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Father's Day Special: Interviewing Larry Brady · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your
0:11
Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and for this week's guest, we have
0:15
Speaker 1: Scott Brady's dad. Please enjoy my conversation with Larry Brady,
0:19
Speaker 1: where I interview him about his life and the things
0:23
Speaker 1: that brought him up to the point that I became
0:25
Speaker 1: more than a glimmer in him and my mom's eye.
0:29
Speaker 1: The stories of his time in the Air Force, traveling
0:32
Speaker 1: to Thailand, his time as a sportsman, hunting throughout the
0:37
Speaker 1: desert southwest and southwestern United States with him and his father,
0:42
Speaker 1: and ultimately me coming along along the way sometimes with
0:45
Speaker 1: my red writer bb Gun. But we have a great
0:48
Speaker 1: conversation about how he got involved with the outdoors and
0:52
Speaker 1: then how he taught me so many of those things
0:55
Speaker 1: that ultimately resulted in my interest and passion for travel.
0:59
Speaker 1: We also talk about my dad and my trip to
1:01
Speaker 1: Australia and some other adventures that we've done in the
1:05
Speaker 1: southwestern United States. So please enjoy my conversation with my dad,
1:11
Speaker 1: Larry Brady. Well, dad, thank you so much for being
1:15
Speaker 1: on the podcast. We have mister Larry Brady with us,
1:18
Speaker 1: so literally the podcast would not exist without you. Overland
1:23
Speaker 1: Journal magazine wouldn't exist without you. So boy, it's dad.
1:27
Speaker 1: It's such an honor to have you on this podcast
1:30
Speaker 1: with me. And you know, what I wanted to really
1:33
Speaker 1: talk about was all of the experiences that you've had
1:36
Speaker 1: in your life that helped shape my life. And just
1:39
Speaker 1: the privilege that I had as your son to be
1:42
Speaker 1: able to experience the outdoors and to experience a passion
1:47
Speaker 1: for discovering new things, and all the support that I
1:50
Speaker 1: got from Mom and you in my travels. So I
1:53
Speaker 1: thought it would be really fun to have this conversation
1:57
Speaker 1: with you today. But I think we should start off
1:59
Speaker 1: by talking about what you learned from your dad. So
2:04
Speaker 1: I called him Popo, but Donald was your dad, my grandfather,
2:08
Speaker 1: and he was a firefighter. Where did you guys go outdoors?
2:12
Speaker 1: What kind of activities did you do? And what did
2:14
Speaker 1: you learn from your dad?
2:15
Speaker 2: Probably our first outdoor adventures were when we went to
2:21
Speaker 2: the High sier As fishing, sure with two other families
2:28
Speaker 2: from firemen, And that was seventy years ago, Sure, and
2:36
Speaker 2: we're still very close friends and the boys, and because that,
2:42
Speaker 2: unfortunately all the dads have passed away, we still go
2:45
Speaker 2: up to Mammoth in California fishing together. You know, Scott's
2:50
Speaker 2: been able to go a few times. It's it's not
2:52
Speaker 2: in some other country stuff. So true, that's pretty much
2:57
Speaker 2: the start of.
2:58
Speaker 1: Our outdoor well, and I remember Dad too. It seemed
3:03
Speaker 1: like it was a big part of your childhood was
3:06
Speaker 1: these really core friendships that you had back then. And
3:11
Speaker 1: the fact that when we still see these guys today,
3:14
Speaker 1: which we've seen them just recently, just the fact that
3:17
Speaker 1: we're all able to still go fishing together and you're
3:20
Speaker 1: able to maintain those relationships. Do you think that having
3:23
Speaker 1: those kinds of quality, deep relationships with other men in
3:26
Speaker 1: your life has that really helped you to continue to
3:28
Speaker 1: go and do things in the outdoors.
3:31
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, we just get each other going. Yeah. And
3:36
Speaker 2: because we had a span between when we were all
3:41
Speaker 2: getting married or off to college and that type of thing,
3:45
Speaker 2: that we kind of backed off going. And it was
3:49
Speaker 2: at my father's funeral that one of the guys, Tony,
3:54
Speaker 2: he came up to my brother and I and he says,
3:56
Speaker 2: all right, guys, we messed up. We're going to start
4:00
Speaker 2: going back fishing again. And we took the other two
4:03
Speaker 2: dads that were still with us, so we all went
4:07
Speaker 2: and over time we lost the other two dads, but
4:13
Speaker 2: we just kept going and we're still going.
4:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean one of the world's worst fishermen,
4:19
Speaker 1: which I think you can attest to. I think I
4:21
Speaker 1: do more. I think I do more time, spend more
4:24
Speaker 1: time napping than I do fishing. But it's probably one
4:27
Speaker 1: of the few times in my life that I get
4:29
Speaker 1: that moment of real stillness because at a lot of
4:32
Speaker 1: these lakes that we go to, there's no cell coverage,
4:35
Speaker 1: and I'm not a particularly good fisherman, so it actually
4:37
Speaker 1: gives me a chance to sit in a chair and
4:39
Speaker 1: just enjoy the view. But it's it's been neat for
4:43
Speaker 1: us recently because Ethan, your grandson and my nephew, he's
4:47
Speaker 1: now up here in Prescott going to Embry Riddle, so
4:49
Speaker 1: we've been able to just recently continue that tradition by
4:52
Speaker 1: going fishing with him.
4:54
Speaker 2: Yes, it's great.
4:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it is such a joy to do
4:58
Speaker 1: all of that. And some of my earliest memories are
5:02
Speaker 1: in this sierras. What are some of the places that
5:05
Speaker 1: you really loved to travel to in the desert southwest California, Utah?
5:09
Speaker 1: What were some of your highlights?
5:11
Speaker 2: Well in California. Obviously, the High Sierras you know, are
5:16
Speaker 2: just the best. I mean, they're just everything there in
5:20
Speaker 2: the lakes and everything. And then we did down in
5:23
Speaker 2: the flatlands of that area. We did pheasant hunting, you
5:28
Speaker 2: know that sort of thing. So California had a lot
5:31
Speaker 2: of positives for outdoor stuff for us. And then Utah.
5:36
Speaker 2: My dad's sister had a lodge up there in a
5:41
Speaker 2: cafe and.
5:43
Speaker 1: In Duck Creek Village for those of you who've been there.
5:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they actually it was actually also called Movie
5:52
Speaker 2: ranch Estates and that's where they filmed a lot of
5:56
Speaker 2: the old Daniel Boone series.
5:58
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
5:59
Speaker 2: And so she had the cafe there with the they
6:04
Speaker 2: lived on top of it, you know, above the second floor.
6:08
Speaker 2: And then my dad had a lot and I had
6:13
Speaker 2: a couple of lots that we purchased when they were
6:17
Speaker 2: subdividing areas up there. Sure, and then we at when
6:23
Speaker 2: I was eighteen, we were invited to go deer hunting
6:27
Speaker 2: in Utah Parawan area and the gentleman owned twenty eight
6:33
Speaker 2: thousand acres there up through the most beautiful areas all
6:37
Speaker 2: the way up to the big ski area called Brian Head.
6:41
Speaker 2: We just I just had some amazing, amazing times there hunting.
6:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember even going with you. I was too
6:49
Speaker 1: young to have a rifle myself, but I do remember
6:53
Speaker 1: those experiences in Utah and in the high Sierras. You know,
6:58
Speaker 1: it's actually one lesson that I had in life that
7:01
Speaker 1: I learned the hard way about not cutting towards yourself.
