Episode 52 - HBD Mostly Legal!

Join the team as we celebrate 52 episodes of faith, family, stories and more. We really appreciate the support and hope youve enjouyed the last year as much as we have!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Everywhere I've gone this week, people say, I didn't know you'd been at jails many times. What's your low SLD? It's when Baba continually verbally attacks me and calls me names like Snipples.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

It's his name is Linry. He got his in the record book as found on his name. Matter of fact, he got he got.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

We had Gatorades and we're leaving the money on the counter and we we go walking out with arms of Gatorades and Snickers and whatever else we got.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Story lovers, uh outdoor lovers, anybody who loves to laugh, welcome back to the Mostly Legal Podcast. Uh, you are in for a treat with this episode as me and the guys are celebrating our 52nd episode. It's hard to believe we've been through an entire year of uh podcasting, but we have learned a lot and we have had a ton of fun. My name is Stephen Dinkins. I'm the host, and I'm here with my brother, uh Pony Boy, Scott Dinkins from Chapin, and of course, Double Nickel, the bear cooter, uh Thomas Bubba Johnston down at the end of the table.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Exciting episode. This is a very exciting episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

We really is hard for us to believe that it's been a year. Uh, I think we've mentioned this before uh in the last few weeks, but we've done some research and very, a very small percentage of podcasts actually make it to a year. It's been a little bit of a grind, but it has been something we have totally enjoyed. We do want to thank all of our sponsors. They've made it possible for us to kind of keep going and keep plotting along. But what uh what a year it's been. What a great lot of memories, a lot of things that it has uh inspired in us that we want to do in the future. We're gonna jump into some of that. We're gonna be talking with each other, interviewing each other about some memories and some of our favorite episodes and favorite stories. But before we do that, I do want to give a shout out to a listener of the week. I want to uh give a shout out to Mitch Monroe, a cousin of Scott's and mine. He lives up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mitch is uh a great friend, uh and of course a great cousin, but we've got some great mostly legal stories with Mitch that we might get to one or two of them to tonight as we record. We'll see how how the time goes. It's not exactly the most edifying story for Scott and I, but it is a funny story. Seems like a lot of stories are that way. But Mitch, we appreciate you listening. We appreciate the encouragement that you give Scott and I when you see us, and we thank you for kind of spreading it around and building our uh base up there in North Carolina. And so we're we're grateful for you. Guys, Bubba, um, Scott, it's been a year. Hard to believe. Hard to believe.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Absolutely amazing. Never never dreamed a year ago when we started this that we would make a year, especially. I think we definitely started out kind of rocky. Like you said, we didn't know a whole lot, but it has been it's been fun. I I if I have to classify like what it's been, it's been fun. Yeah, it's been a little bit of work, it seems like, but but when you're doing something fun, it doesn't seem like as much work, and and probably the biggest grind is just trying to get us together to record when we get here, it pretty much flows, it's not hard at all. And so it's just been it's been fun, and I'm looking forward to reflecting on 51 past episode to kind of talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Well, I've got a question. Maybe I'll start with Scott, and but I want you both to answer, and I'll be thinking of an answer myself. But before we get into like favorite memory necessarily, what is something that is different than what you expected, Scott? What as we've gone through the year, what are some expectations that you had that you either hit on, we hit on, or we just missed entirely? It was just different than what you thought was gonna be?

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Oh, that's a good question. I think one of the things that I enjoy that we didn't start out doing is the listener of the week that we just did with Mitch. Um that's something I think that keeps uh the listening base involved, and um it's always good to hear feedback. Um and nobody nobody's gonna say anything real negative. I mean, well, a few I've heard some negative comments, I'm gonna be honest with you. I I've heard a few um just ingest jokes about you know us or guests or what we do or don't know, you know, whether we're talking about football or or uh or anything else for that matter. Um but I I do enjoy that feedback and and the opportunity to to give somebody a shout out each week. I think that's been a neat addition that we didn't start out doing, but it's kind of grown its own segment in the in the podcast. And so um that's pretty cool to look back on and and think about the people that we uh that we interact with and that will make mention of it, and um, and then they they will say something like, Well, I wonder if that'll get me listener of the week.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Um so that's pretty cool. I like that aspect.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

Pretty cool. Bubba, something that has happened that you didn't expect.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

For me, I guess what really I missed on when we started doing this, I the listeners of who I thought are demographic of what the people that would listen would be like has just really shocked me. Um I thought that basically your general country boy, aka redneck like me, would be like your faithful listeners. They want to hear it and everything else and that kind of stuff. That has been that could not be further from the truth from what I've heard from our loyal listeners and that kind of stuff. Lots of professional people and lots of ladies. It's been just it's pretty just a different group of what I would have thought the listener base would have been. And that's been pretty neat to see though, because they really enjoy the stories and that kind of stuff. And I don't know, maybe the people like me that grew up doing it is not as interesting, but the people that that are kind of enamored by that whole red egg culture that that we are part of, uh, they kind of enjoy hearing us talk about that. And it's just been been interesting to see what you know, like how that differ our listener base is different than what I would have really thought it would have been.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Well the female fan base, no doubt, are probably a lot of those folks who saw that billboard of you on the bottom insurance billboard. Very possible, very possible. That's the QP.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

It's been pretty neat. I mean, it really is. Uh you know, and like I said, I've we've heard talk about this and laughed about this in the past too. I've had multiple, multiple people come up to me like when I was in a store talking or whatever, and somebody hears me, and I'm loud, I talk loud all the time anyway, because I'm deaf and my wife will tell you that. But apparently I I must talk really, really redneck in country. And and everybody will come up to me like, you're on a podcast, you're on a podcast, and like, yeah, I had never met you, but yeah, I'm that guy. And so it's been pretty fun with that. That's that's pretty neat to do.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah. How about you? What what do you think has been the coolest aspect of it the last 51 weeks of of recording and the experiences we've had as well?

SPEAKER_03 6:24

I would I would echo what Bubba said at the beginning before I even ask a question. It's been fun, and we have really enjoyed getting together. And I do agree it's a little bit of a grind to find the date that works, find the time that works, and figure out, you know, how you're gonna shuffle family around and other responsibilities to get here. But once we get here and we cut the mics on, we have a good time and we laugh and cut up. And there was a base, um, I had a base knowledge of stories that I wanted told and I wanted to hear y'all tell that I was aware of, and I knew that would get us through several episodes, but as we have gone, it's just there's always stories that we haven't even remembered yet, but they keep coming up fresh. And I like hearing stories that uh that I've heard before, I've heard you tell, or maybe I've told, but I had forgotten for years, and they kind of resurface. And I like bringing back those old memories, and I like that they're gonna be cataloged for years to come to go back and listen to and to draw from. And so one of my goals, uh, this is a question I'll have for you too moving forward, but one of my goals is to to utilize AI to go back to these 52 episodes and just catalog the different subjects, the different stories, kind of create some tags and so we know exactly what's been told, when it was told, to be able to go back and find it. One, that'll help me create uh some new thoughts on some things that we want to share, some directions we want to go as the host and figuring out how to drive us there. But uh, it's good to be able to say, hey, Rainey, you need to listen to this story. That's my daughter. I want you to go back and listen to episode 32, because I know that my kids they listen to it when my wife tells them they gotta listen to this episode. Otherwise, they're not regular listeners, they don't think we're as funny as we think we are. But I like that that ability to go back and um and to be able to find those, but I've enjoyed hearing these fresh stories from y'all and our guests. I didn't we didn't know we had ideas about our guests, but uh I bet if we've had I don't know, 15 guests, I bet that uh 10 of them I kind of knew we'd probably get eventually, but five of them were guys I never knew, like Ken Simmons, he was great, and just that's been fun kind of interviewing people that I didn't know and hearing their stories. So that's a couple things I say.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Yeah, the guests definitely added uh a lot of color and flavor um because they have their own networks and and they've got their own stories, and some of them are with us in them, and then a lot of them are not with us in them. And uh, you know, hopefully as we think about the next year, we'll get guests that you know have a ton of stories without us in them. Um because you know, moving forward, I think w one of the um excitements or one of the um things to look forward to is meeting new people. And you know, like I think about um uh Al Odom. We we had talked about him on our list at the get-go, but we weren't sure if we were ever gonna be able to get him. And we got him, Bubba was able to make that happen, and Al was a great guest, and and Al and I have connected a couple of times since then, and um, and he's invited me to go to fishing a couple times. I hadn't been able to make it work, but I'm gonna go with Al. And it's just you know, it's about relationships and it's about broadening networks, and it's about you know getting to know guys that like to do what we like to do. And uh, and so and you know, he gave great stories, he gave heart-wrenching stories, um, but just being able to get together around the table with people that maybe we didn't even think it was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Right. Um and it's some true fellowship there, the fun parts and the and the serious parts.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

