29. Two Gay Grandpas Travel (Grandpa Scott and Grandpa Bobby) are life (and travel) goals!

Grandpa Scott and Grandpa Bobby (Two Gay Grandpas Travel) did not set out to be YouTube sensations. But in December of 2023, thanks to a shout-out from a social media influencer, Scott and Bobby's YouTube travel channel took off!

Their YouTube channel (Two Gay Grandpas Travel) now has 98,000 subscribers (and counting) and chronicles their many travel adventures. From hiking to cruises, the grandpas share personal, heartfelt videos in hopes of sharing their love for travel.

Now, people from all over the world affectionately call them "Grandpas."

Together 45 years, with two kids and six grandchildren, Grandpa Scott and Grandpa Bobby have given thousands of people gay role models to look up to and have shown everyone that age is just a number. As Grandpa Scott says, if your health allows, "get out there and travel!"

From their coming out story to filling us in on their next adventure, listen in as Scott and Bobby discuss their newfound role as everyone's honorary (gay) grandpas. 

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Transcript

Episode 29: Two Gay Grandpas Travel (Grandpa Scott and Grandpa Bobby) are life (and travel) goals!

[00:00:00]

Angela: Like, jumping on YouTube lives that's a whole new world. You guys, I'm so impressed. You have no idea. I haven't even Instagram live.

Scott: We haven't done that yet. We need to do that. Yeah, we should.

Angela: We could have done this as an Instagram live, although I don't know how to do that as a podcast, but we'll figure that out.

Like I'll have to figure that out because maybe we'll jump on a part two one day, but truly I'm like, I'm going to start right now. Truly. I'm like so excited that you're here. Thank you so much. We are. Thank you for inviting us. Absolutely. So we have Grandpa Scott, Grandpa Bobby. Can I call you Grandpa?

Does everybody call you Grandpa? Yes.

Bobby: People from around the world refer to us as their grandpas. And, you know, I always said when we became grandpas, after husband, it was my absolute favorite title to have.

Angela: Aw, that's so sweet. Yeah, I can imagine. Like, yeah, that would be awesome. So, what's it like to have two grandpas?

Random strangers, they'll call you grandpa. Well, I could

Bobby: never understand people that didn't [00:01:00] embrace the grandpa or the grandma title, you know that they thought it was Oh a sign of age. It was to me. It's just a sign of affection

Yeah,

Angela: that's really sweet. Well before we dive into your youtube channel and Your travels because that's a huge thing and like your newfound success as content creators really,

I kind of want to go back just a little bit because I want to talk about like you guys have been together for 45 years, right? Like that's 1979. Am I right? Yes. And you met in San Francisco.

Scott: Yes.

Angela: I'd love to know both of your coming out stories because Grandpa Scott, I heard that you, you know, were previously married, had two kids, but when you guys met in San Francisco,

what was your individual coming out story? And then what was your coming out story together? Or was there a difference?

Scott: me, it was different because, I considered myself straight for such a long time. But in all honesty, my ex wife said, you were probably bi. So my coming out [00:02:00] came after I was divorced.

And even after Laura and I divorced, and it was very amicable, We, our lives changed, we took different paths but I was still dating women and it was only boy, several years after that, that, you know, I came out and, , then I moved to San Francisco after spending some time in Southern California and, uh, moved, I moved to San Francisco in 1978.

met Bobby in 1979 and we met July 13th, Friday the 13th, but my coming out was, not dramatic thing. It wasn't like I went and sat with my mom and dad and said, Mom and dad, I'm gay. It was not like that at all. I just started talking about Bobby and Newell, and before that, Billy. And I don't want to get a long list going because I'm really indiscriminate.

I really wasn't. But, you know, [00:03:00] I'm going out with this gentleman or whatever. So it just was kind of a natural flow. It wasn't like there was this dramatic coming out piece.

Angela: Your parents, like when you said you just mentioned Bobby's name, there wasn't like a any sort of a shake up or a problem or anything like that.

