NSX to the Arctic Circle: Johnny Lange In Studio

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:20):
This is hard park and brought toyou by right Honda and right
Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ. You may have heard a story about
an NSX owner driving around, went down to Key West, FL, went
up through Alaska to the Arctic Circle and his tour around the
United States. That person is Johnny Lang and
Johnny Lang joins me in studio today after this word from Arcus

(00:44):
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Johnny Lane, welcome to hard parking.
Welcome back. Thank you first first time in
the studio. Do you remember the last time, I
think how many times you've beenon the show?
Do you? Do you know?
I was going to look it up. I got lazy.

(01:48):
I think twice, I think. I think one of the times I was
in the closet. Yeah, probably.
Those people who are new to the podcast, when I was first
starting out, when I travelled Palm Springs, I was staying at a
golf course and I was recording because I used to record all
these segments from the hotel room looking for guests, fun
guests. Yeah, I fell in love with you

(02:08):
because your voice. Thanks.
And I called you from a closet because something was going on
out there and I needed AI, needed a, a space that was sound
dampened but it still sounded like shit because I didn't
really understand how to edit properly.
And I took pity on you. My friend's doing a podcast and
a closet. I should probably just be on it.
Absolutely, I appreciate it, butyou've avoided me ever since on

(02:31):
the podcast. Not in life.
I I, I love you. You know, you're one of my
favorite people in this world. You said you don't believe in
coincidences. We're going to talk about that
because you just, I kind of talked about you a little bit
because you're you're did the road trip, you know, started it
in Asheville, went down to, to Key West, the southernmost point

(02:52):
of the United States, up throughAlaska, the Arctic Circle ish
sorta yes and no, right? Still, yes, Yeah.
Back down through NS Expo and then you're doing this big tour
around the US and visiting a lotof your your friends and and
some enemies, people you've promised time with like me.

(03:12):
So here you are. Suck it up and deal with.
It but before we before I continue to ramble, I've
decided. So you bought me this or you got
this for me? Yeah, it was.
It was a gift to me, so I'm I gifted it.
To you and I thank you because you don't drink.
No. And that's I was like, what are
we going to do? But it's, yeah, it's my friend's
company out of Colorado, so. Is it still around?
I don't know. I don't think so.

(03:32):
OK, Yeah. So what I'm holding here is this
is from Black Cherry Distillery,which is from or used to be from
a place in Colorado certified organic by Oregon Tilth.
But this is the Unicorn riot organic vodka and you could tell
by the colors. It's friendly, and I'm friendly

(03:55):
because of. This I'm friendly too.
Yeah, This is this is back at a time when it was OK to like, not
politically like rainbows and colors, but I'm.
You gave this to me in 22. Yeah, in 2022 and I'm going to
crack this bottle for the first time ever and it's got like this
Denver horse, I'm assuming. Well, it's a Unicorn.

(04:16):
Unicorn yes, that's it's got this arm well and before you
could become a Unicorn, you haveto have genetic for.
A horse, right? Start as a Mustang or.
Yeah, this is a bionic Unicorn and I'm going to open it up for
the first time. Probably 3 years.
Yep. Smells like vodka.
So we're you know we're off to agood start.
I'm. Sure, it's probably going to
taste like vodka too. Going to put it in my in my

(04:38):
Great Lakes cup here. Here we go, and you are drinking
some fine Coca-Cola. I'm drinking a carbonated
beverage. We're not.
Yeah, that's right. You're drinking a carbonated
beverage that you wanted to takewithout ice, room temperature,
and I said no, you're not doing this.
Nope, not an animal. But can we?

(04:58):
Can we? Cheers that we can.
Yep, thank you. Thank you.
Yep, and I also don't trust you so I gave you a plastic cup.
Good. Don't trust me.
Yeah. Yep.
Probably tastes like vodka. How'd you know?
Yeah. You know what?
It tastes like organic vodka. Good.

(05:20):
Good. So it it, it, it's not the worst
vodka I've had, so I appreciate it.
Good. All right.
Yeah. Thank you.
It's also not the best. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, like like that one withoutsaying.
So officially kind of tell the people who are new to you,
because there are going to be some people new to you who you
are a little bit because I thinknobody really knows anyway.

(05:43):
Including myself. So my name is John Lang, and I
live in Asheville, NC, western part of the state, 40 years old.
And I've been passionately involved in the NSX community
for probably about 11 years now.And one of my favorite things to

(06:03):
do is just drive an NSX around. And so that's what I've done the
majority of the past 11 years, and every year seems to get a
little bit more wild. How do we meet?
Do you remember? Because I don't.
I was trying to think about that.
I know we had exchanged some conversation on like the forum

(06:25):
online but I think we met cause what was your screen name?
TJ or something like that or? Teach.
Teach yeah. And so we had correspondence
there, but I think the actual first time I met you was in 2017
at Rd. America in Wisconsin NS Expo.
Yeah, because wasn't your NSX black?

(06:47):
Yeah, I was driving a black one at the time.
And I think Accurate did a storyon you.
Yeah, they did a small little feature on me 'cause I'd done,
you know, a drive up there and the car was at high mileage too.
I think probably it's interesting actually.
I, I, I look back on some records on this trip and I ran
over 200,000 on that trip, I think as well.

(07:10):
And yeah, so it's like that car rolled over 200 and then on this
current trip, my wide NSX, I rolled over 200 as well.
So, and you were just saying downstairs at dinner just on
this trip you've rolled 17,000 miles.
Yeah, I'm over 17. Over 17.
Yeah, it's going to be probably cumulative total three months
since I I left Asheville. But in those three months,

(07:35):
there's probably going to be about 17 or 18 days if I had to
ballpark it that I didn't drive the NSXI went to left Asheville
and then I went to Florida and then I came back to Asheville
for 9 days. And then after an S Expo, I left
my NSX in Portland and flew backto North Carolina for eight
days. So roughly about that that I

(07:56):
haven't driven. So I'll be about a 2 1/2 month
drive for the NSX. So I'm trying to think of, OK,
how do I remember you? I do remember Wisconsin.
I remember you as a guy that hada bunch of spare parts in your
car in case somebody broke down,which I thought was awesome.
And I think someone did break down on one of the cruises.

(08:16):
I mean, it's definitely happened.
I can't remember all the times that it has, but it definitely
does happen. I remember you as one of the
first people, if not the first person that I had communications
with that dealt in crypto. Yeah, I remember that.
I'm like, what is this crazy stuff?
And I mean you and and rest in peace, Chris Cutt, you know, two
of my friends that all that's all you guys seem to dealt with

(08:38):
is is crypto and you drive a lotlike like Tyson, you drive a
lot, but in in a way is different because you do a lot
of camping for this trip specifically.
Why? Why this trip?
Well, first and foremost, I kindof build my yearly schedule
around NS Expo. So NS Expo being.
In my man, it's the one one of the one of the two things every

(09:00):
year I circle on my calendar. Yeah.
So it's like I kind of start from there and build outward and
NS Expo being in Seattle, Tacomaarea, you know, obviously that's
what I'm doing. But then I had, you know,
thoughts of, OK, I'm driving outthere, you know what else?
And like I had mentioned at dinner is I've driven NSX across

(09:24):
the Mexican border and driven around Mexico and NSX.
So naturally I thought I should go to Canada.
And then things creeped on and Ithought I should probably drive
to Alaska. And then if I'm going to go to
Alaska, I should consider the Arctic Circle.
And then if I'm considering the Arctic Circle, then I could

(09:46):
leave Asheville, NC and just drive, you know, the 3-4 hours
to like, Charleston, SC and start on the Atlantic.
But then I started thinking morethat if I'm really going to do
the trip, I should drive from where I live, like, you know,
1200 miles down to Key West and start in Key West.
So that's basically what I did. And then I decided, you know,
I'd go from Key West to the Arctic Circle and then back.

(10:09):
So am I kind of ballpark guesstimation when I first left
the trip was about 21 or 22,000 miles total for this.
And so I'm at 17 and change now and I'm in Phoenix, so I
probably have another 4000 left to go.
So I'll I'll be pretty close to what I was guessing I'd be
doing. What are some of the crazy stuff
that's that you go or what are some of the crazy things you've

(10:31):
gone through and kind of what doyou do along?
Like how do you plan out this trip?
Because you, you're very calculated.
You typically know it's not OK, well, tomorrow I'm going to get
up and, and figure out what I'm going to do.
I just know I need to be in SaltLake by tomorrow night.
Like you're, you're very regimented with your schedule.
Like how do you figure that out?Yeah.

