S01-E03

It Begins (State Side at Least)

Hi everybody, and welcome back. I am Mark. And I am still Jonica. Let's get into today's episode, because we have been very busy. Very, very busy. Yes, we are no longer in the closet in Pennsylvania. You might be able to tell that the sound is a little bit different. We are at Farber's parents’ house. B & D.

Yep, B & D, in Minneapolis. About a week ago, we left our home of almost eight years, and drove off. And so there, there were a lot of feelings. I think I cried a couple of times. You were emotional, but you're not. It's funny, you're the emotional one, but I get more emotional, I feel like. I cried in the shower. Did you?

No. I have peaks and valleys, but, it was emotional because it's the longest that either of us have ever lived anywhere, that was ours, it's the longest that we have ever owned a home, and it really was a home, and we will miss. We will miss that home, but we will miss our friends more than the actual home itself. Yes, during COVID, we, as many people left their primary residence if they could and went somewhere else, as we talked about previously in other episodes, we absconded to Pennsylvania and during that time, we were very lucky to meet some great people and, and they became very close friends of ours.

This is Tim, and Angelo, Russ, and John and we formed a very tight bond with these guys. And there were dinner parties. Late nights playing Mexican Train. We had some really special times. Theme parties. That's right. We had dressed up Hawaiian theme parties as well. I forget. I nearly forgot them. Yeah. Um, and, and birthday parties with them as well. So it was... Yeah. Uh, Canadian Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving. So, you know, this was our quote unquote Pocono Pod and, and we really will, will miss some of these special times with them. Yes. Yeah. Um, and there's been a lot of byes.

It's been very hard because unlike when we moved from Minneapolis to New York, it's a, it's a quick plane ride, right? Like you, you know that you're going to see people, it's just a matter of when, but it's not as though, you're that far away. But this time we have kind of no idea when we're going to see our friends and family again. And so that is extremely emotional, of course, as we've said many times, we hope that people will come and visit us on the road and we'll meet somewhere in the world, but you never know. And so again, lots of tears have been shed.

We know it's not goodbye. It's see you later. Um, but let's move on to, to happier topics. Yeah. This is an optimistic podcast. Yeah. A sad story. Yeah. , let's catch up on what we've been getting into, over the past two weeks. We kicked off our trip, our United States pre trip tour, if you will.

We know it's not goodbye. It's see you later. Um, but let's move on to, to happier topics. Yeah. This is an optimistic podcast. Yeah. A sad story. Yeah. , let's catch up on what we've been getting into, over the past two weeks. We kicked off our trip, our United States pre trip tour, if you will.

We started in a beautiful city on the ocean, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Yes. We love AC. This is our third trip. To Atlantic City. And since it might be the last time that we were there, we wanted to kind of make sure we did it right, And it did not disappoint. From the first time we went, years ago to the most recent time When we told people we were heading to Atlantic City, The first question, Why?

Why would you want to go there? There are a number of reasons we like Atlantic City. First and foremost, for any fans of Boardwalk Empire, this story was based in Atlantic City. They even filmed the show there during that time. Um, this is a city of boom and bust, right? It is a city that really grew during Prohibition. And in more recent years, it has fallen into a little bit of disrepair. We're talking about the 80s and the 90s. This was around... The Trump era, we'll call it. Former president, invested in several hotels, tried to develop several sorts of entertainment and gaming venues, all of which eventually failed, going into bankruptcy.

Being abandoned. So, they are on the upswing. They are trying to come back. They are really rallying to bring people back. Yeah, there's a lot of new hotels that are, really beautiful. But I think for us, those of you that know us, we have a certain vibe of places that we like.

We always like things with a little bit more grit. Vice. Vice, yes. Uh, interesting people, characters, if you will. It's the reason that we always preferred to go to Coney Island versus the Rockaways. We want the characters and the people watching. Just the amalgamation of all of these different people versus, like, all of the hipsters from Brooklyn in Rockaways, no offense, but that's just much more of, like, what we like to experience, and I think Atlantic City is a perfect example of that, you know, it's, it's Coney Island on a smaller scale, more family centered, um, and you can, you can gamble.

