Miles, Memories, and More: A Year in Retrospect of Cycling Adventures and Bourbon Stories

Speaker 1: 1:13

Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that riding is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now here are the original Cycling Men of Leisure Adam and Michael.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. I'm Adam, and across from me digitally is my good friend and co-host, michael. Hello, hello. Well, hello there, how you been Been good. How about yourself? Getting there? Getting there, you know, down to the big season. Not sure who likes it more adults that they're off of work, children because Santa or a family member gives them a gift, or just spending time with family. But we are ramping up for it over here. What about you?

Speaker 3: 2:04

Yeah, we're getting there. You know, I got a couple more things I have to take care of before the festivities begin, but we'll get her done.

Speaker 2: 2:13

You always do, I bet.

Speaker 3: 2:16

Absolutely, and if they don't get done, I wasn't planning on doing them anyway. That's right. That's right.

Speaker 2: 2:22

At least that's my story. It's Festivus for the rest of us, that's right.

Speaker 3: 2:29

Can I air my grievances now? Oh wait, that was the last episode.

Speaker 2: 2:31

No, that was the last episode, so we have no rants of dissatisfaction now.

Speaker 3: 2:37

But Not today, maybe later, maybe tomorrow, maybe the next show, who knows? I'm sure you'll come up with something.

Speaker 2: 2:44

If you are listening to this on the day it comes out, let me say Merry Christmas Eve.

Speaker 3: 2:52

That's right. We are Santa's making his way around the earth right now delivering gifts, and if you want a little special gift, you can tune in and listen to us talk.

Speaker 2: 3:04

So how nice is that Like in Christmas vacation? Hey kids, I heard that Santa was across the North Pole. Really Clark. Is that serious Clark Every year that?

Speaker 3: 3:19

is an RV.

Speaker 2: 3:21

We watch that every year.

Speaker 3: 3:23

Classic.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, well anyways. So you've got something a little special.

Speaker 3: 3:31

Well, you know, it is the end of the year. This is going to be our last podcast of the season, but I thought it might be nice to kind of look back and maybe see some of the highlights from the year. Okay, and I thought we'd do it a different way. I thought we would do it. I've set up some questions, created some questions and I thought we would just. I've given you the questions, so I thought we would just ask these questions back and forth to each other and come up with some of the but what I'm going to call the Cycling Men of Leisure's best and coolest of 2023. All right, are you game?

Speaker 2: 4:14

I am, I'm in.

Speaker 3: 4:15

Okay, Let me set the stage though 2023,. We did four organized rides Spring Tune Up with Bragg, we did Big Bragg, we did the 50th anniversary Ragh-Bri and we did the Bourbon Country Burn. So four organized rides. I think that equates out to what 1,400 miles.

Speaker 2: 4:41

That about right? Yeah, about 1,400 on those on the organized rides On the organized.

Speaker 3: 4:46

That's not counting any training or anything you did on your own. That is us together organized rides. That's what we did, and that equates out to about 22 nights of us being on the road away from home, which my wife will tell you those are the best 22 nights of the year, but 22 nights away from home, cycling across everywhere.

Speaker 2: 5:11

I was going to ask you does that count, the time that we were in Tampa? No, does that count?

Speaker 3: 5:17

These are just rides. This does not include the week we were in Tampa or the extended weekend that we were in Disney or anything like that. That's just rides, okay, okay. So here we go, cycling Men of Leisure's best and coolest of 2023. First question to you, sir Coolest jersey you saw or received on a ride this year?

Speaker 2: 5:46

I'm torn. They both have cycling men of leisure on it, but I think I'm going to air to the one that we all got as the team at Big Bragg the Maroon Cycling Men of Leisure or Cycling Women of Leisure. So close second would be our yellow Cycling Men of Leisure jerseys.

Speaker 3: 6:10

Okay, cool, it's a good choice. What about you? Well, unlike you, I'm not self-promoting. So, although those were two cool jerseys and I got to say, the one that we got in Georgia with the team name on it was pretty awesome, and having 25 members out there wearing it was cool I'm going to go, however, with Raghbri goat jersey.

Speaker 2: 6:37

That was a good one. That was a good jersey. I won't lie about that.

Speaker 3: 6:42

It was not their primary jersey. They had a secondary jersey that had like a goat with a biking helmet on it and there was like a chain ring around him and it was like Raghbri 50th goat greatest of all time. It was a great jersey. I loved it.

Speaker 2: 7:04

That was that material of when Raghbri did on the road. Again, they offered two jerseys. They offered the regular one. They offered this really sport, extreme, sweat wicking, very soft material, and the goat had that as well. And what's funny is is I bought the same size jersey, knowing it would be a little big on the regular primal jersey. Well, that was very big and when I would put all my nutrition for the day, it would hang below my seat. Every now and then I would stand up, it would get caught on my seat. I'm like whoa so.

Speaker 3: 7:40

Yeah, I've got to admit. You know, I bought the regular size that I normally bought and it was. It was a little bit loose on me, looser than I normally would wear, but it was still great graphics, so that's going to be my choice.

Speaker 2: 7:53

Well, I think I was a good choice and you're right, I was self-promoting. Um, for those of you who who received the cycling men and cycling women of leisure jersey, I hope you're enjoying that because I think that's one of the cool ones. So that's right. All right. Next question.

Speaker 3: 8:11

Next question Best overall ride that we participated. Organized ride that we participated in this year. What one did you like the best?

Speaker 2: 8:22

Hmm.

Speaker 3: 8:23

Or you thought was the best.

Speaker 2: 8:27

I'm going to go with big brag. Um, I I always enjoy Now, the first day of big brag. I didn't think that. Uh, I actually thought I had maybe woken up in hell, but uh, it's called the mountain.

Speaker 3: 8:42

It was a small mountain, not even a big one.

Speaker 2: 8:44

Yeah, and when you live, where I live, there's not mountains like that. Hello.

Speaker 3: 8:50

I, I live in the planes. There are no mountains out here, so anyway, go ahead.

Speaker 2: 8:57

That was but the rest of it. I mean, just even that day that was tough. I mean it's just tough cause I don't get on my bike enough, but um, just the beauty of the lakes, um going around the hairpin turns, um, all of that ride, um, the people that we met along the way and and people that we got to share our story with. And you know, going across a, going around a corner, and someone, just a random person, yelling out leisure.

Speaker 2: 9:27

There was just some some kind of a high of that, just of everything that you and I have, you know, tried to put together and build, and we're taking its crazy legs and so, uh, just the support of that was was exciting.

Speaker 3: 9:40

Okay, cool. Well, I'm going to go a little different on this one as well. Loved big brag. I'm going to have to say, though, spring, tune up. That was pretty cool, I mean uh, and even it rained, like a big chunk of it, it was a mud fest. Uh, it really was kind of just like this. Gave you this kind of wet wood stock feel for the whole weekend.

