Bucket Hats, Beanie Babies, And Why Cyclists Built The Roads

A bucket hat shows up in our lives again, and this time it’s not just an awkward dinner story. We read a real headline about a Florida bank robber who demanded cash in his bucket hat, then basically helped police catch him by continuing to wear the thing. It’s ridiculous, it’s funny, and it somehow fits perfectly with our ongoing theory that bucket hats cause people to go a little berserk.

We also bring back a favorite guest, Miya, for a warm update on Confetti, the well-traveled Beanie Baby who keeps tagging along on rides, vacations, and big moments. That opens the door to Beanie Baby history, the 1990s collectible craze, and why most of the “value” talk misses the point when the real payoff is memory and tradition. On top of that, we share a practical travel tip for anyone booking flights with flexibility, plus a Listener Spotlight that lands in Powell, Tennessee, complete with a railroad stop origin story and novelty architecture.

Then we shift gears into something we genuinely want every road user to know: cyclists helped drive the early push for better roads in the United States through the Good Roads Movement and the League of American Wheelmen, before cars dominated transportation. It’s the kind of history that changes what you say the next time someone yells “get off the road.” We wrap with a look ahead: we’re attempting daily Tour de France mini episodes with quick recaps, jersey basics, and beginner-friendly commentary as we follow the race day by day.

Subscribe, share this with a riding buddy, and leave us a review that’s actually about the show. What part of the road do you think we all need to relearn together?

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Transcript

Slow Adventure, Big Welcome

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Now, Adam, the next time some bozo comes just flying by you when you're on your bicycle and lays on the horn and it shouts out the window, get off the road, you don't belong here. I want you to say you're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

There's a kind of adventure you only find when you're not in a hurry. This is Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. Stories from the open road where routes are questionable. The stops are intentional, and leisure isn't a reward. It's the plan. If you're looking for speed, well, you're lost. But if you're looking for laid-back adventure, good stories, and even better company, welcome home.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome once again to one of my favorite times to share with my good friend, Mr. Michael Sharp. You are listening to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. I am Adam, and I am lucky enough to be joined with my good friend, Mr. Michael Sharp.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Adam, as usual, welcome. Happy to see you, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Good to see you. Good to see you. What is new

New Job And America Turns 250

SPEAKER_02 1:33

in the world of Michael Sharp?

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Uh, well, Michael now has a job. Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Uh finally, uh, finally got somebody to uh to offer me a gig. So um uh we'll we'll see how that goes. So that's a good thing. Um, but I did want to take a moment. I've got a little bourbon in hand here. Uh I am wearing the appropriate shirt. I want to wish the United States of America a happy 250th birthday. No, but I'll just leave it lower here while you're talking. Um, you know what? That's pretty cool. 250 looks pretty good for 250 years. I mean, I know it's had its issues and problems and still does and will in the future, but you know, I think we've done a reasonably good job of uh of getting 250 years, so that's kind of exciting. So happy birthday uh to our fantastic nation here.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Absolutely. Absolutely. I uh I do all the voicemails for uh the phone system at work, and I used uh Claude and I came up with like this uh play ball.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

Um I I why every time you do that, I want to start drum majoring like I was in I I was a drum major in high school, and you know, you're up there in front doing the thing. Breath back good memories.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

You know, I felt for the 250th birthday, I call him Matt, you call him Mark, would give me a little reprieve playing with my soundboard. So Matt, thank you for the thank you for the reprieve.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

So uh we might, we might. Um one other thing I wanted to say other than happy birthday is I wanted to apologize to our listeners a little bit. We've been a little sloppy the last month and a half getting episodes out on a regular basis, and and part of that was traveling and things going on in our lives. We certainly apologize. We're getting back onto the regular cycle now, and we did take extra time for the 100th episode, which was the last episode. So uh, but I just wanted to assure everybody we're getting uh we're getting back online with our our two-week intervals and things. We we've done a great job. This little section, this last month and a half section, is really the only time that we've done the show where we've been uh we haven't been consistently getting the getting the shows out. And at the end of this show, we're gonna announce something cool that we're gonna be doing for the next few days.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

I love it. I'm getting I will I will uh I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, I'll I'll piggyback just for a second. Um, part of it was um you were taking care of some stuff, and then a part of it um just 100% transparency, I was traveling, but this time not to a conference.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

So where's the second place other than conferences that Adam goes? Mickey Mouse exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Hey, listen, uh timeshare, uh, gonna use it. So um actually, since this is a leisure show, if you fly Delta Airlines, I highly recommend checking out their new tool. This is my plug to Delta. They're not paying me to say this, but I'm gonna tell you about it. Okay, think of it like a bingo board, like like B6 could be $500, but like I19

Delta’s Flight Price Matrix Hack

SPEAKER_02 5:39

could be like $100, and maybe like G49 could be like $200. Point being is we went on there and it's like a matrix, and and depending on what time you're willing to go, if you're if your flights are really flexible, but instead of guessing of like, well, let me try it again, let me try it again, let me try, it just comes up and tells you. It just there's uh you go on the website, we were using miles, um, and it I mean you could do it in dollars too, by the way. But um we chose miles, and instead of playing a guessing game, we were able to go on there June 25th. Um, I normally, you know, I normally take the first flight out in the morning, so I'm there all day. Well, we weren't able to do that because the matrix allowed for a you know really cheap flight to go down. Um, of course, not when most people wanted to go down, but okay, what you know, ying versus yang. Yeah, exactly. So um, and then of course, coming home, I took the um I got up at 2 30 and took the flight that nobody wants to take when they're coming back home. And of course, that was on the matrix that was lower. Anyways, point being, if you're looking to travel and you do use Delta, there's a new tool on the website that you can check out and and do the matrix. So, anyways, um, that's what we did.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

There's our travel advertisement for the week. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yes, and I wish Delta Airlines at Delta would like to sponsor uh Road Adventures of Cycling Man of Leisure. You know, that would be great.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

We've mentioned them many a time. We have I mean they have been mentioned probably more than any other other than that ridiculous hat company that you support. Any other company, they have probably been mentioned more than any others. Yeah, moving along. We're not talking the hat company.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Oh, okay, no problem. I won't mention the company that's on the screen if you're watching on an Apple video or YouTube video.

SPEAKER_03 7:35

All right, moving right along. We got a great show for you today. We do, we do, we do. Um we're gonna we're gonna talk a little bit about stuffed animals. Yes. Uh, we are going to talk uh a little bit about uh roads and the creation of roads in the United States. I believe you're gonna tell us about uh bucket hat incident, which apparently bucket hats in Florida cause people to just go berserko.