And he's a man of faith, he loves the Lord, and he's doing ministry and he cares about people, and you you just enjoy being around people like that. Yeah, Chris Wells is another one like uh like that. And uh Chris was a fantastic guest. I look forward to having Chris again. Um, and Chris is actually helping us uh put something together for a Make a Wish Foundation uh candidate and and some you know little kid that loves fishing, and and so it's just you know being able to broaden our uh network and horizons like that, just to do good and help people and love on folks that maybe you wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to without the podcast being in existence.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

I want to hear uh that story as it evolves. I know our listeners would love to hear that story of the young child that wants to go fishing with Chris, so keep us in the loop as that develops. Um one thing that is is seeing the guest enjoy it. I think a lot of people come on and they were like we were the first time we sat in front of the microphone. You're nervous, you don't want to embarrass yourself, you're worried you'll stutter or stumble or mumble, and they are a little bit timid at first. It's a little bit slow to start, but then they get comfortable, then they start to laugh, uh, they start to tell their stories, but they've enjoyed, I think, even getting some feedback. For instance, as an example, uh Daniel Andrews, who was on with us for a couple episodes, he did a great job. He told some hilarious stories, and he goes to church with me. Uh, and he I see him at church and he goes, Stephen, if y'all are ever worried about having listeners, you need to know you got a lot of listeners. Everywhere I've gone this week, people say, I didn't know you'd been at jail so many times. He goes, Now everybody knows I've been to jail a couple of times. It's been fun. And he's not the first one to have a lot of feedback from uh listeners that they didn't know they were gonna run into, and that's kind of something that happens. It's a lot of fun to see them get that little bit of jolt. Yep, good stuff. How about a low, Bubba? Um, is there a low over the past 52 episodes for you?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Probably I I I I guess, and and like I said, this is a learners. I don't know that you really call it a low if you learn from mistakes and everything else. I would say that like just when we kicked off some of the sound issues and we didn't know them, and we turned our head, we didn't know this, that, and everything else, and and just working through some of those sound issues and and that kind of stuff, and just just because when you kick off, you won't do everything with excellence, but we had to start somewhere and everybody starts somewhere. But you know, out of that, out of that the way the sound kind of wasn't good or whatever, you know, we learn and we were able to kind of upgrade equipment and do this and that kind of stuff. So it's been a learning process. But I I don't know, I mean, just maybe starting off that way, but really not a lot of loads. I mean, I I I think it's just been like I said, it's truly been fun. It's it's not that much work. I was you know, kudos to Scott, because he probably makes more sacrifices than you and I put together to cut driver from chapin over here and and that kind of stuff. But it's just and like I said, I just enjoyed like hanging out with y'all. I mean, anytime I'm in the presence of of the Denkins, I'm I'm just in in good company, so I've had a great time. And um it's just been fun. I mean, fifty fifty-two episodes. That's just crazy. I don't know that I would have expected that. I don't know, I don't know that we any of us really had a vision when we started this. Where I think we have some ideas of what we want to do, but the fact that that we would make fifty-two episodes is still kind of mind-boggling to me.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Yeah, I agree. And you know, you mentioned that as a low, and I don't disagree. We all would have wanted the sound to be better, and and there was a couple of hiccups here and there even after the beginning. But um, I think back to that, you know, first couple of episodes that we recorded in your house, um, as we started, and we didn't know w, you know, what it was gonna be. We probably still don't have an idea of where we're headed. Um, but those are good memories. Um those, you know, sitting around talking about ideas, and you know, I think that's when we started with the woods and the water and the word segment idea, and um, and you know, the the word segment continues because faith is a big part of our lives, um, the biggest part of each of each of our lives, and and we've been able to weave that into a lot of our uh conversations. Um not that every single one of our listeners has given their testimony or shared a verse or anything, but it's all around family and it's all around um doing things the right way, and we don't always get that right. I mean that's you know part of mostly legal. Um, but it you know, it's taking uh our lives, you know, back to the things that matter the most. And and uh so that's been a real blessing uh for me to to be able to mix ministry into what we're doing, talk about the things that are gonna be eternal, um, and and then laugh a lot. You know, we make fun of each other. I I love, I mean we've gotten closer together as friends, just getting together and and making fun of each other, you know, in the everyday conversations that we have. Um and so, you know, there's a lot of things like that that make the pod podcast great, but um I don't have a low either, except that, you know, I just would love for it to be, you know, better or sound better or whatever than it is. Um, but you know, we'll slowly and surely get there. Yeah. Um I I think the other thing that was interesting, you know, we talked uh in those initial um times about how often we wanted to do it. Do we want to do it once every month or once every two weeks or once every week, and we ended up going weekly, and I think that was a a good decision. It's been a grind, there's no doubt about that, but it's it's that continuity that keeps the um guests you know available. It's that continuity that keeps us um zoned in on when we're doing it next and when we're getting together to record. And so I'm glad that we went with weekly, even though it makes more work for us on the on the back end that nobody sees. Uh weekly has been a good decision, I think.

SPEAKER_03 15:40

And we couldn't have done any more frequently, like to do twice a week would have just been impossible.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

That would have been really hard, I think.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Unless we all lived in the same street, you know, it could hang out in the evenings, it would just be impossible.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

But yeah, I mean we could never catch up. We don't know which house you'd be at. I mean, it'd be tough to catch up with you, whichever house. I mean, yeah, no telling all those residents you have.

SPEAKER_03 15:58

Big point to Scott or me.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

I'm talking I'm talking to you. You're the only one I think out of but that has multiple, multiple residents.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Multiple, multiple, multiple. I mean, um, nobody asked me my low. What's your low, SLD? It's when Baba continually verbally attacks me and calls me names like Snipples. That was that Sniffles episode called Low Point.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Thank you. Your good friend and college roommate Stephen Lincoln is the one that actually coined that, and I did take the ball and run with it. You should run with it, but we have a high trophy winner. Look, we have we've had it has led to curing of your chronic problem. You've been to see an ENT, and and you that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Amazing. This is this is a record like you hadn't been sick in what three weeks.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Okay, we're going back low again, guys. We're trying to keep it high. This is a 50-second episode.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Rejoice. 52nd. 50 second episode, y'all. It's been great.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

All right, so let's talk about in the last year, your best memory in the woods or the water. Um, what what has happened in the midst of the podcast that's been really encouraging or fun that you can think back on stories we've obviously already told because they were current, but I mean I've got a few off the top of my head. SLD.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

If I had to choose one, it was a turkey hunt with uh Nehemiah and Benny both there, uh Bubba was there, and called that big bird in. It just was per the most beautiful morning, and it just worked. And it it if I had to pick one highlight, that was it. I wish that both boys could have pulled a trigger, but other than that, it was like perfect.

