May 11, 2025 • 57 mins
Mother's Day meets cycling adventures in this spirited episode where we dive into the exciting plans for Big Brag 2025 with Executive Director Franklin Johnson. Before our special interview, we share some cycling-related Mother's Day facts and celebrate that our upcoming Big Brag adventure coincides with World Bicycle Day on June 3rd!
Michael regales us with tales from the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting, complete with plentiful Dairy Queen ice cream and Warren Buffett's retirement announcement. We also crown a winner in our Listener Spotlight segment, revealing Naples, Florida—the golf capital of the world with more golf holes per capita than anywhere else in the United States—as our mystery location.
The highlight of our episode is our exclusive conversation with Franklin Johnson, who shares breathtaking details about his recent Croatia cycling adventure before unveiling exciting plans for the Dawsonville rest day during Big Brag 2025. Franklin describes what he calls "Awesomeville" activities including cycling on a professional F1 racetrack, racing go-karts at 60mph, and visiting Amicalola Falls—Georgia's tallest waterfall. We learn about convenient shuttles, nearby dining options, and even a distillery within walking distance of camp. Throughout our conversation, Franklin provides valuable updates on route planning, century-ride adjustments, and helpful logistics for participants.
As the episode wraps up, we tease special team activities planned for Dawsonville and launch a new Listener Spotlight challenge featuring clues about a city that changed its name before the War of 1812, had nine Civil War generals from opposing sides born nearby, and could have inspired a famous Elton John song.
Ready for an unforgettable cycling adventure? Listen now and discover why Dawsonville promises to be the highlight of Big Brag 2025! Whether you're already registered or considering joining us, this episode will fuel your excitement for what lies ahead on Georgia's beautiful roads.
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Embarking on a journey of camaraderie that spans years, Adam and Michael have cultivated a deep friendship rooted in their mutual passion for cycling. Through the twists and turns of life, these two friends have pedaled side by side, weaving a tapestry of shared experiences and good-natured teasing that only solidifies the authenticity of their bond.
Their cycling escapades, filled with laughter and banter, are a testament to the enduring spirit of true friendship. Whether conquering challenging trails or coasting through scenic routes, Adam and Michael's adventures on two wheels are a testament to the joy found in the simple pleasures of life.
If you're on the lookout for a podcast that captures the essence of friendship and the thrill of cycling, look no further. Join them on this audio journey, where they not only share captivating stories but also invite you to be a part of their cycling community. Get ready for a blend of fun tales, insightful discussions, and a genuine celebration of the joy that comes from embracing the open road on two wheels. This podcast is your ticket to an immersive and uplifting cycling-centric experience.
and Remember,
It's a Great Day for a Bike Ride!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of
Leisure, as usual.
As you would expect, I am Adamand once again, I am lucky
enough to be joined with my goodfriend, mr Michael Sharp.
How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I am doing well.
Thank you very much.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good, good, good good .
It's good to be with you.
We've been together a littlebit more and more recently, but
I always look forward to it.
A little pep in my step todayknowing that we were going to
record tonight.
So this show is coming out onMother's Day.
So, first of all, on behalf ofmyself and Michael, happy
(00:38):
Mother's Day to all the mothersout there.
Absolutely, Speaking of that,you not only have a mother, but
you also have a wife who is amother.
What's the big plans?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Not a lot of big plans, honestly.
She is actually workingSaturday night, so Sunday she'll
get home.
She'll be pretty tired, but I'msure we'll find something fun
to do so.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So I asked my administrative aide and she's
smart as a whip and veryquick-witted and very quick I
said so.
I said she has three childrenand I said so what is the big
hope?
Like breakfast in bed, and shesaid no.
I said take you out to lunch?
(01:28):
And she said no.
And I said what's the goal?
She said if I'm lucky, maybe myhusband will take care of
everything and I get a date ofmyself.
And I was like thanks forplaying so close.
That's not going to happen soclose, just a bit outside.
Yeah close, that's not oh soclose, just a bit outside
exactly.
Well, you are normally thehistory, uh, history buff,
(01:53):
history guy, history connoisseurwho brings all kinds of cool
stuff to our show and and we'llget to that in a little bit.
But I thought, in honor of you,who normally does all of the
work, that I would do a littlechat gbt.
I'm going to be honest where Igot, where I came from, you got
man's gotta gotta be honest withthe sources that appreciate
(02:14):
that uh.
But I went to chat gbt and saidtell me some interesting facts
about cycling and mother's day,and I have a few things for you.
Wow, really yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Okay, I'm impressed.
Okay, you said you hadsomething interesting for me and
I thought, well, you'reprobably going to tell me you
know Mother's Day, you knowfounded what?
May 8th of 1914 or something,you know just stuff like that.
But you've got it inassociation with cycling.
So I'm excited.
This should be good.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, and one of the things is pretty cool happens
when we're going to be at BigBrag 2020, 2025, if I can speak
English.
All right, here's some cyclingfacts.
First, you're not going to bethat surprised by the cycling
facts.
Okay, the modern bicycle designwith two equal size wheels and
(03:04):
a chain dates back to the 1880s.
That's not surprising to you.
You're a guy who knows thatCycling has some health benefits
.
Cycling is excellent forcardiovascular health, joint
mobility and mental well-being.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, you're not surprised about that.
I'm glad that I'm not doingthis for nothing, so that's good
, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Obviously, it has an environmental impact.
Bicycles produce zero emissions, making them one of the most
eco-friendly transport options.
Popularity the Netherlands hasmore bicycles than it does
people.
But now this is interesting.
This is what you're going tolove, okay, on June 3rd, when
you and I are in the middle ofGeorgia riding our bicycles, it
(03:49):
is World Bicycle Day, which iscelebrated on June 3rd, as
declared by the United Nations.
I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
That is awesome.
We'll have to do somethingspecial in support of World
Bicycle Day.
Franklin should build that up alittle bit, you know, I mean I
know in the morning he's gettingeverybody rallied up.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's like it's national or world bicycle day,
whoo I know I was thinking foryou I'm thinking to myself,
buddy, you should, uh, maybesell a special decal or
something.
So there you go.
He will have enough time.
This comes out on Mother's Day,so he's got time to order it.
So Mother's Day facts.
(04:30):
Now this was a little bitinteresting.
The modern Mother's Day beganin the United States in 1908,
thanks to Anna Jarvis, andbecame a national holiday in
1914.
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
In fact, I think that's just what I said at the
beginning.
Remember I said I thought youwere probably just going to give
me facts about, you know, may8th, 19.
What was?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
it 1914.
1914.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When it officially Congress.
You know the president signedit.
I think it would have beenWilson was the president about
that time?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Oh yeah, he was great .
He was great.
I remember that Good presidentWoodrum.
On global celebrations,countries celebrate it on
different dates.
In the US, it's the secondSunday in May.
The most popular gift isflowers, especially carnations.
Greeting cards and brunches aretop choices.
(05:29):
Phone calls is the busiestphone call day of the year
Mother's Day.
I can see that and the economicimpact.
Mother's Day is one of thebiggest retail holidays,
generating billions with a B inspending Now here are three.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You don't want to cheap it up with mom.
I mean, come on, no.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
No, of course not.
I mean, this is mom who's beenthere cleaning up after you when
you're sick and letting youwatch the Price is Right.
Oh, wait a minute.
That was maybe just my house,sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh, no, no, no, when you were sick, yeah, you got to
watch the TV.
The price?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
is right and remember , spay and neuter your pet
Little Bob Barker there.
Yeah, now here are some factsabout well, some things about
cycling and Mother's Daytogether.
Some cities organize Mother'sDay bike rides or charity
cycling events to promote healthand togetherness with mom.
How about active gifting?
(06:28):
Bikes or accessories likestylish helmets or electric
bikes are becoming popular giftsfor active moms.
But the biggest one is qualitytime with mom.
While many choose to spendMother's Day bike ride on a
scenic trail very thoughtful,health way, healthy way to spend
a day together and then theit's so funny, the chat gbt has
(06:49):
a sense of humor because it saysand afterwards, maybe take mom
out for brunch, which totallytakes away the fact that, well,
it could be healthy brunch, Iguess.
But, um, anyways, I thought inhonor, you're the one usually
who does the deep dive and,looking, I thought it'd be a
little fun to go down that path.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I am impressed and thank you.
The chunk of that I did notknow.
So yeah, happy Mother's Day toall the mothers out there.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
We appreciate it June 3rd, World Bicycle Day, so I
will be one with my bicycle onJune 3rd.
You will you will, you will.
We have a couple things.
We obviously have our normal,but most people in this time wow
, this is the biggest episode ofguesses of Listener Spotlight.
(07:43):
We have four independentguesses for listener spotlight
are any of them right I?
I, I, I, uh, of of.
There are two statesrepresented with with the four
guesses, and I would go one ofthe states has three guesses,
(08:03):
okay, and I'm going to go with aV word with one of the states
and we'll get to that here injust one second, okay.
We also were finally able tosit down with the man, the myth,
the legend, oh yes, the man whoruns Big Brag 2025, brag Spring
(08:26):
Tuna, international Brag, allkinds of brag, all the brag.
You can get A lot of brag, allthe brags you could ever want.
Executive Director, mr FranklinJohnson, and we'll play that in
a little bit, but before we getto Listener Spotlight, I wanted
to give you the floor.
Did you have anything else?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
No, I didn't.
I did have a fun weekend lastweek, as you know, uh went up to
see Berkshire Hathaway, whichis Warren Buffett's stock.
You know the Oracle of Omaha,uh, do that every year.
Uh, it's something that'ssomewhat of a family tradition,
and no, I'm not a.
You know an a shareholder.
That's of a family tradition,and no, I'm not an A shareholder
.
Those are worth like $850,000 ashare, but it doesn't matter,
(09:09):
you can have B and still go, youcan have partial shares and
still go.
So I went up there, had a lot offun.
He made the big announcement heis stepping down as CEO, so
that was an interesting riff inthe whole thing, but had a good
(09:30):
time.
Maya always likes to go upthere, which it's always fun.
And I think the cool thing isis, over the years I went about
15 years over the years fromwhen I originally started going
to now a lot more children, kids, young people are out at these
things and I and I just getexcited about that because it's
like, yeah, that's cool.
(09:50):
People are out there learningabout okay, maybe you're not
learning necessarily, butindirectly you're learning about
investments and that type ofthing.
So that was cool to see.
So you know kids are gettinginterested in some old school
type stuff.
You know like investing in thattype of stuff.
(10:12):
So maybe they'll start cyclingmore.
You never know.
I have two very importantquestions.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Okay, did you have any ice cream?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Did you have any ice cream?
I had more ice cream than Ireally needed.
Berkshire Hathaway for thosewho don't know owns a Dairy
Queen and they have the big showup there where he answers
questions for people and stuffall day, but then downstairs a
lot of the different stockcompanies that he owns are down
there hawking their wares.
(10:44):
It's a brilliant way to, youknow, boost your earnings.
But yeah, dairy Queen was thereand I had four or five Dilly
bars and maybe a, you know,peanut buster bar.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
But, yeah, a lot of ice cream.
On the advice of my good friend, Mr Michael Sharp, the co-host
of Road Adventures, of CyclingMen, of Leisure, I took a very
large investment and bought Bshares of Berkshire Hathaway and
they have done very, very well.
