Classic over-achiever, Laura Butcher, shares an unparalleled perspective into off-road. Currently heading up VORRA and Farmy’s Off Road Park, along with her full-time gig at Tread Lightly! Laura is a wonder. Listen in on the experience she brings to the table. It’s a great listen, be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
5:05 – “are you willing to give welding a shot and be on the Ag Mechanics team?”
22:09 – In EMS, if you can make it in Vegas, you can make it anywhere. I became addicted to the chaos
30:41 – it was 58 below, I ended up with second-degree burns along my rib cage
36:03 – when my brother said, Can you please come home, I came home.
47:24 – everything forward became very serendipitous, starting with the Rebelle Rally
59:41 – We had the VORRA name, now what?
1:09:19 – It all ties together between VORRA, Tread Lightly! and Farmy’s – what led me there was my constant difficulty with BLM permitting.
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
Classic over-achiever, Laura Butcher, shares an unparalleled perspective into off-road. Currently heading up VORRA and Farmy’s Off Road Park, along with her full-time gig at Tread Lightly! Laura is a wonder. Listen in on the experience she brings to the table. It’s a great listen, be sure to tune in on your favorite podcast app.
5:05 – “are you willing to give welding a shot and be on the Ag Mechanics team?”
22:09 – In EMS, if you can make it in Vegas, you can make it anywhere. I became addicted to the chaos
30:41 – it was 58 below, I ended up with second-degree burns along my rib cage
36:03 – when my brother said, Can you please come home, I came home.
47:24 – everything forward became very serendipitous, starting with the Rebelle Rally
59:41 – We had the VORRA name, now what?
1:09:19 – It all ties together between VORRA, Tread Lightly! and Farmy’s – what led me there was my constant difficulty with BLM permitting.
Special thanks to 4low Magazine and Maxxis Tires for support and sponsorship of this podcast.
Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
[00:00:02.320] -
Welcome to Conversations with Big Rich. This is an interview style podcast. Those interviewed are all involved in the offroad industry. Being involved, like all of my guests are, is a lifestyle, not just a job. I talk to past, present, and future Legends, as well as business owners, employees, media, and land-use warriors, men and women who have found their way into this exciting and addictive lifestyle we call Offroad. We discuss their personal history, struggles, successes, and rebutes. We dive into what drives them to stay active in Offroad. We all hope to shed some light on how to find a path into this world that we live and love and call Offroad.
[00:00:46.160] -
Whether you're crawling the Red Rocks of Moab or hauling your toys to the trail, Maxxis has the tires you can trust for performance and durability, four wheels or two. Maxxis tires are the choice of champions because they know that whether for work or play, for fun or competition. Maxxis tires deliver. Choose Maxxis, tread victoriously.
[00:01:13.010] -
Have you seen 4-Low magazine yet? 4-low magazine is a high-quality, well-written, four-wheel drive-focused magazine for the enthusiast market. If you still love the idea of a printed magazine, something to save and read at any time, 4low is the magazine for you. 4low cannot be found in stores, but you can have it delivered to your home or place of business. Visit 4lowmagazine.com to order your subscription today.
[00:01:39.270] - Big Rich Klein
On this week's episode of Conversations with Big Rich, it is my pleasure to talk with Laura Butcher. Laura is a Nevada Program Manager for Tread Lightly. She is the owner of VORRA, the Executive Director of Farmies Off Road Park, and a Rebelle Rally competitor. Laura, thank you so much for spending some time and coming on board and having this conversation with me and doing this podcast.
[00:02:06.340] - Laura Butcher
Thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.
[00:02:09.800] - Big Rich Klein
Let's jump right in and I'm going to ask you the question I ask everybody. Where were you born and raised?
[00:02:18.810] - Laura Butcher
Okay, yeah, good place to start. I was born in Sacramento, California, and up until the time I was 12, I was raised on the border of two smaller towns near Sacramento, Elk Grove and Galt, California. My dad's family has a really big ranch in that area, so I grew up out as a farm kid.
[00:02:43.320] - Big Rich Klein
Well, that makes more sense. Okay.
[00:02:45.260] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. And then when I was 12, we moved to Yerington, Nevada.
[00:02:49.700] - Big Rich Klein
That's a lifestyle change.
[00:02:51.980] - Laura Butcher
That was a bit of a shock to my system, but it worked out really well. I finished eighth grade and all of high school in Yerington, and Nevada became home after that.
[00:03:08.190] - Big Rich Klein
So Yerington, I'm very familiar with the area course because we have something in common. You're the owner, along with your husband, Brian, of VORRA. I used to be the promoter and owner of VORRA. Yes. Quite a few years been there. That's where I met Brian, is because he raced with us. But Yerington, it's a very rural town, like most everything in Nevada, except for Carson, Vegas, and Reno. But it always seemed very family-ish to me. I would agree with that. When we did the races there. So what was it like in Yerrington?
[00:03:49.670] - Laura Butcher
I mean, it's such a great small town to grow up in, and then I feel so fortunate that I went to high school there because I think that it being such a small community gave me a lot of opportunities that I might not have had going to a bigger school. I graduated with 89 kids in my class, so I knew everyone. Everyone knew me. And not having a ton of kids in your class has its pros and cons like anything else, but it provided me with a wealth of opportunities to participate in different activities and sports. I would say that was probably a big part of shaping me for who I am at this point, being able to be involved in... I was involved in FFA the whole way through my childhood. Well, 4-H, I should say 4-H, and then FFA as a high school kid. Those were big portions of my life. But in addition to that, going to school in a small area, I did cheerleading. I was on the track team. I did high school rodeo, student council. I was involved in a lot of different things because it was a small area.
[00:04:58.580] - Big Rich Klein
yeah, because if you had stayed in, say, that Galt area, I know Galt has a pretty good size high school.
[00:05:05.940] - Laura Butcher
They do. My mom is from Galt and my dad is from Elk Grove. Okay. So I have a lot of family there. It probably would have been great. It would have been fine. I certainly didn't want to move when I was in junior high. Right. But all things considered, looking back, I think it was a really great decision that my parents made. And the development, the character development for me was really helpful.
[00:05:33.510] - Big Rich Klein
Do you think it's because with a larger school, you have less of a chance to shine because there's so many other personalities in a large school?
[00:05:46.550] - Laura Butcher
To an extent, yes. I think that has a lot to do with it. I think that, yeah, it sounds bad, but there's less competition. But those sports teams, they need a certain amount of kids just to function. And when I was in high school, FFA, for instance, perfect example, the welding team, the ag mechanics team, they didn't have enough people to compete. So my Ag instructor came to me and was like, Hey, would you be willing to give welding a shot and be on the Ag Mechanics team so that the team can actually compete? And I was like, Absolutely, I will give it a shot. And I worked with my friends that were already involved in that. They taught me how to weld. This group of guys became my best friends at that point. And I did really well with welding at that time and ended up our team was scored very high within the state. And I think I was ranked like the team was second in the state, and I think I was ranked fifth as a welder. Wow.
[00:06:53.550] - Big Rich Klein
Very good. Yeah.
[00:06:55.110] - Laura Butcher
So, I mean, that never would have happened.
[00:06:57.230] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Yeah, exactly. So you said cheerleading as well. So you were a welding cheerleader?
[00:07:04.560] - Laura Butcher
I was, and I was a high school rodeo queen, and I was a student body officer. Yeah, a lot of wildly varying experiences, but it's totally beneficial to me as an adult to have to have such different experiences and backgrounds and get mixed in situations that I wasn't always comfortable with.
[00:07:29.630] - Big Rich Klein
So you're a lot like, like Shelley, my wife, smaller town, lots of opportunities, not as much competition for those spots. So the ability to do everything, and when you're an overachiever, that's a great situation. And it appears that you're an overachiever.
[00:07:50.140] - Laura Butcher
I don't consider myself to be an overachiever, but I guess it definitely would sound as though I am.
