December 6, 2023 • 41 mins
51-year-old, Omaha, Nebraska Author, Computer Executive and Software Developer Mike Straub, AKA “The Sea-Do-Looper”, is an extreme adventurer who has engaged in “Mega Road trips" along with his sons & sports cars & “Jet-ski's”, which led Mike to take on the challenge of completing “America’s Great Loop” on a Jet-ski. Each of these adventures were to raise money for "Autism Action Partnership". Mike joins us tonight to share his experiences and to give us some insight into his book, “Y Wait”.
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Outdoors People is broadcast live Wednesdays at 6PM ET.
Outdoors People TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Outdoors People Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Outdoors People Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:00):
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(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to outdoors people withme. Cw Getz and her Maya mar
Zaki. Good evening. It's Wednesday, December sixth, twenty twenty three.
(00:53):
It is a balmy thirty nine degreefahrenheit four degrees Celsia's cloudy day here in
northsen Illini. Maya, what yougot down there in some Paulo, Brazil.
Oh, I think we lost her, Yain. We didn't have an
internet issues kids all well for thepast hour and so everybody's been kind of
going in and out and I don'tAnd actually actually that started in West Palm
(01:15):
Beach, Florida, and I thinkthat extended all the way to Brazil.
So let's just kind of got thelet's hope we get Maya back. We're
going to go into the show herein pardon for the delay. That is
the reason for the delay, bythe way, so we'll get started.
Tonight's episode of outdoors People is broughtto you by Rudebega Paddle Sports providing time
(01:37):
on the water, campground views makingcamping easier, by Dluth Pack made in
the USA since eighteen eighty two,and by Jackson Kayak Pursuing joy through paddle
Sports. Tonight's episode is Why Waitwith our guest Mike strab Fifty one year
old Omaha, Nebraska author, computerexecutive, and software developer. Mike Staub
(02:00):
aka the skid Looper, is alsoa devoted husband and father, and like
a lot of fathers, Mike enjoysdifferent types of camping, his sports cars,
as well as time spent on thewater. Yet, unlike most fathers,
Mike is an extreme adventurer who isengaged in some extraordinary endeavors like mega
(02:20):
road trips with his two sons throughforty nine states in a sports car and
long distance jet ski tours, whicheventually led him to take on the challenge
of completing America's Great Loop. Mike'schallenging missions, however, were not merely
in vain, but rather to raisemoney for a charity organization that's near and
dear to his heart, Autism ActionPartnership. Mike joins us tonight to share
(02:45):
his experiences from those extraordinary adventures andto give us some insight to his book
Why Wait, And with that,welcome to the show, Mike, Yeah,
(04:12):
thank you, wh and maya,now that you're back to lady have
you here? Mike? Hi?So everyone is having internet? He shoot
today? Hopefully mine will hold out, so we'll see. Yeah. I
(04:32):
think maybe one of the two ofthe or three guys that did this show,
because we've got a few guys thatactually didn't have internet is shues and
good for you guys. Good foryou. Yeah, I'm pretty lucky.
And uh well, Mike, howdid you come up with the idea of
doing americans Great Loop? Uh?So, America's Great Loop is for those
(04:56):
that are not familiar with it,and you kind of saw it maybe on
the map a little bit, butbasically it's a water trail around the eastern
third of the US and so drawcircle around the tip of Florida and all
the way up to New York andGreat Lakes Silver to Chicago and on down
to the Gulf of Mexico. That'spretty much what the Great Loop is.
(05:19):
And so it's about six thousand milesten thousand kilometers, and there's different options
that you can take on the Loop. You can even venture into Canada and
things like that. So that's whatAmerica's Great Loop is. And so,
like many of your listeners, Iimagine I'm a bit of an adventure junkie
(05:42):
of what started out as a passionwith sports cars and doing big, huge
driving trips with my sons. Droveto Alaska a couple of times in different
corvettes and all forty well nine statesthat I can drive to and much of
Canada. That spilled over into takingmy se do personal watercraft or that skime
(06:09):
taking that out on longer trips.I throw a tent and the ski and
go off and camp on the MissiuryRiver. And as I was researching the
Mississippi River, that's when I stumbledon this America's Great Loop. I was
like, I had no idea youcan do that, you know, So
I was really intrigued by it.And most people that do the Google Loop,
(06:34):
they're in these thirty foot to fiftyfoot live aboard boats. Right,
they take a year and they travelthe loop. But then I read that,
Wow, people have done it onskis before, and so it's like
that is me. I was hooked. I knew I had to do it.
That's interesting, man, I meanI understand being hooked on something.
(06:57):
May you can share that with whenyou went climbing for the first time.
Yeah, I love this. Iget asked, like you you did this
trip without what they call a chasecrew. Now, how first of all,
how risky is that? And thenhow scary is that for you know,
for you as well? I mean, got nothing no back up there?
Right, It was a difficult decisionhow to do that and whether to
(07:21):
do that. Certainly, if ifyou had another writer with you on another
ski, that would be a lotsafer. Uh, you know, you'd
have a buddy boat. You know, if one machine fails, they can
tell you or you know, especiallyif you're near a locking down or any
kind of water hazard. Uh,you know, certainly be a lot safer.
(07:43):
But trying to find somebody else thatis willing to spend three months in
seven thousand miles on you would youput an ad in the paper or something
like that, Hey, by theway, but interested, I'm here.
Yeah, So going solo ended upbeing I kind of knew I was going
(08:05):
to have to go solo and thena Chase crew. So I did have
some siblings that volunteered there for differentsegments. They were like, yeah,
I'll follow you, and those thoseplans just kind of slowly faded. Having
a Chase crew would make the experienceso much different because they would handle a
(08:26):
lot of the logistics, and ifthey had the trailer for the ski,
I'd probably pull up right onto thetrailer. We'd probably go to the hotel
and it would just be a differentexperience instead of, you know, being
able to spend time with people onthe loop and you know, dock the
ski at a marina, spend afew hours at the marina with people.
(08:48):
So over over time, it justslowly faded. And as far as having
a Chase crew, and I decided, yep, I'm going to do it
on my own and without a Chasecrew, and one I decided that,
then I knew I had to doubledown on all my equipment and be really
prepared so I had to satellite personallocation befons that if I was in trouble,
(09:11):
I could hit a SOS button.I had two cell phones in case
I accidentally dropped one, you know, into the water. Navigational systems going
the whole time. So because Ireally doubled down and being prepared, I
became comfortable with it. But yes, it was I don't know about scary,
(09:33):
but just it made me nervous.Yeah, I totally compelled. Why
that's very scary? And did youhave anything go wronging during that adventure?
So winding the clock back before theGreat Loop, it was back in twenty
(09:54):
twenty and I was doing a tripwith my son. We were on one
ski running from Omaha to Saint Louisand it was day two of a four
day trip and we hit a rockwing dam. So the rivers rock jetties
that kind of direct the flow ofthe current, and the river was high
(10:20):
and it was that covered this rockjetty and I didn't see it, and
I wasn't running my navigation like Ishould have been. Shame on me,
And it was an eye opener.It was like, wow, I was
not as prepared as I should havebeen. And so using that as motivation
that again, I really prepared.I had the two navigation stuff going on
(10:43):
the whole trip. While on theloop, I really didn't have anything really
bad go wrong. Yeah, therewas a little bit of a zone flaw
with the ski where if I leftweight on the machine overnight, which I
had a lot of fuel with me, it would slowly let water into the
(11:11):
spark plug basically and foul the plugsand it would be hard to see next
morning. Once we figured that outin Miami, then didn't have any other
other issues, so it was itwas great. Yeah, absolutely cool.
