Memphis, TN
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Have you ever been in an unsafe situation while traveling, either while you were alone or with friends? We have all been there. Even for seasoned travelers like us. Today we want to talk about listening to your intuition while traveling.
Today’s episode of the Passports and Coffee Podcast is a fun guest episode! Our friends Amy and Staci join us as we talk about an unsafe situation that we found ourselves in while traveling in Memphis Tennessee. This episode we talk about the importance of safety, our intuition and why it is important to have a clear line of communication while traveling with friends.
Before we start discussing the importance of safety, listening to our intuition and why it is important to have a clear line of communication with our friends while traveling, we want you to meet our travel besties!
Hey y’all! I’m Staci! I’m a full-time Registered Nurse and international traveler. My travel style is quality over quantity. It’s not enough to step foot in as many countries as possible.
I love learning about new cultures and getting an idea of the beauty and connections that bring us together. I have been lucky enough to venture around Europe and recently completed my first 36+ journey from Texas to the Maldives!
I have also discovered a love for the American Southwest on our road trip from Arizona to Utah. Together with my husband, Jeff, and our schnauzer Calder, I am sharing these trips on my Youtube channel to hopefully inspire your travels to new destinations. I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list!
Become Staci’s new travel bestie: YouTube | Instagram | Blog
Hi Everyone! My name is Amy. I’m a Michigan based Travel Advisor & Creator.
ThisBlondeLife is a Travel Blog & YouTube channel I created to showcase my adventures around the world. My hope is to inspire others to get out there and explore new places and try new things as well!
I share everything from the rooms & resorts I stay at, to the food I eat and activities I get into. From road trips to All-Inclusive stays, I love to experience it all and capture everything along the way! I hope you’ll come follow along on my next adventure!
So what brought all four of us together in Memphis? As you can tell, we are all travel content creators and we were all in Memphis for a travel conference called TravelCon.
It was nice to be surrounded by fellow travel content creators. All weekend we attended sessions to help improve our content, met with travel brands and tourism boards and attended events that were put together by Memphis Travel and TravelCon.
Some of the events that we attended were FAM trips, an opening party where we marched down Beale Street with a first line band and a closing party at a local bar.
But to set the precedent of what is to come, we first want to say how difficult it was to find food all weekend. The restaurants were limited, most restaurants closed early and a lot of restaurants were closed on Sunday. So as you can see, we had difficulty finding food all weekend. And this information will be important as the story unfolds.
On the last day of TravelCon, that evening there was a closing party at a local bar. There was not much time from the end of the conference to the start of the closing party. We all quickly got changed and headed to the party without being able to eat.
The closing party provided free beverages and food for purchase. We immediately grabbed a drink and hopped in line to order some food. We waited in line for over an hour to order food only to reach the beginning of the line to be told that there was no more food to order and that it was last call.
It was before 10pm. We knew the difficulties we had finding food options throughout the week. We even attempted to DoorDash McDonald’s the night before with no success. With this knowledge we frantically started to look for food options before we headed back to our hotels for the night.
We were all on google maps trying to find somewhere to eat. The only thing that we could find that was open was Taco Bell. It was half a mile away so we collectively decided to walk since it was over an hour wait for an Uber.
As we started to walk, individually we all knew this was a bad idea but neither of us voiced our concerns. We continued to walk the dark streets of Memphis to a very sketchy part of town.
We arrived to Taco Bell only to find out that they refused to serve us. Across the street was a gas station where we decided to grab a snack and call for an Uber back to our hotel. As we walked into the gas station, we quickly realized we were in a very bad part of town. We were getting very odd looks.
Attempting to find a ride back, it took almost 30 minutes before an Uber picked up our ride and about another 30 minutes for our ride to show up. When our Uber finally arrived, our saving grace named Helen, finally drove us back to where we belonged.
So what is the moral of the story? As well rounded travelers we decided to put ourselves in a very potentially dangerous situation. We all knew we were putting ourselves in harms way but no one spoke up. After the incident when we all had the time to debrief and talk about it, we realized we all felt like it was a bad decision to get food but neither of us wanted to seem like the Debbie downer.
This was an important and humbling incident that happened to all of us and made us realize that even if we are well-versed travelers, we should have known not to walk in an unknown area at night. But most importantly, we should have listened to our intuition and spoke of our concerns to one another. We are extremely lucky that nothing bad happened because this story could have had a very different ending if we were not lucky.
Collectively as a whole we want this to be a learning experience for all. We want you to realize that even if you have traveled all over the world solo, danger is everywhere. It is important that when you are in an area that you are not familiar with to never put yourself in a possible dangerous situation.
If you ever find yourself in a possible unsafe situation while traveling either abroad or in your back yard, always listen to your intuition and gut feelings. They will never steer you wrong. This was a very humbling lesson for all of us. And we are glad that we are able to tell our story so you can learn from our mistakes and not be in the same situation in the future.
Safety is always a top concern while traveling. So always remember, listen to your gut feeling!
Hi travel besties! It's Kayla and Cheraya, your co-hosts of the Passports and Coffee Podcast. We are fellow corporate world millennials looking to escape the 9-5 and are encouraging you to do the same.
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