SPEAKER_00: 0:54

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_02: 1:08

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. As usual, I am Adam. My buddy is opening up some bourbon, which I am always happy to see. I am connected with my good friend, Mr. Michael Sharp. Sir, welcome.

SPEAKER_01: 1:26

Welcome, Adam. Happy to be here again, buddy. How are you? I'm doing really good.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31

Really good. I am uh I'm I'm happy we got something pretty cool tonight, so I'm I'm uh definitely looking forward to that. So uh so how was Halloween? You know, um, as you know, I live in a subdivision for the community of leisure. They may not know this, but I live in a subdivision in a pretty decent sized town, and we get enamored uh with uh trick or traders, and it's something of a tradition. My neighbors, we all put our cars at the end of the road so the kids can be safe and go up and down the street. Uh many people have little bomfires. It's one night of the of the uh year where the the city where I live in turns their head by allowing the fires in the driveway and such. And um cool. And yeah, and lots of kids. So and the weather this year was nice, which doesn't always happen. And so um, you know what? This year Halloween was good. Everybody at work, we had some employees show up in costumes, which is always fun. I give them kudos because eight hours driving around looking like Raggedy Ann is a little bit of a difference, but uh nice.

SPEAKER_01: 2:40

Gives them something to do, something different. Why not?

SPEAKER_02: 2:42

Right, that's right. What about you? What about the family?

SPEAKER_01: 2:45

Well, Chas had to work. Um, but and then Maya had some friends that she went and hung out with them, and they did some trick-or-treating and stuff. Um like I said last episode, I I always designed my front yard as a graveyard and have some graves and spooky music playing, some fog and things like that. Well, I uh I sat out there and uh in the middle of the graveyard and uh passed out some candy to the uh to the young kids uh and older kids um that were coming through.

SPEAKER_02: 3:15

So yeah, we had we had we had we this year I noticed a I think it's due to some price differences in some items because we had a lot of older uh young men and women in in the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_01: 3:29

So well, you know, here in our town, the high schoolers have always trick-or-treated. Well, I mean, not gonna say always, but uh ever since we've been here, the high schoolers have always trick-or-treated, which I think is great because when we got into high school, we didn't trigger treat and you know, probably just run around town and cause trouble. But um, but it's really cool because they really get into it. I mean, these these costumes aren't just like, oh, look at this, I got a you know, a Freddy mask on. I mean, they actually, you know, get into it. Great costumes, great themes. So uh it makes it a lot of fun. So I did that and uh yeah, it was uh was a lot of fun. I will say, anybody who listened to our last episode, um, the Halloween episode, we told the ghost stories, uh, I do have an update on the uh the narrow gauge haunted trail in Maine. And I would ask, I would ask any anybody who wants to find out about that update, go check out our website. We have a new section called Behind the Spokes. I have put a picture and a little information about Larry and the haunted Huffy, and uh this maybe it's all so uh go check that out. I'm not gonna give anything away, but but check it out on our website.

SPEAKER_02: 4:39

Cool, cool, cool. I will tell you that uh right around uh so trick or treating hours here were from 6 to 8 o'clock. And right around you have established trick-or-treating hours? Well, yeah, the eastern time zone, we are structured, buddy. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01: 5:01

Um but uh sorry, Don. Johnny, that's a great outfit, but it is 7:59 and oh, eight o'clock. Sorry, no candy for you.

SPEAKER_02: 5:11

Well, I mean, there were some that started early, and which we we allowed them, but after eight o'clock, that I mean that's stores closed. But actually, my story's a little bit different. About 7 45, started to get dark, started to get windy, started to get chilly. I had the kerosene heater behind me. Um, but it wasn't just cutting the trick. And the next kid that walked by, I said, Lauren, I said, watch this. And he said, Trick or treat. It's not too late, is it? I said, Too late, it's not too late, and I went boom, and dumped the rest of the bowl in his bag. He looked up at me, really, looked back at his dad, he said, Well, what do you say? He goes, Mister. And that was it. I pulled the heater in, shut the garage door, turned the lights off, and I was done.

SPEAKER_01: 6:05

So and the good news is the candy wasn't sitting around your house. That's right. One correction somebody in my studio heard me say, it wasn't just me that decorates our front yard. My daughter takes a very big lead in doing that. And so someone in my studio just corrected me on that, and I just wanted to make sure that I got it correct.

SPEAKER_02: 6:25

Correct it again.

SPEAKER_01: 6:26

Yeah, well, you know, hashtag what is that? Michael's always right uh type thing.

SPEAKER_02: 6:31

Michael's always wrong. Everybody knows this one. It even showed up the other day you and I were doing some social media, and it said, you want to hashtag anything? I'm like, yeah, and I started typing, and right there, boom, Michael's always wrong. I'm like, no, we're not we're not using that this time.

SPEAKER_01: 6:45

Um well I am excited. Okay. We have a guest today, and uh, we have a ride director who's going to be coming on here in just a couple minutes. I'm very excited about this. We have mentioned this ride many times. This ride has been on our short list as well, and uh I'm really looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a good time, and uh we're gonna get a little music going here to set the mood. And what I'm gonna say is laissez-le bonton roule. And for anybody who doesn't know Creo, uh, that basically means let the good times roll. And I'm saying that because this ride director definitely lives up to this saying on his ride. And in fact, um, it's just gonna be a fantastic one. So I'm gonna leave it at that and I will let you do the formal introduction.

SPEAKER_02: 7:51

Well, wait a minute. If I ever forget about a segment that we do, you give me nine kinds of you know what. So before I do that, uh ladies and gentlemen, it is now time, as my best friend and co-host forgot about. It is time for listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_01: 8:26

You know, I see, I got so excited about the guest that I pretty much forgot about the listener spotlight. But um let me give you the clues from last time. See, it was it was designed that way. It wasn't a mistake. I was doing that, it was a tease. Teaser. That's all that was. All right, listener spotlight. Clues are as follows. The town originally started as a fort, constructed in the early 1800s, unfortunately, to in turn uh the native population. It was incorporated as a town in the late 1800s. Early growth was spurred by a rail line that passed through this town, and uh coal and iron were discovered in the 1880s, but uh those were those resources were much smaller than they had anticipated, so the town suffered a major economic decline. However, cotton processing became a big economical boom. Um cotton produced products also became huge. Um this town has an annual festival that celebrates um its world standing around hosiery. And finally, it could be said that this city is truly a Dixieland delight. And I know we had uh some guesses.

SPEAKER_02: 9:57

Yeah, you know, sometimes when we do listener spotlight, we go right before we're gonna record and we search the social pages, we search the emails and we find the bump bump bump bom. Nobody has guessed because either A, you made it too hard, or maybe it's the time of the year people are busy. But this time, I'm gonna say either A, you made it too easy, or B, we have some extremely intelligent people because we had not one, not two, not three, but four guesses. Wow. And all of them guessed the exact same city. Really, exact one.

SPEAKER_01: 10:41

Well, I did put it, I snuck in a clue that I was like, if somebody's thinking in the right mindset, they're gonna get it. Um but I will agree, I think uh our listeners are pretty savvy on things, so um I didn't figure that it would go unnoticed. So what do we got?

SPEAKER_02: 11:00

I have a breakdown. Okay, Adam said St. Louis, and Adam said St. Louis, and Adam said St. Louis, and Adam said no, no, I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01: 11:09

Adam always says St. Louis, and he's never right.

SPEAKER_02: 11:13

Wade Paul, our friend, who has made a guess or two through, has said Fort Payne, Alabama. Our team member and monthly supporter and good friend Alex Bell has said Fort Payne, Alabama. Matt, or as you like to call him, Mark Robinson. Well, said he would eat friends all know him by Mark, so he said he would eat his socks if he was wrong. But Fort Payne, Alabama, and Connie, please listen up closely. Our good friend and team member Armandu has guessed all the way from California, Fort Payne, Alabama. So not one, not two, not three, not four, but four distinguished friends of ours, listeners to the show, friend of the show, have said Fort Bain, Alabama. Now, we did get a few different um quotes to a few different things. Um, I will honor Alex by saying he said he completed his travels, he was on the road, he said Fort Payne was developed around a fort with the same name, built in 1830 to intern the Cherokee tribe. Uh, in the late 1880s, coal and iron deposits were discovered, which uh supported in uh industrialization of the area. Present-day uh Norfolk Southern Railway formerly uh offered passenger service to the city, and Fort Payne is the home of the country music group Alabama, who had the 1983 hit song Dixieland Delight. This was the giveaway clue for me, Alex says. So um, and um Matt said that uh uh let me see here. He says, I gotta go with Fort Payne, Alabama, as the owner of well north of 300 pairs of socks. It's near and dear to my heart. And feet, he says. You uh gave him some said I cannot confirm or deny. And he says, I'm confident I'll eat my socks if I'm not right. He says, kidding, old Mickey has beaten me more times than I can count. I'm not eating any socks. So uh how did our friends of the show and team members do? Before you do that, let me get my applause button.

SPEAKER_01: 13:40

Well, uh, I I don't think there's any surprises now, is there? Um wow. Okay. Um great job, everyone. Yes, indeed, all of you uh got it correct. Fort Payne, Alabama was in fact the answer. Um, Alex, uh, you nailed it. The only thing I will add, uh, yeah, the the all the members of the group Alabama are from that town. Um hosiery industry became huge there, especially the um creation, the production of socks. And uh that's where the whole I had mentioned hosiery, and then I figured the Dixie Land Delight, that was a pretty big nod to Alabama. Um, but great job, everyone. We've we've never had four people uh send in correct answers before on any single one.

SPEAKER_02: 14:45

So uh ladies and gentlemen, that was Listener Spotlight. Thank you, all listeners. Thank you, listeners from Fort Paint, Alabama. But it was as I always say, thank you, everybody, yes, whether you listen or watch. As a matter of fact, some of those were YouTube comments. So um, thank you so very much.

SPEAKER_01: 15:06

Um now I can say, can I say it? Yeah, go ahead. Laissez les bonnes roulet.

