Asking for a Friend - Health, Fitness & Personal Growth Tips for Women in Midlife

Ep.128 Rekindling a Sense of Wonder: Beth Binger on Solo Travel, Uncovering Joy, and Self-Discovery

• Michele Henning Folan • Episode 128

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Craving adventure and self-discovery, but not sure where to start? We have an inspiring episode featuring Beth Binger, who reinvented her life through solo travel after 26 years of marriage. Beth's transformative journey offers a roadmap for women, especially those in midlife, looking to rediscover themselves and break free from traditional roles. Always accompanied her sweet pup, Lexi, she shares practical travel insights and the courage it takes to embark on solo adventures, encouraging women to prioritize their health and passions.

From unearthing childhood travel dreams to navigating the open roads of America, this episode is a testament to the power of exploration. Discover how her pivotal solo trip to the Florida Keys rekindled a sense of wonder and sparked a creative outlet through writing. We also explore essential safety strategies, sharing personal experiences and highlighting the importance of trusting your instincts, especially while traveling with a loyal pet by your side.

The beauty of small-town America, the significance of having a stable home, and the small pleasures of travel preparation offer a unique perspective on self-discovery. Join us as we pave the way for brave steps toward personal growth and new experiences.

Beth's book, Wonder Around the Bend: An Inspiring Guide for Solo Road Tripping, is available on Amazon and through other booksellers.

Go to https://www.wonderbingtravel.com/book-resources to get your FREE Roadmap to Going Solo, where Beth shares great info and resources to get you started. Beth continuously updates this! You can get a downloadable travel journal, too.

Beth also has a YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/@WonderBingTravel
https://www.instagram.com/wonderbingtravel/




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Are you ready to reclaim your midlife body and health? I went through my own personal journey through menopause, the struggle with midsection weight gain, and feeling rundown. Faster Way, a transformative six-week group program, set me on the path to sustainable change. I'd love to work with you! Let me help you reach your health and fitness goals.
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Michele Folan:

I had a conversation with a client today who was struggling to keep up with everything. Her duties as a mom, a daughter, wife, were all spreading her so thin that she was feeling very defeated when it came to focusing on her health and nutrition. And as much as her family wants her to be healthy, feeling good about herself and happy sometimes, making that commitment to ourselves is the hardest part. What if it doesn't have to be perfect? When you're learning something new, do you expect to be an expert out of the gate? Of course not. If you're wanting to begin your own fitness journey, the most important step is to just get started. I will give you a custom nutrition plan, daily 30-minute workouts for any fitness level, delicious, easy meal plans and plenty of hand-holding and accountability. Reach out to me via email at mfollinfasterway at gmailcom, or on social media or on social media Health, wellness, fitness and everything in between. We're removing the taboo from what really matters in midlife. I'm your host, Michelle Follin, and this is Asking for a Friend.

Michele Folan:

I've said many times that it's never too late to do the thing or be what you wish to be, and I'm often in awe of my guests who take midlife by the horns and create the path that's been calling them.

Michele Folan:

Women are starting businesses, they're writing books, making huge changes to their health all very brave choices, and I admire them so much for that. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to venture out on your own, to travel places solo and visit not only new sites, but explore and discover the person you've become? The idea of traveling alone can feel, I don't know, a bit intimidating or even scary, but what if you had someone provide you the tips, tools and inspiration to make your adventures less daunting and more enjoyable? Beth Binger is on a mission to equip and inspire women to confidently step into a new season of life by planning and embarking on solo road trips. Through her YouTube channel, blog and now her new book, Beth shares and teaches women the practicalities of solo travel but, more importantly, how to leave the confusion and uncertainty in the rear view as they set off on a journey filled with freedom and wonder. Beth Banger, welcome to Asking for a Friend.

Beth Binger:

Thank you, that was such a lovely introduction.

Michele Folan:

Oh well, I get so inspired by my guests, just some of the things that women are doing later in life. And maybe we didn't have time before. We had, you know, family, we had other responsibilities, whatever the case might be. But to finally take all that experience, all that knowledge, and roll it into something that fulfills a passion that we have, so congrats to you. Thank you so much.

Beth Binger:

And I feel that does describe the journey in some ways. It's just all the things that women are involved in in their younger years and love, and it's great and it's wonderful in many ways. And then all of a sudden, ah right, and so what's next?

