Speaker 1: 1:51

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: 2:05

Welcome back to Road Adventures, of Cycling, men, of Leisure. I, of course, am Adam, and I am lucky enough to be joined with my good friend, mr Michael Sharp. Hello, sir, hello, how are you, friend, mr Michael Sharp? Hello sir, hello, how are you? Oh, you started part one with a little fire water.

Speaker 3: 2:23

Now you're getting. I just didn't notice. I kind of always have a little drink. It gets me in the leisure mood, especially after a long day of, you know, working at the office and things of that nature. A little fire water kind of sets the tone for me.

Speaker 2: 2:39

So yeah, how was the commute today?

Speaker 3: 2:43

Well, 13 steps, no traffic today. The cats and the dogs stayed out of the way. So, uh, no accidents, it was beautiful. No construction, it's wonderful.

Speaker 2: 2:55

No animals were hurt in the making of this. No animals were hurt in the making of this.

Speaker 3: 2:57

No animals were hurt in the filming of my thing. Now I will say there is construction because, as you can see behind me, I haven't got this room done yet but I had to take a week off to go riding. So that's where we're at. But I do have the acoustic panels. They're partially. I just got to get them up and fixed and I can start getting stuff put back.

Speaker 2: 3:17

So I just got to get them up and fixed and I can start getting stuff put back. So yesterday was National Bourbon Day, I mean Father's Day, it was both.

Speaker 3: 3:24

Why can't you?

Speaker 2: 3:24

have both. You can have both. I did Both of them. Both of them. You can have both of them. But so did you have a good Father's Day.

Speaker 3: 3:34

I had a fantastic day. Did you have a good Father's Day? I had a fantastic day. I got up in the morning with breakfast in bed from my daughter, then went over and spent some time with my father and then I took my mother out to a little play. You've been to it. It's called the Schoolhouse. It's an old one-room schoolhouse. They've turned into a speakeasy and that kind of thing.

Speaker 2: 4:05

I had a couple, couple drinks over there and then, uh, we went out and did a little antique shopping. Nice, you know that schoolhouse is the only good place to go to school. I mean, when I was a kid I went to military school. I wonder why. I'm sure that's pretty obvious and then schoolhouse rocks. You know that's right. It was Jack black there.

Speaker 3: 4:18

I'm just kidding, but it was, it was good and I found some great things at the at the antique store so that was kind of cool. Cool Found a lot of 1933 world's fair from Chicago postcards. So I was excited about that because I collect that kind of stuff, I collect world, I collect world Fair memorabilia and I collect postcards. So I got a twofer it was kind of cool.

Speaker 2: 4:41

You know, speaking of antiques, this was not planned, but let me show you something. Okay, I got to move my microphone. Can you see my Michigan? I'm trying here there.

Speaker 3: 4:55

That appears. Now I also collect license plates. I do not have one of those until I come to your place and steal yours. No, that appears to be, I'm going to say, a 1976 Michigan Bicentennial license plate.

Speaker 2: 5:07

That is correct. I recently well in April had a birthday. I am a Bicentennial baby and for those of you doing math at home, that means I'm 49.

Speaker 3: 5:19

Do I need to salute or stay in tension or?

Speaker 2: 5:21

something. No, no, no, okay, a little drum and bugle core if you don't mind. But a family member who I golf with Don gave me that. He said that you know, I know you do your show on YouTube as well, and he said I thought you might like this and I do, I love it and it is now kind of one of my, one of my tchotchkes or one of my pieces back there for the background for the show.

Speaker 3: 5:47

I think it's cool. I love the states because I collect license plates. I have several of them, many of them hanging up in my in my garage, and the bicentennial was a great year because a lot, of a lot of states did specific tags just for that year and there's a lot of, you know, red, white and blue and it just. It's just kind of cool to see the bicentennial ones.

Speaker 2: 6:08

He's. He always gives me some boy. We are really taking this show off that rails right away.

Speaker 3: 6:13

That's okay. I mean, it's about the conversations, it's about our adventures, and here we go.

Speaker 2: 6:19

He also gave me a 1976 proof set silver proof set which was pretty nice to go along with my plate.

Speaker 3: 6:28

He said I thought you might want some money and so he gave me a nice oh, look at that the half dollar, a quarter, A quarter and the dollar Dollar yeah, so good guy, and those are all silver right, all silver, solid silver, yeah, uncirculated, so bicentennial.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Very nice gift to go along with my license plate. Cool, okay, that's exciting. All right, getting back on the rails.

Speaker 3: 6:56

Get out of the rabbit hole. Let's keep rolling. So what are we talking about this episode? I think we have some unfinished business.

Speaker 2: 7:04

We do, we do. Now I want to send a small apology. We did not bookend the show Since we knew it was going to be a two-parter. We did not have a listener spotlight, but we will.

Speaker 3: 7:19

we will have got one lined up. It's a good one.

Speaker 2: 7:22

Oh great, great. Um, the last time we were together, we left a little teaser of the following clip.

Speaker 4: 7:36

All right. Well, here we are, we're at the AMP cart racing.

Speaker 3: 7:42

Oh yeah.

Speaker 4: 7:42

We just got off the track. And yeah, I'd have to say I have to say obviously I won Clip hanger.

Speaker 2: 7:51

And we'll just keep moving on. So you said you won. I'm sorry's that sensor button no I'm just we. We need to hear the official, the official part of it all right, here we go, because I know you know, fine, here it comes okay say you beat me by four one hundredths of a second, but what did I?

Speaker 3: 8:15

just say what was that you said? Adam said, quote you beat me by four one hundredths of a second.

Speaker 4: 8:24

So he's saying that michael beat him in the go-kart racing yeah, I'd have to say you beat me by four one hundredths of a second but, but what was that oh?

Speaker 3: 8:36

show's over. Uh, michael won.

Speaker 2: 8:38

We can all just call it good all right, I'll play the actual clip, okay yeah, I'd have to say you beat me by four one hundredths of a second but but what was that what?

Speaker 3: 8:58

what did you say I had I, I did what I led how many laps, but but at the end where it counts.

Speaker 4: 9:04

I did what yeah yeah yeah, yeah, well, I figured this was coming, but that's all right.

Speaker 3: 9:09

You, you, actually led the whole way. Now, I was in a cart in front of you to begin with yeah, just to start off. And then, once the the green flag went down, you immediately spurred out there ahead of me and I was like, oh crud, I'm in trouble. The only reason and then I got ahead of you once and then you blew back. The only reason I took it at the end was two other guys around that last corner, that last kind of hairpin turn. There was two other guys there and.

Speaker 3: 9:33

I was able to skirt around one and they blocked you, so that's the only reason I pulled it out.

Speaker 2: 9:37

But it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4: 9:39

I didn't want to pay the $150 deductible for the insurance if you crashed the vehicle so we uh got here, we had free paid, but then of course there's always extra fees. They hit us up for a? Uh. You can probably hear the race cars in the back those are not the carts. Those are the actual, real cars uh, we, we got a wind sock, I mean a head sock we got a helmet uh, our friend alex bell gave me his gopro, so we should be able to get some footage.

Speaker 2: 10:01

Maybe we can throw that on the youtube. While wind sock I mean a head sock we got a helmet. Our friend Alex Bell gave me his.

Speaker 4: 10:05

GoPro, so we should be able to get some footage of that.

Speaker 3: 10:07

Oh yeah, that would be good.

Speaker 2: 10:08

Maybe we can throw that on the YouTube while we're talking here.

Speaker 4: 10:12

But that was pretty amazing.

Speaker 2: 10:13

those were fast those were the fastest carts I've ever been on.

Speaker 3: 10:20

Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Nice highlight to our day off yeah, we're going to go pick up our buddy Armando and go out to the falls, yeah. And then this afternoon we've got a team bourbon tasting, yeah, and a team dinner. That should be a lot of fun. Should be a lot of fun. It's been a good trip so far. A lot of hills, though.

Speaker 2: 10:42

Common theme there, a lot of hills, by the way. Yes, first of all, let's give credit where credit is due.

Speaker 3: 10:55

Now I have to give some credit too, Because when. I was in those go-karts I was channeling everything that I had learned from Days of thunder, the movie we're gonna pit, not right now, why not?

Speaker 2: 11:11

we're eating ice cream. I love it, but yeah, uh, four one hundredths of a second, you've definitely, you definitely took me and uh, uh, yeah, we, we, you know it was. It's really cool. I mean, uh, tracks that I've never seen like this, that had like a four-story drop. Now, when I say four-story drop for those of you who are visualizing that, um, it wasn't like a straight drop, it just went down like a four-story hill and then you had to give it all, all. You had to get back up the hill, um, except it had a hairpin turn at the bottom. So it was really interesting.

Speaker 3: 11:46

And then there was a straightaway section that you would get going 55, maybe a little bit more miles an hour and then had a couple more curves and it was hilly. I mean it wasn't like the go-kart track that you think of when you're at the county fair or something like that, or you go to Branson or one of those vacation spots and they have go-karts and it's all flat. No, this was like hills and straightaways and yeah, they moved. And when you're only like eight, eight inches, 10 inches off the off the ground, I mean you're like right down there with the dogs.

Speaker 2: 12:18

So you know what I found funny, and I'm sure that anyone who is listening to this show, who went Bragg, who raced them carts, is probably thinking the same thing that I did. You know, you watch a safety video ahead of time and they tell you, through this one straightaway period, one cart only goes through at a time. They don't want you riding double-lane carts.

Speaker 3: 12:37

No.

Speaker 2: 12:38

And I tell you what, after the warm-up lap, I thought, well, that's no big deal, two carts could fit through there. I wonder why they want that. And then, after they put the checkered flag out and you know, the guy was going back and forth we went around, you came through there and you hammered it. I could see why they only wanted one cart to go through. It seemed like he got narrow when they put the yellow flag down or with the green flag.

Speaker 3: 12:59

They put the green flag green flag down, yeah, yeah you're going around and you're just, you know you got to stay in formation, you can't pass anybody the first time around. And then, boy, when they drop that flag, everybody just took off. Then you realize how it. It literally funnels you, yeah, to where someone would get hurt. You might have to pay that insurance fee if you try to put two through there at once.

Speaker 2: 13:22

See, that's my problem. I mean, yes, you won and I gave you full. I's my problem. I mean, yes, you won and I gave you full. There are a couple launches there. Buddy, you won.

