Transcript
Megan: You know how people always say that when you’re dating someone, the best thing to do is to go on a trip with them, and then you’ll know how they really are? Well, it turns out I’m married for Jenkins, and the furthest I’ve ever traveled with them is about two hours away.
Brett: Welcome to the Discover Your Wilderness Podcast.
Brett: Alicia is still traveling this week. She is out of data range, cell range, so we’re not going to be able to get her on the line. So we’re privileged to hear from my wife, Megan, this week. Megan, say hi.
Megan: Hello, everybody. My name is Megan, and I’m married to Brett.
Brett: So we were trying to figure out what exactly to talk about, and we realized that given some craziness with COVID and just life, Megan and I have actually never really traveled together.
Megan: Brett and I were talking. In the time that we were dating, he went to Banff, he went to Glacier, I went to Greece, he went to Mexico, and to a lot of those trips, there was kind of like an invitation to the other person, but for some reason it just never worked out. And then after we did get married and we wanted to go on a honeymoon, that’s when COVID started playing a role.
Brett: Actually in planning our honeymoon, we wanted originally to go to Thailand, and we said, “well, there’s a virus that’s bouncing around Asia that we don’t really want to get involved in.” It was shutting down some countries in Asia. So we figured, “we’ll just go domestic, we’ll go with Hawaii!” And then that got canceled too, as COVID reared its ugly head.
Megan: Yeah, I’ll never forget the day. So it was like March when we bought our tickets to Hawaii and we figured things will be better. We’re getting married at the end of May, so like give it a couple months, our vacation should be totally fine. And then Brett eventually got an email saying that our itinerary to Hawaii had been changed. So our flights were now only going to Arizona, a honeymoon in Arizona.
Brett: Not quite what we had planned. Also, with all the travel restrictions, Phoenix was not really going to be a feasible option either. So somehow Megan and I both enjoy traveling and have been to several countries each. And yet we are married and have never traveled to anywhere besides Idaho.
Megan: The exotic land of Idaho has brought us twice. We’ve been to there a couple of times. But look forward to traveling with you in the future Brett.
Brett: One of the things that I don’t want to have happen is regretting and saying well we planned a trip to Thailand, but it couldn’t happen and so it never will. It’s still something that’s on our bucket list, granted right now it’s been difficult to try to work in, but it’s still a priority that we’re trying to have held in our anticipation of traveling again in the future.
Megan: Yeah and one thing I appreciate that Brett has done because we all know that in life’s busy schedule it’s so hard to put a trip on a calendar and have a time that works for everyone involved in the vacation or the trip. And so when you do have something on the calendar that falls apart like our honeymoon, it’s really hard to get it back on the calendar. And we’ve struggled with that a little bit because originally our honeymoon was supposed to be in May and then we talked about having it in August and it turns out things haven’t quite settled down as much as we would have hoped them here now that it’s August. And now Brett’s in school and so looking for the next possible opportunity to take the trip is just getting harder and harder. So one thing that Brett has done that I appreciate is he’s kept his flight alerts on so he’s seeing the flights that are available to the locations that we want to go and he has it exploring different ways whether we fly directly into Thailand or look at some other options like Singapore or something like that and anytime he sees a good deal he stops and he brings it up to me and says okay there’s a flights that are available for this price is that going to work for us and that way we look at our calendars and so far nothing’s worked. But one day these flights are going to work and the fact that he still has that alert going for a very specific trip that we know for sure we want to take will be ready for that opportunity when it comes.
