Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happens when
chasing 35 rugged mountain peaks
becomes a six-year journey ofresilience, transformation and
unexpected inspiration.
My guest, rodney Carpentier,shares how his quest to conquer
the Catskills 3500, intertwinedwith a career in law enforcement
, personal challenges and thecreation of his mystery novel
set in those very peaks.
This is a story of grit,adventure and finding your next
(00:23):
chapter.
Let's go Welcome to Journeywith Jake.
This is a story of grit,adventure and finding your next
chapter.
Let's go Welcome to Journeywith Jake.
This is a podcast aboutadventure and how, through our
adventures, we can overcome thechallenges of life that come our
way.
While I expect you will learnsome things about different
adventures, this show willentertain you.
Each episode will feature adifferent guest or guests, as
they share experiences andstories from the different
(00:43):
adventures they have been on.
Not only will you beentertained, but you'll also
hear the failures and trialseach guest faces and what they
have done or are doing toovercome the hardships that come
their way.
My goal is to take each of uson a journey through the
experiences of my guests, withthe hope that you'll be
entertained and inspired toovercome your day-to-day
(01:04):
challenges.
After all, it's not all aboutthe destination as it is about
the journey.
Welcome back to Journey withJake.
(01:25):
I'm your host, jake Bushman,and before we dive in, don't
forget to follow me on Instagramat journeywithjakepodcast.
Subscribe to the show so younever miss an adventure, and
check out my YouTube channel,where you can watch many of
these conversations unfold.
Journey with Jake is also proudto be part of the Podmatch
Podcast Network.
Today's guest, rodney Carpentier, spent six years completing the
(01:46):
Rugged Catskills 3500 Challenge, an adventure that tested his
limits and inspired his debutmystery novel.
Set Right in those Same Peaks,with a background in law
enforcement and a passion forstorytelling, rodney's journey
is one of resilience, creativityand a connection to the wild.
If you enjoyed this episode,you'll also love episode 139
(02:07):
with fiction author RhondaParker-Taylor, where we explore
her journey and creative process.
Let's get to my conversationwith Rodney Carpentier.
All right, I'm excited.
Today I've got RodneyCarpentier on the call with me.
I said it.
Yes, I said it right.
I'm always butchering people'snames, so it's nice when I get
it correct.
So thanks, rodney.
Thanks for coming on Journeywith Jake.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
I love getting to
talk to different people, people
who do adventurous things.
You did the Cat Skills 3500.
We're going to talk about whatthat is and what's all involved
with that.
Before we do that, I do want toknow a little bit about Rodney
where you're from, where yougrew up, that sort of thing.
So give us just a littlebackground on who Rodney is.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Born and grew up in
the capital region of New York
State, which is right along theHudson River, right outside of
Albany.
Got married very young, at theripe old age of 22.
Lived in California for a yearduring that times, when I
started getting my interest inlaw enforcement.
Escaped LA after a year almostto the day, came back, started
taking tests, started my lawenforcement career in 2006.
(03:08):
Then we slowly moved south andeast over the next 18, 19 years
or so, to the point where we gotto the Hudson River right at
the Tappan Zee Bridge inRockland County, new York, about
30 miles north of New York City.
We started growing our family.
We grew to have tops, threedogs, two beagles and our foster
(03:29):
fail.
We have an 11-year-old daughterand we're about to hit our 20.
Actually, if you say this isgoing to air in September, we'll
have crossed the 21-yearanniversary mark at that point
and over the last two and a halfyears I've taken an interest
towards writing and released mydebut novel and, as of the
release of this podcast, itsounds like my second book will
(03:52):
be out by then also.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That's awesome,
amazing.
I like how you talked aboutescaping LA.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yes, not my place.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So you're from
upstate New York.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Correct.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
LA, was it school
Like?
What was it that took you to LA?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
My wife and I both
went to college at the State
University of New York at NewPaltz, which is basically
halfway between where we livenow in Rockland County and where
we're from in Albany County.
She's a year older than me soshe left after graduation to
start grad school in LA.
She originally she wanted to gointo voice acting.
(04:30):
Then got out of that, got intocommunications, looked at all
the big schools UCLA, trying tothink of all the big schools out
there.
So she went around and-.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, UCLA, USC.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, that's what I
was thinking of USC.
But she ended up at Cal State,la, which is a little bit
outside the city, and so she didit.
She lived there for a year,came back, but that's when we
got married, and so she stillhad another year of grad school
to go.
I had nothing.
I had no idea what the heck Iwas going to do.
There had been a plan to gobecome a lawyer at one point and
(05:00):
kind of abandon that Because,again, I was rushing into the
marriage thing and instead ofgetting myself set up, I was
like you know what, let's set upthis marriage and this
relationship and we'll figurestuff out from there.
And when I got out there tostart working and I had, you
know it was 2004.
I had my four-year collegedegree and I'm like people are
going to be tripping overthemselves to hire me, you know.
(05:25):
Back then, you know the mythwas you go to college, you're
going to get that great job andhere, here, here, pay more, pay
more, do this, do that.
Hey, you want to go to gradschool, let's do this.
And I got out there.
My first job I got was 10 bucksan hour.
I worked as basically areceptionist.
The company was great.
I just didn't get theCalifornia vibe of how they did
stuff.
They were an owner builder andthey owned a bunch of properties
(05:47):
and they had tenants.
So I was dealing with thetenants, but they also did
construction and they weredeveloping some of the
properties.
So I had to also worry aboutgetting a lot of the vendors and
stuff for it.
And I just after a while I waslike this isn't me.
They gave me a raise, theytreated me very well and then I
(06:10):
left them in the lurch.
It was a terrible, terrible partof my work history.
And then my wife had beenworking because she needed to
work, also working for a companythat did installation of low
voltage stuff cameras, plasmaswere huge at the time, tivos
were huge at the time so Ididn't have any background in
that.
But the company was small.
So she was kind of doing theoffice thing and the owner and
he had one he had a young manthat worked for him.
It was very talented at thisstuff and basically my job was
(06:33):
to drive the van around LA,which is probably another reason
why I didn't like it so muchjust sitting in traffic.
So I did that for a couple ofmonths.
Then the owner of the companywas a pretty extreme dude.
He got angry one day.
And I got angry one day and Itold him where he could stick
his job.
And again it was a lot ofimmaturity.
It was very, you know, veryyoung man making very silly
(06:56):
mistakes with your career.
And you know, fortunately, youknow, I survived all that.
But in the meantime, that's whenI started getting interested in
law enforcement, because theonly job that paid out.
There they had a huge bannerover Hollywood Boulevard because
we lived between Hollywood andSunset down by Franklin.
If you ever look on Google Mapsit's kind of outside of the
touristy area but walkingdistance of touristy area
(07:17):
because you certainly weren'tdriving.
But they had a huge banner overthe roadway that said, hey,
join the LAPD.
Starting salary was like$52,000.
And that was a lot of moneyback then, especially for
somebody who was working for 10bucks an hour.