Which is, which is great. So, it's like a dirtier, more rundown version of Vegas. Yeah, we're really selling it right now. I love it. So, yeah, that's what we kept thinking when we were there. Is, it is like the Vegas on an ocean. It is like Vegas with an ocean instead of being in the desert. Not as organized.

Not as structured. Not as, it doesn't have as many elegant hotels. But it still has that sort of seedy feeling, with a little bit of, like, nightlife and fun. More like down, old downtown Vegas. Yeah, yeah, like downtown, like Binion's, yeah, for sure. The other part about it is there's high end dining.

There's also, run of the mill type stuff. There are, several restaurants owned by the late Jimmy Buffett. R. I. P. Margaritaville is there. Very, very fun place. Stop at that Landshark Bar. Yep. But there's also a high end, like I said, Nobu was there, right? We had a great meal. It was amazing. Very good. We like it because you can, you know, you can go, you can sit and, and watch people go by. You can gamble, you can go to a show. It's like Vegas, like we said, just a little more economical. Yeah. And even the hotels, right? Like you have those new high-end hotels that have gone in, but you can also stay at, one of the lower end, let's say. Yeah. So it's, it's very much, yes, you, you can pick and choose how you want your experience to, to play out. So eating wise, we'd love to recommend. The Knife and Fork Inn. This is a old-time restaurant. It has been around since 1912. Think, supper club, old, worn woods, but nautical theme, because it's on the ocean.

We made our reservation on Monday night. Surprisingly, the place was packed. And the food was very good. The drinks were very good. The ambiance was amazing. I ordered scotch and I thought, oh, this is going to be, you know, a very expensive treat. But it seems like they forgot to put any ice and they just filled the entire glass with scotch.

So I thought it was amazing. What a deal. You know, the luck of Atlantic City drew into the food and drink industry as well, apparently. Outside of the Knife and Fork Inn, uh, we went to a show called Hook at Caesars. Thought it was gonna be real cheesy, real bad, but honestly, it was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It was, very left leaning, and very gay friendly. Pretty crude, but funny. Amazing acts. very affordable tickets. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It was, it was a fun evening. Yeah, think like, like sort of vaudeville, uh, burlesque. Smaller scale, Cirque du Soleil.

Much smaller scale. It was a surprising shock of a great show, actually. Yeah. So before the show, as many shows do, they tell you to meet somewhere at a certain time and really it's kind of a ruse, right, to get you to buy drinks at a bar before you go in or they let you in.

Although I think that night they were having some like technical difficulties so we had to like sit in the bar for a little bit longer. But the bar is called Horse Dive Bar. And another fun history fact about Atlantic City is back in like the 20s and 30s, there was an act where a horse and a woman rider would jump off of a platform 60 feet in the air.

So this horse would run up this ramp. To the height of 60 feet, the woman would jump on his back and they would dive into a pool of water that I think was only like 11 feet deep, like crazy. And this lasted until, shockingly enough, the late 70s. I guess PETA must have gotten involved then. PETA would not be happy.

But, walking in there I was like, oh my gosh, and there's all this memorabilia and pictures and stuff and it like triggered this memory. For those of you that know me, I'm a horse woman, I love horses. I make Farber get on horses wherever we go, if you follow me on Instagram and my friends, Courtney.

There's this movie called ‘Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken’ and it's based off of a true story and this woman who did this and the horse went into the water at a wrong angle and she has her eyes open and she ended up going blind and she still ended up like still doing it for like, what 10 11 years after that.

Anyway, one of my favorite movies growing up, loved it, horse movie and this guy sitting next to us at the bar was asking questions about the horse diving. I was like, you have to watch this movie! He probably thought I was crazy. Um, but I freaked out because I had this connection to this memory as a child.

Yeah, Jonica sort of went... There was a regression with this poor gentleman at the bar. He thought he was just asking questions the whole bar was packed with, like, photos and, like, Jonica's memory of the famous horse jumping women riders. It was a little nostalgic for Jonnica.

