Episode 6 | Josh "Obie" Trice — No Neutral: Service, Speed, and Staying Connected

After 20 years in the United States Coast Guard, Josh "Obie" Trice continues to live a life centered on service, connection, and purpose.

In this episode of No Neutral, Obie shares stories from his Coast Guard career, including search and rescue missions in Alaska, life aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinac, and the challenges of serving through the COVID-19 pandemic. He also discusses how motocross, adventure riding, music, and community involvement have helped him maintain balance and stay connected after military service.

Now an OVN Ambassador Athlete, Obie talks about the importance of meeting Veterans where they are, building connection through shared interests, and using sports and hobbies as a gateway to long-term wellness and support.

From helicopters and icebreakers to dirt bikes and guitars, this conversation highlights what it means to keep moving forward and never stay neutral

Transcript

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Hello, everybody. Welcome back to OVN's No Neutral Podcast. I'm your host, Taylor. This is a show all about veterans staying in motion through using sports to build up their mental and physical health. Here with me today is Joshua, a Coast Guard veteran. Hello. And you just retired, correct, uh last year? Yeah, I retired uh in 2025. And it's 20 years or so for retirement, just like the other branches of the service, right? Yep, just like all the other ones. 20 years and you can collect your retirement. Nice. Uh is it delayed or immediate? It's immediate. It's just like anything else. Oh, cool. Um you joined right out of high school? Yes, yeah. I was actually I was signed up at 17 years old. So I graduated, I had a month off, and then went right to boot camp. Oh, geez, you didn't even get to have a summer. No, not really. We took a family vacation to Colorado for two weeks, and uh I had my wisdom teeth taken out. My uncle, who was in the Navy, gave me the heads up on that, and he said get them taken out before boot camp. So had my wisdom teeth taken out, family vacation, and rock and roll right to uh right to boot camp for eight weeks. Yeah, I got lucky they didn't force me to remove mine in uh in basic training or AIT for my job. Um and I actually got mine out not too long ago. Uh so what made you choose the uh the Coast Guard out of all the branches? Um, well, part of that was uh that my parents, they didn't uh at 17, I really didn't have the option to just go talk to anybody I wanted to, so they kind of limited me on what recruiters I could talk to. And um the the big thing for me, I wanted to help people. And the other branches, you know, they go to war, and sometimes you have to hurt people. Um Coast Guard has been involved in every major war as well, but our our primary mission is life-saving. So uh I just I wanted to help people. No, that makes uh complete sense. Um, I've actually never really seen a Coast Guard her, which it's a little silly since I live in Michigan and we have you know probably the most amount of lakes, or second most amount of lakes. Uh so what exactly was your job? And do you get to like can you reclass or you get stuck in one job? Because needs of the Coast Guard say, hey, we need to keep you as a welder or whatever. So the Coast Guard kind of works. Um, it's very similar to the Navy. We share the same rates, same rank structure. Um, but uh for us, a lot of um the Coast Guard will you'll go to boot camp and you do your eight weeks of boot camp, and some people will go direct to what we call A school, which is where you learn your what would be an MOS. That's where you learn your rate or your job. Or some people go direct from boot camp out into the fleet. Um, other services called undesignated, we call them non-rates because you're not rated, you don't have a job, and you fall into one of three categories. You'll have aviation category, so you'll either be an airman, um, and then you have a seaman, and then you have fireman, which is going to be your engineering. Um, and you fall into one of those three categories. And the route that I took, I was kind of unsure what I wanted to do. So um I didn't select anything to go direct boot camp to A school. I went out to the fleet and uh went to my first unit, and it was a small boat station actually here in Michigan. I was in the thumb. And uh our primary mission there was uh federal law enforcement and search rescue, ice rescue. Um and I got to I got to kind of experience a little bit of a few different jobs that were available and um narrowed it down that I didn't want to do any of those. So started to talk to some other people and doing some more research, and then I went into the healthcare field. Um, I was a corpsman, so I went out to school in Petaluma, California for that. I'm kind of surprised it sent you all the way to California. Uh we're such a small service, that's our only school for that. That makes sense. I I can also see them, you know, riding the the coattails of the military and thorough people in some of the military courses, potentially, or using some of their infrastructure, I should say. Um, some of them. So a lot of the different so you have your your primary school is gonna be like your A school. That's where I became a health services technician or a corpsman. And that was um 15 weeks long. The first four weeks of that is gonna be your EMT certification, and then after that, you learn one body system until you learn all of them, then you have your final test. But um, I went to C schools, I went to a lot of Navy C schools. I went down to a low-pressure chamber training school at uh Miermar in California. Um, I did a uh underwater survival course with um the Air Force and Spokane at Fairchild Air Force Base, um, where they do their SEER school. We went through the underwater survival portion of that. Uh I did a C school in Aberdeen, Maryland, the Field Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Warfare School, and then Seaburn as well. I did that in Aberdeen. So we we the Coast Guard kinda um they'll they'll piggyback a lot of schools. And what's nice is when I go to the Navy schools, the Air Force schools, the Army schools, stuff like that, it's accredited. I get accreditation out in the civilian world, whereas most of the Coast Guard schools for my raid are not really accredited other than the EMT EMT portion of it. Oh, that's kind of cool. I did not know that. I know the you know there you the mission of the Coast Guard varies so much. It's uh it then they're involved with just about everything, um, including keeping you know blockades happening and times of war and all that. Uh so I take it you never jumped on the back of the submarine. Um I've not been I never jumped. However, uh while I was stationed in Alaska, we did do a Medevac off of a uh a Navy sub. So one of their members had something that their doc on the on board could not take care of, and they need to get Medivac and taken to a higher level of care. So we flew out on a helicopter. So I didn't jump on the back of a sub, however, I've I've uh I've pulled Navy people off of them. That's actually really cool. I brought that up joking because everyone, I think, has seen the clip of the everybody's seen it. Yeah, I think it was the Gulf of Mexico where it was like a cartel sub or something like that. Yeah, my my cousin he joined the Navy um not too long after I I joined the Coast Guard, and I have to remind him all the time that the Coast Guard always has to save the Navy's ass. Well, I mean, if there's nobody no aircraft carrier close by with a helicopter, yeah, you guys you guys are the ones to call, especially Alaska. I can see Alaska keeping you very busy. It it was. Um, that was actually, I had two units that were my absolute favorite, and uh Kodiak Alaska was that was that was one of my favorites for both on duty and off-duty. My job that I did there, I I ran so I worked in the clinic while I was there, and our clinic at the time we still saw dependents and retirees. So my my patient portal and the amount of patients that I would see was anywhere between like two-year-old children and adolescents, up to we had a 106-year-old World War II veteran that would come in. Oh, geez. That's actually really cool. It was. Um, you could not help him with anything. If you opened the door for him, he'd hit you with his cane. But um, I learned more in the three years that I I was stationed there than I did the rest of my career for actual patient care. It was um yeah, you you kind of had to with such a varying degree of uh ages and what they're dealing with and all that. Right. Shortly after that, um, Coast Guard Clinics quit seeing dependence