Half Century Hangout
We are Half Century Hangout where different perspectives make for better discussions.! John, Luke and Chuck are three guys who grew up differently but became good friends with a lot to talk about. On this show three unique perspectives are brought to the table where we dive into everything from current events to life's big questions. We might not always see eye to eye... But that's exactly why we're here. So grab a seat and join us for honest conversation, unexpected insights, and a few friendly arguments.
Half Century Hangout
Beyond the Grind! Getting Some Rest & Relaxation
Disconnecting from our digital lives might be the greatest vacation luxury of all. In this candid conversation, we explore what it truly means to "get away" in today's hyper-connected world.
Luke shares his recent spring break adventure to Key West—his first full week vacation since high school—and the surprising challenge of mentally detaching from work responsibilities. We discuss the psychological phases of vacationing: those first few days of decompression, the sweet spot of true relaxation, and the inevitable mental preparation for return that begins too soon.
From Chuck's phone-free Arkansas adventure (nine whole days disconnected!) to John's deeply meaningful Holy Land experience, we trade stories about our most memorable travel moments. The conversation navigates through vacation planning styles, the mountains versus beach debate, and how cultural immersion creates lasting impact. We laugh about unexpected wildlife encounters (from iguanas crossing roads to sea roaches in Belize) and reflect on how shared experiences with loved ones ultimately create our most treasured memories.
Perhaps most revealing is our discussion about phones and photography—how studies show that focusing on documentation actually removes us from fully experiencing moments. As J.R.R. Tolkien wisely noted, "Not all those who wander are lost," and sometimes the best vacation discoveries happen when we venture off the beaten path.
What's your favorite vacation spot? We'd love to hear about your travel experiences and disconnection strategies. Share with us on social media or leave comments on our YouTube channel—just maybe wait until after your vacation to do so!
Welcome back to Half Century Hangout. Luke, we were on spring break. What did you do over spring break?
Speaker 2:Oh, a little toes in the sand, you know, yeah, drinking my hand. It was all good, it was fun, I had a good time, really great time, with my wife Took off and first time I had to go back in the old uh history book to go through it. It was since high school that I actually took a whole week off to go to spring break.
Speaker 3:Seriously.
Speaker 2:Haven't done it since high school which is going to segue later, but I don't want to ruin it for right, right, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:You know, it was great, had a great time, chuck, you, you uh put a closet in.
Speaker 3:Yet we tore out a closet and put a new closet system in with a built-in and some nice drawers, and it turned out really good. We painted the room and pulled up the carpet. We're going to refinish the floors later this summer because they're a mess, but just this past weekend we put the blinds and curtains in.
Speaker 2:Nice, and that's your bedroom. Yeah, that's our bedroom, nice, good for you, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:It's really nice. My wife did a really good job.
Speaker 1:A little more usable space, way more usable. That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. I did get my appointments done and I had a window guy come over because we're looking at getting new windows.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's fun, I went.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no fun.
Speaker 2:Went did a lot of Speaking of that. Are we monetizing the podcast? Yeah?
Speaker 1:We might need to. It's called the.
Speaker 2:John Window Fund.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right. Yeah, we aren't doing them all. I was going to say that's over, over time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say you might have to, you might have to phase that. I was going to say that's a phase at one time that's a phase. Kitchen would be just huge. Yeah, yeah we aren't.
Speaker 1:We aren't doing them all, but some things need to be replaced.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the windows and the things got me thinking about stuff here. You know we're back in the garage, we're here and I've got projects in here, but spring's coming. It's supposed to be 70 degrees the rest of the week, you know, and I got projects around the house to do in the spring and getting stuff ready and getting flowers and doing stuff.
Speaker 1:Got your yard work all done, ready to go for spring.
Speaker 2:I have to dog proof now. I have a different dog now. My other dog passed away last year. He was a different kind of dog, so now this one's a little bit of a digger, so I got to change some stuff around. Yeah, I already got one mole, got him yesterday.
