Robin: I've got enough busy mind things happening this week that, uh, our outline is definitely enough. Like just the intro of this episode alone is plenty to discuss just because so much has been going on. I hope you're having a good week. I hope you have the same one would hope, you know, yes, I was floundering on whether or not I should cancel this week because we have, we already have, uh, this week's episodes already right. Iraq, right.

Brian: Right.

Robin: So I love that we're maintaining a cushion that there's, and there's always the next episode is already ready and that's, that's good. But like I was at that point where I was like, I actually have a lot of TRL related things going on. And that made me smile. So I was like, you know what, let me just lie down for a second and I'll come back to it. Let's see if I got the energy. Cause my to do list is, I updated my calendar here. Let's see if this is even on topic. So my week, Sunday, explore topics, uh, work on coding additions and tweaks. That's also the fallback date for the podcast recording Monday, research, uh, research sales outline, compose an article that's based on products that people buy instead of what we told them to like write an article about the thing they buy, uh, then Tuesday outline and compose a personal article Wednesday, produce and release our podcast, sir. Uh, that that's the Wednesday thing to do. It's what, it's what's hot on the streets. Thursday, continue work on article drafts that are already started from the previous days and do our weekly recording. So you and I have stuff to talk about. I'll probably be inspired on those days too. Friday finalize any remnant tasks from above. And then Saturday and the words of Kelly Howard, whatever you damn well want, Robin, if it's going to be part of TRL, it's part of TRL. So here's like my task list though. I just got this book, right? I haven't read this. I've written, I've read my fair share of books, but I just got one man caravan by Robert Edison Fulton Jr. Okay. Have you read this? I have not read it. I have heard of it. I should read it too. See that's now it's funny. You should say that ever since the Buell interview, it's like the, the, the outreach for people to talk to, I feel a little bit more bold. There's an author. I'm a big fan of her name is Melissa Holbrook Pearson. We are friends on Facebook though. We don't necessarily know each other. Maybe she listens to the podcast. Maybe occasionally she's written, she's read some of my by comparison, terrible writing compared to hers. She's written several books about motorcycling. She wrote the perfect vehicle, the man who would stop at nothing. A couple others. I need to have the list in front of me to remember, but I reached out to her. Would you like to either be on an episode of the podcast? We could talk about some of your work or maybe you'd like to just hang out and we could recommend books to each other and discuss them as an interview for the, the monthly edition, you know, the big, the big monthly edition, which I'll get to that in a second here. So she said, I don't know if she meant this, but she said, I would take any one of your book recommendations very seriously. And maybe it was a typo because I don't know that she exactly has time to read. You know, most of my stuff is Dr. Seuss grade. Have you read this? Have you read Clifford, the big red motorcyclist? She said, I'll tell you what I don't necessarily, you know, I have you been on podcasts? She says, yes. I say, all right, then is there a book you want to talk about? She says, I've already done that semi recently. What I'd rather do is she wants to reread this. And so I jumped through hoops. I found it used on Amazon for $24, which otherwise it's like a $60 book. I don't know why it's not out of print.

Brian: Wow.

Robin: But it's like, that's college bookstore level pricing. And I thought, okay, I'm going to try to get my hands on that. And I looked it up, used and boom, 25 bucks.

Brian: Yeah. Well, that's, that's a book like that's a book. I've always heard of one man caravan. Uh, and then there's Ted Simon's books. It's on, you know, and I've heard, uh, I've heard of the perfect vehicle. I've read reviews of it. I've not read it though. That's a good book. And so I need to need to catch up a little bit. Um, like I've got twists of the wrist, like I reread every so often, you know, and you know, there's, there's, there's technical stuff like that, but there's not a lot that I've written, I've, I've read that's about writing, uh, in other ways, maybe I should, I could use your advice then I'll say, yes, read a book.

Robin: That's about the passion of writing and travel for sure. And I'll invite you to tell me if I'm going to start at the top of the list on books that are well written about the technicalities of writing, I invite you to tell me which one should it be? Proficient motorcycling. Should it be total control? Should it be twist of the wrist? I am definitely all ears because I haven't done much of that.

Brian: Total control. It's hard to tell whether to read a twist of the wrist first or total control. If you like theory, then twist of the wrist, you know, and teaches you about fear and survival reactions and things like that. And then, and then, uh, I think the thing I really found so valuable about, um, um, total control was, I mean, taking a class, you know, physically going out there and doing this stuff, you know, practicing, just breaking it down to the point where you, you can see what you're going towards. So you can self coach and then, and then you're on your own and it screws you up for like a month, you know?

