Show notes
Today, I am talking with Kenny G from R3 Contingencies about being prepared for travel, both by car and by plane, as well as developing situational awareness while planning your trips. Featured Event: Save the Date for the LFTN Workshop Ticket Sales, January 20, 2024 at 9am Central. Theme, "Back to the Basics." Workshop is April 25-27. Sponsor 1: The WealthSteading Podcast, InvestableWealth.com Sponsor 2: Last change for the $35 Homesteading and Permaculture Bundle with a 17 episode podcast analysis of Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden and a whole HOST of other things! https://permies.com/w/bundle?f=495 Show Resources R3 Contingencies Website Main content of the show Kenny G started R3 contingencies in 2020, Since then he has helped expand their services. So they can help if you lost everything from your cell phone charger to a full suit, to giving you a plan after a break-in. Why should I prep for travel? I have a good travel agent isn't that enough? What should I be concerned with road trips I have AAA is'nt the best thing to have? What is the most common problem you see and what is the easiest way to prevent it? How about flying? What if I want to travel internationally? What if it's for business vs pleasure? Does it change my travel plans? Make it a great week GUYS! Don't forget about the cookbook, Cook With What You Have by Nicole Sauce and Mama Sauce. Community Mewe Group: https://mewe.com/join/lftn Telegram Group: https://t.me/LFTNGroup Odysee: https://odysee.com/$/invite/@livingfree:b Advisory Board The Booze Whisperer The Tactical Redneck Chef Brett Samantha the Savings Ninja Resources Membership Sign Up Holler Roast Coffee Harvest Right Affiliate Link Transcript 00:03.643 --> 00:09.346 Howdy, everybody, and welcome to today's live interview with Kenny G. Kenny G, you going to play some music? 00:11.448 --> 00:12.228 Maybe a little later. 00:12.248 --> 00:14.569 I think I forgot my guitar at the show. 00:14.810 --> 00:16.230 Is Kenny G your real name? 00:17.231 --> 00:17.891 Close enough. 00:19.712 --> 00:20.293 That's right, guys. 00:20.833 --> 00:29.518 Kenny G's been on our podcast before on a different topic, but he reached out to me and said, hey, I want to talk about things people should know while traveling. 00:30.359 --> 00:30.519 And 00:31.329 --> 00:47.931 I kind of added because I know you're going to end up talking about this like situational awareness, something that has really struck me in the last couple of years that I've been on the road is so I was driving to Texas and you know how those alerts come over your phone that everybody turns off because they're annoying. 00:47.952 --> 00:48.873 Yep. 00:49.721 --> 00:51.261 Okay, so one of those alerts came over my phone. 00:51.301 --> 00:53.022 I'm like, I have Amber Alerts. 00:53.302 --> 00:53.742 Shut off. 00:53.782 --> 00:54.442 Like, what's up? 00:54.622 --> 00:56.982 And a convict had escaped prison. 00:57.022 --> 01:00.963 So it was a different kind of alert. 01:01.383 --> 01:03.223 And he had taken people hostage. 01:04.364 --> 01:07.384 And they said, this is going on in this area. 01:07.404 --> 01:14.246 Well, I had made the critical error of following my GPS instead of my map to get around, to route around a traffic issue. 01:14.886 --> 01:16.446 So I didn't actually know where I was. 01:18.511 --> 01:23.636 And so when it said where it was, I didn't know where I where I was, where it was in relationship to that. 01:23.756 --> 01:30.864 And luckily, I had more than half a tank because I usually top off about every half tank when I'm driving somewhere long distance. 01:31.364 --> 01:33.206 And I got all the way to my destination. 01:33.226 --> 01:35.829 And it turned out I was within a couple of miles. 