Fan Mail, Soundboard, And Listener Ideas

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Yes, as we've we've often as we've been witnessed before. We've got another one for you. Um, and then we're gonna talk about uh something interesting that you and I are gonna try over the course of the next uh three weeks, and then we will have a new listener spotlight.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

So yes, I love it. So can I just sit back and let it all happen? Oh no, I I don't get to sit back.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Let it go, man.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Um the only thing I I want to mention is fan mail. Um, before we get rolling, uh fan mail. I just listened to uh a whole podcast about different ways to use fan mail, and it was really interesting. So some of you could use it for uh listener spotlight guests, and like Paul did, they have, um but you could also, if you want to make a complaint, maybe you're like, Adam, stop using the darn buttons, and then you could file that in. Um, or some critique of hey, I wish you guys would do this. Um a lot of fan mail on every show, you can record a 60-second clip. If you don't like how you sound the first time, don't panic. You can go back and re-record it. Don't worry, Michael.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

It's like the old answering machines in the 80s. Do you like this message? Yeah, and if you don't, you could play it, you could hit the button and and re-record it. I still do that to this day.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

I won't lie. If I if I'm leaving a very oh yeah, if I'm leaving a very important message, one that is more business oriented, I hit the pound button, and then it says press nine to review your message. And I press nine, and I usually hear myself going, Okay, that sounds good. Or there have been times where I'm like, oh god, it did not come out like I wanted. And then I hit delete and re-record. So you can to to this day I still do that.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

So it's just like AI do it.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

This is Adam Baransky, and I you say that, but you know that our option, our our our platform offers a tool that I could mess with my wife in two seconds.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

So oh, I don't doubt it. I do not doubt it.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

It's creepy. You and I have played with it before. I type I typed in a random sentence of like, hey Lauren, can you bring me a cheeseburger? And uh then, of course, you know, you it'll come up and it'll it'll go through every show that we recorded and it'll find words like that and make it it, it sounded like my voice. It's kind of scary. So um, anyways, well, I like that you gave the layout of the show. Um I did get a guess for Listener Spotlight. We do have the jingle. Um so um do you want to give the clues first and then and then I give the jingle?

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Um no, give the jingle first, then I give the clues, and then we'll find that guesses.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

If you haven't had a chance to listen to us for a while, we did get a request that instead of hearing me say listeners for all right, that we have a nice jingle. Uh, we worked hard, we hired a 14-piece band. Uh, the writer was amazing. I mean, we had to get hot gator raid, it was amazing just for the voice of this guy. But here we go.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

You ride along with us every spin. Time to try it's your moment now. Listeners.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

All right. I do have a guess, but I'll let you give the clues first.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

All right. The clues were as follows. Uh, this community began as a stop for early settlers. Um, an early settler included a presidential relation. The town's name is derived from a transportation

Listener Spotlight Guess And Reveal

SPEAKER_03 12:01

stop. Uh it is surprising that this town did not get the nickname of Mud Town from the 30s through the 60s, 1930s through the 1960s, travelers might have been confused when they went to fuel up, and the city has an ESPN connection. So, what do we got as a guest?

SPEAKER_02 12:25

So, Maggie seems to be a new listener. She says, Hey, hey guys, just got turned on to the show. Love this idea of the listener spotlight. I have a guest this week. It's Abiline, Kansas. She says, by the way, I would say what? Is it Abiline? Oh no, Abilene, Kansas. Oh, Kansas.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Okay, Abilene, Kansas, okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

She says, by the way, the Eisenhower Presidential Library is there. Guys, keep it up. You have a new listener, Maggie.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Oh, Abilene, Kansas. That is actually just like two hours down the road here from me. Um, it used to be uh there used to be a big, or there still is, uh, Boy Scout camp that I used to work at in the summertimes. Camp Brown is right outside of Abilene, so I spent a large amount of time in old Abilene, Kansas. But, Maggie, I am sorry. You are incorrect.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

I don't know if we should give a trombone to a new listener, though. Sorry, Maggie. Too late now.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

We're not editing at this point. All right. The listener spotlight town for this week was in fact Powell, Tennessee. Powell, Tennessee. Powell, Tennessee. Uh, it began as a stop for early settlers that were headed from uh headed to the frontier from eastern uh Tennessee. Uh, an early settler included a presidential relation. One of the early settlers was Stockley Donaldson, who was the brother-in-law of President Andrew Jackson. The town is named from uh derived its name from a transportation stop. Uh the railroad stop there originally was called Powell Station. Uh, it is surprising the town did not get the nickname of Mud Town early in the 20th century. Um, bricks made of mud from the nearby Beaver Creek were transport uh transported by train to various locations. So they actually had a mud factory there that made mud bricks. Um, I don't know why you couldn't just make your own mud bricks at your location. I mean, I don't know why you had to make them and put them on a train to transport them, but I'm sure there's a reason. From the 1930s to the 1960s, travelers might have been confused when they went to fuel up. This is really cool. An airplane service station built in the shape of an airplane was created in that town to attract business. And it was actually in the Mimi Mimi Tech uh architecture style, which was a novelty architecture style um in the 30s. But it looked like a big airplane, but it was actually uh a filling station, and the city has an ESP in connection. John Cooper, uh, the college head coach for Arizona and Ohio State, uh, and also an ESP analyst is from the town of Powell, Tennessee. That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

That's pretty cool. Well, Maggie, I am uh happy to have a new listener. Uh we actually recently are gaining lots of new listeners, and so this is exciting. Um, but Maggie, welcome aboard. Thank you for making a guess. You could use fan mail next time. We'd love to hear you, but if you if you prefer just to write, thank you. Uh, we have many people who make uh guesses all the time, and so um glad you got turned on to us. Thank you to the to the community of Powell, Tennessee. Um Welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Obviously, somebody new, so um still don't have Wyoming, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

We are still missing Wyoming. You know, it was Wyoming and Hawaii for a long time, and Hawaii has just exploded. We still cannot get a single person to listen to us from Wyoming, and I can't believe you brought that up because it's such an annoyance to me. We get, I mean, crazy places we're getting listeners. Rhode Island, we're getting listeners. It's only 30 miles across. Uh, but Wyoming, nobody's listening to the podcast in Wyoming. So if you're going on a vacation to, say, uh Devil's Tower, um, Yellowstone National Park, maybe Grand Tetons, uh, or if you're going to, there's a big rodeo in Cody, if I remember right. Um, if you're going to any of those, you know, just pop one of our things in and listen to it and get us on the heat map of Wyoming. Because we've got like this, we've got almost every country in the world. And then right there in the United States is Wyoming, just with a blank spot there.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

So here uh my question is with the shirt that you have on now, you'd think if you went to Wyoming, you could get somebody to listen.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

I don't know. You'd think that there'd be people, I mean, they've got a they've got a uh a round the state ride. Uh I believe it's the tour de Tour de Wyoming. Um, so you would think there's cyclists there. I mean, they're just right down the road from Colorado, and there are millions of cyclists in Colorado. So I I don't know. I don't get it. We'll get Wyoming. I need to find somebody who's getting a summer internship job at like, you know, one of the national parks there and say, hey, listen to the show, please help us out.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

This is planned, but you and I are gonna bring a guest on in a second. This is not a surprise. But first, before I did that, I wanted to mention the story that I text you while I was in Florida. So if anyone listened, uh I don't know, last year at this time.

