BUY NOW, PAY LATER
Shop today to get what you want now and pay for it later with Afterpay.
Aired: December 1st, 2021
Audio and Photo Source: Libryia Jones and Instagram
This is by far one of our favorite Wine Down Wednesdays and we can't wait for our special guest, Libryia Jones, to join us again. After being barred from Remote Year, Libryia went on to create her own group travel business, My Wander Year. Libryia lead her "Black bubble" around the globe and has been to 32 countries.
As we dived into Libryia's travel stories, we covered the friendliest and unfriendliest places she's been, her travel lessons learned, as well as being Black at home and abroad. Libryia even sprinkled in a little romance. What story is complete without a little romance? Dig into this rich WDW. You won't regret it.
Wine Down Wednesday: Libryia Jones
Orion Brown (00:00:02):
Boop. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Boop. I am so excited to see y'all I'm pouring my wine right now because it is Wine Down Wednesday. Hello? Hello. Hello. Look at y'all y'all all on time. I love it
Orion Brown (00:00:21):
I love to see it. I love to see it. Here we got it. Hello everyone. I'm so happy to see y'all. How was your Thanksgiving? How were you guys doing? Hey lady, I love the song. We just get into it. Welcome everybody to Wine Down Wednesday. You don't have to drink wine. I'll do it for you. This is all about us. Kicking it, talking about the beauty and the fun and the, just everything. Awesome about travel, being Black, living in this world, whatever comes up, y'all know it goes in all kinds of directions. Usually I end up steering us to food at some point. That's just going to be, that's just how it is. Um, for those of you that don't know me, my name's Orion Brown, I'm the founder and CEO of BlackTravelBox. We're a personal care products company for travelers of color. And we bring you Wine Down every Wednesday night talking to bomb guests about all things, travel.
Orion Brown (00:01:27):
And I have to give up, I have to get a shout out to my curls. They're a little bit wobbly. Cause I did like take a midday nap, but y'all look at this. We got some, we got some poppage here. We got some poppage here and this was my wash-and-go with our conditioner bar, shoutout to our conditioner bar. Um, I got back from Florida, spent Thanksgiving with framily, um, and had did my wash-and-go and it's still holding up. It made it through a flight, through everything. So I had to shout that out. Cause we got some shine there, look at that we got some bounce there. I mean, I love it. My shirt's a little janky, but that's okay. Um, so we always start out our Wine Downs with our intros and it's, it's not meant to be a pop quiz, but it kind of ends up being that's. Okay.
Orion Brown (00:02:14):
Um, so Libryia tell everybody your name, where you are like where you are currently, where you're from, how many stamps you have on your passport.
Libryia Jones (00:02:25):
Um, okay. So my name is Libryia. Hey, y'all, uh, E Libria Jones. Uh, and it's so funny when I tell people where I am, where I live, people expect me to be like in Colombia or Spain or Mexico or something. And I'm like, I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And they're like, wait, you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Um, we can get into why I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma from Atlanta instead of moving back to Columbia, which is what I really wanted to do. Um, so my name is Libryia Jones where I am I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I moved here from Atlanta. I've been in Atlanta for 15 years. I'm originally from Tallahassee, Florida, born and raised and educated. If there are any Rattlers watching what's up, I saw my boy James being, um, and how many stamps... Hold on. Did you go to FAMU?
Orion Brown (00:03:27):
No.
Libryia Jones (00:03:27):
What are you doing? So, um, you asked how many passport stamps I have. I'm gonna, to be honest, I have no idea how many stamps I have because I returned to places quite often. Like I've been to South Africa, like three or four times, but I have been to, I think, 32 countries. If that's what you're asking,
Orion Brown (00:03:51):
She said off the top, you know, a middle-aged adult about countries I've been to
Libryia Jones (00:03:58):
It just so happens that I just posted all the countries that I've been to like last weekend. So I just happened to know the answer, but staps that is a tricky one, because like I've been to Columbia four or five times. I've been to South Africa, like three times I've been to Mexico, like three times. So the stamps number, I don't, I don't have that. I have no idea.
Orion Brown (00:04:17):
The double-ups the double-ups is that doesn't count, but that's fairly interesting. And cheers to Chloe. I see Chloe out there with the, with the booze I've been sipping. Um, somebody asked if you go to transformation church in Tulsa, I meant to go visit them.
Libryia Jones (00:04:31):
I don't go to any church in Tulsa.
Orion Brown (00:04:34):
We have, this is why we have the internet. And then, you know, we, we have all our own, our own practices,
Libryia Jones (00:04:40):
But I hear, I hear people there's, there's like some church in Tulsa that everybody goes to. Everybody loves, everybody knows somebody that goes there. Um, and I know it's a really big church town. I don't really go to church that often. I'll be honest. Yeah. Sorry, mom and dad.
Orion Brown (00:04:56):
I mean, everybody has their own practice and has their own path with it. That being said, I'm not going to lie. I, I have always been, um, attached to rather large churches, but I don't particularly love the experience of being in the space. And so when co when Kobe came around, I was like, yes, Jesus. I can get all the mega church and not be sitting in the parking lot or like hugging people. Cause I have like a thing I'm like, I have my little bubble shield, you know, we got therapy, we're going to work on it. So people want to hug you and they want to love on you. And I appreciate it, but I don't necessarily want to do
Libryia Jones (00:05:35):
That's so funny. I actually grew up in really small churches, like really, really small churches. And when I got to Atlanta, I went to a mega church, Elizabeth Baptist and I freaking loved it. I loved Elizabeth Baptist. Um, but yeah, I, I haven't been in church in a while. I go to church when my dad is preaching.
Orion Brown (00:05:53):
Oh, you're a PK, so there we go.
Libryia Jones (00:05:54):
So no, not really. My dad became a preacher when I was like in high school. So I don't think it counts.
Orion Brown (00:06:00):
Okay. That's fair. That's fair. You're a quarter PK. Right? So we got some questions already in here. What? Okay, so Asha writes, what's your all time favorite place that you've visited? It's such a tough question. So here's the funny thing about me. I have never been anywhere that I didn't like, you know what I'm saying? I'm like, I like every place. I like every place for different reasons right. Yep. You know, every place has its own thing and I'm not one of those people that like, are the people nice. The people aren't meant to be nice to me. Like they're not the backdrop to my travel story. Like I don't expect people to be sitting around waiting for me to show up so that they can create some amazing experience for me. Like that's not what they're there for. They're there living their lives. They don't need to be nice to me.
Libryia Jones (00:06:49):
You know what I'm saying? So, so you know, places that are not necessarily welcoming, I don't care. That's not, that's not their jobs. Right. So every place has its own thing I like about it. Um, but the places I guess I should say that I've returned to the most is I loved Columbia. Um, a lot one because I love the language, make goals. [inaudible] so it was really great to practice my Spanish there because there's not a lot of people there that speak English. And so I really, my Spanish really got elevated while I was in Columbia. Um, I love South Africa just because the ease it's, it's very easy. Um, South Africa is super easy, I like to call it the Europe of Africa though.
Orion Brown (00:07:43):
It is so European -
Orion Brown (00:07:44):
To be perfectly it's the Europe of South of Africa.
Libryia Jones (00:07:49):
Ghana was incredible. Yeah. Uh, Kenya has my heart because it's just the first place I ever went to in the continent in Africa. Um, and then Thailand is just dope as hell because no one makes food like Thai people, no one. They know what to do with some ingredients. You hear me? Those people know what to do with ingredients.
Orion Brown (00:08:11):
Oh, it's on my list.
Libryia Jones (00:08:13):
And it's just such a- I was in Shanghai in Thailand. It's such just the super chill place. And so laid back. And um, I'm going to say this. The people are very friendly. Everyone is so friendly. And as you can see, I'm very outgoing. So, you know, I talked to everybody, everybody talks to me while I'm there. Um, so I listed like six places, sorry, friends.
Orion Brown (00:08:34):
Wow. I love it. So, so you said something interesting there, this idea of are the people nice. Cause it can, I think, I think it's less, less whether or not they're actively proactively positive versus whether it's a negative, you have negative experiences with people. Yeah. Um, cause I can just sour anything.
Libryia Jones (00:08:54):
Absolutely.
Orion Brown (00:08:55):
But it's interesting, like that idea, like you're so right. Like they're not there to entertain us. They're not there to like go out of their way to do things, but it is nice when a person smiles.
Libryia Jones (00:09:05):
Right. So, so everything I hear people say are the people nice there, I immediately think of like the opening scene to beauty and the beast where she's like walking through the town and she starts singins and everybody starts singing with you. What do you expect your travel experience to be? Are you expecting that you're going to land there and everybody will join in to your travel story. Is that what you're thinking is going to happen? Because these are regular people going about their day-to-day life. And quite frankly, you're in their way,
Orion Brown (00:09:32):
You are a multiple, in many places, a multiple of thousands of people that be like your one face. Um, but I will say some of the places that I've loved the most and some of the places that I, I won't say hate it, but didn't have that much love for it to be. And I didn't feel comfortable in, it was predicated on the interactions with people.
Libryia Jones (00:09:53):
Um, so like you said, there's a difference between, I think there's ranges, right? There's the people are nice. The people are assholes and then there's just neither. Right. And so I totally understand, like I have friends who really hate Prague. They hate it. They hated their experience in Prague, because I'll be honest people in Prague A) aren't that friendly. Like if they just aren't warm people, you know what I mean? So you make I'm from I'm from the south and very Southern. So when we give, when we make eye contact, you are basically required to smile and, or speak.
Orion Brown (00:10:31):
Or nod or nod.
Libryia Jones (00:10:33):
You are required to, if you are from the south, you are required. If you make eye contact to nod, speak, something, right. Acknowledge a person.
Orion Brown (00:10:41):
Yes.
Libryia Jones (00:10:42):
In Prague they don't do that. They not checking for you like that. They're not speaking. They're just not warm people. Right. Yeah. And then they don't see a lot of Black folks. So they stare and I would say something, you know, in the US if someone can, if you catch somebody staring, they normally look away.
