorry alluding to this next point
or question that I have, AndI want to talk about the actual experience
because I think the way you're describingit, and it's fair to say this
can be an easily romanticized version oftravel. On the one hand, you
do get a lot of beautiful viewsalong the ways and take a lot of
(21:53):
time to self reflect. But onthe other hand, there's a lot of
waiting and waiting and waiting to getto your next destination. So what are
you doing in the you know,what was the longest part that you had
to stay in the train and whatwere you doing to you know, either
keep busy or keep your mind distractedor not distracted if you were just trying
(22:15):
to zone out. So my longestleg that I was on the train was
thirty hours, and most of itit's really long, but at that point,
like it didn't feel as long asit was. And so for me
anyway, especially if I'm driving,if I'm in any sort of moving vehicle,
(22:36):
it gets to a point where I'mlike, I could keep doing this,
even flights, Like I like longflights. I Am like, i
could watch another movie, i couldhave another meal, Like I'm totally fine
with it. So as like thetime passes, I'm like, I could
do this longer and longer. Ithink not everyone is like me, but
so. And the other thing isI can't read on the train, like
(22:56):
it makes me a little bit nauseous, So I really just looked out the
window. During the day, Ilistened to podcasts and that was pretty much
it, and I loved. Onething we haven't talked about that's important to
mention is this is September twenty twentyone, so COVID is still kind of
at the heart of it, orat least there's a lot of restrictions in
(23:18):
place. Can you talk about thatdynamic and how it impacted your experience as
opposed to someone who maybe is travelinglet's say today, and there are no
restrictions in terms of seating the peopleyou're encountering. So I think it was
totally a positive because the trains werenot completely full, which meant that almost
(23:41):
one hundred percent of the time Ihad the seat next to me available,
which was perfect for sleeping because Ijust contorted myself into a small ball and
fell asleep, and so somebody sentme a message and said, that's really
bad and I could have like aheart attack or something, or like a
bud call it a stroke. Idon't know, but I survived anyway,
(24:03):
So maybe don't do that, Maybejust sit in your seat, but that
is what I did. Also,masks were required on the train, and
they came up and down checking andif you didn't have yours on you would
be scolded and then removed from thetrain. So that was I mean,
it was at that point where I'mlike, I'm so glad everyone's still wearing
masks. It felt safer, andso it was just a good experience,
(24:26):
not too busy. And yeah,you know, one thing we haven't covered
on the show, but we reallyshould is there's been a rise in violence
against flight attendants, you know,since COVID started, and even to today
that numbers still kind of holding uppretty high. Did you encounter any of
that on the train when people weretrying to enforce the mass mandate just because
(24:49):
you know, you are traveling throughsome let's say states where it wasn't necessarily
enforced. Definitely, So I didn'tsee any major issues. There's like one
instance, I remember that there weretwo girls that were asked to put their
masks on. They didn't, Theywere asked again, and then like the
one of the conductors came on overthe intercom and said, we threw two
(25:11):
people off the train yesterday and wewon't hesitate to do it again. And
so then they put it on andit was all fine. And I mean,
it was a law at the time, so and I think it's a
lot easier on a train than inthe air. Yeah, if you purchased
the USA railpaths, I definitely recommend, especially nowadays, planning your route and
then booking all of the segments inadvance to make sure that you're not going
(25:32):
to get stuck anywhere, and thenit could just throw off all of your
plans, especially if you have somewhereto be or you need to get back.
And so actually I don't think I'vementioned this at all before, but
originally instead of cl I was goingto go to Portland and I decided to
change it. I booked it already, it was all set, and then
I made a last minute switch.So you can always book and then change
it. So that's also good toknow you're not locked in if as long
(25:56):
as there's availability, you can doit for free. Yeah, mentioned being
able to change your stops and theflexibility there. I'm kind of relating this
to the E rail Pass, whereit's just a pass where the majority of
the trains and destinations you can youknow, you can hop on and take
most trains without having to pay foran extra reservation, which can be anywhere
(26:18):
from you know, two to twelveeuro sometimes thirty, but it's still,
you know, cheaper than just buyingone ticket after one ticket. With the
Amtrak pass, do you have tochoose your destinations ahead of time or is
it you have the pass and it'sgood for ten they punch one once you
get off. How you have tochoose? You have to so you have
to have a ticket for the routethat you're on. Gotcha, So they'll
(26:41):
come by and check, just likenormal if you were to buy a single
leg and so it needs to matchup. Gotcha? Okay? Uh?
And then in terms of the comfortlevel, I think that's really important that
you kind of you know that youbrought you brought up the chair and the
seating. I think they're pretty comfortable, but I'm trying to put myself in
that position and sleeping overnight in themmight be a little tough for me.
(27:03):
But I think that's really important tonote that these aren't, you know,
lazy boy reclining back chairs. Justwant to yeah, wish. How often
were you traveling with someone for largeportions of the trip. I know it
was during COVID, so you mostof the time had a seat next to
you open were people swapping out constantly? Are there any like specific characters that
(27:25):
you are that you wanted to noteor that kind of made an impact on
you for this trip. So peoplelike people use it as regular transportation.
So people would be traveling on theAmtrak for an hour on the same train
that I'm traveling on for thirty hours. So it's really an interesting dynamic,
like everyone's there for different reasons,right, And so just one noteworthy story.
