Embarking on a journey with my heart on my sleeve, I invite you into an intimate window of our world, where the waves of the Emerald Coast comforted us amidst the trials of my mother-in-law's cancer battle. Experience the raw beauty and private moments as we tour hidden state park gems and step inside the governor's cabin in Alabama, all while I navigate the emotional return to my roots in medicine, serving those who've served at the VA. As our outdoor excursions take a back seat, join Michele and me as we rediscover wanderlust through spontaneous Sunday drives, where the destination is simply togetherness and a shared love for the untamed.
Laughter echoes through the mountainside as we recount the tales of our mischievous reddish raccoons and the witty standoffs with our bear neighbors over the fish pond. We weave these stories into the rich tapestry of life up here, where the wild's allure is just outside our doorstep. The upcoming 2024 season of MMO buzzes with excitement as we plan for the adventures that lie ahead, from April's fresh beginnings to October's golden nostalgia. So, whether you're here for the laughter, the tears, or simply the sound of two souls charting their course through life's unpredictable wilderness, you're part of our family now – and this episode is a testament to that bond.
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Embarking on a journey with my heart on my sleeve, I invite you into an intimate window of our world, where the waves of the Emerald Coast comforted us amidst the trials of my mother-in-law's cancer battle. Experience the raw beauty and private moments as we tour hidden state park gems and step inside the governor's cabin in Alabama, all while I navigate the emotional return to my roots in medicine, serving those who've served at the VA. As our outdoor excursions take a back seat, join Michele and me as we rediscover wanderlust through spontaneous Sunday drives, where the destination is simply togetherness and a shared love for the untamed.
Laughter echoes through the mountainside as we recount the tales of our mischievous reddish raccoons and the witty standoffs with our bear neighbors over the fish pond. We weave these stories into the rich tapestry of life up here, where the wild's allure is just outside our doorstep. The upcoming 2024 season of MMO buzzes with excitement as we plan for the adventures that lie ahead, from April's fresh beginnings to October's golden nostalgia. So, whether you're here for the laughter, the tears, or simply the sound of two souls charting their course through life's unpredictable wilderness, you're part of our family now – and this episode is a testament to that bond.
Be sure to visit BizRadio.US to discover hundreds more engaging conversations, local events and more.
Hey everybody, welcome to Matt and Michelle Odyssey. I'm Matt Matan, I'm Michelle Shee and we haven't talked to you in a little while. No, we figured we'd hop on and give a little update to our world out there.
Speaker 2:What's going on?
Speaker 1:We've been busy. Yeah, we've been doing a lot and we got a little bit of traveling in. We had intended on doing an episode of MMO on a trip we made with your mom, who is battling cancer, and so we took her down to uh, the florida coast, the emerald coast and spent some good quality time down there.
Speaker 2:Did we not make a podcast?
Speaker 1:we never did that episode, oh no you know, we could do like the wayne's world. Yeah, we could pretend like we just did it, but we could just say it was a lovely trip and um, it was really.
Speaker 2:The weather was beautiful For that time of year. It was in October.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:And we got to do Some pretty cool stuff. We got exclusive tours Of state park land With that's right. With some senior leadership.
Speaker 2:With the state. That's right. We got some, some behind the scenes stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got to stay For a little bit. We got to visit the governor's cabin, yeah, On a state park down along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, so I mean it was a pretty epic trip actually, and the food was amazing. Yeah, ate food. That was great the whole way. But yeah, we just never did an episode on that because we not only with….
Speaker 2:There's a lot going on with the holidays coming up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also with a career change for me or an adjustment.
Speaker 2:Oh, I guess that was the bigger news.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, with your mom's cancer treatments and things going on and changes with things, and there was a lot going on and it was great to be able to take that trip. But I think in a way, subconsciously, it was just like this is one just for us and our family.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, with your mom.
Speaker 2:Except for now. We made it not, so Now we can talk about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's been a few months. And we've been missing y'all, so we had to hop on and give you an update on what's happening in our lives.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so I got back into medicine medicine yeah I uh, I started my adult life um, coming out of media. I did a fishing outdoors tv show in new england as a teenager and then I joined the air force and for my eight years in the us air force I was a medic and I've gone full circle. I'm back to doing medicine again now, but I'm working in the va health care system helping our veterans and I love it.
Speaker 1:But it is a full court press job you know it, not only full hours, which I haven't had regular bankers hours in what? 20 years. So that's been an adjustment. But my heart and soul goes into that care and so by the time I get home I'm pretty tired yeah, pretty worn out.
Speaker 2:Well, I think one of the things I'm kind of bringing it back to the, the odyssey part where you are, you know, beyond what you're doing, where you always wanted to be the little house on the prairie physician and and in this position that they've created basically for you is is something that, uh, you're able to do. That I'm very thankful, very thankful that you're able to be so. It really is a dream position.