It would just no,

Scott: no. And then it really wasn't. I guess. Um, I think I think my mother may have always. Thought that I was, or surmized that I was. 'cause I was a, I was not a jock. , let's put it that way. I was not a jock. I didn't like to go deer hunting. I did. I never shot anything, but I would, you know, 'cause my dad fed this family of nine by going hunting a lot.

Um, and, uh, I, you know, I didn't wanna play baseball because I was always afraid of breaking my glasses. So that was it. , it was just kind of a thing that. one step float into the other, if that makes sense. [00:04:00] And, uh, the next thing I know, I'm with this guy and it's a relationship and the family loved him.

My dad adored him.

Bobby: Yeah, I still think his family likes me more than him.

Scott: They do. I didn't

Bobby: think if there was a divorce they'd pick me.

Scott: They would. They would. So would the kids and the grandkids, I

think.

Bobby: Well, it's interesting because my story is a little different than Scott's and it points out the fact that I'm a little younger than Scott is because when I came out, I came out in college and mine was the generation that came out in college.

Now kids are coming out, gosh, in junior high or high school, which is so healthy. It's healthy. So I never went through that point of being married or divorcing and then coming out. I came out in college. I was one that had that talk with my mother. I remember coming home from college on a Christmas break.

And I said, you know, I'm going to find the right time to talk. I'm going to find the right time. Well, of course, the right time never comes along until the [00:05:00] night before I'm set to leave. So I told her, and you know, she had same as Scott, your mother always suspects. So she always kind of had that thought in mind.

in the back of her head. And so she was fine by it. And on the way back, I went and stopped and saw my sisters who lived in Colorado and told that I had that coming out. And they were like, well, duh.

Angela: My sister said the same thing the exact same thing

Bobby: I was like why didn't you tell me, you knew for years, why didn't you tell me?

Angela: Same thing. I totally, totally hear you.

Bobby: We're both fortunate that our families were never problematic or turned us away. They were, they always were embracing. As I said, Scott's family embraced me completely and so did my, my family.

Scott: Well, I did have several brothers. I come from a family of nine and I had several brothers that were older, had been in the military and it was a, it was a learning process for them.

Um, but they all came [00:06:00] around.

Angela: That's good to hear. That's really nice to hear. You guys. You know, you have two kids, six grandchildren, you travel, I mean, this is goals. You have to be together 45 years too, I mean, as a gay person too. I just think like, oh my gosh, I can't imagine if we got to have that kind of longevity together.

You know, just those many years together would be so beautiful, you know. So y'all are goals. That's all I know.

Bobby: To say that what really helped our relationship was Scott's former wife. Her name was Laura. And , called each other sister wives because from the get go. She embraced me.

With the kids and Scott and we co-parented. We never say we raised them. We co parented with Laura and, unfortunately we lost her this past year after a long battle with cancer, several cancers, several cancers, and we were very close throughout all of that time together. In fact, she gave Scott away at our wedding

Scott: She walked me [00:07:00] into the aisle to Bobby, right?

And we get up there, and mind you, there's a mic and everything so everybody could hear the ceremony, and right up in front, she goes, turns to Bob and goes, No return. He's yours.

Angela: I love that. You realize that that whole thing is a movie in and of itself, right? I just need you to know that. I need you to write your own life, you know.

Scott: People have asked that. Yeah, they have.

Angela: Nice. So, like, when you first got together, though, was traveling always a thing for you guys?

Scott: Oh, no. I'm going to take this one. Go ahead. This guy had more five year plans than the Soviet Union. Yeah, I was very goal oriented. Oh, we had to have a house in five years.

Okay. We did. I'm, I'm much more fluid. All right. He had his five year plan. And so those first five years were about saving money, getting things done, getting our ducks lined up and getting [00:08:00] our house. And we did. And I thought, okay, well, that's great. And then after we got the house, it was now we're going to renovate it for resale.

And so the first few years of our lives in San Francisco was about buying and flipping. That was it.