7:04
Speaker 1: You and I were up in this sear as we
7:06
Speaker 1: had packed in on horses and on mules, all of
7:10
Speaker 1: our gear, and I was trying to string up a hammock,
7:13
Speaker 1: and I was cutting towards myself through the rope, and
7:16
Speaker 1: the rope, you know, broke free from the knife, and
7:18
Speaker 1: the knife came back with all that energy I was
7:20
Speaker 1: pulling towards it, and it stuck into my chin. Fortunately,
7:23
Speaker 1: I mean it had been an inch and a half lower,
7:25
Speaker 1: it would have gone into my neck, a couple of
7:27
Speaker 1: inches higher would have gone into my eye, but it
7:29
Speaker 1: was now stuck firmly into my chin. And I remember,
7:32
Speaker 1: you know, as any kid does, the first thing that
7:33
Speaker 1: you do anytime something goes wrong, as you run to
7:36
Speaker 1: your mom or your dad. So I just remember running
7:38
Speaker 1: to you with blood running running down my so you
7:41
Speaker 1: could pull this knife out of my chin. So those
7:44
Speaker 1: kinds of experiences that we have as kids. And you
7:46
Speaker 1: had told me a hundred times not to cut towards myself.
7:49
Speaker 1: It's just I was one of those kids that had
7:50
Speaker 1: to learn the hard way, as you know, as you know,
7:54
Speaker 1: you know, your your formative years as you were growing up,
7:58
Speaker 1: had so much to do with the outdoors. You were
8:00
Speaker 1: of the age where you know, you were coming into
8:03
Speaker 1: the late sixties and the conflict in Vietnam was really
8:07
Speaker 1: getting going, and it had been under way for a
8:10
Speaker 1: little while, and you had a draft number, and why
8:14
Speaker 1: don't you share the story about how you ended up
8:16
Speaker 1: in the Air Force.
8:17
Speaker 2: Well, I really at that time really didn't want to
8:20
Speaker 2: be drafted, sure, because you didn't have a choice of
8:23
Speaker 2: where you were going to end up or anything. And
8:25
Speaker 2: so I had gone and enlisted in the Air Force.
8:29
Speaker 2: But I was just on a waiting list, I didn't,
8:32
Speaker 2: you know, and then just waiting to see when I
8:35
Speaker 2: could get in. I got my draft notice date, which
8:41
Speaker 2: was for January the ninth of nineteen sixty eight, and
8:46
Speaker 2: I went to the recruiter and I says, you've got
8:49
Speaker 2: to do something, you know, it's here's my date, and
8:52
Speaker 2: I've got to go in. I had some good test
8:55
Speaker 2: scores and everything, and some good background, and so he
9:00
Speaker 2: went to the list that was on the wall that
9:02
Speaker 2: was from the floor to the ceiling in the recruiting
9:06
Speaker 2: place and erase my name that was way towards the
9:10
Speaker 2: bottom and put it way up at the top. So
9:14
Speaker 2: I ended up getting the date, and I went in
9:17
Speaker 2: on January the eighth of sixty eight, one day before
9:23
Speaker 2: my draft time. Glad it worked out that way.
9:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember part of your story was when you
9:28
Speaker 1: were going in, you went past what was it the
9:31
Speaker 1: Marines or something like that, and he said, don't screw up, Brady,
9:34
Speaker 1: or your mine something like that.
9:36
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, something like that. But I mean it was
9:38
Speaker 2: we had to go earlier days, a few days earlier.
9:42
Speaker 2: To do our check in in downtown Los Angeles. You
9:47
Speaker 2: had to walk up a flight of stairs and then
9:50
Speaker 2: there was a landing and then up more stairs. While
9:53
Speaker 2: on the landing was this small table with a Marine
9:56
Speaker 2: sergeant sitting there doing your paper work for your next spot.
10:01
Speaker 2: So I walked up and he's looking at my paperwork,
10:05
Speaker 2: and he looks up and looks me right in the eye,
10:07
Speaker 2: and he says, Brady, you better hope that you don't
10:11
Speaker 2: oversleep Monday, because if you do, your mind. So my
10:18
Speaker 2: dad and my dad was taking me down.
10:20
Speaker 3: And nobody slept that night. Huh.
10:23
Speaker 2: Well we did, but not much. And it was probably
10:27
Speaker 2: twenty minute drive and we had to be there at
10:30
Speaker 2: six in the morning. We left it two in the
10:33
Speaker 2: morning just in case the car broke down. I could
10:37
Speaker 2: have walked there because I wasn't going to miss it.
10:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would have run the rest of the distance
10:42
Speaker 1: for sure. So that takes you into the Air Force,
10:45
Speaker 1: and I mean, this is where it's so fun how
10:47
Speaker 1: our own lives paralleled. But I ended up going in
10:50
Speaker 1: the Air Force about twenty years later, exact same day, yeah,
10:54
Speaker 1: just about the same day.
10:55
Speaker 2: I think it was twenty five years but the same day, yes, exactly,
10:59
Speaker 2: you know, January the eighth, you went in.
11:02
Speaker 3: That's right.
11:02
Speaker 1: We went to a little bit of a different boot
11:05
Speaker 1: camp because during Vietnam they had another one that was
11:09
Speaker 1: open and Moillo, that's right, and I went to San Antonio.
11:13
Speaker 1: But then we ended up going to the same exact
11:15
Speaker 1: tech school base. Even though I was a firefighter and
11:18
Speaker 1: you were an aircraft mechanic. So talking about aircraft mechanics.
11:23
Speaker 1: What are some of the things that you learned being
11:25
Speaker 1: an aircraft mechanic that you think has translated into other
11:28
Speaker 1: areas of your life, either how you take care of
11:30
Speaker 1: your vehicles or how you take care of some of
11:33
Speaker 1: your other equipment. I've just always seen you be so
11:37
Speaker 1: thoughtful about making sure that you know, you keep the
11:41
Speaker 1: vehicles maintained and good tires and everything else. Like, what
11:44
Speaker 1: are some of the things that you learned as an
11:46
Speaker 1: aircraft mechanic that you think served you later in life.
11:50
Speaker 2: Kind of what you said, there is a big thing
11:52
Speaker 2: keeping things maintained, learning how to do it, Yeah, learning
11:57
Speaker 2: how to go to the right sources. Back then we
12:01
Speaker 2: didn't have Google and that type of thing. It was
12:06
Speaker 2: going into books and that type. You know, those are
12:10
Speaker 2: the big things. Using proper tools and maintaining your tools,
12:15
Speaker 2: not just the things you were working on well.
12:17
Speaker 1: And I remember one of the things that you were
12:19
Speaker 1: known for was you developed some tools when you were
12:23
Speaker 1: in the Air Force that they ended up using for
12:25
Speaker 1: years afterwards.
12:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, very cool. Yeah, it was.
12:28
Speaker 2: One particular thing to help on because I worked on
12:31
Speaker 2: the jet engines and it was a tool for keeping
12:36
Speaker 2: things from being broken while you're working on it, and
12:40
Speaker 2: I had done schematics and stuff of the thing just
12:45
Speaker 2: about the time I was getting out. Yeah, and so
12:48
Speaker 2: they ended up using that and making them to assist
12:52
Speaker 2: while working on the jet engine.
12:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that brought you for your first time overseas.
12:59
Speaker 1: So now you would have been what twenty one years
13:02
Speaker 1: old at that time?
13:03
Speaker 2: Twenty No, it would have been probably twenty one, Okay.
13:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, so now you're you've gone through all of your
13:12
Speaker 1: technical training and they stick you on an airplane for Thailand. Right,
13:17
Speaker 1: So how talk a little bit about what your experience was,
13:20
Speaker 1: because I can't even imagine how different Thailand would have
13:23
Speaker 1: been in nineteen sixty nine?
