To All The Cars I’ve Loved Before | First Cars
Christian and Doug explore automotive nostalgia & personal car memories on our podcast— featuring true automotive stories and childhood car memories from everyday enthusiasts.
To All the Cars I’ve Loved Before shines a light on everyday enthusiasts, from father‑daughter/father-son duos and automotive brand launch managers to the restoration students and expert-level instructors at McPherson and Weber State Colleges. Real stories, real people, real passion—thats why our car podcast stands out from others.
Available on all of your favorite platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or https://linktr.ee/carsloved
To All The Cars I’ve Loved Before | First Cars
Tokyo Drift Lessons – Kelly’s Adventures in Japanese Car Culture and City Driving
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Kelly transports us to the bustling streets of Tokyo, sharing his firsthand experiences navigating one of the world’s most complex – and car-loving – cities. As an American and lifelong car enthusiast, Kelly had to relearn driving on Tokyo’s left-hand roads and quickly adapt to tiny kei cars and high-tech parking systems. He vividly recounts his first time behind the wheel in Japan, white-knuckled in a Kei-class Honda, and how he grew to love its efficiency in dense urban traffic (finding the best to get around Japan by car became his personal mission!
Kelly's favorite episode is "From Humvee to Home – Conrad’s Patriotic Car Journey and Family Driving Memories" https://pod.link/1733902541/episode/14e35670c2a8268fa17865087a9c69af
From late-night tours of Tokyo’s expressways (think Midnight Club vibes) to peaceful Sunday drives in the countryside, Kelly opens a window into Japanese automotive culture: the courteous manner of local drivers, the popularity of nostalgic ’90s sports cars like the Nissan Skyline GT-R, and the charm of roadside “driver’s cafes” catering to car clubs. He also shares tips on renting fun cars in Japan – including his spur-of-the-moment decision to rent a Mazda MX-5 Miata and join a local meetup of convertible owners by Mt. Fuji.
Kelly’s adventures are both informative and heartfelt, highlighting how cars can make even a foreign place feel like home. Whether you’re curious about practical travel insights or the legendary Japanese car scene, his journey offers a fascinating, emotionally rich ride through the Land of the Rising Sun.
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Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
listener land. You have found the podcast that's balanced and rotated, but never aligned. That's leaking a little from the oil pan, yet still overflowing. The podcast whose timing belt needs a few more notches, but the extended warranty will always get you to that next mile post where sheet metal gets metaphysical, where horsepower takes a backseat to horse play. Doug likes that one. That's his favorite one. It's very creative. It's thank you, it's all the marketing people. We've hired all the voices in my head. The podcast that sits at the corner of memory lane and nostalgia Avenue. You're about to take a permanent detour. We have no intention of fixing. You have found to all the cars I've loved before your podcast where every car tells a story, every machine has a soul and every car has its culture. All right, how's that for the opening? Was it's dude? It's growing on you right, it's growing, it's all the marketing.
Speaker 2:Every car has a culture, has a culture oh, every car has a culture okay is that what I said? We even wrote it out.
Speaker 1:Nope, oh my bad my bad well apparently you need to hire a new co-host along with some new marketing people. I'll get it right one day. But um, we are. I'm so happy for today's guest, close personal friend of mine, and let's see what before we get. Let's get a theme, but we gotta have today's theme and today's theme, okay, what movie gives you, or movies gives you, fava gnubin? Okay, when you see them. And by that, of course, what am I referring to? The old vw, and we're on a vw kick. I apologize in advance. This will make Guinevere happy. Yes, guinevere, this is partly for you, but it's just on our minds. It's on our minds.
Speaker 1:Recently, today's guest went with me to the rare air show with me and my kids. But okay, let's get back to today's theme VW's in the movies. Right, we're going to count it down. We're going to come up with some memories here in a moment. We'll revisit this theme here in listener land here in a moment. So buckle up. Get that thinking cap on. Doug, give me yes, I'm putting you on the spot. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Top three movies with VW's in them, can you?
Speaker 2:give me three Just real quick before we go. Any one is easy.
Speaker 1:Herbie the love bug so good, such a great film yep, because I'm gonna give you 10 in a couple of minutes and you're gonna flip that you forgot any movie about the 60s volkswagen bus oh, yes, cool. One more. Or, before we go any further, one more let's get one more.
Speaker 1:We need the Jeopardy music cued here so we can move on. We can move on, we do. Well, how about? You must have one. I got, I'll get to him in a minute, get to him in a minute, ok. So calls to action. You know, we got to do it. We got to feed the beast, we got to grow. If you like and listen, tell a friend and share we. Let's see, we just have stood up our youtube presence. Check it out to all the cars I've loved before. You'll find it. So so where we have, we have the tags and the the metadata and all that good stuff for you too, of course okay and we have uh
Speaker 2:guys on it. We have all our podcasts up there and we have our first video, which was a visit and interview to james mccray, um previous guest. Uh season one, season two, episode seven, I believe, uh his shop and if you like porsches, there's several in that shop. It's great. Can't beat McRae.