Robin: Anyway, I was going to ask you, like when you take, when you do a total control, you've, have you taken the total control class yourself? Yes. And when you took that class, I want to do this very much actually. Um, but all I hear is the banter between desk jockey, fellow MSF instructors who don't observe any other curriculum or the total control claims that they should be the ones teaching new riders. I don't hear much anymore about the original creme de la creme total control curriculum that was advanced on entry to some extent, or at least intermediate, I guess, I don't know, technically inspiring on entry first go, you know, that's probably what you took.

Brian: Yeah. I took the, I took the OG or whatever you want to call it, total control riding. And so you had to go into the class, you know, you basically had to already be an experienced, a successful street rider. Like you had to, you had to think, you know, your way around a motorcycle. Let's put it that way. Yeah, man. And then, and then you show up and it's focused, like it's not the whole curriculum, like the, you know, like MSF, like teaching you to survive on the street. It's not that. It's how to corner. And that is it. And that's beautiful. Yeah. You go around circles, you go around to figure eight and you break down. That's all you do. How to corner. Uh, nothing about deer and Buick's or anything like that. It's, it's, it's a laser focused, completely screws you up for a while. You know, you have to rethink everything, even if you, you know, and so yeah, that was, that was, it was an, it was an amazing experience, how much they packed into just a very short amount of time.

Robin: That's the interesting thing of it to me. I prefer the idea that there are many ways to corner and total control is one of those ways I really want to know better. And I'm looking forward to it at some point, not the introductory. I want the original.

Brian: Yeah, not the, not the here's the clutch lever. Here's the, here's the throttle, but you know, it, it really breaks down. And, and really when you, uh, when you compare total control and you compare a twist of the wrist, um, you know, total, total control basically gives you just that one skill. Like you don't, you know, there's nothing about, uh, survival reactions, you know, fear, there's nothing about all that a twist of the risk gets into a lot of psychology that's really fascinating.

Robin: I like that.

Brian: And I think that'll be pretty neat.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: Yeah. So they're, they're totally compatible, but yeah, the, the, but the genius of the, of total control again, and I'm talking about the one I took, which was cornering and that's it, um, is that you come out of it completely discombobulated. You have no idea how to ride anymore. Um, you, you barely manage, you know, but you're able to self, you're able to get yourself there. You're like, you've glimpsed the mountain and you know where to go. If you've been paying attention, you know how to self coach to get the rest of the way there, and that's a remarkable thing, you know, you you've coached writing and.

Robin: Yeah. They've given you a definitive path that you can then build further on your own.

Brian: Yeah. They show you, they show you the peak of the mountain and, and just for a few moments, you know, the clouds clear just a tiny bit, you know, and you start to. You're, you're going around this circle and then suddenly there's kind of a perspective shift. Like you, you feel like you're on a wheel and the wheels rotating or something, you know, there's like a, when you're doing it right, you get like half a second to that if you're lucky. Uh, but then that's enough of, you know, that's enough to get you the rest of the way there. And again, you know, I have no idea how they teach the other aspects of writing.

Robin: Uh, I know, I have no idea how they teach newbies, you know, cause they've added a lot of stuff, but self-centeredly, I don't even care cause I'm not a newbie, so I'm just going to move on, you know, it's like, okay, fine, give me the good stuff. You know? Yeah. Enough about me. What do you think about me? So here's all the stuff I was looking at that I was like, can I really, can I really lay all this on Brian and I, will he be able to handle like the energy I'm feeling towards my task list? But, uh, I look at the things I've got on my to-do for TRO alone. And one thing I need to do is coordinate our connection from the website to Podbean where these podcasts are hosted. Check the dates of what was updated when and update Podbean's descriptions for every episode. And I'm going through every old episode and removing the advertising so that we can start using these advertising platforms, maybe make a buck on this stuff.

Brian: What?

Robin: Yeah, I hope. Oh, and so then the other thing is right now, if you're listening to this and you're, it's whatever publishing day, whatever, right now you can, you can get any map on TRO for free if you just register for the members area. Usually I give people the option. If you don't want to be a member, you can just click on the buy thing. It's going to support us. It's like 99 cents minimum price. And then the rest is 5 cents a mile or something. Like, I don't remember what, but I I'm kind of, I'm kind of sick of receiving the emails that say they didn't get the download or they didn't know what a GPX file was, even if it says right next to the download button, know what you're buying, right? Or then I have to send them an email on a per order basis saying, here's what you got and here's how you can learn more. I need all this to be automated. That's on the to-do list. That's going to take me days. That's my task list right now for the week, among other things that actually pay. I don't even know. I don't even know.

Brian: Anyway.

Robin: So Brian, how, how you been, man? Tell me a story. How's your week been? Same freakishness as me.

