Can We Podcast Anywhere? (Six Flags Edition)

This episode is a bit of an experiment.

We took the podcast out of the studio and into the chaos of Six Flags Magic Mountain to see what would happen. No perfect setup, no quiet room—just us, some mics, and plenty of background noise.

Between roller coasters, crowds, and random interruptions, a father-daughter duo joins us as we talk about the mix of fun and fear that comes with riding coasters.

It’s unpolished, a little unpredictable, and honestly just fun.

Think of it less like a structured episode… and more like bringing you along for the ride.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Welcome, welcome to the Grace Period Podcast, where we gather for honest conversations about faith, everyday life, and the grace that carries us through it all.

SPEAKER_02 0:16

We're gonna need a lot of grace today.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Think of this podcast like friends sitting down over a cup of coffee, sharing stories, laughing at ourselves, leading to God's grace together, and sometimes a cup of coffee, a cup of coffee over on an amusement park at Six Flags. That's where we are today. Grace Period Podcast, making room for grace in real life. This podcast is sponsored to you by Christ Lutheran Church. Where I'll be I'll be honest, I wish I was there right now instead of here. But my name is Noel Thompson Brought once again here, my co-host Josh. Josh, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Uh I'm good. I'm a little tired. I've already maxed out all the rings on my Apple Watch. Um kind of ready to go home.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Yeah, we've been here now for about five hours. Yeah. Um, we got about five uh four hours to go, but this is our first kind of podcast away from our studio back at church. We I don't know, we kind of just thought to ourselves, let's just try it out. We want to bring this to sermon trips, so this is kind of a tester, if you will. So I kind of brought uh I brought the most of the studio with us, but let's call this our travel kit. Yeah, right. So immediately we're gonna we're gonna apologize for any background noise. I see a fountain. We're by the fountain by the main gate, if anybody's ever uh been here before.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

Yep, there's uh like three roller coasters that actively go by us. Yep, and we got people quiet places in this no, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

I was our whole time walking around. Um, I was looking for for for places to do this podcast. I don't know if we found the best spot, but we found the most probably comfortable spot. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Oh, yeah. You know, there's only like 400 people walking by us looking at us.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

I know, looking at us, but you know what? That's fine. We are we are by the Starbucks, which I will get here pretty soon before we head our way home. That sounds good. Caffeine is great, and uh yeah, so we are at Six Flags. So this is something that we do here at church at our youth group here every single year. It's kind of been a tradition since at least I've taken over. We always come here on spring break. It's your favorite event, isn't it? Yeah, uh, it's so funny. People always think I'm joking when they say I I I hate this day, but I really as I've gotten older, I've I'm not not not my favorite day, and that's probably what I want to talk about later in this podcast, which is how we change over life. I wish I had this experience when I was 17 or 18, because I think the 18-year-old Noel would have loved it. But 18-year-old Josh love six flags?

SPEAKER_02 2:36

No, actually, he didn't. He didn't no, I grew up just 45 minutes from this place and never went. My first trip here was with the church.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Okay, yeah, so we the youth come here every uh spring break, usually the Tuesday, because Monday we kind of have worship planning, Tuesday we come here, then obviously we have services for the rest of the rest of the week on Thursday and Friday. So Tuesday has kind of been a tradition here, and it's interesting because I think the LA schools are on spring break already. I think LA schools for the most part have their spring break set.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

They're already back, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, usually there's their spring break is set like second week of March or third week, no matter no matter when Easter is. Where Vysalia, their spring break is usually um Easter.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

So it's always the week before Easter.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, and then some schools have Easter Monday off, some don't. Um, but so the the the park here, the the amusement park is not always packed, so that's good for our youth at least. Yeah, because um it definitely was empty this morning, but it's kind of picked up here in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

I still would not call this crowded.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

No, especially if you like go to Disneyland. This is definitely not crowded at all. Um, and so and Josh and I were noting if you ever if if you ever do ever come to this park, or if you have already, it feels like you're just constantly walking uphill no matter where you go.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Everything is uphill from everything else, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

It's it doesn't matter what direction you go, it doesn't matter what direction you go, where you're going. You're you're going uphill at some point, which is pretty impressive. Um, I'm not I'm sure there's a reason why they built this amusement park on a big old hill in Santa Clarita. Um, but they decided to do so, and our feet will feel it later.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