Speaker 1:Hey, so that's really neat, man. That means that we've not been at the podcasting thing for very long. But now we got video content up too. And you know, he and I were going through each other's phones and we found all kind of buried automobile content, so we'll kind of bring that to the fore. I found a bunch of videos of you know driving through Ireland that we're going to throw up there. Anyway, all right, well, thank you for that. The YouTube presence being set up, okay, and if you like it, tell a friend, follow, download. The big thing is to follow and have your friends follow too. As we mentioned last time, the link tree is up and running. Link L-I-N-K-t-r. Dot. E-e. Slash cars love will get you to really sort of a switchboard that'll get you to all of our online presences. But the big thing this week that we're really happy is registered another domain. I love when this happens to ching network solutions. Every car has a culturecom. I love it, I love it, I love it. And so what's the deal on that?
Speaker 2:That's up and running, ready to roll Of course it is ready, it's alive and online via GoDaddy, not Network Solutions, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:Dig it, Okay. So let's get back to where we were here, All right, Okay, so it calls to act. Very good. So yeah, as I was mentioning before time to introduce today's very special guest. Are we there yet? Let me a little bit more. Prologue a little bit more prologue before we pull Kelly in today. So just a few weeks ago, Kelly myself and my two younger sons went to the Rare Air Show in Pensacola. Oh, I have the domain, If we can stick that in the show notes. Here too, it's rareairvwcom.
Speaker 1:Slash show underscore information and maybe just rareair gets you there Rareairvwcom will get you there, yeah, get you there it will, and we had the best time and we had the best time. We had the best time. And known kelly for a few years now he's in my my closest sort of brotherhood of guys that we hang out with. Um, oh, slight detour here. We, we all went out for pizza last night. Uh, here in pensacola, tuscan oven, oven Great place. Give them a shout out, visit there if you can.
Speaker 1:Really yummy, but, and we were at dinner just a bunch of us guys, and with us I'm not going to mention the name was someone who'd been a guest on the show prior and he said that was really cathartic, doug, I don't think I've told you this because it's just it's not even 24 hours old. Cathartic, doug, I don't think I've told you this because it's just, it's not even 24 hours old, except last night. And he said it was really cathartic being on the show because, being interviewed, he kind of talked through a lot of things that had happened in his life and as we are very verbal, you know a lot of times you don't bring up the past in a setting you know outside of, say, a therapist's office. But we just kind of talking through some incidents in his early life and he just found it really cathartic being here. He really enjoyed it and he was telling Kelly that he would have a good time too. So that has brought Kelly to our doorstep. So, kelly, how you doing man, welcome to the show. How you doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well.
Speaker 1:Love it, love it. So, kelly, by way of introduction here, likes all kinds of machines, motorcycles, cars, trucks, boats, aircraft, carriers. We're going to get into into all of that, but before we do, I got you guys and I tease a little bit about the theme of of VWs and movies. So, kelly, can I get three from you?
Speaker 3:Probably not, I didn't look.
Speaker 1:You are the biggest. But Kelly put him on the spot because he's one of the biggest VW guys. I didn't know this until we went to the show and he's like, hey, come here, guys, he's yanking me. He's like, look at this engine, look at the stock, they changed this. Look at, they've updated this. And this is. You know, this is not original, this is look what they did, coming up all sides. I mean he was geeking out on. I didn't know that he was so into it. So, out there in listener land, before we interview Kelly about his cars, if you can go to Evans Volkswagen dot com, slash 10 dash moviesuring-vw-classics, he's got 10. I'm just going to count them down real quick. Herbie, we know, right, obviously. Yes, footloose, there's one in Footloose Bingo and that's my favorite right. Okay, what else do we?
Speaker 2:have.
Speaker 1:And the one I go to. I'm definitely going to have a Carmen guilla before I die. I need a bigger garage, but pretty in pink 1986, that's what molly ringwald is driving around a dented beat up old pink carmen guilla. Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, herbie, the love bug was 1968, by the way, I'm gonna sneak that here, but go to this site. There's all this good stuff happy gilmore, 51st Dates, little Miss Sunshine yeah, they had the 1971 VW T2 Microbus.
Speaker 2:Which I saw in the Peterson Museum no way the actual one.
Speaker 1:Oh, must go, must go. So Bumblebee in 2018, the Transformers movie was a yellow, obviously. 67 VW Beetle right Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Oh, carmen Gideon 64, baby Blue, I'm going to have to go watch that.
Speaker 3:How am I not seeing that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Brad Pitt really puts that thing through the paces. It's a good one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he ragged it out.
Speaker 2:Man, I've got to check that out.
