Cycling Oklahoma
We will talk about everything cycling in Oklahoma. We cover races, athletes, bike industry, local gossip and everything fun that has to do with 2 wheels.
Cycling Oklahoma
Catching up with the one and ONLY B$ - Brandon Melott
This episode features an engaging conversation with Brandon Malott, or B Money, who shares his journey from cycling to living a minimalist, full-time travel lifestyle with his family. Listeners will gain insights into the adventures and challenges faced on the road and practical tips for pursuing their dreams.
• Overview of B$ cycling career and background
• Transition to a minimalist lifestyle and full-time traveling
• Memorable experiences from their travels across the United States
• Emphasizing the importance of community in travel
• Practical tips for aspiring travelers and minimalists
• Reflections on personal growth and life changes over the years
Instagram @brandonmelott84
What is up? Cycling Oklahoma? Thank you so very much for tuning in for another episode. We just got through the holiday season here and Christmas was great. We just got through New Year's and we have a really fun little surprise episode here and it kind of came to last minute and it's Mr B Money. So Brandon Malott. For those that don't know him by B Money, B Money so Brandon Malott for those that don't know him by B Money, Brandon's an absolute incredible human. I love Brandon, I love his wife, that amazing family Been good buddies with Brandon for gosh about 15 years now and he's in town. So we sit down today and recorded this and then we're pushing it out. I mean he just left seriously like five minutes ago. So this episode is just really awesome.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit different compared to what we normally do. We do get into a little bit of his cycling career how we got started, kind of things that he's done, but we do really high level, kind of just touching on that stuff. We don't get into the deep cycling world, but then we just catch up on what he's been doing recently. He's out traveling the country. They live in their sprinter that he or they have a van and then a trailer like an airstream trailer that he built out and they've been living in it for going on five years now, and so we just get into some of those stories and how it's changed his life and some of the things and experiences that he had. So it's a little bit different episode. I love it. I love getting to hang with B and we got to ride bikes this break and it was nice to reconnect with him and I always really do cherish my time with him and this episode, I think for those that had no B money and have been around B for a long time, I think you're going to see a little bit different side of him, vulnerable in this conversation. And so, man, it was. It was a true blessing to have him on here and a true like just I don't know, just more of my soul and more of my heart to to get to spend time with him and, uh, to hang out, and so I'm I'm very thankful for that to happen today.
Speaker 1:So this episode is brought to you by. It's perfect because it's brought to you by Oklahoma mountain bike association. So ride ombaorg. They stepped up and they're supporting the podcast for the entire year. I'm just these guys have have really do amazing things in our community If it wasn't for, uh, Oklahoma mountain bike association, formerly known as OEF, Um.
Speaker 1:So if you're familiar with OEF, it's it's the same organization they've just rebranded. So they take care of all of our trails around most of the trails in Oklahoma and our single track. They're consistently building new trails. I know they had a work day today and trying to do some stuff, so they're building some new trail, currently at Trosper and Arcadia and they're maintaining things. I got to go ride at Romano's the other day for the first time in years and they take care of that trail and it is phenomenal. It's worth the hour drive. So there's another, you know, Oklahoma mountain bike association trail and they have them all over the state. Without them we don't have mountain biking in Oklahoma the way that we do. So very, very, very thankful for them. But the call to action with them is please go, donate and become a member, join up. You can donate whatever you want, but it's 50 bucks. People go, support them, become a member, ride ombaorg, pay your 50 bucks, support the trails around the state, support what they do, go out and donate your time as well as your money to help our amazing state and the mountain bikes seen around here. It is mountain bike season, so I also just want to say thank you guys, so much for listening.
Speaker 1:Cyclingoklahomacom Go there, Download your routes. If you have a good gravel route, send it over to me so I can upload it on CyclingOklahomacom. I have some ideas for some videos, so we are needing some new sponsors. I know I keep asking for this and I'm sorry, but if you would like to sponsor the podcast, you want to sponsor a video, any of that kind of stuff, let me know. If you want to be on the podcast, let me know. But we also are making headway in our gravel state championship in talks with a really, really large sponsor and nailing down a course and a venue for this. So we're taking steps. I'm not going to release it yet because things can possibly fall through, but we're getting closer. So, cyclingoklahomacom, go check out our video, follow us on Instagram.
Speaker 1:All the good things, all the plugs, but I greatly appreciate you people, Um, you're, you guys are wonderful. We're doing a really good thing here and we're having a lot of fun doing it. And, um, just go ride bikes, live life, smile, have a good time and just love each other. Thanks for tuning in. The lights are making my eyes water. Well, do we want to turn the lights off for you, princess? No, I'm good, Okay. Well, we're rolling, so that's a great way to start the episode I'm good, you look cool now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, are they prescriptions? Bifocals? No, these are bifocals.
Speaker 2:Those look good. I like them, man. The clear frames are good.
Speaker 1:They are I had to go get them. I needed new glasses for like I don't even know how many years and I was like I need to go get them. And she's like, oh, we're gonna get you some baby bifocals. I'm like that's cute baby that's what she called them I thought she was just like flirting with me and being nice, yeah, or trying not to be an asshole yeah, and I was like okay, I think. Thank you for that no, they look good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you I don't wear them, I just wear them when I work.
Speaker 2:It makes me look smart. So you don't wear them, Not really. When I'm at the office I wear them.
Speaker 1:How's that? It's better when I wear them at the office, because then people think I'm working. Or they think I'm smarter than I am, so it's all about marketing, right.
Speaker 2:It's all it is.
Speaker 1:It's just sales, that's all life is these days. I'm going to turn this one around, actually, and put it out tonight. I have one other one that's recorded that I'll put out on 15, but I feel like this is a good way to start off the year. Bring back the old days. Yeah, I guess we met going back to the glory days of Schlegel's. Schlegel gets a shout out every once in a while on this episode or on these podcasts and he, like, loves it. So here's a shout out. We'll get it out of the way early. Um, so that would have been like 2010, ish, I think, because when I met I hate that guy, by the way, I'm totally. We can talk all kinds of shit. He's not here, it's fine steve's my buddy.
Speaker 2:I like steve a yeah.
Speaker 1:so that's when we met and I remember and I think I know I've told you this story before and I don't think I've told others this, but I remember coming home that day and Andrew goes, so how was work? And I was like man, I met this guy today. He's such an asshole, like such an asshole, and I love it. It's hilarious, it's the funniest thing ever. And I was like and there's this other guy there and he's kind of an too, but the two of them are good buddies. I was like I think this is going to be a good time and it was you and troy boy.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice, nice, because that's pretty much how it went down and that's pretty much how it was on every, every, uh, every day that we all got to hang out and work there, which was always a good time. I got to, troy invited me out. I rode with Jeffro the other day oh nice, talk about reminiscing with the Schlegel boys from back in the day. So it was good to see Jeff and his kid. Oh my God, have you seen his kid? No, oh my God.
Speaker 2:He's a little, jeff. I get picture updates every now and again. Yeah, I, I want to talk to him.
Speaker 1:Dude, that, his little kid. He's tiny like such a little dude, looks like Jeff, like he gets. He's like two. He's got his little strider. He gets out of the van and there's a giant pothole right by the van.
Speaker 2:First, thing he does Like full of water.
Speaker 1:No, no, but it was just like full of all the broken gravel and all the broken chunks of asphalt. Nice, first thing he does just right through it Like that, just back and forth. I'm like, oh my God, it's just like you already, like he just wanted to go off of every ledge or bump or anything he could do. That wasn't smooth. I'm like, geez, jeff, that's great.
Speaker 2:It was good. It was good to see Jeff.
Speaker 1:I'm proud of Jeff, and his wife was just as sweet as ever too, because they met back in the Schlegel days that is right and he worked side by side with Joey in Denver, which is wild. That is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I saw Joey like a year or two ago. He seemed like he was doing pretty good he came and did Wheeler one night.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's his wife or his girlfriend that he was with. I think his girlfriend Girlfriend okay, yeah, she was here and got to meet her. I walked up there and I was like Joey Mason, what the hell, what are you doing here? I haven't seen him in forever and he looks the same.