01:36.029 --> 01:41.795 And the guy ended up taking a family hostage, driving to Ohio and killing them before he was caught. 01:42.905 --> 01:45.507 And so that's what I mean by situational awareness. 01:45.587 --> 01:53.572 Like we get so used to technology that sometimes it's a really bad idea to just put your faith in it. 01:53.672 --> 01:55.033 But there's a lot of stuff you can do. 01:55.053 --> 01:56.074 Oh, I lost the light. 01:56.454 --> 01:59.516 There's a lot of stuff you can do between now and then. 01:59.656 --> 02:02.038 But let's start with before we jump into that. 02:02.418 --> 02:03.939 I'm just giving everybody the overview. 02:06.021 --> 02:09.283 Tell us who you are and how you ended up on LFTN anyway. 02:11.467 --> 02:14.528 Um, Ken or Kenny G if you prefer. 02:14.608 --> 02:17.630 And yes, that is the real first initial for my last name. 02:18.650 --> 02:24.372 Um, I am working or I work for the emergency concierge service, our three contingencies. 02:24.953 --> 02:27.774 We see a lot of things happen up, down, left, right. 02:28.634 --> 02:31.595 And I thought it would be a great topic here. 02:31.715 --> 02:35.357 And not to mention, I've reached out to Nicole for several things regarding business. 02:35.477 --> 02:37.338 So pay it back, right? 02:37.858 --> 02:37.998 Yeah. 02:38.018 --> 02:40.759 So what is our three contingencies before we jump in there? 02:41.738 --> 02:46.003 They are, as far as I know, the world's only emergency concierge service that there is. 02:47.684 --> 02:50.528 What does an emergency concierge service do? 02:51.949 --> 02:57.795 For example, let's say you go on a flight and they lose your luggage and you have a business meeting. 02:58.656 --> 03:02.861 It would have been something that we prep for and we would have clothes delivered to your hotel room. 03:04.275 --> 03:05.236 Well, that's pretty cool. 03:05.316 --> 03:13.801 With, you know, a Visa gift card if you need it, a phone charger, standard stuff that you may have forgotten or gotten lost. 03:13.921 --> 03:16.883 Or example, you run out because your kid's in the hospital. 03:17.343 --> 03:23.247 We deliver a phone charger to you, food, basic necessities, toothbrush, toothpaste, stuff like that. 03:24.226 --> 03:24.406 Wow. 03:24.426 --> 03:25.207 That sounds really good. 03:25.227 --> 03:25.547 Yeah. 03:26.588 --> 03:26.748 Yeah. 03:26.928 --> 03:27.829 I found your website. 03:27.929 --> 03:30.111 So I thought I had to, you know, show it. 03:30.972 --> 03:33.234 Cause we have that capacity here. 03:33.374 --> 03:33.694 Okay. 03:33.774 --> 03:35.936 So let's go back to traveling though. 03:35.996 --> 03:39.779 Cause traveling has probably taught me more about prepping than anything else. 03:40.540 --> 03:45.164 One thing I learned is you never leave the house without a snack in your bag. 03:46.414 --> 03:53.399 Because you're going to end up on a train somewhere in the middle of the night in Eastern Germany and you didn't have time to get dinner. 03:53.479 --> 03:55.560 And luckily you have that snack in your bag. 03:56.120 --> 03:59.102 But why should I prep for travel? 04:00.203 --> 04:05.526 And if I'm like with a tour group, should I still should I still prep for travel? 04:05.546 --> 04:06.167 And if so, why? 04:08.505 --> 04:10.647 Absolutely, you should still prep for travel. 04:10.907 --> 04:14.550 And prepping for travel is essential because let's face it, you never know. 04:16.311 --> 04:18.452 I live in New Hampshire, I'm really close to Boston. 