My question is is with theretirement, am I okay?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
This is just my thought.
I'm not a financial advisoranymore.
This is just my thought.
On the whole thing, we werereally worried.
A lot of us as shareholders arereally worried.
Like you know, seven, eight,nine years ago because it was
very secretive about who wasgoing to take over, and so
everybody got worried that it'slike what happens if something
happens to him and he doesn'tannounce who the next person is
(11:46):
that's taking over.
That would have thrown thisstock into complete chaos who's
taken over?
And would have really, reallyhurt the business.
Fortunately, the last threeyears or so he kind of had
designated who would be takingover.
It's just at this meeting hefinally said hey, I'm stepping
down, not retiring, steppingdown, um.
So I think we're in great shapenow because the people that
(12:08):
he's got in there, he's, youknow, he's been grooming them
for years, um, but I think if itwould have happened, something
would have happened to him likefive, six, seven years ago.
The uncertainty would have, youknow, just crushed the stock.
But you're okay, I'm glad, I'mglad to hear that Cause.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
I didn't know where you're going with that.
I was like, oh no, no, no, no,no.
What's funny is is the, the.
Uh, I'm not afraid to share the.
The stock that I had wasPepsiCo and you and I were on a
ride and you said are you sureyou want to keep that there?
And I was buying it on costallocation.
So you know, we talk aboutinvesting a little bit on this
show a lot.
So cost allocation just meansif you don't know what that
(12:47):
means, I was just buying a shareon a regular, scheduled basis,
Dollar cost averaging Yep, yepEvery now and then I would get a
share.
That would be.
You know, I'd hit that out ofthe park the next week.
I wouldn't pay way too much,but you and I kept talking about
it.
And then in Europe they decidedto pull Pepsi out of a lot of
the grocery stores and so youhad made the recommendation and
(13:12):
it's been a good recommendation,by the way, you and your wife
have helped me out and myCasey's.
I got to say my.
Casey's is still doing very,very well.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
When do I start seeing my brokerage fees?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Just a bit outside, not today.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, let's you know.
But I do have always caveated.
I am not an investment advisor,not an investment professional.
Years ago I was in the business.
I'm not anymore, so what I sayis just Michael Sharp's
unprofessional opinion.
So take it for what that'sworth.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Ladies and gentlemen, file all complaints to
Lewisburg, kansas.
I'm just kidding, all right.
Well, listen, I appreciate yousharing that, Believe it or not.
My good friend and neighbortexts me and we always talk
about investing here on thestreet, when we're, you know,
like king of the hill, takingover the world, standing out
(14:10):
with Warren Buffett's retiring,I said what if I told you my
good friend is there and yourwife had posted a couple of
pictures on Facebook?
So I went to Facebook andscreenshot it to show that you
were outside.
He's like he really is there.
I'm like he really is Notmaking this up.
(14:30):
Well, all right, I'm excited.
We got four guesses.
Then we'll play the Franklininterview and then we'll come
back and finish her off, allright?
With that being said, I don'twant to blow it.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is nowtime for the listener spotlight
(14:52):
.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
All right, listener spotlight, the clues that I gave
you for last episode were asfollows this town was founded in
the 1880s by a formerConfederate general.
This community was likened toItaly early on Major
(15:12):
developments.
Major development did not occurto this area for a good long
time, however, during World WarII.
That's when it started toreally develop and pick up.
If you are into golf, this cityis for you, and if you don't
(15:36):
like golf, pickleball, this townloves pickleball.
And then my final clue, whichwas maybe the giveaway, maybe
the one that threw everybody off, I don't know.
The Spanish conquistadors foundno fountain of youth, but if
they were there today, theymight think that they had found
(15:59):
the seven cities of gold.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
We got four guesses.
The two states that wererepresented in the guesses are
Arizona and Florida.
Just to kind of give that away,so I'm going to give you the
guesses in order that we receivethem.
Okay, so first up is our goodfriend, friend of the show, matt
(16:24):
Robinson.
And Matt was the first to guessand he said I'm almost certain
it's not, but I guess a town inmy state of my birth.
But I guess a town in my stateof my birth, yuma, arizona,
founded in the mid-1880s as astructured town, no real
(16:45):
industry until World War II.
Airfield Coronado and otherspassed through in the gold tie,
via nearby mines and prospectorroutes, and now filled with
retirees.
Golf and pickleball Okay, solid, all right.
(17:06):
The second guest we got is fromour team member, debrim wearer,
beautiful woman herself, whohas a husband who also wears a
Debrim, by the way, melanieErickson.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Is the Debrim really important?
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I'm the one reading.
Just kidding Melanie, thank youreading it.
I'm just kidding Melanie, thankyou very much.
She says two things, so firstshe has a guess and then the
song Rome.
Last episode we did Rome.
It was supposed to be the B-52swhich makes way more sense now.
And I do know the song because Isaid it and now it's like I
don't know if I know that songor not.
(17:38):
I do, but her listenerspotlight guess is the Villages,
florida.
Golf and pickleball are hugeleisure activities and they say
people who move to the Villageslive up to 20 years longer.
Fountain of youth, quitepossibly.
I'm going with Melanie's guessguest.
By the way, there's two otherguesses, but I told you that I
(18:00):
was going to go with one of thev's.
I'm going to go with thevillages.
Okay, all right.
Our third guest I have to go tomy phone here was our good
friend and team member, armandoarmando.
Uh, my guess is naples, florida.
More holes of golf than anyother city.
It holds a major pickleballtournament and was a training
(18:22):
site for Army Air Force.
And then, last but certainlynot least, another V word is
Venice, florida, which is Jeff,who has guessed correctly before
.
He is our weather aficionadoand saved our butt in Ragbri.
(18:42):
So there you have it.
You have Venice, florida, theVillages, florida, naples,
florida and Yuma, arizona.
Michael, tell us, how did ourguesses, do you know?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
what Someone got it right.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
All hold on, hold on.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I don't get to do this very often all right, so I
have to say congratulations toour good friend armando hey, all
right, I'm gonna hit him with adouble one.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Nice job.
The answer was in fact naples,florida, naples, florida, so
that that unfortunately meansjeff, melanie and matt, sorry,
oh, by the way, that that wasAdam too, adams of the Villages
Naples, florida, all right?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, let me give you a little bit more information
here.
It is known as the golf capitalof the world.
It has more golf holes percapita than any other place in
the United States.
You and I should probably gothere sometime.
You and I should probably gothere sometime.
Founded in the 1880s by aformer Confederate general and
(20:08):
Kentucky US Senator, john StuartWilliams, and his business
partner.
What else do we got?
Yeah, during World War II, notmuch happening.
And then, when World War IIhappened, the Army Air Force
developed a training centerthere.
Armando hit this one too.
The pickleball there is apickleball championship held
there, and it has been heldthere every year since 2016.
(20:29):
And the final one is theSpanish and the conquistadors.
And the Spanish conquistadorsfound no fountain of youth, but
if they were there today, theymight think that they have found
the seven cities of gold.
Naples is one of the wealthiestcities in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, I mean, I believe Armando was on vacation
and gave the guests so very nice.
So you, you, you, you boys weretexting.
I was in a meeting.
I kept looking down like I haveto.
I have to look serious, but Iwant to look at what's going on
here.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
So and you notice I did.
We were texting after he gaveus the answer and I did not give
it away.
I said you know I, I, you know,I don't give anything away.
So you have to wait and listento the show to get the info.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
No, I didn't want to hurt Jeff's feeling because when
he guessed Venice, I've been toVenice.
I've actually scuba dived inVenice.
Manatees are in Venice, butthere wasn't a lot of golf there
, so I was at least not where Iwas, I should say.
But well, listen, I thinkthat's a record for us Four
(21:44):
solid guesses.
We appreciate all of you takingthe time out of your day to
write us and we definitelyappreciate the correction
Melanie in making me the.
It's not the BB, it's the B-52s.
She said she was using voice totext.
So well, listen, we were ableto sit down with Franklin.
(22:07):
Now I have a confession.
I'd like to just preface thisinterview with something On the
last episode.
I was so excited, thinking thatI had proprietary information,
that that I knew something that,uh, that wasn't going to be out
there and I did.
I just missed my chance becausehe was traveling and and so, um
(22:28):
, as soon as I said that, thenext morning I got up and I saw
that the facebook had prettymuch all my, all my secret
information.
So I just wanted to betransparent, that, while I knew
about it and was holding back, Ithink we missed our opportunity
.
We were trying to get him rightbetween spring tune-up and him
(22:50):
going to Croatia and due to myschedule we were not able to do
that, so just wanted to behonest about that.
But it was still wonderful tosit down with him.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
It's just such a joy to have him on and we consider
him a friend of the show so welllet's go ahead and play that,
okay, and what he's talkingabout here is the activities
that he has lined up for writerson our off day off day.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
There we go.
So this is in Dawsonville A fewother things that we hit on
about big brag 2025, but most ofthis is specifically as, as he
first told us when weinterviewed him Austinville and
Dawsonville.
So I'm pretty excited.
He's got a couple of things andthen we'll come back with a
couple of things, so we'll goahead and play that now.
(23:40):
All right, listen to it.
Well, we have a very specialguest today.
We consider a wonderful friendof the show, the executive
director if I could speakEnglish of Bragg, Mr Franklin
Johnson.
Thank you for joining us, buddy.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Absolutely Happy to be here, happy to have you.
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Look at that the man's got a microphone Fancy.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
This is compliments of a famous podcaster.
I know he mailed it to me.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, listen, I wish we knew a famous podcaster.
That'd be cool.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
One of these days we're going to find one.
So the last time that youjoined us here on our Shenanigan
podcast, you gave us a verycool little trivia road for Big
Brag, with the Route giving ussome distilleries, some
breweries, some highlights, andI'm sure at that time you still
(24:40):
had a little planning to do andwe'd love to hit on that.
But first I saw some picturesof you and Heather in Croatia.
Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Croatia is probably the prettiest riding I think
I've ever done.
Just every turn, um, just everyturn.
You're looking out over theocean.
You know it's.
It's very hilly, I'll startwith that.
So, uh, as you're going up anddown, you just have views of the
ocean and all the red roofs,all the.
You know they did a lot offilming for game of thrones
(25:11):
there, so you got a lot ofhistoric, european looking
buildings in the background, um,you're riding past vineyards,
um, and olive trees and it'sjust.
The water is absolutelybeautiful.
So, um, yeah, every every ridewas probably like kept topping
the prettiest ride I've everdone.
So, um, can't say enough goodthings about Croatia.
(25:33):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And I did see one thing let me interject here.
I used to be a sales guy and Iknow you're into sales, but let
me just tell you you don't wantto start your sales pitch off
with there's hills.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
You might want to leave that to the back somewhere
and go, oh by the way, there issome rolling hills or something
.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Don't start off with the hills.
Now hold on a second.
I saw the advertisement onFacebook today.
In clear yellow letters it saysbring your spouse and or enjoy
an e-bike.
So something along those lines,right.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Every single person is going to be on an e-bike.
There's just, you know my wifedid it.
She's not an avid cyclist, youknow she's decently in shape.
And you know there's a coupledays she's not an avid cyclist,
um, you know she's decently inshape and you know there's a
couple of days where, like shewas, she was like that was tough
but definitely doable.
And, uh, on the Hills, you justput it on turbo and keep going.