Speaker 3:So we're good. Yeah, moles have killed my yard. Yeah, yeah, they are brutal.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. They're brutal. Brutal's right, they are brutal. I hate moles.
Speaker 1:We're going to do a podcast on vacations. What we like to do when we get away and you heard that Luke got away for a whole week it's hard to do sometimes is to get away. You know it's hard to take that time for yourself.
Speaker 2:I think that the biggest thing when we were talking about this and I actually had a conversation with my daughter about it when I was down there- in.
Speaker 2:Florida. It's, it's the disconnecting part. Yeah, yeah, that's the hardest part for me, just because I don't generally do that, right. I mean I work. You know all the people that say, oh, you know teachers, they get some. Well, I don't get the summer off, okay, right, but it's it's most of us, no matter what, and I know we're going to go into that a little bit but that disconnect thing, I've really never gotten to do it or even had the experience of it. Really to do that, like when I go hunting for a day. I get a day of it, right, it's nice, but I never really fully quite disconnect, right. So it took a couple days to actually do that, but once I did I felt great it was awesome, well, and it's even harder to disconnect today than it used to be.
Speaker 1:10, 15 years ago because we're so connected in different ways with the world it's just hard to disconnect. This is the first time.
Speaker 2:You'll laugh at this. You're kind of a tech guy. This is the first time and I didn't know how. I didn't know how to do it. I'm self-reporting. I said cachet once. Right, I have never set my email to. I'm out of the office and I'll return. I've never done that.
Speaker 1:Vacation mode.
Speaker 2:it was the first time I did it first time I ever did it and I did it right. It actually turned back on the day I came back. Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, but it was cool because I noticed all of a sudden my inbox wasn't nearly as full as it usually had been. I'm like, oh yeah, it's kind of kind of wild. It is awesome, yeah people stop sending stuff yeah email oh my gosh so it's interesting.
Speaker 3:You mentioned the um, the disconnect's hard to kind of like get away because you spend so much time thinking about what it is that you do and usually there's not enough, there's not a big chunk of a time. So I found I was just talking to somebody about this this morning I found that you actually have to there's two or three, maybe four days, depending upon what you do that you are able to kind of put all that stuff in the background and you're able to kind of put all that stuff away and stop thinking about it, because it's just you're not there, you're not facing those same circumstances, and so you're able to kind of put it away, which allows you to probably take four or five, three or four or five days to, you know, actually just rest and kind of involve yourself in what you're doing, whether you're at the beach or the mountains or whatever it might be. But then last two, three days of that I find myself thinking about okay, here's what I'm going to be facing when.
Speaker 3:I come back into the office and so for like a vacation really to be a vacation it's almost like it's got to be three weeks long.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because you're, and sometimes your vacations are, like you said, if they aren't long enough, they they aren't very relaxing because, you're running and trying to get all this stuff in and create those memories that vacations do, but it's kind of funny because in the middle well, I guess it wasn't in the middle, it was towards the end in the last couple of days of the vacation there was something that happened with work but it was via text message and there was some stuff that was going on right happened with work, but it was via text message and there was some stuff that was going on Right and it kind of drew you back in, yeah, but I really didn't want to, I wasn't ready.
Speaker 2:So I called somebody. This was I've never done this before. Well, I guess I probably have, but not in the same vein. I called this person to talk me off the ledge, like, hey, I need 10 minutes of your time for me to vent, get this out of my system so I can go back to finish my vacation. Yeah, and it it sort of worked like it it kind of did, but it only took me, eh, you know, maybe a few hours. If you ask my wife probably be a little different, but it was a few hours until it got out of my system.