I did have a big, bigwater so, you know, five six
(11:35):
foot way. I tried to notventure out any anything bigger than that.
That's that's that's plenty of wave actionand even pretty normal stuff though, I
would say, yeah you could expectyeah right, yeah, and even not
so much the size of the wave, but just being out on the water
for six to eight to ten hoursa day, that's what can really just
(11:58):
take a toll on you. Itbeats you pretty good, I would imagine,
certainly certainly the Great Lakes and theGulf in the Atlantic. Yeah,
all right, well listen, we'regonna we come back here. We're gonna
take a quick brave. But whenwe come back, we are going to
Maya's having some problems. She usuallytakes us out of the commercials and I
just realized she's having some internet issuesstill. But when we come back,
(12:20):
we have got three guests that we'rethere with you when you landed in our
area. Here we sell county,so don't go away. We'll be right
back with more of Mike strab Rightafter these messages. A few years ago,
(12:41):
someone asked rudebik as owner Darren Bush, Hey, how long have you
guys been selling boats? Darren replied, we don't sell boats. We sell
time on the water. Of course, that comes in all types. We
help people paddle more safely with rudabikoutdoor programs. We rent canoes, kayaks
and stand up paddle boards. Wesell and install racks to get you from
(13:03):
home to adventure. Rudabega's got everythingyou need to get you out on the
water, like paddles, life jackets, dry bags, some clothing. Rudebega
paddlesports on the web at rudebega dotcom. Mention you saw this ad on
the Camping Show. It is timeto go camping introducing Campground Views virtual tours.
You can tour the campground, seethe site, see if they are
(13:26):
available, and click to book yourperfect spot, hit the open road and
explore the amazing places found in nature. We make it easy to discover,
find and book your site so thatyou can go have the fun and freedom
you seek. Campground Views virtual Toursmake it easy and simple for you to
(13:50):
see where you are going. DLuthpack is handcrafted for every lifestyle, making
(14:18):
memories since eighteen eighty two, instore at three sixty five Canal Park Drive
or online at the luthpack dot com. We are one big family, a
community of tattlers, and we wantto make sure that everyone has a great
time out on the water. Weare made right here in part of Tennessee,
USA. This is where every JacksonKayak is born. You'll buy him
(14:43):
with a focus on innovation. Weare jack and Kayak. We are we
are. We are Jackson Kayak.We are we are, We're Jackson.
We are we are Jackson Kayak.And we're back with Mike strab and well
(15:05):
let's have let's bring our three guests. We got backstage on on screen,
but you got Vicky and Bill andRon and these three. Uh, when
Mike came to the well and youknow what you're gonna what you guys can
tell the story. But when whenhe came into the Starved Rock Yacht Club,
you guys accommodated him, and uh, he definitely, I'm sure was
(15:30):
grateful for that. But Vicky,why don't we start with you? Just
tell us because I think you hadthe most involvement. What I understand?
Right? Can you hear it's Vicky. We're having some internet fun tonight.
I'm telling you right. Yeah,when I teck someone else go away.
Oh, Vicky just said, mysound broke out. Okay, well then
(15:50):
let's do this. Let's wait forher to come back in. Uh,
Bill, you're you're probably go aheadand you give us your give us a
couple of minutes here and tell usyour involvement in this. What happened?
Well, I stumbled across Mike onthe Great American Loop page on Facebook,
and I saw him getting his SIGUready to go and have his rack built
(16:15):
and intrigued me. On following hisjourney, I continued watching eagerly waiting his
videos every week, and as hemade his way down to the Gulf and
around Florida start back up the Eastcoast. I was watching him go through
the Great Lakes, and when hewent to play Huron to Mackinhall Island,
(16:41):
I reached out to him, andI had my boat actually currently in Michigan,
and I was going to see ifhe was making his way down the
coast down where in Saint Joseph wheremy boat was, and I was going
to offer him a place to stay, but he decided to cross a little
bit further up than where I was, and I was also going to go
across down to Starfrocking Arena the followingweek, and so we chatted back and
(17:11):
forth, and he went the weekbefore me, and unfortunately I wasn't able
to meet up with him, butwe kept in contact since then and it's
been fun watching him. Yeah.Wow, you know that that's quite a
quite a story and love. Andby the way, Micky's having some audio
(17:33):
issues here. So I'm going togo to Ron right now. Ron putting
him up on the screen there ifyou can one. He is the man
that made this episode even possible.One day, my friend was there.
I was hoping my friend put acover on his boat and almost sliced his
finger off my good friend Damy.We walked into the bar area and then
here's these guys working in the kitchenand Danny's walking through with blood just dripping
(17:56):
down his hand and his arm andeverything else. And Ron was one of
the surgeons in the kitchen that hadbeen makeshift surgeons that and anyway, we
got we got my friend wrapped upand I talked with Ron and Ron was
like, Hey, you hear aboutthis guy and this you know this ski
doo and blah blah blah. Ohyeah, he came here. What so
(18:18):
he's telling me about I said,we got to do a show. And
Ron hooked me up and gave meall the information. So I want to
thank you Ron for that. Ireally appreciate and thanks for taking the time
too. Glad we all got ittogether. Yeah, and so what was
your you know, what was yourexperience? What was your involvement here with
this whole endeavor. Well, agroup of us from Star Rock Yacht Club,
we're following Mike on his journey fromthe East Coast down the Great Lakes,
(18:44):
and we knew he was going tobe coming by us. We followed
him through Chicago, which is abig adventure in itself. We invited him
to stop in Ottawa at uh onthe Illinois River, where we wrapped up
every weekend, and we reached outto him, which he was very cordial
and decided to stop, and wewere going to give him a place to
(19:06):
stay for the night, give himsome food and beverage, and just really
get to meet him. We werereally excited to meet He was a celebrity
with us, and I remember wewaited and waited, and he got stuck
at the Marseilles lock, which alot of you don't understand that unless you're
a boater, you don't know whatit's like to get stuck in a lock,
let alone on a jet ski ina lock. Wow. So he
(19:26):
finally got through there and came upto where we were rafting, and as
tired as he was, he wasgracious enough. We pelted him with like
a thousand questions and matter did youoffer drinks while? When you were asking
these questions, I'm hoping, ofcourse we're bos time. So we got
(19:49):
got him situated and everybody was,like I said, it was asking him,
how do you go to the bathroom? And did you come acrost any
sharks? And what a commodation?Uh what accommodations did you make to the
jet ski to make it? Also? So he was great, like I
said he was. He was great, answered all our questions and we sat
(20:11):
that night and just heard story afterstory and it was so interesting. I
mean we were, like I saywe were. He was a celebrity to
us. We really enjoyed the evening. I mean you can see by talking
to him just a few minutes herewhat a great, great guy he is.
I mean he's a very likable guy. And uh we had wait a
ball love fun. That's so nice, a solid trip. Became a such
(20:32):
a big and nice group of friends. That's so nice, and all we
are together her Okay, well nowwe got Vicky. Okay, so let's
see Vicky. Okay, she says, I'm only getting a few words.