SPEAKER_03 18:08

Um no, two years ago, about no, last year in February.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah, last year in February.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

We went to dinner at a Disney restaurant called Tapolinos. It's at the top of the Riviera Resort. Tables are slam jammed next to each other, and just there's a show. We'll put a link on uh in the in the show notes to the show. Um, and we had the most craziest experience I think you and I have had as adults about a guy literally wanting to physically

The Bucket Hat Bank Robber Story

SPEAKER_02 18:39

have a fist fight with us. Um he wasn't getting very far, tried to rip a pen out of my hand, kind of lunged towards you, um, tried to have me chase him to the bathroom to fight him, and I just kind of laughed.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

But um but but yeah, it was it was insane.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

And we called it the the bucket hat, you know, the bucket hat must have done something to your brain. Well, listen. So I'm I'm at Disney and I'm scrolling through my phone in line for I don't know, something. I don't know what I was in line for. I'd be lying to you if I remember. I don't remember. But it said, this is no joke. The bucket hat bank robber caught by Sarasota. I can't even I can't even read it. They have his picture. They have his picture with a bucket.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Is it the same guy?

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah, I wish. Oh, that would have been hilarious. That would have been great. But it says, This is no joke. Bucket hat bank robber caught by Sarasota police. Now I have the whole story here, and I think it it's it's worth telling you.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

A 60-year-old bank robber who demanded the teller place cash in his bucket hat was caught in Sarasota on Friday, authorities said. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said the suspect, Joe Bales, was seen walking into the Wells Fargo Bank located off 53rd Avenue East in Bradenton. He then placed his bucket hat on the counter and said, This is no joke. This is a robbery. Give me all your money and no die pack, according to the sheriff's office. The teller complied and began hanging over the cash. Authorities did not disclose the exact amount. However, still from the surveillance video shows the suspect holding the hat full of money. Bails then left the bank in a white van, headed south on US 301. Uh detectives developed a description of the suspect and the vehicle and quickly was able to track his movements. According to the Sheriff's Office, police in Sarasota found Bails due to the fact that he had a bucket hat on his.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

Uh way to take care of that. But um, you know, was he wearing a mask?

SPEAKER_02 21:06

No, not at all.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Did uh I brought my oh I'm gonna rob a bank. I brought my bucket hat. I didn't bring a mask to disguise myself. Uh wow.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

I'm just I'm only for those I understand this is a podcast, and most of you are listening. But if you would like to watch on Apple Podcast, we are there on video, we're also on YouTube. I will hold my phone up here. When you ask if he has a mask on, this guy is like looking to get caught, I think.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Oh, yeah. He didn't even try. And then he takes his hat off, so then he can see his whole hair and all that kind of stuff or lack thereof. That's just ridiculous. That's just there. You go. These guys are giving the bucket head industry just a bad name.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Yeah, you know, and then my wife said, Oh, look, there's a bucket head. Should you get one? And I said, No, I'm not getting a Bucket hat. But not a bucket hat.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Let's bring our special guest on. Are you okay with that?

SPEAKER_03 22:12

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

All right.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Um.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Well, hello, Miss Maya. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_05 22:30

I am pretty good. What about you?

SPEAKER_02 22:32

I am wonderful. You are wanting to give just as they do in the business. I want you to know that you're being recorded right now. This is the Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure podcast. Welcome.

SPEAKER_05 22:47

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Hello, Maya.

SPEAKER_05 22:53

Hello.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Well, you actually inspired us. You said, after asking us all the great questions, which by the way,

Maya Returns And Confetti Updates

SPEAKER_02 23:02

you got some kudos. You got our friend Armando said, way to go, Maya. There were some other people who were loving the questions that you asked, but you inspired us to have the confetti experience part two, or at least the continuation of having you on. Now, for those of you, oh, your dad has got confetti up on the microphone boom stand there. Um so let's give a recap. The last time that you were before you before the hundredth episode, where you asked us a lot of questions, but you did a great job. We recorded in your garage and you gave us the history of confetti. You gave us uh why you collect beanie babies and and um and some things. Now I understand you're a little older, you're now in high school. Actually, I think you're gonna be your second year in high school soon. So um, but um we have some history about the Thai Beanie Baby. Um and and we have some history based upon like value and stuff. I imagine your collection, you don't you're not a person who cares about the value, correct?

SPEAKER_05 24:20

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

Okay. You just wanted them because just memories with your dad, or onesie onesies. Oh, there we go. There we go. All right. Um now, did you ever look up any of the beanie babies that you had and at one time like what the values were?

SPEAKER_05 24:43

Did you ever even look it up or um I wouldn't say I looked them up for the value? But I have looked up beanie babies and found out their value.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

So we were interested in doing some deep dive. Now, Michael, your dad, obviously being a history teacher, knew a lot about this stuff. I did not, to be honest. But so Ty introduced Beanie Babies in 1993. Is that is that news to you, or did you know that they came out in 93?

SPEAKER_05 25:19

Uh, I knew that.

SPEAKER_02 25:20

Okay, all right. Um now this is kind of interesting. The reason why they became like a supply and demand thing, uh, and so they really didn't explode until mid-1996. Um there was a marketing strategy that came into play. And so the marketing strategy was they would not sell to major retailers, they would only sell to

The Beanie Baby Bubble Explained

SPEAKER_02 25:41

um like smaller, smaller toy shops and things, and they could only get like 36 of them at a time, and that's what that's what drove the um the value of them, um, which was kind of interesting. I don't know, did you know that or I did not.

SPEAKER_05 26:00

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

So um let me see here. First sold in Chicago area toy stores for about five bucks. Do you remember how much you paid for confetti or how much somebody paid for confetti?

SPEAKER_05 26:15

I do not remember how much confetti it was.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Now she's I will say though, she's very thrifty and she kind of has limits on what she will spend on a particular beanie baby.

SPEAKER_02 26:28

So now you guys did a lot of, I mean, even when I was there, you guys did a lot of estate sales. Did did your collection come more from estate sales, or did it come from did you buy them in actual stores? I have no idea.