Speaker 1:For those that don't know, in the VA healthcare system they created a new position called an ICT and it is a pathway for former medics and corpsmen former active duty medics and corpsmen to continue doing basically medic work, I mean. So we're doing a lot of different stuff and one of the great lottery wins for me is that I'm working in a clinic situation instead of an emergency room or surgical units or anything. So that's a little bit easier on the stress level and the intensity, but at the same time it does give me the opportunity to do that family practice kind of.
Speaker 2:Thing.
Speaker 1:I get to see a lot of different situations, a lot of different people that, yes, they're in need of help and everything, and there are crisis times, but it's not like show up to work, punch in crisis till you punch out and go home Right, you know which? A lot of surgical, inpatient and emergency department type things can be that way because I've worked in those situations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:And so, but it's really great and we have supplanted, for the time being, while I've adjusted to a like almost a once in a generation shift of workload schedule for me, Right right. We have supplanted our outdoor paddling or camping or anything like that with road trips, with like Sunday drive type things, and so we've done little side excursion road trips, yeah, bunches and bunches where we just get lost.
Speaker 2:Well, it's our happy place for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just turning off the GPS and roaming about a bit is really nice. One thing that you have done for the outdoor world is you have created basically a studio of all your interests, outside Organized it. You've been organizing it like crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so now you can walk into the room and you can just see everything that you need at a glance whether you're going to go paddling or you're going to go fishing or hiking or camping, or even like archery at a glance, whether you're going to go, we're going to go paddling, or you're going to go fishing or hiking or camping, um, or even like archery, you know, got the archery stuff and golf basically all the outdoors activities.
Speaker 1:Accessories um, because I'm preparing for 2024 now here we're into 2024 and, and you know, we still have our businesses, you still have slice of life, comedy and we still have our businesses.
Speaker 1:You still have Slice of Life Comedy and we still have Buzz Radio Asheville. I still have Biz Radio, another radio station, and then we have MMO, and then throw on top of that working at the VA full time. So there's a lot going on. But it also means there's a little extra income. There's a little bit more focus to how the time is going to be used when we are off. And we fully intend on having some pretty cool trips, probably more overnight trips this year in the wild than we've done previously.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. So, looking forward to that. We've been kind of talking and planning that for a little bit in the last couple of months and looking at what it looks like, like what's feasible at this time of everything going on, where we can still take our little odysseys, you know, out into the wild and um so I've been prepping, too, been upping the um equipment game yes I've been really um I think some people close to me have been a little bit concerned that I'm becoming a doomsday prepper because of the things I've been getting, like solar array power and everything from storage things to power.
Speaker 2:I think it's reasonable for everyone to be prepping for just something.
Speaker 1:It is an election year in the United States. It is an election year. That's exactly to borrow from a comic, uh, that we both really like. We're a very sassy nation yeah we'll save that for some other time, but um but once I tell people. Well, you know, I'm prepping for us to have a more comfortable outdoor excursion you know that we can set up camp for a few days and still charge cameras because we're going to be doing more videoion.
Speaker 1:You know that we can set up camp for a few days and still charge cameras because we're going to be doing more video, you know, and having different comforts with us, even if we go to a remote primitive campsite.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know, we'll still have, we have no shame. We have no shame. We are and I don't mind at all prepping for that Reached a point in life where it's kind of like okay, well, I did the rugged expedition stuff. I went out in the wild and lived off the land for a few weeks at a time. Don't need to really do that anymore. I do need time in nature.
Speaker 1:I do need that time in nature oh, and that's another thing I've been doing too is just about every week week, and you've gone on some of them, but other times I'm just by myself. At least once a week I take a couple hours to go out into the national forest yeah. I've been doing that pretty consistently, just to you know it. What is your mom cause? She said oh, matt.
Speaker 1:Matt's gone to church yeah, you know going out into the, into the wild, going out into nature in the national forest, but you know. So that's just some of the updates on some things on the outdoor world and what we've been doing and everything You're continuing to do a lot of comedy shows in the Asheville North.
Speaker 2:Carolina area. So many comedy shows right now.
Speaker 1:You're staying so busy with that.
Speaker 2:Addict venues and yeah, just fantastic. Yeah, A lot of fun.
Speaker 1:We're also approaching the anticipation of one of the final two at home graduating in a few months. And then there'll be one left.
Speaker 2:There'll be one little birdie in the nest.
Speaker 1:One little birdie in the nest, and then yeah, who knows Get good use of that National Park Pass after that Ah, ha, ha, ha Because here's another thing I'll mention this too the thing with the VA. When they created this position for former medics and corpsmen, they gave some offers that are hard to refuse. I was active duty for eight years. They count that toward your retirement, and so in a federal job you can retire after 10 years of work. So, realistically, if I work two years at the VA, I could have a 10-year retirement.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And so we'll also be empty nesters in that two-year time period. At the end of that, we'll also be empty nesters. I love the work so much I don't know that I would retire, but I'd have that option.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's nice to have option. It's also nice to have kind of stability in a, as you said, election year where we fascinated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not just that, you know society could collapse or anything, but to be able to get away from right all the chaos, exactly rest, and the noise and that's the thing you know, I mean.
