When The Road Tests You, Relationships Pay You Back

The dust hasn’t settled, and maybe that’s the point. We just wrapped Daytona Bike Week 2026 with a week that threw everything at us—flooded tents, leaky air mattresses, midnight engines, and a sales curve that swung from record pace to near freefall before a late rally. The numbers say we edged past last year; the story says we leveled up in ways a ledger can’t track.

We open with the campsite chaos and the mental game it takes to keep showing up when sleep is a rumor. Then we peel back the business side: the midweek surge, the rent hike gamble, and the decisions that turned a shaky start into a modest win. But the heartbeat of this trip was connection. At the Cabbage Patch, the bartenders’ high-fives and ownership check-ins told us we’re not just passing vendors—we’re part of the scene. That visibility may even tee up MC opportunities for 2027, proof that presence breeds possibility.

The week also gave us milestones that stick. A father–son run to Supercross at the Speedway, an NBA game to watch a hometown phenom cross a milestone, and a moment I’ll remember forever: Brian buying the RV he’s dreamed of for years. Being there for that decision reframed the grind—suddenly the long days had a narrative spine, a why you can feel. And there was a creative spark too. Country artist Daniel Johnson jumped in the booth with us, and somewhere between selling shirts and trading stories, we mapped a real plan—grow his audience up north, seed our brand down south, build shows and community the old-school collaborative way.

The drive home turned into a test and a teacher. Thirty hours of gridlock, storms, fog, and a hubcap that tried to take us out at 80. I logged my first serious trailer miles and found focus in two white lines and steady brakes. Then the Blue Ridge unspooled at sunrise, and the noise fell away. That’s where the takeaways clicked: resilience compounds, relationships are the ROI, and the hard road still leads where we want to go.

If you’re into real-world brand building, road family stories, and the grit it takes to turn chaos into momentum, you’ll feel this one. Tap play, ride with us through the wins and near-misses, and tell us what the road taught you lately. And if this resonated, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so we can keep growing this tribe together.

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Transcript

Kicking Off Post-Bike Week Recap

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And just like that, another bike week in the books. Daytona Bike Week 2026 is behind us. Let's talk results, let's cross off any doubts and decide if it all worked out. Today on Share the Struggle Podcast, we recap the final week at Daytona Bike Week and we discussed the craziness of a ride home. Let me tell you something. Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. What it do? What it do? Ha did it damn. Am I so excited to be back with you? Oh, it is true. It is damn true. Why am I so confident that it's true? Because I love you. Welcome to that podcast brought to you by the fine people of Loud Proud American. Those fine, beautiful folks that provide to you only made in America goodness. Okay. Find all said goodness at www.loudproud American.shop. We are arrived here today on that podcast. Precisely, beautifully, perfectly named, share the struggle. Because everybody struggles. But the truth is, boys and girls, chipmunks and squirrels, if we are bold enough, courageous enough, and crazy enough to gather week after week and to share what it is we are going through, then together we shall grow through. You understand? That's what we're doing. That's a task at hand. Episode 296, and I am back with your weekly fix. And I might be sounding a little bit congested. I'm a little stuffy. I got a lot of Daytona dirt in my nostrils. Okay? Let's just say your boy isn't built for florid attempts. And um, let's also say that it gets a little dusty, and I've got seven and a half tons of Daytona dust in my nostrils, apparently. Not a pleasant little image, is it? I do realize that now as I say that, so I I apologize. I apologize. Last week's show I recorded from the confines of my canvas dome, the tent that flooded out, the great flood of 26, as I will always remember it. Man, I'm gonna tell you, when you roll back to your tent and uh you just unzip that door and hop in there like you're ready for bed, and you just plop plop, go ankles deep in a Daytoner River, it's not pleasant, okay? It's not pleasant. I will also say that we patched said air mattress. Brian went and got some some alpaches and we patched it up, and that was good for a night or so. And then I got back to the position of losing air and waking up every two hours to replenish the air that changed to every hour, so that was fun. Let's just say sleeping, not great, okay. And um, I never realized how fast the roadways are right next to where