American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
American Towing and Recovery Institute onThe Go
Overcoming Challenges in the Towing World, Hurricane movement in Florida
Discover how towing professionals across the nation are enhancing their skills and ensuring safety on the roads with insights from our special guest, April Wilburn. During our conversation, we explore a variety of upcoming training events, from light and medium-duty classes to specialized electric vehicle sessions, happening in states like Indiana, South Carolina, and Missouri. April shares the importance of these training opportunities and the diverse formats they offer, ranging from single-day courses to immersive six-day events, accompanied by attractive discounts and community support initiatives. You won't want to miss her valuable insights on how these programs are shaping the future of the towing industry.
Join us as we uncover the personal sacrifices and challenges faced by tow operators, especially during natural disasters. Through real-life stories, including a memorable deployment in Texas, we shine a light on the dedication and resilience required to work in difficult terrains and stay away from family for extended periods. This segment highlights the unique camaraderie and collaborative spirit that define the towing industry, where professionals often find themselves working hand-in-hand despite the competitive nature of their jobs.
Celebrate the spirit of community and industry collaboration with us as we recount a heartwarming gathering in Fayetteville, hosted by Phillip Anthony McCorkendale. A beautifully repurposed 120-year-old foundry set the stage for lively discussions and new friendships, with a delicious meal provided by Vicious Pig Catering. This event was a testament to the unity within the towing community, showcasing the strength and support that bind professionals and enthusiasts alike. For a visual treat, be sure to visit our Facebook page, where you can experience the vibrant camaraderie captured in videos from this unforgettable gathering.
Welcome one and all to the American Towing Recovery Institute podcast. Remember this is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business-minded towing and recovery industry. I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Tow Doctor, and my other host is Wes Wilburn, over 40-year towing industry veteran, the founder of American Towing Recovery Institute of Fayetteville, north Carolina. He has produced and conducted training and certification programs for leading towing companies, equipment distributors, towing associations, dot, fire departments, rescue, as well as military installations across the United States. Wes has been published over 100 times in major towing publications published over 100 times in major towing publications.
Speaker 1:Wes has developed many courses, including the most recent awareness-level course for all responders that specialize in electric vehicles as well as hybrid, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles. Wes has provided insight as the main speaker for over 30 years at more than 900 training classes and has been recognized as one of America's greatest towing trainers. He is well known for his straightforward but down-to-earth teaching style. Wes Wilburn and his American Storm Recovery staff have developed an electric vehicle phone app, wwwev-clevercom, with over 700 passenger vehicles and over 100 heavy-duty vehicles, bringing you a new level of convenience for information at your fingertips. As normally, we have Wes Wilburn, but today this is a special episode where April Wilburn, the better half of Wes Wilburn, is on with us with this special edition. So, april, how are you today?
Speaker 3:I am fantastic. Wes is actually going to be back in here in a few minutes, but you know, sometimes that honeydew list gets a little bit long and it runs into the next day. He's out there doing something for me. He's going to be back in in a few minutes. What I'm going to do, if you don't mind, dj, is go over our class events and where we're going to be out in the next few months, if you're okay with that.
Speaker 1:I'm totally okay and I guarantee our listeners are too. April Amazing. Let them get a sheet of paper out and get ready for the list of where you guys are going to be. So I'm looking forward to you, April.
Speaker 3:Alright. Well, at the time of this airing we will already have been in Lake Station, indiana. Wes is doing a class there this weekend, so I will not go over that one. But in November we're going to be in have been in Lake Station, indiana. Wes is doing a class there this weekend, so I will not go over that one. But in November we're going to be back in Elkhart, indiana, for a light and medium-duty class, november 2nd and 3rd. And also in November Saturday and Sunday, 16th and 17th, we're doing a two-day fire tow or cross training class and that's with none other than Wes Wilburn and Ron Moore. That's in Sumter, south Carolina, and we go all the way to January because you know Thanksgiving and Christmas is coming. So we kind of take off for that one a little bit.
