Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Exploring the World on Two Wheels: Chase Eckert's Journey

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Exploring the World on Two Wheels: Chase Eckert's Journey · 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 I'm joined today by my co
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: host Matt Scott. Now we spend some time interviewing Chase Eckert. Now,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Chase is a very cool adventure motorcyclist. He's an author editor,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: he works in the motorcycle community testing products, and he's
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: recovered from a very serious injury on his motorcycle in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Death Valley, and he is now taking a new lease
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: on life and getting ready to start by riding around
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: the world. Now, Chase has got some great insights, some
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: really positive stories around his experience. He's also shared a
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: little bit about his motorcycle ride in the winter time
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: up towards the Arctic Circle and how he barely survived that.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: But Chase is filled with great insights and adventures. So
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: please enjoy our conversation with Chase Eckert and a special
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: thanks to on X for their support of this week's podcast.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Going further on your adventures is about having the right tools.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: The on X off road apps Intuitive maps make it
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: easy to find trails and disperse camping, and their offline
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: maps give you full GPS navigation capabilities even without cell coverage. Personally,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I use on X for every trip in North America
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: because I always know who owns or manages the land
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: that I'm traveling on. It also makes for a reliable
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: track recorder, and I can filter the trails based on
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the full drive or motorcycle that I'm using. On my
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: most recent trip in the Quartermaster, I use the on
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: X to find trails near where I was staying in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Joshua Tree. I use the difficulty rating and the elevation
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to determine which trails are best suited to the vehicle
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: and the weather. Thanks again on X for your port
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of the Ovalangeural podcast.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So we're here with Chase Eckert doing a podcast.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Hey.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: The cool thing about this one is one, he's a
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: great guy, but he's about well, he's riding basically from
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: here to an event and then to USHWAYA. He's doing
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: the whole pan Am. Yeah, I'm a KM.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I think this is the first time we've had a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: guest that is start essentially starting there around the world
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: trip from the podcast, which is pretty awesome. Thank you.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: I was thinking about that on the way over here.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: It's kind of cheating because I already went the Alaska portion,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: but I was like, yeah, no, I'm counting this.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: It's a new bike though, right Yeah, yeah, new to me,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure, exactly. Well, thanks for being on the podcast.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're you have a long history of
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: travel and adventure, and you write for some really interesting outlets,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: so you've got some great content out there in the world.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: You know. One of the things that you told me
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: earlier this morning that I found fascinating was the fact
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: that you and your family are involved with you know,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: fairs and events and like, how did how did that go?
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, did you start off with that or wow?
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I grew up in a traveling carnival in Alaska.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I love that. That's the third.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Generation my grandma started the company. Incredible and man, it
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: has been the coolest career. Actually, that wasn't my dream job.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: I wanted to run away from the carnival and sell insurance.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Don't people want to run to the carnival. Isn't that
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: how it normally works?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've I've heard that.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: They want to leave insurance and run to the carnival.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, But when you know the carnival, it
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: becomes more of a product.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: But yeah, yeah.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: So that's what we get to do it. We just
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: finished with the Alaska State Fair up in Palmer, and
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: I literally left Alaska last week, picked up an old
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: cab over semi truck, drove it down from from Tacoma,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: and I got here, decided it was way too hot,
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: and I guess I'm going further south, so it's going
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: to get hotter.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: But then it get It is really hecking hot right now.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: We are in the middle of a high pressure zone
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: in the Southwest and it is unseasonably warm.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Phoenix has had like and Prescott has had record
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: heat day after day after day.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like thirty four degrees when I left Alaska.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: But I knew when I was driving that truck through
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: like central Oregon in Idaho, that I was going to
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: get hot. So I'm like, okay, cherish this cold. Yeah,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: because you know, when you're just so hot, you're like
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: I wish to never be hot again. Yeah, And then
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: when you're super super cold, you're like, I never want
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: to be cold ever ever again.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: No, I loant another long story. I rode a motorcycle
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to the Arctic in the middle of the winter on
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: like sutted tires on the ice road. Well, I was
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: on my way up there.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I will did you go up to dead
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Horse with it?
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: I made it to the Yukon River.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Sure, it's the whole series of events. I'm lucky to
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: have made it out of that one. But I was like,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: I will never complain about being too hot again.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Here I am complaining about being okay, So we're not
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: going to let you get past that story. So how
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: did you barely get out of that situation? So you're
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: at the Yukon River winter on a motorcycle with studded tires. Yeah?
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: What happened next? Oh?
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I had just finished up with the Iditarod. I didn't
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: run it. We helped produce the event. It's the Ferrondezvous,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: the Furucxtion that goes along with it. We set at
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: the carnival there and everything, and I had a bike,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: and I had two extra weeks, and I'm like, man,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: what I got to do something with this? So I
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: started testing out studs and I talked to a company
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: called Grip Studs. I'm like, what kind of studs would
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: work great for commuting on asphalt and then maybe going
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: on an ice road somewhere, and they said, well, I
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: don't know, because people just haven't done that before. So
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: I started looking into it, and I hadn't found and
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I still can't find a solo, unsupported trip to the
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: Alaskan Arctic Circle by motorcycle in the middle of the winter.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: This is man, This is in February, which is the
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: coolest portion of our winter up there. And so I
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: studed up.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Didn't Jesse James do something.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: He's gonna sit? He did tuck tuk tuk. But as
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: I understand it, it was basically, unload the bike, ride
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: it for fifteen minutes, load it back in the trailer
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: kind of a thing.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And that was when it was a proper ice like
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: riding a motorcycle on ice is like accomplishable riding it
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: on a mixed surface.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Of ab So I left from Anchorage on those studs
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: and I burned out the first set of studs and tires,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: so I actually had to restud while I was on
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: the way and mount a new tire. And that that
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: that trip from Anchorage up to Fairbanks was really hard.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, it primes you for some some terrible stuff.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Watching your friend torture himself it was.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: It was like being tortured via Instagram. It sucked and
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: you actually have great, great traction on study tires on.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, so type three fun, Type three where
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: it just sucks and it always sucked and you never
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: looked back at it and sat.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: But you're smiling.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: That's the thing about type three fun. When you when
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: you survive it, it's a great story. Yeah.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: So then I I left from or from Anchorage. I
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: left from Fairbanks, and I'm heading up and i hit
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Ice and I'm like, finally I'm here. I'm on the
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Dalton and and it was great. It was great. Well,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: it was bright outside and everything was good. And that
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: was a whole prep in the bike special. It was
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: a KTM nine ninety so it was a cool bike,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: but way too much power, way too much going on,
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: had way too many miles on it. And long of that,
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: it got really cold. It was like sixty three below
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: and I lost my clutch because that master is or
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: the slave cylinder, it has a real problem. And I
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: slurped that ceiling, lost the clutch, and I was severely
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: dehydrated by this point, just because water doesn't stay liquid
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: even when it's up next to your body. Sure, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: so it made me way more cold. And I was
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: having a problem with a couple of my toes starting
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: to stick together, and I knew that I was starting
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to freeze things. And my eyes were starting to stick
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: together when they would close, and and yeah, and then
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: the bike just decided that it was going to do
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: some weird stuff. And they say all the time, you know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: the way there is optional, the way back is mandatory. Yeah, sure,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and without a clutch. I was at the Yukon River.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I called it like thirty miles south of the Arctic Circle.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: So that being said, there's there's things that have been
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: left undone up in the in the north.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But I'll come drive a truck behind you. No,
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I've gotten that. But I mean that's kind of what
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I think. It's cool the way you did it, but
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it was terrible.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: No, I would I wouldn't do that again. I would
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: have somebody come like maybe half an hour an hour
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: behind me, so I could say I still did it
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: by myself, because you gott carry all your own fuel.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Cary push a little bit like if you were, hey,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: come get me, I'm in trouble.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, super danger yeah.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna guess there's people on that road that would
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: help you.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: I mean maybe, but you don't have any express agreement.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: You know, their roll and who knows if they need
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: momentum for the next hill. They have some wicked uphills,
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: like grades that are like eight ten percent. It wouldn't
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: be legal here. And yeah, I mean, who knows if
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: they're going to be able to stop if they wanted to.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember when I drove that road in the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: winter time, well twice, I guess, but like I just remember,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: the trucks can't stop right like they have they have.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Every turn is timed, every hill, every speed you know,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: they don't. It looks like that they're speeding at times,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: but usually they're doing what they have to do in
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: order to get through there.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And nobody wants you on that road. Nobody wants
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: you on that road in the summer, let alone during
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: the winter, right and they're talking about you. Hey, there's
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: this idiot on the way up. There was three guys
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: on bicycles that were doing it at the same time
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: I was doing it. Two made it. One had to
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: be flown out. Wow, I mean it was it was
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: super cold and I planned that because I knew that
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: the road would be the most stable instead of I
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: didn't want their benny pockets of water or anything.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Sure, And ultimately I made it back and I was
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: just shocked and the bike froze up solid, and I
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: had to leave it in Fairbanks and flew back and
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: I was like just sitting at the airport bar stunned,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: like looking around at people. You know, it's it's reverse
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: culture shock, but to the max. You're like, I almost
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: just had a bad time. Yeah, And I'm like, is
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: there somebody that wants to talk to me about this?