SPEAKER_05 26:45

Um, not necessarily estate sales, but thrift stores and garage sales.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Okay. So here's the here's what it says, just to give you an idea. And anyone, because I thought that was this was interesting, even if you know if you were, I mean, many of our uh community members, I'm sure, knew that the beanie baby went went crazy because heck even McDonald's got involved in giving beanie babies away and stuff. And so this is what it says the genius uh behind the craze. Um and it says Warner made a uh Warner from Ty, he made a deliberate decision to only sell the small independent stores, not big retailers, which created the scarcity from day one. Stores could only order 36 of each character per month, no exceptions. He began retiring characters immediately, discontinuing them without warning, which sent collectors into a frenzy within two years of eBay launching in 1995, so two years after the Beanie Baby came out. All sales on eBay, six percent of all eBay sales, um, were Beanie Babies at that time.

unknown 27:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Um families invested life savings, soap opera actors uh even had spent $100,000 as a college investment for kids. Um Ty blindsided everyone with the announcement all beanie babies would retire December 31st, 1999, and fans panicked. Then Ty reverse course, claiming it would in response to fans and released a new millennial line instead. Then the market crashed with the dot-com bubble in 2000. So then the Beanie Beatty movie, the Beanie Bubble in 2023, Apple TV film Rise and Fall of the Craze. You can find out a lot more if you're curious. But um can you give us any updates? Or I guess I would be asking, you know, I know that your dad um we we still um still confetti makes all the trips with us, no matter what we're doing. He came to Podfest. Um it was a little different when people were looking at your dad a little like, what is he doing with a beanie baby at a podfest?

SPEAKER_03 29:01

The beanie baby has a podcast, leave it alone.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

Now there you go. As I wear my bucket hat. Uh yes, yes, you'll have to ask your dad about the Sarasota bucket hat guy. So um, but so now that you're getting a little bit older, do you still have your collection?

SPEAKER_05 29:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. I mean, I collect all kinds of things. I mean, uh obviously bourbon, as you know, but I have lots of Disney trinkets and and stuff that I I still collect. I'm sure people would be like, why do you collect that junk? But I love it. So do you do you like that your dad um, because you know we've we've we've given some history before um of of confetti, but do you like that he still takes them with him everywhere?

SPEAKER_05 29:59

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

That's cool. That's cool. I'm trying to look at something real quick here. All right. So the last time we had you on about that, um I'm looking right here. What are some of the favorite places confetti has been, do you think? Since since the since we've had you on, is there any of your favorite places?

SPEAKER_05 30:25

Um, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

He's been a lot of a lot of different places because not only does he travel with you and I, but anytime we do a family vacation, confetti goes along too. That's cool. So he's been to a lot of national parks, he's been to Disney multiple times. So he he's a well-traveled bear. So lots of different places.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Do you still have the air tag on Confetti?

SPEAKER_03 30:54

No, uh, he's got this cool little little biking necklace. It's like his bling. I see that. Um, yeah. Uh I don't put the air tag on him unless I'm taking him like on a biking adventure.

unknown 31:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

Just to be just to be safe. We don't want to be losing confetti. That would be bad.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

Oh, let's see here. One of the questions that came up here is it says, we are supposed to ask Maya, does she know that the bear is actually a Y2K artifact? And what does she think about that?

SPEAKER_03 31:42

No, she she did know it was the Y2K. I don't think she really would look at it as an artifact, would you?

SPEAKER_05 31:50

Um, no. I mean, I have another version of confetti for my collection.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Like a she has a whole wall with special shelves built for to hold all of these different uh beanie baby creatures. And she has another duplicate of confetti that sits on the wall. This is the original traveling version of confetti. So she has one that just stays on the shelf, and this one is normally on my bookcase behind me, or when we go on trips, it goes with us.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

So okay. Okay, okay. So I was interested that that uh there is another version of that same bear of chocolate spots. Is that correct? Or is that maybe I'm making up I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_05 32:46

I haven't heard that.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Maybe I'm making that up. Because I I was doing some research and it said, are you because I said, you know, because did you name the bear confetti or did Ty name the the bear confetti?

SPEAKER_05 32:59

I named the bear confetti.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Ah, that's that was my confusion because I was using ChatGPT and it came up and said, Do you mean this one? And it showed like uh a beanie baby with a bunch of spots on it. So um, okay. Let's see here. I'm looking I'm going through my notes here. Uh in episode 75, I said to you, I said, when she gets older and maybe settles down, and your dad was like, watch your mouth. This is a family show. Um you could put those photos into like a book or something. Is that still the plan for both of you?

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Yeah, I mean, I've been gathering these photos and gathering these photos. At some point in time, I will uh will get around to putting them in some big big book or something. I'll I'll think of something creative to uh to gift to her at some point in time that will include all of the uh the photos of uh the bears' adventures.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

What about one of those digital uh frames and then and just keep you know how you can just keep adding pictures?

SPEAKER_03 34:07

And then that way it would be like she started a Facebook page for confetti. So I'm thinking we need to like really start loading the pictures on there so then people could see the many the mini adventures of confetti.

SPEAKER_02 34:22

Oh, that would be cool. Then we could link to it.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

There you go. Because confetti has has traveled in your jer bike jersey before. Yes, on several occasions. Yes, yes, this is correct. He's like, oh, I'm ditching this clown, I'm going with somebody else. Hops in your bag and goes.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

What um when do you think the first time, just if anyone is curious, when do you think the first time that the confetti experience started? Like, did you was that the first trip that you and I went on to Ragbry? Was I mean, was she a little bit younger? And then no.

SPEAKER_03 35:06

The first time we went to the family, Team Sherpa, rode across Nebraska for the second time, and Maya went with us, and she was only like maybe four years old. And uh the time before that, my nieces were really young. They had sent along little stuffed bears with my dad and me to put in our cycling jerseys for the week, and they were on the trip as well. And so when Maya did it, she thought it'd be cool to give me a bear. And for some reason, of all of her little bears and things, confetti's the one that she gave to me.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

That's pretty cool. Okay, okay, okay. Uh I'm looking at our notes here, buddy. I'm looking at our notes. Um, when we okay, here. When we when we uh it said, hey, Maya's back on the mic. Um so when when when you said, hey, how come you guys haven't had a show with me? Instead of us asking questions, what would you tell us about um your memories and thoughts? Are there anything that you would add to us?

SPEAKER_05 36:23

Um, not really.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Well, okay. Now I'm done with these two clowns too. All right.

SPEAKER_02 36:35

Well, we just wanted to honor you and have you back on because you you really did a great job and a lot of a lot of good compliment compliments of your of your questions of asking us. So uh are you are you excited about celebrating the 4th of July? Are you gonna do are is the family doing something fun?

SPEAKER_05 36:53

Uh yeah, we're gonna get on to my cousin's house.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Is that is that a good thing? Yeah, good, good, good, good. No, I mean sometimes it's like, yeah, well, that's what they want me to do.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

And it's also her birthday week, so that always makes it fun too.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

So yeah. I mean, listen, if you're gonna have a birthday on July 11th, you might as well be on the Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Men of Leisure podcast.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 37:23

Is there any big like gift that you're hoping for, like like a Ferrari?

SPEAKER_03 37:29

Hey, or let's let's uh let's uh set expectations at real realistic levels, buddy. Oh I'm not working yet.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

But you just made an announcement that you have a job, so I mean I haven't started working yet. How about okay, how about this? The Ford F-150. Do you still do you still have the white Ford F-150?

