Robin: This is the first weekly episode of TRO's podcast, and we're going to kick back, spend some time together, and look at how we're going to execute this plan on a weekly basis. On to our first segment, stuff our listeners might ask us if we had any listeners. It's so harsh, man. Wow. So this is Brian's baby, and he's in charge of the segments, and he knows us well.

Brian: Yeah, and these are developed from things that I've heard people ask, I've encountered, and so I'm just making it up until we get some questions. So if you don't like this, send in some questions. We'll be happy to answer. One that's kind of interesting to think about is, you know, we'll pretend this is from Max, who lives in Albuquerque. And he says, I want to cover maximum ground without wasting two hours of each day hunkered around in a breakfast, eating breakfast and lunch. So what are some ways that we can, you can stuff in the calories that you need for the day to get through the day and, you know, ride fast and shift a lot? And without having to spend a lot of time, you know, looking at menus, waiting on waitresses, calculating tips, you know, going to ATMs, that kind of thing. Are the roller dogs in the gas stations ever a good idea?

Robin: That is so brave. Just a hero among riders to eat the last remaining breakfast sandwich at two in the afternoon.

Brian: Oh, yeah, that's rubbery, I tell you what.

Robin: Think about the gas stations that when you arrive, does this look clean? You know, does this place look like it's been restocked recently?

Brian: Does this look infected? You know, and there's a smart ass answer and there's some real answers to this too. Now, one thing you can say is if you're in a very, very rural area, which we'd like to be in, because that's where all the good stuff is. The local gas station is honestly a really good place to grab a breakfast sandwich in the morning. Because these people are farmers. These people are hunters. They're out there. They're in the wilderness doing their thing. We're out there doing our thing. Hey, you know, the breakfast is usually a pretty solid if you're in the middle of nowhere and you're at a gas station. Now, if you're on the outskirts of Chicago or something, you know, good luck. I don't know what to tell you. But so honestly, yeah, if you want a fast breakfast, meet up, make sure everybody fills their damn tank, which is another pet peeve. But anyway, make sure everybody's filled up. Make sure everybody fills their guts. Make sure everybody, you know, eliminates what they need to eliminate. And then you can hit the road a lot faster than hanging around a McDonald's or hanging around, you know, Flo's Diner or something.

Robin: That's one of the things I learned early on that I actually added to TRO's pre-tour discussion of sorts. More of a dictatorship. But to explain, always do what the ride leader is doing. If they pull up to the pump, it may be a while before the next gas stop. So fuel up, even if you're three quarters of a tank. If they go in to pee, go do the same. If they buy a sandwich, you got a little time and breathing room. It doesn't mean you can't hustle a little bit. But the point is, we're going to take a breather and get some leg stretching going on.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And the same thing, you know. And even, you know, like later in the day, like breakfast in the middle of nowhere at a gas station is usually a pretty good bet. But like later in the day, you know, like, you know, do you get a lunch? Do you get a snack? You know, and sometimes the right leader knows if they've been there before. Sometimes they don't. But yeah, again, you know, do what the leader does, you know, and ask questions too. You know, it's not like you have to just silently follow. And, you know, I've had some of the best lunches in my life at a gas station, you know, like from, you know, huge slabs of homemade ham on a big homemade roll, you know, that kind of thing. But I've also had some, you know, horrible stuff going on. So if you're really stuck, like, you know, like if you're in some place horrible, like a city, you can, like, you can always, you know, you can always get a bag of peanuts. You can always get like a hunk of cheese. You know, you can always, you know. But, you know, as long as you don't like live on this stuff 24-7, you're going to get a little dose of energy. You know, get a candy bar.

Robin: So long as you don't sweat cheese, then you're going to be all right.

Brian: As long as you're not getting that orange oily cheese sweat, you know.

Robin: I'm going to blend this into your next question then, too. These are from nobody but us. I love this. What do we want to call the person who asked it? Fred. Fred's a good solid name. So a couple of guys I ride with are smokers. And it seems we spend way too much time lurking around grubby gas stations while they suck butts. How can we keep the show on the road without causing any team fit? I say combine the two solutions. If you're stopped, have them eat the cigarettes.

