Solo Travel Adventures: Safe Travel for Women, Preparing for a Trip, Overcoming Fear, Travel Tips

Embracing the Open Road: Beth Binger's Guide to Solo Road Trips

• Cheryl Esch-Solo Travel Advocate/Travel Coach/Freedom Traveler • Season 2 • Episode 98

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What happens when a childhood road trip sparks a lifelong passion for adventure and discovery? Meet Beth Binger, better known as Bing, the founder of WonderBing Travel. In this episode, Bing takes us back to her transformative journey from Pennsylvania to the Grand Tetons at the age of 12, a trip that ignited her love for solo travel. With her trusty Golden Retriever, Lexi, by her side, Bing now dedicates her life to empowering women to break free from fear and embrace the liberating experience of solo road trips.

As we navigate through some of Bing's most memorable international adventures, you'll hear how her love for Italy has shaped her travel philosophy. She also shares her own soul-reviving road trip from Virginia to the Florida Keys, steering clear of highways to fully immerse in the charm of small towns and picturesque countryside. This episode emphasizes how solo road trips offer a unique blend of planned precision and spontaneous discovery, cultivating a sense of confidence and adaptability that's hard to come by through other forms of travel.

We round off our conversation with a deep dive into the intrinsic value of solo travel. Bing discusses her book, "There's Wonder Around the Bend," and how it encapsulates the essence of wonder, freedom, and personal reclamation.
There's Wonder Around the Bend:  An Inspiring Guide to Solo Road Tripping Book link:  https://a.co/d/0hZkuTcY

FREE RESOURCE:
Use the link to go to wonderbingtravel.com/book-resources to get lifetime access to all the bonus resources for There's Wonder Around the Bend.

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Speaker 1:

Hello sister travelers. Well, what if a solo road trip could change your life? Well, I have a guest on today who has done just that. Her name is Beth Binger, but she goes by Bing and she's founder of Wonder Bing Travel. She does frequent road trips with her sidekick, lexi the Golden, and she's on my show today to share with you how this is possible. She loves to lead other women to go beyond sort of that fear and move from wandering to wander. She has a wonderful story to share, so I hope you will listen in on our conversation today. Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures for Women 50 and Older. I'm Cheryl Esch, your host, solo travel advocate, freedom traveler and coach. This is your passport to adventure. Hello Beth, thank you so much for being here on my show today.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you're so welcome. I'm really excited to spend some time with you and talk with you.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so I always like to start out my interviews with folks to hear what their travel story is like. How did they get started with travel? What gave them that passion for travel? You know some go way back, some start more recently. Can you share yours with us?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, sure, I think it's fair to say mine goes way back, but it started small for sure, and in fact in my book I ended up thinking through a lot of this. So I feel like I can give you a pretty, you know, cohesive answer. When I was little, we didn't have a lot of money, we didn't travel very far, but my, my dad especially, just he had the itch really bad and um so um, my my biggest early travel memory. I was 12. We, I grew up in Pennsylvania and we took a road trip to the Tetons and, um, I had never I don't think I'd ever been any further than maybe New York and New Jersey at that point in my life. It was a big adventure and so we rode.

Speaker 2:

I remember my mom taking my sister and I to the library, which we about with a little cap and made that all nice for us, and basically threw my sister and I in the back for three days, you know. And we read our way to the Tetons. And you know, when you grow up in the seventies you don't have. You know your visual ideas of what things are are are not close to reality, because you didn't have a lot of, there was no internet or anything. So I grew up with encyclopedias and that was my idea of how to learn everything pretty much, and so I was very unprepared for the Grand Tetons and it just made a really indelible impression on me, just absolute wonder.

Speaker 2:

I just remember vividly the moment I saw them and I've never forgotten that feeling, and everything that I've done travel-wise by choice, especially on my own now, has been seeking that feeling, seeking that concept that I just call it wonder. It's just that moment that just takes your breath away, that sometimes makes you cry, that you just a lot of times you're unprepared for and you're just, it just knocks you right off your feet. So that's sort of that's how my story with travel started. So that's sort of that's how my story with travel started, and it's definitely. I've never lost the desire to constantly seek after that feeling.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, I think our stories are kind of similar. That's really probably around the same time I was probably nine and our family did a little RV trip out west to hit all those national parks and say I grew up in Pennsylvania too. Oh, you did, yes, yes, so you know, um same thing. I think the only we'd only really gotten out of, out of Pennsylvania to go to Florida, right, so to get past, you know, to go past the Mississippi river and go West. It's a huge deal, um, but yeah, it's. I think that's the same. It's kind of got me curious and just that want to wonder, you know, just to wonder around and see what's out there, it's absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so beautiful what we have in our, in our country and everywhere else too. If you've been so you talked about that that's the kind of us travel. Have you done any international travel that kind of was life-changing for you maybe?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, primarily Italian travel has been and I know that's almost cliche anymore because you know everybody goes to Italy but in 2002, I think, my best friend and her family, they were stationed in Turkey and they moved to Rome for three years and I was supposed to go visit in Turkey but 9-11 happened and then that was a hard no after that. So when they I know that it was very scary and we they had just moved to Turkey when that happened and there was a lot of fear about what would happen even with them. But they were in Turkey for two years and then moved to Rome, which was super exciting for me. And so all three years that they lived there I went to visit, once with my daughter, once our whole family and once with a friend, and it absolutely changed me, you know it. Just it was that same feeling again, but over and over and over again every time I turned around.

