1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:16,740 Welcome to Botches Off-Road. Join us as we talk about everything from gear reviews to 2 00:00:16,740 --> 00:00:21,680 trail stories, tent camping to rock landing, and all things to do with the outdoors. Today 3 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:28,360 we have another special guest. Let's welcome JD. Thanks for joining us, JD. 4 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:35,320 Thanks for having me. JD's got a couple little things that we want to do today on the episode. 5 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:41,360 We want to talk a little bit about her rig. We're going to talk a little bit about some 6 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:47,360 of the things that she's been doing lately. She made a relief trip down to North Carolina. 7 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:51,760 We're going to talk about that in a little bit. But why don't we start out with your 8 00:00:51,760 --> 00:01:03,240 rig? What's your primary overlanding rig? I've got a 2022 Tacoma SR5. Currently right 9 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:13,520 now I have a two-inch lift on it, Pro Comp Shocks Patagonia tires, Old Man Emu Leafs. 10 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:23,360 I've got an Ironman 4x4 front bumper with a 9,500 pound winch synthetic rope. I've got 11 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:31,440 a rooftop tent from CVT, which was a prototype. Oh, I didn't realize that was a prototype. 12 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:41,120 Yeah. It's been an interesting build. I started my build in 2023 and ironically I had traded 13 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:47,000 in my 2020 TRD off-road because I was like, I'm never going to do any off-roading. I'm 14 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:53,080 not going to be hitting the trails or anything like that. And then fast forward a year, I'm 15 00:01:53,080 --> 00:02:01,040 in my driveway with tools and YouTube videos going, how do I build this SR5 out? Right? 16 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:08,120 Oh man, that's SR5. Does that not have rear lockers on it? Is that true for the SR5s? 17 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:12,400 Yeah. I would say, good. 18 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:17,040 Yeah, no, it doesn't. The reason I traded down was because I was like, oh, I don't need 19 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:23,560 lockers. I never use any of this. And here I am. 20 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:25,680 I hear drumming was pretty fun for you. 21 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:34,040 Yeah. It was my second time up there. First time was good. Did some stuff, did marblehead 22 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:46,640 before they shaved it down to be a half roadway. This last tour was interesting. A couple of 23 00:02:46,640 --> 00:02:53,200 the guys from the Mitten State Tours group took us on a route called Titan Twisties. 24 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:57,880 I got stuck every five minutes on Titan Twisties. 25 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:04,320 I was about to say, I think that was gnarly last trip too. Cause me and Alex went down 26 00:03:04,320 --> 00:03:09,760 the, with, oh, what's his name? I keep forgetting, me and Alex keep forgetting one guy's name, 27 00:03:09,760 --> 00:03:10,760 the other white Tacoma. 28 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:21,600 I met him once, but I don't recall his name. But yeah, we hit Titan Twisties and they're 29 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:27,160 like, you're going to be fine. It'll be all right. I'm on 33s, right? I'm on 33s. I don't 30 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:31,840 have any skids. Like the first part of the tour was fine. And then we get to like the 31 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:37,160 muddier areas and like, they were pretty much tank traps. They were pretty close to tank 32 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:43,920 traps. And I was like, well, how do I avoid these? Right. And I just got stuck from that 33 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:49,720 point on. I tried to get around the first mud hole and I got stuck and I think it took 34 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,720 us about 45 minutes and two winches to get me out. 35 00:03:52,720 --> 00:04:01,640 That's my next question. Your truck's heavier than 9,500 pounds, isn't it? 36 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:05,920 No, no, it's, it's, it's two in a line, but no, it's not, it's not that heavy. It's back 37 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:14,440 end heavy with the big roof top 10. I'm tall and I'm top heavy basically. And we're working 38 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,800 on a solution for that. When my wallet gets a little bit thicker than it is now. 39 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:22,960 Yeah. Let me know what you do because I'm going to be ending up all around that same 40 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:29,080 path by choice, but I'm going to try to compensate for that. So, 41 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:33,880 I know, like, I don't know if you guys go to Riggs and coffee or not, but I'm dropping 42 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:43,840 the truck off with Becker and I'm doing Ironman four by fours, foam cell shocks and everything. 43 00:04:43,840 --> 00:04:48,840 He's just going to, he's going to do everything. We're going to replace the leafs. We need 44 00:04:48,840 --> 00:04:54,840 the shocks, the control arms, everything. Cause Drummond Island beat me up pretty bad. 45 00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:59,840 Oh yeah. You should, you should buy her leafs, Mark. 46 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:05,800 I mean, it depends on how good they are. I mean, I know mine are been out of shape because 47 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:17,840 it used to hold a giant bowl. Well, I've got the old man, emu 112 Rs, which is 660 pounds 48 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:24,560 constant load. They're sending me new ones because they sagged. So those are brand new. 49 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:30,920 I don't. Sounds like, sounds like you could bar, buy those old ones off of her then. 50 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:35,920 I probably could, as long as they're not in shape. They're probably better than what I 51 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,680 have. Yeah. Some sagging leafs are still better than no leafs. I'll, I'll sell you the brand 52 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,720 new ones right out of the box for the same price. I'd sell you the used ones. I'm not 53 00:05:44,720 --> 00:05:53,240 going to use them. I'm not running a big load, so it should work for me. That should be plenty 54 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:59,920 for you then. If, if you're not running a big load, I, I'm pretty back heavy. So I'll 55 00:05:59,920 --> 00:06:03,600 have to, I'll have to get you to send me a picture of your rig so I can put it for a 56 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:08,440 cover art somewhere in here. Okay. I do. I do a lot of photo editing, so I'll make it 57 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:15,500 look cool. Yeah. You got a lot. I, I'm on your Instagram right now, so there's plenty, 58 00:06:15,500 --> 00:06:22,320 but I mean, you also have, you said the CBT, it was a CBT tent, right? Yeah. So I've been 59 00:06:22,320 --> 00:06:27,600 pretty lucky. Yeah. I've been lucky in my build so far in true raccoon fashion. I've 60 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:33,320 been able to have Facebook marketplace, a lot of stuff. One of the ones was a CVT prototype 61 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:40,680 tent that I got from a guy who used to know the owner of CVT before he sold it. And it 62 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:46,680 was a tent called the Mount Fury. It was when they first started breaking into kind of like 63 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:54,000 the hard shell rooftop tents. And so they had brought a bunch of models over from testing 64 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,680 and they just released them, but they had hinge issues. So I got a pretty good deal 65 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:04,080 on it and him and I worked together to get the hinge fixed. And it's, it's pretty big. 66 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:09,000 It sleeps four. It's got an awning that I can zip onto it, but also has an annex that 67 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:14,240 sleeps an additional three. So, well, that's great. Yeah, that's big. I think that's what 68 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:19,240 I'm looking at for. I think it's the, the four by four Colorado that I'm looking at 69 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:32,440 is the Alto Elite. Okay. That's, I think that's 270 pounds, complete aluminum shell canvas. 