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I flew back and you know, made some
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: promises to family about doing things again, and and yeah,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: here I am so.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Doing things again, doing things again.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: But we only have I decided they each have one promise,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, I promise you I will never go
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: to the Arctic solo again. And then I'm thinking of
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: all the caveats it so low, so exactly exactly, I'm like, yeah, technically,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: so that's that's one of the promises.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: All right, So tell give us the overview about what's
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: going to happen starting this afternoon.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, well, started this morning, I rolled out from
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Wickenberg in the morning and on on a bike that
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: I really haven't gone through all the way. I got
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: it from a good friend of mine, Paul Stewart, and
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna go. I went up the hill to come
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: see you guys, and then from here towards Baity, Nevada
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: and the Moscow Moto Dusty Lizard, which I'm excited for.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: I've been to them before and it's just a it's
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: a good event, super positive. They're great people, Yeah, really
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: really good people.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Yeaheah. I mean Pete is just legit, like to be
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: a business owner but then maintain that level not only
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: of personal challenge, but like authenticity in the space is
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: pretty rare to find, you know what.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: His first job was no traveling carnival because it was
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: the only people that would hire him as a child.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: It has changed, it has changed since then. We do
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: everything we need to do. But back in the day,
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: that's that's how it was. Yeah, So he and I
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: hit it off. That's great over that. But yeah, so
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: then I'm going to go to to Beaty and then
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: from their role I said, be east and south through
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Texas kind of just bootscooting. It just getting it to
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: where I need to, crossing through McAllen and Texas just
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: because I've already been to Baja. I spent a couple
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: of months in Bah. I love Baha, And the problem
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: was spending a couple months in Baja is that you
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: could spend a couple more months in Baja and there's
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: all kinds of little backridges. I mean, you're going along
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: the spine of a mountain, so you're getting all the
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: ecology and everything is changing all the time. You like,
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: do I want this ocean? Do I want this ocean?
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: And I have to skip the temptation so I'm not
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: stuck there. So I'm just gonna burn through really get
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: into Mexico fast as deep as I can.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Are you going to go see Copper Canyon or anything
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: like that?
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Probably not on this trip. I'm trying to talk to
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: the BDR folks about getting that new BDR X that
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: they have in your Big Bend and knocking that out
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: with a buddy. I've never been to Big Bend before.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah I haven't either, and I mean, I guess it's
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: really dark and I'm excited about that, but yeah, and
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: then rolling in and then going to Belize, seeing some
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: friends Emma at the Alternative Adventures the motor hostel there.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: She put me up once for a number of days
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: while I was there, and I gotta visit again.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: But now Belize is a really neat spot, right, It's
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: just it was only nineteen eighty four that the British left,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: so and it's on the dollar. It's like, it's such
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a it's a very interesting place.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: And they well I was there last time a couple
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: of years ago.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: They were just.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: Building the EU is just building a brand new road
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: from north to south. So it's all there, but there's
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: a couple of little border crossings that sneak you back
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: in that are on some maps and aren't on some maps.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: So like my Apple maps has it, but my paper
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Adventure maps don't. I want to see that. It's like,
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: it's that, it's that that in between the transition that
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: we lost here in this country or even in Mexico,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: we're not it's not as i as brutal as it
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: used to be, or even Alaska. The alcan back in
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: the day used to be crazy. Today you can do
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: it a honta civic.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's great.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: It's good for the people who need to get to Alaska.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: But as the world develops and gets more civilized, we
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: have to go a little farther out of our way
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: to find those places that are just right there on
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: the cusp on developing where I can still get gas
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: even if it's in a pop bottle. But something might happen. Yeah,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: so we'll see how that goes.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Fortunately, there's still a lot of that out there.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you just have to go far.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you just have to try something.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: And from a kid from Alaska to even be able
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: to drive to another state blows my mind, let alone
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: being able to go to another country home.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: It's going to end up being very far away where
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: we are.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: But we are in a place where we're going to
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: cities with people. Yeah, there's you know, restaurants, and you'll
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: find the things you need along the way and people
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: are going to help you. And that's the cool thing
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: about the bike is that you know you're.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: You're more exposed every way m h.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: And everybody knows it. If you come in you're just
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: like you know, a tall kid from wherever, USA. Everybody
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: thinks you're fine if you're in some big rig. But
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: when to end in a bike, people want to bring
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: you in and people want to help you and they
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: know and you're you are, you're out there.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And I think a motorcycle is very identifiable. I mean
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: it's the first vehicle that any family would get, even
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: if they are still on a low income scale. So like,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: motorcycles seem a lot more relatable than kind of rolling
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: through in some big expedition camper or something like that.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I don't think people what we do.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Right I'm looking at you guys though, and I'm like, man,
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: a shower would be really nice right now, or refrigerator,
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: because I don't trust this, you know, cup of yogurt
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: in my backpack anymore. Sure, But so that's why you
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: need to help support people like us when I roll
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: up and I need water and I just want to
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: pitch everything out. Who's that? Graham Bell was talking about
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: like the hierarchy of adventure vehicles in one of his books,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: and he's like, these guys. Help them. It's like they're
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: gonna show up and they're not gonna have anything. Feed them,
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: give them a beer, do whatever you can. And we're
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: always looking down at the next guy. And I say,
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: looking down like the guy who's on a bicycle or walking.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: He's better.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: That guy's crazy and he's and he's also having a
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: better experience. I mean, if you think about someone on
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: a bicycle and now, the one thing about the bicycle though,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: is that it's it's just so much more dangerous. Like
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of any form of travel overland travel, the bicycle is
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: by far the most dangerous because on a motorcycle, you're
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: traveling with the speed of traffic, whereas on a bicycle
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: you're getting passed all day long and you're hoping that
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: someone isn't on Instagram when they're doing.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: It, you know. So the big eye opening thing for
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: me with with bicycle travel was when we did Tuck
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: and we were complaining about bugs from our earth roamer
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: right from from the gold the literal Golden Tower. We
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: are having a bad time, and then you we realize
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: that the people were riding the bicycle, the bugs were
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: faster than them, so they could never.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Escape, never escape. Ever, that's terrible.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: I couldn't do it. I have so much in that moment, Yeah,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: so much more Like I always had respect because it's