Speaker 2:

And I have always been a really I love history, I've always loved history and I actually homeschooled my children at that time and we were deep into ancient history. And so to go to Rome and to see all these places that were just suddenly so real to me as an adult, studying them. You know you learn about them when you're little, but then, I don't know, when you're teaching your kids, it's like you're learning it all over again and then some, and it was gosh. It was Like you're learning it all over again and then some. Absolutely yes, and it was gosh. It was a very powerful experience for me and I've gone back so many times and I will never stop going back. It's just my favorite place.

Speaker 1:

I love to hear that I am partial to Italy as well. Really, I have other places I enjoy, but I think it's because I have a little bit of Italian in me and so there's that heritage that seems to draw me there as well. That just I don't want to say. Like you almost feel like you're home, although when I was in Ireland I felt like I was at home but I'm not Irish.

Speaker 2:

No, and that's so funny. I wish so much that I could say that about like I do feel like I'm home, but I have no reason to say that I have no Italian in me whatsoever, but still it feels we all find those places where it just kind of draws us so much that it does feel like home, it just feels so natural and yeah, so you found your place in Italy.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful. Yes, it's like your picture behind you, right?

Speaker 2:

yes, there's a way too many italian things in my house. Um, it's so true, I, I do really love it and I there's so many. I think italy is so fascinating because it's not really a geographically a very big country, but it is so diverse in so many ways. There's so many different places and different things going on in italy that are so, so unique and in a little way, it's sort of like america, but we have all this, you know, land and they have so little land, but yet you can go north to the Alps and you can go south to Sicily and it's not, you know and everything in between, tuscany and all the other places. So, yeah, it's just, I find it endlessly fascinating. The food, the wine, the people, the language, everything, it's all good.

Speaker 1:

I imagine you've learned Italian over the years, having gone.

Speaker 2:

I've taken Italian Every year that I go back, I like try to learn more and just try more and more. I definitely don't speak Italian, as you know. I would never say I'm, you know, but I can get along now and I can. You know, I. I plopped myself in a tiny little Northern Tuscan town last year to that, where I thought no one would speak English and I wanted to just see how I would speak and what I found was that town was half Scottish. So crazy place, amazing, crazy, crazy little town. What was the name of the town? It's called Barga B-A-R-G-A.

Speaker 2:

Okay, it's sort of near Luca, it's in the, it's in the foothills of the Alps and it was during World War I and II. A lot of the Italians there when they, you know, when Italy was being invaded, when Italy was being invaded, they went to Scotland and they were going to be going to America and they all love Scotland so much they stopped. So they have this huge population of people from Barca who went to Scotland. Well, now they've come back, back and forth, back and forth, and so half of the town they speak Italian fluently and you'd never know. And then all of a sudden they'll break into this Scottish brogue and you're like what is going on? It's so crazy, but it definitely it took. It threw me for a loop when I was there, but I still got to practice a lot, which is good.

Speaker 1:

That's good, that's awesome. Yeah, Well, I know you now focus a lot on road travel. Well, I wanted to get your opinion on. You know why road travel over, say, plane or train travel or cruises? What makes it unique or better in your mind?

Speaker 2:

um, well, I don't know if it's better necessarily than I. Mean, I love overseas travel, you can't, you know, but I still I'll do road trips when I'm over there. Um, I think for me it was born out of necessity, at a time where I didn't have, it was on my own for the first time and I just really didn't have any means to do anything else, and I had this intense desire to go do something and to get away, and so that was really the only option that I had. I didn't think through it a whole lot, I just figured out okay, I'm going to take a road trip, and so I did that for two weeks by myself, and it was the most transformative travel experience that I think I've ever had, including Italy and other things, because it just I love the idea I had been.