SPEAKER_00 17:22

If we hadn't have been mostly legal, both boys could have pulled pulled a trigger that morning. If it would have been a couple years earlier, before when you could still shoot a Jake, both boys could have killed that morning. No spanned the both about it, would not rob.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Well, I think that bird that y'all thought was a Jake might have been a Tom because I think Benjamin and I saw that bird later that year, this year, and I think it was a beardless Tom.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

I can't remember. I can't remember whether he fanned out. I can't remember looking at his fan. I didn't remember. He wasn't gobbling though. He wouldn't have a big pool of gobbles.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

We did hear gobbles before they came out.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yeah, we did hear some of them, but I mean they were the one that was definitely Jake Goblin. But anyway, could have been Tom or not?

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Could have been. How about uh you? One one highlight.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Well, the highlight it's not really a highlight, but it was probably one of the things. Hey, hey, hey. This is my time.

SPEAKER_03 18:11

I know it's your time, so I'm trying to be sad too.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

So anyway, um, probably Thomas's deer season is just it is not a highlight because it was terrible, but it just the comedy of errors that happened. I mean, not you know, we we find his one of the target books. I find him dead by the corn pilot. We get him scored, he scored 133 and 28. Um it's a record book book. Yeah, it is there. It's his name is in the reading. He got his in the record book as found under his name. He got he got the letter from the DNR the other day from where he got the scored at Simpsons. But that one, then we had these other two giant books, one was killed a mile down the road, one was killed a mile and a half down the road, all within about a week each other, and just how it was just like, man, every step he turned, it seemed like something just got, and that's just part of it, though. I mean, that'll make when he does have success with a a big one, that'll make it all the all the sweeter and everything, and you know, sometimes part of life isn't always success, but going through diversity so that you enjoy the success more.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Another story I like that kind of grew legs was the Jack Mitter band controversy. And we still hadn't had Dan Reynolds on to clear any of that up, but I I did run into Jack and I mean Dan at Jack Band.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Jack Mitter, I've been present. I ran into Bubba's friend at his Church League softball game and asked him about it, and he just said, you just need to know that Bubba's full of that was his testimony.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

So we can get him on here and say, I don't think I was that at a softball game, and I don't know that that was quite what he said. That's your thing, but I don't think that's quite what it was what he said.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

What was the quote?

SPEAKER_00 19:40

I think that is a very possibility he did he did admit that I possibly could have killed that duck, but he went and picked it up, so he did end up with the band. So that's just the way it goes.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

So you think that a reasonable person could have listened to Dan's testimony that night and took away from it that maybe he really agreed with you and thought you shot it?

SPEAKER_00 19:57

He knew that I definitely shot it. I don't think so. Now he might have shot it too.

SPEAKER_03 20:01

I don't think you listened to all of these, but he didn't.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

He knew that I shot it too, and he shot it. And I think I said then when we told the story that he definitely could have shot it too. I mean, there was I think there were three of us that actually shot it.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

So I'm sorry. So do you think you shot it or not? Because now you're back from the moment.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Go back in once again when you do your AI search or whatever you can do to kind of research some of these stories and that kind of stuff. Um check on that and see if I didn't say that there's a possibility that Joe Norris, myself, or Dan Ronalds all could have killed that duck. We could have all shot it together. We did shoot it together. But you know, hey.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

So you could have, but you did. See? I mean, this is what I'm saying now. I don't understand this story. Your favorite story.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

But anyway, it's mine. You had to be there. Oh, yeah, mine are your favorite story.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Okay. Um, Scott, uh I love that you love that story about Bubba. How about you and your family? I know all your girls love to hunt, but you got Benge learning to do stuff too, new as a young man. What was that?

SPEAKER_02 20:58

If there was a quick highlight from your outdoor year, uh the outdoor highlight I would say would be um that I think it was an October morning where we doubled up. Benjamin uh killed an eight-point, and I was uh in a stand separate from him. I had Lily with me, my six-year-old, she'll be seven this week. Um, but I heard him shoot, and so you know, they don't have cell phones yet until they turned 16 in my house. And so I drove around after 30 minutes or so. Um, Benjamin said, Yeah, he's I shot him, he's I I I know I hit him. And we were over there, we were looking for a blood trail, and we were all out of the truck, and we were, you know, on hands and knees looking around, and all of a sudden we heard Sarah Knox on the other side of the property fire off. And I looked at him, I said, That was Sarah Knox, and he goes, I know. And uh I said, I tell you what, it sounded like a hit because you could hear the bullet slap. I said, Um, I said, let's go over there to her. The whack. And uh and let's whack. Let's uh let's check it out and see what she's got and then we'll come back here to yours. Because he was shooting a 223, he was shooting a small rifle. And so I figured, you know, if his deer's not dead, we want to give it time to expire. And so we went over there to her and I said, I said, Did you kill a big one? She said, and this is her quote, I'm not sure. All I saw was horns. And uh, and so that was a good morning. We went in there, her deer walked maybe 20 yards, blood everywhere. We found her deer, took pictures, and then came back out, went back to Benjamin's stand, walked in uh a little ways, and found his deer with the dogs. We we we took our golden retrievers in there and and one of them found his deer, and that was a good morning. When anytime you got horns sticking out of everywhere uh in the back of the truck, it was a good morning, and that's awesome. Good memory. How about that? You you already told the turkey story.

SPEAKER_03 22:57

If I was gonna mention a second one that came to mind, uh I still go with the turkeys because both boys were there, but I got to be with Benny here at the mill uh on the other side of the road when he shot his first duck, and he shot a pretty wood duck that flew over it, and uh he was so excited to pull that thing up, and it was freezing cold, but he had to kind of swim to get it because it was over across some deep water, we didn't have a boat. So I got some pictures of him with no shirt on in 30 degree weather, uh but with a big smile and a duck in his hand.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Benny Benny. You know, we and we laughed, we we told a lot of stories mentioning the Dinkinsmill Classic, but I think that the Dinkins Mill Classic this year uh was I think the largest field we've ever had. It was I I I I think you know, we laughed about this with Sean Matthews and Simpsons Hardware and and their success being linked to mostly legal. I I think that mostly legal has made the Dinkinsmill Classic even better, if possible. And uh and so I look forward to the future years of the DMC uh because there's a lot of young people fishing in that thing now, and it's it's gotten better.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Yeah. Well, and as the chairman and Grand Poopah of the DMC, I'll probably talk to you guys about a sponsor. No, I'm talking about me, and I'll just kind of we'll talk together about most illegal being an official sponsor of I'm just saying. This is a boss. Oh goodness. Poor guy. Okay, uh Bubba. Yes, sir. Think I want you to think back, get that noggin of yours in gear. What do you think was the the hardest you laughed all year long on the podcast?