So I started the process and itwas kind of like, hey, I need a
job.
But at the same time I startedlooking into the career.
(07:38):
I found a couple of memoir typebooks of police officers and
talking about the job, talkingabout the career, and I'm like,
okay, I think I can do this, Ithink I can do this, I think I
can do this and then again Idropped out of the LAPD process.
But when I got back to New Yorkit was like, okay, civil service
kind of grew ran in ourfamilies.
My mom worked for New YorkState for in the end it was like
(08:00):
37 years.
My father-in-law worked for theNew York state Senate for 40
some odd years and mymother-in-law had a, had a
County job for about a decade or15 years or so.
So we I came from a, came froma civil service family.
So I was like, okay, maybe I'lldo that.
And it kind of worked out.
(08:27):
My wife got her her, hermaster's degree with a 4.0.
Cause's a nerd like that.
And then she started working inNew York City, which is how
everything kind of came together.
I passed the state correctionstest, which back then you were
moving south anyway becausethat's where the openings were
for personnel.
So we were moving thatdirection.
Plus, she was starting to workin New York City and having to
commute every day because thisis before work at home.
Again, we slowly moved southand east until we got to the
(08:49):
Tappan Zee Bridge and we're kindof like, okay, we're
comfortable here.
Then after work from home andCOVID and spending all this time
to Catskills, which we'll getto, we were like no, I think we
want to move back upstate, moveup to the mountains and have a
much simpler life.
Post law enforcement career,which is a 20-year commitment
here in New York State, so Ihave about three years left.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
So you're in the
middle of it right now.
You're in law enforcement rightnow.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Oh yeah, yep Recently
got promoted to the rank of
lieutenant after spending justshy of 10 years as a patrol
sergeant, working all threeshifts doing all that stuff.
Prior to that, I was aninvestigator.
I actually worked the road as adeputy sheriff as a regular guy
for a very short amount of time.
Actually, I've had a very goodcareer.
(09:33):
You always have the ups anddowns and you have the tough
times, but I've had a very goodcareer also.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
In college, did you
study criminal justice or did
you study something else?
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I was an English
major.
I did a hundred percent intoliterature.
I was always interested inreading and writing.
And back then I, when I wantedto write, I wanted to be Ernest
Hemingway or William Faulknerand I learned very quickly when
I tried to write like them thatI wasn't them.
And you know, it took, it tookanother, you know, 15, 16 years
(10:02):
to kind of say, all right, whatis my voice?
And again, you know we're goingto get into that.
You know, 2022 is when Idecided, you know, all right,
I'm going to be a mystery writerand I need to learn how to
write mysteries.
So you know.
So, basically, I took thesewild ideas I had and just
dropped a dead body into them.
Plus your background as in lawenforcement, I mean that's got
(10:23):
to be a huge help to writingmysteries, I would think based
(10:44):
on facts and it's based onprobable cause, and it's really
kind of building that probablecause so that you can make the
arrest and then you know thecriminal justice system is.
Then you know, okay, now weneed to get to beyond a
reasonable doubt.
So, and again, this is one ofthe reasons that I didn't want
to be on the lawyer side ofthings, where I was trying to,
you know, work the deals CauseI've had so many cases that I
worked on for months A couple ofthem I worked on for years to
(11:08):
bring to arrest folks and in theend they got probation or they
got a slap on the wrist and itwas, oh, just pay the
restitution for the $50,000 infraud that you committed.
And it was just so.
It was kind of like, I don'tmind doing all the work and
someone else making that deal.
I didn't want to be the guy thatmade those deals.
(11:28):
That wasn't what I wasinterested in, so like.
So get back to the root of yourquestion, you know.
So I was studying English,wanted to be a lawyer.
I did take some legal classesback then, but no, my background
, while I ended up interested inlaw enforcement, I never, I've
never, taken a single criminaljustice course in my, in my, in
my career.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I love it.
I always joke with people too,because I was a hotel restaurant
management major and I haven'tworked for a hotel or restaurant
.
I've worked like, at them, I'mbeen in trade shows, conventions
, but I've never, like, workedfor a restaurant or for a hotel
so kind of similar.
Also, you got anothersimilarity I was also young when
I got married, as 21.
So I think I beat you by just alittle bit.
But you know, hey, 20, 26 yearslater, and here I am, so 21
(12:09):
years later, which is awesome,congratulations, fantastic.
All right, I want to.
I want to jump into the catskills.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
First of all tell me
what the cat skills 3,500 is,
and then what drew you to this.
Why did you want to do this?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Delaware County and
they are far flung, they are
trailed, they are untrailed andcompletely compass, or you're at
(12:50):
the mercy of a herd path, whichis always fun because that's
like a maze at sometimes.
So the basic premise is the3500 Club is a group of people
who have traversed and climbedall 35 of those mountains any
season, and then four of themspecifically you have to do
(13:10):
again in the winter, which isthe legal definition of winter
December 21st through March21st-ish, and you have to do
them in the winter.
Basically, it's kind of likePokemon.
You just got to collect themall.
The trailed ones, they kind ofgive you the honor system of
okay, you know that's a trailed,you know you probably did that,
we don't.
(13:30):
You know they don't check thatnecessarily, although they do
have this because they're staterun.
They do have sign-ins at thetrailhead so you know you don't
come back out.
It's kind of you know, hey,maybe we'll look for those
people.
But the untrailed ones, theyactually, at the summit, have
canisters where you kind of gotto find them, which is one of
the most frustrating parts ofthose.
(13:51):
You find them and they justhave this little, you know
little flip notebook in thereand you write your names and the
date you were there and you putit in there.
It's kind of your proof of lifethat you know.
Hey, I was here, I did thiswith COVID.
So legally we've completed the3,500s, but not or technically
per their new definition.
But we technically stillhaven't done two of them.
(14:12):
Two of the mountains areactually on private land, or at
least the trails to get them areon private land.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Interesting Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
And with COVID,
because so many people,
especially New York City folksand everything, were coming up
to the mountains becausecouldn't really stay inside,
wanted to get out, didn't havethe restrictions of work, and
stuff started basically invadingparts of the Catskills and they
were constantly contacting thepeople who own this property.
They have a caretaker there andit just got overwhelming.
(14:39):
Number one.
And then you also have peoplethat are just like F it, I'm
going and we're trespassing.
So they were like nope, we'redone, we're done so Cutting us
off, yeah.
So I would like to make theargument and we haven't really
interacted with the group in awhile, but I would like to make
the argument like, hey, ifyou've done the other 33, you've
made that investment, you'vefinished that the club can put
(15:01):
together a group of people whoare at that point, you know,
work with the caretaker, go witha trusted guide, a trusted
person, and then you can go tothose two because those they're
very close together.
You could do both of them in asingle day and you know then
you've actually done all 35.
So I'm I'm waiting to see ifyou know that that option opens
(15:21):
up.
So that's what the 35 hundredsare.
We got involved.
This was an idea of my wife's.