(27:51):
And I don't know how to pronouncethe name of the town, but
we had a longer stop over fora crew change in North Dakota somewhere,
and so I got off the train, I went to a little coffee shop
nearby, and other people had thesame plan. And that's where I sort
of encountered other people on long traintrips as well in North Dakota and the
line who thought we were all insane. And it was just a cool experience
(28:15):
to sort of integrate in that moment. I know, one of the cars,
there's a bar, right, isn'tthere like a dining area and a
bar and one of the cars usuallyso the dining car is dedicated to people
with like room reservation of course.Yeah, Okay, I was going to
(28:37):
ask if you were to you know, hanging out at the bar and meeting
other people who were on for longperiods of time. But it sounds like
you would have to meet those peopleoff during a longer stop at a coffee
shop or yeah cool, exactly,And you know, that is kind of
an interesting observation. I guess thatsome people were hopping in after an hour
because you could almost compare it towhen you're traveling internationally or just even to
(29:00):
another flight. Some people might beon the third or fourth leg of their
trip, traveling for twenty twenty fourhours and you're all fresh, you know,
getting into a two hour leg flight. So for anyone listening, it's
always That's why I always preach likepatience and like you don't know what someone
else is going through. They couldbe traveling for you know, happy reason,
sad reason, and just give peopletheir space and exactly, how would
(29:26):
you compare your experiences on this trainwith ones abroad? Did you take many
trains abroad and would this be verydifferent compared to those or rather similar?
It's it is very different because inovernight trains, it's in other countries,
it's affordable to get like you know, those little benches or whatever, something
(29:47):
to sleep on, something that youcan lie flat, and it's just not
affordable in the United States to purchasethat, so that is a major difference.
And I feel like maybe in India, like they bring you food,
they bring you snacks. Nothing's includedon the amtracks, so it's not a
full service train. It's just you'rekind of off doing your own things.
(30:10):
So it's good and bad. Itdepends on how you like to travel,
and I'm I'm here for both ofthem. So cool. You know,
to the best of your ability,what could you have done differently that would
have given you a more enjoyable experiencefrom what you already had, because it
sounds like it went pretty good overall. Yes, it was definitely good overall.
(30:30):
I think maybe I was a littlecold. I would have brought some
more comfort items. I just didn'twant to be carrying so many things,
so there's a balance there, andI think I would have tried to use
all of my segments just to reallymax that the experience. I feel you
there. I feel like sometimes overplanningis good, even though that's not my
(30:52):
style at all, but just makingsure that you get the best bang for
the buck is the way to go. Yeah, would you travel this way
again or would you take the carride or flight next time you have to
get across the US. It depends. I would definitely travel this way again.
I would choose a different route.I would try different cities. But
(31:14):
it's a fun adventure and the coolthing on the Amtrak website, like it
tells you how booked up the trainsare, so I would try to like
cater it to not a full trainbecause it was nice to have this space,
so the best you can. Theyalways tell you, like you've got
one seat per person, don't putyour stuff on the other seat, whatever,
But they were more lax about thoserules at nighttime, so you're allowed
(31:36):
to kind of right scooch over intothe other seat. But like the train
stops in the middle of to night, people can get on in the middle
of to night, so that isalso something Callie. Before we let you
go, we want to discuss someof the resources you provide travelers. We
mentioned your career break and remote workcoach. What does that mean and how
did you get involved in How areyou interacting with people and helping them achieve
(32:00):
this This career break sure, sothis I mean came about because, as
we mentioned at the beginning, Iwas stressed at my corporate job. I
ended up quitting and traveling around theworld for two and a half years,
and to me, that was thebest decision I could have made. And
(32:20):
it was really cool to have thatopportunity to really see the world without having
adult responsibilities. I think everyone shouldexperience that at least once. It's incredible.
So I've developed courses around this tohelp people with planning, because I
mean, as we've discussed throughout thisepisode, like I guess I'm a planner,
(32:40):
and so there a law goes intoquitting your job and planning around the
world trip. And to be honest, when I did it, I made
a ton of mistakes and there areso many things I would have done differently,
and it would have saved me alot of time and it would have
saved me a lot of money.And my goal is to help people with
that upfront, so they're not wastingtime and money, because it's both those
are very valuable. And so that'ssort of transition transitioned into the remote work
(33:06):
thing. I've found that a lotof people aren't quite ready just to quit
everything and travel, and that theyfeel that they need a source of income.
So I've been helping people find remotejobs, really making people aware that
there are multiple ways that you canwork remotely. You don't just have to
work full time for an employer.That you can freelance, that you can
(33:29):
sort of start your own thing,that you can do part time jobs so
that it fits your desired lifestyle,and not you just find a job that's
remote so that you can travel,because ultimately that usually doesn't work out in
the long run because it's you're stilldedicating all of your time to this job
that might be really stressful, andyou just happen to be in a really
(33:49):
cool place that you can't fully enjoybecause you're working. And just a quick
follow up question to that, ifit's not too intrusive, has most of
your clientele been like a specific agedemographic like twenty to thirty, thirty to
forty forty plus, definitely thirties andup. Interesting, Well, Callie,
(34:10):
thank you so much. Before welet you go, we got a few
rapid fire questions. Favorite part ofthe I'm ready, okay, Cally,
what's been your favorite country to visitso far? I'm sure you both know
this is like the hardest question youcan ask someone. But Mexico is because
(34:31):
I've lived there, because I've spentthe most time there. It is just
somewhere that's really special to me.And I'm not talking like kN Kun,
I'm talking the mainland Mexico, andthere's so much to see there that I
think is really underrated. Okay,cool, good job. Next question,
(34:52):
what's been your favorite dish abroad?Oh? My goodness, Like, so
I love to eat. That's likemy favorite thing. So my most recent
trip rod was to Sri Lanka,so we'll just stick with that theme.
