Gettin’ There with Mike and Amy

Intro 0:11
Hey, this is getting there with Mike and Amy and we are a travel podcast for the health minded nomads and entrepreneurs.

Mike Bruce 0:20
So, Amy, you came to me about starting this podcast and I was really grateful because I’ve been wanting to but we the big thing we have in common is traveling right? So your type of travel is is kind of you just pick up and move and go work somewhere for a long time and it’s really awesome.

Amy Nubson 0:40
Yes, I do.

Mike Bruce 0:41
Yeah. And mine I just love traveling and I love to incorporate health and wellness in my travel because that’s that’s like my, my passion is outside of travel is just being healthy and you know, coming from an unhealthy guy to being a healthy guy makes a big difference. So I like to find fun ways to incorporate that So, today, what are we talking about today, Amy?

Amy Nubson 1:04
Well, today we’re going to be talking about traveling and working and staying healthy while you do so, because like you said, I do like to pick up a move and go for long periods of time to travel, but I also have to do work. I’m self employed, but that business still needs to get done. And eating in a different environment isn’t always the healthiest thing to do. So, you know, like, so many of us go on a work trip or vacation and end up eating, and overeating just because we can, you know, we want to try new things, we want to enjoy our new surroundings. But how do we do it in a healthier way?

Mike Bruce 1:42
Yeah, yeah. And I think that’s if anybody is even considering that that’s top of the mind, you know, and I would I would argue that a lot of people are considering that. So what are are some of your tips to doing that and, and I guess we should frame this around your situation, what are some of your tips when you actually are going somewhere for, I mean, you go for two, three months at a time, huh.

Amy Nubson 2:07
I do so the last three years I’ve gone south to Alabama to get out of the middle of Minneapolis, Minnesota cold, and we travel there and we get a condo and we pack up our car. So we move basically south for three months. The trick about the South is the food… it is really yummy. But it is so high in calories and I end up gaining about 10 to 15 pounds every winter.

Mike Bruce 2:41
You’re supposed to lose weight, when you go into sunny places. The fact that you’re gaining only 10 to 15 pounds when you go to the south and you’re not a southern person, think of that as a win. I mean, it’s obviously not the same win as staying neutral or losing, but that’s a win. So because Yeah, when we’ve talked about this before, even with your type of travel, it’s in your head that like, Oh, well we’re on a trip you know, we’ll have these snack foods for this or we’ll, we have to, we want to go out to this place and that place you want to hit all the places as if you’re there for a week. Is that situation still goes on?

Amy Nubson 3:20
Oh, gosh, yeah. And then we now going back to the same area, we go to Orange Beach, there is our favorites now on top of it, and then now we have to explore new places, because you know…

Mike Bruce 3:32
You don’t want to make your favorite bartender mad but you also want to go…

Amy Nubson 3:36
right, this can potentially be kind of dangerous. Or sometimes you just want to get out of the condo because you’re like in this little tiny box. You’ve been working in it all day and you’re like we gotta leave and do something.

Mike Bruce 3:48
Now speaking of let’s see if you’re okay with this, can we back up to the condo, because I think that’s a big part of of any travel, like we do Airbnb is when we just go somewhere for a week or two, but when you’re staying someone for a long period have time you have to really consider, um, you have to really consider…

Amy Nubson 4:06
a lot of things.

Mike Bruce 4:07
Yeah, yeah. From from comfort like sitting on the couch watching TV, to being able to have a usable kitchen with usable things in it. So talk a bit a little bit about what you look for in that situation.

Amy Nubson 4:17
So when we travel for a month or more at a time, my husband has a bad back. So comfort is a big issue and I look for a lot of things. A few things that automatically get a place eliminated is if the furniture looks like it comes from IKEA. Super uncomfortable, right?

Mike Bruce 4:39
Yeah, look out great the print is. Aw, it’s gonna be so comfortable on that zebra print.

