Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure
Adam and Michael’s friendship is built on a shared love of cycling. From tough trails to leisurely rides, their adventures are filled with stories, banter, and authentic connection. Their podcast blends entertaining anecdotes, heartfelt conversations, and cycling excitement—welcoming you into their community and the joy of the open road.
Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure
We went for a bike ride and somehow came back with Blanton’s, a poker chip, and an Arby’s alibi
Bourbon on the brain, bikes in the rack, and a weekend that kept surprising us. We rolled into Lexington aiming for miles and meaningful pours and came away with a signed nine-millionth barrel at Buffalo Trace, a “unicorn” experimental bottle, and a reminder from Freddie Johnson that whiskey is really about the people you share it with. Between double allocation drops and an upstairs tasting lineup featuring Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, and Weller 12, we dug into where the bourbon market might be headed—and why more shelves seem to be stocked again.
The rides were the quiet kind we love: bluegrass roads, rolling hills, and a pace that felt better than expected after a long recovery. Back at camp, the Bourbon Country Burn offered light dinner and great fireside company, where small experiments—like a coffee liqueur topped with cold cream—turned into conversations about craft and curiosity. A tour at Town Branch raised thoughtful questions about modern production and logistics without spoiling the joy of a well-made pour. And thanks to Phil Talks Whiskey, we explored export-only bottles, from Japanese Blanton’s to a Four Roses variant you won’t find stateside, widening our palate and perspective.
Along the way we met listeners who became friends, traded stories about riding, parenting, and the right moment to open a special bottle, and even squeezed in a bonus Sunday ride before the long drive home (complete with a highway standstill and some strategic humor). We wrapped with a label-worthy Jay Mattingly pick—oak-stave finished and full of character—because sometimes a bottle is a bookmark for a weekend you don’t want to forget.
If you’re into cycling routes through Kentucky, bourbon culture, Buffalo Trace lore, and campfire community, this one’s for you. Hit follow, share it with a friend who loves bikes or bottles, and drop us a note with your favorite ride-and-rye pairing. Your reviews help more curious folks find the show—thanks for being part of the journey.
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Adam and Michael’s friendship has grown through years of shared miles, challenges, and laughter on the bike. Their passion for cycling has carried them through life’s twists and turns, creating a bond full of stories, jokes, and unforgettable rides. In their podcast, they bring that same spirit to the mic—sharing adventures, trading banter, and welcoming listeners into their cycling community. Whether tackling steep climbs or cruising open roads, their conversations capture the fun, friendship, and freedom that cycling brings. Tune in for stories that celebrate the ride and the camaraderie that makes it unforgettable.
and Remember,
It's a Great Day for a Bike Ride!
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Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that riding is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now, here are the original cycling men of leisure, Adam and Michael.
SPEAKER_03:Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. I am Adam, and once again I am being joined with my good friend, all the way from Central Time. If you're on YouTube, you see he's got a bottle of bourbon in his hand, pouring some Mitchner's as we talked about in our last episode. Nice, buddy.
SPEAKER_05:I emptied out the bottle. I thought it was only fitting that we do Mitchhners because we did talk about Mitchers last time.
SPEAKER_03:So there you go. Hey, how you doing, Adam? I am fantastic. I uh getting in the swing of things, back to normal, back to work. Boo. It's much more fun to be traveling to distilleries and and breweries and camping and friends and fireside chats and all that good jazz. So totally agree. How does that affect you?
SPEAKER_05:You weren't going to a national park. You don't work for the military or the government. I am flying, it's still gonna come in.
SPEAKER_03:I am flying, and TSA is not being paid right now.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that's okay. Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_03:I'm work for a company that's 50% federally funded. Boy, if I were you, I'd really be worried.
SPEAKER_05:I'm not gonna worry about it. You need to worry though, buddy.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I do have a I have a I have an interesting story. I, as you know, I'm I'm you've heard me in the car with my employees and everything. So I had some employees talking about the government shutdown. Now, to be honest, um, we don't really have to worry unless they were shut down all the way until September. The way that we draw our funds, we'll be okay. And so I've tried to get the message out to our employees. It happens a lot. I mean, it's not the first time there's been a government shutdown. But I did have an employee tell a passenger that you know our services were gonna be limited, and that passenger has a cognitive mental illness, went home, told mom, mom called me, mom, mom said, please tell me that you're not really doing this, that you are our lifeline. I I insured her that we're gonna be just fine, and I I put out a a message to my employees. We have a digital way to it's like texting, but uh a way to put out you know messages to the employees. It's like a text message, might as well be. And it's a link that comes to their phone, but um so, anyways, the employee came to me and they said, uh, I don't think you're correct. I think we're gonna be shutting down. And I said, you know, you you you you you told the passenger that. I'm telling you that you're fine. I said, That you think this is the first time that that you know, the you do know that the government shut down before, right? He looked at me like, really? He was dead serious. And I said, Oh my gosh, you gotta do some history, you know, look at some history, you know, do your research.
SPEAKER_05:It wasn't that long ago. It wasn't like back in 1942 the government shut down. No, I mean it's happened numerous times with numerous political parties in the office. Yeah, I don't care what side. The fact he argued with you is is hilarious. It's like okay, dude. Just just please do what you're told.
SPEAKER_03:So my my director heard me talking to him, and and you know, he he usually I gotta give him credit. I mean, he's a really nice, I've never had a better boss and lets me grow and everything, and but he did pop his head in there. He's like, you know, I can't help myself. I'm over here in this conversation, and and he goes, I normally wouldn't share this on here, but it's funny. He goes, Are you just not listening to Adam? And I was like, Boom, mic dropped. So yeah, unfortunately, I know it causes. By the way, I I'm I'm understanding that as an employee, there's a fear level knowing they with our employees knowing that we're federally funded. But I clearly put out a message that said you're fine, your your job's not in jeopardy. I mean, if this goes on, you know, if it went on for like 11 months or something, it might it could get a little scary. But um I have a feeling by the time we record our next show, yeah, which I'm finally gonna let you do rants of dissatisfaction on the next show. I promised you.
SPEAKER_05:Well, you know what one of my rants is gonna be? You never let me rant.
SPEAKER_03:Sorry about that, guys. He just doesn't stop. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_05:Which by the way, our little comments here about the government being closed is not political in any way, shape, or form. No, we're not pointing fingers, we're not saying one side is right, one side is wrong. Statement of fact, government is currently shut down. How it got there, we're not discussing. We don't care, we're just saying it's shut down and stuff. So I just wanted to make sure no one thought we were trying to make, you know, political statements one way or the other, which we are not.
SPEAKER_03:No, because uh on a serious note, I mean, all kidding, all jokes aside, you know, we hope you come to us to to not think about that kind of stuff, not think about the seriousness, enjoy a little bit of you know, just our show and a little slapstick humor and the fun that we poke at each other, and and so no, that absolutely not. I mean, it's just like you said, it's just shut down, buddy.
SPEAKER_05:Uh it is shut down. Uh it will, it's not gonna be the last time the government shuts down, I'll tell you that right now. So, anyway.
SPEAKER_03:About next week sometime. That would be wonderful.
SPEAKER_05:So um vulnerable people, they're just not gonna they've got a higher mission, they understand what their mission is, they'll take care of it. I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you for trying to comfort me there, sir. I don't know what you're worried about. By the way, have you ever seen those results uh researches? They like how many guns they get through and how many how many things go through. Oh, yeah. That's kind of interesting. Every now and then I go, how does that happen? But it happened some well.
