SPEAKER_00: 0:47

Here's the kind of adventure you only find when you're not in a hurry. This is Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. Stories from the open road where rents are questionable. The stops are intentional, and leisure isn't a reward, it's the plan. If you're looking for speed, then you're lost. But if you're looking for laid-back adventure, good stories, and even better company, welcome home.

SPEAKER_04: 1:13

Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. My name is 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, sir. Hello, Adam. How are you doing? I am good. I am good. I am uh happy to be with you. I I haven't got to do this with you for a while.

SPEAKER_01: 1:32

I know everyone else thinks it's two weeks, but we had to do it a little early because somebody went off to the Caribbean.

SPEAKER_04: 1:39

Yeah. I uh I uh I cannot lie, that was me who went off to the Caribbean. Um good vacation, everything was good, got sick for a couple days, you know, but that's okay. I just sinuses and everyone was hacking and yakking on that boat. So uh but a couple days, uh St. Thomas did me well with the convenience store, got some some good RX and uh uh that's a commercial right here. Good RX. But uh got some good drugs and uh a couple days down and then back up. But uh now I got a question.

SPEAKER_01: 2:17

Yeah when you're on vacation, doesn't something internationally always happen? We talked about this last time and I can't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_02: 2:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:25

This time they gunned down some big drug dealer in Mexico. So again, it starts to ask the question what are you really doing on vacation? It seems like these huge international events always happen when you're out of the country. I'm thinking this bus gig that you say you got is really just a cover story.

SPEAKER_04: 2:43

My brother-in-law thinks I'm a spy for the U.S. government.

SPEAKER_01: 2:46

Well, hmm. I'm starting to see correlations and patterns, so I'm leaving it at that. I don't want to wake up dead one morning, but I am just thinking every time you leave the country, and I'll have to look back because we mentioned it on the show, we have something big happened. This time, Port of Vallarta's going up in flames uh because a big drug lord is killed. So it's just interesting.

SPEAKER_04: 3:11

I know they fired up Costco.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

Well, they looted Costco and then fired it up. I mean, you know. I even love I've been to Porto Vallarta. I love it. It was a beautiful city, wonderful people. It just sorry that that had to happen.

SPEAKER_04: 3:30

Well, you're not wrong. It seems as though every time I I do go there, I mean I do go uh international things do do happen places. I I will I will even confess that in the airport I said to my wife, it happened again. And she said, Well, I'm glad we're not there. And I said, We're not home yet.

SPEAKER_01: 3:50

So um we did not go anywhere near Mexico. Well, the boat didn't go anywhere near Mexico, and your wife didn't go anywhere near Mexico, but there's ways around that. Secret agent, man. There was a medical emergency on your ship, and someone was airlifted off. That's true. Medical emergency could have just been, you know, spy speak for we need our agent off the off the ship, and that is true. You're not wrong. I watch the movies, I know how this kind of stuff works. You gotta have a good cover story.

unknown: 4:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 4:28

Anyways, let's see here. What do we got here? Moving right along. Um uh any update on the job, sir? No. The bus driving job is still available.

SPEAKER_01: 4:43

Um, well, you know, in about two and a half months, I will probably be looking for the$20 an hour job. Uh, I wish that was a joke. Um but no. Uh you know, it's frustrating. I've had 30 plus years of experience in multiple industries, uh, you know, training and managing people and all this other stuff, and now it kind of feels like I'm irrelevant and don't have skills. So it's it's tough.

SPEAKER_02: 5:11

No. We'll move on.

SPEAKER_04: 5:13

You know, you know I uh I think the world of you. But have you ever dipped your toes in the bourbon industry? I mean, you do have some bourbon distilleries around you. Have you reached out to those?

SPEAKER_01: 5:26

I already looked at those, and I actually looked at the big uh brewery that we have here in town. Although, if I was willing to relocate, they did have a uh business analyst job going on at Haven Hill in Kentucky. Which let me tell you. That did make me pause for a moment.

SPEAKER_04: 5:47

Uh dear Mrs. Sharp.

SPEAKER_01: 5:51

I am sorry that I must I must move to get a place there, you know, get a roommate who's like, you know, uh uh, you know, a junior uh distiller or you know, somebody who leads tours at one of the distilleries, and you know, I can just Oh, I could see.

SPEAKER_04: 6:09

Where do we go? Peerless. I could see you running a uh a tour at Peerless.

SPEAKER_01: 6:15

Oh, that would I I would love that. And Peerless is a great place, it's got a great history.

SPEAKER_04: 6:20

You've got a lot of knowledge. I mean, you've you you know your your history teaching would come into play. You you uh and when you tell stories, you you have a point, uh unlike me, who goes on forever.

SPEAKER_01: 6:35

Yeah, maybe maybe I need to call Corky up and uh say, hey Corky. He's the owner.

SPEAKER_04: 6:42

Would you think he would let you look at Patton's gun if you were the one of the Oh absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 6:47

Yeah. Um he's the owner, and he's actually in the uh the Whiskey Hall of Fame there. Uh and the Patton gun reference is the fact that his father was like one of the officers under Patton, and they have a picture of his father, military, and Patton standing there. And uh when uh his father moved on or whatever, or Patton left the you know uh left the theater um when that whole thing went down, uh Patton actually gave one of his you know ivory handled pistols to his father and he keeps it there. And people have tried to buy it and he won't sell it. Um but if you go in there for a tour and you are a veteran, um Corky owner shows up on a regular basis. And a couple of times I've been there, he's actually showed up and said hello and you know, talks to you and all this. He's a really down-to-earth guy. Um, and uh, if you're a veteran, he will actually, and he's got time, he'll actually go back in the vault, pull it out, and let you see.

