Episode 5 - I Let A Dime Plan My Trip, It Was Both Chaotic And Weirdly Therapeutic

What happens when a lifelong overplanner hands the wheel to a warped dime? I set out for a simple break and wound up on a cross-country experiment in trust—Los Angeles to Chicago by rail, a snap decision toward Seattle, and a last-minute turn to Las Vegas—while asking whether I was truly surrendering or just outsourcing my fear of the “wrong” choice.

We dig into the tension between structure and spontaneity—how a coin can cut analysis paralysis yet still sit inside boundaries you quietly set. Chicago becomes a case study in practical freedom: I add just enough scaffolding with a CityPASS and simple rules to keep moving without spiraling, then let curiosity pull me to museum halls, lakeside walks, and a nighttime boat ride I didn’t see coming. On the train west, the rolling hills turn into an unexpected space to face burnout, listen for what I actually want, and admit how much safety my survival brain needs to settle down.

A compressed Seattle tour with a generous Uber guide shows how fast choices can still be meaningful when your anchors are clear. Then, at the airport, a flip toward Vegas surfaces the truth: the dime never really had the power. It was a catalyst that let me claim my desires without apology. Along the way, we explore practical takeaways—set one anchor (sleep, route, exit), use tiny constraints to break indecision, and right-size control so there’s room for discovery without losing your footing.

If you’ve been gripping the plan too tightly, this story offers a grounded way to test freedom without courting chaos. Hit play, then tell me: where could you loosen your hold just enough to feel more alive? Subscribe, share with a friend who overthinks, and leave a review with the one choice you’d hand to a coin. And if you'd like to support the show in a bigger way, you can tap the link for a monthly support. No pressure-just if it feels right.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2598011/support

Mundo Mondays

Transcript

The Coin Flip Experiment

SPEAKER_01 0:01

I've always been the kind of person who plans everything, every step, every outcome, every detail. But a few years ago I did something completely different. I trusted a warp beat up dime to decide where I would go. No road plan, no fixed destination, just a coin flip. That dime took me from Los Angeles to Chicago, then to Seattle, and somehow to Las Vegas. And along the way, I wasn't just traveling. I was letting go of control in a way I normally never do. But if I'm being honest, there were moments I didn't tr fully trust it. Moments where I questioned where I was actually being spontaneous or just avoiding making real decisions. So here's the question. Was I really letting go, or was I just disguising control in a different form? And what does that say about how we think, how we choose, and how much control we actually need? In this episode, I'm breaking down what happens when you stop overthinking and let something as small as a coin coin, in this case a dime, guide your decisions. So let me set the stage. This was a few years ago, and I was trying to decide how I was gonna spend my vacation. So my semester had was this was about to end my summer semester into my fall semester, and I had about 10 days for vacation.

Choosing Routes And Limits

SPEAKER_01 1:49

And I wanted to do something different. I really wanted to do something different, and I actually wanted to take Amtrak ride. I've tripped traveling on Amtrak before from point A to point B, but the thing was that it wasn't really comfortable for me. It was in coach and long story short, I didn't like the experience, and I had to do it a few more times to save money to traveling instead of buying air air travel. So anyway, this time it was a self self-aware decision to take Amtrak. Yes, I know. So this is where it gets interesting. So I was trying to decide to go to either Phoenix to or Denver or even Phoenix or San Diego. And the thing is that I really wanted to take a trip. So I had a decision of saying, okay, this is too much too hard, this is too hard for me to make a decision just out right off the bat. So what can I do? How can I make it simple? How can I make it easier for myself? And the choice came down to Las Vegas, I'm sorry, to Phoenix, Las Vegas, and no, I'm sorry, to Chicago and to San Diego. Why Chicago? Because when I looked on Amtrak, you can't really take an Amtrak directly from Las Vegas to, I mean, from LA to Las Vegas. You can kind of take one from from LA to Phoenix, but you have to take a bus. So, you know, this is where process of elimination helps and critical thinking really comes in for me. So I didn't want to do that much thinking, and this whole trip was for me just to escape, to enjoy my 10 days. So here comes the decision maker, the dime. So this dime was sitting on my desk for a while, and it's been on the kitchen desk for a while, maybe a few months, and I've seen it a few times, and it's warped and it looks kind of a little defaced, not by me, but by its experience. So I thought about it. This was about testing myself, I believe. So let's move on. So part one, the decision letting go or avoiding control. So like I said, this was my first real Amtrak adventure across country. And Chicago or San Diego. And you know, when you think about it coming from Los Angeles, that's not really a long way, and 10 days you can get to San Diego in an afternoon. Actually, it's like two to three hours. But anyway, I decided