SPEAKER_05:What's funny is, and I'll tell this quick story. Sure. When I got off the plane in Cancun, because my wife and I went to Cancun with some of her family, I don't know, it's been about four or five weeks ago. Uh, spent a week there, got off the plane, finally got our luggage, and we're headed out to transportation. And there's this guy, you know, dressed in his full, you know, military outfit gear. Uh, he points at me out of the group and he says, Sir, and you just step over here. I was like, okay, no problem. You got a gun. I'm not gonna argue with you. It's your country, not gonna argue with you. So I step over and he goes, We need to look through your luggage. And I was like, Okay. So they had a, you went into this little, you know, they had it like partitioned off. And you went in there and there's this lady there. Um, you know, and they're, I guess they're equivalent to the TSA. And she goes, Well, I need to look through this, so put it up on there, and she unzipped it and started going through it. And I had my cigar container. I've got one of those, like you do. It's a travel cigar box, and it's got like a rubber seal around it to help keep it, you know, humid and all that. And she's like, I'm gonna need you to open that up. And I was like, okay, so I pop it open, uh, and it wouldn't open. I mean, I unhooked it, but physically it was stuck shut. And she's like, What's in there? And I was like, Well, just a couple cigars. That's all. Yeah, you know, no big deal. And she's like, Well, you need to open it. And I was like, Well, I'm trying, and you know, she could see me physically trying to pull it open. The pressure in the plane with that rubber seal had just sucked it completely closed, and I couldn't get it open. She saw, I mean, I was literally trying and I kind of tapping it, and it's like, I can't get this. And what was funny is she goes, Well, do you have a knife on you? You could pry it open. And I was, I didn't say anything because you know, I didn't want her to point over to her friend and say, Okay, this guy, you know. I was just like thinking, No, I don't have a knife on me. I just got off of a plane. They don't let us carry knives on the plane. Uh, it was just funny. It's like, you got a knife on you you could use? It's like, no.
SPEAKER_03:Like crocodile dundee. That's not a knife.
SPEAKER_05:That's a knife. I got a small short sword. Will that work? It was just funny that she asked me if I had a knife when she knows I just got off an airplane. Fortunately, I had my I dug my keys out and was able to get it in there. And when I popped it open and went, pshh. I love it. Keeps my cigars fresh, though.
SPEAKER_03:I love it. That's funny. I appreciate you sharing that.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man. That yeah, yeah. I have a knife, a big one, a big uh military sword right here. I carry it in my backpack. Carrying it in my pant leg the whole trip. That's not my leg, that's my sword.
SPEAKER_05:Um, well, um you know let me go this time, or are you just gonna start heading down the road without doing the segment everybody is here to hear?
SPEAKER_03:No. Hold on, relax. I was gonna ask how you were doing before we jump into listener spot.
SPEAKER_05:Just a little jumpy. Last time you just kind of blew over it and went right into your thing. Um you got anxiety?
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_05:I'm not worried if the TSA is working next week or not. Doesn't matter to me. Um for your sake, I hope they are. No, everything's going well, you know, school stuff, work stuff. Uh, you know, the uh government shutdown is not affecting my life at this point in time.
SPEAKER_03:So well, that's good. That's good. All right. Well, in that case, I don't want you getting all jumpy over there. I just didn't really miss again. I'm not missing yet. Listen, I've got the special voice on.
unknown:Shut up.
SPEAKER_03:Uh, ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for listener spotlight.
SPEAKER_05:All right, listener spotlight, here are the clues that I gave you. It was a stereotypical wild west town during the last half of the 19th century. The town is still big with cowboys. Uh, Native American reservation is partially within the town's borders. The Spanish were the first visitors to the area. Gold was discovered in the mid-1800s. The town played an important role in the territory it was located in. Doc Holliday of Shorral fame enjoyed the company of one of the town's former residents. The historical downtown in this city would put a big smile on Adam's face, and presidential ambitions were sparked in this town.
SPEAKER_03:All right. So I have some good news. We get a lot of repeat guesses, and we appreciate all of you. Thank you for our leisure community. We have somebody new.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:We have Terry Donaldson from Largo, Florida. He says, Hey guys, love the show. Love the banter between you both. Uh, please keep it up. Keep podcasting, which I don't know how he got that, but that's that's uh guessing that's that Bud Sprout, yeah sprout's uh logo or something. Makes me wonder. Do you have a podcast? But I mean, um he says uh his guest is uh Cimarron. Am I saying that right? Cimarron, New Mexico? Cimarron, New Mexico.
SPEAKER_05:If it's yeah, Cimarron, New Mexico. Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_03:I've I've got stories about Cimarron, lots of stories. Well, the first thing I want to know is how did Terry do?
SPEAKER_05:Uh I could see where some of these would be applicable to Cimarron.
SPEAKER_01:However, thank you.
SPEAKER_05:Appreciate it, Terry. Um, great guests. I could see where I'm very familiar with Cimarron and I could see where a lot of these would be applicable, but it is not. Um you're in the right part of the country. Listener Spotlight uh for this episode is Prescott, Arizona.
SPEAKER_03:Now, see, I want to thank all listeners from Prescott before we even get started. But I am so intrigued why I would be happy. And I'm I want to think of coffee. I want to think it has something to do with coffee beans or the first coffee or or something about roasting beans or some I'm I'm thinking coffee.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, we'll see if you're right. Um, it was a Wild West town. The town is still big with cowboys. Uh, it hosts the world's oldest rodeo, which has been in continuous operation since 1888. And Cimarron, every uh 4th of July, has a very large rodeo. So um Spanish were the first to visit the area uh in 1583, and of course, like all Spanish, they were looking for gold. Gold was actually discovered in 1863. The town played an important part, important role in the territory it was located in. The town of Prescott served as the territorial capital of Arizona in 1867 before it was moved to Tucson, and then served as a territorial capital in 1877 when it was moved back. I don't know what was going on. I was like, eh, we want it here, we want it there. Doc Holliday enjoyed the company of one of this town's former residents. Anyone who's watched a Doc Holliday movie, documentary, um, even Tombstone, excellent movie, by the way, uh would hear or see him running around with a young lady named Big Nose Kate. Well, Big Nose Kate was actually born and was from Prescott, Arizona. Um presidential ambitions were sparked in this town. Barry Goldwater, back in 1964, is actually from Prescott, and he announced his presidential, the start of his presidential campaign on the uh steps of the Prescott Courthouse. Um, needless to say, you probably don't remember President uh Goldwater because he lost out, but hey, good job for trying. The historical downtown in this city would put a big smile on Adam's face. Adam's saying coffee. You are so close, but just a bit outside. The historical downtown area in Prescott, Arizona is known as Whiskey Row. Oh man. Which that was another, I mean, because we just got through talking about whiskey row in uh Lewisburg. I mean Louisville.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, Lewis. So there you go. Well, thank you, listeners from Prescott, Arizona. Thank you, all listeners. But this time, thank you, listeners from Prescott, Arizona.
SPEAKER_05:So and and I and I really I think it's cool he picked uh Cimarron. I spent uh five summers in Cimarron, New Mexico when I was in college because Cimarron, New Mexico is three miles or two miles down the road from Philmont Scout Ranch. Oh, okay. And I worked there for five summers. So needless to say, uh Cimarron was the biggest town, which isn't very big. I don't know. The population's probably 1,200 people, maybe. Gotcha. Um, but uh it's beautiful country there. And then if you head further further west, you go down the Cimarron Canyon and over to Eagle Nest and Taos and all that. But gotcha. I know a lot about Cimarron.
SPEAKER_03:That's pretty cool.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:What else we got? Well, I I think, I mean, in my opinion, I think we should jump into uh our weekend in Lexington, Lexington, Kentucky. I'm so sorry. Lexington, Kentucky, at the uh Kentucky Horse Park Campground, Bourbon Country Burn. What do you say? Oh, I see you have a bourbon in your hand. I'm sorry. No, let's go. All right. So last time we left you, we told you of our adventures um at Peerless Distillery. Uh we went to the Constitution, uh, the Speakeasy, and then we uh ended up at camp in Lexington, woke up in the morning on Friday, and we headed to Buffalo Trace. Of course, why wouldn't we? Well, I mean, we were there. I mean, this is like the the Mecca.
