Treasures of our Town
Embark on an exhilarating voyage through the heart of America's captivating towns and cities with the enthralling travel podcast, "Treasures of our Town." Join your experienced hosts, Craig (Seemyshell) and Joshua (Geocaching Vlogger), as they unveil the hidden gems and extraordinary treasures that lie beyond the surface.
Delve into a world of cultural exploration as our hosts guide you through historical sites, natural splendours, and extraordinary local experiences. All their travels are guided by their love of outdoor games like Geocaching and Munzee. Whether you're a seasoned globetrotter or a curious beginner, our captivating city tours and off-the-beaten-path destinations will ignite your wanderlust and leave you inspired.
Are you ready for an unforgettable adventure? Tune in now and prepare to immerse yourself in the allure of "Treasures of our Town." Let us ignite your curiosity, fuel your desire for exploration, and set your spirit free as we unravel the secrets that make each town a true treasure trove.
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Website - www.treasuresofourtown.buzzsprout.com
Email - treasuresofourtownpodcast@gmail.com
Treasures of our Town
Taking the Leap To Become Full Time Travelers. Featuring MeandHer Travel
who am I talking to here? Is this is this jonah reese?
Speaker 2:I don't know is this you, joshua? It's me, it's me, joshua. Did you catch me longer, kate, don't you recognize me?
Speaker 1:no, not at all. If you're out there listening people. Yes, he is shaved off his beard against against a, a percentage of people that said you should keep it just not an overwhelming percentage, though doesn't matter overwhelming or Doesn't matter overwhelming or not. Doesn't matter overwhelming or not, and we'll discuss it further on the show. But anyway, should we get into the show, josh?
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's get into the show. Do you love to travel?
Speaker 1:Do you love road trips?
Speaker 2:Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.
Speaker 1:And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town. It's a podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.
Speaker 2:Guided by our love for location-based games like geocaching, join us as we venture to some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.
Speaker 1:On today's episode. Josh, we've got some special guests. Is it me and her, her and me, you and I and him and them? You did this show notes, josh. You've got these people on and tell us, josh, more about who we've got on today's episode.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's exciting. It is a long, long time friend of mine and his wife and they have started. Well, more than started, they're 18 episodes in. They have started their own travel podcast. So I'm very excited because I think Craig, I can't remember I think this is the first time we've had official travel podcasters on our travel podcast Actual travel podcasters and I do believe this may be the very first for us, Josh.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest with you. I mean we've had a lot of people on our podcast, Josh. We have We've had like lackeys, geocaching lackeys on that podcast. We've had other podcasters on our podcast as well, like the Van Life podcast and stuff like that too, but I don't think we've actually had dedicated travel experts on our podcast, Josh.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it's so exciting because they have recently transitioned from I don't know what we want to call it nine to five life to being travel full-time travel podcaster. So I'm really excited to talk about them and talk about their journey, and we're going to get them on very quick. But we have something very important to do first.
Speaker 1:And that is, we have to talk there's several several things delays and upgrades I've got a new delay now, josh, as we heard before in the start of the actual episode itself. My new delay is you and your appearance. Tell us about your appearance, josh.
Speaker 1:That's a delay for you my appearance is a delay because my appearance is an upgrade to me definitely not and I'll guarantee it's not an upgrade for 57 of our patrons. I'll just say that there you go. 57 of our patrons think you should have kept it, but you listen to the minority, josh, why?
Speaker 2:I listen to my heart, craig, and I listened to the itchiness of my face.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did shave. I told you you had to get out of that.
Speaker 2:I shaved my beard and you know what? Yes, the patrons said it wasn't overwhelming. It was like 56%. If it was overwhelming, I might have considered change, but it wasn't overwhelming and I would have voted no. So that would have been even more.
Speaker 1:Josh, I'll quickly read out these patron comments. I will do that. Like you know, you got Mike on there. He says looks great on your bra. So that's a yes from him. Waymaker Jan says there are some excellent beard products out there to take your beard game to the next level. So I will say yay, but you do you, bud, I did me, I did me.
Speaker 2:I did me. I listened to Waymaker Jan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got Nesmuk as well, who said should only be one option, and that is keep it. You've got Brenda as well saying yes. You've got Jeff Arba Antisius. He's saying definitely. And then you have Josh. You have the lady contingent I'll say the lady contingent of the rest of the people who listen and watch you as well. And they said, although the beard looks good on joshua, it takes away from the boyish charm of the vg see, there we go, listen to the ladies.
Speaker 1:That's the lesson here, wow wow, really, you listen to the ladies you didn't know anyway. Anyway that I'll be honest, that was I did. I had a different delay, josh, but now that has turned into my delay. So, anyway, what about you? What's your, what's your delay been for this these last two weeks, mate?
Speaker 2:I'm going to do my upgrade first, because my upgrading delay are connected. Oh, two weeks ago you remember I was talking about hey, I'm heading down and dropping off all my son's stuff at college and I said, maybe, just maybe, I will visit the world's largest ball of paint, which was the winner of Roadside Attraction March Madness 2024. And I was like I got to get there just outside of Indianapolis and Craig, you did it, I made it happen.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's like you were a world record holder, Josh.
Speaker 2:That's what you're saying. To's like are you a world record holder? Josh? That's what you're saying. I was a world record holder. He said you're a world record holder for three more hours, because that's when the next person's coming.
Speaker 1:I was gonna ask how long. I was gonna ask how long. Three hours for mind you, holding a real record for three hours is better than not holding holding a world record at all.
Speaker 2:That's what I'll say this is true so I was layer, I was paint layer, uh 30,085 wow, okay, I've got.
Speaker 1:I've got questions before you move on, josh number one, how long did it take you to paint the entire layer of the ball?
Speaker 2:I'd say it took me about 10 minutes and it was such service. This man that owns it, michael carmichael, a gentleman probably in his mid-70s. I'm painting it purple, you know, for minnesota, oh, and painting it purple, and then, as I run out of paint, he comes over to me, he goes here's another, here's another roller. And we just keep exchanging rollers so I never had to dip he was helping me the whole time.
Speaker 2:It was so cool and just like anything like that. The treasure the ball of paint was cool, like that was cool, but the real treasure was this man that since 1977, that's when I was born, craig 1977. Rub it in, josh, rub it in. So it was a really cool experience. I got a certificate that said I was a world record holder. It was amazing and there was a geocache there.
Speaker 1:Of course it was a great geocache, a virtual or just a what was it.
Speaker 2:No, there was an ammo can in the building.
Speaker 1:Nice, did you paint the ammo can as well.
Speaker 2:No, you couldn't, but it was painted yellow and it had a little smiley face on it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cute, that is cute, that is cute, that's fine.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll, and there will be a video.
Speaker 1:Well, then I'll watch that video, but any video thereafter without this beard I won't be watching. Just saying because I don't like the boyish looks of the GCV. Yikes, I like the man that is the GCV.
Speaker 2:All right, craig. What is your upgrade? What is your upgrade?
Speaker 1:Well, it actually runs into my original delays. So the original delay for me, josh, was yesterday. I stayed at a. You know I love my harvest host here in the van as well.
Speaker 2:I do know that.
Speaker 1:And I stayed at a True Blue Harvest Host, which was actually a farm, josh, and it was an alpaca farm at that as well. But I pulled in to the alpaca farm, I spoke to the owner there as well, I patted a few alpacas and then, josh, and then the black skies came rolling over and I'm talking a full-blown thunderstorm happened directly above me, oh wow, and tore off Josh. It tore off my air vent, my big Max Air Fan, air vent. It tore off the lid from the roof. I managed to get it. I was in the middle of the rain and the thunder and the lightning, standing on the roof of my van trying to tape down my air vent. A bit of water got in, whatever. That's the fine. That was going to be my delay, apart from your beard.
