The Mick & Pat Show
Hey, Kin! Welcome to "The Mick & Pat Show," your home for candid discussions that explore the many layers of life's tapestry. We're Mick and Pat, two guys who are a lot like you—balancing work, family, and the complexities of modern existence.
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Who Are We? We're two modest guys incredibly fortunate to have life partners who find our idiosyncrasies endearing. Mick enjoys the analytical side of things—like diving deep into data sets and puzzling out complex policies. Pat, on the other hand, revels in life's big questions and spiritual intricacies, often finding solace and wonder in philosophy and faith.
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What Do We Discuss? Our podcast serves up a rich menu of topics, from probing political debates and the latest in AI to crisp beer reviews and deep dives into pop culture. We're not shy about fatherhood, relationships, and the human experience either—expect the raw and the real.
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Why Listen to Us? Think of us as the friends you didn't know you needed. We deliver the goods: no-nonsense conversations laced with insight, debate, and of course, laughs by the barrelful.
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Where Can You Find Us? We're broadcasting to all major podcast platforms from a hidden valley in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
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When Do We Air? New episodes drop like hotcakes every Tuesday morning, ensuring your week starts off with substance (and maybe a little nonsense).
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Got a burning question or a beer you want reviewed? Don't hesitate to reach out.
Pull up a chair, tap into our conversations, and let's make sense of this wild ride called life together.
The Mick & Pat Show
The Mick & Pat Show - Mick's Old As Hale
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Join us in this episode as we delve into the remarkable journey of transitioning into the exciting yet challenging world of our thirties! We kick things off with some light-hearted anecdotes, including a comical fall I took while walking my excited canine companion through the snowy landscape. Those slips and trips remind us that despite aging, we can still embrace adventure.
As we navigate through the episode, we explore interesting insights on dog training, the essentials of maintaining an active lifestyle post-30, and the joy of good footwear while walking. A significant part of this discussion centers around surprising gifts from a memorable trip to the Smoky Mountains—two exquisite knives that symbolize our camaraderie and countless adventures as friends.
Equipped with stories from our Tennessee adventure, we uncover the delicious local cuisine, wonderful attractions, and the importance of engaging in family-centered fun that fosters strong bonds. This experience highlights the beauty of community, reaffirming how shared connections often spring from the most unexpected encounters.
Finally, we wrap up by reflecting on deep conversations with fellow passengers during our flight home, showcasing how faith and community can bring people together, promoting a spirit of connection and understanding. Join us to explore laughter, warmth, and the valuable life lessons we learn along this interesting path! And don’t forget to share your own memorable moments of growing up! Subscribe and share if you enjoyed our tales!
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Introduction and Birthday Reflections
Speaker 1so, nick, I had my first post 30 fall today break your hip, no no, no man, but I just turned 30 and uh was walking my dog to connie bro. I do wonder how many people hear your burps in the background and wonder if we're summoning Satan.
Speaker 2They are gnarly sometimes.
Speaker 1They are more roars than they are burps.
Speaker 2I try to get real away from the microphone.
Speaker 1But I was walking her. She gets really excited about the snow. She loves to just walk and lick it up. It was funny because if you follow her tracks there's just like paws and then like a streak from her mouth that's, and then like just her paw prints, um. But anyway, she gets excited and she was pulling and I try to get. I've been trying to train her to not pull um at all, just because when it's slippery like that it's very hard to manage for you. And so, as she's getting excited and going, I pull against the leash right. But my pulling against the leash on the fresh snow makes me slide forward.
Speaker 1You know, for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Well, my dog was not the reaction. My boots sliding across the snow was the reaction and so I went down full on like um. There was a moment where both feet were in the air to the left before my like knee, hip and elbow on the right side landed. But I landed in in the fresh snow, mostly, broke my fall and Takani's sweet dog comes up to me and just, oh my gosh, you know she's like you fell down.
Speaker 1She's immediately like around me, hovering, trying to make sure I'm okay. I'm like, all right, let me make sure everything's all right. I'm like going through, like what landed? I kind of get to my knees and then I stand up and I'm, you know, trying to make sure I don't react at her because I want her to behave that way. I want her if you know, billie Jean or I fell to come to us, or if we were her right for her to come to. So I'm trying to tell her good girl, good girl. And then I tell her to sit so she just relaxes, so I can get my bearings, and I go through and I got no pain, no pain at all. I'm like, all right, well, let's keep walking, we'll see. And and I could say for a 30 year old guy, I got no pains or anything so far. And this was just earlier today, before I came to the podcast that I took, that took that that.
Speaker 2Just wait till tomorrow. Also, be glad you weren't carrying a 2011.
Speaker 1Might've shot your pee, pee, that's true, cause them be going off, but they only go off because 1911s go off.
Speaker 2I mean, yeah, yeah, you know both the same. I mean a hard hit. You know, like that's the sort of thing people don't think of sometimes, like I wouldn't fall Well you might fall. Yeah, that's true?
Speaker 1Anyways, it's also why I don't carry a 320. I carry a Flux Raider and it's not pointing at my pee-pee, it's pointing at the ground behind me because it's in the backpack. But anyways, I just thought you'd find that funny. No, yeah.
Speaker 2It is kind of weird.
Speaker 1When you're like that's my first fall into my 30s, I mean it's probably only gonna get harder to get up.
Speaker 2I definitely didn't get up as fast as I used to. I'll say this cold weather's got my.
Speaker 1My knees have been aching the whole time it's been cold yeah, when we're doing our walks we usually go for two miles per walk and, um, I noticed on mile two yesterday I was having some serious creakiness in my right knee. Are you walking in these?
Speaker 1boots, oh hell, yeah, I love they're so comfy I mean they, yeah, but they're like they're not necessarily great for walking long distances, oh no I think that I think they're great because they are like one, they're great for cold weather, snow, ice, right, they're pretty grippy. And two, I think boots like this help you make the most out of walks, because you're up. Well, I think they make you do the full stride which is heel to toe, push off.
Speaker 1Heel to toe, push off right, and I can really feel it in my calves and the back of my hammies and I think, like that's the point of like I'm a big believer that walking is the best workout if you do it right, if you take small steps while walking and do it and like you get, you get more steps. Quote, unquote, right. That's not the real benefit of doing long stride walks. And this is all just regurgitation from, like a PT guy who was like he told me he's like don't ever run with weight on. These dummies who are running with plated vests or weighted vests are stupid. Really Don't run with weight.
Speaker 1If you want to get really good exercise for your whole body and cardio, you can do short sprints of running to try to increase like your fastest time and like short distance, like continually trying to run a mile faster and faster. But if you're going for distance and stuff like that, you can jog and run with no weight. But if you're gonna do weight to try to do, like you know, more muscle development and like resistance exercise, you should be doing, you should be walking. You should be doing heavy weight, heavy weights, full stride walking. So like, all right, wear your 20 pound vest and ankle weights or whatever right, but like again, that will do more for your body than running, because it's going to exercise more muscle groups and it will improve cardio and such.
Speaker 1But you won't get the benefits if you're not doing the full heel to toe step in strides like, if you're just walking like some homie around the mall, just not just daydreaming and not caring at all about your form. It's like anything else, right, you need to be aware of your form. So, anyways, all I said I like these boots because I can feel that they make me walk in the right form. Okay, and they have increased my time quite a bit. I've got my kilometer pace walking, not running. I've got my kilometer pace with the weighted vest down to right under 12 minutes per kilometer which is on time for the classic four miles in an hour.
The First Fall: A Humorous Tale
Speaker 1Naismith rule, right Like you should be able to do a solid pace of four miles an hour. And I'm able to do that with weight. Nice, that's good, I like it. I've been training, I've been training, anyways, said that's my uh, that's my um. You know, first, first foray into, uh, old age, um, but before I forget, I have a gift for you oh man, it's exciting because it's your birthday gift.
Speaker 1And yes, did I get it on my secret birthday trip with my wife? I did. But it was one of those things where I was like you know what, we're kind of at a point in our lives where you're a friend of mine and your wife is now a friend of my wife when we're out places. I do think we think of you guys when we see wife that when we're out places, I do think we think of you guys when we see things, especially when we're in tennessee and mace windu, you know, would drag herself through broken glass to sniff the boot prints of dolly parton. So I was like you know, like we gotta get got to get her some Dolly something. Oh yeah, so I know Billie Jean got her a gift a nice little cute Dolly Parton kitchen towel not for you to use.