Speaker 2: 13:29

But when we first got in line, you know, we filled out all the information ahead of time and Bragg and Wright's newsletter went out and you could jump on registration. And so I jumped on the registration and I wanted us to go around and at that time I read the whole thing where you know it could be dangerous. You can, you know, get hurt, yada, yada, yada. But in the line when we get up there, she's like well, do you want the insurance? And I'm like insurance and she's like, yep, it's $5.99 and it covers up to a thousand dollars in damage, but there's $150 deductible and if not, you have to pay the whole thing. And all I kept thinking about is I don't want to pay anything. And so if she would never have said that, I probably would have been okay.

Speaker 2: 14:13

But you know there's pros and cons about signing up for things like this. The pro was we had a bunch of people, which was cool. The con was is you did have some people who were, and I'm not trying to be insulting by any means, but extremely cautious and, of course, getting around some of those people. So when we came around it was a little bit of like hey, get out of it. Like even on the warmup lap, the person in front of you.

Speaker 3: 14:39

I got stuck behind that lady and see, I think they need to have people sign up and say are you going out to be Days of Thunder or are you going out to drive Miss Daisy? And either way is okay, but that way they could maybe better match up some, because, like a couple of those ladies you know we're very cautious. I get it First time they've probably ever been in. That it's fast and all that. But it makes it difficult because, like the two guys ahead of us a tad of her were. I mean they were already coming back around behind us. Yeah, because we're just putting along behind, behind the lady and it didn't give us a real chance to really try out the course, that first lap.

Speaker 2: 15:16

But it was still a good time, wasn't morgan freeman and driving, miss daisy, he was Stacey, he was Andy Dufresne, I'm just kidding, but um, um. So, yes, we ended the part one of brag. We left you in Dawsonville on our, on our layover day. Um, we uh had a hotel that night. Um and uh, we headed out to the track, the AMP track. Um, pretty cool place, I mean, um, you know, you know, not something that I'm used to where there was condos, where they looked over the. There was two tracks, just for anyone who wasn't there, there was a cart track and then there was also a I don't know, two, two and a half mile whatever it was yeah regular car and the clip we just played, just to be clear, those, those cars are not piped in.

Speaker 2: 16:08

Those were cars that were actually on the actual racetrack. Uh, just got lucky for two guys who were recording a recording a clip for a show, so, um, but that was definitely, definitely, um, probably one of the most exciting cart experiences I've ever had?

Speaker 3: 16:25

Yes, it was a good time, but our day wasn't over. No, not even close.

Speaker 2: 16:32

No, no, we went from there to camp. The highlights are we went there, we picked up our friends at the Bragg main camp and you had rented a not just any kind of F-150, an extended cab like king cab, something I don't know. It had all kinds of room, Brand new, and we went out to the Amacol Falls. Only the best for you, buddy. Well, I appreciate that. I expect the best, but the well, that sounds really conceited. If you don't know us, we tease each other all the time. If you're a new listener, so, but we he won't drive in any old vehicle.

Speaker 3: 17:10

Say what? No, I'm kidding. I said he wouldn't drive in any old vehicle. I'm just joking.

Speaker 2: 17:13

Oh gosh, no, no, no, no, no, no but anyway, we're at amico.

Speaker 2: 17:25

I can't ever pronounce amico falls and those we were there yeah and franklin said are you looking for a little bit of a workout and looking for a medium workout? You could drive to the top and I'm like we're not driving to the top, we're gonna walk. So it's 475 stairs, uh, for anyone who's never been there, you walk about halfway up and you kind of cross this bridge and the falls are right. I mean, you're watching the falls go below you and it's amazing. I picture it would be great to have. It was just absolutely beautiful. From there you could climb all the way to the top, which we did, and from what I understand, it was 475 stairs up and because of the Smoky Mountain fires, you could actually look out onto the terrain and see the smoke and layers.

Speaker 3: 18:24

It was kind of interesting to see that but uh, actually those are the fires up in canada, oh canada. Sorry, but that isn't the whole thing, because those 400 and some odd stairs started halfway up. The other time you had kind of a hiking path, yeah, but and then you get to this like middle section and you're sitting there literally over the falls, I mean the midsection of the falls, and you're looking up and I thought we were done, I was like okay, and then you were like no, we got to go over here. And then you really start the heavy duty stair climbing to get all the way to the top. I didn't realize we were going all the way to the top. So it was a breathtaking view up there. It was awesome. We got some fantastic pictures and let me tell you, my legs were feeling it.

Speaker 2: 19:51

You know, coming down there were like metal grates and you could see through the stairs. So you really had to concentrate. It was like an optical illusion because you could see past your stair and you really had to pay attention, not just walking on stairs but making sure you didn't, you know, take a tumble down.

Speaker 3: 20:14

Like I just about put myself out of the whole thing.

Speaker 2: 20:18

I was going to leave that out.

Speaker 3: 20:20

Well, it wasn't on the stairs. And we got down on the stairs and we're turning to go to that midsection and it's flat but there's a big chunk of the asphalt that was missing and I came around, I wasn't looking there and I twisted my ankle and I stumbled around, I kept myself up but uh, my ankle's still swollen up a little bit, so it doesn't, doesn't hurt, it didn't really on the ride. I mean I could feel it when I was trying to take that, that pedal off, but it's okay. Well, my wife's convinced you're trying to kill me, but that's okay. Every time we get together I wind up damaging an ankle. You throw me down an escalator. I about died. You try to knock me off of a mountain cliff.

Speaker 2: 21:04

I almost, you know well, listen to michael's wife. The boy can't walk on an escalator on his own. He fell on his own, he tripped in the in the cabin and uh oh, I forgot.

Speaker 3: 21:22

Well, you stuck me up that little ladder all the way in the ceiling section where was that? I can't think that was berry the double j when we were doing odram yeah we had these little cabins and I had to climb up this ladder because they stuck, you know, me all the way up in this loft thing and I slipped and ripped my entire toenail off my big toe. That was a good time. I was bleeding. It was like looked like a murder scene.

Speaker 2: 21:46

When it was all done, I'm the hotel guy, you're the rental car guy. I got the hotel, I got the bed Next, anyways.

Speaker 3: 21:57

Fair enough, I need to learn to walk, apparently.

Speaker 2: 22:00

By the way, I still owe you for a rental car, so don't forget Bill me. I did today, apparently. By the way, I still owe you for a rental car, so don't forget bill me. I already I did today. So Okay, I will check that out.

Speaker 3: 22:08

Thanks for being honest, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 22:09

Well, listen, I don't want you to not rent a car next time and say, oh, I was waiting for you to pay me. We finished our hike to the falls and you and I have a little tradition on bike trips. We had to get some Dairy Queen ice cream, and we did that, my friend. We got ourselves a blizzard.

Speaker 3: 22:35

We had lunch at Dairy Queen, and then we got ourselves a blizzard.

Speaker 2: 22:38

So yeah, it was we just did it up Right. It was one of those grill and chills or whatever. Yeah, so and blizzard, you just did it up right, it was one of those grilling chills or whatever yeah. So, mm-hmm, can't beat a blizzard. And both of us have some stock in Berkshire Hathaway, Didn't hurt to put money in our own pocket. Yeah, they own Dairy Queen so I had to.

Speaker 3: 22:57

It's the perfect, perfect thing.

Speaker 2: 23:00

We're investing in ourselves. That's the gift that keeps on giving. Perfect thing. We're investing in ourselves. That's the gift that keeps on giving From there. We had our team tasting, which was really cool. We had 17 individuals.

Speaker 3: 23:14

Granddaddy.

Speaker 2: 23:14

Mims Moonshine. You know, some people had a beer, some people had the moonshine, but most of all it was a gathering of some of our team members, some of our friends we met along the way. That was really cool. We got a big old picture.

Speaker 3: 23:31

And it was right next to our camping spot, so I mean right next to the Bragg camping area. So I mean they just had to walk across the parking lot. It was right there, so it was super convenient. That was nice.

Speaker 2: 23:41

Yeah, and from there, my friend, we had our team dinner and wow, what a turnout when you and I were planning that. You know, throughout the winter and coming into spring, little did I think that when we opened the doors at the Miller's Ale House. So we sent out an e-vite to all of our team members and we told them we could invite guests we didn't close it to just the person If they had friends or family was nearby they could bring them.

Speaker 2: 24:20

I'll tell you what. I think you and I were both very impressed, brian, who was our waiter. There was a little stress and frustration at the end because people were trying to catch the shuttle and the checks were coming out slow. But besides that, a+ I mean, served everybody, got everybody in and out. The best that he could Team was there.

Speaker 3: 24:40

I'm talking, I think, 33, yeah, I think 33 total, so fantastic showing. You know, the food was good. Uh, it was just a great time and it, to me, this was, this was something that I was really, really gunning for. I mean, you were too, but it was really important to us. Yeah, because we're not a normal bike club. It's not like, hey, every Saturday we get together and, you know, ride somewhere and we get to see these people. I mean, we're kind of that weird kind of cycling group that some of us have never met. Some of us have ridden two or three rides before and multiple States before together. Um, so this really gave us an opportunity for everybody to come together and sit there and just chit, chat and, and you know, we moved around the tables, we talked to a lot of people and it was. It was just a really good time.

Speaker 2: 25:33

And even though we had passed out some swag on the first day, you and your daughter I'd like to personally thank Maya. Thank you, maya. Thank you, maya, thank you, maya. By the way, if you don't know who Maya is, check out the show, the Confetti Experience. It's definitely a good show. You'll meet Maya. But you guys put together a little swag kit. You had some stickers, depending if it was going to the Cycling Women of Leisure or the Cycling Men of Leisure. You had put together some patches and and some of our collection of stickers. We we've gathered along the way and we passed out some more stuff to our team. Um, and in turn, not expecting, you and I both got a gift that night we, we did get gifts that night.

Speaker 3: 26:26

Mine is right there, my friend. I got it in the spotlight.

Speaker 2: 26:31

The flask is bigger than my head. Check that out.

Speaker 3: 26:35

Um, very few things are larger than his head, but the flask is. Thank you, bill um he that he had it wrapped and brought it to us. We opened them up and they are two half-gallon metal flasks. I'm going to take a picture. Figure out some way to hook that onto me while I'm riding some ride, and I'm going to take a picture.

Speaker 2: 26:58

You know the following statement is not a political statement, but it's made in China and with the current tariffs they went all out and got us stuff from China Nice.

