K’Gari Australia Travel Story With Sand Dunes Dingoes And A Dinner That Never Arrived

A trip can be “the best time of your life” and still include flooding, forgotten towels, and a dinner that never shows up. That’s the energy we bring today as we bounce from laugh-out-loud banter into a detailed Australia travel story that’s equal parts practical and ridiculous.

We start with comedy nostalgia and the way Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, and YouTube clips shape what we call “funny” now. Then we slide into food talk that gets weirdly specific fast: Easter candy, Peeps hot takes, Jelly Belly favorites, and even a shoutout to the Jelly Belly factory and its legendary seconds known as “belly flops.” If you love travel snacks, road trip traditions, or just debating best flavors, you’ll feel seen.

From there, we shift into travel and transportation with a real Frontier Airlines incident out of Columbus, Ohio, including the bomb threat claim and why emergency transponder squawk codes matter in aviation safety. Then we go big with space talk, Artemis moon mission hype, and the movie Fly Me To The Moon before diving into the main event: our Australia road trip recap. We talk K’Gari (Fraser Island), the world’s largest sand island, beach driving, rainforest walks on sand, freshwater lakes like Lake McKenzie, the champagne pools, dingo season rules, and the planning mistakes we will not repeat. We also hit Bundaberg rum, Whitsundays downtime, Magnetic Island food, and the Great Barrier Reef tour that got canceled because monsoon weather is not a joke.

If you like real travel stories, smart-but-casual aviation talk, and the kind of friend-group conversation that keeps surprising you, subscribe, share this with a travel buddy, and leave a review with your worst travel mishap so we can compare notes.

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Transcript

Nostalgic Comedy TV Debate

SPEAKER_06 0:00

It's a happy, happy joy, joy, can I?

SPEAKER_04 0:03

It is. Some of us are feeling really good today.

SPEAKER_06 0:16

Hey everybody, welcome to the Audibelt. I am Patrick, you know my friends, Hans, the woman, Franz, the other woman, Jerry.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

I don't get a cool name.

SPEAKER_06 0:25

How are y'all not ready for that? This is the second year in a row we've done it.

SPEAKER_04 0:30

Hans, Franz, women, I am Hans Jerry. And I am and he's Franz.

SPEAKER_08 0:38

And we are here to pump you up.

SPEAKER_06 0:42

Don't be a glimmer.

SPEAKER_08 0:44

No one watched Saturday Night Live, I guess. Apparently not.

SPEAKER_06 0:47

Well, this was brought to you by Dana Carvey and David and um the other guy. Kevin, was it Kevin Nealin? Kevin Nealin. Yeah, Kevin Nealin. Well, yeah. That brings it back.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Started Saturday Night Live in UK.

SPEAKER_06 0:59

Do you know that Saturday Live's been going on for 52 years now? It's been a while.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Like a fresh UK vibe? Or are they sitting over from 52 years ago for reasons?

SPEAKER_07 1:11

Yeah, they're just showing it there.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

They're just, yeah, they're like, Bring forth. They just got their own version of Saturday Night Live.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Oh, it's much funnier. It'd be funnier than ours.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Well, they had it.

SPEAKER_08 1:21

Ours isn't very funny most of the time.

SPEAKER_06 1:23

Ours is hysterical.

SPEAKER_08 1:24

I stopped watching it a while back.

SPEAKER_06 1:26

So that but the we so the person So the person who doesn't watch it, because you stopped watching it a while back knows exactly how it is now.

SPEAKER_08 1:31

I stopped watching it because it wasn't funny. It was like the sketches right on the verge of being funny. Yes. That was it, it was over.

SPEAKER_06 1:39

Oh. We've watched it in a while.

SPEAKER_08 1:41

There were some quality ones.

SPEAKER_06 1:42

We we we got on a kick a while back of watching it, really during the 50th that season, which is done come and gone. Um there were a lot of really there were some duds. There's always some duds, but there were some really funny make you fall on the floor and grab your side laughing so hard moments. I need to reboot it then.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

I but you haven't watched it in a while. I just want to can you quantify a while? Because you've never watched it in the years we've been together. That's at least eight.

SPEAKER_08 2:11

That you are aware of.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 2:13

I I would watch it on YouTube.

SPEAKER_04 2:15

Okay. So again, a while. Quantify.

SPEAKER_08 2:18

A couple years.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Okay.

unknown 2:20

Huh?

SPEAKER_08 2:21

They they put they they they're the first I've heard about this. They put the episodes on YouTube like the next day. Uh-huh. Not the full episode. Sure. You can watch the individual skits and watch all the skits on YouTube on the NBC channel. On the maybe it's Saturday Night Live Channel. It's a Saturday night live. I love learning new things about you. So you can you can see them.

SPEAKER_04 2:40

Thanks.

SPEAKER_08 2:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:41

Who's your favorite cast member?

SPEAKER_07 2:42

This was the last time you watched it.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

Chevy Chase. Oh, but Dan Android. Current cast member?

SPEAKER_06 2:48

It's been a minute.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Eddie Murphy.

SPEAKER_06 2:50

Chevy Chase. Chevy Chase, the guy that even Lauren Michaels was like, you're too much for the 50th.

SPEAKER_08 2:55

Eddie, Eddie Murphy's my favorite, but the current current is Keenan Thompson.

SPEAKER_06 3:00

Current. Okay. I guess that works. He's only been on the show for 35 years. Exactly. The longest ever running cast member. That was convenient for people like me and Eric. You know, we watched Keenan on uh Nickelodeon. Yeah, and then he just goes right into SNL. Keenan and Kel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 3:15

Well Goodburger Home of the Goodburger.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

What show is that on? Keenan and Nikel on Nickelodeon. I didn't have Nickelodeon. I didn't either. Did you?

SPEAKER_06 3:26

Nickelodeon. Come on. You don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Okay, well, half of us did not go up with Nickelodeon.

SPEAKER_08 3:32

Nick Jr.

SPEAKER_06 3:33

No, I was too Nick Jr. So you gotta remember my kids. Oh yeah. I was gonna say I was too old. So they came out with Nick Jr. after I had already graduated. Or not I graduated, but I was still junior. I was no longer junior, so those shows I wasn't watching anyways. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 3:48

But I did like it because at least it's strange because I have kids your age. No, you don't. It's okay to laugh, Sherry. Really. Do you have kids my age? Um my daughter is eight years younger than you. That's not my age. I'm here to say that's pretty clean.

SPEAKER_06 4:04

Claim Clay, same thing. Okay. So it's close enough to her and I could date. It'd be awkward since she's married, but fairly awkward. But I mean, it's not like we were watching the same thing. Power Rangers had already they were on like Power Rangers, like the Philippines or something, and I watched the Power Rangers Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 4:27

Yeah. What about Eureka's Castle?

SPEAKER_07 4:30

Yes, they did watch Eureka's Castle. Okay, I watched that.

SPEAKER_06 4:33

Some good stuff there.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Some good stuff. Talking about Saturday Night Live, I was always a mad TV person.

SPEAKER_03 4:38

I like it.

SPEAKER_06 4:39

I think you went a little bit before, yeah. I couldn't watch Mad TV, couldn't read Mad magazine, couldn't watch in Living Color. I really couldn't watch Saturday Night Live as a kid either. I had to go watch it like in my bedroom on the black and white TV, so I don't know what Chris Farley looks like in color.

SPEAKER_08 4:54

You could guess, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_06 4:56

Well, I mean, you saw him on like Black Sheep or his his crown and jewel Tommy Bull. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

I did that with Monty Python.

SPEAKER_06 5:03

I would sneak down and oh, then the Holy Grail? Or you mean the series? Oh yeah. Never saw the series. That was too old. They're too young for that.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Who came off of Mad TV?

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Mrs. Swan was my favorite. I don't know her real name. I don't know people's names.

SPEAKER_04 5:18

Did it last very long? Like how many seasons? Yeah, they a few. Mad TV? Yeah, it was around for a while. They gave it quite a while. Give it a good shot.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah. I think they were around for gosh, like 10?

SPEAKER_04 5:29

Where's our fat checker? He didn't come tonight, huh?

unknown 5:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

All right.

SPEAKER_06 5:33

And Living Color was out for a long time.

SPEAKER_08 5:35

It felt like is it like three or four years, I think.

SPEAKER_06 5:37

Oh, was it that short? Yeah, it was. Okay, three or four. Because that was Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Which I always thought you got J Lo off of it.

SPEAKER_06 5:43

I'm like, why is why is this not on the SNL? And a lot of them are SNL rejects, but their stuff was funny. But they didn't do it live either, right? Like they would pre-record.

SPEAKER_08 5:52

No, I think so. But you also got uh Jamie Foxx. Um Keen and Ivory Wayans produced it, but he was something before that, if you know Keenan Ivory Wayans, uh Damon Wayans, Marlon, and um his brother Wayans Sean. All the way in all the Wayans were on the show. The what the sister Wayans. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Would you weigh in every week?

SPEAKER_08 6:15

Yes. There it is. I would. I would weigh in every week. Yes. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

Sorry, Mad TV had 15 seasons.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

Oh, they gave it a good long run.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Any good people come off that one? I just remember Mrs.

SPEAKER_06 6:30

Swan.

unknown 6:33

Oh.

SPEAKER_08 6:34

That's the only reason he watched it. One of my favorite SNL skits was when Bruno Mars was hosting and the musical guest. Yes. And he did the Pandora sketch. Anybody familiar with the Pandora, Bruno Mars? That was about the jewelry, right? No, the the the uh the the website Pandora, me the music service. Oh, uh no, I don't recall it. It doesn't matter. Look it up, you can't find it. Never mind.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Has it been banned? Is that why we're gonna do it?

SPEAKER_08 7:00

It's been pulled because of the copyright stuff. They actually used real songs during the skit. Anyway, the basis of it was there were a bunch of guys in a control room and they were taking care of Pandora, right? And then the server went down, so they had Bruno Mars singing songs that people wanted to listen to in different genres, and he did a really great job with it.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

So I wonder if it's on Peacock. So Peacock still has all of the seasons you can watch them on there.

SPEAKER_04 7:27

That's funny because I always talk about the little people inside Pandora's opinion the tunes that they know I want to hear. Yeah. When you pick a channel. I mean it's the reason you pick a channel, but I always joke, oh, those I did it with the um when we had the 12 disc CD player. Yes. Um for some reason it would always track just two out of twelve, mostly. And I'm like, oh, the little people today in the C D player seem to be liking, you know, Joe Diffie and Celine Dion. And that would be what we hear primarily with an occasional, you know.

SPEAKER_06 8:01

That is an interesting mix. I know, right? Did the the the the Joe Diffie, Celine Dion, when you hear happy hour.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

I know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Celine Dion's going back on tour. I saw that.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

Tin tin uh it's not tour. She's doing ten shows in Paris.