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: it's obviously a challenging thing, but the personality and the
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: actual challenge would just be Yeah.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But they're just so much more immersed, you know, for them,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: a sixty mile a day is a long day, sure,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and they've only seen sixty miles of a country, so
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: they're gonna experience so much more. They're gonna get such
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: a better resolution of a place than me cruising along
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: at one hundred klometers an hour.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: And isn't that what it's all about? Though? It's like,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: if I'm gonna be happy, I want to be happier
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: than I normally am. And if it sucks, I want
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: it to suck worse than it sucked for anybody else,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: because that's the most complete experience, Like we grow through
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: that suffering. I don't think there's anything I've ever been
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: through that's been really terrible, and there's been a lot
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: that I haven't come out on the other side and said, man,
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: I'm going to add that, Like, yeah, it's it still sucks,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: and there's the scars of it and everything, but we're
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: moving and it's making our human experience more colorful because
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: it was.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Difficult posted you hard things, Yeah, and we most people
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: spend their entire life trying to avoid it, right.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So like right now I'm going through all my
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: medical stuff like I was just telling you guys, I
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: now wear hearing aids, and I got to figure out
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: what a border cross. I never crossed the Central American
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: border as somebody who only hears out of one ear.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: You know, what does that look like when somebody who
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: not only speaks a different language, but who can speak
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: and hear, is asking me for a certain piece of
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: paper and I'm trying to wave them off and just
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: say no, I'm deaf and I can't have this conversation
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: with my helmet on, and I need to humanize myself
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: for you so that you can get the right paperwork
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: so that we can work our way through this. That's
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: one of the new things that came of it. And
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: so now I'm going into Death Valley. I was telling
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: you last time I was there, I got hit by
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: a car, and I can talk about that, But.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: After got hit by a jeep going seventy mile an hour.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, from behind, Yeah, just not not paying attention
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: on a road that you can see infinite in front
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: and behind. And he guess he saw my signals and
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: my hand signal. I always hand signal, and he smoked
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: me in my head, dented the hood. I was wearing
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: a good helmet. But I got up and then I
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: eventually made my way to Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, and it
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: took three days to get there and the help of
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: just so many friends. You know, my shout out to
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: my friends. As Paul Stewart came and picked me up,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: he found me on the side of the road, like
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: I didn't know who I was, where I was in
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: the middle of a rainstorm, and uh. And then Mike
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: with Takamoto, those guys brought me in and just let
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: me sleep. And we probably shouldn't do that, but but
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I was. I was in I was in really bad
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: shake and I didn't even know it. So I got
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: into Mayo Scottsdale and we found that I was bleeding
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: internally in two places. I had had a pretty severe concussion.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: My brain was swelling, my jaw was dislocated, my shoulder dislocated,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: and two months of physical therapy got my foot back
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: in the right spot. My knee braces and my Alpinstar
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: Tech ten saved my leg. So then two months after that,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: I went in because I was having some problems hearing,
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: and they said, well, you're you're profoundly you have profound
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: hearing loss in your left ear at high frequency, which
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: I thought I don't need high frequency anyway, turns out
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: has everything to do with speech processing and like canceling
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: out background noise. So that being said, I have just
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: really cool hearing aids. I didn't bring them on this
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: trip because they cost as much as my bike. But
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: but I've got that now and we're working our way forward,
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: just trying to do the whole like brain injury survivor
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: thing and hearing problem thing.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, we'll see how it turns out. Yeah, my
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: poor mom.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: What promise did you have to tell her? After that one?
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: She got?
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Her?
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Will not ride solo in Death Valley on a straight
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: road in front of a jubrangler on Tuesdays on Tuesdays.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: No, it was actually it was it was good Friday.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: It was this good Friday.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, literally, And no, my promise to her a long
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: time ago is I wouldn't own and fly small airplanes
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: because in Alaska we have a lot of issues with
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: those and whether it's safe or not. You know, they
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: say a pilot always like, if he's gonna die, it's
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: because he gets hit by a car and his motorcycle
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: on his way.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: To his plane.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Yes, so, well, it is what it is. But we
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: we were working our way through through life together, and.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: You know, there's so many things about what you're getting
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: ready to do that is awesome. But one of the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: ones is that you've had this bike for three days.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I think three days. Yeah, I burned down
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: to so the story about how I got this bike.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: This is from Paul Stewart RTW Paul, and he's been
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: around the world now I think three times, and he's
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: on his way on another one, on a little Honda
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: CT one twenty.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Five, which I think is awesome.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah it is.
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful too. You would love it. It's red and
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: chrome and has the matching like milkpaw on the back.
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: It is cool, the milk boxes, I know, I know,
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: And just to show me that you can do it.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: And so he's already been around the world once on
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: this bike and it kind of just came back from
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: Argentina and then he went through it and I got it.
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: And there's still things that need to be done. But
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: I'm still burning his old gas. I'm like this thing's
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: backfiring and like dying a little bit. I'm like, all right,
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: this gas is from maybe another country.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I have no idea, But how big is the tank
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: on it? It looks like a big tank.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: It's got two tanks. It has the big Cherby desert tank.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: I'm usually really good with this stuff because I am
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: a technical person.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: That's what I do.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I got on this, so I think they're like, yeah,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: I think it's like a three and a half or
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: four gallon tank.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: It looks pretty big, looks almost like fives.
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: My knees have to kick out.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: And then it still has the the KTM spare tank
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: in the back.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Oh sweet, Yeah, a couple of gallons.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: It's all there. Yeah, I think for those it's off
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: the off the rally, it's the back rally tank and
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: has its own Yeah you're thinking, all, yeah, yeah, it's
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: on there. Uh huh. Yeah, it's that fiberglass tank, that thick,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: heavy thing.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: It is a side earlier.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: Side that it's probably older. Yeah, it's it's it's pretty,
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: it's pretty legit. It feels more like it's made out
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: of a canoe.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I'm just so excited for the bike that you're taking,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: because in my kind of relationship with the You know,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: I met you when you had the nine to ninety
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: and then you went to a six ninety huh, and
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: now you're on a five hundred X.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: I have a bite a Trials bike, my old one.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah. How do you like that?