Speaker 2:

My life had been very chaotic for a long time until it wasn't, and then I was pretty much on my own and to my whole thing was that I would stay off the highways, that I would not travel on any highways unless I absolutely had to, and so I was driving from Virginia at the time. I was driving from Virginia to the Keys, and so no Route 95, you know, oh my gosh, I know. So I actually went down through the Blue Ridge Mountains and really stayed western a lot of the way. I slept in my, I camped in my car. Um, I, you know, just went. It took me a week to get there and I was determined to just see every little thing I could see. And so I think the idea of slowing down that much and really I had spent the previous 25 years living outside Washington DC as well, so you just are in this rat race there, right? And I had grown up in small town Pennsylvania, so I think I wanted to reconnect with that feeling that I had growing up of like being known and being, you know, just deep roots have always been very important to me. So I felt like that was lacking for such a long time and I wanted to sound so corny, but it's very true, I just kind of wanted to find America again because I felt like I wasn't really living in what was real to me. You know, most people in DC area, in Northern Virginia, their transplants they're going a million miles an hour. They're trying to one up each other all the time. It's just yucky.

Speaker 2:

And I really wanted to get back to what felt real to me and so that, to me, that was driving on country, country roads, you know, stopping at, you know, little shops along the way and little towns, and whether it was grabbing ice cream or whatever, just always like. My role was basically like no fast food, nothing that I recognize, you know I had. Everything was more. I just wanted this to be to be authentic and and I it was very restorative and even though I was going through what was a pretty cruddy time in my life, I found that what I ended up doing was spending so much time looking out instead of in.

Speaker 2:

I wasn't introspective, I was just focused on all the wonder in creation and could not, you know, just had time to really look and breathe and enjoy and sleep, and it was changing and I and it was like a drug, I just wanted that. I wanted that and I came home and just I started a blog when I, when I went partly because I felt like my parents were going to lose it with me going on my own, for everybody thought I was crazy. You know what are you doing?

Speaker 2:

yeah, you get that, and I'm like yeah, right, so I don't get it as much anymore. So I started a blog just to be like look people, like it's all good and you can see what I'm doing, but I really don't want to talk to anybody while I'm gone. So that was my sort of method and it just started this whole cycle and it was really where what I'm doing now and everything that has come since that was where it was all born was in that two-week, two-and-a-half-week trip to the Keys and back.

Speaker 1:

I love how you didn't take and see.

Speaker 1:

You can see it especially if you're by yourself and you're not on a time schedule or someone else isn't like complaining that you're stopping all the time or whatever. Right, you know that. Freedom, yeah, I love it. Your own freedom, yeah, I love it. And again, that whole idea of visiting sort of that small town america, that's just amazing. So, um, I might have to try that sometimes I tend to, I do tend to take highways, but I I do take my time going places. You know, like I tell myself I'm not in a rush, but, um, I might get off exits and go, oh, this looks, you know, interesting, interesting yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I just feel like there's so much that you don't, you know, even think about all those years.

Speaker 2:

You know, our family vacations were were always from Northern Virginia to, you know, when I was older, from Northern Virginia to South Carolina, to the beach, and so that was a lot of art, what we did as a family and so, but that was, you know, absolutely, when your mom, you know, and you're planning all these things, it's like you're just going to get there as fast as you can try to, you know, just manage everybody's stuff. And so that was always 95. There was never a like let's not stop and go to the bathroom unless we absolutely have to, it's just let go. And so the idea of exploring just even just off of a road that I'd always gone down was fascinating to me, and I find that all the a lot of the highways that I've traveled in my life now I try to purposefully take, traveled in my life now I try to purposefully take, there's usually some side two-lane road that used to be the main road you know, to go to that same place.

Speaker 2:

Before there was a super highway. And it's just amazing all the things like I was like oh 95, so boring. But my gosh, you just get off of it and do another road and you're like this is fascinating, there's just so much going on highways are really boring. They're boring right, but they're necessary and I certainly use them. You know, it's not like I, it's just that when I'm taking a purposeful road trip that is a lot of times my goal is to stay off the highways.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so talk about safety. Did you feel safe doing that by yourself in a car for?

Speaker 2:

that long. I think initially I was. I don't think my brain was fully operational the first time I went. You know, I was just trying to get, I didn't think too much about it and I'm a very trusting person. So, um, I didn't really. The only, my only unsafe encounter was with a bear the first time, so I wasn't really prepared for that. And I'm still here, so it's fine. Um, where was that?

Speaker 2:

And tell me about it. That was in the blue Ridge. It was literally the first night. So, or the first morning after I had my first night, you know, away from home. I'd only driven like two hours and I was so psyched because I was in this, um, I was in this campground, um, I was camping by myself, and it was just a gorgeous evening and I was so excited that I had done something, all by myself, you know, and I so I slept in my car and I thought this is just the best thing I've ever done.