Speaker 2:Right and then I was like you know what I can deal with it when I get back and it'll be okay, but I did start to in the last couple of days, especially when you're sitting in the airport and I'm delayed and I'm messaging you guys, I'm like, hey, I'm stuck in the airport, you know, you're sitting there and you're kind of looking around and's going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that for me is a little bit hard to let that go and realize they're they got snow somewhere and they had to de-ice the plane. I'm in Florida, like de-icing the plane you know, I'm sweating sitting in the airport, you know, and I'm like, but that's the way it is, and so you just kind of chilled and some things are out of your control.
Speaker 3:Do you guys like to plan out your vacation like day by day, minute by minute, or is it just like, okay, we're going to go to this spot and then we're just going to kind of feel it out, to kind of see what we want to do? How do you guys like to vacation?
Speaker 1:I think it depends. It depends on where I'm going and what I'm looking to do. Yes, I think it's important to plan, but I also think it's important to have some time that you allow for things to just happen, built in flexibility. Yes, I'm more of a. I go on vacations because I like the experience and the different experiences, and so I don't necessarily like to plan every waking moment. No, so I like to be able to say, yeah, I want to go see downtown Santa Fe, see downtown Santa Fe. So I'm going to just go into town and walk around and see what's going on and what they have, and how cool a place it is and yeah, so yeah, kind of getting into the last few days.
Speaker 1:When I get somewhere and I only have I don't know five days or whatever, I'm already thinking what do I have to do after?
Speaker 3:that.
Speaker 1:And and that I need to be able to say I'm not in control of that, I'm not planning for that. I just need to have fun and relax and create those experiences here's what I've noticed.
Speaker 3:For me, when I go somewhere, I do need probably a longer chunk of time, because it takes you longer to decompress and then to actually enjoy the time, but when I'm staying like this was a stay vacation state, is that what they call? It yes, where we did our renovation in our bedroom, it was easier for me to get to forget about work stuff because I was working with my hands putting thought into measurements and yeah, cutting stuff and screw dry, you know all that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:That was twice cut once, yeah, exactly, and so it's easier for me to kind of forget work because I'm working with my hands. I think that was.
Speaker 2:I think for me and my wife and I would probably differ a little bit with this, where she's more of a planner, but I think the more that we've gotten comfortable with the idea there's plenty of times where it's like we're just going to roll. See where it takes us, and especially beach life. Right, I mean, we're there. It's like, hey, guess what If the waves are kicking today and the sun's out and we're going, we're going if it's, if it's cloudy and raining and cool.
Speaker 2:Well, we got to do something else, Right, yeah, so we went. We went to Key West, which I've never been. That was the furthest South I've ever been and geographically in my mind I had no idea how far South it was. I thought that the South point of Texas was further South. Oh, wow. Like on a map I'm thinking in my head.
Speaker 3:It looks down there a little ways.
Speaker 2:We were 90 miles from Cuba.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Close. I had no idea.
Speaker 2:I just really didn't have this whole thing, and so I think that, for me, that vacation piece I think, like you were talking about how your hands, like you, were able to, to let go of work, to do that I think for me and this is probably one of the first times that I've been able to do this I immersed myself in the culture of what was there and of the people, and it was there's a Cuban culture, right, there's a. There's a Hispanic culture. It's this thing and it was so cool, like it was so different than what I'm used to here.
Speaker 3:Is there a port like around the Key West where people receive like people come in from Cuba to Key West Is?
Speaker 2:that. Oh yeah, well there. Well, there's a base there too. There's a naval base there which I didn't know, but there's a naval base there too. Now, when I say it's the furthest southern point, it's the furthest southern point of the continental United States. There's more keys after Key West, but you can't get to them by car, gotcha, either boat or plane or something.
Speaker 3:That's the furthest southern. You can't get to them by car, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Either boat or plane or something. That's a further south you can drive to, you can drive to, and so now I have all the way from the north I-75 in Michigan. I have driven every mile of I-75.
