Mikerphone Brewing's Charitable Cheers and Unconventional Creations

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What if your favorite beer could also support a worthy cause? Tune in to our 24th episode of the Two Guys Beer podcast to uncover how Mikerphone Brewing not only crafts exceptional beers but also collaborates with the Elk Grove Fire Department for a charity event benefiting Project Fire Buddies. From discovering Microphone at Jack's Bottle Shop in Rochester to exploring their community-focused initiatives, we share our excitement for this Chicagoland gem. Get ready to be inspired by how this brewery blends creativity and compassion, all while brewing some of the most unique beers we've tasted.

Ever pondered what a strawberry and peanut butter jelly sandwich in beer form would taste like? We break down our tasting experience of a soft sour ale collaboration between 1840 Brewing and Mikerphone Brewing, revealing its dessert-like charm. Anticipation brews as we discuss an intriguing Belgian beer, corked and bottled like fine wine, and share our desire to visit Mikerphone in Elk Grove Village to explore more of their innovative offerings. Whether you're a fan of IPAs, ciders, or something entirely different, this episode promises a flavorful journey through craft beer's diverse landscape.

Travel mishaps, historical explorations, and hotel horrors—oh my! Our whirlwind trip to Washington, D.C., brings stories ranging from a prestigious ceremony at the National Fire Academy to the contrasting realities of travel accommodations. Plus, take a historical stroll with us through Gettysburg and Emmitsburg Road, reflecting on the Civil War's enduring impact. As always, we spice things up with fun facts (ever heard of a flamboyance of flamingos?) and vibrant beer discussions. Don't miss out on this engaging episode packed with great stories, community connections, and, of course, phenomenal craft beer recommendations. Cheers!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
All right and welcome in once again to the Two Guys
Beer podcast Andy Beckstrom,sean Field.
We're back at it again.
I believe we've decided episode24, I think is what we're at.
I think that's what we decidedthat's a two dozen or a case.
I guess that is a case.
There we go.
An actual case.
People are like, oh, get a caseof beer and they get a 12-pack.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, that's a half a case.
Yeah, that's not a true caseanymore.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I mean, it's a craft case, I guess in a way.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
But no case is gonna be 24.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
It's gotta be 24 yeah yeah, so we're up to 24, so I
hope you've enjoyed the journeyso far, with all of the
different uh places that we'veuh wandered off to, and even
some of the randomness thatwe've wandered off on as well.
Uh, kind of things get a littlerandom at times but definitely
plenty of that absolutely that'swhat happens when you're in a
bar drinking beer.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
It goes from point a to X, back to B and F and out
the door, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
You just let the beer take you on the tour.
That's really what it is.
That's what it comes down to.
Today we're going to talk aboutMicrophone M-I-K-E-R-P-H-O-N-E,
so Microphone, not microphone,like these guys like microphone.
So like a little bit different.

(01:30):
It's a brewery out of theChicagoland area.
It's outgrove is the actuallocation.
Yeah, outgrove Village is whereit is, in kind of that
Chicago-ish area, kind of one ofthe suburbs there and uh,
highly uh recommended by.
I stopped by a um, a place, uh,down in rochester, a nice

(01:51):
little uh liquor store that uh,you know, like all they really
had was, uh, just craft beer ispretty much all it was.
So I tried to uh challengeamanda into asking where they
kept the bush light, but shewould wouldn't fall for it, she
didn't go for it at all.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, that's a heck of a liquor store.
If it says craft beer Like,that's the liquor stores we
should have.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Absolutely.
It was a really cool place.
I'll bring the name up here.
I didn't get the guy's namethat we were working behind the
counter, but I asked him torecommend some, and this is one
of them that he highlyrecommended, as well, as I think
there's one more that we'llhave in a future episode that he
highly recommended.
That he thought was really goodtoo, so a couple of really good
options coming up here, did you?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
promote our podcast, our fine podcast.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I certainly did.
I even left a couple of cardsthere for you, oh perfect.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I was just recently in Washington DC.
Last week on a trip out there.
I deposited some of ourmemorabilia out there for the
Washington DC goers surfing theDC area.
Love it.
You might find some of ourmemorabilia.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Let's see here Jack's Bottle Shop is the name of the
place.
Jack's Bottle Shop.
It's in Rochester, kind of justoff of Civic Center Drive
Northwest up on 6th Street, butjust kind of not too far off of
Civic Center Drive Northwest upon 6th Street, but just kind of
not too far off of the old maindrag State Highway 1463 that
come through there, so not veryfar off.

(03:13):
It's right next to ForagerBrewing, which is a place that I
had ended up at after a brewery.
5k I know star athlete,naturally look exactly like a
runner.
So that's what I was doing.
I was down there at LittleThistle.
Brewery is what we wereoriginally at, but we stopped by
another one because you don'tjust go for one, especially if
you're driving all the way toRochester.

(03:34):
There's plenty to stop alongthe way there, 100%.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
It's called research and development.
For the show Yep.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
The R&D fund.
That's what it's all about.
So, yeah, that's where westopped in, a cool place, really
cool.
I highly recommend it.
I've talked a lot of timesabout in St Paul.
The Dabbler Depot has a lot ofdifferent places.
They have I believe they callit the Singles Lounge, which is
just a walk-in cooler that hassingle cans of beer instead of

(04:02):
like four packs or anything likethat.
So it's kind of a cool place tobe able to.
You can get all sorts ofdifferent onesie, twosies and
stuff like that, and this placeis kind of like that too.
So they had a lot of any typeof they had it kind of separated
by style of craft beer, ipa,sours, things like that, so you
could find just about anything.
It's a really cool place.
I highly recommend you know,swinging by there.
If you're in the rochester area, of course, sure, or if you're

(04:23):
not, make a way, you know, makea trip it's interesting he's
recommending they're highlyrecommended, you say from this
guy at the liquor store.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
They both come from the chicago area.
Well, the last couple episodeswe've done have been on beer in
chicago.
You know pipestone or pipeworksbrewing and off-color brewing
and both of those were reallygood.
So hopefully this guy is rightand we keep that on going with
this stuff here from MicrophoneBrewing Mike.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
He's in a Michael.
Jordan mic.
There we go.
That might be the same thing,and if you do have a suggestion
yourself, feel free to drop thatin the comments.
Any of our social media Look usup Facebook, instagram, youtube
which is where a lot of this isnow starting to kind of come
out.
So we want to appreciate all ofthe support that we've gotten
there and, uh, they'll like,share and subscribe.

(05:12):
We'll, you know, ding ding,like all the things right now,
but uh, we definitely appreciateall of that.
But uh, yeah, if you haveanything you want us to try to
try to take a swing at, we'd behappy to uh be able to get.
I have gotten a couple ofsuggestions from some friends of
mine as well, and I think someof it I think too, just like I
just want you to try the beer.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Right, they're not worried about the brewery.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
They just want to try that, so, but yeah, we're happy
to be able to do that.
That's the that's part of whatwe're.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
We're givers, we're very giving, and you mentioned
that I just got a text messagethe other day from somebody that
is recommending we have a beeron the show.
Although he wouldn't tell mewhat he thought of the beer, he
said if we have it on the show,it would be a surprise for us
and for all the viewers andlisteners out there.
It actually comes from Belgiumand it comes in a wine bottle
with a cork on the top.

