Global Travel Planning
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Global Travel Planning
Stamped: Laura Dilts – Lifelong Adventures, Lasting Friendships, Shared Stories
What do decades of adventure, jumping off moving trains in rural Australia, and raising children adopted from Russia have in common? They are all part of Laura Dilts’s remarkable travel journey, which she shares in this captivating episode of Stamped: Global Travel Stories.
Laura’s travel adventures began with family road trips exploring America’s national parks while her nuclear physicist father conducted research at Los Alamos. Her childhood home regularly welcomed international visitors through her mother’s cultural organisation, creating a foundation of global curiosity that would shape her entire life. By sixteen, Laura had negotiated with her parents to visit Greece independently, working to fund half the trip herself, the first of many solo adventures that would take her across continents.
Perhaps most fascinating is Laura’s nine-month Australian exchange programme, where she lived with 36 different host families across rural South Australia and Queensland. She shares hilarious stories of working on farms, encountering wildlife, and even having to jump from a moving train that “only slowed down like an escalator” at her rural stop. Her descriptions of Kangaroo Island and watching hundreds of penguins return to shore at dusk reveal hidden gems most travellers never experience.
As Laura’s life evolved, so did her travel experiences, from exchange programmes to adoption journeys in Moscow, where she discovered cold so intense that sunny days were worse than cloudy ones. Now entering a new chapter as an empty-nester, Laura approaches travel with a refreshing philosophy: “Life’s too short to wait.”
After losing a friend unexpectedly at 56, she is embracing solo adventures while prioritising connections with friends worldwide, proving that at any age, the world remains full of possibilities for those willing to explore it.
⭐️ Guest - Laura Dilts
📝 Show Notes - Episode 77
🎧 Listen to next
- Episode 72 Stamped: Melissa Delaware – From Australian Beginnings to Global Adventures
- Episode 68 Stamped: Mandy Watson – One woman, one motto, and a world of adventure
- Episode 63 - A
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What do cross-country road trips, exchange programs in Greece and Australia and decades of adventure have in common? They're all part of the incredible travel journey of my guest today, laura Diltz, in this episode of Stamped global travel stories, where every guest answers the same 10 questions that uncover the moments, people and places that have shaped their travels.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the global travel planning website, tracy Collins. Each week, tracy is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world, sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere, from bustling cities to remote landscapes, uncover cultural treasures and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality.
Speaker 1:Hi and welcome back to this week's edition of the Global Travel Planner podcast and to another episode of Stamped Global Travel Stories. This is our special series where each guest answers the same 10 questions, uncovering the sparks, the moments and the destinations that have shaped their travel lives. Today, I'm delighted to welcome Laura Deltz. Many of you will know Laura from our Facebook communities, where she's an active contributor and a wonderful supporter of both this podcast and the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As you'll hear, laura has traveled extensively throughout her life, from family road trips across America to exchange programs in Greece and Australia and more, and now, as her children are grown, she's embracing a new chapter of travel with exciting adventures ahead. Laura has some fantastic stories to share, so let's dive straight into her stamped journey.
Speaker 3:So I'm from Massachusetts, I have two children. They're now both adults. My youngest is 18 and my son just turned 21 two days ago. So I'm sort of a semi-empty nester and I'm starting a new phase of travel, because there's definitely been different parts of travel in my life.
Speaker 1:Um, because my daughter's off at school in september, I'm I'm headed to london and scotland and, uh, I've been working on that for a year and that's how we originally I I met you and found you, so, um, but I've traveled my uh whole life different ways, lots of different ways yeah and uh, I know you're a big fan of both this podcast, the global travel plan podcast, and the uk travel planning podcast, and, um, it's been great actually to get to know you over the last time and you're you're the last, probably a year or so, I think and you're great at leaving messages and on speakpipe and the girls really love it as well when you leave us a message, so I send them to melissa and send it shelly and I'm like oh, so excited to hear from you.
Speaker 1:We really love it and we feel like we're getting to know you really well. So it was obvious I had to ask you to come on and share about your travels, because you you have traveled extensively and done some very exciting things. We were we were over the moon when we found out that you'd actually spent some time living in Australia as well. So so I'm so happy that you agreed to come on to to this month's episode of Stamped. So should we start at the beginning? And so who lit the spark for you? Who, or what inspired your love of travel, laura?
