Friendship on the Road: A 6,000 Mile Journey with Special Guests Tori & Taryn

What happens when two best friends hit the road for 6,000 miles? 

In this episode of Travel Time Stories, host Shannon welcomes Tori and Taryn, the hosts of Healing When Traveling Treasures podcast. They share their incredible journey of friendship that spans over 45 years and their recent 6,000-mile road trip adventure across the United States. The conversation delves into the importance of family connections, healing experiences at a camp for cancer survivors, and the joy of exploring new places together. They reflect on the lessons learned from their travels, the significance of cherishing memories, and the excitement of future adventures. This heartfelt discussion emphasizes the power of friendship, the beauty of travel, and the importance of making the most of life.

• Friendship can last a lifetime, as seen in Tori and Taryn's 45-year bond.
• Traveling together can strengthen friendships and create lasting memories.
• Experiencing new places can lead to personal growth and healing.
• Family connections are vital and can be rediscovered through travel.
• Facing challenges together can deepen relationships and provide support.
• Traveling allows for exploration of one's heritage and family history.
• Food experiences during travel can enhance the adventure and create joy.
• The importance of seizing opportunities and not delaying travel plans.
• Travel can be a healing experience, especially for those affected by illness.
• Future adventures are always on the horizon, encouraging continuous exploration.

Healing with Traveling Treasures Contact Info: 

Website: https://travelingtreasures.net/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ @HealingWithTravelingTreasures 

Instagram:  @HealingWithTravelingTreasures 

The Breasties: https://thebreasties.org/ 

Dr. Aaron Vela (Chiropractor in Maine): https://bodybackchiro.com/meet-the-doctors/ 

WASP Museum: https://waspmuseum.org/ 

ACME Oyster House: https://acmeoyster.com/ 

#healingwithtravelingtreasures #travelpodcast #podcastepisode #tunein #roadtrip #friendship #traveltimestorieswithshannon #girlstravel #breastcancer 

Transcript

Welcome back to Travel Time Stories with Shannon, where we talk about real journeys, real stories, and real healing. I'm Shannon, your host from Texas, and today we have a very special episode for you. For the first time on the show, we're doing a collaboration and we couldn't be more excited about who we're collaborating with.

Please welcome Tori and Taryn, the amazing host of healing with Traveling Treasures podcast. These two not only share their stories of travel and healing, but they also took an incredible 6,000 mile road trip. Together. We can't wait to dive into your journey, their friendship and your wisdom. Welcome to the show, ladies.

Thank you. 

Hi. Hi, Shannon. It's so good to see you again. It's so great to be here. Thank you for inviting us. 

Thank you guys for being here with me tonight, and as we say on travel time stories, grab your favorite beverage and let's get into it.

So ladies, let's start at the beginning. Tell us about how the two of you met and how your friendship have shaped your journey together. 

I'm gonna tell this story 'cause it's one of my favorites. So it was the first day of school, of kindergarten and Tori was holding onto her mama and crying and saying, I don't wanna go to school.

She did not wanna go, did not want to have anything to do with it. And I went up to her and I said, come on Tori, I'll be your friend. And I took her by the hand and I took her into school with me and I never let her go. You know, like it's been 45 years now of friendship and our birthdays are two days apart. 

Mine is November 1st and hers is October 30th. So always we celebrated our birthdays on Halloween and we had Halloween birthday parties together. And we've done a lot of living together. We've been through divorces and marriages and babies, and funerals and the deaths of our parents and, working together and, surviving together and thriving together.

And I'm so incredibly grateful to have Tori in my life. And, most recently we got to go on a huge road trip. So yeah, that's what we're here to talk about today. That's how we met first day. That's amazing. cried our eyeballs out. 

Heck yeah. Oh my gosh. 

Not a lot of people can say that they've been friends that long, so that's incredible.

Yeah, I agree and, and going through all the things that we've been through together and helping each other through everything that life has thrown at both of us together, that's the most special thing for me. You know, I mean, I can't say that there's another person in my life that I have shared as much with as I have Taryn, and I'm so grateful for her.

I am so grateful. 

I love you too, man.

That my best friend. 

You're a real bad bitch.

That's how the song goes. 

So you guys just completed a 6,000 mile road trip, which is incredible. Tell us about that adventure. Where did you go? What stands out? The most memorable part of the journey? 

Oh, wow. So much to remember. Oh my gosh, so many great times. It started out because we were going to, Camp Breastie, which is, a breast cancer for, excuse me, I mean a camp for anybody affected by breast or gynecological cancers.

It was my third year going and I convinced Taryn to go with me this year. And, so, you know, originally, and it was in Pennsylvania, so originally we were gonna fly out there and then we got to talking and we're like, well, let's, let's just take a road trip. And then we were like, well, since we're gonna be road tripping, since we're gonna be out there, let's go visit this person.

Let's go to this, let's go to that. And then it kind of grew from there. We, we just like, came up with all these places that we wanted to go and all these people that we wanted to meet. And we did. 

Did it. Yep. We went from Colorado to Ohio. We stayed with my cousins in Ohio and then we went up to Pennsylvania, we went to camp.

I got to see my cousins in Pennsylvania and mine. And yours. We can, we can go into more detail later, but I just kind of wanted to tell you what our general route was and then we came all the way down the east coast. So we went all the way down to South Carolina and then we ran over to Georgia. And then we came back down and went to Florida.

We went to, new Orleans, Louisiana, and then back up through Texas to Colorado and New Mexico. So it was, we covered over 23 states in 22 days and we had a puppy with us. 

That's Taryn's favorite part. 

That's Tory. Tory decided to get a dog two weeks before we went on our trip. So, so the puppy came with us and the puppy got to do all kinds of amazing things.