Brian: Oh. Very devious. Very devious. Yes.

Robin: Yeah. I'm multitasking here. Multitasking.

Brian: There you go. Yeah. They want to, you know, they want to suck on their cancer sticks. You know, it's up to them to set their own priorities. But, yeah. And the real answer to that question, not that we want to give her. The real answer is ignore them. Just, you know, it's not your responsibility if they're throwing away a cigarette. What do cigarettes cost now? I don't even know. They're like a dollar each.

Robin: It's like $30 for a pack or some noise. Yeah. It depends on where you are. But, I mean, in college it was $2 a pack. It went up a quarter. We freaked out. I was in Chicago. I think right when I quit smoking it was about $4 or $5 and now it was up to $10.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Those are 2015 prices.

Brian: Yeah. When it's time to leave, just leave and let them figure it out. You know, they might have to toss a couple of, you know, $3 cigarettes or whatever they are, but they'll figure it out. And that's brutal and it's harsh, but it's how it has to be. Or you're going to sit around because if you have two or more, they get out of sync and so. Oh, yeah. Guy, you know, guy A will like, he'll suck down one and he'll be okay. And then he'll see guy two still smoking because he's slower, you know, his smaller lungs or something.

Robin: Now, did you ever smoke?

Brian: No.

Robin: Okay. So, I mean, I've got empathy for you. It's an addiction. I smoked for many years.

Brian: Right.

Robin: I want to say it was two years, two years, 10 packs a day, but I think that's backwards. So, we'll go with 10 years for a pack or so a day. Definitely more realistic. But, yeah, it's not a lack of empathy. It's a lack of you guys getting your act together. We're not there for you. So, if we do leave, you can, per the question, suck each other's butts. We're out.

Brian: Excellent. Excellent advice. Okay. Yeah. And we don't need to burn all these in one episode, but, you know, anyway.

Robin: No, no, no. This is your show. What do you want to do next?

Brian: Let's try a little bit of Uncle Brian's Tiny Tasty Tool Tips. Now, these are little tiny tips about your toolkit. Sidebar, they're tasty. So, let's try this out. Let's try one. Here's one that nobody thinks of, but it will save the day. You will make friends. You will win over enemies. You will gain influence. And that's simply just carry some nuts and bolts. You know, carry some metric. You know, most of the time we're all riding. Most of us are riding metric bikes. You know, carry some 6 millimeter, 8 millimeter nuts and bolts. Carry a few cotter pins. Carry a few, you know, maybe even a 10 millimeter nut if you're feeling risky or something like that. And this is a simple thing. Nobody ever does it. There's only one guy who ever has nuts and bolts, and that's me usually. And it has saved the day time and time again. And it doesn't take up much space. It takes up very little weight. And you will feel like a rock star for, you know, that 30 seconds.

Robin: For safety, keep your 10 millimeter in your underwear.

Brian: Excellent idea. Excellent idea, sir.

Robin: Okay, now the next heading, it's that guy. And I literally just typed that guy into my newest article that I'm writing about in Idaho Route that I just wrote. It's the only tag on the entire TRO website. There are no tags on that site. The rest is mostly category, right? So you have content category and then subcategories and then the article you're looking for. The only tag on the entire TRO server is that guy. And I was just right about this. I think that we need not look at these questions yet. I think that if we're going to introduce this topic, you and I need to admit in short form each of our most glowing memory of a that guy moment that we created for ourselves. You want to go first or you want me to?