And I was thinking, I thoughtabout, you know, before I went
over there to do it, I waslooking at elevation charts,
(26:32):
studying it, looking ateverything and thinking like,
should I try and do this withoutan e-bike?
And, man, I am so glad I choseto do an e-bike because it would
, uh, you could have done it,but you just would not be able
to keep up with the group.
Um, if everybody's on e-bikes,um, yeah, but the e-bikes, you
know, makes it fun, makes itpleasurable and you're not
killing yourself.
(26:52):
Um, you know you're not killingyourself out there.
It makes it so you can actuallyenjoy yourself, which is really
nice.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I just thought it was cool how, um you both had
different posts and and umHeather was showing the boat and
the accommodations and um, itwas definitely definitely
interesting looking ateverything and and I'm sitting
here in my doom and gloom officeand I'm watching you guys smile
and look like you're having thetime of your life.
(27:18):
So Michael, of course, saidwell, lucky you yeah well, you
guys can join us.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, the accommodations are great because
you stay on the boat.
So we ride around or across sixdifferent islands, which is
great.
So you get there.
Get on the boat.
You don't have to.
You know, you guys are used tocruising.
It's not a cruise, but it's.
You know, we're on like an 18cabin yacht that we're on, so
you unpack.
(27:46):
Once you get off on one side ofthe island, we ride our bikes
all the way to the other side ofthe island, boat picks us up
there and then we sail to thenext island.
So there's a chef on boardthat's cooking all our meals.
It's, there's a chef on boardthat's cooking all our meals.
It's um, wow, it's really theonly way to go and see that.
A lot of people do tours incroatia and they stay like in
between split and dubrovnik andjust ride on the mainland.
(28:06):
But man, the islands are just.
The traffic is so much lower.
Um, it's so pretty and it'slike you get unique little
culture on each island, which isreally cool.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
That's cool that's cool well I'm, if I can get Adam
to I looked earlier today.
Oh, go ahead.
I said I'm in If I can get Adamto do it so well.
Ironically, Especially one-bike.
Now, the hill thing doesn'tmatter if I'm on e-bike, so it
does not.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Well, I still have to train, but I'm just kidding,
that's September 11th.
Through the 18th right, plus orminus travel.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, yeah, so you're going to have to leave a day
earlier because you're going tolose a day getting over there.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Okay, well, okay Well .
I mean I think I think it wasreally cool to to follow along.
I liked how you guys shared,shared your research, uh, trip
and um, I'm sure the kiddos weremissing you by the time you got
back.
So, uh, by the way, uh, I textyou personally, but I'm gonna
(29:06):
say it here watching yourdaughter ski down those hills.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
She's a freaking natural man, so oh well, you
didn't see all the falls, but uh, that's okay, she's picking up
on it, which is great.
You know this is our third yeartaking her out there and that's
um.
You know that's one of thethings I really enjoy is skiing,
and you know, I was a snowboardinstructor a long time ago.
So, um, really trying toindoctrinate the younger ones so
(29:31):
that every year winter time,it's their idea to go skiing
rather than mine and my wifeallows it then.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
So that's cool that's my plan that's cool um, you are
a sales guy.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Look at that well all right, we a strategic thinking
there, strategic well, I forgetwho it was it was on dave, maybe
dave letterman, it was acelebrity and he said, oh yeah.
He said, well, my daughterloves golfing, so we got to take
her.
And and uh-huh, yeah right, yougot loves golfing, so we got to
take her.
And, yeah right, you got totake her.
Of course you got to take her.
(30:02):
But well, I believe it or not,was reached out by a few
longtime rag riders todaybecause they listened to the
last show and I said that wewere going to try to connect
with you and I was asked threetimes independently today
whether you were actually comingon or not.
And I said I'm talking to himtonight at eight o'clock, and so
(30:24):
there's a lot of people who aregoing to Big Brag 2025 who are
highly anticipating some updates.
Can you give us some updates onBig Brag 2025?
If I can speak English, man,I'm having a hard time talking
today.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
For sure what?
Do you have any specificquestions?
Sounds like you got somespecific questions.
Maybe we can hammer those first.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I have one.
Okay, go ahead.
Um, it's not so much a question, it's a clarification.
Uh, I hear you've got somegreat activities on the the
layover day and I hear one ofthem involves a racetrack, and
my question is if that iscorrect, do I get a ride around
the racetrack on my bicycle?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Yes, and that's going to be awesome.
Um, so there's actually quite afew race car themed things this
year.
It just happened to work outthat way.
But in Dawsonville there'sAtlanta Motorsports Park, which
it's clubs like this are poppingup.
It's like a country club, butinstead of golf and tennis it's
race cars.
So it's a really cool,professionally designed, a
(31:34):
little over two-mile F1 trackjust outside of Dawsonville.
I got a friend who goes upthere and drives on it all the
time.
There's actually a couple ofriders who have a condo there,
because you can get condos righton the track.
Really, really awesome place,cool place to be.
So a really cool thing we'regoing to get to be able to do
there is they're giving us atime slot to ride around the
(31:57):
track, which will be really cool.
So we're going to get there.
Everybody's going to have tosign a waiver.
Of course, it's a racetrack, sothey're going to be very
careful.
Everybody signs a waiver andthen we're going to have I think
it's like an hour.
We're going to have to be ableto do laps around the track.
It's really twisty, turny, kindof hilly, but it'll be awesome
(32:23):
to do that, to actually ride onthe F1 track on your bicycle,
which would be really cool, um.
Second thing they do there isthey have go carts.
So they actually have an F1style go-kart track that we're
going to get to ride on or notride on, excuse me, ride
go-karts on, um.
So they're going to havedifferent time slots for us, um,
and you can sign up for thatahead of time.
It's actually in the newsletternow, um, and the one that's
going to be going out so you cansign up for your spot, um, and
you can do anywhere from one tothree sessions, and they go 60
miles an hour.
(32:43):
So, um, you get to ride aroundthe racetrack on your bike and
then you get to a separate track, go-kart track, but you get to
ride around that at 60 miles anhour on a go-kart.
So that's going to be awesometoo.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Michael, I have some good news.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
You know I'm the planner between you and I
traveling.
You are, and that's why I lovetraveling with you.
What if I told you that we arealready signed up, sir, to do
go-karts?
You and I are going to be going60 miles an hour.
First we're going to ride ourbikes around the track and then
we have the 1004 spot for twospots for the eight minute, uh.
(33:21):
So if anyone's looking at it,it's it's eight minute sessions,
uh, and, and the advertisementis can you last eight minutes?
I'm like I'm lasting eightminutes I am lasting eight
minutes.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So um so my rodeo or something here we.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
We are signed up, my friend.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Awesome, that is going to be a blast.
When I saw that, I was likenice, beautiful, so looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
But you also have something non-racetrack themed.
I saw on the Bragging.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Rights, you're having a tour going to the falls, yeah
, so Dawsonville has really donea great job.
They've got a lot of stuffgoing on and, um, you know this,
foothills and falls.
We have two waterfalls on thisyear.
Uh, one is amicalola, which isthe tallest waterfall in georgia
.
Um, so if you've never donethat, I definitely suggest if
you're not from georgia,definitely suggest, um, you know
(34:15):
, hopping on there filling outthe form to to hop on that bus
and that bus is going to leave,uh, and if we get enough demand,
there'll be multiple busesrunning from camp uh up to
Amicalola falls.
It's a little bit of a drive,not far.
Um, definitely would not rideyour bike up there just because
of the roads up there are prettytough.
Um, but yeah, you can go seeAmicalola falls.
It'll drop you off.
You can hike from the bottomall the way to the top if you
want, and it's a really coolexperience to see.
(34:37):
It'll be really cool in thesummertime too.
So you have time to do that.
If you're doing go-karts early,get back to camp, you know,
ride your bike back to camp andthen hop on the bus and do both,
which will be nice.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Now I have to ask and you don't know the backstory
here, but this is a realwaterfall, right?
I mean, the reason why I ask iswe were in Michigan and like,
yeah, go visit the falls, and werode over, rode off the route.
It wasn't that far, but we rodeoff the route to see the
waterfall and literally therewas some rocks piled about six
inches high across the streamand water was going over and
(35:13):
that was their waterfall Verydisappointing.
So I'm hoping that we have somerushing water crashing over
falls.
Do we have that water crashingover falls?
Do we have that?
Speaker 3 (35:24):
You do have that, so it's.
This is multiple cascades,right, so it's not a single
unimpeded fall.
And this is where the twowaterfalls come to competition
here.
The one in Toccoa is thetallest unimpeded waterfall, I'm
pretty sure, east of the themississippi uh, don't quote me
(35:45):
on that.
It's really tall, but it is anactual like doesn't?
The water doesn't touchanything until it's the bottom,
you know where.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
The one in amicalola is very tall and very impressive
and it's still a waterfall, butit definitely has multiple
cascades from top to bottom aslong as it's not like this, far
off the ground, a of rocks piledin a stream and water's flowing
over it, and we call that awaterfall, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
No, it's like 700 feet tall.
Yeah, it's impressive.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Good enough, that's a waterfall.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
When we were in Michigan, two of our friends
from Georgia, juan and Amir,came up and they're like that's
not a waterfall.
Waterfall it wasn't.
Yeah, definitely, uh,definitely have to agree, and it
was a decent, decent ride toget down to the quote-unquote
waterfall.
So, like we rode our heads forthis, it's like you know.
But um, so, michael, I alsohave good news.
(36:31):
Yes, sir, we are signed up forthe shuttle for one o'clock to
go to go see the fall.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
So and this is why I ride with Adam.
He's like my travel agent, it'sbeautiful.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Well, I mean, I have to thank who.
I assume Stephanie gives creditas due, or maybe Franklin.
I don't want to be rude, butBraggin' Rights came out early
Sunday morning and early Sundayor Saturday maybe, and it said
sign up here.
And I figured you know whatSupply and demand, and I wanted
(37:01):
to take advantage of the supplybefore the demand was gone.
So, um, we are, we are signedup and we so we'll be riding our
, even though normally on ouroff day franklin usually has us
pinned down.
We usually jump in a car anddrive to a distillery.
I can officially say we areparticipating on the off day.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
So, um, a couple questions that came through to
me before you throw me under thebus.
Too bad on the distillery.
Granddaddy mem's distillery is100 yards from where the camp
spot is, so you can go toamicalola, then when you get
back then go to the distilleryand you can walk there.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So well, it's going to be very cool.
We already have that in ourplans.
So see, this is just nice.
Before we had to like drive,you know, 60 miles to get to a
distillery here.
You just plopped one in our lap.
So it's beautiful.
We can just have the best ofboth worlds.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It's going to be a great day I think you quoted it
because I obviously wasn'tfamiliar but it's going to be an
awesomeville day in Dawsonville.
So there was a question.
Oh, the question that came tome that if I was going to sit
down with you is on your Strava,ride with GPS.
(38:17):
Forgive me, ride with GPS.
You have days 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,and 7.
And two questions came acrossmy desk.
That, if you're still a work inprogress, your century ride is
only showing up at 86 miles, andso is there a loop, was one of
the questions.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Somebody made up that century day loop thing with 86,
80 miles anyway.
But then, uh, yeah, so we'restill working on a century to
get it as close to 100 as we can.
So still working on that.