SPEAKER_05:I mean, we might as well we always do that first morning that we are in uh Lexington, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Um, you had recently been there with your family. You were concerned, you thought you were 14 days out. So it was 12 days. I was 12 days short of the 90 days that you can get allocations. So if anyone's never been there or you're a new listener, we know we we can tell by the numbers we picked up many new listeners. So welcome. Welcome to Road Adventures of Cycling Man of Leisure. So um, if you don't don't realize for the longest time, um Buffalo Trace Distillery had so hypothetically, if you wanted to go in, you want to buy E.H. Taylor, and they were selling it that day, and just for easy numbers, if you bought it on April 1st, um, you cannot come back until September 1st, or you know, or whatever. 90 days, 90 days out. So um, so you had been there, you thought you were 12 days, you were you were watching the website because they have a Facebook page and a predictability app that you can see what they think they're gonna be selling a Buffalo Trace. We woke up on Friday, it said that they were gonna have a double allocation, and it was Eage, Taylor, and Blanton's. And on the way there, you were you weren't disappointed because it was being you were still gonna get to go to a pretty cool distillery, but you were you were thinking that you weren't gonna be able to get the honey out.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, I mean, I could I'm still going to Buffalo Trace and I can still do the tastings and and all that. And there was a couple other things. Uh my kids needed a couple cases of Freddy's root beer that I had to pick up and things like that. So uh wasn't a complete wash, but I was a little disappointed. But once we got I was I was thinking it's only 12 days. It's only 12 days. Maybe I can sneak by some lady at the counter will feel sorry for me and just let it slide.
SPEAKER_03:Well, she did. She printed you a magic band or a magical band with a barcode or QR code on it. She was gonna do that anyway. Exactly. But you thought you beat the system. You thought, haha.
SPEAKER_05:Oh man, I was flying. Well, you got it like a half a block walk from the from where you like register, show your ID, and then put a wristband until you get to the building where the uh gift shop is and where they're selling the daily allocation. And I was like going, let's let's make this happen. And you were very positive. It's like, yeah, it's gonna happen. I was like, I don't know. Got in there, we did our shopping. Uh, you went up to the register and got all yours done. And then I was like, okay, here goes. Because if it didn't work, I was just gonna play stupid. It's like, what? 90? No, it wasn't 90 days, and then you know, oh man, I must have miscounted by a week and a half.
SPEAKER_03:You were gonna flip a chair, start throwing bottles.
SPEAKER_05:Maybe not in there, that could get a little expensive very quickly. So I get up there, put it up there, she rings it in, she's like, that'll be whatever. And I was like, Okay, cool. And so when I got out of the building, I was like, Yes, I just stuck it to Buffalo Trace and blew their, you know, their 90-day rule out the window, and I was feeling all great, like I had pulled some great master heist off or something like that. We've just stolen the you know, the crown jewels out of the you know, Tower of London, and woo.
SPEAKER_03:Um all the while the Cesarek company is going, yes, he bought some more.
SPEAKER_05:They're like, we got him back, woo. So to complete this story, we got back. Uh, and Padres, the uh the company that the thank you, the charter company that we've used before was there. So we thought we'd stop in and say hi and visit with them a little bit. And we got over there and we're talking, and uh it was brought up that Buffalo Trace had put a stop to the 90 days until like mid-October. And let me tell you, my ego was like big, my head was big, and as soon as they said that, it was just like the balloon deflated. So Michael hadn't got anything over on Buffalo Trace. Um, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But that put the plan in motion. Now, if you've if you've been to Buffalo Trace Distillery and you have gone for a bottle release, um, this really tells me, in my personal opinion, I have no proof of this. This is just my my thought and your thought as well, but I'll let you speak for yourself. I believe that there might be a downturn in sales of bourbon because there was not only one um bottle uh option. Uh there was not only two, but there happened to be something special. And I've got a little show and tell. So we were able to get some Blantons. Love got the little horsey on top. Yes, sir. You can see it says right there uh August 19th, 2025, for those of you who are on uh YouTube, and B was the letter for this one. We also we were able to pick up some E.H. Taylor in the tube. Very nice. Small batch. Actually, I never opened the tube. This could be just a bottle of water. I never opened it.
SPEAKER_05:So well, there was a bottle of bourbon in there until I opened it and changed it, but oh, it does look like there's a bottle of man. I would if I would have been thinking about that, because we were joking about each other, don't steal our bourbon. If I would have been thinking, I would have stuck an empty bottle in that and sent you home with it, and then that would have been great.
SPEAKER_03:But something special that we got. Yes. We had caught wind that they were offering for Bourbon Heritage Month in September, that they were offering special items each day, and we were able to get an experimental six-grain collection. Uh, there we go. Nice experimental buffalo trace, and you put it into your app and it called it a unicorn.
SPEAKER_05:So it did because it's exceptionally rare, so they classify that as a unicorn find. So I was happy about that. Um, yeah, it was really cool. And what's interesting is when I was there in July, they were doing double draw double allocation drops every day, too, which I thought was interesting because we'd been there several times before and they'd only done one. Um, but they've been doing double drops like every day for a couple of months. So I would agree with you. Uh whiskeys are, I think the whiskey market is, you know, not selling what they were selling. Um, so we'll see. And I know around here, you know, you were never able to find Buffalo Trace that often. Now there's cases of it setting in in Sam's Club or Costco. Um, there's just been some other things that I've seen on the shelf that I'm like, man, I've never seen those on the shelves around here before. But so yeah, I think there's a little bit of downturn in it. I won't get into my reasons why I think that we'll just we'll just leave it at that.
SPEAKER_03:That sounds fair. Um, my mechanic celebrated 20 years with my company. I went to Costco this morning to buy him a gift card, and I saw the same thing you did. I saw the handles or the 1.75 liters, boxes and boxes and boxes of them. And there was a time about two years ago that uh you they were having lists of uh one per customer for Buffalo Trace and all kinds of things and stuff.
SPEAKER_05:If they even had it in stock, right? You we could not even get it around here. I found one bottle in the last two and a half years around here on a shelf. That's it. And I mean, I'm going to big places, little places, all that kind of stuff. And quite honestly, for$27, I bought the bottle. I didn't need it. It was just like, eh, you know, I've never been able to buy it. So it was kind of one of those things. Right.
SPEAKER_03:So with that wristband, not only were we able to purchase all of our good stuff, but they have a lot of tastings at the distillery. Um, you mentioned Freddy's Root Beer, and one of the cool things they do is a root beer float with the uh Buffalo Trace bourbon cream and Freddy's Root Beer. And I really laughed, and I thought this was funny for the show because the woman who was um sampling the or passing out the samples, I guess you don't say sampling, but being the distributor of the samples, she gave you some instructions. And I normally you're pretty, you're pretty, you know, you're pretty low-key, and you're like, okay. This time she said, I want you to take a little sip of the root beer and a little sip of the cream, and then I want you to make sure you mix the the the root beer on the bottom and pour the cream over. And I looked over and you just went, mix together, slam. And I'm like, okay.
SPEAKER_05:You know, I know the root beer's good. I buy cases of that root beer, and I know the cream's good because my wife loves it, and I have some had some in the refrigerator all the time, pretty much. Um, so I was like, I don't need to do the individual. I just I want the root beer float.
SPEAKER_03:Fair enough. Fair enough. But we did go upstairs. Um last time I was there, this they didn't have this that I know of.
SPEAKER_05:If it is of the tastings upstairs, they did not, and they they started those because if you go on a tour, you get a tasting. If you don't do a tour, then you don't get a tasting of like their standard things. So they've set up little tasting booths up there where they give you a little history and then they do tastings for that purpose of the people who don't do the tour. So that's where that came from.
SPEAKER_03:Gotcha. Well, they were tasting um Weller 12, but we thought I I I thought, anyways, maybe you didn't, maybe you knew, but um, I thought that we were just gonna go up and scan our wristband and get Weller 12. To my surprise, they had Eagle Rare, Blanton's, Wellard 12, and Buffalo Trace just by itself. And so we got we got the four tastings there.