04:18.833 --> 04:26.278 When the big dig was happened, I have literally driven into Boston and had the road closed that I drove in on, on the way out. 04:28.099 --> 04:29.200 Yeah, what's that mean? 04:29.220 --> 04:30.281 Do you just get stuck on the road? 04:31.901 --> 05:00.958 uh yeah i had to get rerouted and i was stuck in a traffic jam for about four hours what should have been an hour and a half trip literally took me all day and had i not done things like you know make sure my gas tank is kept half topped off bare minimum i keep a gallon of water in the car i keep cliff bars in the car i mean i know they're not the healthiest thing for you but they do help satisfy your hunger and there is such a thing as driving hangry and i would not recommend it 05:01.869 --> 05:02.469 Well, why not? 05:02.489 --> 05:06.971 Because you make stupid choices when you're hangry. 05:08.592 --> 05:11.893 I mean, I know it says no U-turn, but I don't see anyone here and I'm starving. 05:14.334 --> 05:22.897 Yeah, I took a wrong turn on my way from Oklahoma City to Tennessee, which literally all you need to do is stay on the stupid freeway, which is I-40, right? 05:23.958 --> 05:24.198 Right. 05:25.126 --> 05:27.688 But I got on the freeway going the wrong direction after getting gas. 05:27.728 --> 05:30.391 And then I took the next exit, which was a terrible idea. 05:30.511 --> 05:36.896 Ended up driving 28 miles one direction to where I could finally turn around after paying a toll and 28 miles back. 05:36.916 --> 05:41.680 And I kept looking at the gaps every so often that said, don't drive through here. 05:42.741 --> 05:45.922 And I finally like I was like, well, there's so many cars coming. 05:45.962 --> 05:47.063 I'm not going to do it right. 05:47.143 --> 05:52.685 But I was really tempted and I got to the toll booth and I asked about those things like, oh, yeah, we actually have cameras up. 05:52.705 --> 05:56.226 We would have busted your ass because people get into accidents when they do that. 05:56.826 --> 06:00.828 So I made the right choice in that turn and in that situation. 06:00.968 --> 06:06.470 But what does what does prepping for travel look like? 06:08.410 --> 06:08.970 Depends. 06:09.070 --> 06:10.551 Are you flying or driving? 06:10.951 --> 06:13.631 I mean, we're talking about driving, so let's go with that. 06:13.651 --> 06:16.772 A simple low-hanging fruit is get AAA. 06:17.632 --> 06:23.974 It doesn't cost much, and if you get one tow, just one in like four years, it pays for itself. 06:24.994 --> 06:30.875 I used to work for a towing company back when I was younger and had hair, and it started out like $150 to pick you up plus $15 a mile. 06:30.915 --> 06:32.256 That adds up really, really fast. 06:38.846 --> 06:39.186 Yeah. 06:39.747 --> 06:46.232 So I have AAA for this reason and the poor people have had to tow me at least twice a year since I got it. 06:47.933 --> 06:52.417 And except for this year, because it's the second or third or something. 06:54.379 --> 06:59.102 What happened in 2020 with AAA is they would pick your car up, but not you. 06:59.122 --> 07:03.006 Yeah, that sounds about right. 07:03.326 --> 07:06.048 And they said they didn't want to risk giving the drivers COVID. 07:06.108 --> 07:07.129 So I was in 2020. 07:09.451 --> 07:10.411 Maybe it was 2021. 07:10.471 --> 07:11.932 It was still in effect. 07:12.092 --> 07:19.073 I get caught in the middle of the wilderness, basically, between Chattanooga and Sparta. 07:19.893 --> 07:21.714 So I'm like literally on the side of the road. 07:21.734 --> 07:22.874 There's nothing around. 07:22.914 --> 07:26.115 And they're like, well, you can't ride with the driver because of our policies. 07:27.555 --> 07:28.755 And I'm like, what am I supposed to do? 07:28.775 --> 07:29.755 You know what they told me to do? 07:29.775 --> 07:31.276 Get an Uber? 07:32.036 --> 07:32.676 Call a cab. 07:34.890 --> 07:37.215 I'm like, I don't know if you understand where I am right now. 07:37.275 --> 07:38.999 Because, you know, they're always like, are you safe? 07:39.059 --> 07:40.361 I'm like, no, I'm not safe. 07:41.143 --> 07:43.448 I'm on the side of the road in the middle of the winter. 