SPEAKER_00: 5:18

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_01: 5:32

Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. I am Adam, and once again I am lucky enough to be joined with my good friend, all the way from Central Time, Mr. Michael Sharp. Welcome, my friend. Welcome, Adam. Happy to be here. How you been? You know, I've been pretty good. Pretty good. I uh I what am I talking about? I can complain. I was gonna say I can't complain, but I can complain. So nobody's gonna listen to you, but you can complain all you want. I spent my weekend hugging a toilet. Okay. And I wasn't sick. Oh, okay, I get it. You were painting. Yeah. So we we we had we hired out to have the whole house painted. Um why are you painting the bathroom? Well, this is this is this is my own demise, but so we paid a guy to uh I don't have a big house, but but I painted the living room when we did the wood floor back in whatever. And so and then I bought five gallons of paint to do the rest of the house. And the paint sat in the closet, and finally I decided, you know what? I've got cycling adventures to go on, I'm gonna hire somebody. So did pretty well. Uh I feel like uh to paint the whole house. A guy did a phenomenal job, fixed all the repairs, fixed all the you know, nicks and crannies and everything. Um 1500 bucks. And the guy was wonderful. He went through my whole house and up the stairs and did all the trim and uh beautiful. Well, he said, Do you want to do the bathroom? And I said, No, no, no, that wasn't on the radar. Well, as soon as he was on your radar, yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. I know where this is going. As soon as he was done, a couple times we went out shopping, replaced the blinds. You've been in my house, you know that they used to have beige blinds, but since everything got painted crisp white with on the trim, so we got new blinds, uh, everything was fancy. But every time I came in my house, there was that dark bathroom. And I thought, I can live with it. Except there, everything bright white, you know, everything is like a snow. We went with this color called snow, which is basically white, and uh, we watched the girl goop with one drop of blue, and that's pretty much uh put in the shaker, and that's pretty much what it's like. It's like I think they call it snow drop or whatever, and but then yeah, it's white. But you come through and you look, and there was that dark bathroom. So my wife and I both there's a door on the bathroom. Yeah, I did shut it for a while because that's bright white. So I um I agreed that I would I would spend some time and paint it. Well, I think I'd rather paint a big old living room because walking, like trying to maneuver and cutting everything into the bathroom, it's just not my idea for a good time. So there's where my complaint is. But besides that, I have no complaints. Well, good, good. Well, I'm glad you got it painted bright white. Yeah, we went with the nice and nice and bright. So now when you turn a light on, you're like, oh, like Chevy Chase Christmas vacation. Um we are gonna get into uh so last episode we had a special episode. Uh we had the domestic ride director Ron Ward. A lot of good feedback uh that we got on that. But we you know what we missed? We did miss your highlight, your contribution to the show, your donation. I'm just kidding. Um, your listener spotlight uh guessing.

SPEAKER_02: 9:36

Yeah, it was a it was a one-off. We kind of did it out of sequence, and this one will be a day or two late. Um, but uh we felt it necessary to get that out there because we're doing the contest, and we'll talk about the contest in a little bit here. It's kind of exciting, and we've already got some participants, so uh we'll discuss that a little later. But yeah, I did not get a chance to do my uh my listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_01: 9:59

And I didn't get a chance to play with my toys, but uh I understand that a friend of ours reached out to you um checking in on you, but had a listener spotlight guess. So he did. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_02: 10:25

All right. Uh this listener spotlight, the clues were as follows. The original area of the town was part of a military district. Uh, this community has an unlucky number of cemeteries within uh only a few miles of its borders. After World War II, the town transitioned from agriculture to industry and retail as far as its economy goes. And my state, if you know what state I've lived in, I've mentioned it many times, you've mentioned it many times. Uh my state's namesake is represented somehow by or within this town.

SPEAKER_01: 11:17

The state of confusion. Um yeah, maybe. I'm just kidding. Now, Connie, as I've had a really good time doing, kind of like a cult classic, I understand that your favorite husband, Armando, has had a guest.

SPEAKER_02: 11:39

As opposed to her unfavorite husband, which, you know, well, yeah. I'm sure I'm sure at times Ronda's probably her unfavored husband, but as we all are, uh from time to time.

