May 5, 2025 • 54 mins
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What drives someone to trade the comfort of flight for 81 days and 4,500 miles on a bicycle? Flight attendant Rich takes us through his remarkable cross-country cycling adventure from Virginia to Oregon, revealing the physical and mental challenges that pushed him to his limits.
The journey began with a simple tradition—dipping his rear wheel in the Atlantic Ocean. What followed was an odyssey of lung-busting climbs through Kentucky's unforgiving hills, lightning storms above the treeline, and nights spent in the most unexpected places. With only a small one-wheeled trailer carrying his belongings, Rich simplified his existence to three daily goals: finding places to eat, sleep, and use the bathroom.
Beyond the physical feat of climbing 100,000 feet in elevation (equivalent to scaling Mount Everest multiple times), Rich's story illuminates something profound about human connection. Despite arriving in small towns with a mohawk, long beard, and what he describes as a powerful stench after days without showering, strangers welcomed him with extraordinary kindness—offering meals, laundry services, and safe havens.
From the mayor who opened city hall during a rainstorm to random bar patrons who paid for his lunch, these encounters restored Rich's faith in humanity. "People in general don't suck," he discovered, perhaps the most valuable lesson from his journey.
Now planning adventures through New Zealand, Iceland, and the Great Divide, Rich embodies the spirit of challenge and discovery that keeps life vibrant at any age. His story reminds us that sometimes the greatest rewards come when we get ourselves "in over our head and see if we can get out."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
3,000 to 4,500 miles of bike riding, Over 100,000
feet of total elevation gain.
We're talking to a guy whoknows a thing or two about
turbulence.
All this next on Cabin Pressurewith Sean and Gene hey,
(00:39):
everyone welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
This is cabin pressure.
What's up people?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
we are in the house every week man every week.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Man you gotta, you gotta like give him a little, uh
jolt you're, you definitely get, you definitely give him a jolt
, that's for damn sure right man.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Uh, you know this, today has been a rough day you
can say that again, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It was a start off a rough day.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You can say that again, go ahead it was a start
off a rough day for me.
You know us catching up here,you know I got the storage unit
and they freaking jacking up theprices with me and I tell my
wife I was like, hey, you knowwhat we need to get out of that
thing.
And so last night I was justlike I'm doing this and we're
leaving.
And so this morning, last nightI like reserved the U-Haul and
(01:28):
all that stuff and I thought,hey, 8, 8 AM I'll be there and
all that stuff.
So this morning, as you know,because you helped me, yeah, you
called a friend.
Yeah, I called a friend to help.
We're just all we're doing isswitching some storage units to
one to the other and and I getthere at 8 am and come to find
(01:49):
out I'm trying to get throughthis little u-haul app and all
this stuff and I had reservedthe damn truck for 8 pm.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
brilliant, brilliant yeah, well, I was already at the
, at the storage facility yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So, as I had like and g's always the one like, he's
anxious, he's ready to getthings no, he's not, he's on
time, he's on time.
Hey, anxious, I told him I wason time I told you I'd call you
and you showed up yeah, on timeanyhow.
So then.
So then I had to find a truck.
Then, uh, so you all hooked meup with another place down the
(02:21):
road here on lafayette, and Iget there and, dude, it was like
walking into Deliverance.
I mean, it was ma and pa, andwhat was really freaky about it
is like these old people andthey had this really tiny baby
with them.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And I was like this is weird.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But a lot of those U-Haul places are like that now
and it was in the back of a wasattached to the back of a house,
yep, next to a barn and all theu-hauls on around the barn and
it was like and and a stunk.
I can't even tell you the smell.
Was like I was like this iswhere you do business, like come
on anyhow.
But uh, I got in and I got thetruck.
Then they got down the road,forgot the key, had to turn
(03:03):
around, go back to get key oh,no, no, no, that's when you
called me, yeah, and that's whatI called you like don't rush
don't rushyeah, I'm already here, I'm
already here, yeah.
So, anyways, I get there, we doour.
You know, we got this thingdone in just a couple hours,
which we need to do the swap.
And then, bam, I'm going backand I get the truck and I'm, you
(03:25):
know, you got to fill up thetruck before you return the
rental.
Yeah well, get get down.
I pull in the gas station.
Every damn pump got a redsleeve on it, doesn't work, not
one pump.
The whole gas station was down.
I mean, like they had a semisection to this gas station.
All their pumps were down too.
I don't know what the hell isgoing on, but it was a pain in
the ass.
So.
So I had to drive back intotown, get this freaking truck,
(03:46):
and it was just one thing afteranother and I just felt like I
just couldn't be in sync thismorning.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No, it was a snowball effect of shit, that's what it
was.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, it was a snowball effect of shit, right,
so hopefully the show doesn't gointo a snowball effect of shit
and I participated with him too.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You, you did forget that he stopped at the wrong
door of the other uh, yeah, theother stores when we were
unloading we.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I parked at the wrong door when he and we unloaded
the truck in a different door.
Yep, brilliance, yeah anywaysjust intelligent.
What do you end up to?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
well, outside man is beautiful.
Here again, it's beautiful inohio, you look a little.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Uh, lobster over there, I got a farmer's tan.
Do you got a farmer's tan?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
farmer's tan.
I'm proud of my farmer's tansee how pale I am.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, yeah, you're funny.
I know he's got a natural tan.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's bullshit you just got a natural tan, I got
red.
I'm like lobster red right butno, I was outside, it was
outside.
I was outside doing the lawnedging, doing that deep edging,
all that fun shit we do up herein Ohio this time of year when
the weather's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's beautiful, man, one of our 163 days of the years
that we get to enjoy Sunshine,sunshine.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I know man.
I tell you, though, it wasabsolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Other.
Tell you, though it was, it wasabsolutely gorgeous, other than
getting up and I had a greatworkout this morning and then
getting up when, and the wholeshit show with you.
Yeah, it was good.
Yeah, you know what, today onour uh show, we got a guy that
uh knows the thing or two aboutturbulence and uh, but not to
just 30 000 feet up, try 33, try33,000 miles across the US.
He's a flight attendant and hecrossed the US on a bike and he
(05:32):
basically traded fuel for somecalf muscles.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Rich, hey, hey, what's up, what's going on?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, we want to hear some interesting stories Like
what made you want to do thisfirst of all, Oof, because I'm a
little crazy.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
No, I started doing when I hit 30, started doing a
little more biking I alwaysbiked as a kid going up, but I
started hitting it again when Igot around 30, then I'd do this
ride through Ohio called Goba,the great Ohio bicycle adventure
, and people thought I was crazydoing that because it's like 50
miles a day for a week, but itwasn't a real big deal.
(06:16):
But I met all these people onthose rides that have done the
cross country and stuff likethat, so that kind of piqued my
interest.
So then, uh, I always had thatin the back of my head saying
I'm going to do this, but youknow, in reality I never thought
I'd do it Right.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I mean, how long does this type of ride like even
thinking about it to plan for itTake?
I?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
mean, there was, there were a couple of years
that I was wanting to do it, butI was was like it's just never
going to happen.
I'm never going to be with aperson that'll be like okay,
cool, take off, I'll see you inthree months, yeah, yeah.
So with those logistics andthen just working, you know how
the hell are you going to getoff work for three months?
(06:59):
For three months?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
right, I mean rich.
Rich is a uh flight attendantas well, so he's he's traveling
around and doing all that stuff,so he understands the whole
business of uh moving about thecountry and uh, and definitely a
personable with people yeah, itwas uh, it was crazy because
they offered the it was aprobably say I left them like
(07:21):
june 1st, so probably beginningof May.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
They offered the leave of absence and then I said
, hey, I'm going to do this crapto the girl I was seeing at the
time and she was like, oh yeah,go for it.
And I was like you're going towatch my chickens, you're going
to watch my dogs and I'm justgoing to be out and looking back
, she's like, yeah, get the hellout of here.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So this is actually an all.
It's a mapped out route, rich.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, adventurecyclingcom.
They have turn-by-turn routes,multiple routes across the US,
up and down east to west coast,up down the middle, northern
tier, southern tier.
I did the Route 76, which wasback on in 1976.
They called it the BikeCentennial to celebrate, you
(08:10):
know, america's birthday, and abunch of these old, dirty
hippies rode across the country,you know, in blue jeans and
crap like that.
So I met one of the guys thatoriginally did that.
He's this like six foot five.
Oh wow, early dude, totalhippie dude.
Um, everyone calls him tiny, Ihave no idea what the hell his
(08:32):
name is, but he does thatgo-kart bike ride.
That's how I met him.
So just like peeking with him alittle bit and you know that
kind of sparked my interest inthis stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So how do you prep for something like that, though,
I mean, when you okay, you hadthis idea You're saying, okay,
I'm going to do it.
Okay, how did you prep for that?
A lot of beer.
It had to be because I'm surelike damn A lot of deep, deep
thought.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I mean, I was riding fairly heavy prior, but not
nothing crazy.
Um, I was doing this.
Uh, lance armstrong had atraining book, so I was
following through that, you know, as much as I could.
Um, I'm not fast, you know well, this isn't no, no it's just a
(09:24):
long and slow.
That's me.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
What was that?
What was that?
Uh like, uh, your goal on adaily, like how, how many miles
a day were you trying to likeput in per day?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
It.
It totally varied Cause um, itdepends, cause I had a long goal
, a short goal and a medium goalevery day.
So all I did you know, thoseare my three goals, and all I'm
trying to do is find a place topoop, trying to find a place to
sleep and trying to find a placeto eat.
Those are the only thing.
Like you, simplify your life,those are your only three goals
every day.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Every day.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Every day.
It's perfect.
That's awesome man.
So so I might have a short goalof like 40, 50 miles.
Medium goal 70, 75, long goal100.
But some days I was down wherethe hell was, I I forget, but I
found some really cool bar andit was 11.
I went in for lunch and endedup making friends with the
(10:15):
bartender.
She was like, oh, go take ashower at my house down the
street.
I'm like, okay, no one's there.
She's just like, just letyourself in, go take a shower
because I stunk.
But she was trying to keep herclientele Right, yeah.
And then I ended up sleeping inthe parking lot.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So I went like five miles that day.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That's why I, you know, made some friends and just
chilled out and slept in aparking lot.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
That's so.
So now, where, where did this?
Where did it all start?
Oh, yorktown Virginia.
So you started in YorktownVirginia, and that first day you
remember, the first day, howmany miles you rode.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I think I did about 50, but I was kind of pissed on
my first day.
What you do is you dip yourrear tire of your bike into the
ocean that you're leaving, andthen you dip your front tire in
the ocean that you're going to.
So it's like the tradition Rightand the ocean that you're going
to.
So it's like the traditionRight, and when I was doing it,
I'm riding and then I seeprobably about 25 dudes and
girls, whatever riding and theywere from a group that ended up.
(11:16):
I was kind of mad because I sawthem, because I wanted to be
totally alone, but then I endedup hooking up with these people.
They were doing a bike the usfor ms and they do cross-country
rides raising money for msawareness.
They go and clean up people'shouses and help them with chores
and do all this type of stuff.
It's a really good organization, um, so I ended up riding not
(11:40):
directly with them, but wecrossed paths for probably a
couple of weeks, um, but theywere really super, super cool
people.
Um, yeah, so that was a cool,cool experience meeting all
those guys.
Um, but yeah, so that's howthat kind of all started out.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
How long did it take?
Was there ever a thing whereyou're like you know what I'm
done?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Tons of times, tons of times, tons.
You're on the side of the road.
You just want to bust out, cry.
It's crazy.
You're so beat down.
You're just like what the fuckRight right, it's like fatigue
and you fuck Right, right.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's like fatigue and you know you can't have no
place to recoup and we're ridingthrough Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Those hills are straight up, straight where
mountains are, straight up,straight down.
So you're doing full 100percent lung busting.
Then you're flying down thehill 50 miles an hour, lung
busting, going up, and thenthere's freaking dogs off chains
all like up in your face And'rejust like shit, I can't outrun
the damn dog because I'm goingup to damn hell, wow and um.
