The OuterBelt's Podcast
The OuterBelt's Podcast
Holiday Roads, Pecan Loads
Bad intel travels fast. Facts travel farther. We kicked things off with post‑Thanksgiving stories—quiet weekends, Southern “polite bites,” and a heated dessert debate—before unboxing a generous pecan sampler from a listener team. The table lit up: praline versus cinnamon sugar, chocolate that overwhelmed the nut, and a mysterious white‑coated half that divided the room. Food memories opened a portal to regional nostalgia and the economics of everyday life on the road: Blue Bell versus local dairies, shrinkflation in the freezer aisle, and the slow march of squeeze bottles from ketchup to mayo to peanut butter.
Then we swapped the kitchen for a coastline. Picture a poolside lobster roll that actually lives up to the hype, crispy fries that stay crisp, and a Jeep chasing a map’s promise of a perfect loop. Reality? Permit‑only segments, cliffside gravel, and a strategic U‑turn. It made for laughs and a lesson: risk management isn’t just for dispatch. Whether it’s a mountain road or a soft rate board, good judgment pays.
That lens helped us decode the headline of the week: chatter that CRST was “shutting down” over‑the‑road. We walked through the original report, the company’s clarification, and the fuller picture that followed—roughly 200 trucks removed, some redeployed, and several hundred jobs impacted. Painful, yes, but not a collapse. We dug into fleet math, parked tractors, and why this contraction phase is thinning the herd before the widely forecast 2026 recovery. The practical takeaway for drivers and teams: anchor to stable, diversified carriers; protect cash; keep utilization high; and choose freight that aligns with resilience, not just rate.
Along the way, we offer gratitude for the people who keep critical shipments moving and the small rituals that keep spirits up. And for the curious: the white pecans were white chocolate, not yogurt—proof that even tasteful debates deserve a proper reveal. If this mix of road truth and real talk hit home, follow the show, share it with a driver who needs company, and drop a review so more folks can find us. Your support keeps the wheels turning.
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These three um bachelors were at a bar the night before their wedding. They were at at the same had having a wedding at the same venue and they were sitting talking and they decided that they would meet up again for brunch on Sunday, the day after their wedding. And um they needed a signal to show how how how lucky they got the night before. And one guy was like, How about we stir sugar into our coffee and that tells us how many times we got lucky, what times we stir sugar in the coffee. Like, yeah, that's a great idea. So Sunday morning, take a meet for brunch, and the first bachelor he puts two spoonfuls of sugar in his coffee and starts stirring, and the second bachelor he puts three spoonfuls of sugar in his coffee and starts stirring. The the last bachelor he he puts a spoonful of sugar in his coffee and they're like, uh, and then he goes back and he puts two spoonfuls of brown sugar in his coffee.
SPEAKER_03:Hey everybody, welcome back to the Otter Belt. I am Patrick. Glad to see you. It's been a little minute. We had a little break, but we're back for a couple episodes before we have the holiday break. Uh and as always, I'm here with my friends, co-workers, contractually obligated people to be here, starting with the main man here on my left. Jerry. You call me off guard.
SPEAKER_07:We're not going in the right order.
SPEAKER_02:And of course, as always, Zoo Kini Bread.
SPEAKER_04:Eric.
SPEAKER_07:Buttermilk.
SPEAKER_00:My man. Chili. I remember what that means.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man, I see something about a Monte Carlo and TBS. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, so it's been a good little break. We've been gone for a hot minute. As most of y'all know, we do bank these episodes, which is why sometimes our news sources aren't the most accurate. Not accurate, up to date. Up to date, yeah. Um and uh sometimes that comes in our favor, as you'll soon find out. Uh but um other times it's uh, you know, we're actually playing catch up over from Thanksgiving, but we're actually, as the listener, you're you're like, well, this was this was weeks ago, right? So um we haven't seen each other since Thanksgiving. It's been a minute. It has. How was Thanksgiving? Did you do anything fun? Yes.
SPEAKER_06:We had leftovers and did nothing.
SPEAKER_00:Ooh, yes. That's luxurious. It was a great time because there were no dishes to wash. Oh yeah? Yep.
SPEAKER_03:I uh I found it interesting that I didn't get a happy Thanksgiving from y'all first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. I don't think anybody got a happy Thanksgiving from me any time of day.
SPEAKER_03:I tell you what's funny though, actually. Um typically in our we like we have a staff chat. And most holidays, you know, Merry Christmas, and there's the 30 Merry Christmases and 30, Happy Thanksgivings and 30 Happy New Years.
SPEAKER_06:And all 30 hearts and likes and thugs. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:I have notifications. And that's 30 times 30 because everybody likes everybody's, loves everybody's.
SPEAKER_06:It's a lot of chirping.
SPEAKER_03:It's a lot, it's a lot. This Thanksgiving, not a word. I was the first person to say something, and I was like, well, this is weird. Um and uh I think I sent a text over at like what 7 p.m.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah, but that's because you went all dramatic and flew out to uh New Hampshire or something and left the state. Left the state. Uh Jerry, you left the state as well.
SPEAKER_02:No, I was in North Carolina with my mom. How was it? It was good. Who were you with? Uh it was just my mom and Don, and uh we had a couple of my friends come over who I hadn't seen in a very long time. And so just the four of us.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Did you do a big spread or you just do what you normally would do?
SPEAKER_02:Originally it was supposed to be a small little get-together, but Lord and behold, you know, my mother. She went all out.
SPEAKER_03:You mean your Southern Belle mother? She could all out for Thanksgiving? Everything under the sun. I don't believe you.
SPEAKER_02:Here I am trying to lose weight, and she made a whole dinner spread, including eight desserts and everything.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And as we're as I don't know how it is where y'all are from, but in the South, you're raised, you take a polite bite, no matter what.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Like I I hated squash casserole growing up, but I would dip me some, and I would have a bite, and I would struggle to get it down. I would chug some sweet tea, but you did that. Otherwise, you were not, it was not a good day. We were gonna have conversations that afternoon in the driveway. It was like time to Jesus a moment. That's right, yeah. And then you went back in and you had to you had to eat with then mom or dad served you, and that was not a bite. No, no, then it was like okay, we're having squash casserole for dinner.
SPEAKER_02:And it's you know, so same thing for you, I assume. Oh yeah, but other than that, it was great. Nice, it was an awesome visit. I hadn't seen her since June, so oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Very good. I know we haven't really talked about it, but you haven't been down there in a hot moment either.
SPEAKER_02:I know, like up in the mountains areas, Boone and stuff like that, they're still doing a lot of cleanup and recovery and stuff where she's located, everything's good.
SPEAKER_06:That's cool.
SPEAKER_02:So and she didn't have a lot of damage, so she's good.
SPEAKER_06:Nice, good.
SPEAKER_02:And when you say out in the boons, there's a town called Boone. Oh, okay. So you're not trying to be disrespectful.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, gotcha. Gotcha.
SPEAKER_02:North of where she lives, there's a physical town called Boone, B-O-O-N-E. Um, is that how airy is?
SPEAKER_03:Is Boone the area where um I haven't spent a lot of time in North Carolina at all. But I think it's the there's like a famous mountain or something that's there.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. I thought so. Is that the Daniel Boone ski resort?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_03:It's the Boone's farm that's there. Oh, yes. It's where they grow the apples, the peaches, the blueberries, the blackberries. Watermelons. The water-oh, of course the watermelons. Strawberries. Well, you know, in the Appalachian Mountains, they're known for their watermelon.
SPEAKER_06:What did you do, Miss Heather?
SPEAKER_07:You said you went to New Hampshire. Um, yes. And I I cooked four Thanksgiving meals, so for Thanksgiving meals?
SPEAKER_03:That's what so much you said. Wow.
SPEAKER_07:For the Thanksgiving meal. We Yeah, we got the turkey, but I made uh homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, are you team sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie? It depends on it. Melissa?
