Speaker 1: 1:30

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: 1:44

Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. As usual, I am Adam and I am happy to be joined with my good friend, mr Michael Sharp.

Speaker 3: 1:53

Hello Adam, how you doing.

Speaker 2: 1:55

I'm a little bummed man, I'm just kind of bummed.

Speaker 3: 1:59

But it's the holiday festive season. See, I wore my Merry Christmas. You felt the animal sweater the hat. I mean, I am spreading holiday joy and you're bummed what?

Speaker 2: 2:10

I think I should be more clear. I knew that you and I were going to record and then I was getting all kinds of notes ready. And yesterday transportation is an industry that's very it's interesting. I mean sometimes like there's no time to sit down and there's fires to put out left and right Not literal fires, by the way, but management fires to put in and out. But yesterday was one of those days where it was a little bit slower. I was playing around and I actually sent you a picture and ride the rockies. Yeah, you did it officially after 37 years is officially now over and and, if no one understands, that is also a sister company to ragbrai.

Speaker 3: 2:49

So you have some bugle, taps music or something we can play you know I'm, I wasn't, I wasn't well, no, I should have played something else, but yeah that's sad because that ride was like the premier ride of colorado as far as I'm concerned. I lived out there for 13 years. Ride the rock, which was always a huge ride. Uh, it was one that was on our bucket list, even though we're not necessarily good at altitude.

Speaker 2: 3:16

But you know, it's just sad you know that's uh, you know I was looking at it and then guy I work with was like he's like, well, do you have your written out there? I said no. I said you know, and? And adam, version 1.0 didn't, didn't really look for elevator. I'm curious, you know now, I mean whatever adventures we do in 2025, and I'm curious how I'll do now with elevation. You know I'm doing much better when I was able to climb a lot of hills this this summer. But even you know now that I'm training more and more. But you know, I I stayed away from rides like that, but man, it looked beautiful and every time that you and I would see the jersey I would be like, hey, look at that. And then last year I saw a guy and I was like dude, you're wearing an antique. Because, just to be fair, last year they closed the ride too, but they put on their website at the time well, we're going to reevaluate next year. Well, yesterday it was officially over.

Speaker 3: 4:08

Yeah, they had left the door open last year. I think probably to, maybe and I'm just, I don't have any insider probably to see if they could find somebody else to take over or partner with, or something like that for the ride. Yeah, another one bites the dust.

Speaker 2: 4:23

And then today I know you know this but then today I'm tooling around checking email and bourbon burn. You know, of course, you and I are both on all these rides that we've done before. We're on their marketing lists, as you expect. How do companies survive? They've got to get their message out. And so today I get the email from Bourbon Burn that what's on the horizon and we're going to hold the ride for 2025, but not sure where we're going to go in 2026. Which you know.

Speaker 2: 4:52

Maybe this is making an assumption, but to me just basically saying that, hey, we're going to be here for 2025. There's even talking about in the email this is not me paraphrasing how they're going to make it one heck of a year, because this is probably going to be it for them. It was a dream and and, and maybe they'll find someone else to take it over and maybe they will. I mean, don't get me wrong Maybe there'll be a passion for someone that will, but it seems to me that it's guiding in the same direction to the point that you and I decided that we are going to go to maybe the last ever bourbon bourbon burn.

Speaker 3: 5:25

So we got to do it. We didn't go last year and I, you know we talked about it. You know we've mentioned that they just always have the same maps or the same routes and it doesn't shake it up. We're in the heart of bourbon country and there's just all these distilleries here. We want to try out and check out different distilleries than just the ones that are on their thing. Potentially being the last year, you called me up or texted me today and it's like we need to be there.

Speaker 2: 6:00

So if this is it, we can say we closed it out. Yeah, I mean, and you and I have always been very transparent with our audience I mean, like with Buffalo, trace is a pretty decent chunk away from the Kentucky Horse Park campground and each year we just drove over there and then got the bottle release and then then gone back, and then one year, I think, the weather was not really conducive to riding, but then last year we did go back and we did ride last year on that day. But you know it, I don't have any problem being truthful. If there's a day that the weather is just bitter cold or I shouldn't be, it's at the end of september.

Speaker 2: 6:32

But if it was raining, listen, I'm perfectly fine putting the bike in the, you know, in the van and jumping in a different vehicle and going to distilleries, but just being there and and and and, being part of everything, and you know, if no one's ever done that right before they've got, you know, usually bands that play at night and bourbon tasting in camp and bonfires the evening makes the ride, because they have a dinner and then after dinner they've got a band playing and they've got all these distilleries, different distilleries each night, probably, I don't know, eight yeah, eight to ten to ten distilleries you know with representatives they're giving you tastings and that kind of stuff and just you know, bonfires.

Speaker 3: 7:17

It's really that is what makes that ride, is that social time after it. As far as I'm concerned, I mean the ride is beautiful and you go by some of the big, you know huge horse farms and things which are just blow your mind, but those are really nice. And then they do. Our friend Phil, with Phil Talks Whiskeykey in the past has put on those special events in the evenings.

Speaker 2: 7:38

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 7:38

They're like hour long with a particular distillery comes in and you generally get some tchotchkes and you do special tastings and it's really those are really great events. I mean, you know, especially like Buffalo Trace, you know, when Freddy's there and that type of thing it's. They've been really good.

Speaker 2: 7:55

Yeah, he calls them VIP tastings, that's it. You know we've been there for Rebel and you know Makers.

Speaker 3: 8:03

Mark.

Speaker 2: 8:04

And so I mean there's been some great times there. Like you know, last year you and I decided to skip it, and then, of course, you know when you get an email, maybe that's their marketing, maybe we bought into the marketing, but I don't think so. Based upon the way the email was written, it sounds like it's.

Speaker 3: 8:28

Yeah, and although I'm glad we didn't go last year, because last year was a rain fest- yeah, and they actually.

Speaker 2: 8:33

It rained pretty much the whole weekend and they actually had to move some of the tastings to a convention center down those streets, at the actual horse park, and not the campgrounds but the horse park. So it's a beautiful area, a wonderful area and, and you know, we're looking forward to it, and and if you're looking for a ride in September, cycling men and or women, depending on who joins us we'll be there.

Speaker 3: 8:58

It's a long weekend ride.