So so that stuff.
(12:45):
And you're just on the side ofthe road and you're just like,
oh my god, I just want to, Ijust I just want to fall over,
go to sleep right, quit wasthere times when you just fell
over and yeah, yeah, and and thething is you feel like you're
just gonna bust down and crybecause you're just like I'm so
defeated.
And then you go around the turn.
Then there's a big dam with afield, flowers everywhere, sure.
(13:07):
And you're like, okay, I gotthis, that's my power right now.
Sure, so that'll get youthrough the day.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And then, like the next day, you know something
else might happen.
Like that, you know you changeyour music up or you don't have
any music at all.
You know, and you're just likezoning out.
I mean hell.
I was on a bike, falling asleep, pedaling like nodding over.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'm drinking five-hour energies while I'm
riding, so I just don't fallasleep while I'm pedaling.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Now did you get a lot of muscle cramps, stuff like
that too?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
You know, I didn't really have much of that Trying
to remember.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's amazing.
I mean going that distance,yeah, I mean it seems like your
legs would be screaming, goingup a mountain and then coming
back down.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, it's kind of like when you started going into
Colorado and you see theRockies and they're only like a
quarter inch tall in thedistance and you're just like,
ok, you know, because you know,but this time, you know, I had
some miles in so I was gettingin shape a little bit, and they
keep.
Every day, the mountains, youknow, grow another quarter inch.
(14:17):
And then you get there andyou're like, oh damn, and you're
just like, ok, your mindsetjust goes to, because before you
know, you're trying to cruiseat good speeds most of the time,
but you get to the mountainsyou're just like, okay, I'm
gonna go two and a half miles anhour for the next three hours.
Wow and then you get up to thetop of the mountain.
You know we did a hoosier passand that was a, I think, 11 000
(14:38):
feet or something like that.
Flying down that damn mountaingoing 55 miles an hour, that's
got to be scary as shit.
That's got to be scary as shit.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I don't care 55 miles an hour on a bike.
Oh yeah, it was awesome.
That has to be scary as shit.
I'm sorry man, I'm in thosedamn tires.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I'm on tires as thin as my thumb.
People are afraid to do thatshit on a motorcycle.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, that's crazy man.
In a car.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, you don't mind a motorcycle in a car how?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
much packing, like how much stuff was with you,
like, like did you have like therear packs and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I didn't have any saddlebags or panniers.
I had a a one wheeled trailer.
It's called a Bob trailer.
It just has like a duffel bag.
It's probably about a foot anda half wide and two and a half
feet long and that was all mystuff.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That was it.
That's all you brought into thebed, like that duffel bag in
the back of your bag.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, Like my warm clothes were like my rain gear,
so if I was cold I'd put in arain gear on.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I wouldn't be buying some panniers on the way.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
for sure you need to go lightweight, but I just had
some basic.
I mean my clothes were stinky.
I mean you ride all day andjust the sweat.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Right, you're just doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
The weather though too, right, the clothes get
stiff, right, but the weatherhad to be crazy.
I mean, it changes the weatherall the time, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Kansas was like upper nineties the whole time and
that was that was hard.
But I remember being up.
Shit.
How was I like an Oregon or itmight've been up in Oregon, but
I just remember we're above the.
We were above the tree line.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And I was with a couple other people that I just
randomly met up.
We're above the tree line andthe lightning starts in every
direction, like in front of uson the sides of us, behind us,
we're just in this giantelectric yeah, like you can't,
you can't and you're just like,oh fuck, they tell me to lay
flat on the fucking rocks andand get away from my metal stuff
.
And I'm like, um, but it wasfreezing, it was probably 40
(16:40):
degrees rain, soaking wet.
Your fingers are wrinkly like,yeah, so so wet.
So we're up on top of thismountain.
I'm just like, screw it, I'mbolting down.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So now I'm just bolting down this mountain,
can't even barely see, becausethe rain's coming down so hard
and there's cliffs and rain andlightning and yeah so, so, so,
because you're talking about allthese elements and stuff that
like, did you like plan for allthat stuff?
Like, did you bring anythinggear, stuff like that, like
glasses for for riding and stuffI didn't bring any.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Uh, I'm not a, I do have sunglasses, but I didn't
have any like that, so I hadrain gear.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You know, like you know, you knew, you were going
to hit that type of weather.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, that weighs too much.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
You're so you're like literally streamlined, like I'm
going to do as light aspossible.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Try to do as light as possible.
I mean cause, if you'recarrying an extra five pounds
over a hundred miles or over4,500 miles, right, you know,
that's it.
It adds up, it adds up.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
He's becoming our version of gump.
Yeah Right, I mean no kidding.
I mean I'm listening to thisand I'm like, you're like the
version of gump.
So Rich, okay, craziest placethere had to be, a crazy place
that you had to bed down Right,because when you're, when you're
out in the middle of nowhere,you you just got a, do you do?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I had a one-man tent, um, that was small enough where
it was you could, you know,shoulders hit both sides of it
and, uh, you can sit up in itand that's it.
Um, I think, as far as havingto like, do take emergency
shelter and stuff like that, Ijust power through most of the
stuff because you know, I mean,we're waterproof, right.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
But you're out in the middle of nowhere sometimes,
right, and you just had to popthat tent up.
Yeah, there's no nerve-wrackingtimes that you're out there and
no, you're throwing that little.
You throw in that littleone-man tent that you can only
lift your head up in yeah, Imean I would do the.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Uh.
Yeah, I did break down instorms and put that stuff up
when it was going to be prettymiserable, just on the side of
the road, temporary, but like upon the top of that mountain.
There was no way in hell thatthing would have just been blown
away, oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
But you had to go through the storms and stuff
where you're literally soaked,right.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Oh yeah, I mean you're soaked in that little
tent and you get out and you'resoaked yeah you wake up soaked,
you put on your wet clothes, yougo to bed wet, you'd wake up
wet and then you'd change yourclothes into the other wet
clothes that you have.
Wow and yeah, but the craziesttent story.
So I was in the tetons and this, uh, this was still had the
(19:28):
newspapers that you know in thecorners and they had this bear
attack up in the tetons and itwent through like two or three
different people's tents andattacked them.
Oh no, well, I got all my, my,my tent and everything in that
duffel bag.
Well, I go to break tent.
I'm like two days outside oftita or two days outside of
where those attacks were.
My nutella jar broke open.
(19:50):
Scat was all over my sleepinggear, all over my tent, so I
smelled like freaking bear foodin bear freaking country that
was the most terrifying damnthing.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah.
You're like a bear snack in aninevitable tent right, you've
scented yourself for the next somany miles.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, because a bear radius is, I think, like their
territorial radius is like 500miles or something like that.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I chummed the water for them, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
So what state would you say was the worst one that
ride through Kentucky?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Really.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Why so?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It was pretty.
Those Hills like in in Colorado, like you go up a mountain,
they grade it pretty well.
You know you got a lot ofswitchbacks.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
They're like F?
F that just go straight up, gostraight down.
And it was hard, wow.
I mean, I wasn't as in shape asI was by the time I got to
Colorado, sure, but Kentucky washard and the coal trucks you'd
be riding, and these giant coaltrucks would go past you and
they create suction.
So you lean out because it kindof sucks you in.
(20:56):
Right, that's a little intense.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, that's a little nerdy right.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, bike tires.
How many times did you blowthose?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I went through maybe just a couple sets, but I had
extra tubes and patches and Idon't even know how many dozen
times patching.
I mean there were some placeswhere where you just on the side
of the road there'd be allthose little wires from tire
trucks blowing those to get upin your tires and, you know,
(21:27):
flash stuff like that.
So that was kind of a pain.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But you know you get quick at it after a while so,
speaking about like breakingdown, like, was there a time
during this whole trip where youlike broke down, where you was
like I'm, I'm like, uh, I can'tgo and I'm going to stop for a
few days?
Like this is, I'm staying herefor a while.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
No, I mean just those , those many episodes that I had
you know, never lasting formore than an hour or five Sure.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
An hour or five.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Five or.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
So the whole, the whole trip.
How long did it take?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Eighty 81 days.
But I did a side trip throughmy trip so as a break during my
ride I did another ride duringthe middle of my ride.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
So in the middle of this ride going from cross
country you decided you knowwhat.
I really want to do this piece.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, because I like doing that Goba ride.
Just about every year I've doneit about 10 times going across
country.
You decided, you know what Ireally want to do this piece?
Yeah, because, um, I like doingthat goba ride um, just about
every year.
I've done it about 10 times.
The great ohio bicycleadventure, and this time it was
down and uh, they do a differentsection of ohio each year.
This section was uh down byathens and I went to school at
ou so I didn't want to miss thatyear year.
Yeah.
So our a friend, uh lisa, okay,and her husband bob, oh yeah,
(22:44):
they they came down, so I rodeacross to uh cave and rock
illinois all right so then, uh,the girl I've seen at the time
picked me up from cave and rock,drove me back down to southern
ohio.
Then we did that tandem.
We did that ride there on atandem and I was like like, oh,
that goba is easy.
Well, this was the hilliestdamn goba that I ever did, and
(23:06):
we were like right.
Yeah, um, so that my break weekwas a week of riding 50 miles a
day through Southern Ohio andthen was driven back to cave and
rock Illinois where I left offand then continued my ride.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Oh, that's wild, that's wild.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Like.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I was expecting more of like okay, you know what.
I stopped at this hotel.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Had a burger.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And I decided I'm going to chill for a week.
You know, that wasn't the deal?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
No, that wasn't on the plan, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Hey, so you were also alluded earlier.
Like you were, you know, goingdown the hill away from dogs, so
did you have any other likeencounters with animals and
stuff outside of?
Like you weren't bear food, soyou're sitting here, so we know
that.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, part of the ride, a road through Yellowstone
, cool and I happened to be witha couple of people during that
part and we were commenting.
Commenting damn, we haven'tseen any buffalo, nothing.
And then next thing that wouldgo around the turn.
I'm 10 feet away from thisbuffalo.
I'm just head to toe in spandexand you got this damn giant
(24:12):
beast with these horns staringat me that was.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
That was pretty cool.
They're intimidated too whenyou get close to those.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Oh yeah I was close enough to hear the damn thing
breathing and I'm just like herelook at my spandex.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's what I was thinking.
Going across some of thesestates.
They've got these wild animalsand then you're on a bike You're
like a snack going across thecountry with them.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, probably a little meaty and tough.
Yeah, at that point the muscleswould be tough and tough.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I think, yeah, at that point the muscles would be
tough.
That is absolutely crazy.
So, uh, entertaining yourselflike going across is like when
you did stop and stuff like whoa, what was that?
Like you weren't like uh, doingsafety demos for the prairie
dogs and stuff like that no, butI I do moo at every cow that I
go past you were doing a lot ofmoving across the United.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
States Sure.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Oh yeah, I'd be like now, did you come across any
people with road rage for ridingbikes?
Cause I know a lot of timesthey don't like sharing the road
.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Um, I didn't really have any.
I mean, you might get somebeeps, but I haven't had it.
I didn't have any crazy peoplethrowing crap or nothing like
that that's amazing going thatthat many yeah that many miles,
that many days you know, thebiggest surprise with the ride
was how nice people were.
Like.
(25:35):
You're always like, you know,you get, you get people and
you're just like holy crap, whatis wrong with these people?
I tell you what.
There's people I'm riding andthey'd be riding their bike just
on a whatever, just a ride.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
And the next.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Thing you know they turn around and start following
me and start talking.
They'll be like, hey, do youwant to come over for dinner?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I'm like sure.
Then the next thing, you knowthey're like washing my clothes,
cooking me dinner.
I'm sleeping in random people,houses sometimes that I've met
for five minutes, wow, and theyjust invite you into their house
.
One place was really cool.
We were in Oregon.