70 00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:38,920 So I mean, it's heavy, but it should be durable. I should not. My, my reasoning, other than 71 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:43,880 all the other stuff around it is I just, that's the one stop. Like I'm not going to grow from 72 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:50,160 like a Temu tent to like an iCamp or to this. I'm just going to, I'm going to jump straight 73 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:56,360 to what I could, the best one that I can find and the biggest one that I can get for my 74 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:03,600 family. And if that doesn't work, then I'm screwed. Cause then you get a travel light 75 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:12,000 and we mount it to your roof. We are not putting a pop-up camper on my roof. I think I just 76 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,120 saw a video of a guy who did that the other day. Yeah, it's a little one. It's only four 77 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:22,960 by four and then it pops into big. He was talking to me earlier about mounting a motorcycle, 78 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:27,320 motorcycle like pop-up camper on the top of my roof instead. And it would be cheaper. 79 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:34,320 And I'm like, yeah, I don't know. I wasn't saying your roof just in general. I want someone 80 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:39,920 to do it. Like I said, if you did it with like a flat bed or something, that'd be, that'd 81 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:46,840 be nice. Like I would, I wouldn't mind having like an older Tundra with a flat bed that 82 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:53,440 you could like put, put on like your overland setup onto it. Like the Australian utes, you 83 00:08:53,440 --> 00:09:00,600 know, that's that style. That'd be cool. But yeah. So you have the, well, the, the CVT, 84 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:07,440 what are you running for air for air up, air down? I just have like a via air pump. So 85 00:09:07,440 --> 00:09:14,040 for alternative power, I have, I built just like a off grid power system. I run a house 86 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:24,040 battery. So I have a thousand watt inverter in the bed. And then I have my house battery 87 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:30,220 that I've run an isolator up to the alternator charges while I'm driving, but it also has 88 00:09:30,220 --> 00:09:38,240 solar hookups. I started with an AGM battery, couldn't, couldn't keep up. So I ended up 89 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:45,080 taking the plunge and getting a battle born hundred amp hour life PO four battery. And 90 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:50,500 that's worked fantastic. I've never used my solar home. It runs everything from the diesel 91 00:09:50,500 --> 00:09:57,160 heater that I built to my lights. I wired my switches for all of my off-roading lights 92 00:09:57,160 --> 00:10:03,840 so that they can run constantly, even if the trucks off. So that's been, been good. What 93 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:10,240 else do I have? I got a lot of stuff. I have way too much time on my hands. 94 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:16,680 Yeah. I'm going to steal some pictures off your Instagram for cover art. Cause you got 95 00:10:16,680 --> 00:10:22,080 some good stuff. Yeah. Well, I mean, intro true raccoon fashion, like you said, you're 96 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:27,600 running, you run in stuff that we get off of marketplace. Your lights, what primarily 97 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:35,640 what are your lights running? Are they a certain company? I used lasfit. Oh, it's an Amazon 98 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:42,960 brand. They're, they're mid cheap. I'd say they're fairly comparable to like Oxbeam. 99 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:47,560 I run pretty much all my lights with them mostly because their customer service is fantastic. 100 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:54,880 It's good to know. I actually, I have a couple of them in my cart and I installed my chase 101 00:10:54,880 --> 00:11:00,720 lights. They've been on there. I just haven't wired them in and I wired them in a couple 102 00:11:00,720 --> 00:11:08,300 of weeks ago, finally, before our botches trip. And so I have the lasfit chase lights 103 00:11:08,300 --> 00:11:13,720 and they seem okay. They're not like too bright, but they're bright enough that you could see 104 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:19,560 them. So pretty happy with them. Yeah. I have, I have them running on the back. So I have, 105 00:11:19,560 --> 00:11:24,840 I have got pods. I've got two on the left, the right, and then two on the rear. And I 106 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:28,560 use those as my chase lights. And so far, everyone that's been behind me is not complained about 107 00:11:28,560 --> 00:11:34,400 being blinded. Yeah. No, your, your light setup is really fucking cool. So I'd like 108 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:43,600 to be seen from space. Yeah. Between you and between you, what's his name? I'm trying to 109 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:53,680 think. Gosh, now I can't even think of his name. Yoda, disciple. Oh, yeah. Joe Yamber 110 00:11:53,680 --> 00:12:04,360 with his light setup and then Mike with the other Tacoma, the forest green Tacoma. Those 111 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:11,680 have been like the best, the best setups for lights that I've seen. You three. Yeah. You 112 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:19,200 know, I've talked about Mike. Yes. Yep. Or near or a foreigner for near for near. I don't 113 00:12:19,200 --> 00:12:24,440 know. I don't know. He's his, him and his family are awesome, but the, the, their light 114 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:31,880 setup is like top notch, super, super good. And then you have like Alex with like a light 115 00:12:31,880 --> 00:12:39,400 bar on his bumper. And are you talking crap about my light bar? No, I said, then you have 116 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:44,120 an Alex with a light bar his bumper. It's beautiful. I'm pretty sure I have less than 117 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:49,480 Alex right now. So yeah, you just, you just put ditch lights on too. Did you work for 118 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:55,600 box team? Yep. Yep. Yeah. I like last fit so far. Their customer service is really good. 119 00:12:55,600 --> 00:13:03,120 I ran a trip out to Utah to look for rocks and I lost the bracket on both of my fog lights. 120 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:12,960 So what I had done is just out in the middle of the desert. I had run my fogs to just like 121 00:13:12,960 --> 00:13:18,960 white led pods. And then it's just on my OEM switch. Right. So I just tapped it in and 122 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:24,160 I noticed it like when I turned my fogs on, they were like not bright. And I was like, 123 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:27,520 what's going on? So I hop out and I lost both the brackets on both of them. And it was probably, 124 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:33,760 you know, tighten it well enough and then put Loctite on whatever. So I called them up to 125 00:13:33,760 --> 00:13:37,760 get new brackets and they just sent me a pair of new lights. They're just like, oh, just 126 00:13:37,760 --> 00:13:44,740 here. Good to know. Yeah. Not that I would ever be evil, but I'm just saying. We like, 127 00:13:44,740 --> 00:13:48,760 we like to hear that. I mean, we do. It's nice that they like go above and beyond. I 128 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:56,720 mean, exactly. So well, you mentioned going to Utah and that kind of, that brings me something 129 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:02,400 else. I was asking Benji about his favorite place to overlay in and camp. What's your 130 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:04,400 favorite place? 131 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:13,600 I don't know. I like to do a lot. I've got raging untreated ADHD. So I like to see all 132 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:19,240 of the things, you know, amen. Utah is hard to beat though. I'm not going to lie. If you 133 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:30,440 go in the off season, it's just Colorado, like in Utah, probably top for me. But you 134 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:37,360 know, I've, I've been a few places and they all have something special to offer, you know, 135 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:42,760 not, it's not the same no matter where you go. So, yeah, I mean, it just depends on your 136 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:47,160 outlook. I guess if you look hard enough, you can always find something. It's like, 137 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:53,600 I mean, lower Michigan is just gorgeous. Upper Michigan's like going into a different state. 138 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:59,320 To me, it's weird. It's like going west because of the rock faces and cliffs. But I've never 139 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:05,000 been farther west than Wisconsin. So that's a big, that's a big goal of mine to get out 140 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:06,000 there. 