we're sleeping. Like there's just big long straightaways and drunken nonsense every night, people just ripping down there 100 miles an hour, or deciding to get up at three in the morning and redline their motorcycle, or they haven't gone to bed yet. That's probably the more logical scenario. Doesn't make a lot of sense, but uh it was a wild week, it was a crazy time. I'm gonna tell you that right now. The public showers, the um crazy times. I'm gonna tell you, I don't know if I shared this story with you last week, but there was a time where I was second in line for the showers, and the guy from me he was British, okay? He was a bit British. He tried talking to me. I uh didn't understand him. But nice guy, wild hair, British as they come, okay? He was a real teapotty, alright? He was a real teapotte. There was him and there was me. And uh I had forgotten my shoes in the uh vendor area. I was wearing my cowboy boots. So here I am, standing in line with uh my man satchel, which was like a leather leather-bound shower bag, extra oversized beach towel, American flag, of course, draped over my shoulder like I'm hacksaw Jim Duggan, wearing shorts and cowboy boots, waiting in line. The person behind me. Let's just describe her as a lady of the night. Um must have a degree in um performing arts, mainly in dance, f figurative dance, apparently, and uh full war paint. Okay, we're talking from the from the navel to the forehead, full war paint, standing behind me, hucking loogies, mind you, with dreads and full war paint. Which means said individual went to sleep in full painted regalia and then has awoken and said painted situation. There's only three showers for the whole campground, so we're just waiting turns and we're going in, but I'm thinking about the poor bastard that's gonna go in after Pocahontas is done showering, and then is gonna return back to their canvas peninsula, and their wives are gonna be like, uh, Harold, you wanna go ahead and explain the glitter and bedazzled accents that you've acquired in the shower, okay? Unless you cross past the Girl Scouts Arts and Crafts explosion along the way. I I'm gonna have to revert to the lie detector test here because you came from the shower bedazzled, okay? I'm glad I wasn't Harold, but that's just a little picture of the wild, wild world that we were living in. Our schedule, chaotic and crazy. So if you attempt to go to bed before 1 a.m., God bless ya, but it's not easy to do. The bands play till three, they're right across the street, you're gonna hear them, and then people in the campground party till four. And then after that it's everybody just ripping up and down the road. I continuously, my routine was to turn my phone on, get on YouTube, and just start playing stuff to try to sleep, and have that as close to my face as possible for as much of a distraction as possible. So you're not sleeping very much, you're you're probably getting to sleep in that three o'clock range, let's just say. You're gonna have a couple hours of quiet, if you're lucky, and in between that, if you're not flooding out or uh waking up with your blanket soaked, or your mattress deflated, laying on a frame, you're just sleeping in half an hour increments, let's say. And then you're getting up and getting the old shower line. With the bit invasion, and uh, you know, you're heading to Dunkin' Donuts, and then you're opening shop up. Somewhere between I don't know, nine and ten-ish. You're opening up, and then you're working until you don't have traffic anymore, which is somewhere between, let's just say 7.30 and 10. That's your schedule. PM. Okay. That's your schedule. It's hard to keep, it's hard to sleep, just the way it is. It takes a load, it weighs heavily on your body. Being home now, I am rather freaking smoked, okay? I'm just gonna put it out there. I am extra toasted, and I'm not referring to narcotics, I'm referring to bagels, okay? You go to Walmart, get yourself a bagel, get home, drop it in the toaster, it pops up. Nice tone to it. Push it back down. Get it to extra crispy, where it might be cutting the roof of your mouth when you're chomping on it. That's me, alright? I'm the extra crispy, extra toasted oatmeal raisin. Did I say oatmeal raisin? What am I thinking about? Cookies or oatmeal? Cinnamon raisin bagels. I am sleep deprived. Alright? It is what it is. It has been a freaking run. Alright? It has been an L stretchy. And I will say that last week when I ended the podcast, I mentioned to you that we had overcome the obstacles. We have beaten and defeated the negative hole that we started ourselves in. And I felt confident that within a day or so we were going to pass the previous year's number. Might have jinxed myself a little bit. Okay? I might have might have led crotch first on that one. Might have been a little too cock forward, as they would say. I don't know who says that. I just made that up. But the point I'm making here is get a little