We started hiking up in theCatskills about 2015, 2016.
We started going up and doingjust random trails.
We didn't really know what wewere doing.
We didn't have equipment.
I wasn't prepared physically ormentally to do these climbs.
(15:44):
My first couple of hikes I didin my patrol boots because I
didn't have hiking boots oranything like that.
We didn't have packs.
We carried way too much crap.
It was a slog.
We did a long weekend up at astate campground called North
South Lake.
That was kind of ourintroduction into longer hiking
ground.
State campground called NorthSouth Lake that was kind of our
(16:06):
introduction into longer hiking.
We did a good portion of whatthey call the escarpment trail,
which is just basically on theedge of the world and you're
looking down in the HudsonValley.
You can see the river in adistance.
It was October, so it's justoranges and yellows and reds and
all these wonderful.
It was beautiful and you justkind of fell in love with it.
Then my wife reads about the3500s and she's like, hey, why
don't we try to do this?
And it was at the time.
(16:27):
It was three of us.
It was my wife and I and herboss, who was an older gentleman
but he was hanging out a lotwith the family.
So we started this as a group.
So the first year we did it, wedid two and I was miserable the
entire time.
They were well way ahead of me,you know, I felt I died on some
(16:48):
of these mountains.
And we, you know, we weresupposed to continue on and do a
third one, but you know I Irebelled and said no, we need to
get out of here.
Because it was, it was October,but it wasn't beautiful October
anymore Now.
It was rainy and foggy and coldand miserable and and again,
still wearing combat boots forthe lack of a better word for it
just uncomfortable.
(17:08):
We did two in the fall.
Next spring we decided to do atrip.
We did four on that weekend.
We started kind of turning itinto we do a spring run, we do a
fall run and we started doingkind of expand.
We did two, then four, theneight, and we started getting
faster, we started doing moreresearch, we started getting the
right equipment and again,these are all, for the most part
(17:29):
, the trailed ones and there's alot of them that you can do and
you can do multiples in a day,because they're all connected
you go up one, you go down, yougo up another.
We made that pretty easy, so wekind of hit the low, low
hanging fruit, the easy ones.
Then we started trying to hitsome more of the difficult ones
(17:52):
Like they.
We have a?
Um, there's a trail called thedevil's path which traverses was
it four, on the front end.
Then it goes into a, into acall, and then you cross over
the road and then you climb upto the top of one of them, which
is one of the nastiest climbs,allegedly, because I've actually
never done it, but you'rebasically at the bottom of the
(18:13):
mountain.
You've got to climb 3,700 feetstraight up, and yeah, so we
actually did that mountain adifferent way, because that one
had multiple approaches, becauseit's actually also a ski
mountain.
It's called Hunter, so HunterSki Mountain, so there was a
snowmobile path we could takewhich was a little bit better,
and then the second half of theDevil's Path, I think, has only
(18:35):
two of the mountains, but againthere's some of the bigger ones,
and then there's one that islike 3,478 feet.
So it's not 3,500, but it prettymuch is.
I'm like, what the heck?
And again, we did that hike.
We didn't even realize that wewere doing it until you know
we're we're doing the thing andwe're like is this the mountain
that my wife looks at?
(18:55):
We had, you know, because wehad the, we had the electronic
maps, we had the physical maps.
And she goes no, this is calledSt Anne's Peak.
And we're like oh, we had somany nasty, inappropriate names
for that, for that freakingmountain, because we're like it
doesn't count, but we have toclimb over it, so this is pain
in the butt.
Yeah, then we started doing someof the more untrailed ones.
(19:16):
We started doing one-offs, like, oh, hey, we're gonna be up in
the summer for around 4th ofJuly at my in-laws.
Hey, let's run out and go, dothat mountain, mountain, because
there's a couple that are justlike off by themselves and it's
like you're not going to do themin combination or anything else
.
So we'd have one-offs or we'dbreak up some of the trails and
do two one day to the next day,and on a long weekend, like
(19:39):
Columbus Day weekend or MemorialDay weekend, we would do so.
We'd go out on Friday, we'd doa bunch on Saturday, do a bunch
on Sunday and then do like aone-off on the extra Monday
because we needed to head homeafter that.
So, yeah, it took us a while.
We lost.
He dropped out.
We didn't lose him.
My wife's boss ended up notwanting to continue after a
(20:02):
while and so we kind of droppedhim from it.
We gave him opportunitiesbecause we didn't want to get
too far ahead, but after I waslike we started going up to the
Catskills in the winter, likeour Christmas break for lack of
a better word was, instead ofgoing and traveling somewhere,
we'd go up and we'd stay at abed and breakfast and we'd relax
and we'd hit a couple ofmountains and we took care of a
(20:23):
couple of the winter hikes.
2020, right before COVID becamea serious thing, we did our last
two winter hikes during that,and so at that point I think we
had like two or three left, andthat fall we finished all but
one because they were untrailedand the only way to get to the
(20:44):
untrailed ones is you had toclimb a trailed one and then
find the herd path to go out tothe one and then from there out
to the last one, and we got solost in the fall that it was
starting to get dark.
So we went over the mountainscalled Picamoose.
We went over over that and thenwe had to go out to a mountain
(21:05):
called bone and we got so lostand so turned around and we're,
you know, I, I've no I to thisday.
I have no idea how, because mywife is very map savvy and I was
always just like I'll followyou, you're gonna be leading
anyway, because I can't keep upwith her.
But we got so turned around, solost with that, we eventually
made it to lone, but by the timewe got so turned around, so
lost with that, we eventuallymade it to Lone, but by the time
(21:25):
we got out there signed thatcanister.
It was like we don't even wantto try to do the last mountain,
which was called Rocky.
We left that fall with onemountain left to go.
So in 2021, I guess it was yeah,I think we finished in 21.
We went out to that.
We had to climb Pico Mousseagain.
We had to go all the way out toLone, but we had that one down
(21:49):
at this point.
And then we had to make it toRocky, and it was May, but it
was cold, it was rainy, we weremiserable, but we had been
training with our compass and wegot turned around again and
we're trying to follow theelectronic map and trying to
find the herd path andeverything and finally we're
just like, screw it, how did wefigure out how to do this?
(22:09):
So my wife got our bearings andshe set that compass and we
scratched and everything,because it is just scratching
the face.
We had goggles on and they'refogging up and we can't see
anything and we just followedthat compass and it led us right
to the canister and we wereobviously for people who orient
(22:31):
here all the time, it's likewell duh.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
But for us, it was
like magic.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
It was like unlocking
that thing.
We walked right to the canisterand then it was like all right,
now it like the end of anaction movie, like hey, we
defeated this.
Now what is the quickest way toheck out of here?
And so we actually basicallywent straight down the mountain.
There was a body of water likea creek that was running down
(22:54):
the mountain.
We just went straight down themountain to the creek and
followed that creek out.
You know, we were alreadysoaked anyway, so it didn't
really matter because we didn'twant to go back over those other
two mountains.