141 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:11,040 I will say this after moving back from Colorado, I'm not tempted to go that far back. I don't 142 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:17,440 want to make that up again. Mostly because of Kansas. I hate driving across Kansas. 143 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:18,440 Really? 144 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:21,640 Yeah, it's windy and I'm a wind sail. Like I'm top heavy. 145 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:24,280 Yeah, for real. I get that. I get that. 146 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:27,680 Where did you, where were you at in Utah? 147 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:33,600 I went out, I did Moab and that was, that was cool. I was solo though, so I wasn't really 148 00:15:33,600 --> 00:15:34,600 fully sending it. 149 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:35,600 I'll bear in mind. 150 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:44,840 Yeah, yeah. It was an interesting experience, but it was just me and my drone. Just did 151 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:51,920 some cool stuff in Moab with that. And then I went to, I went to a mine out in the middle 152 00:15:51,920 --> 00:16:01,040 of nowhere and I can't remember the name of it. Let me see if I can pull it up. Dugway. 153 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:06,600 So Dugway, Utah is known for, it's a military testing ground. It's a huge valley, but there's 154 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:13,760 also lots of rocks. And so I went and I camped out in like the valley out by Dugway and just 155 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:18,040 looked for geodes and stuff like that. Just amazing sunsets. 156 00:16:18,040 --> 00:16:19,040 Yeah. 157 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:20,040 Yeah. 158 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:21,520 Well, did you find any rocks? 159 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:25,360 Oh, I've got buckets of rocks. 160 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:30,880 So JD's a rock hound too. I didn't realize that until I'm like posted pictures of rocks 161 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,760 and rock hound group. And she's like, Oh, you here too? I'm like, Hey, look at that small 162 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:42,840 world. Yeah. We're out here stealing rocks from all the places that we go. I stole a 163 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:48,120 Toskey stone, size bigger than my fist from a campground. Thank you. 164 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:54,520 I should take a picture of the one I got from Drummond Island. We were, was it Sunday or 165 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,280 Monday we went swimming out on the fossil edge? 166 00:16:58,280 --> 00:16:59,280 I think that was Monday. 167 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:05,000 Yeah. I got like a big old rock that I dove into. Drove in to get. 168 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,200 Oh, I thought you meant dove into. I'm like that. 169 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:14,360 No, no, no, no, no. No, it was cold water. And so I was looking down and I saw this really 170 00:17:14,360 --> 00:17:18,840 cool rock. I'm like, all right, I guess I'm going to get cold. Grab the rock. 171 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,520 It's a full send right there. That's, that's how you rock now. 172 00:17:22,520 --> 00:17:23,920 Yeah, that's how you do it. 173 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:26,880 Have you guys ever looked at a rock fort? 174 00:17:26,880 --> 00:17:33,320 No, I want to go. Well, I mean, I was when I was a kid, I went down to the, the mill. 175 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:38,080 What is it? The mill or whatever you call it. Went down to that. I'd love to go back 176 00:17:38,080 --> 00:17:43,000 again. I actually forgot it was even a thing until like a month ago when I saw someone 177 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,040 post on it. It sounds like they were doing some changes over there too. 178 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:52,400 Yeah. It sounds like they're going to try to develop it, which is a bomber because it's 179 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:54,440 a designated dark sky area. 180 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,240 Yeah. Yeah. 181 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:04,360 It's over by Alpina. It's called Rockport State Recreation Area. 182 00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:09,960 That's one of the few dark areas, designated dark areas left. 183 00:18:09,960 --> 00:18:10,960 Yep. 184 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:13,960 There's not a crap ton of them. 185 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,040 I know we have one up in Mackinac. 186 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:18,040 Yeah. 187 00:18:18,040 --> 00:18:20,920 You know, I think it's called. 188 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:25,160 Yeah. Good old state of Michigan doing what state of Michigan does. 189 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:32,640 Oh, you, oh, you like the outdoors. Oh my God. You enjoy this stuff. Let's get rid of 190 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:43,240 it. You're losers. You nerds. Go back to your job and pay taxes. That's just how I picture 191 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:48,240 Michigan just to stay if it was to talk to me. He's like, you nerd, pay your insurance, 192 00:18:48,240 --> 00:18:53,440 pay your taxes, enjoy our bumpy roads. Go back to work. 193 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,520 Where do our taxes go? We don't know, but keep paying. 194 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,440 Yeah. Just, just pay it. Stop asking questions. 195 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,040 I guess now's the time to hear about your second rig. 196 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:08,840 Yeah. The one that you save all the money from taxes on because at least you save gas 197 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:09,840 money on it. 198 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:16,160 Yeah, that's true. I get anywhere from 32 to 56 miles a gallon. It just depends on how 199 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:26,840 I'm driving. I have a 2013 Prius V5 that has been lifted. And I think it's funny that my 200 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:29,320 Prius has skid plates when my Tacoma doesn't. 201 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,320 Bro, that's so funny. 202 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,080 Oh, Becker did that too. 203 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:37,920 Yeah. Yeah. So that skids and it's lifted. It gives me about 12 inches of clearance, 204 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:41,720 which is the equivalent to like a Subaru Crosstrek. 205 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:50,320 Dude, that's more than Zach's got. At least it outperforms the terrain. 206 00:19:50,320 --> 00:19:54,040 I mean, is it still, is it two wheel drive or is it all wheel? 207 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:55,040 It's all wheel drive. 208 00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:56,040 Oh my God. 209 00:19:56,040 --> 00:20:04,240 It's pretty cool. I'm pretty jelous about it. I really want to send it in the winter. 210 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:08,640 It's got, I want to say Falcon Wild Peaks on it. 211 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:10,160 Which are great winter tires I hear. 212 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,440 Yeah. And those are the summer tires. I have winter tires. I haven't picked them up from 213 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:14,440 Becker yet. 214 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:15,440 Oh shoot. 215 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:21,400 Yeah. So it is, it drives smoother than my Tacoma. Hopefully that'll change soon. 216 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:26,440 But wait, wait, wait. Are you going to make the Prius worse or the Tacoma better? 217 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:31,240 Yeah. She had to pause. 218 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:37,360 I'm hoping to make the Tacoma better, but I might also make the Prius worse while I'm 219 00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:38,920 waiting for the settlement of my Tacoma. 220 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:42,560 I was going to say that thing needs a light bar and some chase lights. 221 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:47,200 It's funny you say that. So the company that does the lifts is Prius. It's a company called 222 00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:54,280 Prius Off-Road. Yeah, legitimately. If you have a chance to look at their website, it's 223 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:59,800 pretty cool. They've got some action shots of Prius doing donuts and stuff. It's pretty 224 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:11,360 cool. They make tow packages, lift kits, skids, and light mounts for Priuses. And I do have 225 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:14,160 a light mount for the Prius. 