Robin: I have a miniature disco ball, and I gotta tell you right now, if she can't hear this, it plays, it spins too fast. Way too fast.

Travis: It spins too fast.

Robin: Like, it's like...

Travis: It doesn't have a speed control?

Robin: I don't think so. There's no... That is really moving. Yeah, it'll give you nausea, and so every time we try to do the slow dance stuff, it just doesn't work. Hello everybody, I'm Robin Dean.

Travis: I'm Travis Burleson.

Robin: And I'm Tim Clark. And this is the Impromptu Sit Back and Chillax Writing Obsession Podcast. So, when was the last time we did this?

Travis: A month ago.

Robin: Yeah, so much, way too much has happened since then. Way too much has happened.

Travis: We went from Tim's Big Adventure to Robin's Big Adventure. We never finished Tim's Big Adventure.

Robin: We're gonna... Well, this is the in-between, so Tim's Big Adventure will continue after this one, and if we play our cards right on this one, then we'll be able to put, my plan is to put the interview into the middle of this one. But there's no outline. There's no listener questions, there's no super slick, ultra badass motorcycle maker partner. None of that. No segments. Yeah, but totally professional at all times, hence the burp.

Travis: Yeah. I don't even know. I don't know what to do. I don't even know what to... Well, let's talk about motorcycling at least a little bit. A lot. So I did get to do, unfortunately, I got to do another trip here. My grandmother passed away in Michigan. She was 97, so it's not like it was a big surprising shock or anything terrible, so it was fine. But I got to ride the motorcycle home to Michigan, which was pretty fun. I took the Lake Express Ferry across from Milwaukee to Muskegon, which was pretty fun. So for our listeners in the Midwestern region, if it is before Labor Day or after Memorial Day, so off-peak season, if you want to take the Lake Express across Lake Michigan, they waive the fee for your vehicle.

Tim: Oh, that is really nice.

Travis: Yeah, if it's a motorcycle. So when you do the ferries, there's two ferries across Lake Michigan. You have to pay for your vehicle, and then you have to pay a passenger fare for any of the passengers, because you have to, you can't ride in your car, you have to go up into the passenger area. So which, I mean, it isn't maybe so bad if you have a car with like four people in it, but for a motorcycle, it's like $200 for you and your fare. Is it? But if you do it off-season, you don't have to pay the motorcycle vehicle charge, you just have to buy your passenger fare, so it's like 110 bucks.

Robin: Wait, how much of the lake does the ferry cover? It just crosses the lake.

Tim: Oh, it's point to point, yeah.

Robin: So it's like belly to belly? Like beltline?

Tim: Yeah, Milwaukee to Muskegon.

Robin: Milwaukee to Muskegon.

Tim: Wow, no joke.

Travis: Straight across, yeah.

Tim: And there's a, the slower one that's further north of that.

Travis: Yeah, that's Luddington to Manitowoc, which that one, the slower one is bigger and older and takes longer, and there's actually more like entertainment and things to do on it because you're on it for like three hours or four hours.

Tim: Yeah. So it's like a lake boat casino. There was bingo. Yeah, there's like activities and stuff. It's more like hanging out at the old folks' home, bingo, but they served beer. It's still gambling. But the best thing that they had on there was Heineken.

Travis: Yeah, I think the Lake Express did have Nuclearis, so, because they have a little galley that's open, but it's only like a two and a half hour trip on the Lake Express because it's a jet cap. So it's small. It doesn't carry as many vehicles, but it runs twice a day instead of once a day like the Badger does, and it's faster. So it was nice. I'd say it was a nice day, and I sat on top for most of it and just took a snooze, you know, in the middle of the lake on a sunny day. It was a little chilly, but I just had my motorcycle gear on, and it was great. And it's funny because you leave like an industrial seaport in Milwaukee, like it is industrial port of Milwaukee, and then you get to Muskegon, and it's like, it was a Sunday, and it was just like boats and jet skis and bikinis and sandy beaches, and it's like, man, Michigan has the better coast.

Tim: Yeah. And it does just kind of drop you off in the neighborhood, too.

Travis: Yeah, it drops you off like right there. It's like kind of, when you wear the actual, you go in through the break wall, and then there's an inland bay. There's this big inland bay with all these giant, you know, beautiful, expensive on the water houses.

Robin: Oh, houseboats. Yeah, I think I've seen that. Like, that's the cherry section.

Travis: And then, yeah, it's like on the water, like on the dunes, and then they drop you off, and then you kind of drive through the city to get out, but it was nice. I ended up getting there early and found a cool little hipster bar right by the port that was like, you know, 10 years ago, it would have been like an easy old man bar, but then the hipsters took it over, so it's like the bar back, you know, where the mirror is behind the bar has like a painting of a guy bowling on it, but yeah, because I was just going to find a gas station because I got to the port early to get a cup of coffee, and then I just drove past this place like a block from the port, and there was a bunch of, like, hipsters outside, like, drinking beers, mosas, and avocado toast and stuff. So it was good.

Robin: Beer mosas, I love it. Beer mosas and avocado toast. If I could fit that.

Tim: Yeah, the hipster movement has done wonderful things for struggling bars everywhere.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: Yeah, so it was good. I went and got a beer mosa and a $6 plate of half-inch thick cut brown sugar bacon.

Robin: Oh my God. That is so tasty.

Travis: It was really just like, it was just two slabs of pork belly with, like, roasted, like, caramelized brown sugar on top.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: It was good.

Robin: Well, okay, you got a rhythm going, but I wanted to say, I'm going to raise this glass before I pour another one. I'm going to raise this glass to your grandmother. I'm really sorry that that happened. I'm glad that she got to live to be a ripe old age before it did, and I'm glad that you got to make it all the way over there and had a little bit of an adventure doing so. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was good.

Travis: Crossing the Great Estate of Michigan.

Robin: Oh, yeah. How far east did you have to go?

Travis: All the way east.

Robin: To the other, to the border.

Travis: To Lake Huron, yeah. Wow.

Robin: Okay.

Travis: So there's about three hours to drive across the state.

Robin: Yeah.

Travis: So where was it at? Standish is my hometown. Pinconning is where my grandmother lives. It's like the next town south. So it's, yeah, it's about three hours to cross the state from Muskegon. And then I ended up, just the way the ferry schedule worked, driving up through the UP to get back.

Robin: So did you go up around the lake? You went up over to the top and then back? Okay.

Travis: Yeah, so I went through the Huron National Forest and up to, like, Rogers City and then over to Mackinac, crossed the Mackinac Bridge, took US-2 across the bottom part of the Upper Peninsula.

Robin: Was this starting to get chilly?

Travis: It was chilly. It wasn't, like, when I stopped, it was fine, but it was overcast, so I didn't have the sun. And it was just, like, the air was damp from the lake.

Robin: So it's great.

Travis: So, yeah, so it's, like, when you weren't on the bike, it wasn't cold at all. But, like, when you had that damp air hitting you at 70 miles an hour, it just sucks the heat right out of you. So I had to stop a couple times and bottle up, and I kept stopping. I'd stop about every hour and get, like, a cup of coffee and just kind of get the blood moving. Yeah. And then the UP mosquitoes, man.

Robin: Oh, well, this year. The mosquitoes this year, that was rough.

Travis: Yeah. Well, the Midwest got all that rain, you know.

Robin: Yeah. Yeah, that was a rough time.

Travis: Yeah, with all the flooding in the Midwest, the mosquitoes were really bad.

Robin: And some of them were those really big ones. It was like, is that a daddy longlegs? No, that thing has wings. What the hell is that? Like, the mosquito has malaria because it got bit by another mosquito.

Travis: Double Zika. Yeah.

Robin: Oh, man.

Travis: Keep going if you want.

Robin: There's so much that we could talk about.

Travis: I think I just invented a new shot called Double Zika, and it's like an Irish car bomb, but it's with Zima and Malort.

Robin: Malort sucks. It's horrible.

Travis: Yeah, that's why it's Double Zika. It's a Zima, and then you pour a glass of Zima, and then you drop a shot of Malort in it, and then you chug it. It's Double Zika.

Robin: You just gave my fingers, like, you pruned my fingers just talking about that. It just completely ruined. I'm getting another drink.

Travis: Oh, my goodness.

Robin: What else, man? You know I've got plenty to talk about.

Travis: That's it for, like, motorcycle stuff. Some idiot dropped off a 1989 Hawk GT that's all been run over twice and dropped a bunch of times in my garage.

Robin: Oh, yeah.

Travis: That thing looks horrible.

Robin: Really?

Travis: Someone put this dumb, like, Muzzy's Exhaust on it.

Robin: It's loud and annoying. That thing's loud as hell and awesome. You have no idea. You know not what you're speaking of. Hold on.

Travis: They ripped out the dash and put this, like, GPS speedometer in it that you have to manually turn on.

Robin: I'll have you know that that dash got ripped out by somebody else. That bike is cursed. Be careful what you do with it. It's been totaled. Well, no, it never got actually totaled legally, but it's been technically close to totaled two times and wrecked three. So, yay. You know what? I'm going to pour myself some of this here. What do we got here? Prairie Gin. Let's do it.

Travis: Oh, there we go. Whoever gave you that must have been a really awesome, classy, thoughtful person.

Robin: Yes. Yeah. I got no response. Some asshole from fucking Madison. We are a rated R podcast, just so you guys know. I've already made sure that it's adult content.

Travis: I'll give you the official podcast clip. The following podcast contains explicit content.

Robin: Wait, did you just say podcast and content?

Travis: I don't know.

Robin: The following podcast has official content. All right.

Travis: If it's going to be that kind of part. Let's go with that. Yeah, I kind of got a little something in the middle of it.

Robin: Mom, I'm sorry. Say what? Go on.

Tim: Does your mom really listen to this?