khaki. And uh I recorded on Tuesday, I think. Right? Wednesday we slayed it. It was tremendous. By the end of the night Wednesday, I was like, we are headed to a record setting situation here. Wednesday was jam-packed, it was amazing, it was tremendous. And uh I felt so great about it. But then Thursday, it really the barrel just dropped out. It got pretty damn dead on Thursday. And um Friday was pretty awful. Friday I was on pace to to do worse than I did the year before for a day, which doesn't really happen. And it was a real struggle bus. It was a real struggle bus. I spent the day uh a good portion of the day alone, um, just kind of stressing about situations, and and um it was it was tough for a little while where you you're you know you're away from home and you're second guessing yourself and you're thinking, man, what do you what are you doing with your life? And then right before close, it picked up, and I got a nice little rush, and I was able to surpass the previous year on Friday. So I beat 2025 by the end of the day on Friday with a full Saturday to go, which in 2025 our Saturday was our best day of the week, but this year, unfortunately, that wasn't really the case. Um, Saturday wasn't a great day, it was an okay day, it was a decent day. Our Wednesday was far better than our Saturday. Um, so we finished up, we beat last year. Um, I know if you guys have been listening, you know that I had a rent increase moving over across the road, and I think that I've took care of the rent increase and everything with my my um my gains in business, but it was a roller coaster when you think about how bad things started, and then we were able to pick them up and get them to a point of hey, we are gonna actually crush this scenario, to then having the barrel drop out, be close to not making up the difference, and um then finally ending up a little bit. We also had accounted for on a Sunday being able to make a decent amount of money, and that really wasn't the case. On Sunday, a lot of people were packing up, so we stayed open for a couple of hours and then just started to slowly condense and pack up, and uh which resulted in no sales on Sunday as we loaded up and left by let's say two in the afternoon. In hindsight, after the road trip that we just went on next year, if I return, I'll probably stay open all day on Sunday and just see what happens, and then close up and roll from there because it was chaos what we just what we just pulled off. But I want to end the result portion of the show by saying we had gains. We gained money year over year. We suffered through bad weather for two days, some slow days at the end of the week, but we stole um made it into a successful event. I think you continue to certify and stamp yourself as a legitimate business and brand on the rise by placing yourself in these situations, by firmly putting yourself in front of these challenges and overcoming them and finding a way out of them. And we did that yet again. You could see the gains in relationships and in following that we've had with a year over year type of scenario, you know, going back, having people coming over and recognizing us. We've made a real good family, like a good support base at the cabbage patch. When you walk in in the morning and bartenders are high-five, and you're saying hi when you know ownership is coming over and talking to you. We have formed relationships, right? And uh that's that's all you can really hope for. We're the vendors that go out of our way to be a part of any scenario we find ourselves in. So we want to be a part of it, right? We want to be a part of the family, we want to be a part of the environment. We are there pushing, pulling, and promoting for that event and that environment. We're the vendors that are always posting, we're the vendors that are always attending, that are always asking. So I think given the opportunity, we really integrate ourselves into whatever's happening around us, and I truly think they appreciate that about us. So much so that there's a potential for me to take my MCing talents across the southern border, and maybe just maybe you hear me seeing some events in Daytona Bike Week 2027, but it's down the road, as they say. There's some thinking to do on those regards, but we did it. We accomplished another friggin' bike week. It's um it's gratifying, it's fulfilling to port yourself up to these challenges and and to succeed, right? I don't know if I'm ever gonna have these events and I'm gonna go into them and I'm gonna smash them and come out just so tremendously happy. But I'm I'm grateful. Um so thankful for each and every one of you that have supported us, that have been there for us. I'm thankful for the tribe that allowed us to do what we just did, the support all along the way. We are certainly blessed, grateful, and thankful. Without you, all of you, you know who you are. This wouldn't be possible. So I count all those things, and