[00:07:56.970] - Big Rich Klein
My definition of an overachiever is somebody that is active in a lot of different things and can still get things done. Not that you're the best at every single thing that you do, it's that you're involved with everything and you're proficient at it.
[00:08:16.590] - Laura Butcher
Absolutely. Then I would say yes, I qualify. I have an older sister that's a surgeon, so I tend to like that bar is slightly high.
[00:08:24.300] - Big Rich Klein
For me. Well, that's a different type of achievement. It is. That's taking one field and going all the way to the end.
[00:08:34.910] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, absolutely. There you go. That's a good example. My sister and my brother, at least until his senior year, they went to high school in Sacramento. They went to a private Catholic school. Different backgrounds, even with that.
[00:08:52.210] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So what was the best part of... I mean, you did so much in high school. Was there anything that just really stood out that you said, like, this was really me at that time?
[00:09:05.550] - Laura Butcher
I really enjoyed all the different activities I did, I would say to some degree, probably because it got me out of class at the time.
[00:09:15.310] - Big Rich Klein
But.
[00:09:16.020] - Laura Butcher
I already loved being outdoors and doing off-road stuff at that time. I wanted to become a park ranger at that point in time. FFA was probably the thing that I loved the most. Doing ag mechanics and all of the different offices that I held, it forced me out of my comfort shell so much like having to learn public speaking, and they would put us through mock job interviews and just crazy experiences that they were tough at the time and took me way out of my comfort zone. But ultimately, they were a really good thing for me.
[00:09:57.620] - Big Rich Klein
Right. And especially with all the things that you're doing now. You said you did some sports?
[00:10:05.990] - Laura Butcher
I did. I did track and cheerleading, and I was really into weightlifting. That was an optional thing. If you didn't want to do regular PE, you could get special permission from the head football coach to do weightlifting instead. And he was leery of me at first. I tried it, and then I really became involved in it and interested and did really well with that also.
[00:10:29.920] - Big Rich Klein
Awesome. So then let's talk. You mentioned Off Road that you really enjoyed being... And living in that area, there is so much public land to go explore and drive and do all that. Were you on quads, motorcycles? What was it that you got to offroad in?
[00:10:51.230] - Laura Butcher
All of the above. Growing up in such a rural area, even before we moved to Nevada, I spent a ton of time on ATVs, four-wheelers. We had a Honda pilot that I rode a lot as a kid. I did a lot of forceback riding, just you name it, and I was outside.
[00:11:15.020] - Big Rich Klein
Great. Excellent.
[00:11:16.900] - Laura Butcher
We had a Jeep as well at times that my dad's friends would take us out on their Jeeps a lot.
[00:11:22.620] - Big Rich Klein
So living in Yerington, VORRA would come in at least once a year.
[00:11:27.810] - Laura Butcher
Did.
[00:11:28.330] - Big Rich Klein
You go out and watch the races as a family or with a group of friends or anything?
[00:11:35.140] - Laura Butcher
I did. My older brother was a racer at that point in time. He got really into offroad and racing with VORRA to start with when he was in high school and then more so after. But the first VORRA races that I went to were because of my brother.
[00:11:54.000] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. And then if your brother was racing and he was older, that was probably started off at Prairie City then?
[00:12:01.110] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, he would do things at Prairie City because obviously that's the Sacramento area. We would go offroading a lot in between in the mountains like the Polkines, the Rubicon, stuff like that. And then the races in and around the Yerington area.
[00:12:17.050] - Big Rich Klein
All right, cool. So then after high school, I would imagine you graduated with honors and everything. If you're involved in all that stuff, you had.
[00:12:29.650] - Laura Butcher
To have your- I did not graduate with honors. I graduated. You didn't. I graduated solidly, but this is where there is a stark contrast between me and my older sister, because she absolutely graduated with honors, and I just graduated.
[00:12:47.870] - Big Rich Klein
Well, congratulations on that.
[00:12:49.950] - Laura Butcher
Yeah.
[00:12:51.520] - Big Rich Klein
So then after high school, what was the next step?
[00:12:56.880] - Laura Butcher
After high school, I moved to Reno. At that point in time, I wanted to become a smoke jumper. And that sounds like what? But I had originally been interested in becoming a park ranger. And then I learned about wildfires and all of that stuff. My dad opened me up to the concept of smoke jumpers, and I was super into it. I applied with a school in Missoula, Montana, a smoke jumper program, and they were like, You're actually underweight. Go to college. College, build some muscle, get a little more bulk on you, and then come back to us. I moved into Reno, got a part-time job in Parks and Recreation with the city of Reno, and started going to Truckee Meadows Community College and pursued an associate's degree in fire science. Then that led me into EMS as well.
[00:13:57.580] - Big Rich Klein
Through high school, you were really busy. Did you have time to work?
[00:14:03.220] - Laura Butcher
I did. I had a part time job. I worked at a livestock company, a feedlot that specializes in purebred bulls. And my job was after school, I would ride a horse through all of the bull pens and pull sick cows out.
[00:14:21.330] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. And how did you know that they were sick? Did they raise a roof?
[00:14:29.360] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, wouldn't that be easy. The owners, the Snyder family, who are still really great and close with my family, they just taught me one on one. Obviously, I grew up with cows. Like I said, big ranching family, we had cows the whole time I was growing up, so to some extent, I just already knew. But just through doing it with my boss, I learned how to spot the signs and symptoms of different ailments that are frequent in cattle. And it was very intimidating at the time. I was more afraid of my boss than I was of the bulls. So that was what kept it going for me. But I mean, these are very large, purebred bulls, and at times they would definitely charge. So learning to be on horseback and identify these animals and then be able to sort them out and get them open gates and stuff on horseback, it was a challenge, but a really cool thing.
[00:15:34.900] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, because when you said that you could start to identify the sick ones and pull them out, every bovine that I've ever seen has a runny nose. So is it like you're looking for a dry nose then?
[00:15:48.940] - Laura Butcher
You're looking for... Honestly, yes, you're right. A dry nose, watery eyes. Sometimes it's hard to even quite pinpoint exactly what you're looking for, but there's just ways that you can identify when they're standing off, not with the other cattle that are in the pin. There's just a number of small signs, I guess, that you just become intuitive about it. All right.
[00:16:20.490] - Big Rich Klein
Fair enough. It just sounds intriguing to me.
[00:16:24.710] - Laura Butcher
It is. It's an interesting thing. And a lot of times I would guess that rocket science. They may or may not be super sick. But a lot of times at that point, they're just getting run into a sick pin and then put through a cattle shoot and they're getting drenched is what it's called. And that's basically an electrolyte vitamin solution that you're forcing down their throat. But it's not going to hurt them either which way. But a lot of times you're looking for mucus and drainage on their eyes and a dry nose and things like that. Looks of dehydration is often associated.
[00:17:00.990] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, so now you're going to college for fire sciences in Reno. And did you work as you went to college there?
[00:17:14.790] - Laura Butcher
I did. I had a part-time job with the City of Reno in the Parks and Recreation Department. I loved that job very much, and that was a really good relationship with a few people that I have been able to maintain 20 years later. And then I also started taking general ed college classes along with entry level firefighter classes, which after a few semesters led me to being able to test for the Fire Academy. Once I got in further with the Fire Academy, that also became a requirement that we had an EMT basic class.
[00:17:54.100] - Big Rich Klein
And then that's where you got the start into the EMT paramedic stuff.
[00:17:59.830] - Laura Butcher
I did, yes. That led to, after my first experiences with that, I became a volunteer firefighter in Yerington just to gain some experience, firefighter EMT, and then got my EMT intermediate certification from there, and then took that and became a full-time career firefighter EMT. My first job was at the Army Depot in Hawthorne for their fire department.
[00:18:29.740] - Big Rich Klein
That's interesting. Hopefully you didn't have to fight fires there because that's all ammo.
[00:18:37.300] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, a lot of it. It was very interesting, HAZMAT classes, special classifications with the government. It was an interesting first, I feel like that was my first grown-up job. It was my first real full-time thing, and I thought it was super cool because I was finally like a professional firefighter EMT. Right.