It was me and this dude and hisgirlfriend, and the guy said
(26:16):
hey, I called my wife, she'sgoing to make dinner for all
y'all, and then we go into the.
We go into his house.
It was a beautiful house, youknow, and looking at his bikes
he was like I'm like that's a$5,000 bike, that's a $7,000
bike, that's another $5,000.
So you know he is he was into ittoo.
So we stay the, we have somebottles of wine.
They wash our clothes, you know, and we're total strangers to
(26:38):
them.
The next morning they go.
Oh yeah, just, we've got toboth go to work.
So, just, you know, letyourself out whenever, and I'm
like you've got jewelry boxes,you've got $5,000 bikes.
You'd never see my ass again,sure, but people were just so
nice and like trusting, it wassuper refreshing.
(27:08):
But it seemed like you know,yeah, it's, it's a cool
community because I don't knowwhen you, when you see someone
with, uh, a loaded bike, youknow with panniers or a trailer
or whatever, you instantly have,you know, a understanding and
like, I've met people ridingPittsburgh to DC on C&O, a great
(27:31):
Allegheny Passage, which isjust an off-road trail that goes
from downtown Pittsburgh allthe way to DC.
But I met someone there for fiveminutes and they were riding
from over there all the way toDC.
But, uh, I met someone therefor five minutes and they were
riding from from over there allthe way to San Fran doing
something, some young kids andthey're like, oh, yeah, we're
going to ride through Cleveland.
I'm like, oh, give me a call,here's my number, and you know.
Next thing, you know I'd metthem for five minutes and
(27:52):
they're sleeping at my house.
There you go, reciprocates yeah, it was cool Cause a lot of
these people like a lot of theseplaces, um, there'll be like
hosts and they'll have theiryard and they'll put a little
barn in the backyard with thebunk bed in it and be like help
yourself to the hose and, youknow, sleep in this wooden bunk
bed.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
That's what I was going to ask you to craziest
place that you spent the night.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Hmm, I slept under the bleachers at a county fair.
Some churches, a lot ofchurches along the way, will let
you sleep in the church.
So I've slept on church pews,altars, but my favorite was
Hudson, kansas, because on thesemaps that give you the
(28:37):
turn-by-turn directions acrossthe country, they give you some
suggestions on where you cansleep for free.
And one was the city park inHudson, kansas, and they were
like call the mayor first, andthey listed her number and said
so she can turn the sprinklersoff.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So you don't get drenched at night.
So we call.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
This was a decent amount of people at this time, I
forget.
So we call her up and she comes, shuts the sprinklers off and
she goes.
You know, it looks like it'sgoing to rain.
How about you sleep in the cityhall?
So next thing you know, sheopens up the city hall, which
looked like an old VFW hall,with some tables and stuff.
(29:17):
So next thing, you know, getstart getting phone calls.
We're like what the hell'sgoing on?
So I answered a phone andthey're like hey, are you all
those bikers out there?
And we're like yeah.
They're like are you hungry?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
we're like yeah yeah, I was hungry always so they
started bringing us food justrandom randos from the town that
is awesome, it was super cool.
That's, that's that.
That's that's what you get likethis neighborly.
You know, you know that's thehuman, yeah, yeah, the human, uh
, whole experience of like youknow, like you were saying it,
(29:48):
it's surprising, if it feelssurprising, that people are,
that you know, open and givingand willing to take you in.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
But was that in a lot of small towns though I mean
yeah, yeah, it was small townmentality yeah, it was very cool
and and I think when people seeyou on a bike even though I had
a mohawk and a long ass beardand I stunk massively, um, but
when people see you on a bikethen they're kind of like it
(30:16):
disarms them a little bit sothey'll be willing to talk to
you a little bit.
Right, see what?
Like, what the hell are youdoing?
You know I was raising moneyfor the Livestrong Foundation,
so that was kind of cool.
But yeah, it was nice.
Like I was talking to onecouple in some random bar for
lunch and I go to pay thebartender's like, oh no, that,
(30:40):
that couple that you weretalking to paid, paid for all
your stuff that's, yeah, justlike it was, just like stuff
like that constantly through theride yeah, I've had.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I've had that experience too before where I'd
like go into a restaurant orsomething.
I was with a group golfing onetime where he had a whole group.
Some guy at the bar like boughtthe entire group, like our, all
of our dinners yeah, likeamazing.
I mean we're, we look like wegot money.
You know why did?
Why did you buy them?
But it was just people was likebeing generous and guy came
over, talked to us for a whileand he didn't want anything.
(31:08):
He just, hey, we, I know you'reoutsiders and I wanted to
welcome you, type of thing yeah,no, it was great it's.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
It's amazing how how cool people were.
It was refreshing.
It was something that everyoneshould experience.
A lot of people are hardenedoff.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Did you meet anybody along the way that you've kept
in contact with?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, I keep in contact with a couple of them,
mostly via Facebook.
I've had a couple come to myhouse to do Ray's Mountain Bike,
which is downtown Cleveland.
It's the biggest outdoor indoormountain bike park in the
States, so had them come in forthat.
And then I went out to DC andwas blasting through the DC
(31:51):
streets through all the trafficon a tandem with these two crazy
dudes that you know lane splitand all that stuff.
That was fun yeah so.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
So uh, was there, like you're talking about, like
I'm relating this to because, uh, I do uber eats and during the
pandemic, one at a time, one thehardest things during pandemic
was finding a bathroom, likeright.
And so you were talking aboutlike, yeah, so, so it was like
trying to find those is like waslike seriously.
(32:25):
So did you have some episodeswhere you had to just like, okay
, um, this is where it'shappening and I had to find some
emergency spot type of like onthe road?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
cornfields and maps you know it?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
yeah, I mean like it is.
I can imagine like, and and theother thing that's interesting
to me is that, like, how many,so how on this trip and how long
?
Did you say it was 81 days, 81days?
How many days or how many timesdid you shower in those 81 days
?
Did you never do?
Speaker 3 (32:58):
that total, I would say less than 10 less than 10
times in a day.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah, I mean in 81 days.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Yeah I mean I?
I literally like, if there wassomeone sprinkler on in their
front yard, I would go in theirsprinkler right um mcdonald.
I'd be washing my junk in theirsink.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
There's a site right there, hey Mommy.
There's some gump guy in therewashing his junk.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
But the thing is, you know, you took a shower.
You almost felt grosser becauseyou're putting on stiff, salty
clothes.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Oh no, yeah.
So you didn't get to like washyour clothes, right yeah, stiff
salty clothes?
Oh no, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
So if you didn't, get to like wash your clothes,
right?
Yeah, I know, but you thinkabout that 10 times.
Think about that now doing 10showers in 81 days 10, oh, you
were a stinky-ass person.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Oh yeah, okay so here's my question Did you keep
any of those clothes?
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Yeah, you did.
You're like like at the end ofthe trip.
You were like like hey, I gottayou know these are done like
some of the jerseys I wore werelike the goba jerseys, so I I
those are sentimental, sure, soI keep that right, but like this
, the shorts and stuff nah yeah,a couple of jerseys, yeah, and
(34:18):
then, uh, in um missoula montana, there's, uh, that's the
headquarters for uh oh umadventure cycling.
So when you go across, theytake your, you go there, they
take your picture and put you ontheir wall.
And I bought like a trans amshirt from there that I still
have.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
That was Montana when you were biking through that,
because that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I mean that's a beautiful place.
Yeah, no, it was awesome.
Idaho was my biggest surprise.
Idaho was absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Really.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, loved Idaho, but Montana's great.
I love Montana, I could live upthere.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That whole western region of the United's great.
I love Montana.
I could live up there.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
That whole western region of the United States
period.
I'm sorry, Jackson Hole.
It was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
One of the guys that I met along the way- after the
ride he loved Jackson Hole somuch he moved there.
I can see why I totally get it.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh yeah, it's beautiful.
I mean Montana's gorgeous, it'sactually really cool.
Oh yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I mean, Montana is gorgeous.
It's actually really cool.
Oh yeah, it's amazing.
Oh, another sleeping one.
I just jogged my memory.
It was Idaho.
We were at some hot springs andwe were down this path that was
no bikes allowed and we had ourbikes but we were sleeping next
to these steaming springs andwe had a giant moose walk like
(35:39):
10 feet away from us, rightthrough the middle of this mist.
That looked like we were infreaking mars that's awesome,
cool.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah, he just gave me flashbacks.
As a kid I had that type ofexperience, but it was up in, uh
, the yukon actually, and wewere in the springs and the
moose comes walking out of themist like that scared the shit
out of you so.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
So now you're going through.
Where do you end?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
up in astoria, oregon , astoria, oregon yeah so that
was your end point.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
That was the end point where you dip in the front
front we're dipping my fronttire.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, so that day I wanted to be like an epic day,
so that was my longest ride.
It was 172 miles, whoa.
I was riding 20 hours or so inthe one day, but I got so lost.
I'm up in the mountains and Isee like the glowing of the city
(36:33):
in the distance, so I know Ihad to get there.
But I'm looking at my maps andnone of these streets had street
signs on them.
So I'm going and it's themiddle of the night.
I got like a mohawk and agiant-ass beard.
I look like a freaking crazyhomeless man.
Right, and you know one carwould pass every 45 minutes.
I tried to wave them down,nothing, and I'm just my bike.
(36:58):
Light is running, running dim.
I'm running out of food andwater it was bad wow but it was
good though that was.
You know that was 172 miles.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
The last ride yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
So so, like at the end of this thing, was that just
a point where you were justlike, okay, you know what, I got
this far to go, I'm doing it,this is all I'm done.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
That mentality, yeah because I had someone waiting
for me.
I was like I'll be done by thistime and I wasn't.
Oh no, waiting for me for hoursand hours, right hours, he's
supposed to show up at this timeand I couldn't get my phone to
work.
Yeah, yeah, it was funny.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
So, talking about that like your technology, I
wanted to ask a question aboutthat.
So, like, how did that workthrough the whole entire trip?
Because you're talking about,like you have your phone and all
this stuff, but where are youcharging?
This stuff Is it solar packs orwhat.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
No, I'd go to like, if I pass the gas station, I
just like steal some electricityfrom behind the ice machine.
You know that's awesome, yeah,you know.
Hey, hot dog roller.
Oh, there's an extra plug,sweet Sure.
And then I would just hang outfor an hour.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So you're just like kind of like just a little
spurts here and there.
You were trying to.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Yeah, and a lot of the stuff I mean trying to, yeah
, and a lot of the stuff I meanI had no cell service for good
chunks of the time, and yeah, soit was kind of you probably
kept your phone off.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I mean, you probably kept your phone off the majority
of the time anyway, right,unless you absolutely needed it.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, I mean because at that time I was using an ipod
for music, so I wasn't evenusing a phone for music.
Um, yeah, so it was just, youknow, I had like a backup
battery, that and then the phonejust trying to charge those
whenever you could.
But yeah, that was kind of goodto not have the technology
(38:50):
though.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Right, I mean that little disconnect.
That's about part of the wholeventure too, right?
Oh yeah, like you want toconnect with humanity but you
don't want.
You know, like all thetechnology stuff, you really
don't need all that withhumanity, but you don't want you
know, like all the technologystuff, that you really don't
need all that.
Um, so my, my other questionwould be like, like, was there
any like along the way, did you,did you encounter any type of
(39:12):
emergency stuff?
Like you had, you know, sometype of incident.
I zoomed downhill at 50 milesper hour and crashed, or
anything like that happened onyour trip.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
I only crashed once that I remember, but that was
like after I rode over to theHoosier Pass at 11,000 foot and
flew down into the city.
I actually went into a bikeshop and rented a mountain bike
after doing the 11,000 footclimb so I could um ride up
(39:45):
breckenridge right on the yetimountain bike and, just you know
, do the uh, oh, what's itcalled?
the ski lift, take it up to thetop of the mountain and then, oh
yeah, mountain bike trails,yeah, and I was bleeding so bad.
Oh my gosh, those, those dudesare crazy.