Just, you know, we're like no,we're just the hell out of here.
And then we had a well-deserved, massive steak dinner and
celebrated that.
(23:14):
And the next year is when westarted.
About a year and a half later,we started looking for and
that's when we've actually founda property that we purchased up
in the mountains and we reallyhaven't hiked that all that much
since.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
But you're up there.
You got a place up there whichis nice.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
We got a place up
there and, yes, we're eventually
going to start hiking again.
We promised each other that.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay, so by my count
it looks like it took you about
six years, then roughly a littleover six years, maybe six years
.
Yeah, yeah, okay, about sixyears or so, about six years to
do this and I love because, likeyou said, the first two that
you did terrible.
You're in your combat boots,you're not feeling good, but you
kind of got momentum.
It seems like you kind of gotbetter and better and you
(23:53):
figured things out and youstarted getting better.
What was that like for you?
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Well, it was funny
because we were big campers and
we started out in tents and at acertain point we actually
bought a small fiberglass camperand started taking that out and
now we've moved up to kind ofmore of the family camper it's a
little bit bigger fiberglasscamper.
We had to actually startdifferentiating between camping
and hiking.
So camping was we were going togo out, we were going to set up
(24:19):
the camper and we did thingsaround the campground.
We went to the lake and we hadcampfires and we do that.
But if we were just hiking, wewould go, we would set up the
camper, we would have our snacksand stuff, but we stopped
cooking at the campsite becauseit took too much time away.
When we originally were going,my wife would wake up and she
(24:40):
was great.
She'd cook us egg sandwichesand stuff like that that we
could take on the trail and thenwe would be out all day and
then we would come back and shewould make dinner and it was
just.
You know it was again,appreciate the heck out of that,
cause that takes a lot of work,especially when she's tired
also.
But we started um, there's somany cool little towns up there.
(25:00):
When we get to talking aboutsome of the fiction.
You know, a lot of these townswere really interesting because
they're built around skiing,they're built around hiking,
they're built around thesepeople coming in.
We stay in these campgrounds,but on our way back we'd be like
, hey, let's stop in Phoenicia,let's get a beer on our way back
Salvatore beer.
So we would stop and before youwere, you know, we'd have a
(25:22):
drink or two and it's like, ohwell, let's get some food while
we're here.
You know it got to the pointwhere, towards the end, you know
, or towards the middle of it,we started.
You know we would hike all dayand then we would come out, we'd
have dinner and stuff before wewent back to the campground and
then we'd hang at the camp and,you know, have a nice fire.
You know, have, you know,s'mores.
Or we started, you know westarted drinking heavy back at
(25:43):
there, drinking some Fireball ordoing some tequila shots.
Try to take away some of thatpain.
We started doing that and then,like I said, towards the very
end, when it was just my wifeand I, we were staying at bed
and breakfasts up in themountains and we met a lot of
really cool people doing that,especially in the winter.
We weren't camping in thewinter, so we found a great
(26:03):
place that we went back tomultiple times.
We'd have the breakfast there,but again, we were still going
out to dinner after we were done.
And the thing is a lot of thetimes we would plan.
I'll give you a specific.
There was these mountains weread about and my wife read
about.
I can't remember all theirnames so I'm not going to quote
(26:24):
all the names, but it was anuntrailed mountain that led to,
I think, one or two more, and itwas after you kind of got to
the top of the first one, youcould get to the next two pretty
easily and these were kind ofthe back end of the last ones we
did the Lone and Rocky.
They're part of a series ofmountains called the Never Sink
Nine.
But the Lone and Rocky they'repart of a series of mountains
(26:45):
called the Never Sink Nine, butI can't remember what these were
.
And so we went out early and wewere expecting a slog.
We thought it was going to takeus a lot longer than we did and
, to our credit, we did get lostfor a little bit.
We got turned around, but then,once we started getting up.
We got to the top of the firstmountain pretty quick, went out
to the second one no problems,got to the third and we came
(27:08):
back and we, we got done, weleft.
I think we got on the trail alittle before eight, eight,
thirty.
We got out there and we weredone at like one o'clock.
We did three of these mountainsat one o'clock it was.
It was like, what are we doingwith the rest of our day?
Like we were so quick.
So, um, we went and had lunch,we had a beer, you know, and so
(27:29):
yeah.
So again, it was a slog at first, but once we were kind of in
shape and kind of expectingthings and I was a lot more
mentally prepared for it andyou're like, okay, you know I've
done this before I'm going to.
You know it's going to be toughfor a while, but we'll, you
know we'll get there and it'sgoing to be worth it.
And and we just got so quick atthese things, even, even the
(27:49):
last mountain, like I said, wetechnically climbed three 3,500s
that day and we were still done, and back we didn't.
You know we didn't get a superearly start.
We got a decent early startthat day.
But we were.
We were back in time to take anap before we went out to dinner
, take a shower and take a napbefore we went out to dinner.
So we got pretty good.
We're a lot slower now, but westarted getting pretty good at
(28:12):
it.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I love it too,
because you have little
traditions and things like hey,we're going to go get a beer,
we're going to go to thesequaint towns and have dinner and
a beer and you have somethingto look forward to.
That's part of the fun of justeven travel in general.
But yeah, doing you know whenyou accomplish these hikes.
I think that's a cool way tokind of hey, let's go have a
beer and celebrate and enjoydinner together, we're gonna
(28:34):
celebrate the wins in life.
Absolutely speaking of that andI I'm gonna I want to read
something because I know when,when we talked, and I always
have people fill out a littleform kind of you know just what
are some things we want to hiton.
You did mention that duringthese, these six years of of
doing the cat skills 3500 thatyou and I'll kind of quote what
you said you had some, younavigated, some professional
(28:54):
setbacks, some maritalchallenges and even the loss of
loved ones.
So my question to you is howdid hiking and being in the
Catskills help you process thesethings, or what kind of things
were going on for you duringthis time?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Basically the entire
challenge of the 3500s were kind
of bookended by my mom passedaway in 2016.
Right when we were starting,you know, we only had a couple
under our belt.
She passed away in 2016.
And then my father died in 2022, about a year after we finished
.
So you have that.
(29:27):
And then my wife and I kind ofhit a mid-marriage crisis a lot
of other things going on,stresses of Because we waited
about 10 years to have ourdaughter.
So while we were married, wewere still focused on our
professional lives and all thatstuff.
And now we have a child andthat kind of just threw off our
(29:49):
relationship, because it kind ofchanged the dynamics of things
and we needed to work throughthat.
And then, professionally, I madesergeant in 2015.
And I spent about nine monthsor so on the day shift, which
was fine.
I was working Monday throughFriday, then sort of had to work
part of the weekend, and thenmid part of 2016, right before
(30:12):
my mom got ill, I went tomidnights and I kind of
volunteered for it becausesomebody had to do it.
I was one of the junior guys.
So I said, all right, hey, I'lljump on the grenade, I'll take
one for the team.
