Overland Weekly
Overland Weekly is a podcast and YouTube show that highlights the people, places, and events shaping the off-road and overland world. From trailside chats with gearheads to conversations with event organizers, builders, and everyday wheelers, this show keeps its boots on the ground.
We’re not here to sell you a lifestyle—we’re living it. Whether you’re an off-road veteran or just figuring out how to air down, Overland Weekly brings real stories from the trail, insights from across the community, and the occasional campfire nonsense.
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Overland Weekly
Trail Team Challenge | Ep. 18
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In this episode of Overland Weekly, we’re diving deep into the Trail Team Challenge, an exciting off-road endurance event that tests skills in navigation, marksmanship, mechanical recovery, teamwork, and more! Joining us is Mark Lawson, the mastermind behind the challenge and owner of The Jeep Lab in Tampa, Florida.
Mark shares the origins of the event, its unique blend of challenges, and how it fosters a community of passionate off-roaders. From blindfolded driving (yes, you read that right!) to staged mechanical recoveries and precision marksmanship, the Trail Team Challenge is an event like no other.
This episode is packed with insights into building an inclusive off-road competition, the importance of giving back to the community through partnerships with organizations like Tread Lightly, and the possibility of expanding the event to new locations. Plus, Mark drops an exciting teaser about a potential Trail Team Challenge TV show in the works!
🔧 Topics Covered:
- History and evolution of the Trail Team Challenge
- Memorable challenges, including the Bird Box Challenge
- Tips for preparing your rig and gear
- Building community through off-road events
- The role of sponsors and partnerships
🎥 Whether you’re a Jeep fanatic, a Toyota enthusiast, or just love the thrill of off-roading, this episode has something for you. Tune in, and don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for weekly overland adventures and insights!
WEBVTT
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All right, there we go.
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Hey folks, if you are watching,
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looks like we got a couple here.
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We're going to give it just
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a couple more minutes and
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see if we can get a few
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more folks to trickle in
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and we will get this thing started.
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You can go ahead and let me
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know in the chat if you are here.
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Hey, if you're joining us,
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we're going to give it just
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a couple of minutes here
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and see if we can get a few
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more folks in and then we
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will get this rolling.
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All right, it's two minutes.
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I'm going to go ahead and roll the intro.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back.
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This is Overland Weekly,
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episode number eighteen.
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So it's only been maybe a
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little less than a week
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since we got the last
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episode out with Jeff.
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I know a lot of you guys enjoyed that.
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I've been trying to get Jeff
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on for a while and we
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finally made that happen.
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So tonight I have Mark Lawson.
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from Trail Team Challenge joining me,
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Florida Trail Team.
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Is it Florida Trail Team
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Challenge or just Trail Team Challenge?
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Yes and no.
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So we're dropping kind of
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the Florida because for
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some reason people are like, oh,
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it's just a Florida thing.
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It's absolutely not.
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We've had teams from all over the country.
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So we're kind of going with
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the Trail Team Challenge.
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Gotcha.
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So,
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let me give you guys a little backstory.
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I've got a friend,
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we've got a mutual friend,
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Mr. Ray Towner.
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And Ray's a phenomenal guy.
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And I'll pull up a picture of Ray,
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my favorite picture that I've got here.
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Let's see if I can double click this.
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There we go.
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There's Ray.
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Okay.
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This was at G Smith or up at Windrock.
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And, and anyhow,
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Ray messaged me a few weeks
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ago and was like, Hey,
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I'm involved with this
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trail team challenge event.
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And it's really cool,
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but not as many people know
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about it as they need to.
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And you need to get them on
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the show and talk about it.
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And,
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you know,
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just do your thing and you can't
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turn down Ray.
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So I said, you know, absolutely.
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So, so he introduced me to Mark and,
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and here we are tonight.
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So thank you, Ray, for,
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for lining this up and kind
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of getting this show to happen.
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So, Mark, before we dive into the event,
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let's,
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let's give people a little bit of
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background about yourself and,
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I always want to know about
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your personal rig,
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your personal wheeling setup,
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but I found out that you've actually,
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this is what you do professionally.
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You've got a shop in Tampa,
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Florida called the Jeep Lab.
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So I have a feeling you may
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have more than one project
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that's rolling around.
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Tell us a little bit about
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the Jeep Lab and also about
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your current build.
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Yeah.
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So the Jeep lab started in
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February of two thousand eighteen.
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So we've been up and running for a while.
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I've been a staple in the community.
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Really enjoyed that.
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Pretty much do everything but motor swaps.
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I don't really get into that
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or transmission stuff.
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But, you know, anything new and old we do.
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And it is just me.
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It's a smaller shop.
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Jumping out to do this was
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really more about just
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enjoying life and honestly
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getting a way to go to more
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off-roading events and do
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more off-roading without
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those two weeks a year or
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having to ask your boss for time off.
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It's like, man,
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I can bust my tail and then
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I can close up shop for a
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month and go to Moab if I want to.
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So it's really a quality of
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life thing when I decided
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to really go into this and
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do it full time.
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But yeah,
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I've been up and running for a
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few years and love it.
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Right now at the shop,
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I've got one of my rigs.
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Yeah, I've had quite a few.
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I actually just offloaded a couple FCs,
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believe it or not.
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We had two of them and let
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those go here yesterday.
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just too many projects
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sometimes um so uh and
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right now I've got my uh tj
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that I've had since the
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early two thousands okay um
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it's cut in half right now
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with a couple pallets of
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moto built parts sitting on
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the ground ready to go to
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you know four link uh some
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oris some forty threes um
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so yeah full full buggy
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with that one um like I
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said I've had it for a long
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time and was just kind of like
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right it's ready for the
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next step I've enjoyed it
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as is for a while so let's
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just go down the rabbit
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hole with that and then uh
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my daily driver I've got a
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gladiator um okay nice and
00:06:09.807 --> 00:06:11.829
pretty simple lift thirty
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seven some nice moto belt
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fenders bumpers winches I
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mean still can get the job
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done if it wants to but uh
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that's just my reliable
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daily driver it looks good
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for the shop so wife has a
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jeep mom has a jeep sister
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has a jeep aunt has a jeep
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So yeah, we've all got Jeeps.
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So it's in your blood.
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This is a family thing.
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Yeah.
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It is.
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It is.
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Gotcha.
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Well, yeah.
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When you say, you know,
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just a simple lift and thirty sevens,
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it makes all the Toyota
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guys a little jealous
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because it's a little more
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than a simple lift to get
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the thirty sevens on there.
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Well,
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the mom does have a Tacoma that she
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really loves in her voodoo blue.
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And the sister who drives a
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Jeep actually works for a
00:06:48.891 --> 00:06:49.771
Toyota dealership.
00:06:49.850 --> 00:06:51.932
So we've got some Toyotas and
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I don't want to go down the rabbit hole,
00:06:53.870 --> 00:06:54.571
but I've had some issues
00:06:54.591 --> 00:06:55.992
with my Gladiator recently.
00:06:56.432 --> 00:06:58.353
Three motors in.
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Every time I go see my
00:07:01.495 --> 00:07:02.476
sister at the dealership,
00:07:02.776 --> 00:07:05.199
I've been eyeing those new Land Cruisers.
00:07:05.259 --> 00:07:07.040
I always said if I wasn't a Jeep guy,
00:07:07.380 --> 00:07:10.062
I would be in a Toyota for sure.
00:07:11.764 --> 00:07:12.665
I'm not going to dive into
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all my thoughts on the new
00:07:14.766 --> 00:07:16.567
Land Cruiser or if it's a
00:07:16.627 --> 00:07:17.848
Land Cruiser or only a Land
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Cruiser and badge only,
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but they're sharp.
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They're
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An interesting platform.
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All right.
00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:30.781
So the trail team challenge,
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I believe this was the
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third year of the event.
00:07:34.083 --> 00:07:35.403
So give us a little bit of
00:07:35.603 --> 00:07:37.064
historical background of
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how this came to be and how
00:07:39.545 --> 00:07:41.586
you came to be involved in
00:07:41.646 --> 00:07:42.648
it as the director now.
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Well,
00:07:44.432 --> 00:07:46.593
so I used to compete in some similar
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events and I really enjoyed them.
00:07:49.355 --> 00:07:50.516
Just kind of my thing.
00:07:51.355 --> 00:07:52.297
And I think the Trail Team
00:07:52.317 --> 00:07:53.476
Challenge just comes down
00:07:53.516 --> 00:07:55.577
to being a well-rounded, you know,
00:07:55.718 --> 00:07:58.180
off-roading, off-roading etiquette,
00:07:58.339 --> 00:08:00.201
you know, someone who will lead,
00:08:00.261 --> 00:08:01.221
someone who will spot,
00:08:01.281 --> 00:08:02.141
someone who will help when
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repairs need to be done,
00:08:03.923 --> 00:08:04.622
someone that'll leave it
00:08:04.663 --> 00:08:06.504
better than they found it type mentality.
00:08:07.464 --> 00:08:11.726
And there was an event back in... Fifteen,
00:08:11.807 --> 00:08:12.867
sixteen, I want to say.
00:08:13.619 --> 00:08:13.939
You know,
00:08:13.978 --> 00:08:15.779
pre-COVID called Thirty Six Hours
00:08:15.819 --> 00:08:16.401
of Uari.
00:08:16.420 --> 00:08:18.341
I don't know if you've ever heard of that.
00:08:18.382 --> 00:08:20.663
So I competed a couple of years of that.
00:08:21.642 --> 00:08:23.584
So it kind of is a spinoff of that.
00:08:23.624 --> 00:08:24.524
They did like a little bit
00:08:24.564 --> 00:08:25.865
of military into it.
00:08:25.925 --> 00:08:26.125
You know,
00:08:26.146 --> 00:08:27.887
they're making you all wear uniforms and,
00:08:28.307 --> 00:08:28.466
you know,
00:08:28.487 --> 00:08:30.788
yelling if people are late and push ups.
00:08:30.908 --> 00:08:32.188
And and honestly,
00:08:32.229 --> 00:08:33.250
when you start to look around,
00:08:33.289 --> 00:08:34.210
most of us were former
00:08:34.250 --> 00:08:35.370
military and we're all like,
00:08:36.030 --> 00:08:36.650
we're done with this.
00:08:36.671 --> 00:08:36.770
Like,
00:08:36.791 --> 00:08:38.211
can we just go compete if these guys
00:08:38.251 --> 00:08:39.493
don't want to get out of their tent?
00:08:39.993 --> 00:08:41.174
They're just not going to get points.
00:08:41.596 --> 00:08:44.880
So I kind of took that out of it, again,
00:08:44.921 --> 00:08:46.802
to make it really similar
00:08:46.842 --> 00:08:48.966
to me and you loading up in
00:08:49.006 --> 00:08:50.008
our rig and going for a
00:08:50.048 --> 00:08:53.173
multi-day off-road wheeling event.
00:08:54.178 --> 00:08:55.220
And, you know, when that happens,
00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:56.799
you plan what your route, you know,
00:08:56.899 --> 00:08:57.801
using navigation,
00:08:58.240 --> 00:08:59.682
you're going to bring some spare stuff,
00:08:59.721 --> 00:08:59.902
you know,
00:08:59.922 --> 00:09:00.802
maybe some stuff that's more
00:09:00.841 --> 00:09:03.063
common to break or you're
00:09:03.083 --> 00:09:03.884
going to bring your food.
00:09:03.903 --> 00:09:05.225
You're going to bring whatever your,
00:09:05.304 --> 00:09:05.465
you know,
00:09:05.504 --> 00:09:07.365
camping setup is and you're
00:09:07.385 --> 00:09:09.047
going to go out and enjoy the outdoors.
00:09:09.206 --> 00:09:10.167
And unfortunately,
00:09:10.727 --> 00:09:12.008
sometimes stuff happens.
00:09:12.028 --> 00:09:13.708
And are you the type of
00:09:13.749 --> 00:09:14.850
person that's able to fix
00:09:14.889 --> 00:09:16.149
it and continue on and not
00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:18.270
let it ruin the trip, you know,
00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:19.131
or are you the kind that's
00:09:19.152 --> 00:09:21.413
going to sit there and just, you
00:09:21.712 --> 00:09:23.793
wave down AAA to come get you and go home.
00:09:23.833 --> 00:09:25.053
And it is what it is, you know,
00:09:25.073 --> 00:09:25.874
that's not me.
00:09:26.573 --> 00:09:28.054
So with taking the thirty six hours,
00:09:28.095 --> 00:09:30.596
you are doing my own spin on it,
00:09:30.635 --> 00:09:31.456
coming up with my own
00:09:31.475 --> 00:09:32.716
challenges and ideas.
00:09:33.895 --> 00:09:35.216
That's what kind of just
00:09:35.236 --> 00:09:36.756
came up with the trail team challenge,
00:09:37.157 --> 00:09:39.097
because when you are just kind of stop,
00:09:39.138 --> 00:09:39.898
I don't know the backstory
00:09:39.918 --> 00:09:40.798
of what happened and why
00:09:40.837 --> 00:09:41.619
they didn't continue.
00:09:41.678 --> 00:09:42.599
I know some leadership had
00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:43.599
passed and whatnot.
00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:44.379
So I don't know if the
00:09:44.418 --> 00:09:45.899
passion wasn't there anymore or what.
00:09:46.059 --> 00:09:46.299
But
00:09:47.246 --> 00:09:48.207
Um, you know,
00:09:48.227 --> 00:09:49.589
I didn't see anything else like it.
00:09:49.629 --> 00:09:50.830
I was always trying to find something.
00:09:50.850 --> 00:09:51.451
I'm like, you know what,
00:09:51.471 --> 00:09:52.191
if you don't find it,
00:09:53.152 --> 00:09:54.212
why not do it yourself?
00:09:54.573 --> 00:09:55.715
And that's the tough part is
00:09:55.735 --> 00:09:58.376
because I host it now, but man,
00:09:58.397 --> 00:09:59.437
it just kills me to not be
00:09:59.477 --> 00:10:00.558
able to compete myself
00:10:00.778 --> 00:10:01.720
because it is truly like
00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:02.620
what I want to be doing.
00:10:04.113 --> 00:10:04.352
Yeah,
00:10:04.712 --> 00:10:08.414
it's people don't realize it's it's
00:10:08.475 --> 00:10:11.096
fun to to organize and do
00:10:11.115 --> 00:10:12.136
the leadership and get
00:10:12.157 --> 00:10:12.996
everybody there and see
00:10:13.037 --> 00:10:14.437
everybody else having a good time.
00:10:15.378 --> 00:10:17.019
But then sometimes you do
00:10:17.058 --> 00:10:19.059
those things and you're like, dude,
00:10:19.100 --> 00:10:20.220
my truck's not even muddy.
00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:21.780
Like I hadn't even been on a
00:10:21.841 --> 00:10:22.600
trail all week.
00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:23.961
So, yeah, yeah, I get it.
00:10:25.082 --> 00:10:26.102
All right.
00:10:26.182 --> 00:10:27.524
So you talked about it's
00:10:27.543 --> 00:10:30.384
kind of a multifaceted off-road event.
00:10:30.445 --> 00:10:32.725
You've got different skill sets involved.
00:10:33.546 --> 00:10:35.287
So give us kind of, I guess,
00:10:35.326 --> 00:10:38.489
the elevator pitch on the
00:10:38.609 --> 00:10:41.649
different events within the competition.
00:10:42.429 --> 00:10:43.591
Talking about the different
00:10:43.671 --> 00:10:44.611
ones is kind of tough
00:10:44.751 --> 00:10:45.552
because we don't want to
00:10:45.592 --> 00:10:47.433
really give out all the
00:10:47.815 --> 00:10:49.515
challenges because no one
00:10:49.535 --> 00:10:50.876
knows what they are leading up to it.
00:10:51.498 --> 00:10:52.638
I kind of consider it like
00:10:52.677 --> 00:10:54.100
the ultimate off-road
00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.101
endurance challenge.
00:10:57.142 --> 00:10:57.962
You can't come in.
00:10:58.163 --> 00:10:58.942
We'll see people in the
00:10:58.984 --> 00:11:00.304
off-road industry that have
00:11:00.325 --> 00:11:00.904
a lot of money.
00:11:00.924 --> 00:11:02.225
They've been successful in other things.
00:11:02.245 --> 00:11:03.506
They come in and they buy
00:11:03.547 --> 00:11:04.388
this hundred and fifty
00:11:04.408 --> 00:11:05.509
thousand dollar rig that a
00:11:05.708 --> 00:11:06.990
shop did a very well job in.
00:11:07.250 --> 00:11:08.553
they go out, they wheel, they break,
00:11:08.715 --> 00:11:09.817
they get stuck all the time
00:11:09.857 --> 00:11:10.539
and you're like, okay,
00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:11.945
you got more money than sense, right?
00:11:12.346 --> 00:11:13.248
Or you've got someone that
00:11:13.269 --> 00:11:14.592
goes out there in a stock
00:11:15.404 --> 00:11:18.005
know jeep rubicon maybe and
00:11:18.066 --> 00:11:19.147
can wheel the crap out of
00:11:19.187 --> 00:11:20.647
it you know and has
00:11:20.706 --> 00:11:21.788
experience and has
00:11:21.947 --> 00:11:23.148
knowledge of their vehicle
00:11:23.607 --> 00:11:24.989
you know or you're just out
00:11:25.048 --> 00:11:26.610
wheeling and you know you
00:11:26.629 --> 00:11:27.889
may not have the best in
00:11:27.909 --> 00:11:29.030
the biggest rig but you're
00:11:29.051 --> 00:11:30.811
a team player to where if I
00:11:30.851 --> 00:11:32.032
snap an axle shaft you're
00:11:32.052 --> 00:11:32.871
right there with me handing
00:11:32.892 --> 00:11:33.773
me tools we're getting the
00:11:33.793 --> 00:11:34.793
shaft out we're getting it
00:11:34.812 --> 00:11:36.193
plugged in or putting a new
00:11:36.274 --> 00:11:37.014
one in and we're back on
00:11:37.033 --> 00:11:37.813
the trail and we're
00:11:38.115 --> 00:11:39.134
high-fiving and you know
00:11:39.174 --> 00:11:39.975
getting back to camp and
00:11:39.995 --> 00:11:41.096
now we've got a story to tell
00:11:41.755 --> 00:11:44.376
So basically we break it
00:11:44.417 --> 00:11:45.918
into seven categories for
00:11:45.937 --> 00:11:46.759
the trail team challenge.
00:11:46.778 --> 00:11:48.559
So navigation is one.
00:11:49.460 --> 00:11:50.179
We'll get into that some a
00:11:50.200 --> 00:11:50.760
little bit more.
00:11:51.140 --> 00:11:53.422
Marksmanship is actually one of them,
00:11:53.881 --> 00:11:55.143
which I know is kind of
00:11:55.182 --> 00:11:56.062
interesting when people
00:11:56.102 --> 00:11:57.203
hear about marksmanship,
00:11:57.604 --> 00:11:59.565
but that ties into the
00:11:59.605 --> 00:12:00.645
survival type stuff.
00:12:01.186 --> 00:12:01.865
So, you know,
00:12:01.885 --> 00:12:02.647
if you're out there and
00:12:02.687 --> 00:12:03.787
something really bad
00:12:03.807 --> 00:12:05.008
happens and you're really
00:12:05.067 --> 00:12:06.068
out in the middle of nowhere,
00:12:06.349 --> 00:12:07.149
you've got to go into
00:12:07.168 --> 00:12:08.789
survival mode to a certain point,
00:12:08.809 --> 00:12:09.029
you know,
00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:10.270
depending on how prepared you are.