Speaker 1:The Shining 1980. Okay, the paces, it's a good. Yeah, yeah, he ragged it out, man, I've got to check that out. The shiny 1980 okay, uh, another, what is it with the yellow beetle? 73 yellow beetle and lastly, doug. I can't believe you don't remember this. Back to the future, 1985, when the, the attackers, come to shoot right before he goes back in time it is a blue bus, the, the v-day I am ashamed, you are a miss, so now somebody comes back to the future.
Speaker 1:There are the cars in that movie. Now you know. All right, but I'm going to be quiet because doug's got the itchy trigger finger and he wants to learn all about the cars from kelly's early days I do, I do let's get into it, yeah, so so kelly um christian kind of teed off.
Speaker 2:We might be hearing about volkswagens, so uh tell us about your first mr vw.
Speaker 3:We call him mr vw, sorry, go ahead so I, I got pretty lucky, uh, when I turned 16, uh, we were living here in pensacola, um, and we, my parents, owned a house in virginia beach and they rented that house out to a friend of theirs and he had a 1972 volkswagen bug, so jealous orange, uh, and he had a jaguar. So, uh, and he was a single guy, he did not need two cars. So, um, I guess my parents cut him a deal on renting the house because he was like yeah, I got this car, you guys can have it, just come and get it I didn't know that part of the story, I didn't know all that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So my mom uh flew up to virginia beach um picked up the car and drove it back um down here to florida, which is I don't know. It took her two days to do it. Yeah, um, you know, no air conditioning, you know, yep of course uh, and no idea, you know how reliable the car is. You know driving it pretty far, so you know.
Speaker 3:Thank you, mom uh, for going and getting the car, um, and I was working, I was a lifeguard on the navy base, um, and I was, uh, on a break, so I wasn't in the stand, and I saw my car drive right up in the parking lot and I was like, oh hell, yes, a car is here. You know, I was pumped, we got to swap because I had her car, which was a buick, uh, and then, uh, so I like had to finish work and then then, end of the day, I go to drive home and start it, put it in gear, I back out and I go to drive off and the gas pedal just goes straight to the floor.
Speaker 1:First time.
Speaker 3:I tried to drive it, it broke.
Speaker 2:It made it all that way and the throttle cable broke.
Speaker 3:Yes, it did not break on my mother, which was very nice. Thank God yeah it broke on me, but you knew how to drive stick shift already. I did. My dad had a 85 Fiero. He had a Fiero. I didn't know that either.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to have your dad on the show to hear about this.
Speaker 3:His dad is a trip, you're not going to believe this guy. Yeah, I mean he grew up in LA, so he's got some real good stories from the 50s and 60s in LA.
Speaker 1:Now what's the green car that he just sold?
Speaker 3:That was the car he bought in high school. Was it the MG or something? 47 MGTC?
Speaker 2:Oh man MGTC, oh man MGTC, Nice car. He's got pictures too.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I'll be quiet. Yeah, I'm trying to get both of his parents to be on the show. His dad we were at a tailgate, I think it was last weekend hanging out and his dad was getting all excited. I was like, man, we're going to do it, all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you got to kind of drag stuff out of them. But he's full of stories, like I mean, he's seen so many things. Like just, you're like, oh, I know this guy. Oh, yeah, I ran into him once. I'm like, yeah, I hope you're writing this down, because it's crazy, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But yeah. So the Volkswagen had crapped out the first time I drove it and it turned out that the accelerator thing was a thing. We got it towed to a mechanic. We're like, oh, we don't know what it is, but I ended up having this car for well. I mean, in total, we had this car for over 20 years, oh wow. But it turned out that the gas pedal thing was a thing. With that car. Volkswagen's had a cable is hooked to the gas pedal and the other end of the cable is hooked to the carburetor. Like it's a straight shot. There's nothing fancy about it, but on my bug, the gas pedal had wore away in such a way that it would crimp the wire every time you hit the gas pedal. So eventually it would just snap.
Speaker 2:Yep. And then it was on borrowed time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know, you learn how to drive with a pair of vice grips clamped onto the end. That's sticking out, which is tough. Have you ever tried to drive with your right foot next to your right, uh, or your next, your right hand, next to your right foot?
Speaker 2:it's not easy, but you can get around you're the second person I've heard of doing that, so yeah, it's impressive.
Speaker 3:It's a definitely a thing. Yeah, um, but I mean, uh, owning owning a Volkswagen is kind of a. It's a constant battle. It's like home ownership, like there's always something wrong.
Speaker 3:You know, there's always a thing that's on the list that you have to take care of Um like uh, so I had a bug, and my buddy Charlie, uh, he also had a bug, his was a 70 I think, and it was green um. And then in high school I gave him a ride to school, like our whole senior year, because his generator had quit, so if he wanted to drive he had to put his car on a trickle charger all night and then he could, like, drive to school yeah, he could drive home, and that was about it, because the battery wasn't very new either.