Speaker 2:Wow, so that was this was the last piece that I had to do. Wow Was from well, from Tampa to Fort Myers and then down through. But we went down through Miami and then went, but my geography was all over the place. It's not like my geography of southern Florida is very good, because I really have learned a lot how big the Everglades are, like it's gigantic, huge, gigantic, and I didn't even go through it, like I haven't even gone. Now our daughters live down there for a couple years, but it's like I haven't even gone in there yet. Yeah, and I'm going to at some point. I just never have.
Speaker 2:But, um, just super interesting, and I did get to release and I didn't get to, you know, disconnect for a while and do that, which I think was helpful. Can you actually drive through the everglades? Is there? I mean, is there? There is a road that kind of does i-75, kind of curves around it and goes down to Miami, but there is another highway that goes through. But everybody that you talk to it's a little bit of a little sketchy, which, well, it could be, but it's more of the roads that I'm used to. You know what I mean and that's the other part of it.
Speaker 2:Is that when you were talking about the last couple days of vacation right, the last couple days of vacation was always driving home. Yeah, well, this time I flew, right, so I didn't really have to worry about that, like, like, that was in the plan, like okay, I've got to do this, yeah, which that, for me, was we never flew anywhere. I mean, growing up we flew to Florida once and that was a whole other story, but it was like we went and flew back. But even my dad I just learned that that was one of the things and we always took. We talked about values. That was one of us for, for our family. Which we all joke about now is we took the scenic route Right, absolutely Always, which I love doing. But you know, it was kind of nice for this one because I got to not travel most of my trip.
Speaker 3:You know it was a few hours at the front and a few hours at the back well, we went to florida a number of years ago with the family and we were in this rented minivan and we got on this back road that I'm not.
Speaker 2:I think it was through the everglades, but there were bodies of water that like were deep and encompassed the entire road, which was probably a car and a half wide yeah, that's what I've heard about this road it took us forever, yeah, forever, like two and a half hours probably to get through this, and I mean that might have been where it was, because if you look at a map which I did after the fact, there really is only one other road that kind of goes through there.
Speaker 3:That's probably what it's like and our intent was to to find some alligators we just wanted to see. We'd never seen alligators. We got so tired of seeing alligators that we were just worried about getting off. They were all over, all over the place stretched across the road. You know, I mean you had to get out and kick them to, not really, but you can see chuck out there kicking an alligator.
Speaker 2:We saw an iguana across the road and Really and it was a big one, he was probably four foot long, but it was funny because I kept saying so that seven-mile bridge that goes to Key West, so you're just surrounded by water and it's not like a bridge, like it's way up in the air, it's on the water. But we kept seeing signs for key deer which are endangered species.
Speaker 1:And I'm like oh, I want to see a deer across the road key and they look.
Speaker 2:they look a lot like a whitetail, but their face is a little different. But then there was a sign for a Guana crossing and I thought it was kind of a joke and I'm like man, I haven't seen anything across the road. And there's all these signs and then the car in front of us cause you can't, there's only two lanes so you can't pass anybody so I'm stuck behind like an airstream and a something else. You know, I'm driving back in the car in front of me, I see him kind of swerve and I look, I'm like, oh, and there's the iguana and he was probably I don't know as long as this maybe six foot long, wow, waddling across the road like hey, you don't see that in iowa is that k-e-y, deer, k-e-y, deer, k-e-y, yeah, key, key West, and they're endangered, apparently. So, and roosters everywhere.
Speaker 1:Roosters Interesting I got a question.
Speaker 3:That's the wildlife? Huh, I wonder. So we went to Belize one time on vacation and there's the way they spell key. It looks like K, like C-A-Y-E I think, and all of their islands are like K something. And I was pronouncing it K and they said no, you pronounce it key, but in Florida you said Key West I wonder if it's like a derivative or a variation of that word island, I don't know, just got in my mind Could be.
Speaker 1:Well, hey, you've talked a lot about a pretty memorable vacation. It sounds like, which is pretty cool, Chuck, what's your most memorable vacation you took? You talked about going down to Belize.
