Welcome to botches off road and it's just gonna
be a little me and mark action today Alex has
Yeah, I don't know. What does he got going on?
He's just I think he just wanted to play something
helping his mother. Yeah Yeah, something like
that. We postponed it for a day to record and
then he backed out on us. So dang it So I guess
we're gonna do a little rap. What did we do this
weekend? I had a pretty interesting weekend.
How about you, Mark? I went car shopping with
Alex. Yeah, how'd that go? Or truck shopping.
Pretty good. A couple of the trucks that he originally
looked at were all fucking lemons. Yeah, that's
surprising. Yeah. No, a lot of them had. some
form of an issue dealing with exhaust or had
a major blowback issue. I lost, I think we looked
at one, two, three, four, five, five trucks.
Yeah. I think he settled on the sixth truck.
No, the fifth truck we looked at. Man. And what
is that, a 2014? So it was 2014 F 250 Believe
the six point seven. Yeah, I think there was
it six seven or six five It was a six seven,
yeah Black right pictures I can tell Yep, yeah
black. It's pretty clean. Look at truck. You
sent one picture, but that's all I've seen of
it so far And then I think you went and picked
it up yesterday towed it home and then towed
the car that he drove down there on the trailer
with it. It was a good break in to see if it
would actually get back home and everything.
From what he said, it needs a couple of things,
but it's drivable and good to go. I think the
front needs to get alignment done. It needs a
new headlight. The one headlight has a crack
in it. The when you work on the body amounts
this weekend Yeah, so yeah a few things, but
at least he's got a running vehicle right now
Only call yeah two arms and a leg So yeah, that
was uh and you do anything during the week anything
with your truck or anything No trucks still held
up in the shop they Apparently, I pinched the
wire when I rerouted the knock sensor wire. Yeah.
Because I couldn't get the knock sensor old harness
out of the valley fully. So we rerouted it, thinking
it might be an OK area where we routed it. But
I guess we pinched or broke a wire doing that.
They called, I think it was Monday. They called
Alex. I didn't know that he got it done. But
then all my fuel injectors I put in are all bad
now. Oh, my god. I wonder if it shorted them
out. Plus, I knew they're having that bad wire
or something. I don't know. Something happened.
Yeah. Yeah. Something happened, so they're all
getting replaced. We're waiting for it to be
shipped in, so I probably won't see the truck
until next week at this point. Wow. Well, at
least you'll be getting that back soon. Yeah.
Yeah, for me, I had a U -joint. go to toast for
me this last uh was it last week and i wanted
to go to riggs and coffee sunday so we found
out on friday seeing i came home from work and
was like there's a new sound and i'm like oh
fucking fantastic love hearing that so well i
took it on a drive didn't hear anything and i
was she's like no i'm not fucking crazy i know
There's a sound. I know it. So we took it down
prairie and all of a sudden the sound started
and it was loud. It sounded like, I don't know,
like a pipe hitting a metal fan blade. Just to
do, to do, to do, to do, to do. And I was just,
I was freaking out. I'm like, dude, that's, I
can, I had my head out the window. I could hear
it only happening in low speeds. And I was like,
that's my, I bet you that's my diff. That diff's
finally leaving the chat. So I got out, let her
drive around a little bit. I got under the truck,
put my hand on it while she threw it in gear
and everything. And it felt like it was still
the diff. So we held our heads very low and went
home. I called Alex up and told him what was
going on and he's like, are you sure? And I'm
like, yeah, as far as I know, I am. And I explained
the sound and he goes, you know, that sounds
like a lot like a U -joint. I'm like, really?
Yeah. So I went and checked, looked at my U -joint
and sure as shit that U -joint was shot, which
was great. So we looked around everywhere to
try to get it fixed that night so that we could.