13:25
Speaker 2: Is that when you were there sixty nine?
13:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't even imagine how different it would be
13:30
Speaker 1: from today. So what were some of the things that
13:33
Speaker 1: you really enjoyed about being in such a different culture.
13:36
Speaker 2: It was different, and it was right in the heart
13:40
Speaker 2: of the Vietnam War, and our base was one of
13:45
Speaker 2: the main support bases for Vietnam. We were so close
13:50
Speaker 2: to we were only eight miles from the Laotian border,
13:53
Speaker 2: and we had the F four Phantom jets and so
13:57
Speaker 2: they flew out of our base and then we also
14:01
Speaker 2: had the C one thirty gun ships that made quite
14:06
Speaker 2: an impact over there, literally, and so that's why our
14:11
Speaker 2: base was attacked as much or more than a lot
14:15
Speaker 2: of the bases right in Vietnam.
14:19
Speaker 1: Oh, because of the tactical advantage of the base and.
14:22
Speaker 2: The type of planes that we had, they wanted to
14:25
Speaker 2: get to and destroy them.
14:27
Speaker 1: Is I remember you had a chance to go in
14:30
Speaker 1: and interact with the locals, and I think you still
14:33
Speaker 1: have some of these things. I think there was a
14:36
Speaker 1: cobra versus a mongoose, I mean you ended up with.
14:42
Speaker 1: I mean there's a cool chess set that you ended
14:44
Speaker 1: up with as well. But I know that you did
14:47
Speaker 1: spend some time interacting with the locals. What do you
14:50
Speaker 1: feel like you learned about yourself for about the world
14:54
Speaker 1: in Thailand that you weren't expecting.
14:56
Speaker 2: It truly was different than what I grew up in.
15:02
Speaker 2: But they were coming along. The base that we were
15:06
Speaker 2: at was right by the Uban Raanchatani was the you
15:12
Speaker 2: know Uban, and so we you know, it was starting
15:17
Speaker 2: to get pretty popular and advanced, even though there was
15:24
Speaker 2: everything that was still third world, and so you know,
15:31
Speaker 2: they tried the base would try and have stuff set
15:34
Speaker 2: up to be able to do things. And so the
15:38
Speaker 2: tie base that was right there. Also they had a
15:43
Speaker 2: pretty unusual type of golf course. You know, golf course
15:48
Speaker 2: had very little grass on it, and so when we
15:52
Speaker 2: would pull in in the taxi, all these little young
15:56
Speaker 2: ties would come running up and want to be our caddy.
16:00
Speaker 2: We were, it was they were so fun. So anyway,
16:06
Speaker 2: they you'd hit the ball and being that there was
16:08
Speaker 2: little to no grass, where the closest tuft of grass
16:13
Speaker 2: that was there, they'd go and tuft it up and
16:16
Speaker 2: then set your ball on that so that you could
16:20
Speaker 2: hit it again. Sure, and the ground was, you know,
16:22
Speaker 2: like you were like you were playing, you know, on
16:25
Speaker 2: on a street. And then the the greens were so
16:31
Speaker 2: hard that they actually had the back of them had
16:35
Speaker 2: built up like you know, so the the ball would roll.
16:39
Speaker 2: It was almost like a minuture golf but it was
16:41
Speaker 2: a full size course. And then you might be out
16:46
Speaker 2: there ready to uh to hit your drive on the
16:50
Speaker 2: tee and then all of a sudden, right behind you
16:54
Speaker 2: there'd be these gunshots, and that's where they had their
16:58
Speaker 2: place that they would do their to shooting. Sure, and
17:02
Speaker 2: then also you'd be there and you'd look and the
17:05
Speaker 2: Thai army would use you as the enemy and they'd
17:09
Speaker 2: be down in a crouch walking at you with their
17:13
Speaker 2: M sixteen's pointed at you, just using you for the circumstance.
17:18
Speaker 3: So it was sounds like very exciting golf.
17:20
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you learned that you didn't, you know, to
17:25
Speaker 2: keep your eye on the ball.
17:28
Speaker 3: Oh that's great. That's such a fun story.
17:31
Speaker 1: And you were over there for about was it at
17:34
Speaker 1: about fourteen sixteen months something.
17:36
Speaker 2: Like that, thirteen months It was supposed to be one
17:39
Speaker 2: year exactly. But I kept telling them because you could
17:43
Speaker 2: look and see if they had set up a replacement
17:46
Speaker 2: for you, and they they weren't. And I kept saying,
17:48
Speaker 2: you got it, Well, we'll take care of it. We'll
17:50
Speaker 2: take care of it. They didn't get around to it.
17:54
Speaker 2: And they had sent me over eight days before my
17:58
Speaker 2: wife's and my first wedding anniversaries, so that wasn't real fun. Well,
18:03
Speaker 2: because they ended up extending me because they didn't have
18:08
Speaker 2: a replacement. So I came back ten days after our
18:11
Speaker 2: second year anniversary, so I spent our first and second
18:16
Speaker 2: year over there apart.
18:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was tough, and that was the only if
18:22
Speaker 1: I remember, out of forty fifty four years together, if
18:25
Speaker 1: I'm right correct that those were the only two anniversaries
18:29
Speaker 1: that you ever missed?
18:29
Speaker 3: Were those two?
18:30
Speaker 2: Oh yes?
18:32
Speaker 1: No, for those that are listening, my dad and Mom's
18:35
Speaker 1: relationship was one of the greatest inspirations for me.
18:39
Speaker 3: You guys were together for fifty four years.
18:41
Speaker 1: You met it as teenagers at a Christian camp up
18:44
Speaker 1: in the mountains of California near Big Bear, and so
18:49
Speaker 1: for me to have such a safe, supportive upbringing was
18:55
Speaker 1: a really powerful lever for me in my life. Just
18:59
Speaker 1: have such respect for the relationship that mom and you had.
19:04
Speaker 1: So yeah, it was the best. Yeah, she is the best.
19:07
Speaker 1: And you know, we're coming up on our second year
19:10
Speaker 1: anniversary of losing her, so that's a that's a big
19:13
Speaker 1: one for us as a family. So but it's looking back,
19:17
Speaker 1: it's just it was such a powerful lesson in honoring
19:21
Speaker 1: your partner, and you guys always did that and that
19:23
Speaker 1: was a great lesson for me. So thank you for that,
19:27
Speaker 1: Dad and.
19:27
Speaker 3: Mom and Mama.
19:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, she was pretty much perfect. So
19:32
Speaker 1: let's talk a little bit about the family, jeeps. So
19:37
Speaker 1: this is so great and I'm going to put this
19:39
Speaker 1: in the in the production. But you just sent me
19:42
Speaker 1: a picture the other day and it's the first time
19:43
Speaker 1: I had seen it. But it's my mom holding me.
19:46
Speaker 3: I don't know how old.
19:47
Speaker 1: I was probably around two, and she's walking away with
19:50
Speaker 1: this great smile, but she's walking away from one of
19:53
Speaker 1: I believe the three jeeps that we had as a family, and.
19:58
Speaker 3: They were all what Korean wars like.
20:01
Speaker 1: I guess they'd be an thirty eight, A one would
20:03
Speaker 1: be the But they were a military jeep, weren't they.
20:07
Speaker 2: Yes, that one there was fifty two okay, and it
20:12
Speaker 2: had been used in the navy okay, and it was
20:15
Speaker 2: still the gray. It was painted the navy gray. Yeah,
20:19
Speaker 2: And so my dad might well, I didn't really have
20:24
Speaker 2: any money at all back then, and so that my
20:27
Speaker 2: dad ended up he wanted them too, for us to
20:30
Speaker 2: use for when we go hunting. Sure, so he bought it,
20:33
Speaker 2: and he says, but you got to keep it. So
20:37
Speaker 2: I kept it at the house.