Speaker 2Do not use that towel, Pat.
Speaker 1The Dolly Parton towel is not for your dirty, greasy hands.
Speaker 2We need to tell my wife to not use it, because she's utilitarian sometimes.
Speaker 1Oh, is she really? She's just like she'll use it up Dude Billie Jean had a course correction for me when I grabbed the bright white Christmas towel in the kitchen hanging from the stove. Yeah, of course, to wipe off a mess, right, and I was informed that's not what that towel's for.
Speaker 2Is it for drying hands?
Speaker 1No, it's actually that towel's not for anything other than Christmas decoration. If I needed to clean up a mess, use the dirty, nasty black kitchen towel.
Speaker 2I'm more like your wife in that way and Mace Windu's just like over there, like baby food, you know cast iron skillet.
Speaker 1I always, I always felt that you know, mace and I were kind of on the same psyche to some degree.
Speaker 2Yeah, just to you know, it's a towel you know what you're supposed to use it, for yeah, I won't, I, I won't use it. We just gotta, we, I gotta, relay the message yes, yes, oh, and that too.
Speaker 1You got me a birthday gift, and it's new headphones and new mics for the studio, which is good because, honestly, I was gonna ask you if I could take something home, because I have quite a few videos that I've been recording on my free time that are very miscellaneous. They're not rants, right, they're just miscellaneous activities and I'm like I recorded it. Why not turn it into content for the pod?
Speaker 2oh yeah, so a little voiceover mic, but I do need to voice them over, all right because they're the one is like this the process of learning how to spray paint my rifle.
Speaker 1Oh yeah yeah, which turned out sick. Have I shown you the pictures? No, not yet. Well, it turned out sick. However, I also drank about five beers while doing it that's how you're supposed to and it got pretty wild at points. Just a man alone in a garage With a rattle can.
Speaker 2Flip flops rattle. Can gas mask on?
Speaker 1Rifle hanging from the ceiling. It was awesome. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2Completely unloaded.
Speaker 1Headphones died, so I just started playing the music out loud. It was great, dude, it was such a good time. Let me show you. I'll pull up the picture here, but anyway, so there's that one. And then I did another one where I tested out a silencer for my FNX-45, which it wasn't like a very exhaustive testing, but it was cool and I kind of just want to use the footage for a conversation about firearms and accessories for firearms. Right, but anywho, what are these mics and what are these?
Speaker 2headphones. I mean the headphones. They're pretty basic. Hold on, hold on.
Speaker 1Don't let anyone don't say that man Don't say that because, yeah, don't say it, because most people here have no experience doing podcasts, so like these are pretty fancy to anyone else this is true.
Speaker 2So I will say we, we don't go tippy top of the line. I I do know good gear, I can be a bit of a gear whore, but at the same time we gotta you know, we're balling on a budget. We're balling on a budget at the mick and pat show we are, and so we've been uh for the past two years rocking the uh um, just some sm58, sure microphones which are kind of like your workhorse, ford f-150, just microphone. That's the, that's the uh most commonly used microphone everywhere, anywhere you're at um, and we had some little uh pop filters on them. But uh, now we've got some, some fancy shore podcast microphones, um, and they're not the full. There is a next level up from here and they're like 450 a pop.
Speaker 1I didn't get those, but these are uh basically sure came out with a I was gonna say I know for a fact we don't have 450 in our bank account.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah, these uh, um, these uh, um, uh, these new, sure microphones. Basically they're, you know, they're like that classic podcast shape microphone, a radio microphone, and the biggest feature on them being, you know, we've got a a big, thick, uh pop filter on them so that, uh, you know we're not blowing out stuff. It's got a better low end to it. And then also our yeah, it's just some headphones that kind of upgrade our headphones to some higher end AKG headphones so that we can, while we're recording I'm kind of like mixing live and making sure everything's sounding good. And our other microphones kind of had some a lot more background noise coming through on them and so, yeah, we just kind of had to. We didn't have to, but I thought it'd be nice to make it a little more, a little more official.
Dog Training Adventures in Winter
Speaker 2It's funny because day one in the Macon Pat headquarters, we were in this giant office um, not giant giant, but it's really long and echoey and we were just sitting holding the microphones with our hands, talking. And then we've now we're where we are now we've got a little studio set up with uh excuse me, with we have, you know, uh, bass traps in the corners. We've got props. No, you're not a real podcast unless you have props, it's true, you know, and things on the table and stuff around you, but we've got foam on the ceilings and curtains up and a big thick carpet on the floor to help with echoing, and so so this dog we got a dog now and a pretty big and fluffy dog.
Speaker 2It probably helps with the audio quality in the room. And so now we've the microphone was kind of the next step, so hopefully our voices are coming through nice and clear for you.
Speaker 1Take a, this is, this is the rifle, this is my 223, wild. Oh nice, I went for the, the multi-cam patterning across it really wanted to have like. I wanted that like reptilian hex pattern, but also the know multi-cam breakup of colors and things.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, this is sweet.
Speaker 1And this is, and then I'll give you another picture in a video so you can see. And what?
Speaker 2That's awesome. No, this is a. That's what you got to do. You got to paint your guns. You got to paint your guns, bro. If it's a black gun, paint it. If it's a wood gun, paint it.
Speaker 1It's a wood gun, leave it alone yeah well, I mean, I would even paint a wood gun if it was a certain price wood gun.
Speaker 2You know what I mean yeah, but I mean just in general, people get scared about like spray paint on spray painting, or I mean people get, or people get scared about spray painting, just their black gun yeah it's gonna work the same way. Just do it. Do what you want, that's true. Live your truth you're just just like jamming out to music while recording oh yeah pretty sick, though, right that's pretty good, awesome, and I'll show you I'll show you the picture.
Speaker 1So I picked the colors and kind of the style to match my ghost hood cone camo and uh, so I did take a picture of it leaning against the camo. Um, but essentially the process I followed with that was the base coat of tan and then the laundry bag hex pattern. I just put a laundry bag across over it and that was enough to mix it up and give it the hex pattern as I sprayed over and then after that I just drizzled it with soap.
Speaker 2And did layers. I love the soap method on there. That soap method video you sent me did it work.
Speaker 1I think so.
Speaker 2I mean I said, say I pretty much, just did soap over it yeah.
Speaker 1And then sprayed one coat of a color, then soap over that one coat of a color, then soap over that, one coat of another color, soap over that. And I did all that over after I had done stripes of various hex kind of scale patterns. So that's why there's like hex patterns but then there's different infill. Uh-huh, it's because the soap filled in. Yeah, on the hex stuff, but anyways. So here you can see it right against my actual camo that I used as inspiration. That's pretty good, that's like pretty one-to-one right, that blends right in there.
Speaker 1Yeah, it goes to a camo brown.
Speaker 2That's awesome. What's funny is like there's a Sig Spear sitting down the road for $3,500, with like you know, it's all camoed out, this camo looks better. With like you know, it's all camoed out, this camera looks better. Well you know who's? Six beers right down the road, it's at the gun stop.
Speaker 1Oh okay, I was gonna ask if they miss it or not like if we could get it oh yeah, no, no, I know what I mean.
Speaker 2Like uh, just like uh stock, like uh cerakote, whatever.
Speaker 1But yeah, the the soap method is wild yeah, and, and so I'm going to do the fluxes next.
Speaker 2Oh, you're painting the flux.
Speaker 1And I'm painting the flux up before next week because I'm going to bring it next week to blow Rice-A-Roni and Hoffman their mind away. So for those of you who don't know, next week we're having some guests on to review emergency individual first aid kit setups as well as like a not necessarily individual first aid kit, but like a car first aid kit and how to kind of set those things up. And I'm bringing in all of my first aid stuff with what I currently have set up and then I'm going to let them tear it apart and tell me what to put in it instead.
Speaker 2I like it, and then I'm gonna let them tear it apart and tell me what to put in it instead. Um, so now I will say the uh, we have talked about painting guns in the past, yeah, and you've talked about defense weapons and like being careful about how you paint that. Oh, yes, yes yes so I'm like your.
Speaker 1Your flux is kind of a it is a personal defense weapon, yeah so what's the?
Speaker 2are you like stormtrooper?