I'll do this and I was taken asprofessional challenge because
the guys who were assigned tomidnights were a little less
desirable for the agency or guysthat had some professional
(30:37):
difficulties themselves.
So that's why they were there.
They're kind of buried andhidden and nobody wanted to see
them.
Why they were there.
They're kind of buried andhidden and nobody wanted to see
them.
So I was going to take theseguys and I was going to try to
develop this team and that was alot more challenging than I
expected and I got stuck onMidnights for about three and a
half years, and that was aboutprobably two and a half years
more than I wanted to be there.
(30:58):
Again, I went through the loss,so all that's happening.
And then, literally right beforeCOVID, I finally got moved off
of the nights to the afternoonshift, which again that's all
presents challenges too, becausepeople's lives occur any after
work hours and those were when Iwas working.
So my daughter started going toschool and starting getting
(31:19):
involved in things, and so forme to be involved I had to take
time off from work.
So it was kind of slowing thatdown and just the politics of
the office.
As I kind of grew in seniority.
I was looked to be more of akind of the leader of leaders,
(31:49):
as the most senior sergeant onthe shift, and that had its own
challenges and I had a lot ofexpectations on that.
So that pressure startedgetting to me and I really
wanted to get off afternoons.
I spent another three and ahalf four years on afternoons.
Really wanted to get offafternoons.
I spent another three and ahalf four years on afternoons,
really wanted to get you know.
So it was just, you know,completely opposite what my
(32:09):
family was doing and I felt thatdistance.
So again, we finished that in21.
My father passed away in 22.
Later that year we had anelection and the old
administration was out.
New administration was in andthat was kind of when things
turned around for me, becausethe new administration were
basically a bunch of folks thatI'd come up with.
(32:32):
One of our retired captains waselected sheriff and I knew him.
He was a sergeant when Istarted and while I never had a
great personal relationship weweren't bus friends or anything
like that he didn't have anyproblems with me either.
He supervised me multiple times.
I could talk to him and hestarted promoting a lot of
people who were friends of minegrowing up.
(32:53):
A lot of my early supervisorsstarted rising through the ranks
.
My academy partner became alieutenant.
So he leaned on me a little bitmore because we had that
personal trust, a woman who hadstarted just after us.
She had transferred from theNYPD, she had a great career and
she started moving up.
So now she's our chief andshe's a big fan of mine because
we were always close and Ialways supported her, you know,
(33:16):
was supportive of her and andand worked well with her.
So now you know that kind ofcame back on, you know.
You know kind of paid itforward and you know kind of had
that, that, you know that rocky, rocky bit for a little bit.
Now, like I said, I just gotpromoted to Lieutenant.
My career's in a, you know kindof going in a completely
different direction now, andright in the middle was that
(33:36):
whole time of climbing, you knowclimbing the mountains and
stuff.
It was kind of the only thing Ilooked forward to.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
I kind of the only
thing I looked forward to.
I was going to ask you I kindof want to know what that
relationship was like with thecat skills when things are rough
for you professionally andwhatever.
You had the cat skills to kindof keep you going.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
it sounded like yeah,
we look forward to those trips.
I look forward to actually,because that was quality time I
could spend with my wife and wewere out in the mountains and we
didn't really talk Again.
She was always so far ahead ofme but that sense of
accomplishment together wasreally good.
We did a couple other crazythings on our anniversaries we
(34:11):
did.
That might've been 21 also wedid.
There's an escarpment trailthat goes from basically one
side of the Catskills to theother, kind of along this
escarpment that guy wasexplaining kind of overlooks the
Hudson Valley.
It's 24 miles.
Most people, you know, do it inmultiple days and they camp out
and stuff.
We did it in a solid 14 and ahalf hours doing a bunch of
(34:34):
those 3,500s again.
Also, by the way, that was a.
That was tough but you know weaccomplished that and again you
talk about.
So that's of the other bookendof stuff.
That was the last, that was forour anniversary.
That was the last anniversarymy father was alive for in 21.
He apparently had a deepconnection to the Catskills also
(34:56):
.
We never really talked about itall that much.
We took a faded ride around upthere one time.
We took a faded ride around upthere one time and a lot of this
stuff I built into my fiction.
He used to go up there.
My grandfather was a prolifichunter and so when he was a kid
he used to go up and hunt withhis dad and that's where he
(35:17):
courted my mom and that's wherehe kind of grew up.
His formative years were upthere.
So he had a lot of friends upthere and so we kind of drove
around up there and he had asteakhouse he really liked up
there.
And when he knew we were goingup for our anniversary we were
staying in the mountains, wewere going to go on this hike he
said tell me what day you'regoing out to dinner.
Boy, that's how he talked to me.
(35:40):
He's like let me know whereyou're going.
I'm like all right, dad, sure,we went to dinner.
And when it came time for thebill, they're like oh no,
somebody took care of it.
I'm like who?
And he go, somebody called andgave us a credit card and said
to take care of you guyswhatever you wanted.
And we were like so you know,you got to have that angry phone
call with your dad and like youknow, listen, dad, you know we
(36:01):
both have good courage, we canbuy our own dinner.
He goes no, I wanted to do thatfor you, boy.
So you know, that was kind ofthat thing.
And then the other end of thebook, and if you go back to 2016
, when the day we found out mymom had cancer she had liver
cancer was very aggressive.
The call came in from my sisterfrom the hospital while we were
(36:21):
hiking from the hospital.
While we were hiking, we wereat basically getting to the top
of this mountain, and I got thecall and she said you need to
come up to the hospital and itwas kind of you know.
So again, a lot of a lot ofvery interesting bookends for
that entire time.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Oh yeah, you had
things happen to you while you
were there.
So those those cat skills meana lot to you.
Then, just because of thingsthat have happened there and
your fiction, I mean I thinkyour, your whole it's set in the
cat skills.
Right?
Your your first novel that youwrote?
Yeah, tell me, talk.
Let's talk about this.
How did you get the idea ofwanting to be a writer and you
know what sparked this?
Speaker 2 (36:56):
so again, uh,
literature major, wanting to be
you know these, these, you knowprolific writers, and just
wasn't going to be that guy.
But I always had ideas.
I grew up with a lot ofimagination, creating characters
, creating all these differentsituations, and I wrote some of
them down.
I have a novel I've beenworking on since college.
(37:19):
Now that I determined that I'mjust going to drop a dead body
into it, I may actually get thatdone once I'm done with the
trilogy.
Again, at the end of all this,my father passed away in April
of 2022.
About a month later, actually,right before a hiking trip, we
were going to do the wholedevil's path in a weekend.
We were going to do half of itthere's a cramp ground in the
(37:40):
middle and then we're going todo the second half.
So in order to do that, I did aswap.
So I worked my afternoon shift,where we call it the C-line,
and then I stayed for theovernight shift.
It wasn't the first time I didit, but I'm getting old.
Now, too, I don't bounce backlike I used to.
So this was a day in May, andso it's about two o'clock in the
(38:01):
morning and nothing's happening.