The downhill, the downhillers,whole.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, the ones that do those like downhills on the,
on the ski trails and stuff likethat.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Oh yeah, it's fun, yeah I've done it.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I've done it a couple times and, uh, it is fun, but
those guys are crazymotherfuckers yeah, you like it
I mean you will.
Trees might get very close toyou.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah, I'm not doing it Suddenly Not doing it, not
doing that, not doing the 81-daytrip either.
That is freaking amazing though.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Well, the whole amazing thing to me is this like
you know, first of all, likeyou began, how do you drop your
life?
Like you're just like I got todisconnect for life and in 81
days, was that your intendedgoal?
Like 81 days was your goal orwas it like I'm doing?
I got three months off.
This is it.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Yeah, I just had the three months off.
I didn't really have any timegoals, but I didn't want to take
any breaks, okay.
So yeah, that was kind of mydeal.
But I mean, you know, got donewith the ride and went up to
Alaska to celebrate in backpack.
Now you flew up to Alaska,right, flew up there.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
There you go.
Yeah, because that ride fromOregon all the way up to.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Alaska is amazing.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
It's amazing, I did the drive as a kid, but I didn't
uh, not as a bike.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
If you're a person listening to this, I mean, think
about that.
You take three months of yourlife off just to ride a bike all
the way across the UnitedStates dealing with all that
shit.
I mean that's that is.
I mean that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
What's the what's the one big takeaway from this for
you, rich that, like you,learned about yourself I'd like
to get myself in over my headand see if I can get out there
you go and I get that and Ithink I can get out always right
you're sitting here right yeah,yeah, that's, that's that, and
(42:01):
I think people in general don'tsuck.
There you go, that's good yeah,which is crazy to so, so tying
this back to the flightattendant thing, so like, did
this, this, this renew your uhvalue and or your faith in
humanity?
Speaker 3 (42:19):
as long as I can get more time off of work.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Copy that man I mean, like you know, our job as a
flight attendant is a is a toughone when we're dealing with
public and dealing with stuffand and they're not as friendly
as these people.
You're talking about your story, right?
Well, yeah, sometimes,sometimes they're friendly,
sometimes they're not.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
All right, tell me this Since you accomplished that
, what's next?
What?
Speaker 3 (42:49):
would you like to do Bucket list?
First of all, how old are you?
Rich 51.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
So you're 51 years old.
Now go ahead.
What's this bucket list?
What's next?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
I want to bike both islands of New Zealand.
All right, take the ferry inbetween the islands,
self-contained the whole time.
I want to bike around, orthrough Iceland Loop road that
goes around the outside, orthere's a trail that goes
through the middle, and I wantto do the Great Divide which is
Canada to Mexico, along the fireroads, through the Rockies, and
(43:26):
oh, there's so much stuff.
I want to do a half marathon inevery state, but I'm not sure
if that's going to happen.
But I want to bike across everystate too.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Oh, that's that's any hiking.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
I mean I'd like to do the Appalachian in the pack,
but we'll see I'm getting along.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
I can.
You're running out of time,dude.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
I'm too young for that.
No, that was a cool thing too.
Like on the, on the trail,you'd meet people that were were
like 65, just retired.
That was a big group of people.
Then you'd meet people thatwere just right before college
or just right after collegeRight, because they all had the
time.
(44:10):
They had the time.
People around my age.
At the time I wasn't findingthem.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
No, there's a lot of people that can't do that check
out for three months to be ableto.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, but you wonder at a person at 65, right, we're
sitting right next to one.
Right when he when he turned 65, he's going to be out there on
one of those trails backpacking.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I better be.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
That's what I said.
You will be.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
I mean I actually know you and and and I believe
that when you turn 65 you'lldefinitely be out there.
I I need to be right, yeah,that I mean you know what this
is, uh, the this, this wholething with the biking and hiking
and all that stuff.
Like I love to be able to havethat me time, you know, yeah,
like I think everybody enjoysthat, like we gotta get our me
time and all that stuff.
But like you're saying, gettingyourself in over your head and
(45:04):
stuff like that and figuringthat you can get yourself out,
that's a.
People don't normally challengethemselves like that and
commend you for that.
It's a it's.
It's a scary thing to evenattempt to like let yourself go
there.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Rich.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
I'm not doing it, I don't give a shit what he's
saying over there.
My ass is not doing it.
I mean, we had thisconversation, no bullshit.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
We had this conversation a long time ago and
I told Rich.
I said it was freaking amazing.
You know the shit that he wentthrough and all I could think of
is him being in that damn fieldin Deliverance, you know what I
mean.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
I mean that's it.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
You're just out in the middle of some you know
bohunk field in Kentucky, inthat little bitty tent, and you
know just a nightmare is goingto happen.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
The banjo music Exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
How many times did you get encountered with the law
?
Speaker 3 (46:02):
You know some of the places.
You could actually sleep at thecity park right across from the
police station, and they werecool with that.
I remember one time we werelike in some city pool when we
weren't supposed to be.
It was in the middle of thenight.
Just climb over the fence to goswimming, Right, but nothing,
Nothing.
We were pretty, pretty goodwith the law.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, I mean, you didn't get encounters with them
like people stopping you for anyreason.
No, people were good, that'sgood, that's good, yeah.
So you know what?
Your adventure is unbelievable.
I'm with G over there.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
First of all, I got to commend you to be able to
even have the body to be able todo it, because my body will not
let me do that anymore, period.
And and you know, some people,when they get to that 65 or then
their 60s, and a lot of, mostpeople, a lot of people, the
majority of them, we're notgoing to be able to do a lot of
those things.
But so, man, I hope, I hope youcan do, he could do it.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
I hope so.
He's going to do it.
We're going to.
I guarantee you we're going tohear about his ass doing it.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
I mean, he, he, he's keeping himself all together to
be able to do that stuff.
It's, it's awesome.
But uh, hey to um, we alwayswrap up our show and, uh like,
talk about a little bit ofthings that are happening in the
news lately and I don't know ifyou and you could chime in on
this when we're talking about it.
But, um, did you guys see thatuh, female pasture that was
(47:28):
thrown down by a flightattendant the other day?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
yeah, I did in the first class cabin.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Yeah, yeah, she was in business class and they
thought she was like gonna tryto be breached a deck and I mean
there's video of it and looks.
Attendants are like body slamsare down in the ground and yeah,
it was pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
How about that?
Did you see that cruise linebrawl?
Speaker 1 (47:50):
No, oh, carnival.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, carnival, they had a big cruise line brawl.
I'm surprised you missed thatone.
That shit was funny.
That's like the Chuck E Cheeseof the Seas.
They were like, oh, all thosepeople have been banned, like
they're coming back anyway,right, right, I mean they're
banned for life from carnival.
The brawl in the sea orwhatever.
(48:12):
Yeah, it was something abouttheir bags or something, right?
Speaker 3 (48:16):
I don't remember, I just remember seeing them.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah, so your travels and any new stories or anything
you got to share lately,anything good In your world of
flight attendant.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
Yeah, nothing much, nothing crazy.
Just did a little short cruiseout to the Bahamas for the heck
of it.
It was like a Christmas kind ofthing, but yeah, nothing too
crazy planned right now coolcool, cool.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
yeah, and there's one other story I wanted to bring
up and on this airline wherethis dude like freaked out and
he started kick, trying to kickopen the window on the plane.
Like I mean, he was like justbeating on the seats and all
this stuff and I guess he gotinto some type of like a little
bit of a conversation with thelady in front of him and then
(49:05):
just went berserk and he startedtrying to kick out the window
on the plane, literally brokethe plexiglass on the plane.
Oh, that's some crazy stuff.
And then he like injuredhimself.
There was blood all over theplace and like, yeah, I'm like
did you see that?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, but there's another one too the bomb threat
in Clearwater Airport.
Did you see that one?
No, Shut down Clearwater.
You know the little airportClearwater-St Pete?
Yeah, they shut it down.
They had a bomb threat For sure.
Yeah, I mean, we say it everyweek there's crazy shit that
happens across the globe.
I mean, there's just a couplethings more.
(49:44):
This week was more about uh,with rich um going across the
united states and still blows meaway and there ain't no way I'm
ever going to do anything likethat that's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, they were like I pulled up a lot of the
statistics about this trip thatyou took and I was like you know
what I mean they say.
They say you you've actuallylike your elevation.
You did a hundred thousand feetof total elevation gain on that
ride.
That's the average trip.
Well, that's good to know, butthe crazy thing is that's like
(50:12):
three to four times up MountEverest.
That's crazy.
All in.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (50:21):
Now I realize that Okay would you do it again?
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Oh, I'd do it tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
All in Kentucky, I didn't realize that, okay, would
you do it again?
Oh, I'd do it tomorrow.
Really, yeah, even if I'm outof shape, just like I am right
now, I'd do it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
That's awesome, man, I mean.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
But now I've got to bring the kids, so I've got to
do it on a tandem.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
On a tandem?
Speaker 2 (50:35):
No way, but you already did Okay, real quick
though he already did a tandem,though he did a tandem across
Ireland Ireland.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
With who An old friend.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
There you go.
It matters who you're doing atandem with, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
A distant friend.
Speaker 3 (50:55):
Yeah, the tandem wasn't long enough.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
He would have cut the tandem off and made it a single
.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
And if you're doing it with kids, they ain't
pedaling that hard.
No, no, it's a whole thing.
Like you were talking aboutfive pounds of weight, now
you're toting kids.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
Oh yeah, because I've done the goba ride with the
kids.
I do it on a tandem with a tagalong attached to that, so it's
a three-seat bicycle.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
So they're sitting back having a conversation.
I'm maxed out heart rate, eyespopping out my head.
Hey, you know what that isright.
That's called, I guess, love,because I wouldn't do that for
just anybody it's somethingright.
I probably should takemedication for it I complain
when I go out on a kayak with mywife and she's not paddling.
I can't imagine two kidspaddling.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Imagine seeing him and Carol out in a kayak.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
And he's made it out.
I'm surprised she hasn'tsmacked him over the head.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
He's like what the hell are you doing back there?
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Alright, anyways, rich, awesome having you on the
show man.
I really appreciate you comingout here to do this because we
really enjoy having you on theshow man.
I really appreciate you comingout here to do this because we
really enjoy our guests in theshow and thank you for doing
that.
No problem, it was fun.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Like I said, me and Rich talked about this a long
time ago and this was somethingI definitely wanted you to come
in and talk about, becausethere's not a lot of people that
do this, and that was amazing.
That was absolutely amazing.
It wouldn't be me, but that wasamazing.
That was absolutely amazing.
It wouldn't be me, but it wasamazing yeah, I'm, yeah, I
couldn't you either.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
I couldn't stand myself after a week.
There's just no way I could.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
I could not imagine your ass smelling myself.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
You smelly man I'm ex-military and I didn't like
shower for many, many days inthe field and I could tell you
stories about funkin, and therecomes a time too, and that whole
thing, where you really don'tsmell yourself anymore, right,
like start to enjoy it, right.
And then then when you're witha group of friends like I was in
(52:53):
the military we all smell thesame.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
It's like yeah, that's where another hole.
Yeah, I'm telling you you'rethat's for another hole.
Yeah, I'm telling you You'reenjoying your stink.
That's good, all right, sean.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Anyways, we want to wrap it up here with our quote
here, and the quote here isyou're the sum total of
everything you've ever seen,heard, eaten, smelled, been told
to forget.
It's all there.
Everything influences each ofus and because of that I try to
make sure that my experiencesare positive.
(53:28):
I like that.
I thought it fit for thisepisode here with Rich, because
he's definitely the sum total ofall of his experiences.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
For better or for worse.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
Exactly All right.
Thanks again, Rich.
Hey, you guys had a great timethis week and we will see you
next week on cabin pressure, seeyou guys, see ya.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
If you laughed, learn something, or just feel a
little bit better about your ownjob After hearing about ours.
Do us a favor subscribe, leavea review and share this episode
with your weirdest co-worker.
