Earned Fun Average
Earned Fun Average
Episode 231 - Hitting the Road in 2026
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We both set out on another trip 4th of July weekend. Johnny went to see Acadiana and Lake Charles. Eric went with his family to Springfield and Nashville. We talk about food and events outside of the ballpark and share our Proffitt & Loss.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Earn Fun Average podcast. I'm your host, Eric Prophet, coming to you from Wichita, Kansas. And with me, as always, I have Johnny Bolin, coming to you tonight from, well, it's kind of a new location, the living room. Not in the comforts of the BBC tonight, but in my comfortable chair. Paw Paw's got his blanket. I've got a t-shi- a golf shirt on with rubber ducks wearing Hawaiian shirts, just like you see in any nursing home. Good evening. Great introduction there. So over the last couple weeks, we've released our episodes where we talked about Father's Day weekend trips, where you were in Cape Girardeau to see the catfish, and then I went up to Boston and Cape Cod and that area. So we had said at the end of that episode that we had another trip coming up, so we're gonna do our, second trips episode. so you went on another trip shortly after you got back from Cape Girardeau, and I went on one as well. But before we hop into that, let's see what hat you got today. Well, from the, uh, Bolin's Back to the Bayou, uh, I left there with two hats. This is hat numero dos from those Acadiana Cane Cutters. that's as old school as it get. They use an old Coca-Cola trailer. That's the merch store. Okay. This hat just really kinda jumped out to me because I really like their logo. And last year it was just the interlocking Cs, which I liked as well. But when I saw the logo on a hat, it was one of those things, like, I just casually browsed over there. what is this hat?" And then Melinda stepped in, "Were you gonna get a T-shirt?" Well, I wasn't I, I was, I was Well, if you make me, I'll, you know, I'll get a new T-shirt as well." So, I left with actually kind of a patriotic themed- Cane Cutters. Has the fleur-de-lis in red, white, and blue, and interlocking Cs. Really, cool looking T-shirt. So this is from our friends, the Acadiana Cane Cutters tonight. Yeah, I really like that hat there with the, Is that Eddie? Is that his name? Eddie, yeah. Eddie. Our friend Eddie. I hung out with Eddie a few weeks ago. Kind of on a wa- on the kind of a, background with the baseball, and then has the Cane Cutters kinda sideways there. So yeah- Oh, yeah really sharp hat there. for myself, so I got back from kind of a modified version of Prophet Palooza Jr., and only ended up getting one hat. but it is from our friends, the Jackson Rockabillies. They have a hat, I don't know if it's new just this year. They may have worn it the last year or so. But, you know, with the hats you have, it has a lot of purple in it. Well, this one's kind of got a two-tone, two different shades of blue. So it's, I don't know if you call that a periwinkle blue, but a little bit- Maybe lighter blue, and a, darker kinda navy on the brim. And then has, JR, their, goat kinda mascot head with the guitar in his mouth. Now, the guitar is purple, but that's really the only purple in it. But yeah, I got the Jackson Rockabillies is what I have today. Oh, that's a very sharp hat. I love, I love... I'm like you, I love that blue. Well, I remember last year, you know, you talked about your trip, Bullens to the Bayou. So now it's Bullens back to the Bayou, and you got back, what, couple weeks ago maybe now at this point. So would you mind sharing the itinerary of, how your trip went this year? and I think I've talked about, uh, as we, before we started recording, I can't remember what I've talked about the trip already So if I'm repetitive, uh, ladies and gentlemen, just, just pass. It's, I'm an old man, so, you know, just forget it. You know, may- maybe you haven't listened to that episode yet that I referenced something. And so, originally it was gonna be three nights Lake Charles, one night Lafayette. But doggone, shout out to Drury Inn. Yes, we'd take you as a sponsor. Come on, Drury Inn. We like Drury Inn. offered me such a great deal for a second night on a Thursday. so we spent two nights in Lafayette and, and consequently by staying that extra night, the Cane Cutters were in town. So we got to see, three games in total. One at, one in Youngsville/Lafayette, and then two in Lake Charles. And so, uh, I do need to report to the listeners the curse of the Bolabeno was lifted. If you remember from last year's trip and Cape Girardeau, the teams I was supporting were 0-fer. Not one win. This year, 3-0. Three and 0. Wow. And even Melinda pointed out the other day when the playoff bracket came out, she said, "Didn't we see all four of those teams?" wow, I'm impressed by that. Yes, we did see the Brazos Valley Bombers and the