SPEAKER_05:Um, and so then they topped it off with uh a bourbon ball from uh Ruth uh Ruth's Candy's Ruth. I can never remember the last name, Candy.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. Um we do have a clip from there, but before we play that, I thought something else cool happened there. So if you've ever seen the program Neat, um it's got Freddie Johnson, talks about his dad, it's got Castle and Key, it's got the history of bourbon and and and the corn and and and you know it's a very feel-good type of show or um a lot of history. In that program, Neat, um, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Um great show. They roll off the six millionth barrel, and in there, um, Freddie Johnson gets a bottle, Freddie Johnson III gets a bottle of papies from his father, who unfortunately has passed. Um, but his father gives it to him in there. The one part I'll say is he was gonna pour a little bit of the papies and put the cork on. And his father said, What are you doing? And and he said, What do you mean? And his son said, What do you mean? And he said, We're gonna share the bottle. And and it's kind of like a moment that raises the hair on your arms because he shares a bottle of papies with his brother and his dad. And I don't want to say how long, but within a few months, his dad and his brother are both passed away. Um, and that's a memory. And so it's it's just a feel-good kind of thing. But in that show, they roll out the six millionth barrel. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the men of leisure got to sign the nine millionth barrel, and I'm gonna try to do this for our YouTube people. We got a token, it's like a uh poker chip, a poker chip for the nine millionth barrel of Buffalo Trace. Look at that. It is cool. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05:So that was something that we got, and we also they had the barrel setting there, you got to sign your name on it. So our name, in Cycling Men of Leisure, is on the 900th or the nine millionth barrel. That's been released by Buffalo Trace since the end of Pro Bish.
SPEAKER_03:That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_05:Yes. So you know what's even cooler? What's that? Right now there is what 1.7 million uh barrels of whiskey setting on Buffalo Trace's property. Wow. That's not even all of them because they've got some at another Rick House. But um I think it'd be neat. Say maybe after Thanksgiving when we need or after uh Halloween or something, we've we we have some clips maybe that we can pull off a thing with Freddie that would be kind of cool to share with him, which talks about kind of what you're getting into the sharing and uh how whiskey creates memories. So yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_03:I that that's that's a great idea. Um so we uh our first ever live spot, you know. We you know, we started this show in the studio, and and you know, we we've had multiple different sets of equipment and and we finally have things comfort like we like it. Um but we had our first on-site recording at Buffalo Trace Distillery in 23, I think, 2023. Yes. And and uh so I brought the same recorder, and you and I did a spot, and I was gonna play that from right now. We did a spot in the exact same spot. Well, here we are. Yes, sorry about that. Uh we we did uh we did a little clip from the same exact spot that we were two years ago. So here we go. Well, here we are. Uh we are at Buffalo Trace. This this this brings back memories. The first time that you and I did an off-site recording, we were standing in this very spot.
SPEAKER_05:This exact spot here on Buffalo Trace property, looking at uh Rick House Building C.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you can't go wrong with uh Rick House Building C or the water tower behind it, uh watching people watching people going to the gift shop. Now, you and I already did the gift shop. We were lucky, we got Blanton's E.H. Taylor.
SPEAKER_05:Double double allocation day. And triple. Oh, well, that wasn't even an allocation, that was a special drop.
SPEAKER_03:An experimental six-grain buffalo trace. So we were able to be really lucky this morning. Uh, we're gonna head back and actually saddle up and and go out on a bike ride. While we're riding, we gotta oh, that's that's the reason why we're here is to ride a bicycle. Okay, we kept giving injury updates. You said you were willing to go, and so we are we are gonna we're gonna give it a rip. But uh we'll we'll make sure no hoses are involved.
SPEAKER_05:Keep me as far away from the hoses as possible because hoses and I don't really work very well together.
SPEAKER_03:I'm not gonna lie, I'm gonna need a coffee before we do that, but uh we'll make it work. Uh really cool experience here. If you've never been to Buffalo Trace, uh they got a really slick system, you wait out line in line depending on the on the supply and demand. Today was a little bit more because of the experimental bottle. Which we did not know about. No, it was a surprise. Um, but they got us through, they had plenty of supply, and then they had uh tastings, and we got to try Weller 12.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it it's apparently Bourbon Heritage Month. And um, for those of you who don't know, they used to just used to do the tours, and then you at the end of the tour you do tasting, but now they've set up stations where you can upstairs where you can do tastings even if you don't do the tour. Yeah, and typically most months it's just you know, they're kind of their standard four, and they sometimes throw in like Freddy's root beer. But um with this special month that they've got going on, they're bringing in some of the stuff that you don't normally find. Like today we had Blanton's and we had uh Weller's 12-year. Um, they have stag out there, they put in the Eagle Rare 12-year, things like that. So because it's this month, they're throwing in some interesting things that you wouldn't normally have on a on a Buffalo Trace Tasting.
SPEAKER_03:And only because my wife listens to the show now, we were traveling on her birthday. Of course, Bourbon Month would be special, just the same month as her birthday. Of course. But yeah, I mean so we started our trip. We met in Louisville. Um, this might be a little bit repetitive, depending on on how we record the show when we put it all together. But we met in Louisville. We went to uh you had um somehow, I don't know, you have wicked ways of the world. You you were able to have tour tickets for uh peerless. Yep. And we were able to do that and with some good tasting. And uh my favorite was the toasted uh peerless. So uh that that was pretty good. If I wasn't saving my allowance money for for Buffalo Trace today, I would have picked that up. I might have to uh procure a bottle of it.
SPEAKER_05:I I will disagree with you on on that point, but we'll we'll we'll discuss that later.
SPEAKER_03:Of course, I don't have my sensor button here in the public.
SPEAKER_05:So the other cool thing is uh on the up on the on one of our episodes, we will talk about uh we got to meet another member of the um Bourbon Hall of Fame or the Kentucky Hall of Whiskey Hall of Fame. That's pretty cool. Which was which was really cool, so that'll be interesting.
SPEAKER_03:Corky Taylor. So came in. That was amazing. So his stories from everything that he had to offer was just amazing, pretty cool to see.
SPEAKER_05:And he he went to school with some very famous people that most you know most of us would know. So that's gonna be a great segment when we get around to it.
SPEAKER_03:See, as a guy who went to military school, I definitely love the story. So uh, but yeah, so we are uh again camping at the Kentucky Horse Park Campground. Uh the weather looks beautiful.
SPEAKER_05:It rained yesterday, but today, bright and sunny. Uh, it'll be nice to get on the bike uh this afternoon and put in a few miles.
SPEAKER_03:Flew the drone this morning, very foggy, but got some really interesting footage.
SPEAKER_05:So you need to put those on our on our site because uh you got the sunset above the fog.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. Beautiful. Definitely cool. So uh so yeah, we're we're we just wanted to have a little uh spot here from Buffalo Trace. Um, we will definitely give us some spots later today. Uh, we do have uh double sets of remote microphones, so we hope to have some more footage for you. So uh a couple of you have written in saying more footage from the road, more footage out in the area. We're listening. Uh listeners, we are listening. And remember, today is a great day for a bike ride. Well, look at that.
SPEAKER_05:Look, we sound professional, buddy. We do. You know, I mean, we're outside, so you got a little wind going, but not not bad. It was uh it was fun to revisit that.
SPEAKER_03:So, anyways, we got back to camp. Um, and uh buddy, we we got to do something we haven't done together in many months. We went on on a bike ride. We rode. You know, this is a podcast about cycling.
SPEAKER_05:Uh we would have we would have been riding sooner if it hadn't been for, you know, a fractured clavicle.
SPEAKER_03:That's all right, buddy. That's all right. Um but man, Kentucky's got beautiful roads. I mean, it's just weather's weather was awesome. Um we we uh we got to go we've been on the roads before, I think. I think after looking at the Strava, everything, every road we were on, we were on before, or um uh or very, very reminiscent of very close. There were a couple things that we both remembered and noticed, but um one thing I noticed about both of us since we've been uh working out, becoming more healthy, or trying to have longevity, both of us uh didn't have any didn't have any issues with some of them hills like we normally would.
SPEAKER_05:So no, and you know what? I was very impressed because I haven't been on a bike. You've been on a bike, I think, once since Bragg. Um we were doing okay. I mean, we were huffing down at a decent uh miles per hour, and uh there was some hills, and we were getting up those hills just fine. So uh yeah, kudos to us.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was fun, it was fun getting out on the bike. Um, just looking through my notes here. Uh Bourbon Country Burn um has dinner provided on Friday and Saturday. Not gonna lie, uh dinner wasn't bad, but there wasn't a lot of it.