SPEAKER_00 24:27

Probably, probably when Lincoln brought up the whole snuffle thing. I mean it had to be yeah, I mean that was just a okay, two what two stories. And and and so that one was just that was really funny because just when it hit and just knowing you and your chronic sinus issues, um just chronic chronic sinus issues. Just just it really cracked me up. I mean, just it really did. So that one was pretty funny. And then when we got on when we went down the whole rabbit trail, which is really how all this thing just developed, I thought the episode when we really talked about the whole where barracuda came into play and the whole lifeguarding at point set and how we went down that whole rabbit trail, I thought there was a lot of laughs in that episode. It just made me because I know that's how all this progressed from us just sitting up at the barbecue at telling stories and going from one rabbit hole to the next and ending up over here, and I just felt like the whole episode started that way, you know, from lifeguarding test and throwing up at the Y to actually being a lifeguard. But it started uh out of talking about like not seeing deer tracks. Yes, and and so it was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

But anyway, that was that's got you know a different memory or one that also had you just really gasping for air.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

No, I think the uh the sniffles episode, I mean Lincoln is just he is uh a comedian of the highest order, and he's so quick on his feet. Super quick, and that ability to just draw one-liners out and just make you gasp for air while you're trying to continue talking on the podcast, um, that sticks out. Um, but you know, you mentioned this with with Mitch as the listener of the week this week, and I I think you know, we've we've gathered together a bunch of stories about bumping into the DNR. I think this one needs to be told. Um and I think it's time. It goes it goes way back to probably uh 25 years ago. Um so this would have been circa 2000. We're going down to Cherry Grove like we always have done with my mom's side of the family, and it's our it's that her family reunion, and so it's a bunch of Dinkins and a bunch of eastern North Carolina dykuses, and we always have a golf day. Um, and there's been different participants in the golf day uh through the years, but this particular year, my cousin Mitch that we mentioned as the listener of the week, and Jake, uh our other cousin we mentioned a few episodes ago, Steven and I, and there were several others. I don't remember who all was.

SPEAKER_03 27:01

But those four of us were in a group together.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

In a group together, and we were we were playing 18 holes at the Pearl. Um and that's a golf course in the Calabash area. Um that if you've ever played up there, you know, you know the Pearl, and they got 27 holes, and it's a nice place. Um and the problem with having 27 holes is you don't always have staff to cover all the holes. Yeah. And we got finished with our nine, and the halfway house at the the nine we were playing on was unoccupied. And it was like 98,000 degrees that day.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

It's just a small little simple building that was a snack bar, basically. It's all it was with a couple restrooms, but there was nobody manning it, nobody to sell you a Colgator aid or a Snickers. And they they got refrigerators in there. I mean, everything's going, it's just everything's there.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Nobody's there, nobody's in it. A sleep at the wheel. And so we were like, well, um, matter of fact, I think we saw the lady leaving while we were in the fairway. Yeah. Anyway, um, so we we get up there to the halfway house, and sure enough, there was nobody there, and and uh we go to use the restroom, and I happen to notice that the door to the snack bar was one of these doorknobs where if you have ever done it before, you has there's no-faby ever broken an injured before, you would know what to do. You would know what to look for, and so I could see I can I can probably open this door. And I said, Steven, I said, I I think I can open this door. And he said, For real? I said, Yeah, I'm I'm pretty sure. He said, All right, well, open it if you can. Make it happen, Captain. And so, you know, I fiddled with it with a card for a minute and opened the door, King. And uh so we walked in behind the bar and we got out some Gatorades and we got.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

No, I only did this because it was 100 degrees. Yeah, we had cash in our pockets.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

And we were about to die. And uh, and so we all start, you know, throwing out three and four or five dollars, whatever it was. I mean, there was a price menu right there. And so we're leaving the money. We had Gatorades and we're leaving the money on the counter, and we we go walking out with arms of Gatorades and Snickers and whatever else we got, nabs, and uh up she pulls. And she says, Well, what are y'all doing? And we said, We getting Gatorades. It looked like we're doing. And she said, Well, y'all aren't supposed to be in here. And we said, Well, well, there wasn't nobody here, and it's a thousand degrees, and the money's right there on the counter. And so, I mean, you're welcome to check us out.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Scott was doing a great job explaining himself until she said, Well, how'd y'all get in? I locked the door. And we said, Well, the door, I mean, the door got in.

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Are you sure it was locked? Breaking and entering come into play. I'm not positive it was locked or unlocked. I mean, it it it came open, let me just say it that way. Um, and so long story short, she she said, Well, I'm I'm going to the clubhouse. And we were like, Okay, well, go on to the clubhouse. That's basically basically what she said.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

And yeah, as if she was going to report us or something, but we said, Well, don't make sure you go in there and count the money, because you'll see all the money is on the counter for everything that we have.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

And I think we might have even gotten changed from her at that point. I I don't remember exactly what happened with the exchange, but we went on about our our round. We went to hole ten and we kept playing. And lo and behold, about hole sixteen.

SPEAKER_03 30:17

Something like that. Um, here comes the like the manager, like the general manager of the whole course, a woman.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

And she was she was coming with two cart boys. Yes. One behind her and one was driving her, and so there was two carts, uh, her and a cart boy, and then another cart boy behind. And she had obviously brought these cart boys to like kind of be enforcers. They were the bouncers, if you will. Yeah, they were 16-year-olds that were there working the summer. And she was a yeah, a single lady, so she wanted some help. Yep. And they came pulling up to the green. We're standing there, you know, finishing out the hole, and the cart boy that was driving her stopped and looking at us, and she has given us a death stare.

SPEAKER_03 30:58

Oh, yeah. I mean, she's like, I am hauling y'all straight to the DA's office.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Oh, it's very intimidating. And up comes the second cart boy in the cart behind her, and he was not paying attention. He was looking at us. Yeah, looking at us up instead of looking forward. The cart in front of her, the cart in front of him stopped, and and he comes running, bam, drills the back cart.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

That probably Google will. No, that did not go. It did not help our cause because now she's double asking. She gave him the look that she was giving us, and she comes walking up there on the green and she says, Um, did y'all steal uh drinks out of the uh halfway house? And we said, No, ma'am. And she said, Well, that's what we've heard, and um I'm gonna have to ask y'all to leave. And we said, Well, we paid for those drinks. She said, Well, how did you get in the courtroom? I said, We went in the door. She said, Well, well, was it locked? And and we said, Well, we got it open. I mean, I don't I mean, we were in a couple of things. We were dying. I mean, give us a break. It was hot, we paid the money. I mean, what do you want us to do? And she said, I want y'all to leave. And we said, Well, okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Well, I think she said, Well, I remember, Scott, she goes, You got two choices. You can get in your carts right now and drive and leave the golf course, or I can call the police and they will arrest you for breaking and entering. And I said, Ma'am, I don't think that dad's right. She goes, two choices. And I said, I said, I said, ma'am, can I just explain to you? And she looked, she turned around and looked at me with a desk there, and Mitch goes, no, Stephen, you can't. We're leaving. So I was like, I really want to keep arguing because I thought they were a little bit out of line. But uh so we took Bogie on the next two holes and we finished our day two holes early. I tried to honor my elder Mitch and uh we quit arguing and we we went to the car with our tails tucked. And we don't I don't think Scott or I tried to go back and play at the Pearl for about 10 years. We're afraid our name was on our list. John Doe, Cash. I've been back to the Pearl since then, and it's a good course. Still quad course. It's it's it's what you pay for, and it's a decent price now at the beach. We have a lot of fun down there.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

But that story has gotten a lot of miles in the family, and whether or not our name is on the most wanted list in eastern North Carolina for breaking and entering.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

Yeah, the and and you can't communicate this enough in the story, but the best part of the story was that lady pulling up, giving us the desk there, and then that cartboy rammed her from behind, and she just jolted back and forth. Oh my gosh. And we then we started laughing, which didn't help any because she then she got it. Bobby could have talked her way out of it if not, if that hadn't happened.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

I blame it on that guy. Blame it on that guy. Because y'all were not at fault at all, right? Well, I mean, we we put money on the table, Bubba.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

I mean, I would think that like the reason you would lock the door, Bubba, is so nobody steals your stuff. Well, we weren't stealing anything. We were trying to have a economical I just mean that word up, trying to have a exchange, economic transaction.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

Okay. Our question to her was, well, why wasn't there anybody in there? I mean, you got a cart, I mean a golf course full of people. It's like having 38 uh checkout registers at Walmart and two of them have a cashier at. I mean, what's the point in that?