SPEAKER_01: 11:50

She had to fly in and we had to pick her up from the airport. Do you think he was the favorite or least favorite at that time?

SPEAKER_02: 11:59

Uh I don't. It could have went either way. But she did it with a smile on her face, so that's all that matters.

SPEAKER_01: 12:05

That's a good point.

SPEAKER_02: 12:06

All right. Our buddy Armando uh was just touching base with me and finding how I was doing with the unemployment situation, that type of thing. And uh he gave me a guess. Um this way, if he gives it to me, you don't steal it. But um he gave me the town of Bentonville, Arkansas. Hmm. Now let me tell you, south of where I'm at here, by uh three or four hours, probably four hours. Um, Bentonville, Arkansas, if you haven't been there, number one is a home of Walmart, uh, if I remember correctly. But number two is uh becoming a huge, huge uh trail cycling mecca. So a lot of bicycle trails down there. A lot of people travel for miles and miles to go uh mountain biking in Bentonville. Cool. Yeah. That's all I know about Bentonville.

SPEAKER_01: 13:03

Well, I have been scouring the socials because of the contest. I believe what happened was is people got so excited about the contest that they did not leave any other. So only guest we have is our good friend Armando.

SPEAKER_02: 13:23

And Armando, I hate to tell you, but that was not a correct answer. Oh man. The town that I was looking for is Tucker, Georgia. Well, how does that deal with where you live? Uh, I'll get to that. Originally it was a military district, uh, military district number 572. Oh they did that good one. Well, after they did 571, I mean there was only one way to go, and that was up because that district was horrible. But uh District 572 became later became uh Decab County. Um this town has 13 cemeteries within four miles of their town. So a lot of berry people there. Um after World War II, it transitioned from agriculture to industry and retail. Um, nearby employers include Kraft Foods and General Motors. And the one that you really want to know how I've made that work is my state, the state that I live in's namesake is represented somehow by this town. I thought someone would get this. I thought you would get this actually. Uh Steve Walsh is the keyboardist and vocalist for the American rock band Kansas. Ah he lives in Tucker. All we are is dust and that. That's not their best one, but that's okay. That you know, that works. Yeah, that's all I got. Good old Kansas. Well, folks from Tucker, Georgia. We appreciate it. Thank you, Armando, for uh throwing in your uh your guess.

SPEAKER_01: 15:14

Well, why don't we move right into the update with Michael? I thought you were going somewhere.

SPEAKER_02: 15:23

Um are you talking about my why are we always having updates with find out about Michael's shoulder or clavicle? Uh we'll find about is yes, I'm I'm still unemployed. Um needless to say, not a good time to be looking for a job. Yeah. Uh, you know, it's Christmas time. Uh, I hope that's what it is. Um, but I'm, you know, getting those resumes out there. It's interesting, you know, how much AI plays into this kind of thing. You know, you get a lot of like literally companies now are doing virtual recruiters that will contact you and talk to you. So a live person isn't even talking to you, it's all done through AI, which is really kind of I get why they do it, but it's kind of weird, you know. I'm talking to somebody, it's not even a real person, and I know it's not a real person. Just kind of bizarre.

SPEAKER_01: 16:18

You know, that would definitely, I mean, I have to say, like, that would definitely be strange. I give you that. I I bought some new uh, I hate that we use the word surveillance. It sounds like so official. I bought some new cameras for my house, new resolution cameras, and something was wrong in the package, and I'm looking for a contact for Google. Not sponsored by Google, not paid by Google. I'm just telling you what happened. So I I called the number. And at first I thought I was talking to a human until something was just a little bit off. And I said, I'm like, well, is that normally supposed to be like that in the package? Because it was missing. Uh, there's a magnetic mount that goes on the house. And I'm like, well, that's crazy. I'm like, I have an extra one, but I still think since I paid for it, if you could just send me one. And I was waiting for the response, like a human being would be like, Oh, well, yeah, Mr. Adam, you know, that sounds good. We'll do that. And all of a sudden it goes, Could you please tell me what was missing from the package? And I thought to myself, I'm talking to a freaking robot. I'm talking to a computer. But it was so good at first that I honestly thought it was a human.

SPEAKER_02: 17:34

So um well, here's here's my problem is AI is taking over so many jobs, and they keep saying AI is gonna take over more and more jobs. Where are we all gonna be working in the future?