Speaker 3:But so I gave him a ride and then he went off to the army and joined the reserves and then I went off to Florida State. He came to Florida State he just like literally knocked on my door in my apartment and he's like, hey, man, how you doing. I was like, well, hello, how you doing. So we actually like became better friends after high school but like the two of us we'd have our cars like just parked next to each other like every weekend, you know, just trying to keep one or the other of them on the road, I mean. But like we carry enough stuff. Like I had a toolbox, I had a Jack, I had Jack stands.
Speaker 2:Smart man.
Speaker 3:I mean literally had enough stuff to pull the engine, uh, and do repairs. And I know that because we did it in our front yard. Uh, we pulled his engine out, um, and later we did mine in the parking lot, um. But yeah, you can't carry enough stuff in a bug to keep a bug on the road heard that, so what?
Speaker 1:what ended up happening to that car?
Speaker 3:so, uh, I caught the vw. You know disease I see uh from having that car I am aware you know, uh, so I had to get the coolest uh to me, uh, volkswagen, and that was, uh, the westfalia bus. Absolutely. So, you know, back then there was no internet. You know there's no bring a trailer, so you're just, you're just perusing the classifieds every day to see if something cool shows up, and I lucked out a 1966 Volkswagen bus, westphalia, in really pretty nice condition just showed up for 2500 bucks um so on the other side of town, like on the west side of town.
Speaker 3:So I, uh my dad, went with me and we went and checked it out and he had that bus and he had a 21 window deluxe, which is now you know, oh, the Holy Grail. Yeah, those are major and desirable now, yeah, but that one in whenever. This was 1991, it was already in pretty bad shape, so I imagine it's pretty much returned to the earth by now. It was missing some of the windows. There was rust everywhere. It was not in pretty shape.
Speaker 2:The wheel wells have been cut, which you know horrendous, yep it happens, but uh, so so the um, what happened to the bug? How long did you have the bug before you moved on to the bus? And then what happened? What ultimately happened to the bug? Uh, if it stayed in the family or not.
Speaker 3:I really only drove it for a year and then, when I bought the bus, my dad was like, well, I can use a car. So it became his car and he drove it Um a lot for a while, um, and then, uh, I ended up swapping back um, because I went to Tallahassee, went to Florida state, uh, had a lot of fun. Uh, did not learn much um, university, university had enough of me, uh, so they kicked me out, Um, but I stayed in Tallahassee for about four years total. But I, I worked, I was a delivery driver for a while and the bus was not great for that. So, uh, I ended up selling it and then my dad gave me the bug back, which was very nice of him um, so it became mine again.
Speaker 3:But before I sold the bus, when I bought the bus, it had this hot, hot motor in it. It had a glass pack, exhaust, weber, two-barrel progressive carb, this fat cam. So at idle it was just like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Like the whole bus shook at idle and I was was like I'm not letting that motor go. So before I sold the bus, I swapped the engines so I put that bus motor into the bug and put the bug motor in the bus and then sold the bus, nice, and kept the motor smart uh it, you'd think it was cool for about a year. And then, uh, I was in tallahassee, I was a delivery driver, um, for costa's subs and salads, which unfortunately just closed like two, three years ago yeah, and costa died back in 2017, but he was the best boss I ever had, great dude.
Speaker 3:But I was driving I think I was on Gaines Street in Tallahassee and the engine just quit and I took it to the mechanic Mechanic, took the engine apart I had asked him just to tell me what was wrong. He completely disassembled the engine, charged me for it, gave me back my engine in a box and it turned out that, so like the stock cam is a single piece like molded and then machined and then aftermarket cams. There's the cam and then there's the gear and the gear is bolted on with three bolts. And then there's the gear and the gear is bolted on with three bolts. Um, and one of those bolts backed out and caught and exploded and there's just metal pieces everywhere and the cam, you know, was shot. So the whole engine was pretty much garbage at that point, um, so, uh, I was out of work because I was a delivery driver.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 3:That was a big problem. So one of my roommates, Jason, was out of town and he'd left his car. So I borrowed his car for about two weeks and then kept working. And then I found the VW shop on the south side of Tallahassee and it was this old hippie who was now old and bitter. He was having an affair with a woman who owned a campground on the north side of town. To my knowledge, his wife was not aware of it oh dear.
Speaker 3:But then there was two dudes, two younger guys, who worked there and they were both cool. They're like look, you can come in, you can work here, you can do break jobs, you can do oil changes, we'll pay you. And while you're doing that stuff, you can go through some of the parts we have here. You can find stuff and you can build your own motor. I'm like I don't know how to build a motor, like don't worry about it, we'll just we'll tell you how to do it. So I, so I went through I don't know like three or four short blocks trying to find one that was relatively straight. So we take them all apart, put them back together, see if all the pieces fit together the way they should. Eventually we found one. We sent it off to the machinist, had them, you know, clean everything up, order new bearings and put a whole new motor back together. And I did it and they just told me what to do. And that's the only time I've ever done that, but it's pretty cool to have done it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, just to have the, the help and experience. It reminds me of that movie, christine, where the guy got to work in the. He got to work.