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Bubba cannot answer. He's stumped.

SPEAKER_00 34:09

No, I'm just I'm still, did you break it in or not? That's a yes or no question. It's a big rule book. That's a yes or no question. Did you break it in or not?

SPEAKER_03 34:19

But not with the intent to steal. I need a lawyer.

SPEAKER_00 34:21

That's not that was not a question. Do you know a lawyer? Do we know a lawyer?

SPEAKER_03 34:25

We know a couple. In fact, we're gonna be looking forward to having Wayne Ridgeway. Of person Ridgeway, one of the titles sponsors. We look forward to having him over here soon. He's his counter's pretty full, but we're gonna we're gonna make it work.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

So jumping back on like some of the things, uh, one of the highlights, and and and we've talked about this a little bit though, is truly is like the sponsors. I mean, the sponsors have been absolutely amazing. And when I say the supporter, that's gonna sound bare no, no, because they're sponsoring, but no, they really have. They've been encouraging. Yep. I mean, they've anything we ask, I mean, like, what do we ask them? They were they were willing to do. I mean, it whether it was you know, Jetback or Palm Casual, Burns and Ridgway, or or any, I mean, just they all been really good. Simpson Harwood just setting us up at their outdoor expo and stuff. I mean, just in that was definitely a highway. That's pretty neat. That meeting Jim Ronquist and getting him and and them even like sending people over to like come talk to us and everything and and on podcast. That was just neat, just to see the the true support of the sponsors of wanting us to be successful, not only for their business, but I think truly just investing in us as the podcast, just enjoying it. So that's been neat. That was probably a big highlight as well.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Yeah, and uh there's several people, several businesses out there that are faithful listeners that have talked to us about wanting to maybe be a sponsor in the future, and those opportunities might come, but uh not to run off any of the present guys that are helping us, but I mean it's it's those are our guys, yeah. It's kind of been kind of neat to have to tell some people no, frankly. Uh we and not because we're making a bunch of money, but because we're just paying our bills and having fun doing it, and uh, we want to do it right. We want to be fair, want win-win situations is what we're after.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

It's been pretty cool. That's pr that's been neat to me. I I that just it just is surprising to kind of see that. And and and it really does surprise me the number of people that listen. I mean, they come up and just say, Hey, I've been listening to podcasts. I'm like, You listen to podcasts? And they yeah, and it's just that's been pretty neat to hear too.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

But Bubba, we talked a lot about some of our heaviest laughs for that night where Lincoln was giving me a hard time, and then it it went a couple different directions from there. But uh do you remember w w what he called Scott when he talked about how he was dressed up for the dove hunt?

SPEAKER_00 36:32

Little Lord Porteroy. I mean, we uh Lincoln pumped buttons all, you know, he both moved the whole butts well, and he gave that whole little deal and everything. But he Lincoln is he's pretty good. He um he likes to dish it, he doesn't take it very well though.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

It's like a challenge, Lincoln.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

I wasn't saying he doesn't take it well, but that's okay. I mean I'll Lincoln.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

What do you mean when you say that?

SPEAKER_00 36:55

He he'll turn the table in a heartbeat. He's he's not so you come at him with a little bit of an insult, he he he flips it back pretty fast. Yeah, he tries to he tried to take the spotlight off.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

Yeah. Well, I mean, the best that's what they can do. That's one of the best.

SPEAKER_00 37:08

He could, absolutely. He's been he was he was great to have on him. He really was. We need to we need to have Lincoln back at some point this this year, I hope. Um, I think we can open twice as well.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Yep. And and George, you know, he lives in East Clarendon County, and that's probably another area where we need to push toward, guest-wise, because there's a lot of outdoorsmen over there that have got a ton of stories, dog hunting stories, but also um fishing and uh just everything outdoors. Um, you know, some family members of ours, but but there's just a lot of uh untapped stories that can be told from from that area that is encompassed in our community and in our area. So I look forward to pushing that way a little bit with guests in the coming year um and and having George back on, maybe bringing some of those guys and um lots of good future opportunities out there for sure.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

One thing uh I'd love to take a minute and look forward uh a little bit, and we did this at the six-month mark, and we looked forward and talked about some things we want to try to do, and and honestly, I'm a little disappointed uh that we haven't been able to do this yet, and it it's gonna take some time and some investment, is really getting the video stuff up and running a little bit more and having long-form video of the entire podcast, so a video cast uh of uh of it, so we can put it on YouTube and have a channel. But with that, I'd love to be able to, and we talked about this, create some more content for the video. And so we've talked about going fishing together or doing some hunting trips together and getting some uh video of uh of our interactions, but not just with nature, but each other out there. That's a lot of fun. And I think if we can get we'll make some traction, there'll be some baby steps, but I look forward to kind of getting that started here over the uh into the fall. Uh we got to get through the dog days of summer and we'll be able to start expanding.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

It is hot. It's hot. Somebody was talking to my fact talking to um Eric Cole today. He's like, Man, he said, I just don't remember it being as hot. He said, Man, I was I was working yesterday and and it was just I was out in the sun and that thing hit me and it just it's just it just wore me out. He said, I don't remember it being like that. I said, Well, the heat has not changed, but you have changed. Yes. And as we've gotten older, things change a little bit, and our ability to tolerate it and all that. But um it's hot right now. Oh, it is really hot. Yeah, we've been fishing on the lake, and I mean you'll get those little periods out there on the lake when there's no wind blowing and that sun's beating down, and it really is it's it's it's hot. It's like one of those almost make you want to get in the water type deal. It's it's it's really, really hot out there, but it's it's fun because like like I said last time, they're biting, so uh Bubba, I thought about you.

SPEAKER_03 39:42

I saw a social media video, and uh it was the 4th of July, and some guys were 40 miles offshore fishing, and they're in their big center consoles, I don't know, 25, 30 feet long, and some dude pulls up in a bass boat, 40 miles offshore, and they were laughing at this county. He said, You'd only see that in America. Somebody would try something that like crazy. I want to ask you, what's the farthest out you've been in in a boat that shouldn't have been out there? Whether it's a bass boat or a giant boat, what have you done offshore that you shouldn't have?