SPEAKER_01: 17:43

Transportation. Come on down, buddy. I will let you know.

SPEAKER_02: 17:47

They already got they already have self-driving cars. They'll make self-driving buses and they don't need you anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 17:54

I have a feeling I'll be okay.

SPEAKER_02: 17:57

Yeah, I think you will. So I continue to look. We'll see. You know, I'm not to the point of I'm eating spam and you know, things like that. But uh, you know, well, hopefully uh things start turning around here. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01: 18:12

All right. Well, um, if you are in the in the business for a business architect, if you're looking for one, I know a gentleman or business analyst.

SPEAKER_02: 18:21

I've done that too.

SPEAKER_01: 18:22

Yep. I know a gentleman, a good guy. Uh I would vouch for him. Um come on a vouch for you, though. Lucky for me, I should be okay. So uh you could figure out that yellow line, I would get you a job driving the bus. But I got bad news for you. You are not a cold weather guy. I gotta tell you. When you live in Michigan, it sucks there. Yeah. On Sunday I went five miles in the snow hiking. Well, that is your own fault now, isn't it? No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02: 18:59

That's uh you know, you could have just gone into your little room that's right around the corner there, and on that big TV could have put like winter scenes on. Exactly. Got on your treadmill and did the same thing.

SPEAKER_01: 19:11

Yeah, but I mean I got to see the but what I got it wouldn't have to been cold, you could have just done it sh what? The crisp air outside, all the wildlife. I mean, it was oh man. And then I got I get me a nice hot coffee on my way.

SPEAKER_02: 19:30

Oh okay. I'm just saying there's alternatives. You don't have to go out in the cold, so this is true.

SPEAKER_01: 19:36

This is true. I'd have to move all the sweaters off of everything in there. Well, they've been sitting there for a while, they need to be put away. That's right. Uh like, why does this thing hold it up in the air perfectly on a hanger? Uh you mentioned something, which is kind of a segue. Um we got a new monthly subscriber. We put out the call uh to help keep the the wheels a rolling, keep the show going down the road. Keeping the lights on. And uh you mentioned spam, and I joke with you about spam because we got a new subscriber, and you said, hey, hey, hey, I can get three cans of great value. So I figured, you know, that's uh that's that's an option, but uh I want to give some credit to Kip Uthold. Um and uh we're very thankful. Um which leads me to a question, sir. What does Alex Bell? Uh what what it you're putting me on the spot, is that what you're saying? No, no, I'm gonna lead you to a question here. What does Alex Bell, Joe Grammar, Kip Uthold, Dennis Keeler, Scott Garwick, Ryan Roenick, Emory Norris all have in common? Oh, that's easy.

SPEAKER_02: 20:58

I know this one. Each one of them have loudly complained about a pothole in their community. Very good. As if the city's actually gonna listen to them.

SPEAKER_01: 21:12

Well, you know, I mean, some people uh some people complain all year round, and my roads never get fixed. So I I hope they have better success than I.

SPEAKER_02: 21:21

So well, you know, we'll see. Um you so what about them? What about those seven people?

SPEAKER_01: 21:31

Well, they happen to be monthly subscribers.

SPEAKER_02: 21:34

Oh, okay. Well, you asked me. I gave you the answer. Apparently, it wasn't right, although I bet it is. Um they're all monthly subscribers.

SPEAKER_01: 21:43

Yes, they they they bring their wallet to the show. If you cannot afford to bring your wallet to the show, that's fine. Would you do us a favor and leave us a five-star review? So be good. Just as that's right. Um, speaking of hiking, I know that you've been doing really well. You and I follow each other on this Apple platform on the watch, and I see you've always been doing a great job. Are you outside walking in this stuff or are you gonna not have a lot of snow there?

SPEAKER_02: 22:15

I have no idea. Um, I get outside walking quite a bit, but then also, like, you know, I take ample advantage of when I've got to go to the grocery store, dollar store, things like that. I park all the way in the back of the parking lot and huff it up to the door and things like that. But um, you know, we got a little snow last week. Um, nothing nothing major. Nothing on the ground right now. It's not like you guys where you get snow and it just sets around forever and yeah, reminds you that you live in Michigan and not someplace really cool. Well, isn't warm and sunny, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:51

Yeah, tomorrow it's supposed to be freezing rain, which that's obviously a little scary, but it we'll make the best of it. We'll make the best of it.