Speaker 2:

And it was right off the Appalachian, or right on the Appalachian Trail, really. And so the next morning I was like, well, I'm just going to go for a little hike. The trail ran almost through the campground, and so I went for a little hike and I saw a bear in the distance, in a tree, and I was like, well, that's really cool and I'm going to go this way instead, yeah, yeah. So I came back around and ended up on the trail that was very close to the back of the campsites, and as I came around and it was awful, there was a cliff on the one side and there was woods on the other side and as I came around the corner, there was this ginormous bear just standing there staring at me and he was very close and I did all the wrong things. I turned around and I ran like crazy, fully certain that this was my last moment on earth.

Speaker 1:

I knew it.

Speaker 2:

But I was too afraid to look back because I thought I'd trip or I don't want to know, like I don't want to know, crashing through the brush and landed up in this campsite with a couple of early 20 something girls who were sitting there very calmly cooking their bacon and their breakfast. I was like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, and I'm just, you know, I'm acting like a complete fool. And they look at me and they're like, oh, did you see that bear? And I was like yeah, and they're like, yeah, he was just here walking through our campground a few minutes ago. And they were completely nonplussed by the whole thing. I was like, okay, so I'm not going to die, it's going to be okay. So I still don't love encountering them, but I don't freak out in the same capacity that.

Speaker 1:

I did.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh my gosh. Yes, but other than that, safety wise, I've never really encountered any issues. I think, as I get more and more adept at long road trips, I definitely think about it a lot more, whether I'm staying in a, if I'm staying in a hotel or if I'm. You know, I try to scope places out ahead of time. I don't. My thing is that I I always try to arrive wherever I'm going to stay for the evening by about six o'clock in the evening, and if it's in the summer, you know, and if it's in the winter, then earlier, because I don't want hotel or Airbnb or whatever.

Speaker 2:

And then I definitely have learned some safety tricks. To just you know things that I carry in my car I do carry a whistle with me. I do carry pepper spray on a chain around my neck like a lanyard. I travel with my dog 90% of the time. So, that really provides a lot of an extra layer of safety, although, my gosh, she's really not going to protect me and I think if something really started to happen she definitely would. But she other than that, she's just like where's the treats?

Speaker 1:

So I think that gives a sense of comfort, though, to have that companion with you, so non-human, but companion.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yes, yeah, she, yeah. She's great, she has a great sense of direction, which is good.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's good, that's good, and she doesn't mind being in the car like extended period of time.

Speaker 2:

She's a fantastic traveler. Like fantastic traveler, I just yeah, she'll. I forget she's there. She doesn't, she's not. You always think, oh, you're going to be the dog with the window open and the head hanging out, and she's not. She's crashed on the back seat, you know, sometimes upside down, with all four paws in the air, like she's just living her best life back there. And then she loves to hike, so, and she's a very passionate swimmer, so there just has to be hiking and swimming involved in every day. And then she's.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Yeah, I need to find a dog like that.

Speaker 2:

Gold retrievers are good for that, so yes, yes, they are.

Speaker 1:

There's a couple other breeds too that are kind of made for that kind of thing too, but yeah gold retrievers are kind of at the top. Of that for sure I'm partial. So what advice would you give someone going on their first solo trip?

Speaker 2:

Well, I guess it would depend on where they're coming from.

Speaker 1:

Let's stick with road trips, since that seems to be your specialty. Okay, what would be a piece of advice for someone who is going to go solo their very first road trip?

Speaker 2:

Are they scared or not?

Speaker 1:

Likely. Yes, let's go with that because typically that you know as a first timer, there's some apprehension right, probably over going by themselves.

Speaker 2:

I think gosh well, I wrote a whole book on that subject, but we can talk about that later. We'll talk about that. Yeah, gosh well, I wrote a whole book on that subject but we can talk about that later.

Speaker 1:

We'll talk about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think the biggest thing is that you know what I really hope for people, as I'm helping them with this exact thing, is that they get to a place where they feel confident and comfortable with their decisions, and so I want them to know that doing a solo road trip means that you get to make all the decisions Right, and that's very freeing, but for some people it's also intimidating because they've never done it before. So it's just working through finding that comfort level between those two things those two things, and then the other piece of it, I think, is about finding their comfort zone in terms of how much planning works for them.

Speaker 2:

Are they someone who really needs to know what's going to happen to some extent every day? Do they know where they're staying every night, or are they going to fly by the seat of their pants and be comfortable? And if you're going to do that, then at least think through what you're not doing at that point. So I think finding your comfort zone in how much planning works for you because you can also over plan and be incredibly stressed out, and nobody wants that Right. So I think this is one of the things that makes solo travel so unique is that as soon as you put two people together, no matter how wonderful that relationship is, they don't have the exactly the same opinion about that.

