What's up y'all?
Thanks for joining the Travel Tales and Talk podcast with Derek and Makayla.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makayla.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
And we're back, episode six, The Spanish Departure.
We're about to head back home from España.
It's been about eight, nine days in Spain.
Close to ten.
April 14th is when we landed.
We departed on April 13th and we're headed back and we leave out April 22nd to get back
to the States.
But we're leaving Sevilla via high speed train back to Madrid.
We're going back to Madrid.
So we went back to Madrid for a couple of reasons.
What were those reasons?
You wanted to go to this soccer game.
Don't put it all on me.
You know you did.
I had already been to Madrid quite a few times.
I didn't need to go another time.
Oh man, yes.
So we're headed back to Madrid because I want to watch La Liga soccer slash football, which
got shifted not once but twice.
And then the third time, cost was just outrageous.
I couldn't do the cost of that final soccer match.
How much did it cost?
Well if you want to talk about nosebleeds, nosebleeds started out about $1,200 per person.
And then if you want to go down a level, you're looking at about $1,700 and up.
You could have went.
No ma'am.
I told you to go by yourself.
I couldn't do it.
I can't do that.
Something in my soul won't allow me to do that.
My spirit will say, no sir, we're not doing that.
And then if you want to get further down, you want to get closer to the field, you're
looking at about, cheapest ticket I saw was like 4,000 euros.
That's per person.
Okay.
Can't do it.
And then the other reason why is leaving from Sevilla to Madrid, back to the States, that's
an extra 300 bucks on that flight.
So it would end up being what I think $1,100 per person round trip if we would have left
from Sevilla, which would have took us back to Madrid anyway.
Yeah.
Madrid was the layover.
Yeah.
Madrid was the layover.
And yeah, so we're headed back to Madrid.
And we're staying in a different hotel.
And I actually like this hotel.
It was in the swanky part of town.
And maybe the rich part of Madrid, because it looked really nice.
You had those exclusive high rise apartments.
We were next door to this university.
Can't remember the name of the university.
They had a mall.
It was like for us like Germantown or something.
Being from Memphis is what it felt like.
We were in the affluent suburb of Madrid.
And the design of the hotel was pretty cool too.
You really couldn't tell it was a hotel.
It was just a well designed hotel.
And those people, I am a platinum member of Hilton.
And they wouldn't let us have breakfast or check in early.
Oh, I didn't think about that.
You're right.
I felt some kind of way about that.
She was like, your check in starts at 3 o'clock.
We arrive at about 9, 10.
And she was like, no, we're having breakfast now.
But you're officially not a guest.
She said, tomorrow you can get breakfast.
So I was like, oh, OK.
I guess my diamond status didn't mean anything in Spain.
Not in Spain.
They were not impressed.
Nope.
But that's OK.
That's OK.
Because we did get breakfast the next day.
And it was well worth the wait.
It was delicious.
And you know, my thing is wherever we go, I have to be the first one there because.
Always.
Ever since I saw this woman take with her naked hand a piece of bacon out of the tray,
just pick it up with her hand.
She don't need no tongs.
Didn't use any tongs.
And I just, ever since then, I was like, you know what?
Actually it was ever since COVID.
I've been real funny about it.
But that happened a couple of months ago.
You're the first in line.
I get up.
I set my alarm.
Sometimes I call the front desk and ask them to call me.
And I go down there.
And this particular day, I actually woke up London Rose.
I'm like, yo, we got a breakfast a la CES.
Get up.
And we were down there.
And it was we weren't even the first.
We weren't even the first ones.
It's crazy.
People probably think you kidding, but she's dead serious.
Oh, yeah.
She's going to be the first person down there.
Sometimes I'm down there watching the people put the food out.
I don't play.
Because I need to know, are you going to cough and not cover your mouth?
Or are you going to cough?
In Spain, they're real good about coughing into their hands.
And then touching everything.
Touch everything.
You know, when we were little, that was the way to go.
But then we realized you're putting the germs into your hands and you're sharing it.