20:38
Speaker 3: I remember that I used it for.
20:40
Speaker 2: Taking the boat in and out of the garage. It
20:43
Speaker 2: was great for that, Yeah, And then we'd go from
20:46
Speaker 2: there and tow it to Utah and use it there.
20:50
Speaker 1: I remember some of my earliest memories in Utah were
20:53
Speaker 1: in that jeep and there's some great photos of you know,
20:57
Speaker 1: mom driving it and you guys going hunting, and I mean,
21:01
Speaker 1: i'm the number of deer that were brought out using
21:04
Speaker 1: that jeep. So and then it continued on. Those jeeps
21:09
Speaker 1: stayed around for a long time because I remember when Dave,
21:13
Speaker 1: you know, your brother, he would take me out to
21:16
Speaker 1: go fishing and you know, we'd be off road. I mean,
21:18
Speaker 1: some of my earliest off road memories are in those
21:22
Speaker 1: old jeeps, and it was incredible where they would go.
21:24
Speaker 1: They wouldn't stop very well. I remember everybody being terrified
21:27
Speaker 1: of trying to stop them, but uh, just going downhill,
21:31
Speaker 1: that's right.
21:31
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:32
Speaker 1: They were all drum breaks and really small diameter breaks,
21:35
Speaker 1: so they would heat up in a hurry.
21:36
Speaker 3: But yeah, I remember you guys had those jeeps. And
21:39
Speaker 3: then some of my.
21:41
Speaker 1: Very first memories of cars was that two forty Z
21:45
Speaker 1: that you had. And I wrote about this in an
21:47
Speaker 1: article recently, but I remember you fiddling with the choke.
21:52
Speaker 1: I mean, just like as a kid, because I was
21:54
Speaker 1: so small that you start to piece together these things
21:58
Speaker 1: that are happening around you, and they actually and sometimes
22:00
Speaker 1: become memories. So like I have this very clear memory
22:04
Speaker 1: of you working the clutch on that two forty Z
22:07
Speaker 1: to get it started. So that was a really cool car.
22:10
Speaker 1: Remember how much I loved that car.
22:11
Speaker 2: Well, it was made the same you you.
22:13
Speaker 1: Were born, right, that'd be cool if we could find
22:16
Speaker 1: that one or actually, what I'd prefer to do is
22:18
Speaker 1: find those jeeps and we I know, we worked on
22:21
Speaker 1: that for a while, but we never never were ever
22:23
Speaker 1: kind of able to.
22:24
Speaker 3: Pull that off.
22:25
Speaker 1: But yeah, so if anybody's listening that has a particular
22:28
Speaker 1: set of skills around finding old vehicles based on a
22:32
Speaker 1: VEN number, we do have the ven number somewhere. It
22:36
Speaker 1: would be kind of neat to track that old Jep down.
22:38
Speaker 1: Hopefully it exists somewhere, or it went on, hopefully it
22:40
Speaker 1: went onto an exciting life at some point at some point.
22:43
Speaker 1: And then continuing on a little bit further, one of
22:46
Speaker 1: my first interactions with camping in a camper you actually own.
22:51
Speaker 1: I mean I can't what year was that four wheel
22:53
Speaker 1: camper that you owned. I mean you had it on
22:55
Speaker 1: the back of your of your nineteen seventy forward was it, Yes,
23:00
Speaker 1: I mean that it was a four wheel camper, Grand
23:03
Speaker 1: b and they were made in California, and you probably
23:06
Speaker 1: drove up there and picked it up, didn't you, or
23:08
Speaker 1: maybe had it shipped down you.
23:09
Speaker 2: Know, I really don't know. It would have been local. Yeah,
23:13
Speaker 2: I think I got it at one of their distributors,
23:16
Speaker 2: sure as.
23:16
Speaker 1: I remember, Yeah, but that would have been you know,
23:20
Speaker 1: probably an early eighties four wheel camper. And then so
23:26
Speaker 1: for for me, it was just so amazing when we
23:29
Speaker 1: started the magazine. When we started Overland Journal, one of
23:31
Speaker 1: the very first advertisers in the magazine was four will Camper,
23:35
Speaker 1: who it goes back to my very first memories of
23:38
Speaker 1: a camper was was that and uh camper?
23:41
Speaker 2: They really it was perfect for that truck and pulling
23:45
Speaker 2: the horse trailer and we used it camp and why
23:48
Speaker 2: we were out with the horses mainly.
23:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was perfect.
23:52
Speaker 1: And you and if I remember, you liked it because
23:54
Speaker 1: it was lightweight and because the top pop down it
23:57
Speaker 1: gave you less you know, wind resistance probaxactly. Now that
24:00
Speaker 1: was neat. That was such a cool truck too. Yeah,
24:02
Speaker 1: some good memories around all of that. And I think
24:06
Speaker 1: it's actually the first time I remember because it was
24:08
Speaker 1: a tool drive truck, but it had posy traction, and
24:11
Speaker 1: I just remember you going through this huge ditch as
24:13
Speaker 1: we were trying to go someplace hunting, and the tire
24:16
Speaker 1: was spinning, but you kept going and I'm like, is
24:18
Speaker 1: he gonna make it? And sure enough, that old Ford
24:21
Speaker 1: kind of made it through anything you pointed it towards.
24:24
Speaker 2: Especially with the you know four speed Granny Low transmission,
24:31
Speaker 2: it took you just about anywhere.
24:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and that was pretty common back then.
24:36
Speaker 1: I mean, not everybody had four whel drives, so you
24:39
Speaker 1: just had a tool drive with you know, posy traction
24:41
Speaker 1: and some driving skill, and it was amazing where those guys,
24:45
Speaker 1: you and everybody else would get those things.
24:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.
24:48
Speaker 1: Yeah. One of the other things I wanted to talk
24:50
Speaker 1: to you about was, you know, you're forty plus years
24:55
Speaker 1: of time with horses, and you and I did a
24:59
Speaker 1: trip to get there. It's probably coming up on ten
25:02
Speaker 1: years now. I think you had just you hadn't even
25:05
Speaker 1: moved to Prescott yet, but it was close because we
25:08
Speaker 1: did meet up at the house that you ended up buying.
25:11
Speaker 3: But that so it's probably okay, so close to ten
25:15
Speaker 3: years ago.
25:16
Speaker 1: This is a very cool thing. But the Overland Journal
25:19
Speaker 1: offices purely by coincidence. I had no idea, but it
25:22
Speaker 1: backs up to the highway called eighty nine and eighty
25:26
Speaker 1: nine before it was named Highway eighty nine was actually
25:30
Speaker 1: called the Overland Road.
25:32
Speaker 3: I had no idea.
25:33
Speaker 1: And there there is in downtown Prescott or coming into
25:38
Speaker 1: downtown Prescott by the VA Cemetery, you can see the sign,
25:42
Speaker 1: the old sign for the overland Road. And that overland
25:45
Speaker 1: road went from Prescott from Fort Whipple, which was the
25:48
Speaker 1: original you know fort and had most of the inhabitants
25:52
Speaker 1: in that region, and it would go all the way
25:54
Speaker 1: up to Flagstaff up by Humphreys Peak in northern Arizona.