Orion Brown (00:10:58):
Yeah. They don't stop.
Libryia Jones (00:10:59):
Not in Prague, they gonna keep looking. They're gonna be like, *blink* *blink*. So it can definitely be very disarming. Um, and it can be very off-putting right. They just don't see a whole lot of Black folks. And so a lot of people do report negative experience. I have one friend who's a big, used to be a brilliant, big travel blogger. She's a huge, um, social educator now very, very well known, Glo. My girl Glo, Gloria Tamo she wrote this blog about how she will never go back to Prague. She had such a bad experience. And I totally understand that. I I've been to Prague three times and I was there for three and a half months
Orion Brown (00:11:40):
In total or three times like three months each
Libryia Jones (00:11:44):
Not total, but I don't know if you know this. I took a group of people around the world for a whole year. Um, I, I don't know if you know that I took a group of people around the world. In 2016 we spent three months in, we spent, uh, we stayed in four countries for the year, three months at a time. Mm. First country was Prague. So I brought a whole group of Black people to Prague.
Orion Brown (00:12:08):
So it was just basically a receiving line of people staring.
Libryia Jones (00:12:11):
I brought, wow. Right. Prague had maybe like a total of 42 Black people and 31 of them I brought. No, my company was called My Wonder Year, not Remote Year. Um, I actually started My Wonder Year because I could not get into Remote Year with a kid. So I was like, oh i'll just do this myself. So yeah, we were in Prague for three months and trust and believe we got tired of getting stared at for sure. But it didn't sour. My experience I actually got called, I believe I was called the N word in the street one day. That happens in America too though.
Orion Brown (00:12:48):
I don't mean to laugh, but I'm like the thought that came to mind was, was it English or not? Because there's so many places that, so yeah,
Libryia Jones (00:13:00):
Yeah. No, it wasn't English, but it was, it was, I mean, it was basically the same word.
Orion Brown (00:13:06):
Yeah. Yeah.
Libryia Jones (00:13:07):
It was basically the same word. It was just some old, it was some old Czech dude walking across the street one day and he just yelled it out. Here's the thing it's happened to me right here in the US as well.
Orion Brown (00:13:16):
Oh yes, most definitely.
Libryia Jones (00:13:17):
And so that didn't sour my entire experience. Um, I, I believe that I belong everywhere. So that guy and people who feel, I him don't get to tell me that I don't belong there. It's not his place. Right. You don't get to tell me I don't belong here. I came here to see these, this beautiful architecture to, you know, eat, eat their hefty food and drink their beer. I don't know if you know this, but Budweiser originally originated in Prague. Czech Republic is big on beer. Like they're huge beer place. And so I'm not going to let those people sour my experience, whether you think I belong here, I'm not, I believe I do. So period, feel how you feel. I'm gonna come over here and pose on this beautiful bridge and keep it moving. Good day.
Orion Brown (00:14:07):
I love that. And the thing is, is it's always comparative, right? So one of the things that I lean into with travel is the freedom to maybe not have the experiences that I have in the United States. Um, and so it's, it's interesting because one, I think it's sad that we have to be like, well, it wasn't that bad because it's happened here. But also it's also kind of nice to be like, well, instead of five touch points in a week, I would get two in this place.
Libryia Jones (00:14:40):
Yeah.
Orion Brown (00:14:40):
Which sounds a little crazy to say-
Libryia Jones (00:14:42):
I'm not that bad because it didn't happen here. What I'm saying is I was there for three months and it happened one time. Right. And I was phased I was absolutely phased, but that didn't, I'm not going to let him color my entire experience. I was there for three half very fair. I'm not summing up my three and a half months to his stupid comment to me. You know what I'm saying?
Orion Brown (00:15:02):
So, so let's talk a little bit on the flip side about the places that have impressed you with the warmth of the people, or, you know, with interacting with the folks, you mentioned Thailand. Um, and I'm like, well, I'm still thinking about food. Let me, let me side, side, side note of that. But you know, I like places like Croatia, where they see thousands of visitors every day and it's a part of their, their whole culture is travel and hospitality. But the hospitality is really there. Like whether they speak your language or not, they're, they're quite hospitable. Um, Ireland, if you're drinking, you're pretty much friends with everybody, um, which I'm not mad at. Uh, so tell us about some of the places that you're like, oh yeah, I can be friends with all these people. Like I have no problems.
Libryia Jones (00:15:52):
That's such a tough question for me. I can literally be friends with everybody. I get what you mean. I get what you mean here. So I'm going to grow my experience in Vietnam out there. And this is a very, this is actually a very specific experience. So I went to Vietnam to a friend's wedding. Um, he got married in this very small village south of, uh, Hanoi's. Hanoi's in the north of Vietnam and the village was south of there. And, uh, Vietnam is hella lit. I love it. And um, I got stared at him, Vietnam as well. Um,
Orion Brown (00:16:33):
I'm just kind of like, anytime I'm in Asia, if you will give me noodles, you can stare at me all you want.
Libryia Jones (00:16:38):
Right. But you know, there's the staring that feels malicious. And then there's this staring that feels curious, right.
Orion Brown (00:16:45):
And I think curious is Fine. And delirious is fine.
Libryia Jones (00:16:49):
Yeah. Um, but so I went to this wedding. I went to, uh, where his, his wife lived. He grew up in the US but his, his future wife lived in this very, very small village in Vietnam. He didn't, and I was staying at her, her sister and her brother-in-law's house. But when we got there, we were going to visit his family. He never told them I was Black.
Orion Brown (00:17:15):
Oh, that's fun.
Libryia Jones (00:17:17):
I was like, you -
Orion Brown (00:17:18):
Guess who's was coming for dinner.
Libryia Jones (00:17:18):
I was like, please tell them before I get there, that I'm a Black person. He was like, I'm not telling them. And so I got there of course, like, you know how it is? Like, we just never know what we are going to encounter. And him being Vietnamese, like he doesn't know, he may not get that. Right. He's like, they're not going to care. I was like, yeah, I feel you. But could you please just tell them? He was like, no no no it's not gonna be a thing. I get there. And when I tell you, these people treated me, like I was just a cousin who hadn't been home in a long time. Oh, I got there. I met his wife for the first time that night. She took me up to her room and like asked me to be in her wedding and her dad and her mom literally treated me. Like I was a cousin that just hadn't been back in awhile. And I didn't feel like a spectacle. Like they weren't all, they, not one picture of me was taken that whole night. Yeah. It was not in the way you probably were in the crowd, but like, not that whole, no, no, no cameras were out. Nobody was taking pictures. It was just a small group. Like it was the, it was like rehearsal dinner almost. Right. So we just had dinner and we had such a good time. And then we went and stayed at her sister's house. And her brother was just the sweetest guy. I felt so embraced while I was there. I felt, it just felt so good. And I had to tell my friend later that you don't realize the, the angst and nervousness coming into that because, so he was like, well, I didn't. One of our other coworkers came to and he was like, why didn't tell them he was white. And I was like, so here's the difference. There, aren't a whole lot of cultures that openly hate white people. There are a lot of cultures that openly hate or are uncomfortable with Black people. And I didn't want to be in people's houses who are uncomfortable with me being there. I didn't want to be sitting at a dinner table with people who are uncomfortable with me being there. So, you know, I get how you felt, but I need you to understand how I felt as well. Right. Thankfully, it was excellent. I actually FaceTimed with her parents the other day and they can't wait for me to come back. Like it was such an excellent experience. Oh my gosh. What's around out your, your question about feeling embraced. I felt very embraced there.
Libryia Jones (00:19:26):
I felt very embraced and taken care of in Haiti. It's like everybody, everybody that, that we interacted with from our driver to our hotel, people, to our tour guides, it's like, they felt personally responsible for us. Like they were our uncles and cousins. Like they, they, they needed to look out for us. Um, and they were so excited that we were Black Americans that just came to Haiti to visit Haiti. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like you just came here to visit, like, you didn't come here on a mission trip. Like you just came here to see Haiti. We were like, yeah. We came to enjoy it and enjoy it. And they were just so excited. Um, Ghana, listen...
Orion Brown (00:20:06):
I've heard, I've heard it's on my list too now.
Libryia Jones (00:20:12):
For one, like, I may as well Ghanian and like, I may as well for the way they treated me and I kept trying to convince them I'm Nigerian. I'm like, listen, I'm Nigerian. I know I am. I don't know this for sure, but I know I am.
Orion Brown (00:20:26):
I know it but I don't know it, but I know it.
Libryia Jones (00:20:27):
I know it, but I don't know. But I do, um, you know, it's, there is something to being in the majority after having lived a complete life in 40 years of life being in the minority, like we literally went days and did not see one white person. And I was like, what the, when we finally saw some, we were like, what are they doing here? What y'all, you know, it's just such an amazing, it was such an amazing feeling. Um,
Orion Brown (00:20:57):
That is so funny you say that because growing up on the south side of Chicago, there was definitely a period of time where I did not see or interact with white people. Yeah. Um, and it's, it's a different, it's just a different feeling. Even being in a place that maybe has violence. And I mean, it was the eighties. So we had some violence, we had some drugs, we had that kind of stuff. It's a different type of, uh, belonging and safety. Yeah. You don't get anywhere else until you hop on a continent. And everybody's like, yo fam
Libryia Jones (00:21:38):
Listen, you know, I said, I took a group of people around the world for a year. It was a group of Black people. And we came back. We were like, at the end of the year, we were like, yo, we traveled in a Black bubble for a whole year.
Orion Brown (00:21:49):
That's amazing. It
Libryia Jones (00:21:50):
Was a Black bubble. Like we were in, you know, places that there weren't necessarily Black people, but we were the bubble. Like, it was kind of crazy. Like looking back, we had like this safe space to just be ourselves and to, and to share these experiences. Right. Like we can talk about being stared at, on the bus, on the tram and everybody in the conversation gets it. You know what I mean? Like it was, it was really, really cool, but yeah, I think the most welcoming places I've been are Thailand, Vietnam, obviously anywhere in Africa. Um, and in Columbia as well.