Robin: No. Okay. My mother is still saying things like intranet. Oh, sure.

Tim: That's a thing. It's just a different thing. My mom is getting more and more savvy with the internet stuff. It's always surprising. But she does some really goofy things where she sends me a link to a Google Pictures file. By way of Instagram.

Robin: I contacted you on the Instagrammies.

Tim: Yep.

Robin: That's cool. My mom is pretty sharp. I was pretty impressed when she managed to text, send me some photos, and sent a few emails that were fairly exacting in their specific. Oh, okay. Travis, do you have this one on the wall yet?

Travis: Yeah, you sent one to me, I think.

Robin: Oh, I did? Okay, cool. Because I've got this. I was like, oh, that's got to go on the wall. So if I get a beer that you haven't had and I sip on it, I'm going to send you these. How would you think of that? Good plan?

Travis: Yeah, but then I've got to find it and drink it in my garage to be official.

Robin: Okay, so it's got to go down like that? So I've got to mail you the six-pack?

Travis: Yeah.

Robin: Just one.

Tim: You just have to save one bottle to send with that box.

Robin: You've got to fly to wherever I am then. Take a ride on the Beamer, make it worth it. Which Tim and I never got to do. We were going to exchange bikes the other day. We went for a ride, but then we both started kind of loving on our bikes too much. Yeah, we got a little caught up in what we were doing. It just never happened. We were having too much to have a good time.

Travis: I still haven't ridden the Twin yet. You've got to make that happen before the season's over.

Robin: He scraped pegs. Did you not scrape pegs on that bike? No, I scraped my toe. My toe wasn't very far off my peg.

Tim: Were you hooked over?

Travis: It's hard to actually get those flat adventure bike pegs on the ground.

Tim: I leaned into the crown of the road, turning left, and coming across the crown, I hit the outside edge of my boot.

Robin: Yeah, okay. That's still quite an angle.

Travis: Yeah, but the bike's so tall. Your foot's like 10 inches off the ground.

Robin: 22 is up front, right? That's crazy.

Tim: Yeah, the thing has gotten, I think, 9 inches. No, 10 inches of ground clearance is what it's supposed to have. I haven't measured it when I was a lot older.

Travis: With a rider on hand.

Tim: Yeah, I don't know for sure exactly where that's at.

Robin: It was a good day. I had a lot of fun. In fact, Margaret Dean, when I got back, she could kind of read it on my face. It was like, I needed that. It was necessary, and it happened. It was good company. Michael had a good time, too. One of our tour sign-ups lives in the area, and he joined us and ride and sweep. He was taking it kind of mellow, but he was always, for the most part, we didn't have to wait for very long at any given time.

Tim: Oh, no. He was there within a minute.

Robin: Yeah, and he always feels like he learned something new, and I know he learned something watching you ride versus watching me.

Travis: Did I teach him some bad habits?

Robin: Probably some good habits. You call them bad habits because they're lax, or maybe that's what you think is that they're lax. I don't know.

Tim: Or they're just like, this is how you ride a dirt bike like a sport bike. Yeah, I'm really improvisational. I don't have a very rigid approach to what I'm doing.

Robin: No, you're very fluid about what is, if it's logical and it works, then do it, you know?

Tim: Yeah. Yeah, so it was, you know, I've probably done a couple of those runs. I ran a little more aggressively than I should have. I had the back end step out on me three times, I think, but usually under hard braking on the back brake was what I was having issues with. Okay, well, that's got ABS, doesn't it? Did you have the ABS on? Yeah, I did have the ABS on, and it let me know I was there.

Robin: Nice. For anybody listening, this bike has a larger front tire than the rear, so bringing the back end around, while it might scare the living crap out of any of us who are on a default 17-inch wheel sport bike, on a bike like that, at least there's a little bit of forward guidance going on to some extent. Am I right?

Tim: Yeah, well, it's kind of like a giant dirt bike with a lot of momentum. So it can scare you when it starts moving around underneath you, like the sand is very disconcerting. But a little scoot on the back end, you know, where it just skips over a couple inches, you notice it, but it doesn't really bother you at all.

Travis: Yeah, too. The other thing about that is you've got the suspension, they kind of suck it up when the rear hooks again, so you don't high side. So it's like if it does it, and then the rear hooks, the suspension can compress and kind of take some of the momentum out of it, so you don't just hook up and to the moon.

Tim: I was on 500. I had to do that once, and it caught, and it bucked on me, and it nearly chucked me off the seat, but it stuck, and it kept going.

Travis: Yeah, that happened to me on the NC. I just had to take a couple breaths and keep riding. It's like we're going to go the speed limit through these corners for a minute. Yes.

Robin: But there are those who will focus on the road completely and take things at a moderate pace through obstructions like gravel, wet leaves, whatever, and then there are those who will be like, I'm going to eye the horizon, and they'll only worry about the horizon, and then they'll arrive at something they don't expect, and then that's a pitfall as well. But I think all three of us were starting to get better practice at process the road, look at the horizon, process the repeat pattern, and I know you were talking about bringing it back in around. I doubt that you felt like you were completely out of control because you know that I was up ahead with pools of gravel, and I was like, oh, yeah, I know how to do that. And so long as you see what you're about to ride through long enough to understand probably what the bike is going to do in response to it, then it's okay to go ahead and look at the horizon and just follow through on the technique.

Tim: I was having a good time feeling the juggle. Yeah, and two of those were ones where I was following you, and I just kind of forgot that I was not on sport tires, that I was on big, chunky dual sport tires, and I don't have quite the same level of grip.

Robin: Oh, yeah. Well, every time I looked back, you were there, just there.

Travis: So what is this pink Cosmo you're drinking?

Robin: This is in support of breast cancer awareness. I am drinking...

Travis: Bullshit.

Robin: I'm drinking some kind of pineapple fruit punch candy pink. So it's candy juice because it's freaking Minute Maid, which you know is basically just like it's corn syrup with a vitamin C tab somewhere in there in the bottom of the freaking jug, but it's not actually blended properly, mixed in with some tang. And I mixed that with gin. Tim's not even listening at this point. Tim doesn't even want a beer. He's just talking to Sylvia. You do know that we can see you, Tim, right? Tim is like, he's got his head completely cocked to the left. He's going, yeah, that's great, Robin. Hey, Robin. Yeah, I'm listening to you, pink poofy drink.

Travis: Tim already polished off his Lagolins.

Robin: All I know is, hey, you know what? Gin makes me happy. No, no, no. I am happy, and gin adds to that happiness. Yeah, so you're at what, a casino in Kentucky? I'm in a casino in Kentucky. No, Indiana, right across the border. I am in Sunrise, Indiana at the...

Travis: Rising Sun, Indiana? Dang, yeah.

Robin: There it is.

Travis: Didn't I think we rode through that on our way back from the Trip 7's advanced tour?

Robin: Well, Rising Sun? I'm not surprised. That makes sense. But yeah, Rising Sun, Indiana at the Rising Star Casino. They have an RV park, and yeah, it's been quite the change-up. So we've seen the best and worst of both sides of this. Ladies and gentlemen, you want me to rant all this out?

Travis: Do whatever you want, man. You're the one who has to edit it later.

Robin: Margaret, Dean, and I sold our condo in Chicago. We ended our lease in a little house out in Libertyville just outside of Chicago, and we bought ourselves a Ford F350 King Ranch Super Duty and a 2019 built early Keystone Carbon 337, which is a fifth wheel travel trailer. I'm sorry, it's a toy hauler. So if you don't know the difference, a fifth wheel, first off, a fifth wheel travel trailer, it puts all of the weight directly above the rear axle of a truck, which we've situated with a tow hitch of industrial proportions. And then it's 30 feet.

Travis: Yeah, it hitches in the bed.

Robin: Hitches in the bed, yep, and still leaves some space for storage, because we got a doo-doo tote now. And then a toy hauler specifies that it has a little bit of garage space in the back, just enough to haul bikes. So what we have is a bedroom, which leads to a bathroom, and then a small staircase down. That's all over the bed of the truck. And a small staircase downward into what is a living area. A staircase. A staircase. With a kitchen. It's like a combination kitchen and living room area with two pop outs. And at the very back is a bay that with the bikes in, we drive around and park wherever we want. With the bikes out, it becomes a rec room. And right now I'm sitting in that room. We've kind of tricked it out to where when the bikes aren't in here, it's just a nice lounge. So we are traveling pretty much wherever we want to go, and we started by going to see people that we care dearly about, namely my two co-hosts here who are total assholes. I don't know why she likes you so much. I freaking hate you. Why would you make that choice?

Travis: By taking the dually and the fifth wheel and doing some mud bogging, ruining one of our county parks.

Robin: Let's go there. So we started out in Token Creek State Park, just to the northeast of Madison, where at first we drove in the night and pulled through twice to decide whether or not we were going to park in this spot that I had chosen. I'm glad we did not. We parked in the lot for the night. When we did finally pull in the next day, I basically backed the truck and the trailer into the upper branches of a tree, luckily did no damages, and then felt the entire system sink about a foot into the ground with a rut that's going to become a river one day. And proceeded to level things off and leave it there for two weeks. Were we up there two weeks?

Travis: About two weeks, yeah.

Robin: That was a good hang, man. I got to ride with Tim. I got to hang with Trav. I got to ride with Trav. I got to hang with Tim. It worked out. And I wanted to do that. I needed that. And that's how we kicked it off. Plus, they're my safety net, folks. Like I said, I don't like them. Help me. Anyhow, they're great people. And they helped me whenever I needed it. I really appreciate it, guys. So Margaret, Dean, and I, I'm done with winters in Chicago, so we're bailing on all things Midwestern soul-sucking winter. But I promise you, wherever I am, gentlemen, you and all of my friends, if you need to get away, I got a bike waiting for you in BMW format. Margaret's bike is mine to ride. And we have this thing sleeps eight. Eight. It sleeps eight. So we started out in Token Creek, right, which was kind of – I picked a beautiful view. The wife was crying the instant we put it in the drive and pulled out of our driveway. She just was tearing up. This was her childhood dream, and I'm glad to be a part of it. And then when we parked there, she saw the view and was just enamored.