Okay, fair enough, there is abridge out in takoa.
Um, that's making us go aroundwhere we don't really want to go
in south carolina, but kind ofhave to.
Um, so, yeah, so we're stillworking on that, okay.
(38:59):
And then, yeah, and then dayfour um, we had to wait till we
got final approval on the trackto.
So, yeah, so we're stillworking on that, okay.
And then yeah, and then dayfour um, we had to wait till we
got final approval on the trackto do that, but we're, that's
going to be.
The ride on day four is out tothe track, have a rest, stop
everything out of the track, gokarts, all that, and then ride
back.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
So, okay so that's uh .
That was the.
There was two two routequestions that came in um and
then one of the questions thatcame in which I think I already
know the answer to, but I'mgoing to ask you, since we're
here, is will there be plenty ofrestaurants?
Which I know the answer is yes,but I know people want to hear
it On the layover days thatpeople would like to sit down
(39:33):
restaurants and stuff.
Are there some options for thepeoples?
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Yeah, there's a bunch , uh, all within walking
distance in dawsonville, whichis great.
Um, yeah, there's mexican joint.
There's, um, the city hall isin a complex with the race car
hall of fame where they've gotracing simulators and the whole,
you know, hall of fame trophiesyou can go see, which is really
cool.
You definitely do that whilewe're there.
Uh, there's also a restaurantthere.
They're gonna be doingbreakfast for us both days and
(40:00):
they do, you know, lunch anddinner.
You know, there's definitely afew fast food places around town
.
There's some in downtown I'llsay downtown, but the more
downtown part of Dawsonville andthere's some more closer where
we are.
So there will be plenty.
Plus, there's going to beshuttles that are going back and
forth to Walmart and also thehotels and they've got, uh,
restaurants over there.
If you want to hop on that,it's just that's a, you know, 20
(40:23):
minute one-way bus ride, whichmakes it a little bit more
difficult to get out there.
Okay, yeah, so we got options,cool, cool.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
no, those were.
Um, those were some of thequestions that came to me today.
Um, so I have to tell, in thebragging rights I had a real
brain fart, because every yearwe usually sign up for your
shuttle and then we usually meetyou at the end town, put our
bikes on the trucks, the truckgoes over.
(40:51):
And so in the bragging rights,when it said shuttle, I'm like
why haven't I got the shuttleemail yet?
Because I'm not taking theshuttle, you don't need the
shuttle.
Yeah, because I'm not takingthe shuttle, you don't need the
shuttle.
Yeah.
So this year I'm not taking it.
But I know you.
Usually you guys put out a nicecommunication email about when
and how and where to meet theshuttle.
So I'm sure that'll go outshortly.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Yeah, and there's one that'll be separate for just
the folks on the shuttle too,because it's a lot of
information for people who don'tnecessarily need it.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, Michael.
Any questions from you, fromany of the Bragg updates?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
No, I actually answered a question to somebody
because I have done my researchon Dawsonville.
But I took care of thatquestion.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
I felt kind of like well I know all about
Dawsonville now care of thatquestion.
I felt kind of like, well, Iknow all about dawsonville now,
so and I also saw um, not mything normally, because I'm like
to visit and communicate andsocialize, but you're offering
movies as well in dawsonvillefor those who may want to go see
a movie I saw in the newsletter.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
So yeah, we're gonna do that right.
Uh, it's actually gonna beright in town park where we're
camping, so, um, you'll be ableto watch it, or, if you don't
want to watch it, you might haveto watch it if you're staying
there.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Well, great.
I don't know if you heard, butMichael's actually been training
buddy.
I'm proud of you.
I know he rode a little bit theother day too.
I saw that.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, I'm getting getting more in the normal um,
so that's a good thing I hearsome uh tension between the the
indoor cycling, though you'renot enjoying as much uh, you
know, I'm enjoying it more thisyear than I have in the past, so
it's getting better for me.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
So nice, as long as I'm not looking.
My problem was I was alwayslooking at the clock or looking
at the mileage because I didn'thave anything else to look at.
And uh, I just do away withthose on the screen and just get
into the music and so gettinggetting a few miles, so it won't
be quite as bad as.
Uh, what two years ago?
Speaker 1 (42:55):
And oh my gosh little very little, and then you ran
us through the mountains.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
So yeah, my own wonderfully created torture
there.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
I share that story a lot, franklin.
There were the police.
The police leave us alone andyou look at us and say you boys
been training and we're like alittle bit and you're like I
hope you have.
And the next day and hestarted- laughing just like that
.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
It was like, oh yeah, this isn't gonna be good yeah
we're developing, we're growing,so that's good yeah we made it.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
I had a 60 mile ride on sunday, 17 average, so I
wasn't.
That wasn't too bad, so not atall.
Um, well, we, we appreciateyour time.
Um, we're gonna squeeze this inin between our next show.
Uh, michael, obviously willhave listener spotlights, for
you know the bookends and frontand back, and we've already got
(43:52):
some guests guesses, so that'skind of cool.
I always excited about that.
Um, we got an offer from one ofour team members to help us on
our webpage, so stay tuned tothat.
I'm excited, michael, I wasgoing to share with you after we
record here.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Didn't even get that news yet, so that's cool, all
right.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
So, tripp, I hope you passed your final and I will
share with Michael and I'mexcited about it.
So Trip has offered to help usand, listen, I'll take all the
help I can get.
Well, you guys, you heard ithere Franklin has got everything
(44:37):
planned for us.
I mean, bragg is a great time.
I have witnessed a few Facebookcommunications.
If you're on the fence andyou're catching this interview,
I have to tell you that Bragg isone of not because the man is
here with me, but Michael and Ihave been lucky enough to do
many rides and this has got tobe one of the most
(44:57):
well-organized sag stops.
And this has got to be one ofthe most well-organized sag
stops support, just clean, easy,organized, no questions about
what's going on ride that I'veever done.
And if you're thinking about itand you're about to pull the
trigger and you're like, oh, I'mavailable the 30th of May
through June 8th, boom, justjump on it.
(45:19):
So that's my.
There's the official cyclingmen of leisure stamp of approval
, so it's a good endorsement.
I appreciate that yeahabsolutely well, buddy, we know
that you, uh, you're a familyman and you've been traveling.
I'm sure you're exhausted fromtraveling.
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
So that's how we know well it's uh, so we got, you
know there's spring tune-ups,all the getting ready for spring
tune-ups.
Spring tune-up was there andthen the Monday after spring
tune-up, hopped on a plane, wentto Colorado and then got back
from Colorado Three days later,went to Croatia and then we just
got back this past weekend.
So we've been, we've been at itnonstop for sure.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
And if there's younger people out there looking
for a career choice, I'mthinking bike director is a darn
good one, because let me tellyou, it doesn't sound like
you're spending a lot of time athome, colorado.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Croatia, and then Bragg is here, and then, right
after Bragg, a week later, we'rein France for two weeks.
So I mean, it's a packedcalendar.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yeah, except what I'm hearing is international bike
director is the way to go,because every time we interview
somebody the ride is dying.
So I think international bikedirector is the way to go.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Well, I'm also hiring , so if any of you guys want to
move to Georgia, let me know.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Well, franklin, we know and we appreciate all of
your time.
We so much appreciate yougiving us a brag update.
We're less than a month out,everybody's packing, everyone's
getting everything, all theirgear together.
We just want to say thank youso very much for coming on,
absolutely we appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
And what is today?
Speaker 3 (46:57):
It's a great day for a bike ride.
Absolutely it is yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
It's always a good time to have him on, man, I'm so
excited about Dawsonville.
I'm excited about the kartracing, I'm excited about the
waterfalls, I'm excited abouteverything.
I really do believe Dawsonvilleis going to be awesomeville.
So what do you think?
Speaker 2 (47:20):
No, it's a great interview and we certainly, as
always, appreciate him takingtime, especially now I mean
we're getting down to the wirehim taking time out to come and
talk to us Always a great time.
We certainly appreciate it whatdid you think of his?
Sound quality.
His sound quality was reallygood.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
The cycling men of leisure boys donated a
microphone to Big Bragg 2025.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yes, we did so.
No, it sounds like a lot of fun, but you know what else?
Dawsonville is going to be evenmore awesomeville because you
and I have a couple of surprisesfor our team.
So the cycling men of leisureand the cycling women of leisure
teams.
(48:04):
We have a couple of otherthings that we are planning on
doing when we get to Dawsonville, so we are hoping that a big
chunk of the team would like topartake, come join us, do it,
that type of thing, cause we'vegot a couple of things that that
we're going to be doing, andI'm not going to say what, but
(48:28):
it's going to be fun, it's goingto be interesting, and I'm
looking forward to that too.
I'm just looking forward to thewhole week.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I am too.
I've, we've got, we've got somecool stuff and and we you and I
have been doing some planning.
So I'm, I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
So if you are on the cycling men or cycling women of
leisure team, just know, uh,this year, michael and I have
hang out with us and we areplanning on at some point later
in the week having a speakeasy,and there may or may not be a
(49:08):
bottle or two of something Firewater In my bags that get packed
, that we'll be passing out foreverybody to enjoy.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Well, there usually is.
So if not, we got a credit card, we can go somewhere.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
But you don't get the money.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
Remember the Michigan store where I peddled 20 miles
with a bottle of bourbon in mybibs?
Yes, and that is not anexaggeration store where I
peddled 20 miles with a bottleof bourbon in my bibs.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yes, and that is not an exaggeration.
He peddled from Charlevoix upto I don't even know where, but
it was.
It was like 20 miles, Causethat was the only we knew for a
fact.
We could get it there and thankGod, it was Woodford reserve
that had the flat bottle.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
So it kind of fit better uh in the in the bibs,
then you know something elsewould like a bottle of jack or
something.
But and I was a little bit of abigger boy, there was more room
in my bibs and but no, we suredid is that whiskey, whiskey.
I tell you what boy, what hegot there.
(50:21):
And boy, it's a leisure.
They bring the bourbon and theparty with them.
He got there.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
He's got some whiskey there in those cycling bibs.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Well, so we definitely had a little bit of a
beginning of the show middle ofthe interview, trying to keep
it you, you know, within areasonable amount of time.
So also working on somethingelse.
One of our team members ishelping us out with something
and just, uh, just want to saywe, we trip, uh, doesn't go
(50:52):
unnoticed where we got somethingcool coming up and so we'll
announce that when we're ready.
Just wanted to mention that andto our subscribers thank you,
thank you, thank you, and acouple of you.
We get to ride with you inGeorgia pretty soon.
So thank you so much.
With that being said, ladiesand gentlemen, it is now time
(51:19):
for Listener Spotlight.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
All right, got a good one for you.
This episode, the community andthe city that we're speaking of
started out in a territorynamed for a different state in
the early 1800s.
Named for a different state inthe early 1800s.
(51:43):
The early major industry in thearea was textiles.
Okay, during World War II, themilitary established a very big
presence in this area.
The town changed its name Priorto the War of 1812.
(52:08):
The original name was Britishin origin and with the War of
1812, there was someanti-British settlement, uh
sentiment going around, so theydecided to rename the town
(52:28):
something less British.
So that's what they did.
Um, nine civil war generalswere born in or very near this
community, and I will tell youthat these generals were not all
(52:50):
on the same side.