I and I'm thankful for each and every one of those things whenever I consider an event and the results of said event when I'm sitting back and looking at things. As I start to outline them, I look financially, it's questionable whether this all makes sense. I'm not losing money, but I'm not making a great deal of money, and there's a lot of sacrifice that goes into the opportunity for me to make this money, so you have to look at that portion of it and decide whether it is worth it or not. But it doesn't take much time to think about the things that do make it worth it. And I'm gonna start with a couple of them, one of them being a father-son trip and opportunity. If you guys listened to Daytona Bike Week 2025, that recap, I mentioned to you that that was shortly after my father passed, and one of my best friends went with me on this trip, and he brought his son with him, and how crazy it was for me to be on a father-son trip with one of my best friends and his boy shortly after losing my own father. And ironically, how fulfilling Matt was and how special that felt. So, for the two of them to want to return, to want to do this again, it was a motivator for me to do this, to go back to this. And then now you have this overall comfort level between all of us, which makes it even greater. And we know that we're able to go through the struggle, we know that we're able to go through the difficulties, and we know that we will come out at the end of it closer than we were before. Some friendships go into these situations and they come home and they might not be friends anymore. That's not us. And um, that's something tremendous for us. So, given that, that we're going back and I know how that's gonna go, that in itself is fulfilling. But to see them and be around them, crossing off some bucket list things and imagining myself doing those things with my father, imagining myself doing similar things someday with my daughter, it's fulfilling. And it makes you feel good to be a part of that experience. You know what I mean? Like to be alongside, to be uh the third wheel on that scenario is pretty damn cool. And I say that because I also need to share some cool monumental things for them. Number one, Zach was able to get out and do some cool stuff that is all you can really hope for when someone's taking their time to um you know help you. You want to make sure they're experiencing cool things, that they're getting to do things that maybe they wouldn't have done if they weren't out there with you. And one of them things was for him to go to a supercross event at Daytona Motor Speedway at the big track, the home of the Daytona 500. That in itself, I'm jealous, that would have been super cool to do. So I'm so pumped that he was able to do that. So that was really cool. He also was able to attend an Alerndo Magic uh NBA game, and he picked the game against the Dallas Mavericks because Cooper Flag was playing in that game, and Cooper Flag is from Maine, the great state in which we are from. So he was able to go see Cooper Flag from Maine play in his rookie year and score his 1,000th point during the game. So those are super awesome milestone memories that you're always gonna have, and he's gonna be able to say, Yeah, man, I went to Dayton a bike week with my dad and my uncle, and these are the things that I did. I feel like that is pretty damn awesome. And while we're out there and we're discussing things and we're throwing out things, Brian starts talking about RVs. And he took, I want to say Thursday, and he went and looked at um three or four different RVs, and me and Zach stayed back and worked, and Brian went and checked these out, and then he fell in love with one, and he decided to buy an RV, a pretty damn brand new. I mean, it's used, but obviously new to him, but in tremendous condition RV. I think this one came from Tampa, so it was a couple hours away. And I'm so happy for him because this is a milestone moment for him and for the family. Brian's wanted to spend winters in the south, probably since I've known him. And he's also just such a traveler. He loves road trips, he loves traveling, hence the reason why he's crazy enough to do what we've done the past two years in a row. And him and his wife love to travel. He actually just came back from the islands and then left again with me. He went from living in luxury on an island to in the great flood of Daytona 26. So shows the versatility in this fella. Alright? But this is tremendous. Him and the wife are going to get to travel. She can work remote. He's going to be taking some times off every year in the winter time. For me to be a part of that equation is special to me. For me to be around for that, it's it's rewarding, it's fulfilling for me. These things carry weight, these things carry value, these things all have importance when you factor in the reason why you do things. Me being a part of their story and their journey makes all of