Latest / Full Spectrum Cycling / Full Spectrum Cycling #151 – Todd Poquette, Director of Adventure for the 906 Adventure Team

Transcript

Full Spectrum Cycling #151 – Todd Poquette, Director of Adventure for the 906 Adventure Team · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:01
  [upbeat music] Hello, radio listener.
• 0:17
  It's Full Spectrum Cycling, show number 151. Yeah, it's some strong- Strong... strong rum. A little Ron Bacardi or- Yeah... Ron Rico or something. 151. Yeah, 151, man. 151.
• 0:30
  Get the 151 floater on the top of the Rum Runner. I don't think I've had that since like 1981. I know. [laughs] Somewhere in there. Good stuff, though, so you know, we should have a rum section of the show.
• 0:42
  [laughs] Top of the second hill. Yar. No. And then, and then- Then it'll feel all piratey... what was the whiskey thing called in the, uh, Jungle Cross when it was down at the, where Komatsu is now?
• 0:52
  It's called whis- just Whiskey Hill or- Whiskey, yeah... Whiskey Ri- Rehorst Rise. Rehorst Rise, Whiskey Mountain. There we go. Whiskey Mountain. Those were good days. Now there's a Komatsu plant there.
• 1:03
  And they better put a mural or something [laughs] on that huge wall along the KK River Trail there. It's nice when the train's going by you don't see that big wall, you just kinda get the train then.
• 1:13
  It is just a blank canvas for anything. I, I- And if they do anything, make it look like the Solvay crumbled plant. I think- Yeah, that would be a good idea... that'd be damn awesome. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:22
  Have a little homage to the- Oh, little, yeah, some LEDs... super fun site that was there before them. Mm-hmm. Some LEDs or something.
• 1:27
  But I, seeing it from the other angle from the Illuminati, 'cause I was, like, building some machines over there and, and all of a sudden I look and I see cranes and stuff and I'm like, "Oh, we used to race bikes there."
• 1:40
  [laughs] Those were, those were good days. That sucks. Yeah, those were, those were great rides. Some warm weather out there lately. Yeah, man.
• 1:48
  Yeah, apart from the, uh, snow that was on the w- out there as I was arriving [laughs] that I was not expecting. [laughs] I mean, it was just flurry in the air, but- Kinda more like rain/snow. Yeah. Some srain. Yeah.
• 1:59
  They, they said there wasn't like a 20% chance, so I have a- That was the 20%... hole in my roof that I decided not to put a cap on or anything and- Your fault. Did you d- make the hole? Oh, hell no. You made it rain.
• 2:11
  No. [laughs] Don't, you don't make holes in roofs. [laughs] I don't make holes in roofs. I'll get on a garage roof. I won't get on a- Yeah... on a three, two-and-a-half story roof. Did you get your door yet? Yep. Yep.
• 2:26
  It's huge. Doors are good. Lowe's. You gotta have those to keep the riffraff out of your house. Lowe's sucks. Man, that was such a pain in the ass. Why would you even go to Lowe's, Lowe's?
• 2:35
  The only window that, the only company that makes the door myself and my wife wanted, hey Molly, um, is at Lowe's. It's a, a great big French set of, set of French doors that have side lights that vent. Oh. All right.
• 2:51
  Yes. Nobody else makes that in the entire world, huh? Unless it was custom. Yep. Oh. 95 inches wi- long and 80 inch- You could drive a car through there. Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:00
  You could go three, three wide on bicycles through there. I will be able to, I will be able to mountain bike off my porch. Or technically road bike if I wanted to, but you know. Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:11
  We got flashing done and shit, too, so one day we're, I'm, I'm gonna actually be able to move into this house, I'm starting to feel. It's weird.
• 3:16
  We're going to, uh, have to do a little removing of items from the podcast room this weekend 'cause Kirk is gonna whoop a fit on the paint job over, on Monday. What kind of whoop a fit was he talking about?
• 3:27
  Well, I think we're gonna whoop a fit like that gray wall there, only everywhere. Oh, okay. Except for down on the bottom. Great, okay. Well, you'll see. Okay.
• 3:34
  But, uh, we, we got a, we got a sort of semi customer client thing coming up in a couple weeks, so- Yeah... have a little bit of, uh, incentive to get the studio kind of more operational. Mm-hmm. Which we will be doing.