You know have it for Sunday Alex is going to
check out that truck, so he wasn't gonna be there
till on Saturday, so We waited waited Tried to
find a u -joint and apparently nobody had a u
-joint had to be shipped in from gr and They
got there Saturday at about 3 p .m.. Or something
like that so I went, refilled my diff, because
I was checking my diff earlier when I thought
it was that. Refilled that, and we got out there,
picked it up, came back, and waited a couple
hours until Alex was supposed to be home, and
I pulled out to his house to use the press he
had, and we spent the next couple hours. Mark
helped a lot, and Alex helped a lot, just trying
to get the press and everything. to pop that
U -joint out. And it was kind of a bitch. That
U -joint was dust. It was rusty, dusty. At one
point, it was pressing so hard that it flew across
the shed. Like three different pieces. It was
like ricocheted. But yeah, finally we got that
out. Got the new one in. Took it up and on the
road. Holy crap. It felt like I just added You
know 50 horse to the car You know like it did
like it was like a significant increase in acceleration
and everything it felt Shaking that I didn't
know necessarily Was the cause of that went away
steering wheel shake kind of went away a little
Just everything everything felt better And so
yeah, we went on my merry way. And Sunday, we
got everything packed in the tent. I'm sorry,
packed in the tent. We got the tent packed on
the truck, and we did rigs and coffee. But I
did skip some stuff. We spent most of the day
Saturday pulling stuff out of the truck and putting
stuff into the truck, pulling the winter gear
out, cleaning it out, putting these. camp gear
in for the summer of the season. And Sienna and
I, while we were waiting, we were both, she had
a day off on Saturday, finally. And so we just
started plugging away at it. I knew that I had
to get the tent on the roof, it was not gonna
fit in the truck, so we started trying to pull
gear and, you know, consolidate gear into one
box. get rid of doubles of tools that I didn't
need. So we ended up getting rid of all the boxes
on the right side of the truck that was holding
recovery gear and tools and all that. And we
mounted one of them on the back wheel at a spare
tire tray. So we mounted one box with recovery
gear in the back tire. Then we got everything
else consolidated into a box and I have that
inside the truck. and then we took the, it's
a 60 -40 split in the rear seat and I took the
60 out and put that inside so we have that whole
flat area now and then we put a couple tools
in there, we got more space. I lifted up my shelf
platform that I had some of my drawers and stuff
on in the back just a couple inches so that it
stopped rubbing against the fridge. So yeah,
we did a bunch of that stuff and then we then
we went to Riggs and coffee we got to Riggs and
coffee and it was a different location than last
time it was a Basically like a park pavilion
area. It was yeah, that's what it's like a little
park there in Hopkins Yeah, and it was it was
right there next to the fire department it was
basically just Like it was very weird like it'd
be like parking in the front of Grant High School
Just right in the right there in the lawn. It
was weird And we had a really good turnout lots
of cars there it filled up the little it's a
smaller area than the parking lot and Yeah, I
would say it's probably about half the size or
close to it of usable Like area and it was super
soft, dude You take it was I kind of saw one
of them I think the Lexus is like the Lexus had
it was next to you. Yep fucking tore up the grass
Yeah, and I actually pointed that out too But
uh, you know how Alex's ground is kind of spongy
there next to his shed you step on it You could
feel your foot smush. Yeah, that's pretty much
how it was. Yep And so we all got parked out
there though. It got really nice out and I set
up the tent in the front. So we had a little
lounge area and people could look at the tent.
I asked about it. And yeah, we got to see some
people we haven't seen in a year or, you know,
or since a new year anyway, but we saw Derek.
We saw a couple other other guys that always
come up. And then we saw an Azuzu via cross.
That showed up. That was pretty cool to see.
Oh yeah, I saw that. Yeah, that was dope. We
had Volkswagen guy with his, what was it? What
do they call that? Tourig? Something like that.
It's the all -wheel drive version. I didn't see
the picture. But it was that silver Tourig, and
he has another car cut in half, another Volkswagen
cut in half, and it's his camp trailer. Oh, you're
talking about that one. He has the giant basket
on there. So that guy showed up, like I said,
the normal people. And yeah, they had some good
cookies. And my kid ate about 1 ,000 of them.
And then Derek's kids brought out their 3D printed
rock crawling course. That was sick, Mark. I
think you would have loved that. Like you, Shane,
that was sick. Like they had their little land
cruisers on there and they were crawling throughout
that course. And it all comes together, it's
all 3D printed and it comes together like a puzzle,
like the interlocking pieces. So you can kind
of mix them and match them to get like a different
course. That was cool. And so everybody kind
of huddled around that and watched them play
with that for a while. I made hot dogs in the
back of the truck, and it was just a good time,
man. Lots of people there that you haven't seen.
Lots of talking. There was even people coming
from, you know, just in town, just trying to
see what's going on. And so we were all kind
of talking to them and, you know, sharing what
what's a very small town there. So I'm not surprised
you have random people come up and join. Yeah,
we had one guy. He had a Jeep Compass. or no,
not compass, what's the commander? Big old fucked
up jeep commander, and he was talking about coming
out and doing some of this, and he's like, what,
you got a card? I'm like, no, no, this isn't
my group or anything, I'm just, you know, I was
just telling him about it. And Derek comes up,
I said, this is the boss man. And he goes, you
got a card? And he goes, no, it's all online.
