Special New Years Day Route Release with BRAG as we talk about, Whiskey Toasts, Family Tales, and Cycling Escapades: Journeying Through Georgia and Beyond with Franklin Johnson

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 (00:34):
Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of
Leisure.
As usual, I am Adam.
And guess what?
Not only is my good friend fromCentral Times on Michael Sharp,
but we have a friend of theshow, executive director,
franklin Johnson, with us.
Hey, how are both of you?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Good, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
I'm excited to have Franklin back on.
This will be good.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
This is going to be really good.
This is a much anticipatedinterview For me.
I thought about it all day longand I'm excited Now.
It does ruin one thing, eventhough this is coming out
afterwards, but it kind of takesaway that midnight watching
that video that you put out, anda couple of years I would sit

(01:18):
and watch that video.
So we are talking about BigBrag 2025.
Before we get there, franklinhow are you doing?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
I am better than I deserve.
But before we get started, I'ma big fan of the number one
podcast in the world, which isyou guys, but the second biggest
podcast in the world is the JoeRogan Experience, and he always
starts off guests with a glassof whiskey.
And you guys, being aswhiskey-ric as you are, I've got
two options, but I don't knowhow I feel about it, because you

(01:50):
know you should offer mewhiskey and you're wondering how
you did that from so far away.
But this is actually thecycling men of leisure whiskey.
There you go, big brag 2024,and you can see it's unopened.
This holds a special place inmy heart, so I don't know if I
should open this.
Or I also have this niceSuntory 12 year that my wife

(02:12):
gave me for our 12th anniversary, also unopened, because it also
holds a special place in myheart, so I don't know what I
should drink for this interview.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
You know Heather's pretty special, I would not be
hurt if you went with theJapanese Tantori.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
As a man who that is a really really good bottle too,
and you know, maybe, just maybe, you do that, and then you can
say hey, look, did this for you.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Thinking about you.
Here it is.
This is we'll cheers to Heatherfor this one 12 years age for
our 12th anniversary.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
I loved, I loved.
Now.
Now, uh, for those of you whodon't know, um Franklin has
become not only a friend butalso a friend of the show.
Um, we have been lucky enoughto meet Heather and um and and
um, and we have also followedyou on social and you know
you're a video guy and you loveto do your drone videos and your

(03:09):
vacation videos, and I havetaken a personal liking in
watching your family and yourvacations, and so I don't know
how your wife does it, but youhave a family of kids and she
looks amazing and your familypictures recently looks like her
hair came out of a perfectmagazine.
So you're a lucky man, sir, wow.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
You now have a new best friend.
She loves the hair and gets alot of compliments on it, so you
now hold a special place in herheart for sure.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
And we have met everybody in your family, all
the kids, except you've got anew one.
That's what?
Eight months old, nine monthsold now.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
I guess when this comes out, she'll be six months
old.
Okay, yeah little Ari.
She's precious and cute and,yeah, family's growing so it's
exciting.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Awesome, glad to hear that.
Just a little fact you almostgot pulled away from Big Brag
2024, thinking that you were oncall at any moment, at any time.
You might have been pulled away, but you didn't.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
You were actually home almost a week, I think,
after Big Brag, yeah, so she wasdue mid-June.
I think she was due June 15thor 16th or something like that.
But third kids sometimes theycome early.
You know, the body knows theprocess and can get started
early sometimes.
So yeah, I was very nervous andwe overstaffed and I had way
more people there than we neededand kind of gave everybody the
rundown of hey, if you see me,run into the truck and hop in

(04:38):
and burn out, get down on theroad to Atlanta, just know that
I'm not coming back, just a goodboy.
Luckily she came on the 14thand I was able to make it all
the way through Bragg, which wasgood, awesome and now, better
than that, her birthday isn't inthe middle of Bragg every year,
so that's even better.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean that would be like well,honey, I'm sorry We'll have to
celebrate your birthday when weget home.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
So I've got to ask you've opened the bottle?
How is the?
How's the pour?

Speaker 4 (05:17):
It's very good.
I haven't had time to savor itas well, since.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
I'm trying to concentrate on talking to you,
lovely fellas, but but it's verygood.
Good, I could talk to Michaelwhile you enjoy it.
I haven't.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
I've got a little here.
I'm actually drinking theRegers that you showed the
bottle of.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
So you know, we've got it represented here too.
Kansas City.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
That's right, kansas City style whiskey and on.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Monday I had a surprise For my job.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
every year I have to go to a drug and alcohol
conference, which, okay, that'sabout as much fun as going to a
dentist, but do they givesamples or no?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
that's the point.
And I were in the elevator.
It was a very staunch, very,very boring thing.
We're all in the elevator,we're at atlanta hilton and, uh,
and all of a sudden I actuallyreached out to franklin.
He was on a trip with hisdaughter skiing, so I was going
to try to meet up with him.
But we were in the elevator andI looked at my coworker and I
said you lied to me.

(06:11):
You said this place was goingto pass out some samples, and so
it was definitely funny.
I was pretty surprised thatit's in Kansas City, missouri.
So, speaking of Rieger's, sir,when I come I would like to
please go to Rieger's.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
So let me know what you need, if you need picked up
at the airport, whatever youneed.
But we will definitely make atrip to Rieger's and I'll let
you ride the slide, so I havedefinitely done it before.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
There's a big, big stainless steel slide there,
Franklin, adult size.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
And from the second floor to the first floor and
it's got like a twist in it.
Oh, nice.
And so if you don't want totake the stairs, you just hop in
the slide and zip right down tothe first floor.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
As usual, a big note that says no going head first.
I believe there might bephotographic evidence of me
going.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
There is you, superman in it, right out there.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
I mean at a distillery.
What do you expect?
Do you expect people in theirbest behavior?

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, and to our defense, it was, like you know,
one o'clock in the afternoon andthere wasn't a lot of people
there and the lady likes us, soyou know and the rules only
apply sometimes, right.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
That's right.
I tell my employees that allthe time.
I'm like well, when you did it,you, you broke the rules.
I'm like no good leader getswhere they are without breaking
the rules once or twice.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Tell them you broke the rules for them.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
That's right.
I did it so you guys could bebetter.
That's right.
Well, first let's talk aboutBragg.
Not big Bragg in May, slashJune, but how are all things
Bragg?
Can I ask?

Speaker 4 (07:47):
Bragg is wonderful.
We have a full slate coming up.
So in a couple of weeks, afterthis comes out, we'll be headed
to Mexico.
We do our Riviera Maya tourdown there, which is amazing,
stay at the JW, go to cenotesand islands and get to make
tortillas.
We learned how to do that fromsome Mayan ladies that teach us
how to do it, which is awesome.
Then, after that, we have ourwinter ride, which we get to go

(08:09):
to a bunch of different islandson the coast of Georgia, which
is really funny.
Scott Garwick I think he foundout about Bragg through this
podcast, yes, and then actuallycame on winter ride from
listening to this show, which is.
Thank you guys so much forsharing the word, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Let me interrupt you just for a minute.
You're one in Mexico.
Where's that at in Mexico?

Speaker 4 (08:33):
So we fly into Cancun and we stay two days there at
the JW and we don't ride inCancun because it's busy, but we
do take a ferry over toIslaahuras, the isle of women,
and we ride around there, whichis awesome, and then from there
we get out of the busy touristyzones and we go to the interior
of the yucatan peninsula and weget to go to cenotes.
We go to chichen, itza, whichis the mayan pyramids, um,

(08:57):
really nice, flat as a pancake,easy riding, lots of stops, lots
of cultural experiences.
Um, and then we finish thingsup on a little fishing village
called uh puerto morelos, whichis uh back on the coast.
It's a beautiful resort righton the water, um, and it's
really a nice, lovely week, um,very warm.
When I think, where you guysare, it's going to be pretty

(09:18):
warm too in january, if I'm notmistaken right, we are, we're
heading to orlando.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
So, yeah, all right, we're going to Orlando.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
So yeah, all right, we're going to circle back to
that.
I got a question at the end inour lightning round about
Orlando, but we'll come back tothat.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
So what other international you got, the
Mexico, what else you got goingWinter?

Speaker 4 (09:37):
Ride, winter Ride is coming up, and then Spring
Tune-Up, of course, which islovely and awesome.
You guys came down to,unfortunately.
Then spring tune up, of course,um, which is lovely and awesome
you guys came down tounfortunately the year we got a
torrential downpour.
I believe it was still had agood time.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Oh yeah, we had a great time, yeah yeah, it's a
great outdoor festivalenvironment.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
Everybody camps.
It's one of the best weekendsin cycling, for sure um, that's
where we got to meet heather oh,that's true.
Yeah, the whole family comesdown for that.
Actually, my daughter justjoined Girl Scout, so she's
going to be hawking her GirlScout cookies there this year.
Oh very nice.
I'm excited to see how manypeople buy those.

(10:15):
We'll see.
And then, after Spring Tune-Upwe are headed to.
We're going to go scout ourCroatia trip, so Heather and I
are going over there to scoutall of our Croatia.
We're going to go scout ourCroatia trip, so Heather and I
are going over there to scoutall of our Croatia.
We'll be riding around thereand then we have Big Brag, of
course, which you guys will beat, and you're all for those of
you not on YouTube and thoselistening we are all
coincidentally wearing the verysame Brag blue cap.

(10:37):
Maybe you guys planned it, butI certainly did not.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
We didn't talk to each other about it at all, I
just did that we didn't talk toeach other about it at all.
I just did that and I'm wearingyour wonderful hee-haw jersey,
as I like to call it.
Love this jersey.
So yeah, we're all things Braggtoday.

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yeah, and I got your handlebar Bragg t-shirt on today
, so I actually bought that atthe Big Red Tent and at the time
I went back to my my ownquarters, you know and we did
indoor camping and I, I put iton.
I'm like Ooh, not good, but nowI'm the 2.0.

(11:13):
It fits great.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
That's how everyone buys clothes, right?
Hopeful, hopeful buying.
So I like to call that.
That's right.
I do that with jeans all toooften, yeah, so then, after,
after we do that, then we're got.
We got two weeks of our ridesin the Loire Valley.
Um, so we're taking two soldout weeks over there and we're
riding, uh, from vineyard tovineyard, um, from castle to

(11:35):
castle, seeing how the Frenchroyalty lived it up, and then
we're staying.
You know, we're dining at, youknow, really nice French
restaurants every night, whichis going to be a lot, but it's
also going to be delicious.
Um, so super excited for that.
Um, and then, yeah, and then,and the end of the summer, we're
doing our Bruges to Amsterdamtrip.
Again got two sold out boats ofthat again, which is awesome,

(11:57):
um, and all these videos are onYouTube, so they have great
recaps on there If anybody wantsto live vicariously through the
brag team.
Um, yeah, and then we startedall over again awesome.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Well, I mean, I just wanted to make sure you, of
course, I know that many aretuning in here today to hear the
breakdown of the route for bigbrag um and, if I might correct,
I think I saw it's 45th um uhroute.
Is that correct?
That is right.
This saw it's 45th route.
Is that correct?
That is right.
This will be our 45th year.

(12:30):
Okay, but I definitely wantedto talk about others.
Like you said, scott Garwick.
I mean, we had him on and he'sa monthly subscriber and we
appreciate him and a very bigsupporter of ours and his
interview was just awesome andMichael and I were both very
inspired after interviewing him.
So, scott, it's not too late.
Buddy, you got until midnightyou got until midnight.