(10:51):
And is that just a part of your hard coding?
To a degree, right? I think logistically, I've got
stuff swirling in my brain all the time about where I need to
be at what certain times and, you know, who's available to
meet up at these places. I do have some flexibility,
though, you know, and that's like part of the whole thing is
to be able to kind of, you know,float, for lack of a better

(11:11):
term, to make make somebody's interaction or meet up happen.
But overall, you know, like whenI left Asheville after Key West,
you know, I did have a a number of about 280 miles a day that I
had to drive. So I had to have things set up
for that way. But typically what I would plan,
it's just I do a lot of time staring at maps and just trying

(11:32):
to crunch numbers in my head andfigure out, you know, OK, I'm
going to be spending the night in this city.
What are my options for the nextcities to get to in the daytime?
And then what are my options to camp or lodging or whatever
around those places? You know, so it's like I try and
typically think I don't want to drive at night and look for

(11:55):
campsites, although it happens inevitably, but I try and
basically start as early as possible and maximize daytime so
I can find a campsite before it gets truly dark.
But now with the time change happening and you know,
everything, it's getting harder and harder where I am looking
for campsites in the dark. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know,
there's there's some, you know, time frames of where I want to

(12:16):
be at what certain places and there's obviously some audibles.
You know, if somebody throws me out an opportunity, I'm going to
make something happen to possibly take advantage of that
opportunity. When did you first start just
getting in a car and driving andand what was there something
like what happened? Well, my first, my first car was
in Integra when I was 16. So pretty much from then on, it

(12:39):
just snowballed and started going to Honda Tech meets when
Honda Tech was still around. Yeah, just connected with people
on there and bouncing around kind of the Southeast.
And then just networking a little bit more and more.
And then probably like for a period of maybe at least five
years from my like late teens through early 20s, I wasn't

(13:00):
really even doing anything with cars.
Like I didn't even have anythingfun or nothing.
And then kind of just slowly started getting back into it.
Got another Integra and then just one thing led to another
and I 2015 I bought my first NSXand then from there, you know,
everything continuedly snowballed to where I'm at now.

(13:21):
So the obvious question that people are going to be asking
themselves as they watch this orlisten to this is doesn't this
guy have a job? No, I don't.
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I'm pretty
much, I don't have really any commitments, you know, no
significant other and no children and no pets.
So I also have a pretty minimal overhead as far as my life goes
here. So I don't really have to worry

(13:41):
about anything that can't take care of itself.
So I take care of what needs to be done and then I go off and
have some fun and kind of rinse and repeat.
I've always referred to you as nomadic Johnny or Johnny the
Nomad. But I do know you have a house.
I do know you have a home. I do know you work on.
Do you? I mean, when do you have time to

(14:03):
work on cars 'cause you build NSXS?
Yeah, for sure. I'm the, I'm the only one that
works on any of my cars, you know, So every, everything that
all the cars, it's always me. I would like to say winter times
is when I get a lot accomplished, but usually I'm
also easily distracted during winter just as well as summer.
So I just try and make it happenthe best I can.

(14:24):
And usually procrastination plays a factor.
So, you know, it's like crunch time, crunch time, crunch time.
And this NS Expo was no exception.
But everything usually falls into place at the last minute,
and so I have some work to do before next year.
You know, I got about a we got about a year before NS Expo next
year. So I got some surprises I'm

(14:46):
working on, but nothing quite aswild as this current adventure
that I'm on. Best NS Expo ever.
This past year, yeah. Or just generally.
I would say this past year, likewhat did you think of this
Seattle one? I mean, it was, it was
fantastic. I really enjoyed it.
I think locations were awesome, you know, basically scheduling

(15:09):
was awesome. Like I really, I don't really
think I have any hard critiques of it at all.
You know, I think everything went off really, really well.
And the only, the only regret I have of every NS Expo is I wish
there was more time. You know, because I reflect back
after NS Expo that I'm like, oh,this person, I got to spend like

(15:30):
13 minutes with him and I've been waiting to see him for five
years. But it's the same old story at
every NS Expo. You said some stuff that I think
people are going to want to double click into as far as
finding a campground, because you are nomadic, Johnny.
You are the guy that drives his NSX literally everywhere.
White NSX, white wheels. Can't miss it, but you're not

(15:51):
going to find it in front of, you know, Renaissance or Ritz.
Carlton. Ritz Carlton, you're not going
to find it in front of the Days Inn.
You're going to, if you find it,it's going to be at a campground
possibly. Like that's that's one of the
many things that makes you unique and different, not only
just your appearance. It's like if I'm look, if I'm

(16:12):
trying to pick the guy in the room that's driving the NSXI
probably wouldn't pick you. I, I don't know why I'd probably
pick someone that looks like me,you know, but but yeah, where
does that, How are you able to be all of that in the same
package of this person that you are?
Because that's a lot, right? Yeah, well, I mean.

(16:34):
Like where's your truck? Yeah, I mean, I do have a truck.
I have two trucks, but and I've got a adventure van as well.
But the adventures always lean into the NSX because they're
something incredibly special about that car.
So it motivates me to want to continue doing adventures with
it because of what the car meansto me and what the car means to
other people. And so, you know, like, I guess,

(17:00):
you know, finding that whole balance between trying to camp
and explore and travel can be pretty difficult sometimes,
right, For most people. But for me, like, I just usually
reflect back on to that every single night.
It's going to be OK, you know, And I haven't been, you know,
skunked out of a campsite yet, but it takes some sometimes some

(17:23):
creative engineering on my end to figure out where I'm going to
go, you know, and like, there's always curveballs that come up
to me, you know, like on this trip, probably the more funny
curve as I time in a campsite somewhere in Canada and I
rolling at dusk in this campground is closed due to a
migratory woodpecker. And so, you know, I had to

(17:45):
basically at this point, it's getting dark and I have to go
figure out, you know, within an hour.
What are my other options? And I found something, but
overall, like, you know, sometimes it's easier than
others to try and figure out where I'm going to go.
And another NSX owner in LA actually asked me like, why?
Why can't you know, like so often?
And for me, like, it's, it's a bit twofold #1 would be like,

(18:06):
it's just a huge part of who I am.
You know, I really enjoy nature and I really enjoy like, I guess
the disconnect from technology and society, but I'm also
extremely extroverted sometimes and I I like to be in society.
So disconnecting is big. But also too, like budget wise

(18:27):
is a factor, but also logistic wise is the biggest factor.
You know, like, a good example would be, you know, like a ski
slope. So if you want to be the first
guy on the ski slope in the morning and you're staying an
hour away in the hotel, the guy who's camping out in the parking
lot of the ski slope is going tobe the one who gets the first

(18:47):
tracks. And so for me, I'm logistically
trying to stage myself where I need to be to like, be the first
one at the trailhead or be the first one on, you know, this
incredible Rd. at sunrise so I can get a clean run on it, you
know? And that means more to me than
you know, like trying to be comfortable in a bed for one
night. You have the trucks, you have

(19:08):
the travel van and you've taken some amazing photos of just your
car. You showed us some amazing
photos downstairs. Like I I have nothing to to to
one up your trip to Banff nothing because those photos and
that that that's like I told my wife writing it down, We're not
going to go probably because sheI would love to go, but I know

(19:29):
that person. And well, I'll keep harassing
you. You keep harassing because, you
know, we do. We love the outdoors.
And I'm not really, I mean, you're a hiker and you're a
speed hiker essentially, but you're taking your car and I
think it's, it's awesome and it kind of builds to it.
You don't believe in coincidences like the universe
brings people together, you know.
Tell us some of those stories onyour trip.

(19:53):
Yeah, I mean, there's just been a lot like, it's honestly kind
of overwhelming at times because, you know, like how wild
things can truly unfold. And some of the, I guess better
quick examples I could give out is, you know, like there's a.
You can take your time too, Yeah.
You're stuck here, Yeah. I know, yeah for sure.