SPEAKER_04: 7:47

I got to meet him on our last tour, thanks to you. You had some VIP tickets, you big baller you, and uh and he showed up and came in and told some stories about um what was the band that he went to military school with? Almond Brothers. Almond Brothers, yes, yes, yes, yes. Uh he talked about the pistol. And anyways, if you find yourself uh in uh in Bourbon Row, uh please go to Peerless. That was a wonderful tour.

SPEAKER_01: 8:20

That's uh Bourbon Row in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky.

SPEAKER_04: 8:25

Right down from the Louisville Slugger plant.

SPEAKER_01: 8:27

So um Yeah, so that's a good tour.

SPEAKER_04: 8:31

So maybe maybe you would be good at tours. Uh I think you would be good, actually.

SPEAKER_01: 8:37

Well, maybe I should give old uh Corky Taylor a call and say, hey, Corky, I need a job. I like your product.

SPEAKER_04: 8:45

That wouldn't tell you moving to Kentucky because I don't think you're gonna be able to remote work uh uh a tour.

SPEAKER_02: 8:53

No, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

I've already tried to get my daughter to go to the University of Kentucky, so uh it's it's been floated. Oh, we gotta go see Maya this weekend. Doggone it. That's horrible.

SPEAKER_04: 9:08

Listen, all kidding aside, uh, we think positive thoughts for you, and uh, we hope nothing but the best for you. So um a lot of people are still uh outpouring of of care for you, my friend. So you have made a connection in our community, and so uh they are they are they are they know that I'm more apt to answer faster, and so they reach out, or maybe they just don't want you to feel bad, but they people reach out to me, so they're they're worried about you, sir. So um I told them you're fine, you're doing good stuff, you're doing uh doing the good health, health stuff. So that's good.

SPEAKER_01: 9:45

A lot of time to work out.

SPEAKER_04: 9:47

Good. That's good. If you're uh can't work, work out.

SPEAKER_01: 9:55

That needs to be somebody's slogan. If you can't work, work out.

SPEAKER_04: 9:59

You know what? Dang it, dude. We need to get an attorney fast. This is not live. We need to we need to market this before this show goes live. Uh so listen, I'm uh uh all kidding aside, I'm gonna I'm gonna bring up something a little somber.

SPEAKER_01: 10:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 10:18

Last time you and I got together, um, I listened to our own show. I was on vacation. As you know, I like to listen to podcasts while I do my workout. And I listen to us because sometimes for quality control and I a couple things I kind of give myself a self-grading. I went on a little too long, so I apologize to our listeners. Um, but uh normally you try to keep me wrangled, but I uh when I was talking about the subscription, I'm like, dude, get over it, and I was my own voice. So but um but um we uh made a mention that you had gone through a pretty tough time. And um I'm gonna give you the floor, and um you had mentioned that you were gonna you were gonna open up a little bit, so I'm gonna I'm gonna sit back and and let you uh take it for a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 11:11

Okay. Um yeah, and uh a couple of our listeners, and I appreciate it, did did reach out um one way or the other they understood or found out what the situation was and reached out and and uh I really appreciated that.

SPEAKER_02: 11:26

But um Yeah, a few weeks ago my father passed away.

SPEAKER_01: 11:35

And um It was one of those things where we knew it was gonna happen. I mean, he had been in dementia care for several years and uh it was still tough because I'm glad I didn't do this on our last episode. Uh it would have been really b really bad. Um You know, he's the reason why you and I are here doing what we're doing, because he is the reason why I got into cycling. And if I hadn't have done that, you know, you and I would have never met, cycling men of leisure would have never been created and all that kind of stuff. So it's one of those things that really kind of hits hits home on a different level, um, because it also involves our friendship and what we do here and the community that we've built. And you know, I don't want to get I didn't want to get emotional at all about it, but um, I didn't want to want to um just tell people that you know dementia's a real thing and it's a horrible thing. Um and I know people will say, well, dementia's terrible, or it is. I mean it um it really robbed me of my father like five years ago. Because he was here, but he was not real communicative, you know, didn't really have you couldn't sit around and just have a conversation with him, that kind of thing. So um I want people to understand that you know when you're around your loved ones, and it doesn't have to be older ones, um, dementia can hit pretty early in life. Um, if you see them start to forget things, and as we get older, we have a tendency to forget things, but really forget things or start making up things that didn't actually happen. And I look back now and I see that it's like he would, you know, occasionally make something that's like, oh, did Maya bring one of her friends over? It's like uh Maya's not even here. And I thought, well, you know, he just heard something on TV or whatever. Um, if you start seeing or or you get any kind of inkling that there's something wrong, take that family member in and have them checked out because there you can't cure it, but you can slow it down. There are drugs that they have now that will slow down that process. Um and coming from somebody who knows, if you can get an extra hour, extra day, extra week, um, take advantage of that. Um, it's really important. Uh dementia is is just really an umbrella term for uh loss of memory, you know. And it could be a number of things. Everyone talks about Alzheimer's. Alt timer is just one of them. They have vascular and they have frontal lobal and and all these other kind of memory things. Um, but uh it's one of those things that I just want to make people aware of. And the signs were there, and I feel a little guilty that I didn't pick up on them, you know, until hindsight. And so if you do see people having little hallucinogenic type of things or making things up or saying things that just don't make sense, um, get them in, have them checked out. Um you know if it's nothing, it's nothing. But if it is something, it might uh might give you a little bit more time. So I didn't I didn't want to to break up or make this a long thing. I just wanted to acknowledge it. Um you know, thank my father, he was a great guy, you know, made me who I am and got us hooked up together.