And here's the best one, thebest, the best hint.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
This city could have been the inspiration for a
well-known Elton John song.
Goodbye Elton.
No, just kidding.
Candle in the Wind, Rocket man.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
Rocket man.
This is where you need to putyour Elton John belt on.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
It's downstairs, I can go get it.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
So there we are.
Elton john started a territorynamed for a different state.
Early industries were textile.
Military came in in world warii and established a large
presence.
That was um.
That has been a.
That has created a verylong-lasting presence within the
community in one way, shape orform.
And then it changed its name.
It's not St Louis.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
No, all I'm going to say is in my head and don't
respond, because people watch uson YouTube, so don't give your
facial expression away either.
When you say very famous EltonJohn song, I'm thinking of NASA
communities with Rocket man, andthat's all I'm going to say,
(54:17):
ladies and gentlemen, on thatnote.
But he's got a lot.
I will that note.
But he's got a lot.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
I will say, though, he's got a lot of big songs.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
This is true, he has a lot Anyway something to think
about.
But soon, for you and I, it'llbe a great day for a bike ride
For a bike ride.
For a bike ride.
Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of
Leisure, as usual.
As you would expect, I am Adamand once again, I am lucky
enough to be joined with my goodfriend, mr Michael Sharp.
How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I am doing well.
Thank you very much.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Good, good, good good .
It's good to be with you.
We've been together a littlebit more and more recently, but
I always look forward to it.
A little pep in my step todayknowing that we were going to
record tonight.
So this show is coming out onMother's Day.
So, first of all, on behalf ofmyself and Michael, happy
(00:38):
Mother's Day to all the mothersout there.
Absolutely, Speaking of that,you not only have a mother, but
you also have a wife who is amother.
What's the big plans?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Not a lot of big plans, honestly.
She is actually workingSaturday night, so Sunday she'll
get home.
She'll be pretty tired, but I'msure we'll find something fun
to do so.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So I asked my administrative aide and she's
smart as a whip and veryquick-witted and very quick I
said so.
I said she has three childrenand I said so what is the big
hope?
Like breakfast in bed, and shesaid no.
I said take you out to lunch?
(01:28):
And she said no.
And I said what's the goal?
She said if I'm lucky, maybe myhusband will take care of
everything and I get a date ofmyself.
And I was like thanks forplaying so close.
That's not going to happen soclose, just a bit outside.
Yeah close, that's not oh soclose, just a bit outside
exactly.
Well, you are normally thehistory, uh, history buff,
(01:53):
history guy, history connoisseurwho brings all kinds of cool
stuff to our show and and we'llget to that in a little bit.
But I thought, in honor of you,who normally does all of the
work, that I would do a littlechat gbt.
I'm going to be honest where Igot, where I came from, you got
man's gotta gotta be honest withthe sources that appreciate
(02:14):
that uh.
But I went to chat gbt and saidtell me some interesting facts
about cycling and mother's day,and I have a few things for you.
Wow, really yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Okay, I'm impressed.
Okay, you said you hadsomething interesting for me and
I thought, well, you'reprobably going to tell me you
know Mother's Day, you knowfounded what?
May 8th of 1914 or something,you know just stuff like that.
But you've got it inassociation with cycling.
So I'm excited.
This should be good.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Okay, and one of the things is pretty cool happens
when we're going to be at BigBrag 2020, 2025, if I can speak
English.
All right, here's some cyclingfacts.
First, you're not going to bethat surprised by the cycling
facts.
Okay, the modern bicycle designwith two equal size wheels and
(03:04):
a chain dates back to the 1880s.
That's not surprising to you.
You're a guy who knows thatCycling has some health benefits
.
Cycling is excellent forcardiovascular health, joint
mobility and mental well-being.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, you're not surprised about that.
I'm glad that I'm not doingthis for nothing, so that's good
, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Obviously, it has an environmental impact.
Bicycles produce zero emissions, making them one of the most
eco-friendly transport options.
Popularity the Netherlands hasmore bicycles than it does
people.
But now this is interesting.
This is what you're going tolove, okay, on June 3rd, when
you and I are in the middle ofGeorgia riding our bicycles, it
(03:49):
is World Bicycle Day, which iscelebrated on June 3rd, as
declared by the United Nations.
I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
That is awesome.
We'll have to do somethingspecial in support of World
Bicycle Day.
Franklin should build that up alittle bit, you know, I mean I
know in the morning he's gettingeverybody rallied up.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
It's like it's national or world bicycle day,
whoo I know I was thinking foryou I'm thinking to myself,
buddy, you should, uh, maybesell a special decal or
something.
So there you go.
He will have enough time.
This comes out on Mother's Day,so he's got time to order it.
So Mother's Day facts.
(04:30):
Now this was a little bitinteresting.
The modern Mother's Day beganin the United States in 1908,
thanks to Anna Jarvis, andbecame a national holiday in
1914.
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
In fact, I think that's just what I said at the
beginning.
Remember I said I thought youwere probably just going to give
me facts about, you know, may8th, 19.
What was?
Speaker 1 (04:54):
it 1914.
1914.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
When it officially Congress.
You know the president signedit.
I think it would have beenWilson was the president about
that time?
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Oh yeah, he was great .
He was great.
I remember that Good presidentWoodrum.
On global celebrations,countries celebrate it on
different dates.
In the US, it's the secondSunday in May.
The most popular gift isflowers, especially carnations.
Greeting cards and brunches aretop choices.
(05:29):
Phone calls is the busiestphone call day of the year
Mother's Day.
I can see that and the economicimpact.
Mother's Day is one of thebiggest retail holidays,
generating billions with a B inspending Now here are three.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You don't want to cheap it up with mom.
I mean, come on, no.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
No, of course not.
I mean, this is mom who's beenthere cleaning up after you when
you're sick and letting youwatch the Price is Right.
Oh, wait a minute.
That was maybe just my house,sorry about that.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh, no, no, no, when you were sick, yeah, you got to
watch the TV.
The price?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
is right and remember , spay and neuter your pet
Little Bob Barker there.
Yeah, now here are some factsabout well, some things about
cycling and Mother's Daytogether.
Some cities organize Mother'sDay bike rides or charity
cycling events to promote healthand togetherness with mom.
How about active gifting?
(06:28):
Bikes or accessories likestylish helmets or electric
bikes are becoming popular giftsfor active moms.
But the biggest one is qualitytime with mom.
While many choose to spendMother's Day bike ride on a
scenic trail very thoughtful,health way, healthy way to spend
a day together and then theit's so funny, the chat gbt has
(06:49):
a sense of humor because it saysand afterwards, maybe take mom
out for brunch, which totallytakes away the fact that, well,
it could be healthy brunch, Iguess.
But, um, anyways, I thought inhonor, you're the one usually
who does the deep dive and,looking, I thought it'd be a
little fun to go down that path.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I am impressed and thank you.
The chunk of that I did notknow.
So yeah, happy Mother's Day toall the mothers out there.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
We appreciate it June 3rd, World Bicycle Day, so I
will be one with my bicycle onJune 3rd.
You will you will, you will.
We have a couple things.
We obviously have our normal,but most people in this time wow
, this is the biggest episode ofguesses of Listener Spotlight.
(07:43):
We have four independentguesses for listener spotlight
are any of them right I?
I, I, I, uh, of of.
There are two statesrepresented with with the four
guesses, and I would go one ofthe states has three guesses,
(08:03):
okay, and I'm going to go with aV word with one of the states
and we'll get to that here injust one second, okay.
We also were finally able tosit down with the man, the myth,
the legend, oh yes, the man whoruns Big Brag 2025, brag Spring
(08:26):
Tuna, international Brag, allkinds of brag, all the brag.
You can get A lot of brag, allthe brags you could ever want.
Executive Director, mr FranklinJohnson, and we'll play that in
a little bit, but before we getto Listener Spotlight, I wanted
to give you the floor.
Did you have anything else?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
No, I didn't.
I did have a fun weekend lastweek, as you know, uh went up to
see Berkshire Hathaway, whichis Warren Buffett's stock.
You know the Oracle of Omaha,uh, do that every year.
Uh, it's something that'ssomewhat of a family tradition,
and no, I'm not a.
You know an a shareholder.
That's of a family tradition,and no, I'm not an A shareholder
.
Those are worth like $850,000 ashare, but it doesn't matter,
(09:09):
you can have B and still go, youcan have partial shares and
still go.
So I went up there, had a lot offun.
He made the big announcement heis stepping down as CEO, so
that was an interesting riff inthe whole thing, but had a good
(09:30):
time.
Maya always likes to go upthere, which it's always fun.
And I think the cool thing isis, over the years I went about
15 years over the years fromwhen I originally started going
to now a lot more children, kids, young people are out at these
things and I and I just getexcited about that because it's
like, yeah, that's cool.
(09:50):
People are out there learningabout okay, maybe you're not
learning necessarily, butindirectly you're learning about
investments and that type ofthing.
So that was cool to see.
So you know kids are gettinginterested in some old school
type stuff.
You know like investing in thattype of stuff.
(10:12):
So maybe they'll start cyclingmore.
You never know.
I have two very importantquestions.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Okay, did you have any ice cream?
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Did you have any ice cream?
I had more ice cream than Ireally needed.
Berkshire Hathaway for thosewho don't know owns a Dairy
Queen and they have the big showup there where he answers
questions for people and stuffall day, but then downstairs a
lot of the different stockcompanies that he owns are down
there hawking their wares.
(10:44):
It's a brilliant way to, youknow, boost your earnings.
But yeah, dairy Queen was thereand I had four or five Dilly
bars and maybe a, you know,peanut buster bar.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
But, yeah, a lot of ice cream.
On the advice of my good friend, Mr Michael Sharp, the co-host
of Road Adventures, of CyclingMen, of Leisure, I took a very
large investment and bought Bshares of Berkshire Hathaway and
they have done very, very well.
My question is is with theretirement, am I okay?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
This is just my thought.
I'm not a financial advisoranymore.
This is just my thought.
On the whole thing, we werereally worried.
A lot of us as shareholders arereally worried.
Like you know, seven, eight,nine years ago because it was
very secretive about who wasgoing to take over, and so
everybody got worried that it'slike what happens if something
happens to him and he doesn'tannounce who the next person is
(11:46):
that's taking over.
That would have thrown thisstock into complete chaos who's
taken over?
And would have really, reallyhurt the business.
Fortunately, the last threeyears or so he kind of had
designated who would be takingover.
It's just at this meeting hefinally said hey, I'm stepping
down, not retiring, steppingdown, um.
So I think we're in great shapenow because the people that
(12:08):
he's got in there, he's, youknow, he's been grooming them
for years, um, but I think if itwould have happened, something
would have happened to him likefive, six, seven years ago.
The uncertainty would have, youknow, just crushed the stock.
But you're okay, I'm glad, I'mglad to hear that Cause.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
I didn't know where you're going with that.
I was like, oh no, no, no, no,no.
What's funny is is the, the.
Uh, I'm not afraid to share the.
The stock that I had wasPepsiCo and you and I were on a
ride and you said are you sureyou want to keep that there?
And I was buying it on costallocation.
So you know, we talk aboutinvesting a little bit on this
show a lot.
So cost allocation just meansif you don't know what that
(12:47):
means, I was just buying a shareon a regular, scheduled basis,
Dollar cost averaging Yep, yepEvery now and then I would get a
share.