Michele Folan:

yeah, you're doing the thing and I think that's I mean. Honestly, when I first read your bio and read what you're doing, I'm like man, that's ballsy and you probably don't think that way. But anyway, let's back up a little bit because I want the audience to know more about you and where you live and kids and all that good stuff. Sure.

Beth Binger:

So yes, I'm Beth Binger. My friends, mostly people my whole life have called me Bing, so that's just been like my fun nickname my whole life. So I ended up using that, which was really my maiden name. So I used that when I wrote, just more fun. I live in central Pennsylvania, I'm from north central Pennsylvania and then I spent most of my adult life in Northern Virginia, so got married in the nineties, had two kids and was married for 26 years until I wasn't and that really wasn't something that I ever how I ever saw myself. So more on that in a moment. But I have two children. I have a daughter who just turned 28 and a son who just turned 26 and she is married and he is not yet. And they are, um, yeah, they're both relatively close by one, super close, and love having my family nearby.

Beth Binger:

After I was on my own, I came back to Pennsylvania and bought an 1865 era home here just between Gettysburg and Harrisburg. Um, it was right after COVID and it was just. I didn't even think I was going to buy a house and this popped up and I looked at it and I was like I think this is the place I'm supposed to be. I pulled in the driveway and immediately knew and I just love it here so much. So my certainly I have a massive passion for solo travel and travel in general, but my other passion is being I love being at home as well. So yeah, both sides.

Michele Folan:

You spent how many years in education prior to what you're doing now?

Beth Binger:

So I have taught public school, private school. I homeschooled my kids for six and eight years, different ones, different times. I've been a school administrator. My primary teaching love is anything related to writing and literature and theater. So that is really. Those are my educational passions. I guess I was the admissions director for our little private Christian school for a dozen years and then finally, once I moved here and everybody stopped being virtual, then I said I'm done. So now I'm. Now I am really doing. I'm traveling and writing about travel and teaching other women how to do what I do and just absolutely loving. And I see also how all the things in my past have been used to kind of create this space that I'm in now. And it's all been like this perfect storm of relying on so many things that I've already known and wondered at the time like why was I doing this dumb job or why did I have to learn this? But now I feel like I'm putting so much of that to good use now, so, which is pretty cool.

Michele Folan:

Oh, yeah, I like that. So you have always liked travel, so that was always a passion, yeah.

Beth Binger:

Although I grew up in a home where, you know I grew up in the 70s and didn't really, you know, we didn't have a lot of money, we didn't. People just didn't travel like they do now. Right, so at least most especially people where I grew up. I grew up in a really small little town and you know our. We had a family piece of land, a farm, about an hour and a half from our house, so that's where we spent most of our time. But then my parents took us. I have a younger sister. At the time, my younger it was just the two of us, my younger sister and I. I think I was 12, she was 10. And they took us to the Tetons one summer from Pennsylvania, which was massive, huge, wondrous adventure. And that really was the moment where I fell in love with the mountains and with travel and with the concept of wonder and just that. There's so much out there that I want to explore and see and experience.

Michele Folan:

So a couple things. First of all, there's so much to see here in the United States that we have absolutely no clue about. So that would be my first comment. Absolutely Second comment or question was there anything about the pandemic that kind of pushed you on to do this?

Beth Binger:

Oh gosh, this is probably not the glorious answer that you'd like, but I think the answer is no, primarily because I was still involved in the school system then our private school and we were so inundated with families who wanted to move their children out of public school that and I was the admissions director. So I spent most of COVID navigating people through, you know, through our school than anything else. In fact I had put my writing and all of my hopes kind of at the side at that point because there just wasn't time to do it. But perhaps maybe the thing that COVID did do was just I was dying to get back out there afterwards, you know, or later on, wait to really get back on the road and really explore. So that was probably, you know, one thing that related to it.

Michele Folan:

And the reason I asked that was I've been doing the podcast for almost two and a half years and I have been kind of surprised at how many women have started these projects or ventures or new careers based on some kind of experience that they had during COVID. So I was just curious. No, not really.

Beth Binger:

It was really the things that really catapulted me towards this new venture happened before then. It was really 2018, when I was separated from my then husband and really not sure what to do next, and so that was really it. And then I started writing in 2019, really getting serious about it, and then I had to put it all on the back burner during COVID.