[00:19:01.800] - Big Rich Klein
Did you fight any fires in the Hawthorne area?
[00:19:04.690] - Laura Butcher
I did. We had a lot of wildland fires, and I would say it wasn't as much like big structure fires. It was more, I would say, accidents involving military personnel. At that time, they had a lot of different branches of the military training at the army depot before they would go overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan.
[00:19:32.010] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. And that tells you something about Nevada.
[00:19:36.530] - Laura Butcher
It does. Yeah. So a lot of my actual experience on calls at that time revolved more so around mishaps, so to speak. And it was honestly a ton of training. There wasn't a huge call volume.
[00:19:54.360] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. But that training and you're getting paid for it is pretty priceless.
[00:20:01.750] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, it was a huge deal. I think I was, was I even 21? I might not have even been 21 when I started, but I was the only female on the department for a chunk of it. There was one other girl for part of the time, but then after she went on to a different department, I was it. And it was a really big experience. That was a lot for somebody at that age. But I got the cool certification to learn. I went through the DMV testing, got certified to be able to drive the fire trucks and fire engines and stuff, and that was a big deal.
[00:20:38.750] - Big Rich Klein
That's cool. Yeah. Every kid, or at least most male kids at least, want to drive fire trucks. It's great to hear that you got to be able to do that.
[00:20:51.110] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. Like I said, I think at that point I had just turned 21. So to be 21 and get that cool experience, it was awesome. Them.
[00:21:00.060] - Big Rich Klein
So then after Hawthorne, I saw that you ended up in Vegas for a while.
[00:21:07.510] - Laura Butcher
Oh, yeah, that wasn't quite a direct connect. Let's see. I left Hawthorne, did one full season of Wildland with the BLM.
[00:21:15.320] - Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:21:16.510] - Laura Butcher
And then I started working at the Emergency Department at Renown in Reno while I went to paramedic school. I got through paramedic school in Reno, and went to Winemucca on an internship for my paramedic program. I was almost done with that, but I just wasn't getting enough call volume to meet the requirements for paramedic school. So I went down to Las Vegas and started working for AMR in Las Vegas.
[00:21:50.970] - Big Rich Klein
Which we all know there's going to be a lot more calls in Las Vegas.
[00:21:54.910] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. Talk about a shock to my system. That was a heck of a transition to make.
[00:22:02.550] - Big Rich Klein
So let's talk about that. From Winnemucca to Vegas.
[00:22:09.740] - Laura Butcher
I moved in the month of August, which was probably a terrible idea, but the lack of air conditioning in the back of an ambulance was really challenging. It was like constant dehydration at first. I remember my first day on the job with AMR thinking that people were so mean just across the board, whether it was coworkers or patients that we picked up. I was talking to my field training officer like, I don't know if I can do this. Everybody's so mean. And he is like, You know what? Give it six months, you're going to be just like the rest of us. It's the same as people say, if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. Well, in EMS, if you can make it in Vegas, you can make it anywhere.
[00:23:02.580] - Big Rich Klein
Right. The only other place I would say is like South Chicago or something. Yeah.
[00:23:09.620] - Laura Butcher
Doing three years in Las Vegas was like 25 somewhere else.
[00:23:14.170] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, so you did three years in Las Vegas.
[00:23:16.170] - Laura Butcher
Wow. I did. I ended up really enjoying it. I had a partner that I became very close to. He and I are still really close. So that was a really good learning experience. I actually loved working in Las Vegas, but hated living there. And I would always choose graveyard shifts, and I liked the weekends because it was a little more chaotic. I became addicted to the chaos.
[00:23:40.740] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Okay, I get that. That's what fighters say. I mean, it's the same thing. It's that adrenaline rush.
[00:23:52.870] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. You stop remembering how to live life as what I would say a quote-unquote, normal person is like.
[00:24:03.000] - Big Rich Klein
So what drove you out of Vegas then?
[00:24:06.370] - Laura Butcher
Burnout, if I'm being 100 % honest. It was just the amount of stuff that working in Las Vegas puts you through. I got to the point where I was just over it, and I felt like I had become pretty bitter, really changed a lot. I got it in my head that I really wanted to move to Alaska. And once I get an idea in my head, there's just no turning back, basically. I started really buckling down with the goal in mind that I wanted to finish out my bachelor's degree at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.
[00:24:45.310] - Big Rich Klein
That's quite the change.
[00:24:47.660] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, I was 25 at the time, and I told my parents, Hey, I'm going to move to Alaska. They're like, No, you're not. I'm like, Yeah, I am. I think everybody really thought, as per usual, just like when I said, Hey, I'm going to become a firefighter. Everybody's like, Yeah, okay, whatever, Laura. Then when I'm actually in the process, they're just like, Oh, my gosh, I can't believe you've actually done this. I told my parents I was moving to Alaska. I got everything set up. And at the last minute, they were like, Okay, you cannot drive by yourself. So they broke down and decided that they would make the trip to move me up there with me. So in the month of January, we drove my 2004 Toyota Tacoma that was just an extended cab. Me, my mom, my dad, and my giant husky took a 10-day drive to Fairbanks, Alaska, to move me up there.
[00:25:46.560] - Big Rich Klein
So who sat in the back?
[00:25:49.140] - Laura Butcher
My mom and I took turns. My dad and I took turns driving, and my mom and I took turns sitting in the back sideways with my dog on top of me.
[00:25:57.320] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So I see... I see a pattern here of moving in the worst possible months.
[00:26:05.880] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, it just sticks. I haven't even stopped doing that.
[00:26:13.480] - Big Rich Klein
So what was Alaska like after being in, I would imagine it was almost you could sleepwalk through it compared to Vegas.
[00:26:21.890] - Laura Butcher
It was different. When I first got there, everything was magical. It's Alaska. It's so beautiful and picturesque, and everything's very novel. I started going to school, working on my bachelor's degree. I very briefly worked as a bartender in Alaska, which was entertaining to say the least. But eventually, I went back to all the regular fire and EMS stuff. That was really cool. A lot of really great experience. When I moved up there, I had no intentions of ever leaving. I thought if I'm going to make a trip this big and do all of this crazy life change, it's permanent. This is it. I'm staying. I had really locked myself in to I lived in a little tiny remote cabin in North Pole, Alaska. I'm not even joking. North Pole, Alaska, just me and my dog. I was like, This is it. This is where I'm at.
[00:27:23.010] - Big Rich Klein
In North Pole, Alaska.
[00:27:24.860] - Laura Butcher
That's awesome. North Pole, Alaska. It's about 30 miles outside of Fairbanks.
[00:27:29.490] - Big Rich Klein
And what were the winters like?
[00:27:32.400] - Laura Butcher
Very cold and very dark. The first year I moved there in January, so it didn't seem so bad. The second year it was like, oh, man, winter starts basically fall is August, and then everything after that, all the way through to May, you're looking at snow and dark, which isn't a terrible thing. I really enjoy cold weather and snow for the most part, but there would be ice storms. I think I spent about two weeks one winter basically alone in my cabin because we had an ice storm that was so bad. Everything was closed down, which hardly ever happens there. But you just couldn't do anything. You couldn't go anywhere. You couldn't drive. So it was times like that that were just... I'm an introvert for the most part, so being alone was never a huge deal. But being alone for those stretches of time, that'll wear on you mentally.
[00:28:29.600] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Especially if it's dark all the time.
[00:28:31.900] - Laura Butcher
Exactly. It's like the middle of the night all the time, and you're alone. I mean, thank goodness I had a dog, but I was fortunate enough to make some really good friends while I was there, and I learned to use them and get involved in a few other things. But my first year there was rough.
[00:28:53.140] - Big Rich Klein
I would imagine the transition.
[00:28:55.510] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. It was a really good thing to make friends and develop a routine that got me actually out of the cabin and interacting with other people. It would have been really easy to just turn into a hermit.
[00:29:11.870] - Big Rich Klein
So what did you do for entertainment in Alaska besides going to school and working?