And you're sharing it to everyone.
So I was like, man.
But I'm telling you guys, that breakfast was so good.
Everything was delicious.
I didn't get a chance.
They had just options, just different types of meats and pastries and fruits.
You name it.
Well, no, because a lot of the food I never seen before.
I didn't get breakfast.
Well, he didn't get up.
You didn't wake me up.
Whatever.
You gave me that little fake nudge.
Daryl, Daryl.
I tell everybody when I find out when is breakfast and I set my alarms and I let everybody in
the room know, hey, you know.
I'm getting up.
I'm getting breakfast.
And she's true to her word.
She's up.
He didn't get up.
I was like, dang.
I don't play.
Then he come back to the room telling me all about it.
It was so good.
You should have had breakfast.
It was so good.
I was like, what?
That smells.
Did you bring me a plate?
We couldn't take it.
You better go down and get your own.
So we want to keep going about the breakfast.
Okay.
No, no, no.
The breakfast, just the breakfast was delicious.
So I want to go back to the day that we arrived in Madrid and the lady was like, no breakfast
for you tomorrow when you're an on purpose guest.
We're trying to check in.
So I was like, okay.
You're not hurting my feelings.
All I'm going to do is I'm going to whip out this itinerary that I pulled up on this
train and we about to hit the road.
That's because my soccer match got postponed.
So Mekyla to the rescue with her plans.
Sure did.
And that hour and a half long train ride, I was writing down ideas.
You were putting your pen to work.
I sure was.
And the first step was the Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace.
The Royal Palace is an amazing building.
That place is super massive.
It's kind of Oric Hill for that place to be that large.
It's probably five people who actually would live there plus all the servants.
I think it's the largest palace in Europe.
No doubt.
But the thing about it, the Royal family no longer lives there.
They use it for like formal things.
Formal things.
But they don't live in it anymore.
They used to, you know, but not anymore, which is like, oh.
It is massive.
And we did a tour and we saw probably what, 5% of it.
So much to see.
It was room after room after room.
But one thing about the Royal Palace, I do have a regret.
What is that?
Is that we didn't get our tickets beforehand.
Oh, standing in line.
We stood in line every bit of an hour.
Yes.
It was a long line.
It stretched from that entrance to the other building, which is maybe 200 yards apart.
Yeah.
It was about close to a football field length.
Maybe a little longer than that.
I think it was longer than that.
And so there were two lines.
There was a line for those with, actually there were three.
There was three lines.
There was a line for tours.
Guided tours.
And get this, y'all.
Eric and I were in this line, dude, dude, dude, dude, dude.
Guy comes up, hey, I'm offering tours.
You get to skip the line.
I'm like, no, no, we're good.
Yeah.
My tail should have just went on and did it.
Because when he walked away, that's when our hour long wait started.
Began.
So we could have skipped all that and went on in.
So there's three lines.
There's guided tours along with tour groups.
Then there's the line for people with tickets.
Right.
So you get your tickets online.
Online.
And then there's us.
Trying to buy tickets at the door.
Those who are going to buy it on the spot.
And man, if you ever want to go to the Royal Palace in Madrid, which is worth it, buy your
tickets in advance.
Yes.
Get them online.
Because we stood in line so long that we were able to visit, there's a church in the same
little courtyard.
Yeah.
London Rose and I were able to go walk around the church.
I had to stand in line to hold our place.
Sure did.
You're a beast of burden.
It was beautiful.
Another cathedral.
Beautiful cathedral.
And even with us walking around there, seeing everything in that cathedral, we still had
to come out and stand in line.
Stand in line.
About another 30 minutes.
Yeah.
And it felt like the line didn't even move while y'all were going.
I was like, what is going on?
Next time we're buying our tickets online.
But this was an impromptu trip.
So we go now.
Get them online.
Well, we were in Spain a few years ago and we went to the Royal Palace and it happened
to be closed.
So it's like we just can't get it together.
We finally got in and I was very impressed with when we walked in to the left, they had
all the old gear for the army in there.