SPEAKER_06:Uh um sure. I mean, by the time you add fresh whipping cream to the top, does it really matter?
SPEAKER_07:Cinnamon maple whipping cream.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, well, see a pie. What difference does it make at that time?
SPEAKER_03:See, I disagree with you. I think it should be fresh out of the can, ready whip. No.
SPEAKER_06:Or cool whip.
SPEAKER_03:Cool whip.
SPEAKER_06:No. It's gonna be fresh cinnamon, neat.
SPEAKER_02:I would say neither and pecan. Pecan's my favorite. Oh man.
SPEAKER_07:Straight sugar.
SPEAKER_00:It's gotta be a fresh pecan, though, because after a while they start to stink. They do. They really get just oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_03:But everyone knows the fresh pecans smell like um smell kind of lemony. Uh not lemy, uh minty.
SPEAKER_00:What? No, I've never noticed that.
SPEAKER_03:Like a fresh pecan has like a minty kind of smell to it.
SPEAKER_00:It's very interesting. It really kind of is.
SPEAKER_03:Uh well, it's funny you mentioned that real quick. We'll get right back to how uh your holiday and Eric was. But um since we're talking about pecans, yeah. Uh, I would like to throw in our today's sponsor. As I was created a disaster.
SPEAKER_06:That was maybe taking the lid off was a bad idea.
SPEAKER_03:But today our sponsor is um boy, I should have thought this through. Atkinson, yep. Pecan company out of Wharton, Texas.
SPEAKER_06:Those Wharton, Texas folks.
SPEAKER_03:Those Wharton, Texas companies have learned to advertise to the Outer Belt. It's very strange. I don't know why. Um, but uh listen, we have a very strict policy. If you send us food, we will advertise for you.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It's fresh. Ice cream's a little tricky. But uh, but if you send us fresh food, we will certainly advertise for you. And uh this does come to us courtesy of uh one of our teams. Really cool uh story about these people, uh or these pecans rather. Um the town why don't you hold that? So uh the town is famous for all these pecan trees growing all over town. And so they have a pecan company uh there that uh buys up pecans that are left over. And uh this team that uh drives with Highfield, they actually have pecans on the trees on their farm. They take as much as they're gonna eat, and then they sell the overage to this pecan company, this candied pecan company. So it's impossible to track because lots of comp people do the same thing, farms do the same thing. But some of these pecans may be pecans they grew on their trees.
SPEAKER_00:I was talking to the team today. You can't.
SPEAKER_06:I don't think that they're gonna be from their farm.
SPEAKER_00:And and they said that for this particular batch, they asked the company to please use only their pecans. Now it's a whole process. I mean, they gotta stop the line and they they tag them like they do cattle.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and then they have to take the tag off. It's a it's a it's more like a it's more like a TJ Maxx.
SPEAKER_07:It's like a$500 uh thing of pecans. It really is. Because of all the extra effort that went into that.
SPEAKER_00:There was a lot of labor that went into it. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of labor.
SPEAKER_03:It's like what uh$12 a pecan. Exactly.
SPEAKER_06:Well, I want to say that I was looking at it. There there wasn't a brochure, and there's nothing you can do.
SPEAKER_03:I gotta say real quick on the back. Can I interrupt you real quick? So if you are, and and and you I want you to do this for me, but if you are listening to the outer belt, you might be like, what are they talking about? So Melissa, could you please describe what Vince is holding in his hands? Hands plural, because one hand won't hold it.
SPEAKER_06:Yes. So it is a one, two, three, four, five, six divider um plastic container that has six different types of nuts in it.
SPEAKER_03:Platter tray, right?
SPEAKER_06:Platter tray, yes. Kind of like a veggie tray that you'd get from your grocery store, but it's got nuts. Holiday season. Think holiday season, and they've got the the you've got options for for nuts. So it's got two different sugary crusted ones, and I don't know if one's gonna be like sweet and one might be savory.
SPEAKER_00:We call those pralines. Sorry. Oh, it's definitely a proline.
SPEAKER_06:Um, I'm from Oregon. You'll have to forgive me. I think and then I think the chocolates, either one might be a milk and one might be a dark, but they both might be milk chocolate. And then they have plain half ones. They're all half, nice, beautiful half ones, too, by the way. Yes. Um, and then there's some that are white. Um, and we're kind of divided here on the outer belt uh with either yogurt or white chocolate. They do look a little more yogurt covered than white chocolate. Um, but uh exciting. I'm I I they're beautiful nuts though. The plain ones are just gorgeous. Yeah, it's a very nice. I say they're milk and semi-sweet.
SPEAKER_03:I I agree with you. I think milk is semi-sweet, and I think they're cinnamon and regular uh pollen.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, they are different colors. These look do look like they're some it does say AtkinsonPecan.com. Yes. I bet you you could order if you wanted some.
SPEAKER_03:You know what would be fun? Let's let's play a game. Um we're all gonna try a pecan real quick. Yeah, it's gonna be awesome listening to us eat pecans. Um, but real quick, yes, what do you think the white colored pecan is? Drop us a comment, let us know what you think. We will tell you. Should we do it at the end of the episode or should we do the beginning of the next episode?
SPEAKER_06:We should do at the end of the episode.
SPEAKER_03:The end of this episode. Okay, let us know what you think. We're very curious, and then let us know did you get it right or were you wrong? And be honest, we know you can fib. Uh, but real quick, pause the episode, uh, write down what you think it is. If you're driving, don't pause the episode and write down what you think it is because you're driving. Uh just keep it in the back of your mind and what you think it is now, and then at the end of the episode, or at the end of your drive shift, you know, tag us on there real quick, say, oh, I thought it was so-and-so, and uh, let's play along. It'll be a lot of fun. Uh, I am gonna go ahead. Uh, should we all do our own little vote round of voting?
SPEAKER_06:I think they're yogurt.
SPEAKER_03:I think it's uh vanilla. I think it's like I think it's like a vanilla icing. Like a vanilla icing. Uh uh zucchini bread, you're you're the you're our master baker.
SPEAKER_07:I believe it is yogurt.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay. It's two yogurts, one vanilla, Eric. Vanilla M. White chocolate. Oh, okay. Oh, it could be that. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:I say yogurt.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. Earlier when the question was asked, my initial response was I think they're white chocolate. Nope, that's not true. My initial response was I think they're yogurt.
SPEAKER_06:You did say that upstairs.
SPEAKER_00:I did say that upstairs. I said it down here too. I think they're yogurt, they look like yogurt to me, just with like the sheen, but I I have done some cheating. I mean some um some research.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but let me ask you this. When was the last time I can't say yet, though? When was the last time you had solid yogurt? Yeah, don't tell them what it is. Okay. When was the last time you had solid yogurt? Mine always comes with fruit at the bottom.
SPEAKER_00:No, I just do regular yogurt. Yeah, but I am a fan of the Yoplay fruit in the bottom, a peach fruit in the bottom. Oh, I banana strawberry.
SPEAKER_07:There's six sections and there's six of us, so are we each gonna choose one?
SPEAKER_06:Vince is going plain. I see why he's going plain.
SPEAKER_03:He is a he is a plain well, he is a plain Jane, one might say.
SPEAKER_06:Who's doing the white? Somebody's gotta have taste buds.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I'll add zucchini bread. She has better taste buds than the bigger.
SPEAKER_06:Do you want to do white? I can do white. And I love pralines.
SPEAKER_03:Which color do you want to know?
SPEAKER_06:Okay, so you're doing that one. I'm gonna do this one.
SPEAKER_03:Wait, which which which one did you do?
SPEAKER_00:Which section did you draw from?
SPEAKER_06:So we've we've done from this side.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, there's two different pralines, okay.
SPEAKER_06:All right, so he did the redder of the two pralines.
SPEAKER_00:Cool.
SPEAKER_06:I do think these are the same. Well, the chocolates, but we'll never know.
SPEAKER_03:Um we won't.