Speaker 1or like are you doing like a hello kitty pattern? I was thinking about going like iron cross actually, you know, like, really like ss, you know memorabilia stuff.
Speaker 1Oh that's, that's dangerous yeah, I, I I'm just kidding. I want people to get scared when they see my gun. No One. If you hear that and you don't think that's silly and you think no, no, no, no, I do want people to get scared when they see my gun. It's a gun that will be enough to scare them. If you put the Punisher skull on your gun, it's not scaring them anymore.
Speaker 1And in fact, that's only going to build a case against you in the court of law that you're a vigilante seeking to harm people because you're psychotically imbalanced. So here's what I'm saying Paint your guns for the aesthetic purpose of you know, a spray paint helps protect against rust, it looks vibey, it's cool. Paint it for camo, because black is not a color naturally found in the world. Right, all that jazz, but do it right so you don't like jam up your gun and gunk it up.
Speaker 1When it comes to personal defense weapons, like your handgun, a Flux Raiderider or a more small sbr, sbs, when you paint those, you should actually go in the other direction make them look as probably harmless, perhaps not a toy, right? We don't want, we don't want the court to think that you don't respect the seriousness. Orange tips on them, yes, but you are painting them to perhaps make sure you don't come off in case you ever have to use it. You're not coming off as someone who wants to use this firearm, but this is more like perhaps a recreational tool, a sporting tool that you happen to have on you at the time of use and you used it for personal defense. That you happen to have on you at the time of use and you used it for personal defense. So I'm going with my Flux, the classic route of 80s, 90s, jazz. Styrofoam coffee cup.
Speaker 2Do you know the?
Speaker 1jazz design? I think so. Yeah, the jazz design is the classic white, white, teal, purple zigzag across the teal. You know what I'm talking, oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1The classic ski jacket color Yep, and so I'm going for that method to have it be more of like a sporting cool. Yeah, I use this in competitions because I don't need my flux to be camo. I'm not using the flux in a hunting or even, like you know, red Dawn environment, where I need it to blend in and not give my position away. But I might be using the flux in a ooh ooh bad guy. I need to pull it out of my backpack way, and at that point it doesn't really matter if it looks like a gun or if it looks like a coffee cup, so that's, and I kind of think it looks sick. I've always thought like if you're gonna do it, might as well do it with a gun like that yeah that you know its purpose is to be vibey yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2So the flux has some flare. It needs a little panache a little, a little, uh, a little bit in there, I guess the uh you'll paint it uh.
Speaker 1With the stock closed actually I'm painting it with the stock open and taped, because that's one of the things they say is that you should tape the stock right when uh, when, painting it.
Speaker 2So I was thinking about the function of that. That's one one where the on the flux uh, if you don't know who you're, if someone's listening doesn't know, basically there's a button you push and the buttstock like flings out. That's what I'm gonna go for. I think that'll be awesome and this is gonna.
Speaker 1You know, that will be just literally on the body. I'm not gonna make my hollow sun aims that. Or the compensator uh, I'm, this is literally just the housing of the flux, because everything else will come off and could be used for a more serious purpose yeah, I think that'll be. Uh, that'll be awesome well explain the flux, sorry, I just want to show you I was just saying for the flux, uh, basically the on the.
The Fitness of Walking: Key Insights
Speaker 2Well, the flux raider is a chassis for uh pistol. So you take your, you take a sig pistol and you drop it into uh your, this chassis system. That's a little bit simplified. But, um, there's a button, you hit and the, the buttstock flings out fast, and so when you're painting a weapon, you got to be kind of conscious of if you're painting parts of it that have uh functions, that have to be you know anything that has to move on there. You want to be careful about how you're painting that stuff. So I was just uh, yeah, the, you can't paint the, the part that pops out, because you kind of gum it up, jam it up. Potentially, if you put that layer on there, it's not, the stock's not going to spring. Kind of gum it up, jam it up.
Speaker 1If you put that layer on there it's not the stock's not going to spring out. And additionally it's nice because most of the springs are already covered by the flux you know when they're installed. But they've also said like hey, make sure you remove in your fire control unit and all that stuff. Of course, right.
Speaker 2So or are you gonna?
Speaker 1I am gonna paint the slide down, but I'm gonna paint the slide to be that like a vapor wave, sunset orange, so it's gonna be like a.
Speaker 1The top of it's gonna be like a golden yellow, all right that just fades into like a orange, almost like neon orange red, and then I'm gonna just uh, like weather dry brush the edges of it with a pink, all right, so that way it looks kind of like as it wears off, it looks like there's pink underneath it, but not a Barbie pink. Well, honestly, if I just turn the computer here, you can see the background Pretty much. It's going to go with that kind of vibe, but more solid, less smoky.
Speaker 2It's kind of like this Flux is going to have a Macon Pat Show vibe to it.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's going to be very. I mean, we bought it for the show. That's true, it's a tax write-off. I've heard for things to be tax write-offs. You just have to buy them and use them in one episode for it to count. We've used it in a lot of episodes. Yeah, exactly, so there you go. But anyways, all that said, guns, guns and stuff, cool things. I have a gift for you, but you get to pick. And now yes, I want one of these more than the other. All right.
Speaker 1So I might be butthurt based on which one you pick, but that only adds Annie's to the stakes. Oh my gosh, down in Tennessee.
Speaker 1I went to pigeon forge in gatlinburg, uh for my birthday weekend my, my wife surprised me, was taking me to the smoky mountains, which I love, the smoky mountains, um, and she took me down there for my birthday. We went out thursday and it was really fun with my group of uh, our group of like dudes that we do our cqb classes with, and all that. I was like, hey, boys, let's do a little bit of reconnaissance research here. Here's all the facts of what I know. I know like we're roughly flying out around this time. I know it's a straight flight, no connecting.
Speaker 1I know the weather where we're going is going to be roughly around this temperature for the weekend and to expect some rain, yada, yada right. And uh, everyone's like, all right, let's freaking figure out all the flights flying out of like denver international airport at this time. You know, let's all right. Based off those, what are the ones with this temperature? Uh, and we just were going through them and like I was like if I had a bad money, I think we're gonna go to pigeon forge, but I don't know which airport.
Speaker 1And I had a couple dudes like knoxville no, not knoxville. It Nashville, nope, not Nashville. Too long of a queue. And also connecting flights, and like we were all just like geo, locating everything, and then like we pinned it down like perfect flight time, all that stuff, and so I sent a picture to the boys of the gate after we got to it. I was like we nailed it boys, and of course I didn't want to under. I didn't want to take the wind out of her sails at all.
Speaker 1So, I told her we had made a guess, oh yeah, but like I didn't tell her where and so when we got there I was like oh, this is perfect, I'm so excited. It is exactly where we thought we were, I was going. But I'm so stoked and I showed her the messages and she thought it was really funny, nice, but um, oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1So we went there and there's a place there that I love. It's called Smoky Mountain Knife Works oh dang, and it's like this massive, massive knife warehouse store full of like probably 200 different no, not 200, sorry Probably about maybe 25 different tables, but each table has anywhere from like one to 10, 15 brands.
Speaker 1So you probably have like 200 brands in total represented there, if not more. The only thing is that they used to have more local handmade knives. They just don't really now anymore and the last time I was there was over 10 years ago. But they're like I'm looking for something that's made in Tennessee, yada, yada, and they're like, well, we don't really have a ton of those. But K-Bar knives apparently are made in Tennessee. Oh dang, I was like I don't really want to get a K-Bar. Like that's pretty excessive.
Speaker 2He doesn't need it, a bear killer he doesn't need a you know freaking giant K-Bar.
Speaker 1I'm sure he already has a giant. Give him something like that's cool, but also like will serve a purpose, like you know something, daily utility, all right. So I got us two knives here. Oh, my gosh, a knife. They are the uh k-bar defense master series in con, in tandem with uh cooperation with tactical defense institute.
Speaker 1Now, these aren't just like joker, okay, I want you to know like this is not like chinesium right like these are designed in partner with like law enforcement right to be specifically like knives that a police officer is can use and rely on. All right um the this, these knives these are. You should never pull it out to cut like really cardboard string rope, anything like that, because they are made of very sharpened thin steel and they will chip on things like that like these are literally.
