SPEAKER_00 0:47

This is 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 routes are questionable. The stops are intentional, and leisure isn't a reward. It's the plan. If you're looking for speed, well, you're lost. But if you're looking for laid-back adventure, good stories, and even better company, welcome home.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. As usual, I am one of the co-hosts. I'm lucky enough to be joined with my good friend, Mr. Michael Sharp. Hello, sir. Greetings, Adam. How are you? You know what? I am I am good. I'm I'm excited. I'm uh I've been looking forward to recording with you all day, sir. Well, as you should. I I would expect actually all week, but that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

I'll take the day. Well, I only started work today. Um but the week started yesterday on Sunday. Well, that's true. Never mind. Never mind. It's fine. Yeah.

A 50th Birthday Roots Trip

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah. Well, okay. All right, moving right along. I am uh I am back from another uh adventure across America.

unknown 2:04

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

This time was a little uh little family vacation. I want to give you a little bit of an update, not to go on and on, but I want to give you a little bit of an update. So um I was born in a little town, call it San Bernardino, California. Um for those of you who don't know, I was adopted. My mother could not have children, um, and so uh I like to say I'm the best thing that 30 grand can buy you. My father may have a second opinion on that, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah, let's let's call let's call up Mr. Baranski because I think he could probably put it in better perspective.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Oh, look at the time. We better we don't want to bother him this late in the evening. Okay, maybe later. Yeah, maybe we can get him on the next show. Um the second one we record this week. No, I'm just kidding. Um so uh my mother had this idea, I don't know, back in June or July or September or something last year. She said, why don't we go back for your 50th, 50th, 50th, 50th, 50th birthday? Why don't we go back to uh where it all started? And I was like, Okay, that sounds good, you know. I hadn't been yeah, well, yeah, I was trying to be remembered this is a family show.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

So uh I just said hospital and so no no I know me.

Disneyland Memories And Sticker Shock

SPEAKER_01 3:29

I mean, because I I was I was yeah I was gonna answer another way, but I thought um like really um so we put this trip together to go out to Southern California. Um lucky enough that we saw some of my family who lives out there, uh an avid listener of our show. I took him a couple gifts, I cannot lie. Took him a cycling men of leisure jersey and a cycling men of leisure t-shirt. Got a picture from him today out riding his bicycle sporting the cycling men of leisure t-shirt. So I thought that was pretty cool. So you need to download that to the website. Yeah, I think that's I think we should. Um so uh flew into LAX. Um and um yeah, uh no no issues, concerns. I know the concern was some of the travel right now is is TSA, and we didn't have any issues, got right through and and uh got out to California. Um spent a few days with family. Uh then Lauren and I uh broke off a little bit and we spent a few days on our own. And um, as you have mentioned on this show, and I have to confess, uh I'll raise my right hand, not sure which camera it looks like I'm pointing here, if the camera's mirrored or not, but uh my love for Disney started at Disneyland when I was a very young boy, and so uh we did visit Disneyland. Um I don't remember anything about being there. There's a lot of photographs of me there. Um I uh the only thing I remember was Mr. Toad's wild ride. The the car kind of came to my mind, but the ride itself, you know, nothing like that. But um so that's kind of cool that we we we we did that, uh, let me tell you. Um a lot more expensive in California than than uh than Florida. Uh but I'm sure they uh cost of living and I'm sure they probably pay more for jobs and everything. But but um but um I wanted to tell you because sometimes on this show we talk about our adventures on the road, I want to tell you about my trip home. Um so we enjoyed a beautiful uh week, California. Um I had a hotel by LAX, got to the hotel the night before. Um, Mr. Baranski, go upstairs, your name's on the television, of course. Um for those of you don't know, Michael and I always tease because when we stay in hotel rooms, it says welcome, Adam, and and he's like, Wow, you got your name on the TV. And so it was kind of fun because then Michael was traveling with his family and his name was on the TV. He took a picture, he said, I'm just like you. So Bigwood. It's right. So get in the room. Um by that time we were exhausted, and yeah, it's fun to go on vacation, but it's also fun to come home sometimes. So ready to come home. A little bit anxiety, um, just TSA and everything I was watching while I was in California watching all the news stories. Houston had people outside. Your airport, by the way, made the news when I was in when I was in LA. People were outside the Kansas City airport in in barrels and walking through barrels. I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh my gosh. What was that for? Uh trying to get through TSA.

Flight Canceled Then Delayed All Night

SPEAKER_02 6:40

Um, no, no. I'll disagree with that. Was it? Uh it wouldn't have been for that. Was it there? Might have been a bomb scare. Oh, okay. But our TSA actually are not TSA. Oh. Actually, our airport contracts, private contractors who work contracted to the TSA. So they are pretty much unaffected. So our airport, they just talked about this and had live interviews, it's why no. Oh, something else. Smooth sailing. Now there was a bomb threat. I believe that was occurred when you were there and they had to evacuate the entire airport.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Okay, so maybe that's what I'm I'm mixing my stories. But I know Houston had uh and Atlanta had problems with TSA. And so we were semi, semi-concerned of like, okay, are we gonna get through? And and you know, I mean, my my whole life of hearing about LAX and and like, oh my gosh, you know, it's you know so much busier there, yada yada yada. So um my mother and my father were still at my family's house. They had stayed there, and then Lauren and I lived out of a suitcase, which by the way, side note, if you have a job where you live out of a suitcase and you travel I think thanks for bringing that up. I appreciate it. I was meaning our community. Um but if you have a job that you literally travel all the time out of a suitcase, I have new fond respect for you. I've been on cycling trips, many a thousands of miles ridden with you, my friend. Um I've been places before, but um living out, I mean, we the first we left my house on a Sunday night, and then literally we didn't get home till Tuesday the next week, nine days or whatever, eight days hotels every night. And um that gets old. So you whoever does that, you now have my uh sympathy. Um so we get the hotel, relax.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