(12:51):
You can save 50 bucks, I mean sojust to be clear.
You're going to pretty soon.
We're going to break down theroute.
I just want to make sure I getthis out there.
If they're listening today, onJanuary 1st, they have until
midnight to save $50.
You're going to sign up anyway.
Just sign up.
And when you do, there's a teamname there Put Cycling Men of
Leisure.
So type that in there, stoplistening.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
That's right.
Stop listening right now.
Go over to that website,register and then come back to
us.
Absolutely, we don't mind.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Yeah, we'd love to have you, and Franklin just said
it, you heard it from theexecutive director himself the
last two years we had thelargest team.
Let's make it three, so ourfirst.
By the way, I'll never forgetwhen you said I hear Cycling man
of Leisure is looking for ateam, I was like, yes, we are.

(13:48):
Um, with that being said, uh,the biggest question that so far
I have been getting some behindthe scenes we call it our
leisure community.
Now, um, we, I was listening toum, the Kelsey podcast, and
they're like they call theirlisteners the 92 percenters and
I'm like we've got to come upwith a name for the people who

(14:10):
are audience, who associate withus and write us.
And so our leisure community iswhat we came up with, and a few
of them have said hey, do yougot any hints on the ride?
Now you do this with us,knowing that with full faith
that we obviously are notspreading the word.
So I apologize to everybody.
You are hearing it now, today.

(14:30):
So Happy New Year and enjoythis.
But biggest question that Ihave got is is it actually going
across the state this year?
So how do you want to releasethis?
How do you want to tell wherewe're state this year.
So where?
How do you want to release this?
How do you want to tell wherewe're going this year?
I've got some notes here.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
So the more and more I listen to you guys' show, it's
become a trivia show almost,with the listener spotlight.
Listener spotlight.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
There we go.
I got some toys here.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
I thought I would turn the tables mainly on
Michael, as he is always thetrivia man.
History aficionado.
Were you a history major,michael.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
I was yes.
Okay, I didn't major though inGeorgia history.
So let's just put that outthere right now.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
He's a major something.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
And then your job used to be in radio as well.
You used to do trivia on theradio.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
That's right.
Yeah, back in my radio days.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
Okay, so this is going to.
I don't know.
This may be a dream for you, itmay be a nightmare, I don't
know.
So is you know?

Speaker 3 (15:43):
going to?

Speaker 4 (15:44):
I don't know this may be a dream for you, it may be a
nightmare, I don't know.
So I figured you guys are goingto need a map, because you're
probably not.
You guys obviously don't livein Georgia.
We do not.
You may need a map, google maps, your computer, whatever you
need.
I'm going to give you somehints.
I got three hints for each town.
I like this and we'll we'll giveyou some guesses and see how
close you can get, and then wehave some highlights for each

(16:04):
town as well.
I love it All right.
So the first town geography iseasy, right.
It's located at the confluenceof two rivers.
That flow forms another river,obviously, and flow into the
Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
Wow, so you're looking for a town at the
confluence of two rivers?

Speaker 2 (16:29):
that flow into the Gulf.
That's right.
So, ed, this is where your 1.6listening is going to come into
play, and you're really going tobe drinking your 1.6 listening,
but in the meantime, I'm goingto the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
I would say and I don't know if this is right,
this is just LaGrange.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
There is some rivers in LaGrange and a lake that flow
, I guess the Chattanooga flow.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
That's not it, huh.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
But it's not LaGrange .
No, there's also a number ofhills in this town, seven hills
in fact, that are in this town.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
Oh, adam do you have any guesses?

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Okay, so our second clue for our first town is there
are many hills in this town.
Some might say there's sevenhills in this town.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Ooh.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
Seven hills, huh, seven hills.
I thought that would be a deadgiveaway for a history major,
but I could be wrong.
Could it be Rome?
Rome, it is.
All roads lead.
Here was your last clue.
There we go.
Did you get that just from theSeven Hills or were you actually

(17:38):
looking at the map?

Speaker 3 (17:40):
The Seven Hills is what I was like is there Rome?
There is a Rome, yeah so.
Seven Hills, yeah, give like.
Is there Rome?
There is a Rome, yeah so thereis Seven.
Hills yeah, give it away.

Speaker 4 (17:47):
So Rome, georgia Rome is very close to the Western
border, so it is going to goacross the state in fact, so
we'll get to the last statewhere we end later.
So Adam, you'll be happy aboutthat, but yeah, so Rome.
They had a drawing actually todetermine the name for the city

(18:09):
and the guy that won the drawingmade a bunch of parallels to
Rome and they named the cityRome.
So it's really cool.
And the other info that I havefor each town is if there's a
distillery or a brewery in thereor a brewery in there, because
I know you guys have rented carson our rides in the past to
visit close by and localdistilleries, so there are a few

(18:31):
towns.
There are a few towns withdistilleries.
There's actually no distilleryhere, but there is a few
breweries.
There's River Remedy Brewing,Rome City Brewing, and then
there's also I know you're acigar aficionado as well, so
they have Hotel DeRicci, whichis an old Havana cigar bar right
downtown.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Man, I mean a brewery , a cigar bar and the kicking
off of Big Brag 2025.
So you're going to be happyabout that.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
I love it.
Rome's also cool.
They actually have the world'slargest contiguous college
campus there.
It's called Berry College and acool thing they have there.
It's 27,000 acres, this collegecampus, so it's ginormous, wow.
And they actually have baldeagles there and they have an
eagle cam that multipledifferent webcams on different

(19:24):
Eagles nests around the campusso you can log on anytime and
check out the bald eagles thereon Berry College, which is
really cool.
So if you want to get thereearly, you can.
They've got a nice heritagetrail system that that goes
along some of those rivers thatwe're talking about the
confluence of the Anstatula andthe Etowah River which turn into
the Cusa so you can ride alongthose, get a nice little warmup

(19:48):
and the downtown area is reallyawesome.
Everything's going to be reallynice and compact there.
We're going to be stayingbasically downtown at the Forum
River Center, so it's a reallycool starting point and Rome has
a really cool downtown, sodefinitely worth getting in town
a little bit earlier.
If you're getting a hotel, youknow, come stay the night before
and and get acquainted withRome Cool, all right.

(20:10):
So the next day we're doing aday one.
We're doing 49 miles, 2,900feet of elevation, um, and we
are going to ride some of theseto be a really famous ride in
Rome, uh, called up the Creekwithout a pedal.
Um, so that's a really coolride.
We're going to be a reallyfamous ride in Rome called Up
the Creek Without a Pedal, sothat's a really cool ride.
We're going to do a lot of theroutes that they used to do, so
it's really pretty.
And then we're going to get intoour next town, which was the

(20:34):
first town to have a historicmural Coca-Cola mural painted on
the outside of one of theirwalls, on the pharmacy in one of
the towns.
So I know you travel across.
You guys travel a lot.
You see Coca-Cola murals.
You know all over the place.

(20:58):
I'm sure they are prolific herein Georgia and this town was
the first one to have one ofthose.
I don't know if you guys arelooking at your map, but it's my
may or may not be related toCoca-Cola.
All right, they also have aTyrannosaurus Rex in this town.
And then the last one it has,in fact, a brewery that, if you

(21:21):
combine the brewery with alltheir other brewing locations,
is the largest brewery in theworld.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
Now see, my first guess here would be Atlanta,
because they used to have theT-Rex thing or the big dinosaur,
in the airport.

Speaker 4 (21:37):
You're looking at your map, it's the home of
Coca-Cola.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Exactly, it doesn't work out strategically with the
map.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
I'm going with Cartersville or Eckworth or
Altoona or Oak Grove.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
Cartersville.
First guess is usually correct.
Ok, so Cartersville, anotherreally cool town, anheuser-busch
.
They actually have a plantthere and they have a beautiful
back road century that leavesout of that uh plant every
September.
Uh, we're going to be riding alot of their routes as well.
Um, and that is a verybeautiful century.

(22:15):
If you're, you know, if you'refrom Georgia or close to Georgia
, definitely recommend coming toto ride there.
It starts at the blood budplant, excuse me, and you get to
talk to some of the people thatthat make Bud Light and
Budweiser there, which is youknow.
I know they were embroiled incontroversy recently and I know
a lot of people.
I've actually heard you guysgive Bud Light some some trash

(22:36):
talk on here before, or maybe no, it was Natty Light.
I'm sorry.
Natty Light, oh yeah.
It was Natty Light.
Yeah, that was Armando right,didn't he get hit with a Natty
Light?
Yes, he got hit with a NattyLight.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
And if that's the beer, almost a full can.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
So you know not a bad one to throw out the window.
If you're going to throw oneout the window, yeah, yeah, uh.
But actually, scientists likethe, their ability to pump out I
forgot how many hundreds ofthousands of cans per day,
consistently, day after day, andhave it taste the same whether

(23:10):
you open it up in kansas city oratlanta, georgia, is just um,
they're scientists.
How they make it work, it'scrazy, um, anyway.
So anhyzer bush is there, umalso.
And on our brewery distillery,in addition to Anheuser-Busch
downtown, they have the DrownedValley Brewing Company and fun
fact, fun note we're actuallygoing to have a rest stop at the

(23:31):
Drowned Valley River outpost onthe Etowah River on that first
day of riding.
So rest stop two first day isgoing to be actually at one of
their breweries Really coolRight by a covered bridge, right
on the river.
They're going to have somemusic playing there.
I think we're going to havesome bagels from the number one
bagel bakery in Georgia, whichis going to be really cool.

(23:53):
So that'll be a really coolstop, and legally they can't
serve until a little bit laterin the day.
So, definitely, if you takeyour time getting there, though,
you're going to hit it and beable to try some of the uh Drown
Valley Brewing BrewingCompany's beer.

Speaker 3 (24:09):
Oh we're we're men of leisure, we take our time, so
that should not be an issue.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
So you'll be you'll be right on time, uh, and then,
actually, we're going to ridestraight through downtown
Cartersville, um, andCartersville probably has one of
the most vibrant downtowns ofall the ones that we're going to
pass through this year.
So we're going to have a reststop right in the middle of
downtown, which is really cool.
There's tons of awesomerestaurants, breweries, all

(24:33):
kinds of fun stuff to do indowntown Cartersville.
Our route's going to take usright through there on the way
to Georgia Highlands, wherewe're going to stay that night
at a college.
So lots of cool stuff to do inCartersville.
I mentioned that T-Rex, thereis a tele-science museum, which
is really cool.
If you want to check it out,you can actually walk to the
Savoy Automobile Museum.

(24:54):
They've got hundreds of carswalking distance from our
overnight site.
So there is a ton of cool stuffto do when we're in
Cartersville.
Cool, that's awesome, man, andthis is a picture of you riding
that you're you're putting uphere now, adam right, oh yeah,
of course yeah, on my new bikeyeah without the debrem love

Speaker 2 (25:14):
it sorry, I had to beep him.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
That's fine all right and the next, next day we're
going to do 44 miles, 2,800 feetof elevation Might be a little
bit more than that and on one ofthe most beautiful roads I
think we're going to ride on allweek.
So that is again following someof that beautiful back road
century route Really beautifulInto our next town, which is the

(25:41):
marble capital of Georgia,which is the marble capital of
Georgia.
Marble mined from here has beenon structures like the Lincoln
Memorial.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
New York Stock Exchange and the US Capitol.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
Hmm, oh, no help.
The starting point or terminus,depending on if you're going
northbound or southbound of theAppalachian Trail, was
originally located in this town.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
The starting point.
So the starting point or theending point?