Speaker 2: 10:07

I just kept waiting for people to like to strip down naked and start running running down the mud passing around the brownies.

Speaker 3: 10:14

Don't eat them. But uh yeah, um, I'm going to have to say that one was a fun experience. Now, it took me a long time to get there, uh, to drive down there and stuff like that, but uh, you know, I think it was a good fun ride. Yeah, no, I, it was a different. It had a different vibe, let me put it that way A different vibe, a different feeling.

Speaker 2: 10:38

Yeah, no, for sure I mean it, it. I'm nothing against that, by the way. I had a great time and you know I 12 hour, 12 hour, uh, jaunt. You know we got lucky with that weekend, though we uh the last night, you know they kept people kept packing up and going home, and and our friend lived in Marietta, like an hour away and uh, happened to be no traffic, so, um, so that that that really worked out in our favor.

Speaker 3: 11:06

So that was very nice. Um, there was just a great cool feeling about it. We were all camping, um, you know, and the rides were nice. I mean that one day we were racing to try to stay ahead of the rain, but, um, it just had a good feel to it. So that's my choice.

Speaker 2: 11:23

All right, what would be your next question?

Speaker 3: 11:27

My next question is going to be best day of writing single, best day of writing overall?

Speaker 2: 11:37

I am going to go bourbon burn.

Speaker 3: 11:40

Ooh, didn't see that one coming.

Speaker 2: 11:43

The day we rode with Adam and Kelly, that was.

Speaker 3: 11:45

I always liked our friends from Kenosha.

Speaker 2: 11:49

That's right. I uh although there was some recent teasing on the social media um, I was bragging about Michigan uh winning, and Adam said Kelly is not going to like that because Kelly is from the Ohio area. And I said that's okay. I was polite in Kentucky and I'll be polite now. I actually do like it. So but uh, no, riding with them was cool and and, um, I believe we went to Georgetown that day and and took some photos of and so always meeting new people, riding with new, new people and and you know, we got to hang out with them at camp afterwards and stuff, and so that would be. That would be one of my favorites.

Speaker 3: 12:33

So, yeah, that was, that was a great day and that actually had my favorite segment on the bourbon country burn, that one where you turn off to and you've got, like I don't know, probably close to a mile of just nice rollers on the countryside. But, um, I'm going to say my best overall day of riding was you've already brought it up. I'll see you next time也是 snacks backpack.

Speaker 2: 12:58

That was your best day of writing.

Speaker 3: 13:00

I got no respect. I don't know how to respond to this. Well, now it was, it was. It was the single most challenging, I would say one of the most challenging days, because it did. We were in the foothills of the Appalachians and stuff like that, but from a scenic, beautiful country. The whole day we were riding around those lakes, through the mountains and the hills. I mean, the scenery was beautiful and, yeah, some of those long, long climbs were killers. But let me tell you, at the end of that day you're like, wow, I, I did some riding today. I did some serious riding today and it was awesome.

Speaker 2: 13:42

You know one thing about that day is the night before. You know, franklin met us in the pavilion that we were sleeping in and that we weren't supposed to be in. The police were there and, and there we were, and the officer was the coolest officer in the world. He's like listen, I'm not going to say anything. He's like you're not supposed to be here, but he's like, if you guys keep it down, I won't say anything. We're like we're going to bed, see you. Well, here's it.

Speaker 3: 14:11

Here's the deal for for people who don't know, because I don't think we ever talked about this Hmm, first day, get off the bus, they drop us off at the main area and we did indoor camping because we're flying and we can't bring our tents and all that. It's very inconvenient. So we heard that it was very close quarters. On the indoor camping it was like at a local church. And as we were coming in I looked down and right next to the main camp area across the creek, was this big pavilion, and so we got off the bus and kind of got the things together. I was like guys, there's a pavilion over there, why don't we just go over there? And so we carted over there. Nobody else, there's picnic tables, there was even electricity that worked. We could plug things in, beautiful. So we rolled out our sleeping bags there and all that.

Speaker 3: 15:02

We went out to eat, came back later that evening it was dark. Police officer shows up and informs us that we're not supposed to be there. And he was, you're right, he was very cool. We were just like oh, we didn't know, we were just. You know, we're ready to go to bed, and all this. And Franklin shows up at about the same time and he kind of said these guys are okay. And the officer's like, well, I don't care, just let let you know they're going to lock the gate for the vehicles. And he's like, well, we don't have a vehicle and I can just hand my bicycle over it, so it doesn't matter. So that was the experience that we had on the first first night before we started riding.

Speaker 2: 15:36

And on that day the funniest part is Franklin said have you guys been training? And he had this very interesting smirk about him and and, and he said he said you guys been been training? And we're like, yeah, we, we had done a few rides, we had been, you know, and I'll never forget. At the end of the day he said well, what'd you, what'd you boys think?

Speaker 3: 16:00

I said we haven't been training.

Speaker 1: 16:02

We haven't been training.

Speaker 2: 16:05

All I know is we showed up at that pool or whatever indoor pool and and I thought to myself oh man, I am, I'm ready for a shower and some grub and a nap. But that was a good day. It was very, very beautiful and those hairpin turns I'd never ridden on something like that. And just going around the lake and the water was still and it was. It was really neat. So I think you had a good one there.

Speaker 3: 16:33

Okay, next, one Coolest bicycle gadget you either saw, received or looked into, thought about buying. Now I'll go ahead and answer, because this was an easy one for me. Couple episodes ago we had our episode on Christmas gifts for the cyclist. We threw out a whole bunch of ideas, from the very practical to the very impractical. One of the ones that I came across and I am really interested in this is the folding helmet. No, not the DeBram, the fiend folding helmet, and it's a bicycle helmet that actually collapses. Very interested in that. I think it's the coolest thing ever.

Speaker 2: 17:21

I actually went down a rabbit hole after that show and checked it out and I didn't realize when you talked about folding, that basically the curves around your around your ear is what actually folds up. And so the main structure of the helmet was still there and the two curved parts went up into, you know, up inside. And so when you first talked about it I was afraid of the structure, but after looking at it, pull it out of my pocket.

Speaker 3: 17:52

Here's my bike helmet.

Speaker 2: 17:55

It's like a bandana Just push a button, you know back to the future.

Speaker 3: 18:00

The crown middle section is put. The side area actually slides in. It's kind of like a slide out on a camper. Yeah, it just, you know, slides on and expands.