(06:00):
But it's a beer, it's not wine.
So we might have to scrape up abottle of that here in one of
these episodes of Brady and seehow that goes.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
I mean I like beers from New Belgium, like Fat Tire,
that's a good beer Over inColorado.
But yeah, you have to trysomething from.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Old Belgium Imported from Belgium.
Og Belgium, yeah, in a winebottle.
There we go.
We'll see.
Maybe I'll be on.
Stay tuned, I might be on afuture episode.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, should be kind of interesting.
Well, I don't know about you,sean Careful, now I'm shaking it
up.
I was going to say we shouldpop the top here before we get
too deep into this, but maybeyou want to.
It is kind of a fun can.
It's what we got today.
Is we go together like dot dotdot and it's got kind of the can

(06:51):
.
Is it kind of reminiscent ofgrease, is kind of what it is,
so kind of like the song, andthen it's a soft sour ale with
strawberries and peanuts.
So this will be a little bit ofa different, kind of a little
more off the board of what weusually do.
Like we typically do a lot ofIPAs like things within that
realm, but you know, it'd bekind of something to try

(07:12):
something different.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Yeah, I'm kind of excited to try it.
Usually I'm not too excited totry beer that has strawberries
and peanuts in it.
Again, we've talked about thatbefore.
Sometimes some craft beer getsa little outrageous with what
they try to brew a beer, andanytime I see like peanuts and
strawberries and beer, I'm nottoo excited about it.
But this actually, for somereason, the soft, sour ale with

(07:35):
strawberries and peanuts is whatgets me.
It's not like an IPA withstrawberry and peanuts or
something.
It's a soft ale.
So I'm curious as to how thisis going to go it should be
interesting.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
It turns out this is actually a collaborative effort
as well, with the 1840 Brewingout of Milwaukee, wisconsin.
So I didn't even catch thatuntil just now.
So you're wandering along withus, like we've said.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Anybody's been to 1840, let us know.
Tell us what your thoughts areon that.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
There we go.
Well, let's get the best partof the podcast going Make sure I
don't splash on the laptop here.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Smells kind of fruity .
It sure does.
It definitely tastes somestrawberry flavor in there and
it definitely tastes likepeanuts.
And I'm going to say this rightnow the first thing that came
to my mind after a drink of thisand it was on the palate for a
few seconds was a strawberry andpeanut butter jelly sandwich.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
I follow that, yeah, I definitely get kind of that
strawberry jam kind of flavoringto it.
It is interesting, I don't knowthat I've ever had a soft sour.
I've had some sours and some ofthem can get real, real bitter,
real sour, but that's part ofwhat they are.
But this one is definitely.
It's a soft sour.
It's almost like a cheesecakein a way and not really any gram

(09:00):
to it, but it has that kind ofsoft flavor to it.
I mean it's pretty heavy on thestrawberries but it has that
kind of soft flavor to it likeit's not.
I mean it's pretty heavy on thestrawberries but it's not, uh,
not real overwhelming, I guessyeah, it drinks like a light
beer.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
It's kind of a light fluffy type beer.
You know it's not too heavy,not too hard with the strawberry
and peanut, like a lager, likea light lager, I would say for
sure.
I definitely taste thestrawberries and peanuts in in
it though, for sure.
Yeah, yeah, it's not too bad.
You know, I'd probably drinkanother one or two, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
I think, if we are maybe going down the old route
of the lawn mowing index, lawnmower index I think this would
probably be after the mowing,after the burgers, while you're
having some pie or somethingKind of a dessert beer, sure.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Yeah, I would agree with that.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
I don't know that I'd have four of them while doing
the lawn.
No they're kind of sweet, verygood though, but I think that
that's probably where I'd labelthis one.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
A little sweet, I would say for sure A little
sweet, kind of in the realm ofangry orchard sweet, but not
that sweet Like angry orchardapple is super sweet Like you
drink one and you're just kindof like blah, you could probably
drink two of these, but it issweet.
The strawberry does make itsweet, for sure, Right yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
But it's pretty good though I do like it.
So the interesting, you know,on the can, if you look it up at
some point, so it does havekind of the you know the grease
kind of feel to it.
You know, like the two, it kindof in their outfits there, but
one has a strawberry for a faceand then the other one has a
peanut for a face or in themicrophone shirt on that one.
So kind of fun, a little funlittle can, fun little deal.

(10:37):
I like it.
I think it's, you know, prettygood and you know I the more
that I've kind of looked at someof the information for
Microphone.
I think it'd be kind of a coolplace to be able to check out
and try some of their beers.
What do we got?
So Microphone is a family-ownedsmall craft brewery located in
Outgrove Village.
Illinois Did a quick look up.
It's kind of on thenorthwest-ish area of Chicago,

(11:00):
kind of in the suburbs, but it'sstill kind of within that
Chicago-ish metropolis, you knowwhat I mean.
So it's still kind of withinthat metropolitan area.
Founded as a passion fromhomebrewing, mike and Lisa Palin
started with the concept of abrewery inspired by music out of
their basement.
So that's kind of the thing.
That's why the microphone namecomes in.

(11:22):
They are very big on live music.
They do a lot of live musicthere.
They like to try to kind ofweave it in with what they're
doing.
A lot of their beer names.
We'll kind of touch on thosehere in a little bit.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Well, that's right up our alley.
You and I both love live musicAbsolutely, so that would be
perfect, that'd be great.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
So that's something that they kind of focus on.
So, beginning in 2015, theybrewed and released their first
commercial beer.
That same year, microphoneBrewing was awarded Best New
Brewery in Illinois by Rate Beer, as well as one of the best new
breweries in the world by BeerAdvocate Magazine.
Now, I know Beer AdvocateMagazine.

(12:00):
I haven't heard of Rate Beer,but Beer Advocate Magazine,
that's a pretty big.
That's a little bit pretty wellknown.
One for sure it's pretty big.
Music and flavor is theirinspiration.
Microphone continues to producehigh quality small batch beer,
including everything fromclassic styles that push the
boundaries of what beer canbecome, which I would think that
the soft sour with strawberriesand peanuts definitely kind of

(12:22):
fits in with what that is.
So you know, kind of fits inwith what that is.
So you know, kind of a cooldeal.
Microphone brewing, craft beerinspired by music.
That's interesting.
Some of the awards that they got2021 gold medal for Sir
Blends-A-Lot.
That was at the US Open BeerChampionship.
Perfect.
That same year, that same USOpen Beer Championship, they

(12:45):
also got the silver medal forshe Blends a Lot.
So they had Sir Blends a Lotand she Blends a Lot.
Interesting.
Both won 2020 gold medal at theFOBAB at Sir Blends, a Lot.
2015.
Best New Brewer by Rate Beer,as we mentioned before.
Same thing from Beer Advocate,let's see here.
Rate beer, as we mentionedbefore.
Same thing from Beer Advocate,let's see here 2014,.