Speaker 4 (26:22):
Depending on if you're hiking north or south.
Yeah, okay, looking at the map.
Original original, not anymoreoriginal.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, for all you hiking history buffs was that
jasper.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
It is jasper.
See, I'm not even gettingthrough all my clues here.
You're killing me, sorry.
No, it's good, it's good, youknow it's.
Uh, I'm making them too easy iswhat it is, but I didn't.
Yeah, there you go.
I should have known I was goingagainst the history buff, so,
of course, uh.
So, yeah, jasper, and we wentthrough jasper, uh, 2018.
So we'll be going back therethis year and actually their
downtown has kind of doubledsince we've been through there

(27:03):
before.
And this is our first stopwhich actually has a distillery.
So I will find you two and mynew favorite expression that I
hear on your show all the timebellied up at the bar at the
distillery, I'm sure.
Oh, yes, they have a sharp topdistilling company, so that's
two local guys there.

(27:24):
They started a distillery.
They got bourbons, gins and acouple other spirits that they
distill there, and Sharp Top isactually the closest mountain to
Jasper.
Jasper is actually known asGeorgia's first mountain city,
right before you get into theserious mountains of North
Georgia, which we're not goingto.

(27:44):
This is more of a foothills andvalleys ride, which we're
debating on calling it foothillsand valleys or Pedal to
Piedmont, which, by the timethis episode comes out, we'll
have made a choice.
So I don't know what do youguys think Pedal to Piedmont or
foothills and valleys?

Speaker 2 (28:05):
I'm just one vote and I would go Peddle the Piedmont.
It's got a better ring to it.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
It does, yeah it does , yeah, but I figure, no one
really knows what the Piedmontis outside of Georgia, so I was
trying to have a more largerappeal.

Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, but still keep it mysterious, you know?
Yeah, peddle the Piedmont.
People like a mystery.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Okay, I see the Fainting Goat Vineyards.
Not that we'll be there, butit's north of Jasper.

Speaker 4 (28:27):
Well, funny story about Fainting Goat Vineyards.
Last time we were there in 2018, we had a rest stop.
That was at Fainting GoatVineyards, which is beautiful
great vineyards, great wine,awesome place.
If you're ever there,definitely go check it out.
But if you're on a bicycle,however, we went over Burnt

(28:51):
Mountain that day.
Last year we were or, excuse me,last time in 2018, our route
took us over Burnt Mountain, sothat was a true mountain ride
for Bragg, which is a lot ofpeople love.
Some people love it less.
So it's.
You know it's a very big climb.
You know you probably had it aslike a 15 mile hill that day,

(29:26):
and then I chose this beautifulvineyard as a rest stop, which
is on the hill going over BurntMountain, and then you had to
take a sharp turn to go aquarter mile up a even steeper
hill just to get to the reststop and then from there, ride
back down to continue going upand over again.
So I got so many people upsetwith me, um, that they had to do
an extra quarter mile of climbon an already hellacious
climbing day.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Well, why do you think they call it fainting goat
?

Speaker 4 (29:36):
that's right I mean, that was my thing.
You knew it was a mountain ride.
You knew what you're signing upfor, that year, um, but this
time, don't worry, we're goingsouth, uh, out of Jasper, so
we're not going into themountains, we are kind of
steering clear of them.
But yeah, jasper is a coolplace.
They have that Sharp TopDistillery, they have Penley
Creek Brewing Company andTalking Rock Brewery.

(29:57):
Most of those are all walkingdistance from our venue, which
is great, so you don't even haveto shuttle.
The school we're staying at isan eighth of a mile into the
downtown.
Tons of cool stuff to do there.
They have a lot of other stuffgoing on in town.
You can tour some quarrieswhile you're there.
There's lots of stuff to do inJasper and it's a really cool

(30:19):
town to hang out in.
And then the next day we'regoing 50 miles, 3,600 feet in
elevation, to our next town,which houses a little bit of
controversy in two of our towns,this time surrounding
waterfalls.
The first town has the tallestI'm going to put this in air

(30:40):
quotes tallest waterfall inGeorgia, at at 729 feet.
So that's your first cluetallest waterfall in georgia.
Um, and adam, if you've beenwatching our family, uh, youtube
vacation getaways.
We actually visited thiswaterfall this past summer, so

(31:00):
is it uh, amical kalala?
kalowu Amicalola, Amicalola.
Yeah, that is the waterfall.
Okay, and then the city is.
I don't know if you guys wereever in a NASCAR and some of our
older listeners might get this,but Awesombill from Dawsonville
man.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Oh, not a NASCAR guy.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Oh well.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
So Dawsonville.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah, awesomb, so Dawsonville.
Yeah, Austinville fromDawsonville, so Dawsonville,
another cool town, and we'rekind of keeping with the theme
of having a lot of racing andcar history.
That museum in Cartersville,and then here we actually have
NASCAR Hall of Fame, located inDawsonville, and where we're
going to be staying is actuallya Stone's Throw from there, and

(31:46):
then in there, stone's Throwfrom our venue, guess what they
have just for you guys Adistillery, that is correct.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Oh, I love it.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
Yeah, so this is an all-new distillery, granddaddy
Mim's Distilling Company, whichis basically connected to the
the nascar hall of fame,appropriately, um, because I'm
sure you, you two know, you know, moonshine and nascar go hand
in hand.
So, absolutely, in this town ofdawsonville, uh, stock car
racing actually started, um,which grew out of their history

(32:21):
of running moonshine highwaynine, which will be on, for, you
know, maybe a mile this year,uh, they used to call it thunder
road, uh, because they wouldrun so much moonshine from
Dawsonville down into the cityof Atlanta, uh, and they would
take nine as part of that.
So it's called thunder road, um, and they actually there is.
Uh, the community came togetherand, um, there's this awesome

(32:43):
guy who built an F1 style racingtrack in Dawsonville, which I
am diligently working on withthe Chamber of Commerce to get
us to be able to ride on on ourlayover day, which would be
super awesome.
That would be cool.
Yeah, so it's AtlantaMotorsports Park and it is
really cool.
They do races out there all thetime.

(33:04):
They actually have kart racing.
So we're going to try and dothat a day that we're there too.
If you want to do some actualF1-style kart racing on the
track.
You can hopefully do that.
We're trying to arrange that.
And yeah, so Dawsonville isanother cool town.
That's actually our layovertown, so we're going to try and
arrange folks to go up and checkout that waterfall at Amicalola
, like.
So go up and check out thatwaterfall at Amicalola, like I
talked about as well, so you canactually hike up.

(33:26):
I forgot how many stairs it is.
It's hundreds of stairs to getto the top, but it's a really
cool waterfall to go check outif you've never seen it.
Or you guys could just hang outat the distillery the whole
time, your choice.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
I think we can split our time and do a little of both
there you go.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Let's hope I'm not chasing down a wheel yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
So if you, uh, if we're in town, in dawsonville,
and you hear an air raid siren,don't worry um.
There's a guy who, uh, owns thehistoric dawsonville pool room,
which is really famous, um,because it's the elliot family.
Bill elliot um aust Austin.
Bill, from Dawsonville, is BillElliott, and his son, chase
Elliott, is also NASCAR legend.

(34:08):
He actually won the sprint cupin 2020.
So another champion racer.
So every time an Elliott familymember wins a NASCAR race, he
just rings this air raid sirenfor an exorbitantly long time in
town.
I don't think there's a racewhile we're in town, but cause
it's not a Sunday, of course,but a really cool place historic

(34:29):
place to go check out.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
is that Dawsonville Pool Room as well?
I see that the Checkered FlagCatering is right next to Dawson
Pool Room.
Traditional American foodthere's all kinds of stuff there
.

Speaker 4 (34:39):
Yeah, there's all kinds.
It's a smaller downtown.
It's one of the smallerdowntowns we'll be in, but also
lots of stuff in the surroundingcommunity that we can get into,
so it'll be a really cool stopand we're going to stay right in
the middle of downtown, whichwill be really fun, cool, all
right.
Next day we are going 54 miles,3,700 feet of elevation, to a

(35:00):
town, to a town and get out yourhistory degree, michael where
President Martin Van Buren'scousin settled here in 1800 and
built a lot of the houses intown.
Ooh, yeah, that's no help Namedafter John Clark, a

(35:22):
Revolutionary War general andthe 31st Governor of Georgia.
So Clarksville, clarksville itis, and I believe you guys
stayed there not last year, ayear before last, yeah, and that
was when you were saying, whenthe kids were hanging out at the

(35:42):
pool and you couldn't take itanymore.
That day, I believe right.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
I think so yeah, I don't remember that day.
Must have been a tough day.
Yeah well, he doesn't rememberlots of things.
Yeah, you know, he calls MarkMatt, matt Mark.

Speaker 3 (36:02):
He's got the M right, Come on.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
Yeah, y'all messed it up so many times on purpose.
Now I'm not sure what it reallyis.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
It's Mark, it's.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
Mark.
All right, clarksville cooltown.
Clarksville Downtown's fun.
You guys have been there.
No distillery, but they do havethe copper pot, the attic and
the community brew and tap.
So tons of fun stuff downtownto do there.
Plus, where we're staying has apool which is really nice.
After a long day's ride you canhop in the pool, which is
really cool.
Then we're going to head 57miles, 3,300 feet of elevation,

(36:36):
to the next town.
And funny story I went to acamp with the son-in-law of the
world's strongest man, who isfrom this town.
He lifted a total of 6,270pounds on a backlift which is
listed as the Guinness Book ofWorld Records greatest weight

(36:59):
ever lifted by a human.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Wow Okay, yep, michael, that doesn't that
doesn't help, the uh.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
The town is named uh after the Cherokee word for
beautiful.
So if you know Cherokee, I'mnot sure if you studied that in
your history class Toka, Wow,how did you know that Cherokee
word I mean?
How did you know Tok?
Cherokee word I mean, how didyou know toka meant beautiful?
Well, don't we all knowCherokee?
I guess not.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
I went to college out in Nebraska where they
literally Native American andseveral of the Native American
languages are in fact a, a classyou can take for your foreign
foreign language requirement oh,wow, that's.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
That's crazy and interesting.
So you know some Cherokeethat's going to come in our last
town as well.
So the Cherokee word forbeautiful toko.
What town are we going to?