Speaker 2: 18:11

That was cool. I you know, if you would have asked me prior to doing that show, I would have answered immediately. The bike radar I still believe in my heart that the bike radar is probably one of the best safety inventions for a cyclist in a while. But you intrigued me when you talked about the crash sensor. Haven't seen it, but on my list of next time. I'm perusing on the internet and wasting time, which I'm pretty good at at times, but that's something I'm interested in because just a simple fact of having having that even because I, when I'm training here with my work schedule, I'm usually riding by myself. I go out and I stage the bike. You know if I can get off work four or five o'clock, rush out to our local Metro Park or State Park I'm usually by myself. So the idea of a crash sensor and being able to attach contact to that, I'm interested in that. Okay, Not sure how exciting that is for the subscribers, but you asked and so I answered.

Speaker 3: 19:18

Okay, hey, you know this is about what you thought was the best and coolest of this year. So that's what you think it is, and it's no wrong answer. Boring maybe? No, I'm kidding. All right, here's a good one, all right? Your best memory from the road? What is that one thing in your mind that stands out from being on the road cycling this year? And I know it's riding with me because that's awesome and cool. But let's dig a little deeper.

Speaker 2: 19:52

Oh man, you stole my answer.

Speaker 3: 19:55

I mean, that's kind of a given. I'll tell you what. I'll give you a second. I will give you mine. Picture this, excuse me, I believe we were in Glidden, Iowa. I think it was Glidden. It may not have been, but I think it was Glidden. It was somewhere close to Glidden and we our buddy Joe wanted to go straight, kind of cut off from going downtown, and it's like no, we're going to go downtown. So we cut off and of course we were on our bike, we were walking and we were in the middle of Main Street and all of a sudden we heard somebody shouted us and it was Matt, Executive Director from Raghbri, Called us out on the street, came over and talked to us.

Speaker 1: 20:37

That was pretty cool and we took a picture.

Speaker 3: 20:39

And we took a picture and of all the thousands of people coming by. He recognized us, he called us out, he came over and said hello. That was just an awesome, cool thing.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Man, I'm still drawing a blank, but I think one of the things that I really enjoyed was meeting the unofficial mayor of Raghbri.

Speaker 3: 20:59

Oh, that was. That was a fun, interesting thing yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:03

That's got me in trouble on the show because I misspoke about e-bikes. But then Reed made me reintroduce myself to e-bikes and learning about class one, two and three.

Speaker 3: 21:15

But Wait a minute. You're talking a lot about e-bikes. You didn't ask Santa for an e-bike, did you no?

Speaker 2: 21:21

Okay.

Speaker 3: 21:23

Just checking.

Speaker 2: 21:24

No, no, no. I, although there was a funny post on the Raghbri social media post today where a guy said hey, I'm looking for a playlist for my music for Raghbri, I'm not looking for any answers for any of you e-bikers right now, but they might have some groovy music.

Speaker 3: 21:42

You never know.

Speaker 2: 21:43

That's right. That's right. That was interesting because of her story. And then I asked her about her profession and what she did and traditionally, with her profession not supposed to be known and so she didn't advertise it Very respected profession, by the way and her friends actually stole a picture off of her Facebook page and got shirts made up in jerseys it said mayor of Raghbri, and so it's a very interesting story. So check out one of our shows right around July and you can hear that whole story. But yeah, anyways, so I'm going to go with meeting the unofficial mayor of Raghbri.

Speaker 3: 22:31

That was pretty cool and we learned a lot about e-bikes, so very nice, all right, you ready for another one?

Speaker 2: 22:39

I'm ready, okay.

Speaker 3: 22:41

We talked about your best day of writing. I want to know what is the best day of writing that you were happy to end. Basically, what I'm asking is what was your first day of writing?

Speaker 2: 23:00

I'm going to go with. Like day five or day four of Raghbri it was. It was, truthfully the day I was worried about you. I had somehow got separated from you and got 45 minutes ahead of you. It was hot, it was 90 something miles. It didn't seem like it ever was going to end. I pulled over on the side of the road thinking I was going to wait for you, and then I got worried that I had missed you because of it's easy to do with people passing by. And then when I, when I saw you, I said hey, you want to take a break? And you said, yeah, I need a break. And then we both kind of like we're leaning up against that fence and by that day we were done. There might have been a special celebration in my head of confetti exploding like, oh my gosh. Thankfully we're done with today.

Speaker 3: 23:54

So I'm going to have to say that same day yeah, that was a day that you know. I realized something very important that day Do not change up your routine, or certainly don't change it up in the middle of a week on a long ride. That was a morning. I generally always drink a soda in the morning. It's just something I do. I'm not a coffee drinker. I drink a soda that gets me going. I didn't drink one that day, and that I mean it was hot, but I think that really did me in, because then, as soon as I got some place and got the soda, I was feeling better. But that was a rough day for me, really rough. I mean it was 90, I don't know, eight degrees or something. It was a long mile day. It was just, uh yeah, middle of the week, so we'd already had several days of riding, so I was happy to have that one over. And then is that the one where we ended up in Des Moines.

Speaker 2: 24:52

I almost want to say it was a day coming out of Des Moines, honestly Okay Anyway it was happy to have that one over. Yeah, that was, that was a, I believe it was coming out of Des Moines. Um, yeah, because coming into Des Moines wasn't that a shorter ride? Yes, and then the next day was long and so, um, it was just hot and long and it was not my, not my favorite day, but, um, anyways, yeah, that would. That would be it.

Speaker 3: 25:26

Okay, here's a good one the neatest or most interesting person you met to share on a ride. Hmm, I actually have two, and I don't know which one to use the two that come to mind. The first one is the couple from Denmark on the tandem bike. Yeah, Uh, we saw, starting on the first day, they had a little uh, you know flag of Denmark on the back of their thing. Uh, we ran into them in Des Moines. We were in line right next to them. Uh, we had a nice long conversation with them. Uh, that type of thing. They were a great couple to talk to and it was really interesting to uh to get to experience that. The other one that I'm going to say, Steven Phant I think this is his last name, F-A-N-T-E. You remember that one.

Speaker 2: 26:22

Barely not.

Speaker 3: 26:23

No, I'm I feel guilty, but he is the brand ambassador for Limestone Branch. Oh, Bourbon Country. Burn, he was sitting there. He came over and talked to him and he was the most enjoyable person to listen to, cause he has kind of that Southern accent and he was telling us about he used to be in coffee and then he was in wine and now he's in, you know, bourbons and whiskeys.

Speaker 3: 26:46

And he's telling us a story about finding, trying to find, uh, you know, this old spring that they used to, you know, use With a Jeep story. Yeah, and he was enjoyable to listen to. He was a great storyteller. It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 27:01

So I didn't realize I could use a non-writer.

Speaker 3: 27:07

I said most interesting or neatest person you met on a ride doesn't necessarily mean on the road.

Speaker 2: 27:14

I'm going to go with Katie Krause.

