Talking Asheville North Carolina with the host of Speaking of Travel (Ep. 20)

Transcript

Marilyn (00:00):
Hi, this is Marilyn Ball, your host of Speaking of Travel, and you're listening to Travel Fuels Life.

Drew (00:18):
Hello everybody and welcome to Travel Fuels Life, the show that shares stories, tips, and inspiration to help you get out from behind that desk and start living that travel lifestyle. I'm your host, drew Hanish, and this week I am going to take a cruise. I'm going, well, not a boat cruise, but a car cruise. I'm cruising up the mountain about 60 minutes from here to a town I grew up in. I lived there for 19 years and I'm going to be talking with somebody who knows it so well that by the time this show is over, you may know more about it than most of the people who live in Asheville, North Carolina. So we will get into that in just a moment. But right now I want to send a shout out to you, the listener, because this is episode number 20, and that sounds pretty crazy to me.

(01:10):
It seems like I just got this show started, but we're already up to the 20th episode and there's no way I could have done this without having you guys having my back. So I really do appreciate every subscriber, every listener who's there week after week listening to the show, and I'm going to do everything I can. I'm going to double my efforts and bring in some more fantastic guests for you guys so that you can learn how to get out there and start living that travel lifestyle. I really want to get to the core of things and be able to provide information to you that's actionable. So that is my goal. I am tasked with that and you guys can sit back, relax, and wait for me to do my job. Alright? So with that, I also want to remind you that I am about to head overseas and when I get there, I'm going to be in the Celtic Lands.

(02:10):
This will be my opportunity, my first opportunity to see Scotland and Ireland, and I am taking full advantage of it. I'm hoping to have all sorts of interesting content. I don't know what my next podcast episodes are going to be about. All I can tell you is they will have something to do with Scotland and Ireland. I've got 20 castles at least that I'm going to be going to visit. And then I'm going to be on the aisle of Sky in Scotland. And the pictures I've seen of it so far have been amazing. I'm going to share all of those out on Facebook and Instagram, and so you'll be able to check those out. And I also am going to be putting together a little whiskey tour where I will put all the information down so that you guys know where all the really distilleries are in Scotland, and then you'll be able to use that in the future when you want to plan out your own castles and DRS tour.

(03:08):
And then, I mean, there's locations, as I've been researching this trip for about six months, I see Monty Python locations, game of Thrones locations, the Princess Bride locations. I mean, I love finding places where films have been made and kind of experiencing that. In fact, I had a cool experience this week actually because I was watching a movie, an old movie with Jeff Bridges in it, called Against All Odds, and all of a sudden they show this beach. And I went, I know that beach, that's Tulum, that's Tulum Mexico. Okay. So that's a cool thing when you can actually go somewhere and then you're watching a movie and you're like, man, I've been there. So I have a feeling that after I get back from this trip, I'll start watching Game of Thrones because I have not watched it before. And that will give me a opportunity to have that feeling over and over again with all the places that I'm visiting.

(04:14):
So again, if you want to keep up with all the pictures and stuff, just go out to facebook.com/travel Fuels Life and follow me there or go to instagram.com/travel fuels life, and I'll be posting all of that stuff up there as well. And speaking of Scotch Irish, this week's episode is going to be featuring an area that in Asheville, North Carolina that was settled European wise by some people from that area. So there's a lot of Celtic lineage in that area. And so it seems like an interesting segue to say, let's start off the month of April by going to Asheville, North Carolina. And my guest Marilyn Ball, she is the host of the iHeartRadio show and podcast called Speaking of Travel, and she absolutely amazes me with her knowledge of the history of Asheville, especially over the last 50 years. And we're going to find out a little bit about this mountain town and how it went from being a tourist destination under George Vanderbilt to sort of a shadow of itself and then rebuilding itself like a phoenix out of the ashes to become this thriving tourist community that it is today. So she's going to tell us a little bit about things that you can do when you travel to Asheville, and I think you're going to find that there's something for everybody there. You hear that from people from time to time. Well, this town definitely has a little something for everybody. So let's find out a little bit more about that. And it is my pleasure to introduce to you Marilyn Ball. Marilyn, welcome to the show.

Marilyn (05:57):
Thank you, drew. I'm really excited to be here today.