Speaker 2 (37:54):
looking at your map, To finish it off, you mean no,
no, no.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
This is our second to last town, oh.
And this is also where ourwaterfall controversy comes in,
because when you go there andyou tell them that their
waterfall is tall, but not thetallest, they disagree.
Oh.
Because, it's actually.
They have.
The tallest free-fallingwaterfall east of the
Mississippi is in this town at186 feet, so that's going to be

(38:29):
Henderson Falls.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
Nope, no Okay, because I'm looking at the map
now.
I found Toca here and okay,they had Henderson Falls Park.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
So Toccoa is the town .
Toccoa toka was okay.
Yeah, yes, okay, there we go,all right.
So, yeah, that's our waterfallcontroversy.
Um, both towns love to claimthey have the tallest waterfall,
so I'm not sure if you want tocount a cascading waterfall as a
waterfall or if it has to befree falling.
But um dawsonville has thetallest at 729 feet, and then,

(39:05):
uh you know is funny.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
We've had this dispute before because when we
were in Michigan they talkedabout a waterfall and we stopped
on the ride to look at thewaterfall and it was just.
It was a long kind of cascadingthing and we were kind of
disappointed.
I'll just leave it at that.
It was like, well, water isfalling, but I mean it's only
falling you.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
Water is falling, but it's only falling.
We've discussed this before.
They're both very impressive.
You'll have to look at both andsee what you think.
Toccoa it is truly 186 feet offree-falling waterfall, which is
really cool.
If you ever catch it when it'sflood stage or raining, they
won't let you there at floodstage.
It's really cool to check out.

(39:50):
It's actually on the campus ofToccoa Falls College, so our
route doesn't take us right bythere, but it's not far from
where we're staying and you cango down there and check it out.
It's a really cool waterfall tocheck out and they do have.
They have Curahee Winery andVineyards and they have Wesley's
on Doyle downstairs.
So no distillery, but they dohave a couple of really cool

(40:10):
bars and vineyards there thatyou can check out.
There's also the CuraheeMilitary Museum, which is right
downtown you can check out.
That's 15,000 square foot ofWorld War II museum memorabilia.
So, michael, I'm sure you'lldefinitely have an interest in
that.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Yeah, toccoa is a really cool town.
It's funny.
I went to camp, uh, thedirector of the camp while I was
there.
His name is Ed Schaefer Um andhe married um, paul Anderson's
daughter, and Ed Schaefer, theguy I went to camp with it.
He's taller, I'm six, three.

(40:48):
He's I don't know 6'4", 6'5",and he is just a grizzly bear of
a man.
You know just every.
His fingers are, you know, hugesausages, not in a bad way, but
just like.
He is just a huge man, veryintimidating.
And he said that when he askedfor his daughter's hand in
marriage from Paul Anderson, thestrongest man in the world, he

(41:10):
shook his hand and he grabbedhis hand and said son, do you
see how big my hand is?
He's like, yes, sir, he's likeif you ever hurt my daughter, I
will crush your skull with thishand.
Wow, he could probably do it too.
I mean he lifted 6,000 pounds.
I mean the guy's incredible.
They actually have a?

(41:30):
Uh, they have a monument to himin takoa, um, so you can go
check out the monument and seehow large and strong he really
is.
So he was a really cool, reallycool guy, um, really good
christian guy he had.
He actually started, founded aschool for, uh, troubled youth
um down in south ge, southGeorgia, that still runs to this
day, and they actually used todo a lot with cycling, which is

(41:52):
really cool.
So anyway, lots of to-gohistory there, all right.
And then our last day.
We're headed 56 miles, 2,600feet of elevation, so probably
our flattest day, and we areheaded to our last town.
We are headed to our last town,so it was originally carved out

(42:20):
of two other counties in 1850and was the only town in.
Georgia or, excuse me, onlycounty in Georgia named after a
woman.

Speaker 3 (42:32):
She was very fierce and was renowned during the
Revolutionary War for herdetermination and efforts to rid
the area of Britishsympathizers and British
soldiers.
Well, nobody likes the Britishsympathizers, so no way.
Livonia.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
No, but we're going to pass pretty close to there,
all right.
And then, two miles south ofthis town, was the Cherokee
center of the world.
Cherokee Indians assembled here.
They had many trails thatradiate from here in many
directions.
They came here to hold councils, dance, worship and where they
would do all kinds of relatedfunctions, barter with their
hides and all kinds of stuff.

(43:05):
So it was the center of theCherokee world.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
So now, knowing that you're fluent in Cherokee,
michael, you got to know wherethe Cherokee center of the world
is.
Well, first off, I don't thinkI ever said that I was fluent uh
, all right, and it's center ofthe Cherokee world.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
You got another one.
Yeah, this town is named afterone of the largest lakes in the
southeast, with almost 90 squaremiles, 962 miles of shoreline
and it's 56,000 acres, and it'sactually a man-made reservoir.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Savannah.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
Hartswell, Hartwell that's it.
Hartwell, Lake Hartwell andHartwell that's it.
Lake Hartwell and Hartwell isthe actual town and we ended
there in 2018.
It's a great little town.
They do have a brewery there,Southern Heart Brewing Company,
and actually two Bragg riderswere original investors in this

(44:06):
distillery or, excuse me, thisbrewery.
So definitely a place you wantto check out while you're there.
And we are going to end righton the lake at Long Point, and
it's a beautiful you know, yougot you know over 180 degree
view of the water on thispeninsula.
We're going to be set up rightthere.
End of the road party is goingto be there.
We'll have the Bragg bar.
We'll have a meal for everybody.

(44:27):
Most people jump in the waterto celebrate ending the ride
right there on the water.
It's just a great spot to end.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Awesome Looking at Anderson, which is next to
Hartwell.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
Anderson is in South Carolina.
That's the closest regionalAirport.
Right, yeah, I see yourlogistics.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
The planner's already going, isn't he?

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
Listen, I mean we haven't evenbegun to.
I mean, now we know.
Obviously, if you watch thevideo at midnight, I hope you
came here first personally.
But Rome, georgia, Cartersville, jasper, dawsonville for the
overnight, clarksville, toccoaand Hartwell I was kind of quiet

(45:25):
during that because I am notthe history major, I am the can
chat GBT give me the answer kindof guy.
Michael is the history guy.
But looking at this I'm excited.
I mean I've been to Clarksville, but the rest of it I don't
think we've been to before.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
No, and where's the overnight town or the
Dawsonville?
Not the overnight town,dawsonville, so that's the
overnight town or theDawsonville.
Not the overnight townDawsonville, so that's the okay.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Oh yeah, I am.
The planner is the wheels areturning and spinning.

Speaker 4 (45:58):
Yeah, so if you are a guest and you're coming from
afar, there's shuttles easilyfrom Rome to the Atlanta airport
and airport Um, and it's abouta two hour drive from Atlanta
airport to Rome and same it'sabout two hours from the Atlanta
airport to Hartwell Um.
But also you you know, ifyou're going to do regional,

(46:19):
which is obviously moreexpensive, but Augusta is pretty
easy to get to Hartwell Um andyeah, then Atlanta would be your
closest.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
So if you're flying from afar, atlanta is definitely
your best, your best bet okay,okay, um which is why I emailed
stephanie earlier uponregistration is if I had to make
a change.
Uh, because I I already paidfor the end town to the start
town bus, but might have to makea change, mr Sharp.

(46:49):
Yeah, we could fly to Atlantaand go out from there.
That's right.
So we always advertise to dobrag how you want to do brag,
you and I will put a plantogether.
There's about 85 flights fromDetroit to Atlanta a day.
I can pick.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Anytime I want to go any place from Kansas city on
Delta anywhere else.
I'm coming to Atlanta, so itworks out beautifully.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
There you go.
Last year for brag you cameinto Detroit.
That word, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
That was a one-off.
That's never happened before orsince.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
But yeah, it was kind of cool.
He, he was coming in and I, Igot to the airport early and
went up to the sky club and thenhe got off one plane, we hopped
on another and the adventurebegan.
So, um, well, I I appreciateyou having it uh trivia style
and and taking the uh effort togive us some breweries and

(47:46):
distilleries.
I mean, a lot of people tunedin last year and ended up
signing up because they heard,heard you talk about certain
aspects of the ride, things thatare going to be there.
Knowing you, you probably stillhave some things in the works.
You had concerts before whichwere amazing.
Last year, in the overnight orno, the night before the

(48:06):
overnight, that gentleman whoplayed was just amazing.
I don't know, I forget his nameand I feel awful, but uh, he
was.
Um, you had the park acrossfrom all the restaurants and you
, you, uh, you had a bunch ofconcerts that night.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Yeah, yeah, we do.
I pride myself on.
I used to do beer and musicfestivals before taking over
Bragg, so I pride myself infinding some good musical acts,
especially Spring Tune-Up, bigBragg.
A lot of the towns chooseentertainment, but on Spring
Tune-Up we can pick them prettygood.
I have a few more questions foryou guys, just being an avid

(48:48):
fan of the show and listening somuch.
Okay, the first of which, whichI'm still.
I know a few of these otherpeople in my life, but would you
call yourself a Disney adult?
What's with Disney?

Speaker 2 (49:00):
No.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
You love Disney.
Every episode there's a Disneything.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Tell me about Disney First off.
Let me stop you right there.
First off, you're talking withadam true, true story using the
term adult with adam is kind ofpushing the terminology, the
definition I don't know why Iput.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
I mean, there are so many ai features I could put up
with someone who's on time,someone's in the same time zone,
I don't have to wait for it,I'm just kidding.
Great question, by the way,great question.
The reason why I think it's agreat question is because this

(49:42):
classification of Disney adultis like a way eccentric person
who, if you haven't, if you'renot sure what he's asking, this
is a person who's like, oh mygosh, a Mickey Mouse and oh my
god, I gotta go be a MickeyMouse and oh, I have to buy
everything that they come upwith and everything.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
Check.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
That would be, Check.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
Keep going.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Dude, if you want to buy it, go ahead.
I mean no, no, I'm checking offfor you.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
It's like we're batting 100 so far you see the
wall behind me?

Speaker 2 (50:12):
if you're watching on youtube, do you see the wall
behind me?
That doesn't come, you know.
But uh, uh, no, I, we enjoy it.
So my wife and I have a timeshare there because it's a nice
place to go on vacation and and,uh, for us it's a two-hour
plane ride and it's warm andit's clean, although, although
Disney's kind of gone, a littleexpensive, but no, I would say

(50:33):
like a Disney adult would be.
I mean, I see them when I'mthere and they're like dressed
for it Do?

Speaker 3 (50:40):
they know your name.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
I mean I'm on the mailing list.
I think you are a Disney adult.
Who's going there next?
Michael?

Speaker 3 (50:54):
I am taking my family to Disney World for New Year's
Eve.
My family and I are going, soI'm doing it for them.

Speaker 4 (51:05):
There's all the reasons you mentioned.
It's clean, it's a close flightTime share that describes the
entire coast of Florida.
True, and you got the beach intheir place.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
You don't have Mickey Mouse everywhere in Florida.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
So I guess, what is it about Disney that you,
because this comes up everyepisode.
So I just want to get it outthere for all the listeners as
to why Disney is so magical.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Now I'm going to let me just throw this out here
before you answer.
From my perspective, knowingthis man for many, many years
good personal friend, love theguy.
I'm going to say it's basedupon your childhood.
You had a great experiencethere during your childhood, am
I wrong?
No, you're right, you had agreat experience there as a

(51:54):
child and it's one of thosethings that you just keep going
back to because you continue to.
You're able to relive thatgreat experience each time you
go.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Yeah, and Disney World is so large that I mean
you can't do it all every time.
And Disney World is so largethat I mean you can't do it all
every time.
And this time we went there forThanksgiving because my parents
were in Spain and so we werelike, oh, let's just get out of
town for a little bit, and forus it's easy to book a flight
and then go down.
And, yeah, this time we did allkinds of different things that

(52:24):
we've never done.
So there's so much to do therethat, um, you know.
But yeah, like wednesday andthursday were great, friday and
saturday I'm get me out of there, I'm too spoiled to go, and
when, when?
There's not a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
so um, but uh, so we went, yeah we went 2020, october
2020.
So this was like fear.
You know stuff was starting toopen back up, but you know you
had to wear a mask.
There were, you know there wasno characters, but we went.
Heather was pregnant with Trey,so it was just Harper.