Speaker 3: 27:17

Oh, solid, okay yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:20

Because I was wracking my brain with a writer. Because, you know, I've met a lot of wonderful writers across the way and I didn't want to offend some.

Speaker 3: 27:29

And you've already used the mayor of Raghbri, so you couldn't go back to that one.

Speaker 2: 27:33

No, but I want to go with Katie. We interviewed Katie and Twice she gave us a story of if you didn't get to hear that where how Raghbri came, how a town is selected and etc. Etc. Etc. And then we interviewed her again to find out the aftermath of Raghbri going through. So very wonderful woman. I am so sorry that we didn't meet her in person, but just having her you and I, if no one knows, we record the show on Zoom when we're not in the near vicinity of each other, and so we actually had her on as a Zoom guest and we got to see her her face while recording, and so she showed us some pictures and some books and stuff, and so just her enthusiasm. I really appreciated it and I'm sorry that we didn't see her in person, so I'll go with Katie Kraus Good choice.

Speaker 3: 28:31

Okay. 22 nights we spent away from home on organized bike rides. This camp spot, marriott.

Speaker 2: 28:42

No, just kidding.

Speaker 3: 28:43

Just kidding, and I'm using camp loosely, I mean best place we spent the night.

Speaker 2: 28:48

I will say that because we've done primitive camping mostly unless we fly into Big Bragg. We've kind of took a hail Mary last year and we did indoor camping which is normally not our style. We're the ones out there and you know both of us were scouts and silver grinning and barren it. But when you're flying you got to pick what you're going to fly with Limited baggage.

Speaker 2: 29:13

Yeah so, but I'm going to stick with camping, although we did have some nice hotel rooms this year. When you lugged on your back across six states, your RV that was. That was a pretty decent camping there. We had air conditioning and refrigerator. Okay, yeah Is that glamping or camping, I don't know.

Speaker 3: 29:47

Well, you know we didn't hook up the water, so we're going to call it camping, not glamping because we didn't hook up the water, we hooked up the electricity and all that other stuff and and that kind of thing. So, yeah, okay, cool, so the bourbon country, burn Michael's camper.

Speaker 2: 30:05

A close second would be our pavilion in Georgia. But but as far as um, you know, honestly, when we did the pavilion in Georgia, it reminded me when I was a scout, because we didn't always have tents. We were about to sleep in sleeping bags and look at the stars but, um, but you bringing the camper to bourbon country burned. Yeah, that was, uh, that felt like camping 2.0.

Speaker 3: 30:31

So we're good, glad you enjoyed it. Happy to do it. I am going to. I'm going to go down this route the night that I got stuck with my head underneath the water fountain there wasn't many places. We crammed into this little place. I kind of got shoved over. There's a water fountain right above me Now I say that because I did not spend the night in that place.

Speaker 1: 31:04

But you set up your camp there.

Speaker 3: 31:05

I set up my camp there, but then an hour later I took my camp down and we went and spent the night in Bragg's snooze box.

Speaker 2: 31:14

Franklin's got a snooze box and that's okay.

Speaker 3: 31:20

Yes, it just so worked out.

Speaker 3: 31:22

It worked out that we got the worst possible place. Literally, my head would have been hitting into the thing. It happened to be a night that these guys had to leave early. They were in the snooze box. Franklin was like it's open. So he came and he found us and he said, hey, would you guys be interested in you know, sleeping in there for a night? And we were like, well, let's see, my head is in this underneath this water fountain, Absolutely. So I'm going to say that our night in the snooze box was the best night of camping. It was great air conditioning, electricity. Our camper was nice. But guess what? I didn't have to haul the snooze box anywhere.

Speaker 2: 31:59

You know the in the morning everyone kept saying what happened to you guys last night? Where were you last night?

Speaker 3: 32:04

I was like Well anyway, so All right Well what I had done is I was worried somebody was going to like try to fill their water bottles and my sleeping bag and everything was right below it, and if they tried to do it, water was going to spill over and get all over it.

Speaker 3: 32:19

So I had went back in the kitchen and I found this empty, large like 10 can that had the lid off of it. So I went over and I stuck it over the top of like the water fountain, where the water comes out try to make people think it was out of order and some lady that was a couple of people down was sitting there watching me. She's like I know what you're doing. And I was like, yeah, I know, but I don't want to, you know sleep in water or whatever. And so she was not around when we packed up and left. But I took that tin can, I went over and I put it right next to her camping spot and the guy next to me is like what's going on? It's like she'll know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 32:51

We ran into her.

Speaker 3: 32:52

The next day and she made a comment about how she got the. She got the can, so All right, next All right. So coolest activity you experienced or participated in it maybe was on the road, maybe it wasn't on the road. It just needs to be something with our organized rides related.

Speaker 2: 33:21

So I'm going to go with. While we were a bourbon country burn, we knew that we were going to drive out to Buffalo Trace. If no one has been to Buffalo Trace, they historically, normally almost every day I think every day do a bottle release, and we had found a website that said that most likely it was going to be Blanton's or EH Taylor. And we got there Blanton's was the bottle release. While going to the line, they take your license to give you a magic RFID wristband so you can actually you know you only three months here on the list you can't buy. And we were there.

Speaker 2: 33:55

I believe his name was Reginald or I believe Reggie Reggie, and he said do you guys want to check out to see if there's a tour available? Well, we had been on the website for weeks on end on our way down and it said there was no tours available. And we're like, well, yeah, but we were told there's sold out. He said, well, let's just check into it. And the lady's like I've got 11 o'clock, if you want 11 o'clock. And so having that surprise of being able to do the tour, go along with the tasting and find out all the history of Buffalo Trace was probably probably one of the coolest. That's something we weren't able to do last year.

Speaker 3: 34:33

So I agree that was, that was a fun experience. I mean, only one thing would have made it better.

Speaker 2: 34:42

If Freddie would have been our tour guide. Exactly.

Speaker 3: 34:43

Yes, but he wasn't working that day, so that's okay.

Speaker 2: 34:48

I wonder if that guy believed me when I said we're going to see Freddie tonight, so he probably just thought, oh this kid guys you know making stuff up, you don't know who Freddie is.

Speaker 3: 34:58

But yeah, we were actually at an event that Freddie was hosting, I guess that night about the tastings?

Speaker 3: 35:08

Yes, so I'm going to go with. I had a couple, but this one that sticks out most bourbon country burn. I don't remember the name of the distiller. You'll have to help me out.