Brian: Uh, just got back like, uh, an hour and a half ago. Uh, did a really, did a really fun dual sport ride in Indiana. Was with a couple of buddies with Tim and wise. Really? Yeah. Tell me more. Tell me more. We, uh, my wife always asks us, so where did you ride today? I just around, uh, anyway. Um, so anyway, we were down in the hills. We were down in, uh, Southern Indiana, kind of between Martinsville and Bloomington and out in the middle of nowhere, I've got a bunch of just. You know, I've explored and explored and poked around this area for years. And so I've got tracks I've got just, you know, and every time I'm out, I still discover more cool stuff. Yeah. And Tim and a wiser, like they don't really like, I've tried telling them, oh, we're going to go here. And we're going to, they just glaze. So they don't care. They're like, just, just go. We'll follow. We'll have fun.

Robin: Show us your ways and go in the direction of the place. That is.

Brian: Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. It's kind of like, I'm kind of reminded there's, there's, I don't know how true this is, but there's a, there's a thing in Chinese where there's a common greeting that translates as, have you had rice? And, um, so like when you, when you walk up instead of Shalom or whatever you say, have you had rice? Have you eaten today? You know? And, and so, and so we should, we should do that. So have you, did you ride a motorcycle today? I hope you rode a motorcycle today. That kind of thing, you know? So I hope you wrote, I hope you've been able to ride recently.

Robin: Oh man. Do you want to hear about it?

Brian: If you want to talk about it, if it's interesting.

Robin: All right. Here's the short summary. And let me put it to you this way on arrival at my destination to ride with the friend I was riding with, there was a bottle of bourbon, my goal was to finish it before I left. There was a turn of events and I was gifted the rim, the remaining inch and a half of bourbon in the bottle, which I corked, put on the bike and brought home and I will not be drinking that rim remainder until the person I was riding with is on this podcast. I think they should, they should join us. And, uh, they will, you, if you don't mind, we'll let him be the guest and just let him tell the tale of my ride with Murray and Mabel. Now we did it. We did a featured podcast episode with Murray Mabel. That's a great episode. Right. Just knowing him has led to so many things. He was a friend from the start. He was a friend immediately after the end of our first argument. You know what I mean? Which took place in a zoom meeting of all places, you know, so I've gotten to coach with this man. Uh, and he's just a cool friend to have, but as a result, he's the one that said, Hey, would you like to interview anybody of stature or is that the right word stature? You're a wordsmith. Yeah. Stature. I'll take it. So he's the one that hooked us up with the interview and he knows other people and he's like, he just wants to see us do well.

Brian: Awesome.

Robin: So the least I could do in summary is ride 6.5 hours through Yellowstone, which by the way, is not a place you want to like, let's go on a ride in Yellowstone. No, no, that's not a thing. You know, it's like, I saw the same bison that was in the road last week is there this week, only this week his ass is facing the road and he's farting on the tourists as they go by. I then get to some of the prettier roads that are mostly straight line that lead to where he's staying. Set up in the trailer there, hang out, have our first night cap, get up. Topics of choice are we rode Beartooth Pass, epic. And we rode Bighorn Mountain, which was supposed to be a leisure day and it turned out to be epic. And the result of those rides were so exhausting that we kind of gave up the rest of the weekend and I headed on back the next morning. I want him to tell his side of the tale for this for sure. It's got to happen. So Murray Haynes will be on the show with you and I, I hope.

Brian: That would be awesome. Yeah. And also just to, just to plug, if anybody's listening, the interview with Eric Buell was excellent. Thanks man. And you asked stuff that I wanted to hear and that nobody else has asked. Uh, there's stuff that he talks about. You cannot find in the fuel press releases. There's stuff you, you know, you get insight from this interview that you're not going to get on the fuel website or on the, on any of the press materials, very much worth, uh, uh, listening to when you're done here.

Robin: Yeah. I don't want to hold back on questions for people that are interesting. And the real trick of it comes from the music. There are a couple of phrases in music. Some of them are overused or capitalized on the wrong way. But one of them is it's not what you play. It's how you play it. Another one is it's not the notes you play. It's the notes you don't play. But the truth is, is that the notes that you do play have an effect because of the notes you don't. That's how that works. And it's not, so it's not what you say. It's how you say it. If you set somebody up with a, Hey, these questions might get a little raw. I'm going to be watching your body language in response to them. If, if there's anything you don't want in there, say it. And we'll, you know, and he, he, every grayed out question that we didn't think we'd get to, man, he just covered all of them in one swoop. I was just sitting there twiddling my thumbs like, hmm. Anyhow, thanks. I, I do appreciate that.

Brian: Yeah. He was very comfortable and it was a great interview. But, I'm glad you got to go riding, but yeah, got to, got to go ride today. So it's a good day. And just, you know, piddling around in the hills of Indiana, it's much better than you would think, the Southern half of Indiana.