• 3:46
  A, a client- 'Cause-... for the podcast studio? A what? Are you talking about, like, clients- Yeah... for the podcast? Yeah. Oh, cool, cool. Yeah, somebody that Kirk wants to interview, so. Nice. That'll be cool.
• 3:57
  Absolutely. Start to get a little bit of, uh, more action going on in here than just this fine show. [laughs] Calling this show fine is weird. So did you... Who put the Bike Smiths is now at 914 East Hamilton? I did.
• 4:11
  So was that... That's the exact same space that Fatbike.com had- Yeah. Yeah... the 100th anniversary party in. Yep. That's- Yeah. [laughs]... hilarious. Yeah.
• 4:18
  I saw, I looked up the address and me, I'm like, "Wait, I know that building." We have sullied this piece of property. [laughs] Right. Right. [laughs] I think the cops were only there twice.
• 4:27
  I think the cops were right there- Yeah, twice that meeting... and right here. [laughs] Yep. Yeah. As I was against the back wall going, "Oh, man. Oh, it's the c- Well, wait. I'm way back here."
• 4:37
  [laughs] And shout out to, uh, shout out to Kelsey, 'cause that's, I think, the first night I met her and she was naughty. [laughs] Well, hi Kelsey. Hi Kelsey. We love you.
• 4:44
  Yeah, so I think it's more of their warehousing now, but they may still have some sort of retail presence just to maintain that illusion of, uh- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm... what you call it. What do you call it? Retail. Yeah.
• 4:57
  I, it, it's right down the street from me. It was, it was also Tim's old shop that, called The Shop. Oh, before it moved down to the south side, you- He moved to the Bay Views, and then it moved- That was, that is-...
• 5:07
  all the way south... a cool shop that only works on- He's-... you know, good older motorcycles, not Harleys. He actually does now work on Harleys. Well, you can't be too picky and choosy, but- Yeah. Mm-hmm. He does...
• 5:18
  they're sort of specialists at smaller displacement motors. He, he has done, to my knowledge, he has done more than one Royal Enfield diesel. Oh. Talk about a crazy motorcycle.
• 5:29
  I've been interested in Royal Enfield- It's a-... uh, lately... great little bike... especially since they have kind of a presence in Milwaukee. Yeah. Yeah. So. Great little bike.
• 5:37
  They have a couple, couple interesting things out there, geez. Yeah. 650? Uh, there's a couple different. Yeah. There's a 500. 500, yeah. There's, depending on what market you're in.
• 5:47
  I think in the US it's that, like 500 and the 650. That'd be- They're huge in India. I know. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tons of them. Huge. Huge. Huge. Not big in Japan? Uh, huge in Japan. Don't think so. Mm-mm. Don't know.
• 6:00
  It could be Alphaville or Tom Waits. [laughs] Da, da, da, tss. Ba da bing, ba da boom. Hey, Marty. Uh, I don't know. What's going on? Uh, we're gonna...
• 6:12
  Actually, in just a couple minutes we're gonna call, uh, Todd Paquette up there in Marquette, Michigan area Yeah, yeah. Polar Roll is coming up today and tomorrow. Nice. Yeah. Uh, Puck and Boner are gonna be up there.
• 6:24
  Mm. Gonna duet. Yeah, I don't know what they're gonna do, but they're gonna go up there and do it. [laughs] I wonder, uh, I- At least- Defile some- Get the DFL... defile some sort of [laughs] hotel room.
• 6:34
  I wonder if they'll, uh, I wonder if they'll stop at Dino's for a snack before they go. Probably not. Probably not. Did you stop at Dino's for a snack? Is that why you're bringing it up? Yeah.
• 6:43
  Dino's is open again here in River West. Dino's is finally open for food. Little bit of, little bit of food. It's got a small menu. Yeah, I haven't g-... I've, I have not- All right... gotten back into Dino's yet.
• 6:53
  I've been in there a few times- Yeah... and I just haven't really quite got the groove going yet. I'm not sure. I stopped by, I stopped by for the, their first band thing. I popped in there for a little bit.
• 7:02
  It was a little too much humanity [clears throat] for my, I don't know, social anxiety [laughs] to, to surmount. [laughs] But all the same, you know, it was like, okay, cool. Uh, got the flavor.