Speaker 3:Well, I would say my parents, because they took me camping. Since I was six months old and my childhood, we always would go cross country. My father would do research at Los Alamos. He's a nuclear physicist and he was a professor. So we would do road trips to and from going to Los Alamos and up through Canada and around or around the South and up to California and then to Utah and then across the Dakotas, and you get the idea. So we would do a road trip on the way out and a road trip on the way back and focusing on national parks, national historic sites, stopping to see family and friends along the way, and so that's how I started traveling, and then, when I was a teenager, I did several things that were travel related.
Speaker 3:My family has always welcomed visitors to the university from other countries to our dinner table, and my mother ran an organization called Round the World Women to help wives in that era. Now it would be spouse of both gendersenders, but getting acclimated to the United States. You know everything from how to open a bank account to what is Thanksgiving, and we would have different people from around the world at our dinner table, and I was part of an exchange club for 4-H, which is also young farmers in the UK and rural youth in Australia, and that's how I went to Australia was with that exchange, and at 16, I was working as a lifeguard and we had been studying Greek mythology. And my favorite English teacher, with her husband who was a professor, would do trips to Greece. So I asked my parents if I could go to Greece and I figured out how to pay for half of it. So that was the first time I traveled by myself overseas.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's interesting so you're talking about so initially that your dad and traveling all around the States and exploring it and also having so many different people from around the world at your dinner table, so not only were you sharing with them about kind of the American culture, but you were learning all about theirs as well, which I mean I'm a little bit jealous here, laura, because I would have loved that and I'm guessing you did too, because you have an interest in people like me. You like people, like learning about people and find out about them.
Speaker 3:So wow from an early age.
Speaker 1:What a privilege to be able to.
Speaker 3:Yeah and the internet makes it easier to keep in touch with people. So I mean I, I know people around the world that's fabulous.
Speaker 1:Well, you definitely do so. Now I know you kind of briefly mentioned there about kind of your traveling to greece. Now, was that your first? Was that your first time out of the US? I know you went to Canada, so I'm not going to.
Speaker 3:It was my first time off of the North American continent. Yeah, because also when we were little we went to Mexico. I went swimming in the Rio Grande at six in my underwear, because my parents said, oh, go on ahead, go for a dip.
Speaker 1:So I guess your first passport stamp was you went to Mexico, you went to Canada, so those are your two with your parents, and then your first one that you kind of left that kind of North American continent, was that Greece. Was that the first place that you went to? Correct? And how did you find that? How was it?
Speaker 3:The most unusual thing was and I know I said this on, I think, your global travel in conversation was when I was there, there was a young woman who was also 16, but she had just gotten married to a 40-year-old Greek man and as a 16-year-old American, I was just like how could she do that? Like I just I could not fathom it. And she talked about why she was happy to be married. Now, this was a wealthy gentleman. I was on his yacht, so you have to understand it wasn't. I said and you're okay, and she's like, yes, because I get to do this and I get to do that, and so it opened my eyes to the world in a different way, my eyes to the world in a different way. But to me, teenage, 16 year old, from Massachusetts, is like I don't understand how she could do that. So I mean, I learned, I learned from that, um, but, and the food, I remember the street food and, um, the ruins.
Speaker 3:You know it was just, yeah, it made, it was, it was, it was March and part of our trip, we were in a fishing village and we stayed in a little hotel there, but the town welcomed us and, partially because of the time period. The boys played the American boys played the, the american boys played the greek boys in football. You know soccer. And we got to, we went to the church and we saw a wedding. We didn't go to the reception but they invited us to see a greek wedding, you know. So we did do some touristy stuff, but we really were interacting with this little community. Yeah, it made. Yeah, I have very fun memories from it, I bet.
Speaker 1:I think it's um well, that's again an amazing experience at age 16, getting to be able to experience a greek culture like that. Um, what would you say was your first big adventure?
Speaker 3:oh god see, that was hard for me Because I've had lots of them. Well, as a senior in high school in 1982, we hosted the young farmers from the UK and then the next summer we went there. So that was really the next big trip I did on my own with that group. So for a week we were in London and we went to Bath for a day and we went to Stratford upon Avon and then my host family was in Oxford and what I remember most about that was I was legal to drink at 18, which was not the case in the United States and so they took me across the street literally across the street from their house was the pub. And so they took me across the street literally across the street from their house was the pub and my first legal drink because it was Harvey.