SPEAKER_02: 15:16

I believe that's let the good times roll. Yes, sir. All right, who do we got? We are gonna bring on the ride director of Cycle Zydeco, and his his name is Scott Chilling. He's the founder of Trail, which is transportation, recreation, alternatives in Louisiana. He's the creator and force behind Cycle Zydeco, a week-long cycling uh celebration of food, music, and community. His mission is to connect people and places through the power and trails of two wheels. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to welcome Scott Chilling to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. Welcome, Scott. Hey, Scott, thank you so much for giving us some of your time this evening. Uh we we saw you at Bourbon Country Burn.

SPEAKER_05: 16:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 16:12

Um, outside of the Cycle Zyde Code trailer, but here we are in the studio, and thank you for being here with us.

SPEAKER_05: 16:18

Well, great. I'm looking forward to being here. We go from Bourbon Country Burn to almost Bourbon Street.

SPEAKER_02: 16:24

Well, that there we go. Perfect. Nothing wrong with that, right here. Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_05: 16:29

Oh man, I still need to get my bourbon uh uh from limestone.

SPEAKER_02: 16:32

So well, um you this is a ride, Michael. You and I, in all truthfulness, not just because Scott is here. Our friends did it last year, some team members did it the year before. It's been on our list. And um we actually went over and talked to Scott um at at the trailer and and and uh you know, we kind of exchanged connections, and here we are. So uh we want to hear all things cycle zytigo, but Scott, when you exchanged your contact with me, your website had trail involved in it. Can you touch on that?

SPEAKER_05: 17:10

Or yeah, um, so trail is a uh nonprofit organization that we created back in uh 2004. And it was born out of the pedestrian or the transportation plan, which included the bike and pedestrian plans. And we spent several years working up that plan and didn't feel like it was gonna see the light of day. So we created uh trail as a nonprofit organization that'd be a catalyst that would help get some of these projects off the ground. Um so like one of our first projects was getting a bike lane um uh uh strike onto John Smith Street, which is a major bike lane that connects the university here to through that cuts right through the middle of town. Um and then we've done some projects because the Cycles Idecos introduced us to other cities where we've done park projects. We've purchased property to add to parks, we've done some uh bridge rebuilds. Um so that's the purpose of trail. And it was really interesting. Uh, you know, that was our mission, that's that's our our focus. But uh in 2006, seven, the Alzheimer's Association uh had approached us and asked us to help put the logistics together for them to do a bicycle fundraiser. And so that brought us into the world of putting on events. And um, you know, so now we're it was like really cool for trails. Like, hey, look, we are interested in getting these projects built and getting people outdoor and active. And then it's like, and we put on these events that gets people outdoor and active, and also using some of the projects that we've invested in. So it's been a uh a good uh marriage between the event side uh and the uh project side, and that's the uh and that's the purpose of trails. That's cool. Trail's a trail's an acronym, transportation recreation alternatives in Louisiana, um, which is a mouthful.

SPEAKER_02: 18:50

Yeah. Well, that's like my business. I mean, where I work, uh it's you know, we we we shortened it to LETs. And so but uh um okay. So so started out as some advocacy for uh doing some good stuff, and then um so obviously we we started by introducing you by with uh being part of or the the ride director of cycle zytico. Um and then how did trail kind of merge into cycle zydeco?

SPEAKER_05: 19:19

Um well yeah, I'll make a bit of the um the history of cycle zydeco real quick. Sure. So cycle zydeco was formed in 2001 by Joan and Doc Williams, who were uh you know had cycling tours, they had an out uh an outdoor outfitters company. Um they're putting on lots of events. Um after the tobacco lawsuit settlement, um, there was some money there, and they asked them to create uh an event. So they created Cycle Zydeco, and it immediately uh blossomed and grew beyond their capacity. So they partnered with Lafayette Visitors Convention Center uh to put on the event. So the event has been put on by Lafayette Visitors Convention Center since 2002. But uh Cycle Zydeco um spends most of his time outside of the parish of Lafayette. And so when there was a change in director, um the new director cut Cycle Zydeco out of his budget. So I called him and said, Ben, what's going on? He told me, hey Scott, um doesn't really fit in our in our mission. Um, you know, and it takes up a lot of our resources. So he said, so we we cut it out. So I said, well, well, Ben, that would be perfect for us because we don't have any geographical boundaries like you have. And so go, you know, uh, so that would fit perfect with us. He said, and if you can do anything to create more hotel stays in Lafayette, um, that would be awesome. So we looked at trying to change the routes for six months, beat our head against a wall, and then we came up with a Lafayette every night option at the hotels where we provide shuttle services. So we serve we've helped fulfill the mission of Lafayette Business Center. We took over the event in 2013, and it's been history since then. Crazy thing was um Cycles Ideco used to have a we used to be limited to 300 and like 75 people is where they would cap it at, and it would sell out in five minutes. So the first year that we were putting this on, I thought we were gonna have a thousand people, and you know, they just the way they built it up, and you know, we had 220. People had given up on it because they knew it was canceled, we didn't have a lot of marketing, and it took us a while to kind of kind of rebuild. But that limitation um was based on the limit uh the lack of hotels in some of the smaller towns um that we used to that we traveled to, but now with the Lafayette hotel every night option, that limitation is is off the deck.

SPEAKER_01: 21:31

So so uh quick question. What is your ridership numbers? Um, I mean, what what do you say like last year? What it what was your ridership numbers?

SPEAKER_05: 21:42

The last couple of years, um, our high watermark was uh 2019. Um and then uh you know we were at 780 uh people thereabouts, and then um you know the last several years we've been kind of between that five and six hundred number. So I'm I'm kind of using 800 as my uh my planning number right now. Um we can easily scale up. I mean, if if a thousand people showed up, you know, we can adjust. I mean, our our limiting capacity ends up being uh the shuttles, but the you know, our shuttle guys are awesome and they can I've seen them pull buses in um left or right as uh as they needed. So it's not a constraint.

SPEAKER_01: 22:22

Five or six hundred riders is a nice size, you know, it it's it's you know not crazy big, it's it's the right size where you can really meet people, create relationships, things like that. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_05: 22:33

Yeah, no, look, we've had we have uh participants that have been doing this for over 20 years, and it's you know, they built they build relationships, and this is a becomes a reunion trip uh for them.

SPEAKER_02: 22:45

Yeah, another line that we do called Bragg. Um Franklin says it's like summer camp every year coming back. So it really is.

SPEAKER_05: 22:55

It really is. Yeah, we're actually gonna be partnering with Bragg. Uh we're gonna be their bike rental uh uh partner, as we are with Bourbon Country Burn. Um, so we have over a hundred bikes in our rental fleet that we make available. We put them in a trailer and bring them up, we'll bring them out to Georgia and something that helps support the ride.

SPEAKER_02: 23:14

Uh oh, that's great. That's great. That's yeah. Working with Franklin.

SPEAKER_01: 23:19

Frank Franklin's been on our show many a time. So uh yeah, that's that's that's cool. Yeah, um Franklin's a great guy.

SPEAKER_05: 23:25

Uh first call I made during the COVID shutdown was to him.

SPEAKER_02: 23:29

There, yeah, yeah, he's uh he's got a new director too. So I'm I'm excited to talk about that shortly. So but um Domestic Director, I think the the title I saw on Facebook, it was released today. So I can talk about it because I saw it on the World Wide Web. So um, okay, so so when we met you, we told you that we would be traveling. Um Michael from Kansas, myself from Michigan, and you had you had made a comment that you said, well, if you guys are gonna come down, then we have arrived two days before that. Um, and so and and that is Jasmine on the trail, is that correct?

SPEAKER_05: 24:07

Uh Jason on the Tammany Trace.

SPEAKER_02: 24:09

Tammany Trace. I apologize.

SPEAKER_05: 24:10

Yeah, and the the Tammany Trace is uh uh one of two rail to trail conversions in Louisiana. So um the entire length of the trace is uh 30 miles right now, slide Ell to Covington. And it's uh located on the north shores of Lake Poncha Train, so so you know 40 minutes north of uh New Orleans. Uh and it's and uh we'll be based at Fountain Blue State Park, um, which is right in the middle of the trace at uh in Mandeville, Louisiana. One of my favorite places to go camp. So we'll be on the shores of uh of the Lake Poncha Train, riding out on the trace, uh getting about 30 miles each day um of riding. Um and I was kind of spurred by one of our great volunteers, is uh the the former mayor of Slidell, and he's like, Scotty, you gotta um you gotta organize a ride out. He says, You got people that want to ride the trace, or they come to ride the trace. He says, We need to get organized, we need to get music and food. And so we so we created Jasmine on the trace.

SPEAKER_02: 25:07

Cool.

SPEAKER_05: 25:08

Um and uh you know, so they have one and two day options, it'll be the Monday and Tuesday before uh cycle zytico. So and the dates, um, you know, cycle cycle zytico has religiously been 54 days after Morty Girl, it's the week after Easter. So um, so uh that you know that Easter uh that Easter break period has been important to us. So, you know, uh we have debated trying to pin down the dates to be like early April all every year, um, all the time, but that that Easter break has been you know has its benefits, and so we we're kind of tag along with Easter now.

SPEAKER_02: 25:46

That's pretty cool. So and I saw on the on your website that you can do a bunkhouse. Um is that is that an option still?

SPEAKER_05: 25:54

Yeah, so um if you're at the uh Amanda Bill at Foundable Blue State Park, you have the bunkhouse, and the bunkhouse each has two wings, each wing sleeps 50 uh people. And then there's also we'll have camp camp site camping available um on the grounds right there, but also in the park itself, they have RB, they have tons of RB spots and almost all of them have sewage uh full service now. There's also primitive camping available inside the park, but you can just you know um camp, tin camp with us on site where where the bunkhouse is as well. So and then if you want to stay at a hotel, uh there's a couple of hotels in the Mansaville, Covington uh area that we'll we'll have listed. Um you'll be responsible for your own transportation, you know, to and from the hotel for that event. So I guess it'd be one thing that's a real big difference between cycle zytico, like cycle zytico, uh you get there, you really don't need to see a vehicle again. We got you covered. Um, that isn't on the train so you're gonna if you're gonna be sending a hotel, you will need to uh handle your own transportation, even if it's an Uber or Lyft or whatever. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 27:05

Perfect. Okay, so and and I just wanted to add that for anyone traveling, like like us. I mean, for me, if I'm going all that way, I'm gonna do both. Uh what about you, Michael? Would you do both? Or what do what do you what do you mean do both? I would do the the the jazzing on the trace and then jump.