Victoria Generals. So we did see all Yeah, we did see the final four teams on our trip, so that was kind of neat. Awesome. Well, we'll jump into that a little bit here to get more details on the trip. but for myself, so, uh, the basis of our trip was my son, was playing in a travel ball, and he had a couple tournaments. So first tournament, when we headed out, early on a Friday morning, we left about, I think, 2:00, 2:30 AM, and drove out to Springfield, Missouri. They had a, I believe it was an 8:00 AM game in Springfield on that Friday, which was the 4th of July weekend. So we dr- got up early, drove out there, got there in time for the game. spent the weekend, up until Sunday afternoon in Springfield, Missouri, and then drove actually a couple hours, up to St. Louis. My cousins live up there, so they're just on the east side of St. Louis on the Illinois side. My aunt and uncle live there as well, and so we got to stay with my cousins, and they have, three kids. Uh, one of them's I think about a year older than my youngest one, one's a year younger, and then they have a brand-new baby. But it's good for, uh, the kids get to play with each other since they don't get to see each other too terribly often. from there, we drove over then to Louisville, and Or, I'm sorry, no, we started in Cincinnati, actually. We went up to Cincinnati and saw a game there, uh, in Cincinnati, then stayed the night in Louisville and then headed out, on that following Wednesday, drove down to Nashville, and then stayed in Nashville until Sunday, for another tournament, where he played Nashville for most of that week, and then drove, stopped in Jackson to see the Rockabillies, and then finished up, stayed the night in Memphis and then headed back on that Monday. So we were on the road, for about 10 days, and that was coming right off the nine-day trip my brother and I had. Oof. So I was basically gone for what seemed like an entire month. And hey, by seeing the Reds, you saw another minor league team. Hey- That was for you, Goldfinger. Mike Sellers, that, that one was for you guy. I'm calling that one. I'm calling that, that jab one of the things we obviously enjoy talking about is food, and I remember you telling your story last year, getting to go and have some boudin balls and some other delicious, Cajun down there. So would you mind sharing a little bit about the food scene that you did this year? Well, you know, at the ballpark, Lafayette Well, uh, this will shock our, our, our listeners as well, and I I've been trying to diet for several weeks. You know? that in ballpark doesn't scream good marriage, right? Like you're just ate, like I didn't even finish the order of nachos. and then they had, uh, both nights in Lake Charles, they were so n- They're so A- a- I've talked about this a million times. The people run the team, the Moore's, just so nice. We got VIP seating with the food and under the pavilion and everything. So I ate hamburgers, really good, really tasty hamburgers, both nights. But then during the day, just like last year, we would, we would chow down on seafood, and tried, um, fried crawfish balls, like a boudin ball, and it was stuffed with like veggies and crawfish and this spicy sauce. Absolutely amazing. I tried little mini crawfish pies. Did I say it was Dolly? Anyways, little bitty, you know, little stuffed crawfish mini pies at Karstner's in Scott. It is between Lafayette and Lake Charles, and there's this like, that whole area. In Scott is the boudin capital of the world. So there's several places there that are kind of famous for boudin, and we always go to... We, we've been to Carson both years. some grilled shrimp. So the... And then even the hotel breakfasts were good. You know, the, our favorite, the continental, the hotel breakfast, the food was good. but yeah, some great seafood. well, we went to the Tabasco plant for their tour. Dare I say spicy. Eric, when you got out of the car, you smelled Tabasco. I mean, it was this- Like, where are the chicken wings at, right? Like wing sauce, literally in the air. And so, uh, that's on Avery Island, and close to that's New Iberia, and we went to New Iberia last year. And so we were in this little store that we'd been at last year, in an old rice mill down there. It was getting close to lunchtime, and the guy that owned it introduced himself, and I said, "Where's a good place for lunch?" He said, "What do you want?" I said, "I want... If, if it's been swimming, I want to eat it. I want seafood." He said, "If you go about two, two blocks and take a right, on your left is a place called Bon Creole, and they've got delicious po'boys." And he says, "You, you won't be able to eat a whole one." I thought, is he seeing me correctly? But anyway. Like, I look like a whole po'boy kind of person. To get a half, man, they're delicious. And so it's a cinder block building with, like, this mural stuff of Louisiana stuff on it. best po'boy