And it's called kotu And if you'renot familiar, it's like chopped up ROTI
(35:12):
like the tortilla type things, andthen it's like mixed with curry and it
sometimes they put cheese in it,like basically laughing cow triangles and it's just
so delicious. I'm so hungry.You see, Max, This is why
I love this segment. You justlearned so much. That cool that that
is now part of my list offoods to try our cuisines. Next one,
callie favorite beverage abroad alcoholic or otherwise. Again, it's so difficult,
(35:39):
we'll go back. So since Ilived in Wallhaka for about a year.
I'll say, mescal and I justlet's go there. We go the country
you want to visit the most,Madagascar. Okay, that's the first.
No one said that one, Yeah, no one said that. Yeah.
(36:00):
And for this last one, I'llgive you some time to think about it
if you need it, or maybeit's going to come right off the cuff.
Your favorite travel adventure so far,and it can't be this one,
even if it is. I mean, this is a pretty good one.
And so if on my answer,you'll see, like I have a little
bit of a thing for transportation,but when I was in Sri Lanka this
(36:22):
May, I rented a tooktok andI drove myself around the island for the
whole month, and that was Ithink that is something that pushed me out
of my comfort zone, the furthestin my travels and it was so fun
and I highly recommend it. Yeah, Okay, if our listeners want to
learn a little bit more about you, where can they find you? You
(36:44):
can find me on Instagram and TikTokat the the travel Shifters, and my
website is travel shifters dot com.Awesome Callie it was great to have you
on the show. Yeah, I'veloved your story and I honestly Lee John,
we should look into doing a Yeah, we should just do like live
(37:06):
recordings throughout the US, just doa huge circle and just do it on
amtrack. I think that'd be fantastic. Kellie, thanks again for being on
the show and sharing your story.We really appreciate it to all of our
listeners. If you want to findout a little more about us, you
can visit our website at www dotGTS podcast dot com. You can find
(37:27):
us on Instagram or Facebook at GlobetrottersPodcast on Twitter at globetrot pod. Make
sure you drop us a review onApple Podcasts Spotify if you enjoy listening to
the conversation, uh, and don'tforget to reach out to us. If
you have any ideas for future episodes, or just want to stop by and
say hi, you can email usat Hello at GTS podcast dot com.
(37:47):
Editing on this episode was done byour very own Jonathan Orto. Thanks for
listening. Until next time. Four
Welcome back to the Globetrotters Podcasts,the show that brings you diverse storytelling,
thoughtful discussions on ethical issues, andinvestigations into how you can make the most
of an adventure without breaking the bank. I'm your host Jonathan o'diddle and I'm
Max Melganzalez. Last week's episode featuredanother edition of our Layover series, our
monthly travel show in which we investigateall things travel related, update you on
(00:38):
the latest travel news, and occasionallywe'll look into questionable travel trends so you
don't have to. But on today'sepisode, we're speaking with Kalie O'Connor.
Callie is a career break and remotework coach for burnt out professionals. She's
a recovering corporate addict who was addictedto the grind and praise of the corporate
world, which led to a selfinduced spiral of stress. She decided to
(01:00):
quit her job despite four promotions inthree years, and travel the world for
the next two and a half yearson their flights in the Robi. She
finally felt free and quote alive andhas helped working professionals find clarity ever since.
Back in September twenty twenty one.She traveled throughout the United States,
but what makes this adventure different frommost is that she did so on the
(01:23):
Amtrak train. For those that don'tknow, Amtrak offers train and coach transportation
to five hundred locations throughout the UnitedStates and uses ten segments or routes to
get there. Customers can purchase single, multi ride, or a railpass that
covers thirty days. With her USARailpass, Callie traveled long distances and explored
(01:45):
large parts of the United States ina short amount of time, and today
we're going to find out what mostof us are thinking. Why Callie,
thank you for being on the show, Thank you for having me. CALLI
before we talk about your Amtrak trip. There's something on your website that caught
my attention and I was hoping youcould speak on it a bit more.
(02:07):
It reads, we are spoon fedfrom childhood that the social norm is to
go to college, get a job, work until sixty five plus, retire,
and then go on some sort ofleisure travel. That sounds uninspiring,
doesn't it. Well, friend,I have the powerful solution to reset your
(02:27):
life. While I agree wholeheartedly withthis statement, I want to ask,
at what point in your life.Was the coach quote true enough that you
decided to take action. It wasin the middle of my oil and gas
career, or not the middle,I mean the end. It ended it
because I was feeling so much stressat work. I was working over one
(02:50):
hundred hours per week, and like, the one benefit of corporate world is
paid vacation time, which was cool. And each time I took a paid
vacation, I'd experience that dread ofgoing back to work. And at one
point, I'm like, I justwant to be doing this. There are
one hundred ninety seven countries in theworld. There are three weeks of paid
(03:14):
vacation per year. The math wasn'tmathing, and so I'm like, I
need to do something, and ineed to do it quickly or else I'm
going to have regrets when I'm older. Yeah, and three weeks, I
feel like it's being very generous.Usually it's two, right, right,
Like, it's just not it's toofew for especially it's a problem in the
United States. So exactly. Yeah, And you said something that I think
(03:38):
rings true for a lot of travelers, for people that live or work in
the corporate environment, that tread thatcomes with having to return to the office
after spending two weeks in Maui orFiji or wherever they decide to vacation.
Right, absolutely, and so,I mean I've had both experiences where I'm
(03:58):
like, Okay, I'm ready togo home, but then this experience where
I'm like, oh my gosh,I am actually really upset. I could
cry at the thought of having togo back to the workforce and like the
office and stuff like that. SoI knew it was time to make a
change at that point. Totally relatable. Okay, So obviously you're very well
traveled, but this trip is verydifferent from most that we heard of.