Speaker 3:That was super fun. My wife and I we went by ourselves and it was an incredible trip. We went down to an Island called San Pedro and um stayed in a a condo and walked pretty much everywhere. Uh, there was one day we rented a golf cart, went to this soccer game local soccer game and that got a little sketchy. I mean, those people take their soccer seriously, they do. And it was like my wife was holding on to me as we were leaving because, I mean, people were out there fighting, it's kind of like pickleball on Council bluffs.
Speaker 2:Are you serious? I am serious.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, I wouldn't want to be a referee down there, but that was such.
Speaker 3:And the referees man, they just got, oh they got pummeled. It was like my wife and I we got to get out of here. This isn't safe anymore. But it was such a that was such a fun trip and we really enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:Was it what you saw or who you were with, or a little bit of?
Speaker 3:both. It was mostly who I was with, for sure, but what we saw was absolutely beautiful. We walked the beaches and, man, there was this one beach called Secret Beach that we went to, and we went kind of early in the morning and did you guys know that there's these things called sea roaches? Have?
Speaker 1:you ever heard of them, yep?
Speaker 3:And we got to this beach before the sea roaches, so they come in to the shallow water at night because it's warmer, and then they go out to the deeper end during the day. And we must have gotten there before they got out. And we were just loving this beach out there and there's these things like crawling on our skin. We're like what the hell are these things? Yeah, and we asked the lady, like there's something in this water, and they're like they start sucking your skin Really, like almost like leeches, and they so we'd pull them off and we did not like that. So we got out of the water until those things.
Speaker 2:You know, a couple of years back we were down, we went to Florida again, but we went across the state to the eastern side, to what's the place called where they launched the.
Speaker 1:Oh, cape Canaveral, cape Canaveral yeah.
Speaker 2:So we were on that beach. So it was a little different, because right over there you see the sunrise, right. So we get up in the morning, we're all kind of sideways and go down to the beach and it was like ghost crabs and they dig these little holes and they're spitting the sand out. I mean, they're little, they're like this, but it was hilarious because I'm like get those things away from me. But they were all over the place.
Speaker 3:Now they weren't sucking my skin off my body, so that was a plus. Yeah, this was pretty disgusting, but you know, after those things got out and it got later in the day, it was absolutely wonderful. People would come out and serve you drinks. You know, you had picnic tables in the water. That was super fun.
Speaker 3:Saw a stingray, so that was that was cool, that is cool so that was probably like one of my favorite vacations that I had with jen um. When you talk about travel, we try. I traveled. One time. I did some work down in um that's a mission work down in paraguay and I went to the aguazu falls. You guys ever heard of those? Never heard of it. It's in Brazil and they're the largest falls in the world, like one of the eight natural wonders of the world. Wow, and it's in Paraguay. There's a city called Cia de Leste and we crossed the border into Brazil from there and saw these falls. That were absolutely incredible. Yeah, that's cool. That's probably one of the prettiest places.
Speaker 1:Sea Falls, that is pretty cool. What about you, john? Oh one of my favorite places that I've been is the Holy Land and again it was with people that I enjoyed being with my wife and we went on a trip with some other friends that we had met and just seeing the background and the geography and the religious background of the Holy Land that was just a really neat trip.
Speaker 1:I remember you talking about it and it was one that actually, as an educator, you usually don't take uh trips in january or oh yeah, or during the school year. I I got like 10 days off during the school year I remember that, john, I took them, yes, and I. I have not lived that no, you have not.
Speaker 2:No, you know, but it was great hearing from you after it, because it is cool it.
Speaker 1:It is just a neat place to go and such history. I never used to like history but, man, I love going places and seeing the history of that place and seeing how it has shaped humans over time, shaped humans over time. Just a really, really neat trip and a really fun trip and a lot, of, a lot of places that you can see in the Holy land, so that that was one of my favorites, favorite trips.