Robin: So nice. Yeah. Somebody, a friend called it Indiana, like the, it wasn't a nice thing he said about Indiana. And I was like, well, you should go towards Brown County and, you know, anything in Brown County area and learn how to disregard the posted signs there. You'll, you'll like it better. Yeah. Revisiting from last week. Yes. We were discussing certain topics. You raised a inside joke that our listeners might throw back onto your shoulders as though it were a priority. What, this is a challenge. What can you say about the words ride fast and shift a lot without hurting, without offending target parties? How did that phrase come to be? And how can you pull this one off? How much editing am I going to have to do?

Brian: Ride fast, shift a lot. Okay. Ride fast, shift a lot. Ride fast, shift a lot. I don't even know the guy's name. It basically, um, uh, if you remember a cartoon named Foghorn Leghorn.

Robin: I'll say, I'll say, I'll say boys about as sharp as a bowling ball.

Brian: Yeah. You remember anyway, one of the characters was this little weasel. Um, you know, he was like a chicken stealing weasel or something and he, you know, he never had any success, but yeah, he, he kind of was this really manic frantic. And people who are slightly younger than me would probably like scratch from the, um, from the ice age movies, the cartoons. Yeah. Like that kind of, that kind of demeanor, that kind of demeanor really frantic bug-eyed, you know, running around, you know, anyway. Uh, so we had a vintage rally, uh, in Wisconsin and a guy shows up out of nowhere. We've never seen him before. We've never seen him since. And, um, so he shows up, uh, he shows up and one of the things he kept saying was, yeah, yeah, I like to ride fast and shift a lot. Yeah. Shift a lot. Yeah. I like to ride fast and shift a lot. Who's the fast guys. We're going to ride fast and shift a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I like to shift a lot. Yeah. Yeah. He just like, like some sort of like rain man on crank.

Robin: There are decaffeinated brands that taste just as good as the real thing. Yeah. I don't think that's what he needed.

Brian: And it was, it was incredibly amusing, you know, to the, to the assembled gray beards. Uh, but anyway, we, and of course you, we, we set out and of course, you know, what happened, you know, we get to the first corner and he's like, he barely saves it, but he gets to the second corner. He barely saves it. You know, we get there about the first 10 or 12 corners and this is Wisconsin, very friendly, very flowing. Um, and he decides to, you know, ride fast and shift a lot was, you know, with somebody else, like was he voluntold to go find other people? He actually sort of decided on his own. Uh, smart that, yeah, he was smarter than he looked. And, um, so yeah, anybody who was there and a lot of people who weren't, you know, you can say right, fast, shit a lot, read fast. And so later on, um, on the vintage website, I was trying to, I was just, we were just idly chit chatting as we do. And, um, I was trying to figure out what's a good Latin translation for that. You know? And so I put it into Google translate, right? Fast and shift a lot. And I came up with something. And it turned out one of the people on the, the vintage Suzuki website is an actual retired Latin professor. And so he provided a real translation. I'm, I'm not kidding. Like you, it's like when you put your hand out and you know, you wave your hand and a dollar bill falls into it. I mean, it's just the most random thing. And so in my signature line, I've got, you know, I've got the Latin, you know, just to class it up. So I've got the Latin for ride fast, shift a lot. And that's it. That's the entire story.

Robin: That's wicked, man. I love that. So have you ever off topic? Have you ever taken any lorem ipsum text, randomized lorem ipsum text and translated that Latin into English? I'll do a lot of content testing for websites and I'll need some, some vertical space of text to make sure things look right. And so I'll take some lorem ipsum text, maybe like 10 to 15 paragraphs. And it's always different, but then I switch it over to translate mode and it's all medical practice information that I think the type of stuff that doctors have to know in Latin.

Brian: Well, it's, yeah, it's basically a Latin, Latin-ish gibberish.

Robin: Yeah.

Brian: But yeah, the translator will try its best.

Robin: Yeah. Now it's time for stuff our listeners might ask if we had any listeners.

Brian: If you'd like us to field your actual questions, please email podcast at TRO dot bike podcast at TRO dot bike.

Robin: And what questions do people that don't exist have for us today, Brian?

Brian: Uh, let's see. Um, uh, Electra from Cleveland. Yeah, that's a good name.

Robin: I've probably handed her a $5 bill once or twice.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, has, has a, has a very strange philosophical question and I'd like, you know, I'd like to hear Robin's answer. I've got a couple, but, uh, you know, and she, and she writes, uh, you're all alone in your helmet for hours at a time as we all are. So what's the dumbest and weirdest stuff that, that gallops through your brain banana? She left out the word mushy brain banana. So that's good. Mushy brain banana. Yeah. What's, what, what's the weirdest or dumbest stuff that kind of goes through your head is you're, uh, by yourself in your helmet chanting mantras. I don't know what you're doing.

Robin: I think I have an answer. I don't know that it's a good answer. I'll, I'll field this and then there are no good answers to this question.