Speaker 1:Wallbanger night was a Harvey.
Speaker 3:Wallbanger, oh my goodness. And we went punting, which must have been in Cambridge and not Oxford. But I was staying in Oxford and I've kept in touch with Mary, who stayed with with us, and I'm actually seeing her in a few weeks, so I've known her for over 40 years. Yeah, wow, that's incredible, that's absolutely, that's probably yeah, but I'm always I mean, I like all kinds of travel, you know, a day trip versus an expensive overseas trip. To me I love, love it all. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just love all travel. What about? And I'm sure, for the next question, this is another hard one. I know I had to think about this one myself because I just did an interview for just before Christmas actually but can you describe a place or a moment where it really completely blew you away and you were just wow.
Speaker 3:For me. What came to mind because I know you asked ahead and you gave us the questions was when I was in moscow for adopting my children from russia. It was a total of three trips per kid, so a total of six trips to moscow, two different, two different adoptions, several years apart. The translator, because you pay for a translator, and a driver while you're there, which, thank God, because trying to read Cyrillic, forget it. It was really cold, because we were there in September, november and December for my sons. So I couldn't believe how cold it was and I said, oh, I wish it was sunny. And she said, oh, no, when it's sunny it's even colder because the clouds keep the heat in.
Speaker 1:Wow, I couldn't believe her.
Speaker 3:The next day it was sunny, so cold. I said you're not kidding. I mean, I live in New England. It's not like I'm not used to cold, but it was cold. I mean we I brought layers. I was wearing my silk laundry underwear. You know, I wish they had hand warmers. They didn't have them. Then, yeah, yeah, and you had to dress in layers because the buildings were hot as heck. You know, you went into the courthouse and you could check your your clothes, but you were taking off all these layers yeah but you still had to be in a suit to be in front of the judge, you know, yeah so you did it.
Speaker 3:It took your breath away then, like how cold it was yeah, I couldn't believe, you know, until the next day she said see, told you that's a good one.
Speaker 1:That is good. I never thought about that sort of experience, but yeah.
Speaker 3:I think that was the most surprising. I mean, there's lots of different things. Like I mentioned to you, when I was in Australia and I was traveling in Queensland by train I don't remember the name of the town but the biggest surprise there was the conductor telling me, about a half hour before I had to get off, that the train did not stop, it only slowed down to like the speed of an escalator. He was going to throw out the town mail, then throw out my suitcase and tell me to jump. I still I'm like what? Yes, this stop. We don't really stop. You're the only person. Normally we just throw the mail off. It's slowing down. So he does. Thank God I was in my twenties and I'm not. I'm not an athlete, I'm a super accident prone person. So so he throws out my suitcase, he throws out my backpack and he says jump. And I jump and off the train goes and there's just this platform in the middle of nowhere. This is before cell phones. There is nothing except steps to get off the platform and the town's mail and no host family. And I'm going. Well, someone has to come get the mail at some point.
Speaker 3:About five minutes later in a Land Rover, here comes my host family. So sorry we were late. There were cows in the road, oh, I love it. I love it. Oh, I was like, yeah, I still don't know how my mother, my mother's the worrier of my two parents, you know, it was before cell phones. So I remember I called that I landed in Australia, but I was in Australia for nine months and I sent letters back because that was part of the program I was on. I wrote newsletters which at some point I have to find them in my basement and scan them and send them to you because you'll find them very interesting. But um, that she could let me go. I still can't believe because you know, I just let my daughter go, but I could see her. I'm find, my, find, my phone to do where?
Speaker 2:she is, see, she is I could see where she was.
Speaker 3:And at night, when they were traveling by ship, there was a dot in the water moving. You know, because my parents couldn't do that, I still don't know how they my father's like, go, go for it, do it. I still can't believe how trusting they were to let me go at 16, at 18, at 22.
Speaker 1:And isn't it fabulous that they did, isn't it honestly? I remember phoning my mom. I lived in the French Alps and I moved to Canada. I didn't tell her. I kind of phoned her a few weeks later and said you know the previous one. I spoke to her, I was in the French Alps, and the next time I kind of picked up the phone and give her a ring and she was like oh hi, am I?
