NJ's Gary Loupassakis, author of "Go Dat Way and Go Dere"

A local New Jersey author, Gary Lupasekis, has released his debut book called "Go That Way and Go There: Around the World in 50 Years." In the book, he shares interesting stories from his travels to 65 countries on six continents since 1967. The book was inspired during the COVID-19 pandemic when travel was halted, and Lupasekis' wife suggested he write about his experiences. He mentions that Australia and New Zealand were particularly beautiful destinations. Despite challenges during the pandemic, Lupasekis believes there is a future for global travel as people are eager to explore after being cooped up for years. He also emphasizes the value of personal experience and knowledge that travel agents like him can provide compared to online sources. The book can be purchased on Lupasekis' website or from authorhouse.com. The interview ends with Lupasekis requesting a birthday shout-out for his wife, Joyce. to congratulate a local New Jersey author who has just released his debut book and it's about taking the readers of this book on a journey across the globe and really just some interesting stories that he has to share in this book that is cleverly called and I'll give it to you exactly how it's written go that way and go there around the world in 50 years and my guest who's joining me this morning here at the RNJ morning program we have Gary Lupusakis who is a resident of Wachung who was checking in this morning Gary hi it is Bert Barron WRNJ radio in Jersey how you doing today I'm doing well Bert yourself I'm great congratulations on getting this published and I know this is this is a big moment for you but how many years have you been traveling and going around our world and seeing all kinds of different things and meeting all kinds of interesting people well since 1967 I've been a travel agent so this is going to be my 56th year and I'm sorry did I say 67 yes it's going to be my 56th year and all during that time frame I have visited 65 countries on six continents and during the COVID pandemic things were kind of dead in the travel business so my wife suggested I write a book about my experiences so I did and that's what you got in front of you is this book and it was a lot of fun writing it and it brought back so many fond memories and now I don't know if I'm going to write another one a sequel but all right right well I'm looking for one yeah yeah well good for you for making this happen Gary because it's amazing how many people are told well you should write a book you know people that we think leave these interesting and you know just fascinating lives and you took people up on the offer that said you know what you should write a book and we as the readers we're the real winners here because we get to share in these stories with you it's interesting that you look at different portions of the world and how many different areas different countries and different cultures have all contributed in one way or another to the life that we lead in the United States today you know whether it's democracy government great food religious and other sort of cultures all comes from other parts of the globe that's that's probably one of the more fascinating things about traveling around the world it is uh I've been fascinated with all the travels that I've done yes I've been to places that I wasn't happy and I don't want to go back to um but there are many many that I can't wait to get back to well like what name one name one that you can't wait to go back to and what was so attractive about it Australia and New Zealand oh really it's actually two countries but um we spent a couple weeks there my wife and I and um we only visited uh Sydney and um and Cairns in Australia but in New Zealand we went to both islands and I just found it magnificently beautiful um it's just spectacular yeah I know people that have gone there and they fall in love with the place I mean Australia is about the size of the U.S. with about a third of the people uh you know the weather is fantastic is Vegemite that good is it worth going back just for the Vegemite or no no did you avoid Vegemite I did like most people do because they can't stand the way it smells right good for you that's really great and it's a long plane ride but it's worth it to get there right yeah it is it's uh I mean when you if you fly business class or something it's not too too bad and in our case you know we split it up we we flew to Hawaii first and spent uh 24 hours there and then it was another eight or nine hours from Hawaii to Sydney okay not so bad when you split it up like that we did the same thing coming back I mean we spent the night in LA okay yeah smart move my guest this morning at the rnj morning program a local New Jersey author and we are congratulating him on the release of his debut memoir cleverly called go that way and go there around the world in 50 years Gary Lupasekis who is a resident of Wachung is with us here today the title originated in Jamaica is that right you can you talk about that a little bit it did my wife and I were there with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend at the time and we rented a car one day and we were driving we were staying south of Montego Bay and we were driving through the city of Montego Bay on our way to Negril and we kind of got a little lost so we stopped the young man on on the street and we asked him how do you know how do you get to Negril from here and he just pointed which seemed like no particular direction he just pointed and he says go that way and go there and we found Negril that's perfect right who needs a GPS when you got some guy pointing down the street right oh that's that's so wonderful Gary you had mentioned that you've got decades of experience in working in the travel industry when I look back at what