Speaker 3:Are you more of a mountain person or more of a beach person, John?
Speaker 1:Um, I've been to both. Yeah, I love the, the nature of things. I guess I've been to. My mom actually is from Hawaii, so I visited Hawaii a few times and talk about a fall, as you remember, and, and you guys remember other people may not on the podcast, but uh, do you remember. And, and you guys remember other people may not on the podcast, but uh, do you remember fantasy island yes, remember the fantasy island falls the plane.
Speaker 1:yeah well, the fantasy island falls. Let's talk about m&ms. Now our on kawaii. That's where my mom grew up, so we spent a lot of time there and my cousin took us back into some of the sugar cane fields and we walked on this trail and we're walking a ways and pretty soon we get to the top of this falls and you can go out. It like splits and you go out on the rocks right at the edge and we're looking out there and there are people looking up at us and we're on the top of Fantasy Island Falls. Pretty cool stuff. It was really neat. That is neat.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the beach, I like the mountains. Been to Colorado, been to Santa Fe, been to Alaska. Alaska is like Colorado on steroids.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just a beautiful, beautiful place. When we went, to Florida.
Speaker 3:Jen and I went to Florida by ourselves when we were emptying esters and we went to the Clearwater Beach area and there's a place I think it's called Dundian or something like that, but just past that it's called Honeymoon Beach. It's a state park like hardly anybody knew about. We were there and we were one of maybe 30 people on this entire beach.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's probably been one of our favorite places to go.
Speaker 2:I think when you say that you know what do you prefer the mountains or the beach? It's kind of like that for me, Like if there's a ton of people at the beach, that's not me. Yeah, I'm not that person I'm not now, you can still enjoy yourself. I mean, we'll walk. My wife and I walk along the water. She loves it and it's. And it's one of those things where I know how much she loves it, so I also in turn love it, because I know how happy she is and how, how it's going.
Speaker 1:But when there's a ton of people.
Speaker 2:Luke, that's awesome. It's when there's a ton of people it's like, yeah, it takes the luster out of it.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean, yeah, um, but I think that the beach is cool when you can see it when it's a little more secluded. And me growing up in northern Michigan, on Lake Michigan, near a place called Traverse City, there's a thing called the Sleeping Bear Dunes, so that was the beach that I grew up with. Now that water's a little cold, okay.
Speaker 1:Maybe just a little bit. It's not like warm.
Speaker 2:I mean, even in the summer, at the hottest day in the summer, that water might be Pretty chilly Might, you know 50. Oh, it gets close to 60. But still it's not warm, right. But that beach, you know, like growing up, but you'd have these people on the dunes, and the dunes are gigantic, they're huge, like you could go for miles and not see anybody, which I really like that. But the mountains and nature to me is a different level of things, because to me you're surrounded by creation, right.
Speaker 1:It's like this is amazing to me.
Speaker 2:And I can the hunting part. I love to hunt and I love to do that. But to me, as I, especially as I get older, I can sit in a tree stand. I never used to be able to sit for that long. I was always the dog. I was always out still hunting. I'm the one out kicking stuff up. Now I can sit in that tree stand or somewhere, cause I just enjoy, I just breathe. It's like taking it all in, and in my spot I can see the sunrise coming up through the corn. You know, I can see all this and it's just, I just melt Like it just takes everything, it's done.
Speaker 1:You know you talked a little bit about that shared experience and I think, that's every vacation I've been, on, every place I've been.
Speaker 1:I love to share that with people. We went out to San Diego and it was just. It was nice to share that time with people and get to know people really, really well. I think you get to know people in a different way when you go on vacation with them or you go. We were, we were happened to be at a conference. But when you go to a conference and you travel, you get to know people a little bit in a little different way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a different setting and you get to know people a little bit in a little different way. Yeah, it's a different setting and you get to know people in a different way and John and I found a common place to hang out.
Speaker 2:We did, we did.