Amy Nubson 4:44
Exactly for about an hour. So that’s one thing I eliminated almost immediately. number two thing for us is glass tables. We have to work and a lot of times I work spaces are tables and glass is not easy to you use a mouse or a round table? So we look for a square wood table.

Mike Bruce 5:04
Interesting. And why square over round?

Amy Nubson 5:07
Well, round, it makes it kind of uncomfortable and then put your arm in an odd position, and I do a lot of mouse work. So it’s not a long term great experience. So we look for square usually, and our social life revolves around playing board games. So we’d like to have a table it’s big enough to play a board game on as well. You know, and that’s two main things I look for, and of course the bedroom. You gotta have a decent bed and I look for reviews that say the bed was comfortable. And then the kitchen has to be well stocked because we do bring our own stuff with us that we love and we’re we’re going to bring with us no matter what. But yeah, we need to have stuff in my kitchen because I’ve been to somewhere like there’s not a spatula but there’s a pan

Mike Bruce 5:53
Yeah, yeah, same thing. We just recently traveled and all of the Airbnb is we went to you could tell they were totally stopped. IKEA, but there would be a single pan and they were big beer countries, they didn’t even have like a glass that was big enough to fit a beer. And it was really odd. You know, it’s uh, but But aside from that they were cool places just they didn’t expect you to eat in the in the house.

Amy Nubson 6:16
Right and I think a lot of people don’t expect you to eat most of your meals but when you’re booking for a month or 2, 80 percent of your meals are, are cooked in. So you have to be able to cook and the other thing I look for is storage. Because I’ve been to a few where there is nowhere to put your food. Yeah, you go to the grocery store and your like, I guess it stays on the counter.

Mike Bruce 6:39
Thats ..good point.

Amy Nubson 6:40
So… very define things to look for and then after that just kind of look at location. I love a view so if I can get a view that’s great.

Mike Bruce 6:51
Yeah,

Amy Nubson 6:52
um, you know, if it’s six, seven floors, doesn’t have an elevator, just because we’re hauling up so much equipment. You know, one time I took a shopping cart, I think we took five shopping cart loads up.

Mike Bruce 7:07
Oh, man.

Amy Nubson 7:09
That’s not something I really want to lug up five set of stairs.

Mike Bruce 7:13
Yeah.

Amy Nubson 7:13
Um, so just different things like that. We always like to have an extra bedroom, just in case somebody doesn’t want to stay with us or come visit.

Mike Bruce 7:23
Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind for next time. You should have invited me before by the way. I do remember that. I think it was Hey, Mike, come cook for me for a week.

Amy Nubson 7:35
Super healthier that way. But when we learned by going to places like the south, there is where, I would say good majority of the food is fried, or it’s like yummy cream sauces, we have to look at the restaurant menu before we go because there’s been times where we’ve actually had to leave the restaurant because there’s no option on there that wasn’t fried.

Mike Bruce 8:01
Yeah.

Amy Nubson 8:02
Um, and so I’ve done it that first year traveling to the south. After two months of being there on my way home, my feet swelled up so bad that I was in pain.

Mike Bruce 8:15
The old cankles, they get you.

Amy Nubson 8:18
Awful, a three day trip home with cankles was not, you know, advisable.

Mike Bruce 8:25
Kim got cankles so bad one time just side note, you gotta love a good side story. She got cankles so bad and Ireland one time. Our first morning there, we were walking across the street and there’s these little middle dividers that you stand in while you’re waiting to get across again in Dublin. And she’s bending over looking at her cankles going “oh my goodness, why are my ankle so fat?”, and I yanked her head out of the road, she almost got hit by a double decker bus looking at her cankles So yeah, if you don’t think cankles, kill they do.

Amy Nubson 8:57
They have the potential to be deadly.

Mike Bruce 9:02
That’d be a good tombstone. But yeah, so the cankles like the the inflammation you get, and then travel does that to begin with, sitting in a plane in one single spot traveling for hours on end, wille do that anyways. And when you have all of that inflammation from food, Wow, it’s such a double edged sword.