Drew (05:59):
Yeah, so does it feel strange to be on the answer side of the podcast instead of the question side? It

Marilyn (06:06):
Does. I love it though. It feels really great, and I really appreciate you bringing me in.

Drew (06:12):
Sure, absolutely. Well, actually, you were instrumental in helping me get started from a standpoint of Gabriela. My first guest was somebody that I had heard on your show and said, Hey, it'd be nice if you could sync us up. And she was a great guest to have and good way to kick things off, so I appreciate that.

Marilyn (06:33):
Well, you've come a long way already.

Drew (06:35):
20 episodes. I feel like I'm old pro now. Right. So you actually are quite a few more than 20 episodes. How long you've been doing this?

Marilyn (06:47):
Well, I started my show in 2013. Well, maybe it was 14. It's been about six years going on six years. And I started the show on a small low powered radio network, put a shout out to Matt McCann because he was the one who brought me in and did a pilot for me and thought that interviewing people, having conversations with people about travel was a good idea. And it was a 30 minute show. The time went by really fast. I just felt like, I love this. I love talking to people. I love hearing stories about traveling. And after a couple of years, I actually went to iHeartRadio and said, Hey, you guys, I have a radio show. How about plugging me in? And after a couple of months of me being kind of pushy, but not too

Drew (07:46):
Pushy,

Marilyn (07:47):
They said, okay, we'll give you a time slot. So that was going on four years ago. Now,

Drew (07:54):
How has the evolution of the show been? What's your focus now? And did that change from how you started the show?

Marilyn (08:01):
It absolutely did, and it's because of the people that I'm having conversations with that has been the biggest part of the change. Certainly I've had to learn and practice and become a better communicator and a better listener. And I feel that my skill is certainly to help guide my guest into being able to tell their story in an appropriate amount of time. And I feel like I can direct people to do that and give them hand signals to know it's time or somehow give them that information. But they have taught me so much about the world and about taking a risk. People have said to me, Marilyn, you're so brave to do this show and get out there and put yourself out there. I listened to somebody who tells me that they sold their house and bought a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia and lived there for two years and visited 20 countries in that period of time and became a scuba diving instructor. And that to me is brave. So as the bar is continually raised that wow, people are doing things that I would never do, but maybe now I would do it.

Drew (09:31):
So how much traveling have you gotten to do with all of this

Marilyn (09:36):
Right now? My traveling has been really vicariously through all my other travels, travel guests. So listening to them, we were talking earlier about Western North Carolina and living here in Asheville, and I've been very fortunate to be able to travel the world. I've also lived here in Western North Carolina for a long time. So I certainly respect and appreciate the vast natural resources that we have, but we forget when we live somewhere, what is there? So I have to say I have spent a good bit of time over these last couple of years really focusing on what's here in my own backyard and how can I have little mini vacations that soothe my soul, give me an opportunity to reboot and refresh without spending a fortune right now and being able to recognize that my backyard, I choose to live here. Let's do it. Let's do it here.

Drew (10:46):
So let's talk a little bit about Asheville then, because both of you and I have been here. Well, you've been here longer than I've been. I left for a while. I left in 1993. I came back in 98 and the town completely changed in those five years from what I grew up around, because my original impression of Asheville was it was a place for retirees, and there was Biltmore House, and beyond that you could go do hiking and whatever, but there wasn't really, it didn't seem like there was that much of a focus on it as much as there is now. There was a new age explosion that happened and all of a sudden Asheville's being on best of lists all over the place and traffic has grown to an immense amount. So in terms of your experience in Asheville and where it is now, what kinds of things do you find the most pleasure out of in terms of discovering here in Asheville or taking advantage of?

Marilyn (11:51):
Well, I was here, I came here in the seventies as a homesteader. So by that, I mean we were a movement of people coming out of the Vietnam War growing up in an age of Aquarius, whatever you want to call it. We wanted to find community around a common goal of everybody is equal, everybody is on a fair track that we can collaborate and grow a village where we can raise our kids and all be happy. That was kind of our goal. And we looked at the people in Appalachia as those role models for us. Here were people who were living for generations, Contently, they had whatever they needed, whatever they had, and they made it work. They grew their own vegetables and sat around the campfire and told stories and passed down music. And we wanted to be that kind of, we wanted a legend like that.