SPEAKER_08 8:21

Yeah. Is she doing a residency or just all over Paris?

SPEAKER_04 8:25

I think it's somewhere specifically Paris. Okay. But I don't know. I did watch her ex I follow her on socials, and she put out a thing yesterday that she's really excited to to be doing these shows.

SPEAKER_06 8:41

I thought it was a weird place to go because they don't really speak a lot of French in Paris, Texas. I mean, they do have a copy of the Eiffel Tower. Yeah. But uh I mean I think they do it. She's doing Billy Bob's Bar and Grill, right? That's where she's uh gonna be singing from. Uh maybe. I thought she was going to the Big Texan in Amarillo. She could be going to Big Texas.

SPEAKER_08 8:59

Well, I guess that wouldn't be in Paris, that'd be in Amarillo. It's also not Oh, the Big Texan. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How would it say Slade God said now we're eating one of those steaks?

SPEAKER_06 9:08

That steak weighs more than she does. It's fine. Have you ever seen like listen to her talk? Yes. She's so French. Like it makes perfect sense that she's going to Paris to do these.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

Even though she's a Canadian.

SPEAKER_06 9:20

She is Canadian. She's French Canadian. She's French Canadian. She's French Canadian. But you know, the people in Canada. They're over her.

SPEAKER_04 9:27

I'm excited. I'm just excited that she's, you know, able to even perform.

SPEAKER_08 9:34

Perform. If you if you were to chase our roots back, Eric and I are both French Canadian also. So there you go.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

You are?

SPEAKER_08 9:46

Yeah, my Creole roots. Oh, that's right. And Eric's Cajun roots.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Yes. Correct.

SPEAKER_07 9:52

And my Alabama roots. Roll Todd. Roll Tod.

Weather Banter And Theme Park Bits

SPEAKER_04 9:59

How's the work week been?

SPEAKER_06 10:02

Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about, you know. Weather was gorgeous today. I showed up at your house today and you're like, why are you in shorts? Literally gave me that attitude. Why are you in shorts?

SPEAKER_04 10:15

That's what I said.

SPEAKER_06 10:16

Like she almost had she almost did the you know that. Like but here it looks like a lot of things. Meanwhile, she's bringing uh a banana and a cup of chamomile. But I'm the one like, why are you in shorts? I'm like, it's 78 degrees and full sun. Crazy.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

Yesterday was really, really nice. I was able to have all the windows and doors open, and the breeze was good yesterday. Without the breeze, it would have been air conditioner weather.

SPEAKER_08 10:43

Yeah. We're really fortunate right now. We are so fortunate. Yeah, look at this radar right here. And how close the rain is to us. Oh, it's just stewing the hook.

SPEAKER_06 10:54

Terry hates when we do that. He does. By the way, we need to get you the pictures for last week, don't we? So um I was just here thinking screenshot that, so I had it. Okay. I I screenshot it before I said it. Otherwise, I'm not gonna be able to pull that back out.

SPEAKER_07 11:07

Yeah, we gotta know.

SPEAKER_06 11:08

We gotta get you the ones from last week that we talked about. But um, anyways, that's funny. So no, actually, right now, what y'all don't even know, uh uh uh buttermilk and chili. I'm sorry, Franz and the one, uh, is actually right now, Eric, Jerry, myself, and the woman. The other woman. Other woman, also known as bikini bread, are uh we are on the um way to hold on. We're on the um boy, this would be much better if I could actually think of what it's called. We're on diamondback. Oh yeah, wow. Right now.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

The four of you are?

SPEAKER_06 11:50

The four of us are. What the heck is Diamondback? Oh, is that a incredibly fun roller coaster at uh King's Island because today King's Island officially opened for the season. Oh yeah, so we're there right now. It's probably gonna snow. Uh uh probably. It did last year.

SPEAKER_04 12:11

It did last time we did it. Arctic's a Easter week in Maryland in too?

SPEAKER_07 12:14

No, this is two weeks after Easter. Yeah, Easter Easter was last a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_05 12:19

You don't remember Easter from a couple weeks ago?

SPEAKER_08 12:22

I got you the basket and a little bunny, and you get pissed off because I got you a bunny. Like we got bunnies floating around outside. Why'd you go buy a bunny?

SPEAKER_06 12:28

That was the problem, is you had a brown bunny from outside. Yeah, she wanted a white bunny. She's like, Don't you know bunnies are better white?

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Like, and Annie wanted to play and you wouldn't let her.

SPEAKER_08 12:38

Well, Annie had a nice couple meals out of that bunny.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

I never know what time zone I'm in with the outer belt.

SPEAKER_08 12:45

No bunnies were harmed in the making of this podcast. Rabbits were. No, I'm kidding. That's not true.

SPEAKER_01 12:51

That's not true at all. Just a few ears bitten off.

SPEAKER_06 12:54

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know, I do have a I do have a uh uh uh I do have a uh a uh a rabbit's foot, lucky rabbit's foot. How'd they get that? Is that real?

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yes. If it's lucky, it's real. If it's not lucky, it's not real.

SPEAKER_06 13:11

Yeah, but I feel like if it's lucky, it is not real. If it's unlucky, it's real because uh yeah, a rabbit lost his foot for that.

SPEAKER_04 13:19

That's I can imagine maybe back in I could see them being synthetic now, yeah, or let's say the last 20 years, but the OGs were probably real, and they probably were uh like market rabbits, you know, where they were gonna be harvested anyway for food consumption. So why not smelling you know you'll formella hide you you preserve and do whatever you can go online, you probably tan them like you do a hide. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:46

So go online and be like, how do I preserve skin on the Googles?

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Right.

SPEAKER_06 13:53

You know, it next to your colour.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

It puts the lotion on.

SPEAKER_06 13:56

How do I get the chloroform?

SPEAKER_04 13:59

Put them on it tonight. I told you I was feeling good. Uh no, I I would bet back in the day, you know, there was um especially who thought to put it on a keychain for all things.

SPEAKER_06 14:10

I mean, somebody had to have, so if it was the real foot, I could see utilizing all the parts and maximizing your revenue and well, Eric wouldn't let me buy it, but in um in uh Australia, which we'll finish that in a minute, uh I can't show you the picture because we'll be demonetized. But they have a lucky uh something as well.

SPEAKER_04 14:33

Oh. Is it a shark's tooth?

SPEAKER_06 14:36

Uh similar. Not quite. Not quite. Eric, would you like to um kangaroo balls? Oh excuse me. Uh testicles. Testicles, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Uh kangaroo testicles. You can show on a keychain. They get them in a bottle opener or a keychain. Yes.

SPEAKER_08 14:53

Just in by themselves. When when you get them in a restaurant, they call it I'll show you an outback oysters. Yes.

Odd Souvenirs And Jelly Bean Obsession

SPEAKER_06 14:57

They have different sizes too, so you can have uh they were color-coded. Small, medium, but they still had the furniture. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 15:07

It was very interesting. They were super expensive. They're like 40 bucks or so, which is why I don't have one.

SPEAKER_08 15:12

If they were like a good idea that Eric said no.

SPEAKER_06 15:14

If they were like 10, yeah, I'd have them out as a decoration here. But 40 bucks, I'm like, ah, do you spend$40 on a gag?

SPEAKER_04 15:21

That'd be coffee table. Aren't they so soft?

SPEAKER_06 15:27

They weren't soft. They were it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

So they were souvenir pieces, not actually.

SPEAKER_06 15:33

But they were but they were real. Like I did look at it and they're like, these are genuine, and here's the people. Yeah. It was like, oh, this is strange.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

You got a significant of authentication with it.

SPEAKER_06 15:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:45

His name was Joey.

SPEAKER_06 15:46

They were at all.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Told you I'm on it tonight. Oh, sorry.

SPEAKER_06 15:50

They were at all the gift shops. Like everybody had them, especially at the airport. So it was uh it was different. But you know, over there, the the kangaroo are like deered, so you just be driving, there'd be a dead uh kangaroo on the side of the road. Oh, and you can get kangaroo cheeseburgers and all that stuff. So I guess if they're processing a kangaroo, yeah, yeah. You know, what else are you gonna do with them?

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Make money. 40 bucks.

SPEAKER_06 16:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Well, they're 20 apiece, but they sell in the section.

SPEAKER_06 16:22

They come in a sack.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

So um buy one, get one free.

SPEAKER_06 16:32

So, anyways, uh yeah, that was uh interesting thing over there. Speaking of bunnies.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 16:37

So what else did you get her in her basket? Uh I got her some peeps.

unknown 16:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Oh, I do love peeps. Let's hope not.

SPEAKER_08 16:44

Oh, what?

SPEAKER_02 16:45

And I don't like them either. What? No.

SPEAKER_08 16:47

You have to have peeps.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Starburst yellow beans.

SPEAKER_08 16:50

Even if you don't eat the peeps, you you have peeps and you give them to people. Well, you shouldn't be eating the peeps. That's just a weird way of saying it.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Have you ever tried roasted in like regular mushroom or marshmallow? Do you think that would help?

SPEAKER_06 17:01

You don't need to. They're delicious. I will say this. I only like the yellow ones. All the multicolored, the blue, the pink, all those dyes, they have different flavors. I don't like it. The yellow ones, the classic.

SPEAKER_08 17:10

So I used to live in the Bay Area of California, and little known fact that in Fairfield, California, which is Northeast Bay, is where the jelly belly factory is.

SPEAKER_07 17:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_08 17:23

And my daughter would visit and I would visit occasionally and just do the tour. Just because it was fun to see how they made jelly beans. We d uh we do agree they jelly bellies.

SPEAKER_06 17:31

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 17:32

There's nobody else that's oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

Except for their KFC ones.

SPEAKER_08 17:37

Our favorite thing to buy there was the seconds. So you could go through and you could scoop yourself a bag of cotton candy or a bag of pickle flavored jelly bellies. Okay. Or the seconds, which was all mixed together of, you know, two together or just, you know, seconds. Oh, they're not pretty. Oh, they're not perfect. Okay, I got you. Try and guess what the flavor was. So I got most of a bag of those in her in her uh in her her Easter basket also. It it was fun. You enjoyed them. You had fun with them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 18:10

So T I think it was crazy you had to fly all the way to San Francisco to get this$12 bag of the city.

SPEAKER_08 18:15

I would do I would I would go to the end of the world for her.

SPEAKER_06 18:18

So you're saying that if you if your car broke down, that you would walk 500 miles. Oh my goodness. If that wasn't far enough, walk 500 more. Yeah. Well, that's the round trip, right? It's there and back. It's there and back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

So I followed Team Balmart. They're funny couple. And they did the KFC Jelly Belly Challenge the other day. Oh, I saw that. Uh gravy.

SPEAKER_06 18:40

No good?