SPEAKER_01: 27:22

Okay, okay. I I'm gonna do both the bunkhouse and I'm camping. Okay. I understand what you're saying now.

SPEAKER_05: 27:29

Well, I guess that would depend on the weather.

SPEAKER_01: 27:34

Well, we've we've done that before on rides. We've had two options available to us, but uh no, I think if if if I'm going now, number one, Adam, you know I love Louisiana, I love New Orleans, I love the food, I love Zydeco music. I'm huge fan. So if I'm going get the opportunity to go, yeah, absolutely. Let's do the first and then you know go do the second. Um, certainly if you're coming, I think it's 12, 13 hours for me. If I was driving, if I'm gonna go all that way, why why wouldn't you just do the extra two days and have some fun?

SPEAKER_02: 28:07

Absolutely, absolutely. And then for anyone checking into this, and if you're interested after all hearing hearing this entire interview, if you do cycle zydeco, Scott offers a discount uh for for uh for the Jasmine on the trace. So that's pretty cool. All right, so I get to cycle zydeco. Uh if I fly in, uh I know you have some packages that you'll put bike or your team or somebody will put bikes together. Can we touch on that just for a second?

SPEAKER_05: 28:41

Yeah, yeah. So um, so if you want, yeah, I have several different options for handling your bike. If you're flying in, um, or if your bike is just you know seen as better days, um, and you have no bike, uh, we have bikes available for rent. Um with we uh have a bike shop now, so it's a giant and track dealer, so we can you know have a lot of flexibility with bikes. Um, but also if you want to ship your bike uh to us, um we recommend uh bike flights as your uh to handle your shipping costs. There is a small fee for us to handle your bike, and uh we can just handle the box if you want to do your own assembly and disassembly, um, or we can do the assembly and disassembly for you. So if uh we're handling if you're doing assembly and disassembly yourself, we'll hold your box during the during the event and then we'll make it bring it to you for the end of the event so you can pack it. If we're taking care of your bike for you, then we'll you know deliver your bike at check-in. Um, and then at the end of the ride, we'll pick it up, bring it back to the shop, disassemble it, and uh ship it back to you.

SPEAKER_01: 29:46

So what he's saying is we we've we've flown many times with bicycles, and we've had an episode on how to fly with your bicycle. Um, done it many times, and we always fly in, and you know, we've got the hard shell boxes and all that. And we always wind up that first day hanging out in the hotel, moving everything out of the way, putting our bicycles together. So you're saying we wouldn't have to do that, and I wouldn't end up with like those three extra parts that I really don't think are important because those are extras, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02: 30:19

So you know what I heard. What I heard Scott say is Adam, you have a trek, and I have a trek dealership. So if you forget anything, then I'm gonna have it for your Demani. It'll be right there in my shop. That's what I heard.

SPEAKER_01: 30:32

Well, you know, so that's great. You know, some people like truck, uh, other people go for the little bit more uh extravagant, uh exotic type bikes, so that's okay.

SPEAKER_02: 30:44

FY.

SPEAKER_05: 30:45

Well, while we're talking about that, um, I do get this question quite a bit is what type of bikes come to Cycles I think?

SPEAKER_01: 30:51

And fair question.

SPEAKER_05: 30:53

I've seen every type of the only bike I haven't seen is a unicycle. And I think if somebody shows up with a unicycle, we're gonna have to do something special, prize or you know, entry or something. I don't know. But I mean, it's everything is on a uh hard surface. It's a road, you know, it's all they're all in open roads, they're all paved. Um, so you know, the most common bikes you'll see are are road bites. Uh we see hybrids out there. I've seen recumbent treks, uh recumbent um uh tandems. Um and uh I mean there's there's you know but we've had people ship the uh uh trikes to us that come in on pallets.

SPEAKER_02: 31:31

Wow.

SPEAKER_05: 31:32

That has to be assembled. So it's every type of bike uh that's out there, but again, it's it's it's hard surface roads. Um so a road bike, uh hybrid is um is is is is very common. So oh I guess one thing um I like to always kind of start the conversation with, you know, when people ask like, you know, cycle zide to like what kind of riding is it? It's like look, you know, the priorities are dancing, eating, drinking, and then you just happen to ride a bike to get to the next party. So when people call and they say, Well, you know, I'll ride 40 miles in two hours, like the crowd goes, wow, you're you're on the right show, Scott. So when people say I'll ride 40 miles in two hours, let me do the rest of my day, it's like, yeah, it's not this is not your type of ride where we're going from point to point as fast as we can. Um, you know, we you know, we're gonna distract you during the day. Now that being said, at one time cycles out of co was only one route every day that averaged probably about like 38, 40 miles, which is our what we try to get our main route about. But we um had somebody request to do um, they were trying to do a hundredth metrics entries in a year. So they wanted to use cycles out of code. So we created a 62 plus mile route every day that is available too. So we have two routes minimum every day, a 40 mile, and then 62 or better. And then when we get to like a Saturday, we'll have like four or five different distance options uh available going all the way up near uh near a hundred miles. So cool. But that 40 mile, that's our main route. That's our main target.

SPEAKER_01: 33:05

Well, we are we are men of leisure, we are not racers, we like to take our time, and uh yeah, I I think that sounds perfect. So um, as long as you guys don't mind, you know, a Bianchi being out there on the road. So uh all right, we're good.

SPEAKER_02: 33:21

You're gonna you're gonna put that head unit together that always falls apart. Moving on. What's your next question?

SPEAKER_01: 33:28

All right. I did talk to a Bianca dealer the other day. Uh put extra parts on bicycles for a reason. You can leave those, they're optional. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02: 33:39

Go ahead, Scott. I apologize.

SPEAKER_05: 33:41

So yeah, well, those parts go in this what kind of spurred this conversation. I mean, like you'll see I've people pulling bikes that I haven't seen the light of day in 20 years. And when those start falling apart, finding parts from them can be a little tricky. But yeah, we have some creative uh people that'll scour, search the country target, something shipped in quickly.

SPEAKER_02: 34:01

So Michael and I always advocate to travel with your own derailler hanger because if you're flying with your bike and it gets busted or whatever, so we always say some of those special parts I think you should travel with just in case, because you just never know because they they they uh dera hanger happens to be one of those parts that we won't find another bike.

SPEAKER_05: 34:19

And today, um, you know, your through axles that become very specialized to every different type of bike, you know. So yeah, any of those specialized parts now you're not gonna find in stock at your, you know, typically at a deal that's gonna have to be ordered, uh, yeah, maybe protected.

SPEAKER_02: 34:36

And and I don't know if you realize what you're walking into, but Michael and I tease each other all the time. We've got a phenomenal friendship, and I have spent many of hours working on his bicycle and hotels and trying to help him. And we we are great friends, so I just tease him about his Italian stallion. We I I uh I'm impressed by that.

SPEAKER_05: 34:56

That's why he said with three extra parts. That's right.

SPEAKER_02: 34:59

That's right. He's like, Do I need these? And he's holding them in his hand.

SPEAKER_01: 35:02

I'm like, nah, you don't need those like the movie Doc Doc Hollywood, if you remember that movie with uh, you know, um they put back to his sports car in this small town, and then they hand him a box that's got extra parts in it, and he says they're extra. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 35:17

So I somehow I get to um cycle zydeco, and for the 2025 ride, you started in Lafayette. Um, will we be coming to Lafayette if we do if we join you for Cycle Zydeco, or will we be coming somewhere else?

SPEAKER_05: 35:32

So 2026, we're gonna have a a new uh scheme or layout. We're gonna start and finish every day in Broad Bridge. So Bro Bridge will be our base camp. Okay. Uh Bro Bridge is from the hotel area in Lafayette is like eight miles, 10 miles. Um, depending on the time of day, it's a 20-minute shuttle uh trip um to and from the hotels to base camp. Um, there is a hotel in Lafayette in Bro Bridge that's about three miles away from base camp that we have shuttle services to. Um there's also a lot of several Airbnbs um available in downtown um in the Broadbridge area. So so and then we will also have a designated um which is uh Bay Wilderness Army Campground, which is our designated RD spot. So um that they have full service RD hookups. We'll have shuttle services to um by wilderness and back to base camp. And we do have a couple RD spots on site, but I think those are almost sold out. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 36:37

So Michael and I look at a lot of things when we when we try a new ride. We look at a lot of logistics, and um we noticed last night we were on the map and we were looking at Bro Bridge back to Lafayette, and there seems to be a few roads that actually are only like six and seven miles in between. Are those safe for cycling? I mean, if someone wanted to say I don't need this shuttle, I could actually ride from my hotel to base camp, or would that not be advised?

SPEAKER_05: 37:05

Um so I'd say if for some of those trips, you maybe if you're a more intrepid cyclist, no problem.

unknown: 37:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 37:12

Um, you know, just you know, especially if you're gonna do it in the evenings, you know, you won't be well with up. Some of those roads are busy, uh, but I do have people that you know want to ride from the hotel. So I'm I've created routes um, you know, for them so they can put on rider GPS and ride from the hotels, ride from the airport, or ride uh you know from uh from wherever to get to go back and forth to cycle zytico.

SPEAKER_02: 37:37

But probably the safest uh avenue would definitely be a shuttle. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 37:43

Now we're at we're at uh cycle zytico. We we're staying at a campground, or we're staying at an Airbnb, or we're staying in a hotel. Or also what am I gonna do in the evenings? What do you got planned?

SPEAKER_02: 38:00

I read the website. Eat, dance, drink.

SPEAKER_01: 38:04

Yes, so um I'm not interviewing you. Come on.