• 7:16
  We, we rolled in Saturday- Get the, uh-... afternoon and had some curds... well, then ended up over at Bosco's. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. And been in there for, like, uh, count three decades.
• 7:25
  Yeah, you got the goombas on one side and the cops on the other side of the bar. That's fair. [laughs] Pretty much sort of an idea. Five voices. It's pretty good you got a bit buzzed in there. [laughs] Ah.
• 7:35
  Well, let's, uh- Got the, like, '79 Corvette in the garage... let's take a real quick call here before we call Todd. We got, uh, we got... Hey, caller, uh- [laughs]... thank you, thank you for calling in. Who...
• 7:46
  What guy do we have on the line here now on the phone thing? I'm in the Big Easy- And your name is Sexy... on Magazine Street, surrounded by loved ones. How are you? We are well.
• 7:59
  We're just, uh, basically getting ready to call our guest for the evening. I w- I did not know you were gonna call in, but welcome to the show. Want to give us a quick update? Yeah.
• 8:08
  No, uh, I got, I got to New Orleans about a week ago, uh, and I've been doing some yard work. And, uh, I'm, uh, contemplating leaving on Mardi Gras Day or leaving on Easter. I don't know yet.
• 8:20
  For the beginning of the 2022 campaign of Big Sexy Around Your Country? Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, I'll tell, I'll tell you what.
• 8:28
  The next route definitely includes, uh, North Alabama, uh, Nashville, Wooster, Ohio, uh, Detroit, Muskegon, or, uh, Battle Creek, Muskegon, and then Milwaukee, so- Right on... I will be coming through.
• 8:46
  Do, do you know about this neighborhood called River West? Will you be stopping there? I, I don't know, I don't know if I'll be there for the 24th, but, uh- Yes... but I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll be passing through. Cool.
• 8:58
  Very good. I think I'll be a little early. I think I'll be a little- River West will still be here... early for the 24th. Can always come back. But yeah, th- th...
• 9:04
  I, I, I don't wanna, I don't wanna plan too much about leaving the city m- when I just got here, so. [laughs] Yeah. Wait. Isn't that, uh, one of the Progressive commercials?
• 9:14
  But yeah, everything, everything's pretty good. Um, I'm, I'm trying to work my ass off.
• 9:18
  I'm really am trying, uh, try- trying to work, but, um, I got a, I got a friend that's got me in his yard, uh, rolling around in mud every day and, and, you know, getting down and dirty and working.
• 9:30
  But it, it's like, yeah, not exactly what I wanted to do, but, yeah, whatever. It's all good. There you go. All right, man. Well, we've got to, we gotta call another, uh, another person- Guest...
• 9:41
  on the telephone right now, another guest. Um, and- We all, we, we all good. Um, if, if I could, if I could plug my, plug my donations real quick.
• 9:50
  If you could, uh, if anybody could, uh, send a Venmo or send a, a PayPal, it'd be super appreciated. I'm just trying to, trying to make ends meet, and it's hard, it's hard to do in the big city like this, so. Yep.
• 10:01
  Absolutely. We'll get that at, we'll get that in the show notes, too, the, uh, your, uh, PayPal and your Venmo. Right. All right, man. We'll talk to you soon. Absolutely.
• 10:10
  I just wanted to check in and let you, let you guys know I'm good. I'm in, I'm in New Orleans. I'm good. I'm not, you know, I'm not hurt or sick or nothing, but yeah. All right, man. Well, we'll talk to you soon. Cool.
• 10:20
  All right. Love you guys. River West is the best. [laughs] Woo-hoo. There he goes. Big Sexy, everybody, with a quick check-in. Yeah. We're gonna j-... I'm gonna... You guys, uh, talk.
• 10:28
  I'm gonna push the button here and then, uh, figure out how to make a call out of here, so talk amongst yourselves. I'm looking at the website of this Polar Roll with Wack Jobs Film. Fat bikes crew. Hugs and Bacon.
• 10:41
  They have community. So what happened with the, uh, bottle of wine? Oh, God dammit. [laughs] I saw, I saw rest in peace in there and- I, um, I went to, uh,
• 10:54
  drop off stuff at The Illuminati, and on the way back I called him. I'm like, "Hey, you want me to get you a bottle of wine?" She's like, "Yeah." So I got it, and I had all the stuff in the car, and
• 11:04
  as I was pulling my backpack out it hooked the, uh, bottle of wine and shot it straight into the garage concrete slab and just went... [imitates glass shattering] Oh, no. [laughs] It's like a snuff film? Yeah. Yeah.