Sorry, so she's not being ableto get up with us audio here or
is that the case? Okay?Every every third word fire away, Well
(20:56):
we got you, didn't you hearus? Well, I don't know what's
been covered. So yeah, Idon't know what's been covered. So I
was one of the boat. Yeah, so I was one of the boats
out with Ron, you know,and I know, like Mike ran into
some issues with locks and we foundhim, helped him find somewhere to stay
(21:17):
in things. Yeah, it originallyI think Bill was the one who actually
got me in touch with Mike.Originally he was going to stay in my
extra cabin on my boat for thenight with us when when we were organizing
all this. But it was cool, you know, Mike came through and
still stopped while he was waiting fora lock and hung out for an hour
and had some snacks and told somestories and it was just it was great.
(21:38):
It was an awesome experience to getto meet him and be part of
that journey with him and kind ofsee him finish up after he got through
the startreck area. So that's cool, you know. And so Mike,
you really are a rock star.And obviously you had these fans swelling,
and I gotta say, man,you know, it's one of those things
where the people in this area arevery accommodating, and I I know the
(22:00):
boating community is very accommodating, muchlike the camping community, and I think
it's wonderful how you know, everybodyreached out and to give you a hand
into a comedy. You Mike,I think that's I think that hopefully says
something about our area and the boatingcommunity both. So yep, oh absolutely,
yeah, those are some pretty amazingwords to hear from from folks.
(22:25):
And when I started the trip,I didn't think it was necessarily going to
be a people trip. I thoughtit was going to be more about climbing
my mountain, if you will,of doing the trip just because I was
traveling so fast and also being ona ski. You know, I'm not
a big boat and and so Iwas I was just setting myself up for
maybe that that part wouldn't be there. But oh my gosh, I'm just
(22:48):
amazed with the outpouring of support,both in person virtual as well. And
you know, the gang here isjust a great exam sample of folks that
reached out. And yeah, uh, he was right. I tried to
get there that night for the raftup, but the lock delay. I
(23:10):
think I spent five hours waiting fora lock and uh, and then another
couple hours and so I couldn't getto the raft up that night. They
had steak and lobster, and it'slike, oh and just hang out and
party with them would have been wouldhave been amazing. But the next let's
get to the real serious stuff.Did you get you drunk? Mike?
You could kill me? Well,I stopped in in the middle of the
(23:32):
day the next day so I wouldhave story the night before. Yeah,
I love it. I love it. Good stuff, good stuff. That's
uh, well that was about yourbook. Yeah, so uh you know,
as far as the book, itis uh why wait with the letter
(23:56):
y uh and then w A IT. And that's just been my mantra
for the last well since two thousandand eight. That's when I went and
was kind of just doing the familything, and it's like, man,
I missed my sports car and whatam I doing? I wasn't really living
(24:17):
my life like I wanted to withpassion, And so I went and bought
a Corvette and drove that Corvette allaround and that led to the passion with
the jet skis and doing these longerjet ski trips and then the Great Loop
trip. So and I the nameof my ski on the trip was why
(24:37):
Wait. I had the signs madeon the side of the ski to help
with with you know, people gettingthe word out right. And I wanted
to do a fundraiser for the Loopbut ended up shortening. I just didn't
have time to do a fund raisersright way, so instead I focused on
the message of why wait. Sothe book talks about all of the preparation
(25:00):
for the Loop and you know,the daily activities on the Loop and has
links even into my YouTube, butit does tell a broader story of why
weight, and I just I hopethat it's an inspiration to others to get
out there and go do their thingwhatever it is right, to live your
(25:22):
life with passion and no regrets.Then you know what, that's a great
message. I mean, that's absolutelya great message. And yeah, and
kudos to you for for doing whatyou did and risking your life. You
know, I mean your safety forsure, and I'm sure your life.
It's only by the way you getstuck in a lock. I've been there.
(25:44):
If you have a boat where youhave a bathroom, it's cool.
If you don't, and then ofcourse your liquor is stocked in your fridge,
but if you don't have those luxuries, it's not fun, I'm sure.
So yeah, but you did verywell. Well go ahead. Oh
I was gonna say no, goahead, Well you finished, because I'm
gonna take us into commercial. Yeah, so luckily on a five hour away.
(26:06):
Another voter offered for me to comeaboard their boat. I love it
and hang out for a while.So that's right. See the comment of
the voting community is just amazing.So what you're saying in the Illinois Valley
here we are pretty stocked full ofliquor and very generous generous with it.
That that's good. Yeah, wellI feel good about that. All right,
(26:27):
We're gonna take a quick break.We'll be back with Moura Mike strab
right after these messages. A fewyears ago, someone asked rudabik as owner
Darren Bush, Hey, how longhave you guys been selling boats? Darren
(26:47):
replied, well, we don't sellboats. We sell time on the water.
Of course, that comes in alltypes. We help people paddle more
safely with rudabik outdoor programs. Werent canoes, kayaks, and stand up
paddleboard. We sell and install racksto get you from home to adventure.
Rudebega's got everything you need to getyou out on the water like paddles,
life jackets, dry bags and clothing. Rudega paddlesports on the web at Rudebega
(27:11):
dot com mention you saw this adon the Camping Show, it is time
to go camping. Introducing campground Viewsvirtual tours, you can tour the campground,
see the site, see if theyare available, and click to book
your perfect spot, hit the openroad and explore the amazing places found in
(27:34):
nature. We make it easy todiscover, find and book your site so
that you can go have the funand freedom you seek. Campground Views virtual
Tours make it easy and simple foryou to see where you are going.
(28:15):
D Luthpack is handcrafted for every lifestyle, making memories since eighteen eighty two in
store at three sixty five Canal ParkDrive or online at the Luthpack dot com.
We are one big family, acommunity of tattlers, and we want
to make sure that everyone has agreat time out on the water. We
(28:36):
are made right here in part ofTennessee at USA. This is where every
Jackson Kayak is born. You'll buyhim with a focus on innovation. We
are jack and Kayak. We arewe are. We are Jackson Kyak and
we are we are We're Jackson,we are we are Jackson Kayak Man.
(29:03):
We're back with our guest Mike Struband this is maas favorite part of the
show, part of the episode photos. So let's put some photos up and
we'll take a look at what Mikesaid us. Yeah, well there's the
route, Mike, look at thisand so the route and I kind of
(29:23):
call this. There's you can seethe loop part here with with the circle
that I kind of described. Butthen there's also the extra six hundred miles
from Omaha to Saint Louis, whichI affectionately call the pigtail. Then I
had to travel because I started andended in Omaha, and so heading down
(29:45):
to the Gulf from Saint Louis,people can do the Mississippi River, but
there's also another set of waterways thatare much friendlier to pleasure craft and voters
down the Tennessee and and tom Bigbywaterways. But yep, around Florida on
up to New York and the ErieCanal and Great Lakes. Looks like you
(30:07):
were done nearby one. I'm surprisedhe didn't see you. Did you see
anything, you know, any jetskis going by? It looked like they
were on a mission or yeah,I would have passed by. And it
is like a river in helf O. There are in the river and then
(30:29):
the other half free is in thesea. Right, Yes, So the
rivers are awesome because they're generally prettyflat water unless there's big, huge toes
that go by. And then alongthe coastline there is well you can either
choose to go out into the Gulfof Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, but
(30:52):
there's most of the time you cantravel what's called the Intracoastal Waterway, and
so it's kind of a channel builthe'll protect boaters from the the bigger waters
outside. Yeah. Yeah, interesting, Oh my god, the rig.