(52:58):
Harper was, I guess, threeyears old.
We rode every ride as manytimes as we wanted to Like, we
got off the ride and, you know,like Harper, do you want to ride
it again?
And we'd walk right back aroundto the front.
There was no line whatsoever,and so for me it would be hard
to go back if it wasn't apandemic, because I know I've
heard horror stories of thelines and the heat and the

(53:19):
waiting, but I don't know.
I just wanted to get a take onDisney.

Speaker 3 (53:23):
See, that's the beautiful thing about having a
timeshare there, because I haveone as well, thanks to Adam.
That's the beautiful thing,because you go so often we go
about every other year that youdon't feel obligated to like
we've got to do everything, yeah, and it's like, man, we got to

(53:44):
do it all.
You know, we got to do parkevery day and we got to hit it.
So, by this, going every otheryear or so allows you to like
okay, if we don't get it down,we'll get it next time.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
I think there's also there's like experiences that,
like you don't know about untilyou like been there a lot.
And let me give you an exampleLike, like, for us, we don't
have to go to the rides everytime.
We there's so many things thatyou can do there and and you
know, disney does it on purpose.

(54:16):
It's marketing, marketing,marketing, they, they, they have
certain experiences that onlycertain people find out about.
And then, if you find out aboutit, you're like, well, I want
to experience that.
And then, um, and then you goto some private event and now
what they've done is they'veunfortunately done what they
always do when they had eveningsat Magic Kingdom where it was

(54:40):
supposed to be more intimate andonly a few people there, well
then they sold that out.
And then Mickey's, Notkey's, notso scary parties, and and and
christmas parties, and then inthe old days those were like
limited so you could hop on allkinds of rides, and now they
sell that.
It's just like basically havingtwo admissions in one day.
So having having the experienceof knowing, like, when to get

(55:03):
in and when to get out, I thinkis is is good for for us.
Um, we like and we like the, uh, just the atmosphere, and and
then you know, there's so manydifferent restaurants and we
have certain foods that we liketo go back and forth for, and so
, uh, I think, I think havingthe knowledge is definitely
great.
Now, what I do see is familiesthat go there like the one time
and they've saved up, you know,for that one because they I mean

(55:25):
disney's made it unaffordablefor for the average family.
You can't, you can't, I don'tthink you can.
I mean having the timeshare,you can go back multiple times.
But can you imagine, michael,if you loaded up your family and
and paid the hotel price every,every year, every other year?

Speaker 3 (55:42):
I did that one, uh, maybe two times, uh, oh yeah,
and with the timeshare it itmakes it super.
We wouldn't be going as manytimes as we're going if it
wasn't for the timeshare.

Speaker 4 (55:52):
But they got you with the timeshare.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Yeah Well but you know, it's like last time we
went to six months ago, we wentto what's the beach resort?
Vero beach, Vero beach.
We went to Vero beach insteadof going to the theme park.
So we were on the Atlantic sideof Florida at Vero beach and we
, you know, they've got a beachresort so we could just like

(56:14):
hang out at the beach for a week.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
So yeah, we've traded our time share for cruises,
disney cruises, and you can doadventures by Disney and you can
do, you can trade it for.
You used to be able to trade itfor RCI, where you could go
anywhere in the world and sohaving the time to share.
Ironically, I don't know ifI've ever shared this on this
show before or not, but I'mwilling to share it with you.
I did the whole dime tour toget Fast Passes and she gave me

(56:43):
the materials and I took it homeand I used to have a
photography business for 20years where my studio used to be
my photography uh, developmentroom and everything.
And I laid all the stuff hereon the shelf for a while and,
like two years later, I'm likeyou know what I'm thinking about
, going back to Disney.
So I got out the paperwork andlooked and I called them up and

(57:03):
I actually bought it, and overthe phone and she's like, oh, I
remember you, you're the phone.
And she's like, oh, I rememberyou, you're the photographer.
Yada, yada, yada.
I'm sure she took notes.
I mean, they see so many people.
I'm sure she's like, oh, yeah,you know, it doesn't hurt that
my email address has the wordphotography in it.
So then I ended up buying itand then it's a point-based

(57:24):
system.
So if you go certain times ofthe year, like when you're
talking about hot and miserable,I try to stay clear of that
place when it's hot andmiserable.
Now don't get me wrong.
I mean it happens at times, butwe love going down in February,
october, usually cycling seasonis upon us and I don't go.
And then as soon as cyclingseason is over, then I usually

(57:45):
say usually they have a ridehere called tour to Livingston,
and I live in Livingston County,and so after that, and then we
usually go down for a while andit's kind of like the end of the
season thing.
So, uh, people are back inschool and I like to go when I
can, when there's lower amountof people.
So, uh, and my wife is also abig universal fan.
She loves Harry Potter and, um,she doesn't listen to the show.

(58:06):
So I'll call her a nut job, but, um, she might be a universal
adult, um, but um, now if shehears that I'll be surprised
because she doesn't listen.
So I'll say, hey, did you hearthe last show?
She's like, no, I didn't hearit.
I'm like, okay, well, good, sodon't worry about that new bike
I bought.
But um but so I, I actuallywould differentiate.

(58:27):
I would say maybe I would beborderline Disney adult, but I
don't think I'm.
I've seen some people overthere that you just go, wow,
okay, but you realize yourperception is always different
than everybody else's perception.
Oh, my coworkers, you know theyall make fun of me.

(58:48):
They're all like you're goingto disney again and I'm like,
yeah, but then on the oppositeof that spectrum uh, I've made
it very obvious I live in thecold state.
As a matter of fact, it's mycomputer says it is for 13
degrees outside.
So, uh, I'm gonna go to thedetroit airport, hop in a plane
for a couple hours, go somewherewarm, play some golf and come

(59:10):
back and so they can make fun ofall they want, and that is the
other thing, which is what we'redoing in.
January yeah, they do have nice.
Yes, they do.
Yeah, and we're not going tothe parks when you and I go, so
so we're going to take thepodcasting equipment, I'll
podcast golf bourbon.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
That's what we're doing for the long weekend.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
I'm sure there are two in there as well.
All right.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
Well, on our winter ride, stepping back, there was a
guy who came on us to Rag Ryewith us and he wrote an article
for Golf Digest because he rodeall of Rag Rye Every day.
He rode and then he would comeback, drop his stuff off and
then he had his clubs and hewould play and walk 18 holes

(59:55):
every day after rag rye, which Ithought was just dedication
beyond belief yeah, that'sdefinitely dedication.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
I mean, I can remember my first rag rye in
2016 there was no golfinghappening.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
We did stay on a golf course, though that one night,
so you could have.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Where that lady with the horses.

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
Oh yeah, she thought we were going to steal her
horses.

Speaker 2 (01:00:19):
Oh boy, great question.
The Disney question.
Great question, anotherquestion.

Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Michael seems to be having a difficult time coping
with the amount of sound effectsand visual effects, so I just
wondered how that's going, howyou're dealing with it, michael.
I know it's changed the dynamicof the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Isn't everybody who's listening to this podcast
getting tired of all the crazysound effects and the bleeps?
Like I said, you're dealingwith Adam and using the term
adult is very difficult.
It and like I said, you'redealing with adam and using the
term adult is very difficult.
It's like a 12 year old on anoise machine.
He's just pushing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:53):
See, they've been, he's just pushing pushing
buttons, mostly absent so far,but until then you get him going
, you know yeah, and then hejust starts pushing buttons and
we got sound effects and and allsorts of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
But uh, no, uh, you, adam's a techie, and I realize
Adam's a techie.
I appreciate that because I'mnot a techie, so he can do the
technological stuff.
But you know, if that keepsAdam happy, pushing the sound
effects and stuff, I will goalong with it.
Fair.
Now if he puts his Debrim onand starts pushing the buttons,

(01:01:29):
I have to draw the line there.
But you know I have children.
I understand that.
You know you pick your battles.
Sometimes you let them just youknow, fine, play with your
little noise things and all thatkind of stuff.
It keeps them happy.
And we can go on afterwards.
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
Wow.
Well, you know what uh, theamount that you get older and
the amount of stuff that bothersyou gives a lot less.
So, uh, listen, I've actuallyuh received all kinds of
compliments behind the scene orsomething.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
I haven't heard you read any of those compliments on
the show well, franklin listensto the show.
He I'm sure there's some likelistener spotlight I mean, yeah,
but it's all the other, thebeeping, and, oh my god, at
christmas we had the dancingsanta forever and the noises.
And what are you talking about?

(01:02:24):
Exactly, exactly, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:26):
I just came here to stir the pot, that's all right.
Thanks, Franklin we appreciateit, well done.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
The pot has been stirred.
Yes, you know, I fully admitthat they're toys and I am a
techie.
I mean, I can walk from mybasement to the second floor of
my home without touching a lightswitch.
Things go on and offautomatically, it is annoying
when somebody comes into town,they're like well, how do you

(01:02:52):
sleep at night?
Just fine, Thank you very much.

Speaker 3 (01:02:56):
It's always spooky.
I'm in the basement when I goto his house.
You walk out, lights pop on,and then it's like lights pop
off and then in the middle ofthe night the light will pop on
because a cat walked through andit.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
He's got it set up.
It's a beautiful setup.
I'm no way take away from that,but it takes some getting used
to that's all okay and that'sall right.

Speaker 4 (01:03:17):
Last question is why do you give michael such a hard
time about the different timezones all the time?
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
it, it's a joke.

Speaker 3 (01:03:27):
No, that's a great question.
I think this is therapy.
He's acting as our therapisthere.
I think this is something weneed to get out, because you've
got this hang up with Midwest.
I don't understand it.
Yeah, and noises and theMidwest are your two big hangups

(01:03:47):
, so I think we need to maybetalk about, I don't know, your
childhood or whatever it isthat's caused this Should.
I lay back Should.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
I lay back.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Should I lay back Whatever makes you feel
comfortable.
Okay so why, to answer hisquestion, why do you have a
problem with the Midwest?
You jealous?

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Well, first of all, oh my gosh.
No, I grew up in Illinois, I'mnot jealous at all?
Well, probably should be, butthose who live south of i-80.
Oh, oops, sorry, um um, justkidding.
Half of our listeners live southof i-80 I love you all I'm
sorry, I apologize, it's justmichael um, but uh, so do you

(01:04:27):
know?
Uh, you're, you're.
You are a not only friend, butfriend of the show.
Have you heard me tell thestory of why the Central Time
Zone joke?
Are you asking for real or doyou know?
Do you know why the jokestarted?
I did.
I do not know how the jokestarted.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
Oh OK.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
So now see, michael, I want you to lay back and don't
interrupt me, because I'm goingto give you credit.
Michael had been to Michigantwice for rides and he made he
made a joke and he saidsometimes jokes aren't really
jokes, he's really hurt.
But he said, well, when are yougoing to come my way for a ride
?
And I said you know what?

