Road Trip Revelations and some rain

Join Sharlotte and her Uncle Steve on this exciting episode of "Middle School Miles" as they explore the vibrant intersection of travel and tourism. As they journey through Great Falls, Montana, listeners will discover the joys and challenges of online schooling on the road, experience the charm of local bakeries, and learn about the fascinating aspects of tourism as a profession. Sharlotte shares her candid take on visiting ancient grain bakeries, petting friendly bisons, and the unexpected thrill of math class, while Uncle Steve provides insights into the unique opportunities and experiences offered by tourism. Whether you're curious about the tourism industry or seeking tips for a family adventure, this episode is packed with engaging dialogue, laughter, and learning from the trails of Middle School Miles.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Charlotte.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

And I'm Aunt Steve.

SPEAKER_01 0:03

And this is Middle School Miles.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Middle School Miles is a podcast about what happens when a 14-year-old goes on an exceptional road trip while studying online and traveling with her uncle. Yes. And that would be you.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

That would be me. Yeah. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Where are we?

SPEAKER_01 0:22

We are in Montana.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

I don't know what county we're in or what area we're in, but I know we're in Montana.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

And we were in Billings last week.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

We're in Great Falls.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Great Falls.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

So what do you think of Great Falls so far now that the rain has finally stopped?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

It was raining for like three days. It was awful. It's like very hot. It's like Florida. It's hot and it's smuggy. And I'm sweating.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

We just got back from a dog walk.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

And I'm sweating.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

But Great Falls had something that was kind of cool that we stopped at yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

They have a bakery and a really good cafe.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

What was special about the bakery was that they got baked goods. They've got not only baked goods, but all of the wheat that they use and all of the ancient grains that they use are grown here locally in Montana.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Oh really? I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Yeah, why do you think it was so good? We literally got a loaf of bread out of the upper slice fresh. And it's more than half gone.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

That's because I was eating it last night when you went to bed.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

And this morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

And this morning.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

We like bread.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

We like bread. We like desserts.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Well, what was the dessert that we got there yesterday?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

A Santa Ana bar.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

No, no, no, no, not that. It didn't even make the car ride back to the bus.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Oh, the chocolate chip. Oh my gosh. That was the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

It was pretty darn good.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

It's bringing back memories. Chocolate chip cookie. That thing didn't even make it past the block.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Barely.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Barely.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So Charlotte took a little bite and she asked me if I wanted a bite. No, she tried to swap my hand away when I tried to. And then she offered me another bite because she wanted another bite.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

And then next thing you know, she's like, oh, we'll save this for later. No, she didn't.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

No, I ate the whole entire thing.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

And what did we do before that? We met some local friends.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Who work in tourism.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

What do you think of tourism as a job?

SPEAKER_01 2:25

It's kind of boring.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Why do you say that?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Because you just sit at a computer all day and yell at people.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

I don't yell.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Stephen Voy, you're like, did you do that thing that I told you to do? Make sure you get your tasks done.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

That's not yelling.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

You're loud. Your voice is already loud, so it's technically yelling. Except. No, I'm not.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

What do you think about people who work to make their communities better by helping people find new jobs and helping businesses grow and helping make the community nicer and prettier? What do you think of those types of jobs?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

That's cool because usually put in a Starbucks.

unknown 3:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Or like a really good matcha cafe.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

You got some good matcha yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

It was not good. It was powdery.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Oh no. They didn't my tea was.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

It had syrups in it.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

It had like a lavender syrup and a ganacea syrup.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

I don't know what your tea was not good. My matcha was good. It's just the ratio of matcha and lavender syrup. They added too much lavender syrup. And then however they like made it, they either like stir it, like they didn't do it like they didn't mix it all, like they didn't shake it all the way. So it was like still like powdery. It was like still powdery. But the oat was good. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

So there were a couple things that they mentioned to us yesterday that we might want to do while we're here in Great Falls. One is go and find our own fossils.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

It's too hot for that.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

It's not hot.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

It's 58 degrees.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

59 degrees, excuse. And then the other one was go and see bison close. What was the bison's name that she was talking about? Juliette?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Julie Usman. Juliette Bison. The bison.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

The friendly bison.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

The friendly bison. And she likes your face.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

And she's got a strong tongue.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

She's got strong tongue. Yeah. I can like feel skin, I guess.

unknown 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

So what did we do last week?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

We were in Billings.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

We were in Billings. Yeah. I got a whole bunch of appointments taken care of on a day. I had to go to the door and the grocery store and the this store and the that store. You got sick.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Which is not fun when you're on the bus. No.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

But I lay in bed for like two days. And I had unlimited TV supply. And I did school for like one day. Yeah. When I was sick. And I had the best pop schools ever. Blue raspberry. But like the fun pops, there's like still two in the freezer. There's like red and orange, which and there was like blue and then this pink one. The pink one was magical. That thing tasted like lemonade. It was good.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

It was a pink lemonade flavor.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Whoa. Wait. Whoa.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Mind blown.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Mind blown.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

What else? What else? So let me ask you this.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

What are you doing now in school? So you're kind of on the cusp between seventh grade, because you've still got a couple seventh grade.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I have one seventh grade class.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

And you've got eighth grade classes.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

So what are you doing in those classes?