and retirees, and they had to utilize their VA services. Um but while I was up there, yeah, with the the big age gap and you know, my my patient um being from so young to so old, and then you know, my primary duties were in the clinic. I was doing day-to-day, we'd see, I'd see 18 to 20 patients a day. We had four medical officers that would oversee that. And then um, but my collateral duty was aviation mission specialist, and that was when I'd stay in duty, it wasn't clinic duty. I'd stay in duty with a pager, and if the pager went off, we'd have to go out and fly on a Medebac. So would that be like one day on call, a day off, two days in the clinic, or how how would that work? No, um, the clinic was open Monday through Friday, and we'd be there at seven o'clock in the morning, dressed, ready to go. We'd see a schedule of patients up until four o'clock in the afternoon, and then your duty would start after that. So we'd actually have two people on duty. We'd have one person on duty to run the clinic, and I would also be in the clinic to help out if the person on duty needed help. But if my pager went off, I would have to grab all my bags and everything, and then I would go down to the hangar, hop in the Hilo, and we'd take off for a Medivac. Okay. And my schedule for that, um, the majority of it was a one in three. So it was one day on, two days off. Every three days I was I was on call to go fly. Okay, that's not that's not too bad. I mean, it doesn't make for you know a long day or two. It does. Um, I was lucky enough I lived on base right by the clinic. So, you know, I could go home for lunch, I could go home for dinner if I wanted, you know, after hours, if it was after, you know, four o'clock, I could go home, hang out with my family for a little bit. My daughter was born up there, so it was nice to be able to be, you know, a little bit more involved in that instead of being gone every three days. Yeah. Yeah. No, that sounds like a relatively good work-life balance. Can um kind of a little bit better than some of our EMTs than just the regular world get. Oh, 100%. It had its ups and downs. You know, someone takes a vacation, then you switch to a port and starboard where every other day you're standing duty or you got the pager. There were there were times we were low on staff where I would stand official duty one day, and then the next day I would have the pager. And if I was on base or if I was able to take the flight, I would just come in and take the flight. If I wasn't on crew rest hours or things like that. Um, and and the other people that I flew with, they would do that as well. But our our AMS staff was generally shorter on numbers. There wasn't a ton of people who were super interested in it, and um, they just kind of wanted to do the the basic stuff. And me, um, I I chase that adrenaline, so you know, I'm flying on helicopters, I'm doing Medivax, and our our AMS guys, we got all the extra training. We got sent to all the schools, we got all the cool gear, we got we got all the good stuff. So um that was that was kind of an added bonus too. No, that is nice. Did you meet any of the uh guys from Deadliest Catch, any of those craft fishermen? Yes, yes. Um, I don't remember names because I was I was stationed there 2009 to 2012. Um, but yeah, there was a few of the boats were docked there in Kodiak, and I I did do one specific Medivac on there, um, one of the Deadliest Catch boats, and they had a member who um he fell from an upper level of the superstructure and uh his back kind of folded in two over the handrail. Yeah, that would not be not be a fun recovery or injury. Uh he was not having a good time. That's it was for sure. No, I can I can only imagine the kind of damage that would do to somebody, especially if they had like the shoulder blades, probably break those. I don't remember specific injuries um for for that one, but I do remember he was he was not having a good time, he was in pretty rough shape. And so the way that the Coast Guard works is we can't take business away from a civilian entity. So if Life Flight or Towboat US or any of the other search and rescues um can go out, then we can't take that business from them. Um, so when we would go out on Medivax in Alaska, I never got to go out on a Medevac when it was sunny and 60 degrees and beautiful out. Every time we went out, it was an absolute blizzard, it was crazy wind, crazy waves. If it was above civilians' limitation, that's that's when we went out. So we we never got to go out and all the fun stuff. It was always very much a uh keep your head on a swivel, and and we're we're operating at our limits to go out and do this. Yeah, that that makes sense. I don't know, I don't realize there's so many uh different services out there, but it makes sense to have not just life flight, but like tugboats who would go out and do that. Right. Like here in the Great Lakes, we have uh towboat US, I think is the big one. And uh they use a very similar boat to what we used to use, and uh they'll they'll go out, you can call them, but that's a a for-profit organization, so we can't take business away from them. Gotcha. That makes sense. So if I were on the Great Lakes and I called you guys, would you refer me to them, or would you guys come get me instead of them? I'm not 100% sure the logistics on that now. I I know when I was stationed on the Great Lakes the first time, I was in Harbor Beach, and then I actually retired out of Sheboygan. I was on the the cutter mac and all. If we receive a direct stress call, so if we channel 16 and someone calls in, they call in a Mayday or an SOS or something like that, and we respond to it, we'll respond directly to it. However, if it gets called into um like now currently I work at the sheriff's department, and uh we'll get calls as well. And when the sheriff's department gets a phone call, what we'll do is we'll call up to a sector, and sector will call up to district, and then it has to go through all these loops before someone that gets paid a whole lot more and a heavier collar than me gets to make the decision on who goes and gets it. Um generally the the rule of thumb is life over limb. If you got the call, go. Um, you know, it's it's uh it's better to kind of one of those, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. If somebody's in distress, go save them. Deal with the paperwork later. Yeah, no, definitely. Um, so you brought up your you had two favorite units. What was the second one? My second one was actually my last unit that I retired out of. It was uh the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinac, which is uh it's the only icebreaker in the Great Lakes. Oh, really? I figured we would have you know one in each lake because I'm assuming it's not exactly easy to get one of those between to each lake. No, it's not. Um, we have other boats, so we have our our smaller tugs too. The in the summertime they'll operate with a barge and they'll tend buoys. Um, however, the the Mackinac was uh it was a unique boat, it was the only boat of its class in the Coast Guard. Um, it looked similar to some of our other buoy tenders, but we call 225s, they have a black haul, and then our specific icebreakers all have red hulls. Um, this was a red hull. It looked similar, but was built totally different. Traditionally, um boats like that are gonna have a prop and a rudder, whereas the the Mackinac, um, we had a thing called Azipods, and the boat had three giant diesel generators that operated an electrical system, and our boat was essentially an electric, like a locomotive. And the prop the propulsion for that was two individual azopods on the back that could rotate 360 degrees. So it allowed us when we do buoy tending and things like that, um, we could maintain position for setting a buoy for you know any kind of marine traffic well within the limitations of that buoy. And then when we break ice, you can use that to maneuver. You can point the pods in one direction or point them in the other direction. So as you're you're pulling through the ice, you can blow the ice out of the channel so that the ship doesn't have to re-break through it because you'll get what's called refreeze. If you're breaking ice, you're making ice. So if you go through, you cut a channel, you break ice, and you blow all the other ice out, and it's cold. Well, new ice is going to form in that open water. So now you got more ice and more ice and more ice. So using those pods in specific ways would allow you to um maneuver that ice when you would break it, as well as um, we could actually go through the ice backwards and chew it up like a blender. Oh, that's actually really cool. And unique that ship um it had two 10-foot diameter stainless steel props. We