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

Rediscovering Local Adventures: How Creating a Local Bucket List Can Inspire Living

Cheryl Esch-Solo Travel Advocate/Travel Coach/Freedom Traveler Season 2 Episode 99

Have you ever wondered how to escape the monotony of your routine without venturing too far from home? Join me as I share my journey of creating a local bucket list that's both accessible and thrilling. From the excitement of attending a rodeo at the Fort Worth Stockyards to the elegance of the Dallas Shakespeare Festival, I'll guide you through my personal experience of rediscovering local gems. These adventures prove that you don’t need to travel far to experience something new and enriching. Together, we can embark on local adventures and explore new creative avenues. Let's get out there and make every day an adventure!

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Speaker 1:

Hello sister travelers. Well, are you a bucket list kind of traveler where you create lists of places you dream of going someday? I have many bucket lists. I have not just a travel bucket list but other adventures or things I'd like to accomplish, type of bucket list, to accomplish type of bucket list. And some people are against them because of maybe the negative connotation of the movie called the Bucket List with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, and the premise behind that movie is not pleasant in that one of the characters has an illness and is not going to live long, so they create this bucket list of things and places they want to go and do before that time has come.

Speaker 1:

And many of us can look at bucket lists that way, but I like to look at them as inspiration, places to pin my dreams, so to speak. And I think why I'm thinking about this is I recently looked back on a travel bucket list that I had created, or an adventure bucket list, because there was a few items on there that didn't necessarily require travel that I had created probably about five or six years ago. And as I was reviewing it I realized that one of those on that list just some notes I put in my phone a long time ago. I'm actually it's gonna come true this fall. I am so excited I will have more on it, but I get to check off or an item on my bucket list, because I will be walking one of the Caminos in September and that was on my list. So I will have more on that particular trip later.

Speaker 1:

But what I want to discuss today is that what if we looked at a bucket list for more of some local things to do, things that encourage us to just live, live with adventure, live with exploring, trying new things, getting outside of the box and getting outside of your comfort zone, so to speak? And so what I did and I want to encourage you to do today after you listen and if you're driving, just wait till you pull over but I sat down and created a bucket list of some local things I've always wanted to do but just never had time to do. And I, you know, and I sit around sometimes on a Friday and Saturday night because I am a single person and sometimes I don't have anything to do, and maybe it's because I'm just not thinking ahead or, you know, I think with this list, it's going to help me, prevent me from just sitting at home doing Netflix, binging on some show or scrolling social media and wasting my time instead of getting out there and living. Living with just some different things fun activities, maybe, things that you simple things. Half of my list are free items, so it doesn't even have to cost you any money, you don't have to travel far. For these items and I'm sure you could think of I think I have 12 here on my list. I would encourage you to come up with at least 10, maybe 12, because then maybe you can aim to do one of these a month, and then some of them are things that I would do by myself. For sure I would do solo, but there's a few items on this list that when I thought about doing that activity or going to that place, I really wanted to share that with somebody, and so I'm going to give you some examples.

Speaker 1:

So I created my list I'll call it my local bucket list and whether you live in a city like I do I live in Dallas or if you live in a small town, I am sure I can guarantee there are events that go on, things that happen, places that you have not seen yet, that maybe now is the time to get out there and explore. Maybe you don't have a epic trip planned this year, and that's okay, but I want to encourage you to get out there and live with a sense of adventure and wonder. And so here is some examples from my list. These are things that many of them I've been wanting to do since I've moved to Texas, which is going on about 13, 14 years. 14 years I've lived in Dallas area, and these are some of these things I've wanted to do since we moved here. Some are newer do since we moved here. Some are newer. But, for example, I've always wanted to go to the Fort Worth Stockyards for a rodeo. Believe it or not, I've never been to a rodeo and I live in Texas folks, so I put that on my list.

Speaker 1:

Another one that is happening it's kind of time sensitive because I think I'm running out of time, but they tend to do it, I think over the summers there is free salsa dance classes offered at a local park, um, in downtown Dallas. So, um, I definitely want to get to one of those because I have it on my list. I want to get back and do some dancing, of course, but also just ballroom dancing is so much fun. I want to kind of learn some more, and that is a free event. Another one that I've been wanting to do since I've moved here to Dallas is every summer, dallas has a Shakespeare festival. Basically, they'll do about three Shakespeare plays per summer into early fall, and I have signed up because, again, this is time sensitive, the summer is almost over. Uh, to go on September 11th to see Julius Caesar. Over to go on September 11 to see Julius Caesar. So I'm excited about that. I've also always wanted to do a segue tour around downtown Dallas. Again, maybe your city offers the same thing or go on a walking tour, even if you are a local. You will find new information. You will learn so much. Another thing I want to do is walk around White Rock Lake. I hear it's beautiful. I mean, many people I know they bike, they jog, they go out there. It's not that far from me.