SPEAKER_05: 38:09

So on uh from Thursday on, um Wednesday's a big party. Uh we do have unsupported riding on that Wednesday. Um that'll kind of be offside. We'll we'll talk more details about that. But typically on your Wednesday, Thursday, um, Saturday, uh Wednesday, on your Thursday, Friday, Saturday uh evenings, um we have our bar opens up at three. Um we'll start, we'll have live music, uh, we'll have dancing. Uh we do a scavenger hunt during the event, so we'll have scavenger hunt check-in uh so you can get prizes. Um, you know, and then uh, you know, the um they also have options to go to the restaurants. So that kind of brings us into the Zydeco bucks uh that we could talk about now or later. Oh yeah, yeah. Um right now, our music lineup. Um we do have Rock and Jupy uh booked. So Rock and Jupyse and Chubby Carrier have been some of our staples for Cycle Zydeco. And you just can't beat the energy that Dupsey uh brings to the table. I mean, they've they've played around the world, uh, they've been on the David Letterman show several times. Um you know, they um they're just they're fantastic and just uh a ton of energy.

SPEAKER_02: 39:18

Do you have that, Michael, cued up? I know you're trying. There you go. A little zydeco music. We have dance lessons. Uh-oh. Well, I I could use that. I'm like a two left feet productions. I don't even know how to.

SPEAKER_05: 39:38

So that's why we opened the bar three.

SPEAKER_02: 39:43

So okay. Well, good. Liquid carriage will definitely help out. So I I could definitely uh definitely help out. Um so okay, so Wednesday, big party. Thursday, first day of actual riding. Um, but then again, the focus is not so much on riding except for having eat, drink, and dance and have a good time. I saw the the elevation. Michael and I were having a little bit of fun last night going on. And like 68 miles for 400 feet of climb for the day.

SPEAKER_05: 40:15

So yeah, people uh call me ask, um, and they certainly you can see they're trying to ask about the uh difficulty of the of the ride. It's like, look, the biggest climb you're gonna have to make is we gotta get over, we gotta take the overpass to get over I-10. Yeah, so probably have like you know, you know, 14 to 16 feet of climbing at at one point.

SPEAKER_01: 40:36

Okay. Well, yeah, it was flat line, flatline, and then there's like this little bump, and then flatline. It was beautiful. I mean, you know, the the joke is every time you go to Iowa, well, Iowa's flat. No, Iowa's not flat. Actually, it looks like this section of Louisiana is exceptionally flat.

SPEAKER_02: 40:52

So you know, it's interesting. Um, calling Scott the other day, I'm not gonna steal his thunder, but Scott, you and I spoke about where most of the people who come to your ride come from. Where do they come from?

SPEAKER_05: 41:04

Uh the largest portion is from the Midwest. I mean, I've I'm really impressed. I mean, that you know, um Kansas, Missouri, uh, Iowa area is really impressive. But I'll go back going back to like 2018-19, though. I mean, the draw is worldwide. Um, in 2000, I think it was 18, we had three countries from Africa, New Zealand and Madagascar, um coming in. And and uh in 2017, uh we had um Bernard Eno, uh the five-time winner of the Tour de France, uh, attend with a with a French contention. And half of you know, half of our support team spoke French, you know, so it was a nice little fit. We have some you know French speaking representatives out at the hotels to help you know coordinate, but you know, but um but at Midwest, man, there's that is just the bread and butter that's cool attendants. We're just good people, what can we say?

SPEAKER_02: 42:05

Well, you know, you're you are essentially time.

SPEAKER_01: 42:07

So we're gonna he did bring up Madagascar, though. That is one country I do not believe we've ever had a listener from, so you never know. Time.

SPEAKER_05: 42:16

Yeah, I'm gonna go uh track down that participant. We'll uh share this one.

SPEAKER_02: 42:21

There you go, exactly. Um so Zydeco music. Um describe Zydeco music live to someone like who's never experienced it live. Of course, I listened to Michael play it. If you've ever go to like amusement park, sometimes they have you know, you know, different restaurants that play that sort of music or or uh but if someone's never said it was universal, but go ahead. Okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_05: 42:53

Yeah. So how man, you uh yeah, awesome question for Herman to answer. But when I when I when I'm booking bands and I'm looking at Zydeco, um, you know, I'm I'm looking for people that have a lot of energy. I mean, so the accordion, this you know, the squeeze box is a staple in Zydeco music, um, the rubboard, the washboard on the stomach. Um, but you know, just something that makes you want to dance. And yeah, you know, and it's uh it's a fun, easy dance. Um you know, it's uh, you know, uh, I mean, we we have dance lessons, but it's not, it's uh you can just watch somebody and you know you can just jump in there and move and dance to it and and and and have a good time. So it's it's the um, you know, we always look for bands that bring a lot of energy that have a you know have have a have a you know, get the crowd involved, get people off their feet, get them dancing. Um you know, so that's uh what you know kind of what we we look for. Yeah, we will also, you know, we always have requests to kind of bring in some more Cajun music or sometimes some swap pop. Um so depending on you know um you know who we're looking at, sometimes we'll bring some people in that can bring Zydeco or some uh swallow pop or Cajun.

unknown: 44:04

So cool.

SPEAKER_05: 44:05

And you'll hear a little French in there. There's a lot most of these uh Zydeco musicians have uh French uh laid into their songs.

SPEAKER_01: 44:14

Okay, I think that go ahead. I think the big question for me is tell me about the food. Well, the food's important.

SPEAKER_05: 44:24

I mean again very important. Yeah, eating and dancing. Those are the two things. So having great musicians, um, and then also having uh you know great food. One thing that um you know we uh you know, especially as when we're in towns that have sufficient restaurants, we've gotten away from doing catered meals, but we'll do like a post-ride uh snack. So we're almost every year we have a crawfish boil. And that's gonna be a given. So we will do a crawlfish boil. Um, then you know, out of the things that we've cooked, I mean, we've grilled alligator. Um, you know, we've had, you know, we'll you know, cook some crackling, which is kind of like uh pigskin um pork ronds. Um you know, we'll you'll you'll probably have some boudin at some point. We've uh marinated oysters. Um, you know, uh we'll have some seafood element uh you know in there as well. But what we're trying to do is uh our focus is like when we look at the ride, um you have several places that you can eat and use your zydeco bucks to go eat during the ride. Um when we get when you get off your bike that we have a little snack for you that represents you know something South of Louisiana.

SPEAKER_01: 45:32

That's cool. So and you're talking about the Zydeco bucks. Explain a little bit about uh how do I get those and and how does that work?

SPEAKER_05: 45:41

So they'll come with your with your package, with your registration. And so what and even if you're a non-rider, uh so we have non-rider registrations, there do you still get uh the same or similar you know package, whether it's a BIP package or a basic package, each one will have different amounts of Zydeco bucks, gift cards, et cetera, in that package. Um, and then you treat them like dollars. So like when we go, when I go to a uh a restaurant or a store and ask them to participate in a program, um their deal is uh you just advertise in the program guide. We include each other's code bucks. We're gonna give out, I think we give out almost like$26,000 to$30,000 in Zydeco bucks to everybody. So you may, depending on your package, you may have 20, you may have 60 or 100. Um, and then you use them just like dollars at those participating restaurants and stores. Uh, you know, and then we go back and I redeem them from that restaurant um dollar for dollar. So I'll tell you, like even if you're if the servers get tipped in Zydeco Bucks, when they cash out the night, I tell I asked to always say treat it just like cash. You exchange it because I'm coming back with the check and I'm gonna redeem every every dollar that you uh that every Zydeco buck dollar that you collect.

SPEAKER_02: 46:56

That's pretty cool. Because then you call it. I mean, then you know because the writers are gonna spend more than just the Zydeco buck, I'm sure. So that's helps out the local community as well. So it puts money in the in the area, which is what that's what Michael and I like too.

SPEAKER_05: 47:09

So you get variety for you know um, you know, where as when we're catering stuff, I mean the the selection was you know A and B. Yeah, but just then you have the all the restaurants available to you.

SPEAKER_01: 47:21

And you get the not that not just the restaurants, but then you get the flavor of the local communities and things like that, which uh is something that Adam and I like. Now, the question I have, this is for you, Adam. Have you ever had a uh crawfish boil?

SPEAKER_02: 47:34

No. Um when I lived in southern Illinois, we would catch crawfish in the creek, and and but nothing like that. No way.

SPEAKER_01: 47:42

Okay, yeah. I I'm a that's one thing my family loves about it up here in Kansas is I I spent some time out in Rhode Island and I do a shrimp boil and stuff, and everybody always likes it when I do the shrimp boil, but crawfish boils are great, so that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_05: 47:56

Well, guys on the trace, um, we'll probably do a seafood boil. So we'll have shrimp crabs, um, yeah, we'll probably do crawfish there as well, uh, on one of the one one of the nights. Cool.

SPEAKER_02: 48:09

So all right, we talked about food, uh drinks. Obviously, so you have according to the website, you have a bar that that opens up at three o'clock on some days, which I'm in. That sounds good. Uh, but uh so then um every day that the writers complete, uh wherever uh the base camp is, that's where someone could have a have a drink with some of the the gift card, if you will.

SPEAKER_05: 48:34

Yeah, so the gift cards, um, we're actually talking about it today. Um may it will have a gift card element. Okay. And you can use that at the bar, you can use it um in the for merchandise and gift shop. So you know, unlike you know, seller events where you you get a t-shirt, you know, every time you go do like a a run or a bike ride or something, we're not giving everybody t shirt. We just give them a gift card. You go pick what you want, you know. If you want to because some of us have more t-shirts than we know what to do with.

SPEAKER_01: 49:04

Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 49:06

But and you can even use it like if you wanted to get this uh, you know, cycling gear. Um, I mean, they'll there'll be a full store from you know, that have chain lubes to chamois cream, whatever, you know, you can use it for any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02: 49:20

Okay. Perfect.

SPEAKER_05: 49:22

Cool.