Brett: Right. This is the weak point that I have I mentioned this on last week’s episode if I could pass off the responsibility of doing the logistics I totally would because it’s not the most enjoyable aspect of going on a trip I enjoy the anticipation and waiting for a trip and getting excited about it but the actual booking the flight and finding the hotels with the best deals and the places and setting and itinerary is a little bit painful but a lesson to be learned is it helps to plan ahead because as difficult as it is to get something on everyone’s schedule, you can mitigate for that by saying here are the dates, it’s far enough in advance that we can plan on doing that thing so that other activities or other things that would take your time are not yet set in stone or haven’t even been brought up yet. So it’s sometimes tricky for me to remember how early you need to be looking for Christmas travel plans. This is coming out in August and it’s at high time to be considering if you’re going to be traveling home for Christmas if this year’s that’s going to be an option but…
Megan: Or for us, since that’s Brett’s next break in school, is Christmas going to be our honeymoon? Who knows. To be determined. We’ll let you know.
Brett: Yeah. And it’s traveling or planning ahead can alleviate a lot of the stresses of traveling because although, the logistics are not fun, planning the logistics when there’s still wiggle room and when there’s still a chance to let others schedules account for the travel definitely helps.
Megan: And this is where Brett and I in our relationship who knows like we said we haven’t traveled together so we’re still going to discover what our travel problems are together but one of them could be that I am also not a logistics person. But one thing that normally helps for me is if you can just do the first plan like for example by the plane ticket then at that point I’m committed and I know that I’m going on a trip and it makes planning some of the other logistics a little bit easier for myself because I know well once I get there I for sure need to have a way to get to my hotel oh by the way I actually for sure need to have a hotel just so that there’s somewhere to stay.
Brett: Right, and I recommend setting the plane, the flight tickets, first in part because it gives you concrete dates for when you’re going to be traveling when you’ll need your hotels and also the time of day as to when you’re going to need to check in because if your flight is arriving at 5:45 in the morning you’re likely not going to be able to check into a hotel that will have been booked by the time you get there you’re exhausted but there’s not many hotels that are letting you check in at that time of day if you’re getting in 5:45 at night then you don’t need early check in and such so it gives you concrete days and also starts to solidify what that time frame is going to look like a second being where you want to stay the things that the places you actually want to stay with the understanding that if you have bucket list items of locations you want to travel in that time, that’s also going to be taken into account before obviously putting your hotels setting those in stone and paying paying deposits and paying down on those.
Megan: So we started out this episode by talking about how many times people have said that the best way to get to know someone that you’re dating is to go on a trip with them and then we’ve just been reflecting on how we never really did that but I’m actually maybe a little bit grateful because the few opportunities that Brett and I have had to do little overnighters here they’re just staying close I think we’ve already learned a lot about each other and I still always remember the first time we went on a camp out together and I saw Brett’s suitcase and how he packed his suitcase and he it was an overnight camping trip and he had everything folded and placed inside of his suitcase in the order that it was supposed to come out I kid you not he had pajamas on top because he intended to go to sleep before he needed his next set of clothing for the morning and I was just astounded because I tend to pack for overnight camping trips by just grabbing anything and you don’t need to fold it, you’re camping you know. And you can just put it in a bag in fact most of the time I do pack for these overnight trips in plastic grocery bags and that’s something that Brett makes fun of me for. But all I can say is I look forward to traveling with Brett and I think it might be more of an adventure for him traveling with me than it will be for me to travel with him.
Brett: We’ll end this now but if you found any of these tips helpful share this with a friend like subscribe and let us know in the comments or sending us through an email contact@discover-your-wilderness.com, any questions you might want us to address. But plan ahead as as painful as that might be, especially when you’re getting close reduces some of the stress. Also, little extra tip: have a travel toothbrush and travel toothpaste just like with your luggage. It makes it so easy just throw him clothes and you’re ready to go.
Megan: Brett threw that in because the last time I went camping I forgot my toothbrush and I used his travel toothbrush that he had thrown in with his luggage and gear so thank you, Brett. Great tip. Great tip. Everyone follow that!
Brett: In the meantime stay healthy, tell someone that needs some attention that you’re thinking about them, and stay classy.
Up Next:
Don’t postpone listening to the next episode where Alicia takes a trip to Ohio.