I've ever had, and I've been eating them 26 years. Wrapped up in the white paper. The cashier had an accent, was amazing. You knew she wasn't from Boston, like we talked about on Profit Points, right? And the food was... I had a crawfish po'boy, and it was phenomenal. I like that place so much, Eric, I bought a T-shirt from there. I have a Bon Creole Taste of Louisiana in your mouth, so it says on the back of the T-shirt, with a giant alligator on it. But, yeah, that was, that was probably my favorite thing, was the po'boy from Bon Creole. And Bon Creole, we would take your sponsorship money as well. Mm-hmm. Definitely. So any culinary treats, for the Prophets, on Prophet Palooza Jr.? Yeah, so we went to, and I mentioned just kind of briefly a couple games we went to, but since we were in Springfield, we went, that Friday night, we went over to a Springfield Cardinals game, and then on that Monday, we actually went to a St. Louis Cardinals game when we were in St. Louis, and then went to the Cincinnati Reds. Uh, did get to go down to see our friend Virgil, uh, in Rocket City. Oh, yeah. Got to see the Trash Pandas, which is always fun. Been there a couple times now, and then finished up in Jackson. There were a couple other ballparks I wanted to get to, but yeah, obviously had a lot of ice cream helmets, uh, any chance I got while I was there. they had some really good don't remember the exact name, but they were like basically loaded tots- Hmm in St. Louis at the Cardinals game, and got some loaded tots, which were really good. obviously since we were in Cincinnati and I'd never been there before, had to get the Skyline Chili How was that? I know that's kind of a controversial culinary subject. Some people love it, some people hate it. Wh- where do you stand on the, uh, Skyline Chili? Probably right in the middle. It was, it was okay. I didn't, wasn't my favorite, but it also wasn't, I don't think it was as bad as people probably would have said, uh, that it was. So it's kind of right there in the middle. But obviously, since we're there, we had to try it. And then at the ballgame itself in Cincinnati, they have an, uh, I guess they're pretty famous for the ice cream from Graeter's ice cream, and they have a, I think it's a, black raspberry chip ice cream, and so got that, and that one was really good. And so overall, there was some, pretty decent food. one that wasn't at the ballpark that we actually got that we really wanted to try, was at Hattie B's Hot Chicken in Nashville. Oh, yeah. And so we stopped there maybe the second day we were there, and Zach was, of course, gonna have a game, so I t- told him, I was like, "You probably don't want to get anything real, really hot." So they have kind of regular, whether they have a sandwich or chicken strips, they just kind of have a regular. But I end up getting the medium, which little hot, but not too bad. But yeah, Hattie B's in Nashville, definitely wanted to stop there, so that was kind of the last big thing. Outside of, because I was in the area, I, uh, had to go over to, Bojangles, and I had to get the- Oh Bo-Berry biscuits, 'cause I love me some Bo-Berry biscuits. So I got those a couple times, 'cause we don't have any here, so any time I'm kind of in that area, I always have to stop there. You know, it's funny you mention that. When we went to Cape Girardeau, somewhere in Arkansas, there was a Bojangles in a gas station, and I had never tried the legendary Bo-Berry biscuit. Wow. Well, I just go And it was piping hot. Mm-hmm, that's when it's the best. I had, I've had it- Oh- when they're, they weren't, and it's okay. But if you get it right when they serve it, right, they eat it right there, amazing. I didn't There was, like, two biscuits. I ate, like, one, and didn't eat, didn't eat the second one. It was just because w- was trying to have willpower. And then their french fries with that Cajun seasoning on them. Mm-hmm. The chicken was g- You know, she got, like, a combo, so we kinda were, like, sharing, you know, with, with, you know, what, what we'd got at that gas station. phenomenal. It, it lived up to the hype. We're in the same situation. We don't have a Bojangle. There may be, like, in Northwest Mississippi toward Memphis maybe, but they're not really present in the sovereign state of Mississippi. But it is very good food, very good fast food. You know what I just thought about? So when we had talked on our previous trip wher- trips episode where you were, in Cape Girardeau, you mentioned, I believe you went to, our friends that have the throwed rolls, Lambert's? Lambert's, yes. Because I guess we're not talking about this trip. I- that's And that was, uh, the very first day we were there, so I c- almost completely forgot that I went there as well. I went to the Ozark, location in the Ozarks in Missouri. just kinda south there of Springfield. But that was Yeah, so we drove up, like I said, really early that