Speaker 2:Identical he looks like he's like 37. Uh-huh, like ever since I've known that dude, he looked like he was 37.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I first met Joey in my BMX days. He used to have some trails that he built over off the 50th at Dolisi Park and Joey was kind of a legend back then, bmx wise. He had a pro license, like on BMX racing, and I was up there with Paul and Paul's mom had dropped us off up there when we were like 14. And I remember seeing Joey there and I was like, oh my God, joey Mason, that's him, that's Joey Mason.
Speaker 1:And he looked 37, then he looked 37. He looks 37 now. Yeah, I know, yeah, and when I met him he looked 37, and that was 15 years ago.
Speaker 2:He doesn't look any different.
Speaker 1:He might've been 37, 15 years, though I think he's like in his 50s.
Speaker 2:Joey, he's like 57, probably 58. Shut up, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, guaranteed. Wow, yeah. Yeah, he does not look at it all, yeah, but if you need a bike tip, you just look him up on YouTube. He's got a huge following on YouTube.
Speaker 2:I actually have a hilarious story about that. Let's hear it. So we have some friends up in Wisconsin that we met in Bentonville last year and we were up staying with them over the summer. So, anyways, the guy we're staying with is Jesse and we're kind of living in his parents' front yard. They live in this cool area out in the country and I was doing some work on his dad's bike, his dad Brian.
Speaker 2:He was putting some new shifters on and asked my advice. I was like, yeah, just go buy them, because he works for a company called Shields, which is like a kind of a do-it-all place, you know, outdoor sports place. And so, anyways, I was like man, I'm having trouble with this front derailleur because it's like kind of a new front derailleur design, and when I got out of the shop I just couldn't remember how to do it. So I told Jesse do it. So I told jesse I was like, hey, pull up a video on it. And he pulls up a video and the dude starts talking and I was like that sounds like my homie joey and I was like what's that account?
Speaker 2:he's like oh, it says like war acres, bike bandit. And I'm like I'm like dude, that's my buddy, like I used to work with joey. And he's like oh yeah, this video's got like thousands of tens of thousands of views and I'm like dude, hell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm like that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't believe that that's funny and, like you know, it was like it was a great tutorial. Yeah, I was like it was the refresher that I needed, you know, and uh, joey to the rescue, just so.
Speaker 1:It was funny, just like the old days. Whatever you two would have problems been the back and you two would be back there trying to figure it out, figure that out.
Speaker 2:But you get enough guys that like know a lot of about a lot like you're gonna figure you come up with some solution, come out, but yeah, it's all.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's funny. Every time I look something up, his videos always pop up and it's always got tens of thousands of views. So, yeah, good for him. Yeah. So there's our shout out for joey, or there's our shameless plug, so yeah, uh. So let's, we'll. We'll take a jump back real quick for people that don't know basically your beginnings in cycling and how it all got started, and then we'll kind of just catch up to what you guys got going on now. So I think it'll be an interesting conversation. So when you got into cycling, you got into BMX first right when you were a little kid. Yeah, so how old were you when you got into it, like for real, into?
Speaker 2:it. So I had a neighbor uh, my next door neighbor who's the same age as my brother, so a couple years older than me. He raced bmx, okay, and this would have been in the late 80s, early 90s, okay. So I was born you're so old, I was born in 84, so I was probably like six, um, and so I was like infatuate. His name was morgan and I was like infatuated with him. I just thought he was like coolest dude ever. So I was like infatuated. His name was Morgan and I was like infatuated with him.
Speaker 2:I just thought he was like coolest dude ever so we would like ride around the neighborhood jumping curbs and stuff like that. And then, when I was like 10, my dad started taking me out to the track so up until that point.
Speaker 2:I was like big in soccer and you know parents only have so much time and my parents weren't like, oh well, this season you play this and then play this and then play this. It was like big in soccer, and you know parents only have so much time and my parents weren't like, oh well, this season you play this and then play this and then play this. It was like you commit to something, right, you're going to. You're going to be a soccer player, you're going to be a cyclist or whatever it is. Whatever it is like, you're going to commit to it. So, like when I kind of like had got burned, like waiting till I was 10 to get me into racing, I already had a lot of skill, I guess you know, been hitting, building, neighborhood jumps and stuff like that so I started racing in 95, 94, 95 when I was 10.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, and I raced for three or four years. I made it to like expert level. I would go travel and race big nationals and things like that, okay, within reason, as much as we could. My parents both worked, so it's not like right, we were gone every weekend like a lot of a lot of people nowadays have different opportunity, which is great you know, um, but we just did the best we could.
Speaker 2:And then I got kind of to this point where I didn't really want to race. I wasn't real competitive but I like or love to ride. So just built jumps, got into like freestyle BMX, like riding street, you know, grinding handrails, like going and riding downtown area for four hours at a time, just playing. Just playing, but like with a skillful, like you know, like poetry, emotion, kind of thing.
Speaker 1:It's an art form in and of itself.
Speaker 2:You know, and so when you do that, you build a different kind of skill set than people that like just jump into racing or just jump into road cycling or something like that. So you know, and doing that at like different times in your life, you build all these different skills. You know, which I think translated really well, like later on in my life you know For sure Racing bikes or avoiding injury, or you know like learning how to take a tumble things like that, Right, but yeah, so that's what I did.
Speaker 2:I did that basically through like high school and I mean I was pretty good at it. I wasn't like a professional level. I wasn't getting any like big pmx videos or anything but like I was pretty good, like originally. I traveled a lot and had a bunch of friends all over the place and guys had just shredded and go hang out, so kind of the same thing you do now like different bike just different bike and you just have buddies all over the place and then you go meet back up with them in three months and they learned a ton of new stuff.
Speaker 2:So you'll learn stuff off them and you'll teach them things and you know just community kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Did you like the like big jump stuff, or you were you more of like doing like ground stuff or like rails and like what was kind of your favorite thing or what you were better at?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So my whole thing with bikes is I just like bikes, right. So, yeah, I like to hit big jumps. Okay, yeah, I like to. I like to do big tricks at the skate park. I like to hit big rails, like all these big rails downtown. I've hit all those, like the ones at the ballpark. I've grinded all those. I've done everything big in Oklahoma city at that time. Right, I like everything you know, so like if you ask me that later in life, do I?
Speaker 2:like cycle cross or mountain or this. Yeah, I like it all. Gotcha, there's a time and place for all, but I like all of it, okay.
Speaker 1:You know so.
Speaker 2:I just threw out that time of my life with BMX. I, bmx, I just rode everything. We had big jumps that we maintained down on the south side, which was kind of like the premier spot to ride here. But you know, we were kids so like nobody owned that land, right. So when the developer was ready to build houses, there went our 10 years of work, you know which is like kind of a sad, sad existence when you think about it.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. Like you put all this work in and some dudes like well time to make some money later. You know the tractor and level all that out, but it makes sense, I go yeah, you're like it's not my property, so I don't have a say in what happens anyways.
Speaker 1:Happy to be able to use it when you did Well, it just sucks when it goes makes you be grateful for the times that you had. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Cause, at some point in your life, that thing you did or that thing you're doing, there will be a last time of doing that and you, if you, don't acknowledge that that could be today, right now like you're kind of setting yourself up for a lot of pain.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you might or might not know it's the last time you get to do it, that's what I'm saying. You know, like the last time all your buddies get together and ride around the neighborhood.
Speaker 2:there was a day, there was a last time that happened. Right it was a last time for everything it's kind of sad.
Speaker 1:Did you only do all the BMX stuff or did you like doing like, still like to go do the BMX racing, the hard sprint efforts, that kind of stuff? No, so I got out of BMX racing. You were completely out of that point. I was done with that.
Speaker 2:And then you know, like at that time in my life when I was riding freestyle and stuff after BMX, I just like made fun of the BMX racer type. Of course, right, I made fun of like dudes riding mountain bikes. You know, I was just like a high school kid, Like you know, you make fun of everything, you think you're the hot stuff or whatever, and so like if I saw guys in spandex. You know, Dork.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at those nerds, you know, and here we are.
Speaker 2:Here we are On a podcast talking about spandex. Talking about spandex.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of world wrapped up. And you did you jump into like roadstep, mountain biking, what. What was your next progression?
