Shantell Williams - “Shut Up and Ride.”

She learned to ride a Harley in her 40s. Eight months later, she rode it solo across all 48 contiguous states, something no one had ever done alone.

On this episode of “Is That How It Happened?”, I sit down with Shantell Williams. Mother of ten. Restaurant owner. Singer. And, by her own description, a badass biker chick who set a world record to honor a woman most of America had never heard of: Bessie Stringfield, the first African American woman to ride across the country, back in the 1930s.

Shantell’s ride became more than a tribute. It became a mission to change how people see each other, one state line at a time. That journey turned into “Shut Up and Ride,” the story of a woman who decided that showing up, mile after mile, was its own kind of statement.

We talk about fear, reinvention, what it means to build something from nothing at forty, and why sometimes the best advice you can give yourself is exactly what the title says.

This is Shantell Williams. This is “Shut Up and Ride.” This is “Is That How It Happened?”

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shutupandrideshow/

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Is that how it happens? Every week I bring you conversation. Real steps and come out from the other side of the stuff. No script, no politics, just real stories. Real comments. Let's get into it. Well, folks, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. You know, I I can't tell you how many times I've told you that, you know, there were such great guests. I continue to find the most amazing people on the planet to be on the show. And listen, today I do not disappoint. Okay. The young lady that I have today, her name is Chantel Williams, and she's been in Netflix. She's ridden across the country. And you're just not going to believe this woman's tenacity and what she has done moving forward. And I'm not going to be a spoiler here. I want you to hear it direct from her. But sit back, grab yourself a cup of coffee or an adult beverage, and and spend some time with us so you can get to know Miss Chantel Williams. Chantel? Hey, hey, how are you? I'm doing great. It's so nice to have you on the show. Man, it's so beautiful to be here right here at this moment. Yeah. I hear you. So so listen, for folks who don't know you, okay, I want you to take me back to that. Who was Chantel Williams and what was your life like before all of that?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Wow. I was very green. I was in a my first husband. I had nine children with.

SPEAKER_03 2:02

Did you guys hear that one more time? Nine. That's nine, not one. Nine. Okay, go ahead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

And uh I was a mom, a wife, and uh a Muslim with hijab and everything covering living in New York City, Hudson Valley. And uh yeah, I left uh Florida when I was 16 and went up to New York on a dare and uh met my husband on Friday, married him on Sunday. It lasted 20 years.

SPEAKER_03 2:35

Wow, no kidding. 72 hours and 20 years later. Wow, that's that's that's incredible. That's pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Wow, it really kept me youthful because after we divorced, I was 16 again.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Uh I was gonna say, after nine kids, you're either swinging off the side of the building or you're looking to jump off the side of the building. One or two. Lord.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

I think I did both. I lived, you know. But it was after those 20 years, man, I be, it was, yeah, I didn't miss what I didn't know. So I was that girl whom my husband said it was raining outside, although I seen no rain. I was like, okay, it's raining. Okay, I see it now.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

Wow.

unknown 3:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

But I didn't necessarily trust my thoughts and it in my religion or my lifestyle. If I just obeyed what my husband said, I was guaranteed heaven, you know, and that's what I believed in. So it was easy.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Wow, that is so and I hate I understand you, and I have friends who are exactly in that mindset. But I mean, now looking back on that, do you look over your shoulder and go, man, was that was crazy. Do you do that?

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. But I I I think it was, as I look at my life, I think it was a layer that was necessary in order to become who I am today.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I think everybody's an onion. They don't know it. You know, I think I think when we're 16, 17 years old, no question about it, we are invincible. Nothing's gonna get us, we're smarter than anyone. And and then when you then when you do 50, 55, 60, you're looking over your shoulder, going, man, I have no idea what the hell I was doing. Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

I wonder I didn't kill myself.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

So, okay, so right, exactly. What was actually happening in your life when you were in your 40s that made you just out of nowhere go, I'm gonna learn to ride a Harley. What made you do that?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

I was saving up to purchase, it took me four years to save $13,000. I was a single mom at this moment, yeah. Sometimes $5. And then, of course, something would happen, and then all of it would be gone. And then I start over. But it took me four years to save $13,000. And then one month the restaurant hood went out, and the landlord was supposed to fix it. But the landlord didn't want me to be in his building, so he wasn't gonna fix it.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Oh, good lord.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yeah, he was like, if you want it, then you gotta do it. And I was like, I was so angry, but it cost nine thousand ninety five hundred dollars. And wow, yeah, so $9,500 I spent out of that $13,000, and I was so mad, and I said, Well, man, I got this $3,500 left. I I had no matter of fact, I went shopping at Walmart to buy groceries and stuff from my kids in the house, and I had $3,500 left. And I said, Man, I'm gonna buy a boat or a bike. I don't know how to do neither one, just whichever one comes up.

unknown 6:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

Literally, and on my way home from Walmart, I seen a bike. I thought it was a Harley, it was a Suzuki.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

And that's how little I knew about motorcycles. Sure. And the lady told me it said 3,500. I told her, well, that's all I got. Can we make it 32? And she goes, Do you know how to ride a bike? And I and I lied and said, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just bring it to the restaurant. Ah, fake it till you make it. Right. Man, listen, I thought negotiating with her that moment. I was just like, okay, 35. I gave her a thousand dollars cash and 2,500 check when she brought it. And the bike sat in the restaurant for two days. I didn't even know somebody that knew how to ride.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Wow. But it was one of those things that I didn't want to. What I was saving the money for was a Buick Enclave because I wanted to look sporty and not look like a mom of 10 children having a minivan. I wanted a Buick Enclave that you could have eight kids in and me driving it, and you couldn't tell.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