Speaker 3:In January we're going to be at Elite Towing little bit. In January we're going to be in at Elite Towing. January the 24th is going to be a three-hour EV class which is free to everybody. It's in the evening, it's between 6 pm and 9 pm. That's something that we do as like a give back to our communities when we go. And then we're doing a two-day heavy-duty class. Oh, I apologize, we're doing a one-day heavy-duty class on Saturday the 25th and a one-day heavy-duty on Sunday the 26th. In January and in March we are doing the same thing as far as the ED class, giving back to the community, friday, march the 7th, and then we are doing a two-day heavy-duty class Saturday and Sunday, march 8th and 9th with CP Twing along with Griffin to Griffin Also on March 21st, three-hour EV class on Friday and then the 22nd and 23rd a two-day heavy-duty with rotator, and that's at Midnight Towing in Hickory, north Carolina. That's at Midnight Towing in Hickory, north Carolina. In April we are doing another three-hour EV class at All-County in Long Island and then on the 5th we're doing a light duty one day and then on the 6th we're doing a heavy duty one day.
Speaker 3:Then we come to May and this is the big one. May is going to be a six-day event. Friday and Saturday we're doing a two-day class. Friday we're doing a light-duty class. May the 2nd, may the 3rd and the 4th we're doing a two-day heavy-duty class in St Louis, missouri, with J&I Hauling and then the biggie is 5th, 6th and 7th is an extreme advanced level heavy duty class and that is with West Wilbur and headliner for that one is Town of Louisiana. That is, we have a package price for that one. Right now the package is $3,263 for $1,263, but we have an only registration price of $2,745 for 47 cents. That's a savings of over $500. And that's going to be a spectacular event and that's going to include hotel, food, everything.
Speaker 3:Hotel, food and everything you just got to get yourself there. You know it's all-inclusive except for travel, and then in June we're coming back. We just finished up a class in Medford Oregon last weekend and they've already asked us to come back in June. On Friday we're doing a light duty, june the 20th, and then we're doing a two-day heavy duty with rotator June 21st through the 22nd.
Speaker 1:Thank you, april, for keeping us up to date on upcoming classes. Now let's check in with Pete DeMani, who is in Florida assisting with the most recent hurricane. Hey, pete, we have all our listeners on the phone for the American Storm Recovery Institute podcast. So tell our listeners what are you doing right now? So tell our listeners what are you doing right now.
Speaker 4:Right now I am in a complex In St Peter's Beach, florida, pulling out vehicles from the garage that were flooded from Hurricane Helene. Hurricane Milton didn't do Nowhere near as much damage as Helene did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you. I have a sister that lives in St Petersburg and she lost her fence. She lost the shed in her backyard, but Milton was not as bad as Helene.
Speaker 4:I mean the news and the media. I mean totally hit a lot of it. I mean you drive down the street and everybody's complete devastation. I mean like people have to gut their entire lives out their houses, they're losing their vehicles. I had a guy that had a vehicle from when his father was a 1965 Chevelle SS and he was like this car's been in my family since I'm born and I was like you know, he goes, he goes.
Speaker 4:I'm. You know I lost the words and I was like you know. A lot of people lost, a lot of things that you know worth tremendous amount of money, but also, at the same token, like these people were warned prior to get out of here and they continue to stay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of them continue to stay and a lot of them left, because Florida does kind of know how to deal with a hurricane to some extent, but you only can fight Mother Nature for so long. I heard on the news, in addition, that there's issues with getting gas and fuel.
Speaker 4:So on our way down, after we actually stopped in and had dinner with you guys the next morning, I stopped at Tractor Supply and I picked up a 150-gallon transfer tank. I mean it doesn't fill up all the trucks that we have with us, but go off. A bit of an issue with the fuel would go off a bit of an issue with the fuel. At least my guys were able to get fuel to get them to the next destination. We're starting to see that the fuel has become a little bit easier. I wouldn't say we're in the clear yet, but it's definitely gotten better. I mean tomorrow, thursday, we're here a week and we've towed over 500 cars already, just us.
