Travel, How have people left an impression on you?

Travel, the places, the sights, the food, it is all great, but what people remember most is how someone made them feel.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Well, good morning. It is June the fifteenth, two thousand twenty-six, and straight from the Highly Caffeinated Studio, this is yours truly, Willie B. And I have something very unique this week for a discussion topic. So most people think that travel memories are things that you go see, attractions, the actual cruise ship you went on, uh, the ports that you stop in, the different attractions. Maybe it's the Coliseum, maybe it's the Eiffel Tower, that fancy restaurant, that sparkling white beach, you get where I'm going with this. That's what people think that travel memories are. But when you ask people 10, 20 years later, sometimes what they remember is the cab driver who made them laugh after a terrible flight. Maybe it was the waitress or waiter who treated them like family. Or maybe it was the hotel or housekeeper who left a handwritten note. Maybe it was a bartender who listened when they needed someone to talk to. Maybe it's an old man on a park bench who told them a story they'll never forget. In a lot of cases, those are just people doing their jobs. They probably went home that night having no idea that they had just become part of someone else's life story. And that's the heart of this episode. Not travel, not food, human connection. I've traveled enough to learn that something really interesting got my attention. The places are important, the food is definitely important. But the people are what really stays with you. I can show you pictures of restaurants that I've forgotten, hotels, attractions I've forgotten. But I can still remember a cab driver from years ago who made me laugh so hard I almost missed my destination. The funny thing is, that cab driver probably doesn't even remember me at all. But I remember him. So tonight or today, let's let's talk about the people behind the stories. And I've got several of my own experiences, and I'm sure that you have some of your own. And if you want to share them, you know how to get in touch with me. I'm on all social media. You can send it through the website, whatever the case may be. I'd love to hear you share some experiences of how people made a difference in your travels. And the reason I brought up the cab driver was about 10 years ago we were in Paris, France, and we were on our way back to the hotel. It was getting late, and the cab driver spoke fairly good English, and he asked us if we were staying to see the lights. And I assured him, I said, no, we were headed to catch the train to get back out to long story short, go listen to the France episode. But we had to get back to the hotel, which was out at Disneyland, Paris. And he said, No, no, you can't go back to the hotel for about another probably 15 or 20 minutes. You have to stay and see when they turn the twinkly lights on the Eiffel Tower. And I'm like, Well, it's already lit up. And he said, Yes. But they turn on another set of lights right before midnight, because that's when they turned all the lights off of the Eiffel Tower. But the twinkly lights come on at the last few minutes of the day, and it looks like it's covered in diamonds. Well, the way he described it, you couldn't help but say, okay, but we're already in a cab. And he says, I got you. And he said, Don't worry about it. This is this is my gift to you. This is my souvenir to you. So he drove around town a little bit and pointed out some interesting destinations. And I want you to know that cab driver turned the meter off. We were on his dime. Because we were only a few blocks from the train station. He turned the meter off, drove us around, showed us some sites, told us some different things that we didn't see or hear about in the all the brochures and the planning for the trip. And he goes, Oh, it's almost time. And he drove out of the way. He said, You have to see it with the water in the background. Okay. I figure he lives there. He must know. And sure enough, he stops in the middle of the street, and they turned on the twinkly lights. It was the most amazing sight that you could ever imagine. Seeing that thing lit up. And it did, it looked like it was encased in diamonds. And then the reflection off the water made it even more impressive. Now, this guy did all this just to enhance our experience of Paris on his own expense on his own dime. Because like I said, he turned the meter off. Let me tell you, that is one time I tipped, and I tipped well. Because that that driver didn't just say, hey, let me let me go down this street and show you something. He had to involve some of his own time to make sure that we were able to see the twinkly lights. And that was the most impressive thing. To me, that was more impressive than the twinkly lights. That someone cared enough about a stranger that they had never met and never will see again, but they wanted to make sure that their impression of Paris was well preserved. It's been almost 10 years, and that is still one of my favorite memories of Paris. Not the twinkly lights, the cab driver that made sure that we saw that before going to the room. That's impressive. How many people do you know that would have turned off the meter and done that on their own dive for somebody that they never met before? It was just strictly a little short cab ride. I remember I was working for a coffee company and I was a glorified sales tech, I guess you would call it. Um PR person, if you will. Imagine that. Someone with a gift of gab being a PR person. Everything had gone wrong that day. And I mean, everything. I am never, ever late for a flight. I am always at the gate two hours early, but this day was not a normal day. I had a carry-on suitcase that had all of the coffee samples in it and some other brochures and paraphernalia for the job. I couldn't put it in my regular carry uh check luggage. I mean, I only had so many hands to carry stuff with. So I said, well, I'll pack it in here. It's a