(13:06):
First place in the specialtybeer category Bell City Winter
Warmer Competition with Tis theSeason, a French Saison brewed
with orange peel and ginger.
So they won three differentthings during that one an
Imperial Stout and a Sour Puss,a Sour Brown Ale, which I don't
know that I a sour brown ale.

(13:26):
That'd be interesting.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
That might be interesting.
It sure sounds like they reallygo after the flavor, though on
there.
Yeah, with the one you justmentioned with the ginger in it
and stuff like that.
You've had ginger before.
It's a powerful flavor.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
It's a heck of a flavor, yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
And then trying this soft sour ale with strawberries
and peanuts.
Here you can definitely tastethe strawberry, you can
definitely taste the peanuts.
So if they're doing ginger-typebeer you know ginger's pretty
powerful it would be interestingto give that a whirl and kind
of see how that fits in whileyou're brewing beer with the
other ingredients.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, no doubt.
Yeah, it would be veryinteresting.
So let's see, what else do wegot here about them?
So that's see here.
What else do we got here aboutthem?
So that's kind of like the longand the short, what they have
kind of on their website.
They do have a tap room in theElk Grove Village.
They have Industry Monday 3 to9.
But otherwise they're closed onTuesdays and then got some

(14:19):
decent hours noon or 11 am to alittle bit later on on Wednesday
, thursday, friday, saturday,and then short hours on Sunday.
So a little bit of kind of anice little mix there, but open
more often than not.
They encourage you to stop onin.
They do limit you, however, tolet's see, if I can find it 60
ounces of draft beer percustomer per day.

(14:39):
I did a quick little Googlesearch.
That ends up being about twoliters of beer, wow.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
I'm glad they're putting a cap on that which
we'll talk about liters of beerhere in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
We'll kind of come back to that one.
Remind me of a story from DC.
We'll talk about that here in alittle bit.
Yeah, so that's something thatthey kind of limit a little bit
there.
But they, you know valid ID,you know kind of the standard
stuff Sunday and Monday dollaroff classic full pours and
dollar off 16 ounce can pourbeers.
So yeah, and then all theirnames, you know, hey, mambo,

(15:15):
mambo Italiano is an Italianstyle Pilsner Money on my mind,
west Coast style Pilsner, likeall the things are named after
something within songs.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, so Money on my mind.
I'm trying to think what songthat is Like.
I know what it is, but I can'tthink of it right this minute.
So it's a good thing I'm notdoing trivia, Right?

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Oh yeah, so it's kind of a cool little place, one of
the other things that they do.
I do have to highlight a littlebit.
See the main stage here.
Yeah, I was going to say Ithought it was Snoop Dogg but I
didn't want to commit to it justyet.
So mind on my money, my moneyon my money.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
Let's see here he was just at the casino a couple
days ago he was just right uphere.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Let's hear some of their events that they have
coming up Now.
They do have events that arerecurring and then they also
have some special events.
They have a location there youcan be able to rent out.
So they do have kind of like alittle pseudo-event center, if
you will, to be able to docertain things there.
First Thursday of the monthpinball tournament with Stern
Army, so that's kind of a funthing.
Second Thursdays trivia, whichyou know I'm in for that.

(16:26):
Fourth Thursdays are bingo, sothey got a lot of things going
on, but again, they also have,you know, some live music and
some stuff like that.
This episode is likely to comeout after this particular event
that I'm going to talk about,but if you go to their website
microphonebrewingcom slashevents, it goes over.
You know.
They have a cornhole tournamentcoming up, they have beer fest

(16:48):
things going on.
They got all sorts of differentevents that they have coming up
, but one of the events thatthey have that, as I mentioned,
this, will likely drop afterthis event happens.
However, I do want to highlightone of the charities that they
give back to and that they'reinvolved in.
We've talked numerous times onthe podcast about the brewing
community likes to try to giveback, they like to try to be
involved in the community, theylike to try to support positive

(17:11):
things.
You know what I mean.
I think we talked about at onepoint in time there was a
brewery they were trying to moveinto a city that I had went to
school at, you know, years ago,and, uh, the city council was
getting bombarded with peoplethat didn't want it moving in
there because we didn't needanother bar and they're just
drinking and driving and stufflike that, and it's like that's
not at all what that communityis all about and so like, like

(17:32):
there's still some education tobe done with that.
But at the same time, like thecraft beer and community, craft
brewing community community isso great at like giving back and
doing things like that.
So I like to try to highlightsome of the things that they do.
So they have an event coming,coming up for us but again, as I
mentioned, like when this dropsit'll be uh, probably have
already been done, but they havea fire and green charity event

(17:55):
with the Elk Grove firedepartment.
Now, the more that I lookedinto this, they have, like I
said, they have a couple otherthings.
There was a first anniversaryof tacos Lamanitas DJ games,
tacos, things like that.
That's always fun, you know.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
I like tacos, all of that stuff.
Oh, a hundred percent Tacos.
Tacos go well with beer.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Oh, 100%.
We have an open mic night,things like that Cornhole
Tournament.
But this collaboration with theElk Grove Fire Department is
raising funds for Project FireBuddies.
I didn't really know what thatdoes or what that is, so I had
to look that up.
It's kind of a cool thing.
We are firefighters who offersupport and give back to

(18:34):
children fighting criticalillnesses.
Their battle will not be foughtalone.
So a really cool kind oforganization.
And it's not just so Elk Groveis involved in it.
But they're not.
It's not just like their thing,it's all over the place.
They have a network ofdepartments that continue to
flourish, with new areas andcities joining the ranks each
month, and then you can explorethe department page on their

(18:58):
website that'sprojectfirebuddiesorg, to be
able to find out who's allinvolved with that.
But what they do is they focuson.
They bring gifts for birthdays,holidays, they'll play games,
they'll provide ticks toconcerts and special events and
they'll try to attend, asfirefighters, special events in
the kids lives that are goingthrough horrific illnesses,

(19:18):
whatever it may be.
They will help also securemedical supplies, medical
devices, things like that.
They will also have firebuddies come and visit the fire
station, have dinner with thecrew on their full-time
firefighters and do tours thestation, check out the rigs.
If they're going to do like abirthday party or something like

(19:38):
that, they'll show up with thetrucks and the lights and
everything going, so they do alot of things like that.
So it's kind of a really coolthing that they do and they get
involved in and I think that'skind of a it's a cool thing.
I mean being kind of with thatfire.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yeah, you're a firefighter yourself.
It.
It's a cool thing.
I mean being kind of with thatfire.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, you're a firefighter.
It's kind of for me personallykind of a cool thing, but I
really, like you know, likethere's an organization like
that that kind of looks to tryto give back to, I mean, kids
that are going through justhorrific, terrible things.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Well, I'm kind of curious about what that is.
Is it the paid firefighters?
Is the city that large wherethese organizations are using
city fire departments thatactually get paid?
Or if it's the volunteerfirefighters, because you know,
all volunteer firefighters getpaid nothing basically, and
those fire departments are sounderfunded.
You know you rely on all yourfundraisers and your beer bus