SPEAKER_02: 22:59

53 degrees here tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01: 23:02

Uh yeah, well, um what did I hit? Oh, sorry about that. Well, um, listen, I know we have another listener spotlight, but let's talk about our contest, and then you have something as well, right? I do, yeah. So let's talk about our contest. What are we uh contesting? We are contesting the fact that people can guess the correct route for Big Brag 2026. We were lucky enough to have uh the new domestic ride director, Ron Ward, and the do we say old domestic ride director? No, no, the international director. Original. Original, yeah, there we go. Original uh director on him. He's now the international director, Mr. Franklin Johnson. Uh, those two gentlemen came on. We talked about Ron's new role, what the plan is, um, and how to move forward with Bragg, what the what the vision is, and then I'm pretty excited for those for that for that organization, Franklin and his team. Um, and to kick that off, you and I decided, along with Franklin and Ron, the four of us got together and we decided to have a contest. Um, we're gonna use our platform to share the contest. Um, but this is going to be guessing the route of Big Brag 2026. You want to take it from here or you want me to keep going? No, I can take it from here.

SPEAKER_02: 24:28

Guess the route. So, what we are looking for is we are looking for um each night of the ride for a person to guess each night of the ride. Where's it gonna start? Where's it gonna end, and where are all all the night towns going to be? This is how we're doing it. Every time you guess a correct town with the correct night, you get 10 points. Now, if you correct the if you guess a correct town, but it's not on the right day or whatever, say you say, you know, whatever, whatever town, XYZ town in Georgia, um, and it's right, but it's not on the right date, we're gonna give you five points. Now, if you want an extra 10 points, if you will send in A copy, uh, you know, like a screenshot that you're following us on YouTube or TikTok or, you know, one of the uh podcasting platforms, we'll give you an extra 10 points. So what we're gonna do is gather all those up. We're gonna score them, and whoever gets the top score is gonna win. However, there might be more than one person that has the same amount of points. So in that case, what we're gonna do is we're going to do a put everybody's name who guesses it correctly in a hat, and we're gonna draw it right here on our podcast and have a final ultimate winner. And we thought about a lot of things. It's like, what can we give as a prize? Well, you know, we can give a t-shirt, we give a hat, we give some patches, stickers, what have you. But we thought something like this deserves something special. So what we are going to do is Adam and I are going to create a one-of-a-kind jersey for the winner of Guess the Brag Route 2026. And uh, whoever's name is drawn will get in contact with them, find out what size they need, that kind of thing. And they will have a one-of-a-kind jersey that they can wear with pride to show everybody that they, in fact, guessed the route.

SPEAKER_01: 26:40

That's pretty cool. Now, if you have been able to see the graphic online, uh, Michael made a good point to me the other day. I was just putting an image of a jersey to put a little enticement out there for your people to guess. That is not the actual jersey. Uh, the actual jersey is going to incorporate the Bragg logo um from the ride. It'll also incorporate a Road Adventures of Cycling Man of Leisure logo. We will design it. Um, that graphic is just used for just to get you to guess.

SPEAKER_02: 27:18

Yes, I I have to act as the uh uh the uh the law firm that's responsible for this uh this organization. So I had to point out that we don't want to mislead anybody. And also, no purchase is necessary.

SPEAKER_01: 27:32

Do we cheat them and how? Is that is that your no. Oh, oh, oh, oh, sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_02: 27:40

No, you're right. I don't know. It's gonna be fun, it's gonna be exciting. We yeah, I mean, it's just out there for the the purposes of uh presentation, get people excited about it. It's gonna be something good, I'm sure. And uh that's that's how it'll go. So go ahead and get your guesses in. Now we have had, it's only been a couple few days, but we have had it. Some people get their guesses in. And and uh what are what are some of the the guessing spots or the guest spots?

SPEAKER_01: 28:08

I've got Augusta that came across. I've got Athens, Cave Springs, Lookout Mountain, um, and Columbus are some of the towns that I'm willing to share so far. So Tucker's not on there. Oh, look at the time.

