100% Humboldt
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing Northcoast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
100% Humboldt
#62. Ross Creech-Desk Diving to Business Ventures: A Humboldt Earthquake, Motocross Dreams, and Humboldt's Community Spirit
Joining us to share his own unique journey is an inspiring guest Ross Creech who transitioned from the thrill of dirt bike racing in Eureka to a promising business career in Sacramento. His story is one of passion meeting practicality, with stops at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and corporate gigs in Los Angeles and Santa Maria. We explore how he balanced his motocross dreams with education and career aspirations, offering insights into making bold but thoughtful life choices.
California living gets a vibrant showcase, from charming Arroyo Grande to our deep-rooted connections in Humboldt County. We celebrate community heroes, family legacies, and the local spirit that binds us all. Our conversations take us through bustling chamber events, the Redwood Coast Chamber Foundation, and even a scrumptious chocolate indulgence that tempts even the most disciplined fitness enthusiasts. Here's to our 62nd episode, the adventures we've shared, and the stories that continue to unite us.
Bonus content: we had s7.0 earthquake in Humboldt the day of this interview---Rocked our World! That's exactly how our day unfolded when Humboldt County rocked and rolled with an unexpected earthquake. With the ground swaying beneath us and tsunami alerts blaring, we found ourselves in an adrenaline-fueled dash to safety. Our early warning system truly came through—thankfully, no injuries were reported, just a bit of chaos and some chuckles about my first desk dive in decades.
About 100% Humboldt with Scott Hammond
Humboldt County CA USA is the home of some of the most iconoclastic, genuine, and interesting folks in the world.
We are getting curious about the movers, shakers, and difference makers in Humboldt County CA-Home of the giant redwoods, 6 Rivers, and the vast Pacific Ocean.
We will discover what makes people live/evolve in the beautiful, diverse, isolated, and ever-changing North Coast of California 100%!
Listen in and learn what it is to be 100% Humboldt!
Find us on You Tube, Linked In, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok!
Hey, it's Scott Hammond with 100% Humboldt with my new best friend, Ross Creech.
Speaker 2:Hey there.
Speaker 1:Welcome everybody. And here we are to talk about the big earthquake of the day. Might as well start there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was some excitement, man. You know, down there quality body works were 15 feet elevation, that's right, you're on the day. So you know, the remarkable thing was is that all of a sudden phones start going off. So you know the the remarkable thing was is that that all of a sudden phones start going off and you look down and you're reading earthquake and about the time you're figuring out what's going on, the ground started shaking. So I went off.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at it, I go, here it comes, I go. This has got to be a test right. My initial two seconds was BS test and then the whole building starts shaking downtown. I'm going, oh crap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it was a doozy. It was amazing, though it's like how it actually worked.
Speaker 1:It actually did work. It gave you enough warning to where. I hate to admit this in public, but after 65 years of earthquakes I actually went under the desk.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, yeah, and you, I think it enabled me to do that. The message said to do that. It said like stop drop. It didn't say roll, but take cover, Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so today's December 25th, 2024. And at 1033 today, there was a 7-0, which is way bigger than a 6.9,. It turns out because they're exponential, the Richter scale, and it was right offshore Riadel and actually was there a couple, I think.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, people were feeling aftershocks, but I think maybe adrenaline for me was going. But what was interesting to me too is it was like I've experienced you know, humboldt County and we've experienced a lot of earthquakes, but this thing, it like had this swaying action.
Speaker 1:It was really weird. It was almost like you're on a boat and a drunken sailor type of thing you know, well, the drunken sailor carried on for like a minute, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's so weird and we I don't like to be in our front half of our buildings a few decades old, so I prefer not to be. You know, the back half is, you know, and then it's relatively new, so, but yeah, those of us in the front of the building, let's go outside. We'd rather be outside, but we're watching everything moving around and you know it was wild. And then you get that tsunami alert.
Speaker 1:You know that feeling when you're off of an elevator and you're still kind of moving. Yep, that was today, but it was moving, but it was actually moving.
Speaker 2:I'm watching my door going. Crap, we're still moving here. Our lights were swaying, oh yeah. And okay, what do we do now? And then, about that time, you get the alert for this tsunami and at that time you don't know tsunami alert and it's saying get to high ground. And is that two miles offshore? We didn't know. It was 30, 40 miles away at that time. Was it that far? Well, how far is Rio Del? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Rio Del is, I don't know, 12 miles from.
Speaker 2:Eureka, and then it was out in the ocean, yeah, so it's probably out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go figure. So yeah, you guys are right in the zone down on the bay we're in the zone Right over here on my map. You guys are right over there in Sierra Eureka Anyway.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we're just south of Costco, right there. I mean we're probably 300 yards from the actual water and then only a few feet up above it.
Speaker 1:So did you all go to high ground?
Speaker 2:Did you guys just get?
Speaker 1:I was just getting cars and get book out of them.
Speaker 2:We all got in our cars and I think we most. A lot of the lights even stayed on and probably the looking back, the funniest part of the story is my, my, my dad isn't too involved in the business anymore, but he he still comes down in the mornings and tells me we're doing it wrong and of course, that's what dads do, right and?
Speaker 2:well, he was out walking his dog. And so we get to high ground and, hey, what are you doing? You all right, where are you? And I said, where are you? I'm back at the shop. Dad, there's a tsunami warning. What are you doing?
Speaker 1:Oh, dad went down to the shop.
Speaker 2:And so you know it's like he's the only guy. Like what, are you a pirate? You? He's the only guy in West El Norte, in the whole area, exactly. But he's going down with the ship man, let's see.
Speaker 1:Fortunately, thank goodness, there was no wave. Yeah, I walked out of my building downtown by the Eureka Inn in McCraney Sun and I look around, nick, and it's a freaking Hollywood disaster set. There's cars, it's like honk, honk, honk and there's sirens and there's clusters of people on every corner where there's like no people in the morning, there's like 40, and then we went to the parking lot and it was all the county people. There's maybe 100 people in this parking lot because they have in their drills. The county people have to drill to go to certain places. So it turns out we're okay, all clear. I haven't heard of any injuries, have you guys?
Speaker 2:I don't think so. No, um, my, my house, my, we're on a well and it shook and, uh, the water, the house were okay, but the the there's a larger pipe coming out for the fire fired, hook up to and it ruptured clean through and unfortunately the uh got. There was a nice valve on the front end of that. Shut her down. Didn't lose all our water out of the well, but that was the.