Brian: There are no good answers.

Robin: So we'll, we'll pay. We want bad answers. Well, ping pocket. I think that most of my thought process at the dumbest instances are almost identical, like if I'm on the slab or if I'm actually in an open view series of sweepers, whatever it is, I think that I have the same conversations with myself that I would have with the bathroom mirror, like debates and arguments that don't exist, being inspired by the constant silence and me getting heated about the, this argument with a non-existent entity and winning the argument because of my quick wit for something I myself had to think of as a social challenge to, you know, like fight back against, it's, it's a total. That is, that is a cyclone of up in your head right there. So I'll have to think about an example. And your turn, you take, you take a moment with this one.

Brian: This was a one-time thing, but I've done something similar. So there I am. I'm in the woods. I'm riding along a really lovely paved road in Indiana. And, Indiana taxpayers basically refuse to pay for like one inch of pavement that it's not going to have tires on it. So the, some of the back roads are really super narrow. There's no lines on them because you know, that costs money and, and there, and they don't cut back the brush. So there's just, you know, it's just a tunnel of green and it's dark and you're going through. So I'm going along and it's beautiful, beautiful road through the woods. And, I see there's a, there's a fricking Anaconda sticking its head out into the road. And for 2.8 seconds, I, yeah, I release everything. I start to maneuver around the horrible Anaconda sticking his head into the road. And at, at like 2.9 seconds, I realized, oh, it's just a branch from a tree that, that kind of fell in, you know, in, out into the road. Now, what the hell is wrong with my brain that tree branch, tree branch happens a lot in Indiana. Yeah. Anacondas don't happen here. Why would my, why would, you know, why would I see a gigantic snake with his head, you know, like six feet in the air out in the road and like, oh, oh, oh, that's just a tree branch.

Robin: Have you ever experienced digestive related hallucinations? Like you're dehydrated. I don't even know what that means. I'm not even sure I do, but it's happened to me three or four times in my life. Now on a bike where you're dehydrated, maybe your belt's too tight, whatever it is, you're dehydrated, maybe your belt's too tight and then the food shifts. And then for a second there, the whole world goes warbly. I do have one for you. And it's from something I'm not exactly proud of. Let's just say the second time I hit a deer. Oh yeah. The second time I hit a deer, I readied myself and I looked at the situation and the thoughts, the calm thoughts in my head went, well, that's going to be expensive. And this is before the strike and boom. Oh, but I don't know. I don't know. I got to ask the guys if I've already told the story about the, uh, the people that showed up after that deer. That's a long winded repeat instance. That was something special. It involves an Illinois police chief retired. Who's married to a high court, Wisconsin judge who is toting with him, a neighboring Amish person in his car who from the start of their arrival to the time that I left had a look on his face of absolute amazement at the speeds, the car would travel, he never spoke and the smile never went away after the cop shot the deer with his police pistol. A forest chud walks out of the bushes out of nowhere and wants to argue with this retired police chief about why he should not have shot the deer because it's not hunting season. And again, the guy, the Amish guy's face didn't bat an eye. Just sat there with a big grin on his face the whole time. And I immediately realized, wow, this is all happening in front of me. I quite literally spoke the words. I'm okay by the way. I'm going to go now. And then I wrote away from the argument and left all that behind me.

Brian: Yeah, that's, I hit a deer. It did not go that well. And it was very expensive.

Robin: Yeah. Well, cause you, you hit big boy deers. I hit a, I hit a little boy.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh, it was, uh, it was nasty. Anyway, the, the all, uh, that's all I got to say about that. Um, the anyway, what I've learned is that, um, everybody, and maybe this is Indiana, or maybe this is just a rural thing, but everybody wants to know, you know, and it was a seven point deer. First question. Second question is, no, I did not get the antlers. Uh, I think one of the EMTs actually ended up with the antlers. Um, and the third question is, no, I did not get the meat. No, I did not want the meat. Somebody came along and scooped it up and ate it.

Robin: I don't know who it's almost a predictable response.

Brian: Yeah. They don't want to know how my leg was. They want to know, Oh, what happened to the deer? You know, that's a resource right there, you know? So like, what is it like to have double jointed knees for a moment? It's not fun. It was expensive. Um, and, uh, for the, for the dumb stuff that gallops through your mushy brain banana, I will throw out one more because I thought of it today and I don't know where this came from. It's kind of a spooky one now. So when I'm going, when I'm riding along and I'm in a hilly area and I pass a graveyard, it's up on a hill. Um, I'm always just, it's very small, but just a tiny bit like, Oh, there's like dead people up in the air. They're like above me. That's kind of weird, isn't it? Is that weird? Or am I weird? They're all the above. What's that?