SPEAKER_02: 15:20

So that's all.

SPEAKER_04: 15:24

So when I've been in hotels with you, um I've always noticed um, you know, our attache cases as I left mine at your house one time. Um I've always noticed that you use a natural deodorant. Is that have anything to do with the concern for dementia?

SPEAKER_01: 15:42

It does. Because dementia is they found is uh genetic uh in a lot of regards. Um it's not entirely genetic from kind of what they've determined, but uh, you know, you've got genetic markers which definitely could lead you down that road. So my grandfather had it, my grandmother had it, my father's had it. So yeah, I live in fear that that's gonna be me, you know, in a few years. And so one of the things, and they they're always coming out with studies and stuff, but one of the things that's came up time and time again is aluminum and its connection to dementia. Somehow it as a you know, a metal somehow messes with those neuropathways that cause dementia to set in. Um, so yeah, uh, I've gone five years uh using uh an all-natural uh deodorant. Um there's a few companies out there that sell them and uh they are completely aluminum-free, so there's no aluminum. And I figure, you know what, I'm not gonna rub aluminum on my skin if if that could be, and it may be in five years they realize like aluminum had nothing to do with it. Um but I kind of maybe maybe I've I've helped myself, but I I've thought of that a lot because when you look at uh when we were in Boy Scouts, and when you look at the military, um, all the old mess kits were just made out of aluminum. And you know, you're scraping the aluminum, eating off of them, and things like that. And uh so I mean that really makes sense because there was so much eating utensils and stuff like that uh in our past. You don't see it as much now, and now it uh the aluminum's coated and that kind of thing. But um, so yeah, I five years ago was like, you know what, I'm gonna do everything I can, and that's also led me to try to cut back on the processed sugars, um, you know, trying to do like natural sugar, natural flour, and try to move away from the processed foods. Unfortunately, um, it's hard for me to do because I love those things so much, and it's also hard to do because they're so prevalent. Um, but I'm doing small steps to try to mitigate it because unfortunately, that'll probably be me in a few years. So whatever.

SPEAKER_04: 18:07

Um I have some paperwork I would like you to sign before you get there. What am I signing? Nothing, nothing, never mind, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Hey, do you remember you were just talking about Boy Scouts and Mescots? I'm sure that wasn't just in my area.

SPEAKER_01: 18:22

Do you remember those um those aluminum cups um that had like a you you could put it on your belt because it had the hoop on the loop, and you'd stick it on your belt and carry around, you'd pull it out here. Oh, here's my cup, and yeah, I I again aluminum. Aluminum. Again, now though, the aluminum is like coated and that kind of stuff, but back then it wasn't, it was just raw aluminum. And um so who knows? I don't want to spread misinformation or anything, but there's a lot of articles out there on the aluminum, and unfortunately, all of uh antiperserants have aluminum in them. That's just the only way they can stop that, apparently. Um, but deodorants, you can find several deodorants out there that are aluminum-free. So you know, maybe I maybe I've given my family by doing this uh, you know, an extra five months. But if it is, it's worth it.

SPEAKER_04: 19:18

Well, I know that was not easy, obviously, to talk about. Um and you know, even the um, you know, the big craze of the Stanley Cups, I don't mean like the hockey Stanley Cup, I mean like the Stanley water things that people are drinking out of. Um they now have found there's lead in the base of those.

SPEAKER_01: 19:37

So it's like Yeah, there's like a bead of a button on the bottom that's made out of lead.

SPEAKER_04: 19:43

I know it's like now this is 2025, 26. You know, I know it's 2026, I don't mean that, but when they first the popularity was Christmas time 2025, and I'm thinking to myself, we are still putting lead in in these these these cups, and so it's kind of that's the problem.

SPEAKER_01: 19:59

So much of this stuff is made overseas where they have a lot less regulation about stuff like that, and it's easier. And when you do something like that and it's hidden inside of a product, uh, you know, they have a tendency to try to get away with things. So and definitely lead will will cause problems. So that's definitely been proven.

SPEAKER_04: 20:19

Well, I find this an appropriate time to mention our good friend, um, the executive director of of Bragg, Franklin Johnson, his wife Heather, believe it or not, is in the industry of memory and and loss of memory and and and things of this nature. So um he and I were having a discussion and um he had mentioned to me that there are and I'm not educated on this at all, by the way, but um there are tests that you can actually do. Um and that I would blow the pronunciation. I'm not sure if it was uh like a P P trap test or P test or I I I it was something along those lines. I don't want to be dishonest what it was, but he was telling me that you could you could take a family member and and of course they do like um all kidding aside, a cognitive test, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 21:07

So um and they do have early screens for that as well, so um, which ironically enough I'm headed to my doctor tomorrow to talk to him about that.

SPEAKER_02: 21:17

So well, I uh my name is Adam. You're who? What are we doing here? No.

SPEAKER_04: 21:30

Uh well, listen, I appreciate you um you sharing. Um very, very painful. Um I had talked to you a few times. Uh I'm so glad, by the way, uh, for those of our community that follow our our shenanigans. Um we were down in Florida and I I uh I just find it I don't know if ironic is the word, but I I'm so thankful that you were home and we were not in Florida. Not that you couldn't have got a flight. That was just a week after. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:05

So ironically uh on an upside, uh that following week I was supposed to be back in Florida for a business trip with my old job.