• 11:17
  Yeah. Well, if it- It was, if it was red, of course. All right. It, it was not, though. Oh. It was white, which made it even worse. Oh. I'm currently pushing the button. Huh. Let's see how this works.
• 11:24
  It's been a while since we called out of this thing. I- uh, would that button be then muting me? I don't know. No. Oh. Does it? [laughs] No. I, I can. [laughs] You keep it up, too. [laughs] I'll give you a what for.
• 11:39
  It says it's calling. Beep, beep. Ring goes the telephone. Ring goes the telephone. Hey, everybody. We have Todd Paquette up there in Michigan on the horn.
• 11:52
  He is, uh, the organizer of the upcoming Polar Roll. This, it's actually today and tomorrow in, in internet time. Internet time.
• 12:01
  [laughs] And, and, and also, uh, the 906 Adventure Team that's covering several counties up there and helping a lot of new cyclists and young folks get going on that kind of stuff. So Todd, welcome to the show.
• 12:13
  How's it going? Hey, it's going great. Good to talk to you guys. Yeah, I keep seeing you come up on my Facebook feed as my friend, so I feel like we should probably talk more often. [laughs] Facebook. [laughs] Meta.
• 12:27
  Right? Meta. I was just thinking how often I don't use that anymore. Exactly. Right.
• 12:33
  S- so, uh, g- m- maybe, uh, just give our listener a little background on, on you and your cycling stuff, and just kind of, you know, just sort of what's going on, and then we can get into the event and your, uh, and your 906 Adventure Team a little bit more specifically.
• 12:49
  Yeah, I can tell you that, uh, you know, just sort of the 30,000-foot view is [clears throat] the 906 Adventure Team's a 501[c]3 nonprofit based in Marquette, Michigan. It's somewhat ironic because
• 13:03
  our, our primary mission is to help empower people to discover the best version of themselves through outdoor adventure, and we're really focused on working with kids in particular.
• 13:12
  We wanna get to them young to help connect them with their communities and the outdoors. And we're doing that now.
• 13:19
  We started this, oh, my God, I think nine, eight, eight or nine years ago, just in Marquette with five kids. This coming summer, we're gonna work with 700 kids. Hmm.
• 13:31
  And it's gonna be in seven communities between Michigan and Wisconsin. Nice work. And then we're also [clears throat]
• 13:42
  working with a couple affiliate communities, one in Ohio, and then another one down in the, the Lower Peninsula. So we're very youth-focused, but [laughs] at the same time, we've, I don't know how this happened,
• 13:56
  we became known for running what people refer to as sadistic events or- [laughs]... things that only masochists would do.
• 14:05
  [laughs] I think that's what, uh, so just to a little more background on why we're talking to Todd today, um, Dave Lundz, AKA Professor Puck now, and, uh, Boner are going- Professor Puck... to the Polar Roll.
• 14:15
  And just, you know, off the cuff today, Dave said, "Maybe you should have Todd on the show today." And I'm like, "Yeah, let's just see if we can just d- drum him up real quick." But, uh, Dave- Well-...
• 14:25
  Dave did mention something about you doing sadistic, I don't know if that was the exact word, but it was along those lines. So continue please, good sir. [laughs] [laughs] Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's really,
• 14:37
  I don't know, when you step back and you look at it, I mean, it's kind of
• 14:40
  ironic, or funny, or just perplexing maybe is the word, that this nonprofit is, you know, seemingly have such what could be viewed on the surface as being different missions. But
• 14:55
  the common thread through everything that we do with kids, and then everything that we do through the events, which are the Polar Roll, the Crusher, and Mergier Gesick for adults, is that there's this emphasis on
• 15:09
  e- essentially what we say or what we call doing hard things. And within that umbrella, there's this idea of developing
• 15:18
  self-reliant people, people that are dependent on themselves, and they take responsibility for what happens to them and, you know, the consequence of whatever decisions they make.
• 15:30
  We have a self-supported ethos that really runs through our adult events and our youth events, where it's like, listen,
• 15:36
  um, you know, if a kid comes up to a coach and says, "Ah, this trail's too hard, and, you know, this isn't fair.