Speaker 1:

No matter what Right.

Speaker 2:

So even the people and I always say there's people you can travel with and there are people that you can't and even the people that I know I can travel with I can only think of two who you know I really don't worry about any of those things, because some people you just are always worried about what the other person is thinking or if they're having fun or what they want to do or where they want to stop, and so when it's just you, you get to take ownership of all of that, but there's such freedom in that as well.

Speaker 2:

You get to take ownership of all of that, but there's such freedom in that as well. So I think my advice is to just find your sweet spot in terms of planning. And so you know I help people lay out like these are all the options. Where do you find that you feel comfortable within this range of planning? You know kind of thing and whether that's planning where you're going to eat, what foods you're going to take, how much safety you want, how much you want to think about safety before you go lodging, navigation, your route. You know length of time, whether you're taking your dog, like all of these things, during all of that.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I love how you made it about that person's personality and how they need to travel. Like, like you said, are you a planner? Do you need to have that control? Are you more spontaneous? And I think it's important, like you said, to identify that, because that tells you kind of how your trip may go, what you need to do, what you don't need to do. Right, right, right, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And maybe in the beginning you want to plan because you want to have that control and feel a little safer, right, just kind of knowing Absolutely. I think, as um, as we get more confident in our, or have more experience in our solo travel, I feel like we're more able to kind of let go of those controls, those reins, and maybe let it maybe be a little more free or spontaneous in, maybe, where you end up for the night, right, you know that kind of thing, right, and it's it's true, and even still, like I can think of times, you know, even in the recent past, where I've been in Washington state I don't know when, that was six in my mind driving down the Pacific coast highway there and in and around it, and it's pretty desolate in places and, um, you know, there's no cell service and whatever.

Speaker 2:

Maybe there is now, but there wasn't. And just thinking I have no idea where I'm going to end up tonight and I don't really have a way to figure it out. It's just going to have to happen, right? Yeah, that's true, that could happen, yeah.

Speaker 2:

You can let yourself get really spun up about that sometimes and it always works out. You know, just seems to always work out. But yeah, and there's, I've definitely learned for myself. I am more of a planner. But there are times like this summer I'm going to be gone for about four and a half weeks. I'm leaving in a couple of weeks and I have the first bit kind of plotted out, but there's two whole weeks in the middle where I don't know and I don't care, like I will figure it out as I go, right. So I love that. But there was a time where I definitely would that would have. I would have lost my mind thinking about it.

Speaker 1:

It would have put me right over the edge.

Speaker 2:

So, um, but not anymore, so I'm good with it and you mentioned traveling with different people that have different expectations.

Speaker 1:

And yeah, I've traveled with a friend that was a plan down to the minute kind of person. Yeah, I've traveled with a friend that was a plan down to the minute kind of person, yeah, and I love her to death and I'll still probably do some trips with her. But I think what I've learned, especially from our last one together, that I'm usually just kind of like whatever you know, like I, you know, I'm usually I don't care, cause I'm just happy to be traveling, right and so. But I think if you are going to travel with somebody and make, maybe have some boundaries or expectations, um, have that discussion so that there's kind of more of a balance, I think you know, uh, between what you want to do and what they want to do, and you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's true, and I, you know, I think people often think now, because this is sort of my little niche in life, that this is all I do is travel by myself, and I'm like no, like I still do other things with family and friends, and I just did a road trip across the Canadian Rockies, a couple of weeks ago, we rented an RV in Vancouver and drove across the Rockies to Calgary.

Speaker 2:

And she and I have, I mean, we've known each other for 40, how can that be? For 40 years and so and we've, you know, been together all that time. But we've never traveled just the two of us in any big trip when it was just us. So it was interesting and it was, and we fell into and we do really well together and it was fine and we can definitely do more things together. But there were definitely moments of like, if I was by myself I would make a slightly different choice here, or whatever. But it's okay. Like, take this one for the team, and I'm sure she did too, right, so but but yeah, there are times where it is really wonderful to travel with other other people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's. It's good to have that balance because you know, I hear from a lot of people that are doing solo travel that you know there is that chance of getting lonely, you know, while you're out there and maybe you can actually speak on that. It sounds like that two and a half week road trip that you took down to the Keys. I can't. I didn't get a sense that you were lonely, but have you ever been?

Speaker 2:

on. I know right.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever been on a solo trip where you found yourself lonely, and how did you handle that?