Speaker 1:I'm good, I just thought I'd let you know that I've moved. And she says oh, where have you gone? Well, I'm now living in Toronto. So she was like, could you?
Speaker 2:tell.
Speaker 1:You know, and she honestly my mom's in her mid-80s and she says to me now she said you know what, In your 90s you will still be going around with a backpack traveling. And she's absolutely right. I places and meet people and and I think the fact that we, you know, we we had parents who not only give us permission to do that, but kind of encouraged us to do that, I think that's very special.
Speaker 3:My father did. My mother begrudgingly went along with it. He always would say because when I asked to go to Greece, my mother the only time and I was not a difficult teenager I got along with my parents. The only time I didn't talk to my mother for two days was when she said I couldn't go to greece. I'll work on it.
Speaker 1:I'll work on it, right uh, well, so well, obviously my dad won out because I got to go. Yeah, you went uh, now is there. I know you've been a lot of places, um, and but is there a place that you've been to and you just have no desire to go back, or it's just a you know actually, yeah, okay, where?
Speaker 3:where, um, I really could skip Paris. Now I have cousins that live in Paris and if someone asked me I would go, but I'd be fine not going back to Paris. Now I liked other parts of France but Paris I found they didn't really like Americans and they were really rude, and at the time I found the streets dirty. I just, and people like, oh, but it's not. I said, well, that's what I remember about it and I'm not saying it's not a beautiful country, I do not mean that. But I seriously I don't need to go back.
Speaker 3:But if a friend because I'm traveling by myself for this upcoming trip, not because I don't have friends that weren't interested, but for various reasons, no one could go with me. And I had a friend unexpectedly dropped dead two years ago at 56. And we were originally going to go to Scotland together and I told my mother I'm going. I said I'm not waiting around anymore. So because life's too short, the number of people that I've lost in the last few years that were, you know, some of their old age, like my father died at 89, almost 90. Okay, he had a good life. He agrees, he had a good life. That's. It's still sad, but it's not shocking, but when your friend that you've known since childhood just drops dead, you just don't know. Yeah, so I'm glad we will travel with people, but I'm not waiting to travel with people.
Speaker 3:So I do have like a little bucket list, but I'm also open to doing other things. Like a lot of the things I did this summer was just in talking with some of my girlfriends and we decided to go for a day trip. Now I'm the organizer and the planner and I used to plan events and I would teach Girl Scout leaders how to take Girl Scout troops traveling, and so I, you know, I'm always the one that's planning the thing and that doesn't bother me. I, you know, I always ask for input. So if someone said to me I really want to go to France, including Paris, will you go with me? I would say yes, and then I would email my cousins that live in Paris. If I was going to stay in France and in Paris I would ask them to put me up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't go.
Speaker 3:It's just not high on my list, you know. I mean, then there's a whole bunch of places I can't travel to anymore because of different health issues. So there's a whole bunch of places, some of which I really wanted to, that I will never go to at this point because it's not a smart choice for me, like including going to Africa. I would think it would be. You know, some friends went this last winter and they were on a safari and stuff. I think that's cool, but I'm not traveling there, you know.
Speaker 3:So a friend just went to Thailand her neighbor's from Thailand and invited her to go with her. She stayed with the neighbor's family from Thailand and invited her to go with her. She stayed with the neighbor's family she has pictures of her, you know with the elephants and all these other places. And she told me that you know, if they went out, her friend would tell them make it mild. Not, you know, she's white. Make it mild food. Make mild food, mild, because otherwise it'd be too spicy. But I'm not going to, you know, I won't go to.
Speaker 3:Thailand, but I really appreciate all those places. But because of where I am in my life there's a whole list that I took a break. You know, when I was in my 20s I traveled a lot. The last international travel not including Canada was to adopt my children Now my children. I can leave them appropriately and I couldn't afford to take them with me. It's too expensive. I don't know how, with all your trip reports, how they afford it, but I love hearing about all the ones that take their whole family with them. You know some group travel that I did with my parents. We did intergenerational. So we did with my parents, my sister, my family at the time I was married, and with my kids. We would rent places together. It's not it's not impossible, but it gets expensive really fast when you add more than one person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it definitely does. I was kind of small smiling when you mentioned Paris because I I just did my stamped episode for before Christmas. Um, I'm trying to record a lot because I'm going to be doing quite a lot of stuff between now and Christmas and and for this question my answer was also Paris, so that's made me smile when you said, oh, that you didn't want, you wouldn't go back to it.