Speaker 3: 35:19

We were in talking with these guys at the distillery and we were in there like the basement area and there's all these barrels just sitting there and they had had some tasting set up and we were tasting a couple and you made some mention of something and basically I don't know how the conversation wound up, but it wound up him going over taking the cork out of a barrel and letting you use the barrel thief tool to draw whiskey out of the barrel and you put it in shot glasses and we drank. You know, we had a tasting right out of the barrel and you were pouring it with the barrel thief, which, if you don't know what that is, it's like this long tube that they stick in the barrel and they're able to. It basically works off suction and they're able to pull out liquor to. You know, try it. I mean wine, people do it too To try it, see where it's at in the aging process, that kind of thing. That was just really cool. That was at Bourbon 30. Bourbon yes, it was so in.

Speaker 2: 36:21

Georgetown and that was straight from the barrel, Bourbon, and I wasn't sure what to expect because normally right from the barrels it's pretty toasty and that was actually really nice. I mean, he had told us it was a blend but still, coming right from the barrel, I expected to be pretty hot and that was cool. It was pretty good. I think you got a picture of me holding the.

Speaker 3: 36:44

Yeah, I do, if you like, holding the thing. Yeah, so that was a really neat thing to actually see you pulling that stuff out of there, but I don't know how long it had been in the barrel, but it was a decent drink. Okay, best non-road moment memory. So nothing on the road. This would have to be before after going or coming back from a ride Best memory go. And, by the way, I did give him the questions before, so I'm not just putting them on the spot.

Speaker 2: 37:26

You know I I got to say no-transcript Because of the time of the year and because of having more relaxation time. I'm going to go with bourbon country burn around the campfire when we all were just kind of telling stories and listen to different people's you know rides and some of their stories and then people were asking the origin of the campfire. And then people were asking the origin of how we all started, how you and I started this whole project and just that was good Wasted the night away.

Speaker 3: 38:09

That was a great evening. We had some some good bourbon, we had a cigar, and we're just all sitting around. Several of them were people that we've known for a couple of years and did other rides with, and there were some new people that we had just met. You're right, that was a. That was a good, good memory. Okay, what about you?

Speaker 3: 38:33

I mine wasn't a single moment. I think mine was Bragg, and just all the times that we were just in random places out. I specifically remember one town, and I don't remember where it was at. We ate pizza that night and we were just like coming out of this pizza place and we started walking across the street and people were, you know, yelling leisure and just all the time throughout the rides that people were recognizing who we were. That was just kind of cool because, I mean, we didn't start this thing to gain a following or anything like that, but so many people recognized who we were and would, just, you know, be yelling leisure on the road or when we were walking around town or whatever. That was really cool.

Speaker 2: 39:18

It's my DeBram, but when I went riding just when they were yelling, but it wasn't. And you're the brand, but it wasn't.

Speaker 3: 39:28

We'll just leave it at that.

Speaker 2: 39:32

Now that is cool. I mean I, when we went to the route announcement party for rag bride and the gentlemen came up to us and said, I mean, we didn't have, we didn't have shirts on, we didn't have anything, we were kind of treading the water because we knew we were going to interview Matt and the next day and we were just trying to figure out our our marching orders of where to go to meet him to do the interview, and the gentleman said he said, are you guys, the guys from Sacramento leisure? I love your show, thank you for all the work that you've done and helping me and you give me ideas to pack. And that was a. That was a moment. That was really cool.

Speaker 3: 40:15

That was, that was, and that was the first time that anybody had ever came up and recognized us. So that was. It was kind of surreal. It's like wow, yep, all right, the most interesting thing you saw on the road.

Speaker 2: 40:35

The world's largest. Oh no, I didn't see anything like that.

Speaker 3: 40:40

Can't use a popcorn ball. That was from a couple of years ago.

Speaker 2: 40:45

Best thing I saw on the road.

Speaker 3: 40:47

Yes, I've got a good one for this. I'm drawing a blank.

Speaker 2: 40:53

So you go ahead.

Speaker 3: 40:56

I'm going to say the prison tower and execution area in Greensboro, georgia. Remember we went and they had this big thing that looked like a, a medieval tower, yeah, and you read the thing, and it was actually the county, like their first county jail. It looked very medieval. You'd go in and they have the heavy bars, but they actually had a room where they were, where they used to hang convicts.

Speaker 2: 41:27

Yes, that was the stop where the radio DJ was there and they were passing out those sunglasses.

Speaker 3: 41:35

That was. That was just the most interesting, weird, bizarre thing. I mean it was just kind of it's set there. It was literally this tower thing. There was cells downstairs. You go upstairs, there were cells, but off to the side downstairs there was actually a room that had been used in the past as where they would, they would execute apparently the worst of the worst of Greensboro.

Speaker 2: 42:02

You know I'm going to say Brasilton. When we were in Brasilton there was that flea market and I kind of got to see you in your heyday because there was license plates and and I mean we saw a lot of really neat stuff. I mean, iowa was pretty much the same, or many things of the same, except I hadn't been in Des Moines in the winter. I was surprised that it wasn't zero degrees when we were there in the summer. But just kidding, A little different.

Speaker 2: 42:42

Yeah, but on a serious note, we were in that flea market and we had our whole team and we were doing a chocolate and wine walk and just kind of you know introducing, and people were telling stories. And I look around and you're like I'll be right back. You said and I thought, okay, well, maybe he's got to go to the bathroom or something or whatever. And I look up and you are, you're like a kid. There was these hanging license plates. There was probably a couple hundred of them and and you're looking at them and and the guy at the end said you're interested in this and this. And you said something like how much? And you turned around on the way out. I said you look, you seem interested in your like, yeah, not for those prices, it was just, it was just kind of. It was just kind of funny.

Speaker 3: 43:25

Yeah, I do collect license plates. I got a lot of them hanging up in my garage and I mean he had some good ones. But you know, the important thing to do is, when you go shopping for anything, know what the market will bear, because especially at like flea markets, antique stores, they they're going on. A lot of times they go off the fact that it's like you see it, you want it, you don't really know what the price should be. So, but, um, he was very proud of his license plates and then he had some good ones, but I didn't want to trek it across the state of Georgia.

Speaker 2: 43:58

I mean, and as far as like on the road, it's just that's a hard one for me, because you know Rutledge, the sunflower farm and and um, that was interesting. And then Iowa, uh, yeah, that's, it's just, it's just hard Iowa.

Speaker 3: 44:22

All right, that's fair enough. Um, here's one, one event or time this last year 2023, that you felt the cycling gods were against you and I immediately I'm going to go ahead and tell mine. If you don't mind, you go. First. We were going to bourbon country burn. I live in Kansas, it's in Kentucky. Quite a long drive. I had to work that day so I didn't get left really early, so I was driving later at night and into the early hours of the next morning. I was on the border of Indiana and Illinois.

Speaker 2: 45:03

There's your problem. Well, just kidding, maybe.

Speaker 3: 45:09

And I stopped it like this. I think it was called like the road runner or something. It was a convenience store.

Speaker 2: 45:16

Was there a wild coyote next to it?