Speaker 1I mean, these are really much designed to like cut through tissue and do it really well with a certain style of fighting. So you'll see when you open it, right. But here's the thing. One is FDE, one is black. I kind of want the FDE one, but if you get it, I don't want it anymore. All right, I'm just going to be bummed and grumpy about it. All right, because you got it. I have no idea which one's which anymore. Yeah, the only thing I can tell is that one of them is 02-1481 and the other one's 01-1477. I have no idea which one's which.
Speaker 2So I'm just picking and I get the one I get, yeah.
Speaker 1And technically actually they're, I guess no, sorry, k-bar might be based in Tennessee. These are made in Taiwan, so they're kind of made in China. But these are like high quality stuff.
Speaker 2All right. No, I like it All right, left or right. What if I have a preference as well? What do you want? I mean, I'm not an FDE man.
Speaker 1Oh, okay, but I don't know which one's which. All right, let's open this thing up. All right, let's open this thing up, all right, cool, so um, they should be.
Speaker 2oh sick I think I got the fdu I got the fdu.
Speaker 1Oh, let's go all right. So, um, you'll see as we open these. Um, okay, good, good, so there's a bubble wrap um a kydex holster.
Speaker 2Oh, with the buckle it's just open, oh dang, oh, it's a fixed blade it's a fixed blade that goes into a kydex holster yeah, this is sexy and these are punch blades yeah, so these are awesome you can you?
Speaker 1essentially the whole methodology is to rip it out and box with it and like, and let it be what you strike with. And a lot of guys they want to. They want to hold it like this right, like like you might hold a pistol, where this finger groove rolls over, uh, the part of your finger between your first uh knuckle coming down from your fingernail. For people at home, right, okay, if you look at your finger, your first knuckle is the one that is closest to your fingertip, your fingernail. So that's first knuckle. Your second knuckle is the joint between that and then your last knuckle is actually your knuckle knuckle, which you would use to box with, like that.
Speaker 1That tip is what you also don't go second knuckle, you tuck it in the third. You tuck it in, yeah, because essentially you want to hold it and make a fist thumb over to keep it from being able to roll. Oh, yeah, and you're slashing but also jabbing, and you're jabbing just the same way you would with a fist. So even if you and it's also like I was watching someone someone was like, if you hold it like this and try to strike out like a little pokey, like you're pointing a gun and trying to poke someone with the tip of a pistol. A good chance is. As you're going for that jab, your thumb's gonna get caught on something. Slide back, you're gonna tear your thumb ligament and pop it out of place where you're gonna break your fingers and the knife's gonna roll.
Speaker 1So you hold it as you would yeah, you'd hold it like you would your fist for boxing, and then you're boxing out and jabbing and if you need to do some hammer swings right. Oh my lanta. Doesn't that feel strong, though? Doesn't it feel like it's going to make your punch like oh yeah, hurt way more, not to mention cut someone's face open?
Speaker 2no, this, oh it's a, it's a mean old thing.
Speaker 1I like it, yeah, and feel that seat on the Kydex.
Speaker 2Oh, that's nice.
Speaker 1That is a secure thing. Now you may look online. When people look online, they may see. Police stopped carrying these and the reason was police were carrying them OWB, so they were just carrying them on their basket weave belts. People were just grabbing them off of them.
Speaker 1Yes, people were pulling them off of them and killing them with their own knives. Oh, that's not good. So this, though, to me, is what we would have on us as a secondary backup on the belt, but of course concealed, yeah, or on a vest, or anything like that that you want. But all that, anyways, I hope you like it.
Speaker 2Oh, this is sweet, I like it.
Speaker 1I hope we never have to use it, but feel the edge Just like run your finger across it, like it is crazy sharp.
Speaker 2Oh yeah.
Speaker 1And like it scared me when I first felt it and like ran my finger across it.
Speaker 2No, and I think, like you know, like the age of the Rambo knife is kind of done as far as like it's just not really I mean just shaved off like a nice clean. Oh yeah, you just shave your hand with that thing, you know, because so like, the blade on this is literally two thumb length. I'd say it's two inches long, right at it.
Speaker 1I think it's like exactly the length of my thumb maybe the blade is shorter. I guess the whole spine of the knife is the length of my thumb.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I mean, it's as long as your thumb, more or less. And so the big old Rambo knife, while cool the utility factor, well, we don't use it as a bayonet anymore. Multiple utility Might be nice to have the big old Rambo knife to chop down a tree, but that's really. You know, these smaller, compact and particularly shaped knives have a pretty specific use and I like it. I think I might.
Speaker 1This might go, this might go on the plate carrier too, you know, yeah that's what I was thinking about, like, here's the thing as a civilian, if you're in a plate carrier, you don't really need to worry about concealing it anymore, right? Um, for the most part. But also it's kind of one of those things like if you're wearing a plate carrier and you're a civilian, you're probably pretty careful about who's coming up to you and getting remotely close to you, probably way more cautious than a police officer or someone who has to deal with like people all day and just gets used to it because so because I will say, if I'm day-to-day carrying a knife, I want something I kind of can cut cardboard with two.
Speaker 1So they're gotta go well, that's what I'm saying, right, right, that's what you have, that one in your pocket yes, you might have to double up and or like though the um depending on.
Speaker 2I carry different things in different situations, right? So, like day in, day out, this won't be like concealed on me all the time. Let me say this, though, but go ahead.
Speaker 1Notice orientation it comes in what. What handed is it?
Speaker 2is it lefty? No, no, no. Does it go in the in the band? Yeah, righty, okay, it's right-handed orientation.
Surprise Gift Discussion: New Gifts Revealed
Speaker 1What handed are you Lefty? Yes, so now I'm going to flip mine around to be lefty oriented, so that way I can go for the concealed carry draw. And that's how a lot of these are like essentially marketed, or like not marketed, but designed for use. Is that this is your punch back while you're going for your draw, if need be, if you need to create that space or anything, but also you get to do the cool thing from. You know modern warfare 2 you're. You know you got your knife out for you know the freaking quick stealth to slash it.
Speaker 1Yeah, you know what I mean yeah, uh, that's more of a joke right but it is.
Speaker 1It is like, honestly, that is like a very. You know that's kind of the point of like in the ideal behind this is like is like, honestly, that is like a very. You know that's kind of the point of like in the ideal behind this is like this is a get, this is a create space weapon and it's not meant to be like your primary. But that said, what's your primary hand going to be doing? Going for your concealed carry pistol?
Speaker 1so therefore, it's a great for a secondary hand yeah and it doesn't take much cord, like you don't have to do a lot of training to get your non-dominant hand up to speed on punching right, I like this.
Speaker 2This sheath on this is nice, uh, where it's kind of inset on the top here so that you can do that. Well it's, it's grooved too so you can do that thumb so, yeah, so the thumb push gets your hand where it needs to be. Yeah, it's pretty sick.
Speaker 1You're gonna have to in the video for this one, you're just going to have to add pictures of this knife. Yeah, and so people have an idea.
Speaker 2I like it and I love you know there's been a lot of like Chinese versions of the K-Bar you know, come out. But I do, just I love the origin of the K-Bar and this might be an overtold story, but do you know about where the name comes from?
Speaker 1I do, and I don't want to ruin it for you because I think you probably like telling this story.
Speaker 2Well, I don't know all the story, my version is short, but basically back in the day somebody wrote a letter. I don't know where the letter went to, but it was a little bit of an illiterate individual, you know, just saying that they killed a bar with the knife. You know, basically that was. They couldn't make it out what it said, so they started making these knives, the K-bar.
Speaker 1And it said I K'd a bar with this knife, but so bar comes from killing a bar. What I understood, what I understood, was that it was a, it was the knife. It was like based off of the bowie knife but designed to be a bayonet, fixable knife. And, like you know, I think they were like some of the first, like rifled, you know, muskets or whatever, or springfields. But anyways, from what I say, it was a Marine at an outpost and he wrote the letter while he was dying from his wounds and all they could make out from all the blood on the letter and all that was K-A-B-R.
Speaker 1Yeah, you're right. It was like, oh, he killed a bear, we can't really make anything else out of it, let's go check on him. And they got up there and like he's dead. But the bear is freaking poked full of holes and they're like damn that's a good knife. So that could be total FUD myth, but it is the story that I like a lot, but it's one of those ones where I don't care. Yeah.