Speaker 1:

Again, another free item that I could just do some weekend when I have nothing else to do there's a local Armani coffee shop that I would love to go to. It's very unique and I would love to take my son there. So that's something I feel like I'd love to take somebody to see and experience this coffee shop. Okay, pretty inexpensive, and then also locally. This is a new place. Um, new places are always popping up, so I write these places down and again I've added it to my list. It is actually a Parisian sort of style restaurant. Uh, does a lot more, uh, brunch type of items. I would love to go there and I think I want to take a girlfriend there. Too bad, my best friend that I went to Paris with doesn't live local, or we would be there in a heartbeat, but that's a place I've put on my local bucket list.

Speaker 1:

There's also a Thai food open market. It's kind of like a farmer's market, but all they serve is, you know, thai food. There's places you can buy like Thai spices, so I want to check that out. That's also locally. I want to go to an estate sale or estate sales, maybe spend a Saturday just perusing estate sales and see what finds I could snatch up in some of those estate sales. I hear there's some good things out there and you can get them pretty dirt cheap.

Speaker 1:

I'd like to hike and bird watch. We have a local arboretum called Trinity River and I would love to go out there and do some little. They have some small trails but great bird watching opportunities there as well. Number 10, take the train from Trinity River to Fort Worth for the day, so that's an opportunity that they offer here locally. There are some local speakeasies actually here in Dallas. There's two that I'm aware of, and I would love to get to one of those. One of them is a little more of a bookstore slash speakeasy, so that one sounds pretty interesting to me as a book lover, so I want to check that out. And then, finally, number 12, I want to kayak the Trinity River here in Dallas.

Speaker 1:

So these are just some activities local bucket list ideas that I came up with, and I'm sure if I spent some more time I could come up with some more, and I know you can too, and that's what I'm encouraging you to do. I want you to sit down today, now that you have finished listening to this episode, and I want you to write down things that you want to do. Maybe it's you want to go see a concert somewhere local, or you want to go to some arts festival locally that you keep missing every year, right, and so make it a priority, make that list, keep it handy and a bonus if you have someone coming to visit you in your area family, friends, someone who's never been to your town or your city. Look at your list, look at all that stuff that you could actually have them participate in with you and that would be so fun right to have someone to take with you. So I encourage you, like I said, some of these maybe about half of them I could ideally do by myself and some I would love to take somebody with me. I truly hope you will do this because, as the movie kind of indicated the bucket list movie we don't know how much time we have and I want you to live to your fullest. This is our time, ladies. This is, you know, we are rediscovering ourselves, possibly, or having more freedom in our lives right now. So now is the opportunity to do these things and not let life slip us by, not have a boring life, so to speak, or, you know, finding those little local adventures that you could participate in and experience, and who knows, who knows who you will meet in the process. Well, I hope you enjoyed today's episode and I want to also put out there I've been doing this podcast for almost two years now and I have someone very special to thank for that and that is Stephanie Gass.

Speaker 1:

She has. She helps many people start podcasts and begin their business of podcasting and coaching and all that stuff related to that, and she was a wonderful resource. I went through one of her courses and she's having a bootcamp where you could experience, kind of what she does and find out if any of her courses are right for you. If you're considering starting a podcast, it doesn't have to be about travel, but it could be about anything. And if you're considering starting a podcast, it doesn't have to be about travel, but it could be about anything. And if you are, you know, wanting to branch out, you're an entrepreneur even maybe there's.

Speaker 1:

Podcasting is still one of the fastest growing industries right now. It continues to grow and what I love about the program that I did with Stephanie Gass is that it kept me accountable, it kept me going, it encouraged me. There was some wonderful women that were part of that group that I still am in touch with and I strongly would you know, if that's something you're considering to go ahead, and I'll put in my show notes to um the link for her bootcamp that's coming up. So it's a five day free workshop called profitable podcast bootcamp and it starts September 9th Through the 13th and I'll I'll include the link below so that you can get yourself Signed up and experience the enthusiasm Of Stephanie Gass and just the inspiration. If doing podcasting Is something you are interested in, check it out. Until next time, sisters, get out there and have a local adventure.

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