How is that how can I interrupt? Yeah. How is that any different than when you go for like ten days to Disney?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

I have the same room every night, not changing rooms and not Oh, okay. You're rechanging your rooms, okay. Yeah, I actually we stayed.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

See, the the problem with it is as you unload your entire suitcase into like all the little like drawers and stuff. If you just kept it all in your suitcase, then it then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Well, you're not wrong. I normally do that. This time I I actually used those packing cubes like we did for cycling. Oh, yeah. And so I like kind of had everything broke down before going and and so it was better. Um, but I have done that, and like if I'm going to Disney or whatever, I'm gonna be in the same room for 10 days. Yeah, I you know, they say welcome home when I get there. So it's like I'm home. So um so, anyways, I guess for me it's just like we uh it was five different hotels that we went to and um just for with our trip, and so checking in, checking out, and um by the time I got home, I was like, ugh. But um, so anyways, we're we're by LAX. It's gonna fly out the next day. I wake up at seven o'clock in the morning because my mother was at my family's house. I was in the hotel by LAX. My mother calls me, Did you see our flight was canceled? And they actually sent it at two in the morning, but I have do not disturb on my phone's turned on, and um I said, Oh no, I didn't see it. It doesn't say we've rescheduled you, it doesn't say anything. It just says, I'm sorry your flight has been canceled. I'm like, well, that's not great. So I get on the phone, it says, um, you know, I start calling, and this is oh, we've got a 30-minute wait, we'll call you back. And that wasn't too bad, about 15 minutes later, and the lady said, Oh, good news. Uh we do have a 940 flight. So it's supposed to take off at 340. Um, we were gonna actually uh head to the airport around noon and then go through what we thought was gonna be a um a long TSA line. We didn't. Um we said, okay, I got a late checkout from the hotel. They were gracious, you know, everything worked out. And so my mom said, Oh, we're on the 940. I said, I'm in the 940. She said, I'll meet you at the airport around 6 o'clock, 640, or something. I said, Okay, great. Well, there was an in and out burger by there. So Lauren and I had to be, you know, typical tourists, and we walked to in and out, and uh I it was pretty good. I can't lie, I was right by the end of the runway, so we saw these big jumbo jets coming in. Um, and then we walked back to the hotel and we go to the airport. And anyways, finishing up the story, uh the delay was from 9 40 to 9 50 to 10 o'clock to 10 30 to 1040 to 11 o'clock, 1140, and finally it took off at like 11.50. And then um with the time change and everything, I landed in Detroit at 9 o'clock the next morning. Um, and so my boss is like, ah, why don't you stay home? You know, I was like, Well, that's good, because that wasn't gonna do you any good. Um, but um yeah, that was not not uh the greatest, but yeah, we had a good time and and um you know happy to you know, traveling with my parents is always fun, so I haven't don't get to do that a lot. So uh figured I would just share my my traveling little my little snafu with you. So but uh seems to be a theme with me this year.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

It happens. See, that's the difference between your traveling and my traveling. You're not a road trip guy, you're a fly there, camp out for ten days. I'm uh spend two days here, go over here, spend two days, and spend two days. So I don't have a problem living out of my suitcase, but I could see where how you like to travel that that would be like an annoyance.

Studio Update And The Kill Room Joke

SPEAKER_01 12:11

So I get it. Um but yeah, so that's uh now I'm home for a while, and for anyone who's part of our community knows I've uh through work and personal been on the road a lot this year, and so um, which brings me to my update, my first update. We'll get into uh listener spotlight in one second, but I wanted to give a studio update. I have finally made um some headway. Uh as you know, I've sent you some photographs. Um the the studio is coming together. I'm hoping if it's not the next show, but the next one after that, I can be back upstairs out of the basement here uh with and uh have everything done. So the I'm putting these uh acoustic panels up, and I think you have some too as well. But I'm putting some uh acoustic panels up, and I gotta tell you, my wife came in, I had to show her. I said, Hey babe, come here. I want you to see this. This is really weird. And instead of saying, Oh, this will be great for the show, or this will be great for the YouTube, or you and Michael will really be able to use this, she said, Is this your new kill room? Because I gotta tell you, it is it it is not sound dampening, it's like sound absorbing. I mean, it's it's kind of weird, it's like negative pressure almost.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

So I don't know if that's well I I I I question or I get concerned when she says, Is this your new one? So where is the old one at?

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Um, all right. So listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Um to self make sure the next time I visit Adam, I'm staying at the uh the hotel down the street.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

Hey, there's a wall right behind me, and uh there's a heated heated floors if you come in the winter. You got your own beautiful shower right around the corner.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

That might that might be the original kill room. I don't know. Now I'm a little concerned.