That would be.
You know, I'd hit that out ofthe park the next week.
I wouldn't pay way too much,but you and I kept talking about
it.
And then in Europe they decidedto pull Pepsi out of a lot of
the grocery stores and so youhad made the recommendation and
(13:12):
it's been a good recommendation,by the way, you and your wife
have helped me out and myCasey's.
I got to say my.
Casey's is still doing very,very well.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
When do I start seeing my brokerage fees?
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Just a bit outside, not today.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah, let's you know.
But I do have always caveated.
I am not an investment advisor,not an investment professional.
Years ago I was in the business.
I'm not anymore, so what I sayis just Michael Sharp's
unprofessional opinion.
So take it for what that'sworth.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Ladies and gentlemen, file all complaints to
Lewisburg, kansas.
I'm just kidding, all right.
Well, listen, I appreciate yousharing that, Believe it or not.
My good friend and neighbortexts me and we always talk
about investing here on thestreet, when we're, you know,
like king of the hill, takingover the world, standing out
(14:10):
with Warren Buffett's retiring,I said what if I told you my
good friend is there and yourwife had posted a couple of
pictures on Facebook?
So I went to Facebook andscreenshot it to show that you
were outside.
He's like he really is there.
I'm like he really is Notmaking this up.
(14:30):
Well, all right, I'm excited.
We got four guesses.
Then we'll play the Franklininterview and then we'll come
back and finish her off, allright?
With that being said, I don'twant to blow it.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is nowtime for the listener spotlight
(14:52):
.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
All right, listener spotlight, the clues that I gave
you for last episode were asfollows this town was founded in
the 1880s by a formerConfederate general.
This community was likened toItaly early on Major
(15:12):
developments.
Major development did not occurto this area for a good long
time, however, during World WarII.
That's when it started toreally develop and pick up.
If you are into golf, this cityis for you, and if you don't
(15:36):
like golf, pickleball, this townloves pickleball.
And then my final clue, whichwas maybe the giveaway, maybe
the one that threw everybody off, I don't know.
The Spanish conquistadors foundno fountain of youth, but if
they were there today, theymight think that they had found
(15:59):
the seven cities of gold.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
We got four guesses.
The two states that wererepresented in the guesses are
Arizona and Florida.
Just to kind of give that away,so I'm going to give you the
guesses in order that we receivethem.
Okay, so first up is our goodfriend, friend of the show, matt
(16:24):
Robinson.
And Matt was the first to guessand he said I'm almost certain
it's not, but I guess a town inmy state of my birth.
But I guess a town in my stateof my birth, yuma, arizona,
founded in the mid-1880s as astructured town, no real
(16:45):
industry until World War II.
Airfield Coronado and otherspassed through in the gold tie,
via nearby mines and prospectorroutes, and now filled with
retirees.
Golf and pickleball Okay, solid, all right.
(17:06):
The second guest we got is fromour team member, debrim wearer,
beautiful woman herself, whohas a husband who also wears a
Debrim, by the way, melanieErickson.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Is the Debrim really important?
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I'm the one reading.
Just kidding Melanie, thank youreading it.
I'm just kidding Melanie, thankyou very much.
She says two things, so firstshe has a guess and then the
song Rome.
Last episode we did Rome.
It was supposed to be the B-52swhich makes way more sense now.
And I do know the song because Isaid it and now it's like I
don't know if I know that songor not.
(17:38):
I do, but her listenerspotlight guess is the Villages,
florida.
Golf and pickleball are hugeleisure activities and they say
people who move to the Villageslive up to 20 years longer.
Fountain of youth, quitepossibly.
I'm going with Melanie's guessguest.
By the way, there's two otherguesses, but I told you that I
(18:00):
was going to go with one of thev's.
I'm going to go with thevillages.
Okay, all right.
Our third guest I have to go tomy phone here was our good
friend and team member, armandoarmando.
Uh, my guess is naples, florida.
More holes of golf than anyother city.
It holds a major pickleballtournament and was a training
(18:22):
site for Army Air Force.
And then, last but certainlynot least, another V word is
Venice, florida, which is Jeff,who has guessed correctly before
.
He is our weather aficionadoand saved our butt in Ragbri.
(18:42):
So there you have it.
You have Venice, florida, theVillages, florida, naples,
florida and Yuma, arizona.
Michael, tell us, how did ourguesses, do you know?
Speaker 2 (18:57):
what Someone got it right.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
All hold on, hold on.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
I don't get to do this very often all right, so I
have to say congratulations toour good friend armando hey, all
right, I'm gonna hit him with adouble one.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Nice job.
The answer was in fact naples,florida, naples, florida, so
that that unfortunately meansjeff, melanie and matt, sorry,
oh, by the way, that that wasAdam too, adams of the Villages
Naples, florida, all right?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, let me give you a little bit more information
here.
It is known as the golf capitalof the world.
It has more golf holes percapita than any other place in
the United States.
You and I should probably gothere sometime.
You and I should probably gothere sometime.
Founded in the 1880s by aformer Confederate general and
(20:08):
Kentucky US Senator, john StuartWilliams, and his business
partner.
What else do we got?
Yeah, during World War II, notmuch happening.
And then, when World War IIhappened, the Army Air Force
developed a training centerthere.
Armando hit this one too.
The pickleball there is apickleball championship held
there, and it has been heldthere every year since 2016.
(20:29):
And the final one is theSpanish and the conquistadors.
And the Spanish conquistadorsfound no fountain of youth, but
if they were there today, theymight think that they have found
the seven cities of gold.
Naples is one of the wealthiestcities in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, I mean, I believe Armando was on vacation
and gave the guests so very nice.
So you, you, you, you boys weretexting.
I was in a meeting.
I kept looking down like I haveto.
I have to look serious, but Iwant to look at what's going on
here.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
So and you notice I did.
We were texting after he gaveus the answer and I did not give
it away.
I said you know I, I, you know,I don't give anything away.
So you have to wait and listento the show to get the info.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
No, I didn't want to hurt Jeff's feeling because when
he guessed Venice, I've been toVenice.
I've actually scuba dived inVenice.
Manatees are in Venice, butthere wasn't a lot of golf there
, so I was at least not where Iwas, I should say.
But well, listen, I thinkthat's a record for us Four
(21:44):
solid guesses.
We appreciate all of you takingthe time out of your day to
write us and we definitelyappreciate the correction
Melanie in making me the.
It's not the BB, it's the B-52s.
She said she was using voice totext.
So well, listen, we were ableto sit down with Franklin.
(22:07):
Now I have a confession.
I'd like to just preface thisinterview with something On the
last episode.
I was so excited, thinking thatI had proprietary information,
that that I knew something that,uh, that wasn't going to be out
there and I did.
I just missed my chance becausehe was traveling and and so, um
(22:28):
, as soon as I said that, thenext morning I got up and I saw
that the facebook had prettymuch all my, all my secret
information.
So I just wanted to betransparent, that, while I knew
about it and was holding back, Ithink we missed our opportunity
.
We were trying to get him rightbetween spring tune-up and him
(22:50):
going to Croatia and due to myschedule we were not able to do
that, so just wanted to behonest about that.
But it was still wonderful tosit down with him.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
It's just such a joy to have him on and we consider
him a friend of the show so welllet's go ahead and play that,
okay, and what he's talkingabout here is the activities
that he has lined up for writerson our off day off day.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
There we go.
So this is in Dawsonville A fewother things that we hit on
about big brag 2025, but most ofthis is specifically as, as he
first told us when weinterviewed him Austinville and
Dawsonville.
So I'm pretty excited.
He's got a couple of things andthen we'll come back with a
couple of things, so we'll goahead and play that now.
(23:40):
All right, listen to it.
Well, we have a very specialguest today.
We consider a wonderful friendof the show, the executive
director if I could speakEnglish of Bragg, Mr Franklin
Johnson.
Thank you for joining us, buddy.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Absolutely Happy to be here, happy to have you.
Welcome.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Look at that the man's got a microphone Fancy.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
This is compliments of a famous podcaster.
I know he mailed it to me.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
Well, listen, I wish we knew a famous podcaster.
That'd be cool.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
One of these days we're going to find one.
So the last time that youjoined us here on our Shenanigan
podcast, you gave us a verycool little trivia road for Big
Brag, with the Route giving ussome distilleries, some
breweries, some highlights, andI'm sure at that time you still
(24:40):
had a little planning to do andwe'd love to hit on that.
But first I saw some picturesof you and Heather in Croatia.
Can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Croatia is probably the prettiest riding I think
I've ever done.
Just every turn, um, just everyturn.
You're looking out over theocean.
You know it's.
It's very hilly, I'll startwith that.
So, uh, as you're going up anddown, you just have views of the
ocean and all the red roofs,all the.
You know they did a lot offilming for game of thrones
(25:11):
there, so you got a lot ofhistoric, european looking
buildings in the background, um,you're riding past vineyards,
um, and olive trees and it'sjust.
The water is absolutelybeautiful.
So, um, yeah, every every ridewas probably like kept topping
the prettiest ride I've everdone.
So, um, can't say enough goodthings about Croatia.
(25:33):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
And I did see one thing let me interject here.
I used to be a sales guy and Iknow you're into sales, but let
me just tell you you don't wantto start your sales pitch off
with there's hills.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
You might want to leave that to the back somewhere
and go, oh by the way, there issome rolling hills or something
.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Don't start off with the hills.
Now hold on a second.
I saw the advertisement onFacebook today.
In clear yellow letters it saysbring your spouse and or enjoy
an e-bike.
So something along those lines,right.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Every single person is going to be on an e-bike.
There's just, you know my wifedid it.
She's not an avid cyclist, youknow she's decently in shape.
And you know there's a coupledays she's not an avid cyclist,
um, you know she's decently inshape and you know there's a
couple of days where, like shewas, she was like that was tough
but definitely doable.
And, uh, on the Hills, you justput it on turbo and keep going.
And I was thinking, I thoughtabout, you know, before I went
over there to do it, I waslooking at elevation charts,
(26:32):
studying it, looking ateverything and thinking like,
should I try and do this withoutan e-bike?
And, man, I am so glad I choseto do an e-bike because it would
, uh, you could have done it,but you just would not be able
to keep up with the group.
Um, if everybody's on e-bikes,um, yeah, but the e-bikes, you
know, makes it fun, makes itpleasurable and you're not
killing yourself.
(26:52):
Um, you know you're not killingyourself out there.
It makes it so you can actuallyenjoy yourself, which is really
nice.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
I just thought it was cool how, um you both had
different posts and and umHeather was showing the boat and
the accommodations and um, itwas definitely definitely
interesting looking ateverything and and I'm sitting
here in my doom and gloom officeand I'm watching you guys smile
and look like you're having thetime of your life.
(27:18):
So Michael, of course, saidwell, lucky you yeah well, you
guys can join us.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, the accommodations are great because
you stay on the boat.
So we ride around or across sixdifferent islands, which is
great.
So you get there.
Get on the boat.
You don't have to.
You know, you guys are used tocruising.
It's not a cruise, but it's.
You know, we're on like an 18cabin yacht that we're on, so
you unpack.
(27:46):
Once you get off on one side ofthe island, we ride our bikes
all the way to the other side ofthe island, boat picks us up
there and then we sail to thenext island.
So there's a chef on boardthat's cooking all our meals.