25:59
Speaker 1: So we figured out a way to tie in riding
26:03
Speaker 1: horses between Flagstaff and Prescott and then we would interface
26:07
Speaker 1: with a Dodge power wagon and some horse trailers and
26:10
Speaker 1: stuff like that along the way. But that was that
26:12
Speaker 1: was one of the first big trips that you and
26:15
Speaker 1: I did together that included some overland vehicles, and that
26:19
Speaker 1: was really fun. That was a neat one. Yes, it
26:22
Speaker 1: was beautiful. Yeah, it was pretty neat. Do we say
26:27
Speaker 1: that we didn't get a finish shit, Well we didn't
26:30
Speaker 1: and that was my fault. I wore that poor poor
26:34
Speaker 1: freezing out in about a day.
26:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wish it was a freezing.
26:39
Speaker 3: But maybe it was wanting to be a freezing.
26:41
Speaker 2: It was a horse that we borrowed for you, and
26:45
Speaker 2: we're told that it was in good condition, and it
26:49
Speaker 2: was a tough ride and one of the areas that
26:52
Speaker 2: we got out in this marsh really took a lot
26:54
Speaker 2: out of the horses.
26:56
Speaker 3: Yeah.
26:56
Speaker 2: So this horse was really really hired and it was
27:01
Speaker 2: on his last leg.
27:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, I have to carry the horse out.
27:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially being a borrowed horse. I said, we can't
27:08
Speaker 2: wear this thing out. Yeah, when I have to go.
27:11
Speaker 2: So I took that horse. And being that I took it,
27:14
Speaker 2: I had to take my horse, sure, my own horse.
27:17
Speaker 2: So we we had to leave early. But we saw
27:21
Speaker 2: some amazing scenery we did in the first part.
27:25
Speaker 1: And then Jack Quinlan and Kelsey Huber who that wasn't
27:30
Speaker 1: her name at the time, but she's now Dirt Sunrise
27:33
Speaker 1: for those who follow them. But Kelsey was worked for
27:36
Speaker 1: us for many years. She was another writer, and then
27:39
Speaker 1: Jack's dad was another rider. But they ended up completing
27:43
Speaker 1: it all the way back into Prescott, which was really cool.
27:45
Speaker 3: Yea.
27:46
Speaker 1: So that was a neat adventure, but the one that
27:48
Speaker 1: really comes to mind for me, and it would have
27:50
Speaker 1: been the same year. Was I called you one day
27:54
Speaker 1: at your you know, you had a career with State
27:57
Speaker 1: Farm and I call you at your office and I said, hey, Dad,
28:00
Speaker 1: you want to come to Australia.
28:02
Speaker 3: And I think you said something like I don't know
28:04
Speaker 3: if I've got and I.
28:05
Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, and maybe this is just the
28:07
Speaker 1: story that I now tell myself, but I think I said, Dad,
28:10
Speaker 1: I'm not asking you come into Australia. It was probably
28:14
Speaker 1: like that, and you booked your flight and you already
28:19
Speaker 1: had a passport, and it was the first time you
28:21
Speaker 1: had been out of the country in a early long time.
28:23
Speaker 1: And you flew into Sydney, and then you flew into
28:27
Speaker 1: Alice Springs in the middle of the country. And I
28:31
Speaker 1: was there with Expedition seven and we had completed our
28:34
Speaker 1: crossing of Australia and the Canning stock route, and I
28:37
Speaker 1: was on my way back to Melbourne to ship the
28:40
Speaker 1: vehicles out of Melbourne, and I got to pick you
28:43
Speaker 1: up in Alice Springs and then we spent what about
28:46
Speaker 1: ten days?
28:46
Speaker 2: I think I think it was eight days, eight days.
28:48
Speaker 3: Maybe your whole trip was ten days or something. But yeah,
28:51
Speaker 3: you flew in.
28:52
Speaker 1: I picked you up and we just had the two
28:54
Speaker 1: of us and a seventy series land Cruiser and about
28:57
Speaker 1: one point six billion flies.
29:00
Speaker 2: Only during the day.
29:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
29:02
Speaker 2: They left at night.
29:03
Speaker 3: That's so true. We got to see Uluru together.
29:06
Speaker 1: We got a great photo of us there, and we
29:09
Speaker 1: got to travel in this right hand drive. You'd never
29:13
Speaker 1: driven a right hand drive vehicle and now you're shifting
29:17
Speaker 1: with your left hand.
29:18
Speaker 3: And you did such a great job.
29:20
Speaker 1: And we did a bunch of off road driving, some
29:22
Speaker 1: really long overland tracks. So this was since this was
29:25
Speaker 1: really your first big overland trip, what did you think
29:27
Speaker 1: of overlanding? Did you enjoy it? What were some of
29:29
Speaker 1: the things that you liked about it?
29:30
Speaker 2: Australia is a great place to start. Yeah, I mean
29:34
Speaker 2: we had the best time in the outback back then.
29:38
Speaker 3: Yeah.
29:38
Speaker 2: And for those that ever watched Quiggly down Under with
29:44
Speaker 2: Tom Selick, you know that's where they filmed it was
29:47
Speaker 2: Alice Springs. They did lots of it, and so a
29:50
Speaker 2: lot of the area just looked like because I love
29:53
Speaker 2: that movie and had seen it a million times. Sure,
29:57
Speaker 2: and then going through the Flinders Forest was really cool.
30:02
Speaker 2: That was so neat with all the kangaroos flying around
30:06
Speaker 2: and and uh over there the road roadkill is kangaroos
30:12
Speaker 2: and emu EMUs and uh yeah, and they were everywhere.
30:18
Speaker 3: They were, Yeah, they were.
30:20
Speaker 1: And we even saw camel out in the middle of nowhere,
30:23
Speaker 1: and we even ate camel. I think we went to
30:26
Speaker 1: the Pirinchila Hotel and we both got the plate full
30:31
Speaker 1: of a I think it had crocodile and kangaroo and
30:34
Speaker 1: I don't remember.
30:35
Speaker 2: What kangaroo emu and the camel sausage and they had
30:42
Speaker 2: little flags in them that let you know which which
30:45
Speaker 2: was which. And of course the emu is just delicious.
30:49
Speaker 3: It was. It was so good.
30:51
Speaker 2: And I had had it before at a Want one
30:54
Speaker 2: of the wild West shows that we performed in California.
30:59
Speaker 2: They feed us with those, yeah, and it so I
31:03
Speaker 2: had had it before, and it's just wonderful stuff. The
31:07
Speaker 2: camel was not the most favorous. It was more of
31:10
Speaker 2: a sausage like and yeah, they added some some lard
31:16
Speaker 2: to it to you know, help help a little bit.
31:20
Speaker 2: It was a great meal on a great trip. I mean,
31:23
Speaker 2: I just loved it.
31:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had such a good time together and we
31:27
Speaker 1: you know, we traveled in the same way that I
31:30
Speaker 1: traveled during Expedition seven. So we camped out a lot
31:33
Speaker 1: and we slept in the back of the land cruiser
31:36
Speaker 1: and somehow you were actually able to get some sleep
31:38
Speaker 1: despite my snoring, so or at least at least you
31:41
Speaker 1: told me you got some sleep.
31:44
Speaker 2: I think I was worn out.
31:46
Speaker 3: From the long days. Yeah, from the long days.
31:49
Speaker 1: And that drive through the Flinders Range is just it's
31:53
Speaker 1: so special. And then I think we were on the
31:55
Speaker 1: Unidada track from there or in that region, and we
31:59
Speaker 1: just continued on our way down to Melbourne, which was
32:02
Speaker 1: it's just so so beautiful to see that part of Australia.
32:06
Speaker 1: And if I remember, I think you actually don't you
32:09
Speaker 1: have that Sharp's rifle from Quickly down Under, like one
32:14
Speaker 1: similar to the sharps that.