00:12:11.191 --> 00:12:12.912
Um, we've got first aid, uh,
00:12:12.951 --> 00:12:15.333
and that's for yourself, but also, um,
00:12:15.374 --> 00:12:16.634
the type of people or type
00:12:16.653 --> 00:12:17.975
person I am and the crews
00:12:17.995 --> 00:12:19.135
that I go out with, you know,
00:12:19.176 --> 00:12:20.235
if we're out on the trail
00:12:20.556 --> 00:12:22.538
and we get waved down and say, you know,
00:12:22.557 --> 00:12:24.259
it's an injured hiker and they're like,
00:12:24.278 --> 00:12:24.578
Hey man,
00:12:24.599 --> 00:12:25.798
my buddy just fell in this cave
00:12:25.839 --> 00:12:26.200
over here.
00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:27.460
Yes, we have caves in Florida.
00:12:28.020 --> 00:12:29.120
Um, you know, can you come help?
00:12:29.301 --> 00:12:29.861
Absolutely.
00:12:29.922 --> 00:12:30.581
I'm the type that would
00:12:30.601 --> 00:12:32.182
absolutely let me grab what I got.
00:12:32.202 --> 00:12:33.604
Let's go see what we can do to help you.
00:12:34.364 --> 00:12:35.625
Um, so we've got that in there.
00:12:36.556 --> 00:12:37.416
obviously anything with
00:12:37.475 --> 00:12:39.157
off-road is recovery you
00:12:39.177 --> 00:12:40.138
know whether you're getting
00:12:40.197 --> 00:12:40.878
stuck whether we're
00:12:40.937 --> 00:12:41.859
simulating different
00:12:42.078 --> 00:12:43.239
situations to help other
00:12:43.278 --> 00:12:46.441
people or yourself and then
00:12:46.561 --> 00:12:48.020
mechanical again if you
00:12:48.061 --> 00:12:49.361
break down stuff happens
00:12:49.662 --> 00:12:50.682
can you fix it can you keep
00:12:50.722 --> 00:12:51.942
going and then we do some
00:12:51.982 --> 00:12:53.244
precision driving obviously
00:12:53.264 --> 00:12:53.943
you're off-roading your
00:12:53.964 --> 00:12:54.945
wheeling so we throw that
00:12:55.004 --> 00:12:57.546
in there too so those are the main core
00:12:59.934 --> 00:13:00.174
I guess,
00:13:00.215 --> 00:13:02.216
categories of challenges that we
00:13:02.256 --> 00:13:02.856
throw at them.
00:13:03.398 --> 00:13:05.259
And the way we do it is we
00:13:05.278 --> 00:13:06.399
give them a set of coordinates.
00:13:07.061 --> 00:13:09.643
So there's a over forty five
00:13:09.682 --> 00:13:10.943
different coordinates for the weekend.
00:13:10.964 --> 00:13:11.744
So just like, again,
00:13:11.784 --> 00:13:12.884
me and you plan our map of
00:13:12.904 --> 00:13:14.005
our trail over the weekend.
00:13:14.366 --> 00:13:15.847
We're going here to here to here to here.
00:13:16.327 --> 00:13:17.428
And then when they get to a
00:13:17.489 --> 00:13:18.210
set of coordinates,
00:13:18.269 --> 00:13:19.370
they're read a script and
00:13:19.410 --> 00:13:20.652
they have no idea what it is.
00:13:21.211 --> 00:13:21.533
Okay.
00:13:21.592 --> 00:13:22.573
When they get there.
00:13:22.594 --> 00:13:22.913
Oh, okay.
00:13:22.933 --> 00:13:23.676
Just like me and you,
00:13:23.716 --> 00:13:24.496
we're out wheeling and we
00:13:24.537 --> 00:13:25.557
blow a drive shaft.
00:13:25.658 --> 00:13:26.779
You're, you joined the drive shaft.
00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:28.062
We didn't know that was going to happen.
00:13:28.682 --> 00:13:28.903
Right.
00:13:29.102 --> 00:13:29.322
Right.
00:13:29.342 --> 00:13:30.565
We do the same thing to them.
00:13:30.705 --> 00:13:31.846
They don't know what any of
00:13:31.866 --> 00:13:32.908
these challenges are.
00:13:33.009 --> 00:13:33.109
Okay.
00:13:33.428 --> 00:13:34.149
And when they get there,
00:13:34.190 --> 00:13:35.030
they get read a script.
00:13:35.993 --> 00:13:37.453
So they'll say, Hey, you know,
00:13:37.833 --> 00:13:38.514
I'm here for challenge.
00:13:38.615 --> 00:13:39.034
Yep.
00:13:39.375 --> 00:13:39.956
You're at challenge.
00:13:39.995 --> 00:13:42.457
Here's the script, you know,
00:13:42.498 --> 00:13:43.177
and I'll use the drive
00:13:43.217 --> 00:13:44.239
shaft one that I just used.
00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:45.941
Your drive shaft just blew out.
00:13:46.041 --> 00:13:47.361
You've got to fix a U joint.
00:13:47.902 --> 00:13:49.964
Um, time starts when, you know,
00:13:49.984 --> 00:13:50.764
you open your door,
00:13:50.844 --> 00:13:51.705
time ends when you're back
00:13:51.725 --> 00:13:52.966
in your vehicle, you know,
00:13:53.066 --> 00:13:54.246
and the U joint is signed
00:13:54.307 --> 00:13:55.607
off by the volunteer and
00:13:55.648 --> 00:13:56.248
we're not going to make
00:13:56.268 --> 00:13:57.909
them pull out their, their drive shaft.
00:13:57.950 --> 00:13:58.649
We're going to provide them
00:13:58.669 --> 00:13:59.350
with a drive shaft.
00:13:59.370 --> 00:14:00.812
We're going to provide them with a U joint,
00:14:00.851 --> 00:14:01.993
you know, anything specialty.
00:14:02.552 --> 00:14:03.354
Um, but yeah, it's,
00:14:03.933 --> 00:14:04.173
All right.
00:14:04.214 --> 00:14:04.413
Ready?
00:14:04.474 --> 00:14:04.774
Go.
00:14:05.054 --> 00:14:05.315
You know,
00:14:05.394 --> 00:14:07.076
and then we'll do something like
00:14:07.096 --> 00:14:08.376
that that is timed would be, you know,
00:14:08.417 --> 00:14:09.397
first place team with the
00:14:09.417 --> 00:14:10.977
fastest time gets this many points.
00:14:11.318 --> 00:14:12.379
And then every time after
00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:13.799
that gets a reduction of, you know,
00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:14.580
so many points.
00:14:15.541 --> 00:14:17.642
And then whoever has the
00:14:17.682 --> 00:14:18.423
most points at the end of
00:14:18.442 --> 00:14:19.123
the weekend wins.
00:14:19.143 --> 00:14:20.423
I got you.
00:14:20.504 --> 00:14:22.985
OK, so we got a comment from a.
00:14:23.995 --> 00:14:25.519
Army Truck Josh says,
00:14:25.538 --> 00:14:27.260
he's Josh from Team Eight, says,
00:14:27.280 --> 00:14:28.182
it's like an endurance
00:14:28.202 --> 00:14:29.384
challenge where everything
00:14:29.424 --> 00:14:31.788
goes wrong but intentionally.
00:14:31.849 --> 00:14:34.533
So I think that describes it.
00:14:35.333 --> 00:14:37.238
It is the best worst
00:14:37.278 --> 00:14:38.139
wheeling weekend ever.
00:14:39.493 --> 00:14:40.934
The best, the best, worst.
00:14:41.054 --> 00:14:41.294
Yeah.
00:14:41.716 --> 00:14:43.717
And we do try to, you know,
00:14:43.798 --> 00:14:44.839
if you really break down
00:14:44.899 --> 00:14:46.279
some of the challenges, you know,
00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:48.361
on the planning side,
00:14:48.381 --> 00:14:50.144
we have to find a balance of, you know,
00:14:50.464 --> 00:14:51.465
time in the vehicle,
00:14:51.905 --> 00:14:53.807
time outside of the vehicle, you know,
00:14:53.886 --> 00:14:54.947
mentally challenging,
00:14:55.109 --> 00:14:56.330
physically challenging.
00:14:57.270 --> 00:14:58.192
stuff because you can't just
00:14:58.231 --> 00:14:59.873
go out there and just
00:14:59.993 --> 00:15:00.994
annihilate these guys
00:15:01.033 --> 00:15:02.676
physically and ladies physically,
00:15:02.755 --> 00:15:02.956
you know,
00:15:03.135 --> 00:15:04.157
that's just not going to be fun.
00:15:04.177 --> 00:15:05.018
That's kind of pointless.
00:15:05.359 --> 00:15:06.919
So we do want them to be in the vehicle.
00:15:06.940 --> 00:15:08.260
We do want them to off-road drive.
00:15:08.280 --> 00:15:10.923
We do want them to do some recovery stuff.
00:15:10.964 --> 00:15:11.583
And then there's a lot of
00:15:11.625 --> 00:15:13.066
teamwork that plays into it as well.
00:15:14.542 --> 00:15:18.322
to where team dynamics is
00:15:18.363 --> 00:15:19.764
very interesting out there
00:15:20.183 --> 00:15:22.164
and also seeing the teams
00:15:22.225 --> 00:15:23.585
interact with one another
00:15:24.164 --> 00:15:25.405
once the weekend starts to
00:15:25.426 --> 00:15:27.365
progress and they get to meet each other,
00:15:27.706 --> 00:15:29.366
talk to each other towards
00:15:29.547 --> 00:15:30.267
the evening when they're
00:15:30.307 --> 00:15:31.048
actually in the St.
00:15:31.067 --> 00:15:31.408
Mary's.
00:15:32.149 --> 00:15:33.129
Yeah, I was going to ask,
00:15:33.529 --> 00:15:37.672
you're in your third year of this now.
00:15:37.951 --> 00:15:40.493
And have you seen any
00:15:40.572 --> 00:15:42.092
specific kind of team
00:15:43.133 --> 00:15:45.153
qualities or strengths,
00:15:45.214 --> 00:15:48.095
personalities that you kind
00:15:48.134 --> 00:15:49.575
of recognize on the front end?
00:15:49.975 --> 00:15:50.054
Oh,
00:15:50.095 --> 00:15:51.235
these guys are going to work well
00:15:51.255 --> 00:15:51.615
together.
00:15:51.716 --> 00:15:52.816
This is a good team.
00:15:53.596 --> 00:15:54.917
Honestly, that is tough.
00:15:55.476 --> 00:15:57.918
That is tough to read any of these teams.
00:15:58.597 --> 00:16:00.259
Because because I think just
00:16:00.299 --> 00:16:02.402
the type of people that it
00:16:02.461 --> 00:16:04.344
pulls is just an awesome
00:16:04.384 --> 00:16:05.304
category of people.
00:16:05.684 --> 00:16:06.706
Like it is the people who
00:16:06.806 --> 00:16:07.647
aren't going to give up.
00:16:07.746 --> 00:16:09.408
It is the people who truly
00:16:09.448 --> 00:16:10.850
are passionate and have fun
00:16:10.909 --> 00:16:12.491
being off road and outside
00:16:12.552 --> 00:16:13.292
in the wilderness.
00:16:13.331 --> 00:16:14.092
So, you know,
00:16:14.312 --> 00:16:16.254
everybody is really having a good time.
00:16:16.394 --> 00:16:16.554
You know,
00:16:16.575 --> 00:16:17.856
they're in the past or maybe have
00:16:17.876 --> 00:16:19.859
been one, two team is like, I don't know.
00:16:20.506 --> 00:16:20.966
But, you know,
00:16:20.986 --> 00:16:22.148
we do communicate with them
00:16:22.187 --> 00:16:23.089
leading up to the event.
00:16:23.129 --> 00:16:24.289
We do try to answer as many
00:16:24.330 --> 00:16:25.250
questions without giving
00:16:25.291 --> 00:16:26.772
all the secrets away so
00:16:26.812 --> 00:16:27.793
that they are a little bit
00:16:27.852 --> 00:16:28.933
in the mindset of it.
00:16:29.514 --> 00:16:31.416
But, you know, at the end of the day,
00:16:31.475 --> 00:16:32.496
people who are here to
00:16:32.537 --> 00:16:33.577
challenge themselves and
00:16:33.618 --> 00:16:35.379
compete aren't the type
00:16:35.399 --> 00:16:36.039
they're just going to give
00:16:36.100 --> 00:16:37.240
up and have a negative attitude.
00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:38.000
They're the ones who are
00:16:38.020 --> 00:16:39.042
going to overcome all the
00:16:39.062 --> 00:16:40.143
time and they're going to enjoy it.
00:16:40.163 --> 00:16:40.663
And then they're going to
00:16:40.682 --> 00:16:41.484
have that story to tell.
00:16:42.076 --> 00:16:42.977
So, you know,
00:16:43.018 --> 00:16:43.918
the people that show up
00:16:44.038 --> 00:16:45.499
usually just end up being awesome people.
00:16:45.538 --> 00:16:45.739
I mean,
00:16:46.198 --> 00:16:47.799
my little community has grown just
00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:48.840
by hosting this event.
00:16:49.260 --> 00:16:49.421
You know,
00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:50.841
now I find myself wheeling with
00:16:50.860 --> 00:16:51.881
some of the former teams
00:16:51.902 --> 00:16:53.682
and the volunteers, even, you know,
00:16:53.702 --> 00:16:54.722
we see each other at events.
00:16:54.802 --> 00:16:56.823
We had a big event this past weekend.
00:16:56.884 --> 00:16:58.004
I wasn't able to make it to,
00:16:58.845 --> 00:17:00.025
but I saw a couple of teams.
00:17:00.306 --> 00:17:01.346
Now they were all camping together,
00:17:01.366 --> 00:17:02.407
hanging out, wheeling together.
00:17:02.567 --> 00:17:03.268
And a couple of weeks ago,
00:17:03.288 --> 00:17:04.048
they didn't even know each other.
00:17:04.067 --> 00:17:04.788
Awesome.
00:17:05.148 --> 00:17:05.568
Yeah.
00:17:05.588 --> 00:17:06.869
That's what makes all these
00:17:07.130 --> 00:17:08.971
community events so much fun.
00:17:09.010 --> 00:17:09.171
Right.
00:17:09.471 --> 00:17:11.751
Um, so what about, uh,
00:17:12.671 --> 00:17:15.132
You talked earlier about you
00:17:15.152 --> 00:17:16.112
could have a guy out there
00:17:16.132 --> 00:17:17.353
in a stock truck or a guy
00:17:17.373 --> 00:17:18.133
that spent a hundred and
00:17:18.153 --> 00:17:20.294
fifty grand and had a shop build it out.
00:17:20.753 --> 00:17:22.193
Are there vehicle
00:17:22.954 --> 00:17:24.315
requirements slash
00:17:24.755 --> 00:17:28.196
restrictions in the same with with gear?
00:17:28.916 --> 00:17:30.538
Talk a little bit about what's required.
00:17:30.938 --> 00:17:31.157
Sure.
00:17:31.417 --> 00:17:34.278
So we give them a minimum equipment list.
00:17:35.318 --> 00:17:36.859
And that stuff we do use
00:17:36.940 --> 00:17:37.700
throughout the weekend.
00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:39.000
So that's why it's a minimum.
00:17:39.040 --> 00:17:40.162
And I keep stressing minimum
00:17:40.182 --> 00:17:41.122
because you can bring
00:17:41.261 --> 00:17:43.603
anything and everything you want.
00:17:43.623 --> 00:17:44.604
We're not trying to tell you,
00:17:44.644 --> 00:17:45.584
you got to play within
00:17:45.624 --> 00:17:47.505
these parameters here on this.
00:17:47.565 --> 00:17:47.704
No,
00:17:47.744 --> 00:17:49.465
if this is what you carry on a normal
00:17:49.506 --> 00:17:49.766
trip,
00:17:50.467 --> 00:17:52.028
by all means, bring it.
00:17:52.068 --> 00:17:53.470
If you're comfortable with
00:17:53.951 --> 00:17:54.951
this equipment and you've
00:17:55.092 --> 00:17:56.313
used it and you're familiar with it,
00:17:56.773 --> 00:17:57.413
bring it.
00:17:57.473 --> 00:17:59.096
No one's going to stop you
00:17:59.115 --> 00:17:59.936
at a trailhead and say, no,
00:17:59.957 --> 00:18:01.818
you can't bring that stuff with you.
00:18:01.838 --> 00:18:02.019
Again,
00:18:02.058 --> 00:18:04.602
we're trying to be real life with it.
00:18:04.642 --> 00:18:05.702
If you're the guy that wants
00:18:05.722 --> 00:18:06.564
to carry an extra
00:18:11.428 --> 00:18:12.328
And that is one thing that's
00:18:12.368 --> 00:18:13.169
interesting because we have
00:18:13.189 --> 00:18:14.109
had repeat teams.
00:18:14.730 --> 00:18:15.611
We've had volunteers that
00:18:15.631 --> 00:18:16.411
have become challengers,
00:18:16.451 --> 00:18:17.672
challengers that now volunteer.
00:18:17.731 --> 00:18:19.593
And when I talk to some of the teams,
00:18:19.633 --> 00:18:20.272
I'm like, oh,
00:18:20.373 --> 00:18:21.193
you guys packed a little
00:18:21.213 --> 00:18:22.294
differently this year, huh?
00:18:22.314 --> 00:18:23.355
And they're like, oh, yeah.
00:18:24.016 --> 00:18:24.797
Oh, yeah.
00:18:24.817 --> 00:18:26.137
We're a lot lighter this year.
00:18:26.198 --> 00:18:26.438
You know,
00:18:26.458 --> 00:18:27.519
we now we know a little bit more
00:18:27.538 --> 00:18:28.359
what to expect.
00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:29.740
But, you know,
00:18:29.760 --> 00:18:31.362
and as far as the rigs go to
00:18:31.862 --> 00:18:32.803
the five hundred pounds,
00:18:32.823 --> 00:18:34.443
we keep it to midsize vehicles.
00:18:34.663 --> 00:18:35.884
So we're talking your four runners,
00:18:35.904 --> 00:18:37.567
your Tacomas, your Broncos,
00:18:38.166 --> 00:18:39.508
your Wranglers, the Gladiators,
00:18:39.548 --> 00:18:40.828
even the Gladiator we had this year.
00:18:40.868 --> 00:18:41.750
He was pretty big.
00:18:41.849 --> 00:18:42.029
I mean,
00:18:42.049 --> 00:18:43.652
we do limit it to forty inch tires.
00:18:44.692 --> 00:18:46.031
And it does have to be a
00:18:46.231 --> 00:18:48.292
street legal vehicle because we do use,
00:18:48.432 --> 00:18:49.153
you know, highways.
00:18:49.492 --> 00:18:50.212
We do use streets.
00:18:50.232 --> 00:18:51.432
You've got to have insurance.
00:18:52.252 --> 00:18:54.614
And that's not anything against, you know,
00:18:54.673 --> 00:18:56.334
any other, you know,
00:18:56.394 --> 00:18:58.213
side by sides or buggies or anything.