this worth it. Does that make sense to you guys? This is how I look at all situations in life. So Brian buys this RV, and this also creates another cool opportunity. Brian and Zach take off on Friday, they spend the day, you know, you're talking three plus hours each way with traffic and such and and uh you know paperwork and the whole process. So on Friday they go to get an RV, and um Daniel Johnson from um from now, actually Nashville, Tennessee, via Iowa. He was born in Iowa, raised quite a bit in Texas, now resident of Tennessee, tremendous country singer, and brother of mine, separated by birth and parents and distance, okay? That means we want we aren't related. Okay, that's what that means. We're not related, but we should be. You know when you meet people and you're like, yeah, we family, okay? You kin to them. You know what I mean? It is what it is. So, Daniel, who we met last year. If you go back and listen to that story, a little impromptu, drunken broad at the bar, united two great sequoias, one from the south, one from the north, and the rest is history. One of those great children's books settings, alright, that takes place on a bar stool. Y'all have heard it many a times. Hollywood's built on it, okay. I don't know where that came from. Daniel came over and said, Hey man, I'm here to sell some t-shirts and hang out and work today. So the boys left, Daniel saddled up, and me and him spent all day working in the Loud Pride American tent, selling merch, sharing stories, and developing a game plan to grow and build each other's dreams and brands and businesses. I couldn't believe it. We spent hours just hanging out and then would shoot the shit and tell stories and and hum tunes and talk crazy, and then would just pop in with we should do this. What about this idea? And we would spend 20 minutes drilling in on how we can help each other in this certain area, and then we'd go right back to selling t-shirts and swapping war stories, and then it would turn into what if we did this? How what if I can help grow your base in the north? And then we'd, you know, change the subject, and then what if I can spread your brand in the south? And we just start sharing all these things, and those stories and that plan and that discussion is more valuable than any sale I could have had. It's more beneficial than the total amount of sales that we've had in the past two years of going to bike week. If I don't go to Daytona Bike Week for the past two years, I don't have the stories, the conversations, the relationships, the plan, and the opportunity that's at hand. Over the past couple years, we formed a brotherhood with Daniel, and it's wholesome and it's amazing. And I gotta tell you how empowering it is to have talented friends that are chasing their dreams, that are on the verge of achieving them, and all you want to do is help them along the way. All you want to do is encourage them and to push them, and all they want is the same for you. That's what life's about. When me and Daniel were sitting there throwing different ideas down and talking about all the things that we can do, he said, Man, I really think this is this is what it's all about. This is really what the music industry used to be about. This is what country music is about, you know? Getting that group, that that loyal group that helps each other write songs together, sing songs together, grow shows together, and festivals together, and help each other get to the highest places you can possibly be. You don't need to be a singer-songwriter to be involved in this process. And my entire life I've wanted to be involved in the country music lifestyle and industry and process. All my life. Because I can make a heck of a lot more money selling t-shirts and I can make selling songs. For me to hear that is incredible. For me to know that the two of us can help each other because we're both willing, we're both like-minded, and we both want the absolute best for each other. There's some awesome, amazing things that are gonna come from this, and I'm so excited about all of this. I'm so excited for my friend Daniel, for him to achieve what he's always believed, and I know that that will happen, and I believe in that for him. It's incredible to get to spend the time that we have and get to know the man because just about every night the four of us would get dinner together. We would shoot the shit, swap stories, just have laughs and enjoy our time with each other. We would close down at the end of our of our work day. We would go find Daniel and listen to the rest of his workday, and then we'd gather around over some pizza and some beers and and and and just have the absolute best time. And we formed a family. There's a family on the road, there's a road family, and that's tremendous, and those are things you could never imagine possible. Those are the things that I never believed would happen, and those are the reasons why, regardless