So, from there, our next stop, was Detroit. Another four and a half hour drive, from Pittsburgh.

I, just as like a blanket statement, have to say that this is the friendliest city, I think, that we have ever been to. Everyone was so nice. We were lucky enough that our friends, Stephen and Brigid, met us there. They, live in Chicago, so it was a quick little, meeting. Quick flight for them, but it was very nice for them to, to meet us there, and do another farewell.

Mark went to college with them, and we've also traveled, a lot together, the four of us. We've been to Puerto Rico, Columbia, Charleston, to name a few. So, good, good friends, and it was great to hang out with them there. But, we were only there for two nights, so we tried to pack in as much as we could, but also it was almost 100 degrees every single day. So... It was a bit painful for outdoor activities, but we did what we could. It also, in the vein I think of Atlantic City and Pittsburgh, it has such an interesting history and also kind of a sad story as most people know. It had its, its boom, and then, it has faltered.

But it does seem to be on the upswing. We stayed in a cute part of town called Corktown, a really fun little neighborhood with lots of great bars and restaurants. Probably one of the only, outside of downtown, I guess, walkable neighborhoods in Detroit. Detroit, obviously being Motor City, is very spread out.

You need a car, or you can take an Uber everywhere. But it's not very pedestrian friendly. And I think to their detriment, because then it just, it is a huge city, but it feels like there's no one there, because it is so spread out. When we were there, Farber booked us this free tour, that was offered by Pure Detroit, shout out to our tour guide, Jacob, who was amazing. He was great. Yeah, and so we toured the Fisher Building, which is an incredibly beautiful, another opulent building, if you will. Thirty stories, designed by Albert Kahn and financed by the Fisher Brothers.

 And they were a big part of the automotive industry when it was kind of first starting getting going. They designed a lot of the bits and pieces of cars. The chassis, the windshields, the windows themselves. They just didn't put the bits together so they worked very closely with a lot of automotive companies.

But then, interestingly enough, GM was like, we want to have the sole ownership of these things that these guys are making so that our cars are the best. So GM ended up buying out the Fisher Brothers, making them gazillionaires. Yeah, back in the day, when this was all happening, they were millionaires, but today they would be billionaires.

The Fisher Building, just so people have a visual, and this is also on our Instagram feed, but the entire building, 30 stories, was clad in marble. Then on the interior of this building, we're talking like 30, 40 different kinds of marble. Yeah, it's crazy. And like, brass, everything. This building, um, as Jonnica said, designed by Albert Kahn, but the brothers, the Fisher brothers, Went to him and said, here's a blank check, make this the most opulent building in the world. And for a period of time, Detroit was the wealthiest city in the world, right? This was, this was like today, you know, like New York city wealth, right? But it was the car industry that did it. And, in part, because of these, the Fisher Brothers. It's an incredibly beautiful building if you're ever in Detroit. Take this tour. It's free, and you get to go up into different floors that you wouldn't normally be able to go into because you can go into this building for free, there's shops in there and stuff, but you get to go up to the third story and the 22nd story and see the view, so it's pretty spectacular and it's crazy cause it's like in the middle of nowhere, downtown Detroit, but highly recommend. Another thing that Detroit has going for it is good food. Food. Yes. You know, that's As we've talked about, it's like a big part of why we travel. So, we ate one night at Marro. It was very good. Had amazing fat-washed old fashions. Very meat forward, obviously. Marrow - they have a butcher shop right next door that they actually supply a lot of meat to restaurants in the city. That was great. We did a beautiful tasting menu at Freya. That was very, very good. Amazing service. I think my favorite meal was at Ima Izakaya. I was going to say, it has a Michelin star by the way. I mean, Freya's been voted like one of the top 50 restaurants in the United States. I think Marrow's up there too, but uh, Ima was incredible.