SPEAKER_04 18:41

No. Oh. Gravy? Yeah. Corn.

SPEAKER_06 18:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

And turkey.

SPEAKER_06 18:47

And turkey. Chicken.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

Chicken, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

Fried chicken, fried corn, and gravy.

SPEAKER_04 18:51

And I did say this we could have to go to the cross.

SPEAKER_06 18:52

Rest thighs, legs.

SPEAKER_04 18:54

I don't know. Anyway, they even tried to like mix the corn and gravy, and there were corn and gravy doesn't go together. But there were faces. It was awful. If you're not following Team Bellmer, they're funny enough.

SPEAKER_08 19:07

I was like, with waffles and syrup. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:11

And that's what he's saying. He's like, can't you do mac and cheese or coleslaw or these mashed potatoes?

SPEAKER_06 19:16

Oh, the coleslaw would be good. Especially KFC's. And a jelly belly? But my question is, do they like KFC? Because if they don't like KFC, then they just could just be a biased, right?

SPEAKER_04 19:25

Sure. Could be. Like I love KFC soccer.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

I think we should. I thought they're jelly bellies. Maybe not. It just says jelly beans, not jelly belly.

SPEAKER_08 19:37

Well, they're not going to give the brand out because they're they know they're not sponsored by them. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

It doesn't sound good anyways. Jellyellies always say jelly belly.

SPEAKER_08 19:46

They don't say jelly belly. Then they then they shouldn't even bother with the test if they want jelly belly.

SPEAKER_06 19:50

So that's jelly tummy.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

They didn't look good. Their faces didn't look good, but Jelly Belly has higher standards.

SPEAKER_06 19:59

Oh, they're ridiculous. That's like when I first when I first really discovered Jelly Belly, because as a kid we never had jelly, we had jelly beans, but it was like Brock's or it was someone else's red and green and they were fine, right? Red. Yeah. Yeah. It uh number 40, I believe. Probably. Yeah. Uh and they're fine, you know, whatever. I never was crazy about them. I didn't really see why people love jelly beans. I'm like, well, all right, but I'd rather a Snickers or you know what I mean? Just something with flavor. Yeah. Um and it really, I've always been more of a pastry. Like, I'd rather a brownie or a cookie over a candy bar.

SPEAKER_03 20:33

Right.

SPEAKER_06 20:34

So uh I don't remember where I was. I thought I want to say maybe Cracker Barrel. And I actually had like real, I bought a box of real name brand jelly bellies, and it was expensive, but I got them, and and I was like, oh my.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

Yeah, yeah, completely different than like the broccoli.

SPEAKER_06 20:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

This is hard sugar with the gel.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

Yes, and I was probably like, this was probably 13, 14 years old. You know, I'm starting to make a little bit of money on the side so I can start buying things. And I was like, wow, these are really good. And that's also when I discovered they're really expensive. They are jelly bellies cray cray. Like when you go to the Eminem store and you buy MM's, they're super expensive. But if you go to like Walmart by MMs, you can buy a big old pack of them for not much money. Jelly belly, nope, they're expensive everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:19

Like no matter what.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

Well, they know that they've got they've got a good product. Do you have a favorite? Everybody? The popcorn. Really? Mine's pear.

SPEAKER_06 21:28

Popcorn? Oh, I don't like popcorn.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

You don't like the better popcorn?

SPEAKER_06 21:31

No, but I do like the pear quite a bit. Um, the root beer ones, mighty fine.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Yeah. Root beer's good. Jared, do you have a favorite? No, really.

SPEAKER_06 21:38

I like them all.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

Like them all.

SPEAKER_06 21:40

In the same way. So like the the the booger one that you remember they did the Harry Potter ones?

SPEAKER_01 21:45

I know they had the um the ones that are like throw up and the Harry Potter ones.

SPEAKER_08 21:51

Yeah, yeah. What Melissa thinks are the ones that are throw up, it's like just like uh hard cider. She thinks that has that bile taste to it. The the funny Fact, fun fact, if I can throw one interject here a second. Uh Jelly Belly, they call their seconds, they call them belly flops.

SPEAKER_04 22:07

Oh that's awesome.

SPEAKER_08 22:09

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 22:09

What was your favorite flavor?

SPEAKER_06 22:10

Now if they're able to if they're able to revive a belly flop, do they call that a tummy tuck?

SPEAKER_08 22:17

I think they do, yeah. Hang on. There it is, tummy tucks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

Eric, did you have a favorite jelly belly?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I remember liking the texture. So didn't like them in general.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

So it was a long time before I got to taste them. First introduced by Doctor Who. Oh yeah. And I was like, I I thought it was like the British way of saying jelly beans. I didn't realize it was a brand until I finally found them. I was like, same as you. I'm like, wow.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Do you remember eating and you know, maybe you got the pear, and then maybe you got like the buttered popcorn and I don't know, cherry, and then all of a sudden you're like, ah, black licorice, where'd you come from? And he he ruined the whole party for a bit.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah. Sure. I didn't like the black lush. Oh, so there is one you don't like. Oh, Mr. I love them all.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

Black licorice, but you got a plan for it.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

You can't be eating all the fun flavors like the fruities and the whatever it's just cherry and banana together and like cream to make a banana split. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

Those are fun.

SPEAKER_06 23:19

I remember, didn't they have some that were even like they weren't alcoholic, but they were like uh I want to say there was like a margarita? Margarita, and there was a strawberry daiquiri. They didn't have any alcohol in them, they were just the flavors or whatever. I remember taking those and and adding several together and making like a cocktail out of it. Oh, how funny. Yeah, that was some fun stuff back in the day.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Those and some Zima.

SPEAKER_06 23:40

Oh, there are some not Zima.

SPEAKER_08 23:43

Way back now. Way back to Zima's.

SPEAKER_06 23:46

Zima's. Yeah. That that's in the at the circle K. Of course, that's in the Circle K next to the uh the the uh James and and uh Bartles Bartles. Bartles and James, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:59

Yep. Speaking of watermelon, yeah. So Zima long time ago.

SPEAKER_04 24:08

Huh.

SPEAKER_08 24:09

So if you ever get out to Fremont, California, swing by the jelly belly factory and grab yourself some jellyflops. Can you park there in a truck? It's been so long I don't yes, yes, you can.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Jerry's idea that you mainly.

SPEAKER_04 24:24

I challenge the Petroskis to go there and uh put the picture some seconds, but I know how you're doing that.

SPEAKER_08 24:32

Only only doing stuff from Texas, the Petroskis.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

They're well they don't have to send us anything. I just challenge them. They just went to Branson. Nice.

SPEAKER_06 24:42

They did uh their Branson pictures look great.

Vegas Value And Travel Priorities

SPEAKER_04 24:45

They did uh Vegas NASCAR races. Um Highfield has has a private group with our our contractors, and um they have been asking people, you know, we're going here or whatever, what where do people go or park or what show do you see? Um and and just the love that people have and the care to share and and and then they take it and they run with it and then they report back with all of their lovely photos.

SPEAKER_06 25:12

So and they make all of us who aren't driving anymore jealous.

SPEAKER_04 25:15

I know that having that work yes work-life balance. So they're doing a great job of it.

SPEAKER_06 25:19

I'd love to go back out to Vegas, but if you like just priced a trip to Vegas, if you're not driving a truck, so you're not getting through it, what'd it cost just to go to Vegas from Columbus, Ohio?

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Not much. Airfare? I just did.

unknown 25:31

What?

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Frontier Airlines, 270 bucks. Really?

SPEAKER_06 25:35

Yep, that's not bad. In the hotel?

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Oh, I didn't check that out, but I get free hotels.

SPEAKER_06 25:39

And the shows?

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Free.

SPEAKER_06 25:42

At the sphere. Not at the sphere. The Wizard of Oz. No.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Not at the sphere. No, not the sphere.

SPEAKER_06 25:47

You see what you go to the space. Things like if you go to Circus Circus, alright? And you go to the left, there's a place called Thoughts of Fun.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

You could get out there and get votes for maybe under a thousand for a weekend.

unknown 26:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_08 26:02

Well, plus your gambling budget. I feel like we do Vegas differently. Then your budget goes higher.

SPEAKER_04 26:09

No, if you're not gambling.

SPEAKER_08 26:11

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

If you just go out and catch some sun and people watch and catch a show.

SPEAKER_08 26:17

Yeah, I'll walk up and down the strip. I I I as someone who've been to Vegas a gazillion times, because I lived in Southern California, I think if you're not gonna gamble, there are a ton of other places to go for catching some sun and people watching that are less expensive than going to Vegas.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

So here's restaurants are crazy. Okay, and to be able to keep getting those free shows and things that I have to do.

SPEAKER_06 26:41

Well, here's here's the only thing where I'll disagree with you, Vince is I think there are people who want the spectacle. You want to see the spectacle, but you just don't like gambling. Well, no, I grew up I get it. I grew up not a gambler. Like we didn't gamble in our household. I never really cared for it back in the day. It wasn't a thing, but I really wanted to go to Vegas. I wanted to see the architectural ridiculousness. I wanted to see the spectacle that is Vegas. Well, I wanted to see the uh those grand hotels with their huge, giant, beautiful pools. I wanted to see all that kind of stuff. I get to go to and and there's not many places you can go to Blue Man Group and you can go to Circ, and you can go to Circ and you can go to these other things right next to each other. I get that.

SPEAKER_08 27:20

So if you if you're going for that right now, the sphere's only got one location. So so you go a couple of times and and see those things. I was giving you a couple times so you can have multiple different circ shows or whatever shows you want to see. Yeah, right. But once you've been there and done it, yeah, if all you're going for now is people watching in the sun, one in the summer, it's too hot outside for the sun. It's miserable, right? So there are other places you could go and enjoy those things without paying the Vegas money and the Vegas crowds. Actually, there was a you ever been to Key West? I have been to Key West. But you know, you have other places you can go for I've heard some of those Key West pools are quite nice too.

SPEAKER_06 28:02

More intimate.

Frontier Bomb Scare And Squawk Codes

SPEAKER_04 28:06

Speaking oh, sorry. Uh I'm gonna interject here. Frontier. I'm gonna make a little turn here. Frontier had a little issue this week. Did we ever get to the bottom of Frontier's issue?

SPEAKER_06 28:15

It's travel, it's so from with transportation. So that was three weeks ago for those uh keeping track of time. Uh yeah, so Frontier Airlines did have uh they left Columbus, Ohio, which is scary. Yes. It's our home, it's our it's our back door, and they flew they're flying to Florida, I don't remember which city. And they ended up diverting and flying at landing in Atlanta uh with a potential hijacking situation. And it turned out that it was just a random person on the airplane who did say they had a bomb on board, um and they didn't, and that person was carried away in jail, and the plane ended up making the trip the rest of the way.

