December 22, 2024 • 59 mins
What happens when a beloved cycling tradition comes to an unexpected end? Let's reminisce about the Ride the Rockies, a cherished Colorado cycling event that has left us with both fond memories and unfulfilled dreams. As we ponder the fading glory of this iconic ride, we cast our eyes on the Bourbon Burn, a ride that may soon face a similar fate. With its charming camp atmosphere and distillery visits, we find ourselves planning one last hurrah, embracing the chance to savor those special moments for possibly the final time.
From the world of cycling to the evolving trends that shape it, we draw fascinating parallels between the resurgence of bourbon and whiskey and the shifts occurring within cycling culture. Traditional events may struggle to capture the interest of today's youth unless they innovate. By incorporating entertainment and modern amenities, there's a promise of keeping the spirit of cycling alive and engaging. Personal stories from the photography industry underline how critical adaptation is in preventing missed opportunities.
Join us as we highlight the creative talents of a cyclist and artist known for his unique bicycle and bird portraits, and extend our heartfelt thanks to Franklin Johnson of BRAG for his invaluable support. We're thrilled to share insights into the upcoming 2025 BRAG event, and the early registration perks. With our teams, Men and Women of Leisure, gearing up for special activities, there's much excitement ahead. Prepare for a journey filled with nostalgia, exciting travel plans, and the camaraderie that cycling brings, all wrapped up with a humorous take on self-checkout frustrations in retail.
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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 (00:19):
Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men
of Leisure, the podcast forcyclists who understand that
riding is not just about gettingto the destination, but the
experience along the way.
Now here are the originalCycling Men of Leisure Adam and
Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of
Leisure.
As usual, I am Adam and I amhappy to be joined with my good
friend, mr Michael Sharp.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello Adam, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm a little bummed man, I'm just kind of bummed.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
But it's the holiday festive season.
See, I wore my Merry Christmas.
You felt the animal sweater thehat.
I mean, I am spreading holidayjoy and you're bummed what?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think I should be more clear.
I knew that you and I weregoing to record and then I was
getting all kinds of notes ready.
And yesterday transportation isan industry that's very it's
interesting.
I mean sometimes like there'sno time to sit down and there's
fires to put out left and rightNot literal fires, by the way,
but management fires to put inand out.
But yesterday was one of thosedays where it was a little bit
(01:23):
slower.
I was playing around and Iactually sent you a picture and
ride the rockies.
Yeah, you did it officiallyafter 37 years is officially now
over and and, if no oneunderstands, that is also a
sister company to ragbrai.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So you have some bugle, taps music or something
we can play you know I'm, Iwasn't, I wasn't well, no, I
should have played somethingelse, but yeah that's sad
because that ride was like thepremier ride of colorado as far
as I'm concerned.
I lived out there for 13 years.
Ride the rock, which was alwaysa huge ride.
(02:00):
Uh, it was one that was on ourbucket list, even though we're
not necessarily good at altitude.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
But you know, it's just sad you know that's uh, you
know I was looking at it andthen guy I work with was like
he's like, well, do you haveyour written out there?
I said no.
I said you know, and?
And adam, version 1.0 didn't,didn't really look for elevator.
I'm curious, you know now, Imean whatever adventures we do
(02:26):
in 2025, and I'm curious howI'll do now with elevation.
You know I'm doing much betterwhen I was able to climb a lot
of hills this this summer.
But even you know now that I'mtraining more and more.
But you know, I I stayed awayfrom rides like that, but man,
it looked beautiful and everytime that you and I would see
the jersey I would be like, hey,look at that.
And then last year I saw a guyand I was like dude, you're
(02:46):
wearing an antique.
Because, just to be fair, lastyear they closed the ride too,
but they put on their website atthe time well, we're going to
reevaluate next year.
Well, yesterday it wasofficially over.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, they had left the door open last year.
I think probably to, maybe andI'm just, I don't have any
insider probably to see if theycould find somebody else to take
over or partner with, orsomething like that for the ride
.
Yeah, another one bites thedust.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
And then today I know you know this but then today
I'm tooling around checkingemail and bourbon burn.
You know, of course, you and Iare both on all these rides that
we've done before.
We're on their marketing lists,as you expect.
How do companies survive?
They've got to get theirmessage out.
And so today I get the emailfrom Bourbon Burn that what's on
(03:34):
the horizon and we're going tohold the ride for 2025, but not
sure where we're going to go in2026.
Which you know.
Maybe this is making anassumption, but to me just
basically saying that, hey,we're going to be here for 2025.
There's even talking about inthe email this is not me
paraphrasing how they're goingto make it one heck of a year,
because this is probably goingto be it for them.
(03:55):
It was a dream and and, andmaybe they'll find someone else
to take it over and maybe theywill.
I mean, don't get me wrongMaybe there'll be a passion for
someone that will, but it seemsto me that it's guiding in the
same direction to the point thatyou and I decided that we are
going to go to maybe the lastever bourbon bourbon burn.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
So we got to do it.
We didn't go last year and I,you know we talked about it.
You know we've mentioned thatthey just always have the same
maps or the same routes and itdoesn't shake it up.
We're in the heart of bourboncountry and there's just all
these distilleries here.
We want to try out and checkout different distilleries than
(04:38):
just the ones that are on theirthing.
Potentially being the last year, you called me up or texted me
today and it's like we need tobe there.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So if this is it, we can say we closed it out.
Yeah, I mean, and you and Ihave always been very
transparent with our audience Imean, like with Buffalo, trace
is a pretty decent chunk awayfrom the Kentucky Horse Park
campground and each year we justdrove over there and then got
the bottle release and then thengone back, and then one year, I
think, the weather was notreally conducive to riding, but
then last year we did go backand we did ride last year on
(05:12):
that day.
But you know it, I don't haveany problem being truthful.
If there's a day that theweather is just bitter cold or I
shouldn't be, it's at the endof september.
But if it was raining, listen,I'm perfectly fine putting the
bike in the, you know, in thevan and jumping in a different
vehicle and going todistilleries, but just being
(05:32):
there and and and and, beingpart of everything, and you know
, if no one's ever done thatright before they've got, you
know, usually bands that play atnight and bourbon tasting in
camp and bonfires the eveningmakes the ride, because they
have a dinner and then afterdinner they've got a band
playing and they've got allthese distilleries, different
(05:52):
distilleries each night,probably, I don't know, eight
yeah, eight to ten to tendistilleries you know with
representatives they're givingyou tastings and that kind of
stuff and just you know,bonfires.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It's really that is what makes that ride, is that
social time after it.
As far as I'm concerned, I meanthe ride is beautiful and you
go by some of the big, you knowhuge horse farms and things
which are just blow your mind,but those are really nice.
And then they do.
Our friend Phil, with PhilTalks Whiskeykey in the past has
put on those special events inthe evenings.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
They're like hour long with a particular
distillery comes in and yougenerally get some tchotchkes
and you do special tastings andit's really those are really
great events.
I mean, you know, especiallylike Buffalo Trace, you know,
when Freddy's there and thattype of thing it's.
They've been really good.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, he calls them VIP tastings, that's it.
You know we've been there forRebel and you know Makers.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And so I mean there's been some great times there.
Like you know, last year youand I decided to skip it, and
then, of course, you know whenyou get an email, maybe that's
their marketing, maybe we boughtinto the marketing, but I don't
think so.
Based upon the way the emailwas written, it sounds like it's
.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, and although I'm glad we didn't go last year,
because last year was a rainfest- yeah, and they actually.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It rained pretty much the whole weekend and they
actually had to move some of thetastings to a convention center
down those streets, at theactual horse park, and not the
campgrounds but the horse park.
So it's a beautiful area, awonderful area and, and you know
, we're looking forward to it,and and if you're looking for a
(07:34):
ride in September, cycling menand or women, depending on who
joins us we'll be there.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's a long weekend ride.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, so it's not like a week long or anything, if
you've never done it before,just so you know it's basically
you're camping at one location.
I know that seems to be areally big perk for a lot of
people.
They don't have to get up andpack their stuff to stress.
So wherever you lay your headat night is where you lay your
head for the entire weekend orhowever long you want to stay.
You only set up camp once andthen, through the registration,
some dinners are included.
(08:02):
You're on your own forbreakfast and lunch, if I
remember correctly, but dinnertwo nights is included.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know we'll have to make a point to go down to
what was it?
The Broke Spoke?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
We had.
I forget his name, but we hadhim on because it's a it's like
yeah, it's like a co-op bikeshop or something.
Yeah, Luke, so we'll have to godown and check in on him and
see how they're doing down there.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Don't worry, audience , I keep the name, I keep all of
the names, so we'll take careof that.
We all have our strong suits.
Trust me, if you can see mespell behind the scenes, thank
God, michael's here.
That and AI, mostly AI, hey God.
Michael's here, so that and AI,so mostly AI.
Hey, buddy, I was trying togive you some credit.
I appreciate it, you know.
But that also leads me toanother conversation, which is
(08:51):
transitioning.
You know, you and I were lookingfor a second week long ride.
We usually our careers and ourfamily life usually allows you
and I both to do two week longrides, possibly throw in a
weekend.
Last year we just were able todo the two week longs and then
this year we've got a couple ofthings planned, some non-cycling
, which I'm excited about, yeah,and then.
(09:13):
But usually we try.
And so you and I spent aconsiderable amount of time we
were doing some show prep andthen we were looking for a
second ride and that was that's.
That's the other part that's gotme bummed out.
I mean, we were going state bystate by state and all these
states that had these staterides.
We would go click.
Either the website would bedefunct or there would be like a
(09:34):
hey, we're sorry, we're closed,or after some so years, we
decided to close it, or whatever.
And it just leads me to theconversation you and I have had,
the conversation you and I havehad with executive director
from Bragg Franklin,conversations we've had with
multiple people about how thesethese week long cycling week
(09:55):
long or weekend long or extendedweek long, they're just,
they're just going away, and Ithink that's where I'm kind of
bummed.
Holiday wise, I'm excited I'vegot family coming to to town, my
project in the basement'scoming together and and I mean
that that's all good.
I'm just what you and I do andand what you and I look forward
to in this recording the showand and and educating some about
(10:18):
cycling and and sharing andlearning from other people.
It's just bumming me out thatthey're all not all of them all
is big word, but a lot of themare closing shop.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well, let me give you something that, hopefully, will
lighten your spirit.
Okay, we cycling right now islike bourbons and whiskeys of
the 80s.
How about that?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So you're saying that these plantains brought back
the bourbon?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, so you're saying that when the Blantons
brought back the bourbon yeah, Imean basically late 70s through
the 80s, actually, sometimesinto the 90s, somewhere into the
90s, you know.
You know, bourbons and whiskeyswere out of favor.
Everybody wanted the clearthings.
We've joked about Zima.
They wanted vodkas, they wantedthings like that, and bourbon
fell and whiskey fell out offavor.
And that's where they got intolike doing all the decorative
(11:04):
decanters and stuff, trying toget people to buy it.
And now, look, I mean thatindustry is just blowing the
roof off of things.
So it's cyclical, likeeverything else.
So you know, it's one of thosethings, it'll come back after a
time.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I just wonder why.
I mean, okay, I know a part ofit why and it's this thing right
here, we're on YouTube as well.
I'm showing a game controllerfor a PlayStation 5.
By the way, it's sitting herecollecting dust.
Yeah, sure it is, trust me, itis.
But I just think that peopleare just doing different things.
(11:41):
I mean, when I was a kid, welived out in the country and
we'd ride our bikes and we'dride.
I mean, we'd ride eight, ninemiles as a young boy in the town
.
That was your freedom.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Yeah, you could hop on that bike, you could go
anywhere.
Well, not anywhere, but whatseemed like anywhere to you as a
kid.
It was awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I'm not insulting anybody, but it seems to me
that every time that you and Isign up for a ride, we are like
the youngest, some of theyoungest people there.
I mean, it just seems likeyounger generation.
Now we're not spring chickens,and no offense to you, I'm
almost 50 but it just seems likeyou and I are bringing up the
lower age group.
You know, we've done, withoutbeing offensive.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We've done some rides in Michigan where I'm like oh
yeah, we were definitely in theyoungest, some of the youngest
people there.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
We were at the very low point of the age, because it
went up considerably.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, we were like, oh my gosh, everyone's going to
be in bed by six, so and theywere, and they almost were the
problem with it is and this ismy philosophy, or my thinking is
a lot of these bike thingshaven't changed.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
They haven't changed from.
You know they've been doing itfor 40 years.
Well, we've been in this for 40years.
Why change it if it isn't broke?
The point is that people'sconcepts of cycling has changed.
You know, I mean like, let'suse Franklin Franklin Johnson
down in Georgia.
You know he turns his ridesinto, you know basically mini
music festivals Every night.
(13:17):
He's got a band or a groupplaying.
So you go to one, you've gotstuff to do in the evenings and
that type of thing.
And you and I have been on rideswhere you provide your own
entertainment and guess whatwe're dumping you.
In a small town of you know, athousand people.