SPEAKER_05:And so it's it they cater it. And it's I mean, I don't care what you do to catered food. I used to work for a catering company back in the day, I was bartending, but um catered food is catered food. I mean, it's it's it wasn't bad, but for uh if you know there wasn't big portions, so it was one of those things that we were like, okay, we ate that, and then it's like let's go get us some more food. So we ran and got some more food because just wasn't doing it. No, sir, wasn't but then we came back and got to enjoy the the tasting and the fires and all that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03:No, that was good. Good. Um now we had talked about on our show before that um it was it was portrayed via email that this was probably gonna be the last year of bourbon burn. And so one of the reasons that you and I decided to make this our our last trip of the year um was because hey, it might not happen. Um we our show is about leisure and we talk about bourbon and cigars, and we thought this is up our alley.
SPEAKER_05:Now I thought you weren't gonna get into rants of dissatisfaction. I'm not because you're opening up a can of rants for me here. Go ahead. Go ahead. Maybe we should maybe we should move forward. Oh, but you've started it. No, you continue, but I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_03:I was just gonna say how the ride director stood up and and and we listened to uh gentlemen talk about how how we started and where it's gone, and he doesn't know where it's gonna go. And then this morning.
SPEAKER_05:Oh then this morning there's an email coming out saying, hey, join us for the 2026 Bourbon Country Burn. And at when Austin was up there talking about the ride and he hopes it continues, and they're looking at some people to take it over, you're not gonna tell me they found somebody to take over the ride in three days. So I feel a little bit taken in that maybe they were, you know, working it to get more people there. And if they weren't, I apologize. But just looking at, oh yeah, we need, and then all of a sudden, three days after the event, it's like boom, we're having it, we're gonna do it, you know. Be ready to register on this date. So to me, they were ready to go. They knew that they were gonna have it at the thing, they just didn't wake up the other morning and go, Oh, I guess we'll go ahead and do this. I feel like I was taken.
SPEAKER_03:You're not alone. They ran a long con on me. On us. When I read it, read it to my wife, Lauren. She said, What? I thought this was the end. What's going on? And so even somebody who doesn't, you know, hasn't partaken and doesn't, you know, she doesn't like to camp, but um, you know, she was even going, What's going on? I said, I don't know. It kind of feels to me like a little bit of a bait and switch. So um but nevertheless, we still had a good time. Um just got in my notes. We just did some tastings, blueberry, uh, Castle and Key.
SPEAKER_05:Um that's pretty much um and then we went back to the campsite and had a little fireside chat. Started a fire and had some more, and we had a little fireside chat, um, which we I think we'll play for you here in a minute, but uh we're just a laid back uh evening, didn't run too late.
SPEAKER_03:So give me a second here. All right, here we go. Well, here we are, sir. We're by the fireside for a cyclement of leisure fireside chat.
SPEAKER_05:Very nice. That's very 1940s. That's cool. I like it.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it is uh right up our right up our sleeve. That's right.
SPEAKER_05:Uh you know, like old Roosevelt. Oh, yeah. Teddy used to do those fireside chats back in the day. So but no, we've got the fire going. Um completed our first day just sitting out here enjoying the uh the great outdoors, a cigar, believe it or not, a little bourbon. Kind of nice. We're having bourbon. Well, I'm having bourbon. I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_03:Of course I'm having bourbon.
SPEAKER_05:So how'd how'd you like today?
SPEAKER_03:Good, good. We did the uh what they called the 24 mile route. Well, actually they called it a 21.8. We were concerned about your shoulder. A couple spots kind of caused you a little bit.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, there was there was a couple of bumps uh that I didn't see coming, so I didn't have my arm in the right place. I felt it a little bit, but um wasn't enough to keep keep me from continuing. So uh and we were able to hit a brewery today. That was kind of cool.
SPEAKER_03:And on that brewery we we saw Stephanie from Bragg. Yes, and and uh we met her better half, so that was really cool. Um and and her better half's brother.
SPEAKER_05:So um, yeah, so it was it was nice. Uh touched touch space with her and uh enjoyed uh a new uh a new brew. What was it called? Um it was uh Amber Ale from West West Six Brewing. West Six Brewing, yep. And that's actually right next door to Broke Spoke. Unfortunately, they're not open today, so we couldn't stop in and say hi, but he's been on our show before.
SPEAKER_03:But we did meet somebody who plays Bike Polo, who knew Luke Box, who was on our show before, and and we'll put that link in the show.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, we had a really neat experience, and we're not gonna get into it here, but we had a really neat experience at a old style speakeasy. Really cool. The building has a lot of history. Uh, one of the young ladies that bartended there um knew Luke and plays polo, bicycle polo. And what's interesting is a couple years ago, we actually by accident went by where they played this and we stopped and watched them for a little bit. It's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03:Definitely had a definitely had a good time today.
SPEAKER_05:Uh weather was perfect, and uh we got we got to hit a distillery too, so um uh uh that was nice. A little uh some allocated and a special drop, so that's always fun.
SPEAKER_03:And we got tastings here uh at the Bourbon Country Burn. We did.
SPEAKER_05:Um some of them, I know why I'm not opening the bottle by I was I was giving him giving him crap about uh he owns the bottle because he had bought it a couple years ago here, hadn't opened it and was trying it. And one of them was a little little harsh. Maybe it needs to go back in the barrel and age a little more.
SPEAKER_03:I always tell my friends, uh we'll uh uncork it, re-cork it, let it oxidize, and maybe it'll have a different flavor palette next time I open it.
SPEAKER_05:So you can get you one of those little barrels that they, you know, you can age your own white dog in and pour it back in there for a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:Or the thing we saw at Jay Mattingly today, which was the the mason jar with a piece of char.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:We stopped at J. Mattingly, which is the old Bourbon 30. Uh they moved uh very nice facility, and they have a mason jar with a chunk of like charred white oak, I'm assuming. And you pour your stuff in there and you can see how it you know changes the color and you can age it, and that might be interesting to try as an experiment.
SPEAKER_03:It would be interesting. And it kind of gave me an idea. I'm like, why would I pay you for a mason jar when I have a stave at home?
SPEAKER_05:Uh well they uh they're using staves down here as table decorations for the 65 tables that they've got in the dining area over there. You could just take one of those and start cutting it. Cutting it up.
SPEAKER_03:I got a circular saw in the garage.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Mix that with a little uh uh masonite that I cut the last time.
SPEAKER_05:Now I'm wondering, what if you took the stave and the mason jar and you poured like say vodka in there?
SPEAKER_03:I don't think it would do it, but I think it has to be like alcohol, like white dog.
SPEAKER_05:Wouldn't work with with like vodka or anything.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it might. We could try it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:I mean it is we could do science experiments.
SPEAKER_03:It would be a fun to do experiment, but uh tomorrow it might if it unless it turns out bad, and then it might not be a good experiment. But what are we doing tomorrow? Well then they'll just bottle that up and call it experimental. Yeah, and sell it. Uh tomorrow we're doing uh about a 30-mile ride. Uh you've you've agreed with your shoulder. You think you can you can pull that off, and uh we'll be uh we'll be doing that.
SPEAKER_05:So yeah, uh, don't want to push it too much, but uh we will certainly uh uh give that a whirl and and see what we can come up with. Sounds good. Um should be fun. Uh tomorrow will definitely be a great day for a bike ride. Well, look at that. So um what's cool is you could tell we were really by the fire because if you listen, you could hear the fire popping and the crickets were going crazy. So that was not like sound effects, so it's kind of cool.
SPEAKER_03:Uh next day we went to Town Branch and continuing our show until, sir, I have a bottle of Town Branch single barrel reserve bourbon. Interesting thing about this bottle, if you're watching on YouTube, it has a clear lid, clear clear lid. And the idea was is that you could use the bottle for a decanter for any spirit when you were done, which I thought was really neat. But uh bartenders hate the bottle because it's a square, clunky bottle.