Robin: It's Brian weird. And everybody has their own name with weird followed after it. You know, I probably have plenty more that I'll realize I should have told after we're done recording this, but yeah, no, there are times when I was riding Idaho 75 in that last ride, the last article I wrote, and I swear it looked like the water was flowing uphill, like capillary action. It was not, I was going uphill and all of the lights and all the mountains had me completely ass backwards with my gravity. So I could not make heads or tails of what was going on physically. You know what I mean? Um, do you mind if I transition? Absolutely. We're done. We're done here. Let's go. Site updates. Here's what I can remember now. There are things I'd like the site to be able to do that are new to my programming and coding wheelhouse. For example, I'm going to want to have some automatic reposting of older posts to various social media, all of which use different APIs to access how that's going to happen. That's going to take me a long time. So it's the last thing on my list to start. That way I can keep piling other things on the list and never get to it. But I do want to get map sales going. It does help the site when you, when everybody buys a map, it's going to help the site for me to get through all the advertising removal of old episodes. If you decide to advertise with this podcast, thank you so much. It's going to help ease the strain. I go to a lot of trouble to produce these things. That's another thing on the list. Uh, what was, there was, uh, I don't know. It's, it's mostly Cody, Cody, code code. But if you're a math and algorithm programming, PHP geek like me, maybe that'll hit you the right way. I'm working on it. And that's, that's where we're at. Well, this brings us to Maptastic Mayhem. Now this week, let's revisit Maptastic Mayhem after the rest of the series. The last place we worked on was Warm Springs, Virginia, and the route from there, where it goes, it's going to need some love it's time for us to figure out the Indiana solution and start looking at the route a little bit more backwards for TRL, whatever, man, I was hoping that you'll take a week on this one and help me come up with the perfect 250 miles of Indiana and Kentucky that can be in turn, can joined, conjoined with, uh, whatever it is we do in North Carolina and the little bits of Tennessee by the Cherahala. Let's turn off our cameras so we can actually have, uh, my 5,000 free AOLs won't run out so quick. Camera's juked, sharing screen. It's amazing. I think what we want is share. Let me know. You can see all that. I can see all that. You can see all that. So let me load up 777, the one that is full and perfected and promptly overheat the computers and shut down our podcast production effort. Load. You're my guy in Indiana and you're my guy in Kentucky. And here's the drill is I believe that's our last destination before the end of the route. You with me so far? And that's Lebanon, Kentucky.

Brian: Oh, okay.

Robin: You and I are going to work on some Blue Ridge Parkway alternatives to fix all that.

Brian: Yeah. I remember that.

Robin: We stay in Maggie, Maggie Valley is beautiful. It's not something we necessarily want to lose unless we really have to. After that, we go through Teleco Plains. We ride the Cherahala and we continue on upward to the just before Kentucky. And this day, bit of a monster. What we do is we cross over into Kentucky here and this is a 66, which looks like absolute motorcycling gold. I will say that every time we've tried to do it, there seems to be a ready and trigger happy police presence in the area. That's just looking for anybody who wants to enjoy themselves on that. So they can make a buck for their local town. Right?

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: So while I don't want to, I don't want to sacrifice that I'm willing to, we then continue on through Kentucky. I wouldn't mind bettering some of this. Our destination currently is Lebanon. It doesn't have to be, but currently if you're taking notes, it's Lebanon, Kentucky and from Lebanon, I'm trying to enjoy all that Brown County has to offer to some extent, but it's kind of a failure, it goes to the 450, 150 split, the combo route, which I got to be honest with you, considering all we see before the beginning of the very last day of writing, it just isn't cutting it. It's not good enough. So to keep it in theme and don't laugh, it's important to me. It is the trip sevens ride. So seven riders will cover seven States in seven days. I don't care how much of that state we get, but this grand finale final day between Lebanon, Kentucky and Bloomington, Indiana, I don't care where we end. I do care where we start. And I am asking you great and wise one of the twistery. I want to know if you would be open to sculpting the ultimate excellent 250 miles of knuckle biting bad-ass writing between what may still be Lebanon, Kentucky and anywhere bad-ass in Indiana.

Brian: Yeah. Let's see. Where's oh, there's Lebanon, Kentucky. It got it. Okay.

Robin: Between now and next episode, are you open to this? Sure. And then I'll do the clicking and the button pushing, and you'll do the describing and the reasoning that will entertain our viewers about things they should be able to view and won't be able to see unless they're looking at the map themselves. Are you good with that?

Brian: And you're ending in Bloomington. Okay. Got it.

Robin: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let's let, don't do it that way. Let's just say that we might be starting in Lebanon. That's a big day.

Brian: Mm-hmm.