Our server was quite the character, but the food and the drinks were just great. None of these places felt like stuffy. Yeah, it's very approachable. Yeah. You could wear whatever the hell you wanted. And then we did a couple brunches, one at Dime Store, which was really good, very hearty, hearty food. And See You Tomorrow, which was new, they opened, I think in November they said. Yep, yep. Very southern . Soul food. Soul food, lots of chicken and waffles. Not a lot that I could eat. I had a kale salad for breakfast. The biscuits were amazing. This place was great. And we didn't even really plan for it. We just kind of fell in. Yeah. And the service was incredible. So, go to See You Tomorrow. It was great. We also drank in Detroit. Shocker, right? We love our dive bars. As we've talked about, but we went to UFO Bar and McShane's, very close to our hotel where we stayed in Corktown.

And then our, our fancy, fancy bar that we went to was the bar in the Shinola Hotel, Shinola being based in Detroit. And they have opened up a very beautiful, very expensive bar. Which is why we didn't stay there, um, because we're on a budget. But we did go and have drinks, which were also very expensive.

Yeah, they make sexy watches, they have a sexy hotel. Yes. Just not our budget for this lifestyle we're in right now. No, exactly. But yeah, Detroit had things going on too. There's the Eastern Market on the weekends, which is like this very large farmer's market, with food trucks and stuff. There was a jazz festival going on along the river, as you look over to the other side of the river you see Canada. Farber and, and Steven ate many Coney dogs. Coney dogs, different than Coney, than the Chicago dog or Coney Island. Different than Nathan's. Chili. Chili and mustard. And onions. And onions. Yes. They had to try several to see which one was the best. Disgusting. I did not partake, obviously. But you, you guys ate a couple of them. Steven and I enjoyed some, some Coney dogs. Yeah. That was great. So sum it up, Detroit, great. Highly recommend. Go there for a weekend. Beautiful city, lovely people, good food, good things to do.

So after A. C. we drove back to our home in Poconos, packed up our personal belongings, and prepared to leave the Grouse House. It is called the Grouse House because it was located on Ruffed Grouse Road.

So it got its little nickname. We're sad she's gone, but a little over a week later, we left and we drove on our way to Minneapolis. When we drove to New York City from Minneapolis, oh, back 2012, when we did our departure, we drove straight through in a U Haul truck and bringing with us our little dog. Mr. Lunch. R. I. P. Lunch. He was in the middle, between the two seats of this U Haul van driving out to the East Coast.

We did it in two days, literally stopping one night, a couple hours, and just kept going. This time around we said, what's the rush? We didn't have the adrenaline like we had when we were in our 30s or like when we were on our route to New York City to live in the big city.

The excitement. We just wanted to get there. Yes, we decided, listen, this time let's take a little bit more time to make our way back. And let's see some places, that we've never been to. Let's meet up with some old friends along the way.

We were just discussing our departure from Pennsylvania and starting out on this road trip. And our first stop. Not too far away, just far enough. Four and a half hours from the Poconos. We arrived, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We've never been there. We roll in and all of a sudden we notice there is a contingent of country music fans, and we didn't know what was going on. It was lots of sparkled cowgirl hats, fringe, rhinestones, hot pink. This was not like traditional cowboy, like it wasn't worn in. No, this was uh, cowboy, this was, I went to the store and just bought these cowboy boots.

And so, we had no idea. We had no idea what was going on, but obviously there was something country related. And who was performing, but the one and only Morgan Wallen. We had no idea. No idea. We learned that day, who he was. Yep. Still don't really know. So we get into Pittsburgh, and... We don't listen to country. Yeah, full disclosure. No shame if you do, and if you love it, but we just had no idea.

We stayed at the Omni William Penn Hotel. This place is opulent. Yeah. The building of the hotel goes back to 1916. It was designed by Joseph Urban in this Beaux Arts style. Very common for that era. It's massive. It's 1, 600 rooms. It has a whole city block. Yeah, it's a whole city block. It has several restaurants in it. Several ballrooms, um, the most ornate lobby I've ever seen for a hotel. The history behind this, clearly Omni's new, but it has been the William Penn since 1916. It was financed by Henry Frick, as some people might know from the Frick Museum in Manhattan. Um, sort of a founding father of the industrial age. Met up with Dale Carnegie, invented U. S. Steel, so he had the money for this place. And it's still there today. It is a beautiful, beautiful example of Beau Arts.