Like I can't, I've never known another puppy that got to go to the Smithsonian for example. So. That's amazing. She's a well educated dog. 

Yes, she is.

Oh, it was so much fun though. So much fun. And you know, one of my favorite things is that we did not spend a single night in a hotel. We stayed with what we call the cousins hotel chain. 

Nice. 

Stayed with cousins and friends all along the way. Taryn has her van all decked out to camp in, so there's like a mattress in the back. She's got curtains around , the windows so we can block out the light or whatever and have some privacy. And we even had like a, a coffee maker. She's so fancy.

So there was a couple nights that we just crashed out in the van and it was amazing. It was so much fun. It was an adventure, you know? 

Yep. It was so many ways. 

We learned so many lessons along the way. We got to see and do things that neither one of us had, had been able to do before. And it was just great.

I did not, it was the stuff of books and movies. I feel like we were Thelma and Louise 2025 like we did. We had so much fun. We just went from place to place. We sang every song, we had. I don't think we even repeated the same song twice the whole time. Like we, 

I don't think we did either.

My gosh. We Sang and sang and there was this really funny and we talked about everything. We talked about everything. We were in the car together for 22 days. Yeah. And when we were done and we were still friends, we decided to start a podcast. We still had stuff to talk about. It was great.

Like, right. 

Well, and in fact, we were actually together for more than 22 days because I went to Colorado about a week before we left. And I spent that week with Taryn and also doing some other things too. You know, so we were together for a solid month, right. And then I was at your house for the night, at least before I went back home again.

Mm-hmm. So, mm-hmm. Yep. You're right. It was about a month. 

Yep. 

Wow. But man, what a good time. We just had a ball. So Pennsylvania is absolutely gorgeous. We went to, I'm sorry, Ohio. I should start in Ohio. We went to go see a couple cousins in Ohio. The cicadas were going crazy. Remember the cicadas we're like, trees were just not on your cousin's back porch going, what?

What? 

We went out for beers so hard, went out for beers and wings, and then we sat with her best friend in the backyard and just visited all night long and it was awesome. And then the next day I went to go see my auntie, and then we went up. We tried to make it to, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they were gonna be closed before we got there, so we diverted.

Oh. Yeah, we were sad about that too. 

We were very sad, but we diverted, you know what I, the reason we missed it is because we stopped to see her aunt. 'cause that wasn't on the original plan. Right. But I wouldn't have changed it for the world because it was a special thing for her to be able to see her aunt.

And I loved meeting her. I, my auntie's in assisted living and she came running down the hall. She was with her little walker. She was literally like jogging down the hall and she gave a big hug and she said, you look just like your mom. And she was crying and she was just, oh, we got that reception everywhere we went.

It was awesome. I was crying. 

Would've been crying too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I haven't seen her in 15 years probably. Or better, you know, and she's never met my children. So, yeah, we got to see her and then, then we went to Pennsylvania after that, right? 

Yeah. We went to Camp no, we went, we stopped at my cousin's house first.

That's right. 

We stayed at my cousin's house. She has a beautiful row house in, Pennsylvania. And, yeah, so we sat in and we got to talk to her. We didn't get to stay at her house for as long as I wanted to. I wanted to be able to visit her a little bit more, but I had to be at camp like the next day.

So we stayed one night with her and, visited with her as much as we could. And, you know, I, I love her so much. She is, she's so special to me.

The next day, Tori had to go to camp. 

Mm-hmm. 

Tori had to go early to get stuff set up 'cause she was volunteering for the camp. And I had a day by myself. So I took the puppy to go see my cousin in, Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

And when I got there, my great uncle who was 99 years old, 

98, 

98, he was not feeling well when I went to go visit him. He was coughing a little bit, but he recognized me right away when I came in. He said, you must be one of max kids. And he was so glad to see me and we had a nice little visit and then he passed away a couple days later.

So I felt incredibly blessed that we happened to be on this trip, that I got the chance to go see him, that I got the chance to say goodbye. And it was a beautiful visit. It was so great. We had, Philly cheese steak sandwiches and, just loved Philadelphia is so beautiful. I'm definitely going back there again someday to spend some time just looking around.

I got to see my grandfather's house where he grew up. It was only a few blocks. Yeah. And I went to, here's where my great grandmother lived, and where she raised four babies and four boys. Four boys in that house. And, they all went off to war and they all survived. And, then we went tell her about camp.

I want you to talk about camp. Mm-hmm. 

Yeah. Let's hear about the camp. 

Oh my gosh. Camp was amazing, which it always is. It always is. Like I say, it was my third year, so I was a, it was my third year going to camp in my second year as a cabin leader. And I loved being a cabin leader because, you know, you go early and you get to set everything up.

You know, you prepare the whole camp, you know, you get, we get to make, swag bags for everyone and 

nice. 

Together we got to decorate our cabins. And we each had a theme for our cabin and our theme was strawberries. Oh. And so I got all kinds of strawberry related things, and I decorated the whole cabin, and I, I got little gifts for all my, you know, cabin mates.

And, the gifts that I got, I, I love what I found because I got these little bags, for each one of 'em. And on the bag it said, you are, let me think what, how did it go? You are stronger than you think. Smarter than you seem. Oh my gosh. 

And braver than you feel, or something like that.

Yeah, something like that, you know. And so I got, I got little things to put in the bags that represented each line of the poem on the bag. And so I got them, little, boxing glove key rings to go for strength. I like that. 

I got a smarties for smart. Mm-hmm. I got, shoot, now I can't even remember, but just, you know, little trinkets for everything.

A clever presents. Yes. Yeah. 

She put a lot of thought into it and there was, the swag bags were amazing. We got all kinds of makeup. We got t-shirts, we got, coffee cup, moisturizers. Mm-hmm. It went on and on. Like a huge bag full of amazing stuff. Yeah. And then Tori also gave us extra gifts on top of that.