We're giving you nothing to do.
I mean there's only so much,you know, chit chat you can do
with people.
Unfortunately, we bring a, youknow a bottle and some cigars
(13:39):
and things like that.
But you know a lot of rideshaven't kind of changed and
haven't developed new things andnew concepts and say, hey, you
know what we're going to do this, we're going to do that.
A prime example is some of thecharter services that we've used
in the past.
They have been doing the sametype of charter service that
(14:00):
they've done for the last 20, 25years.
Literally, they haven't changedtheir model or anything.
As we know, a lot has changedin the last 20, 25 years.
Literally they haven't changedtheir model or anything.
As we know, a lot has changed inthe last 20, 25 years.
They don't have adequatecharging stations, they don't
have a lot of this other stuff.
But you see, people like Padres, people like what's the other
(14:20):
big?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
one.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
What's that, bransel Bransel?
You see a lot of those type ofpeople who every year, are
changing it up, are adding newthings, are bringing stuff in,
they're keeping up with it.
They're not just saying this isour model, this is what we're
going to follow.
They're constantly evolvingevery year to keep in pace and I
(14:43):
think a lot of these rides havedone that.
Now ridership is down,obviously, and less younger
people are getting into it.
But just my opinion.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I don't think you're wrong.
I mean, I think you're spot on.
I mean, you know, when I ran myphotography business, I mean,
if you know, for a while we hadthe perfect model and we were,
we were, I mean, we were bangingup, I would, I would had six
weddings a weekend with my teams, but we were doing the same
thing.
And I'm not afraid to sit hereand not only on video but voice
admit that I made a businessmistake.
(15:13):
I was not changing with thetimes, with the photography.
We were doing the same thingfor a while and it was working.
We were doing wedding shows andboom, boom, boom, boom and life
was great, I mean.
And then we stopped gettingsome gigs.
I'm like, what am I doing?
What am I doing?
And I wasn't changing what wewere doing.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
The market was changing People's wants was you
know wishes Right here yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
This helped do it in too.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
That killed helped do it in too.
I'm right there with you.
I mean, I was, I think.
As we mentioned before, I wasalso a wedding photographer back
in the day, and you just movedinto that thing where you were
definitely needed.
And then all of a sudden youwake up one morning and more and
more people are carting aroundtheir cell phone which has a
camera on it, and then I noticedI was merely becoming a person
(15:59):
posing people so that the familycould take pictures on their
cell phones.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I told that story to you a hundred times, where I
mean in the prime, when I wasprobably doing 75 to 100
weddings a year.
I think 100 might be pushing it, I'll go 75.
75 was probably one of mybiggest years.
I'll never forget years.
I'll never forget.
I would line every you knowbrides and grooms up and then I
(16:24):
would go to every bridesmaid andI would have their flowers and
I would make sure all theflowers were shaped right, all
the men's boutonnieres, and putyour hand in your right pocket
and blah, blah, blah, blah, blahand everyone nope, let's look
all.
Nope, chin up here, look uphere.
You know everything I got.
(16:46):
Okay, all right, guys, and I'mtrying to stay positive.
And by the time I do that, thensome family members takes a
picture of the cell phone.
They put it on Instagram with afilter.
My pictures come out two, three, four weeks later, depending on
what the, what the agreed uponcontract was, depending on what
the client wanted.
By the time they saw mypictures, I was old news and so,
going back to cycling, I thinkyou're absolutely right.
I think that some of thecharters who are like oh no, we
use tote a and we put that inthere and we have this and we do
that, and the riders come inand they get their, you know,
(17:06):
they get their packets and ifyou're not changing you're going
to die.
And so not literally, I hope,but so, yeah, I think that that
goes along with it.
And then when you start lookingat these cycling events, I also
think about, you know, job.
Industries and people duringCOVID had to make a lot of
changes.
And if you have to start over,like I mean, it's not a secret
(17:29):
that everyone always jokesaround Steve, who's from Bragg,
who always teases you, and Ilike, how do you travel so much,
don't you?
I want your guys' jobs and heworks for REI and he's a great
man and we, we, we think theworld of him.
He's a super straggler, part ofteam super straggler.
You know he always says thatwell, you and I both have jobs
where we're lucky, where we canremote work and we can do that
(17:50):
kind of stuff.
But if you start over in acareer and you only get a couple
of weeks of vacation, I stillthink that there's like hey,
honey, I'm going to go offcycling for a week.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
The heck you are.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So I think there's something todo with that, but just kind of
a bummer.
And then it makes you wonder,like Franklin, like you
mentioned, and then likeRagbribe.
Obviously I think Ragbribe'sgot a few things it's got
concerts at night, it's got.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It's just got the notoriety.
Yeah, concerts at night it'sgot.
It's just got the notoriety.
Yeah, it was the first, it'sthe biggest you know it's.
And it draws in a lot of peoplewho aren't normal cyclists too.
I mean, they get a largepercentage of people who just I
cycle once a year and that's arag ride type thing.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But look what happened on the 50th anniversary
.
I mean, I think what happenedwas is hey, are you going to the
50th?
And it started out as thismassive thing and no one
realized it was going to be ahundred degrees and, and and
Matt Fippen decided to make it500 miles literally for the for
the week long ride.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
We're not holding it against you, Matt, by the way.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
No, I mean 5,500.
I mean, I finally got my 50thanniversary book.
I got it this week actually.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Oh good.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Fancy picture book with all kinds of history and
stuff.
But and they apologize theysent out all kinds of letters to
people saying we're sorry that.
You know, this is not how ragwriter only does things.
And the publisher fell through.
And so, hey, listen, thingshappen.
I got it now, so but, um, butyeah, I mean, you know there's,
there's, there's that.
But you're right, you and Ihave been on rides where, okay,
(19:19):
that's, it's a 62-mile day,there's not a lot on the road to
see, and so we get into town,we think we're going to explore
the town, and there's onestoplight and 1,000 people and
one burger shop, and then we'relike okay, and so Well,
charlevoix, we mentioned it, Ithink last episode, charlevoix
(19:40):
in Michigan.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Beautiful town, charlevoix we mentioned it, I
think, last episode, charlevoixin michigan.
Yeah, beautiful town, right onthe lake wonderful.
They got a strip with like barsand restaurants right there to
the water.
We stayed there and are rightin michigan and we were six
miles out of town at a school,and so the last thing we wanted
to do is ride the hills sixmiles in and then have to ride,
you know, add an extra 12 milesonto our thing.
(20:02):
So it's it's.
That's the kind of thing you'retalking about.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It also wouldn't have been.
I mean, I thought about thatlater on, Okay, Well, you know,
if you go to Ragbri you seebikes going all day, all night.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
You know, people went into town, they went to eat and
then they ride their bike backto camp, that road that we were
on by that school would not havebeen safe to ride at night, so
hills it had no shoulder, I mean, and it was out in the country
so there's no light, so I meanyeah, anyways, so all right,
let's talk about something moreexciting.
(20:35):
Here we're.
You're gonna bum me out and I'mgonna take off my santa hat
here no, no, don't take off.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I mean, um, by the way, I'm not gonna tell you now,
but I ordered a christmas giftfor you, so I'm waiting for it
to come in.
So, oh, did you?
Yes, sir, yes, sir, I think youare really gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So well, I hope that jeep gladiator is in blue, like
a dark blue, and I wanted theone with the sunroof, so I hope
you remembered that you knowit's about two inches long and
come off on.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It's a matchbox car.
But, buddy, you, you do you.
It has a little thing that saysif I'm upside down, flip me
over some yeah, absolutely no,but so the positive news out of
all that whining is that we dohave another event on the books,
so we'll be going to bourbonburn.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So you can join us.
We'll drink some bourbon.
Everyone in there is drinkingbourbon, so it's kind of nice
I'm gonna move on.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I'm gonna talk about our artist who made our logo.
I'd like to is brianleefritzcom, spelled
b-r-i-a-n-l-e-e-f-r-i-t-zcom.
The man does beautiful,beautiful bike portraits.
(21:50):
So if you like a artistrendering or drawing of your
bicycle, or or maybe maybeyou're into tandems and you
don't have one, or maybe youwant a tricycle, or maybe you
want something your bike innature, the gentleman is
extremely talented artist and sohe is offering a special code,
uh, with I'm sorry, 25 off abike portrait with a special
(22:11):
code of leisure.
So if you go tobrianleefritzcom, we would like
to help our, our friend, out andplease go check him out.
There's some.
There's some.
He does a lot more than justbicycles.
He's huge in birds andeverything.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
He's a cyclist himself.
We've actually been on a ridewith him before and he's done
our logos and he's done a lot of.
He started to really get intolike jerseys, cause I know he
did the Michigan's Jersey and hedid some of their the graphic
work and that type of stuff.
And yeah, I was going tomention I've seen some of his
birds that he does and they arefantastic.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So I mean it's really good stuff.
She's big into hummingbirds andit was one of the best gifts my
wife has ever enjoyed, morethan jewelry or anything.
It's a beautiful portrait of ahummingbird and doing what
hummingbirds do.
So check it out.
They hum, they float, almostlike they're floating the wings,
spinning 5 million miles asecond.
(23:05):
Our leisure community kind oftorn on this one because our
leisure community is the one andonly executive director of BRAG
, mr Franklin Johnson.
Okay, all right.
He first of all made a generouscontribution and we'd like to
formally thank you, sir.
That was very, very unexpected,very surprised.
(23:28):
I had to look three times.
So thank you so much.
It really helps out a lot onbehalf of Michael and myself,
and Michael can speak forhimself, but I just want to say
thank you so much, sir.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, he's always been a uh big supporter of our
show and what we've done, and sowe certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So he also has given a guess for something that you
and I do, and, uh, listenerspotlight.
So I think, uh, we'll move intothat.
I'm going to let you give theclues from the last episode
first, and then I'll give youhis guess.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
All right.
The clues for listenerspotlight for the last episode
is as followed this city wasfounded in the 1870s.
It is named for a NativeAmerican village.
It was built at its locationdue to the railroad Mills,
became a big part of its earlyeconomy and actually really was
a driver of its economy for over70 years.
(24:24):
The town itself is surroundedby three lakes.
In the first 40 years of thiscommunity they suffered three
fires, so there was a lot ofthrowing buckets of water and
rebuilding, and this town's maindrag did not get its name from
a stand-up routine, but it couldhave.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
There we go.
So Mr Franklin Johnson says thelistener spotlight guest is
Spokane Washington.
The comedy routine is a stretchwith the spoken comedy routine
stand-up question mark.
Looking forward to chattingthis week and we'll talk about
that in a minute.
But the gentleman has guessedSpokane Washington.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Spokane, Washington.
Well, Franklin, I can give youa sixth of a point that you got
the first letter of the city'sname correct, but it is not
Spokane.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
It does start with an S.
That's something.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
You know what we need .
We need that soundbite thatsays go get your shine box, you
lose.
That's something.
You know what we need.
We need that sound bite thatsays go get your shine box, you
lose, you get nothing.
You know like mix it up fromCharlie and the Chocolate
Factory.
That's right, okay, that's myhomework.
You've given me three, you'vegiven me a trumpet for taps,
taps, and then I'm writing thesedown, taps, and then go get
(25:42):
your shine box and then you lose.
You get nothing.
You lose.
Franklin, appreciate youwriting into, but we appreciate
it.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
It was a good guess.
Do you want to know what it is?
I do our spotlight listener,spotlight community is seneca,
south carolina wow, what part I?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I'm me, but what part of South Carolina is that,
besides you saying Seneca?
Speaker 3 (26:09):
It's in the Seneca, South Carolina part.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I knew you were going to say that Go ahead, go ahead,
let's hear it, let's hear it.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Use Google Maps for God's sakes.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Founded in the 1870s.
It was named for a NativeAmerican village and also a
nearby river.
It was originally namedE-Seneca, E-Seneca, E-S-S,
E-Seneca, and then later it wasjust shortened to Seneca.
It was built at its currentlocation because there was
crossing railroad tracks there.
The town is surrounded by threelakes.
(26:41):
You got Lake Kiowee, LakeJacusie sorry, I'm not from here
and Lake Hartwell.
And then the town's main dragdidn't get its name from a
stand-up routine, but it couldhave.
One of the main drags in townis called Ramcat Alley, and it
got its name from a joke thatpeople used to say because there
(27:04):
was a lot of fish markets thereand they cleaned the fish that
attracted a lot of cats, and thejoke became that you can't ram
another cat in that alleybecause there were just so many
cats there looking for the freemeal.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
So then it became known as ram cat alley gotcha so
there you go well, that'spretty cool, by the way.
Um, I want you to know that.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Sorry, you said cat uh, so we we thank our listeners
from seneca, south carolinaabsolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
thank you all listeners, but especially seneca
, south carolina, which, by theway, is in the South, I mean
Northwestern part, sorry,northwestern part of South
Carolina by the Georgiaborderline in the Northeastern
part of Georgia right there.
So thank you so very much.
And you're right, I went to theold Google here.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
So we've, we've written actually pretty close to
that.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
We have.