Speaker 3: 27:10

And that just it's a big. I love it. I love it too.

Speaker 2: 27:13

It says it's a half gallon and one of the guys says you're not going to be able to put that in your coat pocket. I happen to know that it's kind of curved, so you could like put it down, it could fit right around happen to know that it's kind of curved so you could like put it down right around.

Speaker 3: 27:25

That's right, and actually you wear bibs, so you could just slide it right down there on the side of your bibs that's right, so that was one of the gifts that we received along the way, so I give you mine. You can slide one down both sides then it'd be equal out.

Speaker 2: 27:37

It's like when you carry bricks you got three in this hand and three yeah, you got it level that's so. That was going to get engraved.

Speaker 3: 27:45

Yes, we're definitely going to get them engraved. That's kind of cool. So thank you on that. We got a lot of gifts from people. I mean, we gave out a lot of swag and all of a sudden we were getting a lot of different things, but it was very cool.

Speaker 2: 27:56

Well, since we're digressing, let me continue the show and tell. So Carrie and Phoenix got us an Old Dominion bonded Tennessee whiskey, and this was a very nice gift from Carrie and Phoenix. Yes, Thank you. Also one of our team members, Gary Fox. You have one too. Since I have mine out, we can just show mine. It's right over there on my shelf. Oh yeah, Gary Fox gave us a nice bottle of Oops, I'm messing this up, Hold on a second. Gary Fox gave us the Reformation Bourbon, and so that was very much appreciated. Gave us both one, and then he even questioned you to make sure that I actually gave you yours.

Speaker 3: 28:52

Well, there are those reports, Adam, so they're just keeping you honest.

Speaker 2: 28:58

And almost messed this up. But then our subscriber, monthly supporter, alex Bell. He provided two things and I'll get to both of them. But first he gave both of us a LaHood Company Midnight Embers straight bourbon. But this is actually a Georgia batch.

Speaker 3: 29:21

Because you and I both like to try those smaller distilleries and things like that that we haven't heard of. So that's cool, that was definitely cool.

Speaker 2: 29:29

And then for the speakeasy. It never got opened, but I made a promise to him and I'm putting it right here in recording, since we're going to bourbon country burn. Oh yes, oh yes. Alex has provided a watson spirits knob creek single barrel select which will be brought with all of our stuff down to kentucky. This will be open for the good of the good of the camp.

Speaker 3: 29:55

So oh yeah, looking forward to that knob creek and I'm missing one more.

Speaker 2: 29:59

I'm gonna let you go with that one, hmm just a moment here.

Speaker 3: 30:04

I wasn really prepared, but give me a second.

Speaker 2: 30:09

In the meantime, Michael is grabbing something special.

Speaker 3: 30:15

We, uh, our friends Scott and cricket, uh brought us a bottle of Remedy peach. It's peach flavored whiskey. It's made in Georgia and what is really cool about Remedy is I've got another bottle over on my shelf. We went and visited the Remedy distillery two years ago on the ride, so we were there, we met the owner, you know, we did a tasting, we bought, we bought some and, uh, so they gave us a bottle of the remedy peach, which we need to try.

Speaker 2: 30:54

That because, let me tell you, nothing says georgia like peaches and just to speak, what you talked about, mine is to grab. There is the remedy that we got when we went during Bragg before.

Speaker 3: 31:07

So, yeah, we need to take this bottle to Bourbon Country Burn too and try a little bit of the Georgia. So big thank you to everybody. Certainly, we were not expecting that. Apparently, everybody understands that we like whiskey. It was fantastic, and there's a lot here that we haven't tried before. So we'll get to do a little bit of experimentation, which is what I love.

Speaker 2: 31:33

You know, the funny part is is when you know, you and I were, as we mentioned in part, one of this logistics, rental cars, baggage, hotels, you know, putting the bikes together. My plan all along was is that I had a third bag that I used as a carry-on and in that bag had all of the stuff to give away to our team. And then my plan all along was well, on day one, we'll give out all the swag bags and I'll go down a bag. And every time we turned around, one of our team members said no, you're not, because we're going to give you this and we're going to give you this. And I thought, well, good thing, I got that extra bag. And I just want to give a huge shout out to Jimmy and Dave from Padre Cycle Inn. They were willing to store that bag for us throughout the week, and so thank you.

Speaker 3: 32:21

Well, a big shout out to them too, because they had a a limit on the heaviness of the bag and they may have turned their head went over by a pound or two and they were cool about it. So thank you, but but it was just one pound.

Speaker 3: 32:35

Oh, I'm yeah, maybe a pound and a half at most, but the but we appreciate it everybody, because you know what, I got to the airport and I was about 10 pounds over on my bag, which I wasn't when I left. But you know what, if I have to bring home extra weight, I don't mind bringing home a half a gallon flask or some local juice from Georgia, things like that. So it was OK and it all made it. We didn't have any problems or that. So it was okay and it all made it. We didn't have any problems or accidents, so that was fantastic.

Speaker 2: 33:07

My first text to you was I made it home with all the goods. My second one was the DeBrim made it home safe too.

Speaker 3: 33:16

Because you know I was going to lose sleep over that DeBrim if I didn't know about its fate.

Speaker 2: 33:21

All right, so that was the highlights that I had from our layover day. I remember when we recorded Franklin, he said it was going to be Awesomeville and Dawsonville, and you know what it was. It was a fantastic day.

Speaker 3: 33:36

Probably one of our best layover days, because we did so many different types of activities and then we had the team in there, so that just really made it good. Unfortunately, it was short-lived, because we had to get on our bikes the next morning and head down the road To Clarksville and we didn't take the last train, by the way, no, we had to pedal.

Speaker 2: 34:00

When we were at Miller's Ale House. There's a sheriff that travels with us and you honored him as an honorary cycling man of leisure for the week and inside that kit you gave him the patch and the decals and on the sheriff vehicle he tagged it with cycling men of leisure on the back and front, which was just awesome.

Speaker 3: 34:24

Had Cycling Men of Leisure on his front and back of his vehicle for the rest of the week. That was awesome, which was really cool.

Speaker 2: 34:33

We had a little bit of interesting. I have in the highlights some fogginess, but I think I messed up.

Speaker 3: 34:45

I think that was the next day, so, but all I really have is we went to a Mexican restaurant that night and kept the traditional, so yeah, that day to Clarksville wasn't, I mean, there was, there was some good size Hills, nothing like the, the grades that we had had on like the second day, but um, I mean it was a decent day of riding. We got in early again cause it was only like 50, 50, a little over 50 miles, um, so it was pretty uneventful. But um, yeah, we went, got to go to a Mexican restaurant and as we as anyone who's listened to the show knows that we always hit our Mexican restaurant. That's kind of a tradition with us and it was a pretty fair Mexican restaurant too.

Speaker 4: 35:29

I'm a little upset, say what?

Speaker 3: 35:32

That Armando went with us. To mention Armando again, I was a little upset. You didn't want to get the, the nine liters or the six liters. Six liters of beer or tequila. Um, I couldn't believe it. They had a menu that was just like the ultimate menu, where you could get like they sold like six liters of tequila in this big old funky thing, or six liters of cerveza.

Speaker 2: 36:01

It's just, oh my gosh, you could have ordered it, buddy I couldn't have drank it. We were doing the math.

Speaker 3: 36:11

That's three of those big soda things. No way.

Speaker 2: 36:14

You and I were doing the math. We're like well, there's three of us. That means two liters apiece.

Speaker 3: 36:19

We've got a two-liter bottle of either Dos Equis or some kind of tequila. That's really a no win for anybody.

Speaker 2: 36:30

We definitely took a risk that day because the shuttles seemed a little bit nerve wracking. We weren't, because normally the shuttles all week long were phenomenal. For some reason we had stayed at that uh aquatic center before and once we got in, you know, we took showers and and got our stuff ready and we got in line with all of our friends and stuff and we came into town and we had we had been in that town before we we ate, and she said, oh, what are you guys looking for? We're like, oh, like, oh, what about a Mexican restaurant? She's like you want to go to the one that I like and we're like well, yeah, I mean, if you recommend one, we'd rather go somewhere where it's good.

Speaker 3: 37:13

The other one was right down the street, like six blocks Right, but instead.

Speaker 2: 37:18

I said, yeah, that sounds good, we'll take us where you say is a good place. And she said okay, and we're driving, and we're driving, and we're driving, and. I'm like three minutes later I know I'm like where is this place? It was a town over, I mean, it was literally like she went and I'm like we're no longer in Clarksville.

Speaker 3: 37:35

We were in whatever town that was, but we were, and then we worried is she going to come back and get us?

Speaker 2: 37:42

she said here, here's my phone number, just text me when you're done eating. And I thought, oh god, this is not going to go well. This is going to be one of those stories where where we're walking back all night and then um. But I text her and she said um, and obviously I'm in transportation. She said I can't look at my phone while I'm driving. When I stopped, I'll look at my phone. She texted, she said I'm on my way, and within about nine minutes she was there and everything worked out great. So, melanie, if you are listening, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 3: 38:15

So yeah, it's a little gamble, but it was great Mexican food and that was a good time. And and uh, that was a good time and, yeah, we had stayed there at that place, I think two years ago. Um, so it was a place that we were really really familiar with. Uh, and that night it got a little wet.

Speaker 2: 38:33

Well, you flew your drone and you got my drone.

Speaker 3: 38:36

Yeah, I've got a drone and haven't flown it, still working out the uh logistics piloting of said drone drone, but flew it over to get a picture of like where we were camped and then you're right.

Speaker 2: 38:49

Then savannah came down and she visited for a little bit, and then the mercy buckets, the skies opened up and it dumped and it rained.

Speaker 3: 39:00

I mean, it was coming down hard.

Speaker 2: 39:01

So and then our friend Amir had given us a bottle of wine and Armando said, well, I'm opening it up. And we were like absolutely.

Speaker 3: 39:12

Because I had it over in the community chill, cooler and yeah, so we started on that bottle of wine too. So that was cool, so we started uh, started on that bottle of wine too.

Speaker 2: 39:25

So that was cool, Um, in the morning. This is where the highlights are, where the it was very foggy, it was real Well.

Speaker 3: 39:31

It started off pretty clear and we we had to hike up kind of I don't know half a block to get to kind of the starting point, cause we were down at the ball fields and hiking up there. It was a little hazy off in the distance, but as we stood there waiting for the mass start, the fog rolled in and it got pretty foggy there for the first probably 20, 30 minutes of the ride. It was beautiful though, with the sun kind of coming through the fog and that type of thing.