226 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:21,400 I'm seeing something, man. I'm seeing a really good future for this Prius. And I'm thinking, 227 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:26,600 are you going to tow a small teardrop behind it? Something like that. 228 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:31,400 But it's me, so I'd probably just throw an M104 on the back of that thing. 229 00:21:31,400 --> 00:21:34,120 Yeah, right. It weighs more than the Prius. 230 00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:42,520 If I can find a reliable welder, I'll probably put a Gooseneck trailer hitch to the middle 231 00:21:42,520 --> 00:21:45,520 of the roof. 232 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:50,560 Have you seen those old Beatles that have that? 233 00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:53,640 That would be the dopest thing ever. 234 00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:56,840 I love it. 235 00:21:56,840 --> 00:21:59,360 Like I said, I've got way too much free time. 236 00:21:59,360 --> 00:22:09,360 No, that's perfect. No, but as far as if you were to take that overlanding and do... Obviously, 237 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:15,160 we're not trying to sink it. But if you were to take it and do forest roads, some of the 238 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:21,280 maybe a little bit harder off-camber ones, you have a really low center of gravity. It's 239 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:26,280 all wheel drive. You'd probably do okay. I mean, you'd be able to get to most places 240 00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:33,080 in Michigan with it. And at 50 miles to the gallon, 30 miles to the gallon, man, it does... 241 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:37,480 I mean, I don't know, man, a little Sprinter car like that to go and do something for the 242 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:43,920 weekend, drive real far. I would not. I mean, that sounds really ideal to me for some purposes. 243 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:44,920 Absolutely. 244 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:48,160 And she can do Marblehead. 245 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:50,840 Yeah, she can do Marblehead. 246 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:59,160 She could have done Marblehead with it, not lifted with skid plates. But no, I mean, that 247 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:00,520 thing is so cool. 248 00:23:00,520 --> 00:23:07,360 Yeah, yeah, it's pretty awesome. The only downside is the Prius Vs do not have the ability 249 00:23:07,360 --> 00:23:12,560 to mount a roof rack without some serious modification. 250 00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:19,960 I'm sure you'll get that figured out. She's like, I'm working on it. We're mock fabbing 251 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,200 it up. Get some cardboard out and some tape and start making some brackets. 252 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:29,560 Oh, yeah. Just wait till I have a shot, man. It's going to be all bets are off. 253 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:39,480 Oh, yeah. JD is like, she has so many different things going on between her Tacoma, her Prius, 254 00:23:39,480 --> 00:23:44,920 her little heater company that she's going to start up in the next five years, her leather 255 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:51,480 punch or leather company where she's going to make like she already told me she's she's 256 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:57,600 going to make like backseat organizers out of the leather. Like it's going to be it's 257 00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,280 going to be really cool. 258 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:06,440 I do miss having the shop space to do hobbies, but I'll be changing that in the next year 259 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:07,800 or so. So that'll be good. 260 00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:11,360 Yeah, I was gonna say you you bought some property that you're going to be heading up 261 00:24:11,360 --> 00:24:13,360 too soon, right? 262 00:24:13,360 --> 00:24:22,120 Yeah, I am moving the first not to the property, but I have to build a house on it yet, but 263 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:24,400 just up to West Branch area. 264 00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:25,400 That's awesome. 265 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:31,320 Yeah, yeah, it'll be good. Maybe I can use the one car garage and the rental to get out 266 00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:36,600 the leather smithing punches and make something cool. I don't know. 267 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:43,280 Yeah, do some patches. I mean, she's got so much skill, she could make money off of 268 00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,920 just staying at home if she had a shop. It's it's crazy. 269 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:48,680 See, I just 270 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:49,680 It's liking people. 271 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,760 Yeah, you're right. Exactly. Well, that's why you get in touch with other people. So 272 00:24:54,760 --> 00:25:00,760 you just make them and then you get in touch with people that have customer service skills. 273 00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:08,600 And then and then I help I mean, they help like take care of the rest. Then you never 274 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:09,800 really have to talk to anybody. 275 00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,280 That's true. I can just be a gremlin. That'd be nice. 276 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:17,480 That would be nice. I mean, that's the goal. After all, I just I don't have any other skills 277 00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:21,400 other than customer service. So I had to use what I got. 278 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:22,400 Fair point. 279 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:31,620 Right. But, you know, to bring it back to to a little bit more overlandy stuff here, 280 00:25:31,620 --> 00:25:40,280 you actually just recently did a pretty cool trip. As I understand it, you had some family 281 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:46,040 down in North Carolina that were affected by by the floods and stuff, right? 282 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:51,480 Yeah. So how that came about was I've got extended family that lives in the Asheville 283 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:59,080 area. And they had elected to shelter in place when Hurricane Helene had hit. And they had 284 00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:05,680 been stranded for a while. And they had sent out a message for help saying that they were 285 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:13,440 running out of supplies. At the same time, there was a guy on the MST group that had 286 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:17,200 posted that he was planning on going to North Carolina because he also had family that needed 287 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:28,160 help. And so Derek van Spronen, I think that's how you say his name, Derek. 288 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:32,680 Yeah, yes, bro. Yes, bro. 289 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:37,640 Michigan's. Why can't you pronounce that? 290 00:26:37,640 --> 00:26:40,120 Influencer, off-road influencer. 291 00:26:40,120 --> 00:26:48,120 Yeah, that guy. He's like, hey, well, why don't we do a supply run? So a couple of guys 292 00:26:48,120 --> 00:26:56,640 and me got together and people started bringing in donations. Derek lent me his overlanding 293 00:26:56,640 --> 00:27:04,200 trailer. We filled that up, filled the back of my truck up. And right before we were supposed 294 00:27:04,200 --> 00:27:09,920 to leave, the rest of the group couldn't make it. Various obligations, they couldn't get 295 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:15,760 work off, et cetera, et cetera. But like I said, I have way too much free time. So we 296 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:22,720 made it work. And I took off down there and I was originally going to connect with a group 297 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:30,200 that was stationed in Black Mountain, which is one of the hardest hit areas. Signed up 298 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:36,720 for their volunteer groups, was going to do a supply drop there. And at the last second, 299 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:40,840 as I was going down, they said that people would just keep showing up to camp and we 300 00:27:40,840 --> 00:27:45,440 have our volunteer list. It's full. We don't need you. If you're not nearby, then we're 301 00:27:45,440 --> 00:27:53,560 full. We don't have any more housing for anybody. So I was like, well, what do you do? Right? 302 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:57,400 You got a trailer full of supplies, a truck full of supplies, where can you help? So my 303 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:02,960 parents actually live outside of a town called Newport, which had also been flooded, but 304 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:07,600 they had been doing some pretty concentrated efforts and things had been moving along there. 