SPEAKER_06:You're gonna do to the so I'm doing this, that other proline.
SPEAKER_03:Oh I can't have sugar.
SPEAKER_06:Give me the other one, I'll do the other chocolate.
SPEAKER_03:No, he can only do regular. Where's your regular one? Right here. Nobody's in my hand already.
SPEAKER_02:I don't want his.
SPEAKER_08:It's a feeling.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, this is Christmas.
SPEAKER_06:Oh.
SPEAKER_03:All right. And we're gonna get a we're gonna enjoy, we're gonna enjoy these real quick, and we'll be right back with you. Well, I gotta say, two thumbs way, way up for what I had. It was fantastic. I had the praline pecan. I love praline pecans. Uh I love the praline candy. Like, just that's just man, that makes me miss the south. You know what I mean? That's just some things that just warm your heart. Now, praline, that is just baked sugar, right? Yes. Oh, God, I love it. It's delicious.
SPEAKER_06:So you're praline or praline? Depends on how you say it.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Or it's like pecan or pecan.
SPEAKER_06:Well, it is like pecan or pecan pecan.
SPEAKER_03:Fun fact, the wonderful sender of this gift clarified that for us. Yes. In Horton, Texas. Yes. Um, a pecan is a nut that grows on a tree, they candy it covered in chocolate and eat it uh whole or halved. A pecan. It is a peanut outhouse. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. Where I lived in in South uh Louisiana, a pecan was a can of Lesour's peas. But I mean I can certainly see how everybody has sure their own uh interpolation of that. But uh no, mine was uh it was really, really good. So who got what and uh how did you like it? And whoever had the the um white pecans, we're gonna keep that quiet and not say what it was, but you could at least say how you liked it. So Eric, which one did you have?
SPEAKER_01:I had the cinnamon pecans, which I liked a whole lot, and my second one was the white pecan, which I can't say now.
SPEAKER_03:Ha ha! So uh the cinnamon pecan, is it just cinnamon roasted pecans or was it a cinnamon praline you felt like?
SPEAKER_01:I think it was cinnamon praline, cinnamon covered something else.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yeah, I kind of agree with that.
SPEAKER_06:Cinnamon sugar.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Like it was a pretty it was a praline. It was crunchy.
SPEAKER_03:It was a what?
SPEAKER_06:The pralines.
SPEAKER_03:I don't remember there have been any pralines, do y'all?
SPEAKER_06:Uh, because I'm from Oregon, that's the way we say it.
SPEAKER_01:Um she's from the religious people.
SPEAKER_08:I had water religions.
SPEAKER_00:I I knew them as pralines too. I mean, we used to have pecan praline ice cream and we caught a pralines in LA.
SPEAKER_06:I overindulged, I had three. Um, I did the one chocolate and while I enjoyed the chocolate, it was great. I missed the nut. The nut was in there, but there was a little more chocolate ratio to the nut. So it was more like just a piece of chocolate.
SPEAKER_03:Was it good quality chocolate?
SPEAKER_06:It was. And then I had the cinnamon praline next. Uh delicious, delicious. Nut came forward, all of that. And then somebody mentioned that the other chocolate wasn't just a chocolate like we thought. It actually was like a toffee, uh score bar y kind of, you know. So I had to go back to that one. Again, same feeling with that though. The nut seems to have gotten lost in the uh nut to chocolate ratio, so but still delicious. I would put it on, I would put the spread out for holidays or just eat the whole darn thing myself, but that probably wouldn't be very conducive to wait.
SPEAKER_03:No, but it does look like a or sugar levels. It looks like a great Saturday when it's snowing outside and there's nothing to do, and you throw the Hallmark channel on.
SPEAKER_06:Yep. Just saying. Yep, hot cocoa or something.
SPEAKER_03:Mr. Uh Jerry, you had the most interesting of them all. Very complicated flavors. How did you like it?
SPEAKER_02:I loved it. It was so complex. It was very nutty, it was very bold. Oh. Um, I had the plain one. It was very good though. Was it salty, plain, nope?
SPEAKER_01:Peppered?
SPEAKER_00:No, just regular. I had a plain one too, and it was like Jerry said, it was a delicious nut.
SPEAKER_06:Again, they're nice, they're nice halves. They're they're not broken, they're not chipped.
SPEAKER_00:They're not dried and shiveled up.
SPEAKER_02:No, yeah, it wasn't like a Walmart baking or something like that. This was a good quality nut.
SPEAKER_01:Each one of the plain ones is about an inch long, so they're not small by any means.
SPEAKER_03:No, no, they're they're very good. They're very good. And and and you know, the one thing about like a f uh fresh, really good pecan like this, or even a walnut or something, is you have such a short shelf life.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You know what I mean? It's like we have to we have to get through this in the next couple days. When you're listening to this uh podcast, that needs to be gone.
SPEAKER_06:I think it would all freeze well too.
SPEAKER_03:No, I don't think that's the truth at all. I don't know. I think it has to be gone.
SPEAKER_01:I don't remember grandma freezing her pecans.
SPEAKER_03:No, I don't. It has to be eaten.
SPEAKER_06:It has to be eaten.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you were asking about do we have little sandwich bags upstairs to be able to break it all up? And so naturally, yes, it will be gone uh by the time the listener hears this episode. But uh what's not gone, you can make into some zucchini uh zucchini pecan bread. Ooh.
SPEAKER_07:Just saying.
SPEAKER_03:All right. And what uh so I uh deducing here, yes, I believe you have the mystery.
SPEAKER_07:I did have the mystery. It was very delicious. Um and there was a lot of flavor in it.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_07:It was good.
SPEAKER_03:Well, YoPlay does that.
SPEAKER_06:She's not giving it up. She's holding her secret tight until the end of the episode.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. No hand.
SPEAKER_03:Alright. Well, uh, I had uh, I'm not gonna lie, I had one of each uh during the break, and um they were all really, really good. I am not uh in your camp, Melissa, with the chocolate ones. I don't mind, but I also love chocolate, so it's like you could put broccoli in chocolate, and I'd be like, Yeah, but it's chocolate. I don't it really was we should try that. Uh after this. Um I I just I just love chocolate, and it's a really good, it is a really good chocolate. And the and the one with the toffee-ish kind of it oh, I think all the coatings were a good quality.
SPEAKER_07:No matter what they put over the pecan. Yes. So you start with the quality nut, and then they put quality product over that coatings, toppings, ingredients over that. So everything was delicious.
SPEAKER_03:I think Jerry nailed it. It's not the Walmart uh quality. This is uh, you know, when I think of like top line producers, I think of like Harry and David, I think of Priesters Pecan, I think of those like really high-end boutique companies, they're clearly there. And it's funny because so for me, the the thing I love is is is I did get the pecans at Walmart with my mom in the baking aisle, and we crushed them up and she made cakes and stuff with them. And I did go to Priesters Pecan with my mom and do the pecan pies. That's where I first discovered chocolate pecan pie, because that doesn't exist in South Louisiana. There's no such thing as chocolate chip pecan pie. It just doesn't. Uh so going and having those, which are Georgian pecans, not Texan pecans, so uh, you know, they're a little different. Um and uh and really getting to experience all of that. So um this just brings back those floods of memories, you know. So it's not only is it delicious, but it's also reminiscent of uh a really great memory with uh my old folks, you know.
SPEAKER_06:Well we thank Ramona and David for another little taste of uh Wharton, Texas.
SPEAKER_03:I can't wait to see what's next. I uh I don't know if Bluebell I don't know if Bluebell has a creamery in Wharton, Texas. I'm not real sure how you get it here, but they've got things called ice packs.
SPEAKER_02:Bluebell is uh North Carolina.
SPEAKER_03:Uh no, bluebell is oh, but bluebell is Texan. You don't know that?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but they originated in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_03:Oh no, nay, nay. No, no, you may be thinking of my other favorite, Mr. Krispy Kre.