(20:14):
But just trying to rattle through like the highlight reel
of the the top numbers. And so I guess things would
probably really start getting serendipitous would be in in
Fairbanks, AK. So I just gotten off the Dalton
Highway, which is about 80 to 90miles north of Fairbanks, and I

(20:38):
had driven then Essex to the Arctic Circle, and I spent the
night in the Arctic Circle by myself.
And what? Hold on, what's that like
though? Because I haven't looked it up
or anything, but when I hear theArctic Circle and I don't know
what comes into my mind. Elf.
Yeah, I mean. Santa Claus Like, I don't know
the the Northern Lights, what's that like?
Pretty much all of that, but ultimate ultimately, you know,

(21:02):
there's a couple different access points.
And I guess to kind of give somecontext to the trip in the
Arctic Circle is another, you know, local Phoenix owner is
Tyson Hughey and you know, Tyson.
And so Tyson drove his Acura legend to the Arctic Circle and
I had gotten, you know, a prettyheavy dose of inspiration for
him from him doing that. And I was probably honestly like

(21:23):
the first time I met Tyson, I asked him if an NSX could do it
and he said yes. And so, you know, that was
probably 2016. I remember asking Tyson that.
And so from then in my mind, it was a bit of a scratch.
But you know, there's, there's atwo different accesses to get to
the Arctic Circle kind of north of Fairbanks.
And the main 1 is going to be onthe Dalton Highway, which is

(21:45):
considered, you know, one of themore extreme roads in the
continent just to due to its proximity to safety and road
condition and all that. And so the Arctic Circle is 115
miles one way up on the Dalton. And so that's basically what I
did. And for that 115 miles, it's,

(22:08):
you know, there's lots of video and footage online, but there's
rocks that will puncture your tires, rocks that will end your
oil pan, you know, potholes thatwill end your car tire rut
tracks that would like swallow the NSX if I chose the wrong rut
track and just overall opportunity for disaster a lot,

(22:29):
especially in a lowered sports car on summer tires.
So there's a small window that's.
On my beer. Yeah, basically there's a small
window to kind of run this at best conditions, you know,
August, early September, and then, you know, the snow moves
in. And so, yeah, I just sent it and
I went and made it 115 miles. And for that 115 miles, I really

(22:53):
don't feel like I'm blinked, youknow, because it was there is
possibility everywhere for trouble.
So I had to extreme amount of focus to make that happen.
And in an ideal world, my goal would have been to drive to dead
horse Prudo Bay, which is the actual end of the road at the
Arctic Ocean. And so from that would have been

(23:14):
like an additional probably close to 280 more miles one way
from where I was at. And doing the math, you know,
that'd be about 10 hours each way.
And I just realized that, you know, it, it wasn't worth the
risk to continue, you know, and especially to I had weather
moving in with if you get caughton rains up there, you can also

(23:36):
be hoed. So I just made decision to, you
know, loop back around. So successfully, I made it on
and off the Dalton, no damage. I get off the Dalton Highway and
my my dad calls me and I kind oflike broke concentration and hit
a massive dip. And I knew I hit quite hard and
I get back to Fairbanks and I goto Fairbanks and I noticed that

(24:00):
I'd RIP my front lip off, but I basically go straight to an REI,
which is basically like a, a camping store.
And so I go to an REI. And a problem with tent camping
is when your tent gets full of condensation.
Most every morning I have to pack it up and it goes in the
trunk all day. So usually I find having to stop

(24:22):
at lunch break and I'll kind of spread my stuff out to dry it
out a little bit more. Because it'll stink, yeah.
Yeah, for sure. And so I I end up going to a REI
and I got all my stuff strung across the parking lot and
looking like a hobo and I'm justcooking oatmeal behind my NSX
and for lunch. And a guy comes in and SCRV and

(24:47):
I can tell he wants to talk to me as he drives across the
parking lot. So we ended up chatting for
about 20 minutes and he said he runs a Facebook group in Alaska
and asked to take pictures of mycar.
And I said, yeah, that's fine. So we took pictures.
Car was still super filthy. I say goodbye and I leave and I
go across the street and wash mycar off and then I basically go

(25:11):
to leave Fairbanks. And so I leave Fairbanks and I'm
driving towards Denali and my phone starts getting messages on
Instagram of people saying come to the meet in Fairbanks
tonight, Come to the meet in Fairbanks tonight.
And I already already left with no design on coming back.
But some other NSX friends have told me that I've been posted on

(25:34):
this Facebook group. And so it kind of went somewhat
viral in Alaska of people see inmy car.
And so I go to Denali National Park and camp out there for
about 3 days. And then I head to Anchorage and
spend the night in Girdwood at alittle hostel.
And the next morning I had a little time to kill.
So I pull into a Walmart in Anchorage.

(25:57):
And as I pull into a Walmart, there's a a kid in a pickup
truck pulls in behind me and I can tell he wants to talk to me.
And he opens with you were just on the Dalton Highway in Alaska.
So Yep. And so we talked for about 15
minutes super nice guy and I go inside Walmart shop for 15 or 20

(26:19):
minutes. I'd go outside of Walmart and
there's a bug. I WRX sitting next to my car and
I know and I know that they wantto talk to me.
So they're they're a couple. They saw my story online, wanted
to take pictures with me, talk to them.
Sounds like not a lot of activity going on up there.
You were the activity. I mean, to a degree, right.

(26:39):
So we got two people that have caught me, you know, in the
wild, I guess. And so I leave there and I have
I, I'm trying to kill Tom this day.
So I go take a drive down to Seward.
And on the way down to Seward, it's a really epic Rd. and I'm
probably left the Walmart for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and this
couple's flagging me down, taking pictures.

(27:00):
So we pull into a gas station. They had seen me online, wanted
to chat me up, super nice. And so I go in the gas station.
And as I'm entering the gas station, I hear the cashier
telling a a person at the gas station, yeah, I seen that dude
online. He just drove from Key West to

(27:22):
Dead Horse, Alaska. And I yelled across the gas
station. I didn't make it all the way to
Dead Horse. I had to stop in the Arctic
Circle and I ended up talking tohim for about 5 minutes.
Then I leave and there's anotherfella standing next to my car
that wants to talk to me. He didn't see the post online.
He just wanted to talk to me about the car, which talked to

(27:44):
him for 10 minutes. And so all these interactions
were like within an hour, you know, And for me it was kind of
mind blowing because it really felt like this is what it feels
like to be famous. Like I literally cannot go
anywhere and people are picking me out and Alaska's a massive
state. But for some reason, you know,

(28:04):
there was a microscope on me in the NSX in Alaska and everybody
wanted to reach out and talk to me.
So just thought that was really cool.
You know, like the Alaska car scene is actually really neat.
There's Anchorage has got a pretty eclectic car scene.
So I seen a number of cars when I was up there.
But it also makes sense because,you know, between Fairbanks and

(28:25):
Anchorage, most of the population in Alaska is
concentrated in those areas. So that's why everybody was
seeing me. And, you know, the Facebook
group, you know, has a lot of followers and they're condensed
in those two cities. So that was probably like the
coolest, biggest one as far as like most bang for the buck as
quickly as possible. But lots of little ones, you

(28:47):
know, along the way as well where people were picking me out
from. You know, I, I'd gone to
Pemberton, which is a little bitnorth of Whistler and I'd driven
in there was a really incredibleRd., I believe it was Hwy. 99
that looped in there is one of the better roads I'd driven on
the trip. And I was trying to camp in a

(29:09):
campground in Pemberton and campground was full.
And so I've called an audible and found another campground
like 13 miles away and it was incredible spot camped out there
for the night and the next morning and I went on a hike
first thing in the morning and then I go to eat some breakfast
at a bakery. And side note, I forgot to

(29:30):
precurse with this is that abouta month prior to this a guy that
I didn't know on Instagram had sent me a message saying if you
come to Pemberton let me know now.
Did he know that maybe you were going to do a trip at some point
or that was just random? No, he saw me on the trip.
OK, yeah, like he had seen me onthe trip.
And this was also like, I guess another side note is there's a

(29:51):
fine balance I have between likeposting current status of me
sure, and I really. You don't post very often.
Yeah, I don't post very often. I and I rarely post a current
status of where I am, what what I'm doing.
And it's like different reasons at different times for that.
But you know, like he had seen me on this trip and knew that I
was making moves and there's a duality behind that because

(30:14):
there's times where it actually hurts me that I don't post
currently. I had multiple, I had NSX owners
and S2000 owners in Calgary and Edmonton that wanted me to come
by there. I mean, Warren was going to
throw an NSX gathering in Edmonton for me, but I had
already passed through because he didn't find out until I

(30:36):
passed through until later. So, you know, like, there's kind
of that, like I could connect more, but I also choose
sometimes to kind of move a bit stealthy around and also
sporadically too. So he had seen me making my
moves and ultimately said, if you come through Pemberton, let
me know. So I find this other campsite.
I go hiking in the morning, I goto a bakery, I get some

(30:59):
breakfast and I leave the bakery.
And when I leave the bakery, I turn on the main road and I pass
a white tundra within like 2 or 3 minutes on the main drag and
it's a super small town. Nothing happening here.
And the tundra high brights me. So I put my seat belt on and I
slow down because I think there's a police up ahead and my

(31:21):
phone Dings and it's this guy onInstagram that says dude, that
was you. So I turned back around or I
said I'm turning back around let's meet at the industrial
park. So I pull back in there and it's
him and his buddy. They both have pickup trucks and
they're both going dirt bike riding.
But this guy Dan is an Englishman who's lived in

(31:41):
Pemberton for like 18 years. And when he lived in England, he
used to have a 96. It's not spa yellow, they call.
It yellow right? It's it's technically spa
yellow, but they have another name for it in England.
And so he he had a yellow in Essex.
He had Integra type R, he had civic type Rs.