Speaker 3:You don't need to know, I will always go. I will go back to.
Speaker 1:Paris. I will always go, but it's not. If I didn't want you wouldn't go back to it. You don't need to go back. No, I will always go. I will go back to Paris. I will always go, but it's not. If I didn't have to go back to Paris ever again the rest of my life, I wouldn't be upset Put it that way.
Speaker 3:That's funny For lots of reasons, but I lived in France. When we're not recording, we'll have to compare notes more to Paris because you know, go and experience it.
Speaker 1:I don't want anybody to be offended at all.
Speaker 3:It's a beautiful country it's just, if I had to pick one, that's the one I could skip. It doesn't mean that there is it's a lovely place. I really don't want to offend anybody, it's just. It's not on the top of my list, so I hope I didn't offend anybody no, that's also what I said yesterday.
Speaker 1:I was kind of like look at, because I lived in France, I lived, but you in rural France, I lived in the Alps. So I said Paris is a slightly different kettle of fish. But anyway, is there somewhere that you happy to return to again and again? So that might be somewhere local to you or it might be somewhere international.
Speaker 3:So well, it's sort of local. So for seven years I lived in Maine. I went to graduate school at the university of Maine in Orono, which is next to Bangor, which is about five and a half hours northwest of Massachusetts, and then I lived another 90 miles north of there, 40 miles from the Canadian border, in a little town called Patton, so you'll have to look it up. It's a mile from Aroostook County, so it's up there, mile from Aroostook County, so it's up there. I used to go over often to New Brunswick, to Fregerton, new Brunswick, to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and I went there also as a child.
Speaker 3:I totally recommend you read all the Anna Green Gables story before you go if you haven't been and I'm guessing you're not a camper because you're not a hiker but camping in the national park at Cavendish, right near the ocean, was lovely and they have these shared communal huts for cooking and doing dishes and stuff which are just so much fun because you get to meet everybody. Yeah, I loved camping there. So I still really love Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and I took my children when they were about three and five, when I was still married, along with another couple we went to Canada. That's the last time I was in Nova Scotia so my kids were little, so I really want to go and get. I've been looking at this time of year. Norwegian cruise line out of it has cruises out of Boston that does the Maritimes. That are usually a bargain like around 800 to a thousand dollars and they start in Boston and end in Boston. So probably next September, because I've been talking to some friends I'll probably do that a year from now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't want to drive Well, to get to Nova Scotia. This is about a 12 hour drive. So because I'm older, that sounds exhausting, whereas when I was younger it wouldn't have bothered me. So it's not that I wouldn't do it again, but I would have to break it up more. Yeah, yeah, yeah I've.
Speaker 1:I've actually landed on prince edward island, wouldn't you believe it? That's it, though, on it flying from. Was it a little airplane? No, I don't think so. I'm fairly sure we're flying from gatwick to toronto, and for some reason we landed there. I and I.
Speaker 3:That's all I can remember, because I just well I do know, like um several places in canada, like for 9-11, planes landed in canada unexpectedly, a lot of places, and suddenly people were staying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it wasn't then it was it would have been the late, uh, late early 90s, I don't know somewhere my memory when you said it. But who knows, who knows?
Speaker 3:yes, so I I love nova scotia. I want to go back and highly recommend you go for canada day, which is july 1st, because canada does, of course, does their independence day a big, but it's so much fun. Yeah, and in halifax for about two weeks in late june into july they have an international tattoo bagpiping competition and it's just so much fun. You can buy tickets ahead and when we went the first time we did buy tickets ahead and we loved it so much. We went to the ticket booth to find out if they had more tickets for another night and went back a second night. The seats weren't as nice a seat, but it didn't matter. Music is music. You don't have to really see that well, but you don't. Then you didn't get to see the formations as well, but it was so much fun no, it sounds it.
Speaker 1:It sounds it, I guess, kind of nova scotia is a little bit of a kind of lesser known place. I'll say that I can people imagine. People are kind of no, it's not, but anyway, but anyway. But is there somewhere that you think that people should visit? That is kind of not necessarily on people's radar.
Speaker 3:Well, I would say less, yeah, so in Australia they really should go to Kangaroo Island.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I haven't been. I've been a lot of places, but no.