SPEAKER_02: 49:22

So I like that you give back to local businesses. I mean, obviously, if someone's going to a restaurant, and you know, there's gonna be gratuity, there's gonna be cocktails on top of whatever. So I'd like I I I personally like that. It always breaks my heart when you go somewhere and you bring all these riders through, and then you know, it's like, oh no, I'm just gonna have this one, you know, granola bar and hit the road, and and then you know, you're you've come through a community. So I I'm I personally like that. Um so okay, uh let's talk about the shuttles for a second. So no matter where where you're sleeping, whether it be a bed and breakfast, whether it be RV campground or whatever, um I saw on the website go ahead.

SPEAKER_05: 50:04

Sorry, but also we have camping on site, like tent camping on site at Basecamp. Um, so that's and you can either camp with your own gear. We also have the pedaling pandas, which have tent concierge service. So if you want to rent their tents, um that's a that's an option as well. So you have so your lodging options, which and this always dictates what your logistics are, you know. So whether you're camping on site, um, whether you're hotel camping, Airbnb, um, or uh staying at the RB camp, can't the designated RB campground. So that'll be your your four uh lodging uh base options.

SPEAKER_02: 50:46

I'm glad you mentioned that because you don't need a shuttle if you say primitive camping or or the pedaling pandas or somewhere where, but if you do need a shuttle, then then of course, then you have a shuttle schedule.

SPEAKER_05: 50:58

So yeah, so typically typically our shuttles um will run like you know, since we're just doing laffey at the Bow Bridge, um, you know, they'll start running maybe like 6 45 in the morning, and then we'll try to wrap them up by nine o'clock. Um they'll go a little bit after, and then in the afternoons we'll start them at three and they'll run until the party's over. I mean, to like to kind of see them kind of wrap up around that 10:30, uh 11 o'clock time frame when they had their last run. But I seen them, they they, you know, if the party was going strong, these they they ran until two in the morning one time.

SPEAKER_02: 51:33

So and of course, there's always gonna be those people who want to know, and I'm asking for things I've seen. I we've Michael and I have seen some crazy stuff on shuttles. Can you bring your bike on the shuttle?

SPEAKER_05: 51:47

So um our our rule, like in the mornings, no. Um, but our rule is no bikes on the shuttle. But if it's not bumping a human off, yeah, you can put your uh your bike on there. Um, you know, just get with us. Uh, you know, if if there's a crazy situation where, you know, and you not even have crazy people, you know, you have people that like, hey, something came up. I need to, you know, I gotta get home. Um, I I need to, you know, it's you know, Friday, Thursday afternoon. I gotta, you know, call it a day, and I need to get back to the hotel with my bike. You know, we'll make that happen. But we also, I mean, we have support team members, and um look, it's uh you know, uh outdoor outside magazine that ranked us as uh one of the best support rides in America several years ago. But um, it is because you know, people come down here, um, they've been snowed in all year, they haven't seen the bike in a long time. And uh some people, you know, they get out there half a day of riding, they jump in uh one of our support vehicles, uh, come back to the end, and you know, maybe out they maybe they just party from that point on. Um, but we'll we'll we'll take care of you.

SPEAKER_02: 52:58

So I and trust me, I I'm I'm I just needed to ask the question. We've been we've been on one before where that says no bikes on shuttles. Michael and I are sitting there getting hit by gears and and pedals as people go down the down the down the aisle of the bus. And so it's like, come on, do you not read the thing? You know, no bikes on the shuttle. But um one of the one of the things that and really intrigues me about your ride is as you mentioned, hasn't seen a bike all winter. That would be me. Normally we can't get outside. I mean, unless you do a um, you know, a fat tire bike or or a mountain bike and you take a risk and take a chance. Um the kind of riding that Michael and I do, I don't see a bike until the first or second week of April normally. Um, and so the idea that the uh Jasmine on the trace would be 30, I'd be that might be the first ride of the year. Right there.

SPEAKER_01: 53:51

So I have to ask a question. Down in Louisiana, you guys don't leave a lot of hoses on the middle of the road, do you?

SPEAKER_02: 54:02

Oh gosh, this guy. You know, we were supposed to do uh the the the rain ride right across Indiana one day, 160 miles. We were both training, pretty pretty favorable training, ready to go. And then a brown hose took us out. Michael decided to get in a fight with a garden hose and he lost.

SPEAKER_01: 54:22

So some some lawn care guy left 155 feet of hose strung across the road. I came around a corner, oncoming traffic. It was like go into a car or try to take the road, and then I flipped my bike and broke my collarbone. So that's why I was asking the ridiculous question that you guys were posted.

SPEAKER_02: 54:42

When you saw us in our cycling men of leisure jerseys, and we came up to your trailer, that was the first time he had been on a bike in months.

SPEAKER_01: 54:51

Since since uh June 19th.

SPEAKER_02: 54:54

Yeah. Yeah, we went to we went to Bragg with Franklin and Stephanie and the gang, and then he was training afterwards, and then he said, Hey, I got some bad news, and I'm not sure what we're gonna be able to do. And so we were we canceled Brain and then we kept um Bourbon Country Burn on the books. Um, we had purchased some of the VIP tasting tickets for the tent there, and then so we said even if even if we just camp and go to that, but we actually rode all three days, and so we we you were able to get out. You said it was a little bit sore, but um hopefully, hopefully the garden hose stays away in Louisiana.

SPEAKER_05: 55:30

You'll you'll see it in our uh safety protocol. Um that we we do refer to roadkill. We do have a uh an abundance of uh you know possums and neutral rats and things that are and you'll always see it. We you'll get pictures, somebody's gonna take a multi-ball bee, decorate and put a beer in their uh in their hands.

SPEAKER_01: 55:50

Oh yeah, for sure. Uh that's a popular thing to do in Iowa as well. So oh yeah, very familiar with that.

SPEAKER_05: 55:57

But no, is that not?

SPEAKER_02: 55:59

So Wednesday through Sunday. Um, I have to believe that Sunday, some people, uh if they are not lucky enough to be retired, are concerned about getting back to civilization. Um, shorter ride option on Sunday if people want to hit the road or yes.

SPEAKER_05: 56:17

Um because exactly for what you said, there are people that want to hit the road because they get they have a drive, they got a flight or something that they need to catch. Um so um you know, we will be. I mean, Sunday for us um gets you know is a crazy day because um now that we're not since we're not moving uh this year, it's gonna be a lot easier. But you know, we try to get set up at 10 o'clock in the morning to be able to start receiving cyclists coming back in and dealing with you know them getting finished and checked out and getting back. So shuttles are running early. Um, if you want to route like back to Lafayette, there is an eight-mile route that I have from Bad from Bro Bridge back to the Lafayette hotel area, um, which is also by the airport. Um, you know, so that would would be available. But I mean we'll have shuttles running to take care of it. Um before we get away from the shuttles too, uh I you know, some of our experience like with the bikes and so forth. When we've had emergency situations, like we had bad weather that you know lasted all for about an hour, but we had planned to pick up cyclists. We'll bring trailers out and pick up bikes in the trailers, um, and we'll get the shuttles engaged. Uh, we will have some other riding opportunities like on Wednesday that I'm trying to coordinate a shuttling option because it's gonna be, you know, like it's gonna be Jefferson Island to the Basco, which is gonna be 20 that, you know, so that ride is gonna take place 20 miles away from Lafayette or Broad Bridge. You know, but to get people out there, give them to give them an option to get out there and do that ride is gonna require some shuttling. And so we have trailers that we can uh you know bring bikes out um you know, along with the people to go do that ride and then get them back.

SPEAKER_03: 58:02

That's cool. That's cool.

SPEAKER_05: 58:04

You know, so if we if we ended up with uh you know on a Sunday and it's like you know, we got 50 people that need to get to Laffia, you know, we'll have trailers engaged, ready to go to get their bikes and gear and everything else. You know, the people that are tent camping on site, you know, we need to get them, you know, back to where they need to be. So um we'll we'll have we have plans in place.

SPEAKER_02: 58:26

That's cool. Showers, um, shower trucks available on on site?

SPEAKER_05: 58:32

Yep. So um I'll let's take you know, people that are camping on site, yes, they will have showers available to them. But even if you're staying in a hotel, let's say you're staying at a Lafayette hotel every night. Um, I'll always recommend get a pack a day bag. You know, put your dancing shoes in there. Um if you want to put some clothes in there. When you finish the ride, you know, your bag will be available for you. It'll be in our baggage uh handling area. Uh you could take a shower if you wanted, um, or you could just change and freshen up, but there will be showers, uh shower trailers on site uh for anybody who's with a ride.

SPEAKER_02: 59:07

So that's great.

SPEAKER_01: 59:08

So then you brought up baggage. If uh I'm going there, what's what's my limitation on bags?

SPEAKER_05: 59:17

So we have uh uh two bags, no more than like 50 pounds per bag. Now we're not out there with a scale or anything else, but it's just you know, don't break our backs. You know, we have uh older volunteers that are helping out.

SPEAKER_02: 59:28

Yeah, Adam. I've been known to do that before. Uh I really hope our friends at Padre still like me. So uh but uh he told me he was still healing when we saw him at Bourbon Country Burn that they were still nursing their backs with ice and heat every night. So um, I think I think with uh with the ride like that I can I can I can I can make it.

SPEAKER_01: 59:51

I'm sure you can.

SPEAKER_02: 59:53

Um okay, so we got snacks uh at at uh the the snap uh you know sag sag stops, hydration, um shuttles, we got luggage, we got mechanics. So uh you own a bike shop, you bring mechanics, I assume.

SPEAKER_05: 1:00:09

Before we jump into that though, um when we're talking about luggage, let's talk about dirty clothes. Um so almost every hotel that we're at has uh logic facilities available. And then um where we're set up in Bro Bridge, there is a Washeteria um that's across the bayou. So it's uh about essentially a block away uh from it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:30

So a a Washeteria. I love it. And I love when you say across the bayou. Now, when you say across the bayou for people out in Kansas, I'm thinking we're like talking ten, fifteen miles down the road, but that's it's a block. Yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. Learn something then. Across the bottom of the is not like a long ways.