Listener Spotlight Guessing Game Revealed

SPEAKER_01 14:01

But well, uh, you do you do you travel aluminol? I've seen a lot of television shows where they spray aluminol everywhere. So um all right, we've got a couple more stuff to get into, but I'll tell you what, we had some guesses. So let me give you in my best uh in my best non-board voice. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for listener spotlight. All right. You have some clues, sir, because I have a couple people who guessed.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah, the clues were as follows. The town was created as a key river port. Um, it was created by the unification of two towns. It was named for a military hero of the Revolutionary War. It holds a specific historical cavalry fact from the Civil War. And this town knows a little something about special operations.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Well, I gotta tell you, when our community writes us, it it literally brings smiles to my face. I mean, if I'm living my daily life doing my stuff or whatever, and and someone writes us and they kind of add some humor to it, it just it's just why we got into this. It just makes me I don't know, make like smile like a little schoolgirl or something. But um, so I call him Matt, you call him Mark. Um, he wrote us, but I gotta tell you what he said here. He said, Hey you boys, I'm gonna go with Fort Madison. Keokuk was my initial thought, but the Revolutionary War clue didn't fit clearly. Keep the good stuff coming, you gonna cure a lot of indoor training miles. Thanks. And he signs his message, Mark Hyphen Matt. So not only is that he's buying into our joke, he's now replying, uh I love it. And so I just uh it's kind of uh you know, I was just I think I was uh in Costco picking up some stuff for the week and I saw the message and it just made me smile. Um another one of our community members who writes in on the regular basis.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

I'm gonna assume um wait did he have a state on there? Uh I'm so sorry. He he just says Fort Madison.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Okay, I wonder if he's talking Iowa. Because that other town, there is a town called that in Iowa as well, so that's why I was wondering. So anyway.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Um so another one of our community members, um, Wade Paul, he writes us and he says, The listener spotlight is town I've lived in through two deployments and a major land grab by uh by the city. My first dog was bought off the side of the skipbow, pronounced Skybow Road. Fayetteville, North Carolina. Airborne all the way. I have to say it like he did, airborne all the way. So uh so in between the two community members, first tell us, Michael, is one of them correct?

SPEAKER_02 17:05

I will give credit to one of them because unfortunately one of them is correct. And it's not unfortunate they're correct, it's just unfortunate both of them were not correct.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Gotcha. All right. I don't know. I'm I'm thinking that just for the fun, I mean, the way that Wade wrote it, it just seems so like he knows it.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

Like he's like, he's like 100% confident that he has the answer.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Which is we have seen that go awry before. They were so confident, and then it's like but I appreciate the confidence.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Well, tell us, sir, the man who holds the strings to listener spotlight. Which one of our community members is correct? Wade? You are correct.

Subscription Feed Issues On Apple Podcasts

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Oh, you're right. Mainville, North Carolina. Well, man, Mark. Thank you. Unfortunately, I cannot say that you were correct, but here's how I came up with it. The town was created as a key river port on the Cape Fear River. Uh, it was created by the unification or through the unification of two towns, which was Cross Creek and Camp Belton. Uh, it was named for a military hero of the Revolutionary War. It was the first city that was named in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette, who, if anybody remembers their early revolutionary history, um Lafayette was the French military officer who uh came over to the United States and helped organize our army prior to the uh French fleet coming over here and actually uh helping us out additionally. It holds a specific historical cavalry fact from the Civil War because its location was the last place that the uh that there was a cavalry battle during the Civil War. And the town knows something about special ops, and that is because it is home to Fort Bragg. So there you go.

Job Search Frustrations And Modern Paperwork

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Well you know, I think both of those gentlemen I love when they write in. And uh thank you, Matt, Mark, Matt, Mark. Um uh but Wade, congratulations. Uh thank you for for writing in. He also gave us some information, and I think it's really valuable. Um, if you don't mind, I'm I'm going to I wanted to wait till listener spotlight was over. He wanted to let us know that there's something going on with subscription. Um so uh we you and I, after going to Podfest, uh, we decided to put the subscription together for those who were giving us a little bit of their money from their wallet and we wanted to give something back. So you and I put a put a 48-hour jump on the show. Um he says, I think whatever you're doing with uh monetization is good because I really like the pod. I know it costs money to put on. Um but he wanted to know when it does download and the feed for Apple Podcasts, somehow it gets buried because it shows up as being released days before it's downloaded. Just want to let you guys know about it. So if you are an Apple um pod uh podcast listener, which I am, um, I haven't noticed that, but uh let us know. Um if you're also seeing that. I would love to be able to we work with a company called Buzzsprout. We've said it many times. There's no secrets here. Um if we are having that, I'd like to get a hold of them. They're really good about uh fixing problems. So um if you are experiencing the same thing that Wade is um and you're getting the podcast buried because it comes out to the subscribers first, let us know. I'd like to know that. Yep. Um, all right, let's move forward. Um I I seem to be the one that always puts the anchor on the ball and takes this show down. So I'm going forward. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Michael Sharp, sir. Do you have a job update?

SPEAKER_02 21:20

Uh well, I am getting very good at submitting resumes and then turning around on the same place that I submit my resumes and uh entering all of that resume information again. I don't know why they want that, but I'm getting very good at that. Um I'm also getting very good at uh not being called back. If only I could get telemarketers to do the exact same thing that uh potential employers do, I'd be golden, man, let me tell you. So no. And I'm being told, regardless of what anybody is saying about our economy out there, I'm being told by headhunters and other professionals that it is taking months for people to find a job at the level that I'm of course looking at. So um could be a long slog, unfortunately. Just remember. That's where we're at. I'm uh I'm getting good at uh I don't get it. You know, here, send us your resume. Here, fill out the application. Now give everything that you just sent in that resume on the exact same thing that I'm sending, re enter everything from your resume. Well, then what do you need my resume for? Or why don't you use AI to just pull that information off and and fill your thing instead of Uh making me do two steps that aren't necessary. But uh I guess they figure you don't have anything else to do, you all have time to do it.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

So would you be willing and be palatable? I mean no this is not a ransa dissatisfaction show, but would you be willing to give me one that I could get off my chest? Sure. Do you know that something in the line that you just said about resumes and then refilling it out that just really blanks me off? Filling out medical information, checking in for an appointment, and then online they asked me everything, my medical history. They asked me, I mean, every surgery, every medication I've been taking since I've been a child, the Flintstone vitamin, everything, the calcium pills, everything. And then you get to the the medical appointment and they hand you the clipboard and they want you to fill it out again. And and I think that to me has got to be one of the most stressful.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

You know, uh the people that do those are the same people that are that are in HR doing their uh their resumes. It's yeah, it's the same same organization as exactly doing that. We're gonna make them fill out exactly the same information again.