couldn't use brass because the brass would actually get chewed up by the ice. So we had two 10-foot stainless props on there. Yeah, I never really thought about what what the props are made of on ships and stuff. That and it's freshwater, so you shouldn't have any issues with rust, but stainless steel is completely different metal. Um, we'd have some things that we get rusty, but not too terrible, and you don't get a lot of the buildup either. So we're we're not getting barnacles or any kind of um you know sea life buildup on our ship, as well as like when we do buoys. So I did a TDY on an ocean-going buoy tender, and that was out of Rhode Island, the Coast Guard Cutter Oak, and we went up to the Bay of Fundy and Nova Scotia area in Canada. And when you'd pull a buoy up for that, you pull it up and then you pull all the chain up on deck, and it would be absolutely covered. Each link is at roughly an inch in diameter for each link, and I bet it had 40 pounds of sea life on it, and we'd winch it up, and you got to clean all the sea life off of it, measure the chain for wear and tear, things like that. Whereas in the Great Lakes, you don't have as much of the sea life buildup on the chain, no algae, no seaweed. Um, you're not getting crustaceans or mollusks or anything like that that build up on the the buoys or the chains themselves. Most of it's just bird crap. Yeah, which not too bad to deal with, um unlike all the the sea life you you were dealing with. Oh yeah, and that it's a lot better because the stuff on the ocean, when you got all the sea life on there and then you're blowing it off the buoys and the chains, it smells terrible. I can only imagine just how bad it is with the some of the barnacles are potentially dead and yeah, but that the the Mackinac is my favorite unit, and not necessarily just be because of my job. So I was independent on the Mackinac. I didn't have anybody above me, anybody below me. My direct boss um was the XO of the ship. And I had my own sick bay. I was in charge of a crew of up to 55 and in charge of their readiness and an emergency, um, things like that. But it was more the the crew and the command. It was it was hands down the best command I had my entire 20-year career. That that's always good when you have a good command and also uh co-workers and all that. Uh so I know the we have the Bridger unit in the Sioux, Michigan. Um, I know they've done for their a part of their annual training or just training exercises. They've pretended that there is a uh quote unquote issue or something going on at Mackinac Island and they have to rescue people. Did you guys play a part in that training exercise? Um not that I'm aware of. We didn't do it while I was stationed on the ship. I don't know if they did, uh if that was after I transferred or retired, but um I I was not involved in any of that. It was a couple years ago, so I wasn't sure if you'd got got uh do anything with the Virginia unit in the Sioux. No, I actually had a unique experience. So before the Mackinac, I was stationed, I was at a MEPS unit in New York. I was stationed on Army Base at Fort Hamilton, and uh that was joint forces. We had all the branches of service were there because it's you know a MEPS unit where people are joining. And um I was in a unique situation. I only had three years left in my career when I transferred to that unit. Um, I had no interest in trying to um advance because I had I had just put on E6. And and by the time I'd advanced, I wouldn't have my high three, so I'm not gonna get paid as an E7, anyways. Um I I knew that I was gonna get out at 20, so I talked to our detailer and I said, Hey, I just I already know I'm above the cut, I'm gonna advance as soon as I get to this. Are you gonna fleet me up and allow me to stay here? Because it's a three-year tour. I have three years left in my career. I have no ambitions to um advance after this. I'm gonna retire 100%. Oh, yeah, yeah, perfect. Yeah, we got you, you'll be there. So I actually geobachelored. Um, my family stayed back in Virginia, and I went up to New York and I would travel back and forth on weekends and stuff like that um to Virginia. Fast forward, I got there in February, fast forward to um roughly December time frame, and I get a phone call and an email from another Coast Guard member out in Washington. Unless you a little bit for a second, you got a you get a phone call and email from Yeah. Um another Coast Guard member out in Washington asking what it was like to be at MEPS because that's his number one pick for when he transfers. And I had no information on that. I thought, well, that's interesting because I'm here and I was told I was staying here. Um shortly after that, I got an email after some phone calls from uh my direct supervisor on the Army base from our detailer in the Coast Guard, and he said, uh, give me your picks tomorrow. Holy smokes. Okay. So I put down a bunch of picks and I got slated for actually a substance abuse specialist coordinator at uh Portsmouth Naval Hospital in Virginia. I was gonna go back to Virginia, kind of made some plans to retire there. So started looking at houses, getting set up, setting up, you know, hey, I'm gonna be here a couple years and retire. Well, then orders came through, and my order said Coast Guard Cutter Mackinac, which is nothing that we talked about, nowhere near Portsmouth, Virginia, anything. So it kind of threw wrench and things and put me up here. I reported to the ship, and exactly one month later, I put in my retirement letter. Because you can do your retirement letter up to 24 months now, two years before retirement. So I reported in, and one month later I dropped my retirement letter. So I technically short toured on the Mac, and all those are three-year tours on our cutters. Gotcha. Well, at least you didn't have to do two years of going from New York to Virginia, or two more years of that, I should say. Yeah, yeah. If uh if anybody's ever driven that I-95 corridor from uh New York, New Jersey, Delaware down through Virginia, it's uh not a good time. I can only imagine construction season and how awful it is. It's not even construction, it's just the sheer amount of traffic. Um, I lived on Staten Island, uh, right across the Verizonto Bridge from Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. And Staten Island, god, it's only like 10 miles long, um, would take anywhere between two to three hours to get off of. Oh, that's gross. And it was five to six lanes wide on both sides and absolutely bumper to bumper traffic. Yeah, that is that is ridiculous. So, yeah, I mean it it does suck that you had to change your your retirement location plans, but it I hope it worked out better for you. Oh, yeah, it worked out fantastic. Um, I grew up vacationing in northern Michigan, um, a little bit west of here in the Indian River area. But um I came up, uh, looked at a bunch of houses, I found a nice house. It was stick built, double insulation, nice town and area. Um, bought the house, got a decent property. And now that I'm retired working at the sheriff's department, I'm more involved in the community where my kids go to school. Um, I coached football last year, and I I sit on the board of directors for our baseball team as well. So um it's a good time. I like it. I like the small town vibe, and the traffic here is generally maybe a farmer or a drunk stuck at a stop sign. I think I lost you a little bit again. Yeah, basically you've got no traffic and yeah, yeah, yeah. I think we've got it back. Yeah, we should be back now. I just gotta think you said uh low low bandwidth. Um yeah, uh very low traffic and being involved in the community is awesome. So it sounds like your community is what, 2,000 people or something like that. Actually, the county I live in, um Prestigeal County, we're 680-ish square miles, and the whole county's population is 13,000 people. Oh okay. So the the town that that um you know where I live and where my kids go to school and stuff is significantly smaller. Yeah. I can I can see that. I like being in small towns or spend a bunch of my time. Um so what was it like working for and being a part of the the Coast Guard uh during the height of the coronavirus? I'm assuming that would play its own tricks and challenges, especially if you were on a boat at the time. He's fixing a cable real quick. Don't worry, people I'll repeat that question if he needs it. There we go. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. Yeah, I I caught that. You you asked me what it was like working during the coronavirus. Um it was terrible. Uh I was stationed at Yorktown, which is one of our major training facilities in the Coast Guard. That's where we train uh our bosun's mates um and some of our electronics rates, and it was it was a major training base for us. And uh it was it was tough um because so many different regulations came out, whether it was two weeks of quarantine or a week of quarantine, or you have to be symptom-free or not symptom-free, or anything. And we'd have a class that would report aboard and they'd have to go through a full screening. So you got 180 kids that show up on a Tuesday at midnight, and now you got to put them through a whole screening. Or, you know, if somebody somebody on base comes down with coronavirus and it's a student, well, now you gotta have a spot to quarantine them. So then we got to change up how the barracks and our hotel on base is and everything else. And um part of it, I was working 18-hour days, six six days a week, and then other parts of it, um, because I had children and they had they they closed schools in Virginia, they just did school from home on computers. Um, so myself and some of the other people in the clinic, they actually split up the schedule, and I worked like a night shift. So I'd be at home with my kids all day while they're doing school, and then I would go to work and work a night shift. Ooh, that would not be fun at all. It like I said, it was it was terrible. And I I ended up moving to New York at the tail end of the COVID stuff, and it was it was still even involved there where they still had some mask mandates and things like that, and it uh it was definitely not my favorite time in the uh in the Coast Guard for sure. No, I can see that. That's definitely its own challenge with you know that kind of influx consistently of random people from all across the country showing up to you know to to train and all that. Right. And if if you've been to boot camp, everybody knows about the boot camp crud. You know, you've got different viruses, different bacterias, everything coming from all corners of the country, and they're all congregate in in one small area, and so it it made a an absolute breeding place for people getting sick, and then you throw coronavirus in there too, and it would just spread like wildfire. Yeah, no, I can I can totally get that from just my training time and AIT and basic with going from basic a big open bay with lots of people to you know two people in a room with a shared bathroom to the guys next to you in AIT. Um, so changing topics now, uh let's get into motocross, something that you've been doing to for your mental and physical health. Yeah. Um I I grew up riding dirt bikes with my dad. Um, that's where I fell in love with actually northern Michigan. We'd come up here and we go to um the Tomahawk Trail system over in Indian River and we'd ride that for a week during vacation and and stuff. But I've I've been on either something motorized or two-wheel since I've been about three or four years old. Um, there's a a very short period of my life where I didn't have a dirt bike or motorcycle, but other than that, um, even in Alaska, I I race dirt bikes up in Alaska. There was a small track up there that we'd race on. And it's um that's it's 100% a uh a gateway to uh helping with mental health. Yeah. Uh that's my go-to sport as well. Um, it's just I challenge myself to okay, I gotta next lap, I want to see if I can hit this corner a little bit better, a little bit more, um maintain my traction a little bit more, not get too much wheel spin, um, try and get comfortable hitting a rather big double that we've got uh at Morelands, which is one of the tracks that I like to go to here. Not doing the Heckman Huck. No, I'm not that's a that's a leap on that one. Yeah, no, uh I'm not doing that. Um those uh there's there's a big there's a small double that turns into a triple for uh those of you who don't know. There's also a big double that you could potentially land a tabletop if you've got a a 450. Um and it is it it's a it's a you're chucking yourself out there. It's a leap for sure. Like that's uh you you you gotta nail the the corner perfect and be on the gas for that one. Yeah, no, definitely. Um yeah. Um so you've you've actually made it to Loretta's. Uh what class did you make it to Largison? So we've had a few people um in the vet MX as well as people who are involved with OVN um now as well, uh, fight really, really hard um with the AMA and Feld, and I'm not sure who all was involved, to get a warrior class available. Um and the one year that they did it, they did it one year, and they were worried about low turnout numbers, and it ended up being a fairly low turnout. Um, but I I raced the warrior class, uh, and it was a they hosted those at regionals. Um we didn't actually get to go to the ranch. It was so there should be I um I haven't heard from anybody else who's won one, but there should be at least, I believe, eight national champions in the warrior class, because the I mean you get the the trophy and everything else, and it says national champion number one and everything, but it's not a registered AMA class, so you don't get the AMA number plate. But uh they they did hand out the monster energy big old trophies and everything else for it. I raced that it over in Pennsylvania. Gotcha. Yeah, I heard I remember hearing talks about that, being a Venom X member myself. Um, and there was talk, I think, about it which would have been at Red Bud. I was like, you know, as long as my drill schedule lines up, I could go out to be a body. I'm gonna be in the way, hopefully, not in somebody's way on the track because I'm I'm not that skilled, but I can be a body. Um eventually, I think it'll hopefully get there. It just it just takes time with getting the class pushed out to to everybody, and then mxports seeing, you know, we could make some extra money here. Right. And that that's kind of what it seems with a lot of the big national events, whether it's you know, spring iting two-stroke nationals, or whether it's the um Gator Back in Thanksgiving down in Florida, or uh, you know, Loretta's, any of those big events trying trying to push that, and they've gotten so big, and now you know you've got all these people of factory support that it's not really amateur racing anymore. That and there's just there's there's too many classes they they have to cut some down. And I'm hoping they get rid of some of the C classes from like Lorettas, not necessarily some of the uh the big amateur events. Yeah, so some of the issues I see with Loretta is, yeah, the classes are huge, but like um the regional that I went to, there was no kids. It was all adult classes. So the regionals were are are kind of set up a little bit separate. Um, you'll have the the 50s, 65s, 85s, super minis, schoolboy classes, those are actually going to be on a different day to different track versus all the you know 20 plus, 25 plus, 30, 35, all the plus classes um are going to be in a separate day. So that cuts it down a little bit, but then when you get to the ranch, that's why it takes a week to go through the ranch because there's just so many classes. Okay, I didn't realize that they they split them up. But um, you know, I knew like different days potentially for like you know, like Red Bud, but I I figured they had all the classes there, you know, pretty much the same time. Yeah, um, it was it was interesting that the one that I went to in Pleasure Valley because it was it was just all adult classes. So I'm I'm used to you go to the motocross track and there's 500 kids running around on pit bikes and side by sides and everything else and having a good time. There was nothing. By 10 o'clock, everybody was crashed out, it was quiet, it was it was an interesting experience. Yeah, I've um I've been to Red Bud for the the vet thing that that goes. I can't remember the exact thing, but it's essentially a veteran only like vet classes, age group only, no kids or anything like that. Yeah, um, that goes around the country. I've been to Red Bud for that, and that was actually like same thing. Quiet, peaceful, things got done at a reasonable time. There were kids running around, but not quite like you know, if you if you go there for 4th of July weekend. Oh, yeah, like this year, the Red Bud National is gonna be an absolute it's like it's gonna be a banger. It's I'm sure it's gonna be a fantastic time, but it's gonna be packed being that it's on 4th of July. Yeah, and America's 250th birthday as well. Red Bud is just known for being the track, like the the crowds at Red Bud. I uh last weekend I watched the opener at Fox Raceway. And like looking at the crowd, I've seen bigger crowds at amateur events. Like they they showed the the grandstands in front of the um you know where they were getting trophies and stuff, and there was like 50 people there. Like they're you know, I'm used to when I was stationed