Bobby: Actually, our first trip first major trip was in 1984. , I'm of Italian descent, and so I've always wanted to go to Italy. And Scott was, well, oh, he wasn't as on board with it, but, you know, he said if that's what you really want to do.

So we went to Italy in 1984, which was, challenge.... Looking back now, how challenging it was. There was no internet, there was no cell phones. We had to write letters and look in little guidebooks, on the lyric. There was no euro. Um, so we went in 1984, but then as Scott said, we came back and we spent the next several years just buying, flipping, fixing up houses.

And our trips were more local. You know, [00:09:00] we would go more on camping trips in the National parks, national Parks.

Angela: How did everything kind of shift towards YouTube? I mean, YouTube, like that's a pretty big thing to, to grasp as an endeavor. The first thing I would not do is probably YouTube. It seems such a, like a grand platform. So how did that come about?

Bobby: I'll let him explain because he is the generator of all this.

Scott: We have six grandkids, Angela. And, we were always close to them. We were always within about an hour's drive and we could see them all the time. And then we had to make the decision about where we would retire when we eventually retired, and we decided on Arizona. And. we missed our grandkids. I mean, we missed our daughters too.

We missed the grandkids. And we wanted to find a way to be closer to them while we were far away in terms of distance. And [00:10:00] they're always on their machines, you know, their social media, their cell phones, everything. And we said, we've got to go where they are. And so when we travel, we started out with just photographs and we'd send them to, Hey, grandpa's are here. We miss you. This place,

Bobby: take a picture while we're hiking. And we would just, you know, text it to them and it

Scott: was short movies and we, and we went on YouTube. You heard about YouTube and we went on YouTube. They signed up and we thought, okay, we've got this cute little channel that'll be family, the grandkids, and I guess for the until December 9th of 2023 we had 181 subscribers. We were impressed. And our goal was hey what if we can get to 500.

Bobby: That was our goal. So these were really personal videos that we just, you know, wanted to show our kids what we were doing and encourage them, you know, get off the sofa, get out and do things.

There's a great world out there and [00:11:00] that's really all they were.

Angela: And did you think about like, since you had it on YouTube, did you think about the fact that other people were going to be watching this too?

Bobby: Well, we knew they could, but since only 181 people subscribed, we weren't like, you know, because, you know, When we watched similar videos, YouTube travel videos to us, they were always beautiful, young, skinny people jumping off boats and cliffs into the crystal blue waters holding cocktails and showing us their new shoes or their great outfit.

It was so not us. We're just too old Farts. Yeah. That we had, you know, we didn't think we had No, can I say far? Is that okay? Fine. I just did not, if

Angela: there's anything you don't want said, just let me know and I'll write it down (to edit). Absolutely. Well,

Bobby: you know, we question really whether we were relevant at all to anybody who would want to see it because, you know, but family, because, you know, number one, we're very niche, two older gay men traveling together.

It's like, you know, the internet is filled with young, beautiful people. So, uh, [00:12:00] we really questioned whether anybody would want to see it besides family.

Angela: That's cool though. I mean, I remember when I saw you guys I saw it from Upworthy, like on Instagram, but somebody else, another influencer I guess had sent it, I guess it went viral and Upworthy picked it up, and basically changed your trajectory, right?

Would you say? It

Bobby: quite surprised us. Why don't you tell the story?

Scott: Well, it was December 9th, we had 181 subscribers, and on Instagram, suddenly I see where this, influencer from Canada, , had taken little snippets of our travel videos. Made a compilation. Made a compilation of them and did this really very moving piece and , his whole line said, we need to change their lives.

They're not getting views. And he had, I believe close to 20, 000 followers,

Bobby: which impressed us. No end. Yeah, absolutely does.

Scott: [00:13:00] And he put that out there and we noticed that suddenly we went from 181 to 1000 and we go, Oh, wow, my God, we passed our 500 to 5000. Then to 20, 000, then to 30, 000, and then we get this little note from Upworthy saying, you know, we saw this, you know, they put it out there, then boom, 50,000 it just blossomed and we're sitting here looking at each other going, What's going on?