(13:12):
So Asheville at that time was becoming a hub for people looking for that kind of community and finding it here in a place that was somewhat because of its own history. Asheville was a very, very prominent tourism destination back when George Vanderbilt came and built his house here, and Grove came and all the, there was a lot of tourism. And when the depression hit, the town went bankrupt. And the leaders at that time made a decision that they were not going to do anything to temper their infrastructure until their debt was paid off. Well, that took 50 some years. So in the seventies, the debt had finally been paid off. And what was left were all these old, beautiful deco buildings that had become run down because there had never been any money in all those years to do anything about it. So right as we were entering into this community and sensing, wow, there's a nice vibe here.

(14:25):
Seems like the people who live here are pretty cool, and the people our age, there was already a little bookstore and a little coffee shop and places for people to stand on the corner and recite poetry. It was a very kind of laid back, but it was because the people who were here were already creating that. We didn't come and make that happen. So what ultimately happened was that the city at that point said, wow, we have all this dead space, meaning all these beautiful old buildings that are run down. And they had just opened a new mall out on the east side of town, the Asheville Mall, and people were starting to go there to shop. So the city leaders at that time said, you know what? We don't need all these buildings. We need a mall. We need a downtown mall. If we have a downtown mall, then everybody won't go to East Asheville. They'll just stay downtown. And they proposed to actually tear down 11 City Acres, basically, which would be all of Haywood Street, Walnut Street, Lexington Avenue. That whole perimeter would've been completely torn down and leveled.

Drew (15:45):
And there's a lot of classic buildings in that area.

Marilyn (15:49):
And there were people who had businesses there, shoe stores, furniture stores who had been there for generations who were going to lose their property by eminent domain. It was pretty harsh, but there were people who were here in Asheville, young people who became the leaders, people who were from Asheville, whose families owned those businesses who grew up here. They said, we're not going to let that happen. And all of a sudden there was this movement called Save Downtown Asheville. So all the people who were starting to come in coupled with the people who were already here, we called ourselves the Asheville 1000, created this village and fought, and one woman, her name was Peggy Gardner, she was a student at U N C A at that time. Her family owned a shoe store and she had been studying Cristo, the artist who does installations all over the world.

(16:50):
He's very famous in Central Park and in Italy. Cristo is very famous, and she was studying him in her art class, and he would do these incredible installations. So she decided that what they needed to do was to wrap these 11 city acres in fabric to show the impact of what it would look like without all these beautiful old buildings. And she went to a manufacturer down at the river, which is now the River Arts District, and said, could you donate enough fabric to wrap this portion of downtown? And he donated the fabric. She brought a team of people together, and on a designated day, they set up almost like a rally, like a relay where everybody was going to run and then wrap the fabric. And they called the newspaper the TV station, and people came out and reported on it. It was a big event. And then people started talking, wow, we didn't know this was going on. And over the next two years with debates, lots of conversations, lots of publicity, the Save Downtown Asheville team won. Wow. And that's when the Downtown Association began downtown. The Preservation Foundation began. That's when people recognized, we have this beautiful downtown area. We are a fighting spirit of people who live here creating a community. It was very intentional.

Drew (18:36):
Was that where the Bells Share Festival, was that born out of that? It

Marilyn (18:40):
Was. Everything was born out of that.

Drew (18:42):
Yeah, because for me, it was fascinating that that came to an end, that they don't do the Bells Share Festival anymore, but because it drew so many people in, and it was such a successful draw to Asheville, and now you can go to cities all across the southeast and see these town festivals that go on that to me are just them trying to emulate what Bell Scher was for Asheville.

Marilyn (19:09):
And Bell Scher originally was a community festival. Everybody who played there were people from our community and from western North Carolina. There were no big acts unless you were a big act who played in Asheville. It was all about the community and bringing people downtown, putting out food, having music. It was all a part of what our culture was creating. And over time, and it's important to point out this critical historical time is in 1983 after the save downtown Asheville, and now Asheville is here. It is all these buildings. What are we going to do with them? Like you had said, there's the Biltmore House over there, but they were doing their own marketing, but it wasn't bringing in overnight guests, really. So the hoteliers and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce in the early eighties started to talk amongst themselves and say, what can we do to drive traffic? They had built the Asheville Civic Center complex thinking, well, we'll have conferences and conventions, but there were no hotels. That's the irony of today.