Yeah, the armory.
The armory.
Yeah.
Man, the armory room.
It's crazy.
If you are a Game of Thrones fan, it just feels like-
Or medieval fan.
Just medieval.
Just a medieval fan.
But it just feels like you're walking around the armory of King's Landing.
They had all these horse skeleton-like, well, they were fully-
Yeah.
Mannequins.
Horse mannequins that were wearing the armor.
Yeah, of the day.
Yeah, so they had armor for, of course, the soldiers and then they had the armor for the
horses.
They even had armor for the dogs.
The armor for the dogs was the one.
And I was like, check this out.
So we're talking about-
You never think about that.
They had dogs in war.
We have dogs in war now.
So I guess dogs have been a part of war for a long time.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
They had shields, helmets-
Everything.
... breastplates-
Body armor.
... faceplates.
Faceplates, everything.
All the animals involved.
And it was just this huge room and it was just, it was beautiful.
It was a beautiful display.
Yeah.
You know, considering the type of room we were walking around, you know, agents of death.
Yeah, yeah.
You think about it, but-
Yeah, agents of chaos.
Yeah.
And-
It was mind-blowing.
I had never, I've never seen that before.
Yeah.
You know, just, I mean, that stuff had to weigh a ton.
And you're trying to fight somebody wearing a metal suit with this giant sword.
And chain mail.
I'm like, good grief.
And you know, they're tiny people.
Yeah.
Like then, back then they were tiny.
Could you imagine?
And it couldn't have been molded to each individual.
It was probably like one size fits most.
So some dudes had to be uncomfortable.
I don't know, but it was a lot.
It was crazy.
So going into the Royal Palace, what you can expect to see is, you know, the armory and
also like all of the rooms-
All the rooms.
That were used.
All of the gold.
Gold rooms.
They gold-plated everything.
Just like rooms we just didn't know.
Here's room, it's blue.
You know what it felt like?
If you've ever been to the White House and seen the rooms in the White House?
Never been.
It feels a lot like that when you just go from room to room to room.
But the thing about in the White House, the White House has some rooms that you can't
enter.
They're just kind of roped off and you have to stand in the door and just peek in.
There, you're able to enter all of the rooms.
You know, you walk through, but of course-
Some things are roped off.
Yeah, some parts are roped off.
And one thing that I noticed were all the busts.
Yes.
Yes, they had a bunch of them.
They had a lot of busts.
Every room had at least one.
Yeah.
I was motivated after that trip to go home and I bought another bust.
I have three busts in our house.
I'm obsessed with busts.
And then they had these really, really extremely tall ceilings that reached to the heavens
and they were coated in gold.
It's like everything was coated in gold.
Yeah, opulence.
It just blows my mind how much they wasted all their gold.
I think that's wasteful.
But that's how they did it back then.
And in true European form, the ceilings were breathtaking.
Every room had an elaborate ceiling.
Yes, they did.
They did.
I really wish I had listened to the tour guide and got the-
Got the guided tour.
Got the story of the ceiling.
That is a regret.
Yeah.
We should have done that.
But with the molding and the paintings and it was just beautiful.
Just the attention to detail.
And the people.
So each room was endorsed by a person, I guess.
I don't know how they did it.
Each room was like the St. George room and you would see his bust in there.
I thought that was pretty cool.
And then we walked in this room that had that really long table that little dinner table
was like nine miles long.
They still hold events in that room.
And that's just nuts.
You know what that house was given?
What?
It was given Bridgerton.
I don't know what that is.
The Queen's Palace.
Oh, that thing.
Is that Netflix?
Yes.
Yeah, okay.
That's your thing.
That's what it felt like.
Queen Charlotte's house.
That's European.
So that's right in line.
That's right in line with the European.
Yeah, because even the throne room, it was really nice.
But the weird thing with the throne room is like when you enter it, you enter it from
the side and they rope it off so you don't get a direct view of the thrones.
You kind of lean over the rope.
Oh, you know I was leaning to.