Travis: You can check the Riding Obsession Instagram. You'll see there's a lot of video of Gypsy running through the tall grass behind the RV.

Robin: So that gets to where we are now.

Travis: The editor in beef.

Robin: Editor in beef. Now I'm in Rising Star Casino's RV lot, which is the exact opposite. So while we were at Token Creek, we learned that, okay, we need a water bag. And this thing is big. We need a big water bag. So we got a big old 42-gallon water bag, which we then learned you don't plug into the winterization port that is mislabeled in red, where everything else is black and white. It's red. You don't plug it into the winterization port and then wait for the bag to do nothing because you're not winterizing. You plug it into the fill port, and then you wait for a day while the gravity feeds it properly. Or you buy a Ryobi pump and then extract the water directly from the bag until it's completely flattened and creates a vacuum that keeps bacteria from doing anything, and you're happy. Only thing is what goes in must come out. Am I right, gentlemen?

Tim: Oh, yes.

Robin: So I tend to drink water or something that has water in it. And after I drink that water, I will make things out of particular parts of my body, and it goes places. That has to be removed from the trailer. So we are going to need a way to haul that. I don't want to tow that trailer out, so we got a tote. We got the tote, and we went to fasten it up, and we opened up the valves. And what do you know? At the dealership, to ensure safety, they leave all the valves open.

Tim: Oh, no.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Oh, no.

Robin: So here's how it went down. I started to unfasten.

Travis: So everything was just sitting on the cap?

Robin: Everything was sitting on the cap. So I go to open the cap, I twist, and I see, okay, and I've got gloves on because I knew this could be an issue, and Margaret knew this was exactly what I didn't want to see happen. Twist the cap, flew it, twist it back on. Welp, there's that. What are we going to do?

Travis: Oh, shit.

Robin: Literally.

Travis: Yes.

Robin: Although, fortunately, there is a safety system that has a check valve, and so all of our backups were completely intact, but the gray water had mixed in, so it was diluted to any extent. So what are we going to do? Okay, we're going to do two things. We're going to glove up, we're going to get a garbage bag, pop the cap, place the next one on, let this happen. We did. And then we managed to connect everything, drain the black, then seal up the black, then drain the gray, then seal up the gray, except that we didn't know that there are two gray tanks. So every time we used a tote, there's a secondary gray tank coming from the kitchen. I'm like, why is the sewer still messing up? And it wasn't that. Very exciting stuff. I know that everybody's, this podcast has got to be entertaining for all of you. If you want, we can talk about this in person at some point. Just send $1,000 to email at thewritingobsession.com. And, you know, so we went through all these motions, right, and got to know it, got our hands dirty, got our knowledge intact. Now we pulled in here, and it's like it's got a direct hose connection with a water tank bypass.

Travis: So you have like a live water feed.

Robin: Live water feed, direct sewer feed. It's all set up. The only downfall is you lose the reason we're doing this, which is the beautiful view.

Travis: Yes. Is the dazzling lights of the casino or not?

Robin: Cincinnati glowing in the distance. It's a riverboat casino, and it's Indiana. It's Kentuckiana. So it's Kentuckiana. So it's all just sort of like, did you get on a riverboat? Yeah. We went to go to the buffet because it was the only thing that was open. Like, do you guys have alcohol there? They were like, no. They don't have alcohol. I was like, all right. So we're just chilling. But I got to play with a dog. I got a direct connection. We've got a break on showers. To wrap it up, my rant, we are heading to Austin. That's our plan. The end destination for the deep south would be Austin.

Travis: You can go to that famous place and you like wait three hours to barbecue and then they run out before you get any?

Robin: Yeah, no. I'm not doing that. Yeah. I'm going down there for one reason, hill country, guys. I'm going there for the riding. It's the riding obsession. I'm done with winter. I'm going to the hill country. I'm going to ride my butt off in Texas. Nice.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: So have you had a chance to resume normal work from the camper? Yes. Yeah? Not sounding happy about that.

Robin: No, I'm not. Because there's like all these, like now that I've got a flow for learning about how this is going to go down, how the work is going to go. Yeah, work is sort of like about its way back in. But now I've got faster learning. Like my capacity for learning how this thing runs is a lot more. Like there was a guy that had his RV towed today. I had everything they needed to make sure that he could get towed safely.

Travis: Oh, nice.

Robin: I drove the truck down, helped the guy out, and, you know, it interrupted my whole day. But have I had an opportunity to work? Yes. I worked some yesterday. I worked some today. So there's – I want to write, though. I'm dying to write. I need to get some more articles up on the site. We've got a new site, lifemadeportable.com. It's going to be dedicated to portable products.

Tim: Very nice.

Robin: We've written one article. I'm using that one article as an excuse to perfect how the site is going to market and behave, and then we'll start writing steadily for it. Plus, hey, it just so happens I have to have a little bit – I have a little bit of coding talent. So I believe that one guest podcast host, Ms. Laurel Burleson, has a website for the Ugly Apple Cafe, which could use a little bit of work, and I'm going to do some of that. Very nice. Some of my other friends have asked me about some other work, and that's why I'm crying.

Travis: Yeah, so that one portable product, is that your Shiwi? Shiwi? Yeah, your Shiwi.

Robin: What?

Travis: The one you take with you on all your motorcycle trips, your Shiwi?

Robin: I don't know what that is. Help me, Tim. Oh, you don't know what the Shiwi is?

Travis: You don't know what the Shiwi is?

Robin: Oh, my God, this is going to hurt bad.

Travis: Oh, my God.

Robin: This is going to hurt so bad.

Travis: Go on. It allows those endowed with vaginas to urinate standing up.

Robin: Oh, really? Yeah. Yes.

Travis: I'm pretty sure you've had one, right?

Tim: And let me tell you, all the reports I've heard, you've got to be real careful how that thing seals up, or you're going to end up with it all over your hands, all over your pants.

Robin: Well, thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you for that.

Travis: But an invaluable resource for those who have vaginas.

Robin: We'll let the wife know.

Travis: Yeah. I'm going to try and say this back to motorcycles instead of just the let's just bitch about our own lives. Let's do it. Yeah. Hi, this is Travis with TheRottingObsession.com here with Emily.

Emily: Hey.

Travis: I don't know if you want to share your last name.

Emily: It doesn't matter. Sure. I'm Dr. Emily Forsher.

Travis: There you go, Dr. Emily Forsher. So we have an educated opinion here, and she is a new rider, and we're here to pick her brain about her experience as a new rider. And you can trust us because she's a doctor.

Emily: Not about motorcycles, though.

Travis: You didn't get your doctorate in motorcycling?

Emily: No.

Travis: Oh, okay. What's your doctorate in?

Emily: Clinical psychology.

Travis: All right. So you're used to dealing with crazy people like us.

Emily: Absolutely. When I was training, they kept saying, you'll never see a motorcycle outside of a psychiatrist's office, and that's not true because the psychiatrist I work with rides all over the country.

Travis: Well, there we go. I think that there's something to be drawn from that. So what made you want to start riding? Did you have motorcycles in your past? Did your parents ride or family or anything?

Emily: It's something that I've always been scared to do, and so I decided it's time to start doing the stuff that scares me. I'd say that one of the things that made it really difficult is that I'm a pretty small woman and there's not a lot of female representation in motorcycling generally, so I wasn't sure it was something that I could do. But then as I met more and more women, especially smaller women, who can and do ride and love it, I realized absolutely I could do this.

Travis: That's great. Yeah, I know my wife, Laurel, rides, and we were talking about Becky Kitto, who had been the manager of the used section at the local motorcycle dealership there. She had gone to a couple of women's rider events there, and Laurel was quite impressed with some of the women there who were smaller than her and riding these giant BMW GSs and these big adventure and touring bikes. So I think it's great to see more of that.

Emily: Absolutely.

Travis: But it seems like there's still a hole there.

Emily: Very much so. I mean, I definitely have encountered some misogyny within motorcycling culture, and so that kept me away, I think, longer than necessary. But then seeing other amazing women modeling this, and just like your wife experienced, women smaller than me noticing how they were these incredible riders, it was really inspiring.

Travis: Yeah, I think that can be intimidating, but I think it's a bit of a misnomer that size matters.

Emily: Exactly.

Travis: And it's really, motorcycling is a finesse sport. If you ever met a professional motorcycle rider in person, you'd be amazed how tiny they are. I always think it's funny if you watch Supercross or motocross racing or MotoGP, you have these very jockey stature, weird-looking men, and these beautiful models that are their girlfriends that are a foot taller than them. So, yeah, it's definitely not about stature, but it's still, you know, bikes are heavy and they go fast. There's something to be said there. I think there's also maybe a fear to overcome of dropping a bike.

Emily: Yeah, absolutely.

Travis: And coming to the point where that's okay.

Emily: When I did drop mine on the first day of training, I was riding a brand new Honda Rebel 500, and it was too heavy for me. It was too wide and too heavy. I was appalled by how low the seat was, but quickly learned that it was just a little too much for me to handle on my very first day of training. But I was able to step clear and fall clear of it, and I think it shut off. So, yeah, no harm, no foul.

Travis: Yeah, that's good. And that's the best thing, and I think we always recommend taking a riding course, because those bikes are there to be dropped.

Emily: Exactly.