financially, these trips always make sense. Regardless of what those numbers end up being financially, always make sense because these things just don't happen. On Sunday, when I was packing up and getting ready to leave, Daniel came over to say goodbye, and the boys had rolled off to get the RV, and I was locking the door in the trailer, and he stood there, helping me lock up the trailer, and we talked about how we both finished, and and I said, Hey man, the best thing about this trip for the past two years has been getting to know you and spending time together. And he laughed and said, Man, I said the same thing to one of my buddies this morning that it's not the money that makes this all worth it, it's the it's the people, the relationship, and the connections, and we both agreed that where we're headed together would have never happened without two years of Daytona Bike Week. So it's so incredible. I'm so excited by that. You might not hear all the excitement because I'm running on exhaustion, but I am so excited and I'm so proud of what we are building and what we have accomplished. It's pretty damn tremendous. I can share a ton of stories that happened during the week, but I think I might save some of those for a day when maybe Daniel comes on the podcast and shares them. Maybe Brian or Zach comes on the podcast and shares them. But as I started to discuss, these events are about milestones and moments and memories, and another one of those was the ride home, because the ride home was special because I watched one of my best friends accomplish a dream for him. He bought this RV and him and his boy and the open road and the RV with me behind him in his pickup truck hauling a trailer. The plan was for You know, Zach to rotate in and out of uh vehicles and such, but I wanted him to stay with his dad. I wanted them to have that opportunity, I wanted them to have the open road and the memories. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be to be a son, you know, to be my my father's son and seeing him achieve this massive, amazing goal, and then instantly partaking on this 30-hour road trip home with my dad, watching him live his dream, with me sitting side saddled, looking at the the mountains all along the way, from palm trees to mountains. It was incredible to me. There was times when I just sat there thinking about how much I enjoyed and how much it meant to me to see that for them, and to think about time with my father, to think about upcoming times with my daughter, to think about how badly I wanted to get home to my wife and daughter, to think about where my business is and where it's going, to think about the tremendous relationship that is forming with my new brother Daniel, to think about the endless possibilities for us to help each other, all of those things on the ride home, that's what it's all about. Because it was a time on our ride home where I spent hours just looking at some of the most amazing things I've ever seen, and just being just calm and reflective. Because there was a time for hours when we were just driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and you're watching the sun, and you're and you're watching the mountains and the fog roll in, and you're and you're looking at the cows, the cattle, the horses, the flags, just taking it all in, man. It was some of the greatest views I've ever seen on a road trip. And I kept thinking about those two and an RV, looking at the big glass window, just taking on the world. I just spent so much time just reflecting about my life, where I've been, and where I'm going. It was a also a little milestone for me because I've never hauled a trailer. And I know that sounds crazy, but that's been my wife's thing. My wife had this as a goal. She wanted independence. She grew up having horses and always depending on other people to haul her horses places. So this was her thing. Her thing was, I'm gonna get a horse trailer and I'm gonna start bringing my horse to shows, and she did that. And her dad taught her how to haul a trailer, and that was her thing. So she hauled trailers everywhere. And then when it turned into her saying, like, I want to buy my first camper, she was doing all these things, those were her things. And I wanted her to do those things. I didn't want to get in the way of those things, and she likes doing them, and it gives her independence and it gives her value and it gives her ownership, and that's been tremendous for her. And um then it's gotten to the point where like it's just expected that she's always the one hauling everything, and I don't do that. And then, you know, typically when we're on the road, I'm hauling, I'm driving a school bus, or she's hauling a camper, or if she's hauling the camper and I'm with her, I'm riding a shotgun and we're shooting the shit and just enjoying ourselves. So it really hasn't been a thing for me. And I decided what better time to learn and what better time