Storytelling And Travel As A Path To Healing

Life doesn’t follow a map, and neither do the journeys that shape us. We’re joined by Shannon Lamkin, author, speaker, and host of the internationally listened to podcast Travel Time Stories with Shannon, for a conversation that starts with travel and quickly gets more honest. Shannon shares how a show built around destinations evolved into a space where people tell the stories that changed them, and why one good conversation can be the first step toward healing.

We talk about what it means to rebuild yourself after trauma, including surviving abusive relationships and learning the hard truth that leaving isn’t the same as being healed. Shannon opens up about anxiety and panic attacks, and how a first solo trip to New Orleans became a surprising milestone in confidence and self-trust. We also get into parenting through serious mental illness, the lifelong ripple effects of childhood experiences, and Shannon’s adoption story and search for birth family long before DNA kits and social media made it easier.

Caregiving and identity come up in a big way as Shannon describes supporting a spouse through chronic illness, kidney failure, and dialysis, plus the pressure of holding everything together without losing yourself. From there, we shift back to the power of travel as reinvention, including cruising as a way to explore and a Scotland road trip that raised the bar for what felt possible. Shannon also shares what she’s writing now, including her memoir "Map Back to Me" and her novel "Wrong Turns, Right People", built around the idea that detours can bring the right people into your life.

If you’re drawn to travel, midlife reinvention, storytelling, mental health, and finding your own travel style in the real world, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find us.

Shannon's Website: https://www.traveltimestories.com/

Shannon's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-time-stories-with-shannon-real-journeys-real/id1821032644

Download full-color PDFs of my book at prices below Amazon paperbacks. Visit my store at https://shop.jimsantosbooks.com 

Subscribe to our Mailing List

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2292506/supporters/new
http://jimsantos.net
https://www.instagram.com/jimsantosblog
https://www.youtube.com/@jimsantos508
jim@jimsantosbooks.com

"Wherever We May Roam: Finding Your Travel Style" - On Amazon

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

A New Show And A New Lens

Jim 0:00

Life doesn't follow a map, but every detour has a story. Welcome to Wherever We May Roam, the new face of Travels with Jim and Rita. This podcast is about discovering your own travel style to explore the world. I'm Jim Santos, and along with my wife Rita, we've spent more than 16 years traveling. Sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months, and sometimes a whole lot longer. And what we've learned is this: there's no right or wrong way to travel. Some people take extended getaways, some roam part-time, some work from the road, and some make travel a full-time lifestyle. This podcast is about helping you figure out what works for you and how to make it happen in the real world. So whether you're planning your next trip or thinking about something bigger, we're glad you're here. Let's get started. Welcome everybody, I'm Jim Santos, joined by my lovely wife and travel companion Rita, and this is Wherever We May Roam.

Meet Shannon And Her Mission

Jim 1:06

Today is a bit of a departure for us. We will be talking about travel, I promise. But we will also be talking about much more serious topics. Our guest is Shannon Lamkin, author, speaker, travel advisor, and host of the internationally listened to podcast, Travel Time Stories with Shannon. While began as a podcast about travel has grown into something much bigger. A place where people share the journeys that shape their lives and discover the healing often begins with a single conversation. After years of putting everyone else first, as a wife, mother, caregiver, and professional, Shannon reached a point where she asked herself a question that resonates with so many of us Who am I beneath all the labels? That question sparked a remarkable journey of reinvention, leading her to become an author, entrepreneur, and passionate advocate for the power of storytelling. Today, in addition to an advocate for travel, Shannon speaks about midlife reinvention, overcoming adversity, caring for a spouse with chronic illness, parenting through mental illness, healing after trauma, authentic friendship, and how sharing our stories helps us reconnect with ourselves and each other. She's also the author of the upcoming memoir series, Map Back to Me, and the first novel in the Elsewhere Together series, Wrong Turns, Right People. Shannon, thanks for joining us on Wherever We May Roam.