Speaker 1:But the upgrade is for today, josh. This is just to go to everyone. If you're doing something on the fly, for instance, or if you're not in your own area, et cetera, et cetera. Look for other ways, look for other avenues to fix problems. Now, josh, I looked at Amazon first and foremost, but Amazon can't post me the product that I needed because it was too big to fit in the Amazon lockers. I don't have a physical address, et cetera. So that was a problem.
Speaker 1:I then went to an RV repair place here in Denver as well. They said, oh, we'll look at it in a month's time. I'm like it's just a vent, like it's a nope, I'm looking at it in a month's time. So I went, okay, I went to Camping World, josh, camping World have, and they said, oh, we can get it in for you, and it's going to be tomorrow, they get it in. I said, yep, that's fine, and the cost involved was ginormous. It's like 140 dollars for a plastic bit of piece. I'm like, oh, okay, I'll get it if I need it. But then I looked over and I saw the full air fan itself that I have was 145 dollars on the shelf so I said what if I buy the full full thing on the shelf and then just use the part that I need?
Speaker 1:He goes oh, you could do that. So that's what I did, josh. I bought the full piece. So now I've got a spare Max Air fan sitting in the trunk of my van and I've managed to replace the actual lid itself. So that's my upgrade. It's upgraded to Tuesday. I upgraded the van Tuesdayvan on Instagram.
Speaker 2:Nice, that's awesome. Well, I'll go through my delay very quickly. So I drove all my kid's stuff, he flew to college and then I had to drive all his stuff down there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is Hayden we're talking about Hayden, my youngest, your youngest, yeah, yes, my youngest.
Speaker 2:And it's a long drive down there. It's like, with stopping, it's about 14 hours driving, wow, which is I broke it up on the way down because the ball of paint, that was smart.
Speaker 4:On the way back, we drove back all the way through.
Speaker 2:It was a long, long drive, wow. And I get home and I go into this house and I think our guests might understand this feeling and the house feels very empty and very quiet and because reese is in columbia, jonah just started a new job in in texas and now hayden is gone so it's it.
Speaker 1:I did see, I did see in texas. I did see hayden, uh, jonah's in texas, jonah's, I did see jonah in texas too. I'll watch his social media as well to make sure where he is and what he's doing. So he's enjoying the heat in Texas by the looks of it. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:So that's a little sad, it's bittersweet. I had kids young and I always knew this time would come. I said I'm going to be an empty nester when I'm 47 years old, and now it's here. I'm 47 years old and now it's here. It came so quickly and it's a little sad, but it's also, you know, new adventures, new opportunities.
Speaker 1:I was going to say is that? Your delay, Josh, the fact that you're in Empty Nest, that would be a lot of people's upgrades.
Speaker 2:That would be a lot of people's upgrades. It's bittersweet, it's kind of both.
Speaker 1:True, true.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Bit A, bit B. All right, these are your friends that you got on for our show.
Speaker 2:They are my friends and they're amazing friends. I would like to welcome to the show Tony and Julie from Me and Her Travel Podcast. Welcome to Treasures of Our Town, tony and Julie. Hello.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having us Thank you guys.
Speaker 2:Yes, this is so exciting. You are the first travel podcasters I think that we've ever had on here, and so, just to start us off, let the people know a little bit who you are, where you're from, where's your, where's your home base, and then maybe I don't know tony can go, maybe a little bit and how. I know tony, which is kind of interesting. We have a long story story together and actually a very interesting one that I've never brought up on social media before Breaking news.
Speaker 1:Tony, before you do, am I going to get jealous of this, josh? Am I going to get you know? Because I thought I was your BFF. But you know all of a sudden now I'm hearing live as we talk that you've got a BFF before me by the sounds of it. Anyway, all right, I'm all ears. I'm all ears, tony, mate welcome, and Julie welcome. Tell us a bit about yourself and go from there, mate.
Speaker 4:Okay, cool. Well, I'm Julie and Tony and I have been together since high school, so we're high school sweethearts. We live in a suburb of Minneapolis Currently. We've been married for 31 years. We just celebrated our anniversary. Wow, married for 31 years, we just celebrated our anniversary. And we have two daughters. So our older daughter is 23. Our younger one is 20. And she was adopted from Ethiopia. So even our children we like to do with travel involved.
Speaker 2:And they have some pretty cool children. If you listen to one of the episodes, they uh, they talk about their oldest child that took a gap year and traveled all over the world and it sounded really, really cool and I was really inspired and I wanted I want to go back in time and try that. That was very so. Do we so? Do we? Well, that's what you're doing right, kind of you know what?
Speaker 3:yeah, this is you know when, when our daughter did that and we were like we wish we could have done that or they had that, it was, you know, structured like that. When we were young they didn't. But now that they're very well defined, structured programs, we thought, okay, we're raising our daughters to go out and chase their dreams and do all the things that they're doing. And you know they, they forego some college. One's a pilot, one's going to be, is trying to be a professional downhill alpine racer, and we're like you know what we talk about them following their dreams. How do, why don't we follow our dreams that we've been talking about for years and years, and so that's kind of where we're at right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, took a page from them, cool exactly. And uh, yeah, you're kind of you're, you're, you're living your own advice, which is good you're not, you're not a hypocrite, right? You're living your dreams right now and I think, yeah, that's, that's really really cool. Well, let's talk about. I do know tony from way back. I've I've known tony as long as I've been a geocacher. Oh wow, he was like one of the few, first few people that I met in the geocaching world, and tony tony's a if I think of adventure, like adventure geocacher, yeah, the picture that comes into my mind is tony, and so he has just a fun personality. He's the guy that's climbing trees and he's he's the guy that's doing all that kind of stuff, repelling off of things and Hiking that mountain, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah exactly, and so I love, I love that energy and so we we knew each other through going to events and I think there were times we we had geocache together.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yeah, oh yes, together, yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:We did MOGA competition, so get this. Moga is coming back to Iowa, by the way, tony, excellent.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I'm in, it's coming back to Des Moines.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so Tony and I were on a team in MOGA, a four person team, and that was the first year we won the four person competition, and we won it because of Tony. It's.
Speaker 4:March, I believe.
Speaker 2:It's March and we, you know, we divide the caches up into different areas of the four different people and we knew before we got it, we knew that there would be some caches on the other side of the water and most people were like, oh, they're going to go around Tony's like if there's caches over there, I'm swimming.
Speaker 3:Well, it was six miles. Well, it was six miles, it was six miles round trip to go along the shoreline, follow the trails through the woods, get to the far end of where we figured there would be caches, and we didn't know for sure, but we knew that there was nothing on the map at that point. So it means they probably have caches over there for this competition. So we went down and looked at the shoreline, looked over there, and we said, all right, if they blow that horn tomorrow and it's time to go. And we pop up on our screen and we see that these caches over there, it's go time. And they gave us the coordinates. We knew that the caches were there and we said, okay, you three guys are going to go the short route around the land.
Speaker 3:And as soon as they blew the horn, a couple hundred people all run in one direction. I turned around and ran the opposite direction down to the shoreline. And we had told somebody with a camera crew like hey, you're going to want to watch this. And they came running down to the shoreline and I take off with my bag. You know, uh, I had it waterproofed with my G, with my GPS, and I mean uh, receiver, and and I swam across the lake, which took me about 10 minutes to get across, but I saved like an hour's worth of time of travel. Oh yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2:Wow, it was so funny because people were like exactly that Tony. Everybody was like where is he going?
Speaker 4:Sure enough, you see him, he's floating in the water.
Speaker 2:And the funny thing about that, craig Tony is now legendary for that. Oh, of course, nobody since then has ever decided hmm, I'm going to swim across the lake.
Speaker 3:I think we beat everybody in time by like yeah, we beat everybody like by 40 minutes, we won.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's the reason why, then that's the case. But Tony, I did actually compete in my very first MOGA this year, believe it or not? Yeah, in Kansas, and I lasted three stamps, uh like treading in a gopher hole and twisting my ankle so badly it turned into a softball of an ankle. So sorry, no, I know, but anyway, um, I know what you're talking about moga.