Yeah, we have.
I mentioned when he, mrFranklin Johnson, said looking
forward to chatting this week.
Oh, last year.
A lot of our audience willremember that we were trusted
with a very well-kept secret the2024 big brag route.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
There's a ceremony and everything to, like you know
, swear us to secrecy and youknow there's a whole big.
It gets crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
but I almost couldn't get off my knee.
I put one knee down, I wasbowing and Bowing and you know.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
But we're sworn to secrecy again this year, aren't
we?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
We sure are so in 2024,.
You and I heard from multiplemultiple people who said love
the show, signed up because welistened to your show.
I heard from multiple multiplepeople who said love the show,
signed up because we listen toyour show.
And so it was wonderful that hetrusted us with the route before
, and the reason why we recordbefore is because he releases
his video at the strike ofmidnight, new Year's Eve
midnight, and then he has agreedupon he being the executive
(28:57):
director of Bragg that we canrelease our show at noon on the
1st.
Now why is that important?
Because if you've watched it atmidnight and then you listen to
our show at noon, you'llactually, if you sign up before
midnight on the 1st of January2025, you actually save $50.
So you can go to bragorg,b-r-a-gorg and you can sign up,
(29:22):
and then, if you sign up beforemidnight, january 1st 2025,
you'll save 50 bucks for aweek-long ride.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Why are they waiting till that time?
Speaker 2 (29:32):
They don't have to wait.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I mean, just they know they're going, we're going
to be there.
They know they're going to bethere.
Why don't they just do it now?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, they can, and when they do that under the team
name, they should if they don'thave a team that they already
belong to, because if they do,we're loyal.
You know, we understand that,unless you want to switch, of
course.
But but if you're looking tojoin a team, put cycling men or
women of leisure we can nowannounce that we will have two
teams.
Once again, we'll have the menof leisure and the women of
(30:01):
leisure, and you and I areworking on something very
special for that.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
We're working on that .
It's a slow process, but we'reworking on a very special event
activity, something fun.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
During the week, and it should be a good time.
We've always had a good timethere.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, looking forward to it.
Now I know we promised that.
Yes, now we know Franklinlistens.
So, franklin, if you could justturn your radio down for, say,
like a minute and a half, twominutes, it would be great.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Continue.
A lot of you have reached outto me for any kind of hint
anywhere that I could tell youanything about the route, and
I'm going to break the rules alittle bit.
I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Don't listen, Franklin.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Where is it?
It's going to Georgia.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
We will be riding in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
That's right.
That's right.
So, ladies and gentlemen, checkus out on the 1st of January at
noon Eastern time.
Which bonus, sir.
11 Central, your time.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
That's right.
You can check us out on thepodcast through any of your
podcastings or you can check usout on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
That's right.
You can watch us or listen tous, and I got to say Franklin
really got into the spirit of it.
Yeah, I don't want to get intoit too much, but yeah, he sure
did.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
That's all we'll say.
Franklin really got into thespirit of the show on this one,
so you'll definitely want tolisten because it was a lot of
fun.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
A lot of good information.
A lot of good information.
I can say that, if you areconsidering going, or maybe like
our friend Trip who wrote mebehind the scenes, Trip has
signed up for Bragg and hesuggested that we do a contest
and we'll get into that in asecond.
And, Trip, thank you so muchfor the recommendation.
Trip's already signed up.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Thank you, Trip.
He's been on the team a coupleof years now.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, and for a guy like Tripp who's already signed
up, I still think there's valueadd to listen to what Franklin
has to say, because you'll get acomplete breakdown of the route
and some of the things of theareas that it's going, and
that's all I'm going to say.
So otherwise my contract isbroken.
I got to pay back the deposit.
(32:22):
It's just an ugly thing.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
It just gets ugly, and then lawyers will get
involved.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, I don't want to do it.
Lawyers, I already pay themenough.
I would use a ShawshankRedemption line here.
Blank an, a Bunch of, but so,anyways, good show coming out on
the first, excited about it.
And so, just to be clear,midnight New Year's Eve, on the
Bragg YouTube page, you can findthe video that they usually put
(32:49):
together which tells you theroute release video.
But for a comprehensivebreakdown of where the ride is
going and some items, somespecific items about each, for
details, details about the route, come check it out, and we're
excited to partner once againwith Bragg and we appreciate
their continued trust.
(33:10):
So, thank you and lookingforward to it.
And so we are signed upourselves, just to be clear, and
we both use Cycling Men ofLeisure as our team name.
We're pretty sure we alreadyhave the 10.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I think we already have the 10.
, but so you realize, when westarted to say that about
Franklin and we were going totell people, you know he
probably swerved off the roadCause he generally listens when
he's driving it's like what arethose guys going to say, you
know?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I can picture his Ford F one 50 with the cab on
the back and Swerving to thisside of the road.
I'm calling them boys up, butno, we would never do that.
We appreciate the partnershipand really looking forward to
that, so I'm going to segue intosomething a little bit
different.
(33:57):
Okay, what do we got?
We are going to somethingcalled Podfest.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yes, this is exciting .
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
It's ironic as well.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
So we had already planned a trip down to Orlando.
We were going to make it kindof like a guy's golfing, record
some podcasts, do some dinner,what do you mean?
Kind of.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
It's going to be an extra long guy's weekend.
We were going to golf, eat andpodcast.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, and smoke cigars somewhere.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
And smoke cigars somewhere, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
So then our platform of where we launch our podcast
was advertising this thingcalled PodFest 2025.
And at first I was kind of likePodFest 2025?
It's like a convention forpodcasters, I mean, do you get
in a room?
And that's exactly what it is.
So it happens to be in Orlandoat the same time.
You and I are going to be therehow ironic.
(34:57):
And we submitted a littlesublimation about our show and
why we would be interested ingoing over there.
And for me it's two reasons.
One, I guess not just two.
Two is putting it in lanes.
A few reasons that I wasinterested is they have their
own show and I love to be ableto put faces to the names of
their show because I've heardtheir humor and their show
(35:19):
basically talks about how topodcast some marketing ideas.
An example we have a cyclingpodcast.
We should be going to cyclingstores, even if we travel on our
own.
Let's say, you and the familygo down to Florida.
If you're going to run intotown, maybe look if there's a
cycling store, maybe take abusiness cards and say, hey, you
know.
So they talk about things likethat how to market your show and
(35:41):
so then they have some funnystories and changes that on the
platform of how they do things.
So that's interesting, but justnetworking and finding out how
we could do our show better ormaybe get more listeners or
spread the word, and so we wereselected to go over there and we
were going to.
We we will be attending a podfest 2025 in Orlando, Wheat.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
We're still going to golf, right yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, and that will not affect the golfing
podcasting.
No.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Or smoking a cigar, no, or eating, okay, yeah, it's
just ironic that it's the sameweekend and it'll, it'll be,
it'll be fun.
It'll be fun, it'll beinteresting, a new adventure we
can have some stuff to chatabout.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
As long as it's not golfing like we did last time.
That picture comes up on myphone once in a while, when it's
42 degrees and we both havestocking caps on.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yeah, I was in Florida.
I wasn't expecting to be inKansas golfing.
I know.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Hopefully it warmed up in the warm up and we
actually got to meet Armando'sold coworkers from the cruise
ship.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
So that was pretty fun.
That was a good day, so we'regoing to pod fest.
That'll be fun.
We'll tell everybody what we've, what we learned, and that kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Well, I want to mention your Web page.
You, you not only by by day,you are a business architect no
one knows what that is, but I doa lot of work and by night, you
highlight as a, as a webdesigner.
No, luckily for us, they makeit go, daddy, makes it pretty
simple to be able to throwsomething together.
(37:20):
So, but on a serious note, youtook the time and you put all of
our listener spotlights downand you strategically spaced
them out.
So if the show hasn't come outyet, you don't put it down there
yet to give people ample time.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
No, no, yeah, you don't get it ahead of time, but
I'm a couple of weeks behind.
But I'm going to be updating itand what I'm trying to do is
I'm trying to go back also andputting the episode information
in there, you know, like theseason and the episode.
So it's like you're like, well,have they ever done?
No, boaz Mississippi.
I'm from there and it's like,oh, look at this, they did it,
(37:54):
doggone it.
I missed it.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Then you could go to that episode and listen.
Have we done Boaz Mississippi?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
We have never done Boaz Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Okay, I was just wondering.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
I'm like I think Boaz is actually in Alabama, but
anyway it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Good, because I was like man.
I know I record this show withyou.
I'm not an AI guy.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
You just blank out.
It's like, ah, it's his turn.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Now I'm going to just I'm St Louis, just definitely,
definitely excited that you didthe web page.
You also put some highlights ofour year out there, some
photographs and stuff, and sothere could be people out there
who have listened to our showwho have no idea what we look
like.
And if you go to our web page,cyclingmenofleisurecom, I am the
(38:37):
charming, charismatic oneno-transcript there's lots of
overweight pictures of me.
I'm adam and if you've nevermet me, but uh, we need to get
some but that is good thoughyeah because that shows all the
(38:57):
work that you've done to get towhere you're at.
It shows your journey almostbeen a year now.
I know I appreciate that, butum, yes, so please check us out.
I appreciate your work on theweb page.
All kinds of information there.
We we got a jersey store Ifyou're looking for a jersey.
We got a t-shirt store.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Rides that we've done , places we've been Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
I'm going to mention Dennis Keeler, Scott Garwick and
Alex Bell yes, it's my way ofalways saying thank you for
being monthly supporters and sothank you so much for that, and
besides that you asked me, foryou haven't asked me this in a
long time.
So let me play with my toyshere.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Ladies and gentlemen, my good friend, my best friend,
has asked for a little segmentof Rants of Dissatisfaction.
Buddy, take the floor, do I?
Speaker 3 (39:49):
have the floor you have the floor.
Yeah, you know, this has beenbothering me for a while and
finally I was like we needanother rants of dissatisfaction
, because here's my rampself-checkout.
I hate them, you know.
I understand the purpose ofself-checkout.
Oh hey, you can self-check out.
You get in, get out quickercost people their jobs, keep
(40:09):
going you're right, but that'swhat they market it as.
But bottom line, behind thescenes, we really know there's a
bunch of bean counters going.
You know what we can get rid of.
Some of our staff, you know ithelps on that.
But what annoys me is you nowtake me.
I go to my local grocery store.
I'm buying this, that and otherthings.
I come up there.
You want me to check out, doself-checkout.
(40:31):
I mean, you kind of push metowards that way.
And it happens at big boxstores.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Home Depot.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Lowe's, all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
What do I get out of it?
You get used to the break room.
I do what.
You get used to the break room.
Have you ever seen that thingon Facebook?
It said the cops arrested metoday.
I don't know why.
I was just in the break roombreak room of a place I had to
check myself out.
I don't.
I haven't deserved to get up.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
That's.
That's my point.
It's like, if you want me to doself-checkout, shouldn't I be
getting a couple percentagepoints off of my tab, Because
now I'm doing the work.
In fact, you've got me doingthe work of who you?
You know, an employee of yoursthat you're no longer paying
what's in it for me, so I get alittle annoyed by this.
And then here's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
There are two more points to this.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
He's really hard man.
You caught me on a weekday.
I was really going wild earlier.
A lot of stores and I will.
You know a local Dollar General.
We have one here in town.
We've got a lot of them.
I don't know in your area ifyou've got Dollar Generals, but
we've got tons of them here.
They kind of take up the spaceof a Walmart in smaller towns
where Walmart would never go.
(41:40):
A little bit of everything.
Nowadays they have groceriesand everything they put in.
A lot of their stores have putin there these automatic check
yourself out things.
They put them in.
They went to all the costs toput them in and then about six
months later they stopped usingthem because they were
complaining that people wereripping them off.
People would just not ringthings in, or people would ring
(42:03):
things in and just walk out thedoor and not pay.
And the thing about it is I reada couple articles and they
acted surprised.
It's like you acted surprisedthat you want people to wring
themselves out and, be honest,it's like I myself would never
walk out of a store withoutpaying for an item.
(42:23):
But there's people out therethat would.
It's just the nature of how oursociety is.
But then the stores are likeperplexed and it's like we're
losing money.
We got to stop using this.
So you spend all that money.
You didn't think about thisahead of time, spend all this
money.
And now in our store we've gotthree of these big machines that
are just taking up floor spacewhere you could have merchandise
(42:44):
.
But now you got these threemachines that just sit there
that have signs on them sayingout of order, three machines
that just sit there that havesigns on them saying out of
order.
So it's just kind of annoying.
The final point I'll make Ihave not been trained in grocery
store checkout at all, not inmy resume, not even when I was a
kid.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Why are you laughing at me?
You never worked at a grocerystore.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I never worked at a grocery when I was a kid.
I had the greatest jobs.
We'll talk about it later.
But I had awesome jobs when Iwas a kid.
I had the greatest jobs we'lltalk about it later, but I had
awesome jobs when I was neverworked in a grocery store or
fast food.
I don't know anything aboutthis.