Shannon 2:26

Thank you, Jen and Rita. I'm so excited to be here on the show. Oh, good.

Jim 2:30

Yeah, we've been looking forward to this discussion also, uh, because as as we uh discussed over email prior to this, uh my wife and I have had some similar events in our lives, and travel has become important to us for many reasons. Um, but first, I've been looking over your blogs and podcast episodes on your website, traveltimestories.com, and that's an incredibly eclectic mix of topics and stories

From Travel Stories To Life Stories

Jim 2:53

there. Uh, this all started as a podcast about travel.

Shannon 2:57

Yes, funny enough, we started out as we were going, I I kind of had a hybrid model in mind. I wanted to talk about all of our travel adventures, and also I wanted to share my personal life story. And so the podcast, that's how it started out was each episode was one part, a travel adventure that we'd been on, and the second part was one little section of my story. And each week you tuned in and got, you know, another part of my story and a new travel adventure, but then it just took off and went in a totally, completely different direction. And being the person that I am, I'm like, well, I'm being led in that direction for a reason, so I'm just gonna go with it.

Rita 3:48

Yeah, good.

Jim 3:50

You know, we started our podcast late in life also just a few years ago when we decided we were gonna sell our home and and start to travel the world. And of course, our life veered off in a different direction too.

Rita 4:00

It did.

Jim 4:02

But we can vouch for the fact that producing a podcast does take a lot of time and effort. Uh, what what keeps you going?

Shannon 4:08

Yes, it does take a lot of time, especially when you are not just doing the podcast, you work a full-time job in addition to doing the podcast. That so it does take up a lot of time. But what keeps me going is the fact that I am helping people. I get so many responses from listeners who have listened to one of the episodes and have connected with one of the stories, either my own personal story or one from our guest. And it has helped them in their own personal life story. So that mission of helping others by sharing stories is

How Stories Help Us Heal

Shannon 4:46

what keeps me going.

Jim 4:47

Yeah, this idea of storytelling seems really important to you. You say it has the power to heal, connect, and transform. Yes. Yeah, can you give us an example?

Shannon 4:56

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like when we hear other people's stories, especially life stories or even a travel adventure that they've been on, but to connect it to life stories, like what you had told me a little bit about your background and history and how it's sort of matched with some things that I've been through in my own personal life and my own journey, that lets me know that's a connection right there. And that lets me know that, hey, I'm not alone in the world. Somebody else has had these same type of experiences as me. And then that makes me want to dive deeper into okay, how did they overcome or get through that experience? And is there something I can take away from that and apply that in my own current experience to help me get through what I'm the situation that I'm currently in?

Jim 5:48

Yeah, that's really a great thing about uh sharing with people. And we've noticed that also when you travel, people really seem to open up.

Rita 5:55

Exactly. Because we're more open, right? You know, we're more open to anything and can listen to pretty much anything because we've seen it all by this point.

Shannon 6:05

Exactly. Yeah, that same for me at this point in my life. There's not anything somebody can tell me that I haven't seen or experienced for myself, right? And so nothing shocks me. And I think that's one thing that people tell me all the time. One reason why they connect so well with me is because I am so open and non-judgmental, and I can pretty much relate to anything that you tell me you've gone through. I've either had it myself or know somebody else that's gone through it and been there for them.

Rita 6:39

Right. Yeah, I have to say we're kind of in the same boat.

Shannon 6:43

That's the one thing I love about travel is getting to meet all the different people, experience all the different cultures. Traveling has really enriched my life in that way. It has opened me up to I I hate to say it, but Americans have a lot of biases and preconceived ideals about other people in the world.

Jim 7:06

I'm shocked.

Rita 7:09

Yeah, I know, shocking, right? You know, and that travel does open you up to to realize everybody wants the same thing. You know, they want to take care of their families, they want to be happy, you know, just on and on and on. And we're not the best.