Speaker 1:But I will say I didn't know that you guys actually did like a reconnaissance mission the day before. Yeah, to say, okay, this is the park, that's, that's some serious business. I didn't see that happening in moga this year. Just saying so, is that going to be repeat? Like I said, we repeat for next year in in tony, let's put the band back together.
Speaker 3:Let's put the band back together.
Speaker 1:We could make it, we could win it and if you get the band back together, joshua, depending on your age because I'm thinking you're the youngest uh, you can be in a different age bracket than two.
Speaker 2:So the only way that would happen. The only way that would happen is if we get like an 18 year old, I'm sure yeah, we had that one year.
Speaker 1:We had uh halloween son because you got to have the average age. But anyway, I digress. Uh, tony, julie, um josh said about you being classed as a me and her adventures, me and her or meander.
Speaker 3:So we decided to do that a little bit on purpose with a play on words me and her travel and trying to come up with a unique name in these days is very difficult, so when we found me and her travel, like that's a beautiful play on words for meandering through the world, I like it. I like it, meander.
Speaker 1:Meander through the world. Yeah, I like it. I like it Meander, meander through the world.
Speaker 3:Josh, you know what? We screwed up all the time and say it one way and then we turn around and say it differently the next time. So we kind of really got to get on that, julie, and say something and come up with one way of saying it.
Speaker 4:I usually say meander, and then I think sometimes you say me and her, but you know, it's both, it both, it means both. So that's good.
Speaker 2:So let's get into that. What you you talked about your kids. They kind of inspired you. You wanted to take your own advice to launch this podcast. But go back a little bit. What was the thought process? You had day jobs, things you were doing day to day thought process. You had day jobs, things you were doing day to day. You're not of like typical retirement age yet, and so what? Take me through the thought process of deciding to do this travel podcast and start traveling more full time. Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we are currently 54. But the last probably decade and I'm sure there's a lot of people who might be able to relate to this but the last decade for work for my husband was very stressful and you know, there were some nights he would come home and he just wouldn't even want to talk and he would just kind of go in a quiet room for a little while and it's just. It was very COVID and elections and just I don't know stress. And there was one day we were sitting on the front porch and I said, honey, we can't do this anymore, like we just can't keep living this kind of life where you're so stressed, like it hurts my heart to see how you've actually your personality has changed and you are frustrated and you're just like not the same person, not the exuberant person that I married and that I know that you are inside and there's no amount of money that we could make that is worth this and I would like to see some changes.
Speaker 4:I think he owned or kind of partially owned, a company with his brother and his dad, so that was a tricky situation and he kind of had to go to them and say I'm not going to do this anymore, and that was a little bit heartbreaking for them to hear, but it was really, I think, validating and a relief for him. And then, in the same moment, I said and, by the way, I've been listening to these podcasts about people who quit their jobs and travel the world and I think you should listen to them and it took him I don't know a few days, and then all of a sudden he was like, oh my gosh, I just listened to all of them and we need to make some changes.
Speaker 3:I was all in to move abroad within about three hours in. I was like, okay, I'm ready for this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it took a while of you know, a few years of getting to a point where we could transition out of that company and kind of set ourselves up into doing something like this.
Speaker 1:So, if that's the case and you know, obviously podcasts, et cetera, inspired you to do full-time travel. Are you more predominantly full-time travel worldwide or are you more domestic related in regards to your travel?
Speaker 3:Well, we love international travel and all that it brings with it. We love the United States and we love traveling in the United States and we have our favorites and all that, and we do travel quite a bit within the United States. But we are really drawn to international travel and have for ever since we've been together.
Speaker 4:Well, and let's say too, like my dad was a school teacher and so every summer we would travel for a full month all around the country. We would have a conversion van and a pop-up camper and we traveled all over the country. So I've seen a lot of the country and Tony's family traveled, so we were super fortunate to be able to see a lot of the United States and take our kids on summer road trips. So we feel like that we've done a lot of that and while we are still relatively young right now and active and healthy, we want to go tackle some of those faraway places that we might not be able to do in 10, 15, 20 years. But we can still go back to South Dakota, you know. So we love South Dakota, but for right now let's go tackle some major hikes and some cool geocaches around the world and do some things that we might not be able to do later.
Speaker 2:Cool. So how long have you guys been? Was the transition from when you'd quit your job to to where we are at now? How long have you guys been? Was the transition from when you quit your job to where we are at now? How long have you been doing this now?
Speaker 3:End of January, so end of January 2025. So it's been six months, you know, seven months, okay, and you know, we say you know we want to be full-time travel. That is a harder thing to accomplish unless you just go cold turkey, sell everything you got and get in a, you know, get in a van Craig. Unless you just go cold turkey, sell everything you got and get in a van Craig and just go. There's a lot that goes into it and anybody that's done it knows what I'm talking about. But that's kind of why we started a podcast, because there's a lot of people out there that have podcasts or sites you name it on all the socials that have gotten to that point and been doing it for years and telling you how they did it.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, we're in it and we're like how do we do it and the struggles that we have trying to figure it out. That's what we're. We're talking about our travels and we're also talking about, hey, what it takes right now, like, oh my God, we had to get insurance. Oh my gosh, we had to do this, and different things that we're struggling with that you don't think about always when you're like, oh, I want to go do that Well? Yeah, but there's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. You spring that up because what are some of the struggles you talked about, like insurance and all those things? What are some things that you're learning and you're like, wow, I didn't think of that until you were like, now you're in it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, one of them, like you mentioned, is, you know, with him quitting his job and he was the primary breadwinner, we no longer had insurance for our family of four. So we had to go get that on our own. And I still work a little bit part-time here and there, but my boss is super flexible, so she just lets me tell her when I'm going to be there. So we, you know, we were gone for well over a month this summer on one trip and we've had multiple trips kind of back to back. But we also have a house still. We've got a very active dog, a big dog, so 12 years old but almost 13.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and our older daughter still lives at home because she's a pilot and finishing up trying to accumulate her hours. So we're still a little bit I wouldn't say bogged down, but we are anchored. We are anchored by some very big things. So we kind of want to fly, but you know, we're tethered a little bit. So we're doing the best we can and because our daughter is here, we are allowed to kind of sneak away for a while and she's here to help with the dog.
Speaker 4:But we also like one of the things we talk about on our podcast is that we find ourselves in this sweet spot right now and Josh, you're just entering into it where your kids don't need as much support from you. They're relatively independent and our parents are still doing pretty good. But in the next five years or somewhere in there, our kids might be starting having grandkids. You know we might have grandkids and our parents might need some more support. So we feel like we have this small window, this sweet spot, to travel now and be selfish and go do all these fun things, because we may be more tethered, even though we are now in five years.
Speaker 1:It's a very good point you bring up too, julie, and that is, you know, that's the whole sweet spot thing. But I always say to everyone out there as well, that is, if ever you're on a flight and you guys know as well, you've done many flights the flight attendant when they're doing their little exit thing and the whole lot, they always say you must put the mask on yourself first before helping others. And so keep that in mind, whereby you can't help anyone else, like in terms of your children or your parents, unless you are centered yourself, unless you're mentally centered as well, you're in a good mind space, and there's no better mind space than actually to live your dreams for those few years that you're doing now too. So a big shout out to you guys as well. But always, always, and this is for everyone out there help you. It's not selfish to help yourself first before you help others.