I love it. I kind ofbelieve it. You are so brave in
(31:15):
travel three months these big jet skithat's crazy. Yeah, he gets rained
on he's getting drenched. Man,there's no there's no dry spot on that
right, yep, it's it's Uh, this is a bigger ski that I
rode on. It's a sea doofish pro trophy. And there's kind of
(31:37):
an extended platform on the back whereyou can see where my orange camping bag
is located. Uh, and thenthe four six gallon jugs of fuel that
are on there. And I evenhave my it's an ore that doubles as
my flagpole and that's what's behind mehere as well. True. And then
(32:00):
I had the big bag on theseat, that's my clothes. And I
had two computers with me because Iworked while I was doing this trip.
Week I would double up at ahotel and work out of a hotel room.
So and then I had a saddlebag there on the side with rain
(32:22):
gear so I could quickly put ona rain jacket and rain pants, et
cetera. But yeah, it's toocrazy, and you are working. Yeah,
this is the one I like,man, and I know what that's
like in in a canoe anikayak.And yes, this is crazy coming up
(32:43):
under a bridge like this. Andof course you know the bridge will go
up for the larger boats, andyou know they'll raise it up. But
when you contact the the the folksat the bridge and you say, hey,
I'm, you know, wanting toI'm through, their first reaction is
well, can't you just fit?Yeah? And I'm like, are you
(33:06):
sure you want this? Is I'mliterally just inches of room and I'm ducking
my head way to the side.So I don't know, Mike, your
panel back there is about ready tohit those freaking bridge supports. It is,
Yeah, and I see it,and I see a banana boat commercial
happening right here, right, yeah, tanning motion that sunscreen, you see
(33:31):
it. I see that banana boatthere. I love that. Yeah,
your panels almost hidden. And youknow what what happens? If what happens
if you would have got hung upunder there? I mean, how do
you who's going to rescue? Well, I'm the somebody's I would think,
you know, right, that's whatI was thinking. I was thinking.
I would think under there. Yeah, and I have reversed, so I
(33:52):
could have reversed my way out ofit. I think, Well, it
depends on the current. But yeah, right right, yeah, I'm just
a good thing. Like Dave Matthews. Bus isn't driving over the top of
you dumping their waste water out orsomething. I saw. Oh my gosh,
right, I see that's an overridge, my god, open deck.
Yeah, oh boy, what isthis? I saw this? What is
(34:15):
it? Yeah? This is onLake Michigan, and it's from a video
from my three sixty camera, butI caught it. You know, just
just the amount of splash that happenswhen the ski comes down off of a
wave and settles back down onto thewater and kind of hits. There's quite
(34:37):
the impact and the amount of splashthat happens, and it makes for kind
of a cool picture. It's onthe back of the book. Even now.
What you don't want to happen isfor the tip of the ski the
bout actually dip into that next wave, because then there'd be a full rusher
water coming up and over the topand just hitting me. And that that
(35:00):
did happen three times. So inthat man, it's a wall of water
when it comes up and over thenose of the ski and Nazi back scarry.
Oh that's beautiful. This is alsolike Michigan, uh, coming and
(35:21):
coming into Chicago, and I didnot have a great weather day coming into
Chicago the seas where uh, we'rerunning pretty pretty mean that day and confused.
You can kind of see that here. But it was fun to be
able to see Chicago from quite aways out and and see it that way.
(35:46):
Mm hmmm. Cool. Yeah,Statue of Liberty. Being able to
stop in front of the Statue ofLiberty and take a picture like that,
it's it's really just a great uhyou almost get emotional, right, We're
so fortunate to be able to dothe things that we do here and to
(36:07):
have the opportunity to do it.So I spent a good thirty minutes in
front of the Lady Liberty there.Yeah, that's a great picture, by
the way. Thanks. This isFlying Gold was kind of how I call
it. So you can see thegold Bergie flag. There's gold, and
(36:30):
I swapped that out. It waswhite and for the loopers, that indicates
that you've completed your loop. Andso I was on my way home from
Saint Louis to Omaha, and Itook that pose so I could post it
out to the great loop community andlet them know that I completed my loop
and I'm on Flying Gold on theway home. Well, Mound, I
(36:53):
love it. Finally love it.Is this when you were stuck in a
lock? It must be this isone of the locks. This was on
the Erie Canal, I believe.Oh okay, not the one you're stuck
in. Not the one I wasstuck in. Yeah, And so you
know, being just one ski inthe whole lock area. And some of
(37:14):
the locks, right, they're likesixty ninety foot drops or rises depending on
which way you're going. And soit's kind of not intimidating, but just
a little creepy being in there bycreepy. I love it. There you
go and that's right, yeah,that is. That's with Bill, Vicky
(37:37):
Ground and the gang at their raftup and so I arrived. It was
in the middle of the day andI was starting and they're like, here
you go. Yeah, I wantto be Vicky's friend. I want to
be on that boat. I like, that's rare group. That was so
awesome. I wish I could spentmore time with them. Oh, very
cool. This is New York,you said, this is in New York.
(37:59):
Yes, And so it's so funnyto be on a ski and you're
going by all these tourists and thetourists are looking at me like what is
that dude doing. They see thefour gas cans and all the bags and
they know them up to something andyou could just hear him, you know,
black It's crazy, what's he doing? Is fun to take a picture
(38:23):
of them taking a picture of me. This is you know. What was
interesting is leaving the ski at night. I had to take my gear with
me, and so those two blackbacks and the cooler back is it's about
ninety pounds of gear that I hadto haul off the ski every time,
(38:45):
every night, take at the hotelwith me, and then the next morning,
you know, put all of thatback on the ski and all the
electronics and so it's not to worka lot of work, yeah, especially
in ninety five degree swelteringly. Yeah, but you're a rock star now,
and that's what's worth it, I'msure, I guess. So, man,
I need to go see those thatgroup again. Plus the charity,
(39:08):
I think it's all. It's allhad to be worth it for sure.
Yeah. Yeah, that's so nice. Thank you for sharing our pictures.
And Mike, where can people findyou online? Sure? On so online
they can find me. I'm onFacebook, uh, and so Mike dot
(39:28):
strab dot drive uh. And I'malso on YouTube and really if you just
search for C do Looper s EA d w O and then Looper C
do Looper, you'll be able tofind me that way and then the book.
Are we able to give links tothe book? Absolutely? We got
(39:49):
them all going across the screen.Please give give us those too, Oh
perfect. Yes, So I createda little r LS for it. So
I have a paperback that's available onAmazon on so you can probably find it
just by searching Amazon, but TinyURLdot y Weight Book PB like PB paperback,
(40:09):
and then a nicer color hardcover isavailable and I'll sign these the I've
got one here, but yeah,I'll sign And so that's available on TinyURL
dot com slash Yweight Book HC hardcover. So y Weight Book HC. HC
(40:31):
stands for hardcover. That's very cool. Yeah, well excellent. Well,
Mike listen, we want to thankyou for being on the show. We
apologize for some of our technical difficultieswhich were beyond our control obviously, so
we had a few of those tonight, but wonderful story and it was great
to have you on the show.And just thanks for being here. Thank
(40:52):
you so much, CW and Maya. Nice to meet you. I really
appreciate you having me on the show. Yeah, thank you very much for
me here with us. And againI'm sorry for the Internet is shoes.