It's, there's a chef on boardthat's cooking all our meals.
It's um, wow, it's really theonly way to go and see that.
A lot of people do tours incroatia and they stay like in
between split and dubrovnik andjust ride on the mainland.
(28:06):
But man, the islands are just.
The traffic is so much lower.
Um, it's so pretty and it'slike you get unique little
culture on each island, which isreally cool.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
That's cool that's cool well I'm, if I can get Adam
to I looked earlier today.
Oh, go ahead.
I said I'm in If I can get Adamto do it so well.
Ironically, Especially one-bike.
Now, the hill thing doesn'tmatter if I'm on e-bike, so it
does not.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Well, I still have to train, but I'm just kidding,
that's September 11th.
Through the 18th right, plus orminus travel.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, yeah, so you're going to have to leave a day
earlier because you're going tolose a day getting over there.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Okay, well, okay Well .
I mean I think I think it wasreally cool to to follow along.
I liked how you guys shared,shared your research, uh, trip
and um, I'm sure the kiddos weremissing you by the time you got
back.
So, uh, by the way, uh, I textyou personally, but I'm gonna
(29:06):
say it here watching yourdaughter ski down those hills.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
She's a freaking natural man, so oh well, you
didn't see all the falls, but uh, that's okay, she's picking up
on it, which is great.
You know this is our third yeartaking her out there and that's
um.
You know that's one of thethings I really enjoy is skiing,
and you know, I was a snowboardinstructor a long time ago.
So, um, really trying toindoctrinate the younger ones so
(29:31):
that every year winter time,it's their idea to go skiing
rather than mine and my wifeallows it then.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
So that's cool that's my plan that's cool um, you are
a sales guy.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Look at that well all right, we a strategic thinking
there, strategic well, I forgetwho it was it was on dave, maybe
dave letterman, it was acelebrity and he said, oh yeah.
He said, well, my daughterloves golfing, so we got to take
her.
And and uh-huh, yeah right, yougot loves golfing, so we got to
take her.
And, yeah right, you got totake her.
Of course you got to take her.
(30:02):
But well, I believe it or not,was reached out by a few
longtime rag riders todaybecause they listened to the
last show and I said that wewere going to try to connect
with you and I was asked threetimes independently today
whether you were actually comingon or not.
And I said I'm talking to himtonight at eight o'clock, and so
(30:24):
there's a lot of people who aregoing to Big Brag 2025 who are
highly anticipating some updates.
Can you give us some updates onBig Brag 2025?
If I can speak English, man,I'm having a hard time talking
today.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
For sure what?
Do you have any specificquestions?
Sounds like you got somespecific questions.
Maybe we can hammer those first.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I have one.
Okay, go ahead.
Um, it's not so much a question, it's a clarification.
Uh, I hear you've got somegreat activities on the the
layover day and I hear one ofthem involves a racetrack, and
my question is if that iscorrect, do I get a ride around
the racetrack on my bicycle?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Yes, and that's going to be awesome.
Um, so there's actually quite afew race car themed things this
year.
It just happened to work outthat way.
But in Dawsonville there'sAtlanta Motorsports Park, which
it's clubs like this are poppingup.
It's like a country club, butinstead of golf and tennis it's
race cars.
So it's a really cool,professionally designed, a
(31:34):
little over two-mile F1 trackjust outside of Dawsonville.
I got a friend who goes upthere and drives on it all the
time.
There's actually a couple ofriders who have a condo there,
because you can get condos righton the track.
Really, really awesome place,cool place to be.
So a really cool thing we'regoing to get to be able to do
there is they're giving us atime slot to ride around the
(31:57):
track, which will be really cool.
So we're going to get there.
Everybody's going to have tosign a waiver.
Of course, it's a racetrack, sothey're going to be very
careful.
Everybody signs a waiver andthen we're going to have I think
it's like an hour.
We're going to have to be ableto do laps around the track.
It's really twisty, turny, kindof hilly, but it'll be awesome
(32:23):
to do that, to actually ride onthe F1 track on your bicycle,
which would be really cool, um.
Second thing they do there isthey have go carts.
So they actually have an F1style go-kart track that we're
going to get to ride on or notride on, excuse me, ride
go-karts on, um.
So they're going to havedifferent time slots for us, um,
and you can sign up for thatahead of time.
It's actually in the newsletternow, um, and the one that's
going to be going out so you cansign up for your spot, um, and
you can do anywhere from one tothree sessions, and they go 60
miles an hour.
(32:43):
So, um, you get to ride aroundthe racetrack on your bike and
then you get to a separate track, go-kart track, but you get to
ride around that at 60 miles anhour on a go-kart.
So that's going to be awesometoo.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Michael, I have some good news.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
What's that?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
You know I'm the planner between you and I
traveling.
You are, and that's why I lovetraveling with you.
What if I told you that we arealready signed up, sir, to do
go-karts?
You and I are going to be going60 miles an hour.
First we're going to ride ourbikes around the track and then
we have the 1004 spot for twospots for the eight minute, uh.
(33:21):
So if anyone's looking at it,it's it's eight minute sessions,
uh, and, and the advertisementis can you last eight minutes?
I'm like I'm lasting eightminutes I am lasting eight
minutes.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So um so my rodeo or something here we.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
We are signed up, my friend.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Awesome, that is going to be a blast.
When I saw that, I was likenice, beautiful, so looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
But you also have something non-racetrack themed.
I saw on the Bragging.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Rights, you're having a tour going to the falls, yeah
, so Dawsonville has really donea great job.
They've got a lot of stuffgoing on and, um, you know this,
foothills and falls.
We have two waterfalls on thisyear.
Uh, one is amicalola, which isthe tallest waterfall in georgia
.
Um, so if you've never donethat, I definitely suggest if
you're not from georgia,definitely suggest, um, you know
(34:15):
, hopping on there filling outthe form to to hop on that bus
and that bus is going to leave,uh, and if we get enough demand,
there'll be multiple busesrunning from camp uh up to
Amicalola falls.
It's a little bit of a drive,not far.
Um, definitely would not rideyour bike up there just because
of the roads up there are prettytough.
Um, but yeah, you can go seeAmicalola falls.
It'll drop you off.
You can hike from the bottomall the way to the top if you
want, and it's a really coolexperience to see.
(34:37):
It'll be really cool in thesummertime too.
So you have time to do that.
If you're doing go-karts early,get back to camp, you know,
ride your bike back to camp andthen hop on the bus and do both,
which will be nice.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Now I have to ask and you don't know the backstory
here, but this is a realwaterfall, right?
I mean, the reason why I ask iswe were in Michigan and like,
yeah, go visit the falls, and werode over, rode off the route.
It wasn't that far, but we rodeoff the route to see the
waterfall and literally therewas some rocks piled about six
inches high across the streamand water was going over and
(35:13):
that was their waterfall Verydisappointing.
So I'm hoping that we have somerushing water crashing over
falls.
Do we have that water crashingover falls?
Do we have that?
Speaker 3 (35:24):
You do have that, so it's.
This is multiple cascades,right, so it's not a single
unimpeded fall.
And this is where the twowaterfalls come to competition
here.
The one in Toccoa is thetallest unimpeded waterfall, I'm
pretty sure, east of the themississippi uh, don't quote me
(35:45):
on that.
It's really tall, but it is anactual like doesn't?
The water doesn't touchanything until it's the bottom,
you know where.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
The one in amicalola is very tall and very impressive
and it's still a waterfall, butit definitely has multiple
cascades from top to bottom aslong as it's not like this, far
off the ground, a of rocks piledin a stream and water's flowing
over it, and we call that awaterfall, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
No, it's like 700 feet tall.
Yeah, it's impressive.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Good enough, that's a waterfall.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
When we were in Michigan, two of our friends
from Georgia, juan and Amir,came up and they're like that's
not a waterfall.
Waterfall it wasn't.
Yeah, definitely, uh,definitely have to agree, and it
was a decent, decent ride toget down to the quote-unquote
waterfall.
So, like we rode our heads forthis, it's like you know.
But um, so, michael, I alsohave good news.
(36:31):
Yes, sir, we are signed up forthe shuttle for one o'clock to
go to go see the fall.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
So and this is why I ride with Adam.
He's like my travel agent, it'sbeautiful.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Well, I mean, I have to thank who.
I assume Stephanie gives creditas due, or maybe Franklin.
I don't want to be rude, butBraggin' Rights came out early
Sunday morning and early Sundayor Saturday maybe, and it said
sign up here.
And I figured you know whatSupply and demand, and I wanted
(37:01):
to take advantage of the supplybefore the demand was gone.
So, um, we are, we are signedup and we so we'll be riding our
, even though normally on ouroff day franklin usually has us
pinned down.
We usually jump in a car anddrive to a distillery.
I can officially say we areparticipating on the off day.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
So, um, a couple questions that came through to
me before you throw me under thebus.
Too bad on the distillery.
Granddaddy mem's distillery is100 yards from where the camp
spot is, so you can go toamicalola, then when you get
back then go to the distilleryand you can walk there.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So well, it's going to be very cool.
We already have that in ourplans.
So see, this is just nice.
Before we had to like drive,you know, 60 miles to get to a
distillery here.
You just plopped one in our lap.
So it's beautiful.
We can just have the best ofboth worlds.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It's going to be a great day I think you quoted it
because I obviously wasn'tfamiliar but it's going to be an
awesomeville day in Dawsonville.
So there was a question.
Oh, the question that came tome that if I was going to sit
down with you is on your Strava,ride with GPS.
(38:17):
Forgive me, ride with GPS.
You have days 1, 2, 3, 5, 6,and 7.
And two questions came acrossmy desk.
That, if you're still a work inprogress, your century ride is
only showing up at 86 miles, andso is there a loop, was one of
the questions.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Somebody made up that century day loop thing with 86,
80 miles anyway.
But then, uh, yeah, so we'restill working on a century to
get it as close to 100 as we can.
So still working on that.
Okay, fair enough, there is abridge out in takoa.
Um, that's making us go aroundwhere we don't really want to go
in south carolina, but kind ofhave to.
Um, so, yeah, so we're stillworking on that, okay.
(38:59):
And then, yeah, and then dayfour um, we had to wait till we
got final approval on the trackto.
So, yeah, so we're stillworking on that, okay.
And then yeah, and then dayfour um, we had to wait till we
got final approval on the trackto do that, but we're, that's
going to be.
The ride on day four is out tothe track, have a rest, stop
everything out of the track, gokarts, all that, and then ride
back.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
So, okay so that's uh .
That was the.
There was two two routequestions that came in um and
then one of the questions thatcame in which I think I already
know the answer to, but I'mgoing to ask you, since we're
here, is will there be plenty ofrestaurants?
Which I know the answer is yes,but I know people want to hear
it On the layover days thatpeople would like to sit down
(39:33):
restaurants and stuff.
Are there some options for thepeoples?
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Yeah, there's a bunch , uh, all within walking
distance in dawsonville, whichis great.
Um, yeah, there's mexican joint.
There's, um, the city hall isin a complex with the race car
hall of fame where they've gotracing simulators and the whole,
you know, hall of fame trophiesyou can go see, which is really
cool.
You definitely do that whilewe're there.
Uh, there's also a restaurantthere.
They're gonna be doingbreakfast for us both days and
(40:00):
they do, you know, lunch anddinner.