Leaning over the rope trying to take selfies.
I sure was.
You already know.
So you get like a profile view of the thrones unless you walk to the back of the room and
then you can kind of get an angled view.
That's the only thing.
It's like, oh, y'all should rope it differently.
They should rope it to where you can walk in front of it.
Yeah.
Because from the sides, you can't take those Instagram photographs.
They don't care.
Like, ah, you ain't been a touch our royal thrones.
This one group, you remember you took pictures of those one group.
Dude's leaning all over.
Okay, can you take it right here?
I got his shot too.
You got his shot.
He was very pleased.
He was pleased.
He was very pleased with your shot.
Man, that was a lot of walking too.
That place is enormous.
We went to the, what is that?
When you first walk in and you're going up the steps, like when we first walk in and
they had, what was it?
Like a little museum in there.
Yeah.
Like an art gallery.
Now, one thing I did, I'm going to let you guys know, if you guys have children like
we do that still walk around with stuffed dolls.
Can't do it.
I remember one of those had this doggone Koopsta, not a Koopsta, who was this guy?
Bowser.
You had to put Bowser in a locker.
The dude was like, you can't have that.
You can't have that in here.
She was looking at him like, but it's my plushie.
But this is my plushie.
He was like, you got to put that in a locker.
I don't care what you think.
And it just so happens as we was walking over to a locker, I asked someone else and they
was like, oh yeah, that's fine.
Yeah.
And so she got to keep her plushie.
He was just being a jerk.
I just think he probably thought it was a backpack because it was so big.
Yeah.
That is a big plushie.
And she's 11, so he's probably like, why is she holding it?
Yeah.
Anyway.
So from the palace, we go back to our favorite spots, Plaza de Miura and then there rose
her the greatest restaurant on planet earth, Kauai Cafe.
She could not get enough of that place.
But I see why it's pretty appealing.
They have a nice vibe in there for kids and adults.
So I like when you have to put on your ears, your little ears.
No, they go all out and she really loves that.
And your bear pancakes.
And the pancakes.
What did she get?
She got pancakes again?
She got pancakes again.
Yeah.
She got the colorful pancakes.
And I got like some green juice.
Yes.
That wasn't good, was it?
It was good.
Okay.
I don't think green juice at all is good.
And blue.
Somebody at the table had blue.
I think.
It was London Rose.
Oh yeah.
I had a Pepsi.
Boring.
Yeah, I was boring.
I couldn't take, I was saving for our restaurant.
Oh yeah.
In the market.
Oh yeah.
We went back.
Mercado San Miguel.
We went back to get seconds.
Chorizo.
That's how good it was.
We went back.
We made a special trip back from Sevilla to get seconds.
And get our chorizo in the wooden bowl and the wooden fork.
Yes.
Oh yeah.
It was delicious.
And yeah, so we're back there.
We didn't do anything crazy.
No.
After that.
We ate, walked around a little bit.
You stopped at the shoe store.
Yes.
We looked around.
Oh, we looked around the shoe store.
And we looked around in a store that sold rubber duckies.
Rubber duckies.
Like all types of rubber.
They had a Jason rubber ducky.
They had a doggone Chucky rubber ducky.
Who else did they have?
Anything.
They had a LeBron James rubber ducky.
Which is crazy.
I thought, why are we stopping in here?
It was so many people in there.
Yes.
Buying rubber duckies.
Because it's random.
It is so random.
You guys, you don't know how bad I wanted to buy the R2D2 rubber ducky.
And I should have.
Because I have not seen one like that since.
We should have bought some ducks.
We should have.
And I'm not even into rubber duckies like that.
But somebody is.
They have a store on a main street.
And they're a nice size rubber ducky.
I think they're pretty, what, three for 12?
Yeah.
I don't know what you do with those rubber duckies.
But they were cool.
They were really cool.
The next time we go, we're going to have to go to the rubber ducky store.
And some sabatos.
Those shoes were nice.
They were.
They were a little.
Expensive though.
They were muy caro.