SPEAKER_04: 22:17

So you know things work out sometimes.

SPEAKER_02: 22:21

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 22:23

Just like Puerto Vierday. I mean I mean No, just kidding. Just kidding. Well, um uh you know I have a story to share and um I debated Whether to tell you this story here on the show today, but I think it's fitting. Um when our friendship started in 2016, I literally was friends with your father on Facebook. I had never met him. Um really? Yes. Um he um he wrote he reached out to me and um I was like, oh, sharp. I'm like, well, sure, you know. And then um he says, Hey, thank you for writing with my son. I wish I could do it. Um and very, very, very nice. And that was my that was my introduction to your father. So um what people don't know about you and I, we've talked about it a couple times, because both of our fathers were in the aviation industry, which I find ironic as a friendship as is as having having that connection, you know. So um, and we've talked about a few times and and scouting and all that. So then but yeah, I just wanted to I don't know if you knew that.

SPEAKER_01: 23:37

That's I had no idea. That's that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_04: 23:40

Yeah, yeah. During that time, your your mom and and your dad both friended me on Facebook, and I thought maybe they were vetting me to make sure that I was good company to be around. So uh I'm just kidding about that. But um he he actually had sent me a picture of you guys when you guys had the tamper and and pictures, and and so I I remember that uh but yeah, so I don't I didn't think I'd ever shared that with you. But I wasn't trying to keep it from you, I just was one of those memories that I had. So um yeah, and a few community members reached out for your phone number, and I I normally don't pass your number out to just any any Joe unless unless they're looking for a business architect. Yeah, unless it's a job. Then I would give them your your number. Um but um but yes, I I did give your number out to a few people who were who were thinking about you.

SPEAKER_01: 24:32

So a few people reached out, and like I said, I don't know how they found out, and it's fine, it doesn't matter. Uh it wasn't something I was keeping secret. I just didn't want to talk about it uh at that time. But no, I and I responded back to them and I I thought it was really nice that they took the time to reach out and that kind of thing. So thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 24:50

Well, um hopefully your your doctor's appointment goes well, and of course we we uh you don't have another uh monkey on your back. So um but just remember bus driving is is is uh look at me. So we you can you can come drive the bus and we'll we'll get you. I sent him a picture yesterday, by the way, of um like um like a street machine. A rocket engine in the back.

SPEAKER_02: 25:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 25:21

And that one would be fun, but uh um on a more lighter note, I'm gonna I'm gonna change the subject, of course. Let's do it. All right.

SPEAKER_01: 25:30

Didn't mean to didn't mean to drag that down and get all emotional, but no, um, but uh I'm glad you did, honestly.

SPEAKER_04: 25:37

Um uh we had we had mentioned it before, so um so sometimes when you when you have some sort of blog, website, podcast, well, you know, anything that you're trying to come up with subjects and talk about, um, you know, we we have a a regular staple, and that is our listener spotlight. So I was wondering we have the clues from listener spotlight. You're still in your basement, by the way. Well, I'm gonna get to all your fancy stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 26:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 26:10

I'm gonna get to that. So uh, but I want to give you the due diligence of giving us last episode's listener spotlight. I had made a joke that that uh the you know, conference of two rivers, this town changed its name. Seems like that's a common thing for you. Every town changed its name.

SPEAKER_01: 26:30

Every town in this country's changed its name.

SPEAKER_04: 26:32

And then you said sunscreen, and uh I'm like, yeah, well, St. Louis is out. And then uh you said, I believe, and forgive me, it's been like a week since I listened to it, but something about in January, don't don't remind me.

SPEAKER_01: 26:50

Don't eat the salad. Let me just let me give them all to you right now. Okay. How about that? Uh the the listener spotlights clues were as followed. The city is located at a historic Key River crossing. The town's name was merged with another town, and after a major disaster, it then changed that name. Um it played an important part in the early military of the area. And this town knows something about free falling, and then finally, if you visit in the first few days of January, I would not order a salad. And that's just good advice.

SPEAKER_04: 27:33

And I made the the joke about using my phone and searching Tom Petty, which I think was Gainesville, Florida. And I'm gonna go that way. And I was thinking free fallen, but uh I'll stop singing so we don't have people crashing to a cement wall. So um so, anyways, uh not St. Louis. No. What about Gainesville, Florida?

SPEAKER_02: 28:00

Uh no.

SPEAKER_04: 28:03

Well, now you got me intrigued about the salad. So I'm I'm ready for the You're ready for the answer. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_01: 28:08

All right, because we had no guesses. Uh this week's listener spotlight is for our wonderful listeners from Yuma, Arizona.

SPEAKER_04: 28:18

Oh man, I remember Yuma. No, I don't. Never been to Yuma? Is Yuma near Flagstaff? Uh no. Is Yuma near Flagstaff's name?

SPEAKER_01: 28:28

Flagstaff is up north near the Grand Canyon. What about Chandler? Uh I think that's up north, but I think it's on the middle of the state. I'm not an expert in Arizona, so I've been there a few times. But I will tell you uh it's right at the Colorado River. Uh it was an important military place because uh, you know, they needed to move military across as well as supplies. It's um the free falling is the fact that the Yuma Proving Grounds is a testing site for military personnel and cargo parachuting. Oh so that's free falling. Um and then the oh, the other one was that I didn't put on there. Don't forget the sunscreen. And that is because Yuma is the has been determined to be the sunniest place in the United States. Really? And then the lettuce is if you go on New Year's Eve to Yuma, which maybe cycling men of leisure need to do this, uh they instead of having a ball drop, they drop a big head of iceberg lettuce, because they grow tons of lettuce around there. Um they are the winner cap winter lettuce capital of the world, but they drop this, and so I don't know where that lettuce goes after they drop it. So I definitely would not be eating salad in that town for a couple days, just in case.