I was spoiled rotten. 

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We, that was, that's one thing we like to do as cabin leaders is spoil our campers, you know, gosh, just all sorts of things and camp. But the camp, there's so much to do at camp, so they have. They have like over 200 things planned out for us. And it's not like you have to do all these stuff things.

So they have a, an app and you go on the app and you can sign up for the activities that you want to do. And and then it gives you like your own personalized, itinerary. And even once you pick your things, you don't necessarily have to do the things that you even pick. You can, if you aren't feeling up to it that day, you don't have to.

Or if you wanna switch things up, you can switch things up. It's a very relaxed, very, they call it a choose your own adventure camp. And it very much is. 

What were the adventures that you chose, Tori? What were the activities that you did? 

I did archery. I love archery and I hadn't done it in years, but it was so much fun.

So I did archery, I did tie dye shirts. I did one of my favorite things. Was, yes. So all the way to camp, I was telling Taryn, we're gonna do the polar plunge. And she says, I'll watch you do the polar plunge. And I said, no, no, no, you're gonna do it with me. And she's like, Nope, absolutely not. I won't. I said, yes you will, and you're gonna like it.

I fell into a lake not long ago out of a canoe, and I got dumped into cold water and I didn't think that was very fun. And I didn't really wanna do that again. I was like, deliberately jump into cold water. Nah dude, I don't blame you. But she talked me into it. 

You did? So it was our, it was the, after the first night there, so the first actual morning that we were at camp, it was planned for like eight o'clock in the morning.

And so we trumped out there, me and her and a few of our cabin mates. We went out there in our bathing suits and, and neither one of us are morning people, so be proud of us. Dammit. 

I can totally relate. I'm not a morning person either. Oh gosh, no. Got up early to jump in a cold lake. We got up early, we threw on those swimming suits and we trucked out there and so we went like 20 at a time. They had this deck, you know, and or not deck, dock. A dock, this Cape Dock, you know? Yeah. Real long. So we all walked out on the dock and we lined up and then we all jumped off together. Yeah. We all held hands and counted a three, and we jumped right in. And it was amazing. We had it so much fun.

It was my first time doing it too, but, you know, we got out and Taryn, Taryn was ready to go again. Yeah, totally. It was fine. I told her, I said the water was cold, but it wasn't like. It wasn't icy cold, it was shockingly cold, but it wasn't like deadly cold. So yeah, I could have done it again, but it, I'm really glad that I did because it was an exercise of doing something together, facing a challenge together, holding hands together, jumping in together.

We go through the suffering together. We go through the recovery together, you know, and we're all in it together. 

And we, that was, that was a message. 

Yeah. And we celebrated the triumph together. 

Right. We did something uncomfortable and we lived. Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

And that was cool. 

Very, yeah. It was very symbolic of, you know, and  meaningful, Yeah.

Of life really, you know, and the challenges that we go through in life. And, it was very, it was. It was very meaningful for me to have my bestie there with me doing it too. Yeah. Because we have been through so much together and now I'm gonna get all teary eyed.

But, you know, and the cancer being a big part of that, you know, because I was there with and for her when her mom went through breast cancer and we lost her to breast cancer and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And tell you what, it was so hard for me, so hard for me to have to go and tell my best friend Taryn.

That I had breast cancer, especially after my mother had passed away from it. Mm-hmm. You know, and then my best friend comes and tells me she has breast cancer. It was devastating. It was devastating and frustrating and all kinds of things, and I went through all kinds of emotions and going to that camp with her was incredibly healing for me, for both of us, I think.

Just to, you know, just to claim some power over the cancer and to celebrate all the successes that we've had with Tori. You know, she's been through a lot, Tori's been through surgeries and medications and all kinds of changes since the breast cancer diagnosis. And the fact that they put together this special camp to kind of honor people that have been through that kind of thing and gather everybody together so that they can receive support from each other was just absolutely beautiful.

It was amazing, and I'm so incredibly honored that I got the opportunity to go with you to go do that. It was a great thing. The camp was incredible. We did all kinds of stuff. I made, I made all kinds of crafts. I did tie dye too. I made a lantern. I, I went, what else did we do? We did archery.

We did so much stuff. Oh, and then there's the breastival. Tell her about breastival. 

Breastival is amazing. So it's this big festival that they put on for us. It's the last night of camp, and it's this huge party. So we have a DJ and they have food trucks. They decorate the whole place. It's, they do a theme.

And this year's theme was, dreamland. And so they decorate the whole place. And they have, like I say, they have lights, they have decorations, they have food, they have mocktails, they have, they food trucks. They have like, I don't know, eight or 10 food trucks out there for us. And nothing, we don't have to pay for anything once we, once you get to camp, it is all inclusive, so everything is included, all your food, including the food, truck, food.

We danced all night long and we, so you dress up for, breastival and you get to be as wild and crazy as you want. And it's like, so we stepped all the way out of our comfort zone and we dressed in these amazing outfits. We had, I had a, like a jewel top and it was literally just a chain of jewels. Across the chest. Right? Oh my gosh. 

It doesn't really cut. Like if, if she had nipples, you would've seen it through the, through the jewels. But she doesn't have nipples. So I don't have nipples. She could wear whatever she wants. She looked freaking fantastic. We had matching bolero jackets that we wore and we had, kind of coordinating outfits.

We looked really coordinated and we had these really cool wigs on that were like ponytails with long braids that came down on each side. So we were matchy matching, they were bubble braids. And we were, and we were all lit up. Mm-hmm. I put, I put fairy lights all over my pants. I put fairy lights. Love it Over my bra. I completely covered my bra. Little fair. We had one bra and I had 'em on my pants, and then we had crowns and, you know, everything. And, it was, we looked so good, y'all. We did, we looked amazing. We got so compliments too. 