I think they were 150.
For some slides.
Yeah.
150.
And these were aeros.
So you know an aeros.
It's more than a US dollar.
Yes.
It's like, nah, we're not doing that for some slides.
I wanted to so bad.
I started to turn on my charm and be like, please, can you, let's just go on and get
it.
I had walked out the building.
When are we going to ever.
When are we going to see these.
We haven't seen these shoes.
Oh, we went to a bookstore as well.
A used bookstore.
Yeah.
Right outside Plaza Mallorca.
I was right next door to the soccer store.
Oh yeah.
We went to the soccer store.
Because I was feening for my soccer.
Lord.
Yeah, but the bookstore was nice.
You wanted to find.
What book were you looking for?
You were looking for.
Just anything dealing with home decor.
I thought you were looking for a specific book.
Nope.
Okay.
I'm wrong.
Sorry.
But yeah, they were right next door to each other, which made it awesome.
So they had some cool shops on that street.
And that's at the Opera Stop on the Metro.
Yes.
Yep.
So the Opera Stop on the Metro, when you get off, you go to the left.
All those shops are down there.
The shoe store is on the left.
And you have to walk a block and make a right.
And then you'll find the soccer store and the bookstore.
So kind of have that memorized.
And then after that, we decided we had enough fun.
We had been in Spain at that point for almost 10 days.
And we just wanted to go back and relax.
Relax.
We were tired.
Because at that time, we officially had a room.
Oh, time out.
This whole time, I didn't have a voice.
Don't get me started.
I totally forgot about this part.
I lose my voice when we go to the palace, right?
That's when I start losing my voice.
I'm like, what's wrong with my voice?
You know, Derrick don't like to wash his hands.
So he stay getting sick.
No, no, no.
He touch on everything, touch on every knob.
Usually when you get sick, it hurts when you swallow.
I had no pain.
I just, it hurt when I spoke.
Oh, and we went to the pharmacy.
Yeah.
Derrick and I actually went to the pharmacy in the Plaza Mayor.
And he got some medicine.
And that medicine was like, crack, wasn't it?
It worked right away, didn't it?
It cleared it right up.
Right up.
I'm like, what did they put in this stuff?
But yeah, so I lost my voice.
I didn't have a sore throat.
My throat didn't hurt.
It wasn't burning.
My voice just stopped working.
And they have this spray.
It was actually pretty good.
It tasted well, too.
And within, I started getting my voice back.
When we got back to the hotel, I started to get my voice back.
So I guess that's what, five hours?
It worked in five hours.
I got my voice back.
But yeah, I lost my voice for most of the day that day.
Well, we're back at the hotel.
No, we got to talk about when we tried to leave off the subway.
We had our red car.
We thought we was hot stuff with our red subway car.
Because that red car, we put 10 trips on there.
Yep, I forgot about that.
Do you remember how much you paid for each ticket?
I can't recall the price of each ticket.
It was a very affordable rate.
So you get 10 trips on this one red car.
And we get to this stop.
And we have to get off.
And we're thinking, oh, get off and change.
Change?
Change.
We're like, no, they're like, get off and exit the station.
And so we're scanning our thing.
And it's like, eh, eh.
And we're like, wait a minute.
I know we got rides on this thing.
And that's when we found out that we had exited the city center.
And our red cards are no longer valid.
We were in zone B1.
And our cards are valid in zone A.
And this has happened to me before when traveling abroad.
And usually, I would find someone that's about to buy a ticket.
And I just give them mine.
Someone's about to get on the train.
Like, hey.
Right.
And there was one lady with us that needed tickets.
And I told Derrick to give them to her.
And he, of course, don't want to listen to me.
And the lady walks off.
So we're sitting here.
We had like six rides on each card.
On each card.
Three cards.
18 rides.
And don't you know, we tried our best to give them to people.
Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
We're like, yo, we don't want anything from you.
These are free.
I don't want them.
Nope, nope, nope.
It's a scam.
They are running from us.
And we're like.
You can have these.