Speaker 2:No, I had a couple. I had a couple of pretty good injuries, I had shoulder surgery like the year after high school and that put me out for probably I don't know man like a year, maybe a year and a half, and then I kind of I kind of walked a road with that, you know, with like addiction and stuff like that. Yeah, I mean so like I did that for a little while and we came back into, came back around the mountain bikes like in my early 20s.
Speaker 1:I mean, it seems to be the most natural progression for somebody that does BMX stuff is. I think that's where it seems like to be the most. Your skill set translates the easiest. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you get into just riding, or did you? When you came in, you're like I think I'm going to race.
Speaker 2:No, so I got into it. Um, so I worked for Steve at the South store and then you're working at the shop at this point, when you got back in that was, yeah, I pretty much always worked at the shop, so I was like 16. I started working for Steve when I was 16. And I did other jobs in between, but I kind of always came back to bikes. Yeah, but I worked with a guy in town named Chad Shanks.
Speaker 2:He owns Neighborhood Bikes now. But he was kind of like. He was honestly like the one I always credit for introducing me to like endurance athletics because he, I think I so I knew him from BMX. Okay, he rode BMX, um, he did like some freestyle stuff, like I would see him at the skate park you know, and things like that. And then he got into.
Speaker 2:He got into endurance, you know cycling type stuff, and he just I think he saw potential, or he just wanted another buddy cycling type stuff, and he just I think he saw potential or he just wanted another buddy to ride with and he's just a really good guy, he's such a nice guy, he's always looking out for people and so he's kind of the one that was like he'd be like hey, b, let's, I got a bike you can borrow, let's go to Draper, let's do this, or I got you can borrow my mom's road bike and start commuting to work with me. Gotcha, I lived in Norman at the time, so we lived by each other. Start commuting to work with me, and that's kind of how it started. And then I just you know, the more good you do, the less bad you do. So I kind of stopped living the lifestyle that I had been living, which was only for like a couple years.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. I didn't go super deep in that, but you can go super deep real quick, yeah, and uh, so I started doing that and then you know, you just see the progression.
Speaker 2:You get better and better. So you're drinking less alcohol and you're eating cleaner and you're training more and your body's changing and you're just fit. So, like then, I just then I think I started racing like full time on the mountain bike in 2007.
Speaker 1:Okay, I was 23. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was 23.
Speaker 1:Okay, did you have like immediate success in it?
Speaker 2:So I won the single speed category tour to dirt in 2007. Okay, like the overall Uh-huh, I think I won every race except maybe one or two I got second at. Okay think I won every race except maybe one or two I got second at. Okay. Um, and then that, you know, like that takes confidence into 2008 and like that builds confidence elsewhere. Started racing on the road in 2009. Dabble cycle cross in probably 2010. Um got really burnt out around that time so I took like a year off and then I started racing again in 2011,. Like on the road and my road my road thing is funny. Like I don't know if I've ever really told anybody this, but I started racing on the road 2009. I did like four or five races right, I was a cat five. Okay, I took 2010 off and I was a cat, one on the mountain bike or whatever.
Speaker 2:But that doesn't really mean anything because you don't have to earn points on a mountain bike.
Speaker 1:You just cat up, or I was an expert, whatever they call it at the time.
Speaker 2:So when I went to apply for my license in 2011, I just put on there that I was a cat three on the road. I was like, dude, I'm pretty strong, I'm probably a cat three already. Cat three on the road. I was like you know, I'm pretty strong, I'm probably a cat three already. You know, like, when I say I didn't, I didn't race in 2010, I actually, it's really funny, I actually um, so we were still working at Schlegel's then, but I I had this thing where I was like I'm going to commute to work every single day. Like all the miles I put in this year is going to be all commuter miles. I'll do group rides and stuff, but I think I rode like 12 or 13,000 miles that year. I rode to work basically every single day. Those were the years we were riding like the blizzards all kinds of crazy crap.
Speaker 2:So, like I was just riding but I wasn't racing, so when 2011 came around, I want to race again. I had a buttload of fitness. When you're commuting to work you remember it's like two a days.
Speaker 2:I had a 15, 20 mile ride to work, 15, 22, 15, 20 back or get a big ride. Some days I'll be riding 60 or 70 miles working all day and then getting up and doing it again the next day and you're doing two rides a day, mixing those miles up and you build some crazy fitness doing got my cat three upgrade, didn't have any points, didn't have any mandatory races.
Speaker 2:Right, you know what I'm saying, just jumping in Dude went to Sand Springs, won my first cat three crit. You're like, I'm right where I belong.
Speaker 1:Right there.
Speaker 2:Boom, I like sealed the deal. I was like man. Nobody can argue that. Now you know. And then I think I cat it to one a year, two, three after that, I don't remember exactly.
Speaker 1:When did you go all in on the cyclocross?
Speaker 2:Cyclocross a couple of times. Cyclocross is a tough one for me, because cyclocross is really fun when you're fit and you're motivated for it, but if you're not, it's just kind of not any fun, because it's hard. And drummond will probably argue that he's like you just gotta, you just gotta show up, you just gotta show up. I'm like I'm not gonna show up, dude, if I'm not, if I suck, you know because?
Speaker 1:cyclocross if you're really good, hurts really bad, but you have.
Speaker 2:You have a chance at a result but it feels good because you're winning, right if you suck it hurts really bad and you're just embarrassed.
Speaker 1:Or you're just like over it because it's not fun.
Speaker 2:Dude, when you're mad that you're riding bad and it hurts, and then you're about to get lapped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're on the back and you're halfway through the race.
Speaker 2:And your girlfriend or your wife's like quit, soaking so bad, you know, and they're like dude, just quit. I got a beer for you, Just quit. And you're like dude. I'm trying to do this.
Speaker 1:And you're just going backwards. That's the problem with cyclocross. It's the good and the bad of cyclocross. There's nowhere to hide. So if you're not into it or you're having a bad day, people get to watch you and laugh at you, because the heckling is the best part. So everybody gets to do that for the entire amount of time you're out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, You're doing an eight-minute lap and you're riding for an hour. You're doing seven laps, maybe eight. You're going to go by the same group by the end of your race. They're drunker than drunk. They're heckling all the time. You're just like man. Man, I don't like this.
Speaker 1:I don't like this.
Speaker 2:This is not no but but no, so I I did it, I did. I had a few successful seasons and then, um, when I sold out of the shop in 17, I put in a big dig that season and I had some uci points um that I got like racing on the circuit and is that the year that you guys chased the UCI points pretty hard.
Speaker 1:That year I traveled quite a bit.
Speaker 2:I traveled quite a bit in 13 and 14 as well and then I kind of quit racing cross in 15, 16 and put more, put more effort those years into like my endurance mountain bike stuff, Cause you know like when you're at the shop like there's not enough people to take off every weekend, so you kind of just have to pick and choose.
Speaker 1:And at this time you, you were an owner of Charlie's bicycle.
Speaker 2:I was the owner of the bike lab yeah, it was me, and Tony and Charles and then Chris and Devin worked there.
Speaker 1:And you know they're taking off. That was such a good, that was so much fun. It was so much fun. It was great, so fun. We had a good crew. That was a good crew. That was a good time.
Speaker 2:It was a good time. Yeah, we made some waves in Oklahoma City. It was a good time.
Speaker 1:That was really fun. Yeah, that was a good group. The group that raced out of there was a good group. You had a good women's program that had started.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Lindsey had kind of gotten real riding like and devin was in that and and just putting on all the group rides and local races and the cross practice was huge and super fun and yeah, that's when I felt like that was like one of the real sweet spots of cycling for me in my time frame in this world. That was one of the sweet spots, like in the whole community it wasn't just about charlie's, but the whole community was pretty stout and fun at that time. There was a bunch of race teams Was Undiscovered still around at that point I think.
Speaker 2:Undiscovered was starting to fizzle out.
Speaker 1:They had become a vogue or whatever at that point. I think Brian Parks had moved to Dallas or Texas, somewhere I haven't talked to him in a long time. He was really influential on me, though I liked Parks. He was such a nice guy.
Speaker 2:If you've got a problem with the Und influential on me, though. I like bar too. Such a nice guy, Such a nice guy, All the. I mean. Dude, if you got a problem with the undiscovered guys, you got. You just got a problem with your own life.