Drew (20:28):
Yeah. Now it's wall-to-wall hotels.

Marilyn (20:31):
There were maybe 3000 rooms throughout the city. And those hoteliers said with the chamber leadership, why don't we do what these other cities are doing and tax ourselves? They felt a 2% sales tax added on to a guest overnight stay would generate revenue that they could use only for marketing. It could not be used for infrastructure, it could not be used for anything but marketing the city of Asheville and the county. And that bill was eventually passed. It's called the Bunum Bill. It was passed in 1983 by a collaboration of people who all worked together from all sides, varied, nonpartisan. It was what was going to be best for this community that was at a sink or swim place. It was either going to continue to go into decline with no money, no revenue, nothing, or they were going to have to do something as radical as taxing themselves.

(21:42):
They went that route, and that is how the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority was born. That is when the marketing strategies started to unfold, the marketing research. Who would come here? What is the demographic of people that we would love to share this beautiful, beautiful place in nature, these beautiful old buildings? Well, of course, the people who wanted to come to visit to be a part of all of that were people who wanted a better quality of life than what they were living. They didn't want to live in cities that were smog full of dirt, and their waterways were compromised because of population growth. They felt they were being drawn and attracted to Asheville and Western North Carolina because the people who were doing the marketing were looking at strategies to create a environment that would invite people to come here. And

Drew (22:51):
It worked. It seems like it's been successful.

Marilyn (22:53):
It has been so successful.

Drew (22:54):
What did I read the other day? There's what, 90,000 people in Asheville now? I mean, that's huge versus what it used to be. And I always used to think it was the best kept secret. And now, I mean the cat's completely out of the bag in terms of, and how many hotels are they building downtown? And now I think the question is how do you keep them from overgrowing downtown to the point where all that old architecture just gets buried by all of these new buildings that are coming up

Marilyn (23:27):
And all the more reason to never forget our past and our history, that from the very beginning of the evolution of this community was around collaboration and working together and being part of a community. And we have to go back to those grassroots values when we think about who we elect into office and what are the needs, and being able to have public discourse and communicating what are the needs and how can we make that happen? Because on the other side, we have to recognize, yes, we do have a lot of hotels and a lot more people and oh my God, there's traffic jams now. But look at the wonderful restaurants that we have and the level of creativity with the people who are attracted here, who do the most beautiful art and music and food. There's going to be a whole festival this year here in Asheville that is going to be a focus.

(24:39):
It's going to kind of take that three day bell share type of festival feel. But it's all themed around Appalachian cuisine coming from artists. It's going to cover not only the food, but the art. Like potters will make dishes that they'll use. There'll be activities where you can go forging and then create your own meals. It's all going to be here a hub right here in Asheville that's going to get international attention, but it's all around Appalachia. So we have to remember, we don't want to lose our roots, but how can we create a community to invite others in to share all of this positive that we have going on here?

Drew (25:33):
So for somebody who's coming here to travel and see the place for the first time, I mean, do you kind of advise them to stay away from the ruckus downtown and stay on the outskirts somewhere and take advantage of maybe coming in here at a particular time of the day to avoid the busyness downtown? Or how does someone navigate this town these days?

Marilyn (25:58):
I think every person has their own personal way of wanting to experience any place. And certainly to be able to have a full experience, I would want to stay downtown someplace where you can just park your car and you don't have to get in it again for as long as you're here. That has a lot of appeal to me.

Drew (26:23):
Bring your walking shoes. There's a lot of hills.

Marilyn (26:25):
Absolutely. Bring your walking shoes and also be prepared going to the explore asheville.com website and finding out ahead of time all there is to see and do, which is very overwhelming, but trying to put together an itinerary. I'm interviewing a woman on my show in a couple of weeks who started a business here called Namaste in Nature, and she is bringing people from all over to Asheville to take yoga hikes. You can do yoga with goats. There are so many things that coming to Asheville, you should be prepared. What is it you want to get out of your experience? Just like if you were going to Florence, Italy, what do you want to get out of that experience? And then create your itinerary around that. And always remembering Asheville is a wonderful hub. There's so much going on, but the whole community of Western North Carolina, the Cherokee Indian Reservation, the Waterfall Trail waterfalls and hiking trails and biking trails, there's so much rich history and music and dance. It's endless. So one visit certainly isn't going to be enough, but each time you come wrap your head around, what are you coming for? If you have a family, do you want to have family activities?