Speaker 1:We had cracks in the roof. We have stucco the old plaster instead of drywall. It's plaster walls because it's an antique historical home, the Panaki building in Old Town In Old Town Used to be in Old Town. Anyway, we have cracks now.
Speaker 2:Or new ones.
Speaker 1:New ones and some old ones that have reappeared, that were kind of covered up before, but I don't think it's structurally a problem. We walked around. So, character. Hey, that's the earthquake report from Ross and Scott, and thanks for coming. Ross Creech, tell us the Ross Creech story. You're 100% humbled. Are you born here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, ross Creech, first podcast ever. So you know, yahoo excited to be here. And looking at your list, you know, and kind of following you, a little bit Pretty cool to you know, you've got quite the Humboldt legends and it's neat to see the story. But yeah, I'm born and raised in Humboldt legends and it's neat to see the story. But yeah, I'm born and raised in Humboldt.
Speaker 1:Thank you by the way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can't help it, but here we are. But oh yeah, but South Bay Elementary School. What's cool about South Bay? I think I'm the I've never met anybody that can say this outside of South Bay that I think we're within a quarter mile of a animal shelter, a power plant and a strip club, so that was like.
Speaker 1:That's a claim to fame. Former strip club they're shut down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe so yeah.
Speaker 1:I think they shut before COVID. Yeah, a while back probably. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's always my. And the power plant that was nuclear. Yeah, but yeah, that's always my, and the power plant that was nuclear Was nuclear.
Speaker 1:And built on a fault.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:It wasn't their fault.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so yeah. And then Zane and Eureka High and when I was 18, pretty much right out of high school, I moved to Sacramento, Did some time down there, nick, here, his studio. I noted he had a Sierra College sticker on his Ranger Sierra Yep. So I did a couple years down there. Is that a JC and SAC? Jc and Rockland. So East SAC, did you go to Sierra? Cool, yeah, and yeah. So we shared war stories earlier.
Speaker 2:But um, but yeah, I was down there, I was racing dirt bikes at the time. Um, kind of had hopes to. I was at a point where, you know, I had some sponsorship, some help. You know I was, I was getting serious with it and uh, there's just more opportunities down there. And I kind of got to a point where, uh, being down there I was, I was closer, it was easier to to to be involved. But got to a point where, being down there I was, I was closer, it was easier to to to be involved. But got to that point where I was either going to start, you know, make, you know, getting making some pro races and doing that kind of stuff, or hurt myself and I I landed on my head a few, too many times, and uh, are you the guys who do the big, the big jumps?
Speaker 2:uh, not, not the freestyle stuff. Um, those guys are. Those guys are a whole different monster team.
Speaker 1:Those, yeah, those guys are wild um those guys.
Speaker 2:No, I'm not, I'm not going upside down, okay so you're doing motocross and motocross.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got it and uh, so, so, yeah, I I did that a couple years and you know, yeah, I got to where I knocked myself loony a couple of times and uh and and kind of scared myself. I I was off out, knocked out off a triple jump down at, uh, the track was Prairie city or hang town is the famous, um, but yeah, I knocked myself out, for you know it was out for five, 10 minutes. Is that out? Folsom El Dorado, correct?
Speaker 1:Prairie city Off 50.
Speaker 2:Yeah and uh and that 50. Yeah, and at that point I kind of hung up the racing boots and I've continued to ride off and on Were you married at the time and had kids. No, no, no.
Speaker 1:I was Indestructibly yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:And dumb and all that good stuff. But yeah, and at that point I still had good grades through Sierra and I realized I better focus on the studies a little bit more because I wasn't going to make any money on dirt bikes so um, so at that time I I had a couple of friends that had a room open up in um San Luis Obispo and I was able to transfer into San Luis Obispo Cal Poly. Good, school. Yeah, yeah, I had a good-.
Speaker 1:What'd you?
Speaker 2:study there. Business with a concentration in human resource management Super smart man and great community.
Speaker 1:I love that community down there. Yeah, yeah, pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, half of that was I could never make up my mind and I knew it was a pretty general education and also I grew up around a body shop.
Speaker 1:you know family business, which is a business, yeah.
Speaker 2:And kind of had that you know mentality already, so and it came natural and I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Great, great school. Yeah, I always think a business degree is the way to go, because how do you not run into business in real life? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of transferable skills and you know, other other areas and industries. And so you graduated at slow, graduated from slow cal poly, slow the the cal poly as I call it around here being snobby, I suppose, but a couple people on the show still humble state to me okay, great, yeah, yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:No, it's great to see what's what's happening up there in arcada Copy. I suppose A couple of people on the show still humble state to me Right, okay, great, yeah, yeah, no it's great to see what's happening up there in Arcata as well.
Speaker 2:Cal Poly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, starting to pull it together. Hey, they brought the Beach Boys in a couple of months ago. There you go.
Speaker 2:How could that be bad? That's an indicator of success. Right, we're coming.
Speaker 1:We're coming up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're coming up. Yeah, so did you come immediately back at the family business after graduating? No, no, and I had didn't have, you know. I actually, you know, spent 18 years growing up here and then I didn't move back. It was 15 years I was away and so, no, and, and you know, early on, it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily destined that I was going to be working at quality, you know, have a family business. In fact it was, oh, we might give you a job, you know. And then over the years that softened a little bit and you know to where, you know, and and during that time I I found myself in, I moved to Los Angeles with my now wife and I went to work for Mission Linen oh wow, I'm sure, it's a location here in Eureka and went to work for Mission Linen oh wow, which is a location here in Eureka and went to work for them and eventually worked my way up to where I was running their facility in Santa Maria, california oh cool. So I worked at a couple of plants in LA area.
Speaker 2:And then we found ourselves back in the San Luis Obispo area and I was running that plant and had about 80 employees and all the headaches that come with all that stuff employees and all the headaches that come with all that stuff and we were doing seven million pounds worth of, or seven million dollars worth of laundry a year which is crazy.
Speaker 1:It's quite a lot of laundry.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of laundry man.
Speaker 1:A lot of very laundry Did you see the size of that washer and dryer. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It was wild.
Speaker 1:So you were based in SLO at that point, or Santa Maria.