Travis: You don't want to, like, get a friend's bike and then drop it on the first day, because I've dropped it. We were just talking about this on, I think, last week's podcast or last month's podcast, that you're going to drop your bike. We've all dropped our bikes and done embarrassing things or done mistakes. I remember a couple of years ago, I bought a 1994 Honda CB1000. It was called the Big One by Honda. Oh, wow. It was quite a large, like, sport bike from the 90s. And, like, the first week I had it, I bought it for, like, $1,800 on Craigslist. I wasn't put out, but the first week I had it, I dropped it out on some back road, and I couldn't pick it up. Oh, wow, yeah. And some guy happened by and helped me pick it up. But, yeah, it's, like, it just happens. Yep. And I think it's something that you're afraid of when you start, but the more people you talk to, the more you realize it's not so uncommon to drop a bike. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I mean, besides, was there anything else besides just, like, conquering that fear that made you, did you go, like, that's just, it's cool? And what was, like, what was the driving force besides just trying something new?

Emily: Mostly just trying something new. I mean, I've driven stick shift cars since I was 16, and I've also driven a boat with an outboard motor that has that twist throttle to it.

Travis: Okay.

Emily: So some of the basic motions, and especially shifting, using your ears as your own tack, that type of thing, were already natural to me. It was just combining them all together, I think, that was one of the major challenges. Yeah.

Travis: So, again, just learning the skills, learning the finesse and the skill set and the balance, and, you know, using all appendages to drive.

Emily: Exactly.

Travis: That's great. And what do you, I mean, obviously you've purchased a motorcycle now. It seems to be something you enjoy. What was it that, once you took the class and once you got into it, what was it that kind of made you, I don't want to assume fall in love with it, but, like, that's made you say, I want to pursue this further, I want to keep going, this is something I like.

Emily: Yeah. Part of it is that the class, the current basic rider course is structured really well to start with very basic skills for people who have never ridden before, like me, and then to help you build confidence and mastery over time as you go through the course. And so even though I was very intimidated when I first sat on the bike, the way the exercises were arranged allowed me to say, okay, yes, I can control this power, I can, okay, yeah, this is working, okay, cool, okay, I stalled it again, oh, well, you know, keep going. And so developing that initial sense of mastery in the class and saying, yes, I can do this with the small body that I have, I can control this, I can make this happen.

Travis: Was there anything that you were like, why are we doing this? Anything that you thought that was maybe could be better or was a negative?

Emily: Not necessarily. Even the parts that weren't necessarily designed for me, I can see how they would work well for other riders coming to the course. So especially a lot of the discussions of risk, of the dangers of head injury, the importance of wearing helmets. I'm a pretty cautious driver in a car. And so I was planning on being pretty cautious on a motorcycle as well. I also, because of my training in psychology and work in hospitals, I've seen the results of traumatic brain injury. And so I don't need to be told even once to wear a helmet. And to minimize risk of injury, to stay alert, to always drive sober. So I can see why those are in the course for some people who are drawn to the sport more about the thrill of it. I can see that that's very well designed for them. And so I was just able to be like, sure, I get it, but I can see why this is here.

Travis: Yeah, great. So it's like, is it, and it's not, I mean, is it still thrilling then for you? Oh, yeah. Or what's the, I mean, is it, what is it like if you, if you can put into words, I know it's a difficult thing to do. What is it about motorcycling that just, that makes you feel good, that makes you want to do it?

Emily: I'd say to start to feel that wildness and also know that I'm in control of it, if only barely, because I'm not very skilled yet. So even going 10 or 15 miles an hour, the first time I shifted up into second and kind of opened the throttle on the test range, I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, this is cool. This is, I'm terrified, but this is great.

Travis: Great.

Emily: So it's that fine line between terror and thrill. I think that we all probably love to ride.

Travis: Yeah, that's great. Now that you've, you've been on the streets a little more and you've gotten out of second gear, obviously, I mean.

Emily: Yeah.

Travis: Does that, does that just echo that sentiment?

Emily: I'm still building up to it. My second ride on roads was today to come over here.

Travis: Oh, great.

Emily: So I made it onto one of the major thoroughfares, got it up to 35 or 40, decided I might need like a face shield for my new helmet. I should probably invest. And still feeling a little scared, but starting to go, yes, I can do this.

Travis: Okay, great. Yeah, because you just got like the three quarter.

Emily: No, I have a full face helmet.

Travis: Oh, yeah, that does come across, but it doesn't have the shield.

Emily: It doesn't have the shield.

Travis: It's kind of that retro, I think, with the big metal flank on it.

Emily: I'm so sparkly.

Travis: Just sparkles. Yeah, well, we don't doubt your commitment to sparkle motion.

Emily: Exactly. Oh, thank you.

Travis: That one's for Terry. Hopefully Terry's listening to this. So, yeah, I guess kind of moving forward, like where do you see yourself improving your skills? You bought a Suzuki GZ250, which is kind of a cruiser style, parallel twin, very similar to the Rebel 250. Do you think you're going to kind of stay in the cruiser realm or go more sport bikes or adventure bikes?

Emily: I love the look of the cruisers. I especially like more of a naked bike look, and I like classic styling in pretty much everything. I also have a cruiser bicycle, like a beach cruiser, very old school. And so I just love, and I have my retro helmet, too. I have a Biltwell Gringo. So I also like the comfort of the upright position. I did a little bit of training in an intermediate class on a sport bike, and it was a little uncomfortable to be leaning so far forward and to not really be able to see my speedometer or what was happening. I might be able to develop comfort with that over time, but I think I'm always going to like the look of the cruisers better.

Travis: Okay. That's really cool. We were talking about it earlier. I went and did a Harley test ride today. That's for a different podcast. Not being a cruiser guy myself, though my first bike was a Rebel 250. I thought that was great because, again, that's what I had on the training course, and it handled well, and it did everything well. I did a 900-mile trip on my Rebel 250 around Michigan. There were definitely moments where I was like, I could use more power. But stay off the interstate, and you're generally pretty good on that.

Emily: Yeah, I'm still working up to—I mean, hitting 40 today was a new and exciting experience. Highway is still—I don't know, and I've heard that these Suzuki's top out anywhere between 55 and 65, depending.

Travis: Depending on the tuck and the weight and the wind.

Emily: Exactly.

Travis: I think when I first started, I said no freeway for a year. I was living in Chicago, where it's like sometimes you've got to take the freeway. And I think I held up to that pretty well. But it was also in Chicago where the freeway is insane. Yeah, it's definitely one of those things. And my wife, Laurel, started out—her first bike was a Nighthawk 250, which is the same motor as the Rebel, but looks kind of more like a standard motorcycle. And yeah, there was definitely—after a year or so, she was like, I need—because she was getting on Highway 30 over here, which is interstate, to get to work. And she was like, I need something a little faster to merge with traffic. So there's definitely that point, but I think you're doing it— I'm still a ways away. Yeah, I think you're doing it right, which kind of building out, kind of staying on the main, some non-interstate, non-big highway roads.

Emily: Exactly. So right now I'm building up to commuting to work using some of the larger thoroughfares on the Isthmus here in town. So I've made it past the Capitol. I've made it through some heavier traffic. I think I was visible. Nobody hit me. It's a good thing. So right now I'm building up to using some of those larger streets, mostly just for commuting within the city.

Travis: Yeah, and I think a lot of that, too, is just getting used, you know, that human ability to get used to things.

Emily: Yeah, absolutely.

Travis: And, like, cars and stuff, and it's right there, and you're in it. You're not in a box. And once that becomes more comfortable, then you become more comfortable with it. So I'd maybe, like, if you want to go out to, like, country roads, it's a little less intimidating to get up to 55, 60 miles an hour.

Emily: Oh, yeah. I could probably build up to that. There's no shortage of country roads around here.

Travis: Yeah, it's not that. But you can take, like, Mineral Point out or something like that, and it's a little gorge. Take a trip to Wanaquay or something.

Emily: Yeah, exactly.

Travis: Because there's some gap there.

Emily: But I mostly anticipate it being an in-town type of situation. I like that idea of no highway for a year, just trying to get used to it and build up.

Travis: Yeah, I think that's respectable. So what else? I mean, did you find, like, as a woman, anything else that was really prohibitive, like in the class?

Emily: Not at all in the class. I was actually really impressed. The class was, I think, almost half women. There was at least a decent number of women in the class, including another woman about my height and size.

Travis: Okay.

Emily: And so she actually got me to switch to the Suzuki on day two after I realized that the Rebel 500 was just a little too wide and too big. I had no way of knowing.

Travis: Yeah.

Emily: But I had noticed she was doing quite well in the exercises, and I'm like, what are you riding? Can I try one of those? Oh, good. I also really liked the representation of women in the teaching materials. There's an actress, an actual rider who did some of the videos, demonstrated some of the skills. And then I also like, if you go to Cycle Gear here in town, one of the large pictures in the front window is a female rider. And so while there's not quite as many options for me in terms of gear, at least there's more than one thing. I don't get 30 jackets to choose from, but I at least get six or so, and that's pretty solid.

Travis: Yeah, I was just going to ask you about that as far as gear. But yeah, it's definitely something that's sort of like, and I feel like, too, women's bodies are a little harder to fit. I feel like they kind of come in more shapes and sizes.

Emily: We do, and then also leather is much harder to shape to a curvaceous body because it's a stiffer fabric. And then the fabrics generally used in the gear, because of their protectiveness, they're also much harder to mold and shape.

Travis: Yeah. But have you had, I mean, you got your built well.

Emily: I did. There were almost no helmets in the store that were my, I wear an XS, as it turns out, for my little baby head. And so I had very few options in store to try on. But once I had determined my approximate size, I just went online.

Travis: Okay. Yeah, and I feel like that's the way a lot of things go sometimes.

Emily: I did have a lot of clearance options, as it turns out.