So check it out if you're in Pittsburgh. We also took a little walk around the area and saw some of the other structures in the city. One building that caught our eye was the PPG Paints building. PPG, paint manufacturer for centuries. They own a lot of the buildings now in Pittsburgh, but this building, all glass, structure, it looked like a castle built out of glass.

Yeah, it was really interesting. From afar, it literally looked like an illustration on the sky, like someone drew it. It looked a lot cooler from afar, once you got up to it, it was kind of like, okay, it's a glass building. It was still cool, but from afar, I don't know, it looked fake. It was. It sticks out in downtown, which is kind of cool.

For some, they may not like it, it may not blend in, but it certainly is a unique structure. Yep. The other thing, we started crossing all these bridges while we were walking through Pittsburgh. And they're named after all different people.

They are. There's the Andy Warhol bridge. Yep. Because he is from Pittsburgh. There are 446 bridges in Pittsburgh. This is more than any other city in the world. In fact, it has three more than Venice, Italy. So when you're there, cross back and forth, check them out. It's amazing. We were shocked. I was surprised. I had no clue that there were that many bridges. I thought Chicago, yeah, makes sense. They must have the most. No, Pittsburgh beats them out by far. The reason there are all these bridges, to kind of get back to that point, this is the convergence of two rivers that come together meeting into the Ohio River. This sort of goes back to how Pittsburgh started, right? We're talking industry, logging, steel, all that sort of thing. Shipping. Shipping on the whole is a result of its geographic location. So, great little city. We were there for 18 hours.

Clearly, not enough time to cover the entire city, but listen, we're staying in a downtown area. We walked along the river, it has a new waterfront, there's a whole section north of the city called the North Shore, which is where the stadiums are, that's where that country guy is playing, yeah, Mr. Wallen, it's, it's, you know, it's very up and coming and cool, lots of bars, and that sort of thing, coffee shops, condos, all that, so, uh, check it out, seemed pretty lively, in short, Good time. Yeah, left a good impression, I'd say.

We were just talking about Detroit, Pittsburgh, and now we are getting into our final two cities on this little road trip to the Midwest. Our second to last stop here, well, we were not there very long at all - fifteen hours. We went to a beautiful little town South Bend, Indiana. Never knew it was there. Well, I mean, Notre Dame is there. That's, that's the only reason I think anyone knows South Bend. Didn't think about it too much. But we were there. This was really a break up in the drive. This was the purpose of being in South Bend. We didn't plan on going to any architectural tours or food, like, restaurant specific places. Just to break up the trip between Detroit and our next location, our final stop. Also, it was the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. There was nothing happening. There was no one around. Most things were closed, so it could be more bustling than we experienced, but um, you know, it was cute. It was a good stopover. Which then brings us to the final destination of our trip. THE Wisconsin Dells.

Yes. So growing up in Minnesota, just three and a half hours away by car, most people have gone and visited the Dells as children. This was like a really typical family road trip. We'd never been there. Just so people get , the visual of Wisconsin Dells and understand what it is. It's the city with the most water parks in the country. It is the, yes, it is the only place in the country that houses this many water parks. So many. Indoor and outdoor. Yeah. The whole town. The whole town, probably two by two miles , we're talking water parks galore, go karts. The Wisconsin Ducks, famous. This is a vehicle that's like 8 wheels and it's like a boat that drives on land but it also goes into the water. It's a duck boat. Yeah. It's an amphibious vehicle. They have mini golf. They have candle stores, you know, they have fudge, lots of fudge, lots of saltwater taffy. What is with fudge? Everyone loves fudge. Fudge is everywhere. Everyone tries to claim to be like, get your fudge when you're on vacation, it's so weird.