SPEAKER_05: 1:00:50

No, no. It's a it's a small river. And they got and the bridge is right. We're at the bridge. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:57

That's right. Going down there. So um okay. So got SAG stops, yeah, mechanics.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:05

Um yes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:07

So you if I have a if I have a breakdown, um, then there's some options for the writers.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:15

So yeah. So, you know, um, we'll have mechanics on site. Um, and a lot of our support teams have some mechanical skills of varying degrees. Um, you know, it just kind of depends on, you know, is it what kind of repair are you are you needing? Um most of the stuff, you know, hopefully most of the stuff we can handle on site. If we get something that's really goofy, um spokes tend to be a problem. Uh, but then we'll we're like running to every bike shop, you know, uh in the area looking for, you know, trying to match spokes. That can be tricky. Um again, you know, last year um through axles seemed to be the problem. Um, we also had you know, um, you know, especially uh the e-bikes, man, they got so many different e-bikes now, they all got different components um and various supports, but for the most part for your acoustic bikes, um, as long as nothing crazy, we can we'll get you running right there. Um, and I mean we would have situations where you know we do have bikes available for rent that are in the shop, you know, that we can pull. So if somebody comes in and they just have a complete you know explosion and they need a new bike, then um, you know, typically we can we'll start going to different bike shops and go to our shop now. So I mean I've I've bought bikes um during the ride to get somebody on a bike that I just would put into our Riddle fleet after, you know, so they're not and I was buying from a town that was uh an hour and a half away, and they they brought they dropped the bike off. We got that person back on that bike and they got them running. Um, and then we just put the bike in the riddle fleet.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:52

So that's pretty cool. And so this is where we give our public service announcement, as we often do. Do not forget to uh throw in an extra derailler hanger. Uh 20, 30 bucks might uh save you a lot of headaches. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:06

Um okay. So now let's get into the two different packages. So when I'm on the website, at least for 2025, it may be updated, but um five-day party and a five-day VIP. I obviously could read this line by line by line, but is there just an easy way to say the difference?

SPEAKER_05: 1:03:28

Or yeah, there is an let me start with the motivation for having two different uh packages. Um, you know, the um our prices had increased, you know, over the years, and I felt like um we were losing um our more frugal uh you know cyclists. So um, and I I could see that you know, just looking at the campsites, you know, when people were 10 camping, that population was outgrowing, all of our growth was coming uh in the hotels. Um so I was trying, I wanted to try to get our price point back down into that 400 area. Um, and so we came up with the basic pack package where we kind of stripped down um we reduced the zytocode bucks, reduced the gift card amount, you know, uh, and try to to uh simplify, get a bare bones package together, and then have the VIP where you know it was like no questions asked, uh everything was included. So that was one reason. The second reason that we did uh had the two packages, and we started having a lot of people popping up asking to have their business tours as part of Cycle Zytica. So we had the Voodoo Adventures, and it's like you know, we don't have the budget for that thing, make everything inclusive. And so it was it's like look, let's go ahead and separate these packages. We'll make one where everything's included, and then we'll have our bare bones where you kind of a lot of car pay as you go. Um, so that's you know the reasoning for it and kind of the differences. So when you if you're in the VIP, um what we're uh you know, you have your better dollar amounts on your gift cards, you got more Zydeco bucks uh to spend. Um, we also try to have a um be sure that you're taking care of the charging because power becomes a um um becomes uh you know an essential product to getting everything, your phones charged, uh bikes charged and stuff. So to have dedicated charging facilities uh you know for them. Um if there's a tour that or if there's a tour that you want to go on to, there's no questions asked, you have the ticket, you go um if you choose to or not, um, versus paying as you go. So we look at the tours, which is probably some of the um some of the bigger elements. Um, you know, McGee's uh swamp tour is probably one of the most popular events. Uh, but we also have shadows on the test. Um still work out some of the details of shadows on the test, but like this year they're doing a craft cocktail festival and they want to try to tie it in with cyclysotico. So shadows on the test is uh uh in New Iberia that'll be uh 30 minutes away from Bro Bridge. So that's gonna create some shuttling, you know, happening. Um and but to be able to participate in the craft cocktail festival will probably be part of the BIP package um as well. Um when we on the Wednesday ride, which I expect that we're gonna do uh Jefferson Island, which is the Rip and Winkle Garden, and it's the old Jefferson home that's on Lake Piniur, which is a lake that um uh got punctured by a drilling operation, and the whole lake drained into a salt mine, and the Gulf of Mexico started flowing back into there, uh into that lake. And this lake that used to have an average depth of maybe like five feet and had 180 foot depth. But anyway, you get to go tour that facility. You go to Tab, we'll go to Tabasco on that bike ride. Tabasco tours will be uh available. Cool. There's also some museums um in in Lapia Hilliard Museum. Uh last year during the Cycles Echo, they had a Rodan um uh exhibit. I'm not sure who's gonna be exhibiting uh this year uh at that time. But you know, so those are some of the uh events that we have. One that I really wanted to have involved, but they just discontinued their tours was the uh Martin's Accordion. They would actually build accordions, um, they would go through the demonstration of building an accordion, they would play music. Um there was it was very, really popular, but uh I think um ages um gone to them, so they they they discontinued their their tours. So I don't know all the tours that'll be available, but those are uh snapshot of some of them. Cool. Also, but you know, right here, um if you're a VIP, the Jazz in on the trace is included um at registration. Oh um, and you'll see there's a there's discounts for VIPs for lodging at Jazzing on the Trace, but the the ride itself is complimentary. So cool. Um that by itself uh you know you know probably justifies it. If you hammer if you hammer every aspect of the VIP, then you make out like a bandit. Yeah. If you get 50% done, you're doing you're doing you're making your money back.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:09

Well that's cool.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:11

Uh I like the fact that there's you know, you've got these other uh cultural aspects to the ride, because that that to me really uh when I go someplace, I want to experience it. And it sounds like through this ride, you can really, you know, experience the local food, the local music, you know, different things like that. So it's cool.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:31

Look, uh, you know, in my uh previous life, um, I worked in the beer business and I was delivering beer to all these little nooks and crannies. I mean, they have people had they have farmers that had liquor licenses, and so I would deliver like six cases of beer to these little farms out in the middle of nowhere. And then they were just you know giving beer to their employees, and I just it was easy to get a liquor license, so they they got it. So I thought I knew all the nooks and crannies with this beer. Cycle zytica has taught me a lot. Um, I mean, it's even like this the swamp tour. I, you know, is uh growing up here, I never went, I mean, I'm I went into the swamp. I mean, we go ski there and go you know, go water skiing and stuff, but I'd never been on a swamp tour. Um, and that was one of the things I I was immediately looking at discontinuing a cycle zide co to kind of save some dollars. And uh, and that year, I I actually rode cycles Ideco. I'm just listening to the uh cycles, and they're like, I do this. This is my like 10th year of coming to Cycles Ideco, and I'll this is my favorite part, is going on this tour. It's like, whoa, okay. Well, this is gonna be and then I did the tour, and it was it was it was funny. I mean, the the the tour guys are not just there for education, but they're entertaining. Um, and oh yeah, it's a comedy show.

SPEAKER_01: 1:09:41

I've been on a couple of those.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:43

Those are definitely uh fun. That's that's pretty cool. Um what's one thing you wish that every participant uh understood before signing up? Anything that you know later on you're like, I don't understand why they didn't get that, or I don't understand why they didn't understand something.

SPEAKER_05: 1:10:00

So I don't know if we could um use this as a way to get some feedback, but uh I think it's with all the rods is understand the uh the refund and insurance, uh the refund policy. Um, you know, things happen, things come up, injuries happen. Um you know, we have what I think is one of the most favorable, lenient uh policies. So we have a cash refund that has a sliding scale. As we get closer to an event, you know, it goes from like 90% to 60% to 40 to 0 uh percent cash refund. But we also have a rollover option where you can roll it over to any future year. It used to be just to the future uh to the next year, but that you can use those dollars that you put down that year and you said, hey, I I can't attend this year, um, that you can roll it over. Uh we have about like a 14 or 20-day window prior to the event where that option disappears. Um, but then also you have the ability to transfer. Um, and depending on, you know, we the prices increase um as we get closer to the ride. So if you had an early registration, sometimes you have a better discount that you could transfer to somebody. There's like a$25 fee. Um, and you that person could be picking up a registration that would be a lower price than what's currently available. So but know the refund policies, and then also um we we have on the website is uh understand what you're travel insurance. A lot of you know, from what I've been told, and I haven't had the experience with this, but from what I've been told is that travel insurance will cover your registration costs. So if something happened, that your policy possibly could get you know outside of hotels, airlines, whatever else covered, that you could also get your e-dent registration um re you know, paid by the insurance company. So that one comes up a lot. Um I guess how that one's just seems to come to the top of the mind. So cool.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:56

Yeah, and and and you know, I mean, of course, everybody we well, I mean we have friends who sign up. I mean, it'd give me anxiety, but sign up in the last couple days. We have we we have people who sign up, you know, way ahead of time, and then of course, oh oh my gosh, I forgot about that work conference that I have to go to, what can I do? And so uh, but then again, I mean, you know, you are trying to put on an event, and and in all fairness to anyone putting on either a wedding or uh or whatever it is, you know, you're planning for numbers, and so you you hold spots and and so that I think that's very fair, and I think it's very clearly laid out here uh on your website. I assume the dates would just be represented in 2026, probably just hasn't been changed yet, and I understand that because websites are not fun always to keep up, but before January of 26 or 24th of 2026, 90% refund, and you do via the breakout scale here.