Brian: I've got one. That's the dumbest shit ever. Do it. I recall, you know, Swimmy Lines, Swimmy Lines. It doesn't matter where we are, but hey, we were in Wisconsin. And so I came out and my bike wouldn't start. My bike wouldn't start. My bike wouldn't start. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And, you know, there were several people that had to leave, had to get back to Chicago, had to get back to Indiana, Illinois, blah, blah, blah. And I'm going to just skip ahead here about an hour and a half. I took apart probably half of my motorcycle and I had wires and I had testers and I had, you know, little pinchy clips everywhere. And a lot of you probably know where this is going. And I know and I modified the wiring on my bike. I like bypassed the kickstand switch. I bypassed the clutch. You know, I was like doing surgery. I was actually doing stuff. I was creating scars on my bike. And as you all know by now, sitting here, when I didn't know because I was in a state of near panic, you know, some happy whatever person who I don't want to speculate about had just flipped the kill switch on the bike. That's all. It's not something I do by habit on that bike. So someone had flipped the kill switch. And it's not. Yeah. And it was Suzuki. So you flip the kill switch and nothing works. Yeah. And I got a Yamaha not long ago. And it's a genius thing where the kill switch is actually also your start button. So you cannot do this. So you cannot be that guy and take an hour and a half to take apart your bike apart. And another half hour to put the damn thing back together, put all the luggage back on.

Robin: So they've already gone through all the motions to make sure that when the cutoff switch is engaged, there is no connection to the battery whatsoever. There are some bikes where that can happen, where there's some, you know.

Brian: Well, like the key will come on and you'll see the dash light on the Suzuki's, but you'll get nothing from the start button and you'll get no, you know. So that's a rocker switch, right? Yeah. On the Yamaha, the kill switch, it's actually a rocker switch. So one way is kill and the other way is start. Yeah. My beamer's like that. Yeah, yeah. It's sheer genius. I had no idea this existed. So yeah, I was that guy, you know, probably a solid two hours out of a very short fall day were wasted on this and like no one ever fessed up and I'm kind of glad they didn't because it would still be awkward years later. So there's that guy.

Robin: Nice. Well, before I tell mine that I need to make sure that I say something that I'm going to probably keep in every episode before we go into that guy discussions. And this is read, this is the description, the descriptive text for Joe Conrarty's write up about what it is to be that guy. And this is what you would see in Google if you looked it up. It goes like this. I got to say this just right. Just like the side effects commercial. It's got to be like the side effects commercial. Okay. So slowly it's only one person can hold the that guy title at any given time. That person will retain said title until someone else has a that guy experience. Here we go. Here we go. Only one person can hold the that guy experience at any given time. That person will retain said title until someone else has a that guy experience. So, all right. Well, mine goes like this. Since Brian just really made a strong case for something I have done to somebody that I didn't realize that that was a thing with them. I don't know that it was you, but I think I did do it to somebody else in the group. Probably somebody who deserved it. Probably a mutual friend we have not talked to in a long time. But, at any rate, I do remember on a 1982 Yamaha RJ Seiko 400, what was that thing? The exact, I don't even remember. Seiko for RJ, RJ's Seiko's 400cc's first bike and some saddle bags overpacked to the gills. Some shanko tires at the time. I didn't know that, you know, for anybody listening to this, as the tires wear down, they become softer very quickly and softer more very quickly. So, somebody walks up and he pulls up next to me and he's like, I think you got some duct tape on your tire in rural remote Wisconsin with nobody around anywhere. And I don't know if I was following you or if I was calling Greg or following Conrarty. But either way, I had taken out about 10 inches of remaining tread down to the belts an inch wide. So, immediately the day had changed. I obtained my title with pride and I kept my chin up the entire time. No more bad wording was, yeah, my attitude shifted very quickly. Very quickly. So, there. That's my bad guy story. Brian Ringer, how do you feel about helping me solve a conundrum that has already been solved once before when we tried to record this episode? But we'll look at it again and see if we can better our efforts.

Brian: I would love to help you solve your conundrum, sir.