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I have ridden probably it's three hundred miles of single
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: track on it.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: It's a lot.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: The tires are flat, I mean, and the desert the
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Explorer tank is missing all of its hardware now and
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: so it's off because it was with one. I did
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: the entire Dusty Lizard in Moab on it. Yeah, And
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: just it is an amazing bike. It makes you feel
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: it makes you feel like a pro rider.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're Graham Jarvis when you get done that thing
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: on single track with it with some level of talent.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: And it makes you a better rider on big bikes.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Oh cool.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Knowing you can throw your weight around. I'm a slight
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: guy anyway, but being able to move around and do
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: that stuff as it elevated my just the accentuating your
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: body to do what you need to do has been
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: has been really cool.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And now I'm on the five hundred.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think what's cool about that?
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: Is is.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I've always thought, you know, when you're in America, you
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: want a big bike, right, you're traveling big distances at speed.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: But the further south you go, the more you get
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: into your trip, the more this bike is going to
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: come alive.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: And I'm really especially if you want to be off pavement.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's great. It doesn't feel like
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: the six ninety. And I mean obviously the frame is different,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: everything's different on it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: He's sixty seventy pounds later than yeah, something. I mean,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: because what's the what's the quoted win on like the
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: six ninety, they say like three ten twenty.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like three ten, so it's one hundred pound difference.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: The I think the dry weight is like two twenty
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: five to thirty on the five hundred.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: And I mean it's got a lot of crap and
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: those motors are actually like quite what I've heard.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I've heard that. Yeah, I've heard that.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, which is good because it's almost got thirty thousand
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: miles on it.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Well, it's been around the world one so it knows
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the way. It knows the way, yeah, it does. So
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: are you going to be camping a lot? Are you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: planning on hitting hostiles as much as possible. What's kind
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: of your plan around that.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: My plan is to take it day by day.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Central America. Yeah, Central America. It just makes sense to
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: stay in.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Hostels are so cheap. That's why I was at cheap
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: and you.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Get to like it's secure. Yeah, and really having running
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: water is great.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: The more the more time I spend outside, the more
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: I want running water everywhere I go. But then when
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: I get down past Columbia, like Ecuador, I'll probably still
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: stay in places. I have a sick hook up in Ecuador.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: The guy who owns the motorcycle shop up in Alaska,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: it's actually called the motorcycle Shop. His wife is from Ecuador.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: Oh nice, and her father in law is the vice
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: president of the country. And so I'm really I'm really
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: excited to get to Ecuador. The country of Ecuador doesn't
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: know I'm coming yet, but well they do. Yeah, it's
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: going to be cool. But then as we get further,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: I think it's going to get closer and closer to
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: what I think is normal to like Alaska, Yeah, for sure,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: And for that it just pull off somewhere and go camp.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: So I have my camp stuff with me. But like
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: we were saying earlier, if I'm riding the way I'm
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: riding right now, if I could go naked right now,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: I one hundred percent would. I would leave everything, no tools. No,
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: I left my big camera. I was looking at it
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: this morning and I'm like, there's just not a place
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: for this much.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: Problem is that the phones are so good, like like
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: I really really geek out on cameras, and well, we
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: both just got the new the sixteen sixteen pro and
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: with you know, the button that it has, then it's
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: nice to little maybe a little bit awkward, but that
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: do you need it anymore?
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: I don't know. My mirrorless is really really nice and
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: it takes better, better, better video and everything, but then
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: it doesn't have internal stabilizations. So yeah, but I really
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: need a proper trib.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: It's ten of your volume that you can carry with
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: you on that motorcycle when you already have to carry
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: a solfa.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so I guess, So what are you going
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to use for a camera.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: I got the phone, I've got a go Pro as well.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: I hate go pros though, and I actually just hate
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: taking photos of stuff. I just like, there's no reason
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: for me, it's not my job, So why incumber encumber
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: my trip by having to photograph it, except that I
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: know someday I want to go back through these Yeah,
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: you have.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: To document it for yourself. Like that's like in you know,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: a while of being a part of this community, I've
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: talked to like so many people. But I've also seen
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: so many people do the same thing. Like I don't
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: know if it's like a they want like a purpose
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: further travel and they I'm gonna I'm gonna sort of
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: blog or it used to be a blog now it's
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Instagram or whatever. I don't know if it's like a.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's worth it. I don't know
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: if that's like I think you have to be people
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: should be more selfish with their time when they travel,
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: Like not everything has to be documented.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I agree. If you don't, if you don't have to
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: do it for your job, think long and hard about
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: if it's worth it. I think a lot of times
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: people will start a blog or they'll start a YouTube
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: channel because it's just part of the human ego. Is
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: just this desire to amplify your experience to others and
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: get some recognition for that. I think it's totally normal,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: but just know why you're doing it. You have to
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: just be honest with yourself of like, actually, yeah, I
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: want I just want a whole bunch of my friends
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: and know how cool I am and then just be
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and then do that. But yeah, be open with yourself
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: I have an Instagram it's called like eight hundred people
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: and it's guys like you. It's it's people I actually.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Know, and your Instagram feels more personal, like I'm I
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: don't want to say that you're a selfish traveler, but
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: for the purposes of the conversation we just had, Like
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: that's how I'm going to frame It's like you do
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: it for you, Sure you're not. You don't strike me
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: as someone that does something for other people.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: No, And again I don't need to like I have sponsors,
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: but my sponsors are I'm offering something to them, and
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: that's not it's not content.
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: They come to you though, and it's more of a
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: friendship thing.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: For one hundred percent is well and it's my motivation.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: So like climb, they say, hey, we've got this thing,
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: we want you to use it and give us feedback
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: on Sure, for me, I can just go out and
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: buy whatever I want to buy. But this gives me
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: the motivation. Oh now I owe it. Now I owe
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: it to somebody to do something more. If it was
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: up to me, I would stay home. I have a
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: beautiful home and people who love me and a great church,
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: and I don't need this. But it's when when I'm
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: sitting down and I'm praying about what I need to
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: be doing, that little voice comes in that says, you
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: need to just stay here where you're comfortable. You need that,
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, I just got to reject that and say,
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: all right, that is exactly the temptation that I don't need.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: So let's run from that. And how do I do that?
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: I got people like Climb, I got Taco Moto people
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: who are saying, we believe in you and also we
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: need something from you.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: Sure, in this case, it's part.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: And that's the thing about motorcycles. I've never really understood
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the sponsorship route with motorcycles because everything is so cheap,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Like you know, I mean, an entire motorcycle with all
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of the gear is less than the tires on your
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: earth romer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean the whole the
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: whole thing I mean the bike quite literally.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: I was looking at the bags downgrading my beadlocks to
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: a single piece tire and it was fourteen thousand insane.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: So there you well, and the more a motorcycle and
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: ride it to you schwire for that.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: That's right, sure, that's right.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: But more than just the stuff. I mean, stuff is stuff,
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: and you can buy stuff, you can't buy relationships, so
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: like I can't come to you guys and hang out
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: and like I can't purchase this. What we're doing right now.