Speaker 2: 9:00

Yeah, so it's not like a week long or anything, if you've never done it before, just so you know it's basically you're camping at one location. I know that seems to be a really big perk for a lot of people. They don't have to get up and pack their stuff to stress. So wherever you lay your head at night is where you lay your head for the entire weekend or however long you want to stay. You only set up camp once and then, through the registration, some dinners are included. You're on your own for breakfast and lunch, if I remember correctly, but dinner two nights is included.

Speaker 3: 9:26

You know we'll have to make a point to go down to what was it? The Broke Spoke?

Speaker 2: 9:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 9:34

We had. I forget his name, but we had him on because it's a it's like yeah, it's like a co-op bike shop or something. Yeah, Luke, so we'll have to go down and check in on him and see how they're doing down there.

Speaker 2: 9:48

Don't worry, audience, I keep the name, I keep all of the names, so we'll take care of that. We all have our strong suits. Trust me, if you can see me spell behind the scenes, thank God, michael's here. That and AI, mostly AI, hey God.

Speaker 2: 10:01

Michael's here, so that and AI, so mostly AI. Hey, buddy, I was trying to give you some credit. I appreciate it, you know. But that also leads me to another conversation, which is transitioning.

Speaker 2: 10:15

You know, you and I were looking for a second week long ride. We usually our careers and our family life usually allows you and I both to do two week long rides, possibly throw in a weekend. Last year we just were able to do the two week longs and then this year we've got a couple of things planned, some non-cycling, which I'm excited about, yeah, and then. But usually we try. And so you and I spent a considerable amount of time we were doing some show prep and then we were looking for a second ride and that was that's.

Speaker 2: 10:42

That's the other part that's got me bummed out. I mean, we were going state by state by state and all these states that had these state rides. We would go click. Either the website would be defunct or there would be like a hey, we're sorry, we're closed, or after some so years, we decided to close it, or whatever.

Speaker 2: 10:59

And it just leads me to the conversation you and I have had, the conversation you and I have had with executive director from Bragg Franklin, conversations we've had with multiple people about how these these week long cycling week long or weekend long or extended week long, they're just, they're just going away, and I think that's where I'm kind of bummed. Holiday wise, I'm excited I've got family coming to to town, my project in the basement's coming together and and I mean that that's all good. I'm just what you and I do and and what you and I look forward to in this recording the show and and and educating some about cycling and and sharing and learning from other people. It's just bumming me out that they're all not all of them all is big word, but a lot of them are closing shop.

Speaker 3: 11:47

Well, let me give you something that, hopefully, will lighten your spirit. Okay, we cycling right now is like bourbons and whiskeys of the 80s. How about that?

Speaker 2: 12:00

So you're saying that these plantains brought back the bourbon?

Speaker 3: 12:03

Yeah, so you're saying that when the Blantons brought back the bourbon yeah, I mean basically late 70s through the 80s, actually, sometimes into the 90s, somewhere into the 90s, you know. You know, bourbons and whiskeys were out of favor. Everybody wanted the clear things. We've joked about Zima. They wanted vodkas, they wanted things like that, and bourbon fell and whiskey fell out of favor. And that's where they got into like doing all the decorative decanters and stuff, trying to get people to buy it. And now, look, I mean that industry is just blowing the roof off of things. So it's cyclical, like everything else. So you know, it's one of those things, it'll come back after a time.

Speaker 2: 12:39

I just wonder why. I mean, okay, I know a part of it why and it's this thing right here, we're on YouTube as well. I'm showing a game controller for a PlayStation 5. By the way, it's sitting here collecting dust. Yeah, sure it is, trust me, it is. But I just think that people are just doing different things. I mean, when I was a kid, we lived out in the country and we'd ride our bikes and we'd ride. I mean, we'd ride eight, nine miles as a young boy in the town. That was your freedom.

Speaker 3: 13:13

Yeah, you could hop on that bike, you could go anywhere. Well, not anywhere, but what seemed like anywhere to you as a kid. It was awesome yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:25

And I'm not insulting anybody, but it seems to me that every time that you and I sign up for a ride, we are like the youngest, some of the youngest people there. I mean, it just seems like younger generation. Now we're not spring chickens, and no offense to you, I'm almost 50 but it just seems like you and I are bringing up the lower age group. You know, we've done, without being offensive.

Speaker 3: 13:45

We've done some rides in Michigan where I'm like oh yeah, we were definitely in the youngest, some of the youngest people there.

Speaker 2: 13:54

Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3: 13:56

We were at the very low point of the age, because it went up considerably.

Speaker 2: 14:01

Yeah, we were like, oh my gosh, everyone's going to be in bed by six, so and they were, and they almost were the problem with it is and this is my philosophy, or my thinking is a lot of these bike things haven't changed.

Speaker 3: 14:16

They haven't changed from. You know they've been doing it for 40 years. Well, we've been in this for 40 years. Why change it if it isn't broke?

Speaker 3: 14:22

The point is that people's concepts of cycling has changed. You know, I mean like, let's use Franklin Franklin Johnson down in Georgia. You know he turns his rides into, you know basically mini music festivals Every night. He's got a band or a group playing. So you go to one, you've got stuff to do in the evenings and that type of thing.

Speaker 3: 14:42

And you and I have been on rides where you provide your own entertainment and guess what we're dumping you. In a small town of you know, a thousand people. We're giving you nothing to do. I mean there's only so much, you know, chit chat you can do with people. Unfortunately, we bring a, you know a bottle and some cigars and things like that. But you know a lot of rides haven't kind of changed and haven't developed new things and new concepts and say, hey, you know what we're going to do this, we're going to do that. A prime example is some of the charter services that we've used in the past. They have been doing the same type of charter service that they've done for the last 20, 25 years. Literally, they haven't changed their model or anything. As we know, a lot has changed in the last 20, 25 years. Literally they haven't changed their model or anything.

Speaker 3: 15:29

As we know, a lot has changed in the last 20, 25 years. They don't have adequate charging stations, they don't have a lot of this other stuff. But you see, people like Padres, people like what's the other big?

Speaker 2: 15:39

one.

Speaker 3: 15:41

What's that, bransel Bransel? You see a lot of those type of people who every year, are changing it up, are adding new things, are bringing stuff in, they're keeping up with it. They're not just saying this is our model, this is what we're going to follow. They're constantly evolving every year to keep in pace and I think a lot of these rides have done that. Now ridership is down, obviously, and less younger people are getting into it. But just my opinion.