Six rides on each one of these cards.
18.
We don't want anything from you.
Just take them.
And I felt so bad.
Because you know, all this is in Spanish.
I'm like, question.
I was like, is my Spanish not right?
Like, why are these folks running away from me?
I'm trying to give them free train rides.
And then we just ended up just keeping the tickets.
And then we left them in the hotel room with a note that says.
For housekeeping.
Yeah, for whoever.
18.
So when I travel and I have access to something, I always give it to the people at the hotel.
Because I know they're going to use it.
The lady, she's like, I'm going to use it.
And I'm like, I'm going to use it.
And she's like, I'm going to use it.
And I'm like, I'm going to use it.
And the lady, she would have used it.
I get it.
But I like doing this for the people at the hotel.
It's my form of tipping housekeeping.
OK.
All right.
So someone there got 18 trips.
So that was a good tip.
Oh, Lord.
OK.
And now it's time for us to go to the airport.
Can't do that.
But we're at this hotel having a conversation about an upcoming event.
And you recall what I said?
When I get to Jamaica, I ain't doing nothing.
I'm doing a whole lot of nothing.
And while we're at this hotel, I saw you on your phone.
You were probably planning events, were you?
Were you not?
OK.
So let me fill you guys in.
So when we left, were scheduled to leave Madrid, we had a wedding to attend in Jamaica,
like four days later, three, four days later.
And so our last night in Madrid, Derek was talking about how he wasn't going to do nothing.
Well, I said it too.
I'm going to rest because we did so much.
We've been on the go, yada, yada, yada.
And you know, you know, it is what it is.
So also, I had already started planning stuff to do in Jamaica before we even went to Madrid.
I knew it.
Before we went to Madrid.
You didn't tell me.
Because I did it all at the same time, simultaneously, you know.
So I had my plans.
It was only three things that I wanted to do in Jamaica.
And I was OK if I didn't get to do them.
I wanted to lay with you on the beach.
That was it.
Go to the wedding, lay with you.
That's all I wanted to do.
You had other plans.
Well, let's talk about Madrid.
So that night passed really, really well.
We got up early the next morning.
You had your amazing breakfast.
Oh, man, that breakfast was so good.
I'm picturing it in my mind, even the way they laid it all out.
OK, so let's get off of the breakfast.
So we made it to the airport.
And I was sad to learn that my global entry, TSA Pre-Check.
We almost didn't make it to the right terminal.
Yeah, TSA Pre-Check didn't quite work in Spain.
I don't think it works in Spain.
They don't really use it.
They don't use it in Jamaica either.
So Derek.
Are you talking about global entry?
No, that's when you entered the country, the United States.
So Derek, we get to customs.
And they look at London Rose passport.
They look at mine.
We get stamps.
And they get to Derek.
And they were like, Derek, step to the side.
And he was like, why?
What's going on?
Why I got to step to the side?
And they were like, how did you get into our country?
Because you don't have a stamp.
She asked me, you got another passport?
Oh, no, I just got the one.
So how did you get here?
She was like, so how did you get in this country?
It's like with them, and then she kept flipping the pages.
And she called someone, too.
She kept looking.
She looked at me.
She got back, flipping the pages.
I was like, ooh, weesh.
They were about to make Derek stay.
And it would have broke my heart to have to get back on that plane without him.
I had let him know, Derek, anything go down.
We got to take separate flights.
The crazy part about it is you start walking away.
I'm like, hey, Macaulay, come back.
They're not going to let me come with y'all.
You just start easing off.
I'm like, hold up.
This woman's for real going to leave me.
I had to save my seat on the plane.
The plane wasn't going nowhere.
We were at the airport five hours early.
No mail.
Oh, man.
You're not going to leave you.
Yeah, I thought I was about to be detained.
I thought they were going to hold me.
Because she asked me a couple of times.
I came in the same time they came in.
You might need to check the tape.
I don't know what y'all do over here.
But yeah, when they got here, I got here.
And she said something about, well, you got to make sure you get your passport stamped.