Amy Nubson 9:22
Yeah,

Mike Bruce 9:22
Yeah. And it just causes so much damage on so many levels. That takes like a week or two to recover from when you get home. So.

Amy Nubson 9:29
Gosh, yeah. And even like I’ve noticed it, you know, I’m traveling now. I read I watched my sodium like a hawk like it is what my number one thing I watch. Just because I don’t want the swollen ankles when I travel home or even a flight. It’s just not comfortable.

Mike Bruce 9:47
Yeah, and oddly enough it? Yeah, oddly enough for me, I’m the opposite of that. I need to make sure I have enough salt intake or else I will have more issues, all sorts of issues. But yeah, it’s it’s interesting. We’re all So different. Yeah, we’re a little snowflakes. It’s the second part I wanted to touch on that you mentioned is your car. So you generally are in a car going from from one place to another which means so like I do this whole big travel thing where I talk about air travel and packing as light as possible. However, when there’s a car involved, I literally scratch everything off and I just say pack it all like, I’m pretty sure I scream, “JUST PACK IT ALL” and put everything you have in that car that’s going to make your life better just in case it’s not there when you get there.

Amy Nubson 10:36
Yeah, exactly. Um Yeah, we traveled by car mostly. Most people think we’re a little insane. We’ve gone down to Alabama, takes three days for us because we don’t take, we could get there in two, but we don’t do it that extreme. But we just went to the east coast visited Mike. Had a lot. The car was still packed, even though you’re only going to be there for a week and a half. We were like nope the car is going to be packed just in case we need it. It’s too easy to overpack a car. But when you have it for two to three months, you have to be very careful because that car gets full fast, and you gotta make sure it fits because I’ve had it where I could barely see out the back window. And I still got to drive through snow to get down there so your gonna have to be able to see. So those are some of the things we do in a car. But I do pack a lot of food with me. That’s number one what I do, or I always bring my VitaMix gotta go with us.

Mike Bruce 11:35
Yes. If you don’t have a blender in your car, I mean my gosh, I just about put a blender in my one bag that I pack for the plane.

Amy Nubson 11:43
It’s so nice to have it when you need it.

Mike Bruce 11:46
Yeah.

Amy Nubson 11:48
Because usually you get those $10 blenders. If you’re lucky in a condo, you’re like oh, what is

Mike Bruce 11:52
It starts shooting out the top? I’ll make bulletproof coffee when I travel sometimes which is just butter and coconut oil and coffee and you have to blend it. But I have had entire kitchens covered with coffee and butter. Kim wakes up when we’re in Spain and Kim wakes up and walks out, it has beautiful view overlooking the ocean and I’m covered in coffee, and she woke up because of a Yelp. Of course, I scream, hot coffee hitting everywhere.

Amy Nubson 12:19
That must have been a sight.

Mike Bruce 12:21
It was fun. It was fun.

Amy Nubson 12:23
I bet you didn’t do that the next morning.

Mike Bruce 12:25
Nope, nope. I grabbed a towel and held I held it all over the top of the, I ruined one of their towels for sure. But I mean, I had a death grip on this towel holding it over the blender the whole time the rest of the trip we were there. So it was worth it.

Amy Nubson 12:39
Yeah. And that’s the thing too, like when we went out to New Jersey we were there for business. So we were meeting with a group of people and we didn’t choose our restaurants. We just did like everybody’s meeting here. And you’re like, Okay, great. I’m going to an Italian place. Now, what do you do? You know? Yes, like it’s kind of tricky when you go on those Food adventures with places that you didn’t get to choose and then find the best option on their menu. Usually there’s a vegetarian or something that I’ll go to or try to find it but sometimes tricky.

