Hey friend,

It is hot in Tennessee.

Not warm. Hot. The wet, heavy kind that soaks through your shirt before you've made it to the truck. We keep reminding ourselves we chose this. Some mornings that's easier to believe than others.

So naturally, we decided to go make it harder.

Kind of last minute, we're jumping into RAGBRAI, the week-long ride that drags thousands of people clear across Iowa on bicycles in the dead of summer. Think cornfields, pie stops, and a lot of sunburned legs. We rode it two years ago, filmed the whole week, and loved it so much we've been itching to get back ever since. So this year we're doing it again, cameras and all. If you're out there pedaling too, come find us. We'd love to say hi.

Now, the thing that's actually been on our minds.

If you've been near the news this week, you probably caught it. An "influencer" walked into a small-town grocery store and spent a few minutes making fun of it. The produce, the size, all of it. It did not go over well, and we're not here to pile on. That part takes care of itself.

But it reminded us of something we genuinely love.

One of our favorite things to do when we get somewhere new is walk into the grocery store. Not the famous restaurant. Not the overlook everyone photographs.

The grocery store.

It tells you more about a place than almost anything else. What people eat. What's in season. What a regular Tuesday looks like for the people who actually live there. Bourdain understood this better than anyone. If you want to know a place, go where its people buy their eggs.

And that little store in the video? To us it looked like home. We grew up around small towns and stores exactly like it. There's nothing sad about them. They feed families. They're somebody's normal, and there are a lot of somebodies.

It's easy to roll into a place and clock everything it isn't. It's harder, and a whole lot better, to walk in and see it for what it is. Real people live there. Real people shop there. The second you forget that, you've stopped traveling and started looking down.

We'd rather stay curious.

🎥 This Week's Video ​ 🎥 Americans Explore Cornwall for the First Time Speaking of walking into a place with no clue what to expect, that's pretty much how we showed up to Cornwall this week. 👉 Watch it here​

👀 What Caught Our Eye ​Going's biggest sale of the year is on: 51% off Premium and Elite.​ This is the tool we use to find the flight deals we send you every week, including the ones a little further down this email. So when it goes half off, we're going to say something. Premium covers the economy deals, both domestic and international. Elite adds the ones we get most excited about: international mistake fares and premium cabin deals. One fare you actually book pays for the whole year. Use code BIGSALE51 at checkout. The sale runs through August 16, and it's the lowest price Going hits all year.

Are you a grocery-store-when-you-travel person? Always. First stop. Only if I'm cooking Never, but you've got me curious Hard no, I'm eating out

📍 Worth Sharing A few things we bookmarked this week: ​Australia asks people to respect the privacy of Neil, a 1-ton seal who respects nothing – He's knocked over bollards, broken fences, and harassed cars while he molts. .A dog walker in Buenos Aires put all 13 of his dogs in Argentina jerseys – Now they're local celebrities. Kramer would never allow it. ​Japan just got pricier – As of July 1, the visa fee jumped from ¥3,000 to ¥15,000 and the departure tax tripled to ¥3,000. Still worth it, just budget for it. ​The off-season is quietly disappearing in Europe – Airlines say the shoulder season is blending into full season, with strong demand year-round. ​Someone spread 800 pounds of peanut butter across a museum floor in the Netherlands – And called it art. I'm allergic to peanut butter so no museum for me - Chris

✈️ Flights We'd Text to Friends A few that caught our eye this week. ​Atlanta → Brisbane for $2,200 – 37% off (normally $3,500+). Australia is comically far, and you lose a whole day just getting there, but premium economy for two grand instead of $3,500 makes those fourteen hours over the Pacific a lot easier to justify. ​Nashville → Honolulu for $1,467 – 54% off (normally $3,250+). Lie-flat business class to Hawaii for less than most people pay to sit in the back. That 54% off is not a typo. ​Birmingham → Brisbane for $1,908 – 45% off (normally $3,500+). The other road to Australia, and cheaper than the Atlanta deal above if Birmingham is the easier start for you. ​Louisville → Calgary for $381 – 42% off (normally $660+). Under $400 to the doorstep of the Canadian Rockies. Banff in the fall earns every mile. (You may need to book two one-ways, Google Flights walks you through it.) ​Boston → Marrakesh for $660 – 34% off (normally $1,015+). Fares this good to Morocco don't come around often. The cheapest dates are picky, so flex your trip length in Google Flights to shake a few more loose. ​Portland → Los Cabos for $421 – 38% off (normally $680+). Tacos, beaches, and the tip of Baja for a little over four hundred bucks. A solid cure for the gray. We find all of these through Going. It's worth setting up alerts for your home airport. Most of these deals won't last long, so if one catches your eye, don't sit on it. Is there a city you wish we would feature for flights? Email us back and we'll put it in the next email.

Thanks for reading Field Notes. We're trying to make this a space worth saving, full of things we'd actually send to a friend.

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And if something in here made you laugh, think, or book a free narrowboat trip... we'd love to hear about it. Just hit reply or tag us @chrisandsara_ on Instagram.

More soon,

Chris & Sara