Robin: I'm going to share a desktop-ery. All right. So, ridewithgps.com. Ridewithgps.com, let me log in. Simple as that. I'm going to jump to routes. And ladies and germs, originally our plan was going to be to make this entire weekly episode about perfecting loop routes and maps and things like that. We're doing it cameras off so that whatever Brian says, whatever I say, we have to forcibly be descriptive to keep this entertaining for y'all or tell stories and anecdotes in between. As it turns out, we managed to get the entire episode done in about five to ten minutes. So, we decided to revisit the situation. Here's what we did first was, okay, as you're listening to this, whatever the publishing date of this episode is, Trips Evans is officially scheduled. We only have one spot left. That's going to be June, I think June 8th through the 16th of 2024. So, one thing I've found, some people can't get enough. You know, we set a base limit of 250 miles per day. This is a good base limit. I like to ride about 225 to 275 miles a day. And then my knees, you know, I'm trying to keep it sexy on a sport bike. My knees start to complain about it. And so, I'm pretty much ready to kind of take a break at that point. However, that doesn't change the fact that we've got some real troopers. My co-host here is actually one of them. And they might get to a destination and rather than saying, well, that's not enough, the better plan is, why don't we give them more and they can go ride it themselves. So, last episode, Brian and I kind of came up with a day one loop that if anybody hasn't had enough mileage, they can go ride on their own. And I'm looking at it right now. And actually, I don't think I want to change anything.

Brian: Yeah, we can talk through it and talk about the choices that we made here and why. And maybe that will be of interest.

Robin: The only thing that I noticed about it was it started getting real exciting really quick. And then we just wanted to keep on going. We wanted to go see, let's just keep on following this thing, do this direction. And then we counted the miles and we were up to, you know, some insane unusable amount of miles.

Brian: Yeah. Where we're starting, Parkersburg, West Virginia, it's right across the river from Ohio. And this is in a really wrinkly, hilly area. And so, we started looking at it like, okay, if you're in Parkersburg, but you haven't had quite enough, you know, what would you want to do? And the other thing to think about for these types of problems is what the other thing we want to think about for these types of problems is we want to give people options. Like, you know, maybe they get out 50 miles. They're like, you know, that's enough. Or maybe they get out 75 miles. Or maybe they're just the red-eyed, slobbering, nail-biting, red mist descending, give me the curves. Yeah, yeah. And so, give them, you know, here's more than enough for you to satisfy your evil thirst. So, one of the things, yeah. So, one of the things we started to do with this is try to have that idea in mind. You want to give people a lot of options. And if they have a GPS on their handlebars of some sort, whether it's a phone or whatever, they're going to be able to see those options and make those choices. You know, they're going to be riding on their own. They're not going to be led through things. You know, they're not going to be wondering, you know, how much longer does this go on? I'm tired. My knees hurt.

Robin: And they're also not going to have the screen duct taped to their face. There are a lot of people that I listen to that are like, I don't need any distractions. I just need the sunset and my American bandana because America is my helmet. But the fact is that if you can look down while stopped in a safe location, you can tell where you are. You can find your way back when you're done.

Brian: Yeah. And knees also stick to numbered routes. So you can take a grease pencil and write down some numbers on your tank or your windshield or something. I mean, it's not complicated. And if you decide, you know, hell with this, I'm done, you know. So one thing I always start with is I switch whatever I'm using for mapping right with GPS or whatever. I switch to the topographic view. And I look for all the wrinkles. I look for the most wrinkled areas. And in this case, you actually see a lot. There's actually a lot more. Plus there are roads that follow the wrinkles across the river in Ohio. West Virginia tends to have a lot of gravel roads. And we're trying to stick to pavement for this in this case. So anyway, yeah, where we started. What's that road? I can't read it. It's 26 or something that we. They always cover the number up with the line.

Robin: It's a crack up. So it takes Ohio 7 by the river out due northeast towards Marietta, I think. And then we pick up 26. And then it just goes all haywire.