We did until I fell out of the bouncy castle and fucked up my face. That's the highlight of breastival

I was in the castle, having a great old time, and then all of a sudden I, I started to get out and you know how they, like, they have a step there that's, you know, inflated and I stepped onto the step and it completely collapsed and I went face first into the ground. I had a scrape like on my chin, on my nose. The side of my cheek was all scraped up.

Tori's just laughing her ass off. I was. She's like her best friends. 

Do they laugh first and then they help you? 

I mean, I made sure she was okay and then I Exactly. Are you okay? Yes. That even happened. Yeah, exactly. Then after that, we went to the photo booth and we could not, there's all these lovely pictures.

Made my face jacked up. 

I was gonna say, so your scraped up face is like forever immortalized in photos. In photos for the next several days. Like we're in Salem and my face is all fucked up, but Yep. There we go. She's got a hair. That's great. We had ourselves a large time though. Okay, so then there's camp and then what did we do after that?

After that was, Bethel Wood. We went to Oh yeah, Woodstock. Oh, amazing. Yeah. We got to see where Woodstock was. 

Yep. It Woodstock Museum was incredible. Yeah. They still do concerts up there, which I'm dying to go see someday. 

Yeah. It was cool. But it was really neat going through the museum and seeing all the pictures of all the people that have that went through there and all the people that were at Woodstock and it was just incredible.

And all the albums from the sixties that they had on the wall that I have upstairs in my closet. Yeah. I was so excited to see the albums that I own, like on the walls of the museum. I have that one. I have that one too. I got that one. It was good stuff. And then we went to have pizza and mystic pizza. 

Oh, you getting ahead of yourself.

'cause we went up to Maine first Maine. I forgot about Maine. Yes. We went to Acadia National Park. Which was beautiful, gorgeous. And then we stopped and stayed with my cousins there for a little while in , Portland, Maine. And oh gosh, it's so beautiful out there. So beautiful. And my cousins are just fabulous.

I mean, I'm so lucky to have such a great family. But yeah, my cousins were great and they treated us like queens. 

Yes. Our cousin is a chiropractor and he took us to his brand new spanking office. It's awesome. It's got like workout equipment and all kinds of beds in there and stuff. He laid us all out on the tables, us being, Tori and I and his wife and who else was with us On bunch people, his daughter.

His daughters, we all laid down on the tables and he gave us all treatments and he put, compression things on Tori and he did cupping. Do you know what cupping is? Yes. Yes, he did cupping on me. It was amazing. That sounds amazing. Feeling 10 feet tall. Yeah. And like we've just been rejuvenated. It was awesome.

He is amazing. I'll tell you what, if you're ever in Portland, I highly recommend that you go visit him because he is so amazing. I had an issue with my neck. I couldn't turn my neck all the way, for like 13 years. It was a result of a car accident and he fixed it. Like I couldn't go more than this.

And now I can go all the way in both directions. He just bam, one treatment and he fixed me. It was amazing. He's amazing. That's wonderful. Yeah. And his wife. And then we went, yeah. Oh, go ahead. 

His wife made us amazing food while we were there. She made us these homemade egg rolls and Oh yeah. Oh my God.

Everything she made was amazing. Mm-hmm. It, yeah, it was like, it was better than restaurant food. It was incredible. 

Oh, here I am, you know, talking about my cousin's chiropractor. You can't go there if you don't know who it is. His name is Dr. Aaron Vela and his practice is, body back chiropractics. Can't remember the rest of it, but it's body back, chiropractic, and, so yeah, highly recommend. But from there we went down to Salem. We went to Salem and I got these really cool barrettes. 

Ooh, 

you those? Yeah. 

Almost bought some, just like that. They had some at Halloween, at our HEB store. Here in Texas and I almost bought some because I love them. Tori wears them about every day. 

I do. I wear them all the time. All the time. Tn bought me those Salem. We both always wanted to go to Salem and yeah, me too. One of these years. We're gonna go during Halloween because I wanna do all the ghost tours and all that stuff. But it was so much fun. I love it.

The history. I loved going through the, the cemetery and seeing all the stones and all the, it's just so fascinating to me. But it was beautiful. It was beautiful. 

Well, if y'all decide to go during Halloween, count me in. Yeah. I wanna come too. 

Yes. The four of us. The four of us have to go. That'd be so that  would be awesome. We would burn down Salem. Exactly. They'd be like, get out where the witches, they didn't burn. Exactly. We learned actually that they never burned witches in Salem. Right. They did lots of other things. They drowned them and did all kinds of other stuff, but they never actually burned anybody. We learned that. Okay. So then what did we do after that?

After Salem, we went to, then we went to Boston. We went to Connecticut. Connecticut. We went to Connecticut and we first, we went and saw, my friend Kai, we visited her, and then we went to Mystic Pizza. 

Awesome. I love that. Have you seen the movies? Yeah. I love the movie. Yeah. 

Yeah, we do too. We watched it when we came home again, and it was so fun to sit there and be like, oh, we were sitting there.

You were there. Yeah. Yeah. We went to the restaurant. We had Mystic Pizza. It was phenomenal. It was great. It was so good, so yummy. Oh, perfect. 

I know, right? Yeah. And then it was Boston. We had some, we had sea food. Well, Boston was right after, actually, Boston was right after Salem. 

Okay. 

Because it's in the same state.

We didn't stay along in Boston. We had some dinner there. We, we had dinner. Didn't really much of anything. Yeah. And then what, see, after Connecticut, we drove down, we went through, went straight through Jersey and we went to, , that's when we went to Bo, not Boston. Baltimore. Baltimore, yes. We went to Baltimore.