Speaker 1:You might have a few of those glasses. Yeah, they're hanging around here somewhere.
Speaker 2:Like you said, I think that that's an example of where you go somewhere and you disconnect. So you see a different side of people. You see some things, and I think for me in you know, my wife and I talk about it a lot and sometimes she'll say you still seem kind of wound tight, you know, like you're kind of and I have to unwind leave a little bit and be like, yeah, maybe I'm a little edgy still.
Speaker 2:I need to calm it down and just realize, you know, and I enjoy it and I and I really do. But I think as I'm getting older, I'm also learning to appreciate it more.
Speaker 3:What's the longest you guys have been away from your cell phone when you're on vacation.
Speaker 2:Well, that's hard for an old guy like me to think about, cause I did vacations before, before cell phones were there. But since you, you've had one. But since I've had one, I don't think I've ever really completely been 100% away from it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just because I mean it's there and I, you know, now I have that, I don't have to take a camera with me Right, Sure?
Speaker 1:So it's still with me, right.
Speaker 2:Right, but I think on this trip I mean there was a few here and there, but you know the phone was in the bag, like to the beach. I don't have to worry, it's not in my pocket.
Speaker 3:That, to me, is one of the biggest distractions. A hundred percent, A hundred percent.
Speaker 1:And that's part of disconnecting right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that we are so connected in this world today that you just have to let the phone go, you have to say I'm not going to use it. And one thing we talked about when we went to Israel you know you can take a lot of pictures, you can really get into the picture taking stuff.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:What we said is we want to be a pilgrim, not a tourist.
Speaker 3:So two things. There's actually a tourist. So two things. There's actually a study. I read a study about two years ago that says when you concentrate on taking pictures, you actually take yourself away from the moment Yep, yep. And that's. I've tried not to practice that. So when I'm with my grandkids- yeah. I take less pictures, I just want to experience the moment and make memories, and I found that to be super helpful.
Speaker 2:And I think on this trip I didn't take a ton. Really, what it is is my wife and I in a sunset, Like there's a few, like it's more of just I only saw a chicken and an iguana. You did see those. You did see those, Cause it was at the pool where we were at together which was hilarious when the iguana came out. I was at the pool. I didn't really understand what was happening, but one of the best vacations I took.
Speaker 3:When I asked that cell phone question, I actually left my cell phone at home. That's a great. I didn't take it with me and we we drove in my jeep down to Arkansas, down to Jasper Arkansas, and stayed in a cabin down there and our intent was to go do some um jeeping in some of the parks that are around there. But I found out my jeep wasn't lifted enough and all that kind of good stuff.
Speaker 3:So we just ended up seeing a bunch of more waterfalls and probably saw six or seven that while we were down there. But I was away from my cell phone for shoot. I think it was probably seven, nine days something like that yep and uh. Man, that was one of the best vacations I think I can remember.
Speaker 2:And I think that, going back to what I started to say, I think that's the hardest part, but I realize the benefit of it is really being able to disconnect, to do it, and I think that I also learned which was kind of funny there was and if those people are listening to the podcast, I'm not going to apologize there were some text messages that I completely ignored because I wanted to get the point across.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, I'm not there.
Speaker 1:Stop, and it's, and it's okay, you know everything will be fine, I'll be back. Well, and we, we need that, and if there's importance, if there's importance.
Speaker 2:there's importance, you know, if one of my kids or what is you know, something was going on, I mean, I get it, but so many times and not just about vacation, but any time I realized that for years, decades, people didn't have instant access.
Speaker 1:You know what they did? Okay, yeah, they did, they did just fine, you know they did all right.
Speaker 2:And I realize now like we kind of lump ourselves into that thing. But I'm like you know, yeah, we don't always need that.
Speaker 3:We don't always need that. My wife took her cell phone on that vacation, yeah, but I ended up not taking mine, yeah, guys. So I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's vacation time, I mean, and now we're back at work and things are. Things are rolling. You know, we're getting through to the end of the school year, we're getting close.