Speaker 1:It's nothing like the movie Christine, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:I don't think there are any he wouldn't be sitting in the chair, he would be, he would be good anyway. Yeah, yeah'd be a victim in an 80s horror film is exactly what he would be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was very gratifying to have done that. I remember starting the engine for the first time. We started it without the exhaust all attached. That was extremely loud, but it ran First time. It was extremely loud, but it ran first time. It was pretty cool Good job man, yeah, but then yeah. So I had a working car again. That was good. I went back to being a delivery driver and then I came back to Pensacola to visit my parents and I was driving around on Scenic Highway down by where Calvert's is like right there on the corner and there was a 1984 Toyota 4Runner for sale.
Speaker 3:It was $5,000. And I saw it and I was like I got to have that you remember the price for everything you pay too.
Speaker 1:I don't think I can remember the prices for things Not every day.
Speaker 3:A few things. So I ended up with that Toyota 4Runner and it was tan at the white top that came off um straight front axle desirable aren't you? Yeah, it was, uh, but like the funny thing is is that, um, so it was an suv, it only had two doors, but but my particular one only had two seats. So, like there was, there was a spot where the seats could go, but they had put in a metal panel, so it was just a truck bed in the back.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:And there's just a a short wall, like a six inch wall, right behind where the seats were. They didn't know what an SUV was like, they didn't know what people were going to buy back then. So you could buy a two seat forerunner.
Speaker 2:That I didn't, that I didn't know it was a 85. The first year must've been close.
Speaker 3:I think 84 was the first year. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know those speaking of retro coming forward. And then I have a question about that what's old is new? I don't know if you saw, for I think for 2024, Toyota started offering a 80s graphics package on the new. Have you seen it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I like it. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It's total retro, just exactly what you'd expect on your 4Runner. And speaking of which, since Volkswagen family, obviously they've had a reboot of the Volkswagen Bug that's now passed us, but there is a Volkswagen bus coming out that's going to be electric. Yeah, the ID Buzz. Have you looked at it?
Speaker 3:I've seen the pictures. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Could you see yourself driving around in one of those again?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, I could uh yeah I don't think I'm gonna have the uh money it takes to do that for that one, but uh, yeah, I still think they're cool yeah, there's some.
Speaker 2:There's some good uh video reviews on youtube on it. So yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty neat. I can't wait to see if it catches on as the next generation of minivan. I do want to break in we have for this podcast.
Speaker 1:We just hired dozens and dozens of automotive historical research analysts and I was just handed a note that said, uh, first generation, 1983. So there you go. Good looking even from the day also called wait a minute, wait, wait for this, because there's a segue here. Kelly, the toyota hylux surf in japan and the toyota hylux forerner. So, kelly, I have endless questions about what it's like driving in Japan. And Kelly and I were at a party. It might have been a New Year's Eve party.
Speaker 1:There was a ton of crap going on, but I just peppered him with questions for like an hour on what it was like to drive in Japan. But Doug let me toss it back to you. I'm sure you have a….
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, um, yeah, I think. So this volkswagen bug was in the family for 20 years. Did you say yeah?
Speaker 3:it. Uh, my dad kept it um. After I got the 4runner, he held on to it um and I think in uh, when was it? Maybe 2012, 2013, maybe somewhere in there? Um, it caught fire.
Speaker 3:He was driving it, uh, and somebody was like hey, car's on fire. Bud, obviously the engines in the and that's where the fire was. But it turned out some of the rubber hose that the fuel ran through rotted and the gas just came out and leaked all over the hot engine and caught on fire. And I don't know if that was the end of the bug, but it was the end of the bug for us. It wasn't damage beyond repair. Probably somebody has it and is driving it, but yeah, my dad was done with it.
Speaker 2:As, as Frescia Brothers says, everybody has a Volkswagen story, and I think we heard at least two, if not three or four.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what? So, before we Doug, can we ask him about Japan, or did you? Did you have a further line of questions?
Speaker 2:for the witness, god, we're, we're. I think we're going to have to have a whole season dedicated to Volkswagen, with all the Volkswagen people that we've been finding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we definitely struck a vein here, for sure.
Speaker 2:But you know every, every car has a culture right here for sure. But, uh, you know every, every car has a culture right and every volkswagen has a culture. I think, yeah, you got it. Everybody has a culture with volkswagen.
Speaker 1:We'll figure it out so, kelly, I promise not to repeat the new year's eve party faux pas of a year or two ago, but can you just talk about a minute or two of what was it like driving in japan?