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: This is because Matt and I have been friends for
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: a long time and I took the time to go
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: hang out with him and we talked and like you
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: were on your trip and you were very vulnerable about
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: what was going on in your trip and how you
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: were enjoying it. And I was like, Okay, cool, this
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: is a real connection and we have all of our
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: friends and I can like with this bike, a bike's
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: a bike. You can take a bike around the world,
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: doesn't really matter what CF Moto two fifty people are
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: doing it. Tim and Merissa notes here have been in
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: Indonesia on a really terrible Bojag two fifty two up
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: doing amazing stuff and what I'm buying with this bike
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: is rider support. I'm buying pretty much. You know, years
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: of blog posts about mechanical everything. It's super documented. And
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: I have this relationship now with Mike at Tacomoto and
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: with Paul that and I can now say, also, hey,
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: this is RTW Paul's bike.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: This is the bike it's on his second lap around
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: the world.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and it felt like it felt like a passing
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: of a torch.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: And that's that's more of that relationship side. And yeah,
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: it's cool, it's cool. I don't need another widget to
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: put on there. If anything, I want to take stuff off.
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: And that's the first thing I did, was started stripping
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: things off it and making it mine.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: So and you put some new decals on it, so
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: it looks good. It's got some of your some of
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: your graphics on there. It looks awesome.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: That's the first thing you need to do on have
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: stickers made and decala.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: I saw RTW Chase. Is that your new Instagram?
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, it was Mucco Fasto and there was a
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: story with that. It's just some bad bad some Baja
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: Spanish and uh and now it's it's RTW Chase because
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: it was RTW, Paul, and it kind of gives you.
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: It gives you an idea of what we want to accomplish,
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: which I don't even know if RTW is going to happen.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I am heard of it, and you're taking it
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: stage by stage yep.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because I still have to work and I've got
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: a company that needs help run and everything. And I
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: think that's a more a more reliable way to do
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: it than just burn through because I've been on long trips.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: We've all been on trips for months or even years
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: at a time, and you do you get burnt out
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: after a few months. You're like, I would really like to,
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: you know, brush my teeth in the same sink every day,
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: or receive mail or see somebody that We're not always
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: having this transactional relationship where you're like, oh, I am
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: Chase and this is my highlight reel. Yeah, we're coming in.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: You're like, hey, Matt, I know you. Let's just sit
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: down and have a meal and like talk about life
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: beyond whatever is just going on at the moment.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: You can burn out on travel, like I know that
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I had. Definitely I've been there. I mean I think
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: you saw me there in Alaska to be honest, Like,
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: I didn't have a great time on that trip. I
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: was in a weird place.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I have been.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I've been doing this my entire adult life.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Like that has always been the goal.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: Like, and you need to break, you know, And I
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: think I think it's important to recognize that, right, Like,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: if you're in a bad place, don't expect travel to
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: fix it.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Sure, but oh that's true. And I think that everybody
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: travels differently. Some people love just living on the road permanently.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: Usually it's older folks that are retired where they don't
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: have a reason to do that, maybe their kids are
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: gone and everything else, and they're they're just kind of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: they're in a big camper and they're just meandering their
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: way around the world and their home. And then there's people,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, like me, I'm in the same boat that
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: you are. I prefer to travel for about six to
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: eight weeks at a time and then be home for
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: three or four months and then what rints wash repeat over.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I've done it for twenty years and it's kind of
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the perfect tempo for me because I do like being
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: involved with my business. I do like working with my
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: team I do like kind of aggregating these experiences into
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: content and my own reflections. So, yeah, do you.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: Normally travel by yourself or how what is your style travel?
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: I don't like to travel by myself. I really do
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: prefer to travel with others because I am very relational,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: like I do like to have people in my life
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: on a regular basis. But I've also done it. I've
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: done solo motorcycle in Colombia and in Ecuador and Peru,
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: and that was that was life changing too, just like
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: being in your own head for days at a time
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: is life changing as well. But I prefer having the
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: experience with someone else.
• 35:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think there's a healthy medium for that.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Last time I was in Belize, I went with some
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: friends and they just weren't having fun in the right
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: way yea to my mind, and it was straining the relationship.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: And you just have to be able to say, all right, guys,
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: this is not this is not what I'm here for.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to take that and I'm just going
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: to go by myself. Yeah, absolutely amazing. I travel predominantly
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: by myself, mostly because at my age and stage in life,
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: people have significant others or they have kids or jobs
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: that matter, and they just can't take a couple months
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: at a time off to go somewhere. I really I
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: am jealous for my time off too. I shouldn't be
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: taking a couple of months off either, I should be
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: at home grinding or whatever. But we know that of
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: all the resources in the world, money, you can always
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: get more money. Time you can never get more time.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have the same amount of time in a
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: day as Warren Buffett. Yeah, like Warren Buffett billionaire, he
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: cannot buy more time. Nope. And the thing is is
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't trade places with him either. If you could
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: get a billion bucks, you'd also I.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: Just realized he's like ninety something.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: That's something that started. But that's the point. That's the
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: point is like you make somebody says, I want to
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: be a billionaire, Well you could, Like, what if you
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: traded place with Warren Buffett now you're ninety something years old.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter how much money you have. It's actually
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: the time that matters in our health. So if we
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: make that the focus, we usually do a little better.
• 37:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can. You can make a lot of money
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: and be very unhappy.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Totally, Yeah, totally, And hedonism is like something that it
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: will burn you out. Yeah, like you can have excess
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and you got to realize, like, oh, I better back
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: away from that cliff.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: Right right, and spend some time with some billionaires. Their
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: their day is not better, Their food is always cold,
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: their flights are always delayed, They have no autonomy, and
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: it's just it's not the way that I would like
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: to live. It might be great for some people, and
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: that's cool.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Everybody's got their thing. You just got to know what
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: yours is. Yeah, And it seems like you figured that out,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: and so let's let's talk a little bit about what
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: your vision is. I know you're taking it as it
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: comes and step by step. But so this next segment,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: you're gonna go do the Moscow Moto thing. Then you're
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: gonna you're not gonna take Baja, which I think is
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: a cool change in pace. So where you're gonna head
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: through maxic Co generally, and then.
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: Browns McCallan, Texas, and then work my way into Belize,
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: work my way south through there just kind of like
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: hopscotch borders. I'd like to hit some of the It's
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: always better to me personally to go through borders that
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: aren't as well traveled, and.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Do it on a Sunday.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's so good, and do the best you can exactly.
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: And then and these are all places I haven't gone yet,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: so I don't really know what that experience is going
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: to be like. And part of it in preparing for
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: this was I haven't researched, you the crap at everything,
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: because I want to not experience the fullness of everything.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Like now I know I want it to happen. I
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: do have borders circled on my maps. I do have
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: cities underline that I'd like to visit. I do have
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: cities X out that I definitely don't want to visit.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: I can't think of what they are off the top
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: of my head, but they're my maps.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: So here's what I'm so excited about. Right as, you're actually,
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: in my opinion, approaching this very much as like an
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: experience traveler. You're just kind of going with it, and
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: I think that you're traveling for people you know, and
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: and like, yeah, you don't really know where you're gonna
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: go to Mexico, but you're gonna meet somebody here and
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: you're gonna have community, and they're gonna tell you where
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: to go, and you can't plan these trips entirely on
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: the internet, like you can create resources for yourself, right
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: hip points. Yeah, you know, like okay, like I want
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: to see uh, you know, copon whatever. Yeah, whatever it is.