SPEAKER_02:Well, no, I know that. That's a been to the original Krispy Kreen many a time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:I'm jealous. Did you say many a time?
SPEAKER_02:Many a time. I used to live like 20 minutes up the road from there.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02:He has his own little name tag. He's never worked there. I'm just saying. I could have sworn Bluebell was originated in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00:Bluebell originated in Brynham, Texas in 1907.
SPEAKER_02:Might drop it.
SPEAKER_00:As the Brynham Creamery Company.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I love me some bluebell Oscar.
SPEAKER_03:I love Bluebell. I saw Bluebell will now ship. Uh because in South Louisiana Bluebells in the sh in the in the you had them too, right? In in uh in Lafayette area, bluebell ice cream?
SPEAKER_01:Uh not so much.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, really? Okay, you're actually closer to Texas than we were.
SPEAKER_01:Not uh for my childhood, I don't remember so much of that.
SPEAKER_03:Do you not remember them not having it, or y'all just never bought it? Because for us Oh, in the stores, yes, we didn't buy it. Okay, yeah. Let me go, let me just step back and say real quick. Let me backtrack my statement a little bit. So uh Bluebell was always the premium expensive ice cream because we didn't have Ben and Jerry's. That came, it came in my high school years, Ben and Jerry's finally made it down, Louisiana. But we didn't have Ben and Jerry's. So Bluebell was the top-notch expensive high-end ice cream. And if you haven't had Bluebell, do it. Did they have a Lysteria outbreak and kill a bunch of people? Yes. But they've moved on. Um so it's uh but that was the expensive stuff. I mean, it was like back in the day, it was like$3.50 for a half gallon.
SPEAKER_06:Oof. That's spindy.
SPEAKER_03:But uh KB drugstore had, you know, a half gallon and a square box that you opened up and then you sliced. It would slice. Yeah, you slice the cardboard box. Yeah, a cardboard box and the little thing the front came down. Yep. They had that for like 99 cents. So$3 was three times the price. You know, and then this is back when Vianetta was$2.50, you know. So I mean it was it was super high-end ice cream. And uh so we never had it. But when I would go to friends' houses, they would sometimes have it, and uh man, their chocolate chip cookie dough, just uh amazing. Their banana pudding, uh oh. Starting to banana pudding ice cream, yes, yes, ma'am. Uh the thing about it, so in Columbus now, you can actually well, I guess anywhere, they'll actually ship to you. And I was curious. Four gallons is the minimum, or four half gallons is the minimum, and I'm like, I could probably do that. I got a deep freezer in the in the basement.
SPEAKER_07:Might have to get rid of a few things first.
SPEAKER_03:It was it came out to like$32 a half gallon. And I'm like, Oh my, I I don't I don't like Ben and Jerry's that much. I mean I have uh bluebell that much. Jeez. Not when we can get Ben and Jerry's here. Right. Uh but uh yeah, no, they were uh they're really good.
SPEAKER_02:Do they still do the gallon? I know for a while like they were the only company that still did full-size gallons.
SPEAKER_00:Is it gallon or half gallon? I might be saying it right. Half gallons with those ship. I think they're either ship a half gallon, a pint, or four half gallons, um looks like twelve pints or twelve cups.
SPEAKER_03:I think you're thinking of half gallon, because the gallon was the uh the the uh plastic one with the handle. With the handle.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, but like in North Carolina growing up, like I know when they used to always do a gallon, and then companies started shortening and doing half gallons and they smaller packaging and stuff like that. And bluebell at the time was the only one still putting out full gallons at the same price. Yeah, that's not ice cream though.
SPEAKER_07:It is ice cream. No, it's not air always came in the gallon bucket. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:That was all I mean you didn't get the small one, you got blue bunny gallon, but yeah, no, so for us growing up, we got the half gallons of uh bluebell, and they were still still says still half a gallon. Are you sure you're so I'm wondering if you think of that? Because like the modern ones, like uh if you go with um Briars and those kind of companies, they're less than a half gallon. They're like because the half gallon is four quart, no, two quarts. Two quarts. Two quarts. Uh if you get briars, it's like one point seven five quarts. That's what I'm thinking. So they're they're like gallon. There's a name for that. It's um not inflation, it's shrinkflation. Shrinkflation, yeah, where they like uh power or not power, gatorate is twenty-eight ounces. It used to be thirty-two.
SPEAKER_00:So for the same price as it was before exactly so our premium ice cream was Umqua.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, it was what?
SPEAKER_06:Umqua, which is an Indian tribe, but there's also a county and a this and a that, and there's this dairy called Umqua. Uh they do cheese and just dairy products in general. Good stuff, and it's very, very high-end. And so ours was typically um Tillomick does does it too. Same thing. Yeah. Uh, names of Oregon. Not gonna find those out here. Uh, but those were our our premium ones.
SPEAKER_03:And uh well Tillamick does cheese out here, right? Yeah, but she wouldn't. But you'll find their ice cream.
SPEAKER_00:You won't find their ice cream out there.
SPEAKER_07:But you can get ice cream in Iowa for Tormoke.
SPEAKER_00:Ours was usually close enough to Oregon, though.
SPEAKER_06:You know, IGA brand in the square. Mama do Neapolitan, so you got options.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Options. What? Well no, not with my dad.
SPEAKER_06:You got a slice and you got all three.
SPEAKER_03:And you took a courtesy bite of each flavor. And what you would do as a kid, because we didn't like the white, uh, I still mix it. You no, we would just let it melt. So you need the chocolate and the strawberry, but you'd leave a little bit, you'd let it milk uh melt, and then you would stir it all up, and then you have uh basically like chocolate strawberry milkshake.
SPEAKER_06:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Or milk, I guess, really at that point.
SPEAKER_06:You had to do something with the vanilla.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was no good. Or if you were, oh, if mom and dad were feeling really good, you would get some chocolate syrup.
SPEAKER_06:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And back in the day, Hershey's was the only option. There was no great value syrup. It was Hershey's was it.
SPEAKER_06:Did you do yours out of the can with the plastic lid that went back on? And mom would use the beer can triangle and pop one side big and the other side small and pour? No.
SPEAKER_03:No, we had the plastic with the squeeze. I am it's funny, isn't it funny how like plastic squeeze has like over the years has has been adopted to other things? So like I grew up with uh the plastic squeeze uh uh chocolate sauce. I grew up with the plastic squeeze, um ketchup and mustard, those have always been plastic squeezes. Mayonnaise didn't come around till I was in college, not not mayonnaise in general, but the plastic squeeze. Right. We had a glass jar, that was the only option you could get was a glass jar. And I remember when they went to the plastic jar, but you still couldn't get it to squeeze tube. Like, that's insane. And then when that came out, it was like, what? And then it was like, well, how do you measure out you squeeze out into your measuring cup? Like it was just weird because we're so used to like you just take the measuring cup, you dip it in the wide mouth jar and move on.
SPEAKER_05:I think there's a time and place for squeezable mayonnaise, though. Uh sandwiches. Yeah, but not like potato salad.
SPEAKER_07:You're getting why not? You're getting the jar for potato salad. Put it in there until it looks about right. You measure with your heart, you stir. You'd be there squeezing forever.
SPEAKER_04:You're a baker? Yeah. Oh. My mom's a baker.
SPEAKER_00:Who measures mayonnaise for potato salad? My my baking moments.
SPEAKER_07:I don't mean measure, but you're not gonna squeeze. You're gonna scoop squeeze to post. You can squeeze just as easily as scoop, and then I'm not getting a utensil dirty.
SPEAKER_05:Are you doing have it? Are you doing it squeezable?
SPEAKER_03:Are all of your potatoes the exact same thing? I don't know.
SPEAKER_05:No, the squeezable is not the same as a big tub of of man-based. It's not, it's less. So that's why I would do it. Uh a big tub of exactly instead of a squeezer. What is she talking about? Listen, she's cut off. So uh she just needs to stick with baking.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know now that she's saying we willy-dilly-do things.