than now. So me and Brian on the way to Florida took turns swapping off. He would drive, I would drive. So I logged my first miles of hauling a trailer from Maine to Florida. So I probably, you know, we swapped off a bunch on the way there, and I think we at least probably 28 hours or so was our our first first trip, splitting those. He did more driving than me because it was his truck, but um, I still, you know, logged 10 or 12 hours, whatever it was with the trailer. And then on the way home, I realized he's driving the RV. That means his entire trailer trip is me. And our trip home was hellacious. So be over 30 hours of time. I logged haul on a trailer. I feel pretty damn good about it. It was cool for me, man, to be going through the parkway and and just thinking about all that we just experienced, thinking about all we're going to experience, thinking about where we are and who we are and where we're going and when we're gonna get there, and then being like, hey man, I'm hauling a trailer, I'm doing these things. It was pretty cool. It was pretty damn cool, and um I was thankful for that. Our ride home, crazy. When we left on Sunday and we realized we shouldn't have left when we did, we got stuck in a massive amount of traffic from everybody that seemed to be leaving Daytona at the exact same time as us. That was stupid. We spent five or six hours in traffic on our first day, and uh construction, so many one-lane roads, so many massive potholes, so much craziness. We rolled into uh shoot, where the hell were we? North Carolina, maybe, and um we had uh breakfast at about two in the morning, I would say, in uh at a Waffle House, because that's what you do when you're on the road. And then we saddled up and hit the road for some more. I think we I think we hit Virginia, and uh it was a little past 3 a.m. And we rolled into a truck stop or a park and ride scenario, rest area, and uh we all saddled up, jumped in the RV, and crashed out for a few hours. So we got four or five hours of sleep, I want to say, and then we got up refreshed and ready to hit the road again, and I gotta tell you, it's pretty damn amazing to pull over and crash in an RV. It's pretty amazing to go from being flooded out at bike week, it's pretty amazing to go from having your air mattress leaking air every damn night. That's pretty amazing to go from the allergy dust-filled, infested atmosphere of my canvas condominium where I can't breathe to being in the controlled climate of an RV. Pretty tremendous. I instantly started feeling better after sleeping in the RV, and it feels pretty damn good to pull over anywhere and get some rest. So, because we weren't swapping out as drivers, we knew we needed to take the time to sleep, so we got uh you know, four or five hours sleep, whatever it was, and then we got up and gathered our shit and went back on the road. I gotta say, the ride home was the craziest, longest, most difficult road trip I've ever had. We went through the most construction I've ever seen. We've had the most traffic I've ever been in, just not moving for hours. When you're confined in a pickup truck for hours going break gas, break gas, sitting there from zero to six for hours. Awful. The construction, the chaos, the nonsense, from pouring rain, can't see conditions to 3 a.m., 4 a.m. driving to fogs in the morning so thick you can't see anything in front of you, to people cutting you off and you jacking on the brakes, hauling a trailer. We went through it, man. We went through it. At one point, Brian hit a bump. I don't even know what freaking maybe we were in New York. I don't even know. He hit a bump and the hubcap come flying off the RV at 80 miles an hour. I saw it come launching off when it hit a cement barricade, shot straight up into the air and came right at me. And I thought that son of a bitch was coming through my window. And I'm thinking Brian's gonna take the the hubcap off his brand new RV and launch it through his brand new pickup truck. That thing landed in front of me and then it started rolling at me about a buck sixty. You don't have many options to get out of the way of a 160 mile an hour hub cap when you're on the interstate with a trailer in traffic. I did the best, you know, D sell, XL scenario that I could possibly do, and then the rest was hope and pray. And uh we made it, didn't get cleaned out. That was tremendous, that was really good. We went through a stretch that was so crazy going through the cities. I think it was actually in Connecticut. We had a patch of Connecticut that was we're exhausted and the traffic's crazy, and people are cutting us off, and there's construction, and it was just nonsense. And an Allie called me and I said, I'm trying to get feeling back in my butthole. Okay, I have been butthole clenched this entire time. I'm gonna need an O-ring replacement when I get home because this has been chaos. And I said, you know what? I'm at a point in this road trip