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: But I think you just gotta What I'm so excited
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: for you is that you're just throwing yourself. I knew it,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: and you're like surrendering, surrendering yourself to the process. Yeah,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: And I think that that's hard to explain to people,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: you know, like most people are are are I mean
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: even in the PanAm trip that I'm planning for the future,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: it's it's it's very I'm not gonna say structured, but.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: I like to plan. Sure, you know, you're enjoying that product.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: I enjoy that.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: I also have somebody else that I travel with. So
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: when you're just on your own, like you have, well,
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: you do have more freedom, right you know, two people even,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: you know, like I love my wife, but we're we
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: have different interests on certain things.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Right where you can just go with it.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: You sure to meet somebody, Oh yeah, you should check
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: this out, and then you're gonna and also talk to
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: this guy down here. Yeah, you know, and you're just
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: gonna kind of hop around at night. And I really
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: like that.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Well, if you build yourself, I need to be here
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: by this time, by this time, then you're always rushing
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: and there's always like a feel and anticipation that I
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: got to get to the next place. The way I'm
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: traveling means that some days I get to really chill
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: out and I get to do some things, and I
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: plan Sundays off, and I plan Wednesdays to really take
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: some time. That's when I have my Bible study. And
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: then the rest of the time some days that means
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: you got a bootscoot. You got to take four or
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: five hundred mile days.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you do that.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: It's like that time is your money in the bank.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: It's saying that if I have gotten to this point
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: by here now, then I now have time assets that
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: I can use up. I just know that I've got
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: six weeks on this trip and I gotta go back
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: to Alaska for a minute. I need to make it
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: as far south as I can, and the plan will
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: really be to make it into Bogata, which I don't
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: think that's too big of a deal because Central America.
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: But you know, you could get trapped, Like I could say.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: That you're either going to make it to Bogata or
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: you're going to make.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: It to like yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's now a
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: couple of just like little tactical questions. So you've got
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: your Yellow Fever card with you because they're going to
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: ask for that at borders. No, okay, you might want
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: to look into that. Your title is your is the vehicle?
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Is the motorcycle titled in your name? Like exactly on
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: your license, because in Peru you can't get in with
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: if it's titled in anybody else's name. Yeah.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: No, I've got I've got I've got the bike situated.
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: I still need to figure out insurance along the way.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: But everybody does that. You just get it at the border.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: That's the thing with the bike is that, I mean,
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: it would be a shame if he wrote the bike off,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: but it's not going to sure ruin you.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: No Mexico insurance you can get online ahead of time.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Is great.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I use.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, and the bike is cool. And actually the
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: real problem you have when you're crossing borders is specifically Mexico,
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: is they try to just say okay, cool, see you goodbye,
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: and they're like, no, no, I need my tip. I
• 42:10
  Speaker 3: need that for it to get to the other side,
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: because they assume that you're just going in, so you
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: have to like really harass them to get the right paperwork.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: But otherwise everybody usually just burns you through because what
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: are you going to carry over with you? You know,
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: unless there's something that they're really worried about specifically, and
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: that changes. But people are in these places, and people
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: do this every single day. And you know, just because
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: I'm from Alaska where everything is a five day drive,
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: that doesn't change when I get down there. Now I'm
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: now I'm a local. Now I'm in that spot. Yeah,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: and thankfully I do have a friend who's going along
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: that same sort of route. He's from Brazil and he
• 42:48
  Speaker 3: speaks fluent Spanish, so we're gonna hopefully link up and
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: cross borders together. Yeah, Mattias, I met him walking. He
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: was walking from Dead Horse to Rope, Nevada.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he is a crazy person.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: It sounds like it, but.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: We've been friends for a number of years now and
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: he's on a T seven and we have a similar
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: way of travel. You're like, hey, just during the day,
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: I don't really want to see anybody, So let's meet
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: up every three days or so and that's enough. Have
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: somebody watching your stuff while you're going through paperwork, and
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: that goes a long way.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's nice to be on the same route
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: with somebody, but not necessarily doing the day to day. Sure,
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: like when we did Australia, we did it with David
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: prittis not necessarily with him, but we were doing the
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: trip at the same time. And what we did the
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: telegraph track together because we needed some support support, you know,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: when we did some really remoter areas like the golf carpetraoll. Okay,
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: we kind of like connected then, but we were always
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: within a day of each other. Yeah, and that was
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: really nice.
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: And the world gets really small when you're on those
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: tracks like Baja. You run into the same people over.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: And over and over again in Baha because you're all.
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: Going up and down the same road. The Pan American
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: you're basically if you're on that road together, you're starting
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: it with a bunch of people. You're in community with
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: these people. Now working your way up and down. Someplaces
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: there's only one route anyway, and I'm on my way
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: to Overland Embassy, and once I get there, I'm on
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: my way to Donkey Sunrise. And it's all going to
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: be the exact same people. These are like moto hostels
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: and transport companies, and we're all going through the same
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: place as having a very similar experience. So you're naturally
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: going to connect with these people. You'll connect with travelers
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: all or with locals, but you'll connect with a lot
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: of travelers and who knows, you might hit it off.
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: Be willing to be flexible, Say that guy, he's just
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: he's my kind of dude. We're tight now, and you
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: never know, fifteen years from now, you might still be
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: best friends.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: I've met some I mean some of my closest friends
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: or people I've met traveling. You know, there's just like
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: I think there's something.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: To it that creates a filter. It just creates a
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: filter of all of the people in the world. They
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: happen to be wanting to do a lot of the
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: same thing you're doing. You're doing.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my buddy Ronnie we met because we were sailing
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: to the same place, Like I was just buddy boat
• 45:02
  Speaker 3: over and we met and we were on our way
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: over to the Bahamas and we did the Bahamas and
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: we were there together for three years, anchoring next to
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: each other, basically sharing experiences. And then we got back
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: and I mentioned that I was going to be going
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: to Baja and he goes, okay, cool, well I'm coming
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: with I'm like, what do you mean. He's like, will
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: You don't need a Chase truck. So I was like, okay,
• 45:24
  Speaker 3: all right, Well I didn't invite you, but you can come.
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: I think you're cool, all right. And then I mentioned
• 45:30
  Speaker 3: that I was gonna be riding from Alaska to Arizona
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: and then doing the Transamerica Trail, and he's like, okay,
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: well I think I can meet you in Oklahoma. I'm like,
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: once again, dude, you weren't invited. He's like, yeah, but
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: I show up, and he did. He showed up on
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: an eighty nine haunted trans alp and we did the Transamerica.
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: That's ridiculous. And on this one I mentioned to him
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: knowing one hundred percent and he's like, well, I can't
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: really do that whole trip, but I'll buy a bike
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: in Colombia and.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: We'll do that.