morning. Zach had a game, and then immediately left and got there right before 11:00, shortly after they opened. I think they opened, like, at 10:30. And got there just in time, got a seat immediately, and then right after that it got really busy. So I forgot that was one other place outside of ballpark food that we did besides Hattie B's in Nashville, was we did get to go to Lambert's. And to make up for you, I did catch the roll that they threw. I didn't let it hit the, my chest. Sir, you can't bring a c- a glove in here, sir. You got to catch it with your bare- You can't be snagging them in the air, uh, with your first baseman's mitt, right? So, um, now probably the most diff- Now this was some- We did something on this trip, I, I had never been to. We actually did a distillery tour. Oh, wow. Bayou Rum. I'd never, till that time, ever tasted rum. you, you got to, you know, it had this beautiful mural in the back. you got to see all the equipment. It was like a 30-minute tour, but at the end of it you had a sampling at the bar there. And again, I never had tasted rum. And so we had this couple to our left, and I'm about halfway The first three tasted like lighter fluid. It just pure, bang, right? Just, rum. And I looked over at the lady beside me, I said, I've always been a heavy eater and a light drinker." And she said, "I'm the opposite." Great line. Yeah. That's such a good line. But then we got to the fourth one. Here's where they snuck it up on you. It gets kinda a little sneaky here. First three, and he's telling you what you can mix with it by, you know, he's doing the whole thing. The fourth one kinda was more like caramel forward. Like, you would make a bread pudding and make the- Mm sauce out of that kinda rum, a rum sauce. 'Cause it, it had little cinnamon notes to it. The fifth one was satsuma, so it was orange. Those, you know, those, those little oranges, tangerines that grow in Louisiana. First thing you tasted was orange. It snuck up, it'd sneak up on you real quick, right? 'Cause you're, "Oh, wow, refreshing o-," you know. But the sixth one, and, and you and I have talked about this off, off the podcast. A gator bite chocolate caramel. Mm. Um, we left with a bottle. That was some good 'Cause you don't taste rum on the front end. You don't taste any alcohol in that first little You know, and, and they may have given you, like, an ounce each. You know, everybody's gotta drive and leave, so they, you wouldn't get sloshed for the, for the, uh, fee. We left there with a Christmas ornament. I've got a refrigerator mag- of a, a magnet of a, a barrel that says, "Buy your rum." So if you come see our Christmas tree this year, you'll notice a little wooden, rum barrel. But it was a neat tour. Again, something we had, we had never done. And where was that at? I can't remember what town that was in. Was it kinda near Lake Charles, or were you over in Lafayette? I think that was closer Oh, did we leave Lake Charles to go to it? Okay, yeah. Be like sort of in the middle- Mm between the two. I think we left Lake Charles for that. You know, 'cause we would do like the tour stuff, during the day and different things and, and so, you know, 'cause all the, obviously all the games are at night and just go out and, you know, did that tour and like I said, Tabasco tour. Tabasco had a little sampling thing. I'm, I'm a weakling when it comes to spicy stuff, they had some stuff there, and they had this cool deal, deal, the deal with their store. It was like an $8 mystery box. So you got a bottle of sauce and whatever size T-shirt. But if you got a golden ticket in there, you got another shirt that you could pick out and a hat. And so regular size bottle of their sauce, you didn't know what, what flavor, whatever. And so the T-shirt fit Melinda I gave our secretary's son, he likes real spicy. This thing had like three peppers on the side of the box. No, no thank you. A habanero. It was in like a yellow box, you know? he loved it. Like I said, he, he like, Rod likes spicy food and, so she got a T-shirt, he got a bottle of sauce, you know, and, uh Yeah, that was neat. We hit an antique store, uh, in Lake Charles. Went to this cool store called the Cajun Corner, spelled with a K, both of them, and they had the funniest T-shirt. It would not You'd get beat up here wearing it. It was like one of those political shirts and it said, "Kiff and Orgeron." Like gray with the purple, purple and gold on it, you know, on, you know, and white on a gray T-shirt. That's funny. I'd like to say I didn't look to see if they had a 2X, but I, you know, I couldn't wear that around. stopped at, or, you know, when we were heading home, we stopped in Ba- Baton Rouge at the store Melinda wanted to go to. And, so I'll, I'll tell, uh, my wacky story from Lafayette. So it was '80s night at Furbacher as they were taking on those Victoria Generals. so, you know, of course we didn't dress up. I brought a cane