Speaker 1:Those guys were all great. Yeah, you're a sucky person.
Speaker 1:Everybody, everybody involved with that with that program was really cool. Yeah, that was a really fun group of people. Yeah, they were really nice and that, and I think that's when I I mean you had so many, like I would say maybe like five or six different little teams around. Even you had like Fossil, which was like the old guy team. Yeah, velo was strong, like it was really fun. Yeah, and that's the year you went all in on the cross. Is that the year you went after Nationals In 17. Uh huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and did Drummond win it in 16? I? Yeah, and did Drummond win it in 16?
Speaker 2:I think Drummond won it In 16. So Drummond won it, if I'm not mistaken, in 17, because it was January of 17. I left the shop in May, okay.
Speaker 1:So the 17th season, yeah, and then Nationals is in January, and then you went all in that year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you won. Was it Masters or the Baby Masters?
Speaker 2:I won the Baby Masters. It was funny. It was in Reno and I remember racing. I did pretty good in single speed. I got fourth in single speed that year and that was a pretty rowdy race. It was like the premier race of that day. So I think it was the day before the pro race and there was like a couple thousand people on the course. It was the last day it was super rowdy and uh, so I got fourth in that.
Speaker 2:So that was pretty rad. That's pretty, but the but the master's race that I won was baby masters, and I remember being on the course and there was probably like I don't know, dude, it's bike racing, so sometimes there's a bunch of really fast guys. Sometimes there's like five really fast guys and everybody else is kind of and you know, a couple minutes back or whatever.
Speaker 2:But I remember being at the front of the race and the same dude was like I would see him in different parts of the course and he'd be like you're a sandbagging piece of shit. He'd like be yelling stuff at me you know who he was. I know who he was and I'm like dude, that's so raised like you need to race the pro race and I'm like dude just trying to what. So, like everybody that wins their race just has the race, the pro race doesn't belong.
Speaker 1:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean like dude, I'm like a, a lead lap finisher, that time like right my life like in the pro race, maybe, like barely lead, maybe at best. So I'm like seven or eight minutes off the leader, right yeah that's not so like should I be like getting 27th in the pro race in the us, yeah, or should I be trying to win the master's race? I mean, it's up to you to decide.
Speaker 1:I'm not making a living from it anyway right, I'm just trying to have a good time and I love that. It's just the dude that's in the crowd. He ain't racing. Oh, it's hilarious, yeah and what's so great is that you still remember him.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Well, I just remember it because I always think back on it and laugh. I'm like dude, you don't even know. Hell, maybe I knew him from somewhere. But what was funny was he was like always in different spots of the course, Right.
Speaker 1:And I'm like I don't even know this guy, so you're coming through a lap, you he's like yelling at me from over there.
Speaker 2:I'm like this guy.
Speaker 1:That's funny. So that race, how much did you win by? Was it close it?
Speaker 2:about got real close. Last lap, with like maybe a third of the lap left, I got tangled in course tape. I had to get off my bike and unwrap course tape out of my derailleur On the last lap, last lap.
Speaker 1:What a way to lose.
Speaker 2:if you're lost, I probably had maybe a minute on the next guy, but when I got back on my bike I had a turn. Oh, my gosh so we were drag racing all the way from that point on, because I bet he saw that opportunity. Yeah, he was like oh dude, the universe wants me to win and I'm like no brother.
Speaker 1:The universe wants me to win and I'm like nah brother, the universe wants me to win today.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, like this is my day and uh, yeah, I thought I about botched that one that would have been a that was heartbreaking. It would have been heartbreaking, oh god.
Speaker 1:So whenever you were done with that, were you just like, yeah, okay, I've done it, we've checked that off, because I mean, we've discussed this before we started. You are ever since I've known you. You're either in or you're out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And when you're in it's not like yeah, let's go see, let's go see what that's about no it's like okay, how can I do this?
Speaker 2:as good as possible, as good as possible as fast as possible. Yeah, and perfect it. And thing with me and cross I'm not like. So I'm kind of a minimalist, okay, so I'm just going to start this conversation with I'm kind of a minimalist, so so, and we'll get more into that later on in this, but even at that time in my life like I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't have like cross bikes, I have like a cross bike. I don't have a bunch of wheel sets, I have like a wheel set and I might take a spare wheel set. So in cross you have to be a gear guy. Yeah Right, and this is like one thing that I just don't like about cross and like but this is what makes cross cross is that you basically have a team of guys in your pit that are cleaning and detailing your bike and if it's a muddy race, you're rotating out every lap or every half lap if you can have pit access. Right, I didn't ever have that. So that season sold the shop.
Speaker 2:2017 went to marathon. Mountain bike nationals dislocated a bunch of ribs while I was winning. That one still hurts, yeah right, recovered from that over like two months, put a huge dig in through the summer of training, raced some road events, did pretty good in those, you know, through late summer and then that basically just ramped me up through cross of the fall of 17 right of like the driest season of cross that the world has ever seen, right so I lined up dude I'm not messing with you.
Speaker 2:One bike, okay. One set of tires. I rode the same set of tires the entire season. That's weird the same set of tires, wow yeah, tubeless, uh, specialized terras huh yeah, yeah, that same set of tires the whole season. So by the time I made it to nationals I was like that is like the luckiest four-month run ever, right, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Like I'm really pretty good when it's like dry and fast and, you know, loose over hard, like the stuff we ride here. But you put me in some muddy situations. I'm just I don't have to ride in the mud. I'm not that good at it, so I got super lucky.
Speaker 2:Muddy situations. I'm just I don't have to ride in the mud. I'm not that good at it. So I got super lucky. So I was gonna put in another dig the next year to race again. And then I started racing and I was. I had just bought a new house and doing some real estate stuff and I was just busy and like it, just it wasn't flowing so I just plugged it, you know and just went back to riding.
Speaker 1:It's hard, though, but that's the thing that I think that's the thing in any sport, whenever you see somebody that's like dominant for a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you don't you take it for granted so much as a fan and a spectator, but unless you've ever like been really good at something that requires like daily attention to it, it's so hard to understand how someone can be dominant for for so many, for very long at all. Yeah, like winning back to back, you're like that's impressive, but like to be good for like three or four or five years, like yeah, it's, it's a different thing.
Speaker 2:It's a different thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's not like something that you were just like. I think I'm gonna do that. No, it's a? It's a drive thing. It's a different thing, yeah, and it's not like something that you are just like. I think I'm going to do that. No, it's a drive that the normal person doesn't have Even like the elite, normal people.
Speaker 2:I don't think I have that.
Speaker 1:You do not.
Speaker 2:I don't think I have that.
Speaker 1:You like to conquer something and move to the next thing to figure out, to conquer that. Yeah, or I just like to keep things learning and progressing and figuring out new things and trying new things.
Speaker 2:I had a pretty good run, though with endurance, I'd say my number one favorite discipline of racing has always been marathon mountain bike racing, that's what I would guess for you. I've been pretty good at that. I won my first six-hour race in 2007.
Speaker 1:So the year I started racing.
Speaker 2:And I've had a pretty good success rate, winning races like in this region.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I mean, yeah, so like that was probably my number one thing.
Speaker 2:Cross was just something I did in the fall because I didn't have to ride as many hours. Right, that's the cool thing about cross is you don't have to do like six-hour rides yeah. Or I don't know maybe those guys do they do now.
Speaker 1:They're really good. I didn't you know, so maybe I was only good for a season right. That's why you're good at baby masters and not the pros.
Speaker 2:Baby masters man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, and you were racing the endurance mountain bike step out at Palo Duro. That was when I first started going out there and that was like those boys were, the big boys were coming to that yeah and so I mean I think there's some of the bigger people that are kind of coming now again, but there was kind of like a wall there for a little bit. But it was like you and fitzer wall and payson came.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was out there a couple times fitzer wall was there like every year for a long time, um, but that was always fun for us to go out there, and then you'd come through with those guys on the first, like two laps, and then yeah, they'd always like if it was a three lap race, they'd always put it on me on the last lap, but I'd always be like just a few minutes off. Yeah, you're always in that, you know in that world yeah yeah, but that was always fun.