Speaker 3:just saying so true and and uh, like she said, we are currently, you know, you know she's got a little bit of a job, uh, partially, and I have none, except for a little bit. I'll tell you a little bit later. But I don't call it retirement, I call it quit, tirement, and I stole that from somebody, but it's. I retired from my position of in my career of 30 plus years, but I quit because I still need money. So I'm going to have to make some money at some point, but I don't need to make it in the immediacy Like I can. You know, you make a little nest egg when you're going to go and do something like we're doing, and we know that that may be spent. Or we make money on the way. Maybe a podcast takes off, maybe one of our socials takes off, who knows, when we find a way to make money on the fly as we're traveling, we're going to see how that goes. And that's part of the podcast as well as like, how do you do this? How do you fund doing this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's interesting, because that was sort of my next question. I mean, there's a lot of people that would consider this, but let's face it like the one of the biggest fears is not having enough money. It's a big fear. How have you guys worked through that? I mean it, it sounds to me that you guys have sort of like dipped your toe in. You haven't sold your life, you have a home base still, but still, like you said, tony, you don't. You don't have your, your income stream. How have you dealt with that? What are some strategies? What advice would you give people that would consider something like this?
Speaker 3:Well, the one thing you know if you're going to do it at an age like we are like at 54, you know you're not 65, 70 years old when you're quitting, you're doing this obviously at a really odd time and everybody says don't do it. And we're like what's the worst that can happen? If you always just keep in the back of your mind what's the worst? We fall on our face and we run out of money and we don't find a way to make any money on the fly. Okay, we go back and get jobs. So they're not going to be the job that I had for 30 years, but I can go and find a job.
Speaker 3:It could be, yeah, it could be. Go right back to that. I got tons of people that would say, hey, I'll hire you right now. I'd rather take this shot and do what we're trying to do, and we're doing it economically too. We're not just out there like, hey, we're at the Four Seasons, we're doing some nice things, but we're also saving money where we can to do it. And if it all goes awry, okay, two, three, one year, three years, five years, six years, maybe never we go back and get jobs.
Speaker 4:So I would add to that as well that if this is something you think you might want to do, then maybe get a little side gig, you know, get a side hustle and build a nest egg. So one of the things that I've been doing for the past five years now actually, maybe a little bit more basically at the start of COVID, selling clothes online, so saving clothes from Goodwill, wholesale or wherever I can find them that are in really excellent condition or even brand new with tags, and I resell them online and you guys would be surprised how much you can make doing that, even just part time. I mean, we did a really nice trip to Africa and it paid for the entire thing. So we just keep I just keep socking that money away into a little account and then that's what we've been using to draw from for our travels.
Speaker 4:And, yes, I would spend a lot of my nights and my weekends doing that, but I actually really loved it. So if there was something that you enjoyed doing that you could pick up as a side hustle and squirrel that money away, then we kind of feel like we've given ourselves a year. We're going to just blow this year out and go have fun and we've got tons of really cool things planned and at the end of the year we'll reassess and you know, maybe we'll have to get a little part-time something, something, or maybe in that amount of time something has taken off, but we'll see.
Speaker 3:For example, just yesterday, because I was talking, we were on a road trip this last weekend and I was in a store and a woman was door dashing at the fast food we were at. I said, can I ask you a couple of questions? And she goes, yeah, so I talked her up a little bit and then I realized you know what I've been thinking about, like getting a bartender job or doing something while I'm down and you know, staying here for, let's say, we have a month or two, but nobody wants to hire somebody for four weeks and then have you go AWOL for a month. So I thought maybe I'll do DoorDash where it's completely just when I'm in town. So since yesterday this will be news to a lot of people I made 10 dashes in the last day and I made a bunch of money.
Speaker 3:Not a great amount of money, but guess what it adds up. And I was driving 20 minutes one direction. I checked online, I got two Door dashes going that direction. I got paid to drive the distance I was going Just another clever way of a little side hustle.
Speaker 1:It basically pays for the cable bill. But that's a good point you make too, julie, and that is. Everyone knows them as side hustles, but really they're not a hustle at all. Literally, they are jobs that you can create for yourself in order to create the income that you you need. And, as you said, julie as well, if you like what you're doing, you're not actually working technically you know what I mean, like if you enjoy what you're doing.
Speaker 1:You're not working a day in your life, so if you can do something you love, like you know, finding these really cool old looking clothes, retro clothes from Goodwill, with tags on the whole lot, and then repurpose them to people who are actually going to use them as well, and then you make some money out of them, everyone's happy, you know, and you're happy because you're actually, you know, working in a job that you like and you're literally working for yourself. There's no boss there, it's just you. You decide what you want to work, how you want to work, exactly. Boss there, it's just you decide what you want to work, how you want to work, exactly, exactly. I love that.
Speaker 3:I love that idea we got one more for you.
Speaker 1:Same with DoorDash Tony as well. It's the same sort of thing too.
Speaker 3:We got one more for you that we utilized on this last big trip that we took. You don't go to Italy for over a month without some expenses, right? So that's going to get costly, especially if you're staying in hotels. So for half of it, my wife Julie.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I found an international pet sit. So you know, like here in the States we've got rovercom and things like that you can hire. But internationally there are a lot of groups that are international house sitters, international pet sitters, and you can scroll through some of those. They're on Facebook. You scroll through some of those Facebook groups and see what might be available.
Speaker 4:And when we were going to Italy we found that Andrea Bocelli was going to be playing a concert in the ancient amphitheater of Pompeii. And I pretty much lost my mind and I told Tony. I said we're going to do anything in our power, move heaven and earth to be at that concert. And he's like it's not in our budget, that wasn't in our plan this year. I'm like I don't care, it's going to happen. So in order to make that feasible, I scrolled through and you guys, it was like magic. Seriously, if you put stuff out into the universe, the universe is going to meet you. And right then I found a pet sit that was just outside of Naples, so that's right by Pompeii. It was a two week pet sit that ended two days before the concert and it was amazing.
Speaker 4:So we stayed in this family's home and took care of their cute little dog while they came back to the United States and we got to stay there for free, so we didn't get paid, but we had free accommodations. They let us use their car so we were able to go see some sites and you know, we lived like locals in Italy for two weeks and it was an amazing experience and that is something anybody can do. So if you can't afford expensive hotels, that is absolutely an option, you know, for an international travel. But one of my best girlfriends just booked a trip that I actually found for her on a Facebook group in Arizona and she's taking care of a couple two, three dogs for like 10 days, while the family goes to Japan and stays for free. And she's staying for free and her brother happens to live in the same town, so she's like this is great, I can visit my brother, but I don't have to stay with him, hopefully he doesn't listen to this.
Speaker 4:But anyway.
Speaker 1:It's like a free Airbnb, because we've all stayed at Airbnbs before and literally, if you haven't stayed at an Airbnb before, then you're missing out. But Airbnb is really just someone's house that they lease out for one night, two nights a week, whatever it might be. So really all you're doing is your dog sitting and staying at a free Airbnb. And, let's be honest, who doesn't like dogs?
Speaker 3:Well, when you're gone for a month, you miss your dog dearly, so you want to pet every dog in the world when you're traveling in Europe. People don't pet other people's dogs in Europe, so you don't get to do that unless you're staying with them.
Speaker 4:Yes, perfect, perfect, I like it, perfect, so she was adorable and now we miss her and we're still in communication. We're still in communication with these people and they have said open invitation. Anytime you guys want to come back, please do, whether it's to pet sit or just to stay with us and hang out like we got along so well. So, so cool. We made friends too.
Speaker 2:It was, it was awesome the thing here is that we live in such an amazing time, right like 30 years ago these things that we're mentioning wouldn't even be possible, like we wouldn't be so connected, and we live in a time where we could just do a quick job and get paid right away and visit people that we don't even know, that we wouldn't be connected with, um. So I just it's just amazing when you kind of think about how fortunate we are to live in the time we live. All right, we need to turn to the travel. I want to hear all about some of the places you've been. You focus on international travel. I've listened to several of your podcasts. I listened to one of the most recent ones, which was fascinating. I didn't even know this country exists. But what are some of the places that you've most recently gone to that would be considered maybe a little hidden place or off the beaten path that maybe not a lot of people hear about? Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:Well, I'll mention this one because you just kind of alluded to it. But San Marino, and it's not San Marino, it's the. What is it, julie? It's the. What is it, julia? It's the Serene.