Speaker 2: 39:58

And we went into South Carolina. We actually dipped a little bit into another state there for a little bit. Second time we have ridden our bikes in South Carolina. We actually dipped a little bit into another state there for a little bit Second time we have ridden our bikes in South Carolina.

Speaker 3: 40:11

For the folks in South Carolina let me just say you might have I'm saying might. Okay, I'm pretty sure you do have worse roads than Michigan. I would agree with that. You do have worse roads in Michigan, I would agree with that and maybe it's just like those tertiary roads out in the middle of nowhere, I don't know. But let me tell you it was not a good road.

Speaker 2: 40:35

You know, all week long you have ridden with me thousands of miles, Literally, and on rough roads. I always tell you that my, my palms get a little bit numb for the one I ride on those arrow bars all the time, no problem whatsoever. Whole week was beautiful, smooth, smooth, smooth roads. Just that little section in South Carolina. I was like Whoa, you know, I just couldn't believe it. So I feel like Chester cheese?

Speaker 3: 41:03

Yeah, you know, I just couldn't believe it. I feel like Chester cheese. Yeah, you know I. You know that's the way the road was.

Speaker 5: 41:09

Fortunately, we weren't there that long.

Speaker 3: 41:10

But let me just say I love South Carolina, beautiful state, you know. Visited there many times. But roads we always seem to find kind of the rougher, rougher roads when we're there. But then we got to go back over the bridge and we were back in Georgia again, so it was all good um, I have a highlight here, sir.

Speaker 2: 41:34

Okay, we organically ended up with a bunch of people from padre cycle and which was in our last show in the interview. But on the, on the highlights, we just were sat down at this, uh heritage trail travel center.

Speaker 3: 41:51

It was like a historic, yeah, historic center or something, and they had like an old log cabin there. It was right along the lake after we got back into georgia and there was two gals setting on the stairs and they were two gals that we had talked to several times at padres and we came and plopped down there and then armando came and plopped down, and maybe somebody else did, and then this other gal who was with padres came walking up, up past us and go oh hey, it's the, it's the Padres crew, and I mean it wasn't planned. It's just one of those, one of those things that gets back to what we always talk about about community and, um, whether you're doing this ride or rag briar or something, it's really cool to to be part of a charter, because that charter becomes kind of that secondary, um, you know group or community for that week that you're there.

Speaker 2: 42:39

So stephanie and kelly. This is our perfect chance to mention you. Uh, they were sitting on the on the porch there with us. Um, we really got to enjoy their company. They were from toronto um and so so, and love their oilers they were big hockey fans big hockey and but uh really enjoyed also with the speakeasy that night. Uh, we got to to hang out with those ladies and that was a lot of fun.

Speaker 3: 43:07

So and what's funny is we offered them wine the night before. They weren't interested it and it was like, okay, fine. Well, they were definitely interested in the whiskey, so they were. They were whiskey gals, which totally cool.

Speaker 2: 43:19

And uh, speaking of the speakeasy which is kind of weird to say speaking of the speakeasy but, um, we kept trying to have a speakeasy. But and then, uh, it finally came together, rainy night, and got everything. I mean, just you brought some out.

Speaker 3: 43:40

You notice that every time I bring out my big pack out and I open it up and we start drinking. That tends to draw people together. And what's really hard on this ride, I think, is that there are so many camping options. You got people camping inside and they're over there, and then you've got people that are just doing the regular camping and they're over there. And then you've got your charter service, which is over here, and so all of your team members and friends are spread all over the place and trying to get them together is very difficult. But I pulled it out. You know, we had the bottles with our, our team name and the year on them and and you and I started drinking. And then Armando came over and we, you know, we just started passing it out and it just starts. It's cool because it just starts to build. People come around. It's like, oh, what's going on?

Speaker 2: 44:30

And you know you just start bringing people in, which is really cool that was also the day that I got chick-fil-a in a parking lot and they had, like you were hungry.

Speaker 3: 44:41

I came in behind you and you're like we took our, our usual picture at the arch and armando was there and uh, you're like I'm gonna go get chick-fil-a. And I was like, okay, and I wasn't that hungry, but um, you got your Chick-fil-a.

Speaker 2: 44:56

Yeah, I mean, I was definitely pushing it up, some of them hills, and so by the time we got back I was like I mean I saw the, the banner like the Chick-fil-a banner like flying and I'm like that's a chicken sandwich, sounds good. And then when I went by, what they wanted you to do of course. I mean, he was actually like pumping the smell like they do in casinos.

Speaker 3: 45:17

He was just like you know, With one of those old, like blacksmithing, you know.

Speaker 2: 45:23

But I said, oh, and they? It was so hot. I mean I don't know, they must either have a heater, like where it was on a heater, or something it wasn't, or maybe something like the pizza delivery guys had one of those things down on this asphalt.

Speaker 3: 45:35

Yeah, it was pretty hot that day.

Speaker 2: 45:38

They just I tried to make a joke but the guy didn't think it was funny. I'm like well, at least it's not sunday, I mean, otherwise you wouldn't be here. And he did not find that funny at all.

Speaker 3: 45:47

But yeah, I don't think most of them probably enjoy these sunday jokes, but but he did say my pleasure, so that was good, that's, that's required Company requires you to say my pleasure.

Speaker 2: 45:59

They had a little little stand there with a few food trucks and stuff, so that was kind of nice.

Speaker 3: 46:06

So stop for a second. Got a question for you, okay, so if I go up and say this is the worst chicken sandwich I ever had it's horrible, my pleasure Do I have to answer? Go up and say this is the worst chicken sandwich I ever had it's horrible, my pleasure, with my pleasure, my pleasure, which it's a good chicken.

Speaker 2: 46:21

It's not popeyes, but it's a good chicken sandwich and just to be fair for everybody, we started a group thread text not started it, but it was already going, where we were passing pictures back and forth and a chicken sandwich war began on the, on the thread of which one was better, and, and so that was kind of fun, something silly and stupid, but so is riding your bike across the state Sometimes silly and stupid is kind of what we do.

Speaker 2: 46:49

That's right, we're pretty good at that, yeah, the next morning, with tears in our eyes, we started the last day of a ride into Hartwell and you and I had to make a logistical choice. And you normally on these things, you take care of the rental car.

Speaker 3: 47:11

Yep.

Speaker 2: 47:12

And I take care of the hotels. Hopefully your hotel experience was good. If you'll please give me a five-star rating, I'd really appreciate it especially for the last one, but we'll talk about that later that's true, that's uh, but uh, normally I try to get my name on the television in the room somehow some way for you, Mr Baranski welcome.

Speaker 2: 47:32

But we were having a hard time finding a vehicle because our logistics this trip was when the ride was over. We were going to drive back to Atlanta by the airport and fly home, and so you said I'll take care of the rental car. And even a few months ago you had said to me you're really having a hard time getting one on a weekend.

Speaker 3: 47:55

Here's the problem. Hartwell is not a huge community, I mean, it's a good-sized town. Problem with it was is the two car agencies they have in town close at noon on Saturday. Well, one is not open on Saturday, the other closes at noon. Well, there's no way we were getting to Hartwell by noon. It just wasn't going to happen. So the only clue that the other place well, there was another town that was closer that we went through, but again they closed. They weren't open on Saturdays. So the only place that I could get a car was up in South Carolina, about, you know, 23 miles away. So we ran into the problem that I have to get from, from the end up there, to get the car to come back. So we, uh, we had to do some finagling and Armando, or our buddy, helped us out a little bit, but we got it all to work out.

Speaker 2: 48:49

Yeah, it was perfect. Yeah, we, uh, we rode, we. We decided that the high school, which was where everybody ended eventually who was riding on the last day, we decided we would take our normal ending group picture there. Since I knew you had 23 miles to go, 23 miles to come back, plus minus the time of you guys were going to take showers, um, and, and then you were going to have to deal with the rental car company, I chose to ride out to the point, um, get the, get the ceremonial picture and out there, and so you and I'd be able to talk about that on this show, um, which was really fun. Going out to the point, I won, won't lie to you. The wind was with me and I was literally not joking. I was down on my arrow bars doing like 25 to 30 miles an hour on the way out, and then Alex Bell, our team member, and I rode back together, and let me tell you something it was an opposite. I was going like 10 miles an hour on the way back.

Speaker 3: 49:50

So um, well, there there's my thing. I understand why Franklin does that, because you're there by the lake and it's, you know, makes for great pictures. And they have this picture where there's a bunch of, uh, team members that are in the water and you can see the actual uh, you know, blow up ending arch thing in the back and things like that and it's just, uh, you got a lot more space and it's, you know, much more pleasant to have, kind of your end party. But personally I hate when you have an ending someplace but then you have to ride someplace else. It's just not my thing. Again, Franklin, I understand why you did it Makes perfect sense. Personally, I just I don't.

Speaker 2: 50:37

I don't. I, when I get to the end, I want to be done and to be fair. You felt the same way in shoreline when we got the traverse city and the next day you were supposed to go on absolutely.

Speaker 3: 50:44

You get to traverse city and then the next day you have to go you're supposed to go all the way out to this lighthouse and back, and then the ride is done, but you're ending back in the exact same place that you started that morning, right, and you know so. No, I I don't like it on any rides, but you know that's a personal preference and I I understand why I did it. Still don't quite understand the shoreline thing, because that made less sense to me and it was pouring rain most of the time we were riding, which probably didn't help me at all.

Speaker 2: 51:17

You and I definitely both struggle with that because we've been so used to doing rides like where you go A-cross, bike ride A-cross.

Speaker 3: 51:24

You're basically one border, then the other, and you're dipping your wheels in rivers on both sides, or whatever the case might be, or whatever the case might be.

Speaker 2: 51:36

So, yeah, once I got back from riding, I went into bike deconstruction mode. We had put a. We knew that with the vehicle that you had rented, that the bikes were going to have to be in the boxes to be able to transfer back to the hotel by the airport, and so I put the bikes, I took them apart, which was obviously easier to separate them, but then of course you're protecting everything getting it. And there was a lot of interest of people around me like oh, are you guys flying? And a part of me was like nope.

Speaker 3: 52:11

I'm just taking them apart, I'm putting them in this box.