New Show Intro And The Longhorn Voice

SPEAKER_01 23:50

So the last time I went, I was so tempted. I decided not to. But you know, recently I'm I I'm sure you know they've they've uh up their game with those questions where it says, you know, have you felt mentally depressed in the last two weeks? Have you felt like not eating, sleeping, and everything? And because they wanted me to fill it out again, I wanted to go to the very last page and like you're not gonna read this anyway. I'm gonna kill myself tonight. But but uh I decided not to. But I just wanted to say thank you. I let you let me get that off my own. Okay. So absolutely. Um, all right. Um, listen, we have something you and I got together last week, and we were talking about which way to take the show. We're taking it up, by the way, not down.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

And uh can I interrupt real quick? You're speaking about the show, but before you get too far, anybody's listening will hear our introduction is different. It was something we worked on in Florida. Uh when we were in Florida, we decided we'd shake some things up, and we worked on several things, uh, which you've seen bits and pieces of it here. But we decided to um we haven't retired NASA Girl as our official announcer, but we have added someone to our announcing thing. So we went out there and found, and I am happy to say he sounds really awesome. It's a guy now doing our introduction. NASA Girl's not gone, she'll come back. But we got you're it's incredible. We got the guy that does the Longhorn Steakhouse commercials to do our introduction.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

You know, I gotta tell you, for anyone who doesn't know that, you know, when we do cycling trips, and we're gonna do cycling trips again, by golly. We are gonna do them again pretty soon. Um you gotta get slap happy, right? You ride 60 miles, 70 miles, 80 miles, you're hot, you're thirsty, you take a shower, you're ready to go eat something. And you know, you and I are are, you know, I mean, there's a reason we are called cycling men of leisure. It's not just because it just happened. So we travel well, and so we were calling around and we we had to drive about 15 miles. We had a rental car, and I'll never forget. We were looking at places, and I'm like, oh, I wonder if there's longhorns in business still. Because you never know, you know. And we called. Thank you for calling the Longhorn Steakhouse. And you and I just laughed and laughed, and just I think it must have been the heat, the being delirious, being hungry, but it was just one of those moments where it was just so funny. We're like, Well, are you open? And the lady goes, We sure are. We could look forward to seeing you. And and so we just thought that was the greatest. Well, every now and then when life would get you know boring and monotonous, I would just call the Longhorn Steakhouse phone number and be like, Thank you for calling the Longhorn, and you were able to get him.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

I we got him, and he recorded we gave him a script and he recorded it like three different ways. And he actually the the way that you hear it, he actually threw in a little bit of emphasis that we weren't expecting. It sounds fantastic, but I was just excited. He does the the uh he's done some of the Chevy Ram commercials, if I remember right. But his his biggest one is the Longhorn Steakhouse. So if you're like listening to the Longhorn Steakhouse commercials, um, you'll hear him this Longhorn Steakhouse. And what's funny about that whole story is this happened, I don't know, three or four years ago when we first did this. There'll be days when we're out there riding, it's hot and all this kind of stuff, and there's like a lull and nothing's going on, and one of us will go, thank you for calling the Longhorn Steak. Just out of the blue, and we'll both like just break up. It's funny.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

It's funny. Especially when there's some of those uh some of those rides. Um just to be clear, we have a lot of listeners in Georgia, not in Georgia, because Franklin feeds me so well, I I usually gain weight at brag, but uh we've been on other rides where there hasn't been a lot of food, and I'm like, I'd kill for a long horn steakhouse.

SPEAKER_02 27:55

We never say it normally. It's always uh I'd kill for a long horn steakhouse. Yeah, I just wanted to bring that up um because I know last episode was the first time we'd used it. So this episode, so if you generally like go through it, stop for a second, and you can uh hear the announcer for Longhorn Steakhouse announce the uh road adventures of cycling middle leisure.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

So and and I don't want to give it away, but you know, that's a little foggy, didn't we? We have another one too, right? Oh, we we actually got a couple of people to do it.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yeah, uh we haven't got the other persons on there yet, but um we thought that would give us some uh I don't know, something to change up our introductions every once in a while, throw a new person on there uh announcing it, and we found uh another gal um who does a very good job. And so we'll just we'll have some variety now.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

You know, our good friend Jeff um who helped us with weather and saved our keysters in Iowa. Yeah, he he told me um we should actually write NASA Girl and say, Would you let us interview you for the show? You don't know this, but for our five-year anniversary, you've introduced us for five years. How do you feel about coming on the show? I said that's a good idea. So we should.

SPEAKER_02 29:09

We should. That would be really cool.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

Um maybe maybe I'll have to do that. I got some time.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Yeah. You know, every time you text me, I have some time. I never know if it'd be like, well, good, go organize your closet or or or good.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Clean up that desk of yours. It's yeah, exactly. So um all right, what do we got now? I didn't mean to interrupt you, but uh that just came to mind and we didn't mention it last episode.

