SPEAKER_01: 0:10

Hey, this is Zee Michelson. Thanks for joining me today on my podcast. And as I have promised everyone, I have the illustrious Jay Lawrence with me. Jay went away for what? Three weeks on the city. Well, actually, it was a fit.

SPEAKER_00: 0:26

It was 15 days, but it wasn't three weeks.

SPEAKER_01: 0:28

15 days. That was a long time.

SPEAKER_00: 0:30

It was 15 days, and I thought it was going to be three weeks, but you know, because 14 days is two weeks, one more day makes it three weeks. So that's You're in the third week. I was in the third week.

SPEAKER_01: 0:42

You were on a bus. Yes. We did a whole bus tour. Yes. Now, let's start with where were you coming from and where were you going to?

SPEAKER_00: 0:51

A tour called the American tour, which was supposed to be America the Beautiful tour. America the Beautiful. And the great thing is the bus left from basically uh North Pier of Florida. And I got on the bus, and we our destination was West Yellowstone, Montana.

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West Yellowstone, Montana?

SPEAKER_00: 1:11

Yes.

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And was that the final destination?

SPEAKER_00: 1:15

That was the tip. That was the tip. What do you call it? Anticipate? That was the tip. That was it.

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So West Yellowstone, Montana.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24

Yeah, of course, that's right next to Yellowstone National Park. National Park. Right. But we stayed in West Yellowstone.

SPEAKER_01: 1:33

So bring us through. Tell us you started 20 miles north of where you're currently residing. So I'm going to say somewhere around somewhere around Leesburg.

SPEAKER_00: 1:42

Leesburg, Florida, right. We we headed to uh, you know, it seems kind of weird, but we went to Atlanta for an overnight stay. And our tour director our tour director likes the Drury Hotels. So we had we headed for the Drury Hotel in um Georgia, which was on the north side, so we could get out of get out of town real quick. The one fun thing about uh going north, we stopped at Nuts or User place, a place that runs uh pecans as you know.

SPEAKER_01: 2:15

Oh, you love that place. You've been there before.

SPEAKER_00: 2:17

Yeah, and I you know, I did it again. I did it again. Why'd you do it? I love the peacock uh ice cream. And thing is, I ordered two scoops. I should have only ordered one scoop.

SPEAKER_01: 2:29

Why? Did you have to take your scoop on the bus because you didn't finish? Well, or you were just too full.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

No, no, no, no, no eating or drinking on the bus at all. Oh, medical water? You could take water, you know, a bottle of water, whatever. But yeah, no, you couldn't take the ice cream on the bus. So no, it's just you order two scoops in a cup. I like it in a cup, right? And it is like anywhere else, it would be like four scoops. I mean, it is just incredible.

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Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02

And it's it was like three dollars a scoop. I mean, it was it's yeah, it was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01: 3:07

So that's a good place. That's a good stopover. So even if you're not on these tours, that was a good stopover. What's the name of that place again?

SPEAKER_00: 3:13

Right. I I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

You can't remember.

SPEAKER_00: 3:16

I can't remember.

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You know, my listeners are gonna say now they're gonna want to find this place. Well, so you're gonna have to you're gonna have to send me an email and tell me where it is so I can post it on my website.

SPEAKER_00: 3:26

Okay, I'll try to figure that out.

SPEAKER_01: 3:28

So, okay. So you stopped at your very, very wonderful ice cream place. Right. You got Pecan ice cream.

SPEAKER_02: 3:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 3:36

And then so this was all in day one. How many days were you on the road before you actually got to a tourist attraction?

SPEAKER_00: 3:43

You mean what time did we start?

SPEAKER_01: 3:45

No, how many days were you on the road?

SPEAKER_00: 3:47

We were on the road.

SPEAKER_01: 3:48

Day one, you just kind of left and then you stopped that night, and then day two, you stopped at your ice cream place.

SPEAKER_00: 3:54

Well, I mean, we were always on the bus. West Yellowstone, we stayed three nights. Okay, a couple other things.