(04:23):
Back in September of twenty twenty one, you traveled through the United States on
amtrack. First question out of threewhy, Second one is how did you
learn about this style of trip?Like what inspired you to take Amtrak?
And have you done another trip likethis before? Okay, so I might
(04:45):
answer those out of order. Yeah, so where I don't know exactly where
I had heard of it. Ifeel like years and years ago I heard
someone mentioned like so and so traveledacross the United States on the train,
and my initial thought was like,Wow, that's ridiculous. Would do that,
and then I think it just sortof planted the seed. Yeah,
(05:06):
and it grew. And so atone point in twenty twenty, I was
in California. I needed to getback to Massachusetts, and I'm like,
huh, what if I took thetrain? And I didn't do it at
that point? Which makes when youdon't do something that you have an interest
in, like the interest only grows. And so the seed was still there.
(05:27):
And so come this point, Iwas living in Mexico. I was
going to a wedding in California andmy family's in Boston, and I'm like,
huh, how can I do?Oh? And the Amtrak pass was
on sale, So like the starswere aligning. I'm like, maybe this
is the time. You know,I fly home to Boston, I take
the train across the United States.I didn't. Then I can book a
(05:49):
flight back to Mexico from California.And so that's sort of how that idea
was born. And I forget thethird question. Had you had you done
a similar type of trip before?I know, Amtrak's very unique and so
you know someone compared to doing likethe EU rail and Europe, But have
(06:11):
you done another trip like this before? Him, nothing to this scale.
I think my longest previous train tripwas an overnight train both in Europe and
maybe India, but nothing that exceededtwenty four hours. And we'll definitely ask
you about some of those experiences lateron and how they compared to your experience
(06:33):
on the amtrack. But you didbring up that the rail pass was on
sale, so I wanted to talka little bit about the cost before we
dive into the experience. Did itplay any role in planning your adventure to
California from Boston, which you knowyou said the discount did, but what
were some of the financial advantages anddisadvantages of traveling this way? And what
(06:54):
did that pass actually include in termsof meals accommodations, so that the price
wasn't the primary factor, Like,my main motivation was the adventure. But
if you were consider a transportation fromBoston to California one way, light is
going to be at the very leastthree hundred dollars, and the rail pass
(07:16):
was on sale for two hundred ninetynine dollars, a two hundred dollars savings,
and so wow, that's the bigsavings you know, really played into
that. And so the past doublesas accommodation because you're sleeping on the train.
So obviously if you flew, youwouldn't need any sort of overnight accommodation.
(07:36):
I'm very aware of that. Butyou guys from Adventure, Okay,
so that's what we're right, right, You feel that, And so that
was the main motivation. And so, I mean, I had time.
I wanted to experience some parts ofthe United States, because as we mentioned,
I have traveled quite extensively, butnot so much in the US.
(08:00):
So this felt like a good opportunity. And I just wanted to see some
new cities. And I planned itin such a way that I would be
able to use points to stay inhotels or whatnot, so I wasn't spending
a ton on accommodation and during mystopovers. Yeah, speaking of savings,
was this sale anything in particular orthe past? Just happened to be on
(08:22):
sale. It just happened to beon sale, and it goes on sale
intermittently, and yeah, so I'vebeen tracking it since before I took this
trip, and there's no rhyme orreason as to when it goes on sale.
So I've seen it for two hundreddollars off. I've seen it for
one hundred dollars off, and it'svarious points throughout the year. Yeah,
and you know, I did dosome a little bit of digging on the
(08:43):
Amtrak side to see if right nowit was on sale so we could go
ahead and promote it for anyone thatwould be interested in doing this type of
travel. But something that I noticedthat caught my attention is if you're a
student, there's like a standard fifteenpercent discount on any of the passes,
same thing for seniors. And thenthere's specific routes within the Amtrak ten routes
(09:07):
that one of them could be onsale at any given time, So they
do promote a lot of deals constantly, and even when it's not on sale,
it is a really good deal.So just to give a little background
as to what it is, youget ten segments. So to find out
what that looks like, I recommendgoing to the Amtrak website. But each
(09:28):
time you get off the train,that ends your segment automatically. Some routes
are multiple segments, usually because youhave to change trains, but you get
ten of these, so that's aboutfifty dollars per segment, and some of
these segments are very very long.You could travel from Chicago to Seattle if
you choose not to get off thatis one segment, which is crazy.
(09:50):
It's a pretty long segment. Yeah. Yeah, it goes through quite a
few states exactly. You could totallyjust circumnavigate the United States if you want
it too, for very reasonable price. So it's about putting in the effort
to plan it in the way thatyou want to. So, I mean,
it's great to have it on sale, but I didn't even use all
my segments because I was able toget from point A to point B and
(10:13):
just six. So really there's alot of opportunity to travel for our distances
for a really fair price. Yeah, before booking your ticket, what were
your accommodation offers or extras that Amtrakoffered you that were included or excluded?