(20:29):
and you know the put the moneyin the boot at the stop signs
and things like that.
Um, the fact that there'sfirefighters or groups of
firefighters going aroundpurchasing things for medical
supplies and to help kids iskind of mind-boggling.
When fire departments areunderfunded as it is yeah, going
above and beyond how are theygetting the resources to help

(20:49):
these kids with critical issuesthat need help?
That's kind of interesting.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah, so that's kind of a cool thing.
They have the event that theyhave coming up as a fire and
green charity See if it has somedetails on it but it's just a
kind of a collaboration with theElk Grove Fire Department.
They helped to brew adeliciously drinkable hazy pale
ale to help raise money.
So they're going to giveproceeds from the beer

(21:16):
throughout this particular event.
But they're going to have afire truck, bounce house, face
paint, things like that, andthere's also a food truck that's
going to be out there too.
So kind of a cool little thingthat they're going to have out
there for that.
But I also want to highlight,you know, like the
projectfirebuddiesorg just kindof a cool thing that you might
be able to donate to as well,whether you go through the

(21:37):
brewery or if you just want todonate directly to it or if you
want to find out more about it.
I think it's kind of a coolthing to be able to do that,
Like you said, taking time outof their already kind of tax
time to a certain extent to beable to do more.
I'm guessing that a lot of themare from the career fire
departments, the full-time firedepartments, but Minnesota
especially, is actually one ofthe most underfunded.

(21:59):
They have almost across theboard almost all volunteer.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
There's very few Outside of Minneapolis and St
Paul.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Yeah, there's only a handful of.
Yeah, I think it's.
I don't remember all of themand I'm sure Amanda judged me
for not knowing all of them, butSt Cloud has mostly career, but
they do have kind of a mix ofthem.
That's a fair amount of them.
They have duty crews or they'llhave people that are assigned
to it, but they're notnecessarily like full-time doing
that.
Otherwise, a lot of cities likeCambridge and Asante, kind of

(22:29):
locally, they'll have like onefull-time like one of their
three chiefs will be a full timeperson that will be there for
some administrative things butalso be there during the day to
be able to take some of themedical runs and kind of take
some of the heat off of havingcalls go out all the time, sure,
so there's some of that.
But otherwise, yeah, as far aslike full fire, full full time

(22:50):
you're talking, you know, likeyou said, cities of the first
class or Minneapolis, St Paul,duluth, rochester, kind of long
and short.
There's not a ton of them in thestate of Minnesota, but you go
to other areas.
If you go through Florida orIllinois or things like that,
the bulk of them are career firedepartments that have a lot of
full-time, which is kind of coolto be able to see, and a lot of

(23:12):
opportunities to be able to uhget into that career and be able
to do some things like this.
But uh, yeah, I mean I'm sure,like I was saying, some of it is
going to be some full-time,some volunteer kind of
intermixed with that, so it'snot going to be the maybe the
whole department.
So, to your point, you know, itis still like they're still
doing another job andvolunteering and now also giving

(23:32):
back to the community doingsomething like this.
So very cool kind of deal.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
So you know, it is very, very cool that people have
time and the dedication to dothat and the willingness to do
it too.
You know, you don't see a lotof that anymore in today's world
.
Not too many people areselfless anymore to volunteer
their time to do that.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Yeah, it's a.
It's definitely seen in a lotof different things, especially
volunteer firefighting.
Nobody wants to volunteer,nobody has the time to do it.
That's probably one of thebiggest things Life is.
I don't know, maybe it's justbecause I'm older, but life
seems to get way more busy nowthan it ever was before, and so
having that time to be able todonate to that seems tougher and
tougher really for everybody tobe able to do it.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, that you know seems tougher and tougher for
really for everybody to be ableto do it.
Yeah, I think, if, uh, I thinkeverybody has time, you know you
have time for what you want tomake time for.
So if you really want to do it,you make time for it.
You know.
If you really want to go playbeer league softball, you make
time to do it.
If you want to make a podcastabout drinking beer, you make
time for it, you know.
And you may not pass thedrinking beer.
So yeah, people's prioritiesare different, you know.

(24:36):
They're not about community andhelping out your neighbor
anymore.
It's selfishness.
Me, me, I, I I'm not doing that, I'm not doing this.
You owe me, government owes me.
I'm not doing that.
Spiel.
In today's world it's kind ofdifferent, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
It's definitely kind of a different era, that's for
sure.
Yeah, but this is kind of acool thing, you know from people
that do spend time giving backand doing things.
But yeah, I don't know, it'skind of a cool thing.
They have all sorts on theirwebsite.
If you're going to go to theevents tab or at the bottom of
the main page, they got probably15 different events that they
have coming up in variousdifferent areas of golf
tournaments, or one of them is afundraiser at Chipotle, so you

(25:17):
got to go by Chipotle to be ableto do it.
Okay, I'm in for that.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
I won't argue that point at all.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Might be a little bit tough.
I got to go to York,Pennsylvania, but I'm always
down for a road trip.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Exactly, heck, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
They probably got a brewery or two out there too.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
I'm sure they do.
I mean, I was just out inPennsylvania a week ago there we
go.
Why not go again?

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Uh, it's your Brentwood, tennessee has a
dodgeball tournament coming up,so yeah, they got all sorts of
events all over the place.
So, yeah, kind of a cool thing.
So check that out.
Uh, project fire buddiesorg.
And then of course, there's themicrophonebrewingcom Again
M-I-K-E-R instead of themicrophone like you would

(25:58):
normally have with this.
It's a little differentspelling, but that's kind of
what they do.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
I want to be like Mike, like Mike.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
So yeah, that's kind of the long and the short of
kind of what they got going on.
You know you can visit themagain, elk Grove Village.
Make sure you bring yourdrinking shoes if you're going
to get after the old 60 ounces,the two liters of beer.
But you know it's definitelysomething that they, you know,
have options for.
They have let's hear what is it.

(26:27):
You can send party inquiries ontheir website as well.
Family friendly and dogfriendly.
So bring the whole crew.
They do have some small snacksand then food trucks on the
weekend.
I wonder if they have pretzelsfrom Von Hansen's.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Your favorite?
I'm sure they do.
Von Hansen's gets me every time.
I'm sure they have a case justwaiting for you back there.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
I'm sure, oh, von Hansen's.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
They don't know if you're ever going there, but I
guarantee you there's a case ofthem back there.
It says Andy Beckstrom all overit, right, exactly, purposely
put it out when you get there.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
What do you think about it now?

Speaker 2 (27:03):
huh.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Oh, man Gets me every time, so I haven't had any of
those actually in a little while, so I'll have to try that out.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
I don't, I don't need to try that out.

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Fair enough.
So I mentioned before that Ihad to kind of circle back to
the story about DC.
So it flew out to you were justin DC recently.
I went out there Five daysbefore you.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Exactly yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
You were there for a little bit longer than I was
there.
I was only there for about 48hours.
It was kind of a littlewhirlwind tour that uh was.
Uh, it was quite the day, letme tell you, quite the weekend,
two days really is you know kindof what it was.
So so fly out there, uh, fly to.
Like baltimore had just adebacle of a rental situation
with uh did a budget rental car.