Travis: Yeah, that's the nice thing about being on that far end of the spectrum, is it's easy to get like closeouts and deals on stuff.

Emily: I also got an adorable tiny pair of boots for an excellent price.

Travis: Oh, nice. Good. So the boot finding wasn't trouble for you. That's good. I know Laurel, just because she was having trouble finding boots that fit, because a lot of the women's boots were so narrow. And then she bought like a men's boot and it was fine.

Emily: Yeah, exactly.

Travis: It's like that sort of fitment is, like I said, there's so many other shapes and sizes and there's just less production. But hopefully, like you said, if there's, they're putting women in the training videos and if the class was half women, hopefully, I know the industry is sort of seeking that market out.

Emily: I would hope so.

Travis: A little more.

Emily: There were two guys in the class who said that their reason to take the class was to pick up chicks. Like to learn motorcycling in the first place. And I yelled, attract people of your preferred genders, but they didn't really get it.

Travis: Oh, yeah. They're not PC bros.

Emily: It's not even about PC. It's just about, hey, like, we're right here. We're in the class too.

Travis: It's good to hear. And it's, you know, like I said, Robin and I, both our wives ride. I know Tim, who's the other host of the podcast, just went on a big trip with his girlfriend.

Emily: Nice.

Travis: And she used to ride a bit, I think, back a while ago.

Emily: Well, it's odd. My husband has no interest in learning.

Travis: Yeah. Well, maybe you'll get him interested once you, if it really becomes a passion of yours.

Emily: He's going to ride on the back. It's going to be amazing.

Travis: That would be awesome, because Patrick's pretty tall, right?

Emily: He's a full foot taller than I am and about 200 pounds. And so I would like to flip the script a little bit and have the tiny woman be the one riding. And then the guy riding too.

Travis: I think that would be fantastic.

Emily: So my goal is to get as many different men onto the back of this motorcycle as I can.

Travis: I think that's fantastic. Well, was there anything else you're really looking forward to? Are there any bikes that you're like, oh man, once I feel like I'm ready, I would love to get one of these and just go across the country.

Emily: I'm going to try to work up to an Indian Scout. I don't know if I can quite handle that, you know, four digit CC on the...

Travis: More like the Scout 60.

Emily: Yeah, but the... So the Scout 60, it doesn't come in as pretty of colors, which I admit is a huge consideration for me. And so, yeah, I sat on a brand new Scout. Gorgeous, kind of a retro green and cream.

Travis: Okay, yeah, that kind of a mint green.

Emily: Yeah, that minty color.

Travis: Yeah.

Emily: Exquisite.

Travis: Yeah, that's a good...

Emily: I mean, they would have had to, you know, do that, the smaller seat, the lowering, you know, bring it all in a little bit.

Travis: Pull the bars back and pull the foot pegs back.

Emily: And I'm definitely not ready for that kind of power just yet, but potentially the 60.

Travis: Yeah, I test rode, they had Indian test days not too long ago, and I rode the Scout and the Scout 60, and then I rode like one of the Chieftain, whatever, one of the big ones. The full fairing and stuff. And, man, the Scout was heads and tails. That motor is so nice. Like, I was on the big bike, and I'm like, why is the little bike better? Like, it was smoother on the highway. It pulled harder out of the corners. I just thought it was a better motor, yeah, than the big air-cooled, whatever, 111 motor or whatever they have there. So, yeah, those are fantastic bikes. I'd have to echo that sentiment. I'm still waiting for Indian to make a Scout-based street tracker, Indian. You hear me? What's that? So Indian and Harley both have flat-track racing teams, which is like on dirt, in an oval, and you go sideways most of the time. And there's like, so those bikes, that style of bike, I mean, it looks kind of almost like a dirt bike, but it's like a cross between a dirt bike and a cruiser. Okay. And if you make one that's sort of like that, but has lights and a left foot peg.

Emily: And is street legal?

Travis: And front brakes.

Emily: Okay.

Travis: That's like a street tracker.

Emily: Oh.

Travis: And I think that'd be a really cool, I mean, it'd be cool, right? Because it's not feet in front of your cruiser, it's kind of feet tucked in a little bit, but you're still upright because usually your bars are cocked this way and you're going that way, kind of stuff. Oh. And so they just kind of have this cool scrambler, dirt bike, cruiser power vibe to them, and I'd really like to see that come to fruition. Nice. I think Indy and T's one with the bigger motor, with the big scout motor, or the 1200 motor, something like that. I don't know. But, yeah, no, that motor's great. I think that's a good – do you want to do more, like, do you want to do like a big trip in the future maybe? I don't know yet. You've come across town twice. Right. So I'm asking you to reach out and really, like, would you go to, yeah, go out to Wyoming or something?

Emily: I don't know because I'm not sure yet if I could handle the weight of a big touring type of situation.

Travis: You can do whatever you want on a 250. It just takes a little longer.

Emily: It'd take a while.

Travis: Yeah, you just take the back roads.

Emily: Yeah. I'd have to figure out how long I can ride on it comfortably, that type of thing, because I know that, you know, this bike is not necessarily designed for those long distances.

Travis: Not designed for that, yeah. So like a seat modification. That's what I had to do with my Rebel was I modified the seat to be more comfortable for long distances.

Emily: Yeah. So I'm not sure yet. I think it'd be pretty cool. So far I've got one friend who took the class with me. A lot of my friends have babies and have, like, some sort of evolutionary instinct keeping them off of, or they're just not interested in the first place. But I've got one friend who's, you know, got super into it. He's buying one too. And I'm hoping to start an all-lady biker gang. He'll be the token male.

Travis: Sure. Well, I can put you in contact with other lady riders for sure. I mean, my wife, obviously, and Robin's wife, and some other friends of ours.

Emily: Yeah. And so just being able to meet more people who do this, and I don't know. I could probably ride with another person. I don't know. Let's find out.

Travis: Yeah. No, I think it's fun. That's part of it, is the camaraderie. Obviously, like, we built a website around it to sort of seek that out a little bit, people who are interested in the same thing. And, too, it's like we always kind of say, like, ride your own ride, you know? Like, we kind of go, you know, fast-ish sometimes. But we don't expect, if you're on a ride with us and you're more laid back, it's like, yeah, we'll wait for you at the stop sign, man. Like, that's no harm, no foul, you know? So I think as long as you kind of set that up of, like, this is what we're doing, and this is what everyone else is doing, and let's go have fun together. And it's that sort of positive community building.

Emily: Yeah, that's what I figure.

Travis: Because, too, as much as, like, you want to – there's a stigma of, like, oh, crowd trucker guys, oh, cruiser guys, oh, you know? It's like, no, we're all in this together, man, you know? Yeah, exactly. Like, let's go have fun and be positive and support each other and enjoy. Like I said, I went on a bunch of Harleys today, and I had a great time. Yeah.

Emily: One of my coworkers, she just sold her Kawasaki Ninja, which is not my style at all. But I can – you know, she's had an amazing time on it, passing it along so someone else can have just as great of a time. She's upgrading a little bit.

Travis: Yeah.

Emily: And so, absolutely, we've got different styles in what we like, but we're still both riders. I feel like that's what matters.

Travis: Yeah, that's great. Was there anything you wanted to, I don't know, cap off with as far as, like, being a new rider, words of encouragement, words of warning, final thoughts, joke, whatever you got?

Emily: I don't know. I guess I'm sorry to the cars who have had to pass me as I figure out how to upshift, but, you know, they can get over it. And I really would like to encourage anybody who's been a little bit nervous about it, especially women, absolutely go for it. The basic rider course is really well designed. Even if you're not a school person, even if you're a little concerned about taking an actual class, I'd say it's totally worth it. It really prepared me decently well. I'm still astounded that they just gave me the license and are letting me do this. But I'd say the class was excellent preparation, especially for new riders and especially for women. This is a thing that we can do. We're getting more and more representation and options all the time, and I'd really encourage you, I guess, to come join us.

Travis: Yeah, great, fantastic. I think, yeah, definitely the course is the place to start because no one cares if you drop that bike.

Emily: Exactly.

Travis: And an education is good. Fantastic. Well, thanks for joining us, Dr. Emily.

Emily: Well, thanks for having me.

Travis: It's been a great time. Join us again on the ridehomesession.com podcast, and we'll see you guys next month. So I went to New York over the early weekend for my sister-in-law's wedding, which is awesome. They live in Brooklyn. I'd only ever spent time in Manhattan before. Brooklyn's way dirtier, if you can believe that. It's just New York City is just disgusting.

Robin: What about Ed Rocks? Ed Rocks, he loves Brooklyn.

Travis: Yeah, no, it's cool, but it's just filthy. There's just garbage everywhere all the time.

Robin: Does it smell like garbage?

Travis: Depends.

Tim: It smells like Depends.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: Depends if they've been out in the sun for a couple days.

Travis: That depends on where you're at.

Robin: So do you like toilet water, Travis?

Travis: Depends on the neighborhood. It was cool, so I went. I had one of the afternoons. We got in, well, it was like Friday. We got in LaGuardia, got a cab down to Williamsburg, had a whiskey.

Robin: So much motorcycle.

Travis: Too much motorcycle. Look, I'm getting there. I'm getting there. Had a whiskey with my now brother-in-law and our friend, and then went and got a beer, and then went to Upper West Side, had dinner and came back, and then Thursday, kind of had most of the, or sorry, Saturday, I kind of had most of the morning to myself. So we got a bagel, which New York bagels are for real. Oh, yeah. In case you ever doubted it, I'll confirm. Oh, really? Yeah. All right. And then I just ended up, Aaron, my brother-in-law, had wedding stuff to do. My wife and her sister had wedding stuff to do, and I was just like, okay. So I went to the Walgreens, which was like walking through, I think a Puerto Rican neighborhood. That was kind of cool, to get to the Walgreens like half a mile, and then back, and then still had nothing to do, so I Googled motorcycles. I saw a bunch of motorcycles, like New York City, or at least Brooklyn. So it's like you got to park on the street, and the streets are garbage. They're all just pothole ripped up. And it's everything. I saw my handful of your standard Google hipster motorcycle, like a 1976 CB500.