SPEAKER_05:You can't speed pour it. But um, so that basically then I I didn't think about it until you just said it. So that's a screw-on or screw off lid. I don't know. It's not corked. I haven't opened it yet. But I mean it has to be because the way it's designed. Probably, yeah. But uh that was an interesting tour. Um before we rode, we decided to to go over there. We took a tour. Um, one of the guys that uh we'd we uh have ridden with several years in Georgia had said that he did it, so we thought we'd go over it was Aaron Lexington. I'm still perplexed by that one though. It's a brewery and a distillery, but I don't know. It didn't convince me that there was any brewing or distilling actually going on at that location.
SPEAKER_03:I I you know if you had like a black helicopter conspiracy moment, I would definitely throw the flag, but I can't because I have to agree with you. First of all, um you'd sign up for the tour and then you check in, and then they all have you wait in the in the gift shop. And then Austin, who was our tour guide, said, Okay, we're guys gonna meet outside, we're gonna go through the orange door.
SPEAKER_05:And I thought he said we're going to go to the shady orange door, which right there was like, I don't know if I want to go hang out at the shady orange door.
SPEAKER_03:You are right, I apologize. And and so then as we sat outside the door, he gave us some history of the company and and what they own and what they make, and and and I said, Okay. And so um they have the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. And I'm I'm most of you have probably had that or seen it. It's a very strong 8.4 uh APV beer. Uh it's beer that's aged in bourbon barrel, and really tasty. It's very tasty beer. And and so we were both kind of excited, and then we walked through the door, and and that was my first indication that something something was amiss. There was nobody working, the there were stainless steel, large tanks, and but then in the background, but that was the only thing on the floor, though.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, it was something along that wall, and the tanks over here, and there was nothing anywhere else. There was no pallets, there was no barrels, there was no bottles, there was no beer. I mean, we've been on the floors of lots of distilleries and lots of breweries, and I mean it was just completely spotless.
SPEAKER_03:It's something something was amiss. And then as the tour guide was talking, he said, uh, oh uh we and we we outgrew this facility, and we now, if you notice on our bottles, it now says that it's brewed and and bottled uh in in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And my brain went to in 2019, Founders is a is a nice brewery, and it was opened by two brothers, and it became very controversial because both brothers sold uh they both owned at 50-50 and they both sold 45%, they both retained 5% or 10% of the company together, and 90% went to a South American uh country, and then so there was like everyone was like, Oh man, this was like so homegrown. Yeah, they sold out and and they sold, and then and I understand it's all about the the almighty dollar in the end, or maybe the brothers got tired of it, I don't know. But as Austin was talking, I said, Wow, I'm like, they make they make the bourbon barrel ale uh there? Does that mean that you guys are owned by South America? And he had no clue, and then I I opened up Chat GPT and I showed him, I said, This is what I'm talking about. He was he said, you know what, that's just above my pay grade. And I appreciate his honesty, don't get me wrong, but it just made me wonder is there some sort of you know agreement or whatever? Um, but I have to agree. I don't think that I don't think they were making anything there.
SPEAKER_05:And here's the thing if they're distilling their whiskey there and they're using the barrels, so that means you're going to take those barrels, empty barrels, haul them all the way to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to use them in your beer. That just does not seem like a uh smart financial financial thing that you're hauling these beer barrels now over there.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And then I I was talking to you and I said, okay, I don't understand something. I mean, you and I have done so many bourbon uh tours, and the history fascinates both of us, you know, the four conditions in Kentucky, which is expansion contraction. Um, hate to give away the secret here, but if you don't understand how bourbon gets its color, it's because they use a charred oak barrel, it has to be new. And then the the environment, the humidity, uh, the heat from expansion, and then the cold from contraction sucks in the white dog, expels the white dog back and forth, back and forth, and that's how whiskey gets its brown color. Um, and and I was wondering if they make it in Founders, and we don't have the same four seasons, we have construction and winter here. Um and then uh and he said, No, it doesn't make a difference because all the beer is aged in a cooler. And so I was like, okay, I kind of gave away a little bit of the magic. And then I thought the same thing you did, which is okay, if the beer is is aged in a cooler and they're making a mother load of it, there's not enough whisk, there's not enough of the town branch. Uh are we using MGT? I mean, I don't know. It's just like something that's the math doesn't add up. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_05:Then they took us to a little bar there, and when they gave us like four tickets, and we could use it on beer or or liquor or whatever, you know, beer or whiskey. And so we tried there, and then we went across the street, which is where they have their distilling. That did not change my mind either, because you walk in and they got these big, they got two racks of big barrels as you're walking in. Right. Uh, and then along the wall, they've got the stainless steel stuff. Everything is super, I mean, there wasn't pallet again. How many times have we been to these things where, you know, they've got a stack of pallets over here, or here's a pallet that's full of bottles, or here's a pallet full of empty barrels, or something, nothing. And then you go into the next room, which is where their tasting room is, which apparently is also their distilling room because they had the the big mash barrels, and then they had their actual double uh pot stills.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But so when you run this liquor, you're not having tours because then they would be like literally between the the cooking pots and your stills, it just did not make any sense. And I did not see anywhere where there could have bottling facilities, where the barrel's stored at. And they did say that they don't do their own rick housing, that their rick houses that they rent space from Castle and Key, which totally made sense, right? But it was just there just did not look like they clearly were not doing any production, they didn't have anything in the in the cooking barrels or anything like that other than water. I'm just like, how much of this are you actually producing here?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was something weird.
SPEAKER_05:It was numbers didn't add up with how much you say you're producing, uh, how many barrels you need for your beer all the way up in Michigan, and the size of your facility here for distilling uh yeah, I'm not good at math, but that math was not coming close. So I don't know what they're doing. It was almost it reminded me a lot of Sharptop. Yeah in Georgia. We went to Sharp Top in Georgia, and it's a small moonshine uh place. I don't remember which town it was in, but one of our overnight towns, and we talked about it. They had what, a 50-gallon still? Yeah, they had a 50-gallon still in the corner, and then they had this huge production in the back of barrel and there. They had barrels. I mean, it looked like they were actually they had barrels uh, you know, stacked up there and all this kind of stuff. And they were like, Yeah, we we make all of our whiskey right here on this little 50, you know, 50 gallon thing. It's like there is no way you'd have to run that still 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to be producing what you're saying you're producing. And the still wasn't running, and it's right there on the floor, you know, right there next to your bar that you're having people come. Yeah, they're uh they're running moonshine from somewhere, making accusations. It's just my opinion, but they just don't add up.
SPEAKER_03:That's a great thing about a podcast, you buddy. You can say whatever you want. So uh sure.
SPEAKER_05:I don't like to make accusations. I'm just saying from somebody who knows who's got a very a relatively good understanding of the the whiskey in the bourbon world that I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:I agree with him. You're not wrong. Something wasn't something was uh something wasn't right, but um we did have a nice old fashioned there, so that was good.
SPEAKER_05:It was a very good old-fashioned gift shop, it was beautiful. Um, yeah, I mean it was a nice place. I enjoyed the tour. Uh, I enjoyed the samples that I got. That they gave us a special sample of their coffee liqueur, yeah. Where they would put boiling hot water, they would add the coffee liqueur, and then they would um layer cream on top of it. And it's like a hot coffee drink. Oh my god, that was incredible.
SPEAKER_03:So when I was driving home, I thought about something. Because you were nice enough to buy your wife some of the coffee liqueur, you also bought your wife some of the bourbon cream at Buffalo Trace. Would it have been sacrilegious to pour hot water, pour the coffee uh liqueur from Town Branch, and then on top use the Buffalo Trace cream?
SPEAKER_05:Um, yes, it would. Freddie Johnson right now is cussing you, and he doesn't know why, but he is. No, um, because the Buffalo Trace liqueur, um the other stuff from Town Branch was actually coffee flavored. The other stuff isn't. No, I know, but I mean you get a buffalo trace. So that that's really the difference.