SPEAKER_02: 28:27

Uh doesn't mean just because it hasn't been guessed that it's not right, because you know, and and again, this is a points thing. So right town, right place. And I do want to say um, you know, you have to guess for Saturday because that's our starting town. Where do we start? You'll guess Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. And the guess on Tuesday is also the guess on Wednesday, and then you'll have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, which would be the in town. Now, whatever you guess on Tuesday is also your guess on Wednesday. If you get that correct, that's a twofer. That's 10 points times two, because that's the layover day. So wanted to clarify that.

SPEAKER_01: 29:22

Whether that could be YouTube or that could be your favorite podcast or pod podcast platform, if I can speak English, or Facebook, or Twitter, or X. That's one of the same. You get the point. Whatever. Yeah, you follow us somewhere and screenshot us in the contest guest from our website. That you can include an attachment and just show us that screenshot, and that's 10 additional points. That's right. So do that.

SPEAKER_02: 29:55

Just throw out 10 or just throw out what seven random towns, even if you don't know. It's like, ah, just throw throw seven random towns out, and you've automatically got ten points, and who knows?

SPEAKER_01: 30:08

That's right. That's right. Well, okay, so that's our uh we'll be sharing a little social media thing there to entice some more guesses. If you didn't hear the last episode, we are going to do a release the route show. Franklin and his Ron Ward and everybody will put out their midnight uh YouTube video of where we're going, and then you and I are gonna break down with a little trivia uh with a gentleman from Bragg, and and that will give us a uh uh a wonderful show there to to be to release at noon on New Year's Day.

SPEAKER_02: 30:51

So our first show of the of the year, just like it was this year. Um we'll have them on. We'll release that uh 12 hours after the official announcement is is uh is presented, and uh there'll be some trivia and some more stuff about the route and the places that uh riders will be going to. So um we've always had a lot of good feedback on the ride release for Bragg. So uh should be another good episode.

SPEAKER_01: 31:21

Well, sir, you before doing um listener spotlight. Spotlight.

SPEAKER_02: 31:28

Do you you said you had something? I did. I found something interesting when I was perusing through the television set the other day. Thought I would bring it up. Uh, I found it interesting. Have you ever watched Forge and Fire? Is that where they make knives and that's where they make knives and swords, and they make like, you know, they have their contests, they bring like four craftsmen, four blacksmiths out, and then they have two rounds, and that eliminates them down to two, and then they send those two blacksmiths back to their home forge to craft some historical weapon. And I mean, some of these things are just crazy off-the-wall things. I mean, they're they're real, um, but I mean, they're just like intricate and incredible, and they have like three or four days to like complete it at home. And if you haven't watched it, it's really, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know something about it now just because I've watched it, but uh, you know, they're making like layered Damascus and they're using all these different techniques, and um, they aren't always given like sometimes you know, they'll be like, well, here's some really good steel, you know. Um, but they're not always given really good steel. Sometimes what, you know, they're given like just junk or you know, yard implements, and they're like have to go and harvest the steel that they use. And so they have to determine, because you can't just use any metal, you don't, you know, you can't use aluminum, and you don't want to use like, you know, wrought iron and things like that. So you got to use good high carbon steel to make these quality knives and swords. And so a lot of times they have to just go and harvest it. So then they have to know how to tell what's good steel from bad steel. Um, so if you haven't watched it, I would definitely do it. It's it's entertaining and it's uh contest, and some of the things that they make are incredibly beautiful. I mean, you just gotta love their artistic uh creations that you would not expect from, you know, when you say, oh, the blacksmith is an artist. Uh blacksmiths really are artists. It's incredible. The reason why I bring this up is uh I was watching the other night and they had a really interesting thing with bicycles. And I'll tell you how this goes. Um, they were given like bicycle frames. I mean, they had like, you know, three or four bicycles out there and they're undercover and they're like, okay, we need you to make this knife. Here's the parameters that you have to follow because you have to have a, you know, similar parameters so that they can judge them equally. And they've got three judges who are like professional knife makers and a professional collie martial artist and a professional historic weapons creator, and they do the judging on these. And um, he raised up the thing and there's these old bicycles sitting there. And they were like, you've got to make your weapons out of this. And so, of course, you know, most bicycles, especially the older ones, are gonna be made out of like aluminum, and so they had to like find the the good steel, the high carbon steel, and and uh they made blades out of it. And then part of their testing was they actually tested it on bicycles. So they had like a you know, a bicycle, you know, handlebar chop and stuff like that. Um, I mean, they brutally test these weapons to see if they can break them, bend them, uh, you know, bust them, you know, take out handles, whatever they can do, just to see how strong that they make these weapons. And it's it was really impressive, but it was all around bicycles and the testing was done on bicycles. So I thought I'd bring it up. Anyone who's interested in bicycles and has never watched Forge and Fire, check out season five, episode 19. It's called Wind and Fire, and it's all around making these weapons out of bicycle parts, and then they test it on bicycles. So I thought it was kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01: 35:17