(32:02):
He was hyper knowledgeable aboutHondas, organized the NSX club
Nuremberg meet up and just blownaway to see me right.
And I was blown away to see him.And so he starts pouring over
details about my car that only NSX owners would know.
And I'm feeling like an idiot because I had wished I told him,

(32:22):
you know, like, dude, I, I remember you sent me the
message, but I totally spaced onreaching out to you and I about
drove through this middle of nowhere town without reaching
out to you. And so we agreed to do dinner
that night. And yeah, I went over and hung
out at his house for dinner and.What do you guys have do you
remember? Well actually he offered to cook

(32:44):
me grilled cheese and I denied because I stopped and got Thai
on the way there from a Thai place that I wanted to try so we
were supposed to. Be fancy though.
Hey, come by the house man, I'llI'll hook up with some grilled
cheese. I know well, just any, as you
know, I was saying earlier, any home cooked meals welcome, but
there was a a Thai place that was really high, highly
reviewed. So it's funny because I say

(33:05):
dinner, but I actually like punted his dinner so I could try
the Thai place which was phenomenal.
Tie in the middle of random Pemberton.
Now hold on, I have a feeling that grilled cheese isn't going
to be very filling anyway. Like you could probably find
room for a grilled cheese after the fact.
Fair enough, but I we did have tea and biscuits.
Oh. Yeah, so as, as a true

(33:25):
Englishman, he, he put the kettle on.
So, and I mean, last little fun,fun side note of this story is,
you know, so I'm hanging out at his house and we're hanging out
drinking tea. And he basically says, let me
wash your car. And I say, OK, 'cause I can just
tell what it means to him. So we get a bucket and go

(33:48):
upstairs and I meet his girlfriend for the first time
and he starts filling up some hot water in the sink.
And his girlfriend's like, what are you doing?
And he said, I'm washing a car. And she says my car says no.
This guy's the guy that I just met.
Yeah. So this rando.
This rando and crack me up because it's like she's probably

(34:09):
like, what what? What are you doing?
Yeah. And so we washed the car and.
Hung out the homeless guy over there.
Yeah, basically. And, you know, and they hadn't
been dating long enough where, you know, she'd never seen an
NSX or experienced that connection.
But I could just tell, like, howmuch it meant to Dan, you know,
and like, it is, it's a true connection with this car.

(34:30):
And like, the NSX is a magnet asfar as energy goes, you know,
and like me and the NSX, it's magnetic of what unfolds.
And this was a great example of it because I almost fumble and
the universe prevented, you know, us from not crossing
paths, which was really, really cool.

(34:50):
And then, you know, a pile of other of these stories, you
know, along the way, right? Like little interactions, bigger
interactions. I mean, just as recently of last
week when I was in Encinitas, CA, I went out with a couple NSX
owners for the day. And we, we stopped to go get
something to eat. And we had about five guys
standing around my car. And a guy walks up and instantly

(35:11):
goes, You were the guy who just drove to Alaska, weren't you?
You know, and called me out in Encinitas.
And I'm like, yeah, I'm still onthe trip, right?
You know, 2 and a two months later.
But I guess there's a degree of like viral Ness that's going on.
You know, there's a couple little journalism pieces that
came out of me. But between Instagram and that,

(35:32):
you know enough, enough people caught traction to understand
what I what I was doing and whatI did.
But yeah, I just can't get enough of driving the car, man,
because all these things continue to keep unfolding,
which are really, really cool, fun stories.
You have any like close calls because it's just you out there
with the car, you know, are you almost out of gas or did you

(35:54):
just get you, you ran over something and the service
station closes? Like, do you have any of those
those strange roadside emergencies that you just
happened to get lucky? I guess I forgot to elaborate
the when I hit that bump when I got off the Dalton Highway,
which is kind of funny, 'cause you lost your lip.
Yeah, I lost the front lip. So which, you know, that was
almost to be expected when I left that I, that I would lose

(36:16):
that. So that would be about the, you
know, unexpected damage story. The kind of weird close calls
is, you know, so I didn't bring any gas on the Dalton Highway.
I just went with a full tank of gas, which like Tyson and most
everybody else that the way theyhave to approach it is gas up in

(36:37):
Fairbanks, go to the Arctic Circle and then go north of the
Arctic Circle by about another 40 miles to the one gas stop,
then turn back around and go back to Fairbanks.
The first Gen. NSX has a 18 1/2 gallon gas
tank. So I didn't bring any spare gas
cans and I have a 6 speed transmission conversion in my

(36:58):
car. But I just told myself I have to
trust the math. And I knew it was going to be,
you know, about 420 miles round trip.
That's a lot. And I but I but I knew by the
math the NSX could do it becauseI've driven so much right?
And I know what the math is. And yeah, there was this.
I get, I'd be lying if I didn't think about it, you know, like I

(37:21):
wished I had brought 5 gallons with me at a couple points, but
I told myself I had to continue to trust the mouth and it
allowed me to make it there and back.
The other damage issue was the first day in Saskatchewan,
Canada, across the border. And because I like to camp so
much, and I'm also kind of stubborn on like, I would prefer
free campsites as opposed to like state or national parks

(37:45):
where you have to pay, you know,10 or 20 bucks.
I didn't even think about that, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And it's like, I'm not opposed
to paying 10 or $20.00, but alsoto like, I think the bigger
reason why I prefer the campsites away from the, the
parks, right, is because I wouldprefer to just be camping by
myself. You know, it's less about the
money and more about like, I just like to be away from
everybody. Because there's other things.

(38:06):
You still have neighbors. You're, you're at 3:11 and you
have 312 and you've got a full RV and then you have whatever.
Right. And it's like, you know,
depending on the campground, some have closer proximity than
others or you can hear somebody roll over and they're sleeping
back. But ultimately, so I went on
this search for this camp free campsite and I drove like the

(38:30):
silkiest, sandiest, dustiest Rd.one could imagine for about two
hours before I found this campsite.
And I got turned around and GPS was sending me all sorts of ways
and I've I've found it and it was awesome and it worked out
great. But then I noticed the following
day that I had a squeak when I pushed in my clutch pedal.

(38:51):
And then I noticed that pedal pressure was like vague or
grabby sticky. And so I quite wasn't unsure
what was going on, but I knew something wasn't happy.
And so I needed to get an oil change in Canada on the way to
Alaska. And so I had just found the town

(39:15):
and basically went to four different oil Lube quick Lube
shops. Were people afraid to touch the
car? Well, no, I mean, I think people
were afraid to take my take my proposal.
And my proposal was nobody touches the car but me, you
know, And so I got my own oil and I've got my own filter in

(39:35):
the car. And ultimately I want to pay
somebody to let me change my ownoil because I don't I don't
trust anybody to work on the car, you know, with very rare
exception of other NSX owners. Hey, you know, no judgement
people into different things. You know, you're into, you know,
paying people to watch you change oil.
Well, that too, but I mean, I'm also happy to pay a valet to let

(39:57):
me park my own car, which I've anumber of times just because I
don't want anybody touching the car.
And ultimately I found it took me about four shops, but with
the help of a local Canadian guythat.
Kind of took me under his wing. We found a fourth shop that
agreed to let me pay $50.00 to let me change my own oil.
So I did and I got down in the pit.

(40:19):
And when I did that, the other big reason I wanted to do that,
as I took the dust boot cover off the bell house in where the
clutch slave meets the transmission fork.
And it was like somebody cougheddust out of the bell house in
and all the contact points were just caked in dust.
So I soaked what I could and silicone spray and the pedal

(40:42):
pressure got better than the squeak went away for a little
bit, but it's ultimately ended up coming back.
And So what what's what's happened is basically there's
got some debris on a metal collar around the input shaft of
the transmission. The throw up bearing rides on
and it's just not fun in first gear.
But I'm just going to keep sending it.

(41:05):
You know, the clutch isn't slipping and I have all the new
parts back home if I need to go get them to me, but right now
I'm just going to go 5000 miles continue, You know.
So between those two bets, thosewere like the damage side of the
story. I mean, granted a ton of rock
chips and you know, dust and dirt and stuff like that, but

(41:25):
those were the 2 bets. And I met a photographer in
Canada and he actually kind of jokingly called me out that I
messed up my transmission because I'm too stubborn to pay
for a hotel. Which is partially true, though.
I mean, it's like I ultimately, you know, if I would have paid
the $100 and stayed in a hotel that night, none of this

(41:46):
transmission issue would exist. But ultimately to but it.
Could have been the next Rd. Yeah, it could have.
Yeah. Anything can happen at any time.
So it is what it is. So I mean those were damage, you
know, issues as far as like likespooky, unusual, weird, awkward
stuff. You know, like two major events

(42:08):
I guess or not major, but 2 events.
And the first one would be was Iwas in North Dakota and I had
new rear tires shipped to basically the last biggest town
I could find in North Dakota, which was Mino, North Dakota.
So I had new rear ship to there so I could ensure that when I
cross the border into Canada allthe way to NS Expo, I would have

(42:30):
tires because NSX likes to eat rear tires and I want a brand
new ones. So ship tires to a tire shop
there. The night prior I stayed and
it's like Devil or Devil's Lake somewhere North Dakota, this
campground that I found on an island in the lake and there's I
mean there was a bridge to get there and I pull in this points.