Speaker 2: 16:10

I don't think you're wrong. I mean, I think you're spot on. I mean, you know, when I ran my photography business, I mean, if you know, for a while we had the perfect model and we were, we were, I mean, we were banging up, I would, I would had six weddings a weekend with my teams, but we were doing the same thing. And I'm not afraid to sit here and not only on video but voice admit that I made a business mistake. I was not changing with the times, with the photography. We were doing the same thing for a while and it was working. We were doing wedding shows and boom, boom, boom, boom and life was great, I mean. And then we stopped getting some gigs. I'm like, what am I doing? What am I doing? And I wasn't changing what we were doing.

Speaker 3: 16:48

The market was changing People's wants was you know wishes Right here yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:55

This helped do it in too. Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:57

That killed helped do it in too. I'm right there with you. I mean, I was, I think. As we mentioned before, I was also a wedding photographer back in the day, and you just moved into that thing where you were definitely needed. And then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and more and more people are carting around their cell phone which has a camera on it, and then I noticed I was merely becoming a person posing people so that the family could take pictures on their cell phones.

Speaker 2: 17:22

I told that story to you a hundred times, where I mean in the prime, when I was probably doing 75 to 100 weddings a year. I think 100 might be pushing it, I'll go 75. 75 was probably one of my biggest years. I'll never forget years. I'll never forget. I would line every you know brides and grooms up and then I would go to every bridesmaid and I would have their flowers and I would make sure all the flowers were shaped right, all the men's boutonnieres, and put your hand in your right pocket and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and everyone nope, let's look all. Nope, chin up here, look up here. You know everything I got. Okay, all right, guys, and I'm trying to stay positive.

Speaker 2: 18:05

And by the time I do that, then some family members takes a picture of the cell phone. They put it on Instagram with a filter. My pictures come out two, three, four weeks later, depending on what the, what the agreed upon contract was, depending on what the client wanted. By the time they saw my pictures, I was old news and so, going back to cycling, I think you're absolutely right. I think that some of the charters who are like oh no, we use tote a and we put that in there and we have this and we do that, and the riders come in and they get their, you know, they get their packets and if you're not changing you're going to die. And so not literally, I hope, but so, yeah, I think that that goes along with it.

Speaker 2: 18:34

And then when you start looking at these cycling events, I also think about, you know, job. Industries and people during COVID had to make a lot of changes. And if you have to start over, like I mean, it's not a secret that everyone always jokes around Steve, who's from Bragg, who always teases you, and I like, how do you travel so much, don't you? I want your guys' jobs and he works for REI and he's a great man and we, we, we think the world of him. He's a super straggler, part of team super straggler. You know he always says that well, you and I both have jobs where we're lucky, where we can remote work and we can do that kind of stuff. But if you start over in a career and you only get a couple of weeks of vacation, I still think that there's like hey, honey, I'm going to go off cycling for a week.

Speaker 3: 19:24

The heck you are.

Speaker 2: 19:25

Absolutely, absolutely. So I think there's something to do with that, but just kind of a bummer. And then it makes you wonder, like Franklin, like you mentioned, and then like Ragbribe. Obviously I think Ragbribe's got a few things it's got concerts at night, it's got.

Speaker 3: 19:37

It's just got the notoriety. Yeah, concerts at night it's got. It's just got the notoriety. Yeah, it was the first, it's the biggest you know it's. And it draws in a lot of people who aren't normal cyclists too. I mean, they get a large percentage of people who just I cycle once a year and that's a rag ride type thing.

Speaker 2: 19:50

But look what happened on the 50th anniversary. I mean, I think what happened was is hey, are you going to the 50th? And it started out as this massive thing and no one realized it was going to be a hundred degrees and, and and Matt Fippen decided to make it 500 miles literally for the for the week long ride.

Speaker 3: 20:08

We're not holding it against you, Matt, by the way.

Speaker 2: 20:10

No, I mean 5,500. I mean, I finally got my 50th anniversary book. I got it this week actually.

Speaker 3: 20:17

Oh good.

Speaker 2: 20:18

Fancy picture book with all kinds of history and stuff. But and they apologize they sent out all kinds of letters to people saying we're sorry that. You know, this is not how rag writer only does things. And the publisher fell through. And so, hey, listen, things happen. I got it now, so but, um, but yeah, I mean, you know there's, there's, there's that. But you're right, you and I have been on rides where, okay, that's, it's a 62-mile day, there's not a lot on the road to see, and so we get into town, we think we're going to explore the town, and there's one stoplight and 1,000 people and one burger shop, and then we're like okay, and so Well, charlevoix, we mentioned it, I think last episode, charlevoix in Michigan.

Speaker 2: 21:00

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 21:00

Beautiful town, charlevoix we mentioned it, I think, last episode, charlevoix in michigan. Yeah, beautiful town, right on the lake wonderful. They got a strip with like bars and restaurants right there to the water. We stayed there and are right in michigan and we were six miles out of town at a school, and so the last thing we wanted to do is ride the hills six miles in and then have to ride, you know, add an extra 12 miles onto our thing. So it's it's. That's the kind of thing you're talking about.

Speaker 2: 21:25

It also wouldn't have been. I mean, I thought about that later on, Okay, Well, you know, if you go to Ragbri you see bikes going all day, all night.

Speaker 3: 21:32

You know, people went into town, they went to eat and then they ride their bike back to camp, that road that we were on by that school would not have been safe to ride at night, so hills it had no shoulder, I mean, and it was out in the country so there's no light, so I mean yeah, anyways, so all right, let's talk about something more exciting. Here we're. You're gonna bum me out and I'm gonna take off my santa hat here no, no, don't take off.

Speaker 2: 22:00

I mean, um, by the way, I'm not gonna tell you now, but I ordered a christmas gift for you, so I'm waiting for it to come in. So, oh, did you? Yes, sir, yes, sir, I think you are really gonna love it.

Speaker 3: 22:11

So well, I hope that jeep gladiator is in blue, like a dark blue, and I wanted the one with the sunroof, so I hope you remembered that you know it's about two inches long and come off on.

Speaker 2: 22:25

It's a matchbox car. But, buddy, you, you do you. It has a little thing that says if I'm upside down, flip me over some yeah, absolutely no, but so the positive news out of all that whining is that we do have another event on the books, so we'll be going to bourbon burn.

Speaker 3: 22:42

So you can join us. We'll drink some bourbon. Everyone in there is drinking bourbon, so it's kind of nice I'm gonna move on.