Okay, I'm just sitting there atthe grocery store doing it
produce, I've got it.
I've got a a onion?
I don't.
It's, it's yellowish, it'swhitish, it's a valdea, it's,
(43:29):
you know.
Is this a spanish onion?
Is this a uh, peruvian onion?
Is this, you know?
Or a potato, you know?
Is it a yukon gold?
Is it this?
Is it that an apple?
You know it's like?
Is that fiji apple?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
or you know whatever it's the cheapest one on the
list is what it is but theydon't give me the price list.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
They're like, you know, you got to go into a
little thing and and likethere's a whole page of like
onions and a whole page ofapples.
It's like it's a red apple.
I don't know what is what.
You know, I didn't pay anyattention, I just went.
It's like, okay, that producelooks good, it looks fresh, I'll
take that.
So now I don't know.
So now I have to push thelittle.
And you know, I can look over atthe customer service desk and
(44:10):
these guys are chatting and nowI can kind of see him go.
I've got to go over and helpthis guy.
He comes over and he's like Iwas like, yeah, I don't know
what kind of Apple this is, andthen he goes about going well,
(44:37):
all you've got to do, sir, ispush right here and look up your
item, and then you just selectthe item, just like, right here,
it's this apple, right there,talking to me Like I'm just an
idiot, that I'm supposed to knowwhat kind of apple or onion
this is.
So no, so then you know,they're talking down to me Now.
I feel like an idiot and it'slike, excuse me, I've never been
trained in grocery storeanything.
I've not been trained inproduce, so don't sit there and
talk down to me that you've mademe check out my own groceries
and I don't know what a piece ofproduce is.
Why don't you guys stick alittle label in every single one
(44:59):
of those so I can just scan it?
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Now a lot of them in my stores do have a little label
and like to this day, becauseof my grocery store career,
which was very short livedbananas four zero one, one for
grocery store career, which wasvery short-lived Banana is
4-0-1-1 for the PLU.
So you had to go to thecomputer type 4-0-1-1.
To this day I know that.
So it's just they've neverchanged it right.
And so every now and then thatgirl will come over and say do
you need help with that?
(45:21):
I said no, that's 4-0-1, right.
Like you know, honey, crispapples they come around once a
year or whatever.
And uh, or at least by us, theydo anyway, since it's a tundra
the rest of the year.
But uh, every now and then Ialways want to like that sign on
Facebook that says, uh, I wentto the regular cashier.
(45:42):
It was $211.
I got a second opinion of theself checkout.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
That just really bugs me.
It's like you know, if you'regoing to want me to do the work,
why don't you throw a couplepercentage off my thing?
I'm not going to steal from you, but you could, you know, shave
a couple percentages off mybill for doing somebody else's
job and then certainly, if Ineed help with it, don't talk to
me like I'm an idiot.
I'm sorry, I have not beentrained.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
And Home Depot is the worst because, like, if you're
buying bolts and they got likethe y I u on there, I'm like how
the heck do you I mean you knowthey got the, the book and then
going through there or when youbuy trim or something by the
foot yeah well, number one, it'slike well, I yeah, yeah, it's
just like whatever this, what's?
that how many?
Like when the girl said howmany feet is this?
It looks like eight to me, Idon't know.
(46:34):
You got 18 carts worth.
How many sheets of plywood arehere?
I don't know, looks like six,I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
There's a couple I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Yeah, not sure.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
So, anyway, that's my rant for today.
It just really really bugs me.
I understand why they do it.
I don't appreciate the kind ofthe reasons that they really
promote oh, you'll get outfaster and speedier and all this
.
Ultimately, it's just to youknow, reduce their bottom.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Okay, well, believe it or not, this time I do not
have any rants ofdissatisfaction, but I'm glad
that I was able to give you thefloor to allow you to have rants
of dissatisfaction.
But I'm glad that I was able togive you the floor to allow you
to have rants ofdissatisfaction.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
So you're happy with the world, huh.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I wouldn't say I'm happy with the world.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
Nothing that you want to voice.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Let's talk about that Dollar General stock that keeps
.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Well, that's the reason why the Dollar General
stock goes down, because theyinvested all of this money on
self-checkout machines and thenthey realized they were losing
more money from people juststealing from them, so they shut
them all down.
It's taking up floor space andthey're still trying to pay off
that investment.
When someone didn't go.
You know what?
Checkout's right by the door.
Somebody could just check itout, or just walk right by it
(47:48):
and go straight out the door.
I mean, who didn't foresee this?
Speaker 2 (47:52):
yeah, I mean you know many times when, when, like
they just redid our whole meyerand depending where you shop in
the world, meyer is verypredominant.
You know grocery store here inmichigan and it's more than a
grocery store yeah, it's a it'slike a walmart almost, yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
yeah, they buy a little bit of everything in
there, everything yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
So they just spent like probably millions of
dollars redoing ours here in mylittle town that I live in here,
and in the old days they'd havelike 27 registers and only two
of them would be open.
So how did they fix that?
They put in like 27self-checkouts, but the problem
is they have one employee, one,two, like if you buy booze then
(48:32):
you scan it and the light goeson.
You got to wait for the guy tocome over and be able to check
your id, which is good, I get it.
I mean you got it.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
I mean not everyone should be following the rules
yeah, absolutely so they onlyhave one person to help me with
my produce exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
And so now you're sitting there going oh my gosh,
you know.
So that doesn't really help out.
I guess if you're going to cutemployees, at least have a few,
because there are times likefive o'clock, I bet you that.
I mean I try not to go in there, but I bet you it's a nightmare
over there.
So I can get behind you on thatI can.
But as far as rants ofdissatisfaction maybe there's
(49:06):
just too many right now going onI can't pick.
Yeah, I can't pick.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Well, thank you for giving me the floor to rant a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Are you kidding?
I get to play with my voicetoys which I know everybody
loves yeah everybody loves those.
Let's just beep him real quickthere.
Why don't we round out thisshow by first of all saying
Merry Christmas, happy Holidays,happy kwanzaa festival,
hanukkah, hanukkah, whateverthis, whatever you celebrate, on
(49:37):
behalf of myself and michaeland our family's peers, we, we
wish you nothing but, uh, healthand happiness for the next
coming year, and besides that,we'll bring it up with a
listener spotlight.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
All right, this one's going to be a good one.
St Louis so close.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Dang it so close.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Dang it, he's not even in the neighborhood.
Anyway, this, okay, put yourhands in your pocket, stop
pushing buttons.
It was incorporated in the1880s.
The early economy depended onmining, agriculture and timber.
If you are a father, you shouldreally appreciate this town.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
It started as a trading post.
The city's name comes from anative language.
In 1974, great year 1974, 1974this city was in the world
spotlight and a former residentof this city helped influence
the vision of a perfectchristmas.
See what I did there.
(50:44):
I threw a little christmas uhthing there like it so there you
go well, pretty easy.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yeah, because you did the homework yeah, but still
it's it's pretty easy.
Will you be giving anotherguest away?
Speaker 3 (50:58):
if I need to, I could , could, could, give another
guest.
You want me to give anotherguest away, like in the middle
of the week, on our facebookpage?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
yeah, people are traveling.
I mean, think about it a lot oftimes.
People like to travel when theylisten to us, and so they could
be catching up for a fewdifferent episodes, and for that
we say thank you well, what'sthe extra hint gonna do?
Well, they're gonna maybe logon to the facebook page a couple
days later while they'redriving.
Oh, yeah, no I'm sure some do.
Speaker 3 (51:28):
I'm sure sure some do Once you hear what this one is.
If nobody guesses it, you'll belike man.
But it's not St.
Here's your hint.
It's not St Louis.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Fair enough, what have we got coming up in 2025?
We're working on man.
Lots of great stuff, a lot ofgood stuff.
We're working on an interviewwith Bike Virginia, bike
Virginia.
We reached out to them.
They had a week-long ride.
They're looking at maybe doinga couple weekend rides.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
That would be the state, not my ex-girlfriend.
Yes, sir, I used to actuallydate a girl named Virginia, so
I'm just clarifying.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Well, we hope that she is listening, because we
need all the listeners.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
She's a tell-all.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
But hey, bike Virginia, yeah, that should be
interesting.
So we've got a gentleman we'vebeen communicating with back and
forth.
We're looking at having Padrescycling on.
They do camping and rides andevents and so we're looking at
having like a charter serviceand so we're looking at having
Padres in.
They call themselves.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
We've ran into them all over the place.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
So we're looking at having those guys on.
We're working on that.
You mentioned him earlier, philCollin Not to be confused with
Phil Collins, but Phil Collinfrom Phil Talks Whiskey.
We're going to have him onafter the year and so we've got
a couple of great stuff for theshow you and I are getting in
person together.
Wow, yeah, we're lookingforward to that.
Yeah.
(52:47):
First one is January 16ththrough the 20th.
We will be in Orlando, so wepurposely made reservations for
some meals over there at Disney.
We are staying on the Disneyproperty Michael and I are both
timeshare owners there, and sowe booked some dinners over
there.
We purposely made highernumbers than we currently have,
(53:12):
and so we're hoping that ifsomeone wants to join us for
dinner, if they're close by andthey want to come out, please,
we'd love to have you out andwe'd love to love to visit with
you over there.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
If not, we'll sit around and have a bourbon for
you.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
That's right, we'll think about you, but so if
you're interested in doing that,please check us out.
We're actually going to bedoing some show recording over
there, so who knows, maybe youmight actually get to be on the
show in person.
So we'd love to have you as aguest.
We're going to Podfest.
Going to Podfest.
I don't know if you're supposedto say, like dude, we're going
(53:44):
to Podfest.
Speaker 3 (53:44):
Dude, we're going to Podfest.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, what is it?
What's up?
We're all going to sit around.
I remember those commercials.
Turn it up, dude.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Turn it up, dude.
And then what Then?
When else should we gettogether?
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Your work conference.
I'm flying down for that.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
Can you sit in on the conference for me?
Speaker 2 (54:02):
So close, buddy, I'll be the guy on the golf course.
Yeah, so basically, I've got togo there for work, but in the
evenings we're going to gettogether and do some eating and
some podcasting and that kind ofthing.
Yes, and if the weather's great, we're going to be dishonest
(54:23):
with our wives Just kiddingwives.
But one time I was in FortLauderdale during the winter and
it was icy here and Lauren saidhow's the weather?
I'm like, ah, it's raining.
Speaker 3 (54:36):
It wasn't raining All , all we're gonna do is say you
remember the last time we weregolfing in florida together,
exactly, just stop it rightthere.
Yeah, right, we didn't say it'slike that.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
See, we're answering a question indirectly, not
answering the question, so itwas 42 degrees when we started
that day, I think thank god yourwife had a stocking cap yeah, I
know because I needed to borrowit yeah, I, I think we used
them on the way down fromMichigan, thinking we were going
to Florida that we wouldn'tneed them, and so you and I
packed up the clubs and glovesand then we were bundling up in
(55:03):
between holes, but then it gotwarmer later on, it did get
warmer, but the first nine waspretty briskisk.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
and then what else we got?
Speaker 2 (55:12):
well, believe it or not, I'm coming back out because
I've got a conference for workin your great state of kansas.
Well, actually the conferenceis in missouri, but kansas,
we're close enough, good enough.
Every time you you drive overthere, I I don't freaking know
if we're in kansas or missouri,like it goes back and forth.
I'm like am I in Kansas orMissouri?
It goes back and forth.
I'm like am I in Kansas orMissouri right now?
Speaker 3 (55:33):
And you're like, yes, Half the time I don't even
really know where I'm at.
I mean, I know where the lineis and it's not like part of it
follows the river.
That makes it easy, but thenpart of it doesn't.
So then when somebody says, arewe in Kansas or Missouri, you
really have to start thinkingokay, are we on that side or
(55:53):
this?
You're just in kansas city.
But that would be cool and ifyou've got some free time I can
certainly uh, you know, hook youup with some good food and hit
reagers and all that stuff Iwill definitely be.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
I'll be.
I'll be calling you for sure.
Actually, I'm probably going totell you beforehand, because I
got to book a flight.
I might need a place to stayalways welcome so we got a lot
of good stuff.
And then, when it comes toriding, we got big brag, of
course, which is going togeorgia, and then we've got
urban burn.
We're still looking for that,you know, we we have emailed
(56:23):
about another week-long ride,and so we'll we'll update as we
can, but a lot of good stuff, alot of good stuff in 2025.
Speaker 3 (56:31):
Yeah, the second ride could be really good.
We've tossed around some reallyinteresting rides, that's right
, so I'm excited.
I will be excited when we'reable to announce where exactly
we're going.
Yeah, cause I think it's goingto be cool, depending on
whichever one we choose.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah, I, you know I've been looking at my emails,
but I assume that rides likethat don't check their you know
emails all the time.
I mean, it's probably very slowtimes, hopefully, and it's, you
know, holiday season.
People are enjoying theirfamilies.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
Worst comes to worst, we'll go to Vegas and we'll
spend 20 minutes on the exercisebike in the casino and then go
have fun.