carry-on, I'll be fine. Well, the plane that they stuck me on was a little smaller than normal. So the overhead bins were smaller than normal. And guess what would not fit into that overhead bin? You guessed it. My carry-on. It was just flat intended. I will never forget her as long as I live. And the disdain on her face was almost comical. She said, Where do you think you're gonna put that? I said, Well, I'm gonna put it up here in the uh overhead bin. She goes, It won't fit. And I said, But I always put it in an overhead bin. She goes, but this is a smaller plane, that's not gonna fit in there. And of course, me being stubborn, I said, I'm I'm pretty sure it will. It didn't seem that much smaller. So I attempted to put it up there, and truth be known, it did not fit, not at all, not even close. So now I'm to the point of okay, now what? And so she looks at me with this, I told you so, and then she said, So what are you gonna do now? And I said, Um, she goes, What's in there? And I explained to her what was in there, and she said, Hmm. She goes, Well, we've got to get this plane off the ground, and you're just gonna hold it up if we do any other moving the luggage around. She said, So follow me. So back to the little area behind the curtain that she opened up this cabinet and she said, put it in there. And I said, Yes, ma'am. And I stuck it in there and I said, Okay, that fits. She said, Mm-hmm. She goes, now, just do me a favor. Remember, the next time you fly, that suitcase has got to be smaller. I said, Yes, ma'am, I understand. Rusty, it'll be smaller. So, you know, but she took care of me. She didn't just say, Hey, we're gonna throw this off the plane. Uh, you know, she found an alternative to somebody's day that had already been frazzled from point A to point B. And she could have chose to went the other way, but she didn't. She made sure that that luggage was taken care of. And I tell you, that's far and few between nowadays. And so I'll never forget her. Uh there was a time where there was a manager of a restaurant in Bryan Collins Station, Texas. Now, we frequented this restaurant probably at least three or four times a month. It was one of our favorite restaurant restaurants. It was um a white tablecloth, but more along the lines of a bistro. And they had an excellent steak. Their food was just over the top good, and and their service was just unbelievable for a little small bistro. And we knew the manager by name, and we had made reservations for an event, and it was just the two of us, but we had made reservations because we wanted to make sure that we were celebrating uh at Madden's restaurant. We made the reservations a week in advance. We got there and they were packed. There was not a table in sight. So I said, Well, we had made reservations, and she said, the hostess said, Hold on a minute. And so she went and got Stuart, the manager, and he Stuart came out and and uh he said, Is there a problem? I said, Well, no, it's not really a problem. I said, We had made reservations, but I said, I see you guys are packed, and he goes, No, a reservation is a reservation. He said, Who did you make it with? And I said, I don't remember the young lady's name. He said, When did you make it? So I gave him the date that I had called and made the reservation, and he went through the book and he said, Here it is, right here. But for some reason, they didn't get it written on the right page. And so it was strictly just a mistake that anybody could have made. Yet he wouldn't have it. I said, Well, we can come back another time. I said, It doesn't have to be tonight. We'll while we're here, we'll make a reservation for another night. Nope, wasn't having it. He said, Give me five minutes. He goes into the back, gets a table, brings it out, puts it in a doorway at the back of the restaurant, grabs some chairs, they didn't match, didn't matter. And he's before you knew it, it had a tablecloth on it, it had everything that they put on top of the table with the candle, the flowers, the whole nine yards, and there was our table. That is going above and beyond. And this is what I love about travel. Not everything goes this way. You're always going to have things that go the opposite way, but when that one person steps up and says, Nope, I'm going to make sure that this person or person's trip is not interrupted by circumstance. And they step up. I've seen it. You go on cruises and you've and they're there to do their job, yes. But they're there to make you have an experience that will make you want to come back. Why? Because if you keep coming back, guess what? That is job security for them. So the the stewards, the uh for the cabins, the servers, the bartenders, everybody on that ship is out to make sure that you have a phenomenal experience because they want you to come back, because that is job security. I've been to all-inclusive resorts. Couples resorts, hands down, one of the best line of resorts that goes above and beyond. We were at Couples Tower Isle a couple years ago when they had a hurricane, and the GM herself was out on the beach after the storm cleared and picking up debris to get the beach cleared as soon as possible so that guest vacations were not interrupted. Bartenders will remember your name like you have never seen. Servers in the restaurant, housekeeping, front desk, everybody from front to back will remember your name within the first day, and they're gonna make sure that you have the kind of experience that you paid for. They don't have to. They could do the bare minimum and still be doing their job. Now I've made a lot of friends through the resort, people that work there that are on my Facebook to this day, that we are personal friends, we chat back and forth, we keep up with what's going on. That's that's going above and beyond, folks. I remember one of the first times I really noticed this, going to the couple's resorts, they a lot they have a lot of freebies, and one of the freebies is they'll take you into town multiple times a week and let you go shopping.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