Speaker 2:Anyone you're not everyone has the opportunity to, to even take a day, to to get out from their environment.
Speaker 1:So when you're able to do that in your life, you can't be guaranteed that you always will be have those chances yeah so when you can, you gotta take them and we're fortunate that we live up on a mountain and we have, you know, good privacy around us with forests and many animals, a lot of animals, as a matter of fact we have a steady addition now to the animals showing up coyotes coyotes have arrived. Yeah, we had. We didn't have this before. Yeah, we've heard of them.
Speaker 2:We've heard them on the mountain. But now our trail cam has confirmed.
Speaker 1:They're hanging out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're just hanging out, and so those that have followed us for a long time and I saw one.
Speaker 2:I saw one out our back window one night when I was going to get some water and I just looked out the window and we have a big you know light out there, so it was easy to see. Um and it, I was just startled and then, you know, it was big. It was big and it was a coyote, but for a second I thought it was a fox, because my mind was like that must have been a fox because we have red foxes yeah, we just saw one just as we were getting ready to come on air.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're, they're all over, and they, they're, they're hanging out and stuff. And then I was just like I'm thinking about it, I'm like, no, that was way too big and and it was too, you know, just a different kind of jaw line than on a fox.
Speaker 1:I'd be interested for any of you out there. Maybe we can find a trail cam pic or something. Put it on our social media and let us know what you think about coy wolves and how far they've spread. Because, some of our neighbors on the mountain. They also have camera security or trail cams, and if these are coyotes, they're very big coyotes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Big, thick, strong coyotes.
Speaker 2:They definitely the ones, not the one I saw, not really the one that we saw on our camera, I don't think it's hard to gauge.
Speaker 1:No, that was a coyote.
Speaker 2:That was definitely a coyote, but the ones our neighbors just right up the mountain have good pictures of, definitely look, good pictures of definitely look, and koi wolves obviously are mixes of coyotes and wolves and they're cunning and they're big and they're strong and it's hard to see them because they're very sly. They can get around very easily, but they look like big puppy dogs. So I want to just hug on them, but probably not a good idea.
Speaker 1:And to give listeners of ours that are outside of our regional area so that you know on a map about where we're located. We're about halfway between Cherokee National Forest, northern section, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We're kind of about halfway on that. We border right up against Pisgah National Forest on the back of our mountain here. So there's a lot of wildlife, no shortage of wildlife here.
Speaker 2:And there are definite trails that kind of bring the animals down to our mountain and pass through. We have animals that live on the mountain generationally and then we have groups that pass through. It's like the time we saw those raccoons that were like reddish.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they looked like red pandas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they almost looked like red pandas.
Speaker 1:We only saw them that couple of days. Yeah, and it's like that.
Speaker 2:It's like they're just a little vacationing family and they go on their way. They definitely were not of the Boulder line, which is our infamous, very popular locally raccoon and descendants that are like family pets to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they let it. I mean they, you know, and I guess over the years, with when something like a raccoon that has become part of your family, it feels like the next generation is just brought into that. Whether it's because the parents are bringing you the babies or it's the, I just think, just like this kind of generational memory, that we are good people and you know, and it's something like we don't feed bears, but we do have bears that have lived here a long time and bring their babies to us and they have made use of our ponds.
Speaker 2:They have. I'm constantly struggling with how much effort do I put?
Speaker 1:into repairing or replacing the fish population. Yes, it's hard, I stopped getting koi, because I just couldn't bear it.
Speaker 2:So we'd get cheap goldfish, they'd grow up snack it's done yep, and then we we had the, the, the bucket pond that you had out back and and you know this big vomit bear, just she just got in it, it's a bathtub, just just I mean because it looks like a bathtub and she is just like an old-timey.
Speaker 1:You know, if she had one of those sticks to rub her back with, yeah you know, it looks like those carvings you get in tourist shops in gatlinburg or something exactly. Exactly, yeah it's so true, y'all, it's all so true so, anyway, we just wanted to touch base, give you all an update. You know, we're still here, we're still kicking, we're still getting outdoors as best we can, but we've also really been prepping for a really cool 2024 season that we're excited about Looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so hope you all are well and it's good to touch base with you. Yeah, and we'll be checking in with you.
Speaker 2:We'll be around.
Speaker 1:We'll be starting the 2024 season in April.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so we look forward to doing that. That is the official liftoff. Yeah, april to.
Speaker 1:October is our regular season, but we thought it'd be good to hop on and just check in with y'all. Yeah, all right, have a good one.