Jeff to pay for anything extra?Or was it kind of just a flat
(10:33):
rate and you're sold it's just aflat or they don't offer you anything,
they don't offer you to upgrade,there's nothing, so you just purchase it
and that's it. You got acoach seat and you cannot even with this
task. There's no option to upgradeto the room mates or the little suites
that they have on board, Butjust out of curiosity, I did a
(10:54):
little research on that and to comparethe price of a coach seat those roomates
and whatnot. It's just astronomical difference. So I decided I could sleep and
coach. Let's talk about the snacksor the meals and how you're planning for
that. I know they offer someservices on board that you can purchase,
but the train stop is also orsorry, the Amtrak train is also stopping
(11:18):
intermittently throughout these segments. How muchof a break do you get that you
can, let's say, walk toa grocery store, fill your bag with
goodies and then bring them back tothe train, because I'm assuming that's what
you were doing. So I preparedbefore getting on the train. I brought
everything that I would need so thatI didn't have to get off. So
(11:39):
when I did stop and I spendtime in locations overnight, that's when I
would restop. But during the stopsalong the way sometimes it was like you
have to jump off, Like ifthat's your stop, you have to be
ready or you're not going to getoff, and you're going to continue the
next stop. Other times they havelike fifteen minute they call them smoke breaks,
and maybe we could call them somethingelse nowadays, I don't know.
(12:01):
But and then yeah, exactly.And then I think the longest one was
a crew change break, and thatwas about an hour, so that would
have allowed enough time. But again, you really want to risk it in
the city you're not familiar with,trying to go get snacks and groceries and
staff, and potentially your only rideis about to head out. So yeah,
(12:24):
I've taken the Amtrak a handful oftimes for rather shorter segments, usually
going from Sacramento to Oakland or Richmond. Yeah, Richmond down to San Jose.
And the stops that they have,like you said, the door is
open for all of a minute,you know, ninety seconds maybe, and
so sometimes it is a rush.And I was just thinking if you were
(12:46):
to try to hop off for anhour and go explore, for me,
I'm paranoid. I'm not leaving mybaggage on board by itself, you know,
I'm bringing everything with me, Soit sounds like a hassle. But
the overnight stays sound great. Didyou have days certain stops where you were
there for multiple days or is itjust usually one night and then hop back
on. So I planned each ofmy stops to be two to three nights
(13:11):
to just give me that opportunity tosleep in a real bed, recover and
the event that I wasn't able tosleep well in the coach seat the night
before, and really get to exploreand know the cities. So I stopped
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I stoppedin Whitefish, Montana, and I stopped
in Seattle, Washington. I haveto ask why why those cities? It's
(13:33):
a good question. And so this, like if you could see my brain
during the planning phase, is whereI had the map out and I was
doing all sorts of planning. Andso the main criteria was like get from
Boston to Napa, California for thewedding. And then I'm like, Okay,
the next step is I need togo to places that I haven't been
before, and I would like tomaximize the legs that I get in this
(13:58):
past, which I clearly could havea better job and use all ten but
it was like a balance of timeand whatnot, and so there are three
routes I could have gone. Icould have taken a more southern route.
I could have gone like straight throughthe middle of the country through the Rockies,
or I could have done this northernroute. And so I think I
ended up choosing the northern route becausethat was an opportunity. Those were states
(14:20):
like I hadn't explored at all,So it was really just an opportunity to
see some new places I've traveled likeby car through the middle of the country
previously. So I'm like, oh, maybe that's sort of similar, you
know, get to see the sceneryand whatnot. And I used to live
in Texas, and so I'm like, I don't need to go that way
again. I'm good. I currentlylive in Texas, so we're gonna totally
(14:46):
cut that part. In Austin,that's pretty much the Bay Area, an
extended Bay Area territory. Yeah,if I lived in Austin, it would
be a different story, but Imean, I'm familiar with the state,
and so also it was September.I'm like, I'm ready for some fall
weather. I don't want to besuper hot the whole time. So I
went north and within the route,you can only stop where the train stops,
(15:11):
of course, and so the trainonly goes once per day in each
direction because of like the length ofthis journey, And so I started looking
at places I wanted to go,and I realized I needed to time it
properly, so when the train wouldarrive. For example, I was considering
Fargo, North Dakota. I'm like, that would be cool, But the
train got in at three am,and it would also depart at three am,
(15:35):
which would make it a little bittricky logistically that I'm showing up in
the middle of the night for ina new city that I don't know.
I would I have a hotel.Am I paying for a full night at
hotel when I'm staying for when I'marriving at three in the morning and then
I'm leaving at three in the morning. Like, do I just store my
luggage and stay out all night.No, I'm thirty five, so no.
(15:56):
Like So it was just a lotof logistics that went into that,
And so that's sort of how Iended up making my decisions, so based
on timing, based on places thatinterest me and the things that I wanted
to be doing, which is mostlylike outdoor activities and things like that.
And I want to talk about thosefirst two cities that you visited, because
I think most people are very familiarwith Seattle, Washington the other two.
(16:19):
There's gotta be more, in myopinion, there's gotta be more purpose to
the trip if you're going to visitMilwaukee and the other city. When we
did our pre interview, we talkedabout Milwaukee and maybe thank you Max Fargo
when we or was it Whitefish Montana? Whitefish Whitefish? Oh, not listening
(16:41):
my friend, Okay, But whenwe had our pre interview, we talked
about Milwaukee and we felt a littlebit differently. But maybe that decision we
can attribute to weather in the timeof the year that we went. I
went in March. You went inAugust, September. So what is there
to do in Milwaukee, Wisconsin thatyou would tell our listeners like, hey,
(17:03):
it's worth checking out. So myfavorite activity in Milwaukee is that you
can kayak on the river and theriver goes through the city, so it's
a way to sight see from thewater, and you like during this time
of year, they were having concertson the river, so like little barges
or pontoons or whatever with bands onit and you can just like row and
(17:26):
follow along and you can dock yourkayak and go to lunch and grab a
beer and then get back in andcontinue you're kayaking. So to me,
that was like the most fun thingin the coolest way to see the city.