Mike Bruce 13:15
Yeah, yeah, no, I get it. And for me, I always tell people like there’s always meat on a menu. And if you’re vegetarian or vegan, I’m sorry, I can’t help very well. But there’s always meat on a menu. There’s always fish there’s always chicken or eggs or something. So even even for vegetarians, you know, you can stock up a plate with vegetables, and I’m from Pittsburgh, so we put dippy eggs on things not Sunnyside eggs. Not over easy. We put dippy eggs on them. And so like dippy eggs just make flavor and that good orange yolk can make anything taste good. You have butter again if you’re vegetarian, you can do butter and and like sea salt and pepper and all the all the different spices so you can still end up with really healthy food without doing a whole lot of of maneuvering with the waiters and chefs to make something really crazy for you. So

Amy Nubson 14:07
The best thing I watch is when I got to me go to Pittsburgh and and join Mike for some outings. You guys always pack stuff with you. Mind telling what you bring?

Mike Bruce 14:19
So we call that purse products TM. It’s not yet not yet trademarked but we keep throwing the TM out there. So we any given time throughout the week, we will cook a whole bunch of chicken thighs, hard boiled eggs. Heck, I will put a steak on extra or some lamb or ground meat, whatever. And we’ll cut it up, chop it up, put it in baggies and it goes in my wife’s purse or in my book bag. I actually carry a book bag a lot, with that we always carry some kind of sea salt or Redmond’s Real Salt, Celtic salt, one of those, and then we also almost always have kerrygold butter with us. So when you have those three things, the Salt, the butter and any amount of meat, you can make a meal anywhere you go just order a salad like a plain salad you order veggies or you just sit down on the restaurant next to all your friends and eat your food and ask for a plate. We go to random events here like nonprofits and things and we will look at the buffet, the menu, whatever, and generally we just get a blank plate and put our food on it. And yes, I did say blank plate, empty plate, and we just put our food on it and, and, like It never ceases to amaze me that every single time we do that, people are eyeballing our food and they’re like, oh, where’d you get that? Oh, that looks so good. And what is that? Well, it’s lamb it’s cold lamb. Are you okay with cold lamb?

Amy Nubson 15:50
My purse food.

Mike Bruce 15:51
Yes, purse products TM man, so. We’ve also been known to take, we don’t drink pop or sodas, but we drink Zevia. So pop is another Pittsburgh and an Eastern thing. So, yeah, we don’t drink sodas, but we drink Zevia which is a stevia flavored or stevia sweetened soda. And we’ve, we’ve actually called ahead for events at like penguins games and concerts that we get to go to. And we’ll call ahead and say, Hey, we have some food food intolerances, can we bring food and almost always they let us in. And we just have to go through a certain gate and they just say, Yeah, come on in and you’re on the list, which makes you feel even cooler when they’re saying you’re on the list.

Amy Nubson 16:37
I was gonna say that’s a really good tip to call ahead and see if you have food specifications or like things that you need to bring with you to get permission.

Mike Bruce 16:46
Yeah. And we’ll even do this for parties, for events, weddings. I was at a wedding recently. I actually called ahead that week and asked if there was any food options I could eat because I was going to be there from 9am till midnight, and I couldn’t pack that much food for myself, I was in the party, so I couldn’t really carry a book bag around. So not only did they totally take care of me, they were incredibly grateful that I called ahead. I mean, they were like, they were telling people how happy they were with me, just because I called ahead and asked about it, because normally people just go, and they’re, they’re rude about it, they just want somebody to take care of them, even though they never knew they had an issue. So, so always be courteous and kind and you know, give as much time ahead as you can. That’s the best way to go with those things.

Amy Nubson 17:33
That’d be great even in a business conference or a business environment to where you are going to that restaurant, to let the people that are coordinating know that you do have either food allergies or restrictions. Yeah, and what your food needs are, that make it so much easier because I maybe wouldn’t go to an Italian restaurant if you are gluten free.