32:16
Speaker 3: He that Quickly used in one of his movies.
32:18
Speaker 2: Yes, that was a special caliber okay that he had. Yeah,
32:23
Speaker 2: I think his was a fifty one ten. I think
32:28
Speaker 2: it was in minds of forty five seventy.
32:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's a neat gun.
32:33
Speaker 2: Oh, they're just fabulous. Which is the old Buffalo guns,
32:37
Speaker 2: that's right.
32:38
Speaker 1: Which is a good segue into you know your decades
32:43
Speaker 1: of riding horses and also well you started off with
32:48
Speaker 1: endurance writing, which talk a little bit about what endurance
32:51
Speaker 1: writing is and the kind of races that you and
32:53
Speaker 1: mom did.
32:55
Speaker 2: They are They have what they call limited distance ones,
32:59
Speaker 2: which are twenty five miles, which is mostly for new people,
33:05
Speaker 2: new horses and that type of thing, and then you
33:07
Speaker 2: work your way up to the next jump is normally
33:10
Speaker 2: fifty mile races, and then you can go up to
33:14
Speaker 2: one hundred mile. My wife and I did those together
33:18
Speaker 2: on our We had two thoroughbreds at that time that
33:22
Speaker 2: we used, and.
33:24
Speaker 1: That was a bit that was a bit unconventional to
33:26
Speaker 1: use a Thoroughbred, wasn't it.
33:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's mostly Arabs that are used, but the Thoroughbreds
33:33
Speaker 2: do really really well. You just have to take more
33:38
Speaker 2: care of them. They don't they're not into it to
33:43
Speaker 2: where they kind of take care of you, So you've
33:46
Speaker 2: got to protect them a little bit more and not
33:49
Speaker 2: over overdo them.
33:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.
33:52
Speaker 2: We just had the best time together doing it, and
33:54
Speaker 2: you had to do a lot of training, which we
33:57
Speaker 2: did where we kept the horses. We'd go out together
34:01
Speaker 2: and do a lot of riding together side by side
34:06
Speaker 2: in a in a about a seven mile hour trot,
34:10
Speaker 2: because you trot the whole thing, ye posting trot, and
34:15
Speaker 2: it's it's a great sport.
34:17
Speaker 1: I just remember you guys coming in, either at the
34:21
Speaker 1: finish or if it was a multiple loops where you'd
34:24
Speaker 1: come in and maybe the vets would be checking the
34:27
Speaker 1: horses and you guys would be getting a little bit
34:29
Speaker 1: of a break. But I don't remember there was ever
34:31
Speaker 1: a time that you guys didn't just come in together.
34:33
Speaker 1: You just rode side by side for the whole thing.
34:36
Speaker 2: Oh, we did. There was no reason for me to
34:39
Speaker 2: leave her. And then normally we'd come in to the
34:43
Speaker 2: finish together. Being the gentleman that I am, I always
34:48
Speaker 2: had her pass in front of me and of course
34:50
Speaker 2: go across.
34:51
Speaker 3: But she was an amazing rid herself.
34:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, she did a great job, great.
34:57
Speaker 1: Job well, And that experience brought you then ultimately to
35:03
Speaker 1: a friendship with a gentleman by the name of Phil Spangenberger.
35:06
Speaker 1: He worked in the media industry around firearms for multiple decade,
35:12
Speaker 1: many many, many decades, but mostly concentrated around Old West firearms,
35:19
Speaker 1: black powder stuff, mostly got it. And yeah, Phil is
35:23
Speaker 1: a neat guy. Hopefully someday we'll get him on the podcast.
35:26
Speaker 1: But that started to bring up some opportunities for you
35:31
Speaker 1: around movies and television, So talk a little bit. I mean,
35:34
Speaker 1: I think the one of them that you've done that
35:37
Speaker 1: is so cool is didn't you do something around the
35:40
Speaker 1: Something of the Dead.
35:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, Army a Darkness, Army of Darkness, that's right. Yeah,
35:46
Speaker 2: that was actually pretty much my first like movie type thing,
35:50
Speaker 2: and we used our own horses in that. It was
35:53
Speaker 2: great fun.
35:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, so if you look, if you ever watch Army
35:56
Speaker 1: of Darkness, which I think has been to become a
35:58
Speaker 1: bit of a cult classic, you'll see, you know, Scott's
36:01
Speaker 1: dad goes left, Scott's dad goes right. Well, I think
36:03
Speaker 1: one time you're wearing a skeleton outfit, the next time
36:06
Speaker 1: you're wearing some night uniform or whatever.
36:08
Speaker 2: But oh yeah, we had to we were King Arthur's Army.
36:12
Speaker 2: We had to dress as King Henry's army. The Evil
36:16
Speaker 2: Dead Heights was the Skeletons and they had a great
36:21
Speaker 2: castle that they built out in Saugus, California, and that's
36:25
Speaker 2: where we filmed. And yeah, it was pretty fun.
36:29
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so it is fun. I mean, even Paula,
36:31
Speaker 1: our producer. I mentioned one time that my dad was
36:34
Speaker 1: an army in darkness and.
36:35
Speaker 3: She's like, no way. She's like, that's so cool. Yeah,
36:41
Speaker 3: pretty fun.
36:41
Speaker 1: And from there you your television and movie involvement continued
36:48
Speaker 1: and you started to do the Rose Parade and what's
36:53
Speaker 1: the name of the group that you wrote in for
36:55
Speaker 1: the Rose par.
36:55
Speaker 2: Spirit of the West Riders, And this year was there,
37:00
Speaker 2: I think thirty first year. I did twenty two of them.
37:06
Speaker 2: But when I moved here to Arazon to Prescott, I
37:11
Speaker 2: went once, and from here because they convinced me not
37:15
Speaker 2: to quit, and I went once. And it was so
37:19
Speaker 2: much extra work to get there as early as we
37:23
Speaker 2: had to because we have to do performances before the
37:29
Speaker 2: Rose Parade. It was just a lot of extra work.
37:33
Speaker 2: And after doing twenty two of them, you know, it
37:36
Speaker 2: was like you got the you got the T shirt. Yeah,
37:40
Speaker 2: and it was I didn't do anymore after that.
37:44
Speaker 1: Arizona is a pretty nice place to live. I think
37:46
Speaker 1: I remember you telling me on that trip that you
37:49
Speaker 1: cross crossed over the maybe the river or something. You're like, oh,
37:52
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind just turning around and going home, because
37:54
Speaker 1: you really love.
37:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, I saw the welcome to California sign and it
37:59
Speaker 2: was I mean, my heart just kind of flipped. And
38:04
Speaker 2: if I didn't have a commitment, I truly would have
38:07
Speaker 2: turned around there and just come back. But I had
38:10
Speaker 2: a commitment.
38:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure did it. And since that was the last one, Yeah.
38:16
Speaker 2: Coming back, I got to see Welcome de Arizone.
38:19
Speaker 3: So that's right exactly.
38:21
Speaker 1: Well, and then beyond that, you you were in a
38:25
Speaker 1: bunch of History Channel episodes. Now, what were some of
38:29
Speaker 1: the different History Channel shows.
38:31
Speaker 3: That you were on. I was.
38:33
Speaker 2: I played Virgil Irp in the OK Corral type thing.
38:39
Speaker 2: Also with the Discovery Channel we did it was called
38:43
Speaker 2: Shootout at the OK Corral, So we did a different
38:47
Speaker 2: one on that. What they did, which was kind of neat.