SPEAKER_03 37:57

No, it was actually Ford Ranger. I mean it's From Yeah. So no no go there.

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Well, we do hope that you have a good birthday. I appreciate you uh coming on. Was there any closing thoughts that you would that you would have?

SPEAKER_05 38:16

No.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

Well, tonight your daughter is just a a woman full of lots of words. For one. Maya, thank you so oh, I'm not answering that. Uh thank you for coming on. You want me to give your dad a little uh sensor button there?

SPEAKER_05 38:38

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 38:40

There we go. We'll give him a little sensor button. So thank you for coming on. We will catch up with you. Maybe maybe in 25 episodes, we'll come on and see uh work confetti's been. Now that your dad is employed again, maybe we can get back on that bicycle. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 38:59

All right, all right, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

Good night.

SPEAKER_05 39:03

You as well. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 39:06

Well, I must tell you that was the first time we've used the the Bluetooth feature, so I'm not sure how that's going to sound. I appreciate her coming on, so we will it'll be a test for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

There you go. We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Um, okay. I received uh a package from some wonderful people, some great friends of ours. We were unable to attend Brag 2026. Um, we were actually never supposed to attend Brag 2026. We were supposed to be in Kansas or Nebraska. And and so um we had sat at the restaurant over a year ago with Scott Ledford and and said, Hey, would you help us out? We

BRAG Swag Unboxing And Thank Yous

SPEAKER_02 40:01

you know, you're are you are you coming back to Brag? He said yes. We said, Hey, listen, we'll do all the hard work and uh we'll do the pushing on the show and everything. Is could you could you help us out? And and uh I think this is our time just to first before I open the package, is is both of us extend a huge thank you to Scott and and and and and Cricket and helping us out and and representing the team and and you Michael who did all the messaging and put the team team message together, which was really neat to see some photos going back and forth and everything. So uh, but not to take it away from those guys. Thank you so much. Um, we had sent some packages through the mail, I sent some packages, you sent some packages. I think you had someone send a package for you. So um, and so then Sunshine stepped in um and and a family member of Scott and drove the three packages um many hours to get everything together. Um, and so we thought, hey, that's the end of it. And then right before I was supposed to leave, I left uh on the 24th of June. I came home and there was a package on my porch. And I didn't think much of it. I had to hit the road, and so I put the package inside, and I I was kind of thinking to myself, I didn't order anything. I I don't know what you know what I didn't buy anything. I I knew and normally when we leave, there we have this process where we get rid of all you know non-perishable foods out of the fridge and and we don't order anything from Amazon or we stop our orders or we go in there and tell them to deliver when we come back or whatever. We don't want them to come on the porch while we're gone. More because I'm too lazy to adjust my sprinkler system that still hits the porch. So I'm like, okay. Well, then when my last day in Florida, uh Cricket sent me a text and said, Did you get the package? And it all was like a big, like a frying pan hit me up. I'm like, that's who sent the package. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

So I said, you know, because you haven't learned how to read return addresses on them, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:20

Well, actually, I didn't, I literally we did like a burn and turn. I got off. We we stood, you know, I did my normal thing where I stay at the hotel by the airport the night before.

SPEAKER_03 42:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Literally, I put my my Prius. Yes, I drive a Prius. I I tucked my Prius into the garage. I grabbed my minivan. Okay, this is not getting any better.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Ladies and gentlemen drives a Prius and a minivan. Just call Adam Soccer Mom of the Year.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

That's right, that's right. So uh makes it worse is in the garage where two Prius is. So my wife drives a Prius and I drive a Prius, and I'm not afraid to admit it, by gosh. If you would like to make fun, please look at my 62 mile an hour per gallon, 62 miles per gallon on my way to work every day, except in the winter when it's cold and it doesn't even give me 30. But don't worry about that while he forgets to plug it in. So, anyways, we take the van to the airport. So, and I put the package in, picked up my wife because it would be frowned upon to leave her at home.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

Grab the package, leave the wife.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Uh so and then we left to hit the hit the road. So, but yes, but what I thought we would do in honor of cricket is uh I thought I would open the package right here.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Oh, yeah, yeah. Let's find out what's in it because you won't tell me these things.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Well, it's just like listener spotlight. You won't tell me that either. All right, so here's the package. Okay, I won't tell Amazon that she repurposed an Amazon box, but that's okay. All right, let me see what we got here. Ooh, nice. We have the Bragg Happy Trails T shirts on the back. One for me.

SPEAKER_03 44:13

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 44:14

And guess what, buddy? Don't you dare feel okay. Good. We don't have to share the shirt. Well, I was thinking if we shared it, I would get the summer months. And I get the winter months. Yeah, we there is two. I just wanted.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

All right.

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 44:29

That's that is cool. We have some Brag, really cool vinyl decals. So that's pretty neat. One for me and one for me. I mean, one for you and one for me. All right. Let me see what else we got here. Oh, nice. This might be. I don't want to offend anybody who's purchased anything else off our website, but this might be our best jersey.

SPEAKER_03 44:58

This is oh, yeah. That's definitely the best. I don't know about that's the best jersey that we've ever designed. I mean, I'm talking designed specifically for a ride. How about that?

SPEAKER_02 45:10

Yeah, I would say that's pretty fair, yeah. But um, well, good news. Uh, there's one, so I will get it six months. Um and you get it in the winter months, yeah. No, no, no. Uh there's one for you too. And and and guess what? There is a large and an extra large. So extra large for me, even though I'm uh much better in my health. I still like an extra large on the jerseys. You have you like the large. Um, what else we got here? Oh, we have some happy trail stickers, one for me and you. From Brian.

SPEAKER_03 45:50

My other ones. That's very nice.

SPEAKER_02 45:52

There we go. We have uh looks like a jersey that one of our team members um I I know where this one needs to go. So there's another large, but I I I I happen to know where that needs to go. So um we have some keychains, the Bragg keychain. We have some of those, which we both always love to have.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

Yeah, we we add those to the with my other. Oh, look.

SPEAKER_02 46:21

Right behind us is is our Peaches to Beaches, our first year. I got it right here. Yeah, so put that there. So perfect. All right. Uh, we also have, and I want to make an official announcement. I know that I saw on the team message, as did you by the way, um, that Scott and Cricket were really trying to give away the swag bags that we had put together. Um, I want to make it an official announcement now. You and I have agreed to cover the shipping. If if anyone who didn't pick up their swag bag, we have a few here, uh, let us know, reach out to us, give us your address, um, and I'll be glad to send it to you.