Speaker 2That's what the, the uh ethos of it is behind you. Gotta get after a bear with that thing. Yeah, yeah, super cool. No, I think that's a. I'm excited. It's awesome gift. Um goes with another allen wrench.
Speaker 1What I've learned is that I can never have too many, so I'm always looking for one, and I have at this point probably a hundred and I'm always looking for one and I'm always losing one.
Speaker 2Yeah, that hundred. And I'm always looking for one and I'm always losing one. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1That's the thing I'm always losing the one I need. I just was so sad I pulled one out of my AR's pistol grip because I was like, oh, I need a justice and I put it. I know I put an Allen wrench up in here and I pulled it out and I looked and I was like, oh, it's rusted to hell and it snapped on me when I started trying to torque it. Oh no, so even a nicer one would be better.
Speaker 2But anyways, tennessee Pretty sweet I'll give like the high Hitch and forge, because you said you were excited to go there again, had you been there before.
Speaker 1I had. But again, it was like 10 years ago. It was before the fires and stuff came through and it was during like the fall. And so when I went last time it was like fall season and I did a lot of ATV in and kind of stuff like that. Did you go to the same?
Speaker 2amusement area.
Speaker 1No, this time I totally. Last time I didn't do like anything other than like ATV and zip line and staying in like a little cottage. This time, billy, gene and I, we went to the Old Mill, which is crazy deal for food. If you want to be able to feed yourself for like two whole days, go to the Old Mill. You get a ton of, like a ton of food, unlimited sides, and then like your entree and it's more than enough to you know, each entree is two meals on its own, nice, more than enough to you know. Each, each entree is two meals on its own, nice. Um, and then we went to um.
Speaker 1We were staying in gatlinburg, which gatlinburg is literally copy paste estes park. Like, if you've been to estes park, it's unreal. Like you walk through gatlinburg, you're like down to the like tiny little weird swiss mountain town cabin vibe of the mall. It's very surreal. It was like it was like the same firm built Gatlinburg and Estes park. It was very, it was very strange. I sent pictures to Hoffman, who's a police officer up in Estes, and he was like I think you're in Estes. I'm like, yeah, no, dude, like it's. It's really weird. But stayed there.
The Smoky Mountain Trip: Highlights and Recommendations
Speaker 1And then we went to this new theme park or attraction. It's new to me, right, I think it's been around since just before COVID, but it's called Anakista. It's like this top of a smoky mountain theme park where you take a gondola up to it. Of course, they don't have like really skiing there at all. Um, it's in february and there's like no snow anywhere, right, and the hills just aren't that big. But you take a ski lift up and, um, you are at this really nice kind of like view. It's like it's like literally like a theme park that's just designed around good views, but they have, um, quite a bit of food and like kind of uh, some nice like drinks and bars and stuff up there, and then they have like a, a tower.
Speaker 1You go up the stairs and look around. You have this beautiful view all around you of the smokies, um, and then they have this like wobbly rope tree bridge thing that you go through to get back to the like the ski lift if you want to go back down, and it's pretty cool. It's like it's probably like 30 to 40 feet up in the air at most, but it's a. It's like bridges, rope bridges going from tree to tree. Oh wow, you know that was really fun.
Speaker 1Um, and then they have a really dope light show at night. That was pretty mesmerizing and very entertaining. They have like a total pretty sweet, entertain kids for hours like jungle gym area like, um, just like you know the coolest things for kids to kind of jump around and swing on super high in the air, uh, mountain roller coaster like that's like gravity powered right, so like you get your own individual cart, you're just ripping around going mach 5, uh, through the treetops and then, uh, the last thing they have is like a zip line that you can use the zip line to get back down to the bottom.
Speaker 1Oh, rather than taking the, the chairlift the zip line looked pretty sweet sweet looked like you had a pretty good you know distance on it, but, um, billy, jean's not. You know the risk-taking type zip liner. Yeah, and I'm not just gonna go down on my own like so, and I think she would have gone if I pressured her. But we were also like, yeah, this is cool, but let's also go like walk around town and stuff. They have this thing there where there it's like a it's a winery mead place and they it's. It's surreal, I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.
Speaker 1When you go to these towns that are really big on like brewing and stuff, you go to one of their five companies like tap rooms, and each tap room is, quote unquote, a different company, all underneath the same parent company. But we went to one and they're like for 10 bucks you get 10 samples here and you go to any of the other places, you get 10 samples and if you do all five, you get a t-shirt at the end. Oh nice, and the t-shirts alone are like you know, they sell them for like 30 bucks. Yeah, I was like, uh, yeah, all right, so we paid 10 bucks for each of us and, dude, you get like easily probably like two glasses of mead wine or moonshine, oh wow, like just about each stop and it is the best wine I've ever had in my life. Like they had watermelon wine.
Speaker 1You know what it tasted like like water it tastes exactly like watermelon, not like a jolly rancher watermelon it tasted like the best version of watermelon, but they like we're like we don't use anything other than like watermelon, right, like we just freaking ferment watermelon, right. That is unreal. Uh, they had blueberry, that was. They had like a blackberry one, um, and the mead. The mead was really good. The ciders were good, um, and the moonshine was the best, because the moonshine had enough burn that it offset how sweet the taste was on these like fruity flavors, right, and so the moonshine was also. You know, it's like fortified, so it's like freaking like 30 it's not real moonshine right, but it's not like it's also not wine, right, um, but it was really good.
Speaker 1We bought two bottles and drank them in the hotel room that was awesome yeah, um went to a little local brewery, the gatlinburg brewery.
Speaker 1They were pretty good. They had quite a few decent, award-winning beers and then, uh, a ton of you know gift shop stuff walking around checking out local coffee stuff, local food, um, and they have this place there in pigeon forge. And pigeon forge is like you know, uh, pigeonge is kind of like best way to think of. It is like the preamble to Estus, you know. It's like it's a lot nicer than like Loveland outside of Estus. It's probably like think of like a bigger, golden and bolder, less trashy, but like very touristy and very affordable, like there's a lot of cool things to do, like dollywood and all of dollywood's other attractions, um, but it's like the preamble, like you're going down this one road that will lead into pigeon forge and it's very exciting, um, but there's also just a lot of other cool stuff like buy one pair of boots, get two pair free. Wow, it's tempting. It's all based around families. Families are what come here. So dad buys his boots the most expensive ones Mom and kiddos' boots are free.
Speaker 1And then there was a spot where it was called Duncan's Jeans and it was all of the overstock or regular jeans from wrangler, carhartt, levi's, and they had them sized on the wall like in, like the types where they were going. And, dude, I bought like six pairs of wranglers. Oh nice, they were all fine. The only thing was like this the size I would usually wear was way too small, like it was like it was like it was sized small or listed as the wrong size. So then I just want to size up and everything fit like great, even with concealed carry, nice. And uh, all of them were like 50 off. So we got like close a little over eight, not 800, a little over 700 worth of jeans before billy jean, myself and a couple jeans as gifts for people you know, expensive jeans.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1And we paid like $390. Wow, and I buy jeans maybe like once every three years, four years, yeah, and now I have like six pairs of Carhartts to just.
Speaker 2Just load it up.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm wearing some linen ones right now, linen lined, oh wow, loose fit. That was pretty sick, sick, uh. Then we did the dolly parton um, stampede, stampede, which was sold to me. Now I didn't pay for it, my mother, it was my mother's gift for my birthday, uh-huh, uh. But I was informed it was a civil war reenactment, but it's not, it's not a civil war in it.
Speaker 2I didn't text back Because I just like I don't know where he is, but all right, and I've never been there. But I was like I don't think, that's what.
Speaker 1I don't think Dolly Parton is big on like violence, so they didn't shoot each other at all.
Speaker 2He texted me the Civil War reenactment, I was like, and I was like, I thought that was maybe another like, an additional, like, an actual like we're going down to see, all like the dudes who, just like you know, I really want to do that.
Speaker 1I really want to do that again.
Speaker 2Because, you know, like a true Civil War reenactment, that's awesome. I was like I wonder if he thinks, if he's going to the Dollywood Stamp, and they told him that Well there's the North and the South, and those are just sides of the room.
Speaker 1One side's the South, one side's the North and that's the team you're on. Yeah, but they don't shoot each other. They play more like stampede competition games.
Speaker 2Which side were you on?
Speaker 1I was on the North.