SPEAKER_01: 4:01

When you were already there. What you're already there. Well, I want to start from the beginning. Don't you think? Well, you're asking me a silly question.

SPEAKER_00: 4:09

How many nights are we on the bus?

SPEAKER_01: 4:11

How many nights were you? Okay, day one, you leave. You left Florida, day one.

SPEAKER_00: 4:15

Go to Atlanta. Day two, we're going to St. Louis. And Judy Garland was there, and we were meeting we were meeting her in the world. St.

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Louis Louis.

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And of course, we had to stay at the Drury Hotel, the Drury Plaza Hotel, which is right at the base of the Ark.

SPEAKER_01: 4:33

So what did you do in St. Louis?

SPEAKER_00: 4:36

We we got off the bus and then checked into the hotel and we went to the Ark. That was the Okay.

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So you did the Ark, the St. Louis Ark. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 4:46

Wow. Uh, and here's its secret. If you're going and you want to find the entrance, it's not on either end of the arc. It's in the middle. You go underground.

SPEAKER_01: 4:57

How many days did it take for you to go from Florida to St. Louis?

SPEAKER_00: 5:00

Two. Day two.

SPEAKER_01: 5:02

Two days? Day two. So basically on day two. Now, along the road that you're traveling from Florida to St. Louis, were there stops, pit stops along the way for tourism? Did you do any of that? Or just stayed on the bus and looked at the trees going past until you got it?

SPEAKER_00: 5:17

I I I really hate to say this, but there just isn't that much between here and St. Louis for excitement, you know?

SPEAKER_01: 5:27

Not on your tour bus anyway.

SPEAKER_00: 5:29

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 5:29

They kept they kept it calm for you.

SPEAKER_00: 5:31

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

Okay, so you went to the St. Louis Arch. Did you go all the way up the arch?

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

Well, I we got there so late we couldn't go up. Oh bummer. But we saw pictures of it, and it was uh uh I saw enough. I didn't I didn't need to see any more, but I got a great I got a great picture of me at the base of the arc. Oh, cool. That is that was cool. I'm looking for a piece of paper if you figure it out.

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I know I see you scrambling things.

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I'm scrambling here, yeah.

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And yeah, you always were scrambling behind that mic. Stop scrambling.

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Always trying to find something, and uh yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01: 6:11

So now so now you were at St. Louis, you stayed again at the Drury, you know, very lovely hotel chain. You know, they have a lot of beautiful things, they do a lot of offerings like breakfast and all that fun stuff. Now, where did you go after St. Louis?

SPEAKER_00: 6:25

First, the other, the other basically day three, uh heading out of St. Louis, we we stopped at the Basilica, the Cathedral Basilica, which was a Catholic church, which was a masterpiece of mosaics and marble. And one of the uh head priests, what's the head priest's name? Uh you know, like Pope Pius XII, but uh had had uh been there and said that was the best place ever, and it was in St. Louis, it was beautiful, it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: 6:57

Okay, so you went to see the church and you it's a basilica, so it's tremendous. Basilicas are very large.

SPEAKER_00: 7:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 7:03

So so you went to see the church there. That was one of the pit stops on your way out of St. Louis. Yes, right?

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

Yes, and so from there we went to uh Sioux City, Iowa.

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Sioux City.

SPEAKER_00: 7:15

Sioux City, Su city, so now when you were in Sioux City, yes, what did you do?

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Because I fly into that area quite frequently.

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I know that I know that I was impressed. We were at a hotel at Hilton, Hilton Gardens Inn, right there on the river.

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I know where that is.

SPEAKER_00: 7:35

Beautiful hotel, but the amazing thing is the lighting in that hotel was the worst thing I'd ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_01: 7:42

Why? The design of it or the lighting itself?

SPEAKER_00: 7:45

Yeah, the the the design of lighting. I I could not believe this. Um I wrote them on that. I mean, and everybody on the bus said it was the stupidest thing. They had little spotlights over the bed and and they weren't focusable. I mean, and then they had two other lamps in the room. There was nothing that's indirect, it was everything was pointed at you at all times.