Speaker 2: 22:48

I'm gonna talk about our artist who made our logo. I'd like to is brianleefritzcom, spelled b-r-i-a-n-l-e-e-f-r-i-t-zcom. The man does beautiful, beautiful bike portraits. So if you like a artist rendering or drawing of your bicycle, or or maybe maybe you're into tandems and you don't have one, or maybe you want a tricycle, or maybe you want something your bike in nature, the gentleman is extremely talented artist and so he is offering a special code, uh, with I'm sorry, 25 off a bike portrait with a special code of leisure. So if you go to brianleefritzcom, we would like to help our, our friend, out and please go check him out. There's some. There's some. He does a lot more than just bicycles. He's huge in birds and everything.

Speaker 3: 23:44

He's a cyclist himself. We've actually been on a ride with him before and he's done our logos and he's done a lot of. He started to really get into like jerseys, cause I know he did the Michigan's Jersey and he did some of their the graphic work and that type of stuff. And yeah, I was going to mention I've seen some of his birds that he does and they are fantastic.

Speaker 2: 24:04

So I mean it's really good stuff. She's big into hummingbirds and it was one of the best gifts my wife has ever enjoyed, more than jewelry or anything. It's a beautiful portrait of a hummingbird and doing what hummingbirds do. So check it out. They hum, they float, almost like they're floating the wings, spinning 5 million miles a second. Our leisure community kind of torn on this one because our leisure community is the one and only executive director of BRAG, mr Franklin Johnson. Okay, all right. He first of all made a generous contribution and we'd like to formally thank you, sir. That was very, very unexpected, very surprised. I had to look three times. So thank you so much. It really helps out a lot on behalf of Michael and myself, and Michael can speak for himself, but I just want to say thank you so much, sir.

Speaker 3: 24:58

Yeah, he's always been a uh big supporter of our show and what we've done, and so we certainly appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 25:12

So he also has given a guess for something that you and I do, and, uh, listener spotlight. So I think, uh, we'll move into that. I'm going to let you give the clues from the last episode first, and then I'll give you his guess.

Speaker 3: 25:30

All right. The clues for listener spotlight for the last episode is as followed this city was founded in the 1870s. It is named for a Native American village. It was built at its location due to the railroad Mills, became a big part of its early economy and actually really was a driver of its economy for over 70 years. The town itself is surrounded by three lakes. In the first 40 years of this community they suffered three fires, so there was a lot of throwing buckets of water and rebuilding, and this town's main drag did not get its name from a stand-up routine, but it could have.

Speaker 2: 26:11

There we go. So Mr Franklin Johnson says the listener spotlight guest is Spokane Washington. The comedy routine is a stretch with the spoken comedy routine stand-up question mark. Looking forward to chatting this week and we'll talk about that in a minute. But the gentleman has guessed Spokane Washington.

Speaker 3: 26:32

Spokane, Washington. Well, Franklin, I can give you a sixth of a point that you got the first letter of the city's name correct, but it is not Spokane.

Speaker 2: 26:43

Well.

Speaker 3: 26:44

It does start with an S. That's something.

Speaker 2: 26:47

You know what we need. We need that soundbite that says go get your shine box, you lose. That's something. You know what we need. We need that sound bite that says go get your shine box, you lose, you get nothing. You know like mix it up from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Speaker 2: 26:57

That's right, okay, that's my homework. You've given me three, you've given me a trumpet for taps, taps, and then I'm writing these down, taps, and then go get your shine box and then you lose. You get nothing. You lose. Franklin, appreciate you writing into, but we appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 27:18

It was a good guess. Do you want to know what it is? I do our spotlight listener, spotlight community is seneca, south carolina wow, what part I?

Speaker 2: 27:30

I'm me, but what part of South Carolina is that, besides you saying Seneca?

Speaker 3: 27:36

It's in the Seneca, South Carolina part.

Speaker 2: 27:39

I knew you were going to say that Go ahead, go ahead, let's hear it, let's hear it.

Speaker 3: 27:43

Use Google Maps for God's sakes.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Okay.

Speaker 3: 27:47

Founded in the 1870s. It was named for a Native American village and also a nearby river. It was originally named E-Seneca, E-Seneca, E-S-S, E-Seneca, and then later it was just shortened to Seneca. It was built at its current location because there was crossing railroad tracks there. The town is surrounded by three lakes. You got Lake Kiowee, Lake Jacusie sorry, I'm not from here and Lake Hartwell. And then the town's main drag didn't get its name from a stand-up routine, but it could have. One of the main drags in town is called Ramcat Alley, and it got its name from a joke that people used to say because there was a lot of fish markets there and they cleaned the fish that attracted a lot of cats, and the joke became that you can't ram another cat in that alley because there were just so many cats there looking for the free meal.

Speaker 2: 28:46

So then it became known as ram cat alley gotcha so there you go well, that's pretty cool, by the way. Um, I want you to know that.

Speaker 3: 28:57

Sorry, you said cat uh, so we we thank our listeners from seneca, south carolina absolutely.

Speaker 2: 29:03

thank you all listeners, but especially seneca, south carolina, which, by the way, is in the South, I mean Northwestern part, sorry, northwestern part of South Carolina by the Georgia borderline in the Northeastern part of Georgia right there. So thank you so very much. And you're right, I went to the old Google here.

Speaker 3: 29:20

So we've, we've written actually pretty close to that.

Speaker 2: 29:23

We have. Yeah, we have. I mentioned when he, mr Franklin Johnson, said looking forward to chatting this week. Oh, last year. A lot of our audience will remember that we were trusted with a very well-kept secret the 2024 big brag route.

Speaker 3: 29:47

There's a ceremony and everything to, like you know, swear us to secrecy and you know there's a whole big. It gets crazy.

Speaker 2: 29:50

but I almost couldn't get off my knee. I put one knee down, I was bowing and Bowing and you know.

Speaker 3: 29:58

But we're sworn to secrecy again this year, aren't we?

Speaker 2: 30:01

We sure are so in 2024,. You and I heard from multiple multiple people who said love the show, signed up because we listened to your show. I heard from multiple multiple people who said love the show, signed up because we listen to your show.

Speaker 2: 30:13

And so it was wonderful that he trusted us with the route before, and the reason why we record before is because he releases his video at the strike of midnight, new Year's Eve midnight, and then he has agreed upon he being the executive director of Bragg that we can release our show at noon on the 1st. Now why is that important? Because if you've watched it at midnight and then you listen to our show at noon, you'll actually, if you sign up before midnight on the 1st of January 2025, you actually save $50. So you can go to bragorg, b-r-a-gorg and you can sign up, and then, if you sign up before midnight, january 1st 2025, you'll save 50 bucks for a week-long ride.