• 15:41
  We should go somewhere else," and, I mean, the coach is gonna look at him more than likely and say like, "Well, first of all, life isn't supposed to be fair. We're not sure who told you that."
• 15:49
  But it's this idea of trying to build people who can use challenge and leverage the lessons going through the challenge to overcome future challenge.
• 16:01
  It's really, it boils down to just developing more adaptable and resilient people, period. It's a, it's a great, uh, concept, and sounds like it's been successful since you've been going for several years now. Yeah.
• 16:13
  Um, I know it, I, I know when Puck does your event, he, he usually is, is bringing up the rear, so they, they put a pretty good challenge on themselves, so. [laughs] They do. Yeah. I don't- Yeah...
• 16:24
  I don't know how much of that's the actual course and the event itself or, um, self-induced, uh- Getting lost, et cetera... uh, challenges, but, um, yeah, so- It's probably both.
• 16:33
  Well, they've always had great things to say about the event and, and I, I know that the actual race race is, is this weekend, but you also, because of various, uh, COVID concerns and other, and maybe just to get people out there that are not in the competition mode, you have this thing opened up for, is it a couple of months, where people can go kinda do the same basic course sort of an idea?
• 16:56
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  You know, that's really the biggest change this year and, and we're still, I'll tell you, as a, as a staff, you know, there, now we have three people that are, that are working for 906, and this has been probably our most challenging [clears throat] introduction to a new year because we're running Polar Roll as a mass start event this coming weekend.
• 17:17
  And, you know, with a mass start event, there's a lot of moving parts. That in, in past years would be enough to sort of max us out. But now, as we've come out of the pandemic and, well, are we out of it?
• 17:31
  I don't even know. [laughs] But we've been- We're, we're running right alongside of it at least right now. Yeah, no kidding. It's like a parallel universe here. But when, well, here's the thing.
• 17:41
  In 2020, you know, the year of the pandemic kicking off, Polar Roll was a mass start that year. We managed to pull the event off about a month before the world went off the rails.
• 17:54
  Last year in '21, we had to run it as an EX or expedition event, and that's where [clears throat] there's no race, there's no mass gathering. You've got a two-month window.
• 18:04
  You can do it whenever the heck you want, you can do it with whoever you want, and you can do it as many times as you want. Now we're doing the mass start and that EX format together, and it's really been- Hmm...
• 18:17
  it's, it's been interesting because now we don't just have two, two race routes. We actually have like six. And, uh, yeah, it's, you know, we're doing hard things too.
• 18:28
  [laughs] Just trying to figure out how to run it all at the same time.
• 18:31
  Yeah, so the h- uh, I, I guess, uh, uh, Dave got a little condition report, but w- uh, fill us in what the conditions are like on the trails that can be expected for the event, uh, this weekend.
• 18:42
  [laughs] You know what's amazing is I actually went out and I did the short route this, this morning, and the, the trail is just the, the best I've seen it all year.
• 18:54
  Super fast, the temperature and, and the snow conditions, everything has been really playing to our favor. Nice. So it was a great ride.
• 19:02
  But when we look at our extended forecast right now, and this is typical Polar Roll bullshit- [laughs]
• 19:07
  We, we are looking at, uh, you know, depending on what forecast you look at, it's [laughs] Friday is supposed to be 40 mile an hour winds- Ooh... with anywhere from one to six inches of snow- Oh...
• 19:18
  depending on what you look at. [laughs] So we have people that are s- We have a night roll this Friday, which we've never done before. They're supposed to be leaving at 6:00 PM.
• 19:30
  I mean, [laughs] if there's 40 mile an hour winds and, you know, how- however much snow, I, I don't know. It's, it's touch and go right now. It sou- it sounds like it's gonna be- Tough go, dude...
• 19:40
  cold for the start, too. Is it gonna be in the below zero neighborhood? Yeah. Saturday's calling for, I looked at it just before you guys called, seven degrees. Ooh.
• 19:51
  And then if you factor in the 20 mile an hour winds out of the north, it's probably gonna be like negative 15, negative 20. Ooh. [laughs] It's gonna be brutal. Good stuff.