Speaker 1:That's what I would guess. I would guess that that would be your. If I had to pick one discipline that you were probably that I saw you being the best at, yeah, or at home at with the mountain bike that's.
Speaker 2:That's what I like the most. That's what I always liked the most think you'll ever get back into that yeah, I'll get back into it at some point, yeah we'll see how life progresses in a couple years.
Speaker 1:Well then, let's fast forward into your minimalist lifestyle. So you guys, you did some real estate. Your wonderful wife was working in Chesapeake, and then you guys decided to make a life change. Well, first you made a baby. I'm glad you figured out how to do that. You did that and then, as soon as he hits the deck, you guys are like we should just live in a van. Well, yeah, because at this time the house that you guys had to buy overhauls was beautiful, you had land, you had some space, you had your shop.
Speaker 2:Abner was born in January of 18, actually like a week and a half after that CycleCross National Championship, and I had bought an old Airstream like two years before that and gutted it and rebuilt it and kind of not just rebuilt it quick, built it kind of over time how we wanted it and before we had Abner we had planned on traveling and then sold the shop A month later, got pregnant or in that same time frame, had Abner, you know, in 18, decided OK, we're not going to travel full time right now. We got a kid.
Speaker 1:Nobody does that. Why would you do that Right?
Speaker 2:So later that year we bought like our forever house. We bought this really cool old historic house. It was a cool place Two and a half acres, real big shop in the back, Great times. It was beautiful, had an awesome tree canopy and about 10 months after we bought that, so this would have been in 2019. I went up to Oregon to do the first, um, the first run of uh, the Oregon trail gravel grinders. Like a four or five day race.
Speaker 2:I can't remember you and Rob or you and Andy Rob went, uh, carlberg went, andy, yeah, me and Andy flew out there together. Um, and uh, yeah, so we were out there when I came home, oh, and then, like Brendan Hausler and Pat Wally, like some other dudes on our team, when I came home I was telling Lindsay I was like hey, we got to go to Oregon. We need to go to Oregon for like a month. That place is amazing. She was like how are we going to do that? She's like I don't want to just go on a vacation. And I'm like, yeah, well, vacations are still cool. She's like should we talk about traveling full time again? And I was like, yeah, let's talk about it. So we watched, literally we had this conversation. I pull up Netflix and I pull up one of those full time travel documentaries I can't remember which one it was and we watch it, it and we're both like full-on wanderlusting dude, can we really do this? And she's like how do you think we could do this?
Speaker 2:she's just asking me because I'm like I'm the dreamer in our family for sure, if it's like something that, like, I think we can do. I'm going to try to figure out how to make it happen. I'm going to try to convince everybody around me that this is a great idea and I got it figured out. I'm just pretty much going to wing it the whole time. That's the, that's the but you wing it with confidence.
Speaker 2:I mean control chaos, you know. So I told her I'm like I the over the next day or two I come. Okay, if we can manufacture your layoff I'll get to that in a second, we can manufacture your layoff so you can get a severance. Okay, if we start now, like I'm going to race the rest of summer because I have obligations, I want to go to masters nationals and stuff like that, um and did some other racing, we sell the house. You know I was going to china that year oh yeah, china.
Speaker 2:Which dude is weird because it was the last time I actually penned a number on when I went to China.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure I had COVID when I came back. I don't want to talk about that. This was in 19, before COVID was real, before it was real, before the government released it, oh God. So what was I saying? Hold on.
Speaker 1:You had talked about manufacturing. Oh, yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I was like, when I get back from China I'm going to hit it hard, I'm just going to buy as many rentals as I can. So we had a bunch of cash and I was like I'm just going to buy foreclosures, I'll buy a foreclosure, I'll do a cash out refi, I'm just going to buy as many, many as I can, but give me a date, tell me when you want to leave. So this was in june and she's like, how about next may? And I was like, damn, it's 11 months, I don't know. I mean, I'm gonna be able to do in that time whatever, I'm gonna figure it out.
Speaker 2:So I only ended up buying four. But I basically bought in about a six month period. I bought four houses and remodeled them, basically by myself, or I would hire a friend to help me, and then got those rented. And then I had another house that I had already bought. That was rented. And then the house that we used to live in in War Acres it was rented. So we had six rentals. So we were going to have six rentals when we left and come early spring, covid happens. It was a miracle, because chesapeake's about to lay off a bunch of people, right, and I say miracle loosely right, so it's bad stuff but it's a miracle for you guys.
Speaker 2:It was how it, how this works out, lindsey's boss, they were friends. We never told them what our plan was. Nobody knew this. But she just said hey, I know I'm a good employee, I know I've been here longer than basically everybody in our department.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she'd been there about like 15 years or so, 13 or 14 years, and.
Speaker 2:But if layoffs happen, I want you to know that either way, I'm probably not going to be here in the summer. So if you have to lay off somebody from this department, consider me first.
Speaker 1:I don't want to take a job from.
Speaker 2:I can't remember her other coworkers name. She had listed them off. I want them to keep their jobs if possible. So her boss was like yeah, we can make that happen.
Speaker 1:Her boss is like thank God, because I did not want to have to make that decision Right, so she just helped it out and literally dude like.
Speaker 2:So. We were living in one of our rent houses, so we had five of them rented. We were living in one of them because a tenant had just moved out, so we were staying there after we had sold our nice house at Overholster and we got the call, like the second week of april, that she was getting laid off with a four-year severance.
Speaker 1:And we were like, oh man, it's just a bummer so sad, you know, and like I say that loosely, because like dude.
Speaker 2:Losing your job is not cool, but it was perfect losing your life foreclosing a mortgage. It's not cool man.
Speaker 1:Right, I'm not laughing at that. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Nobody's immune to that, right, and I'm not immune to that, nobody. We're all only a few steps away from being homeless on the street, right, and you always have to have that in the back of your mind that that could happen. It could A sickness, a terminal illness, any of it, right? So when that happened, we were like this is the universe telling us that we're ready for this? Trailer's ready, abner wants to go. We've downsized from 3,300 foot to the 1,600 foot rental and now we're about to live in 160 square feet. Right, this is going to be great. This is going to be great. Nothing bad's going to happen. What could happen? This is going to be great, this is going to be great. Nothing bad is going to happen. What could happen? What could happen? Right? So we leave.
Speaker 2:So we actually like, when that all happened in mid-April, we put our house on Zillow because we're like this is go time. Had a couple hit me up like a week later. They're like hey, can we come see your house? I'm like, yeah, that's cool the guy. I can't remember what he did, but he made pretty good income, so does why? Like 200 K a year?
Speaker 1:combined income kind of thing. So good income.
Speaker 2:And I'm like why do you guys want this house? And they're like well, we're, we're building a house in this area. It's going to be like a year process, so we want to rent this house for a year. And I'm like, okay, so when do you guys want to get in in it? And this was like the 27th of april. And they're like can we move in on the first? And I was like well hell yeah, you can lindsey's like are you gonna get moved out? I was like dude, we're leaving, uh-huh this is it.
Speaker 1:It's perfect. This is the universe. This is it it was designed.
Speaker 2:No stopping that word we got. We got momentum, so literally move out over like three or four days. They move in. Worked out great. We went and stayed with my parents for two weeks, left on May 17th and hit this epic lifelong journey that was supposed to only last like a year. Right, we were going to be gone for at least a year, maybe two. This is 2020, may of 2020. We hit the road head to Ta taos so never been to taos. You're on the rio grande. You're on the back side of wheeler peak. You're on a highway called the enchanted circle. It's 84 mile highway loop called the enchanted circle. It's a gorgeous area of new mexico, very enchanted, very magical hot springs out there. We're out there for four days.
Speaker 2:Four days into this magic journey, four days into this magic, lifelong life changing journey and I broke my hip in three spots. I was on a bike ride on a trail called the South Boundary which is like a hard intermediate. Nothing crazy technical on it except at the very end, but I wasn't on that, I was just on some pretty basic stuff. It was just early in the season, still some snow up top, a lot of deadfall on the trail. I was by myself. I had just come over OSHA Pass, clipped a pedal on some deadfall got sent to my right side, broke I think all but one or two ribs on my right side, broke my hip in three places and then tore my piriformis muscle which is the muscle under your glute that allows you to lift your leg up.