(27:48):
You know no big deal.
Just, you know, because they'reall rental cars, you know, I
mean they're all gonna be newcars.
Just depends on what kind.
You know, if you get leatherwith the car, if it's just cloth
, or you know the Armstrongwindows or something like that.
You know what.
I mean, it didn't really matter, I don't really care.
You know, budget rented cars agood, solid company.
Except for it was awful, oh, toget through the line.

(28:11):
That wasn't that long to beable to get a car.
The car ended up being nice andit actually worked out really
well because they gave me aminivan.
That was not necessarily theintention, it was kind of a
dealer's choice kind of thing,and that's what they gave me and
I was like, oh great, wait, no,I think this is going to work
out, and it did work out.
I'll explain why I finallyeventually get there.
Drive, drive like hell becauseI'm already late, because it

(28:32):
took so long now, or whatever,and had to take like a shortcut
through Emmitsburg.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Not Emmitsburg.
Emmitsburg Road there is a.
That's where the UnionConfederate Army came in to
fight the Battle of Gettysburg,emmitsburg.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
Road, gettysburg.
That's where I went through.
Gettysburg is where I wentthrough, but Emmitsburg is where
I was headed because that'swhere the National Fire Academy
is and that's why I was thereultimately.
So I actually went throughGettysburg because it was
actually a shortcut than takingthe freeway that had a major
accident on it, so it actuallykind of worked out.
So what I was there forultimately was Amanda graduated
a multi-year process that is nowended with her.

(29:08):
She has now a certification asa executive fire officer.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Congratulations, amanda.
I'll drink to that, yep.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Congratulations.
It essentially equates toroughly like a master's degree
in fire science, leadershipthings like that.
So a very cool deal.
A lot of really cool peoplethat I met with this group, that
they're very prominentfull-time fire people from all
over the country Men, women,chiefs, captains, like all sorts

(29:35):
of different levels, you knowgo to this.
It's very tough to get into andvery tough to complete, because
not all the people that shestarted with completed the
entire thing.
Some of them even got all theway to the final section and
then dropped out at that point.
So it was definitely achallenge and it was definitely
quite the thing.
But, you know, I think that shewould probably say that it was
still worth it.
So I think that, uh, you knowit was.

(29:56):
It was a cool deal so and itwas a fun ceremony to be able to
go to and they announced allthe names and brought everybody
up there and got you know athing and, uh, the assistant uh,
us fire administrator I thinkthat's her title was there to be
able to hand out thecertificates and so kind of a
really cool thing to be able todo that.
So, and out of the entirecountry, I think there was like
24 people that graduated thisround, so it's not like there's

(30:17):
a lot of people that do that.
So it's like I said, it's hardto get into and it's hard to
finish.
So but I think it was a two,almost three year type of
process to be able to do this.
And she'd go out to Emmitsburgfor a week or so and then come
back and then have homework onhomework on homework for months
and months and months, and thengo back out there for a week or
two, and same thing over andover and over.

(30:38):
So over the course of thisprocess she also got connected
with a group of people that theywould they're kind of their
core group, that they would hangout with.
You know what I mean.
They'd go out to dinner andthey'd go to the bars or
whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
From around the country they were doing the
class, yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
So they all would go to Emmitsburg every time at that
academy.
But, yeah, one was fromCalifornia, one was from Iowa,
idaho, like all over the place.
I think one of them that wouldhang out with them, I think she
was from Arizona, like all overthe country.
So you know kind of a nicecross section of you know people
from all over the place.
There was a group that was alsoa couple or well, he was there,

(31:17):
his wife came, same as I did,but he was from I think I'm
going to say South Carolina, butI'm probably going to get a
message saying it was NorthCarolina but it was one of the
Carolinas is where we're goingto go with.
So, but very cool people, a lotof fun.
So that's where the minivanactually kind of worked out
really well, because originallythey were kind of scrambling
because we had all set up hotelsin DC.
Instead of staying as a fireacademy, just everybody trucked

(31:39):
down to DC be able to kind ofhang out and celebrate that
night and then the next day kindof check out DC and go out to
like they had set up a reallyfancy dinner at this really,
really nice restaurant and sothey were kind of scrambling on
like who's going to drive itdown and who?
You know all sorts of detailswith that or whatever, because

(31:59):
it was four or five people andall their luggage, for you know,
they were there for about twoweeks this time, so kind of a
lot to try to be able to figureout.
I'm like here I come to savethe day with the minivan and so
everybody piles in there.
So it was a great time.
You know, I got to kind ofreally get to know those guys.
They're really, really cool,and when we get down there, we
find this really cool Germancraft brewery, brew hall kind of

(32:19):
thing Nice.
I'm failing to remember thename of it, though.
This is where I fail.
Let's see if I can find it realquick here.
German beer garden Dasha therewe go.
Okay, dasha beer garden Very,very cool place, place it ended
up being.
It's like a little less than amile from our hotels.

(32:39):
Everything was walkable.
We, basically we drove downthere and dropped the car off,
which, let me tell you, the carwas nice and the drop off for
budget was phenomenal.
The guy that we talked to wassuper nice, very helpful, and
he's like oh, if you're lookingfor an uber, mcdonald's right
over there there's about 10 ofthem that are sitting there
waiting because it's a drop-offfor car rental.
So you know, they just knowthat people are going to be
looking for a ride.

(32:59):
So it was super easy, superquick.
That part went really well.
Check-in counter for BWIterrible.
I already gave them feedback.
Don't worry about it, you knownobody has to go after them or
anything.
Anyway, so we get, you knowthis all set up and you know
it's a walkable.
We get at this place.
Well, they serve beer.
You can either get a pint oryou can get a boot.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
It's about a liter.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
So it ends up being 30, some ounces or whatever, so
like a liter.
But it was one of those whereyou definitely had to have had
that happen to him twice.
Oh, no, second time.

(33:40):
I guess it hit him so hard thatit actually got his wife.
So sorry for kind of selling outon that one, but it was still a
good time.
But let me tell you, we dranksome boots it was.
It was kind of you know, it's acelebration to be just be done
with that process and you know,like cheers and we're having a
good time, and I think wefigured out that there was a
between 20 and 25 boots betweenabout four or five of us.

(34:02):
Wow, so it was, let me tell you, it was, you know, but we, you
know, we ordered.
They had a bunch of really coolfood and little platters.
We would just kind of order forthe table and stuff and you
know it was really cool.
So that next day we just kindof checked out the national mall
and went out to that dinner andthen I flew back the next
morning after that.
So again, like 48, 50 hours 48hours in DC Exactly.