Brian: Yeah. And 26 looks, and I'm sure it is. I don't think I've been on that one. It's nuts. It's great. It's what you're here for. You're going to. So basically, you're going to find your dealer. You're going to get that in your veins right now. You're going to get right out of town. You're going to cross the interstate. And it's going to get crazy. And so that's what we want. Someone who's. And again, you think about that state of mind. You've had a day of twisties and so forth. And you're raring to go for some more. Here it is. Boom. And as soon as you get past the last McDonald's, you're on it. It's going to be great. And then if the day felt short, make it tall. Make it tall. Good way to put it. What we do is we go. We basically head northeast out of Parkersburg through Marietta. And then it gets crazy. And we keep heading northeast. And we basically go back and forth, up and down, out of the river valley. And so that's another nice trick. Because when you have a lot of elevation changes. And you're near a river valley, like the Ohio River. You know, scribble in and out as many times as you possibly can. Before you fall over in exhaustion. And it's going to be a guaranteed good time.

Robin: That is pretty cool. You have a constant return to a major artery that gets you directly back home. And if you're like, you know what? I can do another one. Let's do another one. Then you continue onward. And maybe we haven't perfected this one. But you know what we have that we didn't have before? We have a bonus loop. And it's a damn good one. So that's pretty baller. I'm pretty happy about that.

Brian: Yeah. And what's cool about this. And again. You kind of have this strategy. Like there's an area where the loops kind of go real close together. And so it's really obvious. Like if someone's done. Or they're just whatever. And they want to head back. And so basically you can head back to the river. And there's a river road on both sides of the river. Which, you know. The Ohio is a major one. And most of them are this way. In the U.S. at least. There's going to be a road on either side of the river. And it's going to be very, very scenic. But also shall we say more relaxed. So when you're done looping and looping around. And we're not going to go into. You know. I don't know if you want to go into all the detail of. You know 26. And then you get on 260. And then 537. And you know. Basically it's pretty crazy. It's an unrealistic amount of miles. Because you'd have like a 450. 500 mile day if you did this. Plus the ride to get there. But the point is. You've got a lot of options.

Robin: If you did the whole thing. We'd have to question your sanity. But the access to it is always there. I think we'd be questioning your sanity. As well as being ridiculously impressed. And yeah. It's a spaghetti bowl. What is interesting to me about this. Is you were talking about the topographic maps. And I'm going to start using those a little bit more often too. I also like the hybrid satellite view. Just because it gives me a sense of what. If you see a pile of establishments. In the middle of anything. It might be like a ski resort. If you're in a major big state of something like that. But what you're doing is. You know. Why is this. I don't know if you can see my cursor here. But as I'm circling around this. This stands out. You called it mushy. When we first tried to record this. Which I like. Why is it greener than the other. You know. Sort of aqua green around it.

Brian: Yeah. I don't know. I honestly could not tell you. Because I think it may be like a U.S. Or state forest area. And these are. You know. Like they're areas that have towns in them. And so forth. But basically the land. Is being slowly purchased. And you know. They're trying to keep it. In some state of pristine whatever. But it's pretty disgusting.

Robin: And you know. I've been hearing stories about places like. Bozeman Montana. Where it used to be nowhere. And now it's somebody who with influence. Said that's what they like. And now it's what everybody apparently has to like. So they want to build. They want to tear down. They want to build. They want to tear down. And then there's no space left. It's like. Honestly I've had this discussion before. Get an old beater house. Fix it up. Shut up. I don't know where I can go to be alone anymore. People keep on taking on the hipster vibe.

Brian: Yeah. And like this area is a good example of one. And also this whole area of West Virginia. And so forth is. It's kind of like there's. There's not a lot of macro features. To the landscape. Until you get further south. You know. Like when you're talking about day two. And so forth. Then you're talking about some real Appalachian ridges. And stuff like that.