SPEAKER_05: 1:12:55

So yeah, no, though uh that part of the website, um that's the first thing that we is the refund policy is the first thing that we uh correct before we open registration. Gotcha. So that uh that is accurate. So okay, cool.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13:08

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_05: 1:13:10

So uh but I mean, you know, at the end of the day, you know, we're here at Apple Giton, um and we're here to put it on a d and I love to tell the story, like you know, when we had in 2020 we had COVID. It's like, you know, so we COVID's hitting and shutting everything down, so we rescheduled Cycle Zydeco to the fall. Um, and we're gonna do that in partnership with uh festivals of Cody and Acredole, which is a gonna be a perfect partnership. I mean, that's uh the second largest festivals here. It's all about Cajun and Creole and Zydeco, and it's so so it ties in perfectly with Cycle Zydeco, and we're and we partnered them on other uh activities. Anyway, so that year, Hurricane Delta came through. So we had to just wholesale say events off. And then I still had people, we still had 16 people attend Cycle Zydeco. Like we had the roads painted, we had our program guides done, and they were calling us like Scott, you know, we'll yeah, we will still want to come. I say, if you come, we'll do the best we can to have a party. So we did a we we converted our warehouse into uh we did a party in there, we did dinner, we went out and we rode for two days, hurricane came through and told them, like, look, you know, we're gonna be uh cleaning up after this hurricane, so we're not gonna be able to help out on Sunday. They went road Sunday. We had 16 people from Texas, New Jersey, Missouri, um, Minnesota. Minnesota, Montana, um, attend. We had one guy had his 90th birth birthday party on that. So you know, just uh, you know, we're gonna do everything we can to have a great time and have a have a blast.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:45

That's you know what? I mean, that that's kind of what intrigues me about this ride is you know, we've done the Rag Bride, we've done Georgia, we've done Michigan, I mean we've done other states, but you know, for this is is you know, you're you are you are offering a bike ride with a lot of um very social items, you know, tours, dancing, music, um, you know, it's like Michael said, like all kinds of other things that you're offering. So it's more than just the one of the things that really bothers us is we you know we travel, we put the logistics, whether it's a flight, whether it's renting cars, hotels, then you ride, and when you're done with the ride, there's just nothing to do. And it's just like listening to a clock tick somewhere, it's like, oh my gosh, there's got to be something to do. And so this actually seems like there would be lots to do.

SPEAKER_05: 1:15:32

So we also um you'll see it on our websites, but you know, for the uh the venus around um down in the area that have music happening, um, you know, we'll have that listed. So like you have different restaurants, Bucking Johnny's, uh, Tom Marie's, Cafe Sydney May. Um, you know, they'll have they'll typically have music uh available as well. So we have our concert that's happening. If you're going out to eat, you know, we'll kind of list the music venues that are there. Um one thing that's been nice uh for the last 12 years, um the Scott Boudamp Festival's been taking place. And they also take, you know, have the they follow the week after Easter, unless it's during it's lays up on Festival International. So um so for the last 12 years, we'd incorporated the Boudamp Festival in some form or fashion. Um, you know, whether that was a stopping point on the ride, um, once I made that the end of the ride, uh not a good idea. Um but yeah, but uh, you know, so the booty and festival will be happening. And by even when you get to Sunday, so when you got Sunday, it's like, you know, we're gonna get our volunteers. Um, we want to see them packed up and you know off the roads by two o'clock, you know, getting home, you know, uh three o'clock or going out and having a good time. But you're gonna have at Sunday, you have the booty festival, which will be taking place uh this year. So you'll have their final lineup. That'll take you till seven at night. Um uh Vermilionville, which will be one of the touring options as well. Uh they have their balloty march, so they'll have their Sunday uh music session. They'll have uh a band that'll be uh lined up. Um it's a great place to go dance. Um, I mean, Vermilionville has been uh more often than not the starting location of Cycles Idaco in the past. You know, love the place. Um, but you know, being able to be in the same space every day, day in and day out, um just makes a lot of sense for us.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:25

That's great. Well, Michael, um I I know we have a fun uh lightning round for Scott here in the end, but before I do that, uh any anything that I missed, anything that you're curious about the ride, anything that uh you think that the leisure community would want to hear about?

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:46

You know, this sounds like a great ride. It sounds like a ride right up our alley. Um we've got some other options, so we're gonna obviously look and we'll be making a determination here in uh in the next month uh as far as what we're gonna ride. But uh this is definitely on our short list. I think it it it sounds just like a whole lot of fun. And uh I believe I read somewhere that uh somebody had said that this is the best touring ride in the U.S. Certainly sounds like it. And um we're uh we're gonna consider it.

SPEAKER_05: 1:18:20

So um so some of our longtime riders which have now converted to volunteers. I was at Ragbride for my first time to go set up. And so we're in like a small town, uh maybe like I wore somewhere, very small town, and I'm giving away beer and kingcake. Um, and I have merchandise to sell. So, but giving away beer and king cake makes you really popular. We had like a line wrapped around the block. And uh man, it's like, and I'm I'm I'm getting I'm smoked. I mean, there's I can't I can barely handle uh the beer and the king cake, much less merchandise, and talk to people. And so Jeff and Darwin, who are longtime riders from Kansas and Missouri, um, they show up and uh they're like, Scott, we're gonna help you out. So Darwin starts serving beer, Jeff starts talking to everybody. He's like, Man, he says cycle zytica is the best ride. He says it's like rag bronze on steroids, you know, you got to come do it and stuff. And you know, both of those guys have been doing uh cyclesotico almost since its inception. Um and uh and now and now they're volunteering uh for us, and uh that it's awesome. But to have you know that set up where you know people have been participating in cyclysotico for so many years out there selling it while we're giving away beer and uh king cakes was awesome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:19:34

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05: 1:19:36

Um if I can if I can touch on something real a little bit on the on the logistics side. Um so getting your bike to Cyclops Idea, parking, uh, these are some of the uh the questions um that that come up. So if you're not flying in, if you're driving in, um if you're camping um uh on site with us, um we have parking that's gonna be available downtown um Broadbridge, right? Uh actually one of our parking spots can be right next to the police station. Um and so that parking will be available to anybody during the ride. So, like even if you're staying at a Lafayette Hotel or staying anywhere and you want to drive into Cycles Lydeco during that period and not use the shuttles, that will be an option uh for you to drive in and drive out um you know every day and have a place to park in downtown, downtown uh Bro Bridge. Um getting your bike uh to Bro um to Bro Bridge is important. Um, if you're driving in, drive into Bro Bridge, drop your bike off, check in, get all your goodies, and then you go to your hotel or go wherever you're staying, and then work, uh take the shuttle to come back out. Your bike will stay at at the base camp the entire for the duration of the ride. So um, and it's gonna be secure. Um, that is uh the place where our tent campers on site are camping. Um, and so we have and that's the site of our party. Uh, we'll have security uh there. We have volunteers that will be there, you know, keeping an eye on everything, but still bring a bike lock. You know, never that never hurts. Um, you know, but that would be um, you know, parking for the bikes. Um, and then at the end of the ride, pick up your bike and head out. If for some reason you're flying in um with your bike and you need to get it there, um it's that there's always a handful of people. Uh we're not too far away from the the airport and just you know get with us in time. If Uber Lyft can take care of you for some reason, we'll figure out a way um to get you and your bike um you know where you need to be. If you're staying at a hotel and you're flying in, uh do contact all the hotels have shuttle services, but do contact them at least a couple days in advance to uh to make arrangements um to be sure that they're there to uh get you picked up. And if you're under the problems, just give us a call, we'll we'll figure out a solution. So cool. Um and if you're renting a bike, uh when you check in, uh bike rental pickup will be at check-in where the bikes will be sleeping, you know, and then at the end of the ride, when you're ready to turn it in, you just turn it in at the same location. So um if you're shipping your bike, same thing, it'll be your bike will be waiting for you at check-in, and when you're ready to turn it in, your box will be ready to check in, or you just turn it into us at check-in for disassembly and we'll ship it back to you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:22:25

So excellent.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:27

So when I see these rental prices online, is this per day or no?

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:32

Well, there's a cycle. So when you look at the rentals, there's a cycle zide code price, and that is for the event.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:39

I mean, if you come in on Sunday, uh Sunday could be tricky, but it is it is a cycle zide code price, whether you you use it for one day or whether you use it for seven days, it's during cycle zytico, it's yours.

SPEAKER_02: 1:22:53

I I do see it now. Yep, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05: 1:22:56

And if you um and then Jasmine on the trace, if that that would also be included if you rented the bike. Um, you know, I would say that's that's not spelt out there, but if you rented it for cyclysottico and you need it for Jazz on the Trace, we'll deliver it to you for Jasmine on the trace. Um, and a question we get for Jasmine on the trace is how did I get from Jazzing on the Trace to Lafayette? Um, the uh, you know, we'll you know, we know that we're gonna have to shuttle some people. Uh it's funny how it happens, though. It's like uh the last last year, and when we've done stuff between uh Lafayette and um and Mandeville, things always seem to take care of themselves. Like we plan on carrying people, but they end up finding somebody that they're riding with and they end up jumping in somebody's car and they get there. Um, but we will plan on having people riding back with us, and we'll be carrying their bikes to get them from Jazz on the Trace and Mandeville um to Lafayette for Cyclozytica or to Broadrange.

SPEAKER_02: 1:23:57

No, I think that's that's great. Michael, I want you to know that he does uh rent tandem.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:03

So if we want to end our friendship, we could we could uh you know it does come with divorce papers if you're married. So uh yeah. Yeah, my wife wanted to buy one of those, and I was like, you don't understand those bicycles actually in there are packed with divorce papers because when you're riding with your spouse, it's not gonna end well.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:26

Okay, well say tandem manufacturer, his quote was whatever direction your relationship is heading, a tandem bike will get you there faster.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:36

Oh, yeah. We joke and we've talked about on the show several times, or you know, we'll be riding Iowa or you know, Michigan or wherever, and you'll get to like this top of the hill, and you'll just feel there'll be a tandem bike off to the side, husband and wife. And as soon as you get to top of the hill, they're not saying anything, but you just feel the tension. It's just like, okay, I'm just gonna keep riding. Have a nice day.

SPEAKER_05: 1:24:58

Well, they're not thinking about it being flat here. Like I've I've talked about our recumbent tandem. It was a couple, and the wife, no, the lady was on the back, just bring them, bring the program guide, bring that program guide. Just laying back as comfortable as can be.