(01:05:05):
That's fair?
That's fair.
I said I'll tell you what Isaid.
Is there a ride coming up?
And he's like, oh, I do, thegorilla century.
And which is, um, pittsburgh,pittsburgh, kansas, is that
right?
Yes, pittsburgh, kansas.
And so I said, okay, well, I'lltell you what I said.
Um, I don't know if it's, maybeit's Memorial day weekend, I

(01:05:25):
wasn't doing anything and mywife was working midnights and I
said, all right, I'll tell youwhat I'll.
I'll come out 12 hour drive,packed up the bike, headed out
there and, um, we stayed atKansas crossing.
Why?

Speaker 3 (01:05:38):
I remember that, I have no idea, but it's a, it's a
casino there Might be able tocall it a casino, but well, yeah
, cherokee, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
But well, yeah, cherokee, yeah, exactly three or
four, three, oh clark.
So anyways, we're doing theride.
Uh, next morning we're doing acentury ride and we start out
and um and uh, it's kind of areally different kind of a ride.
It's not a circle, but it kindof almost like a, like a weird l
cross thing, where you go backand forth to complete the
century and um, halfway through,michael said you okay?

(01:06:14):
And and I said yeah.
I said I don't know just notfeeling it today, and uh, and
he's like what, like jet lag orsomething, and I said yeah, it's
essential time and so so itstarted out as a joke and then
then of course, I not a jokethat I won't let down, and we've

(01:06:35):
kind of fed into the show.
Now here's the funny part youmentioned Scott Garwick, so you
turned us on to Scott Garwickand he wrote us and said I'd
love to be on the show and hehad such wonderful stories about
George Floyd and gettingarrested and what a great
interview.
So during our communications Isaid now, to be fair, michael

(01:06:58):
has a daughter in middle schooland he's got a stepson and
family and he's pretty busy andso I'm usually very receptive.
Transportation is a veryhit-and-miss job where there's
either there's no way I cantouch my phone or there's like
Franklin, I've taken your callduring the day, so sometimes

(01:07:19):
there's times where you can beon the phone, sometimes there's
not.
And so I was replying and Isaid, well, you'll have to
forgive him, he's in centraltime.
And Scott said, hey, wasreplying and I said, well,
you'll have to forgive him, he'sin central time.
And scott said, hey, what'swrong with central time?
I'm like, oh man, so it allstarted as a should I lay back
michael?
But it all started as the joke,um, and then, uh, it's just

(01:07:42):
letting the letting the joke goon.
But the truth of the matter isI grew up in illinois, very
southern tip of illinois.
Um, my father was in the airforce bouncing around and so, um
, no, no desire to go back toillinois, so I'm very happy with
where I live.
That's where the that'sprobably the joke comes into
play.

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
I see it's, it's, it's warmer in southern illinois
.

Speaker 4 (01:08:03):
There you go, saying yeah, scott's a really good guy.
I've actually, um, you know, wehave the snooze box, which is
that mobile hotel room which youguys actually got to stay in
one night, and I sure did.
We were having some electricalissues in there and he Scott's
actually was a commercialelectrician for a number of
years I don't know if you guysknew that or not, so I probably
had three hours on the phoneback and forth with him over

(01:08:26):
different things around this andfinally I got him on FaceTime
basically, and we figured outthe issue.
So he saved me thousands ofdollars in electrical work and
time.
I was about to cut that thingopen until he got me on the
right track.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
I got to give credit where credit is due, because I
know he'll listen or watch Ithink he's a YouTube watcher
more.
He was the first guy who made adonation to us, and, and you
know, michael and I um, you knowwe're lucky to have careers and
and and lucky enough to do well, but you know there's a lot of
expenses and and and.
So at first we were, we werekind of uncomfortable asking for

(01:09:04):
donations and then was like youknow what I mean, every other
podcast in the world asked fordonations and so, uh, just a
little bit.
And scott was the first guy, andand then scott's son wrote us
and what a what a powerfulfamily and and powerful words,
and one of those days where youread a message like that and it
just makes you go, hey, that'swhy we're doing this, that's
cool and so, uh, great guy and Icould see.

(01:09:26):
I could see that with what hedoes with bikes and selling the
bikes for good causes and doingwhat he does.

Speaker 4 (01:09:35):
So he's another guy you should follow.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
He's a recumbent rider and does all kinds of
great stuff, so go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:09:42):
Now one thing I did want to say you brought up the
snooze box.
Mm-hmm the snooze box is comingback to big brag, correct?

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
Oh, of course, yeah, we're keeping that thing on the
road as much as we can, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
And how quickly does that fill up?
Cause, let me tell you, ifyou've not done the snooze box,
we would have the honor of ofbeing able to try it out for an
evening, because somebody leftearly and and Franklin, let us
try it out.
And it's incredible.
Lots of lights and charging andand it was fantastic.

(01:10:12):
So you've been sleeping under awater fountain.
Yeah, I would have beensleeping under a water fountain.
So thank you, franklin again.
But uh, what, uh, how quicklydoes that fill out?
So say, I was, I was gonna signup for big brag.
Is it already filled up or do Ihave time to?

Speaker 4 (01:10:26):
so we've got.
The way it works is if you bookbefore, you have first right of
refusal for the next year.
Basically, there's five roomsin it.
Those five people have theopportunity to get it first.
I think only one of them whodid brag it's like a bucket list
is not doing it again.
I think we have one room At thetime of recording.

(01:10:47):
I'm not sure about the timewhen this comes out.
Snoozeboxco if you want tocheck out Snoozebox and book it,
you can there.
But yeah, the bucket list guy,yeah, a lot of people do rides
as a bucket list.
You know they try and do all 50states or they try and do
things.
So they, you know, just comefor one ride Better hurry up,
they're all going out ofbusiness.

(01:11:09):
So yeah, scott actually had a.
He was talking to me about hisbucket list and he had quite a
few.
He was afraid to call it abucket list.
He just wanted to call it ato-do list, but he had a number
of rides on there, which bringsup what rides are on you guys'
bucket list.
If you have a list of rides youwant to still go do what's on

(01:11:30):
there.

Speaker 3 (01:11:31):
We've got a long list .

Speaker 2 (01:11:32):
Yeah, we do, and Fault Line is on there.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
Fault Line in Missouri is on there.
We've talked about Brand, whichis, you know, I'm from Nebraska
, I've done it before, but Adamhasn't.
The bike ride across Nebraska,bike ride across Kansas, the one
down in Louisiana.

Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
Zydeco yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
Zydeco, yeah, zydeco uh, the finger lakes ride.
I don't remember what that'scalled, do you?

Speaker 4 (01:11:59):
remember adam on on bonton roulette some, yes, yes
the one that's around the fingerlakes.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
So those are some of them that are that immediately
come to my mind.
I don't know if there's otherones that come to yours, adam,
adam.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Yeah.
So, michael, you can tell thefriendship goes on, because
obviously I'm not going to gohang myself in the garage from
him teasing me about being achild.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
Thank God, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:24):
Well, now he does.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
That's right and I control the video.
So good luck, buddy, come seemy lawyer.
Thank God I don't have a lawyer, but he, he, he.
He said that I was a littlepresumptuous last year.
I'm like we're going back tobrag and he's like dude, you
realize you just committed tobrag.

(01:12:48):
But I think what happens is andthis is not because you know
you're on the show and you're afriend we always say that you do
it right.
If you come to your ride, Imean you do do it right.
I mean it was started beforeyou, I get that.
But at the same time, you'veeither picked up and either
added your flair or continuedsomething that was working and

(01:13:10):
then twisted it to make it work.
And I'm talking about justbasic essentials for you know,
food and snacks, having theability to get something, having
the ability to go to town toget something to eat at night,
having the ability not to becooped up, not to be out in the
middle of nowhere.
To be cooped up and not to beout in the middle of nowhere, um

(01:13:34):
, uh, we did a ride this year,um, and and in Michigan I'm.
I've got to be truthful andhonest.
We were.
We were in one of the mostbeautiful towns, as they say, up
North Michigan, and we were sofar out of town.
It was so sad that we were.
There's all these wonderfulbars that are on right, on the
right, on the water and um, andnot just bar, even if you just
want to go to a restaurant andhave a burger and some fries for

(01:13:55):
riding your bike all day and wewere stuck in the middle of
nowhere.
So my point is that you do itright, and so I got so excited
last year.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
I'm like we're going back to Bragg and then Michael
goes.
You realize, by doing thatyou've just counted us out on
the other rides that we said wewere going to do.
And I'm like, oh sorry, yeah,you, just I'm adam gets excited.
He's like, yeah, we're doing itagain.
It's like I get that and I, youknow you do do a great job and I
and I think a big part of it is, you know, you always have some
type of entertainment in theevening, so there's something to
do.
Because we've been to rideswhere it's like you sit around
in in camp and it's like, I mean, we always have cigars and
bourbon, so that's not a bigdeal, but everybody else just
kind of sits around and you know, twiddles their thumb or

(01:14:40):
whatever.
And then I like the fact thatyou provide multiple options for
camping or for you know,staying.
You've got a snooze box, likewe mentioned mentioned.
You've got outdoor camping,like pretty much everybody
offers, but you also offerindoor camping too, so you kind
of cater to everybody.
So it allows for you know kindof any type of rider to come

(01:15:01):
show up.
So I think that's great Blackdog luggage.

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
I mean, you know, in the overnight town, where we
historically get a hotel and wesee the black dog ladies come
and loading all the luggage andand we've seen riders left from
hotels where they're.
They're like we're supposed toleave our bags right here and
the front desk knows.
I mean, so you, you have a, anoption for everybody, which is
which I think is just huge whenyou're looking for a ride.

(01:15:26):
So if you're catching this showand you haven't signed up for a
ride and you've thought, youknow, I've been looking to do a
week-long ride, I truly thiswill be our fourth year in a row
.
I wouldn't sign up, for, I mean, I'll do anything twice and

(01:15:49):
your staff and um, courtesy,professionalism, um, amenities,
things that that are are, youknow, provided, um, you know
everything that you would expectto be there.
You definitely do it right and,um, I think this.

Speaker 3 (01:16:04):
This would be a good if you've never ridden a week
long ride before.
To start here, yeah, I'll befree um, there's a ton of other
options and a lot of really goodrides out there, but if you've
never done one before, thiswould be the one to get your
feet wet in I appreciate thatand and yeah, and just
understand that they're not allthis.
I mean, everyone has its ownflavor and its own flair, and

(01:16:25):
the ones that I've mentioned.
I've been across kansas, I'vebeen across nebraska, I've not
been to zydeco, I've not been tothe, the finger lakes.
I think we've also got ohiobegrudgingly.
Uh, adam has agreed to do thatone, but uh, and tennessee is
another one that we want to do.
So there's a lot that's on ourlist and everyone's going to

(01:16:47):
have its flavor and itsdifferent flares and they're
going to have strengths andweaknesses and stuff like that.
But if you want one ride andI'm not saying this just because
you're here, if you weren'there I'd be saying the same
thing- I mean proof's in thepudding.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
We've recorded it Exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
Georgia is the ride to kind of get your feet wet
into those week-long rides Forsure.
And after that you're going tohave other rides.
May not have as many amenities,may not, you know, be as well
organized, but this is a goodone for a starter ride I mean
even for things that that peopleare thinking about, like bus
rides.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
I mean you offer, I mean shuttle, I mean something I
didn't even realize.
It's just because I don't thinkthis way, but you offer a
shuttle every night to the townbefore.
So so, um, think about that.
If you would like to have yourvehicle travel with you, you
literally could ride, catch thebus, go get your car and bring

(01:17:40):
the car with you every night,and so, um, that's, that's an
option.
Now, michael, you and I neverthink about that because we, we,
we always fly in and um, butthen you offer shuttles from
start to end and to start, andso I think that's why I think,
when I say you do it right,cause you know we've done some
other rides and I think that'swhat makes us so frustrated on

(01:18:02):
those routes we're like man,they really ought to sit down
with Franklin, because you know,I'm not saying it because
you're here either I mean theMichigan ride that we did
recently.