SPEAKER_04: 29:56

Why does Cycling Man of Leisure need to get lettuce dropped on them? I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_01: 30:00

I didn't say dropped on us, but I mean we could be there. It's like we experienced it. You know, the sunniest nice leisure activity.

SPEAKER_04: 30:07

The sunniest place would be a perfect place for a de brim.

SPEAKER_01: 30:13

Yeah, anyway. Um, we thank all of our listeners from Yuma. Yuma. And I also want to make note that we've had a couple of new countries show up on our radar. Oh, I am listening. Let us thank our newest listeners.

SPEAKER_04: 30:28

I see what you did there.

SPEAKER_01: 30:30

Let us let us let us thank our latest, newest listeners from the country of Lithuania. Okay. And get this one Egypt.

SPEAKER_02: 30:43

Egypt. Put them on the big board. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 30:47

I might possibly, possibly, I might know the Egypt connection. I told you that when our good friend Joe was uh putting the new sealant on my windows, that a gentleman in my neighborhood. That we met on a ride. What we met on a ride asked about Ragbry.

SPEAKER_02: 31:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04: 31:13

I remember this. He was recently in Egypt. Okay. And he has texted me three or four times, and I Keenan, I I appreciate the text, by the way. Thank you so much. Um he he keeps saying, Have you and your buddy made up your mind about Ragbri? I keep having. But I believe that the Egypt connection would have been him.

SPEAKER_01: 31:47

I I don't care who it is. The fact that somebody was in the country of Egypt and listened to our show. That's all I know.

SPEAKER_04: 31:53

I just wanted to kind of give you the connection somewhere.

SPEAKER_01: 31:55

Um, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04: 31:58

Did by chance, since I know that you pay attention uh to the our platform and the app, and and or do you go on the website to get the new places, or do you use the app for that? I'm curious. Uh I I use the app. Okay. I was just leaving San Juan, Puerto Rico, uh squeezed in a workout, listen to our show. I am curious. I made sure I know the metric, I know how it works. I'm curious if San Juan, uh Caribbean, Pacific, you know, I mean I'm just curious, did we get any new in the last seven days? Any new any new thing or new new area?

SPEAKER_01: 32:41

Now I don't know about San Puerto Rico because we've had Puerto Rico before.

SPEAKER_04: 32:46

Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 32:48

So that would not have when I see these new ones come up, it's like, oh, you know, that one is new. Okay. Uh Jakarta? Jakarta? No, that's in Indonesia. Um, I'm just scrolling through here. Um Djibouti? No, I'm just kidding. Oh, yeah. What find it was your buddy in Cairo? Yes. Could have been him because our hit came from Cairo. Um and then they have the word of the Cairo and something else here.

SPEAKER_02: 33:19

I don't even know. Um I don't see anything. Here is a photo of him at the pyramid.

SPEAKER_01: 33:33

So he was in Cairo. There you go. Yes. I bet it was you'll have to next time you see him, you'll have to ask him, Hey, did you happen to uh to listen to our show?

SPEAKER_04: 33:41

Here he is on a camel.

SPEAKER_01: 33:42

Can't well, you can't go to Egypt and not ride a camel. I mean, that's kind of like a requirement.

SPEAKER_04: 33:47

But yes, he has texted me multiple times instead of you and your buddy made up your mind. And I did send him our origin story that came out on Brag. Uh, if you haven't had a chance to see that, uh please find it.

SPEAKER_01: 34:01

Bragg did a really nice uh thing, and we worked on answering some of their questions. Um, there were highlighting different writers on their bragging rights, and they had sent us that, and that's one of the things we were working on when we were in Florida, and uh they took it and made it into a really nice expose of our origin story. Uh so if you haven't checked that out, definitely do that. It was uh very well done.

SPEAKER_04: 34:27

Well, I was just curious if if Puerto Rico Puerto Rico on there.

SPEAKER_01: 34:31

No problem. Um but then again, you really weren't in the Caribbean, you were in Mexico, so yeah. Anyways, sir.

SPEAKER_04: 34:41

Well played. Uh so uh there we go. Actually, I went to the window cave in Puerto Rico and went hiking through the cave, and I will send you a photograph.

SPEAKER_01: 34:53

You've been to Puerto Rico before, so you know about these caves. So an AI can do anything, so you know what? We're just gonna go with I hope you enjoyed Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_04: 35:04

It was very nice. Thank you very much. Uh all right. I have come up with a couple of silly things. Oh boy. Um one when I knew that you were gonna honor your father, thank you for doing that. Uh, I thought, why don't we make something uh a little more a little upbeat? You know, you I brought it down before, I brought it down many a times, I've had to apologize many a times.

SPEAKER_01: 35:30

You brought it down really just crashed it, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 35:32

You crashed it, but you crashed it for a very honorable reason, sir. I crash it because I have shenantics and bull beep, but anyway, so um so I would like to ask you about your gas station gourmet. Now, this is specifically, now while you're thinking to yourself, gas station gourmet. This is specifically when we are riding, or maybe you are riding when you're doing training rides without the brown hose. Um you walk into Casey's, you walk into your average gas station. Casey's may not be fair because they have like some staple things like pizza and breakfast pizza and all that, but um convenience stores nowadays have kind of a lot of the standards. That's true. You you're you're on a ride, you you you look up like the oasis and you see a speedway and you go, hmm, I'm gonna pull in and get me. What is your gourmet at a gas station while you're on a bike?