Orion Brown (00:22:24):
I love that. And so this idea of traveling in the Black bubble, like what are some of the things like, well, number one, did you document this journey like for yourself in any kind of way? Like, did you journal your way through it or anything or were you just like I'm in the moment? Not kind of trying to take the Chronicles of it. Okay.
Libryia Jones (00:22:43):
Um, I didn't journal, but I definitely, we, we got, you know, photos, videos, I'll say that I wish I had a documented a lot more. This was a business. I was running a business and it was one of the most stressful times of my entire life. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done pressing craziest things I've ever done. So unfortunately I did not get to focus on the aspect of, of documenting it as much as I would've liked to.
Orion Brown (00:23:08):
Well, so, so just off top and looking back at this experience, because that's a very unique experience. Like oftentimes when I travel and I have an interesting, I don't want to say it's a dilemma because everybody has their challenges, but it's like, I walk into rooms and people know I'm black, but Black people like, oh, you kind of light. And so it's an interesting seriously. So it's an interesting dichotomy of figuring out where I fit when I come into spaces. Um, and it's an interesting dichotomy when I'm in all Black spaces to see what the reaction is. So similar to that idea of coming into somebody's house, they're, they're uncomfortable. And you're like, but I'm trying to just be comfortable and kick it. I, I know all the same stuff you do. Right. Um, and so for me, there's something really beautiful about having that space of belonging and finding that space of belonging. I don't think most people find that to travel, to be able to share these like life-changing experiences, um, or these life affirming experiences. So like, what are some of the takeaways that either you learned about yourself or about people or about being zblack that, you know, just kind of came out of that?
Libryia Jones (00:24:18):
Oh, that's a deep question. So I will also say, I love that you pointed out, you know, people needing that safe space. Someone mentioned Remote Year earlier, um, remote year was heavily white. It had a few Black people in it and some of those Black people actually left Remote Year for a month or so to come hang out with us. Cause we were like the Black version because they just needed to be around Black people for, I need a hit I needed.
Libryia Jones (00:24:41):
Yeah. I need my peoples. Um, so you know, the big takeaways, I think, you know, I, you know, I'll tell you what I, I took my daughter and my daughter went also. So I'll kinda tell you what my big reasons for taking her. Cause I think that those are probably part of my takeaways, right? So one of them, I called out already, you know, we belong everywhere. We literally belong everywhere. There is no place that we don't belong where there's people want us there or not. Like we belong there. Um, the world is open to us. Yes. Uh, the second thing was, um, own the space that you're in. Like every space that you are in, feel free to take up space, own that space. Right. The space. And if, if other people are uncomfortable, that's on them, yeah. That's their problem. You know what I'm saying? Yes. People are uncomfortable. I will tell you, Budapest is not the most friendly place for Black people. I have been twice and each time I've been looked at like the hell you doing here.
Orion Brown (00:25:43):
I'm on vacation what you doing here?
Libryia Jones (00:25:43):
Thing one, Hungarians aren't really friendly to nobody really. Right. Um, thing two. I don't give a how you feel. I came here to enjoy myself. Right. So my whole thing is own the space that you are in. Um, so that, that was one of my big takeaways. And then the, the other takeaway is I think this has been, yeah, I love Budapest. I actually want to own a condo there to be quite honest with you.
Orion Brown (00:26:16):
Oh, I ain't mad at that.
Libryia Jones (00:26:17):
Yes. Yeah. I have some very great experiences in Budapest as well. So I've had both, I've had people looking at me like you don't belong here and I've had people stop me on the street and tell me I'm beautiful in Budapest. So,
Orion Brown (00:26:28):
Well, girlfriend, you are beautiful.
Libryia Jones (00:26:33):
And did, I diddo to you, my sister, I laughed when you said I'm light-skinned so that died because my best friend, he's a light skinned dude. And you know, we talk a lot about how he, it's almost like he had this whole separate conversation, but it's almost like he, he, he gets challenged on his conversations about it being tough to be Black on a regular basis. Well, he gets stopped by the police for walking in his neighborhood on a regular basis and Black people don't believe him. Yeah. Yeah. Which is crazy. Okay. So back to this, um,
Orion Brown (00:27:08):
So that's, so personally that's an affirming, that's an affirming statement that you, you have people in your circle that have had those experiences, because I think ultimately, and we have not to digress too much, but we're having all these conversations in the world that really have to do with intersectionality. And there is something to be said for there's an intersection for people who are either mixed race or just, I mean, I just came out bright. I only even have a good excuse. Um,
Libryia Jones (00:27:37):
You don't need an excuse, you didn't do anything wrong.
Orion Brown (00:27:41):
Um, and I also grew up in a space that there was a lot of in ingrown envy and not in the I'm so great. They must be envious, but like in a, I believe you have an advantage over me and you're walking through life with that. And in some ways that's definitely true when people want you to acknowledge that. And I have no problem acknowledging that there are places in spaces that I can get away with stuff because I kind of blend. Um, but I don't pass. Let's just be real clear. I don't pass. And so too, you know, when you told me about these moments of being nervous and going into spaces, I have the exact same feeling. And I don't know, cause you know, we come from the land of the one drop rule. Number one hate is going to hate
Libryia Jones (00:28:24):
Thing one,
Orion Brown (00:28:25):
Even if you can't tell. Um, so I say all that to say, it's nice to have the freedom, to be able to talk with someone with some beautiful cocoa puffs of skin girl. I love it. Um,
Libryia Jones (00:28:39):
You know, even if you did pass, what happens to a lot of my friends who, you know, are not as Melanin rich as some of us is that they may pass like my good friend, Ashley, Hey Ashley, Renee, who is an excellent content creator, um, Black and Indian she's black and Indian, um,
Orion Brown (00:29:00):
Native, or I was going to say red dot or feathers, damn you Jay-Z.
Libryia Jones (00:29:03):
You know I was actually about to say red dot, and be ignorant over here. She's red dot Indian, her mother is from India. Gotcha. Her father is from Jamaica.
Orion Brown (00:29:14):
That's an Interesting mix. Yeah.
Libryia Jones (00:29:18):
Down in Jamaica in general, like if you didn't know, she can easily present as Indian. Right. And so what happens to the Black folks who other people don't think are Black is people start to get really comfortable and start talking about Black people to them. Right. So, so what folks are missing, what does melanin rich people are missing is that our less melanated friends get put into these situations in which the curtain gets pulled back and people expect them to be part of this ugly conversation.
Orion Brown (00:29:52):
Yes. Righ, right? Sure, Sure. You know what I'm talking about.
Libryia Jones (00:29:53):
Talking about, about black people. Right? Exactly. And so you guys have a whole different set of issues that you got to deal with yourself. So, I mean, but to answer your question, your original question about lessons, this feeds into what we're talking about. One of the things that came out of that, one of the beautiful things that came out of that is there is no one way to be Black, right? So we had all kinds of people in this group, right? We had super, super militant folks. We had, uh, an and one of them was lighter than you are. Right. Silver, silver, military. And she was an opera singer on top of it.
Orion Brown (00:30:30):
It's so random. And I love it. I love meeting people that are complex.
Libryia Jones (00:30:35):
Complex, and that's the thing most of us are, most of us are the challenge is historically Black people haven't been allowed to be.
Orion Brown (00:30:45):
Yeah.
Libryia Jones (00:30:45):
We have not been allowed to be.
Orion Brown (00:30:47):
There is only a safe zone.
Libryia Jones (00:30:48):
We've not a been allowed to be layered. Right. And so one of the beautiful things about this whole experience is we had people in this group who didn't have a lot of Black friends. I grew up in white schools. So we were their Black friends. Right. We have people who were into stuff that quote unquote Black people are supposed to be into. She grew up in Denver. So she skis and she
Orion Brown (00:31:13):
I can't ski to save my life. But I am here in Denver. You know what I'm saying?
Libryia Jones (00:31:15):
So that was one of the beautiful things about being in that, having that experience. And we got to do some of the Blackest shit all over the world. Like we were double dutching in the streets in Thailand. We did the wobble everywhere we possibly could all over the world. We was twerkingin the streets in Prague. Like you got to be Black all over.
Orion Brown (00:31:39):
Let's talk about twerking for a second because my twerking skills are such that my knees gave out before twerking became popular. So
Libryia Jones (00:31:48):
Wait, wait wait, twerking has always been popular. Where are you? Where are you from? Again? I'm from Chicago. Okay. I'm from the south. Yeah. Specifically Florida.
Orion Brown (00:31:57):
Okay. Okay.
Libryia Jones (00:31:58):
So twerking did not become pop. Like it's always -
Orion Brown (00:32:01):
It's been a thing.
Libryia Jones (00:32:05):
Like it came from Africa and it just never stopped in the south. Never. It was never not a thing. And I love it.
Orion Brown (00:32:12):
I feel like we had the grind we had stepping. That was really the Chicago thing in my mind that was like, quintessentially Black. Um, and so I was introduced to twerking. Um, once my knees started cracking, I ain't gonna lie when he started cracking. So I love this idea of doing Black things, but also understanding that we're all different. We're all multi-faceted I get, I get, I get, I get laughed at on my spades game, but I never really had enough players around me to learn how to be really sharp with it, but open up a bottle of rum in any country and sit back and play spades. And I shit-talk anybody I'm real good at the shit-talking part. I'm really good at that.
Libryia Jones (00:32:53):
I mean, that's, that's 30% of the game right there.
Orion Brown (00:32:57):
I feel like it is. So I love that. And like, how did you feel that the group was really embracing everybody's differences? Like, it sounds like it, that was really the case. Cause you guys can, I don't wanna say congeal, but you, you, you jelled really well. Yeah.
Libryia Jones (00:33:13):
Yeah. Um, absolutely. We embraced and, and, you know, true to true to Black folks. Like people got picked on about their differences and people got loved on about their differences. Like that's just, that's just how we roll. Right. Um, the one who didn't have any Black friends, she got clowned about that on a regular basis, but she's got Black friends for life now. For life.