Elder Wisdom And Trust

SPEAKER_01 4:54

to go to Chicago and I flipped the coin and or dime and it landed on Chicago. But before doing that, this is an interesting thing. So I do have that indigenous part where I do trust the environment around me. A really old elder once told me something. I was that trust me, this has point, this makes merit, this makes sense. So this person was an elder of mine, and I was trying to get some break a branch from a tree, and I was having trouble, I was struggling with it. I had my little knife, I was struggling with it, and I was getting so upset, and this elder saw me and comes up to me and tells me, he says, Look, the tree is a living being, the tree knows what you're trying to do, or may not know what you're trying to do. So instead, try talking to it, tell them what the branch is gonna be used for, how it's gonna be used, that is giving up part of its its essence to help you. And I at first I thought this was crazy, I said, Yeah, yeah, you know, whatever. And you know, as a young kid, you you're supposed to think these things. So I decided to employ that idea. So I said, Hey, I am trying to do this, I want to make our marshmallow stick. Yes, I meant our marshmallow stick of all things, and you know, my cousins and everyone have a great stick, and except for me, and I want like to have this this stick to roach marshmallows. So would you please let me you know have your branch for this thing, and and I would be very thankful and happy that you did. And so I start working at it again, and guess what? It did come off. Now, a lot of you are gonna say, well, Cameron, you were cutting in the same place for so long, it would have come off eventually. True, but the thing is the essence behind it changed the thought of it, and I actually was cutting in a way of more meaningful, and I wasn't struggling as much, and it came off more easier. And for me, when I'm struggling with a lot of things in nature, you know, I talk to things and you know, I tell things, hey, you know, this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm trying to do, or you know, explain the situation. And I I employ this traditional knowledge to my my younger relatives and I tell them, I say, you know, it's someone had told me this, and you know, it seems kind of weird and

Why I Needed The Dime

SPEAKER_01 7:24

funny, but you know, it does work. And sure enough, you know, a lot of my younger relatives do that. So in this case, I talked to the dime, I said, Hey, I want to go to a place where I'm gonna be protected, safe, and sound, I'm gonna have fun. Can you help me choose between these destinations? And you know, Chicago was the place, you know, to be perfectly honest. And so, as I said, the trust didn't a warp dime on this idea and committee to go. So this is where I started to think about things. So here are the course here are the critical questions of this first part. Why did I need the dime to make this decision? Wow. Well, I was having a hard time deciding, and I just didn't want to you know, I don't want to make this decision, and you know, and you know, just putting your blind your blind faith into a you know to into the universe and just say, hey, this is what I want, this is what I'm trying to do. You know, I want something out of it. And, you know, I want it to be a good thing for me. And from my perspective, again, this is my perspective, you know, I was putting that faith into the universe and I wanted to say, hey, I want to go somewhere good, somewhere I'm gonna be safe, where I'm gonna be protected, or I don't have to worry where I'm gonna have a good time, where I'm gonna learn stuff. So a lot of you are gonna ask, you know, these types of questions. You know, why do I need to have why do I need some inanimate object to make a decision? And sometimes, you know, it's just a fun way and entertaining way for me. I just didn't want to make the decision. So, anyway, that's that that idea. So, was I actually being spontaneous or was I avoiding making or choosing the wrong decision? I really don't want to make the wrong decision. I really have to say I didn't want to make a bad decision because I've been on trips before, and you know, we've all been on trips where we felt like this was a horrible choice, this was a horrible thing, and I just wish I was stayed at home, and that's what I wanted to avoid. To be honest, and I'm totally honest with that. So, was I being spontaneous? Probably not. I just didn't want to make the wrong decisions and but you know, again. So next question. Did the dying give me freedom or did it remove responsibility? So did it remove responsibility? I wanna say yes, because in the moment that I thought about it, I didn't have to make the decision of of just you know thinking about it and overthinking. And you know, we can spend a whole topic on that, but you know, let's continue on because I don't want you, the audience, to lose track of this entertaining experience.