Speaker 4:The Serene Republic Of.
Speaker 3:San Marino, that's the official name of the country. Wow, and it is an enclave totally enclosed inside of Italy, kind of like the Vatican City is a country, a sovereign nation, a sovereign state. This is a country completely surrounded by Italy, just south of Venice and east of Florence you know two hours each and it is so unique and so beautiful. It is like a fairy tale when you drive up on it and you see this mountain and you know, like when you're watching a cartoon of this royal palace and it's up on a hill and you see the towers, you see that, driving up to San Marino, and you go, oh my gosh, we really are driving into a fairy tale, and you climb up this mountain, which is this old town from 1400s or before. It's been a country since 1400, a republic since the 1400s or 1300s, no, 340 AD. Yeah, okay, I'm really wrong there. Yeah, but it's really a long time.
Speaker 4:It's the oldest republic in the world and wrong there, but it's really a long time.
Speaker 3:It's the oldest republic in the world and most people have never heard of it. Right, really cool place.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so that's definitely off the beaten path.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely. One question I do have as well, tony, and as you said before, you were actually a geocacher. You do find geocachers. Is there a souvenir for that country?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to ask the same question Because I know they found an adventure lab, because I heard on the podcast but you don't get souvenirs for adventure labs.
Speaker 3:So I don't know, because when we were trying to connect on the souvenir, like getting the souvenirs, sometimes the geocaching abroad is, as you know, some places it's absolutely loaded. It's like every 529 feet. It is like right there. Other places when we were in Naples we had to struggle to find them, like you had to go like a mile and a half just to find one. There's like four in the entire town. It's really hard. So when you're traveling and you want to make sure you're finding a geocache because, as any geocacher that travels knows, you got to light it up.
Speaker 1:You know every state and every country you got to light it up. Oh yeah, if you don't find a cache and you didn't go there, let's just say that that's right.
Speaker 3:That's the definition, yeah, so you kind of focus on hey, how much time do you devote to geocaching and finding caches in those areas, or staying on your whatever you had planned for your travels. But we always try and find a, especially in a new, a new place. We always try and find a time to get a geocache, and julie was posting a lot about geocaching, like I don't know if a lot of our followers are going to know what that is as well, so we're going to actually do a podcast coming up on geocaching.
Speaker 4:But the pictures of you finding your caches were so cute.
Speaker 2:I always like those.
Speaker 4:You know he's like all sneaky and trying to pull something out of a wall and I don't know if there might be a spot later in the podcast. We're supposed to talk about this, but I'm going to preempt it and say it now. But one of the coolest places that we found a podcast, a geocache and you guys won't even believe it, but in the middle of Pompeii, like the ancient city that is a national UNESCO World Heritage Site. You would not think that you'd be allowed to have geocaches there, but you are. And in the middle of Pompeii. In this, I don't know what, I don't even know what that area was called.
Speaker 3:It's right by one of the arenas.
Speaker 4:Right by one of the arenas there's a wall and it's hidden in the crack of one of the walls, and so we were trying to be all sneaky. And you know we always have a pen on us. Every good geocacher knows you must have a pen on you, Josh. Did you hear that? Josh, did you hear that you find it in the crack of the wall and he signs it, while people are like walking by and we're trying to be sneaky? But what a bizarre place and what an amazing place to say that in the ancient city of Pompeii we found a geocache.
Speaker 1:Crazy and you literally wrote See, this is the other thing as well. You get people out there and I'll say they're worldwide sort of people as well, not just Americans, but they have been in trouble for literally graffitiing walls and stuff as well, americans, but they have been in trouble for literally graffitiing walls and stuff as well. This way, it allowed you to write your name on a little sheet of paper and then slide it back into the wall where it belongs legally, and you're allowed to do it, and you now your name is forever, forever embossed in pompeii nice, nice true, yeah, like that, it was very cool yep, that is cool.
Speaker 2:So are there some other places? So san San Marino, which was awesome. If you get the chance, listen to that episode. I didn't even know this place existed and you guys did such a great job describing it. Thank you, it made me really want to visit there. Are there any other places that a lot of people haven't heard about internationally that we should know about that you discovered?
Speaker 3:Before Julie tells you hers. I got to tell you, josh, we did that podcast and we also had posted some of that on socials. And I come back and we get back from Europe and a couple weeks later I'm talking to a friend and she goes oh yeah, we're going to Italy and San Marino. And I'm like you're going to San Marino. And she goes yeah, I go, how did you know to go there? And she goes well, I listened to the podcast and I saw it on your site. So they've already booked it. They're going. And I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool, that's a cool feeling yes, your podcast is working.
Speaker 2:It's inspiring people, that's awesome, that was fun.
Speaker 4:I'm like see listen. A couple of people are listening. You're the one.
Speaker 3:You're the one. You're the one that's been close to it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's awesome, gosh, I know.
Speaker 4:So for destinations off the beaten path, I mean just because it's so fresh in our mind, because we did spend a month in Italy and we've been to Italy before, and so this time around we really did try to get off the beaten path and go to places that not everybody has heard of, or maybe they're a little bit more difficult to get off the beaten path and go to places that not everybody has heard of, or maybe they're a little bit more difficult to get to, and that's why not as many people go.
Speaker 4:And everybody's heard of the Amalfi Coast. You know, everybody knows about Positano and Amalfi, but not everybody knows that just above those is Ravello, and Ravello was absolutely astoundingly breathtaking. We arrived, and when we arrived in the main town it was evening, and so the evening light falling on the square mesmerized us and we said I think this is the most beautiful place we've ever seen. We've been to a lot of places, so that is something we'd highly recommend. Amalthi is beautiful, but it's so busy and it's so crazy and it's so touristy, and Ravello is like this little slice of heaven just above the chaos.
Speaker 3:Quite a bit above.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's another 30 minutes up on a bus. It's not the easiest place to get to, it's kind of a schlep. It's worth it, but totally worth it. And so that is one thing I would recommend Skip Amalfi, skip Positano and go straight to Ravello, and you will not regret it because it was pure heaven.
Speaker 1:Well, see, julie, you're just saying that as well. And look, I know you guys are geocachers and a lot of people who listen to this show itself are geocachers and people use they use their geocaching places to find the best spots. But you guys don't just find the best spots through geocaching, do you? How do you actually find the best places to be, like Ravello, for instance? Like, how did you actually get to that part?
Speaker 3:A lot of research. So let's say we spent a month in Italy, we also did a month's worth of research. That's one thing we love about travel is, you know, we get excited about the research and finding cool places. And you know, you know spending, you know, two, three hours trying to find one hotel in one town, like, just make sure you get the right room, the right hotel, the right place, the right part of the town, what activities to go do. And we do all that research in advance. We don't just wing it and then when we know that when we show up somewhere we're going to see something pretty special, One of the resources.
Speaker 4:Well, there's multiple resources that we use, but, honestly, you know, there's so many people who say, oh, I don't do Facebook, I don't like social media, I just don't like Facebook. Facebook is amazing. If you don't want to use it to hear about what people are making for dinner or what their political views are, that's fine, but it is an incredible resource for travel. So when we know that we're going to a destination, the first thing I do is join a travel group related to that place I don't know Canada, whatever. I would look up Canadian travel or travel to Victoria or whatever it might be and you're going to get a Facebook group that probably has 100,000 people that participate.
Speaker 4:And then it's a constant dialogue of, hey, what's the weather like today? What should I pack? What do I do about my visa? Does anybody have an advice of a really great place to stay? And then you can use the search feature for any question that you might want, and probably the answer is in there, in multitudes. You know a great restaurant, a cool hotel, whatever. So that is an amazing resource.
Speaker 3:So we use speakeasies.
Speaker 4:We like our speakeasies. We like hidden bars because you know what it's the element of having to try to find it. It's the geocaching kind of bar.