You know the one.
Hit us up on Facebook.
Drop your wildest airport story.
We just might read them on airBonus points if you involve
(54:14):
questionable clothing decisions.
Until next time, stay strappedin, stay hydrated and, for the
love of TSA, keep your clotheson in the terminal.
3,000 to 4,500 miles of bike riding, Over 100,000
feet of total elevation gain.
We're talking to a guy whoknows a thing or two about
turbulence.
All this next on Cabin Pressurewith Sean and Gene hey,
(00:39):
everyone welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
This is cabin pressure.
What's up people?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
we are in the house every week man every week.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Man you gotta, you gotta like give him a little, uh
jolt you're, you definitely get, you definitely give him a jolt
, that's for damn sure right man.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Uh, you know this, today has been a rough day you
can say that again, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
It was a start off a rough day.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You can say that again, go ahead it was a start
off a rough day for me.
You know us catching up here,you know I got the storage unit
and they freaking jacking up theprices with me and I tell my
wife I was like, hey, you knowwhat we need to get out of that
thing.
And so last night I was justlike I'm doing this and we're
leaving.
And so this morning, last nightI like reserved the U-Haul and
(01:28):
all that stuff and I thought,hey, 8, 8 AM I'll be there and
all that stuff.
So this morning, as you know,because you helped me, yeah, you
called a friend.
Yeah, I called a friend to help.
We're just all we're doing isswitching some storage units to
one to the other and and I getthere at 8 am and come to find
(01:49):
out I'm trying to get throughthis little u-haul app and all
this stuff and I had reservedthe damn truck for 8 pm.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
brilliant, brilliant yeah, well, I was already at the
, at the storage facility yeah,yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
So, as I had like and g's always the one like, he's
anxious, he's ready to getthings no, he's not, he's on
time, he's on time.
Hey, anxious, I told him I wason time I told you I'd call you
and you showed up yeah, on timeanyhow.
So then.
So then I had to find a truck.
Then, uh, so you all hooked meup with another place down the
(02:21):
road here on lafayette, and Iget there and, dude, it was like
walking into Deliverance.
I mean, it was ma and pa, andwhat was really freaky about it
is like these old people andthey had this really tiny baby
with them.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And I was like this is weird.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But a lot of those U-Haul places are like that now
and it was in the back of a wasattached to the back of a house,
yep, next to a barn and all theu-hauls on around the barn and
it was like and and a stunk.
I can't even tell you the smell.
Was like I was like this iswhere you do business, like come
on anyhow.
But uh, I got in and I got thetruck.
Then they got down the road,forgot the key, had to turn
(03:03):
around, go back to get key oh,no, no, no, that's when you
called me, yeah, and that's whatI called you like don't rush
don't rushyeah, I'm already here, I'm
already here, yeah.
So, anyways, I get there, we doour.
You know, we got this thingdone in just a couple hours,
which we need to do the swap.
And then, bam, I'm going backand I get the truck and I'm, you
(03:25):
know, you got to fill up thetruck before you return the
rental.
Yeah well, get get down.
I pull in the gas station.
Every damn pump got a redsleeve on it, doesn't work, not
one pump.
The whole gas station was down.
I mean, like they had a semisection to this gas station.
All their pumps were down too.
I don't know what the hell isgoing on, but it was a pain in
the ass.
So.
So I had to drive back intotown, get this freaking truck,
(03:46):
and it was just one thing afteranother and I just felt like I
just couldn't be in sync thismorning.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
No, it was a snowball effect of shit, that's what it
was.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah, it was a snowball effect of shit, right,
so hopefully the show doesn't gointo a snowball effect of shit
and I participated with him too.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
You, you did forget that he stopped at the wrong
door of the other uh, yeah, theother stores when we were
unloading we.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I parked at the wrong door when he and we unloaded
the truck in a different door.
Yep, brilliance, yeah anywaysjust intelligent.
What do you end up to?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
well, outside man is beautiful.
Here again, it's beautiful inohio, you look a little.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Uh, lobster over there, I got a farmer's tan.
Do you got a farmer's tan?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
farmer's tan.
I'm proud of my farmer's tansee how pale I am.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, yeah, you're funny.
I know he's got a natural tan.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
That's bullshit you just got a natural tan, I got
red.
I'm like lobster red right butno, I was outside, it was
outside.
I was outside doing the lawnedging, doing that deep edging,
all that fun shit we do up herein Ohio this time of year when
the weather's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It's beautiful, man, one of our 163 days of the years
that we get to enjoy Sunshine,sunshine.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I know man.
I tell you, though, it wasabsolutely gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Other.
Tell you, though it was, it wasabsolutely gorgeous, other than
getting up and I had a greatworkout this morning and then
getting up when, and the wholeshit show with you.
Yeah, it was good.
Yeah, you know what, today onour uh show, we got a guy that
uh knows the thing or two aboutturbulence and uh, but not to
just 30 000 feet up, try 33, try33,000 miles across the US.
He's a flight attendant and hecrossed the US on a bike and he
(05:32):
basically traded fuel for somecalf muscles.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Rich, hey, hey, what's up, what's going on?
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Yeah, we want to hear some interesting stories Like
what made you want to do thisfirst of all, Oof, because I'm a
little crazy.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
No, I started doing when I hit 30, started doing a
little more biking I alwaysbiked as a kid going up, but I
started hitting it again when Igot around 30, then I'd do this
ride through Ohio called Goba,the great Ohio bicycle adventure
, and people thought I was crazydoing that because it's like 50
miles a day for a week, but itwasn't a real big deal.
(06:16):
But I met all these people onthose rides that have done the
cross country and stuff likethat, so that kind of piqued my
interest.
So then, uh, I always had thatin the back of my head saying
I'm going to do this, but youknow, in reality I never thought
I'd do it Right.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I mean, how long does this type of ride like even
thinking about it to plan for itTake?
I?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
mean, there was, there were a couple of years
that I was wanting to do it, butI was was like it's just never
going to happen.
I'm never going to be with aperson that'll be like okay,
cool, take off, I'll see you inthree months, yeah, yeah.
So with those logistics andthen just working, you know how
the hell are you going to getoff work for three months?
(06:59):
For three months?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
right, I mean rich.
Rich is a uh flight attendantas well, so he's he's traveling
around and doing all that stuff,so he understands the whole
business of uh moving about thecountry and uh, and definitely a
personable with people yeah, itwas uh, it was crazy because
they offered the it was aprobably say I left them like
(07:21):
june 1st, so probably beginningof May.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
They offered the leave of absence and then I said
, hey, I'm going to do this crapto the girl I was seeing at the
time and she was like, oh yeah,go for it.
And I was like you're going towatch my chickens, you're going
to watch my dogs and I'm justgoing to be out and looking back
, she's like, yeah, get the hellout of here.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So this is actually an all.
It's a mapped out route, rich.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, adventurecyclingcom.
They have turn-by-turn routes,multiple routes across the US,
up and down east to west coast,up down the middle, northern
tier, southern tier.
I did the Route 76, which wasback on in 1976.
They called it the BikeCentennial to celebrate, you
(08:10):
know, america's birthday, and abunch of these old, dirty
hippies rode across the country,you know, in blue jeans and
crap like that.
So I met one of the guys thatoriginally did that.
He's this like six foot five.
Oh wow, early dude, totalhippie dude.
Um, everyone calls him tiny, Ihave no idea what the hell his
(08:32):
name is, but he does thatgo-kart bike ride.
That's how I met him.
So just like peeking with him alittle bit and you know that
kind of sparked my interest inthis stuff.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So how do you prep for something like that, though,
I mean, when you okay, you hadthis idea You're saying, okay,
I'm going to do it.
Okay, how did you prep for that?
A lot of beer.
It had to be because I'm surelike damn A lot of deep, deep
thought.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
I mean, I was riding fairly heavy prior, but not
nothing crazy.
Um, I was doing this.
Uh, lance armstrong had atraining book, so I was
following through that, you know, as much as I could.
Um, I'm not fast, you know well, this isn't no, no it's just a
(09:24):
long and slow.
That's me.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
What was that?
What was that?
Uh like, uh, your goal on adaily, like how, how many miles
a day were you trying to likeput in per day?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
It.
It totally varied Cause um, itdepends, cause I had a long goal
, a short goal and a medium goalevery day.
So all I did you know, thoseare my three goals, and all I'm
trying to do is find a place topoop, trying to find a place to
sleep and trying to find a placeto eat.
Those are the only thing.
Like you, simplify your life,those are your only three goals
every day.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Every day.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Every day.
It's perfect.
That's awesome man.
So so I might have a short goalof like 40, 50 miles.
Medium goal 70, 75, long goal100.
But some days I was down wherethe hell was, I I forget, but I
found some really cool bar andit was 11.
I went in for lunch and endedup making friends with the
(10:15):
bartender.
She was like, oh, go take ashower at my house down the
street.
I'm like, okay, no one's there.
She's just like, just letyourself in, go take a shower
because I stunk.
But she was trying to keep herclientele Right, yeah.
And then I ended up sleeping inthe parking lot.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So I went like five miles that day.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
That's why I, you know, made some friends and just
chilled out and slept in aparking lot.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
That's so.
So now, where, where did this?
Where did it all start?
Oh, yorktown Virginia.
So you started in YorktownVirginia, and that first day you
remember, the first day, howmany miles you rode.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I think I did about 50, but I was kind of pissed on
my first day.
What you do is you dip yourrear tire of your bike into the
ocean that you're leaving, andthen you dip your front tire in
the ocean that you're going to.
So it's like the tradition Rightand the ocean that you're going
to.
So it's like the traditionRight, and when I was doing it,
I'm riding and then I seeprobably about 25 dudes and
girls, whatever riding and theywere from a group that ended up.
(11:16):
I was kind of mad because I sawthem, because I wanted to be
totally alone, but then I endedup hooking up with these people.
They were doing a bike the usfor ms and they do cross-country
rides raising money for msawareness.
They go and clean up people'shouses and help them with chores
and do all this type of stuff.
It's a really good organization, um, so I ended up riding not
(11:40):
directly with them, but wecrossed paths for probably a
couple of weeks, um, but theywere really super, super cool
people.
Um, yeah, so that was a cool,cool experience meeting all
those guys.
Um, but yeah, so that's howthat kind of all started out.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
How long did it take?
Was there ever a thing whereyou're like you know what I'm
done?
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Tons of times, tons of times, tons.
You're on the side of the road.
You just want to bust out, cry.
It's crazy.
You're so beat down.
You're just like what the fuckRight right, it's like fatigue
and you fuck Right, right.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's like fatigue and you know you can't have no
place to recoup and we're ridingthrough Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Those hills are straight up, straight where
mountains are, straight up,straight down.
So you're doing full 100percent lung busting.
Then you're flying down thehill 50 miles an hour, lung
busting, going up, and thenthere's freaking dogs off chains
all like up in your face And'rejust like shit, I can't outrun
the damn dog because I'm goingup to damn hell, wow and um.
So so that stuff.
(12:45):
And you're just on the side ofthe road and you're just like,
oh my god, I just want to, Ijust I just want to fall over,
go to sleep right, quit wasthere times when you just fell
over and yeah, yeah, and and thething is you feel like you're
just gonna bust down and crybecause you're just like I'm so
defeated.
And then you go around the turn.
Then there's a big dam with afield, flowers everywhere, sure.
(13:07):
And you're like, okay, I gotthis, that's my power right now.
Sure, so that'll get youthrough the day.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And then, like the next day, you know something
else might happen.
Like that, you know you changeyour music up or you don't have
any music at all.
You know, and you're just likezoning out.
I mean hell.
I was on a bike, falling asleep, pedaling like nodding over.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
And.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
I'm drinking five-hour energies while I'm
riding, so I just don't fallasleep while I'm pedaling.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Now did you get a lot of muscle cramps, stuff like
that too?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
You know, I didn't really have much of that Trying
to remember.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
That's amazing.