Drew (27:57):
Right. So let's talk about the different sections of town then for people, because I'm guessing that most of the people listening probably have not experienced this before, may want to figure out what sections of town might be more interesting. Now, of course, rivers Arts District, to me is very interesting place because there used to be nothing there under the Smokey Park Bridge when you drive through town. And that was just not a section of town that you would consider going to as a tourist. But describe that a little bit. What's going on down there?

Marilyn (28:31):
Well, it's another perfect example of what Asheville was like. Back when I came in the seventies, the River Arts District was just the river and manufacturing. There was a lot of manufacturing going on. Like the man who donated the fabric for the wrap, they were manufacturing. And over the years, manufacturing wasn't working anymore. And those buildings, those huge warehouses became vacant. And there was actually a couple who came here back then who were potters, and they went into one of the old warehouses and started a clay factory. They actually made clay. And over time, they were attracting people who wanted to do pottery and throw pots. What a great collaboration. Hey, I'm making clay, and you want to make something out of clay? Let's collaborate. And then over time, more and more artists started to say, wow, here's a pretty cool place. Rent is cheap because there's no water.

(29:45):
Or maybe, or the heat is off and down, but it's cheap. And look at, here are all these other artists. We're forming a community down here. Somebody bought one of the big warehouses and started putting a little money into it and attracting more and more artists. And over time, that whole area that had been in decline and was actually pretty sketchy, started coming into art galleries. And they would invite people to come to their studios to watch them throw their pots or weave their fabric. And then over time, they banded together and became a little more structured into being an actual association. Like let's all work together. Now you can take trolley. They have these weekends where you go in on a trolley and it's hop on, hop off, and you can go to all the different studios. And there are artists here now from all over the world doing the most beautiful and natural. Everything is just so natural and the people are so friendly and they want you to come in and be a part of the experience. And you and I both know when people travel, that's what we're encouraging. You want to create an experience. We're not just going to the, I mean the Biltmore Estate is awesome, and there's so much going on there too that you don't want to miss. Not just the house, but their solar energy and all of the winery and the music that they have. It's wonderful. There's so much else. I

Drew (31:32):
Think where I get at in terms of when we're talking about places to go and I sort of edge towards going outside of Asheville, is that feeling of when I travel somewhere, I want to experience with the locals experience and get into being around the locals and that sort of thing. I'm wondering, is there still a part of that in Asheville or has it become very tourist centric and there's less of the local feel? What is the local feel downtown and where would you most see that?

Marilyn (32:10):
I think because Asheville is a town that was a community that was created around the spirit of everybody being able to do their own thing and making decisions early on. We don't want big box stores downtown. We don't want big chain stores. 80% of the businesses in downtown Asheville, 80% are small business. That's where the community, that is where the locals are because these are the locals who have started their own businesses. Who would've ever thought that somebody would have an idea to buy a bus and paint it purple

(32:55):
And do tours around town that are comedy, but historical, right. What an idea. Yeah. Well, it worked. And I think the beauty of Asheville is the entrepreneurial spirit that we are here to create our passion. And maybe our passion right now is around C, b, D and hemp. You're going to find a lot of that popping up. Maybe my passion is food. You're going to find that in the restaurants. These are locally owned restaurants. I know a woman who's doing rooftop tours. She's showing us, wow, she's a local. She sat up on a bar on a rooftop bar one day and said, what if I took people on rooftop tours and did a history looking down instead of looking up, what a great idea.