Is that the one where they um like try to cut paper? Like, can it cut paper or how fast can it cut paper sometimes?

SPEAKER_02: 35:25

No, they really don't do paper. I mean, they'll do like they they generally do like three different tests. One's like a strength test. It's like, you know, can your blade hold up to like, you know, cranking into like deer antlers and things like that. And then they've got the kill test, which is always the funniest one. Um, the collymarshall artist comes up there, Doug, and he, you know, they'll use like, you know, pigs or whatever, and they'll like cut into them and see how they can, you know, and then he will determine, you know, it will kill. Um so uh that's that's always a big thing. Everybody wants to hear their knife when he says, it will kill. Um things like that. So I mean they they uh don't do anything like that. They do sometimes have them cut through after they put them through it. Like the final test will be they, you know, will put up a line of apples and they'll have to like slice through it and they'll see how far it goes and how well it cuts. And I mean, just some of them is just incredible. Like when they're doing like the medieval swords and stuff, they'll be smashing them into like you know, replica shield, Roman shields and things like that. I mean, these guys don't hold back. It's it's incredible. And some of the knives unfortunately fail, but then there's other ones that they're just like beaten and beaten, and it's like they hold together and it's just incredible. So that's cool. Check it out, it's very interesting.

SPEAKER_01: 36:45

Well, I appreciate you bringing that up. Uh, always interesting to see a repurpose of a bicycle. Um, and with that, I'll turn it over to listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_02: 37:03

All right. The clues for this listener spotlight are as follows. Say this. You know, he's got about as good a chance at guessing the right answer before I give the clues as he's got after I've given the clues. So that's true. One of these days you'll get it right. And that'll be the day you like uh Springfield, Massachusetts. No, it was St. Louis. Um, the city is named for a geological formation. It was founded in the late 1800s. In the 1870s to be exact. Uh, canals have been an important part of this city since prior to European visitation. Uh, in this city, some indigenous plants are very well protected. They have some huge, huge legal protections for some of their indigenous plants. And the city hosts some big league entertainment if the season is right.

SPEAKER_01: 38:14

Big league entertainment if the season is right. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 38:20

Protected indigenous plants, canals. I know the answer already. Yeah, I bet you do. Man, I'm smart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 38:35

I am so smart. SM Marty. So there we go. Well, all right. So looking at our calendar, my friend, the show will come out ASAP as soon as I can get it done. Yep. We will probably have another show on the 21st of December.

SPEAKER_00: 38:58

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 38:59

And then, my friend, the Big Brag 2026 route release.

SPEAKER_02: 39:05

So one thing I do want to say is we need to have your big brag guesses to us, like dated on your thing, prior to say 10 o'clock on the 31st of December.

SPEAKER_01: 39:19

Yes, because I I want to celebrate New Year's and I have to get all the calculations and the guesses in before.

SPEAKER_02: 39:27

So any guesses, go ahead and get them in now. I mean, the route's not going to change. Um, but go ahead and get your guesses in. It has to be, you know, dated prior to 10 p.m. on December 31st because they're announcing it at 12 a.m. on December or on January 1st. Um, get those in. Anything that's received after that, sorry we have to throw out, but um throw an answer in. I mean, what's it gonna hurt? You know, pick those few cities and give it a whirl. It only hurts once. It's it's kind of like betting, but true. There's no money in it. So, you know. Well, no harm, no foul.

SPEAKER_01: 40:07

I was gonna say this year, the football season is not as scripted as it normally is.