Mike Bruce 17:53
Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s a good point too. They would find a better option potentially, or, or we’ve had people even call ahead for us and make sure, like when we’re in those situations where it’s work events and things, they’ll actually call ahead for us. But again, almost every menu has something. It’s kind of hard at like Chinese and Thai restaurants and things where they usually have everything made ahead of time in sauces, but even still, most places will have a grilled chicken on the menu and a steamed vegetable. That sounds a little bland but honest to goodness, have butter and salt in your purse and it makes everything better…. I like food!

Amy Nubson 18:40
Yes, you do. I ate pretty well when I was with you.

Mike Bruce 18:43
Good!

Amy Nubson 18:46
So one of the other things that you guys had with you was, was it activated charcoal or what was it after you ate?

Mike Bruce 18:52
Oh. Yeah, so we will take activated charcoal with us which you can get on Amazon. You can get it most any CVS, Rite Aid, Walmart, whatever. And all that is is they they take charcoal from, they usually burn down like coconut shells or something and they take the charcoal from that and it has the ability to bind to toxins and all sorts of things. So if you have, just, for me for instance, if I have my food cooked in weird oils, I kind of get brain fog and I have some inflammation that happens that I noticed really bad. And what that does is just helps bind to it and even, even just, like this is the fun stuff, even when you go to restaurants and you find that you’re gassy afterwards, so it’s a food thing. So you take activated charcoal and that will actually help reduce that. Other things we take are some enzymes and probiotics that, we spend big money to make sure we have just the right ones and that really work well for us, and it’s a matter of maybe spending a couple dollars here and there trying different ones to see what works for you. But man, when you get the right ones you just feel better. After you know, if you have a couple glasses of wine or some cocktails and You know, sugary stuff with alcohol tends to make me kind of foggy headed as well. So

Amy Nubson 20:05
I think it makes most people foggy.

Mike Bruce 20:07
Yeah right? But you remember we had that dairy free ice cream. And I don’t know what happened.

Amy Nubson 20:13
Yeah, it was good.

Mike Bruce 20:13
It was amazing. But my eyes were almost crossing. I was so fuzzy from that. And you were like three foot from me. I couldn’t look you in the eyes. I had to look past you. I don’t know why. But I threw some charcoal back and 10 minutes later, I was fine. So that is a common occurrence.

Amy Nubson 20:31
Yeah, it’s amazing, some of these options that are coming out. I mean, I grew up in you know, Dairyland, you know, basically, and having a dairy free ice cream. That wasn’t common back when I was a kid. So experiencing that now, and I honestly thought it tasted better. And I didn’t get the reactions because I’m lactose intolerant as well. Yeah, that was fabulous.

Mike Bruce 20:53
Yeah, like what a treat.

Amy Nubson 20:56
And those are the things too is like I’ve found or my travels not to be embarrassed by my food restrictions or what I need to have to feel my body while I travel or when I’m with a group of people. Before I’d be like, oh, everybody’s getting a drink. I’ll get a drink. I’m allergic to alcohol. Not a smart thing to do, because then I get all red and start sweating. It’s great. Everybody knows something’s going on with Amy.

Mike Bruce 21:21
I can vouch for it too.

Amy Nubson 21:26
So now I’ve gotten more comfortable, like, Nope, I’m good you guys can have a drink. I don’t need one. Yeah. Because I don’t want to be the weirdo in the corner. Just sweating and just like wanting to leave the room.

Mike Bruce 21:37
You don’t like that? What the heck! Yeah. And so I used to think I used to be so nervous whenever I would ask for switches on the menu, if, you know, if things were possible to change this for that. And I realized no one cares. And usually, once my food comes, the people at the table that were like kind of weirded out by me asking questions. They’re jealous. So in reality, you are the one that worries more than anybody else when you’re asking, when you’re double checking for these things. So there’s no no need to be self conscious about it. It does take a little time to work into it, but all you can do is try it once or twice, and then you get used to asking the questions. So. And be fully aware that, you know, if you go to a restaurant, they don’t have to make changes for you. And that’s okay. So I always let them know like, if you can’t, that’s fine. You know, we can go somewhere else. It’s not a big deal. I’m not offended by anything. So.