Shannon 7:26

Yeah, and that's why I encourage everybody to get out and travel, get outside. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to go to Europe or you know, to another country, right? But get outside of your little bubble that you're in on a daily basis, go to a new city that you've never been to, go to a different state that you've never been to, because that's one cool thing about America is that every one of our states and the people in those states are totally different. They are, they are, they are, yeah. And so just taking a short trip like that to a new city or a new state, it's gonna open up your experiences of how other people are, experiencing new foods, new uh ways of life, all kinds of things.

Jim 8:16

Yeah, I hate this thought that the countries divide into red states and blue states.

Rita 8:19

Oh, it's so ridiculous.

Jim 8:21

Because it's not, yes, there are people. Yeah, there are people everywhere.

Shannon 8:25

I wish they would realize that we're all people. Exactly. We're all people, and we all want the same things no matter if you're the richest person in the room or the poorest person in the room, we all still want the same things.

Rita 8:39

I know, I know, and yeah, and we need to be working together to to make that happen.

Shannon 8:46

Exactly.

Abuse Trauma And Finding Courage

Jim 8:47

Now, Shannon, uh both Rita and I have been in abusive relationships before and definitely left an impact on our lives. Uh, what did your experience teach you about courage and recovering from that kind of abuse?

Shannon 8:59

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I went through I've had two different traumas or abusive relationships in my life. The first one was in childhood. I went through two traumas during childhood. So that pretty much stripped away, quote unquote, a childhood for me. And so I had, you know, and not knowing how to work through that and not having anybody to help me work through that situation, you just kind of stumble along. And that turns into, you know, when you hit teenage years, it really throws you off your trajectory when all of your hormones start really going crazy and you have all this trauma inside of you that was never dealt with, and you just start acting out in all these different ways to try to deal with what's really happening. And that's that deep trauma that was never healed to begin with. And so that led me into my second abusive relationship. As a teenager, I got involved with a gentleman that was older than me and thought it was a great relationship, and that turned into a very abusive relationship, not all at once, but over the span of the whole relationship. Started out with, you know, little things like making me diminish my voice by putting me down, making me have low self-esteem. And then that gradually turned into physical abuse instead of just the mental abuse. And I barely escaped that relationship with my life. The the last night that I was there, I got out just in the nick of time. Otherwise, I would not be here today to tell my story. And I learned very quickly after getting out of that relationship that just because you're out of that situation in that relationship, you are not healed. There's a whole nother process to go through to actually heal yourself. And that can take years. And it actually did take years for me. I didn't actually finish processing all of that trauma until I turned 50, which was two years ago.

Rita 11:16

Yeah, I can believe that.

Shannon 11:18

Yeah. And since then, I've been, you know, married for three decades, have to have children of my own, but I was still in that trauma and didn't realize that I was in that

Solo Travel Through Panic In New Orleans

Shannon 11:29

trauma. And what got me to realize that and start the real healing process was when I met my best friend and co-host on my podcast, Anne, 17 years ago. She came into my life and she actually helped me see that I had a voice and it was okay to use my voice, and it was okay to practice self-care and take time for myself and step away from, you know, wifely duties, mom duties, that kind of thing to actually care for Shannon.

Rita 12:06

It's hard to finally feel find your self-worth and feel self-worth.

Shannon 12:11

Exactly. Exactly. And then because of all the traumas that I had suffered, I had severe anxiety and would suffer from panic attacks, especially when I was in crowds of people. And our first trip that we took, Ann and I went to New Orleans, which, as you know, is like one of the busiest city, crowded cities you can go to.

Jim 12:35

It's a little wild.

Shannon 12:36

It's fun, though. It's fun. It is so much fun. I actually love New Orleans. But yeah, for a first trip for somebody that's not recovered yet and still suffers from massive panic attacks, that was a challenge for me. I had to travel there alone, first of all, because Ann and I live in different states. And so we literally met up in New Orleans. And I had never traveled by myself ever in my life. So I didn't even know I'd be able to do it. And once I was able to actually go to the airport alone, get on that plane by myself and make it to New Orleans and then navigate the airport and find my way to our hotel by myself. That showed me, hey, you actually can do this. You are way stronger than you thought you were. You actually have a voice. There is no reason for you to be anxious about anything because you got this.