Chicago By Chance

SPEAKER_01 10:44

So I get to Chicago, and that's when the experiment actually gets real. Well, actually, before I get there, I flipped the coin to ask how many days they might stay in Chicago because honestly, I didn't have a single idea. I really didn't have a single idea. So on the on the train, I flipped the coin and to ask how many days I was staying because I needed to know where I was staying at because I didn't have reservations. Can you believe that? Somebody who always plans never had a reservation or an idea to how long I was gonna stay in Chicago. Can you believe that? So, yes, I flipped the coin and I decided to stay there for three days. And you know, I didn't know where to stay, and luckily I found a hotel near downtown where the actual train Amtrak actually gets into downtown nearby, and I was able to stay in a nice hotel, and I flipped for the days, I said, and so as I was flipping the days, I also had to flip on the account of you know what to do there and how to kind of expend my time here in Chicago, and so I was able to if any of you guys remember the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, it is shot in Chicago, and I had seen this movie a few times in the past year of you know a few years ago, and it does came on come on once in a while, and I do catch it to relive the songs and the iconic uh moments. But I was able to see some of these places. I got to see the museum, got to see the lake side, I got to see that one scene where they put the head against the glass and look down. I got to see some of those structures when they're singing the Beatles that song. I'm drawing a blank right now, but you know what I'm talking about. And I got to see all those places, and I just flipped the coin. I said, Am I going north today? Am I going south? Am I going east? Am I going west? And you know, I just Googled like what was north of me, what was south of me, what was east of me. And you know, that took some time because you know, when you flip a coin, you don't know a single place, you know, you didn't know anything. And I think I made that mistake the first day when I got there. This is the first day, and since then I decided to get an on the app. There's an app that you use that will tell you some of the places to like some of the major cities that will give you a lot of different places of uh amusements and places to visit, and you know, you purchase a pass, and I think it's called City Pass, if I'm mistaken. But it gives you a lot of different options, and then I was able to make a lot more decisions because I remember the movie and I saw some of these places, so I kind of planned out my way in some degree, but again, I think if I had a little more critical thinking, I could have planned my trip just a little bit better. So, anyway.

Structure Versus Spontaneity

SPEAKER_01 13:45

So after my second day, I had to know where I was going, so I had to decide and I didn't know. I didn't know if I was flying back, I didn't know I was taking you know Amtra back, I didn't know what direction I was going, because this is like this is it. I really didn't have a plan. And so I flipped a coin. I said, first first choice, of course, am I going back by plane or am I going back by Amtrak? And of course, airplane was no, so am I going east, west, or south? And at this point, I could really either go east or west, and it was either going to New York and DC, or I think I ended up saying New York or going west to Seattle. And I decided to flip a coin and it started to go west. And I let me back up. So when you take Amtrak, there's three ways to get back east. I mean back west. There's going through the the south part, which is ends up in Los Angeles, just in the middle part, you go through Denver and you end up in San Francisco, I believe, or Oakland, somewhere around there, and the north part you take Seattle. So I flipped between north and south, and I eventually got to Seattle. So this is where I start to notice things. So as a person who grew up seeing mountains majority of his life, you start to see the other parts of the country where you think to yourself, wow, this is interesting. And for me, I had a a a cart, one of those rooms that had a bathroom and shower, and had a little k little kind of uh you know, you have your own room. So I that's what I stayed in. And I got to see a lot of the countryside and kind of started to see the rolling hills, and you know, just kind of made me think about a lot of things, self-reflection, kind of think about, you know, where I was going with my education, and you know, I still asked those questions. But, you know, it freed me away because I had time to think, and I think that's where this part was, you know, making me think and really reflect. Because, you know, I started asking myself