Speaker 2:Royal Grande was where we were living.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have a sister that has a restaurant there. Oh, really, every day at the Old Village Grill. Oh yeah, oh yeah, burgers, yep, yep. Now she owns Pizza Republic out by the airport in SLO.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, okay, yeah, but the Old Village Grill absolutely Arroyo's cool. It's a cool old kind of. They call it the village. The village is really cool. And yeah, it was a neat place and that's where our kids were both born when we were down there. How about that?
Speaker 1:You ever been to the guitar shop across the street there? This guy's had this music shop for life.
Speaker 2:Man, I can't carry a tune in a bucket. You went over there shopping guitars.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's not this historical music shop that's been there for 80 years.
Speaker 2:You know, now that you're saying that, I do, I can visualize it. But yeah, You've got like 10,000 guitars.
Speaker 1:It's just pretty magical for a guitar player. So where did you live? In LA.
Speaker 2:Eagle Rock yeah, my wife was living down there. She was editing, so right out of college she was already down there. She was an editor for at the time. She wasn't an editor at that time, but she was working for Extreme Makeover Home Edition as an assistant editor, I believe, at that time. But she had a pretty cool career that she was setting up for herself and so I went down there to follow her and did some time down there.
Speaker 1:It's too busy down there for me, man, the city of Eagle Rock.
Speaker 2:The Eagle Rock.
Speaker 1:It used to be a little rough neighborhood back in the day, I think. Nah, I think it's— it's probably gentrified now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't too—now it's. Yeah, it's flipped, I think. Every home's worth a jillion dollars yeah yeah, we were living in a tiny little. I mean not much bigger than this studio, but a place down there.
Speaker 1:Did you guys meet down there or at school?
Speaker 2:We met at my cousin's wedding in Park City, Utah. That's funny Of all places, yeah, so, and then we stayed in contact long distance.
Speaker 1:My son just met his future, whatever she is, at a wedding in Phoenix.
Speaker 2:It happens man.
Speaker 1:Hey Aaron.
Speaker 2:Hey Lauren. No, it's great, awesome, but yeah. So I followed her to Los Angeles and you know, and she got a pretty cool career going. She's edited some shows oh gosh, deadliest Catch, sure, what's? Some of the other ones Flying Wild Alaska was another one.
Speaker 1:Some Discovery Network stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and so yeah, some of the other ones uh, flying wild alaska was another one, so discovery network stuff, yeah, yeah and so, so, yeah, she, um, and then, like I said, I took that role at the santa maria mission, linen, um, and then around that time she, we were pregnant with, uh, our first kid, so, um, so eventually she moved up to uh, or we moved up to roe grande.
Speaker 2:Um, we were, we were there for gosh seven years I think five, six anyway um, for for quite a while and running the laundry plant and and didn't have a ton of plant. You know, at that point, um, there was no body shop on the future. You know, it was we. We had a pretty good setup.
Speaker 1:Dad had his job up there that he did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and we were, we were, we were good, but, but, as he, you know, they got to a point where they wanted to see a you know retirement plan and they were talking about potentially selling it. And that's when he got my attention where okay, all right, let's talk I the idea of seeing our you know, it was my grandpa's business in 1978 started and then dad and uncle in the 90s took over Succession plan. Yeah, and it was like man, I can't see a different name on the side of that place, you know. So that's where our talks got a little more serious and the recruiting took place.
Speaker 2:So they had to sell you the job a little bit. Less me more. My wife, my wife, likes warm weather, okay, and so, hey, it's pretty warm here today. Ish, yeah.
Speaker 1:We were in Bedford over the weekend. It was 35 and ice crystals and fog, and we came home at 52 and I'm going yeah, you're right, it feels like Arizona. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, and there's blue sky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we've had some. You're right, it hasn't been cold. But she's also the one that has a parka on, you know 24-7 parka.
Speaker 1:I understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, we came and then we made our way back up here, so that was 2017. And been here ever since. She's a bodybuilder, right, yeah, uh, she's a. Yeah, so, um, she's a bikini fitness, yeah, uh, essentially bodybuilding. Has she won awards? And she's, she's awesome at it. Yeah, so it kind of um she has won a couple different um she's a trophy wife.
Speaker 1:I never imagined Cheers to the trophy wife. Yeah right, so funny.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so she's won, literally won these competitions in bodybuilding. And she's a personal trainer. Shameless. Play Little Mama Fit on Instagram.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. How many kids.
Speaker 2:We have two kids, yeah, theo and Ollie. They're uh, that's so cool, but yeah, how many kids? Uh, we have two kids, theo and Ollie.
Speaker 1:They're eight and 11 out of freshwater Nice and uh our son, mike is 20, he's a lifter, and so we've talked before. And I I know um. You gave me a few good ideas that were yeah, and Mike could put up 455 pounds.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of iron yeah, that's a lot, and he holds the record up at Hellsport and Arcata.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, but we'll see. You know, if he keeps vaping, that may change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's what happens.
Speaker 2:It's like all the acquired bad habits, that is counterproductive to strength training, I think.
Speaker 1:Pull it together, man.
Speaker 2:So you guys came up here and took the. Obviously you took the job, took the job, made the sale to to the spouse and yeah, yeah, and we've, we've kind of settled in and it's been good man, you know there's, there's always. You know, anytime you move, whether it's across town but especially across the state, you know it's a 10 hour, 10 hour journey, I think, to get drive back down that way.
Speaker 1:But it's a long drive.
Speaker 2:It's a long you know uproot and um, but yeah, it's been, it's been a lot pretty rewarding, um and and working back into the family business has been, has been really neat.
Speaker 1:And not everybody does that anymore. Yeah, yeah, I think that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah and um, and you know it, it I didn't want to. I tried to be quiet about me being involved for for a few years. You know I wanted it to. You know we've always you know, kudos to my parents or my dad, uncle and grandfather, you know always maintained a strong reputation with our business and, and, uh, really tried to keep it that way. And what's the name of that business? Again, it's Quality Body Works.
Speaker 1:Quality Body Works man On West Del Norte right. Yep, yep, yeah we could shameless plug that for a little while Well yeah, yeah and uh. No, you guys are award-winning. I think that's local business man, that's America.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and yeah, it's been good man and all of these skills that I learned in a laundry plant in college and it's been rewarding to bring some of those skills into our business. How many employees do you guys have? I think we're I can't keep track, but we've got, we've got, count the intern. You know those guys, but I think we're at 23.