Robin: Well, that's hipster by Chicago standards. New York standards. That's a whole different animal.

Travis: Well, that's where it all started.

Robin: Hipsters?

Travis: Your hipster motorcycle. All right. But then it was like, oh, there's a brand new KTM 1290 Adventure just parked on the street, this like $20,000 motorcycle. And too, like I would see like a Porsche Panamera, or like a Land Rover that's like lifted with like 35s on it, and it's like why do you have this in New York City? Like what are you? She was like, I saw like a Ferrari and a Lamborghini, and it's like what? Like why don't you just, like if you can own the Ferrari, why don't you have it parked in your garage in Connecticut? Because like why are you trying to drive this around the city so you can rip the carbon fiber off of it?

Robin: Two phrases, tiny penis, blowjob.

Travis: It's like licking a stamp. You make the same face too. It tastes about the same. For our younger listeners, you used to have to lick stamps to make them stick to things.

Robin: Yeah, they weren't adhesive. You couldn't burn them to get high.

Travis: So I saw a good amount of motorcycles, and it was everything from like garbage to like really expensive stuff to like kind of cool custom stuff. And I just kind of Googled motorcycle, and there was like a hipster motorcycle shop in Brooklyn slash cafe. The motorcycle shop slash cafe.

Robin: Okay, that's what screams. That's the hipster vibe right there. Once you add the cafe, like it's a motorcycle shop and motorcycle lounge.

Travis: Yeah, but let's say as I went there, the only thing I was willing to shell out for was an espresso because that was $3. And like the T-shirts, like the T-shirts of the place, the T-shirts that have the name of the place, you know like the free advertising T-shirts, $40.

Tim: Wow. Oh, they really think a lot of themselves.

Travis: That was the cheapest thing in the store that wasn't coffee.

Robin: It's made out of fine silk entwined with gold-plated moon rock. Yeah, I don't know.

Travis: But they did have some cool bikes in the showroom because it was mostly apparel and gear. So it was mostly branding, branding, branding.

Robin: Yeah, brand. That's my brand. Shout out to regular car reviews on that one. Brand, brand, brand. Bought my brand. Shout out to the Toy Shop and Motorcycle Lounge in Chicago there. You guys, I never saw the actual lounge. That's cool. You guys seem like nice people. Definitely you can dial it down.

Travis: In Chicago, there's a place called the Toy Shop?

Robin: The Toy Shop. The Toy Something and Motorcycle Lounge. I'll link to it in the podcast page. But the fact is that they're cool and they're nice. I would dial it down a bit on the whole like bronze sport bike for track days vibe with girl in leather and high heels riding it. But good people. And by the way, Gary and Roland, they are the guys to get working on your bikes. If you get a chance to get them to – Gary and Roland over at the Toy Shop, Motorcycle Lounge. Look it up. Travis, are you Googling?

Travis: I'm just looking at my pictures from the trip. So they had a BMW. It's an R something, but they like made it like a scrambler with these like polished aluminum wheels. It's just weird. They had a couple of cool Ducatis there that were custom. Where? At this place, freaking lame.

Robin: Oh, yeah. Sorry. I digressed. Yep, go on.

Travis: The lame motorcycle cafe place. They sold helmets and like proper motorcycle jackets, but it was mostly like motorcycle lifestyle apparel for hipsters.

Robin: Yeah, so it was like I don't ride or I ride a 250, which is cool. I would love to have a 250, but I ride a 250 around in the city. I am an avid motorcycle enthusiast.

Travis: No, no. It's not even I ride a 250. It's like I have a fully loaded Harley CVO that I ride around the city. It's like these guys have the – it's like – More difficult to maneuver than a Cadillac. Yeah, or I have a Ducati Panigale. It's like you want a scooter. You just want a moped. That's what you want in the city.

Tim: Yeah, something you can beat up and it's going to run just fine and you're going to be able to weave through traffic and all of that.

Robin: I never remember if he used a side stand or not. It's like, hey, beer.

Travis: A couple of cool things I did see though. So you know like how city bikes sort of work? Yeah. Yeah, right? Yeah. There's a similar sort of thing that's electric scooters.

Tim: Seriously? I've heard about these. And I know you're in big trouble in cities.

Travis: Wicked. Electric – no, no, no, not the kick scooters, not the like – Okay. Like moped scooters. Oh, really? Like Vespa or like Kimco like scooter scooters.

Robin: So you're going to gas them up? They're not electric though?

Travis: No, they're electric.

Robin: They're electric. Okay, cool, cool, cool.

Travis: And then you just like you get your app and then you like get your app and you go to the scooter and you sign into the scooter with the app and then you can ride it around the neighborhood and then you can like if you bring it back to a parking station, you get like points. So if you bring it back to a charging station, you get points and then points give you free rides or you can just kind of park it wherever and they all come and get it or something. I don't know. But there was like a neat program like that I saw and I also – not motorcycle related, but I saw a gang of electric skateboards.

Tim: Yeah. Oh, wow.

Travis: Like 35 guys in a pack on electric skateboards going down the street just mobbing the street.

Robin: That's just social media in action right there, man. That's all like meetup.com.

Travis: Yeah. So that was that experience there. But yeah, that's my other kind of motorcycle related story besides just, you know.

Robin: Okay, Tim, because I know we're going to Tim next, right? Am I right? Yeah. Tim, you got to jump forward. I'm talking teardrop. You guys went and rented.

Travis: Well, it's not necessarily a teardrop.

Tim: More of a – Well, the plan was to try and rent a teardrop and they're not really very available right around here.

Travis: Really?

Tim: They're kind of hard to get – they're hard to find on short notice. They're probably going to get popular. There's so many of them in big numbers. It looks like it. So the one guy that I found that had one, it was over in – just outside Milwaukee in Greenville.

Travis: Wasn't this like – it's like an Airbnb for campers sort of thing you went through, right?

Tim: Yes. Our village? It's a website called Outdoorsy.

Robin: Outdoorsy. I got to bookmark that one. Yeah.

Tim: So there were a couple other ones that were more like large-scale luxury teardrops like the Tab. I can't remember who makes that, but they're like $20,000 teardrops.

Robin: Really? So they're like totally – they expand into full condos?

Tim: Pretty much. Pretty much. It's got a dinette and a bathroom and you can stand up in it. But we were looking at like genuine teardrop, you know, that's a bed with a little bit of overhead so you can sit up and a little dinette off the back. But we weren't able to find one on the short notice. There were two different ones that I contacted, and each of them said, oh, I'm sorry, we're using it this weekend. We forgot to mark it unavailable.

Robin: Okay. Got it. So that jerked around a little bit. Not to digress, have you read our article on toy haulers?

Tim: No, I haven't read through that yet.

Robin: I'm going to link you directly to that one because there's one model that might suit you. But then you've got a truck, right?

Tim: Yes.

Robin: So if you put a bike in the back, that puts weight on the rear axle. It helps you tow a little bit better. Exactly. Okay.

Travis: Well, as long as it's not over your GVW, I'm a little taco.

Tim: Yeah, the Tacoma's not got a whole lot. It's got a little inline four.

Robin: Oh, it's a four sill.

Tim: Yeah. Okay. It's gutless with a bed.

Robin: I was considering what if you could do an A-frame pop-up.

Tim: Yeah. Yeah.

Travis: Well, the A-frame pop-up might be more heavier than even a teardrop.

Tim: Yeah, we like the aesthetics of the teardrop. So the first night we had this, we decided since we couldn't get out early enough on a Friday night, we set it up in the driveway. And we stayed the night, Friday night, and parked in the driveway, plugged it in by extension cord into the garage and stayed pretty warm, felt pretty good about it.

Robin: Does it only have a three-prong or is it a 30-amp?

Tim: It was a 30-amp, but we had a little adapter to bring it down to a 15-amp.

Robin: Yeah, we're rocking 50 that I have an adapter that takes us down to 30, that I have an adapter that rocks us down to 50. I have a 50 to 15 if I need it.

Travis: Oh, yeah. It's basically like Homer Simpson plugging in the Christmas tree. It's just a fire hazard waiting to happen.

Tim: Yeah, yeah. So imagine I picked up a 100-foot extension cord that was rated for 10 amps, and I was just waiting for the thing to start glowing. But the nice thing is this thing is so tiny, we're not talking about a lot of air volume in the thing. The trailer is 12 feet long. It has a full-size bed, which I don't really fit on. But that's a lot for that scale. It's like made for three times the square of that. There are plenty of teardrops built around a queen-size mattress.

Robin: Trust me, Tim, I've been a full-time RVer for almost three weeks.

Tim: Oh, my goodness, you are an authority. There's nothing left for me to learn. Seriously, consider that. Go on. All right, so the thing that is awesome is that it came with a heated mattress. Dude, that exists? Which is lovely. Oh, my God. So this is one supplied by the RV manufacturer. So it is lightweight. It's not very comfortable, but it was warm.

Robin: That's ridiculous. That's cool. No, that's hot. Juggle, juggle. Drink my pink sippy drink.

Tim: Just above freezing both nights that we slept in this thing. And one of the oddball quirks. The RV that we rented was the Forest River E-Pro.

Travis: This isn't the guy who rented it.

Tim: This isn't his first rodeo. He knew what was up.

Travis: It is basically a bed. He's like, I want to rent this to some sucker. Let him deal with the stank.

Tim: He doesn't know. Whatever.