SPEAKER_08 28:55

But I think what happened actually, they were flying to Atlanta. It was Columbus to Atlanta, and while they were taxing, after they landed in Atlanta, they were taxiing, the person talked about having a bomb. I think that's the story that I read.

SPEAKER_04 29:07

Something along that. I know they didn't make it to the the the gate.

SPEAKER_06 29:10

Yeah, yes, they took themselves out and then that might have been what because what I saw saw they were diverting from there. So that are diverting to Atlanta, but it could have been just not going to the gate, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 29:21

Sure.

SPEAKER_06 29:22

But I read that as diverting as in I I don't know why I thought they were going to Florida.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

I don't know why, but I was just thinking they're on their way to Orlando and then what events was saying. Maybe he just needed to get off at Atlanta at the past.

SPEAKER_08 29:35

It's quite the weekend. It was cheaper to fly to Atlando than it was to Atlanta, so he figured he'd change it.

SPEAKER_06 29:40

Well, and if you think about it, he's got free accommodation in Atlanta now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 29:44

There you go.

SPEAKER_06 29:44

Yeah. Three three hots in a cot. That's gonna be a crazy restitution. Do you know how much it costs to land an airplane of that size and then take off def like that cost now? That costs Frontier probably$20,000. Like just for that.

SPEAKER_08 30:00

It actually was a flight from Columbus to Atlanta. Um, and he made the comment when they were when after they had landed, he made the comment about having a a bomb.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Why would you wait until that moment? He has it at all.

SPEAKER_08 30:15

He had some issues other than just URI saying, I've got a bomb. Yeah. He had some other mental health issues. Sure, sure. Uh so that was the concern.

SPEAKER_06 30:26

Well, that's what we're finding out as we're as we're growing, right? We're starting to learn that like people that are crazy typically aren't crazy. They typically have a mental illness that's behind. Sure, right, yeah. So which is unfortunate. It is. It is unfortunate. And and uh, you know, the reason everybody knew immediately, like, oh my god, we have a hijacking potential situation is when you do a s uh squawk your code on your uh airplane, there is uh three emergency squawks. One is for your radios are out, which makes sense, right? If you're flying and all of a sudden your radios quit working, so you can't communicate with anybody, you kind of need to let them know your radios don't work. There's another one for we have an emergency on board, which is like we lost an engine or something of that, like it's a big emergency, it's not a little one. And then the last one is hijacking. If you are being hijacked, you squawk that code, it's very discreet, and it lets everybody know you have a hijack situation. So they will literally scramble the jets, they will come look for you and start monitoring the situation, but they will not talk over the radios like, hey Vince, I hear you're being hijacked. What's going on? Like they won't they won't do that because that could put your life in jeopardy, but uh it's a discrete way of doing it. So it's uh that's how I knew, right? Because he squawked it immediately. And so that's a very rare code these days. And hopefully it stays very rare. Yeah, that's right. Uh, but so when they see that, and there's people that like have like fright flight radar 24. That's what I used to like watch planes and stuff. It's how I tracked y'all uh last time in Los Angeles. Um it's free to use, anybody can access it. They have an app that's really, really good on their phone. Um, but you can actually search in that app by squat code, and so you can't like look, is anybody declaring emergency? And you can look across the whole country. Nobody's doing that, nobody's doing hijacking, no one's doing radios out. Or maybe there is, and you can kind of look around and see. And there's people that just live on that platform and they just constantly look for that stuff. Wow. And so when something like that pops up, they see it immediately, and then then they blow the things out. Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Wow, I have better things to do with my day than I I love flying and I have better things to do with my day. Like that's just yeah than live and look for swatches.

SPEAKER_06 32:40

That's exhausting.

SPEAKER_04 32:42

Yeah. Well, Allegiant. No, not Allegiant, Frontier. Vince and I have flown Frontier.

SPEAKER_08 32:48

We did from uh Arkansas to Vegas.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

I did once from Orlando to Ashwell, North Carolina. Long, long time ago.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

Tiny seats with not much padding. They're almost like folding chairs, narrow folding chairs.

SPEAKER_06 33:02

That's how our spirit flight was. Spirit from LA to San Diego. And the the seats were like they were like the plastic molded chairs at like a McDonald's playplace. In case you've been to one of those in the last 30 years. That's how you know like my references are ridiculous because there ain't been a playplace in America and how long now? But uh it was like that, with like a strip of of of uh, you know the vinyl that has that little padding on the back?

SPEAKER_05 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:32

Like that over it. There was no padding added. It was just whatever came with the vinyl. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 33:39

Yep. Which for an hour and they'll they'll get you there. Yeah. For cheap. For cheap.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

I always get confused when they're doing the um the in-flight, you know, rules and stuff, and they tell you how to tie that rope around your waist. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 33:57

I don't understand why they say you have to swipe the credit card to get the belts to work. Yeah. That seems like that should be against the rules.

SPEAKER_04 34:07

When did Delta start adding, if you're wearing high heels, take your shoes off before you hop on the slides?

SPEAKER_06 34:13

I just saw it for the first time when Eric and I went to Australia. I and I didn't.

SPEAKER_04 34:18

Like one lady had to ruin it for the rest of us.

SPEAKER_06 34:21

So this is how new this is how new it is. When Eric and I flew to Australia, we flew uh to um Atlanta, then Atlanta to uh Los Angeles. Los Angeles. On uh but from Columbus to Atlanta, that message wasn't there. Oh Atlanta to uh Los Angeles, it was, and then we actually ended up flying the exact same plane from Los Angeles to Australia. Um so we heard it again. But that was my first time hearing it, but we did not hear it from from Columbus to Atlanta. It was not on there. So I don't know if they literally updated the plane we were on in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_08 35:03

Right. On our flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, I don't think we heard it. So we we heard it for the first time. I think we recognized it for the first time from Detroit to Los Angeles. Okay, and then from Los Angeles back to Minneapolis, I don't think we heard it, but the flight from Minneapolis to Columbus, we did. Because we were both commenting about it.

SPEAKER_06 35:24

Yeah, and those infotainment centers, because we were both right at the at the the changeover of a month, right? So all those airplanes, they're not up to we were mid month.

SPEAKER_08 35:33

Oh, were you yeah, we were mid month. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 35:37

I was gonna say because when we went, we were right at the at the at the crossover, I guess. Uh that's true, because we went late February, like real late February, like 27th, I think. So um they have to manually update those infotainment centers. Sure. So they're not like doing over-the-air pushes with new movies and stuff. There's sure they're literally like swapping hard drives out or someone's plugging up to the airplane. Sure. That's just one of the maintenance things they do, is up update the new stuff. So that's why I was thinking it makes sense that we would only see it on one leg and not the other, because if our other plane just hasn't made it into Atlanta or into a major hub to get that.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Was it in the video or just in the video?

SPEAKER_08 36:15

They've updated the video to show this. Well, they updated the video, but it you know it's brand new because there's a lady talking, and you know, they're showing the lady and she's doing the seatbelt thing and how the slides work, and then all of a sudden it just pauses a freeze frame, and there's a male voice that comes over. If you're wearing high heels, take them off. And then it continues with the female voice in the video. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 36:36

So it was like remove your mask before putting on your air.

SPEAKER_04 36:39

So again, I'm I I wonder where something happened.

SPEAKER_08 36:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

And it got and it could have been years ago, right? But they finally did all their research and maybe.

SPEAKER_06 36:48

Well, they settled the lawsuit finally.

SPEAKER_04 36:50

I got well right in someone with the high heels, but ruined it for everybody else.

Moon Missions And Movie Talk

SPEAKER_06 36:54

And it may not have been Delta. Frontier. Frontier. Could have been no one in Frontiers were in high health. That's true. I don't know. They might have stilettos. Um but like they could it could have been like Air China or something. You know what I mean? Like, and I'm not picking on them. They're they're a very good airline. It could have been anyone. It could have been air musk. It could have been air musk. Yes. Because I don't think it exists yet. I mean, I guess it kind of does, right? Anyways. Face. SpaceX, alright? Well, let me think of another one.

SPEAKER_04 37:23

Aren't they Artemis? Yeah. Yep. They're shooting Artemis up into the air.

SPEAKER_06 37:29

Speaking of other That was two weeks ago. That was two weeks ago. Sorry. And what a good spectacular. Wasn't that a little bit more than that?

SPEAKER_04 37:36

It's the first time in 15 plus years that they've gone to the moon.

unknown 37:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:43

And they're going to the back side of the moon. That's a song, by the way. Yes. Uh far side of the moon. And and they're Yeah. They have to be s sling. This is all gonna sound weird. Sling shotted from the moon's gravitational pool on the backside to whip them around the moon to send them back.

SPEAKER_06 38:02

You didn't see always. You didn't see uh Armageddon?

SPEAKER_02 38:05

As I say, that is slingshot.

SPEAKER_06 38:08

You know, I don't want to close my eyes. I don't want to fall asleep because we have to launch behind the moon. Um I think it's exciting. You know, I've always been a proponent and thought we should always go to the moon, and I don't know why we didn't do it a long time ago.

SPEAKER_04 38:20

So, anyways, um And they're actually supposed to land on it in 2028.

SPEAKER_06 38:24

Speaking for the first time. Speaking of movies, uh did y'all see that movie that took place not took place, but was supposed to take place in the 60s about the whole moon landing and everything? It was amazing. So yeah, the movie it's Fly Me to the Moon. Um, and it's it's it's really great. I don't know how historically accurate it is. Sure. Uh, but they do talk about um like the popularity of the moon launch and and how long it took to get going and all the setbacks they had, um, which sounds super technical and and like nerdy, but it's not. They actually do it from the angle of uh the the US people are losing confidence, so they're bringing in this advertising agency and this woman, Scarlett Johansson, who who doesn't like Scar Scarlett Johansson? I mean, you know, yeah. Uh Scarjo, as I call it. Scarjo, yep. And they bring her in and uh she just livens the party up and really like makes people excited about the moon landings again. And uh so it really takes that, and then there's a love interest, and then uh, you know, they make the head of NASA Channing Tatum, because why not? Yeah. Uh so it ends up being a really great movie. Woody Harrelson's in there. I love almost everything Woody Harrelson's ever done.

SPEAKER_08 39:40

White man can't jump was a classic.

SPEAKER_06 39:42

Yeah. I just like I did you ever see um what was the that great one he did? Um um with the uh zombies? The um zombie land. Oh yeah. Zombie Land made me like his part made me tear up. When I realized he was talking about his kid, ah break the heart. Anyways, he's just a great actor. Uh and then he did that uh that bar TV show with uh Ted Danson. Yeah, uh High Five or something. Cheers. That's it, yes. Um yeah, so you really believe they went to the moon?

SPEAKER_04 40:19

Sure, why not?