What is this?

Bobby: Yeah. as of this morning, we're at 95,000 subscribers and we're just constantly amazed that people around the world wanna see two old grandpas.. What it has really pointed out is not just that people are interested in travel, but people want to make connection with grandparents that maybe they didn't have or never had a close relationship with.

And also we get comments from people who said [00:14:00] before they started looking at our videos, they were afraid of growing old or worried that they couldn't have a long term relationship or grow old with someone. So this has blossomed into something way beyond traveling. It's you know about lifestyle and caring for one another and seeing the world together Um, so it's been very sweet the comments that we've gotten from followers Of all different age groups, you know, we originally when we started this we thought well Maybe we'll get some senior people who want to see how other senior people have traveled.

But oh no The majority what is the majority age group?

Scott: 18 to 28 30 and then up to 45 And We get comments from people in their 60s going, I didn't have grandparents, will you adopt me? And it just became a thing where, welcome to the clan, you're adopted. And so now from Reunion Island to [00:15:00] Chile to India, Russia.

To India, to Finland, Germany, America, everywhere, Mexico, we have all of these adopted grandkids of all ages that they go, Grandpa Bobby, Grandpa Scott, it's, just been amazing what has happened. It's just

Bobby: number one, it's enlightening that there is, there obviously is a need for for people to connect to an older generation.

And maybe that's because so many people travel or move that they don't have those lifelong relationships like I did with my grandparents and

Scott: when they were rejected 

Bobby: and that they feel that need for connection, which to us, it's very humbling that they chose us, , because we haven't gone out of our way with an agenda of any type with these videos.

We just come on as us.

Angela: And I was thinking, like you said earlier, your intention would just to mainly [00:16:00] connect with your grandchildren. And then you just said maybe some seniors would see it travel, you know, no big deal. So I'm sure that like. This increase I mean, in three months, right?

Because wasn't that in December? Yeah. So in three months, this major increase. You couldn't have been prepared for it. I'm sure.

Bobby: We were totally shocking. If you start to think too much about all of those people, if you think, like, is the size of this town somewhere in America, or you think of all those faces, it's daunting, and we do feel a level of responsibility.

It's not that we intend to change anything we do, but we do feel that we need To be good role models. These people are looking at us. So it's humbling, but it gives you a sense that, uh, your words do matter. And, you know, people, you know, throw that term influencer around. We never set off to be internet influencers, but, you know, I don't like to use that term.

I [00:17:00] know, but, you know, you're obviously your behavior does have repercussions.

Scott: If I may, I share a story of a comment we got from a young lady in Russia. And that's quite a risk for people in Russia to start posting out. And she had written that she so appreciated seeing us and feeling the love and the acceptance because right now in Russia, the queer community, the LGBT plus community are considered terrorists.

And there, there's a brutality against our community in Russia. That's unbelievable. And I I searched for how to respond back and my words, all the other words we could come up with, please know you're not alone outside. There's a big wide world that knows what's going on that we are concerned and we are trying to help.

And I sent [00:18:00] the message and it was blocked and couldn't go through. So it's, it's, we have people on Reunion Island. I did not know where Reunion Island was. It's out in the Pacific, a little island. It's been amazing.

Bobby: It is in the Pacific, isn't it? Yes. But you know, the thing too is, We didn't think anything about it because this has been our life every day our relationship of 45 years Not that we take it for granted, but it's what we've become used to And so we were just sharing our day to day existence Well, it's kind of strange when people find your day to day existence to be something phenomenal to them wholesome

wholesome is a great

Scott: term. We get a lot wholesome And we asked our grandkids about it and apparently the young use that term. It's quite a compliment You know, and so hey, we'll take it. Thank you.

Angela: I mean, I think you're right because for me the reason you guys struck me It just [00:19:00] touches my heart because I didn't see relationships of , anyone older than me as a norm.