SPEAKER_06:I'm not saying I measure my mayonnaise. What I'm saying is it's easier to use and you get more for your bang than you're gonna do. You do if you're using a tub if you're making potato salad.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_06:Not not as squeezable.
SPEAKER_03:Well, so my convenience costs. So my mom, and we've talked about how she's a master baker and all this stuff, right? Or was. Uh, she was one person who likes tuna fish salad, potato salad, whatever. You all of that was measured. Oh no. And it was the exact same every single time. Like, she was just I feel sorry. You can replicate everything always because you always do measurements of absolutely everything. And uh there was no to taste. To taste was not a included concept in my learning how to cook from my mom. Uh it was if it said a quarter teaspoon of salt, we we we uh took the lid off the salt and we dipped in and and and we and we did the little thing across it, and you put that in. That it was just everything was that way. Uh so no, I can't relate to any of this you're talking about. But now they have squeezable peanut butter, that's wrong. But you know crazier, they have squeezable peanut butter and jelly. I know. How do you mix within the squeeze?
SPEAKER_07:I don't get it. I mean, it's not like it's an epoxy where you squeeze and it comes out equal on both sides.
SPEAKER_03:But even those aren't like even those aren't necessarily perfectly even. One's bigger than the other. It doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_07:No, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03:Peanut butter, you get your edges on the peanut butter, so you put jelly in there and you get a seal, and it's like they have yogurt now, they call go-gurt in a plastic thing that they use to cover pecans. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_05:I know. That's hilarious. So what did you do for Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_00:Can we go back to Bluebill real quick? Yes, please.$134 for four half gallons reasonable. Reasonable, very reasonable. Reasonable$33.50 per half gallon.
SPEAKER_03:I said$34. I was wrong. I'm sorry. Playing by the price is right rules. There you go. I lost.
SPEAKER_06:Quick, quick. Do you know Graters has a banana cream ice cream, and it's delicious.
SPEAKER_03:I did not know that, but I will tonight in a couple hours.
SPEAKER_02:So let me talk to my mom, see how much she can ship it up here for. Because she can get it right there and sell it.
SPEAKER_03:I'm going to Houston tomorrow. I'm going to Houston tomorrow. As long as their freezer works, they can put what at least two, two to four hacked out in there. There you go. And I'll sell you one for$35.
SPEAKER_07:It keeps going up every time he says it, right? It was$35.
SPEAKER_03:Well, with their$38, you could try it.
SPEAKER_06:Can you ship Umqua? That'd be curious to know why Eric shares what he did for Thanksgiving. Um, like Umpire but Umqua UM. Umqua. So while Vince is looking up if you can ship Umqua ice cream to us here in Ohio, uh, what did you do for Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_01:I enjoyed a lovely lobster roll and crispy fries on the side of the pool.
SPEAKER_06:Was it nice and toasty, warm where you were?
SPEAKER_01:Not too much. Not too hot, not too cold, clear skies, only thing I had to worry about was sunburn.
SPEAKER_06:Did you get one?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_06:How was your lobster roll?
SPEAKER_01:Pricey.
SPEAKER_06:Was it tasty? Yes, very it was worth the pricey.
SPEAKER_01:Butter on the bun. It was so good.
SPEAKER_06:Ooh, that sounds yummy.
SPEAKER_03:It was so good.
SPEAKER_06:Did you have the same Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_03:I may have.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, lobster roll with crispy fries?
SPEAKER_03:I would to me it was more like the day before Chris. Uh before Christmas.
SPEAKER_01:The day before Thanksgiving? Yeah, it maybe been the day before. It was my thankful thing. Oh, that's all you were thinking of?
SPEAKER_06:That was yeah. Sunshine, crispy fries, and a lobster roll. What what more do you need? No, it was inside.
SPEAKER_03:It was Yeah, it was pretty epic. I'm not gonna lie. Uh that lobster roll, they're like we were trying to figure out what to do earlier in the week. The restaurants all had great reviews, but they're super expensive. And we're like, oh, we're not doing this. Uh and the the hotel we're staying at had a um I don't know if y'all stayed in a hotel like this. I think Embassy Suites is kind of this way, and there's a uh Jury Inn does this where they have like a free dinner happy hour thing for a couple hours. You can go downstairs and they have a couple little items to eat. Sure. Um, maybe loaded baked potato or nachos or cheeseburgers or flay of fish or something. Uh so the hotel we were at had was similar to that. And we're like, well, that's free, and this is like six million dollars. Uh we'll do the free one. So we did that most nights, uh our most at nights, and then we didn't eat anything. Do big breakfast, no lunch, and then at night. And uh this was one of the mornings where we got up really early, and then went to the pool, spent all day by the pool, and so it was like, well, the one thing that kept coming up was the lobster roll. And so I was like, I'm gonna look this lobster roll uh restaurant up because I didn't know which one it was at the place we were at. And I'm like, and then we'll go there. Like, we'll I was surprised they're gonna be like, hey, let's go, whatever. Come to find out it is the actual pool restaurant. Oh, yeah, like I had no idea. And so I'm like, exactly. I'm like, oh, this is great.
SPEAKER_01:So talk about delivery, and they walked it up.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, they literally rocked by and they were like, here, and they it was like a big enclosed tray. I've never seen anything quite like it. Uh, and then you lifted the lid, and it was just everything was it was really nice. It was very cool. Uh and uh the lot they were not joking. The lobster roll was no joke, it was insanely good. Overflowing. The lobster uh overflowed abundantly. It was, you know.
SPEAKER_01:And when I say crispy fries, I'm talking about the fries. You can eat them and then leave some for like 15-30 minutes later, and they're not soggy. They're still just as crispy when they were served.
SPEAKER_06:Oh nice.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:They were good fries.
SPEAKER_03:They were. And uh the uh ketchup was served in like the little ramekins, so you weren't trying to rip individual little packets and do all that. It was so fancy. Yeah, very classy. Very classy.
SPEAKER_07:You didn't get mayo for your fries?
SPEAKER_03:No, because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00:Did you find yourself eating the fries with your pinky out?
SPEAKER_03:I did. I did.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, many dipped in a few.
SPEAKER_03:They were seasoned fries, right? They were almost like Cajun style season fries.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Yeah. I say Cajun style, and most people don't know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, uh, I think like uh rallies or um five guys. Five guys. It's funny. We were talking to someone earlier, they said five guys.
SPEAKER_01:It's the best way to describe it.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. No, but they weren't like, you know how five guys' fries are like soggy and whatever, but they're still good. These weren't that way at all. It was that that part was different. It was very good. Um and then just be able to sit there, hang out. Once we got done eating, we waited our appropriate 30 minutes and then went in the water and just cooled off, and yeah, it was nice.
SPEAKER_06:It was and I joked that we only had leftovers. We did. Uh we binge some TV uh for us. We played with a few new cocktail recipes, which was fun. I always enjoy doing that. Uh, but we did get away for uh a couple of uh quick outings from the house, and both times we were able to um pick up a coffee from our favorite coffee shop. So I was thankful for our weekend that we were able to have two coffees in one weekend. But otherwise, ours was quiet.
SPEAKER_03:Sometimes that's nice.
SPEAKER_06:It was very nice. We did a lot of binge watching.
SPEAKER_00:I was thankful that I had a job and I could go to work on Friday and take care of business and then go to work again on Sunday. Um, so I'm thankful that I have a job. Me too. Uh actually it just worked out that way that you know there were things that need to be taken care of and got us out of the house and got us to coffee or take a call always.