SPEAKER_06 40:21

What about you? You're a skeptic.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

I wasn't old enough to know any different. Why not?

SPEAKER_06 40:28

You were old enough to know different events.

SPEAKER_08 40:31

Yeah, but I'm I'm still under uh NDA. I can't talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 40:36

Well, I'm excited for to see to see how it all happens. Shakes out.

SPEAKER_06 40:41

Yes. To report back.

SPEAKER_04 40:42

To report back.

SPEAKER_06 40:45

Um well as y'all know, Eric and I last week we talked about two weeks ago rather, we talked about um going to Africa for the first time. A and A, yeah. A and A Japan?

SPEAKER_02 41:03

I think I think you may have gone somewhere different.

SPEAKER_06 41:07

But they both begin in the world.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Australia, sorry.

SPEAKER_06 41:09

So as y'all know, we went to Australia uh uh uh and we talked about it last uh two weeks ago, and uh we were just I think if I'm not mistaken, uh and Jerry, you you correct me if I'm wrong here. We had just finished talking about getting trapped on the island on the island of Dr. Moreau. And we stayed in our little uh six foot by eight foot uh gel cell with a really clean restroom and uh and shower. And uh we finally left there and we were able to get on about our journey, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:47

Yes. So um you followed the other car across the bridge at a mock speed. Yes, why wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_06 41:54

Well, yes. And actually, we kind of screwed that up a little bit last week. That actually happened before we stayed at the hotel. So we had gone often and tried to find a way out, couldn't turn around, came back, and then the bridge that we'd gone over previously, which was water was barely there, was now much higher. And so we followed those people in, they saved our lives, and then we were able to get to the hotel. Uh, left there the next day, three different routes, all flooded. Like, oh my god, what are we gonna do? And finally did find one way out.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

That's good.

SPEAKER_06 42:24

Still had some flooding, but like you could tell it wasn't super deep. I don't know how to describe that. Like, um, we were watching the back of other cars going through it, and you can kind of judge distance, or not distance, but height off the water depth, yes. So we would watch, and if I could still see the sidewall of your tire as you're going across it, I know that I'm gonna make it just fine. And so we a little bit of that, but not too much, and we're able to keep on going. But we ended up. I made one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made in my life booking these trips. As y'all know, uh, people have been telling me for years I need to become a uh travel agent, I need to start making these trips for people, and I did such a faux pas screw up that I'm like, this is why I don't do it. I booked us a two-day adventure on to Gary, which is spelled K-G-A-R-I. The K is silent, it's K apostrophe, which means the K is silent, as you know. Yeah, of course. Um, and uh it used to be known as Fraser Island, but you know, just like what's happened in America with um, you know, we're finding out that maybe our early ancestors weren't the best and most kindest people to the Native Americans, and so we may have taken things like traditional names and changed them into our our names, and so we've kind of had to roll some of that back.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Right.

SPEAKER_06 43:50

Um they're doing the same thing over in Australia. They came over. Imagine Britons would do the same thing in Australia they did in America. Shocking. No. Yes. No. Yes. Wow. Yes. So it was always known as Gary. And they ended up changing it back to Gary. Uh and they have the original Aboriginal people back on the island. So it's exciting to see what's happening. It's a shame it had to happen, but it's exciting to see that that it's going back. But the island is the world's largest sand island. And when I say sand island, I mean sand island. There ain't nothing but sand. Um no trees? No, there is trees.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 44:38

Why why would you think there wouldn't be trees?

SPEAKER_04 44:40

Well, you just said nothing but sand.

SPEAKER_06 44:43

Well, but you have trees.

SPEAKER_04 44:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:45

So no but all the dirt is sand? But all the dirt is sand. That's what it is. All the there's no dirt. Right, Eric? It was correct.

SPEAKER_00 44:52

But the structure of the land is all sand. So one way or another.

SPEAKER_06 44:56

No.

SPEAKER_04 44:57

It's like being employed.

SPEAKER_06 44:58

This place is huge. There's mountains and they're just sand. It's crazy. I've never because I like I knew it was a thing to do, so I did book this trip. So we and it was a tour, a two-day tour. A two-day tour. And um we had to take a ferry over there, but they arranged for all that. Uh they arranged for a place to park our car on the mainland because you can't drive once you get over there. It was you can, but you have to have a uh four-wheel drive with so many inches clearance, and we had a Mazda 3, so that wasn't gonna happen. Um but so we go there, the mountains are sand, everything's sand, and uh it's like a barrier island off of Florida, like you were saying, but just imagine like the size of the panhandle. It's huge and it's all just sand. There's no dirt, there's no clay, none of that stuff at all.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

How interesting.

SPEAKER_06 45:48

Over the years, sand has just accumulated in that one area and created this gigantic island. Um and uh so we got to go around and see that for instance on one side of it, they have a 75-mile beach. Yes, 75 mile beach. It's all one long beach, and you can drive on it. And so we took this this R V right here, not R V this bus right here, four-wheel drive bus built in Germany by the man, M-A-N. That's not sexist, that's just the name of their company, M A N. Yep, and uh we were doing like 80 kilometers an hour out on this beach. It was a trip. Fun. Uh, and then we to go throughout the island, because everything's sand, he'd drop it into four-wheel drive low, and we'd go through just these like wild trails where you're like, are we really on a bus doing this? Right now, it was it was insane. I've never seen anything like it.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

There's parts of it he had to lower the pressure in the tires. Yes. I wasn't saying it's part of the trip. The first animal we saw on the island was horse flies. Very pleasant creatures.

SPEAKER_04 46:55

They bite sarcasm.

SPEAKER_06 46:56

They do bite, and they're huge. They hurt.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

They hurt when they bite.

SPEAKER_06 47:00

That was a trip because we mess up horses on there. Really had no, we really had very little, um, very, very little bugs in all of Australia that we went to. It's kind of crazy. You expect tons, but there really weren't any up until this point. Uh, and then we take the uh the ferry out there and walk the jetty, and it's half a mile long walk of of just on wooden platform. And it like the cars have to go down the little two little wooden strips on this jetty sticking out. It's kind of terrifying. Um, and so we finally make it there and then get on the bus, and as soon as we get on the bus, we just notice these massive friggin' flies flying around. Yeah, like half an inch big. Yeah, they're huge. And and the bus driver's like, who ended up being our tour guide, he's super cool. Uh he was like, Oh, the the flies are no problem, just kill them.

SPEAKER_08 47:55

I'm like, Did you bring your fly sweater with you?

SPEAKER_06 47:57

I did not, but I wish I had. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Um that one. So that's a roast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:05

I did have uh so the first day, like we immediately go and uh go to this lake. It's huge lake, inland lake, and the water is all fresh water. Like Lake McKinsey. That's the one, Lake McKinsey. Uh you've been there. Uh so there's uh some kind of I don't know, the calcium mixes with the fluoride, which makes the the bed of the of the lake is like teeth, and so it traps water. So when it rains, it traps the water. So the water's beautiful. It's a very deep lake, it's beautiful, it's all sand lined, but just into the water, it turns into this really hard rock that the water can't seep out. Otherwise, it's sand, it would just all of it would seep out, right? Um see this beautiful lake, crystal clear water. Eric and I were not prepared. We did not realize we were just immediately jumping into this. We also did not realize that it was a bring your own towel adventure. So Eric and I are now uh we went we did go to the uh the store at the resort, and we now own the two most expensive towels in Australia.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

Uh because oof. Um the very first lake we went to is called Champagne Lake.

SPEAKER_06 49:16

Is that the Champagne Lakes were the ones uh out in the river. The champagne pools. The champagne pools, yeah. McKinsey Lake's personal went to champagne was the one we went to next. So the McKinsey pools, we just like, you know, uh bring the shorts up. We both had the short uh the our pants that like you could take the the zipper, the zipper leg off, and then they become shorts, yeah, convertibles. So we brought those out there and we're walking around in the water, and the both of us are just like, Why? We didn't have sunscreen, nothing. We were not prepared. Uh we were like, no bug spray, nothing. We're like, why didn't we prepare for this a little better? Like, really.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

So if only you had a tour guide or travel agent.

SPEAKER_06 49:56

And I told Eric, I'm like, I'm like, this is phone call number one. Like, why didn't you tell me I had it? So, anyways. Um, so we go do that. It's beautiful, wonderful. Uh, get ready to leave, and we're not leaving. No, no, no. Our bus driver. Oh, and there's uh wild dingos.

SPEAKER_07 50:15

Dingoes, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:16

And it's dingo season. We didn't know that. So it's mating season for the dingos, which is when they're most uh active and they are most violent, like because they're raging hormones and everything, and so you really have to be careful with them. Um so there's all these rules about what you can do and can't do. So we go to this one little thing, and it's it's a pavilion, and it's surrounded by a fence, and uh we go in there because we knew that was the meeting point before we had to go on the bus. And Homeboy has a giant thing of hot, boiling hot water set up, uh six different types of tea, honey, uh, two different types of coffee, one of them being the Nestle crystals that we like. Nice. And then um he has hot chocolate for people that don't like that. They have scones, they have cookies, they have uh cinnamons, they have all this stuff, and I'm like, oh no, this is yeah, that's what's up. Like, this is absolutely full-on afternoon tea. Yeah, full-on afternoon tea. It was really, really nice. And I'm like, I did good. All right, so we were prepared. We weren't prepared, but like this is I did really good. This is really cool. Leave there, go back to the resort, we drop a bunch of stuff off at the resort, uh, and they're going to move them to our our rooms and stuff, and then we immediately leave and we go out to the champagne pools like Eric was talking about. Because we knew we were doing that, we did change into bathing suits. We were like, we're not gonna be going out here and seeing all this and not gonna get wet. And so we actually did go, uh, didn't bring the camera down to that, and I'm so mad because these things were crazy. They are uh there's the like uh one rock outcropping, sure. Uh and inside of them is these three like round pools, almost like champagne glasses, but not like flutes, but like the you know, the real wide champagne glasses like from the 20s. Like a coupe, like you'd see uh the guy handing uh the Great Gatsby. Yeah, those are kind of wine glasses. And uh we get there, and you it's a long walk down to it, but you finally make it down there, and the w the waves crashing off of the ocean would hit these rocks and then filter all this water through there, and it would all be bubbly. So it was like you were in a champagne glass swimming around. It was very cool.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

But the coolest thing was filled with fish, perfectly clear water, and I'd say hundreds of fish. Hundreds of fish.

SPEAKER_08 52:49

And I mean were you get a pedicure while you were there?

SPEAKER_06 52:52

They were literally the size of like little tiny fish you see at Walmart, all the way up to fish that were maybe 24 inches long. That you get at a restaurant. Wow, like big old flounders and and group. I don't know. Swim or no? Oh yeah, we got in. Oh yeah. Fish went away. Yeah, they do they could care less. They're used to it. You know, like your fish. I told Eric at one point.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

Right.