Speaker 2:So I'm up there. I'm laying there trying to figure out what happened, trying to like console myself, because I'm in the backwoods and it's pretty scary, you know, it's the middle of the day, so I got some time to figure it out, yeah, but my leg feels like it's it felt like my.
Speaker 1:What it felt like was my femur.
Speaker 2:It felt like my femur was broken like the ball, like I couldn't move my leg at all. And, uh, I somehow so you're in carson Forest and somehow I had one bar of service on my phone, but the place we were staying in, taos was up in the canyon and we didn't have service there. So I call and get a hold of my dad and I'm like hey dad, this is the situation and you know I'm hyperventilating. I'm staying pretty calm, like I don't really freak out. You know what I mean. Like I'm okay withilating, I'm staying pretty calm, I don't really freak out. You know what I mean. I'm okay with all of it. You have to be calm to get yourself out of it.
Speaker 2:I know these things before I go into them. If something happens, you just deal with it, you're on choice Cry later, dude Don't cry right now, cry later.
Speaker 2:So I get a hold of my dad I explain the situation to pick me up at this place called Garcia Park. I'm probably about five miles from there and he's like all right, I got you, I'll get a hold of her, figure it out. So then, all I have to do now I don't have to worry about that, I don't have to worry about getting extracted from that point. I just got to get to this point, hopefully before nightfall and it's probably dude. I couldn't tell you what time it was. I think it's probably dude. I couldn't tell you what time it was. I think it was probably around 10 in the morning, maybe 11. I remember getting to the hospital like four or five hours later, like in the early afternoon yeah, two o'clock or something, you know three o'clock.
Speaker 2:So yeah I I get on my bike and I can't pedal because I can't use my right leg, but I clip in my left leg, hold on my handlebars and fortunately this part of trail is either undulating down or flat, but it's technical and rudy. So definitely it hurt.
Speaker 2:I kept. I kept passing out on my bike like I would, because I couldn't really breathe because my ribs were broke. But when you hold your breath, when your ribs are broke and your lung inflates, it just hurts really bad. So I basically went through this cycle of in my mind it was like 100 times. I would go as far as I could. I'd have to hold on to a tree because I knew I was about to pass out or like almost on the verge and I just kept doing that over and over and over again.
Speaker 2:But I was making forward progress and, dude, you're going to get there eventually.
Speaker 1:You're going to get there eventually.
Speaker 2:You just got to keep telling yourself like I don't have to worry, like I'm going to get to this thing and Lindsay's going to be there, Right 100, there, right, 100. Like I know for a fact that this is going to happen. So I ended up seeing this guy on the trail I'm about two-thirds of the way down and he's coming up. He's like a god dude. His name was. It was either matt or mike. He was from fraser, colorado. He was like a british guy, like welsh, and he's like hey, mate, and I'm like that's mate and I'm like that's Australian. I'm like hey. I'm like hey, dude, I'm fucked up. He's like you all right. I'm like God wrecked, and this happened. I think I broke my femur. And he's like nah, you probably just knocked the wind out of yourself.
Speaker 1:I'm like that happened too.
Speaker 2:I was like. I was like believe me when I tell you I'm fucked up, dude, I'm sorry for your cut, You're good. But I was like I'm in a bad way and uh, he's like, all right, I'll help you. Like what do you need? And I said I don't think there's anything you can do for me.
Speaker 2:But you just came from Garcia park, Right? And he said yeah, I said my wife is going to be there in a white transit Ford or Oklahoma plates, ford or oklahoma plates. Just go right around that park, if you have to, until you see that van and get her to the closest place where I'm coming off this trail, because when you're in this area it's like a big area and there's trees, and then you can drive to this, this little meadow and there's trees. So it's kind of hard to navigate because the trail like comes out of single track onto road and then it's kind of like every time I ride it I kind of get confused and I figure I'm like oh yeah, you took a left here and went down this thing, but I always kind of get confused.
Speaker 2:So he was like he's like I can do that for you, so I just keep trucking and I'm just you know, clipped in with my left leg. I'm doing these stutter pedals so I can I about 25% of a crunch. I'm just going up back and up back. I get to where I've ridden this trail before I start seeing familiar area. I'm like dude, I'm almost there, I'm going to get a little teary-eyed.
Speaker 1:I'm coming over this pitch and I'm take your time yeah sorry, no, you're good buddy, take your time and that dude's like running back and he's like waving his arms. You're good, bud, yeah, yeah, take your time sorry. No, you're good, we got no rush, but he's like, he's like dude, you fucking made it made it and he was like, so confident. I was like god damn it.
Speaker 2:Dude like hardest dude, easily the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah and uh and was five years later like it still chokes. Yeah, but was and was lindsey there at the end of the trail? She?
Speaker 2:was there?
Speaker 1:she was there and what did that? Did that guy just go right off? Or did he stay with you and help you guys?
Speaker 2:or he helped me. He helped me load up. He helped me load up and, um, lindsey was like, are you okay? And I'm like you know, I'm so far from okay. Yeah, I'm so happy to see you like I'm ecstatic right now and uh, so yeah, so I basically get in my van in the floor and lay on the ground, okay, and put my right foot between the passenger seat up front and the wall so my hip won't rotate and then it was like an hour and a half.
Speaker 2:Oh my god journey like her trying to drive slow so it's a seven mile dirt road climb to this point. I think it's like about a 4,000 foot descent. I could be wrong about that, but it took a while to get down this in a non-painful way, right? And then you drive back through the canyon. Then we had to find the hospital because we don't have service, right, you can't really just Google where you're going.
Speaker 2:Right, I just knew we were going to Taos Right and yeah, dude want to house right and uh, oh, yeah, dude, and then it just like worked itself out.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry about crying, now you're good buddy. Yeah, dude, that's. But and then I so, because you guys were only planning to stay in a house for like a couple of days, like like a week, yeah, and then move on, and it's kind of the plan the whole way around yeah and you end up staying there. For how long? Uh, we stayed there for like two months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we stayed.
Speaker 1:we stayed there for two months and then I met up with you really once you guys got back on the road in Colorado, in Pagosa.
Speaker 2:Did you meet up with us in Pagosa?
Speaker 1:Pagosa and we went to Chimney. Is it Chimney Rock, Chimney Rock together?
Speaker 2:Dude, I don't even remember that.
Speaker 1:It popped up on my Facebook the other day.
Speaker 2:We had like a big bowl of queso there. No, no, no, we didn't eat with you guys.
Speaker 1:The big, oh my god dude we did go there, yeah, because you guys had just got going again and I was on crutches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you were on crutches. I was on crutches, yeah, because we had to go up the top of chimney rock.
Speaker 1:That's right. It's like a hike with these like steps and that's right?
Speaker 2:yeah, because it was like. It's like a native um site yeah, that's where the anasazis had a.
Speaker 1:It was like an overlook point yeah, with the uh for the solstice or whatever yeah, yeah, that's crazy and because you guys had just gotten going again and started the really started the adventure at that point.
Speaker 1:but that wasn't. That's not your only. I totally forgot about that. Yeah, and the picture popped up the other day. That's why. That's why we take that's right and put them on Facebook, because then they pop back up. That's why we take pictures, that's right. Yeah, so your trip got off to, let's say, maybe like not the best start ever, but then you guys kept it rolling, yeah. And now you're coming up on your fifth year and you're getting ready to head back out again and you're getting right ahead, back out again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so at this point, how many states? Because I know we're a little bit on a time crunch, but I want to get a couple highlights before we get out of here. How many of the states have you gone to?
Speaker 2:So we've been to every state except for Nebraska and the Dakotas. That's random. Well, they're just all in a row, I know, but they're like dead in the middle. Yeah, and you've been everywhere around them. We've been. We've been all over canada, like southern eastern part of canada. We haven't been to vancouver area, because when we did washington the first year, the borders were closed. Oh, yeah, so this year we're going to go up and we're going to finish off the 48s, okay, um, and then I don't know, like I want to do the whole alaska thing, like we have a lot of nomad friends that have done alaska and they'll just go up there for the summer and take, you know, a month to get across canada, be up there for three months and then a month back. Yeah, and it looks great. We just haven't done it yet. Yeah, so maybe the following year we're talking about maybe buying a house, having a part-time home base.