And you're still smooth. I'm with you.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

You can't see me coming. Right. They ain't gonna know who's coming now.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

That that was my whole concept. And and when I had to spin it on this hood, I was so mad. I was so and in my rebellion, I was like, well, I'm gonna buy something. And had a boat happened, trust me, it would have been a boat.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

But that bike happened, and it took two days. I came back into the restaurant, and uh the whole restaurant smelt like gas, and I go, okay, how did I get it out of here? My home was four miles away. I remember ride, I knew, I said to myself, I convinced myself, I said, okay, you know how to ride a bike, and you know how to ride a stick shift, and you rode a four-wheeler before. So how bad can it be? Right, right. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

It was bad. It was bad.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Four miles I ran almost into everything in those four miles. I was but I made it home in second gear, and I I was able to stop and start again, and I took the motorcycle class two days later, and uh I showed up at Daytona Bike Week in 2014, March 14th, and it was I I had a steel metal jacket, I had a bubble coat, I had shoulder, shoulder pads, elbow pads, knee pads. I said, if I if I fall, I'm gonna bounce back. Yeah. Unless you fall doing 50, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna do it 50. At least listen, that doctor told me, he goes, Chantel, one thing about this bike, if you look somewhere, you're gonna go. So I remember people saying hi to me on the side, and I just look forward and go, hey. I was like, I was crazy. I I thought it was a wonder that I didn't die. I almost got like four crashes, but I made it, and it was it was the most challenging adrenaline rush thing I could have done. I I would have, I was so scared that it made me, it, it, it's it, yeah, and one day my my confidence in one day, that one ride, it just washed off years of self-doubt. I bet it did.

SPEAKER_03 10:03

No, I I I absolutely bet it did. You know, I here's the part that, you know, as I was putting my notes together to talk to you, here's the part that kind of blows me away. You know, eight months from getting your very first bike that you'd ever put your butt on, okay, ever. Eight months. Now you're going across 48 states in the United States. What's wrong with you, Chantel? Talk, talk to me about that. What is this? Yeah, walk me, walk me through that learning curve here.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Well, that that's an absolute fact there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

I well, people for years been telling me I'm crazy. So when they said I was crazy to even think of that, that was normal for me to hear. Sure. Yeah, yeah. So, and I thought, okay, well, I think I'm, you know, smart. You know, I ask questions and yeah, I didn't think I was totally dumb. So when they tell me I'm crazy, I was just like, oh, okay, okay, well, people got me. Okay, all right, so I can do this. Now, I was under the concept that Betsy and that thousands of people had done it. I I that's what I thought. Did I ask anybody? No. But one day I woke up and and let me tell you, this six months, it was this six months. It was I rode a motorcycle for six months, I got in a wreck, broke my wrist, elbow, and shoulder. So I couldn't ride anything for six months. Then I got the cat, then I got the cast off. And two months later, that's when I did 48 St. So it was a total of riding eight months. But uh for those six months that I couldn't ride, I learned about this lady named Bessie Stringfield. And you gotta understand, I didn't know this until this story came. In fact, my boyfriend at that time, he's my husband now, he showed me a picture of this lady laying across a motorcycle.

SPEAKER_03 12:13

I saw that today. Yeah, I looked at that today. Yeah, beautiful lady. Oh my Lord of mercy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

1936, and he shows me her, and I go, Hey, who's that lady who look like me? And and he goes, He gets all bad. He goes, No, you look like her. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, whatever. Who is she? He goes, Well, this picture is Bessie Stringfield, you gotta look her up. And this is 2016 when I can't ride. He's showing me this picture, and I look her up, and I see limited information, but I'm getting information. So we drive down to Miami, him and I, and I said, Hey, they said it's some information here. She's known as the Queen of Miami. Let me see if people know. And very few people knew about her, just me asking, you know, at the gas station. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I met this guy named James, who his mother learned how to ride a motorcycle from Bessie. And I was, when I tell you my development became unarrested, at eight years old, I learned about slavery. And my my best friend was a little white girl named Sissy. Both uh, both her and I learned about it at the same time in Miss Dollar's third grade classroom. And we're both traumatized. And one thing Sissy did for me, I said, Well, I'm gonna find a hero that looks like me that did something great. And Sissy was like, Oh, you look like Harriet Tubman. And you know, my eight-year-old brain and mouth said, I'm not no slave. Right. You know, and she goes, But I went home and asked my mom, who was young, you know, she was maybe 22, 20, 23. Yeah. Hey, where's a hero that looked like me? And my mom was like, you know, look at TV, look at a magazine. I landed after maybe three days, landed on a book. Nobody that looked like me, but I was reading Old Lady in the Shoe. It didn't have a picture other than uh a little pencil drawing of a shoe and kids with their heads out of the windows. Yep. You know, she had 10 children, she didn't know what to do, they loved her unconditionally, and she taught them, they taught her. And I remember falling in love with that, and I said at eight years old, I'm gonna have 10 kids. Now, of course, I thought the snork brought them. Sure, you did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so, but that's the memory that came back when I found out about this woman. And I remember saying, Man, so there was someone that looked like me that did something great. And then from then on, it's like my brain was like, Okay, Chantel, had you known about her at eight years old, you would have reached further. You would have known that you could have reached further. And now what is your part? What what must you do? And I just remember feeling like, okay, well, maybe my per part of my purpose is showing eight-year-old girls that they can reach further, especially in the town, Panama City, Florida. It's, you know, spring break made the beach famous, but like a lot of small towns here in America, you know, you you don't, if you're not introduced to it, you don't know it. And you don't miss what you don't know. Yeah. And I remember God was like, hey, what are you gonna do? I thought I could mention it in a restaurant a lot. And then after about two months of doing that, it was like, what else are you gonna do? And I was like, well, what do you mean? What else I'm gonna do? And this was me talking to myself every day, like, and I'm like, okay, okay, fine. I said, okay, God, if you're guiding, you're providing. I told I called up Harley Davidson, I told them all the great things about her having 27 Harley Davidson, a nurse practitioner, founder of Iron Horse Motorcycle Club based out of Miami. You know, this woman, she had six husbands.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