Speaker 2The North did not. People on the North did not get nearly as excited for being on the north people on the south were way more excited. Now. The north won the night. We won, as you know, history would tell. But like so what is the stampede? So you get divided out it's. Are you like in an arena?
Speaker 1it's kind of an arena, like a rodeo arena yeah and um, you're sitting in these long lined tables, right? You know, crack me open one of those so I can crush it before Billie Jean gets here. Thanks, brother. But you're in this. It's like a bench seat and you file in from one side or the other and they're divided in like section numbers, right? So we were in like B5 or whatever, and it was great seats. It was like in the middle of the north side, perfect side, view of everything, good perspective, and there is a single server for your whole like bench of like could be like I don't know, maybe 20 people and, uh, he just comes down the line dishing out food and you get what you get you get what you get.
Speaker 1Yeah, you get, but you get a lot. Yeah, you get, like easily the best it was a cream of mushroom soup. I was told I hate mushrooms. All right, holy shit bro. I was having an out-of-body experience with this cream mushroom soup and billy jean's the same way, like we were both. Like this is unreal. They don't give you a spoon because they know you're just going to drink it out of the bowl and I did that?
Speaker 2These Colorado kids eating the food of the South?
Speaker 1I was sitting next to this couple from Kentucky and they were really friendly and I'm like no spoons and he's like that's why they got a handle on the bulb.
Speaker 2And I was like oh, all right bro.
Speaker 1But dude, it was so good, it was so good. And then there was, I think, a roll as well. Yeah, you get this soup and a roll and then they come out and they just freaking drop your full small chicken on your plate, like it's a complete chicken per plate, and then they put, like uh, pulled pork down as well and mashed taters and corn on the cob and uh, man it was. It was so much was coming out so fast that I couldn't keep track of it and I was just trying to destroy this chicken. It was easily the best chicken I've had in a long time. Like the seasoning was unreal. Billie Jean, though, we found out, was allergic to horses, which we didn't know beforehand, and so, like post-soup, she started like having rattling breath.
Speaker 1Oh, no, like literally like, and I was like okay, are you no?
Speaker 2Like, like, literally, like I was like okay are you all right?
Speaker 1And she's like yeah, I'm fine, I just have a hard time breathing. She was actually like panicking internally, and I knew she was panicking, but I knew she was trying to keep it together, and so I just kept on checking in with her, like hey, do you are like, do we need can go? I kept telling her like it's okay, it's, it's, I'm not mad, I won't be upset, you're, you know, your health is a priority. And she kept to be like no, no, we're good, I'm like all right, she wants to be tough. I'm gonna let her be tough. As soon as the show was over, though, we went and like she was having like a momentary, like wow, I really cannot breathe, oh my gosh, uh. So we did some benadryl and then we went back and then we had more cider Benadryl Moonshine yeah, Benadryl Moonshine at the hotel and it fixed her right up.
Speaker 1But we didn't know she was allergic to horses before that Because I guess everywhere else she'd been around horses. It was like very open outdoor. Maybe it's the bison Because, bro, they fucking opening act, they allow like four bison just running around. These bison are running around. You can tell these bison are all amped up. And I'm like I was so shocked because I've never seen bison move like that. I've only ever seen like bison in colorado just chilling, eating grass, the way these bison will run around and herding together and putting their horns down forward. They did that in like some huge, like easily 10 foot span texas longhorns oh man, and I saw those. I'm like those are people in costumes. There's no freaking way. I'm seeing with my own eyes bison losing their marbles, getting chased around with horsies uh, but no sick and uh. This one girl came out easily the most like hottest cowboy chick I've ever seen in my life, like she's in like, you know, like the red spandex outfit. But the reason she's so hot was because of her athletic ability oh yeah she.
Speaker 1She came in riding her feet planted on the backs of two horses, standing up, just riding around the whole time never sat down, just like rollerblading on horses and then she jumped through a loop of fire with these horses and I just was like it was crazy because some people were just sitting next to me eating food. Couldn't be bothered and I'm like standing up waving my hat around like oh yeah, let's fucking go.
Speaker 1I'm just losing my mind, dude. I was like, how are you people? So she's running around one hand on the reins waving her arm in the air like cheer for her. This is clearly the. It was like they're like she's from saginaw michigan, which I used to live in, saginaw michigan, and they're like she's like avoiding death every second.
Speaker 1I'm like you guys know what this is, how insane this is. The horses were also like very well trained, billy jean pointed out. Billy jean was like look how steady their backs are. Like they're very well trained with their running and trotting to keep their backs as level as possible, but still, yeah it was unreal.
Culmination of a Tennessee Experience: Food and Fun
Speaker 1I was like I was like you know, the only time I've ever seen this Abraham Lincoln vampire slayer and it was CGI yeah, I can't. I like I was, I could not process what I was seeing with my eyes. There's a couple other performative acts that are really cool. Like they do, like this black light one that is definitely for, like, I think, kind of kiddos and young ladies, little girls, where it's like butterflies and everyone's like got black, like butterfly and giant flower petal costumes. That was really sweet. And then there's like quite a few just like patriotic ones of just like, honestly, people being pioneers and working together to go across america and all that stuff. There's no violence, there's no conflict, until the end when it's like, all right, north versus south.
Speaker 1Let's do some rodeo relays, and that was pretty cool too. They did like, uh, they did a uh little little piggy race relay race. They did chicken chases where kids from the audience came out and chased chickens. Oh yeah, they did quite a few where they actually pulled audience members out. They did like, uh, toilet seat horseshoes. That was awesome, that was funny. And then they did a water bucket relay with a bunch of audience members. That was pretty funny because the South's bucket straight up had bullet holes in it Ours I don't think did, but it was like as soon as the dude picked up water out of the big barrel, just leaking out the bottle.
Speaker 1It was spilling everywhere. I'm like oh, oh, wow, they have no chance, it's totally rigged. So stuff like that was really fun. Um, and the food was delicious and excellent. I drank two beers and two like moonshine cocktails of dolly partins and I was I was a happy camper. That's awesome and they give it to you in a boot. It's not a real boot, it's like a baby's boot, but it's still boot yeah, you get to drink out of it.
Speaker 2It's pretty sweet. No, I love it because the things I I haven't been there. I want to go there someday, uh, but like live performance is kind of like a fleeting thing.
Speaker 1Oh yeah.
Speaker 2And like that sort of like, and this is like arena performance, it's like it's just cool Live animals, people, lights, light shows, you know?
Speaker 1everyone there wanted to be there.
Speaker 2Like not.
Speaker 1I'm not talking about audience members, the, the the performers, the performers and the servers. Like Billie Jean, looked it up and turns out they make $30 an hour base, plus whatever tips you give them, and the tips go straight to their Venmo.
Speaker 1So like they have their Venmo stuff up everywhere for you to Venmo them a tip, so that way they don't have to worry about waiting for whatever. And then I was trying to look up what performers get paid, but I couldn't find it. But they get paid really well, Like very easily. And then I was trying to look up what performers get paid, but I couldn't find it. But they get paid really well, Like very easily. Like dude, that guy making $30 an hour plus tips, and he does it, you know, Friday nights, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then, has the rest of the week off to do whatever other second job he wants.
Speaker 2That's real good living and pigeon forged.
Speaker 1Shout out to old Do to dolly parton. Dude, she's a saint.
Speaker 2You know, like, uh, dolly parton's a saint and I think she's a capitalist. I like it. I like it too, you know, here's the thing, bro.
Speaker 1Before, before I had been to pigeon forge, I was like I get it, she's a southern belle with a big rack, like who doesn't love her right, and she seems nice and has no controversies about her. Uh, then you find out she literally like saved the state of tennessee during, like mines being shut down and pretty much was like we're gonna give everyone a job in the state of tennessee. And you're like, oh so she is literally a saint, like yeah, she it's unreal.
Speaker 1It is pretty crazy, though. As you're leaving, it felt very like I don't know how I was describing it felt very culty, but like you're leaving and exiting the stadium to go to the gift shop and there's just a giant portrait of her with like flowers just right above the stairwell. So you have to just see her in flowers. I was like feels weird. But I get it. Dude, people love her because she is a saint and she did a lot for that state and those people, so I like her a lot now. That's awesome. I'm a big fan of Dolly. That's awesome.
Speaker 1Also she's a great singer. She's legit, she's a great singer. Hey, yeah, she like she's legit.