SPEAKER_02: 1:25:14

Uh, I love it. I love it. Our our uh our good friend Phoenix and Carrie have a tandem, and and so I would say, hey, he's not pedaling back there, and and and Carrie would say, like, I haven't heard that all day long. Really? Um well listen, I I we do have a lightning round for you. It's five five simple questions here, but um Scott, anything else that we want to make sure that we get out? I'm I'm I'm uh I'm intrigued. I'm I'm I'm I'm uh definitely excited. I'm I'm I want to definitely try to put some put some fuel to the fire of the decision making um what we're gonna do. But uh anything else that you want to get out uh to the to the podcast or people because it is on YouTube as well, and we do have a pretty decent listenership now.

SPEAKER_05: 1:26:05

So yeah, so the the fears of snakes, alligators, and mosquitoes is uh is overblown. You will see alligators. Um you know, you'll probably see a snake, uh, but they're not you know, they're not all over, and there's they're never a pest and stuff. Um and the mosquitoes aren't really uh haven't been a problem in fact to me. Um we do have I think one of the mosquito repellent in the store, but I don't know if we ever like I never use it, so it's it's fine. Like I said, it's all that those fears are overblown. Um but we're here, just have a good time. So I mean just check out cyclesadd code.org or check out cycle Louisiana, and we'll have all the information there.

unknown: 1:26:48

Cool.

SPEAKER_02: 1:26:48

And forgive my ignorance, but every picture on your website, everybody's wearing shorts. So in April, weather is pretty pretty 70s, 80s, or I'd say oh you just plan on like 74 degrees, blue skies, and tailwinds.

SPEAKER_05: 1:27:02

Um that's the only way really plan. So um now the the weather, I mean, it's it's it could be 50 in the 50s, you know, in the morning and be in the 80s in the afternoon. Um if we do have rain, it typically comes and goes like in the in the course of an hour. Um, I mean, the only time there's been one time where I officially said we're canceling because of weather, um, and it was on a Sunday ride. 60% of the people still went out on a road. We still had to go put our staff out on the course. Um, you know, so you know, you you're gonna have some people that are fair weather, you know, if it's foggy, they're not gonna get on their bike, and then you have some that doesn't matter what the what's going on with the weather, they're you know, they're riding. So we know we're gonna have all you know a wide variety of people, so we'll we're we're prepared for that. But um, yeah, I mean, just as you get closer, just keep an eye on it. But I mean 74 blue skies and tailwinds, that's what we're planning for.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:02

Good enough. I I like it. That's a good plan. Um cyclezydeco.org is the website. Um, there's lots of great information, itineraries, maps, uh some lodging options, registration is there. Um uh cyclezydeco.org is the website. So um, all right, Michael, a little fun here for us. All right. All right, this is for Scott. Okay. Favorite site, uh, favorite Zydeco song or band.

SPEAKER_05: 1:28:36

Uh, we'll go to the dupsy for the band. Um, and then I I guess one that we use in our scavenger hunt is don't mess about toot um would be one of the favorite songs.

SPEAKER_02: 1:28:46

Okay, perfect. Uh uh, and I'm probably going to mispronounce the this because Michael, I last night we were looking at it, he said uh crawfish, yes. Yes or or uh um bowden balls? Boudin boudin balls.

SPEAKER_01: 1:29:07

Boudin balls he's from Michigan, forgive him.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:15

Well I love you too.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:22

How can tell you get out of it? Um crawl fichet touffe or boudin balls? Yeah, so right now I would take the call fichet touffe. I haven't had a callfish since um since the springtime.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:35

Okay. So do you prefer a sunrise ride or a sunset dance? That's a loaded question.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:47

Uh I'm gonna go with the ride.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:49

Okay, all right. Uh two more and then we'll leave you alone. Gumbo or jambalaya? Gumbo. Gumbo.

SPEAKER_05: 1:29:57

It depends on um eating or cooking.

SPEAKER_02: 1:29:59

Okay. Eating.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:00

Um eating gumbo.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:03

Okay. And then at the finish line of a ride, would you prefer a beer, a bourbon, or some sweet tea? Um, I'm gonna take a beer. All right, perfect. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05: 1:30:18

Yeah, so we have um we got a lot of local beers that we feature on the during the ride, and we'll go by you test brewing in Ardeville. So that's that's a popular stop. Parish brewing is another one. So I mean a good cold beer after a ride. That's that's uh that's the way to go.

SPEAKER_02: 1:30:37

That's a staple right there. Well, all right. Ladies and gentlemen, this has been Scott uh from Uh RideZydeco. Um, and we've we're so thankful that you came on tonight with us. I know it was late, and so thank you for your time. Um again, it's cyclezydeco.org. Uh, you can check out the ride. Registration is right there. Uh again, the dates are are uh uh Jasmine on the trace is the 6th and 7th of April, and 8th through the 12th is cycle zydeco of April.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:10

So all right, thank you very much, Scott. We appreciate your time. Thank you, man.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:15

Looking forward to having y'all join us for the party.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:17

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05: 1:31:17

So we might do that. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:21

Yeah, well, you and I have a lot to think about, sir. I mean, Scott was wonderful. I I really enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:31:29

Fantastic. See, that's why I was so excited. I hey, this is gonna be great. So, no, um, you know, it's been on our short list. Uh, we've talked about it. Um, several of our friends from the Atlanta, Atlanta area last year went. We had a couple other members of our uh team uh went, I believe, the year before, heard lots of great things. Um, so yep, got a lot of uh lot of thinking. I I believe at this point in time it is certainly on that short list.

SPEAKER_02: 1:31:57

I would definitely think so. You and I have some some decisions to make. Make some plans. Well, I tell you what, uh, we've gone a little bit long, like we always do, but that's okay. It's a good thing that listener doesn't pay by the minute. So um, because we would be broke. I mean, I mean, um uh why don't we give the listeners do you have a uh I'm sure you do. I'm I know you do, but you have another listener spotlight? I absolutely have another listener spotlight. Well, let me bring you on correctly, sir, out of respect. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_01: 1:32:42

All right. The clues for this listener spotlight are as follows. This town was named for a town in England. Uh, it was first settled as part of another town. Uh, it was incorporated in the 1700s. It is responsible. This town is responsible for greatly increasing the industrial production across the entire U.S. Um tracking time has been very important to this city's development and to its history. And this city maintains names of certain neighborhoods that reflect its past industrial history. So I I gave you a couple of little nuggets there that you can uh take and run with. Didn't I? You did. You don't look convinced, you're like, hmm. Well, I'm thinking. I'm thinking, I'm thinking about it. The first thing, just to because some of these are you know pretty vague, could be used for a lot of things. I will say, think about the town was incorporated in the 1700s. Because if you think that, that gives you a timeline. And if you think 1700s, that can rule out lots of areas of the United States. I'll just give you that as an extra little clue.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:13

Give us the clue of the time again. This this time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34:18

Tracking time has been very important to this city's development and history.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:29

I'm I'm gonna retract that, but I was thinking when you were talking about tracking time, I was thinking like maybe racing, but not since the 1700s. I was thinking like tracking cars, time or something like that, but um, guess not. That was my first just this thinking. This is uh this is what this is.

SPEAKER_01: 1:34:48

Not a lot of cars in the 1700s, horse racing, though.

SPEAKER_02: 1:34:57

All right, well, listen, you've given the leisure community something to think about. You've given people to uh let's see if we get uh a couple people to get it correctly. Uh appreciate uh Wade, Paul, Alex, Bell, Matt. His name is Matt, by the way. You call him Mark, I call him Matt. Yeah, we're gonna be a man. And Armando. Um but uh listen, I appreciate you bringing that. Uh listener spotlight.

unknown: 1:35:28

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02: 1:35:29

Hopefully, people will go for a guest. Our next episode, sir. Uh, you wanna you want to give us a little give us a little update on what the what the idea is there? The next episode.

SPEAKER_01: 1:35:41

What is the next episode? We've talked about so many of them. Oh, that next episode. It's what I want you to get me for Christmas. I'm just toy. I'm just toying with you. Uh, because I could kind of see, I mean, like, you know the answer. Uh, yes, our next episode, because we are getting close to the festive season, is going to be our annual Christmas wish list for leisure. And uh, if you haven't been with us before, certainly check out those past ones. Um, this one is going to be good. Basically, it's an episode where Adam and I do our own independent research and find gifts um for the leisuring community. Now, it's not just all going to be cycling based. We've got other things that we're putting in there for any other, you know, leisure type activities. And uh, we will review those, go over them on our next episode. So it should be a lot of fun. We um we always have a lot of people say they love that episode, and I know you and I really enjoy putting that one together. Um, and sometimes we come out, I mean, it could be anything. Last year we had some home decor ideas, we had a bottle of whiskey, we had some bike link biking gadgets. Uh, who knows what it could be. So it'll be interesting.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:00

I believe you even found a um a leather bottle holder for uh for holding a six-pack of beer and on your bicycle.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:10

Yeah. Probably, I don't really know if we need to be carroting around a six-pack of beer on our bike, but there was a leather holder that you put under the main bar and you can put a six-pack in there for all of our friends at Ragbry.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:22

I have one last question for you, sir.

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:26

What does or what does Joe Grammar, Emory Norris, Dennis Keeler, Alex Bell, and Scott Garwick all have in common?

SPEAKER_01: 1:37:36

These are people who looked up symptoms online and are now convinced they're dying of some rare disease. Gosh, I hope not. I like all these people. Um I do too, but no.

SPEAKER_02: 1:37:49

Am I these are monthly supporters of Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure? This is our way of saying thank you uh for being a monthly supporter. Now, if you don't have the dime in your wallet to pay us, it's okay. Would you leave us a review? We would thank you. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:08

With that being listening, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:12

Hey, I noticed something. I know for our YouTube friends, you have a different microphone cover. I wanted you to know I took the whole entire show to realize that I did recognize it earlier.

SPEAKER_01: 1:38:24

So well, I switched normally it's red, but I was wearing the red cycling men of leisure shirt today. Uh, and I thought it just it blended in too much, so I put uh put a black one on there. I thought it's because Nebraska lost.

SPEAKER_02: 1:38:37

Anyways, hey, listen, it's been great to be with you. And uh until the next time, sir. It's a great day. Day for a bite ride.

SPEAKER_00: 1:38:50

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.