We don't use the Q word in lawenforcement, because you never
know where that goes.
Try to jinx yourself.
We don't ever say quiet, but itwas rather uneventful.
It was a Friday morning, radiowas dead, which was great, and
I'm sitting at my desk and I'mdoing one of these and I'm like
(38:32):
and for some reason this, thisidea, just raced through my head
, and the the log line that camethrough my head was what if you
grew up knowing you wereadopted your whole life and you
had, you know, great life?
Your, your adoptive parentswere fabulous.
You got married young, you hadyour own.
Your married life was great,you had kids.
You kind of built this entireidentity around yourself.
And then you finally want toknow about your real past.
(38:54):
So you do one of those DNA tests, and at the time, I was
listening to a lot of true crimepodcasts to get through my day.
I get through my day, so I readabout the different situations
where people would do DNA tests,and it would help lead law
enforcement to identifyingsuspects, like they did with the
Golden State Killer and thingslike that.
So I was that was top of mindalso, but I said what if you
(39:27):
found out, though, when you didthis DNA test that your mother
was the cold case, unidentifiedcold case murder victim that
they had no idea who whocommitted the crime.
You know, and it was far flung,you know, from.
You know it was completelydifferent.
Like maybe you lived inCalifornia, cause I had
experience out there, you knowand then you find out this small
, small Catskill town was whereyour mother's body was found 40
years before.
And what would that do to you,what would go through your mind
(39:47):
with that?
And so I just kind of had thisidea and so I start.
You know I'm like, okay, hey,this is going to at least wake
me up, because now I got a freshthought, I got something.
And again, this is before thecurrent administration, so this
was on old administration time.
So I don't do this anymore.
I don't, I don't write whileI'm working and not that I have
time to, but you know so.
So I started developing thisidea.
I got a just a blank eight anda half by 11 sheet of paper,
(40:11):
printer paper, and I juststarted kind of sketching out
who these characters were andsome old habits that I used to
have kind of came out where Iwas like, okay, well, I need to
write like a scene.
I need to write something andkind of develop, kind of just
develop who these people are.
And it went from that log lineto well, what if you were a
young police officer?
(40:31):
At the same time, and maybe youdidn't have the greatest
relationship with your dad, hehad been the police chief and
when he was young in his careerhe was the one who found that
body.
So now I have these twocharacters that I'm kind of
parallel back and forth.
When I first started writing itwas it was dual, it was the one
character you know it was thefemale character in California
(40:52):
and the cop character in NewYork and they were going to you
know kind of collision courseand kind of meet in the middle.
So that was the original idea.
And then I just kind ofscrapped that and just focused
on the rookie police officer.
His name is Mike and we're justfollowing him through the story
.
Again.
The mountains were top of mind.
(41:14):
So I was like where betterplace to do this than the
Catskills?
What better town than the townof Hunter, where we spent a lot
of our time and my wife had beenobsessed with going to this
very specific location and everytime we went to go do it,
something would happen, it wouldrain, or you know, we were with
(41:34):
my daughter and she used to bevery anti-hiking but she was
obsessed with going to it.
It's called the PalinvilleOverlook, so finally, right
around that time I think we hadgone out there.
So Overlook was in the top ofmy mind.
I'm like maybe I can turn thisinto something.
I kind of used it as a genericthing.
That developed that not only isthere the cold case, murder,
(41:54):
but magically, 40 years later,there's also a modern day case
that seems to have very similarelements.
And that's kind of where thewhole thing kind of wrapped up.
All these things kind of cametogether, you know.
So I have the parental things,like a lot of the foster home
and being being adopted.
Things come from my mom.
My mom was in the Catholicfoster care system when she was
(42:17):
a kid, came from a medium size Isay medium size Irish family.
It was only eight, um.
So you know, and they, they allkind of experienced that system
.
So that was kind of part of it.
But then mike's dad was also.
You know, mike's dad in the inthe book also came up to the
mountains hunting with hisfather.
So you know a lot of that withmy dad, you know.
(42:39):
So I had a lot of this, thisparental stuff that.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Yeah, a lot of this
parental stuff that was going on
, yeah, a lot of parallels kindof things, stuff that you could
take.
I like that.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
And then the cat
skills were the perfect backdrop
, the perfect setting for allthis.
And then, as I started kind offilling out the characters, what
I did was I'm like, oh, I needan investigative character.
So I started looking around theoffice and I'm like, well,
there's that guy over there.
He's kind of weird and kind ofinteresting, but also so is that
guy over there.
So I started kind of puttingthese guys together, like
(43:10):
there's a state policeinvestigator that gets involved
in the case.
His name's Felix.
He is a combination of aboutthree or four different guys I
worked with.
He's a snappy dresser.
We had an investigator thatwould wear literally a
three-piece suit.
He had all matching I mean, hewas so fancy and so this
character dresses like him.
But he also has the attitude ofa couple other different
(43:32):
investigators I've worked withover the years and he has a name
of a friend of mine who passedaway early on.
So I kind of wanted to buildall that together.
Then Mike's best friend and kindof somewhat mentor on the force
is this older fella.
He's based almost completely onmy partner from when I was
still on patrol workingmidnights and he uses a lot of.
(43:55):
He used to call me littlebrother and he was a big, he was
a kind of a steadying force inmy early career so I needed the
characters kind of being anchor.
Then I needed the I wouldn'tsay hotshot, but just there's so
many guys I work with areeither former military or
(44:17):
military adjacent, and they'rejust so precise and so sharp
with what they do in theircareer and they are, I wouldn't
say necessarily moral, but Ineeded a moral compass.
But I wanted somebody that kindof embodied, that moral compass
.
And this guy is basicallyobsessed with making sure the
(44:37):
creases on his sleeves are 100%perfect.
So I needed a character likethat.
So I just started building allthese cop characters around
people I knew and then when Ineeded antagonists I had plenty
of people that that filled thatrole to fill that role too and I
just kind of, you know, I builtthem together and probably
should have changed a couplemore names, but you know and but
(44:59):
they're coming around because,you know, even though these guys
are antagonists in the storyand are antagonists in my career
and I kind of did it as a jokeoriginally they're still
honorable people, people for themost part.
So I can't really say it's allnegative.
Nothing's that simple.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
What's been the
reaction to, especially with a
lot of the local people andpeople who kind of know that you
kind of took bits and pieces ofthem.
What's been the reaction fromeverybody?
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So I haven't had a
ton of reaction from people up
in the mountains.
I did early on I did an eventat the community center in
Wyndham where I had a couple oflocal people come in.
It was kind of a weird Decemberday so I didn't have a huge
turnout, but I had enough.
I had a couple of friends comeand support me, along with my
(45:50):
family, but then, you know, fiveor six locals kind of were just
like.
You know, I got nothing betterto do.
Let's go see what this kid'sgot to talk about.
So you know, I did a wholepresentation, uh, talking about
how I wrote the story and cameup with it, building the
parallels of my career, so youknow.