SPEAKER_01: 8:10

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 8:11

I could not believe it. They want you to make sure they see you when you're sleeping. That's right. But the hotel that they had a great restaurant there, and we really enjoyed a great meal. And so at the it was Crave Inn. It was Crave was the name of the restaurant, and we had a great time there. And so we spent it it was an overnight. You know, you know that the area, you have to get there to get there. So the next thing, we're prepped, we're heading west. What do you look for? You can't see a thing, right? Because you're in short dakota, heading west on Interstate 90.

SPEAKER_01: 8:46

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 8:47

And and and we were heading for the um Badlands.

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Badlands.

SPEAKER_00: 8:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 8:52

And okay, so basically, in basically in Sioux City, you really didn't see much of anything.

SPEAKER_00: 8:56

You just kind of there for the night. It was an overnight. Yeah. All right. So we're in um we're heading west. We're getting we're looking for the Badlands, and by golly, we we went through I'd driven Interstate 90 and driven by it, quote, the Badlands, and I thought I had seen it all. Boy, was I wrong. So there's I love the Badlands.

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I think it's breathtaking.

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There's a tour. You you've gone through the drive from from one end to the other.

SPEAKER_01: 9:23

Yep, you betcha.

SPEAKER_00: 9:25

And when you end up, you end up you end up at Wall Drug.

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The Wall Drugs, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 9:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 9:31

Which is which is a fun little place. Right. It's a fun little place. So you went and you did the Badlands. Now did the bus actually go through the Badlands? Did the the bus actually went through the Badlands?

SPEAKER_00: 9:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 9:41

The bus itself. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 9:42

Yes, yeah. Uh before that, we did do a tour through is it Mitchell, South Dakota?

SPEAKER_01: 9:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 9:49

To see the Corn Palace.

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Corn Palace.

SPEAKER_00: 9:52

Yeah. We saw the Corn Palace.

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What picture was on the wall on the corn?

SPEAKER_00: 9:57

I think it's a big thing.

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Every year they changed that.

SPEAKER_00: 9:59

I know. That that's that I didn't realize that. It was gorgeous, and I can't remember what it was.

SPEAKER_01: 10:05

But right, so the corn the corn palace you went to. And do you know that big named country artists have played at the corn palace?

SPEAKER_00: 10:13

Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We the our tour guide said we sometimes we had stopped there, but if it's like a you go in, it's a big auditorium, and you know, it's the outside important.

SPEAKER_01: 10:25

Yeah, it's an entity.

SPEAKER_00: 10:26

Yeah, you want to see the you want to see the corn structures because you say the the bus the bus drivers driving around a little town, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

Trying to get through. Yeah. Now how many people were on your bus?

SPEAKER_00: 10:39

Forty.

SPEAKER_01: 10:40

Forty people. Or zero. So you had a you had a full bus, you would full up.

SPEAKER_00: 10:44

Really, really wasn't. I I I guess maybe the seats are like 50 some. I I don't know. There because there were empty seats, but right. Everybody kind of sprawled out, but there were 40 of us. We enjoyed it. And everybody has asked me there. Everybody has asked me, you were on a bus for 15 days? I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I had no problem.

SPEAKER_01: 11:08

You left it driving to somebody else, which is kind of nice.

SPEAKER_00: 11:11

Right. Was I comfortable? Was I uncomfortable? No. I was comfortable all the time. You know? I mean, if you have to, you can stand up.

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

Right. And they have they have a facility on the bus. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:24

And I I never had to use that, but you know, like I said, you can stand if you're driving. If I'm driving, I'm not going to be able to stand up.

SPEAKER_01: 11:32

No. Yeah. So you left the driving to somebody else. So you went through Sioux City, you went through Mitchell, and you went through the Badlands. You wind up at Wall Drugs. Did you buy anything at Wall Drugs? Right. Did you buy a souvenir?

SPEAKER_00: 11:43

We had a great buy a souvenir. No, I didn't buy any souvenirs, but we did have dinner there. Whatever. Dinner, you know.