Music Styles We Miss

SPEAKER_01 29:33

So we didn't thought we needed to throw that out there. I appreciate you mentioning it. So um, well, we got together last week and threw some ideas on the table. A lot of it's on the cutting room down here. I got a big mess to pick up down here. Um, but the things that made the list, I'm really excited about. This is why I've been looking for the team. Well, you mentioned some stuff about music, and you mentioned some stuff about beverages. And these are things that are right in line with leisure. So um would would dealer's choice, which one you want to go first? Um, I think I'd like to do music first. Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for Mr. Sharp to give us a little song and dance. Hell uh no, maybe I better not do that.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Um yeah, I I was, you know, I get these ideas. I got this like little whiteboard right here. Um right there um that I keep down in my basement that when I come up with ideas, I'm like, oh, we should do that. I write it down on there. And I was in my office the other day, not working, but I was in my office, and uh I thought, you know what? What about certain types of music that you just don't hear anymore? So I I uh told you and you were kind of like uh okay. But I'm I'm thinking about music types that you can't just turn on the radio necessarily and and hear. And so I I uh let's see if I can can can find one here that uh that might be appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Give me just a second, you could uh fill the time there with Ladies and gentlemen, while we're looking I actually can tell a music story while you're looking, and I'll I'll stop as soon as I hear it. But recently on a cruise in February, we went to Royal Caribbean's Aqua Show, and I gotta tell you, uh they played the 80s music for their called Aqua 80s too. And uh I looked at my wife, I said, This is when music was good. Oh, the entertainer.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

Nope. Can you hear it? A little bit, yeah. Oh there.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

Do you know what kind of music that is? I'm gonna embarrass myself. It's not ragtime, right? It is ragtime. Wow. Whatever happened to ragtime music? You know, ragtime and and New Orleans jazz, it's very, very similar. A lot of pianos, um, some trumpets and trombones and things like that. But whatever happened, I mean, I don't know. I'm thinking maybe one of these days I just want to turn on the radio and go, gee, I'd like to hear some ragtime.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

They don't play that in Central Time? No. No, do they play it in your time? Well, no, we're we're an hour in front of you. I'm gonna my point is we've advanced.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Oh, oh, I see how you are that way. But yeah, they don't have ragtime anymore, which I'm a little disappointed about. Actually, I'm a little angry about because I mean, you know, you're having a bad day. How can you not smile when somebody starts playing some ragtime? Don't you think?

SPEAKER_01 32:56

I picture when you that music that you just played, stuff like that, like old-time movies where they you see a guy playing the piano and everyone's like happy.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

So well, it is like the entertainer. Uh one of my favorite movies is a sting, and they play that, you know, in the movie, and uh it's it's really good. It's you know, 1920s, it's kind of good.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

So little sidebar. I went to um Missouri State and won a gold medal um playing the entertainer. Really? I did on the drums?

SPEAKER_04 33:30

It was on a marumba.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Well, there you go. All good military boys should be able to play the marumba. It was four of us, and we did uh a quartet. Oh, very nice. Well, I'm glad there was four of you if it was a quartet, because that'd be weird if there was three in the quartet.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

But yeah. Well, my personality was there, and my other personality No, just kidding. What about this? I actually don't know. Really? I don't know. I don't know what the the style I know the song actually, but I don't know the style what it's called. That is sea shanty music. Oh, you cannot go wrong with a little sea shanty on a Friday night.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

See, that's what I'm saying. I mean, you're in your you're in your driveway or in your garage and you've got a cigar and some whiskey. Listen to some sea shanty music. That'll make you get up and start dancing. In fact, when you're listening to a sea shanty music, you can drink right out of the bottle, and it is perfectly acceptable, even with company. Pass the bottle around. No?

SPEAKER_01 34:48

This is your segment.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

Well, did you have any music to add?

SPEAKER_01 34:53

You know, I was I was telling the story as you were searching. I I gotta tell you, and and uh 80s, like 80s hits, like I remember my first video uh was You Give Love a Bad Name, um and uh Living on a Prayer. No, Living on a Prayer. So in the middle of the country, I lived in Anna, Illinois. For those of you uh south of Carbondale on 57 there, 146. And and uh we had literally, I'm not kidding you, we had four channels, and Friday nights, if the wind was not blowing and everything worked out right, we could we could get the reception. It was Friday night videos, and uh that was um what's that? Um uh oh man, I should have known it before. Um don't give me no lies and keep your hands to yourself. Um yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um got a little change in my pocket going jing-a-ling-a-ling. But uh, anyways, please don't crash your car. Sorry for singing. Um, but um, I remember those those kinds of you know hits were were very, you know, they were definitely a memory in in my head. Well, when we were on the cruise, it was all like U2 and Bon Jovi and all the all the good stuff. And like I said to my wife, this is when music was good, and she's like, Okay, calm down. You've had a couple bourbons, relax. So as we're walking to our room, I I'll never forget there was a couple in front of us, and the guy leaned over to his wife, he's like, That's when music was good. And I go, see, see. So I that's definitely uh but I I have to tell you a sidebar before you get back to the sea shanty and the and the uh the whatever the ragtime. Um the the other day I had on uh classic classic music. And uh the DJ said, and now we're gonna play a little oldie. Um we're gonna play a little Pearl Jam, Jeremy. And I was like, that's not an oldie. What are you talking about? I had a hard time accepting that. So Yeah, it's an oldie.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Excuse me. It is an oldie. I'm sorry to uh to be the one that has to has to uh that's okay. Um yeah, sea shanties. Those I mean, whatever happened to those. I mean, you could you could be a pirate and have a good time. Now, this next one should be one near and dear to your heart.