Speaker 3:absolutely.
Speaker 3:It's uh a very different experience um from the very beginning, like when you show up, you have to take a class about driving like you know. You show up knowing how to drive, you have a driver's license, but you have to get another driver's license there and the biggest thing that they tell you is, like in japan, driving is a privilege, you're supposed to drive like you are a professional driver, and it's a privilege that they'll be quite happy to take away, and so that's the biggest difference Everybody's supposed to drive like they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Because it truly is life and death, right?
Speaker 3:Well, there's so many people. We were in the Tokyo area and there's so many people, there's so many cars in the tokyo area. Um, and there's so many people, there's so many cars, and there's nowhere near as many roads or, as you know, as easy roads to drive on as there is here. Like every road, like the only flat land in japan is man-made it was a volcanic island. So, like all the roads are up and down, left and right, they're skinny, they get skinny, they get get big. The main road from Yokosuka up to Tokyo goes to two lanes for a third of the way, and that was one of the biggest roads and you're just expected to deal with it. But they put their money into, you know, trains and they, yeah, yeah, cars were secondary.
Speaker 2:Did you um? Did you see a lot of K cars, k E I cars there?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah. And that's like when, uh, when we had to buy a car, like I was like well, you got to pick something on the smaller side, because the bigger it is, just the harder it is to park it right and harder. It is as well right that was the k car.
Speaker 1:That was a big thing of the k car.
Speaker 3:Yeah, efficiency standards one of the biggest things is that the k car you can only have a whatever 660 cc engine. You're correct, yeah because they want, uh, efficiency like the size and the efficiency both for the k cars.
Speaker 3:But they make sense there, like here it's you know weird novelty, but over there it totally makes sense very interesting yeah, we had, um, like there's a used car lot on the base so you just show up and whatever is there, you pick something. So we got a honda stream. Uh, it was a 2000 honda stream and that's a honda civic, but it's like a tall wagon civic so it had three rows of seats oh well the ceiling is a little bit higher. It was, it was a perfect car, it was a great car to have there and then when you were done with it.
Speaker 3:You just brought it to that lot, right well, we actually just gave it to a friend. Okay, we're done.
Speaker 1:We're done with it and you want it yep, can't take it with us, can't take it with us, yeah, and then I uh got a wild hair hair and went out and bought a motorcycle.
Speaker 3:So that's by far the easiest way to get around. Like the side of the lane belongs to two wheelers by law, like you have to give room and that's really meant for bikes and scooters, but if you're on a motorcycle you can use that space and you're allowed to. You filter and lane split. So at every red light you just roll to the front. So like, even if there's traffic, like you're not sitting in traffic, you just roll to the front of every stoplight. And so like, if you drove we lived in yokohama for a while, so if you drove, um, in the afternoon, like in the morning, it was 35 minutes, like at six in the morning it was a 35 minute drive, uh, at five o'clock it was 90 minutes, damn, but on the motorcycle it was only 50, so it's a huge difference yeah, lights on that yeah, uh, it was a a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:I toured around some um and I had a small bike. It was a perfect bike. It was a suzuki, uh, dr 250 xc, gibel, and that's d j e b? E? L, which is, I, I think, mountain.
Speaker 2:Cabela Okay.
Speaker 3:Moroccan, but it was a dual sport on off-road bike. It had a top case on the back, so I always kept my helmet in there.
Speaker 1:Now, how long did you live there for?
Speaker 3:Three and a half years.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's it.
Speaker 3:Although that was the second time. So, when I was nine and ten years old, we lived there for a year and a half and then, uh, 30 years later, um, I went back and, in fact, like my daughter, so I moved there, um, like on christmas break of grade, and my daughter moved there on Christmas break of third grade.
Speaker 2:Third grade Wow.
Speaker 1:Some symmetry to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so family of veterans right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, my dad was a Navy officer. My mom was a Navy officer. Wow, in fact, both of my in-laws were in the Navy also. Okay, so yeah, as far as like my kids go like, all four of their grandparents were in the Navy.
Speaker 1:Now.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you knew this, Kelly, but that's beautiful and thank you and thank your parents.
Speaker 1:I'll thank them Next time I see them. I love hanging out with your parents, but you know, one thing you can do in the Navy that you typically can't do anywhere else is to drive an aircraft carrier, to actually be at the bridge or helm of an aircraft carrier. Do you have any such knowledge of this experience? I do.
Speaker 3:In fact, I was not a surface warfare officer. I was a naval flight officer in the P-3 Orion aircraft, which was a land-based four-engine anti-submarine warfare plane. So I wasn't the pilot, I was the guy in the back who was supposed to be running the mission, like tracking a sub or doing whatever we're supposed to do right um, so that was my official job.