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, all right, cool, so I have I've
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: got Ronnie meeting me and we're gonna go buy a
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: bike for him. That's awesome in Mediine, and then we're
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: gonna go south to Ushuaia together and then he might
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: sell the bike or whatever. And he's a boat captain
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: so he has a more flexible thing too. But he's
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: just I mean, we've we've shared a tent together at
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: fourteen thousand feet and we joke about this all the time.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: You're like a two person tent with two guys in.
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: It is an intimate situation, that's right.
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: You're like, Ronnie, you're breathing on my neck. It was like, well,
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: I might as well hug you at the same time.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's good to have buddies and it's nice
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: to say have the boundaries of these are the times
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: we're together and these are the times when we're not.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: And yeah, so that's good.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You mentioned a little bit about living on a
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: sailboat for three years in the Bahamas. So you said
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: it was a thirty eight foot.
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a benetto three seven three. I rebuilt it.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: It was damaged in Katrina.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, And there were a lot of those boats
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: for sale yeah.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: Well, this one really wasn't for sale. It was just
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: kind of beat up sitting on the dock and I
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: was getting you know, pissed looking at it because I
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: was living in another boat next to it.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: So you just started working on it.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: I called the guy. Yeah, yeah. He was a heart
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: surgeon up up north, and he goes, I said, hey,
• 47:08
  Speaker 3: your boat is dangerous to people around you. The dock
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: lines are all rotten and whatever, and he goes, well,
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: can you just buy me some lines? And I'm like, yeah,
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: I'll buy you some lines.
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, well, and.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: Your power cord is in the water too, and it's
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: probably eating everybody's anodes. So I'm like I needed I
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: need this. And then next thing I know, I'm like,
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: you know, the thing's got to be sailed. Someone's got
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: to sail this, because a boat needs to be sailed.
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: The bottom's getting all crusty, yeah, you know. And and
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: that turned into me sailing and racing and uh and
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: I raced another boat called the Navigator, and another boat
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: called Sedu Saunt and and another boat called Hot Pursuit,
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: a j boat, and then just got into it. And
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: the first time I left the lake, which was Lake
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: ponchetrain with my boat was on the way to the
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: Northern Bahamas Abbaco's Cuba Dry Tortugas And that was the
• 47:59
  Speaker 3: first time that boat ever left that lake.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: And I was gone for three years.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Wow. So that was what What did you learn from
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: that experience?
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: Pack more beer? No, it was that everything, even when
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: things are going bad, like when you're running your boat
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: up on for the first time on sandy bottoms, or
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: you don't know the tides and you wake up in
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: your boats literally on its side, there's a way to
• 48:27
  Speaker 3: get yourself out of that eventually. Also, I learned that
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: I don't like being hot all the time. But man,
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: that was an interesting trip. And actually there was times
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: when I wasn't doing it right. I was so wrapped
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: up in the trip or in it being a certain way.
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: And I started hanging out with the people who ran
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: the yachts, all the yachtis and stuff, and they had
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: so much fancy stuff at their disposal, and they were
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: trying to live like their owners, and I'm like, I
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: just want a smaller and smaller boat, and I want
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: a more intimate experience, and I want to go for
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: longer periods of time without showering, because it's gonna be okay.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: And now you're in the boat by yourself, you know,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: as long as you can handle your own company totally,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: or the company.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: Of others in similar situations. And I was trying to
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: make it as comfortable. I'm like, I'm going to fire
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: up the generator, I'm gonn run the air conditioner. I'm
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: going to take a shower, but to get myself already,
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: when really I should have been spearfishing more or doing
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: whatever I being on land more or those are those
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: are the things that I cherish. Getting stuck in the
• 49:37
  Speaker 3: dinghy in low tide. You know islands, they have a
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: high tide and low tide on either side. So you
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: did changes and that kind of that feeling, like the
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: feeling of a motorcycle when the temperature changes or the
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: smell changes coming into a place. That the way the
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: way that we're on Earth and are urience, we've controlled
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: it right now, we're in a nice climate controlled area. Yeah,
• 50:04
  Speaker 3: the outside doesn't matter to me right now because I
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: have defeated it while we're in here, right But the
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: ocean doesn't allow you to do that, no matter how
• 50:14
  Speaker 3: big your boat is. Yeah, you're always at the mercy
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: of whatever cloud you're sailing under. I don't trust clouds,
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: like every one of them is its own little pillar
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: of amazing power.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's the interesting thing. The difference between sailing
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: and overlanding. Sailing is just a harder version of overlanding,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and there's no escape. So the difference with overlanding is
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: that you're able to just pull over in bad weather,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: or you pull under an overpass or whatever. If you're
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: on a motorcycle, you could stop and get off the bike. Sure,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: if you're on a boat, you're in it until it's done,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: whether you're done or it's done, Like, there is no escape.
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: I've had. I've had those experiences. I was following a
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: storm front through the Gulf of Mexico and my outthaul,
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: which is the line that holds your sail out, it
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: just exploded. I mean, there's so much tension on these things.
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: I mean it was as a fifty five foot mast.
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: There's horsepower there because the boat itself was like thirty
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: eight thousand pounds, So you're rolling along at like eight
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: knots and all of a sudden, it in a moment
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: changes to something that's like very frightening. There's a lot
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: of noises, the boom, the boom's flopping around. I lose steerage,
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: you know. I'm sleeping on deck with autopilot going, and
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: my sail is luffing like crazy and it's slapping things around.
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: And those lines they're not attached to nothing. They're attached
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: to now small pieces of sharp metal and stuff. And
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: so you're there, and it's it never happens on a
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: nice day on nice weather. It happens at three o'clock
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: in the morning when you're the most tired. And I
• 51:58
  Speaker 3: got it under control. And as far as I know,
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: that piece of that piece of hardware still on that boat,
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: I fixed it with like a little soft shackle and
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: a low friction donut sure or a low friction ring and.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: And then once you're done with that, you're like, oh wow,
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: I am capable of so much more, and you might
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: as well push a little bit further.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: And now you know that, and I can see you're
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: making decisions in your life on a regular basis because
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: you know that. First of all, I need to be
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: doing that because humans are supposed to do hard things.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: But I've also done a lot of hard things. So
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: now I'm not as afraid. Sure, it doesn't mean you're
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: not afraid at all, you're not as afraid.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, there's a healthy level of fear with
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: the rationale behind it. Sure, but it's like you lift
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: a dumbell once and I can do that. Maybe I
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: can do a little bit more, but you always know.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: It's like I think about old man's strength, right, Yeah,
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: why are old guys so strong? It's like, well, because
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: they've been there and they know what they can do
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: and what they're capable of. It's like their muscles might
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: be smaller, but they've already put themselves through it and
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: they can feel that.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: They know the leverage.
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: Hundreds, they know what they're doing. But you don't get
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: cocky with it. Always make sure that you're within the
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: bounds of your safety threshold and everything. And yeah, and
• 53:11
  Speaker 3: there is a point when you just say this was
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: comfortable and fun, I've had enough and we can turn
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: around or just take the easy out. I'd never have
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: a problem with that.
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So then you you sounds like you did
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: the Trans America Trail. Did you do the whole length
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: of it?
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: No?
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: I had to for time reasons I skipped the east
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: coast portion and then really the flat bits. But I
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: hit it from from Oklahoma all the way to Moab
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: in like at the end of October. So there's snow
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: on the ground at all on all the passes. Sure,
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: and that was that was such an amazing trip.