So I actually on my web on the computer here, Josh. I do have some national days. Okay. I did uh um it's Eiffel Tower Day, so we are recording this on March 31st.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Eiffel Tower Day.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Eiffel Tower Day.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Okay. Um, have you ever seen an Eiffel Tower? I've never been to France. Okay. I mean, I took three and a half years of French. How much did you learn? I learned a lot, actually.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Not learn, remember.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Sorry, remember remember almost none. Okay, I can read it. I don't know what I'm saying though.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

I think that's common for most high school people. Yeah, for any language.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

There's a minute there where I thought I wanted to be Jacques Cousteau.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

I mean, haven't we all? The ocean, right? Or the opposite, people do not like the ocean. So, what's the opposite of Jacques Cousteau? Um, someone who's looking for dinosaurs in the middle of Montana, like a mountaineer, mountaineer, a ranger, yeah. Eiffel Tower, oddly enough, that's what I went to school for after that. There you go. Um, for the people who have seen Eiffel Tower, I I am one of them. Uh, I feel like you usually get two different reactions with the Eiffel Tower. Either people are astonished by it, like it's the best thing in the world, or they think it's overrated. It's one or the other. I don't know. It's one of those uh one of those landmarks, one of those things where I think people are either blown away by it, but they're not. I don't know. If you ever seen the Eiffel Tower, let me know. So um, National Crayon Day.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Is it crayon or crayon?

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Yeah, I don't know. Yes, the answer is yes, crayon or crayon. Yep. Ooh, it's also a national tater day, tater tots, tater tots, love a good tater tot. Oh, yeah, absolutely. There's actually a lot of days here today. Um, we also have prom day. Do you want a prom?

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Never I got turned down.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Oh, yeah, you want to share that story at all?

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Um yeah, so yeah, I don't know. I got I asked like a couple of different people. I never went to a single dance in high school. Okay. I finally it was like senior prom. I'm in metal shop. Yep. There's a girl that I went through three years of metal shop also with. She was a very, very skilled welder. Yeah. And um, we were good friends, and I asked her if she wanted to go with me as friends, and she said, No, I'm not gonna go. Okay, found out later she went with somebody else. Wow, all right, yeah. That's my high school. That's that sums up my high school dating for for Josh, right? That's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

Okay, all right. It's also uh National Bunsen Burner Day, which um, if you look at all my science classes uh throughout high school, I did the worst in chemistry and I blame the Bunsen burner. Why? I hate fire, scared me. Like I was so scared to death of that Bunsen burner.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

I don't think we were even allowed to turn ours on in high school.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I didn't use it until college. Also, I was a freshman, so to have it as a freshman is is hard. So oh, I see walking up here is Joe Schuster and Gianna Schuster. This is also gonna be one of those podcasts where it's like live, but I'll edit it later. So yeah, Gianna, come on. Gianna's gonna sit in our uh Gianna's gonna take my mic. Gianna's gonna sit in our guest chair, in our guest chair here, and so um but yeah. Gianna is joining the studio.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

You're gonna want to put this right next to the show.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

Yeah, I gotta put it right close to your Gianna. How are we doing today? How's your magic mod experience so far?

SPEAKER_00 7:53

I'm good. How's yours?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Uh, you know what? It's doing great. It's going as I expected. I went on one ride, I got sick, and I've been just been hanging out ever since. What rides have you gone on today?

SPEAKER_00 8:07

I've gone on Totsu.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Tatsu, rate that out of 10.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

10 out of 10.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

10 out of 10. So that's your dad's favorite too. Shout out to Joe. You gotta you gotta go on your dad's favorite ride. Although riding that ride first thing at 10:30 in the morning is is quite a way to start your day. So you gotta ride it early because it's it's no lines, right? Yeah, yeah. All right, what else did you go on?

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Uh gold rusher.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

Gold rush?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Gold rusher.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Gold rusher. Okay, did you like that one?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

How would you rate that out of 10?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Uh, probably a solid eight.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Did you go on gold rush right after Tatsu?