 The urgency to get there really for this end of our trip was so that we could get to the one and only Noah's Ark, America's largest water park. Yep. Uh, it's final day. It was the Labor Day itself, Monday. The day we got there. Yes. So we, quickly jumped into our swimsuits, and made our way over to the park as this was the final day, as I said, closed for the season, much of the town also closing on Labor Day.

Yeah. So we spent the day running around, I did a lot of screaming, we laughed, more screaming. It was really a blast. I think any time. As an adult, when you go to places like this, it definitely brings you back, but you also have to, it's weird, you say like, okay, that child is going on this ride, so I'm gonna be okay, but you're very nervous and you're thinking about the ways that you could hurt yourself. But we had a lot of fun. It was also 104 degrees outside, so it was the perfect day to be at a water park. We had a blast. I'm really glad we got to experience it. Nothing like two adults in their forties without children going to a water park. Made me uncomfortable a couple times. Well, you know, it is what it is.

After that, obviously, we needed to refuel. So, of course, we had cheese curds at dinner. The, quintessential Wisconsin... Delicacy. Delicacy. Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. Um, after that, we, of course, went to a couple dive bars for cocktails. And to play pull tabs. Which, are very much a Midwest thing that we love. I think pretty much anyone from the Midwest who frequents dive bars loves their pull tabs. Yeah. And for anybody who does not know what these are, think about , a business card, if you will. Cardboard with three to four perforated strips on it. And basically, it's a game of chance. It's like a slot machine in that you pull the tab, it's part of the lottery or something, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and you have three images of , like a bell and a cherry, a cowboy boot, right? And you want to get the three in a row and whenever you get those three in a row, you win that dollar prize. That's listed on the card. So think about it as a scratch-off game, but old school, and what happens is when you buy your pull tabs, it comes with a little plastic basket, like a fried chicken, or like a chicken tender basket for you to discard your losses in, or your pull tabs, which are not winners.

Yes. But we love it. It's a Midwest thing. It's very rare to see it outside of here, outside of this part of the United States. Yeah. It's super fun. We've been very lucky in the past. I think like one time we won 250. Uh, this time we won 2. We weren't so lucky. I'm sure we've lost more than we've won, but I mean, it's not really the point.

We stayed at a place called The View, which was pretty nice. We had a room that overlooked the river, which was very beautiful, but also fun because we got to watch all the boats. There's like big crazy boats with like three, Um, and all these jet skis and they all just come into this bay of our river and like just whip shitties everywhere. So that was pretty entertaining. And the next day, our last day in the Dells, we went mini golfing at Pirate's Cove. Farber kicked my ass and he won and because of that now he apparently loves mini golf. Yeah, I'm basically a pro. Pirate's Cove is 91 holes of golf. Yeah. There's several different courses. With all the kitsch of golf that you remember, plus a little, a little more, all the waterfalls and the, and the waterways and bridges, et cetera.

Bright blue water. Definitely worth checking out some bright blue fake water at Pirate's Cove in the Dells. Yep. On our final night in the Dells, we decided we would go out to dinner at, what is known as the famous, in air quotes, famous Ish Nala On Mirror Lake. This is a old time supper club in Wisconsin. It's far off the beaten track in the woods. Beautiful, large property. They are known for their famous old fashions and claim to have served nearly 78, 000 this summer alone. They were not good though. Terrible old fashions. Yeah, they were not good at all. Whoever is behind the old fashions certainly does not know how to make one. I don't know how they made 78, 000 of them. Even our neighbor at the bar was very unhappy. But, listen, it's a great place. It's rustic. It's old school. It's fun. We had very good steaks. Yeah. Yeah, all in all we have great two days in the Dells I think it was what we expected But also just a great old American cheesy fun time. Yeah, it was good. So after our two nights in the Dells we drove the final leg of our journey here to Minneapolis like I said sitting at B& D's house So we're here, recording this podcast and I gotta admit, uh, it feels weird being here for a long period of time after not living here for 11 years.

Yeah, it's strange, but, but good, we'll see a lot of people and that'll be great. We are here for about a week and then we're going to be heading to Los Angeles, California to see some friends and family. We go from there to Santa Fe, New Mexico to see friends and family, do our see you later, see you some other times, but not goodbye.