[00:29:19.340] - Laura Butcher
Let's see. I ran a couple of half marathons. They have the midnight sunrun that they do in Fair Banks every summer. I got really close to some friends that worked. I had friends on both the army base and the Air Force base that were on either side of North Pole. Did a lot of just fun stuff with friends. I got really involved in a group of friends that we went to the Alaska Club, which is like a health club in the area all the time because it's cold and it's dark. And so you go to the Alaska Club and you work out and get warmed up in a sauna, just stuff like that. I went to a lot of hockey games. I really like hockey. I got pretty proficient at ice skating.
[00:30:09.610] - Big Rich Klein
That's a bonus.
[00:30:11.720] - Laura Butcher
Yeah.
[00:30:12.340] - Big Rich Klein
Especially now that you're living back in Nevada, a lot of ice skating there. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:30:19.830] - Laura Butcher
I did a lot of it this last year.
[00:30:21.430] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah. Okay, good. So then you're planning on staying in Alaska, and here, I got to ask this stupid question. So did you put an Alaska or bus sticker on your car as you were on your truck on the way to Alaska?
[00:30:41.800] - Laura Butcher
No, I should have. One memorable moment from that journey, though, we were in White Horse. It's a town, a very small town in the Yukon. Yes. We're staying in White Horse overnight, and my dad goes out to start my truck to warm it up before we get going in the morning. It is Sunday morning. It is dark. There is nothing and no one around. He takes my dog out to go to the bathroom as he's warming up the truck. She jumps into the truck. He closes the door, doesn't think about it. She steps on the door lock and locks the truck with the car running. She's locked inside, and there's no one anywhere that we are going to be getting help from. My Toyota Tacoma had a tiny little black or backslider window on the rear window. Yeah. What we had to do is he popped the lock on that with his leatherman, and I'm walking outside and stripping layers of clothes off as I'm walking to the truck because I know it is negative 58 degrees at this point. So I am ripping clothes off as I'm walking to the truck. And then here you go.
[00:31:56.810] - Laura Butcher
My firefighter training comes in handy. I'm using my confined spaces training to manipulate my body through that tiny little window. And I get as far as I need to get to pop the lock so that we can get into the truck. And then I wiggle myself back out, which was no easy feet. I ended up with second-degree burns along both sides of my rib cage, full blisters, bruises the whole nine yards from having to touch the metal and the glass at those temperatures. That was that cold. Yes. But we made it.
[00:32:30.750] - Big Rich Klein
And I would imagine your dog was thrilled to see you come in the back window.
[00:32:35.520] - Laura Butcher
She's licking my face while I'm trying to get a log. Exactly.
[00:32:41.210] - Big Rich Klein
In negative 58.
[00:32:43.280] - Laura Butcher
In negative 58. And I spent quite... I mean, there were weeks during every winter I was there that were negative 40, negative 50.
[00:32:52.480] - Big Rich Klein
I've done negative 31 with no wind. And the leather seats in my Grand Cherokee were frozen solid like blocks of ice.
[00:33:03.670] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. Anything colder than negative 30, it hurts to breathe the second you walk outside. I had a transmission heater, a block heater, and the whole nine yards on my truck, it would stay plugged in, but I would still have to warm it up for about 45 minutes to an hour before I could really drive and my tires would become square. I would drive to the nearest gas station, air my tires up in the morning, and a lot of times it was a manual transmission. This is the same truck I did the Rebell Rally. Okay. So manual transmission, and oftentimes as I'm driving, the clutch would freeze. So I would have to shift without.
[00:33:45.760] - Big Rich Klein
The clutch. A little speed shifting.
[00:33:47.910] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. Yeah, speed-shifting 101. Stink or Swim.
[00:33:53.850] - Big Rich Klein
You know what? It's about the challenges and being able to overcome them.
[00:34:01.320] - Laura Butcher
Yep. I was on the younger, still in my mid-20s there by myself. I had to figure it out.
[00:34:09.020] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So talk about working as a bartender. Now, everybody always hears that Alaska, it's like two or three to one men to women. It is. So a female bartender in Alaska, I would imagine, was an interesting job.
[00:34:29.440] - Laura Butcher
It was. Everybody called me Vegas. The second that I got there, everybody was like, Oh, well, we're just going to call you Vegas. Cool. That's not where I'm from at all, but okay.
[00:34:43.090] - Big Rich Klein
But you spent three or four years there, so.
[00:34:45.490] - Laura Butcher
That's what they- Yeah, I had just moved from Las Vegas, and that's what they latched on to.
[00:34:50.640] - Big Rich Klein
You were burned out. You were bitter. You get to Alaska. How long did it take you to drop that Vegas burn out and bitterness?
[00:35:03.860] - Laura Butcher
I don't know if I really did at that time, honestly. It's funny because you talk to some people at points in my life and they'd be like, Oh, my gosh, you're the sweetest person ever. You're so nice. And then you talk to other people and I'd be like, Oh, she is intense. I still had, I call it the Urban Scowl. I still had a pretty tough exterior at that point. I mean, I'm sure I was friendly enough. I did well as a bartender. A lot of Bush pilots that would come in. It was a good way to talk with people and stuff, but ultimately it was not something that I could sustain while I was doing school and everything else. So it didn't last long, but it was interesting.
[00:35:51.650] - Big Rich Klein
So what led you to break your idea of living, staying in Alaska and heading back south?
[00:36:03.290] - Laura Butcher
My older brother, who I was really, really close to, I would say we were best friends for most of our lives, he very suddenly became sick with brain cancer. It was February, I think, of that year, and out of nowhere, he has a seizure and he's in the hospital, and I'm feeling just like, Oh, my gosh, I'm so far away. This is terrible. I can't get there fast enough. I meet up with my family. By this time, they've been transferred to UCSF in San Francisco, and he's having surgery and everything else. We ended up staying in San Francisco for about a month. And then I went back after I got him settled back at home, we moved him back in with my parents, got him all settled back at home, and then I went back to Alaska. And the six months after that were absolutely miserable because I just needed to help out with things at home. And I was still on the fence about it. It was a big investment to move up there. But ultimately, when my brother said, Can you please come home, I came home. So again, in the month of January, it was so smart of me.
[00:37:19.750] - Laura Butcher
Actually, I should say late December at that point. He flies up to Fairbanks in late December, and we load up my truck again, and the two of us make the 10-day drive back with my dog all the way back to Nevada, and we make it home just in time for Christmas Day.
[00:37:38.750] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, that's nice.
[00:37:40.590] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. It was a journey in itself. I mean, my truck got broken into. All of our stuff got stolen. Like, always a wild adventure with me, apparently, but it was a good trip. It was 10 solid days of just the two of us, and I'm very grateful to have had that time.
[00:37:59.920] - Big Rich Klein
So you said it got broken into. What part? Where along the trip did that happen?
[00:38:07.780] - Laura Butcher
Redding.
[00:38:08.510] - Big Rich Klein
California. Really?
[00:38:09.970] - Laura Butcher
Yeah.
[00:38:11.900] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, Lord.
[00:38:13.050] - Laura Butcher
Okay. So they steal all of our stuff, all the Christmas presents and a bunch of my personal belongings, my brother's passport and everything because we had to drive through Canada. Along with that was my dad's satellite phone. I was really mad about it, of course. I put the phone number out there and told everybody on Facebook what happened. I'm thinking, Okay, just blow it up until the battery dies. I start calling and the guy actually answers. I talk to him and I'm like, What the heck? What do you think you're doing? Whatever. Then the next time I call it back, it's actually the police. They have now found all the stuff.
[00:38:50.850] - Big Rich Klein
Oh, good.
[00:38:51.680] - Laura Butcher
I was able to actually... We drove over to where they had found him and all of our belongings, and the police let me give him a really hard time for about a half an hour and get all of our stuff back. For the most part, he'd sold some of the Christmas presents, but most all of our stuff was recovered at that point.