Speaker 3:So when I was in Australia, my host states were South Australia and Queensland and I had host families in both, all over. I had a total of 36 host families, so I moved a lot Some. I was there for a week but it was like a few days, a few days, a few days, because everybody wanted to meet the American so they would spread me around, basically, and I was staying on different farms. But one of my host families was on Kangaroo Island and I had to take a ferry over. Oh my God, it was so some of the most choppy weather. You definitely need to take anti-nausea. Doug would have to definitely like plan ahead.
Speaker 3:It was really bad because I was fine until someone else got sick next to me and then on the way back I was in a four person plane. I thought that would be better. Not really Because I was sitting a four person plane. I thought that would be better, Not really Cause I was sitting next to the pilot and I'm like, oh God, I thought this would be better and I closed. I did that was. That was a hard flight for me. I didn't cause heights. I'm not really good with heights.
Speaker 1:And then a little plane.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but it wasn't choppy so I wasn't throwing up. But it's a lovely little island and its name is appropriate because there's lots of different kinds of kangaroos which I don't think a lot of people that don't live in your chosen homeland understand. There's lots of different kinds of kangaroos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, there's loads of them. I learned about all the different names of them. I was like I didn't know what a paddy melon was. I went to tasmania and I talked about have you seen any paddy melons? I'm like what is a paddy melon type of kangaroo wallaby? Yeah, I mean, I don't know them all.
Speaker 3:I just know there's a lot of different kinds and different sizes and and also when I was there, there were a lot of koala, yeah, in the trees, like you would just look out the window, like here we look, and it's a robin, you know, and a squirrel there you look out the window and it's a kangaroo and a koala. I mean not everywhere in Australia, in that island. That's what I'm saying Now. Granted, I don't know what's there for tourists. I have no idea because I was with a host family, you'd have to research, but it was. I have no idea, because I was with a host family, you'd have to research, but I just remember it being lovely and it's this little place that people don't know. No-transcript, it starts with a P oh, phillips Island.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, Phillips Island it's called yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and they come at like dusk and they give you all these instructions. Now, when I was there, it was before cell phones, but they're like no flash because you had the old-fashioned camera. Sit quietly, don't move. And I'm telling you like hundreds of penguins came in to go to sleep for the night. They come, it was just, but it was. I've never. You know, I was just like hunt to see hundreds of penguins when you know, a few minutes later there were none. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to figure out if that's the island. There was, there's, there's an island, uh, that that was had a fox on it that took loads of the penguins. I'm wondering if that's that island. I had a fox on it that took loads of the penguins. I'm wondering if that's that island. I need to do some research.
Speaker 3:It's Wilson's P-R-O-M-O-N-T-O-R-I-Y National Park. Oh, okay, I'll have to look it up. I was visiting friends, family, friends, in Melbourne during some of my free time travel when I was on exchange, and they took me to see the paintings.
Speaker 1:So would you say, when you were having because you were in Australia, like I said, staying with a lot of families would you say that would be one time that you felt more like a local than a tourist because of what you were doing?
Speaker 3:Oh, definitely, yeah, I mean I was working on farms. Yeah, it's not that I didn't do a few touristy things, but that was only during my free time, travel at the end, and maybe if a family had time to take me to do something. But I was working on farms, everything from sheep farms, pig farms, dairy farms, a pineapple plantation. Up, uh, the tape up in the tablelands, yeah, of queensland. Yeah, pigs are the smelliest. I liked the cows have the most lovable personality. Um, and I was really glad when I got to the pineapple plantation that I got there late and that they had already harvested the pineapples, because they showed me the machetes they use and this accident prone person would be like, uh no, I will pick up the pineapples, but I'm like, oh sure you would have. I'm like, uh no, I'm sure I would have cut off a limb oh dear.
Speaker 1:So it's a good job. You didn't, have, you been back to Australia since then? I mean, I have not, I left in 1989.
Speaker 3:I'm aging myself. I would like to go back, but I'm dreading the flight, the flying.
Speaker 1:Yes, I know that is always the problem a little bit, but you can maybe do it a bit slower. You're going to be quite close because you're going to be in Hawaii next year, so you're not going to be that far away, really Right?
Speaker 3:No, I understand that, but I would want to make sure you were home so I could see you and Doug.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Well, I was going to say is there one destination that's calling your name and it can?