Speaker 1:That's pretty good size.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, 20,000 square foot facility Right, real big. Yeah, yeah. So so as a State Farm agent. You guys are very important to what we're about that's initially how I think we met and absolutely we're in the same world and work together.
Speaker 1:So tell me a little bit about the business community while you adjust your mic this way towards yourself.
Speaker 2:There you go, business community. Well, I serve on the Chamber of Commerce. I'm the chairman for the chamber for-.
Speaker 1:Is it president or chairman? You pick.
Speaker 2:Is Nancy the chairman.
Speaker 1:I don't know you pick. Is Nancy the president?
Speaker 2:She's CEO, she's the CEO right, so do I get to choose that title. But chairperson.
Speaker 1:I think you're some sort of president, president Maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But you.
Speaker 2:I'll take it, you yell at people and tell them what to do.
Speaker 1:No, no, I usually take orders. Chief servant yeah.
Speaker 2:It's like the lead, follow or get out of the way right.
Speaker 1:And so you'll be replaced in January. Is it annual?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're having some conversations. So I serve one more year on the board and in theory I'd be stepping out of the role, but I guess we'll make it official and Nancy and I have been talking and Teresa, but I think I'm going to do another year as the chair or president or wherever. Heard it here first, folks, and there we go.
Speaker 1:Breaking news.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and ideally I'm stepping down and passing it along. But we've really worked on stabilizing some of our committees and we've got some real rock stars in there chairing our committees. Teresa's ready to step into my role. But the issue then is we were kind of assessing who we have. We were going to have a gap at if we the logical people to move into, say, a vice role. We would have had to then take them out of our committee roles. So I'll be doing another year as the chair to give us time to kind of just maintain, Solidify the whole thing Exactly so is it normally a one-year term as a chair?
Speaker 2:They are Well on the board. It's a three-year term, okay, and that can be repeated once. So six years, and then it's typically a one-year term.
Speaker 1:So you'll vice president and then president, so Nancy is the chamber CEO. She's the CEO. One of our first guests said she's doing amazing stuff with the chamber. Yeah, let's talk about that. So the chamber's a foundation now.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you've heard from Nancy. She's a rock star and so there's a lot of cool stuff, and probably the biggest thing that she has brought on or that she has jumped into is we created a separate from the chamber but connected to the chamber, a foundation, the Redwood Coast Chamber Foundation, and that's a 501c3. So that allows the chamber to be involved in some funding opportunities, grants and things like that. Um, that really opened the doors for more collaboration within the business community, the local other chambers in the area, Um, and so it's.
Speaker 2:It's been, it's been exciting. Um, there are a number of programs and it's really in the last couple of years and so it's come a long ways and we are primed for, you know, positioned very well for growth in the future and opportunities, being able to seize opportunities. The thing that is the most exciting to me, the thing that really kind of brought me to the chamber and and that I I've always been a fan of, is the, the workforce development, and the chamber foundation has been able to partner, partner with um, Humboldt County office of office of education and then the blue Lake rancheria, through some of these partnerships for internships.
Speaker 1:Good, Trades Exactly.
Speaker 2:And able to, you know, access some grant funding to employ, you know, to just start building a network. Because what I noticed early on in working, you know, part of Quality Body Works is like, man, I need staff, I need staff and I need, I need talent. Right, I need people. That who does it? And and it's it's hard to you know. So, like, where are these guys at? And, and what what's interesting is, you would ask the questions and like, oh, mike at at CR does that? Or? Or, bill, you know, or, or oh, you got to talk to Jessica over at that, you know.
Speaker 2:So there's all these different organizations all doing great things, but but I've always felt like, man, how do we, how do you find out about them? How, how do you get the word out? How do you connect them Right? And that's what. What is pretty, pretty cool is, um, I feel like that's that's one thing that we're able to do and and working at, and and we're, you know, if you're a business owner, looking to get involved, that is something that we're always looking for businesses that can take on internships and training programs and things like that.
Speaker 1:Those are awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:One of my first jobs was to sell internships.
Speaker 2:Oh, really, yeah, I worked for an internship.
Speaker 1:Well, I did sell them, I, I. So I was working for CETA, which we placed teenagers with Mayan Construction Roy what was his last name, I just saw him, anyway. So these guys would take a T on a job, shadowing on a job, and they, hey, this is what it's like to be a contractor, this is cool, or hey, I'd rather be a drywaller, whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, trades are cool, yeah, I like that. So so bring synergy to that whole, that whole area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, trying to connect dots and just connect business to education, and you know if, if we can make it just a little bit better. I mean heck.
Speaker 1:Just paid for my 2025 chamber membership about an hour ago, right on, look at that, we're in. Yeah, glad to have you.
Speaker 2:I know we've maintained and I was talking to Nancy the other day and she said our growth number, I mean our new membership numbers, are strong. So that's exciting and yeah, it's cool. Shoot from the hip here, nancy's going to get mad at me. There's some of the different programs that the foundation has put together and working on. Another cool thing that I'm going to get my pronunciation wrong the Camara de Comercio, working on a chamber of commerce, a Latin chamber of commerce or Hispanic chamber of commerce, to kind of further bridge gaps, kind of as an adjunct to the Eureka Chamber, Exactly when?
Speaker 2:you know it's where you know it could be intimidating, you know. And so by having, you know, a separate chamber but still very involved and connected, I like it. Yeah, it's exciting. So that's another piece, so a rosy future plus a new president. Yeah.
Speaker 1:This will be kind of fun. Yeah, yeah, it could go well.
Speaker 2:Right or maybe not. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see.
Speaker 1:It's the hurry up. We'll see, yeah, so tell me more about the business environment that you think we're in. What?
Speaker 2:do you see as the challenges?
Speaker 1:opportunities, ross, in terms of Eureka Humboldt in general. I mean, cannabis always comes up at this point, but maybe I don't know. It's got to be something more than cannabis and food trucks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are things coming down the pipelines and it'll be interesting to see where they go. So, yeah, you mentioned cannabis. Obviously, I think I moved up, moved up here in the back end of 2017. Legalization happened 2018. So I kind of came in where it did a and boom, watching it boomed and busted, yeah, and and I you know, on that front it was, it's always interesting, it's and I am zero involvement in the in that industry. So I'm purely speaking from 40,000 feet, but it just seems like we have been a little slow to the game to capitalize on the tourism aspect of it.