You know, I really never saw that. And I just think it's so wonderful for me to see you guys right now. And for younger generations too to see you. I mean, it's just wonderful because it lets us know. What our relationships can look like. And you guys look exactly like my parents relationship. There's no, there's no difference.

And also it's so wonderful for me to share your videos with my parents and to show them, you know, when I was coming out, I think there was so much fear for my mom specifically, what was my life going to look like? She didn't know anybody who was gay and had a flourishing, successful relationship. So, for me to even show her now and go, Look at these guys, aren't they wonderful?

Isn't it awesome? Like, it shows her, I t's a mirror for her. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. For me, it's [00:20:00] also a mirror too, to a certain degree. Cause I'm like, they look exactly like my parents. And that's what I can have too, you know?

Bobby: That's quite a compliment. Thank you. And I think sometimes the appeal that we're on, I say novelty, it's sad reason.

And that's because so many men of our generation did not live through AIDS. As we mentioned, we lived in San Francisco together for 15 years. During that time, we lost over 50 friends to AIDS, who would be our age. None of them lived till 40. So, we did lose a whole generation of people our age. So, maybe when people see two older gay guys, it's because

Scott: there aren't many.

Angela: I hadn't thought of that. It's really true.

Scott: You know how folks, there was that generation after World War II where a lot of young men all over the world were killed in the [00:21:00] war. And a lot of women, you know, how do I have a relationship now? You know, there's, what was it? I think I saw where it was in the United States.

It was like 26 women for every returning male. So a lot of women after World War II were alone. They lived lives alone. And that was sad because we just think of all of the relationships, all of the kids and grandkids that never happened because of that loss. And that's kind of a little bit of what happened for us in the LGBT plus community is.

That whole generation was wiped out. So many

Bobby: of our friends gone. And that actually is one of the reasons behind our motto, travel your heart, because you can go in two directions when you live something through something like that, you can either withdraw, become bitter, [00:22:00] and you'll turn against the world, or you can do what we did and embrace it and say, hey, We woke up this morning.

We're here for a reason, and we're going to see this world for them. So, in our hearts, we take them with us wherever we go, whatever we see, we're seeing it for them. So that's part of the travel your heart.

Angela: I love that. That's so beautiful. That's really, really beautiful. I talk a lot on this podcast about feeling safe in different spaces.

And as you travel, you know, I mean, I can only imagine you're not prepared for certain places. And do you ever worry if certain spaces are safe or not?

Scott: Well, yeah, I think any traveler, any traveler should do their research. And say, well, I'm going to this place. Are there, are there areas that I need to be aware of?

High crime rates, maybe people get mugged or, you know, , the hotel rooms are broken [00:23:00] into. You want to avail yourself of the information you have so that you can have a wonderful safe trip. We do the same. There were some countries right now that we will not travel to, because one, they're not safe for our community, and two, their government does not take kindly to our

Bobby: community.

Yeah, let's just say we ain't heading to Uganda anytime soon. We're

Scott: not, we're not heading to Russia. I would love to see St. Petersburg. From everything I can read or see, it's a beautiful city. But I'm not going to go there now and give money that can be turned against my community that's being called a terrorist organization and they're being jailed.

I'm, I'm just not doing it. So, Yeah, there are some things that we do like that.

Bobby: But yet on the other hand, there are certain countries, we'll say Italy, for example, which we've been to many times, they still don't have gay marriage. They're one of the holdouts. But we never pretend, that we're just [00:24:00] brothers or we're just friends.

No, we're always a married couple. And our feeling is that the more these people get used to seeing that and the more they understand. And experience that the more open they will be, the more open they will be, maybe another person that they know, et cetera, et cetera, until their government does, you know, open up more.

So it's a two edged sword. You know, we try to keep ourselves safe. in just as any normal tourist should, but also we don't go to countries which are openly hostile or persecuting gays. And yet we still think it's important for those countries that might not be fully invested in gay rights, , to be able to be open.

And we do that here. I mean, it's not just around in other foreign countries in the United States too.