Robin: It's crazy. Day two is one of the routes that we are not. Like I don't have any changes. I want to make to it. I'm actually considering changes with day one. We already have. Day one is the only day of our trip sevens tour. Where I discuss options. In terms of the hardest route. Isn't the default. So the default route. Is the triple nickel. Which is a wonderful ride. It's very curvy. It's a good time. It really is. I'm looking at it right now. It's like tons of curves in it. It's a little bit more high traffic. But the alternative that we have. Is some 300 plus miles. I might down it a little bit. But 300 plus miles of how you manage. To create the physics. That would allow a curve to be decreasing radius. In both directions. It seems impossible. But Ohio has done it. So having told that joke a thousand fold. It's like I don't know. Maybe I'll edit it down. To being the priority one. But the nickel is more like a warm up. I'll probably ask everybody at the beginning every time. But the first two days. You're talking about West Virginia. We got that one pegged. You want me to load that up?

Brian: One more thing to say about this one here. We mentioned earlier. Basically the return to home base. Is along the river. To let people. Calm down a little bit. And also. You're going to be shagged. Depending on how greedy you get. I tend to get really super greedy. It's a fault. So basically the return. Is kind of along the river. It's gentler. It's a little more open. Probably a little more travel. To be honest. Cool water. Cool breeze. Cool breeze. There's going to be. There's a cool bridge in the middle. That kind of thing. That was deliberate. If you run it clockwise. Then basically you're going to have a chance to calm down. You're going to have a chance to get back to home base. With an interesting ride. That's not as challenging. It's going to be a little bit safer. I think when people are kind of shagged. At the end of the day.

Robin: You kind of hooked it up. There's a gas station before the bridge too. So they can gas up before the next morning. Before they arrive. There you go.

Brian: That's kind of what we think about. And how you create these. You create these experiences. You think about the state of mind. What is this. If somebody is dumb enough to go. Or try to ride this. If they're man enough or whatever. What are they looking for. And basically give them a lot of options. Give them a warm up and a cool down. Or just throw them in a deep end. That kind of thing. Good thinking.

Robin: What do we want to talk about next?

Brian: We could do another route. I think maybe two an episode. Oh I like it. We could stay in Parkersburg. And we could go the other direction. We haven't talked about this yet. There's a couple things we could do. We could do another loop from Parkersburg. Doing something else. Which would be. We could go to the south and so forth. Or we could do another loop. That is. I want to have a nice relaxing. Like someone who is. We put together a route. For the slobbering addict. For the fiend. What if someone wants. I want to go out and have a nice little buzz around. Or like 75 miles. Or something like that. So maybe. Maybe we can put together something like that. And talk about that.

Robin: I think we should do it. We won't likely do that in the future. But we should talk about it. So that people understand how. The reason being is that we already have. Our escape routes in place. And they are beautiful. So here is. I'll switch to the trains.

Brian: So you can see it.

Robin: This is the entire trip 7 escape route. The whole thing. All 7 days. And this is where we would usually stay. It goes to the forest and the river. It is pretty. And it is calm. And it is pretty. And it is calm. Or if they wanted to. They could just follow the river. But talk about the philosophy. The theory. The methodology behind it. That is the real key to this.

Brian: Your escape routes are basically. Less technical routes. That are fun and so forth. But not.

Robin: I might have scenic. Let me double check if I have scenic too. But keep going.

Brian: I see a really cool valley there and back. From Parkersburg. That I think we could talk about. That could be. Kind of an interesting. If you look at. If you look at 47 and 14. Out of Parkersburg. Yep. And you see how they straddle a valley.

Robin: I am about to. So let me enter this in here right now. Parkersburg. Just enter that into Ride with GPS. At ridewithgps.com. I am going to click start route here. I am going to switch to. Brian mode. Terrain mode that is. We want to see the lumps. Yes. Here I am zoomed out. We are starting dead center Parkersburg. I am in add to route mode. Which road am I looking for?

Brian: If you look. Southeast of Parkersburg. And you are on. A topographical map. You can see there are two roads. That straddle a valley. If we want to plan a ride. That is really super scenic. What you are looking for is contrast. And you are looking for sight lines. So if you are looking at. 47 to 53. To 47 and 14. Straddle this really. I am sure it is a gorgeous valley. I have never been there. That is amazing. So the idea here is you have those contrasts. And so when you are going down 47. You can see across the valley to 14. And see the hills. And farms and there is a river. So even if you have never been there. You can envision this is going to be really cool. And it is going to be. There are plenty of twisties. There you go. That is nice. And so you come back up 14. To Parkersburg. I don't know how many miles that is. Let's catch the listeners up.