SPEAKER_01: 36:35

Now that really depends if I'm looking for something sweet or something new, you know, with with some uh better non-sugar energy. Okay. Now if it's sweet, uh I tend to go for candy bars. Um I do like paydays. You and I kind of got into that um because it has the the nuts and the car. But um the other candy bar that's kind of a go-to for me on rides is the Three Musketeers. And I don't know if I've ever told this story and I'll tell it quickly, but it also loops in my father, ironically. Um when we rode across Nebraska the first time, my dad read an article in who knows where it was. Maybe he just made it up. I don't know. But uh, we were in a convenience store. My father was, you know, would make things up. It's okay. Uh we were in a convenience store, and he goes, you know what? I was reading an article, or we were headed into a convenience store, and he goes, I read an article that the best candy bar for a cyclist is a Milky War or Three Musketeers, three Musketeers. I was like, Oh, really? Okay. So he goes, we need to go get one. So we walked in, we got a three Musketeers. And then every single convenience store, I think from that moment on, ever riding with my father that we ever passed, he'd be like, Okay, you could use a three musketeers, couldn't you? And so three musketeers kind of became the staple. So it's either three musketeers or a payday. Uh, if I'm going for something else, I mean I'll I've I've done ice cream bars, I've done pizza, uh, I've done donuts. So typically, if it's in the morning, uh grab a donut. Um if it's in the afternoon and I haven't had lunch, I'll generally get like a piece of pizza and maybe a candy bar. So and then of course a coke.

SPEAKER_04: 38:30

Mine, mine is for sure payday. Um, but I I do have a side story. I you and I were in northern Michigan. We were on um shoreline rides, and I walked into the gas station or party store in the middle of nowhere, and she said, I don't have a payday, but I have an O. Henry. And we had those O. Henries that day, and those were good. But I gotta tell you, um paydays are are very um good energy, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 39:05

They because it was surrounded by peanuts.

SPEAKER_04: 39:08

Yeah, you get the peanuts that that kind of hold on for some energy, and then you get like peanut butter and nugget or whatever, sugar. Um but but I don't think that the idea was to have the king size, but when we were on our last rag where I I kind of got hooked on the king size uh payday, which I probably shouldn't have had, but uh and there was two.

SPEAKER_01: 39:29

The problem with that though is I got the king size too. I ate half of it and put the other half in my saddlebag. You just ate the whole thing as a candy bar.

unknown: 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 39:39

Yes, I did. Yes, I I should have, I should have busted it in half and then like 20 miles down the road. Yeah, two servings at my yeah. Gee, I wonder why I had all kinds of health issues. Uh have you ever seen that thing, sir? How many hot dogs do you have a day? A day? Oh, not that many on average, sir. I don't know, like seven. Uh well, that leads me to my next thing, which is a post-ride reward. Now, I know yours and I we both enjoy a bourbon after we've showered and had dinner and yada yada yada, but I'm saying we used Bransel charters. All right. I can picture a couple times where you and I had a beer. I can picture a few times where you and I would crack open a nice cold uh soda, you know. Um but you you have a post-ride reward. You've you've gone 60 miles, 50 miles, 70 miles, 80 miles, four miles. You might want to go more than four if you're gonna have a post-ride reward. It's your day. Um but what's what's the what do you have like a to answer your question?

SPEAKER_01: 41:00

A lot depends. There's a lot of there's a lot of room for a lot of gray area here. Because uh, you know, we've used Brancel, and then we used our friends from from Missouri, Pedro. Um uh that that have like It's Padres, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_04: 41:17

Pedro. Did I say Pedros? Yeah, you know, we're gonna give you a blue we're gonna give you a pass, buddy. Padres. With an S.

SPEAKER_01: 41:25

Yes. Uh sorry about that, guys. Um it's been a rough show. Um it will depend because if there's like certain kinds of beer there, I'll have a beer. But I mean it has to be the cer the certain uh you know if they have like a corona or something like that, I'm in. I'll have the beer to end it. Most of the time, you know, unless there's that special kind of beer that I really, really like, I will go for another coke.

SPEAKER_02: 41:55

Fair enough. Back in the day before Adam 3.0 ice cold Dr.

SPEAKER_04: 42:07

Pepper. Oh yeah, you used to go for that all the time after a ride. I don't remember that. I I ride 62 miles, go, go, go go, go, go, go, uh, ice cold Dr. Pepper. We'd go to Casey's. I'd no wonder diabetes is a real thing, like Franklin said, because I'd go, I'd go to the fountain soda, 32 ounces, fill that up. I could oh man, that was uh that was good. So uh Yeah, I don't do that anymore. So um all right. This is gonna lead me to something else. What is the weirdest thing you've ever carried in a saddlebag, on a bicycle? Uh I mean Oh my god. Like if you if you were like you're in an interview, which by the way, I was gonna ask you about the Starbucks interview, but I'm just kidding. Um you're in an interview and the guy says, you know, you ever ridden a bicycle? And you're like, you know, this is a perfect time to tell a funny story. What is one of the weirdest things you've ever carried on a bicycle?