00:18:58.273 --> 00:18:59.315
It's just, again,
00:18:59.515 --> 00:19:01.015
we are the trail team challenge.
00:19:01.055 --> 00:19:03.095
We're not the bounty hill challenge.
00:19:03.535 --> 00:19:05.056
You know, we're not the side by side,
00:19:05.096 --> 00:19:06.036
whatever, whatever.
00:19:07.215 --> 00:19:07.776
And, you know, hey,
00:19:07.875 --> 00:19:09.516
if we get this built up and
00:19:09.536 --> 00:19:10.797
we're consistently doing
00:19:10.896 --> 00:19:12.457
twenty is kind of our max, you know,
00:19:12.616 --> 00:19:14.459
If we're doing twenty every time,
00:19:15.118 --> 00:19:16.559
I don't mind open this up to, you know,
00:19:16.579 --> 00:19:17.721
maybe a side by side
00:19:17.760 --> 00:19:19.803
category or a larger full size vehicle.
00:19:19.823 --> 00:19:20.544
You know,
00:19:20.584 --> 00:19:22.285
but let's just stick to the core
00:19:22.404 --> 00:19:22.846
right now.
00:19:22.965 --> 00:19:23.566
Build that up.
00:19:23.625 --> 00:19:25.347
Get them that momentum going.
00:19:25.647 --> 00:19:26.469
And then we can talk about
00:19:26.528 --> 00:19:28.150
other categories down the road because,
00:19:28.410 --> 00:19:29.951
you know, there are options for that.
00:19:30.531 --> 00:19:30.813
Gotcha.
00:19:30.833 --> 00:19:31.752
Yeah.
00:19:31.833 --> 00:19:32.034
Yeah.
00:19:33.655 --> 00:19:35.016
I know you and I had talked
00:19:35.036 --> 00:19:36.557
about this earlier that
00:19:36.757 --> 00:19:39.176
it's primarily been a lot
00:19:39.237 --> 00:19:40.958
of Jeeps and that's what
00:19:40.978 --> 00:19:41.657
your business is.
00:19:41.678 --> 00:19:44.558
That's kind of what your friend group was.
00:19:44.659 --> 00:19:47.659
But to stress again, folks, this is open.
00:19:47.699 --> 00:19:49.680
If you're listening to this,
00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:50.859
we're recording this or
00:19:51.279 --> 00:19:53.200
actually streaming this live tonight,
00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:54.221
but you may be listening to
00:19:54.260 --> 00:19:55.080
this months from now
00:19:55.121 --> 00:19:57.040
because the next event
00:19:57.500 --> 00:19:59.481
won't happen again until next October,
00:19:59.561 --> 00:20:00.021
I assume.
00:20:00.422 --> 00:20:01.643
Was staying in October or is
00:20:01.682 --> 00:20:02.223
that changing?
00:20:02.344 --> 00:20:03.023
I think we're going to try
00:20:03.064 --> 00:20:04.065
to go back to February.
00:20:04.085 --> 00:20:05.326
The hurricanes really did us
00:20:05.405 --> 00:20:07.607
in unless we go to a new
00:20:07.647 --> 00:20:08.587
location out of state,
00:20:08.607 --> 00:20:09.769
which is a possibility too.
00:20:10.049 --> 00:20:10.589
Okay.
00:20:11.289 --> 00:20:11.490
Well,
00:20:11.810 --> 00:20:14.553
you can check on their website to see
00:20:14.573 --> 00:20:15.874
the latest when you're listening to this.
00:20:15.913 --> 00:20:17.234
But what I want to stress is
00:20:17.615 --> 00:20:19.056
it's not just a Jeep event.
00:20:19.416 --> 00:20:21.837
Bring your Toyotas, bring your Broncos,
00:20:22.679 --> 00:20:24.019
anything that's street
00:20:24.059 --> 00:20:25.862
legal and forty inch tires
00:20:25.902 --> 00:20:29.003
or less and come out and join this event.
00:20:29.932 --> 00:20:31.952
All right.
00:20:31.992 --> 00:20:34.535
So we talked about the vehicles.
00:20:34.575 --> 00:20:36.737
We talked about the gear.
00:20:38.357 --> 00:20:39.258
And I know, like you said,
00:20:39.278 --> 00:20:40.199
you don't want to give away
00:20:40.259 --> 00:20:41.579
the kind of the secret
00:20:41.619 --> 00:20:43.580
sauce of different things.
00:20:44.642 --> 00:20:48.604
But is there a memorable challenge,
00:20:48.644 --> 00:20:49.644
maybe one that's not going
00:20:49.664 --> 00:20:51.946
to be repeated from past
00:20:52.007 --> 00:20:53.607
years that even kind of
00:20:53.647 --> 00:20:54.989
exceeded your expectation,
00:20:55.009 --> 00:20:55.929
like something you dreamed
00:20:56.009 --> 00:20:56.869
up and then you were like, oh,
00:20:56.910 --> 00:20:59.291
this was really cool, this scenario?
00:21:00.305 --> 00:21:01.226
I'll give this one away
00:21:01.246 --> 00:21:03.826
because even if we do this again,
00:21:04.847 --> 00:21:07.509
you still can't... Prepare for it.
00:21:07.549 --> 00:21:08.630
You could, I guess,
00:21:08.810 --> 00:21:10.251
but the terrain changes it.
00:21:10.592 --> 00:21:11.511
So we have what we call the
00:21:11.551 --> 00:21:12.512
bird box challenge.
00:21:13.073 --> 00:21:14.294
The driver is blindfolded.
00:21:14.334 --> 00:21:15.115
They have to listen to the
00:21:15.154 --> 00:21:16.174
spotter through a course.
00:21:17.076 --> 00:21:17.916
Ah, okay.
00:21:18.176 --> 00:21:18.596
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:21:18.696 --> 00:21:19.257
And again,
00:21:19.277 --> 00:21:20.298
that's where I go back to the
00:21:20.337 --> 00:21:22.500
teamwork is...
00:21:23.670 --> 00:21:25.970
just to see their face going, wait, what?
00:21:26.691 --> 00:21:28.290
Like I'm going to be blindfolded.
00:21:28.451 --> 00:21:28.911
Yes.
00:21:29.530 --> 00:21:31.330
You have to trust your teammate.
00:21:31.730 --> 00:21:33.872
You have to trust your
00:21:34.172 --> 00:21:36.291
spotter beyond a reason of doubt.
00:21:36.511 --> 00:21:38.032
Like, yes, absolutely.
00:21:38.432 --> 00:21:39.313
And I'll say, you know, again,
00:21:39.333 --> 00:21:40.373
the people that I usually
00:21:40.452 --> 00:21:42.472
end up out with no questions asked,
00:21:42.492 --> 00:21:43.292
they would put a blindfold
00:21:43.333 --> 00:21:44.653
on in a second if I worked with them,
00:21:44.673 --> 00:21:46.473
you know, but for some of these teams,
00:21:46.493 --> 00:21:47.953
they've never done that, you know,
00:21:47.973 --> 00:21:49.855
and you'll see the personalities as well,
00:21:49.894 --> 00:21:51.714
that the driver may be the alpha,
00:21:51.775 --> 00:21:52.335
you know, and,
00:21:52.755 --> 00:21:54.718
And the co-pilot takes up the backseat.
00:21:54.758 --> 00:21:56.179
So you never know.
00:21:56.378 --> 00:21:57.480
We might make you switch.
00:21:57.500 --> 00:21:59.722
Okay.
00:21:59.762 --> 00:22:00.903
Because you're out on the trail.
00:22:01.724 --> 00:22:04.367
Heaven forbid I... Yeah, you get injured.
00:22:04.468 --> 00:22:04.667
Right.
00:22:04.788 --> 00:22:05.648
I get injured.
00:22:05.809 --> 00:22:06.509
I eat something.
00:22:06.549 --> 00:22:07.592
Allergic reaction.
00:22:07.652 --> 00:22:08.792
Co-driver's got to get me
00:22:08.873 --> 00:22:10.074
out of here and go somewhere.
00:22:10.094 --> 00:22:10.674
Well,
00:22:10.694 --> 00:22:11.955
does the co-driver know how to drive
00:22:11.996 --> 00:22:13.417
stick if you've got a manual vehicle?
00:22:14.102 --> 00:22:14.301
You know,
00:22:14.342 --> 00:22:15.522
those are things that you should
00:22:15.542 --> 00:22:16.423
be thinking about when
00:22:16.443 --> 00:22:17.484
you're going out on the trails.
00:22:18.006 --> 00:22:19.606
And so we really try to just
00:22:20.127 --> 00:22:21.930
dig into some experiences,
00:22:21.970 --> 00:22:23.191
some scenarios we've heard
00:22:23.290 --> 00:22:24.873
out there and put that in there.
00:22:24.893 --> 00:22:26.134
But the Bird Box one, man,
00:22:26.193 --> 00:22:27.515
even the volunteers love it.
00:22:28.115 --> 00:22:29.217
And we do it.
00:22:29.916 --> 00:22:31.019
They go off camber.
00:22:31.338 --> 00:22:32.759
We've got some really technical stuff.
00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:34.521
We put them through to where, I mean,
00:22:34.561 --> 00:22:35.423
blindfolded.
00:22:35.942 --> 00:22:37.364
A one-foot drop doesn't feel
00:22:37.384 --> 00:22:38.703
like a one-foot drop.
00:22:41.404 --> 00:22:42.885
To make them go off camber
00:22:43.066 --> 00:22:44.787
and be blindfolded,
00:22:46.126 --> 00:22:47.387
that one is really fun.
00:22:47.407 --> 00:22:48.887
The volunteers love seeing that,
00:22:49.229 --> 00:22:50.348
hearing because it's a lot
00:22:50.368 --> 00:22:51.490
of verbal communication,
00:22:51.890 --> 00:22:53.190
hearing the comments and
00:22:53.210 --> 00:22:54.431
the banter back and forth.
00:22:55.731 --> 00:22:57.434
It's like those YouTube
00:22:57.454 --> 00:22:58.576
videos where they've got
00:22:58.616 --> 00:22:59.557
somebody standing in a
00:22:59.597 --> 00:23:01.080
chair and blindfolded and
00:23:01.101 --> 00:23:01.801
they think that they're
00:23:01.842 --> 00:23:02.782
actually standing like on
00:23:02.803 --> 00:23:05.326
the side of a building about to jump.
00:23:05.346 --> 00:23:05.667
That is it.
00:23:05.708 --> 00:23:05.968
Yeah.
00:23:07.130 --> 00:23:07.691
That is it.
00:23:09.614 --> 00:23:10.394
I like that.
00:23:11.315 --> 00:23:11.875
That's cool.
00:23:12.575 --> 00:23:14.075
There used to be more kind
00:23:14.115 --> 00:23:15.976
of for fun events like that.
00:23:16.016 --> 00:23:18.856
And unfortunately,
00:23:18.977 --> 00:23:19.656
I think a lot of the
00:23:19.717 --> 00:23:22.077
legality police have gotten
00:23:22.097 --> 00:23:22.978
that at some events.
00:23:22.998 --> 00:23:23.898
So I'm glad to hear that you
00:23:23.919 --> 00:23:25.318
guys are still able to pull it off.
00:23:25.838 --> 00:23:26.019
Yep.
00:23:26.378 --> 00:23:27.380
That's my favorite so far.
00:23:29.943 --> 00:23:33.045
Our friend of the show, Mike Johnson says,
00:23:33.164 --> 00:23:34.125
I might actually drive
00:23:34.246 --> 00:23:35.486
better with a blindfold.
00:23:36.746 --> 00:23:37.066
Mike,
00:23:37.807 --> 00:23:39.967
I started to start this episode with
00:23:40.686 --> 00:23:44.948
your video from VDR last week, your flop,
00:23:45.107 --> 00:23:47.009
but I'll save that for another day.
00:23:47.028 --> 00:23:49.650
So I'll agree with that statement for now.
00:23:52.147 --> 00:23:52.528
All right.
00:23:52.928 --> 00:23:56.369
So let's talk about let's talk guns.
00:23:56.411 --> 00:23:56.971
Let's talk about the
00:23:57.010 --> 00:23:59.692
marksmanship aspect of this.
00:24:00.712 --> 00:24:02.773
How does that how does that work?
00:24:02.814 --> 00:24:07.037
How does that work logistically?
00:24:07.797 --> 00:24:09.518
I'm assuming you guys are providing
00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:12.700
firearms or the ammo or
00:24:12.900 --> 00:24:14.000
whatever is going down or
00:24:14.080 --> 00:24:15.201
people bringing that what's
00:24:15.701 --> 00:24:17.361
what's the story there okay
00:24:17.401 --> 00:24:19.561
so we do do marksmanship um
00:24:19.642 --> 00:24:20.582
and I do want to say that
00:24:20.622 --> 00:24:21.781
marksmanship doesn't just
00:24:21.842 --> 00:24:24.143
mean guns okay fair right
00:24:24.923 --> 00:24:26.363
um we did do guns this year
00:24:26.563 --> 00:24:29.324
um we do ask uh no one is
00:24:29.683 --> 00:24:31.223
is bringing any weapons um
00:24:31.243 --> 00:24:32.523
during the event anything
00:24:32.624 --> 00:24:33.785
specialty like that is
00:24:33.845 --> 00:24:35.785
provided for them um we
00:24:35.944 --> 00:24:37.105
used an actual range
00:24:37.144 --> 00:24:39.365
facility with range masters
00:24:39.665 --> 00:24:40.726
um our volunteers
00:24:41.346 --> 00:24:43.109
met with the range prior to,
00:24:44.051 --> 00:24:45.976
to make sure that all the safety stuff,
00:24:45.996 --> 00:24:47.920
we've provided eyes, we've provided ears.
00:24:48.280 --> 00:24:49.502
The targets were set up in a
00:24:49.542 --> 00:24:51.227
fashion away from the
00:24:51.267 --> 00:24:52.608
general public that happened to be there.
00:24:53.385 --> 00:24:55.067
The range, you know,
00:24:55.126 --> 00:24:56.268
had them sign the waivers
00:24:56.288 --> 00:24:56.827
and they went through a
00:24:56.887 --> 00:24:59.329
safety briefing prior to shooting.
00:24:59.769 --> 00:25:01.631
So we pretty much, you know,
00:25:01.651 --> 00:25:02.612
crossed all our T's and
00:25:02.672 --> 00:25:03.732
dotted all our I's.
00:25:04.553 --> 00:25:05.673
And the range that we use,
00:25:05.713 --> 00:25:08.415
the outpost range in Lakanto, I mean,
00:25:08.435 --> 00:25:09.115
I don't know if you're ever
00:25:09.155 --> 00:25:10.936
down in Florida and you're into that.
00:25:11.317 --> 00:25:12.738
That is one of those beautiful range.
00:25:12.758 --> 00:25:14.098
That's like a mini bash pro.
00:25:14.159 --> 00:25:15.099
It is nice.
00:25:15.880 --> 00:25:17.560
And they actually offer everything there.
00:25:17.621 --> 00:25:19.762
So they were super easy to work with.
00:25:19.863 --> 00:25:21.604
And again, we kept it super simple too.
00:25:22.163 --> 00:25:24.665
This year we did pistol and we did rifle.
00:25:24.826 --> 00:25:25.566
We kept it at that.
00:25:25.586 --> 00:25:27.287
So that was two different challenges.
00:25:27.426 --> 00:25:28.167
One day it was pistol,
00:25:28.248 --> 00:25:29.048
one day it was rifle.
00:25:29.488 --> 00:25:31.890
But like last year, we had a gentleman,
00:25:32.029 --> 00:25:35.571
Eric Peralt, who was on Forged in Fire.
00:25:35.652 --> 00:25:36.972
He actually made
00:25:37.461 --> 00:25:39.281
throwing axes and throwing
00:25:39.301 --> 00:25:40.863
knives that we did for
00:25:40.903 --> 00:25:42.003
marksmanship last year.
00:25:42.344 --> 00:25:43.765
And then he custom made a
00:25:43.805 --> 00:25:44.986
pair of knives that went to
00:25:45.006 --> 00:25:46.307
the winners last year as
00:25:46.406 --> 00:25:47.807
one of the many prizes that they got.
00:25:48.008 --> 00:25:49.709
So we're always switching it up.
00:25:49.749 --> 00:25:50.269
So that's why I said
00:25:50.308 --> 00:25:51.990
marksmanship doesn't just mean gun.
00:25:52.411 --> 00:25:53.790
So there there's a variety
00:25:53.810 --> 00:25:55.092
of things that could be done out there.
00:25:55.352 --> 00:25:56.913
And we tie that back to the survival.
00:25:57.294 --> 00:25:59.335
You know, I know Florida is not so much,
00:25:59.375 --> 00:26:00.576
but when you're out in the desert,
00:26:00.715 --> 00:26:01.576
you could be out there for
00:26:01.596 --> 00:26:02.196
a couple of days.
00:26:03.075 --> 00:26:03.775
Yeah, sure.
00:26:03.835 --> 00:26:05.256
You start running out of supplies.
00:26:05.977 --> 00:26:06.836
Last resort, man,
00:26:06.896 --> 00:26:07.596
I'm going to do what I got
00:26:07.616 --> 00:26:09.218
to do to to survive.
00:26:10.499 --> 00:26:11.799
Yeah.
00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:12.079
You know,
00:26:12.099 --> 00:26:13.800
speaking of Florida and I know
00:26:14.080 --> 00:26:15.320
it's possible the event may
00:26:15.622 --> 00:26:17.643
may move or try different locations.
00:26:17.742 --> 00:26:19.983
But for folks that haven't
00:26:20.523 --> 00:26:22.164
wheeled in Florida before,
00:26:22.704 --> 00:26:24.026
kind of give us a lay of
00:26:24.046 --> 00:26:24.967
the land down there,
00:26:24.987 --> 00:26:26.326
because my my only
00:26:26.366 --> 00:26:28.188
experience in Florida is
00:26:28.268 --> 00:26:30.950
like the around the
00:26:31.843 --> 00:26:33.663
like the Destin-Thirty-A area,
00:26:34.345 --> 00:26:35.526
there's a state forest over
00:26:35.546 --> 00:26:37.207
there that I've managed to
00:26:37.247 --> 00:26:38.607
wonder myself into when the
00:26:39.008 --> 00:26:40.269
family's down there vacating.
00:26:40.648 --> 00:26:42.329
But give us kind of what the
00:26:42.369 --> 00:26:43.191
terrain looks like.
00:26:43.990 --> 00:26:44.330
Yeah,
00:26:44.351 --> 00:26:46.192
so Florida is a lot of just state
00:26:46.212 --> 00:26:48.493
forest roads, nothing too crazy.
00:26:48.513 --> 00:26:49.154
We've got...
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:51.960
We've got some private off-road parks,
00:26:52.161 --> 00:26:53.820
which is kind of where we go to.
00:26:54.621 --> 00:26:55.621
Florida being big on the
00:26:55.661 --> 00:26:56.842
limestone back in the day,
00:26:57.281 --> 00:26:59.102
there's a couple of limestone quarries.
00:26:59.582 --> 00:27:01.942
Mosaic is a big sulfur.
00:27:02.843 --> 00:27:04.144
They're constantly dredging
00:27:04.163 --> 00:27:04.923
and they're leaving some
00:27:04.963 --> 00:27:06.923
land to be acquired,
00:27:06.963 --> 00:27:08.484
to be used for different things.