38:49
Speaker 2: It was part of their series called Unsolved History, and
38:54
Speaker 2: they took some of the bigger history type things and
38:58
Speaker 2: tried to use today's forensics and that type of thing
39:03
Speaker 2: to you know, to prove or disprove that.
39:07
Speaker 3: Some of the stories.
39:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, so what was thought and so that was pretty
39:12
Speaker 2: cool how they did it in this for the UH
39:15
Speaker 2: for the OK Corral, and they did a great job
39:18
Speaker 2: of coming up with stuff and they had they had
39:21
Speaker 2: UH plot plans from you know way back at that
39:25
Speaker 2: time too, to see exactly how what the distances were
39:30
Speaker 2: to everything. And then I played Jesse James a couple
39:34
Speaker 2: of times and a bunch of other ones. I was
39:37
Speaker 2: in a little over twenty of them.
39:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there wasn't there There was a movie towards
39:43
Speaker 1: the end of that process that you you actually had
39:46
Speaker 1: some dialogue and you shoot shoot some people.
39:50
Speaker 3: You were a bad guy. Maybe even I ended up.
39:53
Speaker 2: A bad guy and a lot of them, you know,
39:55
Speaker 2: I was always getting killed or shot you know somehow. Oh, oh,
40:01
Speaker 2: Vengeance Trail, Vengeon's trailing. Yeah, Okay, it didn't have a
40:05
Speaker 2: him to do with the History Channel or anything. Vengeins
40:07
Speaker 2: Trail And that was another fun one.
40:10
Speaker 3: I bet well.
40:11
Speaker 1: And that was the combination of you know, being a
40:15
Speaker 1: lifetime sportsman and a great a great shooter, and then
40:20
Speaker 1: decades of time as a horseman. But then you also
40:24
Speaker 1: competitive you also competed at the highest levels of what
40:28
Speaker 1: was called cowboy mounted shooting. Right, and talk a little
40:32
Speaker 1: bit about some of your highlights from that.
40:33
Speaker 2: Well that I think that the sports started in nineteen
40:38
Speaker 2: ninety three, I believe it was, And what they did
40:42
Speaker 2: is a gentleman that lives here and he did. At
40:46
Speaker 2: the time in Arizona. Jim Rogers by watching Phil doing
40:52
Speaker 2: his Wild West shows where he did this aerial shooting
40:55
Speaker 2: with blanks to balloons and that, and he thought, guy,
41:00
Speaker 2: that'd be a great sport. So they started cowboy mounted shooting.
41:05
Speaker 2: That was between the two of them. Came up with that,
41:09
Speaker 2: and so I started doing that in I think it
41:13
Speaker 2: was ninety six. I believe it was with my one
41:18
Speaker 2: of my thoroughbreds, and she was wonderful at it. If
41:22
Speaker 2: I if I shot as good as she ran, you know,
41:25
Speaker 2: I could have done a lot better, but ended up
41:27
Speaker 2: doing pretty well.
41:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you were within You were in the
41:30
Speaker 1: top three a couple times at the world level.
41:34
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the ninety eight World Championship. Had I not
41:39
Speaker 2: had what they call a sliphammer, you know, you get
41:42
Speaker 2: there's single actions that you have to use, so you
41:44
Speaker 2: have to cock it each time, and you're going forty
41:48
Speaker 2: miles an hour flying down, you know, with these five
41:52
Speaker 2: the five remaining balloons in a row as fast as
41:57
Speaker 2: you can go, and man, you have to cock so fast. Yeah,
42:00
Speaker 2: and the very last one, my finger slipped off the
42:03
Speaker 2: hammer just as I was coming up to the balloon
42:07
Speaker 2: and so the gun you know, fired, and I was
42:11
Speaker 2: just off of it. So by you get a five
42:15
Speaker 2: second penalty, sure when you miss. And so I was
42:19
Speaker 2: reserved for my class. I was a reserve world champion.
42:24
Speaker 2: Yeah cool, And I really wanted it for my horse
42:27
Speaker 2: because she had done everything right. It was me.
42:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, you've had some incredible horses.
42:34
Speaker 1: You still have two horses out there at the ranch,
42:37
Speaker 1: so and you and I have been on some great
42:38
Speaker 1: rides here in Prescott on the horses.
42:41
Speaker 3: So fun to do that too.
42:42
Speaker 1: Well, let's let's talk a little bit about what you've seen,
42:47
Speaker 1: you know, just watching your kid doing this overlanding thing.
42:50
Speaker 1: What's been your your perspective, certainly not a fly on
42:54
Speaker 1: the wall, because you literally allowed all this to happen
42:57
Speaker 1: by having me to begin with. But to watch your
43:00
Speaker 1: kid drive around the world and do all this crazy stuff,
43:03
Speaker 1: what do you think?
43:04
Speaker 2: Well, I know that your mother and I have spent
43:08
Speaker 2: a lot of time on our knees praying for the
43:12
Speaker 2: some of the places that you ended up going and
43:15
Speaker 2: how you ended up going. The thing that helps us
43:18
Speaker 2: is we know how prepared you always are. If I
43:22
Speaker 2: think you'd had a lot more trouble than you did
43:25
Speaker 2: some of the areas you went if you weren't as prepared.
43:29
Speaker 2: And you know that helps us when we know that
43:32
Speaker 2: that cuts down on the problems you're going to have
43:35
Speaker 2: by being that prepared.
43:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I remember it because I've always had either
43:40
Speaker 1: a spot device or a garment in reach, garment in
43:43
Speaker 1: reach running. And I remember you telling me one time,
43:47
Speaker 1: You're like, Scott, I'm not getting any work done because
43:49
Speaker 1: I keep refreshing the page to see if you And
43:52
Speaker 1: I think it was because I was. I was going
43:53
Speaker 1: through the walk on corridor of Afghanistan at that point
43:56
Speaker 1: in time, and you're like, please keep moving. You know
43:59
Speaker 1: you just wanted to see that dot.
44:01
Speaker 3: Keep moving.
44:01
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I remember that because you were going
44:04
Speaker 2: to ride along the border, and I kept in my
44:07
Speaker 2: mind saying, Okay, make a left turn, make a left
44:11
Speaker 2: turn to get away from that border, and all of
44:14
Speaker 2: a sudden you did. You made a left turn, and
44:16
Speaker 2: I went and I thought, oh, good about he goes
44:19
Speaker 2: just aways and then makes a U turn and starts back,
44:23
Speaker 2: goes back to the border and on up the border,
44:25
Speaker 2: and I thought, well that didn't help.
44:30
Speaker 1: Well, you've been you've been involved since the very beginning
44:33
Speaker 1: you got. You were here when we started the business,
44:38
Speaker 1: you know, at our first opening party, and you were
44:41
Speaker 1: at the parties that when I left on some of
44:44
Speaker 1: the big trips, and you've been able to join me
44:47
Speaker 1: on those adventures. So I'm so grateful for all of
44:50
Speaker 1: your support, Dad, to make this happen, the support that
44:54
Speaker 1: Mom and you gave me from being a very young child.
44:57
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but I think
45:00
Speaker 1: one of the greatest gifts that you gave me growing
45:03
Speaker 1: up was that you guys never told me that I
45:05
Speaker 1: couldn't do something. Now, maybe you were thinking it like
45:08
Speaker 1: that's a crazy idea or whatever, but I never once
45:11
Speaker 1: heard you guys say, you know, like, if I said
45:14
Speaker 1: that day I wanted to be an astronaut, you know
45:16
Speaker 1: you or Mom would just be like, that's such a
45:19
Speaker 1: cool idea or whatever. I don't ever remember no matter
45:23
Speaker 1: what hair brain thought I came up with of what
45:25
Speaker 1: I wanted to accomplish in my life, I never once
45:28
Speaker 1: heard you guys tell me that I couldn't do it.