Speaker 2:

I guess I'll just be completely honest and say I don't think so. And there's a reason why I say that Because when I plan a road trip, one of the things that I share with people too is that how really helpful it is to have some sort of destination in mind and not just, you know, going in circles. And so for me that destination is almost always there's a person at that destination who lives there or someone that I'm, you know, meeting somewhere so that I'm spending time with. And even that trip to the Keys I have friends who live in the Keys, so I was going to them. Okay, so I have all my adventure and I'm on my own, and then I'm with them for maybe four days and then I'm on my own again. So it sort of for me that fills that need of just connection and that Now I do experience a lot of sort of the opposite of like FOMO. It's that I wish I could share this moment with somebody.

Speaker 2:

You see, something spectacular, you're doing something fun, and inevitably you think of the person who would also love that thing, and for a lot of times, for me it's my daughter or my son or it's, you know, my best friend or my mom or whatever, and so I just, you know, sometimes I will just FaceTime them you know, kind of do that Like look at this amazing thing, I wish you were here and you know, and then I'm over it and I can.

Speaker 2:

You know, I got to share it with them, just even a tiny bit, and then I can move on. So record a video for them if they're you know, if, if there's no service.

Speaker 1:

Right, I love that I hadn't. Actually, I don't think about FaceTime because the people I'd want to FaceTime like my kids, they don't like to answer when I FaceTime.

Speaker 2:

I want to know ahead of time like they're going to do it Right. When's mom calling, right? Yeah, so mom calls what's going on, or?

Speaker 1:

what's going on right? Yeah, so mom calls what's going on, what's going on right? I get that. Yeah, that's a great idea. Video it, facetime it. Yeah, because I have felt the same way, you know, being in certain places and thinking about somebody and being like, oh, I wish they could see this yeah right, that's usually what it is.

Speaker 2:

I wish they could see this, because I know how much this particular thing and it could be somebody complete, not random, but just it's not always the same people, you know, it's just something, somebody in your life you're like oh, I know this person loves this and here I am doing this and I wish they could see it too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned Italy as being one of your favorite spots. Do you have any others that kind of also have your heart, that you love, you've loved going to or wish you could go back to Outside of the States.

Speaker 2:

You mean Well, let's do both.

Speaker 1:

Let's do one outside of the States and then let's do one in the States.

Speaker 2:

Okay, Well, I can tell you right now this is a very recency bias here, but, having just come back from the Rockies in Canada, I did not get enough of that, that's for sure, because it was just so overwhelmingly jaw dropping and you just wanted to turn down every possible road and take every hike and do it, and it was just that was overwhelming and so much that we didn't get to do so. I and I'm a mountain person. I love the beach too, but I love the mountains and I love mountain lakes and mountain streams and that's really my, you know, I just that's my go-to. And so I just thought this is crazy that I'm only getting just a little piece of that. And so I, that's one that I felt like I really really connected with that place and that trip.

Speaker 2:

And I grew up also just my dad dad always loved trains. He worked in the railroad when he was in college and I just always grew up around trains and there's the you can take a. So I've always been fascinated with trains and then my son was fascinated with them as a kid, and it just goes on. So in the Rockies there is the I forget what they call it the Canadian Rocky Mountain Railroad or whatever. Yeah, and I'm just like I have to do that, like I just have to do that at some point. So that's on my list. Maybe we could go together. Oh, yeah, that would be fun. It just looks so amazing. I know, right, you see the train tracks constantly as you're driving through that area. It's just the coolest. So I think that and I've been to Scotland and loved it, but didn't get to explore it very much.

Speaker 2:

So I would love to go back to Scotland, yeah, yeah, and really dive in. And there's a lot of other places on my list that I haven't been to yet, but, um, but those are places that I'd love. I really, really loved Scotland. So, um, and in the U? S again, I would just go back to the mountains. I, I love everything from, you know, colorado, montana, wyoming, idaho, utah, washington and Oregon, and I think Washington has been a huge surprise for me. My best friend, who lived in Rome, actually moved to Washington state, so she lives outside of Spokane and I've just fallen head over heels with Washington. I just love it. It is, and there's so much to see there. So, yeah, it did surprise me too.

Speaker 1:

When I went, um, just was surprised. Um, I took the train up from LA all the way up to Seattle along the Pacific coast. Oh, it was a wonderful train ride speaking of trains, right, it was, it was wonderful. And then I got to see, you know, I was pleasantly surprised with just everything that was in Washington state. Most I was in the Seattle area.

Speaker 1:

So then I took one of those ferries over to one of those islands and oh yeah, so many to see, yeah it's like, and it was just amazing, so I I think I would need to go back, obviously, to see some more of that yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the whole central, north-central, northwest, north-central part, the Cascade Mountains. Yeah, it's great, so I tried to see if I could fit it into my road trip this summer. It's very far to drive out there, right?