Michele Folan:

Actually, oh, yeah, yeah. Lots of things got put on the back burner, didn't they Right? Where did you take your first solo trip? So it was 2018.

Beth Binger:

I didn't have. It wasn't something I gave a ton of thought to. I just have this sort of wanderlust inside of me anyway, and you know, we'd done so much. We'd done a lot of traveling as a family and as a couple and through business my husband's business but I'd never really done very much on my own. And so I, for some reason in my head, I was like I need to do this, I need to figure out the rest of my life, and I'm going to do that from sitting in a car. I'm not going to do that sitting on a couch, and I didn't have, you know, the money at that point was like so convoluted, didn't know what was going to happen with all of that. So I knew I had to do it on the super cheap, and so I contacted friends who lived in the Florida Keys and I was living in Virginia then and my destination was that to to visit them in the Keys. So, which you know, hop on 95 and you're there and you know, 22 hours or something, or 20 hours.

Beth Binger:

But my thing was that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to explore, I wanted to see things I hadn't seen before. I wanted to turn my brain and really look out instead of in. I just really wanted to breathe and have space and do something that I knew inherently brought me peace and joy, and so my rule to myself was that I would not go drive on any highways to get there, and so it took me a week to get there, and I've done so much solo traveling now, but that trip, I mean I remember every single day of it and many things I did throughout each of those days. It was such an incredibly pivotal time in my life and just transformational couple of weeks for sure. Yeah, so that's what we did yeah.

Michele Folan:

So then after that, how did I mean I'm really curious now, when you decided that, all right, this is what I want to do. Yeah, like as my thing, Right?

Beth Binger:

Yeah, well, there are a few things. One of the most important pieces to all of this is something that I just sort of did by instinct. I've always loved to write. I've always kept a journal. I've always, you know, I've always kept a journal. I've always, you know, I just love to write.

Beth Binger:

And so when I was getting ready to take this trip, friends and family thought I was bananas for one thing doing this and they were concerned. Some of them were concerned, chiefly my parents and so I decided that I would start a blog. I had no idea what I was doing, but I started, decided to start a blog. I had no idea what I was doing, but I started, decided to start a blog when I was traveling, because it gave people an opportunity to kind of see what I was doing and know where I was, without me having to talk to all these people all the time. I really wanted to just kind of shut things off. You know, I just wanted to go, and so I started writing at that point and blogging kind of on a daily basis or every couple of days about my travels. And so I started writing at that point and blogging kind of on a daily basis or every couple of days about my travels, and so I was doing it really just for friends and family. But it started to grow, and then it grew over the course of a couple of years into something that I really felt like there were two things happening.

Beth Binger:

One, I had fallen head over heels with the idea of solo travel. That first trip had done that for me, because I learned so much and I know I'm kind of talking about two things here but I also fell in love with and loved that people were so invested, not so much in what I was doing For me I didn't care about that but it was this yearning and longing and desire to do what I was doing that I was getting from all these women who were just like, how do you do that? Or I would love to do that, but I'm too afraid, or you know. So I was starting to getting all that feedback and I was like, wow, this is amazing, like anybody can do this.

Beth Binger:

I and the teacher in me was like I can teach people how to do this. So there was that whole part of it. And then there was just what I was truly getting personally out of solo travel, which was this transformational kind of wonder filled experience that I truly believe is unlike any other kind of travel when you go by yourself. So I don't know if that really answers your question, because I kind of went two directions go by yourself. So I don't know if that really answers your question because I kind of went two directions there, but both are super important to the process.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, and I understand where your family would be concerned about your safety and what is she doing? Right?

Beth Binger:

because she didn't know. I didn't know where I was going, like I knew where I was going to end up, but I didn't really have a lot of plans between A and B. You know, I was just going to figure it out as I went, which was like. You know, people were like what are you doing? Like why?

Michele Folan:

not yeah, which doesn't seem like your personality. You're probably. That probably wasn't something people would have expected of you.

Beth Binger:

No, I'm a planner for sure. So yeah, that's so funny. Yep, for sure.

Michele Folan:

So I read your bio and what you were doing was the safety aspect of this. Right, we have to talk about that at some point. So I'm going to ask you now yeah, I know you've probably learned some things about travel and safety for women. Have you ever had any issues where you were ever worried?