Orion Brown (00:33:38):
And I think that there's a, there's also, I don't even want to say it's a fine line. There was a very clear line between clowning, somebody in love and ingest and clowning, somebody in, in malice and ice and people and things like that. Icing people out. And so I really love that. Like, yeah, you should be able to poke at each other and you know, it's like, we all have our moments. I love that.
Libryia Jones (00:33:58):
It's all love. It's all love. Um, and it was a, it was an incredible experience. Quite honestly, it it's one. I won't won't ever regret. We actually celebrated the five-year anniversary of the day that we took off. Um, a few of us went to Turks and Caicos in July to celebrate the five-year anniversary. So we still cool as hell, man.
Orion Brown (00:34:18):
That's amazing. I love that. Are you going to be doing, are you going to do that again? Some point in life. I know it's not like top of mind right, right now, but is that something that you're like, Hmm, I can do that one.
Libryia Jones (00:34:29):
It's more. I can organize it. I can market it. I won't personally go. I am thinking about hosting some one month or cations. Um, some, one multiple. I used to call them uproots, uh, in different places so that people can, who already work remotely can go and plop down in some dope country and work for a month. I didn't ask you before this, if I could curse. Um,
Orion Brown (00:34:52):
Oh, you totally can.
Libryia Jones (00:34:52):
You have not cringed once. So I'm gonna just keep it going.
Orion Brown (00:34:55):
You know? I mean, it depends on how far I get into my wine. How much, how many words come through. So it's all good. We're all grown folks here and respect each other and it's just vocabulary.
Libryia Jones (00:35:06):
Thank you. I appreciate that. Uh, I forgot to tell you guys, I'm drinking bourbon. I made a holiday old fashion, so it's bourbon, maple syrup, bitters and apple cider. So it's a fall old fashion.
Orion Brown (00:35:21):
I'm clutching my proverbial pearls because a, I already knew I loved you because I love bourbon too. Excuse me. You went for the maple syrup, which maple and old fashioned, even if it's like a regular old fashioned, just sweetened with maple syrup is insanely good. So maple, apple cider, bitters bourbon, that's it.
Libryia Jones (00:35:47):
So typically you can start with a little cinnamon stick and just leave the cinnamon stick in there. Um, I was rushing, so I missed the cinnamon stick.
Orion Brown (00:35:55):
She said that's alright, it still look as good.
Libryia Jones (00:35:55):
It's still, it's still tasty.
Orion Brown (00:35:58):
It's still tasty.
Libryia Jones (00:36:03):
I'm trying to roll through to see some of these questions. Someone asked if we've done a lot of solo travel have either of you done alot of solo travel.
Orion Brown (00:36:09):
I personally haven't done what will be considered a lot of solo travel, but I have done some solo travel and I've also done like semi solo trips where I'm on a trip with a group. And then I break off at the end or, you know, coming through to the trip, coming to the destination by myself. I may do a stopover, a layover somewhere. Uh, but I haven't done like a fully solo, like extended trip. Have you, have you done any solo trips?
Libryia Jones (00:36:36):
Yes. I went to, let's see Barbados, Cambodia, Prague, Budapest, and maybe two other places. So I've been to maybe five or six places solo. Um, I'm a fan of solo travel. Um, I like hanging out with myself, so I think a lot of fun. So I also, if you cannot tell him, never met a stranger and I'm in a lot of travel groups as well. So I feel like I have friends everywhere. Somebody asked me, uh, when I came to Tulsa, I was like, I'm hanging out with some friends. And a friend of mine in Atlanta was like, well, you have friends in Tulsa. I was like, I have friends everywhere.
Orion Brown (00:37:17):
Like I got people
Libryia Jones (00:37:18):
I have friends everywhere. I'm in travel groups. I'm in quite a few trials. I run a travel group called Wandering Moms. It has over 22,000 moms in it. Oh my God. And then I'm an ambassador in Nomadness Travel Tribe. It has over 20,000 people in it. And so I have friends everywhere. I feel like I can go anywhere and be like, Hey, I'm in this town. I went to, I was in Qatar for 48 hours and ended up at a party with this woman that was in Nomadness. So
Orion Brown (00:37:45):
I love it. You know, number one is just bomb. But to having somebody to connect with on those, those, uh, those layovers and those like quick visits is so like some of the best experiences I've been through, like these quick visits, quick layovers, where it's like, yo I'm in your country, which it sounds crazy. Right. But depending on where you're at, you know, and how big it is, people would be like, I'll see you in an hour. I'll wait at the coffee shop.
Libryia Jones (00:38:10):
Yeah, I hit. So I posted in Wandering Moms that I was going to be in Barbados. And one of the wandering moms was like, I'll pick you up from the airport. Boom. Thanks. Um, someone asks, if we've been to Cambodia, a Black beard gent asked if we'd been to Cambodia. I said he had a lot of fun there. I have been to Cambodia.
Orion Brown (00:38:33):
Yeah. Tell us about it. Cause I have not.
Libryia Jones (00:38:35):
I had an excellent time. So I'm trying to figure out which version of this story I'm gonna tell y'all.
Orion Brown (00:38:40):
Oh, tell us a wild version.
Libryia Jones (00:38:47):
So I had a little fling in Thailand. Now. I had like a little fling with a French man in Thailand and we met up in Cambodia for a week, for a weekend.
Orion Brown (00:38:55):
Um, that's a really random place to be like, let's just meet like maybe in Cambodia.
Libryia Jones (00:39:00):
So here's the thing. He was going to Cambodia. He, he just wanted to go take photos, he was a photographer. This is like straight out of a movie. Right?
Orion Brown (00:39:07):
I love it!
Libryia Jones (00:39:07):
French dude spending his winter in Thailand. He happens to be a photographer. So he was going to Cambodia to, um, take some photos and I needed to do a visa run, which I can explain really quickly. Um, uh, Thailand is a place that gives you a 30 day visa. If you have a US passport, you get 30 days to be in the country.
Libryia Jones (00:39:28):
So those stamps that we get in our passports are actually visas everybody. The stamps are actually visas. And for most countries, if you're from the US that stamp gives you 30 to 60 days in their country. In Thailand, you get 30 days, you can extend another 30 days. But after that, you're going to have to do what's called a visa run, which means leave the country and come back so that you can get another stamp, fresh stamp, you get a fresh stamp and reset your 30 days. And so, and because we were in Thailand for 90 days, so I needed to do a visa run at some point. So he was going to Cambodia. Anyway, I needed to do a visa run. So we decided to meet up in Cambodia. And I mean, it was straight up like out of a movie, real talk, like he had a moped and everything.
Libryia Jones (00:40:10):
Like we were riding through rice feild in a moped, like it was straight out of a movie. And so we went to this, he took me to the, these ruins at this temple. So you can take some photos. He took a couple of really good photos of me and we heard some music down below and y'all, it sounded like straight up Asian trap music, like real talk, real talk. It sounded like Asian trap music. They were mumbling, but like, no, like the bass, I should say, I should say, I should say it sounded like the Florida music in Cambodia. So we decided ride the moped down closer to see what - it's straight out of a fricking movie. We pull up to where the music is. It turns out it was there. There had been a wedding there at this house. So this uncle had hosted a wedding and this was the reception. And they were like, come on. So we crashed a wedding reception. They fed us. We partied, we had a really good, it was such a good time. So Wedding Crashers, Cambodia edition, I'm here for it. Crashes, Cambodia addition with my little French fling.
Orion Brown (00:41:17):
With your French fling. So y'all, you going to be flinging again anytime.
Libryia Jones (00:41:23):
I hope so. I mean, why not. Not with the Frenchman. We, you know that I'm not in Cambodia. I'm not in Thailand anymore. So that's not, that's that expired.
Orion Brown (00:41:33):
I'm not mad at just like that. Visa expired.
Libryia Jones (00:41:38):
It expired with the visa.
Orion Brown (00:41:42):
It's just a season. It's just a season. It's just a short time.
Libryia Jones (00:41:44):
Short time with the French men. We had a great time.
Orion Brown (00:41:48):
Yeah. In the comments. Cause y'all been all up in the comments. Somebody give a wave, give, give a baguette. If you've had, uh, maybe not necessarily a French fling, but a fling, I know there's a baguette emoji in there.
Libryia Jones (00:42:00):
And you know, what was cool. Like he was, he was actually, I caught him for Nisha and cause he was French in Tunisian. Oh yeah. He was actually French and Tunisian. So I called him from Asian.
Orion Brown (00:42:12):
It's just a little short, there
Libryia Jones (00:42:14):
Was a little swirl. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Orion Brown (00:42:19):
I love that. I love that way. So you've been to so many places and you've structured trips and like you're, you know, you're sort of a travel professional. What has been like a place that you've gone to, that you were more of a tourist than you were like a travel professional, like where you truly were, like, I'm just taking it all in. Like have you had that experience or have you just been like on it throughout your travel career?
Libryia Jones (00:42:49):
Thankfully, most of the places that I've been have been for enjoyment, right. Just for me to go and enjoy it. Even the places that we, um, went to, uh, for my wander year, I went there first by myself to visit and have a good time. The only place that I didn't visit before we went was Metagene um, I left Panama off the list. I actually went to Panama solo as well. Um, I found really good things about Panama. Yeah. So our fourth location was supposed to be Panama. But when I went to visit, I was like, this won't work and not, not any dig against Panama. I actually want to go back and just have a good time there, but it didn't feel like we were out of the country at all. Oh gosh. It felt like we were like south of Miami trading us dollars.
Libryia Jones (00:43:38):
They speak Spanglish. Like it just didn't feel like we were out of the country. And if we were going to leave for a year, we needed to really leave for a year. No, nothing against Panama. It just didn't fit with what we were trying to do for that. But, um, places that I've been that I just got to truly enjoy. I'd say of the 32 countries. I, I honestly say, um, you know, most, if not all of them, because I've been more than once. Like I did a wandering mom's trip to France, but I've been to France two other times and had a good time, you know, for myself. Um, yeah. Yeah. I think I've had, I'd say the, some of my fondest memories are my very first trips abroad. My first trip abroad was to Jamaica with my best friend who I saw in this life. Monica two. Excellent. Excellent. I'm still here. I saw you joined earlier, but my best friend and I girl, we were, Hey Ashley, Renee. I mentioned you earlier. I was talking about you earlier. Yeah. Ashley, I mentioned that you are, um, black and Indian and that you have been put in awkward situations where people want to talk about black people because they think that you're not black. Anyway, concentrators.