00:27:09.752 --> 00:27:09.913
You know,
00:27:09.932 --> 00:27:10.753
there's people that have just
00:27:10.794 --> 00:27:12.935
gone and had thousands of acres and,
00:27:13.056 --> 00:27:14.797
you know, been passionate off-roaders.
00:27:15.198 --> 00:27:16.238
Like Old Florida was a
00:27:16.278 --> 00:27:17.859
location we used last time.
00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:19.480
And that was just privately
00:27:19.540 --> 00:27:20.662
owned property where they
00:27:20.682 --> 00:27:22.343
had a great team of volunteers that
00:27:23.140 --> 00:27:25.721
went and built, you know, sand traps built,
00:27:25.942 --> 00:27:28.203
you know, mountains built hills built,
00:27:28.403 --> 00:27:28.683
you know,
00:27:28.763 --> 00:27:30.164
using culverts and rocks they
00:27:30.265 --> 00:27:32.286
pulled in from quarries or, you know,
00:27:32.346 --> 00:27:33.586
culverts from construction
00:27:33.626 --> 00:27:35.409
jobs and telephone poles to,
00:27:35.808 --> 00:27:37.589
to make crazy climbs and whatnot.
00:27:38.310 --> 00:27:39.711
Um, so, uh,
00:27:39.731 --> 00:27:40.711
before that there was another
00:27:40.751 --> 00:27:41.752
place called the Jeep ranch.
00:27:41.772 --> 00:27:43.153
We used our first year that
00:27:43.193 --> 00:27:45.035
was just next to a quarry as well.
00:27:45.134 --> 00:27:47.196
So little bit of elevation there.
00:27:47.217 --> 00:27:49.057
Um, you know, but,
00:27:49.967 --> 00:27:51.127
With what we're doing,
00:27:52.409 --> 00:27:53.869
things like blindfolding,
00:27:54.190 --> 00:27:57.672
we're able to make stuff simple,
00:27:57.892 --> 00:27:59.973
really hard by doing what we do.
00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:02.539
the biggest,
00:28:02.721 --> 00:28:04.761
the biggest challenge is the layout,
00:28:04.801 --> 00:28:05.481
the land, the,
00:28:05.623 --> 00:28:06.603
what we're using and where
00:28:06.623 --> 00:28:07.284
we're doing it at.
00:28:08.023 --> 00:28:09.025
And we've actually changed
00:28:09.085 --> 00:28:10.526
every single year, the location.
00:28:10.566 --> 00:28:11.987
So that's brought its own challenges,
00:28:12.446 --> 00:28:13.228
but that's kept the
00:28:13.268 --> 00:28:14.969
returning teams on their toes.
00:28:14.989 --> 00:28:17.851
And it's made it, you know, fair,
00:28:18.250 --> 00:28:19.852
fair play for kind of everybody.
00:28:20.413 --> 00:28:22.273
But, you know, there, there is a,
00:28:22.294 --> 00:28:23.234
there's a park up in the
00:28:23.275 --> 00:28:24.736
Northeast that heard about
00:28:24.776 --> 00:28:26.396
our event and was like, Hey,
00:28:26.416 --> 00:28:27.397
can you come do that here?
00:28:27.438 --> 00:28:28.979
And I'm like, well, I can, you know,
00:28:29.358 --> 00:28:30.559
unfortunately I don't,
00:28:31.075 --> 00:28:32.256
have the network up there
00:28:32.276 --> 00:28:33.277
that I have down here.
00:28:34.478 --> 00:28:35.018
And, you know,
00:28:35.097 --> 00:28:36.298
I couldn't do it without my
00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:37.941
I kind of say my army of volunteers.
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:40.383
We had seventy five volunteers this year.
00:28:40.403 --> 00:28:41.364
We basically put two
00:28:41.384 --> 00:28:43.545
volunteers at every challenge.
00:28:43.645 --> 00:28:45.166
You know, they're out there all day long,
00:28:45.586 --> 00:28:46.327
so we're not going to leave
00:28:46.347 --> 00:28:47.328
them out there by themselves.
00:28:47.368 --> 00:28:47.929
You know, something happens.
00:28:47.949 --> 00:28:48.209
But anyway,
00:28:48.229 --> 00:28:49.830
so there's two volunteers per challenge.
00:28:50.391 --> 00:28:51.432
I've got a media team
00:28:51.492 --> 00:28:52.753
floating around getting all
00:28:52.794 --> 00:28:53.575
the media stuff.
00:28:53.734 --> 00:28:55.037
I've got medical team
00:28:55.396 --> 00:28:56.278
floating around the whole
00:28:56.317 --> 00:28:57.859
time with medical staff.
00:28:58.621 --> 00:28:59.602
And then you've got, you know,
00:28:59.961 --> 00:29:02.204
myself and my volunteer coordinator,
00:29:02.545 --> 00:29:03.266
my head of media,
00:29:03.326 --> 00:29:05.788
my head of medical that are, you know,
00:29:05.828 --> 00:29:07.590
kind of overseeing everything.
00:29:08.374 --> 00:29:10.817
Um, but you know, the lay of the land is,
00:29:11.117 --> 00:29:12.599
isn't the best, you know,
00:29:12.619 --> 00:29:14.402
compared to Tennessee
00:29:14.461 --> 00:29:17.164
compared to Moab compared to Pennsylvania,
00:29:17.204 --> 00:29:17.726
but we,
00:29:17.786 --> 00:29:19.648
we make do with it and it's challenging.
00:29:19.949 --> 00:29:20.950
It is challenging still.
00:29:21.009 --> 00:29:22.152
So.
00:29:22.211 --> 00:29:24.615
No, uh, like you said, I mean, it's, it's,
00:29:27.010 --> 00:29:27.991
maybe that's part of why it
00:29:28.031 --> 00:29:29.973
works is it's not just a
00:29:30.054 --> 00:29:31.434
wheeling event that you've
00:29:31.474 --> 00:29:33.276
got all these facets that
00:29:33.476 --> 00:29:34.998
you can incorporate there and,
00:29:35.597 --> 00:29:36.898
and take an area that's not
00:29:36.959 --> 00:29:38.259
traditionally challenging
00:29:38.361 --> 00:29:39.582
and you put a blindfold on
00:29:39.622 --> 00:29:41.222
and it gets challenging real quick.
00:29:41.542 --> 00:29:41.722
Yeah.
00:29:41.782 --> 00:29:42.763
I mean, for marksmanship,
00:29:42.824 --> 00:29:43.984
I don't need the side of a
00:29:44.005 --> 00:29:45.365
mountain for first aid.
00:29:45.507 --> 00:29:47.627
I don't need, you know, a bounty Hill,
00:29:47.888 --> 00:29:48.288
you know,
00:29:48.328 --> 00:29:50.230
so I'm able to take for
00:29:50.290 --> 00:29:51.230
precision driving.
00:29:51.330 --> 00:29:52.833
I'm able to take for recovery.
00:29:53.272 --> 00:29:53.432
You know,
00:29:53.472 --> 00:29:54.814
I can flip a vehicle on its side
00:29:54.854 --> 00:29:55.474
anywhere I want.
00:29:56.080 --> 00:29:57.603
And you got to write it over, you know,
00:29:57.643 --> 00:29:58.743
like I can,
00:29:58.924 --> 00:29:59.925
I can make you do reverse
00:29:59.965 --> 00:30:02.188
wenching anywhere in,
00:30:02.308 --> 00:30:03.430
in any kind of obstacle and
00:30:03.470 --> 00:30:04.730
make it challenging for you.
00:30:05.031 --> 00:30:05.352
And again,
00:30:05.392 --> 00:30:06.953
that's what was us reading on the script.
00:30:06.973 --> 00:30:09.176
We can take a very open area
00:30:09.237 --> 00:30:10.818
and make it very challenging for you.
00:30:11.398 --> 00:30:13.781
Um, and just kind of by simulating, um,
00:30:14.143 --> 00:30:14.323
and.
00:30:15.373 --> 00:30:16.013
it would probably be a
00:30:16.034 --> 00:30:17.095
little bit more challenging too,
00:30:17.134 --> 00:30:18.616
if we were on the side of a, you know,
00:30:18.656 --> 00:30:19.678
a hill up in Winrock or
00:30:19.718 --> 00:30:20.438
something like that.
00:30:20.618 --> 00:30:22.701
But safety wise,
00:30:23.622 --> 00:30:24.462
I feel a little bit more
00:30:24.502 --> 00:30:25.483
comfortable because I'm not
00:30:25.523 --> 00:30:26.744
really putting them in as
00:30:26.785 --> 00:30:28.287
much jeopardy maybe as I
00:30:28.307 --> 00:30:29.909
would in some of those other situations,
00:30:29.949 --> 00:30:31.109
because, you know,
00:30:31.150 --> 00:30:32.490
I've seen some other events
00:30:32.912 --> 00:30:34.594
going on and I've kind of like,
00:30:35.233 --> 00:30:36.635
looked at them to see how we
00:30:36.655 --> 00:30:37.997
could maybe incorporate it.
00:30:38.037 --> 00:30:39.298
But there's an event down
00:30:39.337 --> 00:30:39.959
here where they're just
00:30:40.058 --> 00:30:41.359
sending people through the mud.
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:42.801
They're just sending people
00:30:42.842 --> 00:30:43.442
through the water.
00:30:43.521 --> 00:30:45.463
Three teams are hydro locking their motor,
00:30:45.845 --> 00:30:46.164
you know,
00:30:46.484 --> 00:30:47.806
in the first night of the event.
00:30:47.826 --> 00:30:48.267
And I'm like,
00:30:50.196 --> 00:30:52.900
not really what I'm trying to do, you know,
00:30:52.920 --> 00:30:55.682
like purposely just destroy rigs.
00:30:56.142 --> 00:30:56.482
You know,
00:30:56.982 --> 00:30:58.243
that's what you've got the ultra
00:30:58.263 --> 00:30:58.964
four guys for.
00:30:59.005 --> 00:30:59.605
That's what you've got
00:30:59.664 --> 00:31:01.507
bounty Hill paying out five,
00:31:01.547 --> 00:31:02.667
ten K for like,
00:31:02.708 --> 00:31:03.808
that's that type of stuff.
00:31:04.209 --> 00:31:06.070
Trail team challenge, you know,
00:31:06.131 --> 00:31:07.672
week is really for anywhere
00:31:07.711 --> 00:31:10.494
at any time around the country.
00:31:10.515 --> 00:31:10.875
Gotcha.
00:31:10.894 --> 00:31:10.934
Um,
00:31:12.897 --> 00:31:13.919
Let's talk about the
00:31:14.619 --> 00:31:16.381
navigation part of it.
00:31:16.441 --> 00:31:17.201
First question.
00:31:17.382 --> 00:31:21.244
Now, is this a base camp type event?
00:31:21.305 --> 00:31:22.486
Are you sleeping at the same
00:31:22.506 --> 00:31:23.326
place every night?
00:31:23.467 --> 00:31:25.108
You go do the challenges and come back?
00:31:25.489 --> 00:31:26.349
Yes, exactly.
00:31:26.390 --> 00:31:29.092
So we do give them a limited area.
00:31:29.231 --> 00:31:29.592
And again,
00:31:29.612 --> 00:31:30.573
we're not trying to have people
00:31:30.593 --> 00:31:31.933
pull up with pop-up campers.
00:31:32.535 --> 00:31:32.714
Again,
00:31:32.734 --> 00:31:34.056
the mindset is that you're in the
00:31:34.096 --> 00:31:35.798
rig for multi-day and you're going
00:31:36.137 --> 00:31:37.718
You know, because it is an event,
00:31:37.758 --> 00:31:38.398
we don't want to have to
00:31:38.439 --> 00:31:39.979
make them reset every single time.
00:31:40.038 --> 00:31:42.460
But once they check in and they get,
00:31:42.500 --> 00:31:42.859
you know,
00:31:43.259 --> 00:31:44.400
all their equipment checked and
00:31:44.420 --> 00:31:45.359
everything gone and they do
00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:46.221
set up a base camp,
00:31:46.260 --> 00:31:47.320
it's a ten by ten area.
00:31:47.601 --> 00:31:49.240
So it's not massive, but, you know,
00:31:49.280 --> 00:31:50.241
ten by ten area,
00:31:50.382 --> 00:31:51.902
their vehicle parks right in front of it.
00:31:52.221 --> 00:31:53.143
They can come back to that
00:31:53.163 --> 00:31:54.343
camp as much as they want
00:31:54.363 --> 00:31:55.202
throughout the weekend.
00:31:56.002 --> 00:31:56.702
I see.
00:31:56.722 --> 00:31:57.923
So they can do that and then
00:31:57.943 --> 00:31:58.824
they stay there at night,
00:31:59.203 --> 00:32:00.284
go back out the next day,
00:32:00.324 --> 00:32:01.424
compete and then come back.
00:32:01.444 --> 00:32:02.085
Yeah.
00:32:02.184 --> 00:32:02.424
Yeah.
00:32:03.029 --> 00:32:04.332
And so as far as the
00:32:04.392 --> 00:32:06.233
navigational challenge
00:32:06.334 --> 00:32:08.256
aspects without giving anything away,
00:32:08.816 --> 00:32:13.821
is this all, can you bring a GPS?
00:32:13.842 --> 00:32:15.343
Can you use digital equipment?
00:32:15.683 --> 00:32:16.924
Is it all paper maps?
00:32:16.964 --> 00:32:17.746
How's that all work?
00:32:18.446 --> 00:32:18.707
No.
00:32:18.727 --> 00:32:19.688
So we're again,
00:32:19.728 --> 00:32:20.827
we're keeping with the times.
00:32:20.887 --> 00:32:22.028
We're letting the teams use
00:32:22.067 --> 00:32:23.189
whatever they want to use,
00:32:23.229 --> 00:32:24.429
whatever they're familiar with,
00:32:24.449 --> 00:32:25.589
whatever they're comfortable with,
00:32:25.630 --> 00:32:26.309
whatever they're going to
00:32:26.490 --> 00:32:28.131
use next weekend as soon as
00:32:28.151 --> 00:32:29.010
they leave the trail team
00:32:29.030 --> 00:32:29.810
challenge and they want to
00:32:29.830 --> 00:32:31.412
go hit the road.
00:32:31.432 --> 00:32:31.912
So, yeah,
00:32:31.951 --> 00:32:33.032
we're trying to be as friendly
00:32:33.272 --> 00:32:33.692
and really.
00:32:34.477 --> 00:32:35.178
Let them use whatever
00:32:35.198 --> 00:32:35.998
they're comfortable with.
00:32:36.598 --> 00:32:37.980
There's nobody, you know,
00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:39.521
I'm not going to bring in a sponsor and,
00:32:39.561 --> 00:32:41.282
hey, you guys got to use this, you know,
00:32:41.343 --> 00:32:42.845
just to have them as a sponsor.
00:32:42.865 --> 00:32:44.665
It's like you're using OnX
00:32:44.686 --> 00:32:45.707
and you're using Gaia and
00:32:45.727 --> 00:32:46.587
you're using Avenza and
00:32:46.607 --> 00:32:47.669
that's what you're familiar with.
00:32:47.970 --> 00:32:48.650
That's what you're going to
00:32:48.730 --> 00:32:49.490
use next week when you go
00:32:49.530 --> 00:32:50.832
wheeling so you can use it.
00:32:51.011 --> 00:32:51.353
Now,
00:32:51.873 --> 00:32:53.855
I will say because we use the State
00:32:53.875 --> 00:32:54.615
Forest here,
00:32:55.135 --> 00:32:57.417
the State Forest recommends Avenza.
00:32:57.818 --> 00:33:00.141
That is the most updated map.
00:33:00.401 --> 00:33:02.362
um we did tell all the teams
00:33:02.382 --> 00:33:03.201
that you do need to have
00:33:03.221 --> 00:33:04.701
avenza and you at least
00:33:04.741 --> 00:33:05.762
need to reference it
00:33:06.063 --> 00:33:06.903
throughout the weekend
00:33:07.063 --> 00:33:08.663
right because you know we
00:33:08.703 --> 00:33:09.763
have to respect all the
00:33:09.804 --> 00:33:11.345
laws all the rules all the
00:33:11.384 --> 00:33:13.005
correct trails and you know
00:33:13.045 --> 00:33:13.744
some people that were like
00:33:13.765 --> 00:33:14.625
well what do you mean mark
00:33:14.705 --> 00:33:16.066
and I said well look here's
00:33:16.145 --> 00:33:17.906
on x see where this says
00:33:18.027 --> 00:33:19.686
this that's not a trail
00:33:19.727 --> 00:33:20.867
anymore that's a ticket
00:33:21.407 --> 00:33:23.548
You know, like nothing against Onyx,
00:33:23.608 --> 00:33:24.949
but that's not the most up
00:33:24.969 --> 00:33:27.349
to date current for this
00:33:27.490 --> 00:33:28.790
facility that we're using.
00:33:29.451 --> 00:33:30.652
That's a wonderful point.
00:33:31.291 --> 00:33:32.211
And we deal with the same
00:33:32.251 --> 00:33:34.893
thing as do events around the country.
00:33:34.972 --> 00:33:36.534
But when we do our events at
00:33:36.574 --> 00:33:38.094
Windrock and people say,
00:33:38.755 --> 00:33:42.096
what's the best navigational app?
00:33:42.135 --> 00:33:43.695
The best navigational app is
00:33:43.736 --> 00:33:45.057
the one that is most up to
00:33:45.096 --> 00:33:47.377
date for where you are at the time.
00:33:47.637 --> 00:33:47.778
Right.
00:33:48.496 --> 00:33:49.636
Yeah,
00:33:49.737 --> 00:33:51.239
and I've got all of them on my phone
00:33:51.278 --> 00:33:53.180
and some have perks over
00:33:53.220 --> 00:33:53.881
here and some don't.
00:33:53.901 --> 00:33:55.522
But at the end of the day,
00:33:55.542 --> 00:33:56.544
we made it very clear.
00:33:56.644 --> 00:33:58.265
I'm a Tread Lightly trainer myself.
00:33:58.746 --> 00:34:00.487
So we're here on behalf of Tread Lightly.
00:34:01.567 --> 00:34:02.449
All the teams,
00:34:02.608 --> 00:34:03.789
all the volunteers take the
00:34:03.809 --> 00:34:05.132
Tread Lightly one-on-one course.
00:34:05.672 --> 00:34:06.012
Again,
00:34:06.752 --> 00:34:08.135
Florida Off-Road Foundation is
00:34:08.175 --> 00:34:09.096
sponsoring this event.
00:34:09.536 --> 00:34:11.097
We're here to promote
00:34:11.217 --> 00:34:12.980
certain aspects to being an
00:34:13.019 --> 00:34:14.581
off-roader in the community.
00:34:14.922 --> 00:34:16.583
The last thing I want is us
00:34:16.623 --> 00:34:17.684
to be off trail where we're
00:34:17.704 --> 00:34:18.646
not supposed to be doing
00:34:18.686 --> 00:34:20.407
what we're not supposed to do.
00:34:20.889 --> 00:34:23.170
So Avenza is kind of the default,
00:34:23.210 --> 00:34:24.152
but we do let them use
00:34:24.472 --> 00:34:25.554
whatever they're comfortable with.