Rita 13:36

Yeah, it's empowering once you start. Once you start. Yes.

Jim 13:40

Yeah. Now I had a a similar experience of a lost childhood. And I I think what really affects you most about that is that childhood is when you should be learning to trust people and feeling cared for and and protected. Yes. And when that's ripped away from you, that's got to have a big effect on your life.

Rita 13:59

Yeah.

Shannon 13:59

Yeah, exactly. Because and and especially like in my case, I told an adult. You know, they we teach our children, you know, if something happens to you to tell an adult. Right. You know, I told an adult, and I told the person who was supposed to be one of my protectors, and that person told me that I had to keep it quiet.

Rita 14:21

Yeah, because they're embarrassed. They're embarrassed that it happened to you.

Shannon 14:24

Yeah.

Rita 14:25

Yeah.

Shannon 14:26

Which is ridiculous.

Jim 14:27

So you feel completely alone. Yeah.

Shannon 14:29

Yeah. So you feel totally isolated as a child, and then you learn that, or it makes you think that the person who is supposed to be your protector isn't actually safe and isn't your protector. So you have no one. Right. And so you don't want to trust anyone.

Jim 14:47

Now you mentioned anxieties.

Parenting Mental Illness And Adoption Roots

Jim 14:49

One of our daughters has a son who has just extreme anxieties and is keeping him from enrolling in college or or even getting a job. Then we have another daughter who's has a son that's almost completely nonverbal, autistic. What have you learned from parenting? I understand you parented a child with difficulties also.

Shannon 15:50

Yes, my oldest son, John, he actually was diagnosed at age four with bipolar disorder. And of course, back then was when everybody was first learning what that was. Right. And so nobody really knew anything about it or how to deal with it, especially the school systems. And so they do yet, actually. Yeah, they still don't. They still don't know. But I had to teach myself everything about bipolar, what it was, different modalities that would help, things that the school system could do to help him throughout the school day, and that kind of thing to for in order for him to cope and get through the day. And then as he got older, his bipolar became schizoaffective disorder. So in addition to bipolar, he has schizophrenia.

Rita 16:44

Yeah. Well, that doesn't usually show up until they're in their 20s.

Shannon 16:48

So it exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Rita 16:51

And I I I keep worrying about that with my grandchild because I I did have a schizophrenic aunt.

Shannon 16:59

Yeah, it does, it does tend to run in in families, you know, can be passed down. Yeah. And that's how that's how my son got it. Was I'm sure you saw in my bio as well that I was adopted. So once I found my birth parents, that's the one thing that I learned is that my birth mother was bipolar. And so that's where that gene came from that my oldest son inherited.

Jim 17:27

If you don't mind me asking, uh, how did you find your birth parents? Was it through the agencies or did you use something like ancestry.com where you send in a DNA sample?

Shannon 17:35

Yeah, now they have all of that. Back when I found out I was going through this was pre-internet.

Rita 17:41

Wow.

Shannon 17:42

That was tough.

Jim 17:44

Yeah, because that it's really messed up some families. People have done uh DNA tests just for fun and find out. Their father isn't their father, yeah.

Shannon 17:51

Yes, it is very crazy. But yeah, when I did my journey, it was back before internet and all that. So it was a long process of writing letters, doing research at the libraries, that kind of thing to actually find my birth parents on my own.

Rita 18:08

Were they receptive once you did?

Shannon 18:10

Yes. My birth mother actually was very receptive, and I did get to meet her before she passed away.

Rita 18:17

That's good.