SPEAKER_00 8:46

No.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

I was gonna say talk about extreme to extreme, like that's one end of like the extreme roller coasters to the other. Okay, so gold rush is an eight. What else did you go on?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

We went on Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman, which I forget what it is.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

It's like the first ever single rider of its kind, single rider, single track, which we'll talk about that here later. But every roller coaster in this I'll say it, God Forsaken Land, is when it opened the first of its kind or a world record holder. That's a make this, and it truly is the roller coaster capital of the world. I I will give them credit. So, yeah, the real capital of the world. Uh, what would you rate Wonder Woman?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Probably, I don't know, it was scary because I've only ridden it one other time, other than right now, and before it wasn't that scary, but this time it was pretty scary. Pretty scary. So this time I probably say a six.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

A six. Were you like towards the front of the roller coaster? Were you uh towards the back? Where were you?

SPEAKER_00 9:46

No, I was second to last.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Second to last.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

My dad was behind me.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Oh, and they said now at Disneyland, I like riding the very last because I feel like you get whipped around a little bit more, a little bit more speed in the back of those roller coasters. Okay, so after Wonder Woman, what'd you do? What other rides did you go on?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Um, I did the injustice. I did the injustice buzz. Like it's kind of like it's kind of like the buzzlight you're riding.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

You shoot lasers or something.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Yeah, you shoot you're like in a car and you shoot lasers at them and stuff like that. I don't know if that counts, but yeah, it counts.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

What was your score? Do you remember your score?

SPEAKER_00 10:22

It was like four thousand four thousand something. It was four thousand something.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Did you beat your dad or did dad beat you?

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Oh no, my dad got like almost eight thousand. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

We don't let kids win around here in the deeper youth group.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I for Sunday school. I didn't realize that the color, because you shoot and it shows color. I didn't realize the color that we were was in front of us. Okay. So I was like, what color am I?

SPEAKER_01 10:46

And I was just I gotta say, real quick, that's my favorite thing. Um, in Sunday school, when I did Sunday school, I let the kids win, you know, that's a nice thing to do. And then when they went up to deeper and Mr. Noel is no longer Mr. Noel, and I'm they they get to experience competitive Noel. I don't let them win. That that that stuff is done, right? That's the real world for you. So good for your dad for teaching you some life lessons there on whatever, whatever ride. I already forgot the name of it, but yeah. All right, what else, Gianna?

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Um, I went on the swings like swing and they go taller and taller.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Oh, yeah. How was that?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

It was good. It's really, it's really like chill. Chill, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Not many chill rides here, so you gotta take advantage of those rides. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

It's very, it's very like slow, or it's not slow, but it's very calm.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

No, yeah, absolutely. What else?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Uh I think that's it so far. Oh, yeah, West Coast Racers.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

West Coast Racers, which is one of the newer rides here at Six Flags, it's kind of towards the corner. I call it no man's land because there's no tree over there, not one single tree of shade. I tell you what, we've been very blessed when we come here as deeper because weather-wise, it's always been pretty good. I can't imagine that area of Six Flags when it's really hot. Me and Josh were talking about that. There's so much concrete, so many rides, not one tree, not even one leaf over there. It's insane. So, uh, but West Coast Racers, that is one roller coaster I've yet to go on.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I just have it's really fast, like a really fast.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

It's like a Twisted Colossus, but faster and made of metal instead of wood. So which is interesting. You have two roller coasters here now that are kind of like you're racing with one another, but but with twisted colossus, sometimes if one if one car is behind, you don't get to race the other one. But I feel like West Coast racers are always racing no matter what, right? Yeah, yeah. Do you get to on the West Coast racers? Do you do you get to choose what color you're on?

SPEAKER_00 12:40

No, it's just whatever comes up first.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Um okay, all right. What else about your day? What'd you have for lunch? Let's talk about lunch.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

We had nachos at the only like anything other than burgers. So everywhere sells burgers, but that one inside part um that has a bunch of restaurants, they have Mexican food, so I thought nachos.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Nice. You gotta save the burger for later because one in and out.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Yeah, that's what yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

Gianna is uh freshman at El Diamante High School in Visalia. That is where my daughter would be going. Go miners, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yeah, go miners.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

And uh one thing that's great about Gianna is she's in one of the academies at El Diamante, she is in strong. Oh no, no, media. I'm so sorry. Luca's in strong, that's what I'm gonna say. You're in media, Luca's in strong. Talk about your experience so far in the media arts academy, Gianna. How have you liked it so far?