Speaker 3:be somewhere you've already been, like Australia. Well, I definitely, I really would like to go back to switzerland because I really enjoyed it when I went before. I would like to do traveling by train, so I really want, I want you and doug to come up with all sorts of train trips through europe, okay, okay, well, you know. Well, you know that we're doing tours.
Speaker 1:Well, you know well we know that we're doing tours now, so that you know that I've got my art ladies who travel to, so we're doing tours for, kind of uh, women over 50 and Melissa and I are doing that for them, but but also Doug and I are starting to do um some tours of the UK. But that does not mean that we're not going to branch out a bit.
Speaker 3:Oh no, I know, and I'm very excited about all of them. It's just well. In April I'll be in Hawaii while you're in the UK, so I can't be in two places.
Speaker 3:But that's probably my short list. But the other thing is, my priority is to reconnect with friends. So, because friends are the family you choose, that's how I look at it and I have a lot of friends I want to go spend time with. So, um, I try to do like one big ticket item a year and then smaller. And my dad, who's passed away, um, and my mom, they still have a lot of frequent flyer miles with Southwest Airlines. So my mom's letting me use because she doesn't want to travel anymore at 91. She wants to stay local. I mean, she still has an active life, but she has no desire to get on an airplane. So I've been using her points to travel domestically.
Speaker 3:So I went to visit my friend Diane in Minneapolis, minnesota. She lives in a town called Minnetonka and it only cost me eleven dollars and twenty cents using points. So and I stayed with her. So, obviously, yes, I, you know I I took her out to dinner and I paid to do a few things. But that's a bargain trip when you only had to pay the $11.20 in taxes on the points. Right, it sure is. Yeah, so I like a bargain.
Speaker 1:Oh, who doesn't? And that's absolutely well. You know Doug's flying back to the UK soon and he'll be doing that on points. We collect points all the time because you know otherwise, because a lot of people actually in the UK have asked us because we've traveled a lot over the last few years and they're like how do you do it? And we collect points.
Speaker 3:Everything we do, we think about how we can get points, because you know it's a point to make points you don't want to get. I don't know how they do it, where you are, you know different people, but you know I don't want credit card debt. So I only you know I put regular bills, like my dog, my dog walker I have her on there my lawn and snow removal guy I pay for on that card. Yeah, I also anything travel related I use on a particular card because I get three to eight times more points, depending on what promotion they're running we, we kind of look at the thing if.
Speaker 1:If there's something like for food, we do it for any food shopping. We do it for things like looking at any insurances, we do it. Anything that you're going to have to do anyway, it's like you might as well, you know it's a great way to pay it off right away, you don't? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're very absolutely end of every month.
Speaker 3:That's uh because otherwise it defeats the whole purpose exactly.
Speaker 1:You might as well just pay for the flight yourself because you're going to do it in interest. Yeah, you have to be really disciplined and know exactly what you're doing. But honestly, it's been a game changer for us doing that and learning how to use points and collect them. And certainly I mean we flew to Japan for I don't know like $120. Even going to my daughter in Perth cost us like $100 and 20,000 points or something.
Speaker 3:So it's nothing. Um, so it makes a lot easier. Like a lot of people don't realize how big australia is. That it's like flying from massachusetts to california. That's how far apart perth is from where brisbane is. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize. Yeah, at least in the united states people have no concept of how big australia is. Oh really five.
Speaker 1:It's a five hours flight and five hours flight and we're about to drive it. And it's a 10 day drive, 15 hours.
Speaker 3:So we're going to do sort of you better be keeping that journal.
Speaker 1:Oh, we are going to video this. We are going to video, we're going to YouTube it. We're going to do the whole thing. It's great practice for me to do it, but also I've just looked on YouTube and there's hardly anything there. So I'm like right, let's take. We're going to take everybody across Australia with us. So if you're awesome yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So if you listen to this podcast, go and check out the global travel plan on YouTube. I'm going to be working on the YouTube and get more stuff on that, um, so definitely do. Now, what about travel tips? Because obviously you've done a lot of traveling, so is there one tip that you always share, or wish that, wish that you'd kind of known when you started out with traveling?