Speaker 4:I can only imagine what other people have towed 500 cars wow, that's a lot, Yep. Yep, I mean we're working, you know, day and night. You know two shifts, got the autoloaders pulling vehicles out and then the four cars and the car trailers. You know running them. You know to the destination where they got to go From pickup to drop off is, you know, approximately like three hours. So it's a lot of driving. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:The guys are doing driving 12, 18 hours a day, some of them oh my yep and the problem is is that the real estate here in florida to get, like you know, acreage to put vehicles like this? You know, um, it's very hard from what we're hearing. You know, I'm not from the area so it's very hard for me to judge that type of situation, but it seems like everywhere all these major storms hit, you know, there's no real estate. Same thing happened in New Jersey a few years back. There was nowhere to put the cars. We were running the cars from Jersey City all the way down below Atlantic City. So you know, it's very hard for these insurance companies, as well as the salvage yards, to find real estate to actually, you know, house these vehicles Right and, to be honest with you, they're pretty much a biohazard at this point, you know.
Speaker 1:Right. So how far are you taking these cars? You said it's a three-hour cycle taking these cars.
Speaker 4:You said it's a three-hour cycle, so St Petersburg Beach and then we're going down to Clewiston or Ocotropey, florida. It's about three hours yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh my Wow, that is a long haul, yep, goodness gracious.
Speaker 4:I mean you know a lot of people. You know in this industry they knock the salvage yards. You know about the rates and this and that and honestly the rates aren't terrible and a lot of people right now are complaining that they're slow at their hometown. You know what I mean. This is the time for everybody to grab what they can grab and, you know, make what they can make.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I hear you on that part. It's probably a little bit of an adventure for you and your crew too, isn't it? And to help it out too.
Speaker 4:I mean, I'll be honest with you, A lot of the residents that we picked up are wiped out, you know, like the lower floors. So we haven't really had. I would say, like the past two days we've had interaction with people, but prior to the past two days, honestly, Wes, it's been, it's been. What do you call it?
Speaker 1:Nobody's been home. Right, okay, I got you.
Speaker 4:Probably kind of weird at first. I imagine being there with no people around. Yeah, it's like 6 o'clock at night. It's like a deserted town here. Last night's the first night they got some of the traffic lights back up and running, but before that I mean, it was literally, literally, literally literally a ghost town for, I would say, the first four or five days.
Speaker 1:How have you been received by the residents? You do run into there.
Speaker 4:I mean, you know they look at my truck and they go oh my God, you're from New York. I said, yeah, well, I travel. You know I do all these storms. We did the hurricane in what was that? Harvey in Texas. We were there. That was our first big, big storm that we did and we were there for three months. I mean, my children were young. My twins were literally in diapers still. It's very hard for you know, our families too, at the same time, because they lose us to go. You know, help, help the wellbeing of other people.
Speaker 3:That was, that was the question I was going to ask you and I know there, you know, the family, the tour, family life is a struggle because on any given day you guys are gone for hours and hours and hours at a time, and it's unpredictable. You're socialized with your families uprooted. But this is the next level, because not only are you gone for hours at a time, but you're not coming home tonight. You're gone for days and days at a time.
Speaker 4:Literally before you had called me, april, before I was texting my wife and I said listen, you know, know, I'm sorry, I'm not there to help you as much as I want to. And she goes you provide for our family and, you know, give us a life that we would have never had if you don't work as hard as you do you know and a lot of people don't understand that.
Speaker 4:You know there's a lot of rewards that come with this business, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of sacrifices that come along with the rewards and nobody gets that that's the difference between success and failure. I think um for a tow operator is their style yep, that's good a lot, a lot of men that have women that want them home every night. You know, I mean it's very hard. It's very, very hard for towers to get home every night. You know, when you're doing things like this, you know and it's a this.