And I'm like, there's a lotof cities that have rivers, but
I've never done it, Like I'venever done this. I've never been able
to kayak and just like get outand then come back and it's still there
(17:48):
and like all these things stuff.It was a really unique thing. And
then if you like beer, there'sa lot of breweries. I mean it's
the home of Paths and they havereally interesting history tours and trying to think
what else I did. I wenton a Jeffrey Dahmer walking tour, which
was interesting. It was before theNetflix show came out, so that was
(18:10):
interesting as well, and like itwasn't disrespectful in any way where like there
it's related to like honor the victimsand stuff like that and just like keep
them their memory alive and things likethat. So that was cool too.
You had me at kayaking. Thatsounds like a lot of fun. That's
shed She had me at Paths.But I think I went on the Sam
(18:32):
Adams Tour or something like that.When I was there, I can't really
remember the brewery, but I alsoknow like Budweiser and bud Light and some
of those have their factories there inMilwaukee. So definitely a pub town for
sure, pub city for sure.But now moving on to Whitefish, Montana.
(18:52):
But what what someone that's never heardof Montana specifically Whitefish because I think
it's a smaller city compared to someof the other the ones you could visit,
made that an attractive destination. Sowell, the train doesn't actually go
through Montana's bigger cities. And forme, I'm a I really like hiking
and what I wanted to do.It's pretty close to Glacier National Park,
(19:15):
but the time of my trip wasduring like the rental car shortage and stuff
like that, so it didn't workout for me to be able to rent
a car and go to Glacier.But it's such a cute little town and
there's small hikes and stuff, soI was able to get around without a
vehicle at all, walk to differenthikes and just be outside and like it
(19:37):
just feels fresh. I don't knowhow to describe it. It's just nice
it's so different from living in thecity and things like that, so I
really enjoyed it. And also likesmall breweries and like small business ice cream
shops, mom and pop places.It's cute and looks sort of like Western
movie esque in the downtown, andit's different. You mentioned and the option
(20:00):
of driving across the US, andI've done that a couple of times,
and I know, especially on theeighty going through a number of states,
it can get very lonely and boring, and you're kind of putting this mental
energy forward to be alert and youknow, make you know, quick decisions
while you're driving. Amtrak's amazing becauseyou're sitting there. You can read,
you can nap, you can watcha show, you can look out the
window, you can do all thesethings. Did you have any reservations about
(20:25):
booking this type of trip, likethis trip in particular, And if you
didn't, what reservations did other peoplehave when you spoke to them about this
trip? So I didn't have anyreservations, just because like, I'm very
content being by myself and sitting forlong periods of time, Like I'm just
cool with it. I guess myonly concern was I was working remotely part
(20:51):
time, and I'm like, thisis a long time to be on the
train. I'm going to need tocoordinate my working schedule because not all Amtrak
trains have Wi Fi and I didn'tknow that. Yeah, and the ones
that do, it's not always thebest end, like you can't hit dead
zones. So I guess that wasa slight reservation, but not reservation enough
to hold me back. Other peopleare like, that's so boring, like
(21:11):
what are you doing? Just fly? You're wasting so much time, But
that's not how I see it.So to be able to look out the
window, to be able to justbe I love it. That's I've traveled
in like overlands, not necessarily ona train, but extensively all over the
world, and it's one of myfavorite ways to see places. And I
(21:32):
think both of you are alluring tothis or sorry alluding to this next point
or question that I have, AndI want to talk about the actual experience
because I think the way you're describingit, and it's fair to say this
can be an easily romanticized version oftravel. On the one hand, you
do get a lot of beautiful viewsalong the ways and take a lot of
(21:53):
time to self reflect. But onthe other hand, there's a lot of
waiting and waiting and waiting to getto your next destination. So what are
you doing in the you know,what was the longest part that you had
to stay in the train and whatwere you doing to you know, either
keep busy or keep your mind distractedor not distracted if you were just trying
(22:15):
to zone out. So my longestleg that I was on the train was
thirty hours, and most of itit's really long, but at that point,
like it didn't feel as long asit was. And so for me
anyway, especially if I'm driving,if I'm in any sort of moving vehicle,
(22:36):
it gets to a point where I'mlike, I could keep doing this,
even flights, Like I like longflights. I Am like, i
could watch another movie, i couldhave another meal, Like I'm totally fine
with it. So as like thetime passes, I'm like, I could
do this longer and longer. Ithink not everyone is like me, but
so. And the other thing isI can't read on the train, like
(22:56):
it makes me a little bit nauseous, So I really just looked out the
window. During the day, Ilistened to podcasts and that was pretty much
it, and I loved. Onething we haven't talked about that's important to
mention is this is September twenty twentyone, so COVID is still kind of
at the heart of it, orat least there's a lot of restrictions in
(23:18):
place. Can you talk about thatdynamic and how it impacted your experience as
opposed to someone who maybe is travelinglet's say today, and there are no
restrictions in terms of seating the peopleyou're encountering. So I think it was
totally a positive because the trains werenot completely full, which meant that almost
(23:41):
one hundred percent of the time Ihad the seat next to me available,
which was perfect for sleeping because Ijust contorted myself into a small ball and
fell asleep, and so somebody sentme a message and said, that's really
bad and I could have like aheart attack or something, or like a
bud call it a stroke. Idon't know, but I survived anyway,
(24:03):
So maybe don't do that, Maybejust sit in your seat, but that
is what I did. Also,masks were required on the train, and
they came up and down checking andif you didn't have yours on you would
be scolded and then removed from thetrain. So that was I mean,
it was at that point where I'mlike, I'm so glad everyone's still wearing
masks. It felt safer, andso it was just a good experience,
(24:26):
not too busy. And yeah,you know, one thing we haven't covered
on the show, but we reallyshould is there's been a rise in violence
against flight attendants, you know,since COVID started, and even to today
that numbers still kind of holding uppretty high. Did you encounter any of
that on the train when people weretrying to enforce the mass mandate just because
(24:49):
you know, you are traveling throughsome let's say states where it wasn't necessarily
enforced. Definitely, So I didn'tsee any major issues. There's like one
instance, I remember that there weretwo girls that were asked to put their
masks on. They didn't, Theywere asked again, and then like the
one of the conductors came on overthe intercom and said, we threw two
(25:11):
people off the train yesterday and wewon't hesitate to do it again. And
so then they put it on andit was all fine. And I mean,
it was a law at the time, so and I think it's a
lot easier on a train than inthe air. Yeah, if you purchased
the USA railpaths, I definitely recommend, especially nowadays, planning your route and
then booking all of the segments inadvance to make sure that you're not going
(25:32):
to get stuck anywhere, and thenit could just throw off all of your
plans, especially if you have somewhereto be or you need to get back.