SPEAKER_03:I'll say one thing too. Like for me and Eric, y'all know that oftentimes we travel with people, right? Like a lot of our travels over the years have been with other people, and this was a chance for he and I to just get away ourselves. Yeah, uh, we didn't tell anybody. About it. We were kind of intentionally secretive about it. And uh we can fight in private. And uh and it was just nice, like not having uh because we went back to a place we've actually been before with people, and as we were driving around, like we the first thing we said we're gonna do is we're gonna go to Costco and we're gonna buy some food and we're gonna get everything prepped up and whatever. We landed, we were tired, we're like, eh, screw that. Went straight to the hotel. Just the ability to do that, yeah, and not have two, three, four other people with you saying, like, oh, but we gotta go do that. You know, that was great. Like, we love big. Yes, we love traveling with people. It's something we're passionate about, and we uh pretty much traveled with everybody in here, and like it's something we love doing, but it is really nice when you can just get away and it's just two of you and making decisions is like, what do you feel like doing this morning? Ah, hanging by the pool all day. Great, that's what we're doing. What do you feel like doing today? Uh, I don't know, let's go drive around. Uh we were in a place that was uh uh an island, and it was like, let's go drive around the island. So we literally went and drove around the island, and and Eric almost got us killed. It was fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, but that's a big island to drive around too, though. I mean, it was.
SPEAKER_03:Madagascar is huge. Yeah, it's like 3,700 miles. Yeah, it's it's a big island. It's a big island. It's a huge island. No. Uh we weren't in Madagascar.
SPEAKER_06:Uh I went to like Fiji, where it only takes you like 10 minutes to do that. I think I walked around Fiji.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm curious how we almost got us killed. Do tell.
SPEAKER_08:Do tell.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so the map says. Oh.
SPEAKER_08:Oh, do you hear it? Do you hear this? No, no, no, no. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I'm making a sound bot out of that.
SPEAKER_03:Well, so since you asked, the map says that there's a road that goes all the way around the island, and there is. However, the definition of road changes, shall we say county by county? Yeah. And um at one point the road consisted of gravel while you're dangling off the side of a cliff a thousand feet above the water.
SPEAKER_06:Ooh, that could be fun.
SPEAKER_01:With the sign before it say, do not pass unless you're in a jeep. Yeah. We were in a jeep. How did we need to pass it? Not at that island.
SPEAKER_03:No, I mean the first I mean the first one.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_03:You're talking about the second one. Yes, I know what you're talking about. That's the one that we gotta turn around. Oh, that was anyways. So it happened. So twice. It happened twice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:Oh.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so we did two different islands.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm an adventurous person.
SPEAKER_03:On the second one.
SPEAKER_06:You didn't do it.
SPEAKER_03:And now that I'm saying this, okay, I am curious. Here's part number two to the comment section. If you can guess the second island that we were on by only this clue.
SPEAKER_06:You're pretty good?
SPEAKER_03:You're pretty good. You've been there. You're well traveled. Well traveled, been there, done that. We appreciate it, and I'm dying to see who can actually say it. You can travel around 98% of the island, and there's two percent of the island that is Jeep only by permit.
SPEAKER_06:By permit.
SPEAKER_03:Was it Catalina? Oh, I wasn't supposed to say that loud. It was not Catalina.
SPEAKER_06:Would be Island.
SPEAKER_03:It was what?
SPEAKER_06:Woodby Island.
SPEAKER_03:Would Woodby Island in Washington? Washington. Never heard of it. So clearly wasn't that one. Uh alright. Well your two guesses are up. So uh no, so yeah, there's one little section. And we drove in rush hour traffic for rush hour hours. And we get out there and it's like Jeeps only, and I'm like, I could yeah, I could I was poof uh now the good thing about rush hour is when you go the opposite direction, you don't there's nobody. So like what took two hours took like 22 minutes the opposite direction, and we were able to actually go all the way around to the to that other point, and uh and it was cool, and we actually did have a really, really fun time.
SPEAKER_07:You didn't just get out and walk then? So you could have seen you went around the whole thing.
SPEAKER_06:They want to know who's going in case you don't come the other side. Exactly. That's what I'm thinking. And then they'll come look for you.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, or evidence.
SPEAKER_06:The Rogue River does that in Oregon. There's a section they call it the wild and scenic rogue, and you have to um take a course check in at the boat ramp. So if you're doing a float, if you're floating above the boat ramp, you have to pull off and check in.
SPEAKER_04:How do you float above the boat boat ramp?
SPEAKER_06:So there's river.
SPEAKER_04:There's river that you put it in north of the upstream. I thought you meant on the rock.
SPEAKER_06:Nope. So if you are floating upstream and your goal is eventually to go through the wild and scenic section, then you would make sure that you get your raft to go over and get out and check in with the um park ranger.
SPEAKER_00:Park ranger.
SPEAKER_06:Is that the section we went through?
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_06:No, okay, much lower. So um, and then you can also drive directly to the boat ramp and put in directly there. So that boat ramp signifies where the wild and scenic. They actually filmed part of it. Nope, River Wild with River Phoenix. Carol Street and Kevin Bacon. There's a movie, and part of it is filmed on that scenic route, on that scenic part of it. But it's actually it it's called the Wild and Scenic Rogue Rogue River, but you have to have a permit to float how many people you're checking in, how many days it's taking you, and they from point A to point B, they want to know where you're going.
SPEAKER_03:I can't imagine anything more scenic than what we did.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, it's beautiful. I never have done it. Uh I have a classmate that's got his own boat and he does it. And I've often thought how fun it would be to charter a trip with him and some of his other friends.
SPEAKER_03:And forget the other friends. Sounds like a high-filled staff uh well you'd have to have other people. Sounds like a team building.
SPEAKER_07:You can't get a team building.
SPEAKER_03:We'll bring the pontoon.
SPEAKER_07:But I mean it's no. We bring the kayaks. No.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, the kayaks would probably make it. Durable ish. They'd they'd make it. They'd make it movie. Yeah. So it'd be like, well, there is evidence of a cooler strap to the one of them. And one of them has a fishing pole.
SPEAKER_06:So I could see your island. I could see your island being one of those where it it is.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_06:They want you to go, but it's for experienced people.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:And you have to log in, log out, because they want to make sure you made it to one or the other sides.
SPEAKER_03:Well, the original island, uh, it was not that strict. There was no permits, but there was a clause in the rental car contract saying we wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_06:That you can't do that. Yeah, that stretch.
SPEAKER_03:That stretch, yeah. So um, no scratches. So I mean, but they don't know won't hurt them, right? Like I don't know.
SPEAKER_07:And you didn't fall off the cliff, so you return the car.
SPEAKER_03:No, at least three or four tires stayed on. So uh that's all that matters. Three points of contact. That's right.
SPEAKER_06:Well, it sounds like everybody's Thanksgiving was really nice.
SPEAKER_03:It was really nice, really fun. Looking forward to uh looking forward to Christmas holidays coming up, which uh is actually right around the corner. So by the time you hear this, it'll be about a week and some days until Christmas. And we just want to, I know personally from uh all of us over here at Highfield, but also the Outer Belt, wish all of y'all a happy birth uh birthday.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, welcome to the case. You can do that too.
SPEAKER_00:Actually, I may have a birthday before we come back. You know, you won't. Okay.
SPEAKER_06:And then that's it.
SPEAKER_03:And then one more thing. That's it. That's it. No must. That's it. Well, we have to find a new sponsor. So we're looking for new sponsors, preferably from someone with uh in cheese curd uh territory or uh uh if you're if you live near a good picklery. Um picklery, it is the copyright that right now. Yeah, uh, or if you are uh famous for your potato chips, or I don't know what Jerry, what else do you think? What are you in the mood for? Twizzlers? I don't know. We we need a driver, we need drivers from uh Hershey PA. I'm just saying cheese is always good. Cheese is great. Can we have drivers from uh we've got drivers no? I'm saying can we have drivers from um uh from um Calina Island? No, uh uh that's that's right. Um we have teams from Oregon.
SPEAKER_06:We need to get them when they go home to put some Umqua in their freezer, and then when they're out here, I mean come on, one half gallon that we could share.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, half gallon.
SPEAKER_00:We have we have teams from from Maine. They can ship us lobster.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, listen, we had a team that brought us that would bring us lobster and lobster rolls. You want to hear something funny?