Libryia Jones (00:45:04):
I also told everybody that you're an excellent content creator. She's one of my favorite content creators. Um, Ooh, but my very first trip abroad was to Jamaica, to Ashley's father's hometown to Jamaica, my best friend. And I found the best fricking deal. Like we would never find this today. So blind out of Tallahassee, Florida, which is very expensive on Expedia. This is back in the day when Expedia was the place to find a trip, it was fired for a minute. By minute we found a trip flight plus hotel for a week for like $510 or $700 or something like that. What area were you in? Um, we went to, we stayed in Mobay. Oh really? Oh, that's a good deal for mobile. Yeah. Yeah. We stayed in like maybe in the grill off season, but yeah, girl, that was my first trip abroad. So it's, I'm very fond of Jamaica.
Libryia Jones (00:45:52):
I've been back since I took my kids, um, years ago. Uh, the second time I went, I took my kids to Otis Rios. I feel like mobile is where you go with your home girls or just reassess where you go with your kids and the girls where you go with your bay. So sometimes I get back where you find the grill. Let's just be honest. Like people walking down the road to hedonism, I'm like, oh Lord, I think I'm for it. And then, um, one of my clients took me to Paris and Amsterdam in 2013 and I think that kind of kicked off everything like, so I went to Jamaica and then Aruba shortly after that, this was back in like 2004. And then it wasn't until, I'd say maybe 2012 until I like went abroad again. My clients sent me to Paris and Amsterdam and I, it was 2013 and I literally have not stopped since like he started something and I have not stopped traveling the fire.
Libryia Jones (00:46:49):
He lit a fire. He lit a fire like that year. I think I went to Kenya. I went back to Jamaica. Like I just have not stopped going since he, and it's so crazy, you know, the limiting beliefs that we have, you know, growing up, I didn't think that people like me traveled. I didn't see myself as a person that traveled. I thought that people who were in the military or people who were rich or people who were from somewhere else, those are the people that. And so for very long time, like my brother lived in South Africa, South Korea, because he was in the military. I never went to visit him because I just had this block. Like I just assumed it was his spending he's
Orion Brown (00:47:29):
And military. That's what they did. That's how they do
Libryia Jones (00:47:32):
It was so expensive.
Orion Brown (00:47:34):
Right? That's well, it has gotten less expensive though, to be fair. It has democratized an incredible amount over the last 10, 15 years, you know? Cause it used to be, you want to go abroad you're over a thousand dollars by definition, right? Like now it's like, I took a trip. This was like eight years ago. I took a trip to Ireland for like 600, 700 bucks, roundtrip airfare car accommodations for a week. So yeah. And that's crazy, but those, those deals are out there now. Yeah. It's really democratized.
Libryia Jones (00:48:07):
Yep. And depending on what airline you fly, you could be going somewhere else and have an excellent layover in Ireland and just spend a day or two in Ireland. Right? My guess when we went to Dubai originally, or they over was in Ireland, which I was very excited about because I love Shepherd's pie.
Orion Brown (00:48:23):
We're going to be best friends. Cause that's my favorite thing to eat there. I hate when they try to get me fish and chips, I'm like, give me Shepherd's pie or lamps to everything else. Don't come with soda bread. I don't want it continue.
Libryia Jones (00:48:36):
Someone asks if I don't like Expedia anymore. I don't know enough about where Expedia is right now. I think that there are so many tools that are just such great tools to find affordable travel. My favorite is Google, um, Google flights, because you can literally put in your dates, your, um, your departure airport and nothing else. And just look at a map and see where the best places are to go. And so there's just so many tools out there that are far. I feel like I've been, have evolved and just changed the game so much that I don't necessarily think to go to Expedia. So I can't speak to whether or not I like or dislike Expedia. I don't dislike it. I just don't really use it. Google flights is bay. Um,
Orion Brown (00:49:24):
Google flights is bad. Google, Google play, and then get up at night and you're like, Hey you up.
Libryia Jones (00:49:30):
Exactly. And then, you know, like the fair, the fair Deere deal alert, the daily light deal, Scott Skyscanner, hopper. Like those, those places that push information to you and say, Hey, there's this dope white deal. You should go look at it. Like those are the things that you know, that I love. So I wouldn't say that I don't like Expedia. I just have grown outgrown. And I guess,
Orion Brown (00:49:55):
And, and another thing like just from the backend and knowing sort of the industry side of it is like a lot of those like Expedia and bookings and travel loss, they're actually owned by the same company. So they aggregate the same stuff. So to me, I know don't get me wrong. I still love Travelzoo. I love their top 20. It's a great Roundup. It gets me all hyped and excited for travel. But a lot of those platforms like orbits and all that Expedia, they have the same stuff. And so for me, it's more like, like you said, like things that push it to you. So like I have a membership to Scott's cheap flights. It's like 30, 40 bucks a year and they, and you can do it for free. You can get on their list for free and they'll just give you generic stuff. But if you pay you, get it before everybody else and they flag your home airport deals so they can go, oh, you're coming out of Denver. Here's the latest deals for Denver. And you get them like on a spot. Now a lot of these deals are like, this is a mistake fare. This is, you know,
Libryia Jones (00:50:57):
Don't call the airline, ask them nothing,
Orion Brown (00:51:00):
Nothing don't do that. No,
Libryia Jones (00:51:01):
If you call the airline, you know what? You should be put on the no fly list. Don't do it. Don't mess it up. And what I love about Google flights is it's really just a user interface put on top of something called the ITA matrix, which is what travel agents use. So basically Google flights has created an opportunity for regular people like you and me to use exactly what travel agents are using to find amazing flight deals like come on.
Orion Brown (00:51:34):
Yes. And to me there's so Google flights is great. Particularly if, you know, when you want to travel that having these push type of setups and services are great for, oh, go ahead.
Libryia Jones (00:51:46):
I actually don't even have to know when you're going to travel either. Right. Because you can click on the calendar and just go through the calendar and start seeing where the weather.
Orion Brown (00:51:54):
Yeah. Right. Yes. It's so good. It's so good. And it's simple. I mean, Google's taken over the world, but that's okay. And then will probably take over Mars too, but that's okay. So long as we know where the flights are. Um, we we're good with that. I love it.
Libryia Jones (00:52:09):
Right. If they take over the world and the, the things, the one thing that we will know is that we'll have access to the data
Orion Brown (00:52:17):
What's up. Right? There'll be so much data. There's so much data. Can we talk about travel insurance? Get it. If you can afford it. That's
Libryia Jones (00:52:28):
Especially these days, especially these days. So I'll say this, um, traveling shirts is great to have, and there's a lot of companies out there that offer travel insurance guys. It's like a lot of times it's like 30 bucks to cover your flight. Yeah. Right. It's like 30 bucks to cover your flight. And I will say this, I don't always buy travel insurance. I don't always buy the flight insurance for me. It depends on whether or not, you know, I'm, if I'm just flying to Atlanta, it's not a huge deal. Yeah. But if we're talking about, I just dropped $3,000 on a flight hotel and all this other stuff, please go ahead and insure that. Cause you just never know what's going to happen. Thank God I got travel insurance because I booked flights to my PA for my parents to come to London. My dad loves the Jacksonville Jaguars. I was moving to Prague.
Orion Brown (00:53:18):
I was in Jacksonville.
Libryia Jones (00:53:21):
That's his team. I was moving to Prague and they happened to be playing. They were going be playing in London while I was going to be in Prague. And so I booked my parents flights to London and I bought them tickets to the game. Yeah. And I was just going to fly from probably over to London. Cause you know, once you're in Europe, like it's like, like 30 bucks. Right. So I was going to hop over to London to go to the game with them. And um, thank God I got travel insurance because they ended up not being able to go wow. All my money back. All of it. Yeah.
Orion Brown (00:53:49):
And that's something you can, you can try to risk it and haggle and be like, oh, can I get, you might get travel credit. You might, depending on the type of ticket you get, especially if you're a bargain shopper. If you get those tickets that are like the quote unquote economy tickets, you're not getting that money back. They're not fungible. So like having the insurance, if you're, you know, yeah. The coverage is good. The only thing that I don't insure, I typically don't insure cars. But what I do is, is I have a travel credit card that typically ensures rentals. So it's still insured. It's just not insured with an additional.
Libryia Jones (00:54:25):
Someone just mentioned that she mentioned that she books herself with credit cards, which has insurance. I will tell you, I want you guys to be savvy about what your travel card covers versus what your actual insurance card, your actual travel insurance cover. It covers. If you go to wandering moms.com, go to our blog, we actually posted a blog post about, you know, the difference between what your credit cards cover and what your travel insurance covers and consider this. This is going to be very morbid. I apologize, but it's real. Um, Nomadness the travel group that I'm in years ago. I know they had an incident in, in Panama, where there was an accident, they were in a tour bus, it went off the side of the road and, you know, two people passed away, unfortunately, and several people had to have surgery. One person was in a coma for over it for almost a year.
Libryia Jones (00:55:18):
Right. And your credit card is not going to cover making sure that, you know, if, if in the event that you go to the hospital, you need to be airlifted back to the United States, or God forbid you pass away, your remains need to be brought back to the United States. Right? I have another good friend, Claire sores who owns up in the airlines. She broke her leg. Um, what white water rafting in Zambia and had to be, it had to be right and had to be taken to South Africa because they didn't have the facilities Gambia to care for her, her credit cards, not going to cover that travel insurance has to cover that. And so I, you know, I appreciate that people are calling out that you're booking things with your credit card and it has travel insurance, but consider looking into, you know, real travel insurance, real travel coverage, because anything can happen, especially, especially for those of us who have children, you know, you know, you just want to make sure that things are taken care of in the risk. It don't risk it in the event. Something big is happening. Now, if you're talking about I'm headed to Miami for the weekend. Okay, fine. But I'm going whitewater rafting in Zambia. Let's have some insurance. Okay.