Does that count?
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Ladies and gentlemen, in that case, that will be a
great day for a bike ride.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on
Road Adventures with Cycling Menof Leisure.
If you have enjoyed this,please subscribe to the show on
the podcast app of your choice.
Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men
of Leisure, the podcast forcyclists who understand that
riding is not just about gettingto the destination, but the
experience along the way.
Now here are the originalCycling Men of Leisure Adam and
Michael.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of
Leisure.
As usual, I am Adam and I amhappy to be joined with my good
friend, mr Michael Sharp.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello Adam, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I'm a little bummed man, I'm just kind of bummed.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
But it's the holiday festive season.
See, I wore my Merry Christmas.
You felt the animal sweater thehat.
I mean, I am spreading holidayjoy and you're bummed what?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
I think I should be more clear.
I knew that you and I weregoing to record and then I was
getting all kinds of notes ready.
And yesterday transportation isan industry that's very it's
interesting.
I mean sometimes like there'sno time to sit down and there's
fires to put out left and rightNot literal fires, by the way,
but management fires to put inand out.
But yesterday was one of thosedays where it was a little bit
(01:23):
slower.
I was playing around and Iactually sent you a picture and
ride the rockies.
Yeah, you did it officiallyafter 37 years is officially now
over and and, if no oneunderstands, that is also a
sister company to ragbrai.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So you have some bugle, taps music or something
we can play you know I'm, Iwasn't, I wasn't well, no, I
should have played somethingelse, but yeah that's sad
because that ride was like thepremier ride of colorado as far
as I'm concerned.
I lived out there for 13 years.
Ride the rock, which was alwaysa huge ride.
(02:00):
Uh, it was one that was on ourbucket list, even though we're
not necessarily good at altitude.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
But you know, it's just sad you know that's uh, you
know I was looking at it andthen guy I work with was like
he's like, well, do you haveyour written out there?
I said no.
I said you know, and?
And adam, version 1.0 didn't,didn't really look for elevator.
I'm curious, you know now, Imean whatever adventures we do
(02:26):
in 2025, and I'm curious howI'll do now with elevation.
You know I'm doing much betterwhen I was able to climb a lot
of hills this this summer.
But even you know now that I'mtraining more and more.
But you know, I I stayed awayfrom rides like that, but man,
it looked beautiful and everytime that you and I would see
the jersey I would be like, hey,look at that.
And then last year I saw a guyand I was like dude, you're
(02:46):
wearing an antique.
Because, just to be fair, lastyear they closed the ride too,
but they put on their website atthe time well, we're going to
reevaluate next year.
Well, yesterday it wasofficially over.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, they had left the door open last year.
I think probably to, maybe andI'm just, I don't have any
insider probably to see if theycould find somebody else to take
over or partner with, orsomething like that for the ride
.
Yeah, another one bites thedust.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
And then today I know you know this but then today
I'm tooling around checkingemail and bourbon burn.
You know, of course, you and Iare both on all these rides that
we've done before.
We're on their marketing lists,as you expect.
How do companies survive?
They've got to get theirmessage out.
And so today I get the emailfrom Bourbon Burn that what's on
(03:34):
the horizon and we're going tohold the ride for 2025, but not
sure where we're going to go in2026.
Which you know.
Maybe this is making anassumption, but to me just
basically saying that, hey,we're going to be here for 2025.
There's even talking about inthe email this is not me
paraphrasing how they're goingto make it one heck of a year,
because this is probably goingto be it for them.
(03:55):
It was a dream and and, andmaybe they'll find someone else
to take it over and maybe theywill.
I mean, don't get me wrongMaybe there'll be a passion for
someone that will, but it seemsto me that it's guiding in the
same direction to the point thatyou and I decided that we are
going to go to maybe the lastever bourbon bourbon burn.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
So we got to do it.
We didn't go last year and I,you know we talked about it.
You know we've mentioned thatthey just always have the same
maps or the same routes and itdoesn't shake it up.
We're in the heart of bourboncountry and there's just all
these distilleries here.
We want to try out and checkout different distilleries than
(04:38):
just the ones that are on theirthing.
Potentially being the last year, you called me up or texted me
today and it's like we need tobe there.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So if this is it, we can say we closed it out.
Yeah, I mean, and you and Ihave always been very
transparent with our audience Imean, like with Buffalo, trace
is a pretty decent chunk awayfrom the Kentucky Horse Park
campground and each year we justdrove over there and then got
the bottle release and then thengone back, and then one year, I
think, the weather was notreally conducive to riding, but
then last year we did go backand we did ride last year on
(05:12):
that day.
But you know it, I don't haveany problem being truthful.
If there's a day that theweather is just bitter cold or I
shouldn't be, it's at the endof september.
But if it was raining, listen,I'm perfectly fine putting the
bike in the, you know, in thevan and jumping in a different
vehicle and going todistilleries, but just being
(05:32):
there and and and and, beingpart of everything, and you know
, if no one's ever done thatright before they've got, you
know, usually bands that play atnight and bourbon tasting in
camp and bonfires the eveningmakes the ride, because they
have a dinner and then afterdinner they've got a band
playing and they've got allthese distilleries, different
(05:52):
distilleries each night,probably, I don't know, eight
yeah, eight to ten to tendistilleries you know with
representatives they're givingyou tastings and that kind of
stuff and just you know,bonfires.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It's really that is what makes that ride, is that
social time after it.
As far as I'm concerned, I meanthe ride is beautiful and you
go by some of the big, you knowhuge horse farms and things
which are just blow your mind,but those are really nice.
And then they do.
Our friend Phil, with PhilTalks Whiskeykey in the past has
put on those special events inthe evenings.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
They're like hour long with a particular
distillery comes in and yougenerally get some tchotchkes
and you do special tastings andit's really those are really
great events.
I mean, you know, especiallylike Buffalo Trace, you know,
when Freddy's there and thattype of thing it's.
They've been really good.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, he calls them VIP tastings, that's it.
You know we've been there forRebel and you know Makers.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
And so I mean there's been some great times there.
Like you know, last year youand I decided to skip it, and
then, of course, you know whenyou get an email, maybe that's
their marketing, maybe we boughtinto the marketing, but I don't
think so.
Based upon the way the emailwas written, it sounds like it's
.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, and although I'm glad we didn't go last year,
because last year was a rainfest- yeah, and they actually.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
It rained pretty much the whole weekend and they
actually had to move some of thetastings to a convention center
down those streets, at theactual horse park, and not the
campgrounds but the horse park.
So it's a beautiful area, awonderful area and, and you know
, we're looking forward to it,and and if you're looking for a
(07:34):
ride in September, cycling menand or women, depending on who
joins us we'll be there.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It's a long weekend ride.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah, so it's not like a week long or anything, if
you've never done it before,just so you know it's basically
you're camping at one location.
I know that seems to be areally big perk for a lot of
people.
They don't have to get up andpack their stuff to stress.
So wherever you lay your headat night is where you lay your
head for the entire weekend orhowever long you want to stay.
You only set up camp once andthen, through the registration,
some dinners are included.
(08:02):
You're on your own forbreakfast and lunch, if I
remember correctly, but dinnertwo nights is included.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know we'll have to make a point to go down to
what was it?
The Broke Spoke?
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
We had.
I forget his name, but we hadhim on because it's a it's like
yeah, it's like a co-op bikeshop or something.
Yeah, Luke, so we'll have to godown and check in on him and
see how they're doing down there.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Don't worry, audience , I keep the name, I keep all of
the names, so we'll take careof that.
We all have our strong suits.
Trust me, if you can see mespell behind the scenes, thank
God, michael's here.
That and AI, mostly AI, hey God.
Michael's here, so that and AI,so mostly AI.
Hey, buddy, I was trying togive you some credit.
I appreciate it, you know.
But that also leads me toanother conversation, which is
(08:51):
transitioning.
You know, you and I were lookingfor a second week long ride.
We usually our careers and ourfamily life usually allows you
and I both to do two week longrides, possibly throw in a
weekend.
Last year we just were able todo the two week longs and then
this year we've got a couple ofthings planned, some non-cycling
, which I'm excited about, yeah,and then.
(09:13):
But usually we try.
And so you and I spent aconsiderable amount of time we
were doing some show prep andthen we were looking for a
second ride and that was that's.
That's the other part that's gotme bummed out.
I mean, we were going state bystate by state and all these
states that had these staterides.
We would go click.
Either the website would bedefunct or there would be like a
(09:34):
hey, we're sorry, we're closed,or after some so years, we
decided to close it, or whatever.
And it just leads me to theconversation you and I have had,
the conversation you and I havehad with executive director
from Bragg Franklin,conversations we've had with
multiple people about how thesethese week long cycling week
(09:55):
long or weekend long or extendedweek long, they're just,
they're just going away, and Ithink that's where I'm kind of
bummed.
Holiday wise, I'm excited I'vegot family coming to to town, my
project in the basement'scoming together and and I mean
that that's all good.
I'm just what you and I do andand what you and I look forward
to in this recording the showand and and educating some about
(10:18):
cycling and and sharing andlearning from other people.
It's just bumming me out thatthey're all not all of them all
is big word, but a lot of themare closing shop.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Well, let me give you something that, hopefully, will
lighten your spirit.
Okay, we cycling right now islike bourbons and whiskeys of
the 80s.
How about that?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So you're saying that these plantains brought back
the bourbon?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, so you're saying that when the Blantons
brought back the bourbon yeah, Imean basically late 70s through
the 80s, actually, sometimesinto the 90s, somewhere into the
90s, you know.
You know, bourbons and whiskeyswere out of favor.
Everybody wanted the clearthings.
We've joked about Zima.
They wanted vodkas, they wantedthings like that, and bourbon
fell and whiskey fell out offavor.
And that's where they got intolike doing all the decorative
(11:04):
decanters and stuff, trying toget people to buy it.
And now, look, I mean thatindustry is just blowing the
roof off of things.
So it's cyclical, likeeverything else.
So you know, it's one of thosethings, it'll come back after a
time.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I just wonder why.
I mean, okay, I know a part ofit why and it's this thing right
here, we're on YouTube as well.
I'm showing a game controllerfor a PlayStation 5.
By the way, it's sitting herecollecting dust.
Yeah, sure it is, trust me, itis.
But I just think that peopleare just doing different things.
(11:41):
I mean, when I was a kid, welived out in the country and
we'd ride our bikes and we'dride.
I mean, we'd ride eight, ninemiles as a young boy in the town
.
That was your freedom.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Yeah, you could hop on that bike, you could go
anywhere.
Well, not anywhere, but whatseemed like anywhere to you as a
kid.
It was awesome yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I'm not insulting anybody, but it seems to me
that every time that you and Isign up for a ride, we are like
the youngest, some of theyoungest people there.
I mean, it just seems likeyounger generation.
Now we're not spring chickens,and no offense to you, I'm
almost 50 but it just seems likeyou and I are bringing up the
lower age group.
You know, we've done, withoutbeing offensive.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
We've done some rides in Michigan where I'm like oh
yeah, we were definitely in theyoungest, some of the youngest
people there.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
We were at the very low point of the age, because it
went up considerably.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Yeah, we were like, oh my gosh, everyone's going to
be in bed by six, so and theywere, and they almost were the
problem with it is and this ismy philosophy, or my thinking is
a lot of these bike thingshaven't changed.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
They haven't changed from.
You know they've been doing itfor 40 years.
Well, we've been in this for 40years.
Why change it if it isn't broke?
The point is that people'sconcepts of cycling has changed.
You know, I mean like, let'suse Franklin Franklin Johnson
down in Georgia.
You know he turns his ridesinto, you know basically mini
music festivals Every night.
(13:17):
He's got a band or a groupplaying.
So you go to one, you've gotstuff to do in the evenings and
that type of thing.
And you and I have been on rideswhere you provide your own
entertainment and guess whatwe're dumping you.
In a small town of you know, athousand people.
We're giving you nothing to do.
I mean there's only so much,you know, chit chat you can do
with people.
Unfortunately, we bring a, youknow a bottle and some cigars
(13:39):
and things like that.
But you know a lot of rideshaven't kind of changed and
haven't developed new things andnew concepts and say, hey, you
know what we're going to do this, we're going to do that.
A prime example is some of thecharter services that we've used
in the past.
They have been doing the sametype of charter service that
(14:00):
they've done for the last 20, 25years.
Literally, they haven't changedtheir model or anything.
As we know, a lot has changedin the last 20, 25 years.
Literally they haven't changedtheir model or anything.
As we know, a lot has changed inthe last 20, 25 years.
They don't have adequatecharging stations, they don't
have a lot of this other stuff.
But you see, people like Padres, people like what's the other
(14:20):
big?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
one.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
What's that, bransel Bransel?
You see a lot of those type ofpeople who every year, are
changing it up, are adding newthings, are bringing stuff in,
they're keeping up with it.
They're not just saying this isour model, this is what we're
going to follow.
They're constantly evolvingevery year to keep in pace and I
(14:43):
think a lot of these rides havedone that.