SPEAKER_03:But as we sampled it, it was the coffee in the hot water, as you mentioned, and then he took just your everyday cream and put on top.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, you're saying okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm saying put the town branch uh coffee coffee liqueur in the bottom and then take the buffalo trees trace cream on top. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_05:I thought you were saying let's make a root beer float out of the coffee. Okay. Um no, I I don't think that's has any issues at all. I think that just might make it better. Oh yeah. As long as you cold it, because the big thing was is the temperature difference because you had the really ice cold cream, and then you hit the hot coffee, and that it had a really but you could do it. You're right. I'm gonna I've got both of them. I'm gonna try it. I'll let you know.
SPEAKER_03:I appreciate it. I I can't wait. So getting down the road. Uh speaking of getting down the road, we went out for a bike ride, 30 miles, uh, give or take a mile or two. Um that was a that was a beautiful ride. That was awesome. Uh uh, not a lot of wind. Um, great, great uh you know what the fall colors had not changed yet.
SPEAKER_05:We had not changed, so we just had the green. We've been out there when the when they've been changing, but they hadn't started.
SPEAKER_03:Um big highlight of the night, sir. Freddie Johnson. Freddie Johnson, yes, um you know, he was gonna give his presentation, and you, sir, got something really cool.
SPEAKER_05:Oh my god. Got. So we go to the VIP tasting with Freddie Johnson, and he's always great to listen to. And he's not one of those people that just does a canned presentation. Every presentation he does is different. We've never heard the same. A lot of times the same, there's the similar messages in there and that kind of thing, but they're not the same presentations. Um, always good. He's always extremely generous with his time afterwards on signing his Freddy's root beer and things like that. And I had been there, like I said, in July, and I had bought a barrelhead, buffalo trace, Blanton's barrel head. Um, wasn't planning on buying one, but basically what happened is I was standing there getting my stuff, and they this lady rolls it out and they go, We've got buffalo trace, blanton's barrel heads, we're gonna put them on sale. And so I was like, okay. Um I decided to get one. I needed an excuse, I guess, to kind of get one. So I told my wife, it's like, I've got a plan for this. She's always like, What are you gonna do with that? I've got a plan for this. My plan was is to take this with us when we went to the VIP tasting. And at that time we didn't know Freddie was gonna be there, uh, and have him sign it. I didn't know whether he was gonna sign it. I didn't even know he was gonna be there at the time because they hadn't announced, but he was there. I carried this thing around to all my tastings. And for those of you who are on the uh YouTube, there it is, the Plankton's barrel top. And if you look right there, it's signed by Freddie Johnson, third generation. So I'm gonna take this barrel head signed by Freddie Johnson, who's in the Whiskey Hall of Fame. And Selkie EBay. No, no, no. Uh he's in the Kentucky uh Whiskey Hall of Fame, and he just recently has been inducted into the World Whiskey Hall of Fame, which is over in Ireland. Uh, I'm putting that up near my bar, but I I was like, Freddie, I got a I got a big favor to ask. I bought this barrel head from Buffalo Trace. Would you sign it for me? He didn't even didn't even think about it. He goes, I'd be honored to. Grabbed it and started signing it for me.
SPEAKER_03:And while you're setting that down, I have to say that um a few times from doing this show, um, you know, we do have the right to get media passes for things. Um, you know, they're opening the world is opening up more and more to podcasting. Um, and we felt like celebrities, but this time we kind of felt like a little bit of a celebrity because Phil Collin from Phil Talks Whiskey, um, he looked at Freddie and said, These guys are good guys, these guys are good guys. And and I think that probably helped you out a little bit too.
SPEAKER_05:So yeah, I think he would have done it anyway, but certainly couldn't hurt. Um it was just a great, it's always a great experience, and he takes he's we got pictures with him and that type of thing. And then after that, it was followed up by a friend of ours, Phil, on Phil Talks Whiskey.
SPEAKER_03:For sure. He had some international pours, um, and he had Japanese blantons, which I was excited about.
SPEAKER_05:I I kind of, in fact, I told you it's like, well, there's gonna be Japanese blantons there. I didn't know what else he was gonna bring to the table, but he talked about whiskeys that the the Kentucky distillers make, but they're making them only for export to other countries. They had the Japanese blantons, uh, they had a uh Four Roses that is just for Japan. Japan is a big whiskey market. Um, I really liked it. The first bottle he pulled out was not an uh international bottle, but it was a Phil Tox whiskey bottle pick that he had done, which was fun.
SPEAKER_03:That was neat, but um no better way of sharing your story by going, here, have one with my fix my pace, my face and picture on the side.
SPEAKER_05:But um, Phil is a great guy, he knows he knows everybody in the whiskey business pretty much, and he has been in the whiskey business for so long, he knows the stories and that type of thing. And uh, we've did a little talking to him, and I think uh here in the next couple months we might get him on to uh to talk to us a little about he's been on the show before, but maybe get on and talk to us a little bit about what's new in the whiskey world and uh maybe give us uh a bottle recommendation that uh we could try out.
SPEAKER_03:Now that's pretty cool. Um that's that's oh the one thing I want to mention for sure is uh Michael and Ben. Michael and Ben sat next to us, and then uh they came back to the leisure uh campground, and we got to enjoy their company uh for the evening and just wanted to say how how nice it was sitting sitting with those guys and chatting with those guys. And um, you know, he was um telling us that it's our fault, or he's happy to share that uh we helped him get in his bourbon. Um, but he was actually very sincere about you know mirroring our stories of of you know, it's not just about the whiskey, it's not just about the bourbon, but it's about sharing it and the experiences kind of kind of the same thing as Freddie. And uh Michael was saying that he had the same thing with his son, which is awesome to hear. And so I just want to thank both of those guys for spending time with us that evening.
SPEAKER_05:So we also spent time with another one of our fans at the Buffalo Trace tasting.
SPEAKER_03:And that was John. Um John from Bragg, and and uh got to got to see him a couple times. He came back to the campground as well. So um everybody was awesome to see. Um scrolling through my notes here, and we did something on Sunday that uh that we normally don't do.
SPEAKER_05:Uh we ate Arby's.
SPEAKER_03:We always hated Arby's.
SPEAKER_05:Uh well, we hated Arby's. We weren't thrown out of a red lobster. Um close.
SPEAKER_03:Close. We we told everybody we weren't gonna go on a bike ride on Sunday, but the weather was so nice. We were such in the mood for it. We said, okay, it'll push us back a little bit. Now I have a feeling that it you didn't think it was gonna push you back as much as it actually it did push you back.
SPEAKER_05:But yeah, and the uh lady at the campground wasn't too thrilled with us because we ran over on our checkout time, but uh we got I think what 20 miles in?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, great, great ride, and we hit another distillery, although I don't know how much of a distillery it was, but that's not important right now. It's a distillery. Um yeah, good enough.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and then we went to uh Frankfurt and Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace, and then we went uh on down to Arby's where we generally eat uh before we part ways. And the uh the insinuation that uh Adam was making there about putting me further behind, I was like we parted ways. I was like, I've got a little bit of time. I've got a long drive, but I can break it up a little bit. My wife wanted something uh from Four Roses, so I stopped by that. It was on the way, stopped by Four Roses, uh, and then got back on the road, and then Jathea Creed, uh, which is another distillery that's on the Bourbon Trail, was right there off the highway. I've seen it a million times. It's like, oh, I'll just stop in here. So I just stopped into the gift shop and looked around, checked it out, hopped back in my vehicle, and then uh had to go to Louisville. And the one distillery that I did not get to go to in July or this trip was Stiltsweller, who makes uh Blade and Bow. And uh so I thought, you know what? I'm only a mile or so away. So I made a detour over there. I went and visited their distillery, not very long, just long enough to gift shop and look around, take a few pictures. Then I hopped back in my car. It's like I'm in great time. Got down the road about an hour, got into Indiana, called, called you up, and you were doing fine, you were making good time. And uh got into Missouri and my computer system was saying, you will be home by 11:35. Okay, that's not bad with my stops and stuff. And at that point, I think you were already home. I was like, okay, I can I can handle that. Uh flying down the interstate, and then all of a sudden, just um west of Columbia, Missouri, the traffic just comes to a complete stop. There's no signs, there's no nothing, complete stop, stand still, not moving at all. And I was like, okay, well, you know, we get moving here in a minute. 40 minutes later, it still wasn't moving. And I was like, you gotta be. And there was no way to get off. There was no highway patrolman telling people to get off you know at the the last exit or anything, and you're just stuck. It's like bumper to bumper, there's nowhere to go. Um, so I wound up spending an extra uh, I don't know, what, an hour and 10 minutes just sitting there on the interstate waiting.