And we also wanted to thank oursponsors for bringing you tonight's show, Ruta
(41:12):
Bag Up, Patty Sports, campGround, Views, That Love Back,
and Jackson Kayak. Tune in fornext week's episode, The Mysterious World of
Underwater Photography, along with Maya Marzaki. This is c W. Get saying
thanks for tuning in to outdoors people. See you next week show
Topics and opinions expressed in the followingshow are solely those of the hosts and
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comments should be directed to those showhosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY
(00:21):
Radio. Welcome to outdoors people withme. Cw Getz and her Maya mar
Zaki. Good evening. It's Wednesday, December sixth, twenty twenty three.
(00:53):
It is a balmy thirty nine degreefahrenheit four degrees Celsia's cloudy day here in
northsen Illini. Maya, what yougot down there in some Paulo, Brazil.
Oh, I think we lost her, Yain. We didn't have an
internet issues kids all well for thepast hour and so everybody's been kind of
going in and out and I don'tAnd actually actually that started in West Palm
(01:15):
Beach, Florida, and I thinkthat extended all the way to Brazil.
So let's just kind of got thelet's hope we get Maya back. We're
going to go into the show herein pardon for the delay. That is
the reason for the delay, bythe way, so we'll get started.
Tonight's episode of outdoors People is broughtto you by Rudebega Paddle Sports providing time
(01:37):
on the water, campground views makingcamping easier, by Dluth Pack made in
the USA since eighteen eighty two,and by Jackson Kayak Pursuing joy through paddle
Sports. Tonight's episode is Why Waitwith our guest Mike strab Fifty one year
old Omaha, Nebraska author, computerexecutive, and software developer. Mike Staub
(02:00):
aka the skid Looper, is alsoa devoted husband and father, and like
a lot of fathers, Mike enjoysdifferent types of camping, his sports cars,
as well as time spent on thewater. Yet, unlike most fathers,
Mike is an extreme adventurer who isengaged in some extraordinary endeavors like mega
(02:20):
road trips with his two sons throughforty nine states in a sports car and
long distance jet ski tours, whicheventually led him to take on the challenge
of completing America's Great Loop. Mike'schallenging missions, however, were not merely
in vain, but rather to raisemoney for a charity organization that's near and
dear to his heart, Autism ActionPartnership. Mike joins us tonight to share
(02:45):
his experiences from those extraordinary adventures andto give us some insight to his book
Why Wait, And with that,welcome to the show, Mike, Yeah,
(04:12):
thank you, wh and maya,now that you're back to lady have
you here? Mike? Hi?So everyone is having internet? He shoot
today? Hopefully mine will hold out, so we'll see. Yeah. I
(04:32):
think maybe one of the two ofthe or three guys that did this show,
because we've got a few guys thatactually didn't have internet is shues and
good for you guys. Good foryou. Yeah, I'm pretty lucky.
And uh well, Mike, howdid you come up with the idea of
doing americans Great Loop? Uh?So, America's Great Loop is for those
(04:56):
that are not familiar with it,and you kind of saw it maybe on
the map a little bit, butbasically it's a water trail around the eastern
third of the US and so drawcircle around the tip of Florida and all
the way up to New York andGreat Lakes Silver to Chicago and on down
to the Gulf of Mexico. That'spretty much what the Great Loop is.
(05:19):
And so it's about six thousand milesten thousand kilometers, and there's different options
that you can take on the Loop. You can even venture into Canada and
things like that. So that's whatAmerica's Great Loop is. And so,
like many of your listeners, Iimagine I'm a bit of an adventure junkie
(05:42):
of what started out as a passionwith sports cars and doing big, huge
driving trips with my sons. Droveto Alaska a couple of times in different
corvettes and all forty well nine statesthat I can drive to and much of
Canada. That spilled over into takingmy se do personal watercraft or that skime
(06:09):
taking that out on longer trips.I throw a tent and the ski and
go off and camp on the MissiuryRiver. And as I was researching the
Mississippi River, that's when I stumbledon this America's Great Loop. I was
like, I had no idea youcan do that, you know, So
I was really intrigued by it.And most people that do the Google Loop,
(06:34):
they're in these thirty foot to fiftyfoot live aboard boats. Right,
they take a year and they travelthe loop. But then I read that,
Wow, people have done it onskis before, and so it's like
that is me. I was hooked. I knew I had to do it.
That's interesting, man, I meanI understand being hooked on something.
(06:57):
May you can share that with whenyou went climbing for the first time.
Yeah, I love this. Iget asked, like you you did this
trip without what they call a chasecrew. Now, how first of all,
how risky is that? And thenhow scary is that for you know,
for you as well? I mean, got nothing no back up there?
Right, It was a difficult decisionhow to do that and whether to
(07:21):
do that. Certainly, if ifyou had another writer with you on another
ski, that would be a lotsafer. Uh, you know, you'd
have a buddy boat. You know, if one machine fails, they can
tell you or you know, especiallyif you're near a locking down or any
kind of water hazard. Uh,you know, certainly be a lot safer.
(07:43):
But trying to find somebody else thatis willing to spend three months in
seven thousand miles on you would youput an ad in the paper or something
like that, Hey, by theway, but interested, I'm here.
Yeah, So going solo ended upbeing I kind of knew I was going
(08:05):
to have to go solo and thena Chase crew. So I did have
some siblings that volunteered there for differentsegments. They were like, yeah,
I'll follow you, and those thoseplans just kind of slowly faded. Having
a Chase crew would make the experienceso much different because they would handle a
(08:26):
lot of the logistics, and ifthey had the trailer for the ski,
I'd probably pull up right onto thetrailer. We'd probably go to the hotel
and it would just be a differentexperience instead of, you know, being
able to spend time with people onthe loop and you know, dock the
ski at a marina, spend afew hours at the marina with people.
(08:48):
So over over time, it justslowly faded. And as far as having
a Chase crew, and I decided, yep, I'm going to do it
on my own and without a Chasecrew, and one I decided that,
then I knew I had to doubledown on all my equipment and be really
prepared so I had to satellite personallocation befons that if I was in trouble,
(09:11):
I could hit a SOS button.I had two cell phones in case
I accidentally dropped one, you know, into the water. Navigational systems going
the whole time. So because Ireally doubled down and being prepared, I
became comfortable with it. But yes, it was I don't know about scary,
(09:33):
but just it made me nervous.Yeah, I totally compelled. Why
that's very scary? And did youhave anything go wronging during that adventure?
So winding the clock back before theGreat Loop, it was back in twenty
(09:54):
twenty and I was doing a tripwith my son. We were on one
ski running from Omaha to Saint Louisand it was day two of a four
day trip and we hit a rockwing dam. So the rivers rock jetties
that kind of direct the flow ofthe current, and the river was high
(10:20):
and it was that covered this rockjetty and I didn't see it, and
I wasn't running my navigation like Ishould have been. Shame on me,
And it was an eye opener.It was like, wow, I was
not as prepared as I should havebeen. And so using that as motivation
that again, I really prepared.I had the two navigation stuff going on
(10:43):
the whole trip. While on theloop, I really didn't have anything really
bad go wrong. Yeah, therewas a little bit of a zone flaw
with the ski where if I leftweight on the machine overnight, which I
had a lot of fuel with me, it would slowly let water into the
(11:11):
spark plug basically and foul the plugsand it would be hard to see next
morning. Once we figured that outin Miami, then didn't have any other
other issues, so it was itwas great. Yeah, absolutely cool.