Robin: This will get confusing real quick. The idea is we took 47. Due southeast. To 53. Make a Rick on to 53. Which is still just valleys and rivers and creeks. Over to. 14. Here is another question I was going to bring up. I think I know the answer to this. But it is something I feel like people might like to know. The circular numbered roads. That is a state route if I am not mistaken. So state route 14. It is state route 47. Down to. Please hold for Robin frying brain. Down to street route 53. And then back due northwest. By way of state route 14. Into town. And we have already managed to make. An extra 45 minute. Or 45 mile route there. We can keep going too if we want.

Brian: You see there is a little. See there is a little white line. Hanging off of 14. And going kind of around town.

Robin: Well hold on. Let me zoom it out here. Checking it out. Where is that? Which number is it?

Brian: Pettyville road. Pettyville road. You are almost in town. I see it. That could get you closer. The whole point is. We are like. That looks like a nice valley on the top. And then you can. You know. It is going to be scenic. It is going to be a less technical ride. So this is going to be a good option. For the people who aren't. The red eyed nail biting. Tracks on their arms. Curve addicts. That can't get enough. This is going to be a nice relaxing ride. And what do we got? Like 55 or 60 miles. Perfect.

Robin: I like this. I am actually going to save this. As 777. It is better if I type in the keyboard. Is that how that works?

Brian: Usually.

Robin: 777-day 1-bonus loop. Scenic. Alright. And. Make this private. You got to pay for this stuff. Save. Pretty cool man. It is all about the Benjamins. It is all about the monies. I got laundry to do.

Brian: There is another one. Uncle Brian's tiny tasty tool tips. They are tiny. They are tasty. And they are about tools.

Robin: This time you mentioned tasty. You didn't mention tasty last time. Do you realize what it takes for me to edit these things? Do you even think about me? Brian has saved my butt so many times. Nuts and bolts.

Brian: Let's talk about something else. Alright. I ride. All my bikes are Japanese bikes. Because I am poor or something. We are metric centric. Yeah metric centric. And I happen to ride sometimes. With Eurotrash. You ride those Eurotrash bikes.

Robin: What is the deal? I see what you are doing. I am right here. You do know that I am right here next to you right?

Brian: You are right here. I can smell you. I can hear you. It hurts. You know what I am talking about. I am glad they are slumming around with me. And my poor little reliable Japanese bikes. Anyway the point. And I do have one. The point is. I carry stuff. That is not necessarily all just stuff. I need for my bikes. Like the 8, 10, 12. Whatever. I actually carry some stuff. That fits other people's bikes. Because I am nice. I am a giver. I am a helper. So I have things like Torx bits. That these German and Austrian. And English bikes need. You are not talking about me anymore then. Oh yeah. It is them. So stuff like Torx bits. They take up very little space. And they may help a guy. They may help somebody somewhere. So I carry them. And things like. I also carry a 13 millimeter socket. And a 13 millimeter wrench. There are no 13 millimeters. On Japanese bikes. But there are on a lot of the Euro trash. If you happen to run across somebody. On a Harley. It is close enough to a half inch. To probably get them some help. I do not know.

Robin: I want to apologize to my fellow BMW riders. For Brian's behavior in this episode. His phone number if you would like to call him.

Brian: It is not quite racist is it? It is something.

Robin: Poor elitism. We both like Suzuki. And people think that is the discount Honda. Which I call bullshit on. I do not think that is real. I love Suzuki. But they do make an affordable buy. It is the right purchase.