(42:53):
It's like the end of August. So light's still long.
It's 9:00 dusk. There's one other camper in this
campground and they're at the other end of the campground.
I found a great campsite right next to the water, set up my
tent, hang out till maybe 1030 and I go in my tent to go to
sleep. And probably from my tent, it's

(43:17):
probably about like, let's say 400 feet and there's a, a, a
pier or dock that had a boat launch.
And I see some lights. She's lighting up my tent.
And so I kind of unzip and I poke my head out and down near
the boat launch, there's a, a headlamp light moving around and

(43:39):
it turns off. And so I'm like, OK, all right.
You know, like it's, it's probably the other person in the
campground. And so I go to sleep and I wake
up at like 4:30 in the morning now.
Hold up before you go to sleep. You're kind of wondering what
the what's going on, Or do you just immediately go to sleep
because you're so used to this light?
Yeah. That's what I was about to say
is like, there's a degree of like, I just have to turn off a

(44:00):
lot of the fear when it comes tothis, you know, like.
Absolutely. Assess the fear, but also don't
let it control you. So I just kind of turn it off
like it's probably the other person in the campground.
Logically there should be no oneelse here.
So it's it's probably that person.
And then I wake up at 4:30 in the morning and I have one of
those. I kind of got to pee, but I can

(44:24):
kind of also maybe roll back over and go to sleep and not
pee. And I'm like, man, I should just
get up and go pee. So I just kind of, you know,
yank my zipper of my tent fast, open it, and I poke my head out
and at exactly the same place where that headlamp was, a
headlamp turns on at 4:30 in themorning.

(44:47):
OK. Like 'cause it heard, at least I
think it heard my zip rope rightand.
Sound travels like a mug. Yep.
And so I watched this headlamp and then I watched the headlamp
turn off and there's enough light like ambient light from
the moon where I can see like for me to the light, but

(45:08):
obviously I can't see the light.So I could see like if anybody I
guess was to get closer, I couldkind of see them in the grass
area, but. No silhouettes or anything.
No, but I got up and went pee and just went back to sleep.
You know, I just tried to have like a roll over, not trying to
think too heavily on that, but Ithought it was just really odd.
And it's like reflecting back onthat, you know, I don't know if

(45:31):
maybe they woke me up, right. Not my pee, you know.
So the second one was my first night on the Alaska Canada
Highway, which is, you know, theAlcans Famous Rd.
Obviously to get from Alaska allthe way into or from Canada all
the way into Alaska. And I didn't quite know what I
was going to do for sleeping thefirst night, but I had found

(45:54):
that there. I guess there's like they're
basically like little fishing ponds kind of scattered off a
couple spots. They call them like a pit site
or something along those lines. And so I had one picked out and
I'm rolling into it about dusk. And as I'm rolling into this
campsite, they the the turn off into it.

(46:18):
It goes over a railroad track, but I mean, it's like 100 feet
off the Alcan is this campsite. And so as I'm turning into it,
the roads a bit jacked up. So I'm basically approaching it
a little bit further on the entrance and my windows down and
it's dusk, the sun is set. And as I'm pulling in, there's a
guy pushing a bicycle wearing all black of.

(46:40):
Course. Leaving the campsite and I
thought about making some like smart ass witty comment like,
oh, it wasn't good enough for you or something right?
But I, I made eye contact with this guy and I didn't say
anything and I just went in the campsite and I ended up camping
there. But you know, like in my mind
I'm thinking, where's this dude going?

(47:02):
You know, there's not a town for50 miles You, you know, and
like, and you're wearing all black on a bicycle at night.
Like what is a better campsite than where we're at?
What did you just do? Basically, yeah, you know, and
so I've another one of those things where it just kind of
have to override it, but thinking, you know, like, man, I
just, it's, it's really odd. And like The thing is, I I try

(47:26):
and also understand is like man,like I'm a trusting kind guy.
And I think everybody has good intention from the most part.
But I also have to understand, it's like the characters you run
out into, out in the wilderness,you know, may or may not, you
know, be mentally healthy or mayand may not be running from
something either, you know? And so it's just I try and

(47:47):
understand like there's some dangerous people out there, you
know, and they see $100,000 car and a guy get out of it and
sleep in a tent next to it. You know, maybe some thoughts
creep into their mind. What kind of tent do you have?
Because you keep bringing up a tent.
I keep thinking because we have a couple 7 footers that we've

(48:07):
camped in like once, but you have like a traditional, I don't
know, tent. Do you have like a Dome tent?
Do you have something that comesoff your car?
No, no, it'd be just like a small backpackers tent.
So it's supposed to be a two man, but you know like looking
at this table it's like 1 1/2 ofthese wide.
OK, so pretty pretty small. Yeah, but you can't stand up in
it. You know, the ceilings probably

(48:28):
4 feet maybe. And but it's just a, it's a Big
Agnes backpacking tent. First night on the Alcan, one of
the tent poles broke because I mean, I wish I knew I was
telling my friend yesterday. I said man, like I'd like to
have a counter on how many nights I've stayed in this
specific tent because it's, it'shundreds for sure.
I just don't know how many. But I fixed the broken pole and

(48:49):
I've been kind of stubborn enough to still use it.
Do you use the car as like kind of one of your walls?
Does that make sense? So yeah, no, no, it's a tent.
Like literally right next to thecar.
So certain situations, yes, but most situations I prefer not to
do that. And the the thought I have is I
was actually driving my red NSX in 2018 to San Francisco.

(49:13):
How many do you have that you can drive?
Right now just one, but I do have three NS XS, but two of
them are peace. Peace cars, or you're
assembling. Assembling so, but I was driving
in 2018 to San Francisco and I was somewhere in Nevada, I
believe, and I just saw a littlecampground sign.

(49:34):
So I pulled over kind of right off the Interstate and there was
a lake and I just set up my tentright next to the NSX.
And right before I was I didn't even set up a tent actually, I
just threw my mat on the ground.But right before I fell asleep,
I got thinking, you know, like once again, it's it's AI guess I
would think of it as a crime of opportunity, right.
So like somebody pulls into a campground or place and they see

(49:58):
this car and then they see the the tent next to the car.
It starts to possibly put a scenario in their mind where
they say that, oh, the keys for this car are in that tent.
So what I usually typically try and do if I have the option is
to give myself like at the vantage point and put my car

(50:20):
somewhere and then have a line of sight 200 feet away or 100
feet away behind a tree. So at least maybe I can have the
first look as opposed to somebody having the first look
at me. And sometimes it works out
better than others, but that's typically what I would prefer to
do. If I'm in an actual campground

(50:40):
then it doesn't matter, but justkind of off campground camping.
That's how I'm going to try and play it.
You consider yourself a light sleeper.
No, I mean, I, I guess I can wake up easily, but I'm I'm
pretty good at, you know, like sleeping through some things.
That's, I mean, you mentioned, you know, Northern Lights,
Aurora borealis, I, I didn't getto see any on the trip.

(51:01):
And ultimately there's probably a good possibility that I slept
through some of it. You know, like it probably did
happen at some certain point, but you know, it was basically
going from very, very early in the morning all day.
So typically when it gets dark when you're camping, you really
don't have anything to do. So I'm basically kind of just
sleeping through the night. You know, I'd wake up a time or

(51:21):
two and take a peek, but I neversaw any.
Do you ever like do you do with the traditional camping thing
that we see on TV all the time? You're pitching your tent,
you're making your fire, you know all that stuff for you.
Basically just pull in, pop yourtent up, eat your oatmeal, go to
sleep, get up in the morning andand keep moving.
Pretty much that. There's I haven't had a single

(51:42):
fire on the entire trip. A lot of it because, like
Canada. Well, on this trip specifically,
right? But just overall, do you ever
just do that? Yeah.
I mean, overall, sometimes fires, but overall, no, you
know, like, and I'm also not thetype of guy that's like spending
a whole heck of a lot of time inthe campground, you know, So
it'd be more of like I am pulling in, I'm setting up my

(52:03):
tent, whether it be a dusk or atwith my headlamp, get my whole
sleeping kit set up and then, you know, like basically think
about going to bed, you know, whatever little bit I need to
do. And also too, if I have cell
signal or even if I don't, you know, just with offline maps,
the, you know, a little bit of decompression is basically try

(52:24):
and you know, think about tomorrow and like really look at
the map and make sure I'm not missing something great, which
inevitably also happens to, you know, like we're joking earlier.
It's like I've got maps of things I didn't do, you know.
So there's a lot of of things that I would like to try and
hit. I'm just trying to make sure
like I'm not going to drive pastsomething epic and not know

(52:44):
about it. Do you find it easier to fall
asleep being so disconnected from electronics?
And I, I asked that because I remember being a kid and going
to like grandma's house and everyone's in bed by like 730.
You're watching Benny Hill or something on TV and you look up

(53:05):
and it's 8:30 and you're ready for bed.
When you're at home, you're up to 11/30/12.
Yeah, same thing going camping. It's like sometimes you stay up
late if there's a bunch of people, but if you're by
yourself, maybe just go to bed as soon as it gets dark outside.
Yeah, definitely. Like I said earlier, I I have a
good time, good job just matching the mood, you know.
So if there's not much going on,I'm probably going to be going

(53:27):
to sleep. Because we're going to the club
after this. Yeah, I know.
Yeah. OK.
All right. Just so you know for sure.
For sure on a school night. Yep, on the school school night.
Let me ask you this because I was wondering.
Like I said, I spent a lot of time thinking in the shower, so
I knew you were coming over. So I was thinking about you
again in the shower, just so youknow, right?
Most people do. Yes, You're either at a
campground or you're at a hostel.