Speaker 3:However, uh, when you're a p3 guy or nowadays a p8 uh person, um, you're supposed to do um what they call a disassociated c tour. So you do a c tour has nothing to do with whatever platform you came from. We call it our squadron appreciation tour. So you go to sea on a ship that makes you see how good you had it when you were in the squadron, but I actually really enjoyed my time on the ship. So, um, we were in Japan, uh, because I was stationed on the USS George Washington um, which is a nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Wow, um, it is 1,092 feet long. Uh, a hundred thousand tons uh draws about 40 feet of water. Um, they're um amazing uh pieces of engineering For sure. Two nuclear reactors, four screws, two rudders. They are the ultimate expression of the American hot rod.
Speaker 3:Like it's all engine, it's all in a straight line, like the amount of power at your disposal is mind-blowing yeah, for sure um and when they say you can do greater than 30 knots, that's, that's uh legit and that's pretty darn fast for for a vessel.
Speaker 1:So what was it like? What was it likes? I just can't imagine being that high up. I've actually been on an aircraft carrier and you kind of, kind of to, you know, leave the tour and you tiptoe over to the side and you look down and you're like, wow, I mean there, we are high up. And then, up on the bridge, you're even, you're even higher. What was it like being up there? What was it like, um, being in command of that? Maybe you just uh, you just kind of framed it, but no, it's uh, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Um, and the the funniest part is that there's no formal training. Like when I showed up on the ship. They're like do you want to be the tactical action officer or do you want to be the officer of the deck? And I was like I think I'll be the officer of the deck. They have windows. You want to be the officer of the deck? And I was like I think I'll be the officer of the deck. They have windows you get to see outside. You can go for weeks on an aircraft carrier and not see the daylight. It's not hard to do. But the guy's like yeah, I'll be the OOD. So they're like okay, talk to the ANAV.
Speaker 3:So the assistant navigator he's one of the guys in charge of putting the watch teams together. He's like yeah, I'll be on watch at this time. We'll meet you here, so just come up. So you come up. I'm like this is cool, you know. He's like OK, well, you need to be the conning officer. I'm like I don't want to be the conning officer, I just got here. He's like no, you can be the conning officer, we'll tell you what to do. I'm like okay. So literally the first time that you set foot on the bridge to be on the watch team. They just put you in, they just kick you right in there and that's it. You have on-the-job training. There's nothing formal about it, you just learn as you go. There's, uh, three officers on the watch team, so you get to be the junior guy.
Speaker 3:Once you're qualified in that, you move up and then, uh, so you start as junior officer of the watch, you become junior officer of the deck and then you become officer of the deck so the deck is a guy like in charge of making sure that ship is where it's supposed to be, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, that everything is safe, like you're the guy like actually operating the ship on a minute to minute basis. Yeah, that is really neat. It's not your ship, it's the captain's ship, but you know his seat. He sits to your left, you have a desk and then the guy to your right is the conning officer. So whoever's actually um giving the commands to the helm and lee helm? Um is the conning officer. He'd be standing right in front of their station. So the helmsman has the wheel, the lee hem has the throttles, so there's's two guys who are actually there physically driving the ship. The conning officer is giving the commands. The officer of the deck is making sure that everything is happening the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 1:Because it's not like driving. It takes a team because the captain can't be there 24 hours a day. So it's really by committee and obviously a rotation for fresh eyes, fresh minds, that sort of thing, to give them a break.
Speaker 3:We did a four hour watches usually, which takes about you know five or six hours to do, because you don't just show up Like we would meet in the wardroom downstairs. We'd go down, we'd talk to the engineering office with watch. We talked to, you know, the weather guys. We talked to, uh, air ops, we talked to all kinds of people sort of work our way up to the bridge. So you get, you build a picture of what's going on, yeah, and then you show up on the bridge, he gives you a brief and then you turn over the watch.
Speaker 1:So well, I take an hour. Oh man, I'm sure that your checklists had checklists. Well that's so neat. Thank you for sharing that. And when we have guests on the show, we very often ask if they have causes or things that they would like to promote, things on their mind, raise awareness of and, for Kelly, perfect segue into veterans, veterans issues or veterans, veterans causes. So can you talk about that for a moment? Veterans, veterans causes so can you talk about that for a moment?
Speaker 3:I don't have a specific cause that you know that I support being a veteran. You know it's important to me that we keep looking out for veterans. I do that at my job. I've hired a bunch of them. Some of them have been good and some of them. Some have been good and some are not good. Uh, you know, the military community is really just a microcosm of america.
Speaker 2:Um so, you know, some people are duds.
Speaker 3:But uh, you know it's good to uh at least give them the opportunity. Um, it's a big uh, it's a huge change in your life, especially if you've been in for, you know, six years or 10 years or 20 years, whatever. The longer uh you've been around, you sort of get used to that. It is a a little bit weird, you know, to be back out on the outside, sure, um so, uh, yeah, this is veterans in general. Um, that's, I like that that's yeah, and you're.