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In that area.

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Where you get a five cent cup of coffee. Please don't get all choked up about this.

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The old-fashioned cup of coffee.

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Five five cent cup of coffee and three. Get this. Three ice water.

SPEAKER_01: 12:03

So you were there at Wall Drugs, which is a very popular tourist attraction when you're going through South Dakota.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

Yeah.

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So now where did you go after Wall Drugs? Because you're on the other end of the state now. You're on the west end of the state.

SPEAKER_00: 12:17

Then the next thing we saw was um Devil's Tower.

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Did you go to Mount Devil's Tower?

SPEAKER_00: 12:22

Devil's Tower. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:23

So you were you heading to Mount Rushmore?

SPEAKER_00: 12:25

Well, we were heading to Mount Rushmore, but that we didn't get there uh that night. Uh yeah. So we were heading towards winter. Oh my. I'm I'm confused now. Oh my, now I'm confused where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01: 12:41

Where are you? You're in South Dakota.

SPEAKER_00: 12:44

But I was that after we saw no, no, no. Okay. So in we did get to Mount Rushmore and we saw Crazy Horse. The Crazy Horse Monument.

SPEAKER_01: 12:55

Crazy Horse Monument? Yeah, because that's both in this, that's in the same region. So you seen Crazy Horse, because that's still basically under construction still.

SPEAKER_00: 13:03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 13:04

Now, Mount Rushmore, when you went to Mount Rushmore, I told you to do something. Were you able to do it?

SPEAKER_00: 13:10

I don't remember what you told me to do.

SPEAKER_01: 13:12

I told you to go to the nighttime presentation.

SPEAKER_00: 13:15

To the what?

SPEAKER_01: 13:16

The nighttime presentation at Mount Time.

SPEAKER_00: 13:18

Oh no, no. We were uh up but we stayed at the K-Bar S Lodge in South Dakota.

unknown: 13:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 13:29

And from our balcony, we could see it. The monument on the side of the hill. And we could saw when the lights went in and all that. But there weren't any.

SPEAKER_01: 13:41

Yeah, that's never there. No fireworks. But what I wanted you to see was how they treat the veterans and the the the presentation that they do with the veterans at the monument site.

SPEAKER_00: 13:53

At night.

SPEAKER_01: 13:54

At night, and you didn't go.

SPEAKER_00: 13:56

Yeah, well.

SPEAKER_01: 13:56

You missed out. You missed out.

SPEAKER_00: 13:58

I I'd have to I'd have to get the bus. Uh a bus driver.

SPEAKER_01: 14:01

Uh could you please uh if you were staying at the hotel, you probably could have gotten a a ride up to up there, built plenty of things up there.

SPEAKER_00: 14:09

I probably could have if I wanted to, but um Right.

SPEAKER_01: 14:13

Yeah so you missed out on something very spectacular. I'm um so sad you didn't get to see it. Well, you do that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_00: 14:20

You do know and understand that the Crazy Horse Monument is actually larger than Mount Rushmore.

SPEAKER_01: 14:27

Mount Rushmore, yeah, it is. And you do know that these that it's not being supported by the government, it's individual donations that are helping build it.

SPEAKER_00: 14:38

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 14:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:39

Yeah, so I was there helping to support it.

SPEAKER_01: 14:43

Yes, we did too.

SPEAKER_00: 14:44

I mean, and they've come a long way.

SPEAKER_01: 14:46

Yeah, they've come a long way.

SPEAKER_00: 14:47

They've got the finger pointed out there now.

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Right, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 14:51

Yeah, um and I've got some pictures of what it's supposed to look like, but uh we were able to take a little extra bus tour from the visitor center up more closely, and they're already we can see people working on the monument.

SPEAKER_01: 15:05

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, it's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00: 15:07

Phenomenal the size of that thing.

SPEAKER_01: 15:09

Now, did you run into any buffalo or bison?

SPEAKER_00: 15:13

Not not yet. Not yet.