(53:50):
I'm guessing you know KOA is outof the picture.
But you know, if you're not doing those two, are you always
finding a hotel? Or is there ever a time where
you're like, this is a random plot of land?
It looks cool. I could be in and out in the
morning. Do you ever just randomly pick
something? Oh, certainly it's just gorilla
camping, you know, and like there's all sorts of places that
I've camped that I'm not supposed to, you know, and I

(54:12):
know that like, I mean, I've done a whole bunch on this trip,
you know, I've stayed in places that you're not supposed to
stay, you know, I've stayed in campgrounds that have been
closed or whatever. But it's like the way I kind of
view it right is like overall, Ihave a very low impact of what
I'm doing. But also overall too is like if

(54:33):
I was to, you know, I guess for lack of a better term, get, you
know, investigated or harassed by the park Ranger or the
police. You know, like my answer is
going to be, dude, I was tired and I needed a place to sleep.
The the difficulty with like truly tent camping like I am as
opposed to having a tent on top of your roof of the vehicle,

(54:57):
which is extremely common now. But I can't like pull over on
the one in California at A roadside pull off and set my
tent up on the ground. But you can pull over and have a
rooftop tent open up. So effectively, like I'm shut
out from a lot of like camping spots or cool camping areas that

(55:19):
sprinter vans or rooftop tents have access to.
So I got to be a little bit moreunorthodox and kind of a little
bit off the beaten path to find a place to actually set my tent
up. Yeah, 'cause that that thought
came to me, obviously knowing you were coming here, but just
in the the road trip that I justtook with JC driving back,
obviously, you know, because youdo this for people who fly

(55:42):
everywhere. You don't realize this, but
there's a lot of times where youjust now your finest porn is, I
don't know. I don't even know if the
microphone is going to pick thatup or not.
I'm going to leave it in there anyway.
Yeah. But you know, there's a lot of
time where you're just staring out the window when you're
driving. You're just thinking, right?
I'm a thinker. And I'm like, I see all this

(56:03):
land out in the middle of nowhere and I'm like, we are
20-30 miles away from anything. Whoever owns this land, unless
they have little thumpers or something, you know, or little
motion cameras. Yeah, everywhere.
Like, what are the odds I could just pull into one of these
places if I just had to spend the night and leave early in the
morning? Like, how how would they know?
Or even more nefariously, it's like if I wanted to bury

(56:25):
somebody, how long would it takethem to find this person on
their land? You know, those are thoughts
that I have. I'm not crazy.
That's what made me think. I was like, I wonder if I just
needed a place to sleep really quick, like off the path so the
high so the highway robbers don't pull me over and stab me
to death while I'm on the side of the road.
I could probably pull off the road and just be gone in the
morning. I mean definitely.

(56:45):
And that's something that's pretty much key with a lot of
that is you got to be up early, you know, like if you're going
to try and sleep until 8:00 likethat, that's going.
To not a good idea. Well, it just increases your
chance to get caught, for lack of a better term.
But if like you're busting camp right at sunrise, then you can
usually be in and out and not have to worry.
But yeah, I find there's lots ofopportunities for guerrilla

(57:06):
camping. What the difficulty is in the
NSX is just road conditions. You know, there's a lot of
places that I could camp have awesome campsites.
Like I was in Norcal near BodegaBay, kind of near Sebastopol
area, and there were two really great campsites that I literally
1, I guess speed bump, I guess, for lack of a better term,

(57:31):
denied me access and my car couldn't make it.
And so I knew from that speed bump to the campground, it was
like less than a mile walk. But I wasn't really feeling like
leaving my car and walking a mile.
But you know, like I got shut out because the road condition
didn't allow my low car there, you know, and had I been in
anything else, I would have madeit.
So that's another difficulty too, is like a lot of the

(57:53):
campsites in the campgrounds andstuff, and the data that I get
as far as camping, I'll show up and be like, well, this isn't
made for a sports car, so I haveto turn around and figure out
some other option. What are some of your favorite
places to eat when you're out onthe road?
Well, I mean, usually it's grocery stores, you know, like I

(58:14):
like going and doing just random, you know, yogurt and
banana and. Tell everybody what your normal
and I don't think there's anything wrong with it man.
Like you told Yvette and I earlier, and I was like, oh,
that actually makes sense for a number of reasons.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what they feed sports teams
typically as well. So I mean, what is your typical
meal when you don't decide to pull over and because you're not

(58:36):
probably hitting fast food? No, I mean, I, there's a time or
two where you break down and, you know, I've been hiking 15
miles and I'm just going to get some hamburger and fries.
But predominantly, you know, a lot of oatmeal and a lot of
peanut butter and banana sandwiches, you know, for most
of the, you know, camping backpack and stuff, can't
obviously carry any perishables with me, you know, So it's got

(58:56):
to be stuff that I can last. And you know, nut butters are
really good too. I carry a bunch of those with
me. Like honey, yeah, a little bit
peanut butter and honey, dude, that's like, it's great.
Yeah, it's one of the classic comforts.
All white or you get like multi green bread.
Kind of depends honestly. We usually like whatever is on
sale type or so, or if I can find something somewhat like

(59:20):
like from a bakery would be ideal be a lot of that a lot of
grocery store picking. And then also too, I rely
heavily on Google, you know, whatever little restaurant or
whatever is in the area and siftthrough and figure out, you
know, is this one going to be a good fit or are they truly good
or whatever. But I like, I like trying

(59:41):
restaurants and I like trying food and I like experiencing it
all, you know, like I've got plenty of coffee with me, but I
also still, if I see a great coffee shop, I'm going to stop
in and try it, you know, 'cause that's part of travel.
Got a few more questions for you.
Yeah, just that. Yeah, that's it.
The first one is, you know, you see, you are We kind of skirted

(01:00:02):
over this earlier. Like you love to do the outdoor
stuff. You love doing the hiking.
You hike incredibly fast. You told us the story earlier,
you know, Where does that come from?
Because I think you like hiking and you go to all the cool
spots, you like driving and you camp out of your car, which
isn't normal, especially for an NSX.
And you'll, I mean, you should be driving around in like a

(01:00:23):
Tacoma or a Tundra or something.But you choose to take this car
and you go on these incredibly long walks.
You've done 10/15 miles a day. And then you get back in your
car. Then you do other shit like
where does that passion come from?
And what are your favorite places to go?
Or what are your top three places you've been?
Well, good questions. I'd say probably the initial

(01:00:45):
passion for outdoors and adventure would just be my my
parents, right? Like growing up, they took us on
cool Rd. trips and hiking and outdoors was a big part of, you
know, our family. So we would do a lot of that.
So, you know, as I got older, I've still enjoyed those things.
Which is awesome by the way. Yeah, it is.
It's truly is, man. I'm I, I love it and I've I've

(01:01:07):
feel like more people need to bedoing it, but your.
Parents are still with us. Yep, Yep.
So still they're hiking around and venturing around as well,
you know, not not in NSX, but they're still staying busy and.
Do they think you're crazy? Yeah, well, I think probably one
of the one of the stories that cracked me or one of the
comments that cracked me up on this trip was so I I have a a

(01:01:31):
star link Roam, which is the mini star link that, you know,
allowed me to have Internet thisentire trip.
And I mount it under the rear glass of the NSX.
And overall it worked out great.You know, sometimes phone calls
were a bit spotty, but I was able to keep all my group chats

(01:01:52):
and my text and stream Spotify and use Internet data the entire
trip. But I think my parents, you
know, have accepted that I'm always going to do wild and
crazy stuff. So they kind of just maybe don't
pay as much attention to what exactly it is, which may help
them. You know, ignorance is bliss,
right? But I sent a group text to the

(01:02:15):
family chat that I was leaving Fairbanks.
So I didn't quite know when I was going to actually make the
push to the Arctic Circle. And so I, I sent a group text
that I was leaving to go on the Arctic Circle.
I made the call, I'm going to doit today.
And my mom said have fun. And then I took a picture like
10 or 15 miles on the Dalton Highway of my car and sent it

(01:02:38):
over on the group chat. And my mom said, Oh my gosh,
what are you doing? Turn around and.
That that was quick. Yeah, and I'm like laughing in
my head because, you know, within an hour ago you were
telling me to go have fun. And I don't maybe think that she
really realized what I had gotten myself into, right.