And the guy kind of gave him a stink eye from
that. And I was like, dude, everything is now.
You're not going to get a magazine or anything
out of it. So that's pretty cool. And Midwest
4x4 had some patches and stuff for sale. Stickers,
patches, some t -shirts, some hats. They actually
had some merch. I think I'm used to seeing them
with like shirts and stuff, but not like patches
and stickers, like decals. I don't know that
I've ever seen that. I've seen stickers a couple
of times. I don't know if I've seen patches yet.
I'll probably get a patch because. Yeah. Might
as well since I bought from them. Yeah. They
should just give that to you when you buy it.
That should just go on your truck. Oh, I know,
true. You should tell them that. It's the least
you could do. So, yeah, and then Brian showed
up from Midwest and he brought the FJ that they're
working on. So, they just picked up an FJ a little
while ago that they're going to turn into like
their... It's not a show truck, but it's the
truck that they bring around to shows to have
all their products and stuff in and to advertise.
But the truck itself isn't going to be the show,
I guess. So. Yeah. But yeah, so that was pretty
cool. It was just nice to see everyone So we
did that it started to trickle right as we were
all getting ready to leave We stayed for a couple
hours. It was just nice enough that You know
the kids were playing It wasn't really raining
or nothing. It was getting chilly But we just
went inside the tent. We had that tent popped
up in front of the truck I have some pictures
on my Instagram for anybody who wants to like
see how rigs and coffee was set up and all that
But we had all that set up, and we went in there
when we wanted to get away from the wind a little
bit. And I can tell you what, the wind was blowing
pretty decently. I'd say like 10 mile an hour,
enough to like move the awnings and stuff, and
it makes stuff kind of flap around a little.
You wouldn't even know it was moving inside that
tent from the outside, like from the inside.
You couldn't even tell. So. hope that's a good
omen as we're gonna find out I'm gonna I agreed
to do the east side camp trip that Zach's doing
so that's gonna be early April I think let me
double check here because I don't think we have
anything going on so and Sienna had the weekend
no I think Because Alex has the turkey run thing
that he's part of. Yeah. It's like late April.
So I don't think he was planning anything big
for April. Yeah, no, I have. I think the next.
It's April 18th is the East Side trip. So we're
going to go do that. And I'm going to bring the
diesel here and stuff just in case it's still
cold. And we're going to test out the tent. But
I set it up on my own. This is the first time
I set up a six person. eight person tent by myself
and put it away by myself. But, you know, it's
it's not that it's hard or anything, but like
two people just make it way easier. And but that
was that was really nice. We just sat in there.
We just threw the chairs in there like you guys
did with your gazebo and relaxed in there to
take a break. So. Yeah, we got home from that.
Talked with Benji from. Whoo, that's something
my face newfound overland Yep, and we talked
to Benji and what? Yeah, yeah Midwest adventure
outfitters, yeah, but we talked a little bit
cuz I saw something on his Page and I said, well,
I'd love to you know, I'd love to do a podcast
with you if you were you know open to it and
So we ended up doing an episode. I think it's
gonna come out tomorrow So for the people who
are listening to this it should be already out
So check that out if you want I mentioned botches
a couple of times, but really we're just talking
about all sorts of other shit, too Just about
the the overlanding climate and like what's going
on with it and What we see trends this and that
so Yeah, we you're supposed to only talk for
like 40 minutes and Benji likes to talk and I
love to talk. So yeah, I mean That's that's why
without me here Alex says is sometimes it gets
a little quiet but no, I We ended up talking
for probably two hours. So Interesting to see
how much of that actually stays in the podcast
we started to get off rail a couple times and
I tried to circle back and Make it a part of
it, but I haven't talked to Benji since Benji
was one of our first interviews I think with
botches, right? Yeah Think he was one the first
yeah, and I hadn't talked to him in person since
we had that phone interview with him Because
he was in his truck getting ready to go somewhere
do something So I hadn't I hadn't talked to him
in person since then chatted over Instagram a
few times and on Facebook a few times, but yeah,
I know it was a great time Really enjoyed it.