• 20:00
  [laughs] Well, it, it may live up to its billing as- Oh... uh, as one of your sadistic three. [laughs] Ooh.
• 20:05
  Uh, so, so this is happening this weekend, and then the other two events you do are The Crusher, which, uh- Yep... just real quick, when is that and what's that about?
• 20:14
  Uh, it's July 15th and 16th, but there's also an EX window. So you could do an EX Crusher between July 1st and September 30th. Same, same deal as the Polar Roll. Okay.
• 20:26
  And, you know, we call it a gravel event and kinda like, you know, laugh off to the side, because really the best bike for that event is a, is a mountain bike, to be quite honest.
• 20:37
  Good to know, just in case somebody wants to go ramble through that one. A 26-inch wheel mountain bike? [laughs] You can do it. [laughs] With fat tires on it? Yeah, a fat bike would be fine.
• 20:48
  A, a fat bike actually on The Crusher would be fine. It would actually handle that course very well.
• 20:53
  And then, and then the third event, which I can never properly pronounce, even though I think you said it real well before, is? Yeah, it's the Margie Gesick. Margie Gesick. Okay. Yeah.
• 21:03
  Well, it's just, I mean, it's easy enough when you say it. Looking at it spelled out, I'm like, "The hell does that mean?" [laughs] Yeah. What's that?
• 21:09
  Yeah, that's, you know, I mean, that's prob- that's, well, it is our largest event, and, uh, probably the most sadistic also. [laughs] There's a, there's a thread going through this, uh- [laughs]...
• 21:23
  route planning business. Whh-pshew. You know, so- Pshhew. I, I think there- It goes through... I think there's interest in that.
• 21:28
  We just, uh, I c- I called Todd before the show just to make sure that we could, uh, catch up at the right time, and we talked very briefly about Seely Dave and some of his plans- Super...
• 21:37
  for doing stuff up in the Bayfield Peninsula up there. And some of those ideas for ins- events up there are non-traditional, and some of them could be pretty challenging, and I think, um- Sadistic. Yeah.
• 21:50
  Well, I don't know about... We're not gonna-- That's, that's copyright 906 Adventure Team, or 9-0-6. Sorry, 906. Is, do you go 906 or 9-0-6? [laughs] Uh, 906. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Uh, well, there you go.
• 22:03
  Hey, hey, you know, a note on Seely Dave. This actually goes back to when Tim had the events, 'cause you're mentioning, you know, sort of the non-traditional event format
• 22:14
  of, of those events over there that he's running now. Yep. Um, a, an interesting note, just to throw it out here, is that we modeled-- When I-- I've done the, the Check 100, and I love that event. It's fantastic.
• 22:28
  When I-- After the first time I did it, some of what we did with Margie Gesick's based on what I saw at the Mar- at the Check 100. Oh, right on. Oh.
• 22:37
  Well, that's good to hear that there's, you know, uh, ideas get passed around. Yeah.
• 22:39
  No, there's definite-- There's, there's an influence there, because when-- The year I did it, it was a, you know, self-supported, unsupported, whatever you wanna call it.
• 22:48
  You went down, I think we, we saw our families at the, at the hatchery. Oh, right. And- Yep... yeah, they got that pavilion. And [clears throat]
• 22:58
  I just remember coming in there, it's like mile 60 or so, and all the racers were there with their family. It was a great vibe. And then of course, you know, you had to take off and you had 40 miles to go or whatever.
• 23:10
  Um, that's very similar to what we do at Margie with Jackson Park, where it's, you know, we're unsupported or self-supported. You're on your own.
• 23:17
  But we do allow for families to-- or support, support crews is what we call them- [laughs]... to, to, uh, to see the racers and to be part of the event. Because frankly,
• 23:28
  I don't know if you guys race or, you know, what your interest is in cycling, but- Certainly have in the past. Yeah, no doubt. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
• 23:34
  So a- anybody who's racing and committing time in their life to this endeavor, um, you gotta have your family behind you. So we've really tried to,
• 23:46
  you know, make our events not just about the event or the person doing the event, but also to really pull in the family and the friends and make it something that everybody can feel a part of. Sure.
• 23:55
  Hey, before we talk- Yeah... too much about family, because, uh, we're gonna get into that in just a second, I just wanted to [bell rings]
• 24:02
  ring the top of the hill bell and, uh, maybe, maybe pull over for just a quick quaff of our show beer for the, the show today.