On the way in.
I was like, I don't think that's my job.
And then I walked off.
Yeah.
Because it's not my job.
Yeah, because you know, it's different now.
There's countries that stamp and those that don't.
So we kind of, I don't know about you, but I don't know.
I don't know until I get there.
But I figured if your job is customs, you know to stamp every passport that comes through.
Because you do it at least eight hours a day.
So you almost got me detained, sir.
So as we're trying to walk to our gate, our passport gets checked about four times.
Five more times.
It was a lot.
But then we get on the plane finally and we get up in the air and they wheel out the food.
You guys, I don't know what it is, but Iberia has some of the best airline food in the industry.
Yeah, so they rolled out these little sandwiches, right, that had chorizo on it.
And London Rose was like, I don't want it.
I don't want it because I take it.
And then she was like, wait, wait, wait, I do want one.
Because she saw the snack was a Kit Kat.
So she wanted to get the whole meal package so she can get that Kit Kat.
Man, I took her sandwich so fast.
It was so good.
It was delicious.
And it was literally just bread and meat.
I don't even think cheese was on it.
Yeah, cheese was on it.
Cheese was on it?
I didn't even taste the cheese because the meat was so good.
It was so good.
And it had like, pudding or something.
It was some type of pudding.
Everything was delicious.
I was like, you know what?
This is the way to fly.
I can only imagine what they're doing up there in first class.
We had them budget tickets.
First class, they probably had a shelf and everything up there.
We always fly on them budget rates.
Yeah, yeah, penny-pitched, baby.
But it was nice, though.
It was very, very nice.
Yeah.
And so then when we landed, our first stop in the US was Chicago.
That was our port of entry.
So you all know that your port of entry is when you go through customs.
Right?
So our port of entry was Chicago.
And I have global entry, which global entry is basically TSA pre-check for international flights.
Why don't I have global entry?
And if you have the option to get TSA pre-check, what that allows you to do is to be able to go through TSA quickly,
because you would have already had an interview beforehand.
And then so now you're cleared to go through TSA.
You don't have to take off your shoes.
You don't have to take your computers out the bag.
It's like a fast pass.
Basically, it's a fast pass through TSA.
Through customs, yeah, TSA.
Through TSA.
And global entry is fast pass through customs.
Same thing, right?
So our trips were starting in April.
And I started global entry like December, January, something like that.
You started for everybody.
And so I filled out minds.
I filled out learning roles.
When I got to Derek's, they were asking a lot of questions I didn't know the answer to.
So I would call Derek.
Derek wouldn't answer the phone.
You don't know your husband's information?
Anyways, I don't.
What's my first and last name?
I don't know your work info.
Baby.
So for global entry, they ask questions about your work information, past, previous addresses, and things like that.
Well, there was a time where Derek had to work in Louisiana.
And that fell within...
They wanted all that too?
They did, if that fell within the realm of the scope of the time.
So how many years they want out?
I don't remember, but I didn't have that address.
Gotcha.
And so I was calling Derek.
I didn't know that.
Derek wouldn't answer the phone.
And I tried that like three times.
And guess what I did?
After that, I sent him the link.
I said, yo, here's the link.
You know, sometimes my phone doesn't ring because I'm in those rural areas.
Probably.
But...
Did you call both my phones or just one?
So I sent him the link, let him know the fee was $100.
You know, we got to pay the $100.
I'm going to do it.
And before you know it, we flying to Spain and back and he never did it.
So, you know, I'm extra as heck.
So I'm going to milk it for what it's worth.
But poor London Rose, even though I did her global entry at the same time as mine, she never got her interview.
Wait, didn't you go to Huntsville with you?
She went to...
Oh, that's another thing.
So when you get global, when you sign up for global entry, they have to give you an interview for you to meet with the officials.
You bring your passports and all this kind of stuff.
Well, make sure you legit.
You have to, you know, pick a date.
And I didn't have any of...
There were no available dates.
Here in Lexington?
There are, first of all, there are no meetings conducted in Lexington period.