cutters hat and my, and my crawfish fishing shirt, I call it. And so there's a guy walking around area with, in, in nice clothes. He had a name badge on and had a stethoscope around his neck. And I think, well, he must be a doctor who's the team doctor. And he kept walking around the ballpark and everything, and he stops and looks at us and goes, Hey, what's the deal with those boots?" I said, "We're for diabetes." He goes, "What?" Now, for, that should've been a clue right there, Eric. If a doctor doesn't know anything about diabetes, that should've been like a flashing red light. And so he's asking me all these questions. I thought, how did he not study this in medical school, right? But he never got close to the dugout. And so it hit us the next afternoon. He was dressed as George Clooney from Oh, wow. That wasn't a real doctor badge. He was rocking that guy like- He and this lady that was taking up your tickets, 'cause you do a paper ticket there, which I love, was dressed like, uh, what was that old movie? Suddenly Seeking Susan. I've never seen it. It was a Madonna movie from back in the '80s. So she was dressed up. They were the only two people in the ballpark dressed in '80s attire. had the, had the surprising moment first night in Lake Charles. like I said, we were over in the little pavilion area and chowing, I was chowing down on a burger, shocker. I'm on like a picnic table with a, you know, the, the umbrella and everything there in that park. And so I'm eating this burger, and then all of a sudden I hear those magic words, We'd like to welcome tonight Gumbo Gators super fan Johnny 'Super Fan' Boland," And nobody's around me. Like, I'm by myself at this table now. he drove here fr- all the way from Mississippi, and he's been with us since day one. Was that sweat or tears? I, I don't know. And then people started applauding. Like, do I stand up? what do I I didn't know what to do, right? I gotta put the burger down, but I don't know And of course, you know, there's no video board, right? So, you know, you And so people started clapping and- everything. So that was a really nice, cool moment. It sounded like Sam Moore came up, but that was like his, his notes, you know, and something he said to me earlier, Hey man, you've been with us since day one." and so I guess he went up there, they sent a message to the PA guy. So it wasn't Bryce Boudreaux singing at this time. Oh, okay. PA man. Yeah, it was a, PA announcer. So that was a really cool moment. As always, great hospit- uh, hospitality. f- always fun, just, you know, they're, they're like your family. They're like family, and it's just great to be back. When that, game on the 4th ended, I thought, "Is it okay if I just sleep here tonight? I just don't wanna leave. I just-" They're seven hours from here. Like, I just don't wanna just lay here and soak this in. And like I said earlier, 3 and 0. CaneCutters won. the Gumbo Gators beat the San Antonio River Monsters. Not sure where that i- where that is or what that is. And then those Brazos Valley Bombers. And so, like I said, Victoria, Brazos Valley, Acadiana, and the Gumbo Gators made the playoffs. So just a great fun trip. Melinda was giving me a hard time about all the T-shirts I was buying. I guess instead of hats, it was, T-shirts. So now I did not buy anything, ladies and gentlemen. I said, "Buy you rum," okay? You won't see me in Calhoun City. Cool logo, gator with a barrel in its mouth. Like, why is that not a Never mind, but, uh, thankfully they didn't go bigger than a large size on that T-shirt. So what was some of your favorite parts of Profit Palooza Junior this year? Well, it was funny that you mentioned the distillery tour. So, I did actually did one as well. And so went to a couple breweries on the trip. Uh, did not have any blueberry ale, so little bit different than Boston. but actually when I was in St. Louis, and I've actually been there before, went to, Anheuser-Busch- Oh and got to do, uh, what they call the Day Fresh Tour, and they took us to where they have the Clydesdale horses. Got to see a couple of those, and then walked around the campus in St. Louis, and then you get a couple samples along the way. And then the- towards the end, they pull off a, bottle of something that had just come off the, line that they had just bottled, usually within the last day or so. And so it was a Bud Light, so we got a fresh Bud Light that just came off the line within the previous 24 to 48 hours, so that was kind of cool. So it was nice and fresh. Uh, and then when we were in Nashville, so Lynchburg, Tennessee is roughly about an hour, hour and a half kind of south of Nashville, and I had been there before as well, but I did a tour of the Jack Daniel's Distillery. So I got up early one morning before Zach had a game that afternoon, drove down and went around, and it started raining a little bit, but not too bad. But same thing, they had samples towards the