00:34:27.010 --> 00:34:28.092
Well, yeah,
00:34:28.112 --> 00:34:29.414
talk a little bit more about
00:34:29.735 --> 00:34:31.177
Tread Lightly and how you
00:34:31.197 --> 00:34:33.001
got involved with them.
00:34:33.201 --> 00:34:35.164
Were you doing Tread Lightly
00:34:35.204 --> 00:34:36.547
prior to the event or did
00:34:36.586 --> 00:34:37.949
it come about once you kind
00:34:37.989 --> 00:34:39.190
of started putting the event together?
00:34:39.231 --> 00:34:39.992
How'd that work out?
00:34:41.539 --> 00:34:43.621
So back to the Thirty-Six Hours of Uari,
00:34:43.920 --> 00:34:45.101
I met Danielle,
00:34:45.141 --> 00:34:46.822
who was one of the heads of
00:34:46.882 --> 00:34:48.503
Tread Lightly.
00:34:48.684 --> 00:34:50.085
Great, great individual.
00:34:50.706 --> 00:34:51.887
I learned then about the
00:34:51.947 --> 00:34:53.967
organization and just
00:34:53.987 --> 00:34:55.509
something with it stuck with me.
00:34:56.230 --> 00:34:58.231
A part of the Thirty-Six Hours of Uari,
00:34:58.692 --> 00:34:59.972
I really liked the fact
00:35:00.012 --> 00:35:02.753
that we did do some posts
00:35:02.773 --> 00:35:03.675
in the ground with some
00:35:03.715 --> 00:35:04.936
railing because some trails
00:35:04.976 --> 00:35:06.237
were being made that
00:35:06.637 --> 00:35:08.217
or in areas they weren't supposed to be.
00:35:09.057 --> 00:35:10.139
And that was actually a part
00:35:10.179 --> 00:35:10.898
of their event as well.
00:35:10.918 --> 00:35:12.059
It was like, hey, when we do our event,
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:13.380
we're going to find a way to give back.
00:35:13.780 --> 00:35:14.880
And since that stuck with me,
00:35:14.900 --> 00:35:15.601
it was the same thing.
00:35:15.681 --> 00:35:16.260
I got home,
00:35:16.521 --> 00:35:17.862
I looked more into Tread Lightly,
00:35:18.762 --> 00:35:20.101
got more involved with it,
00:35:20.702 --> 00:35:21.623
and always said, okay,
00:35:21.663 --> 00:35:22.804
that's going to be my thing too.
00:35:22.903 --> 00:35:24.804
Every time we have a trail team challenge,
00:35:25.103 --> 00:35:26.905
we're going to find a way to give back.
00:35:27.324 --> 00:35:29.985
Now, in the past, unfortunately,
00:35:30.005 --> 00:35:31.266
our first year at Jeep Ranch,
00:35:32.273 --> 00:35:33.293
They were getting bought out
00:35:33.454 --> 00:35:34.994
and we were the last event they ever had.
00:35:35.195 --> 00:35:36.697
So we didn't get to do too much there,
00:35:36.757 --> 00:35:37.476
which was really sad
00:35:37.496 --> 00:35:38.958
because everybody really loved that part.
00:35:39.878 --> 00:35:40.840
The next year we did old
00:35:40.860 --> 00:35:42.440
Florida off road again,
00:35:42.501 --> 00:35:43.481
another private park.
00:35:43.601 --> 00:35:44.902
But they were in the process
00:35:44.963 --> 00:35:47.344
of making a memorial trail
00:35:47.425 --> 00:35:48.425
like a veterans trail.
00:35:48.726 --> 00:35:50.228
So they had different services,
00:35:50.268 --> 00:35:51.608
the flags throughout the trail.
00:35:52.228 --> 00:35:53.429
And during that event,
00:35:53.570 --> 00:35:56.192
the teams actually helped make that trail,
00:35:56.532 --> 00:35:57.594
create that trail,
00:35:57.853 --> 00:35:59.835
decorate the trail so that
00:35:59.855 --> 00:36:01.356
that was there for future events.
00:36:02.391 --> 00:36:05.813
And then when this year came up, again,
00:36:05.855 --> 00:36:07.094
being a Tread Lightly trainer,
00:36:07.675 --> 00:36:10.378
I was in a meeting with Don Cox, who is,
00:36:10.498 --> 00:36:11.958
we kind of call him our
00:36:11.998 --> 00:36:13.460
Florida Tread Lightly leader,
00:36:13.860 --> 00:36:14.481
even though I don't think
00:36:14.521 --> 00:36:15.460
it's an official title,
00:36:15.501 --> 00:36:17.543
but he has taken Tread Lightly,
00:36:18.382 --> 00:36:19.003
a friend of mine.
00:36:19.523 --> 00:36:20.844
who I introduced to the program.
00:36:21.164 --> 00:36:23.005
But again, he has taken it and just,
00:36:23.065 --> 00:36:24.286
he was ambassador of the year,
00:36:24.626 --> 00:36:25.686
I think a year or two ago
00:36:25.726 --> 00:36:26.387
for Tread Lightly.
00:36:26.427 --> 00:36:28.047
So he's at every event now
00:36:28.088 --> 00:36:29.228
doing Tread Lightly stuff.
00:36:29.268 --> 00:36:31.730
So again, Don, thank you so much.
00:36:31.789 --> 00:36:34.851
But was on a meeting with Don, myself,
00:36:35.331 --> 00:36:36.512
Lowell from Tread Lightly
00:36:36.612 --> 00:36:37.952
and the Florida with
00:36:37.972 --> 00:36:39.393
Lucucci management area staff.
00:36:39.994 --> 00:36:40.494
And there had been an
00:36:40.574 --> 00:36:42.195
ongoing project about
00:36:42.295 --> 00:36:43.496
signage in the forest.
00:36:44.389 --> 00:36:47.291
So, you know, being in tread lightly, no,
00:36:47.331 --> 00:36:48.434
I'm not like a snitch.
00:36:48.514 --> 00:36:50.235
No, I'm not like a tree hugger.
00:36:50.835 --> 00:36:52.237
I kind of take it as I'm
00:36:52.257 --> 00:36:52.878
really there to be the
00:36:52.918 --> 00:36:54.179
voice of the off-road community.
00:36:54.641 --> 00:36:54.920
Right.
00:36:55.661 --> 00:36:55.882
Sure.
00:36:56.503 --> 00:36:56.682
You know,
00:36:56.702 --> 00:36:58.144
if you're going into these parks,
00:36:59.260 --> 00:37:01.860
and Avenza is your preferred app,
00:37:02.221 --> 00:37:03.862
why is that not posted somewhere?
00:37:03.981 --> 00:37:05.922
Why is that not easily accessible?
00:37:06.422 --> 00:37:07.302
I shouldn't have to go to a
00:37:07.364 --> 00:37:09.003
website to click find print,
00:37:09.043 --> 00:37:10.724
to go to this link, to go to that link,
00:37:11.144 --> 00:37:12.186
just to find out the map
00:37:12.206 --> 00:37:13.146
that I need to be using.
00:37:13.166 --> 00:37:15.827
And then me and Don had talked about that.
00:37:15.907 --> 00:37:16.567
So, you know,
00:37:16.586 --> 00:37:18.288
Don came up with this sign project.
00:37:19.148 --> 00:37:21.009
So the state actually, you know,
00:37:21.088 --> 00:37:23.710
funded the signs, the actual kiosks,
00:37:23.769 --> 00:37:24.230
they call them.
00:37:24.891 --> 00:37:25.971
They have a set of prisoners
00:37:25.990 --> 00:37:27.391
that built them up in Tallahassee.
00:37:28.271 --> 00:37:29.853
And Florida Off-Road
00:37:29.873 --> 00:37:32.695
Foundation donated to Tread
00:37:32.755 --> 00:37:34.277
Lightly the funds to print
00:37:34.356 --> 00:37:35.978
the actual signs themselves
00:37:36.557 --> 00:37:37.539
and also to rent the
00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:38.860
equipment from Sunbelt
00:37:39.260 --> 00:37:40.141
because we had to use an
00:37:40.280 --> 00:37:41.882
auger to get down in the ground.
00:37:41.902 --> 00:37:43.804
We had to use a crane to
00:37:43.884 --> 00:37:45.304
lower the roofs down on them.
00:37:47.005 --> 00:37:49.108
So in that meeting with Don, we were like,
00:37:49.148 --> 00:37:49.487
hey,
00:37:50.108 --> 00:37:52.250
like the timeline is kind of lining
00:37:52.309 --> 00:37:54.391
up perfect for the trail team challenge.
00:37:55.532 --> 00:37:57.172
it's in the exact area we're
00:37:57.193 --> 00:37:58.072
going to be using.
00:37:59.333 --> 00:38:01.074
Can I give you all the staff
00:38:01.094 --> 00:38:03.516
and the volunteers to get this done?
00:38:04.096 --> 00:38:06.717
And they were like, Oh yeah, actually.
00:38:06.797 --> 00:38:07.137
Okay.
00:38:07.237 --> 00:38:08.398
So, um,
00:38:08.418 --> 00:38:09.777
with Lucucci wildlife management
00:38:09.878 --> 00:38:10.639
area has a couple of
00:38:10.659 --> 00:38:11.518
different properties.
00:38:11.938 --> 00:38:13.579
Croom is one of them.
00:38:13.719 --> 00:38:14.641
So what we did is we got
00:38:14.681 --> 00:38:16.001
together a bunch of volunteers.
00:38:16.460 --> 00:38:17.282
We did want a couple of
00:38:17.302 --> 00:38:18.862
weeks before all the hurricanes hit,
00:38:19.782 --> 00:38:21.684
basically figured out our plan,
00:38:21.724 --> 00:38:22.423
our strategy,
00:38:22.463 --> 00:38:23.545
the equipment that we needed
00:38:23.585 --> 00:38:24.505
to have on site.
00:38:25.231 --> 00:38:26.110
And a couple of those
00:38:26.150 --> 00:38:27.891
volunteers were then the
00:38:27.972 --> 00:38:29.373
lead during the actual
00:38:29.393 --> 00:38:30.913
Trail Team Challenge event.
00:38:31.393 --> 00:38:33.074
And we installed three
00:38:33.114 --> 00:38:34.795
different signs during the
00:38:34.815 --> 00:38:35.894
Trail Team Challenge event
00:38:36.295 --> 00:38:37.275
for the Withlacoochee
00:38:37.295 --> 00:38:38.496
Wildlife Management Area on
00:38:38.536 --> 00:38:39.936
behalf of the Florida
00:38:39.996 --> 00:38:41.536
Off-Road Foundation and
00:38:41.577 --> 00:38:43.137
Tread Lightly through the
00:38:43.157 --> 00:38:43.858
Trail Team Challenge.
00:38:44.690 --> 00:38:45.050
Cool.
00:38:45.530 --> 00:38:47.152
No, that's very cool.
00:38:47.231 --> 00:38:47.532
Yeah.
00:38:48.452 --> 00:38:49.114
Tread lightly.
00:38:49.755 --> 00:38:50.514
We're big fans.
00:38:50.554 --> 00:38:51.496
We're a business member.
00:38:51.896 --> 00:38:53.597
We had Mike from Tread
00:38:53.637 --> 00:38:55.460
Lightly on the show here
00:38:55.500 --> 00:38:57.021
talking all things Tread Lightly.
00:38:57.081 --> 00:38:58.663
So I'm right there with you.
00:38:58.722 --> 00:38:59.903
It's really cool to see all
00:38:59.923 --> 00:39:02.106
the resources come together,
00:39:02.146 --> 00:39:02.987
especially getting those
00:39:03.027 --> 00:39:03.927
big donations because
00:39:03.967 --> 00:39:04.788
getting that equipment
00:39:04.829 --> 00:39:07.271
rented and stuff is not cheap, not cheap.
00:39:07.802 --> 00:39:08.141
Yeah.
00:39:08.601 --> 00:39:10.123
And, you know, the state has stuff,
00:39:10.242 --> 00:39:12.503
but I kind of joke.
00:39:12.563 --> 00:39:13.063
It's like, well,
00:39:13.083 --> 00:39:14.304
Timmy only works the second
00:39:14.344 --> 00:39:15.264
Wednesday of the month and
00:39:15.284 --> 00:39:17.224
he's the only one certified for that.
00:39:17.605 --> 00:39:18.726
And Billy is the one who
00:39:18.786 --> 00:39:19.606
operates the truck and the
00:39:19.646 --> 00:39:21.246
trailer and he only works, you know,
00:39:21.626 --> 00:39:23.286
and it's just like, oh, my God.
00:39:23.327 --> 00:39:24.788
So they're never going to all be together.
00:39:25.887 --> 00:39:26.469
You call up,
00:39:26.728 --> 00:39:28.628
call up all Florida Off-Road
00:39:28.668 --> 00:39:30.030
Foundation and tread lightly and say, hey,
00:39:30.050 --> 00:39:32.550
guys, what can we do to get this done?
00:39:32.911 --> 00:39:34.251
And they go, let's go, Mark.
00:39:34.291 --> 00:39:34.650
Here you go.
00:39:34.710 --> 00:39:35.311
Here's a support.
00:39:35.492 --> 00:39:35.871
Let's do it.
00:39:36.757 --> 00:39:37.737
Yeah.
00:39:37.798 --> 00:39:39.458
Speaking of the Florida
00:39:39.539 --> 00:39:40.400
Off-Road Foundation,
00:39:40.440 --> 00:39:41.940
let me pull this one up.
00:39:42.001 --> 00:39:44.041
This is their license plate.
00:39:44.081 --> 00:39:45.262
If you're a Floridian,
00:39:45.722 --> 00:39:47.422
you can get this tag.
00:39:48.143 --> 00:39:49.583
But they were, I believe,
00:39:49.623 --> 00:39:51.885
your title sponsor for this year.
00:39:51.905 --> 00:39:52.686
Is that correct?
00:39:53.045 --> 00:39:53.806
Yes, they were.
00:39:53.885 --> 00:39:55.367
So the Florida Off-Road
00:39:55.407 --> 00:39:57.628
Foundation basically has
00:39:57.668 --> 00:39:58.608
these tags that have been
00:39:58.648 --> 00:39:59.989
available now a couple years.
00:40:00.009 --> 00:40:01.190
You know how that tag stuff works.
00:40:01.230 --> 00:40:03.090
You got to pre-fill so many.
00:40:03.150 --> 00:40:03.731
So many of them.
00:40:04.090 --> 00:40:04.231
Yeah.
00:40:04.251 --> 00:40:06.032
And then the money goes into, you know,
00:40:06.072 --> 00:40:07.512
back to the community, basically,
00:40:07.813 --> 00:40:08.454
it's told, you know,
00:40:09.034 --> 00:40:10.775
x amount for marketing x amount,
00:40:10.835 --> 00:40:13.235
I believe, for, you know, um, you know,
00:40:13.295 --> 00:40:14.496
nonprofits and whatnot.
00:40:14.657 --> 00:40:15.498
I'm not on their staff.
00:40:15.518 --> 00:40:16.418
So I'm not exactly sure.
00:40:16.518 --> 00:40:19.760
But I know that they are huge on
00:40:20.179 --> 00:40:22.822
you know, off-road projects, classes,
00:40:22.902 --> 00:40:23.262
events,
00:40:23.302 --> 00:40:25.443
and just bringing awareness to the
00:40:25.543 --> 00:40:26.523
off-road, you know,
00:40:26.583 --> 00:40:28.264
community and for the community really.
00:40:28.744 --> 00:40:29.925
So I've heard of, you know,
00:40:29.965 --> 00:40:30.846
some clubs that are
00:40:31.286 --> 00:40:32.547
instructing like one-on-one
00:40:32.606 --> 00:40:33.867
off-road classes or
00:40:33.927 --> 00:40:35.527
recovery one-on-one classes
00:40:35.907 --> 00:40:38.090
that may be at like a private location,
00:40:38.489 --> 00:40:39.951
you know, and the various clubs are,
00:40:39.971 --> 00:40:40.311
you know,
00:40:40.931 --> 00:40:42.813
looking for grants and funding saying, Hey,
00:40:43.353 --> 00:40:43.574
you know,
00:40:44.014 --> 00:40:46.155
if we can get the cost down or
00:40:46.197 --> 00:40:47.338
the cost is zero,
00:40:47.637 --> 00:40:48.599
we can get pretty good
00:40:48.659 --> 00:40:49.739
interaction and we can get
00:40:49.780 --> 00:40:51.061
some people here, you know,
00:40:51.101 --> 00:40:51.902
can you help us?
00:40:52.463 --> 00:40:53.164
And that's where they're
00:40:53.184 --> 00:40:54.324
coming back in and say, yes,
00:40:54.344 --> 00:40:55.987
let's get more people being
00:40:56.047 --> 00:40:57.208
safe off-roaders, you know,
00:40:57.228 --> 00:40:58.208
let's get people involved
00:40:58.268 --> 00:41:00.190
in tread lightly and making sure that,
00:41:00.231 --> 00:41:01.711
you know, they're, they're giving back to,
00:41:01.813 --> 00:41:03.014
you know, what they're using or,
00:41:03.474 --> 00:41:04.195
or they're just more
00:41:04.255 --> 00:41:06.856
informed about rights and wrongs.
00:41:08.639 --> 00:41:09.920
The last event in with
00:41:09.960 --> 00:41:11.701
Lucucci was their biggest
00:41:12.202 --> 00:41:13.322
horse weekend of the year.
00:41:14.456 --> 00:41:14.675
Right.
00:41:14.976 --> 00:41:16.376
Well, tread lightly touches on that.
00:41:16.436 --> 00:41:17.797
What do you do when you come across,
00:41:18.057 --> 00:41:20.340
you know, equestrian horses?
00:41:20.579 --> 00:41:21.280
What do you come up?
00:41:21.300 --> 00:41:22.900
You know, so that was a big thing that,
00:41:22.981 --> 00:41:24.121
you know, with the Gucci told us, hey,
00:41:24.222 --> 00:41:25.802
Mark, this is the biggest horse weekend.
00:41:26.123 --> 00:41:26.943
Please stress this.
00:41:27.083 --> 00:41:27.483
Absolutely.
00:41:27.523 --> 00:41:28.744
It's in the one on one class.
00:41:29.144 --> 00:41:30.186
And again, we touch on that.
00:41:30.266 --> 00:41:32.327
OK, every team, all the volunteers,
00:41:32.347 --> 00:41:33.788
when you come across the horses weekend,
00:41:33.887 --> 00:41:34.487
what do you do?
00:41:34.628 --> 00:41:35.989
You know, how do you handle it?
00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:38.481
And the Florida Off-Road
00:41:38.521 --> 00:41:40.603
Foundation is just awesome.
00:41:40.623 --> 00:41:41.385
They're so active.
00:41:41.405 --> 00:41:42.947
They're at all the events around town,
00:41:43.347 --> 00:41:43.608
you know,
00:41:43.648 --> 00:41:44.768
really trying to give back to
00:41:44.789 --> 00:41:45.449
the community.
00:41:45.891 --> 00:41:46.871
So, you know,
00:41:46.911 --> 00:41:47.952
we're seeing it go to good use,
00:41:47.972 --> 00:41:48.554
which is awesome.
00:41:49.856 --> 00:41:51.117
Yeah, that's that's really cool.