(34:26):
So it was very cool.
But, yeah, the, when we talkabout the them being limited to
a 60 ounces, you were definitelynot limited to Dasha, that was
for sure.
So, but it's a good thing thatwe were on foot, being able to
get back to our hotel.
So, but it was cool where wewere staying.
That was a really nice hotel,but just walkable to everything.
You know what I mean and we've,you know, had a decent rate on

(34:47):
it.
It was like 200 bucks a nightor something like that kind of
downtown and it was fantastic.
I don't know, it was a greatexperience.
You know, only a couple of days, it was very quick, but it was
so much fun.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Sure, Sounds like a good time.
All right, my trip was.
I was there a few days beforeyou.
We were there for five nights,something like that.
Drove straight there 18 hourswell, about 17 hours to get
there from where we live here,17 hours to get out there and

(35:18):
I'm to get out there and I'm I'ma cheap ass when it comes to
hotels.
I am a cheap ass like I findthe cheapest motel not a hotel.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Cheapest motel I can stay in is this how we end up on
the side of the road in perhamyes, yes, that's exactly how
this happens.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
So that's the type of stuff that I I buy because I
choose to spend.
I don't do anything there, butsleep.
Yep, when I'm on a vacation,I'm out and about exploring the
world, the state.
Wherever I'm at, I want to seeeverything I can.
I'm up at 6 am, I go to bed atmidnight, wake back up at 6 am,
I'm gone.
You know, I'm exploringeverything.
So if you've ever been to DC,if you don't stay downtown or

(35:55):
close to that national mall, inthat radius, that one mile
radius, dc is a trash hole.
What you think it would be thebest place in the world, since
you know that's where ourgovernment is and we're
supposedly supposed to be thebest, most powerful government
in the world, you know.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Well, they are within that little line.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah, so DC is not the greatest place, so we stayed
.
The first hotel motel was inAlexandria, which is about seven
miles from the capital andNational Mall area, so we roll
in.
It was budget host motel.
I'm like, all right, we're here.
You know, 17 hour drive.
Ha, check-in was terrible.

(36:34):
The guy didn't speak a lick ofenglish.
Okay, fine, we'll finally getit figured out.
Dammy's like.
Looking at mike.
Seriously, this is where we'restaying and we've stayed in some
motels and whatnot.
Get into the room.
It smells so bad.
I've never smelled the roomsmelled so bad in my entire life
.
It smelled like people havebeen smoking in there for a

(36:56):
hundred years and there's beenno smoking for how many years?
In every state and places likethat, the walls were yellow, the
ceiling was yellow.
Tammy wouldn't even shut thedoor on this motel, so people
are walking by.
I'm like we're gonna getmurdered in here.
You leave the door wide open.
It stunk so bad.
The fridge was covered full ofwhite stuff on the top all down
the side side, a littletwo-cushion love seat in there

(37:17):
where there's stains all over.
There's cigarette hole burns inthe bed In the closet.
Somebody must have been cookingmeth or something in there
because there's flame marks onthe walls and burn marks on the
walls.
Back in the living room there'sa bullet hole in the wall that
somebody looks like they stuffeda tissue in the hole like a

(37:38):
little well tissue they repairedit so so tammy's looking at me
and I'm looking at her and I'mlike, let's go to bed.
Not really even for, even for me.
I'm like what the hell are wedoing?
And you know, tammy's lookingat me.
I'm just laughing.
I couldn't stop laughing.
She even took a picture of me.
I was laughing so hard.

(38:00):
And we never fight, we neverargue.
And she was about.
She was like I'm gonna risk afight here, our first ever fight
.
We're not staying in thisfucking place, right?
Well, what do you mean?
Like?
this is great so, needless tosay, this was the shittiest
place I've ever seen in my life.
It was the dumpiest place, youknow.

(38:20):
There's bullet holes in thewalls, there's fires going on in
the closet, stains, smells.
It was gross, so we ended upleaving.
So we started on that wholeprocess and I use expedia a lot
and I'll never use expedia again.
Expedia sucks.
Fuck you guys.
And I've been using Expedia for15 years, so I've always one key
cache saved up and I'm like,all right, fine, we'll finally

(38:42):
use that.
And it was almost like $400 andsome dollars and we'll get a
different room.
Fine, no big deal.
Go to book the room.
All of a sudden, out of nowhere, it goes to a different email
address that I've never evenmade an account with Expedia
through, even though it is myemail address.
But I've never used that emailaddress for anything related to
this.
Right, they didn't use my onekey cash get to the hotel and

(39:05):
now I see him charge $500 forthis room.
Shouldn't be, because I shouldhave been able to use that cash.
Spent hours on the phone withExpedia.
I was on the chat, tammy was onthe phone.
My Expedia account was wiped.
They said due to inactivity.
I said inactivity.
I have three pending trips onthere, one of them being Germany
.
Right, and now I can't accessthat.

(39:27):
Well, prove it.
Prove it, Because there's somemorons in India answering these
fucking phone calls.
You can't get to anybody.
So I'm getting super pissed,pissed.
I'm sending them screenshots ofmy credit card that was charged
for the germany trip and stuffand a trip in iowa for a nascar
race and all this stuff likewhat.
I'm sending you theseconfirmation numbers and

(39:47):
itinerary numbers and you'retelling me you don't have it.
What am I gonna do here?

Speaker 1 (39:51):
you know right?
Yeah, it definitely changes awhole lot of things.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
I went on and on about it and they're basically
prove it, prove it, prove it.
No, this doesn't happen.
This doesn't work.
So we got nowhere.
In any event, that's kind ofhow it carried on in the
beginning of our trip.
The rest of the trip was fineand fun and all that stuff, but
that was after 17 hours ofdriving.
That's the last thing you wantto deal with.
In the meantime, when we gotback, dammy finally got a hold

(40:19):
of somebody at expedia and theywere able to pull up all our
germany stuff and they sent mean email of that and they credit
our account with 300 of my newaccount that I never made.
Credit it with 300 of one keycash.
I'm like I never made thisaccount.
This is the one I've used for15 years, you know, right.
But they claim I closed itmyself.
Like no, I didn't.

(40:40):
I wasn't even in any screen toclose it.
You know, and the previouspeople were telling me, they
just wiped it due to inactivity.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
I mean, you guys need to get your stories.
You're not even telling thesame story.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Like my wife, has an Expedia account and she doesn't
even use it.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
She hasn't used it in years, but hers works just fine
, so it's not due to inactivity.
I just didn't want to help, youknow, and it was, it was
literally three or four hours.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
We were literally on the phone for three or four
hours.
That's not an exaggeration,that's no joke.
It was literally that long, andmy wife is super persistent.
Let me speak to a supervisor,let me speak, and they would
just put us on hold for 30minutes and then pick up like,
oh, you're still there.
Yeah, we're still freaking here.
You know we need thisinformation, right.
So, yeah, that was kind of our.

(41:25):
Our beginning of the trip wasdealing with all that.
But we finally got into a hotelthat wasn't a whole lot better.
Now I forget the location of it, like afton hills or bunker or
something like 11 miles from themain, the capital and stuff,
and when we were there, therewas homeless people sleeping in
the breakfast area where youwould go down and get your

(41:46):
continental breakfast.
I saw a fight out front.
One of the days we came back,there were some guys throwing
down fisticuffs in front of thehotel, because why wouldn't you
really?
They reek like pot the wholetime, which pretty much
everything reeks like pot nowwhen you're in the city, because
it's legal in most places.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yeah, it's so in DC, everywhere you walk it's so I
don't care if you you know potwater.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
I don't care about that, but I hate the smell of
pot.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
It stinks.
Oh I, if, just if you could fixthat Right, I would.
That's the only part that Icare about.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Make like an odorless pot Exactly.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
That could be a business venture.
There we go.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
We could grow odorless marijuana plants.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
We're going to have to.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
I don't know anything about chemistry.
The best ideas come after beerCome after beer, here we go.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
That's what it is.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
That was the start of our trip out there and the
whole reason we went out therewas because my lovely wife got
me a birthday present for mylast year's birthday A meet and
greet to meet my favoritecongressman.
If you can have a favoritecongressman, I do.
I'm a fanboy, you know MrThomas Massey of Kentucky.
So I got longer than 30 minuteswith him because he didn't care
what was going on next.