• 24:09
  Uh, I, I don't know if you're partaking of any kind of, uh, uh, adult beverage, but, uh, today we have Lakefront Brewing's Hazy Rabbit, which is one of our favorite IPAs from a local craft brewery here, regional craft brewery here in, in Milwaukee.
• 24:24
  So, uh, we've- Oh, fantastic... we've certainly talked about this beer before, so I don't think we have to beat it into the ground anymore.
• 24:29
  [laughs] But, uh, if, if Lakefront is available in your area, whatever beer they make, it's a good version of the example. It's generally a good beer.
• 24:34
  Whether you like that style or not, it's a good version of whatever beer you're drinking. Yep. So we're just, we, yeah, so we're at the top of the hill now and, uh, I don't know.
• 24:43
  You, you got, you have some craft breweries over that way where you are. Absolutely. Black Rocks. Oh. Uh, Cognition, Ordock. Yeah, we've got a lot of good beer in our market. Ordock, yeah, that's one I've had before.
• 24:55
  Yep. So, I was gonna say about getting into the family thing even though fa- I don't know. My wife, my wife oddly enough listens to this show, so hi, honey. How's it, how's it going?
• 25:03
  [laughs] Um, I, my son is on the NICA team for our local high school, and I wondered how much, um, what you're doing up there.
• 25:13
  I mean, there's been, you know, spectacular growth in NICA all over the country, and especially- Yeah... here in Wisconsin and in Minnesota, and, and, and how is it going in Michigan? Uh, it's, it's going well.
• 25:25
  I mean, it, it really is. You know, the thing that's a little bit different with our program is, and this actually came from, uh, our, our introductory year of participating in NICA in Wisconsin.
• 25:36
  When we came back from that year, which was 2016, what we realized coming back from the fall of tw- 2016 was that our 30 kid team had about seven kids that truly wanted to race, like they wanted to race to win.
• 25:52
  And then there's 23 kids on the team that they're really actually just there to, like ride bikes with kids and for the social experience. Yeah, that, that's how my son started out.
• 26:01
  He didn't wanna be a competitor the first year he did it. Yeah. And, uh, once he got a little bit of experience under his belt, he was like, "Yeah, I guess I'll race this year," you know?
• 26:13
  But it, he- [laughs] And he's going out there to, to, to hang out with his friends and ride bikes and, you know. Yeah. I, I don't know, they're just getting so huge.
• 26:20
  It reminds me of, I used to do WARZ racing way back in the old days, and some of the original WARZ races were under 100 people, and I loved, you know, having those events that were smaller.
• 26:30
  And then once it got super huge, it just became such a challenge to go spend a bunch of money to race every weekend when you could be using trails that are, you know, basically not being used right now, so [laughs] Mm-hmm, exactly.
• 26:43
  And, and NICA's suffering through that in Wisconsin, and they're having to split the season so that, uh, the race- Yeah...
• 26:49
  racers will only be able to get to go to four of the six events just 'cause the venues can't ha- handle the capacity anymore. Yeah. Yeah, it's too big. I mean, that's, it's a good thing.
• 26:59
  You know, the kids are, they're active, and that's gonna have a positive influence on their life actually. Mm-hmm.
• 27:05
  Yeah, one of our good friends, um, is a coach on a, a more urban team that we have actually right down the street from us here in the Milwaukee public school system.
• 27:13
  And seeing some kids that would never be able to get out and get that experience without some, you know, maybe help from other people are just enjoying the heck out of it. They really like being out there.
• 27:26
  Yeah, it's huge, man. I mean, the bottom line right now is kids are struggling. And, you know, we won't get into the, the metrics or the statistics on it, but I, just trust me, they're not good.
• 27:36
  And, you know, what we've realized, and we're really honing in on right now, is kids, kids are essentially learning through observation. You know? They interact with the world. They see what adults are doing.
• 27:50
  They see how the world's working, and then that's sort of what develops their reality. So
• 27:56
  what, what we're trying to do organizationally is make sure that we're interfacing with the adults and providing the proper training and support for adults to understand the impact that their actions and what they're doing has on kids.
• 28:09
  That's, I think that's gonna be a, a longterm key to [laughs] putting a little more pressure on adults to maybe, uh, hold themselves accountable instead of trying to hold other people accountable or hold kids, kids accountable.