SPEAKER_06 53:18

I told Eric, I'm like, I didn't realize we were gonna go to school.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

But um bum bumbies.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

But yeah, it was it was really cool to see all that. As I say, if you stir the sand around with your feet, it causes the fish to come up close to you because you're stirring up possible food for the pedicure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 53:38

So the bubbles, was that pretty effervescent and cool?

SPEAKER_06 53:41

It so it only ha so like it would happen for a little bit and then it'd go away and it would dry die out because it's not actual carbonated water.

SPEAKER_05 53:48

Right.

SPEAKER_06 53:48

And you'd have to wait a few minutes for the next big wave to crash on. Sure.

SPEAKER_00 53:51

And then you had that experience all over again.

SPEAKER_06 53:53

Fun though.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

As low as the water was on the inside, the actual champagne part of it, if you're sitting with the water like up to your waist, the rock between the pool and the ocean is above your head, so you can't necessarily see when the waves come back.

SPEAKER_06 54:08

I was I was standing at one point, and Eric was kind of crouched down looking at the fish.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

I went all my whole body went into the water.

SPEAKER_06 54:14

Yeah, and we and they had this like massive wave that came and just baptized Eric.

SPEAKER_04 54:23

How many people were on your tour?

SPEAKER_06 54:25

Uh there were 20 people on the tour, something like that.

SPEAKER_04 54:28

So pretty intimate. Small.

SPEAKER_06 54:30

Not not crazy big. Um, and then when you go to the popular sites, there's other people there. Sure. But it's other tours. The other tours, yeah, but it was never crowded, ever. Would you agree with that, Eric?

SPEAKER_02 54:41

Like they did a good job of like a hundred people.

SPEAKER_06 54:46

Like I can't think of any place that was ever really super crowded. The Champagne was probably the most full, but there was never a place you like you could always find a place to get in the water, you could always hang out. There was that one little pool that we went into first and then we left. That that place kind of stayed constantly full. That was the closest to the ocean.

SPEAKER_00 55:06

And the the last place we went to to do was supposed to be tubing, but it was too cold.

SPEAKER_06 55:11

That place that place was very Eli Creek. Uh it wasn't Eli Creek, it was the other creek. But yeah, it was um we did go tubing down that one, and it uh we didn't go tubing, but we didn't we stopped for that.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

We didn't wait for the guy to air up the tubes, we just took off and come to find out it was shallow enough that we could walk down the whole thing and water would be between just above or below our names the whole way.

SPEAKER_08 55:36

So I'd imagine it wasn't super crowded because they do require vehicle passes and camping passes booked in advance. So I'd imagine it's somewhere like that, they're limiting how many people can get get in there every day. I would I would imagine imagination.

SPEAKER_06 55:52

Yeah. It uh I know the resort was completely sold out while we were there, and it never felt crowded. That's cool. Even at dinner. Now this is where things start going off the rails. Oh no. So we get our keys to the room. Eric and I go to the room, and our he's already there, so we're excited. Get in the room, walk in. Huge room. Huge room. But it's kind of like you know, like uh you ever see like movies that take that have like uh take place in like Russia or uh North Korea, and the walls are a little um center blocky barren. Yeah. But it's still a decent sized room. Sure. Kind of had that vibe. Kind of had that vibe of like the compound.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

Barracks.

SPEAKER_06 56:37

Barracks. Eric Barric feel. Eric described it really well. He said it kind of reminded him of like uh some church camps, like old school church camps even had that kind of vibe.

SPEAKER_08 56:45

Yeah. Um I wonder if it was um hurricane proof, not hurricane. Cyclone cyclone. I'm sure it was resistant.

SPEAKER_06 56:51

Oh yeah, yeah. You I don't well. Yeah, that thing wouldn't have blood enough for nothing. Um it's it's hot, normal, windows are open. Most hotels we've been to, that's kind of their MO.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

Um normally immediately Patrick goes over to the air conditioner and tries to figure out how to check it as low as possible.

SPEAKER_06 57:09

Sure th sure do. So we start walking the room and we check that wall. Then we check that wall. Then we check that wall. Then we check that wall. Then we realize somehow we missed after checking all the walls, we missed the air conditioner controls. It's just certainly we missed them.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

You just gotta open the windows.

SPEAKER_06 57:28

So then you walk around the room again and you're like, I don't even see vents.

SPEAKER_08 57:32

I wasn't there, that's why you see me.

SPEAKER_06 57:34

I don't see an air conditioner, nothing. And it's like, oh, somehow I managed to pick a hotel with no air conditioner. With no air conditioning in the middle of summer in Australia. Yeah. So uh that was warm. Very, very. I mean, like we it was cooler outside than it was inside. Thank God it had a balcony, and it was raining, cats and dogs. I mean, it was monsoon season. But so we sat out inside the balcony and felt great. You had that nice cool air coming, you know, rain even in summer does lower the temperature. So you're like, oh, this is nice. Go back into that stale freaking concrete oven broom. Oh man, there's it had a ceiling fan, but it didn't make a difference. You couldn't, it just wouldn't move the air out of the room. And like, oh, it was brutal. Brutal, brutal. We couldn't leave the door open from because of bugs. Bugs, yeah. Bugs. So uh we suffered through that night. That would have been fine, because we were gonna go down, we were gonna have a nice dinner, you know, get full on some food, drink some wine, try to do some, you know, the things you do to make yourself go to sleep.

SPEAKER_03 58:41

Right.

SPEAKER_06 58:42

So we go sit down, order a beer and some water, and then we kind of gave her our appetizer order and everything, and we're thinking about what we're gonna do for our entrees, and we sat there. We sat there. And we sat there. Twenty-five minutes later, I told Eric, I'm like, I don't think we're gonna get our dinner. And Eric's like, You may be right, but just chill out. Thirty minutes, I'm like, I'm good. We even got water at this point. People have come and sat down, gotten their food, and left. Like, not left, I'm sorry, it they're eating. They're eating. And we're like, Nobody's talked to us again. Yeah, food, no, nothing. Like, what's happening? People like servers are walking by us, we have nothing on the table, we don't have menus anymore. They took those even. Like, what's going on? And uh so about 40 minutes at 40 gave them at 40 minutes. I'm like, Eric, this is ridiculous. We should leave. And he's like, You're right, this is ridiculous. So we left, we we met up with the uh the manager and kind of told him, Hey, uh here's what we ordered. No one's brought us anything. We've seen people come and go, we're just gonna call it night and head back to the room. So earlier in the day I had bought some ice and second the freezer in the uh room, and so we went back, uh had uh uh some Coca-Cola out of the balcony and just chillaxed. We weren't really super hungry because we'd already had tea and we did have a lunch that day as well. So we'd already eaten, so we weren't crazy hungry, and when it's hot, I don't know if you've been in that kind of heat where you lose your desire to eat. Kind of had that going on, so we're like, this is fine, we'll make do. And then the next morning was a breakfast buffet, so we knew we'd be eating the first thing in the morning, and it was early like seven o'clock uh bus time, so we knew we're gonna have an early morning. And uh so we just did that, and what really made me excited So I told Eric, I'm like, okay, so there's that's phone call two and three. So to recap, didn't tell you to wear a bathing suit and to bring a towel.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:40

Didn't tell you you were gonna get a room with no air conditioning, and now I've I've put you reservations at a restaurant that doesn't feed you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:47

So I'm like, this is why I don't want to be a travel agent. Uh then we go on and uh at breakfast the next morning, kitchen manager comes over and talks to Eric and is like, um, you know, we couldn't find the order anywhere. Are you sure you all actually ordered any food? And I'm like, I'm so glad he asked Eric that, not me. Because I would have grabbed him by the collar and that would have been a throat punch. I'd have been in an Australian jail right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:12

First he thought we walked in and grabbed a table without telling anybody. Like, no, dude, we stood it here and your waitress brought us, sat us on the table. The girl came in and got our order with the machine in her hand, yeah, typed in her stuff. We assumed she was finished and then walked off. You come to find out she didn't press a button or something.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:33

Why would we just say she was like, Exactly? It's crazy.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:37

What? Huh? I don't know why he would assume she was finished when he was scroll yet.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:44

That's uh it was the accent.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:45

Oh, that makes sense. Okay. So um so he he did they didn't find the order and they put the blame on you basically.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

No, whenever I told him what happened that she did take our order and then left and we never saw her again, he didn't blame us for it. He knew he did something wrong. We couldn't do anything. So before that he did, but not after. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:08

So breakfast that morning. Yeah. When he talked to us. He couldn't. Are you really that was super odd? It's like the waitress forgot to press the final button or something.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:23

You're just sitting there with nothing and nowhere. For 45 minutes. She never stopped by and said anything.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:30

And it's a tall ceiling, big, open, bright. It's not like nobody could have missed us. There and there were people that literally looked at us like questioning and then turned around and just went over their business.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:39

Did you ever raise your hand and grab somebody by the collar and say, hey, what's my food? I thought that might be a good idea.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:44

I thought that might be rude. I just saved that for the way out.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:48

So maybe not grabbed by somebody by the collar, but it's just, hey.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:51

I did when we left.

unknown 1:02:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:55

So uh then we uh finished the rest of our tour, had a great time, did a walk around. So speaking about trees, so they do have a beautiful rainforest inside the island. It's incredible. And you're as you're so we actually did a walk through the rainforest, and as you're walking, you're walking on sand, and you're like, this doesn't make sense. How is there a 200-foot tall gigantic tree that I'm underneath rooted in sand? It's bananas. Uh how it works. Sorry. A yeah, yes. Uh, and so we walked down this trail. It almost reminded me of um when we went to Oregon uh last year, I believe it was for your birthday.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

We did last year for my birthday.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:41

Um Eric and I left and we went and drove up to uh Crater Lake. Crater Lake uh snow cabins. And um on our way out there we stopped in a like a canyon that's on the route route. The gorge. The gorge, yeah. And it's not huge, but it's impressive.