Speaker 3:It's rubbed off into my drinking.
Speaker 1:Alcoholic drinking, geocaching. I like it.
Speaker 4:You have to go searching for it. Yep, absolutely so we do love those. But so that is one recommendation, and then I like to use Pinterest. Pinterest has amazing blogs that can tell you spend three days in this city, and so you can read it and get some really good ideas. And then you can even search quirky off the beaten path stuff. But Tony likes his TikTok.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, tiktok is the greatest for travel. If you want to find a cool place to go or see something. Yeah, somebody has filmed it and somebody has put a really cool video together about it and it takes you 30 seconds to look at it and then you pin it and then you just start saving them and build your trips around stuff like that. A lot of the things that we've done and seen have been thanks to cool people on TikTok. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's a good point too. And, josh, you know this as well. A lot of people just use TikTok, and especially I mean, let's be honest, josh, our age bracket of our listeners is up there. You know what I mean. Like it's not the young ones of today and there are kind of a lot of them are afraid of TikTok because they think, oh, tiktok is a young person's program and all you do is you scroll upon scroll upon scroll.
Speaker 1:No, it's not about that too. You can actually search on TikTok, Tony, as well, and that's what I'm thinking you did as well. You put in some search words. You know it could be like Naples you know the best locations to eat in Naples and put that as actually a search in TikTok. And all of a sudden you'll get all the same sort of social media as you do TikTok, and Facebook and ChatGPT and all the different avenues in which you can do your research now as well. So it's a research tool program, more so than just literally an entertainment program too or learning how to dance yeah, or learning how to dance.
Speaker 1:You know right, I've tried. Happily for me at the moment, tony, is that I'm an ex-boreum dancer and there's a really boreum dancing at the moment is heavy on tiktok too. So it's like I mean I could, josh, you and I get together next. I could just do some sort of tiktok with a geocache in my hands and we'll see how we go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 4:Put a routine together. Well, you mentioned ChatGPT, and we recently started planning a trip actually one that we're going on here very shortly and we used ChatGPT and said we're going to be taking a four-day trip in this part of the region. Give us the main sites to see the best hotels in from this day to this day, and then it plops up an itinerary for you and then you use it as a jumping off spot. So then you go okay, I've never heard of these places, let's go look at them. And so then you go Google those sites and see if that's something you want to do, and then maybe you tweak it. No, I want less time here, more time there, but it is a really great tool to just kind of give you a start. So, for people who are intimidated by travel planning and maybe they want to kind of start doing this on their own, yeah, those AI tools are amazing to kind of just get you started.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And not only that as well, you can even talk to ChatGPT. People don't understand as well. You need to actually talk to chat gbt like they're a human being and in terms of an all-knowing human being, yeah, like an all-knowing human being exactly. And you've got to say to them, like you know, um, I'm gonna go to, you know, switzerland or whatever. What do I need to pack to go to switzerland? What do I need in travel documents to go to switzerland? You know all of stuff. Therefore, you get everything going, and all that research, let alone. Actually, you know residing somewhere in Switzerland or where you're staying and what you're going to see, even just the travel aspect alone. Do you guys have any tips in regards to what you else do, in regards to your traveling itself, in terms of visas and passports, and that because you do a lot of international stuff?
Speaker 4:Well, one of the things I don't know about visas and passports and that cause you do a lot of international stuff. Um well, one of the things I don't know about visas and passports per se, but one of the things that we have started doing even at our advanced age is we are now backpackers, so carry on only we are carry on only, and this has served us so well because it is enabled us to when we maybe miss a connection or have connection issues or short amount of time, you're not losing your luggage.
Speaker 4:You are ending up in your destination with exactly what you need and want, and that's super important, particularly if you're jumping off at that destination immediately to somewhere else by train or ferry, so it's become important for us to have it on hand. In addition, there have been times where we were able to apply for the first people on the airplane to take a bump. You know so, if they are oversold and they're like well, we're looking for some passengers to get up their seats, which happens, by the way, all the time now.
Speaker 3:I mean it's constantly happening, because they're purposely overbooking planes.
Speaker 4:Last year we made four grand in bumps. So that's another little tip. You know when you're traveling, so we're mobile. So when we say, hey, we've got, you know, carry-on bags only, they're much more likely to choose us because we're a lot less hassle than trying to have somebody passengers with a lot of luggage they have to try and transfer, so it's appealing. So there's a couple tips for you.
Speaker 4:And certainly, when you are on a flight, go up to the front desk right away at the gate and say, hey, is this flight oversold? And they'll tell you, oh no, there's tons of seats, or actually, yeah, we might be. Okay, well, here's my name. We would like to be first in line and typically when we go to a destination, we have a little bit of flex time. We build that in because we're slow travelers right now. We can do that. If you were going for a specific reason, that was imperative and you had appointments and meetings. That's harder to do, but we're flexible and yeah. So we made a bunch of money last year and, honestly, the flights that we took were better.
Speaker 3:They were better seats 15 minutes behind the other plane better. They were better seats 15 minutes behind the other plane.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, Wow. So really the bump itself isn't really that much of a bump, to be honest.
Speaker 4:No not at all. It was great.
Speaker 2:So being backpack travelers that is, you know, that is very amazing race of you all. They're big backpacks, they're big backpacks, so are they on the Amazing Race? They have to carry everything.
Speaker 1:Josh, are you referring to something that we spoke about earlier?
Speaker 2:Oh, possibly. But you know what I think, what we should do. We have a lot more questions to give. I think we should maybe save that for the patrons.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. If you're not a patron, then you've got to become one. To find out how Josh and Tony became friends by the sounds of it. Is that right, josh?
Speaker 2:Kind of Well, we became friends before that. But yeah, there's something very special that we did together.
Speaker 1:Very, very special. So patrons only. But in the meantime that's good.
Speaker 2:We've got to keep going. We've got to keep going. We've got to keep going for the rest of the listeners and not the paper. So you all mentioned your backpackers. I know you're hikers, so, uh, what is your approach when you go into a city? I'm a big. When I travel, I want to do things. I'm not a person that typically likes to sit by the pool there's a space for that, there's a time for relaxing but I'm a doer, tony, I know I've traveled with you, I know you're kind of a doer too, but what is your approach? What are you looking for? You is your approach. What are you looking for? Are you looking for hikes? Are you looking for museums? What are you focusing on in that city?
Speaker 3:Well, when we go into a new city, obviously the first thing we do is put our bags down and get out and see the city Like we're going to be out there right away.
Speaker 3:So our approach is immediately get on foot and take it all in, because and something that we've done recently is we've been starting to do a tour, like we did a food tour on the first night. When you get somewhere, and when you do that, they walk you around the town anyways and you get to see cool place like oh wow, we've got to come back here tomorrow and look at that a little closer. Or let's go back to that restaurant. We had a sample of food at that place and it was really good. Let's come back here for dinner. So doing something like that immediately when you get to some place, if you're going to be there for three or four days, gives you a lot of insight as to what you want to see that you didn't even know about when you were already going there, yeah, and the history that they give you and just explanation of the neighborhood.
Speaker 4:It just makes you feel more educated about where you're staying and what you're looking at. And then in the next couple of days beyond that, you might realize, oh, that's what they were talking about. Cool, that's so neat. We just saw that. And then talking to locals you know, maybe talking to the person at the hotel or somebody that you chat that is at a restaurant Maybe they can give you some really good local insight of if you ask, hey, what's a really cool thing to go see or do here that not everybody knows about? You know, that would be something.
Speaker 4:But then we always also like to do our research about what events are going on before we get there. Is there a geocaching event? Is there a get together? Is there a really cool concert or show or something that we can see that is going to make our time here even more special? So we're absolutely looking at all of the international events and you know things like that. We've actually customized our trips because we found out there was a really cool concert in one city and we switched everything to go to that and then we had to kind of figure out the rest of it. So we have done like our trip to France last year, we saw an amazing concert in in a Colosseum. That was one of our most spectacular things we've ever done. That was James Blunt. In the town of Nîmes, france it was great.