I joke with my husband, she probably had them at the same time because now, folks, that now, those of you who are listening now, at the end, just like I do, I've got some links I'm gonna put out in here. Now, one of them is to Bessie. Let me tell you, that is a smoking fine woman. Yes, sir. You're gonna you're gonna take a look at that picture and you're gonna go, I bet she did have six husbands at one time, you know. But you know, I want to let you guys know I'm gonna share all this stuff so you can get the whole picture here because Chantel is painting this so wonderfully, but I want you to be able to spend some time to get the the really deep background. So, anyway, go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt. Go ahead. No, no, you're great.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah. I just remember like almost mad in a sense that why is this on my brain every day? I have things to do because I still had six kids at home. In fact, I will say this I wasn't at that moment, I had a uh Yamaha. I suspect I had a crash with, and then I had a Yamaha Silverado. I didn't like to say persona Harley people gave, so I didn't really want to do the ride on my Yamaha though, because my husband had just bought a brand new Harley. He had maintenance, and I went out to him on a Monday and said, Hey, I gotta do 48 states real quick. The kids start school in three weeks, so I'm gonna do it maybe in two and a half, and I'll be right back. And he goes, When are you gonna do it? And I said, Friday. And he was like, Okay, Friday.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Yeah, hold on, let me check my scans. Yeah, Friday. Yeah, it's all good. You're killing me. Yeah, wait a minute. I got I got a stock and two biscuits and uh a little bacon and uh some water. Okay, I'm ready to go. All right.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

A handkerchief, god dang it.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Oh my god, that is funny.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Because I'm it it really, as I look back on it and telling you the story, it does seem kind of out of your mind.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Yeah, you're out of your mind. Let me tell you, when I'm planning a trip, it takes me three nights to figure out the shirts I'm gonna put in my suitcase.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Children have one thing children do is we'll know this. The only thing I control is me. Roger that. No illusion that I can I can give a nice good perception of things, but yeah, I only control me. And kids have let me know the quicker I can adapt, the happier I become. Oh, yeah. Oh, let me tell you, there is no question.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

So, you know, you know, Bessie Springfield, I don't I don't want to tick any more of that. She, folks, is is unreal. Now, from the things that I've read about Bessie, Chantel is Bessie 2026. Okay. That's the best way that I can put an analogy for those two together. Okay. Now, we've got this woman who started with, and let me catch you up for those that played on the home version, okay? Who started out, married a guy had nine kids at 16. If he said jump on the way up, she's saying how high. Okay. She figures out that that's not what everything is. And on top of all that, she's looking for somebody that when she was really young actually had someone point to her, saying, you know what, here at Tuppin is kind of who you are. And as a child, I can appreciate you sitting back and going, wait a minute, that is not my gig. Just because I'm black, I'm not a slave. Right, right. What she was trying to tell you was that woman's amazing, is what she was trying to tell you. Yes, yes. Yeah. So with all of that coming to here, now you do the 48 states. You come back, okay? You walk in the door at the house. Tell me what changed inside of Chantel after 48 states.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

When I, wow, the person that left Florida, yeah, is not the person that came back. And I want to say I died about three times on that. It took number one, it took me 27 days versus the three weeks I thought of two and a half weeks. Because seven days in, I was I was great. I did 20 states in seven days, the whole East Coast. And then I got back to about Huntsville, Alabama, and it was 700 miles home or 700 miles to Oklahoma City. And I was like, okay, God, I think I'm good.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Yeah, I'm out of biscuits, and uh I'm thinking I'm not doing this no more.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Right. I had heat rash. I had even, oh my God, I had pipe burn. It was just, and I was, and I kept like, it was like miracle after miracle daily, though, because I'd go to gas stations and or matter of fact, I'd go to diners and remember I left for the $120. You hear me? No, I do.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Now, is anybody riding with you or is this you? Just me, baby. Just just me. Okay, now you okay. All right, let me make sure I understand you're riding through places like Alabama and Louisiana and Mississippi by yourself. On a motorcycle, black woman going into the back. With the Muppet in the back. With the Muppet on the back of the motorcycle. Yep. Okay. Tell me, tell me how those dining experiences, just pick one. How are those dining experiences going?

SPEAKER_00 22:16

I would walk into the diner, and before I could place my order, the dining the server would say, So-and-so bought your breakfast, so-and-so bought your lunch, so-and-so bought your dinner. Some people had left already, some people had stayed. And I'd go to them and say, Well, what made you buy? Although I was scraping up my little $5 just to buy a piece of sandwich. And they said, Hey, we just seen you coming in on the bike, and then we seen your little muppin on the bike. It cracked us up. So we wanted to just something they felt. They didn't know I was doing three states. And then I explained to them what I'm doing, and they go, Really? And man, it was just, I felt like it was God because I remember I said, okay, guys, you're guiding, you're providing. And he provide, I would get five-star hotels, dude, for $12. I never paid over $33. Every I started, I got in a hotel for the first time was the fourth day and the seventh day. The other times I just slept a little bit at the rest area and when the sun came up, and then I'd and then I'd ride.