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Um, it's been pretty good. It's one of the reasons why I why I love school, and it's the classes are really great. Um the teachers are really good at teaching.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

And I don't know, I've like I've really liked a lot of it is hands-on stuff. You're not just learning it, you actually get to like experience it and try it out. Yeah, and that's definitely useful.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

And yeah, and I gotta say, you show me some of the the the videos you've made, the short movies. I don't know what you want to call them.

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Short films, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, we're not professionals here. Josh and I say that every podcast. Short films, they're pretty good. You recently showed me like they're kind of I'm more on the scary side.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Well, we have um we had one prompt at the beginning of the year and we've done it three times. The first one was not good, but it was like it was just kind of that was more unserious, it was just like to try everything out, and then the last two were pretty like you need a lock in. Okay, and it so the first one wasn't very good, but it's like the same prompt, but then you can kind of do whatever you want with it. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

So, yeah, so you you enjoyed your time at El Diamante so far? Yeah, awesome. Um, what is like what is your goal with media? Is is that something you want to do in the future?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Um, I originally joined the academy because I want to be a photographer. Oh yeah, but that's not the most realistic thing. Like you can do it, but it's not as accessible. Okay, um, even though there's a lot of options. But I kind of joined to learn other options to learn what I like or what I because I I had no idea what I would like or what I would be good at, so I just joined and learned a bunch of stuff, and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Hey, you know what? What's great, Gianna, is you're trying new things. Yeah, there's a lot of power in trying new things. I think everybody gets to try something once, and uh, and you're doing that, and that anytime you try a new thing, it changes your perspective, it widens your your view on the world and yourself too. So I admire that about you and keep trying new things. What is one new thing you're gonna try in the year 2026? I know we're only four months in, but you gotta you gotta give me one here before you leave.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

One of our like short films that we just did, we submitted it into our like town film competition. Okay, it's it it's our teacher told us that the juniors are going up too, but he just wants us, he just wanted us to put it in so we experience it, and then later when we're juniors and get to submit like good films into um it's called Slick Rock competition.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

I've heard of that actually, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

When we put it into Slick Rock, then you know we'll have a chance to win. But this one's more just so we get the experience of you know, I'm going to slick rock and it's not the Fox Theater and Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

You have to let me know when that is because I will definitely try and go and see that.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

I don't um I don't think I'm going well because they pull because they pull out they pull out the people who are going out of school to go because it's during school hours, but they don't pull out the freshmans who or the freshmans or sophomores, they don't pull the undergraduates uh to go to it. It's only juniors and seniors that they pull out to go to it.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

So when you're junior or senior, we're gonna go.

unknown 16:50

Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Gianna, thank you so much for joining the podcast. Is this your podcast debut? Have you ever been on a podcast before?

SPEAKER_00 16:57

No.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Well, there you go. You could say you you the first time you're on a podcast was at Six Flags. I mean, that's a sentence. That's like a mad lib right there. You know what I mean? What are you what are your plans for the rest of the day? You we got about uh four hours left here at Six Flags. What are you what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Um I don't know. I don't know if we're gonna go on any more roller coasters, but we might hang out, have a funnel cake or I am definitely having an Oreo funnel cake before we leave. Because I've never had them, so I don't want to get one.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

It's right over there. I already saw someone walk by us right now, and I gave them the eye. I I gave them the eye of the approval, like, well done, good and faithful servant. So all right, Gianna, thank you so much for joining us and uh your podcast debut here on Six Flags. Gianna Gianna's one of the first youth to uh when I first started talking about having a podcast, Gianna was uh someone that was immediately like, I'm in. I I would like to listen to podcasts. And Joe Schuster is joining us.

SPEAKER_03 17:51

Joe, how's it going?

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Holly, is this your first podcast?

SPEAKER_03 17:54

This is actually not my first podcast.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Oh, yeah. You know what? You're the first you're the first person to say that though on this podcast. Because I think everyone we've interviewed has said they've never been on one before.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

Yeah, my uh my buddy from high school, Brett Griffith. He shout out Brett. Yeah, he had a podcast called the uh Maslow Peak Podcast.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

And so I don't know what you just said, so you're gonna have to explain the title to me there.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

So the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, yeah. And so at the peak is that self-actualization and you know being everything that you've dreamt of being. And so uh it was right after I think I got Teacher of the Year, and so he had me on it.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Nice little plug there, teacher, Teacher of the Year, Danuba, correct?

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Well deserved, by the way. Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Okay, so you were on his podcast just once there or twice?