Orion Brown (00:56:27):
You're going whitewater rafting anywhere. Make sure you have some insurance, you have your coverage. Right. Right. Whether it be your personal insurance or something else, because I know you're adventurous, but the way my joints set up, I can't be out here. Just,
Libryia Jones (00:56:40):
He was in the hospital for a while. She had to have a couple of surgeries. It was, it was very, I, it was very eyeopening. I had, um, you know, there's the Nomadness. And then when of a friend from a fitness group, she actually was on a trip for her anniversary with her husband and their boat caught up, blew up. And she was the only person that passed away. She was the only person. So, you know, life continues to happen on vacation as well. Just so we know, like continues to happen. Things happen on vacation and I'm not trying to scare anybody, but I want us to be intentional as well.
Orion Brown (00:57:17):
And I'm following a shower on vacation. Yeah. I've definitely had those moments where I was like, look up, okay, let me not wait Caribbean. Don't let a lizard run past me and I'm not ready for it. I will jump off a cliff by accident. So I need to have the insurance to cover my startled jumping off of a cliff.
Libryia Jones (00:57:37):
It was so funny. You just reminded me, we, me. And, um, one of the women, in my wonder year, this group, we were walking down the street in Thailand one day and she thought she saw a rat and like ran into the street. I was like, please don't die.
Orion Brown (00:57:53):
And elephants and trolleys and all kinds of stuff going in the streets
Libryia Jones (00:57:56):
To the, to read, you hear me? I was like, wow, lady, please governors. Now I will say the rats in Thailand are serious.
Orion Brown (00:58:06):
They're like cats. Right? They look
Libryia Jones (00:58:08):
Like, they look like mini cats.
Orion Brown (00:58:10):
They do, you know what? It's funny because it seems like so total tangent. But I remember being in college trying to be romantic, going out to the point, which is like this area on, uh, in the south side of Chicago, off the lake. And it's got like a park and stuff and it's like a big full moon. And we trying to be all romantic and stuff. And all of a sudden it was like you making that noise. I ain't making that noise. And you can see these cat size shadows running around. And there was dozens, if not more. And like long to end, it was crazy. Cause it was just dark enough that you couldn't see them very well. But it was, I never, I never knew growing up in, in shy town that we had rats like that I knew I seen blaze, but those rats look like you could saddle them up and ride them into the sunset.
Libryia Jones (00:59:03):
Hilarious. Larry
Orion Brown (00:59:05):
Is, she didn't even say I support her decision to run. I mean, it was a street though. Like, I guess it depends on how much time you have to process what's happening. Cause I feel like there's definitely that split second. That was
Libryia Jones (00:59:20):
All reaction reaction. I, you know what, my first time in Jamaica, I did not sleep for the first two nights because there were lizards like crawling on the walls. And I was just so convinced that if I close my eyes, one of them will crawl and then loses up and fall right in my mouth. Yeah. Call on me. But in my mouth I felt that we were in Costa Rica. So they had tree frogs in Costa Rica. And we say to this beautiful mansion, it was a wandering mom's trip. It was our mother's day trip. We took a group of moms. Um, no kids allowed on mother's day. Cause we don't mind on mother's day. And we say to this beautiful mansion and it looked like a drug Lord house. Like it was at the top of the hill hill house. No joke. Anyway, first of all, they had these little crabs that would be like in the shower.
Libryia Jones (01:00:08):
They were like this small in the shower, but they had like, I'm not afraid of bugs. I'm not afraid of animals. Like I just don't get skiddish like that. But tree prompts for some reason freak me out. And they were literally every year they were liberal. Well, not only do they have, but they can like stick to the wall. So it's not regular problems when they get hot, just, you know, on the ground. So I'm laying in bed. It's like one in the morning and I'm like staring at the ceiling and there's frogs on the ceiling. I'm like what? I'm from trouble, my face. I just know it. I just know it.
Libryia Jones (01:00:49):
I was convinced I was absolutely convinced. And I was like, I don't know how people do this now. Eventually I got desensitized, but it took awhile and they scream all night, crazy screaming noise all night. I didn't sleep. I didn't sleep a wink in Costa Rica. That, that, that trip to Costa Rica I had, no, this was in, um, this was in Hako. This is in Hako. So it was localized. It was localized. It's not like a totally, I didn't experience this when I was in combat in though. I was intimidating though. My second trip, which is on the coast, I think north, Northeast coast, north, Northeast, Northwest coast, I think. But yeah, you know, it's funny that you say that and I, and I know this isn't what you're doing, but I want to hit on something that a lot of times we do in America as Americans, you know, recently stories came out about shootings in Mexico, right.
Libryia Jones (01:01:44):
Shootings in Cancun specifically. And one of the things that we love to do and in the United States is I heard they were shooting in Cancun. Don't go to Mexico. They shouldn't St. Louis. What's wrong with you. It's first of all, it's localized. Right? So people used to ask me all the time, you know, because I say I spent three months in Colombia, in Metagene Columbia. Is it safe there? No, I'm just parents. Like I took my daughter there for three and a half months. Like you're going to ask me, is it safe? No, I'm a terrible parent. It's not safe. It's terrible. It's just like Narcos. If you say Narcos is like that. Yep. We was ducking and bobbing and weaving.
Orion Brown (01:02:23):
I know I liked you. I knew I liked you sarcasm.
Libryia Jones (01:02:26):
My second question is actually when people ask me that, so people ask me that my second comment is, are you planning to sell drugs? Are you planning so cocaine when you get there? Cause it will probably be dangerous for you to kick. It would probably be fine.
Orion Brown (01:02:44):
You all, didn't nobody tell you to sell drugs. Hove did that. So hopefully you won't have to go to,
Libryia Jones (01:02:53):
But, but seriously, like it's, for some reason in the United States, we take situations that we hear in another country and it could be in a city, in a country. And we just extrapolate that across the whole country. Because if someone said right, there was a shooting in Chicago and someone said, don't go to the us. Or they were going to New York, don't go to the us. There was shooting that was in Chicago. Like you're going to New York. Like, what are you talking about? But somehow we cannot apply that same logic to other countries. I
Orion Brown (01:03:25):
Blamed public school and white supremacy. We,
Libryia Jones (01:03:28):
We all know
Orion Brown (01:03:30):
Because we're in a culture of othering. So the second year in any kind of bucket, that bucket is expansive and it becomes this generic stereotype for entire SWAT. So we were still figuring out that Africa is a continent and not a country, obviously
Libryia Jones (01:03:45):
With the current situation, with the news reporting that you know, the, uh, the, um, a crime by bearing it is coming from South Africa. It, it does not come from South Africa, right? It has been found in the Netherlands, in the UK, in, uh, a couple of other countries and South Africa, South Africa were the ones that identified it. And so now we are banning south Africans from coming to the United States, but we're not banning anybody from the Netherlands. We're not banning anybody from anybody anywhere else. It's
Orion Brown (01:04:17):
The telephone game in terms of the conversation. But let's talk about white supremacy. Not to be funny. Y'all but like, there's this othering, Brett black and brown people are always the first to be banned from coming into the countries. And it's like, you can have people it's like, well, the dilem Englishman come in. Oh, nobody cares about that. But it's those, those people that me off so much. And it's just like,
Libryia Jones (01:04:48):
And I hate though, I just, I really, I really hate the way that it's being reported. It's been, been reported as if it was found in South Africa. It originated in South Africa and south Africans are the ones that are spreading it. And that is not the case. The case is that the scientists and the medical community in South Africa were the first to isolate and identify it,
Orion Brown (01:05:09):
Which means technically they're smarter than us. Cause we
Libryia Jones (01:05:14):
Excellent healthcare infrastructure. Yes. Excellent healthcare infrastructure in South Africa. So,
Orion Brown (01:05:22):
Well, if you go whitewater rafting, do it in South Africa. If you decide to get out of the Jeep on your safari, do it in South Africa, do it in Kruger. Don't do that in Tanzania or in these other spots because you're going to need the real doctors.
Libryia Jones (01:05:38):
But yeah, I think real issue with people, you know, the first thing out of people's mouth is, is, is it safe? I mean, yeah. It's I always tell people the places that I've been on are not when it comes to safety, unless it's a city, a city or a country under civil war, it's not that different from the U S right. There are safe parts of every city. There are dangerous parts of every city in Metagene Columbia. Sure. You saw our Narcos. That was 20. That was over 20 years ago. Yeah. It was over 20 years ago. There are safe parts of the city and there are not so safe parts of the city. Well, I heard someone got robbed in Metagene well, it should. I heard somebody got robbed in a minute. I mean, likely continues to happen. There are good and bad people all over the world. My experience has been that there are more good people than bad,
Orion Brown (01:06:29):
You know? And the funny thing is, and again, and maybe I've just been militant. [inaudible] listen to us. I'm gonna say this word now. Um, be like, since I moved to Colorado, because it is a very different environment and it's palpable, um, in many ways, but I'm just like, we don't talk about how you will get pickpocketed in Barcelona. You will like, you just will, like if you have in your pocket, they will take,
Libryia Jones (01:06:58):
First of all, my daughter, my daughter's phone got stolen out of her pocket in Prague. Y'all asking me if Columbia is saved, money was stolen in Prague, on the tramp. And then she caught someone trying to pick pocket. Somebody else in Prague, we were on the tram and this guy was facing the opposite direction. And these girls were behind him and he had like this tote bag on. And he was like looking in the window and he kept reaching into his tote bag. And my daughter was like, Hey, excuse me to these girls. And told them to put their backpack on the front of them because it wasn't a tote bag. It was just the front of a tote bag. And he was reaching behind it. Yeah. And reaching for their, their bag. My phone got stolen from me out of my hands in Vietnam,
Orion Brown (01:07:50):
Because monkeys like to steal. I
Libryia Jones (01:07:52):
Know it was a whole grown up. I was in Saigon. Um, most of the most commonly known as hace men. Um, but I was in Saigon. It was my last day. I was actually walking to the taxi to go to the airport. And I had my phone out looking to make sure that my taxis tag matched what it said in my app rode on a scooter. Dude, didn't even break hitting the break rhythm. Like this grabbed my phone and Kevin moving, left me there holding the pop socket.