(42:53):
But super awesome guy, down toearth, friendly, offered my wife
coffee like four times, waswilling to talk about anything,
actually answered things, toldme who the eight good people are
in politics that actually arethere doing the right thing.
Obviously said the bad ones,like this is the stuff I can't
tell you on Twitter, right,naturally, yeah, great guy.

(43:17):
I met his chief of staff.
We were in his office, justsuper friendly.
Twitter, right?
Um, naturally, yeah, great guy.
I met his chief of staff.
We're in his office, just superfriendly guy, awesome, you know
.
His staff gave us a private tourof the Capitol so I got to go
in a lot of different placesthat the general public doesn't
go right by the speaker of thehouse, right by his office, and
Mike Johnson was in there andhe's a, he's a a turd bucket,
but we won't get into that onthis episode.

(43:38):
But I asked the uh, the internthat was giving us a tour.
I'm like you mind if I stick myhead in there?
He's like, yeah, we better not.
I'm like it'll only take asecond.
He's like what could go wrong?
You better keep going.
I'm like all right, he thoughtit was a good funny though too,
because he works for thomasmassey.
So, right, uh, we got to go outwhere the any president they
get elected, you know, and theyhave their inauguration on that

(44:00):
platform on the capitol andthey're over, like where we had
to stand out there and checkthat out and all sorts of things
in the capitol.
But that was the reason we wentout.
There was to meet him.
Super cool.
I can talk about everything wetalked about, but that would
fill up a whole episode on therace that'd be a whole deal but
it, but it was super cool.
Nice, it was a lot of fun andyou brought up Pennsylvania.
I'll just throw this out hereyou were on Emmitsburg Road.

(44:23):
I'm assuming if you wentthrough Pennsylvania you
probably were on Emmitsburg Road.
If you weren't, you were veryclose to Emmitsburg Road.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Yeah, I think it Just outside of town.
Yeah, I think it was.
Let's see if I can find it here.
Emmitsburg Well, so it'sEmmitsburg, Maryland is what it
is, but yeah, it was, let's seehere.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Literally the road the Confederates went across
when they were attacking theUnion lines, when they marched
all across the field.
Right, if you know a ton about.
Gettysburg Emmitsburg Road wasthe road with the fence that
they needed to Emmitsburg roadwas the road with the fence that
they needed to.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
So I know a lot more about it now as of recently,
because a part of the assignedwork homework that Amanda had
was she had the book that'sabout that thick and the four
and a half hour movie, which wasactually a mini series that did
quite well back in the ninetiesor whenever it was, that it was
out there, like 93, the onewith Robert.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Duvall yeah, no, it's a.
He was in gods and generals, soit was yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Which I think that one was connected to that.
In a way it was a prequel, butit was a Martin Sheen yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
And he was Robert E Lee.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, yeah.
So that one was, uh, it wasassigned to do that or whatever,
and she's like I don't thinkI'm gonna do it, I don't think I
want to watch that, and she'sin a group chat with all the
guys and like most of them arelike I don't think I'm gonna
watch that.
It just seems ridiculous.
How is that gonna actually helpmy class and stuff like that?
And part of it was because theywere going to spend one of the
days going out to that, thatarea, that field.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
That was part of the week as they went out there and
spent time.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
They said it was awesome, very kind of like,
reflect a lot, you know, take alot in.
But you know they were likethis movie is terrible, like why
is this going to get connectedto that, or whatever.
And so I made the decision onenight where we had nothing going
on that night and a little bitof open time.
I'm like tonight's the night,we're going to watch this movie.

(46:16):
She's like tonight's the night,we're going to watch this movie
.
She's like, oh yeah, for sure,are we really going to watch
this?
I'm like we're going to dialthis up.
Oh no, no, we went thatdirection, but I said one
bourbon per hour.
We got about halfway throughand she's like I'm probably
going to need more bourbon.
It was probably hour threebefore we could figure out the

(46:38):
uniform situation on who was youknow like what side, and then
there was like random peoplethat were like officers wearing
the other color, and so it waslike I don't think they should
be talking to each other.
Maybe that's why they lost thewar, like I don't know what's
happening right now.
It was, it was very strange, soit was, but it was a fun night.
I think we made the best of theentire thing Definitely did

(46:58):
learn that they won.
They've placed very highly forthe Razzies, you know like the
worst movie of the year orsomething like that, but they
did win worst beards.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
Oh, okay, if you watch the movie.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Google the movie.
Just look at the beards thatthey have in the pictures or
whatever.
It's just awful, but it was fun.
Pictures or whatever.
It's just awful, but it was fun.
It was fun night, you know,being able to do that but yeah.
So, yeah, it was emmitsburgarea is kind of where we went,
but yeah, through gettysburg andI didn't get to go out and see
that, but uh, her and her classwent out.
We're able to tour thebattlefields.
They were actually eachassigned their own character, oh

(47:31):
, okay, so I remember which oneshe interesting she was.
But uh, their one instructorwhen they would, when they would
uh show up're one instructorwhen they would, when they would
uh show up to class or whenthey would get there.
You know it would be such andsuch as entering the battlefield
, and so that was like theirwhole bit.
So it was kind of a kind of afun, little you know history
kind of thing, but something alittle different.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Yeah, I'm a, I'm a history nerd.
I love, I love history.
I love American history is my's, my favorite, but I'll take in
any history at any time periodof all over the world, but my
favorite is American history.
We did tour Gettysburg as well.
We went up there for a privatetour.
It was a three-hour privatetour.
The tour guide gets in your carand drives you through the

(48:10):
battlefield and you get out andhe explains what happened here
and what happened there and allthose sorts of things in the
three hours.
Really cool happened here andwhat happened there and all
those sorts of things in thethree hours.
Really cool.
You know.
We get out on the confederateside.
He's like this is where theconfederates were.
You know, I'm like standingright here, right here, they
were standing in this wood lineright here.
So, yeah, they were all righthere and I'm like, wow, I'm
standing where they werestanding.

(48:30):
You know, he's like general leewas over there on his horse
watching the battle unfold, sohe went over there and, of
course, at the end of the tourwe went to the union lines and
did the same thing on the unionlines and I went through the
museum.
If you ever get a chance to go,take a tour of it it's.
It's really cool.
It's.
It's kind of crazy how manypeople died on that field
shooting each other, americansshooting each other over

(48:53):
essentially slavery and taxesand stuff, and it was pretty
crazy.
Um, a couple things I learnedabout that going through the
town of gettysburg.
When you actually go throughreally cool little town, it
actually looks like it did 200years ago too.
It they kept it the way itlooks.
There's 118 buildings that arestill exist.
That happened during the battle.
Wow, still there.
You can still see a cannon firein the side of a musket fire on

(49:16):
the side that of course, theyrestored them and like paint the
buildings, but they paint wherethe divots that are in there
are painted, so you can stillsee it and stuff.
But the coolest thing.
I know quite a bit about thebattle and the different
generals' names and stuff.
But what I didn't know and Idid learn there is, of course
the tour guide asked us whereare you from?
Well, of, of course we're fromminnesota.