SPEAKER_01: 43:14

Okay. It's almost like you planned this, but you didn't. It's just kind of beautiful, but um, in weird and bizarre all in one. Um, I have two things that I've carried that are really weird. And these are they both happened in the state of no, actually, I take that back. One happened in the state of Nebraska, one happened in the state of Iowa. This is when I was riding on the family team, Team Sherpa, with my father, and that's why I said this is both weird and bizarre and kind of crazy that these are all coming up with that. Um, the first time we did uh bike ride across Nebraska, brand, it was probably day five, and you're out there in the middle, you know, the sun, the wind, there's no trees, it's just open prairie, long day. I'm riding along, and I am about seven and a half miles from the ending point. And I'm out there, and there's like a few people ahead of me, a few people behind me, kind of wide open, and I'm going along and I look down, and there's this thing on the ground. So I pull over and I look at it, and it was a seat cushion that was probably about 12 inches, maybe 14 inches long, squared, 14 inches squared, and it was about four inches tall, and it came out of like a like an RV camper because you know it's got that look. So somebody had locked. This out of the thing. And it was a beautiful, pristine condition. So, as a joke, I took that and I sat on it the rest of the ride, and I made sure that when I rode into town, my family saw me on that, and we got the biggest kick. It's like, yeah, I picked up a little extra padding because you know, this is the first long ride I'd ever did, and I was sore. And so here I am riding on this big old seat cushion from an RV on my road bike. It was very funny. There you go. I'm sure there was a lot of people who were like looking at me going, Okay, this guy's got problems if he's happening to use that kind of a padding on the side. And then in Iowa, the same day, and this is no joke, I was riding early in the day, and alongside the road was a ball pin hammer. Like, oh, okay, cool. Um, I managed to uh stick that in my back jersey. I thought, well, what the heck? I'm not just gonna, you know, surely I can use this for something. Uh, and I rode with it in the back of my jersey. About halfway through the day, we met my mom and she had drove the vehicle and met us there. Uh, I gave her the hammer. I said, here you go. Literally, five miles outside of that town, there is another ball pin hammer on the side of the road. What are the odds that you find two ball pin hammers on the side of this road in the middle of Iowa on the same day? So naturally at that point, I've already got one. I need another one. It's right, people are just giving me ball pin hammers. I can use these for something. I don't really know what the purpose of that is, but hey, I stuck that in my jersey. And when I got into town, I'm like, you didn't happen to lose that ballpen hammer, did you? And she's like, no, and she walked over and picked it up. It's like, here it is. And it's like, oh, well, here I found its brother. And that was the funniest thing. I found two ballpen hammers the exact same day of the ride, and I picked both of them up. And I came home with two new, well, well, relatively unworn ballpen hammers. So that's the two two weirdest things I've ever carried with me.

SPEAKER_04: 46:50

There's an Amish man who went home, and his wife said, Jebediah, where are your ball pin hammers?

SPEAKER_01: 46:57

You didn't close that, you didn't close that toolbox again on the back of the wagon again. And by the way, where's your seat cushion at?

SPEAKER_04: 47:09

How about you? I think the the probably the strangest I don't know about strangest, but one of the things I definitely carried on a bicycle that people would probably be a little surprised at would be a complete fifth of Woodford Reserve.

SPEAKER_01: 47:26

Oh, I for totally for you did totally forgot about this. This was in Michigan at Sheboygan. Near Sheboygan, yeah. The store was in Sheboygan.

SPEAKER_04: 47:38

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, it wasn't Sheboygan.

SPEAKER_01: 47:41

Charlevoy.

SPEAKER_04: 47:42

Charleboy Charleboy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 47:44

You went to that, we went to this grocery store, they sold alcohol. We were all out, and we still had what five miles to go? Yeah. Seven miles, five to seven miles. And it wasn't on your bike. You actually stuck it in your bib jerseys for your bibs.

SPEAKER_04: 47:59

Yeah. And rode with it. Unzip my unzip my jersey and then pulled my bib out. Now, just so everybody knows, I put the wood for in a plastic uh shopping bag, wrapped it around real tight because I was sweating, let's be honest. Pulled away my thing, uh, my my bib strap, put the bottle of bourbon there, let the bib strap come down, re-zipped up, and then as as I was riding the the bottle of Woodford. It was moving back and forth. And uh I I'll never forget that. And uh and then then we did Shoreline a couple years later, we went to the same grocery store, which I thought I found that was kind of ironic that we that we went there.

SPEAKER_01: 48:42

So um in fact, I still have the picture of you standing there in the line, well, at the cashier's thing, in your full bike gear, buying a bottle of Woodford Reserve. That's right. Great picture. Great picture.

SPEAKER_04: 48:56

Yeah, yeah, that was uh that was a decent. Yeah, I mean, I think we were right.

SPEAKER_01: 49:02

That was a decent because I was like, are you sure you want to ride that far back with that? And even halfway there, I was like, hey, do you need to like switch that off and I can, you know, stick it in my jersey or something, figure out something.

SPEAKER_04: 49:14

Yeah, chugged a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 49:17

We just start passing it back and forth.

SPEAKER_04: 49:19

I put it right back in my bibs. I don't need no just kidding. That's not true.

SPEAKER_01: 49:23

This is my new water bottle. Yeah. So now I forgot about that. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_04: 49:29

Besides listener spotlight, to close out this uh this episode, did you have anything that you wanted to add, sir?

SPEAKER_01: 49:37

Uh I don't think so. Was there anything I was supposed to add? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean uh I mean I covered everything. Dementia's serious, get it checked out, have testing for yourself, just be safe. Um we got in our listener spotlight. You found out all about my collection of ball pin hammers. I think I've I think that's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 50:01

How many ball ping hammers do you have? Well, I've got at least two. Yeah, I would agree. I'm gonna come to your house the next time. You're gonna have one of those pegboards, and the pegboard's gonna have like, wow, this he's got a lot of ball ping hammers.