SPEAKER_03 18:42

Just just once, yeah. Okay, I think that did it. Never again, never again, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

And so what got you into teaching? Was that something you wanted to do at an early age, or did something click? Did you ever have a like was it a light bulb moment where like I wanted to teach? How did you start your career into teaching, but also specifically at the high school level?

SPEAKER_03 19:06

It was a little bit of a light bulb. Uh honestly, it was uh one part. Well, because when I was in high school, I was absolutely against I said I do not want to deal with teenagers ever. That's not gonna be me, right? And then uh when I was going through college, I uh started working at the juvenile hall. Oh, because my brother worked out there and he said, Hey, you know, it's not that bad. Come out and work, see what you think. You you know, it'll pay pay your way through college, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Yep, right.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

And so uh when I got out there, I was like, Well, hey, you know, kids who are maybe on the kind of you know, they've had a harder life, right? If I can deal with that, well, you know, the you know, regular high schoolers can't be that bad, and and they're not, it's been actually great. I always joke with people that the uh because people always ask, like, oh well, what what's and you probably get the same question, right? What's it like working with teenagers? And I'm like, Man, the teenagers are great, the adults. Yeah, if I could have less adults and more teenagers, I'd be yeah, it'd be great. But uh, yeah, and then uh right around that same time I'd switch majors into mathematics and and then the rest was kind of history.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

So so you teach math at Dinuma? That's right.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Is there a Pacific grade or or or class or mostly our dual enrollment, so mostly juniors and seniors.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Okay, yeah. Um, where'd you graduate? Uh, where'd you get your call um degree in or where? Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 20:22

Uh Fresno State for my bachelor's and then master's through Fresno Pacific.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

So that that might have been a very bad question because Joe's wearing a Fresno State shirt and hat.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

So I'm I'm geared out today.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I kind of assumed, but I didn't want to assume too much.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Hey, you know, in this area, people could just be Bulldog fans, right? That's right.

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yeah. Have you always been in Dainuba or Dainuba district? Is that I have.

SPEAKER_03 20:43

I did one year at the junior high and then the rest at the high school. So okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Was it one of those things where why Dainuba? Was it just because there's an opening there, or did you or how did that work out?

SPEAKER_03 20:53

So a funny story on that one too is I had a uh so when you when you go to teach, you either have to get a credential ahead of time, which was what a lot of people do, or if you're working and you don't really have the time, one of the things you can do is be uh become an intern. Yep. And so when I was going through the intern program, you take these kind of onboarding classes, and I had this one class, and I can't remember what the particular class was about, but I thought the instructor just absolutely hated me. And I was just like, Man, okay, how many more? You know, it's the two-week course, okay, just keep your head down, just try to get through this. And then at the it the last day of the class, she came up to me, she said, Hey, you're you're a math teacher, right? Or that's what you want to do. And I go, Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I want to teach math. And she goes, Well, I've got an opening in my junior high in Dainuba. Would you like to come on board? And I just like, Hey, I just needed a job, right? So I was like, Yeah, sure. Hey, I'll I'll I'll you know, well, let me go for it. And so right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

So that's fascinating that you have this moment of where you thought you were disliked, right? But then a blessing like opens up.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

I mean, I feel like we all have had like those moments where you you just think one way, right? I don't know, maybe that's insecurity, maybe that's just us waiting. The room wrong, or or people wrong, but then the opposite happens where a door opens up. And and how long have you been there now? Did that Wit District?

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Her many years. So I I started teaching when John was about two weeks old. Oh wow, okay. Three weeks old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

So that's like me at church. I started two weeks before Luca was born. Oh, there you go. So it's very easy for me to remember how many years I've been at at CLC.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

I think sometimes with people our age, it's imposter syndrome, right? Even just the other day, I was telling somebody about that because I would they were saying, you know, I was at I was presenting at a at for an organization. They said, tell us a little bit about yourself. And I'm like, well, what could they learn? You know, want to hear from me. I'm I'm the new guy. Right. And I realized, well, no, I'm halfway through my career. Like, I'm not the new guy. I'm you know, really starting to be the old guy.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

So it's weird how our minds we we still think we're 21 or 25, but then we play basketball at the gym like no, and I can't do anything my mind wants me to do, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:55

Right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Now, Joe, I don't, I mean, you I uh I come from the land of unions, yes, Minnesota, Midwest, right? Uh farmer labor union. Yeah, uh, I'm a union guy and not trying to get you know into that, but one thing I learned about you was that you were the president of the union there in Dainuba.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

I am, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

How did you either voluntarily do that or volunt? Or how did you kind of you know that position there?