Speaker 2She's not just uh, yeah, yeah, she's got, she's the real deal. And I and I wonder about if you feel the same way like watching, all going to that show, watching it happen. Did you feel excited about like I want to come back here again, but with kids?
Speaker 1yeah, no, dude. Here's the thing. Billy gene and I can we both said this, but we could not stop thinking the whole time about how perfect gatlinburg and pigeon forge would be for you know, pat and pat's family. Like the whole time we were there we were just like dude, this would be the best thing to bring kids to, especially because you can get a really great like airbnb cottage thing with separate rooms and it's like not stupid expensive like it would be to do that in any other mountain town in colorado and everything there is like oriented around the family, like every attraction or thing that you go to. Every store is oriented around like keep the kids entertained, dude. And here's how you know like they got it down right. There are cheap dollar store like family dollar toys in every single place. Oh yeah, and it's like everyone knows your kid doesn't need something from pigeon forge. What your kid needs is just another cap gun to keep them occupied at the you know outside of the hotel room and horsing around until you could get to the next fun event together as a family. Yeah, and like they got it.
Speaker 1And also there's this place called three bears. They got it nailed down. They're there's this place called Three Bears. They got it nailed down. They're famous. They literally got three bears out back. Costs like three bucks to see them for kids. Real live bears, real live bears, dang. You just go upstairs they're like bears out back three bucks and there's real live bears out back for you to show the kids. And then you come back in and guess where? You come back into the toys. Yeah, like the whole place is a gift shop the whole place is a souvenir shop but the toys are right there next to the bears.
Speaker 1Oh yeah and uh. It's awesome, man, I loved it and like the whole time, I was like we got to come back. I not only do. I want to go back for billy jean's birthday but. I do want to go back with my kids because it is one, a beautiful, a beautiful place, but two, it is so family friendly.
Speaker 2Yeah, and in fact those sorts of things are going away, yeah, like they are fleeting, they are, you know, like even in the same way that, let's say, even Estes Park is different now than it was 20 years ago. Oh for sure, Just like the you know, especially like the family-focused touristy stuff and I get it Like I always think of this scene from remember, a Goofy movie.
Speaker 1Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2And they go like Goofy takes Max to see the oh that like hillbilly hick show with the animatronic. What is it? I know you're talking about, yeah, uh, what's that animal called possum, animatronic possum, you know, and it's like it's weird and max doesn't like it.
Speaker 2You know, and you can tell, even in that movie it came out a long time ago this kind of fleeting thing of like he's just trying to enjoy a moment with his boy, yeah, before his boy goes to college exactly and like how, uh same, with, like the movie cars where, like, that town has just died, yeah, it used to be like the spot to go to, like that, that, like you know, 1960s, 70s america, where people weren't getting on planes to go to Italy, they're getting in their cars and their Volkswagens and taking the family to the Rockies and to the Smokies and you know, uproot 66 and like seeing all these things and you're going to go see the world's biggest ball of yarn and then go see whatever this dinner show you know, like that sort of thing, um, it's fleeting and going away.
Speaker 2And then then there's like the like that sort of thing it's fleeting and going away, and then the Dollywood Pigeon Forge stuff is like it's a holdout and so I want to take my kids. I want my kids to have that experience and there are cheesy aspects to it, whatever, but also like it's done well too, it's like I want to take my kid here to see this. It can be a special thing for them, a special family memory, family-focused, focused thing.
Speaker 1And so the uh there and there are still things like that that you can take your family to, but the pigeon forge, dollywood, gatlinburg are, is still like a holding true to that whole thing it is and like you see it in, like the pricing of everything, like I never saw anything that felt like they were gouging me for like hey, if you want to get here and you brought your kids all this way, you got to cough it up yeah, bears 30 a pop, yeah, no bro, there's, don't even run.
Speaker 1There's stuff that is like we got to. They took our pictures somewhere. Oh, they took our picture at the great stampede. And then they have an individual person come up to you with the picture book they like find you in the crowd and they will sell it to you for $60. Yeah, and they're like $60 for this and like the booklet and I'm like it's a great picture, but no, but at the same time, you see, like the cost for kiddos for that event is like $20.
Speaker 1Right Versus $60 per parent. You see, the tickets for kids to all the attractions are deeply discounted. There's super friendly kid meals everywhere and even the bars and live event stuff is very kid-friendly and appropriate to bring around. And I'm just thinking. Sometimes it's expensive for Billie Jean and I to go to Estes.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1I can't imagine what it's like to try to take your kids For a bad buffalo burger To Estes for a day. You know what I mean. And like you're right, like it's just like it's one of those places where, like you want to go somewhere and you want them to be like hey man, thanks for bringing your kids, your kids are cheaper. Like we're not gonna milk you for everything you got. Yeah, to just bring your kiddos along here, like we're happy they're here. And that's just not the truth with most places nowadays. Most places are like you brought your kids dope 60 bucks same price, as you, and it's like it's just brutal, uh.
Speaker 1and then places like that also wonder why things are dying and they blame it on anything but greed. But anyways, all that said, it was a blast. I freaking love it. We met so many great people. I made a lot of good friends. As Billie Jean says, I just make friends with anyone who's willing to talk and listen.
Speaker 1One of the sickest things was dude. I flew back when we were flying back. Frontier Billie Jean and I were in. Different parts of the sickest things was dude. I flew back when we were flying back, you know, Frontier Billie Jean were in and I were in like different parts of the plane.
Speaker 1But I sat down and there's this black dude against the window coming from. He's from Los Angeles and he was connecting back to Los Angeles, flying back from Tennessee, and then there was this you know middleaged white lady in between us and she was talking to him quite a bit about stuff. And then I kind of was listening to Namahead and talking to her and it was. I can't remember entirely what it started on, but then it got kind of political and we're talking about Trump and the new stuff and people appointed and she was super based. She was super duper based and had lived here in Colorado in Grand County and Summit County and she lived in Grand Junction and Granby and I was like, hey, I just want to know your thoughts, like thoughts on good old Heemeyer.
Speaker 2She's like.
Speaker 1I think he did everything right and armed nobody. And he had every right to do what he did and I'm like damn For those of you who don't know, look up Marvin Heemeyer. Rest in peace.
Speaker 2Rest in peace.
Speaker 1Marv. But anyways, I saw that I was like this chick's based. As hell Turns out she's like her and her husband are super strong believers. They're pastor kids, they support a collegiate mission guy. She knew what the NAVS was and I had done the NAVS in college and all that and we just were talking about all that stuff in faith and we talked about politics and all that. But there was things I don't think we quite disagreed on. But there was a lot of things where I was like ooh, I just don't know about that, I don't know enough about that subject or whatever.
The Power of Community: Conversations on Flight
Speaker 1She was really gentle and patient to not try to be wacky and force me to believe things. Right, you know, some mountain people are freaking wacky. But then we were talking about faith when I started talking to her about some sermons and stuff and then like biblical masculinity and you know how, at our church there had actually been guys who had been offended by some of the biblical masculinity callings and had left our church at points and stuff or were challenged by you know some of the things our pastor preaches on, as you know what. What is the church supposed to look like nowadays? And she was just talking about how she has a pastor living in her house now with her and her husband.
Speaker 1He's just so burnt out of people, like just leaving the church because they can't seem to, they can't seem to have a conversation to just talk about, be like hey, I'm just not sure I agree with you on that pastor. Could you, could you sit down and explain it to me? Xyz, you know, run through these things and instead people would just rather be like oh, I don't believe in jesus anymore because the pastor says something I disagree with. It's like okay, I don't know if you ever believed in the first place, but anyways, we're talking about that. The black guy decides he's done listening to his music and stuff and he's like hmm, and he starts nodding his head.
Speaker 1I'm like, oh wait a second, like did we just get a whole row of believers here? Are we about to have church, bro? It turns out he just started throwing out some freaking fire and he's like, yeah, I entirely agree, and I really think the biggest thing Christian community, like the Christian church, is struggling with right now, is like true community and how communities are not going to be perfect and that you need, as another believer, to bear one another. I'm like my brother, dude, you just literally like took words right off the page of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book Life Together. So then I'm going into like my favorite content, which is Life Together from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and bro, we just had fricking church. Baby, it was a Sunday when we flew back, but it was awesome, dude. It was like we were just living it up, talking about you know just what it means to truly bear one another as believers. What it you know, uh, how gossip and uh, withholding forgiveness in your heart is like truly poison to a fellowship yeah.