Had an amazing. Lunch in Baltimore. It was beautiful and the food was so yummy. Lobster roll. That's what I had. The lobster roll. I had crab cake. My words five lobster roll. So good. 

So being from Colorado, we are as far from the ocean as you can possibly get. 

Mm-hmm. 

And so for us to have seafood is like, amazing.

Yeah. Is a deal. Mm-hmm. And we had all the seafood we could possibly eat. We had lobster and crab cakes and oysters, and we had it all, man. We had it all. And it was so, so good. And then that and then was Washington DC 

Washington DC was a little crazy for us 'cause we wound up there just in time to arrive for the anniversary of the 200th anniversary of the Army. Army. And it was a big Trump parade that day and there were a million people in the streets and it was everything we could do to get between the museums.

But the museums were open and they were practically empty because nobody was interested in the museums that day. They all wanted to see the military stuff. And so, I went to the Native American Museum and then, and the Modern Art Museum and Tori decided to go to a different museum. So she was at History, American History Museum, and Tori got really tired that day.

Tori's got a lot of health issues. You know, she's got cancer, she's got epilepsy, she's got. Diabetes, and she was not feeling well. And there were a million people in the street, and it was a hundred thousand degrees. And, she needed some help. And so she sat down for a while, talked to a cop. The cop called me on the phone and asked me to come pick up Tori. And so I was, I had, I was a mile away, and there was no way to get to where she was from where I was without going through a huge crowd of people. So I picked up one of those lime scooters. Mm-hmm. And I was like, excuse me. Pardon me. Pardon me.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Pardon me. Pardon me. Excuse me. But I got through the crowd and I got to her, and then we had to go across the bridge back to Virginia to get our car. And we had trouble finding the car. Anyway, it was the longest day, and then the skies opened up and it was torrential rainstorm, torrential rain.

Wow. And so we were in the car heading outta Washington, DC. Okay. And we decided to stop at a gas station that was there. It was a gas station that was, had been closed down and it had an overhang, you know, like a, over the gas pumps where the gas pumps used to be. And we pulled in under that overhang and the rain was just coming down as sheets.

It was just sheets and sheets of rain pouring off of the, off of that overhang. And she and I rolled down the windows. We cracked open a box of wine.

Yep. And we sat there, we're like, we're just gonna wait this out. We're, we had our van all, all decked out our bed and everything we needed except a bathroom. Right. So we sat there, which across the street, so, which is right across the street. Right. We actually went over to the bathroom for a second, but this bolt of lightning came, boom.

Lightning and thunder. We were like, oh, we're going back under our little overhang. We're just gonna spend the night there. We, and so we did. Anyway. I was really glad we had the van that night. That was really good. And then what did we do after that? 

Very handy. Very handy. 

See from there. Oh. From there we went to South Carolina to visit another one of my cousins, and that was amazing too.

It was an amazing trip. This cousin, I had only met one time. Well, okay, one time that I remember back up before that, Tori, because I Tori's, biological father. I was gonna go into that. Okay. I'll let you talk. That's what I was about to say. Okay. So I, yeah, I grew up, growing up I had, of course my mom, but you know, they got divorced when I was very small, like a year old or something like that.

And my stepfather came into the picture when I was like three, three years old. So I grew up with him. That was my dad. That was my daddy. He's the one I grew up with and knowing and I never really knew any of my biological father's side of the family at all. And when I became an adult, I got word that I had, some land that I inherited from my grandparents and my cousin Lynn.

Well, two of my cousins actually, my cousin Sharon and my cousin Lynn both got ahold of me, I think through Facebook and, let me know that, you know, this is the deal, blah, blah, blah. And I ended up selling the land. It was only like an acre. Can't build on it, there's no houses on it, and it was part of a bigger piece of land.

And, so I ended up selling it to Lynn and that was the one time that I went and met her. She remembers me as a baby because when I was a year old or. I guess five months old. We went and lived in South Carolina for about six months. But yeah, so we went to see her. It was my first time seeing her since, since all that, and we really didn't know each other.

So we stayed, I think two nights at her house. And when we first got there, it was so neat because she was showing us all the pictures on her walls and telling us who these people were, you know, my grandparents, my great grandparents, my great-great grandparents and cousins and all these people that I've never got to know.

And she was just telling us all these stories and it was really cool. And she had like a whole box of stuff for me, you know, some needle work that my grandmother and my great-grandmother had made. And, just all sorts of pictures and history of my family that I'd never knew. And it was just amazing.

And her and her husband and her son, they were just so welcoming. So welcoming and it was just, it was really neat to get to know her and and to hear all these stories of my family that I just never, ever knew. 

Yeah. That had to make you feel really, really good too. She was so welcoming and loving and Yes.

Yeah, because I never knew that this family ever even thought about me. You know? I figured they forgot about me years ago. Here I am, you know, damn near 50 years old. 

But they never forgot about her. They always wondered what happened to that baby. They always wondered what happened to that baby, and that baby always wondered about the other family, you know?

And so here I got to see my bestie learn about this whole part of herself that she didn't even know about and receive gifts from her great-great grandmothers and stuff like that. It was really neat. She got a. All kinds of needle work. The little lipstick case that you have is really cool. 

Yes, it's a little brass, lipstick holder that my Aunt Bee had kept on her dresser like forever.

And my Aunt Bee is the only one out of that whole family that I've ever had any memories of because when I was little, she used to send me cards and letters and stuff all the time. And I don't know when it stopped, but it stopped when I was a kid sometime and I didn't know why it stopped, you know? But, she was the only one that I ever remembered.