Speaker 3: 45:18

Just kidding Well it might have been some of that involved. But I, you know it's late, I don't know, probably one o'clock in the morning, and I'm like, okay, I'll stop here and eat a gas. Got some gas and was going to get a drink. Well, I put my card in like I would normally do. You know, whatever, do all that and it said, take your card, wouldn't give you my card back. So I said, okay, I'll just finish filling up, filled up my card, put everything down, still wouldn't give me my card. I was like what? I mean it's a gas pump, I mean you just pull the card out, but wouldn't give me the card back. So finally I had to.

Speaker 3: 45:54

I went in and I was like, went up to the lady Of course there's nobody else in there and I was like I've got a really, really dumb question to ask you. It was a younger gal and I said, how do I get my credit card out of your gas pump? And she kind of looked at me funny and I was like, no, really, I'm serious. I put my credit card in, paid for my gas, got my gas, but I cannot get it back out. And she came out and she did it.

Speaker 3: 46:18

They wound up calling like some local, a local couple that apparently is the gas pump technicians or something, I don't know. They came out and they're like looking at it and trying all sorts of like you know things and neither say, 45 minutes later or so, they're still at the gas pump trying to get my credit card out. And finally, I'm just like tell you what. I'm not going to waste any more time here. I just said you know what tell the manager to destroy my credit card when and if you ever get it out of the machine, I'll just cancel it. And so I took off down the road, canceled my credit card immediately and I could have got it out, but they wouldn't have liked my mechanism for getting it out, so so I went without that. Fortunately I had other credit cards, so it wasn't a big deal, but it was just like seriously late at night I want to get to Kentucky and my credit card stuck in the machine.

Speaker 2: 47:14

He tried borrowing money from me all weekend about something about his credit card wouldn't work, or I tried getting you to buy everything. And you still didn't.

Speaker 3: 47:23

I gave you the sob story. You didn't buy it.

Speaker 2: 47:26

I have a minor and a major. Is that okay? Yeah, sure, the minor is when I got a flat tire and Rutledge. Now, the reason why I say that's minor is because at least I got to Rutledge. I mean, I made it from work to our friend Wands House and then I left Wands House and went to the farm. And when I got to the farm I literally backed up into the red clay mud mess and I thought, man, I just don't have any traction.

Speaker 3: 47:57

And so I got out. You just don't have a tire.

Speaker 2: 48:01

I'm like, well, there's your sign. But that wasn't too bad because I jacked it up and we went into town. But the major one was Picture the memory here.

Speaker 3: 48:15

Okay.

Speaker 2: 48:15

We finished, big brag Armando had to hit the road, gave us our bike boxes. We tear down the bikes, we find a pretty cool place for dinner. We come back and I think we hit the hay around nine o'clock, 10 o'clock at night, and we knew that our shuttle driver was supposed to be there at 430 in the morning, early morning, and that was a day where I just felt the world was against us. We went downstairs, we thought this, we are in, we're with the flight crew, and sure enough, you and I showed up first. Ironically, we were trying to be respectable to the Delta flight crew because we had bike boxes, all of our luggage that we fly with, which both of us had two big bags at least and then some backpacks, and so we knew we were, we were heavy loaded, so we were going to go down early. And then Lady the counter said can I help you? And we said well, we're, you know, waiting for the show driver.

Speaker 1: 49:17

She said, yep, he'll be here any minute.

Speaker 2: 49:18

One Delta pilot shows up and the second Delta pilot shows up and two flight attendants show up. Now all six of us are standing outside and no one can find the keys to the transit van. At least if we had that, we could have loaded up. We weren't sure who was going to take us to the airport.

Speaker 3: 49:39

They weren't sure who was going to take us to the airport after a while.

Speaker 2: 49:43

The shuttle driver pulls up in a taxi cab and I wish I was lying, by the way, not as a passenger, he was driving the taxi cab and he jumps out and says I'm sorry, I'm late. I was late on one of my runs. So this guy was not only the shuttle driver for the hotel, but he was a taxi. He was moonlighting as a taxi cab driver. So we get to loading up and I'm looking at my GPS and I'm looking at the airport and, being a guy who flies a lot, I just knew we weren't going to make that first flight and the pilot said I won't leave without you, and so I thought we were good, we're in. Yeah, we thought we were in, except when we got there.

Speaker 3: 50:24

Pilot doesn't run the show.

Speaker 2: 50:26

No, tsa said you guys can't get that flight. So it was a very stressful moment where I felt like the cycling guys were not with us. It was jumping on the phone trying to reschedule different flights. I got mine really quick and you did not have the same success that I did. You were on standby and so we were looking how long if you didn't make that first flight, you weren't going to get home until like three in the morning the next morning or that night, but it would be three in the morning and you had to work Right. And so I remember I felt I mean we tease and joke each other and poke fun at each other, but I was feeling pretty bad when they called me up to board the plane and I don't know how first class it was I mean, it's a regional jet, there's two seats up in front and so two or four, I forget, but I was up there and they had bumped me up there and I was like man, if he doesn't get home? It was also, by the way, your wedding anniversary.

Speaker 2: 51:31

Yeah, I had a little more stress and so, and then, when you came on the plane, I felt much better, although then you got stuck in. You got stuck in Atlanta.

Speaker 3: 51:41

Yeah, I miss my Atlanta flight. But come on, let's tell the real story. I get on the plane you were not feeling that bad about me because I get on the plane and you know he's sitting there in first class with his, with his already Woodford Reserve did not look like he was concerned about my well-being at first class. He was concerned about my well-being at all.

Speaker 1: 51:59

And then as I, walk by.

Speaker 3: 52:00

He just kind of tips his glass at me and is like you know you see later. Trump move on to the back of the plane.

Speaker 2: 52:08

Could you please get to the back? We got to go, we got to go.

Speaker 3: 52:12

Did you escort him back to a seat? Yeah, that was a. I still didn't get home to like midnight, but that was a rough, rough day.

Speaker 2: 52:23

Needless to say, being a guy who doesn't take it laying down, I then wrote a very, very stern and business-like email and, wouldn't you know, it Got a bunch of Bonvoy points. So so I'm not sure. I'm not sure about the shuttle drive, but we're going to be pretty good for 2024.

Speaker 3: 52:41

So you know, and I like it when you get Bonvoy points, because that has in fact helped me on many occasions, so I don't mind at all.

Speaker 3: 52:52

What I think the best part of that, well, the funniest part of that story, is when we get there, the driver, who was in a full, like you know outfit from the hotel driving this cab, when he hops out and he's expecting to get a tip, he kind of is holding his hand out like we're going to get, I'm going to tip you for me missing my flight. Yeah, no, here's a tip. Yeah, exactly, oh boy, yeah, that was a good one. Okay, I got, I think, one more.