SPEAKER_06:I went to open my phone to go to our shared note for tonight.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_06:Literally, the first thing on my phone is a sponsored ad from you ready for it? Yes, Bluebell Ice Cream ship anywhere in the United States.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, but they don't listen to us. Thank you.
SPEAKER_06:Thank you, y'all, y'all are killing me. I was just y'all, where the organism from getting ready to open up our note to see what else we had on there, but I think lobster and I miss pork rinds from HEV.
SPEAKER_00:We've got teams from Texas. Pork rinds from HEV they could ship it here.
SPEAKER_07:There's so much in Texas.
SPEAKER_00:Where's Kinder's out of the house?
SPEAKER_07:And the HEV is like two minutes from the house.
SPEAKER_00:But I mean, in Texas is um is uh meat church. Well, last time I came up I mean we can get meat church down the road at Ace Hardware. Yeah, well, not anymore. A little further down the road. Somebody tried to barbecue the Ace Hardware.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, but well, it just smelled so good. It did. It did. Um, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Sprinkle a little meat church on it, and it's all good.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man. It's nice to get goodies.
SPEAKER_06:Did the jerky all get eight?
SPEAKER_03:The jerky all got eight.
SPEAKER_06:That was good.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. You know why Six was nervous, right?
SPEAKER_06:Because seven, eight, nine?
SPEAKER_03:That's the one. There you go. Uh well, we do have a little bit of business to talk about real quick. We have a news article that uh we wanted to chat about, and I alluded to it earlier uh about us being on a delayed schedule, so we're not always getting things out to you in the most timely manner that we'd want to. And in this particular case, we actually saved us.
SPEAKER_00:It was a good thing, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:It was a good thing. And uh and we talked about even going live and conversing about it, and uh while we were on the island. Yep. I wanted to talk about it real quick because it is still news and it is interesting, uh, but it is just not nearly as impactful as it was originally set out to be. And it's one of those stories that within five minutes everybody covered it. Oh, yeah. Oh, it was the earth is falling, a sky is falling. Is that what's that from? Chicken Little?
SPEAKER_00:Chicken Little. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Chicken Little.
SPEAKER_06:Um Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.
SPEAKER_00:I think we would have covered it in a way that it should have been, because the original article said we heard from a source. Well, okay, we haven't confirmed this.
SPEAKER_03:And the original article was probably the most accurate. Everybody else kind of not everybody else. I didn't read every 9,000 or something. But a lot of no, but a lot of takes on it were very similar. Blown out of proportion. Sure.
SPEAKER_00:But our our and our reaction was pretty strong as well to reading it.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. You know? Well, our conversation internally was like, I cannot believe this. Sure.
SPEAKER_06:Okay, so what happened?
SPEAKER_00:I don't I don't know. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_06:What was the original article?
SPEAKER_00:I'm just going along with the joke.
SPEAKER_06:The original article that y'all read.
SPEAKER_00:The original article.
SPEAKER_06:Oh, that doesn't happen. Woo! That doesn't happen very often. Original article.
SPEAKER_03:I believe Vince read it. It was.
SPEAKER_06:Just paraphrasing.
SPEAKER_00:The original article said that CRST was shutting down its over-the-road trucking operation.
SPEAKER_06:That was it.
SPEAKER_00:They've got some 4,000 tractors and 6,000 trailers. That's a huge company that's shutting down a huge operation.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. And they're saying they're over-the-road division. We all know they have an expedite. They have a not our version of Expedite, a their version. Their version, which is non anyway, doesn't matter. They have Final Mile, they have uh um oh, what's it called? Uh show production or whatever, event production, which is where they have those special trailers with you ever seen like a special, it almost looks like a moving trailer, but it has a lift gate on it. But it's got those little boxes underneath it, like a Kentucky trailer or whatever it is. CRST has a bunch of those, and they do like trade shows and things like that. Um and so they uh but they weren't tired about that. They're talking about strictly their over-the-road trucking division, and everybody recorded it because the article said what, Vince?
SPEAKER_00:So the original article it did say that um they've got 4,082 drivers, 4,362 trucks, and roughly 2,000 independent contractors. Wow. And according to the original article, it made it sound like that was all going away.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But CRST clarified in a comment a statement to um two freight waves that that wasn't the case at all. Um it's actually quite like a lot different. It's a lot different. Yeah, it's a lot different.
SPEAKER_06:The company said in response to the challenging over-the-road market they plan to redistribute much of its capacity solutions OTR fleet. That's what they're calling it, operations to other business units. This will result in a reduction of nearly 200 trucks, big difference, uh, from this fleet, and a redeployment of approximately 100 to other growing areas of the business. The capacity solutions brokerage service customers and assets remain unchanged. So, really, it's just 200 trucks from the fleet, but they're gonna redeploy half of them to go do it.
SPEAKER_03:So, really, they're only taking 100 trucks out of their trucks, 100 drivers or independent contractors.
SPEAKER_00:Not necessarily. Nope trucks, not necessarily, 100 trucks. Okay, out of their 4,300, 362 trucks, they've got a hundred trucks sitting there not doing anything. Absolutely. And they're gonna redistribute them. So a hundred of their old trucks are going to the auction block. Right. Okay. And that doesn't mean any drivers are going away. And then they're they're not saying that here in this comment. And this was a comment from uh CRST2 Freightways. They're not saying that they're laying off or getting rid of anybody. I'd imagine that they're just they gotta extra some extra trucks. They're gonna put a hundred of them in a different division, and the other hundred go into the auction blocks, and they're probably not displacing any drivers. I mean, we all we've all driven back past the ship this the Swift uh yard here and come up and set 270 and 70, and you see all the trucks that are sitting there in that parking lot all the time. Or if you head out towards Dayton, there's the Werner lot. Yeah, or if you pass, well, I was gonna say R and L, but that's a different story because they're tractors. Yeah, these these large fleets have these tractors hanging out.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I mean, I think the average for most fleets is somewhere around 20% of the trucks are parked at any given time. Yep. And you mean you think about 20% of the trucks, okay? If you have five trucks, it's a truck. Right. Not a big deal. Yeah. But if you have uh, you know, thousand trucks, it's two hundred trucks that are parked. If you have four thousand trucks and you're uh getting rid of a hundred of them, it's nothing.
SPEAKER_00:I mean twenty percent of four thousand is eight hundred eight hundred. Yeah. You know?
SPEAKER_06:So do you know when the original story broke? I don't see a date, but I do see your updated uh on freight waves.
SPEAKER_03:I think it was Decem.
SPEAKER_00:Oh the update was on December 3rd.
SPEAKER_06:Yes. Um Do you know when the original story broke?
SPEAKER_00:Let me look because there actually is an apology on Freight Waves from the uh CEO at Freight Waves um apologizing for the way the story went out and what the headline looked like. Um it was Wednesday, the 3rd of December.
SPEAKER_06:So later that day, Freight Waves came out with an apology.
SPEAKER_00:Right, when CRST reached out to them and gave that statement that we read already.
SPEAKER_06:So I found an article on Trucking Dive. I'm not familiar with them, uh published December 8th, which is yesterday. Okay, about CRS CRST. Uh and it does say that it leads to hundreds of job cuts, which I know we just talked about 30 seconds ago, that it didn't sound like they were gonna cut jobs. It was trucks. So this article says the carrier will reduce its fleet by the 200 trucks, 200 trucks in a move to boost reliability and long-term stability. Uh their plan to redeploy a portion of its uh capacity solutions OTR fleet will lead to hundreds of jobs cut and a reduction of its fleet by 200 trucks. And they announced this on the fourth. Yeah, so after freight waves. So actual CRST announces on the fourth. It says this this is a quote this decision is intended to strengthen our ability to serve customers through the solutions that drive the most value, reliability, and long-term stability. Um, it goes on to say the action will result in a headcount reduction of over 300 employees. Drivers represented represented most of those affected, and all impacted workers were provided with a 60-day notice on December 3rd.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. So that's some good clarification. I mean For sure. It's a lot of people, which I do get, but it's still a fraction of their workforce.