You know, there's definitely afew fast food places around town
.
There's some in downtown I'llsay downtown, but the more
downtown part of Dawsonville andthere's some more closer where
we are.
So there will be plenty.
Plus, there's going to beshuttles that are going back and
forth to Walmart and also thehotels and they've got, uh,
restaurants over there.
If you want to hop on that,it's just that's a, you know, 20
(40:23):
minute one-way bus ride, whichmakes it a little bit more
difficult to get out there.
Okay, yeah, so we got options,cool, cool.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
no, those were.
Um, those were some of thequestions that came to me today.
Um, so I have to tell, in thebragging rights I had a real
brain fart, because every yearwe usually sign up for your
shuttle and then we usually meetyou at the end town, put our
bikes on the trucks, the truckgoes over.
(40:51):
And so in the bragging rights,when it said shuttle, I'm like
why haven't I got the shuttleemail yet?
Because I'm not taking theshuttle, you don't need the
shuttle.
Yeah, because I'm not takingthe shuttle, you don't need the
shuttle.
Yeah.
So this year I'm not taking it.
But I know you.
Usually you guys put out a nicecommunication email about when
and how and where to meet theshuttle.
So I'm sure that'll go outshortly.
Speaker 3 (41:12):
Yeah, and there's one that'll be separate for just
the folks on the shuttle too,because it's a lot of
information for people who don'tnecessarily need it.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, for sure, for sure, Michael.
Any questions from you, fromany of the Bragg updates?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
No, I actually answered a question to somebody
because I have done my researchon Dawsonville.
But I took care of thatquestion.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
I felt kind of like well I know all about
Dawsonville now care of thatquestion.
I felt kind of like, well, Iknow all about dawsonville now,
so and I also saw um, not mything normally, because I'm like
to visit and communicate andsocialize, but you're offering
movies as well in dawsonvillefor those who may want to go see
a movie I saw in the newsletter.
Speaker 3 (41:55):
So yeah, we're gonna do that right.
Uh, it's actually gonna beright in town park where we're
camping, so, um, you'll be ableto watch it, or, if you don't
want to watch it, you might haveto watch it if you're staying
there.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Well, great.
I don't know if you heard, butMichael's actually been training
buddy.
I'm proud of you.
I know he rode a little bit theother day too.
I saw that.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, I'm getting getting more in the normal um,
so that's a good thing I hearsome uh tension between the the
indoor cycling, though you'renot enjoying as much uh, you
know, I'm enjoying it more thisyear than I have in the past, so
it's getting better for me.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
So nice, as long as I'm not looking.
My problem was I was alwayslooking at the clock or looking
at the mileage because I didn'thave anything else to look at.
And uh, I just do away withthose on the screen and just get
into the music and so gettinggetting a few miles, so it won't
be quite as bad as.
Uh, what two years ago?
Speaker 1 (42:55):
And oh my gosh little very little, and then you ran
us through the mountains.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
So yeah, my own wonderfully created torture
there.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
I share that story a lot, franklin.
There were the police.
The police leave us alone andyou look at us and say you boys
been training and we're like alittle bit and you're like I
hope you have.
And the next day and hestarted- laughing just like that
.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
It was like, oh yeah, this isn't gonna be good yeah
we're developing, we're growing,so that's good yeah we made it.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
I had a 60 mile ride on sunday, 17 average, so I
wasn't.
That wasn't too bad, so not atall.
Um, well, we, we appreciateyour time.
Um, we're gonna squeeze this inin between our next show.
Uh, michael, obviously willhave listener spotlights, for
you know the bookends and frontand back, and we've already got
(43:52):
some guests guesses, so that'skind of cool.
I always excited about that.
Um, we got an offer from one ofour team members to help us on
our webpage, so stay tuned tothat.
I'm excited, michael, I wasgoing to share with you after we
record here.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Didn't even get that news yet, so that's cool, all
right.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
So, tripp, I hope you passed your final and I will
share with Michael and I'mexcited about it.
So Trip has offered to help usand, listen, I'll take all the
help I can get.
Well, you guys, you heard ithere Franklin has got everything
(44:37):
planned for us.
I mean, bragg is a great time.
I have witnessed a few Facebookcommunications.
If you're on the fence andyou're catching this interview,
I have to tell you that Bragg isone of not because the man is
here with me, but Michael and Ihave been lucky enough to do
many rides and this has got tobe one of the most
(44:57):
well-organized sag stops.
And this has got to be one ofthe most well-organized sag
stops support, just clean, easy,organized, no questions about
what's going on ride that I'veever done.
And if you're thinking about itand you're about to pull the
trigger and you're like, oh, I'mavailable the 30th of May
through June 8th, boom, justjump on it.
(45:19):
So that's my.
There's the official cyclingmen of leisure stamp of approval
, so it's a good endorsement.
I appreciate that yeahabsolutely well, buddy, we know
that you, uh, you're a familyman and you've been traveling.
I'm sure you're exhausted fromtraveling.
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3 (45:34):
So that's how we know well it's uh, so we got, you
know there's spring tune-ups,all the getting ready for spring
tune-ups.
Spring tune-up was there andthen the Monday after spring
tune-up, hopped on a plane, wentto Colorado and then got back
from Colorado Three days later,went to Croatia and then we just
got back this past weekend.
So we've been, we've been at itnonstop for sure.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
And if there's younger people out there looking
for a career choice, I'mthinking bike director is a darn
good one, because let me tellyou, it doesn't sound like
you're spending a lot of time athome, colorado.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
Croatia, and then Bragg is here, and then, right
after Bragg, a week later, we'rein France for two weeks.
So I mean, it's a packedcalendar.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yeah, except what I'm hearing is international bike
director is the way to go,because every time we interview
somebody the ride is dying.
So I think international bikedirector is the way to go.
Speaker 3 (46:32):
Well, I'm also hiring , so if any of you guys want to
move to Georgia, let me know.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Well, franklin, we know and we appreciate all of
your time.
We so much appreciate yougiving us a brag update.
We're less than a month out,everybody's packing, everyone's
getting everything, all theirgear together.
We just want to say thank youso very much for coming on,
absolutely we appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
And what is today?
Speaker 3 (46:57):
It's a great day for a bike ride.
Absolutely it is yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
It's always a good time to have him on, man, I'm so
excited about Dawsonville.
I'm excited about the kartracing, I'm excited about the
waterfalls, I'm excited abouteverything.
I really do believe Dawsonvilleis going to be awesomeville.
So what do you think?
Speaker 2 (47:20):
No, it's a great interview and we certainly, as
always, appreciate him takingtime, especially now I mean
we're getting down to the wirehim taking time out to come and
talk to us Always a great time.
We certainly appreciate it whatdid you think of his?
Sound quality.
His sound quality was reallygood.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
The cycling men of leisure boys donated a
microphone to Big Bragg 2025.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
Yes, we did so.
No, it sounds like a lot of fun, but you know what else?
Dawsonville is going to be evenmore awesomeville because you
and I have a couple of surprisesfor our team.
So the cycling men of leisureand the cycling women of leisure
teams.
(48:04):
We have a couple of otherthings that we are planning on
doing when we get to Dawsonville, so we are hoping that a big
chunk of the team would like topartake, come join us, do it,
that type of thing, cause we'vegot a couple of things that that
we're going to be doing, andI'm not going to say what, but
(48:28):
it's going to be fun, it's goingto be interesting, and I'm
looking forward to that too.
I'm just looking forward to thewhole week.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I am too.
I've, we've got, we've got somecool stuff and and we you and I
have been doing some planning.
So I'm, I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
So if you are on the cycling men or cycling women of
leisure team, just know, uh,this year, michael and I have
hang out with us and we areplanning on at some point later
in the week having a speakeasy,and there may or may not be a
(49:08):
bottle or two of something Firewater In my bags that get packed
, that we'll be passing out foreverybody to enjoy.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Well, there usually is.
So if not, we got a credit card, we can go somewhere.
Speaker 3 (49:30):
But you don't get the money.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
Remember the Michigan store where I peddled 20 miles
with a bottle of bourbon in mybibs?
Yes, and that is not anexaggeration store where I
peddled 20 miles with a bottleof bourbon in my bibs.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yes, and that is not an exaggeration.
He peddled from Charlevoix upto I don't even know where, but
it was.
It was like 20 miles, Causethat was the only we knew for a
fact.
We could get it there and thankGod, it was Woodford reserve
that had the flat bottle.
Speaker 1 (50:00):
So it kind of fit better uh in the in the bibs,
then you know something elsewould like a bottle of jack or
something.
But and I was a little bit of abigger boy, there was more room
in my bibs and but no, we suredid is that whiskey, whiskey.
I tell you what boy, what hegot there.
(50:21):
And boy, it's a leisure.
They bring the bourbon and theparty with them.
He got there.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
He's got some whiskey there in those cycling bibs.
Speaker 1 (50:31):
Well, so we definitely had a little bit of a
beginning of the show middle ofthe interview, trying to keep
it you, you know, within areasonable amount of time.
So also working on somethingelse.
One of our team members ishelping us out with something
and just, uh, just want to saywe, we trip, uh, doesn't go
(50:52):
unnoticed where we got somethingcool coming up and so we'll
announce that when we're ready.
Just wanted to mention that andto our subscribers thank you,
thank you, thank you, and acouple of you.
We get to ride with you inGeorgia pretty soon.
So thank you so much.
With that being said, ladiesand gentlemen, it is now time
(51:19):
for Listener Spotlight.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
All right, got a good one for you.
This episode, the community andthe city that we're speaking of
started out in a territorynamed for a different state in
the early 1800s.
Named for a different state inthe early 1800s.
(51:43):
The early major industry in thearea was textiles.
Okay, during World War II, themilitary established a very big
presence in this area.
The town changed its name Priorto the War of 1812.
(52:08):
The original name was Britishin origin and with the War of
1812, there was someanti-British settlement, uh
sentiment going around, so theydecided to rename the town
(52:28):
something less British.
So that's what they did.
Um, nine civil war generalswere born in or very near this
community, and I will tell youthat these generals were not all
(52:50):
on the same side.
And here's the best one, thebest, the best hint.
Speaker 1 (53:00):
This city could have been the inspiration for a
well-known Elton John song.
Goodbye Elton.
No, just kidding.
Candle in the Wind, Rocket man.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
Rocket man.
This is where you need to putyour Elton John belt on.
Speaker 1 (53:17):
It's downstairs, I can go get it.
Speaker 2 (53:28):
So there we are.
Elton john started a territorynamed for a different state.
Early industries were textile.
Military came in in world warii and established a large
presence.
That was um.
That has been a.
That has created a verylong-lasting presence within the
community in one way, shape orform.
And then it changed its name.
It's not St Louis.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
No, all I'm going to say is in my head and don't
respond, because people watch uson YouTube, so don't give your
facial expression away either.
When you say very famous EltonJohn song, I'm thinking of NASA
communities with Rocket man, andthat's all I'm going to say,
(54:17):
ladies and gentlemen, on thatnote.
But he's got a lot.
I will that note.
But he's got a lot.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
I will say, though, he's got a lot of big songs.
Speaker 1 (54:28):
This is true, he has a lot Anyway something to think
about.
But soon, for you and I, it'llbe a great day for a bike ride
For a bike ride.
For a bike ride.
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