SPEAKER_08 1:04:01

It's very impressive.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:02

So like we kind of walked down a creek that reminds me of this gorge. Like there's water running through it, there's steep walls on both sides of us, there's gigantic spiders. Uh he says to keep an eye out for snakes, like it's it's a wooden path like that. Like it's it was very cool to walk through it. But again, in the rain. In the rain, because it was raining, but it was fine. It just it really it really it that part ended up being just fine. But sand. Just it was all sand. I don't know. It was like pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:30

Were you worried about quicksand?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:32

I was worried about a tree just falling over because what's the root structure that's in sand that could possibly hold something up?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:38

They did have some trees that were dying that fell over. Yeah. Uh another thing that made me nervous was we're in like a 20 passenger bus. Yes. And it's traveling on sand roads with ruts that are about 12 inches deep. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:53

I well you can see. Absolutely. You can see from the picture, I mean, the bus is easily uh three and a half feet off the ground. Like there's that much clearance, maybe, maybe even more. It had to be four-wheel drive. Had to be, yeah, it was all wheel drive. It was uh it was pretty incredible of a of a situation.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:10

Sounds like a fun two-day trip, though.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:12

It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. Even with all the mishaps, even with the mishaps, it was great, and I do recommend the tour. I would say request the upgrade to the air conditioned room.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:20

Uh, but no, it was a blast. Because I can only imagine in the summer, like in the uh when it's not raining, like how much nicer it would be. But oh, and we would go to that deep lake. Okay, so the last thing we did um was we went to a lake where it was like Lake McKenzie, where it's a big, huge lake, and over time it started filling in with sand. Because it's been there for so many hundred thousand years that as the sand's coming off the ocean, it's actually blowing into it.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:50

Uh okay, you missed an appoint uh good point. This is a forty five minute hike from where the bus was parked to this actual lake. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:00

So you walk off the beach, you literally park on the beach, then you walk forty-five minutes into the jungle, and it's jungle, uh like rainforest jungle, and then you get the guy that warned us about dingoes, and we even got uh dingo sticks. Dingo sticks, we encountered in like you know it's it's a it's about a four foot I don't know, actually more like six foot long stick. And it's uh you find the alpha male, and when he comes to you, you smack it on the nose, and it'll run away, and everyone else will follow it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:32

Huh. Did you ever see dingos?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:34

We did see dingos, and but they were never an issue, but we did see several of them. They're so cute. They're cute.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:40

Do ask them, are you the alpha? Are you the alpha? How do you know?

SPEAKER_06 1:06:44

You can tell it's the antlers. So uh uh no, it's the one in the front. But it uh but we're so we do this long trip, and then the very end you end up in like the Mojave Desert. It's just sand dunes as far as you can see. Beautiful, beautiful sand dunes.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Football fields worth of sand.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:06

Where a giant lake used to be, but it's just filled up with sand. But it's not as old as the island, so it doesn't have all the greenery, like one day it will. Right. It just doesn't yet. And so uh we walk down the sand quite a bit, and then you get to what's left of the lake. And it was it was it was uh a paddle? No deep. I'm telling to get down there. It was Mount Son of a Bitch.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:35

It was I'd say for every three feet forward, it probably went two feet down. Yeah, it was super steep.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:42

Outside of the water and inside of the water. Almost for almost 45 degrees straight down into it. We were probably 200 feet, 300 feet above it, and then we had to walk down that path to it in this slick sand. Woo! You could have rolled into it. You could have rolled it up. You could have slid down into it. There were people that slid down into it. That was the thing. You could do that. I don't want sand all over the place, but you could have. Right. And then when you get down there, you took our dingo sticks, we stubbed in the ground, and that's where you put your clothes, and you get in the water and uh go swimming. And that was so much fun. Now that water was brackish because it did have a little bit of salt water because you're so close to the ocean. Um, and inside of there, it it wasn't crystal clear, it was super dark, but like all of a sudden I we were just standing there talking and like something rubbed against my leg. That's a weird feeling when you can't see the bottom of your leg. Like uh later on we realized there's catfish, giant catfish swimming around. Yeah, they weren't like doing anything to us. They were just like they'd swim by close enough that you could feel their tail like whip across you or something like that. I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:45

Toward the end of our trip, I would go sit uh at the shore. Yeah. My legs in the water or my butts outside, and I was playing with the sand, and like I said, they'll go around your feet if you're swirling the sand because they're looking for food. Right. Well, I was throwing sand on the shore, and that caused like three or four of them. Yeah. About a foot, foot and a half big to come around me.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:05

I think at one point when we had like we I were both like I was standing out of the water, but I was still in the water, and he was on the shore, like I said, and it was I think we saw like eight or ten of them just around the general area. It was surprising. And what was crazy too is once you got in the water, like really like neck deep, you couldn't see them with the the way the sun reflected and everything. So they'd be like, he's right next to you, and I'm like, I can't see it at all. It that was wild. Um, but that was it, that was that was a lot of fun. So was that dinner that night? It was not dinner that night, but it we did work up quite the appetite because walking out of that 45 degree, 300 foot tall dune.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:43

You can't slide up. You can't slide up.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:45

That's what mama always says, she said you slide down, but you can't slide up.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:49

What goes down must come up.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:51

That's right. Uh that was so bad the the bus driver actually had a little uh issue on the way back. He was his he was older. He was like 72, 74, something like that. And uh, but like really great. You could tell he's in really good shape. And uh I guess his uh what's the muscle that runs behind uh cat? Is it calf? Or something? His calf like froze up or something. Yeah, he just had to stop and like work it out. Horsey cramp, yep. Uh but yeah, that was it. And then after that, we went on to uh got back to the mainland, stayed back at the same hotel we'd left the night two nights before, which was cool because they had air conditioning. Um and then uh it ended up uh going on to Bundenberg, which is really cool. Got to have uh distillery tour there. Did we talk about that last time? We might have, I don't remember. Okay. You went to a distillery? Went to a distillery, Bundenberg, uh Bundy, as they call it there. Everything in Australia is shortened. They don't believe in the full word? The full word of anything. Brecki. You know? Um Brecky? Brecki is breakfast.

SPEAKER_08 1:10:59

So is that why when you came back, Eric was calling you Patrick?

SPEAKER_06 1:11:03

Yes. Uh thank God he stopped that. I'm glad. Because that would have been that'd have been run off. Uh distillery was awesome. That that distillery was that really good rum. Uh they had these uh liqueurs like banana fostered and uh chocolate cinnamon and uh salted caramel, things like that. Those were really good. We brought a couple of those back home with us actually.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:27

They also make Bundaberg sodas.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:29

Yeah, yeah. So they have them here in America, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:32

Yes, you can get the ginger ale here.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:33

The ginger ale here. Ginger beer. Ginger beer, sorry. Yep. Lots of sugar, super sugary.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:39

But they make a a great drink. They're very spicy.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:42

Yes. I don't I don't like ginger beer in general. Yeah, I like theirs. Well, like a mule or a uh dark and stormy.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:50

Anything like that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:53

I did think this was funny because they talked about the dark and stormy there. And they talked about it being an Australian drink, and I'm like, I haven't been to Bermuda where they invented I've sat at the bar where they invented the dark and stormy. You know, like I talked to Mr. Stormy. Like uh nice try. Yeah. Uh and your rum is good, but you you didn't make invent the dark and stormy. So, anyways, uh that was interesting to see that. Um, and they don't make a black rum either, so I'm like, how do you even claim it? But you do make really good ginger beer. So um went there, that was a really cool place owned by Diaggio. If you know anything about spirits, they're huge. Uh and they they're pretty respectable company. They bullet bourbon, I think, is probably their most famous one right now, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:12:39

Diaggio?

SPEAKER_06 1:12:40

Yeah. Bullet bourbon? I know that's theirs.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:43

That's theirs. I would say it's their most famous bourbon. Diageo has a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:49

They have a lot of stuff, they're huge. Talisker uh whiskey is one of theirs as well. Um but I digress. So we ended up uh going from there. We did go to another island. We stayed a couple nights in the Wit Sundays. Um probably sack. Sorry?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:08

Not Witsack? No, Wit Sundays. You didn't need to go into the program.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:12

What is Witsack?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:13

Are you serious? No idea.

SPEAKER_08 1:13:16

I stand corrected. Um Bullet and Dickle.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:19

Oh Dickle. Oh, George Dickel's stuff. No, we didn't do that. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:24

No, no witness protection program.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:26

No. Uh we did saying the Wit Sundays. Really cool, uh, great view off the hotel room. Actually, we got there, it was raining, pouring, storming, nasty. And you're overlooking a bay with lots of islands, and it looked like we were in Oregon or Seattle. It was nothing but dark. Like it just looked like the Pacific Northwest. I don't like immediately. It's the first thing I thought when I stood out there. I was like, oh my gosh, we're in the Pacific Northwest. It's crazy. The next day it was sunshine, clear, beautiful, and I'm like, oh, we're in the tropics. Like, it's crazy how the cloud cover and the rain made such a difference. The very next day it was like, oh, this is like super tropical and beautiful. Not that it wasn't beautiful before, but just very, very, very different. Yeah. Um, that was nice after you know, having the rain issues and and getting stuck and and the AC and everything, just being there to be able to like, okay, we can chill out for a couple days and just because there was no tourist planned, there was nothing. It was just like a a chill day. Because I had a feeling with everything I had planned, we would need a chill day. Right. So that's what I put that in there. And then we left there, went to Magnetic Island. Um that ended up being kind of boring. Um, because Eric and I don't really dive, which is what most people do around there. Sure. And then the other thing they do is hike, and it's very mountainous. I don't mind hiking. I don't want to hike straight up for two miles. Sure. So, um, or rock climbing. They did a lot of rock climbing, so that kind of thing is so we didn't really go there, but we did have the best cheeseburger, anyways. Uh, well, I did. Eric had best tater tots. Best tater tots, yes. Uh that was really cool. We ended up going to this place. I know we uh so uh Melissa and Vince, we were talking about the other day, because that's how they knew about the tater tots. Um but this restaurant we go to, best cheeseburger, whatever. And uh while we're sitting there at the restaurant, it's outdoors, you're overlooking the beach, right? It's it's really cool. I'm like, there's a lot of young people here, like a lot of young people. And so I I look it up and it's owned by the hostel next door. So like everyone from the hostel is just like coming over and hanging out or whatever. And I'm like, oh, I guess that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:43

That would make sense.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:44

Oh, but yeah, uh so then we go on, make it finally make it up to Cannes. Um that's pretty cool. That's uh kind of the the main place if you're gonna do the Great Barrier Reef, you should go to is Cannes. And uh get out there, it's raining, and the next day is gonna be our big trip out to the Great Barrier Reef, and the weather looks gnarly. And so we're texting back and forth with the company that's doing our uh tour, and lo and behold, weather's gonna be too rough, so we had to cancel it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:16

That's call number four. That's phone call number four.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:20

So that would have been a bad phone call. I know. So we did the whole next day. We tried to enjoy ourselves next to the pool, drizzling half the day. Yeah, I mean, in and out of the room. Half rain.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:34

It was rough. Uh we did they had a really cute tiny little casino. So we went to that uh and played for a little bit, and we did go to a little strip of restaurants they had, and uh we actually found a tiki bar there. Um that was fun, uh small, but fun. And um, but yeah, the weather was pretty miserable. You so you know how it is. You try to make the best of it. Sure. Sure. Um yeah, so we get back the next day. We were flying from Caesan back to Brisbane. The weather's the weather's gorgeous, unbelievable. Not a cloud in the sky. Beautiful flight. Just gorgeous, right? We didn't not a drop of turbulence the whole way to Brisbane. I mean, just awesome. Um, which was really cool because we were actually able, as we go down the coastline, I'm like pointing out like we were there, we were there, we were there, we were there, we were there. You know, that's always fun. But um, yeah, so overall, great trip. Really had a lot of fun. It was the worst weather we've ever had on a trip. But I don't want that to sound like we had a horrible trip.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:36

Sure.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:37

Like there were a few things that definitely didn't go the way we thought they were gonna go, but it was still pretty epic to be down there and to experience that. And I mean, like, that trip's like 1200 miles, so it was it was a long trip we took driving, um, and to see everything, and to see the terrain, and and and oh my gosh, like the fact that they have dist rum distilleries makes perfect sense because the amount of sugarcane field. Yeah, like I'm from South Eric and I are from South Louisiana. We are used to sugarcane fields, we see tons of it. This blew our minds. It's just a hundred thousand miles of sugarcane fields. Wow. Like they found the perfect place to build them, and they're just everywhere. Like we have corn and and wheat in the US, it's just all sugarcane. So that's it. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:28

That's cool.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:29

It's pretty crazy. Like in Louisiana, three hours across, you've seen all the sugarcane. Over here, we're three, four days in, and it's still sugarcane.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:37

Like it was like going from Houston, say, Tallahassee or further and sugarcane the whole way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:45

So cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:46

I'm glad you guys had a good time.