45:30
Speaker 1: And I think that that's a real gift to children,
45:33
Speaker 1: is to if your parents believe in you, even if
45:36
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily know how you're going to get there.
45:38
Speaker 1: But if they tell you that it's possible and that
45:41
Speaker 1: they show some faith in you, it makes a real
45:43
Speaker 1: difference in little kids. So I'm so grateful for Mom
45:47
Speaker 1: and you always being such a champion for me.
45:50
Speaker 2: We were happy to do it. Yeah, we were proud
45:52
Speaker 2: of you, still are, and you give us some great
45:57
Speaker 2: photos that.
46:00
Speaker 1: Some great foot In fact, I think your Christmas card
46:02
Speaker 1: for many years running, I always that was part of
46:05
Speaker 1: my photography duties of the year, was to be the
46:08
Speaker 1: Christmas card photographer. So and now we're looking at a
46:11
Speaker 1: new generation of our family in Shannon, my sister, your daughter,
46:18
Speaker 1: and her husband Jared, who I adore both of them,
46:21
Speaker 1: and they have two incredible boys, Ethan and Brady, and
46:26
Speaker 1: they have helped me on numerous productions. Now, so Paula
46:30
Speaker 1: has cut a bunch of videos that the boys have
46:33
Speaker 1: shot and you can see those on our YouTube channel.
46:36
Speaker 1: And in fact, Ethan's here today helping us sort through
46:39
Speaker 1: some little printing errors that we had with Overland Journal.
46:42
Speaker 1: So we've now got three generations in the building today,
46:46
Speaker 1: all all a part of this story. But it's been
46:50
Speaker 1: so neat to see the boys have an interest in
46:53
Speaker 1: travel and in overlanding and in cars and all the
46:57
Speaker 1: fun stuff around that.
46:59
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and they're doing a great job, they really are.
47:02
Speaker 3: They just.
47:04
Speaker 2: They couldn't be happier to have the uncle that they
47:07
Speaker 2: have that has the coolest stuff to do it with.
47:10
Speaker 2: But they've what they really like is what they learn. Yeah,
47:15
Speaker 2: and they learned so much from you and and you know,
47:18
Speaker 2: get it told to them in the right way, the
47:21
Speaker 2: safe way, and you just do a great job with
47:24
Speaker 2: them and they just love it.
47:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have such a good time together. Just this morning,
47:29
Speaker 1: I drove into the office and I brought Ethan with
47:31
Speaker 1: me and he'd never driven in the snow. He's a
47:33
Speaker 1: good driver, but you know, he grew up in the
47:36
Speaker 1: in you know, the Phoenix area where it doesn't snow
47:39
Speaker 1: down there. So we took our time and he had
47:41
Speaker 1: his first opportunity to feel what it feels like when
47:44
Speaker 1: the tire breaks free of traction or when the breaks
47:48
Speaker 1: start to pulse under abs, and that was a whole
47:51
Speaker 1: new experience for him.
47:52
Speaker 3: But he did a great.
47:53
Speaker 1: Job and he safely, we safely arrived at the office.
47:56
Speaker 1: So those kinds of things for me, it couldn't be
47:58
Speaker 1: more fun, for sure. When you look back on all
48:00
Speaker 1: of these incredible experiences that you've had. Dad, what's some
48:04
Speaker 1: advice that you would give for people in their life
48:07
Speaker 1: as they may be a young person that's listening to
48:09
Speaker 1: that or to this episode and they're getting ready to travel,
48:12
Speaker 1: or to do things with animals like horses, or they're
48:17
Speaker 1: they're into other sportsmen's activities. What's some advice that you
48:21
Speaker 1: would have for people in their life. What some of
48:23
Speaker 1: the things that you've learned in this incredible life that
48:25
Speaker 1: you've lived.
48:26
Speaker 2: I think Nikes is the best. Just do it? Yeah,
48:30
Speaker 2: do it? Why you can? You know, that's the big thing.
48:33
Speaker 2: I mean. I watched my grandparents work so hard and
48:38
Speaker 2: then at sixty two, my grandmother passed away and it
48:44
Speaker 2: just killed my grandfather and he only lasted a few
48:47
Speaker 2: more just a few more years. Yeah, but they had
48:51
Speaker 2: worked so hard up to that point, and they had
48:56
Speaker 2: just like retired up to a cabin that they had
48:59
Speaker 2: had for years in Lake Hughes outside of Palmdale in California,
49:05
Speaker 2: and we're just starting to enjoy life, and they passed
49:10
Speaker 2: away and they really never got to do the things
49:15
Speaker 2: that they thought. And so I tried in my own
49:18
Speaker 2: life and then also friends that I knew that I
49:22
Speaker 2: could see which ways they were going, and that type
49:24
Speaker 2: of thing. You know, I tried, Okay, you got to
49:27
Speaker 2: be prepared for retirement, and that you still have to
49:32
Speaker 2: put everything aside money wise in that so that you
49:35
Speaker 2: can be prepared. But the rest lived because and even
49:41
Speaker 2: though I talked about it so much, I never thought
49:44
Speaker 2: that it would I'd be a part of that. And
49:48
Speaker 2: you know, here I just I mean, I've got I
49:52
Speaker 2: retired at the end of twenty thirteen and didn't get
49:57
Speaker 2: a lot of years with my beautiful to do a
50:02
Speaker 2: lot of the even though, and that's the thing. We
50:04
Speaker 2: had done so many things together up to that point,
50:09
Speaker 2: and I was so thankful that we did. Yeah, because
50:14
Speaker 2: you never know when one is gonna go and you
50:19
Speaker 2: don't get to do those things together. Yeah, that's right,
50:22
Speaker 2: and it's no fun trying to do them without them.
50:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that was such a lesson for me. Dad
50:29
Speaker 1: was watching you guys always put each other first, spend
50:33
Speaker 1: a lot of time together, make a lot of memories together,
50:37
Speaker 1: and then just you know, watching how you treated Mom
50:40
Speaker 1: for for decades in the way that you loved her
50:43
Speaker 1: and honored her, you know, even through her illness. You
50:46
Speaker 1: really were incredible in the way that you every day selflessly.
50:52
Speaker 3: Cared for her.
50:53
Speaker 1: So that's just a reminder of that life is short.
50:56
Speaker 1: People say that all the time, but more often than not,
50:59
Speaker 1: the people that I interview on this podcast that have
51:01
Speaker 1: lived some of their life, or at least a big
51:03
Speaker 1: portion of it, they've all said the same thing. Don't
51:06
Speaker 1: wait to do the things that you want to do
51:08
Speaker 1: because you don't know if you're going to have the
51:11
Speaker 1: opportunity to do them, that's for sure.
51:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
51:14
Speaker 1: Well, Dad, thank you for being on my podcast. I
51:19
Speaker 1: love you, Love you too. It's so great to be
51:22
Speaker 1: able to have this conversation with you for future generations
51:25
Speaker 1: to hear, and also for our audience to be able
51:27
Speaker 1: to enjoy a little bit of the history about how
51:30
Speaker 1: Scotty came to be thanks to Mom and you. Is
51:34
Speaker 1: there anything else you'd like to add, any any other
51:37
Speaker 1: things you'd like to share with the audience.
51:39
Speaker 2: I don't believe so. I think you covered a pretty
51:42
Speaker 2: good gamut day.
51:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
51:44
Speaker 1: No, well, Dad, thank you so much for being on
51:47
Speaker 1: the podcast, and we thank you all for listening, and
51:49
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you next time.