SPEAKER_03 47:05

Uh we we will uh uh we know we know how it gets.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 47:11

You're busy you're done. You've ridden all day,

We’ll Ship Your Missing Swag Bag

SPEAKER_03 47:14

you gotta get to dinner, things get going, it get it get we get it. So if you want your swag bag, let us know and we will ship it out to you.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Well, and just like two of them here, and I'm not calling these ladies out, but we just know what they do. Audra and Natalie's are here, and we both know that they go to hotels every night.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

They utilize hotels. Absolutely. Absolutely, so that's they're not even in the the general area where where the campers are. So um yeah, they they know how to uh leisure the ride right. Or go into nice clean sheets and a comfy bed and air conditioning every night.

SPEAKER_02 47:48

Just get a hold of one of us or message us on any of the socials or any way that way that you guys always, you know, most of you have our text message anyway, or the team thing is still on. So yeah, uh give us your address um and we will be glad to send it. So we'd like you to have it. So um, because let's be honest, we don't need we don't need like six t-shirts of we've already got like boxes of swag stuff all over the place with gut. But uh cricket, thank you so much. Thank you, Cricket.

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Thank you, Stephanie. Yeah, that's usually and most importantly, uh not only Stephanie, but you know, Franklin and the rest of the crew. Um Ron, heard you guys did a great job, and it was a great ride. Uh, thank you to the our team members. Um, you guys did great. We appreciate the pictures, we appreciate the the follow follow-up as you guys went through the the weekend stuff. It was fantastic. Thank you, Scott, and cricket and sunshine. We we certainly appreciate everybody's uh participation.

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Uh you know, one thing I didn't tell you about, which wasn't hiding it from you, but I'll tell you right here being recorded. I took the rest of the Cycling Men of Leisure black shirts that we had, the ones that we took to Ragbri in 2021. I told Cricut, find people and spread the love. So there might be some random people. Who knows? Maggie could have been the person who received the t-shirt. So I I don't know, but um we did a we did a blast out. Why am I saying that? Why am I mentioning that? Because that's what we plan on doing with the rest of the swag and stuff, is trying to find good people to to pass it out to. So um Yeah, we don't have to.

SPEAKER_03 49:38

We don't we've never had a problem, you know, giving swag away and just like, hey, you know, here you go.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

So give it away, give it away. Oh, wait, that's the red hot jelly peppers. Give it away. Um all right. How are we doing on our notes? We we had their special guest. We did the bucket hat story, which by the way, uh should be told twice. Guy in a bank robber.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

I don't know about that, but anyway.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

I think we're good. I think but do you have a story?

SPEAKER_03 50:09

Yeah, do we do we have time to uh do my little story? Well, yeah, you teased it in the front. Well, you know, sometimes things change, things happen, we have to adjust. Um we've all been there. Oh, you're riding, you know, some guy generally is in a pickup truck or a crappy car or something, and comes by you and deliberately steps on the gas, you know, is maybe behind you and then guns it around. Not not because there's cars coming, but because they want to like show you how much uh power their their Prius or whatever ridiculous car they're driving. What do you drive? Uh I don't drive a Prius, but um Yeah, okay, okay. I'm a Volvo guy, it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 50:56

It's boxy, but nice. Go ahead.

Cyclists Started The Good Roads Movement

SPEAKER_03 50:59

Not anymore. It's not. Um we've all been there. And you know, they drive around and they shout at you, get off the road, and all this other stuff. And we've all we've all seen that. And I think what really kind of cueded off is we were looking uh a couple weeks ago, we were looking through our the reviews of our show. And we had a couple that were one stars, and we were like, what's this all about? Let's find out. And two people gave us reviews, not of the show, gave us their thoughts about cyclist on roads. They were like, Well, I cannot condone uh an activity that puts people at risk, was one of them. And then the other one was like, um, cycle uh roads are not for cyclists, they're for cars. Okay, that's your opinion, but that is not a review of our show. I mean, if you're gonna give us feedback, give us feedback if it's good, bad, or otherwise, but don't give us feedback based on the fact that you just hate cyclists being on the road. So that really kind of ticked me off. It's like, well, you're just making these big, huge statements about your hatred towards cycling. And that got me thinking. And I did a little research. And uh I wanted to share it with everybody, especially uh hopefully some of the jack wagons that leave the uh the I hate cycling. Maybe they'll listen long enough to hear this. But uh in the late 1800s, most of the roads outside of cities were just dirt. They were designed primarily for horses, for wagons, for livestock. Rain would turn these roads into just deep mud and rut and ruts. Dust was a major problem during dry weather. And traveling between towns became nearly impossible during certain seasons. So, like in spring, when it rained, I mean, you couldn't go anywhere. And it really got to the point in uh mud in the spring, dust in the summer, and ruts all year long, because even when it wasn't raining, you had these deep, huge rust, uh ruts in the road. And for bicyclists riding the new safety bicycle, and the safety bicycle came out in the 1800s, and that's kind of the the modern bicycle. Um, roads were terrible. And we were at a time when people had been riding horses, been riding in buggies to get where they wanted, and now we were starting to move to the industrial revolution, and cars were starting to show up, but cars weren't cars were kind of a novelty at that time. But people discovered bicycles and they realized, you know what? Bicycle is a great way to get around uh from one place to the another. It takes my own power, but the the great thing about it is I can ride from my apartment to the factory, or I can ride from my farm into town, and I could just leave my bicycle. I don't have to worry about is it fed, is it watered, all this kind of thing. Uh and so bicycling between uh the bicycle between the 1880s and the 1890s really saw this huge boom. Um, and this was before automobiles became anything. Bicycles were cutting-edge technology, millions of Americans became cyclists, uh, bicycle clubs started to form, and long distance touring became popular. So people all of a sudden wanted to travel farther, faster uh than walking or on horseback. But the problem was that the roads were awful. And um cyclists quickly realized that if we had better roads, they would be able to go more places and quicker. So what happened is there was this little organization, and I say little in air quotes, the League of American Wheelmen. And that was founded in 1890, and it became one of the most influential transportation lobbying groups in American history. And at its peak, it had more than a hundred thousand members, it had chapters nationwide, and it had political influence at the local, state, and the federal level. And their slogan was the best, easiest slogan ever. Better roads. So, really, ultimately, today they would be transportation advocates. And the league launched uh what became known as the Good Roads Movement, and that uh movement basically pushed uh and argued that roads were public infrastructure, roads should be engineered and maintained, roads should be usable year-round, and the government should invest in transportation networks. Um cyclist argued that this is gonna benefit uh you know, farmers, merchants, postal service, travelers, communities, they're gonna help everything. And this was a major shift in the thinking of the American people. Cyclist even began publishing roadmaps, road conditions, road guides, mileage, mileage charts, all this kind of stuff as these cycling organizations grew. Um it got so big that bicyclists influenced federal policy, and one of those biggest uh successful policy changers was the Good Road movement, uh, Good Roads Movement, which came into existence in 1893. Uh, the government created the Office of Road Inquiry. Um, and that really started the evolution of you know better roads. They got companies involved in them, uh, you know, in it, like bicycling companies and stuff. And farmers initially opposed this because all they saw was that these roads were going to create higher taxes uh and that type of thing. But then farmers started to realize that better roads meant that they could move their crops more efficiently, faster, get them to market more effectively, things like that. And then the farmers joined in. So um this was all going on before um automobiles really came into existence. And then when the automobiles came really started to become mainstream in the early 1900s, um states were already funding road projects, engineering, engineers were already designing the infrastructure, that type of thing. Um, and then when the motorists started coming in, they immediately inherited, you know, the let's improve the roads movement uh that cyclists had originally built. So my whole point of giving you this long history is to really tell you that cyclists in the United States were the ones who really were the ones lobbying and pushing for good roads, paved roads. So when jack wagons go by you and say, get off the roads, the roads aren't made for cyclists, they really need to be thanking us because cyclists are the ones that got the road movement going and even before automobiles even came around. So, to all the jack wagons who like to scream and yell at us, uh, you're welcome. Uh, our forefathers uh in the cycling community are the ones that actually got the roads going in the United States. So that's pretty cool, man. So two things. Number one, cyclists are the ones that started road improvements and getting roads paved and engineered. And number two, if you want to leave a review on our podcast or any podcast, keep it to the podcast and not just making political statements or whatever. Um, you know, I kind of felt like their argument was you know, you can't go use a dog park if you don't have a dog. Well, actually, the roads are for everybody. A dog park is for everybody, especially for dogs. But if I wanted to go there without a dog, it's okay. Um yeah, so that's fine. I don't know. So I thought that was it was real interesting to do the research on that and really discover that cyclists are what got roads going.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