Speaker 2: 52:15

For something to do and I know they were trying to be conversational.

Speaker 5: 52:19

And.

Speaker 2: 52:20

I was just trying to get done, but then there were some serious questions about why do you do it that way? Why are you taking the derailleur off? Well, I don't want it to be damaged when I'm flying. Oh, I never thought about that. So it was cool because I could. I could actually help out people, educate some people yeah, educate why we were doing it.

Speaker 2: 52:36

And then they said, oh, the pool noodles is such a good idea. And so it wasn't. It was kind of neat. And then our friends kelly and stephanie were waiting for their ride to go start to toronto and she's like you boys really are flying home. So we weren't joking, um, and so luckily I, I got the bikes broke down. And then you were still ways away and that time I our our friend margaret from super stragglers. Um, I said, is there a vending machine somewhere here? And she said, uh, it only takes cash. And I thought this is 2025. Every, every vending machine takes credit cards. So there was a mcdonald's. I walked up there and got just a drink and then by the time I got back, you were ready and, um, pretty uneventful trip back to the hotel and by the way, you did a great job putting my bike away.

Speaker 3: 53:25

I appreciate that. Did you build it? No, but you did. I mean I've opened it up and that type of thing. Now I have have been out riding on the roads. I haven't gotten a very long rides in because father's day and all that. But I did do five miles yesterday, just a quick, cause it was like 30 minutes before it was getting dark. So it's like, oh, I'm just going to hop on my bike. I did a quick five and a half miles, but I'm using my old Lamont Nice, nice. It's like I haven't got around to getting the other one. I got to get it put together, but I can, at least you know, ride the Le Mans. So I got to get some road time with the big, the big ride coming up here next month.

Speaker 2: 54:00

So I have a couple of things to say about our ending, our bookend of our trip Once we got to the Renaissance hotel. First of all, beautiful hotel. If you are looking for an airport hotel at the atlanta airport, the renaissance courtyard pay the extra 20 courtyard.

Speaker 3: 54:22

What did I say? No, no, no, you said it right. I'm just emphasizing that because there is another renaissance at the at the airport.

Speaker 2: 54:28

So there's a 20 up charge to have a runway view and it's worth every every dime every penny baby. Uh, we sat out there and watched the planes take off and land. And uh, at the one of the busiest airport and it was kind of interesting Like some of the planes when they were landing were so loud like older planes, and the newer ones would just be like come in and land, like like okay, we're here, um let me tell you virgin air I don't know what kind of planes are buying.

Speaker 3: 55:02

They are the quietest planes I've ever heard. I mean you'd hear the new ones come in and they would be less deafening. And I mean we're like I don't know, a quarter of a mile away or whatever right but then those virgin airline would come in and they were even quieter.

Speaker 2: 55:17

Well, richard Branson wants to save money. You know he's a kite surfer. He wants it nice and quiet.

Speaker 3: 55:22

Well, that's great, but I think he's probably spending more money on his planes to get it nice and quiet, because that was impressive.

Speaker 2: 55:30

There was a couple of things that happened there that I think that are noteworthy for our little show. Okay, you and I made a choice to return the rental car the night before so we didn't have to mess with it in the morning, which was probably a huge plus. It was a good idea. And then, once we returned the rental car, we took the train down to where all the shuttles are, to the airports, to all the hotels. Sorry, when we were there, just Mother Nature decided to open up rainstorm, windstorm.

Speaker 3: 56:14

I wasn't sure we were going to make it. Yeah, they're doing construction and the wind was blowing from the area that they were doing construction and they, somewhere in that construction, had I'm assuming corrugated panels hooked to something. But I don't think they were completely hooked. I think they were like one side was hooked, the other side wasn't. Because then when the wind blew, you started hearing this corrugated thing like slapping and yeah, I thought at any time it's gonna swing over here and just slice me in half because we're underneath the viaduct waiting and it was just like this wind tunnel, so anything that would have broken apart would have just came straight through there I was just picturing, like um, some of those like um, I forget what they're called like where movies, where people die.

Speaker 2: 57:00

I mean there's uh, I can't think of it right now, but you know, that piece of metal is gonna go because it sounded like it was just buzzing in the wind, it was gonna break off and then it's like decapitate me. I just was like this is it, this is how I die I was your trip.

Speaker 3: 57:16

I gotta say I was thinking of monty python the whole time. You know, it takes off an arm and I'm yelling. It's just a flesh wound. It's just a flesh wound. Um, it was kind of scary because that wind was just whipping up and there was no place for us to go. I mean, we're just stuck there waiting for the bus.

Speaker 2: 57:34

I think the trip was A++ 99.999 positive, but Uh-oh, uh-oh, the caveat.

Speaker 3: 57:44

Ladies and gentlemen, adam has a caveat.

Speaker 2: 57:47

I'd like to take the floor for a second. The floor is yours, sir. I hope that the people who were rude to us at 640 in the morning at that hotel had the worst travel day of their life. I hope they miss flights. I hope that it was a day of hell.

Speaker 2: 58:09

Okay, I'm done you and I got up early because we asked about the shuttle to get to the airport and we had our bike boxes. We had our luggage. We had actually compacted everything down to bare minimum. We both had. You had one bag, your backpack and your bike box. Yep, and I had my two rollers and the bike box. My backpack was on my back and you and I were out there. They told us that the shuttle ran every 20 minutes and you and I were out there at 645. Nobody else was around us. It was a ghost town. By the time that 15 minutes came, we could look out of our peripheral vision that more people were like encroaching on this little area, and so you and I made a decision to get the bike boxes ready. To be a little bit defensive, we were going to put these bike boxes on this motor coach.

Speaker 2: 59:02

Guy opens the door, I start putting on the bike boxes Literally.

Speaker 3: 59:07

Everybody starts coming right up behind you, right on the shuttle, right behind me, right around me and my big bike box, and follows you up. You haven't even got the bike box up up the stairs and they're just like crowding in and it's like can you not? And I, I totally agree with you. It's like can you guys not? It's not going anywhere. We were clearly here first. By 15 minutes, we're just loading. I mean, to me I would be like, oh well, go ahead and get your stuff on and then we'll follow you. But these people came around both sides of me and we're just tailgating you right up the thing. It's like come on, people.

Speaker 2: 59:42

And walk right, literally trampled me like, literally like bumped into me and everything around you.

Speaker 2: 59:48

And so then then, by the time now I try to get off the bus again, and while I'm, while I'm trying to get down the stairs, people are just coming up the stairs like crazy, and I'm like I cannot believe this. This is amazing. I mean, I just can't believe this. I just spent a week with a thousand of the nicest people in the world waiting in lines for bathrooms, food trucks, sag stops. How are you? Go ahead, nice day, nice, to see you Polite. You go ahead, nice day, nice, to see you polite, polite, polite, polite. And now this is how it's going to end. And so I'm like, okay, don't, adam, don't you got? Don't do it, you got too much to lose? Don't say anything, and so, literally, our bags are next to the driver, you and I are both standing, but let me also say you violated the law.

Speaker 2: 1:00:34

I did. I did violate the law because I had to stand in front of the federal yellow standee line.

Speaker 4: 1:00:41

I just felt like I felt so dirty.

Speaker 3: 1:00:44

You should have, but there was no yellow line there and the bus driver was totally cool with it.

Speaker 2: 1:00:51

He was. He didn't even stop me, but he won't get a job and you, hey, hey, hey, I might even hire him for what he did. He was a nice guy. So the gentleman, it's about a 10 minute, 10 minute drive from the hotel.

Speaker 2: 1:01:11

Let's just say 10 minutes. I don't want to, I don't know. But he actually tried to help us and the reason why he did is he's giving an entire speech about ladies and gentlemen the international term. I'm going to try to say it. Here's what he said Ladies and gentlemen, the international terminal is so backed up.

Speaker 2: 1:01:31

I've been given special permission to actually come and curbside and I'll be pulling up right near curbside check-in and he turns around and he looks at me and he says I'm coming right to curbside check-in and he and I have this like mental lock. He watched everybody be a complete beep. He watched everybody be a complete beep and he was basically telling me hey, if you get off the bus and you get in line for curbside check-in, all of those people will have to wait for you. And I looked at him and said I love this man.

Speaker 2: 1:02:10

And so I got off with my first bag, whipped out my license, went to curbside check-in and she's like how many bags will you have? And I said three. I have two in an oversize. And she said okay. I said some of it's still on that bus and she said no problem, when they come off, you just bring them over to me, don't worry about it. And so then I gave her my license, checked in, and then checked in, and then the line started to develop right there for curbside check-in and this guy starts to scream at me and he goes, he goes. Well, I guess there's no such thing as a line and, michael, you can tell them if I'm lying.

Speaker 2: 1:02:45

Yeah, I that was it but that's okay, that was it. I lost it. It was I snapped.

Speaker 3: 1:02:53

To your defense. The line was coming off to your left there and there was you and this other father and his three sons, and then me, and these other people had started to go inside and came around and they were starting. They were trying to form a line to the right after there was already a line to the left, so he wasn't even in line. Right, I mean, he should have been behind me. When he's like sitting here making these rude comments and it's like you lost it.

Speaker 2: 1:03:24

You know what?

Speaker 3: 1:03:25

These people were. They were just flat out really rude and I think that just shows that about the cycling community.

Speaker 5: 1:03:30

We spent a week I don't remember anybody being rude or disrespectful to me or anybody else.

Speaker 3: 1:03:37

Didn't see it, didn't hear it. Every I mean you know somebody's, like if you're in line for the bathroom and somebody's really got you know, hey, fine, go. I mean if you know, you're standing there ready to get a peanut butter sandwich and the line maybe was like converging oh yeah, go ahead, that's fine. And then we get to the airport and then we're back to reality of just people being rude and it's like so, yeah, I'll, I'll edit myself, because you and I made a deal a long time ago, four seasons ago.

Speaker 2: 1:04:07

But he said I guess there's no such thing as a blank in line, and, and now I, I just line, and and now I, I just I unloaded. I just said, well, I was in blank in line before you were. And then, uh, and then, uh, the lady god bless her. She first was going to give me my bike to roll into the building. And she's like oh honey, just give me that bike, I'll take care of it for you, you know. And uh, very, very nice, you and I both uh, passed on some nice gratuity. She was great to us.