SPEAKER_02: 40:12

I mean, um, but I live here in Kansas City, and let me tell you, every after every game, they're like, they're still got a chance, they still got a chance. If you know, if they win every game, and they said this before the last game, if they win every game and all these other teams here lose, we can still win, and we got an X amount percentage. And then yesterday or a couple days ago, after their their loss to uh whoever it was, was the Lions? No, CJ Stroud and the Texans. No, the Texans, that's right, Houston. Okay. Um, after that loss, it's like, yeah, yeah, we're you know, all the diehards, we're still in it. We got a 16% chance, you know, to get in it. That means we win every game, all the rest of the games, and all these four teams lose. It's like, okay, now it's it's starting to get rid of it's like, you know, it's a typical part of the case. If a doc flies off my roof to the north and not the south, and goes three blocks down and then is hit by a car. We could pull this. I mean, it's just getting crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 41:21

I uh uh yeah, I know. They do the same thing here, you know, like oh, for the Lions to be in, Dan Campbell's got to go for it on fourth, and then he's gotta do this, and and everyone has to lose, and the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears and everything else.

SPEAKER_02: 41:35

And I'm temperature has to be above 65 degrees on December 28th, and you know, just insane craziness, but it's kind of kind of mixed up this year, so uh keeps it exciting.

SPEAKER_01: 41:49

How do you feel about the Indiana Hoosiers? I am curious. Did you watch the Big Ten Championship?

SPEAKER_02: 41:59

Uh, I did. What do you want me to comment on?

SPEAKER_01: 42:04

There's no secret that I'm not an Ohio State fan, but that's not my point. I I'm curious is do you feel now that uh the Hoosiers uh because they didn't dominate that game. They just they had clocked, you know, they they won.

SPEAKER_02: 42:19

I mean, in the end, they pulled off the win over Ohio.

SPEAKER_01: 42:22

So I am not trying to walk you into a meat grinder with our Ohio fans.

SPEAKER_02: 42:27

Yeah, I was just like, where are you taking me on this?

SPEAKER_01: 42:29

No, no. I mean, they they they they won. I mean, it wasn't like yes, we stomped them, you know, but you know, that in the end they won. I'm sure the field goal kicker for Ohio State is kicking himself in the in the keister right now, but well, he left the state. Actually, never went back to the state, you know. I saw one comment that was funny that said Pat McAfee uh can find somebody on Big Ten kickoff to kick a better field goal than theirs. That was great. But no, I'm actually being serious. I'm not I'm not trying to walk you into a trap here. It's a trap, but no.

SPEAKER_02: 43:06

It's a trap.

SPEAKER_01: 43:08

So do you think now the Hoosiers go on and take it all?

SPEAKER_02: 43:12

Uh I do not believe they will go on and take it all. No offense to the Hoosiers. Gotcha. Uh, you're right, they did not dominate the game, but they did play a good game and they did upset. Um but I think there's too many variables.

SPEAKER_01: 43:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 43:28

I mean, I I uh they they very easily could, but I'm gonna I'm gonna say if I was betting, I would say they're not going to. Gotcha. But before the Ohio game, I'd have probably said they're not gonna win that game either. But I mean, they're a good team. I don't want to take anything away from them, and uh they did uh take care of Ohio, so you can't argue with that. No, there's so many factors at play into those kind of things that it's like uh as far as the next step, do we take it and win everything? So we'll see. And there's a lot of you know, there's a lot of there was always used to be a lot of controversy around the whole who's the top college football team, and it's like, no, we gotta do it this way, and then we did it one way, and it's like we gotta have this playoff system, and now you know the playoff system isn't what we had all hoped, I don't think, at least from my point, what we'd hoped it'd be. I mean, you know, with the whole Notre Dame thing, which I'm sure you know about, but um, you know, it's uh again, any kind of times you have these kind of playoff things, there's always subjectiveness that's built into it. And that subjectiveness is controlled by us humans, and uh it's always gonna be flawed. There's not gonna be any perfect way, so right.

SPEAKER_01: 44:51

No, I uh I was just curious. Uh, I agree, it's not a perfect system. I mean, it's it's obviously you know, they keep adding more and more to the mix. The Big Ten is now the big 20 almost. So um getting getting real close.