00:41:51.396 --> 00:41:53.018
I love how, you know,
00:41:54.614 --> 00:41:56.135
just in the three years
00:41:56.155 --> 00:41:57.255
you've been doing this,
00:41:57.335 --> 00:41:58.376
it sounds like the
00:41:58.416 --> 00:42:00.398
community aspect of it and
00:42:00.577 --> 00:42:01.599
partnering with these other
00:42:01.679 --> 00:42:02.980
organizations is really
00:42:03.019 --> 00:42:04.780
coming together and it just
00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:06.561
starts to grow and people
00:42:06.601 --> 00:42:09.364
start to get involved because people,
00:42:09.824 --> 00:42:12.106
I'm a firm believer that people
00:42:12.706 --> 00:42:15.527
want to be involved in this
00:42:15.626 --> 00:42:17.867
off-road community, in giving back to it.
00:42:17.887 --> 00:42:19.568
A lot of times they just
00:42:19.588 --> 00:42:21.829
need somebody to tell them how and where.
00:42:21.889 --> 00:42:23.070
People will raise their hand,
00:42:23.130 --> 00:42:23.891
put me to work.
00:42:24.271 --> 00:42:26.112
You just got to get them
00:42:26.132 --> 00:42:26.891
where they need to be.
00:42:27.612 --> 00:42:28.773
It's really cool what you
00:42:28.793 --> 00:42:29.853
guys have done down there.
00:42:30.432 --> 00:42:33.614
The signage, those signs look really nice.
00:42:33.655 --> 00:42:34.554
That's a good job.
00:42:36.056 --> 00:42:37.556
I want to make sure I pull up,
00:42:37.695 --> 00:42:38.996
we got some other pictures.
00:42:41.036 --> 00:42:42.677
that you'd sent me just so
00:42:42.737 --> 00:42:44.277
folks can get an idea here.
00:42:45.338 --> 00:42:48.679
This looks like a marksmanship challenge.
00:42:48.699 --> 00:42:49.900
Yep.
00:42:50.681 --> 00:42:51.541
The outpost range.
00:42:52.041 --> 00:42:52.342
Okay.
00:42:55.235 --> 00:42:57.478
And here we've got some recovery going on.
00:42:57.978 --> 00:42:59.920
I'm assuming this is a staged recovery.
00:43:00.440 --> 00:43:01.481
It is a staged recovery.
00:43:01.521 --> 00:43:05.846
So with the various sponsors too,
00:43:05.905 --> 00:43:07.306
not only just the Florida
00:43:07.367 --> 00:43:08.148
Off-Road Foundation,
00:43:08.188 --> 00:43:09.650
but some of the other sponsors,
00:43:12.012 --> 00:43:13.072
we do try to pick...
00:43:13.472 --> 00:43:14.713
based on quality.
00:43:14.974 --> 00:43:17.597
And how do I say this, you know,
00:43:17.677 --> 00:43:18.978
functional things that will
00:43:19.018 --> 00:43:20.900
be used in the situations, right?
00:43:20.940 --> 00:43:22.621
So you'll pull pal this year
00:43:22.641 --> 00:43:23.643
as a first year sponsor,
00:43:24.163 --> 00:43:25.123
one of our challenges was
00:43:25.204 --> 00:43:27.365
using a pull pal, not many,
00:43:27.405 --> 00:43:29.327
not many scenarios, you know,
00:43:29.827 --> 00:43:31.230
People like, well, what is this exactly?
00:43:31.250 --> 00:43:32.771
You know, here's what it is.
00:43:32.891 --> 00:43:33.811
Here's how you use it.
00:43:34.532 --> 00:43:35.353
Here's the challenge.
00:43:35.472 --> 00:43:36.755
You got to use it, you know.
00:43:37.614 --> 00:43:38.936
So we do try to tie in our
00:43:38.996 --> 00:43:41.159
other sponsors into the
00:43:41.179 --> 00:43:42.059
various challenges.
00:43:42.099 --> 00:43:43.460
Blackbeard Firestarters this
00:43:43.501 --> 00:43:44.641
year was was on board.
00:43:45.041 --> 00:43:47.503
Well, that goes right into survival stuff.
00:43:47.844 --> 00:43:49.766
So we did a challenge focused on them.
00:43:50.806 --> 00:43:51.206
Um,
00:43:51.226 --> 00:43:53.789
there's a Cosmo tires this year was
00:43:53.829 --> 00:43:54.168
with us.
00:43:54.548 --> 00:43:56.130
They gave away a set of tires.
00:43:56.730 --> 00:43:58.610
Um, so really anybody who's involved in it,
00:43:58.630 --> 00:44:00.291
we try to do these
00:44:00.311 --> 00:44:01.931
challenges around them and
00:44:01.972 --> 00:44:03.693
their products to highlight them,
00:44:03.813 --> 00:44:04.813
but also to show there is a
00:44:04.873 --> 00:44:06.934
practical use and they are good products.
00:44:06.954 --> 00:44:07.815
They are reliable.
00:44:07.835 --> 00:44:11.016
They can be helpful in certain situations.
00:44:11.675 --> 00:44:12.416
Yeah.
00:44:12.797 --> 00:44:12.976
Uh,
00:44:14.789 --> 00:44:18.574
Oh, here's a canoe aspect.
00:44:18.614 --> 00:44:19.474
That's interesting.
00:44:19.635 --> 00:44:19.976
Okay.
00:44:23.018 --> 00:44:24.239
There's the signage again.
00:44:25.402 --> 00:44:26.222
And it looks like we're
00:44:26.242 --> 00:44:27.403
doing some repair here.
00:44:28.065 --> 00:44:29.746
So we do, again, do mechanical.
00:44:30.927 --> 00:44:31.248
And again,
00:44:31.288 --> 00:44:32.849
we don't make anybody take apart
00:44:32.889 --> 00:44:33.429
their vehicle.
00:44:35.420 --> 00:44:36.661
We'll either, again,
00:44:37.221 --> 00:44:38.481
give them a drive shaft,
00:44:38.501 --> 00:44:39.503
give them the U-joints.
00:44:39.543 --> 00:44:40.423
I don't want to give up any
00:44:40.463 --> 00:44:41.204
of the other ones because
00:44:41.224 --> 00:44:41.925
we do change them.
00:44:41.965 --> 00:44:45.146
But my dad is a pretty good sport.
00:44:45.666 --> 00:44:46.788
He's got a thousand dollar
00:44:46.807 --> 00:44:49.949
Jeep TJ and he pretty much
00:44:50.090 --> 00:44:52.211
lets us simulate anything
00:44:52.251 --> 00:44:54.532
and everything on his Jeep
00:44:54.552 --> 00:44:55.454
throughout the weekend.
00:44:56.295 --> 00:44:57.737
uh where whereas now when he
00:44:57.817 --> 00:44:59.039
actually goes and wheels it
00:44:59.139 --> 00:44:59.880
he gives some people
00:44:59.920 --> 00:45:00.922
twitches when they see his
00:45:00.981 --> 00:45:02.664
bright green jeep rolling
00:45:02.704 --> 00:45:03.485
around they're like oh
00:45:03.505 --> 00:45:04.427
what's going to be broke on
00:45:04.447 --> 00:45:05.789
that now you know because
00:45:06.250 --> 00:45:07.152
we've used it the last
00:45:07.172 --> 00:45:08.934
couple years for the mechanical stuff so
00:45:09.827 --> 00:45:10.047
Yeah.
00:45:10.527 --> 00:45:12.809
Now, do you get, because, you know,
00:45:13.108 --> 00:45:15.010
speaking from experience with my group,
00:45:15.891 --> 00:45:17.512
we'd come for the simulations,
00:45:17.552 --> 00:45:18.612
but we'd end up breaking
00:45:18.672 --> 00:45:20.173
our own stuff at the same time.
00:45:20.233 --> 00:45:22.876
So do you have this happen
00:45:23.695 --> 00:45:24.476
where you have to do
00:45:24.657 --> 00:45:26.918
unplanned mechanical repairs?
00:45:27.318 --> 00:45:27.639
Yeah.
00:45:27.699 --> 00:45:30.360
So my dad has told me that one team,
00:45:30.661 --> 00:45:31.822
actually, you know who it was?
00:45:33.099 --> 00:45:35.641
It was Ray.
00:45:36.320 --> 00:45:38.041
Ray showed up last year and
00:45:38.081 --> 00:45:39.362
just about had my dad's
00:45:39.422 --> 00:45:41.063
Jeep apart in like two minutes.
00:45:41.163 --> 00:45:44.304
And he had to go, stop, stop.
00:45:44.324 --> 00:45:45.244
That's not it, guys.
00:45:45.264 --> 00:45:46.083
That's not it.
00:45:47.025 --> 00:45:49.346
Ray and his partner in crime, Lars,
00:45:49.626 --> 00:45:50.326
who I couldn't have done
00:45:50.346 --> 00:45:51.206
this year without,
00:45:51.925 --> 00:45:53.067
were actually competitors
00:45:53.427 --> 00:45:54.286
that we brought back on
00:45:54.347 --> 00:45:56.228
staff because they had the understanding.
00:45:56.648 --> 00:45:56.967
But yeah,
00:45:56.987 --> 00:45:58.849
they they went they went guns a
00:45:58.869 --> 00:46:00.469
blazing and he had to say, hold on, guys.
00:46:00.628 --> 00:46:00.869
Hold on.
00:46:01.010 --> 00:46:01.210
Hold on.
00:46:01.289 --> 00:46:03.349
Don't don't don't don't take
00:46:03.369 --> 00:46:04.510
apart my engine just yet.
00:46:04.590 --> 00:46:06.490
OK, it's something a little bit simpler,
00:46:06.711 --> 00:46:07.112
you know.
00:46:08.371 --> 00:46:09.853
And then what we also do is
00:46:10.012 --> 00:46:11.713
I I've been pretty kind to
00:46:11.753 --> 00:46:13.034
my dad for him allowing me
00:46:13.054 --> 00:46:14.873
to use his Jeep is, hey,
00:46:14.914 --> 00:46:16.014
here's the challenges.
00:46:16.815 --> 00:46:19.576
here's a couple parts that if some,
00:46:19.655 --> 00:46:20.717
if this were to break,
00:46:20.956 --> 00:46:22.737
here's a brand new one, you know?
00:46:22.757 --> 00:46:23.498
Okay.
00:46:23.538 --> 00:46:25.278
So we've done stuff like that, you know,
00:46:25.338 --> 00:46:26.800
giving him all brand new
00:46:26.840 --> 00:46:27.960
parts in case someone,
00:46:28.039 --> 00:46:29.440
cause a team did go,
00:46:29.521 --> 00:46:30.221
I think to do like a
00:46:30.280 --> 00:46:31.342
tensioner one time and they
00:46:31.402 --> 00:46:34.083
snapped the bolt and it was like, uh,
00:46:34.123 --> 00:46:35.503
slow down a little bit, you know,
00:46:36.063 --> 00:46:37.304
but he was able to fix it.
00:46:37.344 --> 00:46:38.545
He had the part and stuff to,
00:46:38.644 --> 00:46:39.286
to get it back.
00:46:39.326 --> 00:46:41.387
But worst case scenario,
00:46:41.867 --> 00:46:43.268
we make them drag it out of the, uh,
00:46:43.288 --> 00:46:44.128
the event and put it on a
00:46:44.168 --> 00:46:45.007
trailer and we get it home.
00:46:45.648 --> 00:46:45.929
Gotcha.
00:46:45.949 --> 00:46:46.128
Yeah.
00:46:48.603 --> 00:46:48.882
All right.
00:46:48.943 --> 00:46:49.523
Well, Mark,
00:46:49.543 --> 00:46:51.324
you touched on this a little bit earlier,
00:46:51.704 --> 00:46:58.646
but what's the future, maybe not plans,
00:46:58.706 --> 00:47:01.666
but maybe hopes and dreams
00:47:02.067 --> 00:47:03.367
of the Trail Team Challenge
00:47:03.387 --> 00:47:04.527
and where this could go
00:47:06.387 --> 00:47:07.648
over the next few years
00:47:07.869 --> 00:47:09.528
outside of Florida or
00:47:09.548 --> 00:47:11.068
within different areas of Florida?
00:47:11.949 --> 00:47:13.090
Just give us what's in your head.
00:47:14.025 --> 00:47:15.184
Yeah, I'd like to make it.
00:47:16.085 --> 00:47:17.206
I mean, it is a lot of work.
00:47:17.286 --> 00:47:18.166
Sometimes I'm like,
00:47:18.206 --> 00:47:20.367
how do I balance the shop,
00:47:20.487 --> 00:47:22.188
balance the trail team challenge?
00:47:22.367 --> 00:47:24.228
I've got my first baby girl
00:47:24.309 --> 00:47:26.190
on the way with my wife.
00:47:26.250 --> 00:47:27.090
So, you know,
00:47:27.110 --> 00:47:28.791
that's going to be interesting here,
00:47:29.050 --> 00:47:30.050
making sure I give them the
00:47:30.090 --> 00:47:31.672
time that they ultimately deserve.
00:47:33.072 --> 00:47:33.432
And again,
00:47:33.753 --> 00:47:35.054
we've done this in February all
00:47:35.094 --> 00:47:35.835
the other years.
00:47:36.436 --> 00:47:37.335
And the biggest thing for
00:47:37.376 --> 00:47:38.356
anybody who's interested in
00:47:38.416 --> 00:47:39.518
sponsoring out there is
00:47:39.918 --> 00:47:41.059
reaching out to the sponsors,
00:47:41.099 --> 00:47:43.240
figuring out who we want to be involved,
00:47:44.262 --> 00:47:46.103
who can we benefit with and
00:47:46.163 --> 00:47:48.304
benefit for during the event.
00:47:48.344 --> 00:47:49.806
February was tough because
00:47:50.126 --> 00:47:51.527
you're asking months and
00:47:51.567 --> 00:47:52.467
months in advance,
00:47:52.688 --> 00:47:53.849
Because you're wanting to promote them.
00:47:53.869 --> 00:47:55.349
You're wanting to give them, you know,
00:47:55.789 --> 00:47:57.570
a value to their donations,
00:47:57.590 --> 00:47:59.112
their teamwork, their sponsorship.
00:47:59.693 --> 00:48:01.333
And February just we found was really,
00:48:01.373 --> 00:48:03.554
really tough because, you know,
00:48:03.574 --> 00:48:05.036
the way the budgets work and whatnot.
00:48:05.096 --> 00:48:05.637
And we're like, well,
00:48:05.657 --> 00:48:07.016
what if we push it to October?
00:48:07.478 --> 00:48:09.099
Similar weather here in Florida.
00:48:09.438 --> 00:48:10.500
That way we could start in
00:48:10.539 --> 00:48:11.940
January first and really
00:48:11.981 --> 00:48:13.242
promote these companies.
00:48:13.302 --> 00:48:15.242
Yeah, really, you know, because again,
00:48:15.483 --> 00:48:16.523
we're not just people like, hey,
00:48:16.543 --> 00:48:17.244
give us this and we're
00:48:17.264 --> 00:48:18.085
going to throw it at our event.
00:48:18.144 --> 00:48:19.585
No, we really want to build
00:48:20.485 --> 00:48:21.467
a unique community,
00:48:21.507 --> 00:48:22.788
which we've done with some
00:48:22.827 --> 00:48:23.829
of our main sponsors.
00:48:25.369 --> 00:48:26.590
So we moved it to October.
00:48:27.251 --> 00:48:28.492
For anybody that watched
00:48:28.552 --> 00:48:29.472
anything this year,
00:48:30.273 --> 00:48:31.253
the hurricanes have not
00:48:31.273 --> 00:48:33.014
been favorable to Florida this year.
00:48:33.494 --> 00:48:35.195
And that made it very
00:48:35.235 --> 00:48:37.938
stressful and very difficult on myself,
00:48:37.978 --> 00:48:39.858
the staff, the volunteers.
00:48:41.260 --> 00:48:41.920
Unfortunately,
00:48:41.960 --> 00:48:42.981
we lost three teams right
00:48:43.021 --> 00:48:43.722
before the event.
00:48:44.181 --> 00:48:46.864
due to reserve and guard
00:48:46.905 --> 00:48:48.266
members being activated,
00:48:48.646 --> 00:48:49.748
Coast Guard members,
00:48:49.947 --> 00:48:52.231
FWC members being activated, working,
00:48:52.471 --> 00:48:54.233
and also just the stress.
00:48:54.253 --> 00:48:57.036
A lot of people down and out, lost houses,
00:48:57.076 --> 00:48:58.456
lost buildings, businesses.
00:48:59.438 --> 00:49:01.079
So October was, man, it was brutal.
00:49:02.987 --> 00:49:03.847
So I think we're going to
00:49:03.887 --> 00:49:06.951
push back to February again.
00:49:07.030 --> 00:49:09.693
I think the partnerships,
00:49:10.655 --> 00:49:11.596
the teams that we've built
00:49:11.635 --> 00:49:12.496
in the community with some
00:49:12.516 --> 00:49:14.197
of these brands that now
00:49:14.217 --> 00:49:16.000
are really seeing it being the third year,
00:49:16.621 --> 00:49:17.501
understand it more.
00:49:17.541 --> 00:49:18.362
It is kind of something
00:49:18.382 --> 00:49:20.063
that's been hard to explain
00:49:20.103 --> 00:49:21.485
to people exactly what we're doing.
00:49:21.505 --> 00:49:22.746
But now that we're three years in,
00:49:22.786 --> 00:49:23.286
I feel like
00:49:23.967 --> 00:49:24.789
We're being seen.
00:49:24.909 --> 00:49:26.188
Our media team took it to
00:49:26.208 --> 00:49:27.789
the next level this year, even with just,
00:49:28.431 --> 00:49:28.610
you know,
00:49:28.951 --> 00:49:30.711
social media stuff and marketing
00:49:30.751 --> 00:49:32.813
and branding and logos and
00:49:32.853 --> 00:49:33.994
color schemes and stuff.
00:49:34.034 --> 00:49:35.614
So I'm hoping that that'll
00:49:35.635 --> 00:49:37.315
give us some validity in
00:49:37.635 --> 00:49:39.257
the industry and in the off-road world,
00:49:39.836 --> 00:49:41.737
you know, and podcasts like yourself here,
00:49:41.777 --> 00:49:42.057
too.
00:49:42.458 --> 00:49:43.278
So we're probably going to
00:49:43.338 --> 00:49:45.920
end up doing February of twenty twenty.
00:49:46.780 --> 00:49:47.882
five right now.
00:49:47.902 --> 00:49:50.282
Twenty six is kind of kind
00:49:50.322 --> 00:49:51.664
of what I'm shooting for right now.
00:49:51.744 --> 00:49:53.626
So that'll give us a time to
00:49:53.706 --> 00:49:55.387
figure out the location
00:49:55.407 --> 00:49:56.146
because we have changed
00:49:56.186 --> 00:49:57.268
locations every time.
00:49:57.907 --> 00:49:58.889
Not ideally,
00:49:58.989 --> 00:50:00.110
but it's just kind of worked
00:50:00.190 --> 00:50:02.972
out with properties closing and whatnot.
00:50:02.992 --> 00:50:03.972
The state forest was very
00:50:04.012 --> 00:50:04.873
nice to us this year.
00:50:05.512 --> 00:50:06.733
We had a great campground
00:50:06.773 --> 00:50:07.474
for the challengers.
00:50:07.494 --> 00:50:08.494
We had a great campground
00:50:08.514 --> 00:50:09.396
for the volunteers.