Scott: Yeah. There's some states in this country that are not safe for our community. And, we, you know, it behooves us to be knowledgeable about that as a way of protecting [00:25:00] yourself. , , it's a really a, it's a balancing act between being safe and how much do I do so that perhaps seeing us educates the folks and then by educating them, it helps our community that lives there.

And, , I think that's important.

Bobby: Yeah. Good example. We were just recently in Florida. Now, Florida isn't exactly the most beneficent, , state to our community. Don't say gay. But , we were there and we were just us. And, you know, the funny thing is we were wearing our logo shirts, with two gay grandpas on the and we'd never gotten negative comments.

Angela: That was one of my questions for you, because I know that you do wear your shirts, and it has your logo, Two Gay grandpa's travel. Love those. And, you know, if people have been receptive to it?

Bobby: We, if they have negative feelings or comments, they keep them to themselves. Yeah,

Scott: we've never, [00:26:00] we've never been threatened.

We were in, was it Vancouver? Well, we were in British Columbia on a 5, 000 mile road trip. We did it last summer and we were wearing the shirts and there was like a, uh,

Motorcycle group and big burly guys, and they started walking up and we were going, Oh, boy, is this is this where we ran into some problem now that, mind you, that's the stereotype in our head running out.

Oh, Lord. What are the biggest guys gonna slap me on the back. That's the damn best t-shirt I've seen all week.

Angela: That's awesome.

Bobby: Yeah, we have literally sometimes questions said, gee, should we wear our shirts today here? And we've never had an issue. Yeah. And that's, that's really touching.

Scott: And I have to be honest, wearing them in Florida was a bit of a middle finger to Governor ,

Angela: [00:27:00] imagine.

So, with your travels though, you recently went on your first cruise.

Bobby: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Angela: It looked amazing. It was a gay cruise, right?

Bobby: No, no. No, it was actually a Oh, I thought it was a gay cruise. It was on Virgin Voyages and we did our research and we looked for a cruise line that we thought we would be most comfortable with.

First thing, we wanted an adult cruise. Not that we don't love kids, we have six grandkids, but, you know, we didn't want to travel with them necessarily. We wanted a break. And then we also looked at, uh, we watched a lot of travel videos and things that we learned about Virgin Voyages, which we really liked, is that their crew is very inclusive.

Uh, they have a lot of LGBTQ members, um, and they're encouraged to be themselves. They're not afraid of having tattoos or piercings. So after a lot of research, we thought, you know, this would be probably a good cruise for us. And it certainly was.

Scott: Yeah. And one of the biggest reasons to be honest, is [00:28:00] the food.

Oh, yeah. Incredible food.

Angela: I'm with you. Yes. Well, that's nice to hear because I, I don't know why I thought it was a gay cruise, but to hear that it wasn't and it was so inclusive and made you feel safe and great. Oh, gosh.

Bobby: Yes. Yeah. And anybody would have any age group, , any walk of life, creed or color.... Yeah.

I think, you know, They would enjoy, a Virgin Voyage's experience. Now, we're not paid to endorse them in any way, but for us, it was fabulous.

Scott: Yeah.

For you guys to be on the boat, not a gay cruise, wear your shirts that say, you know, exactly who you are, really wearing this proudly. Like you said, you're not acting like your brothers or friends.

Angela: I can only imagine that you're like, really opening up people's minds, or at least getting them to say like, you know, my brother is gay, and this is what his life could look like, even if they're just saying it to themselves. You know, I think that they're saying [00:29:00] it's got to kind of have a wonderful impact.

I can only imagine

Bobby: It might not be an effect that we'll ever see But it might be a ripple effect like dropping a stone into a pool and it spreads from there and there might be people that We had a lot of people come up to us and talk to us and engage with us

Scott: We had grandkids adopted grandkids that worked on the ship that came up and go Grandpas, I mean, it's

Bobby: But there may be people who saw our shirts and subscribed or watched a video who didn't even interact with us.