And so actually I don't think I'vementioned this at all before, but
originally instead of cl I was goingto go to Portland and I decided to
change it. I booked it already, it was all set, and then
I made a last minute switch.So you can always book and then change
it. So that's also good toknow you're not locked in if as long
(25:56):
as there's availability, you can doit for free. Yeah, mentioned being
able to change your stops and theflexibility there. I'm kind of relating this
to the E rail Pass, whereit's just a pass where the majority of
the trains and destinations you can youknow, you can hop on and take
most trains without having to pay foran extra reservation, which can be anywhere
(26:18):
from you know, two to twelveeuro sometimes thirty, but it's still,
you know, cheaper than just buyingone ticket after one ticket. With the
Amtrak pass, do you have tochoose your destinations ahead of time or is
it you have the pass and it'sgood for ten they punch one once you
get off. How you have tochoose? You have to so you have
to have a ticket for the routethat you're on. Gotcha, So they'll
(26:41):
come by and check, just likenormal if you were to buy a single
leg and so it needs to matchup. Gotcha? Okay? Uh?
And then in terms of the comfortlevel, I think that's really important that
you kind of you know that youbrought you brought up the chair and the
seating. I think they're pretty comfortable, but I'm trying to put myself in
that position and sleeping overnight in themmight be a little tough for me.
(27:03):
But I think that's really important tonote that these aren't, you know,
lazy boy reclining back chairs. Justwant to yeah, wish. How often
were you traveling with someone for largeportions of the trip. I know it
was during COVID, so you mostof the time had a seat next to
you open were people swapping out constantly? Are there any like specific characters that
(27:25):
you are that you wanted to noteor that kind of made an impact on
you for this trip. So peoplelike people use it as regular transportation.
So people would be traveling on theAmtrak for an hour on the same train
that I'm traveling on for thirty hours. So it's really an interesting dynamic,
like everyone's there for different reasons,right, And so just one noteworthy story.
(27:51):
And I don't know how to pronouncethe name of the town, but
we had a longer stop over fora crew change in North Dakota somewhere,
and so I got off the train, I went to a little coffee shop
nearby, and other people had thesame plan. And that's where I sort
of encountered other people on long traintrips as well in North Dakota and the
line who thought we were all insane. And it was just a cool experience
(28:15):
to sort of integrate in that moment. I know, one of the cars,
there's a bar, right, isn'tthere like a dining area and a
bar and one of the cars usuallyso the dining car is dedicated to people
with like room reservation of course.Yeah, Okay, I was going to
(28:37):
ask if you were to you know, hanging out at the bar and meeting
other people who were on for longperiods of time. But it sounds like
you would have to meet those peopleoff during a longer stop at a coffee
shop or yeah cool, exactly,And you know, that is kind of
an interesting observation. I guess thatsome people were hopping in after an hour
because you could almost compare it towhen you're traveling internationally or just even to
(29:00):
another flight. Some people might beon the third or fourth leg of their
trip, traveling for twenty twenty fourhours and you're all fresh, you know,
getting into a two hour leg flight. So for anyone listening, it's
always That's why I always preach likepatience and like you don't know what someone
else is going through. They couldbe traveling for you know, happy reason,
sad reason, and just give peopletheir space and exactly, how would
(29:26):
you compare your experiences on this trainwith ones abroad? Did you take many
trains abroad and would this be verydifferent compared to those or rather similar?
It's it is very different because inovernight trains, it's in other countries,
it's affordable to get like you know, those little benches or whatever, something
(29:47):
to sleep on, something that youcan lie flat, and it's just not
affordable in the United States to purchasethat, so that is a major difference.
And I feel like maybe in India, like they bring you food,
they bring you snacks. Nothing's includedon the amtracks, so it's not a
full service train. It's just you'rekind of off doing your own things.
(30:10):
So it's good and bad. Itdepends on how you like to travel,
and I'm I'm here for both ofthem. So cool. You know,
to the best of your ability,what could you have done differently that would
have given you a more enjoyable experiencefrom what you already had, because it
sounds like it went pretty good overall. Yes, it was definitely good overall.
(30:30):
I think maybe I was a littlecold. I would have brought some
more comfort items. I just didn'twant to be carrying so many things,
so there's a balance there, andI think I would have tried to use
all of my segments just to reallymax that the experience. I feel you
there. I feel like sometimes overplanningis good, even though that's not my
(30:52):
style at all, but just makingsure that you get the best bang for
the buck is the way to go. Yeah, would you travel this way
again or would you take the carride or flight next time you have to
get across the US. It depends. I would definitely travel this way again.