And so getting that of hers and also a little pin, she had these two pins. One was a B and one was a J because her name was Beatrice Judy. And, so my cousin gave me the J because growing up I went by my middle name, which is Jean. So she's like, you need the J. Mm-hmm. So I got Aunt B's, J. And a few other things too.

Some lapel pin pins and stuff like that, you know, but it was really, really cool and a ring a little way. Such treasures, you know, just a, yeah, nothing extremely valuable, but everything that was really meaningful and sweet that it was so awesome that she did that for you. 

Yeah. Yeah. 

South Carolina was fun.

It was, it was beautiful. It was beautiful. She took us, she also took us to see the land because like I say, I sold my portion of the land to her. So now she owns the whole portion because it went, it went to like all it, my aunts and uncles, I was the only grandchild that got a portion of it. But the rest went to my aunts and uncles and everybody sold theirs to her, to Lynn because her mother's house is still there and her sister lives in that house.

And then her brother lives in the house That belonged to my grandparents, I think she said. And, those are the only two houses on the lands. And so she owns the whole big lot. But she showed me the portion that was mine and the houses that are still there and the way the land changed because they built a highway through it.

So they, part of the land got taken from my grandparents when they built the highway. But, she showed us all that stuff. We went to the cemetery. I got to see the graves of my grandparents and it was really cool. It was really, yeah. You got a piece of your history back that you didn't have. Yeah. And to learn. That's wonderful. Varn Ville is the name of the town and their last name is Varn. So my, my, yeah, my birth name was Varn and that was my biological father's family's name. And so the history, you know, goes back to like, what, 17 something. And it was two or three brothers of my. Ancestors that came from Europe somewhere and the, the queen gave them a land grant, to, to build here in, in the US and so they built this town called Varnville.

And so that town is my family, you know, it's is after my family and I got to go visit that too, which was really cool. It's cutest little town and I mean it's beautiful, beautiful houses, beautiful land, everything. It's gorgeous and the people there are really nice. It's just a real small town, but, mm-hmm.

it was really neat and I got to talk to a guy, he is like a historian and he knew the whole history of the town and I talked to him on the phone for like a while and he was telling me all sorts of cool stuff and I actually got his phone number and his name so I could call him again, which I haven't yet.

I'm going to. At some point. But you know, he said, you know, I could talk to him about all this stuff. And, and it's, it's really cool. It was really cool to see that too. 

That's incredible. So after that, I think was south was, Georgia, right? Yeah. We go from South Carolina to Georgia. We went to go visit friends of mine in Georgia. it's a man in a wheelchair and his mama, and they made us every southern comfort food known to man. They made us fried chicken fried okra. That's the best fried green tomatos we got. We got grits. We had like, oh my God, we ate like queens on that trip. she took us to the Atlanta Aquarium, which was absolutely amazing. It's the biggest aquarium in the United States. And, we went to go see the Atlanta Aquarium. That was a big adventure. And then after Atlanta, where did we go after that? 

Florida, to see my other cousin from that side of the family, Sharon. We got to go to her house. So they live on a lake? Lake? Yeah. No, they live on the river. River, yes. Right on the st. John River. St. John River In, in Ja, near Jacksonville, Florida. And which is one of two rivers in the entire world that flow north. Okay. So the, it's the St. John River and the Nile River are the only rivers in the world that flow north. It's very, very wide. We thought we were looking at the ocean when we saw it, because it's so wide and we could see, sea turtles and alligators. We saw our first wild alligators. It was pretty great. 

Yeah. Yeah. We had a fabulous time with them. They have a pool. We floated around in their pool and drank wine and had all, it was amazing. 

Mm-hmm. 

After Florida, then we zoomed on over to New Orleans. Ooh. Yeah. One of my favorite towns Nola. Dude, next time we go to New Orleans, we're spending a week Shannon.

And you're coming with us, girl. We're gonna be there for a week and we're gonna get in all kinds of trouble. I'm down for it. I've already been there for a week once with Ann and got in trouble. So I'm down to go again. 

Just wait till the, let's go again down. I know. It'll be bad. It would also be really good.

Oh yeah. 

Oh hell yeah. It would be so fun. 

Yeah. 

So I'm sure you ate some good food in New Orleans too, right? Yes, right. We were only in New Orleans for one night, unfortunately. But we came in there and I walked up to some guy that looked like he knew what he was doing, and I said, Hey, where should we have lunch?

And he pointed at the oyster bar. He said, go over to the oyster bar. And so we went over. Acme. I was gonna say Acme Oyster Bar. Yep. Hell yeah. I know it. We had oysters, we had shrimp etouffe. We had Jumbalaya gumbo and red beans and rice. And it was so funny though, 'cause when we got there, we walked up to the oyster bar and there was this long line, like halfway down the street, right? And we're standing in line and we're waiting and waiting and waiting. And at one point this guy comes up to me and he goes, there's two of you, right? And I was like, yeah. He goes, okay. He goes, you wanna sit at the bar? I was like, sure. And he's like, all right, follow me. And so I like told Tara, I like tapped Tara.

And I was like, let's go. And I follow this guy and she didn't realize what I was doing. And so she just waited there. She did not follow. And he brings me in and sits me down at the bar. And he's like, what happened to your friend? I was like, I don't know. She's back there somewhere. I didn't hear the conversation, I guess. Yeah. So he went and grabbed her and brought, so we got to sit at the bar and pass up that whole line. And we had, and we were sitting right in front of the dude that was shucking the oysters. I was gonna say, you got to see him shucking, right? Yeah, yeah, we did. We were sitting right there where the guy was checking the oysters and he gave us extra oysters. We ordered oysters, he gave us extra. We ate so well, it was amazing. Did It was so good. And then we, did we spend the night in Nola or did we get outta there? I don't remember actually sleeping there. We headed out. 