SPEAKER_03 23:22

You ever see those old cartoons where uh it's uh you know, okay, we need a volunteer step forward and everybody else steps back? I kind of feel like that was almost uh my position, but uh yeah, no, we had a uh our president and our vice president were both on the way out for terms and for you know other job opportunities, and so for a long time I had kind of resisted. Not that I don't I I I always was pro-union, it was just you know, I was always focused on teaching and that was it. And so they said, Well, that's good. Well, we need people to kind of be on the other side too. And so, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Are you still president or did that end?

SPEAKER_03 23:57

I still am. In fact, uh, I was nominated again for another term, and nobody else is running against me. So default, the two sweetest words in the English language, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:07

So now is this your last term? Is there a term limit? How does that work there?

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Uh there is, I think that'd be another two terms, would be my so after I've been there. I've been doing this for six years now. So six years, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Wow. So you could say it's a term limit, but not really, right?

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Right. I had a full head of hair before this all started, and now I'm clutching onto strands.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

So no, I have I I actually have a speaking of the gym in basketball, I have a few people that are from Dainuba, and they have said some amazing things about that new high school.

SPEAKER_03 24:38

Oh, yeah, it's it's it's great. The the high school is probably one of the best like looking buildings that you know, especially out of the I mean, those new schools, they almost went back. I mean, so you probably had a lot of schools that were indoors, primarily back being back in Minnesota with the snow.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

One big building looked like a prison, right?

SPEAKER_03 24:57

California has typically been the the you know all spread out and a bunch of different buildings, exactly. And we do have some of those, but we have our two main academic wings, and it's it's an it's a nice feeling, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 25:07

Okay, so it's it's not as much open, it's just more kind of bigger buildings with a lot right more quantity of those buildings. Okay, all right. When did that open again? Remind me.

SPEAKER_03 25:16

Oh gosh, that was uh actually that was a year ago in January. Okay, we decided to open it in the middle of the school year because reasons had to be open to it.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Had to be open as as union president, did you were you involved in a lot of that?

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had to be involved in quite a bit of that because it was well, you know, you gotta move, you've got to move your classroom. We were moving in the middle of the year because we had to, so you know, do you ask, you know, how do you get labor to be willing to to work on things that are outside of their scope and outside of you know their day. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

So me and Josh, every podcast we do, and I know Joe, you listen, we're always inches away from becoming a food podcast. Oh, right, right. Um, give me a good burger spot in Dainuba and give me a good burrito spot. Oh, okay. So because I I can I'm convinced I can eat two both one of those every day, burger and burrito. So give me give me some burger and burger burrito spots in Dainuba.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

So I'm gonna take the second first because I think that's easy. Well, it it's easier in a sense. So the best burrito place is actually this little market across the soon as you yeah, we're Josh and I are both nodding our heads.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah, on college market, yep.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

And you you know from the outside, you'd look at it, you go, no, that's that's you know, no way that that has and it, you know, if they have a you know, they have taco Tuesday, and then on on Thursday, they have these burritos that are you know the size of a small paper bag that you might carry a beverage in, yep, and it's just filled with burrito, and it's it's fantastic, great and all sorts of options for meat, and I mean just delicious. Okay. Um, let's see. So burger places in Dainuba. Oh, that's tough. The probably the best. Oh, yeah. Well, no, that place shut down. Maybe I don't know. I they have a foster's there. That's that's pretty good. So that's probably oh no, uh, I take that back. I'm gonna lose my Tularie residency, my my yeah, my growing up in Tulary license. Oh, they have a Wimpy's, so obviously it's Wimpy's. Uh can you edit that all that out and just immediately go obviously Wimpy's?

SPEAKER_01 27:17

We had a student, uh Bryson Arnold. Shout out to Bryson Arnold. He was what he was our Tuleri, our our Tillery kid, our one Tilleri kid for a while. And uh he went to Teleri Union. Yep, and every time he did an icebreaker, favorite burger, or favorite fry, his answer was always Wimpy's.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

That's the only correct answer.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Wimpy's. I've had it once. I actually had the Vicellia location.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:38

Yeah, it was really good. Yeah, it was really good. Yeah, um, the fries were good, actually.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

Yes, I will say that a lot of seasoning salt.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah, you gotta big salt guy, but they were pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

So, okay, so the market and wimpy's in Dainuba.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

Yep. Okay, yeah. Those be the two best places, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

Yeah, and are you originally from the Central Valley?