Speaker 3:Well, for me, make sure you take care of the thing that's going to make you nervous, Whatever it is. Take care of that. So for me, I always want to know where I'm staying. So that doesn't mean I don't have it all planned out Today. In today's world, it's really better to do that, but it doesn't mean that I have everything all planned out. But you know the day before if I'm doing it more casually and it's not peak travel season, okay, we're going to drive this many hours. We need a motel here. Let me figure out where the motel is.
Speaker 3:Like when I was traveling with my dog because with my ex-husband when we didn't have children, we would take the previous dog with us we always had to have a hotel that allowed dogs. So I would use the AAA, which is the Automobile Association, Paper books the paper books don't exist anymore, but now I would use bookingcom or hotelscom or something like that and plan ahead, you know, for in between so like when I did a road trip with my children a few years ago they were younger there was going to be a partial eclipse and the big part of it was going to be in Georgia. So with my best friend, we decided we would do a road trip with our children in two cars. So we would get to Georgia in time for the thing, with the special sunglasses and everything. We mapped out, you know where were we going to stay. We planned the first night. Then we weren't sure how far we were going to drive the next day we would figure it out. So we would book a hotel for the thing. And then when we got to georgia because at one point I lived in georgia we stayed with a friend of mine and she stayed with a family member of hers in the atlanta area. So that was a little by the seat of our pants, but not totally like I just can't.
Speaker 3:So for me, like my upcoming trip to the UK, I've booked most things and the thing that's still driving me, making me nervous, even though I'm listening to Doug and his expertise my first day when I get to London, after I drop everything off and freshen up, before I get on the hop on, hop off bus, I'm going to go to the train and book my passenger assistance for my train travel, because I do travel with a cane, because I have a back injury and I can't move all my suitcases even though I'm packing light and change trains on my own. I know I can't do that, so I'm going to be arranging for the passenger assistance. I know I have to do that. My nerves will. If I could do it ahead, I would, but the app won't let me do it. From here, it says it doesn't like the United States, Like I tried it, and then online it wouldn't let me because I'm not in the UK. So I'm like, all right, forget it. So you and Doug assured me that I can do it when I get there. It's still not.
Speaker 3:It will be six days later that I'm getting on a train. I'm fine with it, but that's the thing. I'm a world traveler right, I've traveled lots, but that's the thing that's bugging me, Not anything else. You know, I've got all these other activities and I have the free cancellation, or if I have to cancel or I miss it, oh well, I don't. You know I'm not going to worry about the money I lost If something changes. That's part of travel. You know, if you can break the reservation, fine. If you can't, well, if you don't have the reservation, you don't get to do it at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's true.
Speaker 3:That's true. So that would be. My big thing is plan and prepare and take care of the thing that's going to make you not enjoy your trip. And then you have to expect that something's not going to go right and you have to be okay with just going with the flow, which I'm a type A person, so I really have never done that well, but I've learned over time to do it better and you get much more with honey than vinegar. So when you're dealing with customer service, you want to be nice, say thank you, be patient, let the person who's obnoxious and irate go, and then you say I'm so sorry that he treated you that way. This is what I need. Thank you very much, because you'd be amazed at how well, how far that goes Treating people with respect.
Speaker 1:It's been absolute joy to chat to you this week, Laura. It really has. It's been amazing to actually meet you because I've heard your voice and we've kind of chatted via speak pipe but not face to face. It's been absolute joy and I can't wait actually to hear about your UK trip and you're going to come on the UK travel final podcast as well and talk about your trip after that. So in fact I think that may actually be out before this episode, so I'm not quite sure we're going to do them in be interested, um, but you go, you're not.
Speaker 1:It's not very long till you go, so what? 18 days or something, 16, wow. So yeah, I'm very much looking forward to chatting to you about that. But and yeah, it's just been amazing just chatting to you about your, all your stories and experiences of travel throughout your life Amazing.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So that wraps up this episode of Stamped Global Travel Stories. A big thank you to Laura for sharing such wonderful memories and stories. Stamped is our special series here on the Global Travel Planet podcast, where every guest answers the same 10 questions to reveal the moments, people and places that have shaped their travels. If you've enjoyed this episode, please follow the podcast so you never miss a story and share it with a fellow traveler who would love to listen. And if you'd like to share your own travel stories, you can leave us a message on SpeakPike. The link is in the show notes. That just leaves me to say, as always happy global travel planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanningcom. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app, because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts, just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.