And that's okay, because maybe they were influenced in a way and, and they'll talk about, well, we, we met this lovely couple. Oh, bless their hearts. They were actually a couple older than us. And, uh, we met them on the beach and, they asked us to take a picture of them, which was, you know, of course we did.

And then they saw us on the boat and they saw us with our shirts. And toward the end of the cruise, we were all coming out of a show and they said, can we get a picture of the four of us? [00:30:00] Can we get a selfie with the four of us? And so we took a picture of the four of us and they turned to us. Oh, thank you.

We never met any famous people before. To which I said, and you still haven't.

But it

Bobby: was so sweet because they thought that, you know, we were somebody worth knowing.

Angela: Well, you are. I'm so happy. I mean, hello. So on your travel, you talked a lot about the stories that you hear, or the stories through Instagram or YouTube or what have you.

Aside from the, woman in Russia, what's like the most impactful one that you've heard? A story that's just made you realize that you are having an impact.

Bobby: The one, the people who never had their grandparents or their grandparents turned away from them because they were part of the LGBTQ community, especially the younger people is very touching and we try to respond to every single comment that we get, which can [00:31:00] be a daunting task, but when someone puts their heart out like that, you need to respond and sometimes, you know, they'll say, you know, it's not so much that you are lucky to have us in your life.

We're lucky to have you. Yeah. And we hear you. We see you. And we're there for you, if nothing else, just to encourage you, just to maybe give you an idea of a role model, but just to let you know that there are positive things that the world is a good place, and there are good people, and you are a worthy person.

, those are very, very touching.

Scott: And growing old seems to be a theme that, you know, if anything comes out of this for a lot of the young and middle aged. The people that respond to us is when you will all becoming a senior It's not the end of the world. If your health allows, go out and do things.

you don't have the money to take a [00:32:00] trip, go to the park with a picnic. Find someone your age or maybe a little bit younger and go to go do something with them. Volunteer. There are so many and it's This is a real point for me is there are so many seniors in senior facilities that have no one they don't have a visitor they don't have anybody to just come and touch them and say hey I'm I'm here and I'm listening if you have the time you get once a week maybe try once every two weeks whatever you can go spend some time you'll just be amazed at the impact you have on someone

Bobby: And the funny thing about growing older is that you surprise yourself that you like, we don't think of ourselves as old inside.

Not until we look in the mirror. We kind of think of ourselves as being in our 30s. [00:33:00] What is kind of funny is we get a lot of comments. People refer to us as elderly. And then you look in the mirror and go, I guess we are, but I would love younger people to realize, even when you get older, you don't necessarily have to have an old personality.

You don't have to be, you can age, but you don't have to be old.

Scott: It's not about waiting for God. You got a life.

Embrace it.

Angela: love it so much is because, like, one thing that I try to do with this Podcast is talk to parents and families of the LGBTQ community to show them that the conversation we're having in the conversation we're having right now, it's not a gay conversation.

It's just a conversation that everybody has - travel getting older, you know, reaching out to [00:34:00] each other connecting like. That's universal.

Angela: I think that's why you guys resonate so much, only for me, but for so many people, is it's not gay. You just happen to be a gay couple. And that's kind of the, added bonus because it's like oh and I also get to see what my relationship looks like reflected back at me so thank you for sharing your life because it's got to be a little bit daunting a little bit weird maybe to share your your life with complete strangers but I thank you for it.

I really do. Oh

Scott: you're welcome but it isn't. It really isn't. Really? No It's surprisingly, while we have been amazed at how it's taken off, it's been, I guess, going way back, we've,

Bobby: I don't want to say the word trailblazer, but we've always been a little different. When we were first together, first of all, we met in 1979.

We were the first [00:35:00] couple we knew who had, were staying together. Yeah. Because back then it was party time. No one was, uh, was in long-term relationships. So you

Scott: celebrated one week relationship, . Yeah. Yes. And then

Bobby: back in, you know, 1979, 1980, we didn't know any other gay parents. So we were like, okay, we're gay parents.