SPEAKER_03 27:57

Yeah, so lived a little bit in uh in a place called Fairmead, just north of Madeira. Okay, and then you lost me until you said Madeira, yep, and then uh we moved down here to Tillary, and then after college and everything, Vicelia, and that's been basically it. So traveled a lot.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

There you go. What's the commute to your house or did I move to Dinuba?

SPEAKER_03 28:18

About 25 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Am I is it appropriate to ask this on a podcast? What's your what's your record from your house? Uh you know what?

SPEAKER_03 28:27

Yeah, there was there was one morning I can think of. I I've gone there like 15. Yep. Yeah, yeah. With the one, and especially it was early and the 198 was open, and yeah, 198 to Alta and then or to plaza, and then just straight up. And this was before they had 18 stoplights on uh plaza. I don't know if you've been up there lately, but yeah, so okay, yeah, once upon a time.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Off air, I'll tell you my record from my House of Valley children's. Josh is part of that night, but yeah, I'm proud of it, but at the same time, we're definitely that's valid, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So, well, Schusters, thank you so much for joining us. We are going to uh continue this podcast. I have a youth calling me. I think he wants me to go on a ride with him. I'm not feeling great, so we'll we'll kind of see how that goes. But um, I'm gonna text him here real quick. But yeah, we are here at Six Flags here. We're here for four more hours. Um, Josh, we gotta go to Dinuba and uh apparently we gotta try burrito. Yeah, I guess we do. Thanks, guys.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

Um yeah, so are you gonna go on full throttle?

SPEAKER_01 29:31

I I might have to go on full throttle. I mean we might have to.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

There's no we in this. I'm not going on full throttle. I would I might I would drink a full throttle before I went on full throttle.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Okay, yeah, full throttle's tough. Full throttle, I definitely is one where I actually I I enjoy going on it. Um but afterwards I don't enjoy it. So we'll have to.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

That's the one that like plunges down into the hole, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:58

No, it's this one, it's the it's the largest upside down loop in the world.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Of course it is.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah, and at least when it opened. When it opened. Um yeah, so we'll see. Um it and that's the thing too here. Every every roller coaster here is when it opened a road record holder or the first of its kind.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Um yeah, it everyone is is insane. So and there's a few here I'm retired from. I just won't go on anymore.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

And that's all of them for me.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

That's all of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

I didn't even do the bumper cars this year.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

I yeah, it's just insane. Although, you know, I I do have an interesting story of roller coasters. I was in eighth grade in a field trip, and I've never been on a roller coaster before. We went to Valley Fair, which is like Minnesota's biggest roller coaster. Anywho, and we all went to like this new roller coaster when it opened, it was called Wild Thing, which is basically a mini Goliath. It was just known for a huge drive. Wild thing, wild thing, that's what it was called, and uh yeah, so we were all walking to Wild Thing, and everyone's like, Oh, let's go, let's go! Noel, you've been on this before, and I straight up lied.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Straight up lied to yourself and everybody to everyone.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

I was like, Yeah, I've been on it too. I loved it, and um, but to be it's weird, the story just turned into a positive, I guess. I went on it and I ended up loving it, and then I've kind of liked roller coasters ever since, but definitely lied. Peer pressure got me.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

Okay, how's it how's it been uh for you out here in the public? There's a lot of people watching us.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Is there a lot of people watching us?

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Yeah, there's a security guard that's trying to figure out if you need to kick us out for a minute.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

I feel good because I'm wearing sunglasses. You're not. I don't know. I've been focused on the Tasmanian devil over there and Bugs Bunny. Oh, yeah. So looking at him.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

That's uh Sylvester, not Bugs.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Oh, is it? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 31:56

You gotta get your non-Disney characters.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Um so all right, thank you. No, we just had a gentleman say keep up the good work. All right. So our fame has but yeah, we are getting a lot of looks here. A lot of looks, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:18

So we are on the main thoroughfare from the open from the gate up to like the most popular roller coaster.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Oh have you uh have you kind of not always been a roller coaster guy?