[00:39:11.120] - Big Rich Klein
That would be some people's dream is to be able to get like five minutes with somebody that did that to you? They did.
[00:39:18.680] - Big Rich Klein
With nobody watching.
[00:39:21.030] - Laura Butcher
They did. They literally he was handcuffed in the back of the cop car, and hopefully this doesn't get anybody in trouble, but he was handcuffed in the back of the cop car. And so they gave me as much time as they wanted with them, and they said, Why don't you take your dog over there, too? That freaked him out because he was high. But also, I just explained to him like, You know this jacket that you have on, these gloves that you have on, and this hat that you have on, those are my brother's things that you stole. I want you to look at him and understand that he has brain cancer and he's terminal and you took his stuff. He's out here in the cold and you're wearing all of his things because you decided to break into my car and make that selfish decision. Now he's without his belongings. He started crying and apologizing, and I'm still back to Laura's tough exterior from Vegas. I'm like, Yeah, whatever. But it worked out pretty well. How often do you actually get all of your belongings recovered, or at least.
[00:40:26.750] - Big Rich Klein
Most of them? Right. It's amazing that he answered the phone.
[00:40:31.950] - Laura Butcher
What an idiot.
[00:40:33.290] - Big Rich Klein
Well, there is something to be said about that in criminals.
[00:40:39.770] - Laura Butcher
Right.
[00:40:40.720] - Big Rich Klein
The smart ones don't get caught.
[00:40:43.060] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, but hysterical that he actually answered the phone, and it worked out the way it did.
[00:40:49.880] - Big Rich Klein
So I'm sorry to hear about your brother. If you don't mind me asking, how much longer did he-Did he have?
[00:41:01.080] - Laura Butcher
They gave him seven years originally, when we found out what was going on, and he lived three after that. So he didn't make it very long. He died in 2014. So I was able to move back home, and I stayed with him at my parents' house for about, I don't know, six months, a year, somewhere in there. And then I ended up buying a house in Yerington. I was working as a paramedic in Fallon at that time and just commuting back and forth. But it was nice to be able to help my parents. And then about a month before he passed away, I knew he was winding down, so I decided to take some leave of absence from work and I took him to one last Baha 1,000 that year, November of 2013. And that was really great. We went with Locos Mocos because that's our friend group that we grew up with. And we did the pit there. And then we went and visited my sister one last time. We got to be with my nephew for his first birthday. And then we came home and by December, things had gotten really bad. I was trying to take more leave from work and they wouldn't give it to me.
[00:42:19.640] - Laura Butcher
They said, Siblings don't qualify for FMLA, so I ended up quitting pretty much on the spot, and just staying with him full-time until he died at the very end of January in 2014. Okay.
[00:42:36.200] - Big Rich Klein
Well, I'm sorry about your loss.
[00:42:38.180] - Laura Butcher
Well, thank you. I appreciate that.
[00:42:39.700] - Big Rich Klein
So then at that point, you're no longer working in Fallon. Your brother has passed. You were able to spend the time, quality time with him. What came next?
[00:42:54.510] - Laura Butcher
Well, it gets a little silly after that because I was just lost in general. I had been friends with my husband for years. My brother had actually introduced us. Oh, gosh. I want to say in 2006, we met going snowwheeling with my brother and a bunch of his friends. I had gotten a new Jeep Rubicon at the time with my fancy fire department job in Hawthorne. And he didn't want me to be alone in the car, so he decided that my husband would be the right person to put in the car with me just so that I wasn't by myself while we were all snowwheeling that night. And we became friends and stayed friends that entire time. Right before my brother died, we ran into each other at a Lucas Oil Race. And then honestly, within the month or so of his funeral and everything, we just started talking a lot. And shortly after that, we started dating. That was the time period where Brian and I really started getting close, and I also was just over it, beyond burnt out with being a paramedic. I felt like I was not capable of going on calls anymore without the emotional portion of things coming into play after my brother had passed away and everything.
[00:44:18.900] - Laura Butcher
Because when he passed away, he was on hospice. He made a person. Yes. When he died, he was on hospice and everything, but the day he died, it was really snowy and no one could come. We were on our own, and it just left me, I would say it left me with PTSD if I'm being 100 % honest. I needed to step away from my career as a paramedic, and I knew it. I went to heating and air conditioning school. I went back.
[00:44:52.410] - Big Rich Klein
To- I saw that, and I was like, Whoa, this is a...
[00:44:55.640] - Laura Butcher
My parents for a very long time owned a heating, air conditioning, plumbing repair business. At that point, I'm like, I just want to work with my family. My parents went ahead and agreed to letting me go to school in Reno yet again, and I got certified as an HVAC technician, did some electrical, some heating and air conditioning.
[00:45:20.920] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. You're that Jack of all trades there.
[00:45:26.930] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, Jack of all trades, master of none. But certainly has left me with just, like I said, a wild, varying background.
[00:45:36.740] - Big Rich Klein
And so I noticed that I looked through your LinkedIn account and things like that, and to get a little bit of background, and there was like a three or four year gap, and that must be that three or four year gap.
[00:45:53.300] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. I did do a fair amount of stuff with my parents' business, heating and air conditioning stuff for a little while. And then ultimately, after we got married, Bryan and I decided to move back to the Sacramento area. He has two older kids from his first marriage, and we needed to be a little closer to them for a while. I went back to doing some private health care stuff. I still didn't want to go back to an ambulance or an emergency room, but I did work part-time in the medical field until I was really pregnant and could not do it anymore. And then I went back to it after I had Grace for the first two years of her being around.
[00:46:41.590] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. Okay. And what year was she born in?
[00:46:44.740] - Laura Butcher
She was born in 2015 or 2016.
[00:46:47.560] - Big Rich Klein
Sorry. Okay. And so I guess the point is now, let's jump into the things that you are doing now, because I would imagine that all segues, because you're spending time as a newlywed, and having a baby, and trying to clear your head of everything that had happened in the past. And then the first step is, after doing all that, is it, Laura?
[00:47:24.130] - Laura Butcher
What ended up happening is one of those serendipitous things. I was, like I said, still working part-time in the medical field, but then I got really sick. I got kidney stones and shingles, and I had to completely give up work for a couple of months until I could recover from that. And in that time period, one of the friends that I had made at the Baha 1,000 pit with Locuste Mocuste asked if I was interested in doing the rebelle rally with her because her partner had backed out. So on pretty short notice, this? I was like, Absolutely, yes, let's do this. And went full gear into rebelle stuff. And that is, I feel like, the catalyst that sent all of what my current life is into motion because I met a lot of people doing The Rebell and formed some really great relationships, which led to right after The Rebell going to Ormhoff that year, we went to support Ed Robinson as he was becoming inducted. We were still volunteering for VORRA a lot at that point. And it was just, like I said, a serendipitous series of events from there.
[00:48:43.620] - Big Rich Klein
Who had VORRA before you guys?
[00:48:46.940] - Laura Butcher
We were volunteering a lot when West Harbor had it and then Dave Kroll had purchased it. And it was at Ormhoff that year. We were just... All I wanted to do was ask Dave if I could use the VORRA logo to make some retro T-shirts, but we caught him at the right time. It was just fate because Charlene Bauer was walking around doing the live video at that point. Dave's like, Hey, Charlene, come over here. And it's all caught on live video where he's like, You want the logo, but I'll do you one better, and you guys can just have it. So that was pretty cool.
[00:49:28.690] - Big Rich Klein
That was a big moment. That's awesome, especially it's good that it was on live video. That's all I'm going to say. Dave and I go way back.
[00:49:39.570] - Laura Butcher
This is awesome. I'm so excited. And then you get home afterwards, and it's like, Wait a second. Where do I start? I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know who to call, where to start with any of this. It was just the name. It wasn't anything more than the actual name. There was no equipment or anything like that.
[00:50:00.350] - Big Rich Klein
Because it had just gone away. I mean, Dave used it. Yeah, it had dissolved. Dave used it for the purpose of putting on a couple of desert races for his Ultra 4 series, and then that up. They didn't care anymore.