Beth Binger:

I can honestly tell you that I haven't. I've traveled probably almost 60,000 miles now just road tripping across America and I haven't ever had an issue where I felt. Now I've definitely had situations where I just thought I'm not going to do this or I'll pull up somewhere where I think I'm going to stay and change my mind. So I definitely rely on my gut a lot. But so I definitely rely on my gut a lot, and I just returned from a five week long trip where there were many times where I made a different choice, not because there was some scary thing that was defined in front of me. It's always just a feeling. This doesn't feel like a good situation.

Beth Binger:

Now, the one thing that did happen on this trip is that my dog got attacked, and that was really scary. She did not get hurt ultimately, which is a miracle, but she was attacked when we were camping and so I made a decision to leave that campground. Oh, your poor dog. I know it was actually quite scary, but she's fine. So the good answer is no. I mean, I'm glad I don't have some horror story to tell you. I am happy to share a little bit about, maybe, how I help, maybe not put myself in situations where things might get scary.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, I think it's good to share that. Only because I think that is the one thing that holds women back from solo travel is just they. They worry about their safety. And let me just say I used to travel all the time. Okay, good for you. And I got very savvy about my hotel stays and I don't know I it was a, it was a podcast a long time ago we, a group of us, were staying in a hotel. The first thing I did was and this is the first time I let somebody put me on the first floor, would never let someone put me on the first floor of a hotel First thing I did was I walked in, went and checked my window. The window was unlocked and there were pallets piled up on the outside to where someone could have climbed in my window. This is why I ask these questions.

Beth Binger:

No, absolutely. And so those are the kind of things where you know. So, just so that your listeners know, when I travel solo, I do camp quite a bit, but I do also stay in hotels or motels occasionally or Airbnbs and those types of things. So I feel like I have experience in all of the different places and so, yes, being on the first floor is typically a no-no. Also, it's good to travel If you're in a hotel, have a doorstop, carry a doorstop with you and put the doorstop underneath the door from the inside and then somebody can't open it, or if they had a key even, or anything like that.

Beth Binger:

So there's, you know, there's a couple little things like that. There are some small things that I do. You know, if you're camping, you're out there, right? Yeah, it's a whole different thing. There's no keys, there's no doors, so, but I actually find camping to be one of the most comforting, like just the, the um, the community of people who tend to camp in places where I camp. I find that them very supportive and of each other and, um, I feel very comfortable when I'm camping, unless there's bears. That's the one thing that kind of wakes me out a little bit, or the bears, and out West there's a lot of bears.

Beth Binger:

I also have a dog, so traveling with her and road tripping with her. Even though she is not a scary dog, she's a big dog, so she's a golden retriever, she's the. You know, the golden retriever joke is that you should. They will let the person into your house and show you where the silverware is, while they put your face Pretty much. But I have seen her, she. There was one situation a few years ago where she felt that I was threatened even though I wasn't at all, and that was the only time in her six years that I've ever seen her be mean or bare her teeth or growl, and it was immediate when she sensed danger. So I was like you go girl, like thank you for that.

Michele Folan:

Good girl.

Beth Binger:

Right.

Beth Binger:

And she did that and it was simply because we were at a gas station in Montana and that somebody I was starting to pull away and I think maybe I hadn't closed the back of my SUV, and this guy came running towards me across the parking lot yelling hey, hey, hey, and she went bananas and I was like wow, and he was just trying to be nice, like but your door, you know, shut your door. Uh, so that does make me feel better and she definitely has a sixth, sixth sense about things. So I do trust her instincts. Um, but again, I haven't had situations like that.

Beth Binger:

I pay a lot of attention to what's going on around me and I don't put myself in situations that I feel weird about in any way. It might be a person. I mean. There were several times on this past trip where I thought I, you know, I was like I'm heading to this campground tonight, I'm going to drive these few hours today and I'm going to end up here and I'd get there and I just see like one guy and I'd be like nope, nope, this is I don't feel good about this or it just didn't feel right and then I would leave. But I think a lot of that is experience now, but it's it's just keeping your eyes open and going. I don't think there's anything wrong with just going with your gut, right, right. And then a couple other things that I do that are sort of I guess, setting myself up.