Speaker 1:This business is not um, this business is not for the week, you know yes that's true, and that's before you talk about what you guys are doing, cause it's work back speed five or something. I mean when you talk about what you guys are doing Because it's Warp Bat Speed 5 or something. I mean when you think about it Last night.
Speaker 4:Last night we had a vehicle In the sand, right Buried under the sand. The sand dunes look like, look like snow At home, right. So last night One of my drivers calls you know, he's in the order loader. He goes pete. I honestly don't think I'm gonna get this car out. I said, well, I'm gonna come over there and we're gonna try to get it out. The homeowner came out, he goes, he goes. Five other towing companies came to pick up this car for the salvage yard and he goes. They couldn't, they couldn't get it out. Not that we're tooting our horns, but it's like. You know, this is where I bring all the unexperienced drivers that want to learn the business, because this is where you do trial and error to see if they can handle it.
Speaker 1:Well, a couple things. First of all, challenge accepted when the homeowner said that politely, not being cocky, but challenge accepted personally. Secondly, I will say this as I've traveled the country teaching classes one of the things. I became very aware of very early in my teaching career is how different ground conditions in different parts of the country can be just treacherous and we know in that area, experienced it before, dealt with it a little bit.
Speaker 1:But yeah, dealing with sand in in the southern and central Florida and snow in your part of the world where you come from. About the same same thing in my mind.
Speaker 4:Yep, I agree. You know there's a lot of people here that you know the total community they frown upon, like oh, one of the guys said to my guy at the salvage yard yesterday, like, oh, go back to where you came from. My guy goes listen, we're here just making a living, we're not trying to take money out of your pocket. And the guy goes yeah, you are taking money out of my pocket, like you know. Don't be sour, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:everybody's just here trying to help and make an earning yeah, with the amount of vehicles that need to be towed. Um, definitely help is needed. In my mind from what I understand I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 4:We're probably about, we're probably about halfway there. I would say give or take.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this you deployed to several storms you indicated earlier. Right Yep, what's the longest you spent at one of those storms?
Speaker 4:Texas was the longest three months.
Speaker 1:And you did three months straight without going home.
Speaker 4:Three months straight without going home. Three months straight without going home. When I decided I wanted to go home, I jumped in my truck in the middle of the night and I didn't even tell my wife or kids I was coming home and when I pulled in the driveway and they seen me pulling in the driveway, their eyes lit up, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, good for you.
Speaker 4:But you know, this is not easy, work it you but you know this is not easy work long days, long nights, getting a system after being at your home versus being in a totally different environment it's not easy either oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:There's so many different things that you know where you're not drinking the same water and different things like that that really affect you, and I know it sounds stupid, but as someone that's traveled quite a bit, I'm used to my daily routines get up in the morning, go to Dunkin Donuts, get my coffee, go to the office, do what I have to do.
Speaker 4:I haven't had a cup of coffee from any outside vendor because they said the water is contaminated and you know, almost a week. You know the bathrooms is very hard to get because of the water situation. We had to buy bottles of water to put in the RV so everybody can shower. I'm definitely going to set up a little bit of a different system for the next storm and build a supply trailer. It just makes everything a little easier on me and my guys. It's all about trying to give them the comfort at home by being away at work. You know, at the same time, Is there anything you guys need? We're good now. I mean, uh, we're at the one, the Walmart parking lot over here by St Peter's. They let us set up shop over here. Um, the manager has been nothing but helpful. They got the the FEMA shower trailer there so they've been filling our water up for us every day because they have a water delivery every day. So they're doing the right thing for us, you know, Wow, that's good to hear Shout out to Walmart yeah.
Speaker 3:I have a question how many trucks did you send with you and how many of your guys are with you?
Speaker 4:So we have 10 trucks down here now and 12 guys in total. You know we have about 10 or 12 guys back at home, you know that's another thing. Crew has been very scarce, you know, and finding help in this economy and you know it's just, it's not, it's not a walk in the park sure, especially people, that you're asking people to work hard.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I see it's difficult. Yeah, asp, who gives you directions, does FEMA or who actually tells you what vehicles are?