Drew (33:49):
So this is why you say just park yourself down town and do it on foot and see what you can see. Because a lot of personality in all of the businesses,

Marilyn (34:00):
And that's where you find the local culture everywhere you go, because the people who live here work here. And we're all working really for the hospitality industry in one way or the other. You can call it what you want, but that's ultimately what it is. And the people here, I have seen people standing on corners with a map, and you hear this when people travel, it's so prevalent here. Somebody will come up to you and say, are you lost? Do you need some help? Oh, why don't you come with me to lunch? I'd love for you to meet my family or meet, you should go to this store. That is where you're going to find exactly what you need. So yes, it's becoming very tourist centric, but the tourists are coming here because the locals are here and we are the community. And that's what they get to experience when they come to visit. We get to stay. And yes, it's frustrating to get on the highway and there's traffic. Oh, where did that come from? And yet what I remind people is you want to create a restaurant where you're serving your families recipes. Well, who's going to come and support that? But the people who are coming to visit here, and luckily through our tourism development, those dollars that are going to marketing that people could debate, well, maybe it should be going somewhere else. It's going to marketing so that the tide can rise all boats here.

Drew (35:48):
And again, you and I have seen where the town was so many years ago where I remember Huey Lewis in the news was coming to town and it was like the most exciting news. We actually had a known performer coming to town now you had a few years ago, smashing Pumpkins was doing their reunion tour and they decided just to have a residency in San Francisco and Asheville. That was their entire tour. That's amazing that it's changed that much.

Marilyn (36:17):
It is. We have to always remember that this city was in decline. It was a very slippery slope back then if people hadn't risen to the occasion and said, we want to keep this city alive because it always has been alive, went through a 50 year downturn, but everything is here. It's set. Let's do it.

Drew (36:45):
Right. So when we're talking about different areas of town, just below downtown is South Slope, and I don't know how many years Asheville's been voted, beer City, U Ss a. It seems like a struggle between Asheville and Grand Rapids, Michigan. But talk a little bit about the influx of beer in this area. And is beer it or what other spirits and things are you starting to see around the area?

Marilyn (37:18):
Well, certainly beer is a big part of it. And I have to say the South Slope area back in the day was again, kind of a little sketchy place and nobody really went down there. But again, because of this entrepreneurial spirit, a couple of people said, wow, we really would like to brew some beer. So here's some space cheap. We can put in some big whatever we need to make it work. And it's a craft, it's like an art and craft. And I have to tell you this quick story because certainly the beer industry and our culture with all of that is really big. It's all wrapped around our natural resources. Like New Belgium wouldn't be here, Sierra Nevada wouldn't be here if it wasn't for our water and our natural resources where they can grow or buy from local farmers. Another area that we could definitely touch on is local farming, farm to table.

(38:29):
I mean, that is, if there's a restaurant in Asheville that's not using local produce, nobody's going to go there anymore. So everybody is brought in, everybody else. But I went to a workshop one time, it was a conference, and this was many years ago, and there was a panel, and I love telling this story because to me it's kind of a case study of why Asheville is way it is. And it was a panel discussion with brewery owners. It was at a time when it was obvious we were getting to that point where there were quite a few breweries and this was happening and the culture was changing. And they brought in about six people who had started breweries to talk about how they started and how their company was growing. And of course, Oscar Wong of Highland Brewery was the number one positioned in the seats because he started Highland Brewery underneath an old building in downtown.

(39:33):
And just because he had a passion for that, and over time it grew. And he's Highland Brewery. And then next to him was Mike from Asheville Brew, who kind of started next, and then there was somebody else. There were about six people. So Oscar was asked to talk about how he started Highland Brewery, and he talked about it a little bit. And then it was Mike's turn to talk and he said when he decided that he wanted to start a brewery, he went to Oscar Wong and said, Oscar, I'd like to start a brewery. You obviously are dominating

Drew (40:12):
It. Good at it. You've done well, right?

Marilyn (40:15):
Can you give me any advice? And Oscar, basically, according to Mike said, here, Mike, here's everything I know about Brewery. Wow, you take it all and you do it. And then the next person came to Mike and said, Hey Mike, I want to start a brewery too. And Mike said, here's everything I've learned. Take it. Do it. So you can see that value and our mission, I feel we always take it back to that mission of collaboration that goes back even to the time of George Vanderbilt was how can we all work together to make everybody successful? And that philosophy and that mission, I feel, is the driving force. Whether we're looking at the bruising or the art scene or the pretzel scene or the gourmet chip scene, we've got it

Drew (41:11):
All. Is there a pretzel scene? I didn't know there was

Marilyn (41:13):
A pretzel scene. I just made that up. But I bet now there will be,

Drew (41:17):
Pennsylvania's not going to be very happy with it. Right.