Westward To Seattle

SPEAKER_01 16:18

questions. Now, these questions are kind of not really related to what I was thinking about, but some of the ideas, and I guess one of the questions would be, at any point, was I actually enjoying this, or was I just managing uncertainty? Well, see, that's that's part of the thing, is that it freed my mind of things that I was you know thinking about and I didn't have time to think about. And sometimes you just need just a little time away from things just to reflect on your life decisions, and being in a program for so long, and you know, you just start thinking, is this something I really want to do? And you know, facing burnout is a real thing for those who are in education. There's such a thing as a burnt out, and you know, I felt like I was starting to get to that point. So, in a way, the dime did help relieve some of that, but I think in a way it just kind of made me think a little bit differently about you know managing you know my expectations versus what I had to get done and you know where I wanted to go. So, anyway, next question Does having no plan actually make you free or just uncomfortable? Oh wow, I think this question is a little more to heart because for me I do feel uncomfortable in places I don't know, in place in situations I have no control. And it's because when I was growing up, my father would always tell me, Well, you know, there was me and my other relatives going out of town, and you know, my dad would tell me, he goes, Cameron, where are you at? You know, you need to take off your headphones, you need to see where you're at. And I always thought he was being mean, but in a way, it's kind of a way for me to adapt. And I'll talk about this in a in a future episode about zombie apocalypse. So, zombie apocalypse for me is the idea of planning the main things food, water, shelter. But in this context, this was way before all of that, and you know, this is where my inner brain started thinking about being kind of able to you know survive in survival mode. So if I don't know any of the exits, if I don't know the area, if I know anything of the general things, even the general sense of direction, north, south, east, west, if I don't know any of those main things, I kind of get a little freaked out and other you know other a little uncomfortable to be perfectly honest. And did I have any free freedom in this having no plan making me free or uncomfortable? It was uncomfortable, I will admit

A Compressed Seattle Tour

SPEAKER_01 19:13

that. Because there are times I really got a little scared because I didn't know exactly what to do. Because if you're going to a new city for the first time and you don't have anything, and trying to find everything, it's really overwhelming, stimulating, overwhelming. And for me, I like to at least know some basic ideas like you know, the place we're staying or the route we're going or even the general direction. Is there water nearby? You know, and these are things for me, critical thinking expresses me being able to be prepared, and it's not just being, you know, in a sense of being a control freak, because for me, my brain needs to go into survival survival mode and adapt to the situation right in the moment. So, anyway, kind of going off topic a little bit, but so next question: how much structure do I actually need to feel okay? And I think I just mentioned that just now. You know, I need to have at least some structure because my critical thinking needs to go into survival mode, adaptability. Because, you know, like my dad said, you know, what if you break down? What if you're in the middle of nowhere? What if there's a snowstorm? Are you prepared? Do you have water? Do you have a blanket? And you know, it's it's not a way just to feel in control, but you know, that you're ready, that I feel, you know, ready to adapt into any situation. Even here at home, you know, when I'm looking around, you know, the thing that I I see is like, you know, this is my home. I know how to defend it, I know where to go, I know, you know, where the water sources are, I know, you know, the time of day, the sun goes down, it rises, and I know the different types of weather. You know, I'm able to adapt into these situations. And but that's just being me and observing the patterns of things that I can at least kind of understand the way that the water usually travels in in one direction to the other, you know. My mind goes into survival mode pretty fast in those plate times of emergencies. So by the time I got to Chicago, sorry, I need to get back to the story, I thought I was ready to go home, but that's what that's not what happened. And so as I was telling you, I was choosing different places. So I get to Seattle and I decide to check out a few places because I only stayed there for one night. Yes, this is the person who had flipped so many coins, and his luck would turn out to be staying in Seattle for one night. So I had to make the best of it the next day. Is where critical thinking comes in again. You know, you have to go off of your memory, you have to figure out things, but there's this thing on Uber, and yes, I ride Uber a lot as I mentioned before, or you know, I'll mention that again. But in my Uber, there's a thing called you can rent Uber for a few hours to explore, and it gives you X amount of uh miles to explore in those hours. And the lowest amount I believe was three hours, and my flight was like in an hour and a half. So I told my Uber driver this was the first time in Seattle I wanted to check out some things, and by surprise, my Uber driver was really cool. He showed me some of the places that he was aware of, and he said he'd been living in Seattle for a few years, and he said, you know, if I was a tourist guy, I probably would show people some of these places, and he actually showed me down near the their what is it called below the King's Market, I believe. There's like a little uh shipway or like along the the docks, and there's all these little restaurants next, and yeah, anyway, it was really cool to see that and to get that experience, and of course, I saw the space need though, didn't go inside, saw King's Market, but you know, I was in an hour and a half, so I get to the airport, my Uber driver takes me back to the airport, and I am sitting there, and I have the decision to make.