(01:03:01):
So, yeah, that kind of cracked me up.
But, you know, it's the mentality that it's like, you
know, ships aren't made for the harbour, you know, and, like,
cars aren't made for the garage.They're made to go out and do
it. So that's what I was out there,
you know, trying to involve myself with.
Yeah, hiking and just. Yeah.
What are your what are your especially on this trip, but you

(01:03:22):
know, where do the two or three places you've gone to that you
just love? This trip especially is Banff,
Canada, you know, like they had extremely high expectations
because everybody had spoke so highly of this place.
It's just the coolest place ever.
And OK, we'll see. So yeah, I mean, I got there and
it blew up the mall out of the water.
You know, I just, I really was taken with that place and I

(01:03:45):
could spend a year and hiking around that area and still not
really scratch the surface in myopinion, because there's just so
much to do there. Denali National Park in Alaska
was really incredible too. And I caught that kind of like
right at the tail of the peak ofthe the color change up there,
which was real phenomenal to seeand.

(01:04:07):
Are you ever worried when you dothese hikes because you know,
some of these national parks andplaces, I mean, there's, they're
wild. Oh yeah?
Well, I mean, hence the name. I mean, bear spray, you know,
it's about the cheapest insurance you can.
Do you know any? Close Encounters.
I mean, I, I seen a big grizzly on the side of the road in
Canada and then seen five from the the bus tour in Denali and

(01:04:30):
Denali you can only drive I think like maybe 16 miles into
the park. But if you want to go to the
rest of the way in the park, yougot to take a bus tour.
So we saw five Grizzlies on the bus tour.
But I mean, I've run into Grizzlies in the Backcountry
like on foot in the past. None on this trip, which I was
honestly a bit surprised becauseI did a lot this trip.

(01:04:52):
But yeah, bear spray is about the only thing you can really
have. Canada, you're not allowed to
have a gun, you know. So it's like, and to me, I
don't, you know, I don't really even want to carry a gun really.
You know, like so I'm not I'm not afraid of wildlife, you
know, obvious obviously more, you know, I guess nervous on
wild interactions with other people out in the Backcountry

(01:05:14):
and than than actual wildlife. But bam, incredible hiking.
And then probably like the otherspot, which you know, has always
been cool to me ANYWAYS, is Pacific Northwest and
specifically like the Olympic Peninsula.
So after NS Expo, I spent like 5days doing a big ring loop of
the whole Olympic Peninsula and just checking out like the whole

(01:05:35):
rainforest, which was unbelievable and the whole
coastline there. And yeah, there's just Olympic
Peninsula is a really cool place.
The Pacific Northwest is really cool.
There's just a lot to do here, but it's also very difficult
because every single day there'sonly so many hours and I can
only do so much. And for a basically three month

(01:05:56):
trip, you know, like time is very finite, even though it
seems like a lot like I don't have a lot of like days when I'm
doing nothing. Sure.
So yeah, those, those areas willprobably jump out as the top
ones. And then throughout California,
I really haven't done too much actual camping.
It's kind of the past as as thistrip kind of wraps up, I'm going

(01:06:19):
to be doing less camping becauseit's more basically friend to
friend to friend, work my way home.
There may be like maybe one opportunity to pitch my tent
from here, but I could probably out honestly put a box
everything up and ship at home and not use it for the next, you
know, 14 days that I'm on the road or 10 days that I'm on the
road. If you wanted to, I know that I

(01:06:40):
have a nice forest, the area back here.
Oh yeah, that we prepared just for you.
Like I showed you earlier, we got a bunch of trees planted
today, you know, just for you and a perfect timing.
How do you I, I have this thing that I don't, I don't, I, I say
this to myself and it's not 100%true, but I try to be this way.
But sometimes in the day, you are who you are, right?

(01:07:03):
But I have said that I don't have time for people who don't
have time for me. And at the end of the day, you
still never giving people your time even though they just
continuously don't really have time for you or or don't think
about you. You've made it a point to stop
and see a lot of people on this road trip, a lot of people.
But then there's probably a lot of people you don't have time to

(01:07:24):
stop and see that you would liketo see.
How do you decide? Because I know that you have.
I know that you do change coursedepending on who it is you have
to see and you try to make it work.
Like, how do you come to that decision of stopping and seeing
and knowing that a lot of the people that you see, we all love
you. Yeah.

(01:07:44):
But people have their own lives,right?
And you know what? They do the same for you.
Probably. Probably not.
But that doesn't change who you are.
So how do you decide and and whydo you do it a good?
Question I mean, I'd say initially starting the trip
there'd be like a certain percentile of like must sees,

(01:08:05):
you know, like 40% or 50% of people that like I have to see
on this trip, you know like obviously here being one of
them, but. I'm, I'm happy because I'm like,
maybe if, if you're in town to see Tyson, then maybe I'm just,
you know, I'm glad I'm in. I'm living in the same town.
Tyson's another one of those, too.
Yeah, for sure. But then, you know, I do leave
some room for possible opportunity of like a new friend

(01:08:28):
or a new opportunity as well, orsomebody I may have forgotten
about it has an open opportunity.
But you know, a lot of it takes like basically this, you know,
like the swirling mental thing that's going on.
If like, where am I going to be in seven to 10 days?

(01:08:49):
Who do I know that's there? I need to start the conversation
now about their schedule, my schedule.
Can it all work out and just seewho bites really, you know, like
and so it's like I'll I may cast10 or 20 lines depending on what
city I'm in because I'm I'm really well networked
nationwide. And so if somebody bites on a

(01:09:13):
line, then I'll try to accommodate and set up a
schedule. You know, like when I joked
earlier, it's like I got lunch and dinner plans, you know, like
the remainder of the trip prettymuch because I'm trying to lock
these people in for certain times.
And I've also found just generally in life, you know, the
way friends work too, is like ifI throw one or two, you know,
lines out and they're not receptreciprocated that I just

(01:09:37):
understand that, you know, they're busy or it's just not
the right personal. Yeah, and I'm not trying to like
The thing is about friendship, right, As you can't force
friends. So if they're not able to make
it happen, then that's OK, you know.
But it's it is difficult too, because, you know, I have lots
of friends that I didn't get to see on this trip.
I mean, I just left LAA couple days ago and it's like, there's

(01:09:59):
like probably easily 10 to 20 people that I really wanted to
see in LA that it's like it didn't work out and just how it
goes. So, you know, and obviously I'm
supposed to be at the right places at the right time, but
I'm going to try and figure out,you know, as many people as I
can possibly see. And so there's been, it's kind

(01:10:19):
of funny, right? Because it's like on the way to
Key West, I met up with three different NSX owners in South
Florida and I literally had hourwindows with each of them.
So we hung out for one hour, 1 hour, one hour, most passing
through San Francisco a couple days ago.
And I have forgotten about a XNSX owner that I never met, but
we are friends. I give him about two hours

(01:10:40):
notice and he restructures this whole morning and we stop by for
an I stop by and hang out with him for an hour.
So you know, it's like I have torealize that I got to take these
hour opportunities with everybody.
You know what it's like sometimes a bummer because it's
like things are awesome for thathour, but literally that's all
the time we got, you know. And so the I guess maybe closer,

(01:11:02):
more tight knit friends that arethe must sees.
You know, I obviously try and accommodate a little bit more
timing for them because I want to kind of immerse myself in our
friendship a little bit deeper, but I'll take any amount of time
with anybody that I can physically make happen.
Yeah, that's cool, because back when I used to travel all the
time, when I would get a new jobat a new site, I used to be
like, hey guys, I just landed a contract in your city.