Beth Binger:

For success is that my kids always know where I am, so we all have each other's access to each other's location so they can look at any time and see where I am. And I usually text them. If I don't talk to them during the day, I will text them and just say you know, this is where I'm staying tonight. Or if there's times out West where I'm kind of going, where there's no service, I'll let them know like, hey, this is where I'm going to be, but I'm not going to have any service. I carry bear spray. I do have a birdie whistle, which is a little whistle you wear around your neck and if there's any kind of danger you just pull it down and it makes this horrible noise. And I also carry those on a lanyard around my neck.

Beth Binger:

So, yeah, that's really. Those are. I mean, it's basic things, but those are the things that I do. The one other sort of I guess piece of advice that I always give, especially younger travelers, is don't ever post something in real time, never say like here I am in Glacier National Park today, when you're not be gone, before you post that. So yeah, I just vlogged my entire trip for my YouTube channel, but I was always doing it a couple of days after the fact.

Michele Folan:

So Right Now, that's super smart, and this five week trip was this to promote your book.

Beth Binger:

Partly, yes. So usually I do take a big Western road trip in the summertime. I love getting out of the humidity and getting out of just the really I mean the heat. I don't mind the heat, but just that humidity, and when you're camping and it's damp in the morning, it's just. That's not for me. So I decided to.

Beth Binger:

My book came out at the end of May and so, as I was planning my road trip, we decided to also create a book tour out of it. So I did a lot of events at small indie bookstores in small towns where they have a lot of travelers coming through, and it was so much fun. Yeah, so I was able to do book signings and just sort of meet and greets and one place where I did a round table discussion and it was just really, really fun and to meet people all across America who are interested in if either they're already interested in solo travel and they're already doing it, or they just are looking. I'm finding that my book seems to appeal very much to women who are just looking, for they're trying to figure out what's next, and so this is a. This can be a stepping stone for women to help create space to figure out. Whatever. The next thing is because we don't spend a lot of time by ourselves thinking or just dwelling or any of those things.

Michele Folan:

No, we don't. So the book's name is there's Wonder Around the Bend. What did that process look like? Writing a book for you?

Beth Binger:

Well, it really started with a blog because after a couple of years of blogging, I remember I was driving home from I think it was Colorado and I broke my no highway rule. I do that when I'm coming home and I'm leaving the West because I'm just done and I'm like, okay, done, time to go home. How fast can I get there? And so that's where I start to disseminate all the information. Think about everything that's happened. And at that point the blog was doing pretty well and I was like, how can I help these people? And so it.

Beth Binger:

Eventually I was talking to a friend on the way home and she was just like you should write a book. And I was like, well, that sounds crazy, but I knew that I could. I knew that, as someone who's always been a writer in some capacity, like I thought I could do this. And so that was 2000, I don't know, five years ago, I think. So I wrote, I created an outline and originally the book was going to be a how-to book. This is how you solo road trip. And then, when I finally was able, after my retirement, to sit down and really process through it all, I realized that was helpful but boring and not really what these people needed. What people really wanted was a lot of the why behind it.

Beth Binger:

And because a road trip, for me, is seeking wonder. That is the key word to all of it. For me, it is about the unknown. It's about finding out what's around the bend. I love that feeling every single day of driving down a road that I've not been on before. I can't wait to see what's there, and that was something that I discovered.

Beth Binger:

That very first trip was that I thought I was going to be doing all this processing about my life and divorce and I can't believe I'm going. You know everything's changing. And then what happened is that I spent so much more time looking out of the windshield and just in awe of creation and all that was out there for us to explore and see and touch and feel and smell and taste and all of that, whether it's people or places or food or all of these things and I was just so smitten with the whole kit and caboodle of it. I just was so taken by all of it and I realized that I was healing my heart as I went without doing anything other than looking out, and I realized that that was such a gift and that was a gift that I could give to other people, but I needed to then encourage them, help set them up for success in that.

Beth Binger:

So the first half of my book isn't about practicalities. It's more about dreaming and wondering and identifying what wonder looks like in our individual, unique lives and then figuring out what would that look like on a road trip and then going out and seeking it and exploring. And then the back half of the book is all like and this is how you're safe and this is how you plan your food and this is what you pack and how you take your dog and all the other things.

Michele Folan:

Okay, so first of all, I see where the the first part of your book, the theme of it, could really transcend things beyond travel For sure, right, yep. So I think that's kind of kind of an interesting take on your book. Were there other unexpected joys that you've had doing this Like, were you surprised? What surprised you most?