And then, gosh, when we became gay grandparents, we were like the only gay grandparents. We, now it's, it's wonderful and it's very healthy that there are more people having children, having grandchildren, all that. We applaud that. I think it's so wonderful. But I guess because we had never encountered those things, we were never afraid to

be out there and speak our truth and be role models and say, yeah, you can be in a long term relationship. Yes, you can have children. Yes, you can have grandchildren. So, um, as Scott mentioned, it's really not uncomfortable for us to share because we've been doing it all our relationship.

Scott: Yeah. And I guess a little bit, [00:36:00] Angela.

I sometimes get uncomfortable with the idea of being called a role model. I would like to think that all that we are doing is just living who we are. And as

Bobby: Scott says, living our truth.

Scott: Yeah. I think that's it.

Bobby: And you know, if that word, that word influencer, if that influences someone or, you know, gosh, puts a smile on their face for the day, that's great.

You know?

Angela: Yeah. It's a definite impact. You know, your story is more, it's like more than travel, you know what I mean? There's so many layers to it that it's really impacting other people, I think. I have one last question for you before we wrap up.

You say that your favorite trip is always the next trip.

Bobby: Mm hmm. That's true.

Angela: So what is the next trip?

Scott: Okay, well, it depends upon we do we have the time?

Angela: Yes, yes, absolutely. Okay.

Scott: This [00:37:00] morning. We were contacted by a wonderful couple up in Sitka, Alaska, who are allies of our community. You know, they have family members or members of our community.

And they have invited us up to Sitka, Alaska, if we want, in June. Now. We have to pay for our wait up there, it's not like anything pro bono. They want us to come up. They have an expedition company. They have a private island with a guest house. We think you could use the time to just get away and have a little vacation yourself.

So they've offered their island guesthouse, they've, and they also have, , expeditions to go see whales and go out and check the wildlife out that they've offered , to take us on. So who knows, you might see it somewhere. So the next, it may be Alaska.

Well,

Bobby: the one [00:38:00] we know for certain, uh, we're leaving in mid July for about five weeks, we're going to tour the UK.

Okay. And right now we are in that process. We have our books. We've been watching videos. We make our spreadsheets of what we want to see, because for us, about half the fun is just researching and you know, you want to go to places, but then you really get into what you want to see what castle, what cliff, what town, so we'll be doing that.

And that'll be a long trip for us. And a lot of videos will come out of that too.

Scott: Yeah, you're gonna have a lot of fun watching me drive on the left side of the road. Yeah,

Bobby: we'll probably have a video just on

that.

Angela: That'll be a good one. Number one, what's to think about of the Alaska? That's a hell yes, right?

Yeah.

Angela: And then number two is just, it's gonna be so much fun to watch you guys, your next adventures. It's wonderful.

Scott: Angela.

Angela: , so can you tell us, like, your YouTube channel, 2 Gay Grandpas Travel? Yep

we're on Instagram, we have, [00:39:00] TikTok, we are also on Reddit.

Scott: But the primary ones where we seem to be getting, , the most people watching use the YouTube, the Instagram, and the TikTok. We're still having to learn about TikTok we need to learn how to jump off buildings or dance or dance or, , I don't know, spray our bodies with foam while we're wearing

Bobby: speedos.

We still don't even know all the platforms out there.

Angela: I have no idea. I don't have TikTok yet. I have not gotten to that level. Like I told y'all. You know, when we were chatting before I need to get pointers from you guys of just how to do YouTube channel. I haven't even gotten to that point. We're not

Bobby: on my space.

It was that advanced.

Angela: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, we can post travel on YouTube. Instagram, TikTok,

Bobby: TikTok and Reddit, and we readily share that we're not the most technically savvy. Grandpa Scott does a great job. [00:40:00] We get advice from our grandkids and our children on how to make it better and how to make things work.

So any advice anybody wants to give us, we're more than happy to accept it.

Angela: And let me know after you find out. I really do. Thank you guys for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for inviting us.

Bobby: Yeah, it's been a pleasure.