Magnetic Island Food And Reef Cancelation

SPEAKER_06 1:18:48

Yeah, it'd be a lot of fun. So next time we go back to Australia, so we did Brisbane. We didn't go to Sydney. Everybody was asking us how the opera house was, and I'm like, didn't go. Um so next time I think we will go to Sydney and then maybe head down to Melbourne, uh, Adelaide. I'd like to go see Ayers Rock. Uh, but now we have to add on a flight up to Cannes to go snorkeling. But I know this, and I will tell you this if you plan a trip to Australia and they say it's monsoon season, don't go. Don't go. Pick another time. Like it was they are not joking about that monsoon. That was our trip.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:26

Oh I was looking at the name of the restaurant we had. Ada you said it was kind of like a hostel. It was called Nomads. Yes, nomads.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:33

Imagine nomads as the name of a hostel.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:37

Perfect.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:39

But if you're on Magnetic Island, go there and get the burger. It's a delight it is a die for.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:50

I'm hungry.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:52

I am too. Speaking of witch Jerry, uh, what are we doing for lunch today?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:56

Lunch today?

SPEAKER_06 1:19:57

Yeah. Hi King's Island.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:59

Oh, um at the Mexican place?

SPEAKER_06 1:20:02

Yeah, sounds great.

unknown 1:20:03

I do like the burrito.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:06

I get the burrito bowl, not the burrito, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:17

You have to ride at least one roller coaster, though. Nope. I don't think Lasquatchos has uh roller coasters, do they?

SPEAKER_06 1:20:23

They should work on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:24

No. They don't even have like a little kid toy or anything either. No, no.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:30

No kids allowed.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:33

You ever been there for Cinco de Mayo?

SPEAKER_08 1:20:35

No. We heard about that. We've decided not to go there for Cinco de Mayo.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:38

Yeah. If you if you have a Mexican craving on uh Cinco de Mayo, I highly recommend a place I like to call Taco Bell.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:46

DoorNetch.

SPEAKER_08 1:20:47

A friend of mine sent me a um an article on how to make Al Pastor, which is Las Quatchos signature dish uh at home. Yes. Uh and like a quick and easy way to make it. And they compared it to the best, and this is out of Texas. They compared it to the best Al Pastor they've had in the United States, and the best place they've had it at was Las Quatchos. I thought it was interesting that in Texas or the one here. The article was was a writer in Texas. The best they've had was Las Quatchos here in in Dublin, Ohio. Really? Yeah. I thought that was very interesting. It is. I mean that that's their specialty. They do if you go there for Asada, it's okay. Yeah. If you go there for anything else, it's it's okay. Although their video is really good, but and they'll only do that on weekends, but their El Past store is top-notch.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:41

I think that's like the first time I went, it was uh Cingo de Mayo, the mariachi band was super annoying. The uh I don't know what I got, but I was not really impressed with it. So that's when y'all kept saying, Oh, it's so good, so good, I was like, I what have we had? Because it sounds what we had was terrible, and and y'all are raging about it. And Melissa's tea Melissa's tastes are impeccable. Like, if you ever go to a restaurant with Melissa, she's really good at picking up flavors, and if she says something's good, it's good. Like you don't have to worry about that, it's actually gonna be quite flavorful. Um, and so I'm like, how can y'all love it so much? So we did go back one time, I think it was actually after an Outer Belt recording session.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:27

Very good.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:28

And you convinced me to get Al Pastor? Was it Al Pastor or the Biria? Because it was in a burrito. It was not okay, yeah. But it was in a burrito and it was D-stinking licious. It was really, really good. Yeah. Um, and so it's like I still have a hangover of it that place is not my favorite, and I need to go a few more times to erase it. Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like not only.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:56

It's not like we go out to Mexican restaurants either.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:59

No, we don't.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:00

The four four or five, six of us, eight of us when it got other companies in. It doesn't typically those we're cooking here at home when we're doing like fajitas or tobaccos, or they're quick and easy, of course. So it's not like a go-out thing, but yeah, their prices, right. I but that's what I was gonna say. I remember that being reasonable.

SPEAKER_08 1:23:20

I think my little brother nailed it. Um, he lives in Chilacathi. I'm sorry, he lives in Pierre, Illinois. He's got a fabulous cheesecake bakery in Chilacathy, Illinois, called Triple Diplos. They're our sponsor tonight, I think. Um but he nailed it, he said that Mexican food in the Midwest, if you're from somewhere Southern California or Texas or New Mexico, Arizona, where they have good Mexican food, in the Midwest, every restaurant you go to has their specialty. So you don't go to Las Cuachos, where they specialize in Al Pastor, for asada. Sure. You go there for Al Pastor. You don't go there for gourmet tacos. No. You go to local cantina for you don't go to a place that specializes in Alpastor in sorry, in Carne Asada for Al Pastor, you go there for the Carne Asada. So you you you have your places where they have their specialties and they do that specialty really well.

SPEAKER_06 1:24:15

And being from Baton Rouge, we had Ninfa's, which hands down one of the best Mexican restaurants. It's Tex-Mex, but one of the best I've ever been around. And then uh Superior Grill, also Tex-Mex, but like to die for. Um so really having those kind of places, and then we did have more local like uh street taco kind of places there too. Because I think it's the difference too, is like in in Baton Rouge, just like there was in California, a very large Latino population, like huge. Yeah. Uh not so big here. Not so big here. Um so I felt like that stuff is a little bit harder to find uh than in in Baton Rouge, where it was kind of everywhere. Sure. And uh it's it's funny the things you take for granted, right?

SPEAKER_08 1:24:58

And you don't realize it until you don't realize it. When we when we were in Southern California, we would usually camp out in Castac on the truck. Yeah. And in Castac, there's like six taco trucks that line a tenth of a mile of the road.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:14

And they're all busy.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:16

They're all busy, yeah. And they're all good. And we actually found one, we didn't have any cash on us one day, and we found one that took uh debit cards, and that became our favorite for breakfast burritos.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:28

Oh, they're pento beans.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:30

We we learned that lesson and not make sure we had cash on us after that, but yeah, it was really good. It's really good.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:36

I think that nowadays is a little bit easier because so many people take it. They do now. I mean, this was our credit card or whatever seven years ago. Yeah. I COVID really changed that. It really did.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:46

COVID really did. This was pre-COVID. Yeah, it really did change that.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:52

Right at that we would go there?

SPEAKER_06 1:25:55

No, that we first went there.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:56

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:57

Sorry, I was confused.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:58

I think uh I think back to like uh Dina Mitchell and a few other James and Dina and a few other people that uh drove with us, and that was their thing was like uh not restaurants, food trucks, and finding those really great places across America. And um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:15

Well how can they oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:16

Well, to me it was always uh which was the best uh a diner inside of a truck stop. Sure. Which now half of those are gone.

Mexican Food Rules And Food Trucks

SPEAKER_04 1:26:24

I was gonna ask Jerry how people can sign up for one of our trucks so they can go find food trucks across America. That's a really segment.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:32

It is a way it was segment. We should ask him. We should ask him.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:37

What are we missing?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:39

And you can do that by going to highfieldrucking.com.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:43

I love what are we missing can be responded to by Ann. You can do that by Jerry's the Segway King.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:50

He is. Highfield Trucking.com.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:53

Yeah, highfeeltrucking.com. Uh reach out to us. We do have a uh chat on there that you can chat with one of our recruiters and uh answer all your questions that you may have. You can also reach out to recruiting at 833 Highfield. That's 833-493-4353, option one, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Uh, you can also leave a comment down below. We would love to hear from you if you have any questions, comments on the show, or anything like that, send us over an email at the attabbeltpodcast at gmail.com. Uh make sure you leave us a thumbs up and hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. It really does help us out with the algorithm. And also leave us a comment on your favorite streaming podcast app if you happen to be uh listening to us over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:39

Where's your favorite food truck at?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:41

Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:43

Yeah. Do you have one in Columbus that you found?

SPEAKER_06 1:27:48

Cousins made lobster. But I mean it's a different lobster. It's a little different than what we've been talking about. It is very pricey too. It's very pricey.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:56

Yeah, but it's lobster. Lobster. And it's good lobster.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:00

Rolls too. I've had some that are not so good, but they hit. They slap. I think it's what is that what kids say they slap? That's what the kids say these days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:08

Wrap this up. I gotta go eat dinner. You've all made me hungry.

How To Reach Us And Wrap

SPEAKER_06 1:28:10

I know we gotta hurry 6-7. So um uh thank you all so much for hanging out with us. Uh I know we talked about getting uh started talking about technology, and we did not do that tonight. We will work on doing that next week. Uh I think we should talk about it from a maintenance perspective. Let's talk about how we used to track maintenance, how we used to track what we did in the yard. Yeah. And uh how we got to what we got now, and uh, and what is it we have now, and um kind of go from there. So it'd be kind of fun. I'll start this show off and then I'll let Jerry finish it. Um and Vince will chime in as requested. Uh until we chat again, everybody stay safe, make good decisions. And don't leave money on the table.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:59

And keep those wills of turn. Hi.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:03

Good night.

unknown 1:29:05

Hi, I'm gonna do that.

SPEAKER_06 1:29:54

Hands up or gripped onto the safety bars for dear life? White knuckled like a mans up.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:03

Gripping. I do grip.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:05

Melissa?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:06

Uh gripping.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:06

Oh, I think hands up.