SPEAKER_00 40:12

I've been offshore a little bit, not not really in anything that I probably shouldn't have been, but I've been out sometimes that just and used to do a lot of that. So, I mean, believe it or not, I mean, I I used to do a lot of offshore fishing and and enjoyed it, and we fished all over the place, like SKA in the Southern Kingfish Association Trail. But in like I got been caught out there before, like in a 27 center console and and big thunderstorm. We got caught in a squall one time that literally I thought the boat when the when the wind gust hit us, I don't know if y'all ever saw the movie White Squall or whatever, but it was a kind of movie about this ship that uh boys that did a I guess a uh on ocean school, and it was pretty neat. But they got hit in a white squall, and and basically this big front hits them and it just it it flips the boat. And we got hit by a squall and it really it I thought the boat was gonna turn on. It it it it just about turned on the side. It was crazy. It lifted it lifted terribly to the hold on let's see, to the I want to say to the port, which be your left. Um those non-nautical people out there, uh it lifted to the port pretty, pretty, pretty heavily. Significantly. Pretty heavily. And so anyway, um just being out there trapped like that and think, golly, and I mean, and really other things, being caught in storms out there, and you're you're you're out there on a center console and lightning, you're seeing lightning hit the water, and the tallest thing out there is the T-top on that boat, and that's what you're standing under, and you you got all your antennas down, and you're like, golly, this is it really will humble you because at that point. You kind of sit in the street. It really will humble you. So speaking of that though, we had a very similar experience. I was fishing with my good friend Ty Gettings up out of Manio, North Carolina, Pirates Cove, and we were out offshore at what they called a point. That's where two big the Gulf Stream and another current come together, and we were out there fishing, and as we were going out, um, truly like all the people on the radio talking, and you got the guy that comes on, he blesses, he says a prayer in the morning as you're riding out, and the whole fleet kind of runs out together. And they go out there, and all these charter boats and stuff, they're all fishing and they're talking and everything, and they keep talking about this the idiot. They're like, You see the idiot, you see the idiot, and they're like, Yeah, we saw the. And if you've seen, you know, Wickeduna out of banks, you see you have to cross this bar. And it's right out under the bottom bridge, excuse me, and it's really, really rough. Like you get like you, they sink boats out there all the time. And when we went across the bar, it was rough that morning, like really rough. But once you get across the bar, it can still be rough, but that's just a real tough place where the current's running out of Oregon Inlet and the tide trying to come in, it just creates a massive swell on this bar. And so they keep talking about it. And I'm like, what are they talking about? I'm sitting up in the tower just with the guy that's driving the boat and just watching everything and that kind of stuff. And probably we've been fishing about an hour out there, maybe a little bit longer, and a 20-foot Boston whaler gets out there with like a 115 on it. Um, 115 horsepower, one engine, one guy, no T-top, as hot as blue blazer, he's got a big straw hat on, he puts his lines out, he's fishing by himself in this center, I mean, this one Boston whaler, like I said, 20 foot at the most.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

Which is very small to be doing that.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

Very, very small. I mean, we're in a 60-foot boat out there, and I mean all the other boats around the 60 and 70 foot, and I mean it's the smaller ones, but it's like it's it's like and and once you get across the bar, number one, the fact that he crossed the bar in that boat was pretty impressive. I know that's you can't sink a Boston whaler, um, but you can certainly turn one over and you can certainly swamp one. And but he got across the bar, and just to be out there and then having to come back in and all that kind of stuff, and like I said. There's so many storms and stuff that just kind of pop up and that kind of stuff that you get caught in. It's just like I want to be prepared for them out there because that is that's one of those things that it just I don't ever want. I've I've watched a bunch of videos and seen videos of people with forefishers and the boats going down and they throw the ditch bag out, which is you got your ePERB and your other radios and that kind of stuff, and you got you hopefully you got a a life raft or whatever, that kind of stuff. But that that would be a bad feeling if you get to that point. I mean, like really bad. It because because you're like, oh, I've got a life raft. You're a need on a haystack out there. I mean, if you don't have an e-perb and that kind of stuff, e-perb is a beacon that kind of lets you track where you're at. But I mean, that would be very, very humbling. So the other thing, well, I thought you were gonna say, and I've seen these people do this too, Bubba Johnson's not doing this. My niece and them have done this. They get out in the Gulf Stream, they'll jump out in the boat, and they'll be swimming out there in the Gulf Stream and stuff. I'm not getting in that water. I've seen some big things swimming in that water. I mean, I've seen some huge, huge sharks out there on calm days just swimming with the fin out in the water. I'm when I say big, I'm talking giant sharks, and there's no way I'm swimming out there. But I've seen them in the Gulf Stream not doing it. That'd be a Stephen Dinkins, you'd be right up your alley. You're a thrill seeker. I'd jump on his back. I know you would.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

Oh, that's why that fin's there. It's gives you something to grip.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

So anyway, long story short, that's kind of I had never really been out in the fashion. But I've been caught in some bad situations out there.

SPEAKER_03 45:24

Scott, have you ever been anywhere you shouldn't have been in a too small a boat?

SPEAKER_02 45:27

The only thought I have on that was, you know, I've told the story about Sandy giving me a present uh years ago, right when we got married. Um she bought uh the little warrior sneak boat from George, who we've had on as a guest, and she gave it to me. And we were up here um, I don't know, first year or two of marriage, and we slept right here in the clubhouse, me and her. And I woke up one morning um and I was gonna go uh brim fishing. I had some crickets, it was about this time of year, maybe a month or two earlier in the summer, and um I got out there and a storm came up. And I'm not like George or Bubba. Uh lightning does not bother me. Um you know, maybe I'm the idiot, I don't know, but um I'm I'm out there fishing, and you can see the storm coming, and I said, Well, you know, it's gonna be quick, and I'm just gonna wait it out. And so I ease over to the bank as the rain starts coming across the water, and you know, it's already hot, I'm already sweating, I'm gonna get wet, I'm already wet, and so I'm just waiting it out up against the bank, sitting in this little warrior sneak boat, and I mean it is pouring rain, and lightning's clapping, and um it's loud, and I can't hardly see anything because it was raining so hard. And then I hear what I thought was a horn honking. I'm like, what is that? And I'm over here, you know, past Charles's house up in some trees, and I listen and I sure enough it's a horn honking, and I look and I could see just barely, Sandy had gotten in my truck, worried about me. She was really worried about me dying in the boat that she gave me. And she had she had driven down the dam and stopped on the dam and couldn't see me, and had, you know, trying to get my attention, so she starts honking the horn. And so then I start coming out of the woods across the water in the pouring down rain, and I get over here to the dam.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

I'm like, what are you doing? She said, I was looking for you. I said, I'm fishing. She said, but it's storming. I thought you were lost or dead or lost or worse.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

Lost out here in the pond.

SPEAKER_02 47:36

I said, No, I'm fine.

SPEAKER_00 47:38

And she said, What she haunting the horn for you today? She did not. She would not. Uh uh.

SPEAKER_02 47:44

Oh, if she if it happened again, yes, she she was sh she is extremely worried about my well-being for sure. But um at the time we didn't have six kids, so she wasn't worried about raising any by herself. She was just worried about having some. And um, and so I I made my way back to the dock, and by that time the way the rain had pretty pretty much stopped and passed, and she was like, Why didn't you come in? And I said, Because the storm and the storm was gonna be gone soon. Um, and it was, but she was like, But weren't you worried about the lightning and the thunder? And I was like, No, I just eased over to the bank and got wet. And she was her idea of safety and my idea of safety are two different things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:25

Two different things. That makes uh because I'm you're gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