Travis: He's going to pay me money. He's going to pay me money to take care of this for me.

Tim: It's got this giant rooftop heat and AC unit. They basically sourced the same heat and AC unit for the whole line of these E-Pro campers. So it's giant relative to this tiny little camper. It's way overkill.

Travis: It's like made for three times the square or the cubic footage.

Tim: Yes. So they took a refrigerator and turned it into an RV. That's kind of how that felt. And when you turned it on, the airflow that came out of this thing was ridiculous. No one is sleeping. No one is sleeping when this is on.

Travis: Yeah. Oh, yeah. So he's like on the camera.

Tim: It was overkill. It was just ridiculous. When I first turned it on, it smelled funny because the guy had just bought this RV the week before and then rented it out. He had not slept in it himself. So I'm burning off the assembly oil in the heaters. So, yeah, for a while, I just left it on the driveway with the heat blasting, the doors wide open. Just letting that nastiness cook off.

Travis: See, this isn't the guy who rented it. He knew what was up. Probably. Probably did. Go break this in for me. I'm going to rent this sucker and let him deal with the stank. He doesn't know. He's going to pay me money. He's going to pay me money to take care of this for me.

Robin: Oh, that's hilarious.

Tim: But, you know, the guy was nice. It was good. Yeah, I had a good time. Went up to my friend's cabin. All right. Went up to the cabin. He has got this wonderful setup. A little spot in the pine trees. Yeah. Probably 50 feet from the river's edge.

Travis: Was that on the Wisconsin or was it a smaller river?

Tim: It is on the south fork of the Black River. Oh, okay. So it's a little ways outside of Black River Falls. And it is, this cabin is on a couple thousand acres, if I remember. Love it.

Travis: Where?

Tim: It's managed forest land.

Travis: Dude, okay. He's like on the Chicamanon or something? I'm not entirely sure. There is a separate black forest. I love that first snowfall because it's like so quiet.

Tim: Or a black river forest.

Travis: National forest or a state forest.

Tim: So does he have a role there?

Travis: I just want to live in that moment forever in a sweater.

Tim: Property has been in his family's name for a couple generations now. And it is managed among the family. It's managed woodlands. So it gets logged and all that stuff. And that basically pays for the taxes.

Robin: Okay. Is it green logging? They're like replenishing? Yep. Nice.

Tim: Pine trees and straight rows.

Robin: Yeah.

Tim: Well, it's not so much that. They do a lot of natural reforestation stuff. Oh, nice. We did have a couple short conversations in between drinking that we had talked about. They had clear-cut a 40-acre section that three years later is now young aspens. So it's really kind of an interesting thing. Because the aspen is very much a young forest tree.

Robin: Is it native to that area? It is.

Tim: Okay.

Robin: So you took the trailer up to this location?

Tim: Yes.

Robin: And you were chilling up there for this duration?

Tim: Yes.

Robin: How did Sylvia do? She's right there with you. How did she like it? She did well. She did.

Tim: It was really good. It was a little hard to get out of the heated mattress in the morning because it was still quite cold. But actually, by the time we packed up and started leaving, it was snowing on us up there. Wow. Nice. Yeah, which was amazingly beautiful.

Travis: Holy cow. I love it. Good. That first snowfall because it's so quiet.

Tim: First snow in the forest, beautiful.

Travis: Yeah. I just want to live in that moment forever in a summer.

Robin: Yeah. Quiet transition. That's the best. That is really good.

Tim: So, of course, while we were up there, we shot guns.

Robin: Yeah, you went clay shooting?

Tim: Yeah, that was my first-ever time clay shooting. Break that silence. Did you hit any? My first time through, I shot like eight rounds. I clipped one target.

Robin: Were you aiming in front?

Tim: I have no idea where I was aiming. I was trying to be perfect.

Robin: Give that man a gun.

Tim: Yeah, I was trying to be perfect and get it lined up. And by the time I was kind of lined up, it was too far away. Okay. Yeah. I have no prayer of hitting the thing.

Travis: Yeah, you have to like just kind of winging it.

Robin: It's all feel. Hold the gun. We've all done it now. We've all done it now, so we're all trying to express ourselves. Go ahead, Tim. It's your show. Yeah.

Tim: So, I passed off the gun to the owner, and a couple more people took a turn, and they're asking me if I want to go again. And I'm like, well, all right, yeah. Yeah, you feel it. I think I'm kind of relaxed and, you know, wasn't so spooked by it. And, yeah, I just kind of like took his advice, like take the hand that's on the pump mechanism. Yeah. You stick that first finger out. Stick your index finger along the barrel. You know, basically point where you want to shoot, and don't worry about anything else. So, yeah, so I actually hit about 80% after that. I even hit a double where he has a kick thrower. You hit the second shuck? Yep. So, yeah, he threw the first clay target with the little kick thing, and then he had a little hand thrower to throw a second one as soon as you shot the first one.

Robin: By hand. So, literally, it's like a sling. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tim: Yeah, so it was really like first one goes out, boom, second one goes out, boom, that quick.

Travis: So it's like you're playing the B game in the clay shoot version of Duck Hunt.

Tim: Yeah, yeah, except for there were no dogs you could shoot.

Travis: Well, in the clay shoot game, there's no dog. You can do Duck Hunt or you can do clay shoot, and then there's A game clay shoot, which is one, and then B game clay shoot, which is two.

Robin: TheRidingObsession.com motorcycles. Yep.

Tim: So you asked about the trailer, man.

Robin: Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. I'm laughing at how much I don't care about what we're supposed to be talking about for this particular episode. So, yeah, so it was good.

Tim: Duck Hunt did come up over the weekend, and we were talking about how it disabled the gun when the dog came up and laughed at you.

Travis: Yeah.

Tim: And I guarantee every single person that played that game pulled the trigger on that dog.

Robin: Oh, yeah. Wouldn't you? It's like a single person.

Travis: I'm positive there's a hack version of that game somewhere where you can shoot the dog.

Tim: Oh, God, that would be wonderful.

Travis: It exists.

Robin: If you're out there and you show us what this is, we will mention your name on a podcast that has tens and tens of listeners.

Tim: Right. Right. And then so I actually did bring up the rifle that I bought last winter while I was on narcotics. Uh-oh.

Travis: Sorry.

Robin: I had a really colorful college experience. I went disc shooting in Wisconsin, actually. Maybe it was the same place. I don't know. But with some friends, the Kopp family, K-O-double-P, wonderful people, and they invited us to come stay with them for a couple days. We did. We took them riding, and we went shooting. I mean, I've played too many video games. That's all there is to it. So here I am up there. I've never shot a rifle before. I've got – well, maybe I had. I don't remember it if I had. But, you know, they handed me a .22. They said basically keep it barrel open, walk around with it pointed down, know where your shells are, be ready for a double pump, and aim where you believe it's going to end up. Hey, Laurel. We hit so many. I did good because I was always aiming in the path of travel. Saw the angle, saw where it was going to end up, pulled the trigger, blast.

Travis: Did you say they gave you a .22 and you were clay shooting?

Robin: Yes.

Travis: No, they didn't.

Robin: Yeah, they did.

Travis: They gave you like a 12-gauge maybe.

Robin: No, it was not a 12-gauge.

Tim: A .22 is a tiny little bullet? You're shooting clay with tiny little bullets?

Robin: Yeah, but this did not hit my shoulder as hard as a 12-gauge.

Travis: That depends on the round. Or it could have been a .40. We're talking about buckshot. Could have been a 10-gauge. Could have been a – I mean, I'm not like the world's most firearms expert.

Robin: It was not a 12-gauge. The blast from a 12-gauge will knock you on your butt if you're not ready for it.

Travis: Nah, nah.

Tim: No, like I got bruised up a little bit because I was wearing a lot of clothes. You know, I was wearing two jackets basically, so it was hard to get a good crest up against my shoulder. So I got a little bruised up from that. But I shot the thing 30 times.

Robin: Well, whatever it is that you guys are trying to say, I want you to know that I already know the answer, and I'm just testing you guys to make sure that you guys get this right.

Tim: Pop quiz, motherfucker.

Robin: I am the reigning supreme knowledge on all this topic, and I'm just playing coy to help you guys if coy is the right word. I don't know because I don't read things. So moving right along.

Tim: So I actually used that rifle to shoot firewood floating down the river. You told me this. I thought that was fun. Oh, yeah. It was great. It was great. Hunting cabin behind me. It was just the coolest damn property ever.

Robin: If I start missing snow, I might have to fly to you fools. It won't happen. Don't even. Yeah.

Tim: So this was actually an official last trail ride of the season for a bunch of my friends. So there were a lot of motorcycles in the area, but I didn't touch any of them. Yeah.

Robin: Nice.

Travis: There we go. So I pulled it up real quick because I couldn't remember how it works. So shotguns are just flatly rated based on the size of the diameter of the muzzle. What do you use to clay shoot? A shotgun. So usually a 12-gauge. 12-gauge is the most common shotgun size.

Robin: It was not a shotgun. It was not a 12-gauge. We were shooting shells.

Travis: It might have been a 410, which is like the smallest common-gauge shotgun.

Robin: I'm going to tag everybody in a post.

Travis: So all of those, yeah, so like a 410 is .410 inches, and then there's like a 28-gauge, 20-gauge, 16, 12, 10. They get bigger as the numbers get smaller because.

Robin: . . Can I take the range for a sec? Yeah, sure. You were talking about the trailer, the weight, the size, and the scale and all that stuff. It sounds like an adorable trailer, like the kind of thing where you're like, I want to go away for four days and know that if I really plan this right, I've got everything I need in a hard shell roof, you know?

Travis: It's basically a tent that won't get wet and won't blow away.