07:44.700 --> 07:47.401 And so they were like, well, we don't know what to tell you, ma'am. 07:47.521 --> 07:49.561 This is this is the deal during covid. 07:50.502 --> 07:58.404 And that made me rethink my relationship with Triple A. Now, what I ended up doing was asking the driver if he cared if I jumped in and he said, are you sick? 07:58.464 --> 07:59.004 And I said, no. 07:59.024 --> 08:00.085 He said, then go ahead. 08:00.725 --> 08:01.485 And I did get it. 08:01.785 --> 08:03.586 Like it was a driver decision. 08:03.606 --> 08:08.147 And I did have friends coming to pick me up if that didn't happen. 08:08.167 --> 08:11.188 But they were going to have to drive like two hours to get me. 08:12.228 --> 08:14.631 Meanwhile, my car was towed, you know, because it was broken down. 08:15.011 --> 08:19.635 So what do you think about that in AAA? 08:19.675 --> 08:25.441 Like they're kind of dead to me, but not dead to me because it's the only towing service I've really found that seems to work at all. 08:26.342 --> 08:28.764 That doesn't cost you an arm and a leg when you have to get it. 08:28.784 --> 08:28.864 Yeah. 08:29.205 --> 08:29.445 Yeah. 08:30.552 --> 08:35.134 Yeah, like, okay, first of all, everyone went insane during COVID. 08:35.634 --> 08:41.617 I mean, let's face it, totally reasonable, rational people I know lost their freaking minds. 08:42.497 --> 08:46.839 So I can't fault AAA too much, and they've probably done away with that policy. 08:47.419 --> 08:53.082 Like way, way back in the day, 2010, they actually could not leave you on the side of the road. 08:53.862 --> 08:55.203 They had policies against that. 08:55.771 --> 09:00.993 If you had to like load five people into your tiny two person cab, you did it. 09:01.433 --> 09:04.014 You drive to the next exit and you let them off. 09:04.554 --> 09:09.355 But as I said, people lost their minds during COVID. 09:10.696 --> 09:12.416 Yeah, that happened once to my mom too. 09:12.436 --> 09:19.259 She was stuck in the middle of the freeway, like the middle left middle because the car went into limp mode. 09:19.279 --> 09:19.939 Do you know what that is? 09:20.993 --> 09:24.395 Yes, that is when it enters in when it only does 30 miles an hour. 09:24.516 --> 09:33.182 Oh, no, it did five, five, five in a rainstorm on I-40 won't go more than five rush hour traffic. 09:33.262 --> 09:35.883 She pulls into the left shoulder, calls AAA. 09:37.204 --> 09:40.667 And they're like, well, we can't get there for four hours. 09:42.448 --> 09:43.048 Are you safe? 09:43.088 --> 09:44.790 And I'm like, no, she's actually not safe. 09:45.578 --> 09:50.641 Like anybody could just reef into the back of that car and they go super fast and whatever. 09:50.881 --> 09:51.501 And you can't see. 09:51.982 --> 09:55.884 So the police came and they actually drove her to the next exit, which was nice. 09:57.585 --> 10:01.687 That is something you should probably look at depending on your location. 10:02.227 --> 10:06.089 Suppose the police had said, no, we don't want to wait for AAA. 10:06.109 --> 10:08.010 We're going to call one of our guys and they'll tow you. 10:09.651 --> 10:14.254 And a lot of AAA states, if they cannot get to you in a reasonable amount of time, they will pay for the tow. 10:15.586 --> 10:18.849 I have had that happen with them too, where they couldn't get there for four hours. 10:18.889 --> 10:20.130 And I said, what's my option? 10:20.170 --> 10:21.471 And they said, you get reimbursed. 10:22.731 --> 10:24.473 And then they reimbursed me 80 bucks. 10:27.315 --> 10:29.136 Yeah, that probably was…
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