SPEAKER_02: 45:08

But uh Big Ten, soon to be Big 20 or whatever, needs to pull in some smaller, weaker teams. Yeah. Just so my team has somebody to really beat up on.

SPEAKER_01: 45:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 45:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 45:25

Uh well.

SPEAKER_02: 45:27

There we go. There's our football segment for this uh episode. That's leisure, right? I mean you're sitting watching sports, so well, as long as you're not getting too upset and ripping your TV off the wall and screaming and yelling like the players can hear you. Uh yeah, it's leisure. Gosh darn it. What are you thinking? Uh he's not gonna answer you back.

SPEAKER_01: 45:47

Sorry. You know, two years ago, as you know, I spent uh many, many Saturdays and Sundays watching almost every game. Up and even I'd watch Friday night, Saturday, Sunday. Yeah, I had to talk to somebody. I'd take some time away. So I now select a few I know uh game on right now. I think it's the Chargers and the and the Eagles.

SPEAKER_02: 46:14

And so, but uh there was you're not you're not betting on those like little schools anymore. There's a small little school in Boaz, Mississippi is playing some no-name school in Wyoming, and I've got money on it. I'm gonna watch it.

SPEAKER_01: 46:28

You know when you go to the casino and it says, Do you need help? Yeah, the signs that are all over the place. Yeah, yeah. It got it got to the point where I think I was advertising and paying for those signs.

SPEAKER_02: 46:39

So you gotta you gotta know when to say when.

SPEAKER_01: 46:44

I think when I'm saying when. Yeah. I mean, uh that's sportsbook betting, man. Uh when they first came out, I'll tell you this story. When I first came out, they had this this uh just to get you, you know, five dollar bet on Super Bowl. And if you're team one, you win 350 bucks. This is at the beginning of the season. No, no, it was okay. No, actually, well, I think it and to be fair, it's like when you and I were in Kentucky and and they got FanDuel that weekend, and we made all those crazy bets and made all that money.

SPEAKER_02: 47:16

Um, that was at the beginning of the season.

SPEAKER_01: 47:18

Yeah, you're right. But what I did is is when FanDuel went live, it was right before they probably got tied up with the course and stuff. Um, but I I don't know, it was when one year the Chiefs were playing. I remember being at Joe's house and I was connected. I'm like, I want to try this bet and stuff. And so all I did was bet on the Chiefs to win. I turned five dollars into like 350 or something like that. It was like a gimmick, you know. And then you could either keep it in there or cash it out. Yeah, and I was like, I'm cashing out, and so I thought, well, that's I realized that was a one-off. And then the next year I made all these crazy bets and they just happened to pay. And I'm like, this is great, this is easy money. That's why they call it gambling.

SPEAKER_02: 48:00

Which by the way, if my wife is watching this, I didn't make any money in Kentucky in uh 2023, by the way.

SPEAKER_01: 48:06

Uh no, you had to split it with me.

SPEAKER_02: 48:09

I didn't make any money. What are you talking about? You're gonna get me in trouble. Don't give out the you know.

SPEAKER_01: 48:18

The only thing that was really funny about that is you had to cash out before we left. That was really weird.

SPEAKER_02: 48:23

Yeah, you had to let me yeah. Um, yeah, they just wrote but that was back in the day when they were just like throwing money at new people all the time. Because now uh Missouri just a couple days ago opened up sportsbooks, that kind of thing. Um, and they're not nearly as generous as they used to be back in 2023 when when new states would open up. So they're kind of like they did that originally, and then everybody knows the gig now, so it's like uh, you know, we're not we don't have to throw out hundreds of dollars to new people.

SPEAKER_01: 48:54

So yeah. Well, I still make some bets here and there, but I've definitely slowed my role. So um I made some money on the uh Indiana. And if the IRS you voted against you went against Ohio, of course. My heart and my money go against Ohio, but uh uh that's not a shocker or a secret. But um, but I sure love them them listeners and and uh leisure community from Ohio. So we have a lot actually. We actually do have a lot. So um all good. That's what makes it a rivalry. So um, with that being said, not here, maybe there, but not here. But somewhere in my heart, it's a great day for a bike ride.

SPEAKER_00: 49:47

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.