I did have a big, bigwater so, you know, five six
(11:35):
foot way. I tried to notventure out any anything bigger than that.
That's that's that's plenty of wave actionand even pretty normal stuff though, I
would say, yeah you could expectyeah right, yeah, and even not
so much the size of the wave, but just being out on the water
for six to eight to ten hoursa day, that's what can really just
(11:58):
take a toll on you. Itbeats you pretty good, I would imagine,
certainly certainly the Great Lakes and theGulf in the Atlantic. Yeah,
all right, well listen, we'regonna we come back here. We're gonna
take a quick brave. But whenwe come back, we are going to
Maya's having some problems. She usuallytakes us out of the commercials and I
just realized she's having some internet issuesstill. But when we come back,
(12:20):
we have got three guests that we'rethere with you when you landed in our
area. Here we sell county,so don't go away. We'll be right
back with more of Mike strab Rightafter these messages. A few years ago,
(12:41):
someone asked rudebik as owner Darren Bush, Hey, how long have you
guys been selling boats? Darren replied, we don't sell boats. We sell
time on the water. Of course, that comes in all types. We
help people paddle more safely with rudabikoutdoor programs. We rent canoes, kayaks
and stand up paddle boards. Wesell and install racks to get you from
(13:03):
home to adventure. Rudabega's got everythingyou need to get you out on the
water, like paddles, life jackets, dry bags, some clothing. Rudebega
paddlesports on the web at rudebega dotcom. Mention you saw this ad on
the Camping Show. It is timeto go camping introducing Campground Views virtual tours.
You can tour the campground, seethe site, see if they are
(13:26):
available, and click to book yourperfect spot, hit the open road and
explore the amazing places found in nature. We make it easy to discover,
find and book your site so thatyou can go have the fun and freedom
you seek. Campground Views virtual Toursmake it easy and simple for you to
(13:50):
see where you are going. DLuthpack is handcrafted for every lifestyle, making
(14:18):
memories since eighteen eighty two, instore at three sixty five Canal Park Drive
or online at the luthpack dot com. We are one big family, a
community of tattlers, and we wantto make sure that everyone has a great
time out on the water. Weare made right here in part of Tennessee,
USA. This is where every JacksonKayak is born. You'll buy him
(14:43):
with a focus on innovation. Weare jack and Kayak. We are we
are. We are Jackson Kayak.We are we are, We're Jackson.
We are we are Jackson Kayak.And we're back with Mike strab and well
(15:05):
let's have let's bring our three guests. We got backstage on on screen,
but you got Vicky and Bill andRon and these three. Uh, when
Mike came to the well and youknow what you're gonna what you guys can
tell the story. But when whenhe came into the Starved Rock Yacht Club,
you guys accommodated him, and uh, he definitely, I'm sure was
(15:30):
grateful for that. But Vicky,why don't we start with you? Just
tell us because I think you hadthe most involvement. What I understand?
Right? Can you hear it's Vicky. We're having some internet fun tonight.
I'm telling you right. Yeah,when I teck someone else go away.
Oh, Vicky just said, mysound broke out. Okay, well then
(15:50):
let's do this. Let's wait forher to come back in. Uh,
Bill, you're you're probably go aheadand you give us your give us a
couple of minutes here and tell usyour involvement in this. What happened?
Well, I stumbled across Mike onthe Great American Loop page on Facebook,
and I saw him getting his SIGUready to go and have his rack built
(16:15):
and intrigued me. On following hisjourney, I continued watching eagerly waiting his
videos every week, and as hemade his way down to the Gulf and
around Florida start back up the Eastcoast. I was watching him go through
the Great Lakes, and when hewent to play Huron to Mackinhall Island,
(16:41):
I reached out to him, andI had my boat actually currently in Michigan,
and I was going to see ifhe was making his way down the
coast down where in Saint Joseph wheremy boat was, and I was going
to offer him a place to stay, but he decided to cross a little
bit further up than where I was, and I was also going to go
across down to Starfrocking Arena the followingweek, and so we chatted back and
(17:11):
forth, and he went the weekbefore me, and unfortunately I wasn't able
to meet up with him, butwe kept in contact since then and it's
been fun watching him. Yeah.Wow, you know that that's quite a
quite a story and love. Andby the way, Micky's having some audio
(17:33):
issues here. So I'm going togo to Ron right now. Ron putting
him up on the screen there ifyou can one. He is the man
that made this episode even possible.One day, my friend was there.
I was hoping my friend put acover on his boat and almost sliced his
finger off my good friend Damy.We walked into the bar area and then
here's these guys working in the kitchenand Danny's walking through with blood just dripping
(17:56):
down his hand and his arm andeverything else. And Ron was one of
the surgeons in the kitchen that hadbeen makeshift surgeons that and anyway, we
got we got my friend wrapped upand I talked with Ron and Ron was
like, Hey, you hear aboutthis guy and this you know this ski
doo and blah blah blah. Ohyeah, he came here. What so
(18:18):
he's telling me about I said,we got to do a show. And
Ron hooked me up and gave meall the information. So I want to
thank you Ron for that. Ireally appreciate and thanks for taking the time
too. Glad we all got ittogether. Yeah, and so what was
your you know, what was yourexperience? What was your involvement here with
this whole endeavor. Well, agroup of us from Star Rock Yacht Club,
we're following Mike on his journey fromthe East Coast down the Great Lakes,
(18:44):
and we knew he was going tobe coming by us. We followed
him through Chicago, which is abig adventure in itself. We invited him
to stop in Ottawa at uh onthe Illinois River, where we wrapped up
every weekend, and we reached outto him, which he was very cordial
and decided to stop, and wewere going to give him a place to
(19:06):
stay for the night, give himsome food and beverage, and just really
get to meet him. We werereally excited to meet He was a celebrity
with us, and I remember wewaited and waited, and he got stuck
at the Marseilles lock, which alot of you don't understand that unless you're
a boater, you don't know whatit's like to get stuck in a lock,
let alone on a jet ski ina lock. Wow. So he
(19:26):
finally got through there and came upto where we were rafting, and as
tired as he was, he wasgracious enough. We pelted him with like
a thousand questions and matter did youoffer drinks while? When you were asking
these questions, I'm hoping, ofcourse we're bos time. So we got
(19:49):
got him situated and everybody was,like I said, it was asking him,
how do you go to the bathroom? And did you come acrost any
sharks? And what a commodation?Uh what accommodations did you make to the
jet ski to make it? Also? So he was great, like I
said he was. He was great, answered all our questions and we sat
(20:11):
that night and just heard story afterstory and it was so interesting. I
mean we were, like I saywe were. He was a celebrity to
us. We really enjoyed the evening. I mean you can see by talking
to him just a few minutes herewhat a great, great guy he is.
I mean he's a very likable guy. And uh we had wait a
ball love fun. That's so nice, a solid trip. Became a such
(20:32):
a big and nice group of friends. That's so nice, and all we
are together her Okay, well nowwe got Vicky. Okay, so let's
see Vicky. Okay, she says, I'm only getting a few words.