I mean going that distance,yeah, I mean it seems like your
legs would be screaming, goingup a mountain and then coming
back down.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Yeah, it's kind of like when you started going into
Colorado and you see theRockies and they're only like a
quarter inch tall in thedistance and you're just like,
ok, you know, because you know,but this time, you know, I had
some miles in so I was gettingin shape a little bit, and they
keep.
Every day, the mountains, youknow, grow another quarter inch.
(14:17):
And then you get there andyou're like, oh damn, and you're
just like, ok, your mindsetjust goes to, because before you
know, you're trying to cruiseat good speeds most of the time,
but you get to the mountainsyou're just like, okay, I'm
gonna go two and a half miles anhour for the next three hours.
Wow and then you get up to thetop of the mountain.
You know we did a hoosier passand that was a, I think, 11 000
(14:38):
feet or something like that.
Flying down that damn mountaingoing 55 miles an hour, that's
got to be scary as shit.
That's got to be scary as shit.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
I don't care 55 miles an hour on a bike.
Oh yeah, it was awesome.
That has to be scary as shit.
I'm sorry man, I'm in thosedamn tires.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
I'm on tires as thin as my thumb.
People are afraid to do thatshit on a motorcycle.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, that's crazy man.
In a car.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, you don't mind a motorcycle in a car how?
Speaker 1 (15:07):
much packing, like how much stuff was with you,
like, like did you have like therear packs and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
I didn't have any saddlebags or panniers.
I had a a one wheeled trailer.
It's called a Bob trailer.
It just has like a duffel bag.
It's probably about a foot anda half wide and two and a half
feet long and that was all mystuff.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That was it.
That's all you brought into thebed, like that duffel bag in
the back of your bag.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Yeah, Like my warm clothes were like my rain gear,
so if I was cold I'd put in arain gear on.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I wouldn't be buying some panniers on the way.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
for sure you need to go lightweight, but I just had
some basic.
I mean my clothes were stinky.
I mean you ride all day andjust the sweat.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Right, you're just doing it.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
The weather though too, right, the clothes get
stiff, right, but the weatherhad to be crazy.
I mean, it changes the weatherall the time, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Kansas was like upper nineties the whole time and
that was that was hard.
But I remember being up.
Shit.
How was I like an Oregon or itmight've been up in Oregon, but
I just remember we're above the.
We were above the tree line.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
And I was with a couple other people that I just
randomly met up.
We're above the tree line andthe lightning starts in every
direction, like in front of uson the sides of us, behind us,
we're just in this giantelectric yeah, like you can't,
you can't and you're just like,oh fuck, they tell me to lay
flat on the fucking rocks andand get away from my metal stuff
.
And I'm like, um, but it wasfreezing, it was probably 40
(16:40):
degrees rain, soaking wet.
Your fingers are wrinkly like,yeah, so so wet.
So we're up on top of thismountain.
I'm just like, screw it, I'mbolting down.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So now I'm just bolting down this mountain,
can't even barely see, becausethe rain's coming down so hard
and there's cliffs and rain andlightning and yeah so, so, so,
because you're talking about allthese elements and stuff that
like, did you like plan for allthat stuff?
Like, did you bring anythinggear, stuff like that, like
glasses for for riding and stuffI didn't bring any.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Uh, I'm not a, I do have sunglasses, but I didn't
have any like that, so I hadrain gear.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
You know, like you know, you knew, you were going
to hit that type of weather.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Yeah, that weighs too much.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
You're so you're like literally streamlined, like I'm
going to do as light aspossible.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Try to do as light as possible.
I mean cause, if you'recarrying an extra five pounds
over a hundred miles or over4,500 miles, right, you know,
that's it.
It adds up, it adds up.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
He's becoming our version of gump.
Yeah Right, I mean no kidding.
I mean I'm listening to thisand I'm like, you're like the
version of gump.
So Rich, okay, craziest placethere had to be, a crazy place
that you had to bed down Right,because when you're, when you're
out in the middle of nowhere,you you just got a, do you do?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
I had a one-man tent, um, that was small enough where
it was you could, you know,shoulders hit both sides of it
and, uh, you can sit up in itand that's it.
Um, I think, as far as havingto like, do take emergency
shelter and stuff like that, Ijust power through most of the
stuff because you know, I mean,we're waterproof, right.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
But you're out in the middle of nowhere sometimes,
right, and you just had to popthat tent up.
Yeah, there's no nerve-wrackingtimes that you're out there and
no, you're throwing that little.
You throw in that littleone-man tent that you can only
lift your head up in yeah, Imean I would do the.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Uh.
Yeah, I did break down instorms and put that stuff up
when it was going to be prettymiserable, just on the side of
the road, temporary, but like upon the top of that mountain.
There was no way in hell thatthing would have just been blown
away, oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
But you had to go through the storms and stuff
where you're literally soaked,right.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Oh yeah, I mean you're soaked in that little
tent and you get out and you'resoaked yeah you wake up soaked,
you put on your wet clothes, yougo to bed wet, you'd wake up
wet and then you'd change yourclothes into the other wet
clothes that you have.
Wow and yeah, but the craziesttent story.
So I was in the tetons and this, uh, this was still had the
(19:28):
newspapers that you know in thecorners and they had this bear
attack up in the tetons and itwent through like two or three
different people's tents andattacked them.
Oh no, well, I got all my, my,my tent and everything in that
duffel bag.
Well, I go to break tent.
I'm like two days outside oftita or two days outside of
where those attacks were.
My nutella jar broke open.
(19:50):
Scat was all over my sleepinggear, all over my tent, so I
smelled like freaking bear foodin bear freaking country that
was the most terrifying damnthing.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah.
You're like a bear snack in aninevitable tent right, you've
scented yourself for the next somany miles.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Yeah, because a bear radius is, I think, like their
territorial radius is like 500miles or something like that.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
I chummed the water for them, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
So what state would you say was the worst one that
ride through Kentucky?
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Really.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Why so?
Speaker 3 (20:25):
It was pretty.
Those Hills like in in Colorado, like you go up a mountain,
they grade it pretty well.
You know you got a lot ofswitchbacks.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
They're like F?
F that just go straight up, gostraight down.
And it was hard, wow.
I mean, I wasn't as in shape asI was by the time I got to
Colorado, sure, but Kentucky washard and the coal trucks you'd
be riding, and these giant coaltrucks would go past you and
they create suction.
So you lean out because it kindof sucks you in.
(20:56):
Right, that's a little intense.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, that's a little nerdy right.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Okay, bike tires.
How many times did you blowthose?
Speaker 3 (21:06):
I went through maybe just a couple sets, but I had
extra tubes and patches and Idon't even know how many dozen
times patching.
I mean there were some placeswhere where you just on the side
of the road there'd be allthose little wires from tire
trucks blowing those to get upin your tires and, you know,
(21:27):
flash stuff like that.
So that was kind of a pain.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
But you know you get quick at it after a while so,
speaking about like breakingdown, like, was there a time
during this whole trip where youlike broke down, where you was
like I'm, I'm like, uh, I can'tgo and I'm going to stop for a
few days?
Like this is, I'm staying herefor a while.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
No, I mean just those , those many episodes that I had
you know, never lasting formore than an hour or five Sure.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
An hour or five.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Five or.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
So the whole, the whole trip.
How long did it take?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Eighty 81 days.
But I did a side trip throughmy trip so as a break during my
ride I did another ride duringthe middle of my ride.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
So in the middle of this ride going from cross
country you decided you knowwhat.
I really want to do this piece.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Yeah, because I like doing that Goba ride.
Just about every year I've doneit about 10 times going across
country.
You decided, you know what Ireally want to do this piece?
Yeah, because, um, I like doingthat goba ride um, just about
every year.
I've done it about 10 times.
The great ohio bicycleadventure, and this time it was
down and uh, they do a differentsection of ohio each year.
This section was uh down byathens and I went to school at
ou so I didn't want to miss thatyear year.
Yeah.
So our a friend, uh lisa, okay,and her husband bob, oh yeah,
(22:44):
they they came down, so I rodeacross to uh cave and rock
illinois all right so then, uh,the girl I've seen at the time
picked me up from cave and rock,drove me back down to southern
ohio.
Then we did that tandem.
We did that ride there on atandem and I was like like, oh,
that goba is easy.
Well, this was the hilliestdamn goba that I ever did, and
(23:06):
we were like right.
Yeah, um, so that my break weekwas a week of riding 50 miles a
day through Southern Ohio andthen was driven back to cave and
rock Illinois where I left offand then continued my ride.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Oh, that's wild, that's wild.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Like.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
I was expecting more of like okay, you know what.
I stopped at this hotel.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Had a burger.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And I decided I'm going to chill for a week.
You know, that wasn't the deal?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
No, that wasn't on the plan, that's wild.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Hey, so you were also alluded earlier.
Like you were, you know, goingdown the hill away from dogs, so
did you have any other likeencounters with animals and
stuff outside of?
Like you weren't bear food, soyou're sitting here, so we know
that.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, part of the ride, a road through Yellowstone
, cool and I happened to be witha couple of people during that
part and we were commenting.
Commenting damn, we haven'tseen any buffalo, nothing.
And then next thing that wouldgo around the turn.
I'm 10 feet away from thisbuffalo.
I'm just head to toe in spandexand you got this damn giant
(24:12):
beast with these horns staringat me that was.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
That was pretty cool.
They're intimidated too whenyou get close to those.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Oh yeah I was close enough to hear the damn thing
breathing and I'm just like herelook at my spandex.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's what I was thinking.
Going across some of thesestates.
They've got these wild animalsand then you're on a bike You're
like a snack going across thecountry with them.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, probably a little meaty and tough.
Yeah, at that point the muscleswould be tough and tough.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I think, yeah, at that point the muscles would be
tough.
That is absolutely crazy.
So, uh, entertaining yourselflike going across is like when
you did stop and stuff like whoa, what was that?
Like you weren't like uh, doingsafety demos for the prairie
dogs and stuff like that no, butI I do moo at every cow that I
go past you were doing a lot ofmoving across the United.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
States Sure.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Oh yeah, I'd be like now, did you come across any
people with road rage for ridingbikes?
Cause I know a lot of timesthey don't like sharing the road
.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Um, I didn't really have any.
I mean, you might get somebeeps, but I haven't had it.
I didn't have any crazy peoplethrowing crap or nothing like
that that's amazing going thatthat many yeah that many miles,
that many days you know, thebiggest surprise with the ride
was how nice people were.
Like.
(25:35):
You're always like, you know,you get, you get people and
you're just like holy crap, whatis wrong with these people?
I tell you what.
There's people I'm riding andthey'd be riding their bike just
on a whatever, just a ride.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
And the next.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Thing you know they turn around and start following
me and start talking.
They'll be like, hey, do youwant to come over for dinner?
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
I'm like sure.
Then the next thing, you knowthey're like washing my clothes,
cooking me dinner.
I'm sleeping in random people,houses sometimes that I've met
for five minutes, wow, and theyjust invite you into their house
.
One place was really cool.
We were in Oregon.
It was me and this dude and hisgirlfriend, and the guy said
(26:16):
hey, I called my wife, she'sgoing to make dinner for all
y'all, and then we go into the.
We go into his house.
It was a beautiful house, youknow, and looking at his bikes
he was like I'm like that's a$5,000 bike, that's a $7,000
bike, that's another $5,000.
So you know he is he was into ittoo.
So we stay the, we have somebottles of wine.
They wash our clothes, you know, and we're total strangers to
(26:38):
them.
The next morning they go.
Oh yeah, just, we've got toboth go to work.
So, just, you know, letyourself out whenever, and I'm
like you've got jewelry boxes,you've got $5,000 bikes.
You'd never see my ass again,sure, but people were just so
nice and like trusting, it wassuper refreshing.
(27:08):
But it seemed like you know,yeah, it's, it's a cool
community because I don't knowwhen you, when you see someone
with, uh, a loaded bike, youknow with panniers or a trailer
or whatever, you instantly have,you know, a understanding and
like, I've met people ridingPittsburgh to DC on C&O, a great
(27:31):
Allegheny Passage, which isjust an off-road trail that goes
from downtown Pittsburgh allthe way to DC.