Speaker 4:we work with the salvage or the wreck. Everything is digitally dispatched. So you know, we ran into a problem with the Fort Myers stone where we had no cell service. Somebody had to sit in the house that we rented at that time and literally dispatch us, you know, and tell us where to go and give us the first two, three days.
Speaker 1:Old school dispatch. You're saying, oh boy, that's fun.
Speaker 4:That is fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, the digital software definitely changes everything you know nowadays.
Speaker 1:if you get what I'm saying, Right, they're giving you dispatch on cars in St Pete area. It's going to take three hours away to the salad yard. They have space at.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the salad auction.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Going to an auction? I'm guessing Yep at yeah, yeah, auction. Going to an auction? I'm guessing yep, um, have you found many cars not there? They're pretty much all there waiting on you.
Speaker 4:Since we've been here, I think I found found every car except for about four or five. Last night was the first night and probably because the city moved them and impounded them, you know.
Speaker 4:Right right, which you know. I think they have the local, you know guys doing that work because obviously they could deal with those people you know on a better level. We don't know anybody you know from there. So I mean there's definitely not as many tow towers here as there was in Fort Myers. I mean you would drive down the road and see tow trucks from all over the country. In Fort Myers I think, um, the salvage yards did things a little differently with this one, um, so I think they have you know guys in certain areas. I can't speak on their behalf, but I will tell you that, um, it, it, it's not. Uh, how do I say it it's, it's not, it's not very organized in the beginning until everybody gets into the groove of things and then, once everybody starts getting into the groove of things, it's, it's, you know, free flow, free flow, gotcha, just to be clear, and I know the answer to this.
Speaker 1:but you had all this arranged. You just didn't show up down there with trucks looking for work, correct?
Speaker 4:No, we're on a list. We get called by the salvage auction. We come down on their behalf, work with them and, uh, you know, everything's pretty arranged. They ask you how many trucks you're bringing, how many drivers you're bringing, because you, you know you get paid for, obviously, travel and, um, you know it's, uh, it's not, um, it's not a one, two, three. You get in your car and you leave in five minutes so your truck can leave, it's. You know, you, they have an app. You gotta put the driver's information and they track the mileage on the way down to make sure that you're not them. And and it's just, uh, it's just a lot of guys wing it and then try to jump on the bandwagon and that's what kind of discourages people from right there just showing up down there with a truck thinking they're going to get work?
Speaker 1:That is the absolute worst thing they could do, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and then you know. The other thing is that you don't come down to another state and try to. You know the last storm you had guys from all over the country coming in. They were stealing cars and you know you, you don't go to, you don't go to somebody else's backyard and do that.
Speaker 4:It's not the right thing to do right, you know and stealing cars in general is, you know, not the right thing to do. But what I'm saying is you don't go to somebody's backyard and start picking cars up off the street and saying, oh, we're gonna charge. You know towing the storage for them. Come down here and earn an honest living, like everybody else is. You know what I mean. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't work for you, great too. You know what I mean. No hard feelings. My biggest thing is if you come up with a system and you follow the system, you'll never have a problem.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just simple business, isn't it?
Speaker 4:Yep, you pick up the cars, you drop them off.
Speaker 1:you get paid that's it absolutely and I do agree with you people coming in to take advantage, you know we both agree you know.
Speaker 4:I mean, listen, the, the police officers see me in somebody's garage last night, you know pulling out a brand new bentley, and the guy goes what are you doing here? And I said I'm, I'm pulling out. You know a vehicle, he a brand new Bentley. And the guy goes what are you doing here? And I said I'm pulling out. You know a vehicle. He said can I just see your paperwork Says, right on the paperwork own estates, open garage door, take vehicle. You know, he just wants to make sure. Sure, he just wants to make sure that you know nobody's doing anything that they're not supposed to do, right?