• 28:22
  Yeah, yeah. It makes total sense. Yeah. Awesome. Well, um, I, we, we appreciate you, uh, being on The Horn today.
• 28:29
  Um, I, I know you got a big event coming up here, uh, in a couple days from now, and it is actually gonna be starting today, Friday the 11th- Yeah... in, in radio time.
• 28:39
  Um, but, uh, you've got so much to talk about, we'd certainly love to welcome you back sometime down the road, so. Yeah. Um. Let's do it. It was great connecting with you guys. I really appreciate you taking the time.
• 28:49
  Yeah. Good luck with the event, and, uh, we'll talk to you soon, Todd. Have a blast, man. All right. You guys take care. You too. Survive Dave. [laughs] Yeah, survival of Dave. Oh. [laughs] Over and out. All right.
• 28:59
  Later. Bye. [laughs] All right, everybody, Todd Paquette from up there, Polar Roll, 906 Adventure Team- Sorry about Dave... and a couple other of events. [laughs] I, like, yeah, I, sorry about Dave. Dr. Puck.
• 29:12
  Oh, you just survived. Professor. They call me- He's not Dr. Puck yet. He's Pr-... Professor Puck... Professor Puck maybe. Senior lecturer. Professor Puck. Yeah. I guess he's, he's, he's diving deep into it.
• 29:22
  I think that's awesome. I, yeah, I'm- I'm not sure I-... totally, I'm beyond stoked... I do wanna learn how to weld, but I don't know if I wanna learn how to weld under- I'm not paying to have Dave teach me.
• 29:31
  He can just come over here and do it. [laughs] Well, I wanna find out, I wanna find out if their, uh, um, the, uh, the kitchen, the, uh, the culinary arts program, they would have, like, they would do lunch.
• 29:42
  All the time. I don't know if- It's outstanding... and I don't know if they do that anymore. My Molly used to work there. Maybe do they have- Well, they did then... if you get your bike welded during lunchtime.
• 29:49
  Well, then, but I'm talking about now, 'cause everything went pfft, and now it- That's a good question... things have been coming up, and we have somebody on the inside now. Yeah. Wait. [laughs] All right, everybody.
• 30:00
  Well- Was that a little too devilish sounding? [laughs] No, it was not. It was not. Actually, I was, I was tr- It was funny... I was, I was trying to cloak, like, a little cough. I don't think we really missed anything.
• 30:08
  There's some, some other events coming up. Check out the fatbike.com- I missed- I-... someone buy that-... event calendar... beautiful orange bike of yours. I haven't put it on there yet.
• 30:15
  I missed Frosty Hog 'cause- Hog Oh, I, I, I- I missed it j- simply because I went for a walk on Saturday for, like, I don't know, six fucking miles or something [laughs] where my body rebelled on me the next day.
• 30:30
  I di- uh, I just kinda spaced it- And I just couldn't even do it... 'cause there wasn't any snow, and I was like, eh. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I thought the Frosty Hog was on Sunday. It was. It was. Yeah.
• 30:38
  He was tired from Saturday. Gotcha. Yeah. Gotcha. Pay attention, son. Yeah. And I woke up, and it was like 10:00, and I'm like, "Oh, what?
• 30:45
  Oh, wait, it starts," and then, uh, or- Well, I met Dan at Black Hawk and- And I'm not gonna... Yeah. Yeah. He had been there. So. Yeah, so, yeah. My thoughts and thoughts were there.
• 30:54
  Well, I, I'm, I would like to talk to somebody that was there just to see what it was like. I think, uh, Tandem Bob- All right. Well- Tandem Bob was there... we'll catch up with him... the, uh, Mike and Berta.
• 31:04
  Bobby overboard? Yep. [laughs] Wild Fangs. That's a- That's it. Yeah. [laughs] Bobby overboard. I was, I was, like, sitting there trying to recall on this. All right.
• 31:13
  Well, maybe we'll get a Frosty Hog report for next week. Maybe. But we'll try to figure that out. If nothing else, that was a bam. [laughs] Thank you for coming. Uh, join us again next week for show number 152. No. Yeah.
• 31:24
  No. Post Polar Roll edition. Do it. No.
• 31:27
  [upbeat music]