Orion Brown (01:08:30):
I feel like there are certain like I, and I, I grew up loving things like Oliver twist. So I'm just sorta like, if you got a certain particular set of skills, like right now I live on the 15th floor. If you can climb up my building and break into my apartment, you deserve to get the TV because you out here, you and the Olympics of stealing.
Libryia Jones (01:08:49):
When I tell you he need to slow down, he didn't break stride. It was so well choreographed. Like, did you know what I was going to be standing in this spot?
Orion Brown (01:09:00):
Does he saw the opportunity? He was like, I'll get back into my account.
Libryia Jones (01:09:04):
And they kept it moving. I'm just like When my little South Africa pops, I can in my hand, like, okay.
Orion Brown (01:09:14):
Wow. So when you said that, I just flashed back to South Africa because I had some PTSD from the monkeys down there because they love to snatch things out of your hand. If you don't hold it good, don't let it be ice cream or something shiny. They will come. They will slap you in the face. Have you confused and then grab it and walk off the ice cream where you shake laughing
Libryia Jones (01:09:33):
At you. They live by a different code.
Orion Brown (01:09:37):
I mean, those monkeys are like, what's the, what's the motorcycle game. Like hell's angels. They just like rolled in groups, wreak havoc. And they have no chill and they're really smart. And they can open doors by the way. Y'all, if you have a room that has a balcony, make sure you lock your doors, you won't be like, oh, nothing's going to happen. We, in the middle of nowhere, those monkeys would come in, unlock your door and go through your luggage. I've seen it.
Libryia Jones (01:10:04):
They're getting this planet. Next girl. Yeah. They
Orion Brown (01:10:07):
Got me glitter. The apes that wasn't us prophesies. And we already know [inaudible] oh my gosh, it's been, this has been so fun, but I want to touch on before we wrap up, because we've been on for an hour over an hour now, like, oh my God, you got to do that. Number one, you got to come back to
Libryia Jones (01:10:31):
What's that from, I asked me why I was in Tulsa earlier. Uh, there's more what I do in Tulsa. Can I answer that? Right, right. Get into it, get into it. Um, there's a number of cities in the United States that will pay you to move to their city and stay there for just a year. A lot of these cities are really just trying to boost their economy because if you come and stay, you're likely to buy a house, maybe start a business, you know, buy property, invest in businesses, you know, byproducts, things like that. And a lot of people who work remotely work for companies like Google and large companies. And they live in big cities that are very expensive. Like New York, Austin, uh, San Diego, I moved from Atlanta. So not as expensive, but, um, so they're incentivizing people to, to middle America, small town, America, Tulsa is one of the most popular programs out there that is like this.
Libryia Jones (01:11:19):
I think they were one of the first and they pay people $10,000 to move, to live in Tulsa for one year. And so I took advantage of, of the Tulsa remote program. It was more attractive to me than the, than the other programs, just because it had less restrictions and more benefits. And I knew people that were here already. Um, I saw crystal. I don't know if she's still on here, but she's one of my friends that lives here that I need to hang out with soon. Um, and one of the women that traveled with me for a year, she actually did the program before me. So she's here also. Uh, yeah, and I, I, they pay me $10,000. So the way they do it is if you rent a place, they will pay you in a monthly installments. If you buy a place, once you close, they'll give you the full $10,000 upfront. So I chose to buy a place. And my thinking is that they're continuing to bring people into this program. Um, and so people are gonna need somewhere to stay. So I'm going to invest in real estate here. So even if I don't stay past the year, I will probably rent my place out. My hope is that when I leave here, I'll have at least two or three properties here.
Orion Brown (01:12:22):
It's that I love y'all see that. Right. Cause it's, it's not only the cash arbitrage upfront, like let me get paid to be somewhere remote. But it's also thinking about how you can flip that into future revenue streams, um, and using that network to do it. And if y'all, didn't notice for those of you who come to wind down weekly. So, um, my team, my team members, unique has been doing all of our recruiting for wine down to help us like bring in people. So we have dope people to talk to, but it is crazy because so many people came from the Tulsa program and you guys are so eclectic. Like it's such an eclectic and smart and sharp group from all kinds of walks of life. And you know, when I look at things like that, I'm like these types of programs do exactly what we want to see happen in cities, which is bringing in a collectic rich. Interesting. And when I say rich, I'm talking about people who have depth and people who have soul, it looks just like, let me get that tin.
Orion Brown (01:13:26):
Um, but like this, you know, you get this rich tapestry of people, which is exactly what you want to see in cities. Like if that's exactly what you want to see, come into cities, particularly when you're talking about people of color. Because like, I, again, I, I talk about Denver a lot. I believe in Denver. I it's beautiful. And just like you said, we belong everywhere. So rather than for me to go, okay, it doesn't look like me. I shouldn't be here. I'm like, Nope, I like these mountains. I ain't go skim. But I like looking at them. I belong here. How do I bring in more people like me? And I noticed that from the, the, the social economy here is really disparate in terms of social economics, education, things like that. So when you see people of color, there's only a very small elite group, which is actually quite clique-ish.
Orion Brown (01:14:13):
Let's just talk a little bit, but that's a whole other conversation. But rather than having, like, when you go to places, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Charlotte, like you have people who are like, you have a blend, people who are middle class people who like to go to brunch, people who got it all, when people got a little bit, people got Smith. And so when you have these different walks of life, whether they're educators who happen to be like PhD students, and they're broke because they're PhD students versus just this, you know, sort of, I would say food stamp mentality, which isn't fair to our communities in general, just because that's not what we are. We're not a monolith that when we actually take up less of the subsidies of this country than most corporations and white females. Um, but like when you have these different mixes of socioeconomics and, um, education and life experience, that's what makes a dope city. That's what makes going out to a bar and meeting people so much fun. Yeah.
Libryia Jones (01:15:11):
Yeah. I'm actually headed to a Tulsa remote meetup right after this. We're going ice skating.
Orion Brown (01:15:18):
Yeah.
Libryia Jones (01:15:19):
Yeah. That is pretty dope. Also fun fact, I was on food stamps at one time too. I love telling people that, because I think that people have this idea of what yeah. What a food stamp queen looks like.
Orion Brown (01:15:32):
Um, it's not us.
Libryia Jones (01:15:34):
It ain't it, first of all,
Orion Brown (01:15:36):
Painted us. It's been black. Second of all.
Libryia Jones (01:15:38):
Like, but yeah, there's, there's so many, there's such a range of reasons and people that, that get government assistance, I got government assistance because I paid into the dam system since I was 16. So when I got to college and I had my daughter, I was like, I'm gonna take a little bit from the system.
Orion Brown (01:15:53):
That's smart check. Why not?
Libryia Jones (01:15:56):
Right. Yeah. I was on Medicaid. I was on food stamps. I was on WIC. Like I took advantage of the system while I was in grad school. And, you know, while my daughter was a baby and I truly benefit from the system now I'm in a position where, you know, I get to put back into the system again as well. Right.
Orion Brown (01:16:14):
So yeah. That's exactly what it was before.
Libryia Jones (01:16:17):
Yep, exactly. So I will proudly tell people that I used to be on food stamps. When my daughter was born, I was living in a trailer. We were sleeping in a twin bed and I had food stamps and WIC and all of that. I actually, you know, that food stamp card didn't real good, real good.
Orion Brown (01:16:35):
The way they calculate it is very interesting because you either get not enough or wait, I don't want to say, wait, you hear me, you like, we got this rabbit shrimp for dinner. I'm like, um, I, and I definitely grew up in that space too. So when I, when I said, I just want to clarify when I say it, it's more of the stereotypical kind of absolutely. You know, and I will say in places like this, where I see the oppression, clearly, it's like the only kind of people called we want are the people who are down here and we don't want them moving into our neighborhoods. And we don't want all of these things. And I just want to brown everything up and I don't even care what kind of brown you are. Cause I mean, who am I going to discriminate against? Um, so red got feather, black, uh, Chicano, whatever you are like, let's all just get here and be bougie and have champagne, um, magic, melanin, magic.
Orion Brown (01:17:30):
I love it. I love it. Oh yes. And classy suddenly said food and security impacts all races and socioeconomic backgrounds. That is so, so true. So, so true. I love it. So the last thing I wanted, cause I don't want to keep you from skating, which sounds really dope. Um, tell us a little bit about this. So you have this whole traveling moms thing, thing, group blog, events, trips. Tell us a little bit about the benefits that you've seen traveling with your kids. Cause I feel like everybody's like, oh, you got it. Once you have kids, you can't travel. Um, this, that and the other, I know they say stuff. I don't believe it, but tell us a little bit about the benefits and why it's so important to travel with your kids.
Libryia Jones (01:18:14):
Yeah. So I want to address the comment. Then once you have kids, you cannot travel. First of course, once, once you have kids, you, you absolutely can travel. Um, my whole feeling is if kids live, their kids can go there and I have not yet found a place where kids don't live. Right. I'm sure it can be more expensive to travel with kids. Like I won't pretend like that's not the case, but these are not things that keep you from doing stuff. These are just logistics that need to be figured out. Right? These aren't problems that don't have solutions. I don't even think they're problems. I also think that the idea that, you know, one of the things that my daughter and I have always joked about is when people say things like, can we switch to voice? If you don't want to ever watch the voice, people always come on. They're with their parents. And their parents are like, yeah, I have this dream of being a singer. But then I had my kid and I had to put those dreams aside. And me and my daughter would look at each other and be like, that's up. Like you basically just called your kid at dream killer.