Shannon 18:18

And I met my siblings as well. I have over a dozen siblings. Wow. Yeah. She was busy. And I did not get to meet my birth father because he had passed before I actually started even doing my search. And he actually never knew about me. Oh. But I did find his family, and they were super excited to know about me, obviously, because he didn't have other kids. And so they were excited to know that he actually did have a child, and they have welcomed me into their family, and I still have a great relationship with them to this day. That's wonderful.

Rita 19:03

Yeah.

Jim 19:03

You know, looking at your your website, I also noticed that another experience that Rita and I share with you is caring for a loved one with a terminal illness. We both had

Caregiving Dialysis And Not Losing Yourself

Jim 19:11

lost our first spouses to cancer. How did you support, you know, taking care of the people you love without just kind of losing yourself in the process?

Shannon 19:19

That's something I'm still working on and learning, and if I'm being honest, because my husband was just diagnosed with his chronical illness three years ago. It happened literally out of the blue in the middle of the night. So that was totally shocking that something like that could happen just that quick with no warning, no nothing. He got sick in the middle of the night. I took him to the ER and we found out he was in kidney failure.

Rita 19:49

Wow.

Shannon 19:50

And so he's been on dialysis ever since. And myself and our youngest son share in the caregiving for him.

Rita 20:00

Okay.

Shannon 20:01

And so when I when I need a break and need to take some self-care for myself, my youngest son steps in and vice versa. When he needs a break, then I step back in. That's why. So we're learning how to navigate that caregiving. But that's the one thing I tell people when you stand up there and you're saying your wedding vows, especially me, I got married as a teenager, and you know, now three decades later, you know, you say that phrase in sickness and in health, thinking, you know, it's just another sentence that you're saying, you know, when you're when you're getting married, until it actually becomes a reality in your life.

Jim 20:39

Yeah, actually, I'm amazed at how many people don't take that vow seriously.

Rita 20:43

Yeah, I am too. Yeah. Exactly.

Jim 20:45

Sickness and health and for better or worse, or until they get tired of you.

Rita 20:49

Yeah. And and you know, we've noticed too that if somebody gets ill, they hightail it out of there. It's it's hard, it's hard to take.

Shannon 20:58

It is very hard to take. My husband is my best friend. We've been through so much together, you know, and then to see him go from his fun-loving, adventurous self, loves to travel, loves to do high adrenaline things like zipline and all kinds of crazy stuff, yeah, to not even being able to have a job anymore. Yeah. And most days cannot get out of the bed.

Rita 21:26

Wow.

Shannon 21:26

It's very hard to see that. And also when you have your loved one that looks at you one day because they've suffered for so long and their life isn't the life that they had before, and they look at you and say, they just want to go.

Rita 21:42

You know what? I suffered through that. My husband died at 29 and he was sick for four years. And yeah, that's really hard. That's yeah, very hard.

Shannon 21:54

It's hard to hear that from the person that you love.

Rita 21:57

It is, but I will tell you, I set his medication by his bed. It was his choice. I was not going to participate in it, and he he didn't act on it.

Jim 22:08

You know, when when my wife died, the kids were already out of the house, so it was, you know, true empty nester at the time. And it really felt strange after taking care of first the the kids and then a dying spouse. Suddenly I was only responsible for myself.

Shannon 22:23

Yeah.

Jim 22:23

You know, the there's a cartoon I saw once that was the uh old west. There's a pack mule that's loaded up with all the mining equipment on his back and a horse next to him says, How do you carry that load? And the the donkey says, What load? You know, he's just been used to carrying it so long that he doesn't even realize it's there.

Shannon 22:42

Yeah.

Jim 22:43

empty nester for you change uh your perspective on life?

Shannon 22:47

Yeah, it really did. Me and my youngest son are very, very close. And so when he left to go off off to college, that really affected me more than I anticipated that it would. And that actually got me to looking inward and thinking, who am I now?

Rita 23:06

Right.