Sorry, so she's not being ableto get up with us audio here or
is that the case? Okay?Every every third word fire away, Well
(20:56):
we got you, didn't you hearus? Well, I don't know what's
been covered. So yeah, Idon't know what's been covered. So I
was one of the boat. Yeah, so I was one of the boats
out with Ron, you know,and I know, like Mike ran into
some issues with locks and we foundhim, helped him find somewhere to stay
(21:17):
in things. Yeah, it originallyI think Bill was the one who actually
got me in touch with Mike.Originally he was going to stay in my
extra cabin on my boat for thenight with us when when we were organizing
all this. But it was cool, you know, Mike came through and
still stopped while he was waiting fora lock and hung out for an hour
and had some snacks and told somestories and it was just it was great.
(21:38):
It was an awesome experience to getto meet him and be part of
that journey with him and kind ofsee him finish up after he got through
the startreck area. So that's cool, you know. And so Mike,
you really are a rock star.And obviously you had these fans swelling,
and I gotta say, man,you know, it's one of those things
where the people in this area arevery accommodating, and I I know the
(22:00):
boating community is very accommodating, muchlike the camping community, and I think
it's wonderful how you know, everybodyreached out and to give you a hand
into a comedy. You Mike,I think that's I think that hopefully says
something about our area and the boatingcommunity both. So yep, oh absolutely,
yeah, those are some pretty amazingwords to hear from from folks.
(22:25):
And when I started the trip,I didn't think it was necessarily going to
be a people trip. I thoughtit was going to be more about climbing
my mountain, if you will,of doing the trip just because I was
traveling so fast and also being ona ski. You know, I'm not
a big boat and and so Iwas I was just setting myself up for
maybe that that part wouldn't be there. But oh my gosh, I'm just
(22:48):
amazed with the outpouring of support,both in person virtual as well. And
you know, the gang here isjust a great exam sample of folks that
reached out. And yeah, uh, he was right. I tried to
get there that night for the raftup, but the lock delay. I
(23:10):
think I spent five hours waiting fora lock and uh, and then another
couple hours and so I couldn't getto the raft up that night. They
had steak and lobster, and it'slike, oh and just hang out and
party with them would have been wouldhave been amazing. But the next let's
get to the real serious stuff.Did you get you drunk? Mike?
You could kill me? Well,I stopped in in the middle of the
(23:32):
day the next day so I wouldhave story the night before. Yeah,
I love it. I love it. Good stuff, good stuff. That's
uh, well that was about yourbook. Yeah, so uh you know,
as far as the book, itis uh why wait with the letter
(23:56):
y uh and then w A IT. And that's just been my mantra
for the last well since two thousandand eight. That's when I went and
was kind of just doing the familything, and it's like, man,
I missed my sports car and whatam I doing? I wasn't really living
(24:17):
my life like I wanted to withpassion, And so I went and bought
a Corvette and drove that Corvette allaround and that led to the passion with
the jet skis and doing these longerjet ski trips and then the Great Loop
trip. So and I the nameof my ski on the trip was why
(24:37):
Wait. I had the signs madeon the side of the ski to help
with with you know, people gettingthe word out right. And I wanted
to do a fundraiser for the Loopbut ended up shortening. I just didn't
have time to do a fund raisersright way, so instead I focused on
the message of why wait. Sothe book talks about all of the preparation
(25:00):
for the Loop and you know,the daily activities on the Loop and has
links even into my YouTube, butit does tell a broader story of why
weight, and I just I hopethat it's an inspiration to others to get
out there and go do their thingwhatever it is right, to live your
(25:22):
life with passion and no regrets.Then you know what, that's a great
message. I mean, that's absolutelya great message. And yeah, and
kudos to you for for doing whatyou did and risking your life. You
know, I mean your safety forsure, and I'm sure your life.
It's only by the way you getstuck in a lock. I've been there.
(25:44):
If you have a boat where youhave a bathroom, it's cool.
If you don't, and then ofcourse your liquor is stocked in your fridge,
but if you don't have those luxuries, it's not fun, I'm sure.
So yeah, but you did verywell. Well go ahead. Oh
I was gonna say no, goahead, Well you finished, because I'm
gonna take us into commercial. Yeah, so luckily on a five hour away.
(26:06):
Another voter offered for me to comeaboard their boat. I love it
and hang out for a while.So that's right. See the comment of
the voting community is just amazing.So what you're saying in the Illinois Valley
here we are pretty stocked full ofliquor and very generous generous with it.
That that's good. Yeah, wellI feel good about that. All right,
(26:27):
We're gonna take a quick break.We'll be back with Moura Mike strab
right after these messages. A fewyears ago, someone asked rudabik as owner
Darren Bush, Hey, how longhave you guys been selling boats? Darren
(26:47):
replied, well, we don't sellboats. We sell time on the water.
Of course, that comes in alltypes. We help people paddle more
safely with rudabik outdoor programs. Werent canoes, kayaks, and stand up
paddleboard. We sell and install racksto get you from home to adventure.
Rudebega's got everything you need to getyou out on the water like paddles,
life jackets, dry bags and clothing. Rudega paddlesports on the web at Rudebega
(27:11):
dot com mention you saw this adon the Camping Show, it is time
to go camping. Introducing campground Viewsvirtual tours, you can tour the campground,
see the site, see if theyare available, and click to book
your perfect spot, hit the openroad and explore the amazing places found in
(27:34):
nature. We make it easy todiscover, find and book your site so
that you can go have the funand freedom you seek. Campground Views virtual
Tours make it easy and simple foryou to see where you are going.
(28:15):
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We're back with our guest Mike Struband this is maas favorite part of the
show, part of the episode photos. So let's put some photos up and
we'll take a look at what Mikesaid us. Yeah, well there's the
route, Mike, look at thisand so the route and I kind of
(29:23):
call this. There's you can seethe loop part here with with the circle
that I kind of described. Butthen there's also the extra six hundred miles
from Omaha to Saint Louis, whichI affectionately call the pigtail. Then I
had to travel because I started andended in Omaha, and so heading down
(29:45):
to the Gulf from Saint Louis,people can do the Mississippi River, but
there's also another set of waterways thatare much friendlier to pleasure craft and voters
down the Tennessee and and tom Bigbywaterways. But yep, around Florida on
up to New York and the ErieCanal and Great Lakes. Looks like you
(30:07):
were done nearby one. I'm surprisedhe didn't see you. Did you see
anything, you know, any jetskis going by? It looked like they
were on a mission or yeah,I would have passed by. And it
is like a river in helf O. There are in the river and then
(30:29):
the other half free is in thesea. Right, Yes, So the
rivers are awesome because they're generally prettyflat water unless there's big, huge toes
that go by. And then alongthe coastline there is well you can either
choose to go out into the Gulfof Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, but
(30:52):
there's most of the time you cantravel what's called the Intracoastal Waterway, and
so it's kind of a channel builthe'll protect boaters from the the bigger waters
outside. Yeah. Yeah, interesting, Oh my god, the rig.