(49:42):
And he's like, really is likeI've got some very interesting
things to tell you about thefirst minnesota regiment.
I'm like, oh okay, I didn'tknow much about first minnesota
one or the minnesota first.
The first part about theminnesota first is they were the
very first regiment everconscripted into the union army.
Because there was a minnesotapolitician in dc when the first
shots rang out at Fort Sumterand the Minnesota politician I
forget his name said OK, lincoln, you can have us right away.

(50:04):
So we were the first Unionmembers put in the Union Army.
It was the Minnesota first.
And in Gettysburg theConfederates actually broke
through the lines on the leftflank with about 1,600
Confederates, because GeneralSickles didn't have his army
where General Meade wanted them.
The Confederates broke throughand about 300 yards away for

(50:26):
about 1,400 Confederates thatbroke through, there was a group
of 248 Union military men juststanding there.
Nobody had given them orders.
So some commander came up well,what are you guys doing?
Well, nobody gave us any orders.
He's like you up.
Well, what are you guys doing?
Well, nobody gave us any orders.
He's like you.
See those Confederates overthere, 1400 of them, about 200
yards away.
Put your bayonet on and runinto them.
So 248 going up against 1400Confederates.

(50:49):
They're outnumbered like eightto one.
Only 41 of them survived.
But they held up theConfederates, just enough for
the Union to reform their lineon the left flank to repel it.
Well, that was the Minnesotafirst.
So 248 went in, only 41survived and held up the
Confederates, just enough forthe Union to reorganize.

(51:10):
And because of that, if you'reever in Gettysburg, if you buzz
through, if you happen to noticethere's monuments everywhere in
this park.
It's 1400 of them or somethinglike that.
The guide said the secondlargest one in the park is the
minnesota first and it's a.
I can't remember the dimensions,of course it's huge like a like
a small size building, you know, but there's an infantryman on

(51:32):
there charging exactly wherethey started, where they first
started running, is exactlywhere the monument just sits.
So that was really interesting.
The minnesota history that wewere played a pretty pivotal
role in the battle of gettysburganyway.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
So it's interesting to be able to learn some of that
stuff and that's so.
That's the type of stuff likeif you go out there like you can
learn a ton of stuff from theguides.
Amanda was saying that likethey've talked to some of them
that, uh, you have to like Idon't remember the exact details
, but you have to go throughschooling and classes and things
like that for like two years,five, five years before you even

(52:10):
can take the test to beconsidered being a guide.
Within that, like it's unrealwhat you have to do to be able
to do that.
So like I'm not surprised thatyou know you mentioned like
minnesota and then boom, justdrop some knowledge on you
because they have to be to thatpoint because it's such a famous
or big time area.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
But they do.
Yeah, that's interesting.
You brought that up because Iasked the guy I'm like what does
it take to be a guide over here?
And he said it's five years ofschooling and studying and
schooling and it never ends.
And then when you're done youtake like six tests and you have
to pass all the tests with like95 or higher to be a guide.
And pre-covid there was about160 guides.
He said now there's about 72because naturally they're all

(52:50):
older people.
Yeah, I mean there's not a lotof history nerds out there.
I mean there are, but usuallythey're older.
You know they're not typicallythe younger crowd because
they're busy doing other stuff.
But he said the first test inabout three years that they're
allowing to get new guides isthis year, finally this fall.
So they haven't even beenallowed any testing to become
one of these certified guides inthree years.

(53:12):
So they're definitely hurtingfor guides.
So if anybody is that interestedin American, history
specifically Gettysburg go out,they're looking for it, you know
.
And when you do it you're anindependent contractor, so you
don't work for anybody.
Specifically, we did athree-hour personal tour and it
was $117.
And of course I gave them a $40tip when we were done, but
that's kind of how their incomegoes.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
But yeah, five years of studying six tests very cool,
very intense, that's for sure.
So, but that's cool thoughthat's amazing to be able to
learn some of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
So it was super neat and the museum was cool.
You know they had all thedifferent firearms in there.
There's still trees with musketballs lodged in them and
cannonballs lodged in them inthe museum.
They don't let you think withthat much out in the park
because it's technically it'sgettysburg national park, now
right, and they don't allowpeople used to go with metal
detectors.
If you had a metal detector, hesaid if you start one and

(54:04):
you'll find musket balls andeverything.
And he said they don't allowthat anymore.
There's some people do own someprivate property in the area.
Some of those people let themdo it on their land but, like in
the park, they don't allow anymetal detecting or any stuff
anymore, but super cool it was.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
I was on cloud I was like oh, I bet, yeah, those
little history nerds, you knowgetting my nerd on out there.

Speaker 2 (54:25):
You know, even my wife thought it was cool.
You know she likes history, butnot like I do.
You know, and so she was likeoh it was pretty cool, it was
fun, you know.
You know it was a good time.
Get out to Gettysburg and drinksome beer when you're out there
.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, absolutely there you go.
So yeah, well, yeah, you gotanything else?
Today I think we got kind ofthe long and the short of a
microphone and the history of DCand Gettysburg.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Yeah, I could have gone on longer too.
This would have been like afive-hour episode.
Oh, absolutely, I don't havetoo much else.
Road trips I got a fun factabout road tripping maybe kind
of it ties in Jumbo jets.
You know if you fly on a jumbojet how much fuel they carry.
They carry a lot of fuel.
If you were to take all thatfuel and use it in a car, how
far do you think you could drivea car on one tank of jumbo jet

(55:13):
fuel on one jumbo jet?

Speaker 1 (55:15):
I'm guessing more than 460 miles.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
You would be correct.
Okay, yeah, yes, I'll drink tothat Way to go, andy.
Yes, so if you took the fuel onone jumbo jet out and kept it
for your car, you could drivearound the world four and a half
times that's a lot With youraverage car for a mile.
I mean, we can get into thedetails, but the average vehicle
.
You could drive around theworld four and a half times on

(55:41):
one fill up of a jumbo jet.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
Wow, that's a lot of fuel.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
More facts from beer.
There you go.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
There you go.
Did you know that a group offlamingos is called a
flamboyance?

Speaker 2 (55:52):
No, but it makes me feel flamboyant Might.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I just have to keep drinking beer.
You know, push on through thenight.
On that note, yeah, check outmicrophonebrewingcom Again,
m-i-k-e-r for microphone andalso projectfirebuddiesorg.
So some things to be able tocheck out.
But otherwise, yeah, that'skind of the long and the short

(56:23):
of the podcast today forMicrophone Brewing and we go
together like dot dot dot softsour ale with strawberries and
peanuts.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Today, Perfect, all right.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Thanks everybody.
Andy Beckstrom, Sean Field,Cheers.