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, but I've done it.

Speaker 2:

I've done it and I will do it again, but I just could not make it happen this summer.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that's. Do you have something planned coming up? I do, I'm leaving in. Oh, that's right, you're leaving in a couple weeks.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'm leaving in a couple of weeks and, I am true, conf, taking highways for the first few days because my real destination is to be in. I'm going to be in Wyoming, Colorado and Montana for about three and a half weeks, and so I just need to kind of I am taking a week to get to Wyoming, but I still have to take the highways to do it. In a lot of cases it's just too too far yeah, yeah, it would take forever.

Speaker 2:

So once I get there, though, then the no highway rule goes into effect, and I'll be wandering around a lot of places in and out of yellowstone and the tetons and, um, a lot of other places in the area, um yeah, and down into colorado. So so, yeah, I be doing a lot, a lot of wandering for a few weeks, so can't wait, so you have a book out.

Speaker 1:

You talk a lot about this, the road trip, solo road tripping and you, I think you help women, so tell us a little bit about what you do and where we could find your book and where we could find you or being like that.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So the book is here. It is. There's wonder around the bend, love it? Firing guide for solo road tripping. And so it is.

Speaker 2:

Um, to be honest, when I first sat down to turn my blog into a book, um, I was doing so because women were constantly asking me about my blog and just about solo road tripping. You know just how do you do that? Could I do that? I think I'm afraid to do that. Could I go with you? You know we all get those questions and so I thought, well, I'm going to.

Speaker 2:

I was a teacher forever. That's what I did and I thought I'm going to just turn this into a book where I can teach people to do this for themselves. And then, when I sat down to really write it, I realized that I wasn't comfortable with just writing a how-to book, because we can Google a lot of these things. Google a lot of these things how to be safe on a road trip, how to pack for your dog. I mean, I certainly feel like I can offer a lot more expertise in areas than maybe you can get from the Google machine, but what I realized was so necessary was to address the mindset about it around it first, and the ideas of why, why take a road trip and what that really, how transformative that experience can be. And that's really what the first half of the book ended up being about was much more of a deep dive into into why and into the concept of wonder and seeking freedom, and wonder on a road trip, and not just. I didn't want to write a checklist book, you know. I just felt like that was a disservice to my own experience and how I talk to people and all of that.

Speaker 2:

So I wrote the book and then, while I was going through all the editing process and everything else, I ended up starting a YouTube channel and the socials and all of that, partly as a way to prepare to promote the book, but then also as another way to the YouTube channel has really been awesome as a way to really show people a lot of what I do. And so, as I'm preparing to take this road trip, it's also a book tour. So it's a little bit of both. Oh, okay, I didn't know that. Lovely, yeah. So I'm doing some events and things out West and concentrating now on the small towns, cause I'm a small, I'm a small town girl who loves the small towns out there and I wrote a lot about some of those small towns in my book. So, yeah, doing some, doing some events out that way, and so it's just turned into this really sort of beautiful meshing of you know.

Speaker 2:

I've taken what I love and turned it into the really it's now becoming a business, which is which is really fun, and I love that. The best thing is just hearing getting emails from people about how this has just touched them in exactly the right place and it's funny. I hear from 20-something girls which is crazy because I didn't think that I was writing it for them and I hear from a lot of men now who are just, and I'm like, really, so I think I just misjudged a little bit and I've done some more marketing research with those groups of people and found that they, they, even though they know that I've written this for a from a female perspective, as if I'm writing to females that they're older females, that they're like no, this totally applies to me. So it's making me rethink some of it a little bit.

Speaker 1:

So that's awesome, though, that your your reach is much further than you anticipated it is?

Speaker 2:

I not, and I don't know how it happened. So I don't know if that's very professional thing to say, but I'm not really sure how that happened, but it's kind of a fun. It's a fun thing to hear from people. And then, you know, I got this sweet note from this woman who she's like I've read your book three times and it's changed my life and I'm like that's all I needed to know, Like one person to that extent, like I'm good, I'm good, so yeah, I just feel like that's really it has.

Speaker 2:

It has definitely felt like a calling. Like this is where I what I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing now, and it was born out of a sort of a cruddy time of life, but then it's been redeemed into something really beautiful and I'm very grateful for that. So I even love that part of your story. Yeah Well, thanks Me too, I like beauty from ashes right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it definitely is. It definitely is, and so I'm very grateful for that and and you know, I get up every day and I love what I do and I can't wait to dive right back into it.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, so I'm getting ready to head off on my book tour slash epic summer road trip. So we get to you know, inspire and encourage and direct other people to you know, turn their. Maybe their not so great. I think you used the word cruddy. Yeah, cruddy Cruddy is a situation into something beautiful through some solo road tripping.