305 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:12,120 So I called up my dad. I was like, hey, look, I've got all these supplies and we need to 306 00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:18,680 get them to people that need help. So my dad teamed up with me and we loaded up one truck 307 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:24,460 and took it all over along the river lines where all the smaller towns had just been 308 00:28:24,460 --> 00:28:31,680 wiped out by the hurricane and just found supply drops, talked to locals. Where do we 309 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:37,640 need help? Where are people trapped? Where do people need supplies? And people were just 310 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:42,040 out there helping each other and they gave us great direction. We were able to distribute 311 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:49,280 a pretty decent amount of the supplies the first day. And then the second day we had 312 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:53,640 the other half of the supplies in the trailer. So we headed out again, talked to some locals 313 00:28:53,640 --> 00:29:00,040 and they said that there were some people that were pretty bad off along the Nola Chucky 314 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:08,600 River. Smaller trailers in the mountains, smaller communities, that sort of thing. So 315 00:29:08,600 --> 00:29:15,140 we dropped the rest of the supplies at a church that was cooking hot meals for people who 316 00:29:15,140 --> 00:29:20,800 didn't have any power, distributing water. And while we were there, they were like, go 317 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:25,760 this direction. We haven't heard anything from the locals there. It's been several days. 318 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:32,040 We don't know if they're okay. So obviously my truck is fairly capable, despite being 319 00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:38,200 heavy to tackle some of those muddy roads, those washed out areas and everything like 320 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:44,080 that. So we just took off and they pointed us in the right direction and we came across 321 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:52,360 some people that needed some help. And we talked to them. It's a group of about 70 people, 322 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:56,680 locals and then around the area that were helping dig out roads so people could get 323 00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:00,000 back to their homes if they had any homes left, farmers trying to get back to their 324 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,880 fields, people looking for lost loved ones, that sort of thing. And so they were working 325 00:30:04,880 --> 00:30:14,080 on clearing out areas that had not been cleared yet. So they said we haven't really had a 326 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:18,760 good meal in a while. Could you get us meals? So we coordinated with the church, fed these 327 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:27,160 guys and then they couldn't believe how pretty my truck was. And at that point we hadn't 328 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:34,200 gotten into too much deep mud. So they had asked if I could use my truck to drive up 329 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:37,520 a road that they couldn't clear, they kept getting their equipment stuck. They wanted 330 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:44,240 to see how far I could get with my heavy truck because then they could move their work trucks 331 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:50,120 further up the line. And that just minimized their risk of having to dig out one of their 332 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:55,840 trucks that they're using to run supplies or whatever they needed. And I couldn't say 333 00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:56,840 no. 334 00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:04,800 Absolutely not. So I did and I got pretty far. They got farther than they thought I 335 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:11,000 would. But they followed me with a track steer with a big old log claw on it to pull me out 336 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:15,480 if I got stuck. And we got pretty far so they were able to move their equipment up a pretty 337 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:22,000 decent way. And then just keep pushing forward looking for people stuck in houses, stuck 338 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:30,000 in trailers, that sort of thing. So overall it was a really good experience. I'd say it 339 00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:40,000 was really humbling. Just the absolute devastation that the storm caused. It was kind of hard 340 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:48,120 to imagine seeing an area that was fully developed be wiped off the face of the earth. Like nothing 341 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:52,280 there. You showed up to a spot and you're like, there's supposed to be a town here. 342 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:56,280 There's supposed to be trailer park here. There's supposed to be homes here. And it 343 00:31:56,280 --> 00:32:03,560 just looked like a flat floodplain. It just was mud and nothing. And so that was pretty 344 00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:11,000 humbling but more incredibly was the ingenuity of the people and the helpfulness of the people 345 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:16,760 there. They were getting stuff done. Just in the few days that I was down there, they 346 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:23,920 were opening roads that, well, anywhere else would have taken months to even get drivable 347 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:30,360 maybe. They were getting them open. They were getting people help. And the selflessness 348 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:36,720 that I saw was pretty incredible. We don't have much but we've got enough. We know someone 349 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:40,360 over on the other side of the mountain doesn't have enough to get through for the next day. 350 00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:46,740 So go to them. That type of thing. Doing whatever they can to help each other out. And it was 351 00:32:46,740 --> 00:32:53,920 just help from all over. But most of it was locals helping each other. So that was pretty 352 00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:54,920 cool. 353 00:32:54,920 --> 00:33:04,880 It was such a unique event. Just how Helene hit, how everything kind of happened. And 354 00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:15,520 you don't typically see so much coverage on the issue from people. And I noticed going 355 00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:23,040 through social media like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, there are reels, there are videos 356 00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:29,480 of these people that are down there. And it's like one of the best ways to find out what's 357 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:35,960 going on because it's not, you know, usually it's not, you know, made up or biased or anything. 358 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:41,220 And just seeing the devastation down there was, just like you said, I mean, I've seen 359 00:33:41,220 --> 00:33:44,640 it through a phone, obviously, but it was pretty humbling to see even then, you know, 360 00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:50,480 before and after pictures. But as you said, I seen a lot of people, you know, a lot of 361 00:33:50,480 --> 00:33:55,840 people coming together, people getting using equipment that, you know, maybe they shouldn't 362 00:33:55,840 --> 00:34:00,720 have been using. But like, you know, you got to do what you got to do. And they were clearing 363 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:05,920 roads and taking trees out of houses with it. And everyone's just coming together to do 364 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:06,920 stuff. 365 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,840 That's one of the cool things about us Americans. You know, I think back to, I think it was 366 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:17,720 2016 when Dallas had all those floods and you just had, you know, big trucks, just random 367 00:34:17,720 --> 00:34:21,360 people driving through the water to get people out of their houses. You had people going 368 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:26,780 with kayaks to deliver food. And the way that us Americans can come together when there's 369 00:34:26,780 --> 00:34:30,760 a catastrophe like that, it just, I mean, it warms my heart. 