Speaker 1:I don't know what we're gonna do. Yeah, what? Uh, what was the most surprising place that you've been? That you're like man, I did not think this was going to be that cool and it's kind of badass, or a couple of the ones that kind of like yeah, so my favorite state is idaho, or a couple of the ones that kind of pop up, yeah.
Speaker 2:So my favorite state is Idaho. Interesting, so Idaho's amazing. You know, don't tell anybody that, okay, got it. You know, I met a bunch of dudes up in Idaho and they're like hey, man, we just want to let you know everybody's welcome here. But if somebody asks, tell them you're in Colorado. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And don't stay, and don't stay. If you put pigs on Instagram, tell them it's Colorado. I'm like that's so funny Because they're all pissed because all the Californians are moved there so many.
Speaker 2:Californians.
Speaker 1:Most of those people live in Boise, which Boise is a great area but you're priced out of Boise now.
Speaker 2:Olympic Peninsula is great, I'd say. The most amount of fun we had was this last year. We went basically a little bit east, mainly north, did the great lakes region. So michigan, upper peninsula, michigan, wisconsin, minnesota, um, ended up doing a seven day backpack hike out on isle royale while I was up that way I don't know if I told you about that that was super rad. So did a couple, did some backpacking trips. That was fun. But Superior's gorgeous. It's like it's just Superior man.
Speaker 1:It's just a monster. It's huge. Was that a big surprise for you that you would like it so much? Yeah, because it's flat, like it's pretty. It's like rolling the lake's flat.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you know that Huh interesting, no, but like but, there's not a lot of. I mean, there is like some small little mountains, but you can't call them mountains because they don't meet the definition of 2000 feet Big hills, yeah yeah. So, like upper peninsula, michigan is actually real similar to Oklahoma, interesting A lot of farmland, right, a lot of barren like. There's like six people that live in the square mile kind of thing you know what I mean square mile kind of thing.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. But like really good people, like really really great people. I feel like in a place like that that's so harsh, such a harsh climate at certain points of the year, you kind of have to be because you depend on your community oh yeah, 100. You depend on neighbors yeah, okay, you help each other those dudes are tough, they're tough.
Speaker 2:They have like thousands and thousands of miles of maintained ohv which turn into snowmobile trails in the winter, and you're just going from town to town to town and getting groceries or boozing or hunting or whatever, and like everybody just helps everybody out. You know what I mean. It's all in it together. They're all in it together, everybody's friends. So I'd say that was kind of the most magical. Plus, we met up with a couple groups of friends that we have met on the road. So magical Plus, we met up with a couple groups of friends that we have met on the road. Um, so we stayed with Seth and Desi, who are full-time musicians. Met them in Colorado a couple of years ago. They live in the UP now played a couple live shows with them which was amazing, stayed with another family, jesse and Sarah.
Speaker 2:I mentioned them earlier in Wisconsin hung out with them for like six weeks. Nice, but yeah so I'd say that this year was great. But I mean, you travel a lot. Anybody who travels a lot will know, like you can't necessarily go into a travel experience searching for something. You kind of just let it be and then you'll find whatever that area wants to give you. Yeah, like every area is has something great about it, right? You just kind of have to figure it out when you go there.
Speaker 1:Was there anything that you've learned about yourself over this whole experience that you just like? I mean, I'm sure there's been a ton of things, but is there anything that's been like really sticks out to you? Experience that you just like? I mean, I'm sure there's been a ton of things, but is there anything that's been like really sticks out to you? You're like man that was, it was going to change me forever in a way that I did not even understand or see coming, or like an experience that you had that you're like and that was like really well, clearly like a wreck, is life-changing, but something that was just kind of eye-opening to you that just kind of has kind of shaken things up or moved things in one direction or another for you or Lindsay.
Speaker 2:Man, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Because you've met a wide variety of people All kinds of people, crazy, good and bad, I'm sure and experiences and seen beautiful areas, and seen beautiful night skies and sunsets and mountains and all these things. So you're getting to experience most of the US like no one ever gets to experience for the most part, you know um for extended periods of time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean everybody can go see it, go travel somewhere and be like I've been to Sedona. You know I'm there for a week but like I've spent like five months in Sedona right over, like different seasons, you know. So you get a different perspective that way, I mean, I think it just. I think that just changes you like slowing down your life getting out of the rat race.
Speaker 1:Do you think you could go back to a normal life?
Speaker 2:I mean I don't want to get a real job or anything. Yeah, that's what I was going to say, that's what you're asking. I don't want to, I don't want to like, I don't know what I'm going to do when we stop traveling. I mean, we'll end up having to do something, right, that's my point. We've kind of set ourselves up to where we don't necessarily have to do it right away, right, like the way we've set up investments and real estate and stuff like that. Like that all still works out well, you know. But when you home base, you buy things and you spend more money and you know things like that.
Speaker 1:Is there any part of it that you wish you wouldn't have done with the travel life Like? Is there any part of it that you wish you?
Speaker 2:wouldn't have done with the travel life Like anywhere, yeah, or a way that I did it.
Speaker 1:Or maybe you're just like man. We should maybe have not stayed as long as we did, or maybe not have done our experience the way that we've done our experience. Maybe we should have done something different with the way that we're taking our kid around and doing this stuff. Or maybe we should have gone somewhere and just stayed there for the year and not I've never thought that one time. That's awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:There's never been like like sure, if you, if you wrote out like a itinerary before you went and did it and you were trying to like match this itinerary, perfect. To me that wouldn't even be that much fun. But the experience is just the experience. I think we talked about this when we were riding the other day, but I try to relate things to a metric, to a common denominator.
Speaker 2:So I try to look at my life and be like how much dopamine did I release today, naturally for the least amount of money, right, Like I went and rode my bike and got super high, like not on drugs on dopamine and serotonin right.
Speaker 2:Like, if I can do that every day and spend the least amount of money. That's what I would call a successful journey, right, right, because it's not, you know, a cliche. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Right, and that's 100% true. True, so like, even if an experience was what you could relate to as bad, it's still a positive experience because you got to experience it yeah, I mean that sounds kind of stupid, right no, but you got to live it right.
Speaker 2:So so, the good, the bad, the highs, the lows, and if you can have all these experiences in your life of all these things you've seen and all these people you've met and all these things you've done, and you can do it like in our situation, where we're traveling full time and we're camping on public land for free, you know, when we're out west and we're doing free activities like hiking, and it's like you know my old life I'd go on a week vacation and I'd try to cram all this stuff in. Well, now I take that stuff, I cram in a week, I spread it out over two, but I did it for five years. Yeah, right, yeah. So when you look at that metric, you know, and you look at all the days I've had that were exceptional, that's just. Do you get bored? Successful? Do I get bored? Taking naps all day at 3 o'clock, ride my bike every morning, playing guitar for a couple hours a day, I don't get bored.
Speaker 1:At no point I mean you're going to do the same. I mean, at some point is it just like eh?
Speaker 2:It's actually funny you ask that. So, just like in anything in life, there is a burnout. For sure, everybody gets burnout, 100%. I've met a lot of people that traveled full time and made it so in travel. It was a year and a half. They did a full season and then a half of a season and were like I need purpose, everybody needs purpose. Human beings need purpose For sure To survive. Right, yeah, but what was your old purpose?
Speaker 2:Because if your old purpose was working at a job making widgets and doing task completion and you're getting your dopamine hits that way, is that purpose? And no offense to people that have a nice yard, but like, if your purpose is like spending your weekend making a nice yard, like to me, like that seems like kind of a waste of time. Right, like I, I would rather put that much effort into something that was like real purpose, right? So my point is is, whatever your old purpose was and whatever your old being was, those things are in the past. So you have to find new self, right, and you have to find new reason and new purpose for this new life that you allowed yourself to build. Right, because, like our situation, we weren't just given a sum of money Right and said, oh well, I guess we'll get to go travel now right.
Speaker 2:That wasn't how it worked out.