Speaker 2: 53:22

All right.

Speaker 3: 53:24

Going to go non-cycling. You ready, I'm ready. Best bourbon you tried for the first time this year.

Speaker 2: 53:37

This one is really simple for me because it created not only a memory, it not only was able to force me to buy something that I normally would not have purchased before, but you and I did an interview with Phil Collin from Phil Talks Whiskey. He was the one putting the VIP tastings on at the Bourbon Country Burn. We talked to him for a while and you pinned him at the very end with the proverbial what's you know of all the bourbons, what would be the best one? And he's like oh, he said that's a hard question. That's a hard one, he said. But he said you know what? I would go get that Angel's Envy bottle, finished Rye, finished in Rum Cask, and I bought that. It's something I would never normally buy A hundred dollar bottle and I bought that and brought it to Bourbon Country Burn and you and I enjoyed it there, which was really good.

Speaker 1: 54:41

It was fantastic.

Speaker 2: 54:43

We took one out of Freddie Johnson's playbook, which was signing the bottle, and so mine is signed. You and I both signed it the day that we shared it, and it'll stay that way until I share it with you again. So I think that would be there.

Speaker 3: 54:58

That was, let's see, I was. It worked out well and we put him on the spot and he's a good bourbon choice or selection to try, so that was a good one. I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to that one, I'm going to go yet again another direction. Of course you are?

Speaker 2: 55:20

I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3: 55:24

I tried something different and this was off of a recommendation. I had a class reunion a few months ago and one of the guys in my class we were good friends in high school and we got to talking about bourbon and whiskies and things of that nature and he gave me this one. So I wasn't able to find it here locally, but I did find it at one of the places that I will order offline New Lou I've heard of New Lou. It's a bourbon whiskey and so I tried it and it was actually really good.

Speaker 3: 56:05

I was kind of impressed.

Speaker 2: 56:08

So, without giving too much away here of your personal life, you actually took me to. Is it Lucas? Lucas Lakers, yes, but the one that was a stayed away from you, and I believe they had the New Lou there.

Speaker 3: 56:26

Yes, well, when I went to buy it they didn't have it, gotcha, but he had given me the suggestion. It's like, oh yeah, I'll check it out. And I wanted to be respectful of his thing and yeah, I didn't want it to be one of those. Oh yeah, I'll check it out. And then I never do so. It's like, oh, I ordered it, got it tried, it was kind of impressed with it. So I mean, it's a little higher proof than what I normally drink, but let the ice settle a little bit and it was in good shape, because it's like 118 proofs somewhere in there.

Speaker 2: 57:00

Oh, that'll put hair on your chest there.

Speaker 3: 57:02

Yeah, so.

Speaker 2: 57:05

I did have an employee today say to me. He said the rumor is, is it you like bourbon? And I said yeah, I do the rumor. And he said have you ever had Buffalo Trace? I thought he was joking with me for a second and I said yeah, yeah, I have. Yeah. And he said isn't that good? He says so hard to find. And I said you know, it used to not be hard to find, they said, but then everyone started gobbling them up and storing them at their houses.

Speaker 3: 57:35

And how many bottles you got there. Hey, hey hey, hey, hey, buffalo Trace, never heard of it.

Speaker 2: 57:45

But and then of course, Jeff, my employee Jeff and more than employees, become a friend. He helped us out in Rackbrite, gave us a weather alert. He was in Michigan and said you boys better find someplace quick. I think that that's a story, that that that you know. You asked me where the cycling gods were not with us. I would say that was a day that that the cycling gods were definitely with us.

Speaker 3: 58:17

That was going to be my final question what was the luckiest event or thing that you experienced on a ride? And I'm going to have to agree with you on this one.

Speaker 2: 58:26

You know, I think we could duel tell the story. I don't think there's anything that tops it. Luckily wise, I mean, we had. We had, God, what town was that? It was the night that we were in Coralville and we, we came in and our charter had said you're going to go to this green space to camp out and now I have a question.

Speaker 3: 58:56

Yeah, where I'm from in the plains of this great country. When we use the term green space, to me that means you know some grass, some trees, a park like environment Is that? Do you guys have the same kind of concept of green space in Michigan?

Speaker 2: 59:14

You know, I I'm not saying this to be difficult I didn't even know what green space was when, when our charter would say we're going to go to this green space, I actually had to ask you what green space was. Ok, and I think it's because of the overpopulous of where I live. I mean, every piece of property here is taken by by something I mean. So I did not know what green space was at the time.

Speaker 3: 59:39

Well, move out to Kansas. We've got a lot of, but out here green space is like areas that have been left natural, or they've got trees, a park like area, things like that. So he said we are going to be going to a green space.

Speaker 2: 59:53

And you know, it is not a secret that we talked about hotels and that, excuse me, that we had. We had some hotels along the way. We had a hotel the first night and then we we ended up getting usually we get a hotel halfway through the week and and so when we showed up at this quote unquote green space, it was more like a dirt field no shade, no shade.

Speaker 3: 1:00:22

Real grass. The grass that was there was like crispy, it was on a hill. It was, yeah, not pleasant.

Speaker 2: 1:00:30

The sun was beating down on us and we kind of all looked at each other and said, man, this would have been a good night to have a hotel. Well, our good buddy had already set up his tent. He's a, he's a he's a extremely. He's an extremely strong rider and had already been there and probably showered and whipped out the satellite phone and called home and did some stock trading and everything. But he said I would be in for that. I'll break down camp because you and I had not set up our tents yet.

Speaker 3: 1:01:03

No, we hadn't, because we were like, looking at the situation, and we've hung out enough and we're good enough friends that we're in that situation where we can kind of just look at each other and go neither of us want to be here, we don't think this is a good idea. So you I don't know if it was you or him brought up the idea of a hotel and I will meet, and I was like well, I don't know if there's anything available, but you know what? Let me see what I can find.

Speaker 2: 1:01:31

So in the meantime I get this call and at the first I looked down and I saw who it was and I thought, man, this is just not a good time to take a phone call. But didn't want to be rude. So I took a call and it was Jeff, who was back in Michigan, and he said you guys are about to get hammered, excuse me. He said you're about to get hammered with weather. I said what are you talking about? And he said Adam. He said it is bad, you got to get somewhere. So you go on to Expedia.

Speaker 3: 1:02:06

I was on as you're taking the call. I'm already on Expedia, because at that time it was still clear skies.

Speaker 2: 1:02:11

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:02:12

It really didn't look bad and I was doing a Hail Mary trying to, because I didn't figure there'd be anything available. So I'm on Expedia. You take this call. I'm trying to track down a hotel that's not, you know, in the next town over.