SPEAKER_01: 50:18

New collection of mine.

SPEAKER_04: 50:19

That's right. I got a brass one. I I'm just kidding. That's uh just kidding.

SPEAKER_01: 50:25

But this one came from Iowa, this one came from Nebraska. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 50:29

All right, I'm gonna give it to you the best I can. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Before we do this, the you asked me about my basement. Uh the update, I did get the parts in for uh the studio. I have been working on getting all so I'm it's just a rack system to be able to put all the networking things in the in the closet. I've had to kind of rearrange some things because I'm trying to open up the room. I need it to be um more than just a podcast studio. I'm gonna be doing some more meetings from home, and I don't want to do a meeting where I have to A, have a um a 3D uh green screen. Um so the idea is when I'm recording with you in the show, I'm gonna sit one way, and then when I uh have to do something for work, I'm gonna turn this way, and then I'm gonna use a different camera to shoot one way so there's no big bourbon wall. Um and so it would just be like an office wall.

SPEAKER_01: 51:26

Like what I've done here. Yeah, I've got it tilted. Uh you can kind of see the bourbon in my shelving over here, and then you see my other stuff here. But when I do interviews or meetings, I just like turn it this way, and all you see is just my shelves right behind me. Exactly. So smart, smart, smart.

SPEAKER_04: 51:42

So that's what I'm trying to do. And so then um instead of just kind of like just jocking and throwing it all together, I wanted to take a really serious look on what the best way to make the best use of the room is, and so I figured, okay, and then of course it's ordering the parts and doing it, um, which sounds like a lot, but just unfortunately, just you know, back order on some of the some of the pieces. And um now I'm curious if I get my money back because I paid tariffs on there, and now the Supreme Court said those tariffs aren't legal. I want to know how to do it.

SPEAKER_01: 52:14

Actually, you owe money on tariffs because they were 10%, now they're 15%.

SPEAKER_04: 52:17

Oh, well then I might as well be quiet.

SPEAKER_01: 52:19

Then just shut up. Yeah. We're not getting it political here.

SPEAKER_04: 52:23

No, no, no, no. But um that is a good question. But we'll see. Um I'm not gonna hold my breath. So um, but yes, I am in the basement and I actually foresee a few more episodes because I have a lot of work trips coming up, which you already know about. So um, so we will see if this is the same view, but uh uh stay tuned. Uh we have I will keep giving updates on the studio. So um with that being said, ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_01: 53:04

All right, the clues for this episode's listener spotlight are as follows. The city began as an agricultural area. Although it had an agriculture-based economy for decades, today it is driven by data. Um a major airport spurred this town's development. Um this town was in the country for decades, but it was the home to a lot of soul. And finally, uh the story goes that lightning helped name this town.

SPEAKER_02: 53:48

Okay. No g no guesses. Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 53:53

Well well, you mentioned the country, town, airport. As you were talking, when you said a lot of Seoul, I thought maybe you're being funny, like Seoul, Korea.

SPEAKER_01: 54:04

And then I thought yeah. I mean it started out agricultural, but that was like, you know, centuries ago.

SPEAKER_02: 54:14

Well, okay.

SPEAKER_04: 54:16

Um, I got nothing. I got nothing. You're not even gonna say St. Louis this time, I think. No, no, no, no. Although St. Louis uh you probably know this. Uh St. Louis had an airport and then built the new airport and then didn't use the second airport right outside Air Force Base, they kind of tied in together with Side Air Force Base. Um, but yeah, it was kind of weird, but no. Uh no, I'm not even gonna not even gonna say that. So um what I will say is um we got some messages from our friends about cycling. Uh obviously, in your current circumstance, we are still on hold. Go for no go. So um we are at a no go for for right now, but we will update everybody when we can be a go.

SPEAKER_01: 55:05

And we still have a team going to brag. So if you're going to brag, sign up for the team.

SPEAKER_04: 55:10

Just sign up for brag anyway.

SPEAKER_01: 55:12

Yeah, why not? Join somebody else's team, just go to brag. That's right.

SPEAKER_04: 55:17

Um well, always good to be with you. Thank you for uh uh diving into something very painful. So I appreciate you sharing.

SPEAKER_01: 55:28

Yeah, and like I said, I didn't really want it to get that emotional, but that's kind of the kind of show we are. I mean, we just kind of we don't edit stuff out, we just, you know, it's it's us, so it is what it is.

SPEAKER_04: 55:40

Well, my thoughts are still with you and your family as you navigate these uh uncharted waters. Um I know anyone who's ever lost a parent is always the year of firsts, and so I will I will continue to think about you and your family somehow. Um with that being said, again, as I'm here in the basement, it snowed again, and uh by the way, you know when I was gone, ten days I'm away from my house, it gets up in the 60, kids are riding their bicycles in the area. I come home, snow on the ground. So um, I mean, it was Puerto Vierta. I mean, it was the Caribbean, yeah. Caribbean.

SPEAKER_01: 56:26

Puerto Vallarta's on the other side, but that's okay. It was Royal Geography, Royal Caribbean.

SPEAKER_04: 56:32

That's right. So but somewhere, somehow, some way is a great day for a bike. For a bike ride. Thank you, buddy. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_00: 56:42

Thank you for riding along with Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. However, you travel, find the leisure your way. See you next time.