Speaker 3: 30:57

Why are they waiting till that time?

Speaker 2: 30:59

They don't have to wait.

Speaker 3: 31:00

I mean, just they know they're going, we're going to be there. They know they're going to be there. Why don't they just do it now?

Speaker 2: 31:07

Well, they can, and when they do that under the team name, they should if they don't have a team that they already belong to, because if they do, we're loyal. You know, we understand that, unless you want to switch, of course. But but if you're looking to join a team, put cycling men or women of leisure we can now announce that we will have two teams. Once again, we'll have the men of leisure and the women of leisure, and you and I are working on something very special for that.

Speaker 3: 31:32

We're working on that. It's a slow process, but we're working on a very special event activity, something fun.

Speaker 2: 31:38

That's right.

Speaker 3: 31:39

During the week, and it should be a good time. We've always had a good time there.

Speaker 2: 31:44

Yep.

Speaker 3: 31:46

Yeah, looking forward to it. Now I know we promised that. Yes, now we know Franklin listens. So, franklin, if you could just turn your radio down for, say, like a minute and a half, two minutes, it would be great. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 32:04

Continue. A lot of you have reached out to me for any kind of hint anywhere that I could tell you anything about the route, and I'm going to break the rules a little bit. I'm going to tell you.

Speaker 3: 32:16

Don't listen, Franklin.

Speaker 2: 32:17

Where is it? It's going to Georgia.

Speaker 3: 32:20

We will be riding in Georgia.

Speaker 2: 32:24

That's right. That's right. So, ladies and gentlemen, check us out on the 1st of January at noon Eastern time. Which bonus, sir. 11 Central, your time.

Speaker 3: 32:35

That's right. You can check us out on the podcast through any of your podcastings or you can check us out on YouTube.

Speaker 2: 32:41

That's right. You can watch us or listen to us, and I got to say Franklin really got into the spirit of it. Yeah, I don't want to get into it too much, but yeah, he sure did.

Speaker 3: 32:54

That's all we'll say. Franklin really got into the spirit of the show on this one, so you'll definitely want to listen because it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 33:04

A lot of good information. A lot of good information. I can say that, if you are considering going, or maybe like our friend Trip who wrote me behind the scenes, Trip has signed up for Bragg and he suggested that we do a contest and we'll get into that in a second. And, Trip, thank you so much for the recommendation. Trip's already signed up.

Speaker 3: 33:25

Thank you, Trip. He's been on the team a couple of years now.

Speaker 2: 33:28

Yeah, and for a guy like Tripp who's already signed up, I still think there's value add to listen to what Franklin has to say, because you'll get a complete breakdown of the route and some of the things of the areas that it's going, and that's all I'm going to say. So otherwise my contract is broken. I got to pay back the deposit. It's just an ugly thing.

Speaker 3: 33:51

It just gets ugly, and then lawyers will get involved.

Speaker 2: 33:53

Yeah, I don't want to do it. Lawyers, I already pay them enough. I would use a Shawshank Redemption line here. Blank an, a Bunch of, but so, anyways, good show coming out on the first, excited about it. And so, just to be clear, midnight New Year's Eve, on the Bragg YouTube page, you can find the video that they usually put together which tells you the route release video. But for a comprehensive breakdown of where the ride is going and some items, some specific items about each, for details, details about the route, come check it out, and we're excited to partner once again with Bragg and we appreciate their continued trust. So, thank you and looking forward to it. And so we are signed up ourselves, just to be clear, and we both use Cycling Men of Leisure as our team name. We're pretty sure we already have the 10.

Speaker 3: 34:50

I think we already have the 10., but so you realize, when we started to say that about Franklin and we were going to tell people, you know he probably swerved off the road Cause he generally listens when he's driving it's like what are those guys going to say, you know?

Speaker 2: 35:04

I can picture his Ford F one 50 with the cab on the back and Swerving to this side of the road. I'm calling them boys up, but no, we would never do that. We appreciate the partnership and really looking forward to that, so I'm going to segue into something a little bit different. Okay, what do we got? We are going to something called Podfest.

Speaker 3: 35:31

Yes, this is exciting.

Speaker 2: 35:33

I mean.

Speaker 3: 35:34

It's ironic as well.

Speaker 2: 35:37

So we had already planned a trip down to Orlando. We were going to make it kind of like a guy's golfing, record some podcasts, do some dinner, what do you mean? Kind of.

Speaker 3: 35:51

It's going to be an extra long guy's weekend. We were going to golf, eat and podcast.

Speaker 2: 35:56

Yeah, and smoke cigars somewhere.

Speaker 3: 35:58

And smoke cigars somewhere, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 36:01

So then our platform of where we launch our podcast was advertising this thing called PodFest 2025. And at first I was kind of like PodFest 2025? It's like a convention for podcasters, I mean, do you get in a room? And that's exactly what it is. So it happens to be in Orlando at the same time. You and I are going to be there how ironic.

Speaker 2: 36:25

And we submitted a little sublimation about our show and why we would be interested in going over there. And for me it's two reasons. One, I guess not just two. Two is putting it in lanes.

Speaker 2: 36:36

A few reasons that I was interested is they have their own show and I love to be able to put faces to the names of their show because I've heard their humor and their show basically talks about how to podcast some marketing ideas. An example we have a cycling podcast. We should be going to cycling stores, even if we travel on our own. Let's say, you and the family go down to Florida. If you're going to run into town, maybe look if there's a cycling store, maybe take a business cards and say, hey, you know. So they talk about things like that how to market your show and so then they have some funny stories and changes that on the platform of how they do things. So that's interesting, but just networking and finding out how we could do our show better or maybe get more listeners or spread the word, and so we were selected to go over there and we were going to. We we will be attending a pod fest 2025 in Orlando, Wheat.

Speaker 3: 37:32

We're still going to golf, right yeah?

Speaker 2: 37:35

Yeah, and that will not affect the golfing podcasting. No.

Speaker 3: 37:41

Or smoking a cigar, no, or eating, okay, yeah, it's just ironic that it's the same weekend and it'll, it'll be, it'll be fun. It'll be fun, it'll be interesting, a new adventure we can have some stuff to chat about.

Speaker 2: 37:55

As long as it's not golfing like we did last time. That picture comes up on my phone once in a while, when it's 42 degrees and we both have stocking caps on.

Speaker 3: 38:01

Yeah, I was in Florida. I wasn't expecting to be in Kansas golfing. I know.