in Virginia going, you know, to Bud's Creek or something and seeing like 100,000 people, or you go to to Red Bud in Michigan, and there's just I mean, as far as you can see in every direction is just people. Yeah, you can barely see the grass on the ground on the infield for because there's just that many spectators, yeah. It's it's definitely different, it'll definitely be cool. I don't know if I'm going there this year or not, and normally do do the booth um for Venamax, but we're here for OBN. Uh so what made you join the Ambassador Athlete program and how'd you um hear about it? So I actually heard about it from uh Alex. Um I when I was in Virginia, we used to race a lot um at Lake Sugar Tree, and that's where Jason, Jason lived there at the time. Alex was there all the time, and there was actually a huge excuse me, uh huge vet emx group that was kind of involved there. And Ryan, fantastic for veterans, um all uh outpourings of of love. Um, he'd help us out, we'd have ride days, he, you know, warrior classes, you you name it, and and he would bend over backwards for veterans, and it was awesome. So I was going down there and doing a lot of racing. I raced their indoor series, I raced their um Arena Cross outdoor series. We'd go down for Loretta's events and other races and stuff like that. And Alex told me about OVN, started asking about it, and then I reached out to Tony and asked him about it. And um, working in the medical field and and mental health is a that's a huge soft spot for me. Um I I do anything and everything I can to help out people, and mental health is is a big one, and it's something that um I'm sure you being in you know the military too, you can understand there's plausible deniability with the military. They say we have these programs available, and then they make a million hoops in red tape that you have to jump through and cut in order to access those programs. So when someone has problems with military mental health, they say, Well, these programs were in place, but what they don't tell you is how much red tape you got to go through to access those programs. Um, so with OVN, it helped me, you know, I could I could reach out to more people, um, the and and the people that I'm seeing, which is kind of, you know, there's you you look at how I think uh your audio or your your your video cut out, unfortunately. Most of the stuff that OVN's involved with tends to be action sports or am I back though? Get your back the audio uh sped up significantly catching you up. So yeah, uh talking about how OVN's uh big into action sports, and there's just different people who right sports. Yeah, it's a a different avenue to reach out to people and and to help. Like I said, the the whole reason I joined the Coast Guard is because I wanted to help. I worked in healthcare, I want to help people. Um I I've been in the low places, I've been in a terrible mindset, I know what that's like. I don't want anybody else to have to go through that. And the ones that are going through it, I don't want them to do it alone. And um, like the the the bracelets that that we get, you know, just be there. Sometimes just be in there, whether you're sitting on a couch and dead silent next to somebody. All it takes is being there. But OVN gave me an opportunity and and some toolkits and some things that I can use um to reach people in a different avenue. Whether, you know, most stuff everybody hears about anything for a veteran is Facebook, social media, Instagram, you know, TikTok, you name it, they're they're getting it through those avenues. Whereas, you know, you go to a motocross track, the last thing you're thinking about is, you know, oh hey, there's someone here with some tools that could help me with my mental health. And motocross is the tool that I have right now. And some people that might be their only tool. So it gave me that avenue to reach out, and I really like their mission. So I reached out to Tony and and asked him about becoming uh an ambassador athlete. Yeah, I I saw uh quite a few Vet MX guys joining, and I'm like, you know what, maybe I can you know help out in my in my own way, do something for them. Um, and then one of our last uh ambassador athlete calls, someone brought up, hey, are we gonna get someone to do a podcast again or get people to be guests? I was like, you know, I can do that. I could, I think I I've got the equipment. I can probably um throw the episodes together, ask people, talk to people and all that, and I think it's turned out pretty well. Yeah, yeah. Um the ones that I've seen and listened to either on Spotify or watched on YouTube have been fantastic. Yeah, I had to learn a bunch of editing stuff to make the YouTube ones look as good as they do, but thankfully it it doesn't seem it's a perishable skill for me in that aspect. Um setting it up for three people, no, that took that took a second to to finangle it all. Right, right. And you know, if you're not doing it on a million-dollar budget like some of the the big national podcasts that have, it it's got its ups and downs. There's some quirks you gotta figure out. Yeah, but I mean, I think it looks pretty good. I I hope it sounds pretty good. Um so any plans to try to go to Loretta's in another class? As much as it pains me to say it, no. Um, I've kind of gotten to a point now. My my son, he's the he's my riding buddy now, and uh he's getting ready to turn nine years old. And he's got a bike, and I'm I'm kind of more focused on on him riding. And we we ride in the woods, we ride in the yard. Um I I think a lot of my Racing is is probably to a point where you know I'll do some here and there for fun, but for the most part, it's going to be track riding and helping him and let him race. Um, he wants to get involved in some woods races. You know, we're in northern Michigan, you gotta race in the woods. So um this year he's he's finally at a at a point where he can uh he's he can ride the the 110 through the woods and trail ride, and then he's got a a works edition cobra that we can take to the track. Oh, nice. Yeah, the the cobras that from what I've seen are really nice, especially and and they're made here, which I found out, which was kind of surprising. Yeah, not too far from you. No, not at all. Um, no, but I do I don't see a whole lot of races in my future, and I actually I recently picked up a um an adventure bike. I got uh a new Yamaha T7, and uh I got some big interest in doing some some rallies on that. Um I have a friend that did the Mint 400 out in Vegas, and uh he actually did that on a Harley Sportster that he converted, put dirt tires on it and bigger tires, and uh he had a blast, and that'd be something that I'd be interested in doing on the T7, but more into the adventure ride and exploring the outdoors, going out and just getting in the woods and disappearing for a little bit. No, you are in prime adventure bike territory. Uh that and getting to a track might be a bit of a hike, too. Yeah. Um, we have a local track in Alpina that's about an hour away from me, and that's the closest, but they don't host races. They got they have a track there, and then they do the bump and run cars. That's the the big place that does bump and runs, which is it's kind of a circle track and a demo derby put together. They they run around a circle track, but they can hit each other. Okay. And it's a good time to watch, but they have a track there. Um there's one just south of that, and then there's a couple over by uh Gaylord, and then Ten Pines, I believe, is the closest one to me in Michigan that that hosts actual AMA events. They do. Uh, we added them to the warrior class schedule last year as they joined this the District 14 schedule, not in the championship yet. Um, and I've heard some some good things. They took a lot of feedback last year, and as far as I know, they've they've improved a good bit. That's one track I would like to go to uh camp for a weekend. Let me know when you go. I'll come. It's I I think it's within two hours of me. So it's it's fairly close in uh track terms. Like what when I lived in Virginia and we'd go over to Lake Sugar Tree. I lived in Yorktown, and that was over on the west side on the North Carolina, West Virginia border area, and uh it was a four-hour drive for us to get over there. Oh geez, that would be if you if you're going, you're going for a day or two. Oh no, it was the weekend. Yeah, every time we'd go, we'd show up on a Friday night and we'd stay the whole weekend, wouldn't go home till Sunday. Even for the uh they they ran an indoor series, and there was a couple races where there was a there's one that had an ice storm, took out the power at the hotel, and uh we actually roughed it a little bit. I stayed with one of my