Speaker 3: 1:04:37

So um, and I, and I think also what helped too on that is not only did she see how big a jack wagon he was, uh, we both had bikes, and at that point it's like you know what, just just do it. But she was a really super nice lady, great, great customer service. He was just completely, completely out of line.

Speaker 2: 1:04:58

And then, rare form, you and I both got through TSA PreCheck really fast. I mean, I was impressed.

Speaker 3: 1:05:06

So you had to do a little bit of jockeying with some stuff because we had— Like I said, I was 10 pounds over and the lady's like Whoa, you're like at 80 pounds. She's like I need you to move something out of that or I have to charge you $200. And I thought you know what, if you're over, maybe they charge me 50 bucks or, nope, 200. And it's like I might pay the 50, the 200. Nah, I'm not. So I started like pulling some stuff out and shoveling it in my other bags and stuff and I got down to 74 pounds, I think, and she's like that's close enough and I said awesome, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:05:41

And then we, uh, we ended up in the sky club and, uh, we've got a, we've got a couple of clips to play here. So, um, the the first clip that I think that, uh, we can play. Well, first of all, I'm getting ahead of myself, on behalf of myself and Michael, we want to, um, thank the, you know, thank our leisure community for for listening to these shows. Uh, we know that we have a bunch of new people from the time that we spoke to people along the road. What is this all about? Well, new people from the time that we spoke to people along the road. What is this all about? How, I mean, I keep seeing this name everywhere. What is it? We explained what it was. Um, and we know, based upon our numbers from the last couple of days, that, uh, we have been blowing up many new listeners.

Speaker 3: 1:06:28

Yes, many new listeners. The numbers have been blowing up.

Speaker 2: 1:06:31

It's good Um will you please take some time to follow us. Write us, you know, let us know We'd we'd like to have some organic cycling stories. Uh, on the on the show Um absolutely, it was a great week.

Speaker 3: 1:07:08

We thank the team, everybody who who came up to us and was like we really like your show, we like what you're doing. Uh, you know the folks that gave us some gifts and things like that uh, completely unnecessary, but we certainly appreciate it. It means a lot to us. Um, it was just a fantastic week and, uh, I don't know, we may actually have one or two people that wants to uh go, uh go, ride with us in indiana, so we'll just have to see how that goes.

Speaker 2: 1:07:35

If you are looking for an adventure with us, we have two left for the year. We do have the rainrideorg on July 19th and September 25th through September 28th will be at the Bourbon Country Burn. We extended if I could speak English, we extended some open arms and we've invited many people. Those were legitimate invites. We do have a camping site and I don't care if we fill every square inch. Please come down and join us.

Speaker 2: 1:08:06

We have some whiskey to share with people. We definitely do. We are always willing to share Absolutely the first clip. We have three things that we're going willing to share Absolutely the first clip. We have three things that we're going to have left. We're going to do, even though he's in Paris today I saw that he rode his bicycle in Paris today we have the executive director from Bragg, mr Franklin Johnson. Before flying out, he was willing to join you and I and sit down for a wonderful little clip and we're going to play that. And so we'll play that now. Well, michael, as usual, once we go to Georgia, we have to get together with the executive director of Bragg, the second largest bike ride across the state Georgia. What a beautiful area, lots of hills. I think this man might have been befuddled or muddled his name under people's breath throughout the week, but I am proud to have, once again, executive director of Bragg, mr Franklin Johnson. Hey, buddy, thank you for joining us.

Speaker 5: 1:09:14

Absolutely. I'm so glad you invited me back, even after I made you ride all those hills.

Speaker 3: 1:09:25

I will admit I was one of those people, that on a couple of those hills I was perhaps maybe muttering your name and maybe some other words, but you know what. You called them foothills, and from where I'm from in the flatlands of Kansas, those are mountains. But you know what Adam and I both made it. So that's the important thing. And it was beautiful. I can't, I can't complain about the, uh, the beauty of it. And there was, you know it was, it was well worth it, but you did. I'm sure you were laughing inside.

Speaker 5: 1:09:53

No, I was, uh, I was worried there were some, uh, I think it was. Johnson Mountain Road too was probably the worst of it on day two, but then after that it was fine. After you got the worst of it out of the way, the rest of the week was more enjoyable, for sure.

Speaker 2: 1:10:15

So our good friend from Team Kermit this year, manderloo, said that that was Medusa Hill, but you're saying that it was, uh, johnson mountain hill. That's what it's called yeah, johnson mountain road oh my gosh I know very appropriate.

Speaker 5: 1:10:24

You know appropriately named oh, I gotta.

Speaker 2: 1:10:27

I gotta tell you I was riding with our our good friend gary, and he's a team member of ours, and he said he's kind of joking he said, well, I better stop talking, I gotta get ready for this hill. And I could see it on my computer, don't get me wrong, I can see the elevation. But when, when we made that turn, it kept going up and up and up and I'm like, oh yeah, and I I fully admit, unclip, walk, 90 of people walk.

Speaker 5: 1:10:50

So yeah, I felt bad on that one as I was driving sag in between towns and, uh, going up and over that hill there was definitely more walkers than riders. That's pretty atypical that day and that route, so they're not all that hilly. We go north every once in a while to appease the people who like the hills and it's cooler weather and beautiful views and lots of waterfalls, as you guys got to see. So the northern, you're going to pay for it with the hills, but you also get a lot of payoff with the views and the weather.

Speaker 2: 1:11:23

Yeah, michael and I were lucky enough to. We rented a car in Dawsonville and we actually drove to the Amicola Falls and that was just absolutely beautiful. And Franklin, give credit where credit is due. You said, well, adam, are you looking for a workout? And I'm like I actually am. And so you said start from the bottom. Well, 475 stairs up and 475 stairs down. That was absolutely beautiful. And then, of course, with the Dakota Falls, you know, we rode our bikes there, which is really cool. I mean, those were we did something we'd never done.

Speaker 2: 1:11:59

We actually went hiking on a bike trip.

Speaker 3: 1:12:00

So, which is cool, because normally I mean we're out in nature, but here we were actually left the bikes and we were actually hiking and it was a fun component and these were actually waterfalls. It wasn't like a little six inch of you know water going over. I mean, this is like falling water and just beautiful, beautiful. So well done on the waterfalls. Could have backed a little off on the mountains, but that's okay. I also have one about the other?

Speaker 5: 1:12:26

you can't have, like a, you know, 600 foot waterfall without a hill now that that is a good point.

Speaker 3: 1:12:33

You need, you need. You can't have one without the other, so, but it was well worth it what about an elevator?

Speaker 2: 1:12:38

We don't need to ride up there. I'm just kidding. You know, michael and I have always supported e-bikers and we've always said that it allows a person to extend their ability to ride and get out and have a good time. Although, just as a caveat to that, there were a couple of times when I'm doing everything in my power to climb that hill and someone just I hear and I was like, oh man.

Speaker 5: 1:13:07

That's funny, my mom. She's written probably 25 brags and this year she wrote an e-bike and she said she did feel slightly guilty as she was passing people coming up the hills.

Speaker 3: 1:13:19

This year Slightly slightly guilty, Not completely guilty, just slightly guilty.

Speaker 2: 1:13:26

Yeah, not 100%. It's like you know reach down into the basket and get a piece of candy. How are you doing over there?

Speaker 5: 1:13:34

As long as they don't brag at camp about, like their strava, yeah kom, or something like that, then it's fine, you know yeah exactly, exactly, um.

Speaker 2: 1:13:44

You know something else that people don't ever mention. You know, we always have talked about when we've supported um, not because you're on, but just in our own, our own life. We always say that you're. You know, your EMS. I think it's highly we need to mention John and Steve. First of all, steve, I promised him he tagged the sheriff unit with cycling man of leisure decals and to me I thought that was our official pace car. I mean, that's kind of how I thought. But you're also your rest stops. I really thought you knocked it out of the park. A lot of beautiful rest stops that you had. Um, the one intimate wedding venue where the, the homeowner said, you know, oh, we're gonna like 60 people, and I'm like where, where are you gonna park 60 people? So, um, and then the one right before the takoa falls um, the where the like the dam and stuff. That was kind of funny because as people were leaving that rest stop, they're like look, there's the falls. It was where the like the dam and stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:14:37

And it was kind of funny because as people were leaving that rest stop, they're like look, there's the falls. It was like the overflow or the you know. I forget what you call that right now, but um, I'm like no no, that's not a spillway, yeah, spillway, yeah, um, but no, that's um. And then of course you know it was funny Every time I hear a motorcycle I'm like here he comes, so but yeah, they did a great job.

Speaker 3: 1:15:05

Your staff at the like Adam said, your staff at the break areas were fantastic and phenomenal and I got to say there was plenty of snacks, both healthy and unhealthy, uh, at all the stops. So I mean there was nobody could really complain. There was something there for everybody.

Speaker 5: 1:15:24

Good, yeah, we, uh that team, everyone there had done it before so they kind of, um, knew the ropes and knew what to do, Um, and got it knocked out. So I mean, and we've got great volunteers. You know, John's been coming for 20 years, Steve's been coming for like 15 years. All these guys have been putting in the time and effort into it so they know exactly what they're doing and what the riders need and kind of when they need it. So we're very fortunate to have a good group of volunteers to come out and help us every year.

Speaker 2: 1:15:54

So when we talk to you, I always think about like questions. If I didn't have a podcast that I would ask you, and I think that one of the questions that people would probably have at home is are you, are you willing to talk about quantity, how many, how?

Speaker 5: 1:16:09

many riders rode, yeah. So we started just a little over 800 and then finished just right at 900. So it was a good turnout for a mountain year. Usually we know we'll take a hit. It's like last year we had over 1200 folks for atlanta savannah. That's a pretty popular route, um, so we're down a little bit in a year. Uh, the hill, scarefields, you know so yeah that's just the nature of the beast.

Speaker 5: 1:16:30

Every time we go up north, um, that kind of happens to us and no serious injuries, I mean a couple, just small, small injuries uh you know collarbone, and you know one, one girl got her back pretty good, um, and that's that was it.

Speaker 5: 1:16:43

I mean, you know, knock on wood, we got pretty fortunate, uh, nothing super serious, and that's what I tell people all the time. You know, with, you know, statistically, there's a wreck, or how many ever, hundreds of thousand miles, but you know, if you get a thousand people going 400 miles, that's 400 000 miles. You know. So, statistically something's going to happen and it's always um, it's always something silly. You know, um, one girl, her, her bag, her front bag, fell off and got caught in her fork and then she ended up going over the uh, going over the handlebars actually snapped her, uh, snapped her fork, carbon fork.