end and the first few. our guide, was trying to tell us how to kind of tilt your head back, get your tongue in there, get the flavor, and then knock it back and hopefully, you know, clean your palate so... But just like you, the first couple were just kind of pretty, you know, the first one was like the standard Jack Daniel's, and then there was Gentleman's Jack. But then towards the end, they had one that was, apple flavored, and then one that they actually just started last year, and they hadn't brewed it before or distilled it before until last year, was a blackberry And so tried that and it was really good. So kind of like you, I went ahead and got a bottle of it. But, but get this. So we were there, had probably about four days left of our trip, had it packed, got all the way home. Soon as we got home on that Monday, my wife started to, throw out all the like grab out all the stuff out of the back of my vehicle, and my, uh, little book bag caught onto the gift bag that that was in, and it was hooked on it. And as soon as she grabbed my book bag out, because that was hooked on it somehow, the bottle goes flying across the driveway and shatters. Oh. Oh, no. So I didn't even get to try it. I mean, I, I tried it obviously at the distillery, but didn't get to have any of the bottle. I don't know. They'll probably have it s- we haven't checked yet. There's probably somewhere around here has a bottle of it, because I don't think it's an exclusive just for out near Nashville and Lynchburg. But, haven't got o- uh, one yet. She said she'd go buy me a new bottle of it. But yeah, made it all the way home just fine, transport it, and then, accidentally got caught on my bag and just went flying and went everywhere. It smelled really nice. Smelled like blackberries outside, but luckily it wasn't in the car. It was out on the, the driveway. one of the things we did, outside of those games that I'd mentioned, when we stayed in Louisville, unfortunately we didn't get to go to a Bats game because we just stayed the night after the Reds game, to head to Nashville. We actually stopped real brief right before we got on the road to go to Nashville, since he didn't play till that afternoon, and we went to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. And that was really fun. I wish I would've had more time to spend there. We did get to take a tour, so we got to see where they made the bats, and they had some of, some of the big name players, their bats that they order from them, and got a couple little souvenirs. They had a logo baseball, but it was, made it look like it was the wood from a bat. they gave you a little mini bat that you got to take at the end of the tour, and then how they have the knobs, when they first do it, and they have to cut those off before they can kinda round it and everything. They g- the, the little knob pieces at the end, they let you keep w- however many of those you wanted. So hopefully sometime I can get back and get to experience a little bit more, 'cause we were kind of in a rush, but glad to get to go there. hope to make it back, take my brother at some point, 'cause I know he'd really enjoy that as well. But yeah, that was the big thing outside of the breweries and distillery, was the Louisville Slugger Museum, and that was a ton of fun. I thought for a moment you were gonna say you and the family stopped by Studio Simon. No, he actually- Oh, and I asked about that. Yeah, I asked about that, and he was, I think, actually out of the country. Oh, wow. From what I gathered. I have no idea where he was at, but no, unfortunately didn't get to run into him. I did wanna go to a Bats game, and, is it the humidity? Is that one of their identities? Oh, yeah. That's cool. I kinda like that little logo and identity, so I wanted a hat, but didn't work out this time. So I'll have to get back at some point and, see if I can go to a game and maybe get a hat if they still have it at that point. But no, I did ask about it, and from what I gathered, he was not. Maybe he knew we were coming to Louisville, so he fled the country, but did not get to go and meet him unfortunately. Okay, uh, uh, ma'am, talking to his secretary, I'm going to my escape room in Fort Collins, Colorado. Right. Exactly. That's my getaway place. Um, yeah, Fort Collins, Colorado to the Caputo home, for our, getaway. ha- I hate you didn't get to go. That would be a neat place to, to really see, you know, to see him again and see all the stuff, you know, that would be kind of fascinating if, to get, if you had some access to see all these old designs and stuff that didn't make it, you know, that would be a, that would be a lot of fun. that- that's cool. That's cool. How, how do the Royals family deal in Cardinals c- territory? I mean, that's, it's kind of a rivalry, right? Going back to the World Series back in the day and- I mean, hey, we won in '85, so they, I mean, they play each other every