SPEAKER_04 37:31

Oh boy. Yes, no.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

I don't know what it is yet.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Okay, let's try another one. Polka polka. Hey the man wins a prize.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

I love it. Uh, by the way, sidebar, best movie line ever. Polka polka polka. You don't remember that? It was a big hit for us in the Midwest. Polka polka polka. The Kenoship.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

For those of you who don't know, that was John Candy from uh Home Alone. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

That's the Polka Kings. Yes. Sidebar, I have a little movie history for you. Those of our community that may not know this, if you did watch Home Alone and you know that Catherine and John Candy are in the back of the moving truck. I want you to know that that whole scene is improv. It was not written down. You can look this up. I'm not just making this up. And he talks about leaving his son in a funeral home, and she's she's terrified. But if you look it up, uh it's complete improv. He just made it up. And and I don't want to ruin it. I want you to watch it, and so go search for it because it's it's hilarious. But I want you to know it's all made up.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

So oh yeah, he's he's okay. I mean, kids kids bounce back. Yeah. Poka, poka, poka. It was a big hit for us in the Midwest, yeah. So uh there you go. Uh you do you don't hear poker music very often anymore. I mean, maybe if you're up in like Wisconsin or at a wedding. Well, you gotta you gotta be at a right wedding because I didn't go to a lot of weddings and I don't hear poker music, bro.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Polish weddings.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Well, I don't go to a whole lot of Polish weddings, so there you go. Maybe that's it.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

So um how about a little of this? Anybody else concerned? Concerned about what?

SPEAKER_01 39:56

I don't know what this is.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

You don't know what this is? This is the reason why it's no longer around. This is lyre music. You know, you know, that four five, six, eight strings, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Oh yeah. Like you'd say the Renaissance Festival.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Yes. This is really big back in ancient Rome and ancient Greece. And listening to that little snippet, uh, there's no reason for that music to come back, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

I mean, I've heard of elevator music. I've also heard of music that makes you jump off the elevator.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

Uh so maybe I'm gonna suggest we don't bring back that. Okay. You're okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

Yeah, I mean, Cindy Lauper had the Dulcimer, and that sounded great, but yeah, that that what you just played.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Uh that just goes to show that there are some music types that should just be dead and buried. I'm sure that worked out in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, but let's let's not hear that again. Now, here's a good one. You should get this one, I I would think. Um as it's coming up here.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

But um yeah, this one is uh if you play Michael's cool and Adam's okay, I So there you go. I don't know what that I mean, I I'm familiar with the style, but I don't know what it's called.

SPEAKER_02 41:34

That, my friend, is barbershop quartet.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

I went to the barbershop. Doesn't look like it. Did you sing? Oh, I mean, there's if I sing in a barber.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

I mean, ever since we got past like 1920, Barbershop Quartet just hasn't been big. I think it needs to come back. Although it did get big there for a while when the Music Man came out, and every time they redo Music Man on Broadway and stuff, everybody's reminded hey, bra uh, you know, barbershop quartet is a real type of music because in the original movie they had the Buffalo Bills, which is a very famous barbershop quartet singing in that movie. But so there you go. Um Disney has the Dapper Dans. Yes, that's right. I'm a Dapper Dan man. We won't get into that movie, but I don't want Fop.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

I'm a Dapper Dan man, yeah. Thank you for giving us the G-rated version. I appreciate that, sir. This is a family.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

Well, no problem. Yeah, we're in a we're in a geographic anomaly. Oh, that's uh another movie reference from O Brother Where Aren't Thou. So with a little bit of Hey Mr.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

You lost some of your folding money. Folding money.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Dumber, you're dumber than a bag of hammers. Bag of hammers. All right, so there we go. I was just, you know, there's just some styles of music that uh aren't around anymore that I think should be.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

I think one of those styles would probably be right in the line with the slightly amount of leisure since uh Otis is wearing the uh old-time suit with the buttons and Otis would fit right in with the barbershop quartet.

New 2026 Jersey Design Approved

SPEAKER_02 43:21

I mean, he could he's even got like the handlebar mustache, and he could step right off that bike and jump in barbershop quartet. Absolutely. So we're okay. There's there's part of our origin story for Otis. He uh when he's not on a bicycle, he sings barbershop quartet.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

He's multifaceted. Before we transition to our next beverage thing, I have to give a small update. Okay. I can't tell you how I'm excited, how excited I am to tell you about the next thing. Oh boy. Cycling men of leisure and cycling women of leisure. You and I just gave the final stamp of approval for the jersey for 2026 Brag. And let me tell you, it's the best one we've ever done.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

It is incredible. Now, for anybody who listens to our show and our community out there, may or may not remember that a certain member of this group, i.e., Adam and Michael, um, really did not like last year's logo or last year's design whatsoever. And they were very vocal about it. Um, but this year's oh my god, it is so awesome. I need to buy one just because. Because it is so cool. I mean, it just sings, literally sings cycling men or cycling women of leisure. It is a cool, cool jersey.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

I already told our designer from Primal that even though that you and I would not be attending the event, that you and I were gonna be purchasing it is that cool.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

So um I would not have well, one of us would not have said that last year. I don't know who that was. I don't know. Okay, it was me. I was not thrilled with I mean a lot of people liked it. I was not thrilled with with the design, but um, you know, that's okay. This year, got a design that I absolutely love.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

It's I'm I'm I'm excited. I don't know. I know our friends Sarah and Walter, they have Safety is Sexy. I hope they did well, and I know our good friend Bill, they have the chain gang. I hope they're there's actually two chain gang teams, I think, but um unless they join together, which I don't know that or not, but um I hope that their jerseys are cool, but I gotta tell you, uh, we will have two different we have the men and women will both have different jerseys. And let me just say, I'm I'm I'm pretty excited. So people are gonna say that is a cool jersey.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Michael's a hundred percent right. Yeah, of course.

Weird Alcohol Measurements Explained

SPEAKER_01 45:58

I mean, we all do that. Happens, so you know. Uh let's let's move this on. Um we are gonna be talking about beverages. That seems like something the cycling men of leisure podcast would talk about a lot as beverages.

SPEAKER_02 46:15

Yeah, yeah, we uh we consume a few.