SPEAKER_01 5:30

So right now in history, I'm learning about the New Jersey contract or whatever that's called. And then I'm I don't know what I'm doing in language. I'm gonna be dead honest because I don't understand English at all. It's I did a hundred because I read the thing, but it's kind of stupid.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

It's reading comprehension.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

It's so stupid. And then I'm doing science and math. I was struggling in seventh grade math, but eighth grade math is literally all calculator work. I'm being dead serious. Today I literally only need to put four, and then those like comma thingies, and then like five. Parentheses? Yes, and then the other comma thingy plus seven. Boom, I got the answer. It was like seven. It's so easy math. But my math teacher is definitely probably on something because he's a little bit cuckoo.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

This is reported videos.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Yeah, and he's a little bit on something.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Is it the same math teacher you had for last year?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

No, it's not the cute one. It's not the cute one.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Oh jeez.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

It's some I don't remember what his name was, but like You said you liked Mark Goggles, but so did Sophie. Sophie was like, You still have the handsome teacher?

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Jeez.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

It was so funny. And then I'm also doing like Dolingo because I only have like what three classes now? No, four classes. And so I have to do something extra. So I'm taking German, French, and music.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

What's your favorite class right now?

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Music. Because it's easy. It's like I'm doing piano and it's literally playing a video game. I have to like because like keyboards at the bottom. So I just have to go like this.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

People can't see that on a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Oh yeah, I'm tapping, but you can't see that because it's an audio and not a video. It's we're playing it off of a video, but it's broadcasted in audio. Because yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

So in the next couple weeks, we're gonna go to Missoula. We're gonna spend time on an indigenous reservation. We're gonna go camping there in Flathead Lake. And then we're gonna go to Glacier National Park. We're camping every day.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Oh, okay. I'm thinking we're gonna do like a camping tent. You can go out there. I'll stay in the bus.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Oh, I'll get you a tent. I'll put you up in a tent outside the bus.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Feed you to the wolves.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

No.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

You send me to one of my camp grills and feed me to the bears.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yo, nobody must be feeding you to the bears, bro.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

The bears.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

No, not the bears. Beavers.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Or beavers.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Beavers.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

So what do you know about Glacier National Park? Because that's the next national park that we're gonna check off the list.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Those glaciers. Because it's in the sentence.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

It's supposed to be super duper pretty. Photobomb pretty.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

What's a photo bomb?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Like we're gonna bomb the place with photos. We're gonna take some pictures.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Marjorie.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

You're gonna take so many pictures. So we also travel with two furry companions.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

And they are Marjorie and Rudy. Rudy is American Staffy. And then Marjorie is a Chihuahua pug mix. And she's currently trying to get on my left.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

She likes you.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

She likes you.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

She cuddles with you.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Bro, she's like she's like glue. Anywhere I go, she follows me. When I was sick, Bo did not move. Bo took a nap with me the whole entire day.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

And when I got up to start work, so last night when I laid down, she scratched the door so she could come out here and lay with you.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

You're so cute.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So what advice would you have for someone whose family is considering starting online school? What do you need to do to be really successful in online school? You need to be able to start yourself.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Own a calculator.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Have a calculator. But you gotta be like self-motivated, right?

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah, you have to like actually want to do school.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

And not have somebody like barking at you.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Did you do school today?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Did you finish all of your work today?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Oh my gosh, I hate that sentence.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Why?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Because it's so annoying. I did do all of my school. You can literally look at us Elliot right now. Actually, not right now, because we're doing this podcast.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

That includes reading.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yes, that includes reading. I did reading.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Extra reading.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Extra reading. Awesome. 20 minutes of reading.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

So folks want to leave.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

20 minutes of Dolingo.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

If folks want to learn more about your experiences, they should subscribe.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

What the heck does subscribe mean?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Subscribe means that they should click the button so that they get every new episode.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Is that when you get paid?

SPEAKER_00 9:53

No, you're not getting paid.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

That's a bummer.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

That's a bummer.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Alright, this has been and Steve.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

This has been Charlotte, and this is Middle School Miles.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Peace out.

unknown 10:05

Peace out.