[00:50:18.700] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. There was a time period where John Goodby was running it for him, and we went to a few of the, I would say, the last VORRA races at Prairie City, and there was literally three VORRA racers if that. I mean, it was nothing and it had all but died. So I'm just interested in getting the logo to do a run of retro T-shirts because we had seen some really cool ones brought back with Ed's induction into the Hall of Fame. Right. Okay. This is like, Where am I going from here?
[00:50:54.360] - Big Rich Klein
Who knows? Before we get into VORRA, let's talk about The Rebell then. That first year on The Rebell, what shock was that to your system?
[00:51:07.380] - Laura Butcher
It was a wild trip. Luckily, I was very, very experienced at that point. I will mostly credit Locos Mocos on this one. All the offroad trips and pit experience and stuff, the long days of offroading and camping were no big deal for me. That was like another family vacation for all intents and purposes. But the Locos Mocos crew, they've always been my family, and they stepped up like none other to support me after my brother passed away and getting my truck ready and just everything and anything that they could do to support me, they did. They showed up in every way to get me to the point I needed to be ready for The Rebell. That being said, aside from the actual truck stuff and the off-roading, I knew nothing about navigation, and I really didn't have time to prepare for any of it because I was just a replacement player right before I think I found out about two months before the actual event. So overhauling my very old Tacoma at that point and getting everything else ready didn't really leave me any time to spend on navigation. That was, I would say, the biggest portion of things that I was so lost on that.
[00:52:29.430] - Big Rich Klein
Right. So that means you took the driving.
[00:52:34.610] - Laura Butcher
Portion of it. I did, yes.
[00:52:36.360] - Big Rich Klein
Like, wholly. And your partner then took over just the navigation, which can work. But the strongest teams are those that both players do both is what I see from my perspective on the Rebell. Shelly and I just did a training session down in, was a multiple day training session down in Ridgecrest. Oh, yes. And it was eye opening. I understood the navigation. Shelly did the math really well. I've been driving all over the Western United States off road for many years, always figuring out where I'm at. The years of looking for and then designing VORRA courses and just exploring roads because I love to drive. That's the best. If I can spend eight hours on the dirt road somewhere, just driving all the time every day, I'd be in heaven. Going to Mexico, never worrying about where I'm at. I always knew where I was at. Well, when we tried to do find the locations, we're mapping out all our way points and then trying to drive to them, I'm looking at the map and I'm instinctively going, Okay, well, that's there. Right. Well, and then if we were both working on the calculations in the first couple of them, if you get one and you have a series of 10 and you get one wrong, it throws off all the rest.
[00:54:25.720] - Laura Butcher
Yes, it is such a hard thing.
[00:54:29.050] - Big Rich Klein
And that's what I realized, because as a course worker, I'm a rock, right? That's what we always tell you, you can't ask us questions. But I have electronics. I know where I'm going. I'm watching the teams, and I know that some of them, I can look at them and go, Hey, okay, they know where they're going. And then there's other teams where I'm like, Oh, this is going to be a long day for them.
[00:55:00.080] - Laura Butcher
Right? Yeah.
[00:55:00.940] - Big Rich Klein
How many of those days did you have?
[00:55:04.090] - Laura Butcher
So my partner is from Louisiana, so she had quite the journey just to get out to the West Coast for us to do it. And yes, we definitely had to completely split duties. Me driving a manual transmission wasn't going to work really for her either. So it was like all truck responsibility is for me, all camping responsibilities, all of that stuff. And then she was solely navigation, which I would have loved to have been able to help more, but it was so beyond me at that point. The first few days we did really well, and then it got really tough. There was a lot of pressure for her. I would say overall, I still had a really great experience. It was such a life-changing experience in the grand scheme of things just based off of the relationships that I made at that point. Right. So I'm never going to be sorry that I did it at all. I love that experience. I love the other rebels. I love the staff. It is such a good thing. We did not have a super sick... I think we just finished middle of the pack. Both times I've done it.
[00:56:17.270] - Laura Butcher
I was very middle of the pack.
[00:56:20.060] - Big Rich Klein
That's a lot. I mean, I don't remember ever having to come find you and rescue you.
[00:56:25.560] - Laura Butcher
No, I'm pretty good at reading terrain. I spent a lot of time in Baha. I worked as a pit medic for BFG, and all the loco, smoco stuff. Like I said, the offroading and the camping and reading terrain and stuff, much like you, I'm very comfortable with. It was actually like finding the blue and black actual way points and stuff. That's where it got tough and was super beyond me.
[00:56:51.920] - Big Rich Klein
Right. I agree with that one. I understand the blacks, especially because there is... I mean, you're just- There's nothing. I don't know how some of these teams are nailing it like they do off a 50,000th map. Right. It is.
[00:57:07.680] - Laura Butcher
Such.
[00:57:08.160] - Big Rich Klein
A challenge. That that point that you're really looking for is smaller than your dot that you've put on there from your pencil, that you can read. And I don't know how some of these teams are nailing them like they do.
[00:57:22.810] - Laura Butcher
They're the smartest women on the planet.
[00:57:26.330] - Big Rich Klein
And so capable. It's amazing.
[00:57:28.600] - Laura Butcher
Yes. I mean, I think everybody should at least learn a little bit more and somewhat understand. The rebel is just intense and amazing, and I would love to see it get more attention. It does so well already, but I think there's a lot of people that just don't really understand how challenging it is.
[00:57:49.790] - Big Rich Klein
Especially the men, the off-road racers, because so many of them are like, Oh, there's a new competition. I can go do this because I'm this great driver. I've done this and this.
[00:57:59.870] - Laura Butcher
And this. The driving is, I mean- Secondary. Yeah. The sand dunes, I would say, is the number one driver component, because a lot of people are just so intimidated by that. But in general, the driving is nothing compared to the navigation and the rally stuff.
[00:58:18.290] - Big Rich Klein
Correct. And that's what cracks me, especially in the first couple of years, we'd be posting about the event afterwards, and the guys were all these racers are going, Well, you're just afraid of the men getting in the competition because you don't want to be beat by men. Man, those attitudes just irked me. I was telling Emily, I said, Let's do a reverse once we're down, you've already got it mapped out, right? We do it in reverse and don't give the men anything. I mean, they have to use bag bags, their own tents. They can just have the meals in the bag. Don't give them any bathrooms or showers, and then see how they perform.
[00:59:09.250] - Laura Butcher
Yeah. I mean, it is an extreme event in itself, the mental exhaustion and emotional exhaustion, physical exhaustion. There is no component of your body and mind that is left unscathed after that.
[00:59:26.300] - Big Rich Klein
Truth. Very true. So then at that point, you do the rebell, you've got VORRA.
[00:59:35.510] - Laura Butcher
Yeah.
[00:59:36.740] - Big Rich Klein
Did Troy Robinson help at the beginning of you guys' reign with VORRA?
[00:59:41.510] - Laura Butcher
He did. He happened to be standing right there with us when the whole thing went down with Dave. Awesome. And his immediate reaction was like, Well, I'm happy to help you guys, but it's on you. So BD and I were like, Okay, we'll happily run with this. We love racing. We love off-road. It was the biggest thing for us, a huge hobby, definitely a passion. It just was like, Okay, so we have this name, now what? We don't have any money, we don't have any equipment. What are we doing? I don't know. I'm just.
[01:00:15.240] - Big Rich Klein
Trying to think. When I heard that you guys had taken it over, I was thrilled. Because I knew it needed to get back into the hands of the people that had that enthusiasm for the racing and loved the lifestyle, but not necessarily somebody that was looking at it on the dollar and cents side. Because every event promoter that I know, and I know a lot of them that have gotten into it because, Hey, I'm going to make a million dollars at this, not unless they started with two.
[01:00:55.920] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, it is much like racing. It is not something you're going to make a bunch of on.