Speaker 1:We, kelly and I, spend a ton of time together, and so we're always he's so open and honest about his experience, one of the things I really treasure about him. So you mentioned your hiring for your company, and you're actually a small business person too. Would you like to talk about that for a moment before we conclude here today?
Speaker 3:Sure, Like I just said, would you like to talk about that for a moment before we conclude here today? Sure, like I just said, you know it's a big transition. Coming back to the outside, I spent I don't know four months yeah, four months, you know every day putting in job applications. Uh, not getting a whole lot back. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, uh, that got kind of old. Um, but uh, while I was in I had gotten a master's in business administration so that had given me the idea at least of maybe having my own business. So, as the job search sort of got stale, I started looking for business opportunities and I sort of leaned towards franchises, just because I was like I haven't done anything outside of the military in a long time.
Speaker 3:So I'll do a franchise and they're going to have some sort of program that's going to help get me up to speed. And that's exactly what happened. So I picked a screen mobile and they're a company that does, you know, home improvement stuff window screens, screen doors, patio enclosures, motorized roll downs, anything screen related on your home. The only thing we don't do is build pool enclosures. Um, although I got the license for it, uh, we just haven't taken that swing yet gotcha and that's uh yeah, screenmobilecom and I.
Speaker 1:I can read doug's mind. He wants to hear about the fleet of machines. You just can't. You can't stay away from owning multiple trucks, cars, etc. So a word about the fleet. What do you got? How's it running? Would?
Speaker 3:you make the same choice again yeah, uh, well, we were smart, uh, in the beginning. My dad has a friend who's a car dealer was uh in in the area and he's like, look, I can get you a Toyota Tundra, for you know it was a really good deal it was.
Speaker 1:I don't know $30,400.
Speaker 3:And like you could look online and you would not find that price anywhere, so it was a good deal. So he got us that Tundra and that was our first service vehicle. It's got 170 something thousand miles on it. I was playing 20 25 000 miles a year on it for a while. Um, but I've had, uh, the only problems I've had with that truck were caused by the dealer, so there was nothing wrong with the manufacturing of that vehicle.
Speaker 2:The only problems I've had were caused by the dealer.
Speaker 3:So there was nothing wrong with the manufacturing of that vehicle. The only problems I've had were caused by the dealer, um, and they had to fix it, fortunately so yeah, that's been a great truck yeah, and I know you you drive a lot for work.
Speaker 1:I mean your shop is the trucks right, and so yeah we have two trailers, yeah yeah, and I know you have a great uh, you have a great time of year now down here in florida to be outside, because the weather's kind of turned for you so it's going to be going to be lovely to be to be, outside here, yeah, we spend a lot of time outside.
Speaker 3:It's a great uh now with a high of 78.
Speaker 2:It's a lot better than a high of 96.
Speaker 3:And 100% humidity Indeed, yeah. But yeah, we got two other trucks too an E150, an old Ford van and a really old 2002 Dodge van. It was $4,500, so that's still the best deal. Dang on a dollar per mile basis, um, because that's uh, we've put a hundred thousand miles on it, golly. And a new transmission and whole new front end, new brakes uh, you know, chasing electrical gremlin, but it does pull the trailer um and I put new uh, I put rims and tires on it, so it actually looks cool too I'm sure that is important.
Speaker 2:You want to attract these, uh, attract the young talent, right? Yeah, like you're getting the oldest vehicle with the coolest wheels.
Speaker 3:There you go. It does have a leaky head gasket, though it's fine. Its days might be numbered.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of days being numbered, pal, it was great having you on the show. We're trying to make it work with Kelly for a while, one of my closest friends, just a prince of a guy, a blast to always hang out with. So thank you for making the time bud being here, as always. Veteran small business person mechanic, this guy does it all. Maybe the most interesting man in the world, at least Florida. What do you think, doug?
Speaker 2:I think he's right up there with the last most interesting guy in the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the guy from the beer commerce Kind of looks like him a little bit too.
Speaker 3:Anyway, he had the beard yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, pal, it was great having you on the show. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Great meeting you. Thank you for your time.
Speaker 3:Yep, thank you for having me on. It's been a good time.
Speaker 1:Thank you, pal. Well, you have just heard. The high revving, low mileage, late model goes to 11 car podcast, greatest park car podcast in the world, for you to share your story. So remember, thank you for listening, keep the rubber side down. We will see you next week on on.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, sorry so uh, carslovecom to all the cars I've loved before Christian at carslovecom, doug at carslovecom New let's see our new. Every Car has a Culture. Hit that. Check us out on YouTube. We are unstoppable. We are, you know. We're hiring hundreds of people. If you're looking for a job, go to carslovecom. Always hiring mechanics and everything else Not really, but all right, check us out. And if you want to be on the show, it's real easy, ask us. See you soon. Have a great week.