year. but they're not as big of rivals just obviously because they're AL versus NL, so it's not quite as big. But we've been, I've been there probably a handful of times. I really enjoy Busch Stadium. It's a lot of fun and, where we were sitting, we were kind of up and there wasn't a whole lot of people up there, so just kind got to enjoy it, sitting up behind the plate and get to see the arch and everything. So, overall it was a pretty enjoyable game. Now, we didn't have quite as fun, especially trying to get in to the Reds ballpark, great American ballpark, but, it was all right. That ballpark everybody says is, uh, one of their favorites. It's, it was okay. Not one of my favorites, but, did get to check that off as a new ballpark, so now I am down to officially six ballparks left. Whoa. Uh, so I had seven, knocked that off, and then now, so I have six remaining, to try to get to. Oh, wow. That's amazing. So it sounds like, for the most part we've, uh, had a really fun time, both of our trips. But let's, uh, go over, how about the profit and the loss? I know you've talked about a lot of fun things on your Bullants Back to the Bayou. any particular profit or gain you can think of? Oh, that's easy, just being at the ballpark. y- we've talked about this for years. There's just nothing around us, and as much as, as I love it, getting to be there, you know, especially going back to back years now, you're kind of familiar with the setup. You, you kinda know the ropes a little bit. and like I said, the Moores, Sam Moore, Bryce, e- those folks are just like your family, you know? They're, they've become genuine friends, not just somebody you've had on a podcast and never talked to again you know? Like So, that's the biggest profit, the, the people and getting to be at the ballpark Yeah, and you know, obviously I had mentioned for me getting to go to Louisville Slugger Museum was a lot of fun, and wish I could spend more time there. But I think for me it was probably, the opportunity to just get to travel and watch Zach play with his team. got to have a lot of fun traveling over to Springfield, Missouri, and then Nashville, Tennessee. He is officially done for the summer. just signed him up for fall baseball, and then he's, uh, heading into his senior year. Here in just a couple weeks he'll begin his senior year. So just the opportunity to get to go and watch him play. Obviously won't have a ton more opportunities to get to see him play baseball, so really enjoyed that time getting to travel there. And so although we didn't get to see Normally it's baseball games every single night for minor league, collegiate, or MLB. We did get to see some games, but not nearly as much as we typically would on those trips. But just to get to see him and his team play was a lot of fun. So, for me, that would be my profit. On the loss side, obviously one is, you know, obviously just kinda silly, was, losing that big bottle. It's a pretty expensive bottle. Huh. Uh, pretty big bottle, the Jack Daniel's Blackberry. hopefully I'll get another one here soon. but also just trying to get into the Reds game was a little difficult. They have a, what's called the go-ahead entry, where you usually should be able to get in pretty quickly, but that line was going pretty slow. So then we looked over at the regular line, and that actually went through a lot quicker, and so we hopped over there and got through. And, none of- nothing that really amounted to a whole lot. just kind of a, a couple fun little, oh, sorry, that was not, not that great of a thing. So, uh, those couple things I would say were my loss, but nothing, too bad on there. What about yourself? Any loss you can think of? And this is really splitting hairs. Coming home. Yep. We ate, our last Louisiana meal on Sunday, it's a place called Mennendorf's. It's been around since the '30s. It's just south of Hammond. And so it's a straight shot. You, you, you take Interstate 55, you take it to Grenada, Mississippi, and then you get on the highway there and you head to Calhoun City. So I mean, it's literally very easy to get, get down there. So we had finished lunch. We dodged pretty bad thunderstorm by seconds to get in there. Had a great lunch. we split some delicious banana bread bread pudding. Mm. Phenomenal. got some gumbo there. They're, they're known for their catfish is like their But anyway, great food. Kind of a legendary Louisiana spot. And so she plugs up the GPS thing, and it said 290 miles to home. And it's like, oh man, you know, we got this big distance now and we're heading home and, you know, this was like the last, you know, fun Louisiana, your good, the good food as I talk about, the, the seafood and everything. And, and yeah, I think we got home about 9:00 or something, so it wasn't late, you know, by any, any stretch of the imagination, but- We stretch out every time. Yeah, we, we c- we'll take breaks. we stopped and got Starbucks in