Now ridership is down,obviously, and less younger
people are getting into it.
But just my opinion.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I don't think you're wrong.
I mean, I think you're spot on.
I mean, you know, when I ran myphotography business, I mean,
if you know, for a while we hadthe perfect model and we were,
we were, I mean, we were bangingup, I would, I would had six
weddings a weekend with my teams, but we were doing the same
thing.
And I'm not afraid to sit hereand not only on video but voice
admit that I made a businessmistake.
(15:13):
I was not changing with thetimes, with the photography.
We were doing the same thingfor a while and it was working.
We were doing wedding shows andboom, boom, boom, boom and life
was great, I mean.
And then we stopped gettingsome gigs.
I'm like, what am I doing?
What am I doing?
And I wasn't changing what wewere doing.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
The market was changing People's wants was you
know wishes Right here yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
This helped do it in too.
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
That killed helped do it in too.
I'm right there with you.
I mean, I was, I think.
As we mentioned before, I wasalso a wedding photographer back
in the day, and you just movedinto that thing where you were
definitely needed.
And then all of a sudden youwake up one morning and more and
more people are carting aroundtheir cell phone which has a
camera on it, and then I noticedI was merely becoming a person
(15:59):
posing people so that the familycould take pictures on their
cell phones.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I told that story to you a hundred times, where I
mean in the prime, when I wasprobably doing 75 to 100
weddings a year.
I think 100 might be pushing it, I'll go 75.
75 was probably one of mybiggest years.
I'll never forget years.
I'll never forget.
I would line every you knowbrides and grooms up and then I
(16:24):
would go to every bridesmaid andI would have their flowers and
I would make sure all theflowers were shaped right, all
the men's boutonnieres, and putyour hand in your right pocket
and blah, blah, blah, blah, blahand everyone nope, let's look
all.
Nope, chin up here, look uphere.
You know everything I got.
(16:46):
Okay, all right, guys, and I'mtrying to stay positive.
And by the time I do that, thensome family members takes a
picture of the cell phone.
They put it on Instagram with afilter.
My pictures come out two, three, four weeks later, depending on
what the, what the agreed uponcontract was, depending on what
the client wanted.
By the time they saw mypictures, I was old news and so,
going back to cycling, I thinkyou're absolutely right.
I think that some of thecharters who are like oh no, we
use tote a and we put that inthere and we have this and we do
that, and the riders come inand they get their, you know,
(17:06):
they get their packets and ifyou're not changing you're going
to die.
And so not literally, I hope,but so, yeah, I think that that
goes along with it.
And then when you start lookingat these cycling events, I also
think about, you know, job.
Industries and people duringCOVID had to make a lot of
changes.
And if you have to start over,like I mean, it's not a secret
(17:29):
that everyone always jokesaround Steve, who's from Bragg,
who always teases you, and Ilike, how do you travel so much,
don't you?
I want your guys' jobs and heworks for REI and he's a great
man and we, we, we think theworld of him.
He's a super straggler, part ofteam super straggler.
You know he always says thatwell, you and I both have jobs
where we're lucky, where we canremote work and we can do that
(17:50):
kind of stuff.
But if you start over in acareer and you only get a couple
of weeks of vacation, I stillthink that there's like hey,
honey, I'm going to go offcycling for a week.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
The heck you are.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Absolutely, absolutely.
So I think there's something todo with that, but just kind of
a bummer.
And then it makes you wonder,like Franklin, like you
mentioned, and then likeRagbribe.
Obviously I think Ragbribe'sgot a few things it's got
concerts at night, it's got.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
It's just got the notoriety.
Yeah, concerts at night it'sgot.
It's just got the notoriety.
Yeah, it was the first, it'sthe biggest you know it's.
And it draws in a lot of peoplewho aren't normal cyclists too.
I mean, they get a largepercentage of people who just I
cycle once a year and that's arag ride type thing.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
But look what happened on the 50th anniversary
.
I mean, I think what happenedwas is hey, are you going to the
50th?
And it started out as thismassive thing and no one
realized it was going to be ahundred degrees and, and and
Matt Fippen decided to make it500 miles literally for the for
the week long ride.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
We're not holding it against you, Matt, by the way.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
No, I mean 5,500.
I mean, I finally got my 50thanniversary book.
I got it this week actually.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Oh good.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Fancy picture book with all kinds of history and
stuff.
But and they apologize theysent out all kinds of letters to
people saying we're sorry that.
You know, this is not how ragwriter only does things.
And the publisher fell through.
And so, hey, listen, thingshappen.
I got it now, so but, um, butyeah, I mean, you know there's,
there's, there's that.
But you're right, you and Ihave been on rides where, okay,
(19:19):
that's, it's a 62-mile day,there's not a lot on the road to
see, and so we get into town,we think we're going to explore
the town, and there's onestoplight and 1,000 people and
one burger shop, and then we'relike okay, and so Well,
charlevoix, we mentioned it, Ithink last episode, charlevoix
(19:40):
in Michigan.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Beautiful town, charlevoix we mentioned it, I
think, last episode, charlevoixin michigan.
Yeah, beautiful town, right onthe lake wonderful.
They got a strip with like barsand restaurants right there to
the water.
We stayed there and are rightin michigan and we were six
miles out of town at a school,and so the last thing we wanted
to do is ride the hills sixmiles in and then have to ride,
you know, add an extra 12 milesonto our thing.
(20:02):
So it's it's.
That's the kind of thing you'retalking about.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It also wouldn't have been.
I mean, I thought about thatlater on, Okay, Well, you know,
if you go to Ragbri you seebikes going all day, all night.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
You know, people went into town, they went to eat and
then they ride their bike backto camp, that road that we were
on by that school would not havebeen safe to ride at night, so
hills it had no shoulder, I mean, and it was out in the country
so there's no light, so I meanyeah, anyways, so all right,
let's talk about something moreexciting.
(20:35):
Here we're.
You're gonna bum me out and I'mgonna take off my santa hat
here no, no, don't take off.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
I mean, um, by the way, I'm not gonna tell you now,
but I ordered a christmas giftfor you, so I'm waiting for it
to come in.
So, oh, did you?
Yes, sir, yes, sir, I think youare really gonna love it.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
So well, I hope that jeep gladiator is in blue, like
a dark blue, and I wanted theone with the sunroof, so I hope
you remembered that you knowit's about two inches long and
come off on.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It's a matchbox car.
But, buddy, you, you do you.
It has a little thing that saysif I'm upside down, flip me
over some yeah, absolutely no,but so the positive news out of
all that whining is that we dohave another event on the books,
so we'll be going to bourbonburn.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
So you can join us.
We'll drink some bourbon.
Everyone in there is drinkingbourbon, so it's kind of nice
I'm gonna move on.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I'm gonna talk about our artist who made our logo.
I'd like to is brianleefritzcom, spelled
b-r-i-a-n-l-e-e-f-r-i-t-zcom.
The man does beautiful,beautiful bike portraits.
(21:50):
So if you like a artistrendering or drawing of your
bicycle, or or maybe maybeyou're into tandems and you
don't have one, or maybe youwant a tricycle, or maybe you
want something your bike innature, the gentleman is
extremely talented artist and sohe is offering a special code,
uh, with I'm sorry, 25 off abike portrait with a special
(22:11):
code of leisure.
So if you go tobrianleefritzcom, we would like
to help our, our friend, out andplease go check him out.
There's some.
There's some.
He does a lot more than justbicycles.
He's huge in birds andeverything.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
He's a cyclist himself.
We've actually been on a ridewith him before and he's done
our logos and he's done a lot of.
He started to really get intolike jerseys, cause I know he
did the Michigan's Jersey and hedid some of their the graphic
work and that type of stuff.
And yeah, I was going tomention I've seen some of his
birds that he does and they arefantastic.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So I mean it's really good stuff.
She's big into hummingbirds andit was one of the best gifts my
wife has ever enjoyed, morethan jewelry or anything.
It's a beautiful portrait of ahummingbird and doing what
hummingbirds do.
So check it out.
They hum, they float, almostlike they're floating the wings,
spinning 5 million miles asecond.
(23:05):
Our leisure community kind oftorn on this one because our
leisure community is the one andonly executive director of BRAG
, mr Franklin Johnson.
Okay, all right.
He first of all made a generouscontribution and we'd like to
formally thank you, sir.
That was very, very unexpected,very surprised.
(23:28):
I had to look three times.
So thank you so much.
It really helps out a lot onbehalf of Michael and myself,
and Michael can speak forhimself, but I just want to say
thank you so much, sir.
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, he's always been a uh big supporter of our
show and what we've done, and sowe certainly appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So he also has given a guess for something that you
and I do, and, uh, listenerspotlight.
So I think, uh, we'll move intothat.
I'm going to let you give theclues from the last episode
first, and then I'll give youhis guess.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
All right.
The clues for listenerspotlight for the last episode
is as followed this city wasfounded in the 1870s.
It is named for a NativeAmerican village.
It was built at its locationdue to the railroad Mills,
became a big part of its earlyeconomy and actually really was
a driver of its economy for over70 years.
(24:24):
The town itself is surroundedby three lakes.
In the first 40 years of thiscommunity they suffered three
fires, so there was a lot ofthrowing buckets of water and
rebuilding, and this town's maindrag did not get its name from
a stand-up routine, but it couldhave.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
There we go.
So Mr Franklin Johnson says thelistener spotlight guest is
Spokane Washington.
The comedy routine is a stretchwith the spoken comedy routine
stand-up question mark.
Looking forward to chattingthis week and we'll talk about
that in a minute.
But the gentleman has guessedSpokane Washington.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Spokane, Washington.
Well, Franklin, I can give youa sixth of a point that you got
the first letter of the city'sname correct, but it is not
Spokane.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Well.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
It does start with an S.
That's something.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
You know what we need .
We need that soundbite thatsays go get your shine box, you
lose.
That's something.
You know what we need.
We need that sound bite thatsays go get your shine box, you
lose, you get nothing.
You know like mix it up fromCharlie and the Chocolate
Factory.
That's right, okay, that's myhomework.
You've given me three, you'vegiven me a trumpet for taps,
taps, and then I'm writing thesedown, taps, and then go get
(25:42):
your shine box and then you lose.
You get nothing.
You lose.
Franklin, appreciate youwriting into, but we appreciate
it.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
It was a good guess.
Do you want to know what it is?
I do our spotlight listener,spotlight community is seneca,
south carolina wow, what part I?
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I'm me, but what part of South Carolina is that,
besides you saying Seneca?
Speaker 3 (26:09):
It's in the Seneca, South Carolina part.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I knew you were going to say that Go ahead, go ahead,
let's hear it, let's hear it.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Use Google Maps for God's sakes.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Founded in the 1870s.
It was named for a NativeAmerican village and also a
nearby river.
It was originally namedE-Seneca, E-Seneca, E-S-S,
E-Seneca, and then later it wasjust shortened to Seneca.
It was built at its currentlocation because there was
crossing railroad tracks there.
The town is surrounded by threelakes.
(26:41):
You got Lake Kiowee, LakeJacusie sorry, I'm not from here
and Lake Hartwell.
And then the town's main dragdidn't get its name from a
stand-up routine, but it couldhave.
One of the main drags in townis called Ramcat Alley, and it
got its name from a joke thatpeople used to say because there
(27:04):
was a lot of fish markets thereand they cleaned the fish that
attracted a lot of cats, and thejoke became that you can't ram
another cat in that alleybecause there were just so many
cats there looking for the freemeal.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
So then it became known as ram cat alley gotcha so
there you go well, that'spretty cool, by the way.
Um, I want you to know that.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Sorry, you said cat uh, so we we thank our listeners
from seneca, south carolinaabsolutely.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
thank you all listeners, but especially seneca
, south carolina, which, by theway, is in the South, I mean
Northwestern part, sorry,northwestern part of South
Carolina by the Georgiaborderline in the Northeastern
part of Georgia right there.
So thank you so very much.
And you're right, I went to theold Google here.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
So we've, we've written actually pretty close to
that.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
We have.
Yeah, we have.
I mentioned when he, mrFranklin Johnson, said looking
forward to chatting this week.
Oh, last year.
A lot of our audience willremember that we were trusted
with a very well-kept secret the2024 big brag route.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
There's a ceremony and everything to, like you know
, swear us to secrecy and youknow there's a whole big.
It gets crazy.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
but I almost couldn't get off my knee.
I put one knee down, I wasbowing and Bowing and you know.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
But we're sworn to secrecy again this year, aren't
we?
Speaker 2 (28:34):
We sure are so in 2024,.
You and I heard from multiplemultiple people who said love
the show, signed up because welistened to your show.
I heard from multiple multiplepeople who said love the show,
signed up because we listen toyour show.
And so it was wonderful that hetrusted us with the route before
, and the reason why we recordbefore is because he releases
his video at the strike ofmidnight, new Year's Eve
midnight, and then he has agreedupon he being the executive
(28:57):
director of Bragg that we canrelease our show at noon on the
1st.
Now why is that important?