Speaker 2: 1:02:25

So my friend Jeff says you better take cover. He's always a guy who's watching the weather and because I was there, he was just kind of being my weather watcher at home, and so he said you better get somewhere fast. So, long story short, you find this room in Expedia and we think great, joe whips down camp and minutes, throws the 10th because we know the next day we're going to be going to our respective homes, and so, and at this, point in time we do start to see clouds start rolling in.

Speaker 2: 1:03:03

Yeah, it was starting to get dark.

Speaker 3: 1:03:05

And they're starting to look threatening.

Speaker 2: 1:03:07

So we go over to this I don't know, days in I think, and the lady says to you as you go to check in oh, I'm so sorry, I know they said we had a room, but we don't have a room. And you and I kind of give each other that look of you got to be kidding me. And Joe is same feeling, the same way. And now we're like what the heck are we going to do now? And so this guy in a lobby he goes, are you guys looking for a room? And a part of us thought he was messing with us.

Speaker 3: 1:03:43

And then a part of us was like, yeah, we walked in here, they just told us we don't have a room. Yes, we're looking for a room and he goes.

Speaker 2: 1:03:51

Well, I actually have a room and if he listens to this, please don't take this the wrong way. But he said it's like 15, 20 minutes away. And I said, well, what's it called? And he said it's a Dason plus. And, to be honest, I'd never heard of a Dason plus. But who doesn't matter, who cares, just looking for a room, just looking for a room.

Speaker 2: 1:04:15

And now we're trying to figure out how to transport this room. You guys jump on the phone. While you're jumping on the phone to see if you can transfer the room from his name to your name, I'm looking up directions and I'm looking at it going. It's three miles away. If that we're on bicycles and when we need to, we can pedal pretty darn fast. And so you set up the room, everything's all set. But now we got to give this guy money and so he takes Venmo. So I Venmo in the money, you guys paid me later. But and we're off, we're on our way and, sure enough, we walked in and we got the room. We ended up having, I think, two full beds and then like a pullout couch, and it was like perfect for three three guys.

Speaker 3: 1:05:08

The beauty of it was, as we get there and it's like, okay, cool, we're inside, we're not in the blazing heat, looks like a storm's coming in. We all three, you know, go ahead, get showered all that kind of stuff. It's like let's go across the street and go eat it I don't know, there was a steakhouse or something there and literally as we are going and as the doors are sliding open, the tornado sirens start going off.

Speaker 2: 1:05:34

Oh yeah, I mean we literally locked out and the doors open up and it's.

Speaker 3: 1:05:41

And the rain is coming sideways and Joe is like, oh, what is this? Because you know he's not familiar with tornadoes, and it's like I'm like, oh hey, let's pull up a chair and watch the show, and well they had a bar, but unfortunately they had one employee.

Speaker 2: 1:05:56

She was not only checking people in, but she was the bartender and she never made it over. And we finally I think it was Lone Star and no, it was like a block away, yeah. And so we, we walked over there and, of course, had a beautiful meal. Everything was great. We were kind of giggling and laughing watching some of the social media posts about, you know, the concert being canceled and all that. But then, oh man, mercy buckets, it opened. We couldn't, we couldn't get out of there. So we sat in the lobby for a while and finally we made a break for it. But I think that'd be the day that the, the cycling gods were, were with us.

Speaker 3: 1:06:34

So Definitely someone was looking out for us that day. Yeah, we, we lucked out, missed all the severe weather, had a nice, dry, warm place to sleep. So sometimes you just get lucky and that was and that was it.

Speaker 2: 1:06:49

That was the day I gave the bag as gentlemen, some bourbon and some, oh, you did.

Speaker 3: 1:06:54

Well, it was the second. It was the last night, wasn't it? Yeah, that was the last night of the ride. The next day we were going to go in and finish the ride and and you shared some of your bourbon and gave them cigars and it's like hey guys, thanks, appreciate it, so yeah. That's been a good year.

Speaker 2: 1:07:10

It's been a good year, for sure, so it has.

Speaker 3: 1:07:13

So that's all the questions I had. So that is kind of a wrap up of cycling men, of leisure's best and coolest of 2023, kind of some of our highlight memories from the road and other things. And it was a good year and, as anybody who listens to the show knows, we've already made the commitment to uh, host the team and go back to brag this year and probably oh, just kidding.

Speaker 3: 1:07:42

Did I, did you not get the memo? Um, and then we're, we're, we're looking for another ride, so we'll see what else might come along that we can go out and participate in. So, uh, that's yet to be determined, but I'm sure when we figure that out, you all will be the first to know Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 1:07:59

Uh, the only thing I would say is uh, what was 2023?

Speaker 3: 1:08:03

2023 was a great year to ride a bike.

Speaker 2: 1:08:09

Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 1:08:10

So, before we wrap it up, I wanted to talk about one thing real quick, and that is our, uh, new Year's Day. Oh, yes, new Year's Day, 12 o'clock, we are having a special show, and it is not just a special show because it's on New Year's, it is a special show because we have it's going to be awesome. Um, we've got an exciting announcement to make and, uh, you definitely want to listen to that show because it's going to be good it will be good it's.

Speaker 2: 1:08:48

it's a. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3: 1:08:51

Let me tell you all about. No, I can't do that.

Speaker 2: 1:08:54

I'll tell you what. In 16, now 17 days from today we're recording this on December 15th. Uh, I'll tell you all about it, and if you're listening to this on the 24th, you only have a week to wait.

Speaker 3: 1:09:06

There you go, so so it'll be it'll, it'll be a fun. Um, it's going to be a great topic, a very interesting topic to a lot of people. And, uh, we have a special guest coming in, so we're going to start the New Year's off right. It's going to be exciting. Yes, so I just wanted to get that shameless plug in there. But, uh, 2023 was, in fact, a great year to ride a bike, and let us hope that 2024 is even a better year to ride a bike and you still have been replaced by I still.

Speaker 2: 1:09:44

I made it to the whole year without being replaced by AI so there you go.

Speaker 3: 1:09:48

It's a good, good year for me. Uh, adam, it's been a great adventure this year. Uh, fantastic rides. This podcast thing that we just started on the side to have some fun is has really taken off, and, and I've had an enjoyable time, um, sharing all of it with you. So I say thank you to you and and uh, merry Christmas and happy New Year to you and your family and I'm happy to be in you as well.

Speaker 2: 1:10:10

And, and I would end with, you know, we got really lucky this year. We had no mechanicals, no flats, uh, a little bit of a squeak in my bike, but you know what it made it all the way I held the bike above my head on the other side of Iowa, uh, but uh, we, we had a, we had a very lucky year and and hope 2024 is the is, uh, is the same. So, absolutely All right, you have a great night, okay.

Speaker 1: 1:10:36

See you. Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on road adventures with cycling men of leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please subscribe to the show and the podcast app of your choice.