Amy Nubson 22:38
Like you said earlier, most restaurants, even if they won’t do alterations, they’ll put a plain piece of chicken and like some broccoli on a plate. Oh, yeah. They’ll charge you.

Mike Bruce 22:48
Heck yeah. I always tell em, charge me whatever you have to. I just need to eat right now. I want food and I’m here, so charge me.

Amy Nubson 22:56
Exactly. And they’re usually more than willing to accommodate that. And it’s good that I’ve gotten more confident, like you in our group environments to do that, not think everybody think I was just being picky. Because when you go back to your hotel room or your Airbnb, you got to get up the next morning, do more business or see these people and if you’re not feeling well, that’s a lot harder to do.

Mike Bruce 23:25
Yep. Well, here’s the other way of looking at it is, you’re paying for a service and a product. Who cares if you’re being picky? Like I want exactly what I want, you know, like I’m paying for this. So I could go to Whole Foods and buy like a $20 steak and go home and cook it and and have a far better meal with steak and wine, you know, make it like 20 or $30 versus $100 at a restaurant, and it all tasted exactly how I wanted because I didn’t have to worry about somebody else messing it up. So I’m, so when I go out I’m really, you know, I have high standards, but I don’t expect everybody to ace it either, because I am being a weirdo and asking all the questions, so

Amy Nubson 24:10
Yeah, exactly. Um, and I know my sister just did this to like she went on a work trip and because work was paying for it, she bought like the most expensive thing on the menu because she could, right, like, I didn’t even like it. And I had all this extra food. And I should have just got something simple. And everytime she does it.

Mike Bruce 24:33
It’s hard when works paying for it. So So do you have, do you ever have times when works paying for your food as well?

Amy Nubson 24:40
Not often because I’m self employed. But there are a few work trips like, coming up, I’m going to be going to LA and they’ll be craft food. So I have to investigate what the craft food will be because it’ll be in a soundstage. And so that’ll be a little different because it’s catered to you, but luckily, I’m kind of the lead in the project so I hopefully have some saying what that craft food will be.

Mike Bruce 25:06
Sure, that’d be great, huh? Just pile beef jerky on the table I’m fine. Give me all the meat!

Amy Nubson 25:14
That’ll be your dream

Mike Bruce 25:15
Put a whole plate of chicken thighs and beef jerky, put some some sushi Nori on there and some Primal Kitchen Mayo cuz like, why not? That’s all you need in life, some hard boiled eggs. I’ll just sit there and eat. I won’t do anything else.

Amy Nubson 25:31
If you haven’t guessed already Mike just loves his meat.

Mike Bruce 25:34
I love food, meat, meat, especially just really, it’s just the workhorse of our bodies. It’s just makes everything so

Amy Nubson 25:45
so I’m really hoping that we can have control over that craft food but it’ll be my first time having to pay for it and while just being in LA in general for work, but that’ll be a new experience to enjoy. Yeah, but yeah, who knows? It’ll be very fun to experience that.

Mike Bruce 26:05
Yeah, we definitely will have to do an update on that one because I would love to have just 20 minutes on how to get a craft table set up the way you want it. Right. Like who to talk to and how to do that and how many actors you rub shoulders with.

Amy Nubson 26:23
Not too many. Yeah. I get to hire hand models.

Mike Bruce 26:27
Oh Nice, I mean, I’m just saying aside from a couple of scars mine are looking okay.

Amy Nubson 26:34
You want a free trip to LA, got it.

Mike Bruce 26:36
Darn right. I do. I’ll pack it in one bag. No payin for overhead. Nothing. Nothing.

Amy Nubson 26:43
Our love for traveling.

Mike Bruce 26:45
Yeah, it’s the best. So is there anything else you want to cover today?