Shannon 23:07

Because all of my roles are now stripped away. And I'm no longer a mom. Nobody needs me in that capacity anymore. I mean, obviously I'm still a mom, but you know, he's he's grown now. He's off in college. He doesn't need me like he did, you know, when he was younger. And then, you know, my husband was not sick at that time. So he was very active and, you know, does his own things and hobbies and whatnot. And I'm like, what do I do now? And who am I? And that led me into investigating that question and to start looking inward. And it gave me permission to to actually wonder what else is actually out there? What else is possible? What else should I be doing? I came up with three Rs based on that reconnect, reclaim and reinvent.

Rita 24:00

Okay.

Shannon 24:01

And that's essentially what I did with myself.

Rita 24:04

I get it. Yeah.

Jim 24:06

All right. Well now that we're all tearing up a little bit, let's uh let's change the topic here and talk about travel now. We are big proponents of the idea that travel can really

Travel As Reinvention Cruises And Scotland

Jim 24:16

be transformative in in many, many ways. How has travel changed the way that you see yourself and the others around you?

Shannon 24:22

Well I think we kind of touched on it earlier a little bit. It it has opened me up to you know stripped away the biases and all of that that I preconceived notions I had about other people, other cultures and that kind of thing from me stepping out of my comfort zone and traveling to all these different places and talking to people. New Orleans was that first step. Yeah New Orleans was that first step. And then after that was a cruise we had never been on a cruise before so we we decided oh let's try this thing out. And so we went on a cruise and discovered how much we actually love cruising you could see all of these different places you know within a short span of time and then decide if that's the place you really like, you can go back and spend more time there. Right. You know, versus just going there and then realizing oh this is not really where I want to be you know but you're kind of stuck there for a week now. Yeah.

Rita 25:22

You know uh when we're traveling if we are someplace that we don't like we go someplace else. Yeah. You know I mean we hard we almost always like everywhere we go I mean something about it. But it's it's pretty easy for us just to move along it seems.

Jim 25:39

What was your first international destination? Was that during the cruise?

Shannon 25:42

Yeah I went I mean technically I would say yes it was during a cruise but the first time that we actually got on a plane and flew international and was you know land based we went to Scotland. Oh love Scotland we love Scotland yeah and I feel like I was ruined after that because that's what happens Scotland was so amazing. Oh it was wonderful. We actually flew over there we rented a car and we drove all over the whole country of Scotland and then even went out to the outer Hebrides Islands too and we we spent like almost almost three weeks there and it was incredible.

Jim 26:26

I can't wait to go back yeah we only spent a few days each in Glasgow and Edinburgh but right we did spend a month in a rental car driving around Ireland. Yeah yeah that's a beautiful part of the world I'd love to go back there again.

Shannon 26:38

Yeah me too that was a challenge for me too is doing an international flight. Most people you know just flying in general is a challenge for them. And it was always for me too but the job I currently have now I've had to travel a lot for work. So flying you know in the United States has gotten pretty much you know just no big deal for me. But thinking about that long flight across the pond was like I don't know if I can do that be on a plane for 12 plus hours.

Jim 27:11

It's brutal. Yeah it's probably the worst part of travel for us.

Shannon 27:14

But I think once you once you step out and you do these things that you never thought you could do, that teaches you you know a little bit about the strength that you have inside of you that you didn't realize you had. Absolutely.

Jim 27:28

I think you also see how other people live and what difficulties they've gone through.

Shannon 27:32

Yes exactly yeah and that there's so many other people that are have it worse than you do.

Jim 27:40

Oh my God yes you know we lived in Ecuador and you see uh kids playing on the beach with nothing but like a paper cup and some sand and so happy and completely happy and enjoying themselves. Absolutely it's really pretty humbling. What help do you provide now as a travel advisor?

Shannon 27:55

When my husband got sick and you know we lost that income and so it was just me as a solo income for the household at that

The Travel Advisor Pivot From Home

Shannon 28:05

point I had to pivot.

Rita 28:07

Right.