SPEAKER_06:And they still say they're only shifting a hundred of the two hundred to somewhere else.
SPEAKER_03:Well, and a lot of their like, especially within uh the way they do their uh uh trucks, if they if they I don't know if they do or not, but if they run um what's it called, hot seat or uh yeah, hot seat or slip seat. Slip seat, then one truck could have two, three, four people assigned to it. Sure. So it's not necessarily like how we run where like your truck is your baby. Right. Um so I could certainly see how CRS team runs CRC runs a lot of team trucks too, I think.
SPEAKER_00:They do.
SPEAKER_06:It has it represents less than four percent of the carrier's logistics portfolio.
SPEAKER_00:So they're shifting a hundred trucks to other parts of its business, and roughly two hundred trucks will be removed from the fleet. So they're not taking the 100 of the 200, 100 trucks removed, and then 200 trucks we removed from the fleet. Okay. So we get to do it.
SPEAKER_06:Well, they've been in business for 70 years.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I almost wonder if this is like not even newsworthy. It's just a logistical move. Not even that. It's just that someone tipped off, hey, something's about to happen big, and you know, here we're gonna get rid of this. Yeah. And now that we see all the details, it's like this isn't even a news article.
SPEAKER_00:I think I think today it is newsworthy because we're seeing a lot of contraction in the trucking market. Sure. We're seeing a lot of different I mean this this is newsworthy because it's C R S T. It's a large, it's a huge fleet. I mean, if we talked about every uh trucking company that went out of business. that had 50 trucks or 10 trucks or 100 trucks, we would be talking every day about this, right? Yeah. But because of contraction of the market, this is a news story because it's C RST. But right, you're right. Once we get the details, it's like, yeah, it's not a huge story.
SPEAKER_07:Isn't this just kind of a normal adjustment?
SPEAKER_03:I mean I think a company that big probably has 10% of their fleet grow, shrink, grow, shrink all the time. 12%'s nothing. You know, like we're again agreed, Minstar, M I N S T A R, I've seen their trucks, their trailers they obviously do something in Columbus because I see them here, but I know they're big and like they're based on Minnesota. It's their whole name. Like they just went out of business. Yeah. 100 trucks. I don't know how many trailers but 100 trucks. So um that to me is newsworthy because that's like a pretty decent sized motor carrier that's been around for a long time. They didn't just pop up overnight and they said goodbye. Next week we're going to talk about Tin Roads. That story is is is pretty heartbreaking. It's uh it's definitely an interesting time in the trucking world. Yeah. You know for sure. And and part of this is is market resetting itself. Part of it is uh tariffs in the chain that's happened because of that. Part of it is uh equalizing forces within the market. It's part of it's the labor situation with what's going on with um non-domicile uh drivers and English proficiency and all that. So there's so many dynamics right now going on. It's it's kind of crazy. It does uh it make me sit back and go, I am so glad we latched on to very firm uh carriers to work with yeah because as you see it's like having a carrier that's backed by a multi-billion dollar company or specializes in a certain segment of freight that is not economy based uh really helps make sure that we still have freight to run. Sure. And that we still have work to do. And that we actually have pretty decent rates when rates have been suppressed. Um and when you look at the predictions for 2026 we do see some some some uh large banks which those are the people that like they do the best homework when it comes to forecasting right large banks do the best sure and I don't mean like Regions Bank I mean like Morgan Stanley right you know uh I was gonna say Lehman Brothers but I don't really think they're they're not doing a whole lot with that in that sector anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Not anymore.
SPEAKER_03:Uh but these huge uh Wall Street companies they are looking at it and they are predicting growth in 2026 which is encouraging to most of us but the reason they are predicting growth is because of downfall of case they they know that that there are a number of um companies that are barely surviving yeah and and this uh coming year it's they're not gonna make it you know I think we I don't remember if we talked about this last or last time or not but I know Jerry you did a uh interesting um conversation about it where uh on expedite boogie where you were talking about the thinning that's coming in uh the first quarter second quarter of next year um these banks know that and we hate to see it we hate to see people lose their jobs and and it some of these companies are quite old um go out but i it is what it is and so the market's gonna react accordingly and you know again it just makes me go back and say this is the reason you latch yourself around a Panther premium logistics owned by Ark Best or you are a FedEx customer critical owned by FedEx freight you know you you do stand back and you you you know okay these hundred million dollar companies are fighting to survive these billion dollar companies are not right and so um I think it's an it's a feather in our cap but it's still you know when some of these crooked companies go out of business it's yay when some of these good companies go out of business it's like dang not them so it it's it's a very conflicting time we're living in that's for sure it truly is that's for sure but yeah for now keep doing our thing yep doing our thing if you've enjoyed any of this at all we just want to say thank you so much for hanging out with us share share uh share this with a friend of yours if they want to listen to something going down the road they want to kill a few hours we've got a lot of episodes at this point please share it with them uh we are happy to entertain we love we're currently entertaining drivers I saw it posted it is Facebook official I know it's Facebook official um so no we do enjoy hanging out with y'all we appreciate everything you're doing to keep things uh going to keep the economy rolling to get people their drugs to get people their uh emergency freight to there are pharmaceutical drugs pharmaceutical drugs yes absolutely well he said it doesn't matter but uh it's it really means a lot uh what you're doing uh in and being able to stay safe uh over the next couple weeks we know that you're gonna go home for Christmas and you're gonna uh be there for Christmas for for um new years as well I was gonna say Thanksgiving I'm like that's already coming to talk all the holidays confused all the holidays well if it's Christmas then New Year's then Thanksgiving right so uh we starts tomorrow oh yes yeah that's right uh so but we do hope you enjoy this holiday season when you go home please enjoy those memories you make with your family they're so important if you choose to stay out we hope that you can uh at least hang out with some other people at a truck stop get one of those big TA uh Thanksgiving dinners or something like that or Iron Skillet dinners Christmas dinners you did it again I don't know just stick with holiday the holiday dinners uh and we uh we hope you really do have a good um holiday season time yeah off make sure you hit that thumbs up button and the subscribe button it really does help out the channel share the video as Patrick mentioned and if you are interested at all in highfield trucking and what we do over here in the extent industry make sure you check us out at highfieldtrucking.com uh you can chat with us live over there Monday through Friday 8 a.m to 5 p.m.
SPEAKER_02:We have a live chat you can also reach out to recruiting at 833 highfield that's 833 493 4353 option one again Monday through Friday 8 a.m to 5 p.m Eastern time if you have a comment about the show or anything that you want to suggest a future topic on send us an email at the outdoorbeltpodcast at gmail.com or leave a comment down below we do read all of those and try to respond accordingly we appreciate the uh Atkinson pecans uh tonight they were delicious and um you should get yourself some for your holiday table they are really really tasty in fact I'm gonna dip into a cinnamon one after the show's all done because they were good.
SPEAKER_06:I might take one of the toppy ones to go.
SPEAKER_03:Well don't forget we have sandwich bags so we need to devour this because they will not be these will be gone while you listen to it. Until next week stay safe make good decisions don't leave money on the table.
SPEAKER_02:And keep those wills a turn by the sound effect drum roll please well I meant like do a like a sound a drum roll sound effect and that's exactly what I was gonna do in editing.
SPEAKER_04:And it's you know what we'll do it live beep beep beep live look at it this guy just up our whole exit all right so drums please what was the white pecan it was white chocolate yogurty it was so good it's delicious grilled chocolate I was about to say it's not chocolate.
SPEAKER_06:I had a little piece didn't have a nut in it and and I'm just not a white chocolate girl but uh well I will eat all of them.
SPEAKER_03:There you go all every single one like well Eric will have half I'll have again Atkinsonpecan dot com get you some thank you good night