Speaker 2:And the Humboldt County branding piece. You know we are. You know I've lived all over the state. I've been to some other places in the world and you mentioned Humboldt County and we're famous and, whether for good or bad, we're famous for cannabis.
Speaker 1:I'm laughing.
Speaker 2:I have a great story, right? Okay, and yeah, so Napa to wine, humboldt to cannabis, right, but why?
Speaker 1:Passa Robles wine country Passa.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and it's been six years, but hopefully we can get there and connect some of those dots. It's funny.
Speaker 1:They've talked about branding Humboldt. I suppose there's some branding done, but you don't hear much. At least maybe they don't market it here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I don't know, and again, it's not my wheelhouse, it's just again my but, but. So so that's the cannabis piece. But, um, cal Poly's doing some big things. Hopefully we can get some housing to support the numbers that they're looking for. Um, cause it seems like that's the biggest hurdle to. You know, people are. People are interested in Humboldt. It's just where do? Where do I live? And living in a van is not ideal so.
Speaker 1:I can't live in the woods.
Speaker 2:And and so you. So you know, there's a whole podcast of you know housing conversations that I think we need. So there's Cal Poly, there's Nordic Aqua Farms. It brings some interesting growth opportunities. That one's looking really good right From what I understand, yeah.
Speaker 1:Things are moving.
Speaker 2:It's just, you know, and I'm not savvy to the timelines there. And then, how about the wind farm? Wind farms, yeah, same thing. It's going to be interesting to see what that entails. I know that's a few different components the harbor development piece and then the actual installation piece, and then the maintenance and operation. Yeah, you know, so it's a-.
Speaker 1:It's a long-term deal too, right? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know, do you know what the actual timeline? You know what they're suspecting?
Speaker 1:I remember they did the economic summit a few weeks ago and they were saying well, into many years you know they didn't quite say decades, but yeah.
Speaker 2:It's out, there's easy decade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just in terms of the phase, and I didn't get. I thought it was kind of a shoo-in and I don't think it is. I mean, I think it'll happen, but I don't know if the manufacturing would be here, maybe they would truck that stuff up from wherever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's, there's, I think, a whole whole bunch, you bunch and that's all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think a lot of it depends on an economy If there's money and there's low interest rates and there's development.
Speaker 2:I suppose that stuff's all driven by. Where's our economy, where's our inflation, where's our? Whatever all the metrics. And it'll be interesting to see, with the change in administrations at the know, at the federal level, what what that does for this project, you know, does it still still move through or are there going to be additional hurdles?
Speaker 1:Because they've been accused of being pro-oil and they're not going to do alternative energy and who knows?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it'll be. It'll be interesting, you know and and hopefully I mean we have we have so many different valid perspectives here on the coast, but it also creates a lot of challenges with moving projects of this scope and magnitude forward.
Speaker 1:I like that. Everybody's got a valid perspective. Sometimes they crash and we don't get any progress again. So we lost another one, oh my God. And it just drives me crazy, because I think there could be positive, clean business that would help families, that would help housing, that would help homelessness, that would help healthcare and have that cascade effect. I think I believe that progress would do that. It's just growing smart and we say no to every dang thing that comes along. It's just like here let me shoot myself in the foot again, and I don't shoot myself, I shoot your grandkids. And again, and I don't shoot myself, I shoot your grandkids and mine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know part of the beauty of.
Speaker 2:Humboldt is, is that things move slowly and and you know, right. So you know, we can definitely appreciate that, but you're right. You're right, I mean if, if, if we're evaluating this from as many angles as we can possibly, you know, and gathering all the information, at some point we got to move forward and, and whether it's this project or another project, but you know it's, it's, you're right, we got to be thinking about the next generations, right?
Speaker 2:And if, if every action that we're taking is going to improve today just a little bit, it's going to make tomorrow pretty good for those kids of ours Well said and it'll make it good for us too, right Well said.
Speaker 1:I like it. So I'm going to sum up my podcast. You'll be the 62nd podcast, so are you ready? All right, I think I just kind of connected all the dots. I'm checking, looking at Nick, to see if I got this right. So cannabis is boom and bust. We got all these cool things that are on our horizon, that we go through a project process, everybody gets heard, and then sometimes we don't do anything and sometimes and Bill Bertain, bill Bertain, bill Barnum, my good friend, the lawyer he came on and said listen, unless we get housing figured out and we get some really good, easy planning department, that okays things, because we're in really deep trouble, because you can't do this without housing, you can't do it without health care, and so our challenges are there and it seems like the obstructionists among us, after being heard, still want to be heard some more and wait a minute. Democracy, I think, is us compromising and going forward. Like you just said, we're moving forward together, yeah, so, hey, I actually had an opinion on my podcast.
Speaker 2:There it was that felt good well, and the housing piece is it's. It's whether you're houseless or a businessman or what it's important, and it has to be a priority, right, because I mean what was interesting, we did a survey at the chamber, a survey of business members, right? And so this is your business, people and housing was one of the higher priorities on that list.
Speaker 1:Boots on the ground, people that see it.
Speaker 2:And why would that be? Why would that be important to a business? Well one, it's customers, but it's their employees. How many of our employers are struggling to provide products and services for our community when they can't get employees because they can't pay them enough that they can live in this area?
Speaker 1:And we didn't even mention the third piece of the guy peeing on their porch the homeless guy or gal.
Speaker 2:And so that becomes a reality check, yeah, and that's a tough piece to bridge for folks, because you know you have sympathy for you know what's going on in that person's life you know, but on the other hand, it is tough to you know again, do all those things that you're talking to provide services that so, yeah, yeah, that's it's complex and obviously otherwise we would have figured it out by now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd be to solve homelessness on a podcast. That'd be something it would be right. I wish figured it out by now. Yeah, I mean to solve homelessness on a podcast.
Speaker 2:That'd be something it would be right.
Speaker 1:I wish we could do that one. So what do you love about Humboldt?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think it's the community. You know, it was interesting. Like Nick, here we're in his studio Before you got in here we were talking and um, and it is a case in point to Humboldt County. It's like we're, we're all one person away from being either related or knowing each other's mother's, father's, uncle. You know, like we're, we're all so connected.