But I met someone there for fiveminutes and they were riding
from over there all the way toDC.
But, uh, I met someone therefor five minutes and they were
riding from from over there allthe way to San Fran doing
something, some young kids andthey're like, oh, yeah, we're
going to ride through Cleveland.
I'm like, oh, give me a call,here's my number, and you know.
Next thing, you know I'd metthem for five minutes and
(27:52):
they're sleeping at my house.
There you go, reciprocates yeah, it was cool Cause a lot of
these people like a lot of theseplaces, um, there'll be like
hosts and they'll have theiryard and they'll put a little
barn in the backyard with thebunk bed in it and be like help
yourself to the hose and, youknow, sleep in this wooden bunk
bed.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
That's what I was going to ask you to craziest
place that you spent the night.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Hmm, I slept under the bleachers at a county fair.
Some churches, a lot ofchurches along the way, will let
you sleep in the church.
So I've slept on church pews,altars, but my favorite was
Hudson, kansas, because on thesemaps that give you the
(28:37):
turn-by-turn directions acrossthe country, they give you some
suggestions on where you cansleep for free.
And one was the city park inHudson, kansas, and they were
like call the mayor first, andthey listed her number and said
so she can turn the sprinklersoff.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So you don't get drenched at night.
So we call.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
This was a decent amount of people at this time, I
forget.
So we call her up and she comes, shuts the sprinklers off and
she goes.
You know, it looks like it'sgoing to rain.
How about you sleep in the cityhall?
So next thing you know, sheopens up the city hall, which
looked like an old VFW hall,with some tables and stuff.
(29:17):
So next thing, you know, getstart getting phone calls.
We're like what the hell'sgoing on?
So I answered a phone andthey're like hey, are you all
those bikers out there?
And we're like yeah.
They're like are you hungry?
Speaker 1 (29:28):
we're like yeah yeah, I was hungry always so they
started bringing us food justrandom randos from the town that
is awesome, it was super cool.
That's, that's that.
That's that's what you get likethis neighborly.
You know, you know that's thehuman, yeah, yeah, the human, uh
, whole experience of like youknow, like you were saying it,
(29:48):
it's surprising, if it feelssurprising, that people are,
that you know, open and givingand willing to take you in.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
But was that in a lot of small towns though I mean
yeah, yeah, it was small townmentality yeah, it was very cool
and and I think when people seeyou on a bike even though I had
a mohawk and a long ass beardand I stunk massively, um, but
when people see you on a bikethen they're kind of like it
(30:16):
disarms them a little bit sothey'll be willing to talk to
you a little bit.
Right, see what?
Like, what the hell are youdoing?
You know I was raising moneyfor the Livestrong Foundation,
so that was kind of cool.
But yeah, it was nice.
Like I was talking to onecouple in some random bar for
lunch and I go to pay thebartender's like, oh no, that,
(30:40):
that couple that you weretalking to paid, paid for all
your stuff that's, yeah, justlike it was, just like stuff
like that constantly through theride yeah, I've had.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
I've had that experience too before where I'd
like go into a restaurant orsomething.
I was with a group golfing onetime where he had a whole group.
Some guy at the bar like boughtthe entire group, like our, all
of our dinners yeah, likeamazing.
I mean we're, we look like wegot money.
You know why did?
Why did you buy them?
But it was just people was likebeing generous and guy came
over, talked to us for a whileand he didn't want anything.
(31:08):
He just, hey, we, I know you'reoutsiders and I wanted to
welcome you, type of thing yeah,no, it was great it's.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
It's amazing how how cool people were.
It was refreshing.
It was something that everyoneshould experience.
A lot of people are hardenedoff.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
Did you meet anybody along the way that you've kept
in contact with?
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, I keep in contact with a couple of them,
mostly via Facebook.
I've had a couple come to myhouse to do Ray's Mountain Bike,
which is downtown Cleveland.
It's the biggest outdoor indoormountain bike park in the
States, so had them come in forthat.
And then I went out to DC andwas blasting through the DC
(31:51):
streets through all the trafficon a tandem with these two crazy
dudes that you know lane splitand all that stuff.
That was fun yeah so.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
So uh, was there, like you're talking about, like
I'm relating this to because, uh, I do uber eats and during the
pandemic, one at a time, one thehardest things during pandemic
was finding a bathroom, likeright.
And so you were talking aboutlike, yeah, so, so it was like
trying to find those is like waslike seriously.
(32:25):
So did you have some episodeswhere you had to just like, okay
, um, this is where it'shappening and I had to find some
emergency spot type of like onthe road?
Speaker 3 (32:34):
cornfields and maps you know it?
Speaker 1 (32:40):
yeah, I mean like it is.
I can imagine like, and and theother thing that's interesting
to me is that, like, how many,so how on this trip and how long
?
Did you say it was 81 days, 81days?
How many days or how many timesdid you shower in those 81 days
?
Did you never do?
Speaker 3 (32:58):
that total, I would say less than 10 less than 10
times in a day.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Yeah, I mean in 81 days.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Yeah I mean I?
I literally like, if there wassomeone sprinkler on in their
front yard, I would go in theirsprinkler right um mcdonald.
I'd be washing my junk in theirsink.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
There's a site right there, hey Mommy.
There's some gump guy in therewashing his junk.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
But the thing is, you know, you took a shower.
You almost felt grosser becauseyou're putting on stiff, salty
clothes.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Oh no, yeah.
So you didn't get to like washyour clothes, right yeah, stiff
salty clothes?
Oh no, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
So if you didn't, get to like wash your clothes,
right?
Yeah, I know, but you thinkabout that 10 times.
Think about that now doing 10showers in 81 days 10, oh, you
were a stinky-ass person.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Oh yeah, okay so here's my question Did you keep
any of those clothes?
Speaker 3 (33:57):
Yeah, you did.
You're like like at the end ofthe trip.
You were like like hey, I gottayou know these are done like
some of the jerseys I wore werelike the goba jerseys, so I I
those are sentimental, sure, soI keep that right, but like this
, the shorts and stuff nah yeah,a couple of jerseys, yeah, and
(34:18):
then, uh, in um missoula montana, there's, uh, that's the
headquarters for uh oh umadventure cycling.
So when you go across, theytake your, you go there, they
take your picture and put you ontheir wall.
And I bought like a trans amshirt from there that I still
have.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
That was Montana when you were biking through that,
because that's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I mean that's a beautiful place.
Yeah, no, it was awesome.
Idaho was my biggest surprise.
Idaho was absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Really.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, loved Idaho, but Montana's great.
I love Montana, I could live upthere.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
That whole western region of the United's great.
I love Montana.
I could live up there.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
That whole western region of the United States
period.
I'm sorry, Jackson Hole.
It was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
One of the guys that I met along the way- after the
ride he loved Jackson Hole somuch he moved there.
I can see why I totally get it.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh yeah, it's beautiful.
I mean Montana's gorgeous, it'sactually really cool.
Oh yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I mean, Montana is gorgeous.
It's actually really cool.
Oh yeah, it's amazing.
Oh, another sleeping one.
I just jogged my memory.
It was Idaho.
We were at some hot springs andwe were down this path that was
no bikes allowed and we had ourbikes but we were sleeping next
to these steaming springs andwe had a giant moose walk like
(35:39):
10 feet away from us, rightthrough the middle of this mist.
That looked like we were infreaking mars that's awesome,
cool.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Yeah, he just gave me flashbacks.
As a kid I had that type ofexperience, but it was up in, uh
, the yukon actually, and wewere in the springs and the
moose comes walking out of themist like that scared the shit
out of you so.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
So now you're going through.
Where do you end?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
up in astoria, oregon , astoria, oregon yeah so that
was your end point.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
That was the end point where you dip in the front
front we're dipping my fronttire.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, so that day I wanted to be like an epic day,
so that was my longest ride.
It was 172 miles, whoa.
I was riding 20 hours or so inthe one day, but I got so lost.
I'm up in the mountains and Isee like the glowing of the city
(36:33):
in the distance, so I know Ihad to get there.
But I'm looking at my maps andnone of these streets had street
signs on them.
So I'm going and it's themiddle of the night.
I got like a mohawk and agiant-ass beard.
I look like a freaking crazyhomeless man.
Right, and you know one carwould pass every 45 minutes.
I tried to wave them down,nothing, and I'm just my bike.
(36:58):
Light is running, running dim.
I'm running out of food andwater it was bad wow but it was
good though that was.
You know that was 172 miles.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
The last ride yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
So so, like at the end of this thing, was that just
a point where you were justlike, okay, you know what, I got
this far to go, I'm doing it,this is all I'm done.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
That mentality, yeah because I had someone waiting
for me.
I was like I'll be done by thistime and I wasn't.
Oh no, waiting for me for hoursand hours, right hours, he's
supposed to show up at this timeand I couldn't get my phone to
work.
Yeah, yeah, it was funny.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
So, talking about that like your technology, I
wanted to ask a question aboutthat.
So, like, how did that workthrough the whole entire trip?
Because you're talking about,like you have your phone and all
this stuff, but where are youcharging?
This stuff Is it solar packs orwhat.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
No, I'd go to like, if I pass the gas station, I
just like steal some electricityfrom behind the ice machine.
You know that's awesome, yeah,you know.
Hey, hot dog roller.
Oh, there's an extra plug,sweet Sure.
And then I would just hang outfor an hour.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
So you're just like kind of like just a little
spurts here and there.
You were trying to.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Yeah, and a lot of the stuff I mean trying to, yeah
, and a lot of the stuff I meanI had no cell service for good
chunks of the time, and yeah, soit was kind of you probably
kept your phone off.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I mean, you probably kept your phone off the majority
of the time anyway, right,unless you absolutely needed it.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, I mean because at that time I was using an ipod
for music, so I wasn't evenusing a phone for music.
Um, yeah, so it was just, youknow, I had like a backup
battery, that and then the phonejust trying to charge those
whenever you could.
But yeah, that was kind of goodto not have the technology
(38:50):
though.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Right, I mean that little disconnect.
That's about part of the wholeventure too, right?
Oh yeah, like you want toconnect with humanity but you
don't want.
You know, like all thetechnology stuff, you really
don't need all that withhumanity, but you don't want you
know, like all the technologystuff, that you really don't
need all that.
Um, so my, my other questionwould be like, like, was there
any like along the way, did you,did you encounter any type of
(39:12):
emergency stuff?
Like you had, you know, sometype of incident.
I zoomed downhill at 50 milesper hour and crashed, or
anything like that happened onyour trip.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
I only crashed once that I remember, but that was
like after I rode over to theHoosier Pass at 11,000 foot and
flew down into the city.
I actually went into a bikeshop and rented a mountain bike
after doing the 11,000 footclimb so I could um ride up
(39:45):
breckenridge right on the yetimountain bike and, just you know
, do the uh, oh, what's itcalled?
the ski lift, take it up to thetop of the mountain and then, oh
yeah, mountain bike trails,yeah, and I was bleeding so bad.
Oh my gosh, those, those dudesare crazy.
The downhill, the downhillers,whole.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah, the ones that do those like downhills on the,
on the ski trails and stuff likethat.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Oh yeah, it's fun, yeah I've done it.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I've done it a couple times and, uh, it is fun, but
those guys are crazymotherfuckers yeah, you like it
I mean you will.
Trees might get very close toyou.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah, I'm not doing it Suddenly Not doing it, not
doing that, not doing the 81-daytrip either.
That is freaking amazing though.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Well, the whole amazing thing to me is this like
you know, first of all, likeyou began, how do you drop your
life?
Like you're just like I got todisconnect for life and in 81
days, was that your intendedgoal?
Like 81 days was your goal orwas it like I'm doing?
I got three months off.
This is it.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Yeah, I just had the three months off.