SPEAKER_01: 15:16

Not yet. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 15:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:18

So there you there we go. We went to the Badlands, we went to Mount Rushmore, we went to the Crazy Coast Monument.

SPEAKER_00: 15:25

Okay, in the Badlands, in the Badlands, we talked about uh prairie dogs.

SPEAKER_01: 15:31

Oh, lots of prairie dogs.

SPEAKER_00: 15:33

Prairie dogs.

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Lots of lots and lots and lots of prairie dogs. And I was disappointed.

SPEAKER_00: 15:37

I thought they were much larger than what they were. They were things.

SPEAKER_01: 15:41

Well, they're not that little. How far away were you? They're about the size of a small cat. They're not that they're not that tiny. But yeah, prairie dogs are there.

SPEAKER_00: 15:51

They didn't let me off the bus, so I didn't know.

SPEAKER_01: 15:53

Oh, you didn't you didn't stop at one of those lookout points in Badlands?

SPEAKER_00: 15:57

Well, we stopped at. We stopped at several, but we as we were driving by uh getting closer to Wall Drug or Well, South Dakota, and then Wall Drug. That's uh you know, that's where that was the big animals uh so far.

SPEAKER_01: 16:14

Okay, so those were the big the biggies that you've seen so far. Sometimes when you're out that way, you can see the bison or buffalo out in that direction, but I always say there there are no such things because every time I'm out there, I never see one, not a one.

SPEAKER_00: 16:29

Oh, bison?

SPEAKER_01: 16:30

Yeah, never see them.

SPEAKER_00: 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:32

So now you're in South Dakota, you're heading further west. Where did you go from South Dakota?

SPEAKER_00: 16:38

One one thing we were able to do is we took a a drive into the needles highway, which is part of South Dakota. Now, there we couldn't take the bus.

SPEAKER_01: 16:48

No, we had to hire we had to hire special tours uh because of the because of the mountainsides that you were going through those little tiny tunnels.

SPEAKER_00: 16:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:59

Tunnels, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 17:00

Yeah, and that was amazing. That was on the needles highway.

SPEAKER_01: 17:04

Yes, that that's amazing. I mean, I drove through that because I had my car.

SPEAKER_02: 17:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01: 17:10

Um, but I couldn't even imagine any kind of bigger vehicle than mine going through that.

SPEAKER_02: 17:15

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 17:17

It's it's an amazing sight to see. So needles, you know, you saw all those, you saw you.

SPEAKER_00: 17:22

Well then then there's a lot of the needle. There's a rock called the needle.

SPEAKER_01: 17:27

Yep. It looks like a needle.

SPEAKER_00: 17:29

Pardon?

SPEAKER_01: 17:29

It does. It looks like a needle. Yeah. It really does. So all of these things that you've seen in the Badlands, of course, we know the Badlands were named that way because that's where all the bandits used to hide out because you can easily get lost in the street. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 17:42

And I kept I I kept looking. Where would they hide?

SPEAKER_01: 17:44

Well well, wherevices. Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. Now people don't realize that South Dakota has all of these wonderful places to stop and see. It's very, very, very, very attractive. Yeah. And you're you're in the Black Hills by that point. So you're further west and you were in the Black Hills.

SPEAKER_00: 18:05

Okay, yeah. That's where I guess we I guess that's when we saw the Devil's Tower in the Black Hills, basically.

SPEAKER_01: 18:12

Everybody heard of Black Hills Gold, you know. So there you go. Now, where where did you go after South Dakota?

SPEAKER_00: 18:20

Well, we were heading west towards Wyoming, and our next stop was in Cody, Wyoming. Cody.

SPEAKER_01: 18:27

Okay. So tell me about Cody.

SPEAKER_00: 18:30

Um, we stayed, we we had dinner, we had lunch at Irma's Hotel and Saloon in Cody. And this saloon was built by Buffalo Bill. Right. And and it was it's a very historic old place. And when you walk in, you know it's an old place. But they've they've kept it up.

SPEAKER_01: 18:49

Is that the place where the horse the guy comes in on horseback?