(01:11:25):
Who's available, you know, what night can we go out to happy
hour? Or we could just meet together
at dinner somewhere. So I get that.
And that it's the same deal. You, you reminded me of that
when you said you just cast all those lines out there and see
you see, you catch. But yeah, it it sucks for the
people you can't spend time with.
For those of us that you can, wetruly appreciate it and love it.
Yeah. And something that I guess I

(01:11:47):
will add to that too, that I just thought of is what's also
blown me away is like just like the reception, I guess maybe
that I get from certain individuals that I didn't
expect. You know, like there's a girl in
Portland, Shea, and she's got AMK 4 Supra and she's got a

(01:12:08):
rooftop 10 on it. And she was friends with Chris
Cutt. And so she drove her Supra cross
country and camped out of her Supra.
And so her and I like missed each other on the tail of the
dragon right near where I live by like minutes when she did
this trip. So we've stayed in communication
and we ended up getting togetherand hung out for an evening when

(01:12:30):
I was in Portland. But she had mentioned my NSX had
my super hadn't been running in like 4 months and I got it
running to meet you. Oh wow.
And then like NSX lawn in Oceanside, CA, same thing.
Like I haven't driven my NSX in four months.
I drove it out to meet you, you know, and other people like

(01:12:52):
that. And it's just like, I don't
know, I guess it's kind of humbling, I guess, for lack of a
better term, because it's like, man, I'm just trying to go out
and have fun and hang out with people.
But people want to make serious efforts to be involved in this
trip. And, you know, I've gotten Many
thanks from many friends about like, thank you for including me

(01:13:13):
in this, you know, which like tome, I'm like, well, dude, you're
putting me up for the night. Thank you.
You know, so it's like it's, it's tough, but a lot of a lot
of people just want to like be apart of it, which is really cool
to share it because, you know, that's basically what it boils
down with life is, is like we'reall sharing experiences
together, you know, and that's kind of what a podcast is too,

(01:13:35):
right? It's just sharing our general
experience. Yeah.
And I know, I know Chris was wasplanning on doing that, you
know, having cashes and then obviously they didn't work out.
So I think for people who are able to do that, it's great.
You know, and, and you're not that guy, you know, you, you, we
had a conversation before the banquet about, you know, the

(01:13:55):
banquet, you know, you're not that guy.
You don't want the praise, you know, but I think that's the
magical part of being you and people who get an opportunity to
know you. This is not a question I
typically ask people, even though they're in the NSX
family, But I know how much you love the car.
I know how much you love going to NS Expos.
You know, I again, that's also, that's one of the two events I

(01:14:17):
circle every year. The other one's Monterey Car
Week, and I don't go all the time, but I still want to know
when it is. What has NSX ownership meant to
you? Tough question.
Pretty much everything, I don't really know, I guess where I

(01:14:41):
would be without this car, you know, like as as simple as that
as you know and like I bought itbecause it was something that I
always thought was amazing and cool and and revered it right,
You know, just on it's purely mechanical aspect.
But like NSX ownership to me is basically been the opportunity

(01:15:05):
to share something and also share something of myself with
everyone who wants to to say yes, you know, and yeah, I don't
know, man, it's, it's really been life changing buying,
buying this 30 year old Honda. And, you know, like something I
did want to add, not to detract from the question, but Speaking

(01:15:26):
of Chris Cutt is on this trip. The two people that I really,
you know, kept close to me on the trip because I knew there
were two people that would have respected it and enjoyed what I
was doing was Chris Cutt and then John Vasos.
And, you know, I, I even, you know, kind of kind of joked.

(01:15:48):
It's like, you know, and I know John would have loved what I'm
doing, but he also would have scratched his head a lot what I
was. Doing he absolutely would have
said what the fuck? Basically, but you know, keeping
those two guys close, right, because obviously the NSX meant
a lot to those two guys and justto like, you know, I guess pay

(01:16:12):
homage to them on the trip because I know that they would
appreciate it. So, but all I can do is really,
you know, everyday, like I've probably said before on this
thing is just keep sharing this car with people every single
day, you know, and every single day it gets better and better to
do it because more and more opportunity and more and more
people come into my life becauseof this car.

(01:16:34):
So it's every single day I keep saying yes, I want to get out
there and share it. Because you've had the most
random people just come up to you.
Oh yeah, Not even just NSX owners.
Because I mean, we people who are, who are part of other car
communities, whether it's the Porsche club, Ferrari club,
Lamborghini club, you know, they, they realize there's
something very special about theNSX owner and I, and I'm not

(01:16:57):
quite sure why that is. You know what makes us so
different and unique? Because our lives are so
different in the car just kind of brings us together.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, A couple possible thoughts on that
would be like, you know #1 there's a a Honda marketing
slogan and they actually had it at HQ in Torrance when I was

(01:17:19):
there last weekend. Across the wall is you meet the
nicest people on a Honda and it's like, I truly 100% believe
that, you know, and why that is,is, you know, like, I just think
a lot of ego gets checked at thedoor with Honda's.
You know, you're not coming intoit with any delusions of who
you're about. You know, it's like it's a, it's

(01:17:40):
a piece of machinery and it doessomething incredible and it runs
for a long time and is reliable and, you know, so it's like your
ego gets checked at the door. And yeah, I don't know, I, it's
tough because I think even if you are, let's say a current
Ferrari owner or a current Lamborghini owner or hyper car

(01:18:02):
owner, I think if you have some sort of Honda like lineage or
pedigree, right? Like I think that's going to
stick with you. But the guys that bought a
Ferrari or Lamborghini without that, you know, also have a
certain, you know, I guess, approach to their car ownership.
And it may not be as friendly oras accommodating as a Honda

(01:18:25):
owner, but I'm, you know, I'll stand by it till the end of time
that you meet the nicest people on a Honda.
So super cool. And I'm super thankful that, you
know, I number one, have the opportunity to do this, right,
because this trip to me was a, atest of, of myself, right?

(01:18:46):
Like could I do this? But also ultimately, could this
car that was hand built in Japan30 years ago pretty much in its
same configuration do something like this?
You know that no other real supercar could possibly consider
doing, you know, and like on both accounts, you know,

(01:19:08):
success, right? Which I was optimistic, but you
never know till you go. Johnny, thanks for coming by.
You are out of Coca-Cola, so we'll just have to figure out,
oh, we got to get to the club, right?
At some point tonight. All right, we got to get to the
club, so thank you so much for coming by Hard Park.
It was a real pleasure. I mean, I thank you for you and
your family and just everybody for having me by so it means a

(01:19:30):
lot. From the closet calls to the
studio. Yep.
What's next? Thanks man, Thank you.
Wow, what an amazing story. What an amazing trip.
What an amazing person. One of the things that we didn't
get an opportunity to talk aboutand when when Johnny left, he
was like, man, I forgot to talk about this.
But you know, he's really big onno coincidences.

(01:19:53):
He's he's very strong. He has a he has a, a perfect Zen
within his world and within himself that the universe is
what brings things together. One of the coolest stories is
you know when I was driving fromfrom here in Arizona on my way
to NS Expo, I was coming over from the Spokane, WA.
Day four, I think of the trip and the first vehicle I see on

(01:20:15):
the freeway is him and his NSX and I'm also the first NSX he
saw on his trip to NS Expo. I see that and I go, wow, what a
crazy coincidence. But Johnny incorrectly, you
know, I would say correctly corrected me and said there's no
such thing as coincidences. The universe brought us
together. I was supposed to run into him

(01:20:35):
that day on the freeway. Now for full context, he was
just coming into the United States down from his trip in
Canada and this was during rush hour.
So at any given time on a major freeway, there are 10s of
thousands of vehicles within a five to Six Mile stretch,
especially when you're talking about the Seattle area, another
major metropolitan area, and theodds like we could probably try

(01:21:00):
to time that and say, hey man, let me know when you're at this
exit and I'm at this exit, and then we can try to meet up.
Even if we did that, it'd be very hard to recreate that
strange occurrence where you have a first Gen. white NSX with
white wheels running into a second Gen. white intersex with
white wheels. Of course, both headed to NS

(01:21:21):
Expo, which that in itself wasn't a coincidence.
That in itself was supposed to actually happen and it did
happen. But I hope you guys really
enjoyed that and make sure you follow him at NSX Explorer.
There are articles of him out there.
A tremendous person and I hope you really enjoyed that.
Leave a comment below if you're watching this and let us know
what your favorite part of that interview conversation was.

(01:21:42):
Hey guys. So I wanted to kind of talk
about this a little bit. I forgot to even bring up this
part after I recorded my thoughts, my reflections on on
Johnny being here in studio. But again, you know the the
crazy thing about the universe kind of bringing people
together, it's almost as if we live in a simulation.
Because I forgot the craziest thing wasn't even Johnny and I

(01:22:04):
running at each other, running into each other on the highway,
which is super nutty. Like you have to admit that is
some wild shit. But when we were sitting here
after we got done recording, we looked up the two times he was
on hard parking. The first time he was ever on
was episode 10. This episode right now is 300
episode 10, so 290 episodes ago.November 8th of 2019 was the

(01:22:31):
first time he was on the show. That what I'm pretty sure that
time I was in the closet The next time he joined and this is
when it gets really crazy guys. October 26th of 2020 was the
second episode drop, which meansI would have recorded it the
prior week at some point, but the episode dropped on October
26th of 2022. Crazy things Chris cut in.

(01:22:55):
This extra was also on that episode and we recorded this
episode, episode 300, on correctOctober 26th, 2025, five years
to the day that his second appearance dropped an he

(01:23:15):
recorded his third aearance herein studio.
That is nuts and that is all well, another month, another
closing. If you like what you heard today
or like what you watched today, if you're watching this on
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hard parking pod. Make sure you subscribe to this
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Time. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Shut up.

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