I didn't really have any timegoals, but I didn't want to take
any breaks, okay.
So yeah, that was kind of mydeal.
But I mean, you know, got donewith the ride and went up to
Alaska to celebrate in backpack.
Now you flew up to Alaska,right, flew up there.
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
There you go.
Yeah, because that ride fromOregon all the way up to.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
Alaska is amazing.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
It's amazing, I did the drive as a kid, but I didn't
uh, not as a bike.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
If you're a person listening to this, I mean, think
about that.
You take three months of yourlife off just to ride a bike all
the way across the UnitedStates dealing with all that
shit.
I mean that's that is.
I mean that is crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
What's the what's the one big takeaway from this for
you, rich that, like you,learned about yourself I'd like
to get myself in over my headand see if I can get out there
you go and I get that and Ithink I can get out always right
you're sitting here right yeah,yeah, that's, that's that, and
(42:01):
I think people in general don'tsuck.
There you go, that's good yeah,which is crazy to so, so tying
this back to the flightattendant thing, so like, did
this, this, this renew your uhvalue and or your faith in
humanity?
Speaker 3 (42:19):
as long as I can get more time off of work.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Copy that man I mean, like you know, our job as a
flight attendant is a is a toughone when we're dealing with
public and dealing with stuffand and they're not as friendly
as these people.
You're talking about your story, right?
Well, yeah, sometimes,sometimes they're friendly,
sometimes they're not.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
All right, tell me this Since you accomplished that
, what's next?
What?
Speaker 3 (42:49):
would you like to do Bucket list?
First of all, how old are you?
Rich 51.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
So you're 51 years old.
Now go ahead.
What's this bucket list?
What's next?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
I want to bike both islands of New Zealand.
All right, take the ferry inbetween the islands,
self-contained the whole time.
I want to bike around, orthrough Iceland Loop road that
goes around the outside, orthere's a trail that goes
through the middle, and I wantto do the Great Divide which is
Canada to Mexico, along the fireroads, through the Rockies, and
(43:26):
oh, there's so much stuff.
I want to do a half marathon inevery state, but I'm not sure
if that's going to happen.
But I want to bike across everystate too.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
Oh, that's that's any hiking.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
I mean I'd like to do the Appalachian in the pack,
but we'll see I'm getting along.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
I can.
You're running out of time,dude.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
I'm too young for that.
No, that was a cool thing too.
Like on the, on the trail,you'd meet people that were were
like 65, just retired.
That was a big group of people.
Then you'd meet people thatwere just right before college
or just right after collegeRight, because they all had the
time.
(44:10):
They had the time.
People around my age.
At the time I wasn't findingthem.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
No, there's a lot of people that can't do that check
out for three months to be ableto.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
Yeah, but you wonder at a person at 65, right, we're
sitting right next to one.
Right when he when he turned 65, he's going to be out there on
one of those trails backpacking.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
I better be.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
That's what I said.
You will be.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
I mean I actually know you and and and I believe
that when you turn 65 you'lldefinitely be out there.
I I need to be right, yeah,that I mean you know what this
is, uh, the this, this wholething with the biking and hiking
and all that stuff.
Like I love to be able to havethat me time, you know, yeah,
like I think everybody enjoysthat, like we gotta get our me
time and all that stuff.
But like you're saying, gettingyourself in over your head and
(45:04):
stuff like that and figuringthat you can get yourself out,
that's a.
People don't normally challengethemselves like that and
commend you for that.
It's a it's.
It's a scary thing to evenattempt to like let yourself go
there.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Rich.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
I'm not doing it, I don't give a shit what he's
saying over there.
My ass is not doing it.
I mean, we had thisconversation, no bullshit.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
We had this conversation a long time ago and
I told Rich.
I said it was freaking amazing.
You know the shit that he wentthrough and all I could think of
is him being in that damn fieldin Deliverance, you know what I
mean.
Speaker 3 (45:44):
I mean that's it.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
You're just out in the middle of some you know
bohunk field in Kentucky, inthat little bitty tent, and you
know just a nightmare is goingto happen.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
The banjo music Exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
How many times did you get encountered with the law
?
Speaker 3 (46:02):
You know some of the places.
You could actually sleep at thecity park right across from the
police station, and they werecool with that.
I remember one time we werelike in some city pool when we
weren't supposed to be.
It was in the middle of thenight.
Just climb over the fence to goswimming, Right, but nothing,
Nothing.
We were pretty, pretty goodwith the law.
Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, I mean, you didn't get encounters with them
like people stopping you for anyreason.
No, people were good, that'sgood, that's good, yeah.
So you know what?
Your adventure is unbelievable.
I'm with G over there.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
I ain't doing it.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
First of all, I got to commend you to be able to
even have the body to be able todo it, because my body will not
let me do that anymore, period.
And and you know, some people,when they get to that 65 or then
their 60s, and a lot of, mostpeople, a lot of people, the
majority of them, we're notgoing to be able to do a lot of
those things.
But so, man, I hope, I hope youcan do, he could do it.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
I hope so.
He's going to do it.
We're going to.
I guarantee you we're going tohear about his ass doing it.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
I mean, he, he, he's keeping himself all together to
be able to do that stuff.
It's, it's awesome.
But uh, hey to um, we alwayswrap up our show and, uh like,
talk about a little bit ofthings that are happening in the
news lately and I don't know ifyou and you could chime in on
this when we're talking about it.
But, um, did you guys see thatuh, female pasture that was
(47:28):
thrown down by a flightattendant the other day?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
yeah, I did in the first class cabin.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Yeah, yeah, she was in business class and they
thought she was like gonna tryto be breached a deck and I mean
there's video of it and looks.
Attendants are like body slamsare down in the ground and yeah,
it was pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
How about that?
Did you see that cruise linebrawl?
Speaker 1 (47:50):
No, oh, carnival.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, carnival, they had a big cruise line brawl.
I'm surprised you missed thatone.
That shit was funny.
That's like the Chuck E Cheeseof the Seas.
They were like, oh, all thosepeople have been banned, like
they're coming back anyway,right, right, I mean they're
banned for life from carnival.
The brawl in the sea orwhatever.
(48:12):
Yeah, it was something abouttheir bags or something, right?
Speaker 3 (48:16):
I don't remember, I just remember seeing them.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah, so your travels and any new stories or anything
you got to share lately,anything good In your world of
flight attendant.
Speaker 3 (48:30):
Yeah, nothing much, nothing crazy.
Just did a little short cruiseout to the Bahamas for the heck
of it.
It was like a Christmas kind ofthing, but yeah, nothing too
crazy planned right now coolcool, cool.
Speaker 1 (48:44):
yeah, and there's one other story I wanted to bring
up and on this airline wherethis dude like freaked out and
he started kick, trying to kickopen the window on the plane.
Like I mean, he was like justbeating on the seats and all
this stuff and I guess he gotinto some type of like a little
bit of a conversation with thelady in front of him and then
(49:05):
just went berserk and he startedtrying to kick out the window
on the plane, literally brokethe plexiglass on the plane.
Oh, that's some crazy stuff.
And then he like injuredhimself.
There was blood all over theplace and like, yeah, I'm like
did you see that?
Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, but there's another one too the bomb threat
in Clearwater Airport.
Did you see that one?
No, Shut down Clearwater.
You know the little airportClearwater-St Pete?
Yeah, they shut it down.
They had a bomb threat For sure.
Yeah, I mean, we say it everyweek there's crazy shit that
happens across the globe.
I mean, there's just a couplethings more.
(49:44):
This week was more about uh,with rich um going across the
united states and still blows meaway and there ain't no way I'm
ever going to do anything likethat that's absolutely crazy.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, they were like I pulled up a lot of the
statistics about this trip thatyou took and I was like you know
what I mean they say.
They say you you've actuallylike your elevation.
You did a hundred thousand feetof total elevation gain on that
ride.
That's the average trip.
Well, that's good to know, butthe crazy thing is that's like
(50:12):
three to four times up MountEverest.
That's crazy.
All in.
Speaker 2 (50:19):
Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (50:21):
Now I realize that Okay would you do it again?
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Oh, I'd do it tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
All in Kentucky, I didn't realize that, okay, would
you do it again?
Oh, I'd do it tomorrow.
Really, yeah, even if I'm outof shape, just like I am right
now, I'd do it tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (50:29):
That's awesome, man, I mean.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
But now I've got to bring the kids, so I've got to
do it on a tandem.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
On a tandem?
Speaker 2 (50:35):
No way, but you already did Okay, real quick
though he already did a tandem,though he did a tandem across
Ireland Ireland.
Speaker 3 (50:44):
With who An old friend.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
There you go.
It matters who you're doing atandem with, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (50:51):
A distant friend.
Speaker 3 (50:55):
Yeah, the tandem wasn't long enough.
Speaker 2 (50:57):
He would have cut the tandem off and made it a single
.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
And if you're doing it with kids, they ain't
pedaling that hard.
No, no, it's a whole thing.
Like you were talking aboutfive pounds of weight, now
you're toting kids.
Speaker 3 (51:11):
Oh yeah, because I've done the goba ride with the
kids.
I do it on a tandem with a tagalong attached to that, so it's
a three-seat bicycle.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
So they're sitting back having a conversation.
I'm maxed out heart rate, eyespopping out my head.
Hey, you know what that isright.
That's called, I guess, love,because I wouldn't do that for
just anybody it's somethingright.
I probably should takemedication for it I complain
when I go out on a kayak with mywife and she's not paddling.
I can't imagine two kidspaddling.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Imagine seeing him and Carol out in a kayak.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
And he's made it out.
I'm surprised she hasn'tsmacked him over the head.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
He's like what the hell are you doing back there?
Speaker 1 (51:55):
Alright, anyways, rich, awesome having you on the
show man.
I really appreciate you comingout here to do this because we
really enjoy having you on theshow man.
I really appreciate you comingout here to do this because we
really enjoy our guests in theshow and thank you for doing
that.
No problem, it was fun.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Like I said, me and Rich talked about this a long
time ago and this was somethingI definitely wanted you to come
in and talk about, becausethere's not a lot of people that
do this, and that was amazing.
That was absolutely amazing.
It wouldn't be me, but that wasamazing.
That was absolutely amazing.
It wouldn't be me, but it wasamazing yeah, I'm, yeah, I
couldn't you either.
Speaker 1 (52:26):
I couldn't stand myself after a week.
There's just no way I could.
Speaker 2 (52:30):
I could not imagine your ass smelling myself.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
You smelly man I'm ex-military and I didn't like
shower for many, many days inthe field and I could tell you
stories about funkin, and therecomes a time too, and that whole
thing, where you really don'tsmell yourself anymore, right,
like start to enjoy it, right.
And then then when you're witha group of friends like I was in
(52:53):
the military we all smell thesame.
Speaker 2 (52:55):
It's like yeah, that's where another hole.
Yeah, I'm telling you you'rethat's for another hole.
Yeah, I'm telling you You'reenjoying your stink.
That's good, all right, sean.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Anyways, we want to wrap it up here with our quote
here, and the quote here isyou're the sum total of
everything you've ever seen,heard, eaten, smelled, been told
to forget.
It's all there.
Everything influences each ofus and because of that I try to
make sure that my experiencesare positive.
(53:28):
I like that.
I thought it fit for thisepisode here with Rich, because
he's definitely the sum total ofall of his experiences.
Speaker 3 (53:38):
For better or for worse.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
Exactly All right.
Thanks again, Rich.
Hey, you guys had a great timethis week and we will see you
next week on cabin pressure, seeyou guys, see ya.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
If you laughed, learn something, or just feel a
little bit better about your ownjob After hearing about ours.
Do us a favor subscribe, leavea review and share this episode
with your weirdest co-worker.
You know the one.
Hit us up on Facebook.
Drop your wildest airport story.
We just might read them on airBonus points if you involve
(54:14):
questionable clothing decisions.
Until next time, stay strappedin, stay hydrated and, for the
love of TSA, keep your clotheson in the terminal.
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