Brian: Another thing I do. If I am on my KLR. It has tube tires. I still have my tubeless patch kit with me. The thing is. With tools and so forth. More than half the time. You are dealing with somebody else's stuff. Busted bikes. The other thing. I have one tool kit. I just move between bikes. I do not have to think about what I need to take in. Or what I need to take out. I have tire irons. When I am riding a bike with tubeless tires. And when I am riding a bike with tube tires. I have a tubeless plug kit. Or a sticky string kit.

Robin: You know what would be a good idea. For the next episode. Go to your packing list. The things you always have. You are going to the rally. You know you might need them. Itemize that. I will do a compare and contrast. I have mine already set up on the site. Let's have some fun with it. We will go down the list of the tools. I can. One of my favorite lines I have ever heard. I had the things that were needed that day. We had a combined effort. I handed you my tool bag. It is not a tool roll. It is a tool bag. You said the bag. A greasy oily mess. Of hardware nuggets. That might get you rolling again.

Brian: If you are lucky. There are more topics we can talk about. If you want to. For example. We can debate how much gravel is too much gravel. For a street ride. You will probably have more input. You have ridden with more strangers than I have. Yeah. Or is that a whole episode?

Robin: It is going to be a lengthy discussion. We will save that for next round. To wrap this one up. I will share my screen again. We will not plan another route. What we will do. I will start the planning process. For Warm Springs. Virginia. For the bonus lap. At that location.

Brian: Are the springs warm? The hot springs are a few miles away. You know what? They do not return my calls anymore. The question is like that. Where are the cold springs?

Robin: Can you tell me? Where the intolerably uncomfortable springs are? I would like to. I am not tense enough.

Brian: I would like the soapy springs.

Robin: That is in shrinkage springs.

Brian: Where are the springs with the monkeys in them? Is that in Japan? You would have to ask Tim about monkeys.

Robin: Where are the monkeys? He only arrives back from a tour on his monkey. Once a month. He will be in the monthly episodes. Here is Warm Springs on the shared screen. The real trick to this setup. We will plan a loop. In Warm Springs. Next week. The real issue. Is that after Warm Springs. Whether you approve of this logic or not. The tour is called 777. Trip sevens. It is the name of the tour. It is seven riders. Seven days. The beautiful riding we do after Warm Springs. It is beautiful. It is a little short-lived. We end up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I do not want to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway. That would be day three. The Blue Ridge Parkway. Is part of the. Optionals. Lighter BRP. I am looking for day three. Default. I do not know that I have one. I will load up the beast. The big trip sevens. Entire map. The full route perfected. As it stands. The best version of this. Seven day extravaganza. Here it is. Look at that. Here is the monster. Warm Springs. Somewhere up here. Virginia. West Virginia. Warm Springs. There is the food.

Brian: The hot springs are down the road. It is easy to find.

Robin: I am getting frustrated. Could you please. Could you please. We take the 660. It is lovely. If Warm Springs. Is the 500 mile mark. For this leg. Of the tour so far. Eventually. I am looking for it. I know that moniker is out there. It is time for the. Blue Ridge Parkway. It is like. 45 miles an hour. For the day. This does not look as bad. I know it happens. While I am scrolling. And making you nauseous. Know that the goal. Is to avoid that. This has to be where we start. Ferrum. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I got this completely wrong. This has to be a pleasure for the listener. Here it is. The Blue Ridge Parkway is up the 760 mark. We do 160 miles. Then it gets really. Blue Ridge centric.

Brian: I got it.

Robin: It looks like I avoided it. I did something new.

Brian: The Blue Ridge Parkway starts. If you go straight south. From Warm Springs and Hot Springs. It starts there. You guys kick into it. Further down the line.

Robin: 210 miles. Of the goods. West Virginia does have the goods. The rest of the day. Is the BRP down into. Where we are going to stay for the night. Maybe that is not so bad. I tell you what. It is a lot of BRP. Not sure what to do about that. Let's let that simmer. For the incredible amount of money we are making. It is the least you can do. Process this diligently. Dedicatedly. No attention put anywhere else. Other than this amazing podcast. That has tens. Brian. Tens of listeners. With that. I will stop sharing my screen. Let's do the concluding bit.