SPEAKER_00: 18:52

I don't think I don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

Okay, there is a place out there where the guy comes in on horseback. So you know, it's part of the tourists.

SPEAKER_00: 19:00

Like downtown Cody, so I don't know. Yeah. Well it had, you know, it had a it had a polished bar and you know, the old West decor and everything. Right. It was a polished.

SPEAKER_01: 19:12

And what did you you said you had a restaurant there, so you were eating there?

SPEAKER_00: 19:16

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:17

What'd you eat?

SPEAKER_00: 19:18

Oh, it was a buffet lunch.

SPEAKER_01: 19:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 19:21

And and the best was the uh banana pudding, I believe. On the on the um on the buffet. Uh but I I I know I ate enough.

SPEAKER_01: 19:34

So I have a question for you.

SPEAKER_00: 19:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 19:36

Now, on this bus tour that you were on, did these rest were these restaurants included, or was that extra that you paid out of pocket? So that was included.

SPEAKER_00: 19:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:46

So the restaurants were included and your tourist sites were included, like when you stopped at Mount Rushmore and things like that.

SPEAKER_00: 19:53

Yes. Yes. Cool. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 19:56

So now you're in Cody, Wyoming, and you had a nice meal.

SPEAKER_00: 20:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 20:00

And what else did you do there?

SPEAKER_00: 20:02

Walked around town and then got back on the bus and headed west. And we're heading, we're heading into Yellowstone.

SPEAKER_01: 20:12

Okay. So we got out of we got out of that area and we're heading to Yellowstone.

SPEAKER_00: 20:15

Yeah, and you know, one thing I might my bucket list, I the the the first time I actually have been to Yellowstone, this was the actually the sixth time I've been to Yellowstone. The first time was I drove in this entrance to to Yellowstone, which is the east entrance out of Cody and going west.

SPEAKER_01: 20:36

So that's the first time you went in that way?

SPEAKER_00: 20:37

Yeah, the the very first time. This was many years ago. Oh, okay. So um I couldn't, I thought I drove out I as I remember, I drove out of Cody and drove right into Yellowstone. No, no, no, no. We we had to drive through a beautiful forest, which was one of the most breathtaking drives in the mountains. Nice, it's great. So I would totally recommend it. Go to Cody, then drive in the east uh entrance, and and then our goal when we got into Yellowstone, you know how large Yellowstone is, right?

SPEAKER_01: 21:12

Yeah, it's it's it's a little big.

SPEAKER_00: 21:14

It's big. Our goal was to get to the old faithful lodge because we were and this was in the afternoon, and we were waiting. Our tour guide had been talking to the people at Yellowstone uh on the timing of Old Faithful. And so we were on a we had to make it a certain time.

SPEAKER_01: 21:36

Make it at a certain time, you know, because you gotta watch that clock. Old Felth Old Faithful is named for being old and faithful.

SPEAKER_00: 21:42

Right. The trouble is it's a little, it's getting old, so it doesn't know as much as it used to. So it's on a different cloth. We got there in time, everybody got out of the bus, had a great time. We went into the lodge, but we we saw old faithful. Yeah, it was good. I said this is the sixth time I've been to Yellowstone, so it was old Faithful.

SPEAKER_01: 22:04

Now I have not been to Yellowstone. No, and there's there's a reason. Oh um, I'm highly allergic to sulfur. Oh yeah, and that's what's spewing out of the old faithful.

SPEAKER_00: 22:17

Don't get out of the bus, that's for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:19

I couldn't even be around it with the air. Uh so I I have not. I'd have to be up in the air, I'd have to see it via helicopter.

SPEAKER_02: 22:27

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01: 22:27

So I have not been there. So I would love to see it. So I'll have to see your pictures when you have them all you done up. But that was that's quite the trip. Just for how many days so far have we been on the road? Six? Seven?

SPEAKER_00: 22:41

Yeah, I guess that would be uh I guess that would be like six. Let's check that out. I'll check that out.

SPEAKER_01: 22:48

Go ahead and see we left, we left Florida, we hit Georgia, we hit Sioux, Sioux City.