Speaker 2:We saved and invested for a long time. The entire time I've known you, we've been saving and investing Same as you have, but you just don't talk about what your plans are right, and then, when it's time to do it and you commit to it, the person you were before that will be different than the person you are right after that, and that's like the. That's. The biggest takeaway that I have from traveling is that who you were before is not who you're gonna be mm-hmm, you're, you've changed for sure you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:You still have your accomplishments.
Speaker 2:You still have that life and the things you did, but that's not who you are anymore. Right and hopefully, you're changing with less ego or what a lot of you know a lot of people try to have this thing called an ego death right and you're becoming more of you know what the universe wants you to be.
Speaker 1:I would say that and I kind of told you that right last time we were around each other you're significantly different than you were when you left. In my eyes, yeah, and and being around, you told you that last time we were around each other.
Speaker 2:you're significantly different than you were when you left In my eyes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and being around you, the way that I've been around you, yeah, I would say you're significantly a different human than you were five years ago. Is that bad? Is that good? I would say you changed significantly for the better. Not that you were a bad guy before, or because I mean we were friends and we hung out and we were good.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, a lot of good experiences. Yeah, we got a lot of good experience and so clearly.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed you then, but I would say I enjoy you and our conversations more now. They're just significantly different and I think they're a lot more humble and a lot more relaxed, yeah, yeah, a lot more, just like. This is my experience. What is your experience? And that's not the Brandon from before, because the Brandon before was like I'm going to go 1,000% into this and either you get on board, I'm going to tell you how to get on board, and if you don't, I'm going to tell you how to get out of my way, because I'm doing this, and then I'm going to do the next thing and that's how it was. But that clicks with my personality together. But I don't see. I don't see much of that anymore. I definitely see a much different person. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I feel like a good way, in a great way, yeah, and I don't even think like I like meant for that to happen, right. But I feel like I'm more of a humble person than I ever was Right.
Speaker 2:And like I want to see and I've always wanted to see my friends succeed. I've never wanted to be the guy that was like a one-upper, but now I almost want to see people succeed more than anything that I ever thought possible, and I want to help that happen. I want to help anybody Like if anybody that's listening to this has a question about you, know, because I've been sober for 11 years now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anybody has a question?
Speaker 2:about that hit me up. I'm an open book. I'm like I'm not an alcohol therapist or whatever.
Speaker 1:I don't know if that's a job.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I mean, I just know what worked for me and I know that I can probably help you, and I don't have a vested interest in seeing your success, other than just seeing you find success and find the life you want. I'm not trying to make any money off of anybody, right? I don't make any money off of anybody.
Speaker 2:I haven't had a job since 2017 so I'm not when I, when I say that, I say that with all my heart, that I I just want to help out, right, you know? And I think, like I don't think I ever was that person no, I agree before and I'm not saying was that person before, and I'm not saying I was far off.
Speaker 2:and I'm not saying I was like super selfish and self-centered and only looking at an angle of being profitable or whatever, helping myself out, but I'm much less, whatever that is. I'm much less of any of that now and I'm just much more try to help everybody out.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, with that and we'll wrap up with this what, instead of doing the whole yard sale thing that I do with normal guests, what would be a couple of tips that you would tell someone, or ideas or anything that either hey, I just want to take this really cool trip with, by myself or with my family, and it's maybe it's a three day getaway or maybe it's a two week trip or someone who's like man, this lifestyle, I've been thinking about it. Maybe it's not full time for me, but I kind of want to dabble. Like what would be something that you would say Like these are the things that we found have been very beneficial for us, and it could be anything like as far as finding a campsite, or how you do stuff when you get there, or setting your life up as far as investment stuff. Like what do you look at? What would you recommend to someone who kind of wants to dabble or look into this life?
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, I'd say keep it simple, right? Don't overthink it. Right? If you have a dream and you can dream it, then you can make that a reality. You have a dream and you can dream it, then you can make that a reality, right? So, like finding campsites I have I've had tons of people ask me about that. Oh man, like it stresses me out you know, going to a boondocking spot and maybe there's no spots and I'm like do you just want everything handed to you? Well yeah, you gotta earn.
Speaker 1:Cause it's not simple out there.
Speaker 2:Dude, I was in Bozeman and I had to back down a one lane fire road on the side of mountain for like three miles Because when I Google satellited, that road went to a meadow that had camping but now there was a gate there and I couldn't get through and I had to back down. I'd way rather have that experience than just pulling into a campsite that I knew was there.
Speaker 2:So, don't overthink it, dude. You're going to have bad things happen. You're going to have good things happen If you save, if you invest, dude, if you I mean, I've met people on the road, 19 year old kids that saved up. They're like, oh man, I saved up a bunch of money. I'm like, oh really, how much? Like, dude, 12 grand. I'm like, motherfucker, you quit your job at 12 grand and just hit the road and they're like, yeah, and I'm like that's the baddest ass thing.
Speaker 1:I have ever bro. I'm like dude amazing.
Speaker 2:I wish I could be you. Yeah, I waited until I was in my mid-30s and like had a decent net worth right and like some passive income you know, quote-unquote passive. You know, and like you don't have to wait until you're 70, so back to your point. You don't have to wait until you're 70 and have 5 million bucks. You don't have to leave when you're 18 with nothing. You know what you know. Bum money on the side of the road like find a happy medium, dude, if you want to quit your job.
Speaker 2:I guarantee you there's other jobs, right, if you want to take a three month sabbatical or a six month or a year sabbatical, you're going to be able to get back in the workforce. You know what I mean. Or a lot of people we meet too. I mean we meet couples all the time, same age, you know. Some have kids, some have no kids. We'll just say no kids. Couples working full-time jobs, remote from the road, staying in these destination places for free. We're boondocking for free. You're staying outside a glacier for a month or two and you're going into glacier every chance you get in hiking. And you're living outside a glacier for free, outside of whitefish, Montana, right, right, like one of the most expensive places to live in the States, you know, and you're getting to experience this life. Don't wait, don't overthink it, just go, just do it. You know what I mean. Like, don't be scared, like, oh well.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it was scary when you took off.
Speaker 2:Well, hell yeah, it's always scary, but I'm just telling you.
Speaker 1:It's doable.
Speaker 2:It's always scary the first time around.
Speaker 1:So, like I'm not the first person to travel full time, People have been traveling, you know, living as nomads, for since life began right how we all used to live.
Speaker 2:I'm the first person I know that has done it right Like.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you know anybody, right?
Speaker 2:So I'm a, I'm a, I've taken the plunge and I've said it's not as scary as you think it is. It's freaking. Exhilarating though, because you don't know where you're going to stay, you don't know what you're going to do, but you're going to find a place to stay and you're going to find something to do, right? So lower your expectations for what you think it's going to be and just go, experience what these areas have to offer and you'll realize, like, dude, I should have done this a long time ago. This is, this is amazing, like this is. There's no turning back, you know.
Speaker 2:And then we've been on the road for five years. We're planning on traveling another, at least another year, maybe two at some point. Yeah, I'm going to call it quits, like I don't want to just be traveling the same country in the same trailer, seeing the same stuff, but I would like to live a lifestyle to where I can have a home base and then take, you know, maybe six week, eight week trip which is more than enough to an area and then come back home and then in the winter, go to this area and come back home.
Speaker 2:You know so like I would like to be able to do that. So I would say, if you're listening to this and you have that opportunity to do that, just mix it up. To do that, just mix it up. Jobs will always be there, but your days on this planet are numbered. Right, right, you're going to. The only thing guaranteed is you're going to die.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:So do something for yourself before that happens, cause what's the point? Otherwise, what's?
Speaker 1:the point. That's a perfect way to end it, I mean you travel all the time you know us.
Speaker 1:I think that's the point. That's a perfect way to end it. I mean, you travel all the time, you know. So I know and I always want more, and I have the van and I keep brainstorming and I keep coming closer and closer and closer and closer. Yeah, I don't think going to the full extent that you did, but making my own version of and I'm it's just time to go do it after this, 2024 was my year to to kind of really kick my butt into that after my experiences with something that I had and yeah, so it's time to just start making that happen more and more which is awesome.
Speaker 1:It's fun so hopefully I'll meet up with you on the road. Open invite perfect everybody's welcome thanks B you bet.