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Yeah, it's never been my thing. Yeah, really never been. I I love driving fast when I'm by myself. Parents that are listening when I'm by myself, right? Um, and like go-karts, those are always fun and everything, but when there's there's like a lack of control involved in roller coasters, and I can't get around that easily. I also don't tend to go upside down like those people just did in front of me when I'm driving. Yeah, well, I was I was telling some of the girls, like one of my biggest apprehension, too. I'm looking like a quarter mile away is the top of what is that Goliath over there? Yeah, it's Goliath right there. Yep. So not only do I not like not being in control, but what happens when it gets stuck at the top there? There's no way my shaky legs will let me get down off of that in one piece.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

That, yeah. And and not to be the the Murphy's Law, but it has gotten stuck, yeah. So it sometimes it's not a matter of if, but more a matter of when, and that's where yeah, I I try not to think about that a lot when I'm here. Um, because I have seen videos of people walking down those stairs, and that's where that's where, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Yeah, I had to get I got walked off of uh Space Mountain one time, and it really it was freaking it freaked me out, and we hadn't even gotten into the dark part, right? So the first ten feet you walked out exactly. I was like, okay, I get credit for riding that roller coaster right there.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

I'm not doing it again. You know, there's there's a lesson here though in six flags, and we always tell the youth, especially when we come in and uh do these events, it's like you know, like we're not making fun of people because they some rides get them. Oh, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Like, yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

And that's where too, it's like, yeah, some of these rides are so insane and and so intense. And if they're if they're too crazy for you, like there's no shame in that. Yeah, I think we have to we you have to kind of have to learn that we're all different and our stomach our stomachs handle things differently. It's like food, right? Not all of our stomachs can handle certain food or or what or whatever, but it's like because all these rides here are different. Some people don't mind going upside down, but some people do not like the up and down, like the falling feeling, right? You know what I mean? And all there's there's rides here that are kind of for everything. You have rides that are fast, you have rides that are like tall, like heights, then you have rides that are just like um the up and down feeling, you have rides that are upside down and and all this stuff. Some rides you're sitting down, some rides you're standing up. Are we gonna talk about the slingshot? Yeah, the slingshot thing that some of our youth did. My daughter, I mean, it's interesting how we all kind of have our preferences when it comes to like rides and stuff. And so when you're in the thrill capital of the world here, you kind of have to have no shame because again, some of these rides are insane. There's two rides, Tatsu, which I'm looking at, and X2 over over here. I'm retired from. Went on it once, and my body said, you know what, Noel, you should probably never do that again.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

So it's good to listen to your body.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

You gotta, yeah, you gotta listen to your body, you really do, especially at a especially when you're past 30. Oh, yeah. The body, hey, the body knows what it wants.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

I don't know if anybody's told you lately, but you're past 40 now.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

I know, past 40. Um, and the body's like, you probably shouldn't do this. Listen, you need to listen to your body, yeah. So all right. Well, we're Josh and I are gonna go off the pod here. We're gonna walk around and see our check out our other youth. I might get peer pressured into a ride.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

There's a funnel cake in my future.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Yep, the carousel is calling my name here, and uh yeah. So thank you for joining the Grace Period podcast. This is kind of an experiment episode because, like I said, on our servant trip here in the summer, we want to bring our podcast equipment down, and we just kind of wanted to see what we can get away with regarding equipment. So we'll, you know, we apologize if the sound is bad. There's a lot of music. I know there's a fountain, you have people, roller coasters, and so we do apologize for any of that. But uh, it was cool to talk to Gianna, cool to talk to Joe, and uh, and uh yes, it's a good time. We have a few people saying good job to us who don't even know what we're doing, they don't even know what we're talking about, but we've gotten some there's a few extra security guards around us right now, too. Yeah, I know I noticed that too. Yeah, I wonder if they're having a conference.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

I saw an executive walk by a few minutes ago before these guys did.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah, we're not trying to make trouble here. We just again simple setup. We're at a table here. We're not anywhere we should we shouldn't be. Yeah. So all right. Starting off from the Grace Period podcast, hope you have a wonderful week. Hope you have a wonderful holy week. We'll see you on Monday, Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Oh, check out the uh walk of uh walk of passion in the CCC.

SPEAKER_01 37:05

I've actually heard really good things about that. So signing off, we'll see you later and have a wonderful day.