Speaker 5: 1:17:15

So, wow, yeah, she was. Uh, john was on the scene immediately and had everything, uh, to get her all stinted up, if you will hold that collarbone. So an ems was there almost immediately. So, uh, yeah, very fortunate, nothing, nothing serious happened well, that's good, that's really good.

Speaker 2: 1:17:32

Um, for those who didn't ride it and you're listening to us we got really lucky with the weather, very lucky with the weather. There was no rain on riding days, at least that I know of. Just in the evenings A couple of nights, I know, michael you and I sat at Padre's camp and the mercy buckets opened up and you and I, and Savannah and Armando, were huddled together under a tent trying to make the best of it.

Speaker 3: 1:18:01

Yeah, it came down heavy that night. There was a couple of days where it's forecast to have a little bit of rain, but we missed it. And the first two days, first two or three days, the weather was, I mean, it didn't get that. It got warm but it didn't get hot during the the day. In fact in the nights it was chilly, it was good sleeping weather. Um, last couple days it got up into the uh to the 80s. But uh, I'm just. I was just happy that there wasn't any rain, because those hills would not have been fun if there would have been some moisture on them yeah, the first day was like 72.

Speaker 5: 1:18:32

it was incredible, um, and like, luckily, I thank god we had the perfect window where, like the whole week before, bragg poured every single day, and I've been at home, you know, two days now and it's rained every single day since I've been back. So we really had a great, great weather window.

Speaker 2: 1:18:51

I tell you what we were staying at a hotel near the Atlanta airport. So we were staying at a hotel near the Atlanta airport and we had a rental car to get from well, hartwell. But Michael, you rented it from South Carolina. But we drove back to the hotel and then we figured, you know what, we'll just take the the train from the rental car, gonna catch the shuttle back to the hotel. And, oh my gosh, this windstorm came out of nowhere. We, michael and I, thought we were gonna like get our heads cut off because, like metal, you kept hearing this medical and like, at the airport they're doing some kind of construction. It was, it was crazy and I'm like, well, I'm glad that didn't happen earlier today.

Speaker 5: 1:19:38

So your atlanta motorsports park experience, because you know you didn't get to ride around the track. But I heard you did get to ride go-karts. Actually I saw you ride go-karts we, we did um.

Speaker 2: 1:19:54

I I think we need to talk about dawsonville, not just the track track. I mean I I highly enjoyed myself.

Speaker 3: 1:20:00

Just stop. Stop Now. Our guest has asked a specific question and you're sounding like a politician.

Speaker 2: 1:20:10

I'm sorry there. I knew I had my buttons there.

Speaker 3: 1:20:13

Uh, and you're skirting it like a politician, come on.

Speaker 2: 1:20:17

Uh, filibuster, filibuster, filibuster.

Speaker 5: 1:20:20

There's video evidence right and then there's a photographic evidence of the times, and I think those are conflicting.

Speaker 2: 1:20:26

Well, yeah, because here's what I'm going to say For the record. Did Mr Michael, my co-host, my good friend, in the end, on the, the scoreboard, have a better by four one-hundredths of a second? Yes, I will. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, but I am frantically searching for a video that the executive director of Bragg the man, the myth, the legend gave me, and I'm stalling because I can't find it, but does it really matter In the middle of the legend gave me and I'm stalling because I

Speaker 3: 1:21:01

can't fight, but it doesn't really matter in the middle of the 500, who's ahead, it doesn't matter who's at the end. And I will point out one other thing. During the ride, franklin did say I was way cooler than you because I stopped when he was out there giving out the icy things and you just blew right on by him like you were just too good to stop than you because I stopped when he was out there giving out the icy things this is awesome and you just blew right on by him like you were just too good to stop. You can see here, adam is in the front, michael is behind.

Speaker 5: 1:21:30

There, it is Ladies and gentlemen, you heard it here first, when the checkered flag dropped you. That's all that matters, right?

Speaker 2: 1:21:39

that's right. You know, for five dollars and 99 cents and 150 deductible I paid for the insurance, but I wasn't willing to pay the 150 dollars. Uh, you know the the? I have to tell you of all of the why I, when I was a kid and I lived in southern illinois, I had a go-kart, but never have I been on a cart like that and not a geographical track. So if anyone's never been there, there was a four-story drop, not straight down, but four-story hill, that went down and then four-story to come back up.

Speaker 2: 1:22:14

And when you were watching the safety video it said, okay, and then you're going to come to the fastest part of the track, one car cart at a time. Well, when we were first doing our first lap, you know you're under the yellow flag and you're kind of going slow, like, oh, this is nothing. You speed that thing up to like 60 miles an hour and then that little lane gets really skinny and so in the beginning I I overtake mr michael sharp and then all of a sudden I was like I'm not going to crash this thing, I don't want to get hurt. And I got to get across the state and I got jammed up.

Speaker 3: 1:22:48

so didn't want to get hurt.

Speaker 5: 1:22:51

I love having a sensor it was great, like so that go-kart. The go-kart track is very hilly, um, but then around the go-kart track there's a f1 design two mile actual racetrack. That's really cool and we got to ride on that, which was extraordinary. Um, I didn't think it was going to be that cool, but everybody was super into it. There was one guy, uh, steve solomon. He actually brought a radio and was playing f1 car sounds as he was riding around the track. So it was, uh, it was, it was hilarious.

Speaker 5: 1:23:21

But then there's a there's a part, there we go.

Speaker 2: 1:23:25

No sorry.

Speaker 5: 1:23:26

Yeah, so he was playing that going around the track. So it was really cool. Everybody was getting into it, kind of like a racing, uh like car racing mentality, going around and we're the only ones on the track. Obviously there't any cars on there, but there is one back part of the track, of the actual racetrack, that is so steep. Uh, there was an electric trike that was trying to go up the hill and some riders in front of her uh slowed down because you know, as I get steeper they slow down and she couldn't speed up or get around them. So it was so steep uh, she and the bike couldn't keep up and it actually started rolling backwards when she flipped over. So I've never seen, I didn't know, a racetrack could be that steep. I mean, it was steeper than anything on our actual road ride.

Speaker 2: 1:24:06

I would be remiss not to tell you that was an officially cycling woman of leisure. I'll remain nameless. Yeah, I am not going to mention her name, but uh, uh, it was, uh, one of our members and thankfully, um, we saw her the next day and and she just had a little bit of a shoulder scratch. So besides that, she was maybe a little ego, but besides that, uh, definitely, definitely okay and finished the ride.

Speaker 3: 1:24:33

So um, she was smiling about it, so yeah yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 5: 1:24:37

I actually saw it happen on the drone because I saw everybody bunch up around. So I flew over there to see. I was like I don't know what happened. I don't know if she went down, but you could not tell from the drone, you couldn't tell the elevation.

Speaker 3: 1:24:49

Now the big question is Franklin, we raced, and we raced a little early.

Speaker 5: 1:24:58

And when we were done, you were getting prepared to race. How did you do? I came in fifth out of whatever 20 people. I came in fifth, but I felt like I never got a clean lap in because, like they started in two lines, they sent the left line first and I was in the second line, so everybody got out ahead of me, which was fine because I passed. A bunch of people got out in front, but by the time I did that, somebody ran my mom off the track twice, so that was a yellow caution flag. And then one of our baggage toters actually hit a logistics guy from Bragg and knocked the whole chain off the go-kart that's how hard he hit him, wow and then took another caution flag. So I feel like over half the time we were riding under the yellow flag, so you just had to stay where you're at and you couldn't pass and all that. Yeah, so it worked out.

Speaker 2: 1:25:46

I mean we still we finished fifth, but we're glad he bought the five dollars and insurance team members getting aggressive there's oh, it was wild.

Speaker 5: 1:25:52

Yeah, two of my mom and my brother-in-law had to walk off the course because they couldn't recover their go-karts.

Speaker 4: 1:25:57

Oh, wow.

Speaker 5: 1:25:59

To get them back in. So yeah, it was wild.

Speaker 2: 1:26:04

Gee Adam they weren't worried about the insurance. Maybe the insurance was a sham, maybe they weren't going to charge and you shouldn't have paid the $5.99,.

Speaker 3: 1:26:13

Adam it was a good time, it was a great activity, I've got to say yeah, it was a good time, it was a great activity.

Speaker 2: 1:26:22

I've got to say so, yeah, yeah, I really. I mean, I know, when we you recorded with you with the route announcement, you said you know, like like uh, talladega nights, awesomeville and dawsonville, it really was a great day. I mean, um, and yes, michael, you won. If that's what you need to hear.

Speaker 3: 1:26:36

I didn't say anything, I was moving on.

Speaker 2: 1:26:40

You know from the nature and the beauty Georgia, besides like flying through or going down 75, I mean, one of the things that Bragg has done for me is really, let me see, like the back roads of Georgia and especially, I know, two years ago you teased me, me, and you said, well, hope you've been training. And I have to tell you, thankfully this year I had trained and so the Hills were not nowhere near as bad. So I, but I tell that story to my friends and my, my family and my. You know we'd get a good laugh when you're like, well, hope you've been training. And obviously I had not been training two years ago.

Speaker 2: 1:27:21

So I just, we just had a great time. You know we had. I'll say we had a team of 43. I do feel bad, one of the ladies had to bow out before but brought us down to 42. But we had an honorary member, um, of phoenix, we'll mention him. And so we, we uh had a big showing, big, you know, lots of love, um, even the cycling women against leisure, they, they turned out all right. I love savannah's picture she put up as the, as the. I thought that was funny. So great, great time. I just thank you so much for coming on here and lots of love and support from everybody in Georgia, and many people came up and said that they actually signed up after you were on um and listened to the show, and so that makes us feel like we're we're providing a service as well. So, um, michael, you got anything else? Buddy, no.

Speaker 3: 1:28:29

I just uh, you know you, I think said it all. We certainly appreciate it. This was our fourth year. Franklin, as always, did a great job, well organized, lots of fun. I've got no complaints. So just keep doing what you're doing, and we would really love to to hear from you at the end of this year and maybe we could do another ride release podcast with you.

Speaker 5: 1:28:56

Yeah, absolutely, and thank you guys for the whiskey. I'll add it to the collection. That's a really cool thing. So I got the custom beer and the custom whiskey.