buddies in his camper right at the track. Jeez. I mean, it it should be warm on like a hotel without power. Yeah, I mean it was warm enough. Yeah, I've been in worse situations. No, you you were in Alaska and rescuing crab fishermen uh during bad weather, so I I completely get being worse, unfortunately. Yeah, so um I'm I'm looking forward to doing a little bit more riding this year. My schedule between being on the ship, my whole last year on the ship, we were we were underway quite a bit. Um, whether we were out breaking ice doing buoy runs, we went uh from Buffalo, New York to uh Duluth, Minnesota, and we were back and forth all through the Great Lakes for that. And uh it kind of cut down on on any kind of racing just due to to scheduling. And then I retired and trying to find a job after retirement and you know, getting VA appointments, getting a new job, just getting the schedule set up, and now I'm I'm at a spot where I know my schedule, everything's good. So I'm looking forward to doing some more riding. Yeah, no, I I don't blame you. I I did too much racing after getting back into riding and not racing as a kid to I get the whole, I just want to ride, I want to put in some labs, I want to improve a little bit, but also you know, with your youngest, definitely get him into uh you know improving and being able to ride and stuff like that. Yeah, I I get a big thrill out of watching him when he finally, you know, all he's starting to get to the age where when I tell him to do something, he doesn't quite listen as good. But when it comes to riding dirt bikes, if I give him a tip or a point or some criticism, he normally follows it to a T and watching the gears turn in his head. And you know, the other day we were doing some some rutted turns in the yard, and I was giving him some pointers, and I saw him looking at it and trying to evaluate and figure it out, and then that that first time he goes through and does what I tell him to do and just rips through a rut and then you know takes off on our makeshift janky, you know, tire jump that we have, but everything worked how it should work, and and watching that look on his face when it works, and then he goes back and repeats it. It's fun seeing that and seeing him evolve and learn um hill climbs and then riding in loose sand, which we have plenty of that up here, um, and you know, and in technique and trying to get him really dialed in on fundamentals. It's a lot of fun watching that. No, I I don't blame you if my youngest is almost eight, and I wish I could get him into riding, and it's it's not his thing, and it's not my my daughter's thing either. It's but they'll be fine hanging out at the track for the most part. They'll they'll go find some. Yeah. Yeah. Um, music is another thing that you do to help with your mental health. What instruments or instrument do you play? Uh all all of them. I from a young age I I started taking piano lessons, and I took piano lessons um for about six years. And as a boy in the late 90s, early 2000s who plays piano, I took a lot of criticism and uh I got made fun of quite a bit. Um, it helped me learn how to throw hands. But uh in uh eighth grade, I actually I quit piano lessons and uh picked up the guitar, and I had always been involved in music in school, and I I've always had a love for music. My whole family's musically inclined, my dad plays instruments, and I anything you hand me, whether I I know how to play it or not, I'll figure it out. Um, but mainly uh I'll play piano, I can play guitar, I sing. I I was a percussionist in high school, so I have I played the drums and all the percussion instruments as well. And then currently in my house now, um I mean you can see one of my PA speakers behind me, or if I move, I think I got a couple guitars back there, too. Yeah, I see some amps and yeah, um I got 12 guitars, um, a drum set, a PA system, and then granted it's not functioning the best right now, but I I've got a pretty good setup studio-wise with monitors, my desk, and um my audio interface and some different things as well. So um and anything involved in music, I'm I'm just a big fan of. Yeah, I've I've been around music a ton um because my brother started playing in in middle school. He went from I want to I want to say he ended on Baritone, but he was playing trumpet, but then his lips got too big as he got older, so he couldn't play it anymore. Um and I think he I want to say he almost started to learn French horror, something like that, something weird and different. Um yeah, I music's been around me, you know, my whole life, not just listening to it. So I can I can totally get if you if you start on one instrument, total moving around to to other ones. Right. I was and I was fortunate enough um when I was younger, you know, my parents they like to go to concerts and they they love music. So in the house, we always had music playing. My mom and dad were always singing, my grandfather, he always had a record player, and there was music playing, and he's always dancing around and um, you know, going to concerts. My first concert, I went and saw Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent on New Year's Eve. And uh Ted Nugent came out on stage riding a buffalo, shot his bow and arrow with a flaming arrow through his guitar, and then ripped a guitar solo. And I was in fourth grade, I saw that, and I literally looked at my parents, I said, I want to do that. I want to do that, and uh rock and roll has just been a huge part of my life. Yeah, I've seen Alice Cooper live before, and he's he's still got it. He is Oh, 100%. We went and saw him uh last year in Saginaw, and um no opener, no locals, no nothing. They fired up the stage. Alice Cooper came out, played for two hours. It's the same songs that I've heard him play the other seven times I've seen him, and it rocked out just as good as all the other times. Like he is a 100% sure thing, you can go to one of those shows and you're gonna love it. Bringing it back to mental health, um, with and because Alice Cooper's like a good example because he's a pretty smart man, um, from what I've seen. I think keeping away from illicit substances and not using that he probably did use them at some point, but stopped early enough on to keep his health and also his voice uh uh going, um, is what I think. Um, for sure. He didn't fall into the 80s sunset strip hole like most of the hair metal bands did. That and I think he's been his with his wife isn't like as he got famous or right before he got famous, like the entire time. So that there's gotta be something said about that too. Like just that stability. For sure, for sure. Um so you went to full sale for audio engineering and music production. I'm assuming while you're in the Coast Guard, you don't just graduate after retirement from seven months ago-ish, or maybe a little bit longer. So uh full sale is a little different than most um schools. They they do have an in-person campus as well as online campus. Um I had applied to Berkeley School of Music, I got accepted, and then um shortly after that found out that there was no way for me to attend because they didn't offer any online classes. So then I started kind of doing some more research, and uh Fulsale University was fairly new at the time and kind of upcoming, um, but fantastic. It was the number two music school right behind Berkeley. So I applied and uh I used some of my GI Bill and tuition assistance um to go to school there while I was stationed in Alabama, but their program's a little different, it's similar to military training. Uh, most colleges you'll have three or four different classes going at the same time. The way that full sale did it, you did one thing for a month, and that was your class. You got all your hours done in a month. So I was working a full-time job, I was in school full-time, and then I was also in a band that played about three nights a week. And that was I bit off way more than I could shoot with that one. But uh I can I can see that, yeah. Um, so like and it was cool though, because uh like a military school, it was geared towards what you were doing. So, like my physics class that I took in college, it wasn't, you know, Isaac Newton and the Apple and things like that. It was movie physics and sound physics. So you would, you know, we did an action movie segment where the physics of what it would actually be like if somebody got blown up or if somebody got shot or somebody wrecked a car. What are the actual physics of that? Because, you know, I'm sure you've been in the military, you know, you watch John Wick and you're counting how many rounds are coming out of that firearm. And, you know, the sound effects or being involved in motorcycles. I don't think I've ever seen a