Orion Brown (01:19:09):
A lot of people
Libryia Jones (01:19:12):
Will say, you know, you need to travel. You can't, once you have kids, you can't travel. My daughter is not a dream killer. In fact, she's the catalyst, right? She's the reason why I'm going to do these things because I want her to know that her life is hers to design for herself. Right? And so for me, it's always been so important that I am showing her examples of creating your life and not living it the way that someone else expects you to live. It, it's yours. It's your one. And only life. My life does not revolve around my daughter. My daughter is a very big part of my life. You know what I mean? And so I have always wanted to travel. So when she showed up, I brought her along on that dream, you know what I'm saying? And so one of the reasons why I think it's so important, or one of the, I'd say some of the benefits that I've seen in my daughter as a, as a result of her traveling is I have seen her become such a compassionate person.
Libryia Jones (01:20:11):
Right. You know, she's been in situations where she was the only black person on a soccer team in Prague. She's the only person that spoke English on a soccer team in Prague and a soccer team in Colombia. And so she knows what it's like to be the only in a space. And she understands that being different isn't bad. And so bringing that back to the United States and bringing that back into school, I've seen her stand up for people that were bullied. I remember a very specific situation when she got to high school, um, when she got to 10th grade, this kid posted a picture online and people at school started going in on him. And she immediately like jumped in and took up for him to, uh, to hard detriment because then they started shifting all of that attention to her. But for her, it was more important to stand up for somebody who was different than everybody else.
Libryia Jones (01:21:06):
Right. Right. Um, the other thing is getting her to understand that being in uncomfortable situations and adversity doesn't necessarily break you. She's a very shy person. She's an introvert. And having to go to practice where nobody speaks. Her language was really tough for her. There were times when she would beg me, like, I don't want to play soccer anymore. I don't want to go to practice. Nobody speaks my language. This isn't fair to me. And I just think really distinctly remember her first day of official practice in Prague. They were all in a circle. The coach was in the middle speaking check and she was sitting on the outside by herself. And I thought to myself, what have I done to my baby? Like I just made her the outsider. Right. I just made her the outsider. And I had that feeling for a split second.
Libryia Jones (01:21:57):
I was like, she'll be fine. By the end of practice, all the girls were high-fiving her. She couldn't stop talking about how they were like practicing, trying to say her name. You know what I'm saying? So this was an experience where it's like, sure, this was scary. There was some adversity. You didn't understand the language, but there was a common language there. It was a group of girls who have the same goal, literally had the same goal. Right. And so you can make it through tough situations. Like you can get through those tough situations. The other big thing is, um, independence. Like she has so much more independence and I felt like I got to take her out of the, the speed of the Western world and slow things down for her for just a year. She got to be a kid kid for just a year, but she had so much independence. Like she was taking Uber's by herself. She was catching the tram by herself. Like she was giving me tips on catching the tram. Okay. She was like, mama, you know, if you take the seven and then the five it'll drop you off closer to the coworking space, then if you take the nine, I was like,
Libryia Jones (01:23:06):
Yeah, she got a lot more independence. And I feel like that really built her competence. I believe that, you know, she can take care of herself. I truly believe that she's self-sufficient because of that. Um, and then just understanding that the possibilities for you are limitless. There are no boundaries, right? There is no bounds to what you can do and what your, your options are. You can pretty much do anything, right? Like your life could be, I'm going to go to college in the U S or your life can be, I'm going to move to London. Like it can be whatever it is that you want. So there's just so many, there's so many benefits to exposing kids to travel. I think one of the biggest things for me, even when we just go on trips, like I'll take out the year abroad. Even when we just go on trips, I truly believe that parents should take their kids on trips, because this is the one situation where you're not in the day-to-day grind of parenting.
Libryia Jones (01:23:59):
You just get to know people, you get to be two people learning a new place and learning each other. And I think it's so important for our kids to see us as people because children are. So if you think back to how you thought about your parents growing up were so yes, which is so hard on our parents, right? We don't give them room to just be people we expect near perfection from our parents. And we're just not very tolerant of anything outside of that. And in our parents, don't really get to know us as kids, right on our day-to-day lives. It's, I'm giving you commands and directions, right. But when we get to travel together, it's an opportunity for us to just be two people exploring. And I mean, if nothing else, a weekend trip or whatever, I truly believe that parents should take their kids on trips for that reason alone, just so you can get to be two people experiencing something together and not a parent and a child. You know what I mean?
Orion Brown (01:24:59):
And some, and you'll be surprised their personality as just a person wandering the earth. Like you can really vibe with that you can really vibe with.
Libryia Jones (01:25:11):
Yeah. My daughter is really cool to hang out with. She gets on my last nerve, don't get me wrong. We always end up in an argument or something on a trip. But also, you know, some of our most fun memories have been, you know, on trips, me getting to know her and her getting to know me as just a regular person and not just mom.
Orion Brown (01:25:29):
I love that. I love that. I think that's, that's the perfect thing to end on for those of you who have kids, those you think about having kids, all the pressures and expectations that people have either is based on your age or your life status, whether you're married or not. And then whether or not you have kids and that these, these heavy thoughts of you can't do things once you have kids. So you need to get it in now. And it's like, you can make some dope people and then you can take them some dope places and have some dope experiences, um, and do it the way that you want to do it. As long as you keep them alive, until they're 18. I feel like your job is pretty well fulfilled. Um, and even with that, you know, I know stuff happens. I know, I know stuff happens,
Libryia Jones (01:26:13):
Unfortunately.
Orion Brown (01:26:16):
But like, you know, the thing is, is it's experiencing the world, the growth that you personally get from it they'll get from it. The rules might be different because they're in a different place at life. But like, that's exactly what you want to do. At least I that's what I think of and the trips that I've taken with children and I've even been to places. And I'm like, I look at places like probation and I'm like, this would be dope to spend a summer here with kids. Yeah. It's inexpensive. There's kid-friendly stuff. There's family friendly stuff. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily take kids to like the biggest strip for a summer or even certain parts of Amsterdam. Um, but after that was dope,
Libryia Jones (01:26:57):
But my daughter's been through those parts. Crazy enough.
Orion Brown (01:27:01):
That's a whole other community. You gotta come back, you gotta come back and we gotta talk more about it, but I love, love, love this. Tell everybody where they can find you on the interwebs and how they can see your adventurous and possibly be a part of them.
Libryia Jones (01:27:15):
Yeah. So it's pretty straight forward. I'm Liberty, a Jones everywhere, uh, Liberty jones.com. Libria Jones on YouTube Libria Jones on Instagram. The group that I referred to earlier, that's for traveling moms is called wandering moms. Um, it's a Facebook community called wandering moms. Um, but in general, I typically teach people how to find and land remote work so that they can live this type of lifestyle on a regular basis. Um, so if you follow me on Instagram, you're going to get a lot of content about how to find and land remote work. Uh, if you visit my website, I also have a course about that. I'm hosting a conference in April, which, which is also a job fair or a remote job fair as well. And there'll be launching a community with a lot more content about landing remote work. And then sometime next year, as I mentioned earlier, I'm going to start doing workstations again. So, you know, if you want to go work in Columbia with a group of cool people for a month or in Portugal, um, I'm going to be offering that as well. But again, Libria Jones. I don't, I don't know if I should type this in somewhere because it's not that easy to spell.
Orion Brown (01:28:24):
I think it is it's it's phonetically, L I B R Y a. Yeah,
Libryia Jones (01:28:30):
You got it. Right. But,
Orion Brown (01:28:32):
Um,
Libryia Jones (01:28:33):
So I, I feel like the, I am the why, like the, the, why are redundant like one or the other moms,
Orion Brown (01:28:39):
But yeah, I guess either one of the other big guys. Yeah, yeah. I love it. Um, and for those of y'all who don't know me, cause I've seen a lot of new people come in. I'm uh, Ryan Brown, founder and CEO of black travel box. You can find us at black travel box pretty much on every platform, but you can certainly find us at black travel box on IgG and at black travel, the black travel box.com. Um, we made personal care products for travelers of color. We make stuff so that you are not distracted from the trip, trying to get those ashy elbows handled. Um, and there's a lot more coming. We're still a startup actually almost is a huge problem for me with ashy elbows. Thank God you gotta, you gotta get our body balm. That stuff is I get, I get, I get fan mail about body balm, which is crack cracks me up, but I love it.
Orion Brown (01:29:28):
I love it. It's got that. We put that little crack and we put a little crack in it. That's good to know. Um, but thank you so much for joining. This was so dope. This was such a fun conversation. And again, when I created wine down Wednesdays, it was like right in the middle of full on lockdown. And I was like, I miss that excitement you get, when you talk about travel, you know, you have, when you just booked your trip and you start tingling, you like, it doesn't matter if this next week or six months, you're like I'm going on a trip on a trip. So I try to create that every week. And I think you have definitely done that. We've gotten so many rich gems from you. This was so much fun, definitely food for my soul for all of you that joined us.
Orion Brown (01:30:02):
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for kicking it with us and hanging out. I hope the rest of your week is where they say all downhill from here like that. You know, you just know no more work is easy and that this got to be, um, you know, a high point of your week. Thank you. Libria for joining us. I want you to come back. You gotta come back and we're definitely gonna kick it in Tulsa at some point. Absolutely. And I, I have a really good friend who lives in Frisco, so I'll be in Denver probably soon. Boom. Yeah. I'll come to Denver for a couple of days and they had to first go to hang out with the homie. Hey, that's what's up. Definitely come through. Love you guys so much. Thank you so much. Enjoy your skating night and for the rest of you enjoy the rest of your week. We're going to see you next Wednesday. Thank you. Bye everyone.
Ready to keep your hair looking fabulous on the go? We know that traveling can be a bit rough on the hair, especially when you're hopping between different climates and accommodations. So, what’s the best way to protect your hair while you’re catching some Zs?
Let's dive into the great debate: silk pillowcases vs. bonnets.
We’ll break down the pros and cons, spill some tea on the public bonnet debate, and help you decide which is the best for your next adventure.
STAY READY SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO GET READY WITH
All the essentials for hair and body care made for life on the go, with travel friendly packaging and formulations that make packing, carrying (on), and using them simple and easy.
Enjoy the convenience of free shipping on orders over $35 to both the US and Canada.