Because if you've watched it atmidnight and then you listen to
our show at noon, you'llactually, if you sign up before
midnight on the 1st of January2025, you actually save $50.
So you can go to bragorg,b-r-a-gorg and you can sign up,
(29:22):
and then, if you sign up beforemidnight, january 1st 2025,
you'll save 50 bucks for aweek-long ride.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
Why are they waiting till that time?
Speaker 2 (29:32):
They don't have to wait.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I mean, just they know they're going, we're going
to be there.
They know they're going to bethere.
Why don't they just do it now?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well, they can, and when they do that under the team
name, they should if they don'thave a team that they already
belong to, because if they do,we're loyal.
You know, we understand that,unless you want to switch, of
course.
But but if you're looking tojoin a team, put cycling men or
women of leisure we can nowannounce that we will have two
teams.
Once again, we'll have the menof leisure and the women of
(30:01):
leisure, and you and I areworking on something very
special for that.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
We're working on that .
It's a slow process, but we'reworking on a very special event
activity, something fun.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
During the week, and it should be a good time.
We've always had a good timethere.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
Yeah, looking forward to it.
Now I know we promised that.
Yes, now we know Franklinlistens.
So, franklin, if you could justturn your radio down for, say,
like a minute and a half, twominutes, it would be great.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Continue.
A lot of you have reached outto me for any kind of hint
anywhere that I could tell youanything about the route, and
I'm going to break the rules alittle bit.
I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 3 (30:49):
Don't listen, Franklin.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Where is it?
It's going to Georgia.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
We will be riding in Georgia.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
That's right.
That's right.
So, ladies and gentlemen, checkus out on the 1st of January at
noon Eastern time.
Which bonus, sir.
11 Central, your time.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
That's right.
You can check us out on thepodcast through any of your
podcastings or you can check usout on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
That's right.
You can watch us or listen tous, and I got to say Franklin
really got into the spirit of it.
Yeah, I don't want to get intoit too much, but yeah, he sure
did.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
That's all we'll say.
Franklin really got into thespirit of the show on this one,
so you'll definitely want tolisten because it was a lot of
fun.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
A lot of good information.
A lot of good information.
I can say that, if you areconsidering going, or maybe like
our friend Trip who wrote mebehind the scenes, Trip has
signed up for Bragg and hesuggested that we do a contest
and we'll get into that in asecond.
And, Trip, thank you so muchfor the recommendation.
Trip's already signed up.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Thank you, Trip.
He's been on the team a coupleof years now.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, and for a guy like Tripp who's already signed
up, I still think there's valueadd to listen to what Franklin
has to say, because you'll get acomplete breakdown of the route
and some of the things of theareas that it's going, and
that's all I'm going to say.
So otherwise my contract isbroken.
I got to pay back the deposit.
(32:22):
It's just an ugly thing.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
It just gets ugly, and then lawyers will get
involved.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, I don't want to do it.
Lawyers, I already pay themenough.
I would use a ShawshankRedemption line here.
Blank an, a Bunch of, but so,anyways, good show coming out on
the first, excited about it.
And so, just to be clear,midnight New Year's Eve, on the
Bragg YouTube page, you can findthe video that they usually put
(32:49):
together which tells you theroute release video.
But for a comprehensivebreakdown of where the ride is
going and some items, somespecific items about each, for
details, details about the route, come check it out, and we're
excited to partner once againwith Bragg and we appreciate
their continued trust.
(33:10):
So, thank you and lookingforward to it.
And so we are signed upourselves, just to be clear, and
we both use Cycling Men ofLeisure as our team name.
We're pretty sure we alreadyhave the 10.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I think we already have the 10.
, but so you realize, when westarted to say that about
Franklin and we were going totell people, you know he
probably swerved off the roadCause he generally listens when
he's driving it's like what arethose guys going to say, you
know?
Speaker 2 (33:37):
I can picture his Ford F one 50 with the cab on
the back and Swerving to thisside of the road.
I'm calling them boys up, butno, we would never do that.
We appreciate the partnershipand really looking forward to
that, so I'm going to segue intosomething a little bit
different.
(33:57):
Okay, what do we got?
We are going to somethingcalled Podfest.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yes, this is exciting .
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I mean.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
It's ironic as well.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
So we had already planned a trip down to Orlando.
We were going to make it kindof like a guy's golfing, record
some podcasts, do some dinner,what do you mean?
Kind of.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
It's going to be an extra long guy's weekend.
We were going to golf, eat andpodcast.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, and smoke cigars somewhere.
Speaker 3 (34:31):
And smoke cigars somewhere, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
So then our platform of where we launch our podcast
was advertising this thingcalled PodFest 2025.
And at first I was kind of likePodFest 2025?
It's like a convention forpodcasters, I mean, do you get
in a room?
And that's exactly what it is.
So it happens to be in Orlandoat the same time.
You and I are going to be therehow ironic.
(34:57):
And we submitted a littlesublimation about our show and
why we would be interested ingoing over there.
And for me it's two reasons.
One, I guess not just two.
Two is putting it in lanes.
A few reasons that I wasinterested is they have their
own show and I love to be ableto put faces to the names of
their show because I've heardtheir humor and their show
(35:19):
basically talks about how topodcast some marketing ideas.
An example we have a cyclingpodcast.
We should be going to cyclingstores, even if we travel on our
own.
Let's say, you and the familygo down to Florida.
If you're going to run intotown, maybe look if there's a
cycling store, maybe take abusiness cards and say, hey, you
know.
So they talk about things likethat how to market your show and
(35:41):
so then they have some funnystories and changes that on the
platform of how they do things.
So that's interesting, but justnetworking and finding out how
we could do our show better ormaybe get more listeners or
spread the word, and so we wereselected to go over there and we
were going to.
We we will be attending a podfest 2025 in Orlando, Wheat.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
We're still going to golf, right yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, and that will not affect the golfing
podcasting.
No.
Speaker 3 (36:14):
Or smoking a cigar, no, or eating, okay, yeah, it's
just ironic that it's the sameweekend and it'll, it'll be,
it'll be fun.
It'll be fun, it'll beinteresting, a new adventure we
can have some stuff to chatabout.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
As long as it's not golfing like we did last time.
That picture comes up on myphone once in a while, when it's
42 degrees and we both havestocking caps on.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
Yeah, I was in Florida.
I wasn't expecting to be inKansas golfing.
I know.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Hopefully it warmed up in the warm up and we
actually got to meet Armando'sold coworkers from the cruise
ship.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
So that was pretty fun.
That was a good day, so we'regoing to pod fest.
That'll be fun.
We'll tell everybody what we've, what we learned, and that kind
of thing.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Well, I want to mention your Web page.
You, you not only by by day,you are a business architect no
one knows what that is, but I doa lot of work and by night, you
highlight as a, as a webdesigner.
No, luckily for us, they makeit go, daddy, makes it pretty
simple to be able to throwsomething together.
(37:20):
So, but on a serious note, youtook the time and you put all of
our listener spotlights downand you strategically spaced
them out.
So if the show hasn't come outyet, you don't put it down there
yet to give people ample time.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
No, no, yeah, you don't get it ahead of time, but
I'm a couple of weeks behind.
But I'm going to be updating itand what I'm trying to do is
I'm trying to go back also andputting the episode information
in there, you know, like theseason and the episode.
So it's like you're like, well,have they ever done?
No, boaz Mississippi.
I'm from there and it's like,oh, look at this, they did it,
(37:54):
doggone it.
I missed it.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Then you could go to that episode and listen.
Have we done Boaz Mississippi?
Speaker 3 (37:59):
We have never done Boaz Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Okay, I was just wondering.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
I'm like I think Boaz is actually in Alabama, but
anyway it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Good, because I was like man.
I know I record this show withyou.
I'm not an AI guy.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
You just blank out.
It's like, ah, it's his turn.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Now I'm going to just I'm St Louis, just definitely,
definitely excited that you didthe web page.
You also put some highlights ofour year out there, some
photographs and stuff, and sothere could be people out there
who have listened to our showwho have no idea what we look
like.
And if you go to our web page,cyclingmenofleisurecom, I am the
(38:37):
charming, charismatic oneno-transcript there's lots of
overweight pictures of me.
I'm adam and if you've nevermet me, but uh, we need to get
some but that is good thoughyeah because that shows all the
(38:57):
work that you've done to get towhere you're at.
It shows your journey almostbeen a year now.
I know I appreciate that, butum, yes, so please check us out.
I appreciate your work on theweb page.
All kinds of information there.
We we got a jersey store Ifyou're looking for a jersey.
We got a t-shirt store.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Rides that we've done , places we've been Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
I'm going to mention Dennis Keeler, Scott Garwick and
Alex Bell yes, it's my way ofalways saying thank you for
being monthly supporters and sothank you so much for that, and
besides that you asked me, foryou haven't asked me this in a
long time.
So let me play with my toyshere.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Ladies and gentlemen, my good friend, my best friend,
has asked for a little segmentof Rants of Dissatisfaction.
Buddy, take the floor, do I?
Speaker 3 (39:49):
have the floor you have the floor.
Yeah, you know, this has beenbothering me for a while and
finally I was like we needanother rants of dissatisfaction
, because here's my rampself-checkout.
I hate them, you know.
I understand the purpose ofself-checkout.
Oh hey, you can self-check out.
You get in, get out quickercost people their jobs, keep
(40:09):
going you're right, but that'swhat they market it as.
But bottom line, behind thescenes, we really know there's a
bunch of bean counters going.
You know what we can get rid of.
Some of our staff, you know ithelps on that.
But what annoys me is you nowtake me.
I go to my local grocery store.
I'm buying this, that and otherthings.
I come up there.
You want me to check out, doself-checkout.
(40:31):
I mean, you kind of push metowards that way.
And it happens at big boxstores.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Home Depot.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Lowe's, all those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
What do I get out of it?
You get used to the break room.
I do what.
You get used to the break room.
Have you ever seen that thingon Facebook?
It said the cops arrested metoday.
I don't know why.
I was just in the break roombreak room of a place I had to
check myself out.
I don't.
I haven't deserved to get up.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
That's.
That's my point.
It's like, if you want me to doself-checkout, shouldn't I be
getting a couple percentagepoints off of my tab, Because
now I'm doing the work.
In fact, you've got me doingthe work of who you?
You know, an employee of yoursthat you're no longer paying
what's in it for me, so I get alittle annoyed by this.
And then here's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
There are two more points to this.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
He's really hard man.
You caught me on a weekday.
I was really going wild earlier.
A lot of stores and I will.
You know a local Dollar General.
We have one here in town.
We've got a lot of them.
I don't know in your area ifyou've got Dollar Generals, but
we've got tons of them here.
They kind of take up the spaceof a Walmart in smaller towns
where Walmart would never go.
(41:40):
A little bit of everything.
Nowadays they have groceriesand everything they put in.
A lot of their stores have putin there these automatic check
yourself out things.
They put them in.
They went to all the costs toput them in and then about six
months later they stopped usingthem because they were
complaining that people wereripping them off.
People would just not ringthings in, or people would ring
(42:03):
things in and just walk out thedoor and not pay.
And the thing about it is I reada couple articles and they
acted surprised.
It's like you acted surprisedthat you want people to wring
themselves out and, be honest,it's like I myself would never
walk out of a store withoutpaying for an item.
(42:23):
But there's people out therethat would.
It's just the nature of how oursociety is.
But then the stores are likeperplexed and it's like we're
losing money.
We got to stop using this.
So you spend all that money.
You didn't think about thisahead of time, spend all this
money.
And now in our store we've gotthree of these big machines that
are just taking up floor spacewhere you could have merchandise
(42:44):
.
But now you got these threemachines that just sit there
that have signs on them sayingout of order, three machines
that just sit there that havesigns on them saying out of
order.
So it's just kind of annoying.
The final point I'll make Ihave not been trained in grocery
store checkout at all, not inmy resume, not even when I was a
kid.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Why are you laughing at me?
You never worked at a grocerystore.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
I never worked at a grocery when I was a kid.
I had the greatest jobs.
We'll talk about it later.
But I had awesome jobs when Iwas a kid.
I had the greatest jobs we'lltalk about it later, but I had
awesome jobs when I was neverworked in a grocery store or
fast food.
I don't know anything aboutthis.
Okay, I'm just sitting there atthe grocery store doing it
produce, I've got it.
I've got a a onion?
I don't.
It's, it's yellowish, it'swhitish, it's a valdea, it's,
(43:29):
you know.
Is this a spanish onion?
Is this a uh, peruvian onion?
Is this, you know?
Or a potato, you know?
Is it a yukon gold?
Is it this?
Is it that an apple?
You know it's like?
Is that fiji apple?
Speaker 2 (43:41):
or you know whatever it's the cheapest one on the
list is what it is but theydon't give me the price list.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
They're like, you know, you got to go into a
little thing and and likethere's a whole page of like
onions and a whole page ofapples.
It's like it's a red apple.
I don't know what is what.
You know, I didn't pay anyattention, I just went.