370 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:36,080 Oh yeah, it does. I mean, what was it? Hay shortages here? What was that? A year or two 371 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:41,640 ago, or we had people from up here driving hay down to the south and stuff because of 372 00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:46,680 that. I mean, it does, it speaks to, I mean, I think America gets shown in such a bad light 373 00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:53,080 sometimes that some people only look at the bad and the negative, but there's a lot of 374 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:59,760 good that happens here. There's a lot of, there's a lot of, I don't know, there's a 375 00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:04,320 lot of people working together, especially when these things happen like Katrina. That 376 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:12,320 was another big one that we had. I mean, just crazy things happen, but Katrina, Helena, 377 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:18,960 the, you know, people using their personal helicopters to bring in, you know, supplies 378 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,320 and take people out. 379 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:28,520 I would say most of, from just from just being out in the area and talking to people, I, 380 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:34,040 I talked to some emergency management groups and stuff like that. And it was most of those 381 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:39,440 videos that you see of like dropping supplies via helicopter and like rescues and stuff 382 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:45,440 like that, private people were looking at other people, their aircraft, you know, to 383 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:51,800 fly people supplies and using drones, et cetera, et cetera. But I mean, it's, 384 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:57,000 I mean, so it's a great place for drones right there too. I mean, searching houses, searching 385 00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:02,800 areas that are inaccessible by vehicle at the time. That's, that's one of the more important 386 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,880 reasons. I mean, I guess, you know, I was hearing a lot of stuff about FEMA not really 387 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:13,680 being around. Did you see much of anything like that? I mean, what's, I mean, I mean, 388 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:18,200 I'm not, that's a step on step out anywhere, but you know what I mean? But I'm just, 389 00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:27,840 I will say what I saw. It was not much of our fellow people in blue. My last day, I 390 00:36:27,840 --> 00:36:35,160 did see FEMA coming out. They were with a group of environmentalists and they did have, 391 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:43,520 they did have a cadaver dog with them. But I did not see any relief efforts or research 392 00:36:43,520 --> 00:36:44,520 efforts than anything. 393 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:52,160 Yeah. I mean, I only asked that to get a sense because there was a lot of, a lot of people 394 00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:57,800 saying that FEMA wasn't doing anything or they were almost inhibiting in some ways or 395 00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:07,320 slowing the progress, commandeering supplies in areas. And it would get to the point where 396 00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:13,640 people were just saying, Hey, take this shit straight to a church. They have no right to, 397 00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:18,680 they have what is it? There's a subcategory of law. I think you're not allowed to pull 398 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:22,360 supplies or FEMA is not allowed to come into it like church ground or somewhere that's 399 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:23,360 been. 400 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:29,720 Yeah. There was, there was a little bit of tension regarding that. Some churches were 401 00:37:29,720 --> 00:37:38,280 having issues when they were feeding hot meals because of the volume of people that were 402 00:37:38,280 --> 00:37:42,480 being fed, I guess, health code violations. 403 00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:43,480 At that point? 404 00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:44,480 Yeah. 405 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:48,680 What are you, what are you worried about? Are you worried about someone starving? Are 406 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:54,720 you worried about, you know, I mean, I mean, you have to decide to cut out like that, that 407 00:37:54,720 --> 00:38:01,480 red tape at some point. And when you're in a high level disaster situation like that, 408 00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:02,480 all hands on deck. 409 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:06,160 And that's kind of what it ended up being. You know, the areas that were having issues 410 00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:12,960 with, you know, supplies, they just splintered it off and just made it into smaller, smaller 411 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:18,440 distributions and stuff like that. But I mean, ultimately it was, it was a lot of pointing 412 00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,720 your fingers down the way. Hey, we got so and so on that side of the mountain. They 413 00:38:21,720 --> 00:38:29,800 need this and this. We have reports of people coming in. Our needs have changed. So, I mean, 414 00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:33,440 chaotically organized, I would say. 415 00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:40,440 I know. I know. We had some companies here in New Waygo, Michigan, that were putting 416 00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:45,560 together semi trucks that were going down. That was, it was pretty nice. I think who, 417 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:52,960 do you remember who it was, Alex? I want to say it was AGO. Yeah. 418 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:58,880 This is editor Alex. I just want to say that it was not AGO. It was American Classics in 419 00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:05,560 Grant. They did a lot to try and get some stuff down there for the North Carolina relief. 420 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:11,480 AGO, there was some private, I think, but they were getting donations from everywhere. 421 00:39:11,480 --> 00:39:18,400 I mean, I can find out real quick. They, I think they did three semi trailers full. But 422 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:24,560 I mean, every, I mean, everyone was helping everyone. Anyone who could. I had a five gallon 423 00:39:24,560 --> 00:39:28,200 water jug, but there was no way I was making it to you guys in time. That's like all I 424 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:33,800 had. I was like, you got me right in my poor time, like in the in between paycheck, where 425 00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:39,360 I'm like, like if it was a Friday or it was a Saturday, it would have been good. But anything 426 00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:43,520 after that, I'm poor. So I was like, I don't remember what day you guys ended up heading 427 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:47,440 out, but I was like, dude, there's no way. Yeah. I mean, we ended up, I mean, the last 428 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:54,320 minute change of like logistics actually turned it out to be really perfect because I, I Tetris 429 00:39:54,320 --> 00:40:01,160 the heck out of my truck. Like I consolidated all the donations into one thing. 430 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:12,880 How long did it take you to get down there? I'm not fast. It took me about nine or 10 431 00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:19,000 hours to drive down there with the trailer. It doesn't sound that bad. Honestly. It wasn't, 432 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:25,360 it wasn't too bad. I mean, I took my Utah trip to go look for rocks. I drove 11 hours 433 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:32,760 and stayed the night drove 11 hours back. So I can send it if I need to. Right. So could 434 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:43,920 not do that. I'd be passing out. The key to the radio. Yeah. I like, I let the radio 435 00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:51,920 on as loud as I can windows down cold as it could be. I just get so my, uh, my key for 436 00:40:51,920 --> 00:41:01,000 staying awake on long drives is turn on family guy or American dad. I'm not a huge fan of 437 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:09,160 those. So like neither of them is a shit out of me. That's why I stay awake. 438 00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:15,700 I haven't had too much, too much of an issue staying awake on long trips. Um, I took a 439 00:41:15,700 --> 00:41:21,960 trip to Texas. It's a long story. I won't go into details with it, but, um, the longest 440 00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:30,360 round trip that I've ever done was four hours to the San Luis Valley, 16 hours to Texas, 441 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:39,440 five hours in Texas, and then I flew back. So it was mostly on the car. 442 00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:48,680 I did a Sierra Vista, Arizona to New ego, Michigan in like a little over 30 hours. 