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't even know.
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: I'm seeing pictures now of like going through Colorado and
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: you see the big buildings and the old mines and stuff. Yeah,
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: people like, oh, there's this in this mine. I'm like,
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: I remember just like happening upon that. I had no
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: idea it was on the route and you're not waiting
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: for this next checkpoint. You're just like, oh, I did
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: that with Chiachi Needza. I didn't know what Chiechi Nezza
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: was and I got there and this wasn't on motorcycle,
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: and I'm like, this is an amazing thing. More people
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: should know about this. You're like, well, it's one of
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: the seven hundreds of the world. People do know about this.
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, that's cool, Well it makes sense. It
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: is wonderful. Yeah, But the same thing with any mountain
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: pass or little lake that you didn't know about. I
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: didn't know what was there. Now it's there. Now I'm
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: experiencing it, I might as well take off my clothes
• 54:35
  Speaker 3: and jump in and and you would regret not doing it.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Transamerica Trail is was a total surprise for me.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: That nine fifty there in the corner. That was what
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: I rode across the trail. It was too much. That
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: was how dumb I was at the time. You know,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I had ridden dirt bikes, but I thought, I'm going
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: to get my first adventure bi motorcycle. It might as
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: well be a nine to fifty adventure on the side,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: now I know. So Fortunately the bike and I survived
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: and I learned a lot on that, but I would yeah,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: I'd recommend people consider the trans America Trail. It's it's
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: an incredible way to see this country. Yeah, and there's
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: a there's a surprise after surprise after surprise on it.
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: So and it's nice because there are so many little outs.
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: You are going past real towns and if someday you're
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: like I just really need like we were we were
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: to meet you pass and I'm like, I am cold.
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: I am really cold, and I could use some good food.
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: Pause in there, get a little cabin for the night,
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: warm up, pull all your stuff out. Yeah, you know,
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: take the time to do that something. Just a point
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: of order when you're when you're traveling so much is
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: taking the time to care for yourself because if not,
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: you get run down. How many how many travelers have
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: you seen they're doing around the world trip and they
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: get to a place and they're all like sick and
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: they're tired, and you've just been pushed yourself so far
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: never lifted. Now wash your feet, you know. Now you're
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: on the road for a long period of time. When
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: you were in our normal day to day, I wouldn't
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: say that I do this, But you skip brushing your
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: teeth at night every once in a while, just go
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: to bed. You're like, well, I had a beer anyway
• 56:15
  Speaker 3: and it's gonna be gross. So when you're traveling, though,
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: you have to be intentional. I'm gonna wake up, I'm
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: gonna wash my face and brush my teeth, even though
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: I don't have a shower. I'm going to bed. I'm
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: gonna go to bed and I'm going to wash my
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: face and brush my teeth because that will make my
• 56:29
  Speaker 3: overall experience better. And you know, for me, I'm gonna
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: say my prayers I'm gonna stop. I'm going to take
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: that time to make sure that I've gotten myself physically, mentally,
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: and spiritually in line to be able to do this,
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: because then you can open yourself to experience things more.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: If you're tired, you don't want to push yourself further.
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: It's dangerous.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So yeah, what questions for you, man? What questions
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: you got here, Matt? Any other things that come to mind?
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the one thing I'm really I'm really
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: excited for your feedback on is flying your bike. Yeah,
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: me too, from Panama to Columbia. Yeah, I think that
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: it's a really cool thing. You're saying it's like fifteen
• 57:11
  Speaker 2: hundred bucks.
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, so far, and so much of its anecdotal,
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: And that's how I guess kind of the world is.
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: But you hear, well, you know this is this is
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: the way it is, and things are dynamic. There's always changing.
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: Pricing is changing. We know that, you know, fuel and
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: tickets and everything is always going up, and we just
• 57:30
  Speaker 3: don't know what that looks like. I'll tell you what
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: it's like when I get there.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: You'll be the first one.
• 57:35
  Speaker 3: But it could be if it's three thousand dollars. It's
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: still worth it to me the same day fly in
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: and not have to worry.
• 57:41
  Speaker 2: I've I've had a lot of friends go through Aleandro
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: at Overland Embassy and they've all had really great experience.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've heard nothing.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: I just think it's I like to plug that place
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: because I think it is so important. One it's it's
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: a natural, you know, kind of a junction point or
• 58:00
  Speaker 2: or whatever for travelers. You have to go through there,
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: right So to have a resource of somebody that is
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: specifically this is their thing, it's wonderful, it's awesome. And
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: the more business they get this, the better I think
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: it gets for everybody. I think it's really cool. And
• 58:21
  Speaker 2: you know, for a trip like yours, you know, it
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: saves you two weeks.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: Which is going to save you way more than the
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: difference in shipping.
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: Plus then there you're investing in the human the human product.
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: Isn't that the bike flies there and flies back. Now
• 58:38
  Speaker 3: I have a friend, I have somebody who is intimately
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: knowledgeable about the things that are going on in that
• 58:43
  Speaker 3: area where I don't know that. I think about this
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: all the time, and this is a plug for me
• 58:46
  Speaker 3: and anybody who's coming to Alaska. Stop by Alaska, look
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: me up, and I want to talk to you about routes.
• 58:53
  Speaker 3: I want to talk to you about about getting all
• 58:56
  Speaker 3: the way up to the Arctic Circle and what Pruebay
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: actually looks like, and seeing how much of Alaska is
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: actually accessible, because I know that your experience is going
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: to be different when you hear from somebody's local I've
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: got to take that knowledge that I have, or that
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: idea that I have about how much I know about
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: Alaska and assume that other people know more about the
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: place they live in as well. Yeah, and I should
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: probably listen to them.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the power of local knowledge, I mean it's a
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: It is a universal theme in travel for sure. So
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: how do people follow you?
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: You can follow on Instagram it's open, it's rtw Chase,
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: or you can go to my website, which is muchofasto
• 59:35
  Speaker 3: dot com. I like that, Yeah, Yeah, it's pretty will
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: It's got some of the articles that I've written for
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: gear Junkie up there and some that I just put
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: out for myself. Like I do a lot of mechanical
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: stuff because I am a mechanical inspector by trade, so
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: I look at things in a mechanical way, and I
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: love the way things work. I mean, there's beautiful stuff
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: in the world and we should take our time looking
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: at it.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: Well, I really appre shate you being on the podcast.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: It's been amazing to meet you and to hear your stories.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know we've met before a couple of
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: times briefly, but I'm super proud of what you're doing.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's awesome.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: Thanks man, And I'm just so happy because I've always
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: been here rubbing shoulders with you guys, or in adjacent
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: to all of my friends doing amazing things, and it
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: feels like I'm finally able to follow in the footsteps
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: of the guys who came before me. So I appreciate
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 3: you guys having me.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I'm so excited for you.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: Thanks.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, we'll get to Jealous and we'll also get you.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: We'll get you on the podcast when you're done.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: Oh goodness.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Okay, so a couple of years, A couple weeks sounds
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: like you do the three year theme, so yeah, we'll see. Yeah, awesome. Well,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: we appreciate you being on the podcast, and we thank
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: you all for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.