Shannon 28:07

And I'm like what am I going to do now? I have to have another income coming in and what can I do? I don't want to go work in the morning at my regular job and then work all evening and I can't do that because you know of caring for my husband. Right. So what is something that I can do from home and still make some money and get a second income coming in so it was actually my boss who said well you love travel so much and you plan all of your travel vacations that you go on. So why not try being a travel agent?

Rita 28:40

Right.

Shannon 28:41

Do something you like or love as a second job because otherwise you're not going to keep up with it.

Rita 28:47

Yeah it's too grueling.

Shannon 28:49

Yeah. And so I was like oh that's an ideal so I looked into it and you know got my certification and everything and I am a travel advisor and I did do that for about a year and realized very quickly that I like planning my own travel. I don't like planning travel for other people.

Rita 29:11

Yeah because you know what you like you don't know what they like and I get it.

Shannon 29:16

Yeah and it's so hard and you have to put way more time into it since it's not you know stuff that you like in figuring out you know what they like and make sure you come up with the plan that's going to be great for them. Right. And so I didn't realize how time consuming that was going to be for me. So now I I still am labeled a travel advisor because I will book stuff for my family and friends and co-workers but beyond that not really pursuing like my advertising for other people outside my immediate circle anymore.

Jim 29:51

Well what about your books?

Shannon 29:53

So you have a couple projects you're working on at the moment right yes yes so in starting the podcast last year and you know like

Writing Map Back To Me

Shannon 30:00

I said it originally started out with me telling little snippets of my story along with some of our travel adventures my sister was like I mean my best friend when I say sister I call her sister so we gonna she was like why don't you put your story into a book and let's just make it a book and and publish we'll publish the book and I was like you know what I like that idea because I've always written when I was younger I've always journaled and that kind of thing I think you know having trying to deal with the trauma that I went through. And so I was like you know what I'm gonna do that. So I started my memoir and that's called Map Back to Me. It's my whole journey from everything I went through with my adoption, finding my adopted parents the trauma that I went through as a child and then the discovery of the process I went through and discovering myself again and who who Shannon is as an individual when all the labels are stripped away.

Jim 31:09

Right. Yeah I wrote a similar book and since taking it out of print because it something just didn't gel with it correctly. And maybe someday I'll I'll tackle that again but actually just the effort of writing about it and getting it out of of you and onto paper that's got to help some yes it was very cathartic.

Shannon 31:28

I recommend to anybody who's had any trauma experience or whatever even if you don't share it with anybody else write it on paper yeah because something about writing it down on paper, getting that out of you and you know write it on paper and burn it throw it away whatever that it's very cathartic.

Rita 31:51

You know it legitimizes the situation that everyone wanted to poo-poo away and not talk about yeah I get that exactly now I really love your phrase life doesn't follow a map but every detour has a story.

Jim 32:05

That seems to be kind of central to most of what you're doing isn't it?

Shannon 32:08

It is and and I attribute that to or how I come up with that is my dad when I was young he taught me how to navigate with a map and a compass and we lived in Tennessee at the time and I would spend countless hours out in the woods just wandering around and exploring and my dad the way he would let me know it was time to come home is he would stand out in our yard and blow his cow horn and that was my signal that it was time to come home and I could follow the sound of the cow horn back home. Yeah.

Jim 32:51

Is there a central message that you hope your readers will take away from your books?

Shannon 32:55

Well for the memoir my central message is that every person has a map and you can find your way back to yourself. And then the the other my other book that I have is called Wrong Turns Right People and that is about my travels it's about you know how like we were talking about on travels pivoting or or taking a detour or or taking a wrong turn and ending up somewhere and just making the most of it and the people that you meet that along the way that you never expected to meet and how they change your life. Yeah.

Jim 33:31

Yeah we often find the best part of a a trip is something that we didn't plan at all.

Shannon 33:36

Yeah.

Jim 33:36

Just a random encounter or something that we never knew existed and we happen to stumble upon it.

Rita 33:41

Yeah.