Amy Nubson 26:49
Um, I do not believe so. I mean, just business in general and making sure like we’re My background is, I love business and I love going everywhere and doing business and you don’t always have to like, like we’re talking about traveling and going, like when I go to Alabama, I don’t always do business in Alabama, but I get to do my business there.

Mike Bruce 27:12
Yeah.

Amy Nubson 27:13
So having that freedom to be able to travel all over and try new places. That’s where I get in trouble with food. So this was a great reminder of how to control some of those excitements, you know of, Whoo, like when I went south, I was like, what’s a PO-boy?

Mike Bruce 27:32
Yeah, you gotta know boys. My goodness. Yeah.

Amy Nubson 27:35
Right. So I’m like, I have to try it. Oh my gosh, no.

Mike Bruce 27:39
Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Nubson 27:43
And I saw a hogie bun, like, not great. Guess if you grew up with it. Hey, fabulous. But if your us from the Midwest.

Mike Bruce 27:54
Like perogies in Pittsburgh, if you come to Pittsburgh, I will give you a perogie. I don’t care. Because it is so necessary to eat a perogie once in your life, especially the way the way they do it in Pittsburgh. You will not see me eat a perogie, only because I know what my body, the way my body reacts to it. I’ve eaten thousands and thousands of perogies in my life. But, but I just can’t do it now. Yeah, I just can’t do it now. It’s unfortunate. So, but uh, but yeah, in the south, even in the south, we were in new New Orleans recently and we were able to travel through New Orleans and find amazing places to eat. Like charcuterie, if you find a good butcher that has charcuterie of any kind, for the most part, you can get Salamis and different types of cuts and cheeses that are great and and one place in particular, I can’t remember the name but you literally, it’s an old wine store. You order your meats in the front, along with your wine, you got back, grab a bucket of ice, put your wine in it and then they bring your cheese and meat platter out for you and it’s so good, jazz band in the corner. It’s like somebody’s backyard. And then they had, you know, an actual kitchen to, to order from that was also terrific, but anywhere you go you can find really good food.

Amy Nubson 29:09
You are lucky I didn’t do so good in New Orleans.

Mike Bruce 29:11
Aw man. We had a good Time.

Amy Nubson 29:13
I was so hungry I just kind of wandered throughout the district and like finally I am like just go in anywhere right now, I’m so hungry.

Mike Bruce 29:22
My wife Kim is really good at planning ahead so she’ll put like 20 different pin drops on our Google Map. And we’ll have like an idea of any of the places we really want to hit. And we’ll try to schedule those. We check ahead to see if they need reservations, things like that. And if they do need reservations and we know that we want to go there will try to set them, and if they don’t have reservations then we try to find out when they open and get there immediately when they open. That way we’re, because we like to go into empty restaurants. And we like to be there while it fills up. It’s such a, it’s, it’s like this cute little date night thing we love doing we just sit there forever and go through like two bottles of wine. You know, a nice meal. And then by the time we we stop looking at each other and we realize like, holy cow, there’s people all around us. And it’s always just this fun, it’s like a fun little surprise that gets to happen a few times a year and so that’s like our favorite thing when we’re out in a in another city.

Amy Nubson 30:17
That is neat. I never thought about doing that.

Mike Bruce 30:21
That was real dorky of me. Yeah, I was just like, that was like a realization I had as I was saying it so yeah, I like the early bird dinners.

Amy Nubson 30:31
Well, the South has specials for you then.

Mike Bruce 30:33
Aw thats terrific.

Amy Nubson 30:36
Atleast when the snowbirds are there.

Mike Bruce 30:39
Yeah. So how about we wrap this up with what are your top three favorite things to bring in your car when you travel since you can take everything from your house and your car and you, I’ll give you, I’ll give you one out. You already said blender. So you don’t have to pick blender, so you can actually get four.