SPEAKER_01 46:17

Yes, alcoholic and otherwise, absolutely. I've noticed recently that the last few shows you haven't had your traditional bourbon.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

I have not. I figure with the way my lifestyle is right now, the last thing I need to be doing is drinking.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Okay, that's fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

Fair enough. I don't have a problem with it, but you know what? I don't want to get a problem with it. So I think for a while I'm just going to uh completely not be drinking any alcoholic beverages. I don't think it'll serve my purpose at all.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

So all right. Well, let's go ahead and talk about what you were talking about, which because I think I don't know how you were going to introduce it, but I love it.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

Well, in another instant of uh things I'd like to talk about is beverages, but not just beverages. There is some really, really weird ways of measuring beverages. And prior to 1980 in the United States, we measured them based upon our weird system of measurements, which was you know gallons, pints, quarts, things like that. After 1980, we started measuring things in the metric system because you know, when you and I were a kid, we were just two years away from going full metrics, um, which we're still waiting on that one, but it it's it's coming, I'm quite sure or not. Um so we moved from our standard to the met to the metric system on alcohol, and that occurred in the 1980s. And uh I started doing some research, and there's just some really interesting ways today and historically how we've measured liquor. And I will start off with one. Very interesting. Um have you ever been s sitting at a bar or sitting by a campfire and somebody you know says, Do you want something? And you were like, Give me a give me a Jill.

SPEAKER_01 48:19

You know, no, because usually, I mean, um I mean that sounds a bottle. Yeah, exactly. Uh no, I haven't.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Okay, well, it's a little dated, but it was a huge standard uh measurement of whiskey and rum um back in the British Navy Revolutionary period. In fact, uh George Washington declared that the Army um should get a jill of whiskey every day, a ration of whiskey, and that equates out to like four ounces. Um, they also used it on like British Navy ships with rum or grog watered down rum. Um they would get a jill. It's actually spelled G-I-L-L, but pronounce a jill, and that was actually four ounces, and that was their daily ration of rum on the ship. So um the name comes from the Jill Cup, which is a small tin-line cup that measures a spirit, and that would be a four-ounce cup, so they would do that. Here's your here's your jill for the day. Um yeah, I don't I don't really think that's something that you could really like, you know, I don't know, save up your rations for or anything like that. I think it was kind of consume it as you go, but um, the jill. So the next time you're sitting around the campfire uh or we're on a bike ride, you can impress everybody by going, I'll take another Jill. Well, don't say that around your wife because that's gonna be completely taken the wrong way. But that's gonna be. I'll know what you mean. I know what you mean. I'll get you four ounces of your favorite drink.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

So there's other um this one I found interesting because I come he was using Chat GPT and I said I wanted just some ideas so I could keep up with the conversation. Um and the reason why uh ounce, um, we we think of a shot being an ounce only, um, it comes from the Latin word unica, meaning one twelfth, and Roman measurement meant a twelfth part, and that idea survived in the English measurement words today. That's how you got an ounce. I just thought that was an okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:41

And a shot is traditionally uh one ounce. Uh nowadays you see it more of uh one and a half ounces. But the shot itself, a lot of people will tell you that it's because back in the old west they used to pay for their whiskey. I'll take a shot, and that measurement was worth like one like 45 caliber bullet. Um there's no historical precedence for that whatsoever. Um that's just a great story that people tell. Actually, the first use of shot as a form of measurement of alcohol was in six in the 1670s. So it goes back much further than that. And uh the glass itself, the shot glass, is actually thought to have been named after a German glassmaker named Otto Schott, S-C-H-O-T-T. So there you go. A little bit more about your shot thing.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Uh, piggybacking off of your shot. Uh, this says a shot is a drink and appears uh by the 1600s. It's a small drink of straight liquor, um, and then the historical idea comes from throwing down a drink quickly, like shot. Boom. Shot.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

Uh another one that's always fun, and I use this term a lot, is buttload. Did you know that buttload is actually a form of measurement of liquor? I did not. Yes. So the next time uh I say, Man, I had a buttload of this or that. Uh technically, um I either am lying or I had 126 gallons of something.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

I'm hoping that you're lying.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

It's actually a barrel. Wow. It's called a butt barrel, 126 gallons. That's where the term butt load came from. Uh and barrels are interesting, and and whiskey barrels are traditionally, as you know, 53 gallons are the traditional normal size barrels. Uh they do have 30 gallon and and 15 gallon, but traditional places um, you know, in the bourbon trail and stuff are going to use 50 gallons or 50, excuse me, 53 gallons. But the wine uh industry and the other, you know, people making ports and things like that have other size barrels. Some of them get very large. Hogshead. I'll take a hogshead. I don't know how they came up with the name, but that is a 66-gallon barrel. Um, like I said, the butt is 126 gallons. And then the largest ones, well, the largest ones that are standardized, they have a lot larger barrels that have been custom made, is a tune, and that is 252 gallons.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

So if you ever say I had a buttload of whiskey or a tune of whiskey, you can call me a liar because uh I'd be dead. You'd be dead. Yeah. Well, let me tell you something. Uh, with my studio project, I have literally carried a buttload of that, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

That my friend would be probably closer to a tune than you are buttload. I'm thinking probably isn't much uh whiskey as you've got up there. But uh sign bar.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

It's all over my house right now. It's on my first floor, it's my second floor, guest bedroom, bedroom. And we had someone taking care of our cat when we were on vacation. And I actually had to preface when they came in. Listen, I don't have a problem. I just have a big project going on upstairs.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

What the guy with a problem would say. I don't have a problem. And finally, uh, I know we're getting close on time, but the one I'll end with is a nip. You know how somebody says, Oh, I'll take a nip of that. It's very kind of a British term, I guess. Um, but that's mini bottle, and that is basically 50 milliliters. Um and it's uh 1.5 ounces. So it would be basically what you get on the uh the airline there.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

Yes, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

So uh when you're on there on the sitting in first class and they said, Would you like a drink, uh, Mr. Boranski? You can say, Well, I'll take a uh, you know, a nip. You know, this is reserve.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Really strange to say to a guy who's searching for employment, but I have not been upgraded this year. Normally normally when you and I travel, I come back going.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Well, it's you traveling and not me, so maybe I'm the one getting you the upgrades.