Speaker 3 (01:18:12):
Well, this last year there was really no shuttles
into town and you know I mean acouple of the towns we were
close enough to be able to walk,uh, but some of them it was
like, you know, it's six milesback to town or something like
that, and you know who wants toget on their bike after 80 miles
and riding another six miles inand six miles back and that

(01:18:33):
kind of thing.
So it's just little things thatyou notice after you've been to
really good organized rides.
And there's a.
I mean I'll say I've doneNebraska before, I haven't done
it in several years, but when Idid it Nebraska was very
organized and they had a lot ofcommunity participation.
It was kind of like I've toldyou this, adam, there was kind
of a rag braai on a much smallerbasis, because all the

(01:18:56):
communities were in it andpeople are out on their, you
know, driveways waving at youand stuff like this, and the
communities really got into it.
Uh, very well organized, verywell supported, um.
So there's other rides outthere that have that, but yours
just seems to really pull it alltogether.

Speaker 4 (01:19:11):
So I appreciate that and it's good.
That's why I love listening toshows, cause, like you know, we
do all these things and you talkto people.
But it's good to hear you guyshave honest conversations with
other people about differentaspects of the ride that you
enjoy or what you don't like orwhat's important, or you know
what you'd like to see or whatyou don't like, because it's
hard to get that kind of candidfeedback from people you know.

(01:19:34):
So that's why I really enjoylistening to the show, because
oftentimes I live behind thecurtain and doing things to pull
everything together, obviously,but it's good to see something
from the participant-facing viewor the guest-facing view of
what you guys really enjoy.
You know something from theparticipant facing view or the
guest facing view of what youguys really enjoy?

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
Yeah, and that's something we've always talked
about, adam and I.
It's like being honest.
You know we, we we don't wantto mislead any of the people who
listen to us or things likethat, and we want to be honest.
So I mean we'll tell you aboutit.
I mean there's one ride thattalk about.
Uh, just because not a goodride, not a safe ride, we don't

(01:20:11):
even want to bring it up.
There's been people come up andask us about it.
We'll tell them about it, butwe don't in any way, shape or
form, promote it on here from asafety standpoint.
So, uh, you know we're, we'rehonest in our evaluation,
whether you're on the show ornot.

Speaker 2 (01:20:25):
So, um, yeah, that that ride happens to be in
central time, just to be clear.

Speaker 3 (01:20:30):
So central time had nothing to do with it.
My friend there, jeez we got toget together and do a ride.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
Uh, together one day, but you know, obviously can't
ride brag and when brag going on?
Obviously, but yeah, we need to.
Um, that would be awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
we definitely need to figure one out and do it
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
The other thing that you do um, um is the team
atmosphere, and I think that'shuge.
Oh, yeah, um and.
And for those of you who do notknow Franklin, your um sales
model is that if a team has 10or more, uh, then you let them
design a jersey and have a team,and I think that's huge.

(01:21:14):
I mean not because you knowsure, I mean Cycling man of
Leisure obviously has done it acouple years in a row.
You've been so gracious to usand we love it and it's been fun
.
But from the aspect of otherrides that we've done, there
hasn't been that team atmosphereand you can see the absentee of
absenteeism of it.
I mean there's not thatcamaraderie of joining up or or

(01:21:37):
having that conversation and whythey may bring their own few,
few guys or whatever, but that'sdefinitely been absent and you
can definitely see that.
So I think that that you dothat is is really cool and I
think that helps out with thosewho Team Paparazzi, who I see
every year, and you know some ofthe super stragglers, and

(01:22:03):
Margaret and her team, and so Imean these are people we've made
friends with.
I have to say, cycling men andwomen of leisure have been the
largest last couple of years.
Let's make it a third, but itis.
It is awesome to to see theteam atmosphere.

Speaker 3 (01:22:18):
I think that's great, that's a good point, cause
we've had other ride directorscome to us and talk to us about
you know, hey, what you know?
What do you think about thisride and and things that we
participated in, and that is abig thing that we've came up
almost in every single timewe've talked about it is you
need to create that teamatmosphere, because that is so
missing in so many rides, and sothat's came up numerous in

(01:22:42):
numerous discussions about.
we've used you as an examplethat creating that team
environment, that teamatmosphere, really drives kind
of the really great feel aboutthe ride and I can take you back
to exactly where I was.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
exactly where I was.
We left Peaches to Beaches 2022and we got to the first rest
stop and I'll never forget.
It was a church and it had rowsof snacks inside the church and
I saw these people and they allhad the same jersey on and the
jersey in the back had the stateof georgia.
Um, I now know it probably hadnorth side hospital.

(01:23:18):
I now know it probably hadbragg.
Um, I now know that there weresome requirements there, but I
remember saying, oh my gosh,that's cool, where'd you guys
get that?
And they're like, well,franklin bought it for us.
And I'm like he did, I'm likeokay.
And at first no one said, oh,you have to have 10 or more.
Then we got to the next reststop and there was another team

(01:23:40):
I actually think the team wasFranklin's Nightmare and I said
how did you guys get that?
And they're like, oh, if youhave 10 or more, you get your
own.
And I remember looking atMichael going wouldn't it be
cool next year if we could get10 or more?
And we surpassed that.
We made it to 25, and then wemade it to 37, and this year we
need to do more.
But yes, I just want to let youknow that's where, from a rider

(01:24:05):
who just organically found yourride, we had seen you at Rag
Bride, for those who don't knowthe first time that I saw the
tent, the big red, the biggestmarketing device that you have,
I think.
Um, it's a big red tent.
And then I and michael and Iwere looking at other rides and
that's how we came upon brag tobegin with, so nice and that I
stole it from rag bride, likethe whole.

Speaker 4 (01:24:25):
Uh, rag bride's big on teams.
If you know, if you've neverbeen to rag bride, done Rag
Bride and I don't know how thatstarted at Rag Bride I think it
was probably more organically.
But teams there, I stole a lotof things from Rag Bride.
Actually, you learn from peoplethat do well, they had all
these school buses and I thoughtto myself, oh man, that'd be so
cool.
You know, these guys aren'tsetting up their tent every
night, they're just sleeping intheir school bus.

(01:24:47):
And it was cool and it'spainted to be.
You know, that's probablyextraordinarily expensive.
So I went and talked to one ofthe teams and I was like, oh man
, this your bus is so awesome.
Like, oh, that's cool.
What'd you pay for it?
He's like I was like 2500 bucks.

(01:25:13):
Okay, so like, I think the nextweek I bought a bus, um, so we
went and we bought a bus, wepainted it for brag and made it
all cool and started takingteams up to rag bride.
And then you know, the thing Isaw at rag bride that brag was
kind of missing.
Um, was that team atmospherethat you guys talk about all the
time and I think to me the mostspecial thing about brag is the
community.
Right, my mom's done brag, youknow, 28 years now or something

(01:25:34):
crazy, and you know she calls itsummer camp for adults, where
she goes and she has what shecalls her brag friends, where
it's people that you know shemay keep up with on Facebook or
whatever throughout the year,but you know that week when
they're on brag, you know theyride together, they hang out
together.
It's like they never skip thebeat, you know, in their
friendship and it's her bragfriends, you know, and you know

(01:25:57):
they go and do fun stuff othertimes too, but that's where they
met, that's where they havetheir community, that's where
they come back to.
So I really wanted to like tryto foster and deepen the
connections people have anddeepen that sense of community,
and I thought Teams was a goodway to do that.
But I'm all ears if you guyshave any other ways to really
amplify the community aspect ofit, because to me that's what's

(01:26:19):
so special.
I mean, anybody can puttogether a good ride and have a
band and rest stops and shuttlesand blah, blah, blah.
But it's really, you know, whenI walk in and I look over the
crowd and I see people hangingout and talking to each other
and I haven't seen you forever.
What's going on?
That, to me, is what.
What lights me up and makes itall worth it for me is the
community that we create.
So I think teams is one goodway we do that, and I'd love to

(01:26:42):
hear any other ideas you guyshave about creating that
atmosphere and fostering thatatmosphere.

Speaker 2 (01:26:48):
Community that atmosphere and fostering that
atmosphere of community.
You know, I can just name somenames off the top of my head,
like Mike and Vic and Margaretand Mandy, and you know I mean
like getting off the bus lastyear, I hadn't seen those people
in a year and we were waitingin line to check in and
Oglethorpe, and people are justcoming up to us like celebrities
.
You know, hey, how you been,how you been, how you been.
I mean there's no better way offeeling like a million bucks by

(01:27:11):
seeing, you know, some of thepeople that you've seen before.
And so I think your mom wouldbe spot on.
I mean kudos to her for sayingsummer camp, but that's a
perfect description.

Speaker 3 (01:27:22):
Kind of is.

Speaker 2 (01:27:25):
Yeah, kind of is so Big Brag 2025, we're going from
Rome to Cartersville, to Jasper,to Dawsonville, to Clarksville,
to Toca, to Hartwell.
If you're thinking aboutsigning up, you can save 50
bucks tonight before the pricesgo up before midnight.
I know you're listening, I knowyou're paying attention and so

(01:27:50):
go wwwbragorg.
Click on the Big Brag 2025.
Sign up A little self-plug here.
There's a team name there PutCycling Men of Leisure and
you'll be on our team and Iinterrupt for just a minute,
please.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
This year for the team are planning a a fun event
in addition to the ride.
This is during the ride, ifeverything, if we, if we're able
to pull it off, we're going tohave a fun little event for the
team.
So, uh, just if you want tohave a little extra good time,
put us down and we're gonna.
We're planning on an extraspecial event for the team, so

(01:28:29):
now are you guys going to do?

Speaker 4 (01:28:31):
cycling women of leisure and cycling men of
leisure.

Speaker 2 (01:28:34):
Well, uh, this is being recorded.
So I mean, uh, if you want usto edit it out later, we can.
But on the that is our goal.
That is our goal.
Yeah, I mean, um, things kindof fell apart last year where we
were supposed to have nineladies and then, uh, one of the
ladies unfortunately got injuredright before coming, and then

(01:28:55):
Brenda Hurst decided not to come, so I think we ended up having
six ladies, I believe.
And so, yes, we would love tosupport the ladies, and you have
been great to us, as well asPrimal and your previous vendor
for jerseys, and we've been ableto do both.
So, if we can, yes, we wouldlove to have the ladies do that.

(01:29:17):
But, again, if you want me toedit that out, I will, so that's
up to you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:29:22):
So it can be.
If you're a lady and would liketo join the Cycling Women of
Leisure, certainly put that downTeam as well.
We typically represent both ofthem.