Speaker 3: 1:29:06

It's right here. Well, this is not your bottle, but right there, a little Kansas City style whiskey for you. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:29:14

Actually, we weren't sure. We always talk about having a speakeasy. We'll end with this. We weren't sure. You know, we always talk about having a speakeasy. Well, we'll end with this. We weren't sure. And we tried one night and it just, with the rain, it just kind of fell apart. But then the last night in Toccoa, yeah, yes sir, we ended up under your red brag tent and down there on the football field and it we got to pass out a and a lot of people came by and it was an organic thing that just kind of grew. And then when the rain came, your very large advertisement tent turned out to be a good place to hang out before we all decided to finish the evening. But no great times. Um, we're, we're lucky to to do it and uh, thank you so much.

Speaker 5: 1:30:04

Oh, thank you, Thank you, guys, for having me on.

Speaker 2: 1:30:06

All right. Well, it's always good to have Franklin on. We appreciate him joining us and um sitting with us. We we uh, always have a good time with him. I'm sure he's exhausted. By the way, today is his wife's birthday, so I know we're recording on the 16th of June. So, heather, if you are enjoying our show, as you do many times on behalf of Michael and I, happy birthday, happy birthday. Many times on behalf of Michael and I, happy birthday, happy birthday. The other thing that I'm going to do is play our little clip from the sky club. You and I had a little bit of a closing remarks. I'm kind of glad that it's been a little bit, cause I haven't heard it and since we recorded it and I edited it. So I'm going to play that now and hopefully this works All right. Well, here we are. We are in the sky club.

Speaker 2: 1:30:59

We have made it another state, another, another time across the great state of georgia yes we have a lot of logistical things to do a trip like this from from packing to flying, to building bikes, to breaking down bikes and, by the way, riding those bikes across the so that will.

Speaker 2: 1:31:16

There is that little thing too so we had, uh, lots of elevation, uh, some falls, I mean foothills and falls, beautiful falls that we saw, extreme elevation, it was some, uh, the medusa, three sisters, the three-headed medusa you had a medusa, um, but overall, I thought we'd just record this before you have to get on your plane. Absolutely, I'm going to enjoy the Sky Club for a little bit longer, although they've changed my gate about four times, so we'll see what's going to happen before I get out of here.

Speaker 3: 1:31:48

I'll tell you what they're going to put you on T. I guarantee it. You're going to have to go out to the outpost.

Speaker 2: 1:31:53

We are so thankful for all of our friends. When we get back in the studio, we are working on an outline already. We're going to try to get this show out as fast as we can. I don't know I just there's so much to talk about.

Speaker 3: 1:32:07

Oh, we've got a lot to talk about. We met a lot of new friends, got to see a lot of our old friends just some some beautiful terrain, got to do some things we hadn't done on rides before, which was kind of cool. So we're going to have lots to talk about and the next couple of shows should be really good.

Speaker 2: 1:32:22

It should be. You know, one of the things I keep thinking about is you're right, we did something we normally haven't done In the past. We've rented a car, which we did this time and we've driven to distilleries, which we did this time we did. We did as well, but we actually drove and hiked.

Speaker 3: 1:32:39

We did some hiking, yeah, up one of the waterfalls. So that's a good story too, yeah, there's 475 stairs up and down. And Michael almost took himself out of the ride, but we'll have to listen to the episode to find out all about that.

Speaker 2: 1:32:54

You know, they did try to put a patch hole there, but it was still very, uh, very, it was iffy. Yeah, I'll tell you what for those who live in this area, um, going up the stairs, no problem, but I had an optical illusion with the grates, the way that we can see through them, as problems in your eyes are like do you look at the grates?

Speaker 3: 1:33:12

Are you looking through the grates to what's below it? And it can mess with your eyes, especially when you're trying to hike down.

Speaker 2: 1:33:18

It was definitely a little bit different, but you know, overall, to get to this point, our bags are checked and now we just have to get our bags in our respective states and you'll go back to your central time zone. I know you're going to be an hour behind everybody again.

Speaker 3: 1:33:32

I'm going to be back centralized, so everything will be good.

Speaker 2: 1:33:35

Yeah, centralized, so everything will be good yeah, well, uh, I think you'll be an hour behind everybody else, that'll be all right. Uh, no, it's been a great time. We um. I just want to make sure that we thank a few people, uh, here before we get home and get in the studio. I think we definitely need to thank executive director of bribe, franklin johnson for all his support. Uh step Stephanie, John EMS, John Jimmy and Dave at Padres, Jimmy and Dave and their crew and, of course, Steve, the Sheriff who helped us out.

Speaker 3: 1:34:09

He's sporting some new Cycling Men of Leisure.

Speaker 2: 1:34:12

The official Cycling Men of Leisure chase car. Luckily we weren't being chased, so, um no, I just wanted to get a little piece here while we had the microphones out. And we're in one of the brand new sky clubs here on the d terminal. It's one of the new ones. It's uh, very, very nice very nice.

Speaker 3: 1:34:33

Breakfast was good, so can't complain about that.

Speaker 2: 1:34:36

Next time maybe we fly out of a different airport than Atlanta. That was a little rough we met some very fine individuals, and we'll leave it at that this morning. Yes, fine individuals Fine is the nicest thing I can say on a podcast where you and I agreed to keep it clean. So we were boarding our bikes and boy I tell you what. Everyone was just in a big darn hurry. You know, I live in the city but we're a little more respectful.

Speaker 3: 1:35:00

We're a little bit yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:35:03

But in true Adam fashion I won in the end. When they were all curbside check and they were all getting in line, I jumped right in front of everybody and said thank you. And then when I got yelled at a little bit by a guy and I said, he said I guess the line doesn't mean anything. Well, that's funny, that's because you had to step away to get your other bag, that's right, he thought you were cutting him, but you weren't.

Speaker 2: 1:35:22

Yeah, it's all good, we're here, we're heading home. Safe travels and we had zero mechanical issues.

Speaker 3: 1:35:30

I mean a little tweaking that we had to do, but no flats, no flats, and I mean none of us went down or had any injuries. So that's always the best part of the ride is when you can get through it without those.

Speaker 2: 1:35:42

The Noble Steed has made it across another state. You know I was thinking we should get you know how, on airplanes, when they have kill strikes, oh yeah, oh, that would be cool. We should get some like little stickers to signify the states that we've made when someone's like what is that? The states that we've made when someone's like what is that? And we can say well, that's how many states this bike has made it across.

Speaker 3: 1:35:58

That would be a great idea, like in the old, you know, like Corsair aircraft fighting in the Pacific and things.

Speaker 2: 1:36:06

Yeah, I was thinking about that when we were heading out.

Speaker 4: 1:36:09

We'll work on that.

Speaker 2: 1:36:11

We'll work on that. I personally finished the ride with Alex Bell and that was great to finish with one of our monthly supporters, and so that was awesome. We will dive into our team and all of the wonderful things, all the adventures and the misadventures that we had.

Speaker 3: 1:36:28

That's true, we got some good stuff.

Speaker 2: 1:36:31

We definitely had a few things that wasn't expected. Some people had to bow out early, unfortunately, one reason or the other. But and we'd like to, just from now, before we, even we get home, just wish them the best and health. Obviously, health is number one. So with that, did you have anything else from here?

Speaker 3: 1:36:51

Well, no, but today is in fact a great day for a bike ride. It is.

Speaker 2: 1:36:58

Some of that was repetitive, but yeah, those were our closing thoughts from the end of our trip. So I just want to open the floor to you, sir, before we go into our normal. I know many are looking forward to our listener spotlight. Any closing remarks, sir? No.

Speaker 3: 1:37:18

I think we've, I think we've covered it. It was a great trip. Uh, looking forward to next month and we're gonna attempt the uh, single day ride across indiana, looking forward to that and, um, we'll go from there. So, no, I don't have anything else that, uh, at this time in that, ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for Listener Spotlight. All right, listener Spotlight. This is a good one.

Speaker 2: 1:37:48

St Louis. Okay, we're done. Okay, thank you, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3: 1:37:55

All right, here is the hints for this episode's listener spotlight. If you're a cat, you would love this city. This would be the city for you. History can be found all over this city. You can even get a bit of local culture at a well-known fast food restaurant. The city owes a great deal to a church.

Speaker 2: 1:38:33

Okay.

Speaker 3: 1:38:34

That probably gave it away, didn't it?

Speaker 2: 1:38:37

You're right, it's St.

Speaker 3: 1:38:38

Louis.

Speaker 5: 1:38:38

No.

Speaker 3: 1:38:38

I'm kidding. Here's another one. You could retire in style with the help of one of this city's water features. Wow, yeah, wow yeah. This city's early history is associated with a distinctive type of clothing, easily associated type of clothing and this city has some association with Big Brag 2025.

Speaker 2: 1:39:42

I would like to retract my statement of St Louis.

Speaker 3: 1:39:49

Alex, I'll take listener spotlight for 500, please, so there we go.

Speaker 2: 1:39:53

Okay, I'm going to close with. We have a new monthly subscriber, Joe Grammer.

Speaker 4: 1:40:01

Thank you, Joe.

Speaker 2: 1:40:02

You have joined the ranks of Dennis Keeler, alex Bell and Scott Garwick, so the four of you we'd like to thank you personally. By the way, all of you at Big Brag who received some of our swag, you can now thank Joe Grammer, dennis Keeler, alex Bell and Scott Garwick. We took the funds that they give us and we distributed between our team and bought some swag. We appreciate the donation.

Speaker 3: 1:40:28

We're not making anything off this, but we're happy to pass that along to our team, hey you know what yesterday was for me?

Speaker 2: 1:40:36

Sunday A great day for a 50-mile bike ride, baby oh.

Speaker 3: 1:40:42

I feel so bad. I didn't get 50 miles in, I barely got five in. But hey, good job, I am getting out there and I will be pushing it before Indiana next month.

Speaker 2: 1:40:54

In your fairness, sir, you have a family. I went to Ohio to move my father-in-law into a memory care center, came back on Sunday I had all day without having anything to do. I did have dinner with my parents in the evening. My father, you get a pass. I had nothing to do and so I I said, okay, I'm going to go out and put some, put some miles on the bike. I did some adjusting, like we did when we were in Georgia. A couple things needed. Once I built it in the garage, a couple things needed to be adjusted. So, with that being said, yesterday was a great day for a bike ride.

Speaker 1: 1:41:29

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.