Speaker 2: 38:07

Hopefully it warmed up in the warm up and we actually got to meet Armando's old coworkers from the cruise ship.

Speaker 3: 38:14

So that was pretty fun. That was a good day, so we're going to pod fest. That'll be fun. We'll tell everybody what we've, what we learned, and that kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 38:26

Well, I want to mention your Web page. You, you not only by by day, you are a business architect no one knows what that is, but I do a lot of work and by night, you highlight as a, as a web designer. No, luckily for us, they make it go, daddy, makes it pretty simple to be able to throw something together. So, but on a serious note, you took the time and you put all of our listener spotlights down and you strategically spaced them out. So if the show hasn't come out yet, you don't put it down there yet to give people ample time.

Speaker 3: 39:00

No, no, yeah, you don't get it ahead of time, but I'm a couple of weeks behind. But I'm going to be updating it and what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to go back also and putting the episode information in there, you know, like the season and the episode. So it's like you're like, well, have they ever done? No, boaz Mississippi. I'm from there and it's like, oh, look at this, they did it, doggone it. I missed it.

Speaker 2: 39:24

Then you could go to that episode and listen. Have we done Boaz Mississippi?

Speaker 3: 39:26

We have never done Boaz Mississippi.

Speaker 2: 39:28

Okay, I was just wondering.

Speaker 3: 39:29

I'm like I think Boaz is actually in Alabama, but anyway it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2: 39:34

Good, because I was like man. I know I record this show with you. I'm not an AI guy.

Speaker 3: 39:39

You just blank out. It's like, ah, it's his turn.

Speaker 2: 39:42

Now I'm going to just I'm St Louis, just definitely, definitely excited that you did the web page. You also put some highlights of our year out there, some photographs and stuff, and so there could be people out there who have listened to our show who have no idea what we look like. And if you go to our web page, cyclingmenofleisurecom, I am the charming, charismatic one no-transcript there's lots of overweight pictures of me. I'm adam and if you've never met me, but uh, we need to get some but that is good though yeah because that shows all the work that you've done to get to where you're at.

Speaker 2: 40:26

It shows your journey almost been a year now. I know I appreciate that, but um, yes, so please check us out. I appreciate your work on the web page. All kinds of information there. We we got a jersey store If you're looking for a jersey. We got a t-shirt store.

Speaker 3: 40:43

Rides that we've done, places we've been Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 40:46

I'm going to mention Dennis Keeler, Scott Garwick and Alex Bell yes, it's my way of always saying thank you for being monthly supporters and so thank you so much for that, and besides that you asked me, for you haven't asked me this in a long time. So let me play with my toys here.

Speaker 3: 41:03

Okay.

Speaker 2: 41:04

Ladies and gentlemen, my good friend, my best friend, has asked for a little segment of Rants of Dissatisfaction. Buddy, take the floor, do I?

Speaker 3: 41:16

have the floor you have the floor. Yeah, you know, this has been bothering me for a while and finally I was like we need another rants of dissatisfaction, because here's my ramp self-checkout. I hate them, you know. I understand the purpose of self-checkout. Oh hey, you can self-check out. You get in, get out quicker cost people their jobs, keep going you're right, but that's what they market it as.

Speaker 3: 41:40

But bottom line, behind the scenes, we really know there's a bunch of bean counters going. You know what we can get rid of. Some of our staff, you know it helps on that. But what annoys me is you now take me. I go to my local grocery store. I'm buying this, that and other things. I come up there. You want me to check out, do self-checkout. I mean, you kind of push me towards that way. And it happens at big box stores.

Speaker 2: 42:07

Home Depot.

Speaker 3: 42:07

Lowe's, all those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 42:09

What do I get out of it? You get used to the break room. I do what. You get used to the break room. Have you ever seen that thing on Facebook? It said the cops arrested me today. I don't know why. I was just in the break room break room of a place I had to check myself out. I don't. I haven't deserved to get up.

Speaker 3: 42:22

That's. That's my point. It's like, if you want me to do self-checkout, shouldn't I be getting a couple percentage points off of my tab, Because now I'm doing the work. In fact, you've got me doing the work of who you? You know, an employee of yours that you're no longer paying what's in it for me, so I get a little annoyed by this. And then here's the other thing.

Speaker 2: 42:45

There are two more points to this.

Speaker 3: 42:46

He's really hard man. You caught me on a weekday. I was really going wild earlier. A lot of stores and I will.

Speaker 3: 42:57

You know a local Dollar General. We have one here in town. We've got a lot of them. I don't know in your area if you've got Dollar Generals, but we've got tons of them here. They kind of take up the space of a Walmart in smaller towns where Walmart would never go.

Speaker 3: 43:07

A little bit of everything. Nowadays they have groceries and everything they put in. A lot of their stores have put in there these automatic check yourself out things. They put them in. They went to all the costs to put them in and then about six months later they stopped using them because they were complaining that people were ripping them off. People would just not ring things in, or people would ring things in and just walk out the door and not pay.

Speaker 3: 43:32

And the thing about it is I read a couple articles and they acted surprised. It's like you acted surprised that you want people to wring themselves out and, be honest, it's like I myself would never walk out of a store without paying for an item. But there's people out there that would. It's just the nature of how our society is. But then the stores are like perplexed and it's like we're losing money. We got to stop using this. So you spend all that money. You didn't think about this ahead of time, spend all this money. And now in our store we've got three of these big machines that are just taking up floor space where you could have merchandise. But now you got these three machines that just sit there that have signs on them saying out of order, three machines that just sit there that have signs on them saying out of order. So it's just kind of annoying. The final point I'll make I have not been trained in grocery store checkout at all, not in my resume, not even when I was a kid.

Speaker 2: 44:30

Why are you laughing at me? You never worked at a grocery store.

Speaker 3: 44:33

I never worked at a grocery when I was a kid. I had the greatest jobs. We'll talk about it later. But I had awesome jobs when I was a kid. I had the greatest jobs we'll talk about it later, but I had awesome jobs when I was never worked in a grocery store or fast food. I don't know anything about this. Okay, I'm just sitting there at the grocery store doing it produce, I've got it. I've got a a onion? I don't. It's, it's yellowish, it's whitish, it's a valdea, it's, you know. Is this a spanish onion? Is this a uh, peruvian onion? Is this, you know? Or a potato, you know? Is it a yukon gold? Is it this? Is it that an apple? You know it's like? Is that fiji apple?

Speaker 2: 45:08

or you know whatever it's the cheapest one on the list is what it is but they don't give me the price list.