Shannon 33:42

Exactly and that's actually going to be a series and I call it the elsewhere there series because when we're traveling and we go the wrong way Ann always looks at me and her phrase is not wrong just elsewhere. Yeah.

Jim 34:04

Do you have any big trips planned now?

Shannon 34:06

We have a group cruise it's our first group cruise we're taking some of our podcast listeners and family

Wrong Turns And The Right People

Shannon 34:13

with us on a group cruise in March and we're leaving out of San Juan and traveling through the Southern Caribbean.

Jim 34:21

Well we've been chatting with Shannon Lamkin author, speaker part-time travel advisor and host of the internationally listened to podcast Travel Time Stories with Shannon. You can find out more on our website traveltimestories.com and we will have links to the website and podcast in the show notes and by the way travel time stories has been added to our site as one of our favorite recommendations. Well Shannon thank you for joining us on wherever we may roam thank you so much for having me I appreciate it before we go just a quick update on our travel planning for a trip to Europe of almost three months this spring. Now we told you we booked our flights to the first stop in Madrid and had secured an Airbnb there for six nights as well. Now as we record

Europe Trip Planning Lessons Learned

Jim 35:02

this it's still almost seven months before we leave so we can't book things like bus and train transportation yet. But since some of the cities we'll be visiting are very popular it's not too early to lock in accommodations before the good ones are snapped up. Now looking at our proposed itinerary we thought booking Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam and Copenhagen would be a good idea at least for Barcelona, since there's been such a pushback there recently on tourism in general and Airbnb specifically we went straight to booking dot com and secured a very nice hotel and a good location it's near Transit and the Sagrada Familia. It's about one hundred and fifty at night but it does have a small kitchenette with a kettle, microwave and fridge so we can save a bit on breakfast and we knew Barcelona was going to be one of the more expensive cities anyway. Next up was Amsterdam which brought up a bit of an issue. We wanted to book early because we would be there during peak tulip season and we wanted to get passes for the garden. Or so we thought just after I booked us in a nice hotel four nights at about ten dollars a night Rita discovered that since we had tweaked our schedule after AI generated it for us, we would now be arriving in Amsterdam the day after the tulip garden closes. Oops also to get the lowest rate, the Amsterdam room was non refundable luckily we are used to adapting our travel plans. AI had scheduled nine nights for us in Paris but we hadn't booked anything yet. We decided we didn't really need nine nights we cut that down to six which should still let us see all that we wanted to and save some money because Paris again is going to be one of the more expensive visits. We adjusted our schedule between Paris and Amsterdam managed to free up three nights we found a room at a hotel in Hoopdorf just a few miles from the tulip fields and on our way to Amsterdam so we'll be there for the last two days of the season. Tickets for the tulips don't go on sale until mid-October so we have a note in our calendar to start checking availability in early October just in case. Booking early really helps. Finally Copenhagen is where we start the cruise section of our trip. So we wanted to get there a couple of days early to be able to look around a bit and make sure we were ready to start our twenty four night voyage. Another hotel, this one near the train station where we will arrive and in the center of town so that's all for now. Join us next week and we'll be speaking with a couple who at age fifty four decided to sell almost everything they own and buy a sailboat and sail around the world That was eight years and 45,000 miles ago so we'll see how things have worked out. Until then remember we travel not to escape life but so that life does not escape us.

Next Week Preview And Closing Notes

Jim 38:01

If you've been thinking about traveling longer or just traveling better, we hope this episode gave you a few more ideas. Remember there's no right or wrong way to explore the world only the way that works for you. If you enjoyed this episode be sure to follow the podcast and if you have a moment leave a quick review. It really helps more people find us and if you want to go deeper you can check out my book Wherever we may roam Finding Your Travel Style where I walk through all of this in more detail. You can search for it on Amazon in Kindle, paperback and audiobook or just use the link on our podcast page. If you have any questions a topic you would like discussed or would like to be on our show email us at jim@jimsantosbooks.com Thanks for listening and as always safe travels wherever you may roam