Marilyn (41:20):
So you see the point of all of that is yes, we do have a lot of accolades now. We're so great at so many things, and yet what we're really the greatest at is working together, being a community, helping each other, wanting that tide to rise for all boats. That's a pretty cool thing. And you don't see that a lot in other areas. So

Drew (41:49):
When somebody is planning out a trip to come here and they want to see something that maybe everybody doesn't quite know about that's visiting you have any suggestions, any particular or maybe an event that goes on that you think people should keep an eye out for when they're making their plans around Asheville?

Marilyn (42:14):
I feel that the overall draw of Asheville is the history that there's so much amazing history that this place wouldn't be what it is today, this vibrant community of artistic and creative people. If there wasn't a rich history that preceded all of this, and there are so many ways to enjoy that history and to learn that history from being on that purple bus, the Zumba that is comedy, but history with a twist to go into Biltmore and learning everything that you can about that time and what George Vanderbilt and his family were doing here and how that tradition has continued. The beautiful flowers, I mean it Biltmore, you could do a whole trip around the gardens. It's so historical. The food, the arts and craft, there are trails that you can take. There are like the Handmade in America, you can still go out into the rural communities and visit people who are making their craft right in their home.

(43:34):
So I would definitely recommend for people when they're coming here to learn to wrap their trip around that history level first. So you can take the trolley. There are so many different ways to learn the history of what this community, what this region, what Appalachia is about, what the Cherokee are about. All the music that's here. All of it comes from a history, whether the Scotch Irish influence, you go up into Grandfather Mountain in that area, you've got the Highland Games. I think each and every person needs to think about what is it that we're looking for when we come and really start with getting a good foundation of what they're even coming here for.

Drew (44:29):
Right. Okay. In terms of your show and what you do on your show, you focus a lot on travel, but you also focus some on Asheville as well. So tell everybody a little bit about your show and where they can hear it and give them an idea of the type of stuff that you're doing.

Marilyn (44:50):
Well, as we had talked about earlier, when I started speaking of Travel, it was just a 30 minute show. I interviewed people. We had conversations about where they had been. It was very inspiring. Even somebody who took a cross country trip in a VW bug and then went 20 years later with their kids, very moving, very moving topics. Now being on the iHeartRadio platform and having an opportunity to interview people from all over the world, I am always looking for guests who can educate. Tell us a little bit more about the travel industry, what's going on behind the scenes. We take it for granted. We can just get on a plane and be in another country, but there's a lot going on that got us there.

Drew (45:45):
And it feels like we're in a golden age of travel at this point with all the inexpensive airfares. And I mean, just the economy has been good. So it's allowed people to travel a lot

Marilyn (45:57):
More. Exactly. But it has to be something that you want to do and that even if you dream of doing it, that you now have the resources. So I feel that my show is a resource where people can listen to other people who, I'll give you an example. A young couple in their early thirties, went to college, were pretty buttoned up, moved to Charlotte, were both in the banking industry, turning to each other one day and saying, we hate this life. What are we going to do? And being the nature of both their personalities, they created a 12 month timeline of what they were going to do to get out of this horrible lifestyle, which was going to be to travel. And I said, did you create a chart? Oh, yeah, we had to have a chart. Everything had to be a chart. They had a 12 month timeline with every month they were going to do these tasks and these tasks.

(47:04):
And the reason I even had found out about them is because they have a podcast and a blog, not a podcast, a blog called Career Break Adventures. Because what they thought they were doing was taking a career break. When in reality, what it turned out is that once they got to their destination, which was all planned out, we're going to go here. We're stay here this many days, then we're going to take a plane or a train or whatever to the next spot. As soon as they got to destination one, the plans were gone. They had no plans. And instead of staying a year, they were gone two years. And now they're just coming back thinking, what are we going to do now? It's not going to be going back to our life as we knew it.

Drew (47:53):
Yeah, I think it's kind of like somebody told me about becoming an entrepreneur. Once you become an entrepreneur, going back to work for somebody else is almost impossible. You get trained into a whole new lifestyle.

Marilyn (48:06):
It is a new lifestyle, but it is a lifestyle that is always scary, always taking a risk, maybe not knowing where your revenue's coming from, but being committed to doing your passion work.