[01:01:00.410] - Big Rich Klein
Correct. And I thought that you guys would be a good mix. I really did. I thought it was going to go to good hands. And I was happy to see that because from Ed to me, I had a lot of care for it. But then just there were some things going on that I don't think a lot of the racers understood that the passion that I had for off-road, in general, they just always looked at me as the rock crawler. What's he doing over in the desert racing side? Well, Ed saw something when he came to my rock crawling events, and I think I put on really good events, but I was getting a lot of kickback. Between that and then BLM trying to put the screws to me, because I was trying to put the screws to them on the rock crawling side, and then they took it out on me on the desert side, I just to the point where I said, All right, this isn't worth doing any longer because I'm going to end up shooting somebody. I'm going to go postal.
[01:02:06.580] - Laura Butcher
I totally understand where you could be with that.
[01:02:09.360] - Big Rich Klein
So I was really glad to hear that you guys had taken it over. And so how is it going? It's going.
[01:02:20.350] - Laura Butcher
Really well. I mean, all things considered for our current situation and our situation at that time, the way we set it up as... Laura is my business on paper and everything for the actual business licenses and a lot of the admin stuff, it's me. Right. And JJ operates as the race director. Correct. That's been the format for us. I think a lot of times people don't realize or quite get like, well, they don't understand all of what it takes to put on races, which I know you understand, but they also don't understand how involved I actually am with it at times. So that's been interesting. It's been an evolving thing over the years of people thinking that it's just BJ to it being both of us or where things get separated out. But it was an interesting format. I needed to come up with money to get it started. We came up with the idea, and luckily, everybody, BJ and Troy and everybody was supportive of it. I created 20 lifetime memberships that I sold for $1,000 each, and that was the seed money that got everything going again. Awesome. I didn't want to go more than 20 because then I felt like I was shooting myself in the foot long term, but I still needed something to actually get things off the ground.
[01:03:50.920] - Laura Butcher
So it worked out well, luckily for me. It hasn't been a failure by any stretch. If anything, it's grown so rapidly over the last almost six years now that sometimes it's like, Oh, my gosh, we're trying crazy to keep up with the growth, but all things considered, we're very lucky, and it's been wonderful.
[01:04:16.820] - Big Rich Klein
And what are your car counts averaging now?
[01:04:20.940] - Laura Butcher
Oh, gosh, these days were, I would say roughly 80 at most races we've been. We've had as much as and that made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke from the stress. So, I mean, we've learned a lot. I feel like every single race we have continued to be like, Well, we haven't seen this before. Okay, let's reconfigure. We're really lucky to have a great group of friends that volunteer with us, and it certainly wouldn't be possible without them. It's been fun.
[01:04:57.310] - Big Rich Klein
That's that family. The VORRA was always... I mean, that's the reason I said yes to Ed, is he came and visited me when I was doing an event up in Donner, and then he said, I really want you to consider taking over VORRA because if you don't, I'm retiring and it's going to go away. That's exactly the words he told me. I said, Well, before I say yes, I'm interested, but before I say yes, let me see what you guys are doing. It was the last two events, two or three weekends of racing down in Prairie City. I came down and just witnessed what was going on and just hung out. I walked away from it saying, Okay, this is another family that is really important. Everybody's important to each other. They need each other and they need this to survive. I said, I don't want to see this go away. Well, so I said, Yes. That started that process, and I think I had it for four years or four and a half years or something like that, and then finally gave up and gave it to Codoneway, who always wanted it to begin with, which I didn't find out until after I said yes and made the deal with...
[01:06:25.540] - Big Rich Klein
Because otherwise I would have just said, No, make the deal with Dennis. But then Dennis got it, ran one event, and then said, I'm done, after I gave it to him. So it was like, All right, well, that wasn't going to work that way either. That's why I said it's glad to see you guys are running it. You're running it. B. J. Is doing the race director side of it, and you have a tight group of friends that are helping and run that family because that was very important. In my tenure there, my son was still living at home and his friends helped us. And I had that network as well, plus some of the racers between Sam Barry and Steve Sullivan and some of the other guys that were really important in keeping things running. And that was important. But as those guys all got older and everybody, those kids started going off and doing their own things and getting married and doing their thing, it became harder and harder and harder to do it with less people.
[01:07:34.360] - Laura Butcher
Right, it is. That's a constant battle. I mean, it takes a village. To run.
[01:07:40.360] - Big Rich Klein
An organization like that, absolutely. It does.
[01:07:43.870] - Laura Butcher
Absolutely. Any given race, let alone the in-between race stuff, it takes a lot more people. There's so much more going on than most people understand.
[01:07:53.730] - Big Rich Klein
Yeah, there's a lot of mechanisms in place and constantly moving.
[01:07:58.250] - Laura Butcher
It's really a thankless job. In honestly, I don't think... And we had volunteered with VORRA and a couple of other organizations before, and I continue to actually volunteer with a lot of the other race organizations. People just think that they know. We did, we were totally naive. We thought, Oh, we've volunteered for a long time. We've raced. We've done all this stuff. We have it pretty well dialed on what we're going to need. No, absolutely not. We did not. I would say we still don't. I mean, do you ever have a handle on it? I don't know.
[01:08:34.060] - Big Rich Klein
I've been in the game for 24 seasons, 23 years, and you're always learning something. And if you're not learning, then you're backtracking.
[01:08:48.250] - Laura Butcher
Absolutely. I think it does help that we've been racers before. Certainly. That I feel like does give a good perspective, but yeah, it's a long-term game that you have to be.
[01:09:00.200] - Big Rich Klein
Strategic with. Correct. So then you're now... Before getting into Tread Lightly, what came about and how did Farmeys Off Road Park come to come together?
[01:09:19.910] - Laura Butcher
Well, it all interestingly ties together between VORRA, Tread Lightly and Farmeys in some ways. What led me even to Tread Lightly was my constant difficulty with BLM permitting. So a little over a year ago when it came to last, not this last spring, but the spring before that, we had our Hawthorne and Fallon races scheduled like we always do, but we had put them in different months not thinking anything of it. We'd actually done it somewhat the year before, and there was no problems, but there was a newer field office manager in that district at the time, and right, wrong, or otherwise, he just was not a fan of the idea of us putting on these races. And it became like an increasing struggle between us over what was going to happen. And I obviously have very different tactics than probably a lot of other promoters when it comes to working through these things. And I guess that's worked out pretty well for me. I tend to basically like, I will stay calm. I will still stay nice. There's not much that's going to ruffle my feathers, but I'm still going to press the issue and get what I need to get.
[01:10:44.290] - Laura Butcher
So we would have these meetings. A lot of times I was able to work through the problems, but there came a time where we were simply not going to agree. They were adamant that we not have this race. They were going to cancel it 10 days before the event, even though we'd had it at the same time almost exactly to the day the year before without a problem. They had a biologist that was teleworking from another state that just wasn't sure. There wasn't a concrete reason why other than just not being sure. This field office manager was fairly new to his spot, and he, I think, wanted to prove himself. We had this meeting, and I was very much like... I had done a bunch of economic impact studies, and I had put together this whole packet of factual information. That's generally how I work. I think I could have been a lawyer at some point with the way I tend to approach things, but he wouldn't even open the packet. He wouldn't even make eye contact with me. And it was really frustrating. So I told him at the end of the meeting, I am going to go to our political representatives after this meeting.
[01:11:59.300] - Laura Butcher
Would you like to talk to your boss now? Would you want to bring your boss in now or do you want me to go around you after this? And he was very much like, You know what? I have broad shoulders. I can take it. I want to be able to talk to my boss before you talk to my boss. So no, you cannot have access to them right now. I said, Okay, just so you know, when we leave this meeting, this is the course of action I'm taking. And I'm guessing that they thought I was bluffing. But in reality, I was really lucky to have a personal relationship that some of our political figures are actually like family friends of mine. So when I was still sitting in the BLM parking lot and I called, the phone was answered, and within an hour and a half, the decision was overturned. And I think it made some huge waves. I know it made some huge waves, but in that process, it sparked a lot of people's interest. One of the things I had done with that packet that I made for that specific meeting was I wanted letters of support, not from a bunch of organizations, but ones that I felt would make a bigger impact.