Beth Binger:

About solo road tripping. I think it was the biggest takeaway for me, or one of the biggest takeaways initially and I find this every time is just a reimagining of myself, if that makes sense, I think, as women, especially women who have raised children, maybe taking care of elderly parents, had careers, been married, all of these things. I don't want it to sound negative, because a lot of those things are beautiful and wonderful, but we get divided into lots of little small parts, and for me, especially in this situation I was in. My life had become very much about protecting others and trying to keep the peace and navigating day-to-day life and unexpected things every day, and I definitely lost myself along the way. There just wasn't space for it in my life, and so when I was on my own, I think that was the greatest joy. That was completely unexpected. I didn't go on a me-hunting trip, but that's what I found along the way was a rediscovery of that childlike sense of wonder or the things that bring me joy.

Beth Binger:

I love small towns, love, love, love small towns.

Beth Binger:

I grew up in one and I just I love the mentality and the community and all of the things that go with that, and so I think, inherently.

Beth Binger:

I was purposely driving through as many of them as I could find on my way to the keys and seeking those out, and I just I love.

Beth Binger:

The sense of community is really important to me, so I think I was searching for that again. I wasn't looking for a new place to live at that point. I wasn't like on the hunt for anything like that. It was just a sort of a reclamation of joy in that this is real America that I'm experiencing here and I find that every summer I just spent five weeks thinking that out in all these different states, these are the real people doing the real jobs, having the real lives, with their living in community with one another and relatives and all of these things, and that was just such a sense of deep rootedness that I find really valuable in my life. I love the idea of digging deep roots and having a place that is home and that is permanent, and I think I'd lost so much of that and I think that was a lot of the joy that I found and continue to find and what I seek for, what I'm looking for when I'm traveling now.

Michele Folan:

You know you had made a comment to me, I think, before we started recording that as much as you love travel, you love being at home too.

Beth Binger:

I do. Yeah, and it is. I think that a piece of that was coming back to Pennsylvania. No offense to any of your listeners who might live in Northern Virginia, but it's just not a very real place. In many ways, it's a very transient area and people aren't generationally staying there. For the most part, everything is new. Everything is intense and hurried and cutthroat, and that's just not who I am. So being able to come back to Pennsylvania and live in a small town with people who care about each other and have known each other for families who have grown up together is super valuable to me, and I think that's partly what drew me to this beautiful old house that I live in is that I wanted something really strong and stable just right under my feet, and I think it's all part of my story.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, Well, it's so funny because obviously listeners can't see where you're sitting right now but I see a very old farmhouse with wood beams and a fireplace you could walk into.

Beth Binger:

Yes, exactly, Exactly. Yeah, this is actually. Yeah. My office is in what was the original kitchen of the house, which was originally a separate room from the house. It's now connected, but it has no heat. It has no air conditioning. It has a propane fireplace now, but, yeah, so it was separate so that you wouldn't burn the house down when you were cooking.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, so I just I love that I love historical homes. It's so interesting how people lived being in the health business. I know that you have a routine of things that you like to pack on the road for food. Yeah, I would love to know what those things are, because people ask me that all the time.

Beth Binger:

Yeah, Well, I don't have anything that's like oh, life-changing probably, but I definitely give. I'm a food person. I think a lot about food. I think a lot about and I have thought a lot about when I'm traveling for many weeks. You know, how do you pack food, how do you sustain the, how do you keep things fresh, where do you restock? And in my book I write about all of those things.

Beth Binger:

A few things that I guess I can say snack wise that are my go-tos are I've always got to have some sort of meat snack, whether it's beef sticks or, where I come from, that's a lot of venison, so my family has freezers full of, like you know, venison sticks and things or jerky, so that's something that I feel like protein wise, that's really helpful for me every day. I really am definitely more about fresh and local and all that kind of stuff. I typically travel more in the summer and go west, so I'm taking a lot of fruit with me. I love cherries and peaches and good apples and almond butter and those kinds of things, so nothing really shocking there. I do a lot of prep ahead of time, so I'll buy a lot of veggies and chop them up so that they're ready to just like pull out of the. I have a cooler that sits next to me I call it my upfront cooler. That's full of things that I can easily grab on the road hummus, and then I typically make well, and I guess I should confess I always have some sort of chocolate as well. I can't take a road trip without chocolate. Yay for chocolate, yay for chocolate.