Yeah, then we come back to Minneapolis. We're here for about three weeks for final stages of our farewell. We still have a lot to do. It's getting very real, without question. Jonica's having heart palpitations, some anxiety. But listen, we're making headway. We have our appointments booked with the people we need to meet with. We are working out all the accounts and closing credit cards and applying for visas and packing all of these final necessary steps for our preparation. Y

Ending with our love and learn from the last couple weeks. So Farber, what is your love? So reflecting, on our trip back, I would say, listen, there's one town that Notorious has been called Schittsburg. Um, it's sort of negative derogatory term for the town Pittsburgh. I thought this place was amazing. I'm surprised by the fact that like actually people would not like it, but this town was historic. It was beautiful. It certainly had a section that was up and coming as we talked about that North Shore and I think I just loved I loved Pittsburgh.

Okay. And what's your learn? A week in a car with my partner can be challenging. We just spent a car close quarters. Let's call it that. We'll get ready. I know. I know. Right. I can't believe that came out of my mouth, but I'll pay for it later. Um, I think when we drive, we usually listen to the radio and why we do this is to just kind of get like the local feel of like what people are listening to.

And one thing I can tell you, what I did learn, is a song covered by Luke Combs, this is a song called ‘Fast Car’. Another guy, we have no idea. Country, right? But, it's, it's a cover of Tracy Chapman's original version. And, listen, some things are just good in their original form. So, I've learned that, like, like a lot of historic towns that we recently visited over the past week, the original versions often have staying power for a reason.

Yeah, there's no reason this dude needed to redo this song and there's no reason every radio station needs to play it every five seconds that and I'm sorry everyone, but Taylor Swift take a break take a break I don't need to hear the summer song. We digress. Sorry, Taylor so Jonica, with that in mind, what is your love and your learn? So, my love, um, also has to do with our road trip, although yours was... We're on opposite ends of the spectrum. Yeah, yeah. I loved that we took turns driving. Normally, I'm the driver. We did a ten day road trip around Utah, a number of years ago, and I drove every…single mile. But this time, every other day we switched. And so that was nice to be able to, not always be the driver. So you get to look out and experience where you're driving through. We only got off course a couple of times, which I feel like is pretty good for us.

Yeah, I loved that we, we shared that responsibility. My learn is that in our travels, we need to get better at looking ahead at things and I don't mean like planning, super far in advance, but looking to make sure that things are going to be open, what their hours are. This has happened to us a couple of times like I said, we were lucky that we got there on Labor Day because had we gotten there after that. Everything would have been closed. We would have not been able to go to a water park, and that's the reason, I mean, we could have gone to an indoor one, but like, who wants to do that in the summer? So, you know, we just needed to do a better job of not just assuming that things are going to be open. I think that's part almost of like, living in New York for so long, you just assume that everything's going to be open all the time. Um, I mean, we did the same thing on our honeymoon when we were in Albania. We got down to Vlor, and the season had literally ended like two days before we got there, and so the beaches were empty. Everything was empty, and it was just weird. Made for a rough, uh, honeymoon. Yeah. On my end, I had to make up a lot of slack on that one. Yeah, yeah, that was, yeah, that's your idea.

But, anyway, so yes, just need to do a better job of making sure that what we want to do is going to be open and functioning, and we can experience what we want to experience. And as we, listen, as we get into other parts of the world, as this like trip grows, I think you're going to find that's going to be more challenging than, uh, than you'd like to anticipate, my dear.

Yeah, I know. We'll get there. We'll get there. All right. So that's going to, do it for us, uh, on this third episode of Address Unknown. We're continuing our pre trip trip. And so... We're building on the website. That's still in the works, gang. It's coming. It's coming slow coming this road trip, you know, you can't really build a website where you're on a road trip Not with not with wi fi connection in the dells.

I'll tell you that much so All right. Thank you everyone for listening. We really appreciate it. And until next time BYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!