Brookhaven, Mississippi, where we used to live, and of course gas breaks and, you know, all that. And, the cheapest gas I've seen in the last so many months was in New Iberia, 3.06 a gallon. Mm. So they're taking care of those guys that work on those rigs out in the Gulf, right? Does that say 3.06? Well, I haven't seen 3.06 in a while, so. So yeah, that's really splitting hairs 'cause it was such a fun time, and you feel blessed to, to get to go and, and do that and just have a, have a lot of fun and, eat well and see some great baseball and, just a great... It's just a great experience. Something like, you know, we've talked about before, we, we save up all year for vacation, you know, just put money away for it. And so it's very rewarding when you can say, "Okay, we're here. We're doing it now. We're ready to go." always rent a car. That's part of the plan. Gotta get that rental car. Put mileage on it. Yeah, it's pretty good amount of mileage, especially like I said, we do a lot of driving when we get to these places, going to, to various places. But yeah, that's, that's just being kind of picky to find something that's a loss. But, so, Mm, I guess I do have a honorable mention. So I actually had told you this, but JR, the mascot for the Rockabillies, he didn't come out at that game, so we didn't get to meet him. But I think you'd said that he retired after you and Mr. Larson got to meet him. And then, and then in Cincinnati, the little one got to meet, three of the four mascots they have. But, uh, no one was around that was able to take my picture, so didn't get to get my picture with the Reds mascots. But did get to meet the rest of them, on the trip when we were there. So that's, again, nothing that was earth-shattering, but just kind of another little Couple mascots I didn't get to meet. Yeah, I love mas- I'm like you, I love masc- I like getting a picture with the mascots. I just- Mm-hmm know it might be weird It doesn't have to be just for kids. Adults can get- I- pictures with the mascots. I actually thought of a new Curb Rd Media t- t-shirt that reads, "I like baseball teams you've never heard of." That's good. Yeah, that would be the perfect Curb Rd Media theme, 'cause, I've had people here at, "Well, do you have a, a relative plays on that team in Louisiana?" "No." You have a nephew or something that plays down there?" "No." just like it, you know? Well, Johnny, it's been a lot of fun getting to chat about our trips here. Now, obviously it's extremely early, but always looking ahead to the next year. So is it Bolens back to back to the Bayou? So is that Bolens III, like Rocky III? Rock- I don't remember what happened Rocky III, but Or any other wishes or hopes that you might get in for 2027? Well, hopefully Club Lang and Mr. and Hulk Hogan don't show up. That, that, you know, that Rocky dealt with. Yeah, we'd love to do it again. We've already talked about that. We loved the Cape Girardeau trip. that was a lot of fun. And so, hopefully try to do those, those two again. Yeah, and at this point I have no idea what Profitpalooza Junior 2027 might look like, because Zach will have one last year before he heads off to college. I'm sure it'll have to be something based around his tournaments. We usually won't find out till closer to Christmas where they play next summer. So no idea on that one yet at this point. But for Profitpalooza 2027, potentially looking at a little bit earlier in the year when the minor league season just starts up and college baseball's still going on, and, maybe knock out some SEC teams. And, looking forward to, two minor league ballparks we've never been to that really are high on our list in Biloxi and Pensacola. So that's kind of the area we're looking at. might be back kind of in your neck of the woods in that area. so that's what we're planning on. Obviously waiting to see what the schedule looks like. Uh, we're gonna try to make it work out obviously where we go, probably in April, 'cause then Zach graduates in May, so I don't think that Shannon would a- appreciate it if we, happen to be on the road for Profitpalooza when Zach graduates. So probably gonna do a little bit earlier this next year, but that's just kind of what we're looking at as of right now, kind of where we're planning on going is down in kind of that area. Well, plus it'll cut back on a lot of the heat too. Yep, for sure. April versus June is remarkably different. So yeah, that would definitely save on some hot trips. Well, Mr. Bowlin, as I had mentioned, it's been a pleasure, so hopefully everybody gets out there and, checks out. Obviously both of us had posted some, pictures and stuff online from our trips. But make sure everybody follows along with the podcast. Uh, we're Earn Fun Average, Average is AVG. Instagram, Twitter, Blue Sky, and Threads. And John, if you'd start it off, I'll finish it. Miracle, lower your standards. Average is what these two guys do best.