SPEAKER_01 55:07

That's because the more people who buy Maine allow me to move up. So would you please start buying some tickets?

SPEAKER_02 55:16

I'm trying, man. So so there's I just thought it would be interesting to educate some people on uh the interesting ways that alcohol is measured. And then you can even get into crazier stuff. If you go back to India, they measure things and what's called a peg, and it just gets just crazy. So but there you go. Next time uh someone says they have a buttload of something, you can go, oh, so you got 126 gallons. And they'll be going, uh, what?

SPEAKER_01 55:45

I thought it might be interesting just to add a couple things here. It says that the gallon, what we think of as a gallon today, uh, comes from an old French and medieval Latin um uh gelata, or or if I'm pronouncing that correctly, G-A-L-L-E-T-A, meaning something like a jug, a bucket, or pail, and it originally pointed more of a container than the exact modern size. And the other one I wanted to mention was cup. We all think of a cup, give me a cup of milk, a cup of water, a cup of coffee, whatever. Um, and it says that it's an old English word, and it uh is cuppa, meaning cup or drinking vessel. Um and there the eight-ounce uh was regular brought on later, but back in the day it was just whatever size your cup was. Um, you know, give me a cup of this, cup of that. I thought that was kind of interesting. Um but one I'll end with was the pint. This is really interesting to me because we think of a pint as a standard unit of measurement now, but according to this, and again, I'm just looking online, but the pint wasn't exactly 100% sure. It says it probably came from a marked fill line back in the day, is how they first got the pint. I thought that was kind of interesting. Lightly comes from um a painted or marked line on the on a vessel, and the painted line show how full it should be, and that's where they think the pint came from, which is that's just amazing that we use that as a a standard unit of measurement now.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

So you know back in the day it's like, yeah, this is a pint of liquid, and they erase the line off and drop it down a half an inch. It's like, oh, there's a real pint. Oh, I've been to a bar, but there was a lot of finagling going on. It's like, oh so well.

SPEAKER_01 57:34

Let's go ahead and finish this show off. Uh we will we have go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Did we want to thank some people?

SPEAKER_01 57:42

I'll thank anyone you want to thank. When who do you want to start with?

SPEAKER_02 57:45

Well, uh we hadn't thanked our our subscribers uh in a while. I thought maybe we would uh take a minute to thank them if you were had everything ready.

SPEAKER_01 57:53

Yes, I can I can get it uh get it going very quickly here.

SPEAKER_02 57:58

I tell you what, while you're while you're doing that, I can be reading the next listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

Ladies and gentlemen, now time for listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

And sometimes he just doesn't try. But that's okay. He's busy. I uh I threw kind of a you know Hold on.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

Called an audible there and ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for Listener Spotlight. How about that? Thank you. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 58:29

Yes, sir. All right. Listener Spotlight, for this episode, the clues are as followed. This town was named for a water feature. It was settled. Oh, excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Ladies and gentlemen, speaking of water. Please. What's in that little QT thing there you have?

SPEAKER_02 58:52

That would be Dr. Pepper. All right, sorry about that. It was settled in the late 1700s. It is best known for one of its stone buildings. The town knows something about moving. It has a strong Colorado connection, and this city has hosted several counties.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

Any ideas?

unknown 59:20

St.

SPEAKER_04 59:20

Louis is not a water feature, by the way. No.

SPEAKER_01 59:23

Wasn't even going to go there, but okay. Hosted several counties. Yes. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I understood that correctly, sir. Hosted several counties.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

Well strong Colorado connection, all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

Listen, we got we got some guesses last time, so for our community, please go forth. Do your research. Look it out. Put Michael and make sure and keep him honest. So um why don't we, as you said, uh read our uh subscriber list that we want to thank. And team member and great friend, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Alex Bell.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:10

Yeah, thanks, Alex.

Thanking Subscribers And Closing

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

Uh, hey, look at this. Miss Barbara Sharp. Hey, there we go. Nice, very nice. My my mother, we appreciate that. Well, she's always been a big supporter. Um, our good friend Mandy Johnson, an original cycling woman of leisure. Mm-hmm. Yep. Um, our friend Kip Othold. Hope I'm saying that right, because I'll feel guilty if I'm not. Uh Ryan Roanick, who we interviewed with Bruce for the 901 Trail. Our good friend Joe Grammer. And our good friend Mr. Dennis Keeler. Thank you to our subscribers. And an honorary member, even though he's gonna be surprised, back from Cambodia. Back from Vietnam. Ladies and gentlemen, I must always thank our original supporter, Mr. Scott Garwick. So uh thank you, sir, for all your support along the way. Hope you had a great trip. Uh thank you for sharing your pictures, by the way, on on the social media of your trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. So that was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:18

So um with that, we just hadn't said thank you for them for a while, so I didn't want to leave them out.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

No, I appreciate that. It's good to hear you back in good, better spirits, Mr. Sharp. I'm I'm happy to keep keep you keep you honest and keep you happy. And by the way, don't forget, there is a driving job in Michigan. On that note, ladies and gentlemen, uh it's soon for me. Very soon, it's gonna be a great day for a bike ride. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:53

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.