So speaking along this line, then you did ask a question. I didn't think about it, but uh it's amazing how these stories pop. So Amazing. The Pamago Sound, we we talked about possibly trying to go to Pamago Sound. Probably the scaredest or that I've ever been in a boat. We've we went up there, first time I ever wanted to go drum fishing, we went out of Cedar Island, um, and we went out to the point where we're going to fish, which was probably about a let's just say an eight-mile boat run. And we go out to the point and we set up and we catch them and they're biting. And the wind is blowing, and the wind is howling. And but they're fighting, and we're catching these big old drums. First time I've ever been in, it's all new to me as far as out in the Pamphilco Sound. I had a guy that said, all right, here y'all anchor him. It was nothing that we did. Good friend of mine that's just probably as good a drum fisherman as anybody I've ever met in my life. He said, throw the anchor here, throw this away. He had a bait of cool, he already had a cool full of bait for us. And I mean, it just from the time we started throwing rods out, we were catching them. And we're catching them, catching them, and it starts getting dark, and and we can see some storms coming in the background, and the wind just howling. I'm talking about absolutely howling. And then all of a sudden, and we're we kind of talked to him on the radio a couple times, and we're like, hey, storm's coming. He's like, Yeah. He said, We're gonna we can try to ride it out, and we're on the anchor, we're on the hook, is what they call it, and it's rough, and it just just gets nasty. And I'm talking about when I say nasty, I'm talking the wind really picks up, and it's raining sideways, and it is just horrible. And when I describe how horrible it is, it's just like like this is I've never been anything like this. And he comes over to us in his boat, and he's like, hey, we're gonna try to get back, and we're just gonna try to keep it into the wind as much as we can. He's in a Carolina skiff, and we're in a we're in a 23-foot um bay boat, and he's in a he's in about a 21-foot Carolina skiff, and every time like that boat would go over a wave, the wind would catch it and blow it sideways. And we're following him, and we're tracking on the GPS and trying to make sure we're driving a straight line to get back to where to landing. And I think our eight or nine-mile run, wherever it was, turned in like 28 miles for us to get back. That's how long it took to get back. We got back to the landing, as soon as we got to the rocks, the stars come out, and it just pairs up and beautiful. And but we're like, I don't know if he's like, he said, I'm telling you right now, it's scared as I've been on my ever been in my life on the water. While we were there, three tornadoes crossed the Pampago Sound while we were there, like out there in the storm. And like, it's pitch black dark, and you're like a little bit nervous, but when it was lightning and you could see the sideways rain and everything, it was even more intimidating. You're like, man, let it be let it be dark again. And it just it was absolutely he was so nervous. I swear he wore his life jacket for no probably an hour and a half once we got back to the house. He had it on in the house still wearing it. I was like, man, you don't ever wear either. I'm telling you right now, I was scared. It was bad, it was terrible.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

That reminds me, Stephen, you'll probably be better at telling this story than than I will remember it because I was so little, but I was probably six or eight years old. We had made a trip down to Charleston uh down the river through the locks, and we were on the way back. Yeah. And it was me and uh I was in Daddy's boat, I was in his sunbird, Monk Charles had another Bay liner, maybe, uh same type um fish and ski in front of us, and you and Mike were following us in a bass boat. Yep. I don't remember much about that little bass boat, but it was small.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

It was small, it was Mr. Holiday's bass boat because David was with us, and for some reason David didn't come back, and uh Mike was driving it, and uh it was the storm was coming up as we got to the locks, coming down from Charleston. We came up to the locks, and the sky was turning gray, and you knew the storm was coming from the upper part of the lake across the lower lake, and we still needed to get across the lower lake and then across the big water in front of the dam to get to Randolph's. And they said we're shutting it down. And I don't know if you could do this today, but somehow Charles and Steve, my dad, they went up there and talked them into opening that lock and running it one more time and letting us have a chance to get across. And they're like, We're not gonna do it, not gonna do it. And they finally talked until they they actually let them. And they opened those doors up. We pulled in and they filled it up with water. And I'm telling you, when they opened those doors on the other side, it was like tsunamis everywhere. And at this point, what are you gonna do? You're gonna say, Oh, never mind, can you let us back down? It was like, you gotta go. Because you begged them to let you go, they're gonna let you go. And so we went. And that lower lake, it's not as deep as the upper as Lake Marion. And so it gets a lot rougher. So it was rough, and I mean, just bam, bam. And I remember like we were coming out of the water, and we were the third boat, you know, behind one wake, behind another wake, and we were still coming out of the water, and you'd hear that prop, and it would come out. It and but we were just trying to keep up, and it was thundering and lightning, and the women were crying, and you went to boats at 15 or 15. I was like 14 or 15, and I was probably too dumb to be too scared. But I was holding on and we were white knuckling it, but I remember the women screaming and fussing, and dad and laying the nail catching earfuls up there. Yeah, but we kept on going. But then I thought, I remember thinking, well, it's gonna be better if we can get on to big water, you know, on Lake Marion to go across the dam. Well, then the problem is it's not as rough, but that channel is not as big as you think, and all those rocks are on your right, and it's constantly trying to blow you into those rocks, and the lightning's still popping, and it was still rough because everything was washing back off the rocks, and it was a disaster. But we made it, and it it was amazing that scary it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

The scaredest I have ever been in a boat, and I've fished a pretty good places all over bath fishing and everything on some big lakes and everything. The scaredest I've ever been is on our lake in front of the spillway on the upper lake, um, in a bath boat. And I'm trying, but because what you just said, that water washes up against that spillway and then it comes back and it creates almost like a washing machine effect new. It's not like it's coming one way and you can ride on a trough. There's no trough to ride in. It's just up and down, up and down. And I I was in the Jamie Glasscock and I fished a bathroom and we were coming back across the dam. And I was worried about sinking that day of swamp. I'm not sinking, because bath boats typically are not gonna sink. They're gonna swamp and fill up with water, and then motors could cut off and that kind of stuff, and you're just gonna be holding on, and then we're uh we're at the spillway, and I'm like, okay, well, we can go over the spillway. I was nervous because it was rum, I mean, it was really, really rough. But that's probably the most nervous I've been. That place gets it gets nasty. I mean, the whole lake, our lake gets it can get rough. The lower lake can get terrible. The mouth of the canal, when you got a lot of current running out of the canal and the wind blowing into the canal, it can create some pretty big waves there. But but in front of us pillway is probably as rough as I've ever been on the lake anywhere.

SPEAKER_03 55:27

Mother Nature can put you in some terrifying situations, that is for sure. Uh, we've been running at a good clip here, told some good stories. Uh, we started thinking a lot about this 50-second episode, and I just want to say a quick thank you to Simpsons Hardware, to Burris and Ridgway for being our title sponsors, for really being the backbone of the operation. But I want to thank um Charlie Banks, Adventure South, want to thank Palm Casual, I want to thank Southeastern Greenscapes, want to thank JetVac all for pitching in and being partners with us and helping us do what we have really loved doing. And uh the Lord's been good to give us a year. I hope he gives us another year. We're all committed to kind of continuing on and just seeing where it takes us.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

I'd be remiss if I didn't really want to thank you. I mean, I know y'all don't think about it. I really want to thank our wives. I mean, I really do. They're they've been awesome and they've kind of been supportive of us and and encouraging and everything. And um, I just I think that's been pretty neat. And we've talked about having them on, so we talked about looking forward. I can't wait to have them on because I think that Cher and Sandy have a lot of good scores, stories they want to share. Kim really doesn't have a whole lot she wants to talk about, but I am pumped up about having them on and and and just really do want to thank the ladies, they've been great.

SPEAKER_02 56:32

Yeah, I would say that uh there are times every now and then where I'm going to do something and Sandy won't like whatever my plan is. But if I'm coming to record for the podcast, she's okay with it. And uh she's really been supportive. She loves y'all, she loves what we're doing, and so I would echo that. Uh big thanks to the ladies.

SPEAKER_03 56:50

Absolutely. Well, we're grateful also uh Did you want to say something about Sarah real quick? Or just well no, I agree with everything. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

I've been able to kind of set that up, just kind of tee that up for you then.