So what I'm hearing is a couple things. One, I really do appreciate the history and the knowledge that that that uh cyclists, you know, advocated for better roads and transportation. And and now, of course, for my fun part of the show is to give you a little bit of a hard time. The way to get you to do better research is if someone leaves a review that has no bearing, that you'll go down a rabbit hole and find.

SPEAKER_03 59:58

No, I'm just it annoyed me that they you know, that they were just like leaving reviews about how they hate cycling. And then it was like, I already knew about this league of wheelmen. I just didn't really hadn't really researched it, and it just led me down that road to like the next time you jack wagons want to make comments, realize that it's us that got things going.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

So I have a little bit of a surprise for you. Okay, it's not it's not a good surprise. So I was also bothered by the reviews, but I took a different approach, and I do not like the answer. I have advocated for Apple. I have always enjoyed Apple's privacy stance. I've all I I agreed with them when they would not get into the phone uh for the major case about the guy in San Bernardino. I thought that that a producer or maker of a phone has no business giving or breaking behind the scenes, you know. That's just my opinion. That's just my opinion. I'm not I'm not saying

When Review Systems Refuse Context

SPEAKER_02 1:01:03

it's Road Adventures of Cycling, men of leisure opinion. It's my opinion that I've always um advocated for the security, uh, the privacy that Apple gives. But this time I was really disappointed because I wrote them through the platform of the podcast. And so for those of you who don't know, is if you uh produce a podcast, you can pay for the platform, you get a special landing page for the web page, and this is your way of communicating with Apple by saying, Hey, somebody left a review here that has no bearing about uh the production of the show, the content of the show, it has something to do completely against it. And what they wrote back with was very frustrating. If there would be something demoralizing to children, um if there would be something that would have been uh threatening, that they would be glad to take the review down. But their stance is to leave all reviews, and I don't I did not like that because I've always supported them what they're doing, but in this particular case, they weren't reviewing the content of anything that we've done. They were just saying I hate cyclists on roads. Yeah, exactly. And so I was a little uh a little frustrated, but I wanted you to know that that's now see that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:28

Now I get it if they just said, you know what, I've listened to your content, I don't like it. Okay, fine. But just to make comments about cycling in general, Apple's wrong. But I bet you if I went on there and said Apple's horrible and they suck, I bet they would take down that review.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:43

Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:44

Um or you know, product should not be named after fruits. You guys stink, I hate you. We're gonna take it down. No, that that's that's weak. I mean, like I said, they shouldn't be touching reviews that are reviews about the podcast, but ruse. I mean, that's like saying, you know, leaving a review about something completely unrelated to, you know, whatever the topic is, which is exactly what it was.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

But this is another statement about from Adam and not the show. I had the same problem with my website. When I in my prior life, I was a wedding photographer. I know you know that. We've mentioned it on the show a few times, but I was a wedding photographer, and not to be narcissistic, but we did very well. I ran two teams. We were we were almost every Friday, Saturday night. We had three teams going, we shot a lot of weddings. I was in the knot, um, wonderful reviews uh and for my business. I worked just like this show day and night to make everything good, and all of my years, 20 plus years, wonderful reviews. And then I had someone write me a review because I always told my guys, and I'm gonna tell I'm gonna be transparent here. Here, I'm an open book. I always told my team, you do not touch any alcohol while you are on a job. I don't care the circumstances, you are representing my company, you are representing me. That's fact, I don't care what the scenario, what the story is, I don't care. So I got a call from the team that was at another location, and they said, Hey, the father of the group of the bride is is telling us that we did a great job, and he is insistent that he buys us a shot. And I said, No. And and and they said, He he wants to talk to you. And literally, the father of the bride, who I met with ahead of the wedding, making sure that everything was going to be set, where my guys needed to be, what time, everything. He said, Come on, Adam, I just want to buy him one shot. And he's like, he's like, they're working out, you know, it's night, it was one of like these 95-degree days. It was an outdoor wedding. I literally lost two flashes because they were too hot and they were they were exploding. I had to send them in a Nikon, to be honest. Um, he said, You guys are working, just let me buy him one shot. And I said, You know, I normally don't like to do this, but if if if that is what it's gonna take, and and and I'll allow it, I said, but you know, I don't I don't like it because it's my business. And he said, No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not kidding you. I woke up the next day, and the bride, not the father of the bride, but the bride wrote, I couldn't, I can't believe my photographers were drinking with my father at the wedding. So I begged Google to take the review down. I even wrote a letter, got the father to agree that he wanted to buy the shot for my photographers, and they just would not take it down. They wouldn't, no matter what. There's like this weird standard of reviews that once a review goes, I could they kept offering me to contradict. Or reply back to the review, but it was like this once the review is made, you can never back down from the review. It w it was that's that's I mean, which is the same thing that Apple just did.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:11

So that kind of kind of Well, and you can't even contradict the review either. You can't go on there and say, Well, this isn't a review about the I mean you've got no anyway.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:21