movie where the sound of the motorcycle was actually the motorcycle in the movie. Yeah, like Terminator 2, I think it is, where he's riding the uh XR80 and he's just shifting so many times. You're just like, that thing only shifts five times at the most. Right, right. So it was geared more towards like movie physics. Or um, you know, we did a sound effects class and and how different sound effects are used, you know. A lot of the things that you hear aren't actually what you're hearing. Oh shit a little bit again. Uh sound effects aren't what you hear. Oh, we're back. Oh, audio's not back. Listeners. Nope, still not. Zoom might have messed with your audio setting again and changed your mic. Which happens, people. Zoom is not always the best. There we go. It's uh I I get getting a pop-up for unstable network connection. Um, but where I was going with that, um, the movie Twister. Everybody's seen Twister. The sound of that tornado in Twister is actually a slowed-down camel groan. So someone recorded a camel groaning and then they slowed it way down, and that's the sound of the tornado in that movie. Yeah, I've seen I've seen stuff from the audio engineers who are like, so I took I took mayonnaise, then I took this cheese grater, and then I took a hard piece of wood, and I just kind of rubbed them all together, and boom, there's your crackle effects for fireworks and or something silly like that. And you're just like, how do you come up with like hmm, you know what sounds like a gunshot? Me smacking the lid on my my water bottle or something. Right. And you know, you go through those classes and like it's one class a month, so it's an accelerated course because you're able to just focus on one class, and you can put sometimes my lectures are three to four hours long. And then, you know, you're you were just knocking it out one class right after another, month after month. So it was it was a really cool school, it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. I can also see it's more beneficial to focus on one subject the whole time, uh, that and it also builds into potentially whatever you're doing next. Right, right, yeah. Um, and they they set you up. I get emails, I still actually get emails from the school um for freelance work. They they help you out with freelance work, so uh like mixing and mastering commercials, like TV commercials, or you know, when you watch you're watching TV and it's you know, you got it turned way up so you can hear whatever you're watching, and then all of a sudden a commercial comes on and it's 10 times louder or it's quiet, you can't hear it. And um, you know, going through and correcting those things or live sound. I could go to any venue right now and I I could step in for their audio engineer and and run live sound for a venue, um, and or as small as like a radio station, you know, just operating a radio station and running sound for that. It it it taught a lot and gave a pretty vast knowledge. Um, is it the most useful? No, I'm not making a career of it, but I I use some of my GI Bill, I saved the rest of it for my kids, I used some tuition assistance, but I got out of it what I wanted to get out of it. I got, you know, I got I got my certificates and my degree, and and being able to understand the things that I understand, uh, I got out of it what I wanted to get out of it. I can play, I can record my music, and and that that was the main thing I wanted. No, that's really cool that you you got exactly what you wanted out of it, and you can use it in your your personal life and not be frustrated going, okay. Well, how do I make it not sound so flat? How do I give this some some volume to make it sound like I'm actually playing it right now? Right. And the other aspect of that, I'm not chasing a paycheck with it. Like I did it, I did it for me. It was, you know, I I gave I gave the government 20 years of my life. At the time it was only 13, but I I you know I had signed up, so I'm gonna use one of those benefits that I get, and and I went I went to college. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone who has the benefits should use them. They're they're yours, you earned them, um, regardless of what you did. Um so you you talked a uh a lot, uh sorry, you mentioned earlier that you're really involved with your community. How do you um you coached uh UA football last year, potentially into this upcoming season? Um what are you involved with and are you how are you helping, you know, people with their mental health? Because I'm assuming you're you're finding something to help people with. Right. So uh community-wise, I I sit on our our board of directors for baseball. Um I'm I'm the safety director for baseball. And um, I didn't coach just due to scheduling conflicts. It it's kind of tough for me to do that, but um, you know, being the safety guy, and I've I've umpired a few games, um, which has been awesome. I get the best seat in the house for that. And then I I coached this year, it was the first year for flag football. Um, so I coached my son's team in flag football and had an absolute blast doing that. And then my job, um, I'm corrections officer and dispatch. We have a small jail that uh doesn't have a ton of people, and our corrections officers as well um do dispatch. So um when it gets towards you know helping people with mental health, I answer the phone for 911. So I'm I'm that that first line, I'm the first person someone hears, whether it's a you know a mental health emergency, a physical emergency, or or whatever. Um, and that's that's kind of where I'm at for for helping people out. That's that's cool that you can still, you know, do all these different things to better your community and also provide for your family, too, at the same time. Yeah. It um it pays the bills, it's a absolute fantastic crew that works there. Our sheriff's department, uh the sheriff in our county, he's absolutely awesome. The people I work with, they're great. We've got a couple of other veterans that I work with as well, and um, it's it's a really solid staff, and we're fortunate enough that our jail is not huge, and we don't have uh a whole lot of residents currently, so it's it's not bad. No, I can I can see summer being more trunk tank time or the main thing. Um yeah, I mean you you live in Michigan, you understand summertime that's when everybody in Michigan's traveling, they're at the campgrounds, they're on vacation, all the little towns have boat on the lake. Yeah, they're on the boat on the lake, all the little towns have their festivals, and then um where I'm at with dispatch, we we dispatch um multiple fire departments, multiple ambulance, as well as uh state, county, city, um, police, and DNR. So we're we're we we definitely we work for our paycheck some days, and then some days it's quiet. Um, with our our county being not very densely populated, uh a lot of our calls are we have a lot of dirt roads, we have a lot of two-track, and there's um there's still quite a lot of people in my county that live down some two-track unimproved roads and homestead. Yeah. So so trying to figure that out, and you know, behind the scenes, you know, at dispatch, you know, not a lot of people see what all goes on to get somebody out to you to help. Yeah, the GPS is great, but when you are showing a field and you don't see any roads on the map, then you kind of have to use every reference you have available to figure out, okay, how did they get there? They said they live there. Right. And a lot of people assume it's like the movies, you know, you dial 911, someone picks up the phone, and you know, some satellite just sends a signal and shows me exactly where you're at. It does not work that way. Uh, most of the time, I'll get maybe a Latin long. And if you don't know how to read it, Chart for latitude and longitude, then what? So we we have some programs where you can plug that in on the computer and it'll help you out. And I would say 90 95% of our 911 calls will show me a phone number for a callback and give me a Latin along. Um, and then the longer that you're on the phone with them, the more it can kind of pinpoint their location. But there's some that you only get five seconds and then the phone hangs up, or you know, being such a rural county, some there's a lot of places we don't even have cell phone coverage. Yeah. So that's a big pain. Yeah, it's you know, it's got its ups and downs, and you know, there's there's some stuff that you love about it, some stuff you hate about it, but all in all at the end of the day, you know, you're the one that's there, you're the first person that someone talks to, you know, and generally when someone dials 911, you know, the worst the worst moment of their life. Um, so