happened during the pandemic and just the I guess it's almost I guess I could call it catastrophic impact that it had on global travel was it handled well was there anything that the airline or travel industry could have done differently during the pandemic or was it just all bets are off and we just got a lockdown for a period I don't think the travel industry could have done much unless they were you know had scientists that could invent new serums and you know vaccines and whatnot unfortunately people got scared and I mean I have to admit I didn't go anyplace for a couple years and I'm one of these people who is I'm chomping at the bit to get away as as often as I can I'm at that stage in my life now where I haven't seen everything but what I haven't seen I want to see you know I want to see them and I mean we did we did venture on in October of 2021 we ventured into Belgium we went to Brussels and everything was closed as far as sightseeing was concerned the there were no tours and and that's my fault because I didn't check it out ahead of time um but you know I'm not I'm a travel agent but I'm not perfect right well of course well other countries around the world had you know stay-at-home orders and social distancing restrictions just like we did here so I'm sure it made global travel very difficult especially for you it sounds like you've lived out of a suitcase for the last several decades of your life that's what it sounds like to me yeah yeah I guess you could say that gotcha I want to give people Gary I'll let you tell how they can get a hold of the book again called go that way and go there around the world in 50 years but I did want to ask you what do you see for the future of travel be it international or whatever is Gen Z are they into going to places like Paris and London and Australia and New Zealand like our generation is is there a future for global travel by your estimation there is as long as we don't have any more wars uh or pandemics um there is definitely a future this year now I'm I closed my office in 2016 and I'm not what they call a home-based agent at this point um the I have been busier since December than I was ever busy when I was when I had my own business wow in office it was crazy I mean I'm right now I'm a single guy wait you know just you know working out of his house but the um the people are coming out of the woodwork because they've been cooped up for a couple of years and they want to get out yeah I guess nobody could take honeymoons you know there was a lot going on restriction wise but I'm I'm encouraged to hear that the 20-somethings of the world are adventurous and do want to see our world they seem to be uh um but I mean unfortunately they're not using travel agents unfortunately it's with me uh they they're all so computer uh uh savvy that you know they do everything uh you know what there'll always be a need for guys like you people that have been there and have seen things and have done things there's no online review Gary that can talk at the extent and put the personal and human spin on our planet compared to you as someone who has been there and has seen things there will always be a value for what you bring to the table I wouldn't worry about that at all I like to think that you know my experience you know you can look in the internet all you want you can spend hours and hours but you could ask me one question and I could probably save you several hours uh with an answer right off the top of my head well sure if I was going to Melbourne I'd be like Gary don't send me to some tourist trap where can I get the best meal in uh in Melbourne and you know exactly where to send me you can't get that from some online thing of course not no not really I mean you can you can look at you know what there is to do and see uh but there is you know I mean I'll give you a plain example um in the uh if you go to visit the Vatican um after let's say you uh you visited the Vatican and you're getting hungry you want to have lunch well most people will go to the closest restaurant they can find well they're going to pay a fortune for that lunch and I'm a prime example of that I remember my wife and I had a bowl of pasta and we split two diet cokes and it cost me 60 dollars wow I'd have gone a couple of blocks further I probably could have gotten it for half right see so you know so that's you know and there's the things that you can only learn when you go there see they send you to the tourist traps you know right I mean best cheese steak in Philadelphia guess what it's in Camden it's not even in Philadelphia right yeah you're right uh but I mean and of course if you've got a guy involved uh he or she wants to send you to where they're getting a wrist oh of course where's the big ad of course exactly but uh Gary Lupisakis uh congratulations on the book again it's called Go That Way and Go Dare Around the World in 50 Years and I promise you I'm going to be diving into my copy of it very soon so I can't wait to read about some of your adventures but where where can someone purchase a copy of this great book all right if you if you um google go that way and go there dot com comes my website comes up okay all right or or you could go to authorhouse.com authorhouse.com yeah that's those are the publishers okay well we'll take a look for that and uh Gary again uh a resident of uh of Wachung congratulations on this book here and uh may you have safe travels in the future ahead and it was really great chatting with you this morning and again uh congratulations to you Bert can I ask you one favor go right ahead today's my wife's birthday wow shout out to her sure what's your wife what's her name Joyce Joyce Joyce happy birthday all right Joyce uh Lupisakis happy birthday to you we'll add you to our birthday list too because we do uh we do shout outs every day okay very good