443 00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:57,840 I can't do that anymore, man. I used to be able to stay up for, used to be able to like 444 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:05,760 game and stay up for probably, you know, I dunno, 18 to 20 some hours, like no big deal. 445 00:42:05,760 --> 00:42:11,600 Just get up, go to work, come back, game, do it all over. And, you know, it was never 446 00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:16,960 a big deal. Now, dude, if I'm up for more than eight hours, I'm narcoleptic. I'm just 447 00:42:16,960 --> 00:42:23,920 passed out. It really talks to sleep quality when you have a kid like, like my son just 448 00:42:23,920 --> 00:42:29,800 drains all the energy out of me. And I don't like, I see pap is pumping at full blast. 449 00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:37,280 Like it's like having an air compressor hooked up to your mouth all night. 450 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:39,400 You need to get a house battery set up. I'm just saying. 451 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:44,880 Oh yeah. I know. I have the little battery, you know, the little anchor 515, the little 452 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:50,280 battery cell. And I've been debating on bringing that in, but I don't sleep very, like I sleep 453 00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:56,480 good when I do fall asleep, but I don't sleep a lot at night when I'm camping anyway. So 454 00:42:56,480 --> 00:43:02,320 I just don't end up bringing it. I don't get a lot of deep REM sleep. So, but yeah, my 455 00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:08,360 sleep apnea was so damn bad that yeah, I don't, I don't know if I could ever do more than 456 00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:13,000 eight hours at this point. I know we did our 1200 mile trip into the UP and I was like, 457 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:17,120 I got to pull over this, take a nappy. I need a nap right here. 458 00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:18,600 Power off for a second. 459 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:24,080 Oh, I did. I was like, Stiana, please, please just handle the kid. I just reclined my seat. 460 00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:31,280 I take nap right here. I go bed. It was, it was embarrassing. I'm like, I shouldn't have 461 00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:35,400 to do this. I don't know what's wrong with me. And they go to the doctors and they're 462 00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:44,000 like, severe is like 40 on the AHI scale or whatever. You're at 50.9. I'm like, Oh, okay. 463 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,000 That makes sense. 464 00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:52,200 I'm pretty lucky in the health department, I guess. I'm sure it'll hit me with a freight 465 00:43:52,200 --> 00:43:53,200 train soon. 466 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,200 How old are you now? 467 00:43:55,200 --> 00:43:56,200 I'm 32. 468 00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:57,200 What? 469 00:43:57,200 --> 00:44:00,440 Yeah. What? You think I'm younger or older? 470 00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:05,000 I thought you were like 21, if that. What the hell? 471 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:09,240 I was thinking like 24. So even I was way off. 472 00:44:09,240 --> 00:44:16,560 32. They say everything happens in year 30. I'm about to hit 30. And I'm like, bro, I'm 473 00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:18,040 already, I'm already hurting. 474 00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:25,480 My back is 80, 80 years old. Oh yeah. I have a stress factor in my back. So that I don't 475 00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:32,240 love that, but it doesn't help that I weigh three, about as much as three people. So that's 476 00:44:32,240 --> 00:44:38,440 kind of my main concern. I need to need to cool down with the, with the Speedway taquitos 477 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:39,440 or something. 478 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:41,840 They taste so good. 479 00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:47,240 So good, dude. Nothing, nothing beats it. 480 00:44:47,240 --> 00:44:52,360 The French toast ones with the sausage and French toast. Oh my God. 481 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:57,280 You know that I'm fat when my middle, I have a middle school page that I made on Facebook 482 00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:01,960 that is literally titled monsters and pop tarts for breakfast. And that was like, that 483 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:08,000 was like, that was like, it was like, so I was chunky throughout all of school. Gonna 484 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:12,720 have to, we need change here. 485 00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:19,120 I need to get out and film more when I'm out over landing. That's the issue. I need to 486 00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:21,640 actually get out and film more. 487 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,240 Let's see how to do the driving. Will you get out and do some filming? 488 00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:31,840 I don't know. I want to, I want to be able to get home, but like the, and that's nothing. 489 00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:37,340 She just has zero experience. So she, she would like try to straddle like an off-camber 490 00:45:37,340 --> 00:45:40,080 situation and she just, she'd go right in. 491 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:47,680 No, I did that last time when we went on Austin's trip. It's got a few wheels off the ground. 492 00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:53,680 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Where was that? That was, um, Oh, actually that was Yuma. We did Yuma. 493 00:45:53,680 --> 00:45:59,360 Yeah. The Yuma trails, uh, around that, that loop. 494 00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:03,560 Was it that, uh, that part you said was bad last time that was like a cake? 495 00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:09,360 Yeah, that, yeah. Yeah. The one where we all had got out and spotted JD. You remember that 496 00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:13,960 was, was that the place you're talking about? Yeah. I walked that. I walked that out in 497 00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:19,680 like two wheel drive. It was, I'm sitting here. I've been, I was telling Alex and Mark 498 00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:24,200 about them like, Oh dude, this thing was, it was cool. You know, and we went through 499 00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:30,320 it and we walked, everyone walked through it in two wheel drive. And I swear to God, 500 00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:35,600 it was way worse. Like we all had gotten, it was like way cooler back then. And he's 501 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:42,360 like, I can't remember if I ever, I probably put it in four wheel a couple of times on 502 00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:50,160 the trail. Um, but that just, that one, I just, I tried to straddle that, that rut and 503 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,520 the bank gave way and I was just like, Oh, we're looking, we're looking straight down. 504 00:46:54,520 --> 00:47:00,280 Yeah. Yeah. It was way steeper than, than before. And then, uh, then he tried taking 505 00:47:00,280 --> 00:47:12,720 the power lines and the power lines were so much fun. Why didn't we do the power lines? 506 00:47:12,720 --> 00:47:16,720 What'd you say? I just wanted to know who tried to pull Austin out the first time that 507 00:47:16,720 --> 00:47:23,520 he got stuck. Ed. Ed. Yeah. Ed and then Zeke, which was driving the same thing Ed was just 508 00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:32,120 way crazy or outfitted. Fifth gen forerunners for listeners. Yes. Fifth gen forerunners. 509 00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:39,360 And uh, so we had to kind of get Ed unstuck first. Um, and then once Ed got unstuck, we 510 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:46,120 had to direct him through swampy cat tail brush to get Zeke in front of that. And then 511 00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:50,520 Zeke had to pull them out and then Zeke was stuck trying to get up there. So I have some, 512 00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:57,000 I think some videos of him just spinning, um, on my Instagram. It is just, it was a 513 00:47:57,000 --> 00:48:02,000 crazy and then that was even the worst part. The worst part was trying to get back through 514 00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:08,320 one of the holes that we originally at all went through, like no big deal. And because 515 00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:13,740 I was the last person through, I had to go back through at first and they gave the guy 516 00:48:13,740 --> 00:48:22,880 with like no mud tires, no lift. Like, they're like, you go first. And, and my rear bumper 517 00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:29,240 and hitch dug that hole. So I fell into that hole and I was just reverse drive, reverse 518 00:48:29,240 --> 00:48:36,240 drive. And I dug a ramp for everybody else. He's really nice of you. Really nice. Yeah. 519 00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:44,080 You know, I'm here for the people. But yeah, that's, uh, that's pretty cool. I mean, we 520 00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:50,360 had some, we had some good times over there. Yuma was a lot of fun. And I mean, pretty, 521 00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:56,840 I don't think any of us needed lockers or anything either. Wow. Who needs lockers anyway? 