So I did this whole author talkand then at the end I did a
reading where I read the scenewhere mike responds to and finds
(46:12):
the dead body.
Part of that is he.
Basically he's on one end ofthe town and he has to go to the
other end of the town.
Part of the description is himhaving to wind down this main
road in order to get there, andyou have to, he has to.
He's going to the foot of theOverlook Trail, so he actually
has to wind down an area calledKatterskill Falls, and it is
(46:33):
hairpin.
I think hairpin would not quitedescribe it, I don't know a
more extreme word, but it justgoes one way.
And then you're I mean, it'salmost switchbacks, like one on
top of each other, but you'redriving so and again he's trying
to drive a police car as fastas he can because he's a rookie
and doesn't understand that youcan take your time.
(46:53):
But one of the locals was likeI know exactly what you're
talking about.
And then of course he asked thepolly and he's like technically
that wouldn't be the town ofhunter.
I said yes I know, but for thelack of you know, bear with me
here a little bit.
You know I'm trying to be asaccurate as possible, but you
know it's not that easy yeah,and it's still fiction.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
You're still writing
a fiction book.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
None of these people
are real.
They're not based on anybody,actually, because I don't
actually know the local lawenforcement up there.
There is a town policedepartment.
They're kind of on the smallside.
I've never really spoke toanybody there.
I should give them copies ofthe books, though, and get an
endorsement for the third one.
Now, yeah.
So that's been the reaction outof that.
And then the other reaction isguys from my job who read the
(47:44):
book and are like hey, is thisbased on this person or?
Speaker 1 (47:47):
is that based on that
?
Speaker 2 (47:48):
And then, one of my
field training officers.
There's the first scene in thebook describes vehicle stop that
Mike does, but from theperspective of the person he's
stopping and he's watchingeverything kind of unfold.
And one of the early things hedoes is Mike gets out of the car
and he closes the door.
But he closes the door Like hegets it to right before it locks
(48:10):
and then he pushes it quietlyclosed.
This guy, when we were firstworking together I maybe had a
week and a half on the road wedid a vehicle stop and I got out
from passenger side and Islammed that door and I thought
he was going to strangle meright there.
He's like don't ever do it.
And to this day he still works.
(48:31):
He still works for the office.
He's a good friend, but hebusts my chops every day.
I mean, it doesn't matter thatI'm you know the the boss of his
boss now he'll still bust mychops every day about it.
And I let him.
But he, he read that book andhe read that over.
He read that over Christmaslast year and he's like he goes
(48:52):
huh, where did you get that from?
Where did you learn that?
I love it, you know.
So it's just those little kindof inside things and inside
jokes that we have, you know,and just the way you know the
insular nature of lawenforcement is, you can bust on
each other and treat each otherlike crap, kind of like what's
(49:15):
the movie from the 70s, you know?
Only we get to pick on our, ourpledges, yeah, yeah no one else
does.
This is, you know, animal house.
You know, you know only only weget, only we get to.
You know, rip on our pledgesand you know so.
You know, mike, mike is, youknow there's, there's hazing
that goes on and I've seen thatnot only in law enforcement.
But you know, like when I firststarted working, when I was 16
(49:35):
years old, working for thecompany my dad worked for you
have to haze somebody to makesure they're worthy of it.
Or my partner, who I based thecharacter Hugh Bell on, his
thing was if we didn't pick onyou, you can tell we like you
because we're picking on you.
If we didn't like you, wewouldn't talk to you.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Exactly that's what
I've been told.
I go, hey, as long as peopleare messing with you and
picking's you know.
You know, if we didn't like you, we wouldn't talk to you.
Exactly that's what I've beentold.
I go, hey, as long as peopleare messing with you and picking
on you, then you know, you'reokay.
If they're not talking to you,then you might.
You know, then you got problems.
So I've heard that.
So I've heard that for sureyeah, so you know.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
So there's a lot of
that and just I just wanted to
make these law enforcementcharacters as real as possible
also.
But I get a lot.
I get a lot of compliments anda lot of things that you know.
The Catskills are kind of themain character in a lot of this,
so Well, I love that.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
You've had, you know,
all those years in the
Catskills.
You've got a place there now.
It means a lot to you.
It shows from the, from yourbook.
The thing I like, too, is I cantell these characters come to
life for you.
I mean, you're talking aboutthese as if they're like real
and I know you've built this.
I'm sitting here thinking theseare, you know, it almost feels
like real people.
I know it's fiction, but Ithink that's what you've done.
(50:44):
I'm excited to read your booksbecause I think that's what I'm
going to get is I'm going to getto know these characters.
Speaker 2 (50:49):
Yeah, that's, that's.
That's a lot of it.
And you know, and now you know,I had the first book and I, you
know, I wanted to kind of buildthe story and build the basic,
you know, the basic world, but Ididn't want to broaden it too
much and have, you know, toomany things going on.
I did a pretty decent job,knowing I wanted to put it out
(51:09):
to a trilogy.
I did a pretty decent job inthe first book of establishing
who matters and who's connectedto who, without kind of
broadening the depth you know,and just kind of created, you
know, you know this guy's thefather of this guy and this
guy's grandfather is this guyand these guys all knew Mike's
dad and these people over hereknew, knew Mike's dad from this
(51:32):
and and how they're allinterconnected.
And then in the second book, um, which is coming at the end of
the month, I kind of blow a lotof that up and I make it more
complicated and then hopefully,in the third book, I can
actually resolve some of thesethings.
But we'll see how that goes.
We haven't written that one yet.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Sure, well, okay, so
here we got to know.
So you've got a book out,you've got one coming out, part
of the trilogy.
What's the names?
Where can people find thesebooks?
Speaker 2 (52:02):
How do we do this?
So the first book is called OurLady of the Overlook.
That's what the cover lookslike.
If you buy it from my website,I will sign it, I will
personalize it, I'll do allthose wonderful things and I'll
send it out to you.
If you want a little bit of aneasier thing, it is available on
Amazon, both print and ebook,and it is available on Kindle
Unlimited.
For you know, it's a big thing.
I've learned marketing andstuff.
There are people that you knowI only want a hardback, I only
(52:25):
want a paperback, I only doebooks, I only do audiobooks.
Like I'm an audiobook consumer,I have a 45-minute commute, so
podcasts and audiobooks are howI get through my day or through
my commute.
That is, audio booksforthcoming, hopefully soon.
I'm trying to line up anarrator.
I kind of, you know, cartbefore the horse on some of this
stuff.
By the time the third bookcomes out, I want to have all
three prepared to go on Audible.
(52:48):
So that's where you can getthat, that you can order that
there.
Second book this is the proofcopy.
You can see the little not forsale, but it's called Quiet
Whispers of the Overlook.
It is due out on Amazon onAugust 29th, currently running a
pre-order through August 1stwhich by the time everybody gets
to listen to this it'll be over, but that'll be for sale
(53:11):
probably by the time thisepisode gets out there.