SPEAKER_03 23:30

That is that is so unreal. You know, I I I think the tenacity of who you are as a person, you know, and and and let me correlate it to something that works in my head. When they told me that I had Burkett's lymphoma, stage four, okay. At the time that that that I learned about that, less than one half of one percent survived. Okay. But no, no one in stage four ever survived, ever. So, you know, I I think about what you're doing. It's the same thing. People say, answer's no comparison. Let me tell you, it's the same thing. You're walking into places where you have no idea how you're gonna eat, okay? And people are going, here you go, let me let me feed you. I I I got something for you. They don't know you, they don't know what you're doing. The the story was part two after they fed you. That's right. No, that's right. And if my listeners aren't taking anything else away, people are good way down inside. They really are. Don't believe all the shit that you hear every day because it's not always true. It is not always true.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Don't even believe half of what you think. Yeah. Because that's that's the only thing you're doing is you're not even knowing it. You're just kind of believing it. And but get out of your uh comfort zone. You're there's no growth in that comfort, it's just it's right there. If you wanna be better, you gotta do something different, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

So you know, taking this trek out on these bikes, how did this turn into a world record? How did that work out?

SPEAKER_02 25:25

That was a crazy thing too.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

Yeah. So I'm out there and I did it. I I tell you, on the fifth day, I called up Harley Davidson and I said, um, no, on the fourth day, I told him, I said, hey, I'm in Sanford, Maine, because I thought Sanford, Maine was made just for me. Like God gave me that signal that I happened to ride upon leaving Sanford, Florida.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

Right, no, no, no. I know I knew where you were going. Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

And I was like, let me call Marley Davison. And I said, I called Harley the sec, this may be the third time. And I said, Hey, I'm I've done 11 states in four days on my way to do 37 more in lieu of getting Bessie inducted into your museum. You know, tell me, you know, what else can I do? Can I come meet you in order with? And she goes, come see me tomorrow in Milwaukee. So I'm thinking, okay, well, she knows I'm up here up north, so I must be close. And my geography was totally different. I was gonna say, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:29

You're a long ass way from Milwaukee, baby.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Is that not it files, man?

SPEAKER_00 26:37

I know exactly which road I took, trust me. Yeah. But she, I showed up there 13 and a half hours later, knowing like I thought that was really gonna be it. Because it was like, okay, there it is. I and then when it wasn't, it yeah, it was just like, okay, well, okay, I must got something more. So yeah, humans is is we need each other, you know. We and through that, man, was the most I found out through that first trip that we need each other. We are more social than monkeys, you know, that we we need to not TV, not social media, not even of course, these are good pacifiers. Like a baby has a pacifier, but the baby only grows with real milk. And the humans are the real milk. And you can, you know, you can be in comfort and learn things, you know, with the internet, but you're not gonna get that growth. And so me being out there, the gas station conversations I had, it just it it it's it was great until that seventh day. And that seventh day, I I was, you know, beat up pretty bad. And I was like, okay, I think I asked Facebook to get me out of it. I said, Hey guys, should I go to Sturgis? I didn't even know what Sturgis was. Of course. It was the gas station conversations that helped me. And so I get on there and say, hey guys, should I go to Sturgis or home? And about three-quarters of the people said home. And so I was like, yeah. So I said, uh, I was on my way home, and as soon as I got on the interstate to go home, it felt like a big knock on my helmet saying, hey, as soon as you find a reason greater than Betsy's, you can quit. And I remember crying. You couldn't.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Yeah, and you couldn't.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Nah. Because I can pull into any gas station, Betsy couldn't. I got the interstates, Betsy didn't. I can go to any hotel, Betsy couldn't. So, Chantel, what you talking about? You if if nothing else we can do greater of ourselves is to look at our great-grandmothers and grandfathers just within our family and know they went through way more than what our inconveniences are today.

SPEAKER_03 28:55

So Yeah, I I think it's so interesting that you were talking about how we need each other. When when I was a kid, I was a 60s kid, okay? And when when I was growing up, my dad had 11 brothers and sisters. My mother had 13 brothers and sisters. Now, you know, raised in the South, when we got together for family reunions, there were more cooks in that kitchen and food. That's I mean, and everything revolved around, everything revolved around that community. And and I have to tell you, my wife and I struggle to keep our kids together now. The problem is that it's a different kind of community. It's totally different. And I think people miss. I I really do.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

I think people miss. Yeah. And some of them don't even know it until they get it. Because it's it it's something that it it's who we are. It's yeah, the human race. It's not the the separate, it's not the colored races of black, white, yellow, green. It's the human. We are human. And and if you don't have that, you're missing something. 2020 did a real damage to us. Oh, it really did. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so I did that second time, 48 states again in 23 days during 2020. And I want to say I got more interesting gas station conversations in that 48 than in 2016. And and and then than in 2024. I it was different, even worse in 24 than it was in 16. But in 2020, man, I'd have bathroom conversations of being just, hey, who are you? Hey, and I hugged, and I didn't get hopeful one time.

SPEAKER_04 30:56

Imagine me knowing that. Yeah, imagine me knowing that.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

We thought about hugging in the bathroom, people. What happened there?