522 00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:01,200 Yeah. I mean, sometimes you just trade down because you want to make things harder on 523 00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:06,680 yourself. Yeah. I mean, you wanted some, you wanted some challenge. It was too easy. I 524 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:15,760 can say that I missed my locker. Right. Did you ever even have it begin with Alex? I used 525 00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:23,720 it that one time in ever. Yeah. One time. And then it didn't work again. Yeah. Yeah. 526 00:49:23,720 --> 00:49:28,440 We have to, I think we have to get together and we have to do a trip up there and ever. 527 00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:33,000 I think Everett's got some stuff that was a little worse than Austin's. I was about 528 00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:38,240 to say the last group, they, I think they hit it at a really wet time. Cause that was 529 00:49:38,240 --> 00:49:43,520 all clips I've seen the gnarliest I've seen ever in a while. Yeah. Yeah. But we'll have 530 00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:48,120 to get together and do something like that spring or something. Or, uh, JD, are you done 531 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:54,800 for the year? Um, as far as like overlanding or are you going to keep going? No, probably 532 00:49:54,800 --> 00:50:02,560 not. So the trucks going in the shop to get completely redone on the bottom half. Um, 533 00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,560 and that that'll put me out for a little while, but, uh, I don't know if you're familiar with 534 00:50:06,560 --> 00:50:11,960 a guy named Marvin. He goes to rigs and coffee every once in a while. Kind of a, he's an 535 00:50:11,960 --> 00:50:22,360 older guy. He has a white GX. No, I've seen that. Yeah. So he's got a white GX. Um, he 536 00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:31,240 wants to do an ice roads trip through Canada. That would be fun. He keeps messaging me about 537 00:50:31,240 --> 00:50:37,080 it. Like he says it enough. I'm going to do it. And I probably going to do it. Cause that 538 00:50:37,080 --> 00:50:40,560 would be a lot of fun. If I get set up like that next year, we'll have to do something 539 00:50:40,560 --> 00:50:46,560 like that. I mean, he, Marvin, I had a hard time keeping up with him. He has a mostly 540 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:57,120 stock GX. Um, and he, we went on a Canada trip, midsummer ish and he was sending it. 541 00:50:57,120 --> 00:51:02,920 It handled really well. It's surprising how well those GXs handle. We had, uh, we had 542 00:51:02,920 --> 00:51:09,920 Nathan, I want to say, or Nicholas who had that pretty stock GX with, uh, wild peaks. 543 00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:13,800 And he took that same thing that we did and he did everything else. We did pretty well. 544 00:51:13,800 --> 00:51:18,880 He just made everything look really easy. Yeah. That was sad. It's like, I haven't done 545 00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:23,360 this before. I was like, it's, it's the tools, not the operator clearly. Yeah. Obviously, 546 00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:29,600 obviously you're, you're well set up for this. This is my 15 grand. I've got my truck just 547 00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:36,440 making me look like a fool out there. That's yup. That sounds about right. Well, hey, you 548 00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:40,760 know, I, uh, we, we really appreciate you guys coming on here talking about your story. 549 00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:47,720 Um, we, we love having the, uh, having the, the Prius talk, the North Carolina talk was 550 00:51:47,720 --> 00:51:58,360 really cool. Oh my God. There's a cat. Oh, I have a 20 pound Maine Coon mix. Oh my God. 551 00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:03,480 I really wish that my 20 pound Maine Coon mix was up here. Cause I would show him to 552 00:52:03,480 --> 00:52:10,720 you. He's massive. His name is mango and a guard dog. Yeah. Well, he's a, he's a, he's 553 00:52:10,720 --> 00:52:16,840 pretty much a dog. He plays fetch. He also knows how to take the screens out of windows 554 00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:24,240 and he knows that door that has a pull handle. He can also reach the door handles because 555 00:52:24,240 --> 00:52:31,920 he's so big. Yeah. I've got an orange one and he can open doors if he wants to. It's 556 00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:36,760 the Maine Coon one. It's they, they have an extra brain cell and it's, it's just the ones. 557 00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:41,760 Yep. One actual one. That's all they need. My cat's orange. So he's missing one to begin 558 00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:48,200 with. Yeah. Yeah. That's very true with the cat world. Yeah. Anybody who's had orange 559 00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:52,680 cat knows they are just one of the dumbest cats out there. It's there. They're also one 560 00:52:52,680 --> 00:53:01,600 of the loving, the most loving, but they are, they are, they are smooth brain, smooth brain. 561 00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:09,440 Me too. Yeah. He just wanted to stop in and see why I've got my attention on anything 562 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:17,320 other than him. Yeah. Sounds like my son, which, which he's making noises right now. 563 00:53:17,320 --> 00:53:25,320 So yeah, we, yeah, no, thankfully. Yeah. I sound dead into my room. So, or his room, 564 00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:29,880 technically it's the nursery. So I'm going to feel really upset when I have to give it 565 00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:38,240 back to him. He won't even appreciate it. You won't dang kids. So I should have got 566 00:53:38,240 --> 00:53:43,760 a cat. I'll lend you, I'll lend you mango, but you got to keep your kids too. Like I'm 567 00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:51,920 not, I'm not trade. That is a bad trade. Bad trade. Well, you know, you'll have to see 568 00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:56,480 him. He's walking around now. I think the last time you saw him, you was barely crawling. 569 00:53:56,480 --> 00:54:02,120 Yeah. He was hard to say cause it was pretty late at night by the time he actually just 570 00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:07,660 that's true. So that's true. Yeah. Well, he was walking around now. He's got teeth. He's 571 00:54:07,660 --> 00:54:15,120 getting into shit. So he's being a menace, but it's fun. Like, uh, like Derek's kids, 572 00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:22,760 he's going to have like 11 years of off-roading skill before he's even 12. So that should 573 00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:28,840 be, yeah. Well, Hey, I appreciate you on here. Uh, I think we're going to have to wrap up 574 00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:34,200 our little session today. Um, you know, it was really, it was really cool hearing about 575 00:54:34,200 --> 00:54:41,400 the North Carolina and all the, all the effort that we, uh, you know, not we, as in the group, 576 00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:49,080 but we, as in a people, uh, put into it and just good seeing everything coming together. 577 00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:56,800 So yeah, I would agree. Yeah. So yeah, I appreciate you on here. Um, we'll have to get you on 578 00:54:56,800 --> 00:55:06,080 here for another one. Uh, after one of our MST trips, we'll do some post trip stuff after 579 00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:13,360 the Canada ice road. That's what I want her on here. You'll find that I have very interesting 580 00:55:13,360 --> 00:55:20,160 near death experiences. So we can test the waters on my divine benevolence, if you will. 581 00:55:20,160 --> 00:55:24,880 Yes. Yeah. Like how you put that. Yeah. Well, I can get you on here after your ice road 582 00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:31,480 truckers, uh, truckers episode. Well, it's probably going to have something to do with 583 00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:38,320 like my diesel heater failed in the art. Oh yeah. Yeah. This nice little like click bait 584 00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:46,960 like diesel heater failed, but you don't know that I'm JD. So I fixed it within minutes 585 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:52,960 with a leather punch and electrical tape. It's a small toolkit and the candy out of 586 00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:59,880 it. Yeah. That's all you need. That's, I like that. Well, thank you very much. Uh, thanks 587 00:55:59,880 --> 00:56:09,560 for getting on here guys. Um, Alex, Mark and JD. We'll talk to you guys later. 588 00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:31,160 Yeah.2020.