Robin: I believe that this day is somewhat enormous and this, this route may need some bettering. Let's see here. Let's look at it. So if we are starting here and whatever this is, uh, that on the markers, 13, let's call it 1360 miles. And our destination is if we do Lebanon is 1632. Oh, wow. 1630, 1360. So 1630 minus 1360. Yeah, it's a 270 mile day. It's not small. It would call it bigger than normal. The next day shouldn't be too much, but it should be chocolate cake. Have all you want kid. Ultimate conclusion of the year's first motorcycling vacation for some people before they start going to your rallies, Brian, your, yeah, really, these people will be delivered unto you after the fact.

Brian: So yeah, I'm open for this. Um, yeah, maybe you'll, maybe you'll get a few of them primed to, uh, show up, uh, you know, ready to go and not having a set around all winter, which is a problem.

Robin: Yeah, that's, that's why we do it. And this time we've only got one spot left. So if anybody's interested, visit tro.bike and sign up for the tour. There's only one spot left.

Brian: You would be open to staying somewhere else?

Robin: Absolutely. 100%.

Brian: Okay.

Robin: We've got a couple of light days that are full of heavy on the goat. So 235 to 250 miles of goat is definitely some dense pie. And then there's a couple of days, like the, the day when we ride the chair, all the Skyway is freaking huge. That is a 300 mile day. So the 270 miles the day after that are a lot to take on, but everybody's pretty ready to go. It's just that what happened after that? It felt like a sunset cruise by comparison.

Brian: Yeah. And the other thing, and we can talk about this a bit, like what kind of, you know, what kind of hotel are you looking for, you're looking for certain chains or, yeah, it would be easy enough to basically stay somewhere between Corridan and Louisville, for example.

Robin: Or where is the first, what was the first place you mentioned?

Brian: Corridan. Where's that at? Which is, is basically just west of Louisville.

Robin: Okay. So do we cross the Indian border?

Brian: Yeah. Corridan is in Indiana. Okay. It's got several hotel chains, but there's a lot of really great riding in, uh, west of Louisville. So Derby, Tel City, uh, and there's like a monastery and a Abbey and.

Robin: I think that sounds fantastic. Will you be able to dig into Indiana a little bit too, to get a little bit of like some chunk Indiana in the mix?

Brian: Yeah, there'll be, so there'll be some, what I'm thinking is some prime cuts of Indiana. Um, but you're really, you're really not going to go north of, um, like you probably won't even get the French lick. Okay. That's fine. Yeah. So basically that sticking close to the river type of deal. And then, um, yeah. And then there's some, there's some fun stuff. And also I know I tend to be really have a perversion for these really, really, really tiny roads. And I know that's not going to be ideal.

Robin: Well, no, it is if the pavement's good. Right. I would say that on a ratio of the, the totality of that route, if, if the go with the rule of thirds, if two thirds of the pavement is stellar, then a little bit of transitional rough stuff, not a big deal, preferably not gravel, but you know what I'm saying?

Brian: Well, like I'm talking about immaculate, immaculate pavement, like that's one lane. Like there's not even, there's no center stripe on some of this stuff I'm thinking of is so much fun, but it freaks people out. Then again, I know some of these people, so they're not going to freak out.

Robin: No, this is, this is absolutely acceptable. This is completely acceptable on the difficulty rating. This tour is a, it's either four or five helmets. I don't remember what I put on this one. It's either four or five helmets of difficulty. So yeah, no complaining, know your shit and show up ready to ride. If you've got stellar goat roads, give me the stellar goat roads. I'm all over that. I am all about that.

Brian: All right. Oh boy. I've got, yeah, I've got some good ones then. Okay. All right. So you want this for next week?

Robin: I would love that. You're actually, this is going to help me quite a bit because there are two specific days of the tour that have always needed, well, frankly, you. Oh, the other five days I've done my research. I've done my work. I forcibly made Travis take work time off to go help me scout these things. Those five days I'm extremely proud of, and they are my own doing. However, there's two days where I was just like, I just don't know. I don't know these areas well enough. And I know people who do, I don't ever get the one and only Brian Ringer to help me kick ass at it. But hold on now. I think it's time for Brian's tiny tasty tool tips.

Brian: What have I got this week? Here's a universal tiny, tasty tool tip that anybody can use. And it kind of relates to one I talked about a while back, where it's basically carry some nuts and bolts with you. Nobody ever thinks to do that, but it's one of the most useful things you can actually have with you. It saves the day for people.