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Yeah, you don't need to know. Just I'll be selling tickets later. Yeah, it's not a problem. Yeah. I did say pay preview. Yeah, right. Exactly. You know, one of the things when I was putting my notes together, okay, because this I this is really what I want to hear your take on. You said that you stopped in all these black neighborhoods when you were going through having those. Now, tell me how those conversations went, because I mean, you're doing something weird, okay? You know, and and rolling through all these places where these young kids and young girls and families are. How did those conversations go?

SPEAKER_00 31:45

They were all I could do is imagine eight years old girl, had I seen me at I seen Betsy at eight, and just had I, if I was an eight-year-old girl now and to see me on this book motorcycle, which could be just the same as a spaceship, because it's like, what? And I know she'd reach further, just seeing me. And so I had to. And I know right next to a big, big city, just on the outskirts of that big city, most times is the poorest people. Yeah. You know, and so I'd make sure, just outside of Jackson, Mississippi, them outskirts, a mile away from the the you know, $20 million mansions, there was, you know, sewage going down into, you know, the ghetto, and me rolling down that street, and I see some kids, and man, I'd have a few dollars with me, and I'd ask them how they're doing in school. Yeah, who got the best grades and and who got an A. And and they asked me all kind of questions like, where you get this motorcycle? Who gave this to you?

SPEAKER_04 32:56

Yeah, I could hear that going down.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

You know, we can already hear their doctrine, you know, and I'd ride a couple of. I said, Well, we gotta ask your mom and dad first. Oh, was she? I said, Well, I tell you what, whoever tell me those few dollars, it's like God made sure I had it, just how much ever I needed to have at that time. Because I didn't know, but I wanted to go through and because I know I would be, again, better than where I am had I known.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

Do you ever do you ever wake up some mornings and just take a minute to yourself and think about, forget about for a minute what you're doing for black women, what you're doing for the human race, what you're doing for women. Do you ever wake up and go, you know what? This is something that I was meant to do. I mean, you're changing lives, lady. You realize that, right?

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Oh, listen, it wasn't that I was going to black neighborhoods, I was just going to poor neighborhoods. Trust me, I know what. No, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't, yeah. Sometimes they were black, but a lot of times they were just poor. They just didn't, but some of them didn't know they were poor either. Some didn't know. Because I uh You don't know what you don't know. Yeah, yeah. You don't know what you don't know. And the fact that they see me that day, you couldn't have told them they was poor. Yeah. You know, we we we was all together in heaven and you know, rejoicing that. But yeah, I don't yeah, that's what I think. That's what I say. We sometimes I look at it that Bessie, or some people even want to limit me. And they say, oh, you do this here pretty good since you're black or since you're a girl. And I said, No, it's so happened I'm black. It's so happened I'm a girl, you know, but I'm human. That's all. Listen, everybody got this in them. Now, it's a muscle that gets stronger the more and more you use it. So use it.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Now, Harley Davidson created an award in your name, and they inducted Bessie into the Hall of Fame. Tell me about that. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Man, it was so that that same year in 2016, when I got to the Harley Davidson Museum, I told her, you know, all the great things about Bessie and what I was doing. And she said, hey, well, maybe you can help us plan and we can see how we can integrate, you know, this urban bike night with, you know, her being inducted and having uh her at least digital presence. And on September the 15th, 2016, on the second Thursday, they have what they call a bike night at the museum. And on this particular Thursday, it was the urban bike night. And so, you know, sometimes, you know, we live in America. You you live, you can look at a Harley Davidson magazine and not know that black people or brown people ride motorcycles, you know? And so they had God, that is so damn true.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

They were like, you ride? I didn't think they did. I was like, yeah, we do. So, yeah, but here it is, they had to ask. They let you people on bikes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Right. You're like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00 36:19

You know, so that that was several conversations at the gas station. Let me tell you, there's so many people come to me today, 10 years later, that say to me, Hey, you know, I had this conversation with you in West Virginia. You may not remember me. Sometimes I will, sometimes I don't. And I and I sometimes think I'll crack a joke, said, you know, a lot of times I don't remember where I shit it, but I know the people that stepped in it remember just where that shit was.

SPEAKER_02 36:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

It's true, but it's funny.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

It's definitely funny. And they said, well, this is why I do this today, because I met you, or you know, and I says, Man, it's so good to meet people. And when people get with other people, they do make themselves move out the way they know other people can do it, and it makes them know that they can do it. I mean, we all have fear, but fear shouldn't stop us. It it builds courage, and that's what I learned through doing these 48 states, and these it's something I knew, but it taught me how to put it in words by having and listening to other people's perception because the restaurant gave me several, but man, to go out in the world, and it was just it was like on steroids, and it was the most, it was it was like but you're going, but you went through when I say like it, I mean like it in the sense of you're in your mind, and you're hearing from different things from everybody. And you, it's you yourself that has to make a conscious decision about where you're going. And and never mind all what you're hearing. And it that what drives you, and it keeps gives me the moment, it kept giving me the momentum, and and all I was doing is giving back what they were given, giving me, you know. So I did my part. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

You know, I I yeah, and I think that's so true. You know, so many times people are gonna say, you know what, this is what you should do. They don't know what you should do. You know what you should do. You know, I I try and tell my kids and friends who sit down and chat with me about stuff. I'm like, I I don't know what your true North is. You know what it is. You just have to find it. You have to find it. It doesn't just happen. You gotta go look for it.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

That's right, you know, and without pets, we couldn't have the testimonies. We gotta go through some of those challenges in order to be in order to give a perspective, and it's bigger than us. It's it's so much bigger, you know. Oh my lord.