00:50:10.590 --> 00:50:11.751
It worked out really well.
00:50:12.050 --> 00:50:13.251
There are some things that
00:50:13.751 --> 00:50:14.871
we'd like to be able to do
00:50:14.911 --> 00:50:15.692
that we weren't able to do
00:50:15.711 --> 00:50:17.092
because we are on public land and,
00:50:17.231 --> 00:50:17.512
you know,
00:50:17.952 --> 00:50:20.213
you can't necessarily go sixty
00:50:20.253 --> 00:50:21.092
miles an hour.
00:50:21.233 --> 00:50:22.972
You can't, you know, climb and turn and,
00:50:23.313 --> 00:50:25.173
you know, really fast in there.
00:50:25.673 --> 00:50:27.594
And we'd like to add that back into it.
00:50:27.673 --> 00:50:29.293
But we also use some private
00:50:29.333 --> 00:50:30.534
properties this year as well.
00:50:31.755 --> 00:50:33.355
And then the Florida
00:50:33.454 --> 00:50:34.875
Off-Road Foundation
00:50:36.476 --> 00:50:37.876
actually had a film crew
00:50:37.896 --> 00:50:38.496
come out with us.
00:50:39.646 --> 00:50:41.489
which we haven't told anybody publicly.
00:50:42.210 --> 00:50:43.373
Everyone who is there knew,
00:50:44.353 --> 00:50:45.295
but there was a production
00:50:45.335 --> 00:50:46.338
company who was interested
00:50:46.378 --> 00:50:47.860
in making a TV show out of it.
00:50:48.902 --> 00:50:50.704
So now there you go.
00:50:51.420 --> 00:50:53.121
So that is a breaking news
00:50:53.161 --> 00:50:54.041
here on Overland Weekly.
00:50:54.101 --> 00:50:54.461
I like that.
00:50:54.521 --> 00:50:56.884
I like that.
00:50:56.903 --> 00:50:57.483
But you know, they,
00:50:57.523 --> 00:50:58.844
they came out to shoot again,
00:50:58.885 --> 00:50:59.684
same thing to kind of
00:50:59.744 --> 00:51:01.186
understand exactly what it is.
00:51:01.586 --> 00:51:03.248
How could we make this a show?
00:51:03.327 --> 00:51:04.307
Is it even doable?
00:51:04.688 --> 00:51:05.568
And again, I don't know.
00:51:05.748 --> 00:51:06.309
They came out,
00:51:06.329 --> 00:51:07.831
they shot a bunch of footage, you know,
00:51:07.891 --> 00:51:09.012
they're probably going to put together,
00:51:09.052 --> 00:51:10.713
I believe, you know, a teaser reel.
00:51:10.733 --> 00:51:12.173
We're going to get together with them and,
00:51:12.213 --> 00:51:12.414
you know,
00:51:12.434 --> 00:51:14.034
in a couple of weeks and debrief and,
00:51:14.994 --> 00:51:15.795
And see, I mean,
00:51:15.856 --> 00:51:17.916
I think it would be great for TV because,
00:51:17.936 --> 00:51:18.117
again,
00:51:18.237 --> 00:51:20.358
this is this is for your everyday
00:51:20.438 --> 00:51:20.918
off road.
00:51:21.338 --> 00:51:22.259
This this isn't you don't
00:51:22.298 --> 00:51:23.539
have to have an ultra four
00:51:23.579 --> 00:51:25.320
car to come out here and compete.
00:51:25.460 --> 00:51:25.780
You know,
00:51:26.262 --> 00:51:28.063
you can just have a very decent
00:51:28.143 --> 00:51:30.204
built rig and a great set
00:51:30.244 --> 00:51:31.503
of skills and you can walk
00:51:31.523 --> 00:51:32.405
away winning this thing.
00:51:33.445 --> 00:51:35.706
So we'll see new locations, maybe.
00:51:36.387 --> 00:51:38.268
TV, maybe February,
00:51:38.407 --> 00:51:39.949
is what I'm shooting for.
00:51:40.389 --> 00:51:43.889
I love it.
00:51:44.070 --> 00:51:45.670
Let's touch on a couple of
00:51:45.710 --> 00:51:48.771
things on registration.
00:51:49.132 --> 00:51:51.012
I'm assuming once
00:51:51.052 --> 00:51:52.614
registration opens for February,
00:51:53.954 --> 00:51:54.733
if you're interested,
00:51:55.094 --> 00:51:56.894
you need to sign up sooner
00:51:56.934 --> 00:51:57.596
rather than later,
00:51:57.635 --> 00:51:58.396
because I'm assuming
00:51:58.416 --> 00:51:59.715
there's a limited number of
00:52:00.177 --> 00:52:01.077
participant slots.
00:52:01.456 --> 00:52:01.737
Yep.
00:52:01.757 --> 00:52:03.197
So we do twenty teams right now.
00:52:03.217 --> 00:52:03.599
OK.
00:52:03.619 --> 00:52:05.460
Twenty teams, two person teams.
00:52:06.440 --> 00:52:07.221
Typically,
00:52:07.362 --> 00:52:09.003
we will open registration six
00:52:09.043 --> 00:52:10.003
months prior to the event.
00:52:10.503 --> 00:52:11.525
So that just gives us time
00:52:11.545 --> 00:52:12.786
to kind of get the word out there.
00:52:12.846 --> 00:52:13.947
Go to we're going to start
00:52:13.987 --> 00:52:15.307
going to some local events,
00:52:15.748 --> 00:52:16.489
setting up some tents,
00:52:16.509 --> 00:52:17.489
just talking to people,
00:52:17.829 --> 00:52:19.471
some Overland Expos and whatnot.
00:52:20.472 --> 00:52:21.492
And then actually, you know what?
00:52:21.612 --> 00:52:22.472
One of the teams this year
00:52:22.492 --> 00:52:24.514
that competed was telling
00:52:24.554 --> 00:52:26.436
me how they do a lot of just, you know,
00:52:26.496 --> 00:52:28.157
Tough Mudders and all these other,
00:52:28.237 --> 00:52:29.659
you know, endurance events.
00:52:29.699 --> 00:52:29.938
And OK.
00:52:30.878 --> 00:52:31.882
And they actually brought it up.
00:52:32.181 --> 00:52:33.085
I never thought about it.
00:52:33.105 --> 00:52:33.867
They were like, well, hey,
00:52:34.327 --> 00:52:35.250
what if you do like an
00:52:35.309 --> 00:52:36.693
early registration discount?
00:52:36.713 --> 00:52:37.355
And I'm like...
00:52:37.938 --> 00:52:39.199
okay, yeah,
00:52:39.219 --> 00:52:40.599
that's not actually a bad idea.
00:52:41.159 --> 00:52:43.141
So we may run, you know,
00:52:43.221 --> 00:52:44.501
something early on, say, hey,
00:52:44.521 --> 00:52:45.681
you sign up now, boom,
00:52:45.702 --> 00:52:47.043
you're going to save X amount of money,
00:52:47.443 --> 00:52:48.083
right?
00:52:48.242 --> 00:52:50.485
You know, is something that makes sense.
00:52:51.684 --> 00:52:52.726
But yeah, it's first,
00:52:52.826 --> 00:52:53.706
it's first to twenty.
00:52:54.887 --> 00:52:56.987
And, you know, even some of the companies,
00:52:57.027 --> 00:52:57.327
I'm sorry,
00:52:57.347 --> 00:52:59.088
that have sponsored have also
00:52:59.148 --> 00:53:00.469
paid for teams to enter too.
00:53:00.929 --> 00:53:01.750
So, you know,
00:53:01.769 --> 00:53:02.570
if you're a company out there
00:53:02.590 --> 00:53:03.231
and you're not like, hey,
00:53:03.251 --> 00:53:03.731
we're not going to have
00:53:03.751 --> 00:53:04.672
anything to donate, but
00:53:05.231 --> 00:53:05.472
You know,
00:53:05.612 --> 00:53:07.313
how many of these companies have
00:53:07.353 --> 00:53:08.733
these ambassadors or these
00:53:08.793 --> 00:53:09.815
sponsored rigs?
00:53:10.494 --> 00:53:12.596
Okay, you got a tire company?
00:53:12.996 --> 00:53:14.577
Send out your sponsored people.
00:53:15.237 --> 00:53:15.797
Come out here.
00:53:15.898 --> 00:53:17.159
You own a shop?
00:53:17.619 --> 00:53:17.838
You know,
00:53:17.880 --> 00:53:18.840
you got to build the baddest
00:53:18.880 --> 00:53:20.280
Toyotas in the Southeast?
00:53:20.900 --> 00:53:22.021
Send one of your rigs down
00:53:22.061 --> 00:53:22.822
here with your team.
00:53:23.682 --> 00:53:24.824
Like our registration last
00:53:24.844 --> 00:53:25.864
year was five hundred bucks.
00:53:26.483 --> 00:53:27.445
Five hundred bucks to send a
00:53:27.465 --> 00:53:28.306
team down to compete?
00:53:29.025 --> 00:53:29.706
Bragging rights?
00:53:29.786 --> 00:53:31.286
I mean, this last year,
00:53:31.487 --> 00:53:32.407
first place walked around
00:53:32.427 --> 00:53:33.327
with over three thousand
00:53:33.367 --> 00:53:34.108
dollars in prizes.
00:53:35.503 --> 00:53:36.824
I mean, they got a free set of tires.
00:53:37.483 --> 00:53:39.465
They got half-off race line wheels.
00:53:40.885 --> 00:53:41.806
They got a pull pal.
00:53:42.166 --> 00:53:44.947
I mean, Rotopax was involved.
00:53:45.527 --> 00:53:46.447
Adams Driveshaft.
00:53:46.949 --> 00:53:47.548
I mean,
00:53:48.048 --> 00:53:49.309
there's some quality brands that
00:53:49.329 --> 00:53:50.949
these guys and girls were
00:53:50.989 --> 00:53:51.771
walking away with.
00:53:52.050 --> 00:53:53.050
I think second place got
00:53:53.112 --> 00:53:54.012
over two thousand dollars
00:53:54.052 --> 00:53:55.432
worth of prizes and third
00:53:55.472 --> 00:53:57.132
place was just over a thousand.
00:53:57.693 --> 00:53:58.034
So, you know,
00:53:58.114 --> 00:53:59.614
Rinse Kit was involved this year.
00:53:59.715 --> 00:53:59.934
I mean,
00:53:59.954 --> 00:54:02.496
there's a lot of stuff that a five
00:54:02.516 --> 00:54:03.856
hundred dollar entry, you just...
00:54:04.797 --> 00:54:05.858
Yeah, that's super cool.
00:54:05.978 --> 00:54:07.739
I really I like the idea on
00:54:08.199 --> 00:54:11.061
on getting shop builds involved in it.
00:54:11.081 --> 00:54:11.960
And who knows that might
00:54:12.001 --> 00:54:13.202
become it's it's a whole
00:54:13.242 --> 00:54:14.983
nother division of it one
00:54:15.023 --> 00:54:15.862
day down the line if you
00:54:15.882 --> 00:54:16.603
had enough of them.
00:54:17.164 --> 00:54:20.465
But yeah, so my Toyota friend shops,
00:54:20.525 --> 00:54:21.846
if you're if you're listening,
00:54:22.346 --> 00:54:25.728
Rocket City, OTM, ACC, Patch,
00:54:26.268 --> 00:54:27.148
he's calling you out.
00:54:27.188 --> 00:54:28.329
You guys come down here and
00:54:28.769 --> 00:54:29.590
compete with each other.
00:54:30.139 --> 00:54:30.460
I, you know,
00:54:30.480 --> 00:54:31.081
it's funny you say that
00:54:31.101 --> 00:54:32.061
because I actually went old
00:54:32.101 --> 00:54:34.302
school this year because I really did.
00:54:34.322 --> 00:54:35.862
Like, I mean, again, I own a shop.
00:54:36.083 --> 00:54:37.003
I know a lot of the shops
00:54:37.063 --> 00:54:38.204
are Tampa Bay community.
00:54:38.804 --> 00:54:40.005
I think is unlike any other.
00:54:40.244 --> 00:54:40.385
I mean,
00:54:40.505 --> 00:54:41.726
I can call any one of these shops
00:54:41.766 --> 00:54:43.586
in town right now and they'll pick up.
00:54:43.606 --> 00:54:44.086
What's up, Mark?
00:54:44.106 --> 00:54:44.626
How's it going?
00:54:44.666 --> 00:54:46.288
Like we all get along around here.
00:54:46.628 --> 00:54:48.690
There's so many Jeeps down here in Tampa.
00:54:48.750 --> 00:54:49.650
Like we're all friendly.
00:54:49.710 --> 00:54:51.431
If I need something, they got it in stock.
00:54:52.432 --> 00:54:54.514
But I actually printed out flyers.
00:54:54.634 --> 00:54:56.054
I put stickers and I mailed
00:54:56.155 --> 00:54:57.195
out over one hundred and
00:54:57.235 --> 00:54:59.057
fifty envelopes to shops
00:54:59.177 --> 00:55:00.298
all over the southeast.
00:55:00.878 --> 00:55:02.000
I mean, I was on Google.
00:55:02.119 --> 00:55:03.061
I was on Facebook.
00:55:03.181 --> 00:55:05.762
I was on Yelp just looking
00:55:05.802 --> 00:55:06.844
for off road shops.
00:55:06.943 --> 00:55:08.344
And, you know, and it had a cover letter.
00:55:08.385 --> 00:55:10.306
Hey, here's who I am.
00:55:10.346 --> 00:55:11.007
Here's our event.
00:55:11.442 --> 00:55:11.601
You know,
00:55:11.621 --> 00:55:12.782
if you're interested in getting involved,
00:55:12.842 --> 00:55:14.222
send a team, you know,
00:55:14.362 --> 00:55:15.222
at least would you just
00:55:15.282 --> 00:55:16.603
mind maybe putting our
00:55:16.643 --> 00:55:17.844
poster in your window or
00:55:17.884 --> 00:55:19.344
somewhere on your shop just
00:55:19.364 --> 00:55:20.746
to get the word out about the event?
00:55:20.985 --> 00:55:23.326
So we've had for we had a
00:55:23.346 --> 00:55:24.226
forerunner this year.
00:55:24.327 --> 00:55:26.068
We had an FJ this year.
00:55:26.108 --> 00:55:27.168
The FJ got third place.
00:55:27.208 --> 00:55:27.907
I think the forerunner
00:55:27.967 --> 00:55:28.688
actually was right behind
00:55:28.708 --> 00:55:29.708
him in either fourth or fifth.
00:55:30.409 --> 00:55:30.989
A lot of Jeeps.
00:55:31.009 --> 00:55:33.271
We had a Chevy Colorado last year,
00:55:33.851 --> 00:55:35.871
a Tacoma forerunner last year,
00:55:36.452 --> 00:55:38.773
Ray and Lars were in their, uh, FJ forty.
00:55:39.773 --> 00:55:41.994
Um, so we, we've had a good spread,
00:55:42.054 --> 00:55:43.635
but this year it was just a
00:55:43.715 --> 00:55:46.076
lot of Jeeps and we were trying to,
00:55:46.115 --> 00:55:49.257
the Broncos, the forerunners at Tacomas,
00:55:49.557 --> 00:55:52.840
um, Chevy Colorados, the Ford Rangers.
00:55:52.900 --> 00:55:53.380
I mean, we're,
00:55:53.440 --> 00:55:55.960
we're trying to get into there, but
00:55:56.476 --> 00:55:57.056
I don't know.
00:55:57.237 --> 00:55:58.056
You're a Toyota guy.
00:55:58.077 --> 00:55:58.518
I can say it.
00:55:58.538 --> 00:55:59.378
These Bronco people,
00:55:59.398 --> 00:56:00.239
they're a different breed.
00:56:00.739 --> 00:56:02.141
Well, you know, if they come, they gotta,
00:56:02.320 --> 00:56:03.201
they gotta bring all their
00:56:03.260 --> 00:56:04.561
spare tie rods with them.
00:56:04.922 --> 00:56:06.284
Uh, even down there in Florida,
00:56:06.403 --> 00:56:07.385
they're probably going to need them.
00:56:08.065 --> 00:56:08.344
Yeah.
00:56:08.806 --> 00:56:09.005
Yeah.
00:56:09.065 --> 00:56:09.887
That, and they gotta, they,
00:56:10.447 --> 00:56:11.487
our shirts aren't buttoned
00:56:11.507 --> 00:56:13.148
down polos from the boardroom.
00:56:13.228 --> 00:56:14.831
So I don't know, man,
00:56:14.871 --> 00:56:16.612
t-shirts and ball caps for them.
00:56:16.632 --> 00:56:17.913
I don't know if that's their style.
00:56:18.112 --> 00:56:19.253
Oh, that's funny.
00:56:19.635 --> 00:56:19.974
Uh, uh,
00:56:21.880 --> 00:56:23.762
No, they're cool trucks.
00:56:23.822 --> 00:56:25.744
We're joking,
00:56:25.784 --> 00:56:27.945
not joking with the Bronco guys.
00:56:28.246 --> 00:56:29.626
I've got a few comments I
00:56:29.646 --> 00:56:30.967
want to make sure we show here.
00:56:31.047 --> 00:56:34.251
So our friend Bush, Jason Bush, says,
00:56:34.291 --> 00:56:35.132
calling all shops.
00:56:35.152 --> 00:56:35.793
I agree with that.
00:56:35.853 --> 00:56:37.494
I think the shop aspect is cool.
00:56:38.574 --> 00:56:40.956
I'm thinking through my mind here now.
00:56:41.318 --> 00:56:42.559
Albert, Mill Creek,
00:56:42.898 --> 00:56:44.599
get your Rally Rats guys together.
00:56:44.641 --> 00:56:46.983
This would be perfect for you guys.
00:56:48.735 --> 00:56:50.476
George D. George says,
00:56:51.016 --> 00:56:53.197
very cool on the possible show.
00:56:53.777 --> 00:56:54.518
Good luck with that.
00:56:55.418 --> 00:56:55.960
I agree.
00:56:57.340 --> 00:56:59.402
I think this is the kind of
00:56:59.422 --> 00:57:01.802
reality TV that I know I
00:57:01.822 --> 00:57:02.744
would subscribe to.
00:57:03.885 --> 00:57:06.445
And yes, Mike says, gotta love Ray.
00:57:06.465 --> 00:57:08.807
Hey, again, this wouldn't have happened.
00:57:09.507 --> 00:57:10.548
Ray puts people together.
00:57:10.568 --> 00:57:14.431
That's who he is.
00:57:14.471 --> 00:57:16.532
Good deal.
00:57:16.793 --> 00:57:16.932
Oh,
00:57:17.887 --> 00:57:18.226
All right.
00:57:18.266 --> 00:57:20.449
Well, before I let you go, Mark, let me,
00:57:20.568 --> 00:57:22.489
uh, we always run through some, uh,
00:57:22.530 --> 00:57:24.771
some just fun rapid fire, uh,
00:57:24.871 --> 00:57:25.672
questions here.
00:57:26.072 --> 00:57:27.494
So, all right.
00:57:27.994 --> 00:57:29.655
Uh, first thing, uh,
00:57:29.996 --> 00:57:32.438
favorite off-road trail snack.
00:57:32.458 --> 00:57:33.579
Oh, that's easy.
00:57:33.619 --> 00:57:34.239
Beef jerky.