We left. Yeah, we left and then we went, we drove, um, straight through to Texas. I wanted to take her to the WASP Museum, which is the Women Aviation Service. Patroller, no Air Force, women Air Force Service. Pilots. And they were, and now these are women that flew the pilots in the World War II or for World World War ii, but they were not considered military, they were considered civilians. So they did not get, you know, they flew the planes, they flew the planes from the United States to Europe so that the boys could use them in the war, right?

Yeah. But they, the women were trained pilots, they were trained, fighter pilots actually. 'cause sometimes they were attacked while they were flying over there. And, they were huge heroes and they were never really recognized again because they were not considered military. They were just civilians.

And when you go there, you learn that they didn't even have uniforms for them. They put them in size, 52 extra longs. And the girls were all, you know, trying to roll up their uniform, trying to work on the plane. All the things they looked like little kids trying on their dad's uniform. Mm-hmm. They did.  Probably could have fit three of them in one uniform. Right. 52 Extra longs is all they had for everybody 'cause they were like surplus uniforms. 

Yeah. 

Anyway, it was an incredible story and I'm so glad we got to see that museum. If you ever get a chance to go see the WASP museum, please do go check that out. It's Sweetwater, Texas. Have you been there? I'm just fixing to say where exactly is it at? No, I have not been there. So yeah. Well I highly recommend it. I'm sorry. How far are you from Sweetwater? I'm not sure. 

Where are you in Texas? 

Where, what part of Texas is Sweetwater in and then I can you Northern, Northern Central.

Do you know where Abilene is? Yeah. 

Okay. That's 

okay. So that's up in the panhandle. So that's many hours from me. Yeah. Where are you? I mean, it's, I'm in Houston, so I'm all the way down. Okay. On the Gulf. Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Mm-hmm. 

I'm like, uh, just a few hours from Louisiana, so I'm closer to Louisiana than anywhere else.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Nice. Yeah. So then after Sweetwater, we came to New Mexico so she could drop me off in at home, and she stayed the night here in New Mexico with me, and then she went back up home to Colorado and it was so emotional when I left her, I was writing, I wrote all over the outside of my windows, 23 states, 22 days, 6,000 miles almost.

Home, cheer me on is what I wrote on the windows. And I was crying, crying, crying, crying, crying. I can imagine. I did not want it to be over. I did not want it to be over. 

I know. And I was like so sad to see her leave. I was like, ah, I know, but it's okay. 'cause we're gonna do it again. Like our next trip is gonna be West.

We wanna go to California, we wanna go up to Oregon and Washington and come down the California coast and we wanna drive down the, the Pacific Coast Highway. Yeah. Yeah. 

That would be incredible. We have so many plans though. We wanna, I know, do so much more traveling together. We wanna do exploring, we wanna see museums, we wanna go ride rollercoasters. There's so much we wanna do together. And now that we're 50, look out, watch out. I can't believe, I can't believe I'm older than you ladies. It's the first time I'm older than somebody. Usually I'm the younger one in the room now I'm the older one. 

See, and it's, it's the, the opposite for me. 'cause usually I'm the oldest one. Everybody else is younger than me. So me too. I'm the big sister. Yep. Uh, I know I'm, I'm usually the boss because I'm the bossy one, but also because I'm the oldest. That's what she says. I'm two days older than you. You have to do what I say. That's right. I'm the boss, not you. And since we've known each other since we were five, it pretty much works that way. It's how it goes. Yep. I can see that.

So that was an amazing adventure that you guys had. I mean, it had everything including you know, finding parts of your history and your past that you didn't know about. A lot of emotions happening with seeing relatives that you hadn't seen for a long time. Friends that you hadn't seen for a while, that's incredible.

We dumped a box off the back of the minivan. At one point too, we had to pick up stuff off the side of the highway. Yes. And we got tick bites. Yes. Traveling adventures, I'm telling you. Oh yeah. Oh God. We had so much. We learned so much. We healed so much. Oh my gosh. 

Yeah. Yeah. So what advice would you give to someone, male, female, whoever who wants, who's been thinking about maybe taking a big trip, but might feel nervous about the distance or the logistics of it all? What would you say to 'em? 

I would say just fucking do it. Do it now. Don't think about it. Just do it. It's gonna work out. Yep. One way or another. You'll get through it and you will be better for it. And you will, you know, it's so, it's so freeing. Once it's all over with. It's like, wow, I actually did it and it was so much fun and I learned so much and I healed so much and it's just, I saw people I haven't seen in years and I loved on cousins that, you know, yeah. I've never even seen before or have, it was amazing. It was so great. So many opportunities. 

And one of the, one of the things too that we learned is, you know, just call that person and say, Hey, I'm coming through. Do you want, can we stop and see you? And they are so happy to have you. They're willing to host you. They're, they'll take you through their town and show you things and it's just wonderful. You know, don't hesitate. Just do it. You know, we only have this life for as long as we have it and we're not promised tomorrow. Don't put it off. Just do it. Just do it. And everything changes from time to time.

You know, everything changes, forests burn down, governments change, buildings are built, you know, and, and new things happen all the time. And so even if you haven't been somewhere for a long time, just go, go, go, go, go, go get in the car, get on that plane, go do the thing, go see it. And and people die.

You know, had we not seen the, had we not done this, Taryn would not have had the chance to see her uncle. He passed away. Yeah. Yeah. You know? And how special was that? I mean, that just made me so happy that she was able to have that bonding time with him before he passed away. Yeah. And he, what an incredible memory. Told her that when she was there, that was the last lucid times he had incredible, kinda like he was just waiting for. Someone one more from your side or one more time. Kept asking me, he's like, how's everybody? How's everybody? And he was kissing my hand. Oh, how's everybody? And he was holding my hand to his face, you know, he wanted to know how my, my family was, he wanted to know how his nieces and nephews were and everybody, my, you know, he wanted to hear from my grandfather's side of the family.