SPEAKER_03 39:17

It's so much true. Yeah, so true. Like it's you know what I think one of the things Shin Go ahead. Go ahead. You should be able to get a good one. No, no, go ahead. By the way.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

Nine children. I have I had ten when I met my husband, but I had one from my second marriage that lasted about three months. He was uh he's no longer with them. But he uh no, he's good, trust me, he's good. He he he was good. Okay. I always teased with him. You know you're gonna die one day, but no, he was uh it was kind of like I jumped from the frying pan into the fire a brief moment, but I did have a number 10, and he's 15, and let me tell you, he saved my life too. You know, definitely saved my life because during that custody battle of my nine children, and I couldn't see them. And you know, it was really a a fight there. My my ex-husband uh, you know, a marriage I guess divorce is never great for anybody.

SPEAKER_03 40:22

Ever. Yeah, I don't care who you are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Right. So that that there gives you went going through that test allowed me a testimony, and and having number 10 allowed me uh a great testimony. At that time I had maybe 2,000 Facebook friends, and uh this Facebook pretty new. I thought I might share this story. I'm sorry. No, you're fine, cut it out. Go ahead. Those 2,000 friends going through uh the test I was going through through custody battles and divorce. I remember uh that little foolish pride that you say, oh, I can't ask anybody, and and then I go, Well, man, would I want somebody to ask me? And I go, Well, yeah, and would you help them if they didn't? And I say, Yeah, I would, but yeah, that's not everybody else. But why isn't that everybody else? If you would, there's a lot of, and so I often have to talk myself down off the you know, the cliff, so to speak, and remove that, that pride or foolish pride. And and I remember on Facebook, and it's probably somewhere still out there in the world, that I wrote a letter to my so-called Facebook friends and said, hey guys, I'm in a custody battle, and the judge said, if I can do this, then I can have my kids back, and I can cook and I can do hair and I can do this, and I need an IOU. If you'll help me by giving me a dollar, I can make this happen. Right. And and it took about two, three and a half weeks. I had a three-bedroom apartment, and I was doing hair and cooking, and I had $20 here, 20, and somehow we made it. And from then on, it just renewed that we're connected, we're people, some were strangers. Well, I think more were friends at that early in Facebook in 2000. Sure. But it was remarkable that here it is. I had this little communication that I could get to people that knew a little bit about what I was going through. And that changed my life a little bit too.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

But you your perspective on goodness that's in people is spot on. You know, I know that, you know, I one of the things that people tell me all the time is you don't seem to let anything bother you. And I'm like, well, some things do kind of bother me, but you know what? I laid in a hospital bed in ICU for 11 months and didn't know if I was gonna wake up every day. This ain't shit, okay? This is just a little pimple. All right. We're gonna just get rid of this thing and move on. So it you know, and it's the same thing for you. When when you are at a spot with all the things that you face, that makes you who you are. That's right. You know, and and it you can't you can't take who a person is without taking every piece of luggage, every conversation, and every relationship they have with you. You they've got to take it all. You you don't get part of it because you want the whole person, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:44

That's right. That's right. All every layer. Every layer. And wow, that is that is amazing. Yeah. And and that's just the human body, right? The human mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I think we're all case. But we're not all we don't all we got that fear that stops us. Because we're but this may think or that may think or what if what we think about who we are. And sometimes my shut up and ride is not a a shut up your mouth. It's shut up your brain and ride your heart. Shut up overthinking it. You know, stop thinking because most of the time your thoughts it'll stop you before you even make your first move.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

So what went through your head? Netflix picks up the phone, okay? Netflix. Okay. Now, that my listeners know I'm a computer engineer and I work in artificial intelligence. That's what I do, okay? I've been doing it forever. But what did your brain do when Netflix calls you? You're going, come on, who the hell is this really on the phone?

SPEAKER_04 44:59

Come on, who's this?

SPEAKER_00 45:01

What did you do? Listen, I felt like, man, well, if you want me, then a lot of folks want me. So wait a minute, let me not sign up with you. Let me let me take a minute to sit back. That's the first thing I said. Not a girl.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Yeah. Because I was like, if the Yankees, if the Yankees want me to pitch for them, maybe the Braves do too. Right.

SPEAKER_00 45:22

So I was like That's good stuff. Go ahead. Yeah. So I didn't at first I thought I was gonna do it right away. And then I said, well, wait, let me sit back and really feel I what I should do because you know I don't wanna come this far. A lot of my decisions was based on my children. Because, you know, I sure imagine that home. And so if if I was to take the first thing that came out, it would change who they are. And uh in a well, let one say change. Good thinking, yep. It it it wouldn't allow me to be in control of who they are around. Let's say that. And that makes sense. No, that makes perfect sense, yeah. Yeah. And if I'm out there in the world so much, they might be exposed to somebody who, you know, it could molest them. And and for me, that was my one of my biggest fears, you know, because as a child that happened to me as a young girl. So I knew how it messed me up, and I knew how the world would normally see people or children that that happened to, or what they say they normally go through. And some get through it, some don't. And so I just didn't want them to experience that, you know. So uh, so I didn't take uh so that made me sit back and say, uh, yeah, maybe if if two million dollars is for me, I'll get it. It don't have to be right now. I'll get it. Right, right, right. Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

I hear you. I hear you. So let me let's let's put this in the pocket for just a second, okay? They they've come to you and they're talking to you. You're thinking through it like a smart lady, okay? You're thinking through what's going on. Before we come back to that, and uh there's something I don't want to miss, I want you to tell because man, I saw food at this restaurant called Chantel's Just Until. Let me tell you, for you guys who can't see this, because I'm gonna put the links inside the bio when the podcast gets released. Let me tell you, if this woman is doing anything in the kitchen, I need to go to Stanford and eat. Okay, I'm just telling you. So let's let's move that. Tell me how that came about. All right, what is Chantel's Just Until? What is that?