Speaker 1:I call it the seven layers of Humboldt County, Kevin Bacon.
Speaker 2:It turns out um his mom's teaching at freshwater school. Turns out you guys are cousins, or not teaching, sorry, but working at Freshwater School.
Speaker 1:You're cousins, yeah right, darn here. That's so weird.
Speaker 2:And so it's that connectivity yeah, that's real Well. And gosh, I don't. I didn't come to Humboldt planning to be on a podcast with Scott Hammond. I didn't come to Humboldt to be the chairman or the president of the Chamber of Commerce. I didn't plan on and now I'm an incoming board member for Freshwater School. I didn't plan to do any of these things. But that's, I think, what Humboldt County is. It's. It's small and we're all doing our part, right, and so we do what we can. That's cool, and we, we, you know there's there's things that everybody's doing as much as they can, and that's that's. I think we all are, are, are, are trying, and so that's what's that's. What's cool about Humboldt is is it's small enough that you got to be involved, yeah, Well, they pick guys like us to serve, and I think it's all about servant leadership.
Speaker 2:I think it's a sucker across their foreheads, maybe right, I want to go to board meetings. No, but it's yeah, and I was thinking, you know, it's like a reluctant leadership, I guess At times, yeah, there's openings, you know, and it's you know, but it's important and if we can help our community and, you know, help things move forward, I mean I like it. Why not?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I like it. And I think my friend, ron Pelleggi, who used to own the Tri-City paper, told me this morning as we were talking he goes, the opportunity is to go serve, to get on a board, get to know some guys on the board at St Joe's or Ingimar or Freshwater School District or McKinleyville and where we live, and go help and get to know people, get connected and share life together. I go, that sounds like a good plan. I kind of like that idea. Yeah, so real quick, let's talk about Humboldt Heroes. You guys rebuilt a Ford Ranger truck.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Oh, actually back it up. So once a month, scott Hammond State Farm, we recognize a Humboldt local hero, veteran hero, and we'd never done a posthumous honoring of a hero that. We did it with Kevin Ebert, navy SEAL, amazing guy from Arcata, and I'll let you kind of take it from there then, charlie and Mark put together a prize.
Speaker 2:Kevin's mother, charlie of Kinetic Coffee. They had a little delivery Nissan Versa Gray, if I recall 2013. I have a problem, sorry.
Speaker 2:Remembered as a body shop guy, right, and so their little delivery car came in and it was hit, pretty wasn't fixed, but we started talking and um, and then I've um, and then in talking with her, we were talking about this where we had given a car away in the past and and we worked with you on that one. We gave a car to, uh, you know and and had a program and and uh, that's great, you guys did that annually, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we've done it a couple of times, and so part of the idea is it's a car that we've refurbished and got back on the road, but we partner with people like yourself. You provided the insurance for this individual that received the car.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:Leon's, did oil changes, it did the maintenance, did the safety, you know, and so we. So they got a whole package and a whole package. We even had, uh, Redwood Fuels, Shell. Uh, they provided a fuel card, a $50 fuel card, uh, for the entire year. One one, some, you know so um. That'll buy you a quarter tank of gas here, yeah, quarter tank of gas here. Yeah, not much anymore. Just kidding, not kidding, but the idea was to kind of give somebody a boost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so somebody that was underprivileged or that had a need, exactly.
Speaker 2:And so I don't know how we got talking with Charlie on that subject, but she mentioned that she had a vehicle she would be interested in maybe donating to that, and then, darn near, hit the floor as she was explaining what what the project was. It was her son Kevin's. I want to say a 2000 Ford Ranger, I want to say it's 2000,. But a red Ford Ranger pickup and Beautiful truck.
Speaker 2:And it was. It was. It had been sitting for some years and so it had kind of that humble mildew that accumulates over the entire vehicle. Yes, it eats the vehicle and yeah, and it was in pretty rough shape, the interior had, I want to say the headliner inside was hanging down. Hit your head.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 2:so there was a lot of things it needed, but so she donated that and that became our project to get it up to speed.
Speaker 1:So it was shiny when we gave it away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and that was a heck of a project. And so we were. You know, through your humble heroes, we presented it.
Speaker 1:And this guy was so happy to get this truck. It was cool. It was cool, dick. You should see, this guy was just Well, to be honest, he needed a truck too, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it fit his needs and man it was. We haven't been. I haven't been able to get that program back together because I don't know how. You know how to follow that. Right, you know because it was, it was so.
Speaker 1:It was so good we never did it again.
Speaker 2:It just hit man, it was, and so that was a neat project. Actually, charlie Jordan she, just a month or so ago, updated me and the gentleman has taken a job out of state and he felt it was best to. So he's going to donate the vehicle back and Charlie's going to use it for her foundation that's right and so they're going to figure out what to do with it. But essentially he's been able to move forward and doing good things and it's going to stay, you know, in a good place.
Speaker 1:So yeah, fun project If somebody wins here. So it's kind of back to that idea from five minutes ago how to serve the community. So we honor a vet, we give away a truck, we honor another veteran a live veteran and a deceased and a family and a foundation, and it's a win, win, win, win, win, win win and everybody's there and you know tears of joy and it's just pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it hits. Yeah it, yeah it hits. I like that, I like the way you say that. So hey, the time of the show where ross gets to tell us his favorite stuff about humboldt, question one. You have an entire day with your wife, say tomorrow, and money's not an object, but you got to stay in the county, you got to do something from sunrise to sunset and you get a day off just to go screw around. What do you want to do? What do you do with your sweetheart? What's fun and humble.
Speaker 2:Oh, we're pretty low key. We like to get outdoors, so probably we probably get up to Trinidad. I'm thinking we probably hike around the head. Maybe, sure, maybe, we get on a kayak in the harbor there. Yeah, they have it right there and then maybe some more hiking along the beach there and at some point I know my wife would make sure we have some steak up at Larapin Nice. That would have to be the episode. I happen to have some steak up at Larapin Nice. That would have to be the episode.
Speaker 1:Happen to have some good fillets.
Speaker 2:Yep, but more than likely we start that day with. You know we talked about my bodybuilder wife. You know we would have done some probably weightlifting. She's got me Finally. After four or five years I started listening to her Are you lifting a little bit, I'm on her program? She or five years?
Speaker 1:I started listening to her and I'm on her program.