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
Last year which was really cool the team jersey.
The difference was the men hadmaroon with the men's logo.
And then our artist and goodfriend, brian Fritz
BrianLeeFritzcom.
He's got some great cyclingportraits.
If you're looking to have aportrait of your bicycle, you
can actually send a picture ofyour bicycle to him and you get
a really beautiful artistdrawing.

(01:29:54):
Of course, for a fee, but hedesigned our, our logo, and he
actually, um, he helped us withthe ladies logo and so we have,
we have both, and we actuallyhave two Facebook pages um, men
and ladies, and and um got a lotof great, great people out
there.
I know Melanie's not going tojoin us this year Her and her
husband, keith are going to dosomething different, but she was

(01:30:16):
, uh, on the team.
And then, um, you know we'vegot friends from Kentucky who
were on the ladies team and andI'm hoping that they come back.
I mean, come on, mandy, yourhusband just retired so you can
come on.
You got time got time, that'sright, and so, uh, and the
original cycling woman, eliziaannette um from oregon.
We'd love to see her if shewants.

(01:30:37):
I think she's doing somethingelse this year.
I think she is too but you'rewelcome to join again.
So, um, we've got you know andthat community for us.
Um, one of the things that wasreally difficult for this
gentleman we met in michigan.
He kept saying how is your teamall over the country?
And we recently sent outpostcards to the team and we saw

(01:30:58):
our team on a map for the firsttime.
You and I had never we had nevergeo plotted it before, and so
the vendor that we used to sendout the postcards actually, you
know, had, like the Delta, delta, you know they, the plane flies
here, flies here, and we got tosee wherever the team was from.
I mean, we're talking quebec,uh, canada, toronto, um, oregon,

(01:31:20):
washington, georgia, florida,kansas, michigan.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
I'm missing it was all over, yeah, it was cool.

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
So it was just really cool to see where the whole
team from.
But this guy in michigan whenwe rode with, he's like, well,
how do you guys all get together?
I'm like, well, it's easy, wego to georgia so.
But yeah, that's um, that's a,it's a great, great, great group
we've met and, um, you know,it's a wonderful, wonderful

(01:31:49):
homecoming to come back to, sohighly looking forward to it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
I do like Army.
Michael called it an Army onetime, Cycling Men of Leisure.
Army or Nation, that's right.
Nation Army.

Speaker 2 (01:32:00):
But you guys have the community, so yeah, A little
less aggressive than you know,yeah, but remember it's for
women too, I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:32:09):
That's right, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:32:10):
We've got multiple logos here, so we definitely
have all kinds of all kinds ofitems.

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
So I'm impressed you still have your bottle of
bourbon.
In fact, I think you've got twobottles of bourbon.
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 4 (01:32:25):
We still.
I mean we did.
We did some solid work.
I mean it's not a.
You know we're not going to tryand finish a thing you know.

Speaker 3 (01:32:32):
No, no, no no no.
But I think you have twobottles that have our name on it
.

Speaker 4 (01:32:36):
I do, I'm sorry.
Yes, yes, we have the.
This is 2024.
And then we've got 2023.
In the cabinet, I also have wedo another thing.
We stole from Rag Rye.
We don't steal everything fromthem, but we do still a lot.
Um was their, their custombeers.
So we did a custom beer 2023and 2024.
So I have two six packs ofthose that I'll keep forever, um

(01:32:58):
, along with these, thesewhiskeys here.

Speaker 3 (01:33:01):
So it's nice, nice to remember well just so everybody
understands if they haven'tbeen there or haven't uh, heard.
What we've done is I typicallygo to a?
Uh, a local distillery herethat actually distributes all
over the place they distributein Georgia too and a couple
places in Michigan and I getbottles that have like cycling

(01:33:24):
men of leisure and then the dateon them and I generally bring
like four bottles of it with usand then one night during the
week we have what we call our,our speakeasy.
We get everybody together andanybody else who wants to come
and we just share some, somewhiskey and and have a good time
listening to music and thattype of thing.
So that's what we're referringto when we're talking about the

(01:33:45):
the cycling men of of leisurewhiskey.
So definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
Uh, had some people who had never had whiskey before
and and they're like, well, canwe just try just a little bit?
And I'm like, well, you gottatry a little bit.
It's part of the initiation ofbeing on the team that's right
so, uh, last year we sat up onthat hill and listened to some
music and we had a because ofarmando's spill.
We had our team split from thebottom of the hill on the top of
the hill.

Speaker 3 (01:34:12):
That was actually the same day we interviewed you,
Franklin, on site.

Speaker 4 (01:34:20):
And we also interviewed John, your medic.
Yeah, that was a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
Yeah, that was a great interview, talking about
what he does and that type ofthing during the week of brag.

Speaker 2 (01:34:30):
And talk about a really neat little interview
with john.
He first said well, what do youguys want me to talk about?
We're like, just tell us alittle bit about you.
And he sits down and hits thepost, so to speak, like it was
perfect.
He was like.
He was like, well, I'm not sure, but okay, let's give her a
whirl.
We hit record and it was likehe just uh, dude, that was like
perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
So he's an amazing guy.
He uh, yeah, he's, he'svolunteered for umpteen million
years and he's got a harley thathe rides, uh, up and down the
route because he can kind of youcan get places faster on a
motorcycle than you can.
He's got a big kit and, um, youknow, big med kit that he
carries and he's just an amazingguy, truly a wonderful human

(01:35:11):
being.
Um, can't, can't thank himenough for coming on the ride
every year I tell you what I cangive a.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
I can give a story if you're out there and you're not
sure about you know how thatworks.
But, um, one of the things thatI like is, franklin, you do
give me your cell phone numberand our friend, virginia, was
having that medical experienceand I was able to call you and
you were able to call john andhe was able to get there fast on
his motorcycle and help her out, and so, um, that is nice to to

(01:35:40):
, to have that and he was, hewas there within.
We heard the motorcycle rightaway.
So, uh, that's definitely, he'sdefinitely got a huge heart and
helps out.
Well, cool.
Well, franklin, we reallyappreciate you doing this route
release.
If you are thinking about aride, definitely Big Brag 2025.

(01:36:05):
Check out some of his otherrides.
If you're looking to do someoverseas, mexico doesn't sound.
Doesn't sound so bad either, bythe way, that would be very
nice.
I know your winter rides are.
We've heard a lot of peopletalk about those, so, um, and,
by the way, your internationalrides are on our list.
We're gonna make it to one ofthem all, right, one of these
days, so I definitely gottabring your spouse e-bikes.

Speaker 4 (01:36:29):
Very flat, short miles, very spouse friendly.

Speaker 3 (01:36:33):
I think if I went somewhere like that and didn't
bring my spouse, you may nothave a spouse.
Yeah, I don't think.
You know, a bouquet of flowersfrom FTD is going to fix that
problem.

Speaker 2 (01:36:45):
True story.
I think if I yell at an icecream shop in the middle of
Georgia, it's Michael'sanniversary.

Speaker 3 (01:36:51):
It would have to be something huge like that, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:55):
Well, I had a few cocktails, a few whiskeys that
night.

Speaker 4 (01:36:58):
It worked out.
Beautiful man.
You brag your anniversary everyyear, right?

Speaker 3 (01:37:02):
It won't be this year , but it has been the last
couple of years.

Speaker 4 (01:37:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:37:05):
Because you're doing it a little bit earlier.
But yeah, we were at the the.
What town was that?
The state fair?

Speaker 4 (01:37:13):
uh, perry, yeah perry .

Speaker 3 (01:37:14):
We're in perry and that was on the day of our
anniversary and I really had todo some talking to like is it
okay?
And I didn't feel good about itand I took a sign that said
happy anniversary, chas.
And I took every every stop I'dtake a picture with me in the
sign and put together this biglong.
You know all these, all thesepictures you know, of me doing
that and we're sitting there onthe anniversary.

(01:37:34):
We're in this malt shop and hestands up and he goes, everybody
.
I need your help.
It's like it's his anniversaryand he came here recycling and I
need everybody to say, at thecount of three, happy
anniversary chastity.
And so he got the whole entiremalt shop to yell happy
And so he got the whole entiremalt shop to yell happy
I recorded it and then I sentit to her and I get to, I get to

(01:37:56):
go on rides now during myanniversary with no problem nice
, don't?

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
thank you, adam and tonight he called me a child
sometimes that works to myadvantage.

Speaker 3 (01:38:09):
I won't deny that.

Speaker 2 (01:38:10):
So no, she was touched.
I mean, she wrote me afterwardsand she's like oh, that's great
, I'm you know.
But uh, yeah, we, right beforewe got on the bus, um, our
friend Matt helped us.
Uh, we, we went to like a hobbylobby and you, you, you went in
and got the board got thesupplies to make the make the
board adventures fun, mean thoseare, those are the kind of

(01:38:32):
stories that you know you cantell, and and people that you
meet along the way.
That's why we do this.
So, um, definitely, definitely,highly looking forward to it.
So, um so, once again, rome,georgia, cartersville, jasper,
overnight town, dawson's,cartersville, toka, and.

Speaker 4 (01:38:52):
Clarksville and Toccoa, toccoa.

Speaker 2 (01:38:57):
Yeah, like that one time I said Brazelton, brazelton
, the dirt farmer by golly.

Speaker 3 (01:39:05):
Who married up?
And got the name got the townnamed after him.

Speaker 2 (01:39:10):
So the only thing we haven't touched on and then I'm
going to let you close it out,franklin is do you want to talk
about your brag light and andwith this overnight town and
maybe somebody can't join forthe whole week?
There's some options there,right?

Speaker 4 (01:39:24):
Yeah, so if you can't do the whole week, you can ride
the first three days or thelast three days, and we make it
real easy.
So we have a shuttle that'lltake you back to your start,
whether you ride the first threedays or the last three days so
that's called Brag Light anythree consecutive days.
Or if you just want to come anddo one day say you live in one
of these towns and you just wantto ride one day to or from your

(01:39:45):
town, we have daily shuttlesthat'll take you back just one
day.
So you got options if you don'twant to do the whole week.

Speaker 2 (01:39:54):
And I just have to add one thing to that, because I
felt bad last year.
I have some people write me Ifyou are not doing the full week,
you do not qualify for the freejersey, and so I just want to
be clear about that, because Ihad some people say hey, I
signed up for your team.
So if you're looking to getthat free jersey and that's

(01:40:17):
something that you find as agood selling point for yourself
to be able to get, that as afull week registration and an
adult full week adult.

Speaker 3 (01:40:20):
Thank you.
Yeah, no worries, but you canstill be part of our team, even
if you're just going for threedays.

Speaker 4 (01:40:22):
Yeah that's right.
You still drink whiskey andcigars again.
Probably adults, but you knowyeah, probably should be well,
we've got.

Speaker 3 (01:40:30):
We've got one young man that might join us, who?

Speaker 4 (01:40:33):
you know fair enough.

Speaker 2 (01:40:38):
Well, franklin, we're going to, we're going to let
you close it out.
Anything else that you wouldlike to add?
I mean the only thing.

Speaker 4 (01:40:44):
I can say is that it's a great day.

Speaker 3 (01:40:47):
For a bike ride.
It will be.
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:40:49):
Thanks, frank, no worries, thank you so much.
Thanks, Frank.
No worries, thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
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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