Speaker 1You know it will kill a church body, um, and just like going through and it was just awesome Cause we're just talking and like everyone's, like all three was like yes, yes, and it was. It was great, dude. And I could tell there's people ears perking up around us. No one ever like chimed in, no one ever said shut up you wackies or whatever. But I could tell there was people ears perking up around us. No one ever like chimed in, no one ever said shut up you wackies or whatever. But I could tell everyone was kind of like peeking their heads and turning. I could see a couple of heads nodding. I could see a couple of confused faces, expressions, but it just felt good man.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, kason, hope you're well, brother, praying for you and your family out in LA. They live in like the heart of LA and saw a lot of people lose their homes and stuff, oh yeah. And then Cammie is the lady that I met, but she's a snowbird now and lives in like Havasu during the winter in their house down there. So I don't really think you need prayer. You're living it up in Lake Havasu, just kidding. I hope you guys are having a fun time, but anyways, it was. It was a good trip, man, it was a blast, it was super fun that's awesome.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's not like a good trip. The. It's fun to go go on this trip because it was a surprise. You didn't know. I mean you knew because you had your secret squirrels out there. Yeah, locating, but at the same time, like it was fun to be surprised a big 30th, have a, have a trip planned, go out, it's a fun surprise.
Speaker 2Uh, get some time away, super wholesome, like and just awesome good time and capping it off with a good plane ride back. That like. You know what I love about interactions like that is how like faith strengthening they are and hope giving they are. You know, it's just like. It's like oh yeah, I'm not the only one and not even close, not the only one. Yeah, it was super it was super.
Speaker 1uh, it really poured into my cup. Yeah, you know what I mean. It was very encouraging. Um, it was just like it was just cool to see two people, cause it's one thing to meet another person who says they're a Christian, but, dude, when you meet people who are like they can get into the meat with it and be honest, and not they can get into the meat with it and be honest, and not they can talk about the problems in the church without it being like gossiping or slander. Oh, dude, it was dope.
Speaker 2It was so good, yeah, or without it turning into like a weird like.
Speaker 1Don't Christians suck?
Speaker 2Yeah, it wasn't that at all yeah or like, or even like. Even if they are, it's just not being able to agree, or whatever. Yeah, no, this is like we're aligned in this and it's a special thing.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, it was lovely, but anyways, I think that's kind of all I really wanted to run over. This is a short episode, but I just really want to give you your birthday gift, because your birthday is next month anyways. Yeah, it's coming up. Now we got these sick knives. Oh yeah, I'll be carrying mine. I got the belt for it. You know I'm gonna. Here's the thing. I gotta figure out configuration. Where does it go on the belt? Where's the best place for it to go for the the hook and hand grab? And it's not in the way, because I carry two backup mags in addition to the pistol, and so it's like I think it's the, because, if the, if the main carries on the pp, yeah, this is on three o'clock.
Speaker 2You think that's three o'clock I'm if mean, but I'm not going for that with my dominant right so for you it's on three o'clock three, but for you it's, you know, you're mine nine you know it's the night, it's like you know.
Speaker 1Yeah, back nine I was kind of thinking. I was thinking nine to eight because I'm like, oh, let me grab my wallet that hand, reach around to the back and then come back with it anyways, yeah, I like it yeah, I'm gonna go home and play with it in the mirror. We just like to we just like to larp man. I hope we never have to use any of these tools. Yeah, dude, I'm.
Speaker 2We just role play the whole time you're larping this thing tonight. Yeah, for sure yeah, me too.
Speaker 1Speaking of which, uh, the cqb video should be coming out soon, as soon as mick here is finished with the video edit. It's a lot of work because I've been adding muzzle flashes and blood effects, so it's an unreal amount of work yeah, that's a lot. It's like editing a movie, yeah it's like probably, I would wager close to four hours of footage recorded, oh god, and it's not that the event was over four hours it's just like that.
Speaker 1It's that many like total and video footage I've going been going through and editing down and then after that you get down to like you know, your your 10 minute cut and you're like all right, gotta cut it down more, unless this is gonna be an explanation video. So I'm cutting it down to like just the freaking action, music montage, sick video. And then I'm having everything else, just like playing with breakdown and uh, that can be, like you know, put up in our episode here so people can see, like listen to us breaking down the cqb stuff while also seeing footage of it.
Speaker 1But the next event's happening soon and this time it's gonna be a night event. Well it's. It's going to kind of night. We're going to start in the afternoon. Yeah, we're going to start in the afternoon, but because it's winter and sunset's so early, we'll get to use Nod's. And I don't own Nod's, but I do own a flashlight. And if there's anything I love doing, it's ruining people, enjoying expensive stuff. Yeah, and I want the guys to come in with nods and us to be op for.
Speaker 2With flashlights and beat them.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, just like shine flashlights in their freaking nods and then shoot them.
Speaker 2I'm bringing my mag light from 2001. I'm going to win.
Speaker 1Hell yeah, bro, that's so sick. Mag light duct taped to the Orbeez 14.
Speaker 2D batteries. Yeah, that's amazing, your freaking $14,000 freaking quad nods.
Speaker 1I don't think there's a gun in the world that feels as good as reloading as it does. To put fresh batteries in a Maglite Like fresh batteries in a Maglite is an unreal vibe. It's beefy Just makes such a solid sound like you're like oh we got power for the next two hours. This flashlight's gonna be bright. It's like to this day, still like one of the dimmest things in like your home. It's so horrible it's so funny I should night stick.
Speaker 2I actually maybe I will bring my own mag light, just so we can compare like what a two and a half foot long mag light looks like compared to a two inch long.
Speaker 1Freaking you know, surefire, oh my gosh, I am, though I'm pretty stoked for that. Uh, just because there's a lot of guys I know who have been practicing with their nods, but I haven't ever done any like very tight quarter stuff, like their practice is like driving a car with nods on setting up a tent uh, hiking walking flat range well, a lot of them actually don't just do flat range, a lot of them go for like real night hikes right or like flat range shooting oh, as far as actual actual, like like firearms, modulation and I feel like should I get the smoke machine out for that?
Wrapping Up Thoughts: The Future and Final Remarks
Speaker 1Oh, dude, should I haze out the room? Smoke it up, dude, that way they know what it's like to have nods on and be like shit I can't see anything. I can't see anything. I got to take the nods off. I will say this If we bring the smoke machine, I'm sure some dude's bringing this I know two guys with thermals. I bet they'll bring them and attach them to their helmets so that way they can have the sync up between nods and thermals. And that would be sick for everyone to see. See how you can't see the smoke through the smoke. Now see, with thermal you can see the three dudes on the other side of the smoke. That'd be dope, that's cool. Anyways, we're doing that, so we'll have a whole nother advanced breakdown of CQB. It'll be cooler footage because it'll be green. Yeah, we're going to have to get a green camera.
Speaker 1I have a night vision, not a cam, but I have a night vision monocular that's digital. Oh yeah, that I'm sure we could jury rig up Tape to an iPhone.
Speaker 2Yeah, something like that. I like it. Yeah, that's awesome Cool, oh man.
Speaker 1All right. Well, hey, thanks for joining again. Ken, thanks for wishing me a happy birthday, because I know you're doing it. I can hear you. It's well past my birthday by the time you're hearing this, but thanks for saying it anyways, it's the thought that counts. I hope you are encouraged by this. I I hope you are encouraged by this. I hope you enjoy our episodes. Leave us a like and a comment. Check out our links to our stores and our products. Pat, I think this last year we made a whole like $100 off of Amazon nice yeah, so like someone is buying.
Speaker 1You know our liquid death and dude wipes, but anyways, check that stuff out. Yeah, you know our liquid death and dude wipes, yeah, but anyways, check that stuff out and check out Primary Arms. The link's right there. If you're going to buy gun stuff, get it on discount and let us get a kickback for referring you to Primary Arms. Don't tell YouTube because YouTube is taking videos down that link to Primary Arms, so click the link. Don't tell YouTube. Youtube is taking videos down that link to primary arms, so click the link. Don't tell YouTube. Anyways, all I said. Thanks for listening, kid.
Speaker 2Pat Till next time.