SPEAKER_00 47:52

You heard me. I said I was cooking anyway. Might as well, if you eat, we eat. I did. So, but I love to cook. I've been cooking since I was eight, burning stuff, and yeah, I love and I and I taste the food, man, and people are so mediocre, and I'm like, they think this is good. Okay, all right, let me not say nothing. I'll be like, mm-hmm, it's good until I go. Yeah, yeah, I I had um, let me think, I had six kids in the house, four of the kids already moved out, but they kept asking me for money. And I'm like, listen, if I got if I give you $200, then I don't have $200, then we do less. But if so I said, but then if I don't give it to you, you move back in. Okay, wait a minute, let me figure out something. So I said, okay, folks, I can open up a restaurant. And so when they asked me for $200, I'd say, I got two shifts for you. So if they wanted the money, and they came to work. Beautiful and none can have a palate like your own, your children. They know just what it tastes like, they've grown up with it, and they like money. And so at first they all started with just the gunhole money and it worked. And uh well, you know, and that's all it takes, whatever that motivation is, yeah. That's right. And one thing I learned what business taught me, or what children taught me much, is delegate. Had I been a mother that did everything for my children, I would be like a slave to them and they wouldn't know how to do anything. So, but if I can teach the two-year-old how to count potatoes, give me 10 potatoes in each bowl. By the time they're five, man, they know how to count potatoes like nothing.

SPEAKER_02 49:45

Right.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

And so that was the new thing. Um, my kids, I found that my 14-year-old, she worked with me. She was shy, she didn't want to be around people. And she said, I can cook. I said, You can't cook. She said, Yes, I can't. I said, Oh, let me see it, go in the kitchen. Man, she did it almost better than me. And she was my cook for eight years. Yeah. So it shocked me, but hey, what's better? That's so beautiful, you know. The lion teaches. Yeah, I'm not kidding.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

So it was beautiful. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know, I it's so funny that you would talk about putting putting tasting food. One of my favorite things that Wanda Sykes talks about, she talks about being married to a French woman. And she said, when she invites people over, people always ask, Who's cooking? And she'll say, Well, it's gonna be me, because when they eat her cooking, they always go, Oh man, you put your foot in this, didn't you? But when her wife cooks, they go, Did you put your foot in here? I love I love that line.

SPEAKER_04 50:55

It's so damn funny.

SPEAKER_03 50:57

Yeah. I mean, you can just picture everybody coming to house going, I'm not eating that shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Hey, listen, that was that's the best compliment you can give a chef because a southern chef for sure.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:14

Because making food at certain flea markets, I do vending. I would do food vending before I did the rest of it. And so I tell a lot of these northerners, I I told him one time talking about the foot in it. I said, Hey, taste these vegan greens. These are vegan. And he got, and I said, I put my foot in it. And he goes, What? I said, Yes, you put your foot in it.

SPEAKER_04 51:41

That's what he's thinking. He's like, What the hell's wrong with you? Get your foot out of that pot.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

He comes back and he goes, Hey, give me you got here. And I said, Well, I got these hands. He said, Well, did you step in that too? I said, No, no, not stepping. That shit you step in. I said, stepping in or two different things.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

Did you hear what I said? I can let me tell you. I did, yeah. Let me tell you. I can remember, I can remember my grandmother when I was a kid, okay. She used to have this wooden bowl that literally, to me, now remember, I was like five and six, okay. She had this wooden bowl that no was always there. Yeah, always had flour in it. She had a can of lard next to it, and there was always buttermilk in the refrigerator. Let me tell you, that woman could whip out cat heads like nobody's business. And before you know it, they were on the table.

unknown 52:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:47

And you were just like, where did the biscuits come from? Well, Granny made them while she was talking? Hell yeah, while she was talking. That's all she does is make biscuits. And they're she would like a machine, you know? Whoa. But I will never forget that shit. Yeah. Oh yeah. I will never forget that. You went to Granny's house, she would look in the cupboard, and she may have like three things, and you're thinking, oh my God, we're gonna starve to death at Granny's. And next thing you know, there was a table full of food. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's it was crazy. It was crazy. Such a different time, truly a different time.

SPEAKER_00 53:25

It it still happens. It it just doesn't have it happen. Uh it happened in those little small towns, those little still country towns. It still happens that way because I I think uh sometimes society or the the people that are in control of the TVs, they really separate. There's a little town uh with two eggs, uh Florida. It's just it seemed like it's just as slow as it was as when I was a kid, because TV still shut off at 2 o'clock versus 12. They used to cut off at 12, but it cut off at 2 o'clock. And and those people are right there and what they think. They get there's sometimes the kids have a little internet through their phone, but they ain't getting the iPhone 17. They're getting so I think it's still some places that way. I've sat down around plenty tables this year that made some homemade biscuits. So it is something. And that means you just gotta get them biscuits. That's all.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

That's all it amounts to. That's right. Well, listen, as we try to, I want to be conscious of the the window of time that we have together. There's two things before I I ask you this last question. One, you have to promise me that I can have you back on.