SPEAKER_00: 22:56

Day five was crazy horse, day six was South Dakota.

SPEAKER_01: 23:00

Day seven, day seven was Day seven, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:03

Day seven. So and so then that night we we lodged in West Yellowstone.

SPEAKER_01: 23:09

Okay, so that lodge. So now, you know, because we've been chatting here for almost 25 minutes, so now what we're gonna have to do is we're gonna have to bring you back again, Jay, to hear about the other way coming back around and down.

SPEAKER_00: 23:22

Yeah. Can uh can I share this with you?

SPEAKER_01: 23:25

Uh what are you sharing?

SPEAKER_00: 23:27

Well, uh, when we got to West Yellowstone, the second night, the first night we went and had McNuggets because it was like McDonald's was across the street, you know. And so we had McNuggets and you know, nothing was big that night. The second night we we were on our own to get a meal of our own. So there was a place called the three the three bears restaurant restaurant, and it was recommended that they had bison skewers.

SPEAKER_01: 23:55

Oh, okay. Meat on a stick. Meat on a stick.

SPEAKER_00: 24:01

Bingo. And so we went to we went over to we went out, we went walking to find the place. And right when we got there, uh the this guy's outside on the bench smoking a cigarette saying, Uh-oh, the place isn't open until five o'clock because we were kind of early at 4 45. So he said, Oh, but the Grizzly Lounge, which is the next door over, which is the bar attached to three bears, is open. Go go have a drink. So we go in, and um, you know, it's you know, it's a nice cozy western bar. Okay and uh and my wife swings her a leg over the stool, and we sit down, and there's a couple other people sitting there, and she says to the bartender, says, uh uh is this a watery? That was a joke.

SPEAKER_01: 24:50

And did he say yes?

SPEAKER_00: 24:51

The bartender didn't say a thing. The four people that are that are sitting on the eye laughed their head off. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 24:59

So did she order did she order something like two fingers neat?

SPEAKER_00: 25:02

So so we did the, you know, we picked, we kind of created a conversation, and it it finally came around to the question like, well, where are you guys from? And of course I said Florida. You know, what we're and they said, that's funny because we're from Florida too, you know. So we were fist bumping, you know, Bob Great. Yeah, yeah. So then he said, then one of the guys said, Well, well, where are you from in Florida? And of course I said Orlando because it's an identifier.

SPEAKER_02: 25:32

But everybody knows.

SPEAKER_00: 25:33

Everybody knows. Well, and then the guy said, It's oh uh, do you know where Claremont is? And then it was our turn to laugh because we said, No, we're from Groveland. Uh right.

SPEAKER_01: 25:44

So everybody, everybody was from the same region, but they weren't on your tour. They were they were by themselves.

SPEAKER_00: 25:49

They were they were there on a fly fishing tour. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:52

Oh, so they were they'd gone fishing. They were going fishing.

SPEAKER_00: 25:55

Yeah, yeah, it was fun. We had a great we had a great meal, great time. Great meal.

SPEAKER_01: 26:00

So did you you wound up back at the restaurant then after the cocktail?

SPEAKER_00: 26:03

Pardon?

SPEAKER_01: 26:04

You went back to the restaurant after the cocktail opened.

SPEAKER_00: 26:07

Restaurant opened up and they were there, they were sitting in the bar too, waiting to go into the restaurant. And uh the guy says, uh, well, why don't you join us? So we joined them and we we ate with them, and and then the bottom of the story is this guy picked up a tab that night. That was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01: 26:26

Pick it up for for the hometown. Yeah. Score one for the home home team.

SPEAKER_00: 26:30

That's half the trip.

SPEAKER_01: 26:32

That's halfway through. So like I said, we're gonna have to invite you back so we can hear about the other half and you know, get get going on your next adventures. Because that's what you said. You wanted to retire and go traveling, and that's what you're doing. Again, thanks, Jay, for joining me today. This is Z Michelson, and remember what I always say reach for those stars. And if you only get to the moon, at least you made the trip. Thanks for listening.