SPEAKER_03 57:00

Sarah is twice the wife of both of you. Well done. Well done. No, she's awesome, and she's looking forward. It's funny. I we talked about having the ladies on, and I told Sarah, because we talked about maybe it working out tonight, but it didn't. There were some calendar conflicts. But I said, Sarah, we're thinking about Sunday night having the ladies on. Are you ready to come? And she's like, I don't know. I what would I say? You know, what story would I tell? I'm just not sure. And then she listened to the podcast that day, the one with Sean Matthews, and she was on the way up to Greenville and listening, and she calls me mid-epishop. She goes, Are we still on for Sunday night? I cannot wait. I got some stories to tell. So once her juices started flowing, she got all excited, and then she talked to Kim. We spent time with Kim and Bubba as we talked about going to here with the Michael Jackson tribute, and uh that got those girls talking, and so they're I think they're gonna be revved up and uh we're gonna we turn them loose. We better be careful. I know who knows what we're gonna get. Might turn it into their podcast. Yeah. Well, we're thankful to wives, no doubt. We're thankful to those sponsors I mentioned. Uh, we ultimately are thankful for the listeners that keep tuning in. We're thankful for y'all putting up with us, putting up with bad sound, uh, maybe bad stories, maybe uh sinus infections. You put up with a lot, uh, and you keep coming back. We keep having good numbers that we get to report to our sponsors. We get to have keep numbers that keep us encouraged, want us to press forward and to get a little better and to try some new stuff. So we're grateful to y'all. And honestly, it you it doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you get a chance to share that the episode that you like to your friends, your family, it means a great deal because it just multiplies and that ripple goes out. So continue to do that. We're thankful for those of you that have, and uh, we look forward to coming back and having another year of episodes with you. We're gonna wind it down now. We're gonna shift over to a word segment, but uh, we look forward to being with you again on another mostly legal Monday.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

One year, thanks guys. One new year, happy birthday. All right, well, welcome back to our word segment for this week. Uh, we're gonna do something a little different. We've got all three of us here together, and Stephen's gonna read from Philippians two as we dive into a couple of verses here that are fresh on his mind. We're gonna kick them around together, and we trust it'll be an encouragement to you. Stephen?

SPEAKER_03 59:07

Yeah. Philippians chapter 2. Uh Paul is writing to that church there in Philippi. I'm gonna read two verses, 12 and 13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. I had a chance to teach this in Sunday school this morning, so it was fresh on my mind. And what I wanted to speak to uh briefly, and then I want your you guys to chime in, is this idea of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And I want to be very clear that it doesn't say work for your own salvation. It says to work out your own salvation. And the same guy who wrote this, Paul, is is is who wrote Ephesians and who wrote so much of the New Testament where over and over again he tells us it's not our faith that saves us. I mean, excuse me, it's not our works that save us, but it's our faith. And it's not works so that no man could boast. So certainly he's not changing gears here and saying something that would contradict that. He's not saying we're supposed to work for our salvation. He is saying we are supposed to make an effort to work out the salvation that has been granted to us. He says the next verse, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So God has a plan to use us, and he has a plan to sanctify us. But there is a tension here of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. He is the one who began the work. In fact, in chapter one, Paul tells them to rejoice because the one that began the work in them is going to complete it. So he's kind of continuing this thread. It's God who began the work, it's God who is continuing in the work, but there is a responsibility we have to make an effort to see that worked out. And how do we do that? By being obedient, by following the commands and by loving other people and following the example that he just gave us in chapter two in that Christ Hymn that follow following Jesus and lowering ourselves. And it's not easy to do. It's easy to say, but uh we'd love to talk about some practical ways that that we and our listeners can figure out what that might be in 2026 to work out our own salvation.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

So that ties in greatly with the sermon that I listened to this morning. We um I think it was 1 Peter 3 15, where Peter is telling be prepared. And what that going in to be prepared, when people ask you questions about your salvation, about Christ, being prepared. When I hear you say work out your salvation, um yes, we it's not works that we we're saved, we're saved by great faith in Christ. And and so when I hear that work out, like like what does that mean? And how does that affect me? And like how can I use that to tell others about what God did for us through his son Christ. And being prepared when we get those questions, when somebody asks us, like, what does it mean? What does it mean? You say you're a Christian, what does that mean? And being ready to give them an answer. Um I think that we all need to be prepared to give that answer when somebody asks us, What does it mean? What does God mean in your life? What what is Christ and who is Christ in your life? I think it's important that we're ready for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Yeah, I know I I agree a hundred percent, Bubba. I think um this idea of of working out, you know, we we don't love to do it physically, but there's something that comes along with physical exercise that gives us a sense of, okay, now we're ready. Um like for instance, the other day I had to um pull the battery out of my boat to charge it, uh, because it didn't have a cord long enough to get all the way to the boat. And so I said, well, I'll just, you know, I'll uh unhook it, I'll jerk the battery out of the back of the boat and I'll carry it up to the house and I'll charge it up there. And while I was doing that and I was toting the battery up the yard, I was thinking, well, I'm glad I'm glad I've been doing some exercise lately, because this isn't as much work as it would be had I not. And uh, and so it was, you know, in the same way that Paul's encouragement here is that we're to be doing that from a salvation standpoint to to ready ourselves, to work, to work out, um, you know, it was good that I was doing a little bit of work uh before I had to carry that battery so it wasn't as bad. And I think, you know, Stephen, your question is what does that look like for us? I think that's um going, you know, going back to the basics each day, um, and doing the normal, I'll say, exercises of um getting in the word, um, exercising prayer, um, you know, praying through not only um our our praises and and our things that we're thankful for in our lives that God has already blessed us with, but but then making requests to Him, praying, you know, for my family, praying for uh folks I know in our church, missionaries that we support, etc. Um, but these are the daily things that we're to be exercising as Christians so that we are ready, so that we're prepared when that word uh you know comes back up like just just tonight. I said, Hey, why don't we do a word segment together? And uh and Stephen said, Well, I've got something ready because I've I taught this lesson this morning. And that's just one aspect. You don't have to be a uh uh Sunday school teacher to be ready with the word. Um and it's you'll be amazed, I always am, uh, at the opportunities I have to talk about the word that I've read at some point that week in a conversation that I had just last week. I was visiting somebody in our church who has been in the hospital and is in recovery at home. He's doing physical therapy, and you know, he was just battling um the uncertainties of getting back to where he would like to be physically, and what that does to your mind and your um spiritual and emotional capabilities. I was just encouraging him with truth from God's word that I'd read that week. And um, and so it's just it's being being ready, I think, is part of that working out, and and part of that being ready, being prepared is just doing the daily disciplines of getting in God's word, of exercising yourself in prayer, and just staying in a uh faith-filled mindset that God is at work, even though we can't always see it. He is working around us uh for our good and for the good of those that we're gonna come in come into contact with. He's gonna put us in the right places at the right times.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:42

And how how incredible and exciting is it that we serve a Lord who wants to use us. I mean, he doesn't need us. Uh he he he could do it all without ever using us. But he wants he wants to use us, and he allows us to be part of of that ministry, and that's pretty neat. And I think it it's always good to be ready to be used by God, and what a privilege that is that we get to do that. And that that just blows me away. We were talking about that the other day, and I think I was talking with Thomas about it, and just saying, you know, God doesn't need us. We'll we're just he he lets us be part of his ministry, and that is so awesome that we we serve a God that that lets us take part in that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:18

So, in summary, Christ has called us not to a life of coasting once we know him, right, and of just being a sitting in that salvation, but he's called us to a life of effort to work out that salvation as you guys have described in a way that brings him glory and a way that sanctifies us and prepares us for the glory that's coming. So for our listeners out there, we don't get it right all the time, but that's the goal, that's the challenge is to be at work, putting the effort in to work out this salvation that God is doing. And and when something does go well, we don't take the credit, we realize it was God working through us, which is what he says in that next verse. So there's some humility that is that is needed as we make any progress in that journey. But uh, we're praying that for each other, praying that for y'all, and look forward to coming back with another word segment.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

All right, have a great week.