But I didn't want to tell her that uh three weeks later I had already planned on closing the business. But for me, I never wanted that to be out there. So um and then I shot my last wedding, and I think this is a good way to end it and move on. Um this girl goes on to the knot and gives me like this raving review of like, oh my gosh, I was so excited that it was my last wedding, shooting my last wedding, knowing that I had taken the job with the county in 2017 and everything else, that I was like, I'm having the best day of my life. Um, I mean, it was emotional, don't get me wrong, because I knew it was like the chapter of a book that was closing, the baby that I had, you know, born and made and website learning all that thing. And then she went on and she's like, if you need a photographer, Adam is the one to go to. He's the greatest, and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that. So, anyways, it was a it was a good career, but I am happy with what I do now. Why don't we move into uh how about I give you the jingle again? Jingle it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:31

Your clifting and your dialing, you ride along with us every spin. It's your moment now. Listener, it's my light take it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:51

I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:53

Even when we're not recording, I sometimes hit that just as what you what you do up there in your little studio is uh not not for me to judge.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:07

Well, we do have a surprise after the after the listener spotlight. We have an announcement, and I'm gonna give that announcement to you, but let's go ahead and give the clues for the next one.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:15

All right. The next listener spotlight clues are as follows. This community is truly a community of firsts. Uh the town changed names and hands several times.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:29

This town that you do changes names.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:32

Every town in this, every town in the world, I think, has not started out with the name that it has now. This town has a house named for a piece of ordinance. It is the hometown of leaders. It is named for a town in Europe.

Next Listener Spotlight Clues

SPEAKER_03 1:08:54

And maybe the next time you visit this town, you might want to look to the sky for financial reward.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:04

Wow. Look to the sky for financial reward.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:11

And it is the hometown of leaders, and it is truly a community of firsts. So gosh, I am intrigued. I'm practically just giving you it. I mean, come on, silver platter. Here it is. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:30

Uh, I love you, brother, but uh I ain't getting it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:33

That that ain't helping.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:35

No, I I'm just stuck on the financial financial reward for looking up in the sky.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:40

Like, well, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:41

Uh, all right. Well, listen, we got something cool, and I'm gonna let you talk about it. I don't want to steal your thunder. I I uh we have a marathon coming up, and I am excited about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:54

We came up with this idea. Everybody knows I am a big fan of the Tour de France. Uh, it starts on the 4th, um, which is tomorrow, recording this early, but um what we've decided to do is we're going to try to do a daily kind of a mini uh episode, five minutes, maybe ten minutes, not long, uh, where we are going to review the daily adventures

Daily Tour De France Mini Episodes

SPEAKER_03 1:10:25

on the Tour de France. You know, who's winning, who's losing, if something big happened, uh, just different stuff like that, maybe have a discussion about a couple of things. But we thought it might be fun if the cycling men of leisure followed the tour every day and provided a little snippet every single day. We're gonna call them like mini episodes. We've came up with a cool name. We got a little musical intro for it. Uh, and that's what we're gonna do starting on the fourth and running until the 26th or 23rd, whatever day that that that it ends. So um that's what we're gonna try to do. I hope we can pull it off. So we're gonna it's gonna be fun. We can do it. And uh, I'm gonna kind of take the lead on this because uh Adam's not a big tour guy, but we're gonna tour it turn him into a tour guy. Uh by the time it's all over, he'll know how to say uh, you know, Taddy Pacaca and different different big names like that. So is that a is that a potato chip? Taddy Pagaccha.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:33

Is that like dick's name?

unknown 1:11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:38

Uh no, actually, um you and I were doing some strategizing last night. Uh you told me about the J O B, and so after we got off, Lauren asked how you were doing, and I told her about your your new adventures, and then I told her about our idea, and she thinks it's really cool. And I told her that I was excited, that I can be very truthful. I know nothing except for there's a yellow jersey, that there are people who uh do wheel changes on the side, and then a bunch of crazy nut jobs trying to get pictures and have crashed a lot of people. And so I am looking forward to learning my job cut out for me. Yeah. I'm I'm looking forward to not only giving, you know, like uh I would say the newbies, the newbies uh opinion and newbies answers, but at the same time hoping to come away with this with some education. And so um I'm I'm excited. So yeah, uh tomorrow night, um, I'm going to a family barbecue. Your daughter just told us you're going to a family, but we will then find a time every day get together.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:53

So and it should be fun. Uh, they're starting in Barcelona, uh, Spain. So that's always fun when they start outside of France. Uh, and just to let you know, give you kind of a heads up, uh, there's actually three jerseys that are important the yellow, the green, and the polka dot. And they have a white jersey. So there's actually four.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:10

So now wait a minute. Let's start off this right. The yellow was the leader of the day. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_03 1:13:17

Or the winner of the stage. The the yellow is the now, you're putting me on the spot because I always get that confused. The green is the um sprint champion throughout the thing. Uh, the polka dot is the king of the mountain.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:34

Ah, yes, that makes sense because my Strava, when I have a KOM, gives me the polka dot.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:39

Does it? Okay. And then the white jersey is the jersey for um the best new rider.

unknown 1:13:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:52

Like a rookie.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:53

What's that?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:54

Like a rookie.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:56

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's like an age range uh that they go off of, and I don't remember what it is at the moment, but yeah, it's like, you know, the new guys, they're out there doing it. Um, the yellow jersey is the oh yes, the overall uh leader of the general classification. There is not a jersey, and this is where it gets really confusing to me, there is not a jersey for like the person who won each day. Unless you're you know king of the mountain or the new new rider or whatever. But the yellow jersey is the person who is the overall leader. So if I'm riding and I win the first day, I get the yellow jersey. The next day, uh, you know, if I win again, I keep the yellow jersey. And and it's a point system. Um so you know, you've got points and all that stuff to to look at. But um, yeah. So there you go. Or I shouldn't say points, I should say time, but yeah. Okay. So it'll be interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:58

Well, I'm I'm excited. I I I uh I look forward to recording with you. I look forward to giving some, you know, whatever what any any maybe news story. Well, maybe not news, forget that. We just lost everybody. Anything that we find, like the bucket hat story or whatever we find, we can we can add that in there. But in the meantime, um I'll get to get my uh update on uh on uh tour and and add my insight. Like, oh yeah, that sounds great. And really have no idea what I'm talking about until maybe like stage like seven. I catch on, like it says like work after seven times, buddy. I'm pretty good. All right, well, we'll see. All right, well, uh, congratulations on the job. Um I'm excited for you, I'm excited for your family. Um, you know, even if this isn't the you know, end all be all, at least it's something that is sounds respectable. So I like that. So all right, sounds good. Appreciate it. All right, well, in that case, um we will see everybody soon. Uh thank you once again. And I know it wasn't here, buddy. And I don't know anywhere in the whole world right now is a good day for a bike ride.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:14

I mean, has it been somewhere there is a good it is a good day. There's a good spot, but has it been just as hot at your house as it's been in my house? Today uh heat index was 107, actual temperature was like 95.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:28

Wow, yeah. But you're right. Somewhere, somehow, it's a great day for a bike ride.

Heat, Riding, And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 1:16:43

Thank you for riding along with Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. However, you travel, find the leisure your way. See you next time.