Speaker 3:But you know, like you know the question how often do you think of the Roman Empire? We think about it all the time because we're going to concerts in Roman arenas. Like we've seen three different concerts in or of some sort in ancient Roman theaters.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm super addicted to it. It's so, so, so cool. It's a weird addiction.
Speaker 1:Well, let's be honest, tony as well. You're Roman around the world just saying Badum po.
Speaker 4:No Well let's be honest, tony as well. You're roaming around the world just saying Ba-dum-bum. No, we're meandering You're meandering.
Speaker 3:There you go, you're meandering.
Speaker 1:See, they are podcasts, Josh, they've got a good callback I like it, I like it, I like it.
Speaker 1:But, julie, you were saying before in regards to how to see the local sites and stuff too. I've only just recently do a lot of domestic travel here, and not just in my van itself, but when I go to big cities like New York City, la, even DC recently for me, and I find the hop-on hop-off bus Is there hop-on hop-off buses around the world, in the big cities as well, like France and Paris, and all that sort of thing? Are they all similar and is that the best way to see it? Do you think beforehand?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there are, and actually there's one in London and actually I don't think it's a hop on, hop off. It's one of their local bus routes, but one of their local bus routes and I don't know off the top of my head what that is, but if you ride that one, it actually takes you by all the most famous sites. So it actually is something you can just get on real cheap and if your feet are tired and or it's a rainy day, it'll take you throughout the main parts of London. So I was like, oh, we should do that. That'd be kind of cool. But they do have the hop on and hop off on. Many, many big cities have those as well. Yeah, and in London.
Speaker 3:another cool thing that we did while we were there last trip is they have Uber boats which, like what we saw it on the, on the on the river, and we're like, so we decided to go take it from one end to the middle, and that's how we, instead of getting on a train or the Metro, we took a boat down and it's.
Speaker 4:they bought some boats and they're Ubering people around from port to port, so you just use your Uber app like you would normally. But then we got to see the Thames at night and pass by Big Ben and the big Ferris wheel thing, the Eye of London. Yeah, thank you, and it was so beautiful and it was the cost of just a quick little Uber ride. It was amazing.
Speaker 1:I like it and that's the other thing as well is that when I was over there, they had the hop on, hop off bus, but they had the extra hop on, hop off bus, which included the um, uh, what do you call it? Um, uh, up and down the thames as well, as many times as you want, up and down the ferry. They have the actual individual ferries as well, but then that's not uber, because you it does have a time limit. You know time schedule. Uber, uber boat sounds like it's. It's much better because it's literally whenever you want. It's the difference. So I like it. But yeah, going up and down the Thames underneath the, it's not the London Bridge, because the London Bridge Josh, did you know this? The London Bridge.
Speaker 2:It falls down. I know that.
Speaker 1:But the London Bridge is boring and no one sees London. Everyone thinks the London Bridge isn't the London Bridge on the photographs. Did you know that?
Speaker 3:Do you know where the original London Bridge is right now?
Speaker 4:Yes, in America yes that's correct Middle of the desert.
Speaker 1:How funny is this, josh? Someone bought the London Bridge thinking that it was the actual Tower Bridge right, the one you always see. They thought American American bought it because they thought it was the actual tower bridge. And when they got it they spent lots and lots of millions of dollars to get over here. They went hang on, that's just a concrete bridge. Yeah, that's the London bridge, not the tower bridge, not the tower. But anyway, we're rabbit holing, josh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, americans, uh, tech. Talk to us a little bit about your relationship that you've been spending probably a lot more time together. How has the travel strengthened your relationship, and I'm assuming it's strengthened it thanks for that.
Speaker 4:um, actually, you know what my wait minute?
Speaker 3:We did just go to Coldplay concert in Nashville.
Speaker 1:So, we are still married. Just want to point that out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, that's good. That's for the current reference. You got caught hugging each other did you?
Speaker 4:You got caught hugging each other On the kiss cam. Everybody was doing that.
Speaker 3:Everybody was trying to mimic. That's funny.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that is because he's he's gotten some of his lighthearted spirit back, you know. So he's, he's not so stressed, he's let go of that. Those everyday worries that he had at his job, those are are gone now.
Speaker 4:And so he's just much more lighthearted and, frankly, more pleasant to be around. Um, so I don't mind him being home all the time and we actually get along great and we have a ton of fun together. And he did set up his little home office studio kind of in our upstairs and stayed out of the one that was downstairs which was mine. So we do have separate spaces that we can kind of you know, our own corners, so to speak, that we can work out of during the day. But yeah, surprisingly, I thought maybe it would really start to get to me, but it hasn't bothered me.
Speaker 1:Shocker. That's interesting, though, what you say, Julie, and you know a lot of people do that as well, and that is they sort of you know, once they, you know the kids, leave the area, et cetera, you want to travel and you become closer in terms of a timeframe, but in actual fact, you realize hang on a second we weren't as close as what we used to be. But the idea, the fact that, Tony, you've gone back to the OG Tony, the one that Julie fell in love with to begin with, because now there's no stress, there's no relaxation, I bet, Julie, you're feeling really, really, you know, like a breath of fresh air, Like, oh my, goodness he's back again.
Speaker 4:This is good he's ready to climb more trees.
Speaker 3:Josh, I'm starting to feel like people were referring to me as a Shrek or something. I mean I was oh, no, no, no, I do feel a lot better, I do feel great and like a weight has been lifted. And you know, julie has always been my best friend and we have always been great communicators. You know, married 31 years, you're not staying together unless you're communicating. Um, and we, it's only gotten stronger, I think. Um, we love spending that much time together. We travel a lot and we are always just the two of us, so I don't even think twice about it. I mean, I know that people have had problems when they retire and they also know they're at home with their spouse and like you're driving me nuts.
Speaker 2:But you don't have that.
Speaker 4:I think we only had one day on our trip to Italy where we were a little bit snarky with each other, and I think that's because we were hungry and maybe, honestly, you know what we don't do good if we don't have a plan. That's one thing we've learned. We're not the kind of traveler that just likes to wing it and let's just see where it takes us.
Speaker 1:That's not us. And we end up at a random bar, you know, drunken under a table. No, that's not you.
Speaker 1:That doesn't usually happen, but Josh, I know right, currently, at the moment, josh, we've got to hit on the show notes as well about these rapid-fire questions. Julie, tony, we're going to test, we're going to do the test now. We're going to do the couples test with you. You both have to answer these questions and the rapid-fire questions are Tony, you're first with this one here. Oh boy, the geocache type you love more, either traditional or gadget cash.
Speaker 3:Oh, for sure, traditional. Do you want explanations?
Speaker 1:No, these are quick fire.
Speaker 2:Me too, there you go.
Speaker 1:They're equal on that one. Josh, you're next.
Speaker 2:Best travel snack trail mix or beef jerky.
Speaker 3:Trail mix. Oh, julie has it with her everywhere we go, so I have to say that. But I would prefer beef jerky. But since we share, I'm eating out of her bag.
Speaker 1:There we go. That's the one All right, favorite mode of transport on your travels plane, trains or automobiles. Julie.
Speaker 3:I say automobile as a pilot, I'm going to say planes.
Speaker 1:There's another difference, Josh.
Speaker 2:And can I answer that too? Yeah, that's one of my favorite movies, but you know why? Because that one part where he says he's proud of his town it's a damn rare thing these days.
Speaker 1:You're not going to put that in there. You're not going to put it about Julie and Tony and their travels and how proud they are of their travels.
Speaker 2:They're not probably. I mean, they're probably proud of their town, but they're leaving their town, so that doesn't really connect.
Speaker 3:I thought you were going to say those aren't pillows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you guys know that I have to get that phrase into every episode.
Speaker 3:Do you? Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's an Easter egg Check, check, check. Okay, most scenic country you've been to.