Speaker 2:She's got me she's got me on a program and, uh, I've, I've dropped a few LBs and uh, that's good. So we probably start the morning with a workout and then we probably get out and you know, explore Trinidad. Maybe would be one spot Um perfect. Uh like to, or I'll take the kids on a bike ride. You know, getting them into mountain biking.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, you guys are at Freshwater so you could ride pretty far up the road.
Speaker 2:Yeah we're not too far from like Arcata Park. That's been I've been taking them up there and there's a couple little trails that are good entry level.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of parks, yeah, a lot of park trails up there, yeah yeah, and kids are, yeah, they of the bikes.
Speaker 2:So there's some bike parks going the Blue Lake Bike Park, my cousin's, been pretty involved at the development of that.
Speaker 1:We walked by that a lot this summer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's all paved now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have it all covered up, so it's kind of going to be ready for the spring. It looks like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, protecting it from the rains, that's all volunteer work. There's a couple guys that are paid to make it happen, but I mean there's a couple of guys that are paid to to make it happen. But I mean it's a lot of donations, it's a lot of community involvement.
Speaker 1:It looks really cool too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's going to be. It's going to be really neat.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's so nice. I mean it's yeah, and, and just speaking from a kind of geeking out on a bike, you know bike and dirt bike, you know it's is, you know, of all places in Blue Lake but it'll, it'll be a pretty neat.
Speaker 1:So it's that, it's that level.
Speaker 2:It'll be. You know there's there's going to be some kids coming out of this area and it's so exciting, like, like backing up to my dirt bike days, like when I was a kid we would race um down at Phillipsville, southern Humboldt, and and it was so such a cool community environment down there and and you saw families with kids and like Come out and watch the kids ride all day.
Speaker 2:Well, and then, and then your, your 12 year old kid has something to. You know he better keep his grades up because he wants to ride. You know dad's not letting him race if he doesn't pass his class. You know like, so there's that kind of incentive and motivation. It's a great point. And then, and then, unfortunately, those, those tracks went away. Um, and then it's been a. It's a bummer, because I can think of a handful of scenarios where, like you saw, you saw what happened when those kids lost. You know they were, I'm there, you know. And when they lost that incentive, they went back to whatever.
Speaker 1:It went sideways yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it's super cool to see today that man, there's recreation out there where these kids will be able to experience and have something to kind of focus their, you know, because not every kid is a I'm going to play football or going to play baseball.
Speaker 1:Sure, you know it's not for everybody right, exactly, or BMXers?
Speaker 2:And this is a way you know, like I said, they can really hone in and focus on a craft.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so Blue Lake's going to be super cool.
Speaker 2:Next level I think it will, and there's trails going in around McKinleyville. What's the? Why am I drawing a blank?
Speaker 1:There's one right behind McKinleyville on the Simpson property. Yeah, and so we're starting to connect all those pieces.
Speaker 2:The McKay track is is, look, you know, coming along, and so it's. It's going to be really neat to to to have all this you know, outdoor, yeah, adventure.
Speaker 1:And Blue Lake also has the big uh uh mountain bike competition back there by the hatchery right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Every year they have several races back there, yeah, and so there's some awesome mountain biking stuff going on. So Humboldt is really setting up to where it can be quite the destination for.
Speaker 1:And that trail system is going to go out there too, through Annie and Mary on the railroad at some point, from Arcata all the way up to Blue Lake.
Speaker 2:Talking, oh okay.
Speaker 1:It'll be part of the Great Redwood, I think, at some point. But there's that arm they want to develop.
Speaker 2:I didn't.
Speaker 1:yeah, that'll be amazing, That'll be super cool I didn't realize that yeah we used to live right by there. I used to cross the trestle there that goes over to Philbrook when Joni and I were just not married, okay, okay, and it was icy and 30 degrees and I would cross and it's 100 feet down.
Speaker 2:You're going.
Speaker 1:I must really be in love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no thanks.
Speaker 1:I'll walk you back honey.
Speaker 2:Was it uphill both ways? Yeah, of course, yeah.
Speaker 1:Is it always so? Question two where do you go for coffee? Who's?
Speaker 2:your coffee go-to? That's a loaded question. Man, there's a lot of man, there's a lot of good ones, there's a lot of good coffee. You could say.
Speaker 1:Kinetic. I mean, we've said that a little. They don't have a store though, do they?
Speaker 2:I had them do some branded coffee. We put a quality logo on our bag so we did a run of those. It was super cool. The coffee that we had it was the Kevin Ebert blend, I remember that, yeah, so that was cool, but that's not necessarily where I would go for the coffee. Normally I'm moving around too darn much to sit down Right, so you got your jitter beans. Old Town Coffee and Chocolate was always. You know, I love stopping in a fellow chamber member. Stews, brews, um, right there, um, they are on. What are my streets? I don't know any streets in Eureka.
Speaker 1:I just know locations On fourth. On fourth, as you, before you do the turn. Correct. Used to be bikini coffee.
Speaker 2:Fourth, that was yeah, it was which street?
Speaker 1:is it so fourth? Fourth, that was yeah. Which street is it so fourth? Fifth, yeah, fourth. What was that? Bikini brews and there'd be women at bikinis serving coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was before I moved back up here, I believe. Yeah, huh, but Stu's Brew, yeah, he's doing it, you know, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have a coffee thing, we have a beer thing, we have a beer thing. Oh hey, favorite local beers? I haven't asked that one yet.
Speaker 2:Oh, six Rivers. Okay, yeah, pretty much anything they got up there, but I think a while I don't know if they still have it. It's been a minute Cutting back on my alcohol consumption a little bit.
Speaker 1:Oh, because you're on a program, I'm on a program You're dropping the LPS.
Speaker 2:I'm on the program, You're on the program, but they had like a jalapeno lager. I think that.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed. I think I remember something like that yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Question number 17. Burrito truck Speedy Taco. Where Speedy Taco? Oh, that's right, they're great.
Speaker 2:Like the original? Yeah, I just had this conversation, conversation. Where are they at? Um, this one is in the across from uh, eureka, natural foods in the old, uh, sporting or sporting cycle. Yeah, and there, and now it's going to be a dispensary, I guess. Um, another one. Yeah, how weird, I love those guys like they. Yeah, uh, the dispensaries or the talk. I'm talking about tacos, okay, you got me. So I'm talking about tacos. Okay, and you got me. I'm talking about tacos, so Speedy Taco was like the original taco truck.