Drew (48:19):
But don't you find people thrive on that? There are people who just, they don't mind that fear factor because it actually energizes them and gets them to, it's like a determination that they have that they're going to make this thing work.

Marilyn (48:33):
Absolutely. And yet sometimes we feel that, but we don't know how to do that. Oh, I'm feeling something. It feels like energetic, but I'm not sure how to do it. And that's when you realize there are other people who've done it before you and you have resources. And that's what this couple did. They were able to go online and find all kinds of resources to help them get over their fear of what are we doing here? And once they got out there and the freedom was theirs, they didn't worry about the bottom line anymore. They weren't worried about where are we going to make our next dollar? They had no worries. Maybe the train was late,

Drew (49:18):
But you learned how to deal with that as

Marilyn (49:20):
Well. You do. Yeah. And then you apply that to everything else that you do in your life, and you start to recognize, oh, I might be getting insecure right now. I might not know where the next meal is going to be, but I know that somebody else is going to be able to direct me to that. And that's how you make connections all over the world. So when you ask, what do I feel is my mission now on my show? It's to allow people to recognize that people or people everywhere you go, and you don't have to be scared. Yes, you have to be safe, but you also need to know that women traveling solo, it's a thing. People do that

Drew (50:05):
A lot more than, I think there's more female solo travelers now than there are men, and

Marilyn (50:10):
They're all there to help you. Maybe you've never done a solo travel. I've never done a solo travel. It's taken me six years of talking to people who have done solo travel for me to even feel like someday I'm going to do a solo travel because I feel more confident that she did it and she did it, and they were okay.

Drew (50:32):
What's funny is for all the years that I've been traveling myself, I went back to a place that I had traveled to and had all of those initial fears that I had on that being the first place I went to on my own. And I just laughed at it because I thought, it's just inexperience. And until you actually get out there and start doing it now, traveling to middle of nowhere, Czech Republic doesn't bother me. And then hearing Gabriela walking the whole thing, I'm going, okay, there's a level of fear and all you have to do is just chip away at it and you'll get yourself to be able to conquer anything.

Marilyn (51:18):
And I have to say, I have people now who are finding my show from various, you can listen to my show on the iHeartRadio app. It's on iTunes, Spotify, all the Google Play platforms. It's also broadcast locally and regionally on W N C five 70 W N C. But really, people can go to my website, speaking of travel.net, they can listen to all my past podcasts. And people are starting to recognize, wow, Marilyn has some really cool guests on her shows who are telling stories about breaking out of stereotypes, taking a risk, making a plan, having a dream, and moving towards that dream one baby step at a time. Maybe not going to Italy, but going to the coast, taking a four hour trip, but experiencing shrimp and grits made by the locals. And then over time, taking the next step to where they feel comfortable so that I have people on my show who are telling these incredible stories of meeting people and being welcomed into homes all over the world and recognizing that this is a small world and people are people everywhere you go and everybody has a story. And when you know their story, then you're going to have a lot more empathy to other people. And that's what we need in our world right now more than ever.

Drew (53:13):
Well, thank you very much for being on the show, and I appreciate it, and we'll post all of the information, the links to your show on our show notes so that people can catch up with that. And thank you very much for sharing all your time with us today.

Marilyn (53:27):
Well, thank you, drew. I really am so glad that you and I have connected because we have such similar missions. Yeah,

Drew (53:35):
Absolutely.

Marilyn (53:35):
Well, thank you. Thank

Drew (53:37):
You.

(53:39):
And so I've stocked up the show notesPage@travelfuelslife.com, not only with the information from Marilyn's website and her podcast, but also all of those different things like the Lazo Tour and explore asheville.com. I've got all those links out there. So go ahead and check out the show notes page for much more information for planning your trip to Asheville, North Carolina. Well, it's time for me to head off to my next destination, but again, I want to thank you guys for being here and for getting us through 20 episodes and many, many more to come. And if you enjoyed the show and you got any comments for me, feel free to leave them on the show notes page. Or you can join me on one of my social media outlets, also on Twitter, at twitter.com/travel fuels life. Or you can just email me at drew@travelfuelslife.com. I would love to hear from you. And until next time, this is Drew Hanish saying Happy travels and have a great week. Thank you for listening to Travel Fuels Life.