where I'm pretty confident that this trailer and this truck is lined up and doing just fine. I feel pretty good about what's going on behind me. All I'm worried about is two white lines, gas and brakes. You want to mess with me? It is what it is. You want to cut me off? Okay. I ain't even looking back. I'm talking two white lines, gas and brakes. You hear me? That's all I'm doing. Keep it straight, Cinderella. Don't go mixing condiments, get it done. That's me. I was just full throttle model, just trying to get home. We went through that patch and Brian called me and he said, Dude, I don't even care about the back of the RV. I'm just fucking trying to keep this thing straight. And I started laughing. I said, Man, I just said the exact same thing to Allie on the phone. Our ride home was crazy. When we left, I think it said we'd be home around three o'clock. I knew we were gonna sleep, so I guess we'll be home around six o'clock. After more traffic, it looks like we're gonna be home around nine o'clock. And I tell the wife, okay, think I'm gonna be home at nine. I'm doing math the whole time, thinking about, you know, when I'm looking at the clock, okay, this is where we're gonna be, and and uh I at one point I look over and I look at my phone for my GPS and realize 11? How did we go from 3 to 6 to 9 to 11? Not cool. We rolled in at about midnight on Monday night, Tuesday morning, however you want to say. So we left Sunday at about 2 or 2.30, and we got home Monday at about midnight. It felt like the absolute longest ride of my life. We went through all the crazy conditions that you could ever imagine on a road trip. It was crazy, man. I feel so damn good that we accomplished what we accomplished. Every time we pulled over to you know hit a rest stop to get gas, we all looked at each other and said, How is this not over? It was the worst ride home of our lives, but it gave us the greatest ride home of our lives. Brian and Zach breaking in a brand new RV, me and Brian's truck towing for the first time, and all of us rolling through the Blue Ridge Parkway with the most amazing sights I've ever seen on the road. Thinking about where we've been and where we're going, the story that's already been written, and the ones that have never been told. This was a challenge. Each and every year we have these challenges. I feel better and better the more of them that we knock off and get done. This year I'm looking for more challenges, I'm throwing more things on the schedule. I have so many things on my plate this week that I just don't have the time to wait. I gotta get after it. I have things stacking up, I have tasks to do, applications to send. It's crazy. Things aren't even balanced and figured out yet. Um, we are robbing Peter to pay Paul, we are taking chances on them all. It is crazy all ready. But it's what I signed up for. And I know what's on the other side of the door. It's all gonna work out. It will all work out. I'm thankful and I'm grateful for who I am and where I've been. And who I've been able to do it with, all that's around me, all that are here for me. It's incredible to come home to your beautiful wife and daughter. And you're fortunate to wake up alongside them again. Today's been a pretty easy day trying to recover from a life on the road. But I know tomorrow things get back to getting tough. And we start putting one foot in front of the other. And get excited about 2026. Brother. Let me tell you something, brother. It's my Hollywood Hogan. It's been a crazy time. I'm thankful I was able to take each and every one of you on this journey with me to Daytona Bike Week and back. I look forward to sharing more about this in the future. I look forward to sharing down the road just how tremendous this event was for us, by what's going to come from this event for each and every one of us. I look forward to sharing those things with you. I look forward to celebrating more great milestones with you. I truly thank each and every one of you for supporting my American dream. To our new listeners out there from Brentford, Hanslow, Mackenzie, Tennessee, Jefferson City, Missouri, and Winkler, Manitoba. Welcome to Share this Ruckle Podcast. I appreciate you, and I hope you got something from today's show. And if you did, share the show with someone you know. Help it blossom, help it grow. Thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go with Steve Dance. That's it, and that's all, Biggie Smalls. As my mama calls it. If you're a fan of the Graham Kraken, you want to find me on Instagram or all the kids of Tickety Talkin' on the TikTok. You can find me on both of those at loud underscore preout underscore American. Big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song to this deer podcast. If you are enjoying what you're hearing, track down the gut truckers on Facebook, just third gut truckers. Give them motherfucker a like too. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.