Speaker 3: 45:13

They're like, you know, you got to go into a little thing and and like there's a whole page of like onions and a whole page of apples. It's like it's a red apple. I don't know what is what. You know, I didn't pay any attention, I just went. It's like, okay, that produce looks good, it looks fresh, I'll take that. So now I don't know. So now I have to push the little.

Speaker 3: 45:31

And you know, I can look over at the customer service desk and these guys are chatting and now I can kind of see him go. I've got to go over and help this guy. He comes over and he's like I was like, yeah, I don't know what kind of Apple this is, and then he goes about going well, all you've got to do, sir, is push right here and look up your item, and then you just select the item, just like, right here, it's this apple, right there, talking to me Like I'm just an idiot, that I'm supposed to know what kind of apple or onion this is. So no, so then you know, they're talking down to me Now. I feel like an idiot and it's like, excuse me, I've never been trained in grocery store anything. I've not been trained in produce, so don't sit there and talk down to me that you've made me check out my own groceries and I don't know what a piece of produce is. Why don't you guys stick a little label in every single one of those so I can just scan it?

Speaker 2: 46:28

Now a lot of them in my stores do have a little label and like to this day, because of my grocery store career, which was very short lived bananas four zero one, one for grocery store career, which was very short-lived Banana is 4-0-1-1 for the PLU. So you had to go to the computer type 4-0-1-1. To this day I know that. So it's just they've never changed it right. And so every now and then that girl will come over and say do you need help with that? I said no, that's 4-0-1, right. Like you know, honey, crisp apples they come around once a year or whatever. And uh, or at least by us, they do anyway, since it's a tundra the rest of the year. But uh, every now and then I always want to like that sign on Facebook that says, uh, I went to the regular cashier. It was $211. I got a second opinion of the self checkout.

Speaker 3: 47:22

That just really bugs me. It's like you know, if you're going to want me to do the work, why don't you throw a couple percentage off my thing? I'm not going to steal from you, but you could, you know, shave a couple percentages off my bill for doing somebody else's job and then certainly, if I need help with it, don't talk to me like I'm an idiot. I'm sorry, I have not been trained.

Speaker 2: 47:47

And Home Depot is the worst because, like, if you're buying bolts and they got like the y I u on there, I'm like how the heck do you I mean you know they got the, the book and then going through there or when you buy trim or something by the foot yeah well, number one, it's like well, I yeah, yeah, it's just like whatever this, what's?

Speaker 2: 48:01

that how many? Like when the girl said how many feet is this? It looks like eight to me, I don't know. You got 18 carts worth. How many sheets of plywood are here? I don't know, looks like six, I'm not sure.

Speaker 3: 48:17

There's a couple I don't know.

Speaker 2: 48:19

Yeah, not sure.

Speaker 3: 48:22

So, anyway, that's my rant for today. It just really really bugs me. I understand why they do it. I don't appreciate the kind of the reasons that they really promote oh, you'll get out faster and speedier and all this. Ultimately, it's just to you know, reduce their bottom.

Speaker 2: 48:38

Okay, well, believe it or not, this time I do not have any rants of dissatisfaction, but I'm glad that I was able to give you the floor to allow you to have rants of dissatisfaction. But I'm glad that I was able to give you the floor to allow you to have rants of dissatisfaction.

Speaker 3: 48:52

So you're happy with the world, huh.

Speaker 2: 48:53

I wouldn't say I'm happy with the world.

Speaker 3: 48:55

Nothing that you want to voice.

Speaker 2: 48:57

Let's talk about that Dollar General stock that keeps.

Speaker 3: 49:00

Well, that's the reason why the Dollar General stock goes down, because they invested all of this money on self-checkout machines and then they realized they were losing more money from people just stealing from them, so they shut them all down. It's taking up floor space and they're still trying to pay off that investment. When someone didn't go. You know what? Checkout's right by the door. Somebody could just check it out, or just walk right by it and go straight out the door. I mean, who didn't foresee this?

Speaker 2: 49:28

yeah, I mean you know many times when, when, like they just redid our whole meyer and depending where you shop in the world, meyer is very predominant. You know grocery store here in michigan and it's more than a grocery store yeah, it's a it's like a walmart almost, yeah.

Speaker 3: 49:44

yeah, they buy a little bit of everything in there, everything yeah.

Speaker 2: 49:47

So they just spent like probably millions of dollars redoing ours here in my little town that I live in here, and in the old days they'd have like 27 registers and only two of them would be open. So how did they fix that? They put in like 27 self-checkouts, but the problem is they have one employee, one, two, like if you buy booze then you scan it and the light goes on. You got to wait for the guy to come over and be able to check your id, which is good, I get it. I mean you got it.

Speaker 3: 50:14

I mean not everyone should be following the rules yeah, absolutely so they only have one person to help me with my produce exactly.

Speaker 2: 50:21

And so now you're sitting there going oh my gosh, you know. So that doesn't really help out. I guess if you're going to cut employees, at least have a few, because there are times like five o'clock, I bet you that. I mean I try not to go in there, but I bet you it's a nightmare over there. So I can get behind you on that I can. But as far as rants of dissatisfaction maybe there's just too many right now going on I can't pick. Yeah, I can't pick.

Speaker 3: 50:47

Well, thank you for giving me the floor to rant a little bit.

Speaker 2: 50:51

Are you kidding? I get to play with my voice toys which I know everybody loves yeah everybody loves those. Let's just beep him real quick there. Why don't we round out this show by first of all saying Merry Christmas, happy Holidays, happy kwanzaa festival, hanukkah, hanukkah, whatever this, whatever you celebrate, on behalf of myself and michael and our family's peers, we, we wish you nothing but, uh, health and happiness for the next coming year, and besides that, we'll bring it up with a listener spotlight.

Speaker 3: 51:28

All right, this one's going to be a good one. St Louis so close.

Speaker 2: 51:33

Dang it so close.

Speaker 3: 51:34

Dang it, he's not even in the neighborhood. Anyway, this, okay, put your hands in your pocket, stop pushing buttons. It was incorporated in the 1880s. The early economy depended on mining, agriculture and timber. If you are a father, you should really appreciate this town.

Speaker 2: 51:58

Okay.

Speaker 3: 51:59

It started as a trading post. The city's name comes from a native language. In 1974, great year 1974, 1974 this city was in the world spotlight and a former resident of this city helped influence the vision of a perfect christmas. See what I did there. I threw a little christmas uh thing there like it so there you go well, pretty easy.