Beth Binger:

I don't pack a lot of that for me stuff, the things that are my like, the things that I would tend to eat the whole bag of if I had the opportunity. Especially when you're sitting in a car for a lot of hours, it's really easy to suddenly be like, oh my gosh, where did the entire bag of M&Ms go? So I um, I love the little portion bags that. I guess it's Ziploc that makes them. They're just you probably know what they are, they're just snack bags, little snack bags, and so I buy those and I pre, so I'll get the bag of whatever or whatever the snack is. I divide it up and I pre, pack it into the little portion bags and put all that in my cooler. So it keeps me from overdoing it and it also is easy to just reach in and grab and then, when you're done, you're not worried about oh, I have to stop again and put it back in the cooler. It's just gone at that point.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, right, it's good. Yeah, that's good. And if you're going through all these small towns, there's roadside. Oh, easy for me to say roadside stands, and every small town has a little ice cream shop.

Beth Binger:

Yes, ice cream is the danger. I have to say, oh, I have to try this one, this one looks good. Ice cream is definitely my downfall and you know, because most of these places now will offer your dog a pup cup too, so of course that's her passion, or other passion. So, yeah, yeah, so that's always a thing, but yeah, that's, that's really how I roll. I do a lot of like because I camp quite a bit, and well, even when I'm at Airbnbs, I don't want to spend money on food very much when I'm traveling.

Beth Binger:

It's not one of my biggest expenditures. I spend the money mostly before I leave and then I do have to restock if I'm gone for a long time. But I, you know, I do some grain based salads, a variety of those, lots of that with lots of veggies. I have a couple of different salsas, like a mango pineapple salsa and a homemade salsa that's really easy to make that. I travel with those and I'm one of those people. I can eat the same If I love it. I can eat the same thing for three or four days and it doesn't bother me in the least. Yeah, that's great. I grill a bunch of chicken before I go, like chicken strips and stuff and I just put those on the salad or whatever. So it's just you know, I'm trying to be good. I feel bad if I'm going to be driving a lot and I'm eating poorly, like I just don't feel good.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, so I think that's great advice. You know, I think sometimes when we are traveling, we use that as an excuse to kind of fall off the wagon a little bit with our good eating habits. And I think that you want to feel good every day, you want to have that great energy to see all the things that you want to see. So I think that's great advice.

Beth Binger:

Yeah, no, it's so true. And that doesn't mean that I mean I do pack some of the bad stuff, don't get me wrong. Like I want to have a little bit of kettle corn or whatever it is. I also carry my. You know, when I pack for these long trips it's like a lot of thought goes into how it all fits together in my car and I definitely take kitchen staples like olive oil, good balsamic, good salt and pepper, pre-made homemade salad dressings. Like those all go with me as well. So that's key to my and my friends. If I'm visiting friends out West who live there my one friend who has a cabin she'll always be like we're up in the mountains where you can't easily get to the grocery store, and very often she's like, oh, I forgot such a session. I'm usually can say I have it in my car. You know, odd as that may sound, I actually have that in my car.

Michele Folan:

That's so funny. Yeah, all right, beth, where are you off?

Beth Binger:

to next. Well, I just got home a few days ago, so I have to say the travel bug is so strong right now that I feel like if you told me let's go next week, I'd find a way and I'd be ready to go. I I have nothing really concrete planned, but I'm hoping in the winter at some point, to drive south. I have four more states to visit, and three of them are Louisiana, mississippi and Arkansas, and so I'd like to do a southern trip in the winter where I could really explore those. So I think that will happen, and then I'm doing. I am. Italy is my other travel passion, so I am headed back to Italy next fall. So yeah, that's kind of what's, and I'm sure I'll go out west next summer again too. I can't stay away.

Michele Folan:

I love it too much. Do you have something on your bucket list that you haven't checked off yet?

Beth Binger:

I do. There's a few things On the state side. It is definitely Alaska. That will be my last state. I really want to drive there. I don't want to do. I mean it would be fun to do a cruise or something like that but I really want to explore and there are a couple of highways that you can take and roads that you can do. That that's a whole next level. So that's going to take an enormous amount, a whole next level. So that's going to take an enormous amount of research and planning. So that will happen, but not for not next year probably. And then across the pond, I really want to go to New Zealand and Australia and I'd also really want to spend time in Austria and Switzerland. So it's all about the mountains for me. So that is, my passion is the mountains.