Robin: I was curious to ask you like specific nuts, specific bolts, what length, what is the ultimate combination of that? But we covered it some last, the point is if you have them at all, you've done better than before.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. You want some six millimeter. You want some eight millimeter. You want some, you want a couple of 10 millimeter nuts and you want some general 20 millimeter, 25, 30 millimeter. And then like, if you need to, you can space something out that you can put a nut on it and, and put the, put the bolt in there, you know, if it's too long, you know, you, you can do some things like that, a few washers, some cotter pins, things like that. Anyway. Um, on the same, on a, on a related topic, you know, if, if, if something crucial fell out, um, just remember, you know, survey the rest of your bike. Look for, there's probably a lot of fasteners you could steal from somewhere else on your bike, if you really, you know, if you're really down to it and you need to, you know, you need something for that, um, for example, if you're not carrying a passenger, then you've probably got a couple of nice, uh, eight millimeter bolts there in your passenger peg, take the passenger peg off. You got a couple of bolts, throw it in your luggage, rock on, and then you can deal with it later.

Robin: I remember a long time ago, I was looking at a bike when I was just getting started as a rider and it was a CB500T and it was Jordan Liebman, quality friend to have, building me my first bike. I knew nothing. And I looked at it, I was like, who came up with all this stuff? And almost simultaneously, he and a friend said, nobody came up with all this stuff, Robin. Many people did over time. So these solutions, you collect them and you store them and you remember them and you just kind of be you and take on new information as you go. Like you're hearing right now. Thank you, Brian. Thank you.

Brian: Very welcome. Very welcome. Let's do a Tales from Planet That Guy, because I just remembered of that guy. We've all been that guy.

Robin: We've all ridden with that guy. Let's talk about that guy.

Brian: Now, this was a guy, I didn't know this guy. I didn't know this, that guy. We're buzzing along Southern Indiana, hot day, remote, remote area. And we come across a batch of Harleys. And basically part of his shift left or had part of his shift linkage had fallen off of this Harley and he couldn't shift it into gear. Anyway, that happens. That doesn't make you that guy, does it? I don't think so. The problem was, so we stopped and we actually, he had a pair of vice grips. So we ended up improvising a shift. Like he could, he'd have to reach down and pull these vice grips in order to shift gears. So he, you know, or he would have to, he would actually, he would have to like kick it with his foot or something like that. We, we improvised a way that was workable to get him out of this area with vultures and heat and no cell service or whatever. Yeah. Anyway, he, this guy had a way forward and his friends are all like, oh, cool. We got a way forward. Let's get out of here. Let's get to somewhere with air conditioning and beer. And the, what made him that guy was he was, I don't want to say whiny, but he was whiny. He basically, he had fixated on the idea that the only solution to this was to call the dealer who was not open on a Saturday afternoon, who was like two hours away, his only solution was to call the dealer, have them bring a trailer out and fix this bike. Like he, and, and what made him that guy was fixating on this particular solution that wasn't a solution. Instead of being a little bit flexible and, you know, just, just try this solution that we have here. It'll get you at least out of the, off of this road somewhere with cell service and get you out of here. So yeah, one way to be that guy is to be that whiny guy.

Robin: Yeah. I have a few friends who are definitely dealership riders. They want to take their bike to the dealership for all things maintenance, but they're aware of it and that's okay. I've gotten no beef with that, but if you're stranded and there's a resourceful solution that won't void a warranty or anything like that, then be a motorcyclist. Don't be a snack bar, paperweight at the dealership or a rescue trailer shopper, a consumer while wearing a bad guy outfit. Cause you're part of the patch gang. You know, I, I'm a member of the tasseled vest hierarchy and I've decided that I need people to show up here with a semi truck for my shift pedal. Wow.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah, it was, it was, uh, and it's, you know, it's not so much, uh, you know, not, not bagging on Harley riders or anything like that. It's just, I've, I've seen that attitude. It's like, okay, I'm done. You know, something, something went wrong. Uh, you know, this joker who stopped, you know, actually came up with a solution that works and all my friends are begging me to, to use this and get the hell out of here. Oh no, no, no. I need to, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to cry and I'm going to, I'm going to hope the dealer two hours away somehow hears me because we're out of cell range too. I don't know what, I don't know what happened. I mean, last time I was down there, he wasn't there anymore, but you know, maybe he's, maybe he's still haunting the area.

Robin: I do actually look forward to getting the two headed coin bit next time for loose services, specifically, uh, as well as well, we kind of, we already kind of talked about deer a little bit too, but like a little bit only because we both hit one and mentioned it, but we'll get to it in the real form eventually.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Our new segment that'll only happen if we figure out how we're doing this for sure in the future is called two headed coin, and it's got two subheadings, which are back to basics and rocket surgery. The back to basics. We take any topic from two headed coin, and we discuss the basic principles that will get you through that matter or help you understand it better. And then the rocket surgery side of that coin, the two headed coin is where we explain certain things. I am looking forward to reading more about center of gravity. I'm becoming very interested in the core center of gravity discussion for all things riding, where is this? And there's two versions of gravity. That which you are destined for and that which you are representing in motion. And I want to figure out a way to get that stuff into a frame of mind. We can really get elaborate about for fun. So with that, let's close this. Let's close this bar down.