Speaker 3:Oh, check, check, okay. Um most scenic country you've been to, oh, uh, scenic country coastline, uh, skyline, jungles, mountains. What are you looking for?
Speaker 1:just the overall overall, well, you'll fight. Yeah, however you interpret, however you interpret, I'm gonna say turkey on the forthcoming that.
Speaker 3:I want to see more, but from what I've seen, you're in a spot where you're I know this is rapid fire, but when you're in Istanbul and you get to see the Bosphorus and you get to see the Strait and you get to see Asia on the other side and you're in Europe and you get these mosques and just the music and the bells and the calling to prayer, it's amazing. So the scenery is it never ends.
Speaker 1:So, julie, in other words short answer. Tony said Turkey.
Speaker 4:Montenegro. I'm going to say Montenegro there we go All right.
Speaker 1:One item that you never leave home without Julie. One item you never leave home without so easy.
Speaker 4:Sorry, I'm a woman of a certain age. My portable fan.
Speaker 1:Oh fan, and you Tony Baby drone. Oh fan, and you Tony Baby drone. Oh, the little drones, I like it, I like it.
Speaker 3:We call it a baby drone. We have a lot of drones, so that one's baby drone.
Speaker 2:We've talked a lot about the international travel, but most underrated US city or town.
Speaker 3:Surprising, I'm going to say Des Moines, wow.
Speaker 1:Julie.
Speaker 4:Branson, branson Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, all right, I'm going to be quick as well. Coffee or tea to start the adventure day.
Speaker 3:Silly question. Very, very silly question. Coffee, Because part of our requirements for you to be friends with us, you have to answer five different questions, but one of them is do you like coffee? And if it's a no, you have limited amount of questions you can get right to stay friends with us. So coffee, always coffee. There is no other answer.
Speaker 1:This is true. And coming from the British Connolly, again, I said the same word, wrong again. But I'm a coffee drinker as well. But I will say I've never had a coffee equal to an Australian coffee just yet in the US. Just saying Well that's easy.
Speaker 3:We don't have good coffee. You have to go out of our country to get good coffee.
Speaker 2:Correct, 100% Correct, correct, josh the next one, One town you'd return to tomorrow. No questions asked.
Speaker 3:Sydney, australia, oh, mobile, alabama, oh interesting.
Speaker 1:I've got to, but if you're not asking, questions, then you don't have any context.
Speaker 3:No, no questions. Oh, there you go.
Speaker 1:After we finish recording, Tony, we've got to talk. Next one is best travel hack, Tony.
Speaker 3:Okay, if you're going to fly to Europe from the United States and you are going to do an overnight more than likely you do an overnight because you get to sleep or you try to I would make sure I get my seat on a window on the left-hand side of the plane. And the reason being and get it close to the wing because if you like photography and if you want to see the Aurora Borealis when you go over the polar caps and you're, you know, I just saw the polar caps and you're in the Arctic and you're flying, you know the best Northern lights are going to be on that left side of that plane and they can be at times breathtaking and the photography, if you can pull it off, is pretty incredible and you have the wing as a context.
Speaker 3:So travel hack if you like photography and northern lights sit on the left side of the plane.
Speaker 1:Oh, I like that too, Julie. What about yourself?
Speaker 4:My travel hack is not quite as fancy. Mine would be chip clips.
Speaker 4:I always bring chip clips because you will go to a gas station, open a big bag of chips and then you're like what do I do with the rest of this? Now? Chip clip, you're in a hotel room and the stupid window drapes won't shut and you can't sleep. Chip clip you want to hang up your wet swimsuit somewhere and there's nowhere to put it. Chip clip A million uses for chip clips, especially if they have a little magnet on them. Some of them have magnets too. Even better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good. Or paper clippers Well, not paper clip, but you know the bigger paper clips that you can do the same thing with too. I like it, julie. I like it.
Speaker 2:Josh, I like it. Julie, I like it, josh. One more mate, one more. No, you skipped one. There's two more Favorite travel companion besides each other.
Speaker 4:We were hoping you were going to skip that one.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Julie.
Speaker 4:Because we would just alienate so many people Travel with one another, maybe besides your children.
Speaker 3:Mine's easy, because you can't say one kid over the other. We traveled with both individually. I'm going to say say one kid over the other, and we traveled with both individually. I'm gonna say myself, because I don't think enough credit gets to having a solo travel. I love solo travel that was.
Speaker 2:We have a whole episode on that, by the way.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's good yep, okay, that was what about you, julie, alienate? So many people yep, I'm gonna say a girlfriend. Oh, that's cheating Well you said you, tony, you just said yourself, so I mean everyone. Sometimes I just want to go sit at a champagne bar or go to a tea shop or something, because I do like tea, you know. Sometimes Generic girlfriend. Generic girlfriend yeah, random, girlfriend.
Speaker 3:Can I say girlfriend too?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a different podcast, Tony but anyway. All right, well, last one, then I'll do the last one, that is this is mostly towards you, tony, and that is the biggest joy of leaving the 9 to 5 in one word. One word Healthy, oh, I like it, oh, I like it, yes, I like it. Very good, julie. Biggest joy of Tony leaving the nine to five in one word.
Speaker 4:Flexibility.
Speaker 1:Nice, and not just physically, I take it. But anyway, that's another podcast.
Speaker 3:I have never lost a limbo contest. Small fact.
Speaker 1:Oh, there we go.
Speaker 3:There we go. I've beaten a lot of cheerleaders.
Speaker 1:Stand by. Julie. Tony, stay on board because we're going to talk to you guys in regards to the teaser that you did before Josh, about you and Tony teaser.
Speaker 2:And I got a trivia for you guys too One of the coolest adventures that didn't quite happen, wow, thank you guys for having a son, by the way no, you're welcome.
Speaker 1:Um, actually, before we actually go exactly right, tony, uh, julie, how can people follow you first and foremost, beforehand, before we go to the patron, only stuff, how can people follow you?
Speaker 3:well, it's everywhere we are on the socials and on our podcast is me and her. A one word. Me and her. All one word travel. So me and her travel, and you can find us on Instagram, youtube, tiktok, facebook and on podcast on Apple, spotify and YouTube there. And meandertravelcom, yeah, which we find we don't do as much with because you know what the socials are, so perfectly aligned with trying to get information to people.
Speaker 4:But there's history about us there, that's where we do show notes.
Speaker 1:Yep, perfect. And speaking of show notes as well, everything, all the links for Tony and Julie, and then me and her, are all going to be in our show notes, in the actual links, in the description themselves. But, josh, we're going to talk to patrons only very soon, if you don't want to miss out, josh, how can people become a patron of the Treasures of Our Town podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, if you've been enjoying our podcast, we'd love to have you support us. By supporting us, you're helping us create even better content. Keep it free for everyone no annoying commercials.
Speaker 1:So you can join us over at patreoncom backslash treasures of our town and that's where we even had the joshua the jay cushing vloggers beard review came about, which is now gone which I didn't listen to.
Speaker 1:You didn't listen to and I'm sad to say it's now gone. I'm with the the majority of our patrons out there who say that it should have stayed, but anyway, that's just me. I did enjoy the way it felt on my chin. I mean, like you know what I mean. Meanwhile, josh, how can people talk to us or contact us if they want to?
Speaker 2:Yes, you can reach out to us at Treasures of Our Town Podcast at gmailcom, where you can follow us on Facebook, instagram, youtube or our Buzzsprout site. Just simply search Treasures of Our Town podcast in Google. You'll find us right away.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. That's it for our show today.
Speaker 2:Please subscribe, rate and review on your favorite podcast app and, as always, Josh, may your travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing hidden gems. With me and her around the world, meander, meander, meander.
Speaker 1:Tony.
Speaker 2:Julie, thanks so much. We'll see you next time, all right, thank?
Speaker 1:you. Thanks guys, Bye.