I would have to go to Cincinnati or Louisville or Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Nashville is one.
So, you know, and I looked at that.
I even looked at Memphis.
Memphis had an opening the very next day.
And mind you, I did my online application like six at night.
There was no way I was going to be able to hop in my car and make it to this 8 a.m. meeting.
That would have been an awful ride.
Yeah. So Memphis was out.
But however, I had an opening in Huntsville and I was I was I have a friend in Huntsville that we we do something.
We do a second Christmas there.
So I was like, hey, we can do second Christmas and I can get my meeting.
And so that's what I did.
Went to second Christmas.
I had my meeting the whole time, still waiting for London Rose.
London Rose didn't get cleared.
So, you know, they do a background check on you.
For some reason, my 11 year old child could not get her background cleared.
I'm like, this girl, what's taking you because mine's my eye clear background.
I want to say the next day or the day after that, it was very quick for me.
So when you went to Huntsville, they didn't interview London Rose.
They did not.
Because she hadn't had a background check.
Right. She said in the room with us, but he said I can't interview her because we have a list and we have to stick to our list.
So she just sat there.
And then later on, we got an email stating that if you have not had a chance to interview, you can do it at your port of entry upon returning into the country.
So why would it take so long for her background check?
I have no idea.
Maybe London Rose, I don't know.
She's doing something like the dog.
She moonlighting, doing other stuff.
Who knows? Her fingerprint is somewhere.
So when we landed in Chicago, I went straight through.
Oh yes, I forgot about this part.
I went straight through.
They literally scanned my face and that was it.
I was done.
You were done.
So I went and got our luggage.
I made good use of it.
I didn't really rub it in their face.
Yes, you did.
The whole time you were just looking and smiling.
No.
And that's when we found out that London Rose, she could do her interview.
So Derek just went through.
I was like, hey, did you get your global entry?
She was like, no.
I said, uh-uh-uh.
Let's go back.
Go back.
I didn't know what they were talking about.
She did that already.
She went to Huntsville for that.
Yes, because they asked Derek about it because she popped up in their system.
Because get this, London Rose got cleared for global entry last night in Sevilla.
Okay.
Two nights before we left Spain, that's when her email cleared.
Now mind you, I put that application in three months prior, but it cleared while we were
in Spain.
Thank goodness.
Right.
I had no idea it cleared because I stopped checking.
So she went in.
She took her picture.
She did all her fingerprints.
She was good.
Now London Rose is officially- Global entry.
A global entry card carrier because her card came in the mail.
She's proud of it.
We're going to tell you another fun story about global entry.
Another episode.
What did she say the other day about her global entry?
What was the little joke she said?
That was today on our ride here.
What did she say?
I can't remember.
I don't forget, but she basically made a comment about-
Can we go ahead and use it so I don't have to stand in line or something?
Yes.
She wants to use her global entry.
She said, I don't have to stand in line with Papa no more.
I was like, what?
That's messed up.
I'm going to have to go ahead and get my global entry done.
I recommend, especially if you're coming in through a busy airport like Atlanta, Atlanta
Customs.
Most definitely like Atlanta.
I'll tell y'all what, next episode.
We'll talk about it more in the next episode.
All right.
Oh, this might be crazy.
I don't think you saw this because I was going through the non-global entry portion all by
myself.
Peasant.
I was all by myself.
In Chicago, O'Hare, they have this box that says, I think it's the marijuana MSD program.
I'm thinking like, you've gone through security with your marijuana and then they want you
to put it in this box?
You can't even come to the airport with that.
I didn't see that.
I'm going to show it to you.
I got a photo of that.
Probably those that went through global entry past that box.
Yeah, probably global entry folks.
Screw you.
All right, guys.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Derrick.
Makayla.
We'll talk to y'all later.
If you made it this far, you are the true champion.
You could have been anywhere, doing anything, but you instead chose to spend your time with
us.
And for that, we say thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Derrick.
I'm Makayla.
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Do good, be good.
Until next time.