It's like, okay, that producelooks good, it looks fresh, I'll
take that.
So now I don't know.
So now I have to push thelittle.
And you know, I can look over atthe customer service desk and
(44:10):
these guys are chatting and nowI can kind of see him go.
I've got to go over and helpthis guy.
He comes over and he's like Iwas like, yeah, I don't know
what kind of Apple this is, andthen he goes about going well,
(44:37):
all you've got to do, sir, ispush right here and look up your
item, and then you just selectthe item, just like, right here,
it's this apple, right there,talking to me Like I'm just an
idiot, that I'm supposed to knowwhat kind of apple or onion
this is.
So no, so then you know,they're talking down to me Now.
I feel like an idiot and it'slike, excuse me, I've never been
trained in grocery storeanything.
I've not been trained inproduce, so don't sit there and
talk down to me that you've mademe check out my own groceries
and I don't know what a piece ofproduce is.
Why don't you guys stick alittle label in every single one
(44:59):
of those so I can just scan it?
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Now a lot of them in my stores do have a little label
and like to this day, becauseof my grocery store career,
which was very short livedbananas four zero one, one for
grocery store career, which wasvery short-lived Banana is
4-0-1-1 for the PLU.
So you had to go to thecomputer type 4-0-1-1.
To this day I know that.
So it's just they've neverchanged it right.
And so every now and then thatgirl will come over and say do
you need help with that?
(45:21):
I said no, that's 4-0-1, right.
Like you know, honey, crispapples they come around once a
year or whatever.
And uh, or at least by us, theydo anyway, since it's a tundra
the rest of the year.
But uh, every now and then Ialways want to like that sign on
Facebook that says, uh, I wentto the regular cashier.
(45:42):
It was $211.
I got a second opinion of theself checkout.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
That just really bugs me.
It's like you know, if you'regoing to want me to do the work,
why don't you throw a couplepercentage off my thing?
I'm not going to steal from you, but you could, you know, shave
a couple percentages off mybill for doing somebody else's
job and then certainly, if Ineed help with it, don't talk to
me like I'm an idiot.
I'm sorry, I have not beentrained.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
And Home Depot is the worst because, like, if you're
buying bolts and they got likethe y I u on there, I'm like how
the heck do you I mean you knowthey got the, the book and then
going through there or when youbuy trim or something by the
foot yeah well, number one, it'slike well, I yeah, yeah, it's
just like whatever this, what's?
that how many?
Like when the girl said howmany feet is this?
It looks like eight to me, Idon't know.
(46:34):
You got 18 carts worth.
How many sheets of plywood arehere?
I don't know, looks like six,I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (46:41):
There's a couple I don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
Yeah, not sure.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
So, anyway, that's my rant for today.
It just really really bugs me.
I understand why they do it.
I don't appreciate the kind ofthe reasons that they really
promote oh, you'll get outfaster and speedier and all this
.
Ultimately, it's just to youknow, reduce their bottom.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Okay, well, believe it or not, this time I do not
have any rants ofdissatisfaction, but I'm glad
that I was able to give you thefloor to allow you to have rants
of dissatisfaction.
But I'm glad that I was able togive you the floor to allow you
to have rants ofdissatisfaction.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
So you're happy with the world, huh.
Speaker 2 (47:18):
I wouldn't say I'm happy with the world.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
Nothing that you want to voice.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Let's talk about that Dollar General stock that keeps
.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Well, that's the reason why the Dollar General
stock goes down, because theyinvested all of this money on
self-checkout machines and thenthey realized they were losing
more money from people juststealing from them, so they shut
them all down.
It's taking up floor space andthey're still trying to pay off
that investment.
When someone didn't go.
You know what?
Checkout's right by the door.
Somebody could just check itout, or just walk right by it
(47:48):
and go straight out the door.
I mean, who didn't foresee this?
Speaker 2 (47:52):
yeah, I mean you know many times when, when, like
they just redid our whole meyerand depending where you shop in
the world, meyer is verypredominant.
You know grocery store here inmichigan and it's more than a
grocery store yeah, it's a it'slike a walmart almost, yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:08):
yeah, they buy a little bit of everything in
there, everything yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:12):
So they just spent like probably millions of
dollars redoing ours here in mylittle town that I live in here,
and in the old days they'd havelike 27 registers and only two
of them would be open.
So how did they fix that?
They put in like 27self-checkouts, but the problem
is they have one employee, one,two, like if you buy booze then
(48:32):
you scan it and the light goeson.
You got to wait for the guy tocome over and be able to check
your id, which is good, I get it.
I mean you got it.
Speaker 3 (48:38):
I mean not everyone should be following the rules
yeah, absolutely so they onlyhave one person to help me with
my produce exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:45):
And so now you're sitting there going oh my gosh,
you know.
So that doesn't really help out.
I guess if you're going to cutemployees, at least have a few,
because there are times likefive o'clock, I bet you that.
I mean I try not to go in there, but I bet you it's a nightmare
over there.
So I can get behind you on thatI can.
But as far as rants ofdissatisfaction maybe there's
(49:06):
just too many right now going onI can't pick.
Yeah, I can't pick.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Well, thank you for giving me the floor to rant a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (49:15):
Are you kidding?
I get to play with my voicetoys which I know everybody
loves yeah everybody loves those.
Let's just beep him real quickthere.
Why don't we round out thisshow by first of all saying
Merry Christmas, happy Holidays,happy kwanzaa festival,
hanukkah, hanukkah, whateverthis, whatever you celebrate, on
(49:37):
behalf of myself and michaeland our family's peers, we, we
wish you nothing but, uh, healthand happiness for the next
coming year, and besides that,we'll bring it up with a
listener spotlight.
Speaker 3 (49:52):
All right, this one's going to be a good one.
St Louis so close.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Dang it so close.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Dang it, he's not even in the neighborhood.
Anyway, this, okay, put yourhands in your pocket, stop
pushing buttons.
It was incorporated in the1880s.
The early economy depended onmining, agriculture and timber.
If you are a father, you shouldreally appreciate this town.
Speaker 2 (50:22):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
It started as a trading post.
The city's name comes from anative language.
In 1974, great year 1974, 1974this city was in the world
spotlight and a former residentof this city helped influence
the vision of a perfectchristmas.
See what I did there.
(50:44):
I threw a little christmas uhthing there like it so there you
go well, pretty easy.
Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yeah, because you did the homework yeah, but still
it's it's pretty easy.
Will you be giving anotherguest away?
Speaker 3 (50:58):
if I need to, I could , could, could, give another
guest.
You want me to give anotherguest away, like in the middle
of the week, on our facebookpage?
Speaker 2 (51:05):
yeah, people are traveling.
I mean, think about it a lot oftimes.
People like to travel when theylisten to us, and so they could
be catching up for a fewdifferent episodes, and for that
we say thank you well, what'sthe extra hint gonna do?
Well, they're gonna maybe logon to the facebook page a couple
days later while they'redriving.
Oh, yeah, no I'm sure some do.
Speaker 3 (51:28):
I'm sure sure some do Once you hear what this one is.
If nobody guesses it, you'll belike man.
But it's not St.
Here's your hint.
It's not St Louis.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Fair enough, what have we got coming up in 2025?
We're working on man.
Lots of great stuff, a lot ofgood stuff.
We're working on an interviewwith Bike Virginia, bike
Virginia.
We reached out to them.
They had a week-long ride.
They're looking at maybe doinga couple weekend rides.
Speaker 3 (51:53):
That would be the state, not my ex-girlfriend.
Yes, sir, I used to actuallydate a girl named Virginia, so
I'm just clarifying.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Well, we hope that she is listening, because we
need all the listeners.
Speaker 3 (52:07):
She's a tell-all.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
But hey, bike Virginia, yeah, that should be
interesting.
So we've got a gentleman we'vebeen communicating with back and
forth.
We're looking at having Padrescycling on.
They do camping and rides andevents and so we're looking at
having like a charter serviceand so we're looking at having
Padres in.
They call themselves.
Speaker 3 (52:23):
We've ran into them all over the place.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
So we're looking at having those guys on.
We're working on that.
You mentioned him earlier, philCollin Not to be confused with
Phil Collins, but Phil Collinfrom Phil Talks Whiskey.
We're going to have him onafter the year and so we've got
a couple of great stuff for theshow you and I are getting in
person together.
Wow, yeah, we're lookingforward to that.
Yeah.
(52:47):
First one is January 16ththrough the 20th.
We will be in Orlando, so wepurposely made reservations for
some meals over there at Disney.
We are staying on the Disneyproperty Michael and I are both
timeshare owners there, and sowe booked some dinners over
there.
We purposely made highernumbers than we currently have,
(53:12):
and so we're hoping that ifsomeone wants to join us for
dinner, if they're close by andthey want to come out, please,
we'd love to have you out andwe'd love to love to visit with
you over there.
Speaker 3 (53:21):
If not, we'll sit around and have a bourbon for
you.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
That's right, we'll think about you, but so if
you're interested in doing that,please check us out.
We're actually going to bedoing some show recording over
there, so who knows, maybe youmight actually get to be on the
show in person.
So we'd love to have you as aguest.
We're going to Podfest.
Going to Podfest.
I don't know if you're supposedto say, like dude, we're going
(53:44):
to Podfest.
Speaker 3 (53:44):
Dude, we're going to Podfest.
Speaker 2 (53:46):
Yeah, what is it?
What's up?
We're all going to sit around.
I remember those commercials.
Turn it up, dude.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Turn it up, dude.
And then what Then?
When else should we gettogether?
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Your work conference.
I'm flying down for that.
Speaker 3 (54:00):
Can you sit in on the conference for me?
Speaker 2 (54:02):
So close, buddy, I'll be the guy on the golf course.
Yeah, so basically, I've got togo there for work, but in the
evenings we're going to gettogether and do some eating and
some podcasting and that kind ofthing.
Yes, and if the weather's great, we're going to be dishonest
(54:23):
with our wives Just kiddingwives.
But one time I was in FortLauderdale during the winter and
it was icy here and Lauren saidhow's the weather?
I'm like, ah, it's raining.
Speaker 3 (54:36):
It wasn't raining All , all we're gonna do is say you
remember the last time we weregolfing in florida together,
exactly, just stop it rightthere.
Yeah, right, we didn't say it'slike that.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
See, we're answering a question indirectly, not
answering the question, so itwas 42 degrees when we started
that day, I think thank god yourwife had a stocking cap yeah, I
know because I needed to borrowit yeah, I, I think we used
them on the way down fromMichigan, thinking we were going
to Florida that we wouldn'tneed them, and so you and I
packed up the clubs and glovesand then we were bundling up in
(55:03):
between holes, but then it gotwarmer later on, it did get
warmer, but the first nine waspretty briskisk.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
and then what else we got?
Speaker 2 (55:12):
well, believe it or not, I'm coming back out because
I've got a conference for workin your great state of kansas.
Well, actually the conferenceis in missouri, but kansas,
we're close enough, good enough.
Every time you you drive overthere, I I don't freaking know
if we're in kansas or missouri,like it goes back and forth.
I'm like am I in Kansas orMissouri?
It goes back and forth.
I'm like am I in Kansas orMissouri right now?
Speaker 3 (55:33):
And you're like, yes, Half the time I don't even
really know where I'm at.
I mean, I know where the lineis and it's not like part of it
follows the river.
That makes it easy, but thenpart of it doesn't.
So then when somebody says, arewe in Kansas or Missouri, you
really have to start thinkingokay, are we on that side or
(55:53):
this?
You're just in kansas city.
But that would be cool and ifyou've got some free time I can
certainly uh, you know, hook youup with some good food and hit
reagers and all that stuff Iwill definitely be.
Speaker 2 (56:01):
I'll be.
I'll be calling you for sure.
Actually, I'm probably going totell you beforehand, because I
got to book a flight.
I might need a place to stayalways welcome so we got a lot
of good stuff.
And then, when it comes toriding, we got big brag, of
course, which is going togeorgia, and then we've got
urban burn.
We're still looking for that,you know, we we have emailed
(56:23):
about another week-long ride,and so we'll we'll update as we
can, but a lot of good stuff, alot of good stuff in 2025.
Speaker 3 (56:31):
Yeah, the second ride could be really good.
We've tossed around some reallyinteresting rides, that's right
, so I'm excited.
I will be excited when we'reable to announce where exactly
we're going.
Yeah, cause I think it's goingto be cool, depending on
whichever one we choose.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah, I, you know I've been looking at my emails,
but I assume that rides likethat don't check their you know
emails all the time.
I mean, it's probably very slowtimes, hopefully, and it's, you
know, holiday season.
People are enjoying theirfamilies.
Speaker 3 (57:03):
Worst comes to worst, we'll go to Vegas and we'll
spend 20 minutes on the exercisebike in the casino and then go
have fun.
Does that count?
Speaker 2 (57:11):
Ladies and gentlemen, in that case, that will be a
great day for a bike ride.
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on
Road Adventures with Cycling Menof Leisure.
If you have enjoyed this,please subscribe to the show on
the podcast app of your choice.
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