Speaker 1:Sure I supposed to do right here. I mean he all that officer thinking about is. I answered the reporter's question. So this guy was from New York and he was taking this Bentley. You didn't even ask if he had tape.
Speaker 4:I mean, you know, most of most of my fleet is hard to miss. It's so hard to miss and that's. You know that I honestly I don't want to sound, you know, like cocky or anything, but that's why I do the trucks the way I do, because I want them to stand out. So people know, okay, this guy, I've seen him 10 times today and he ain't doing no fishy right.
Speaker 1:Your trucks are no, I no doubt out, not no quality trucks. I made that very clear over the years. I love seeing the trucks up in the Lake George, new York.
Speaker 4:Yep, and you know I set the guys up, they come back. I don't have my guys pulling cars from the. You know, I call you know. You know like the rebel, because it's just it takes more time. So what I do is that me and the autoloaders go out, we grab the cars, bring them, bring them, line them up in a line, mark them. Each driver, they grab them, and that's how we do it. It's honestly the best way.
Speaker 1:So so you, you, uh, got a system now that works real well for you that's what you're talking about or get got a system now that works real well for you.
Speaker 4:That's what you were talking about earlier getting in a group, right? Yep, like you know, my guys are on their third load already since 4 o'clock in the morning. They started today. I'm loading them up for their third trip, and that's it.
Speaker 4:Wow, that's a pretty big day, yep, and then that's it. They'll be done by 9 o'clock tonight. You know I'll cook for them, we'll clean up around where we're staying, and then everybody showers, we hang out and do it all over again tomorrow, and we load the trucks the night before, because it just makes more sense that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jump in and roll in the morning Yep. So how long is? There any anticipation of how long you will be at this one at this point I would say maximum two weeks more.
Speaker 4:That's it maximum.
Speaker 1:So it's cleaning up pretty good hey pete what I'm gonna ask you after you're done there, are you thinking about going to western north carolina?
Speaker 4:so a few of my buddies that was, uh, deployed to georgia yesterday. I don't know, are you thinking about going to Western North Carolina? So a few of my buddies that was deployed to Georgia yesterday. I don't know what's going to happen as far as North Carolina. I would like to go there and help the people also. I'm just waiting on a green light.
Speaker 1:Well, pete it's wonderful what you're doing down there, helping folks, taking care of business too, which is always a good thing. Can't thank you enough for taking time out of your day to tell us what's going on if you're still down there in a week or so. Can we check back in with you and see how things? Absolutely all right, we'll work on getting all that arranged out. Thank you for taking the phone call. Anything no problem, west Wes Thanks guys Hang around, we'll be right back.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back back listeners. Of course you know you're listening to the number one podcast, the American Towing and Recovery Institute podcast with Wes Wilburn, dj Harrington our special guest today, pete, along with April Wilburn, and I want to remind all of you that we are available on Spotify, itunes, pandora, stitcher, iheartmedia, amazon or wherever. You get your podcasts means Just dial a hotline number here at the podcast center, 706-409-5603, and you will. We will do our best to get them on the podcast. So, wes, but I want to kind of recap for our listeners. They heard a segment where you were talking to the people that were going down and then we were fortunate enough to get Pete on the call from where they are.
Speaker 1:So this has been one hell of an episode. Yeah, it certainly has, and we're definitely thankful. Um, we're thankful to Phillip, who opened up his business to us the other night. Um, we're thankful to Pete, who opened up his business to us the other night. We're thankful to Pete that stopped and broke bread with us. A whole lot of people made that happen Phillip Anthony McCorkendale, the whole crew there, phillip Chris Nelson, tyler Smith and then Kenny Uppert, mike Capps, james Black, dwayne Smith, chase Gilmore and David Gilmore. Phillip threw together a heck of a deal. He got Bobby and Morgan Branson to have Vicious Pig Catering put together a meal for us. He did it on short notice. That was excellent. Bobby and Brandy Soles Garner from Soles stop by to show their support. Wish my crew, april, kim Wesley and Margaret appreciate them as well. And the Little Pete crew, little Pete, his father, pete Ray, tj Eric Manny, charlie Maverick and Trace Right.