[01:13:16.990] - Laura Butcher
One of those was Tread Lightly. In that process, that was how I found out they were looking to hire a state program manager. But then even so, after that race season, the city of approached me and said, Hey, we heard you have a pretty rough go of it with the BLM at times, and you already used this piece of property for your Yerington races. We would come through it, and we had one of our remote pits there. They said, Do you want to do more with that? I was like, Yeah, but what do you mean? They said, Well, do you want to use it more? Do you want to do something with this piece of property? We've had it for a long time. We're not doing anything with it. Are you interested? I went and met with the city manager and one of the city council members, and we talked it through. I said, What do you guys have in mind? They said, The sky is the limit. Put something together, bring it to the city council, show us what you want to do, and we'll go from there. So, of course, that was like an explosion in my brain.
[01:14:19.020] - Laura Butcher
I went full-on with researching all these different options that I wanted to take to them. And through that process, it took me a little over a year, but through that process, the city council voted unanimously that this 942-acre parcel that they obtained in a land swap with a mine, they were going to designate it as an OHV-specific area. And then from there, put me in charge of the management of it for them for the duration. I formed a nonprofit and then came back to them and said, Here's the plan. I put together, of course, a bunch of different presentations, and we talked about options. I've used that nonprofit to start seeking out grant funding to be able to really start building that project.
[01:15:15.240] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. I know I asked you this one time. Is this on the east or west side of Yerington?
[01:15:26.140] - Laura Butcher
It's on the east side of Yerington.
[01:15:29.010] - Big Rich Klein
Okay. Does it encompass part of the old landfill area?
[01:15:34.600] - Laura Butcher
Yes. You've got Y Hill that's back there, and it's like this giant. If you look at it from an aerial point of view, you can really see the formation of it because it's a decommissioned mine, and it's also been a landfill at different times. Many, many years ago, really, at this point. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but it was quite a while ago in reality. It really hasn't held a good purpose since then. For a while, they entertained the idea of moving Night in the Country up there, but there was a lot of reasons why that wasn't going to work out. So it didn't move forward at that point. And it's just been city property, but it hasn't served any real purpose in a really long time. And it's just become like this area for underage drinking and high school parties and illegal target shooting and people still just would dump out there. It was like, well, this is a win-win for everybody because this puts that property into something that's beneficial to the community and the city economically. It also cleans the area up and gives it a purpose, something that's positive, that's beneficial.
[01:16:51.400] - Laura Butcher
We're not going to have people dumping hypodermic needles and graffiti over everything out there anymore. There's really no downside to it. It's a win for the off-road community. It's such a positive thing in all forms.
[01:17:07.250] - Big Rich Klein
So you'll use that as a base for the racing and then transition out to BLM Land and then back in? Is that how you're.?
[01:17:16.850] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, to some degree. So it's backed up by BLM Land, of course. And the plan is to have a short course loop, a kids' short course area or like a taught lot, learners loop, whatever you want to call it. Then I would like to do a mid course style loop that think more along the lines of like Loughlin, right? Right. Somewhere in between short course and Desert Course, but then also have that with the option to be able to still include it in the desert race that goes out to BLM Land. There's also a really great natural rock area that I would like to use for rock crawling. I have a projected map that includes the Motocross track and a bunch of stuff. It's a great area for a multitude of outdoor recreation, off-road events.
[01:18:19.540] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. We'll have to take a look at that rock stuff.
[01:18:23.730] - Laura Butcher
That's for sure. I would love to, yeah.
[01:18:26.410] - Big Rich Klein
So with VORRA, are you guys racing still on the west side?
[01:18:31.790] - Laura Butcher
Yes, we are. We actually have that race coming up on Labor Day weekend, so it's just a couple of weeks away.
[01:18:36.880] - Big Rich Klein
Okay, so you're racing there, but you've not tried to permit the east side yet for desert routes?
[01:18:44.930] - Laura Butcher
Oh, no, we have. We have a permit on the east side and the west side. Oh, perfect. Excellent. And I have multi-year permits on both.
[01:18:52.910] - Big Rich Klein
So I'm solid. Very good. That is awesome.
[01:18:57.570] - Laura Butcher
Yeah, I'm pretty excited.
[01:18:58.990] - Big Rich Klein
About it. So that's the future.
[01:19:00.700] - Laura Butcher
I hope so. It's really cool. It's going to provide also a really great platform for education. One of the first things that I'm going to have out there is, Storey County Sheriff's office needs a place to do some of their training. So for things like that, or some of the kids' education programs for UTV and ATV safety, I want that to be a place where those things can happen as well. Okay.
[01:19:30.340] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. Are you looking for... Well, I mean, this is a good opportunity because we have a few listeners on this podcast. If there's something that you'd like to express to the off-road community about their help or anything like that in getting farmies to where it needs to go, how do they contact you?
[01:20:01.670] - Laura Butcher
I would absolutely love any and all help is welcome. In my mind, this is very much going to be a facility that is for off-roaders by off-roaders in every way, shape, and form. If you would like to participate or contribute to the development of this project, please reach out to me. I'm on Facebook and Instagram. You can call me, text me, email me. You can look up Farmies Off Road Park on Facebook or Instagram and find me. Excellent. Or you can use my personal account either which way, even VORRA.
[01:20:39.730] - Big Rich Klein
Perfect. Well, Laura, is there anything else that we haven't touched base on?
[01:20:47.410] - Laura Butcher
I still have a lot of involvement. Of course, Tread Lightly is my full-time job, and that ties in really well to everything. In addition to that, I sit on the board of directors for the Nevada Off Road Association, and those are both really great things for the Offroad community in their own right. I'm very excited and proud of the way that they're all tying in together at this time.
[01:21:11.010] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. Excellent. Glad to hear that. Besides race directing, what's Brian doing?
[01:21:18.570] - Laura Butcher
Right now, I have so many irons in the fire. Between I've got, of course, Tread Lightly, I've got VORRA, there's Farmy Inc. And Farmy's Off Road Park. I still help out a lot with Erica Sacks's Waypoint Nav stuff. Any race that she needs it out, we've done a lot of other race series this last year. I also have been doing some contract work for other UTV manufacturers and professional athletes or race teams. So I have a logistics firm that handles that stuff. I have way too much going on. So right now, Bryan is very much helping me out with a lot of that.
[01:22:01.090] - Big Rich Klein
Excellent. I'm glad to hear that. What I try to do is shelly now.
[01:22:06.370] - Laura Butcher
It's almost 100 % necessary at this point, especially with VORRA, and that's really his passion. So as much as we both love it, he's been around it since he was five years old, and it's where he belongs.
[01:22:22.910] - Big Rich Klein
Right. Oh, I agree. That was why I was thrilled to see that all happen. Well, Laura, I want to say thank you so much for spending this time and having this conversation with me, and it was great. I really enjoyed it. And I can't wait until the Armhoff Galan now, and be able to talk to you some more.
[01:22:47.440] - Laura Butcher
I'm really looking forward to it, and I so appreciate the opportunity to be on your show and talk to you about this absolutely insane life I've had.
[01:22:56.880] - Big Rich Klein
It's awesome. Thank you so much. And have a great rest of the day.
[01:23:01.880] - Laura Butcher
Thank you. Thanks. You too. Okay.
[01:23:03.060] - Big Rich Klein
Bye-bye.
[01:23:03.670] - Laura Butcher
Bye.
[01:23:04.810] - Big Rich Klein
Well, that's another episode of Conversations with Big Rich. I'd like to thank you all for listening. If you could do us a favor and leave us a review on any podcast service that you happen to be listening on, or send us an email or a text message or a Facebook message, and let me know any ideas that you have or if there's anybody that you have that you would think would be a great guest, please forward the contact information to me so that we can try to get them on. And always remember, live life to the fullest. Enjoying life is a must. Follow your dreams and live life with all the guts you can. Thank you.