And I was there to deliver the message. Thank God, you know? Amazing. Yeah. 

How special is that? You know? And that's not something that, that's not something you can buy, you know? No. That's a memory that she will have, a cherished memory that she will have, that I will have for the rest of our lives and. And watching you uncover your family was so beautiful. It was so beautiful. We can't wait to do more Shannon . And we can't wait. Can't wait. 

Well, speaking of can't wait. What's the next four healing with traveling treasures, do you have another big adventure planned or anything in the pipeline? 

We actually, a couple more things since then. We went to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival. in the fall. we went to Albuquerque and we saw the hot air balloons, which was absolutely amazing. Oh, that's on my bucket list. I also went to, I went back to Atlanta to go visit those friends for a little while, and then I got to go to Hawaii for my birthday. So November 11th through the 17th, I was in Hawaii with my sister and I got to see the big island. I went around and saw, volcano National Park, and went to the beach and saw my nephew and spent all kinds of amazing time in Hawaii. So that's been my most recent adventure. Also, I went and spent three more weeks in Colorado where we, we celebrated our birthdays together again. We went to the Shining Ball at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado.

Oh my gosh, I'm so jealous. So jealous. Oh, it was so much fun. You gotta go with this next year. It's a amazing, it is a blast. It was so worth it. We, we got dressed up like flappers. We all three dressed up as flappers. Love it, love it, love it. She had all this fake blood dripping down her face, and some of it went into her contact lens, and the whole contact lens was bright red and it looked awful. It looks so scary. It just, but it, it didn't hurt her or anything, so she just went around looking totally disgusting, like scary all night long. But it was really cool and everybody was like, wow. And they had a big, they had a big dance, like a big, you know, DJ and stuff there at the costumes were my favorite part though. It was so great to see. I can imagine. I would love that. 

Costumes. Yeah. Yeah. And then after that we went to Casa Bonita, which is the place we used to go when we were kids to celebrate our birthday. And do you know about Casa Bonita Shannon? I do not. Oh, so it's this Colorado hotel, or not hotel, restaurant.Restaurant. Well, it's not just Colorado. I guess there's three of them around the United States, but the one in Colorado is the best by far. I agree. I'm not biased at all, but so when we were, it's a huge restaurant. They have cliff divers. They have a cave that you can walk through. They have a bar, they have a puppet show. They have mariachi band that goes around and, well, they used to walk around. Now they have a stage that they stand on. Some things have changed. So it almost shut down during 2020. It did shut down 'cause it did shut down. It did shut down. And, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park bought the restaurant and renovated it, but they renovated it perfectly. They put it back just the way it was, except that the food is a little bit better. It's not amazing still. The food, the food is better. It's, it's notorious, this restaurant in Colorado, it's notorious for being the worst food, but the best atmosphere, worst Mexican food, but the best atmosphere. We used to call it Casa Velveeta. And the food is a little better. It's a little better, but it's not great. it's, but I was to see that they still had the assembly line there for the Yeah, for the trays. You used to go in and get a tray and you'd get your silverware roll and then they would put your plate of enchiladas on your tray and you'd have to walk your tray to your table. And now they actually have waiters and waitresses that bring stuff out to you. Yeah. Nice. It has approved a little bit. Yeah. but it's still, it's still authentic. It still has all the crazy old shit It used to have, like the Yeah, it's, I was so surprised at how well they did, re it wasn't a renovation, it was a,  remodel. Remodel. No, it wasn't, you're right. It was a renovation, not a remodel. Right. Yeah, they cleaned it up basically. They didn't really up a whole lot, and so it's basically the exact same thing it was, but new new stuff. Yeah. You know, and cleaned it. They fixed everything that needed to be fixed, which was a lot. but it was just so much fun though. We dressed up for that one too. Of course you did. Of course. Like it wouldn't be y'all if you didn't dress up, so. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. But yeah, so, and, next, you know, I'm not sure exactly what we're gonna do next. But we have so many ideas. Excuse me. I think this summer is when we're gonna try and do our east or west coast trip. So she wants me to take, wants me to go to St. Thomas too? 

Yes, I wanna take her to St. Thomas. I used to live there for a short time, but I might not come home if I go to St. Thomas. I don't know what, I might not come home. Same, same. I love it there. You probably won't. I mean, I was just there on the cruise, so you probably won't wanna come home. I didn't. I wanna hear everything about that cruise. Yes, I do too. We gotta talk. Yeah, exactly. I'll have to tell you guys all about it. Absolutely. Yeah. 

So before we wrap up, Tori and Taryn tell listeners where they can find your podcast and I'll make sure the links are in the show description as well. 

Well, we are on, Spotify and YouTube.

Our YouTube channel is healing with traveling Treasures. We're also on, Instagram. Also healing with traveling treasures. we put out, generally we put out episodes every Wednesday. We kind of missed last week and we missed my birthday week because we were both so busy with traveling and everything. It just didn't work out for us. Yep. So we're, I understand that we're gonna get back on the ball. We're ready to dive back in. We're gonna just start doing our weekly episodes again. so excited about that. Shannon, thank you so much for having us here tonight. It's so awesome to see you again and I can't wait to travel with you someday. I'm so, most definitely. I think the four of us, this has been so much fun. As usual, it has been. It's been a wonderful conversation. I love you both so much. thank you for joining me today.

And to our listeners, make sure to check out Healing With Traveling Treasures. I promise you'll be inspired. And don't forget to tune in every Monday for a new episode of Travel Time Stories with Shannon. Make sure you subscribe, hit the like button and share with all your friends. Until next time, keep making memories for life.