Amy Nubson 30:59
Okay. If it weren’t for the kitchen, I obviously have my entire mobile office. But for in the kitchen, I always have a cookie sheet, a small cookie sheet. Okay, that’s one of them because that’s lacking in most. A spatula. Like I said earlier, and I have a Pampered Chef clay round pot with a lid. Always bring that. I have to bubble wrap that thing so it doesn’t break, but it’s totally worth bringing.

Mike Bruce 31:27
For sure I can imagine some of the stuff you can make in there. That’s terrific.

Amy Nubson 31:30
Oh yeah, you can make everything in there and it’s so easy. So those are kind of my favorite utensils or things to bring and are usually the first things packed because they take up a little more space.

Mike Bruce 31:44
So my friend recently, we had a big, there’s probably about 15 of us that are all health coaches from the same health coaching certification and we ended up in the Poconos for a weekend, and my friend brought an air fryer. He drove up from Richmond and brought an airfryer and he, like I could smell, he was next door to me I could smell the bacon when I’d walk by his house at like noon or by his room at noon, and I was so jealous

Amy Nubson 32:13
I’m surprised you didn’t just float over there immediately.

Mike Bruce 32:15
I was so jealous. So i’ve not actually, Kim and I have not done… that’s my wife, Kim. We have not done a lot of travel recently in cars. But, so for that trip, what I did, I took, I have a little coffee maker that’s like a camp stove percolator coffee maker. So you saw the little one I have a little stainless one, right? Yeah. So it’s made to shoot one little espresso shot into a cup that sits you know the percolator bottom, a hose that goes up, and the cup sits on the platform. So, Kim, for my birthday, that weekend was my birthday we went out there, She surprised me with one of those that is four times the size So it makes a coffee cup full of espressos. So, I took that with me and I was the happiest man ever. We will always grind our own coffee and take with us because we’re very, we have a lot of weird issues and we are very susceptible to molds and coffee so we’ll get brain fog from coffee and Kim will actually get tired from coffee if they aren’t like the top of the line pure in terms of mold toxins and, or just organic for the most part, but not all organic coffees are even good for us. So, so we take our own coffee, our own coffee maker, and then generally, since I gave you four I’m going to take four, we will have some sort of really good jerky. I like, there’s a brand that makes biltong. It’s called Ayoba-yo, and biltong is a South American, no, South African jerky, that’s super lean meat, really thinly sliced. And so when I was looking at them, I found another version they have called droewors. So Ayoba-yo, it’s actually a US company, they make these droewors that are natural casings, they’re like the size of your pointer finger. And they’re so good. And they’re super high in protein. So we will have that with us. And then we’ll always have some sort of dark chocolate that’s like way dumb expensive that we should never have bought because it’s so expensive, but that way we only eat a couple squares at a time when we come home. And yeah, so, so those are my four things.

Amy Nubson 34:26
That does sound amazing. I know your coffees were really good. So I could see how chocolate with that would be great. So I remember, your little tiny one and you spilled all over the counter…

Mike Bruce 34:39
Aw, I did! I forgot about that.

Amy Nubson 34:41
A bigger one would be better for multiple people.

Mike Bruce 34:47
It still has to sit on that torch though, that camp stove, it’s still… so it’s really big and still sits on that thing. So I have to uh, maybe I need to make a stand. It’s really top heavy.

Amy Nubson 34:59
I think that kind of concludes our day. I mean, there’s so much more that we can talk about. And, I’m looking forward to our future podcasts.

Mike Bruce 35:09
But yeah, we’ll have to come up with a classy tagline for for some other time, butoh, well for now.

Amy Nubson 35:16
Exactly.

Mike Bruce 35:18
Well, that’s it, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And we, you can definitely expect these podcasts to be, you know, anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. We don’t want to take up your whole day. If you don’t like how long these are. Find a podcast player that you can put on high speed and listen to us talk very, very fast. So that’s all for us. This is Mike and Amy…

Amy Nubson 35:41
and we’ll look forward to the next one.

Mike Bruce 35:43
Have a great day, guys

Transcribed by https://otter.ai