I love it. I kind ofbelieve it. You are so brave in
(31:15):
travel three months these big jet skithat's crazy. Yeah, he gets rained
on he's getting drenched. Man,there's no there's no dry spot on that
right, yep, it's it's Uh, this is a bigger ski that I
rode on. It's a sea doofish pro trophy. And there's kind of
(31:37):
an extended platform on the back whereyou can see where my orange camping bag
is located. Uh, and thenthe four six gallon jugs of fuel that
are on there. And I evenhave my it's an ore that doubles as
my flagpole and that's what's behind mehere as well. True. And then
(32:00):
I had the big bag on theseat, that's my clothes. And I
had two computers with me because Iworked while I was doing this trip.
Week I would double up at ahotel and work out of a hotel room.
So and then I had a saddlebag there on the side with rain
(32:22):
gear so I could quickly put ona rain jacket and rain pants, et
cetera. But yeah, it's toocrazy, and you are working. Yeah,
this is the one I like,man, and I know what that's
like in in a canoe anikayak.And yes, this is crazy coming up
(32:43):
under a bridge like this. Andof course you know the bridge will go
up for the larger boats, andyou know they'll raise it up. But
when you contact the the the folksat the bridge and you say, hey,
I'm, you know, wanting toI'm through, their first reaction is
well, can't you just fit?Yeah? And I'm like, are you
(33:06):
sure you want this? Is I'mliterally just inches of room and I'm ducking
my head way to the side.So I don't know, Mike, your
panel back there is about ready tohit those freaking bridge supports. It is,
Yeah, and I see it,and I see a banana boat commercial
happening right here, right, yeah, tanning motion that sunscreen, you see
(33:31):
it. I see that banana boatthere. I love that. Yeah,
your panels almost hidden. And youknow what what happens? If what happens
if you would have got hung upunder there? I mean, how do
you who's going to rescue? Well, I'm the somebody's I would think,
you know, right, that's whatI was thinking. I was thinking.
I would think under there. Yeah, and I have reversed, so I
(33:52):
could have reversed my way out ofit. I think, Well, it
depends on the current. But yeah, right right, yeah, I'm just
a good thing. Like Dave Matthews. Bus isn't driving over the top of
you dumping their waste water out orsomething. I saw. Oh my gosh,
right, I see that's an overridge, my god, open deck.
Yeah, oh boy, what isthis? I saw this? What is
(34:15):
it? Yeah? This is onLake Michigan, and it's from a video
from my three sixty camera, butI caught it. You know, just
just the amount of splash that happenswhen the ski comes down off of a
wave and settles back down onto thewater and kind of hits. There's quite
(34:37):
the impact and the amount of splashthat happens, and it makes for kind
of a cool picture. It's onthe back of the book. Even now.
What you don't want to happen isfor the tip of the ski the
bout actually dip into that next wave, because then there'd be a full rusher
water coming up and over the topand just hitting me. And that that
(35:00):
did happen three times. So inthat man, it's a wall of water
when it comes up and over thenose of the ski and Nazi back scarry.
Oh that's beautiful. This is alsolike Michigan, uh, coming and
(35:21):
coming into Chicago, and I didnot have a great weather day coming into
Chicago the seas where uh, we'rerunning pretty pretty mean that day and confused.
You can kind of see that here. But it was fun to be
able to see Chicago from quite aways out and and see it that way.
(35:46):
Mm hmmm. Cool. Yeah,Statue of Liberty. Being able to
stop in front of the Statue ofLiberty and take a picture like that,
it's it's really just a great uhyou almost get emotional, right, We're
so fortunate to be able to dothe things that we do here and to
(36:07):
have the opportunity to do it.So I spent a good thirty minutes in
front of the Lady Liberty there.Yeah, that's a great picture, by
the way. Thanks. This isFlying Gold was kind of how I call
it. So you can see thegold Bergie flag. There's gold, and
(36:30):
I swapped that out. It waswhite and for the loopers, that indicates
that you've completed your loop. Andso I was on my way home from
Saint Louis to Omaha, and Itook that pose so I could post it
out to the great loop community andlet them know that I completed my loop
and I'm on Flying Gold on theway home. Well, Mound, I
(36:53):
love it. Finally love it.Is this when you were stuck in a
lock? It must be this isone of the locks. This was on
the Erie Canal, I believe.Oh okay, not the one you're stuck
in. Not the one I wasstuck in. Yeah, And so you
know, being just one ski inthe whole lock area. And some of
(37:14):
the locks, right, they're likesixty ninety foot drops or rises depending on
which way you're going. And soit's kind of not intimidating, but just
a little creepy being in there bycreepy. I love it. There you
go and that's right, yeah,that is. That's with Bill, Vicky
(37:37):
Ground and the gang at their raftup and so I arrived. It was
in the middle of the day andI was starting and they're like, here
you go. Yeah, I wantto be Vicky's friend. I want to
be on that boat. I like, that's rare group. That was so
awesome. I wish I could spentmore time with them. Oh, very
cool. This is New York,you said, this is in New York.
(37:59):
Yes, And so it's so funnyto be on a ski and you're
going by all these tourists and thetourists are looking at me like what is
that dude doing. They see thefour gas cans and all the bags and
they know them up to something andyou could just hear him, you know,
black It's crazy, what's he doing? Is fun to take a picture
(38:23):
of them taking a picture of me. This is you know. What was
interesting is leaving the ski at night. I had to take my gear with
me, and so those two blackbacks and the cooler back is it's about
ninety pounds of gear that I hadto haul off the ski every time,
(38:45):
every night, take at the hotelwith me, and then the next morning,
you know, put all of thatback on the ski and all the
electronics and so it's not to worka lot of work, yeah, especially
in ninety five degree swelteringly. Yeah, but you're a rock star now,
and that's what's worth it, I'msure, I guess. So, man,
I need to go see those thatgroup again. Plus the charity,
(39:08):
I think it's all. It's allhad to be worth it for sure.
Yeah. Yeah, that's so nice. Thank you for sharing our pictures.
And Mike, where can people findyou online? Sure? On so online
they can find me. I'm onFacebook, uh, and so Mike dot
(39:28):
strab dot drive uh. And I'malso on YouTube and really if you just
search for C do Looper s EA d w O and then Looper C
do Looper, you'll be able tofind me that way and then the book.
Are we able to give links tothe book? Absolutely? We got
(39:49):
them all going across the screen.Please give give us those too, Oh
perfect. Yes, So I createda little r LS for it. So
I have a paperback that's available onAmazon on so you can probably find it
just by searching Amazon, but TinyURLdot y Weight Book PB like PB paperback,
(40:09):
and then a nicer color hardcover isavailable and I'll sign these the I've
got one here, but yeah,I'll sign And so that's available on TinyURL
dot com slash Yweight Book HC hardcover. So y Weight Book HC. HC
(40:31):
stands for hardcover. That's very cool. Yeah, well excellent. Well,
Mike listen, we want to thankyou for being on the show. We
apologize for some of our technical difficultieswhich were beyond our control obviously, so
we had a few of those tonight, but wonderful story and it was great
to have you on the show.And just thanks for being here. Thank
(40:52):
you so much, CW and Maya. Nice to meet you. I really
appreciate you having me on the show. Yeah, thank you very much for
me here with us. And againI'm sorry for the Internet is shoes.
And we also wanted to thank oursponsors for bringing you tonight's show, Ruta
(41:12):
Bag Up, Patty Sports, campGround, Views, That Love Back,
and Jackson Kayak. Tune in fornext week's episode, The Mysterious World of
Underwater Photography, along with Maya Marzaki. This is c W. Get saying
thanks for tuning in to outdoors people. See you next week show
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