00:57:35.119 --> 00:57:35.981
Oh, beef jerky.
00:57:36.181 --> 00:57:37.320
Okay.
00:57:37.422 --> 00:57:39.242
Now, are you, uh,
00:57:40.525 --> 00:57:41.547
Are you the guy that has to
00:57:41.567 --> 00:57:42.827
go in the gas station and
00:57:42.887 --> 00:57:44.128
think about which one each
00:57:44.148 --> 00:57:45.550
time and try something new,
00:57:45.610 --> 00:57:46.951
or you've got a faithful?
00:57:47.351 --> 00:57:49.092
Yeah, anything hot, spicy, or blackened.
00:57:49.632 --> 00:57:52.514
Okay, gotcha.
00:57:52.614 --> 00:57:54.235
All right, question number two.
00:57:54.836 --> 00:57:56.878
If you could only listen to
00:57:57.179 --> 00:57:59.380
one artist or one album
00:57:59.519 --> 00:58:01.802
while you're on the trail for the day,
00:58:02.141 --> 00:58:03.063
what are you queuing up?
00:58:04.436 --> 00:58:05.958
You probably would never get this answer,
00:58:06.018 --> 00:58:08.460
but I actually love EDM music.
00:58:08.721 --> 00:58:10.021
I'm a big Tiesto fan.
00:58:10.762 --> 00:58:11.123
Okay.
00:58:11.503 --> 00:58:13.284
I don't know what Tiesto is, but okay.
00:58:13.565 --> 00:58:15.065
Yeah, Tiesto is a big DJ.
00:58:15.425 --> 00:58:17.748
And just, I don't know, EDM,
00:58:17.768 --> 00:58:18.909
the high energy music
00:58:19.068 --> 00:58:20.489
always just puts me in a good mood.
00:58:21.431 --> 00:58:21.630
You know,
00:58:21.670 --> 00:58:22.751
sometimes it's just really good
00:58:22.811 --> 00:58:23.612
background noise.
00:58:23.693 --> 00:58:24.853
It drowns out those second
00:58:24.893 --> 00:58:26.034
thoughts when you're trying
00:58:26.054 --> 00:58:27.155
to focus on wheeling.
00:58:27.175 --> 00:58:27.856
I can see that.
00:58:28.356 --> 00:58:30.418
So yeah, I'll go with Tiesto.
00:58:30.878 --> 00:58:32.760
We'll go with that.
00:58:33.659 --> 00:58:34.780
At least that breaks the
00:58:34.820 --> 00:58:36.001
last two episodes.
00:58:36.280 --> 00:58:37.360
It's been Taylor Swift.
00:58:37.561 --> 00:58:38.742
So I'll take this.
00:58:39.041 --> 00:58:40.481
We're going EDM now.
00:58:40.561 --> 00:58:40.862
Yeah.
00:58:41.081 --> 00:58:42.862
That made me want to roll my Jeep.
00:58:43.123 --> 00:58:44.402
Oh, shots fired.
00:58:44.963 --> 00:58:46.344
All right.
00:58:46.483 --> 00:58:46.963
Number three.
00:58:46.983 --> 00:58:48.425
This is an important question.
00:58:49.065 --> 00:58:50.664
DeWalt or Milwaukee?
00:58:50.945 --> 00:58:51.505
Team Red.
00:58:52.326 --> 00:58:53.766
Oh, man.
00:58:53.826 --> 00:58:55.527
I liked you until this point, Mark.
00:58:55.606 --> 00:58:55.927
And now...
00:58:56.773 --> 00:58:59.333
I do got a DeWalt tool cabinet at the shop,
00:58:59.393 --> 00:59:01.335
but right after I thought I
00:59:01.355 --> 00:59:02.355
was going Team DeWalt,
00:59:02.394 --> 00:59:04.235
Milwaukee started pumping out some stuff,
00:59:04.275 --> 00:59:05.456
and I went Team Red.
00:59:06.416 --> 00:59:06.677
Gotcha.
00:59:06.697 --> 00:59:08.237
Okay.
00:59:08.317 --> 00:59:09.998
All right, Milwaukee guy.
00:59:10.858 --> 00:59:12.599
Everybody knows I'm a DeWalt guy,
00:59:12.719 --> 00:59:14.079
although I will say that I
00:59:14.139 --> 00:59:17.139
scored a Craftsman brand
00:59:17.260 --> 00:59:19.280
cordless heat gun at the
00:59:19.320 --> 00:59:21.322
flea market this weekend.
00:59:21.402 --> 00:59:22.702
I couldn't pass it up five
00:59:22.742 --> 00:59:24.922
bucks for the cordless heat gun.
00:59:26.016 --> 00:59:27.516
But I had to get the adapter
00:59:27.536 --> 00:59:28.996
to use my Dewalt battery with it.
00:59:29.016 --> 00:59:32.938
So there you go.
00:59:32.998 --> 00:59:33.059
Hey.
00:59:33.079 --> 00:59:33.418
All right.
00:59:35.159 --> 00:59:37.079
Manual or automatic
00:59:37.219 --> 00:59:40.101
transmission for off-roading?
00:59:40.141 --> 00:59:42.382
Manual for sure.
00:59:42.461 --> 00:59:42.902
Okay.
00:59:43.762 --> 00:59:44.141
Yeah.
00:59:44.182 --> 00:59:45.083
So you still got some old
00:59:45.123 --> 00:59:45.882
school in you there.
00:59:46.342 --> 00:59:46.603
Yeah.
00:59:46.643 --> 00:59:48.523
My TJ, my ninety seven is a manual.
00:59:48.704 --> 00:59:49.684
My everyday driver.
00:59:49.704 --> 00:59:50.844
So I'm not when I'm sitting
00:59:50.885 --> 00:59:51.644
in traffic on the
00:59:51.664 --> 00:59:52.764
interstate is an automatic.
00:59:53.126 --> 00:59:53.585
Yeah.
00:59:53.606 --> 00:59:54.085
So yeah.
00:59:54.655 --> 00:59:56.056
But yeah, I mean, I don't know,
00:59:56.097 --> 00:59:57.416
just being able to feel the
00:59:57.456 --> 00:59:59.338
gears and and know exactly
00:59:59.358 --> 01:00:00.117
where the range is,
01:00:00.157 --> 01:00:01.237
something hits and you just
01:00:01.617 --> 01:00:03.079
pop it into neutral real quick.
01:00:03.179 --> 01:00:03.539
I don't know.
01:00:03.659 --> 01:00:05.480
It's it's just easier in the manual.
01:00:05.519 --> 01:00:05.940
I like it.
01:00:05.960 --> 01:00:09.181
I like to feel better.
01:00:09.661 --> 01:00:09.940
All right.
01:00:11.141 --> 01:00:13.742
And last question.
01:00:15.460 --> 01:00:16.762
and this one's a difficult one.
01:00:16.802 --> 01:00:21.047
I know, uh, most challenging trail, uh,
01:00:21.106 --> 01:00:23.188
you've driven or, or let's say, you know,
01:00:23.489 --> 01:00:25.751
recently, uh, that you were like, man,
01:00:25.791 --> 01:00:29.534
that, that thing was legit.
01:00:29.635 --> 01:00:31.237
Hmm.
01:00:31.317 --> 01:00:32.277
I know up there you are.
01:00:32.338 --> 01:00:36.481
There's a, there's definitely a few.
01:00:36.541 --> 01:00:37.063
Yeah.
01:00:38.184 --> 01:00:38.224
Um,
01:00:41.554 --> 01:00:42.414
There's nothing like your
01:00:42.514 --> 01:00:44.096
first time in Moab when
01:00:44.115 --> 01:00:45.177
you've never been and your
01:00:45.217 --> 01:00:46.958
first trail is on Moab Rim.
01:00:47.539 --> 01:00:47.838
Okay.
01:00:48.278 --> 01:00:51.402
That's pretty... As soon as you climb up,
01:00:51.461 --> 01:00:52.682
you've got that one crawl
01:00:52.722 --> 01:00:53.684
to the right where it's
01:00:53.724 --> 01:00:55.164
like forty stories down.
01:00:55.824 --> 01:00:56.706
Forty stories, yeah.
01:00:56.726 --> 01:00:57.706
We're not counting in feet,
01:00:57.726 --> 01:00:58.706
we're counting in stories.
01:00:58.788 --> 01:01:00.789
Yeah, and that was my first trail,
01:01:00.849 --> 01:01:02.690
my first time in Moab, and I was like...
01:01:04.092 --> 01:01:05.192
Okay, this is Moab.
01:01:05.211 --> 01:01:06.333
All right.
01:01:07.454 --> 01:01:08.454
So that one's kind of fun.
01:01:08.494 --> 01:01:08.635
I mean,
01:01:08.655 --> 01:01:10.295
we did do some other ones for the
01:01:10.315 --> 01:01:11.097
weeks we were there,
01:01:11.137 --> 01:01:12.438
but just being that that
01:01:12.458 --> 01:01:14.278
was my first trail on my first day,
01:01:15.199 --> 01:01:16.780
that was a little fun.
01:01:16.800 --> 01:01:18.402
Got your blood flowing?
01:01:18.822 --> 01:01:19.362
It got my blood.
01:01:19.382 --> 01:01:19.943
I was like, wake up.
01:01:20.023 --> 01:01:21.525
Okay, there's some serious stuff out here.
01:01:21.585 --> 01:01:22.485
Not that I ever doubted it,
01:01:22.505 --> 01:01:25.246
but I was experiencing it firsthand.
01:01:25.807 --> 01:01:28.110
But I just, I don't know,
01:01:28.190 --> 01:01:29.411
something about Roush Creek.
01:01:30.190 --> 01:01:32.612
I love Roush Creek in Pennsylvania.
01:01:33.152 --> 01:01:34.014
I just feel like there's a
01:01:34.074 --> 01:01:35.275
lot of everything there.
01:01:37.396 --> 01:01:37.556
You know,
01:01:37.576 --> 01:01:39.237
the part of it's like a quarry there.
01:01:39.657 --> 01:01:40.599
Some of the stuff you go down,
01:01:40.639 --> 01:01:41.358
like I believe it's called
01:01:41.398 --> 01:01:42.679
Devil's Den and it's just a
01:01:42.780 --> 01:01:44.240
V of rocks and trees.
01:01:44.260 --> 01:01:46.123
And it's like, pick your line, go.
01:01:46.643 --> 01:01:47.864
And like, that's what I enjoy.
01:01:47.884 --> 01:01:49.664
Like that to me really tests my skill,
01:01:50.025 --> 01:01:51.505
not just follow this trail up.
01:01:51.565 --> 01:01:52.106
Okay, cool.
01:01:52.126 --> 01:01:53.067
There's one obstacle go.
01:01:53.148 --> 01:01:53.887
You know,
01:01:53.907 --> 01:01:54.829
when you're sitting at the bottom
01:01:54.869 --> 01:01:55.969
and it's just rocks, it's like, all right,
01:01:55.989 --> 01:01:56.489
get to the top.
01:01:57.286 --> 01:01:58.786
Well, it's called Devil's Den.
01:01:58.847 --> 01:01:59.027
I mean,
01:01:59.068 --> 01:02:01.608
it's always the ones with the
01:02:01.688 --> 01:02:02.949
sinister names.
01:02:04.708 --> 01:02:06.889
There's some meme about the
01:02:07.130 --> 01:02:08.670
Devil's Ball Sack Trail or
01:02:08.809 --> 01:02:11.431
whatever it is.
01:02:11.451 --> 01:02:11.911
It's funny.
01:02:12.251 --> 01:02:12.431
Yep.
01:02:12.672 --> 01:02:13.652
All right.
01:02:13.771 --> 01:02:14.751
I'd have to kind of throw it
01:02:14.771 --> 01:02:17.172
between those two there.
01:02:17.213 --> 01:02:17.652
Good deal.
01:02:18.427 --> 01:02:20.268
all right well uh thank you
01:02:20.288 --> 01:02:21.827
again for uh for coming on
01:02:22.128 --> 01:02:23.188
uh for talking to us about
01:02:23.248 --> 01:02:24.710
trail team challenge I see
01:02:24.989 --> 01:02:25.889
a few more things in the
01:02:25.929 --> 01:02:27.471
chat here people are are
01:02:27.510 --> 01:02:29.572
excited about it uh bush is
01:02:29.592 --> 01:02:31.472
calling out uh some ad guys
01:02:31.492 --> 01:02:32.532
that's ad series land
01:02:32.572 --> 01:02:34.793
cruisers uh saying uh yeah
01:02:35.233 --> 01:02:36.094
yeah you guys get down
01:02:36.135 --> 01:02:38.014
there I uh you can get your
01:02:38.135 --> 01:02:40.295
uh get your uh your solid
01:02:40.356 --> 01:02:42.376
axles down there and and
01:02:42.396 --> 01:02:44.057
show it show us up that's uh
01:02:44.795 --> 01:02:44.974
You know,
01:02:44.994 --> 01:02:46.856
that's an aspect we didn't talk about.
01:02:46.956 --> 01:02:47.556
But, you know,
01:02:47.596 --> 01:02:49.177
when you just have to be
01:02:49.257 --> 01:02:52.458
street legal and in forty inch tires,
01:02:52.518 --> 01:02:53.478
then, you know,
01:02:53.518 --> 01:02:54.820
do you bring an IFS truck?
01:02:54.840 --> 01:02:56.380
Do you bring a solid axle truck?
01:02:56.481 --> 01:02:58.202
Is there going to be pavement involved?
01:02:58.501 --> 01:02:59.141
And you don't know.
01:02:59.242 --> 01:02:59.902
You don't know all the
01:02:59.963 --> 01:03:01.103
answers until you get there.
01:03:01.143 --> 01:03:02.664
So I think that's part of the challenge.
01:03:03.123 --> 01:03:04.304
Yeah, and there was, you know,
01:03:04.324 --> 01:03:06.164
this year we had a team from Georgia.
01:03:06.784 --> 01:03:07.925
We had a team from, you know,
01:03:07.985 --> 01:03:09.646
down south in Miami come up.
01:03:09.905 --> 01:03:10.987
So we had about eight or
01:03:11.027 --> 01:03:13.268
nine rigs that actually trailered,
01:03:13.367 --> 01:03:13.628
you know,
01:03:13.688 --> 01:03:16.469
all the way in this year to compete.
01:03:16.809 --> 01:03:17.510
So we do have, you know,
01:03:17.530 --> 01:03:18.951
truck and trailer parking for them,
01:03:19.411 --> 01:03:20.170
which is secure.
01:03:20.811 --> 01:03:22.552
But you do have to take highways and,
01:03:22.672 --> 01:03:23.233
you know,
01:03:23.273 --> 01:03:24.893
forest roads and public transit
01:03:24.954 --> 01:03:25.793
to get around to some of
01:03:25.813 --> 01:03:27.275
the private properties and whatnot.
01:03:28.061 --> 01:03:29.802
Um, but you know, anything's fair game.
01:03:29.862 --> 01:03:30.163
And, you know,
01:03:30.202 --> 01:03:31.742
some people think like Ray and Lars,
01:03:32.083 --> 01:03:33.143
they're in that FJ,
01:03:33.222 --> 01:03:34.063
they didn't have a lot of
01:03:34.103 --> 01:03:35.443
room to bring a lot of gear.
01:03:35.844 --> 01:03:36.603
So you've got to get
01:03:36.664 --> 01:03:38.684
creative in how you store stuff,
01:03:38.704 --> 01:03:40.344
how you pack stuff, you know,
01:03:40.364 --> 01:03:41.045
what you're going to leave
01:03:41.085 --> 01:03:42.885
at camp kind of comes into play.
01:03:42.925 --> 01:03:44.445
Like, are you going to chat, you know,
01:03:44.525 --> 01:03:45.746
risk running back to camp
01:03:45.786 --> 01:03:47.806
to get stuff if you leave it, you know,
01:03:47.826 --> 01:03:49.086
and then you've got some guys that are,
01:03:49.146 --> 01:03:49.586
like we said,
01:03:49.646 --> 01:03:50.467
the team this year was in a
01:03:50.487 --> 01:03:51.286
Jeep gladiator.
01:03:51.626 --> 01:03:53.347
So he's got all kinds of room in the back,
01:03:53.407 --> 01:03:54.447
you know, well, um,
01:03:55.014 --> 01:03:56.956
The second year we went
01:03:56.996 --> 01:03:59.559
through what started off at
01:03:59.579 --> 01:04:00.641
about ninety degrees.
01:04:01.882 --> 01:04:02.722
Middle of the day,
01:04:03.123 --> 01:04:04.826
we went to torrential
01:04:04.865 --> 01:04:05.967
downpour with tornado
01:04:06.007 --> 01:04:08.130
warnings to thirty degrees
01:04:08.831 --> 01:04:09.771
all in the same weekend.
01:04:10.259 --> 01:04:11.119
Oh, that's wild.
01:04:11.380 --> 01:04:11.860
Yeah.
01:04:11.920 --> 01:04:13.181
So, you know,
01:04:14.081 --> 01:04:16.463
do you chance running a rig with no top,
01:04:16.523 --> 01:04:17.123
no doors?
01:04:17.605 --> 01:04:18.965
Or are you running a rig
01:04:19.005 --> 01:04:20.567
with a hard top on it?
01:04:20.766 --> 01:04:22.849
Or, you know,
01:04:22.889 --> 01:04:23.969
what's your setup going to be?
01:04:24.130 --> 01:04:26.070
You know, all that stuff comes into play.
01:04:26.110 --> 01:04:26.552
But again,
01:04:27.172 --> 01:04:28.632
that does too if you're going on
01:04:28.672 --> 01:04:29.954
your own trip on any given
01:04:29.994 --> 01:04:31.456
weekend and you and a buddy
01:04:31.596 --> 01:04:32.356
are hitting the trails.
01:04:33.297 --> 01:04:33.958
Yep.
01:04:34.077 --> 01:04:34.958
I love it.
01:04:34.998 --> 01:04:35.418
Yep.
01:04:35.458 --> 01:04:35.818
All right.
01:04:36.197 --> 01:04:37.617
Well, we're going to wrap this up.
01:04:38.199 --> 01:04:38.559
One more.
01:04:38.778 --> 01:04:40.739
I've had a few comments coming in.
01:04:40.778 --> 01:04:41.719
Some of them I'll put up here.
01:04:43.039 --> 01:04:44.400
Mike, again, Mike says,
01:04:44.679 --> 01:04:46.001
we love Fatty's Crack for
01:04:46.021 --> 01:04:46.780
the best trail name.
01:04:47.400 --> 01:04:48.541
I've been to Fatty's Crack.
01:04:48.561 --> 01:04:51.942
That is appropriately named.
01:04:52.302 --> 01:04:53.503
Where's that one at?
01:04:53.523 --> 01:04:58.003
That is at Hawk Pride in Alabama.
01:04:58.023 --> 01:04:58.103
Yep.
01:04:58.123 --> 01:04:59.503
Okay.
01:04:59.543 --> 01:05:00.704
So, all right.
01:05:01.664 --> 01:05:02.184
Thanks, Mark.
01:05:02.204 --> 01:05:02.844
It's been fun.
01:05:02.864 --> 01:05:03.264
Thank you.
01:05:03.465 --> 01:05:03.684
Yeah.
01:05:04.346 --> 01:05:05.405
Thanks, guys, for joining us.
01:05:10.375 --> 01:05:10.538
And.