Speaker 2:He's one of the original guys and at Eureka High at lunchtime and I'm not going to tell you when I was there, but it was a few years ago that was like you blitz out of Eureka High. That was the go-to and you're going to Speedy Taco.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:And at that time they were in the Broadway cinema. That's where I remember, yeah, and so you're blitzing there to try to beat the other 30 kids all trying to get their chicken soup burrito Down to Brock yeah. And so then that was the go-to. And then, 15 years later, I come back and I was pleased to find that it was the same burrito and darn near the same price.
Speaker 1:Wow. So back in the day you probably got a $4 burrito. That was just maybe $5.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, it's still incredibly reasonable, really as far as and they're fast, you know all of those, yeah.
Speaker 1:Might say they're speedy.
Speaker 2:He might say Speedy burrito tacos.
Speaker 1:No, I love there's so many trucks up here, so many bunches of good food. So what do you want to see happen in Humboldt? And then we'll part ways and say I want to ask you about your legacy, what do you want to be remembered by? But what do you? What's your future picture looking like for us?
Speaker 2:What would you like to see configure some of these challenges we talked about earlier? You know, and productive, good development that benefits our kids right, and whether that's offshore wind or you know any of these projects and you know if we can help facilitate housing. You know how can we make Humboldt a little bit easier to live. How can we make it a little bit better?
Speaker 1:A little bit.
Speaker 2:And, and it's those, I think, small steps. You know, um, you know, and, and not let's not overthink it I heard this and I'll I'm probably going to get it wrong, but I just heard it today. Um, but it was. It was how do you, how do you not over, how do you move forward when you're, when you're an overanalyzer? And the story was you know, there's a horse and a kid and they're in a forest, and the kid says I can't, I don't know where to go, I can't see through the forest. And the pony says can you see your next step? And the boy says yeah, we'll, we'll take that. Huh, and the voice says yeah, we'll take that. And so you know, I think it's a similar concept for us in Humboldt. Here is we got, let's just let's take those steps.
Speaker 1:Take some steps. Yeah, yeah, I like that Well cool. Hey, what are we going to say at your funeral? What do you want us to say? And what's your gravestone look?
Speaker 2:like.
Speaker 1:Oh man, what do you want to be remembered for Russ?
Speaker 2:I'm not the sentimental guy in that arena so frankly I'm not worried about it.
Speaker 1:Not going to worry about it.
Speaker 2:But I hope just you know, while I'm living, that people you know that we can, I can enjoy people, enjoy me. You know that we can. I can enjoy people, enjoy me. You know, if I'm the senile old guy that you know, even if I can't get a sentence, you know or whatever, but if you enjoy being around me, Nice, if I'm entertaining, it'll be great. Yeah, I could make you smile, you know, or help, you know.
Speaker 1:I don't have these grandiose remember me.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't, I don't have these grandiose remember me in the you know. Whatever, hopefully, hopefully, we had some good times.
Speaker 1:There you go and you know, Put my name on the park bench somewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and I like that. You know.
Speaker 1:Like I was saying earlier, I'm proud to continue our family legacy in our business and Do you see one of your sons maybe coming on board?
Speaker 2:someday.
Speaker 1:Kind of early.
Speaker 2:We'll see. Yeah, I think they're interested. You know they like the idea they want to come down to work and I'm like, well, dude, you're eight. Yeah. You know, Go pull some weeds, yeah, so yeah, I mean potentially if they're into it. But yeah, that would be a cool way if we could continue Quality Body Works thriving into the future. That for me might be a bigger legacy than anything that says on my tombstone or something like that.
Speaker 1:Providing jobs and providing for families. Yep, I like it. Hey, well, thanks for coming.
Speaker 2:Thank you this was amazing.
Speaker 1:I got to hang out with the president today. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I'll see you at a mixer at the. Oh, the mega mixer's coming up right, yeah, january.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't even touch on the bulk gala. Let's do it. We got time. Give the-. Yeah, chamber, so Chamber our gala. It's the January 26th or 27th one of those days Sounds right, but we are gearing up for the Humboldt Gala. That's going to be it's huge right.
Speaker 1:You're at Redwood Acres. Nancy says it's going to be our biggest and grandest yet.
Speaker 2:And, and a continuation, if you were there last year, we're looking to ramp it up even more than that. Yeah, that was great last year. Yeah, yeah, we went over using the two different venues there and, yeah, it was a lot of fun, so we're gearing up for that. So if you've got your invitations, chamber members, you would have already got emails, so be on the lookout for those and hope to see you all there.
Speaker 1:Is there a mixer?
Speaker 2:here, or do we already mix, typically December?
Speaker 1:First Thursday of December? Is that today? I guess it would be. It's tonight.
Speaker 2:What was the story? We had an issue with our location, I believe, but I'm Saving it for January?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to double down.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, that makes sense. Anyway, mcguire did a good job. He's entertaining guy, he's got some energy. Yeah, mr Energizer bunny, is somebody called him?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, this guy. And he loves coming up here and doing sticks like gigs was quite impressive and we had a great involvement great as far as the auction goes and he cares about Humboldt specifically it does. Yeah, I mean some of those guys down below there yeah, but he actually seems to invest, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's super cool. Well, ross, appreciate you, man. Thank you, thanks for having me, thank you so much. And hey, a quick reminder to you folks out there, thanks for listening and watching. And we're on YouTube. We're on Access Humboldt, so you'll be able to see you and me on Access TV. That'll be fun. And then all the podcast platforms, of which our producer, nick, here. We always give him lots of chops because he's done 8 million podcasts, actually, 200, 200, how many? 208. We're at 208. 208. That's a lot, nice, that's pretty cool, nice, and we just love you guys to share and subscribe and make comments. Oh, we forgot one key thing. Are you ready? I'm ready. Drum roll, all right. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, for our friend Ross Creech, a dark chocolate and brown butter northerner blend, all right?
Speaker 2:Nibs and sea salt, let's go.
Speaker 1:Dick Taylor chocolate man.
Speaker 2:Dude, these guys are the best.
Speaker 1:There goes all the training, all right.
Speaker 2:I'm on a program. Skip that beer Cardio right.
Speaker 1:I'm on a program, I'm on a chocolate program. Heck, yeah, all right. Hey, thanks for coming. Thank you All right.