Robin: It has electric. Yeah. Yeah, we did like it quite a bit. I'm going to have more questions about that next time we find the cycle around. You got me thinking about our drive into here last night, and there was something else I was going to bring up. It's two topics about basically living in a toy hauler. Like I said, we're doing this so we can document more routes, write more for the site, do work remotely, and just enjoy life a little bit more independently while taking advantage of all of our friends. With storage, this toy hauler is 13'2 high. We bought it because of the toy hauler variety, it is a little bit on the large side of medium scale. We're 33' at the box, that means 33' behind the bed of the truck. But when you're 13'2 tall, that's the air conditioners above. You were talking about the ones that blast you out. You probably have one of our units on that little thing. We have two of that. We have two of those. It's a 50-amp system, and if we want to run AC, we can run them both at the same time on 50 amps with a toaster oven and a microwave and an oven at the same time if we want. But on 30 amps, we're going room one, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But the point is that last night, driving to the Rising Star Casino here in Rising Sun, Indiana, oh, man, so we visited the in-laws for lunch and got this giant Reesey thing, and the guy on the road started heading this way. It started getting dark. We knew we had a destination. We knew we got to check in. We knew we had a plug-in outlet that we didn't have before. We knew we had a water hookup we didn't have before. We knew we had a sewer line we didn't have before. We had cable waiting, and it's all in one individual connection. So we're telling ourselves, we're going there. We start driving. I've got this GPS that it's designated for RV travel.

Travis: This is the built-in GPS in your Ford F350 King Ranch edition?

Robin: No, no, no, no. The King Ranch just deals with things that if— The King Ranch is a vehicle you buy if you want to drive a vehicle over a planet. No, the GPS we bought is independent. It's specific to RV travel. Last night, we're cruising through these small towns. Man. I mean, it lets you program in your height. We're 13'2". Yeah. I'm going to up that. I'm going to tell it that we're 14'0". Okay, yeah, yeah. Because every single power line or phone line that crosses the street, we're just looking at it like, no, we're not making that. You know, it's not going to— This thing's going to open up like a tuna can.

Travis: Sometimes you don't have signs, I think, if they're under 14'0".

Robin: They do, and it was every time. Every single time we saw a big truck, thank God. Some dude driving an excessively large vehicle could fit through here. We know we're good.

Tim: I've got an idea of what that feels like. It's like when you go into a parking garage where you know it's tall enough for your car, but, man, it looks like it's skimming the roof.

Travis: Yeah, if you're in a truck or an SUV or something. One, it's like driving over the planet. One, it's like Katamari Damacy. Anybody has played that game. Two, when we lived in Chicago, North Avenue goes under the metro line. Yes. It is an extremely low. It's tight. And we saw once, because we used to go—Stanley's Produce used to be there. I don't think it's there anymore. Right off of North, just under the metro line. Yeah. And we saw somebody— Oh! Can opener'd. Can opener'd on that like 12' by a truck.

Robin: That's rough, man.

Travis: And it was North Avenue, which is a major thoroughfare, and it was just stopped and backed up over the bridge. Was it a Swift? Yeah.

Robin: A JB Hunt? Which school?

Travis: I don't know. I think it was an independent.

Robin: Oh, man. How long have we been doing this? What time is it?

Travis: I got like an hour on my recorder. Hour 10 on my recorder.

Robin: We're going to cap it, put an interview in the middle of this thing.

Tim: I did actually do something else motorcycle-related during this time.

Robin: I don't think I talked about it. That means Travis has to talk first because we're going roundtable.

Tim: All right.

Robin: Wait, wait, wait. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Hold on.

Travis: Since I've been here— I got 90 seconds of stuff to add and then I'm done.

Robin: I rode with you guys. That's all I've done. Okay. Well, I was in Wisconsin at Token Creek, which apparently nobody's been murdered at for approximately 15 years.

Travis: Oh, that's just garbage. I mean the pine cone is pretty awesome.

Robin: Pine cone is delicious. Go to the pine cone.

Travis: In DeForest, Wisconsin. It's a truck stop diner.

Robin: Yes.

Travis: It's fantastic. Get a gigantic cinnamon roll.

Tim: Yes. And a surprisingly generous ham steak.

Robin: Yeah, overwhelming.

Travis: Yeah, like a three-quarter inch cut of ham steak.

Robin: Yeah. All right, Travis, you got 90 seconds.

Travis: Yeah, so I just want to wrap this up. I'm going to play more Day of the Tentacle Remastered because I downloaded Day of the Tentacle Remastered.

Robin: What the hell is that?

Travis: It's a point-and-click inventory object puzzle adventure game from the 90s.

Robin: Okay.

Travis: Made by LucasArts, which is good. Do you have to log into a BBS to get this? No, you just download it. They have GOG, which is Good Old Games. It's a vintage gaming website community, and you can download vintage games, and then they just run on your regular Windows system. You don't even have to run like a DOS box or anything.

Robin: You just remind me. Anybody go to YouTube? Go to YouTube or Google Conan Apple IIe. Conan Apple IIe under Videos in the Google results and look for Conan something Volta and watch the whole playthrough because that's what I grew up playing when I was on my Apple IIe with the green screen.

Travis: Yeah, no, you can get that on GOG. Can you get Lode Runner? Probably.

Robin: Lode Runner. Okay, what about Galaga?

Travis: Oh, for sure. I mean those are just ROMs. You can just download them.

Robin: Yeah, I've actually got that on my Mac.

Travis: Those aren't like PC where you'd need like a virtual machine. But I just like that the LucasArts games like Day of the Tentacle or Full Throttle or Battle Beat are better-ish than the Sierra games because the Sierra games let you get into no win where you can like this item that you need to do a puzzle, it lets you use it incorrectly and lose it.

Robin: So then you're done. You're done.

Travis: You either have to go to a previous save state or start over. And LucasArts is better where they don't let you do that.

Robin: Yeah, I think it's not better. That's a big message.

Travis: Tim had one more motorcycle thing.

Tim: All right, 90 seconds. So it did the Central Adventure Rider Motorcycle Rally. This is the, I think, the 11th or 10th. He got a little goofy with the numbering there. But a good friend of mine started this rally and I met him through the rally. And now it is just kind of a big family reunion with motorcycles. It's primarily a dual-sport motorcycling thing in northern Wisconsin. So I brought the Africa Twin up there, and Sylvia came up with me. We spent a couple nights camping up there. We had a nice run up to Lake Superior Shore. But one of the things that was going on was a dedication to a new off-road riding trail, single track that was opened up in northern Wisconsin. But one of the interesting things is that the man who started Adventure Rider website, the advrider.com, he came to the rally and I got to meet him. And he was a totally nice guy. He was really curious about the rally because he basically started the forum, started the website, and it went wild. And he just kind of sat back and watched and was really surprised by the community that built up. So it was an interesting thing for a man to have started a website and then see what has become like a big, silly family. And all of these people are people who met through this website and this forum. I mean, I'll tell you the character of what it was. I roll up and Sylvia and I, we get camp set up. We're good to go. We're getting ready to go over to the beer trailer to socialize. My friend Greg rolls up on a Grom, hands me a bottle of tequila, and says, Get on. And so I do because that's what you do. We're tearing through the campground. Two up on a Grom with me, one hand on Greg's shoulder, and one hand with a bottle of tequila.

Robin: Fuck yes.

Tim: It was epic. Grab the tequila and get on. It was fantastic. It was good riding. Went and hiked, saw some waterfalls.

Travis: At some point, we need to get minibikes and take them on a trail.

Tim: Oh, my God. We need to do the Trans-Wisconsin Trail on Groms. I'm getting a Super Cub. The new Super Cub.

Robin: The new Super Cub.

Tim: I wouldn't take that off-roading. I love the way that looks.

Travis: I'll fucking do it. It's got crazy. It's like all LED lights, and it's got like Robin's keyless. It's got the keyless ignition. We just had a fob in your pocket.

Tim: The truth is, like, I'm really hung up on the Honda Monkey.

Robin: So you're getting the Monkey.

Tim: The angle to show up with it.

Robin: You're getting the Monkey. I'm getting the Super Cub, Travis.

Travis: I'll put a big work kit on the Pinto.

Tim: Yes. Or get the Benelli TNT.

Robin: This is a plan. We're going to do this.

Tim: That looks like the monster.

Robin: We're going to trail ride?

Tim: Yep. The Trans-Wisconsin Trail is basically traversing Wisconsin from south to north, staying on gravel roads and ATV roads whenever you can.

Travis: Maybe let's do the Cheese Trail.

Tim: Okay. The Cheese Trail. The best way to make the Cheese Trail entertaining is to do it on street tires. On beam bikes. After the rains.

Robin: You're saying mini bikes. Let's do it on the bikes we just mentioned. Those aren't mini bikes per se.

Tim: Well, they're all 125 cc's, so that's mini. I mean, I'm 250 pounds. That's tiny. If my weight is double the cc's, that's tiny.

Travis: I was going to say not like those things are way too good. Let's get Coleman mini bikes off-road only with Briggs & Stratton motors. It'll take us a week. Harbor Freight Predator motors. We're not sponsored. It's off-road only.

Robin: If we were sponsored, I'd be all up in that.

Travis: What's a monkey cost? What's the Super Cup cost? Five grand? Six grand? We go on Craigslist. We get a mini bike for a hundred bucks. Can we take it off-roading? Hell yes. All right.

Robin: I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. And we have to have a rule. First bike to break down, the person who loses the next instance of the Rock Paper Scissors has to ride two up with the other person. Sure. All right. It's on. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Robin Dean.

Travis: I'm Travis Burleson. And I'm Tim McClurk.

Robin: And this has been the Impromptu. If you want to know what the fuck we talk about behind the scenes when we're just goofing off, we need to make a podcast episode. RidingObsession.com. Podcastio.

Travis: Yes. Yes. Yes.