Going to work on probably somekind of deal where you know if
you want to buy both at the sametime, we can do that for you
know.
You know two for you know.
You know like they're usually,you know usually 20 bucks, you
know maybe we'll do two for 35or something like that.
And you know, save some, savesome folks some money.
But yeah, that's where you canfind me on website.
(53:33):
I didn't say that.
Yeah, website iswwwrlcarpentierwritercom.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Carpentierwriter okay
.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah,
rlcarpentierwritercom.
You can also sign up for mynewsletter there.
I am a pretty faithfulnewsletter writer.
I get it out every week,getting a little less in depth
because there's just you know, Ijust feel like I'm repeating
myself, but every week I getthat newsletter out there and I
got some faithful readers onthat Facebook.
(54:03):
I post semi regularly on thereand whatever carries from
Facebook over to Instagram, kindof you know, but I'm not.
I'm not a huge social media guy.
It's hard to, it's hard to keepup on that.
And, again, my job's become alot more complicated in the last
couple months too, whichmonopolized a lot of that time.
I'm independent, self-published, so I'm doing my own marketing,
(54:26):
I'm doing everything, so I'mtrying to juggle a bunch of
stuff and also being a dad, ahusband, cleaning house and
maintaining things too while,and cleaning house and
maintaining things too while.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
There's a lot going
on.
We have a lot going on, that'sfor sure.
I love the fact that you didthis.
I think this is a greataccomplishment.
I'm excited to look into thesebooks as well and kind of read
your story and see what's goingon with that.
I will put these in the shownotes as well.
I'll put the link to thewebsite and everything so people
can kind of go there and checkit out and order the book from
you.
I think that's the way to go.
I mean, who wants?
I want to get a signed copy.
I think that's the way to do it, you know order from your
(54:58):
website.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Yeah, I agree, and
keep Jeff Bezos out of out of it
for a little bit.
He's got, he's got plenty ofmoney, he's good, yeah, he's
good.
Yeah, you know, getting readers, hearing what people have to
(55:19):
say, having that one-on-one.
I make a lot of sales I do.
In New York.
We have especially my area.
We have a lot of work calledstreet fairs where you just you
know, you set up a table and atent and you sell stuff.
And I've gotten to the point.
I've done three of them sincethe beginning of June and I can
tell I can read a reader from amile away, like people walk by
(55:41):
me.
I spent I think it took me twoand a half hours to make my
first sale at the last one, butI'm watching people walk by.
I'm like, nope, those, thosearen't it, those aren't it.
Then I saw somebody and theywalked by and they were, they
were looking kind of out of thecorner of their eye and then
they walked down the street alittle bit and then I saw him
come back and again I got theeyeball and she was talking to
(56:02):
her boyfriend or whatever.
Third pass, they kind ofstopped and then they walked up.
I'm like, oh yeah, I got you,but it was great because I
talked to him and I said, hey,and again, the more that I do
this, I'm learning how to marketmyself and talk to people.
But I love that connection and,again, that's why I like my
newsletter so much and I'mreally starting to get a lot of
(56:26):
good communication back andforth with some of the people
who read my newsletter.
They'll start asking questionsand they'll respond back.
Recently had to put down our dogthat we had for 16 years.
I missed the newsletter thatweek.
I couldn't, you know.
It happened on a Sunday and Ijust everything going on, I
didn't get my newsletter out.
(56:47):
So this past week I kind ofwrote an apology and say sorry I
missed it.
But this is the reason and I'vebeen flooded with condolences,
which is just nice, you know,people just well-wishing, you
know, and just kind of havingthat back and forth.
You know I'm going for thatauthenticity.
That's what I write about.
I'm writing about a real place.
I'm writing about real-ishpeople.
(57:07):
The circumstances may be fake,but it's based on a lot of
reality.
So there's that authenticityand I love.
You know, I like to have arelationship with the readers
also and I love getting feedbackand reviews.
And you know, as long as you'reconstructive, you can say
negative things, but just beconstructive, don't be mean.
Speaker 1 (57:30):
Yeah, yeah, exactly,
I'm with you there A hundred
percent.
Well, this has been fascinating.
I'm really excited to getinvolved in the books myself,
appreciate your story,appreciate what you did, you
know going to the catskills andhow that's kind of you know.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
That's the base now
for your, for your novels, which
is really cool yep, um, andeven even some of the future
ideas, uh, that I've had.
I'm working on a little bitmore historical stuff because my
wife really loves the historyof everything up there.
She's reading, reading aboutthe is they had a lot of
vacationing places up there.
They had, uh, competingmountain houses and hotels and
(57:57):
things like that throughout the1800s and early 1900s, which is
fascinating.
I'm like that.
That that would be a you know,that'll be a rich, a rich field
to go to for some stories.
I bet too.
You know, I'm just fascinatedwith that, you know.
So Stephen King has dairy, youknow, and if I have the cat
skills, you know, that's greatyeah.
Speaker 1 (58:15):
I love it.
So my final question to youwe've been chatting for quite a
while.
My final question to you thisis a question I like to ask
everybody, because Journey withJake is an adventure podcast.
So for you, rodney, what doesadventure mean to you?
Speaker 2 (58:27):
I think that you
should try to have an adventure
throughout your entire life.
There should be.
You know life should be anadventure.
Life there should be.
You know life should be anadventure and you have the ups
and downs and you have thingsthat you want to accomplish and
you know, constantly moveforward in life.
You know, and you can havelittle things you know again,
like I had.
You know, bookended tragedieswhile climbing the Catskills and
(58:51):
and and just kind of reallyseeing the poetry.
And you know things in lifethat exist and if you're not
trying to do something new orsomething different or something
better, you know, maybe notevery day, but you know, and
snippets of your life you know.
That's what makes life worthdoing.
So I think you know your entirelife should try to be an
(59:11):
adventure and figure out whatthe you know.
You know if you finish onething, what's the next thing.
Speaker 1 (59:16):
Rodney, thank you so
much for coming on Journey with
Jake.
Speaker 2 (59:18):
Thank you for having
me.
Jake Really appreciate it.
Had a great time.
Speaker 1 (59:21):
A heartfelt thank you
to Rodney Carpentier for
opening up and sharing his paththrough the wild beauty of the
CAT skills, the challenges oflife in law enforcement and the
creativity that bloomed into hismystery novel.
His journey is a reminder thatthe peaks we climb are often as
much within us as they arebefore us.
If you'd like to step furtherinto Rodney's world, visit
(59:42):
rlcarpentierwritercom to learnmore and grab a copy of his book
.
And to you, my friends, thankyou for listening, for sharing
in these stories and for keepingthe spirit of adventure alive.
If this conversation moved you,please share.
Journey with Jake, with someonewho could use a little
inspiration today.
Next week we'll set sailliterally, with Alison Geish,
(01:00:04):
who's traveling the world by seawith her husband, weaving her
experiences into her writing.
It's a voyage you won't want tomiss.
Until then, just remember it'snot always about the destination
as it is about the journey.
Take care everybody.