Speaker 2: 52:26

Yeah, because you did the homework yeah, but still it's it's pretty easy. Will you be giving another guest away?

Speaker 3: 52:34

if I need to, I could, could, could, give another guest. You want me to give another guest away, like in the middle of the week, on our facebook page?

Speaker 2: 52:41

yeah, people are traveling. I mean, think about it a lot of times. People like to travel when they listen to us, and so they could be catching up for a few different episodes, and for that we say thank you well, what's the extra hint gonna do? Well, they're gonna maybe log on to the facebook page a couple days later while they're driving. Oh, yeah, no I'm sure some do.

Speaker 3: 53:04

I'm sure sure some do Once you hear what this one is. If nobody guesses it, you'll be like man. But it's not St. Here's your hint. It's not St Louis.

Speaker 2: 53:14

Fair enough, what have we got coming up in 2025? We're working on man. Lots of great stuff, a lot of good stuff. We're working on an interview with Bike Virginia, bike Virginia. We reached out to them. They had a week-long ride. They're looking at maybe doing a couple weekend rides.

Speaker 3: 53:29

That would be the state, not my ex-girlfriend. Yes, sir, I used to actually date a girl named Virginia, so I'm just clarifying.

Speaker 2: 53:35

Well, we hope that she is listening, because we need all the listeners.

Speaker 3: 53:43

She's a tell-all.

Speaker 2: 53:43

But hey, bike Virginia, yeah, that should be interesting. So we've got a gentleman we've been communicating with back and forth. We're looking at having Padres cycling on. They do camping and rides and events and so we're looking at having like a charter service and so we're looking at having Padres in. They call themselves.

Speaker 3: 53:59

We've ran into them all over the place.

Speaker 2: 54:02

So we're looking at having those guys on. We're working on that. You mentioned him earlier, phil Collin Not to be confused with Phil Collins, but Phil Collin from Phil Talks Whiskey. We're going to have him on after the year and so we've got a couple of great stuff for the show you and I are getting in person together. Wow, yeah, we're looking forward to that. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 54:23

First one is January 16th through the 20th. We will be in Orlando, so we purposely made reservations for some meals over there at Disney. We are staying on the Disney property Michael and I are both timeshare owners there, and so we booked some dinners over there. We purposely made higher numbers than we currently have, and so we're hoping that if someone wants to join us for dinner, if they're close by and they want to come out, please, we'd love to have you out and we'd love to love to visit with you over there.

Speaker 3: 54:57

If not, we'll sit around and have a bourbon for you.

Speaker 2: 54:59

That's right, we'll think about you, but so if you're interested in doing that, please check us out. We're actually going to be doing some show recording over there, so who knows, maybe you might actually get to be on the show in person. So we'd love to have you as a guest. We're going to Podfest. Going to Podfest. I don't know if you're supposed to say, like dude, we're going to Podfest.

Speaker 3: 55:20

Dude, we're going to Podfest.

Speaker 2: 55:22

Yeah, what is it? What's up? We're all going to sit around. I remember those commercials. Turn it up, dude.

Speaker 3: 55:30

Turn it up, dude. And then what Then? When else should we get together?

Speaker 2: 55:34

Your work conference. I'm flying down for that.

Speaker 3: 55:36

Can you sit in on the conference for me?

Speaker 2: 55:38

So close, buddy, I'll be the guy on the golf course. Yeah, so basically, I've got to go there for work, but in the evenings we're going to get together and do some eating and some podcasting and that kind of thing. Yes, and if the weather's great, we're going to be dishonest with our wives Just kidding wives. But one time I was in Fort Lauderdale during the winter and it was icy here and Lauren said how's the weather? I'm like, ah, it's raining.

Speaker 3: 56:12

It wasn't raining All, all we're gonna do is say you remember the last time we were golfing in florida together, exactly, just stop it right there. Yeah, right, we didn't say it's like that.

Speaker 2: 56:16

See, we're answering a question indirectly, not answering the question, so it was 42 degrees when we started that day, I think thank god your wife had a stocking cap yeah, I know because I needed to borrow it yeah, I, I think we used them on the way down from Michigan, thinking we were going to Florida that we wouldn't need them, and so you and I packed up the clubs and gloves and then we were bundling up in between holes, but then it got warmer later on, it did get warmer, but the first nine was pretty briskisk.

Speaker 3: 56:46

and then what else we got?

Speaker 2: 56:48

well, believe it or not, I'm coming back out because I've got a conference for work in your great state of kansas. Well, actually the conference is in missouri, but kansas, we're close enough, good enough. Every time you you drive over there, I I don't freaking know if we're in kansas or missouri, like it goes back and forth. I'm like am I in Kansas or Missouri? It goes back and forth. I'm like am I in Kansas or Missouri right now?

Speaker 3: 57:09

And you're like, yes, Half the time I don't even really know where I'm at. I mean, I know where the line is and it's not like part of it follows the river. That makes it easy, but then part of it doesn't. So then when somebody says, are we in Kansas or Missouri, you really have to start thinking okay, are we on that side or this? You're just in kansas city. But that would be cool and if you've got some free time I can certainly uh, you know, hook you up with some good food and hit reagers and all that stuff I will definitely be.

Speaker 2: 57:37

I'll be. I'll be calling you for sure. Actually, I'm probably going to tell you beforehand, because I got to book a flight. I might need a place to stay always welcome so we got a lot of good stuff. And then, when it comes to riding, we got big brag, of course, which is going to georgia, and then we've got urban burn. We're still looking for that, you know, we we have emailed about another week-long ride, and so we'll we'll update as we can, but a lot of good stuff, a lot of good stuff in 2025.

Speaker 3: 58:06

Yeah, the second ride could be really good. We've tossed around some really interesting rides, that's right, so I'm excited. I will be excited when we're able to announce where exactly we're going. Yeah, cause I think it's going to be cool, depending on whichever one we choose.

Speaker 2: 58:24

Yeah, I, you know I've been looking at my emails, but I assume that rides like that don't check their you know emails all the time. I mean, it's probably very slow times, hopefully, and it's, you know, holiday season. People are enjoying their families.

Speaker 3: 58:39

Worst comes to worst, we'll go to Vegas and we'll spend 20 minutes on the exercise bike in the casino and then go have fun. Does that count?

Speaker 2: 58:47

Ladies and gentlemen, in that case, that will be a great day for a bike ride.

Speaker 1: 58:51

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 on the podcast app of your choice.