Vegas Detour And Self-Trust

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Am I going home? And this is the critical thinking part of it. Am I going home? Because I've been, you know, you know, traveling around from one side, half of the country to the other side, seeing some really interesting things, thinking a lot, and I say, Do I really want to go home? Because my connecting flight is taking me to Vegas, then to Los Angeles. And I said to myself, you know what, I'm in control of this whole trip. You know, I could easily say that no, I want to stay an extra day. And so just for giggles again, I took out the dime and I said, I wanna stay in I wanna I don't want this trip to end. I'm gonna flip a coin and I want it to end up in Vegas before I go home. I flipped the coin, the dime landed, and it said I was gonna stay or I'm going to Vegas. So I made plans as quickly as I could, changed my reservations, did whatever I could, got on a plane, stayed there for like two days before finally coming home. And this is where everything kind of started clicking for me. I guess the question people say, at what point did I stop trusting the dime? And I think I stopped trusting the dime in a way because you know, I wanted to go to Vegas. You know, that was one of the original ideas of going. And it's just like I wanted time to think, and I didn't want to just go to Vegas and walk around and think, and I really need that time to think about different things. So I guess in that time I was putting trust in myself. Next question. Was I really out of control or was I guiding everything or was I guiding everything the whole time? I want to say half and half, because I think half of the time I was trusting the dime in faith, or fate, or faith, whatever you want to call it, trusting the universe. On the other half, I was just going places I wanted to do and see things, you know, for myself. And you know, just to say that you've been, you know, to some of the places in Ferris Buller. Oh, here's the thing. I did go on a book ride at night downtown Chicago and to see the city lights. That was something I didn't expect, but it was something a cool experience I have, and I took some really cool pictures. But anyway, so I think I think I was in control about maybe two-thirds of the time now that I think about it. So the last question Did I use the dime to explore, or did I just justify my decisions? I think they could answer that question already. Like I said, you know, there are

Control, Fate, And Reflection

SPEAKER_01 26:30

times in your life that you get the opportunity to go somewhere and do stuff, and sometimes we just feel a little bad because we'll like our friends and family to be there, and when we come back, you know, we can feel bad. But in so many times, and of course, I'm not saying to be selfish, you could take your own trip and go to Hawaii and do whatever you want. And for those who've been to Hawaii, I'm not knocking you guys, I'm not, I'm just giving it an example. But sometimes, you know, you don't know what's gonna happen in life, you really don't. And you know, in recent events in my life with my family and certain situations, there's always those uncertainties of things just happen, and and there's nothing that you can do, and life just happens, and you know, you have no control in those moments. So, what do you do in those moments? And in this case, I had a dime to kind of balance some ideas and to feel comfortable with, and you know, what I try to do in the podcast is to give you guys a different perspective, a different idea. So I think one of the things was I thought this trip was about letting go of control, but I don't think I ever lost control. I think I just became more aware of how I make decisions and how I control I actually and how I control how much control I actually try to hold on to. So I guess some of the things I would like to leave you audience to think about. So let me ask you this. Where in your life are you holding too strongly? And what would happen if you let go? Just a little. Now for me, I would just say that life usually throws us a lot of curveballs and a lot of uncertainties. So what am I trying to say this sometimes critical thinking does help and sometimes you know you need to trust in the universe to some degree because yeah, you gotta have faith. You gotta have faith in something. And of course, I'm not being religious for those people out there, I'm just saying that it does help to you know know that everything's gonna be okay. And a lot of people say, is that being optimist or pessimist perspective? And for me, I always I okay, for me, real quickly, I like to be the person that's pessimistic, but I'm this okay, I'm optimistic, but I'm disguising myself as pessimistic. Yes, because I think I would like to be the person that holds the faith, the faith of everything, and knowing that, yeah, I will like to believe in a brighter tomorrow, a brighter day, that everything will be better tomorrow. And that's just the way I see things. So, regardless of critical thinking of that in improving that or not, you know, just you know, that perspective of you know making that choice.

Questions For Your Own Life

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and it was kind of fun talking about it because I had another episode, but this one was actually a little more fun, and I know I'm going a little over time right now. I do apologize that. Real special thank you to the supporters who signed up on my support page. Thank you guys.

Thanks And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 30:19

You guys said that you guys don't want to hear any commercials, so for this whole month of March, you will not get any commercials, just me talking consistently for 30 minutes or so. But I hope you you guys enjoyed this conversation, this uh podcast episode. Wherever, whenever, however, have a great day, have a good night, have a good morning, whatever the case may be. Take care of yourself, take care of yeah, take care, and I'll see you next time.