He's a great dude as always we knew that and
Hopefully, we're going to get something figured
out to do a couple more in the future. And then
I also made the plans to go down to Friendsgiving,
because I wanted to go and see those guys. So
instead of Jasper's birthday is on the 18th,
and I think Friendsgiving's on the 20th. So I
think we're just going to spend Jasper's birthday
down there. Yeah, it's the weekend before Thanksgiving,
usually when he's done it. spend the birthday
down there and maybe we'll maybe we'll take a
couple trails around the Ozarks or you know maybe
something around there just to say that we saw
some stuff and we'll see we'll see how everything
plays out it's a lot warmer down there that time
of year so hopefully I won't need my oh yeah
you know my heater or anything he said the last
year everyone was around in their t -shirts pretty
much Yeah, I think it was It was got kind of
cool at night because it was very misty and stuff
in the mountains. Yeah Where we were at so it
was kind of chill for the most part, but you
could probably run around t -shirts almost all
day Yeah at night though. It'd be good with just
a sleeping bag. You won't need like a diesel
heater, right? No, me and Alan survived in earth
sleeping bags in our tents. We had the winter
kit on, but other than that, you could have probably
survived without it. Yeah. Yeah, I just wonder
what else. I think a couple of them bought their
diesel heaters out just to have, though. Yeah.
Yeah, maybe we'll do that, too. It's looking
like I might have the space to be able to throw
that extra stuff in there now and just keep it
around, but I don't see a point in having the
diesel heater in the truck unless I'm using it.
I won't have it in there unless I actually plan
to use it while camping. And once summer comes
around, it's just going to get tossed back in
the house. So yeah. Yeah, Benji was our first
interview. Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, we
started it off big. We started off big with Benji
and just went downhill from there. No, we had
a lot of cool interviews. It's a little bit more.
amateur than what we are now. Our interviews,
the style, we were just getting used to doing
it, the recording equipment and our techniques
that were kind of new. So it's a lot less refined
than it is now, but they were still really good
quality reviews. And we had Cindy Pope and we
had a radio chatter and I forget the one guy.
There's a couple, I mean, there's a few of them.
And this is what now going on to our third year
of doing this season. Yeah. Third season, second
and a half year though, right? Like it's been
about two years almost. I just round up to three.
Oh, we, I would say two and a third because technically
we started in October. So it was like tail end
of the two and a third. Yeah. Okay. That's good.
It's still a good amount of time. We have a lot
of episodes. If you're hearing all these now,
we talk about a lot of stuff that we try not
to talk about again. But we might be bringing
up some stuff from our older episodes to update.
So this is where we were two years ago. Now let's
see where we're at. Because as we talked about
in our last podcast. We've changed a lot in those
two years. So we might be bringing, bringing
a couple of those topics back to see if anything
in our minds have changed. I know my mind has
changed quite a bit from then and my experience
has gone up. I'm a lot more daring than I was
and it's probably Mark and Alex's fault for making
me go and probably making me do these trails
and then me realizing that, you know, I can do
them and it's not so bad. It's just I have horrible
mechanical sympathy for Barry, and I just do
not want to see him hurt. I've talked about that
a little bit with Benjamin about how when we
do our trip, Barry's the name of my truck for
anybody who might just be listening, but I always
will pat Barry on the steering wheel and be like,
good boy, good job, man. You made it. You got
us through it, man. I swear to God, he listens.
Like he's all about it. I always apologize to
him after we do something hard. I'm like, good
job, man. You didn't break down right in the
middle of it. I'm proud of you. I promise I'll
be nicer. I promise I'm going to give you a really
good car wash. I'm going to give you some premium
fuel, get you some fuel additive. I'll change
your oil. You're going to be spick and span,
buddy. We're going to get you taken care of.
Other than a few little incidents, he's never
let us down. We've never had that problem. I
mean, like I said, little instances that we could
fix right there. But I'm a firm believer that
he's a living thing. So I won't ever treat him
that poorly on purpose. Have you named your car?
Did we name her? I don't like a hat. I'm trying
to remember. Like Sylva? Like Sylvia has popped
up. Yeah. Yeah, like Sylvia. Beatrice? I think
that's popped up in my head. I was thinking more
just the silver. Yeah. Beatrice just sounds like
a stubborn, stubborn old lady. Right now that's
kind of what your truck's reminded me of as a
stubborn old lady. Yeah. What do you call her?
Like her husband. Kathleen or... Something like
that. Give her a stubborn Helga. I don't know.
I mean, she might as well. She's spent a good
amount of my money in the last couple of months.
Call her Goldie, because she's a gold digger.
She's taking all your money. Which would be kind
of funny, because she is silver. So to call her
Goldie would be interesting. Well, all right.
Well, this is our wrap. We're going to head off
and try to figure something out for an hour.
And you know what? Maybe we'll bring back one
of our old episode topics and rehash it out and
see. But until then, we will see you on the next
one. Catch you guys later.