SPEAKER_03:Luckily for you, you had me to do some math for you. We figured out at the speed that you were going.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, and in 40 minutes, I went basically 40 yards, and then you came back with this big mathematical thing.
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh, I was concerned because I had expected you home or near home at the time, and I said, How's the trip going? And you took a picture of nobody moving, and then um I said, Well, what does the GPS say? And you said it keeps climbing, and then you said I've gone 40 yards, and then I'm like, Well, okay, and you said you had, I don't know, a hundred and something miles left, and so I I went to Chat GPT and said, I need a complex equation, and it just came back with this seriously complex equation of at the current rate, it would take you four days and everything else. And I'm like, All right, I'm gonna add some humor. And then you came back, which I was I, you know, my wife was sleeping upstairs. I laughed out loud so loud because you said, Well, I've got a lot of whiskey in this car.
SPEAKER_05:I said, I've I've got many bottles of whiskey in this car, and I've got a bag of pumpkin seeds. I should be okay. Well, there you go. For a little bit, not four days worth, but after that we'll need an airdrop or something. But what was what really agitated me is I, you know, came to a immediate halt, and it showed, you know, I've got like an hour and a half or something to get home or whatever. And when I started, it was like five and a half hours. As I'm sitting there, the clicker just starts clicking. All of a sudden it went up two hours, and then it went up another hour. I'm setting there, and all of a sudden the thing is like five hours and 20 minutes. And I'm like, wait a minute. It was basically that when I was in Kentucky.
SPEAKER_03:Five hours later.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah. I called my wife and and she's like, How's it going? I was like, Well, when I left Frankfurt, it was five hours and twenty minutes to get home. I'm now outside of Columbia, Missouri. It's five hours and 20 minutes to get home. I felt like um, what's that movie? Oh, brother, where aren't thou? He goes in and he needs to buy something, and it's like, that'll be two weeks. And he's like, We're at a geographical anomaly. We're exactly two weeks from everything. Kind of got that. It's like, I'm exactly five hours and 20 minutes from everywhere. But the good news was um, there was a they they do it really wank uh wonky the way they had done the the construction, and two trucks had crashed and it was closed for three hours. Fortunately, I was on the last hour basically of that, and so I got out of there, and it was not five hours and twenty minutes to get home. So, but it I was really tempted. There was about 15 yards between me and the car in front of me, and I had a lawn chair in the back. I could have taken that out there and just opened one of those bottles and had a little party while I waited. Well, I made it home safe, and you made it home safe, and it's a good trip.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, we had a good time. I I have one more piece of show and tell before we get the listener spotlight, and so I don't steal the thunder. I want to see if you had any closing remarks yourself. My closing remarks were you know, I'm sorry about the hose that derailed one of our adventures this year, but I'm glad that you're on the men, you're healing. I love our adventures, uh, I love the people we meet along the way. Uh, I do have one last piece of show and tell that I'm gonna turn it over to you before listener spotlight. But um, you know, one of the things about the Bourbon Burn, Bourbon Country Burn, is they have select bottles that you can pre-purchase part of the ride. And um I hope I can do this without showing my face here, which is if you're on YouTube, uh the label is just absolutely amazing. Yeah, right there.
SPEAKER_05:And so it's a bottle we got from Jay Mattingley, and and we've been doing this. We generally do a pre-order bottle or two, and generally they'll put like the little logo on a sticker on the side that says, you know, this is for urban country burn. But this one, I'll let you explain it.
SPEAKER_03:This one uh is batch number four from Jay Maddingley. On the back, it does say distilled in Indiana. Bottled by MGP. You got it. Wow. Bottled by Jay Manley in 18 uh 1845, not in, but uh uh bottled in 1845.
SPEAKER_05:So it was older that one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly. It was distilled in Indiana, um, but then bottled uh right across the street from Buffalo Trace at what they're calling Bourbon 30. So it makes me wonder if Bourbon 30 is the parent company uh and Jay Madeleine is the name that they're using. Uh, but the really cool thing about it is the label has got the the burn, which is the official logo of the burn, and it has a bunch of cyclists going down the road if you cannot see it. Of course, if you're listening and not watching, uh it does say uh one hell of a pick. Um small batch bourbon whiskey finished with oak staves, and it's 112 proof. Uh, and it says ride bikes, visit distilleries, which I find a little interesting. They use that on their label, but uh batch number four.
SPEAKER_05:But they just didn't do a single sticker, they made the whole front label specific to the burn, which I thought was great. Now I've got questions for these people. It's being done in in what, Indiana, which we know if it's being distilled in Indiana, it's 99.9999% being done by MGP multi-grain products. They do it for a lot of people. But I got the understanding when I was there that they were distilling their own. And they are the old Bourbon 30, and I know Bourbon 30 used to do theirs, so I don't know if one of two things, they they can't keep up with production, uh, or they don't have enough uh area for production in the new facility. So it would be interesting to know that.
SPEAKER_03:This says uh now reborn uh through the passion, commitment, and hard work of Jay Madeley re-energizing the Mateley legacy in 2009, um, in early stages of the spirits, yada yada yada. Um but when it says uh inviting spirit loves to custom blend, uh they're they like to blend and they're continuing their innovation and creates one hell of a pick. This is a true testament to the great legacy of the world-class spirits. And so, yeah, uh you want me to be honest? Bought it for the label.
SPEAKER_05:Um you want me to be honest? I bought the same bottle only for the label because I had already done, I I had done a new riff and uh another bottle, and this one came out later, and I wasn't going to necessarily get it. And I kind of was like, Do I need it? I don't really need it, but it's like a really cool label, so I went ahead and got it because of the label.
SPEAKER_03:Love it. Well, that's all my have before we do listener spotlight. Just wanted to give you the floor for a second.
SPEAKER_05:You know, it was a great trip. Uh, always enjoy riding, certainly enjoy uh getting opportunities to hang out with you and and do the adventures, and so that's always good. Um, we don't, obviously, cycling season is over. Uh doesn't mean we won't be getting together. Uh, we do have uh, I believe, a trip planned in January. We're going to uh, well, you're gonna go play golf. I'm gonna go hack at a ball for a little bit. So it'll be fun. But uh we are looking at what rides uh we're gonna be doing next year. I think we're shaking it up a little bit. We did uh talk to an individual at the last ride who represented one of the rides that's on our list, and uh he kind of got us pumped up and fired up for that. So um stay tuned.
SPEAKER_02:With that, sir, it is now time for listener spotlight.
SPEAKER_05:All right. Uh this episode's listener spotlight clues are as followed. Folllows. The area was controlled by several countries throughout its history. Uh, and that area saw many battles between the native tribes and the United States. Uh, this city was founded in the late 1700s. It is named after a founding father of the United States. Uh, we all can thank this city for an invention that originated there. What we eat and how we prepare our food was changed forever through this invention. The early economy of this city thrived due to industry and railroad jobs. The city itself is located on the confluence of three rivers, and that made this city a very strategic location. The city helped influence a place where everyone knows your name. There you go.
SPEAKER_03:You want to go where everybody knows your name. All right, maybe we'll have to see. There we go. Three rivers, Pittsburgh. But everybody wants to know your name, Boston. With that being said, sir, it has been a phenomenal season. Um I can't wait till our next adventure. Um, who knows what that could be? You never know. So you never know. With that being said, somewhere, somewhere, somehow today, it was a great day. Thank you, sir. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please subscribe to the show on the podcast app of your choice.
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