Speaker 2:

I love that, yeah because I think what happens, whether you're looking or not, is that you do find I use the word reclaim a lot or reclamation that it's sort of that's what happens when you do this on your own.

Speaker 2:

You're sort of it's reclaiming wonder, because wonder is something that we almost all had as a child, that something that we understood as a child.

Speaker 2:

And then you know, life happens and all the practicalities of life take over and you sort of lose touch with that part of yourself and that's that's the best way I can explain what it felt like to take that first solo road trip was that I was reclaiming wonder in my life, and so that is really, that is my goal every time I set out on my own to travel, and that's really what I'm helping other people to discover for themselves and to just take, you know, to be able to sort of a renewal and a reclamation project in their own lives.

Speaker 2:

So, and it's different for everybody, and the beautiful thing is that we're all you know, every one of us has a different story, but then this will work for anybody. You just have to, because you can create it all in a way that it is exactly what you need for yourself, and my road trip is not going to be like your road trip or anybody else's. I can give you the tools to help you make it better and easier, and all of that, but the experience is going to be yours and yours alone. So that's what I love about it.

Speaker 1:

Ah, I love it. It's true, it's so true. Well, thank you for sharing all that and welcome Good luck on your road trip. I'm so excited for you. Thank you, I'm so excited. Yeah, I'll make sure I include. I imagine we can get that on Amazon. I'll make sure we include that link right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, yep, I can give you the links for the book and then ways people can contact you right, and I also have something I'd like to offer to your reader too, if you don't mind. So one of the things that I did with the book when I found, when I was writing, is that there was so much that just wasn't going to fit you know a lot of this super practical stuff that just wasn't going to fit.

Speaker 2:

So, things like I wanted to include recipes of things, I wanted to include a lot of lists of apps that I use, or packing lists, camping, hiking, just so many things, and then all the gear that I use. So I ended up creating a part of my website that is available for free to anybody who purchases the book, and then they have lifetime access to all of the resources that I have created that wouldn't fit in the book, and the nice thing is that I can update it over time and change things as I discover new things that I love. Like even this year, I have a few new things that I've found and I've made a ton of mistakes, so I'm trying to save people from making some of those mistakes as well. So, but what I'd like to do for your listeners is give them an opportunity to have access to the resources first, and then it's sort of a way of testing out if they, if they would like to have the book, and so I'll include. I'll give you the link and you can include that.

Speaker 2:

It's just wonderbingtravelcom slash. I should say I should know what it is. Travel, that's resources, I think Okay, we're going to have to wonderbingtravelcom slash book dash resources and then it gives them lifetime access to all of those resources forever and if they love it then they can grab the book as well. It is on. It is on. You can also order it through Barnes the book as well. It is on Amazon. You can also order it through Barnes, noble and places. It's e-book, hardback and paperback.

Speaker 1:

So yes, and I'm Wonder.

Speaker 2:

Bing Travel on everything. So Bing Travel. Yep, so my name is Beth Binger, which has always been a really fun name, and so my business is Wonder Bing as one word, and then travel. So Wonder Bing travel. That's YouTube, instagram, all the things Perfect.

Speaker 1:

Yes, awesome, I've really enjoyed this and it's kind of gotten me a little. I need to start planning another road trip. It's been a while for me. My job is done. Yeah, exactly, I'm excited about maybe doing the Canadian Rockies like you did. Yes, so, good Need to start planning a road trip. Thank you again for your time and offering also those free resources to my listeners, and I've enjoyed it Me too.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much Welcome.

Speaker 1:

Well, I hope you enjoyed my conversation I had with Beth and are excited about maybe planning your first road trip or, if it's not your first, maybe planning another one. But please grab her book. There's also an e-version of it and it's called there's Wonder Around the Bend an e-version of it, and it's called there's wonder around the bend an inspiring guide to solo road tripping. And make sure you check out the link in the notes because she is offering a free resources and it's lifetime access. It's bonus resources from the book and, if you want to buy the book as well, it's going to have a lot more information in it and I hope it has inspired you to get out there and have an adventure.

Speaker 1:

Hey, sister travelers, did this podcast inspire and encourage you or move you to get out there and travel? Wonderful, there are three ways you can thank me. First, one is leave a written review for the show on Apple Podcast. Two, share the show with your sister travelers, your friends, your family. And three, subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode and thank you again for listening to the show. Sisters, be fearless, take the leap and get out there and have an adventure.

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Cheryl Esch

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