SPEAKER_00 54:44

Oh, definitely. We listen, this is our first time, not our last time. I'd love to.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

Yeah, that's for sure. Now, good. And we'll do that. I promise you, I have so enjoyed getting to know you. This is going to be so much fun in the future. And and the next thing, tell me what is coming up that's big. What do you want to talk about and tell folks that's happening right around the corner? Tell me what that is.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

So 10 years ago, remember I told you I got first 48 states, 10 years ago, next month will be the the 10-year anniversary that I wrote for Betsy. Well, Sturge's Motorcycle Museum is inducting her into the mute their Museum Hall of Fame. And I get to bring Cool. Yes. I get to bring along two of the women that introduced Betsy to the world. I mean, these two late because of these two ladies is how come I knew about her and the world. So one yeah. That there is like I I I and listen, I don't even know how I was able to pull it off financially. Even I don't know if I will, but well, it will happen because one is named Anne Farrar, and the other B. Heinz. B. Hines is 84. She was the first black female to work for Miami Herald. And Anne Farrar is a New Jersey white girl whom she's 70 now, but at that time she was 32 years old and spent time with Betsy in her last years. And I get to have them both there to witness it. And they told me, they said, Chantel, we want you to accept the the award that they're gonna give. And I'm going, no. Because I thought they were wanted it. And they told me, no, we want you to accept it. And and that there is like Yeah, yeah. No kidding. Yeah, no kidding. So that's just everything. I'm so grateful to be a part of uh that. And I think uh my kids and and the people that know me know that that yeah, that means that means a lot. So I think I'm on the right path of something great.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

I think you are too. Well, listen, what what I would love for you to do for me and my listeners is now that I have your email and stuff, I want you to keep me posted as best you can what's going on. I will share it on I I do like an informational podcast every few weeks to tell people about certain guests and things. And I want to include you in that, but I want people to know where they can find you. I want people to know about your restaurant, I want people to understand that you are family. I mean, you really are. It's like talking to my sister, you know? Yeah, yeah, you know, I it it really is.

SPEAKER_02 57:49

You're right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

I think spirit is energy, and energy never dies. The flesh is weak. It's really weak. It's it's right here. It's but it it is our spirit, our what we think of who we are or becoming. And it's man, it's it'll outlive this flesh. I really know that in things I feel. I I tell you, in addition to that sturgis, what's happening, I'm gonna take on the road with me about seven other women. Now, since my accident, I haven't gotten on a motorcycle and I plan on getting on one. It it really it mentally, it definitely got a little PTSD. So I know physically I'll be able to ride again, but but mentally, if I don't, if I get on the bike and it feels like I'm looking around everywhere for something that ain't there, then I probably won't ride again, which I'm okay with that. But if I can ride again, it's gonna on this road trip to Sturges, I'm taking six other ladies with me, all different backgrounds, all different races.

SPEAKER_02 59:02

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

We're gonna take back only. And these I these women don't know quite what's in store, and neither do I. Some of them have been That's the best part of a trip, right?

SPEAKER_02 59:17

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Some of them are new riders, some of them been riding for years, but none of them have, I think, did one, I think one of them rode to further than Sturgis, uh, meaning they did uh four corners. So, but none of them have written back roads like we're all gonna do. And so we're gonna take from August 1st to August 8th, do about 300 miles a day, and take back roads, stop at some locations, meet, greet people. We're gonna do some KOAs and some hotels and get to know who we are. And at the end of that, I'm hoping to, you know, just maybe make it into a nice video to kind of m get people to move it out their way to let them know. I want to hear the beginning results and the end results. And I I sometimes, I guess I didn't mention it out loud. I think I mentioned it to a couple of other people what I was doing. But sometimes when I tell people it locks it in place. And so I I uh as I was telling you about Betsy, I forgot to mention that. And I wanted to make sure you, you and your listeners know, I'm glad you did. It's called the Sisterhood Ride Disturge. You know Sisterhood Ride Disturge. Okay. That's right. And and we're gonna see what we do. We I think none of the women know each, no, two women know each other. Nobody else knows each other, just they all just know me. And some know of me. I've never even met some of them in person. But I think it's Man, that is cool. Yeah, I think it's gonna be real cool. Like I said, that that first fight for me gave me some courage that I didn't know. So I think uh, you know, that's all the ones that are married. I said, well, tell your husbands to stay with you, even though you might get cocky. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:19

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:22

Lord, wives Chantel, I've so enjoyed this. Let's do this. Would you hang on for me? Let me let me sign our show off, but don't go anywhere, okay? You stay right there. Folks, I I I cannot begin to tell you how much I've enjoyed talking to Chantel. And at the end of the podcast, uh, where I put it out on Buzz Sprout, I'm gonna have links to some of the different things. There's a really cool documentary that's out on Netflix. I'm gonna put a link out to that and to her restaurant. Let me tell you, I'm going to Sanford. You guys all know I grew up in Florida. Okay. So I was there until I was in, you know, probably my late 30s. Uh, I'm going to Sanford. I'm finding this woman's restaurant. I'm going to eat. If I don't do anything, but just sit in there and eat for three days. So remember this. Be kind to the people that you love. And everything that you share could change someone's life. Okay. Remember, there's always hope. And if you need help, reach out and ask. Don't be afraid. Reach out and ask. I don't care if you're going through the nastiest cancer on the planet, if you're trying to figure out how to navigate your divorce, someone is doing something that you can't work with, ask somebody. Don't be bashful. Someone wants to help you. You just need to do it. So, folks, until next time, we appreciate it so very much. That's this week's story on Is That How It Happened? If you want to hear more about how our guests got to where they are, the wins, the setbacks, all of it, you can find the full episode of more of their story over at animal.ai. If this conversation moves, care of it. Subscribe. Everybody's got a story.