Speaker 1:Now everybody that helped put all that together. We appreciate their heart going out and helping the industry. Now Wes just so. I can be sure, george, if our listeners want to look at this, those two videos you sent to producer Chuck Gampin on, Are they on your Facebook page or on your website? Yeah, they're definitely on Facebook. Not sure if they're on the website, but I know for a fact they're on Facebook. Well, can I ask you this? Tell our listeners what did Phillip do to have such? This is a phenomenal building, folks. I'm even having my family look at it. I want my family to look at this building. So tell us a little bit about Phillip's operation. Well, he has several terminals.
Speaker 1:Where we were at was the main terminal in Fayetteville. Where we were at was the main terminal in Fayetteville. His grandfather started on property there, on Alexander Street, and as Philip has grown the business and created his own companies there, he's acquired a lot of the property around him. The building that we're in was a foundry that I believe the original building was about 120 years old it was built at the turn of the century.
Speaker 1:And I'm not talking about the turn of the century you and me live, I'm talking about the ones our grandparents talked about, dj. And so, anyway, he converted it into basically a firehouse for tow trucks. And so, anyway, he converted it into basically a firehouse for tow trucks, working with the zoning commission there in the city. As a matter of fact, he now serves on the zoning commission here in Fayetteville. Boy, I've never seen a building like that. I mean, I've been around a building like that.
Speaker 1:I mean, I've been around a lot and that was one beautiful location. It really is. It really is and we definitely appreciate Phillip, Stephanie and the whole team at Phillip's for all they did. Phillip happened to be here at my location buying some parts when we were finalizing the details. Of course, I invited all the local tows to be involved. I asked him what he suggested for where to go. He came up with getting the catering Doing it at his place when we couldn't get anything else to work. We really appreciate that. Getting the catering doing it at his place, you know, when we couldn't get anything else to work. So we really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:So Phillip put it together and then all of Kenny's people came down, pete's people came down and all of you kind of got together. It was like a real family reunion, almost in a way. My country cousin met my city cousin. Oh, it was great. And when you went around the table on Facebook listeners, I want you to know. They went around the table, introduced everybody and then they started talking about some of the episodes from other revivals that they had, where they went out and brought vehicles out of the sand, out of water, and they were talking about it. And then we had the privilege of listening to Pete live there in, you know, in St Pete Beach.
Speaker 2:It was phenomenal.
Speaker 1:This has been a good episode Wes it has. Now we do want to remind our listeners that we're still conducting the Winter Coat Drive For the folks here in Western North Carolina. You can get that information on our Facebook page as well. Tabitha and Ryan Capps have a family towing business. Hendersonville is Western North Carolina. We had Tabith this on the last episode. Please go back and listen to it. Please go to our Facebook page and our website to get that information about where to send any winter clothing. We've started to get some response there, dj, but we need to do a lot more. We need to help support this community these kids going back to school so winter clothing for anybody and anything for kids. To do a lot more. We need to help support this community, these kids going back to school so winter clothing for anybody and anything for kids. Kids need all kinds of stuff for kids, right School supplies, book bags, any kind of winter coats. Tabitha Capps and her husband, ryan are fantastic people.
Speaker 1:Here they were talking to us and they didn't have electricity, and here they are worrying about people in Asheville. It's a wonderful, wonderful group and, by all means, listen to the episode and that way you can participate. Speaking of listening to the episode, this is a long one. We appreciate you staying with us all the way to the end. I want to thank our listeners. Be safe out there. We'll be back next week with updates on what's going on in several different storm regions of the country and if there's anything you know that needs to be talked about, give us a call. You can call the shop directly 910-747-9000. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there and until next time, thank you.