I would choose a different route.I would try different cities. But
(31:14):
it's a fun adventure and the coolthing on the Amtrak website, like it
tells you how booked up the trainsare, so I would try to like
cater it to not a full trainbecause it was nice to have this space,
so the best you can. Theyalways tell you, like you've got
one seat per person, don't putyour stuff on the other seat, whatever,
But they were more lax about thoserules at nighttime, so you're allowed
(31:36):
to kind of right scooch over intothe other seat. But like the train
stops in the middle of to night, people can get on in the middle
of to night, so that isalso something Callie. Before we let you
go, we want to discuss someof the resources you provide travelers. We
mentioned your career break and remote workcoach. What does that mean and how
did you get involved in How areyou interacting with people and helping them achieve
(32:00):
this This career break sure, sothis I mean came about because, as
we mentioned at the beginning, Iwas stressed at my corporate job. I
ended up quitting and traveling around theworld for two and a half years,
and to me, that was thebest decision I could have made. And
(32:20):
it was really cool to have thatopportunity to really see the world without having
adult responsibilities. I think everyone shouldexperience that at least once. It's incredible.
So I've developed courses around this tohelp people with planning, because I
mean, as we've discussed throughout thisepisode, like I guess I'm a planner,
(32:40):
and so there a law goes intoquitting your job and planning around the
world trip. And to be honest, when I did it, I made
a ton of mistakes and there areso many things I would have done differently,
and it would have saved me alot of time and it would have
saved me a lot of money.And my goal is to help people with
that upfront, so they're not wastingtime and money, because it's both those
are very valuable. And so that'ssort of transition transitioned into the remote work
(33:06):
thing. I've found that a lotof people aren't quite ready just to quit
everything and travel, and that theyfeel that they need a source of income.
So I've been helping people find remotejobs, really making people aware that
there are multiple ways that you canwork remotely. You don't just have to
work full time for an employer.That you can freelance, that you can
(33:29):
sort of start your own thing,that you can do part time jobs so
that it fits your desired lifestyle,and not you just find a job that's
remote so that you can travel,because ultimately that usually doesn't work out in
the long run because it's you're stilldedicating all of your time to this job
that might be really stressful, andyou just happen to be in a really
(33:49):
cool place that you can't fully enjoybecause you're working. And just a quick
follow up question to that, ifit's not too intrusive, has most of
your clientele been like a specific agedemographic like twenty to thirty, thirty to
forty forty plus, definitely thirties andup. Interesting, Well, Callie,
(34:10):
thank you so much. Before welet you go, we got a few
rapid fire questions. Favorite part ofthe I'm ready, okay, Cally,
what's been your favorite country to visitso far? I'm sure you both know
this is like the hardest question youcan ask someone. But Mexico is because
(34:31):
I've lived there, because I've spentthe most time there. It is just
somewhere that's really special to me.And I'm not talking like kN Kun,
I'm talking the mainland Mexico, andthere's so much to see there that I
think is really underrated. Okay,cool, good job. Next question,
(34:52):
what's been your favorite dish abroad?Oh? My goodness, Like, so
I love to eat. That's likemy favorite thing. So my most recent
trip rod was to Sri Lanka,so we'll just stick with that theme.
And it's called kotu And if you'renot familiar, it's like chopped up ROTI
(35:12):
like the tortilla type things, andthen it's like mixed with curry and it
sometimes they put cheese in it,like basically laughing cow triangles and it's just
so delicious. I'm so hungry.You see, Max, This is why
I love this segment. You justlearned so much. That cool that that
is now part of my list offoods to try our cuisines. Next one,
callie favorite beverage abroad alcoholic or otherwise. Again, it's so difficult,
(35:39):
we'll go back. So since Ilived in Wallhaka for about a year.
I'll say, mescal and I justlet's go there. We go the country
you want to visit the most,Madagascar. Okay, that's the first.
No one said that one, Yeah, no one said that. Yeah.
(36:00):
And for this last one, I'llgive you some time to think about it
if you need it, or maybeit's going to come right off the cuff.
Your favorite travel adventure so far,and it can't be this one,
even if it is. I mean, this is a pretty good one.
And so if on my answer,you'll see, like I have a little
bit of a thing for transportation,but when I was in Sri Lanka this
(36:22):
May, I rented a tooktok andI drove myself around the island for the
whole month, and that was Ithink that is something that pushed me out
of my comfort zone, the furthestin my travels and it was so fun
and I highly recommend it. Yeah, Okay, if our listeners want to
learn a little bit more about you, where can they find you? You
(36:44):
can find me on Instagram and TikTokat the the travel Shifters, and my
website is travel shifters dot com.Awesome Callie it was great to have you
on the show. Yeah, I'veloved your story and I honestly Lee John,
we should look into doing a Yeah, we should just do like live
(37:06):
recordings throughout the US, just doa huge circle and just do it on
amtrack. I think that'd be fantastic. Kellie, thanks again for being on
the show and sharing your story.We really appreciate it to all of our
listeners. If you want to findout a little more about us, you
can visit our website at www dotGTS podcast dot com. You can find
(37:27):
us on Instagram or Facebook at GlobetrottersPodcast on Twitter at globetrot pod. Make
sure you drop us a review onApple Podcasts Spotify if you enjoy listening to
the conversation, uh, and don'tforget to reach out to us. If
you have any ideas for future episodes, or just want to stop by and
say hi, you can email usat Hello at GTS podcast dot com.
(37:47):
Editing on this episode was done byour very own Jonathan Orto. Thanks for
listening. Until next time. Four
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