Michele Folan:

I think all those places sound fantastic. Yeah, on a personal note, would you mind sharing one of your core pillars of self-care Sure?

Beth Binger:

Would you like to know something more of this at home, day-to to day, or just more when I travel?

Michele Folan:

I would say day to day.

Beth Binger:

I'm kind of curious, and I guess it's kind of the same anyway. It just looks a little different when I'm traveling. For me, morning is really important. If I don't set myself up right for the day, right out of the gate, it has the potential to go downhill in a hurry. So for me, there's two things that are important parts of my morning, and one of them is a long walk. I have to I'm an outside person, if you haven't figured that out already like I need to be outside. So a long walk, plus my dog, Lexi, needs that too. And then I oh, I fail sometimes, but my other go-to is to definitely spend time doing a devotional in the morning before I start working or going or whatever else I'm going to be doing?

Michele Folan:

Yeah, I love that.

Beth Binger:

Yeah, I love that. Those are important to me. Those set me up for peace and just in the right mindset for the day, for sure.

Michele Folan:

Yeah, all right. Where can the listeners find you and your book and also your YouTube channel?

Beth Binger:

Right. So my book is there's Wonder Around the Bend. The full title includes an inspiring guide for solo road tripping, and it is on Amazon under my name, Beth Binger, and you can also find it at Barnes and Noble, and other places can order it for you if it's not in the stores. That is local to you. My website is Wonder Bing Travel. That is my name for pretty much all of my socials and YouTube and everything that is my business. The name of my business is Wonder Bing Travel, so that's where you can find me on Instagram and Facebook and also that's the name of my YouTube channel.

Beth Binger:

So I do put out a weekly video every week something related to solo road tripping. I just did a vlog of every day of my road trip. So that has been fun and sharing and really I really wanted people to experience firsthand and the idea was like I'm going to take everything in this book and this is how it looks when you're on the road. This is me playing it out day by day for you and encouraging people like you can do this. You do it to suit you, but this is how it works.

Michele Folan:

So that's that, and then you also had I think you mentioned that you may even have a little freebie for the listeners.

Beth Binger:

I do, and so bear with me I might take a sec to explain. But in my book there's Wonder Around the Bend. I found when I wrote it there were so many resources that I couldn't fit in the book. Lots of lists and like whether it's a packing list or lists of all of the gear that I use. I want to be able to people to be able to say, hey, this is a great tent, or this is a great cooler, this is a great so-and-so for your dog and whatever.

Beth Binger:

So I ended up in the book including a link that people who buy the book can go and have access to this whole private part of my website where I provide so many, so much information for people, so many resources. Because here's the thing like over the years I've made so many mistakes in figuring all of this out for my own and I was just thinking the other day that after six years I feel like I kind of got it. I think I've got nailed down most of the important areas. Now I was throwing out gear that didn't work for me or giving it away and it was just making bad decisions about time and budget and all this kind of thing. So in any case, it's been a process and I could not find great resources for a lot of these things, so I created them and put them all in one place for people.

Michele Folan:

So wonderful.

Beth Binger:

Most people. But here's what I'd like to do for podcast listeners is sort of reverse the process and give you access to the resources without buying the book. So I can give you a link that people can go and sign up and it's a lifetime of access, and the resources change over time because sometimes I might have new safety tips or new navigation resources that I want to share. So I'm sure people are going to want to buy the book anyway, but as of today, they'll be able to get forever access to all the resources that way. And it also includes a journal. Um, I think journaling when you're travel is really valuable, so I've included what I call the wonder journal, which gives people a downloadable resource, um resource to go with as well. So, yeah, there's a lot in it and they can find it at wonderbingtravelcom slash book, dash resources and sign up there and they'll get all the goodies.

Michele Folan:

All right, I'll put that in the show notes for everyone. Okay, great, Beth Binger. Thank you so much for being here today. This was fun.

Beth Binger:

Oh yeah, it was so fun. Okay, great, you don't have to go for a day, go overnight, whatever. Start small, there's that. There's so much joy and wonder in that as well.

Michele Folan:

I agree. Thank you for having me. Oh, nice to meet you. Yeah, you too. Thanks. I am so grateful for the ratings and reviews from our listeners. Did you know that your reviews help other people find asking for a friend? If you like what you hear, won't you please leave a review on Spotify or Apple? Thank you from the bottom of my heart.