This one particular shopping trip, we had a guy on the van.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

His name was David, and when we got into town, he made an announcement in the van. There was about 10 of us, and he said, If you need something, look over your shoulder and I'll be there. We we found that humorous, but we all departed the bus, and everybody goes their own direction of doing their shopping in this little shopping center. But it seemed like every time you looked over your shoulder, he was standing somewhere within eyesight, maybe across the street, maybe. We asked him when we got back on the van why he followed us, and he said, You know, the resort says that I have to make sure if I take 10 people into town, I have to bring 10 people back. He said, Now, some drivers they'll they'll bring just they'll just pick 10 and bring 10 back. That's just a joke, but it was funny. But he said, But you 10 are my favorite. He said, But I always make sure that I bring the same 10 back, and I want you to feel safe while you're here shopping in Jamaica, and I want you to feel safe and enjoy your vacation. You've worked all year for it, you've saved up for it, and I want you to have the most amazing time you can have and not be worried if somebody's trying to take advantage of you. And he said, That's why I'm in the background, keeping an eye out for any trouble that might be. Uh, you know, I just thought that was sad. The the resort says, Hey, look, you just got to bring 10 people back. You take 10 people in town, you gotta bring 10 back. You know, it seems like a pretty easy job. But he wanted to make sure that while you were there, you weren't getting harassed. Or and I've I've never felt unsafe in Jamaica. A lot of people say, Oh, I don't feel safe there, but I've never felt unsafe. But that just showed me another way where people go above and beyond for people on their vacation. And does this happen all the time? No, you you get the ones that absolutely don't care if you have, they don't even care if you finish your vacation, to be honest. But there's also so many out there that do care, that do care if you not only have a vacation, but that you have a great time on your vacation. And it was the same way with all of the shuttle drivers, whether they were taking you on an excursion or they were taking you to and from the airport. We've met so many people, not only on the bus that were on their vacation, but also the bus drivers, because they would talk to you and they wanted to know everybody's name and they wanted to know where you're from and what you and they did that because they wanted to get to know you, and then you go next the next year and you get one of the same bus drivers, or you get a different bus driver, and one of the other bus drivers says, Oh, hey, you're not gonna get on my bus. I see, and this is like you know, because they they put you on the bus that that they designate, so but it was they remembered you, and they see hundreds and hundreds of people a week, but they make it their job, they make it their mission to make sure that you're remembered and that you have a great time because that is job security of them. But I think there's more to it than that, it's not just job security, it's they are that type of human that we will never forget in our travels because they went above and beyond what was expected of them to make sure that our travels stayed intact. I, you know, in New York City, of all places where people say, Oh, you know, New Yorkers, da da da. Let me tell you something. We met so many people, nice people in New York, and one of the ones that stands out to me, and I know I've told you guys this, but I will never forget the people that own Anoteca Maria, and especially Nana, because Nana came to that table from the time we walked in the door, and when we left there, we felt like we should have gotten a Christmas card because we felt like we were part family. I've never had that kind of experience in any restaurant in my entire life, and I've had some wow experiences. I mean some over the top wow experiences. But in a Teca Maria from the movie Known us, hands down, one of the most immersive. Meal experiences you ever have in your entire life. I guarantee it. I would fly to New York just to go eat there. It would be worth the airfare. I promise you that. We've met guests at different resorts and cruises that have become lifelong friends. I just saw our group of friends that go to uh Couples Tower Isle. We go every year. We've gone for the last three or four years, and uh they're taking off, they're flying out on the 27th of June. But there's one couple that won't be on board because we decided to go for the Mediterranean this fall. And trust me, some of these trips they're they're getting more and more expensive. So you have to start choosing what do you want to do this or this? You know, trying to do multiple big trips in one year is just becoming uh financially impossible. So you have to make the most of the memories while you're there. And the way you do that is you make sure that you remember people like this, people that turn off the meter to take you by something that you cannot miss. For a flight attendant whose sole job is just to get you on the plane, serve you a three-ounce bottle of coke and a one-ounce package of peanuts or pretzels, and get you to point A to point B, not to make sure that your luggage is taken care of. Their job is to make sure that you have towels in your room, not to leave notes and folded animals and extras extras that you know, just because they're going above and beyond. And that's what makes travel. It yes, the seeing all the sites, the attractions, the different restaurants, the food, the cultures, the the fun of flying, train travel, cruise travel, whatever the case may be, all that is just great and wonderful. But I am telling you, as I sit here right now in front of this mic, the thing that you're going to remember the most in 10 to 20 years is that person.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

And I've heard it all in my life.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

People remember how you made them feel, not what you did for them, not what you gave them, but how you made them feel. In every one of these scenarios that I gave you, what did they make me feel? They made me feel important, they made me feel like I mattered. They made me feel that my vacation mattered. And that's something you don't forget. And I hope you remember these things until I see you again next week. And until next week, do not forget to cafe and conquer. And I'll see you again right here behind this big old mic. I appreciate every single one of you for listening. Have a great day. Bye bye.