Speaker 1:I know that, uh, that Luke has to work in the summer, but Chuck and I get the summer off because we're in education, we get a little bit of summertime and yeah, I think that.
Speaker 2:no matter what, though, even when before I was an administrator, I felt like I still worked in the summer as a teacher, I mean there's things that you have to do, and there's things that you need to take care of.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's training, sometimes it's educating, sometimes it's conferences. I mean, you're planning for the next year. I mean there's a lot of stuff that I think that some people just think, oh, you know, they get three months off in the summer. Yeah, they really not anymore.
Speaker 2:They happen. I mean, it might have happened back in the day where things were going on, but anymore there's a lot of things that are still expected of you when you're off, whatever you want to say. But yeah, I'm a I'm a 12 month employee now, so I still get some time. You know, and I'll take a little bit, we have dead week in there, which is the first week of August right in there, so we'll be somewhere doing something one way or the other.
Speaker 2:I think we're going to do the circle tour around Lake Michigan.
Speaker 2:We're going to go up across the Mackinac Bridge and do the Upper Peninsula, come up through Minnesota. Come down through Minnesota, come down through Wisconsin. Yeah, we'll go Chicago route around up north and then come down through Green Bay. We'll go to Door County in there, which is the other side of Lake Michigan over there, so I can pick up some spotted cow on the way home, which is always important. Pick up a case for me, I will there, you go me, I will come back through and wind up back here. So that that's, that's the plan right now. But again, plans are overrated. Right, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's the plan. So I knew I know the podcast is doing pretty well. We've got a lot of downloads and we've we've increased our downloads. We always want you to listen. Any shout outs for anybody always want you to listen.
Speaker 3:Any shout outs for anybody? Yeah, john, we got people listening to us from Lenexa, kansas, bedford, indiana, rochester, michigan, orlando, florida, tip City, ohio. There's quite a few people out there so always want to say thank you Wait.
Speaker 2:what was the name of that town in Ohio? Tip City. What, the Tip City?
Speaker 3:It's pretty close. It's just north of Dayton, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Quote of the day JR Tolkien right.
Speaker 1:That's a great journey and vacation. Not all those who wander are lost Absolutely. I like that. How about it? I?
Speaker 2:like that. I mean, I think that that's when I you know, when we talked about the vacation thing when it first started. That's one of the things I love finding something off the path, off the beaten path.
Speaker 2:I mean, yeah, you're going to go visit some of the things that maybe are a little bit of a tour that you want to see, but I really enjoy and again, john, like you said, doing it with somebody who you're really close to, who you love, who you love spending time with finding those things that they don't write about. You know what I mean. I love that idea.
Speaker 1:I think it's great. Shared experiences Absolutely that's what it's about. So, hey, thanks for hanging out with us here at Half Century Hangout. We appreciate you listening to us where you find your favorite podcasts and make sure you like us and go out to Facebook and X and Instagram.
Speaker 2:What else and give us feedback. Give us feedback, write it down.
Speaker 3:That's probably one of the things we're missing the most is just feedback from some of those we're on YouTube now as well. We're missing the most is just feedback from some of those we're on YouTube now as well. And so if you search out Half Century, Hangout on YouTube.
Speaker 1:you'll be able to leave some comments on that as well. Yeah, we'd love to hear from you, I'd love to hear what you think of our podcast.
Speaker 2:So hey, let us know what your favorite vacation spot is. Perfect, you know. That's some good feedback to hear, because you never know, maybe it was one of ours at some point or we were there and you're helping us out, and maybe there's a travel agent listening. Hey, let us know.
Speaker 3:Let us know where the spot is.
Speaker 2:We'd be glad to give you a shout out 100%.
Speaker 1:You, betcha Well, have a great day and thanks for listening to us here at Half Century Hangout. Peace out.