you're you know uh just a friendly voice sometimes is all that they need for the help. Yeah. Some someone to comfort and reassure them well, the DNR comes and catches that pesky poacher or or whatever's happening. Right. Uh but I think I think that's it for for all the questions that I kind of had, unless there's something you want to piggyback on or something I missed. No, no, we we cover quite a bit. Um are there any other hobbies that we we didn't touch off on that help you out? I mean, I'm one of those people. I when I go into a hobby, it's I'm into the hobby a hundred percent. Um, but the two that I always fall back on tend to be music and motorcycles, and the the common denominator on that is both those hobbies, you can't focus on anything else other than the task at hand. So if you're playing guitar, um, it's to the point like if I'm playing guitar, if I'm playing a live event or anything like that, I won't even drink a beer. Um because it, you know, for me it requires a hundred percent focus. But because I'm focused on playing the guitar, or I'm focused, you know, if I jump out of this rut, it's inherently dangerous on a dirt bike. You come out of a rut, like you know, you can bust yourself up pretty bad. Um, you know, when you're playing your guitar or you're you know singing, you're at a music venue, you know, you mess up. There's you know, there's people there watching, you know, you so you have to stay focused, and that focus forces you, you can't think about how crappy was my day. Uh, I woke up depressed this morning, you know, or you know, if you're having, you know, whether it's p PTSD symptoms, things like that, it it forces your mind away from those things. And that's that's why I generally fall back on those two. Um, I moved to Michigan, so of course I had to buy a boat. Um, and I I love being out on the water, I love being on the boat. Um, and that's not as much as that, you know, forcing your mental direction towards one thing, but that that's probably one of my other hobbies. Is uh I like to be out on the boat. I hunt, I fish, I live in northern Michigan. Like I do all the northern Michigan things, and I absolutely love it. No, it's it's definitely a great place, and we'll have to we'll have to link up to go to Tent Pines sometime soon. I also have to look at their schedule to see what they've got going on. For sure. And get you a DNR sticker. Um, you know, Michigan, they got what is it for like 46,000 miles of something ridiculous of trails, and that's just the documented ones. Um, from my yard, I can access the trail system. So I I have access to the trail system, which is another reason the T7, I ride out my driveway. Um, my road turns into a stone road, and then it turns into the trail system. So uh being able to just go out and explore, and then across the street from my house is 19,000 acres of state land. So there's no there's no houses, no people, it's just the woods, wilderness, and sinkhole lakes. Sinkhole lakes? Yeah. So like uh if you look around Gaylord, there's a lot of them that are perfectly round. It looks like craters, but they're sinkhole lakes, and it's just a sinkhole forms and then it fills up with water. Oh, geez. I didn't realize we had that many that that kind of problem. Um, it's it's not like I wouldn't say it's a problem, but we have plenty of them. And then after the torrential rain on top of the uh ridiculous amount of snow we had this year, and I'm sure you've seen in the news the flooding that we had up here. Oh, I was I went to Grailing um like right to to count ammo for part of my annual training time um for that corridor, and we were up there and then I'm like, You guys just got the snow to start melting, like, yep, as it's been raining and raining and raining. I'm like, I can yeah, I can see the lakes forming and ponds forming everywhere. It's just we we still have standing water in areas. Um, I was out riding last weekend um and going back on some of the trails, and and one of the trails I went back on was a river. There there was no trail there anymore. It was five foot deep water, and you it was five foot deep water and moving pass, I'm assuming is what you said. Yeah, um, it was moving fairly quickly. So it was, you know, there's a lot of the trail system, and then you know, we had that, and then the year before that we had the ice storm. So a lot of the the DNR trails and the motorcycle clubs have been doing cleanup for a year trying to get all that cleaned up, and then we get hit with the rain and the snow and the flooding, and it's been it's been one thing after another up here for that stuff. Yeah, no, it's been it's definitely been rough. Um are there any sponsors that you want to give a shout out to or you want to gain? And how can people support you? Um honestly, uh OVN is the is my main sponsor right now because I haven't really been racing. They're they're my big support. Um with no big ambitions to do. I lost you a little bit. I think you might be back now. Yeah, yeah. Um with no no big ambitions or any major races planned in the near future. The next one that I want to do, like I said, I want to start doing some rally stuff um with the T7. So I'm gonna be looking into doing um, I'd like to do the Mint 400. Um so when that comes around, I'll I'll be posting on my social media, which generally is my my Facebook, um, you know, reaching out for that. And the the support that I would need for that would be any other support for races, it's gonna be mainly financial, fuel, food, lodging. Um I I take care of 99.9% of the maintenance on my motorcycles and and things like that. So yeah, well definitely I'll be definitely watching for that because I think that's a a pretty cool race. Uh to the listeners. I was gonna say, so if red if Red Bull's listening, feel free to reach out. Yeah, no. Uh a Red Bull Yamaha. I think uh I think some people would lose their minds. Uh I'm I've had my fair share of monsters, but I'm more of a Red Bull guy. I'm more of a rock star guy because I like their great one. Everyone's got their preference. Oh, yeah. Um but to our listeners, thanks for joining me today on the No Neutral podcast. Um, Josh, thanks for coming on. Oh, thanks for having me. Uh, where can people find you next? Or find where can people find you and what are you doing next? Sorry. Um, finding me. You you normally find me either at my house or in the woods or on the lake. Um those are those it's summertime, and we just went through a rough winter, so those are gonna be the places that you'll find me. I'm I'm looking at being at a few races this year in Michigan. I'd like to get out to those and and see how that goes. And then the rest is gonna be preparing the the T7 to do some rally events. Yeah. Uh where can they where can people find you on Instagram? Hold on and let me look at it real quick because it's not the easiest uh so my Instagram is going to be carpe underscore noctum419. It's uh C-A-R-P-E underscore N O C T E M 419. Most of my socials are gonna have the 419 under it. That's the area code in Ohio where I grew up, and you gotta represent for the hometown. Yeah, no, I still have my my area code for my school, even though I don't live in that state anymore. But that was when I got my phone number, and it's it's not worth changing your phone number ever. Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And living in northern Michigan, you know, I gotta represent the scarlet and gray. Yeah, good luck with that. I'm sure there's enough uh U of M and MSU fans up there that are throwing a Jitter Delug, but they do, it's worth it. I bet. Um, everyone, you can find me at as Purple Badger Man Everywhere, capital P BM, no spaces, uh, whether it be Twitch, Instagram, or whatnot. Uh check out OVN's website. For we've got a calendar up there with a bunch of the different uh events that our ambassador athletes are doing. And remember to reach out before you are in a crisis, Vets Vets for Warriors is a confidential veteran ran help service. You can call, email, or chat with 24-7. Some a veteran will be answering the line, um, whether they're professional psychiatrist level or somebody who's there to help you, they're trained and they will find a way to get you the help you need. And if for some reason you can't get a hold of them, which shouldn't happen, the veteran crisis line is uh you can just call at 988 and press one. Um, everyone, thanks for watching or listening wherever you are. Uh, make sure you like, subscribe, and comment or whatever it is. Uh, if you have questions for for myself or Josh on anything, uh OVN's Instagram post for this episode when it comes when uh we we push it out is the best place to to put those. Um yeah, thanks everybody and I will see you all on the next episode.